001[Music] good morning and welcome to this virtual meeting of the board of education on this 26th of August 2020 this meeting is being televised live on aacps TV and streamlined live on a CPS YouTube channel if we are interrupted during the broadcast of tonight's meet of today's meeting the meeting will be stopped and we will take a short recess until we can continue if for some reason we cannot continue we will notify you as soon as possible when a new meeting will be scheduled the board attorney is asked that I read the following statement the Maryland open meetings act a state law requires public meetings to be open to the public and to be held in places reasonably accessible to individuals who would like to attend these meetings the virtual format of this meeting of
002the Board of Education today is due to the covid-19 emergency and is necessary in light of the serious health risks associated with public Gatherings as well as the governor and County Executives various executive orders limiting Public public Gatherings while a virtual meeting of this type was not invisioned by the open meetings act steps have been taken to ensure that this virtual meeting includes Al alternative accessibility features that the open meetings act compliance board and the courts have reviewed and approved broadcasting the meeting with video and audio on cable TV and on the web and allowing written public comments to agenda items to be filed with the board office and considered by the board the board attorney has opined that the public access provided by this technology makes this virtual meeting reasonably accessible to the public
003and provides appropriate opportunity to observe the conduct of the board's public business consistent with prevailing bre best practices during this emergency situation and therefore complies with the open meetings act please pause now for the invocation followed by the Pledge of Allegiance oh God we pray to administer that which is just in all educational policies being ever mindful of your guidance stir us to action with love wisdom and understanding and now the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all and now let us take roll call Mr granon is not able to join us at this time um which would normally go first in our roll call we will start
004with Miss shaan Miss Shan Miss Antoine present Mr gilland uh likewise was not able to attend and extends apologies um and we'll hope to join us at a later Point Mr lot here miss Hummer here Mr Smith here miss Antoine I'm I'm Sorry Miss Ellis here thank you um thank you very much um next item is approval of the meeting minutes um residing officer is willing to accept a motion so moved second second we have a motion and a second any edits requested seeing no movement of the board Sorry Miss corkadel I'm sorry yes um Miss Ellis I knew the version of the minutes that I saw I don't know if it's been updated at all um I believe the the meeting stated that it Miss alvie was present when it was um Mr Smith
005I don't am I correct about that does that need to be corrected I'm sorry I don't have it in front of me right now I just remember when I at it I honestly I don't um if I if I may Madame President I'm looking at the meeting minutes uh in the bo was distributed to the board page one of July 22nd 2020 and it states Drake Smith in the list of members present for the public meeting okay my apologies I must have seen a different version no problem great we're good okay great no thank you very much for the attention to the matter um M Mony please call um the role Miss shim hi Miss Anne hi Mr Li hi Miss Hummer hi Mr Smith I Miss Ellis I miss corkadel I motion passes 70
006thank you um next item is establish agenda um order um the presiding officer is willing to entertain a motion to do so move motion and a second any requests to board members seeing none Miss man please call roll Miss Chim I miss anine I Mr Li I miss Hummer hi Mr Smith hi Miss Ellis I miss coridel I motion passes 70 item 2.06 is recognitions and um today we have a very special recognition and before I turn it over um for the recognition um I wanted just to say a couple words um Miss Cassie Bell has been a true inspiration um to others in the FFA community of Anar Rundle County this is a um living demonstration of when we apply our passion for Education with the passion of our students pursuit in their future
007in their careers agriculture although many of us are five and six Generations removed from our roots and Heritage of it remain one of the most prestigious Industries and careers to involve oneself in it is a demonstration of values of character and an organic um model of how we can truly connect with ourselves our planet our galaxy and our universe and these kids work so very hard they go above and beyond each and every single day um and despite our covid situation um many of them were able to rise above that to recognize what they could do hand inand with their their fellow students and Miss Bell is a model of that and I am so very proud today to be able to have the opportunity to recognize her hard work and efforts this is not
008just about our students here in Anar rental County it truly transcends it all across the state and Across the Nation um these kids this is a national um effort to ensure um for future Generations that this necessary um industry remains vibrant with people who truly have a passion to do this work and have the heart and soul to um make it come alive and the fact that aacps has an opportunity to participate in that effort to me is amazing is an honor and a privilege it's truly an honor and a privilege today to have Miss Bell present and others to recognize her today and so um with that stated Dr Arad I am going to turn over the table to um you and your staff who have a few um words and would like to
009recognize Miss Bell at this time indeed thank you Madam president and and Cassie we're delighted you're with us and I'd ask uh Mr kley um who oversees our our career and Technology education programs here in Enon County uh for a few words and introduction of Cassie's work Mr kley thank you very much uh this is a highlight of of my job to be able to recognize our students so president of cadell Vice President Ellis members of the board and Dr Arad I'm Nick heckley uh coordinator of Career and Technical education and I have the pleasure this morning uh of uh of presenting this morning's recognition our school system uh takes very seriously his role in growing outstanding leaders and Cassie Bell was no exception just prior to graduating from Southern High School a few months
010ago Cassie learned she had made history by being elected president of the Maryland Future Farmers of America FFA is a premier Youth Organization preparing members for leadership and careers in the science business and technology of agriculture with more than 760,000 student members in the United States Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands Cassie is the first state officer in the local FFA chapter from Southern High School in more than 40 years an honor that speaks incredibly well of her leadership and her character over the course of the 2020 2021 school year she will oversee 50 FFA Maryland chapters and over 2500 FFA members she will participate in planning State FFA leadership activities act as a voting Delegate for Maryland for the National FFA conference and be involved in a variety of advocacy activities on the
011local and state level by the time her her term is complete Cassie will spent about 200 days traveling over the next year to promote Agricultural and Leadership to FFA members across the state nation and World Hall of Fame football coach Tony dunie once summed up the opportunity each of us have with eight simple words you can have an impact anywhere you are I have no doubt that wherever Cassie is over the next year and well beyond that she will have an incredible incredibly positive impact on those around her please join me in congratulating Cassie and all that she has accomplished thank you Cassie would you like to say a a couple words I don't mean to put you on the spot um but would you like to say a couple words abolutely thank you all
012so much for one helping Aid me in gaining this amazing opportunity I definitely would not be here if it wasn't for the um Ino County Public School System um I'm luckily one of the fortunate ones who in our County do get to have a to an agricultural class within their school and that has definitely impacted my life in more ways than one um again I can't thank you all enough for allowing me be here today inviting me into your meeting and just um your continued support throughout the years going into this and I can't wait to have you all support me hopefully this coming year as I um begin my year and eventually do come to end it thank you thank you so very much we are also very proud of you and I think
013it's moments like this in our time and era that um we need the face the voice and the actions of true leadership and you definitely well demonstrate that I'm wondering if my board uh my fellow members may have a word or two of congratulations that they would want to say to miss Bell I know we have a lot on our plate today but this is what we're here for and Miss Bell is a great demonstration of that Miss scheim I'm just going to take in r coord uh yes I just wanted to say um thank you for your work and your leadership in this area and uh have a wonderful year um representing uh the work that you're doing and I just it's delightful to to hear about your story um thank you so much
014thank you Miss Shan Miss Antoine Cassie congratulations as a f girl myself I appreciate appreciate that your leadership has allowed many others the opportunity to understand and appreciate what what Future Leaders like yourself are doing to ensure that not only your local environment but realistically the entire world is taken care of so thank you for that congratulations keep up the good work thank you Miss Antoine Mr L yes congratulations Cassie you do us all proud here in Anon County and as we used to say in the Navy Bravo Zulu Bravo Zulu thank you very much Mr live Miss Hummer um congratulations Cassie I've had the pleasure of going out to Southern a few times over the years on my time on the board and seeing the work of the um FAA out there and I've
015always been so impressed by the leadership and all the students and so I know that you are going to represent um the school system and yourself and the entire organization well so congratulations thank you very much Miss Hummer Mr Smith yes Cassie you have done an amazing job and I just want to say you know agriculture is such a very vital role to our society today but is often overlooked and you are doing much more than just making Southern proud you're making anona County proud and in turn the whole state of Maryland proud just keep of the Fantastic work thank you very much Mr Smith I've already sent my remarks and Cassie knows where my heart is always with you guys um each and every single day um I wish I could visit um in
016this virtual world it's clearly more challenging and I know that your work is going to be equally more challenging and there is no one else but you that I could um picture taking on that challenge so thank you once again and um I know you have a bright and wonderful future of you and good luck on your senior year okay um moving along we have several Miss corod I didn't get a chance yes oh my goodness oh I am so sorry Miss Ellis wores whatever I did this I have still this virtual you know this visual of our Di and occasionally as I'm walking around it um my apolog everyone everyone said so much I I can't really top any of it you know you all Express my sentiments but I I did have to
017um just express my congratulations um Miss Bell you are a leader that is an inspiration for our students a model for our students and we are so very proud and I um wish you all the best in this exciting year ahead and um for all your future endeavors thank you so very much missis and I gratefully appreciate um you accepting my apology on that um and thank you once again miss Bell for joining us I know your family and your community is so very proud of you and Miss Sarah and all um and I know it's going to be a great year indeed for the FFA um Community thank you um next item is 2.06 the PTA report and joining us this morning is going to be Miss Vanessa Rivera president of the inundo County
018Council of ptas Miss Rivera this cadell she's actually having trouble logging on at the moment well why don't we move on to the other two reports and see if she could join us um at the latter portion we can also entertain her report um um upon conclusion of our scheduled um lunch break and possible close session if um her um technical difficulties um remain so um moving along next is item 2.07 the cic report and joining us this morning is Miss Tanisha Howard the chair of the countywide cic miss corkadel it looks like she is online Okay um at um Miss Howard's um discretion she may begin at any time whenever she is ready in technology provides for can you hear me can you hear me sorry okay perfect good morning president corkadel vice president
019Ellis fellow board members and Dr alotto my name is Tanisha Howard chair of the CAC and on behalf of the CAC I am pleased to update the board on our activities the citizens advisory committee of anondo County Public Schools board of education is a commit executive committee of 13 clusters with 32 members on his panel including a PTA council member a uh cak and Pak to deliver input advice on specific issues surrounding education throughout the county the CAC executive leadership team is led by a chair Vice chair secretary and our staff leison with the office of school and family Partnerships the CAC has submitted to the board its 2020 2020 1 schedule for approval our meetings are held at 2644 Reaver Road Annapolis Maryland and our schedule to occur on the second Monday of each
020month from 6:30 to 8:30 with designated alternate dates during the winter months to ensure committee work progresses timely for board priorities given social distancing mandates and closure of aacps facilities the CAC will continue to conduct our meetings virtually and will ensure to provide ample time for notification and posting to our website allowing for Comm Community participation the CAC membership consists of 19 returning members and 11 new members elected this past July since 2019 2020 uh school year CAC leadership has mindfully planned an onboarding process for new members to occur in early August providing the new members a longer opportunity to on board with amp time to adjust and acclimate before the official meeting in September gets underway and be fully prepared to participate in regular session accordingly the CAC leadership team and our staff liaison
021held on August 4th the orientation and onboarding meeting to train and develop a foundation within our committee to recap other summer actions the CAC has submitted the final reports from our recess and magnet subcommittees while subcommittee groups have identified framework that can serve as a foundation or resource for future efforts the CAC with the direction and scope from the board look forward to take action to meet the challenges challenges supporting impact within our school system we likewise we likewise submitted to the board for consideration our recommendation for areas in which the CAC may be uniquely poised for Action collaboration and participation this coming school year we remain committed to our continued involvement and service within anona County Public School System committees such as the communication Advisory Board calendar committee District assessments Security Council mental health
022task force the health education of course the board policy committee wellness and resource recess work group in addition we Endeavor to expand our participation to non-policy areas supporting hate and bias ongoing engagements new CAC guidelines and a CAC mentorship program as we continue to live and adapt to a covid-19 world coupled with the continued racial Injustice it is sparkling and Awakening to have the necessary conversations to take the necessary actions to develop the necessary policies moving our community to the next chapter accordingly the CAC is a proud is proud to be a partner at the table with the board and aacps supporting Innovative and proactive leadership thank you for your support of the CAC and looking forward to our continued work strengthening the CAC overall and supporting future assistance to the board and its goals
023we welcome your feedback as we look forward to commencing our year with purpose and direction thank you very much Miss Howard I greatly appreciate the update and I know that our volunteers are having to just like ourselves go above and beyond but I think it's a little more special because this is something that they're stepping up to do for the passion of their students and it's always truly amazing the work that you guys do and the commitment that each one of you have um I think it also speaks droves to your leadership and the leadership of your fellow colleagues uh when we have such a wonderful response like we recently had with our vacancies um and continue um to reap the benefit therein um truly we have an amazing Community all committed and willing to
024step up um and you guys' efforts is is greatly noted are there any board comments or questions at this time Miss Antoine thank you president Corel I have two quick questions I learned this morning that the me uh cluster for the elementary representation is now vacant I want to uh encourage that the board work with Miss Howard and the rest of the cat to fill that vacancy the These are times that we sincerely need um leadership at in in the me area especially for our elementary students as we move into a virtual environment I also um want to thank Miss Howard for an incredible challenging year that I feel you with your leadership and the entire uh CAC you all have done very well and I can not wait to read your reports awesome thank
025you thank you very much Miss Antoine very well spoken and um as the board is well aware um we uh do our best to expedite all of our vacancies because we know um we want to hit the ground running and I know the cic wants to make sure that every single voice of anoro County students are heard and um we have already uh been in touch and are well on our way to ensure that um this will be before the board as soon as possible um all the while ensuring our commitment to transparency in the process um and ensuring that everybody has an opportunity to U meet that application that I was referring to earlier so thank you so very much Miss Antoine and thank you once again Miss Howard I don't see any other
026questions or comments um being requested let me just double check we have a very uh big um Lobby today um with that stated thank you so very much Miss Howard we look forward to uh working with you for a wonderful 2020 it's going to be a crazy one but we know we're in good hands um with great advisors thank you so very much absolutely um next is item 2.08 the crask report and joining us this morning is Miss Caroline Finn the acting Secretary of Education for craft Miss Finn at your descrip okay good morning carel Howard members of the board and do exiting uh oh what's that oh that was just a notification that teams um we were not able to mute please continue our apologies no problem at all no problem sorry okay during
027my June report I highlighted the first let's talk Justice student stor student voices Forum since that time a planning committee has been formed students were assigned roles in the committee and the new website was created on July 27th let's talk Justice hosted the second of the summer forums and the topic was lgbtq plus youth last week members of the committee and panelists concluded a book study of stamped racism anti-racism and youu facilitated by Dr Heidi Oliver and Mrs Kara West in addition students took part in the review of the lgbtq plus module for the equity offices early dismissal lesson in October members of the let's talk Justice team are meeting with social studies team tomorrow to explore msde Frameworks and examine the core social studies scope and sequence documents we are thrilled that our voices
028will be included in aacps social studies materials finally our last form for the summer racism in athletics is scheduled for tomorrow August 27th at 6m check out our monthly video updates from let's talk Justice on the acps Facebook page YouTube and our website in July we were thrilled to watch board member Drake Smith take his oath beginning his term as the 47th student member board student board member krask sent a delegation to the virtual virtual national student council rise up in lead conference from July 22nd to the 24th we heard fantastic keynote speakers gained new leadership skills from students across the country and witnessed how to host a successful virtual event in August student board member Drake Smith president Connor Curran and mask division 4 liaison Justin PESA attended the m executive board meeting at
029that time members were able to vote on new mask legislation and approve the mask bylaws for the 2020 2021 school year we are excited we are excited to continue building relationship with mask and student leaders from across the state AAL congratulations to Florence Tian from Broadneck High School for her acceptance into the State student member of the board student advisory Council also kras Chief of Staff Justin PESA is the chair of the communications committee for the State smob student advisory Council this team will work with their peers to review information at the state level the kque executive team has met regularly throughout the summer to work on revisions to the cras Constitution creating more opportunities for appointed positions and drafting emergency election procedures cque will host an election information session on Wednesday September 2nd at
0306:30 p.m VI via Google meet students should be on the lookout for information via email and social media in addition to continuing the work of let's talk Justice craft plans to focus on advocacy for lgbtq plus youth improving student financial literacy and empowering students to Advocate not only in their schools but in Anapolis as well thank you for allowing me to give you an update on what's been happening in krask over the summer we're excited to see our classmates through synchronous learning um have the opportunity to engage in clubs and possibly Sports we know this is going to be aacps aome awesome school year Miss Finn thank you so very much awesome job um and I think it's worthy to kick off the school year recognizing how um adaptive the crass communic community and all
031of our students engaging in um their future and their governances um has been and you guys have clearly stepped up now I got to just say from the generational perspective I suspect that there was a little bit more ease and entering into a more virtual uh Universe than perhaps myself but um nonetheless I know that you guys are well representing and doing such incredible work recognizing the students voice and um seeing the potential uh that we have when we work together so thank you all I know we have several members who uh would like to just uh do perhaps a quick shout out because because we do have special guests that are on the ready um for our next um items so I'll I'll remind members um that brevity is um is better Miss scheim
032uh you're up first um I just want that I stand in awe of um our students and I love the let's talk Justice series I've listened to all of them so far and and um I just I just want to applaud all everyone involved for their amazing work and to all the panelists for speaking their truth and for educating myself um and uh hopefully my fellow board members and hopefully the community on um on where uh where they stand on these issues it's very very important to me to to continue to hear their advocacy and please don't ever stop doing what you're doing I I just love where this is going so thank you thank you so very much Miss alheim Miss Antoine well well thank you for that I I didn't know we going
033in Road call but I I Echo what Mr Alim has shared and I'm I applaud our new um student member of the board as well for his emphasis and his multitasking realistically to ensure that these um that the social Justice voices are heard from our students and that the students you all have been very open and and your advocacy for yourselves as well as for your fellow students have has not been missed by by the board of education at all and we thank you for for this please continue to do what you're doing and continue to be yourself thank you very much Miss Antoine Mr live I have no comments or questions thank you thank you Miss h no comments questions thank you Mr Smith uh your hand was up yes I just want to
034take the time just to say you know great job to crash um I've been involved in a number of the meetings they're doing a fantastic job and just to encourage everyone watching today to make sure you tune in to our next let's talk Justice on Caroline touched on a little bit but um I had the pleasure to meet the panelist yesterday I will be moderating and it's just a dynamic and diverse group of just amazing students and you will all be blown away with their cander so make sure you tune in tomorrow at um 6 on acps TV or the YouTube channel thank you very much and greatly appreciate the shout out um for the extra shout out and I know your participation will go a long way to ensure the board has that connectivity
035with our students that we know is so critical and important to all of our success um Miss Ellis oh just thank you for the great work you're doing for for our students and and uh for your leadership thank you so very much I'm just going to ask um Miss money if at this time was our um item 2.06 able to resolve and join us um for the PTA report if not we can defer to uh later and worst case scenario um get caught up in September she is not online okay okay okay we're going to then move it move it forward and so give me one second here um uh so with that stated um in August as everyone is well aware the Board of Education receives a Readiness report a report that um goes
036through all of the efforts um of what is going on in all of our business units in our greater School community and and what we're doing to make sure that our students have every opportunity for Success this year in particular I think is even more prominent because we are truly in Uncharted territories but thanks to the hard work and effort of so many um countless and impossible to name everyone or even every group um we are here today to hear what I hope is going to be an opportunity and a Beacon of Hope hope for um our greater School community that despite these challenges um that we have a plan in place to ensure the best possible education for our students at all times and that includes all of our students at every opportunity um
037we are committed to be together and I am incredibly excited so um joining us are going to be um several senior staff members and um their team um throughout it but as you recall um we have been as a um in the course of this also we know that there's a very important role to play um by our County um Partners um including and especially our health officer and so I am very honored and privileged um to have um Dr cama with us to this morning um as he committed to um he has um an update for the board is my understanding and then we're going to respectfully um at two questions per round per member in roll call order um see if we can get a few questions answered by the board uh he
038does have a Time limitation uh that we will have to be mindful of and so any questions we're not able to get to by board members um will most certainly um there will be an opportunity for followup and I so much appreciate that opportunity for our board I know that we are just one of many um agencies in anoro county that um have a Herculean effort in front of us um but I'm very confident that our team has what it takes to make that happen between our support and their hard work and efforts we're going to be there and um the health officer is definitely plays a critical role along with his um presiding uh in the county executive and his continued support alongside with our legislative um support system of the County Council as
039well as our state um Partners so without further Ado I'm going to now turn the table over to our honored guest thank you very much sir for joining us and you have the table e perhaps there is we're experiencing a technical difficulty um Dr arato would you like to proceed with an introduction in the absence of Dr K perhaps um and then we can proceed as planned um if he is experiencing um technical ities at this time yes ma'am certainly i i i based on what I can see he is on I am communicating right now with him by text uh to confirm what the status is but in the meantime I'm glad to uh bring some of um uh he is he is on uh he tells me but his internet is uh not
040cooperating um it just seized up so he's going to try and jump back in so let me bring some Rory remarks as you said um as a lead into to where we are and the presentation before the board um and those members of our team that are ready to present you um uh so uh as we'll be know um and as we are every time uh each and every year um we're incredibly excited to open the new school year certainly uh it's not going to be an opening to the year that we have experienced in the past but nonetheless we are ready and we are incredibly excited uh to be with our students um even in the virtual um and fully virtual environment as you know that's how we'll be opening the school years and
041the virtual environment with the hope to start to bring students back uh into the schools will most likely start as we finish that planning with our elementary students that our middle school students and that are high school students so our teachers administrators and staff have work hard throughout the summer to prepare for the ver prepare their virtual classrooms and spaces for their students and staff um and have engaged in a record amount of professional development to prepare themselves for robust meaningful teaching and learning in the online environment once the school year gets underway we will shift our planning and the work of the 14 planning committees to focus on creating a hybrid model that will allow us to bring students back into the schools in a self in a excuse me in a safe and
042healthy manner we're working with Dr kalana Ramen and his team at the Department of Health to prepare for this next phase and we have very much appreciated their partnership you'll be hearing from several members of our team on our Readiness for the new school year as we do each and every year I want to thank this team and their colleagues for all their long hours and hard work uh to Pivot our school system into a virtual teaching and learning before I turn the presentation over to Dr lucarelli our associate superintendent for school performance let me give you a quick update on our work to connect students to their virtual classrooms as you know we distributed over 13,000 Chromebooks last spring we've ordered over 50,000 more and as they are arriving they are being imaged and
043barcoded and then distributed to schools principles and their staffs will be Distributing the Chromebooks and instructional materials directly to their students will continue to have an all handson deck approach to assisting families to connect to the internet this continues to be a challenge but we have made significant progress and are appreciative of the collaboration from many community and business partners along with the city and county governments who have helped our families get connected there are currently 238 addresses that we have identified as having connectivity issues many of those We Believe have Solutions either by working with Comcast Verizon and Broad strip to get the home connected or by us the school system providing a WI a WiFi hotspot for that family we'll continue to work on those issues um identify students and begin to eliminate
044those issues as best we can again I cannot thank um the city government of Annapolis the County government um uh uh for their efforts in helping families get connected as well as other business Partnerships and Community Partnerships that have worked hard to help us identify families that are in need of connectivity and then helping us work through the process of getting them connected on a caseby casee basis so with that let me see if Dr kalana Ramen is on board uh I understand he is we'll hear from him when he finishes I'll reintroduce Dr lucarelli to you who'll introduce the team and bring you presid our readiness for school uh presentation so thank you Madame President and Dr k um we welcome you to our board meeting uh and are delighted that you've taken time
045out of your incredibly busy schedule to join us thank you uh sorry about that my internet just kicked out and I CH to get back on so apologies about that um thank you thank you m Corel thank Dr AR um as I mentioned I had some slides I don't think I'm G to be able to show them just because the technical issues that I'm having right now so I'll just uh share with you um where we are in the county and what we're thinking about um these are conversations that uh Dr arado and I and our teams have been having for for quite a while now um and so it's really exciting to be able to talk to you about that in terms of where we are in the county probably about eight weeks ago
046now at this point we saw an increase in cases in our County um and over the course of about three or so weeks we saw that increase in July steadily go up we saw hospitalizations start to increase and even started to see an uptick in ICU uh ICU Admissions and that was really the impetus for us to make a set of changes that went into effect just a little over uh most of them went into effect a little over a month ago some of them even earlier than that um to to De essentially decrease the size of gatherings and that was based on our contact trace and information so limiting social Gatherings to 25 indoors 50 Outdoors um preventing congregation in malls um limiting indoor restaurant seating to to 10 10 pm uh and then
047uh Universal masking which uh we did in early July and the governor did um a few weeks after we did and what we saw that over the past mon month and actually about two to two and a half weeks after those changes we saw that um increase in cases plateaued out and started coming down um we saw that Trend in cases coming down Trend in hospitalizations coming down um and that's exactly what we wanted to see over the past I would say past few days week or so we're seeing that we're generally starting to plateau in terms of the number of cases per day that we're seeing um and we're we're um probably at the you know got as much juice as we could out of that squeeze that we took in Late July um
048and that really leads to our questions when we're talking about schools is what are the conditions that we can have to reopen and as Dr mentioned we've talked about the importance we're not going to belabor that at this meeting I think everybody fully understands the importance of education and inperson education for children uh in terms of their cognitive social emotional and physical um physical development um but I think really the key question is um as we begin the school year virtually is what are the conditions under which we can we can reopen um we've been working with uh the the Maryland Department of Health um Maryland State Department of Education CDC has guidance and we uh we particularly at the health department have been working with John Hopkins school of medicine and public health and
049University of Maryland school of medicine and Public Health to to address some of these questions and try to get a better uh a better fix on how we can how we can answer these questions um one of the key things we know is that there's a there's a fairly standard set of guidance for reopening that the uh that um is based on guidance from the CDC and from the Maryland State Department of Education covering um generally 16 Broad domains looking at face coverings social distancing classroom and in public areas um pre-screening um pre-screening or screening at the time of arrival cohorting Transportation uh treatment of aerosolizing procedures notification to parents and the Department of Health contact tracing how do we manage common areas hand hygiene dining or eating um isolation plans how cleaning and disinfecting
050is happening and then isolation exclusion in quarantine and return to schools um these are the broad areas that we're that the school system is looking at making sure that all these areas are are addressed in particular there are some areas that um the health department will be a little bit more involved in in terms of uh in terms of metrics and we talked about this last time but what are the what are the uh level of cases um in which we can uh we we can open schools and or at which we would need to close schools down that area has obviously gotten a lot of um a lot of uh a lot of attention it's something that we've been working very diligently on in our conversations with the Maryland Department of Health they have
051indicated that they will be releasing some guidance on this at a Statewide level which I think we all know is preferable um to be able to have that consistency across counties um we believe that that is coming shortly um I can't speak for the Department of Health Maryland Department of Health but I can tell you that we have been uh doing work in parallel um with that and if if that guidance doesn't come out in a timely manner IE the next next week two at most we're prepared to act ourselves uh as I mentioned in consultation with these other groups um testing is also a key piece how are we ensuring that testing um testing is available for both students and staff um we can tell you now that we will be able to we
052will be able to do symptomatic testing for any symptomatic individuals um whether that is we've always we've always been providing the the school Heth and that's obviously for the students but we can do that for the for the staff as well particularly the teachers um for the for any classrooms that are affected or for stud or for any teachers with symptoms we of course also have the full availability of testing um throughout the county um for people to use at any time that they want um so there isn't any there isn't any restriction on using existing resources um and so we would encourage people with any concerns to get that testing done the the symptom screening process is really important um we've been um we've been discussing what that would look like um are looking
053at both electronic and non-electronic ways to do that preferably um preferably that sort of screening is done prior to arrival at school um people know what they feel like in the morning they don't need to try travic school to then discuss how they feel like um and so we're we're looking at and next week I uh I know that we're looking at um a c a particular vendor uh that has an electronic solution and we'll be looking at that and seeing if that's um if that's something that's a possibility for the for the school district um a particular interest to us is the uh contact tracing piece um for for students uh the residents of V the county there are some special circumstances where they may not um uh where they may not be residing
054within the county particularly thinking of children who uh are homeless or foster care situation and then of course staff may not reside in the county as well and so we are so we're developing a a way for the school to inform us of any positives that they're aware of because at that point we would have to coordinate other jurisdictions to be able to do that U cross-county coordination of contact tracing um generally contact tracing is assigned to the county of where that person is residing so if you can imagine somebody who say a teacher who lives in Prince George's County and is positive we might not know for another day or two um based on that contact tracing pathway that's established at the state level and so we want to eliminate those sorts of delays
055um and then the last area that we're that we're working on is in the instance that there is a positive case in a classroom what are the what are the ways to assess and make determinations around whether whether a particular classroom needs to close down or a particular School in the system needs to close down and what is that workflow um that would allow us to make that decision that's also an item that um we've been in discussions with Maryland Department of Health about and understand there's going to be guidance around that um and so much as I said for metrics we would prefer there to be a standardized um uh Statewide uh guidance on that but of course we're prepared to act if that doesn't come so that is where we are right now
056um we are looking to uh we are looking to in the next few weeks as I said have that guidance from MH not sooner um and we'll have a much more um much more robust understanding of where we are and all those at that time I'm sure there are questions so I'm happy to take that thank you so very much Dr Kay um so um we're going to just um follow a standard that I think is great and efficient and ensures all of our members have that opportunity recognizing especially particularly your some of your uh time constraints you've got to get back to all those other agencies and business units and and all those matters so um with that stated we're going to take roll call order we're going to limit questions to two per
057member per round and see how many rounds we can get through in that course um so with that stated we're going to um Mr granon has still not been able to join us to the best of my knowledge regrettably so we're going to be starting with mulheim um M shim yes thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to be here um I know we all very much appreciate it um I I have uh firstly I would love to get the a copy of the slides I'm a visual learner and you were you were reading down a list so um take you in advance if you're able to do that I want to talk about positivity rate I assume that's going to be one of the metrics that you're that
058you're looking at it's one of the da data points I look at every day both in the county and across the state and so my question is you know in in other states like New York where they have a less than a 1% uh positivity rate I mean they're struggling to open schools and so I know our positivity rate is well into the 3% so I guess I guess my my question is how how on how on Earth are we going to manage that I know that the New York um uh City schools are way way larger than than our system but um what sort of positivity rate do you think we should be looking towards uh as a as a as a place to start opening back up yeah um actually positivity rate is
059not the key metric we're looking at the key one is our case incident rate so we are I think all familiar with looking at how many cases there are per day um the way we actually think about that uh and that's going to be on our dashboard shortly is as actually an in case incidence R so how many cases per 100,000 people per day are we seeing and the reason we use that as just a way to normalize so we can compare our numbers to whether that's New York City or another state or another County it's just a standardized measure um right now we're seeing that our case instance rate is about seven or so um and that's 7 for 100,000 per day of course um and that's really the that's really the prime metric
060that we're looking at the positivity rate is important it's something we're considering um but it's affected by two things one is the number of positives but also the second is the number of tests so if I tested a whole lot more people I can who don't have it I can drive our positivity rate down but it doesn't change the number of qes so it's we consider it supporting evidence to the meat of that question though what's the incidence rate that allows us to reopen that is that is the million dollar question um we certainly have we certainly have thoughts we've been looking at guidance from Harvard um from from what's been uh done in other countries um particularly there's a wealth of information probably about 10 to 12 countries that have really um that have
061really done good work in documenting what they're doing and then also what other states have um states have put out now the caveat with those other states is that they're just reopening so we don't actually know how effective those are but they do give us guidelines for what the considerations are so um we have all that in hand and that's why I mentioned that um that's why I mentioned that we're we're prepared to act if we don't get uh either timely or clear guidance from the Maryland Department of Health uh perfect and I guess my second question is is um you know that we're at the 11th hour now is there is there any rationale behind waiting this long for those metrics from from them or or from the county is they um you know
062we've we've known that this is going to be an issue for a while or is it just because this is still so novel that we're still trying to figure out where the the what the key metrics are to determine opening It's a combination of a couple of things one it's new but two is that a Statewide standard is preferable I think we've all seen what happens when each county has to uh has to sort this out on their own there tends to be cross jurisdictional issues shes then that started Rising so uh at least from our perspective if we can get a state standard that makes everything else just move faster and easier so that's the real reason absolutely thank you so much um and I think that was that was my question so we
063if we're able to go back around that's great but thank you so much thank you very much mhan Miss Antoine thank you president codel Dr K Anor Roman thank you as well I understand that you got this invitation not too long ago so thank you for making the time my question is the comparison um when we read about the private schools um going back into session and welcoming their students back in in the traditional setting what what is it that we are what are our constraints compared to theirs so the the nonpublic school issue um this was a couple of weeks ago we put out our guidance of the nonpublic schools um in terms of what the areas they need to meet are we also had a recommendation Based on data at that time that
064they're not open the big issue is that they're a lot smaller um it's a lot easier to it's a lot easier to manage one school and 500 students than it is to manage 80 plus thousand students in 126 schools um every single public school system is facing that scale problem um and I think that it you know it really needs to be said um the school system cares for some of the some of the hardest hit students so those with special needs um those with income disparities uh and it's not lost on us that those those inequities get uh concentrated into the public school system uh right schools don't have to deal with that if they don't want to um and so takes a little bit more effort for us to solve sort through those
065and solve those issues so if then and this would be my second question as the followup so at this point is scalability and not necessarily um a direct health issue that's keeping us from being in a more traditional state of education no it's not just that it's it's it's an end issue we still have a pretty significant as I mentioned our case incidence rate is in the sevens um still it's still a significant uh incidence rate um I I think that it's it's one of those issues you know we think about things kind of in three bands it's a really easy decision to either open up schools it's a really easy decision to close them down but then the wide middle which is gray is where we are okay and and so we're still in
066that Gray Zone um if we had a case incidence less than one like the European countries that uh or or South Korea um it really easy to make that call um we're just not there excellent thank you thank you so very much Miss Antoine Mr lad I'm getting there no worries no worries doctor uh so the key metric you saying that that that you believe right now needs to be you know the governing factor is the incidence rate correct correct and and what level are you considering so that's what we're discussing um and that's what I'm saying in terms of the Maryland Department of Health and the nsde um have indicated that they want to put out a Statewide standard um and so that's really the that's really the timeline that we're operating under right
067now well if you could uh whisper in their ear what what would you be looking for be that standard um I mean I I agree with Miss shaim mentioned earlier we've been at this for quite a while and uh you know we open Virtual schools in what less than two weeks and uh you would think we'd be able to come to some sort of a general conclusion or something that Mom and Dad and and our students could know what goal we're looking at so you can judge how how are we progressing to meet that requirement I agree with you 100 perc we have been having this discussion with mdh for a while now um on on our side I can only speak on our side as the uh as the health local Health departments that
068has been our um that is what we have been asking for to uh as Clarity around is there going to be a standard and if not we can all go our own way but we have been told repeatedly that they are coming out with a standard for the state okay that's good I I just a related question but not not strictly on the opening of school uh this summer our students and and children of anoro County have participated quite fully in athletics you know at County facilities in fact the county recre Reon Parks field hockey league uh and they've traveled to other states to play soccer to play lacrosse Etc and yet we seem to be stuck in this uh this conundrum where even our own health department you and your folks deemed it's I
069don't know if the word is correct safe for our students of anonto County to participate in sports this summer but now we're looking at a school convenes although VI it virtually we don't seem to consider it safe for those same students to participate in athletics in the fall is there do you have an explanation for that disconnect so that decision for the School athletics is not made by the health department um that's made by um I don't remember the acronym that's me by a different body um our our stance is that from a school perspective um our priority is figuring out how to get the in school instruction online not online sorry ino in school instruction up first and the the other activities next so it's not a question of whether we should do it
070it's a question of sequencing from our perspective from from a health perspective though uh is there an overriding concern that's not been present during the summer that will now be present in the fall that would prevent Athletics like like I said from from from a health perspective from a yes from a from a health perspective in terms of what we're working on in the school system it's a matter of sequencing so our our Focus right now is on getting the in school instruction back because the Athletics is only a portion of the student population um not every student is engaged in athletics um but every student is engaged in instruction and so that's why that's our primary focus I understand that I understand that completely and I I fully support where you're going but I
071was just trying to find out if there's a health reason anything to do with sequencing because it's the same athlete that's competing this summer in our County County kids that will compete in the fall in our County I'm just wondering you know I know it's not your decision on that but from your point of view is there a an overriding Health reason that would prevent that if it's safe in the summer why isn't it safe in the in the fall from a health perspective it's uh these decisions are made by sport so um for the sports that were being played during the summer there there will still be wreck sports available in the fall um I I don't I don't know how else to say that but the the decision around competition is not ours
072to make I understand no I don't mean to to to put you on the spot on that I was just trying to make a just draw it from one season to the other thank you so very much for taking time to be with us today that's all thank you Mr live greatly appreciated Miss Hummer um yes I really don't have any questions I just want to say thank you again we really appreciate uh the close collaboration that your office has had with the school system and um I will say that um I believe we're all you as you said included we would all like some clear guidance from the state on some things to move forward and I know the superintendant have asked for that as well and I hope that we'll be hearing that
073more from the State Health Department so that we can have a clearer picture because it's frustrating for everyone not to have the clear picture coming through but um I'm very grateful for how transparent and open you have been with us at the school system and helping us to um do things at the best we can for this health and safety of our staff and students thank you thank you Miss Hummer Mr Smith yes Dr K it's always a pleasure um just one question I guess moving forward what would you say overall the biggest challenge our County faces to I guess um de decrease the spread of Corona like right now in this moment I think the biggest uh the biggest issue is that um the more people the more people do masking distancing and avoiding
074Gatherings the better off we are and I think that you about six we're almost six months into this pandemic now and it's hard for people to remain Vigilant um that's the case with almost anything right initially you know everything is is new and and dangerous um but even in dangerous things you get used to it um and so I think that that sort of alertness is really the complacence is essentially the biggest challenge um and that's what we're finding oh I see it's like a diet you know you have to stick to it or nothing happens yes January gym gym memberships in January or booming the rest of the year thank you Dr K thank you very much Mr Smith Miss Alice thank you um by my count I have three questions right now so
075I'll choose two of them and hope to get to my third um so going back to your metrics um I I know a little bit about the case incidence rate um using that as guidance because I I have a student who um in order to attend college in New York had to quarantine because Maryland was on their travel advis y because and but the metric that they were using was 10 cases per 100,000 and you say we're at seven um you're the medical expert so um I'm seeking your guidance because you know as as a Layman it seven doesn't sound like a high number of of cases per 100 thousand so what what brings you concern with a number like seven per 100,000 um if you could explain yeah so so that's one of the
076things we know about that case rate is it doesn't sound like a lot right um a case rate of seven per 100,000 for our cting means that we have at least we have about 40 cases per day um 10 just just as a way of sort of orienting yourself to the numbers one case per 100,000 per day would translate to six cases day we haven't had single digit cases per day um since the beginning of the pandemic when we couldn't measure how many cases there were per day um and a lot of the guidance that we've seen from other countries in terms of their school systems and how they've been operating effectively have been typically in the in in um case incidence rate of less than one so less than one per 100 th000 per
077day so a lot of our challenge in the United States um to say nothing of Maryland and anoma county is that we have to look at what it means to reopen School in the context of a much higher case incidence rate than the experience that's been developed elsewhere and so that's part of that's a large part of the work that we're doing um and so you can you can think about it this way the difference between um between how you would react to If I told you there were six cases per day um which is an incidence rate of one or uh that we had 60 cases per day which is instance rate of 10 right um I think we all know that we have an intuitively that we have an intuitive sense that those
078are really different and those are significantly different and so that's why when we use that incidence rate uh we say you know in is 10 or it's seven uh it doesn't sound as awful but that's what it's coding it's it's coding um that sort of case rate so to follow up to that if Marilyn were not to come out with some sort of guidance or decision on this are are you saying that then at this point with our um daily or case incidence rate of seven that it would still not be your recommendation at this time to open schools um I would what I'm saying is that we we'd have to have a more nuanced picture so we we our our conversations have not been about opening or not opening schools it's been about more
079granularly which grades can open when um and which uh particular types of uh particular types of instruction can open when so when I say which grades we're generally chunking uh K through five prek through 5 um 6 through 8 and 9 through2 and there's some different criteria that can be applied to that and then also looking at special needs technology um types of instruction where there really is no actual alternative to some level of iners so so I think that's part of the that's part of the understanding that needs to be had is that um each of those conditions have different incidence rates that can either Drive opening or not opening as well okay um and then I want to go back to uh what um Mr live was questioning about which was the sports
080um but I want to turn that a little bit to because we have all now um if not witnessed or attended sporting events over the summer heard about um some significant significantly large tournaments going on in in this County um and our our athletes traveling elsewhere to play um so if you determined that in this County this practice was not safe would you have shut down those tournaments so those tournaments that you're speaking of um what we have learned is that there's a very big difference between what people put on paper and tell us they're going to do and what happen um and so in particular there were two tournaments there was a lacrosse tournament and a BMX tournament that that got the highest um the highest level of concern certainly from us or from
081others and what we're finding is that those Lessons Learned will be applied for the fall as well to any type of Rec Sports that are that are going to take place and there will be Rec Sports um but we also know that uh the enforcement monitoring by the by the organizers is really key not just saying we told people to do it and whatever happens happens so with those Sports you have you have two teams um and parents coaches and you probably have multiple games going on at once in a tournament right so that's a significant number of people why is it that that is allowed to go on and I'm not suggesting it shouldn't but my question is how is that different than an outdoor live performance with social distancing because I would not
082think that the virus would discriminate between those two scenarios so why are we so the the short answer is that the governor's executive order doesn't allow um entertainment and sports are characterized differently okay it's not an area where we have discretion so if that were to um if that were were not in the governor's order you would treat the two the same we would we would as we have with any of the expansions in terms of what can be opening work to make sure that the guidelines are there per to be done Cally okay um so then I I guess if if citizens have a concern with that um I mean it's it's been brought to my attention to be as to feel discriminatory to certain groups they would bring that to the state yeah
083I I know that we have gotten a lot of heat for that but we don't have discretion in in that uh and we've had extensive conversations with the Maryland State Police who are you know who who are responsible for addressing this at Statewide level so yes okay that goes to the state thank you so much for for being here today really appreciate it it's very helpful thank thank you Miss Ellis I do have one quick question and then I'm just going to acknowledge um Dr K is going to have to depart from us um hard at a hard deadline of 11:30 so I will make my question as brief as possible to see if we can squeeze in perhaps one more a quick question and as I said there's an opportunity always to reach out
084to him and our board staff is administrative staff is happy to help any member do so um Dr K I just had one quick question and it's more just a affirmation of of just understanding um when you mentioned about contact tracing I want to kind of take us away from perhaps the conversation we were having just a second ago um and that reciprocity I know our reciprocity arrangements with all of our fellow counties whether it's in public safety by way of fire department I know down you know between Holland point and North Beach we've got an awesome relationship going on down that in that Corridor and that's just one of many examples um but I know that um many of our parent communities always have an underlying concern as it relates to um Hippa and
085furpa protections for our students and I'm wondering is that something that the state is uring or something that is being individually handled between the respective counties um recognizing that even our employee population um from time to time crosses our boundaries just like it does with the county any other County um particularly in our border Community um between um that could you please just you know kind of clarify to make you know because I know that's one of the things that we have to ensure we're upholding and I know you guys are I'm very confident you are that perhaps an explanation of how that's working to ensure it um would go a long way so right now coordinate with other counties um as it is um so even you know somebody work somebody is working somewhere
086um and they you know they live in a different County than the one they work um we're coordinating with that other jurisdiction um so it's a pretty it's not just common it's it's an everyday occurrence the the real issue here is not whether we coordinate it's just streamlining that because of the fact that it's it's a school system and so just making sure that we are aware uh we are aware of it quickly so it doesn't actually change our collaboration it expedites our collaboration so from that standpoint it doesn't really impact in any way any of the pre any of the already you know uh existent confidentiality safeguards Hippa uh furpa that kind of thing um to the best of my knowledge there isn't a furpa issue here because it's being handled in the public
087health system which is being applied universally across the entire State frankly um and so we we hold that all of the information that we are holding is Hipp aprotected we operate under that so um so I I don't think that there are any additional considerations from that standpoint yeah I just know that um there's I I I've had heard of just concerns and I I personally assure um always because I know our system is robust and meeting those um high level of Standards um because it's near and dear to us but we've never before had to interface with data at this level with the health department I believe it's such an intimate level and such a quantity um perhaps that we are anticipating in our protocols so thank you very much for just making sure
088that everybody knows we're all uh about safety and data um it looks like we may have time for one one or two more questions it I um Miss scheim and Miss Ellis had indicated a desire perhaps we could go one in one really quickly um and split the difference that would be great so um I I had a quick comment and then the question so my comment is like I know people are focused on Sports because let's not forget our bands and our uh all of our bands and our performers of all kinds and the fact fact that what's important to one student um in in way of sports is equally as important to another in terms of all of these other uh Endeavors so I I I don't want to um to have this
089siloed focus on Sports and so many other things are also very important and to that end um is music and band practice considered entertainment under the uh State's executive orders in terms of practice not in terms of competition so I was smiling because Dr ano and I have had this exact conversation that while we say while the phrase Athletics is said from a student standpoint It Whatever extra curricular is important to them is important to them um and I let Dr L speak to how they those coming back but we've had that conversation and practice is not considered entertainment so they there's no limitation of their ability to do that so if when in the sequencing when that provides um we could have then uh band practice alongside not in the same field of course
090but alongside you know a sports practice uh of some of some type and they would be honored equally than I would presume at that at that part of the sequence from from a health standpoint as long as all those safeguards I'll letor speak to how that comes back but from a health standpoint there's no um there's no difference for us great great thank you so much Dr C Raman really appreciate your time and your uh your expertise appreciate it thank you very much michelan Miss Ellis we will conclude with you we have three minutes thank you um it's really um I think a pretty simple question um so you're waiting on information from the um Maryland Department of Health because the Maryland Department of Health has indicated that they they want to weigh in does
091this mean that uh or they want to provide this guidance does this mean that the Maryland Department of Health is saying that schools in Maryland should not open until they have given this guidance or if if if as a county we decide to we should be [Music] open can we do that so the the Maryland Department of Health is doing this in concert with the with the Department of Education um I I just mentioned the department of health because that's where my primary contact is with this uh with this issue um to the best of my knowledge there is there they are not saying that you cannot open or you can't open in fact those were decisions each School assistant made um I actually don't remember um whose question it was but I was as
092I was noting earlier we're in the gray space right now um there isn't a clear answer either way um and so from that standpoint I don't think that um I don't think we've lost time from that standpoint um you know if if it was a lot more clear-cut we would have had that discussion by now okay thank you thank you very much Miss Ellis uh Dr K always pleasure um for you to join us and I know our conversations and our Communications remain ongoing perhaps even daily on some weeks um and I please express on behalf of Board of Education our sincere gratitude to your team um I know you you've been a uh wonderful great leadership face for them um and I know that in the background you've got a team that you're very
093proud of and I want to make sure that they understand how much we appreciate because it is those contact tracers um that we have um on and boots on the ground that really are making the difference and hopefully uh continuing to make uh these final decisions as as we work through them um efficient and um appropriate at all times thank you so very much greatly appreciate it you thank you for the thank you for the time and sorry I got to run but take care okay thank you appreciate it Dr alato um without further Ado I know that uh you and your team have worked really hard to pull together a very comprehensive um statement um but uh before we do that I want to make sure um Miss Moone reaches out to uh to
094the public and the board to share uh the report on the public testimony that we received uh for this particular um agenda item thank you Mr cor received five public comments on this agenda item thank you very much greatly appreciated as a reminder to the public all board members have received the whole although um there is a word limit on what is posted on our website at um with a deadline of noon of Tuesday prior to all of our regular sessions and um so it gives me great pleasure and honor Dr alato as I mentioned in brief at the very beginning um of our meeting this is a very important meeting for our Board of Education um and this is um our Focus today and your team has not only worked above and beyond um
095but is um demonstrating through their actions what true leadership is about and that starts with you at the home uh I personally sincerely am grateful for all you are doing and we have um several folks that'll be joining you today that I would just like to recognize um Michelle baton the assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction um Ryan B oh sorry Ryan oh boy me and name some days uh director our director of student student services thank you um Dr Maisha gillins executive director of The Office of equity and accelerated student achievement Jessica kutes Executive Director of Human Resources and Alex technovic uh our chief operating officer thank you all for joining us uh you remained very strong in supporting our board and our efforts to ensure uh we open well and strong thank you
096very much Dr arato and I will now turn the table over to you we will see receive the whole presentation this morning and then I will allow Dr alad to enroll call order and let's um keep ourselves to two questions per per member per round to ensure um that all members have that opportunity um to have their voices and their questions on their constituents behalf heard uh Dr alad uh thank you so much Madame President good morning again um let's just uh cut right to the Chase and get with the team who has done and I thank you board for your continued support an incredible lift um it has been long hours it will continue to be long hours but it is what we live for um we love our students and this community and
097I think this team has just done a phenomenal job of putting together what we believe will be a dynamic and robust online a learning environment and then as I said in my opening remarks prior to Dr kalana Ramen um remarks and and questioning that we will now uh beginning September 8th shift our Focus to um bring students and staff back into buildings in a health healthy and and safety manner so with that I'll turn it over to Dr lucarelli our associate superintendent for schools Dr lucarelli thank you good morning president corkadel vice president Ellis members of the board and Dr Arad for the record my name is Donn lucarelli associate superintendent for school performance joining me later in the presentation on the Readiness for the opening of schools for the 2020 2021 school year will
098be Michelle baton assistant superintendent for curriculum instruction Ryan vogan director of student services Dr Maisha gillins executive director of equity and accelerated student achievement Jessica CES Executive Director of Human Resources and Alex shaknovich chief operating officer our Readiness for school report begins with the office of school performance first our schools between transfers and promotions 25 schools will have new principles this year 14 Schools will open with firste principles and 11 will open with principles new to the building 22 schools had changes in assistant principles 15 were promoted three were transferred and four were hired from outside of anona County Public Schools second our students our team in the office of school performance is very busy working with the office of student data and our student services division to ensure all students will have access to
099their schedules on August 31st 2020 as we speak our schedulers and counselors are working diligently to resolve any last minute scheduling conflicts third Opening Our 14th High School we're excited about the opening of our 14 High School to anondo County cofton high school cofton high school will serve 9th and 10th grade students in cofton and surrounded communities for the 2020 2021 school year and grow by one grade in each of the next two years bringing Full student and staff enrollment to the building during the 2022 2023 school year the virtual environment means we won't be able to celebrate the opening of school as we would like at least at Le not yet we will though welcome School in Grand style when students return to the building fourth as Dr mentioned earlier chomebook distribution in the
100effort to fully engage students in Virtual learning this fall interal County Public Schools is issuing Chromebooks to every student although they will not although there will not be enough Chromebooks to start the school year it is our goal to ensure that every student receives one by the end of the first marking period principles are busy working directly with families on this initiative and Chromebooks are being distributed as soon as we receive them and our amazing technology teams get them set up Fifth Athletics while the Maryland public Secondary Schools Athletic Association has postponed fall and winter seasons Clayton Culp our Athletics coordinator is working closely with Dr Alat to formulate a plan to allow students athletes to engage in practices during the first semester this plan will adhere to local and state health and safety guidelines
101and should be finalized by the first day of school finally the people in the office of school performance our team the regional assistant superintendent and director along with all school-based leaders had an opening of the school year specifically on Monday we hosted principles at an an opening celebration that focused on the teaching and learning cycle in a virtual environment during our principal meetings this year we will continue our conversations book studies and actions around social justice anti-racism Equity diversity and inclusion as we Forge critical relationships with staff students and the community in summary our principles and their school teams are ready and excited to welcome the students for the 2020 2021 school year thanks to the collaboration of many offices good morning Michelle baton assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction I'm excited to share the
102preparations of our academics team members for the start of the school year this summer we began the work of compacting our curriculum and anticipation of a non-traditional start curriculum writing and professional development over the summer has readed teachers to offer their amazing courses clubs and activities in the virtual world classroom teachers joined program and content coordinators and resource staff in identifying core learning Essentials for the growth of our students these teams work to review and create curriculum and design sample content experiences for virtual teaching and learning approximately 100 courses were reviewed as part of our summer curriculum Writing Academy as Dr alato has noted before a critical emphasis this year has been our work with the office of equity and accelerated student achievement including our Equity leads to create rubrics surrounding Cultural Literacy and sensitivity
103to use as we develop curriculum our work is aligned with the educational Equity policy this board adopted last spring and the state's education guide to educational Equity it has also involved students in another step toward the development of more inclusive materials delivered in more culturally appropriate ways we will continue this work throughout this year and in future years our partners in in instructional technology also were vital this year as we identified ways to achieve learning standards in an environmental in a virtual environment in our quest to create amazing learning for our students and teachers we have also planned for authentic learning and application with a robust series of virtual field trips and guest speakers offered within the Google classroom and Google meet we evaluated and the board approved many new secondary courses over the past
10412 months in preparation for the opening of this school year these new courses support the values of the board strategic plan to offer students important and relevant content tools skills and experiences so that every student is able to confidently build and cross their own unique Bridge from school to community engagement Workforce particip IP ation and college enrollment they will support College and Career Readiness all advanced studies and programs offerings are also a go for fall 2020 this includes instructional technology Avid Alps Service Learning Triple E signature magnets internships mentorships and co-curricular clubs special education teachers are preparing for the virtual delivery of specially designed instruction English language acquisition teachers will utilize the approved English language development curriculum for fall 2020 to deliver instructions supporting English proficiency acquisition during the opening week for teachers we will
105once again engage them in professional learning to marry content and technology so they can optimize their classrooms in preparation for students in tandem with curriculum preparations as you are are already aware teachers from across aacps engaged in 20 hours of professional learning this Sumer time focused on Equity exploring virtual teaching tools and honing their craft of teaching in the virtual world required sessions included exploring equity in an online envir environment leveraging Google Classroom tools and skills safe schools as well as teacher choice where teachers could select PD virtual workshops from a myriad of high highly Quality quality options so here's the summary of the 20 hours in summer 2020 by the Numbers close to 250 PD courses were available more than 700 learning sessions or workshops were offered more than 500 teachers enrolled in micro
106credentials more than 4,000 teachers participated in self-paced Google module offerings more than 16,000 seats were filled in everything go Google PDS more than 68 seats seats were filled in the 19 excuse me more than 6,800 seats were filled in the 19 Equity sessions more than 32,000 hours of self- piece work was completed from three PD matrices of choice all total more than 130,000 hours were logged let me say that again as is as it is very important more than 130,000 hours of professional development were logged by our Educators this summer one teacher noted I hope that by using I hope that by using these strategies shared in this PD my students will know that virtual learning does matter and I do care if they show up Although our PD was not mandatory for administrators this
107summer they were learning as well many participated in the professional growth and development and Equity offerings including our lunch and learn PD series interactive Keynotes by n nationally recognized speakers and book studies around the topics of anti-racism equity and social justice many also attended sessions to increase their understanding of Google classroom and to hone their skills for leading in an online teaching and learning environment so what does this all add up to better teachers and leaders are in front of our students when school opens in just a few days we are ready ready to welcome students and engage them in meaningful learning good morning I'm Ryan B the director of student services for acps our student services team which includes school counselors School psychologists School social workers and people Personnel workers has spent the spring
108and summer preparing new Pathways to support our students for the 2020 21 school year we have 260 amazing school counselors who will continue to provide Universal social academic and College and Career supports to students through individual counseling academic advisor groups and classroom instruction they will be supporting teachers with the implementation of social emotional learning wellness and mindfulness instruction they will be coordinating more intensive mental health supports with our expanded school-based mental health program and outside Community agencies and they will also be working with families to provide them with the resources to allow their students to be socially and emotionally prepared for virtual learning we also have 85 full and part-time School psychologists who will also be busy supporting the social emotional needs of students during virtual learning they will play an integral role in the
109individualized education plan process by attending team meetings completing psychological assessments and providing targeted individual and group counseling to students they will be working with school teams to complete functional Behavior assessments and develop behavior intervention plans School psychologists will also consult and collaborate with classroom teachers in order to develop strategies to support the social emotional needs of students during virtual learning our 37 full and part-time School social workers represent a growing group within student services as we begin the school year school social workers will be conducting targeted individual and group counseling session sessions around issues such as social skills develop development and resilience they will also play the integral role of connecting families to Community Resources such as health care food thought care and mental health support the 35 pupil Personnel workers on our team continued
110to be The Homeschool Community Connection and they have been working hard over the summer to enroll homeless and kinship care students they will play a key role for us this fall as they continue to connect and engage families to ensure that they have the necessary resources to be successful in Virtual learning they will also to continue to enforce aacps regulations related to residency custody and attendance our incredible partnership with the anono county department of health provides us with an amazing team of School nurses and health assistants during virtual learning School nurses and health assistants will be playing an essential role in keeping students healthy they will be coordinating and planning for the eventual return to in-person education providing case management management for students with chronic health conditions engaging in individualized planning to meet the health
111needs of specific students reviewing and following up on immunizations blood lead testings testing physical examination and vision and hearing greeings completing health record management and providing a critical health related perspective at IEP 504 end every single person on our student services team understands the fact that virtual learning brings with it additional potential barriers for students we are ready to do what we can to help knock down those barriers where they exist so that so that our students can experience academic success hello I am Maisha Gill the executive director of equity and accelerated student achievement the office of equity and accelerated student achievement continues to be intentional in our efforts to assist schools in eliminating the gaps in opportunity and academic outcomes over the summer the Tian office held a virtual summer program that served 420
112students students from July 6 through the 30th students engaged in a variety of learning opportunities such as read alouds and interactive mathematics there was also an emphasis on social emotional learning through the following strengths kindness belonging friendship celebration curiosity confidence courage hope and celebration also over the summer the equity office conducted professional development sessions to continue the conversation around Equity diversity and inclusion here is a quick summary two cohorts of school and central office staff engaged in a book study on the New York Times bestseller white fragility written by Dr Robin D'Angelo the outcome of the book study was to recognize how the system of racism shapes Our Lives how we uphold that system and how we can interrupt it as you are aware the executive team embarked on the same book study this book
113has truly transformed our Collective thinking about identifying racism and interrupting it the equity office also part part partnered with anono Community College to host a webinar featuring Dr D'Angelo there were approximately 1,500 participants on the webinar and many participants took part in followup conversations about racism and how it impacts our lives another cohort of school and central office staff engaged in a book study by Dr ibram keny author of how to be an anti-racist the outcomes of the book study were to create a common set of language for anti-racist educators reflect on ways in which racist ideology is being practiced and devise a plan to make schools anti-racist spaces the office of equity also offered three 90minut sessions led by Robert Jackson author of becoming the educat they need strategies mindsets and beliefs for supporting
114black and Latino students the topics discussed in these sessions were building cultural diversity effective communication with students and strategies for working with students who have experienced trauma the eity office is also partnering with our anono County Public School students through the let's talk Justice student stories student voices and initiative let's talk justice has been created as a forum for students to discuss racism and social justice in the wake of the brutal Death of George Floyd beginning with a student-led planning committee the vision of let's talk Justice quickly developed into a place where students are able to have a voice about various social issues and injustices to dat the less talk Justice panelists have discussed issues of systemic racism microaggressions and LGBT lgbtq I Au the next forum is tomorrow night and will focus on racism
115and Athletics I also have the opportunity to attend a virtual book study with anono County Public School students with the book stamped racism anti-racism and you authored by Dr Kendy and Jason Williams our our youth are amazing as you have already heard from Mrs baton our office has also been involved in the development of more inclusive curriculum that would better serve all of our students this has sure surely been a very busy summer as stated in this report in previous reports and we are excited about the continuing of the dialogue around Equity social Justice anti-racism diversity and inclusion into the fall this will occur during the early dismissal days built into the calendar and there will also be professional development opportunities during the Wednesday professional development schedule my office continues to be committed to working
116collaboratively with the community to ensure equity and access for all of our students this collaboration includes meetings phone conversations and email communication to disseminate timely information about the impact of school closures on students and how the district is responding to school C closures and establishing critical Partnerships needed with the community to best meet the needs of our students the pandemic has completely changed how we do business and it has forced us to think about engaging families differently I am pleased to share that two elementary schools in the district piloted piloted a my kids which stands for my knowledge improves desired success event for their school communities my kids took place on a virtual platform where 100 participants were placed in smaller virtual groups to learn about technology classroom tips student tools for academic success Community
117resources that are available in inono county in covid-19 safety we will be working towards expanding my kids to other school communities thank you good morning for the record I am Jessica kutes Executive Director of Human Resources like everyone else our team in human resources experienced additional challenges in light of the covid-19 pandemic our typical summer onboarding sessions for new employees took on a slightly different approach and setting but we were still able to meet safety requirements to process and onboard all newly hired staff to give you an idea of what our hiring season looked like this summer let me share some numbers with you as of Monday August 24th we hired 554 new anoro County Public School teachers as a point of reference last year around the same time we hired 719 new aacps teachers
118the significantly lower number of new hires this year does not mean that we have a large amount of vacancies or positions to fill rather we had fewer positions to hire for this school year due to decreased resignations in retirements and newly allocated positions our new teachers come from a variety of places some are recent college graduates While others come from other Maryland districts different careers out of state and Puerto Rico currently 135 of our new teachers are diverse that's 24% of new hires which is the highest percentage of diverse new hires we have seen since we began tracking the data this way well over decade well over a decade ago valuing diversity we continue to explore ways to recruit diverse candidates for our school system at every possible turn one 126 of our hires are
119graduates of anoro County Public Schools and 59 were interns with us before we hired them this year we are proud they have chosen to come home to aacps and we look forward to supporting them as Educators our substitute office has had to address the many evolving issues around classroom coverage when teachers are absent in a virtual world they will provide guidance to schools regarding how to handle this new issue through the combination of trained non-teaching staff and and trained and vetted substitute teachers the number of our nationally board certified teachers continues to increase with 430 now in our active ranks 122 of our schools have one or more nationally board certified teachers our staff is working extremely hard to continue to fill vacancies as we speak so we look forward to being as close to
120fully staffed as possible when school begins we are excited about our new hires their energy their ideas and their potential to impact our student in a positive way thank you and good morning I'm Alex shaknovich chief operating officer for the school district uh in terms of our facilities division they undertook uh significant construction maintenance and repair activities at approximately 60 of our 125 school facilities over the summer with projects ranging uh from everything including cluding significant re Renovations then to more routine tasks such as painting or doing track resurfacings uh you already know about our exciting work at the reconstructed uh George Cromwell and Richard Henry Lee Elementary schools and our brand new cofton high school all of our buildings have been stocked they've been cleaned and preventive maintenance done and readed for reoccupancy in
121terms of our instructional data division our budget office and our technology department uh all of our student Data Systems our school-based budgeting systems and the technology infrastruct infrastructure systems have all been activated uh they are all in a complete and ready State and available for full use by our end users the Transportation uh division has been busy over the summer all the school buses have passed their mandated inspections and acceptance protocols and are all available for use by our end users additionally our drivers and our AIDS are wrapping up all of their mandated uh trainings and screening Pro protocols that they are also available for use uh finally with respect to food nutrition services uh with the unfortunate expiration of uh several critical Federal waivers that had allowed anono County Public Schools to feed all
122youngsters aged 2 to 18 with flexible meal plans since March food food nutrition service is is now in the process of recalibrating uh the food delivery modalities uh for the fall the food nutrition services employees uh are all in the process of finalizing all of the required trainings and food commodity orders are being adjusted and finalized uh for deliveries in advance of the Fall Academic Year the food nutrition services department will partner with our public information offices and all of our schools to communicate effectively uh the new school meal delivery model times locations and offerings as soon as all of that has been finalized and approved by the regulatory authorities as you know um this has been a summer like no other it came at the end of a spring like no other and we're
123heading into a fall of no other or like no other U but as you heard from all of our colleagues uh we've been diligent in preparing the school district for what lies ahead we're excited with respect to the school year ahead and look forward to partnering with the Board of Education and a superintendent uh to do our best to serve our students and communities and with that Madame President we conclude our formal presentation and we'll turn it back to you your colleagues and the superintendent thank you very much at this time I'll turn the table over to Dr alot uh to manage through the questions um portion for our members and I'll just as a reminder um at this portion um these are questions only um there will be an opportunity after questions to entertain
124um a checked in request um by members as well as those that were not so Dr alato if you would like uh we're going to be following R regular roll call order starting with Miss scheim and Mr in's absence uh today if you would like to work through that absolutely we'll start with M president Corel if if I may call a point of order before we begin please yes ma'am uh I I would just request that if we're limited to two questions with so many um areas of concern that we do two rounds of roll call order rather than the one so that everyone will be able to do follow-up questions please miss Antoine thank you very much for your note um it's actually not a point of order as I had mentioned uh prior
125to this presentation we're going to do two questions per round um Dr K had a commitment and a hard deadline so um although I would have liked us to see to get through U more than one round we were not able to we will have time to address um multiple rounds of questions I'll just you know remind reasonable practical um approach uh for the benefit of our staff public and our order of business to conduct today um but thank you for um giving me the opportunity to remind everyone and with that Miss scheim thank you we're going to start with and Dr alad it is to you all right um I would first like to thank everyone for their amazing reports and um and their very very hard work over the summer and what has
126got to be the most bizarre summer of Our Lives on this Earth and um I just thank you for your for your work and for your dedication it it shines through um every day um and I am extremely honored to um to to work with you and to um and to and to support your your work so I wanted to start there um it's incredible what you all have pulled together given the circum cumstances um I just had a couple questions for to start out with um it was mentioned at the beginning that you know there's there's a quite a significant amount of planning going into um Athletics and and and um practices and all that and I just wondered please if the same level of planning um that supported to Athletics is also afforded
127to our our bands our theater departments our dance teams our robotics teams because all are equally important and are all the reason that students um engage with our schools uh you know some the reason that some of them engage with our schools to begin with and and find their people and connect and so I just wondered about that the the the answer is yes Mrs schim you and I've talked about this in the past the answer is yes um certainly Athletics gets uh a lot of sort of front and center because it is Guided by a whole different network um and rules and regulations uh at the state level um but that state level has made their decision so now we'll um we'll work on uh developing a plan we actually have a draft plan
128regarding Athletics in the hands of Dr Ciana romen and his team and they are reviewing it they'll get back to us tomorrow in our weekly meeting and give us some feedback on that plan um about how we can start to bring some of the student athletes together with that that will then give us guidance for other students in other activities like band keeping in mind that we have to focus on outdoor activities as opposed to indoor activities so to say other extracurriculars it's not wide open we're not going to be able to bring the robotics team together inside a room to work on the robots but maybe we can do something outdoors with them the band could certainly maybe we could bring sectionals together in small groups and they could do their rehearsing so we're
129talking about those but with Athletics because there's um so much involved that will give us guidance in how we can bring some of the other students together uh but first and foremost we've got to focus on bring the students together um as Dr K on Ramen said we'll be planning on how we bring them together for the academics um but but certainly as you say the other extracurriculars are equally important um and we're working on plans for them as well perfect and if I might add just so you are aware Mr Culp is working closely with Miss parella on that exact question so that they're in concert what we learn with Athletics perfect perfect it's it's it's nice to hear that you know I as you might imagine I I hear a lot about marching
130band in my district as I'm sure um all of us are apologies for the noise in the background I'm a mom first um the the other question I had um has to do with um with all the wonderful PD that I heard about um over the summer just incredible firstly and um really my hats off if I had one on to all of you for for that effort um truly uh truly inspiring and so my question is um will will some of the same PD become mandatory for school admin especially as it relates to um anti-racist PD PD around equity and um uh uh and U avoiding bias and those sorts of things those sorts ofs I think the question was around the admin training M yeah for school school level admin um absolutely thank
131you for that so we have planned during our level we do level wide uh School me principal meetings so all the Elementary principles meet then middle and high schools as well as we have cluster meetings um with their individual regionals so we are in the midst of planning many of our principles and assistant principles and a lot of other staff have engaged in that work over the summer so I want to honor that work that they've done through different offices they really have um through a variety of means you heard about the lunch and learns that was the focus of the lunch and learns as well as uh book studies that individual schools have taken on around around the books White fragility stamped uh how to be anti-racism so you want to talk about race
132to name a few so our plans are to basically differentiate our professional development so that if a uh principal has already engaged in one of those book studies they will choose a different book with our basis being white fragility as the one book study that every principal will undertake during um the principal meeting unless they've already participated in that book study and then they'll choose another book I hope that makes sense because we do want to differentiate uh that approach so we'll pick another one uh so we'll have people monitor uh and lead and engage in those book studies with our Administration and then we'll also be doing that with assist AP or new ap1s and ap2s that's our plan for this year and and Dr Gillan I think you also had something to comment
133on yes thank you Dr arato I also want to um emphasize that my office we have been a standing agenda item during my tenure so like I'm in my third year in the position and since I've been in the position I am on the leveled principal meetings every single month and so to your point they are we are engaging in this dialogue regularly um at the level principal meetings and we also know school-based administrators are required to be also a part of those four early dismissal days as well perfect perfect so what I heard then is every every um principal and AP1 and ap2 will be reading at least white fragility and then moving on to other books throughout the year did I hear correctly and that will be mandated for all corre yes unless
134they've already participate it then we'll give them a second option but they'll participate in another book then perfect thank you so much all of you um if we get around another round I might have more but thank you so much thank you melheim who I don't um I don't have a roll call or in for me I'll I apologize MERS of the board so uh you know your order well I guess Miss Antoine if you're next we're we're delighted to take your question thank you Dr Al I I want to share also with uh president corkadel I have a motion after our question rounds if I be allow the floor again at the end of question questions and answers um my my I had a set of questions to ask before the presentation but now
135my heart is kind of sinking I've heard two major concerns in in your presentation one is the expiration of the grants and the waivers that we had to be able to um feed um a amount of our students I wanted to understand if if those waivers and grants were requested and were just waiting on um waiting on an answer or have we been denied with that said though I got to follow on on that particular question um with covid our free and reduced population may have changed drastically are we prepared for an influx of free and reduced lunch um students so Mrs Mrs Anne um the first uh question has to do with not grants but waivers of um uh our standard operating of and and delivery of School meals let me try and be
136succinct during the course there are um operational modalities that occur during the school year that we must follow in order to continue to receive um uh Federal subsidies for our students in need of meals there is set of operational modalities that are that occur during the summer and they're different since March 16th and the covid pandemic hit we across the state and really across the country have been operating in short under a summer meals program meaning that we could serve meals to um any students we could serve meals in non- congregate meals meaning the students didn't have to stay on campus they could leave campus with the meals we could allow parents to pick up the meals and bring them to the children so all of those waivers have been in place and all of
137those waivers luckily will be in place until through the school year okay except except the summer meals specific summer meals program that will end on September 3D that waiver which means we will only be able to serve students that are enrolled in our jurisdiction we can no longer serve students that are too to 18 as Mr shaknovich alluded to in his opening comments it can only serve those that are registered with us they have to be our students um and so that's how we're going to have to operate we um that waiver has been requested from us through the state and the state to the federal government our state delegation and the members of our federal delegation have asked the federal government for that continued waiver so we could continue to serve as we have
138been serving since March and and as of right now that has been denied okay that could change tomorrow but as of today it has been denied uh we but so we are now as Mr shaknovich said having to plan a little differently about how we will deliver meals we will continue deliver meals for our students in need students that want to purchase meals of to now they've not had to purchase a meal but if you don't qualify for free and reduced you'll have to purchase a meal and we're going to have to coordinate how we will do that curbside we've not had to do that before had to um manage uh accounts curbside because everybody got served two to 18 but we are working on it uh you know Miss reei well um uh she
139has assured me that she and her team will be ready and we will figure out a way to serve students and ser them well the last part the second part of your question is yes we would anticipate an increased number in um students and families qualifying for free and reduced price meals we're prepared to manage that those families can go online today and submit an application if they're unable to get online they can call the food nutritious service team and Miss REI and her team will walk them through and complete the application for them over the phone thank you for that Dr Al um the other concern I had was I may have misunderstood um Dr K's recommendation of instruction prioritization I wanted to understand from uh you all how if we're going to move
140incrementally in in in our instruction formats who are we starting with are we starting with our youngest Learners which is what I understood are we starting with those in Special Needs when we bring them back into the school how how are we coordinating with Dr Kay in terms of instruction for our students so wonderful question so as of today and the conversations the onc calling conversations we've been having with the Department of Health we are in agreement with the Department of Health's recommendation that when the numbers the metrics get to a place that he gives us the green light to open we will open in a hybrid environment and we will open for elementary students first we will then wait as I said in my opening remarks for the middle schools and the high schools
141later on but we will open with the elementary students first in a hybrid environment and basically what that means and I don't have we don't have a finite plan I don't have a finite plan in front of us that's been approved by the Department of Health but in short what we've been talking about Mrs antwine and for members of the board and the public listening in is that we would think about an elementary school and dividing that Elementary enrollment in half we would bring in half the students on Monday and Tuesday the building would be empty on Wednesday and we would clean it we'd bring in the second the other half of the students on Thursday and Friday so the elementary students would be in their buildings two days a week and at home virtually
142three days a week we would also develop an option for those families that are not comfortable returning their students for medical reasons or other uh into the hybrid environment that we would have the option of a fully virtual environment a virtual aacps system if you will for families and students to engage in um should they request that but that's the that's the general idea many many moving parts and many details to work out before we get there and open our doors but in general that's what the plan is and Dr kalana Ramen and his team have given us the the generic thumbs up until we work out the details thank you yes ma'am thank you Miss Antoine um next is do is Mr live thank you uh Dr alot and team Anna Rundle I have
143no comments or questions at this time but I do want to just thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the work you put in every day for the students and the kids of anara County Public Schools uh you are really an inspiration to all of us so thank you very much thank you Mr live thank you for your continued support Mrs hmer I have a lot of questions but I'll start with a couple um this one's from m vand um with our counselors and everyone that's there um in the past at schools for instance guid counselors have held like lunch bunches with small groups of students that they identified may need some help with some social skills or some other things like that will we still be able to do that type
144of group small group work virtually with our students as we move forward so they could have that um I know there some people have raised concerns about privacy but those small groups are really important as a social setting and will that be something that we that our counselors will be offering as part of that kind of flex time and lunchtime built into the day so for school counselors we're gonna they're going to be doing most of their personal social um uh counseling through individual counseling so we are not going to do personal social groups for that reason that you said confidentiality because we can't ensure that there 's not going to be someone else listening on the other line when we have personal social groups in the school building we are able to ensure confidentiality
145um very easily because we have closed doors we've laid out what confidentiality looks like so when I say personal social I mean like grief groups groups around you know very personal issues that could someone else could get that information could be shared and and um we just we just don't feel that that's the best um way to um address those issues but we will be our councilors will be teaching lessons in the classroom through their port councel curriculum that's where they'll address social skills issues um social skills strategies resilience growth mindset they have a whole curriculum on that so that's where they're going to um basically address a lot of that skill development but when it comes to the personal social we're gonna we're going to stick to the individual um you know our psychologists
146and our our social workers will be doing IEP groups uh you know to meet the needs of of uh those students who have counseling goals in their IEPs so they'll be doing individual and and groups through that okay and will there be an opportunity I know we've got setup in there like to have clubs and different things like that so maybe not even the counseling type situations but times where kids could get together that would be a kind of social outlet that they would have even if it's not with a counselor to have some of that yes so we have blocks in the schedule um in all levels um we have a a student wellness block within the middle in high school um where there will be um we're developing curriculum there will be the
147opportunity to talk about different aspects of Wellness social emotional learning um we have second step instruction that'll occur in elementary and middle school in the um Circle time and the community time um then there's the the club time I know that that um that's not my a of expertise but I know that's an opportunity for kids to socialize get together so there definitely I know that Dr alado and the team when creating this schedule developed a lot of time for students to interact in that in that manner and be able to develop skills strategies to deal with some of the Stress and Anxiety that they're going through through virtual learning and through this you know pandemic special okay great and to your point Miss Hummer there's also the Elementary schedule for just to get together
148I think is yours just for socialization on Tuesdays and Thursdays there is a block built in called friends and fun teacher facilitated time okay great thank you okay and my next question is for um Miss CES um I just have to say first off that it is a phenomenal what your team has done during a pandemic with shutdown to hire that many teachers um you know to bring in I think probably a lot of new teachers might have been reluctant to start their career going virtual so even to overcome that hurdle and to do your interviews things it is incredible and that this our highest number of diverse diverse hires ever I mean during this time is just hats off to your team that's really incredible um I know that there's hiring continues all the
149time could you tell us how many um vacancies we're at at this point what are we looking at for starting the school year absolutely we're actually in wonderful shape um at this point we only have 28 classroom vacancies and honestly that was a number as of Monday so that number could be less at this very moment we um you know try to keep our numbers up to date but as we hire it's it's a moving Target 28 that that's amazing I mean that that's really incredible um that you said that's classroom teachers does that include our special education special Educators and the other special positions as well yes we do have um in addition to that six non-teaching vacancies but as far as classroom where they would be the class teacher of record in the
150classroom that would be 28 and does that include and that we get into a different one is you said non-teaching does non-teaching include our Tas and tsas or is that separ no these would just be unit one uh POS CER certificated positions okay great well that's those are amazing numbers thank you okay I'll wait till my next round for the next ones thank you thank you Mrs Hummer uh Mr Smith thank you Dr car um first off I just want to say just a phenomenal job you know through hearing everyone's reports I could just hear you know the pride in each one of your voices and I can just tell that um you know this is not a perfect situation but we're in great shape because of you all and your amazing teams so I
151guess my question is you know throughout your reports I've heard of all the professional development all the trainings teachers have gone through and I've heard of the um I think it was last week all the new teachers to the county went through a virtual orientation setting just to get them you know orientated to the school syst this new virtual environment but my question is I guess what about the students right our teachers are prepared but our are our students prepared to face the challenges that they might you know see and overcome them you know during this virtual environment I'll tell you a quick story you know in sixth grade and Ninth Grade especially in sixth grade you know me and my twin brother walked into MacArthur Middle School scared out of our mind right we're
152holding on to each other because we did not know what to expect right but then we went into an orientation setting by our vice principal Mr ashion at the time and he just gave us a you know a he just you know made it welcoming and you know all our worries were um you know thrown out the window the butterflies in our stomach went away so I just want to know will that happen this year and if so how so thank you for your question Mr Smith um our principles are are working to do Welcome Back videos as well as at to your point um Sixth and ninth grade orientations for students could be incl will be included in that or separately depending on the school we still have many elementary schools that are setting
153up times where you can come see your class virtually prior to similar to what we used to do as a sneak a peek and those kinds of things so schools are getting very creative and about how to connect and uh welcome students back so they have that that connection as well the other thing teachers will be focusing on the very first week of school is making sure students are comfortable in the virtual environment through those times and really leading them and so they've got they have undertaken as you heard a lot of professional development in order to do that like how do I help them over Al line you know in a face-to-face situation so they're prepared to do that as well I don't know if that fully answered your question but that's a little
154bit of what's Happening well that answer thank you uh Mrs lucarelli and I didn't know you were a twin oh you didn't yeah no I would pull him on the camera I think he's still asleep but um um my next question I guess about families would be included in this as well like parents and Guardians absolutely so it would be available to parents and Guardians along with their students and then we'll have back to school uh virtually as well back to school events great thank you thanks Mr Smith Mrs Ellis thank you very much and I do have a number of questions but um I will I will pick two to start with um but first I I want to Echo um Miss Hummer's enthusiasm for uh the recruiting process and and where we're standing
155there um I am I'm thrilled to hear those numbers um so kudos to your department Miss coaches and um that's that's very exciting um okay so I think I'm going to focus right now on um one our youngest Learners well first of all did I hear correctly that there is a concern about um the the live classrooms and recording those for students who are not able to to attend live um I guess this would be for you Dr arato but can you uh fill us in on that a bit before I ask my question if that's the case is that so is that the question is about um right the question is about recording classes right I guess right now I'm asking can you fill us in on the concern there well the the con
156um there is always a concern about um um uh in terms of confidentiality and recording students um uh and that would be if even in a brick and mortar for somebody to come in with a camera and just take a picture of students in a classroom that's just not allowed um uh there it is a little bit different in the online environment um I'll allow Dr McMahon to to jump on she has been working with uh our team including legal to make sure that we're able to move forward that that is going to really critical um that we're able that that teachers are able to record the lesson they are delivering and then post it to their classroom because we know not every student uh in every circumstance is going to be able to join
157the synchronous learning and so there have to be some sort of alternatives to attendance for a lack of better terms um this is Ellis and so our ability to record the lessons and post them to the virtual classrooms is critical and offering all these different aspects to students so allow Dr MCN give us a quick update so Mrs Alis it's a good question and Dr AR um provided great details uh the additional pieces are just around recording photos and recording audio in the state of Maryland we have to spec specify photos and audio and how we go about doing that is under consideration right now on the legal teams across the state of Maryland so at this point in time the issue is we will record how we do that exactly is what's under uh
158consideration at this moment I guess my question is is this concern going to impede the live interactive um learning um in the live classes we're we're trying to design it such that it does not impede that because what we're looking for is uh as close to as possible the interaction reflects what would happen in the regular brick and mortar situation so yes right that's that's what I'm concerned about is um students would lose a lot if they were not able to um to be seen by their teacher and interact with them in the midst of the lesson um I guess I would just offer the idea that a teacher brought to me that if this can't be done that perhaps we have a teacher for um for each grade level perhaps to record lessons while
159other live classes are going on um I don't know if that's a possibility but just wanted to throw it out there that it I you know I it sounds like we all agree that that that's a critical aspect to learning this semester compared to last spring is the opportunity for that interaction so thank you for answering thank you um and then here's here's one that I I personally based on my background and knowledge um but largely because of um parents and teachers of our youngest students who have spoken out to me um and I think other board members is the amount of screen time for our very youngest Learners particularly um prek and kindergarten and maybe even first grade I know there's there's a pretty big um a lot of growth that goes on um
160leading up to first grade where um I think a lot of first grade students could handle it better but maybe not all because kids are not all in the same place but really our youngest Learners um is there the possibility for um students to um be present when they're able to and to engage in sort of Alternative Learning with their caretakers um to fill in the gaps if the student just can't handle three hours or uh is it four hours of uh screen time um per day that's just that's excessive for for many kids of that age so Mrs Ellis yes I i' I've heard the same concerns as well and and and again I'll allow Dr McMahon uh she's certainly more an expert than I but I will preface her comments with um sort
161of defining screen time um I I don't want people and I've had conversations with parents and others that they brought the concern to me um uh that it is a mandated where the student is literally four hours nonstop looking at a screen like watching TV or watching a movie or playing a video game some type of onscreen game the interaction the screen time to use that in quotes um is very different in the in the classroom environment the screen may be on and I see my teacher interacting but I may have been given some things to do right and so yes the screen is on but I'm not necessarily as that first or second grader staring at the screen for four hours nothing is in our schedule it's built for four hours long there are
162breaks and the teacher will build in breaks movement breaks and music breaks and things like that particularly at the significantly at the elementary level so this concept of screen time is we and I know that the academics committee and others talk long and hard about how much time is appropriate for a student to have their their Chromebook open and looking at the screen versus engaging with their teacher and other students um nothing is four hour straight um nothing is it's throughout the day and it's broken up um uh with lunch and movement and other things and then lastly let me preface that the State Board of Education um uh may very well be mandating a minimum amount of synchronous time that students must be engaged with their teachers that's a conversation that occurred with the
163State Board yesterday in their meeting and I understand they're taking it up on the 1st of September as well there could very well be a mandate about the minimum amount of to use your term or the terms being used screen time what we would call synchronous learning time during the course of the day so Dr McMahon anything else to add to that I'm sorry I was too lengthy no I think everything Dr AR said was exactly what I would have said and I will say um he supported us trying some of this this summer in the summery and the really great news is that Academy time allowed us to see what is the sweet spot for the youngest of our Learners seems to be about 20 30 minutes and then movement as Dr Al explain
164the movement and the music and the transition to something new and the small group uh work and it worked very very well and parents were very excited and students um you know were actively actively waiting to get online to be part of what they would say seeing my friends and and being with my friends so I think I think people will be families will be um very appreciative and excited about what their students are engaged in in the fall the youngest ones all right thank thank you for your answers thank you um thank you Mrs Ellis and Miss yes thank you very much Dr alato and I truly Echo the settlements of the hard work and efforts for our our our team it it's um you guys never uh failed to amaze and um your
165passion for our students definitely shows um my first two questions are going to be surrounding um some of the social emotional um components and support so we have in our in our pre-co environment um just to summarize an interest of time we have mobile crisis teams that are engaged at the school and and and into the family homes when um their services are needed um we have ppws who serve um different purposes but um similarly are engaging our students um in times of Crisis and then of course we have our homeless abatement programs and those similar similar like from United Way that that have been running in our middle schools and such um from time to time that involve a lot of intensive interaction because we know that that's what it takes to get the
166job done as it relates to some of our most vulnerable populations and those that are um in the throws of some of our scariest and most life impacting diseases such as addiction and mental health um can you explain further um rather than just one a a specific question I so I'll I'll just defer my my first question is could you explain better how um our families can anticipate what they can expect to see in way of those supports being retold and which ones are perhaps if any of them are still pending versus able to engage um in brief uh recognizing um that's clearly a vulnerability as a result of our covid conditions um Dr alot I believe you're muted oh thank you at least once a meeting I do that my apologies at least once
167I will allow Mr vogan to jump in let me preface uh his remarks with um you mentioned mobile crisis mobile crisis has been up and running uh the County's mobile crisis team is fabulous um uh lieutenant Thomas and and um Jen Corbin and their teams have been up and running uh throughout the school closures they've been in interacting with our students and families um um as needed me also say that um this is an ongoing issue that you Broach so I appreciate you bringing it up uh we are concerned also um one of the things that I'm I don't believe is fully recognized in any Community certainly our community but any Community is that when students are not in school it's not just about the academic instruction or even just about the meals it's the
168fact that we have our eyes on students and we can talk with students and we can decipher if there is a need uh if they are in crisis if they need some assistance so the fact that we don't have our eyes on students literally and figuratively is at issue um Mr vogan and I both serve I think as you know Mrs corkell for members of the board we both serve on the board of the Anon County Mental Health agency that meets monthly we had month we had our monthly meeting yesterday evening and we were talking about uh the numbers of referrals of schoolage children and the numbers are down um and I don't believe that's because the issues have subsided it's because I think students are not in schools and we are one of the
169largest reporters uh and Outreach we helps families with Outreach for needs so uh Mr vogan could certainly talk about how his teams will continue to work with families and students and staffs that when there are students in need that there is Outreach available and that there is there are certainly super available Mr bogland yeah thank you Dr Al and yeah he you summed it up you know this is the number one issue I think that we talk about on my team and with other agencies that we partner with about how we know that the the need is hasn't decreased um we you know we just when we're in school buildings we are we're relationship that is that's how we connect with kids a kid has an issue they can talk to their teacher their teacher
170can you know refer them down to the counseling office we're all in different locations so um we're working as our team to make sure that we are doing what we need to do to communicate with teachers regularly to get a feel for what's going on with kids that we as student services teams are having regular meetings to talk about kids to talk about what we're seeing in schools to reach out to parents in unique ways um through back to school night through different parenting events um I've set up meetings with with mobile crisis with Jen Corbin and Steve Thomas where we're meeting every couple weeks to talk about are you what are the numbers look like are you getting School calls um if if you aren't what can we do to better make sure that
171we're connecting with them um how are we connecting with different Community agencies to get resources out so so that is really I think in this um pandemic from a student services perspective that's our biggest um battle and and we are working to be creative in terms of connecting communicating um we are doing you know in terms of home visits for our ppws we're not going into homes we're doing what we're calling like resource drops so we don't you know we're practicing um social distancing and we may drop resources off we may drop off hang tags contact or connect with families um but we're doing all those things that we do we're just figuring out different ways to to do that and we continue to E things go and and adjust our plan as we need
172to great thank you very much Ryan greatly appreciated and and then that my follow-up question um my second question is somewhat um related um in that bigger broader picture of the category um many I know for a fact that our successes are based on our strong relationships with our community and our community leaders our Rank and file folks that see the kids sitting alone at their you know at their community area um and we have such an interactive approach when we're in the brick-and mortar and with the reminders and the posters and all of that secondary uh support for prevention for intervention um that we will now be absent of I almost feel like we need to run like infomercials in between our classes because there's so much there AA at their fingertips without having
173to do a formal reach out the pamphlets um uh the auditorium things um and our community I know wants to and I'm sure I'm not the only board member that has been reached out to saying how can I help and how can I make sure that the families understand the resources is there a way that we can um just like the county has done in the past create um chain opportunities through social media through emails through bulletins and those physical bulletins that you see in some of our especially in our older communities um going in to help support and recognize that so I'm thinking of some of our you know um mobile parks um perhaps um you know in their Community environment to just create uh multiple ways of them connecting is is there something
174that is in the works Maybe in under the guise of a toolkit uh parentally and and interaction that we could maybe even help as a board to help share um things like the suicide hotlines the how to connect um those type of secondary resources that I know our families are counting on us to continue to make Avail available to the students as well as to the parents um so so yes ma'am great question and the answer is yes uh um um we certainly will uh we we we hope that the community will continue to support our students and families um uh let us know but uh in short to answer your question um we have of uh we have a great many resources already up on our website that that's a place that I would
175Point Community members and families to uh take advantage of great many resources there the county has on their website they have a great many resources available as well but to your Point um one of the things that that we have agreed to is we'll be working with the Anon County Mental Health Agency and Adrien meckler um she and Ryan um myself and the Department of Health are working on a joint letter that we're going to push out to the community about the resources that are available in this covid environment with schools not open about the resources that are available so we've agreed to to work on that jointly and then push that out to the community Ryan anything else to add yes that's a great initiative we're going to do and also um I just
176want to say in this the there's a student wellness block within high school and middle school and we've been working on the curriculum there and after each lesson we're going to have a slide that has the warmline the crisis text line The Suicide Prevention outline and a link to our acps um website which is acps.org back crisis resources and that is really our a lot of resources when it comes to Mental Health support um family support and I also want to put a plug the partnership for uh youth children and family they their website has a um has a Google doc on it that that's ever evolving that has tons of resources broken down by areas of the county that um you can you can access right there and that's going to be part of
177the letter that talk to a lot of reference so um so we're definitely trying to think of some out of the box ways to get those resources out you know in these unique times I'm so greatly appreciate you guys sharing that because I know you're on top of it um in every opportunity I think we can to reiterate how um how multifaceted we are being in thinking outside of the box and ensuring that as much resources as possible can uh be addressing this at all those three levels of prevention intervention and and that Future Care Health Care that's so very important um I will have one other question and Dr alot back to you thank you president cadell and we'll start back at the beginning with Mrs schan thank you um and thank you uh
178president corkadel for your questions um and I'm going to piggyback on on the the last one and the bit of information that uh Mr Vin uh gave regarding the the numbers the the various resource numbers on on slides at the end of student wellness that's wonderful thank you for doing that I wonder um though about elementary school so I believe that the the counselor traditionally um school counselor traditionally like sort of roams around the the school building and does various um uh lessons with the children and those sorts of things will um will that uh what what you're saying for high school will that uh present itself in the form of those little um um modules with the school counselors at the elementary level yes so we will be continuing what we call our court
179counseling curriculum there will be counselors will continue to teach their their regular scope and sequence of lessons they'll do that um throughout the schedule and work with teachers to figure out the best time for those um so our coordinators of School counseling have um mandatory lessons uh that counselors will teach and they work it within their what works for their schedules but they will be doing that in addition they the school counselors will be supporting the teachers in implementing Second Step um social emotional learning curriculum which um 40 of our elementary schools have already been implementing that for the last uh year or two and we're um introducing that this year for the remaining remaining um elementary schools so that will be taught by teachers two to three times a week in that that morning
180Circle time or Community time block um so counselors will be help helping with the training with the just the implementation support so then it's kind of a you know it's not just hearing from the counselors during their counseling lessons it's also teachers reinforcing the same language throughout the day that's wonderful um thank you for for that and um and a shout out to the school counselors um you know the for what they provided uh last spring as well um at least in at my daughter's school it was really it was truly amazing so thank you for that thank you for keeping that going and I also wanted to touch on on physical education um she was my second question um no one doubts the the importance of of of PE um and I I loved
181how it was done in the in the spring but I wonder if any changes are going to be made for the fall especially when we think eventually of of cooler um months and possibly tight spaces in households and and and whatnot how we're going to continue to encourage um uh uh physical education and and meet the um the state mandates for that so if some if someone can touch on that I would love to hear about this Dr McMahon would you like to address that or Mrs baton so um I can tell a little bit about that and Mrs baton if if you want to finish up uh the notion is PE and and fizzed like any one of our other uh elective courses were very excited about and as you know from the spring
182the electives were some of the most creative spaces in the students day and they will continue to be and um and what we believe to be true is some of the ways we engage children not only were they creative but they got children outside they pushed them to think beyond what they ever had ever done before and that will continue to happen both in dance health and physical education I know um Miss baton can probably give some coin example thanks Dr I think you said it perfectly they they are definitely engaging with the students in that live Seeker environment and so that they're addressing the learning skills at each grade level um in very creative ways so that um they're they're still having that opportunity to participate in that type of instruction perfect good I'm
183glad it's going to continue yes I will Echo that um it was definitely very creatively done at uh I can only speak for our own experience at my daughter's school and um just really grateful for uh for all of the the PE and the cultural arts and um team and then all of the uh the core subject uh teachers as well uh did a amazing job and um our PE teacher uh set the music to the beginning of Mr Rogers neighborhood and he would come down the stairs and put on his shoes and it was it was it was engaging for the adults as well rather nostalgic and uh very creative so anyway thank you uh for for that that's all of my questions at this moment in this round thank you thank you thank
184you Mrs scheim Miss Anne thank you Dr alot I I also want um based on some of the questions a lot of my questions have been answered as we move into our fall environment it sounds like we are trained and ready are we capturing some of the Lessons Learned as we move um as we move through the fall and if it turns out that some areas are performing uh more successfully in the in the virtual environment than others would we be able to reconsider how we're doing specifically for that area and I I'll come back to district one if if at me Heights for example the online learning is turning out to be successful but over at B Grove is not as successful in a virtual environment are there plans to modify how we instruct
185and and and and that school learning environment for spe specified schools rather than all the schools at at one time so the the short answer to your initial question uh I think is yes um we have learned a great deal about what happened through the spring and as well as the summer as you know the spring was more asynchronous than synchronous um the summer and our summer programs was more synchronous than asynchronous we learned that that worked better teachers liked it better students liked it better parents liked it better and so we are learning more each and every day I think any teacher would tell you that their and I'll use the term toolkit is much more full now than it was on March 16th when we started this online when we pivoted to the
186online world and so I'm really confident that principles assistant principles ta uh teachers everybody will learn as we go through this process to get better at it and I think in the end when we um get back to fully brick and mortar schools um uh we will be a better school system as a result and certainly able to Pivot should we need this kind of instruction in the future excuse that said um we will work we will be keeping um The Regionals and directors will be keeping a close eye and working with the principles on the success of the online and then eventually hybrid environments at each of the schools and they will make adjustments as necessary nothing really is etched in stone because this is new for all of us we're gonna have to
187learn through the process um I don't think that what we would do initially to use your example and say things are working at me Heights but not at belgrove that would suddenly walk into B Grove and change anything at B Grove we would find out and determine what's not working why isn't it working and then support the teachers and staff to ensure that it will work but again we'll make adjustments on an as needed basis um I don't know if if Dr McMahon or Dr luk gelli have anything to add to that oh you're muted Dr McMahon thank you I was just gonna say Dr luk gelli and and Mrs baton M Zan everybody is one cohesive team in this so as you suggested we're all gonna have our eyes everywhere and we're going to
188work together to make it work EXC absolutely and the only thing I can add um Dr alot was spot on principles are we on Monday we talked about teaching and learning cycle and being in classrooms and Google Google meets and so as he mentioned principles assistant principles and others will be supporting teachers and in there um learning alongside with them and have eyes on classrooms all the time and as he said we'll do it on the needs needs basis and see who needs support they'll be support there for teachers as they need it and we will get resource teachers and others out there as well as people need support and then the directors and regionals will help out with that as well wonderful if I could add on to that our program and content resource
189folks will also be in partnership with our school teams so collaborative planning will continue and we'll be there to offer resources to to all of our schools you know as they need them wonderful and I would add um lastly Mrs antwine and and for members of the board and others listening in as you look at the schedules and how they're built for uh elementary middle and high schools a silver lining if there's actually a silver lining in a pandemic and I would argue that there may not be but in always being an optimist and the Glass glasses half full um we have a really neat opportunity with our the way the schedules have been developed by the academics team for more um not only professional development or uh significantly more time for professional development but
190more meeting time so before school starts after the kids are gone virtually at the end of the day on Wednesdays there is more time for principles to work with their staffs and staffs to work more collaboratively we don't have that luxury in the brick and mor environment we do have this luxury in the online environment or we're going to take full advantage of it excellent thank you then my uh last question concerns the the achievement or the opportunity Gap and the lessons that were being uh brought to the table prior to co one of those lessons was the engagement from parents and guardians or those that care for the students specifically and how much of a dependency on their input mattered as we move into a virtual environment my question would be is knowing that
191we can't make anyone do anything otherwise I I would wear a different kind of crown um how are we planning to engage the parents differently than what we have before yes ma'am and it's um uh again another great question because we we're gonna have to engage parents the way you we are engaging right now um we're not going to be in brick and mortar schools but but I think the again the optimism tells me that um uh based on and and Dr Gillan mentioned it in her opening remarks that we piloted two parent programs at two elementary schools this summer right and the idea of those programs Mrs antwine was how do I as a parent learn how to better support my child in an online environment right and so they got through a series
192of um uh classes if you will um and what we found was that as Dr Gillan alluded Dr Gillan stated M Antoine is that we had a hundred parents engaged between those two elementary schools normally we get six or 10 or 12 right parents that because it's very difficult to sometimes at the end of the day get in your car and drive to the school for an engagement or a meeting I have to find child care or it interrupts dinner time or whatever it might be right we all know what those limitations are for our parents I'm again optimistic that we can do some real things and learn not just now but for the future how we can better engage parents because they don't have to leave home and if we teach them how to
193utilize that Chromebook that we've given their child they can log in and they could have a parent teacher conference right or engageing back to school night without ever leaving home or engage in a parent University course where they're learning how to better work with their children or the math program or whatever it might be and now I don't have to leave home to do that so The Optimist in me says th this could be a um this could be a silver lining in a pandemic that we could get better at and really nurture for going forward outstanding Dr lelli do you want to add something to that no I think you've covered it Dr L thank you yes ma'am thank you Mrs M Anne thank you Mr live now I have no further comments or
194questions thank you thank you Mr live Mrs Hummer yes um so I have a couple more um this goes to the Chromebooks and backpacks I just have a couple of clarifying questions so the Chromebooks um I've received I think there's some miscommunication out there with people it's at some folks believe that the Chromebooks are required to do e-learning and that once they get a Chromebook they can't use their own device at home and that's not correct so so initially well if they choose to not use it they can choose to not use it we as a school system as a result of this crisis are going to become a on toone system there are one toone systems in the state and across the country we have chosen up to this point to not be a
195onetoone system and what I mean by that and I know you know and members of the board but for the larger public meaning that for every student there is a device that is given to the student and becomes theirs while they are a member of our school community so as a result of this crisis we have now shifted gears and we are developing programmatically to be a one toone system so we are going to hand a Chromebook to every student and we would expect and we would ask you parents students to use that Chromebook just like when we hand you a textbook or a math workbook that you use that similarly we hand it to you and we want you to use it for a reason the Chromebooks um uh are uh they offer many
196different things there are certainly students at home that have a device and we want them to use that device now because we don't actually have enough Chromebooks for every everybody today so use the device you have at home you're comfortable with it's your desktop it's your laptop it's your iPad but our Chromebooks are fully loaded with all of our software and more importantly all of the safety measures that we can build into access I can't build in those same safety measures to somebody's atome computer so when they're doing work with us we want to ensure that Internet safety and accessibility and so the Chromebook Mrs H you know offers us that for our students the idea would be that we'll hand a Chromebook to every student eventually as they come in and they're being processed
197and distributed the elementary students we think that's probably a bit much to ask them to carry it back and forth from home to school will ask them to leave their Chromebook at home and that will be their tool to use at home we'll have Chromebooks in the building for them to use as needed at the elementary level for the secondary students Mrs Hummer we'll ask them to carry it back and forth like a textbook we're going to give them a neoprene sleeve to keep it safe and they put in their backpack and they carry it back and forth with them so they can open it up both on campus and at home so I hope that answers your question it's a I know there's been lots of confusion but we are moving we are now
198as a result of this pandemic going to be a different kind of system in how we can deliver instruction this then opens up many many possibilities for say a snow day where maybe we don't have to close on a snow day and ask the teachers and students to open up their Chromebooks and engage in lessons that have been built uh in advance or synchronous synchronous could be a possibility and so we don't lose calendar days to a snow day just just saying that could be a possibility and I'm all for that I and I believe I I think that some concern has been that some people are like well if I don't have the Chromebook yet how do I log on and you know do am I required to do that for e-learning if my
199child is comfortable with another device and what I've been telling people is you may use the other device but when we go back to school this is going to be the expected thing and no you're not going to bring your own laptop to school with you because it's not going to have the school security protocols I also heard another great positive from a parent who was advocating for using the school system Chromebook she said all the games and things that your kids have on their own devices aren't on there so if you want to keep them off some correct entertainment school things put them on that Chromebook to have in there the other question would be um the backpack distribution I I know Chromebook distribution has begun I've been seeing it very well organized and
200going along what about backpack distribution would what is our timeline for that as well Dr man you want to start okay you're muted oh you're muted again again we're excited because the back the backpacks are starting to come in and all of the supplies and that's that's really exciting the notion is is they're coming in in waves because of the global supply chain issues and um they will start to be given out very very soon and that'll be school by school by school so parents will get an u a connect ad or an email or website or a phone call from their principal this Dr Luke Ry could say more about that but the notion is the first wave are Title One schools right our Title One schools will'll get the the initial materials and
201then within a week week and a half the last of the materials will be given out I think the last uh the last date that the arrival is supposed to happen is the 14th and which means by the SEC end of the second week of school we will be fully rolling and that's that's pretty good for um the 30 plus th000 backpacks that is that's great to hear thank you thank you okay that's all online for this round you're muted Dr lot you're muted muted twice in the same meeting my apologies I was just asking if Dr lucarelli or Mrs baton have anything to add to that last piece no I think it was covered okay very good thank you thank you Mrs Sumer thank you Mr Smith yeah back to me again and just
202on the you know snow day part you know it's like the big part of Bob moser's job you know what's he no snow days we we will find if we go this route Mr Smith I think you bring up a great point we'll have something some kind of unique phone call of Mr moer to your house to make sure that you're up and engaged with your Chromebook appropriately on a snow day a wake up call great and I just have one last question and it's a very specific question because that came from a student and I don't think was ever addressed before so if you look at the high school schedule on Thursdays and Fridays there's a flex period Flex learning for period 3A for Thursday and period 4 a or 4B on um Friday
203now for students with um half schedules right that just have a morning half schedule will they have to attend that Flex time no they uh if they when they are finished whether they're a senior right and most cases that will be the case when they are finished with their day and they would normally leave for the day get out in the parking lot and leave that is when they are finished absolutely Mr Smith thank you thank you Mr Smith Miss Ellis yes um so back to that um Silver Lining doct AR I found very few um instances in life where there's not a Silver Lining and though this pandemic is a huge Dark Cloud um I do believe there are silver linings um so I've been doing a lot of reading and and also hearing
204from parents that um different students are certainly impacted differently so my question I think would be for Mr vogan are are there observations going on regarding the variances in mental health needs and crisis during this pandemic versus in school I know that some students um some students probably ex or do experience crisis partly as a part of being in school and I'm not blaming the school system for that I'm blaming students may have certain social pressures um may not deal well with uh the scheduling that goes um you know the the rigorous the demanding day um and then now in in this pandemic some students have been cut off from their social support some students um might not have the um the support at home that they might need and count on those relationships with
205adults that they have in the school so in other words I I could see that there could be some students doing better right now and some students doing worse and um I think one of the greatest travesties of this whole um pandemic would be if we don't um observe these things and make you know make adjustments and make changes um going forward so you know maybe some differentiated schedules and instruction um when we do get back to normal but are can you just talk about how we are observing those differences and how how they impact students sure I mean I I think I would agree with you I think that um everyone's circumstan is a little bit different and we actually did a PD this summer for as part of the PD that Miss baton
206was talking about we did one through my office that was called supporting students during a pandemic and our theme was we're all in the same boat I mean we're all in the same storm but we're all on different boats and and it kind of speaks to some of us have the skills tools resources to deal with this some of us have been impacted hard by having death in the family or health issues or losing jobs and and some of us had maybe trauma that we experienced before the pandemic that it that's exacerbated by the situation so we definitely I think my staff we work to support teachers to look for those signs and then to refer to our staff and our staff obviously is going to get to know what the specific issues are that
207are going on and then provide the the appropriate supports but you know it's true I mean some of our you know we look at the numbers being down for different reports whether it's child abuse neglect reporting or suicidal behaviors um statements and again I think the mental health needs are up for many but some of them are with their with their protective factors they're with their parents maybe this the pressures are are less so so it's hard to tell exactly what's going on until we kind of get in there and get to talk to these kids individually figure out exactly what they need and then connect with parents but I think that's a great observation thank you and uh my next question um is Dr aloto I'm we're hearing big concerns um particularly from the
208groups that you've identified early on um should be brought into our schools for smaller group instruction um special education um our our cat students who need that Hands-On learning um our Esau students um we were I think we were all hoping and I know parents of these students were really hoping to hear today that we're moving forward with this can you tell us what it's going to take to get us there to be able to bring these students in as soon as possible yes ma'am thank you for the question so it remains a goal for us um that while we are in the fully virtual environment that we uh identify students that are at the greatest need or greatest risk of learning loss um while they're while we're in this virtual environment and so as
209we have identified in our plan and we've talked about as a board that it uh we were going to start with a group of special education students and then expand to our cat students um centers of app Tech ology for those who don't know that acronym uh and then our Esau students and with our special ed students we as as is in our is in our plan are focusing on those in our Three Special centers and we would identify those students we we surveyed their parents to see who um would need Transportation who would take advantage of that it would be voluntary for the parents if they wanted to bring or have us transport their students in for or an hour or two a week for some Hands-On face to face uh with their teachers
210and T the critical piece here is identifying the students uh that are willing to and wanting to take advantage of that uh Mrs Ellis and then the other piece is the staff that would Avail themselves staff would agree to come in and work face to face with these small groups of students either special ed cat students or and so that Still Remains a goal for us we're going to continue to still plan uh I am optimistic that the teachers will agree the teachers and staff because particularly in our special centers um it's it's not just the teacher but the Tas that work hand inand with these students sometimes literally and so um I'm optimistic that they will say yes when we invite them to come in with the students um um we have done some
211of that work now um and as of today I I just simply don't have enough teachers that have agreed to do that but we I'm optimistic that as we reach out to them and ask them to come in and work again we'll begin with the special centers and then expand that Outreach to the cat centers and then our East students that while we're in this fully virtual environment that we uh that they would again I'm optimistic that they'd agree to come in and work with their with their student well to follow up on that um I particularly I'm going to focus on our special ed students um I'm hearing from parents that the even the one to two hours a week was very concerning for them because they simply can't provide what their students need
212Beyond those one to two hours and then beyond that there's students with those same needs that are not in our special centers so so what you're telling me is operationally in other words all the logistics are in place to be able to start bringing them in but at the at this point in time we don't have the bodies to do it because we have we do not currently have enough staff who've indicated that they they'll come in for our students is that accurate in other words once you have the staff we can begin is that I guess that's the short question so um so you are accurate in your in your um in your statement I wouldn't say that we are operationally ready to flip the switch tomorrow um because not um uh it would
213it would be very intricate in terms of for example Transportation a number of parents that we've been in contact so far have said nope if you do this we don't want to take advantage of it a number of parents have said absolutely we would take advantage of it but we would rather transport we'll take them back and forth or we would like you to transport so that last piece the transportation operationally we're not we haven't developed the routes yet to pick all those students up but we could do that in Fairly short order once we say once they say yes and they would need the transportation so I want to be clear that I think your state is accurate but in terms of operationally we're not ready to flip the switch today we would be
214within the first couple of months and that's what we had promised families it wouldn't be September 8th it would be within the first we start to back let me finish my response to you Mrs Ellis with all of this has to be approved by the Department of Health so we are working as I said we've we've developed a plan I said earlier on athletic and that's in the hands of the Department of Health for their feedback and approval we will do the same when we're ready to go at the specialed level the cat level and the um and the U Esau level think about those as Dr kalana Ramen said for for discussion purposes Mrs Ellis treating each of those as an independent non-public school where they have to submit a plan he wants a
215plan from us in each of these areas how will the students be transported how will they be fed but how will they enter the building how will you keep them socially distant who will be wearing masks handwashing and the like you can imagine at the special centers there are increased risks um because of some of the very special needs those students have and so those have their own protocols that would have to go through the Department of Health but Karen cisa who you have met she is the coordinator of school health the health department oversees our nurses is working with us in each of those areas to help us develop the plan that would go to the Department of Health for their approval so there are a number of moving Parts but it is critical
216and I think to your point Mrs Ellis um that we have to have it's not just having the parents and students that are ready to go I have to have staff that are ready to go also um and as of today I don't have yet enough staff at the special centers that have agreed to do that work I'm optimistic that that will change over time I sure hope so thank you yes ma'am thank you for your questions and finally Mrs corkadel actually my um my last question was already addressed so I will defer over um for any final questions um please raise your hand because I think everybody's just about wrapping up here um Michelle Heim I see that your mute button is off um did you have any last uh yes questions yeah I
217have two more questions one um involves um the is my you all able to hear me okay good um one involves the specific technology of the Chromebook and um hold on I'm so sorry um what involves a specific um technology of the Chromebook and uh its ability not just to connect to Wi-Fi but to a wired modem um I understood that there was an R forgive me about if I give this wrong an RJ45 Ethernet plug on all of the homebooks but I'm hearing back for some from some um for some teachers who had who have the Chromebooks and and apparently that that there isn't a port and so I just wondered how how we would um address like that specific Tech questions like that where maybe their modem at home isn't um isn't a
218Wi-Fi modem or or there's just a personal preference of having the wired the ethernet cord directly physically connected to the device could someone help me out with with that yeah I'd ask that the the parents can can contact the help desk and the help desk could could answer their question um if I'm not mistaken each of the Chromebooks has a um a port for hard wire so it's not just it can be hardwired and so my understanding is that that there is a port on the Chromebooks but if there's a specific question um then we'll ask parents you can ask parents to call the help desk and and they should be able to assist okay that is fabulous and then my last question has to do and I won't have any more after this um
219has to do with with um our Esau students and not just the um not just uh the involvement or or the engagement of the parents uh which is um you know further hindered by uh by by lots of materials being in English but but the um how are we handling like the the materials I I understand that those aren't typically translated but I just I worry about the the class length and even getting into class link all being in English and then um and then what happens after that can you um tell me how our facilitators are working with those uh with those with our Esau um students and and um overcoming those hurdles yes ma'am and certainly Dr McMahon will will jump in as appropriate but it is a um so when we're in
220a brick-and mortar situation we're in brick and mortar schools we don't translate the website um and we don't translate every document and every language that our student stents speak as their native tongue because it is a class of learning English as their second language so that becomes the primary language um the target language if you were in high school and you were taking French the expectation is that you would hear a lot and use a lot of French that would be your target language the same is true in the world in the Esau world the target language is English and so no we don't translate um but the Esau teachers work with the students to help navigate um that those websites to navigate the tools to navigate the materials um Dr McMahon anything to add
221to that no that's perfect Dr alot I would just add one small thing and that is through the cares funding we were able to acquire some software that will be translation on demand software and so uh wherever we have materials that actually do need the ability for especially a secondary student to have that translation capability they will have it and has can I ask a little follow-up question with that with with the piece of involving the the parents that's it's a what everything I heard was great and but are we are the facilitators obviously we know who those kids are are they um uh doing double time to make sure to bring those those students in and to make sure that the parents can then assist the students in their education and that that's exactly
222what the bilingual facilitators are doing is they're working with the parents working with the families perfect perfect thank you again all for everything this is amazing thank you thank you Mrs scheim uh Miss Ellis and then miss Hummer thank you um oh goodness I actually got caught off guard um sorry I I was expecting Miss Hummer first because it's her turn and um I I would like to defer and come back if that's okay only because I just wasn't quite prepared my apologies I just went by the order that the hands were raised my apology got it got it got it no problem um Mrs comeer okay um so um I know that we have put out that there's the option for teachers that if they want to teach in their classrooms in the school
223buildings that that could be a possibility um and I would assume it teachers report next week don't they um so we would be kind of surveying then to see how many would want to come back um one question that has arisen and I know it's been addressed before but have about there there's been concerns raised about ventilation in school buildings and we all know that we cannot replace the HVAC HVAC systems at all of our schools in order to make for covid that is just not going to happen but have there been things I know we've been doing a lot of work in the school buildings to increase Safety and Security are the have there been anything done with the ventilation and filters and things like that in our school buildings yes ma'am thank you
224for the question and and you're right Miss Hummer it's been a it's been an ongoing conversation in fact it's a conversation nationally as you watch the national news people are talking about ventilation systems not just in schools but in businesses as people are returning to work in some form or fashion um and so we're very well aware of that conversation it's a conversation that uh the facilities committee um uh has been discussing U certainly Mr shaknovich will jump in if I say something incorrect or he'll need to add to but the short answer is you're right we are not going to be able to replace our ventilation our HVAC systems with hospital grade um uh uh air handlers um throughout the school system anytime soon that's that's not in the works what is in the
225works and what is appropriate is that we contain we continue to um uh we continue to follow all of the OSHA standards and all the county and state standards and federal standards that are there with regard to air quality so we have air handlers that are both in the classroom and on the roofs um those are well-maintained um by our HVAC teams the uh Chiefs and custodians in each of the buildings uh and and it's been uh throughout this process of closed buildings has been able to go through and change out the filters in all of those Air Handlers both inclass rooms and on roofs and that is an ongoing process that um that has to be logged um that happens regularly based on uh rules regulations and standards and so air quality is always
226an issue for us when we've got um uh hundreds to thousands of students and staff in any building will continue adhere to those those governmental standards to ensure quality uh air quality all right um and then so as we talked about bringing students back and we're talking about one of the um for the first group of students coming back from our special centers they those parents are asked to come with the students um and that's in large part because of the increased needs of of those particular students as we expand to seeing um more um bringing in more of our special education students let's say bringing in students for occupational therapy or Physical Therapy would their parents also be required to attend with them for those students who are not as severely that they don't
227need as much one-on-one care or would those students be you know perhaps the bus comes and they bring a group of students in and take them home or are we still in the works on that one Dr McMahon so it's a great great question Mrs Hummer where we are right now is um really weighing that we would like to have it as natural as it has been in the brick and mortar and that students would come by themselves be transported as they normally would be and that's the goal and so at this point in time we haven't finalize those decisions but that is in fact the goal okay and then um one more as you said you know I am I I think we we all everyone has said we want to bring students back
228in the buildings as soon as we safely can and especially our most vulnerable and we want to have that but um you know it is depend on our our staff and as you said Dr Al I am hopeful that we will have staff members who will feel comfortable with the the safety standards that we put in place in collaboration with teachers and administrators and we and we'll come back into the buildings because we do have students that cannot be adequately served um you virtually you know fully to have that and um I know all of our teachers want to be in person with their students so I am hopeful that our student that our teachers and Tas and others who are medically feel that they they can come in safely will be doing that um
229in the same vein I'm just going to throw this out there as a board member as we're asking staff members and um teachers and our custodians and Food Service workers to come back in person you know gradually with the proper health and safety precautions I believe we as a board need to start looking to do the same thing that we need to come out there and and set this and show that um it can be done so um but I'm encouraged and I'm hopeful as I said that as teachers were will step forward and be prepared to serve our thank you thank you Mrs Hummer and finally Miss Ellis thank you I'm sorry I really had to form my thoughts around this one um it's a b it's a biggie for me but um what
230I am I'm greatly appreciate appreciative of uh Dr um kie ramen's um you presenting to this board um and I don't envy anyone who has to make these really difficult decisions on that we just don't really fully know about um that being said I know that there were there are an awful lot of parents um and staff um who are who are waiting for I think are disappointed today that we did not the level of detail that that we had hoped for to to determine when going to be able um to open up and bring our students in um so I I have to ask this question not that I'm making any suggestions in this moment and I I I want to assure everyone I'm I'm not um reactively making any motions there will be
231no motions from me today at least on this issue um but I have to ask the question because I I think it's time for accountability sake that that we all um that that were transparent about where the decisions lie so my understanding as a board member right now Dr arlat is that as superintendent operations of our schools are within your perview and as the org chart goes the Board of Education oversees the superintendent where does Dr k fall into this in other words if you were to make the decision to open our schools Dr kie Ramen this decision is not in his hands correct but and I'm just I'm laying this out to to see if I understand it correctly and so that again we can be fully transparent about where these decisions lie um
232this decision is in your hands how in this moment however if Dr K Ramen were to if if you were to make that decision he could then go over you and basically pull the plug and might do I understand this all correctly as far as where these decisions lie I I I think you I think you do um but you tread in a very gray area so um so yes I've taken the advice on the advice of Dr kalana Ramen to open the school year virtually yes I could have ignored that advice gone to this board and said yep Health Officer says not a good idea but let's go ahead and open anyway I hope this board is not encouraging me to do that I hope this board is not encouraging me to ignore the
233advice of the health officer we rely on the advice of the health officer with regard to health related issues I don't go to him on education ISS issues we go to him on health related issues so if there's an outbreak of MCA or tuberculosis we go to the health department and they give us guidance on opening closing cleaning protocols disinfecting quarantining all those things that are health related and as you state I could ignore that advice we could open schools but he then does have the authority to close us as he's got the authority to close a bar a restaurant a tattoo parlor other areas other public areas or areas that the public goes into I don't know the legal terminology in his world in the Department of Health um but to your point he
234then yes could say Okay cases are such that or Dr Alder you are not managing your buildings well enough to um eliminate or reduce the risk of further spread of covid therefore I'm closing you down until you are able to do that that's why the planning on the front end needs to be so meticulous and I'm so keen on getting his approval his team's approval on the front end so that we don't go back and one have to close but more importantly that we are contributor to a spread of covid it is important to me from day one and I've said this to you and colleagues and I and I I'm just using this opportunity in responding to your question question Mrs Alis to talk to the larger public that we as a school system
235I do not want us to be um a contributor to the spread of the virus I want everybody to be health healthy and safe that's students that's staff that's our parents in our community um but that's really where the so ultimately yes we as a team board and superintendent could decide to open schools and ignore his advice at this time and his advice as of today because of the numbers are still closed let me end with where you started that you were disappointed to not hear the numbers um more specifics about what those thresholds will be I think he has based of my conversations with he and his team they've got some real ideas about what that threshold should be in anaro County I think he is being in rightfully so very cautious because the
236Maryland State Department of Health has said just recently that they are going to weigh in on and produce some metrics for the state and I think that's the reason for his uh his cautiousness as of today though of course I would never speak for him he did however say if he doesn't get some of that direction soon he's prepared to move forward and that was very well stated Dr arlat I again I have to reiterate I was not making any suggestions I think I think at this point it's just I want to to connect all the dots and make sure everyone is understanding things the same way and that um because eventually decisions do have to be made and um so it's important to to know where those decisions lie so um yeah I I
237do hope you don't think I was suggesting in anyway that um that that we should I imagine it could be a huge liability if we went against the health officer and then had spread in our schools um I I hate to even imagine what um what could come out of that um so um just I think it was a very important discussion for all of us to be on the same page and for the public to understand um what's involved in these decisions and and where those um decisions lie thank you so much yes ma'am thank you and with that um Mr corkadel I'll turn it back over to you thank you for your time and energies okay thank you so guys so very much um that was uh that is several hours of of
238a lot of good information um I'm seeing some indications perhaps not all our board members are ready to um uh for us to uh resume a uh close session break Miss shim and Miss antwine had placed their hands up um if if you obliging Dr alato it seems like we have one or two more follow-up questions perhaps as a result of some of the other questions have been heard yes ma'am I'm all yours so I'll let you I'll let you call on the board members okay Miss shim and then miss Antoine I'll go after Miss Antoine okay um Miss Antoine thank you president Corel um Miss shim if if this this is a motion that I uh share with the board if you had question I'll back to M Miss Anne um we're not prepared
239for that I believe melheim we were still in questions um phase and then I will call um based on what was checked in as appropriate as I have explained um earlier um but I want to make sure that all the questions have been answered and then I will call upon for discussion and motions as appropriate I have not done that yet yes that's why that's why I mentioned I will yield back to miss okay all right it's not really a question just a statement of of support for Dr alotto again for for balancing the the safety and the well-being of our of our students and staff um with the needs of the school system and uh I I was a little taken aback with a comment I heard from another colleague um about uh resuming
240activities um because we can doesn't mean we we should doesn't mean we know all the intricacies related to how that would be done safely for ourselves our staff our senior staff and the greater public and so I just wanted to to make that comment I'm I'm good now thank you okay so any more questions let's um questions from anyone I'm not seeing any um next we're going to entertain discussion um and motions from Members um members Miss Antoine and Mr Li had requested time to present um uh possible action and I believe Miss Antoine has uh requested the uh the table first um so it'll be miss antwine Mr Li and then we will go on roll call order as appropriate provided there is a second for any motions being made Miss Antoine thank you
241um president codel if you would I would like to yield my time some of my time back to Mr Li because this motion we develop together at your discretion you guys can interact with it and present at um you have the table excellent um Mr live please thank you Miss Anne recognizing the very important role at extracurricular activities including band Athletics robotics art and I could go on and on play in the overall development of our students I was very pleased to join Miss antwine in developing a statement of support to Dr lot and his team to which Miss Anne will now introduce s thank you Mr live I first want to start this Preamble by thanking everyone involved from Dr lot and his team to the constituents to the parents to the community at
242large you have been incredible in ensuring that education was taken seriously in anona County thank you for that with that said I would like to uh offer this statement of support for consideration for the for our board members and an action to accept the statement of support for Dr alot and his team specifically this statement of support identifies areas Beyond Academia especially extracurricular activity extracurricular activity is part of the promise of public education for every student to succeed in school and life holistic approaches in development and the understanding that education is fluid allows our school system to offer a variety of spectacular opportunities in addition to Academia including Sports band music music art and school clubs they help students shape their life's interest while engaging with others with like mindsets friendships are forged and trust
243is built in the virtual environment it is important that new ways to offer these opportunities be introduced and accepted with the safety and health of our students at the Forefront in extremely fragile social emotional times like like these it is even more imperative that students be exposed to the sweetness of togetherness teamwork with this discipline and codery with this in mind I move that this board adopt the following statement of support for Dr alot and his team and for additional resources for our students the anonda County Board of education is deeply appreciative of the length to which the superintendent of schools and his team have gone in the creation of the virtual learning environment as outlined in the aacps draft 2020 reopening plan the board also wholeheartedly endorses the efforts of the reopening plan to
244address the needs of students not just inside the classroom but beyond it over and above the wellth thought out academic schedules the board particularly appreciates efforts to address academic Integrity social emotional issues educational equality and integrated opportunities for clubs and other activities into the school day schedule Additionally the board welcomes and strongly supports the continued exploration of ways to to allow our student athletes our artists our musicians our bands and our students involved in other extracurricular Endeavors the opportunities to gather individually compete and perform in a compliance with CDC State and County guidelines the board recognizes that these activities will help maintain and enhance the relationships and personal growth that are so critical to the development of well-rounded students the Board of Education asks the Maryland State Department of Education msde the Maryland public Secondary
245Schools Athletic Association mpssaa and Orondo County wreck and parks and other state and local institutions influencing the availability of public school sports arts and other extracurricular activities to work expeditiously on giving our students these additional opportunities they need and deserve for the sake of their health and well-being thank you um we have a motion do we have a second I'll second that unless Bob wants to I'll defer to Bob now that's fine melheim thank you okay apprciate second absolutely we have a motion and a second um and I I'll just uh quickly go through the roll call to see if there's any comments or questions Miss scheim I just appreciate the hard work of uh Miss Antoine and Mr live in creating this resolution and the show of support for Dr alato and his staff
246and to benefit our students thank you thank you um Miss Antoine you you and and Mr live will have last um commentary um as as the joint Arthur um that uh brings us to miss Hummer any questions or comments no I'm I'm fully in support of this thank you thank you Mr Smith I I just concur with the others because you know as many of you you know we all live through and seen the importance of sports and extracurriculars you know um for me personally I've seen just you know great friendships great memories are for is you know on the field off the field you know in the orchest Pit and the band pit and you know we can't get the full thing right now just because of everything going on but we want to
247try our absolute best you know to um get students as close to that opportunity as possible especially students that are just coming into high school or just coming into middle school who might have not had those experiences otherwise just so they can get a taste of so they can you know just dip their Waters I mean dip their toe in the water so I fully support it thank you very much Mr Smith Miss Ellis thank you I I first want to um thank the team of uh Miss Antoine and Mr Li um this is one of my passionate most important priorities um in the midst of this pandemic um it I I consider it a a real opportunity because as Dr arato articulated um bringing elementary students back together is going to be a top
248priority because um learning um remotely is more challenging for them our secondary students have the capability to to be able to do that but that means they're missing out on coming together um and so this is an opportunity to bring our students together and I have to um quickly make a statement about extracurriculars to our students um I know a lot of times um we hear athletic ICS spoken of in a different realm than other extracurriculars and sometimes it gives the impression that there's a hierarchy and I I want to speak to students particularly those who who have career goals who have college goals um follow your interests and that will lead to success students earn scholarships um for involvement in technology involvement in the Arts I have I have a student who was able
249to afford to go to school out of state only because of his involvement in the Arts um um future Business Leaders um goodness the list goes on and on so I want to use this opportunity while we are speaking on the subject to just encourage our students to get involved and follow your interests um because it it will help you grow tremendously and again thank you Miss Antoine and Mr Li I will wholeheartedly support this resolution thank you very much Miss Ellis I too Echo the settlement of appreciation to Miss Anne and Mr Li for their hard work and efforts um and um encompassing all and following um following their heart um and what they believe to be the heart of the board and it does sound like that very May well be the case
250uh with myself included um I'm going to defer final comments to miss Antoine and Mr Li and then at which time we will call roll for vote and you guys can pick your order I would go first Candace I just thank the board for their support and again reiterate you know my eternal gratitude to Dr alot and his team for what they put together and and the Blood Sweat and Tears that that they've exhibited and leading us through this tough time Candace I I will Echo everything that the entire board has said I will also uh with this let's not let this be just words on paper let us as the Board of Education get very deeply involved in moving forward for the sake of our students and their overall well-being and tremendous thank you
251for your support of this motion wonderful okay um Miss money if you could please call um Miss money if you could please call roll um Miss shim hi Miss Anne hi Mr Li hi Miss Hummer hi Mr Smith I Miss Ellis hi Miss Corel I motion passes 70 thank you very much um I'm not aware A Ware of any other uh board business related to um item 3.01 just double cheing um seeing no actions of the board as was published um in our public agenda the board is going to take a brief recess um we still do have matters um that are relevant and appropriate for a closed executive session um during its during the break um so missis please Madame President I moved at the board go into close session to discuss the appointment
252employment assignment promotion discipline demotion compensation removal resignation or performance evaluation of appointees employees or officials over whom this public body has jurisdiction or any other personnel that affects one or more specific individuals to consult with counsil to obtain legal advice on a legal matter second motion and second um Miss money uh money if you could please uh call roll excuse me m hi Miss Anne hi Mr live hi Miss Hummer hi Mr Smith hi Miss Ellis hi Miss corkadel hi motion passes 70 okay before we depart in closed session I'll remind our board members to please check your email for instructions for Clos session um entry we're going to log out of this session and a reminder to the public um that um we will be extending our break for one full hour um approximately
253just a minute over it um and so um we will be resuming at 3M and I will ask tell board members that we will be taking a um a 10-minute break before we enter into close working lunch session and thank you all very much and we'll see everybody publicly in an hour thank you [Music] and he [Music] oh [Music] e [Music] e [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] for [Music] I [Music] [Applause] [Music] for [Music] n [Music] n [Music] n [Music] FL [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] right [Music] [Laughter] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] w [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Applause] [Music] w [Music] w [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] feel oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] e [Music] w [Music] n [Music] BL [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] e [Music] [Applause] [Music]
254[Applause] [Laughter] [Music] w [Laughter] [Music] w [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] e [Music] oh [Music] than [Music] e [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] I [Music] [Applause] [Music] h [Music] no [Music] n [Music] oh [Music] o [Music] [Applause] [Music] e [Music] [Applause] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] w [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Applause] [Music] w e [Music] he [Music] oh [Music] m [Music] good afternoon and welcome back to the public remaining public session of the anaro County Board of Education on this 26th day of August 2020 we are now resuming and all applicable um disclaimers made at the beginning of the meeting are still in full effect and force um we are now going to be resuming um with um uh first a comment about public comment um as as indicated um in all of our press releases
255and on our website and on our public agenda that um public testimony uh on General items not contained in the agenda um are still published and all same rules apply with the whole going to the board um Miss Manny have you any public comments not related to agenda items um checked in uh were zero thank you very much um moving along is um uh section five the consent items and awards of contract Mr lad thank you Madame President I move that we bundle items 5.01 through 5.09 motion to bundle and second has been accepted uh miss m please call Miss shim hi Miss Anne hi Mr Li hi Miss Hummer hi Mr Smith hi Miss Ellis hi Miss corkadel hi motion passes 70 okay Dr alad yes Madam president thank you very much I recommend
256that the Board of Education authorize the contracts as listed on today's agenda 5.01 through 5.09 move we have a motion second motion and second at this time we will um allow afford um board members to make comments or ask questions and I do believe we have at least one or two um indicated um Miss Anne thank you president corkadel after reading what I was sent via email I have no questions at this time thank you very much any other members um having questions um for staff I know they work very hard on these matters as quickly as as we go through them I know that they're hard work and effort um thank you very much Dr alad and to the team it does not appear that we have any questions of board at this time
257Miss money please call roll on the motion to um to award Mich hi Miss anine hi Mr lives hi Miss Hummer hi Mr Smith hi Miss Ellis hi Miss corkadel hi motion passes 70 thank you item 6.01 administrative Personnel appointments Dr alad yes Madam president thank you I recommend to the board that the Personnel listed on the attached sheets be promoted and or appointed so moved second second motion and second has been made um Miss money please call roll Miss Anne I'm sorry hi I'm Sorry Miss shim I miss swine I Mr Li hi Miss Hummer hi Mr Smith I Miss Ellis I miss cadile I motion passes 70 thank you very much um next item 6.02 Personnel Dr alato yes Madam president thank you I recommend uh to the Board of Education approval of
258the actions as stipulated on the attached sheets so moved second motion and second Miss money please call roll M allheim hi Miss Anne I Mr Li hi Miss hmer Mr Smith I Miss Ellis hi Miss corkadel I motion passes 70 thank you next item 6.03 the citizen advisory committee code kba this is on it third reading Miss Ortiz good afternoon uh for the record Janette Ortiz legislative and policy Council so we have policy kba citizen advisory committee before you on third reading you may recall that the board had some subst substantive revisions on second reading uh last time around at the last July meeting and so the policy was posted once again for an additional public comment period in accordance with your policy setting policy we did not receive any public comments uh during this
259time and so now the policies for you on third reading for Action thank you so very much um before we proceed um with final um discussions or any other um proposed of amendments or as such um do any board members have any further questions of U misses or other staff at this time seeing none um I do have a technical edit um which simply means um something that is not um substantive or dynamically changes but uh was a technical Omission um and uh as such um would not be subject to uh extending the uh necessity uh to hold a vote on it and so at this time um I'm going to request consensus on the technical edit under section three dot dot dot um may not act inconsistently with insert two words CAC guidelines and
260a comma prior to the phrase this policy do I have consent um to adopt this as a technical edit to be incorporated in the final version seeing seeing no Descent of the board the technical edit has been adopted and therefore Miss Ortiz if you and your staff could make sure that should uh the board choose to motion to adopt and pass um the policy that it is included Miss Antoine thank you president I just have a quick question about the CAC guidelines are they made public and if if not could they be made public please um I don't know um where they live um I do know that um they are used during the orientation of the new members and are available to all of the members um I will definitely get certainly um reach
261out to um uh Jennifer uh who is the signed staff advisor to uh look into that and follow up with it and administration uh to ensure the transparency I believe your question seeks I I can't hear you miss Antoine un followup you can't hear me through mute no I I just equate the guidelines to to our handbook and I think since you know for the sake of transparent as you pointed out it would be good to have U Public Access excellent question and if not we'll definitely uh get that reconciled I I see that as no problem of course uh we always do a legal review on those matters and other internal things to make sure that that happens appropriately um okay I don't see any further questions or comments of the board at this
262time I know we spent a lot of time in the first and second reader to those who may be joining us for the first time in doing and not in Prior meetings um and all of our um policy adoptions follow a policy on policy that is available to the public if they ever want to know uh what we're doing when as it relates to our policies um so at this time um I'm willing to entertain a motion move to pass as edited okay uh Dr alato um may I may I give you the recommendation oh yes as soon as you raised your hand I knew what I was missing and your recommendation is very important to the board sir uh so thank you very much Madame President I recommend approval of policy kba subject to
263final correction for style and format thank you thank you sir and I believe we do have a motion um that speaks to that recommendation and a second so um any final comments um um for questions of board at this time as it relates to the motion seeing no movement from the board um Miss money please call roll Miss shim hi Miss Anne I Mr Li hi Miss Hummer hi Mr Smith hi Miss Ellis hi Miss cadile I motion passes 70 thank you so very much next item is items uh we have two items under uh policy revisions for second reading and our first second reader today is item 6.04 Wellness code AE Miss Ortiz yes so before you uh so first I want to say that with me I have jod Rizzy who is our
264amazing supervisor for uh food and nutrition services um and she can answer any questions if there are any questions but as president corkadel stated this policy AE Wellness is on second reading it was um on a public comment period since the July 88th board meeting we did not receive any public comments during that time you may recall that on first reading Miss Rizzy and I explained that this policy is essentially um in accordance with Federal guidelines and requirements and so we just needed to make some updates to align with those federal guidelines and requirements thank you thank you so very much um I'm not seeing any uh movement of the board for questions or comments at this time so uh seeing none um there is no action during a second reader of the board accepting
265amendments which have not been presented at this time so let's go next to item 6.05 which is the uh second reader of physical education code IFC Miss Ortiz yes and this policy IFC physical education was before the board as well at the July 8th meeting on first reading with me I have Michelle baton assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction and Cristiana Walsh uh coordinator of health physical education and dance uh in case any of the board members have any questions similar to policy AE of policy IFC needed to be amended to align with requirements however these were state regulations and so the revisions align the policy with recent changes to state regulations and we did not receive any public comments on this policy during the public comment period thank you thank you Miss Ortiz um
266so uh do we have any further questions of the board as it relates to this policy is in second reader of course so this is our ideal time for any amendments or questions uh to pose I'm seeing uh one question um coming from Miss anine Miss anine um I just it's not an amendment I have a question about um section F I'm I'm sorry section c f where can we find more information on the shape America great level outcomes yes so I if I don't know if Miss Walsh or Miss baton want to uh chime in but this information is typically found on the Maryland State Department of Education website they have um lots of documents doents and guidelines and requirements that are listed there so I don't know if Miss baton or Miss Walsh
267have anything more to add to that sure and then of course we follow them so our folks have that information as well absolutely um I'll step in here so Christiana Walsh coordinator of health physical education and dance um shape America is the national governing body that sort of oversees all health and physical education so um msde we have our Maryland State Department of Education we have aligned our Maryland framework to those standards to those n to that National framework so shape America is the Society of health and physical education for America or for our nation wonderful because you can imagine the what I was getting back when I put shape into some even MSD uh search engines so I just wanted that clarification thank you very much Miss Miss Antoine I'll just clarify because I
268think it's a wonderful question in case others want to find that website um it is shape americaall onew word.org and it'll take you right to their standards excellent thank you thank you Dr thank you Dr Miss wsh great thank you so very much Miss Antoine um any other further questions from board members at this time okay and just as a reminder this will remain open and until such time along with the other second reader um and will be uh appropriately uh moved along to the third reader without any further amendments but still of course the opportunity for additional public comment uh should it arise thank you so very much Miss Ortiz and to everyone who made themselves available for this thank you um next item is um our other action items that uh we have
269to address today and item 6.06 is board member resolutions on concerning social justice I'm going to immediately turn the table over to Mr Smith Mr Smith thank you president Corell this Friday the 57th anniversary of the March on Washington for jobs and freedom in 2013 my mother took my sister my twin brother and me to the 50th anniversary of the historic march on my lapel pen you'll notice that I'm wearing a button from that day and I like so many of my peers was only taught one speech from that day Dr King's famous I Have a Dream speech just that name alone conjur up images of a crowd of over 250,000 people from all walks of life listening to Dr King speak they listened as he spoke of little black boys and black girls joining
270hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers but the speech I was not taught in school was one of a man not much older than myself at 23 years old he spoke of instances of police brutality he spoke he spoke of protesters sitting in jail he spoke of a national struggle with racism he spoke of what we saw this summer he closed his speech by saying wake up America wake up John Lewis spent the rest of his life trying to get America to wake up and now it is time for us as a community to wake up and see the truth Dr AR said it best in his June 15th Capital Gazette column for 401 years the society in which we live has developed and thrived in a white privilege so
271expansive that many can't see it much less understand the impact it's true that even those with the best of intentions have failed to do enough to enact the necessary change as you have heard from staff in this meeting our school system has made strides towards this necessary change by enacting sweeping curriculum changes engaging many of our faculty and staff in book studies and numerous hours of professional development and we as a county have listened to our students firsthand accounts of racism and big bigotry through our let's talk Justice series these are just the first steps in a marathon of systemic change but as we wake up we must see another truth we must see that black lives matter we must see that black lives matter no more but no less we must see that black
272lives matter is not merely a political movement or a social movement we must see black lives matter as a moral movement it is a movement not just about George Floyd Briana Taylor Ahmad aubury and so many more killed by an unjust system we must realize that black lives matter is about me and everyone that looks like me so be bold and see that black lives matter means our black teachers matter our black administrators matter our black employees matter and that our black students matter our superintendent Dr arot sees this superintendent Mart Rano sees this and the Board of Education Howard County realize this and across the bay in Queen ANS County Superintendent Kane and their board understand this to they are just a few of the many good-hearted and open-minded School leaders who recognize this
273cause for for what it is and all it can be and now is our board's turn to join to join them and all others that are on this anti-racist path John LS once also said when you see something that is not right not fair not just you have to speak up you have to do something and now it is our turn to act right here at this time at this moment we must act that is I that is why I move that the board adopt the following resolution the Board of Education of anono County believes that the march to True equality begins when a community insists on providing its children with an honest accounting of the past and imparting to them values of kindness acceptance and inclusion as such the board unequivocally supports efforts being
274led by superintendent George arato and his staff to enhance opportunities for all of anona County Public School students to more honestly understand and learn about the past the present and the role they can play moving forward to eradicate hate and bias from our Beloved Community likewise the board fully supports those superintendent and school boards in Maryland and educational leaders and organizations across this nation who are working to serve as an example to children by upholding these values and being a loud and unwavering voice for truth and Justice hate has no place in our schools our communities or our world the board joins with Dr arato Dr Kaine Dr martiano and other in this commitment to increasing awareness and unraveling the inequities that have been brought about by years of conscious and subconscious actions We Stand
275United and say emphatically that black lives matter second oh you beat me to it I think we have quite a few members who um are are are welcoming the opportunity to Second thank you very much Mr Smith we have a motion and we have a second we're going to follow roll call order uh to provide all members an opportunity to speak and weigh in um at this time starting with Miss shaim Miss shim Trayvon Martin George Floyd Rihanna Taylor Ahmad arry so many other human beings and now the horrific shooting of Jacob Blake who will likely never walk again say their names think of their families I think often of the famous quote if not you who if not now when we have a duty to all to do all we can do to help
276eradicate hate and bias in our schools as local leaders we have a responsibility to do all we can to help dismantle systemic racism in our community let not just denounce racism but be anti-racist every day in our thoughts and our actions and this board's governance of the school system this is one important step one important action I implore my colleagues who might be contemp in voting no to search their hearts right now we we can't just not be racists we must be anti-racist silence is complicity complacency doesn't solve this chronic problem it is important that we stand arm in-arm with Dr alardo Dr Kain Dr matriano and our teachers and staff who work every day to ensure that hate and bias are not part of our schools and that when bias acts do happen that
277we consistent ly address it with consistent words and actions black lives matter I am an emphatic and unequivocal IE and Injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere thank you thank you very much Miss scheim um your words greatly appreciated Miss Antoine Drake you're getting a virtual hug from me can you come back to me please um pres I am very happy to do so miss Antoine um I know this is this has great meaning to so many um and especially our board members um Mr Li thank you Madame President as Senator Tim Scott stated during his speech at the Republican National Convention words are one thing and actions are another I reviewed our student board memb resolution from that perspective not only looking at what was being stated in the resolution but also what have been
278the actions of this board surrounding the issues of equity and inclusion in our school system in just a short time I have been a board member this board has not shied away from addressing these issues I believe it was in February of 2019 that the board approved the creation addition of the new Global citizen course designed to explore values and diversity of our local National and Global communities and to Foster climates where acceptance and inclusion are the norm then in May of 2019 the board passed the student use of social media policy which prohibits communic ation by students over social media that create a hostile educational environment in September of 2019 just a little more than a year ago the board passed the biased behavior and language policy that clearly provides that the prevention of
279biased behavior and language requires a concerted effort to support a whole school-based bias prevention and intervention Pro Intervention Program that involves All State holders in our school Community also in September 2019 we revised our policy on bullying cyber bullying harassment and intimidation in fact this current board includes a monthly report on this subject at our regularly scheduled meetings then in December of 2019 this board passed and the superintendent implemented a student sexual harassment and misconduct policy which acknowledges that sexual harassment and misconduct is a form of discrimination and that the board is committed to providing aacps students a safe and supportive environment free of sexual harassment and misconduct lastly just a few months ago in May of 2020 the board adopted an educational Equity policy that acknowledges the historical generational con and compounding reality of
280the systems structures and practices that have intentionally and unintentionally created and continued to afford advantages to some student groups while perpetuating inequalities for others now that was a direct quote from the policy and this policy was adopted unanimously other initiatives of the board of superintendent include our mental health task force our community conversations about acceptance and inclusion The Joint initiative to eliminate the achievement Gap and our ongoing let's talk Justice student Forum in fact as Mr Smith alluded to earlier the latest session is scheduled for tomorrow well I may not personally agree with all of the words of this resolution this discussion certainly provides us with the chance to say that good people can agree that our country still has work to do to line up to the goals and ideals on which we were
281founded while also believing that there is a great deal of good in American values and the way of light that does not have to be abandoned for us to get there again to quote Senator Tim Scott we are not fully where we want to be but thank God not where we used to be yes we have work to do but I believe in the goodness of America and the promise that all men and women are created equal all that being said I will support Mr Smith resolution thank you thank you very much Mr live um I'm deliberating deliberately uh pulling out on my video so that uh the folk can focus on on our speakers because uh this is very important to our speakers and I know to our public um so uh it takes
282me a second to to come back in here um next um Miss Hummer well I have to say after after that it's very hard to follow up um with Mr live because he has stated many of the things that um I believe I am not a I'm not a proponent of performative activism where we just say or do things to look to look good um I believe in action and as Mr Smith and Mr live made very clear this school system and this board has shown with our actions that this is a priority for us that all of our that we raise our students and help educate them to be more accepting and kind and abolish the racism and bias that we see in others our mod for our school system is all means all
283and that means that we are looking after each child individually where they are and trying to meet their needs that means our most vulnerable children that means our black students it's important to our black students and faculty and the community at large that we say their lives matter and that is a priority for our system that we instill that value to everyone who works here who serves here who learns here and so um I am I am happy to do this I'm proud to be a part of a school system that is such a leader when it comes to equity and fighting things I'm very I have been very involved on the state level um with school boards throughout the state and knowing where they are and and serving on Equity committees and things and
284I can say that there is not another school system in the in the state of Maryland that is as active in pursuing equity and racial justice as in arundo County Public Schools and I'm proud to be a part of that and I um as Mr Li said we're not done yet you know paraphrasing we're not done yet but we're much better than where we were and I have full confidence that we will continue to move forward thank you thank you Miss Hummer Mr Smith you will have final comments as the motion author um although I know you worked really hard with um all you know so many um to make this realized um next uh Miss Ellis thank you and first I want to thank all of uh my colleagues who have spoken before me
285um everyone who has spoken has has really shared some profound thoughts um I especially admire um Mr Smith's work um on developing this resolution so thoughtfully um so I I have a few words to say too and and I'm going to preface it with I I'm going to share um part of what I'm going to state is sharing my Reser reservations with a specific part of this resolution um but just just hear me out um black lives matter I want to stay that state that emphatically black lives matter the first driving value in our strategic plan is all means all and that means that black lives matter but here's the thing our duty here as a board is to our students our students the students of anaro County and in my position as vice president
286of this board I feel a responsibility to keep that Focus Dr arlat has made great strides in our schools to draw attention to racial and other social issues as was stated in the beginning of the proposed resolution and in the comments of my colleagues before me sorry I got lost for a moment um I have supported Dr arad's efforts in this area including voting for the global citizenship course to open up conversations on difficult topics for our students and bring awareness to these issues and singing his Praises as he made feeding our students in need and getting them the needed technology to continue learning in the midst of a pandemic his number one priority however I would not want my counterpart on another board Bo in this state to weigh in on how we are
287handling these important issues anondo county is a recognized leader in the nation on Equity does that mean we are perfect no we still have much work to do but it is our work and we must respect the work of other school systems um what they are doing and have yet to do so the part of this resolution that I am a little uncomfortable with is the naming of other superintendents in other school districts even if and uh obviously the resolution is speaking highly of these other superintendant um again I applaud Dr arat for his work on equity and social justice because I am intimately involved in this school system and I cannot say the same for any other school system I don't know their superintendents their boards or their communities to to the extent necessary
288to make a blanket statement in support of their work do I support their right to do the work you bet of course I do I do believe it is the responsibility of any education system to bring context and relevance to students and by proxy the community at large on events past and present in this world this nation this state and within our own communities in today's Digital World es especially the very reason that we are aware of incidents involving social injustice almost as soon as they happen we are all truly Global Citizens so I support Mr Smith's efforts in bringing attention to recent events and continuing the important Dialogue on how we can demonstrate our commitment to social justice but as vice president I have to point out my discomfort with this board calling on
289the names of other superintendents within this resolution for the reasons I stated above so I'm personally faced with a bit of a dilemma I would if if if this resolution existed without those two names and instead said Dr arato and other superintendents and Boards of Education offering our support for everyone to do this work I would have been a lot more comfortable um so now I'm faced with do I support a resolution that I I believe is well intentioned but causes some potential problems or do I join my fellow board members and and and offer Unity um and I'm I'm I believe the most important thing is for this board to be together so it's important for me um if I are if I am to vote for this resolution to have made that statement
290so everyone knows what my reservations are I am a bit uncomfortable um binding this board in in writing in an official statement of support to other superintendant who I'm I'm simply not knowledgeable enough of of their work to um to speak um the way I can speak for Dr arato on this issue um so I I just wanted to share those thoughts again I I I would not um want to prevent um Unity on this very very very important issue and um I I can't help but continue to applaud the professionalism um Mr Smith has brought to this process and the passion and I know how very important this this particular topic is to all of us um so I I want to be clear one more time that to this board member Black lives
291do matter and I will continue to represent their interests in this school system with passion um so I will pass to um president Cel thank you Miss Ellis um Miss anine uh thank you president cadell and my apologize my apologies to everyone seeing and hearing me at this time for being too emotional to move forward but I I'm I am I sit here as the mother of a black life that matters so I know firsthand the spirit and intent of Mr Smith's motion it's not about names not about names um I even wrote some things up that um but I I will now defer back to our actual Mission state M for the Board of Education the mission of the Board of Education of anona county is to provide leadership vision and support to Anon
292County public schools that ensures an equitable worldclass education and creates a lifelong learning by promoting Community collaborations developing responsive policies and holding ourselves accountable for the results Mr Smith thank you for demonstrating leadership with Integrity in these trying times you're the student board member and you have made probably the heaviest lift on this board to date thank you please know that I stand with you and I support you for the public black lives matters is a civil rights movement that reminds us not to desensitize or destroy the lives of black people especially our youth it is not politics instead it is a tool for zero tolerance therefore Mr Smith I thank you for being actionable and I support everything you've said and to the leadership Dr alot and others who have stood up with not
293only this understanding but through your leadership and your action thank you as well I pray that that we we not only understand what this is truly about but we continue to work together for the changes that are necessary in our system and in our system globally as a whole thank you thank you Miss Antoine um I'm going to be very brief um on this uh I believe a lot of good what was said and that I fully Concur and embrace um I guess at a personal level I've learned a lot through this process and by working with Mr Smith um I see social justice as everybody's issue as the resolution um points out and I'm hopeful that this statement powerful relevant and necessary in its moment in time will inspire beyond the boundaries to continue
294that energy and apply it equally to all injustices across the board each student has an individ ual uh justice social justice that is near and dear to their hearts for very personal reasons and I hope that our demonstration is one of many um we're building on some very great successes as many of my fellow colleagues have pointed out and we need to continue that momentum and from time to Dime we do need to stop pause and reflect and remind ourselves what we are who we are because it's the what we are that our children will see that our students will emulate and I'm confident that the consensus and unity that resulted just from the creation of this resolution um is embedded in the heart and as Miss Ellis pointed out um yes it is our
295leadership job to point out um places where uh perhaps not of tradition and for very good reasons I might add but we have to look at the whole as she also pointed out and we have to express our unity and our students need our Unity now more than ever we're endeavoring in Far Uncharted territories into the deep deep blue and Beyond um and I want to make sure that our students see the unity um in the hearts that I know exist with each one of our colleagues so I thank you Mr Smith I thank you Miss Antoine um I thank you Mr Li and all of our members um of this board for um for such heartfelt embellished phras speeches that I I I would not uh dare to even um not even compete with
296but to even try to emulate um in some context so I have nothing further to say except for um this is truly a Monumental time in aacps is history and the support of Dr alato I think means the world to not just us and the students but also the staff too and we've spoke a lot about our students but they are inspired through our teachers and we want to make sure that their lives and their voices are also heard so thank you for including so much in that um and the consensus that has been built truly a day to be remembered so um I'm going to defer uh final comments to Mr Smith um or uh prior to um roll call and vote Mr Smith you have now have the table than you once again
297to say that um I just want to thank all my fellow colleagues you know not just for the support but helping me craft this you know yes I introduced it but you know it was really a board resolution right from beginning to end it it took unity in the resolution we expressed unity and it took Unity to create it and I just want to touch upon you know what these last couple of months have done to our students first they were in the house right but then you know they saw on social media on the news just injustice is happening across our country and it forced them to get out the house and the quote John Lewis get into good trouble I've seen it we've all seen it from in all parts of the county
298from russet um to Annapolis all the way down in Shady Side all the in tick neack Park in Pasadena they they've gotten in good trouble I just want to say it's funny you know this pandemic we need to stay apart so I mean physically we're coming to part we're coming together in our hearts and in our minds and I'm just glad that the students will see a unified Board and they'll finally know that their lives matter that black lives Manor so once again thank you thank you very much Mr Smith um without further Ado Miss money please call the rooll MIM hi Miss Anne hi Mr Li hi Miss Hummer hi Mr Smith hi Miss Ellis hi Miss cadile I motion passes 70 thank you very much Miss money um next item is um item
2996.0 7 Quarterfield Elementary School design and development review um and action and so um Dr alad Madame President thank you very much I recommend board approval of the corfield elementary school replacement design development okay second orever I'll take the so moved okay good than do I have a second second we have a motion and a second um I will just ask at this time I know that staff in Dr alato are available for questions um at this time uh so it does appear that we do have one or two questions um and Michelle Heim has her hand up up so miss scheim if you uh would like to answer or ask some question questions um for yes I'm kind of find to yes here we go all right so um of course I read this
300cover to cover um as you might expect that I would um and I I did notice again that we uh and was happy to see that it will be the building will be solar ready so my question is what will be the turning point when we'll finally embrace it to the point where we're installing it our our cost for kwh here in Maryland is pretty low uh but we pay north of $18 million a year for Power and Light um and many business models to install solar of course we know come at a zero outlay of of expenses um so we're not you know necessarily uh paying paying for it up front but it uh it'll pay dividends in the long run and um so I'm just wondering again why we're not moving forward with
301not just a solar ready building but but solar on this building I I get that it's probably in the realm of what six seven cents per Kwa share versus you know an LA maybe you know 13 12 13 cents um and so you know I I get that it's lower here but if um if energy conservation is a fundamental aspect of of Quarterfield as stated on page 36 and why aren't we pushing more for solar now Alex shaknovich chief operating officer my answer Remains the Same and uh with previous uh responses to the same question uh when the economics become such that it's more cost effective and favorable for us to go in that route then we will at the moment as you indicated our cost uh of economies of scale of procuring uh utilities
302and energy uh is more fair and fashion the cost uh benefits have clearly been closing by that I mean the Gap uh has been closing uh between the various sources of utilities we continue to monitor that um routinely and run those calculations pretty routinely that's why we're at the point now that it's within the foreseeable future that we may get past that Tipping Point and that's why the buildings are being made ready for that technology uh but the math simply doesn't work uh at the present so uh over time we've gone from the math clearly didn't make uh sense uh by a large extent and we weren't even willing to make the capital Investments using the taxpayer dollars to make the buildings ready now the gap is closed uh to the point that we can
303see that uh somewhere in the nearer term Horizon the meth will work for us and that's why it makes good prudent sense to put all the infrastructure in place to make the building ready for it and as soon as essentially those you know those lines cross and we get to the point where it's economically feasible and we're not costing the taxpayer we're actually saving the taxpayer then certainly we'll proceed with uh installing um the uh photo votes not just at this site um but at at all other sites that are either readed or can be made ready through future CIP initiatives thank you for your response to that again and I know that I'm a broken record on this um it just means uh it it means independence from having to pay out that money
304um in the future at some point and using it for other things um uh I do encourage you as always uh to to to meet with you know industry folks um I know that covid threw a ginormous wrench in in and some of that um over many months but you know um to continue to meet and be open-minded to that going forward and I'm very grateful as always to the team for putting um these plans together for us and especially with the tail within them so thank you for that thank you very much Mich allheim um any further I'm seeing no more questions or hands up at this time um from the board uh Miss money please call roll Miss shim hi Miss Anne hi Mr Li hi Miss Hummer hi Mr Smith hi Miss
305Ellis hi Miss cork I motion passes 70 thank you very much next item is 6.08 Hills Hills may Elementary School design development um likewise um Dr rato yes ma'am thank you very much I recommend board approval of the hillsmere elementary school replacement design development so move second motion and second thank you very much melheim um you have a quick question I believe yeah yeah a similar vein um not entirely the same um but I did notice I did notice that in the sustainability features of this uh what will be a very amazing school just like Quarterfield um that we weren't able to achieve lead silver right out of the gate and there was a list of different opportunities to to hit that Mark um and I I thought they I loved the presentation of that
306and I'm I'm sure you all will Avail yourselves of a lot of those opportunities um but what I did not see in that particular report is that that building would be and I'm referring to page 61 in the in the um document um but what I didn't see is that that building would be made solar ready and so my question is why and yeah just why again Alex shaknovich chief operating officer it it is in it will that was actually contained this is a shorter version of the full-blown document but as you may recall from wheny uh educational specifications and uh uh schematics earlier phases um so that is still uh in the cards and then again the design development or essentially the 50% level of effort so as to design continues to mature and
307you know we the design team continues to explore opportunities to gain more lead points Etc so we'll triangulate and on that clearly achieving the lead silver is something that uh that is you know at the Forefront that's one of our goals on each and every projects at a minimum so that is not something we will give up upon lately perfect and I I especially love seeing the demand response opportunities in there I think that's cool um so thank you again for all your hard work on me thank you very much melheim um just taking a look see see if we have any other movement of the board seeing none Miss money please call roll Miss shim hi Miss Anne hi Mr Li hi Miss Hummer hi MPI hi Miss hi Miss corkadel hi motion passes
30870 Miss corkadel not not to interrupt but can I take a moment of personal privilege yes you may sir I simply wanted to acknowledge the good hard work of um Miss Lisa steaman Crawford our director of facilities Mr Kyle rof uh who were available here as well Kyle rof is our supervisor of uh construction and it's they and their teams although you're seeing my face today it's they their teams that are toiling tirelessly uh into efforts and uh Miss shohim while I was stalling temporarily I I looked up on page 29 of your hillsmere report it does talk about the uh structural loading capacity to uh support that so later you can look at page 29 to to satisfy that question but thank you Miss corkadel for that moment of personal privilege thank you I
309I missed it thank you so much thanks to the team thank you very much Alex and I know that they're on site on our on our construction sites and kneed deep in making sure that our our our projects are going um as continue to go well because I know that that they're in very good hands and our construction and project management is it's like none other um and so thank you so much for your leadership sir um got a great team there happy to allow um moments of opportunity like that anytime Alex um so um moving along um to our next item is um item 6.09 van bachan Elementary School the deed of public utility easement Dr alad yes ma'am thank you I recommend board approval of the van bachan Elementary School deed of of
310public utility easement so moved second great and um it does appear that we do have um some questions and comments um now that we have a motion and a second Miss Antoine good thank you president corkadel and U Mr shaknovich thank you very much for your guidance on this one with me and helping me to better understand um the purpose of the deed and and the forward movement um my question actually is is related but not quite it concerns the uh inter generational Center that's gr up at van bachin I I wanted to understand I understood um previously that that that this deed does not necessarily align at all or any fear with that um forward movement is there any idea um when we will be able to as the board be able to uh
311review the information for the igc sure it's Alex Shak Chief Operating Officer uh we hope that shortly I know that we we've had uh numerous meetings about the project in fact we've been meeting about the project dating back to almost 2011 if I if I remember correctly uh and I think there's a a meeting coming up shortly with the county executive and others to finaly some of those details so we hope to be able to have a recommendation from the superintendent and have all the uh attachments and Exhibits pulled together such the the board can get a full briefing and be placed in a uh knowledgeable position such that they can take action Upon A a request that we understand will be forthcoming from the county Executives office wonderful thank you very much thank you
312Miss Antoine do we have any other questions uh relevant to our item I'm not seeing any further movement of the board um at this time Miss money please call roll Miss charine hi Miss Anne I Mr Li I miss Hummer I Mr Smith I Miss Ellis I miss corkadel I motion passes 70 thank you so very much item 6.10 North County High School storm water management inspection and maintenance agreement Dr Arad yes ma'am thank you again I recommend board approval of the North County High School storm water management inspection and maintenance agreement so moved second thank you we have a motion and a second do we have any questions um Miss Anne um Mr sh noov this question um pertains to my understanding that this particular area at North County needed um needed Outsource support
313that we we're just not equipped within the system to to do this work is is that the correct understanding so uh we have always again as Alex shno chief operating officer pardon me uh so the uh construction of storm water and management uh we have always outsourced to a professional firms uh that do that type of work and then the uh certification and maintenance of those structures also needs to be uh performed by firms that have the capacity and the uh and the authority to perform that kind of work and certify that work so uh when it is more effective uh for us to Outsource things when we know we don't have the capacity inhouse to perform things and it's not cost effective for us to do such uh we would Outsource that so that's
314what we do in terms of both both the construction and typical maintenance if it requires small odds and end maintenance clearly we do that you know if somebody wants to damage def fence clearly we we fix that uh but for the bigger elements of storm water management because it is such a highly regulated area uh we typically Outsource that function thank you and that's in conjunction with um with with the county as well this work would be in conjunction with the county so uh yes uh there's actually two different items uh so this one specifically uh is dealing with the construction of a storm water management uh quality and quantity facility at North County and allows anaro County to routinely in come on our property and inspect that storm Water Management Facility to make sure
315that it uh was initially constructed and then continues to be maintained in a manner that comports with the county code so that's what this item is later on today uh in your meeting agenda will be another item uh that will have an award of contract element uh for an Outsource firm uh that specializes in that type of activity and that is a partnership with uh the County government as well oh excellent thank you for making that clear that's all I have thank you thank you Miss Antoine any other comments aboard please raise your hand or holler um okay seeing none Miss money please miss shim hi Miss Anne I Mr Li hi Miss Hummer hi Mr Smith I Miss Ellis hi Miss corkadel I motion passes 70 thank you so very much next item is
31666 11 Goan Farms preservation Society Inc for Goan Farm property lease addendum and uh for that uh Dr Arad thank you madam president I recommend board approval of the leis adendum for the Goan Farm preservation Society Incorporated for the Goan Farm property so moved second okay we have a motion in a second um do we have any questions or comments of board members yes michelan I just wanted to say how grateful I am uh for the ongoing um relationship between the school system and the preservation Society to benefit our community and our students it's a just a treasure of a property and uh and I'm very happy to be a and solid eye on this one yes thank you okay I see Miss Ellis's hand is also up a virtual hand that is Miss Ellis
317thank you I yeah I just have to briefly Echo what Miss scheim said having had the opportunity to um to visit that um location um it's it really is a gem and um I'm really glad for this opportunity for our students and this partnership um to keep this going thank you okay and it looks like final comments from Miss Antoine Miss anine thank you president codel I I Echo what melheim and Miss Ellis have shared we were out there to visit Goan farms and we learned about not only the beauty of the form the upkeep and the scientific efforts out there but the history that has been been preserved for years um to in include uh often over overlooked black history so thank you for this and I definitely support this addendum excellent thank you
318so very much I'm not seeing any further motion or comments uh requests coming in from Members so without further Ado Miss money please uh call roll you're you're muted Miss shim a good day hi Miss Anne hi Mr Li hi Miss Hummer hi Mr Smith hi Miss Ellis hi Miss corkadel I motion passes 70 thank you so very much item seven is reserved for review items and item 7.01 Award of contracts Dr Arad yes ma'am you have the contracts before you we're glad to answer any questions okay any questions of members Miss Hummer I see her hand raised um okay yes yes yes hold on I'm looking at my let can see which n oh I don't have it in front of me hold on um Mr shaknovich one of the contracts is for um
319tent rental for the key school um which is not one of our schools um am I correct in that under the federal cares act the money that received for covid a portion of that car's money goes to private schools but we as the public schools have to manage that those purchases for the private schools am I correct in saying that that's what that contract is for yes ma'am uh Alex Shak Chief Operating Officer so the term and conditions of the Federal grant because they are public Monies uh stipulates that albeit those public monies are being dispensed to nonprofit and private schools uh the public procurement Provisions have to be adhered to and additionally that the uh School District laa and ronal County public schools in this case uh must serve as the procurement agent for
320the uh for any procurement activities that the nonprofit or parochial school would Undertake and then we are requ to uh gather all that information and have it subject for inspection and audit and Reporting uh to the state and ultimately to the federal government so that contract is not using any of aacps money to purchase something for a nonpublic school um and it's actually just kind of some bureaucracy that was added to the cares act that we have to follow to adhere to correct that's absolutely correct ma'am the the monies are a portion to the non-public or the private schools we are simply their transactional agent in the purchasing Arena uh but they are federal funds that uh pass through the state pass through anal County Public Schools um by federal requirement and are provided to
321the nonprofit and public uh private schools right thank you okay seeing no further comments um I'm going to do something a little surpr RIS unlike normal and I know we had a lot um of information concerning uh the status of our schools our Readiness for the fall and um extensive comments and I just wanted to provide our superintendent Dr alato although I did not uh suggest to him prior my apologies if there was any final remarks in reflection or any summaries or um emphasis that you would like uh for the benefit of the board or the public um as as we conclude our meeting this afternoon yes ma'am thank you or be it for me to decline an opportunity to speak in public um so uh I thank you um I am very appreciative of
322the board's questions um uh throughout this process today and prior I'm very appreciative of the board's continued support of this amazing staff um it has been quite a heavy lift it will continue to be a heavy lift um but at the same time we don't do it alone um this is a staff that works incredibly hard but incredibly well together um um and that's important to us as a team um the support uh the overwhelming support of our parents and students likewise in the community they recognize the difficulty um of of what it t of what it means to have a school system to Pivot from from face face tof face learning to online learning and they have been incredibly receptive and patient and resilient um and I know that that will continue into the
323future the bumps are not over in the road we will see more um but we're going to be great we already are great um and uh I have complete um faith in um and uh of this team and of this community that we're going to continue to support the bottom line is we'll continue to support our student I'm very proud of that um U and so we are honored to do the work and I know that um we're going to have a fabulous school year um it's not again the opening that we all anticipated or wanted or have uh uh had in the past but it is one of those life experiences that we'll learn and grow from uh and we'll talk about uh in 20 years so um again honor to do the work
324I'm very proud of this team um uh and all their hard work and there's still a lot of hard work to come so again where I began is where I'll end is I very much appreciate this board's continued support uh and recognition of the work of this team so thank you thank you very much sir and um I do have one little technical thing that I want to make sure gets addressed and I apologize for my Omission um during item um during during item 6.06 um my understanding is we did receive um some public comments and so I wanted to make sure miss money reports on the public comments that were very critical in the board's decision in item 6.06 there were three comments thank you so very much and all of those comments of
325course are posted uh with uh accepting um Provisions as set forth on that web page and so um we're about ready to Endeavor into a new school year so if the board members can keep it to a 30- second or less I'm happy to go around um I'm sure that they want to wish um lots of luck for our students and our teachers as as we hit this endeavor so miss scheim well first I want to again um thank Dr alot and his team uh for the very hard work um since this pandemic uh Came Upon Us and throughout the entire summer preparing for this moment uh to embark on this upcoming academic uh school year I um I'm really grateful for that I know our students are too um I I speak to the
326parents out there um a lot of hard work went into this plan with a lot of collaboration from the community um give it a shot give it a fair shot be brave we're are going to be brave and um the more we show a positive um uh spin on this and a and and go into this with um a a a good attitude as we all should have in school anyway then our children will in turn see that and and and embrace it more and so um I I just wanted to state that our students you got this you're all way more techsavvy than I am and probably the rest of the board so um so go for and uh and uh and have an amazing beginning of the school year yeah thanks so much
327thank you Miss shim Miss Antoine thank you president codel and thank you Miss shim for that encouragement as well that's what I was going to say so I'll say something differently um I want to encourage all of you to continue as you have been even in the m of this pandemic all of you have been extremely strong and extremely focused on the importance of Education despite any obstacles or or any lack of tools or otherwise I ask that you guys as we did and we showed today support our school system support Dr Lotto support his his leadership and support those in our school system that make his leadership possible education is critical and it will take all of us to ensure that our students are successful thank you thank you very much Miss Antoine Mr
328Li any uh words of encouragement for our our incoming I have no further comment other than what I've already said thank you Miss hmer yeah here's to a great school year Mr Smith I guess um first to the teachers you know thank you for like all your dedication and support on the spring you made the best out of a terrible situation but now you can make the best out of a better situation and to my students my fellow peers it's going to be hard you're gonna get frustrated you're gonna get weary I can't lie to you and say it's going to be all know sunshines and rainbows but I can tell you that when you do fall down there's going to be someone right there or even a group of people to pick you right
329back up so just keep on pushing and we shall overcome thank you sir Miss Ellis thank you um I'm very excited for a new school year as different as it is um I want to Pigg you back off uh Miss shaheim and Mr Smith in the importance of of being positive this is not what online learning was in the spring you got to erase that from your memories at this point and realize that this is um every bit as important as the work you do in the classroom um and so to please um be enthusiastic both parents and students um and um but ask for help if you need it I know that your teachers your guidance counselors your principles all want each and every one of you to succeed so um please reach out
330for help uh when you do need it and um and finally I know that um you know this time of year we we all even I think back to my childhood those feelings we have at the end of the summer um you get kind of uh I don't know giddy Goosebumps thinking about the start of a new school year here um and so this is very different but um I know our teachers are itching to get back into the classroom with their students um so I'm appreciative of the hard work that uh Dr arato and Dr K are doing to move us in that direction um so just stay positive everyone thank you Miss Ellis I'm GNA be very brief we've got this hash all in this together thank you all so very much um
331our next meeting is going to be on uh on Wednesday September the 16th with the public starting um at 10 a.m. and uh just a special note that prior to that on Thursday September the 10th we at 6: PM we will be having a virtual board Workshop as we always do this time of the year on our capital on the 2022 fiscal year 2022 if you can believe it capital Improvement program and capital budget um the public will not um the board will not be accepting public testimony during um or resulting from this Workshop um but uh members of the public are uh invited to listen in and observe the workshop thank you all very much once again Dr alato you and your team Remain the rock stars in our universe uh on this re
332reopening and please share that sentiment to all thank you all so very much and thank you to the members this concludes our meeting do we need to move to adjourn or are we good uh motion to adjourn is yeah is do we have [Music] oh