001unit school district 308 public forum can i have a roll call please mr bauman here mrs doyle here mrs croner here mr lightfoot present miss morgan here mrs moyer here mrs swanson here please rise for the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all we'll move first with item 2.1 public comment on behalf of the board of education i would like to thank the public for attending tonight's meeting we value the feedback we receive from our residents and encourage everyone to take an active interest in their public school system individuals interested in speaking to the board this evening are asked to have completed a comment card and presented it
002to the secretary to the board there are two opportunities for members of the public to engage with the board of education this evening the first will be during this public comment which is similar to the public comment portion of every regular school board meeting where board members do not respond to the comments made by members of the public the second opportunity will be during the public forum at which time members of the board of education will respond to your questions if you have signed up to speak during public comment when the secretary calls your name i ask that you come to the microphone state your name for the public record and provide your feedback please note that comments will be limited to three minutes per person and i think for a maximum of 60 minutes
003no discussion of personnel matters including names or specific job titles or responses to questions are permitted we will alternate comments submitted in person and by email if we do not get to your public comment within the time allotted you are invited to share your comment in writing for the school board to read after the meeting thank you first one is the email audrey stoupel i am a mother of two elementary students and a nurse upon hearing the proposed phase 3 plans for our district i am very disheartened and appalled at the lack of care for our children's education in the district keeping this same elementary half day school plan and even to add another morning of in-school instruction on wednesdays is not enough there is no reason to keep these children home as all of
004the school district staff members that want to be vaccinated have been therefore it is not a safety concern for the teachers and staff having these children in school for a full day secondly there has not been a spike in child to child cases since reopening and in fact a decrease in the number of coveted cases wide as a nurse i am not worried about my children getting covered by going to school as they mask wash hands and socially distance as recommended and able to if parents are concerned for their children's possible covet exposure from attending they can choose the remote by choice learning option however as you have seen in rolling out the phase two plan almost 70 percent of parents want their children in the classroom that does not mean part-time it is a
005clear sign that the parents of this district want their children in school all day it is embarrassing and disappointing to have our children have less than three hours of instruction per day then one to two specials in the afternoon with very little class work for home we have done our part the teachers have done theirs now it is your turn to do what is right these children deserve this there is no health reason to keep these children home for half of the day many districts surrounding us and across the state are full day with lunch and they have not had worrisome issues as they are in elementary school they already have their desks spaced out and can eat in the classroom if it is a larger class and cannot keep six feet distance between the
006desks then utilize the multi-purpose rooms or cafeteria to space those children out so figure it out is it possible and needs to be done as for the remote by choice children it is their choice to be home and no longer a code risk to be at school therefore if they need to have a change in teachers or add a remote by choice only teacher to finish the year then that needs to be done or figured out and not have the rest of the sixty to seventy percent of children suffer because as you stated previously for phase two rollout you don't want children to switch teachers from who they started the year with that is a ridiculous excuse and these children are resilient and the plan and schedule has changed already so many times this year
007they will recover what will be more difficult to recover is the learning loss occurring what will be worse if having the majority of children behind because you are not willing to figure it out because you don't want to spend the money to get these kids back in the classroom full-time we are all ready as you can see by the parents surveys of choosing in-school instruction so i am pleading to amend the phase three to add time for elementary school as well and allow the parents to choose from there what is also disappointing is you don't want to spend the money and resources now but you are willing to plan an entire school curriculum for summer school with federal funds for those students affected by pandemic learning laws so you would use five hundred thousand dollars
008for summer school through a grant but won't help prevent learning loss by bringing children back full time as a taxpayer in one of the highest tax zip codes in the state i am so disheartened by your lack of care to get these children the education they need and deserve as a mother i am sad i have to supplement their education for what the district is lacking due to limited time for instruction thankfully their teachers are great in the short time they have with them i cannot imagine how junior high and high school parents feel learning advanced concepts remotely and or in 30-minute increments at the high school level as a health care worker i am frustrated that you as a board are looking at the evidence and trusting the science with the vaccine when you
009see test scores plummet next year children way behind and outreach teachers and parents you would have wished you sent them back sooner again we have all done our part you do yours sincerely audrey stoppel michelle klein hi while there are many children doing fantastic there are also many children in our district that are struggling with remote learning including mine imagine coming out of a two week long mental health hospital stay a few days before the pandemic lockdown started last month no visitors because of covet newly put on meds and regulating meds learning new ways to manage and just normal social life skills in normal school and then bam that is my eighth grade son he is currently failing five classes again this semester he is that black screen to his teachers my youngest daughter is
010in second grade in the 2019 2020 school year i was witnessing her finally thriving and slowly watched that deteriorate through online learning she struggles with doing assignments on the computer so she is constantly shutting down losing interest and motivation i am thankful that we have phase 2 option with more days i am now seeing her reading and proofing at least she almost became just another black screen early data from a landmark national institute of health nih study that began in 2018 indicates that children who spent more than two hours a day on screentime activities scored lower and lower on language and thinking tests and some children with more than seven hours a day of screen time experience thinning of the brain's cortex in the area of the brain related to critical thinking and reasoning there
011are epileptic children in our district having increased seizures during class due to all the screen time seizures can cause death and we're all well aware of that while i understand that even though the teachers are doing their best and constantly trying to create an engaging and interactive learning environment there's a lack of social interaction and in-person connection i'm lucky enough that i am able to stay home i can only imagine the struggle of others that are not as fortunate we know many have even had to withdraw from the district to make it work so they can still pay the bills it's damaging to an already struggling relationship between parents and children it's heartbreaking to watch your child children become a show of who they once were the fact that school has been closed for almost
012a year with no plan in place to reopen is a huge huge concern there needs to be a common ground where those that want to stay with remote learning should but those children that are failing falling behind the black screen kids can physically attend school where they will be able to once again excel these children are struggling and slipping through the cracks and deserve a better option with some more out of the box thinking and support from our district leaders parents teachers and even students i know there are better choices to be made for all who are struggling thank you for giving my family a platform to have a voice carrie doran gotti is the next email and crystal casper is the next in person that could go to the microphone i have done a
013significant amount of research from back in october where the board discussed the metrics for the phase plan i am questioning how we as a district can be so far away from the path you all laid out back then our rolling average is currently four point seven two percent with which actually from your phase metrics gets us to phase four our district continues to fall on the easily accessible cobit excuses to hide the actual reason for keeping our children behind almost every other district in the state in quotes mismanagement of financial responsibilities we as a district are supposed to be the advocates for our children the metrics that were set by the board are only useful if they are executed on we have now offered vaccinations for every teacher in our district for the safety of
014staff and students there is a reason the state decided to prioritize the teachers that reason was to get our children back into the buildings how do you warrant the lack of progression how do you warrant offering 10 hours of in-person instruction as enough when your entire district has been offered vaccinations how do you warrant keeping a two day a week schedule when you when your dashboard clearly shows a .002 percent covet positivity rate how do you warrant any of this we are in no way championing championing the fight for our children and their educational and emotional growth i am disheartened and alarmed at the lack of actionable passion to get our children back in the buildings as a district your financial problems are coming at the cost of educational development pull up your documents you
015made to support and defend your actions and plans back in october and explain how anyone on the board cannot approve five days a week instruction there is no information or data that warrants or defends the lack of in-person time we are currently at the documents are hidden so far into the notes i'm sure it can be hard to find however as a parent that is concerned about the support that our children are seeing from the district i had to take the time to dig to find it after i did find the documents it just validated that the board is not following the phases that were set up poor planning and financial issues are at the root of the decision making and that is an injustice to each and every child as well as parent in
016this district i would love to hear someone explain and defend a different rationale for the lack of in-person time i truly hope that a vote can be decided on that support the children and the evident needs of an in-person time thank you for your time and consideration terry strickland hi my name is crystal casper i'm the parent of a child the freshman at oswego east and i am here for five days a week in person um this is mostly aimed at for faith dolphus and the admin not really the board but so during the last board meeting on february 22nd admin recommended plan b for high school which is two full days and includes eating at school only sixty percent on average are doing in person so this decreases the population of the school and
017should allow for more kids in person some classes right now have only a handful of kids my son has he is the only child in his class that is a waste of teachers time just it's a complete waste under the current plan high school kids are in a study room for their lunch period if plan b is approved they'll be eating lunch at school why can't they just eat in these rooms they can bring their sack lunch and there's no need for you to open the cafeteria and then here's a couple little statistics for you the who and the american academy of pediatrics along with many other medical professionals have changed their stance to say that three feet is safe so why can't we combine a and b and allow more in person as of
018february 25th 2.5 million vaccines have been administered in illinois that's one in 20. the positivity rate of the whole state of illinois is 2.06 cases have been declining and holding stable now our teachers have been received have received the vaccinations as well why wasn't the initial plan set so we can move smoothly into full time while still offering remote this should have been in place at the beginning of the school year it's almost as if no one expected we would ever go back to school in the 2021 school year now that there are so many people coming forward wanting more in person the admin is scrambling to make this happen school district 308 is failing our community i respectfully ask that you bring our kids back into school five days a week no more excuses
019hey can i also respectfully ask that when you guys come up to the mic because you have other people coming up behind you you keep your masks up over your nose thank so that is their third comment on five days a week all other comments regarding five days a week will get moved to after we've gone through the other topics and the intention is to be able to cover each of them the next one is plank from the staff at plank junior high and the next person on the microphone will be dominic castillo not yet in just a second on behalf of plank junior high school teaching staff we have concerns regarding recommended phase three plans of reopening in addition to the pros and cons presented by the district to the board and the lack
020of them generated versus actually shared that made it sound like teacher support option b we request that our staff expertise and perspective be considered in planning for phase three we are asking that we stay the course with the phase 2 school day schedule and only alter within that current structure the repeated changes to schedules are placing more stress on students families and teachers not to mention other departments in the district by having them make constant changes to their delivery and other staff are continuing to reconfigure their services while all parties involved are doing an exceptional job meeting the constant new demands this does not mean it isn't impacting their physical mental and emotional health teachers are experiencing an unprecedented level of burnout and while some are fine many are struggling if the adults teaching the
021kids are struggling how can we properly ensure that the kids are thriving in addition many students are currently struggling with an extensive amount of screen time and the thought of potentially extending that screen time as proposed in phase three is not advisable we do not support schedule options that extend screen time for students we do not support students taking their masks off for eating lunch throughout the building and in classrooms we do not support making more drastic changes to the current schedule especially changes that eliminate student support time we would like the following considerations to be reviewed remain in our current schedule of being in school from 805 to 105 with student support time until three o'clock monday tuesday thursday friday with wednesday being a remote go live day we strongly recommend keeping student support
022time this has been a critical component to the success of many students phase three options that omit student support time are not supported by plink teachers finally we put forward the option for building administrators to have the autonomy to increase days for special populations for example 504 iep sel and struggling learners on a case-by-case basis these students could attend four days a week instead of just two days if it better meets their learning needs this could increase the student's contact time with staff and any related services they may need in order to be successful we appreciate the district and the board of education wanting to continue to offer new options to the community but we respectfully ask that you take this request seriously and into consideration we want to teach students in a matter that
023needs students needs in a safe environment for all parties involved we do not support students when we removing masks for any period of time with the updated cdc guidelines being released and supporting keeping students and cohorts when possible social distancing being a priority and wearing masks at all times we feel the refinement of phase two as opposed to a complete change to a new phase three better meets these updated guidelines we request the focus on making changes shift please keep us in our current school schedule and start planning instead for next year thank you for your consideration plank junior high staff if you're coming up to speak public comment and your topic is regarding five days the week i'll ask that you pass until we receive three comments on each topic so dominique would you
024like to be moved okay good evening i'm elizabeth palatine the co-president of the oswego education association tonight the board of education has yet another decision to make about in-person learning for a year now the important decisions that have been made have been difficult and individual viewpoints have only expanded the common thread is that everyone wants what they feel is best for our students their education and our communities teachers are happy to be back in person and the joy of seeing our students in the classroom has been wonderful teachers want nothing more than to safely return to in-person learning for everyone teachers support the essential actions to help keep schools open including the consistent implementation of universal mass squaring physical distancing hand washing keeping our facilities clean and contact tracing following these measures consistently along with
025proper student schedules will help keep our students and staff safe while also helping keep our buildings open remote learning is an option for families and teachers want to ensure that all students groups a b c and d get equal educational opportunities not every family can or will send their students back for in-person learning due to personal circumstances or safety concerns it is of greatest importance that those students who are remote be considered when making planning decisions to ensure that they get the same learning opportunities as their in-person peers being able to interact and not just stream burning out through zoom fatigue and having opportunities during the day for small group student support are just a few of these important considerations there are going to be benefits and drawbacks to any plan that is being considered
026in this difficult environment but we trust that you will carefully consider the best option for all students when you take your vote tonight each student deserves to be in the safest learning environment possible and have an equal opportunity to a quality education thank you nicky rivera hello 308 board of education i have two high school kids these students need consistency and to be in school it's essential research shows schools are not a main spread currently the percentage of coveted positivity is low some schools have been in school full time with no major spread and doing well with precautions also many teachers have gotten the vaccine which should help support the cause to be back in school more often i support phase 3 plan a kids need consistency not more screen time my kid has adhd
027504 plan and the other one is on an iep remote learning is not a good option for them phase three plans are terrible options but going at least four days a week is more consistent than two days spread apart by six days and in plan b that is just too much screen time for general kids let alone kids that have adhd and iep issues also these plans don't allow 504 and iep resource kids to be in school more which is wrong this is why there are accommodations and this should be an exception kids are having more mental issues anxiety and depression this is also a health crisis as well and should be taken in consideration and a reason to get kids back in person at school more often teachers are essential workers just like me
028as a healthcare worker i treat covet patients and stay safe teachers and students can be safe and the state guidelines have given you more room to allow this let's get back to the business of better education for our kids because we can do it and stay safe we need to try kids need to be the top priority now and families need to do what is best for them i will sign a waiver you need to give parents the choice we have one more for plan a second that was okay tim casper okay thomas leninga my name is tom nangate i have three children one's already gone through the system here and actually was the first kid to go to this school when it opened i now have a sophomore at oswego and i have a
029fifth grader at lakewood creek and i am going to apologize before i go on any further if i get emotional because mental health of our kids is a real thing and they are suffering right now with staying at home and trying to do chemistry from their screen yes my daughter is one of those black screens yes my daughter had to have a doctor call into the school to make sure she could turn her camera off because the anxiety she feels by sitting there and feeling stupid last year she was in high honors all a's in including honors classes this year she's got f's she's got d's it's horrible my 11 year old is the most social kid in the world i've seen him gain 15 to 20 pounds this year and all he does is
030stay in his room all day long these kids need to be back in school and as far as covet is concerned our pediatrician says that if any of the adults in our family get coveted expose our kids because this will not harm them get it out of the way so the it's just i'm sorry i'm upset but living has become a real hell in our household with my two kids suffering through what they're going through right [Applause] now march greece this is the next email chief march greece john biller is another one for secondary a oh i have more traced but it's labeled seven you had one before though but it's on the same my son is a senior and my daughter is a freshman at ohs currently doing hybrid school i ask the board
031votes for the plan a that was discussed which would increase in-school learning and therefore decrease remote learning the plan b option only means that children will be in their bedrooms on their computers for even more hours and will indicate that this board has made no meaningful accomplishment for the entire year listening to the recent meeting i was glad to hear one board member state that the goal should be for all students to be at school five days per week and plan a at least makes an attempt at this on the other hand it was disturbing to hear one board member from last month's meeting believed that the school should remain closed through the end of the year since this board made the decision to keep our schools closed to in-person learning all the first semester
032they should be interested in discovering the negative impacts on thousands of school-aged children in oswego i am asking for a response from the superintendent or any board member if data has been requested from the oswego police department or from the kendall county health department before making any decision to keep children at home for more hours the board needs to present real numbers on cases of child neglect criminal activity drug alcohol abuse mental illness and suicide attempts as compared to 2019 during last month's meeting at least one board member found that it was funny that young children are not learning how to tie their shoes how funny is it for teenagers to be started on antidepressants and anti-anxiety medications due to your decisions the board mentions 16 cases of coronavirus among school-aged children therefore the board
033needs to share data on the severity of these cases were these children hospitalized or were they all asymptomatic or with mild illness what were the ages and what number of these children were doing hybrid versus remote only school the board should finally acknowledge that this virus has almost no significant effect on children and feel free to ask why this is so instead your decision has been to isolate 18 000 children in their bedrooms in order to prevent illness that is similar to a common cold know that the parents who decided to send their children to school last month have already accepted this minimal risk and then you need to assume that every one of these parents wants their child to be at school every single day but for now plan a will have to be
034good enough john paul daler jason messenko's top remote learning attendance good evening everybody i appreciate the chance to speak tonight my name is jason macenko thanks for all the hard work that you guys have done i know that this has been a tremendously difficult situation but to get on with my point on the eve of thanksgiving there was a email sent out to the districts and in that email it quoted the great and late john lewis the civil rights icon and i believe the quote from that email was when you don't see something right you got to stand up hashtag log off hashtag sit in my son is in kindergarten and he received two letters of truancy because i refused to log him on wednesdays because attendance for that day was answer the question of
035the day poof you're all set i refuse to be that button pusher i'm not going to lie and be a liar about attendance when i got the second letter of truancy i made some phone calls and my wife made some phone calls too and the fifth day of in-person learning was added to my son's schedule within 36 hours my wife and i can't help but believe that we were a part of that so i've been racking my brain for months after reading about john lewis and how he would like to do old-fashioned sit-ins and so what i'm proposing tonight is that if you truly believe that remote learning is no good log your children off on wednesdays please do not participate in this anymore do not call your children an absent but don't skip out
036on your child's education and i'm not virtual signaling do what you've already been doing just don't log in attendance matters to the school district and we must have some currency to make leverage to get our children back in school for full day education now it's march greece dear sd 308 board members i am writing you to ask you to strongly consider voting in support to support plan b for the high school students as we move into phase three of learning this school year the administration has presented you with two plans that will get us to the end of an academic year that has been full of many challenges for all of us as you have moved from phase to phase in an attempt to slowly get our students back into the school setting one thing
037has unfortunately been true for the high school students each phase has slowly taken away instructional minutes from each and every one of their individual classes per day while the addition of a fifth live day of instruction during this current phase has given our students the most amount of time in their classes per week since the beginning of the school year a transition to plan b to finish out the school year would finally allow our students to receive a full day's worth of instructional time each day and receive the most amount of time in each of their individual classes that they have received to date when school started this year students received 40 minutes per class four times a week when school moved to the first hybrid plan they then had classes reduced to 35 minutes
038per class four times a week while phase two reduced class times down to even further to 33 minutes per class live sessions were increased to five times a week thereby increasing individual instruction time per class to 165 minutes a week for an academic year record implementing plan b and going with a full day schedule would allow students to receive 45 minutes per class five times a week for a total of 225 minutes of instructional time per week a move to plan b would give our students a whole 60 minutes more class time in each and every one of their subjects to have more time to learn and bridge the gaps on things that might have been missing during the entire first semester when instructional time was weighed down in times when parents had concerns about
039their children failing and being left behind due to the craziness of this year plan b provides a way to make up some of the educational time that has sorely been missing additionally plan b allows the district to continue to follow the successful hybrid plan that has been working since phase two for high school students began to date there have not been any cobia 19 outbreaks at the high school and no reason to shut down the schools one can only assume that this is due to the proper use of masking and social distancing in the schools in their most recent recommendation for the safe reopening of schools dated february 11 2021 the cdc was still saying proper social distancing is a must given the success the district has had in doing so plan b is the
040only plan that provides for the continuation of such social distancing for all the reasons stated above i would ask you all to strongly consider voting for plan b for all high school students for phase three of school reopening this plan has already demonstrated that it can safely be implemented by the district and it will allow our students access to very much needed additional instructional minutes for the remainder of the year this is something that will help all students bridge the gap as we transition into next year and help make up critical learning time that was missing during the first semester of this year care of baits about safety in the school setting is this regarding five days a week okay then we'll put it to until we've had a chance to go through the rest
041that's all i have left i have they're all one more email for plan a hi i'm gwen daylor a freshman at ohs and i have a few concerns for the way that phase three is going to play out this is my first year of high school and along with that my brother is in his last year of high school our school years have been ruined entirely and i know you're all aware of this but i do not think you understand how much we need school not just to learn the friendships and interactions we make at school are so important for our overall success in life that has already been taken away for us for so long things have to become normal at some point and it is really disappointing that people love to advocate for
042us are not pushing for having groups a and b together four days a week i understand that there are health concerns because of the amount of people and how crowded it may be if students or parents do not feel comfortable then they can choose to stay home ask any high school student and most will say that they miss normal school doing option a is the most normal we can get right now at this point we will take anything my giant classrooms are now filled with 10 people at max my smallest class is four how is that a good learning environment i might as well stay home it's not just a struggle for the students the teachers have it just as hard it hurts to see the best teachers struggle because they have to teach half
043online half in school basically they are teaching two classes at one time they are trying their best always but if the first option was in place it would be much easier even some of my own teachers have said to students that being closer to normal would be nicer than what is in place currently mental health of the students should be the main focus in the past school was already one of the main sources of student stress but now it is even worse sitting in one's room every day doing the same thing becomes mentally draining going to school even for the smallest two days a week is better it could be so much better according to research done by south university they found that individuals who participated in social or community activities were more likely to
044report good or very good health the positive interactions at school are so necessary and this year proves that all students are done trying to learn part on screen and part in person having more in-person time will benefit all especially those with rough home situations i think those are the students that need in person the most getting away from a toxic or sometimes abusive environment is the best thing a kid can do even if it is just for five hours a day four days a week school is a safe place for so many people and it has been pretty much gone for way too long please make the right decision for the students even though it is a hard one and choose plan a and just realize your decision is affecting people way more than you
045know i'm going to keep going dominic castillo yeah so the last ones are all regarding five days from what i understand yes hello my name is dominique castillo i'm a mom of two three year old and 10 year old who my 10 year old attends used to attend this district until i removed her from the school district this year i'm a local small business owner and i've lived here since 1989. i am a 308 alumni i've been through this district from k through 12. i want to talk really quick about burnout as that was mentioned as it touches on my personal life i withdrew my daughter from the district making a stressful choice to figure out how to manage running and working full-time in my business and homeschooling my daughter because e-learning did not work
046for us last year the hybrid schedule forces many without flexible work schedules to choose remote only purely because the schedule conflicts with their work hours we do not have the luxury to work from home many in-person working families are frustrated by this a school is meant to be open with interactions with teachers and friends it's part of the process i am burning my wick at both ends i am my daughter can i ask you to please pull up your mask if she pulls hers below her chin and y'all stop taking drinks it all makes sense as a board who is supposed to work for the parents and students first i sincerely hope you start to consider this part of the equation as it's been completely neglected up until this point taking this stance is controversial
047i understand i've taken quite the beating from those who choose fear over reason and my business has even been threatened many of our teachers can't speak up due to backlash i'm not asking you to do something easy i'm very aware of that for the kids who need full in person you're leaving them out hybrid's not a solution and you know the solution so i suggest whoever has a driving hand in this mess because the can keeps getting kicked back and forth start reaching out to districts who are doing it and doing it better no single parent should have to choose between physically going to work or going on unemployment because they have to stay home with their child yes that's currently going on i'm going to ask you again to re turn your mask over
048your nose and mouth please this is currently going on for parents who have to choose remote only due to their work schedules who have to choose something that doesn't necessarily work for their child that's also currently going on my daughter will not be returning until she can benefit from school which is five full days your enrollment is already down and if a packed plant plane full of people can eat on that plane our kids can return to school and eat lunch we can do better you are out of time and we're done hearing excuses why we can't go back thank you [Applause] again a reminder that in the school buildings we require masks to be over nose and mouth this is part of the illinois state board of education requirements for school buildings you guys
049are talking while she was up there you're whispering to each other i'm going to ask to call to order please the next speaker karen shoreback we are writing you today is invested sd 308 parents and members of the medical community a pediatrician and an emergency medicine physician we hope you will give careful consideration to our argument for full in-person learning especially given our expertise in understanding infection prevention evaluating science of the pandemic and our professional experiences included at the end of this email is also a link to an excellent article that more eloquently restates our argument after reviewing your priorities for learning options in the pros cons of expanding in-person instruction in april we were sadly disappointed to see that there were no points regarding the quality of education surely we can all agree that
050the best way to provide an excellent learning environment and quality education is to have all the students in person minimizing health risks for students and staff is already occurring as evidenced by decreasing rates of local infection and increased vaccine distribution targeting the most vulnerable population and including the district teachers and staff most importantly the rates of transmission in schools have been found to be exceedingly low see the cdc link at the end of the letter these studies were actually pre-vaccine and when less people had acquired partial immunity from natural infection the recommendation made to keep the elementary schedule the same for the rest of the year is unacceptable they are the youngest and least vulnerable with respect to covet infection while also being the least likely to transmit infection and are likely the most negatively
051impacted by remote learning as evidenced by numerous surveys of parents and teachers the recommendation to change the junior high high school to a seven hour day is also poor increasing their remote instruction by two hours per day on the days they stay home is not helpful for them even worse for the kids that are full remote as their screen time increases from 20 to 30 hours a week older children should be in person five days as well and if lunch is too much of a challenge at least they could have five hour days five out days a week school sports have recently restarted so if kids can play a basketball game and get very close to others during a game then children even 30 or more can sit in a classroom three to six feet
052apart with masks and have a full normal school day we can no longer use health and safety concerns as an excuse to refrain from full in-person learning alternatively there are numerous health and safety concerns that children are at risk for if they are further forced into unnecessary time at home these include but are not limited to obesity technology addiction poor socialization depression anxiety substance use abuse and in the worst cases child abuse and suicide we need to stop acting like the idea of a five-day school week is some radical notion when indeed it is supposed to be the norm it also seems unreasonable to decide on march 1 what the new schedule should be on april 7 given the ever-changing covid situation wouldn't it be best to plan for full in-person instruction given the likelihood
053that infections should be continuing to decrease and more vulnerable adults will be vaccinated then if that does not happen as expected we can remain on the current hybrid schedule here are some examples of mitigations that can and should be continued one continue to allow parents to choose all remote option if they feel that is best for their family two continuation of mask wearing three desks six feet apart when possible as noted by the cdc this is not a requirement thank you tim casper hi i'm jim casper uh thank you very much for hosting this uh you know i think it's important that you guys hear sort of the the points of view um and take into account uh the the needs and wishes of the parents i have a freshman student at oswego east he's
054a 504 on a 504 plan and really he is benefiting greatly from having returned to school and will benefit even more by going back full time the cdc has issued guidelines in and among the things the cdc said was that k-12 schools should be among the last settings to close as a transmission mitigation strategy and should be among the first settings to reopen um you know why why would they say that you know they're saying that because they're they're following the science and they realize that you know there's there's obviously risks with covid and and we all know what those are but there's risks to not going back to school and i i thought the the previous email perfectly stated that those those risks and those are real risks and they have a lifetime impact
055on kids potentially i want to read a quote from the washington post it was an editorial from from about a week ago said the disruption of virtual school is increasing the risk this generation of children will suffer from and die of heart disease and diabetes it could reduce their lifelong earning potential and their mental health forming healthy social and physical habits and promoting a love of learning are vital processes for school-aged children that are integrally associated with lower chronic disease burden higher economic earnings and increased overall life satisfaction and every day out of school is taking these things away from the children in our society you know nobody wants to hurt a child at all and and you know some of us with a longer-term view you know are seeing that the possible impacts of
056not being in school or creating uh just chronic problems that are going to last a lifetime that's why i'm advocating for five days a week school and you know i appreciate your consideration of that thank you [Applause] dan pop what's keeping our children out of school full-time five days a week the science money or influence from oea on sd 308. it's time to expect more more for our children and more for our district the district has had a year in which planning could have occurred instead they have decided to wait until the 11th hour to establish a plan let's face it most children staying remote currently will likely be remote in the fall if it is an option why can't the district select one teacher per grade level to teach the kids that are remote
057and have the other teachers teach in the person kids all day they can have lunch recess and specials to give teachers their much needed plan time so wednesday's plan will not be necessary kids can eat in their classrooms and district will not have to worry about 50 kids in one space problems it's time to think outside the box and be flexible and creative it is unacceptable to have as was stated in the last meeting xbox wednesdays half days are for three to five year olds not school age children all we are asking as your constituents is to stand up for what our children need thanks dan beth sarah h so my name is sarah honator but i am here tonight to read a statement authored by jaclyn fitzpatrick and although these are not my original
058words i agree with her 100 percent regarding while full-time in-person learning is essential remote learning hybrid and part-time schooling is inadequate and was only to be a temporary solution during covet 19. however school district 308 has put full-time in-person learning off long enough remote or hybrid learning plans do not help to meet or exceed the goals and objectives on strategic plans set by educational organizations the stakeholders are not receiving any benefit by the students in the community attending school at only a fraction of the time recommended by the state of illinois it is unethical for school districts to take credit for students attending what is supposed to be full school days and students receiving less than half the instructional hours and content necessary for positive student achievement this is seen by the increased number of
059students in the district receiving d's and f's and the greater number of elementary students not obtaining mastery like they were when they could actually attend school full-time at this point remote learning provides absolutely no intrinsic or extrinsic motivation for kids to learn and develop in a positive way if anything it moves many students further from the end goal of creating individuals who are prepared to attend college or to succeed in careers that positively contribute to their communities after high school teachers are working harder than ever they are expected to do more than they were hired to do teachers are expected to do more with less time and with lower expectations for all students this does not align with the goals on the strategic plan for the school district and isbe the first goal of isbe
060states every child will make significant academic gains each year what are student grades and the data collected in mastery connect telling about student performance how is this data being used to help the students perform better in the future what is school district 308 going to do to help the students who are underperforming but do not qualify for title 1 funding many families who do not financially qualify for funding cannot afford summer school or private education removing essential curriculum or making coursework easier to allow student grades to remain high will not prepare them for college and beyond thank you one more cara bates i don't have that one no i have karen oh person okay okay good evening my name is cara bales i'm here to advocate for our kids for their return to school in
061person full-time there are too many reasons to list of the negative impact that remote learning is having on our kids including lack of quality education lack of socialization lack of accountability rates of depression and anxiety going up rates of suicide going up among youth and the list goes on and on my oldest son for example who's in seventh grade he was an honor roll student last year last school year and since remote learning he's getting d's and f's with his lowest grade being a 23 percent in one of his classes our two elementary school age children we had to pull out completely due to how poorly remote learning was going for them but what i would like to focus my short time on is the safety issues that are being brought up as reasons for
062not allowing our kids back in person full time i'm a family nurse practitioner and i was working before coven 19 and have been working throughout the covet 19 pandemic and i'm here to tell you that covet is not affecting children the way influenza has affected children in the way of complications or even deaths we did not shut down schools during the h1n1 influenza pandemic and all of the science and evidence supports that kovid affects children less in terms of severity and deaths than influenza knowing this parents should be the ones making the decision whether or not to send their children to school full time not district 308 making this decision for us if the board's concerns are only about the children the science and evidence is there children are not as affected by covid and
063there is no need to keep them out of school for this reason if the concern is for the teachers then just as i have worked in person every day of this pandemic with my n95 mask and practicing social distancing the teacher should be able to safely do the same my recommendation would be that the teacher stands at the front of the class six feet or more away from his or her students with their mask on that should be safe enough just as just as it has been safe enough for me working with colbit positive patients every day since this pandemic started i hope the board will make the right decision and bring our kids back to school in person full-time because the science does not back up their decision to keep them out of school
064okay thank you really i apologize i already read that one thank you so much and there's no more public comment nope okay moving on to number item number 3.1 on the agenda procedures and guidelines for the public forum q and a session the q a session will follow the following procedures and protocol individuals wishing to make a comment or ask a question will be required to fill out a comment card with their name email and question so that the board and or administration can follow up if a question cannot be answered at the meeting to make the process as efficient as possible we have asked speakers to submit their comment card to the board secretary prior to the meeting the board secretary will call each person in the order the card was received to ensure
065that all topics get addressed the maximum extent possible after three questions on the same topic have been heard the board president will state that and will direct the board secretary to call the next person that has a question on a different topic after questions on all topics have been addressed if time allows more questions will be taken in the order they were received we will alternate questions submitted in person and by email at 9 pm the board president will announce the time and that the final question of the meeting has been taken or will take place when the community members approach the microphone one the person shall then state their name and the topic of their question or comment for the public record two questions and comments will be limited to two minutes or less
066and may be directed at the board in general or to a specific member of the board three if no board member is directly asked to address the question or comment then any board member may answer or comment an additional board members who wish who may wish to answer or comment can do so as well the board member answers will be limited to two minutes if no board member elects to respond to a question then the president will make a statement on behalf of the board questions can be on any topic except for personnel for example no questions or comments can be made about any teacher employee administrator or by referencing the district employee's title if members of the public have any of these types of questions they should be directed to the building principal or
067district administration thank you cindy rook hello my name is cindy rook and i have two children in district 308 i have a freshman in high school and i have a sixth grader over at trauber junior high i do have a question but before i get to that i do want to start with just providing a little bit of information if that's okay there's over 300 million people in this country in the united states of america less than 250 children have died from coronavirus i don't know if anyone knew that but those are the facts so we've mitigated this risk as a district you guys have mitigated this risk of death to children very well by providing remote so parents who are fearful of their children dying in school can send their kids to remote and
068i'm sure that they appreciate that i also want to add suicide is the third leading cause of death for school-aged children our country so you can compare the numbers 250 out of 300 million which yes it's very sad but it's also minuscule to the number of children that are hurting in this district and around this country from not being in school so my question is what have you done this is my first question do i get three you have two minutes okay and one question so okay well then i'm not going to ask you what you've done to mitigate this risk of harm to our children i'm not going to ask that question but i am going to ask this question why is there currently no plan in place or in the foreseeable future to
069return our children to five days a week back in school i'll wait that's my question let me also turn your attention to the front row of the second section where we have our senior leadership available to help answer questions as you know we were presented with a next phase plan on this i think that i can speak for each board member when we've asked a lot of the same questions in fact i don't think i've heard one yet that we haven't also at least one or two of us asked at some point in time throughout this last year um at this time dr sparlin i'll give it to you to decide um which which person would best i was just gonna say i can answer that question we've been obviously working on the phases phase
070one phase two and now for this evening what we're talking about phase three um tonight we have begun the conversations on re you know what does it look like five days full days uh we're talking about next year but to be perfectly honest right now we're focused on right here and now and the next year plan is going to be uh faith and i were just talking about this today the process who will be involved when it'll be presented to the board of education and our goal is to get back five days in person learning next year am i allowed to ask a follow-up question you got 10 seconds go for it okay is the plan for kids to return to school is the is there a process for kids to be back in school
071on the first day of the next school year five days in person [Music] i mean i think that's i i don't i guess i don't know how to answer that because i think they haven't they're working on that now as you just heard i don't know if they have more to add that is that is the goal okay thank you mark cason is by email okay i'm sorry no it's all good dr sparlin was apologizing for jumping in instead of letting me answer that was very polite the following four the remaining four questions are via email mark cason i would like to submit a question to the board what is the school plan for next year i would push to get kids back to in-person classroom learning five days a week all day with no
072remote option by the fall almost all if not faculty staff should be fully vaccinated in addition schools that are open now have not shown to be major contributors to community spread i think that going into the summer the plan for fall should be for in-person learning this could be adjusted to a similar program that is going on now if major changes to infection rates warrant i think the answer to that we just answered or the question what is the school plan for next year we did just answer with regards to the one comment regarding no remote option that is a requirement currently followed by every district in illinois per the isb guidelines so we don't have the say in that at this point that's not under local control so as far as we know at
073this moment we do retain the responsibility to hold a remote option anyone else want to jump in on that that's the answer should i just go forward okay this is melanie mcallister high school board of education can the school district somehow switch to the remote learners to a homeschooling program on the computer it certainly would be cheaper than hiring remote teachers and in-person teachers thanks melanie mcallister um i don't dr sparlin i'm gonna toss this one to you as to how to answer if it would be cheaper you know that's a question that we've asked and answered that's something that we've uh done that we talked about earlier in the year to offer the online version of ingenuity was the option and we decided that uh we as a collective you know organization here decided
074that that was not the way that we wanted to go this year um like i said next year our goal will be to begin the year what will will be to be five days in person uh you know full days but um that's a that's a question and that's a piece of the conversation for next year what does the remote piece look like because as mrs doyle just said that currently we are mandated to provide a high quality uh remote program and so what does that look like for next year again that is part of the conversation for upcoming does isbe mandate what type of online instruction we do provide or is that an available option for us to consider next year if isbe still has that ruling in place that would be at this
075current time that would be an option yes can we also pull the data from this year on the difference between online learning and the in person especially that's an interesting question because we were talking about state requirements for testing faith is that still required to be only in person yes the state assessments must be given in person this year do you have some mechanism by which we can utilize some sort of assessment to compare the two different types of learning we wouldn't be able to use state assessments we can look at grades on what that would look like and mastery connect at the elementary version we would need some more time because students have just started coming in in person and what that looks like but definitely when talking with teachers um that is part
076of the narrative too of how students do remotely versus in person and then when we're talking to teachers i'd also like to know how it really went where teachers are teaching both in person and online versus how do we think it would go if we had teachers just doing virtual and teachers just in the classroom okay okay dominique castillo i believe you're here did you want to ask your question in person this is from dominic castillo my question i won't have a lot of time to ask is we are being told we can't have both remote and in-person teachers yet i have heard we are laying off 27. so if this is true how are we going to do this next year if that is the case when we're being told we currently don't have
077enough teachers it is my understanding this is due to low enrollment if the new board continues on this path the enrollment numbers are going to drop even lower also teacher claim union has no role in this yet i've also been told behind closed doors it is what is the actual hold up here and what's the plan as far as addressing my first question all right so the first question was we are being told we can't have both remote and in-person teachers yes i have heard we are laying off 27. so as part of the budget mitigation discussion that we had had there was we do adjust each year due to enrollment the number of teachers we need at each grade level so with the enrollment of students this year and then there is an allowance
078i think being made for the fact that there has been a slight uh decrease with home school that we expect to see back much like your daughter i think that what you're hearing is kind of piecemeal it's not really that they're being laid off is that those aren't needed for expected enrollment we do each year as the need arises due to enrollment registration recall teachers from that list as they're needed and those 27 that's through a contracted agreement with our teachers union on how that process works and they have a committee dedicated to making sure that that is a fair and impartial process does that answer your question not really what you're saying if you could come to the mic just so that people from home can hear as well right now they're saying we
079don't have enough teachers so saying that you're hearing it all over do you have teachers saying this on facebook so my question is you know if the plan is to go full-time next year which i support i can do the mask thank you i'm sorry talking so it's a little bit difficult when we have these remote teacher only and in personally which i personally think would benefit our teachers to not have them doing it simultaneously do we have enough teachers to do that so i think you could probably best answer that sure so at the last board meeting i brought out the data of if we had our first graders for instance if you went through and looked at that and you kept students within their school but separated those remote by choice and those
080that would be in person we would have to hire more teachers because some of the class sizes as you combined for remote by choice at some schools for example would be above the class cap if you were to start out next school year which is one of the things that we were considering and had people elect that from the beginning then you could divvy that out across the district and have for instance a teacher that could be remote by choice across a couple of schools and elevate that class size so we're not saying that there aren't enough teachers if you spread all of that out there aren't enough current teachers within each school to make sure that we keep our class sizes at what we guarantee they would be for both remote by choice and
081in person so this is possible okay that's what i needed to know okay so do you want to do do you have is that that's pretty much what i'm getting from the rest of your questions on that yeah i've been told it wasn't possible so i just wanted to ask you guys directly and i also recommend i heard you mention something that it it saddens me because i wish i could do more about it but i'm really each of us can only do what we can do about getting information to our community members not just you but you've mentioned several times you hear it all over teachers say it all over facebook so i cautioned that facebook is not going to be a reliable source of information for understanding but there's you know what i
082mean i know it's super frustrating to hear all the i just want the facts which is why i came here to ask what was that i just want the facts which is why i came to ask you to squash that yeah internet mumbo jumble absolutely yeah i can understand that it's dangerous to sit there and say something like that's not possible when we in fact just said that it is yeah that's the answer to my question i was looking for okay thank you thank you i was gonna say a good rule i always use with the internet is when i read something the first thing i say is i wonder if that's correct okay thank you okay the next is jacqueline fitzpatrick student grades and the mastery connect data indicate many students are falling behind
083by not allowing schools to fully open the students who want and need to be in school full time are the ones who are suffering the most why continue to limit hours of in-person instruction and cater to the needs of the students who choose remote when in the isb clearly states no amount of technology can replicate the effect of face-to-face interactions and instructions between teachers and students so the question is why are we continuing to limit the number of hours of in-person instruction and cater to the needs of students who choose remote um well i don't think that the goal is to cater to the needs of any one particular student i think faith the can you explain how we had done this we have been prioritizing the balance on the scales between safety and education
084and i think that one of the most disheartening things throughout this entire pandemic is watching all of our senior leadership that are in here that have spent their entire careers putting the education and the needs of our children first all of the things that we know about education and why in person instruction is so important these people have spent their lives devoted to understanding and helping that so creating a pandemic situation is pretty much the worst case scenario for any educator i have to imagine because you know that there's a difference between safety rules and reaching the most children possible so that would be my first answer um can can somebody jump in on the limiting the hours of in-person instruction sure i perceive that question to be at elementary level with the balance between
085remote by choice and in person i'm not sure if that was the intent from the question or not but what we are wanting to do is make sure that our students and our parents that have chosen in person as well as remote by choice have an equal number of of minutes of instruction i agree that coming in person i was a former elementary teacher having those kids in the classroom is ideal but for some of our parents and our students that is not something that they are choosing to do right now so we have to continue to keep the relationship with the teacher and the student the students and their friends that they've had throughout the year and make that time very comparable between the two groups to be able to continue with learning thank
086you anyone else want to jump in on that where are we on time yeah okay so one individual had asked six separate questions as time has allowed we can continue through these dear school board of education can you offer three hours of in-person learning on wednesdays to the kids that are really struggling running away from computer and crying and or grades are bad with remote learning in reading writing and math