Special Board Meeting

001so i pledge allegiance to divide 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 right good evening everyone evening let us uh begin with uh lisa can we call the role member o'sullivan here member o'connor here member gracias here member murphy peterson here remember dalton remember hardik remember sarah tory here okay we uh perform we are ready to go so the first item of business would be a motion for the acceptance of the bills that is found on page three three yes in the bottom of page three oh man i moved that the school board approved the routine business services resolution as presented okay any comments or questions all right then [Music] that's fault sullivan yes member o'connor yes

002member gracias yes remember murphy peterson yes remember serratore yes the motion passes okay uh so at this time we will now uh present the 2021 reopening plan then dr gabe you want to start yes yes thank you very much um there's a powerpoint on the screen but for your convenience there's a powerpoint at your desk if it's easier for you to follow either way um i want to start out as i said many times as i share with the board that i'm very proud of all the work that the oversight committee has done over the last couple weeks working uh diligently to create a plan that i'm very proud to present and that we all are very proud to present that we believe is respectful to all our stakeholders and i think tonight shares to

003the board and at the end of our presentation every member of the oversight committee has a little part to play and presenting it tonight at the end of course we'll entertain any questions you have regarding our plan so this planning began quite some time we this is to provide the best possible academic experience and being safe by adhering to the academic health and safety guide guidance set by the illinois state board of education idphdc um as recent as maybe about uh four hours ago three hours ago we got another 103 page report from id from isb on some guidelines on the uh reopening school so it is very fluid and we will we have and will continue to adhere to the guideline guidance from the state and these state agencies what is very important though

004as we planned our begin to plan is to get stake holder input so we did a student family and staff survey and we got some great results we're sharing with you about 83.8 percent of families are likely to send their students to school when we reopen on site about 73 students 70 families and 61 percent of staff at that point felt somewhat safe to com to completely safe returning to school on site we continued during the last couple weeks as recently as this week to continue to communicate with all staff members with it with the getting feedback from them on where we're moving so some people may wonder why we're at january it's not january at all july 23rd and you know some schools we know presented their plan last week some earlier this week

005however you know in this 2 30 we believe in the collaborative effort so when you have a collaborative effort a collaborative process takes time to be respectful to get input and to really look at the data as you move forward so we began with 13 subcommittees including representatives of teacher association support staff and food service on the screen and then your website and your um packet you see a list of the 13 committees and there was an advisory committee it was an advisory committee to give us input in the event we went back what are some of the issues that we need to face during you know with all of those subcommittees and then from the subcommittee the oversight committee which is the three assistant superintendents the three principals myself carlos uh erdy is uh

006i guess the ex-officio but she keeps all our notes and makes things look pretty and comes out these designs and all that and make sure that we stay on target so the plan i want to share with you tonight that the again the oversight committee will go in much more detail we feel alliance with restore illinois plan so restore illinois phases one two three italians will work on our d230 proud return to school plan of stage one will be fully remote if the state goes back to one two three phases that ties into what we call stage one when state of illinois is in phase four which they are now are t230 proud has two stages stage two and stage three stage two is suggesting 25 percent of students on site on a rotating schedule

007and move to at the right time to stage three which is a fifty percent on-site rotating schedule the schedule and the actual periods how it's going to work will be explained in a few minutes restore illinois phase five is when there's a vaccine readily available vaccine that is d230 stage 4 fully on site i would imagine as a state goes from phase 4 to phase 5 and we transition from stage three to stage four it will be a gradual phase as well as we move to the next uh phase one they wanna make very clear is that the remote will look quite different the guidelines set by isb for the cover 19 shelter order were vastly different as it's going to go into new school year when students are remote and they will be through

008the 25 and with a 50 in our plan students will attend class through a live connection daily attendance will be recorded for each class period and quite different from the plan in the spring traditional grading practices also will be in effect so moving forward we are looking forward to welcoming students on site or remotely we will continue to work to ensure quality instruction delivery for all students on site or remotely we will continue to file idph health and safety protocols they are a key component for our return to school plan we firmly believe the social emotional supports of the students are necessary and they will be provided by our school personnel on site or remotely our guidance evolves will evolve we will reassess the plan as needed as the guidance changes from state agencies and

009i thank everyone for the continuous their continued to be compassionate flexible and passionate for our student staff is very appreciated in this very very fluid plan we believe the benefits of this plan are are multiple it reduce the number of students on campus to approximately 25 to 50 percent to promote physical distance on buses hallways and in classes through states two and stage three it allows us our schools to adhere to the idph and cdc safety protocols through states two and three it allows for in-person instruction and connection among students and staff and clearly address the concerns raised by students families and staff regarding motivation to remain engaged in learning including grades and making attendance count it does support the academic social emotional needs of our students with dedicated check-in time every day monday tuesday

010thursday friday first an advisory to check the social emotional aspects of our students this provides dedicated time for our staff to communicate with families and students if this allows for continuation of educational virtually should a student need to self quarantine but still feel well enough to take part in classes because we have both and this structure we believe can easily transition transition to a fully remote should the need arise due to changing restore on a restore illinois phases or other needs so the options for our families is a blended on-site remote program or fully remote at this time eric olsen principal stag high school will con will explain the blended on-site remote program well good evening everyone very good to see all of you the blended on-site remote plan comprises stage 2 and stage 3

011of the d230 proud reopening plan this model blends the use of both on-site and remote learning experiences for our students these two stages divide student student attendance to reduce the overall number of students in the school but will still provide both direct instruction and remote instruction simultaneously stage two would see 25 percent of the students in the school on a rotating basis with all students attending school on site one day a week stage 3 transitions to 50 percent of the students on site with all students attending school twice a week those students who are in the school building will follow their class schedule in a traditional manner moving from class to class those who are remote will follow their schedule attending classes with their on-site classmates virtually at the same time therefore students at home

012will be attending and participating in all of their classes and following the same schedule with the d230 proud plan flexibility is built in to allow for accommodations for students who receive special education services english learner services 504 plan accommodations and other students who have been identified as needing additional support important to note with this plan and different from the state mandates in the spring traditional grading practices will be used and attendance will be taken for both on-site and remote learning students attendance will be taken each period for both on-site and remote learners the d230 proud reopening plan allows families to choose to have their child participate in a fully remote manner and there are a variety of reasons why that families may choose this option and we believe in the importance of allowing families the

013flexibility to make this choice for their child students who are participating in a fully remote option do not attend school on site however they are enrolled and participating in classes with their classmates virtually with their class scheduler with their class schedule attendance procedures and grading procedures being the same as their classmates who are on site directions and a family declaration form will be sent to families with an august 7th deadline to allow families time to discuss the need to their child and what plan best fits their needs parents make their commitment to a blended on-site or fully remote for the entirety of the first semester or until the state of illinois moves to phase five of the restore illinois plan and our district can move to stage four of the d230 proud reopening plan with

014100 of students receiving on-site instruction now uh hand it over to my colleague mr nolting from andrew high school good evening thank you for allowing us to present our plan as eric had mentioned um the schedule in general would have essentially students divided into four groups based on alphabet these four groups would then be fluid based on if we're in our stage two format or our stage three in stage two one group of students would be live in person instruction while the other three quarters or 75 percent of our students would be learning synchronously and remotely and then those students would rotate each day of the week with the exception of wednesdays which for all students and staff would be a remote day as we migrate into stage three then we were able to combine

015those two groups so in this example groups a and b together and then fifty percent of our students would be in school twice a week for on-site instruction and to the other students would be at home learning remotely one of the aspects that was something that we are very proud of um and i think one of the members of the teacher association leadership referred to as a trailblazing approach to re-entry for school um is our first couple weeks back as you can see uh or as you know as many of you have students yourself our kids have not been in the building since march and our staff has not been in the building since march and now they're coming back to a completely different learning platform based on the circumstances of the pandemic this approach

016that you see on this calendar example is a thoughtful and meaningful approach to maximize teacher acclimatization back to the building and adjust their learning platforms accordingly this platform allows our staff to come back for an extended period of time for institute days and remote planning instruction days in which they will be working as a collegial team to plan for instruction we will have two days of student freshmen and transfers coming to the school in groups of a a b and c d support uh divided by alpha and then we will begin an orientation week which i'll get to on our next slide that will have a quarter of our students attending live and in person allowing us to get them used to the uh process which will include transportation and other things that will come

017later in this presentation and other students will be participating in an orientation experience like i said i'll get to in a moment and then we will be able to at that point assess continuation to move to potentially phase three where 50 percent of our students are building these additional planning days allow for teachers and administrators to employ the instructional model and adjust to the still fluid as dr gabe mentioned even as of today uh updates we received from isb and the idph the quarter attendance provides an appropriate phase in for students that will also help inform administration that our processes and procedures that we've been planning on this summer are safe and effective for our students and our staff and then the orientation is an original and significant component we have to realize at no

018juncture at the beginning of this year will school look the same for our kids we have to make them comfortable and make them familiar and make them aware of what these new expectations are what you see here is a model of what our orientation would look like so if you get a vision the week of the 24th one-fourth of our students will be in school meeting with their teachers going through their schedules getting used to the procedures and processes that we uh that we are under obligation to employ other students will be participating in online uh synchronous presentations um that will include include various topics wednesdays will be an orientation to the remote learning day for all students but these three days that students will be participating in orientation meetings will include three clusters one

019would be led by the main office which would be including a welcome map an orientation to the grading process which will be distinctly different from what they experience in the previous remote learning platform orientation to athletics and co-curriculars whatever that may look like in the next few weeks and an overview of academic supports and technology resources while during this these phases there'll be a separate presentation from our dean's office that will review our ppe expectations transportation services parking hallway expectations which will be unique orientation to the symptom screening and nurse services as well as other topics and then finally our guidance how do you leverage your guidance support services how do you reach out for social emotional support if needed how do you go about college and career readiness because we're not slowing down on

020our kids getting ready for life after high school so that is a little bit of an orientation to our schedule welcome miss tyrell dr tyrell thank you mr and good evening everyone as my colleagues have shared appreciate the opportunity to be here tonight with all of you to share our plan now that you have heard how the blended on-site remote and fully remote options align to stages two and three of the d230 proud reopening plan i will share a bit about the specific bell schedule that students will follow during stages two and three the bell schedule that you will see on the next slide applies to both the blended on-site remote and fully remote options a positive component of the plan is that it provides a consistent daily schedule for all students those attending in-person

021and those attending remotely as dr gay shared previously even though students attending remotely will attend through a live connection to class each day will begin with advisory one of the cornerstones of district 230 giving teachers time to check in with students regarding their academic and social emotional needs additionally you will see in the bell schedule that passing periods will be shortened to encourage students to go directly to class and not congregate in hallways now let's take a look at the bell schedule as you can see zero hour starts at 8 35 a.m and advisory at 9 30 a.m the school day ends at 3 p.m periods 1 3 7 and 8 are 35 minutes in length while periods 4 5 and 6 are 42 minutes in length in order to ensure enough time for lunch

022periods as noted on this slide wednesday on wednesdays student attendance begins at 1004 a.m there will be no zero hour and no advisory on wednesdays within the proposed framework zero hour class periods are 44 minutes in length on monday tuesday thursday and friday to account for not having class on wednesdays and now mr olson is going to come back up to the podium and talk about ppe and physical distancing hello again so with the d230 proud reopening plan ppe and physical distancing must be utilized to provide a safe environment for students and staff guidelines from the illinois department of public health requires that face masks must be used and worn at all times on campus and on the bus these face masks must meet the standards established by idph for use by the general public

023exceptions to the map to mask usage by an individual will only be made in accordance with the guidance of idph and through the approval of in of an individualized health plan process from our pupil personnel services department and our nurse's office this approval must occur before the first day of school due to the fact that all students and staff will be wearing masks students and staff will be required to have their ids visible at all times schools will be providing their students lanyards to wear their id's on in the district 230 proud reopening plan ideas play an important role and will be utilized during the day to also allow students to access other services such as transportation and food services this will be explained in more detail during this presentation schools will be providing one

024reusable washable face mask for each student and staff member replacement masks will need to be provided by the family and replacements will also be available for purchase at the school the d230 proud reopening plan has been designed to promote physical distancing of students and staff idph and the cdc recommend keeping a six foot physical distance in order to avoid close contact the illinois department of public health defines close contact for the purposes of consideration of quarantining individuals as an individual who has who was within six feet of a coveted positive individual with symptoms for more than 15 minutes physical distancing markers will be placed in common areas such as offices bathrooms etc along with the designation of one-way hallways and stairwells where possible within the school building now onto dr wheaton good evening i want

025to talk about health certification along with ppe and physical distancing in order to be on campus district 230 will adhere to the illinois department of public health rules regarding students staff certifying that they are not present presently exhibiting symptoms related to coca-19 the process for this will be communicated in august according to the to the most current igph and cdc guidance those symptoms include fever of 100.4 degrees or higher cough shortness of breath sore throat chest tightness extreme fatigue loss of sense of taste or smell diarrhea muscle aches or headaches in terms of coping 19 symptoms when the student or staff member has symptoms they must see a medical provider and be fever-free for 72 hours without the use of fever-reducing medication and for at least 10 days in terms of being assessed when their

026symptoms first appear before returning to school even with symptoms or a positive test if students feel well enough they may continue learning by attending class remotely each of our schools has a registered school nurse on staff who will follow the illinois department of public health guidelines including an isolation area for anyone who shows copin 19 symptoms in the event that there is a covid19 test positive those with the positive copin 19 test must follow the illinois department of public health quarantine rules a medical release will be required to return to school illinois department of public health guidelines will be followed and those include individuals who did not have close contact with the person who is sick can return immediately after disinfection those who had contact with someone who tested positive for copin 19 or is

027suspected of having a coven 19 infection should isolate at home and monitor for symptoms for 14 days close contact means the individual is what was within six feet of the individual symptoms for more than five minutes 15 minutes i'm going to turn it over to mr nolting again who's going to talk about hallways and classrooms as we do our best to control social distancing physical distancing our hallways and classrooms will be adjusted specifically to accommodate our lower enrollment based on phase two and phase or stage two and stage three we will have increased supervision in the hallway to ensure that students are not congregating and moving as they as they move forward through the hallways from class to class we will be incorporating one-way hallways and stairwells wherever possible to hopefully ensure that there are

028no congestion areas in our hallways our water fountains will be shut down however we will be encouraging students to bring water bottles because our water bottle filling stations will be available for students as well um and our classrooms will be adjusted um in order to maximize physical distancing in accordance to ibph and dsb guideline at this point we are looking at all desks facing in the same direction and space depart excuse me seating charts will allow will be followed excuse me will be established and followed so that we do have the ability to do any tracing that we may end up having to do if a student contracts or has symptoms we are going to designate teacher zones in the classroom as again as mr olsen acknowledge we need to remove the the opportunity for

029students and staff to be within six feet for 15 minutes or longer so teacher zones will be established to make sure that that distancing is maintained and we will be looking at signage that will be posted throughout the building to remind students and staff and visitors potentially of the rules about hand washing using masks and maintaining physical distance as you have heard throughout tonight's presentation within stages two and three of the d230 proud reopening plan approximately 25 to 50 percent of our students will be on campus this framework also allows for significantly fewer students on a bus than the idph allows distancing protocols will be followed and students will be required to properly wear face masks students will also be required to wear ids and lanyards which must be visible students will load the bus

030seats in the back to the front and unload the bus front to back in order to limit interaction and contact there will be no eating or drinking on buses and as always concerns regarding bus issues should be reported to the dean's office each school will review parking pass procedures to accommodate more students driving to campus this should also reduce the number of students riding buses to our schools each of our schools will be setting and communicating specific arrival times and doors the school plans will have specific entrances for walkers bus riders drivers and those students that are dropped off in order to best implement social distancing students will go directly to their advisory when arriving those students attending in person for zero hour will go directly to their zero hour class lockers will not be

031used as we start the school year but the process will be reviewed as the weather changes later in the semester accommodations regarding locker use can be made for students with medical needs each of our schools will communicate the specific process through town hall meetings just as students will need to go directly to class when arriving to campus they must exit campus immediately after school except for those participating in school-approved co-curriculars which are pending as we follow guidance from the idph isbe and ihsa and now john lavelle's going to come up to talk about cleaning guidelines and food service thank you yeah cleaning protocols are being enhanced to respond to the need for a heightened level of cleaning our director of facilities dave keating has worked closely with our contractor cleaning contractor communication has been ongoing

032once a plan is approved meetings will occur to finalize a cleaning protocol our transportation coordinator nakisha williams and i have both visited uh with each of our transportation carriers and have reviewed processes and procedures for cleaning the buses and the chemicals they're using have been reviewed by our cleaning team and approved to be cdc approved cleaning products besides nightly cleaning and cleaning throughout the day deep cleaning will be performed on wednesdays and saturdays additional electrostatic sprayers have been ordered for each building to be able to cover large areas in an efficient manner hand sanitizer stations are being added near each washroom by entrances and in common areas and mr keating has also ordered disinfecting wipes and a supply will be provided in each of the classrooms moving on to food service principal has been working

033to identify areas at each of the buildings to accommodate added spaces for students to eat lunch a system will be in place so students are directed to go to their assigned eating areas the use of dividers is being explored since new guidance came out yesterday allowing large spaces to be divided into more than one area you know it's important we you know get the kids to lunch as quickly as we can so finding spaces close by the cafeteria is important congestion and eating areas will be reduced because juniors and seniors will assign study halls there will be no self-serve stations in the cafeteria in the cafeteria the director of food service mary morgan has developed both hot and cold lunch options with some level of variety but selections will be reduced considerably face masks can

034be removed once students are seated or they can maintain social distancing payment scanners have been purchased and communic and communication is planned to only allow a cashless touchless process for checkout the cashier will also have the ability to look up students in the system or to manually enter an id but students will not be using a keypad at checkout breakfast and afternoon grill will be eliminated to avoid students congregating at these times in the morning and afternoon and just after three o'clock food service will be distributing frozen take-home items to those students who wish to buy or receive meals for days they are not in attendance these meals will be available for both free and paid students dr drager's up next good evening everybody nice to see you in person i hope everyone's enjoying their

035uh their summers to the best of their abilities my pleasure being here tonight i have the privilege of sharing um our plans for social emotional learning technology and co-curriculars for for social emotional learning as always our our staff remain ready willing and able to provide services for all of our students our psychologists our social workers our counselors are looking forward to welcoming our students whether it's through advisory whether it's through individual meetings whether it's through virtual or face-to-face meetings when the students are in the building we are ready to go with our students our advisory as you heard earlier from our principals are going to be in the first period of the day to welcome our students in and they'll be scheduled every day for that extra relationship building with our students we know that

036this is going to be a critical component of our students school day we're looking at ways to design additional supports for our staff to be prepared to work with our students we know that many of our students will be experiencing a lot from where we left them off in march so we need to be ready to support our students on their return in um for technology under the leadership of our brilliant cto mr john connolly again we've been we've been um one-to-one with our technology for for years now so our students are very well used to having their chromebook supports um so we've been doing this already for a while our staff is also very well prepared working with our technology we're focusing on supporting staff and students on virtual learning opportunities as well as

037expanding our blended learning opportunities our students we worked very efficiently mr connolly again under his leadership ensuring all of our students have technology supports at home and internet at home through offering hot spots and we'll be very quick to assist our incoming eighth grade students particularly students in need that might need internet service as well so we already will be working at ways to identifying our students to make sure they have the tech that they need co-curriculars are a little bit different as dr gay explained earlier today the rules of the game change daily we're watching very closely to see how how this proceeds and we'll be following guidance from idphsb and ihsa we're hoping to be able to run some of our extracurriculars if they're approved we we hope to run them mostly virtual

038and our main goal will be safety um and you know we want to try to have our students have as many experiences as they possibly can here at the high school but we need to ensure that they are safe in doing so so that's an update from the tech co-curricular and sel point thank you look at that drier i have to i'm going to cover the other two stages of d230 proud one and four so stage one is if restore illinois is in phase one two three and that's a fully remote plan the full remote plan will mirror the blind that i blended on-site remote plan as much as possible to assure that when we if we do go to stage one we have a smooth transition for our students between the stages if fully

039remote the same bell schedule will be used as dr tyrell talked about earlier all the classes will be held five days a week the same as a blended on-site remote plan and we will continue with traditional grading and attendance procedures will be in place also special service department will communicate with their families to assure that accommodation are being met as possible iap iep provisions will be met and special programs to communicate to address specific needs as always part of d230 co-curricular sponsors and advisors will develop plans to promote participation in remote setting whenever possible our amazing pps service team will be available remotely we will continue with our free and reduced lunch for students and as always the district will follow the state idpa cdc guidelines which will remind we which will may require us

040to change our plan as we move along and d230 proud stage four again aligns with restore illinois phase five that's our fully onsite plan it is only possible if a vaccine or cure is readily available and district 230 will move to fully on site when illinois moves to phase five in accordance with state guidelines but i'm confident we'll have to transition to that as well now carla will explain the communication plan so we realize that this is a lot of information that we just shared with the board in our presentation tonight so we have a robust communication plan in place to make sure that our family students and community understand the plan can consider their options and make the choice that is right for their family so tonight we are presenting the presentation for your

041approval tomorrow if approved the communication plan and the choice form for parents uh to let us know which decision they have made in stage two will be sent out through phone email text mobile app website social media we've also created some videos and we're in the process of translating our documents into the top languages that our families speak to make sure that everyone has the information that they need that information will all be available at our dedicated website d230.org coven19 once families have the information in their hands they will then have the opportunity to attend virtual meetings that will be held by each of our campuses so stag will hold their virtual meeting on thursday july 30th and sandberg and andrew will hold their meetings on tuesday august 4th specific details and invitations will come

042directly from those campuses and an important date to understand is that friday august 7th is the deadline to choose an option the blended on-site remote or the fully remote option and i'm going to walk us through the choice form of mr nolting would you mind clicking on that button on the silver computer walked away from the microphone i apologize for that how our computer is set up i can't actually click on the form at the moment but the form is very easy to fill out it's just a matter of a few questions you'll be asked to select which school you attend which option you are picking and then there are a couple specific questions to those uh particular options you hit submit and the information has been uh sent to the school that will come

043out um with the plan uh tomorrow um to families and it'll be a very easy uh process for people to go through i just like to add to that that choice form it also talks about also parents will give us an idea how they're going to transport their students be a bus walk drive drop off it also also asked what kind of they plan for lunch bring their own lunch buy a lunch or in between it helps us plan for lunches we're suggesting um sac lunch i don't know i say these words are like who thinks of these words but brown bag one stack lunch i don't know these you know um and people know that right so it will help us determine with our buses of you know numbers on bus as well as

044lunch so um i think mr olson put this form together i think am i missing anything else on there uh no but included in there are just reminders of the procedures for everything you know you select fully remote you're selecting for the semester reminders that if you're coming on site or selecting the on-site remote that that you're required to follow all of the guidelines i'll find by the district in school that are aligned with idph so all of that is is built into the system of checks and double checks and reminders i mean as you can see there's you know i thank the oversight committee for their participation you see much work isn't put into this plan much thought uh it's much much a lot of work and much work to come if the void

045approves this plan tonight we have we know we have a lot of work out of us we have a lot of work and providing and um solidifying the professional development it has to take place there when the staff comes back we have a lot of work that's going to be done with with the buildings you know and getting prepared which they have been working on that but um again that's why we're presenting this tonight so we're gonna answer questions on the board we will have an opportunity in a few minutes we have no public comment present but we do have some comments that were sent to the um website today right yesterday and today last couple days last couple days which will read out loud so they're part of the record um but mr serratore

046i don't know if you want to see if there's any more questions before you read those you want to read those first or yeah um no i'd like to thought any thoughts on the plan the court may have any thoughts on the plan yeah i mean again as dr gay just said i mean i i'd like to thank everybody who was involved in this i i mean i know that you guys have put in hours upon hours upon hours to put this together and you have taken every option into consideration when you've made this plan and i know you've come up with the plan and then the state changed the rules and you had to start from scratch again and you've done that numerous times um and you know this plan to me is done

047with everyone's safety in mind as much as possible we know nothing is perfect but nothing will be perfect um but i just want to thank every one of you for for everything you've done with this because uh this this is really pretty solid to me and and you've done an awful lot here um and there is a lot of information so before we get to the community comments we'll see if any of the board members had any questions so does anybody have any questions yeah go ahead um you stated that meals will be provided for even those kids remote learning so how do we get the meals for them um yeah after the meals meals would be available for pick-up families come and pick them up or if the student is in attendance you know

048on the abcd schedule they could they would be able to pick up their meals for the rest of the week for the rest of the week okay and one other quick one health certification must be provided to board the bus so is it like a piece of paper is it a form that what is that self-certification is that we're still working on okay we're still waiting for uh our skylighting sky word i don't even want to spot here because the skyward is working that's our management system management system um and they're working on a system that we can that we can connect quickly easily to ourselves we're still working on the details of that our attorneys made a very clear way to be consistent on the way they come so all the bus drivers not

049the drivers all the bus students said they have one plan it could be different for walkers or kids coming in so that plan and i think i've shared through the past that we we're we're still finalizing that with the state analyzing the governor's office and i believe skyward is looking at some i missed a meeting i think this week is looking at a plan that may assist does that correct great thank you anyone else okay i i did have a couple questions bob on the initial school opening up through labor day we're in stage two so when we come back after labor day is the plan to stay in stage two or is it to go to three i can answer that sorry um okay we're gonna watch the next two weeks when the kids

050come back we're gonna watch we're going to watch the metrics we're going to see what's happening you know i always say it's easy to add and subtract we may not go right to 50 maybe we go to 35 maybe we go to 37. i don't know we may ease ourselves into that as a readiness to the staff the readiness of the kids the redness of the families i think we're we live in stage two and three for a while under the state under phase four we're gonna be deliberate we're gonna be respectful we're gonna be thoughtful as we move so i don't wanna i don't think we should set a date we should look at the data okay and then my other question is probably for john and you may not have this answer but

051since we are dealing with teenagers i can imagine that we're going to have them some of them will show up in the morning to get on the bus and have forgotten their mask so will the buses have extra mass will they have to go home and the bus waits for them or you know definitely in those first days it's you know it's going to be nationals because they're going to run out the door and then forget yeah we'll be right back when we're at 50 we're talking about how many students out of us and now we're talking about 25 so we're going down and the state was allowing 48 42 47 47. say was not 47. at 50 percent we're around 20 22 now we should be 10 or 11 on the bus so i

052think where we feel comfortable with the amount of kids on a bus with the mass i do think if realistically if a student misses you know doesn't have the mass like a week or so we may want to call home we may want to see how we can help with the problem maybe something else we need we need to talk about you know and it's something we can help well and we're going to have them at the doors for guests you know any guests coming in the building uh visitors whatever they're going to be they have to have a mask come in they don't have one though because whatever you know we're going to make sure we have one um and they're going to be escorted to where they have to go and come back

053and that may make some people happy because they have to wait for the escort but uh we think that's the right thing to do yeah we're gonna i had a question on lunch um when we have 25 of the students there would it be better to just you know just take sambar they've got three thousand kids actually less than that yes and at twenty-five percent that's 750 students you have three lunch periods that's 250 there's six months periods well yeah i'm getting that yeah okay sorry three launch periods so that's that's 250 students generally speaking probably less probably a lot less per full lunch period okay when you're 25 if you're looking at 50 students per pod per place you've got four gyms in the lunchroom i may even talk about the pack or anywhere

054else would it make more sense to keep those students there for the full hour instead of having those students go to a classroom which is more it's not as open and not as not as much space it might be it might be complicated because now when you go to fifty percent you have to change something i just it's just something to think about and that's something about i do think that freshman sophomore is already assigned for half hour yeah freshmen and sophomore students across all three buildings are already assigned to study halls and by assigning junior seniors to study halls we think that we can get to a more manageable spot in terms of the number of facilities within our buildings that we're going to need to be able to accommodate the 50 but we're

055already digging into our schedules to look at how we can be smart with those placements in the study hall and lunch and designate different areas yeah i don't know this i'm just thinking is it better off having 50 students in one of the gyms for a full hour rather than a gym for part of the time in the smaller classroom for part of the time just something to think about based on our numbers on mr o'sullivan i think we're gonna need those spaces for both parts of the full hour so we could be in a little bit of an issue if we tried to assign well that'd be the full 250 would be both parts of the lunch hour because you're going to 125 for 6a 125 for 6b just again some of the things

056it is no it is and this is this is the part of fluid and if if the border through this plan we you know we start running you know with some of these plans and a lot of individual schedules that we looked at i mean unless we don't also know how many people will choose remote which will dictate possibly less than 25 percent that makes sense yeah we don't have that number listen okay anybody else i just had one question in regards to our nurses will they be provided special training is there any special protocols being put in place for them um as we start the year yeah the nurses is the state mandating something i don't i honestly don't know if the state's mandating training but there will be training for the nurses there

057is um we are looking at there's isolation rooms that are necessary there are you know our nurses are phenomenal we'd have to work with you know like cdc to make sure all the guidelines are followed the nurses because there are some students who come down you know for medication throughout the day there are kids students to come down because not co-work but you know just everything high school student so all that will be taken account again the nurses are phenomenal and they will work with all the guidelines and training anybody else i do believe we have 19 okay [Music] 19 so at this point they will be read to the red into the record for um yeah fraternity i don't know yep at least until the minutes are hyped fast lisa all right so this

058is from dana birch my name is dana burch i'm a member of the district 230 teachers association and a teacher at vja i had asked if you had asked me the 2019 school year would end and where we would be throughout the summer of 2020 and never in my wildest dreams would have imagined we'd be in the middle of a global pandemic however we are unfortunately for the usa including illinois we are not anywhere close to having overcome this disease just today cases of illinois alone have set a new high since we ended in june as a teacher i understand the need for in-person contact and instruction and as i as i feel there truly is no substitute however the liability here just seems way too high at this juncture to allow anyone back into

059the building like this i too as a parent i'm struggling with what to do with my own children we've already made arrangements to homeschool my preschool-aged daughter we are terrified to send my son to kindergarten even though we know he thrives on being in school he will also probably remain home and work remotely i myself am worried that i will contract it and pass it to my family or worse end up in the icu or death i really feel we should remain remote for now and reevaluate maybe monthly or semester there is just way too much risk to be involved the reality that even just one student or staff member or even their family members could actually die to this all due to us all being back in school should be enough for us to

060remain remote for now until more reliable treatment or vaccines are available thank you for allowing me this opportunity to voice my concerns this is from will hung i have medical conditions along with my daughter's grandmother which puts us at high risk what is the plan for going back to school from patricia hunnell i am a grandparent of an incoming freshman and i am very concerned about returning to school next month my granddaughter has several medical issues which make a typical school experience risky given her our current circumstances and i am immunocompromised and that puts me at very high risk should i contract hobit i hope you will consider at home learning options for children at risk from the kenny's good afternoon i have been a teacher in the district for over 10 years i am

061also a proud d230 graduate i am also a member of the teachers association i first want to extend my gratitude towards the district and committees for working tirelessly on a plan and during these unprecedented times i cannot imagine the stress the district is under right now and coming up with a plan i assume we have many d230 parents who would like school feedback in-person instruction i'm a parent myself and remote learning was not easy for us in my home however i am putting aside my frustrations with teaching my own children in order to keep them safe i firmly believe we should start the school year on a remote learning model as other districts in our area have chosen to do i'm sure you're receiving an abundance of emails from teachers in regard to the safety

062of our students staff and families i stand by my colleagues and all these valid points but the focus of my email is a little different i would like to focus on time implementing a plan such as the one drafted by the district in my opinion is wasting time if this plan follows through and we begin the year in-person instruction we will inevitably move to e-learning in a matter of weeks or days and this may come with no warning teachers will then have to toss the plans that they've worked tirelessly over the last half of the summer to adhere to this new split schedule and throw together a remote learning plan no one would have predicted what this past spring looked like we had no choice but to scramble at the last minute to get a

063plan in place but this does not have to be the case this time around we know that if we start in person learning we will end up with cases quickly and will ultimately have to shut down and move to a remote learning plan is it really worth the health safety and yes the time of all this to enter our building for a week or two i really hope the district considers starting the year of remote learning this will give teachers enough time to collaborate and plan effectively and will keep our students and families safe thank you for your time and consideration from kathleen o'connell i hope this email finds you well after repeating the right after reading the revised plan i continue to have concerns about reopening schools in the new plan we are putting

064people at risk for only 35 minutes of instruction per class a week is 35 minutes worth the potential of exposing our students ourselves and our families i personally don't think it is worth it when we can e-learn which guarantees everyone's safety also will the schools now be doing temperature checks since this won't there won't be as many students to check each morning too many teachers are high risk or live with someone who is high risk how do we say that 35 minutes is more important in people's lives i know one teacher who is currently looking to have to move to a studio apartment because he can't be near his wife who was high risk my 18 month old daughter spent the first week of her life in critical condition hooked up to every machine possible

065to help her breathe she is now doing great but i am terrified that kobe will do to her lungs if i expose her to it these are just two examples of teachers who have a lot to stay careful i understand this is difficult situation for everyone we all want what is best for our students staff and our community i ask that you keep this in mind when making decisions about how to proceed this year from emily moser hello i just wanted to ask as a parent of this community for 22 years i would like to know why it's up to the school board to decide what's best for my child have you considered their well-being over the last four months of the stay-at-home matter some factors that need to be addressed when children are feeling

066confused highly anxious or emotionally numb their ability to create creativity and schoolwork at home is impaired adjust expectations about school performance accordingly to focus on their emotional ability to cope until the brains are working better by learning how to control their emotions they might not be able to retain much new information with this to take into consideration what is the future going to be like how will they adapt anger frustration moodiness and continual irritation this leads to a lot of anxiety stress and depression as a parent of a soon-to-be senior can you please address this thank you for your time from kathleen cordova first of all thank you for your dedication and service to our district i appreciate all of you i also understand you take your you'd take your safety seriously and cannot meet

067in person tonight i respect your decision teachers are the reason of our children succeed they gave us students hope when coving hit in the spring that they will preserve this and they did they are the reason why district 230 is so successful we have amazing teachers who have shown their grit stamina and perseverance they had the rug pulled out from underneath them and continued to make our district proud these same teachers who were supported tremendously in the spring are asking you the board to keep them and the students safe and having classes returned through remote learning stag teachers submitted 18 pages of cons of concerns regarding the blended reopening plan 60 of our teachers in our district do not feel safe returning to school our district has the capacity to do remote learning and do

068it great we have spent a large amount of money on technology and we can successfully educate all of our students in the safety of their home safety is and always should be the number one priority for teachers and students teachers are children themselves many of whom have met vulnerable parents these vulnerable parents are the voices of reason for our teachers they give them strength they are the best friends and they are often the reason behind so many of our teachers going into education teachers are also parents themselves many of whom have young school-aged children some of which are also vulnerable these vulnerable parents and children cannot afford to get sick neither can teachers we do not feel comfortable sending our children to school many teachers have felt anxiety stress and fear over this reopening plan

069their mental health has taken a beating during coven they are juggling multiple hats all at once and simply walking a tightrope to help in order to survive remote learning is not easy in fact most teachers will tell you it's harder than in-person instruction if we are willing to do more work it should mean something we are not invincible while many teachers wear capes we simply do not have a covered cape not yet anyways we are human this virus will attack it is inevitable that it will spread in schools please support your teachers and students now more than ever we are counting on you thank you for listening from laurie dulec thank you for the opportunity to share our thoughts i'm a proud staff teacher and teachers association member i have been unsettled and worried about

070the return to in-person learning since june i am concerned about the health and safety of my students their families and my colleagues i am also worried that i may bring this virus home to my children i am upset at the idea of not being in my classroom with my students but i realize it will be far more devastating if one of my students or a family member or i as their teacher can track this potentially deadly virus i have been given the responsibility to protect and nurture my students their studios their safety is my highest priority returning to school at this point puts them and all of our staff at risk if medical professionals and scientists assisting quarantines and social distancing are the best ways to prevent the spread of this virus it would be

071counterproductive to create an atmosphere where students and staff are gathering and breathing in the same air for hours at a time i'm asking you to do the right thing despite the fact that remote learning is not the way anyone wants to begin the school year if tonight's board meeting had to be held remotely because conditions are dangerous please consider the safety of hundreds of people gathering in the same building for hours our district was one of the few that had a solid remote learning plan last year and i'm proud of the technology we have implemented to prepare our students instead of creating two sets of plans for in-person and remote learning please allow us to spend the days leading up to school in preparation of solid remote learning lessons our plans will provide continuity because

072they will also allow us to prepare for the inevitable a surge in the virus that will eventually result in another quarantine i've attached a link to an article posted on nbc news site entitled illinois is 1 624 new coronaviruses cases makes highest daily rise since may thank you for your consideration from dan duleck my name is daniel dulac i'm a teacher at stag in a d230 teachers union member i'm writing to you today to strongly encourage you to reject administration's plan to return to in-person learning in august i am very concerned for the safety of our students as well as myself our district has gone to great lengths to create schools that are technologically advanced we have given every student a laptop computer and the staff has been well trained in using technology in the

073classroom but we all want to be in the classroom teaching i believe it is the best interest of our students and staff to begin the year utilizing the remote learning we have worked so hard to establish we really need to listen to the scientists and doctors who are telling us that quarantines work look at what happened in florida and texas when they opened up too soon our district has always been an example of south suburban districts to emulate let's continue to lead by making a decision that is based on scientific evidence and sound logic thank you for your time from rich carrick my name is richard curie and i'm a union member of district 230 i thank you for your constant contribution to our students families faculty staff and many stakeholders of the communities that

074you serve i am emailing you today to let you know that i am not the only union only union member who is in favor of starting the school year off with remote learning and thus not in support of your proposed plan i can go on for hours about why we should start school with remote learning but i will just echo the words of multiple superintendents around the state from down south to our own region it was it will be difficult to follow cdc guidelines during this time putting the students teachers staff and even parents at risk because of the disease transmission and losing even one student or one family member to cover 19 to transmission from a student due to hybrid or face-to-face teaching at this time is losing one too many there is too

075much at stake at this point and too much uncertainty with going back to our buildings between 500 and 800 students and staff members in a building at one time even going back 25 would not follow cdc guidelines and putting students staff and parents at risk numbers are up as a whole numbers of 10 19 our demographic and 20 to 29 year olds are at an all-time high even our president wants us to wear a mask now a complete 180 from earlier in the spring we need to remember that earlier on in new york had high numbers due to sending the elderly back to nursing homes and that was an ignorant initial response to the pandemic now that we have more science to back up the data we must do what is right for our students

076and start with remote learning thank you for your time i'm colleen gelfie as a parent of a student at bja and a district 230 union member i am one of the 83 of our community members who said we are ready to send our kids to school in person to destruction after reviewing the most recent draft of the reopening plan i have a few questions and concerns to be honest this plan is unnecessarily complicated with the expectation that 75 of our students attend my live connection while the other 25 are in class this plan only leads itself to remote teaching with the structure why have students in the building at all if teachers have to conduct the same lesson with teachers remotely as in class i was under the impression that in-person learning would mean i

077could engage with students seated before me while the students at home worked on other tasks but with this structure the student and class will serve as a live audience for my remote session also one day of in-person instruction for 30 minutes is simply not enough why not two days and what has to change in order to transition students to two days a week it is vitally important for teachers to build connections with students in the first couple of months in case we have to transition to fully remote learning later in the year and that can be the best achieved through in-person instruction students need more time in class thank you for your consideration jill wright i'm writing to you as an employee of district 230 and a member of the d230 teachers union i feel

078fortunate to have spent my career at a school district that has always strived for innovation aquatic equity and progress this past spring despite all the challenges with the quarantine brought i was so proud that d230 had everything in place for e-learning while so many had to scramble to transition and while the grading mandate was not one that encouraged every student to participate to their fullest i found that the majority of my students did make progress some of my students even thrived especially those who tended to have anxiety and or attendance issues during in-person school i do not nominate the difficult decisions that you are that are before you at this juncture i know that the plan to return to school this fall is one that has been a labor of evolving hours of thought it

079represents the best effort to meet the many academic social and health needs of our students the flaw in the plan is the same as the flaw in the plan of nearly every school district and country there are simply too many unknowns what if what if it is too soon and even one student teacher staff family member loses their life because of exposure tied to the return what if the long-term effects from contacting contracting covet 19 because statistically there will be school-related infections that are just beginning to be understood are dire are more dire than we knew than we believe what if we ended up having to run to fully remote learning because of an infection or because of a state mandate as a scientist i spent my career evaluating information and using this to inform

080my decisions i'm not an alarmist i'm someone who or someone who lives in fear i fully believe that this pandemic has a finite timeline and that a vaccine is on the horizon however scientific thought has taught me patience patients to know when the most prudent thing to do is to wait for more data now is one of those times everyone is anxious to return to normalcy i can't imagine a fallout a fall without the excitement of meeting new classes in person introducing students fun of physics listening to the marching band practice outside my office window homecoming all the traditions the newness that make me love my profession but the proposed hybrid learning is not going to bring normalcy the time in history is just never going to be normal since the normalcy that we long

081for is not possible i'm asking you to keep us safe our district has the resources to offer quality education remotely to me this is the chance we have been waiting for to put the investment and technology and training to the test and prove to ourselves that it has been worthwhile this pandemic is not going to last forever and patients may be our very best ally in the return to normalcy only history will show whether we return too soon but i guarantee in the historical context two three even six months will seem a short time to have had to do to be patient please consider full remote learning in district 230 until there are fewer what ifs my thoughts are with all of you and i thank you for your incredible service to district 230. from

082gordon engelhardt the disappointment of the district's back-to-school calendar is gut wrenching i continue to see the statement of students well-being so let's look at it from a vantage point in action currently and currently in illinois under stage four the largest establishments that are open are restaurants hospitals are the exception while eating establishments are limited to 50 capacity there are none that will hold a minimum of nearly 1 000 people interacting and changing who who they sit with or walk with for seven hours a day staff would face these numbers for an added four days a week the number of potential exposures students would face to this highly infectious copenhagen virus would be unprecedented no establishment other than hospitals have had so many people in such counts of proximity for such an extended amount of time

083even sporting events have less participants and those individuals are tested continuously i do not see in this plan that everyone will be tested daily temperature do nothing if a person is asymptomatic cdc and world health shows studies that asymptomatics are the super breeders super spreaders of this virus if one student gets sick what will be the repercussion if that person is asymptomatic and spread the virus to their friends staff and family then what if they are unlucky and die would you say if only we hadn't i watched my wife dying she was on a ventilator for three weeks her cause of death came as a total surprise i had no choice how i wish every day that i could have prevented it the members of the board however do have a choice you could say

084we are not willing to expose our children to the potentially lethal virus yes education is very important but i would contest that a person's life is far more important than in-person education for staff our risk is compounded four times we will be in contact four days a week seven hours a day and we are the oldest population who are at risk of complications of this virus we unlike students are not given the opportunity to teach learn remotely what is the option for those staff members with diabetes obesity age copd etc this in-person learning at this time is a gamble a gamble that no one will get sick over the next 18 months a gamble that would affect our lives and our family's lives forever you have to you have an opportunity to protect our students

085and community by issuing remote learning for the fall semester is it ideal in a world with covet 19 no but we are in this pandemic remote learning is far more ideal than the risk of any student staff and family member becoming sick is the health and well-being of anyone in our schools worth the risk of in-person learning over remote by action that is what this plan is saying i beg you to consider and implement remote learning for the fall semester of 2020. from katherine v hello i am a former student and current taxpayer of district and i have many many concerns about your plans to be open i have to say i'm appalled that you are willing to risk your employees co-workers lives and your students lives by opening the school how ironic that you

086did not feel safe enough to have this meeting in person due to covet 19 that you want your schools to be packed full of thousands of students and teachers i am so thankful for the education i received at stagg high school i am so thankful for my teachers that truly care about my life as well as my well-being so many of them are still employed at stag and i'm absolutely horrified that you are choosing to put their safety and their lives at risk please don't do this if you open the schools it would be a slap in the face to your students teachers and every single essential worker that has put their life on the line for us not to mention the hundreds of thousands of people who have died from this horrific virus i'm

087kristin corcoran my name is kristen corcoran i'm a member of the teachers association and a teacher at vja my concerns for the proposed plan are for our staff and our students and may i feel hopeful that our nation will be a better place and debit wise unfortunately this is not our reality one of my greatest joys is being in the classroom with my students and i've been lucky enough to do this for the past 15 years i'd like to stay healthy enough to do this for at least another 15 years please consider the proposed plan in favor of remote to start with a reassessment after the certain amount of time not only is it the safest option and follows the most current research available it also allows teachers to focus our efforts at making remote

088teaching the best it is can be for our students the risk of this plan is not worth the reward at this point in time i'm an educator a devoted one i'm also a daughter wife aunt mother friend and i'd like to be all of these things for many years to come i want my students co-workers and families to have the best possible chance at staying healthy any choice other than starting remote and reassessing is not worth the risk there are too many unanswered unanswered questions at this time i'm michael murray my name is michael murray and i'm a d230 teachers union member i would like to strongly encourage you to not accept the administration's current plan for returning school i'll simply give what i think is my best reason what's the rush why not step

089back let the districts try let other districts try it and see what happens looking at our state versus wisconsin in recent weeks i think it is an apt comparison we remain shut and our numbers have dropped wisconsin opened up and their numbers are rising heck tonight's meeting is going to be held remotely for health reasons why would students returning to our schools feel any safer from kristen mazda hello i'm a union member teacher and a parent and i have multiple concerns for the updated school opening plan how can administration hold a virtual meeting to ensure the safety of all yet our reopening plan recommends students and teachers at risk in person teachers at risk in-person classes for the next three weeks research has shown that the virus spreads through air quicker than indoor environment since

090the entire school building share the same hvac the virus would spread to all very quickly the illinois federation of teachers unions the iea cps unit and many other teachers unions have demanded full remote learning and i believe we should too how can we ensure proper home health checks when students or staff members may be asymptomatic 25 to 50 of our student population has roughly 500 or more students plus staff members that is too great for a number of individuals in an indoor environment what will our district do is students cannot wear a mask due to certain health issues or if a student refuses to wear them if a student takes their mask off in a classroom hallway or cafeteria then people will potentially be exposed if a student or staff member tests positives and we

091are required to quarantine for cdc recommendations how will this impact our sick days if our district legally responsible if someone contracts the virus on campus school districts such as home at flossmoor evanston stevenson and oak park rivers forest are pursuing full remote plan due to the health and safety of their community and our district should do the same i do not want to choose between my job and my health nor do i believe it is fair to ask that of teachers if ihsa has announced plans to delay fall sports which most of those are held outdoors why would we not postponing class in-person classes as well as covet 19 members in illinois continue to spike daily why would this be a safe time to put people together in one building if students are given the

092option to choose full remote learning due to safety concerns then i believe it is only fair to allow employees the same option the surgeon general and multiple other medical individual individuals expressed concern that now is not the time to open schools and why are we not listening to medical advice i believe in our staff members that i know we will continue to deliver meaningful lessons and make connections with our students while continuing remote learning students cannot thrive in high stress environments which is what in-person classes currently are students will be fearful how can desks in classrooms be appropriately disinfected within passing periods what about students or staff that have elevated risk factors will they be allowed to pursue remote learning given the crisis the pandemic i beg you to not allow in-person classes until we

093have enough information and evidence to safely open schools i respectfully request the district we choose to continue remote learning for the upcoming school year from claire devontes my name is claire davontes i am a teacher at andrew high school and a member of our union i love my job and desperately want to go back to school i want everything to go back to normal right now we are in the midst of a pandemic normally is not going to happen anytime soon when we ended in person instruction in march the daily common case count was in the low double digits today our case count was nearly 1600 the fact that we are even debating whether or not to return to in-person instruction is unfortunate returning to school even at 25 capacity still exposes students and staff

094to hundreds of people a day it isn't a matter of if someone gets coveted it's when how can the district and board guarantee that no one will get it one return in august are we willing to sacrifice a student or staff member the solution is simple we must begin the school year remotely and remain remote until we have a consistent and substantial decrease in cases i understand that this is not an easy decision to make and that regardless of what is decided someone will be left unhappy perhaps the district and board would reconsider making this kind of decision one that has potential to kill or cause permanent lung long-term damage to the health and safety of students once they are able to meet in person to discuss and vote on it your health and well-being

095is very important so is mine and that of my students i implore you to consider what many of my colleagues are asking for which is remote start to the school year and our last comment is from michelle hutchinson teachers association president one thing that is and has been abundantly clear to me as the association president is that the teachers in our association truly love their work it's a calling we are truly d230 proud we miss our students and desperately want to return to our pre-coveted world and other wishing if only wishing made it so sadly we are in an unstable world fighting an invincible force with deadly capabilities and characteristics that are not fully understood by experts i know that today the district 230 administration will be presenting a reopening plan to the board this

096model will have our students in the building at 25 capacity while the association understands the district's motivation as fierce protectors of our students we are very concerned about how we will remain student and staff safety the risk of return is very disconcerting at this time especially with the rising numbers of cases in the state and in the towns our schools are located in a survey of our association members this week showed that 60 of our teachers favor remote learning as teachers we all recognize how important in-person learning is we also recognize the hybrid model will be considered more socially distanced learning students will need to stay six feet apart from each other and keep their mass on all day as teachers we will not be able to take advantage of the strategies that we know

097work best with students such as collaboration grouping cooperative learning reciprocal teaching and peer learning it is possible that essential curricular minutes can be lost as teachers work to ensure that everyone is maintaining social distance wearing masks and hand sanitizing teachers and students especially those with high risk medical issues will be trying to teach and learn in classrooms that they will have to hope are being cleaned properly students will have to change classrooms and walk in hallways that may not have been the proper ventilation needed to give them to keep them from getting sick remote teaching learning in fall 2020 will not resemble the crisis teaching learning that occurred in march 2020. the new guidelines from hisby will allow us to teach new concepts give praise and assessments and create a remote environment that works for

098our students and staff the association understands the decision to reopen schools is not that not one that the district or board takes lightly we implore you to let classes start remotely the association is certain that at this time remote learning is the only safe option for our students staff and community in closing i will leave you with this thought as an english teacher i usually find irony enjoyable but in this case it is disturbing and dangerous how prudent does it seem to open schools to thousands of children and adults when we have to conduct a board meeting virtually thank you caroline from reading the the comments and they will be part of the minutes um for uh they'll be logged in the minutes um that um concludes our presentation to the board and um it

099does sorry that's all right um the one thing i want to make sure is in the minutes is that uh especially in response to some of the comments this meeting was not held remotely we were present for the meeting so just so that is it is no we were not remote when we held this meeting um okay at this time i would like to ask for a motion please i move the school board adopt the kova 19 reopening plan approval resolution as presented second well she made my member of sullivan seconded by a member of murphy peterson to approve the colbig reopening plan this time i would ask for any comments or questions i i i'd like to address some of some of the issues that we uh we just heard it's this is an

100extraordinary historical time i think we have to acknowledge the the elephant in the room there isn't a plan that in existence that could possibly be drafted that can address all of the concerns of everybody in our district we have to acknowledge that everybody comes from their own position their own background their own experiences and consequently this plan might not be perfect for their family but i can't help but also notice even in the objections that we're reading into the record that everybody seems to be looking at this from their own perspective as a board we don't have that luxury we have to look at what is the best interest of thousands of kids and i do know that there are parents that are clamoring for their kids to get back in school and anybody who

101thinks that teaching by way of zoom or or remote teaching is the same as face-to-face has never experienced either one because there is no comparison i personally i don't want to break into anecdotes but i taught a zoom class last week and i taught a face-to-face class today to law enforcement they are worlds apart and delivery content by way of virtual teaching is a weak form of content delivery period it's not that it can't be done it's not that our students can't learn something but it's much less effective and we have to acknowledge that so i think as a board we have to do what's what ultimately is best for everybody rarely would i ever be in a position where i would disagree with our teachers our teachers are the backbone of of this district

102and uh we've always had i think a really great relationship with them and i hope that certainly continues but we don't have the luxury of of making decisions based upon family concerns and family issues that that clearly affect and frankly tug at the heartstrings of all of us that it may affect their individual families we can only hope for the best for them individually so i certainly hope that this vote whatever it might be recognizes that there is no perfection we have to make the call show some backbone step up to the plate and and do what's best for everybody the entirety of this district thank you dave anyone else i totally agree dave and this is unprecedented times we don't know i think that a lot of work and time has been put into

103this plan to try to really accommodate the majority as safely as possible i did have a question if anyone in this room could possibly answer what have we done with our hvac system filters have we changed to hepa filters have because it seemed like a lot of concern about air conditioning which is in the news we're not really supposed to be inside but if we changed any of our filter systems in our buildings dave you can you may want to come to the microphone because i think it's this is dave keating our director facilities yeah currently um we change our filters as uh as needed through the school district we've got a set pm system that comes out every three months so our filters are stronger you put in have stronger filters and you're going

104to start your units and you'll hear all air cushion breakdowns you'll have no airflow at all so putting in a stronger air filter won't help but we are in the process of looking into certain things that will help break down particles in the air and we're trying our best but all the school districts do the same thing at colleges so we're trying our best to get all the equipment we can to help so we already looked at sites for i feel there's our change regularly but um but we're looking at roof type units that are the large spaces that will um we're pretty confident of those that we're going to be able to do the airflow so yeah the the hvac system is is definitely something that dave's been working on in john level under

105his leadership and actually a name from the past five years is on roofs as we speak looking at that and then my next question would be is there any plan or a possibility to let the students and staff during lunch hours go outside they have a break they have fresh air yes part of the pe program that we're looking at as pe students is every day is to go outside take the mat have students take the mask off go outside um walk the track they're not gonna be able to change in the in the pe locker room but to walk the track walk around the outside of the building when that's there we believe it's probably important to take the mask off is when they can um in the event it's it's it's a rainy

106day as we move forward to you know fall or whatever um we talked about mindfulness that activities that can take place in schools and in the gyms are pretty large again if we're at 25 percent we're talking maybe 10 to 12 students we in this large space that would be able to possibly um i think we talked about taking working with them as well with the teachers and staff would there be any time carved out for them to have the same because wearing a mask for six hours is going to be challenging correctly i'm wrong i think teachers still have a planning period so the teachers have a planning period they teach typically five they have a planning period every day that they would be able to take it off the student the teachers will

107be here before the st the students they're at that point as well and i believe if they're in their work space depending on some somewhat some places they have their own classroom some places they don't in a workspace there's barricades so yes there would be time for staff too we agree it's this is we're sitting here at a meeting right now for a couple hours and if a classroom has windows that can open will they be allowed to open the windows to make them feel more comfortable and have fresh air circulating yes ma'am okay i think that was all my questions i think i got a quick question that just thought of a little off topic but are we gonna have student teachers in the building in the fall i don't know that yes dr

108wheaton says yes it could be student teachers that program's still going through the schools through the colleges universities well that's something we need to address as well haven't already mm-hmm but i mean davos what he said is i couldn't say any better so thank you it was great my thoughts exactly um you know you have legitimate concerns from the teachers uh but we also know that we have legitimate certain concerns for the students and they've been out since march and they need that connectedness and even that social and emotional structure um so that's kind of what my thoughts are on that okay so kate um i just wanted to say thank you dave because i think you summed up quite a bit of how we're feeling i did have one question for dr wheaton as

109they were asking in regards to if they're sick are our teachers and staff considered under the cares act are the teachers under the cares act if they're sick okay thank you thank you one last thing i want to publicly congratulate the the committee for putting all the work in i know this was going on for a couple months and there's a whole big organizational structure pyramid put together so a whole lot of people put a lot of work in this as dave mentioned there's no perfect plan but uh looks like you've thought of everything you could possibly think of although you never know now nowadays but uh i just want to publicly thank you all for doing a whole lot of work and we really appreciate it thank you sir one more thing and for

110the public that's watching us also the as the numbers change this this could get shut down anyway okay the governor could shut us all back in and then we have to follow those we have to follow what the state mandates we are a public school so um just echoing what dave mentioned at the beginning of this as the board the board has to do what's right for the majority and for the majority it seems that the families really understand and know that their kids need some kids a lot of kids need in-person teaching some kids can handle the remote this is a hard time for both because even be at 25 is not going to be the same the schools are going to be very different irregardless but a lot of kids do need to

111be in the building seeing their teacher sitting in a desk and having as traditional of a of a day as they possibly can so we really are sensitive to all the factors we truly are yeah one last thing um you know dr gabe mentioned before this thing is really flexible this plan yes the chance of this of us implementing this on the 12th or whatever they are and then again on the 20th and then again on the 24th and the chances of something changing is you know pretty likely you know considering every other change been going on since march so and that's something to keep in mind this is a flexible plan i'm sorry to interrupt but yeah that's true and even if the board approves us and we're in the 25 we don't have

112a deadline you know that we may phase in moving up forward as we move forward um and we will you know we have to have a plan so we have a structure so we can do the next steps that are necessary to be planning as we know we'll start somewhere yeah and i i do think you alluded to it in your presentation but if in fact there was some type of unfortunate uh suddenly all kinds of people started becoming infected that there was a brick we could go right to remote immediately 100 this plan allows us to easily transition to a fully remote plan because every wednesday no matter what program we have 25 percent 30 whatever every wednesday is fully remote basic asynchronous sorry guys they're looking at me thinking this um so to

113transition the full remote we think is seamless at any time it's a tremendous amount of work because it's a tremendous amount of work trying to think of every conceivable thing and cover it is it's just phenomenal that you guys you know worked and i know like somebody said you you know got to turn on a dime you got to pivot because you've got everything in place and you think you're almost done and then all of a sudden oh no wait no it's different so it is really a difficult task thank you for doing it um and um it is it is it's a tough thing to decide on it really is it's a really hard decision to make yes ma'am yeah so anybody else have anything else all right then i guess i'll just wrap

114it up and uh you know again and kind of working off what dave said i mean this is a very very difficult decision for the board it's something that we do not take lightly and there's a lot of issues here we understand teachers issues we understand the students issues many of us um have either ourselves or our spouses that are essential workers that have to deal with this on a daily basis many of us are out working now and dealing with this on a daily basis it's just life that has to be dealt with and sometimes it's not the easiest thing to do what i would say right now is um and kind of as as pat said and and looking at our students you know we we mentioned a lot about the concern of

115the students contracting coverage or the teachers but the one piece that wasn't mentioned by anybody is the social emotional piece of our students we don't know what's going on in the mind of those students well they've been sitting home for months not having contact with their friends with their companions missing out on a lot of things that kids their age should be able to participate in and i think that also has to be taken into consideration that there are a lot of other issues here besides colvin yes covet is the most important overriding issue and is it a concern of course it is i'm not waving it off or taking it lightly but the point i'm trying to make is is that i believe right now it is essential for our students to get back

116to some type of normalcy and as a result of that i feel that our teachers have become essential workers and as a result of that i think it's time that we get them back in the classroom with our students and do this as best as we can we have the possibility that we have to go backwards and we all understand that but the plan is flexible enough to take that into consideration and on the other hand we also understand as we've said a number of times this plan has been gone through numerous times to try to look at every single flaw and every single possibility of something going wrong to make sure that we could put controls in place nothing is flawless nothing is perfect nothing can guarantee anything and i hate to use this

117phrase because you know it's used all the time but nothing is guaranteed and all we can do is the best we possibly can do and move forward so if no one else has any comments uh lisa let's vote remember o'sullivan yes member o'connor yes member gracias yes member murphy peterson yes member dalton yes member heartick members here tori yes the motion passes the reopening plan is approved once again thank you everyone and the meeting is adjourned oh i'm sorry excuse me everyone excuse me you know there's a lot of work out of us and we're prepared to do this and we're going to be as many you guys said we're going to be watching what's happening out there we will you know um we'll continue to work with our amazing associations all three associations our

118teachers our food and esp associations to work to get the as we transition into the next next phase and um we're going to be deliberate we're going to be meaningful we'll be thoughtful as we move um with our staffs and with our students as we as we bring people back in a very deliberate way and we're not this is not a race we're not trying to be the first sisters district to have 100 percent back that's not the point right point is there some continuity so i thank the board for their support yeah and we would expect no less again thank you all right now at this time i'd ask for any motion to adjourn i'm or do you want the motion for the to vote this in but we voted you just did just

119a motion to adjourn yeah we voted in six years now we just need the motion to return so moved okay all right motion made by member of murphy peterson second event member dalton to adjourn and we vote please member of sullivan yes member o'connor yes member gracias yes member murphy peterson yes member dalton yes member sarah tory yes we are adjourned at 7 39 p.m thank you everyone yes thank you