001you yeah so based on our conversations I think the recommendation is that we move comments from the audience since we do have patrons to wish to share their comments let's go ahead and move that for any any action items and just if I could one housekeeping item with that we are recorded or we will be writing down a list of questions that are there opposed tonight and we will be answering those questions and posting those in an FAQ style formatted document on the Greencastle corporation website good evening and thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak tonight as many of you know my name is Kristen Hamilton and I am the seventh grade math teacher parent of two high school students and president of the green castle classroom Teachers Association I would like to
002begin by thanking mr. Gibbon II for ensuring the voice of teachers was included in the re-entry committee we had great conversations about how the proposed plan would look at each building I know that we all still have questions and are unsure about the unknown with this virus I would like everyone to know that mr. Gibbon II and dr. French have been working very closely with gcta to make note of questions and concerns from teachers together we are working hard to address these concerns for example once the re-entry plan is approved we will have building specific meetings to iron out details and answer lingering questions I feel strongly that the teacher voice is heard is being heard and will continue to be heard as we have a strong system in place to ensure this I know
003that we all come tonight with concerns and let's face it we all have different opinions on what is the best idea what I would like to remind everyone is that there isn't a one-size-fits-all answer to anything and we must do what's best for everyone which means we need to meet in the middle I am sure that many of you are whispering because I'm not wearing a mask right now that's okay but do you know that I suffer from claustrophobia and anxiety if I wear a mask for longer than 30 minutes I will be in bad shape we need to remember that everyone is in a different situation and that is why I am in support of the flexibility built into the proposed plan one of my co-workers said it best yesterday I feel these eight
004as good of a plan as you can have all kids are different and need different things it is up to the parents to decide what is best for their kid the flexibility allowed in the proposed plan allows for a virtual option for those who are uncomfortable sending their child to school and it also allows for an at-home learning should someone become ill and/or need to quarantine I don't stand here tonight with all the answers nor do I stand on one side of the fence or the other instead ice man I stand smack dab on top of the fence as a happy media I would like everyone to remember that we all have the same mission here and that is to provide quality education in a safe manner let's work together and not against each other
005thank you hello my name is logan kuhn i am the department here at the ice math department here at the high school mostly i would like to say that you'll have an impossible job right now and even at the best of times the school board is so school board students are always questioned super-intense decisions always questioned I know how hard you are working at this how hard their answer team is working at this I support really opening up schools so and I'm gonna try to be a good follower my questions tonight are mostly just about logistics so I'll probably ask one question then if anyone else wants to come up I will cede the floor to them so you don't hear me excessively my first question in the planet says there will be situations when
006maths will be required bus passing period hallway clinics or classroom activities whereas social distancing is not an option given that many times I might have 25 students in my classroom and 25 28 in my classroom and keeping students 6 feet apart at that time is going to be an impossible possibility but masks are not required only stalling strongly recommended is that something that I need to address with my principal or are there tummy time just in the classroom right I can say to my students you need to have your mask on at this time yeah I think it would be easiest in that form because I'm hopeful that what we shared tonight will help to answer some of these but if not Logan please reach out to me and share those questions with me and
007we can talk about that because it's our goal to to answer everyone's questions the best we possibly can in a timely timely manner so yeah certainly I think work okay my name is Bree sink my question actually dovetails very nicely with the previous one just seeking some clarity about what's in the plan here or me under the section on masks it said there will be situations where masks will be required bus passing period hallways clinics and classroom activities where social distancing is not an option and I see under the section on health clinics it says real clearly all students and staff will be required to wear a mask in these areas so that's made very clear on the under the section on transportation though I see that it says all students will be asked to
008wear masks on the bus so our masks required on the bus or are they not and or broadly I see that you chose to take an approach where the general rule gives no masks requirement and then carve out specific areas where you will be requiring masks could you provide clarity on why you chose that approach as opposed to a general rule requiring masks with specific or case-by-case carve outs from that requirement my name is Logan key okay this next one is is fairly broad and a lot of these questions I know you may not have an answer to now there's no precedents for this and that's okay I understand so we shut down for the remainder of year on May 1st and there's a lot of numbers in play here Indiana had a moving average
009of like 695 cases on a seven-day average very little testing being done then now there's a lot more testing and so and so you would expect with more tests and you would find more positive cases um currently sorry as a to date two days ago I believe we had a moving average of about five hundred eighty four cases predict is there gonna be a number is there a number or some threshold at which at which we look at that and say Indiana has crossed X number of new cases per day we are going to shut down for a time B or Putnam County has we as X number of new cases per day on the seven day average we are going to shut down for now or Greencastle schools has had 1012 new cases we
010are going to shut down for a time beef is there going happy is their way to talk with health officials or and find some number that kind of takes the emotion out of it and just kind of says look we crossed this threshold or stopped we're gonna go to e learning for a little while so again I don't expect you to answer that at this time but general question for you i appalled to del a local restaurant McDonald's owner I get the joy of employing a great portion of your students net that's awesome for me as I'm hearing these questions in your response I'm excited to hear what you present well we have a chance to ask questions afterwards because I might want to like prefer to ask them after I hear what your perspective
011is yeah absolutely absolutely I mean I could be good to know I mean I just forgot here but I'd like to know where your stance is it's written in paper but the your conversation might help us have a better way to ends ask questions the allman thank you for the special session my name is Vaughn salvia my father my questions are part of a follow-up to the threshold question not only do you have thresholds established in the state or the community in which we're at for when you would have a back out plan but have you talked about the back out plan and what that looks like and are there stages of the backups thank you hey my name's Stephanie Kernan I am teach children in the community system and I am also a healthcare
012provider and work for now I work for global companies so I've been hearing from our medical directors globally about the pandemic starting back in January with our Hong Kong office so building on what Vaughan and Hull were asking I would definitely I think clarity about the threshold is really critical I would also add that I'd like to have clarity on if teachers have been get I know when this happened in March it was quite sudden and I would like to have clarity if they've had time to build into their lesson plans or are certain teachers being assigned to be online focused teachers this might be an opportunity where you could have you know children who have more learning delays and challenges have a teacher assigned with them if they have to learn from home a
013lot of those kids and my experience from working at Riley have a lot of higher risk health issues too you could also you know there's some kids who don't get into high ability in T Z because their math score isn't as high as their reading score and you could partition that out for instance so I'm just wondering what the plan looks like for the online learning and have they really had time to build that are they going to be flying the plane while building it again and if maybe it was been considered to the layest will start so that they can get some of these things in place to reduce the anxiety of the teachers and the families that have a lot more of a this is how we're going to do things versus OTV
014didn't know this would happen and here we are again and then I also want to just ask a little more clarity on the outdoor learning options and what recess will look like and other activities where they might be outdoors we have a niece who attends a full-time outdoor school that she's attended for well before this pandemic and our time in Norway last year we saw a lot of evidence that this is all feasible even in a country where things are cold but maybe it would take some community contributions of gear and things like that or maybe more options for outdoor play that don't involve the playground so I'm just wondering where we are with that thank you hi my name is ELISA Isaac's Bailey and I am a teacher at the little school and I
015love being a teacher anyone who knows me knows that and I love to teach ham Greencastle and I will be teaching at Green castle no matter well I hope no matter what happens here tonight but I feel to clear my conscience I just need to say one thing and this is as someone who was at the meeting where the teachers were brought in and I I really appreciated how all that was handled so I have no issue with the process I don't even have a lot of issues with the final document when I became a teacher I knew the part of what I had to do was teach my kids how to handle a fire drill I knew I had to teach them what to do if a tornado came and even later in my
016career what to do if God forbid someone would enter our school and try to hurt them and I have been able to reassure them at all points that I will do whatever it takes to keep them safe and for the first time there's a chance that school will start where I will not be able to say that because if they are not wearing masks when they are as close to each other as we all know they're going to be in the classrooms I am NOT doing everything I can as their teacher to keep them safe thank you [Applause] I sent a theme here um I support these inter masks and they are obviously I'm wearing one I know there's a lot of mistrust because at the beginning we were told masks were not effective and
017then you're told that they should be and some people view that as political or media hype or anything along those lines as someone who as a mathematician I also tend to lean towards science and say look at when we know better we update our models and we do better there are certain things that used to be accepted as good practice and now we say no that is not good practice based on new data however with that in mind if a decision were to be made that masks should be mandatory is there is there going to be an exit plan for students to say I am NOT going to wear masks or parents say I'm not going to wear masks is it going to be an option for them to move towards towards online learning or
018something of that nature thank you and that was my last question hi good evening my name is Lynn Ramey and I'm a parent of the senior year at Greenhouse would you be able to tip the microphone oh sure thank you my name is Lynn Ramey and I'm a parent of a student here at castle high school I'm hearing a concern for months a lot of misinformation with data and so I guess and I'm a data person I guess I want to this is the absolute cases ever in the school where is the goal those people in our society who are most vulnerable to this disease I don't care what side of the aisle you're on there's a new disease out there we don't have a vaccine there are some that are at risk but that
019being said the data if you go to the Indiana coronavirus dashboard that is updated it shows very clearly that people 19 and under are not dying from this disease there are two people in the state of Indiana with 6.7 million people that have died from this disease okay so two there are a lot of and our children are struggling emotionally and mentally and physically because of the lockdown and and all the answer and so there are probably you know we have to look for the population that's most at risk but we have to consider the fact that we are locking a population that is not necessarily at risk the data yes cases were up and then they came down now they're up ticking but we're testing like crazy but if you look at the hospitalization
020rates for the state and specifically for our County they are falling like a rock surrounding counties are falling like a rock Indianapolis is having about seven to eight admits per day now in a county in a county that has a million people I could go on but the overall percent chance of a 19200 to 19 simply dying from this disease is 0.05 percent if you get the disease but overall it's point zero one three percent so I'm very troubled by what is the goal is it absolute no cases this disease will spread you can do until we change the system that is either a vaccine or we get hurt just can't the area under the curve the reason we shut down was to give hospitals a chance to breathe it's kind of like the early
021bird special you try to get your seniors in at four o'clock so that you don't have everybody rushing in at 6:00 you don't change the number of visitors you don't change the number of cases with what we did but we basically were trying to give hospitals a a buffer we have done that 84% of the ventilators in Indiana are available 48 percent of the ICU beds are available I just want to understand what is the goal of our school corporation again is it absolutely no cases or is it protecting those students and teachers and all that that are susceptible because if you can define the goal and you can you figure out how you need to lead so I appreciate your time and I am and I just asked you to keep watching the data
022and understand how it impacts the children here in our community thank you [Applause] Stephanie grinning again just to fall upon wetland fred up i think she makes a lot of good points but I also think we have to keep in mind that kids have been more protected from this from day one because they're not workers in the field and if you look at other countries like Hong Kong and Germany they take a lot they took a lot of measures to protect children we don't know enough about this yet and there are cases in New York and UK Riley I'm on some of their calls when I can work it in with my regular work schedule do you hear about updates where they have had kids who have died at the state you're right not very
023many but there have been cases of kids developing this Kawasaki Lake autoimmune disease which is very severe and so yes the risk is low but you really do need to think about long-term implications of this we don't know yet and kids who are older seem to have a higher risks so basically you're 12 to 14 and up age group and your and your kids in college are probably a substantially higher risk than kids who are younger based on the data that we have so far but again we you don't know I mean having a long term pulmonary or cardiac deficit is an issue and you also have to think about the teachers think the kids aren't in the school alone so you know we could have we have one of the neurologists I work with
024in Ohio it was reporting to me a medical journal about 30 and 40 year olds having strokes that are strokes that you don't normally see in people under the age of 75 who have high risk factors and these are healthy individuals so correct we have a lot of unknowns a lot of things to think about but with those concerns in place I would hope that we would take as many precautions and offer as many options as we possibly can because we may look back on this in five to ten years and say boy do we get it wrong and you know that so many works in health care with high-risk individuals i I know what can go wrong and what it can look like in the guilt that families and other individuals carry for the
025rest of their lives hi my name is Steven Timmerman my wife's a teacher here at Green castle and my question is I am reading through the materials it seems like the school's plan is to implement a hybrid system of online and traditional learning in order to give students who feel they may be a high-risk a chance to learn from home and not have to come to school put themselves at risk and my question is will that same leniency be afforded to the staff members that feel they might be at risk the ability to I don't know be one of those online teachers teaching from home or to be able to take a year's leave of absence until this pandemic is officially over will they be able to do that or will they be required to
026come in and put themselves at risk hi my name is Doug Hudson I'm the alternative and a quitter recovery teacher here in crummers I write Greencastle high school I came with nothing prepared matter of fact it was even just a few hours ago that I decided to make the drive to come down to the meeting I guess my first comment and I will pump we step on a few toes here is you can't please everybody whatever you read you will see that most experts say that kids need to come back to school or routine and for their socio-emotional help whether that's true or not we don't know but through coaching and through a lot of other different things yeah I think personally the kids want to come back they wanted to have a traditional graduation
027they wanted to have a lot of other things if they did not want to come back why would they want a traditional graduation why would they want things to put closure to their senior year if it wasn't important to them to see their friend also those that choose to not come back whether a teacher or whether a parent and student there are provisions in the reopening plan for them to make that decision and that is a decision that everybody has to make on their own in the 15 years that I've been a greek-ass of high school I feel that when I walk into my classroom hopefully August the 3rd is gonna be the cleanest classroom that I have stepped into in 15 years I feel that every day that I come back it's going to
028be the cleanest classroom that I have stepped in to fly because of all the protocols that have been put I appreciate the board I appreciate the committee this was not an easy task to undertake and I for one and very trusting in my colleagues whether it be through contract negotiations or whether it be to a reopening plan I read that document three or four times I underlined I highlighted I made notes and if I did not trust my colleagues then I wouldn't be hurt so to the committee to the board to mr. Gibbons to dr. French thank you from the bottom of my heart and I implore you to please approve this reopening plan and get it back to home to what we must thank you [Applause] you I'm Pali Hill I teach first grade
029at tomato um I'm absolutely for opening up the schools back for the kids but I would just really like it to be taken into consideration that I came to our pre-k and second grade building is significantly different then the even t'see the middle school the high school the things that the kids are going to be touching doing experiencing emotionally just in general um or really going to be challenging for them so I also want you guys to kind of take into consideration that k2 is kind of its own beast instead of looping it all together so just as you're thinking through some of the decisions that that would be a really helpful thing for us just another word kind of also be thought of for the little ones behaving thanks for opening this up my
030name is Peter Foss I'm a father of two graduated seniors I have a middle schooler right now and I teach Gilbert's College where for the last five months we've been trying to figure out what to do there it's not easy absolutely and yes of course we want the kids to go back to school we want them to learn and engage with their teachers and with their peers but I would urge the board to consider that we should consider that the default is being to masca with exceptions as needed for those who for medical reasons cannot do that safely or appropriately if we want to make sure that the community is protected not just the kids in the school because yes do young kids suffer from it as much as older people know but they sure
031as heck can pass it on it's not just about the kids getting sick it's about their teachers getting sick it's about staff members getting sick it's about parents and grandparents at home getting sick the reason that some countries have succeeded in suppressing the outbreak of this thought of this virus is because people have agreed to protect each other if we care about each other as members of the community and I think we do it's a small town it's a great town and part of that caring comes with a small inconvenience of being respectful to others by protecting the way that we will most likely transmit the virus to them if we have it and that is through speech through aerosols that we emit when talk when we breathe that's how this thing is getting spread
032that's why we're having universal mass policy at DePauw that's why Walmart is gonna require everybody to come in with mass that's why Kroger is gonna require everybody to come in with masks why because it is a single most important way for us to protect each other and we give up that individual bit of Liberty so all of us can have a little body thank you hi I don't mind wearing a mask but I can't speak on that you could understand me thank you I love the way this looks I've seen the one that's online and I was a part of making that and and I really appreciate you all prettying it up so that the parents can understand it a lot of other people have asked about the threshold and and that's the one thing
033I cannot find I know you all would there's a nice chart online that talks about what we're gonna do and it's very well set out what we're gonna do when there's low spread what we're gonna do when there's minimal what we're gonna do when there's substantial spread I don't know the definitions of those and and I know you guys didn't make up those words that comes from Indiana State Department health and I've tried to look there where is that definition they pitch it to the CDC I'm not a data I can't understand that Oh like one does so but I tried to look through their 62 page doc and I can't find it so if you could link or somehow in the footnote say what that's what is below what is it on what is
034it okay and thank you all so so much for work gentlemen thank you for taking these questions one of the concerns that I have looking over your plan here in some folks here is that it's as good a plan as you could do it I'm sure that's true I know you're working under very difficult circumstances but do you have plan to contingencies in place for auditing the effectiveness of this plan going forward are there individuals charged and authorized to verify that the processes and procedures you've outlined here are being faithfully applied and that they are effective in achieving their goals I know there's a lot of detail it still is going to be fleshed out I know some amount of it is going to be necessarily deferred to individuals in the classroom and the hallways
035but if going forward you discover that the social distancing or the cleaning or the screening procedures are not being apply affected us faithfully or are not effective do you have fans for one to detect that and to feel appropriately in particular um I have concerns about the cleaning I know that even in a normal year my children's teachers tell me sinned and whites sends Clorox wipes we need them we don't have them in our classroom and I remember how things were in March you couldn't get that stuff my partner runs a store downtown she can't currently source Clorox wipes for white Napa counties they're not available rule you have the materials you need thank you good evening my name is Angie weeks I teach second grade at Deer meadow I'm a community member at 20
036years I'm a parent of two children who are now going off to college this fall they are being mandated to have testing before they go to their campus I encourage you to think about how can our calendar be modified perhaps like our universities are doing across the nation do we have to be at our school site past Thanksgiving do we have to have all of our classroom there every day can we have half go Monday Tuesday the other half thirst Wednesday Thursday everybody stays home on Friday I think outside the box and I know there's so many more that are like me so many more also afraid to come up here and talk we shouldn't be afraid to talk where community members we work together we love our children our grandparents I'm also a local
037restaurant and to think about the fact that today the governor said we have to go back to 75% again and it breaks my heart to think our kids are being told they must go to 100% now don't get me wrong I want my job and I cannot wait to return to it March 13th I sunk into the largest depression I've ever had in my entire life I missed my children I missed my colleagues there were days I didn't even get out of bed but I rose up on July 1st and I said you know what I'm gonna have the chance to perhaps go back to teach I don't know how it's gonna be but there is a possibility and I'm encouraging everyone here to think about how to work together because I know there are
038more options I thank you for your time and I hope we can work together [Applause] yeah auntie Ridge is a really good point because I mean I think and also what Peter was saying we have to think about how our decisions are going to impact our community businesses as well in addition to lives and I think that economic impact is very much tied to the spread of this disease another question I wanted to ask is do we have a determination do we have a plan in place for what its gonna look like or my clarity I'm sure you'll go over it when a teacher or a student in a classroom or a pod is identified as positive or even as suspected of being positive if you look at the the states that have had outbreaks
039recently some of them are having turnaround times on testing that is exceeding two weeks and so what are we gonna do in that scenario I think it'll be really helpful for families and staff and kids to to know okay if a B or C happens this is the next step this is the plan you won't be in school with your classmates for two weeks or longer or whatever but you will have this learning plan in place I don't see clarity on that in the plan and I think that that would be helpful and in providing some understanding and then I think we also have to factor in what to do if testing is not as available as it should be it's very sad to me that we don't have more PPE we don't have more
040testing available and we don't have the cleaning supplies as Bruce was pointing out but those are things that are likely to become a problem particularly in the fall and you know of course we are going to be facing influenza I get to so these are things that you know are very likely to happen I think we should plan as if it will happen and then hope it doesn't but not the reverse oh thank you so much for you I'm here because I teach singing to all the kids at EC music it could go on but okay and recorder playing however I know they're all at your house your so enjoying the recorder right now during quarantine and I'm not afraid to talk so we can be here all night but anyway so I just wanted
041to ask because I'm really excited here from Jen and Kathy because I know we're gonna get an expanded plan I'm ready for that but something that I liked seeing here was that there was a category music because in the other plan I read the other night some stuff there wasn't really a category for music and so my question here it says students will have the opportunity to participate in music education well practice so much realistic thing yeah you're working on that in my plan and what I'm learning but it says if you're not comfortable with your child practicing on an instrument at this time please contact your schedule change I know that would probably work for like I guess I was looking for schools and has gone out to say we will be singing but
042only outdoors and with the mask outdoors or no see me at all various things like that I just want to make sure that I am aligned with you and aligned with what your expectations are before I even asked the children to engage even though I have a plan for them to be spread out in my classroom I know I think I would just like it some some more clarity there for the younger grades because I just can't imagine what's gonna happen if no your classroom teacher brings your kids to specials that high school and half of them are just gone and then we have to find an alternative place for half of them I don't know what that looks like and I just want that to be communicated appropriately to pants because they'll probably ask
043me to so thanks for doing all of this you guys because there's probably all kinds of things that I haven't even thought of and I'm gonna go quiet hello my name is Evan Scott I'm a custodian at Deer meadow primary and I just want to thank you all for the hard work you've done I know it's a difficult decision that you're making but in everything that I've seen and I've heard we focus on students and teachers specifically and that's great they're important but people like me and a cafeteria staff the instructional assistants we can't work or learn oh whatever the designation may be so I just want to ask that you keep us all in mind I know in my building specifically I'm 26 have no family so I'm fine if I get sick no
044one's gonna be affected but I'm I'm not I'm the only one in my building specifically that's not high risk when it comes to those staff members they all have families they're all either up an age or have medical issues or both so please keep them in mind please have a contingency plan ready should a lot of them get sick or we all have to shut down again because I know we're all worried about our jobs too so thank you please keep up and survive please keep our kids safe and let's hope get through this together thank you [Applause] Oh my name is Lizzie Timmerman I'm a third grade teacher at TV I'm really excited about the plan when I read I read through it like two or three times in very tough position and I'm
045glad I'm not in your shoes so thank you for all you're doing wonderful my concern is we have two nurses that flow between three schools and you said in the plan that we are going to have a regular clinic as well as a separate clinic for Copan how is that going to be feasibly run when there's a point in the day where high school doesn't have a nurse and same thing with other schools how are we going to make that work thank you it's me again I just have one comment I know that there has been it's expressed today and through several teachers about the test location at the fairgrounds being shut down a mayor Dory has confirmed that they did have to shut that down because of the fair but there will be a
046center set up at the fire station out by the yard waste recycling facility and for those of you that know me I don't even know where that is but I just want you to know that it is in the works and I don't know when it will be set up but that is in the plans I'm Liz Spencer and I've been here for a long time and I've enjoyed my time at Green castle schools a couple of things specifically related to the primary buildings even if we're in class on August 5th through the rest of the air there is nothing normal going to take place at our schools but the way teaching has changed with kids up and down and moving and small groups large groups it's not going to be normal for them and
047I just want to make sure that we understand that that it's it's gonna be a crazy year regardless the next thing I'd like to mention are the secretaries have something instead of the secretaries in our secretaries usually get to take care of the sick kids when the nurses aren't there and we on top of being concerned about this the Coburg we have like come in vomiting I just I really am concerned that for the protection of the Carey's because without them if they are the lifeblood of the school and without them we are in big trouble so please consider how we can possibly take care of our secretaries and as Evan said the custodians just realize that nothing is going to be normal for these kids in school this year I know everybody's thinking and
048planning and how am I going to keep these kids apart those small groups none of that kind of stuff so thank you thank you for all you've done and hey everybody great to see you I know this is a tough decision for you all to make I work in an online education we had a campus in Indy and it was part of the leadership team that had to shut down our campus and shift to a hundred percent online consider myself to be a zoom expert my name is Matt Cummings two kids in TZ really happy to offer any you know clarification or help with any platforms of shifting the online environments I have a couple questions so I was similar to Bruce where he's asking about compliance I know I look like a bureaucrat but
049uh compliance and it's something that really kind of sticks because if we've heard several people caught tonight and according to his symptoms expressed if someone expresses more than one symptom we're gonna be asked to stay home I'm curious whose job is going to be kind of a symptom police at the schools and exhibiting compliance with students and kids as they're coming in and expressing like coughing runny noses headache sore throats and things like that what is the actual plan for compliance when symptoms are expressed my second question is as someone who works in online education is there going to be training development for our educators and for the systems and for the school to ensure that these folks who are leading virtual classrooms also have best practice in both pedagogy but also like technology in
050place as well so I'm curious what money will be earmarked towards professional development for those teachers ensure that the experience on the online virtual classroom mimics and replicates experience both in the physical classroom as I believe that is tangible and doable for you know for an education environment obviously like I don't know if I could get actually focused for you know seven hours a day online but there are some best practices that may have to be put in place so there are some of the questions that I have I am in support of mandatory mass in our school Brundage for our staff or ever all the workers allow you know with a DEA exemptions as well so I appreciate your time I noticed a tough decision it's not fun there's a lot of opinions and
051a lot of folks with the different ideas I do urge all decision makers to ultimately listen to science and yet so thank you I'll make this short and sweet I saw something today I'm a big Twitter user and I've seen him several times what everybody needs to realize is school never closed the school buildings closed and I know myself and talked a lot of colleagues when we shut down in March our day who was actually longer and we worked harder from our home than we did if we were in the traditional classroom so I think the whole thing tonight is not are we going to open school is are we going to open the school buildings okay first thing is I'd really like to welcome everyone I certainly appreciate and respect the thoughts and the
052feedback shared by all families in this room or through through email I recognize this is a difficult time for our country our community at our school district where we are working to continuously hit a moving target the guidance is constantly chasing changing I know a lot of folks in here mentioned the data the data is constantly changing and so I really would like for everyone to keep in mind that we recognize that and certainly it wasn't a never intended for our reopening plan tonight to necessarily address every single single question but we will provide clarity and answers I definitely appreciate that but as we as we navigate this difficult time I don't know if people can heat can people hear me the way it is okay but just recognize that essentially the plan that we're
053going to be talking about tonight and I'm not going to go through line item by line item because we did post it on our document or excuse me posted on our website and we did share a draft of a simplified or easier to read handout that we'll also make available in addition to a frequently asked questions section on our website we're going to create a a Cova 19 tab so that we have a one-stop shop for everyone to visit to to navigate and pay attention to to update a guidance and we will work to to build that out over time as things change just a little bit about our reopening plan committee we have 37 different Greencastle Community School Corporation members administrators educators directors support staff members realize input from all different stakeholders groups with
054to gather expectations and concerns with regards to reopening our schools our plan utilize guidance from Indiana's in-class Cova 19 health and safety of reentry guidance document which was developed by the governor's office the Indiana State Department of Health the Family and Social Services Administration and the Indiana Department of Education I think it's very important to make clear that I am NOT a medical expert by any means and so we are going to rely on the guidance from the appropriate ants and entities and organizations as school staff is constantly participating in do a webinars and meetings to make sure that we are aware of the updated updated information so that we can make good decisions we had three goals established with our school reopening plan committee number one first and foremost we want safe learning environments
055we want to prepare students for academic readiness and we also recognize that it's important to meet the social emotional needs of our students and our staff just in any given school year that started the school year you know there's a lot of anxiety for a lot of our students returning and then we had the cove at nineteen pandemic on top of that and we recognized that we're going to have to be even more prepared than we ever have been the draft plan was submitted to the Putnam County Health Department for approval last week and they approved it I mentioned that we're going to create the Cova 19 tab we will make sure to put out good information through simplified handouts and then we'll have that have that running FAQ document Jenny if you could have
056advanced it so next slide so our continuous learning plan you know we recognize that each family has unique needs and unique factors regarding their circumstances we understand that on-campus learning might not be the best option for certain families or in particular instance if a family has a student who's medically fragile but we believe it's important to provide a variety of options for all we recognize the e-learning if necessary you know it's got to be more rigorous this time around I don't think there's a single staff member in this classroom that would argue with the that elearning was never intended to become distance learning it was meant to get get us through a snow day here there but it wasn't meant to be distance learning so we've been providing professional development for teachers all summer and
057we're going to continue to work with our teaching staff and also our parents to make sure that we have good systems in place for virtual learning and also if we are you know if we have another mandated closure and students are having to participate in and at eight mandated shutdown at home learning we've also applied for the governor's emergency education relief grant because we've recognized again that every family circumstances are different so the government has set aside 61 million dollars to support our state we are working with I believe our group is called Get Connected Putnam County and it's a collaboration among school districts and some some key partners because Greencastle specifically we want to be able to offer support with Connect connectivity if we are awarded a grant and that would involve a variety
058of different options for families to get connected I would like to point out we are in a better situation that some is we do have devices kindergarten through twelfth grade you know we still have to follow the state guidance with rece with respect to providing 180 days of instruction at the twenty twenty twenty one school year and essentially and looking at our different learning options for the twenty twenty twenty-one school year you could think of on campus learning as our more traditional learning experience following the reopening plan guidance we are going to offer a virtual learning option for families who either have an extenuating circumstance or potentially maybe aren't ready or don't feel safe coming back into our school buildings we still want to keep them as part of GCSE and offer them a good
059high quality education we have what is called Quarantine learning so if if there is an instance throughout the school year and a student is forced to to quarantine that way they remain connected with their classroom and have opportunities to make up all work work missed and assignments and then I won't go into again the mandated shutdown at home learning next slide please so there have been a lot of just the conversation on masks just in general we are the only Putnam County School District that is requiring masks and I would like to make a clarifying statement with regards to masks is mass are required in our reopening plan when social distancing is impossible so if there's a situation in a classroom where there's large you know a large size and social distance and can't be
060possible then masks are going to be required by both students and staff there was a it was mentioned about the about the buses there was a section to where after we revised it language wasn't updated bus drivers will also be required to wear masks as well so basically the rule of thumb is if social distancing can't be achieved masks will be required students and staff will be required to obviously have a mask with them at all times we did put in for the allotment from the Indiana Department of Education to where they are they will be providing Greencastle with one cloth or fabric mask for each staff member and student and this is something that certainly will be added to supply lists as well and we also have purchased some more of what you would
061call the surgical masks or the more temporary style mask for situations when those are needed we also recognize that certain staff members or certain students might have medical conditions that might prevent them from wearing a mask and if that's the case certainly we recommend that you speak with your primary provider or primary healthcare provider and also the school nurse so that we can plan for it and make accommodations for families as well you so social social distancing as you came in tonight you may have noticed some additional floor graphics or signs we recognize that you know this is new for everyone and so just much like with cleanliness and hand-washing and putting on and taking off a mask we're gonna have to teach our students and we're gonna have to train our staff with procedures
062and protocols and so one of the ways that we can do that is through utilizing helpful floor graphics and signs much like what you saw when you entered parkour auditorium tonight we do want to provide adjustments to our facilities and this is where things will really be more broken down by by buildings because each of our buildings is as unique certainly they all have their strengths but some of them also have their unique challenges and we recognize that but if we are going to work to maximize or create some additional opportunities where we can practice social distancing and I'm not going to read through the list but you can see examples of how we might create opportunities in classrooms and you know as we as we mentioned earlier it might not be every classroom but
063if we can create opportunities for social distancing in the classroom and the numbers allow and once students are seated the desks are all facing the same direction students would have an opportunity to take their masks off if they get up from their seat the mass has to go masks would have to go back off similar examples for the buses you know the cafeteria I know somebody mentioned recess you know we also have unique challenges in Indiana with the weather now some days it's really hot other days it's really cold I don't I think that most educators are of the mindset that if we can get students outside and we can take them on a break I'm all for for learning learning outdoors or learning in an outdoor space and I think the question was asked
064with with music or with band yeah there might be some opportunities especially with those particular groups so those are conversations that we still have to have specifically at the building level and we will and we will provide some additional guidance to families on what it might look like with it with the different different buildings to get advanced please I know the question has has come up about screening parents will be required to screen their students daily before sending them to school either by dropping them off or on the school bus and all staff will be required to self stream self screen excuse me before coming to school students and staff exhibiting symptoms the Cova 19 are prohibited from coming to school and they'll be sent home immediately we are already working with GCSE staff to
065provide them additional training and professional development in the recognition of Cova 19 related symptoms and how to respond to those types of situations we also plan to provide similar type of information to Paris checklists so that they can run through step by step how to screen how to screen their students next slide please another important topic in as I walked through through the school district today our staffs been obviously hard at work just preparing our buildings for their starter school and they look they look really clean we recognize that we're gonna have to provide enhanced cleanliness and our cleaning procedures have been updated and changed and for all classrooms buses playgrounds GCSE facilities supervisors are providing training to employees a good example of that would be when all school buses are sanest i sanitized after
066each route all of our drivers they we have pump sprayers with with chemical that is a against Cova 19 and other germs we have pump sprayers tool where they will be spraying down all of our buses we have additional spray cleaners and spray bottles that will be riding for teachers for classrooms I know that somebody mentioned the Clorox wipe wipes you know as with anything there are a lot of things that are just a lot more difficult to get your hands on right now and we recognize that and we are preparing for that so we've we've been planning planning for those accommodations and purchasing additional chemicals we've also purchased a lot of hand sanitizer it's all it all meets the specs for taking care of the Cova 19 related virus so all classrooms will be
067provided with pump sprayers Stew's will be sanitizing their hands multiple times you know on entering exited in classroom you know in the lunch line before class I mean we have we've really accommodated for that but that's something that we also again going back to it we know that we're going to have to teach the kids and train the kids especially our littles so we are we were well-prepared for working and the students with that you can advance it so each building the top of clinics has come up each building will have two different clinics so if you're thinking about in terms of it we would have a regular clinic that would just be for the typical normal you know students you know cutting their arm and needing a band-aid or or taking their their daily
068medication but then we would all we are also establishing a separate alternate clinic in which students are treated for our excuse me treatment of students experiencing kovat nineteen related symptoms additional considerations for these spaces for the clinics is mass will be required by all students and staff entering those areas and this is something that will be again preaching with parents's making sure that we have good updated emergency contact information listed in skyward we recognize that phone numbers and addresses and things of that nature change over time so if you could be extra vigilant in making sure that if if there is an update that you're providing that for us so that if there is a situation we can get a get a hold of families you know students who are sick and our Cova 19
069clinic you know they will be escorted outside to the parents vehicle and we have specific procedures and guidelines that were working with school staff to handle those handle those matters breakfast breakfast and lunch so probably one of the most important thing for kids is is when they get to eat so we still want to be able provide opportunities for for breakfast and lunch and certainly though I would like to take a moment to thank mrs. Carey Coe and her fur and her staff for continuing to take care of kids and families in the community you know you even students they weren't Greencastle specific during the period of time where school is closed and continuing over summer as we recognize that that really does go a long way in helping families out and we plan to
070obviously continue to offer opportunities for breakfast and lunch and should the situation rise if school were to close again we would work to provide opportunities for families but building administrators have already worked to adjustment that were fine-tuned they're already difficult schedules and have created additional lunch periods so that we can not necessarily have the same amount of students and in the cafeteria as we normally would do creating additional space for students to eat you know we may end up in a situation where we have an alternating eating schedule in an elementary building to where you know one day they're eating in their classroom and then you know the next day they get to go to the cafeteria to a more more traditional environment but still with a with a smaller space and and social distancing
071and and sanitizing and cleaning procedures in place you know our older students if we have outdoor eating spaces they might get to eat outside I know that again just going outside seen a little bit of sunshine and breathe them a little fresh air can do a lot for the for the mind we've eliminated self-serve options so that way you know students won't be won't be touch you know multiple students won't be touching the same thing again we'll have hand sanitizer in our cafeterias and they're serving lines and it will be a reinforced students will be asked to wash their hands before eating visitors so this is really tough because in a community like Greencastle we have really great community partners and volunteers at the same time this is something that's tough to do is we're
072gonna have to be extra vigilant on on limiting the amount of guests or visitors they'd enter our building so in our reopening plan we're only allowing four essential staff and those who significantly impact student learning to enter our building so a good example of that would be someone who is working with a particular student or a particular group of students on a weekly basis for reading or tutoring but it would really eliminate kind of those one-off opportunities where someone might come in and help out so this would be somebody that's a little bit more regular part of our building you know I don't necessarily know that it's going to be a possibility but I also I know in the past that we've had some students come over from DePaul so again I would identify those
073as regular visitors to our building all visitors obviously upon entry will be expected to report to the office to be screened and certainly we're going to limit them to only visiting their designated areas we won't allow for random random visitors water oh this is a this is a challenge you know it would be great if we had water fountains that you know if every water fountain had a water bottle filling station that was activated on a sensor we don't certainly that's something that we're going to continue to explore over time that's something that we're we've looked into with grants we will continue to explore so that we can hopefully be able to provide those in our buildings you know not even kovat related but just in general those are nice things to have and it
074limits the amount of germs but water fountains in general will be unavailable disconnected for student use the only exception would be as if obviously had that automatic water bottle filling station option not all of our buildings have those we will make water available for student purchase with breakfast and lunch and certainly we're going to encourage students to bring a clear water bottle bring water from home we will have stations set up in our buildings during the day and during lunch for for students to to refill their bottle if need if need be transportation so obviously we're still we're still wanting to provide Greencastle transportation we are going to do something a little bit different this year is when it does come time for registration and we understand that this could change during the school year
075but just to help our drivers and help our school staff plan for students riding the school bus we're just gonna ask for you to select that option please know that we understand that that might that might change given no given circumstances but we are making some modifications with with how we transport students students and bus drivers I will require them wear masks students will be assigned seats variables such as you know student families certain bus stops bus seats will be assigned strategically strategically to help allow us the best possible methods for contract contract tracing contact tracing if need be we are going to limit students to a primary bus stop and a secondary bus stop again we want to really that's going to help us and help the Health Department conduct contact tracing more efficiently
076as I mentioned earlier buses will be disinfected after each use you know whether that's morning route whether that's afternoon route whether that's our alternative route whether it's a special transportation whether it's a after-school activity or Club buses will be sanitized and sprayed down after each use before they are used again next slide please so one of the big pieces is you know again kind of mentioning earlier we recognize that each family situation is unique is we want to provide for a variety of learning options in addition to on campus campus instruction we will be freighting a virtual learning option for all students in grades k-3 K through 12 we do obviously have a few requirements or criteria that students must meet in order to participate given the SSV that is an online program we have
077to have access to to high-speed Internet in order to eliminate some of the struggles that we experience through e-learning during our forced closure last school year and to set us up to experience more success be more effective and for families to truly have an understanding of what virtual learning looks like we are going to require the students and parents participate in an orientation session and we are working on what that what that looks like we have made some obviously there will be some adjustments based on the developmental age of students we're going we are asking K to five students and parents to commit to to a nine week period so essentially mirroring that of a grading period and then just given the difficulty with credits in high school in just the way courses are set
078up in middle school we are asking that students in grades 6 through 12 it's a semester long commitment virtual student students will not be eligible for extracurricular activities and unfortunately as much as we would like it virtual learning it's almost impossible to tamir it with the actual school day we this will also be something that is released during registration so your parents and families they will commit to on-campus or virtual learning we recognize that there's not a lot of time also so we want to we want to meet you and get the information out as quick as possible but until we have those numbers of what it looks like we can't provide some more specifics so you know for example you know if we have just um just throw numbers out there 20 students in
079grades K 2 2 then we're going to work with our building principals and our teachers potentially identify you know one virtual learning teacher or instructor or those 20 students whereas if we have you know closed what would look like closer to an actual class of just say first graders or third graders then potentially we could look at an adjustment and we'd work with our that the teachers association to potentially assign a virtual teacher for that class period so we will need some of that additional information before we can get some more of those specifics out it is our it is our plan obviously to to get our reopening plan approved first once that happens we expect to be able to push out our virtual learning options and very specific information for families and registration in
080general hopefully by the end of this week or at the latest at the beginning beginning of next week and we utilize school messenger or I'm still kind of learning the terms here I think it's Skyler door skyalert from Skyward so that families can have that information and and we'll post that on the website as well next please addition in addition going along with the virtual learning we are again with 180 day school year we are still held to mandates from the Department of Education that are grounded in law and so one of those things is is unless there's a pause and state mandated testing we will have to work out opportunities to schedule students to participate in state mandated testing just in general I can tell you right right now I know that there's a
081there's a lot of advocacy going on that you know just just during this in general and kind of even with things last year and one of the things you might have heard talked about recently is the I read three obviously we know student participate in it last year and then there's been some discussion about fourth graders potentially being able to take I read three well do e has obviously advocated one way the General Assembly and the State Board of Education have kind of taken another route so until that changes you know with the state Manoj's mandated testing we have to continue I can tell you I'm not real interested in in looking at giving I read three to fourth graders I think we have great teachers in our classrooms we don't you know that's not
082meant to be a diagnostic diagnostic test so I think our teachers can assess where those learning gaps are and accelerate learning to fit those needs but that's where we could definitely use some advocacy from stakeholders and folks in this room just with anything legislature related as always if you can reach out to your local legislators and ask them to pause testing during this school year I know that would be much appreciated at my end and it's it's a lot better when they hear from the parents themselves it also be obviously the responsibility of parent to provide Internet access monitor progress and encourage their students with work so again our virtual learning option while I can't mere the school day it's going to be much more rigorous and expectations are going to be much higher than
083what you saw with I saw with the e-learning at the end of last school year the apartments we've had a lot of time to prepare for that and then obviously students must complete the courses within the timeframe given the elementary nine weeks or middle school high school based on the semester next slide please athletics so the athletic for aintry plan we're still in phase one I believe with that but we're going to continue to follow excuse me the board approve athletics for a new plan and again as circumstances and situation changes we recognize that we also may need to make adjustments with that component as well so I know I've shared a lot of information tonight I understand and recognize that there are a lot of questions and we are we are here to work
084with you to give you clarity and help provide information with that you know one of the things I'd like to encourage and you know it's unfortunate that circumstances have dictated this is you know I've only had 10 official days in the office since beginning July 1 volunteered some of my time during the month of May and June just to get in here and familiarize myself with our facilities and our staff but I really do want to immerse myself and get to know patrons different organizations that really learn more about the Greencastle community and establish those relationships that if you do have questions which I know that some heavy some of email may some of even email me today I've got back to them yet but I do welcome that and I will respond to you
085within 24 or 48 hours so I really you know if there is a concern I'm here to work with you I'm here to support your students and provide them the best learning experience possible at Greencastle so by all means I would encourage you to read to reach out to me with that but that is a lot of information that I have for now we will work on developing the FAQ document which will be posted at green castle website these longer the larger reopening plan will be posted and we will also update and post kind of what I would call the simplified guidance as well and just work with you to provide clarity on those items so so this is this is a huge decision for me personally probably you know one of the one of
086the bigger decisions I've ever ever made in my life if not the biggest you know I I have a you know I have a kid in Greencastle schools too and and so you know there's there's a lot of your mask is a big thing you know and it's a requiring mask I think for be is it is important but a lot of work went into this and there's a lot of moving parts that you know there's just so many variables and and so I think you everybody tried their best to consider all of that I don't know that we will be able to answer I'm all of those questions or or fill in all of the gaps right right away but but I will I will say that for me personally I know we talk
087about kids and and you know I deathless was mentioned and you know but I I think there's when kids get sick and they're out of school that affects more than just the kid in their learning right and so excuse me for saying kid you should say student probably I'm sorry but uh but you know it that's that's a parent off off of work or you know whatever there's other other siblings that there's so many moving parts to all that and and so for me I think you know I think there's a lot a lot that's been been put into it and I appreciate that but I think that's a piece that I just I just kind of want to want to focus on that piece that that mask piece I know that's one of our
088biggest gatekeepers and doing all this and so so yeah I just I'll just leave it there quick quit rambling but um but but in a sense that's what we're that's were for reform yeah so just on the topic of mass mass are required when social distancing isn't possible back just to be very very clear and again I mentioned that we are the only Putnam County School District requiring that that wasn't even a requirement the board would excuse me the Putnam County Health Department would have been satisfied with their plan with mass just being being strongly recommended the CDC has provided a recommendation it's just that it's guidance the Indiana State Department of Health in the Department of Education the governor's office the mayor's office the county office mass at this time have not been mandated
089in our area but yes we're going to require it when social distancing is not possible and we also recognize that again it's a it's an ever-changing situation and is that you know if there is a is an uptick and that mandate is is handed down on us and there's anything that we can do to strengthen what we're already doing by all means we're gonna do just that to some kind of what I think is to give me and also get welcome to it's really hard I go home nice legs you is everything else fail and did that make sense of why we think so just again on the topic of mass and just the topic of decision-making in general during Cova 19 that's not my decision to make that's a family decision to make and
090again we are working with the guidance from Indiana in classic Ovid 19 document of the State Department health the governor's office the Family and Social Services Administration and the Putnam County Health Department's none of those mandates have been passed on to Greencastle Community School Corporation they have felt comfortable with our plan the way was written our plan contains additional contingencies compared with the schools surrounding surrounding or directly ordering our area none of the other Putnam County school districts are requiring masks there's exception that South Putnam I think the requirements school bus north clay isn't our plan with masks is very closely aligned with you know the avons the West fields I believe that our reopening plan allows again a great deal of a choice for families for some that might be the on campus traditional
091route and we also recognize it that you know it might be a virtual route so I think that you know we can't necessarily meet the needs of one particular group I think that our plan does does a great job of again providing options a variety of them for families [Applause] can someone pass a bet today I would say one thing that we do need of us and first of all let me think mister given a and the team that put this plane together tonight they work very hard I don't know who all they are but I know there's a large group of them I'd like to personally thank them so the master good and then I'm gonna leave you with this fifty years ago the whole night before last they still around [Applause] this is
092me just thinking like I said I really appreciate all the work you guys have done on this has there been any thought to pushing back to starter school and/or having group a group b and every other day I noticed that caramel think what they're playing out there they kind of separated by the schools my high school is going every other day and then you have to wear masks when you do come try understand that you know your third graders and below they don't really spread the virus they don't really have that capability as much as the older kids and I understand that they're gonna be eating their masks and they're gonna be spinning them around and shoot em at each other and trading them but has there been anything that has been thought about have
093pushing school back a little bit and to see what happens with the other schools and or like an A and B group yeah so is with anything there's much thought and consideration given to too many different options and there are a lot of factors that play into that again you know the Putnam County school districts have met ever met and collaborate and had some conversations we do share some services with area 30 Career Center so there are specific factors that can essentially kind of become a barrier when looking at kind of like a staggered schedule so to speak or or grouping different students I mean what does that look like for different families we recognize that you know Kovu 19 has been tough enough for families and now we're having families where parents are having
094to go back to work and now sudden they're having to to worry about providing childcare I worry about you know the social emotional well-being of students who are home they've been away a long time they've been having to to work through a scary situation they need to be with us back at school you know I worry about those students who depend on a GCSE breakfast or a lunch I just think there are too many potential barriers that would work against the different different groups again kind of going back to it you know the Department of Education hasn't relaxed any requirements so to speak with the amount of days per instruction the amount of standards that our teachers are expected to to cover we've already experienced what it you know we're gonna already have to make
095up from an art from a learning gap from from last school year and you know if potentially students aren't with us I think that gap could only only widen or worsen there's the you know justice essentially you know a lot of thought went into it and we the committee felt like that's the best option for us right now as far as calendar considerations you know I was on the Johns Hopkins website today that's a great resource for koban nineteen related statistics specifically with Hutton County I mean identifying hotspots says we recognize hot spots have flared up around the country Putnam County is not a hot spot currently there are 175 confirmed cases to date Putnam County if you look at a population of a hundred thousand the County case you know it'd be four hundred
096and sixty-three so if you're looking at Putnam County compared to say with Marion County they're almost triple that certainly their situation is much different in Marion County than it is in Putnam County so I think you have to kind of give consideration to that you also have to give consideration to you know we don't know what potentially could happen in the fall we have to get our 180 days in as well so I think that the initial thought there is while the conditions allow we recognize the need to bring our students back and if we have an opportunity that in a safe manner and provide them good core academic instruction and support their social emotional learning needs then we should do that now and potentially you know as if things change then we do have
097some flexibility to adjust later on okay Thank You Ann and I am all for kids getting back in school yeah I think that would be great and just kind of one more side note a little bit I know you've talked about it and and I don't want to belabor it that with the masks I kind of wonder if we're making it we're making it you know an option at times I know we're requiring it but if we think that there is enough social distancing we're allowing them to take it off in the classrooms what are we telling our what are we saying without saying it to our teachers because they're going to be in that classroom and they're gonna take care of those kids and yeah maybe the chairs of social distance and and maybe
098the kids are supposed to put the mask on when they stand up to go over and sharpen their pencil I'll talk to the teacher but my son in particular can't remember to take his pencil to class so they're going to be up and they're going to be asking a teacher's questions you're gonna be in their faces a little bit and I can't possibly see how we're going to have substitutes coming into our schools and if we start losing our teachers just like our secretaries that could really be bad and so I just don't know how we're gonna do that without having masks on I guess yeah and so even going back to staff you know that's a that's a personal choice that I think they're they should be allowed to make but going along with
099that we've we've purchased masks or excuse me we've purchased masks and we're also getting a lot lot mint of cloth mass for staff to wear we've also purchased some face shields for staff so that they are working in close proximity or working with a group of students in close proximity that they have those protections that are available to them you know just when you visit our offices on this next school year they look different we have the Plexiglas sneeze guards there are a lot of different accommodations that are being made to our facilities to help with just that because we are we are concerned about everyone's safety since it's already here so so top talking about masks so I'm hearing you know so I'm here in the requirement I'm here personal choice and and I
100don't I guess I don't understand where where that line is because if it's a requirement then we want to establish you know so what are the rules if you don't follow the rules right so if you if you don't wear it and you're supposed to wear it and then what's the what does that mean whether that's you know whatever whatever staff or student that's a you know that's a concern but I think the other concern is that you know we know a lot of times during the the school year that we don't have all the teachers and subs and aides that we need so so so we're talking about just that if somebody gets sick and then that reduces that but on top of that we're adding other other duties who we're talking about additional
101cleaning in monitoring masks and socially distancing and so I guess my concern is this is this probably gonna so when I say we don't have enough staff I don't I don't have a better way to say that well but a lot of times we're tight on that right I mean just just in the normal day-to-day so so if that's the case and we have these other responsibilities how are we gonna manage that how our teacher is gonna teach students in the classroom and online and keep Billy's mask on and and you know I mean whatever right and so you know that's just a real it's just a real concern I'm not an educator so but I I feel bad for but is feel bad for those that are in that situation I know it's gonna
102be very frustrating and I'm sure for you yourself as you get it calls and emails and whatever so so just those two things I think one I'd like to kind of clear up you know so personal choice is kind of eliminated once we say something's required right I mean that's it's I mean I guess you have the choice but what's the what's the consequences right and so just to offer clarity on that again mass are required when social distancing is not possible however even with social distancing that's where I allow for the further personal choice I'm not allowing staff or students to make a personal choice when social distancing is impossible but nothing would prevent a staff member from wearing continuing to wear the mask or a student continuing wear their masks even when they
103are social distanced so just to be very very clear on that you know we're we're in unique times it's we've never experienced a situation like this you know there there are there concerns just during any given school year about enforcing rules so you know just going along with with policies and procedures and the expectation that students the staff wear masks when social distancing is not possible we will uphold that much like we do all of our other rules and regulations and policies and procedures so working through working through our student discipline protocol and also working through our teachers and you know our staff and teacher protocols our handbooks for that because they speak very clearly to to to to correcting those things and potential consequences oh I was just wondering Jeff mister giving do we
104have an idea of you know we basically know what class sizes would be this year or they're not going to be too far off what they typically are do we have an idea of what percentage of classrooms it's possible to typically socially distance in I mean are we looking at you know are we saying that 50% of these classrooms we're gonna be able to separate kids and you know is it is it does it become a moot point to try to say you're socially justice month or we do we I mean I that was one of the sticking points dyad you know additionally we had the conversation but there was no provision for masks so we got this far here but it just I mean that are we moving in that direction anyway between Walmart's
105you can't go to Walmart Monday without wearing a mask and I'm just wondering is this gonna become such a moot point that it just doesn't make sense not require them to start with I don't know it's it's I don't know the answer to that question I don't think anyone does but I would you know I just don't know I you know I agree with Russell that it's gonna be very hard for a teacher to keep track of that and and I don't know that that's I know I don't know how fair it is to get easier to expect them to keep track of that supposed to and Kristen you could not be if you wanted to offer yeah come on up and offer a comment there or offers for certification yeah okay so you could
106tell I'm chomping at the bit first of all let me let me be very clear that I want everyone everyone's health and safety is number one concern but what I also want to say is that we are professionals you are professionals you go to your job and you do what you have been hired to do in my classroom if I have kids seated going forward like dr. box the State Health Department Director says and I know no one is moving I should have the right to tell the kids okay now you can have your mask off if you so choose if you're coming up to me thank you if you're coming up to me the procedure will be please put your mask on or if I'm going to a student we have enough sense to
107implement that I also like to say that we mr. Gibney has said this a few times we are the only school district that has the work required in this proposed plan it's no no secret to anyone this room how much money we have lost over the last year due to enrollment and I will say that using the word required is going to lose students that creates a snowball that creates a snowball less students less teachers need it now we have teachers out of a job we need to be mindful of the decisions that we are making and trust the educators trust us in the classroom I have enough sense to know when social distancing is not feasible if we're doing something together then they're going to have to wear a mask but I should be
108able to say you guys are safe you can take the mask off if you so choose so as as the union president you're you're not getting pushed back on teachers willing to accept that extra responsibility so mass issue is very crouched controversial and so I have people on both sides so I can't speak from that perspective as far as this is the stance that Union takes this is Kristen Hamilton stance but I mean even I sta issued guidance that they wanted the governor to mandate masks well the powers that be decide of that that doesn't mean that more than 50% of the teachers in the state of Indiana agree with that what I was being and then and then what do you do when if Johnny refuses to wear a mask are we sending kids
109home because they refuse to wear a mask to me as a parent that's ridiculous send him home well what do you do what about what about kids you can't wear masks okay okay well yeah okay yeah it's not supposed to be banter I am expressing this but I am saying we need to think about the numbers safety and health of children are number one but we also have to look at how the unenroll mint is going to follow suit I understand that my point is we are the only school district with that word in the county so if we that is my point so so if we leave it as written that gives flexibility to win social distancing is applicable if I'm taking my classroom outside today social distancing can be had if you require
110mass at all times and you take that out that eliminates any time for a mass to be made and some of the people that were up here talking with their masks on or labored to breathe so just put yourself in my position in my new schedule of 35 whoppin minutes with my 30 kids and I'm talking from sunup to sundown I am NOT going to be able to put a mask on it 7:00 a.m. and not take it off till 4:00 so so I agree completely the teachers are the experts I think that's one one of the things that I said earlier you know you guys you guys understand and so I just want to clarify for myself and we're talking about wearing masks of course when there's opportunity to take those off we want
111to do that even if you know we've talked about going outside or all these all these different things so do we need to wear masks all the time just because no I mean I wear a mask when I go to Kroger but I don't worry when I'm driving my car by myself right so so I think we need to you know as we talk about that we have to consider those those type of things how can we get creative to get kids outside or do some different things with you know inside the school or different spaces is that you know taking a class to gymnasium or whatever utilize these spaces like this or I mean there's there's a lot of options not well there's not a lot of options but there but there are options
112right so we have to we have to get creative with with all of those things and and I and I think that you know we're doing that and I've heard some you know some things you know from mr. Gibbon and I know that he is the supporter of those things and wants to get outside the box so we talked about mass we have to my concern personally is when we can right and and I think that to touch on what Mike's saying is that we already know that most of our classrooms are not we're not going to be able to do it look look at how we are in this stage you're not gonna be able to do it right so so what's the outside the box things and when you can create those things
113by all means do it and get the mask off the kids it yourself and all that but but what can then you know what did what do you do for them for the safety of the kids right so [Music] and this is on a different topic just kind of one clarification for my brain a little bit so if somebody goes home with kovat related symptoms which is what we want then after their symptom free for 10 days I think it says in there roughly then they can come back but if they get tested and they test positive for it then we need to they need to have two negative tests before they come back to school which I can see that it's almost distance enticing kids to people get tested I guess but I also
114understand that those same those same things are the flu those same things are common cold so you don't want kids sitting out and having to get tested just because they have the sniffles - so so yeah it's just a little confusing I think language wise but I understand it yeah are all of our all of our protocols follow the in-class Cova 19 recommendations developed from the Indiana State Department of Health Department of Education family social services administration and the governor's office and if they change your update tweak or make any adjustments to those things our language will be R that I don't know how to follow all that folks I've been on this board all about two minutes now I walked into this with the idea that I was gonna make a difference I had
115some ideas as far as I think most of you know what I do for a living so I had some ideas along that lines of some safety and things like that power in here and make some suggestions and here I sit on the board talking about code with 19 I don't know where to go with it I think we're all in the same boat we're all new at this we don't know what's gonna happen we don't know what's gonna happen tomorrow I think these folks are making the best choices they can for our students and we're all scared there's not anybody in this room that isn't scared about what's gonna happen I think we've made some some good choices there's room for maybe some improvements and there's some good points they've been made and I'm
116glad too that the folks have come in to make their their points made in here so that we can have some other extra things to think about and I appreciate that I don't know where to go from here guys I really don't we're gonna have to make some tough decisions and willing we can make the right decisions to keep our children and our families safe and just to go down the right path so I think you you all for allowing me to sit here and be a part of this and we'll see what we can do really the only question I would have us I've been presented with what do we do if there is a senior in high school that possibly has all the credits they need besides - there's there any allotment for
117them just to come in to take their two classes that they need to graduate and not bulk down this school from there on is there any allotment that can be allowed for that and I've been asked to present that and I I don't have an answer for that I refer to the expert in the middle there to answer that stuff I'm not an expert but I'll do my best to answer that as I familiarize myself with Greencastle but I believe students of green cast so much like they did at Bloomfield there is always the option I believe I would have to check our our board policy that's something we can look into if need be to allow a student to graduate early from high school I know that we had some students graduate after their
118junior year even their junior year at Bloomfield but typically you know seven semesters that's not anything unusual and you know even if that's an accommodation that can be made if that student isn't comfortable coming back into the on-campus school setting again providing a variety of options we could accommodate that student virtually for them to graduate early as well we would have to obviously check our our board policy and its do hand books thank you I know there's been some pretty good discussion up here and good questions I still you know why masks concern me I think we have gone from you know this plan where it originated to where we are now with a lot of discover and the born and mr. Gibney hopefully he's taking that back to the committee and there's been some
119accommodations made we all know going into this room and not everyone is gonna be happy I don't think there's anyone in this room is gonna pick up this this plan and say this is just perfect I wouldn't do anything different but I think we need a jumping on point I think we need a place to start and make changes as they need be regardless of how those changes what direction those changes move in so I would entertain a motion to approve this reality plan as a place to start and and we're from can we tell we'll take questions again afterwards Harris so I would I would entertain a motion to approve this plan as a place to start to get kids back to school and see where we go from here but there will be
120changes made is there anyone willing to make a motion of proof laughs I haven't heard of motion there is a motion from down there okay Dale you made a motion okay we have a motion is there a second okay we have a motion in a second to approve this plan as it is all in favor yeah I will do a roll call mr. Pierce hi you guys and I think if this a fluid situation that's you know I was thinking you'd have to have consider this beginning point it then changed will I think inevitably be made one way or the other right correct yeah I mean I think it's gonna been done circumstances no ok well this leads me I think I'm gonna go yes motion passes oh okay I guess now we will as
121we said we will open this back up to some comments and questions or let's please to try to stick with comments you hi my name is Alicia and I know you probably can't answer these questions tonight but I do have three questions for you to consider first you stay that the big students can purchase water at the meal times extra purchases are not normally covered by the free lunch program so how will that be affected for those students who want to purchase water but are on a free lunch program also for those students and those parents who really want their kids to learn virtually but do not have access to high-speed Internet do you have an alternative plan for them and finally when the COBIT virus finally dies down and things start to get back
122to normal well the first will learning continue as an option thank you my name is Wayne Lewis would take his crazy thing off just to rehash from history what's happened in the past few months these have been changes and or cancellations seminars dr. case and I had a seminar online for some that I've been in practice 47 years everything's been face to face this fear was online it worked I wasn't liking it but it worked sporting events from professional sports down to youth sports ball band changed you good better and different but they all been changed festivals we don't have any vessels in Greencastle fair on square or the music on the square and all the other things are going to be canceled the Fair has been canceled the Rose Bowl this is an oxymoron
123the Rose Bowl today was canceled Rose Bowl parade was canceled the Rose Bowl ballgame is gonna go on now you got 80,000 people sitting in a big bowl I think it was social distance I doubt it are they gonna wear masks by death for Californians think about it high school graduations have all been changed these are the things that we could look at from history but here's the question I have for you as a board 61 million dollars my correct is saying was given to Indiana from the from the federal government how much the green cows gonna get do you have any idea you have to apply you're not guaranteed I couldn't hear you you have to apply for it's a competitive grant it's not guaranteed okay not guaranteed well here's to one thing is
124guaranteed you're gonna have two health clinics per school one for bumps and bruises custom scratches the other one for covin if it never had occurred is that correct okay you have two nurses for five buildings that means the responsibility is going to go back to these secretary and of the ia or a teacher are they qualified to do this taking some of that money out of the budget that we were not guaranteed we're going to get hire some more three more nurses one for each building and that would be less you've been done anyhow but now we're in circumstances where we must think about that something to consider if you have two nurses or five buildings are they yeah they are are the secretaries overworked yes they are as the principal's overworked yes they are
125principals are in the building most of time because you're in meetings try and figure out what's going on and just don't cook any better it's not cooking any better with this thing is this thing it's still dynamically changing fluidly just like the coven mutates our ideas are gonna have to mutate with it we have to make changes I'm all for getting kids back into school I'm all for kids having social and economic evaluations given to them I'm all for teachers being able to teach but I'll mostly concerned with the safety and the health of everyone not just the teachers and the students and the staff but they're gonna take it home or they're gonna bring it in he goes both ways thank you for your attention you guys have got a terrible terrible thing to
126work with them I really respect for you it's amazing that you can sit there and not want to shoot me especially the guy who has a gun because some of the things I said but you're gonna find out after I've been to these school board meetings for the last thirty years I'm pretty verbal I'm pretty vocal I don't hold back I step on your toes that's your problem not mine he stepped on my toes that's my problem not yours it goes both ways thank you for attention [Applause] good evening my name is Suzanne Hassler I'm very active in arts and culture in particular in the community of active and a variety of different community organizations and church functions largely my role has been in the area of marketing and publications is related to the art
127art and culture particularly as an editor and as an editor I take exception to a word of praise in particular in this document I'd like to see clarified on the first page we have a paragraph dedicated to social distancing and I think that that's unclear what that means social distancing is never actually defined in terms of what is a healthy social or safe social distance to be maintained and I'd like to suggest that that praise be changed to physical distancing and that while we want to encourage social interaction emotional support amongst our students and their teachers we want to maintain a healthy safe physical distancing and that that physical distancing be defined as whatever you agree upon six to ten feet and I think that clarified pressure off of the teachers in terms of having
128to enforce it in a classroom thanks so much hi there my name's Aaron dance I'm a teacher over at easy for a 5th grade I have a few just clarification questions these might actually be answered by my building administrator here soon enough so just didn't know if these are things that have been thought about I run quite a few extracurriculars in my building these are after school clubs Science Bowl just similar programs I know there's lots of other educators to run programs like these too are these programs were previously where I let any number of students in that I need to start capping are these programs that since I have DePaul volunteers that come in both semesters is this something that I'm still going to be able to have these DePaul volunteers come in while
129I'm consistent by DePaul volunteers change every semester depending I've been able to check with some people on the DePaul end of things and it's actually more reliant on us than it is their decision at this point so that'd be something that we would need to clarify to have those volunteers come in on a regular basis with hands on extracurriculars I run stem Club is that something that I'm gonna have to change how we operate that or is that something that I just need to wait until this blows over a couple more concerns along the lines of masks students I have students that forget their backpacks at home with everything in them if a student comes to the bus stop without a mask on is that something where the bus driver has some kind of alternative
130for the student to wear so they can come to school based on the number of those that we have is that something we can work around I want to make sure our students can come to us so we can take care of you know along those lines it just it comes down to something that you know we have to find a workaround with a lot of this and you know I'd much rather had those kids with us cared for at the same time I want to make sure that everyone who's trying to do that is cared for - we we give a lot and sometimes we give more than we have I just want to make sure that it's not something that we're giving up so much that we're not trying to care for ourselves
131to justify thank hi my name is Martha Abdal I lived here forever 67 and my kids won 2-6 Keys record could you do a favor when you tip the bike thank you can you hear me you don't have to dip it down quite so much just dip it up a little bit I just want make sure everyone here there you go yeah these questions came to me during your conversation and discussion and it's a formidable document your opening plan and I sort of zeroed in a couple of weak links the whole project is keeping the bug out of the schools and it seems from the very beginning if you look at the screening process I'm not sure what that means maybe just taking temperature or whatever but it's a fact that infected people are most
132contagious before they show symptoms of having the corona virus so you will be having perhaps people that don't realize they have virus in school and it seems the simplest way of protecting against that eventuality is face masks they are the most not the most perfect but yes the most perfect protection for the general public out there and it seems that if the school can have a dress code that states certain things like coats and outdoor jackets are not to be worn to class as the building is climate-controlled like this is dress code you cannot do these things gang-related apparel including insignias hair nets but antennas etc etc is considered inappropriate for school attired and is prohibited if shorts or skirts are worn to school the lens should be appropriate the length must be at least
133to the students extended fingertips sagging pants are not acceptable pants should be worn at the waistline regardless of the length of the students sure and so on it seems a simple move to make face masks required as part of the dress code and this would protect lines these others I don't know there's social taboos or whatever but face masks could save lives so I would I was hoping I should have said this before your vote but as it turns out I just wish this were considered as providing for the safety of the teachers the staff and students everybody involved I think face mics are essential and like seatbelts you get used to them it's like secondhand smoke you can't smoke cigarettes in public there are all kinds of laws that protect public health that people
134go along with so it's not a matter of opinion and choice necessarily we're trying to prevent illness prevent death and if masks are the way to do it I can't understand why there's such an issue that's that's my comment thank you heidy manzil middle-school swim coach and from my job at DePauw and committees I'm on there we've of course been discussing social distancing a lot and measurements we've had to do with the classrooms there we went from 77 classrooms that's at 16 or more students down to 7 and that is based on distance from the desks to the next desk that assuming the desk takes up 2 feet of space and to the next desk another 6 feet so figuring 8 feet from where the student sits to the next student and so you're talking
135figuring a class of 24 students is now down to sometimes 4 to 6 students have we measured classroom space yet to see how many students actually fit in a classroom socially distanced because to discuss saying that once my class is settled in all facing forward that they are now socially distance and can remove their masks unless we've actually measured the classroom to be able to legitimately say that they can do that I don't think is being honest with ourselves so I just want to lay that at your feet and say that we need to present that to everyone out here who is thinking that our students can then sit in the classroom and truthfully take their masks off at times during the day so along the line of what like Russell and Brian were saying
136that we need to require masks at all times except when socially distance I don't think we can honestly say that I think we need to just stay masks are required thank you you first of all thank you for everything you're doing this evening I'm Margo hurtin Stein and I've been teaching here first grade for 18 years and just listening to everything I had some considerations for the board to think about first of all considering the raising of sub pay again I realize money doesn't grow on trees but just a consideration because I know it's been lower than some other districts and that would be something that may help entice some people to consider becoming in a subbing because at the primary level especially it is very difficult to get subs and and the need is
137there and we spend hours preparing I'm very concerned about the day that I'll have to be gone for a long period of time if that happens because of the time that is put into preparing for a sub also with that again another money grown on trees but considering the possibility of more ayase for the primary level or at least shift Deana biases in the whole district that may be high school and middle school I come down to the elementary level for there's for those first two three weeks just to be another body in the classroom to help transition kids into the idea of social distancing wearing masks and those kinds of things so again it's looking from the lens of that primary level we are such a unique age group when it comes to helping
138students feel comfortable in their educational environment thank you I just wanted to check based on the plan that you presented in a little more detail at the slides are you talking about committing to the virtual or not do we have clarity on what happens when we have a whole classroom quarantined are they then going to a virtual platform are they just out of there not doing any learning if that part is really confusing they would be going to quarantine learning okay and then what is that so quarantine learning would be much like you know in years past if a student's absent or ill from the classroom and out with the flu for a week or two the teacher would work with that student and that students families for them to make up the work missed
139but they would be provided that on a daily basis are you talking about like they're you know they're getting two weeks of work two weeks later no there would be a date that would be a daily that would be a daily thing so one of the things that are that we have been intentionally working on with with teachers especially because just across all grade spans we utilize canvas as our learning management platform we started much earlier and I don't have the hit the history behind it but we started much earlier with our upper levels in our middle school in our high school and we have only begun recently pushing that down into the intermediate intermediate and our primary buildings so we have been much more intentional with PD over the summer CJ has had I
140think at least 60 teachers participate in some form of professional development with him specifically for canvas so pushing out assignments through canvas and making them available yeah we don't want to students to get to a point where all of a sudden they have two weeks worth of work to catch up that's not that's not good on anyone we want to keep them on pace changes our mind as they watch the Cova trade in the county raise or you know their child has allergies and they're continuously you know being sent home because they sneeze because it's allergy season do they then switch to a virtual platform do they continue with the quarantine learning or whatever you know category yeah again and we're gonna follow our protocols for for exclusion from school and it our protocols for
141exclusion it from school you know address those address those things I think that's pretty likely to happen yeah but just you know try to get about it because you're seeing like there's a commitment to depending on the age level either nine weeks or full semester but what if you say well we want to start this way but then a month in realize it's not going well are there issues where the child is being quarantined you know yeah so if I'm understanding correctly so if there's if there's a change or an extenuating circumstance could we allow a different accommodation I don't know that's something I would have to take back to the committee I know initially art the thought behind making families identify our selected choices so that we can put plan in place and make
142sure that we have our we're able to staff it appropriately so but that's something we can address through the thank you okay and then when when you're asking families to commit before the school year starts do we don't how much time they'll have and well they have the clarity about okay your child would be in this classroom there's this much space between the desks like what level of granularity will there be for families to make a solid decision yeah so again the reopening plan is a framework and it was never meant to address every possible possible question so we wanted to be able to have an a reopening plan or more or less that framework approved first and then we can really dive into the nitty-gritty and a lot of those specific details to share
143out with families about what it looks like at at TZ what it looks like at Green Castle middle school what it looks like at Green Castle high school so yeah we we want to be able to provide clarity for that and a large part of that is going to be addressed through administrator meetings with with teachers in their buildings and and hammering out those details for us to push out again we had to have a reopening framework approved first okay students go back on the fifth or working on meetings beginning next week okay all right yeah I just I wanna I want you guys to be able to plan for success and I feel like there's so many unknowns it's just a lot so all right hi um I just had a couple questions that
144kind of came up as we're talking about social distancing within the classroom and how if it's not feasible to have everybody sitting six feet apart but yet we are you know or masks against masks take out take masks out of the out of the equation there um however if we are sitting at our desks at school six feet apart but there's not enough room for everybody to be six feet apart but yet we're also potentially expected to be eating class eating in our classroom you cannot eat in your classroom without with the mask on so you're still getting into that gray area of those germs are still there those germs are still being spread if we don't have that distance I personally have not measured on my classroom so I don't know how many desks
145I can fit in there um but that was just something that came to my mind as you guys were talking about looking at the spacing of the room with or without a mask at some point in the classroom they have to be without a mask to have lunch and if we aren't spaced out accordingly it kind of seems a moot point for me anyway um another thing that I was um kind of watching is shared materials I've actually been watching you guys share the microphones um I have a lot of shared materials in the classroom that we won't be able to use for me to teach a first grader to be independent an independent learner I use books they look at pictures they might not know the words yet but they look at pictures I
146don't have those materials anymore to necessarily use just like you all didn't have enough materials for everyone have an individual mic again I just want from like you know from a primary lens that to just be just in the back your mind so thank you okay so I had two things that kind of stuck out my mind when we were all talking Quarantine learning you mentioned that the classroom teacher would be coming up with those materials for that student so in addition to teaching all day long I would have to come up with materials for these students for two weeks is that what you're saying no it would be treated just like a student who's absent from school in years past we're not expecting you to work above and beyond your contracted contract in addition
147to teaching all day so I just want to know how feasible that's going to be when I have six kids who are out and I have to come up with different plans for each of them I can't do that yeah we're not asking you for different we're asking you to provide them an opportunity to make up the worst work mist that the other students are currently doing and I would I would ask you to approach your building administrator and have a conversation with them on that absolutely okay and then my second question I coach eighth-grade volleyball volleyball is one of those sports where you're in very close proximity and you're not gonna be able to wear a mask how is that gonna play out because I know they're doing football right now and they're outside
148they're able to separate further I can't with volleyball and this is a team sport where everybody's gonna be touching the ball everybody's gonna be breathing on everyone I just I don't see how we're gonna be able to socially distance and that worries me I'm also pregnant so I'm in that high-risk group and hormones are really high and I'm kind of nervous and scared about going back to be perfectly frank yeah I would ask you to have a conversation with mr. Greenlee and talk through them to talk through that with him we also have the board approved reopening plan for athletics and again you know as circumstances change there may have to be adjustments with that as well but right now we have we're following that athletics reopening plan and that's also a you know a
149fluid situation so just maintain good dialogue with with us and know we're here we're here with you we recognize that and we want us we want to support you thank you tough job I really feel for you guys you got a lot of tough decisions to make I do have one question that I might have the best when you're asking us to commit early to whether we're going to do the virtual learning or in-class learning is that commitment is there a grace window like if I decide that you don't want to send my kid to school in the facility but then I realize that hey this is not kind of this is not why I'm a gendarme where I'm not willing to to take that risk can I back out and maybe do a virtual
150learning after or or recommit in another direction is our grace period in which I can see because like you said there are a lot of details left to be ironed out maybe what you think now is not what's going to be applied you know during that during the start yeah as I mentioned earlier that's something that the committee discussed okay thank you hi I'm Angela huff I have a freshman and a junior this year at the high school and I want to say well I very much appreciate the efforts of the teachers at all grade levels in the spring with eLearning they were heroic they were last-minute they turned on a dime we all appreciate that but the method of placing assignments in canvas and expecting families to be able to help their own children
151with the learning that was often required for those assignments there were just a lot of families that were not equipped for that and that could be time constraints or that could be educational background a variety of reasons so when I looked at the Quarantine learning plan and saw that from my perspective and from what I'm hearing from you that's a very similar activity or a very similar plan it greatly concerns me I feel like it's reasonable and possible and I hope I'm wrong but my kid who has allergies could be quarantined multiple times within a single semester and I know that other families who have chronic issues with their children are probably in that same space so mister giving you talked about one of the reasons for not delaying the start of the school was
152that we might see the gap widened or worsen that we started with in the spring I'm concerned that multiple possible quarantine periods with children receiving assignments through canvas could create the same so I would offer that I think there needs to be additional consideration given to that quarantine learning plan I know that other schools are planning to stream like either live stream or record classrooms during actual lesson time and there's a great deal of technology that supports that so I would suggest that that would go into a committee for greater consideration to see what other opportunities might be in play Thanks i Peter Foss here thanks again for the opportunity to hear us just have two questions one of them has to do with the situation with regards to someone in a particular classroom or
153cohort testing positive for Kovan what would you have in place for contact tracing will you will you have enough information to know which students staff faculty to go to to try to figure out who else might need to go into quarantine because of their close contact with those students in other words is it for the younger kids who are in individual classrooms with their teachers most of the time that my easier but when you get to middle school in high school and students move from classroom to classroom how do you how do you know who a particular person if they happen to get it has been in contact with so that's the one question second one as parents are deciding which pathway to take in-person or virtual will they know whether their teachers are choosing
154or creasing the wear masks or not or not able to wear s or not so that information is transparent to your parents that's it Thanks two things first thank you to everyone who came here tonight and a lot of people had to leave early reminded that that a lot of us are coming from very different directions and they all have different concerns for different reasons and I'm very thankful that everyone's can everyone's given voice to their concerns reminder that we all need to try to see from their person's perspective and be forgiving to each other and to this to all the teachers in the school board because this has never happened before and I and thank you to the school board um I'm personally glad the motion passed but I'm also thankful that it's at
155some interesting I'm glad it did not pass unanimously because I know there's gonna be further discussion about this and I could see that it was not just okay let's pass it get on to a great thought great care of this so thank you very much and thank you to our leaders and may we all be good followers as well thank you partner I have a student at the high school and the word required unmask I have an issue with but I I'm fine with the concessions you have made time because I think it's a personal choice we all need to be realistic we are not going to keep this out of school I don't care if every single person wears a mask you are not keeping out of school people are gonna get sick people
156are going to get it let's be realistic wearing masks in school all day long is not going to keep people from get sick you know make this very brief kind of piggyback and well Kristen said earlier requiring students to have a masks I think it's phenomenal requiring them to wear a mask in my classroom is my choice as long as I don't supersede what the school corporation says is that not part of my classroom management so it's just like cell phones do I allow cell phones in my classroom or do I not do I mandate mask in my classroom or do I not so everyone has an opinion agree with Logan you know thank you for everyone for doing this this has not been an easy task will not be an easy task two weeks
157from now when things change let's invent they will but again unless mr. Gibbons has changed things I think that I have the right to run my classroom the way I see fit and if I see that as being mass required then is that not my right as a teacher I am I to sense where there is the that yeah it is your right to run your classroom as you see fit but you know just clarifying I think some of what may be unclear about you know that the social distancing required from masks is you know one of my considerations for voting the way I did was your classroom that you know there might be times you have three kids in there three pieces through three students in there and I I didn't really want to
158saddle you with that responsibility or a carry Hamilton for taking her music class outside to have them sing you know I know this car classroom sizes I've been in our school rooms I don't have a lot of confidence we're gonna be socially distant enough for most kids to take two masks off anyway but I didn't want to saddle you with that responsibility when there was no need to or someone that brought their classes here and the teacher set up hearing there were 20 students out there you know I think you know it's it is gonna be the up to the teacher as you said but I think you know honestly there's gonna be very few times if that's really a choice you know the way those buildings laid out right okay and I think that
159that's that's that's the flexibility that I was trying to give that it can be the teacher's choice you know as long as you're within the guidelines we've laid out i Paulding elegan mcdonald's owner/operator nine restaurants wife teacher two kids in school welcome wish I could have met you on different premise but that is what happens 600 employees for three months of war masks Iowa's terrified even make that happen in my restaurants and it has gone over extremely well do I talk to people every day about masks absolutely not that big of a deal it's just the thing when the cool kid wears the mask everyone else wears the mask where am I going it's easier to start stringent to back off I think it's easier for us to enforce the hardest rule they won to
160move to a place of where we can relax and I think it's a small price to pay a small inconvenience to have to know that we tried our best to do the right thing it made the comment about Walmart requiring mass different areas requiring mass full states doing it we don't we do have the fewest cases or lower cases let's keep it that way we have an opportunity to keep it that way so I just I think that we have an opportunity to be a leader and to set a precedence and I'll say something completely that's probably not gonna I'll lose all credibility but I'll go for it we also have the opportunity to be a leader in our County to do something and we have other schools on the opposite side of the spectrum
161where is the opportunity for us to be able to share students and share teachers if we are truly in a place of divide it could be a middle ground it could be an opportunity for us and so I just would like to throw out the option that we can consider that as well and I thank you guys for listening and I really think it's easier to start difficult start stringent to relax the rule as you go thank you so I kind of made the point before but I want to try to go back to it again and and I really want to what this gentleman just said where it's where it's the teachers responsibility and judgment call to to make on whether they require their kids to wear masks by saying that though and not
162having this standardized format that's where we would need as parents the grace to say or the grace period to say hey listen my particular son or daughter is going to a classroom that is is not a standardized approach like the rest of the classrooms right so maybe this teacher decides that they don't want to have masks and and or our little looser or aren't enforcing the rules so that that's that's the kind of ambiguity and in the standardization of when a face mask is required as I guess that I always return well I think a lot of that too also could become a parent's responsibility and and duty to to call that out no I'm not no no what I'm saying is if if you're uncomfortable if your child is coming home saying no dad
163we're we said the winner of five-o sitting at his table today without masks well that's something that the school system needs to know well I'm not trying to I'm trying to say is maybe all of this structure framework does 'l cannot exactly like their thinking and the risk is too great but we're not going to discover that some weeks in advance that's all I was just trying to reiterate the way that I've been previously based on some conversations I think I will make it short and sweet er than the last time I was up here we're talking now about current opening for the next two months maybe it's going to be decent whether kids go outside we can have outside classes come November things are gonna change this mutation of the kovat is almost a
164daily hourly minute thing and so the functions of dealing with that we have to make flexible and fluid decisions now what are we going to do in November and December if this thing is still going rampant and our kids are still put in the situation where they gonna go to can't go outside well I guess they could wear coats with can't go outside and have effective teaching I we have a lot of building space in these buildings I'm sure you guys have looked at it you've probably figured well we could put a class in this room right here we could put a class in the gym we can put a class from the cafeteria these are large classes but these classes are still going to be in a need for education so as we get
165into this thing as we progress and go through it we will we will come out on the other side will be positive we just got struggle to get there we're all gonna suck it up to say all right this is what we have to do to get to tomorrow just get through today tomorrow will take care of itself thank you hi I had a question and then a statement my question is is it possible for someone on the board to move than an amendment be made to the plan after the plan has passed for example could a motion be made that masks should be mandatory and that the rest of the plan is fine as is is that I don't know the protocol so I wanted to ask about that I think once it has
166passed I don't think you could have meant it I think yet done amend it during the process or just down the road well either down the road certainly yeah I don't know we would have to speak with our attorney on how what how binding this is you know like we discussed earlier I think future circumstances will require changes to the way we do well and I know that the Indiana State Teachers Association is in favor of masks and has asked the governor to consider mandating at statewide and has agreed to consider that and make an announcement at some point in the future in fact is something that the governor mandate something that starts very next day for us the mayor man the mayor dori mandates that the county any anyone that mandates that yeah we
167follow that and you know again it's plan is something that whatever the circumstances are will kind of dictate how we go back and look at the plan things things that the plan will probably change but as far as the exact process on how that happens I don't know okay thank you for that and quickly I just I was thinking about mr. Jenelle's observation about the cool kid wearing the mask and as somebody who teaches in middle school that that really grabbed my attention thank you for that sincerely so there are there are two types of cool kids in the classroom cool kids one is are the kids who actually sort of carry that title for whatever reason in the building and the other is the teacher and as someone who also has two children in
168the school corporation I do have concerns about my children being in a class where the teacher won't wear a mask for whatever reason and so then the kids in the classroom follow suit I certainly understand there's a difference between my class of twenty one for example in one of my periods on skyward right now and Doug's class with only three kids or people being able to go outside but if if I I want to be respected as a professional and in generally speaking I always trust my colleagues to be respected as professionals as well but as a parent I'm very concerned as a parent I am concerned that we have to set the bar high for what we expect from the students and as a teacher I recognize that the bar can be set high
169for what's expected of me and if I take off my mask for a class period and say I don't need this I've just told 21 people that they don't need it either and I think that's significant and I just couldn't leave here today without saying that thank you [Applause] Jared Jernigan banner graphic and parent of two but I just have a question that will help me writing my story and maybe help clarify this for some people we're saying that this plan is going to continue to develop and I applaud you for that obviously that needs to happen but what does changing the plan mean does that mean we come back here again in two weeks and sit for three hours I think we all know how I probably feel about that but or does that
170mean at this point mr. Gibbons and the committee are deputized to make changes as they need I'm just kind of curious what the protocol for that is okay all right there we go I think the safe consideration just say is that the plan would only be strengthened with changes outside of a board meeting and we'll note that in a change log but we certainly wouldn't take away anything out and certainly we I'll discuss that with the board we want it decrease the expectations I guess if that makes sense and just to be clear because I've heard some additional comments mass are required by all staff and all students when social distancing isn't possible that's not a choice that's a requirement yeah we can whoa we'll check the language and again you know we won't hold
171we're gonna work with the bidding and clarify expectations and you know make make adjustments with needed just done clarification before that yes so just seeking clarity a six foot rating or six foot distance if I'm standing here and my students are back where mr. Cox's would it not be acceptable that I could not wear a mask that what we're saying with the guy glans gotcha but as long as if it's within three foot and the student is there I I'm a math teacher but I think that's bigger than three um then I should be able to technically teach without a mask correct right I just wanted to make sure that I was understanding that correctly again one thing I thought about too with the plan and the virtual learning that you may have already considered
172but when they decide on the teacher who is going to take that over I wondered if there was possibility to have them start a little bit sooner than the third for those two days of teaching I've already started my stuff a little bit in canvas that takes a lot of time so again consideration of either starting the virtual learning with students a little bit later to give teachers time that teacher time or inviting the teacher to consider having an extra day or two a pay they're working putting that together so again you might already consider that but another concern of just making sure we meet the needs of the students and at the elementary level especially canvas is a new beast and it's a challenge at our level so thank you hi there my name
173is Isaac Curtin Stein I am an incoming freshman at the high school and I just wanted to say from a student's perspective I think many of us view being at school and transferring the virus it's more than just about us it's about bringing at home infecting others infecting grandparents infecting great-grandparents my grandma's had a double lung transplant my great-grandma was 97 years old I don't want to transmit them and I also want to be able to see them as well so it's about more than just the students in our health and safety and also I think masks are one thing that will stop that from transmitting in school and also transmitting at home so I would just like to say I think it'd be a good idea to mandate masks because as a kid I'm
174guarantee there was going to be a lot of kids that won't wear masks and it won't follow social distancing and that's important as well as for us but as well as for our families - thank you I agree [Applause] what exactly that fire yeah there there's guidance of recommendation push out and the deal we provided mass will be Decker bar you so there's been a lot of discussion about the e-learning program has there been decisions maybe as to what faculty and staff will be in charge of that program as far as a teacher dedicated to that program no that's why we're waiting on that's why we want to get our plan approve so we can plan for it and share registration and then streamline it okay and do you have a formula to decide how
175many faculty and staff would be needed to be assigned to that program based off enrollment yeah I don't have that information for you right now and I don't want to deal and speculation I'd rather do with hard numbers and see what those numbers are and then discuss with Kristen and the gcta and the building administrators and go from there hi okay hearing none can I get a motion to adjourn have a motion take it a second okay and a motion in a second all in favor aye all opposed motion passes thank you for coming and be careful you