001thank you madam president what everybody please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice Earl this is Bates miss Bolton present mrs. Bowers present mr. Lindy mr. mr. president mr. Morosky here president Jones thank you I want to start this afternoon by speaking to everyone about the format for today's meeting you may have noticed that the members of the board are meeting in person because of the importance of this meeting our board members felt it was very important for us to meet together in person along with the superintendent and the treasurer we would have liked to have opened this meeting to the public and we hope to resume in-person meetings again soon but because of the great interest in this topic our meeting
002last Monday generated more than a thousand audience members and the limited meeting space at the Education Center we determined to livestream this meeting for the public as we have with all meetings since April 1st we will have an agenda item for hearing of the public but we are moving the superintendent's presentation to our first agenda item this afternoon we want everyone to be able to hear the superintendent's presentation of the models under consideration for the 2020 2021 school year once the superintendent has finished her presentation we will have our agenda item for hearing of the public we invite you to participate in this conversation and to express your opinion if you are interested in speaking please use the raise your hand function and request to interact live with the board please do so now anyone
003interested in speaking should raise their hand now and during the first 15 minutes of the meeting because of time limitations at today's meeting if you do not raise your hand in the first 15 minutes you will not have the opportunity to participate in hearing of the public at today's meeting so I'll go over instructions now and then remind everyone when we get to that portion of the agenda to speak you will need to send a request by clicking on the hand icon on your screen please click on the hand icon now once the request has been granted by treasurer Wagner you will receive a notice on your screen click yes to go interactive if you do not want your video active please disable the video camera icon after speaking you will briefly see the welcome
004screen again as you transition back to the live stream meeting each speaker will have two minutes to speak and mrs. Wagner will be our timekeeper this is a change because we want to accommodate everybody who desires to speak so when the buzzer goes off your two minutes are up please refrain from discussing any personnel items okay I need a motion to approve the minutes from the special meeting June 22nd 2020 and the business meeting June 22nd 2020 don't move second all in favor signify by saying aye any opposed then its are approved as presented okay we don't have any committee reports to present today so we're going to move right into the presentation I'm gonna ask superintendant Mitchell to come forward thank you so if someone can pull up my powerpoint please great thank you
005so today the administration is excited to be able to bring to the board considerations in hopes that a decision can be made relatively soon in terms of what the opening for the upcoming school year will look like for the 2020 21 school year so today is a future school's presentation so there are three key messages and these have been the key messages that we have really made sure that we kept in mind as we've been doing our work the health and the safety of our young people as well as all the people who enter our buildings and work with them accelerating academic achievement so not just doing remediation or intervention but actually accelerating academic achievement especially considering that our buildings were closed the last ten weeks of the last school year and equity and equity
006is not a new thing to the board the board passed an equity resolution several years ago with a policy really highlighting equity throughout our district and then specifically calling up racial inequities within our or disparities within our strategic plan so during our last meeting we offered the board some considerations and the administration has we've gone back and we've looked at two of those offerings and decided that two of them are impractical so I'm Tiana Ahmad and just a couple of moments we'll introduce the last three considerations that we have to give to the board after Sarah Trimble Oliver presents some information regarding safety and the CDC but if you remember one option the first option of variation one called for students being in school two days a week one week and then three days a
007week the next week and that's all elementary and high schools options two and three would have the students in school both elementary and high but we were able to expand the number of elementary days by state by expanding the kids or placing them and spreading them all across the district which means elementary kids would be in high school buildings and on the day that elementary students would would not be meeting than than high-school students would be in elementary buildings we also looked at the possibility of looking at external space to be able to spread our high schoolers out in community settings across the district and both of those options really are impractical and to some extent out of our control in terms of having the space in the community for our high school students and
008then also having an appropriate price for high school students within our elementary sites and so this evening we are prepared to present three considerations for you this evening and I would ask that Sara Trimble Oliver come forward at this point in time to just guide us through our guiding principles and the CDC report as well as our work with Children's Hospital good afternoon so you guys may remember these five guiding principles that were landed on after a discussion at board meetings and by the step committee and from the parent survey we would like to strive for a balance of Health and Safety and as much in person classroom time as possible we would like to make equitable decisions because we know that both the pandemic and the effects of remote learning most negatively impact people
009of color in this country we would like to use data to guide decision making and stay up on the most recent data coming from a variety of sources and we also must consider the financial implications because the safety precautions that we are planning for do have cost implications while at the same time we are having decreased funding from the state on the next slide you will see what we are all familiar with by now the 31 health and safety precautions recommended by the Center for Disease Control in order to reopen schools in the safest manner possible we have begun planning for these precautions in fact today we were at an all-day design session with Children's Hospital at South Avondale Elementary looking at how to apply these processes in our own buildings these precautions become even
010more important as we see an increase in community spread of Koba 19 like we are seeing now in our state and county and many of these safety measures require additional spending by the district for example masks sanitizers soap and disinfectant building ventilation additional substitute staff and daily health assessments now on this list of CDC guidelines the modified layouts precaution suggest six feet of physical distancing at all times including in the classroom based on our analysis of square footage even with creative use of the space such as gyms cafeterias art and music rooms and media centers we do not have enough space to allow a full six-foot distancing in all school buildings with all 36,000 students at the same time now the World Health Organization did release their updated guidance which recommends that classroom spacing be
011kept at a minimum of one meter which is a little over three feet this does reduce the risk of spread but is not as effective as six feet but this would allow more students in the classroom at the same time continuing on to the next slide I did already mention the design session that we held at Children's I'm sorry at South Avondale and it was facilitated by Children's Hospital and we had a group of 40 people they are in attendance in the cafeteria with social distancing and masks and hand sanitizer of course working on designing new processes or our CPS buildings and for example how to implement staggered scheduling how to implement meals and classrooms how to implement daily health assessments and we had experts from Children's Hospital giving us expert medical advice as well
012as expert process improvement and design I advise it was an incredible day today we generated many thoughtful and creative ideas we look forward to continuing that process designed through the month of July I would in partnership with Children's Hospital and now I will invite miss Amato good afternoon I'm here to recap the three models the first blended learning with six feet of social distancing we are able to maintain the six feet by having half of the student population come in and two groups so all students will have a minimum of two days in person Monday or Tuesday or Thursday and Friday with an alternating Wednesday students would stay in their current school buildings and classroom instruction will be led by a highly qualified teacher our last two options are in person with three feet of
013social distancing option two is with five days use utilizing three feet from the World Health Organization guidelines for social distancing plus all other health precautions the five days per week provides lowest academic risk and provides the most in terms of social and emotional learning and supports option five also supports our families with small children who would need childcare and our last option is four days a week again three feet of social distancing but also providing all other health precautions all of the teachers would be highly qualified in both models thank you so in summary I'd like to point us to the comparison across the models and also back to our risk management model that we've been using to guide our work over the last several months so let me just give a little context in
014terms of we looked at what's high and low risk and medium risk educationally as well as health wise and so as an example complete remote learning would be very low risk in terms of health but it would be very high risk in terms of our kids not having access to their teachers in a face-to-face setting we looked at high risk in terms of health would be if we did not have any level of social distancing no mass wearing no health checks no temperature checks no assessment and not to be able to identify kids who are exhibiting symptoms or people who are exhibiting symptoms very quickly we would consider that to be very high risk and so if we look at each model that we have come to you with tonight as a TA a modest
015outline for us so the first one is for two days a week one week three days another week and there are some pros and cons to that so a pro one of the pros would be that it could potentially and doctors often use the word potentially lower health risk because it provides six feet of social distancing according to the CDC and it does provide for smaller cohorts the cons are that it doesn't cover daytime care for parents so approximately 26,000 of our kids are in elementary school so pre-k through sixth grade though it wouldn't cover daytime care for our parents only five days over two weeks would be in-person face-to-face instruction so in a two week time span a child would have access to their teacher face to face five times it would also make
016it a little bit more difficult for kids to access meals medical care and related services in terms of physical therapy occupational therapy those things to be a little bit harder for parents and kids to be able to access five in person with three feet of social distancing there's some pros and there are some cons a pro is that it's best academically social emotionally for our kids and that doesn't come from Laura Mitchell the superintendent it actually comes from the American Association of Pediatrics so they produced a report in a guideline last Friday that really talked about the significant child abuse sexual abuse physical abuse that took hands or were in place during the time that our schools were actually closed down and that cases were not reported because kids and parents sometime didn't have the
017venue to report as they do in school here are some of the cons that we required less than six feet of social distancing it is reflective however of World Health Organization in terms of three-feet guidance for schools which is being used in Europe the AAP which is the American Association of Pediatrics also notes that rigorous wearing of masks would help and be as safe as six feet of social distancing so with preventive measures mask-wearing included three feet could be potentially as safe as six feet the last option would include four days and so there are some pros and some cons so better academic and social/emotional opportunities for our kids again as reflected by the AAP it allows for extra deep cleaning so one day a week the students would be working remotely which would give
018us the opportunity to make sure that we are constantly deep cleaning our buildings and it would also allow for a cadence of one day a week so the parents would know specifically every week it's just one day in which students will be doing remote learning there are some cons and they include less than six feet of social distancing but reflective of the World Health Organization of three feet guidance for schools and it wouldn't our child care for the one day students that are not in session that gives you a summary of the three models and the pros and cons for each one of those models next slide please now in addition to the board selecting a model hopefully this evening we do have other options though for parents who may not want to send their
019children back at all so our survey that we administered about a month ago indicated that 5% of the families were choosing not to send their students back to CPS until there's a vaccine so we do have an option in a model for those parents and that is through our digital Academy the digital Academy is an Academy that we have had in our district for quite some time we are very much interested in doing some revamp of that curriculum we have over 300 kids who are currently enrolled in the digital Academy and are looking we're looking at very closely the enrollment on a daily basis to look at the increase of enrollment as a result of Kovach 19 and at this point I'd like to turn it over to our treasurer to talk about the cost
020implications related to each one of our models thank you good afternoon everyone here's a comparative cost comparison of each of the models and I just would like to remind the board and the public that's because of the downward turn and economics caused by the Kove advice in the closing of schools and closing of businesses we had to revise our budget downward to a maximum of 625 million so that we could maintain in the proper cash flows into the new year so each of these models has a different cost they range from 23 million additionally to 32 million at the highest the difference between those models and their costs is the the second model the middle model includes extra transportation because we have more children on but current bus routes than would be allowed under those
021safety rules and then the second two models we've anticipate having to add paraprofessionals to help with masking temperature and helping kids go through the buildings so those are explanations each model includes about seven million dollars of additional technology to support remote learning and somewhere between three and a half to four and a half million and additional cleaning supplies to do the deep cleaning and buying masks and those things that we need to keep our buildings clean and safe so we were able to apply some of the Care Act money we used some of the Care Act money this summer for a summer remote learning and some of it we used that qualifies under these models so that each model when compared to the budget reduction and the cost of each model has some required reductions
022in our current level of spending in order to balance the budget to 625 so under the first model we would need to cover 47 of almost 48 million dollars in reductions and the other two models are the most expensive line of course we'd have to cover a little bit more 57 million and then in the third model we would have to cover 52 million in reductions based on our current level of spending for the current year so with that I'll pause and if there's any questions or is there somebody after me that was it okay okay do board members have questions at this point any any clarifying information needed is is our you concluded or do you have this Jose can our presentation of the three models and the cost factors as well as the
023pros and cons for each model okay thank you okay so we are now at the I'm sorry I jumped ahead we forgot to do kudos and retirements I'm so eager to get to the conversation sorry does anyone have any kudos okay no kudos today Miss Bates did you have a Kudo mr. Messer I was just going to give it Kudo I think all of us share in our appreciation for the amount of hours that our administration has put into getting us to the point of making the decision I think all of us came to the table with many many many concerns that we heard from a variety of stakeholders and each one of them was met with the same respect and tenacity and finding answers and getting a response so thank you to Laura and
024her entire team for all the hours you've put in during this pandemic to get us today thank you thank you any other kudos at this time I think we all concur with that mr. Messer Thanks okay Miss Bates do we have any retirements firemen from our civil service personnel and that is Linda Spitz Nagle senior Support Specialists though we think this fits Nagle for her service our children and wish her well in her new life thank you Miss Bates okay so we are now at the item on our agenda for hearing the public the board prides itself on being as transparent and open as possible consistent with the state's direction to minimize public gatherings at this time we are convening this video conference call to include opportunity for public comment so once again you will
025have you would have had to raise your hand in the first 15 minutes but everybody who raised their hand in that time frame will have an opportunity to speak for two minutes miss Wagner will be our timekeeper again if you do not want your video active please disable the video camera icon thank you go ahead miss Wagner okay our first speaker is Jeff Hammond go ahead Jeff yes thank you very much miss Patrick's friend board and superintendent I'm a Clark Montessori parent I had two high schoolers with trips cancelled to the Philippines in New York City I talked with miss Mitchell about it and some of the deputies and because I started this pandemic with a fatalistic notion that just let's just let it play out I was wrong I sent towards the end of
026March thank you note to the superintendent and to the deputies to say thank you for having a more cautious approach than I was having at that time you all probably didn't see governor DeWine his press conference while you were an executive session but he specifically called out Hamilton County and his discussion with about our county in a White House meeting right before the press conference about our surging cases in hospital visits that are doubled and higher than they even were during the month of April and they're continuing to trend upward so I think we all want a solution that can last for the whole year we don't we don't want a something that is just something that we have to start and then we have to abandon the three feet to me feels like business
027as usual um feels like that except for some masks and for some cleaning the six foot option feels like it's the middle ground of wisdom that works to protect opportunities in both academics and health and safety I there were some mentions of Europe and we have some family in Austria that we spoke with yesterday they're doing every other week in person education which is scenario number one they do three days in class they have the weekend they do two days in class and then the other half does the next week of the other three days in two days and they alternate they're still in school for the next few weeks so that's how we know it's what's going on there I see you all being six feet there right now and I trust that you
028won't just respect our students more than you respect yourselves with health and safety in the same way that's sighs I request that you use option number one thank you very much Jeff your two minutes are up thank you your two minutes are up we apologize we're gonna have to move on I'm gonna remind people in the audience please try your best to limit to two minutes I mean we don't want to cut people off and we will allow you to finish your thought but please be cognizant of the time there next color is Deborah Holloway hi I just had a couple of comments and a question I've never heard any talk of the possibility of pasta of having establishing satellite locations in the community so instead of getting kids to come all to the same
029school for example we could have a couple of locations and we can maybe work with area churches rec centers or whoever though that we're not trying to get all the kids together but I'd like to see something more stable this one again off and again from face to face to remote I think can be confusing to a lot of kids especially the younger kids and even to the parents especially if they're trying to work and that inconsistency I think can make it more difficulty difficult I teach at Roberts while I'm always asking the question if everything that you're saying to us in the in the meeting can be presented on a simple chart family community friendly language so all stakeholders can understand what you're saying because it goes fast during the meeting and that would
030also include translations of all the documents in the language of origin for all of our cps families um and that's basically the main thing I'm concerned with because I agree with the previous one I don't think three feet well I'd rather not be I don't want you sick because we're trying to get them in the building if it's not safe and also with the clean how yeah I know we know remote is not as good as in person but if we're spending a lot of our time cleaning during the day not sure how much instruction will be going on compared to remote thank you the audience that we typically do not respond to direct questions I will say that because today's agenda we we made some modifications we are hoping that when the board has
031its discussion about the options that maybe some of your questions will be answered at that time thank you our next speaker is - Misha Gordon go ahead - Misha Misha Corey today I'm just I'm here to talk about that I feel like we should do the four day for a day in school didn't one day do cleaning I'm a CPS student I've been with my whole life and I feel as if we remove ourselves if we do I feel like that's gonna be unsteady if we're two days in school in three days in school it's gonna be very unsteady because some kids need school I'm one of the kids who needs school I need to be in meet that teacher experience because uh if I don't have it I feel like I'm going I'm gonna
032feel miserably I'm going I oversee overthink I overdo and I'm it just gonna be a very bad experience especially for me I feel as if Duluth are going to run the streets or they're not going to do it get all the grades are going to feel tremendously we already have the district over overall great as it is and if we're out of school it's not going to prove at all we need to be in school we need them for days of learning we need that teacher that teacher interaction time that's what kids need that's that's what we need we need stability we need we understand SAP it depend M it going on but we also need our education that is the most important goal is our education thank you I hope I did that right
033our next speaker is the mone Scott hello hello my name is Imani Scott I attend Woodward Career Technical High School I haven't been in CPS my whole life so I've seen how other schools work I started in CPS and seventh grade but in just these last three years I've noticed many in Justices within the system that is since that I public schools it was very off-putting and currently still is as I entered my junior year um the is that they want to provide education to all students with rigor and career and a culture of excellence to develop engaged citizens who are prepared for life if this is a mission of CPS I would like for you to hold yourselves accountable for your actions not just your words our vision States since in I public schools
034will be a community that shares equitable access to the world-class education unleashing potential of every student we're not currently receiving this some schools some students may be but not every students I'm having issues with the vision statements because our students are a lot smarter than the district may realize a lot of our so-called problem students are a lot smarter than may people may perceive them to be the district is not treating these students like they have the unlimited potential the district is limiting students potential by not allocating resources to schools which can make our vision and mission statement a reality we feel the district has chosen not to value our students voices such as my and my peers in our tired of waiting for this to happen therefore we are taking matters into our own
035hands to eliminate the current inequities that exist though Cova interrupted our moments and with this word armament momentum is now fat I hope that you will allow us to go back to school at least I do think like the three to four day week option I hope that you remember what I said today as you figure out the details are by reopening after you vote today we are paying attention it will not be let up letting up until the cps mission and value statements become a reality thank you for your time I know that was a student who spoke but I'm gonna ask and encourage people to slow them we had a hard time hearing or at least understanding that at least I did but we appreciate we want if it's a student especially we
036want to hear from you but we couldn't hear it it was just a little bit sounds like she was reading so help her out okay our next speaker is hala Kareem cases in the state of Ohio are on a steady incline since the premature reopening of businesses in mid-may 854 cases were reported yesterday overall Ohio has seen over 2,800 people perish due to this novel virus in the past week alone Ohio has reported a 50% increase in cases nationwide we've seen 120,000 people lose their lives due to failure by our state and federal government in case in countries where koban have ravaged populations such as Italy quick action by their government choosing to heed medical advice has proven effective in flattening the curve I'm heartbroken and baffled that decisions to close businesses and schools to
037protect our fellow citizens and ourselves has caused such political division in the country in the state and in this district I understand that many parents and teachers alike are eager to send students back to school I understand the social-emotional benefit of being able to see our friends and teachers in person I am an English teacher and I've experienced the disparity between teaching in person and remote learning which is not a preferred substitute these concerns are valid but these as I'm sure everyone in this meeting has heard countless times are not normal time these are exceptional times of uncertainty and chaos and the risk of reporting back to our buildings even once or twice a week outweighs the reward as one concerned citizen put it I appreciate the attempt to perform risk analysis that helps prioritize
038the effect on students emotional and academic well-being versus the coded risk it's extremely disingenuous to line these up on the same scale as if they were equivalent the living always have an opportunity to keep learning and hopefully catch up the downside is literally the hospitalization and death of teachers caretakers and high-risk students we know that asymptomatic carriers of COBIT are rapidly spreading the disease we know it's affecting younger demographics we don't yet know the extent of how it affects people in recovery however Reuters reports that patients with kovat have seen damage in their pancreas heart liver kidney and other organs it can lead to blood clotting strokes neurological complications and permanent loss of taste and smell it's not an ordinary flu this is a life ravaging disease that we can prevent by keeping our distance
039unfortunately this includes not being able to interact with each other in the classroom the risk is simply too high I call upon the school board to consider your lives and damage thank you that's fine think our next speaker is David Brenner go ahead hi thank you for the time you speak today last year the board passed policy 5311 for medically and scientifically accurate curriculum in our health classrooms adopting any plan that insures three feet of distance instead of six feet goes against scientific and science and recommendations from dr. Falchi CDC and the w-h-o people that understand the best medical and scientific advice the three-foot guideline from the w-h-o assumed that spread was under control not just because the American Academy of Pediatrics in their statement said that strict adherence to six-feet was necessary for coming
040back to school even though they did advise students come back are you going to be contrary to district policy that you yourselves unanimously passed and go against scientific recommendations the distancing recommendation was in addition to other measures not instead of some families including mine have people that are in the high-risk category we need to make sure that our families can remain part of their existing school communities for the good of our students with all due respect students to digital Academy does not serve our students because you were taking them out of their communities they're magnet programs the schools they currently attend no one should need to choose between the life of a family member and their school choice the reality is we need to plan for distance learning because there's always going to be students
041out of the classroom for extended periods individuals will need to be isolated at home for two weeks at a time because illness or risks from exposure these students need to continue to be engaged in their classwork and participate in the classroom experience remotely this is in addition to times when schools need to be closed for health reasons any plan needs to acknowledge this and account for it I hope that you're going to take into account all of the science and go with the plan that minimizes time in school while addressing the needs for proper education you know the right answer you pass the policies that indicate what you should do please do so thank you thank you the next color is Alisa Allen hello my name is Alisa Allen and I teach kindergarten at ami
042uh my points today all surround one gaping thought which is how much risk is going to be imposed on not only students but on employees for starters I do not feel like three feet is social distancing it does not feel safe last week it was mentioned that kids would not stay six feet apart anyways but what was not considered in that conversation was the amount of children that allows in the classroom I have had up to 32 kids in my kindergarten class that is not ideal or productive outside of a pandemic no less during a rising national health crisis I can much more effectively teach 12 kids during a school day even half of the time then I can 24 plus all days of the week smaller classroom sizes should be the norm and it
043is safer and far more effective which is why I strongly prefer favor one option one the second major point I really want to touch on is that of subs first off teachers should not be treated as expendable orally further I feel like there is this image that we will have a sufficient amount of substitutes to replace the teachers who get sick that is not going to be the case when we return in the fall I am going to be eight months pregnant and I have been searching for a long-term sub for months to take my maternity leave and no one I have asked is willing to return to school in the fall many of our district subs are retired teachers or on the opposite end of the spectrum have young families and they're not willing
044to take the risk so the idea that there will be this plethora of substitutes is false and that needs to be taken into consideration I want to be in the classroom I love teaching I love what I do but I want to make sure that when we return we are doing it in the safest way possible overall I feel like several of these models are treating teachers as sacrificial lambs where convenience is being considered over safety and any plan that has chosen today needs to be one that you would feel comfortable pursuing as a teacher and not as an outsider thank you for your time thank you our next speaker is Julian with no last name go ahead Julian homeschooling is not fun it's not something that I want to do like and I don't
045think that three feet of distance is si and I know you guys are getting needs of masks but let's be honest if you've walked outside lately and no one is wearing them and you are going to get parents Tuesday my kid has a medical issue okay and they might but are you going to require documentation for that are you going to that space those children are you going to do anything to protect I'll be trekking the clip and I mean there's there's so many there's so many other parents out there that I don't trust and I do trust that the school board has a basis science and reason were there and so I'm not willing to put away don't don't even wanna you know refuse to not go out to there five days a week
046in the busy restaurants I just it's not safe for my kids is not seen by the teachers for anyone in the school so I really just hope that you know you think wrongly about the things and about the people who aren't willing to follow the rules that you want to put in place thank you [Music] it board I think one of the things that's going on there's a lot of feedback coming from the technical aspect though board members are requesting if at all possible if you could turn on your lives video screen so we can at least see you and it might help us to hear you better it seems like we're getting some feedback for those who are not live on video so if you're able to do that please do so if not
047we just ask you to just slow down a little bit we want to make sure we hear you okay our next speaker is Megan creeps go ahead Megan hi thank you so much four members of the board and superintendent Mitchell I'm here to highlight our immigrant community needs I will include some language from a resolution passed by the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers on May 7 as well as my own ideas I want to highlight um these immigrant needs that are always present but I hope that the serious nature of the coronavirus may serve to expedite their needs make them more systemic and incentivize our leadership and staff to do right by that community all family have a legal right to important information from the school and a language they can understand so it is important
048that all communication be and our three most prevalent languages at the same time that English communication is released communication should include images videos with closed captioning and simplified English especially for those who speak languages that are difficult to find interpretation and translation this includes but is not limited to closure information safety protocols PJs plans technology guides technology help sessions health information pickup protocols food distribution and much much more we've heard discussion about nurses in every work site in schools with a high number of Els who speak the same language nurses should also speak that language teachers know that our students need to be safe and have more social emotional supports so again counselors mental health professionals social workers and partner agencies should be reflective of student populations in terms of cultural background and languages spoken
049we will need training for staff and families so ITM staff who speak multiple languages or have experience working with multilingual families should right be prioritize and lastly if we are in any kind of blended model with reduced time in school we should have reduced time in testing as well thank you thank you our next speaker is dr. William Gordon hello can you see me so I am I teach at Walnut Hills High School and I am a high-risk stood in at least two categories I'm over 65 and I have asthma I would based on the I have and the research I've done I am comfortable in a three-foot environment with the students wearing masks I think that's appropriate based on my experience teaching with the students last year and past experience as a college teacher
050remote learning is not very effective for the students because they get much of the value of their learning from interacting with other students I see I forgot to allow lobby gap a camera so I strongly support the five-day option I think that's the appropriate option and I say that even though I am a high risk key person at high risk yes sir are you completed I think so okay I said or not hear what I said he heard what you said thank you okay that's all I have to say thank you all right thank you okay our next speaker is Tiffany with no last name go ahead Tiffany hi there my name is Tiffany Jensen and I just wanted to share that five days feels unsafe to me both from a kovat standpoint and even
051emotionally because I feel like if we are doing the three-foot distance we are really gonna have to double down with all the other precautions is that social distancing is not really good for child development but it's what we have to do with with kovat so I would rather have smaller courses and the opportunity to maybe have some shared learning things because there's less children in the classroom so maybe they can do group work with three students because those three students can spread out and get little distancing and have more of that flow based group learning scenario better with less people in the classroom then they could with everybody in five days to me lose the benefit of the social piece with that because the kids aren't going to be able to move from their desks
052because there's just too many kids in the room and that's all I wanted to share thank you next is Leslie Mooney hi everyone thanks I would just say I'm a parent with an incoming kindergartner third grader and fourth grader at Fairview Clifton German language school and I would say that in the last spring I was definitely on the side of favoring the option one in terms of what was coming out of from the CDC and the heightened awareness and and risks associated however in the last few months I've done a really deep dive as things in other countries have opened back up specifically schools for research that's come out from abundance of sources on looking at the whole child and as I know that this board is so an administration so student-centered I think it's
053really important and I'm so glad that the superintendent pointed out in her presentation the recent recommendations and science behind the Academy of pediatricians that came out with their their studies and their pacifically statement about in many school settings six feet between students is not feasible without limiting the number of students evidence suggests that spacing as close as three feet may approach the benefits of six feet of space particularly if students are wearing face coverings and are asymptomatic so as we learn more scientists and doctors learn more about about the risk specifically students and of teachers because of course we cannot not take that into account then I have come to the belief through this research that the five-day option is what's best and I think that there are lots of creative and flexible and operations
054committees as you all know formed at each of the schools and we stand ready to assist in making that experience as safe as possible but also protecting the health and well-being of the students who are always at the center of the decision-making for this school board and I greatly appreciate it and that's all for me thanks guys is Kristin Copeland hi thank you can you see me so thank you for giving us this option I am a CPS parent of the last 11 years first Hill Gore and now at Walnut Hills I have two children I'm also general pediatrician for 18 years and I had the great honor of providing the board some studies in the last week that provided some sort of reassurance that fortunately for this terrifying disease that actually child to child
055transmission and child to adult transmission is really quite low I want to what I heard in the presentation by the superintendent was a focus on mask ventilation and on sanitizer and hand soap which i think is gonna be very important I want to applaud the board in the superintendent for the focus on equity for basing decisions on evidence and science and involving the experts and really importantly involving community and port the input I also note that a lot of hours and a lot of work was done and I'm really delighted to be a part of this district it seems that we have three great options balancing the three feet versus the six feet in balancing the two days versus the five versus four days and the child care needs I think the board is going
056to do a great job in making a decision a couple other things I want to bring up that the board should be thinking about is first to trust parents when they say that their child is sick and don't require doctors notes or enforce any truancy laws during this next period second to collect input on these three models from parents teachers and importantly students and I really appreciated that Tanisha and Jumaane were Zamani were speaking up at the beginning of the call I also appreciate dr. William Gordon's comments third enforce masks wearing it can be done we are seeing it done in many states and around the world and I think it can be the saving grace of this and then fourth thinking about extracurriculars and spectators in requiring that masks be warned in those events
057so again I appreciate the board collecting input from all the stakeholders in the process that the board is using thank you for the time Thank You Baker is kiri pash go ahead Breen tangent Laura Michelle for listening to me today as well as everybody who's spoken before me I wanted to address a more specific situation I would like to represent the specialist the art art and cultures teachers across the district who see almost all of our students a lot of us teach multiple classes a day again with a lot of high school teachers but we will see hundreds of students in a day some of us have been hearing that we might lose our rooms that would be an interesting thing because then all of us would be in a different area and then that
058concern would be would we be traveling from class to class then that is a risk of exposure for us as well as all those kids that we would be going to their rooms if we were able to have just the classroom inclusive I'm worried that some of these things would be overlooked the different situations in the schools the cafeteria gym class recess when they go to the bathroom when they eat when they eat lunch when they eat breakfast how are those things going to be taking care of those things that are outside the general classroom many of our schedules are also back to back so the idea of disinfecting as much as we can in between classes would have to change all of our schedules there's also a few teachers that see more hundreds of
059students a day they're immunocompromised we'll have these big worries that they need to be that need to be spoken up and if we are able to do the first options which I am for we would need to worry about having enough supplies enough supplies for students without sharing because arts and culture are what best form our community and they help solidify those relationships with other communities and within our so I feel like the arts are very important right now in a way to keep us connected virtually since we are kind of dying for those things right now thank you so much for listening and I hope that you consider my comments in your decision thank you okay our next speaker is Sharon with no last name Aaron or you know that I assume this is
060Sharon silver um I actually work in public health there's been a lot of transmission among college students on spring break I just want to say 20 years old is not some magic number there's a lot of those college students are 20 they're transmitting it to each other to their families the risk is lower and younger kids it hasn't been really adequately studied teens are a separate situation it's not like magically you're 20 you can transmit it so that's one thing to consider the second thing is we really need a stable interactive remote option remote does not have to equal not interactive I have brought up the streaming question I've been told it's too expensive but I have not yet seen a breakdown of exactly what the costs are there I know teachers were zooming in
061the spring that may not be perfect but it seemed to work well several of my kids teachers continue to teach that way they were able to participate in the classroom with a remote option it seems to be much better than the digital Academy option the digital Academy if it's still going to use apex it's not interactive at all I'd be curious to hear how it's going to be beefed up also I would really like to know the kids who need to stay out of the school and need to transfer to the digital Academy is that a formal transfer will they be promised that they will they be parents that they can go back to their home schools once the parents feel like it's safe especially the schools that are in demand is that going to
062be seamless my kids have expressed concerns about that the other thing is some of the high schools can't really accommodate even six feet distance in the hallways in the bathrooms I don't know where are these line up for daily health checks would even happen lots of things etc thank you thank you our next speaker is Poe let s go ahead pull it yes I am a parent of a student and my child attends Walnut Hills and one of the currents concerns my child has is the safe teenis of a building that hosts over 3,000 students one of the concerns is if my child was to attend CDA and who is an honor student how is the curricular the rigor going to be placed and held if my child chooses not to go because of the
063pandemic um that's one of the biggest concerns that I had that Sharon brought out and as mr. Brunner brought out that is a huge concern I just wish that they would be able to address that and and find the needs to meet all of our students as well who have are in specialized programs that they would be able to do something remotely with the specialized teachers that teach that not just go through a digital program suggest the streaming something has to give in order for the students to be able to succeed during this pandemic and not have to go back to the way it was because actually they end up losing out that's all I wanted to say thank you is Sean Kelly go ahead Sean you for your time today and I just want
064to put on a parent of four children in CPS out to work closely with the district on several initiatives and I firmly believe it needs to be a four to five day school week I believe with the cooperation that you already have with Cincinnati Children's you have many many chins and infectious disease pops in your own community parents who could serve as ongoing experts I think it's the best for all kids which is what you as this large of a school district has about all the students in your district so I would recommend and suggest to go for the five day or the four day option thank you for your time our next speaker is first initial M last name Henry go ahead caller afternoon can you hear me good afternoon can you hear me
065we can hear you yes my name is Marjorie Henry and I'm a CPS teacher and my concern also is with the three-feet designation I believe that is entirely too close I teach high school and the students actually need space additionally the concern is far as having the students come in with their PPE s and be assured that we reinforce the big concern because we don't want them to come in with not have masks and as a longtime CPS teacher I love teaching have very good attendance I just want everyone to think about what is the value of education as the value of a human life because some of us have people at our homes or have high risk and of course you want to be concerned about the safety of staff and the students and
066my second point is and I know may not be related I value the police once you want to keep them in the schools they're well needed and appreciate it thank you very much our next caller is Alison I'm sorry GOI Co window very much um I just want to weigh in in favor of a reduction I think we don't know sudden that there will be at least some districts across the state and across the nation that do go back five days a week and I think we need to consider if we don't go back in that same timetable if we're going to be significant I'm a parent to elementary school children and I think it's crucial for elements actually to get to first education if they're going okay our next speaker is Jessica Powell we'll
067go ahead good afternoon my name okay good afternoon my name is Jessica Powell and I am a parent of three kids ages four four and six all three attend Campbell Montessori elementary I am strongly strongly in favor of the four to five days full week for me for my parents as much in person school as possible is going to be critical my choice is grounded in the fact that online learning doesn't work for most cps families including mine and social interaction is critical for students of all ages as well as making sure particularly older kids but also kids families without daycare choices have options I I realized that school is not a babysitter but school is what helps many parents including me keep working um I understand that all parents are not comfortable with this
068four to five day school option we've heard it today and to that I would just say I think having the opt-out option is a really great opportunity for those families and that it will help hopefully D densified the schools for those of us sending our kids back um I don't envy the tough position that CPS is in I think it's done a really great job considering all of the options I hope to god we get this under control in the next two months like the kovat uptick um and I recognize that this takes a village and that CPS can't do it on its own and I hope that CPS and CPS families get the help that we need from the state some governor's a wine o de the city and the business community so I
069I that's where I'm coming from and thank you for your time thank you our next speaker is Andrea Spenny go ahead Andrea good afternoon my name is andreas Benny and I'm a teacher at Woodward high school I'm not sure who made this happen but I'm thankful that after I pointed out how difficult it was to find the information for last Monday's board meeting that a notification went out to all staff regarding this I'm thankful that it's on our districts website and it's my hope and expectation that this will happen in the future or for all future meetings I know you have a tough decision to make today but I'm happy to see that all options conclude against attending school in our buildings at least two days a week if they choose earlier today I saw
070that the minute last Monday's meeting was the topic of my hearing of the public time as and I quote can earn about black students I'm not sure who is in charge of listening the topics but I need to clarify my topic as I am NOT just concerned about our black students and the majority of what I said last week was not about my concern for our black students today you could put my topic as concern about the lack of attention to the systemic racism that continues to exist in our district I have concerns about the inaction of district leadership to helping eradicate equity in our schools I have concerns about the money we give to outside organizations for quote unquote authentic and family engagement when we could spend money doing this in hell I have
071concerns about minority contracts when I see that many of the businesses specifically construction and landscaping businesses you have a lot of money too recently are owned by white men I have concerns about the partnership Cincinnati Public Schools has with the Cincinnati blue lion Foundation which is a nonprofit that is and I quote focus on increasing the size of the police force coordinating events that raise much-needed Police Department funds in acquiring supplemental equipment and resources that are not addressed in the city of Cincinnati's annual budget I have concerns that when you call the number listed on their website it is a Fraternal Order of Police cop I've inquired about this partnership and I will continue to be concerned until I receive answers from the district where our time is cut short today I hope you're able
072to look into my concerns before we see each other at our next meeting thank you thank you our next speaker is a Israel did you turn my your microphone on it get it to come on okay we'll move on to the next speaker in case there's any Jeremy reach out to her I'm Tracy Cummings good afternoon I am my district and I have a about learning if we continue with that model what we will do to employ that all families have internet Axl I noticed that in the minutes we were piloting some schools during the year but I'm curious to know what the plan is to ensure that all students will have access to the Internet and then as a teacher I'm just curious to know if we've thought about what protocols will be used
073to ensure that students if we return to the building have access to temperature checks or other measures that will ensure that they are healthy upon entry to the buildings and I agree with the concern that three-feet may be putting us at that risk my last question is entered around furniture in the built in the buildings in my particular situation I have tables not desk and so I'm curious to know if that has been taken into consideration when we talk about the social distancing component will there be options to you know have desk instead of tables or will there be dividers provided like I'm curious to know what the plan is for the social distancing reinforcements should be returned to the classroom thank you so much for providing this platform to oppose our questions and then
074I did say I was done but I also am concerned about the presence of police in the buildings excuse me but I apologize but your two minutes are up we are going to have to move on Israel okay so our last speaker is Miss Julie sellers and you let me in you're in okay can you hear me hello can't see you yes we can hear you we can't see you but we can hear you okay so good evening everyone can you hear okay I don't want you to know that I understand the operation that all of you are in today with the decision that you must make concerning the reopening of schools I do not believe that the three options sitting in front of you should be your only choices these options are not innovative
075or creative and some schools are levels may need additional flexibility I first spoke to the board in early February about the importance of preparing our schools for the coming pandemic I believe that was prior to mr. Morales keys going on his paternity leave and that warning was ignored I was looked at like I had five heads we were closed five to six weeks later and never returned during those week no planning took place to prepare for a school closure I believe that we were even told during a board meeting that CDF will be staying open and following the New York City model and we all saw how that worked out for New York City over 65 educators died of kovat I was glad that our governor and state health commissioner took action and did not
076allow Ohioans to follow that pathway I just want to remind everyone that a Hamilton Cowley is currently in a spike and the numbers are replicating the death traps of the nursing homes and prisons earlier in this pandemic let me share the data from a survey we sent out the teachers on Friday afternoon the survey closed this morning and these results are very different than what your surveys have reflected in your plans I do believe that teachers who responded did so based on your presentation last week let me begin we had almost a thousand teachers participate and of them 98 percent had read and reviewed to plan so they were making decisions based on information there are three blended learning models and two in-person models which model do you prefer and of that 71 percent of
077the teachers believed that we needed to continue to have a six-foot social distancing and 29 percent believed in person with three feet of social distancing of course the survey members who are not included serving members who are not classroom teachers but classroom teachers are very fearful of sitting in a classroom and some of these classrooms only have 660 feet square feet and they have 3232 students there in those classrooms like sardines of the five models which individual model do you prefer and most of them chose selected and 154 percent and the second highest was 20 percent of the selection five and this I find this next question I found very informative when we ask are you considered high risk for exposure to kovetz forty percent said yes not the two percent or five percent that
078your survey reflected forty percent but they were at high risk 60% said no how will there be enough teachers if 40% feel that they are high risk for exposure and will be fearful of coming back as in a situation that is business as normal and so of that I know that 79% of the thousand teachers who took the survey said that they were going to be signing on today teachers want to know what is going on as the district moves forward I'm glad that your resolution references look at other districts hopefully you looked at urban districts in areas with high infection rates like Hamilton County and thankfully we are not Warren County and that was one of the counties that you looked at we have different needs for students with families and I believe that
079we should be looking at scientific data I was recently given data from a colleague in England about Kovac and their schools the United Kingdom schools reopened on a limited basis many others remained closed they reopened at the beginning of June with similar precautions to those proposed by administration distance to the extent allowed by building constraints masks and reduced class sizes in a short period there has been a doubling of the national kovat infection cases rates due to the outbreaks in a few schools that were reopened did you hear that double the cases and a serious spike in the country because the schools re opening many teachers have concerns regarding the possibility of teaching both in a blended learning environment five days without yes with all due respect we know that that we have weighed your
080two minutes and we we really want to hear what you have to say but I would ask for your consideration in allowing us to continue with the meeting because we actually have some timeline deadlines today so please if you could be brief we'd appreciate it many teachers have concerns we have teaching in a private five days a week without additional planning time for creating the uploading of online content there are other areas of concerns about how services will be provided some students with IEP LEP weps and all of these groups need to be able to attend school based on their plan for instruction and should be in school receiving their minutes of instruction based on their individual plans again different students could be in school different numbers of ways there's been no communication and any
081plan or with CFT teachers or parents about any of the special ed services based on the cojiro rapport parents want consistent and reliable communication a employees agree that they also need consistent and reliable communication to support them as we begin to prepare for the difficult 2021 school year parents want partner during every step of the road want to be partners during every step of the reopening process they are eager to work with CPS do ensure that their children have the best and safest reposts return possible this is also what teachers want employees should not have to move their lives or the lives of their family to do their jobs we all saw how nurses and doctors who worked with other patients were socially distancing from their families and Quarantine they did this for two to
082three months tough we we're really trying to be courteous courteous but we are going to ask you if you could please in your comments within the next minute okay so we this is it right it's a minute okay consistent district communication we need for here and employees only clearly procedures concerning cleaning sanitizing protocol and reporting processes when and so that we know how to report it when this is not done people do not trust them - we need written expectations or mass runtime screenings guidelines for social distancing testing screening tracing and guidelines and communication for contact tracing and/or school exclusion or school closures when there's an uptick for quarantines and we also must make sure that employees must be given up for leave or remote teaching as soon as possible families must be given the
083options for when what learning as soon as possible and without these sets of numbers we will not be able to move forward as always EFT and our members are willing to assist the district moving forward to be successful during the 2021 school year and schools aren't who needs it or what they're voted and staffing with so they can move forward with their plans and I will send you my complete comments as soon as this meeting is over thank you thank you do we have any more speakers in this window thank you okay so we've heard from everyone and we truly appreciate your comments I know a lot of the folks in that segment had lots of questions and we're getting ready to move into the board matters agenda item at which time board members will
084have an opportunity to express opinions thoughts ideas from they may even respond to some of the questions that you all might have so at this time I'd like to open the board matters for board member comments for discussion of options for questions who's first go ahead in this boat and go ahead we'll just go down the line thank you and thanks to the community for the input all of these weeks I really appreciate it and and I we have three opportunities to decide and hopefully together we will decide the best for the kids and the staff and the community I I'll just state that I have a preference which is the four and one which is the idea of having in-person instruction four days a week and one day a remote instructional day that also
085could be used for professional development and what-have-you there are a couple of reasons that I support that even though I've been so concerned about the three feet versus the six feet I think the superintendent has done a great job of going out and and and rounding up the kinds of information that I needed regarding being reassured about as best that we could have health provided and safety provided but for me I believe our children it's not a question of it it's unsafe to go to school it's a question that for many of our kids it's not safe do not go to school it's not safe to stay out of school either academically or from a health consideration part of the four and one is I would like to have our kids be here as long
086as possible but also because I think somebody mentioned it it provides a predictability about when child care would be needed the other issues like two and three I am extremely concerned and I want to bring about and compliment mr. Messer for mentioning this some weeks ago I we have a crisis in the district and nationally which is koban but we also have to meet that crisis but in doing so we cannot dismantle our entire personnel complement or go bankrupt and I believe that unless we choose four and one indeed we will have to be and it's my understanding from the administration it's the board's understanding from the administration we're talking hundreds of riffing dismissal position changing and what-have-you under number one as well as unpredictability regarding child care but also from my standpoint besides the
087financial and what have you as a person that's been about forty eight years of my life worrying about other people's children I feel that we need to put into play a system that we can control and improve upon on a weekly basis I think having the remote as well as the insert in person will be prepare us for the inevitable shutdowns building by building or by district because the kids and the staff will be using that time to do both of the things that they need to as well as the cleanliness piece but also the period and the time of continuous improvement after we review each week and the success of it and finally the other issue I need to mention is that nobody in this room wants to do anything that will harm children
088and we may have different opinions but all of us I think have demonstrated that we have learned from this effort and have a vision of also making the district move to this new norm I don't want to go back to the status quo there is a brighter piece to all of this if we can do what we need to do and I would suggest I'm interested in the for one option thank you both mister Morosky Thank You president Jones and thanks to all the speakers not only today but in our last meeting and that committee meeting and other various meetings that we've had and one more kudos to superintendent Laura Mitchell treasurer ignore and the team who's come up with these options and took all the input from us and from the community to get
089to this place though my opinion is unchanged from last week for the 1300 or so folks are sure some of them are the same I will not support an option that is less than 6 feet spacing and I'll say why I will also note that whatever the will of the board is I will support adamantly as a team player and we will we will do the best by the kids in the fall if it's not option 1 I will stand behind the will of the board and we will get on but just a couple notes of why I am so adamant we we we have talked a lot about the World Health Organization the night and they're three feet and while I do not pretend to know more than officials at the World Health Organization
090this is an organization that also doesn't believe in asymptomatic transmission depending on what day you ask them will have also referenced the AAP American Academy of Pediatrics document frequently and for good reason because in it it does seem to suggest that if you're wearing the masks and you're doing all these other things 3 feet may work but it they also reiterate in that same white paper or whatever you want to call it that six feet is kind of the best which leads me to my next point is with the three feet I just feel like the words potentially and could are used more frequently than with the six feet and it makes me it does it makes me uneasy I do not like the prospect of two days on three days off I don't I
091really don't occasionally speaking the child care concerns I hear but more so even in the child care concerns we have a number of folks in our district living with folks who are immunocompromised or over a certain age and to be perfectly frank I it ultimately it becomes easy is not the right word because none of this is easy but I may be more palatable to to think about the child care concerns versus dead grandmother's and and that's something that is weighing I mean a couple more things and then I'll I'll pass the mic to then mr. Lindy the numbers are really really concerning right now and I'm not even certain we should reopen I also see think that we may ultimately close again but I think this is the decision that we're going to keep
092making and I've said this to my colleagues and I'd like to say it now again I wouldn't rather make these decisions with six other people we talked about the new normal I think it's time we stop doing that I think this is the new normal and this is the decision that we make until there's a vaccine and lastly I want to touch on the benefits of the six feet I've talked about why I don't support the the three feet but why I do support the six feet obviously health and safety but there's two other primary reasons one we talk about one of our third guiding principles has been accelerating learning health and safety equity and accelerating learning I feel as if in the six feet model with less students in the classroom the ability to
093do that acceleration is more feasible it's a much smaller class sizes that is pedagogically speaking I feel as if having been a classroom teacher for ten years that the ability to not only remediated has been lost but to accelerate the chances are better and then lastly it is a very disruptive model for all sorts of reasons all the reasons the speakers have elucidated very well I don't need to build upon yes it's disruptive but it's consistently disruptive and what I worry about is going back four or five days is having to close again in an inconsistent manner if we have to close building by building for two to five days based on a case and then that student has a sister at another school and a brother or another school those are three schools that
094shut down for two to five days and I just I feel that none of these options are good and so we really are being faced with the most difficult decision at least in this incarnation of the board that we've had to face but I do think those are the benefits I appreciate all the time and my colleagues lastly kudos to all six of you all as well I know that you I'm putting in as much time as me over the weekend and talking and learning so that's my two cents I favor option one Thank You mr. Lindy Thank You president Jones I think we're living through an incredibly incredibly challenging time and this vote is likely very very tough for everyone who is up here the spring was hard remote teaching and remote learning were
095difficult for almost everybody kids felt disconnected from friends and teachers while families navigated enormous strain and we missed the sports the music the events the graduations that make up so much of what a school community is about the spring has also been hard because loved ones have gotten sick family members have lost jobs loved ones have died people feel extremely strongly on all sides of this issue from my part having looked at the arguments and all sides and having consulted with people I trust a diverse range of backgrounds I've come to believe that the hard but right thing to do is to support option one the blended model I want to talk for just a minute about why I think this is the right thing to do we're seeing an enormous rise in cases nationally
096in Ohio and specifically here in Hamilton County the key to slowing the spread of this potentially deadly disease is social distancing that is keeping at least 6 feet of distance between one another wearing masks hand-washing cleaning these things all matter to but social distancing is an absolutely critical part of the response any option other than number one would shrink the space between students from the recommended six feet to three I don't think that's the safer responsible thing to do kids can carry and spread the illness while showing those symptoms at all and bringing 36,000 kids together and confined classrooms will lead to more people in the community getting sick more people going to the ICU and more people dying there is also a clear issue of racial equity in this decision because of long-standing structural
097inequality and systemic racism african-americans are dying of kovat 19 at three times the rate of white Americans our district is nearly two-thirds african-american and sacrificing the six-feet social distancing requirement would have tripled the negative impact in this largest segment of the district because this is such a big decision I wanted to check my perspective with individuals from a range of diverse backgrounds and experiences I talked to two of the top medical experts in the city of Cincinnati I talked to african-american parents grandparents and community leaders I talked to white parents and they talked to teachers to a person every single one of them said that we absolutely cannot sacrifice the six feet of social distancing and I just say that tonight I kept tally of all the different comments and 65% of the speakers were
098opposed to either the four day option or the fifth day option I think it's particularly worth noting that to my knowledge we've been unable to find a single local medical expert who is willing to say publicly that moving from six feet the three feet is okay for the contrary one of the experts I spoke with said that doing so would lead to a documented increase in hospitalizations and deaths so finally before closing I just want to anticipate a few of the counter arguments that may come up I first if we do the blended option students will be doing remote learning two to three days per week and people only arguing that based on our experience the spring remote learning is hugely problematic for people I just want to say that I agree with that I
099just think we have to challenge ourselves to make it better and rising to the challenge of doing so is a better choice than knowingly increase the damage that this disease will do to our community and disproportionately in the african-american community second board members Murray bring up the very real issue of child care coverage this too is a very real challenge and it presents a time when this city can rise to face it together whether it's families working together to pool coverage churches and other faith-based organizations opening up space for small group of kids or other partner organizations this is something we're gonna have to work through together and I believe that the challenge it presents however hard are temporary and with the loss of loved ones that come with other options are not worth third
100and I promise I'm waiting up I've heard the argument many times that the teachers won't be able to enforce a 6-feet of socialism at this I'd say two things first if we try and fall short of six feet it is still better than trying and falling short of three feet second even if we don't succeed at and keeping kids six feet apart by having the student body broken into two groups we limit the spread of the virus to within those two groups rather than across the entire student body I just add this that the concern came up earlier about employees who might be lived under scenario one my understanding is that that's entirely possible under any of the scenarios that are on the table so in closing I just want to acknowledge again this is
101incredibly hard I want every student to be back in school five days a week we just need to find a way to do that safely and until we can bring kids back safely five days a week I support option one thank you miss Baek then again I would like to reiterate as I did the other from what I said the other day this is an incredible balancing act and our decision has many other implications other than preventing the spread of kovat 19 I can borrow a statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics that says children's and adolescents have been placed as a result of of the isolation of morbidity and mortality from physical or sexual abuse substance abuse anxiety depression and suicidal ideation and here in the city of Cincinnati homicides are surging since the
102pandemic closures have been mandated and gun violence has increased and our kids are being involved and hurt so kovat 19 is a huge concern but all these residual implications are also a big concern and our decision is going to impact that as well secondly we are going to have a huge economic impact on the area parents need work and if parents have to stay home with children and lose their employment that's that's going to have a terrible impact on the local economy parents need a safe place to send their children and I feel confident in our district that we can provide if that's what parents want to do than their children to our schools that our schools can be very safe places for them ah third eye I do believe that we can be creative
103and I heard the superintendent say that she wants to revamp the Cincinnati digital Academy and agreed right now that is not probably a you know one of our one of our what a schools but with a great attention to improve curriculum there I believe this would be a good option for parents who really don't want to send their children to two schools four or five days a week and I do want to insert a personal piece here back in March I went to New York City before it closed and was there during the closure and came back and was very very sick stayed home for three weeks a great care and advice from my doctor and this week and the advice of my physician because my daughter is having a c-section next week and I'm
104going to be the caregiver while the parents are in the hospital advised me to have the antibody test and I tested positive for antibodies I know how terrible this disease is I don't want to see people having to suffer through this and I of course is one of the lucky ones but I do believe that going to a model four or five days or children providing a safe place for them and also giving families an option through the sense anoke digital Academy would would be good choices or our community and we can with with some assurance with our practices and with training for our staff provide a safe environment for our students so I would advocate number one for the five days a week and number two I would be satisfied with the four but
105I do believe our children need to be back in a safe place in a room in a reliable place for their education and for their well-being Thank You mr. Messer thank you president Jones don't like my colleagues of course safety and well-being of our children and our staff and I mean all staff teachers Parra's lunchroom workers bus drivers all of that I think we all kept the top of mind but of course then how we think about that and think through it and how we take safety and blend it with well-being I think that's where you start to vary a bit you know I think that going from 3 feet to 6 feet you know don't take that lightly and I think many of the guidelines stating that 3 and when possible 6 are especially
106when changing classes other states are making those types of decisions as well Massachusetts being one that we have received and I believe there are several other states that have come within the past five to six days but I of course way that but then I think about when we're in that two to three day model my daughter we're very blessed and we understand the privilege we have that we have a stay-at-home parent because we have young children it's more economically sound to have somebody stay home who can project manage what that means when they're not in school other families as I was told by several parents who are in my daughter or my son's class and then one parent is in my daughter's class said I don't have the options not work so whether you
107go to two-three days or five days my kids will be in some setting somewhere isn't it better to control it where they are with you in what I call the cohort and unless we can track where all those students are when they're not with us to understand the exposure they may have there then we're negating the risk now if we have staff members I understand that as well my company's having these same conversations but if you have uttered or underlying health condition my mom let's say she worked at this district I wouldn't let her work the two to three day and I wouldn't let her work the five day if you have an underlying health condition whether you're a student or a staff member that has to be addressed I'm concerned that the six versus
108three argument it's kind of where we've gotten down to and that that's going to cost lots of people to lose their jobs I'm concerned that families who already struggle are now going to struggle more not just having to find childcare figure out how to pay for it I think that there is already chaos in those households that we're trying to help facilitate just in the world that we have that I truly believe the students are better with us now with the decision that we're about to make regardless of what that is I really don't believe that we can predict the future so just like what happened this spring we can never decide what's going to happen in the weeks and months ahead and what I know about this district is there will be metrics and
109a scorecard and there will be a report and at such time that there are spikes there will be a decision to make that we will need to adjust our plans regardless of what that choice is I also believe that we don't know what the governor is going to announce and that it can also be we know that that's coming later this week which is also going to add another layer of complexity perhaps but that being said I'd like to thank Laura and the team for bringing these plans to us and I know that they will move heaven and earth to make whichever one is chosen make it work to the best of our potential for the betterment of our suit and I don't want to miss the opportunity to thank the 1400 and 33 members
110of our community who have tuned into a school board meeting and I think that probably has to be a record I think there are great things that have come from this kovat world and one is the ability to think creatively and how we engage people we could never fit 1,400 people in this room so I hope we take a lesson from this and how we engage with people going forward and for all of you 1,400 and plus people there is a lot of work that you can do to help us live in in these plans and every plan going forward to stick with us and I know that together we are going to do what's best for our children thank you this Bowers Thank You president Jones I too would like to thank the superintendent
111and the PLT all of the comments from the community teachers parents and other stakeholders this of course the decision has not been with that much contemplation so I kind of rolled out my statement it helps me to stay focused and on task processing the pros and cons of each reopening option as well as the realities of a stifling trade offs and some of my fellow board members have talked about the trade offs regarding staffing regarding equity there has been a plan there has been a lot of reviewing of recommendations from the AAP plans across the country regarding other school districts and the in our state there have also been a review of multiple emails from our community members communities and taxpayers speakers voicing their fears concerns and suggestions about reopening there have been work groups
112surveys PLT data and results to consider also for me the model that posts the best possibility of safety for engaging with our students and allowing a more intimate interaction between student and teachers upon the possible reopening and the fall is blended learning this allows for the teachers to have a so she motions of support for students in a smaller classroom for me so she emotional connectedness is very important especially with the trauma that our whole community has established three months with kovat 19 the smaller classroom and the decision upon the he comes on the heels of the governor is concerned about the growing number of positive Cova cases along with our with the representative dr. Melba Moore from CDC that are pertinent to the decision of supporting option 1 I think this transition from blended
113learning will help us with the inevitability that we will have another statewide shutdown if our numbers continue to go up and I think we'll be in a better place to do that thank you okay so in typical fashion I I'll make the last comment and I my plan is to be very brief because I would be dead owing everything that my colleagues said here but you know making a joke about ditto to me is really not fair because this this has been the single most challenging decision that I think all of us have had to make and my voice is shaking because I really don't think there's a most optimal choice everything that everybody said up here and all for fourteen hundred and thirty people here have very strong opinions about which direction we go
114the reality of it is we didn't ask for this but we're trying to make the best of what we have so we are definitely in a new reality and in this new reality I think there are lots of things that we're gonna learn from this somebody spoke to the need for the system to change I see this as an opportunity I'm not downplaying the critical factors that aren't in here but I see this as a new opportunity whichever option we take to really transform our system and do things differently I must say that today I mean tonight I came in with an idea with the thought about which option I prefer and I heard the superintendent say something that said that supported my position and then I heard the treasurer say something that didn't support
115my position and and that's not a bad thing that's the reality of what we are having to deal with so it doesn't make the job any easier first and foremost as an african-american woman with underlying health conditions I'd be remiss if I said that I didn't see that as a priority factor in my decision the disproportionate rate of this disease in the black community it goes and it goes unstated we all know what those numbers are as a mental health professional former mental health professional I worked 40 years with kids I understand all those other societal ills and things that people are dealing with so how do you compare that and I'm not making light of that how do you compare that to the risk of bringing home a disease that could ultimately kill you
116so you know that's a hard thing for me to fathom I have to go with what I believe is is the the right thing to do in terms of the safety and the health of our kids and I believe that there's opportunity there for us to do things differently I'm saddened by some of the things the fallout that will happen as a result of that but I also think that this is a time for to rebuild as well so I guess what I'm saying is we have to live in this new reality we're going to be faced with changes in protocol and I know some of the people and hearing of the public had asked questions about the how to you know how are we gonna do this and I heard the seller speaking that
117you know we've had some level of conversation about all of these things and you know I have full confidence in our leadership team that we're gonna get this work done and that's what we're here for that's what we're here for we're accountable to our public so whatever option we have to take then we have to be accountable to make sure that it works so given that I am going to say that my preference at this point would be first option one and secondly option four so that's where I stand and I really appreciate the board on my board colleagues being transparent and honest about where you are and we're gonna move on we have to take a vote and I know I've heard people say whatever we decide we're gonna stick with so if folks
118have other questions or comments miss Fulton I've really enjoyed everybody's comments I do want for the benefit of the committee the community do in full transparency I do want the community to know the not just the financial cost of whatever we decide but at least also the full-time employees cost first one and four and five or however well one two and three I guess it is now because I think people need to know because after with this decision is made the next thing will be for the district to then implement this and I don't think we've discussed in public necessarily and we've only in an executive session because it's a personnel matter have shared what we're really talking about regarding both riffing and dismissal and I think that would be helpful if the treasurer would
119just give us the totals of the three plans because that will start right away yep that will start this week though I think those numbers need to be held and I would also like the superintendent to to chime in a bit on some of the mitigating or some of the information that she has found out for all of us and summarized it regarding the health piece that makes any one of these so important so if we could have those summaries I think that would be helpful and only fair to the public gotcha okay this way yeah so just to remind everyone option one is the six-feet social distancing two days a week and then alternating and the reductions that are needed financially are for almost 48 million dollars it's pretty significant we've identified 726 positions
120that would not either would either need to be cut to help fund it or are no longer needed under that model that doesn't necessarily mean 725 people will lose their jobs positions go away some people can get repurposed into other roles option number two which was five days a week had a net reduction of 57 million dollars at this point we've only identified 155 positions but we have 24 million 25 million left to go in order to cut but we'll have to come up with more and we did just so the public understands we did review all twelve hundred and nine vendor contracts and made decisions about sorting them delaying them for a year or just about that service so we're not only going after employees positions we're looking at vendor contracts as well and
121then under the third option is the same level of identified position reductions and we have an eight million dollar gap to close so just to reiterate variation one six-feet social distancing we've cut 726 positions and then that closes that gap on the other two we have 155 positions that are identified but we still have more cuts to make 24 million 24 point five million and eight million on the last one thank you okay Thank You superintendent so first I want to say that this is really tough for the administration for all of our staff as well as for the board there are absolutely no perfect answers or solutions to this though I remember when I think back and funny because the first caller who called in mr. Hammond he was actually one of the first
122people that I talked to before schools were closed because we were cancelling field trips to foreign countries and then really dances parents were very upset with me at the end of the day I feel it was the right thing to do for the safety of our kids we will think about that started our whole thought process around how do we go to a quick closure and how do we put a remote learning plan in place even at that time when we were going to that I did not think that in June the 29th we would be sitting here making a decision as to whether we open or how we were open in the fall so I was optimistically hopeful that this would not be as severe as it has been and that we would have
123a better solution that would fit everyone's needs when I think about not allowing field trips to move forward and that was the right thing to do and I think about our remote learning plan which we had to put in place very quickly I also think about the learning that was lost last ten weeks of the school year I think about having to try to put together meals very quickly and make sure that kids have what they need and could even get transportation to those meals when I think about all of those things together it is really very tough you know the administration was asked to put together a set of considerations for the board which we did involving parents community members staff members at every level of the organization come up with the options that
124we proposed to the board and I also think about the fact that we've lost funding and the potential for more funding it is really hard to make these decisions with fewer dollars to support the needs of all of our kids so again I will say this is very tough the administration was also asked to get expert opinion from the medical field from the scientists which we did through the AAP as well as the World Health Organization we provide that information to the board I will say that none of the doctors that I spoke with locally were willing to go on record to say for sure three feet is the way to go but I am not once with their research or their data or the science is not my field of expertise and so I'm
125so happy to have others who can help us with this earlier today I was at South Avondale with Children's Hospital a huge team of people who didn't have to be there who could have said CPS is your problem but said we want to be with you arm and arm to help you figure this out because if we can provide a better service on the front end with your kids in school then we'll see fewer cases in our Hospital and so I believe that with the support of Children's Hospital as well as interact for health and the sense in a Health Department we can put measures in place to make our schools are safer place for all of our kids Thank You superintendent we appreciate that and and I think one behalf of the board I
126would say that we also want to thank those partners those you know Children's Hospital in the health department for all the assistance that they've given us we needed it we needed to have that level of expertise to help us drive some of the decisions that we make so we're very appreciative of that so having said that board members I think we're ready to move on to two resolutions everybody's okay we don't have any more questions or comments now this situation is a little bit unusual because we've not been in this situation before so we have three resolutions to vote on we have the ability to vote on all three and depending on the outcome of the vote will determine how we perceive with the next step so you can bow yea or nay on each
127one of those to be clear about that and if we falter in the process I'm gonna ask mr. Hein to make sure that we that I stay on track and are doing things the right way so the there are four resolutions on the agenda but the first one is just the standard template for all of them and it should have been removed from the agenda so it's not really relevant okay and then so here's uh let me see that did that let me let me just read this real quick just for the purpose of board members so they we kind of get a better understanding of the process so although there are three options we want to be able to provide administration with clear direction on one model and consistent with our board bylaws we
128hope to have a majority of board members support one of these three models I will introduce the three resolutions one at a time as for motion in a second if there is a motion and a second I will ask for a discussion and then a roll call vote after considering these resolutions if a majority of board members support one model then the board will support that model and presented to the administration now granted we know that there's a possibility that we could have sort of a split vote on all of them so there is that there is the option of but week that where we will vote need to vote more than once in a runoff if that's where we end up oh there could be a potentially a potential runoff so I know for
129the purpose of the public this seems a little bit complicated it seems a little complicated and we're gonna do our best we are gonna reach a consensus but we're going to do our best to simplify the process so I guess I is that someone have a question you know I have a question it's sort of critical from a standpoint of you know when we get a majority we have a majority but we might still move on to the next row Ellucian yes and my understanding is we were going to try to proceed as we build this consensus as well as pass and find a majority is that it's possible that people would be voting obviously for their first choice on whatever resolution that would be but that people would also be voting approval for what
130they could what they could also support and that's how we were going to try to reach a larger number or come together with the larger number rather than necessarily a foursome a 4-3 vote I'm just asking if it is we are willing to support a resolution you might be willing to support more than one resolution of this group is that is that what I don't know if the process that way but I think that's a good suggestion so actually we're asking people what it is so you can actually consensus or whatever we find if that's the will of the board we can do that so you vote for a number what your number one choice and your number two boys right and mr. going I'm looking at you to make sure that legally we're in
131good shape with that are you all okay with that I have a question yes mr. Lindy um my understanding was that the model out the example it would be resolution one favor imposed resolution two favor opposed resolution three favor opposed that was my understanding of how we were going to do it I'm a little confused about what this one is and whether whether it changes anything or not I have no idea if it changes or does anything but I do think that what it is is just as you capture it favor or oppose it is support or not support meaning that you can have more than one resolution that you would support it's not an eye or an a yes or a no it is I could support this and I think that's how we
132it would hate to think that's such a huge decision right but it might be the huge decision would break down into a four-three especially as it pertains to the kinds of staffing and financial arrangements let alone the health and safety of our kids and our staff so I think it's not iron a as much as it can support can't support I don't mr. Lindy did that answer your question I am Not sure and so I'm going to put that for a second okay don't just say I hear what you're saying as well and I understand it for me for example I am ayay on one of these I can support all and I will support all three the point of that being is if it won't we'll see how this all shakes out I suppose
133but if it comes down to say for example option two and three the four or five day I would vote no over and over again don't but I will support all to me but I saw if that that makes sense I mean I don't know that we can ask us do vote on our top actually yes well when you know I think in clarifying the process I was under the impression that we would do exactly what mr. Lindy vote on your choice one two or three this boldness offering is an alternative to that or in addition to that I just need to know what direction the board wants to go with that I I think it's in addition to that because I heard at least three people say to and I think option okay and
134I think I think that's important rather than this is a resolution that I felt so what's on the table and everybody has to be in agreement we have to reach a consensus about that what's on the table is you vote your choice number one or your choice number two is they're correct yeah okay all right it is everybody in favor of that this Bowers I'm okay everybody love a question I'm sorry yes go ahead - if we play out a scenario we're what I'm worried about is a situation where everybody's first choice leads to a 4-3 outcome but everybody's second choice could make it look like something has five votes but it's not actually five votes as everybody is the first choice was the other one does that make sense like that that's the situation
135I'm worried about and and if someone need can convince me that this situation won't create that problem I'm totally open to it I'm not the one that clarified I would clarify it that that we the school board is different than the City Council in concept we try to find consensus and be one body when possible so I as I said at the beginning I got a first choice and I don't know you know if I don't know or yes on the other ones the point is this board has to by history and tradition and protocol must find consensus not a majority it must find consensus so that the body is there I don't have a problem with people voting first choice but also being able to say that as a board member building consensus I'm
136also going to show that I support another option as well it's not like it's not like it's weighted actually the way I see it it is weighted but but oh that's just me because I think I think given given where we are right now it you know it would be a majority vote on upon a particular option and then we do it the two ways basically switch because somebody says well I can live with that but like mr. Lindy is saying it may not be their first choice but whatever process we agree to we all have to agree to do it this date miss Bolton's option and if we get to the situation that mr. Lindy talked about then it's time for discussion again yes that's not okay so the second or third prevail so
137again back to miss Bolton we're looking for consensus not for a split okay mr. Lindy I think if we're going to do it that way then I think people my personal preference would be we find some way of people indicating this is my first choice this is my second choice because I don't want I don't want that to be unclear and I think it would be odd I'm I want to acknowledge them the newest board member here but I do think it would be odd if we have a 4-3 vote of first choices but more people's choices around a second choice that seems counterintuitive to me that the second of those two scenarios would carry I I think I'm where you are mr. Lindy I think I agree with what you're saying but I again
138it is what does the board want to do and so I'm in hearing and and the question I think mr. Lindy is suggesting that if we have some indication of what people's top two choices are that might be helpful so why don't we do that miss Bolton yeah it's it's a matter of consensus rather than majority we know I'm asking you what your choices are we know it's American my choice would be for one first and I could be convinced of the five I'm not convinced that I want to lay off 700 people okay for one first choice for second choice one mr. Morosky yep Eve's choices four days or five days not blended but can we use four days and five days and blended as the words instead of one four five or one
139two three please okay okay we can my my choice is blended yes mr. Lindy my choice is blended too and I just want to bring up again I don't think it's quite accurate to say that the only or to imply that the only scenario with riffs will be blended I think we'll have that many under any scenario they just haven't been identified yet and I could be wrong about that but I just would like to stay that's my current understanding sure I was saying my first choice is blended and I was responding to the concern that that would be the only one that would lead to a reduction in force and I think we will have comparable reduction for us under any of the three okay sometimes I'm just talking to myself I move on
140my first choice would be four and one and my second would be five-day play that again five one by second choice my choice would be the five days with the four and one thing second this Fauss blended it's the only choice for me my first choice is blended and I honestly don't have a second choice I'm gonna live with whatever decision is made but I do not have a second choice okay all right so are we ready and I'm gonna ask folks to get your make sure your resolutions are out because you don't know I'm going to call on you so we're going to have the first one mr. Messer please present the following resolution over number one okay sorry whereas in response to the Cova nineteen health crisis oil governor DeWine ordered the closure
141schools of all ohio k-12 schools for march 16th to 20th the end of the 2019 20 school year and whereas governor DeWine and most members of the General Assembly have said that local school boards of Education will control decisions about when and whether returned to school for the 2020 2021 school year and whereas the board has received deep and meaningful feedback from the Cincinnati public schools community about decisions returned to school including but not limited to a community survey that received more than sixty 200 responses three public school board meetings that included prolonged hearings of the public a meeting of the Cincinnati Public Schools strategic engagement and planning committee and other direct communications with feedback from students parents partners principals teachers staff members and Cincinnati public school unit representatives and whereas the board has considered
142multiple options for returning to school ranging from fully remote to fully in person models along with numerous hybrid and blended considerations developed at the direction of the board under the guidance of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention the requirements of the state while and the advice of the Cincinnati Children's Hospital and as a result of comprehensive research the administration used a risk assessment and management process to develop options for which the board would select and whereas the board has reviewed these models and models that have been proposed in neighboring and urban school districts in Ohio and models that have been implemented in other countries now therefore be it resolved having fully considered the potential options returning to school in the 2020 2021 school year the board determines to implement the following model the district
143will implement a blended learning model with half the students attending school at a time students with alternate between will alternate between two days per week and three days per week schedules and receive remote instruction on days when they are not in school they had further resolved that in lieu of returning to school in person district families may opt for remote learning opportunities at Cincinnati Digital Khadem II or virtual high school and will have the right to return to the schools student school for a period of up to one year I present the resolution as written second second any discussion just to clarify this is option number one blended okay and I did have forgot to say this the people who are introducing these motions these if they're not necessarily they're both so I just want
144to make sure people knew that okay any other discussion okay miss Wagner please call the roll mrs. Bates no miss Bolton no mrs. Bowers yes mr. Lindy yes mr. Messer no mr. Barofsky yes president Jones yes okay so that boat is a 504 for three all right mr. Lindy I'm gonna ask you to present the next resolution this is resolution to for a fully in person model with all students attending school five days per week president Jones can I read just the part that's different can I read just the part that's different yes so same whereas now therefore be it resolved having fully considered the potential options for returning to school for the 2020 2021 school year the board determines to implement the following model the district will implement an in-person model for educating students
145with all students attending school five days per week and then with the same be it FURTHER RESOLVED as the first resolution is there a second discussion and this is option four or five days a week okay this Wagner this is Bates aye this Bolton hi this is powers nay mr. Lindy name mr. Messer alright mr. barofsky no president gems nay though that vote is 3 or correct okay Miss Bates will you present the last resolution then I'll read the narrative or be it resolved I mean fully considered the potential options for returning to school twenty twenty twenty-one school year or determines to implement the following model the district will implement an in-person model of educating all students four days per week with remote learning available to students on a full day per week I present
146this resolution is printed for adoption thank you is there a second second discussion this Wagner please call roll this is Bates I miss Bolton hi this is Bauer's night mr. Lindy no mr. Messer alright mr. Bronski no president Jones nope that vote is three four so if you go by majority it's option number one but my understanding is in this Bolton according to your recommendation we should vote on - okay we have a 4-3 vote yes absolutely mr. hoeing I'm going to ask you okay so the process was legal it looks like that the decision is option one for blended learning thank you all for your patience and your diligence in this we have work to do okay superintendent do you have a report I do have a very brief report it in the form
147of a video from our graduation parades so as the public may recall we couldn't have traditional graduation ceremonies and so it was a disappointment for our young people but after you see the video hopefully you'll see how much on the hat [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] that concludes my report thank you okay I need a motion to approve the revised recommendations of the superintendent is there a second second discussion just in case you all didn't know but that kid from Gamble's name was Alvin Bowers okay please call roll this is Bates I spoken mrs. Bowers aye mr. Linden I am mr. mr. mr. Morosky yes present Jones aye okay do I have a motion to approve the revised report of the treasurer their
148second discussion miss Wagner thank you this is bears aye mr. Lindy aye mr. mr. mr. Morosky yes president Jones yes thank you any enquiries or updates okay any assignments okay go ahead this boat is this an assignment or infant okay thank you administration to present to us a timeline of the implementation especially the next 30 days which would include notices and defense beefing up the digital that kind of stuff transportation what have you Thanks yes so the administration we worked on a timeline a little while ago and so we will actually review it tomorrow morning it is pretty robust and it started today the other assignments okay well having no other business before so I declare the meeting adjourn you guys here we go get on the train it's only the beginning that's right you
149see thank you