001just gonna assume oh there we go it said it so oh okay so so here's the deal i'm going to be stepping away for until 4 20 to hash out some last minute things with uh the other half of the committee and then then we'll all be back here at 4 20. um i suppose the two of you could talk amongst yourselves you could uh i don't know do something for the next 20 minutes or so but we we will reconvene back here as a complete committee at 4 20. alrighty sweet so now you just joined the town of amherst recently is that correct oh me yeah i um are you there yep i am i muted now are you there stephen i you were out for a minute i am but i don't know
002if you can hear me something's not working it's like yeah it's like you're on a spaceship are you swimming are you underwater it's not working all right i'll mute this mm-hmm hello hello one two uh mr sullivan hi how's it going steve oh good i rebooted because emma couldn't hear me at all like i was underwater so i think it's better now it's better to be above water than under that's what i say hi emma hi we can do some real quick um introductions as soon as we're all here since we haven't really been formally introduced i can start while kids just getting set up my name is jean fay i am a pair educator um 23 years i work at cracker farm i'm also an amherst resident and i am really glad to see
003you on this and i was thrilled to see that you have a background in disaster preparedness um i no seriously um so i've been i was on governor deval patrick's task force school safety so i helped write the guide that's being used in all the public schools and also was part of the revision of a national school safety guide all right krista you want to go next sure just one second um i'm trying to get i'm not sure if mika has this link so i'm sending it to her if i have my thinking face on okay hi i'm krista larson i am a scientist at the high school i've been teaching science for a very long time and uh yeah my background is biology and environmental work and i already know ben and steven from
004last week um so i'm emma i'm the new health director for the health public health department for the town of amherst my background's nursing um i have my graduate degree like like gene said disaster management and i have experience in terms of boards of health uh from being on the hadley board of health so i'm really glad to be here i think we're still waiting for pika and i was gonna say uh i just realized it's the first time you all are meeting stephen at least in this capacity so yeah go ahead give it a shot there steve uh can you hear me this time yes yes all right so steve sullivan i live in shootsbury i'm a shootsbury school committee rep and i'm the shoot for a rep to the region and it's been
005this is my sixth year now all right well while we are waiting for mika to join which should be momentarily um one of the things that we did want to ask that is a continuing um conversation about the masks that were ordered initially by the district and then we had talked about this um in a couple meetings the um the status of those masks where they're located we never received a response uh to where the those masks that cannot be used because they're not certified are located as well as what the status is of the complaint the district was filing with the state attorney general's office so i don't know if you can speak to that yeah i don't i don't have a definitive answer on that other than the last i knew they were
006supposed to have been sent back other than that that's about what i have for you that's what that's one of those with the continuation from the nurse manager on there's like a breakdown in communication just because of the timing but i can't even get i can request clarity on that yeah we really need clarification because it's a there was a large number of them my recollection is 33 000 masks and we want to make sure that they're because they are not certified that they're not being distributed still and they're not floating around in the buildings and my um what i recall from the last conversation we had about them was that the district was going to be in contact with the state attorney attorney general's office um so just we'd like to know where they
007are and what the status is fair yeah and that was the is that three no four weeks ago was that meeting about does that sound right that it was um i believe we've been talking about them all fall actually yeah we said we still we put in a request for information about where the masks currently are the status a while ago we um we were supposed to back in october we were supposed to receive a response about the status and we still haven't heard anything from the district um following up with that um we know the district purchased new masks that were certified um and we know that the initial purchase was for around a thousand masks but mike had indicated that he would be purchasing more do you know what the status is of
008how many masks we do have right now that are certified to do what they're supposed to do yeah so on the certified ones the so that the total order was actually 100 okay we've definitely have 40 000 in and we're trying to hunt down this second shipment and so that's the nice way to say this there's been um a failure to verify verify that they've been delivered basically they all come into the same part of the building like it's like that's 60 000 that's a huge order and the people who ship them to us we're kind of going back and forth with like we wouldn't have missed 60 000 masks essentially i would think not 40 000 were enough of a pain to get out of the way so um i wish you good luck
009thank you okay um so kristen before you go on so bad just for clarification the masks that the order has been processed for for the masks that are certified that are certified um some have arrived and had been distributed to the buildings correct yep and there's some that the district is still awaiting is it because they came from multiple vendors no um so they came from one vendor but my my inclination is that that they came from different warehouses from the same vendor so in different shipments yeah yeah yeah the uh the bill of blading on the first one is different than the shipping address so i'm thinking there's this warehouse we're waiting on warehouses to send us stuff basically okay so the the vendor is saying they've been shipped right we just don't we
010just don't know where they are right okay um so follow up on that would be great yep i think mika is still having difficulty joining up there she is excellent hi mika all right while we're waiting for mika to to fully get on um you want to give us a ventilation update on the reports when all buildings will be fully assessed and when all reports will be in yeah so the the uh the actual physical testing has been completed there are there are a couple areas we wanted to retest for basically kind of to to assess how the the repair work that we've done panned out but those areas were actually over the full report is expected by the 30th but we're we're kind of hoping that it will be done by next week so
011that that's what we want all right so just for um everyone's understanding so the full report hasn't been received yet once it's received it gets reviewed and then who makes the determination around repair work that needs to be done based on the report so that's us us in the facilities department what we try to do is maintain as much con contact and communication with the nexus consulting who's doing the the testing and so we'll get tidbits back that you know so before they do the calculations we'll get not good doesn't seem good and so we'll go in and kind of do our own assessment and then we've lucked out that a lot of times when we do that assessment that they're present and they can they can say we think that it's this and i
012mean they're good enough that we think that that it's you know problem x 99.9 percent of the time it is problem x so we've been kind of doing it as we go but we've we've also been once we get full reports back and we kind of get it in pieces and then we get the the full thing i don't want to put you on the spot but i'm going to anyway um so we get the ventilation reports next week um they you know i and i've see i've seen ventilation reports it does take a while to review them because there's a lot of information that's included so let's say we review them and we're in the first week of december and then um some of them look you have areas that have issues that need
013to be remedied what would you say uh in your best estimate would be a timeline for when um the remediation could happen with repair work for those areas it really depends on like the nature of the issue causing the the low airflow in the in the room but typically so far i mean we've had relatively quick turnover as far as getting parts and these sorts of things that especially well since we're getting a lot of work being done in the high school where we have newer unit events those those parts we can get in quicker so that network i mean try to give like an average yeah turn around time yeah so so you know for like a universe if there's a if a universe is so so we know the range right we're talking
014we're aiming for four right and so the absolute unacceptable would be zero right so if we're anywhere from zero to two typically the things that would cause that that lack of air flow could be repaired anywhere between one to like three weeks depending on parts that we're looking at whereas whereas you know you know the two to four range that's that's mostly like we have to tweak what we have you know so those could be repaired on the spot the the longest piece of the turnaround is is getting the re-testing in just because the it's pretty much in high demand uh nexus consulting is in high demand actually everyone who does that work but so yeah that's about the range but then we're also in in areas with the bigger air handlers like we're working
015i'll use the gym specifically we're going to do a bunch of work regardless of what the numbers come back as and so that's going to be kind of ongoing yeah and so as far as you know that are there any staff members that are working in areas of buildings that have not been fully assessed and what what can you tell us about that since we're still waiting for nexus to send reports right not not in any official capacity or or anything that i've seen and then we haven't gotten any reports that so so we pretty much have areas where folks aren't supposed to be anyway and i haven't gotten reports back from buildings that you know they are being inhabited folks are pretty much staying where they're supposed to be which which is where it's
016been tested and is safe um another question just an update on any electrical work that's being done uh are all the exterior exhaust fans have that has that work been completed yet we i think we were waiting on parts in a couple of spots i haven't circled back this week with the electricians to figure out all of that but everywhere that we're using currently has been yes okay and so this would be the subcontracted electrician correct correct and um do you know which buildings are um the work is still not completed on i think there's there's at least one in this building in a uh a utility area and then it could be the middle school correct sorry i just realized everybody don't know exactly where i am right now that's that's great and then
017other than that i couldn't give you an accurate answer okay but not multiple like not the entire district i will say that so at least one building you're you're saying is still waiting for completion of electrical work to repair uh existing exterior exhaust fans correct that's accurate yes thank you all right mika um we see that you're here i'm not sure if she's fully joined yet or not because i know she was having some tech issues krista do you want to talk about the contact tracing piece sure um so this one i saw your ears just perk up emma this one is um probably for you we um cdc updated its guidance on who should receive contact tracing um based on um what's considered close contact and instead of having 15 minutes of single exposure
018at close range now they're saying it's a cumulative 15 minute of close contact we're just wondering how protocol has been updated within the buildings about the updates from the cdc regarding contact tracing um your question are you referring to how we've implemented that change or that sounds like a great starting place and then i'll i'll pepper you more if it comes up hopefully more salt and pepper but i have low blood pressure so i'll be okay so um so in terms of we just altered in terms of public health how the algorithm that we're using in our decision tree for how we're following that in our questions our loaded question panel that we ask anytime that we have to do contact tracing to really highlight the have you had try to think of individuals people
019that you live with maybe carpooled with had lunch together all those things i'm just not looking at the questions right now so i'm trying to think of them off the top of my head but that you had con close contact any engagement within six feet even while wearing a mask for a duration of 15 minutes over a 24-hour period so like you and i if we were not but if we were in the same space together even while wearing a mask six feet apart for five minutes in the morning five minutes in the afternoon and then five minutes in the evening that would like you said be included now as a close contact when previous to that they it was a one-time kind of duration of the 15 minutes um the change of that is
020related to some studies that were done um actually at some correctional facility a correctional facility up i think in vermont um so i'm you know this situation we are it's a novel coronavirus things continue to evolve all we can do is make the best decisions with the information that we have at the time and and try to be malleable i love copper as things evolve so that makes sense so i guess the the implementation of that then if we're talking about um populations who might not be um so good at reporting their time that they've been close with others either their young kids or otherwise are unable to keep track of where they've been all day long does the contact tracing then if we would have a positive case in the classroom would the entire
021class then be contact traced um considering that they will be in the same space and likely close together for 15 you know over the course of a whole school day probably within range for a cumulative of 15 minutes together yeah in my experience which right we've only been doing this for 11 months so not a whole lot a lot of time um it varies with the age of the student uh right like a fifth grader is gonna be well i don't know about my son but who knows a better a fairly better reporter than my four-year-old i think it depends on the day so taking those into consideration the teachers the staff that are with those cohorts and pods um the flow track patterns i think the school nurses um who mary and robin have
022assisted already with some contact racing for the town of amherst so they have experience and i know that we're eager to um and ready to help expand our program if we need to to be able to contact trace actively um i think it's something that is necessary and i think your questions are valid and i think there are things that everybody's thinking of right like yeah how are we going to do this yeah there's there are so many questions um a follow-up to that is if so we have students who can um who are showing covid-like symptoms they're let's say in a classroom we send them to the covid nurse or isolation space they get picked up they go home and it's not a requirement for students to produce a negative test or positive test
023they just go home until their symptoms are are gone they get received guidance maybe saying um you know quarantine for 14 days but let's say the student never gets a test and so we don't know if they're positive or negative how does contact tracing play out in that situation in a classroom setting sure so individuals whether they're students or adults can be what we call clinically positive right by those symptoms so we can the best definitive is that pcr test results with a positive or a negative in lieu of not having that then if someone has symptoms that screen in for that we would consider them a clinically positive covid case and if individuals were in contact within the closed contacts for them then those individuals would have to quarantine that's the way i'm envisioning
024it right now without seeing it kind of in practice but as i'm talking it through with everybody in this room that's what i imagine okay great thank you but we would certainly encourage people to get a test as soon as we can because we even though we hear a lot about the challenges with testing in the in western mass we do have great resources and partnerships with with other with the holy dickinson and the stop the spread sites and even cvs i think in granby that is able to do testing so thanks and um speaking about the uh the testing amherst is on the list of the 134 school districts to be in phase one i think they're calling referring to it the state is referring to it as phase one of this rapid testing
025for staff of school districts emma have you received any information about this i actually was just speaking to robin supernot about it yesterday about the binax now test um pretty much all we know right now is that amherst has been approved i know that robin and mary and this are working diligently in terms of and looking at best practices for policies and procedures for that um and are going to be reaching out to the vendor as well but in terms of having a formalized plan gene i i we just don't have that quite yet because we just got the news but it's a good question thanks so mika is having some tech issues unfortunately and um she's not able on she's not we can see that she it looks like she's joined but she can't
026hear any of the discussion um that we're having unfortunately i do know that one of the things that she did want to mention was the fact that there is some misinformation out in the public about what this committee does and i've been i see you shaking your head yeah we're not a decision-making body we don't decide whether the schools are going to be open for in-person learning that's not what this committee does we have no decision making yeah i want to second that and directly address something whether i take a beating over this or not there was an article in the gazette today that used that exact line that we are the decision-making body that will determine whether or not schools reopen i want to reiterate what i said last friday and what gene just
027said we are not that we are an advisory committee what we're supposed to do is look at problems figure out ways that can solve them and then we can solve them and then advise so i just yeah just it's it's difficult uh especially for you and steven to be in this position and emma um that the public views this in a way that it's not it's not the way it was designed i mean the conversation that we're having right now about the testing the new testing that came out from from um governor baker's press conference with desi uh with commissioner riley that's the kind of conversation that we have as well as air quality issues and reports which for some people might be boring but that's the work that we do so it needed to
028be said yeah absolutely i do um i i do look forward to working with all of you um my heart and soul is into providing ensuring safe and healthy workplaces for the staff and the as well as the students and the families and i just want to say once we get used to this this new format i kind of sort of seeing how it's working out now i could see that this will actually kind of be beneficial that this should be the result of this i hope is a lot less disinformation in that that you know folks can see where we're on the same sheet of music and that same sheet of music is health and safety and that that's all anyone here is concerned with i'm sure we have other concerns but that's what
029we're here to be concerned about well then thank you yeah well said ben all right it's 4 47 it is a friday emma i all i can say is is thank you for agreeing to meet on fridays at four o'clock yes you know i it's not going to be forever right now it it's what our community needs and um i know if i was a amherst president my children were in amherst schools um it would be i i'm not even in the community i'm i'm hadley right but i i just know how much it would mean to me having someone on that and not just for the families of the students but all of our our teachers our staff our faculty everyone who really the school committee community is involved so i think it's good
030all right with that thank you everyone thank you i know next week is a short week and emma i'm not sure about town hall and thursday and friday are holidays for town hall that's what i was wondering so maybe or via email then we can be in contact with you on what um yeah next friday's meeting yeah yeah we'll yeah we'll work it out we'll figure something here yeah thanks so much thank you weekend everybody i believe so i think how this is supposed to work is that that stephen and i are able to field questions but i don't see any questions on my side here there was one question oh okay all right yeah i had it on private chat which is why i did not see a public comment then so i may
031have missed this the first but the fourth item on the agenda was the metrics discussion update that conversation does not seem to have happened yet that is accurate we we inadvertently skipped over that part i i apologize we're trying to get used to kind of doing this and we just came from a meeting where we actually had that conversation privately but the numbers the numbers as i understand i don't want to represent anyone else's interpretation of this but as i understand the numbers on our website currently are the metrics that we're going off of right now so oh and thank you ella all right so if you're all set mr sullivan comma steve yeah my only question was i thought we only had staff in an administration working in rooms that had to pass the
032tasks that there wasn't anybody no any other spaces and that and to get going we didn't need those others and then once once we kind of expanded use of buildings then we ended up doing a little more testing than we actually initially had anticipated and it kind of served that rooms that didn't work out as far as the numbers we had other rooms that we could move folks to so that that's kind of how it worked out yeah that that that's what i thought like for instance um like the middle school got tested well the cafeteria in the middle school got tested earlier because we were going to do this uh these these programs with the what are normally the after school programs you know with the day thing so we had we had to
033test those earlier sweet thank you for all you're doing no problem it's got square wheels right now but it's okay it's broken what we're supposed to be doing right all right so i'm gonna uh i don't see any questions popping up so so yeah i'm gonna head on out and go start my weekend happy friday yeah happy friday see you next time have a good one