001hi my name is superintendent mike morris and thank you for joining us to this live stream this morning about pelham preschool uh we have two other folks with me i'll let them introduce themselves as well hi good morning my name is lee whiting jones i'm the new principal at pelham elementary school and my name is carol scotty i am the pelham preschool teacher and thanks to all of you for joining us to this morning um really we're gonna have a very brief introduction and share the context and then hopefully have some conversation uh the way the conversations work if you're following this on youtube is in the lower right hand corner of your screen you should see that there's a comment bar where you can type something that would come through as a live chat
002and we can bring that up so it's visible to everyone as well as answer those questions that we have but really our spiel is quite brief this morning it's really an opportunity for for families to be able to ask questions uh understand uh the current situation what our current plans are the flexibility that our current plans are having to be built with in the current climate and really help you to get to a decision point that'll help us for our planning so if you can use the comment bar even just to say hello that way we know that you're able to comment we'd love for you even just to say hi or we hear you or good morning or something like that that'd be helpful for us to be able to have it generally takes
003about six to ten seconds for your comments once you make them to come onto our screen so if uh while i'm doing an introductory introduction if you're able to uh do that it'd be helpful for us um so i just want to start by sharing the context um so we've talked about the setup pelham school committee meeting recently the couple things we know are that pelham preschool is a beloved part of the pelham school experience for a great number of our youngest children we believe in the the benefits of preschool for all of our students and all of our districts and the pelham preschool provides a wonderful foundation for students to do that and we have a lot of testimonials for families and staff because they see the value in that the current situat the
004pelham preschool was developed all the way back i think it was 2012 or 2013 and we're really appreciative that it has been because it's been generations of kids who have now gone through that pelham preschool and many of whom have continued on to pelham school one of the things that we are challenged by the current moment it was built as a self-sustaining preschool in other words it does not receive any state funding it's not an integrated preschool and the way the croco farm is that has a calculation of 7 out of 15 students have to have special needs and there's slots and there's a formula that's not the case for the pelham preschool the pelham preschool accepts students there's there's some different pay structures that are involved but though it's fully self-sustained and as the
005town of pelham and the pelham school committee set it up it was intentionally designed to be self-sustaining because it was really supposed to support the pelham school experience and it has one of the challenges during this pandemic is march 13th i made the decision to close all schools in the three districts i worked for pelham amherst and the regional school district and that included the pelham preschool as well as the other preschool at carco farm elementary school as you know over time the governor stepped in and declared that schools were going to be closed for the rest of the spring at this point right now our transition rates in massachusetts western mass in particular are quite low we are planning on being back in person and through a phased model our youngest students would be
006at the front end of that phase model because we know that they enjoy the enjoy is probably the wrong word but i think they do but uh not that older kids do not enjoy but they benefit from live in-person instruction at the highest level just developmentally where they are and so we're deeply appreciative of our preschool staff and we're deeply appreciative that we live and probably i said this in a public meeting last week probably one quarter or 20 percent of the country in my personal opinion should be thinking about reopening schools at all and this hap we happen to live in that 20 percent uh if we're in california or texas or florida or south carolina uh or many many other places i think there uh i would i would have deep reservations about
007that uh right now our we look good in massachusetts you know a lot of a lot of recommendations are if the testing rate's over five percent schools shouldn't open you know we're at 1.9 we were 1.6 last week we have to watch those trends right but we are still well under uh the metrics of that the challenge is we don't know if that'll change uh we can hope you know we think there's some our governor i believe our governor has taken some strong steps of not reopening things like amusement parks and water parks and and things that have opened even neighboring states like connecticut and new hampshire but we don't really know how the virus will travel we don't know how the increase in other states will affect massachusetts and the northeast so it's something
008we're watching for and the reality for our preschool program is if we're going to plan to run it next year we really need a commitment from families to be able to um to compensate staff which is through our tuition all year long whether it's live or it's uh in a virtual format otherwise we we can't financially the pelm school committee uh can't financially take on that risk in very challenging financial times so uh today what we're trying to see is what questions community members have about that what does it look like live what does it look like in person what are some of the benefits of the program i want to be really clear that our staff members will have positions in one of my districts regardless of what happens that's one question i've gotten
009from a number of families already is does this mean people will be unemployed and affirmatively can say no to that question that being said you know i think the pelham preschool has shown time and time and again that has strong family support and staff support and and this time we're trying to figure out can we financially take the risk to run it next year or does it have to go on hiatus for a year and that's we only will know that when we have confirmed uh commitments from families and we need to figure that out probably in the next week because both the staff need to know what their jobs will be next year and families need to know what whether the preschool is running or next year so this is really the opportunity i
010know some people have called since a letter that uh principal wedding jones uh wrote and talked to her but we wanted to have both you know miss luddy and myself on the call to see if there were questions what the questions would be so again people can just type in their questions uh on the you know through the youtube feature i'll type in something so you can see at least one question come through it's not really a question but that way you can see how how it comes up and really we're here to answer any questions that anyone in the community might have for for any of us it could be for me could be for a principal or it could be for our staff member so while we're waiting for questions to come in
011again because it takes slower this morning thinking about 10 seconds because i have both screens open um i didn't know if um carol if you'd like to share anything or lee if you'd like to share anything uh as well as question more questions even mine took yeah took quite a while to pop up uh if you'd like to share anything more about the program or anything more about the situation just want to give other people an opportunity to to chat and then hopefully get more questions rolling and can have a little more interactive dialogue would either of you like to jump in okay um i guess i'll jump in and just mention that i i really am excited that there's been an outpouring of support and um i know that it's a difficult time for
012parents especially parents that are new to having children in preschool and i just want you to know that i'm certainly here to support you and answer any questions that you may have to help you make the best decision for your family and i do see a question came up it's a really good one um so i'm just going to read it out loud to make sure everyone can can see that or can hear it hi thanks for chatting today with the preschool following the deci guidelines or the eec guidelines for closing and restrictions so i can start with this and then carol and lee you can jump in our preschool program at pelham is really unique there are not as many of there's a lot of integrated preschools because of the child fine requirements so
013the preschool at crocker firm actually services students repel them who have disabilities who require um that level of service and that's to an agreement between the town of pelham and town of amherst so there's a lot of clarity on those type of programs which follow deci guidance this program is sort of an in-between program because desi had to allow us to open it and back eight nine years ago but it's not a integrated program so it falls in a gray area um so i think the the clarity for the closing and restrictions that i would have is we would be reducing the number of students um because i think uh our primary uh guidelines we've been using is the original cdc guidelines and those sort of for me trump the deci ones and we've done
014that actually even at the k-12 level where desi has had guidelines and if they were anything less than what was recommended by the centers for disease control we defaulted to the most conservative guidelines from health to safety perspective um but i'll i'll stop talking and see if carol and lee have anything they'd like to add to that okay i think i think that describes it you know so roughly we'd be thinking about 10 students the size of the room i think lee has mapped out i think it was a little over a thousand square feet is that right no this room's actually about 840 square feet so if it were um a you know k to six classroom we would say 18 students could fit comfortably with six feet of space but given the the
015the needs of the early childhood environment we felt much more comfortable with a number closer and i think the other thing to note uh from my perspective is we would not expect preschoolers to stay in desks most of the day the way that you might think at a middle school high school level even at a middle or elementary grade level that's not what three and four and five-year-olds are designed to do and so certainly there are some seat activities on that suggestion there aren't and we'd have to have seating that would keep students um reasonable distance apart uh to miss to the principal waiting jones point but i think at a larger level we know there's going to be activity and movement and it would look different because we we would not want to have
016close the close proximity one thing that is still being discussed including this morning actually by me and another group of uh superintendents is what are we doing with masks because that is one of the things in the guidelines so i would say that is that is one sort of outstanding question um that we're still trying to have the at the deci guidelines a mass are not required for students under grade two i've already made the decision at grades k and one that face coverings are required i'm using different terms so you might notice there's a difference between face coverings and masks but i think for some students at the primary grades a face covering that might be kind of like a face shield might be appropriate not at the upper grade levels but certainly when
017we think about preschool that may be a better fit for some students but i think if we are running the preschool that's where we start having individual conversations with families about what's going to work best i know for the preschools that have opened up in the community private preschools in the larger community they are most of them are requiring masks so i do think we'll probably land in the place that's closer to the eec guidelines around some of those pieces as opposed to the deci which are designed much more for the k-12 environment so it was really long-winded but it's an excellent question and there's a lot there to share on that carol uh you don't have to but i don't know if there's anything else you'd like to share on that um i think
018that that covers it well um and just another piece with the cleaning and the sanitation of toys and all of those pieces i have an extensive eec background and and i would want to of course implement the strictest of cleaning standards and all of the rest of the pieces that go along with keeping the environment physically safe as well yeah i appreciate that so let's see if there are other questions that come in um for those of you who haven't been to pelham preschool before as we're as we're waiting and maybe prompting some other questions um it's at the back end of the building it's by the early childhood area so right across the hall from kindergarten which i don't know how you feel carol i always thought it was a lovely spot um to
019be with other young children and to be able to see uh those children um on a routine basis and see what kindergartens are there and and their there's site visibility to a certain extent even across the hall and i think that's a really nice thing i wondered if carol one thing that comes up for a lot of families is um about drop off and pick up in the covet environment as our buildings won't have visitors enter the building and just i don't know if you had any initial thought not to put you on the spot but just initial thoughts about um what how did it work pre-covered and then maybe i can jump in with how it might be modified uh in a covet environment yeah so um pre-covered of course families would generally come
020into the building and and help their children to put away their things and you know say goodbye sign in do all of the typical things um however in the afternoons the buildings were locked and so we did have a staff member who would meet families at the exterior door and sign them in um i'm assuming that with the covid we would have the typical drop-off rituals routines hugs you know sign-ins but that they would happen at the exterior as opposed to inside the classroom yeah that's exactly yeah thank you carol um and you know we just want to be realistic and honest about you know some of the differences i think um where the location of the preschool is is a perfectly is perfect situ perfectly situated because it's right near the back entrance um
021to pelham school so i think we'd be able to do that i'd be much more concerned if it was located where like sixth grade was which has a door but it doesn't really go to any place accessible um and uh fifth and sixth grade so it you know i think that is an advantage to where the room is currently located that way we also do have um excuse me an outdoor space um that's typically been just for preschool which is really wonderful because we've had access to it all the time and that's also been something in the afternoons that we've often had the afternoon pickup outside and it would be something we could look at also having the morning drop off the outside when weather permits and that would give a little more time for
022parents to to help their children acclimate right another good question are we looking to start the school year in person in early september or phase in a phase in by starting out virtually so it's an interesting question particularly as last night i received an email and lee i don't know why i thought it last night or this morning so i don't know when you got it um but the state has now given us the ability to have 10 extra days for teacher professional development at the beginning of the year and so the start date the school committees vote on a schedule but the kind of expected start date both across the state is now expected to be september 16th um and that's um i think uh a really good um i think it's a good
023thing i'll be honest with you i think that you know we want our teachers to be our staff to be well are well situated to be entered able to enter a covet environment uh feel safe being in a covered environment we have purchased ppe or personal protective equipment for all staff members and actually for preschool it's a little more intensive because the idea of staying six feet away doesn't mesh with preschool staff just with young kids so it gives us time to do trainings for staff about that trainings for how teaching might be a bit different in a in person environment and um so i think you know while the school committees need to vote i think very likely september 16th uh would be the start date um based on the professional development that we'd
024be able to offer staff this would be in the first phase in terms of the pelham preschool it would you know again early childhood education in general would be in the first phase of this and preschool certainly central to early childhood education as well as kindergarten first grade so it'd be right there with with those two grade levels and i think as we're waiting for other questions to perhaps come in you know one thing that will follow this um live stream will be just a quick follow-up asking for families if they choose to make a commitment for pelham preschool again to be virtual or virtual in person and be able to support that we understand that some families will want to do that and we understand if people are unable right we're not this isn't
025a sell today or sale it's really trying to share accurate information about that because our goal is we really want to get back to folks by the end of next week is our goal because we know for some families if we're not able to put on the program that creates a real challenge and some families will need to know that one way or the other and we really need to know let the staff know again the staff will all have positions in one of the districts that i work for but but we want to make sure that staff have enough time to be placed and to know what they're planning on doing so that they can think about what their fall looks like as well so i would guess that likely tomorrow if not tomorrow
026then thursday you should getting a very quick thing it'll probably come from principal whiting jones and just asking an indication of where your family is we'll probably ask for it back in about a week we want to give people a little bit of time but i know the pelham school committee is likely going to meet towards the end of next week uh and uh with that data will drive the decision that they'll make so i'm going to give it a little time if there are other questions that come in and if there's not i'm going to post my email address and i'll also um [Applause] as a comment and i don't know if uh principal wedding jones if you can do the same uh i think it'll allow you i'm sorry we don't use this
027feature of this tool very often and that way if there are follow-up questions that people would like to ask confidentially that people can have that opportunity to do to do so because i know one of the benefits of this is all the questions are public and then yet some people may have um questions that opportunity to do so one of the benefits of this is all the questions are public and then yeah some people may okay there we go something something weird was happening on that one so uh lee should probably just be able to do it on the comments feature if you have access to that um if you just write a comment instead of look at them will that allow you to do it or no it didn't but i went into the
028youtube side and put a comment in which is why there was the echo i apologize about that but it should it looks like it just popped up in the comments oh okay i was just gonna do it for you but there you go i see it uh and carol is not working in the summer so i want to be conscious of her inbox that's why i didn't ask her necessarily but certainly if you have a question for carol uh if you send it to lee or myself we'll get in touch with her i just want to protect carol's summer vacation as well as well as i can because she's not a 12th month employee likely and myself if there aren't other questions uh then i just look under the youtube piece because i think sometimes
029i can um see if things come up i do not see other questions so i want to thank everyone for coming for all the parent parents guardians please look out we'll try to get it out tomorrow principal jones whitening jones is very quick she might get it out today for all i know but just a very quick survey and it's really just going to ask where are you with this is this something that you can commit to supporting the program all year whether it's virtual in-person or if you're not and again we understand that different families will have different answers to that question and we'll see how many commitments we can get and we'll communicate out to all the families next week by the end of next week what the decision is so that families
030can use that for their planning but we thank you very much for joining us i want to particularly thank carol for spending uh some of her morning summer morning with her so again she's not officially part of her job she but her willingness to do this is greatly appreciated uh and thank you very much lee for joining us as well and again you'll be on the lookout for an email if within the next 24 to 48 hours uh we'll probably ask for a timeline to get it back by probably a week from today uh which i think is the fourth something like that and we'll go from there and we'll communicate by the end of next week what the final decision is but again we appreciate your interest and engagement in pelham preschool we hope
031you have a wonderful day okay thank you and thank you mike for moderating thanks