001hi this is Mike Morris I'm the superintendent of schools here in Amherst and I want to thank everyone for joining us today we've got a nice crowd of about a hundred forty people online I think some others will probably join as we go but I really want to thank you too coming to this elementary Town Hall today we know this is an incredibly difficult time in all sorts of ways and today I'm here with the chairs and vice chairs of three school committees that employ me and so I'll introduce them in a second as well as Jill constantly know who is our nurse leader here in in all three districts and we feel like that's critical to have Jill on because we know that there would be some health and safety questions that she's best
002able to answer the goal today is that the school committee will present a draft priorities document that they talked about in a school committee meeting on Tuesday of this week two days ago and and the goal is to gather feedback the one of the ways to gather feedback is certainly the email the school committee at school committee that are upset or gormie at Morris M at our doric for today's purposes there is a chat feature on YouTube you see on the right you please you can type in comments questions we'll be able to display some of them on the screen we'll try to do our best to see how many we can get through before one o'clock but the comments we can see in the questions again we'll post the relevant person but it is
003intended to be an interactive town-hall I think by 12:15 or so we should be done talking and presenting that's our goal so we have 45 minutes to hear from the community answer questions I think you know we'll just ask that while you use the chat feature the same kind of respectful dialogue that we would have you know at school committees or in conversations we would encourage you to use we know this is a strong emotional topic for many people and that's fine we would just ask steering away from things that identify individuals in your commentary I think with that I just want to thank school members and Jill for being on this call I want to remind folks that there's a similar call at the secondary level that's scheduled tonight for this afternoon for five
004o'clock this one's going to focus much more on the elementary pre-k to six level and I think I'll turn it over to chairs McDonald in Hall trying to unmute myself so that we this is posted as an open meeting so at this point I'm going to go to order the meeting of the regional immerse Berlin Regional School Committee and I'll call to order the meeting of the immersed school committee and I'll call to order the meeting of the appellant School Committee miss McDonald in miss Hall would you like me to bring up the priorities document at this point okay yes please had it no I want to make sure the right one I apologize there we go there we go and so I'm gonna actually make it larger so that it's more visible so people
005won't be able to see us for a little bit but I think for people's viewing the benefit of their viewing I'm gonna make that larger so this with Thomas hall or any other school team members can talk through that but I just wanted to increase the size some people could see it a bit better great thank you um hopefully we're it's clear but um so I'll talk through this document um I won't read everything but it this is available in on our website and if it's not there already it will be very soon so that will talk through some of the high points and I um for those that watched our school committee meeting on Tuesday evening where we did talk about this document as our three committees um you're familiar with some of the
006framing of this we pulled this together and and offer this document we will be continuing to talk about it on Tuesday of next week as as guidance to help dr. Morris and the district in pulling together the plans and models for how we're going to go back to school in the fall in this document it assumes a best-case scenario in terms of our local health situation as those as many of those who are keeping track at home there are multiple phases both within the CDC guidance and our steps and stages and this assumes that were we're you know at least at that step two and then also with there are phases and steps and requirements from from deci in terms of having three plans so this is assuming that best-case scenario and clearly things as
007you'll see when we go through this document things can and will change and this document is not intended to be carved in stone but to outline sort of how we how we will adjust and where we're going to be looking for guidance as we adjust throughout the year so first and foremost our overall goals and we have three number one to protect staff and students safety number two to maximize internet print person learning time web maintaining six feet of physical distance and number three invest in and deliver the highest quality distance learning experience possible and there was we had lots of discussion about this with the School Committee on on Tuesday so they're there you know this this is as you know as noted a draft document and what part of what we want to
008hear from the community today is sort of reactions to some of these principles so in within staff and student safety what we're looking at here is prioritizing Public Health guidance and we list a few of those here namely the Centers of Disease Control American Academy of Pediatrics the state and our local public health officials as sort of informing our decision making process and approaches for back-to-school we're going to be informed by the guidance from the deci part of which requires us to submit three separate plans for for opening school our reopening plan is designed as much as possible to maintain that six feet of physical distance as much as possible between individuals that all staff and students will wear facial coverings as much as possible for grace two to twelve and where possible with 4k
009through first grade and that staff and students will engage in frequent hand-washing and hand sanitizing and sort of predicated on that as also providing the equipment and the tools to be able to do that and we want to provide accommodations for students and staff with underlying medical conditions with in-person learning and one of the things that we as a school committee that we're discussing is how we wanted to talk about these first two bullet points the first one being that we want to prioritize can l a-- mentor e students including the comandante's program in amherst for in-person learning as much as possible whether that's four to five days per week or eighty eighty to one hundred percent of school in school learning time that's that's the that's you know that definition this is that detail
010is to be discussed but really prioritizing getting elementary students and back to Infernus and learning and the middle school and high school students provided in-person learning at least two days per week or forty least forty percent of school days maximizing the time for special IDI education and English language learners or AOL students provided as much in person learning time as possible providing outdoor learning opportunity space than feasible and requiring hybrid sorry distance learning plans as backup for both the in-person and hydrating approaches knowing that conditions will change or can change and closures or other disruptions to impersonating me arise and key in in in presenting is providing support for staff and teachers both in time as well as training to adapt to the requirements of this in person physically distance learning environment with regard to
011distance learning and this would apply both for full-time in distance learning so so again if we if a school closure is is warranted or for those hybrid learning approaches that the distance learning will be greatly improved from what we had in the spring which we is was the emergency remote learning and that we have implemented in the spring so here we outlined and that we want to ensure consistency across instructional risk within schools employ instructional models that are well-suited for distance learning environment offer appropriate levels of challenge for every student and incorporate both synchronous and asynchronous approaches we want ensure that distance learning models are developed for all grades again to prepare for potential disruptions to in-person learning plans will be created support and trained staff students and families with the instructional tools and technologies
012districts were ensure that students have devices and access to Internet to support their engagement with distance learning and teachers and staff will be provided the support in both time and professional development to adapt to distance learning instructional models so I apologize I did tend to read more everything here I think and I don't ask my fellow committee members on the call if I left any important details out that we were discussing on Tuesday evening that you'd like to add I'm not hearing any okay there we are thank you so I think at this point we if there's anything any of the other committee members want to say in general and please you can jump in otherwise ahead of schedule miss McDonald so well done we can open it up for comments we've a couple they
013were more just reminders that this is focused on the elementary school level at five o'clock there'll be a similar session about the secondary level there was a question about the document that was just went over by mr. McDonald and the link was posted of where that is in the packet on Tuesday night it'll also be on our fall 2020 planning site by the end of the day but I think at this point we just want to open it up to see if there are questions comments that anyone who's on this dream would have for the committee me for myself from miss Kahn Cellino about thinking about fall planning so we'll give it a second for people to weigh in I saw one has come in about busing and transportation I think I'll take I'll start
014with that one we did an analysis that was presented we did analysis based on kind of three scenarios that was presented on Tuesday night at the for the elementary schools one was our current practice is to transport every student the second is actually our school committee policy which we we exceed right now I was going to say don't follow but that sounds worse so I think we exceed the school committee policy which is that transportation is provided for elementary students who live greater than 1.5 miles the bus stop would be 1.5 miles or greater from school and that would reduce the number of students who take the bus and the last scenario would be the legal limit which is two miles from the school we also did survey families earlier this year about about 30
015some odd percent of elementary families who responded said they would transport their children and and another 27 percent said they would likely transport their children I was just on a conference called this today with the state we still don't have guidance from the state on exactly how many students can participate or would be able to ride a bus from their guidance so transportation is a variable that is a little undetermined right now but we are doing our legwork to know what the variables are as we receive that information I know if there's anything that the committees would want to share in addition okay and Mike yep I would just say to people that they can see the information about bussing if they go and look at the minutes from or the agenda from the Tuesday
016night school committee meeting I guess I also add that we are still awaiting guidance from the state on transportation hopefully that will be this month and so that that may affect what we are able to offer as well but we are proceeding ahead with with the timeline that we feel we have to go on now before we get that state guidance okay thank you we have a number of questions that come in so next one is how a consistency of expectations cost crass chorim's grades in schools be ensured I'm all unsure if this is referring to if we're in a distance learning model or an in-class person model but I'll answer both so certainly you know one place I would recommend people going and maybe Sasha can get the link up is our fall 2020
017planning site because one of the things that we did this spring is we had teams of staff work on guiding principles and I think last Tuesday night we presented also some feedback about distance learning and I think the general agreement of all parties we interviewed we also surveyed middle school and high school students we have a whole lot of data and the thing one of the things that fully aligns on is that we need to be much more clear if we're in a distance learning environment about the expectations and to work much more as grade levels and not necessarily even just as schools but across great cross schools and almost grade level bands to make sure that there's a consistency of expectations I think there was full acknowledgment that what would happen in the spring
018in terms of distance learning would not be repeated if we are in a distance learning environment or if students or families choose to be in a distance learning environment this fall and so we are developing plans but the guiding principles I think do more justice than my words could at them my words good at the moment about how that might be approached we have a number of comments I'm going to keep just going in order I think as I see them so are there any upgrades and I'm just reading these just for access points I know we're just playing them as well any upgrades being made to the physical spaces HVAC and alpha air filtration is something I'm specifically concerned about the answer is yes so at Wildwood and Fort River in particular I'll speak
019to those two and then I'll speak to all four of our elementary schools across the two districts so at those schools the quads are turning into halfsies or something we'll have a better name for them at some point which I don't have the visual up and ready but if you think of the quads as being one large space stuff divided into fours essentially this sets up those that big space subdivide into twos with much more solid walls going between those two spaces so it doesn't share air circulation and flow that way each of those halfsies would have two near vents windows on both sides for cross ventilation and the big difference from ventilation point of view is currently there is one vent out from all the quads it all goes as feet if you've been
020in more of a wild or if you think the bathrooms in the back of the quad area there's one venting out for all those and this is splitting it to this event for each room so it's not mixing air at all of the schools will exceed or meet ASHRAE standards which is the kind of governing body of that by essentially running the air at higher velocity and four more hours each day so ASHRAE typically recommends more balanced approach in terms of how you're doing that as compared to energy efficiency and this is not a typical time and so we know that we'll have increased cost for doing that and it's what's being recommended what we'll do additionally at the elementary level the principals are working on schedules very much following a model from Finland where
021there might be 45 minutes or so of academic time and then 10 minutes of outside time so every hour on the 85% of days there's not or 90% days there's not torrential rain that students would be getting outside routinely additionally we're not using any classrooms for its students that don't have windows for additional ventilation capacity finally for all of our schools right the thing I mentioned about you know running you know vents and ventilators more often and all those that's that's that includes for crock our farm as well as for Pelham as well and then the last thing sorry I keep on saying last thing there's also going to be fewer bodies and spaces right so if you think of the typical quad at given time there might be 80 70 80 students if there's
022four if they're all filled with classroom that's a lot of bodies breathing air and and all going to one vent and that also has an influence on ventilation and air filtration as well so Jill I don't know if I missed anything that you wanted to share or if I hit the points perhaps not as well stated as you would if I realize I should have turned to you but I realized it too late no that's okay no you you hit the points pretty good I'm not an HVAC technician or specialist by any means and Rupert Roy Clark who was our facilities director he's done a excellent job on getting all those upgrades and you know in place and we are taking the the measures that were supposed to to you know get the physical spaces
023ready and utilizing spaces that have windows so we can have you know fresh air flowing in and out of those classrooms and we're looking at not using any of the classrooms that don't have windows to avoid those you know those situations but yeah there's there's been a lot of changes done to some of the elementary buildings that only enhances the physical spaces that the kids will be in in the fall so we have a number of comments so I'm just gonna keep on rolling with them and anyone can jump in what is happening with the comandante's program will it be a lottery soon yeah there's going to be communication might have happened last night actually if not it's happening today for miss Richardson we spoke yesterday afternoon we are planning on having a lottery I
024think at this point with the uncertainty of what school looks like I think we are being cautious that we're doing a lottery because families you know need to have that information our transportation department needs to have that information I think if we were for instance in a more virtual environment it's hard to imagine that being successful for incoming kindergarteners the nature of that program is their reliance on oral communication and that's more challenging to pull off with five-year-olds in a virtual environment so we are moving forward the lottery once our model is settled on which we hope happens the next next this month I'll say early August then we'll be able to confirm that but we want to we want to go forward the lottery because we know exam want to know that information and
025I think that's I don't know if there's anyone else who wants to jump in on that or I'm seeing shaking heads through a plan for students who live with people who are high risk for the more severe forms of Koba 19 were they be able to opt in to entirely remote learning the quick answer is yes as we develop our models we will be planning for that and we got clarity on that actually just in the last hour from a Jessie conference call I was in that that families will have the option and so we may can homeschool or receive virtual education and and what that virtual education is the state is working with local districts potentially on some platforms that might be helpful some districts may choose to use their own staff and so
026we will be working on that as we go and look at the map of classrooms layout they have second graders have three classroom and kindergartens have two this is typical how does this allow for increased space between students so what you'd see in terms of the layout and there was last night it was right before the map started or Tuesday night I should say there was a map of what classrooms would look like and typically our classrooms for young students use tables and students are very close to one another in the models and layouts for any of our schools the desks would be laid out six feet apart and so that would be the increased space between students is really spacing students out it's removing most objects in the school in the room that are
027not desk students teachers and teacher desk as well as student materials so that's a good visual I wasn't running through these questions might be able to pull it up but it's it's on our website it's on the fall 2020 website encourage people to look there at that yep yep so that's that's exactly it Alexandra so if you if we had 16 student first of all but most of the time our elementary schools I think Pelham has one classroom that were actually not planning to use that's that small 750 feet all of the other classrooms at elementary school are well over 800 feet and and so the maximum is 16 students you know Clark from really looking at 15 because of some of the built-ins even though the classrooms are over 900 square feet the built-in
028cabinetry makes it not fit so that's why we looked at each different room individually not as just a square footage but it's really that we wouldn't spread students out in a typical classroom environment using the whole space and in this environment we would how would this impact van service for students required again we're still waiting for deci information on transportation so I don't have good clarity specifically on that one yet and they're meeting with doctors like at MGH and trying to figure out what's the best approach as it relates to transportation but we are just thinking of us is I think it's a good point I should continue to say buses or vans for transportation thank you for that so the state guidance is and in this document was kids are required to mara mass
029as possible as starting in grade 2 what our expectations for the younger grades I can start on that but Jill maybe give me a break for a talking break you want to answer that one instead of me sure so right now the recommendation from D pH and Department of Education is that students in grades two and older will be required to wear masks or facial coverings if they're able to in school and the kids and the younger grades it's recommended so we wouldn't we're going to be encouraging students and those younger grades if they're if it's possible for them to wear a facial covering or a mask in school when they're not able to maintain the six-foot physical distance between classmates and staff and it'll be you know to the best of our ability and
030teachers abilities we know that there will be students that fit under the criteria of the you know not being able to wear a mask but you know if they have a medical condition that they don't tolerate it or you know another condition where they're not able to they fit into a criteria where they're not able to physically put on or take off a mask they would not be required to wear one in school so we have a boatload of PPE already on site and we will have some backups we will be asking families to provide masks or facial coverings they're students but we will have backups if you know one has forgotten or we need to replace one during the school day and I want to say you know that is a conversation the school
031committee has had so what what miss Constantino said is accurate and I know there were some committee members who wanted to come back to the conversation about kindergarteners first graders and in the little state language is strongly encouraged and so I think the more feedback that people have and and I know there's some feedback on that in the comments that I see that's really helpful for the committee and myself to see and it's helpful today and also just remind folks about school committee at Arps org and and Morris M @rf State Oregon that that's something that I know is or I believe is something that committee will want to return to particularly because we've heard I've heard a lot about the kindergarten first grade question and and face coverings I'm gonna use face coverings set
032of masks because I think there's some thinking about different face coverings for K and one that may be more tolerable for young students thank you for the kind comet Halley and you know for Crocker farm and there's this is true in Pelham as well we built our models on a hundred percent of students for turning I see there's a question later on will we survey parents about students returning and the question that's absolutely we wanted to get a baseline so you know I think what's likely to happen is less than 100 percent of students will return I think that's highly likely and so we will have to redo the space pieces and so we put the grade five six combo and there's also a one-two combo both at Crocker and a Pelham I believe that's
033assuming a hundred percent of students return we have to do that because until a student says I'm not returning I want all virtual we have to account for those students being in the school setting the reality I think will look different on the ground you know even our survey indicated in terms of definitely unlikely I guess was 86 or 87 percent returning so we may not have to do the combined classrooms but we wanted to give the school committee in the community and honest read of if all students returned these are the choices that we'd have to make because of space and staffing I think it's highly likely that again that number will drop and we may not have to do that getting to the specifics of the question is we've had a long history
034in the district not as much in recent years of having combined classes marks meadow had for instance virgin elementary school that no longer is open on the UMass campus had compliant classes very frequently Crocker pharmacy had combined classes and when I was there we had one and the interesting thing right now is you know grade level curriculum standards feel a little awkward because we know they don't really make as much sense as they did in a typical environment so it is try to think about that if we did go forward we'd be asking families at first if they were interested in being both fifth and sixth grade families we've heard from I've heard from a number of families who either feel like maybe another year a little softer landing spot would be better because this
035spring has been very difficult for a whole host of reasons other students felt like they got ahead and they're really willing to push forward and can handle a higher level so we would be engaging families and staff about what that model specifically looked like and what we presented on choosing it was simply if all students respond if all students returned what would it look like from a space perspective and that's where we are well kindergarten to walk so no we would provide transportation for K to six students when we wouldn't differentiate between them and and I think in terms of other districts like you know across the across the river Northampton they've already voted a transportation policy you know I think the expectation is that families would support their children or communities would support their
036children through carpooling to getting to school you know I will follow up more with Northampton other thinking on that but we're a little unique in terms of a different providers transportation for all of its students that's as the outlier it's not the norm as it is so we could talk to other districts that have long-standing policies that reduce the number of buses or students on buses and we can find out more we tend to have a pretty expensive transportation model because we do provide that service for every single student who wants it and we'd have to weigh in my opinion almost before the committee we'd have to weigh can we reduce it less than a mile and a half so for closer if families are willing to drive their students and get that hit the
037right spot on those I think we can we won't I don't think we'd have to go to two miles from our analysis because we know many families will drive their students to school under their own choice the innovative opportunities to main interest in person building instruction that we've not yet explored other buildings besides schools distance learning is devastating to working families we have the challenges any building we open that's not a school would have to have an administrator and a school nurse so anytime we expand our number of buildings we're talking about a significant expense unbudgeted expense in a year that we have a lot of them and our financial picture got worse this year not better we cut over a million dollars from our between Amherst and region all three budgets pretty much had
038a zero percent increase so that's our challenge we did explore it one of the challenges in the community is there's a lot of buildings that maybe can get three or four classrooms in but from an economy of scale perspective they don't really shift the larger dynamic and open three or four classrooms hire another nurse and hire another administrator leads to some real challenges for us so if people have ideas you know Maura seminars or please email me me email the School Committee we have explored town owned buildings and some other buildings but you know we found it challenging to have an accessible building for staff and students that would have an enough classroom space is that it would make a larger difference and really I guess the the quicker way to answer it is we're
039not really seeing at the elementary level with the exception of Parker farm perhaps we space is not the barrier for us you know all students at Pelham all students at forever all students at Wildwood could fit if we can staff those buildings and Crocker farm you know we you know at the school remember a school remember let on Tuesday night brought up you know mobile space you know mobile classrooms or different things that we can explore but space is not the barrier for us at the elementary level I'm sorry I hope I'm leaving time for leaving space for school team members who want to jump in to be able to jump in I feel like I'm doing more talking than like so I think this one was answered but absolutely there'll be an options of
040families who don't want to send their children to school at all we're developing what that'll look like but but that's absolutely true and for those students of yeah English language learner needs or special needs those needs will be needs to be attended to just as if they were in school as well this is a good one for miss console you know how you keep mass on younger children and Katie - that's a good question and I don't have the miracle answer to that it's the guidance we have right now is that it'll be recommended for those kids to wear a facial covering in school and it'll just it were we will have to wait and see on how the kids tolerate them we're we're gonna do our best to keep our kid the kids you
041know six feet distance apart and what studies have shown is that when you if you can maintain a physical distance of six feet apart from somebody then facial covering is technically not required for so quote-unquote protection so we're gonna we're gonna try to encourage it as much as much as possible for these younger kids but it's one of those things we'll have to cross that bridge when we get there yeah and I think so I was in touch with some public health folks outside the district as well as some local physicians who offered to help with that and provide videos I think at an important point also is that in the guidance we received it talks about mass breaks that we don't expect students to keep especially our younger students but all students and staff
042to keep masks on 100% of the day you know and some of those might happen when their students are in outside spaces and distance things a little easier for that matter but I you know I want to be realistic if we set unrealistic expectations we're doomed to be disappointed in that that we want students to be wearing masks all students all staff and that all the public health experts say people do need mask breaks from time to time and you know working out how to schedule them we do have some folks both volunteers from our community who are involved in public health or our physicians who have offered to help us with what that looks like I think I've answered some of the ones I'm gonna skip because I'm pleased I think it is because
043people may not have heard of people coming in late now may not have heard sort of that your your responsive question earlier in the broadcast about the the outside breaks that are being regularly scheduled because I think that also gets at the question about how do you help children hold up you know keep masks on for a great period and sort of ties into mass breaks as well yeah so so the model we're looking at the elementary model is something that Finland does in a regular basis not they did a pre pandemic not during pandemic times which is that students get outside every hour that there might be 45 minutes 50 minutes of instruction and the students go outside regularly for 10 or 15-minute breaks and so that also might be the time where logically
044people kids students get mass breaks and it's much much easier to sort of think of how that would work outside you know I just just having been to playgrounds my own kids recently you kind of get a flow of how that works and seeing other students props to the town for a murse for Graaf park it's really neat courage ever with young kids because people on this call probably young kids to go there and it's busy so you know for me personally you know I did want my you know to wear a mask and have children and you recognize when you're a playground there are logical ways that people can have brakes and even in terms of the guidance we've received from the Department of Public Health and Jill could talk about I think I'll
045probably go down to more questions unless this this pops up again is just really it's about distance and duration that you know you want to think about six feet but you know you get to higher risk the longer the duration so thinking of kind of more routine mass breaks even inside that are shorter in duration seem consistent with the public health guidance we're receiving but yo I mean if there's more questions we can go but I just there's other questions on different topics so you know we have been in touch with UMass House in touch with them as recently as yesterday it's I'll just say it's complicated right there's a lot of the college and universities and I'm not gonna speak to you mass in general are teaching remotely or mostly remotely some of them
046are making their classroom space their office available for faculty to use for some of that remote lecture also some of the thinking is if they're trying to cordon off their campuses to the outside world you know we are the outside world and so that also creates some dilemmas for ecology universities about if they don't want to open their space what does that mean so we are in touch with UMass regularly and we will continue to explore that but again at the elementary level space is not our concern again Crocker farm a little bit but primarily space is not our confirm it our concern and a Crocker farm if the numbers go down from full attendance - which is what we had to present for - less than full attendance we may be able to get
047all students at Crocker farm if we can we can figure out the staffing as well so since this is not going to this is going to work based on rotating kids or remote learning teaching be a part of the schedule for the rest of the week I think right now it's an open question I'm not gonna speak for the school committee but you know they presented trying to get elementary students and as often as possible and regularly I think the secondary level there was a larger focus on a rotation in terms of the school committee document you know I mean Ellison or anyone on any of the elementary school coming in on that Peter yeah I would just say that so the the document is currently drafted asks for a goal of 80 to 100
048percent time on site for her K to 6 that being said we haven't looked at we haven't discussed at the school committee level yet the what the exact start and end time of the day would be and and then if that doesn't cover the full start and end time that we're typically used to would we would we then need to supplement with some remote learning dr. marks I don't know if you could speak to that what initial thoughts are or planning is in terms of start and end time for 4k sexy yeah so we are looking about shifting the start time back perhaps not the end time but I think one of the things that we realize is that and the guidance we received this relates to a number of the other cause comments are
049I was scrolling down so I was listening mostly but I was also scrolling in the length of comments is large so which is good that's what we wanted so you know we are thinking of starting school later in the morning to give teachers more time for training we're also thinking of thinking that first week in school in particular of having shorter days for students so that both students and staff can get acclimated under a new environment get build up tolerance for mask-wearing and also perhaps some so have some virtual education in the morning there are some things that are really hard to imagine happening in school next year and we expect guidance from the state on this but some of some of the instrumental music for instance will be really hard to to do based
050on the guidance we've received up especially certain instruments so we are looking at you know what how can we make some hybrid approaches even with even if students are in for quote unquote a full week because we don't imagine a full week being the typical length day five days a week even in the best of kovat circumstances did that capture Peter where you were headed I hope yeah I just want to clarify that so the comment mentions two days on two days off that's not a scheduled that we talked about it at K to six the the goal at least in the draft document so far is was eighty a hundred percent on on site as much as possible and that the the implementation details of what those start/end times are are still are still
051in process yep so another question how are the blowers heating air circulation work in each building so I spoke about that a little bit earlier but the short story and I'm not an HVAC specialist Rupert spoke about this a couple school committee meetings ago and maybe you can get that link up to anyone who's curious but essentially is that typically what's recommended as we balanced ventilation in terms of heating blowers air circulation to balance how quick how often the room turns over all of its air with energy efficiency and that's what's recommended to us and what would plan would be for next year is to shift that balance to less on the energy efficiency side to increase the number of times a day the full air sir air circulates and turns over additionally we're going
052to encourage at the depending on the weather and the right moments for windows to be open in buildings and that those are the two strategies in terms of the Equis Singh the velocity of the air coming out which turns it over more often and starting it longer before the school day and running it after the school day will be it I think also getting to mr. Demming something he prompted in me having a shorter school day while stood in schools in session allows her much more disinfecting in the afternoon and in the mornings to be able to do cleaning you know we have other we have a zero sum of custodians right we have the same custodians we have so if we give them more time to clean that actually helps with that and actually
053one of the biggest things and this is kind of it sounds surprising but I've been told this by many people including public health folks is by reducing the quantity of stuff in rooms it actually has a huge positive impact on air circulation blowers and heating so when you look at Barron in classrooms not only they easier to clean they actually greatly improve air circulation and air flow and so I want to thank the teachers publicly we ask people that identify their classrooms this spring and people did a fantastic job of doing that and continuing to do that it's going to be in everyone's health the health best interest of everyone's health other questions about substitutes situation actually most of our subs respectfully keep our you know average age is lower of our subs than of
054our day and I asked they day off staff and so we are working on what the substitute situation looks like and we have two staff for that some of our schools have permanent subs and that's a really effective strategy around that so it is something we're still working and looking for state guidance on same way--with I've got a lot of questions about student teachers are we taking student teachers might they be good subs because they will have all the protocols down and we're still considering whether that's a good idea a bad idea we've been in touch with the public health folks on that topic as well and we'll keep on working at it yeah so I mean the short answer to the question that I'm sorry didn't read it have you determined the relative amount
055of online learning that will occur in the synchronous methods you described what I'd say is that the conference call I got on we're gonna be on pretty much the same hourly requirements that were always on next year of 900 hours at the elementary level so the synchronous learning is going to have to mirror what would happen if students were in school where there's you know whatever it works out to half hours of daily instruction some of that maybe some asynchronous but the majority would have to be synchronous so I think for people who are making a decision about that or concern that you know there may be health implications for their family we have to cover all the standards and our time on learning will be the same in school or out of school for
056next year yes I mean I'm just trying to skip around four different ones here's one I don't have an answer to but I think when I got on this chat the special ed guidance came out from deci so I've been hanging out with this chat and not on that document so I don't have an answer to this one but I know that dr. Brady our service director is anxiously reading that document right now trying to figure out exactly what that works how that will work home based care is a little complicated for us for a whole host of reasons so this is a different environment so I wanted to highlight the question as being a good one unfortunately I don't have a clear answer what I would say is if there's one-on-one in the child's
057IEP we would have to cover that if not in the home environment certainly in a virtual environment learned about space also capacity to subdivide spaces we'd like to see outdoor learning yeah so I would just add to that that we we have purchased a tent they're shipping within a week so we'll have them well on time for the school year because we know in some days outdoor learning could happen anywhere in some days you really want 30 by 30 10 Cobra which would fit all students that's about the size of the average a little larger than some of our elementary classrooms I would say the subdivided space is at Wildwood they're already in work so I know some people have peeked in the windows I don't want to encourage to put me on the site
058but having been in one of those spaces it's gigantic they're 1,900 square feet it about triples the size about two and three-quarters time the size of the usable space in our quads and I think that people will be wanting to be in them if they're in buildings next year because if their spaciousness and they have true cross ventilation I'm not trying to convince anyone but having been in one that would be my perspective so the the question is more or less if you calculated space for teachers all of the spaces have been calculated for teachers the state recommended six feet across and we've calculated it at least seven if not eight feet across for the space for teachers so beyond where they were elementors have enough planning time to meet both in-person and digital learning
059simultaneously we're looking you know more at models where elementary teachers are either doing in-person or digital not both simultaneously add to that you know one of the themes expressed in past school committee meetings is that you know we have an amazing amazing staff and teachers this is our greatest resource but you know they're they're only human and they only have so many hours in the day and so with funding being what it is you know we don't want to set teachers or students up to fail and so well well it's it was nice the state asked us to produce three different models and how would we would accommodate in staff every single possible way to implement implement that across the spectrum of remote or in person it's it's it's a bit of a cognitive dissonance
060ask I think to ask one teacher to prepare to do both simultaneously and to be able to pivot all the time between the two miles so that's you know we haven't voted yet it's still in process but the School Committee has has expressed similar sentiment to what you just described that you know we want to you want to set up if we can do that by allowing them to make imprints and learning as it can be in making other teachers making remote learning as effective as it can be greatly improved from the spring then that's that's how we'd like to do it Mike I would just say I was looking at the guiding principles that the team for the elementary schools put together and one of the things I noted as they talked about all
061working together across the breadth of the school of the grade and that perhaps there would be people who could do one thing versus another and it wouldn't be they would be thinking more broadly in terms of all the schools rather than just each individual schools thank you so I do believe the school day likely would be shorter than normal I think we spoke about that I'm just I know I'm up to comments that were given at 12:18 so I'm trying to my best to sort through ones that I've been answered you know here's one about siblings we would try to do our best with coordinating siblings you know our hope is that school students at the elementary level would go to school everywhere my hope I should say is that students would go to school
062every day but but we've heard that concern and we'd have to work that out from a transportation perspective you know in terms of maintaining six foot distance II the advice we've gotten from our state in public health as well as CDC is that students would say in their cohorts and specials another thing would come into the classroom instead of students going to other spaces and that's really why we want to have a movement break again at best-case-scenario outside which can occur from most days on a very routine basis because we know movement is critical for all students but particularly for elementary students I'm going to let me talk to sort about synchronous before you know in terms of before and after school options this is this one really hits at trying to keep cohorts together
063in our school all day so we are actively engaging with our after school before school providers but this is where the health guidance and support for families are really bouncing up or you know banging into one another so you know I think in our buildings it's hard for us to imagine for the cleaning and disinfecting that our custodial and maintenance crew have to do that we'll be have students in buildings for the length of time that we have now right now we have students our earliest UDON's get there between 7:00 and 7:30 for before school Karen stay till 5:30 I can say that we would not have students at school for that length of time next year with all the health concerns and all the cleaning that we need to have so good another good
064question had cafeteria moving room our so all the spaces that were selected for instructional rooms at all schools had windows and you know vents and blowers for all the reasons that were mentioned before and I think again D densifying is what folks more knowledge with me tell me it's just incredibly critical and so having been in all these spaces there's a lot of there's a lot of room in those spaces and they all have windows as well as ventilation systems so here's a good one you know the state out just on this conference call I think in the next week they're gonna put out guidance around if a staff member students test positive and Quarantine this is one of the reasons the School Committee and maybe one of you could comment about the six feet
065versus three feet I don't know if Peters nodding his head analysis I don't know if you want to comment a bit on that particular aspect and maybe also asked for help from mr. Council II know as well and that one of the one of the things that we've talked about in the school committee meetings is the the rationale between six feet and sort of the guidance from deci which says six feet as close as possible minimum three feet these are the understanding that that it's it that it can be challenging particularly with younger kids to to have 100% compliance to guidance such as staying six feet away from each other and that if we aim for six feet of distance that it gives us that wiggle room for whenst when students are aiming for to
066be closer together that we're still pretty presenting a safe space for that that still meets sort of those minimum requirements and the other the other thought and and this is I'm going to maybe ask lino to comment about the this the quarantine eing and and sort of if you know when one student becomes infected and how many who who will need to be quarantined until we have that that testing data because I think that was also really um helpful data point for us to have in the school committee shorts so to follow up on that what's been happening with this virus and how to identify people that need to go under quarantine after somebody becomes symptomatic or test positive is the close contact definition is anybody who's been within a six-foot distance of a positive
067or symptomatic person for a duration of longer than 10 to 15 minutes and that can be spaced out throughout the entire day so if we are able to get the kids to you know stay spaced apart for at least 6 feet or and even if they're within 6 feet for only a minute or two that doesn't that doesn't qualify them as being a close contact if somebody doesn't have testing positive so we I was on a conference call with DPH last week and dr. Katie Brown came on she's one of the members of the advisory panel for the state and she reiterated the fact with the six-foot rule is it will eliminate a lot of this identification of people that need to go under a quarantine for 14 days if we can maintain that six-foot
068as much as possible and it would it'll make the contact tracing go a lot smoother and it'll be a lot less people that are involved with the whole process so it's and there's guidance I've asked for a guidance from the state everybody has that there's a whole group of nurse leaders that are looking for it and they said it's to come so we're waiting for it from them yep and so I left that other question up I apologize so I'm just recognizing the time and I tried to find some themes of questions so there was a lot of there's some comments and questions about washing hands and and you know Jill is working right now on protocols but certainly all the protocols that are being recommended house have students washing hands on upon entry upon
069exit and multiple times throughout the day classrooms that don't have sinks would have sanitizer stations already or sanitizer I know what they're called but um sanitizer station installed in them for ready use right now and I know people are anxious and and I am too right what happens but right now Massachusetts numbers are very low other states in our country are incredibly high and it's hard to know what'll happen I think people may not have caught the beginning but I want to share that other people on this call share that if the numbers get to the point we read to close school in person we need to close school in person at this point our numbers fortunately both locally in terms of Hampshire and Franklin County as well as across the state you know we're
070one of four states that experts are saying has it we're in reasonably good shape right now that could change we've seen that change in their states and that's why we're developing multiple plans that we have to make a plan moving forward and in the guiding principles document the draft excuse me the priorities document school committee had that may shift all remote if this situation changes I've seen another number of comments about that there's a lot on bathrooms all the public guidance public health guidance is that atoms are cleaned routinely through the day they're not after each use that's true for places like grocery stores other places that businesses that are open there's increasing levels and Jill you could speak says if you like but of confidence that we want to clean them routinely and I
071think that's important but there's no guidance I've ever seen or receive that it's after every single use based on the risk factors have been established and so that's sort of where we are with bathrooms and just recognize again as 12:55 so I'm scrolling a bit to look for common themes there's a number of Joe do you want to talk a little bit about duration versus distance because there's a number of questions around that I think we sort of addressed it but I wonder if you could speak to that like if students get up to wash their hands they may be closer than six feet to other students on their way and just some thought you have on that sure so that comes down to the risk of exposure for either a student to student or
072student to staff member and it's it has to be a prolonged exposure and so the state keeps pushing this ten to fifteen minute time frame and there's varying sources out there that have you know this time of ten to fifteen minutes within three to six feet and so just a brief interaction of you know one student getting up from their desk and going over to the sink to wash their hands is not a potential to expose you know all the four or five students that they make walk in front of if the student happens to you know is not wearing a facial covering and they happen to cough or sneeze and you know that rural classmates then yeah there's the potential for exposure but the there there has to be you know you have to
073be face to face with somebody for you know within this certain distance for a prolonged period of time to have an actual you know risk of exposure to this virus and it escalates when there's coughing sneezing you know escalating a you know increasing voice volume shouting that kind of stuff that all increases the chance of risk for exposure to the virus yep thank you so I saw a couple comments I want to address one is about there's potentially new CDC guidance coming out and I'm just gonna speak for myself it's in a wacky week for this topic nationally and what I would say is two things one is that I'm committed I'm not gonna speak for anyone but myself I'm committed to following the CDC guidelines that were released before if there's political pressure new
074CDC guidelines come out I'm not suede right now that we would I would recommend any changes from the guidelines that were expressed I think it's frankly it's compromised some of people's confidence and organizations when CDC has guidelines and and perhaps it at least appears there's political pressure being placed so again I'm not asking anyone else to make that comment I just wanted to make it myself that you know when in our planning we're going with the original guidelines that we received there's a question about cost of all different models it's hard to figure out we know that we have students that will have needs we will not be addressed in a virtual education model so that's a hard one to itemize or to put into place but you know I think that's one end of
075it and the other end of it is is hard to predict so what we're doing right now is trying to keep tracking and accounting knowing that we plan to have some in-person education next year and we might be in a virtual environment and that makes it very very difficult to budget but we're doing our best with that there was a question about special ed and how would kind of one-on-ones or para educators work and I think something that I'm looking forward to reading the guidance that again came in at today from the state but in our current thinking if some students may have more in person or in class supports than they typically would and some students may have may who are included less may have different supports that may be more out of the
076classroom and specialized programs based on individual student need because you know the IEP is that were written we're written for a covert era and so we are engaging staff members on a case-by-case basis and trying to think through our students have that there's a couple questions about staff members being in buildings we have not really nearly opened up but if staff members want to be in buildings they certainly can be in touch with me and we have loosened those opportunities we do have I know there are districts including Holyoke so pretty close to now that did open summer school programming we're looking at hoping that a little bit later in the summer as the guidance has come on for that so just hold true you're in the same room as all children all day six
077feet no bass so I think no one's suspecting that there's no Massey mat the primary grades we're talking about strongly encourage and comfort that we may have seen that I may have seen that after it got answered we are trying to limit the number of people who are going across buildings things like that and the number of exposure that folks would have for instance Elementary specialists teachers typically a wild hood for instance II would typically see 21 classes a week they see every class every week we'd be moving to a model where they stay with the same set of classes for weeks on end again because we were concerned about staff safety as well as student safety up on that there are recommendations right now from the state is not that students are temperature checked
078on the weight of the building and if some states have recommended that but the short story and Joel you can jump in if you like is that you know those tests are about 75% effective and that's not all that helpful in terms of high temperature like just the temperature reading itself and you think about different weather patterns and gentleman have I spoke about you take of weather take the temperature of a student who is waiting at a bus stop for in 20-degree weather it may not be an accurate reading of that again it's one o'clock now so we can go in a little bit more but I do want to be cautious about time and this is not the only way to get in touch with us the length of day won't change if there's
079more breaks throughout the day we again try to look to a later start and similar end time and thank you I saw some nice comments I appreciate those and I'm sure everyone else on doesn't like all it's hard to scroll as much as I would like to six feet is measured from the center of a desk what is the effective distance between it depends on the length of the desk and we have different sized s our elementary school so for that question I can't answer it depends on that yeah the pp you order and secure Jill we can certainly if you send that this question about the PPE ordered and that list if you could send that to Sasha Figueroa she can put it on the return to school website when will it be decided
080what plan we will move forward with I'm going to turn to the School Committee on that one and I'll leave it with you all i le answer sort of from my perspective what we we are going to after this week Stenhouse we're on Tuesday the three committees will be convening again to review review but we heard the questions and and continue discussing and hopefully my perspective hopefully vote on the priorities that we've that we've outlined and been discussing we will be meeting again on the 21st the following Tuesday hearing from the district more details about specificity around the models we haven't defined yet whether we will be voting at that meeting or whether it will be a discussion with a subsequent vote at a later meeting I anticipate that it will be pretty concrete by
081by that point so that all of our teachers and staff and administration can really begin the hard work to get ready for school at the end of the summer I don't know if the other chairs or vice chairs would like to add their perspective to that yeah so I mean the only thing I would add obviously all of those dates are consistent and everything but just that we recognized how challenging this is that people are really anxious about the timeframe teachers with time to prepare and Families just trying to figure out what their life is going to look like in September so kind of the short answer is really as soon as possible but given constraints in terms of time for planning and putting together these different models it will still take a few more
082weeks yeah oh I'm sorry I mean I echo those previous comments and say you know that there's a real urgency I think it's been expressed at school committee to to identify this not just for parent and student communication and anxiety but you know staff need to be able to understand what the model is implement the details train and then be able to implement implement it effectively and you know like there's less than eight weeks to do that at this point and so so there's there's that urgency there that being said even though this is for a change of this magnitude this is happening really fast it's still a really active decision process I mean I can just speak for myself that my mind isn't completely made up and every day I see long thoughtful sincere
083messages of feedback from parents and teachers that the change and evolve my thinking on this so you know we're detailed to this level because we have to because of the schedule but it's it's still really dynamic and so I would really encourage everybody to continue to send your input to school committee at our sorg and more a seminar start org and continue to be engaged like like all the people I've been today yeah I saw a couple more it's 104 so I think we are going to close up pretty quick so the four I want to address one is staff training so absolutely and I think for in-person schooling you know I am working on different schedules and different models depending what the School Committee decides of how to move forward where we would want
084to have extra days of training at least one that can guarantee if not more at the being this school year for that and again starting the school year with with gradual entry for students and staff so that some of the trainings for staff and some of the trainings for students staff there was a comment about could teachers never be closer than six feet to students and I think Jill sort of answered that before the idea is that changes won't be stationed you know that close but it's not that there has to be a six-foot bubble at every moment of every day we know that we couldn't do school that way so I think Jill addressed that earlier but I just saw that and I want to address it really important one I'm parent educators absolutely
085and one of the differences if you watch last night's meeting and and and or if you didn't just one of the things that one of the deci models had in it was you know I'm trying to think how to maybe I'll actually show the slide I think that's going to be better so I'm sorry to take the time and I know we're running late but I think I can do this much better if I show it if I can figure out how to do that there we go and let's eliminate us so it's larger and so one of the things that you'll notice on here is the left is what deci you know to get all the seats and there's a copy and paste and you know first of all it's you can see it's
086only six feet here we're talking generally about eight feet gap between a teacher area also in the deci slide you have you have desks right up against that on the side it really carves out one area whereas in the model that we'd be proposing there spaces for multiple adults either for co-teachers para educators we didn't want to set up a dynamic that didn't allow for multiple adults including talented para educators translators etc to be in rooms and so one of the reasons I recommend in the School Committee has fully endorsed not going to a 3 feet model that would be this tight because it's not just about the one teacher and I think that's a really important point and I just wanted to sort of honor that and it didn't feel good not saying that
087another one is cleaning and disinfecting I know it talked about it slow earlier but that's really why we're looking at we're reducing the length of the school day so we are gonna need to have more custodial staff working during the day for bathrooms all those are their areas and we're gonna need more time in the morning to be able to to do that to do both the cleaning and disinfecting wellness checks what's being recommended for us by the state on wellness checks is is really talking and almost have like a contract with families and staff around that and the nurses will be certainly at into that but not doing the the temperature checks on there and oh there was one other one a good point by Betsy you know for our staff who work the
088nature of their work is to be closer than six feet some of the PPE that Jill has ordered is for specific staff who do that that includes isolation gowns higher quality masks that would be like hospital grade or medical grade masks goggles things like that because we know that there are teachers power educators absolutely everyone that Betsy Todd recommend or mentioned that do need to do within six feet and they do need the different PPE you know kind of it's the similar type of PPE that you would see at a doctor's office and and we need to protect our staff and our students and that's why we purchased those pieces of equipment 1:08 I think that's probably what we can get through on this call again School Committee at Arps org or Morris M a
089tarp stock committee org please continue to send emails contact us public comment you know all that's on our school committee agendas I don't know if there's anything ooh there's one I have to answer about preschool on Dec so sorry Lindsay asks a really good one that keeps happening this is the last one Lindsay wins no more after this one but you know so there is this discussion about eec versus deci guidance and what I heard today is that Public preschools in kated in that are connected to pre-k to 12 public school districts will follow the deci guidance and so we actually have a meeting we had a meeting I wasn't in it because I was in the deci conference called whose it meeting today with some of our folks trying to work through where is
090the difference is what's the same because we do want to think about preschool it is unique for all sorts of reasons but the age of students and Amherst it's a fully integrated program with roughly half the students having disabilities and they're young kids they're not going to sit at desks right it's it's really a different environment and so we are working on that and have more on that soon it's not that we have not included it at school community dialogue because it's not important it's just that the guidance continues to come out later for preschools so great question I apologize it's not for lack of attention that we haven't been talking about I have been talking about as much it's actually just the information I got that information literally yesterday was confirmed this morning around
091which guidelines to follow so that's where we'll end it I'll just leave anyone on the this call if they want to offer some final thoughts as well I think I've seen several questions about will we make these questions and the written questions available in any responses and just thinking out loud here is capturing all of these and then weaving in responses into our discussion and our meeting on Tuesday rather than sort of publishing a question a individual question and the answer is we can take all of these questions and sort of weave them into our discussions so that hopefully by the end of that meeting most of these questions will be answered as much as we can I also want to note if no one else wants to jump in that this this live stream
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