001good evening everybody and welcome to the august 10th uh 2021 meeting of the dartmouth school committee uh per governor baker's order suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law glc 30a section 20 the legislature's extension of those provisions the public will not be allowed to physically access this school committee meeting the meeting will be conducted remotely members of the public can access the meeting via live stream at youtube.com dhs tv media in addition the event will be rebroadcast on dc tv channels 9 and 18 on the following days wednesday and thursday at 5 00 pm friday at 6 00 am saturday at 8 a.m and sunday at 2 p.m the school committee reserves the right to implement additional remote participation procedures and will notify the public of these procedures as soon as practicable um i'd
002like to now we can all start with a pledge of allegiance please i pledge allegiance shannon jenkins here mary wait here kathleen admiral here john nunes chris oliver here and i'd like to note um mr nunes is unable to make it um we tried to arrange a time where everyone could but it's difficult in august um with everyone's uh vacation plans and out of office plans and so um this was the best that we could do we did want to have a meeting before our august 23rd meeting to discuss important issues and so that's why we're doing this remote meeting because not everyone is even in town i know miss waite is joined us from her vacation um uh the first item on our agenda is the public comment um comments are welcome please forward
003any comments you have to our recording secretary ms genther kathleen genthner at dartmouthschools.org ms gentler has been receiving public comment throughout the day all public comments and all emails that she received are forwarded to every member of the school committee we have received quite a few public comments um and due to time constraints i think it would take us maybe a half hour to an hour simply to read all those public comments out loud and we will not be reading them out loud but i do want to assure the public that every email that is received by dr gifford by ms genther is forwarded to every member of the school committee um and if you have comments on items we're discussing this evening i encourage you to send those again kathleen genthner dartmouthschools.org and we
004will receive those and read those i would ask if you received public comment ms gentler but i know that you have already because you forward several more so i won't ask um and i know that you will forward them at the end as you receive them through the meeting so thank you for that um the first item on our agenda is the discussion of a district maths protocol um as dr gifford emailed us earlier today um we do have a policy in place regarding face coverings that is in effect until repealed but we thought it was important for us to come and have a discussion about this um the other important thing i want to note before i hand it over to dr gifford is that under current cdc guidelines masking is required on buses
005right so regardless of what we do mass will be required on buses because we do not control that decision after having given that brief introduction i'm gonna hand it over you dr gifford to talk um about any issues concerns that you'd like to address thank you madam chair so i'm glad you brought up uh just to start the conversation the cdc guidelines i'd like to note that we are receiving guidelines from various groups including of course jesse's guidelines was a little bit different than the cdc um the american academy of pediatrics has the guidelines you know a set of guidelines as well um so it's it's it's i just want the community to know as you stated we do receive uh various opinions on what we should do about masking and we will be here
006to make the best decision we feel is best based on those guidelines but more importantly i think based on the discussions that we have with our local director of public health who has of course the um data etc and trends of what's happening in our community so with that said i'd just like to let you all know that mr kylie and i have already spoken to chris mishu a few times already we had a meeting with him last week we've had conversations we have another meeting scheduled for next week um we also have a meeting i'm just kind of giving a little bit of an overview right now of what we're doing to plan for the year we have a meeting scheduled for next week with our nurses as well we're asking them to look
007at the covid responses that we have set up the guidelines from last year to see what tweaks we might make um i also would note that we there is a webinar tomorrow that i'm i'll be attending uh from jesse on the test and stay protocol and again i'm just giving a few options a few ideas of what we'll be looking at over the next week or so other than the mass which we'll really be talking about tonight um i do want to remind the community that according to desi and our district decision we will not have a remote option this year jesse is making sure of that all students will be returning to school our buildings will be um working like we did last year to provide accommodations as much as we can possible to
008make sure kids have access if you recall we did a various things last year and i just want to note that um dr jenkins mentioned last meeting to have that we would like to present strategies and ideas of how we're going to help students support students move forward we're calling it accelerate learning from last year and i've asked the principals rather than do a school improvement plan as we normally do we've provided them with three themes uh three priority areas of how they're going to develop strategies within each building that will address those things so those will be coming up soon but back to the mass if i may um and and i'm gonna i'm gonna make my recommendation here and then of course i'm not sure if the school committee is going to want
009to vote tonight or think about it and and vote at our next meeting but as of as of today based on our conversation with miss dimicio and um just everything that we're up against and not not really knowing what's happening with the delta variant um we would like to recommend that the entire district remain in masks to uh get started until we determine what's happening with the variant how trends are going and of course continue to um monitor that continually with the with the hope and the um really potential that we get rid of them soon um but that as of today would be our recommendation i know it doesn't set easy with a lot of people as we said we've received emails opinions on both sides but mr kylie and i had a lot
010of discussions about it and again with mr micho and at this point in time we just felt for today that would be our recommendation um you do know you noted that we do have a mass policy in place already uh so i would imagine that if the committee so desires that that they want to maintain that policy then we would just have to do that we wouldn't have to really vote i suppose but i think it's important that we do vote whether to maintain it or not and once again whether it's tonight or you want to postpone that until um the next meeting whereby we will also have more updates once we have the webinar on the test and stay more discussions what would be our uh protocols for covid response quarantining etc so that
011will be coming a little bit later as well as we gather more information thank you dr gifford you know i think from the perspective of maybe how do we proceed right the mass mandate is technically in place because we voted that policy that mask wearing was in place until we make a decision to repeal that mass mandate um and so i think it it kind of behooves us at every meeting moving forward to ask our ask ourselves are we ready to repeal that mass mandate and if so then we can make a motion to repeal that or not um but i think right now if we do nothing the mandate is in place um we could vote to repeal it we could vote to affirm it or even if we wait until next meeting when
012mr nunes is here that will still be in place and we can raise the issue again as we might at every single meeting so i just want to preface that that we don't necessarily have to vote um this evening but i will now open it up i have lots of thoughts i'm sure the committee does so i'll open it up for questions and comments mr oliver thank you madam chair so yeah obviously lots of questions lots of concerns i have um you know just like everyone else received the emails i've been doing my due diligence with doing my research on all the different websites and all the different outlets and trying to follow the science i think this is the right move for us for dartmouth it's unfortunate that the baker administration as well as
013the department of elementary and secondary education has stopped short of requiring a mass mandate and only strongly recommending um but you know right off of the american um association of pediatrics they're recommending uh this was as of just the past couple of weeks includes a recommendation that everyone older than two years of age wears mass regardless of vaccination status that's coming from the american academy of pediatrics um and as well as the cdc what we've mentioned before about the cdc it's just unfortunate with the state that uh they for political reasons i believe they've stopped short of putting a full-out mask mandate in place for the schools but at least for the for the town of dartmouth is in the dartmouth public schools i think that i would ra i would rather stop the year
014off in masks in being protective in protecting our students and i know there's side there's opinions on both sides of the aisle here but i think that this is the right thing to do for the children and the staff of the dartmouth public schools and like you said dr jenkins we can revisit this down the road and if right now bristol county is is back in red right we are we are one of those counties that are increasing we know uh also the latest the latest numbers that as of today massachusetts public health officials reported 9 969 total covet 19 breakthrough cases and fully vaccinated individuals as of august 10th 445 patients have been hospitalized and 106 have died i know you know that doesn't relate specifically to younger younger children and students however those
015numbers are concerning to me and i think for for those reasons and for all the reasons i previously stated that i am in favor of keeping the mass mandate um as is for the time being and like you said i think let's revisit this um down the road and if numbers improve i just do know that in speaking with medical colleagues um that i that i'm fairly friendly with that i've had conversations with that there is some definite concern amongst the medical community about the delta variant and the in the transmission of that and especially in those individuals who are not vaccinated how they're twice as likely to get sick with that um so that that's that's where i stand i fully support uh the datmouth public schools um sticking right now with the mask
016mandate i know that you know i know i'm not gonna make people happy but it's my job to look at and just like all of us it's we look at the big picture i look at my daughter i look at everyone else's kids sons and daughters and i want to do what's best for the dartmouth public schools so thank you madam chair thank you miss wade or miss amarillo go ahead yeah i mean i won't really add much to what chris has said uh uh simply put in order for us to go back and to you know fingers crossed stay in person um educated in the schools uh as much as possible or the whole year let's hope i was joking about let's raising the white flag here but it's the for me it's the
017only responsible thing to do you know is it a question of masking some not all and then and then uh bringing us into conversations around what that might look like i mean uh uh you know i've i hear it i hear kiddos like oh you're you're a kovit fanatic you know ingest but what is that going to translate to in the schoolyard in the in the classroom unfortunately this is a polarizing topic but for me the only responsible reaction that i can have is that we go back to school in masks um you know i have i have kids nobody really wants to hear this again but you know i i've got kiddos span the spectrum um i have a son who's medically complex and significantly um impacted by a disability where i never thought
018he would be able to wear a mask and he is thrilled to wear a mask to get on his bus he goes year round to school and to stay in a mask all day um and go in store you know what what to live his life and so i feel like if he can do it um and my daughter she does taekwondo fully masked no problem right um so we enjoy the things we enjoy but the only responsible answer that i have my opinion is that we we we're all go in all masked so that's all thank you miss amara miss wait um yeah i think i'll echo my colleagues but i also just wanted to just getting back um dr gifford what did chris mr michelle what did he say what were his comments
019because i know you touched on and this is a policy that i know that he wants and he wants to see in place but specifically before i kind of add mine and take what were his what was his rationale and his concerns that he was forwarding um similar to what mr oliver was speaking about the un um really not knowing right now what the variant will be doing and what he is seeing uh the number of cases that are up ticking just in our community alone over the last few weeks and in general what he was stating was folks the data is showing that folks that have been vaccinated are still getting the virus again this variant as well as younger and younger folks so while he can't speak about you know those specific cases
020in general he was concerned about what he was seeing over the last few weeks as compared to maybe the end of the school year he also felt that because we had implemented so many mitigation strategies effectively throughout the year we were able to keep pretty much we never saw a transmission in the school and to miss amarillo's point that's what we want to do now is now that we're bringing everyone back that's the important thing all kids will be in front of their teachers that's what we want to see so he was just um reluctant to you know he he obviously always says i can't tell you what to do but we rely on his advice and when mr kylie and i were tossing it around and and we we felt this was the best
021way to go uh mr misha said that he would support us 100 percent uh just he said it might you know the very it might go this and this and then within a month or so we see a trend where we can say that's it but it's better safe than sorry to get a good kick in the butt if you will in the new year and get started um i do want to mention that you know outside is a different story of course because all those other restrictions have been lifted which is a good thing but for inside with all the kids coming um [Music] he he felt strongly that that was a good recommendation okay and then if i may like i would you know again i think it's so critical for all of
022us just to you know constantly you know have chris and i'm so grateful that he's you know miss rashod is there you know as our resource because i'm not a pediatrician but certainly i've done my due diligence like you know mr oliver and everyone else that's sitting here um i just you know i think all of us want the kids to be none of us wanted kids to go back in the mass but you know given the reality the number one priority i think we all have is for our kids to be back in the classroom full-time and you know i'd like to see spectators at sports you know all of those things if the mask is the only you know right now that's the only thing and let's hope it stays there that we
023have the mass and you know and to your point that you know we can continue to reassess this you know certainly with john you know being of mr news being our next meeting but um i agree with my colleagues i think it needs to stay and um and i really really appreciate being able to you know lean on our board of health because you know they're the ones that we need that have the expertise you know this certainly help along with you know all of our other you know recommendees so thank you thanks everyone i'll just add my own two cents i think you know facebook reminded me this morning i look at my memories that one year ago today we made the decision to go remote and i think you know two months ago
024we all felt like man isn't that aren't we glad this is behind us and i don't think any of us are happy to be in this position right now and having to make a decision like this again and i don't think once again that any of us are taking this decision lightly um we all in this meeting right now all the school committee members have kids in our schools right um i hear it from my kid that he does not want to wear a mask i get that people don't want to wear masks but i've talked to him about doing what's right and what we need to do to keep people healthy i've also been doing reading there is a really good i thought op-ed in the new york times from researchers who studied over
025a million students over the last year across north carolina and other states and they say although vaccination is the best way to prevent cobit 19 universal masking is a close second and with masking in place in school learning is safe we know in school learning is better we need masking to keep our students safe the delta variant is unknown we're going to see lots of schools in the south have started opening down in atlanta they've already seen thousands of cases in their schools in the first week because of the way the delta variant is rampaging through their state we can't have that we have to have our kids in school we have to have them safe and until they can be protected right until vaccines are available to our children i cannot in good conscience
026not recommend a mass mandate that's my job and if people don't like me for it i'm okay with that because i'll sleep okay knowing that the kids are going to be safer and our teachers and our staff as well and i think that's the most important thing right now um i will say that i do think none of us want these masks to be in place it is a question that miss wade's point we should keep coming back to and asking our public health officials right when is the time because we do want um to be able to not have our kids mask so we will revisit this decision um i think we can bring it up again in our next meeting as well when mr nunes is here but i think we all felt
027it was important to have this meeting and to make clear what it's going to be so we are we can prepare for the school year um i will just close in noting there's a meme going around on facebook but i think it's really an important one and it says basically right we can have our opinions about masks but we need to project to our kids that they can do this and they will be okay in school if you send the kids into school with negative attitudes they're going to have a negative experience so you can vent to whoever you want but really we need to get kids on board because this is what we need to do to make them safe and our attitudes matter more than anything right for how our kids are gonna
028are gonna have this in their school year so i would ask people to do their best right to um help their kids prepare for this as miss amaral said right it's about attitude kids can learn to do this um if we help them to do that and so i hope everyone in the community regardless of whether you're happy or unhappy with this decision um takes a positive attitude and does our best to have a positive school year for our kids um as we move forward um the one thing i'd like to say dr gifford i know that you um you raised a number of things that we'll cover at our next meeting i think in some of the emails um that we've been receiving some of the people you know again a lot of people
029were remote last year my kids were were in remote school last year um that's not an option for some families and i think some of them have questions about protocols and what we're going to do and so i think it will be helpful at our next meeting if we can put that on the agenda to sort of talk through what's the same what's different what we're doing people can feel comfortable with what with what we have in place to keep their kids safe right agreed and as last year we'll continue to keep the community updated through um not only this meeting but uh newsletters and and those kinds of things as well so we do have a few more things to work through um but we'll be able to update everyone asap so i'd like
030to ask the committee um you know as i noted we don't really need to vote on anything tonight because the policy is in place um if someone would like to make a motion regarding masking or something we can do that but i think we're fine with not making any motions unless someone wants to do that mr oliver would you have something to add or no i would i would agree with you madam chair we have the policy on the books as is i i i'm comfortable keeping it as is i don't think emotion at least in my opinion i don't think emotion is necessary at this time um you know just reiterating i going back to what i had said earlier um i just want to see our students back in school day one in
031one cohort not two cohorts um in front of their teachers and i think this is the best way to accomplish that so thank you everyone i couldn't agree more with mr oliver that the most important thing is to get our kids back in school safely this year um and and we're going to do what we need to do to do that safely um the only other item on our agenda for the evening is any other business that may not have been anticipated at the posting does anyone have anything else that they would like to to add miss amaral i um i just want to pull up the date so i say it right um so um just in in reference to like some of the esser funding and the stakeholder requirements around um around that
032that um i've been working with our special education office through my special education advisory council hat and we will be hosting um on the 25th of august there'll be two sessions there'll be webinar sessions um where we will invite parents of students on ieps i think it's ell homeless is like a certain criteria it'll be it'll be on the facebook page and i'm sure the district will will pat will share the flyer about it i just don't have that out yet um so august 25th an information session and then an opportunity to sort of fill in some thoughts around um the funding and ideas uh and that will be 1 30 to 2 and then 5 30 to 6 like i said via like a webinar zoom so be on the lookout for that that's
033all great thank you so much does anyone have anything else that they would like to add mr oliver thank you dr jenkins i would just ask that i know that the committee received a couple of weeks ago an email from dr gifford regarding some additional positions that were being created um through the use of esser funds and i was just hoping that maybe i don't i don't expect it tonight but maybe at our next meeting uh dr gifford if you could just share a little bit more about the specifics around those um team leaders special ed positions um that were created i'd be interested to hear a little bit more about the scope of those absolutely we'll be prepared to provide you with all that information as well as um i just want to mention
034tonight to mr amaral's point we've also scheduled meetings with our special education staff and as well as our related services and we're planning on doing a short survey to various groups specific to like the uh el population uh parents of foster children so we can make sure that we've hit all the hit all the areas so uh we'll be doing that as well but we'll have that information at our next meeting follow up on mr oliver's comment i think we asked two at our last meeting just to get some regular updates i mean mr kylie's point at the last meeting we're talking about large sums of money that are flowing from all sorts of different programs um and you know as a school committee we do have a fiduciary responsibility to see the you know
035spending so i think it would be helpful along with those positions to just get a sense of just what we're spending this money on and some regular reports on that so if that could be included as well i think that would be helpful anything else to add all right hearing none i will entertain a motion to adjourn so moved second okay all right i have a motion by mr oliver a second by miss wait um oh i should note our next meeting is uh scheduled for monday august 24th um that having been said further discussion on the motion hearing none miss gentler can we have a roll call please shannon jenkins hi hey wait hi kathleen amaral chris oliver yes excellent thank you everyone miss wait rest of your vacation good night everyone thank you
036everyone good night bye you