001well good afternoon everyone i'd like to call this meeting of the dartmouth school committee to order for monday september 14th 2020. could i have a roll call please miss gunther chris oliver here shannon jenkins here kathleen admiral here mary waite dear john nunes yep thank you very much everyone uh as a reminder for a governor because suspending certain provisions open meeting law chapter 38 section 20 the public will not be allowed to physically access the school committee meeting the meeting will be conducted remotely members of the public can access the meeting via live stream at youtube.com forward slash dhs tv media in addition the event will be rebroadcast in dc tv channels 9 and 18 on the following days wednesday and thursday at 5 pm friday at 6 a.m saturday at 8 a.m and sunday
002at 2 p.m school committee reserves the right to implement additional remote participate participation procedures and will notify the public of these procedures as soon as practicable and of course as always we thank mr rob parity of our media program at dartmouth high school in dartmouth community television uh at this time we do have a time allotted for public comment we typically allow 10 minutes for public comment and anyone wishing to uh comment on any of tonight's agenda items you can do so by emailing our recording secretary kathleen genther at dartmouthschools.org and ms ganther do you have any um emails on public comment uh to date i did receive two which were forwarded to the school committee uh during the day perfect thank you very much as soon as the uh meeting minutes are approved for
003tonight's meeting um you know at the following meeting or whenever the minutes are ready uh to be approved uh those emails will become part of tonight's record all right at this time i will entertain a motion to approve the regular session minutes of september 1st okay i have a motion by mr nunes a second by dr jenkins on the motion any further discussion cheer hearing none all in favor aye aye i'm sorry roll call [Music] shannon jenkins yes kathleen admiral yes mary wait yes john nunes yes thank you very much everyone at this time i'll entertain a motion to approve the executive session minutes of september 1st 2020 so mr chair with the stipulation that they be held until the matter for which they were intended is complete second uh once again i have a
004motion by mr nunes a second by dr jenkins on the motion any further discussion roll call please miss gunther miss oliver i will abstain shannon jenkins yes kathleen admiral yes mary wait yes john nunes yes and thank you very much and thank you miss gentler at this time we have a consent agenda item fundraising activities for the dsma uh dr gifford um yes mr over i believe you have received the number of items the things that they're looking forward to to um have his fundraisers and director of music is here along with i believe we call him the president of dsma and to answer any questions you have on that but we do uh recommend approval of those items thank you uh dr gifford and uh said mr benoit yes yeah thank you i'd like
005to welcome you to uh the school committee meeting and um all the committee members have received this in their packet do any of my fellow members have any comments or questions uh regarding this dr jenkins first i just want to say um thank you to everyone i know um just from a limited time that i've been on here we've asked for you know just some detailed reporting um not to say anything fishy going on but um just because we are a public body approving your budget and i think this is maybe the most detailed budget we've we've ever seen so i definitely really appreciate it um of course with details comes questions and this is not so much a question for me but i just want to ask you about this so the public can
006understand can you explain the role of consultants in the organization i think with the band and the percussion because you do i know it's part of what you do but you um spend a good bit of money on that and so i think just for the public's sake um having a little explanation of what those expenditures go to would be helpful yeah so in the fall the marching band's you know part of the class that we do um so the marching band is integrated in with the curriculum uh for the high school concert band class so the school pretty much funds 100 of the staffing for that um because that makes total sense since it's part of the class then when we get to the winter season we have our winter percussion ensemble and our
007indoor color guard many of the costs from that because they are um their extracurricular activities get passed along to dsma to kind of cover that we list people as consultants but many of those people are what we have as educators in the fall so it's the same staff pretty much across the board you might find a couple new names that are different designers for the winter season because we have a couple specialists that'll you know work with the group as designers um for the percussion color guard pretty much the same educators you see in terms of personnel on the ground it's the same people all year just the expenses that's shared between the school department and the dsma throughout the throughout the entire school year dr jenkins do you have any further questions or any
008comments no i'll just point out thanks i appreciate that right um i'm a broken record about these sorts of things but i will be a broken record here talking about the extent to which um many of the activities in our school rely on private funding not taxpayer dollars and this is just an example of this um you know it's great that the schools are able to fund you know the classes as they should but you know lots of other activities the stipends are you know provided for the coaches and whatnot and so i appreciate the role that you guys play um and helping us fund that and that sort of the excellence that comes with um you know the the band and the color guard and percussion um is is in part large part funded
009by private money so thank you for that anyone else have any comments or questions regarding this i will just say yeah no i agree with my colleague dr jenkins this is very helpful um this was uh the best i i feel as well to date um it just amazes me the amount of fundraising the sma does um in you know what you do for our students so um thank you to all the parents out there and for everyone that's involved with dsma and for supporting the dartmouth school music dartmouth high school music program at this time i guess i'll entertain a motion mr chair i'll move that we approve the uh fundraising activities as presented from the dartmouth school music association second emotion so i have a motion by dr jenkins a second by uh
010mrs amaral on the motion any other discussion perfect jay herring none roll call please chris oliver yes shannon jenkins yes kathleen amarillo yes mary wait yes john nunes that's my wife's the treasurer i think i'll abstain thank you very much everyone and thank you um for everyone from dsma and from uh and mr flint for joining us thank you thank you thanks ross thanks ian uh next up under old business uh turn it over to dr gifford for superintendent's update on the start of school sure thank you um old business it seems like we've been living this forever right um but just so you know we had um all of us have been in and out of the schools all week obviously the teachers have been in for the last two weeks with professional development
011learning about the safety the health and safety protocols being put in place preparing their classrooms i actually was in a number of them today especially the programs where the students will be returning tomorrow and spirits were high um people were excited to be thinking about welcoming their students back tomorrow um we just as a reminder starting tomorrow our students are pre-k students whose ieps require them to be enrolled in our integrated pk program as well as our students who are enrolled in the paths pass and pals programs will be returning to school in person and as i said those classrooms are ready to go with lots of different things on for our kids um obviously i know people probably have more questions for mr kylie in a minute about ppe we said we're so tired
012of talking about it but it's important we know um we did have another meeting with dr brahmaj this week we invited our nurses related services pre-k teachers folks that were going to have close contact with kids and immediately so it was a good another good session he actually came to the high school we had that in the auditorium and um i think folks had had a lot of questions answered so i'm hoping that um helps people continue to feel comfortable and confident about kids returning um to school i do want to mention uh obviously we've had a lot of information going back and forth about the techa program and i am putting out a facebook uh post in a little bit when we get just to update folks on just what we're talking about here
013and as a reminder the district is still required to provide education for folks that choose not to come to school as well as those that do this has been quite an undertaking anybody that's working in education knows because it's very complex not only if people choose a virtual program for example we still have special education needs whether it's inclusion minutes c grid minutes program minutes to be able to properly staff and meet staff those kinds of programs for all needs and meet the needs is is again quite complex but we're doing the best we can at this point um so with the last minute information that came from the department of ed we were waiting for quite a while for them to come up with their platforms that they were going to offer districts that
014they were partnering with companies to offer districts the best quality programs that they they felt were good quality programs that aligned with the massachusetts offered curriculum that aligns with the massachusetts frameworks etc as you know we've discussed before the more up-to-date information came quite late and wasn't quite what we had in mind with that said we did make decisions we chose edgenuity as the platform for the high school it's a very self-directed program curriculum that students will be um with with the high school staff guiding them especially mr mr gill the assistant principal on making sure they choose the correct course pathways and have the courses that they need those students will be enrolling in in the ingenuity program the techa program we chose for the middle school at first we thought we would do
015edge annuity but i know we had a few questions on why we changed we fell along with the middle school staff that that was the absolute best program given the two virtual options we had because it did offer certified teachers to guide and offer at least two live lessons a week for the courses the middle school staff the admin team didn't feel that leaving middle school students kind of on their own and more of an independent course pathway with edge annuity that that was not the best option that we wanted to offer the kids a little bit more supervision and real teachers on the other end with that said the guidance department will continue to monitor those students maintain connections we want to make sure they stay on board they keep keep up with their
016lessons etc because as i've said before these are still our students they're not unenrolled from dartmouth public schools so they're still on our roles the middle school is also making it clear that any uh student whatever we come up with if we have um after school programs a club or something like that and that is a virtual that they can attend will they absolutely would be welcome to attend those kinds of things and the elementary we love it there um we did because we had grant funding which it's not endless but we chose to hire dartmouth teachers new dartmouth teachers to ha um staff the k through five elementary virtual program so again these kids are choosing not to come to school at all we ended up with five teachers we just couldn't find a
017qualified teacher that we felt comfortable with for grade five so we have k through four um with that said we had to make some decisions and reassign some folks in the district to uh pick up some of those classroom hours for our grade five so those were coaching positions that uh will be split between two two coaches at this point and then they'll be doing their regular coaching the rest of their day um as i indicated previously we also had to shift a few other people's responsibilities a part of their schedules to assign them some duties or responsibilities with students knowing that we don't have an endless ability to hire staff so we have to reallocate staff as as best as we can to make sure our students needs are met um so those teachers
018have been up and running we did provide a stipend to one teacher for an after school um before and after school kind of like a mentor monitor coordinator we called it just to be able to make sure they have everything they need and have constant communication with them as well as a parent it's called to kind of help those teachers out uh i think all but one of them are very very brand new teachers um so that's that we did receive an email finally from the techa group today after many attempts over the weekend last week etc it was been pretty hard to get in touch with them or receive responses unfortunately but the latest today was that parents will be receiving their um their information tonight unfortunately i wanted it today the first thing
019was today and now that's what i've gotten now so i am going to put that out in the facebook thing again i understand parents frustration we are as frustrated as they are um uh mr kiley do you want to add anything about the ppe because we've had a lot more going on with that as well sure yeah we have we've um distributed more than 27 000 pieces of ppe and or related items around the district to be ready so you know we have we have what we need um we have more still coming in that that'll only enhance what we're doing um and provide backup stock for us but um yeah we're wearing i think in good shape we're looking at upper filters we've ordered uh reported three orders of hepa filters and i expect
020to have two orders in this week those will be the first ones we have those need to be first installed in the nurse's office and in the isolation space and then uh will be provided also to staff who have medical conditions um votes requiring the hepa filters so we're working on that um and yeah it's been it's it's been incredibly busy getting prepared and ready to operate in a whole new way and uh you want to add a little bit about the um lunch program that you've got planned sure so it was it was nice that the usda um approved free the continuation of free food from what we what we had from the spring for kids so what we are working on is obviously we're going to have food for kids that are starting
021tomorrow and moving forward in the schools and then october 1st we will start both supplying food for students in school food for them to bring home for the next day and because they won't be in school the next day it's every other day on the hybrid plan so they'll have food for that and food for kids who are remote so if kids are fully remote we haven't quite nailed down an exact time of day how that would work that distribution it won't be the same as we did before because 11 to 1 probably isn't going to work for those families at this point given how this whole has evolved but we will provide hours that hopefully will be easier for families to access so that they can get food at home and until december 31st
022the usda has stepped up and and funded that so food will be available for all kids free that's great mr kylie i think that's about it as i said we're the teachers i spoke to today and tas etc around the buildings and this week they're looking forward to the kids coming back i think i think once they come come in it'll start to really feel good for them and um people will start to feel much more comfortable and and ready to go so that's our update for our opening at this point well thank you dr gifford thank you mr kylie um i'll start off with a couple of things um first off uh your hats off to uh mr tebow i thought his um his communication with the parents are very well done my first
023experience here my youngest daughter's going into dartmouth high um she's a freshman so i i thought the communication coming from the high school was extremely well done um and look she's very i'm sure just like a lot of the high school students looking forward to getting uh started with uh remote learning i i still think that dartmouth made the right decision starting the year off fully remote and slowly transitioning into a hybrid program as for the techa program at the uh at the middle school yes i i feel the parents frustrations i feel the administration's frustrations and um it it's it's very difficult i'm really disappointed with uh department of education as well as techer and their lack of communication um to the school districts it's so unfortunate um i think they could have done
024much better uh with the communication i wish that we would have known um in dartmouth a little bit more about the program um however you know we we just didn't have the information that we really need um however i'm hopeful uh with that last communication dr gifford that you said that you've got some more information from them that we can get that out in a timely fashion to the parents that are desperately waiting um for for those emails from tucker um i i just you know urge the parents as much as i'm sure you're running out of patience um to have patience um we're in an uh just a very untimely and um unfortunate you know period in our lives and we'll get through this but as soon as we have the information we will
025get it out to you that um dr gifford um in administration has assured me that has assured us that that we're we're on top of this as much as we can but we can only do so much because this is in the hands of both techer and the connexus platform which is run by pearson online learning um i really wish dr gifford that we could do an in-house uh academy uh like we're doing at the elementary school because i i i props to um to everyone in the diamond public schools for for that initiative for that initiative because i think that um that's that's wonderful that i think that's going to pay dividends in the end of us handling our uh virtual learning academy in-house at the elementary level um i think that's really going
026to be a positive experience can you tell me dr gifford do we have someone a teacher at every grade level are there multiple teachers how exactly is that i'm playing out we have a new teacher at all the grade levels except grade five so we're splitting that like i said between two of our existing teachers they're coaches actually so we've disseminated we've given them each a a few hours of the day to uh provide instruction for grade five students so the grade five students will have two teachers um yeah but the rest it's one and the just so you know the numbers we've actually had and this is just a little bit of an estimate you know off not precise at this moment but as of today approximately 75 students chose techa it was actually
027more than i thought it would be around 50 at the high school right now with the edge annuity and 148 at the elementary level wow kudos to mrs oliveira once again despite everything she's been involved in whenever we started talking about this she i think it's gonna kill her or i don't know but um she's been wonderful organizing this hiring the teachers we actually went through about 90 applicants believe it or not for these positions and about 40 phone calls inviting people to interview for the positions we laughed i said i i was teasing and i said i think i saw her on the street waving a lady down to see if she won um but she worked really hard with that and that's why in the end you know she to handle the whole
028thing in the day-to-day was going to be absolutely impossible so we did offer stipend to another teacher um just to help with that and also of course these new teachers will have a regular mentor as usual they're all house i don't know if i mention this at quinn um yes they they're all housed at quinn in the big music room we had to kick will out but we they found a spot for him the big music room at quinn also has two rooms off of it like small maybe half the size of my office um so we're setting them up as best we can getting them materials partitions hopefully around their desks so they're all socially distanced and um i talked to a few of them today they were also out helping which i was
029going to mention in my update so i might as well just mention it mr galashar and the tech team of course has been have been phenomenal with the dissemination of chromebooks i think they would still over there tonight they've been in on saturdays and sundays to get these chromebooks out and organized inventoried and out um i've met jonathan here on saturdays and said you know go home kind of thing and um but those virtual teachers were all running around with pack i don't think they knew what they were doing yet but you know they're so young and we're so excited to have them but they were all there helping willing to help that's excellent yeah nice bags of you know books and materials and and things for those kids so parents were coming through picking
030everything up so like you said you know it's it's we've had some growing pains for sure especially with the techa piece but i know we'll get through it we have a great staff and um i i just know it'll be better as time goes on so yeah well thank you and then also um just uh thank you for the update mr kylie in regards to uh the ppe and just getting having the buildings ready to go i know that took a lot um a lot to make that happen so um are we pretty comfortable at this point that uh we've done as much as we possibly can from from a district standpoint that um we're pretty comfortable with you know opening up the buildings and moving forward with what we have in place i think
031so i mean i i think there's always more you can do and we are doing more like for instance those hepa filters and getting those in place and installed so that there is always more that you can do um but i think we have the ppe to support a healthy safe environment for folks um so i think if people follow the guidelines and practice good social distancing and and use good hygiene and um you know i think i think that we're ready um yeah we're excited i can't wait to see kids in the agreed well thank you everyone uh dr jenkins i just want to follow up and you know first i want to say thank you to everyone um i know how hard you all have been working both in the administration the building
032staff the teachers getting ready um i don't think the public sees that i mean we're all nervous but i don't i'm not sure how hard they know how hard you're working so i just want to say thank you for that i also want to really reiterate what mr kiley said about how important it is for us to follow the rules two stories today um lincoln sudbury and i think dover sherman have had to go remote there have been large parties of teenagers not following social distancing they can't social contact a contact trace and so they've had to throw their plans out you know out the window at the last minute it is on all of us to do this and you know i've been through a few buildings and i think we saw it too
033the other last meeting it's every minute of every day that everyone has to do this it is on us um and i really can't reinforce that enough particularly to the parents who are watching kids will be kids right their brains are are not quite fully developed right so we've got to do the best we can to stay on top of them it's hard i know i have two teenagers um but it but it really is on us um i want to follow up on the the techa issue um i do think it was the right choice um having gone through sort of remote learning with my kids and seeing what it takes for them to be self-directed learners without any support i think going with some you know instruction um you know synchronous is is
034a is a good thing and that is the right choice ultimately in the long haul um i do think both with techa and i think with everything there's going to be um kinks working out over these first couple of weeks and i think it might go a long way to reassure parents if there are some communications particularly from teachers from administrators you know that we're going to hold people harmless i mean i know i talked to you dr gifford you said walter lost his his you know internet in the middle of a negotiation i our internet went out in our house unexpectedly like things are gonna happen and so i think what parents need to hear is right some reassurance that like it we want everything from techa to be there and in place but
035if it takes you you know sometime tomorrow morning um we'll figure it out right and i think some reassurance to parents that like you know we're we are gonna we're all in this together we're would i think be very helpful particularly coming from teachers and building administrators because i think that's a lot of what the anxiety is about we don't know what this will look like we're worried it's going to fall apart right on our i know at least on my end personally i think there's a lot of worry about that so i think a lot of reassurance going out to parents um that we're gonna help you and your kids not you know you didn't turn something in you weren't there i think that that sort of reassurance would be very helpful to parents
036yeah i agree and also uh one of the things this latest email that again hopefully they said everything will be going out as of tonight um and they gave a contact name for parents but also that it said what i read was they said not for parents to worry because the children won't be behind so whatever they do to get them going and you're right so that's important yeah i think that's really important to get that out of communication to ease parents um anyone else uh this is amaroth thank you can you hear me okay i'm getting that little sign that says my internet is unstable um this is just incredible this is i just can't even um and to shannon's point i don't think that some of the parents in the district understand the
037level of of planning and thought i mean well they do of course but you know they're at the point now where that worry is setting in that anxiety around i think i said earlier like just gonna let jesus take the wheel like we're all eventually gonna get there um i i guess uh to that point actually i've been seeing and i haven't really looked today so i don't know if things are resolved but i've seen a lot of parents commenting that they don't know what to do tomorrow they don't whether they're some of them were elementary i'm thinking somewhere middle school and i'm sure there was some high school that they just don't know where i'm talking about the remote folks they don't know where to log in um any suggestions aside from i'm thinking
038as a parent maybe checking your spam folder updating your aspen making sure that your notif you know your emails are all up to date and accurate um any suggestions as to what they may do to rectify this prior to tomorrow would it be contacting the principal um i don't know if these i've seen a lot of messages and i've just been very busy um don't know if they received an initial you know notification from the teacher or not assume they haven't what should they do i'm trying to think about each level um uh let me think about that only because the different levels and who's in charge of and i'm trying to think of who would give them the best information right you know send to one then they call bush street then they go
039back to the school so let me just think about that and whether i put um i am updating an um a facebook message for tonight okay more um but there was something you just mentioned that one thing i know and again whether every single child had the opportunity or every single teacher we had a lot of teachers doing those virtual meet and greets these past few days so um you know i checked in with a lot of them that said yes they had gotten all their kids etc so hopefully that helped most folks but sure there probably are some that somehow something was missing but um yeah let me think about that and put it in the facebook message for in a little bit after this meeting because it'll be different levels and like i
040said i just want people to have the right information the best information yeah that's helpful um yeah it's sort of uh it's just i don't know um and you mentioned the just for my own clarification i just was wondering so those those fifth grade virtual academy positions which we couldn't fill you the qual you know you didn't find um candidates that to fill those spots the coaches are certified teachers yes yes yes yes okay um and um i saw a picture online um of the preschool classroom which was very cute uh i'm wondering um mr cosmetics and mr kiley thank you for answering the ppe questions i don't want to come at you with many um [Music] you mentioned like uh the plexiglass is that for like the isolation station or is that in those
041classrooms with those kiddos who can't maintain space and may possibly most likely don't wear masks are is that going in the classrooms as well so there's yeah there's different applications for plexiglas where it can be useful in this case obviously like you like you have in the stores where there's plexiglass around a workstation so um you know there are instances where we've installed sort of custom custom made by our maintenance guys fields around people's workstations that are high traffic areas to protect them and protect others but then there's plexiglas shields for classrooms the ones that i originally bought are sort of a heavy-duty thick plexiglass um and they're very sturdy and strong but they're also fairly heavy and they're either designed for a table or a desk [Music] and they are so when someone is
042going to be working in close proximity uh to a student can't maintain that social distance it's a barrier there there's there's in the deci guidance there's a recommendation to you know avoid using uh plexiglas um based on the fact that it's another surface to clean um so it's it's not really something that'll be left with a student on a desk but it can be used when working with a student so for close proximity uh they vary in size i have some more that are coming that i should have this week that are trifold and very lightweight so the ones i have are sturdy and pretty heavy um so these are very lightweight and can be are less less of an issue if it were to fall off the table or you know so so i
043have um an ample supply of those on the way but i think taking some time to understand how everybody's going to use them but yeah i can have 100 out there in in different classrooms right now and we're going to have 100 more that i've ordered that are the lighter weight and as things go you're going to figure out where they're most needed yeah yeah i don't think they'll be i my belief is it i don't think it should be one on every student's desk it's when a when someone needs to work with a student in close proximity i don't think it's great to leave it on the desk because to be honest i think it's just going to get flung off the desk at some point yeah accidentally somebody's going to lean up against
044it or you know so i i'm not i'm not a fan of that but um but the lighter weight ones there's less risk of that there there they would never hurt anybody or anything so i'm thinking of those kids i might know one who might think it's hetlan arena and starts not flexing right not you know not to mention any names but i might live with one um yeah no i i don't know that i have any more um more questions i appreciate the comments around the holding the kids harmless that's really important a lot of parents are worrying about that um i guess yeah i guess i don't have any other questions thank you thank you mr samuel mr news or mrs wade have anything else said mr nunes yeah thank you mr chairman
045uh a couple of things number one again i know kind of like a broken record because everybody's doing it but it goes without saying the uh the job that you know starting with central office right down to uh custodians in the building uh the work and you know and again the teachers administrators and everyone else in between uh all the work that they have done to get these schools up and going uh it has been phenomenal and my hats off to them um a couple of a couple of thoughts i mean in all seriousness uh i think everybody's gonna take a step back and take a deep breath and this is all new territory for everybody and i think uh you know there's going to be some bumps in the road as as we go
046forward with this the first few days and even when we get into october and we get into the hybrid uh situation and the hybrid schedule so i think if everybody just you know takes a deep breath and takes a pause for a second and you know lets everything you know lets the situations work out and the problems it will all get fixed and everybody who everybody will be fine and just to go along with what you know dr jenkins said and i you know two things number one i think the parents have got to be involved and number two in all services their high school students are elementary or middle school students you know i mean think before you jump you know i mean don't go you know someplace without a without a massive do
047your social distancing and you know don't be in a party with 500 other kids so that we end up like a dover-sherborn or a lincoln sudbury or uh punta cancer in rhode island type of deal we don't need those problems okay and nobody does so if this is gonna you know run smooth you know we need everybody on board to uh to do their part so that's all i'm asking thank you mr chairman thank you mr nunes and last but not least mrs waite hi um so yes i have to like echo what everyone else has said you know it's been a phenomenal job that everyone has done in our district and i have to say like i you know i sent an email dr gifford to saying you know justice that like i really
048feel that our plan is a great plan it's the best plan the slow start i think coming into the ab hybrid is going to um you know make the best transition for our students is going to provide like you know emphasis on teaching and learning so i feel really good about where we are um you know again i also have gotten those emails about tekka like everyone else did i was you know back and forth with kate and with dr gifford and with parents so i'm also crossing my fingers that that will get straightened out and and again holding those families harmless of course you know but i think in those cases these families aren't so much work they just want their children to make sure that they get you know their properties they're not
049worried about you know the being held harmless per se as much as just making sure that you know they can get off to a good start i think that's going to happen and you know to john's point mr news's point it's going to be you know possibly rocky at times but i think of those freshmen you know my sons of freshmen too you know coming in i have to imagine he would be a little rocky on a normal freshman day just like he was entering sixth grade um so i'm you know trying to take that you know patience as a parent i will say that you know families again there's a lot of you know to get back to kathleen's point there's a lot of anxiety um and you know i've heard from parents who
050are worried about having multiple children who are you know trying to operate in the same space and they're taking the communications which were excellent for mr tebow and others about saying you know don't sit up in your bedroom really to heart and i think again like i would say to parents you know after speaking with dr gifford again you know what i think what really is meant by that is creating a professional space not you know if you have a set up in your bedroom that's a desk and it's quiet it's uncluttered it can't be for my house but you know generally uncluttered and structured that works and again doctor kipper said what they don't want to have happen is kids sprawling across their beds like you know eating popcorn and you know being distracted
051so i think again like parents are taking these things you know they really want to start off well so it's a heart and they're thinking i have four kids sitting around the table with different schedules how is that going to look in practice um so again i think again getting back to easing that anxiety um is important and and again i think a lot my two my brothers two children down in north carolina have been in remote for a month um and you know again same thing once they got started you know knowing when the next class was it really started to flow i think again it's anxiety coming up it's been good to hear their you know path because it does you know make it easier to kind of anticipate what will be in
052front of us and i think once we get past those first couple days we'll feel a lot better but again like i'm really grateful i hope we can kind of get um again tech is squared away um but another one other thing before um i leave off is that i know that those parents of remote or excuse me the parents were going virtual for the year have also said that they want to make sure that their students are still part of this community so they're very concerned about the clubs and the athletics and i know we've kind of said that you know we're not going to leave those children out or punish them but you know we want to kind of make sure that they're developed as part of the community so um you know
053all those links to kind of getting into the clubs and when that you know comes into uh what we can explain you know that access of the high school where the middle school i think that would be really helpful for them so um but i'll leave up so again thank you uh shannon i just want to follow up on something that mary said and and i get that our recommendations for kids to not be in beds and be in an ordered place are recommendations um we've been having a debate about this for a long time in higher education um about this um it's really a privilege to have a quiet space or a table that is not your bedroom where you can study so i hope that we do not enforce that upon children for
054some children a bedroom maybe it's messy is the only place that they can go maybe they're sharing a house with you know 10 other family members it happens right i do hope that is what we prefer but i hope that no teacher or administrator will punish kids for lack of access to a quiet space lack of access to a clean space right um not every family is privileged enough to afford that and i think we have to be really comfortable really careful about um what we're doing because when we're in a school it's in the same environment right and there's no difference sort of in privilege in that school classroom but it very much is and so i hope that we're just really sensitive to it and also you know we've been having a lot
055of conversation too um you know at the university level about you know cameras on and um there can be a lot of emotional anxiety around that and i do know i do think we should have kids but i hope that we support um some of those kids in terms of we've had a huge focus on social and emotional learning that when kids are having issues with that that we provide the sorts of supports to them that they need because we well know that that social emotional aspect of learning is so fundamentally important um so i want to make sure i'm sure we are but i just really want to come at this from a place of compassion not a place of punishment and to try to understand where kids are and help them whatever environment
056they have have a good year to your point shannon um i agree i think it's important to note though um we did you know the committee did expect and show our expectations to dr gifford a more robust learning um environment and a more robust um star remote star unlike what we did in the springtime so i agree i think setting the expectations um you know because i i've heard stories about and even with my own kids of seeing student other students in pajamas and in in bed however i get what you're saying and i agree with what you're saying that not every family has um has a luxury of going into a a small room or into a study room to uh to learn so i think it's important i agree um to just be
057cognizant of that dr gifford across the board and i think um i'll just follow up on that and i'll say as an educator the clothes you wear don't really affect how you learn right if you're in pajamas you're in pajamas you're still going to learn right and so we've see i've seen like this all on social media people saying you have to wear this kind of thing you can't do this right you can't you have to wear shoes and like who's going to expect if you're wearing shoes right like again i what we have to focus on right is yes we need a robust education but a robust education that recognizes that some kids are in learning environments right um that are not they're not ours they're not conducive to learning so um let's focus
058on the things that that are essential to learning and not worry so much about the things that are less essential i will i will disagree with you with i wouldn't expect my student to go to school with in pajamas i would expect i wouldn't expect students to show up to a remote classroom in pajamas i'll leave it at that uh mrs amaral um i'm i i just wanted to mention too and i know you disagree with this uh but i heard from some families from the summer program and um i know that our program kids are going in person learning but many of our students who are not in programs but do require significant supports are remote and when you have a kiddo who who is able to attend and model better in a classroom
059environment with with very clear visual structured strategies and such sometimes a parent cannot get that kid out to dress appropriately and sometimes getting them just to have a shirt on and sit in front of that screen is the best that they can do and so to shannon's point i just hope that these conversations happen in an individual basis and that support is given and that there isn't a blanket sort of requirement that uh because that might it believe me there have been times in the summer that that um yeah i've had i guess i should clarify myself i don't think anyone should be penalized for this absolutely not i just think there should be some kind of expectation that's all i and everything should be dealt with on an individual basis did you have something
060mrs wait did you have any yeah i was but i was going to go down a slightly different i had a question actually more about the pace program at the high school just and that was probably maybe more mr tebow was in here um but i had a parent asking you know hey if my child you know and again this gets back to being flexible because we're at home you know pace is kind of i was always thought of as a time for kids to step back process their days you know find some extra help maybe have a snack you know so again getting back into the no eating of food you know again parents are reading all this and taking this very distinctive but if maybe if a child doesn't have you know some
061person that they need to speak with that day maybe better for their you know social emotional well-being to go for a walk you know during that time so these are you know again like kind of we've i'm hearing a lot of feedback from parents again i think so many things will be mitigated once everything's in process you know and again i think from the schools too you know they'll be kind of thinking about things as things come up and adjusting but oh you know i guess i have questions about how that are we gonna make or have students sit during that pace program i mean put pace period if they don't actually have someone or can they just say like i really need to get out and like it's sunny out let me take those
06215 minutes to like for down time you know i guess it's you know again that was my question no that's i i think honestly the the word is flexibility i think we i think everyone needs to be flexible while we can certainly have expectations there needs to be flexibility and some kind of you know along that path would you agree dr gifford sorry i couldn't as we know that the unmuting is terrible i think from um as you know during the regular school year the kids sign up and they're accounted for when they go in pace um for my conversations with mrs tebow it's it's it's going to be a good opportunity for them to get that extra help or some of them just have those great relationships with teachers but we're going to encourage
063them but nobody to really take advantage of it but no one's really going to chase them for it if you get what i'm saying you know but for most kids again they have good relationships with some teachers they might just want to tune in and converse and see how things are going so while we are encouraging and expecting uh nobody's going to chase them around for it does that make sense like the flexibility is there put it that way i think that's important yeah thank you everyone for that uh good conversation uh anything else before we move on i just wanted to yeah as long as um a bunch of you just brought it up about um clubs and stuff kids being having that access i think we still have a question about athletics which
064again i was just going to talk about in my update but since you brought it up um i didn't want when the committee wants to have that conversation about kids some districts are not allowing them to participate if they're choosing virtual um so i mean it's not that we have to have an official vote but i think it's important that the committee comes to at least a consensus so that i can relay that information to the ad and and parents will know because that has come up with questions from parents as well i'll i guess i'll start on this um just based on some of the conversations that i've had um with representatives uh from virtual learning academies as well as uh department of education and is my understanding that even though ours while our
065students are participating in remote learning through tech or through ingenuity they are still considered students of the dartmouth public schools we should be progress monitoring them we should be um including them in any types of clubs activities and in my opinion sports as well because they are um they are members of our our school community um and that is basically what the what jesse is is saying from my understanding is that they are they're our students and we're still responsible for them we're just we're we're paying a tuition for them to take uh core classes remotely um so i'm under the impression that they should be included uh dr jenkins yeah i 100 agree i think all of our remote kids should have access to all of the normal sports activities whatever um again this
066is about empathy and flexibility and um their social emotional well-being and support them having access to anything and everything um that we offer thank you dr jenkins mrs waite yes and i'm going to echo what both of you said too i mean i said that before that that was a concern of mine and um you know what i think it's good for our community too because our goal is that after this year these students will be coming back and we want those bonds to stay strong between the students so you know and we want those students to feel you know ownership over being part of our community so i you know i i think we should now again against the sports we talk about transportation um you know and busting there may be accommodations that
067you know in those cases if those families please have concerns you know that and that's part of the large reason they chose remote that maybe we allow those parents to drive their students this morning you know if it's this you know particular event that competition you know and whatnot so um again i know we have a lot in front of us before we get to that piece but um it could be a consideration as well again you know we'll get back to that word flexibility but um that's what i'm thinking thank you mr nunes well i guess i i know where i stand in this one my answer is no and i'll give you my reasons number one if a student isn't attending school because they have some type of uh an illness or there
068could be an issue because of potential covet problems or any other type then they probably shouldn't be with adults and students in the classroom setting or anything of that nature if the other my other thought is that if the student just doesn't want to be in school or parents don't want them because of the potential covert issue or anything of that nature i understand it that is their right and i'm not objecting to that but i don't think they should have the ability if you know without their respective it's not safe for them to be in school during the day how is it going to be safe for them to be with their fellow students and coaches and such you know after school and the competitions and games and things of that nature so i
069understand i'm a minority so what else is new but uh i think in all seriousness that that's kind of been in the back of my mind since uh this has all started and uh i got it you know to keep them as part of the school system and everything else but if you know with all due respect they can't or will not attend our schools for whatever reason then i'm sorry but that's the consequences no i thank you mr nunes i i always appreciate your uh the firm ground you stand on kathleen oh i'm not muted no i was being smiling silently thinking i was muted um you usually have to mute in this house uh no i um uh i agree that each and every student should have the opportunity to participate in every
070aspect of the life of the school all of our students and while i can understand where mr nunes is coming from i think my thought is in presuming good intent in that those folks who really are extremely worried due to significant medical issues would self you know remove themselves from the sport for this year but uh i think that we should open it up to them knowing that we will be those events will be happening with proper you know social distancing and and the regulations as they stand to be as safe as possible for each student um but yeah absolutely i think that it is critical that all of our students are offered um and welcome to try out and participate in anything that we offer that has to do with the life of the
071school thank you uh mrs waite yes and not to you know extend i think a lot of the you know and again where some of our conversations need to be focused around sports but a lot of the clubs and it's my understanding they may start virtual too as well as newspapers and things like that so those are opportunities for those students to participate you know i think back to like big great news which you know i helped run in this you know the spring that would be an opportunity for the middle school kids who are on remote uh as well as you know i should say like who are we working from home the virtual as well as our remote than the hybrid students to all come together and be part of you know something
072like that so those are the things you know i think that you know some of those parents you know to john's point may well not you know feel comfortable doing sports but there are other avenues that they want to still feel part of our community so um you know but that is is is not just solely you know the athletics and the sports and the actual physical activities where they're getting together but they'll still be some of those online pieces as well great no thank you mrs wait uh would you prefer a formal vote dr gifford or is that good enough that's good enough okay thank you i just wanted once again um not anybody to be surprised at any decision we made and just want to let folks know so we can the planning
073can go and when parents have those questions we have the answer so that's fine thank you thank you all right uh next up under new business i'll turn it over to uh miss roy uh school committee policy e b c f a on face coverings thank you mr oliver i'm gonna start just explaining a little bit since it's our first policy of the year but um what we do as a subcommittee is we review the mass association of school committee policy model and then we kind of work from there so um on the face covering policy again i'm going to kind of go off a little bit and i'm going to read parts of this normally i just ask you to vote on this or you know take a first reading because i think it's
074important for folks to hear some of this so the policy was developed following the guidance for from the center for disease control and the department of elementary and secretary education guidances and the department of public health so the first paragraph actually the second paragraph starts by defining the face coverings as having to cover the nose and mouth and the of multiple layers then it goes on to talk about the exemptions to the policy under circumstances such as students with medical behavioral other challenges where who are unable to wear a mask and how this would be requiring a physician note for the exemption and principal approval not just a parent signing a waiver to say it's okay for my child to not wear a mask it talks about students providing families providing face coverings for the
075students obviously we'll have some on site if those are not if they're not able to have them or if they forget to bring them in and we're asking in that paragraph related to students bringing their own face masks that we strike out the second sentence related to staff members to better reflect what we are doing which is that we will have staff mask available for staff as needed so they can bring their own or we will have them available um and the final section goes on to talk about um any violations of the policy and it talks about you know certain components the principal or designee will consult with the parent or guardian to determine whether exemption is appropriate or the student may be removed from the school building for in-person learning until such time
076as they can comply with the requirement or the requirement is lifted so they would they would be removed to our remote learning component or virtual academy or in some cases techo or ingenuity so those are the main highlights it does finish that the policy will remain in place until rescinded by the school committee so i don't know if you have any questions but we are asking for a vote tonight if you feel comfortable with doing that as we were slated to begin school shortly great thank you very much for that um overview miss roy dr jenkins what's up i'm sorry john i'm in support of this i just have a question about um the written note exemption um i have some friends who are physicians and i have heard from them that parents are coming
077in um asking for mask exemptions um which they are not granting because there is no medical reason but i am concerned right that there will be perhaps some less scrupulous um physicians who are willing to do those things given how politicized this has been um and so my concern is if we only say if we say just a note that that requires us um to accept that and then what happens if we get you know what i mean if word gets out oh this doctor's writing notes go ahead you can get a note like we saw in medical marijuana right when it first became legal everyone all of a sudden had a disease that required it right um so i don't wonder whether we want to have like a written note from the physician along
078with approval from administration under the expectation that nearly all of these will be approved but just so that we have that capability if any issues arise around this so it does say they must be approved by the building principal or designee it does have that component in that first sentence of that paragraph um is that suitable dr jenkins yeah um that's fine i think so now that we've made that clear i can see it but i can see how a parent might say i have it but we can point back to that in order to be granted that yeah they have the note therefore the principal is required to approve it um but i think that's fine so long as we make clear that that's not a guarantee but that's the start when you bring
079in the note that initiates the process that we will then review excellent point mr nunes thank you mr chairman um one one quick question i have and i apologize mrs roy i should have brought this up early when you and i were we were all been the attacking over the past few days but uh in the first paragraph where it says uh gators and bandanas will not be allowed uh i'm going to make an assumption or does it need to be in there that like for after school activities and such you know sports and clubs and music that if masks are needed it has to be a mask and not the gator or the bandana the concern was the multiple layers and that the high high majority felt that the most of the gators and
080bandanas were single layers well we know that there are a few exceptions to that um the committee felt that um the majority of them were single layer and therefore not under the policy of multiple layers in the park so anyone participating you know in an after-school activity or such is going to need a regular mess yes if they're if they're you know obviously on school grounds or in our buildings or on school transportation any of that in that second paragraph right thank you perfect thank you mr nunes anyone else have any comments questions concerns over this policy uh back to you shannon can i just follow up on the the gate and gator and the bandana thing there's also been research showing that they are less effective right in preventing the spread of covid because
081like they're not tight on the bottom the right air flows out so i think because i don't want someone to come in and say oh well you know my gator has two layers so can i have this or my banana right there's a reason in addition to the number of layers why we're requiring face masks yeah all true no agreed thank you everyone uh for your input i promote we uh uh approve the policy ebfca on face coverings with the adjustment uh to the uh second sentence in the uh fourth paragraph that uh ms roy read district will have mask available for staff as needed which is what we do correct i think that's the fifth paragraph am i counting wrong nope you're correct all right i apologize it right i'll second that so i
082have a motion by mr nunes the second by dr jenkins on the motion any further discussion chair hearing none roll call please miss gunther chris oliver yes shannon jenkins yes kathleen amarillo yes mary wait yes john nunes yes may i confirm it's paragraph four and not paragraph five paragraph five i can't count thank you kate thank you everyone on that uh next up superintendent's update uh dr gifford the only thing i will add is we've still continued with negotiations as you know we'll be updating the committee tonight in executive session negotiations with dea about returning to school plan and mr kylie let us know that i think it was october 18th to 3 mr kylie for a flu clinic again uh high school correct the uh the board of health is putting that together they've
083asked us for um you know permission to use the high school on that sunday 12-3 on the 18th and we've granted that permission and i think they'll be publicizing it shortly and that's it okay great and uh next up report of the chair i do not have anything um other than uh we are confirmed uh for our uh next week with the joint meeting uh dr gifford yes perfect thank you very much anyone else for the good of the committee and community uh dr jenkins i just want to let everyone know that the def met um and i think the the consensus was that this year we were gonna be unable to do um our spelling bee um so we're we're making some plans to to maybe you know do a direct ask to help
084support to continue to support our teachers i think the needs are going to be more than ever um and we may try to do some event in the um spring so i just asked everyone to be on the uh the lookout uh for that right thank you shannon chris yes mr news yes uh you know if you happen to go by the high school stadium this weekend uh you are going to see uh the band uh percussion and color guard they're starting their virtual shows this weekend with us bands and such so you know friday afternoon saturday afternoon sunday afternoon i understand is everything's going to start kicking off so just be aware that's great now thank you for sharing that all right our next regularly scheduled meeting i don't have it in front of
085me does anyone have the date of the next regularly scheduled meeting of the dartmouth school committee october 5th thank you mr nunes is october 5th and safe to say at 6 30. thank you everyone at this time chad will entertain a motion uh to adjourn into executive session for the purposes for uh administration to provide an update with respect to collective bargaining with union personnel not to reconvene second motion by mr nunes second by dr jenkins on the motion any further discussion share hearing none roll call please miss gunther chris oliver yes shannon jenkins yes kathleen ameral yes mary wait yes john nunes yes uh meeting is adjourned everyone have a wonderful night to everyone watching thank you see you on the flip you