001[Music] do [Music] do [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] baby [Music] so [Music] five minutes to show time five minutes [Music] do [Music] do [Music] do [Music] three minutes to show time three minutes everyone take your seats [Music] [Applause] it's time to kick off another school year [Music] we are fall river public schools approximately one thousand innovative and compassionate educators serving 10 300 students we are a diverse community our student population represents 50 countries more than 20 languages are spoken inside our school buildings it's probably going to be a lot different because instead of having such as just entire week of school entire week of school et cetera et cetera like the regular schedule instead we're going to have one week of digital learning and then we're going to have one week of being in school
002and it might take a little while to get used to that but eventually we will get used to that and that will just be normal for us it will be different but i think if we're outpatient and we all follow the cdc guidelines i know that in the building here we've put down tape in the hallway similar to what you see in supermarkets with different arrows and which way to go and we have some hallways that are designated up stairwells and downstair wells just to keep the flow of students and and students flowing properly to meet those guidelines we are resilient we are a team the great thing about being in a school is that you get to start over again every single year the scary thing is that you get to start over again
003every single year but i always look at it as a fresh beginning and you can look at what you've done reflect on it and improve on it and i think that a moderate amount of anxiety is good for everyone because it shows that they have a lot of passion so as long as again if you fee if you let the teachers feel as though they're supported and you spread that culture of kindness and and the fact that you know what we are a community that whole concept of it takes a village we can do this together then it just kind of the fears subside a bit we got to get back at it and we got to work within the new normal and we got to remember to put our kids first and our patients
004on every day but i think in the form of public schools we know how to do that so we're going to continue to do what we do and work together and support our kids and usually it's all going to wash [Music] out [Music] it's a new time in education but there's going to be a lot of great opportunities that come as a result of this as much as there's going to be initial challenges that we all have to get through so i would say the sun is on the other side and we just got to keep pushing through every day working hard to achieve our goals together hi everyone rebecca cusick here from the fall river educators association welcome to the 2020 2021 school year i know you're starting this year off with a lot
005of anxiety and a lot of concern and we share those concerns but i want you to know that a lot of people worked hard all summer long to alleviate some of the issues that you have brought forward we hear you and we see you and the work is not done we are committed to following through to ensure that safety is a number one priority and the quality of instruction is not sacrificed because the year does not look like normal our strength is in our people and if we all row in the same direction we can do this and get this done good luck peace we can make it through this we can persevere guys you don't need to be nervous because everything should be okay for us ladies and gentlemen boys and girls welcome to
006the 2021 school year live from durfee high school at the 50-yard line let's hear a nice round of applause for our superintendent dr matthew malone ladies and gentlemen we are live today at the brand new durfee high school but we're on the legendary football soccer and field hockey and track field here at durfee today i want to talk to you i'm talking directly to you i want to talk to you about what this year will entail but first and foremost i want to say thank you and i want to welcome you back i've missed you we haven't been together since march 17th it's been a long time too long during that time we've gone through tremendous crisis not only here in fall river not only in massachusetts but across the country we've been battling the
007pandemic we've been trying to reach kids who have been sometimes unreachable the inequities in the world have shown the ugly side of poverty and neglect issues of social justice race and the spirit of what it means to be an american have all been questioned but through this all the one steady thing that's remained is that we've been here in fall river waiting to return the city rises to the occasion it's done so for 300 years this year is no different so let me thank you for all that you have done and all that you will do and the spirit that is all the best of what this city represents before we begin i'd like to honor and recognize some folks that some of you may not have known about about what we've been doing since
008march 17th you see behind me we have our traditional crystal apples today is with great pleasure that i award five crystal apples to five amazing components of our school system the first and foremost our food service employees our food service employees distributed over 356 000 meals during our time of closure in 77 days 356 000 meals at over 10 meal sites across the city they worked every single day they didn't take a day off they came to work and they delivered those are the true heroes of this pandemic the folks that stepped up to help everyone else who needed a hand up our first crystal apple award goes to our food service employees we thank them we honor them and we welcome what is to come our next crystal apple award goes to our custodians
009our custodians cleaned over two million square feet of facility space in the fall river public schools derma closer over 2 million cleaned and sanitized but more than that they also got us ready for reopening they adapted a whole new way of cleaning and preparing to sanitize our buildings our second crystal apple award goes to our custodial crews third crystal apple award goes to our safety and security officers that group every single day we're out making sure that our food distribution sites were safe and ready and they also made sure that our summer programs were safe and ready they did temperature checks they controlled the environment our third crystal apple award goes to the unsung heroes of our safety and security department the fourth crystal apple award goes to our maintenance crews worked all summer long
010to get our schools ready when you walk into the front of our schools you will see the physical changes that we have made in order to open safely not only that they're always ready to help and provide support in our buildings when needed congratulations to our maintenance crews again unsung heroes our final crystal apple today goes to two people and those two people work in the district one is the lead sac and the other is the director of our parent information center claudia costa and cindy kudo provided an average of 125 stop and shop meals to students in need in the fall river public schools no one asked them to do this no one asked any of these folks to do this they just did it because that's what they do that kind of work
011is ingrained in the core values of who we are that's fall river and i want to thank each one of them from food service to custodial to maintenance to security to the unsung heroes of what claudia and cindy did working with our community partners to make sure that our neediest students had food and were safe and secure we've done that now for six months but the time has come now for us to do the same thing in person we're back today's the first day of the 2020 2021 school year i have a couple things that i just want to reflect on as we get ready first and foremost your safety and security is our number one concern we have worked tirelessly all summer long to prepare for a safe and secure opening we've done the
012best possible planning we could do we've made all the arrangements in the purchasing of ppe we've made investments and other resources and materials that folks need but we're never going to be perfect all of us everyone today let's just acknowledge that we're all taping taking a leap of faith we have to trust one another we have to lean on one another we have to know that the world's totally imperfect at this moment but what we can bring to the world every day is a positive attitude a great sense of common sense and a commitment to each other to get this work done i also want to talk to you about how hard this year is going to be i'm not going to lie to you this this ain't easy ain't never going to be easy
013this year we're starting in the hybrid model we got to be flexible we got to be nimble we got to be prepared to shift and toggle depending on what happens with the pandemic depending on what the science says but we will be ready and you will be ready because we're all going to learn new things and you have to be comfortable with learning new things it's okay you don't know how to do all the google classroom sweet stuff i don't know it either but guess what i'm learning it too we're all going to learn together we're going to get this right hey we're going to fall on our face we're going to make mistakes we're going to screw up but we're going to get up and we're going to get back at it and we're
014going to continue to move forward that's all we can do i also want to talk to you about how this new sense of what learning entails allows us the possibility to reinvent what education is all about about how we deliver instruction it's going to be new but what isn't new is the relationships you build with your students with their families and with each other we're going to continue to deliver core content we're going to continue to assess we're going to continue to support kids that doesn't change but how we do it will change again we're starting in the hybrid model we could move to full remote if needed we could also move to full in person as needed we're going to be nimble we're going to be flexible and we're going to be ready what
015also doesn't change is the connections that you need to make with your curriculum to the lives of our students we have to think differently we have to make sure that we understand cultural competency we're going to look at practices and systems that are in our way that create barriers through structural racism we're going to knock them down we got to be anti-racist we got to be pro-person we got to be true human beings we're going to love every one of our kids that shows up at our door we've got to ensure that their parents understand that the true access to the 21st century is through our schools but if they can't communicate with us that's a problem so we're going to do the best we can to continue to learn how to translate better how
016to engage parents who don't speak the same language that i do or that you do we've got to ensure that everyone feels welcome when they show up at our door because guess what they're going to continue to show up at our door the cornerstone of democracy a free public education people come to this country just to have that we need to cherish that honor it and make sure we respect people's differences acknowledge difference respect humans and we can do that that's what we do the other thing i really want you to understand is this year everyone's looking you know everyone asks me all the time you want perfect we're not going to have perfect we're going to have an imperfect imbalance to the year we need to embrace that ambiguity you need to embrace it
017it's uncomfortable you're scared i'm scared too but i'm not going to let the fear of the unknown put me into a box and a shell and prevent me from doing the work i want to do the work that we all get up every morning to run to do in the words of bruce springsteen tonight i want to stand on the hill given all i got i can't stop being on that hill i probably got that wrong but i'll do it again in another time but think about there's a darkness on the edge of town but guess what there's also a light on the other edge of town and that light is about a new dawn a new tomorrow and we will get there heart and soul heart and soul we bring that with us every
018single day we deliver on the promise that we've made that's covenant of education now over the next nine days we will receive training we will conduct planning we will prepare for the new operational protocols that we need to have in place we'll do it safety safely masks ppe hand washing all the components to mitigate risk the proven mitigation factors that we're putting into our schools putting them in place we're going to learn all that this week we're going to spend nine days getting ready for what the hybrid model is all about and on the 16th when we open on the first day we're going to open remotely give everyone practice for how to connect what are the expectations that we have for everyone connect make those relationships matter and start the year strongly understanding we've
019had tremendous learning loss achievement gaps have exasperate act exacerbated it's up to us now to close them i'm not asking you to fix the world in a day this is a long slow process but the first thing you do is turn on that computer and you can say hello to a kid you can make that kid feel welcome you can make them feel loved and when you see them face to face they can look in your eyes and go this person cares about me no matter what mode we're in in person remote your heart has to shine through in everything that you do now i know you have heart i know you have soul that's why we're here wouldn't be fall river without that our kids are dependent on us tomorrow is now today has
020come it's opening day today is convocation day and we welcome you back friends i call your family that's what we are here in the fall river public schools for those of you who are new welcome to our family what does it mean to be a family member to rely on the person of your left and to your right that's all we have at the end of the day it's all we have it's all we need there are times when you will need to reach into your heart and into your soul to lift up your neighbor to help a colleague to support a child that time has come we're back i'm excited can't hold me back i can't stop this is what i do this is what you do i run to work every day inspired
021because the people i get to serve with every single day on the first day i just want to say thank you you're here that's the first step you showed up we're ready kids are waiting i want to leave you with the words of martin luther king you don't need to see the whole staircase you just have to take the first step that first step starts today i love you i'm here for you i'll do everything in my power to support you the school committee's here to support you the city's here by to support you and these kids are dependent on you the future looks bright let's look up let's take on tomorrow here we go thank you [Music] you