001not video maureen we hear you i ca but for some reason i can't get the video to uh there's no i don't see any button to do video uh i'll text you separately we can we can fix that we hear you i don't see any button to do video we can look at that we are live though so mary rose whenever you're ready [Music] all right good evening everyone my name is mary rose diamond i'm the very proud principal of center school and we're so glad that you could join us today i'm going to introduce the other administrators and staff that we have with us on our uh as part of our team um eric conklin our director of technology gina weigonick who is ours director of special education melissa baldwin who is our pre-k
002to five specialist supervisor ken post who is our director of finance and business um dr burrill obviously our school superintendent um anna laforgia who is our nursing supervisor um dr maureen ruby who is our assistant superintendent and then we're also honored and appreciative to have dr sullivan with us here as well who is our advisor i think from the brookfield health department so um we again are so glad to have you uh here today um just as a reminder you can continue to submit questions via the google form that was shared by dr brill in his email um last week and if there's time tonight we will try to get to some of the questions if there's not time that we will be developing a shared faq um that will go out and be shared
003with everybody okay so i'm going to just quickly share my screen and if i hopefully the technology will um will work here give me one second so that you can see what we're looking at okay uh so here we go on the other one too all right so our agenda for tonight um it is really um to answer the question that came in for us uh from her school and for the district in general through the q a so um as you can see our structure that our administration and our team is in our in the zoom meeting um and then anyone who is interested in participating from the community or from the community um can access via the live stream a youtube link again that was shared um last week um and you can
004again as i mentioned submit additional questions via the forum that was shared as well so um all of that was was emailed to uh families last week um we're going to do a brief review of the process so we will um respond and address to um excuse me address and answer district level questions and then we'll do the same for school level questions as they came up um our purpose again this evening is to provide uh parents and guardians with answers to the specific questions that came up about our school reopening plans um and our goal is to make sure that we're being uh coherent and consistent in creating the understanding of our current status of our district reopening plan um and that make sure that we understand that the plan is dependent upon health
005trends executive orders and making sure that we can procure the additional furniture and supply that will be needed in order to um to deliver our instructions so that's again our purpose and our goal for today at this time i'm going to turn it over to dr burrill and he's going to address the district level questions and start that process mrs diamond thank you so much um and i just need to express how thankful and appreciative i am uh for your leadership and our district staff and uh administrative uh work that's been going on to develop our reopening plan over the uh the course of this summer and thank the reopening uh team of many stakeholders that worked on the plan uh additionally thank your staff that's worked with you at center school um very important
006years for our pre-k kindergarten and first grade students we take the task very seriously to open safely and provide the best education we can so for parents uh personally we really want you to know how much thought care and intention has gone into the planning to ensure we have not only a healthy and safe environment but the best educational environment we can possibly provide specifically under these pandemic conditions so i wanted to share with you a little bit about our planning process some of you will recall that a couple of weeks ago you filled out a parent survey um at this point about 80 percent of parents reported that they will send their children to school in person and about 20 uh we're suggesting that they might likely keep their kids home in a remote
007learning model um we will be working to send out a follow-up survey probably at the end of this week if not early next week uh to find out your intentions for the fall in terms of our planning uh the state department of education on june 29th put out a guidance and requirements document uh regarding how we are to plan for reopening school and so we developed a district reopening plan and i really encourage everybody to read it it's a dense document it's about 41 pages long but it's really important there's a lot of protocols and a lot of expectations in there that i think will provide great confidence and perhaps even um prompt you to think of other questions you may have when you go through the document regardless we put the reopening plan together
008the board of education approved it last week and admitted to the state department of education just recently as mrs diamond talked about we uh sent out the questionnaire and uh are beginning these q and a sessions with parents the board of finance and board of selectmen are collaborating with the board of education uh as mrs diamond said to collaborate and secure the necessary funding to procure uh the ultimate supplies additional furniture and all the things we need to reopen school uh in accordance with state department guidelines and cdc guidelines and so forth so like i said we're going to be putting out another family survey toward the end of the week or the beginning of next week where we will ask for a commitment of your intention for the fall whether you plan to educate
009your child remotely or send them to school we also have a faculty and staff letter regarding return because we want to make sure our faculty is in the best position to come back and educate your children the schools are finalizing the design of their implementation plans of the district plan and bringing that on to the school level to make sure that that is able to be implemented properly and of course the schools will communicate all the specific procedures and protocols with family and staff next slide please mrs diamond so there's a couple of things that came up we're broadly going to be answering the questions uh that were asked um questions that parents had that seemed to repeat themselves so in the design of the slot not only from the district level but also from
010the full level we really try to address the broads of the ropes that were submitted thank you for those so the state department of education governor lamont as i said back on june 29th directed all school districts to develop three moons with the following scenarios a 100 in-person school experience where students would be coming to school five days a hybrid may have heard that term a hybrid model plan which would be a 50 50 school model half the students would come in for a few days a week while the other half learn remotely and then vice versa later in the week and then finally a remote learning model not necessarily like what was done in the spring really um dr ruby will get into what we envision it looking like going forward and then the
011main thing everybody really needs to know tonight is that our brookfield plan addresses all three scenarios our goal is to have 100 percent of students in school 100 of the time our intention is to meet that 100 100 goal so a big question came up about the remote learning and so forth what choices do parents get to make for the opening of school parents will choose between the 100 in-person model because right now under the health scenario and circumstances we have in brookfield and in connecticut right now that's the goal we're going for the 100 model that you will choose to send your child to school or you will elect for 100 remote learning okay in the 100 all-in model that the board of education and districts are providing there is that remote option but
012there's not a hybrid option in that and there was some confusion in that so we wanted to make that clear tonight we're prepared however to transition to a hybrid or full district remote learning as conditions warrant so by designing all three plans we are ready for all three conditions next slide all right so i'm going to turn it over to dr ruby right now to answer the questions that came up about remote learning there was a good number of questions thank you dr burrell so um we had questions as as dr bulger said about remote learning and the remote learning that we are able to offer as a choice as he just explained is what the state is terming a temporary option that they're giving parents the opportunity to select and the district will honor
013the parent option for as long as the connecticut state department of education allows that to happen and when this will end is uh to be determined by the state department of education and the office of the governor so parents will be um able to inform the district this was a question that came up how do i let the school know that i would like to have my child engage in remote learning parents are going to be able to inform the district of their individual student attendance choice through the completion of a survey as dr bill said you're going to be getting a survey either later this week or very early next week where every parent is going to be asked to identify for each one of their children what they're choosing because you may make
014different selections for different children based on their age or their very specific um conditions or situations relevant to each one of your children so that's another thing that has been asked do all my children need to have the same the same choice so to be clear you could choose to send your second grader and fourth grader in 100 of the time and you might choose for whatever personal reason you have to keep your um your 10th grader in a remote learning mode we also had questions about transitioning can parents choose to transition from remote learning to in-school learning and the answer to that is yes um parent we're going to be asking that parents give the school a two-week minimum written notice or of their intention to return to school so if you've elected through
015this survey that you'll be receiving very shortly to have your child be remote be at home and situation changes and you decide that you would like your child to fully participate that's not a problem but as you can imagine we need to make sure that we have everything set up to receive your child into the classroom and keep things um safe and and maintain social distancing and make sure that we have all the supplies that we need for your child so we will need to know in advance and where we would have you send in we will get information on how to do this a written um notice of your intention to return your child to the classroom 100 of the time and then that your those students will return to school on the first
016school day of the month following your notification so if you were to decide on september 17th that you wanted your child transition back that first school day of october would be the day that your child would be coming back um you can also choose to transition the other way you could decide initially that you want your child to be in school and then for personal reasons you make the decision that you would like your child to be in remote learning again written notification will be required and that can be done at any time because as you can understand we don't have to make the adjustments for your child being in your home that's the an adjustment that you would make so that there's no um like time delay on that and so now we can
017go to the next slide so we've had several questions from um parents of students across the district asking about the model for this um the remote learning and the remote learning will be a synchronous model dr burl just alluded to the fact that the remote learning would be different than it was during the spring when we were suddenly thrown into you know having to teach um students while they were at home and so this synchronous model means that the students who are at home will be accessing live instruction delivered by their teachers right along with their peers in their classroom and so the school day questions we've had questions like what will the school day look like for remote learners um the timing will be exactly the same as the in-school model and during the
018synchronous models students are not going to be like glued to the screen for the entire school day because there will be times when there will be they'll be online um listening to their teacher um and engaging through the remote opportunity with the lesson that their their in-school peers are engaging in but there will be also times when they'll be working on assignments just like they would be in their classroom um they'll you know there'll be lunch breaks there'll be uh other when students go out to recess your remote student will not be you know glued online um and so you know that's something that you really need to appreciate that we are not going to have students sitting down from you know 8 45 until the end of school just continuously glued to the screen
019um the attendance is mandatory this it we are required to have students in grades one through um 12 be in school and so we will be taking attendance with the um students who are in the remote learning situation all right thank you back over to you uh dr burrell thanks dr ruby so there was a number of questions on face coverings and masks so i wanted to review a few facts um and procedures that we have here in accordance with our state guidelines so the first thing is that parents and guardians are responsible for for providing cloth face covering or mask for their children as i indicated last week in my presentation for the board of education of course we will have extras for those times when there is a just in case somebody forgets
020something or there's an accident or something like that we've prepared for that all students must wear a cloth face covering our mask in school they have to wear that while they're in the school building in classrooms and on the buses before entering the bus stop though the mask must be um covering the nose and the face and so this is um going forward and of course we talked about mask breaks being built in throughout the day that's very important for people to know students will be at their desks sometimes for mass breaks socially distance in accordance with state uh guidelines students k through eight and their classroom cohorts will also have trifold shields at their desks and students will be provided with further details um and and so will parents as we talk about the
021the individual school procedures and protocols so that's that's face coverings next a good number of questions which we really appreciated on arrival and dismissal or what do we call parent drop off and pick up so some things we're planning for and be very very clear we don't have the plan fully articulated yet but what we are doing is working as a matter of fact it just was in contact with chief purcell today as a matter of fact we are collaborating with the brookfield police department in our transportation provider all-star transportation to develop a nice cohesive system that works the first thing though i am going to say we're going to ask everybody we're going to need to be patient and flexible and frankly those are going to be themes through this pandemic all of us
022are going to have to exercise we've done that for the last three or four months and we're going to have to continue that likely for a number of months maybe even for the next year but the transportation the drop off and pick up system that we want to develop at each school and it'll be nuanced at each school of course is obviously to ensure safety of students parents staff and the public it's very important traffic patterns into and out of the school property we will make safe and orderly traffic on public roads surrounding the schools needs to remain safe students are socially distanced and accounted for at entry and dismissal this is especially important for our center school students and our huckleberry students of course all students but our little ones they're wearing masks they're
023learning the ropes we need to make sure we can really keep an eye on everybody in a safe and orderly way buses and cars of course we want to peacefully co-exist and we will be taking a look at how we can develop a systematic schedule for parent pick up and drop off to not only create order but that allows for parents the the opportunity for dropping off students at multiple schools so we are considering that as well so no please no that's going into the plans that we're developing for each school parent drop off from paypal next slide is done some some questions that i'd like to answer in terms of facility and hygiene that were that continue to come up that are very important for people to know we're planning for with bathrooms there's
024a continuum of cleaning and this really applies in a lot of ways to all over the building but that continuum is opportunities for full cleaning kind of an intermediate opportunity for cleaning and then you've heard high touch point cleaning where we're doing wipe downs and disinfecting and things like that so we're really focused on the bathroom specifically but there's also desks and this is really important because we're working on a plan in terms of desk cleaning after lunch k through 8 and in between classes at brookfield high school as you can imagine just to quickly say this is will be important for the high school when we meet later on tonight with the high school parents in between classes you can imagine with the number of students in in between classes only a few minutes
025how could you do that we're working on exploring options for students to have the opportunity to use neutral cleaners that are safe and that we could provide and they can wipe their desks down or something we could share with parents that's a neutral cleaner that they might be able to bring the child might be able to bring in themselves because we want to give people that opportunity to be as clean as possible um desks after lunch uh k-8 that we talked about the students and you'll get this information uh later from mrs diamond uh the students will to be to remain socially distant will be eating in their classrooms rather than in the large gathering of a cafeteria so there's opportunity we need to make sure we're cleaning after lunchtime as well there'll be lots
026of hand washing breaks and we have hannah hand sanitizer stations uh throughout all the schools and so those will be strategically located as well next slide some key mitigation strategies and responses to some of the questions that came out regarding health and wellness and again if we have time at the end dr sullivan our health director is here so one question was was how do you look at kind of the low to moderate to substantial risk and the first thing is that dr sullivan has shared with us is that right now brookfield is in very good shape we're at 8.6 very low risk anything under one percent is considered low and that's why we're thinking right now brookfield in in many communities in connecticut are positioned well for the 100 opening provided we could get
027the furniture and the proper staffing and the supplies we need um but for health reasons we are in a very good position moderate is a one to five uh percent uh transmission and then substantial is over five percent so that's kind of how we'll be looking at that with the health department and making judgments about 100 or hybrid or remote and those kinds of things also being monitored by the health department daily is evidence of community transmission by street by neighborhood etc dr sullivan and the team are looking through that data as well the key actions you've heard this over and over again but every time we talk to our medical advisor our public health advisors they talk about social distancing face coverings frequent hand washing and hygiene sneezing into your sleeve there's a term
028called respiratory etiquette those kinds of actions um the home assessment is very important checking your child making taking a look at all the symptoms temperature taking and of course if you're not feeling well stay home this is this is not a time where we any any of us as adults or children want to be uh heroes and i'm feeling really crummy and i'm gonna go into school anyway we need to be very careful mindful of ourselves and mindful of our friends and neighbors next cohorting that was a relatively new um expectation from the state department of education as they forwarded their june 29 guidance to us and so i want to talk a little bit about that because it's a big question for families so students will be cohorted to the greatest extent possible and
029simply put cohorting means keeping the same group of students together as much as possible and so k through 8 especially we will be working on keeping that same group of students that classroom group together as much as possible again the principals will explain that as they have their presentations mrs diamond certainly will tonight schedules will be developed school schedules that limit contacts families will be cohorted together this is something that was a big question especially when people hear about the hybrid model and perhaps on monday and tuesday there'd be a an a group 50 that goes to school throughout the entire community all four schools and the b group stays home and then at the end of the week there's a couple of days where the b group is in school and the a group
030stays home we are going to do everything in our power looking at this through parent convenience and really trying to help out the families and uh have families by last name cohorted together so we're working on that we want you to know that it's a very it was a big question that people asked and our it's a big priority for us um and we will communicate to families as as quickly as we can when all that is ready and finalized next slide all right so special education a couple of big pieces very important and this is the only slide tonight on special education because we are really going to direct parents to specifically contact our special education supervisors or mrs wagonic the special education director but i wanted to run through a couple of key
031points we will be prepared um to understand that there are no waivers uh regarding uh individual disability education act we will provide a free and appropriate education for our special education students in the least restrictive environment our students are eligible for special education and our other special populations will be treated as general education students first giving them every opportunity in the least restrictive environment that we can per the state guidelines the special education supervisors will be working with building principles to maintain the cohorts to the greatest extent possible that was a question that had come up several times any questions pertaining to individual students or programs please address to our two supervisors depending on grade level so for the center school families it would be mrs baldwin she's our pre-k to five special education supervisor
032or the director of special education for the district and that's mrs wagonic next slide all right i'm going to turn it over to mr conklin our technology director mr conklin please take it away sure thanks dr burrell um our technology team has been very busy um not only through the spring but through the summer and preparation of the of the new school year as well um so i just want to share a couple points um you know regarding technology um really at that at the elementary level um so i will skip bullet number one here which is about regarding the uh the one to one program uh for the higher level grades um and and jump to number two um that we are um you know working we've been able to work with the board
033of board of ed border selectmen and board of finance to procure um you know up to 750 chromebooks um that will be um distributed around the district and made available um for students to use in in whatever means we we need as as needed um you know when when the students need them during the day um we are also going to begin to fully support a byod program district-wide um byod is bring your own device we have been doing this in conjunction with the one-to-one program at the high school we've done it a little bit of whiskenier and we piloted it with the fourth grade last year um and um we are actually excited to uh bring this option to families uh starting this year and there'll be more information to follow on that um
034but we are going to allow students to bring in their own devices uh that can be used for education uh during the day a lot more information will follow on that um inside the building one one bullet i did not have a chance to get on here um is that the tech team is is going to be busy this month um upgrading some of our wi-fi infrastructure um to allow for this influx of devices that are needed throughout the day um and and that's the general overview of technology um and as we move forward i'd be happy to answer more questions in detail if they come through uh back to you dr burl all right so we're gonna have before i have one last announcement that i'd like to share before turning it over to
035mrs diamond and that is just a real strongly encourage our families to read the actual school reopening plan i said that earlier i can't stress it enough i really encourage you to do that it's very important um and and really i thank you for your time this evening to go over the kind of the district big picture uh uh question and responses and i'm now going to turn it over for a great amount of detail from mrs diamond who's going to really take care of and show you how center school is going to work going forward this is diamond please great thank you dr burrell oh all right i'm you all right good all right so i um first wanted to thank our district team for sharing all that information and for all their support
036and moving through this uh again it is a daunting task um for at the school level not a level on the district level so we really are appreciative of the support we've gotten um from from our district staff so thank you very much um and i also just wanted to take a moment to share a few thoughts with you before jumping into the slides that i prepared for center school um personally some of you may know that i am in the same predicament that you are my daughter is entering kindergarten this fall and my son will be beginning pre-k um and the unknowns are staggering my husband and i are constantly thinking of questions and what ifs um and we've you know where that we you know made the choice to self-isolate for the most
037part since march um and after all of these months of really being in control of what our exposure is the idea of sending my kids into a school that i don't have control over who they interact with or what they touch is unsettling so i really do understand um i think on a certain level what you're what you're going through particularly with with students at center school i will say though that having been involved with the planning and knowing the incredible staff at center if i could bring my daughter with me to kindergarten kindergarten here in brookfield i absolutely would i'm confident that everyone is pulling out all the stops to take the precautions necessary to keep all of us as safe as possible and i know that the center school staff treat their students
038as they do their own children when it comes to safety and learning so while it's no doubt that our environment and our instruction are going to look extremely different um we are going to work within those challenges presented and in order to achieve our goal for children and create opportunities for socialization exploration movement and growth all those things that are so essential to our early learners would we intentionally set up our classrooms in this way absolutely not but if this is the way things need to be right now in order to keep everyone as safe and healthy as possible then this is what we'll do um we are fortunate as i said to have an exceptionally dedicated and talented team of educators who are using already their creativity to best serve their students and ensure
039that they are working in a developmentally appropriate way within the safety parameters provided and required so all of these plans though are contingent upon each one of us the adults and the students being aware of those around us and truly following our central expectations be safe be kind and be responsible and that's going to be at the core of our work with students um as we help them acclimate to our new environment so i'm just going to jump into some of the questions that we've received that are specific to center school um please know again we are actively working on the details of implementing the plan at the school level with our school implementation team um and also with with all staff kind of giving us feedback and questions and ideas and in particular there
040are questions sent about two areas that we are really trying to have some good discussions around that's arrival and dismissal plans as dr barrilla described earlier and also procedures and monitoring around the bathroom so um you know i'm not going to go into a lot of beach on those tonight because again they are they're kind of in the in the works but we're aware of the challenges um and we'll we'll definitely be um addressing those as we move forward okay so there were a number of questions absolutely understandably about the developmental appropriateness of our social distancing expectations and what things are going to look like in a more sterile environment as some people were describing it so as i mentioned earlier we really are fortunate that the teachers and staff who choose to work at
041center school have that innate early childhood perspective they are experts at teaching our youngest learners and so while um while we might be doing things a little bit differently what we're going to be focusing on will be will be the same um so we're taking all that experience that our staff has and we're applying it to our new environment as i mentioned earlier everything we do is going to be couched in our schoolwide expectations of be safe be kind and be responsible they are applicable um to any pretty much any situation that we could we could come up with um we will be explicitly teaching um at pretty much all of our procedures our instruction our academic instruction as well as our kind of just our daily uh day-to-day kinds of things using kid-friendly language
042and examples students will have an opportunity to practice and teachers and staff will be giving feedback just as we always do we're just applying as i said those strategies to different kinds of procedures there will be lots of visual supports everywhere um we're very fortunate our art teacher actually is creating some of our posters that we're going to be having available um we're having discussions with staff um about where you know where the placement of those things should be um and we're really again trying to work together in that way um we are again going to be using a lot of movement and an active response strategy so those students will be at their desks they'll be up and moving um you know at their desk as much as possible and yes there will still
043be play it's going to look different it's going to feel different but there will still be play in our elementary school um at our pre-k and one grade because again that is how students learn at that at this age so we're working on all that and what it will look like um we'll also be addressing safety topics so our school nurse mrs o'connor is again fantastic and has already put together um a slideshow um and is working on um you know we're working on how we're going to develop that and integrate that into our instruction um discuss masks so how to remove and handle masks when we're not wearing them hand washing what does social distances look like and feel like and sound like to a three-year-old four-year-old up through seven-year-old how we cover our
044sneeze so again going into all those things that we have always taught but putting more emphasis on them as we move forward in this environment um we're also working on uh how we're going to teach students and provide those opportunities for social interactions and self-awareness so our school psychologist dr glazer has already begun working on a document to share with families uh we're hoping to partner with our pto and do a couple of sessions before school starts um in terms of how to speak with your children about these kinds of things um but in the school in terms of that that idea of social interaction um we're gonna be discussing how to say hello from a distance um how we can still share from afar so again maybe not physically sharing things but what sharing
045means and what that looks like um again that theme of kindness and and being uh kind and respectful of others um and our feelings will be using our ruler um our ruler curriculum for those of you who are new to center school might not be aware we'll be sharing more information about this but rulers the idea of wrecking you know being able to recognize your own emotions and how you're feeling um and then you know making choices about how you want to move forward with those feelings um and so at center school we spent a lot of time developing those vocabulary words around feelings so that'll be a big part of our our work with students as well and then mindfulness and self-regulation um those of you again who are returning from last year know
046that we were trying to put some emphasis on mindfulness and helping kids be present and really think about how they're feeling and how their bodies feel is so that will also be part of our uh our process as we move forward um and then as dr royal mentioned we will be taking math breaks throughout the day um teachers and staff will observe their students in play by ear um in terms of when breaks are needed but there will be certainly ample breaks allowed throughout the day and we will be teaching kids about what that looks like and what's appropriate um for our maths break there are a number of questions about what will a typical day look like for center school and so when i started thinking about those questions um i i really started
047to think about what's what's going to be the same and what's going to be different so um it definitely will look different than what's been in the past but also should be familiar for our returning students and for those who have attended school elsewhere in the past so um as i mentioned earlier we'll be adjusting how we do things not necessarily what we do so if you take a look at the you know the same column on the left um we'll we'll be looking at um you know the connection so at the heart of everything we do are the connections that we build with and among our students so this is a constant whether we're all seated in desks we're gathered on the rug or we're at home learning so it's really a critical component
048of engagement and it's something that we're all giving great attention to now you know how are we going to connect with kids um in in this kind of environment and our staff has some really great ideas and thoughts um our classroom schedules are going to continue to include morning meetings movement breaks and also snack and again students will likely remain at their desks for these activities but they will be happening and taking place on a daily basis recess will be happening daily there's another slide later on that we're all going to a little bit more detail about recent but students will have recess every day um our curriculum and resources are going to continue to be the same so um we're going to be using our open court phonics program uh and um early literacy
049program i will be using our my math uh program we'll be using the units of instruction from teachers college um and using the readers and writers workshop we're using our smithsonian science materials so again for those of you who are new um or uh joining us new to kindergarten or in pre-k these might not have a lot of meaning for you yet but um they're all of the curricular tools that we've been using um for the last several years so those that's not going to change again how we use the might change but the resources that we're using will continue to be the same um in terms of instruction our staff really is keenly aware of the needs of our youngest learners they know the importance of play of breaks of inquiry of providing hands-on
050activities for kids um and we will be collaborating to share ideas about how to accomplish that all in a socially distant setting but that certainly is our goal again structurally moving forward um students will also be asses assessed you know after our initial period of transition and reconnection and reacclimation to school um teachers will be conducting assessments for all students so um the assessments will be delivered um in a variety of modalities so it could again be one-on-one in a socially distant way um just as we do it typically we do in a class um it'll be could through student uh work so that could be work that is either digital scan we could take a picture um that kind of thing and then also through learning plat platforms um such as open court and
051mymath so there are also options and opportunities to assess through those platforms so um that will be a you know kind of we'll continue to go through that um in every case those students will be taught exactly what they're expected to do for an assessment so there won't be any guessing or students left to their own devices will make sure that they know what the expectations are for specials classes are going to be scheduled um for the same special for seven to eight weeks and specials will be held in the classroom so for instance a class might have art every day for seven to eight weeks and ms vasino or our teacher would be going into students home room uh to teach her lessons and the purpose behind this is to minimize exposure for students
052and teachers um so our special teachers will be working with the same four classes every day instead of 18 classes over the course of a week and while this is not necessarily a typical model for elementary school it would not necessarily be ideal it will allow us to deliver our curriculum make sure that students are building skills in all the specials areas and ensure that we again are minimizing exposure and taking um the health and safety component into into account um and then we're also looking at our space and how we can utilize outdoor spaces as much as possible i mentioned that now because our music teacher and pe teacher in particular um will be looking at using our courtyards uh there's a blacktop area behind the building so there's not a lot of space
053outside at center school but we are looking to maximize whatever we can um in that way and then in terms of technology students are going to learn to use our technology tools um and software to support their learning so they will learn how to log into their chromebooks and enter their passwords to access their online programs um however the use of technology will definitely be purposeful and intentionally planned um so it's going to be supportive of the curriculum it's not going to just be a filler um so you know there were some questions about that i wanted to people put people's minds at ease hopefully about how technology will be used in terms of what will be different um students are going to be remaining in their classrooms for the majority of the day so
054and you know we're working on our arrival on dismissal procedures as i mentioned they'll be coming into the um into the school following those procedures they'll be going to their classroom they'll check in um and then they will remain there for the majority of the day with the exception of recess um bathroom breaks that kind of thing um we also will have students keeping their belongings with them so um that their their backpacks their jackets any personal belongings will be kept with them at their desks um and we're looking at how to how to best help them organize this would be another you know important organization lesson um so this these uh those steps will be taken so that we can minimize movements throughout the classroom um so that would be helpful as well um
055each student will have his or her own set of manipulatives and tools so um we began working on this in june putting together individual kits with as you might you know math manipulatives counters open court cards letter cards that kind of thing so we again our para educators who are fantastic they started working on that project in june and got a good start and we now have um several uh brookville high school students um parent volunteers who are helping our curriculum specialist uh with this project to make sure that we're up and running for the beginning of the school year as dr burell mentioned students will be eating lunch in their classrooms so latin their masks will be off during lunch they will have their trifold shield around them as they're eating we will have
056a lunch monitor assigned to each classroom just as we did in the past but now the lunch monitor will be pushing into the classroom and the lunches will be delivered if anyone buys a hot lunch they'll be delivered from our kitchen to the classroom and students will receive them there so monitors will be equipped with you know the uh the um the ppe that they need in order to again open juice containers or help cut some i mean so there will be social distancing expected but we will be providing as i mentioned are lunch monitors with the um protection they need in order to interact with students a little bit more closely at that time um as as they would in the lunchroom um small group work might happen via technology so it might be
057that um students are participating in a reading group via zoom even though they're in the classroom and the reading teacher is you know three doors down in a different classroom so again that's going to require some coordination on our part um and it will definitely require us to um to be teaching students what the expectations are but we have great confidence that we'll be able to to manage that um we've seen what kids can do and staff can do after our experience with distance learning in the in the spring so we're very confident that we'll be able to get that up and running um in order to make sure this small group work is still happening in a socially distant um way and then lastly classrooms are going to be assigned um specific bathrooms and
058be scheduled for bathroom break so i'm going to talk about that a little bit more on the next slide that is an area that we're still working on but again we're well into our into our planning for that as well so again as i mentioned classrooms will be assigned specific bathrooms um and classes will be scheduled for several bathroom breaks um over the course of the day um one will definitely coincide with their lunch time um it will be monitored by the lunch monitors so that you know we're still working on that coordination um students will be encouraged to use the bathroom during the schedule of class breaks but obviously especially at pre-k and one um you can't always predict when you're going to use the bathroom and uh so kids are still learning that
059so we will be they will definitely be able to use them at other times if needed and that's where our planning and um creativity is coming into play in terms of how to manage students who need the bathroom outside of the scheduled times um part of that planning will be will include teaching students what to do if they enter a bathroom and notice that there are already other students in the bathroom kind of what you know what what they should do as a strategy and communication among the adults as well as there will be obviously multiple classes and teachers sending students in the bathroom at the same time so that is something as i said that we are working on and we'll get more information as the plans are in place so for recess um
060students again as i mentioned are going to have recess daily and it will be approximately 30 minutes just as it always has been at center school recess is going to be outdoors whenever possible with the exception being again not not a change um if there's rain or extreme cold or heat um we do have guidelines in terms of when uh when the weather when when the temperature is inappropriate for kids to be outside that we follow um and as a reminder always students really need to dress appropriately so we want to make sure that um kids have a you know a jacket if it's cool out um and are you know short sleeves if it's hot that kind of thing um during outdoor recess kids will be mask free so they'll be able to remove
061their masks we're determining where they're going to place them in all of those little details that are part of this process the playground equipment will be closed so there's not a way for us to adequately clean the playground equipment in between students using it for recess time so um they will not be able to use the uh the equipment and students will be expected to socially distance um so we are collaborating to develop some choice activities that they can get engage in you know one example hopscotch you know that's not the great maybe not the most exciting example but those kinds of things that we can have students do outside i'm sure i'm confident that our students will come up with a variety of other games um if they are given the the option and
062the opportunity to do so of their own making so um we will be working with again with our with our staff on that and then in the case when we cannot go outside if we do need to have indoor recess um students will remain in their classrooms they will have their masks on we likely will do a mask break or two during that time um since that would be kind of uh they would be accustomed to having no mass during recess um and then again we're again collaborating on some choice activity that they can engage in for indoor recess drawing independent games that kind of thing um that we'll be working on as we move forward so that's another area of development for us okay kindergarten so um for those of you who have had
063kindergartners in the past come through um center school um and or you know have neighbors or that kind of thing have that you know know that typically kindergarten students do come in for half days for the first eight to ten school days of the year and the purpose behind that is really for assessment purpose and that kind of thing um our plan for this year is that kindergarten students are going to attend um half days from tuesday september 8th through friday october 2nd so it's about um it's about four weeks and the reason behind that is our rationale is that we will allow to we will be um have the time then to better support students in acclimating to the school environment um especially since everything will be new to them so there'll be lots
064of different procedures and that kind of thing that they that they need to learn one second okay um it'll also allow students to build connections with teachers and other staff um so if the smaller they're only you know 10 or 11 kids in the class at a time um teachers will be able to give them more attention um and and they'll be able to get to know that group of peers a little bit a little bit better um as well as other staff who might be coming into the building or exceeding into the classroom at that time it'll let teachers really give uh time to teaching students how to use the technology and how to learn from home so we you know there there's a chance that we might have to go out on remote
065learning at some point and we want to make sure um one of the lessons that we learned from this distance learning is that we want to make sure that students understand how to use the tools that they have and what you know at home learning looks like and then it'll also give us an opportunity to assess student skills so typically um kindergarten students coming in we've done we've done a spring screening uh we have some information we've done observations at preschools we just have a lot more information on kids and how they learn um and given our you know the situation in the spring we weren't able to gather that information so having kids come in smaller groups will allow us to deploy our special ed staff our reading staff um and our some you
066know other other specialists in the school psychologists to really take a look at kids in a smaller setting in the classroom um so we know uh better how to differentiate um for their instruction moving forward so students will be assigned to a or b cohorts again we're going to coincide the uh after the morning and afternoon half days for kindergarten with the ab cohorts that would um happen if we were in a hybrid um so that's one less thing that parents have to worry about you just you'll know which cohort you're in and that will be when you attend school your child is in school um so students in the a cohort will attend uh in the morning from 8 30 to 11 and students in the b cohort will attend school in the afternoon
067um from 12 40 to 25. um as i mentioned dr brill mentioned the cohorts will be uh based on the k-12 a b cohorts for hybrid um and we again as dr breal mentioned we're trying to get the information out to everyone as soon as possible so that you can arrange for child care and um and take care of those needs i know this will this might be a hardship for some people and i i we we really want to try to help work with you um in terms of you know making making sure that this this is this is possible and as seamless as possible um parents and guardians will be encouraged to drive their children to and from school so we will be arranging and that's part of what our arrival and dismissal
068planning will be in terms of a midday arrival and dismissal and when students are home we will be providing some activities that they can work on at home as well so again logistically this might be difficult but for kid learning we do feel like this is the best way for us to get to know them and help them feel comfortable at school so that they're set up for success for the rest of the year in terms of uh let's see trying to go to pre-k hold on one second oh okay there we are um so the focus for our preschool program um will continue to be um exploration socialization literacy readiness skills math readiness skills um that's still going to remain our focus um our preschool team has already been discussing how um you know
069and sharing ideas and strategies so that we can deliver that same kind of program within the guidelines of social distancing knowing that students at that age three years old three four year old year olds um really need a lot of hands-on and for that purpose our preschool staff will be equipped with the um with the ppe gowns gloves face shield that kind of thing that will allow them to interact more closely and directly with students as needed um because again we our staff will be removing kids from car seats they'll be assisting with toileting there's a lot of hand over hand modeling instruction that has to happen so we want to make sure that our staff is safe and protected and making sure that um and then how they engage with students um at this
070level um students will have access to all manipulatives and toys um so we're still you know it might look a little bit different in terms of what they have access to we're not going to be looking at stuffed animals and that kind of thing anymore um but we also will be uh sanitizing the equipment um between the am and pm preschool sessions so that the opportunity will be there we'll just make sure we're cleaning things uh in between um and our custodians um and we are fortunate to have fantastic custodians at center school um they will be cleaning the preschool classrooms between am and pm sessions and i should have also mentioned that um for the kindergarten half days we'll also be doing some there'll be some cleaning in the classroom between the sessions um
071at this time we do anticipate that students in the preschool program will wear masks um we are waiting for additional guidance from the office of early childhood at the state level um but we will be teaching them how to put them on remove them how to care for their masks um and they'll be provided with plenty of math groups so i have a three-year-old son as well who's going to preschool i'm in the fall and we are i mean he's got some very cool masks so he's really excited about them and that helps um but we're working on building his tolerance uh we're at about 20 minutes or so so we're we're pushing for a little longer um but that's definitely going to be something that we uh we would ask parents to try to
072work on at home as well it's important to note that peers who've been accepted into the program um will be expected to participate in the model that whatever's happening in the school district at that time so if we're in the 100 model which is our goal we're really striving to have all students present in the classroom at that time and there was a question about students using chromebooks at preschool we do not expect students to independently use chromebooks we will be using appropriate technology with them not necessarily um you know through the the chromebook so um please don't if we can if we can take any anxiety off of you please let us do that so there's no need to hook your child up to a chromebook um prior to coming to preschool um [Music]
073that's that was the extent of our slides here i think i see dr brill's back on um and so i guess what i'd like to say is well i would much rather be with all of you in person tonight i'm really grateful that we're able to connect together um in this way um and you know we really thank everyone who submitted questions i think that we're going to see if there any other additional questions maybe we have a couple minutes is that our plan dr burrell yes actually thank you uh mary rose great job tonight very thorough um i appreciate all the detail that went into your uh your presentation this evening i'd actually like to turn it over to dr ruby who's acting as our moderator and able to deal with some of the
074questions while we have a few minutes remaining um i know we sent out the parents we're going to start on time and end on time we also have the brookfield high school presentation this evening as well so dr rube i'll turn it over to you if there's any questions that we could try to answer so so i've been watching the questions as they've been coming in and i've selected a few that i think we can answer right now but please know that if you have a question that you've put into the uh the questionnaire site we will be doing a written q a to give answers to all of those questions so we apologize in advance if we can't get to your specific question but know that answers will be forthcoming so one of the
075questions mary rose that i think you might be able to um to address is a question from a parent well several parents asking um well my child's never been to your school um will there be an orientation um tour of the school for new students yes so thank you for bringing that up we absolutely um are working that was one of the first things that the staff talked about is how we can we can acclimate and and show students what the school looks like um so we are planning to put together a video that will do a tour of the school um and kind of explain you know as a model and also included in the in the video would be um uh staff like all our the staff that students will come in contact
076with with them without masks so they can see that as well um and and make sure that they're comfortable with that and then when students do get to school um and you know we do typically do a a um a tour do you know what it means with those first couple days we'll do but we will continue to do those tours so everybody knows where everything is we can do again a virtual tour for students when they're in school we've talked about how to do something i want to make any promises but how we could try to get students and families you know again at the school in some way um you know in a socially distant manner before uh before school officially starts so we're working on all of those plans if anyone has
077any suggestions or requests um you know please feel free to email me we'll do whatever we can to incorporate them thank you so there's an another uh question that's been asked a few times and it's uh this one is if parents decide to home school instead of the distance learning option can they have access to the materials and whatnot in in the school districts such as you know st math and things like that and so i i want to answer that question and i want to be clear about the distinction between homeschooling and distance or remote learning homeschooling is when you formally withdraw your child from the public school system and there are state laws that regulate home schooling we have paperwork with you the parent would formally exit their child withdraw their child from
078school through the registrar at this uh individual schools and then we have paperwork in central office that um parents are asked to fill out telling us that you know what you're planning to teach and we look that over we don't approve it or disapprove it but we keep records of it because the state asks us for that information so once the child is withdrawn from the school they're no longer a child within a school in our school system and so then they no longer have access to um the curricular tools that we're using in the school and i don't mean to sound harsh about that but homeschooling means you have formally withdrawn your child from the school so your child is no longer on our census um and no longer included in any of the
079counts that the state department of education uses with regards to school funding and things like that so um so that's a really important distinction and that is spelled out um in our plan there were also some questions um since i work with with the hr department also some questions regarding will folks be told about teachers who are returning to school or not returning to school and basically personal questions and um we do not um share personal matters with the public so we would not be publishing or providing information um regarding um the the teachers in the school and whether they had decided to you know come back to school or or not that would not be something that we would be we'll be publishing um due to confidentiality issues um and i'm looking at the
080time and it's 30 and i don't want to keep people from getting ready for their next meeting so any questions that you sent in that were not answered we'll be collating those and grouping them to provide answers to the two similar questions and that will be we'll be getting that out to you so thank you so much dr ruby mrs diamond and the whole team uh i want to thank you for all of your preparation parents uh for joining us this evening and staff members who may have joined in viewing the meeting thank you for joining we appreciate everybody's hard work patience and flexibility as i talked about earlier um and we really want you to know that we have as mrs diamond talked about we have families we are struggling through the pandemic just
081like everyone else and we are with you um and we want you to be with us truly in partnership and to make the best of this very very challenging time that frankly the whole world and our nation and our state and of course locally we are all going through so we just have to stick together it's really an important message we want to talk about dr ruby i just have one note here from dr sullivan and he said that you know there's good news the good news for our our community is that in march we experienced 77 cases of covid there were 60 cases in april 21 cases in may 11 cases in june and six cases in july and only one eight-year-old and one three-year-old so as a community kudos to everybody who is
082taking advantage of implementing the mitigating strategies hand washing social distancing and mask wearing and i just want to echo what mary rose said i've been in about um she talked about her son thanks for sharing the personal information because i think it's important the um i've been on many state preschool meetings preschool guidance i got an email during this meeting should be coming out tomorrow they're hoping but many preschool meetings where we're being told that that young children kindergarteners and and places where little kids are wearing masks that the kids aren't having the problems with the masks so we need to be really mindful of how how we as the adults are talking about these things and we will it's just natural but how our our attitude and our perspective on on and the things
083that we say really is very powerful in terms of influencing our children so once again thank you very much and we will be getting the answers to those other questions put together dr burrell and that's all that's all we have thank you dr ruby again thank you mrs diamond and we wish all of you the best and hope your families continue to be well thank you