Board of Educations 7-14-20

001and special education means it does discuss the each fall school reopening before we jump into that have a roll or call to order this just Nestle can we have a roll call please short mr krepo here miss Helen here was ham here miss Harrigan here mr. Martelli there mr. Barrett Genie here mr. white I can see him video done yep it is okay mr. chairman you have a quorum thank you ask the way you stand for the pledge and super kind of Sloane's gonna throw up our favor fly I was relieved to the flag one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all we almost had a concerted effort there you know we got a counter later thank you everyone for joining us this evening again this is a special for Education meeting

002most likely one of several thoughts the much anticipated in much debated topic of our church of public schools reopening for fall we have pretty much the only thing on the agenda and we do have a correspondence in an audience item the audience item are all the emails that we've received through covenant email address which superintendent stolen and his team will address throughout the course of the presentation I want to remind folks that you are free to send emails to that address which I should have taught my head man out but before we move on out I'll say it one more time the address but of course the meeting please send emails especially if you hear things are you opening for the clarification because we can also address those court in in the meeting so keep

003those coming in and Jeff I apologize I should know this what is the email address one more time CPS kovat 19 at Cheshire dot k12 dot CT US banks and again it's on our so move on to correspondence miss miss yeah I miss Alan do we have any correspondence yes mr. chair we do the first is a letter from Teresa commune I do not have her address and it's as follows to whom it may concern I am writing in support of Tony Perry Jeanne I did not read the offense of social media post quote unquote firsthand so I cannot defend his post specifically what I can support is the way mr. Peter Jamie has conducted himself over the last several years on the BOE to this point I have observed mr. Pierre Janey to be

004kind respectful and professional in his public at social media dealings personally I've noticed and appreciated the increased transparency and ease of communication between parents and BOE members since he has served of note I have never seen him behave in a politically divisive manner rather he has always seemed above that listening to all sides he's always seemed more than fair to me she goes on to say she doesn't agree with those who have called for mr. Perry Jeanne to recuse himself on this issue of school reopening on a personal note it is easy to find questionable and offensive social media posts made by mail oh I'm sorry I'm not going to go into that let's see I plugged miss Harrigan suggestion to look at social media posts by BOE members going forward and I also think

005it would benefit all of us to be more adult and tolerant of each other particularly when someone with an otherwise stellar performance may have made a mistake again that was from Teresa coming the next letter is actually kind of I don't quite understand what this has to do with the Board of Education issue but it is a letter that was submitted to us by the Republican Town Committee executive bored and it reads as follows Cheshire Board of Education there's a huge amount of anger in our nation right now Cheshire is no exception like everywhere in America this anger is destructive and has gotten out of hand the incident in Cheshire I'm referring to involves our town council chairman dedicated and hardworking elected official and deeply caring parent whatever you may think about his policy positions

006and anyone has the right to disagree with him he also has the right and the obligation as our representative to state his views we expect that from our officials he also has the right and obligation to protect his family no one has the right to verbally attack and threaten anyone else this includes the family members of any elected official this is wrong and on American and is exactly what we are seeing in Cheshire today these attacks and threats are so violent law enforcement is now pursuing possible criminal action I repeat there should be no verbal attacks or threats on any public official or their family members we are calling on all citizens of Cheshire to condemn and demand an immediate stop to this reprehensible behavior respectfully the Republican Town Committee Executive Board that's it that's

007all we have tonight yeah at last at first of all thank you Teresa for the kind words and in that last letter I believe was a response to an incident happened last week before the one get all the details was that issue yeah it wasn't resolved but I at ghost on the comments that we as board members have heard from folks things in that letter in this day and age we all understand that folks are understandably upset number of topics however whether it's a board member town council member a parent student anyone our community or frankly any human being for that matter let's give the benefit of the doubt let's not jump to conclusions and you know again I don't get the details of what that was about that was covered in a recent article

008but long story short you know I guess we should be doing the not doing the do as I say not as I do approach let's set a great example for our kids our school system let's learn to respect one another you know whether it's a threats or inflammatory comments being made toward people let's try not to view that in Fargo if B for me be perfect I still him that but that we have so much going on in our town in our country and especially for reopening so far what we've seen with the feedback from folks and we'll get that tonight's been very professional that hasn't been any name-calling folks have great concerns great ideas and I hope we can continue to foster that productive dialogue and see where it leads us and hopefully do

009it as a community towards any topic that comes before us in it so so I understand I intend to letter thank you for sending that sometimes gonna be reminded that the overall humans and you know we all feel pain and we all go through your emotions but let's all respect each other plus we can that being said superintendent Solon I believe he have an update for us about the fall reopening would you like to take lead thank you very much mister peres Jeanne I just wanna you know echo what mr. Perry Jeanne said at the outset that this is you know it's a new process that nobody has ever had to deal with before and there are a lot of strong feelings on every side of this I my presentation that we sent out on

010Friday was a starting point for this and there are a lot of questions as I indicated in that presentation and I appreciate you know the hundred or so people have emailed me questions that they had or comments that they had it's probably more than a hundred actually over the last few days and I'm trying to respond to each of you as quickly and individually as I can I'm on early this morning in terms of my replies so I'm running about one day behind and I'm trying to get to people as quickly as I can so I appreciate their patience what I'm going to do is run through that presentation hitting on the air that had the questions I'd highlighted them in the presentation in you know this situation evolves so quickly and there's always new

011information so you know from Friday to today there's new information there are new conditions and so things are always changing and I hope to hit on some of those updates as well I know one of the questions you know I've seen asked is why don't you hold this meeting in person if you think everybody can come to school in August well you know obviously that right now the executive orders allow for only meetings of 25 people you know we can't accommodate that with the public so we hold a virtual meeting and try and get everybody to attend maybe soon in the near future we'll hold the board together but not you know unfortunately the public still won't be able to participate the plan we're developing is for the end of August and we hope that

012by the end of August we could have live board meetings as well as a school live but I'm going to go through the presentation again and just kind of hit on a lot of the key points I would ask that people that have questions the board will have an opportunity to ask questions at the end at that point we can start to pick up some of the additional co vid 19 mails but obviously I can't recite 125 emails and then in the next you know even the next five hours so we'll try and catch on some of those additional ones at the end so I'm just going to present screen now okay so just a little bit of context the state announced the return to plan at the end of June I think this is

013important timing because obviously since the end of June and those subsequent few weeks the rest of the united states has become much different and they're dealing with many of the same crises that we were in our region of the country back in March and April but it's obviously you know pretty serious around the rest of the country and as well as we've done as a state I know a lot of people are concerned about that changing for us this is a really a first step in a long process Tony mentioned you know having additional meetings this isn't going to be just a simple oh here's the plan we're all set because things evolved so quickly and things change so frequently this is going to have to be flexible there are strong open options to open

014school in opinions and there are equally strong opinions to close schools you know there's a petition signed by 95 people for a hybrid model so there are a lot of strong feelings on this topic all around and again things are changing constantly but our goal remains to educate students to the greatest extent possible in the manner which is safest for them in our community that includes all of our you know hundreds of student orell hundreds of staff and teachers and staff so we did have been working with a reopening committee their work like our work is really never done we're constantly going back and looking at you know new information reviewing information from the state CDC American Academy of Pediatrics and working closely with our consulting physician dr. Jim O'Connor he has been a tremendous

015resource to us he participates every Monday and zoom calls with Yale and is shared a lot of contemporary information that's helped us so our primary resources I as I indicated this document is on our website the the PowerPoint that I sent out Friday which has live links to these documents and you can see some of the information there so the guiding principles you know as of the end of June and early July included safeguarding the health and safety of students and staff a big piece of the guidance from at the end of June was allowing all students the opportunity to return full-time and I emailed the state again just to confirm that they weren't wavering on that they wrote me back this morning and they're not the the governor and commissioner is clear that all

016districts should develop plans that have students report to school in the fall on a full-time basis now a second level for the plan should be a combination of in-person and remote learning and people said well what about other communities that have planned the hybrid model that's not acceptable and that's you know I know that information isn't really widely out there that the state's not accepting of that plan now that being said might things change in two weeks absolutely are we having conversations with people at the state about how do we provide a diversity of options including potentially hybrid for August absolutely but we are required to submit a plan to the state on July 24th that includes full-time return school and remote learning those are the two options for the for the Fall that we're

017required to provide now a lot of this is predicated on executive orders which expire on September 9th so might there be a change there could be but at this point this is what we require to communicate to the state so knowing we only have those two options per the state plan we created a poll with only two options for parents this was intentional we didn't include a hybrid option because the state requires us to submit this survey data to them by this Friday when given the two options what did people select and I appreciate that this doesn't include the spectrum of feelings that exist on the topic but it does give us a sense of in our best case scenario if we could do absolutely our best and satisfy everybody about 88% of people would

018return knowing we're not satisfying 88% there's probably a larger portion than that 12% who were indicating that they were going to try and engage in remote learning and I know that there's a number of that 88% that would really prefer a hybrid option but again for the purpose of the state and the survey that I have to respond to by Friday that wasn't an option so there are two options that will be available for families this fall per the current state of Connecticut guidance in-person and remote learning now again we are preparing hybrid now get to that at the end so as I indicated there have been a number of emails that have come in over the last few days and I've highlighted the topics that are really the marquee areas for questions and I'll

019elaborate on those as we get to each section so mask wearing the cloth masks have been identified as the most effective they are more durable washable and we encourage people to wear cloth plastics now cloth masks now those three ply blue ones that you see around those are also acceptable we have purchased a lot of PPE in expectation of a return to school whether it be hybrid or otherwise or a full-time we will need additional PPE when students lose breaks spill things on them you know we will provide those additional PPE the amount that should cover the nose and mouth at all times in one of the questions is in hot conditions you know are they as effective what makes them ineffective is if students or adults take them off so in that case you

020know we have as we've indicated we will move toward early dismissal or a remote learning day when it gets to be too hot in the room there is not yet an actual number you know 84 degrees Fahrenheit or something that we have identified and I don't know that we will the same way we don't say you know X inches of snow before you close school it's not that rigid a factor and it could be you know 84 in one room in 104 in a room across town so we're not you know I'm gonna say by room or by by building it's not an exact science like that so maximizing social distancing and I think this is probably one of the greatest concerns that people have particularly at the high school level where space between students

021is not like the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends at least through feet that's generally the case for students that are younger smaller less likely to engage in transmission through aerosol because of the proximity and their size when you're talking about older children at the high school level the goal would be to keep them six feet apart the state guidance says that you have to maximize to the greatest extent possible that that so distancing and as I've said before there's only really one way to expand our social distancing beyond the two ways to beyond the current distancing that's a lot you can either create more space we've looked at other spaces in town and not found them to be suitable either due to size or environmental conditions the other way that we're creating more space in

022the room is securing storage space and pulling everything in the room like kind of stripping it down out so that we can create more space between students the only other way to do it is have less students there in the current current state guidance in the all kids back to school plan we can't mandate kids stay home but if students elect to and obviously at least 12% we're saying that they were going to that would be less students in the classroom you know this is this is not going to satisfy CDC guidance today I think the state felt like it would be adequate in August but again circumstances are constantly evolving some self protective measures scheduled hand-washing times additional portable hand washing station portable - they're paper towels and waste baskets one of the questions

023was about the supervision to make sure that we don't have too many kids in the bathroom at one time and so yes we have to design a protocol to ensure that we don't have kids stacked one on top of the other in restrooms additional cleaning protocols there are questions here about what are the chemicals used and what's the frequency of cleaning so I'm gonna pass this off to mr. Massey on if that's okay the kind of walk through some of these highlighting the eating schedule and then the the HVAC situation okay good evening everyone yeah as far as cleaning I guess there's a couple of things I'd like to say before we walk through these bullets quickly one is that you know we do have our own building maintainer z-- that will be in the

024building during the day and we rely on performance environmental which is our cleaning contractor and very capable cleaning contractor who have been cleaning our buildings typically in the evening so it's a combination of those two forces that we'll be able to increase the cleaning protocols that we that we do the first bullet here talks about contact areas will be limited where possible so by propping doors open it will prevent people from touching door handles that reduces contact we will be training our staff on you know not only sanitizing to the extent that they're using disinfecting products they will be trained on those into this disinfecting products that we that we use I can't name them because we've got a couple of different ones that are on order or some are already in-house but you know

025they are compliant with what the CDC guidelines are and they are you know approved in that they are expected to kill coronavirus but you know there's a difference between sanitizing and disinfecting sanitizing after you clean will clean a certain amount of you know bacteria and not necessarily virus you know disinfecting users stronger products that will kill virus but they're also a little bit more intolerable to students and staff so as a general statement will be disinfecting in the evenings and sanitizing during the day we are going to hire additional staff from performance environmental so that we can clean all bathrooms in all district schools at least once during the middle of the day we'll use our building maintainer and try to increase that but at a minimum we'll be cleaning all bathrooms midday and we'll

026focus our attention on those high use bathrooms in each of the schools our cleaning contractor will be following you know guidelines you know actually we rely you know on them with some to give us some of the guidelines and make recommendations for products so they're very very well-versed you know in sanitizing and disinfecting we will be providing in all classrooms libraries learning spaces disinfecting wipes hand sanitizer I can tell you as of today you know we do have an order you know hand sanitizer for all the classrooms which should get us through the first month you know we have about 2,000 hand sanitizer 16-ounce containers we also have you know received our initial supply of additional touchless a hand sanitizer dispensers which will be located near the entrances and areas such as our cafeterias and

027our library so you know we I feel confident about the hand sanitizer supplies that will have disinfecting wipes still a little bit hard to get we do have 500 containers that have been ordered and they're on their way you know we are trying to you know get the best possible price for the best possible product I mean there are you know as much as I know the governor has said that you know we don't want any price gouging some of the prices is kind of kind of ridiculous still so we are shopping to get the best product we can at the best possible price and you know we're mindful of inventory and if we don't order soon we we may have some product that will run out but you know feel pretty confident that you

028know we'll be able to get enough disinfecting wipes to get us through the first month of school we may have to pay a little bit of a higher price than I'd like to but we'll manage that and I know the other question that has been received from a couple different sources is you know what are we doing as far as you know air circulation throughout the buildings you know there's there's a whole technical aspect of this that I'm not an expert in but I will share some of the information that which club at our facilities manager you know has shared that you know we're doing or will do over the next few weeks and we're also consulting with an HVAC you know engineer on on some of the things that we need to do I

029know there's a lot of different recommendations out there so I'm just gonna run through a few things first of all we had already started inspecting and cleaning all the exhaust duct work this summer we do that you know every summer anyway we usually do it on a rotating you know basis through all of the schools but obviously you know with the concern over Kovan we've stepped that up so you know we will be cleaning the ductwork this summer the filtration that we have not every building I think the board members you know and you know a lot of parents and staff realized that most of our buildings do not have air conditioning the only school that's fully air-conditioned at that point is Highland parts of Cheshire High School some of our buildings really have no

030air conditioning other than window units to speak of so in those cases are where we do have you know air conditioning and/or it doesn't necessarily have to be air conditioning some of our schools are heated mechanically through rooftop units there's no air conditioning just heat blows through but we are upgrading the filters we've been using merv 8 filters and we're moving to a merv 11 filters and all that means is that merv 11 catches smaller particles and prevents them from you know from entering the air space you know where students and staff will be you know there is a little bit of an offset by using merv 13 versus merv a you increase your energy consumption and you and you somewhat decrease the amount of err that pushes through those filters but certainly you know

031worth doing in this case and you know that is you know that is already underway we'll also be changing our filters instead of twice per year during the school year we'll be changing the filters three times you know to try and stay on top of that our own staff you know does those filter changes part of our routine maintenance anyway we're just stepping it up one of the questions and recommendations and concerns that was received was the amount of fresh air that comes in you know through our mechanical systems you know and into our buildings and there are recommendations around that from the CDC among others but I just want to explain that there is a balance you can't have a hundred percent fresh air coming into a building when on a day like today

032it's very hot and very humid out because all you're doing is you're pulling fresh air in that's you know charged with humidity which can lead to mold growth so there is a balance as to you know how much fresh air is allowed you know based on on the time of year and other conditions you know so that is going to be adjusted appropriately so that it's balanced but you know again that that's something that our systems if there is building control system will do for us automatically and that will be managed by our facilities manager the other and probably the last thing that I want to touch on here is you know one of the things that we can do in spaces where we have windows is open windows so to the extent we don't

033have air conditioning we can't open windows and again there's a balance on a really hot humid day opening the windows mail out more humidity in but it will allow fresh air not all our classrooms are near a window we have many interior classrooms we don't have much of a choice on those and so one of the things that our facility staff is doing is going through buildings just making sure that we repair any windows that might be inoperable inspect them you know and and in a nutshell will doing everything that we can along this front of you know improving the air circulation increasing the filtration you know consulting what experts were appropriate and I think we're doing what's reasonable and you know we'll help any spread of kovat and I guess my final point is

034you know we're gonna be operating this plan on the basis that the infection rate in in our area is very low if the infection of kovat you know increases or even if we have a case of Co but I think that will change what we do but it's important to understand that when we start out in August you know we do expect that you know the infection rate in our state is low and we won't have COBIT in our building so all these precautions were taking you know are intended to prevent if there is a case that breaks out it would minimize the impact of that and Jeff I think that's that's all I have in this slide okay thank you lunch protocols or another issue that's come up quite a bit in the email

035responses you know at the high school in middle school were looking at not only adding additional waves if need be but really trying to spread students out to the greatest extent possible so we will have students who are in the CAF in the gyms outside so we're really trying to leverage all available space to provide for for socially distant dining that's greater space obviously than in the classroom level people don't have masks so we're trying to have people still seated by cohort but spread out to the greatest extent we can't additionally at the elementary level we're exploring dining in classroom versus dining in common areas so you remain in your cohort group with the mask off but you know obviously there are a lot of challenges in dining for both the high school middle school

036the the secondary options and the elementary that we're trying to work through I can't say that we have liked for many of these every detail down yet we have round ideas on July 10th and 14th that we're continuing to work with the Health Department and in this case the cafeteria staff and the building principals to work out what's going to be best but I want to actually just go back to this that lunch will be available to all in some way shape or form is what the plan is right now even if we were our remote we'd go back to the grab and go option that we provided last year very successfully cohorting is an area where I have a lot more questions from the high school level so I'm at the middle school level

037and I haven't had really many questions at the elementary level the one question that comes up I guess that's related to all levels is the efficacy of cohorting when students are also exposed to students on the bus and you know it's it's a fair question students are also exposed to other individuals when they go home it's not you know the strictest cohorting in the world where you know you would only be in your home with individuals you live with now in this situation you are exposed obviously to other individuals who are exposed to other individuals cohorting is most effective when you can have rapid testing right now is see we really don't have rapid testing there's one rapid testing station that I'm aware of in Hartford the one in New Haven closed and you know

038per the Health Department as of today the testing that's available takes seven to the ten days to turnaround which makes cohorting not really the most effective strategy at that point in high school situations you know it's a balance between how do we allow students access to all the courses they would need to graduate and better fulfill their educational goals versus cohorting and so we're still trying to work on is there a way that we could be more restrictive at the high school now treasures not the only district dealing with these challenges I'll tell you that I speak regularly with another group of superintendents from all over the state actually Marlene Solano our assistant superintendent she's often dealing with other assistant superintendents around curriculum and instruction issues mr. anciano also with facility issues I'll tell you

039once we release this plan more than a dozen districts have contacted us to say this looks like a great plan per the state guidelines is it perfect no but you know this is the best we can do within the constraints we were given and we will continue to improve on that and report that out to the board and community but this is where we are today transportation questions about bus AIDS bus AIDS are there to try and provide more support on the bus to make sure that students are wearing masks and are distancing to the greatest extent possible the only people that we want sitting together initially are siblings obviously some cases that it won't only be siblings masks will be required we're encouraging families to drive their children to school possible we recognize that

040one of the facility issues we have in buildings his parent drop off already and pick up so we're working I reached out today to the Cheshire Police Department to work with their Traffic Division to support us in designing plans that allow for a safe and efficient drop-off in pick up again it's not great now but we hope to make it at least what you're getting today under these conditions where we know we're going to have more vehicles health protocols some questions about the smart thermometers we can't require people to participate with smart thermometers at home they're anonymous I don't know if you did it or you didn't but this is a way that our health district has really endorsed is a strategy to measure the impact of any sort of virus on the community so

041if we're getting more fevers the Tres per cot would be the first to know and be able to educate us and intervene the thermometers a lot of questions about when will they be distributed our plan is to make them available to families in August again we're not screening every individual when they come to the door that's not current health guidance for medical advisement but it's just not that valuable because you get a lot of false negatives or a lot of false positive excuse me and you have people sitting on top each other waiting to be tested which is we're trying to avoid that to the greatest extent we can health protocol is obviously number one and stay home if you are feeling six sick one of the big questions I've been getting is about testing

042I just talked a little bit about testing and the availability of such in our state right now it's relatively limited to be fair you can't actually you could probably get tests that it's just the turnaround on that is 7 to 10 days we don't have the guidance as of today to report about how will we handle a positive test or a presumed positive I'm meeting with superintendents from Southern t'en Meriden and Wallingford on Monday with our respective health directors to try and come up with a strategy for that that we can communicate to people but right now they're saying that we need to just take it case-by-case and respond accordingly so I will look forward to sharing more information on that as we move forward I will reiterate though that if there's a positive test

043or a presumed positive in a building we notify people within that building to make sure that they were aware so if they did choose to you know if they were in person and we're and the student chose to go remote we can permit that that's one of the questions that we had as well about students who chose in person versus remote can they go back and forth and the answer there is yes obviously it's not good for the student or anybody in the building if they're changing every other week but we can you know hopefully if if you started remote and things are going well and you want to go in person you can do that or vice versa before and after school care the why and I think this is a source of confusion

044for some that right now the state does not require children in day camps to wear face masks now since this pandemic started in March the state tracks daycare providers and camp providers in the state of Connecticut there are 15,000 that have run over that time 20 of them have closed due to kovat issues so the transmission rate now these are people without masks that were together in April during the height of what we were dealing with so the transmission rate was was quite low amongst children the staff do need to wear masks though it did these camps so the transition back to school and one of the things that we are proposing and we have to get permission from the state because it does not meet the all kids all day requirement if if we

045were to start school tomorrow we would have to get permission to bring kids back in smaller groups so maybe a third or a quarter of the students each of the first four days of school we didn't have the opportunity to have spring transition tours and all that other stuff that we typically do for students who are transitioning to new schools we would also really want to have small group time with new teachers so students can meet their new teachers they can understand what the protocols are for mask-wearing there they can travel the school and get a lay out of the building understand where they're going outside for breaks understand where they're having lunch that sort of thing before they get really into the full year a smooth excuse-me smooth transition is so critical for our

046students and staff that we want to do everything we can to support them so again we would we would talk about that would state to see if we could provide that today's news is that the state has reduced the number of student days from a hundred and seventy seven to a hundred and excuse me from one hundred eighty to one hundred and seventy-seven so in this case we will add three professional development days probably toward the beginning of the school year when its hottest and our staff are still learning you know kind of what they're doing in terms are this will really help our remote instruction and if we need to go there and to support kids who may be home as well as you know if we're in a hybrid model and a coaching

047our staff through that or you know the full in law so for those students that are engaging in remote learning some of the highlights here I want to reiterate that you know when we went to remote learning we I've said this you know probably no ad nauseum that we had centuries of brick-and-mortar learning literally two days to school days we were closed before we went to remote learning and nothing it wasn't perfect it did not replicate what happened in the classroom but it was a pretty good effort I would say and a lot of our families felt that way and the meetings we've had with them for the circumstances but we also recognize that you know here we are now months later we want to provide a remote learning experience that most closely reflects what's

048happening in the classroom the best way to do that is through synchronous instruction recognizing that that doesn't work for every family we anticipated actually last spring that there would be a number of illnesses and people weren't going to be able to access live learning at the time well thank God that didn't happen but if that were to happen or people have work schedules and can't be with kids they may not be able to have their child log on to a live session we want to be able to provide some asynchronous opportunities too so synchronous just means basically when the child is that when the class is logged on so if they're doing a 10:00 a.m. reading group in school a child at home would be going on to a google meet and doing a 10:00

049a.m. live with their class that's that synchronous learning and what we've started to work toward is providing technology that really just amplifies a Google meet so right now and I when a teacher has Google meets with kids it's just like what you're seeing now teacher on a camera you know the audio isn't always perfect and certainly if there are people in the room it can be harder to hear so what we're purchasing are 456 classrooms a camera that's mounted and just pointed at the front of the room that the teacher controls when the teacher brings up on their screen and presents the same way I'm doing you see what's on the SMART Board the kids in the room see what's on the SMART Board Audio is connected to the the mic that the teacher wears

050around their neck so the microphone the teacher controls that they can turn it on and off the microphone plays through the speakers in the room but also to the students at home through the computer when the student at home speaks when the they're unmuted from their mic they when they speak it also plays through the speakers so the whole class can hear it when students in the class are having discussion there are additional microphones in the ceiling that pick up that audio so that the student at home can hear it again these things can be all turned and on and off by the teacher in the room but it certainly provides a much more realistic experience for any student who's engaging in synchronous learning at home through asynchronous learning we hope to be able to

051provide more videos of live not live teacher instruction but teacher instruction so recordings of our staff rather than just you know sending somebody to to a link that should those links should supplement what our teachers do obviously not replace that so for asynchronous learning environments that you know things like PE obviously can't really be offered that the idly live with a mic setup it's it's not that that sort of coursework we would be doing a asynchronous video special education services are something that we you know appreciate that many of our students who receive special education services are immunocompromised as well and so those families have the added concern of an interest education but that health and safety situation and so we're working with those situations individually Tracy Hussey our our pupil personnel for director and

052her team have really tried to develop strategies to support students who are at home and need to engage in education so they're looking at those on a case-by-case basis so our key is is flexibility we realize that you know right now the state has said you can do one of two things that may very well change so as such we're providing you know we're developing a hybrid model and I'm working with as I said other area superintendents to develop that because we have a common problem of staffing so if if our day that we have staff home for cleaning or whatever is different than the neighboring town we share staff so it creates problems for staffing and me being able to get people available to teach the classes so we're all trying to sync this

053up and so what we're currently looking at is a model that provides for in person live instruction for half the students so like cohort a if you said half the students in a fourth-grade class where cohort a they would come to school Monday and Tuesday for the full day the other group would be home those days everybody would be home on Wednesday and then they would flip on Thursday and Friday in in this this option Wednesday would be a cleaning day with limited high needs students and attendants and again we're trying to synchronize this with some of our neighbors to support staffing and other needs that we have so it you know appreciate everybody you know sitting through this hour to try and better understand where we are and why we are where we are

054the fact that we still have many unanswered questions and I appreciate everybody wants to know how is X Y or Z gonna work and as things evolve in information that we gathered changes and evolves today there was a positive report about the development of a vaccine now that would dramatically change things for us so as these things evolve we're trying to better provide details that we can in turn provide to the board and to the community so that they can make the the community in a in August our parents can make a more informed decision about is sending my child school the right thing to do is there is there not some sort of hybrid option or what will remote learning look like so that I I can make that determination the survey was not

055set in stone as I indicated the day that we sent the survey July 7th this was not something that was definitive you're not declaring today we would look for people to declare in the middle of August so that we could better understand what you know what the enrollment will look like again with the flexibility to be able to change when they need to now that gives us a month to provide more information we don't want to take the full month but as I said it's things evolve it's going to take some time to get this information together put a plan together to reopen school in a way that we never had before but again these are the state guidelines as they exist today and you know we're continuing to talk to them about how to

056how to meet guidelines or provide different sort of guidance so that's it for my presentation and they you want to be able to field questions from the board I have suggested before we get the board and we got any additional emails for Tacoma mailbox and now give us a chance form of our questions as you're a handful here you know if you guys don't mind if you have questions now it will help it'll help me kind of buzz through these as you know cuz I vary from what I've already shared I don't want to waste anybody's time so up first in white and then thank you Tony Jeff thank you for this Thank You Marlene then and all the staff who helped with getting us to this point I like the idea I mean I

057think it's good to follow the state guidelines but I just have to ask the question if you don't is there any sort of if we don't is there some sort of enforcement mechanism and I just I'm wondering like hamton's doing a hybrid well then yeah me know him handin announced a hybrid but you know I know that somebody reached out to them rather quickly about that so you know in terms of a consequence for doing any sort of alternative you know we're not there yet we've talked to the you know we're initiating conversations about you know what alternatives might we be able to consider and trying to work through it productively rather than just to finally undulate for it for me no no and that's not what I don't want that at all like I

058said I mean I definitely prefer to follow the state guidelines I just wonder if we end up with a situation where it just really doesn't make any sense and they're slow to act you know they haven't declared that okay thank you so I heard I don't know if I missed it tonight per se but I know you were about the parent the parent surveys parent perspective something I mentioned a few months ago in one of our meetings and I know you're aware of it at the time you hadn't heard much about it but teachers do we have any significant number of teachers who have said that they don't want to step foot in the classroom I mean not not one or two out of 400 but like you know 10% 20% have you gotten any

059sort of feedback like that sure we started surveying teachers today you know I mentioned the there's a survey that we need to submit to the state on Friday and part of that rationale is we were you know still receiving guidance from not just our attorney but there are other attorneys offering guidance to districts on this issue because there are legal guidelines by which you you know you have to fulfill so whether it's an ABA issue versus a health care a different sort of issue that there are a myriad of them so we did put that survey out today I should have more information next week and I am meaning you know just to talk about the personnel issue I am meeting with you know our team our leadership team at central office is meeting with

060various groups that have you know the stake in this so we're meeting with teachers Thursday I think it's is and maintenance staff next week nurses you know so we're meeting with their leadership secretaries you know that to say because our goal is obviously for parents and for students we want to create the safest than welcome most welcoming environment we can for them to return and so it's important to meet with all those groups as well as well as getting parent feedback okay and and just just last comment here which is I know you mentioned September 9th is sort of an end for Executive Orders right now correct yeah so just you know as far as I'm concerned yeah and just keep me in mind keep the BOE in mind about any actions that you might

061need to take sort of rapid-fire keep us aware of things and Aled how things progress we'll do it maybe the executive order may be extended if the you know conditions change here obviously there's the the executive orders are issued under a state of emergency now the state of emergency is you know set to expire on September 9th so you know if the state of emergency is extended then we'll be still using those executive orders if it's not then it's kind of like you're free to do whatever you want okay but I mean when it's a but if I recall correctly kind of what happened with the executive order is it gave more authority to you as a superintendent so when the executive order ends that authority would see back to the to the board right

062is that if you yeah but we really haven't heard anything like that okay okay all right anyway thank you sure thanks Tony thank you dr. Solon that was an excellent presentation with a lot of information and I know a lot of people were have been watching this evening and I'm sure they're all trying to digest this plan as well I'll have I'll begin with two questions the first one is a two-parter so policy-wise we have in it we have an attendance policy which I believe is 20 excused absences and I wasn't sure if the governor's executive orders covered whether or not that policy is suspended or not it's as far as you know how quarantine ii may occur yeah the governor's orders don't but we can we have the authority to address that and I

063that and I'm glad you mentioned it Adam because that was an area that I've had some questions on and there's some more here about attendance but the the attendance we understand it's like extraordinary this year that you may be home not because you're sick but because you have to be for five days or seven days or something like that and we don't want that to count against your matriculation but what we do know also is that it really underscores the importance of us providing a remote learning environment that is as good as can possibly be and particularly if your child is home healthy you know I have two little boys that I don't want playing roblox in fortnight all day if they're home so anyway the the attendance policy is something we have to look

064at but like I said the virtual learning the remote learning piece is really important in to just touch again on that technology outfit I was explaining today that we did this as an investment in our students education not just a band-aid for kovat now the the cost of doing one of these rooms is about $3,200 per room that's that's a good chunk of change for us in you know so you're just short of two hundred thousand dollars when you're doing 56 60 rooms in order for us to really expand remote learning we would probably have to add at least another 60 rooms if we were gonna go a hybrid model that includes you know in school out of school we would really have to engage in a conversation with the Town Council now I am

065reticent to do that today because I also don't want to just spend two hundred thousand dollars if I don't you know again it's an investment but I don't want to you know treat it like it's just free money either this will be very valuable you know resource and technology for students when kovat is over but it's still 200 grand so you know that is something we're looking at don't be surprised if next month particularly if we're going to that sort of hybrid model I turn around and say to you guys you know we've had these rooms and come look at them because here's why we need another 60 not just for their hybrid learning but for the value of what would take place in the room once it's over so I just want to underscore

066that point too as an elaboration on the attendance okay thank you and so so what we need to do you think we wouldn't need to suspend anything as far as you're concerned whatever occurs were fine for now as far as holding anyone to their twenty days per matriculation yeah we you know right now I don't think we would we would do that we are modifying our attendance we're reviewing that I met with our administrators today we have to have to look at that okay um so the next one then it gets a little more complicated would be the thresholds for quarantine I know I've seen the the one of the major questions out there is well what if a teacher goes down number one what happens to the class if a student in the class

067I guess feels they're sick and then if and if or they test positive for Kovac does the entire cohort have to be quarantined for 14 days have you done any war gaming as to how that would look on how that would affect the school population and their education or is it just a matter of being able to transition instantly to the remote model and then are you expecting the teacher who potentially could be sick to continue teaching remotely as well or have you thought through any of that sure situation yeah and it's obviously super messy and it gets more difficult for every school system in Connecticut every business in Connecticut that has people returning to work given the fact that we don't have rapid testing availability that's easily available so you know if I suspect

068the student or staff member is sick and they were able to go to a pediatrician or a walk-in and get a quick swab half-hour you know if you got it or you don't that is much different then I think you're sick you get swabbed we'll let you know in two weeks and so we're working with the health department dr. O'Connor the state to try and develop guidance around that because that's that's a very real issue the testing right yeah that's I'm sure it's a huge moving target right now so I guess so so then too for my last question then on flexibility you had mentioned it before so if a you had we add to what eleven percent of I guess families we're saying they wouldn't begin the year in person and so then you

069would have the 88 percent in person what if someone were decide to switch what would be the time the notice that would need to be given if someone wanted to come back in or someone wanted to leave yeah I think it'd be about a day or two a dad - okay you know though ambitious we'd like to try and turn it around as quickly as we can but you know the only thing I would caveat that with is for somebody who's been on remote learning to return if they need to have some sort of test which I don't know why we would because we don't test everybody who comes every day anyway but that's something we would work through with the Health Department but I'd like to be able to turn it around pretty quickly

070thank you you know Andrew Europe and then I'm sure Java's might say thank you for everything you've been doing in your team you guys really put together a good plan in short order I know that the game is constantly changing so I appreciate all the work you guys been putting in this summer I'm following up on what Adam was saying will there be a cut-off where as families will alert the district if they will be sending their children back to or reason why I say that I know that you're saying that people can go from remote learning to back in the classroom but just when it comes to space planning in the schools and reducing the class sizes and maintaining the social distancing wouldn't it make sense and know exactly what that number is set

071that number and then have I mean I'm kind of the part of that if you're gonna keep your cat home you should have you know give the district a couple weeks in order to plan for us soon to come back and forth versus you know we're shooting for mid-august to be able to have enough I think it's a great question Andrew that's that balance between we need enough advance notice but I think it's also fair to our parents to give them as much detail as we can about what school will look like before I ask you to decide you know we all appreciate I know you're a parent of a you know kids in our system I have kids too I want to know before I make that decision what's appropriate for my child and

072family and so we're gonna try and balance that those two competing issues got it thanks yep thanks Andrew and your hi yeah Jeff thank you and Marlene and the whole team this is a huge undertaking that you've been doing this summer when will we know if we I mean we need we need some lead-in time if we're going to be retrofitting these classrooms with this new technology right so do we need to know sort of when we might be able to do this hybrid model by a certain time or because I'm I'm pretty convinced that the hybrid model is kind of going to be the way to start out and that's just because I think things will change as we go through the next several weeks if any indication from what is happening in other

073parts of the country start to happen he in Connecticut so I'm just wondering because doing the hybrid model really is going to take quite a bit of time to get classrooms retrofitted in order to do it do we need to sort of know from the state at a certain point that we can that we do have the go-ahead to do that yeah I think we need to get information from the state we are planning the hybrid to an extent you know in terms of installing those the technology even now you the the technology we've ordered is extensive in the install doesn't just happen in a day it's pretty significant a they're telling us we'll guarantee you by September 15 I know likelihood of it being installed before that but the biggest challenge is really availability

074of the materials so like right now there's such a demand on it's like tents so for example even if we wanted to hold our traditional graduation ceremony even if that was permitted getting tense right now is super hard in chairs because the restaurants have had them all so like there's a lot of demand for this technology from businesses and things like that another school system so you know when we put our information public we had a ton of people reaching out to us and we've been trying too close to the vest about where we're getting it from because it's competitive you know so even if we said we're gonna install more it would be throughout the the fall best case we have more installed by October 15th another 60 rooms great and the other sort

075of follow-up question would be is there not in your expert opinion is there not a lot of teacher training that would be involved with using this equipment or is it pretty yeah smart boards yeah because there's smartboards it's already part of the teaching yeah it's it's super intuitive because if you've run Google meat before it's it's a lot like that you're just running a Google mean and turning your camera on and off turning the mics on and off it's very much like that making a presentation whether you're at home or in the in the room okay great thank you thanks again faith you have a question yeah um first of all I know that there are a lot of people watching on YouTube and there have been some really dedicated members of the community who've

076been sitting in on these committee meetings and I just want to commend them you know it's they've done a fabulous job and Jeff and Marlene and VIN have been peppered with questions over and over and over again so thank you to those guys who are watching Jeff just to be sure you have ordered the equipment we you don't need approval from the board to expend those funds from yeah that's correct it's all on the state bid and so when previous meetings when we talked about it and reached out to people it was endorsed by board members but we could just do that out of our operating budget if we wish it's just an expenditure of the book of the school system okay or you to make so you're retrofitting those rooms no matter what if

077Kovac goes away tomorrow are you going to yes okay because we think actually from an instructional perspective you know like I did a classroom walkthrough where you know myself and another group of other superintendents go to different districts and provide feedback on the instruction and how to improve teaching and learning you know I did that in Weston several months ago before the whole koban thing all their rooms are outfitted with this sort of technology and it's such a game changer the kids tell me the ability to focus the hearing of the information is so much clearer and the engagement is so much easier when everybody can hear every word that said from the teacher so it is an investment so that's why I would say yeah I think we knew we need to move forward

078with this would I be you know doing it in this fashion and this is expeditiously if it weren't for Co vid no but it is valuable after the fact if I could add one more question okay interesting someone raised an interesting point one of the letters today regarding the filming of teachers and students and classrooms with privacy concerns that's just one policy Tim has already raised this you know how a quick response by the subcommittee's wherever it may be but in policy in particular do you see other areas besides the privacy where we may have to make some adjustments are these waived because of executive orders I mean how is this all going to be dealt with now you know Marlene and I were on a call yesterday we were talking about well I guess

079you know the state was indicating that well I I guess where it says policy in the reopen plan we don't really mean policy is in a board of education policy that we're gonna change for the co vid period we mean you just need to have a clear protocol on this so you know with the cameras in the classroom the camera is situated in such a way that it's only shooting at the front of the room where we don't have students seated anyway additionally at least not during kovat additionally we are working with the Union to facilitate this if people think that like if they're just doing on a google meet that they can't already be recorded they're crazy you know or you know we have situations where it's it's not permitted but people have cell

080phones out in school and record each other it's you know that that's the reality of the world we live in today it's not a you know it's an unfortunate reality but this is so powerful to support teachers and students through this difficult time that it's it's well worth it and then afterward you don't even need the camera but it's a the camera itself is a very small part financially of the install okay thanks sure I'm chuckling because I sent Jeff and Marlene today I don't think three pages of summary questions that I've seen a there's a lot of questions that when details emerge about how for example we're going to enforce for example if a student shows up at the front door when I'm asked is not allowed to come in without one and we

081give them one and they refuse you know I think there's a lot of that detail clear and I want to thank for so let me just backtrack a little bit I want to thank the entire reopening team base an entire CPS staff Nasia Board and so many parents out there that have been in turn a great way involved answering questions giving ideas there's a lot of work on into this you know I don't want to be to beat a drum on that but and there's still a lot more work coming so a B you know be a disservice not to recognize everyone that's been helping and I know there's more to come even today we received more messages and folks that want to help in some way shape or form and that's awesome because this

082is gonna take a community effort to get us through this safely that being said testing I I think it's important point that you made earlier Jeff that right now at least in Connecticut and I haven't heard otherwise some other board about chairs yet but there is not a proliferation of Rapid Response testing and I'm pretty sure Chester cotton would advise us if there were and take advantage of it my guess is if and one that those become available I hope it does even during the course of the school year if there was rapid testing and you could get or student or parent could get a result within a short period of time if that's something that trestle crop has indicated that we should enforce doing in the schools or is that really up to the

083parents to return you tested kids I know it's I know a solution yet that's great oh yeah all the time every day I'm yeah we don't like during strep you know outbreaks and things like that we're not testing kids in school that's really a function of the child's pediatrician so you know this is unique in the sense that it's a global pandemic I think in a perfect world Cheshire would have multiple locations where you could get a rapid response test but I you know I've never heard anybody say that districts school systems should be testing sites it wouldn't shock me if some day that were to come to fruition but that's never been part of the conversation yet no I understand I am I stay this because I know I price I'm like a stuck

084record I guess in a loop but we don't have a vaccine for cobia and I know there's some of the development and some approaching trials and I'm of the mindset was like they do work in the specialty drug farm a part of this health care system that even when a vaccine is made available it's going to take time to proliferate throughout the entire world level our country so in vaccine came up during the school year that's awesome I don't believe that it would be fully vaccinated and you know immune just overnight it's gonna take time to distribute knowing that knowing that the nature of code is a little unpredictable as we are seeing spikes in other states for various reasons you know I haven't know myself they were playing for the worst hoping for the

085best and I go to the hybrid model you mentioned and I know the state right now is only looking that honestly got two options I do know other school districts as folks have mentioned emailed us have talked about a hybrid model but that's all it is right now is talk so that's not the states not gonna happen I would I would hope our governor and if our education or gonna be listening to everyone soon that there should be a third watch in the hybrid model because it's strong support that from that for a number of stakeholders so I know there's a hybrid model plan in the works for us I know it involves around what you mentioned earlier Jeff which is splitting the groups of students you know two days a week on off-site with

086a cleaning but in the worst case scenario if you know refine ourselves shut down schools and bathroom all learning and they have forwarded the board members of comments that please no more Google pre-recorded meetings I think folks have had enough of that but so we are looking for for a rich equitable live Crescent classroom situation so the technology and I know the Jeff was kind of to kind of give me a more detail on technology where it's coming from on a state where but if that technology be using the classroom our magic can also be used at home in some ways of teachers that teach remotely long story short what's the difference between hybrid and synchronous learning if we remove transporting kids to and from schools but they are we any one remote learning ideally

087that's what we had to do with rely on this technology so we could have a serve at a live Google classroom with microphones on and kids participating share some pre-recorded videos I think that would be the the best solution in the worst case scenario if we couldn't go in that school my painful it would really be the equivalent of being in school raise the point you know I mean you're not it's as close as we can get you to be in there without being there so I guess I'm saying is can we sneak this hybrid thing under remote learning option to the state yeah no is remote learning yeah if I still have to provide all day every day for everybody you know if people elect remote learning I want it to be a powerful

088experience for them Yubel experience i also understand that you know for some people particularly of younger ages you know our little guys and girls when they're in second grade if they may not always be in a position where they can engage in live synchronous learning depending on their family situation yeah I understand that oh we we also want to provide we have to provide some asynchronous learning for some kids too which is a challenge to do - make sure as I'm trying to be hopeful that you know we're not waiting until last week of August before the governor says ok with hybrids okay go yeah but I think to come around and I just for folks know there's not a lot of Board of Ed chair emails with cave and this these questions we're receiving

089if there's any positive and all that cuz that's a great idea is is that we're not alone as a community everybody's got the same questions every school district is working for this Friday response and the survey is working for us two options for state but it is also working that third option in their back pocket for hybrid learning with us seems to be the most popular thing I have some other things I until we get further details on the mechanics of you know the traffic situation at the schools will parent drop-off how it's going to work I would just be you know throwing things out that we can't answer right now but I would say is one of the things that would help is I know the reopening team is demeaning and I want to

090thank all those folks I'm pretty sure Maura from Chester Canada's on there which is amazing to me but sometimes I wanted to just clones herself because between that and being around town in so many services industries on top of this I think people understand our state Russell Scott is doing for the community as so many levels so so thank everyone for that the real men team meanings I thought that they would be available on YouTube I haven't seen anything yet but I think because I myself is that may help answer a lot of questions before there is if some of the folks can you know seals meetings ah see after they're done then I reduced the amount of questions coming in to the group yeah moving or we could probably do more of that originally

091I wasn't comfortable recording because we were discussing a property acquisition which we didn't want to inflate the cost of the property taking that off the table you know I'm certain and then we had a technical snafu to be frank on another one but you know certainly happy to publicize that going forward yeah if we can't look in reason all these questions you know I I know you try to answer every single one of them I try to we all do it skim a little yeah oh say we're whelming but it could be kind of a full-time job on top of the two full-time jobs you already have so is there any way you think you know next few weeks we can get a website up or page on our site that you know there's just

092focused on the CPS reopening fa Q's all this information and maybe people can look there first to see if their questions already answered and I know it's more work on on the staff but over 19 their ins you know online learning period it may work probably easier than answering 150 emails so yeah I would definitely you know we could now that we have a really good sense of what the questions are I could certainly build that up onto our website right now if people are watching you know the co bid or go to our home page and the kovin stuff is all there all my correspondences there as well as the the remote learning site but we could definitely add frequently asked questions clearly so it's a good suggestion too one last thing that the

093technicality I call it tech expansion but the technology that you and I talked about and you mentioned tonight about the in classroom and microphones all that I think we probably should give the town council heads-up that you know there's going to be some cost and I appreciate the fact that we could try to absorb that operating budget it's just that you know we have twenty thousand dollars that we set aside and thank pound councils not the account for us to do that to use towards real bringing cost I don't know if that $20,000 been exhausted already just by the nature of PPE this infected addition and cleaning help etc then we layer in about another eight hundred eighty thousand dollars hundred ninety thousand dollars but its technology to come out of operating budget when that

094you know is again I must still fairly tight and I think at least given a heads up that these are things that were looking at because if we don't need that money let's say August 27 or 28 and we may need it in December at least they can plan for that you know ahead of time if it doesn't happen it's not me that's great I think that you know we will need some help it's the only shape or form I just can't imagine how and I won't put you guys in a spot you Vincent in particular but you know I think we're gonna chew that $200,000 just getting ready for your opening I can't imagine that we absorb the rest of it through operating budget without something you put on so it's my two cents

095but we can discuss it you know in their time on that the you know the cares Act money it was another question that I'm going to just jump in weave in from Kobe email question you know that was $99,000 Marlene you're pretty well worse than the care of cares act money if you don't mind just kind of talking about how we spent that money or getting reimbursed for what we've already spent but sure so there was a little bit of hurry-up-and-wait with with these money in that we need to share it with the local private schools and so there was we were waiting some further guidance and that came out last week so we're waiting for what that calculation is that we need to share with the private schools having said that we were going

096to put in for reimbursement for the as many iPads in kindergarten and as many of the first-grade Chromebooks as we could so that's what that funding was earmarked for got it yeah take up so much it's enough to hear me and you know mono it on stereo so if I want to wish that anybody just one last thing if some reason Jeff instead Marlene we think that we need to look at some of our policies to help and force some of the things that we have to do for your opening you know we can always get the positive committee had a head of the school not sure what that is yet but we're still open today that being said I'm sorry before I get the Adam and Tim again Katherine did you have anything I'm

097not try playing a spot and I see your hand raised oh thanks no I mean I I am on the reopening committee song I don't maybe have as many questions as some of the other people do and faith is also on that committee and I think what I want to say is not so much a question but you know the vast you know the the kinds of experience and expertise that is represented on that committee I think people should take a lot of comfort from that you know jeff has really brought together you know people from all sorts of areas you know including more esposito and then nurse supervisor you know consulting with the pediatrician consulting with the fire chief it's been a very collaborative really creative committee and I just want to make sure

098you know people understand that the overriding critical factor that we've all been focused on is like how are we gonna do this in a way that's safe and makes people comfortable did either have to work in the building or send their children to the building so I just you know I want to just emphasize that that that's top of mind for all of us and you know so far I think the plan is coming together but there's no question that as things evolve which they seem to be doing every single day we're just gonna have to be as nimble as we can and yes I completely agree with you Tony of that it's probably a good idea start you know talking to the town council and yeah I guess that's it so thank you thanks

099for the opportunity well and I just want to yeah I agree with you had a reopening team we I I just don't I don't talk about that enough of folks because I'm not sure if the folks on the team really want their names out there you know I'm sure they don't mind that's why I'm hoping that we get the videos up people can watch and they do reach out as needed but so folks watching do know that both faiths Hamm and Kathryn are on that real big team represent the Board of Ed we try to spread the love here so we're all up working on different committees and I'm you had your hand up earlier then and for now so and you want to chime in yes firstly I just wanted to give clarification on

100faiths I guess comment before about privacy this issue had come up throughout the distance learning in the spring time and I had had a conversation with Jeff about it it's a combination of state law because teachers are mandatory reporters so if they do happen to see something in the background of a student's camera like if they're doing a live a live transmission like we are here that that potentially could be an where a teacher would be compelled to report if they saw something out of the ordinary and there's I believe there's also a a consent form that parents sign at some point during the year I'm not sure if it's in the handbook or or Jeff here you have a confused look now yeah we do all parents indicating that the letter is still on

101our website actually indicates you know you're basically this is how we're going to be able to provide instruction with an option to opt-out nobody took advantage of that we had some questions but I think when people realize you know what you see at home is like what we see of everybody else right now it's a very tight camera shot limited information and if this is a most effective way for my child to engage in learning right now we're gonna do it but the letter is on our websites though right so I would encourage those who have concerns to review the letter and secondly regarding the the new technology package that you were talking about what what was your plan for distribution is it like all at the high school is that are you planning for

102X amount in each school or what was the plan for that that's our picture asking the question it came up from a couple of folks on our kovat email address - so the distribution plan was to have one at every grade level K through six in each building plus one on each team at the middle school so one in the seventh grade one of the eighth grade teams plus a couple of world language classes at the middle school and then at the high school level three from each core content area math science social studies English and three in world language plus two more at the high school so that and we would be working with principals and staff members to identify people appropriate teachers that could facilitate that so it's spit so that this seems

103that to me that feels like it's workable at least from middle school down ish but with all of the I guess electives and stuff at the high school I guess that would be very complicated yeah I think that's where we're looking at you know you're you know Tony's point and building on what you were staying and in our attendance issue and hybrid where we probably like to pursue more installations of this but I also I'm being kind of judicious in the way that we roll it out and I'd like to you know get one in the building first have more teachers and as much as it's had Universal endorsement to date I'd like to have more people look at it before we pull the trigger on another two hundred thousand dollars or something like that

104right and has the option been looked at to just you know simple web cameras to do you know like what they I think was there was a screencastify or the live the live synchronous that they that was starting to be done near the end of the year yeah live lectures and stuff has there been you know have you looked into that because that certainly wouldn't cost thirty two hundred if the teacher has you know a fifty dollar webcam and a decent mic and everyone else has their laptops or whatever right yeah and again you know we looked at this from two perspectives one we want to replicate the in-class experience at home to the greatest extent possible and we didn't want to throw good money after bad kind of thing and just buy cheap speakers

105that we would hook onto a onto a and then at the end the co vid we've got a whole lot of cheap speakers that we don't have anything to do with so yes we could do it you know through the Google meet and try and do live but I think it's gonna be really hard for kids at home to be able to follow that with audio without high quality audio so we don't want to create a source of frustration but we are you know looking to see how we can best bridge it with outside of those 56 rooms right but I'm just saying from like let's say if we had the scale quickly like you know you we shut down in a matter of four days he had the changer if we didn't have the

106opportunity to purchase another 56 cameras it's called that or whatever can we still have the ability to at least do this basic yeah rudimentary yeah you're absolutely correct and it's a great point to the challenges though because we you know my company who last year we made a Senate investment there zoom rooms we essentially turned all our conference rooms on all our buildings into almost what this technology does it's pretty it's night and day difference between you know what cam and a laptop versus something that you know kind of follows you around and the clarity and all that but it's also the software that helps make setting up the sessions easier managing and easier for a teacher so it's I'm sure worst case scenario we can still roll out some of the bare-bones web stuff

107but I think when we get a chance to see this I think the board understand why it's a more quality solution but it's good to have both options in our back pocket so if I could just comment one last time so it almost sounds like if we were to have to shut down or go to a hybrid model that it almost sounds like the preference would be to have the kids not in school but have the teachers be in school to use the technology to recreate the in classroom experience or is that sort of the intention with this technology you could in if I think it would depend on the road factors I guess at the point you know if how many people can we have in a building etc and you know what's the

108the teachers situation are they quarantined not quarantine or whatever but we would think that at the least teach we would hope could have access to it if they choose and if if the circumstances present but they could at that point probably do something very similar from home I think what it makes it easier to do is if I'm a teacher who wants and a lot of our teachers are animated and do things in the room and so you'd be able to hear them crystal clear you'd be able to in the room and I'll tell you frankly for me one of the challenges I had for the last three months of the spring is I never left work you know I was constantly at home working and you know it's it's healthy to go to a

109place and work there and at least feel like there's a little bit of separation now obviously I'm at home working tonight but you know I think it's healthy for our staff to have that option - could I just add something to that I was very impressed when you send us the information on that that equipment and the retrofitting Jeff because I can see how it's it's very forward-thinking to start using this technology because I can think of hundreds of reasons why some students might in the future they have in the past been confined to home for illnesses or other other reasons and and this way in the future even post kovat if there is going to be such a thing which doesn't seem like it right now but there probably will be a post go

110fit but we always have students who who are homebound and this provides a really good solution for them still being able to participate in school which i think is fantastic just for that reason alone sure absolutely Tim had his hand up 15 mins ago thank you Tony yeah Jeff I'm not sure if you touched on this at all I could have missed it extracurriculars so everything from high school sports Dodd sports down through you know Cub Scouts and brownies after school in the Elementary's you know after the day is over at the elementary schools do you have any thoughts on that at all at this point or is it it's just not not in radar at all at this point we would say that we're not gonna allow other community groups to use the school

111as of today now that may change we don't want to hinder our ability to engage in disinfection after the school day which is really the the guiding factor in that decision but again that may change as we get closer because I you know I appreciate that our schools are the community facilities and that many organizations rely upon our buildings for meetings like you're talking about in gatherings that are important to the emotional well-being of our kids in the community so we hope to be able to evolve to a place where we can permit that but as of today I would say we're not going to do that and what about what about like CI AC or AB and anything like that there any thoughts on a dance point yeah so that right there is a

112question that came in on the co-ed line to like what are we doing for band and sports so the CIA see at this point we are in a phase of athletics where kids can engage in conditioning in groups of about ten so they can participate in and weightlifting to become physically better prepared for the fall sports season they have a goal CIA C Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference of opening athletics you know to students in the fall and we hope you know for our kids sake and our community safe that they can do so health you know safety safely the band we are planning to start mid-august with additional health precautions in place similar to what you see in the athletic domain so we want to be able to offer the full experience to our kids

113of extracurricular options we may have to do some of that virtually but again you know when it comes to cohorting when people say well we really need to cohort cohort high school students and then they go play sports you know or in the mix with the band it's it's really hard to do that so you know we hope that kids can have access to those things that mean so much for so many of them ok thank you sure any other questions or comments on board on this I mean your or the communications from the public job yeah I'd love to just buzz through a bunch of questions that came in so Dee I dressed this at the beginning but why a virtual meeting but we're talking about sending kids back to school again it's this

114is July 14th we're under executive orders no more than 25 in a meeting and you know hopefully by August things are in better condition security versus ability to go a door so when we activate our to our administrators we talked about you know propping doors open to the exterior of the building we will do that when it's supervised so you know for example I use the example of often I'll walk into Cheshire Hyatt 7:20 in the morning and our assistant principal Dan tart or le will dutifully be standing out in front of the building in that case we want doors open propped open because we don't want people constantly touching door handles when the school day starts we'll close those doors now students being outside we have students outside all the time now for recess

115and PE and things like that we will have more students outside in a Kovan environment because we want to try and get more fresh air mask breaks instruction outside whenever we can it's not uncommon for elementary classes to go outside and read and do stuff like that now it will be more commonplace in koban we're making a decision like what presents the greater risk today somebody entering the building or Co vid and we're gonna have to you know weigh those options out and more than likely it'll be we'll take kids outside supervised but we won't leave doors propped open unsupervised the question about the brand of hand sanitizer because recalls then can you touch upon the hand sanitizer ordering I know there were questions about ingredients a couple of weeks back and I know we're

116sensitive to that wave right now this is one of the products that that we have these are the individual bottles I don't have the brand of the hand sanitizer that's going to be used in the dispensing station available but you know we'll certainly keep checking any kind of recall less hmm you know yeah that's really all I can offer at this point in time with lyrtle well well I've got you here then can parents donate supplies like cleaning supplies was a question that came up I don't know the answer to that I mean when you say donate cleaning supplies are we talking about you know items that they're going to purchase to donate to the school or provide funding to make the purchase you know we're trying to be pretty meticulous about what what type

117of sanitizing and disinfecting agents that that we purchase but what I would suggest if a parent has a particular donation they want to make to contact me you know by email via Massie Anna a Cheshire dot k12 C T us and I'll take it up individually Thank You desk cleaning cleaning I guess there's a couple of points on that I would make you know one is that you know as part of the nightly cleaning we anticipate you know cleaning and disinfecting desk during the day you know we are supplying the disinfecting wipes to all the classrooms you know so you know students and staff we're going to basically be doing that wipe down if they need to do so and again that underscores the importance of you know not only wiping down but you know

118hand sanitizing washing hands those are all the things that we'll keep reinforcing you know throughout this the school year you know for our students and our staff it's just part of what everyone needs to do effectively you know I think what we'll be judicious about cleaning but I think everyone that is in our buildings needs to do their own part to help out by using the product that we will make available okay there was another question related to donations about soliciting financial donations to pay for either supplies or technology if somebody wanted to make a donation then that would be contact you as well yes okay thank you remote attendants there was a question about remote attendants yes teachers would be taking remote attendants for synchronous learning again you know we're sensitive to absenteeism it

119kind of like last spring we were really focused on trying to make sure there was student engagement even though we weren't able to count like how many heads were coming to the class like we typically do but we really want to make sure their student overall and that there's the students are getting access to learning as much as possible travelling between I school classes as a question to be honest with you we don't have a perfect example answer for that right now we'd be looking at staggering schedules otherwise it would be one directional hallways kind of like the stop and shop aisles or whatever you have to walk in a certain direction to get to class so that at least everybody's traveling in the same direction and but we are still working on that if

120we go to a hybrid option and kids are split am/pm kind of thing on different days the question is can we try and get siblings on the same day and I would say absolutely we would try and do that why don't we have a no mask option the state and health guidance has been clear that we have to require masks and I know Marlene loves to point out her favorite line from the 50 page document indicates that you have to wear a mask unless you're unconscious or unable in some other way so they literally road unless you're unconscious I think it's pretty clear a question from a teacher is what board members engage in a day in the life experience if we go to a when we start school I'm not gonna speak for them

121but I'm just throwing that out there to you certainly we welcome your participation in our schools anytime this is a good question this is a such a heartwarming question for me from a fellow educator about what are we doing to support instructional consistency between teachers in in buildings Marlene can you kind of touch upon some of the work we've been doing there absolutely so instructional consistency is always something that we strive for it's one of the biggest challenges not just in our district but in others and I think when you go to a remote environment or in a time such as this all of those those holes really rise to the surface and so I feel like it's almost a silver lining in this in this area because now we can clearly see where those

122gaps may be and I think we've seen the best work come out of those teams that are collaborating so out of my office and out of our professional development we will be that will be a clear focus this year on consistency both across building thank you if someone in my child's class is sick and they have to my child has to be cohorted well cheshire provide day care and you know my my guess would be no but you know I guess we can look at that who who will teach the kids if a teacher can't come in for a particular reason and I think you know in order for us to provide the highest level of instruction possible if the teacher is home and able we would prefer that over a substitute in most cases

123so we would prefer that the teacher engage remotely then to have there's somebody thrown in the room and hope that they're good enough and I don't mean that in any sort of disrespect but if it's a more extended period than we want the people we originally hired for that job to be teaching our kids because our teachers are second to none if there's quarantining by cohort I know I dress this kind of a little while ago you know we'll who would have to be quarantined if a student in the class gets sick does that mean everybody in the class plus everybody on the bus plus everybody on the you know the hockey team or whatever know the each case as of today will be individually I waited for who they came in closest contact with

124and whose it greatest risk and that could be unique to each individual for some kids it's just the 20 kids that were in their elementary class for others it's those 20 kids plus the six kids in their neighborhood that they play with every day so you know it really changes by individual and we're working with that with the local health directors on Monday um a really another question I really appreciate about who's taking care of the cleaning staff our maintenance team has really evolved and is fantastic and I'm meeting with their leadership next week to talk about hey guys what are your concerns what are your questions how do we make sure we support you like the same way I'm meeting with ice secretaries teachers administrators to get feedback on that so I had another

125question about n95 masks why can't we use those I guess and 95 masks the white ones would be permitted some come with the exterior vent the problem the exterior vent is some of those are not filtered others are and so we can't be evaluating that all the time in order to ensure that all the masks provide the greatest prevention we would only go with the non-filtered kind I know that you know perhaps it may be more comfortable but unless until we can get to a place where we would purchase filtered and 95s for everybody we don't want to take that risk at this point in talking to our health professionals so those are the ones that I you know I think we can get through now I mean I am still getting other ones I

126promise to reply to you guys that have sent more recent emails but that's kind of where we are at the moment thanks Jeff and you have a comment a while ago or is that an old I did I don't know if it's relevant or not or perhaps maybe a demonstration would would set my mind at ease but they for the for the technology you're speaking of could we get a demonstration and does it have reverse capability so I and I'm as I'm thinking about it maybe that doesn't make any sense but you were saying that in order to keep the teacher teaching hopefully if they're well enough is there a way where the children or the students are sitting in the classroom and the teacher can teach using that technology you know what their face

127of pairing on a screen like The Wizard of Oz or something yeah you know I would expect for those of us that are old that's the thing yeah Andrew may not know Max Headroom but you know anyway yeah that is a thing they'll let him pull you he thought that yeah god bless so yeah no teachers can do that from home and your face would be on the screen and they probably would do it until they realize that your face is as big as a TV screen that would intimidate all of us I'm sure but you know it is possible thank you thanks thanks everyone we don't have new business without old business I didn't quit very quick chair update I had kind of a the board earlier today and asked me you Jeff tomorrow

128I'm gonna ask Carol I guess this week to kind of pull the board members see if where we want to try going back to some format in person board meetings not because we're being accused of being Chicken Little and not in your old dog food and hold our own meetings in person and our school buildings but you know we've held off for a number of reasons Koby concerns number one but I know Town Council's trying it if they haven't already I would somehow try to pull the board to see if we're able to do this I think we can and if we're able to resume in-person board meetings I would suggest we try in such a way that perhaps we hold one at a different school I'm thinking about cafeteria for escalatory I'm back even

129maybe even you know dive dive library and we can space ourselves apart enough possibly even have a mixed hybrid approach where some of us are in person so might be home I'm Google meat I know we're limited to 25 person max I think with 1314 if we include Mike that might you know leave ten or eleven folks or opposed to attend waiting for the public they could still watch the other YouTube live and submit questions anyway so I'll ask Carol to pull us this week's ce-web-rity thoughts are definitely try it and I think as we get closer to reopening and as these protocols are trying to place and if classrooms are cleared out to make space may be a great way to show parents if we're in these facilities what they might look like and

130what this distance thing might look like if we're doing it so just consider that someone asked earlier for one to be a day in life as a student there in this absolutely I would also invite or let the representatives state to permit occasion as well as mr. Lamont to join in with us and kind of see what the experience got look like so we all know what's going on but in all seriousness we have a couple things happening upon being aware of we actually are doing contract negotiations with two or major but the bargaining units the administrators union and I believe the teachers union should be starting soon so that will be happening the rest of this summer ending into the new year we don't have our up cut means between now and and the

131vlog is scheduled yet so on that Jeff you know like Rob about now but I guess next steps on this I imagine we want to have more feedback refine this plan a little bit more honestly as you get more information from the state and health officials what do you think we can have another meaningful meaning and the reopening and would you like to see some more feedback maybe a survey before we have a next meeting to discuss the plans further do we have a ETA I'm thinking probably you know in a couple of weeks again you know things are continuing to evolve continued conversations with folks at the state level continue to work with our our health folks so I you know I went then I don't want to meet particularly over the summer to

132just give you more of the same but I want there to be substantial changes and and I think two weeks would probably give us more time to be able to do that I also know that the governor is planning on making some sort of related announcement on August first so it may be helpful to shoot for a couple days after that to is a is a deadline for us yeah I agree as much listen I we all appreciate the time you Marlene and Tina take taking tonight to answer questions and I was a lot more but I stand on always our time your time or the public's time you know rehashing the same things if things are not evolving yet so just being concept but the point is we need to put up our 2020

1332021 Board meeting schedule on our website so the first official meeting and started school which i think is in the August or September between now and then we will have more meetings we don't have h as just mentioned but as soon as we have an idea we'll post that so folks are you know informed beyond that I don't have any other updates so that being said there's nothing else on our agenda unless there's any closing statements from Jeff and team I just want to not try to recap what happened tonight but on behalf of the board CPS you know we thank everyone out there those of you watching those who haven't been watching but have been engaged with us at some way shape or form thank you for your patience we all share your concerns

134we all share your frustrations and we mean that we also have kids in school systems so we shared during the same concerns you do it is an evolving process and it's just merlini this evening the options are sitting is was pretty much me and my state right now that will evolve more information will be made available this is not set in stone the reopen team is still working Stovall feedback is still welcome so I would say please have patience hang in there and it was mentioned earlier this meeting as parents we have choices to make and you know we have choices to make up until they're open in school whether we decide to keep our kids home or let them go to school and hybrid model so we're not locking and anything yet we hope

135hopefully by the middle of August we can make up decisions with you know with concrete data but the point is you have flexibility but as you have questions as you hear ideas please send them our way will will essentially get back to you on that so thank you again this is not over by far and we'll keep working at it we'll get to the endgame so that being said I'm going to call for a motion to adjourn the meeting move second Katherine over urine Adam seconds all in favor it is unanimous again thank you everyone thank you team Jeff Marlene thank you go thanks Joe I asked you how many viewers we had tonight roughly