001good evening and called it mean to order this is the special meaning of the borage occation town council chambers it's 6 p.m. Carol a call for a roll roll call please hear hear Thank You Carol ask to the board and those that the few in the audience to stand for the pledge thank you our limited audience which for folks that might be viewing this there's about three people out there and and Mike who's running our AV I want to thank the board staff superintendent all those I made it out tonight and those men was not planned for but due to the consequences were dealing with with the coronavirus superintendents Olin and his team have been diligent working least for the last week on possibly utilizing where the remote learning we wanted to review that option
002tonight and give folks in the bohr a chance to ask questions we just won't explain what that's going to look like and I believe for those that might be watching via YouTube a channel 14 in email from superintendents on tonight or today there's an email address that folks can email as you're watching this if you have questions issues or concerns to folks we'll be monitoring that Lee Carol and Jeff so as those come in we'll try to adjust them as appropriately we do have an audience section right now but I don't believe it we have anybody from the audience is going to speak if people show up after the starts will entertain moving that at the end of the meeting that being said let's just get right to it superintendent Solan it's all yours well
003you got for us thank you very much first of all you know I appreciate the patience demonstrated by everybody in the community as we work through this incredible shift in lifestyle I also want to acknowledge the incredible professionalism and talent of all of our teachers administrators central office folks Marlene and and VIN and everybody has put in an incredible amount of time over the last couple of weeks because you know for centuries education in America has been a brick and mortar institution and then the last week we've basically been asked to transform that into a remote learning environment and that comes with considerable challenges for our students and for our our staff alike and so what we've done tonight and what you have in front of you and what have shared on our website is
004kind of it's it's on our website it's the Board of Education special meeting Cove in nineteen update for today kind of walks through some of the latest information so I'm just gonna walk you in the community through that this evening starts with the governor last night making a proclamation that public schools in Connecticut will be closed until at least I think at least as a critical part of that proclamation that they'll be closed at least until March 31st we had previously closed until March 29th so at the very least we're adding two days on to that our return date is really to be determined I'm sure state and local health officials will weigh in on that determination as to when we return yes this just this morning I received correspondence from the Commissioner of Education
005dr. Miguel Cardona indicating that all districts should engage students and families as soon as we can in a remote learning environment so that's a significant shift in course from about a week ago when the prevailing wisdom was just you know maybe you can get away with supplemental materials now the recommendation is strong to engage students in a remote learning environment so I bring before you tonight basically what our plan is moving forward and I will concede that it's not a perfect plan but there has been considerable thought that has gone into this and I think you know relative to our peers across Connecticut that we are very well positioned to to the greatest extent possible anyway continue a positive learning experience for our students under these incredibly unique circumstances so what will remote learning look
006like and I just walk through that again remote learning is not a replacement for traditional while schooling but as a design is a best effort to continue education for all learners to the greatest extent possible under these circumstances so for our students in a K through 3 environment our staff has already sent students home with learning packets the the learning toolkits and the the toolkits not only include a lot of paper-based information around math reading writing the traditional stuff but also for parents resources for online you know just opportunities for learning that are developmentally appropriate the students can go online and continue and reinforce the work that's being done at the curricular level in our schools again no substitute for being in school but a developmentally appropriate resource for our students in K through 3
007for our students in 4th through 12 they'll be engaging in a earning experience through remote learning that's accessible online and we're going to use tools such as Google classroom screencastify teacher selected videos our teachers our content experts and so what we've been focused on is training them how do we translate that into an online experience where the student can't be in front of you so we've coached them and things like screencastify for those of you who may not know what that is the teacher can record themselves over a video or a document or a website and record that information that conversation share that out with students students can watch that video screencastify like you you've heard may have heard zoom is another similar sort of product both those products have been made free available to
008the school system through because of this coronavirus issue that we're dealing with the they've been made actually nationally free not just to the Chester Public Schools but screencastify is something that we've already used and our goal is to just maintain only a few different protocols right now if we just left it open-ended students would be wouldn't know what protocol to use in which class so we're trying to standardize the experience as much as we can to keep it as straightforward as possible for our students and any support they may need our families and our staff so Google classroom and screen screencastify are the two marquee tools that we're using right now to support that our remote learning schedule will be the same every day we have a two hour delay schedule this is a very
009unique situation so what we're doing is using those two hours in the morning for our staff to plan that remote learning experience and be able to make sure that that's all loaded on the website they are available for communication but primarily that first two hours will be used for planning the other really important reason that we've done this is because nobody thinks it's developmentally appropriate for our students to be sitting in front of computers for six hours a day so that's another it's kind of a self limiting mechanism to support that and a lot of the instruction that we're trying to provide through the web-based platforms are they're not just simply stare at the computer screen so we are trying to build in other projects and things that more are more kinesthetic into our learning
010but again this is a work in progress for us we've never run in an online school district before and so we are again just trying to evolve as we work through this but a lot of talented people are building the plane as we fly it along we do have a April Break planned at this time for a lot of the same reasons I just talked about so if indeed this becomes an extended situation where our students are engaging in remote learning for extended period of time all the way even up to April break that's gonna be physically and emotionally much different than engaging school like they typically do and right now we just think it's really important from a mental health perspective to keep that break in place not knowing what the future holds for
011our students that in indeed if they've been online for a month and looks like we're gonna be in online even longer that break may become really necessary from that perspective so we are holding that in place now and keep in mind that if we initiate online a remote learning situation like we hope to do on Wednesday of this week our students are only going to get out of school two days later than we had planned last week if we take April break away now they'd be getting out literally three days earlier than we had planned last week so we don't feel a real sense of urgency to take those five days away and feel that those days are better used to protect the social emotional needs of our students and maybe families at that time
012so that's that's another consideration we recognize that as I said already that this is not the same as being in school the you know that all students are going to not receive the same high caliber as if they were in the building and that's across Connecticut maybe even nationally at this point but we're doing the best we can to meet the needs of all students and that includes our students that have been identified for individualized education plans so in those cases we're going to try and fulfill those individualized education plans to the greatest extent possible that's the guidance that exists from the federal level and reinforced again at the state level and that that's going to look different obviously in a remote learning environment and our planning and placement teams who develop those IEP s
013as we you know re-engage in school at some point down the road hopefully in the not too distant future we'll reconvene and identify if there's been a suit you know significant amount of regression if that student who receives the IEP is has faced a significant amount of regression the teams at that point will design plans to recoup what's been lost and some form of contempt can excuse me compensatory education so that's the plan to support students that have IEP s at this time and on our website it at the end of this remote learning section I'll take a break to answer any questions and check our emails here but our website will house information on how to access supports for instruction or technology as I said this is not just new to our staff but
014also our students and Families so when questions arises they will our website will have that information I continue to reinforce with our community that our homepage has great information about all the communication we've sent to date as well as resources for the Cova 19 virus whether it's how to talk to your students how to recognize signs and symptoms prevention we encourage you to continue to access our website the Education Association of Cheshire which is our teachers union was that instrumental in facilitating this shift to remote learning my understanding is that the state-level the Union had said yeah don't don't do this initially but our teachers union leadership has said you know we think this is in everybody's best interest to support an online learning environment so they modified you know a Memorandum of Understanding that
015was sent from the state leadership and we work together and I give them a lot of credit for nailing that down because it's not something that's happened across the state with the same level of ease and professionalism that we've experienced in Cheshire and this real testament to our teachers union leadership and the folks that make up that union so again our continuity of learning expectations plan that's what we're sharing with our teachers across the district to support what they're doing with their students so there's no playbook that they have necessarily they didn't go to college to do this and so we've been designing over the course of several days what does this look for me as a classroom teacher what does this look for me as a school counselor what does this look like for
016me as a PE teacher and we've been designing those expectations and we'll afford those out to teachers to tonight and tomorrow so that they can have a sense a better sense of okay this is they have a sense now of what my day will look like but just to kind of codify it a little bit more and provide a little bit more clarity around what is it like to be a remote learning facilitator and so we're working on that and then finally the beauty of the technology we have is that for our English language learners with clicks of a button we can translate information into a multitude of different languages so students and families who don't speak English or English isn't their native language can have information translated for them and we've been in the
017process of translating information that we share with those families and you know you'd think all right maybe it's Spanish but it's like I said a multitude of languages and so there's been a lot of effort put into making sure that all of our families can access this critical information for the education of their children so that seems like a decent place for me to take a break I mean there is more information but I wanted to pause to provide the board any opportunities for questions and I will say real quick before I do that I did receive an email asking about you know what will an ideal student schedule look like with the different subjects the middle and high school folks will look a lot like a regular school schedule on a delay and so
018that we can ensure that different subject areas and teachers get an opportunity to connect with with students the Elementary folks will be sharing their schedule tomorrow but it's also for every school it's a two-hour delay and then the school schedule for roughly the four hours so all the school all the schools will have the same amount of instructional time it will look a little bit different just because the developmental needs between 7 and 17 year olds being a lot of different things will look a little bit different so Jeff have a question on that thanks for thanks for us Minh that question I was about to ask what a typical days gonna look like so for those four hours and I know this is we're kind of doing this we go I'm sure after the
019first few days look at kneel down in a pretty good rhythm well what kind of student grades 4 to 12 expect as far as enough for hours is it a combination of watching things and spring cast off' I perhaps doing some independent work at home how much interaction we'll have if any through these tools with their teachers is it I don't think it's 4 hours of screen time per se but any idea I know it's yeah I think this is definitely gonna be a little bit of an experiential learning opportunity for us but they should be engaging in different activities for a variety of content areas as I said you know if I'm a 5th grade classroom teacher I'm gonna be sensitive to not assigning math science social studies reading writing all hardcore web-based assignments
020for a social studies assignment I may have something a little bit different you know maybe I'm accessing an article having a conversation with my parent or calling grandma and having a conversation with them about this social studies experience and then writing about it in a reflection that I could share with peers it shouldn't all be right in front of the computer doing that all the time but again what we had talked about in our administrative meeting today is we're going to work through this venue for about a week and then survey our students and our families to get a better sense of what's working and what's not working you know there are our customers we want to make sure that we're doing right by them and you know we had a lot of really talented
021people building this but you know we'll see what happens when it gets on our students hands and they can give us some feedback Marlene I think she wants to build on that response I would just add that we see feedback as a part of this as well applying feedback through the writing process so that teachers can comment on student work and there may be an opportunity for using Google meat to have a writing conference with a student or a conference of any kind really about any subject matter of course that's not going to be continuous every day with every student but that is something that we've talked about and have built into the whole process thank you questions from the board faith mr. Solan just real quick yeah I know you did another survey this
022morning to figure out or get a bit of a better handle on web accessibility what did you find out yeah I wouldn't say that we did another survey to get a handle on web accessibility as much as we solicited families again if they didn't have access to technology hardware or wireless access so those folks if they don't have hardware we already have distributed about 40 Chromebooks to grades 4 through 6 last week because that was the easiest way to do it last Friday when we had students in school we gave those out either if a parent missed that or their child still needs that or they realize they got home and something was wrong with the Chromebook or something like that we issued that other survey today and we will be distributing those Chromebooks tomorrow
023and they'll be available for our families we will contact those people who who responded to the survey indicated then indicating they needed them and we will again continue to solicit people who maybe didn't complete the survey access to wireless is also an issue and we have ordered through ATT hotspots to be able to provide now that's a again a very small number of our families thankfully we kind of take for granted that availability but sometimes you know parents may provide hotspots through their phone or something at home we understand that you know maybe mom or dad will be at work and they won't have that so we are planning for that and our technology folks will distribute those as soon as they are available so you're confident you have near universal coverage are the kids
024ninety nine point four percent said they were covered of the roughly two thousand people who responded so it's it's not Universal but it's is very close and we're swen we have plans in place to support those who don't have that coverage Thank You mr. song so I saw email today that you put in there for folks that may you don't have access to wireless Wi-Fi or even have ability to connect remotely but it's the best way for those folks again touches you is that through the main office number probably through their principal at this point okay so I'll call the administrators yeah call that I mean we are sending out surveys I mean Marlena she's been working with our tech folks not just thing to folks and again I it's I would imagine a very
025small percentage hopefully just a few families but those don't even have web access that maybe you're watching a channel 14 am I see it it's not like the best plan is called your the kids school at first and if they needed advice they can do that we did the survey also by phone so that if people didn't have a device or if they didn't have internet access that we were making a phone call to them and we routed all of those calls through my office through the curriculum office secretary Michelle Miller Agel but certainly if they call their school principal they know who to send it to thank you thank you for doing that Tim Andrew how would you know if they had internet access I mean what was it I get what was your
026group of people that you called I'm just curious we sent the survey via phone call you what the survey do you have internet access or do you need a device well the survey wasn't online it was online but then we were sure we weren't sure if we were going to reach those people who either didn't have a device or didn't have access to Internet and so we felt that the best way to reach those people was by their home phone number so through school messenger a phone call went to their home letting them know that they could call us if they didn't have access through school messenger okay that makes sense thank you Andrew so can you walk us through as a parent Wednesday morning when my daughter gets in front of a Chromebook what
027are we looking for is there gonna be an email from the core teachers with a list of assignments is it yes some folks some of our students have already received those actually because teachers have loaded things into Google classroom students are notified when there's an assignment loaded into Google classroom so yes there will be things there and I had some ambitious teachers loading things and then high schoolers emailing me today going oh my god do we have to do this today and then some saying oh my god can we do this today so the runs the spectrum and when they log on our students on Wednesday they should have access to items that were placed there by their teacher I had a couple of other questions um usually it's interesting many from students actually but
028stay online after March 31st if need be the if we cannot return to school on March 31st or to April 1st then the answer is yes we would be staying on the remote learning depending on you know how that's going what the projections are for return and things like that is the question was is as best as possible adequate for special education students as best as possible is adequate for all of our students at this point these are incredibly unique circumstances and I think every day when our students come to school before coronavirus we were doing as best as we possibly could the context has changed however you know we're not we don't have students coming through our doors anymore and we will continue to provide the best possible services for those students all of
029our students at home now that being said obviously I already talked about some of the measures to support special education students who face significant regressions I appreciate that there are different needs there and those will be evaluated upon return the AP exams was another question asked I have that an hour mislead miscellaneous information section AP exams state testing ECE early college experience through University of Connecticut those are all issues that the state is very sensitive to UConn is very sensitive to College Board the SAT provider is very sensitive to College Board also facilitates ap so those dates there are already some alternate dates in place they're monitoring that to determine what would be appropriate you know moving forward but I will say that everybody all groups I just mentioned have been very responsive and very
030supportive and understanding of you know that what's really now become a national circumstance so for our students I know there's anxiety around taking AP exams and everything on a good day that's only been heightened by this situation and I feel for those kids but please know that you'll have a tremendous amount of support and we'll continue to communicate with you as conditions change Tim ten first faith okay yeah a couple of things my my five-year-old daughters Maddie she was one of those kids who was upset on Friday that she didn't have her passcode to kit and dessert and she wanted to get started thank you for everything you're doing with this Jeff this is for everybody involved in it it's it's a massive lift question about support are you getting all the support you need
031from the public health field from Chester Cod from the state you're getting everything that you need because I feel like a lot of this is being driven by them not so much by us but we're being told by the public health officials what we need to do to flatten the curve yeah I mean the for those of you not familiar with the idea of flattening the curve is that if we were to do nothing if we took no precautions the rate of spread of Corona is so high that what you would have is this incredible peak of folks showing up in emergency rooms which would overwhelm the system and ultimately result in greater numbers of casualties as we've seen in other parts of the world flattening the curve means by taking these mitigating steps you'll
032have less of a peak things will be more plateaued in things meaning you know visits to er's and and such will be plateaued and the system will be able to respond and therefore provide better care to those who need it the Public Health Department is certainly in the state epidemiologist and others have played a significant role in designing these mitigating steps that were taking from closing schools to now closing restaurants and those those steps that seem incredible for most of us that have never lived through anything like this but yes they played a significant factor in those decisions but I will say at the local level which is where we deal most frequently with Jasper cotton Morrissey doe she's been a tremendous resource for us always answers the phone when I call always shows up
033at meetings when we ask her there's always there when needed and as a matter of fact in order for us to submit the waiver to the state for using these remote learning days as school days that count toward our 180 I needed a letter from Maura she provided one as the the Health Director for us so you know where were all you know steps are moving forward and she's she's been a significant part of that so it's a credit to her I also you know Shawn Kimball our town manager was here jack Kassner our town emergency manager but also police chief our our excuse me fire chief our police chief Neil Drive has been involved our public works people like this has been an absolute community effort and you know not just on our side
034of the street it's it's been taken very seriously and very methodically and thoroughly but also I'm on the town side of the street okay just a couple minutes so something I mentioned you in an email earlier today one thing I saw this morning the Governor Cuomo from New York was talking about health care workers and the way I understood him to frame it was that schools some of his schools would be remaining open because if we do not flatten the curve and this becomes the catastrophe that that concerns dr. pouchy what are the health care workers do because effectively they you know that I have the opportunity to stay at home as difficult as it is to work from home I can do that with my kids there but the health care workers can't so
035do you have any sense right now have you gotten any guidance from the state about anything like that like sort of call them national security workers at that time the nurses the doctors things like that what did they do with their kids during the day the reason I was running just a shade Lee was I was on a five o'clock conference call with 700 other people from across the state and governor Lamont and other state officials that topic came up but right now that hasn't been put in place the idea of providing child care for those medical professionals that are on the frontline of dealing with this emergency is definitely a consideration at the state level as you said it's it's already consideration in New York as well but there's not a definitive plan in
036place today to manage that and I didn't get the impression that school systems would be called upon to resolve that issue okay all right I'm glad to hear that at least is on everybody's yeah I'm definitely on the radar spread it around a little bit faith question I see just ran down a bunch of questions from yep email so I want to faith you and then okay Thank You faith Jeff do you want to know this last one's a fair one shouldn't we be sitting six feet apart and that's something that you know is is true yeah that's right we should be sitting six feet apart we didn't just ostracized him but he was a good social distance sir and sat six feet only on the left side these are the people we're trying to
037take care of but you're right we we should be sitting six feet apart I would recommend that for those of you at home to try and maintain social distancing is remote learning a one-way teacher-to-student via screencast are there opportunities for tech and vision for two-way communication for example that you know kind of is built into another question we had two about two-way communication so most immediately students students who are at home particularly four through 12 can communicate with their teacher via email or Google classroom there is you know the capacity for back-and-forth communication in those protocols we will continue as this moves forward to examine other strategies but some of the other stuff that you know we're considerate of things like data privacy and maintaining family privacy so just like throwing up a video camera
038and your company and your home may not be comfortable for the teacher or student and these are unique circumstances so we're trying to work through that but yes there is two-way communication in that in that process a question about grades the elementary grades were report cards were slated to go out this week that will continue after the close of the last marking period the grades for the grades were supposed to close at CHS April 1st that's still under consideration as to how we might need to adjust the marking period that hasn't been the first item on the agenda yet but it is on the agenda same with GPA in grade calculation grade calculation should look very similar to your assignment calculation now but that you know will be communicated through the teacher in terms of
039what the expectations are for different assignments high school science labs again you know we don't have the benefit of being with you face-to-face you know you not everybody has a triple beam balance at home or you know set of beakers or anything so there will be definitely more virtual you may be watching a lab which again is not optimal to experiencing it and in working yourself through it but under the circumstances where you can't come in this is the next best thing and we're trying to facilitate those learning opportunities for our students academic support for students with IEP needs that will be continued to be available through special education teachers our PPS director Tracy hussies sitting more than six feet away from us as our K through eight curriculum coordinator Kevin Hamlin and those guys
040have been working tirelessly to try and address many of these questions that are coming up tonight so our special education teachers will and specialists by the way will continue to have connections with students albeit remotely for the for the time being I don't know if there are other questions from the dais as I continue to work through the ones that are online I just want to commend our staff here and our administration and all of our school personnel because we are going through this at Quinnipiac University as well albeit with adult students and they are anxious and they're anxious about things like grades and their future and graduating on time very much the same concerns that are coming up for our younger students in public schools which is AP exams taking the SATs making sure
041they can get into college next year if they're seniors and I just I commend you for all that you're doing this is going to work out it has to it's it's just a different kind of education it's not optimal but I think that the message that I try to relate to my students is we're problem solvers we're doing the best that we can under the circumstances and that is a a good example to show for our students and our students families let them know this is exactly what we want our students to pick up on we want them to see this this is an adventure for all of us and it's not going to nobody's going to fall down and out and knock it into colleges everybody in the country everybody in the world really
042is in the similar situation and what we do as leaders in in our education public education system is the best that we can and we do it the best that we can for the students and their learning and it's it's gonna work out so thank you because I appreciate how much work goes into changing your curriculum overnight over overnight Thank You Anne well said faith before I turn over to you I had one question came in through my phone's been buzzing across the tabletop here this has come up I made the pleasant mistake of putting myself on online this weekend and I did get a few calls very actually quite a few calls very productive majority the calls were very supportive of trying something online knowing that this is uncharted territory for us I think
043so far you've answered a lot of the questions and ideas that folks brought up in those calls the other cause were a mix of folks with special needs students and non special needs students I've heard from folks that who have kids in high school getting ready for AP exams they don't want to lose out even on remote learning time especially if they get it ready to take those tests soon all for doing some kinda remote learning I'm especially neat side of things hearing from other board chairs and some parents I think by and large the special needs parents are more than happy to try something online that's gonna make their student but what keeps coming up is are there any concerns with this approach not being equitable to those students it would it unfairly help
044those without disabilities and special needs versus those and can would we as a board or any board you know face potential lawsuits or this I know it's not the most pleasant topic but there's some concern that's what from Cheshire other boards chairs I have the luxury of being on the board or chair mainly lists from cave and I seen a question go around there's no definitive answer I know in one district they are doing remote learning from the joy of the population but they decided for the special needs students because they couldn't quite deliver the experience they wanted to they're gonna have those kids go back and then finish out June on education now I don't know if that's gonna hold up at a state of Connecticut but I'm sure your discussions I know if
045I see Tracy here this come up at all you've been contemplating this and if you heard anything from you know our special needs experts or as well some students I mean the state guidance on this sure the the guidance from the federal level and reinforced at the state level is that you know this is just uncharted territory these are incredibly different times than anything we've ever experienced for both our special education and general ed population and that we recognize that a remote learning environment for students who have significant special needs for students that are and some life skills and transition programs and/or maybe some forms of direct reading instruction is the remote learning environment isn't really conducive to coaching those skills and unfortunately today we have no other choice other than to provide a remote
046learning environment by circumstances of the virus so yes I mean we plan to provide those to review those students and there's a great plan and Tracy and her team have in place I try and identify those students early and communicate with their families and and work with them to provide necessary supports upon our return whenever they may be but in the meantime you know we're doing the best we can to provide relevant and meaningful learning opportunities for those students and all students when we're in this circumstances or when were in this circumstance could we be sued absolutely we could be student tomorrow for anything you know however under the circumstances and us continuing to provide our best efforts in good-faith efforts to provide educational opportunities for all students you know our legal advice and that
047everything that we know is that we are doing a good job to protect ourselves I think we can point to a million different areas where we've planned and and demonstrated where we're doing our best to provide education for all of our students and so I think we're fairly well insulated doesn't mean that somebody couldn't sue us though anybody could sue first of all I'm a missing first thing out of my mouth should have been to commend you guys on what you've done there are towns in this state that have not even gotten out of square one you know governor Lamont's announcement this morning to engage all students and remote learning is taking them all by surprise so I applaud all you guys for having the foresight to get this started when you did and I
048encourage families out there to work with your with your kids and it's a special time it's it's conflict it's but as Ann says we're gonna come out on top I do believe that so again thank you and I just want to know you know you Gephart are really big on learning walk so we're gonna be able to have virtual learning walks are the teachers getting together on a regular basis and their units and talking about what's working for them and so I know you've got a meeting coming up in one week to get overall feedback but what kind of interaction is going on with the teachers on a daily basis yeah well that started before we left school and recognizing that this was potentially on the horizon we engaged teachers in grade level and Department
049level meetings prior to Friday when our students were dismissed so some of that work has already taken place but part of the two-hour delay schedule also provides for that communication so that mice you know 5th grade experience at Highlands isn't wildly different than my 5th grade experience it Dolittle that there is some continuity and consistency between grade levels the same way that we try and employ that now so yes those opportunities do exist and we will continue to do that what we're gonna we meet all the time really since this has occurred to try and make sure we're all on the same page and because you know we've said numerous times it's going to be the the communication and the clarity and the frequency of the communication that's going to support all of our students
050to not have a lot of anxiety and then get as much as they possibly can out of this but that's really no different for our teachers and our parents as well so we're trying to communicate on an ongoing and regular basis with a lot of clarity pertinent information for the moment and then you know tomorrow we'll hit you with more stuff that's going to be more relevant for you so like as Andrew said about starting my daughter starting school Wednesday so tomorrow you're gonna want to know about that in great detail and tomorrow we'll provide you that information in more detail if I've answered your question faith I'll circle back to some of the other emails that we've received decision on spring sports events things like that proms I it broke my heart Friday to
051be in a high school classroom and that topic came up with a couple of girls asking me in front of their classmates and I when I couldn't tell them definitively oh yeah prom is on you know their face lost color and it really hurts you know cuz I know being a high school principal what it means to our kids to attend those sort of events and to see what our athletes had been through and musicians and and students that were supposed to perform in the play and it's like that's the highlight of their school year if maybe their entire you know high school experience to know that that's not happening really hurt so obviously we will do our best within reason to be able to provide those experiences for kids but you know really the
052health professionals are probably going to dictate a lot of that but we don't take it lightly for our students and folks watching at home the question came up about June 30th are we going to school til June 30th the answer there the short answer is no our plan is to engage in the online the remote learning platform process and we technically are adding to school days to the end of this current year so today in tomorrow which are kind of considered ironically snow days when it's sixty and seventy out or whatever but those days will be tacked on to our current year so our last day of school would be June 18th not June 30th and that's with the April Break intact if we decide for some reason to take that away you can back
053it up five school days but you know we really would like to try and work through the school calendar as normal as possible like I said for student mental health being one student summer plans being another whether they be work early college entry is a significant issue for a lot of our seniors work for our older students summer camps for younger students family vacations in addition to the fact that it's not a secret that our schools need significant facilities work and we have a huge 88 compliance project slated at Cheshire High School for right after one school dismissal so there are things like that that are also practical considerations not the primary considerations but they're legitimate practical considerations so we're looking to get out on the 18th k33 teacher involvement yes the there those teachers
054will be emailing parents to check in to see how things are going you can email them as parents back and forth to check-in and on how that's going the work that was provided should last roughly two weeks and at the close of those two weeks if we remain out of school we'll be preparing in advance of the close of those two weeks additional materials akin to what your you have now however you know they'll be even better I think they're really great now for the time frame and the work that we put into it but those may hopefully be even better based on the feedback that we get from our parents and what sort of experience they're having at home game plans for special education students basically the person was asking you know is there
055a detailed schedule throughout the day our specialists will be providing information about when they need to connect with your child whether it be you know for some sort of specific coaching or evaluation of some sort or counseling or whatever but not every student will have a specific day to day schedule if there are concerns excuse me that the parent or a teacher has once you get in or parent or student has once you get into the remote learning environment I just said communication is gonna be critical so sending off an email we will be emailing you to check in with you to see how it's going as a parent a student but don't hesitate to reach out if there are questions particularly as it relates to special education but obviously for any student as well
056a question about teachers recording student attendance that will admittedly be very tricky we will be in monitoring we're assuming perfect attendance which is nice but anyway we will be emailing you and if there is a concern about attendance that will be referred to and then you will know that through participation because students will have to submit information through Google classroom at least at the four through 12 level I will admit it's imperfect at the K through three level it's imperfect at the four through 12 level but if we determine that a student doesn't seem to be participating that student will be referred to our administration who will work with the family to figure out what the issue is there whether it's technical or otherwise emotional whatever the case may be I I just want to
057compliment you Jeff for the energy you have and you've been going like three questions I'll taking a breath it's impressive I have a question here from a parent our parents receive access to Google classroom the better monitor their child's work I'm sorry Marlene you want to take that one I kind of missed that one as I was reading another check group of questions my understanding is that they will not have access to the Google classroom they can access it along with their student when their student accesses that and they can see everything there is a way for them to sign up to have like an alert and an update but we can't give them you know access to the classroom this little bus approach is when there's student signs and be there with them just
058see what this time it looks like for the next day or two check in periodically make sure they're attending yeah Tim you have another question yeah please so I definitely gotten a little bit of skepticism from people who feel it's an overreaction what's happening here and I had 100% buy-in after you've been conveyed a story to me I think it was last Thursday way to a meeting yeah I think it was that you said it was a state epidemiologist who was talking about st. Louis in Philadelphia I know of you or Jeff could even just convey that with the public just briefly yeah you're Mike I'm sorry that was the flattening the curved discussion that Jeff had mentioned but when I was saying I I think the the case that I had looked at online
059was you know Philadelphia was one of the cities and forgot who st. Louis most was the other city Philadelphia didn't take any of the preventive and pre-emptive measures but st. Louis did and the number of cases piqued very very high in Philadelphia but st. Louis had this basically flat a curve so that you didn't overwhelm you know the medical institutions hospitals emergency rooms and they got through the crisis a lot more effectively in st. Louis and I think that's the model that you know you know certainly Connecticut and some of our surrounding states are starting to employ one of the things that the governor did talk about today is that he's been in communication with with Massachusetts the governors of Massachusetts New York New Jersey Rhode Island because they're all trying to do the same
060thing so that's why yesterday Massachusetts announced that all their restaurants would be closed except for take-out Connecticut made that announcement today so it's not just Connecticut the governor's are talking to try and you know take our entire region and keep the number of cases you won't necessarily get less cases as my understanding but you'll just have them spread out over a longer period of time I guess that's better because you don't overwhelm the hospitals and then you you really hurt patient care which could lead you know to more dire consequences yeah I mean I think I saw a story in Italy they're making choices and who gets treatment and they're saying you're old you don't you're young you do is it true I don't know I mean it's not reported in the press and assuming
061it was and just one more question any idea right now on the budget any impact well well going through some analysis on that now because obviously there'll be some minuses in the areas like overtime and there'll be some pluses any compensatory education that we need to offer so one of the things that you know Jeff and I talked about today you know once we have a handle on where we'll be with our budget you know one of the things that the board could start thinking about is a non lapsing account request to the town council on the connecticut state law there's a statute n 248-a that with in our case town council approval any unexpended education funds could be carried over into a non lapsing account so whatever we don't spend in this school year
062if it goes into this non lapsing account it would be available for us over the summer let's say and what that prevents us from doing is you know having to encumber funds that we're really not sure what the need will be but having that available as we you know get into the early part of of the summer after the close of the fiscal year so I guess the short answer is we're starting to go through the numbers but there's so many unknowns at this point like April 1st so we not back April 1st so that's you know a lot of my time has been spent in the in the background working you know through that through the through the payroll issues that we have you know without staff so so with regard to 10 to
06340 a day that the general statute basically you're thinking it would just be something we'd have to bring to the council by early June and ask him to vote on something or is there any urgency to it is my question yeah I would think that and the board has talked about this you know at a high level in the past though not recently but I would think that's something that would need to get further Town Council's sooner rather than later okay if that's the if that's the route to take well we could pass the information along yeah sure he part of this declaration by the governor in this state of emergency that we're in provide some flexibility around some of the statutory dates and even things like foi I mean you know there are just
064it's kind of a different set of rules that we're playing by given the circumstances so I know that the budget timelines have definitely changed and in another area that you know we consider in terms of a potential cost if this were to go out further you know I was asked again you know what what happens how do we get k3 materials after you know I mean we probably have a postage cost associated with that you know provided the post office is still functional I don't know they may be where we're paying people to drive house the house I don't know but there were you know could be cost associated with that there are two other sections that I just want to hit upon very quickly because it'll address some other public questions and also provide
065a broader context that some of the stuff we're doing we've spent a lot of time on what the instructional experience will look like but the access to school meals is a real question for plenty of folks in our community so I do want to address that beginning on Wednesday March 18th we will be providing breakfast and lunch in a grab-and-go setting at Dodd middle school I will be sending out publicly tomorrow that hours for that as well as asking and I'll say it publicly here if you could try and we will send out a Google forum for you to please denote if you will be participating to kind of give us a head count I was saying to our our staff earlier Ike I have a hard time planning Thanksgiving dinner when I know how
066many people are showing up if you told me between 8 and 80 it'd be a much harder task and that's what our cafeteria staff is faced with coming Wednesday so I do ask if you are planning on participating that you fill out that form and give our folks a heads up it'll make the experience better for everybody we are as I said serving grabbing go breakfast and lunches starting it'll be on Wednesday but it'll be offered Monday Wednesday and Friday so you'll basically get two days worth the meals and I want to make it clear that these meals are free to all Cheshire public school students who are 18 and younger in addition they're free to their younger siblings who are not yet school-aged so if you are a seven-year-old in the treasurer Public Schools
067and you have a two-year-old sibling you can get a meal for them as well this is provided to us through federal funding it's a federal program so this is not coming out of our operating budget but again this is a Herculean effort to make food for a community and be able to distribute it three days a week so I respectfully ask that you do when we send out the information tomorrow let us know if you'll be showing up and we will definitely be do our best to serve you additional miscellaneous information we have set up and as I know we publicize today and other many have taken advantage of it CPS kovat 19 at Cheshire k-12 CT us is an email to ask us Co vid related questions so mr. Zen ski who's kind of
068the brains of the operation and I will get your emails and we will then kind of put them out to whoever could best to answer them if possible we do plan on continuing our planning and placement team meetings so if your child has special needs and they are partisan we have a meeting scheduled for your child we plan on continuing that meeting we will not do that on Wednesday however the plan is to start that process on Thursday those meetings our teachers will be participating remotely the parents have the option of participating remotely or they may come in with again social distancing and participate in person they're welcome to do that if they choose but our special education secretaries will be joining us Wednesday and we'll be coordinating that effort in our schools we are
069continuing building maintain maintenance with additional and more regular and detail cleaning and disinfecting particularly in our school offices where our staff are there every day then our students aren't there our classroom staff aren't really there they can use the building if they need to facilitate remote instruction but it's only them and not you know their children and stuff like that if they need to get access to a classroom we continue to encourage our employees and again everybody in the cheshire community to follow the CDC guidelines on precautions such as social distancing in hand-washing I got two little boys at home and you know they they recognized at this point it's not funny they see how much time dad spends working on this and you know that it's perpetual television coverage but please I encourage our
070families to and particularly our high schoolers with younger siblings this is I don't know if you can grasp what a unique situation this is and and hopefully this is once in a lifetime for all of us but you know make sure that you are protecting your little brothers and sisters by engaging and encouraging them to engage in good hygiene and not hanging out with everybody in the neighborhood because that's how this will spread and we don't have to just think about little brothers and sisters but grandmas and grandpas in our community too so please model that behavior for your little brothers and sisters as I did say a little bit earlier the State Department of Ed is evaluating state testing timelines and it's supporting flexibility and testing dates the College Board is doing the same
071for things like AP exams and the SAT and then as I mentioned UConn has also been very supportive would their work around the early college experience class Jeff I as soon as information is gonna go out when teachers start emailing information about their assignments to students what is the best way for parents or students to contact their teachers have a question or a quick tour during some one parent asked me if if teachers and go out their phone numbers I'm assuming not really okay so we're going to stick to the current primary content Act which is through email yes our school etc and if there's something serious enough they can work with the teacher for maybe a phone call if it's required but I want to speak for that yeah the the the teachers mostly
072we won't be disseminating their cellphones and things like that out to the public but yes I mean there is ongoing email communication and our teachers make all very well we are looking at how do we funnel any calls through our school based system so that's that sort of communication we want to enhance their communication to the greatest extent possible but it probably won't be in place come Wednesday and so that would be something that we'd be kind of targeting for next week if possible but will will certainly provide more information on that as it as time goes on last last one for me my question so I Jeff I know speaking and by the way if I say enough already is before I ask this last question I do want to thank Jeff hue your
073team pretty much every employee of Cheshire Public Schools I know over the last two weeks that when Jeff first contacted us beginning of of March you know we were kind of saying you know planning for closure or anything was gonna happen and you know last week was getting more serious and here we are and I know there's been a lot of moving parts a lot of conversations not just in central office but with teachers during school after school now schools are closed and our conference calls to administrators here so I want to thank everyone and I did receive quite a few kudos today from actually a couple of our one of our staunchest and what the word is to use overseers of what the board of it does over the years so so for folks
074to recognize the work that CPS is doing you know kudos to everyone I know it's not perfect I know it's a moving target but I'll really weigh in and faith in one said is you know will come at it as very positive stronger we're gonna learn a lot from this or certain so thank you and swear parents I know the frustration and myself we've had a mandatory work from home this week at my company I know a lot of companies are doing that so we'll be cooped up with our kids you know the internet trying to get work done and I know some families are very large I think someone told me story this morning as a fan of the four daughters two parents were from home full-time be very interesting in a small house
075but we'll get through it with regards to the kudos I think you spent a lot of time talking with various labor groups I'm not mistaken as I understand that they've all been very helpful I think with any sticking points you mentioned the member and understanding from the State Teachers Union I assume that's all worked out well otherwise wouldn't be here tonight I'm not sure if there were really any bottlenecks for our labor groups yeah well I know they've worked with you I know CJ's been in touch with you I want to thank those groups again business does take a community effort to get through this but any any information and they want to share with us shirking sure um you know again the the the linchpin in making sure that we can provide remote instruction
076is our teachers obviously our administer administrative team is their 12-month employees they're here regardless of whatever we're doing and I have to say I say that you know kind of tongue-in-cheek but they've literally been here regardless of whatever we're doing like they are you know asking questions all I've talked to so many principals over the weekend is Marlene has and VIN has and our labor groups have been very good I think the challenge is with the labor groups who have hourly employees or ten month contracts and that has been really a question that's been up in the air at a federal and state level as well we are committed from a humanistic perspective first to take care of our employees I send emails that say dear Chester family we want you know to our staff
077we want to make sure that those folks are taken care of I can't imagine the anxiety they're experiencing wondering will I get paid I rely on my pay to cover my health care so will my family have health coverage these are very concerning and scary issues for a lot of our hourly employees so from a humanistic perspective we want to try and put that to bed as quickly as we can for them and so their next paycheck will be March 27th is the way the schedule falls and they on that date will be paid for the last two weeks for that that schedule will be that pay will be a normal pay period for them what we're working on as quickly as we possibly can is what does you know if this is an extended
078layoff is as much as we want to you know just pay everybody we don't have the resources to just pay everybody indefinitely and not have them work at all unless that's what the state and federal government is intending on if there's another avenue such as unemployment is that what the state and federal government is looking to do so we're exploring that alternatively do we pay them in advance on April 10th the date of their next track I'm not opposed to that either but we're trying to figure out you know where is the state and federal government on this I've not been able to watch much news today but I've heard that there are you know proposals along those lines that are funneling down and we hope as quickly as possible to be able to resolve
079that concern primarily for is and that's the biggest bargaining unit we have that's most directly impacted by not having real school days and so that's that's a real issue I'm glad you bring it up but I wish I could tell you it was resolved we also have lunch staff but the lunch employees also you know we will have working opportunities as I just kind of mentioned for them we have other teachers assistance we have nursing staff that are in a different sort of situation ironically here we are in a medical issue and our nurses aren't you know part of our daily routine but we will like I said we will address them from a humanistic perspective I also believe it's from a business perspective and our best interest to take care of these employees to
080if there's any question about that these people do a tremendous job for us and they are not our highest-paid employees they could find other options in many cases that might pay them better but they are committed to us and so if we don't take care of them from a business perspective I can't replace that level of talent and and just volume of people overnight without having that be a significant detriment to our school system in our community so again I think humanistically first of all it's important to take care of them but also from a business perspective it makes sense to take care of them too so if there's any question about that I you know I want to make that clear Tim thank you for that Jeff I it was on Friday when I
081pulled my son out of preschool and I told him I said he's not coming back on Monday I was clear I said we're gonna continue paying it's because they have bills to pay I completely understand that and I also caveat it with but I don't know what the future holds so I just hope you keep in mind when you're talking about that it's a stopgap mm-hmm you know April 10th is not the same as a year from now right you see these reports of the Kovan potentially going out for a year anyway time the time period is relevant to what you're saying from my perspective and from us too and I think most people would understand that even those people that are impacted would would understand that and you know as soon as we are
082absolutely able I would like to be able to lay their concerns but I you know with something definitive and I know right now you know we're talking again in like a vague sort of way to say oh yeah you're gonna be taken care of the first natural question is how and I wish I could tell you the how today because in some ways I guess it's contingent on things outside of our control at the moment but we are working to try and nail down the how but I hope that they can rest a little bit of shirred knowing that we are committed to taking care of them in one way shape or form a couple other quick questions that people had is you know food distribution I talked about breakfast and lunches but the the
083question about if I can't get to Dodd that's definitely a hurdle we'll have to cross and we'll put that on the top of the food service list for tomorrow you know I'm not suggesting Boober eats off the top my head but we will try and provide something like that to the people who need it because if there's a definitive need we want to take care of the the people in our community too like I said the greatest extent possible if there is a Chromebook issue I know tomorrow morning bright and early miss Solano and our tech team will be meeting to make sure that we've you know covered every foreseeable challenge we have around technology and be communicating that issue to our community so that they're aware of what's going on and the question from
084a high school about lunch being built into the high school schedules yes you know we don't expect you to be you know tethered to the Chromebook for four hours and all that I'm sure some of our staff will be eating in front of their Chromebooks and not and you know you will have an opportunity to have lunch without feeling like I have to be on call right now and and that's just again we're we're trying to be very considerate of what it's like not just for our adults who are all of a sudden shifting their gears in doing a complete 180 on what they've known professionally in many cases for twenty or thirty years to do something absolutely different but our kids have experienced school only one way their entire life and now they are
085just totally shifting gears and we are trying to be very sensitive to what that experience is like for them too and that's why we have the two hour glazed schedule built in that's why we're trying to consider these you know various strategies for providing work that's not just all Chrome based and stuff for our high schoolers and middle and upper elementary students as well so I think we've covered a lot of ground here tonight there will be as there have been constant updates for our students and our parents and our staff as we move through this uncharted water to try and make the sailing a little bit smoother for everybody and again I really need to thank it this is an absolute team effort - like I said again to shift from brick and mortar
086for centuries to a remote learning in a week has just been insane and the number of hours it's taken to position our community in a place where you know we feel pretty good and optimistic about where we're going with this and that the experience of their you're gonna have is the best we can do under these circumstances so thank you to all of our staff and particularly our administrative team over the last week that's our reading and math support specialists like those folks have really done amazing work to put us in this place so thanks again to all of them good chance I said thank you to the superintendent and his staff throughout the district for making this happen I forgot to mention you Tony the chairman for the part that you're playing no I
087appreciate it you're leading and thank you for that so we don't have an official motion Jeff what action do you need from the board tonight sure there's no official note you know motion required to move forward with the Allen own as a matter of fact it's it's almost more of a compulsion now on the part of the state that we move forward with online learning however there is a waiver that you and I need to sign it's it's pretty straightforward but basically it indicates that we're requesting from the state the waiver of school attendance days under the traditional definition of happening on-site to be considered remote attendance days and that's that's really all that we need as well as a letter thanks Carol if you want to pass that down if you don't mind as
088well as a letter from our state or local health director which as I mentioned earlier earlier miss Esposito was good enough to provide me the letter that I have drafted to dr. Cardona the Commissioner of Education indicates that prior correspondence the superintendent's dated March 16 2020 we are writing to express our desire to engage in remote learning effective March 18 2020 we respectfully request that these days we engage in remote learning be considered as quote school days toward our attendance requirements I've included a letter from our local health district director testifying to the need for such measures I've also attached a memory and understanding with the educators Association of Cheshire outlining an agreement for distance learning with our teachers Cheshire submits this waiver conscious of all state and federal law and policies considerate of employment
089laws collective bargaining agreements and special education laws we believe that our plan reflects our best efforts to provide equitable educational opportunities to all students in our community to the greatest extent possible under these unprecedented circumstances we understand the consideration of a waiver of days using remote learning as a factor is limited to the present circumstances of the coab in nineteen impact on the nineteen twenty school year to be signed by myself and our chair of the board mr. Peres Jeannie thank you Jeff on the MOU is there any any impact at a Board of Ed or was just basically matter of memory understanding how they're gonna operate Darkness time Karen yeah basically just outlines what the protocols are for teachers over this ten day window it's a it's a ten day memorandum of understanding because
090when we compiled this yesterday that's kind of like what we were thinking and obviously this changes minute by minute and I think that ten day window is probably a good thing for us and them to reevaluate after 10 days of remote learning is there anything that needs to change on either side of the equation to best support our students so I think we're in a really good place there again I appreciate John Redford our union president Mary Cabrera our vice president and all the members of the Union for working that out so quickly thank you Jeff I know an official vote it's not required but I think given the amount of effort time and commitment that you and your staff and teachers printplace I think it you know if the board is so willing I
091think we should take a motion of vote to support us so but someone like to draft a quick motion faith I move that the Cheshire Board of Education support the efforts by the administration to seek a waiver from to allow for remote learning for the Cheshire Public School student body discussion I'm sorry any discussion seeing is no discussion all those in favor it is unanimous thank you Phillip or members again Thank You superintendent Solan Marlene everyone Carol everyone's been tremendous so far thank you out there for being patient I know it's frustrating I'm surely a lot more frustrating times to come but we're all in this together I'll just add that as far as we're not gonna try to force you to follow CDC guidelines those been published more just about how this could have
092been very vocal about what they recommend that's out there hopefully you'll follow those guidelines but as far as communication for your Cheshire public schools for your own backyard information what's happening stick with the amount with the communications coming out of Cheshire Public Schools first and foremost the board will communicate whatever the school's communicating when it can if it's our any question you have access to central office you have access or emails try not to read too much in you endo or political be s out there and what's going on just contact us contact the administration we'll get the answers for you and as far as parents if you run into difficulty with the remote learning as superintendent Solon running everyone indicated feel free to contact email phone call would work and just want to reiterate
093for anyone else has any questions on what's going on with Cheshire public schools response to the coronavirus the email address is CPS kovat CPS kovin V ID 19 a chat at k12 at CTD us and I'm sure in the midst of all the work you're doing the administration will respond to you in a timely manner that being said please be safe out there please Pratt there's social distancing like we're trying to do up here apologize for that and I want to thank fellow board members for coming out tonight I know it's been hectic at work and getting ready to to lockdown at home but again thank everyone and stay safe that being said is there a motion to adjourn Tim makes the motion is there a second and seconds all in favor is unanimous thank
094you the meeting is adjourned [Music]