001here gladys cooper here lauren daley lauren uh is absent um he has uh there's a family issue okay he will not be with us tonight joe da silva present catherine hodgson heir rich gianelli kathy molinaro here alvaruso here amy spelino right ten present we have 10 of us 11. thank you kate uh could we move down to the recognition dr sam yes um thank you i see carmen a few years ago we were interviewing for principals at south street we were looking for someone who really had the desire to make a difference and to really get involved with uh the community in a way that's going to really change the lives of our youngsters well we chose carmen that year and um we're very uh very happy about that decision um she is um there's
002a good foundation here with a solid staff and uh just like any leader that's capable they could take him to a next level and she's been doing that you know about the achievement of the school as a blue ribbon which is really an incredible feat that we've achieved and then they started dipping in and looking at the attributes of why it became a blue ribbon school dave the noticings were a strong faculty led by a strong leader and in the name of the faculty and in the name of of the administration she was selected for this bell work and we're just so pleased that she's in congratulations to her carmen well done thank you thank you you have a minute oh look look you got a hairdo like mine that's pretty good that's all right
003ah lookie there you want to tell the board a little bit about some of the things that you've done yes dr sal thank you first of all i want to thank the mayor i want to thank the board of ed i want to thank dr sal because he trusted me and out of so many candidates he selected me i couldn't have done that without his support and of course i could not be here and celebrating this prestigious award if it wasn't for the south street staff the students the parents and the family and of course my danbury colleagues so thank you to everyone i've said it many times and i'll say it again it takes a village in south street i think one of the biggest things that has made a huge difference is number
004one having a common vision and setting high expectations for all students the staff entrusted me follow my guidance and we have a very open uh communication uh i'm not i don't know everything and we work together to do what is best for students this is all about the students what do they need and what do we need to do whether it be through professional development whether it be through reaching out to the danbury the administrative council the coaches it takes a big group of people to put this together and we have a lot of work still to do but we're excited for our next step and we need the support from the board and one of those things we can put on that list is a brand new school but we'll get there thank you
005everyone congratulations to everyone thank you why don't we all thank her because we're happy to have her here and have her at southern thank you thank you thank you you're finished dr seth dr sally you're on mute i i was in practice when i preached right i was going to ask anybody else from the cabinet anything to say kara yeah construction go ahead i was hoping you'd ask um so yeah it's been a pleasure working with carmen over the last couple of years um you know i think i may have said this before every now and then you know the phone rings or i'll get an email do you have a minute and they've got carmen on the other end wanting to try something a little bit new a little bit different um and wants
006to kind of talk through some things and i think that's a testament to um you know what what a leader does is that they're constantly pushing the envelope a little bit pushing the boundaries and and challenging a little bit of the status quo um and so carmen has been doing that for the last couple of years and i think that that has definitely paved the way um she often cites you know i had a conversation with my teachers my teachers were thinking thinking this what do you think and so she's always bringing that teacher um teacher leader perspective into the conversation she really honors that and i think that that that's what makes her so special um and i think that that resonates with staff when they know that their voice is heard and that
007the principal's willing to roll up their sleeves and dig in and try a few things out with them whether or not you know without any expectation of what the outcome is going to be we're just going to try it out and see where it goes and if it works we're going to scale it up and so carmen i just want to congratulate you and your staff um for what you're building over there and what you'll continue to build and we're just uh we're very so so proud of you so thank you i'll leave it open to anyone else on on the cabinet yes kelly kevin go ahead kel carmen and south street staff just thank you very much you guys are a wonderful highly dedicated team um i will say carmen is always reaching out
008similar to kara really advocating for what we can do for unique family situations circumstances how to meet students with where they're at um and kind of problem solve unique ways um to intervene so i truly appreciate um all the hard work for the south street team and a big congratulations to you guys any other comments okay i i just want to comment i just want to say to you to you and your staff we know that um every great principle is key to any great school i mean we've learned in these last couple years that south street elementary school is certainly great we also know from experience that great principle great principles support support their teachers and those great teachers in turn create a thriving school culture where all of our kids can succeed and
009i i just want to congratulate you your staff your students your families um you know we we are certainly grateful for your leadership at south street um and look forward to to many many years of great things ahead i can't thank you enough for your leadership at that school now carmen if you could solve the traffic problem i'll give you another award well done you know but all kidding aside even with that we sat with the police we sat with the neighborhood i think carmen's always trying to dig and finding an answer just to solve something whether it's a instructional gap or an operational issue um well-deserved carmen congratulations and thank you for recognizing her tonight board oh dr scott can i just say she has tried to solve the traffic problem because she has
010reached out to me about that as well so she's got a plan for that and i echo all the sentiments of everybody even though i'm new i realize recognize your dedication and what an honor this award is so thank you i just wanted to say that thank you i just want to add that thank you everybody um i cannot do this alone and i see this as a win for danbury danbury is on the map and i know that right now you know this meeting is not about me as much as i'd like to think it is um we have a lot of things that we need to discuss and these challenging times uh but let's celebrate this is a danbury win and this is everyone um and we're doing great things and i think
011that that needs to be said clearly thank you everyone thank you thank you amanda chairman next we will move on to public participation kate would you read the two scripts for uh public participation and then advocate read the two scripts then we'll come with the comments okay uh the board welcomes public participation and asks that comments be limited to three minutes the public may offer objective comments of school operations and programs that concern them the board will not permit any expression of personal complaints or defamatory comments about board of education personnel and students nor against any person connected with the danbury public school system due to the unique nature of the covid19 crisis and the limitations of technology members of the public who are danbury residents are invited to send brief comments and questions via
012email in advance to dps underscore public comment underscore boe at danbury.k12.ct.us thank you kay okay our first one for tonight is cheryl radacho if danbury is 100 distance learning please explain why the normal school day hours schedule are not being followed our kids are being deprived of a quality education and it is not acceptable megan shaw my son is a student at the academy of international studies at this point we are in the middle of november and the children have not gone to school one day one minute one second since march they left school one day in march with the promise of return in two weeks since then we have now looked to danbury public schools as one broken promise after another when will enough be enough i would like to know why brookfield and
013all the other towns are slowly moving toward full-time learning and danbury is not open one day when will you start to put the children first and the politics second if we continue going in this downward spiral the children will suffer for the rest of their lives at this point it needs to be in the parents hands parents should decide that the parents who want their children in school should have the option danbury needs to have some type type of support system for parents who need to work some of us are a two income dependent family the chil the teachers are working from home and getting full pay and benefits while other parents have had to stop work and not be able to get their salary nor benefits i don't understand how this is fair to
014working parents not all of us have the option to stay home with our children danbury needs to set up some type of caregiving no charge service such as people coming to the home to help tutor with online learning help care for the children in the home and other services needed by parents the parents at home who are unable to work anymore have added stress which means stress to the children we try our best to not let it affect them due to the stress damari is causing all the parents it is time danbury steps up and starts putting the children first if you continue to not put the kids back in school due to covid they will not get back to school for years my son is now asking why his teachers can teach from their
015homes and i cannot do my job from home not to mention they are not working more than five hours a day these questions come due to the selfishness of danbury public schools extras are not available to the children anymore bethel is next to danbury there are 83 people in bethel staff that are quarantined but the superintendent refuses to close the schools katie williams thank you for meeting on november 5th 2020. it was nice to hear from the doctors on staff that are advising you however watching the board meeting we are hearing from one side of the medical community even though the overwhelming majority of the research shows that schools can open safely that is never discussed by our board or medical advisors it is important to explore all sides of the medical research being conducted
016when making such big decisions might i also suggest that one of these meetings be more interactive with members of the parent community being invited to ask questions in real time to our medical advisors and the board it would be extremely beneficial to have the ability to be part of our dialogue i also think that it might be helpful if our board was having discussions with the board members of our surrounding towns to get insight into how being back has been for their communities it might also help to shed some light on how disruptive their families have found the temporary closures of cohorts classes or schools are their parents finding these closures to have a major negative impact on their children or does the benefit of having them in the classroom outweigh the inconvenience of closures
017melissa tuno in regards to the recent title 9 violation ruling against danbury public schools has this been addressed at a board of ed meeting i am interested in hearing what the board of ed's position is on this as we stand a chance of losing our title nine funds kathy snow i would like to provide some comments regarding the november fifth workshop it is clear that some board of ed members are in favor of keeping students out of school until next year but i'm wondering when the board of vet is going to talk about what the parents who have chosen hybrid would like the district to do and unless you are one of the few board members that actually have students in the danbury public schools you cannot claim to know how it is because you
018do not you do not know what it is like to have children at home basically in isolation for going on seven months and you do not know what it is like to try to keep them motivate motivated and mentally healthy i also get the safety is a priority but we are dealing with the double-edged sword because i feel the mental health of our students is in crisis as well in the workshop for her i heard the district has been reaching out to those in need about resources available but i don't know how you decide who to reach out to what about the average student who does not have food insecurities or issues with internet internet connectivity but doesn't want to log on anymore and is frustrated beyond belief and about to give up on everything
019how are they identified dr fong even said how important it is to address mental health and went so far as suggesting parents help children set up get-togethers with children wearing masks yet in the beginning of the workshop he said he doesn't recommend students go back to school until the end of the year that doesn't make sense students can get together wearing masks but they shouldn't be in school what about the report that cathy o'dowd discussed that the transmission of covid was not from being in school but rather from community spread has anyone thought about the fact that the teenage numbers may be going up because they have nowhere else to go but to hang out in their community i would also like to request a review of the attendance numbers by grade level because i
020feel you were losing students at the high school level and i also formally request that all grade levels be given the same consideration when determining when to go to school in the hybrid mode i also would like to have the numbers of how many parents chose distance learning and the hybrid mode reviewed again because i recall it was over 50 percent of parents that wanted to go back to school in the hybrid mode and those that chose hybrid option are aware there would be cases of covid and partial shutdowns just as the board of ed knew there would be and they still chose hybrid because there is a plan in place when there is a positive case please consider the mental health of our students when making decisions as this is not only a coveted
021pandemic we are falling into a mental health crisis as well give the plan a chance and do not just throw in the towel and i'm just hitting refresh here to make sure we have no more comments and that is it for tonight thank you so very much sandy you're welcome uh next on the agenda uh amy will you do the consent calendar please sure um i make a motion that the board of education approves the items on the consent calendar exhibit 20-113 through exhibit 115 as recommended made by amy keith his second name and kate seconded are there any questions seeing none uh kate will you do the roll call please your thing joseph britton yes rachel chaleski hi kate canetta aye gladys cooper aye joe da silva aye catherine hodgston hi rich giannelli kathy
022molinaro hi al russo hi amy spolino i passes unanimously okay motion so care thank you uh do we have an employee representative tonight student representative hello guys hi so it hasn't been a busy month in terms of information to present um this pat this past month the efforts of the bog executive council and peer leadership classes in our community project partnered with do something resulted in the registration of dozens of new danbury voters and allowed us to apply to a ten thousand dollar grant which we'll find out if we won in the coming weeks we hope to organize a virtual spirit week before thanksgiving break as well as a virtual club fair to allow student interest and involvement in clubs to continue the other week dhs converted our distance learning live class is scheduled to
023the hybris learning schedule but with live classes we now start school at 7 20 and end at 12. a congratulations is needed for the dhs hosa for winning grant funding in the united states design for good challenge with their pitch to improve student mental health at dhs the pto commissioned awesome senior signs for distribution to families last month on the 30th and the past few weeks sports teams have been holding their senior nights seniors are also neck deep in college applications right now so please wish them luck and that's all thank you jake thank you all do we have any other representative christopher johnson yes ah good evening board of ed members cabinet and community members thank you for allowing us to represent and speak on behalf of the alternative center for excellence ace will
024be holding parent teacher conferences during the week of november 16th to the 19th parents can sign up for meetings during the four afternoons and staff will also be available for meetings from 5 30 to 7 30 p.m on wednesday the 18th the purpose of the conferences is to address academic concerns and standing as well as provide sel support and strategies to our families these staff participated in a social emotional learning training run by lions quest in an effort to add tools and strategies to the employed during this time during this difficult time for staff students and families each guidance teacher at ace has was given an sel toolbox to be used during our career and life skills course the sel kids include activities and lesson plans for staff thank you chris um ace would like
025to recognize and celebrate the students of of the week for the last two weeks a staff meets weekly to nominate advocate for and vote on each week's recipients and f in an effort to recognize students who are demonstrating the five behavioral expectations at ace the award winners are olivia celino brian brianna valani serena song kaylee cottrell congratulations to all of you and remain a strong thank you for allowing us to share our efforts and building community within our ace family during our current distance learning environment stay safe and have a pleasant evening thank you thank you nicola for sharing the information you and chris and jack for sharing the information with the board thank you so very much action item okay i'll make a motion that the board of education approved the application for the
026state buildings grant program in the amount of one million eighty thousand dollars in accordance with exhibit 20-116 can i hear a second second second about joe any question concerning the action item seeing 9k could you do the roll call please joseph britton yes rachel chaleski hi keith canetta i gladys cooper aye joe da silva aye catherine hodgdon aye rich giannelli aye cathy molinaro aye al russo aye amy spellino hi carries unanimously okay thank you uh superintendent's report yes thank you um number one we have there's a covert 19 update and cara puente uh is with us i thought we would have her uh discuss that i just received today's uh report which is kind of uh shocking but um would you like to uh talk to the board about the the covert report that we've
027been saying the 14 day averages please sir thanks dr south so um we did have uh 76 new cases today um which brought our 14 day rolling average for 100 000 to 46.4 and over the past two weeks our positivity rate is just about nine percent um as we had indicated the board we are trying to weekly uh update uh this information um you know we're going to talk about the reopening where there are some comments that made earlier um by parents that we look at and i think we'll be talking about it in our discussion of the reopening schools kathy do you have anything to add to the covert comment i know you've had some situations going on um yes uh thank you dr sal good evening everyone um i just want to start
028by saying to cara thank you so much um for your partnership um your you know your access uh the access we have to you is invaluable and uh we get to talk on a daily basis we meet at least once a week sometimes twice and that is such a tremendous help to the district um you know we continue i continue to track the positive cases that we have that we know about even on remote learning we do get reports every day of positive students and positive staff i continue to report that to the state i can tell you that in the last 14 days what we know of are 40 positive cases um and you know we we continue to track that information and uh work together with cara we'll talk more about in the
029reopening but those are just the numbers that we've been um receiving from um from uh carapanti and then just the um everyday numbers that reports that come to um to kathy i will say to you one of the challenges that we're reaching is this contact racing and being able to um really get out and uh touch everyone that um we're supposed to that we've come in contact with that is a challenge right now and youngsters are not in school but it is something that that's perplexing to us um you're going to hear a lot about we're going to talk about some of that also in reopening um continue the conversation from the board workshop as well um i'd like to just update to go a little bit on the ciac i asked the chip to
030be here tonight chip did you update the board about what's going on with these winter activities please chipset is he here he is right thought i saw him chip is here sorry i was on you uh thanks dr sell and uh good evening board cabinet uh thank you for the opportunity to talk a little bit about uh speak a little bit about the ciac some good news uh first off i want to thank cara cathy board of ed cabinet dr self for your support uh for this past fall i know it was a tenuous time for everyone we were allowed to compete our our kids did quite well we had about 300 athletes and uh actually still competing and we should finish uh we will finish on saturday as far as the ciac for the
031winter season everything is in a flux the ciac off of reports from the dph and will have a guidance statement given to the state athletic directors on november 17th from this document we're going to hear we think about the movement of some sports to a new season and we'll also hear about some sports potentially playing with masks to be very honest with you as we speak uh i do not know whether or not sports will continue uh as we know it during the winter other is there has to be a lot of uh work with mitigation strategies and things from the cihc to the school districts to make things work uh we had our staff meeting today we addressed the coaches and about all our winter coaches about what what to expect so we're prepared
032uh either in either direction uh that we need to go uh but that's about it for the ciac we're actually penciled in to begin sports and penciled in because the board of control needs to vote on it sports would begin tentatively on december 5th with games and practices to begin games to begin on december 17th then again is tentative and more information will be available after november 17th that's it thank you jeff thank you very much that's all i have for my report at this time but one second uh i have something to add if you don't mind did you say had a question i have a quick one um chip i i saw an article and i didn't have time to really dive into the article but i saw an article that meridian for
033one has canceled the rest of sports to at least to the end of 2020. are there any other schools out there that are canceling sports or at least that seemed to be what the article was implying joe at this at this particular point there's a lot of rumors out there but nothing nothing factual um we do know that school districts like uh norwalk and stanford are absolutely waiting for uh the guidance from the state to come out but there's really nothing that i know of this firm okay thanks courtney did you have something to update the board on i didn't put it down if it you had mentioned something today well yes i'm sorry dr sal um in the last board meeting i had mentioned um doing a financial update i didn't realize that it's
034the next cycle in the calendar so it'll be at the next board meeting it's not this one that we do the financials but i also did reach out to rich to um schedule a finance committee because i recognize that he asked for some information in the last board meeting so we'll be doing a report on the current year financials as well as an accounting of the spending of the coveted funding as well as looking at the impact for next year um in the next board meeting and of that finance committee that will happen between now and then thank you thank you that's all for the superheroes report at this time okay uh you going to the discussion item yes yes yes okay thank you and thank you for the workshop um you know i'd like
035this to be a continuation of that quite frankly in some respects um we've looked at the um the science part of this we've we've examined the actual cases we've disaggregated it by age aid groups and we're finding some tendencies and i know as we reflect on you know where we are and why we are why we're at the position we are quite frankly the experiences that we've had has been longer than many of the surrounding towns that are just approaching it um you know what i see from the feedback that i'm getting we are very concerned about against not being in school i also see a lot of schools closing down doing contact tracing there's a lot of episodic events that are happening in the school systems when they're open not to say that our
036goal is not to open as you know we were close to doing it and those numbers that we that unforeseen by us that just jumped so drastically on the 26th caused us to not implement the model the hybrid model the prediction then was that they would go up uh right now they've just uh gone up they've gone through the roof um and i think that as as we talked to our medical folks we've been taking their advice and your advice has been pretty explicit to me that the infection rate and um the ability to contact trace and all that although is there the mitigating the migration standards that it's not the best time to bring our youngsters back it's not what i wanted it to be and certainly not our team in terms of where
037we wanted to be but at this point um i think it was mentioned at the workshop you know how it's impacting these youngsters i mean you know you could hear what the parents have said um i i agree with that as i said at the workshop i've got my own grandkids that have been quarantined and i understand the dilemma i really do but when i weigh the safety and the professional recommendations and everybody's scaling back didn't seem to me to be the right time to do it particularly at this time so we're looking at really moving along and trying to make a decision to keep uh on dl to at least the thanksgiving vacation and then reassess it for the possibilities of coming back now with that said please understand that we are looking at
038more mitigation kinds of activities not only the um cleanliness of the building but um stations at desks social distancing all the masks all of that there along with other other options that some districts across the country are doing uh with some testing options that we might have um with the goal to bring everyone back but at this point it's very hard for me to think through how uh the numbers are so radically bad much much more severe than we've had in i can't remember how long um to bring them back now would not be the right thing i did have kathy here tonight kathy and kara that comment uh cara we spoke about just yesterday about as we looked as i said you know let's call our surrounding towns what are we learning and how
039is it that um you know they're opening and we're at where we're at and as we reflect and look at it you had some good observations from meeting with all the folks maybe you can update us a little bit on some of the things that some of the things that you uh had mentioned to us at this time cara franti regarding that sure um what i had mentioned is that we have just been at this elevated level for a lot longer than a lot of the other districts so while we were um while all the other districts are are now coming into the red zone and we've had this elevated community transmission now since uh the end of august so um a lot of these places are now now they're seeing what it's like to
040be in school uh with high levels of community transmission um so if we were to start going into school now with this high level of community transmission um we're kind of you know we we haven't seen that happen before we haven't we're just now seeing the effects of what this what uh the high levels are on schooling with in-person learning because our levels now are um they're creeping up they are similar to what they were they're creeping to where they were in the spring um and we didn't have in-person learning there so we are then so we're kind of learning from the other districts what how they're um interacting with this high level of community transmission and kathy i know that you're in regular communication with all the other school districts so please feel free
041to add to that thank you cara yes our surrounding school districts um they are in person some are full-time at the elementary level and hybrid middle and high school summer on full hybrid but every surrounding district has had closures um which you know as as i have said before can happen very quickly so parents will often get notified at you know midday or end of the day that your child can't come back to school for the next 14 days and that is happening frequently in our surrounding districts um and those are districts that aren't even seeing the numbers that we are seeing right now um and uh cara you know i'll you know certainly defer to you on this but um what we've been seeing in the last two weeks i think is a result
042of halloween we have upcoming holidays uh you know thanksgiving and christmas people are still traveling uh domestically internationally and you know we're at numbers now that we have not seen in a very long time so that's very concerning to me i think a few of the districts announced around something have gone to deal already through the holidays is that correct is that some of the feedback you're getting oh no you got frozen um i think dr sally answered that is yes you've got milford and trumbull now both going full remote until january of next year and shelton today shelton announced that they were going uh as of tomorrow shelton will go full remote until january yeah um you know it's hard to i listen to the board deeply and i and i uh concur i
043i think uh you know if something drastically changes the other way would we uh move to the hybrid yes we're prepared to move to the hybrid you know and you know i need to say to the board that the hybrid for us i think i want to say 2700 students and carriers on here she might be able to update me maybe that's changed uh 2400 students that we requested or a third of um of our population that required such a high number of um faculty in order to uh uh in order to accommodate them those students that are that would be at home on gl that um if we were once we go to hybrid then we're gonna change teachers and you know as executive order four talks about um you know there are other
044factors other than numbers well i think the disruption of of the youngsters in terms of a new teacher um coming in you know as if we'd have come in on the 26th we probably would have been sending students home they would have had you know be santorum so all of these things begin playing into the work that we're doing um and although it's difficult to leave them at home and i feel we feel for them um we need to find a pathway back and as i said um you know if these numbers should happen to change or it puts us in a position where we feel we can safely start implementing our hybrid we would do it in an incident um but at this point i don't believe that we're there for uh from where
045i stand i know kevin you're on any comments uh kim or i got kelly and cara desmera no i'm i'm good doctor cell is kiran casamiro yeah i'm here i mean i i i can't really you know comment on the health numbers those you know that the data is what it is and it's a growing concern and unfortunately you know doesn't look like it's getting much better it's going in the in an opposite direction um you know but i you know i will it's disappointing for sure um you know kelly and i work very closely together we're very concerned about kids their well-being and and and how our instructional program is serving them in this environment and um but what i can tell you is that you know everyone is is doing um you know
046an enormous and tremendous job in in doing the best what we can with the circumstances we have a a pretty quality distance learning program in place um and we're um you know we do have continuity of instruction and i i do believe that that that that is an important piece rather than trying to write out some type of a roller coaster that is happening in a lot of these other school districts so you know you know obviously we're not happy about all of this but we we will forge on we continue to hone our craft in this environment and and find new ways of um bringing instruction high quality instruction to the students so you know folks can rest assured that we are at least doing our very best to make the most of this
047time that we have with the kids as we work towards getting back into in-person learning kelly anything from your standpoint just to add on to what kara said i mean for the majority of you know students we are just working towards making the distance learning model as effective and supportive of all their different learning needs inclusive of our special education students we are looking at a very small select group of students for whom have very significant disabilities that really is quite challenging for them to partake in the in the distance learning model um and through collaboration with kathy um and cara we're working on like i said a very small cohort of students and getting them into the building in very very small pockets to provide direct instruction for them a handful of days a
048week it'll most likely be a two day a week model where we'll take our most significant special education self-contained programs and bring in half the class on a monday tuesday and the other half the class on a thursday friday to be able to provide them with some in-person specialized instruction and related services while still keeping the health and safety protocols in place for our staff and students so we're looking to possibly roll that out right after the thanksgiving break and kathy cara and myself are working very very closely to make sure um that we're putting all the appropriate mitigation strategies in place um so that will mean some of your um some of your special education related services staff um will be coming in um during that time frame in order to provide support and
049services to these children so i am excited about doing that i think it's the right thing to do for our kids um but it is like i said a very small group um i wish i could do it for more but with the numbers um it's not not appropriate to do so at this time um so we will continue to keep you posted on how that goes dr sal can i just make one more comment just it's just to address one of the parental questions that came up in the beginning um there was a parent who asked about um you know why why we don't have a full day of school in a digital environment and i just wanted to point out um you know there's a good portion of the day particularly k5 and
050i believe that's where the comment was directed at um when when you eliminate recess lunch breaks transitions and independent practice from the school day um you know there there is you know there is not a need to have students in from an eight to three and a full day um in real school when you're in school uh for example in an hour block of time a teacher could rotate through small group instruction with a group of students do three groups 20 minutes at a time those other two groups are in the classroom working on independent independent work and practice while they're waiting to meet their teacher for a 20-minute group so those are just normal things that happen during the school day that may or may not be as transparent as they are now in
051this distance learning environment um and so you know that's where maybe some of those questions are coming from um additionally you know the length of time of the school day and the amount of direct instruction is is appropriate um and we also have to understand too that everything takes longer in distance learning all the lessons everything that we normally do takes longer it takes longer for teachers to develop those lessons it takes longer there's a lot of curriculum conversion happening right now and what that is is just lessons that would normally um be delivered at the drop of a hat in a classroom have to be converted into a digital environment teacher has to plan for how they're going to um to capture information how they're going to display information how they're going to make
052it accessible to students in a digital environment and also how they're going to um facilitate feedback in that environment and the planning that that takes just definitely takes longer so there is some time embedded at the end of the day for that as well as to reach independent uh independently some students who may need some uh some additional time in in this particular environment so um i just wanted to point that out that you know the day is very complex the lessons are complex and the work that the students are doing is right now is is very appropriate to to their needs is that there's any time spent with faculty expected to do i mean you know in my view it's five days a week basically that they should be getting continuous instruction on a
053hybrid we're down as you know as you know would be down to two or two and a half days of getting um you know that contact time so you know um you know just breaking that cycle right now thinking uh that we would have to send sensitive back really um does not start well with the instructional uh pacing of the curriculum at this point particularly coming to the end of a marking period all these things are playing into factor into what we're doing and for the board you know i hear the word political i don't know what that means um if it political means to try to listen to both sides and you know make a decision based on um the best data that i can then okay but there's no influences i could see
054in any any way um that would say it's it's a political type decision um we um um i don't know districts around us you know making decisions with so many youngsters out i'm i'm not there i'm not willing to take that risk maybe some people are um and then that that's just my my take on it um i i am somewhat conservative on that um and i do believe our medical folks when they look at me in the eye and say it's too dangerous knowing quite well i want them to come back knowing quite well the discomfort that's causing in the homes with um you know supervision and the um although we work at social emotional it's good when the kids interact with each other all these things come into play and even with all
055of that i can't look the board in the eye and say at this point i would bring him back and guarantee that um you know it would be a safe environment yeah we'd do our best we'd have our medication but i think the risk and reward is not worth it at this point for me so i'm i'm interested to listen to the board i'm very interested i listened deeply the other night um you know that's why um you know we want to look at this regularly that we can bring them back but um because we've been asked for communication purposes tried to give parents a good lead time for planning we think we need to at least the team felt very strongly we should tell parents look you know look at this right about thanksgiving
056to see what we can do about the return i think joe mentioned something about sports you know i don't see how we're going to be able to do that quite frankly based on what i'm seeing at this point as well this is not just um you know when we were in the dl before the numbers were different now you know they're they're at the point where i worry about that so uh you know all that is going to be in front of us moving forward um and you know i'll come down and we'll come down on the safety so um i don't know before i just keep quiet here i don't know if anybody else cara or uh kim do you have any comments or kevin no i the only thing i'll say just is
057is to let people know that you know we continue to field a lot of questions and concerns and we're starting the slow process of kind of peeling back in-person work for a lot of our folks um we're starting to be stretched a little bit with quarantining um and so it seems like the peel back now is is a really prudent approach not only to respond to the concerns that are coming to us but just for staffing so um i think that you know people have been very flexible and very kind in their approach and very concerned obviously about the numbers that we're all watching so we started that process yesterday afternoon and that'll run kind of through this week so we're kind of making adjustments now for what the next couple of weeks will look
058like are there any questions from board members to dr sale or anyone i'm sure yes yeah um thank you dr cell um just a comment to the parents we hear you i certainly understand i have a third grader and a sixth grader um this is easy on anybody and we're lucky we have family support that that helps um but doctor i think dr cell i have to agree with you i think the numbers and our doctors said this last week during our workshop the numbers aren't good and frankly they're worse today than they were last week profoundly worse i did while we were before our meeting i was just looking and getting ready for the meeting i looked around if you look at the front web page for the norwalk hour the damner news times
059are hard for current there are stories about schools being closed and not necessarily entire districts although norwalk and darien are certainly on distance learning shelton's closed for the rest of the year um wallingford middle school is closed manchester has a closing enfield has issues west haven high school has an issue middletown has an issue i believe they're also cancelling cancelled sports bethel brookfield newtown and milford all have positive cases and some closures um that maybe not whole schools maybe classes or cohorts um two high schools in hartford uh new canaan i remember reading an article yesterday in the norwalk hour when i was at work new cane in saks middle school has got a major outbreak and a problem this is happening everywhere these schools are going in and coming out and bouncing back and
060forth and i think i have to agree with cathy o'dowd the disruption that's going to cause might actually be worse than being out on top of risking the safety of staff and students so i i want kids to go back my son especially would really like to go back it's hard being in third grade and being home but to do it now with these numbers is just i think would be reckless uh not not even dangerous just flatly reckless um i and i think it's only a matter of time before more schools come in our direction than going the other unfortunately it's not a good situation but i think you're on the safety side um this is a question on top of that maybe it's for kathy when when we're close when schools are closing
061classes or cohorts how long are they closing those down for is that a 14 day shutdown um yes joe generally it is so if there's a positive case um and there are direct contacts identified um we're required to close um quarantine for 14 days and get a cova test even if the test comes back negative you cannot test out a quarantine you must remain in that quarantine for 14 days now for direct contact i'm thinking for for a child for a kid in the classroom do the direct contacts include all of the kids in the classroom um so direct contact or close contact we define that as within six feet of distance for 15 minutes or more and it's not one block of time it's actually 15 minutes can be over 24 hour period so
062it's effectively the whole class yeah it's very hard to you know have a diameter where you can say we know only these children we're within that that six feet of distance it's very that's difficult so the majority of districts yes are closing an entire classroom or a cohort is it also their school bus the school bus yes that that too you know so this expands beyond just the classroom okay thank you all of us as and that you know children on the bus are not necessarily from the same classroom so you would be dealing with other issues there as well and we've seen that in our non-public schools uh where we have had to close perhaps one grade but then when you get to the school bus that may involve several other grades you know
063when when it's the other grades it's an individual student not necessarily okay yeah thank you that's all i had right for this at this time adam share thank you very much thank you jim thank you any other questions i have a question yes uh rachel and also just a comment to joe's you know statement about other surrounding towns having gone back i wish we were one of the districts that had flip-flopped i think it's worth i want my kids to have just one day one day to make a connection with their their new teachers their new schools um you know i wouldn't send them with our numbers being what they are right now but i would send them in september i would have sent them in october you know in hindsight i feel like we
064missed our opportunity we missed our chance for our kids to have that one day um and we and does anybody else find it ironic that chip just you know spoke about our kids playing sports this whole time and then kathy o'dowd immediately saying there's it has it's about halloween i had 10 kids come to the house for um trick-or-treating 10. um and i know you know there are other leagues independent leagues that are um you know playing maybe not any longer with the governor's new rules um i i just you know is there anything tied to sports um and you know even through the independent leagues you know we know that most of those kids are our students and the and you know the optics of that um i don't know and i get you
065know the staffing issue as well um with with you know our danbury staff having kids in other surrounding towns but that means their kids get to go but ours doesn't i don't think that's you know that's fair either um i guess i'll just i'll leave it at that you know rachel i i'm not just just a reflection and here's what i was struggling with you know what do i have to take away from folks to take away from folks if it's if it's if i don't have to and and that was the struggle that we had and when we looked at what our youngsters were already were missing out on um you know we felt that with safety and the way we could handle the um the high school situation which started in july made
066sense to us it's not that we didn't come close to polling we did in the beginning when the numbers were at the point when we when we didn't have it you may recall that and then felt that when the numbers leveled it was okay to maintain it so long as we we had that weekly check and uh but that's that was the dilemma i think you just you know we had surrounding towns going and i had an opportunity to get let our kids do something and try not to just take everything away from them which which hurts everyone so it's it's it's a fine line and um you know in retrospect could we have i think carrot spoke to it well our numbers were to the point where we felt it was not safe but
067we did decide in october um you know what happened you know that's the only comment i have with that i do understand i don't understand i just also want to add about the halloween thing um a lot of it might not be associated with trick-or-treating but there were a lot of small halloween gatherings and we're finding that in our contact racing that we do have a lot of cases that are linked to halloween and um you know it's 10 right now we're 10 days out and we've seen our largest spike so we have to kind of think that there is some sort of association with halloween and also to sorry to mention we are seeing cases with sports as well we're seeing both kara are we seeing transmission i was looking at the numbers in
068school as that transmission you know there was this theory where the transmission was not happening at school are you seeing some of that now coming with our youngsters with our school or no in general school children transmission with school-age kids or school transmission within like our non-public schools well we have our non-publics we have yeah yes that's what i was talking about i'll defer to kathy on this one she's been more involved with the non-public schools um i can tell you what the level the numbers of kids that we have and that's the age breakdown that we kind of went through at the last meeting but in terms of the specific contact racing within the non-public schools i think kathy would be better able to kathy how is that going maybe so in terms of
069the non-public schools at this point we have not seen the spread in schools but we have seen um frequent closures of either a grade level or a classroom um and with the community numbers what they are now um you know my concern is that it's it's just a matter of time we're seeing spread through families it's not just um one parent or one child in the family we are seeing um all family members being tested positive so again i i can't confirm that we're seeing the spread in the schools but the numbers you know it's just a matter of time with what we're seeing at this point so um that's we're planning on sending something out to parents so that they are able to plan um you know uh probably uh tomorrow or thursday to
070to alert them that uh we'll probably be close to thanksgiving when we'll make a decision about going forward so i have a question yes um catherine so my question is and are on all these levels of positive cases are they symptomatic asymptomatic i mean you're saying that a whole family's coming positive but are they all just transmitting it or do they actually have it or do we know yeah so when i say it's spreading through families um that is with confirmed positive now positive cases can be asymptomatic they can be symptomatic but we are seeing uh confirmed cases of spread through families through testing aren't there any other questions okay got to say uh you finished out the sale yes thank you okay okay we have the information package remind board members that sign up
071for the cave convention you have the outline uh we have our next board meeting on uh november the 24th okay which is a tuesday okay and i also had a discussion with mr watson and and and would like to talk about having um i don't know if we want to name it a workshop but an open meeting with parents so we can have a discussion about reopening and more or less the information that we went through tonight briefly and more or less uh to have the view or the question from the appearance because most of the comments are coming in that you know we only hear one side the board you know board members don't have kids in school and uh that's not true most of us that are sitting up here we might not
072have children in school some of the younger ones but some of the older ones we have grandchildren in school so you know just have an overall discussion uh as we look towards january and just have a discussion with the parents and community people so i don't know how dr sale and mr watson sort of feel about that but i saw it through a date out december the 9th we will get started uh maybe a little bit earlier like 6 30 or 7 whichever one that's convenient for board members uh that's all i want to throw out to the board and and i think that we sort of owe it to the parents to sort of let them voice their the opinion versus the comments part so i don't know how board members feel about that
073madam chair yes comment please uh an open discussion uh i've also read the communications that have come in an alternate view of science that um my question to the cabinet i am not going to argue with dr fong or any medical opinion says that we should stay closed but there has been comment about additional or different uh medical opinions and before we have this open discussion i would just like to have the cabinet and myself well versed on what that additional uh descending of medical opinions are if there are any and we know there are and so we could we can talk intelligently with the parents and and to give them our point of view that yes the numbers are high it's dangerous and we see a school closures and partial closures all over connecticut
074and uh i just we should be as well informed as the others and i understand that uh if we all did the research we would have be privy to it but it's a lot deeper sometimes than we have time for and we rely on our own medical experts so if there is a descending opinion out there uh medical opinion on what to do um we should think about it or research it also but i have i am not taking any opposition against uh dr fong or dr begg and i just wanted to make that comment if you want to open this up to the public for discussion what we're going to be opening ourselves up to thank you madam chair thank you al any other comments our board members in favor are having uh this
075uh discussion i don't know what we want to call it a workshop but we work out the details it's an excellent idea okay yeah i agree so i'm i was looking at decent you know uh december the ninth i stated again and those you know it's not mandatory board members that want to come you can come and be a part of it but i think it will also give the parents a better idea as to uh planning and uh we don't want them to we find out something and then they'll their plans are totally different so i to me you know flatus will the doctors be on with um when we have the parents comments and i mean the only thing we can go by is this addendum 4 correct this is this is our
076bible i guess for keeping kids out of school so will the doctors be able to be on with us well we could we could talk to him sure i'm sure i think we can i think you know we got something today there's articles out there regarding um you know the the perspective of this is the norm um you know you practice keeping your hands clean you practice masks and you practice distancing and as you discover uh cases you then cohort them and remove them and you know how dangerous is it is you know what is the um what's the impact in terms of their uh their health um there's there's questions about long-term health particularly those that are compromised there's there's a lot of issues so you know maybe um we could we could well
077there's also going because there's also going to be questions about the vaccine and and will they be able to address that and kara that's a good question kathy um are we are we going are we going to um i mean what do we know about the vaccine for danbury for instance what do we know what do we know from will it be available in general prenti or kathy yeah yeah so that's a good question um we are doing our mass vaccination planning now we're in constant communication with our regional partners our all of our partners and the state um so what the word that we got today we actually got a memo today and they said be prepared for december 2020 um it's going to be very very limited doses so we there's a priority
078schedule that is for that and first and foremost are healthcare workers and hospital employees and then there's a tiered approach to that with critical infrastructure and and they're deciding on whether or not what the level of that would be for schools um so at this point that's all we know but we are planning on it they did tell us today plan on december 2020 i don't know what that means or how many doses but that is the information that we got yeah i did too kathy um we were asked a couple of weeks ago to start gathering numbers so we've actually already sent categorized numbers of staff to the city um so that they can use those numbers in their planning um without prioritizing but just giving them kind of overall numbers so that they'll
079be ready with what they need when the plan's ready to go thank you okay so we'll move forward december tonight and cam and mr watson and dr sale will come up if we how to really uh structure this and and have this meeting and more or less to get parents and had a divorce okay i don't have anything else if everybody is uh don't if there's no other questions uh entertain a motion to adjourn the meeting so moves moved by mr de silva can i hear a second second second by l that's stupid joe britton okay motion so care good night everyone good night everybody you