001community to thank everyone from joining us as I'm looking at the participation list it looks like we already have over 200 participants so I'm gonna thank those folks who have taken time to join this this evening of course I think our board members for taking time and being part of this evenings meeting I also seen a lot of familiar faces in our community Terry etc a lot of folks have this greens hidden but just want to thank you also for joining us this evening I know this is very important to our parents our family you should also know though staff was on earlier you should also know that our staff we had a meeting with our staff earlier this afternoon that around two o'clock over 800 participants in that call as you might imagine there
002were a lot of questions concerns about trying to keep keep keep our children safe on a daily basis and wanted to be assured that we had the appropriate strategies in place to make that happen and so you know we re certainly going to take their feedback and try to incorporate that in the plan and I'll practice when we open up schools so I was just thinking maybe we can get this another minute and see if we can just try to get settled and I'll kind of walk and get provide an overview for you for this evenings me started so for those of you who don't know me my name is Kevin walleston the assistant superintendent here in Danbury this is my second year in district and I'm happy to be number one here in district
003and happy to also call Danbury home like many of you the the cabinet and I the team the teachers the administrators you know everyone is eager to get back to school get back to work and being in front of your children but we also want to make sure we doing that safely to that and you should know you probably aware this state is requiring that has required that all of our schools reopened fully in the fall and and given the our our reality regarding overcrowding and and the guidelines around social distancing our superintendent dr. Sal has pushed our our cabinet and so we pushed a letter to the governor's office to our commissioner requesting some flexibility on that plan and so you will know in our in our reentry plan is actually a sample letter
004that we sent to the state requesting quite frankly some type of modification to reopening schools and in fact we outlined a scenario in which our schools would be open in some type of hybrid model in which you know half 50% of the kids would go a couple days a week then a different cohort of students would go to school different days a week and then we have one day in the middle in which our schools would be cleaned and disinfected as of right now we do not have any official word regarding that request and we've been encouraged to submit a plan with the intention to open up fully in the fall so we're going to continue to work under that expectation but please know that as a district we are hoping to get an approval
005to to come back on some type of modified plants so just yes doctor cells that you yeah I'm on you that I couldn't get on the awesome they wouldn't let this they wouldn't unmute the superintendent sorry so I know you want to do the presentation we have two hundred and fifty-seven yes what boy yes just terrific so thank you for taking the time we said we would come back when we had more information more explicit we do but I do want to just make this point to you and I've been getting emails from folks and from from teachers and from parents and even students we're concerned I'm concerned you're concerned there's a lot of discussion regarding what's a fun safe is it unsafe for adults is it more unsafe for youngsters these are all you
006know narratives that that are playing out there my narrative simple we're trying to start next year and I can tell you it's not normal it's abnormal that's not a great revelation I can tell you for certainty that we have to invest in a few things sanitation is going to be extremely important we're going to get extra custodial help during the day to keep Washington's cleaned and and just areas that are frequent by the adults or students so that remains clean there's there's we will limit obviously those individuals coming into the school to emergency cases only the limit and protect the school children as best we can I will say that there's a lot of anxiety trying to accomplish this distancing is prescribed by the the experts now we're talking three to six feet so you
007know it looks in our case going back full time the three foot is more of their reality and that's moving much of the materials out of classrooms you know the corners that we love so much where youngsters read to the teacher and things of that nature may not be present until we get this thing under control so these things are a barred bottom some very bottom some to me that's why you know going into the hybrid model allowing much greater distance possibly permitting if it's more than six feet that the youngsters can take these masks off to have them on all day well and it's very difficult we don't have air conditioning these are all things that have been keeping me up at night so for many reasons along with the cove at 19 it
008seems the state's relegated into Phase two or their hybrid only when it comes to the covert in our situation it really is the practicality of what we have and a growing school district it does not have the space to make it into an environment we feel is the best conducive for our youngsters sort of sanitation is very important but I will say the certainty we have will be distance learning next year no matter if it's a hybrid or partially on the full distance learning you're going to hear today parents are going to do any opportunity to petition distance learning so we want to make sure that we create the best case scenario with this is learning so we're going to invest highly in that we're going to invest in the sanitation and mitigation strategies P
009P devices for youngsters sudden partitions things of that nature that we need to make sure that when we do return whether it's full-time or or hybrid we're going to have to utilize that so I don't want to take too much time there there's a lot of things on my mind I want to just say to you as I promised we will create the safest environment as I can I am working hand in hand with your mayor may abound to petition the state to please permit us to do the hybrid for many many reasons and have not heard back yet but I'm certain we'll hear something hopefully very soon with that Kevin maybe you can go through the presentation thank you absolutely thank you so and so just just a quick overview of of the meeting
010for this evening certainly want to walk you through an overview of the re-entry plan and please after this meeting the plane will be on the website in its current state until the board meeting we make those final adjustments so please take you know to fight and find an opportunity to read in more detail about the plan the overview that I'm going to be sharing with you a kind of highlights representative of the expectations and the requirements from the state next on the agenda we have an inductor Meade is going to put a link into the chat box and so in your window you'll see an icon for chat and if you select that link I'm sorry if you select that box you will see a link in there shortly once you select that it will
011be a Google sheet and in that Google document there will be an area area where it says category and then another space where it's question and so what we are looking to do is a district because we understand recognize acknowledge that you might be you may have a lot of questions for us arm or concerns and so for us that space will be the opportunity to record those questions the frequently asked questions we will add as an addendum to the plan and have some responses to make sure we've answered them look for the community and then last but not least we'll circle back to the superintendent and ask him to close out the meeting okay and can you confirm that you have that link in there it is there and it's working okay thank you
012Anne and so let me just get started and just say that this presentation identifies the critical requirements needed for each district to submit a reopening plan the guidance that we're following is from the the Connecticut school reopen and plain adapt advance and achieve this was released on July I'm sorry June 24th I believe it was and and from that guidance jamberry public schools and other districts around the state began to put their plans together giving that guidance and so some of the specific requirements are on the next few slides the this and if it maintains that every school opening plan should be designed with clear and specific specific mitigate mitigating strategies and make sure that we address each critical requirement and so in our next page of the PowerPoint those critical requirements are going to
013be listed it's going to kind of help guide the the presentation but you'll also find when you look deeper into the plan the plan is also laid out per each requirement and so dr. Stowell event alluded to this earlier some of the priorities from the state is that all students should be returning to school full-time in the fall and so as long as the public health data continues to support this model will be in full will be back in school and full up to full capacity in the event there are any changes in kovat 19 instances or occurrences in the community we could be moved to a to a hybrid model in which only 50% of our students are allowed to come in school and then if the cases continue to increase as per the
014health department we could be moved to full distance learning but the expectation is is that as of right now anyway is that we would start full-time instruction up to 100% of our students and so some of those sections that are required in this plan is that we have some specific mitigation strategies relative to transportation food services extracurricular activities childcare answers for social emotional support mitigation strategies with facilities and operations making sure we've provided one-to-one devices for all of our students and found ways to ensure that our families had access and connectivity began to walk through what the academic experience would be like for all of our students our teachers and our staff and our families and then also and most importantly as for a lot of the feedback that we're receiving addressing the health and
015wellness of all of our students and staff and Families and then making sure we have a plan for school family-school partnerships and continue to connect with our families in the community through this effort and so I'll start with bus and transportation some of these are requirements others are considerations and so to begin with the required it is required that all that that all of our students and staff have face coverings on the bus and and certainly and for our parents in particular you know encourages social distance and that pick-up and drop-off points in the community you know these are not things we had to worry about in the past but it's certainly going to be important that we will maintain social distance when we're away from school as well we've had a number of conversations
016with our Transportation Department and we'll have protocols in place what we have what we are intensifying cleaning protocols and disinfecting protocols on our buses and and and soon we'll be talking about this later on in a plan we'll be asking feedback from our community on my believe we've already surveyed you at least one time I'm trying to get feedback from you and seeing if you had an appetite for you know having your students take it having your kids take advantage of a school transportation or what might you be driving your kids to school yourself and then of course if we have an increased number of parents deciding to drive their students to school there certainly helps us on the buses with social distance in but it'll also causes a challenge on the other side of
017an increase track traffic in the schools so part of our considerations and things we'll be looking at is number one certainly working with our safety advocates and training them on best practice to help with with traffic flow but also reviewing and explore the idea of hiring additional crossing guards on to help to help manage that so certainly a big issue for us is trying to figure out how we're going to feed students in a social distance environment and on a full day this continues to be a challenge for us as we you know walk through the different scenarios but some some things that are certainly non-negotiable and that is that we'll continue to have to final follow our nutritional safety guidelines but through throughout this model whatever model we look to implement we'll look to
018a design classroom delivery models for younger students in which we would figure out how maybe we can deliver class foods to classrooms maximize social distances as much as possible during lunch period this could be in the cafeteria this could be in classrooms it's really dependent on a school and so we're very mindful of the of the gathering guidelines you know provided by the state but at the same time we also have some capacity issues with supervision in classrooms so that staff can also have an opportunity to have their own lunch and so we will be figuring that out and in some schools we allow be able to use the cafeteria and social distance and then at the same time in some schools we may not be able to use the cafeteria at all and so
019you know we'll continue depending on a school it's certainly school specific but we will be exploring all of those things certainly will be will be providing grabbing gold meals and again whether that's in a classroom cafeteria throughout a school campus that will be a priority for us we're applicable we will have cashless touchless point-of-sale transactions you know we're still exploring exactly what that food exchange is going to look like but in any case we will have grabbing gold meals so that we don't have a congregation of students at lunch counters and and and we're possible we'll be looking to stagger over lunch schedules as much as possible to reduce the number of students in a cafeteria or in any space for that matter in the school and so we know we have a lot of
020athletes in the school community and a lot of students who participate in extracurricular activities a couple of weeks ago we had a town hall meeting in which you know some of our students it was they they reminded us how important it was whatever model we choose that we maintain their their school experience that you know to the best of our ability and so we will absolutely continue to have extracurricular activities but we also have to do that in a safe manner and so the CI a C has already released guidelines for athletes that has already started and has been implemented effective July 1st so for those of you who are aware or may not be aware you know some of our athletes have already come back into school campus in in many cases they've been
021encouraged as part of the phase one and that is working with their coaches in a virtual way and working on conditioning and then a different phase was they were starting to come into the school in cohorts and begin to work out in work on conditioning and those can in those cohorts have been increase and more students are coming back in a safe manner with social discs being mindful of social distance and guidelines also any equipment whether that's workout equipment you know whatever that might be procedures for shared equipment and making sure those things are all sanitized and making sure they're coming up for it with a system to make that happen and just going back to after-school care and before school care we will be working with those programs and surveying the community seeing what
022the interest in and participation in those programs to make sure we have adequate staffing before and after school and then of course the expectation is that staff will be expected to implement the same procedures that be happened during the school day and so social emotional support for our students in our staff has been a priority for us and training will be a priority for us to open up the school year as you probably aware at our board meeting in June we implemented a new district calendar in which we grouped more days at the beginning of the year for training for staff and then most recently we just we were just in performed I believe it was early as late as yesterday what two days ago where instead of the hundred and a 180 day expectation
023it is now only a hundred and seventy seven day expectation and the expectation is districts can use those additional three days for preparation and planning with staff and so I mentioned that because this will help give us even more time for our staff to receive the training that they'll need to implement trauma-informed professional development for everyone making sure our staff has an opportunity to get acquainted or get reacquainted with their space which will certainly look different when they come back dr. Salim mentioned earlier that if we're going to be able to get into these classrooms within those guidelines classrooms are going to look very different and so we've had an architect give us some feedback on how those classrooms would have to be reconfigured on to make sure we can get you know up to
02420 22 students 24 students in a classroom which in our case would mean removing a lot of other furniture to make that happen I'm going back to the social-emotional support we will be planning to work with staff in the beginning of the year and part of that priority I'm sorry part of that priority will be the plant experiences to ensure that schools place play Student Wellness first by step establishing positive safe and supportive learning environment and so in our elementary schools you know that could mean morning meeting that can mean you know sitting down and and and working with with students talking about their day their weekends what I'm talking about feelings but it's really more about non academic focused check-ins with students and making sure we have a plan at every school to make
025sure this has happened in a systemic way at the same time we'll also be working with our administrators to do something similar with staff recognizing how important this is for everyone during these times and then you'll also see at the bottom you know for staff and it's important I think that you know that we'll be looking - to make sure we're support our staff so that they can be in front of your children again so you know that they have the support that they need and so an employing assistant program will be available to them for any support they might need outside of the constructs of the school day and so facilities and operations on this one was a big one for us you know we need to ensure that all of our schools meet
026high cleanliness and disinfecting standards prior to to reopen in a school and we'll certainly be doing that you know we've been working with our operations department classrooms have been cleaned early in the school year given that you know we didn't have students in the building that has provided opportunities for us to begin to move extraneous kind of furniture from classrooms so that we can adhere to these guidelines expectations and those expectations dr. Salim mentioned earlier the the American I'm sorry the American Academy of Pediatrics has released guidelines recently that that suggests that three to six feet that being socially distanced within six three to six feet will will certainly help us will certainly help us mitigate the spread of the disease and so we'll we will be using those guidelines to help develop and put
027in place I'm sorry to put the architect together for our classrooms and we'll be working with and have worked with the Health Department and our school nurse as we've as we put these classrooms together you certainly there will be plans in place for appropriate social distancing within the classrooms but also in our hallways at arrival and dismissal and in common areas and so this is why you know we're again we're mindful of the rules around you know large gatherings and so you know the typical traffic rules that we have when driving would be but will be implemented when walking in the hallways on the right side of the hallway looking at stairways and see if we can have just upstairs and downstairs so kids and I'm making face-to-face contact and and last but not least
028for this page reviewing and looking at because we're mindful that also that windows are gonna have to be open doors will have to be Pro propped open for appropriate ventilation within our classrooms we've also been informed recently that we will not be able to use fans at this time because that will just further compromises will compromise our classrooms and so you know we'll certainly be working with staff to making sure windows and doors are open for appropriate of insulation on our spaces and so I had mentioned this earlier but technology and access is another big item for us we worked really hard before the year closed out to make sure we supplied students with Chromebooks before the year ended we have an inventory on hand and the event of damage and loss of stolen devices
029but also a plan to supply any new students to the district with Chromebooks as well of course the district will be provided a model in which all students will transport devices safely to and from school our academic plan when we come back to school will require an ongoing ongoing plan that will continue with a you know a component in which students will continue to be engaged engage whether we are fully back in school or not or in a hybrid whilst expectation will be teachers and students will still engage virtually in the lab with the Chromebook and so you know as part of the expectation students will be bringing those devices to and from school and walk with look exploring plans to make sure that could be done safely because we want to mitigate any accidents
030or issues with braking devices broken devices and last but not least of course we continue to work with families will continue to survey families on whether or not they have adequate wireless internet access and an ensuring that everyone has a one-to-one device on as a community we have to prepare to make sure that in the event where we have a researchers in a community and we're back to full-time distance learning on that everyone is connected if and when that happens and so health and wellness of course for us is an important area for us we've received a lot of feedback through our own exchange and also from our surveys our community our teachers families expressing concern about about this area so families should know that any event there is a confirmed case in one of
031our schools or if our students or staff for that matter or experiencing or experiencing any of these symptoms as per this state we not only have to have a nurse's office in every building but we also have to have a designated isolation room and so in that isolation room staff and students will be monitored by a school nurse students certainly you know they will be reviewed and monitored and the expectation is we all have to part of our partnership with families the expectation is you know we will need our families to come pick up their children immediately you know certainly another expectation for our families is that they are also I'm doing it typical screenings before they send their children to school and so if they have a fever if they having any of the
032symptoms of kovat 19 or common cold we are expressing we're encouraging families to keep their children at home of course we're doing the same thing they're requesting the same a staff you should also know that as part of what we have we're going to have to be we're not gonna have a choice but to be really strict with our visitation policy and so I know for some of our families particularly our younger parents who have in years past who have come into the building to drop their families off principals would be working with you to come up with a protocol where you're dropping your students your kids off at the door because in again to help mitigate the spread of kovat will be we will not be allowed to have visitors inside the school and
033so in the again in the event of a of a positive case in the school the superintendent and the the health department including our district nurse we will be communicating with the community and so if if a teacher a staff member or a member of the household is tested positive for kovat 19 immediately contact tracing will be put in place and with contact tracing for those of you who are not aware it's literally tracing and so it's you know one of us do Goods appears to have had as contacted Kyle Kovac 19 that parent may have been exposed and then all the other students who have who have been around this student you would have to identify and reach out to those families any other staff members that may have come in contact with this
034student or it could be a staff member in any case we would have a responsibility to to to inform families and then that also triggers another response and so in a district we kind of have a decision tree around these decisions we work with the Health Department we work with our district nurse we've confirmed if there is a case and if there is a case there's a procedure in which we have to determine whether or not we're closing down classrooms we have to determine whether or not we're closing down the school for a couple of days or will determine whether or not we have to close on a district for a couple of days and right now the guidance suggests that you close the school down for two to five days assess make sure you
035communicate to your families and then after that assessment determine whether or not you're going to be isolated in quarantine for 14 days or you'd it's safe to come back to school and again those decisions will may remain with our district nurse and our local health department before I go into the next page you know we our our district plan is not only kind of set up in a way where it highlights all the expectations but it's really set up as a checklist and so one of those checklist items is to make sure we have adequate PPE equipment in place for our staff and and then make sure we have backup materials you know any event someone forgets forgets their PPE equipment whether that's students or staff so that's going to be very important for us
036you know some of the questions that were also asked if we have students who don't have them if we have students who refuse to wear them to make sure we have something in place protocols in place to make sure those things are in place makes make sure that they're worn at all times I mean certainly we will be working with our families to make sure that their children understand this expectation because it's going to be important to ensure the safety of all of us and you continuation of health awareness health and wellness the Superintendent of Schools has a procedure in place for the for the closure of schools for the length of time based on a positive case of Kovach 19 and of course as part of that assessment we'll be looking at the risk
037level within a school the community and that will be determined by the local health officials and that was something I was alluding to earlier on you know these are the things that help inform that decision something that I did not mention earlier but I want to make sure I make this clear certainly the district has a team you know as we develop this plan but but but this this plan gets it gets further looked at and reviewed at every single school and so there'll be an expectation that every principal has a leadership team that also has an implementation team because as mentioned earlier just you know just just a delivery of food alone will look different from school to school based on how the building is a resource and the population of the school and
038just what the capacity is for lunch etc and so every every principal we will be working with every school individually to come up with to put a team together number one but then make sure that they have a plan to respond and make sure they have protocols in place you know consistent with the district play know we put so family-school partnerships again I know I mentioned this in the opening but it's going to be important for us to remain connected to our parents and to the community during this time and so you might recall prior to this year the school ending there were there were ongoing communications with our family families and and although we hope we're not going to be closed again any time soon we certainly acknowledge the need to stay in constant
039communication and so you should expect ongoing communications as we reopen schools as well and so I know many of you are wondering what the models for learning are going to look like in the fall what is school going to look like in the fall what are the options that are going to be before us in the fall and so before I go into detail about this page I just want to make you aware and I and I will refer back to again making aware that we will be sharing a survey with you as soon and probably no later than Monday Tuesday next week in that survey slash program selection we're going to start asking families and that in the survey will be available for three weeks to a month but we will be asking families
040to with the information that they have right now to begin to make a commitment about on the program they want their child to participate in for the next school year we need this information to begin to inform our staffing decisions in sort of two areas that you see reflected right now in person learning and distance learning what we essentially have to plan for district of two different systems and so if all of our students are going back in the fall we also recognize and I'll start here our families you you have the option of choosing between having your child come to school full-time or you have the choice of having your students participate in school through distance learning which looks different for k5 and 612 and I'll explain further but if you're choosing to have
041your child in in-person learning you should also know as that and this can help inform your decision and in the survey you will be asked are you willing to are you looking to have your kid participate in school learning in person learning if the answer is yes please also know this is a traditional schedule of health and safety expectations as we have went through an hour point students would be expected to attend every day with all state guidelines and expectations in place on classroom learning and instructional activities are just as certainly you know ie on social distancing the classroom may not look the same that it has in years past and here's something that I was alluding to earlier I think this is a very important point for all of us to keep in mind
042although we will be an in person learning we will maintain our digital and blended connections because it's going to be important because otherwise we will not be ready for a move to a hybrid model or move to a distance learning and I just want to talk about hybrid model should there be an increase in a number of cases in the community we may have to either move to either a hybrid model two days a week or three days two days a week in person in three days a week distance learning and so going back how we opened up talking about some students coming in on Monday Tuesday another group of students coming on Thursday Friday Wednesday's are for you know additional disinfecting and cleaning or if there's an increase in a number of cases in
043the community we could be in full distance learning in this model special education students and bilingual students can be a violin person up to four days per week in the hybrid model not the distance learning model but just being mindful that if we end up if we are in a hybrid we may have to prioritize those populations or certainly as we invite students and in the hybrid they would be they would be part of our priority as we as we and my students and as Purdue stated plan and so the first choice is in person learning the second choice is distance learning distance learning students and parents engage in distance learning with materials of support from a school this is the blend of synchronous and asynchronous learning and so it's in person with someone you
044know watch it is working with you on a screen in person but they also may be learning activities in which the teacher is not there in front of you so there will be a cohort or distance learning that has voluntas voluntary option there will be an August cohort that will start and they will we all recommended that if you choose this selection that you stay in that in that model for at least one semester and so in the next page is just a little bit more about your program choices and kind of what this looks like so just kind of review should they be an increase in a number of Koby cases in the community we may be required to move to full-time distance learning regardless of what plan you choose I just want to
045be clear about that again on going from left to right if you choose in person that is a traditional model I mean we will continue to maintain the digital and blended connections in the event that the that the community there is an increase in Copa cases in the community we could move to a hybrid model but that's still in person so that's why we're calling that one choice the second choice is distance learning and it adds all the way to the right and in a distance learning model at the k5 level this would mean full-time remote learning from home and which a Danbury teacher will be assigned to dilute to deliver instruction using our standardized content and then at the 612 level this would mean that students will be assigned digital courses using a computer
046based platform and students will work independently in a self base and a self-paced learning that mirrors their current schedule as closely as possible and so in in you should also be aware and I'm and I know dr. Tsao had mentioned this earlier we have petitions to petition to the state to start the school year in a hybrid model not to be confused a hybrid model is not an option as you know specifically as a standalone we have we have petition to the state to start with entering schools at 50% capacity versus up to a hundred so just just want to clarify that last but not least of the two choices that that I just reviewed in person and distance learning as always our students all families also have the option to home-school but please understand
047if you choose this option this means you are withdrawing your child from school from Danbury Public Schools and so all the instructional materials that will be afforded to support families in distance learning are not are not available for families on the homeschooling so I just wanted to clarify that as well and so some critical next steps for our families as I mentioned earlier we will have a program selection formed ie survey that will be released and available for you next week but no later than Tuesday in that survey it's going to ask you for a lot of information your address your phone number your Sudan ID number it's important that that information is filled out correctly again we are aligning this as we get this information this is helping to inform district decisions around staffing
048in in in district decisions around the materials that will need to be ordered to support students in those two different formats and so that's why we will be asking and requiring this information I'm also asking our families to continue to review the danbury the Danbury plan and review the Danbury website look at the Danbury Public Schools website for any updates regarding regarding the plan certainly after we have a board meeting next Wednesday on the 22nd at that board meeting that current draft plan will be updated and we'll be looking to incorporate the food back where applicable and appropriate in the plan including necessary cleaning up to make sure it's ready for the board in the community as a final document on addition as as dr. Sawa had mentioned earlier he has made a petition to
049the state and certainly any updates that that might be available we'll be sharing them through through through our typical correspondents and emails but there may be also some information also available on our website so we ask you to please you know stay tuned and continue to monitor the website for any updates and so dr. cell at this time just gonna ask you if you have any closing thoughts for our families just want to also remind the families if you have not had an opportunity opportunity to do so yet please find some time to include your questions concerns comments recommendations in our FAQ sheet on the team and I certainly take some time to review them and incorporate updates where appropriate in where we can so thanks again dr. south yeah am i new to this
050overtime in my honor I just want to make sure great great job thank you yeah I just I know they're sure they're there there's so many so many questions I'm you know as we work through these details parents understand that the the application that we give to the state it's not a want it's a requirement and we got it we got to make a good faith effort to do it some of the things in there that we've been toying with and listening we've done hearings with students with parents twice with parents with other focus groups with you know our health folks down individuals the architect and engineer going around your district looking at the ventilation looking at you know danbury's got buildings that need just the normal times needs assistance with ventilation and no air
051conditioning so I'm very very concerned I'm concerned about the interest keeping those masks on all morning long all day long so some of the things I'm thinking about and I'm sharing with you now I'm trying but distill what I call a funnel it's all coming into the phone no it's coming down to that little bottom as I think as I think about on this scale what can I do I mean I'm thinking it might be a good idea for some early dismissals if for the mirth of first month to evaluate the situation if the state doesn't give us a hybrid that even when we in our phase one perhaps we do that your parents have been used to that one hour delay dismissal might be a two hour one which would enable us to maybe
052ease into this educate the youngsters have been in front of us do a grab and go because gathering and eating in the rooms is awful difficult we will not know how many parents are actually not sending their children so I just think that gives us time to breathe and ease in that's assuming the hybrid model isn't approved that's and like I said I know there's board members I see a number of money they're advocating and trying to help us get that and there but if in fact we got to go back well maybe we go back with less students of course of parents who want to drive them we have an early dismissal which would permit youngsters have some breaks and maybe school be a little more normal what we offer them and we move
053down that road and and then Erie evaluated towards the end of September going in October at least pitch to state telling them too difficult to occupy the schools and the lack of air conditioning and facilities that to come back safely so we're doing that the curriculum I said at the beginning I mentioned we're gonna invest in this learning we had an OK program it's got to be a stronger stronger program and then that will be a big investment particularly at the secondary level the youngsters with credit bearing courses then they have college application a lot of things down the line so we want to strengthen that parents ask me how are we going to keep the washrooms clean well we're going to use some of the money we set aside initially around close to 1.9
054million we're looking at some other grants to bring folks in to be their president during the day to do cleaning in the washrooms and high-traffic areas we'll be doing those things we need assistance outside of parents for safety in terms of dropping off students there are a lot of things going on that if we did the hybrid it just cuts everything in half we still have to do what many of these things I'm speaking about but the mitigations would be at a different level so please understand your your questions to us help us define what it is that we need to do and as I said a while ago I my a my highest priority is safety and then we'll follow the experts and we'll work with our town officials and implementing those those initiatives
055so I want to thank you for being here this evening send your questions and some of you had some good ideas and solving some of them I love those as well and we'll put it together and talk with the board it's a workshop the board's input would help me to find the plan somewhat which is the one Friday on the 24th Kevin thank you for all you've done and I thank all the parents and board members who were here in town officials for listening in because our children's need all of us particularly at this time so thank you very much thanks dr. Sal have a good evening everyone