001done okay dr you want to explain what we're doing and then i'll just do an intro um well let me start let me start okay okay hello everyone and thank you for joining us uh today um as you know by the 24th i'm to submit a plan to the state regarding next next year's re-entry plan and i will say to you uh things change every day example this last two or three days ago we got a note that our school year is going to be 177 day for students and the three days will be used for pd days and um so things constantly are coming in um let me let me start with with a few other things um i mean this goes without saying next year is not going to be normal i'm sure
002you've heard it a thousand times it will be abnormal no matter what we do there's a lot of fear and anxiety um that is permeating the press um it's in the newsprint uh in on on social media i can't control that so we've been trying to focus on the work of opening up safely and i will tell you that even the cdc work and the american pediatrics association you know defined the social distancing along with other mitigating activities that have to have to occur in order to create an environment that we feel safe for both our teachers our staff and our students and we're trying to follow that all of it goes to a caveat basically uh as much as possible and one of the one of the standards that seems to be um looked
003at um in a kind of it's not i thought was binary but it's not is that the social difference you know of six feet the actual recommendation that we looked at a number of claims would be anywhere to three to four feet i'm sorry three to six feet providing you have masks and what have you so we've been gathering that information um and i know that uh i received something today from um some teachers that were felt very uncomfortable and unless we achieved the six-foot standard that it was unsafe to return i'll go on record right now by saying i'm very concerned i've written the governor i've written the commissioner as recent hour ago mark and i the mayor spoke we are reproduction we think that contingent with a hybrid model would provide the spacing
004would provide the timing for us to better evaluate and analyze our situation before we move into a i call it the five on five program the state is asking for three phases as you know one is everyone back two a hybrid model which would be extensively you would look at probably four days a week in an ab model and then i'm sure kevin will go over that and then distance learning as a third i will also say to you that um one thing that's sure next year you can bank on is that we'll have this as long as our primary mode and i believe as as if we can have youngsters come back it'll be at a premium we'll be lucky to have him back and use that so we'll be investing in trying to
005really really create a strong environment in the distance learning but even in that environment and we sent out a survey and that initial survey which was a little confusing we're going to send out there's approximately 71 72 of about 3 000 folks that said they would send their student back you know on a regular day we needed to define that and that's what we're going to do um i'm not sure if that statistics will hold out when we when we um reveal the whole plan and and people have actually have to partition so in essence in that plan a parent can decide to do this is learning and that's separate from the hybrid part which would be another form of this is learning that we would have to manage for youngsters that are in school
006so um for us to try to do that well is is a herculean task and when we work at that um i plead with you to please understand that um in going through all the buildings i've hired a space expert to work with us and use this challenge as we thought it would be in order for us to achieve our standard of six foot it will be virtually impossible it'd be mostly likely like three feet along with other mitigating activities dividers um and other things that would keep some distancing mitigating it so that it's safer in the classroom uh even with that if we're able to do it we're going to have to remove a lot of the materials out of classrooms in order to achieve that uh and we're working diligently on that we'll
007have to buy furniture and other things because over the years denver has changed their mode of technology to a lot more small tables small groups with too many desks particularly at the k-8 we have all of those things working and we have a committee um that has been working with the medical folks and we get information as you do um you know the the infectious rate among youngsters much different than adults and um there are different things that come out every day some countries throughout the world are not using masks as these are so that information is gathering that has been my point to the state why not use that in a way to effectuate our coming back in a sensible way so we can evaluate our conditions and then make the best decision and
008safest decisions for our for our our kids and our parents and for uh our teachers um and that's what i'm waiting to hear back on um that that question um has not been resolved i will say to you i did receive some information from the state that they would provide some some uh areas for us to do for storage and that's about it um so today um i plead for you to have patience and know that much of this that we have to work out and um without question i have to submit a um a five-day program a hybrid program and a dl program i've mentioned to you my preference is the hybrid as we return but the the plan needs to be comprehensive and it needs to have three of them and within the
009plan there are many things that need to be worked out in terms of supervision in terms of the egress i know we think about space but we've looked at our ventilating system a lack of air conditioning and um the use of windows if they're operable these are all things that need to be uh need to be considered as we get back so we're trying our best is what i want you know i've got your back as best as i can um i know we're not going to please everyone but i certainly are going to try to focus on doing the safest thing as i can for uh for everyone um kevin uh i know we'll take some questions we have uh individual teachers and staff on here but um if you can bring us through
010here and then explain the process thank you everyone for letting me go on it's been frustrating to say the least but i hope this at least gives you some idea of our thinking thank you thank you um so before i get started it looks like most of you guys are on mute if you're not on mute uh please switch your phones to mute given that we have so many folks on the line so just quickly um check this out thank you again for opening for us i just want to provide a quick overview of the meeting itself so for the probably at least the next 25-30 minutes i will walk you through a plan uh which includes on the state expectations of a district plan and then how we are looking to implement those expectations
011i have reached out to some of the the the leaders of the uh representative um labor units and asked if on behalf of their groups if they can ask one or two questions in front of everyone at the same time we are going to provide an faq sheet and i'm going to provide that link momentarily in that faq sheet there'll be an opportunity for you to identify what category you have specific questions about and then on the right hand side of that document you can post your question and i will switch screens in a second so you can get an idea of what that looks like i believe dr mead is going to share that in the chat so that you can hi you guys can have that available um on your computer so you'll
012be receiving that link momentarily um so what our plan our plan for the faq um we we have used this format in some of our other meetings particularly with administrators we won't be able to answer those questions right now in real time but the questions that we can't answer we'll make sure that there's an addendum to the plan uh where we can post those questions and make sure there's a response from the district and then we're appropriate where we can incorporate updates to the plan we'll certainly do that as well um but we're hearing some feedback in the background please take a moment to mute the backbone noise um and so and then last but not least of course we will close out with some closing thoughts and some clinical next steps for the group
013so to to begin with to begin with the presentation um is going to identify the critical requirements needed for each district to submit a reopening plan as sal as sal mentioned before every every district their plan needs to include uh a plan that's going to bring back kids or kids um or as much as possible up to 100 percent we also need to be prepared for a model in which there's a hybrid a hybrid model in which there's an increase of covert cases in the community and last but not least if the cases are so significant we also need to have a full distance learning plan and so we'll you'll see that as we go through the presentation excuse me one second just trying to move some things on my screen so i can see
014the entire screen okay so the the connecticut school reopened and planned request school to design a clear and specifically detailed plan um and address each critical requirement listed in the plan and so what you're going to see some of the highlights on the subsequent pages are all of those critical areas that we had to respond to um in this powerpoint you're going to see kind of some of the bigger the bigger buckets and highlights specifically we saw a lot of feedback on our thought exchange folks had a lot of questions about the health health and safety of our kids and how we were going to handle facilities and operations and so when including those in this powerpoint we wanted to we were mindful of those considerations and questions and make sure they were included in
015this powerpoint okay and so again i know dr cell had alluded to this earlier you know here are some of the the state priorities regarding every plan that is submitted um on july 24th and that is every district should plan to have all students return to school for full-time instruction at the beginning of the school year so as long as health data continues to support it and so this model will support a more intensive mitigation strategy some specific monitoring containment and class cancellation plans and you're going to see as we go throughout the plan those things have been addressed and here are some of the areas here are all the areas that the state is expecting us to have a plan for and that includes transportation a plan for food services extracurricular activities that include
016you know before and after school care for elementary grades as well how we're going to support students social provide social motion for students and staff you know what what what mitigation strategies will be in place for facilities and operations how are we going to ensure access for all of our kids and make sure all of our kids have a one-to-one device what are they expect outlining expectations academic experiences for students and teachers and staff and then of course for families as well particularly if we're in a hybrid or distance learning um articulate our expectations and how we're going to keep everyone safe regarding health and wellness or try to keep everyone self safe in health and wellness and then how we're going to continue to make sure we are connected with our families um in
017in this during this time and so i will start with we will start with bus and transportation considerations um and so uh some are considerations and some are required and as you can see i'm sure you're not surprised by this but uh required face coverings for all students and drivers and staff on school buses um we have talked to the transportation and department in beginning to you know outline what cleaning protocols would look like on our buses and so you know that that plan is in place um we also we've started to uh poll our parents and get an idea of what what it would look like in terms of how many families would be willing to drive this their children to school and how many would actually take advantage of school transportation um right
018now it's almost like a 50 50 split which is certainly great to help with um social distances on the buses um however it could provide a challenge for us with increased traffic at the schools and so we are looking at you know making sure number one we have uh training in place for our advocates but we're also looking at the idea of bringing in additional crossing guards to help with that increased traffic last but not least at least for this area um encouraging social distance at pick-up and drop-offs um as part of our plan um it's discouraged to have families and uh visitors to the school and so they will not be allowed in the buildings and so this is something i know this will be a significant adjustment for elementary schools in particular and
019so that's something we're going to have to talk about to make sure every school has a protocol in place for that food services and certain by all means this can look very different from every school but one monitor and follow all state guidelines for nutrition and safety guidelines so that will not change but in some schools we have to design classroom delivery models for our younger students maximize social distance as much as possible during lunch and so in some schools we may have schools that can have some of their grade levels in the cafeteria but certainly not all some schools depending on their size and how many sections they have can send all of their students to the cafeteria in social distance in some schools they may not be able to put any kids in
020the cafeteria because they may have other classes or programs in those schools another another consideration for individual schools is certainly grab providing grab-and-go meals everywhere some some grab-and-go meals can be taken back to classrooms some grab-and-go meals might be um eaten in different places throughout the school building um adopt cash this touchless point of transactions where applicable for our students so they don't they don't have to touch machines and this could be more about swipe or actually scan cards um because we want to have as many touchless points of transactions as possible and then we're in in as much as possible stagger launch schedules to limit the number of students in the cafeteria if we are using that as a place uh where students are going to gather and so i i just want to
021go back to this screen for a sec no i'm sorry for before and after school care extracurricular activities and athletics um the the ciac chip and his department actually got a head start on on implementing uh some of these guidelines before school started because our extracurricular activities have already started um and the expectation was they were to be implemented as soon as 7-1 and so the expectation is as a district we would implement a phased-in approach for participation in these activities um and and if i'm not mistaken i believe some of those programming those those implementation phases included conditioning online bringing in small courts cohorts of students um and then those smaller cohorts eventually got bigger and as long as we can provide us a safe atmosphere and kids are socially distanced appropriately we can
022continue to bring them in those phases continue to increase and the capacity number can be increased um again staying with the with the athletic department in particular making sure there's a procedure for for sanitizing shared equipment and then switching over to our after school care making sure before and after school models um um are are redesigned to accommodate the reduced size of groups for those of you who may not be aware this summer we do have summer programming for our pre-k programs and so we are getting an idea of you know what necessary um mitigation strategy strategies we need to implement um so far that's going well but you know it does it hasn't required a lot of meetings um and a lot of a lot of feedback to make sure we're getting it right
023thus far um also the before and after school that's going to be part of a survey trying to get an idea from families of how many of them would like to participate so that we can have the appropriate staffing in place so the social emotional support um is one that is is requiring you know a lot of conversations and it's going to require a lot of um conversations and planning but our expectation is is that we will be um sorry planning experiences to ensure that schools place adult and student wellness first by establishing a positive safe and supportive learning environment to to open up the school year and as you guys are probably aware the beginning of the school year we are looking to open up with professional development days to open up part of
024that effort will be focused on the social emotional support helping to train teachers and staff on how to lead these discussions in their respective classrooms and then of course prior to all staff arriving we will be meeting with school leaders and principals um you know working with them to make sure they have protocols and processes in place to also provide similar support for their respective staff included as part of social emotional support um you know as a country uh we've been in the middle of a a social work revolution um and and i think we have a responsibility to further advance this dialogue around race equity and bias and so we wanted to make sure this was part of the social emotional bucket in some way and so you'll see that highlighted there in addition
025um you know we we want to make sure we develop a plan for kind of each school has a plan for a non-academic focus check-in with students um you know and and i'm kind of saying it's tongue-in-cheek but we just had a meeting with the state and we we have kind of monitoring meetings with the state always um but in many ways our meeting today focused on a check-in you know which was not an academic focus and just seeing how we're doing seeing how our plan is going um and and i feel like they modeled very well for us because this is something we need to make sure the kind of support we're providing for our principals and then asking our principals to provide similar support for their staff and so our staff can do
026that with their students um moving on implement trauma informed professional development for all staff and i alluded to that a little bit earlier this will be a focus for us kicking off the school year um you know there are also some facilities and operations on time that's going to be needed need to be afforded for all of us um but this is going to be a focus for us um during those training sessions and then um addition additional support for staff ensure that employee assistance program is available for all staff and we'll be finding ways to just making sure this is front and center um in emails and communications to let staff know that this assistance is available for them if they need it facilities and operations and and this is a big one um
027and continuing to evolve every day i know sal you know alluded to some of this earlier um the follow the american academy of pediatrics guidelines cdc guidelines state guidelines and of course in coordination with the school nurse supervisor in the danbury director of health we've been in constant communication with both offices um of course cathy o'dowd is right here in district but but carapanti has been um has been a tremendous help and guidance for us as as a district as we've been working toward these plans continuing to give us updates about the community um continuously continuing to give us updates about infection covet rates in the community and making sure that we had had our finger on the pulse as we you know continue to talk about reopening schools and what that might look like
028um and so and so you know as part of the feedback that we received on the thought exchange and and meeting and feedback that we received by emails etc we know this is we we know this is very important for all of our staff member our priority is to keep our staff and our kids as safe as possible um and so and so ensuring that all of our schools um have meet high cleanliness and disinfectant standards prior to the reopening obviously is a priority for us but of course um it's also a priority for us to do this throughout the school year and so you know we are exploring what that means for us what that means for staffing what that means for scheduling um and what that means in between classes what that means
029in between bus runs uh what that means you know for the end of the day every school day um you know we we are um looking at the best ways to to deploy our staff to make sure on a daily basis uh our buildings are disinfected so that they're available for for kids on a daily basis um in addition of course um you know bathrooms um restrooms for students and staff will be well stocked uh with soap um with with with paper towels um you know water fountains will not be used during this time and so the the the mitigation strategies that you would expect certainly will be in place uh you know we will have disinfected materials available for staff um etc so those are some things i know as we ended the school
030year we were racing to try to get some things in place for staff but we will be well stocked when we open up the school year to make sure on the cd see guidelines around hand washing and are in place for staff and for students so placing a hype up certainly a plan for maintaining an appropriate excuse me one second i just need to move something on my screen uh certainly we need a plan for and maintain appropriate social distancing within the class within our classrooms hallways um that you know that will be something we'll be talking to every building principal about some of our schools um you know this will be more challenging than others uh but this will certainly be a focus for us we're working with our architects and with um different
031um different organizations to provide um the decals in the hallways et cetera to help to to help to help promote um you know social distancing in the hallways and you know try to maintain traffic control so kids are not walking against traffic um and interfacing directly um and then last but not least the style i know alluded to this earlier develop and follow appropriate ventilation protocols in coordination with the city and facility professionals um and so um rich albert and courtney uh courtney liboris our new director of finance and operations uh they've been working relentlessly um to try to make sure all these things are in place for our schools when we get back and so the technology and access again this is another priority that's been outlined by the state and an expectation that
032we would continue to survey our students and our families to make sure that they have internet access to make sure they have a one-to-one device you might be aware i believe there was talk just before we left before the school year there was a huge grant available for districts for 912 high school students the district purchased the the district purchased chromebooks um with with the monies received from the grant specifically for high school and giving that those additional resources additional resources we have even more we have even more laptops to give to all of our students district-wide and so you know our our plan is to make sure every student has a one-to-one device and then making sure we also have a plan for all new families to the district to make sure they they
033are in possession of one as well and so of course the health and wellness is a big one for us um and so pro state guidelines guidance space coverage will be required for all district staff and students um you know i believe sal had alluded to this earlier um but every every school is required to have a designated isolation room and so you know we are struggling quite frankly to given we're already overcrowded as a school district so you know we're already at capacity in every building but we will find it because it's required that we not only have a nurse's office for our walking well if you will but we also have to i have to have an isolation room for students and staff that might be um exhibiting um um exhibiting any of
034these um any of these symptoms of covet 19 um and so the superintendent and the health and nursing coordinator will communicate with local health officials when a teacher or staff member or a member of the household has tested positive for covert 19 and possibly exposed to others at the school for us this will trigger our contact tracing protocols this is something that was in place just before the school year ended all of our nurses are familiar with this process and we will continue to implement throughout the school year um to help the the health department and um incidental office uh um have confirmed that there's an adequate um will confirm that this is the district um and so we have put together and our plan is essentially positioned in the way it serves as a
035checklist for the district um and so one of the checklists for us certainly is before we open up school make sure every building has an adequate supply of ppe equipment um in place um and and last but not least at least for this page the district has established a procedure uh should there be a covet 19 case in a school in the community uh that possibly impacts the schools and and really what that's about is in the event that we are notified that there is a case in the school um part of the protocol which you you also see in the plan um is that um the district off the superintendent um we will call the health department as part of that coordination the contact tracing will be triggered that this is will also trigger
036communication to make folks aware that there has been a a positive case in the school and then potentially depending on the contact tracing and the impact this could mean an isolated closing of classrooms this could mean isolated closing of a school or this could be an isolated closing of the district two to five days or perhaps a week depending on the spread and the results of the contact tracing uh but in most cases at least per plan per the plan right now we would close down for two to five days and then we would reassess and and then make a decision from there and so some additional items on health and wellness um the superintendent um is expected to have a procedure for the closure of schools for the length of time based on a
037positive coverage case and this is what i was referring to a second ago um and and this would be and this would be determined by the risk level within school in the community so certainly we would at this point we would be um sitting with cara ponti's office um and and beginning to learn more about what's going on in the community as we're also weighing that against what might be going on in school and so there is like a decision tree to help inform these decisions and then for family and school partnerships um it's it's going to be important for us um to enhance shared responsibility with school without families um there's an expectation um at the same time while we are um you know having kind of screenings of students during the school day
038we will of course we will be asking our families to be the initial screeners of their own children uh before they send them to school and when i when i say screen um you know i'm talking about you know observing for um the symptoms like a fever um and and those kind of things um before they send them to school because certainly if they if they are experiencing any of if they have any of those symptoms um we are discouraging we're encouraging not to send their children to school um and so um it's going to be important for us as a district and us as schools to make sure we're in constant communication about these expectations with our parents and then of course we'll be saying the same things to our teachers and our staff
039um you know to make sure you're taking care of yourselves um and and making sure if you're experiencing any of these symptoms you also stay home for your own safety and the safety of others and so the and not just not to suggest all this is not important but i know this was a an important one for our our staff um in our um community at large and that is you know what are the different models for learning um and then you know what does that mean for choices for kids and families and so um again dr sal alluded to this earlier the in-person learning model is one model in that in-person learning model it's essentially um and the expectation is this is a traditional schedule um of course with all the health and safety
040expectations that we just alluded to um the students and teachers would attend the school um every day um again this is kind of where we are right now with the expectation is and classroom learning and instructional activities will be adjusted you know to the best best extent possible um of course throughout this entire process and we just want to emphasize this we will contain and continue to maintain a digital and blended blended connections with our kids um because it's going to be necessary if we're ever going to pivot and have to move toward a blended model or have to move to a full distance learning model and so our kids the hope and expectation is is that our kids will remain with these one-to-one devices but they will continue to be connected in that one-to-one
041format at the same time while they're in school um because we're going to have to you know we're going to have to we're going to be ready to pivot in the event of of another resurgence as an alternative to returning school in person um uh students and families will also have the option of participating in a distance learning option um and then and so and so around the state that expectation is that that's going to be provided for all of our families we will be surveying our community you know no later than monday or tuesday next week um that survey is going to be very important for us to help inform our staffing needs um for in-person learning and then for digital learning it's also will play a a significant role as you might imagine
042on what kind of support we need for transportation and then not to mention before and after school support as well should there be an increase in the number of copic cases in the community we will move to a hybrid model uh one of the questions that i that that i saw earlier and there was a question about you know talk to us or tell us about you know what are the indicators for you know kind of low to to minimal risk in the community and then you know what what are the indicators for moderate increase and then what are the indicators for a high increase and so uh my answer is not not that this is going to be received very well the the true metrics have not been made available um and this is
043from a cdc level in the state level those metrics have not been made available however i can tell you um as part of our conversations with the health department almost i mean a couple times a week at least um they are not seeing any more than one one to two cases per day and so we are certainly at the low to minimal level here in danbury um however if that should increase at any point to the moderate stage um there will be a there will be a recommendation a collaboration with uh the mayor's office the health department in the district um in that in in and if recommended that will trigger um a a stage in which we would be at a hybrid schedule and that would be here in which two days a week
044in person in three days a week of distance learning um and so just wanted to you know make you aware um these are not three different options for our families and for us but the in person and the distance learning actually are the two options that are available that will be made available for families and as a district we need to prepare for in-person learning in distance learning the hybrid model is a model in which we could depending on the number of cases in a community we could be shifted to and so this is something that will be shared with families and i think it's important that you see this as well um and so our families will see your program options for the fall right and so in the banner as you can see
045should there be an increase in number of cases in the community we may be required to move to full-time distance learning regardless of what they chose at the beginning of the school year and so just just going from left to right and just to reiterate um in-person learning will be a traditional schedule uh we will continue to maintain a digital blended connection um if again you heard dr sal mentioned earlier uh we have made a petition to the state to enter in in a hybrid model um because we feel like that's the safest that that way is we can do that more safely with social distancing um et cetera and in that hybrid model 50 of our students would um enter school two days a week kind of like an a cohort on mondays and
046tuesdays and then a b cohort on thursdays and fridays and then we would have increased disinfecting on wednesdays and you know and then saturdays and sundays um at the same time homeschooling which it's always made available to our families uh but we certainly reiterate that homeschooling and homeschooling if they wish that is certainly an option to them uh we're certainly not something we're going to encourage um but we do have we have a responsibility to make them aware that it's an option and then of course the two options we're really focusing on is in person and distance learning and then for distance learning um at the k5 level this means full-time remote learning from home um in which a dps will be assigned to deliver and instruct using standardized course content you know of course
047we want to get even better than how we were in the last couple of months but essentially the same platform that we were on um in in the spring and then at 6 12 this means that students will be assigned digital courses using a computer-based platform students will work independently in self-paced learning that mirrors their current schedule as close as possible now just to be clear this distance learning option is this is an option that if you choose at the beginning of the year if the entire district is moved to distance learning then it shifts to something different for the students who started off in person and then is forced to go to distance learning but for the students who choose distance learning at the beginning of the year this would apply to those families
048this means that students will be assigned a digital course using a computer-based uh platform because we we just don't have the capacity to meet the varying the varying levels um in that environment but with teacher of face to face in a synchronous format and so i am going to stop this share right now um let me have a second here if you don't sure there are many questions here let me ask is cathy o'dowd uh on this caller today um your insights are just really wonderful in guidance and helping us many of the questions folks have come up with about temperature taking who's going to monitor the isolation room um that says we don't have an answer yet we have to we have to run find it and then figure out the supervision so that
049goes into we're working on it but regarding um some of the symptoms and some of the things that folks are asking about kathy maybe you could just give us a little overview of your thoughts on the temperature taking and what we're looking for when we identify youngsters or adults um so first of all um the information i'm going to give you is what we know about kovid today um we have been learning every day uh new things about this virus and um in terms of temperature before we come into the buildings every day um that is no longer a best practice recommendation um for a couple of reasons um mainly in children uh there's a very at our elementary level um the rate of covet is very low i'm saying they won't ever get it
050but it is very low and many people now are either showing um no fever they may have other symptoms related to covid uh and we have many people who are asymptomatic so they're not showing any uh fever or other symptoms at all in terms of if we did have to do uh temperature screenings think about the number of people that we have coming into a building every day it really would not be feasible do that um and as i said with best practice recommendations that we know today temperature checks are not recommended um we will have the isolation rooms identified we're actively working on that right now in every building to see and to determine who will be monitoring those in buildings where i have more than one nurse that won't be an issue um
051i will have nursing students from uh western connecticut university two days a week so that will help but we are working with the principals in every building uh to identify who exactly will be monitoring that room uh the room will only be used in cases where we strongly suspect covid and it could be either a student or a staff member um and when they would be waiting uh for someone to come up according to our sick day guidelines the expectation is the parents be aware that they need a backup plan another child if they are sick be picked up within 30 minutes um also with the temperature checks just so that you're aware uh the the city health department um donated through a grant that they had monitors to our district over the summer and
052we've been distributing them throughout our food sites if there are any leftover um we'll be collecting those and sending them home with sick children so that parents do have that opportunity to check their kids at home but i just want to thank dr sal kevin cabinet for their leadership uh throughout this process it's been a real challenge and our re-entry team has worked diligently to follow the standards we follow the recommendations of the centers for disease control american academy of pediatrics our state and local health department those are the authoritative sources that we look to in developing this plan under guidance from the state um and to all of our re-entry team members thank you for all of your hard work thanks kev um just so that uh i just found out as well fans
053would not be permitted one of our issues has been the whole ventilating system when we don't have core uh cover 19. i know that and we've been asking the city about that but we will go through and change the filters which is helpful but we can't use fans i was asked about that a question i would have that all of you should have is you know with one custodian on how are you going to handle this well one of the things that we want to do is put an extra custodian on um and um you know so someone is washy washy if you've been on a cruise lately you know someone's walking around doing the washrooms and taking care of areas where uh youngsters are at so we can keep them uh cleared and have
054them brushed off i started off by saying you know there's only so much we can do and i need to have you back so investing on this is learning investing in folks that can help us with sanitation i'm having backup ppe items for you or when youngsters don't have them uh creating some barriers as well so we need to invest in that and we have a few million dollars from the grant that we have set aside for that and we are also looking more uh the more we get the more we can provide the safer environment um that we can we can have um i i should have said this at the beginning folks have been asking how do i teach whatever i do i don't know i mean you guys are so knowledgeable about
055how to take this and make it work for kids there isn't any bureaucrat that can sit in central office to tell you what to do with that when we figure out to give you the tools and say this is what we have it'll depend on you guys to come up with a plan none of us try to support that plan and where it can't work trying to get it to work whether it's a lab or wherever it is some districts have illuminated their art and their music and their physical education i don't have any intentionality to do that i think i want those folks engaged with us their educators they provide a wonderful opportunity for our kids our kids expect that so we need to work that into it now you know it probably take
056place a different way but i would like to figure out how to do that even in the classrooms when i those are the very things i ask well how how are we going to do this you know and when i'm told i'll just have me in the classrooms well not as easy as it seems so if we have to do that well we have to figure it out and you know get food to them and then clean up and provide your time as a staff member for lunch and what have you so we've got to work on those things um so yeah i i just wanted to say that there's a faqs from the representatives that they want to ask some questions before we close down i'm done no okay all right so i i
057just wanted to say um and if we can just want to go with the order here maybe we can close out with aaron um dandy i did see sandy on the call earlier um keith are you on the call this afternoon yes i am sir okay and i'm not sure billy are you on the call this afternoon okay billy's not there and aaron i know you are out there should be on okay and christy are you out there as well i'm here okay so i'm here okay okay i don't know don't patronize i'm sorry about that no no worries so i just wanted to ask um in number one i i i acknowledge the fact that i'm sure all of you you and all of the units have a million questions you'd like to ask
058for for this meeting um i'd like to limit it to one or two questions aaron given that your group is bigger how about you go two or three questions um if we can we'll answer it right away and we'll keep the meeting moving um but i just want to encourage everyone and please forgive me because i'm not looking at the the google doc right now but if you have a question that you would like to include please go to that link in the chat open up the link and it'll be an opportunity for you to include your question um and like i said we will group those questions and we'll add an addendum to the plan uh if there are recommendations in there we will we will um implement where appropriate just to make sure
059that that's captured i i also wanted to say because i i know some of the questions that are out there um that we have filled it on our side because i was just trying to stick to the um agenda if you will um i i want folks to know number one there will be a team um the state there's an expectation from the state that every school has its own kind of implementation committee um and so i had alluded to earlier in in in the slides um that every school just as for cafeteria and feeding kids specifically every school may have to do this a little differently and so the expectation is there will be a committee at every school working with the principal and the other school leaders to help making sure you guys
060have a plan that's safe for your specific building um you know so i wanted to start there too um you know there was some uh feedback talking about the representation on the committee um and and as as a as as a leadership member in in the superintendent's cabinet i have to take responsibility uh for the fact that we probably did not have as much representation as we should have um and this is not an excuse but this is just a reality we were hoping for feedback from the state um earlier in june um i remember it vividly saying at our first board meeting in june saying we're expecting guidance from the state and so the guidelines that came out in july we were hoping was coming out in the first week end of may and
061early june um and so at that point we were hoping to reconvene the committees um so that we can because frankly we had got to a point we felt like there wasn't much to talk about because we didn't know what model we were dealing with and then when we finally did get the guidance you know we only had a month to turn to turn this around um and so it's it's not an excuse but i just want to just make folks aware that there was an intention to try to um get more participation in the group um but then when the guidance was finally released we did not have much time to turn this around and in retrospect um i wish i would have invited um greater participation early in this process so i i
062just want to put that out there because i acknowledge looking back on this we could have had better participation at the same time i do want everyone to know when we put these plans in place uh we're mindful of everyone's safety whether that's staff students um um in all of our families um and feel like we put together the blueprint of a plan um that could be certainly as safe as we possibly could so i i just wanted to kind of go off off off script for a minute and just make sure i mention that and acknowledge um some wrongdoings that i led uh but at the same time you know we have every intention to try to make a safe safe school open as possible um sandy would you mind going first with a
063couple of questions from your unit sure i'll just interrupt really a quick second the um doc sheet that we're collecting questions and answers on has crashed um so continue to put them in the chat function and we're recording them from there thank you everyone is that is that even possible okay don't answer that question there he did please please before yesterday the safety advocates have a ton of questions uh can we send them to you through an email absolutely i'll do that but i have it ready that's disgusting that's disgusting guys okay you want to do the same for brody okay um so i actually our bargaining unit for the ip secretaries i don't know if you guys can hear me yes okay thank you so we we had um excuse me about a total
064of 47 questions so i have that in a spreadsheet kevin and i will share that with you thank you some of the multiple uh repeating questions that we were giving is um you know are are we gonna face a penalty when we have to tell our supervisors our principals our bosses if we don't either feel safe going to work or we have to stay home with younger children or if we have immune compromised relatives um how is that going to be received when we do not feel comfortable or can't go to work um and of course that's on the flip side too you know teachers principal what how is that gonna work in the district when we face that challenge yeah thanks sandy um and so i i can i feel very comfortable in saying
065um there will be no penalty um and and and and then i i'm also comfortable with saying it would have to be handled on the case-by-case basis um i mean obviously um you know that kim thompson our director of hr will be very involved in all these kind of conversations um but they will be handled independently on a case-by-case basis um you know we're continuing to get guidance from the state on how to handle and handle these situations um and so i sandy i think i can it's best for me to answer you in that way but i certainly can see how this would be a question on the faq that we would have to respond more robustly undocumented i think we're happy to do that okay i have two more i'll be really quick
066um we have a lot of students that travel in and out of the country uh what how are we going to handle their re-entry so kevin you need to unmute yourself now kevin uh you have to unmute but sandy uh we will follow the guidance if they're coming from countries where they have to be quarantined we'd have to do that obviously if there are other observations of um other um you know um symptoms then we'd have to follow up with the health department there's a reporting guideline as folks come into the country as you know we even have some interstate we have folks will be traveling to drop off their youngsters or colleges that we have to deal with so um you know we would follow those rules i think kevin's advice we can't guarantee
067anything the personnel issue is massive but we also want to be very sensitive to situations and that's why some of this doesn't um you can't have a global answer to it but we'll follow guidance is where we can and um we'll have to quarantine when we have to uh and then move along that continuum thanks dr sal and then one more and i will just share the spreadsheet with all the questions but we are asked to self quarantine or if we do become sick um is that do we have to use our sick days for that is that going to be waived somehow that that's something i think that personnel is working through now i i don't i don't have an answer for it i don't know so we're working through that those questions we've
068asked the state because they've intervened with covet in terms of disability so the thing what i started out by saying this is not normal it's abnormal so we're waiting for guidance from them sandy which would may may uh impact what you normally would do so i know kim is diligent waiting for that seminar to happen and um you know we get stuff from um the union heads too in terms of how things are interpreted so right now that's under under review thank you and thank you again for including our um all the units on this we appreciate it thank you thank you sandy appreciate the feedback um and i i don't i have a feeling that questions are not going to get any easier um but i also understand why they need to be asked
069um keith kevin i can answer for keith uh okay great this is bill petruno hi basically i i i don't have a lot of questions for you at this point and i was first off uh wondering if i get a copy of your presentation sure sent to me via email and i'll get that information to you as well and uh basically i'd have to touch base with my members uh this was kind of a last minute thing for me uh finding out about it so like to touch base with all my members the custodians lunch services as well as the safety advocates on it and then we'll uh we'll have some questions for you okay that's fair bill okay that's fair thank you kevin you're welcome so i'll send the plane in the powerpoint um
070and how about well bill i don't know if i have your email um but i can give it to you now i you know if you want it go ahead i'm ready it's w e p e t r u n o at gmail.com you got it thanks bill i appreciate it kevin thank you okay all right we're gonna count that as your faq and go to the next person thank you um so aaron can you go can you go next i can okay how are you good aaron how you doing very good thanks um so just before i ask um the questions my three questions which we have many many more i've been following before the um sheet crashed i was following along and so our members are doing an excellent job asking the very
071essential questions that are on our minds um one comment i want to make before i ask the questions is um the the transition from the six feet of social distancing to the three feet uh according to the american academy of pediatrics um i just want to go on record that that that organization's recommendations have been questioned publicly and they've pulled back on that um and they were focusing on social emotional learning not really sure that they're looking at the full medical data that goes along with that as the cdc recommendations um certainly are different um with that said i also wanted to um put out there it's no secret that um you know i have some serious um issue with this plan overall in the sense that the all-in plan five days a week all
072in everybody in does not um provide the the specifics it does not um detail any of the uh major concerns that all teachers and staff have about what that would look like and how we will be protected you know beyond the mask wearing and beyond social distancing attempts i am supportive of dr sal's hybrid model um we think that that would be the best starting point actually the best starting point would be um all in distance learning so we could transition to hybrid um but overall i think we all know the reality that all all-in plan does not provide for safety of anyone and so we want to go on record of saying that we are adamantly against an all-in plan i know you're working within the constraints of the governor's recommendations we're we're hoping
073fingers crossed that those will change but if that changes it only means our numbers are changing and that's that's a terrible thing for our community as well my questions are concerning are already bargained for benefits being that i've read the extensive family first coronavirus response act and i i know that our employees are entitled to 80 hours of compensated time for quarantining for sick issues for um and if there's even a a a provision for family care if needed i want to ensure and i want to make sure that part of our bargaining discussion is that those benefits that are coming from the federal government are not used in conjunction with our sick time um so in other words that's a separate benefit that our government is giving us bargain benefits so our time should
074be touched from that so i want to kind of put that out there as um the enforcement of the plan we're looking at that um also a big question that uh people have asked in the document but comes up to me over and over again those that are not wearing a mask because they have a dispensation for a medical condition or our students who refuse to wear a mask how are we then going to be protected for those instances so and you know are those students going to be asked to be in a separate area where the protocols are heightened um are is there going to be more ppe or increased social distancing for those students that can't wear masks um so that's kind of a big big underlying question of how do we handle
075that and then uh my third question would be um i'm trying to pick some of the most important ones on my list of about 40 that i've got here in front of me um discipline for mask enforcement and then the final question i know that's an extra one um sub coverage what happens when we are short we have shortages we already have shortages on a day-to-day basis and usually those shortages when can't be covered by substitutes they're covered by collapsing of classes and teachers taking on additional students so how do we handle those things um and then um finally i wouldn't i would be remiss if i didn't ask that this last question will be ac be going back at full capacity if we're all going back at full capacity okay so absolutely yeah yeah
076and i i was going to start with the last one because i i didn't expect my boss to say anything different um about going back full capacity so so yes um aaron this sub coverage question is is a question we've been wrestling with and trying to figure out um how we were going to talk to principals when we speak to them and then how we were going to speak to the greater community about handling this sub coverage and so we're trying to get a handle on what as we survey our community try to get a handle on how many families are going to elect to be in distance learning and not being um distance learning um obviously we're not running out hoping everyone is going to pick distance learning um but we're certainly hoping to
077get a handle on exactly what our staffing needs are going to be um and and and then you know along with looking at our pool of subs and seeing who's still available and willing to work and beginning to pull those resources and then you know go into the school year and say this is the staffing that we have in the event of subs this is the staffing that we have but we're still trying to get trying to get a handle on how many students and families are going to take advantage of traditional schooling um and i think that will help determine how many research how much resources we have available for sub is good because we're anticipating a need for it quite frankly um but you know in the past we were able to just
078try to spend more money and try to get more subs in the district and this is a different situation um and we're trying to figure this out so i i know i'm not really answering you directly um but just know it is something we're trying to plan around and that plan for the most part i think from our perspective is going to our resource sources will be determined by how our families and kids select the program whether it's full or distance learning you had asked another question about discipline for students and so you know in regards to a mask or not wearing a mask and i i think it's going to be important for us to make sure it's their clear expectations in place um for our you know 6 12 students and students who
079you know know you know they can kind of control whether or not they wear the mask and then you know also for earlier grades kenny garden first second grade um and make sure we have a process in place to support uh staff in those grades as well uh but i i think part of our communications with families has to has to be a reminder that you know the state expectation is anytime you enter a school a building never mind a school building the mask must be worn um and so if if if we are experiencing situations in which kids are not doing so we're not gonna have a choice um but to you know uh meet with families and either you know make sure that the kids are wearing them um and if they're not
080wearing them we have to come up with some kind of plan where um either they're wearing them or we're gonna have to come up with a different way to educate them um you know this is just me talking without actually convening with team um but you know given the state expectation around wear and mask um you know i'm not sure how many choices we're going to have because they are going to have to be worn um and then in terms of you know staffing in which kids might be compromised not may not be able to wear the mask i think that's going to be handled particularly in a school like yours erin where there are a lot of special classrooms and certainly other schools as well that have these situations um i think we'll be
081working with our um a special director of course kelly is on the line and then also working with the nursing department to make sure the staffing the staff in those classrooms um are equipped with the appropriate ppe um materials uh to make sure all of them are safe um and then individually doing what we can to make sure the individual students are safe in that environment so i'm not exactly sure what that means um because you know i don't know i guess our kids can be compromised in different ways um but for those kids where it's safe to be back in a school environment and i'm sure those things will be assessed you know through kelly's office in the nurse's department um if it is safe for them to be back um you know first
082and foremost making sure we um have have procedures in place to make sure the staff has the appropriate ppe equipment so it might be in addition to a mask they may also have a face covering that might be a shield uh but again that would be uh that would be assessed individually and not not necessarily holistically for the whole district and aaron i know you said you had a whole bunch of questions um that is one of the questions that we've been wrestling with and planning for uh so there definitely will be more guidance for it because i i know we were just talking about this last week specifically um kevin yes this is john cabo bianco from teamster's local 677. i just came on late hello there i just want to ask you a
083question about the safety advocates what are the safeguards you're going to have for the safety advocates because they're the first line uh in the schools and are are they going to be uh the ones enforcing right at the door uh the wearing of masks is that their responsibility i know there's you know there's some uh question about the you know asking somebody if they don't have a mask you know can you put it on and and so forth about their health and everything so uh that was i guess it's a two-part question okay okay and and and john that that's a fair question um one i i think the responsibility is shared um at many of our schools and i'm just talking about just regular entry into a school you know we will be asking
084most of our schools do this already the principal is outside for morning and you know entry advocates are outside for morning entry in many cases we have staff outside for morning entry and so it will be a shared expectation that all of our staffers are reminding students you know to have their mask on have their face coverings on as they enter the building but then of course once the doors close we will have in addition to asking the asking the advocates to remind folks as they entered building to have them on we will also have language you know to greet all of our families and visitors which will be discouraged at this time john just so you're aware but we will have language in our windows and posted for families that it's required if anyone
085is going to enter the building it will be required um so the answer is yes but they're not you know they're not the only people who have to help enforce this um because certainly at the beginning of the school day there's an expectation you know like every school um everyone's part of morning entry and i think we all have to be vigilant and kind of share this responsibility thank you now you're welcome john i appreciate you jumping i'm glad he's able to join us particularly given a last-minute notice um christy can you bring us home with some questions from your from your unit i would love to um we had our top 10 which i was able to post finally in the faq for your reference a lot of it's been um already referenced and
086stand with aaron and all the other um union presidents in our major concerns our top one which is um really goes to the heart of our schools which are our teachers it is the ventilation heat issues across the buildings we have far too many that are a million degree i remember my own classroom i was on the third floor and the sun would beat in it all and it was 95 degrees all day long so we are really concerned about how we're going to address this when building some classrooms with no windows they don't open some of them there's no screens we have interior classrooms with a labyrinth in some of our schools with um not using air conditioning he is we're really concerned about that and i'll just give you two because the ten
087are in there uh a huge concern with the sanity sanitizing rooms bathrooms offices common areas throughout the day in between the end of the school day and remember we have our adult ed friends and between when the high school leaves and the adult ed people come in and then again when our friends leave at the end of the night and we only have a couple hours for the custodial staff to get that clean and so that's our top two maybe i'll give you three because it goes raise the hand washing stations and just that the idea of trying to how feasible it is to incorporate hand washing sanitizing and the mask breaks throughout the day understanding it is of utmost importance but we're concerned with you know regulation and supervision of these so those are
088our top three but the other seven are in there uh so kevin christie thank you sir if you're through with all the groups i did this there's a ton of questions but i wanted two folks to make a comment that was kelly and kara because there's a lot in their belly wig and then we call it to an end there's no way we could get through everything there are so many legitimate questions and even some of the questions are not answerable at this point but uh we'll make an effort to do um to answer them where we know the answer we will where we don't we won't so do we have time to have those two or not do we have time for kelly and cara for a minute and two a piece uh sure
089i mean we yeah of course i mean we have time we can make time i i don't know what the appetite is you know the other side but yeah absolutely all right let's just take a minute uh cara dr casmarov would you like to go first regarding the specific question well you mentioned a lot was about dl about how we're going to maintain um you know do we teach in both worlds or do you have any comment that if not we'll go to kelly and we'll read i mean the i think that's um you know i think one of the concerns that everybody has along with these lines um is first of all obviously our teachers um you know really did a great job during the distance learning under the conditions that we were in
090in march um april and may and i think that we got better uh pretty quickly over the course of those couple of months given sort of the circumstances that we were given and sort of the lack of being able to prepare before we left um so we were really proud of that effort moving forward though you know we have to think strategically about how to to get better distance learning how to get better blended learning um there's no doubt that in either any of the phases whether in person hybrid or distance learning that they'll we'll be using digital uh content more frequently we'll be asking kids to operate in that environment more frequently um and so making sure that we're providing some professional training and a lot of our collaboration time is dedicated to improving
091that craft as far as the um you know there's there's a great missing piece here about the balance between the number of teachers um that uh you know that will be available the number of students choosing a distance learning option and and the and and how all of those pieces fit together and so we're a little bit of a chicken or the egg so the the full program can be developed once some of those n numbers are known um but folks want to see the want to see the program before they make the selection so we're kind of working between those those pieces um as far as the distance learning goes for for 612 teachers we're seriously considering a program called edgenuity you may be familiar with it it used to um be under another
092name called odysseyware um edgyduty is also partnered with learnzillion um so i'm i am working with edgenuity now to under best understand all of the different opportunities we would have if we utilize their system and utilize the digitized curriculum that is all common core standards-based and can be aligned to our dps curriculum topics and sequences and pacing and so forth um so i think that that will take a huge lift off of the teachers um in terms of having to digitize everything i know that was a big struggle in terms of finding texts or having text accessible um and and making lots of videos um it still wouldn't eliminate the need for some of that but it certainly would take a heavy lift off of that 612 piece um at the k5 level um you
093know so the idea right now and again this is all very preliminary information and and details are all subject to sort of the proportionality of how this plays out in august the idea is that students are selecting a distance learning option in august um you know that there won't be as many teachers available obviously and they would be working more remotely self-paced independently through edgenuity um teachers the all teachers would be using edge annuity core curriculum there's two different versions one is a teacher facilitated version and another one is more looks more like a credit recovery where it's independent it's more mastery-based um and we can explain more about that you know once we make some final decisions on that at the k-5 level we're also investigating some additional digitized curriculum that could be supportive
094of teachers in this environment um way too preliminary to to discuss anything more than that at this point because we're still doing a lot of research um and meetings um but just know that we are looking uh for the best tools and resources available to make this doable for teachers students and parents um and that um you know we will as as we have done before rise to the occasion and do our best to um you know to make this a balanced and and you know high quality experience for everybody um but you know that again it's very early on with program details so we will definitely uh release more and update folks as we as we go similar to the way that we did in the spring thank you cara kelly uh focusing on
095your students and your department quickly sure just a couple of brief comments um first i just want to know there's really been kind of two big buckets that i've been focusing on um along with partnering with cara on the curriculum is the social emotional needs and that's of staff and of students um so we're looking to bring in a pretty comprehensive um professional development program during the extra time that we have for pd at the beginning of the year which will focus on uh staff's needs as well as students needs um so we'll certainly be more information coming on that we are in the interworkings of putting it all together but that that has been a huge part of our planning um second i've noticed in some of the comments um and and i appreciate
096the feedback a reference to preschool and um please understand that this plan is inclusive of preschool they are not left out of the document if there is a language or reference i did pick up on one myself of k-12 it should read pre-k-12 so i do apologize to that group but please know that they have been a huge discussion um in the planning of um of this and then kind of piggybacking off of that is some of the special education self-contained programs or students with other emotional behavioral challenges and needs we are talking through what that programming will look like for those individuals i apologize um we have what that will look like for those individuals as well as um you know how we make tweaks and changes is there additional time that needs to
097be put in place for those individuals um and similar to cara we will be making those decisions um once we get more information on which parent which parents will be opting for distance learning only and which we'll be opting uh for in-person where i'm partnering with kathy o'dowd and i thank her for all of her hard work during this planning um to make sure that all the needs um ppe and so forth is in place for those programs so um certainly more to come in the planning phases related to individual programs across the special education and related services and the last thing is i know some of the office space and things particularly with some of the related services members are quite tight and that is something that will be addressed in the individual plans
098um by the building principles and something the supervisors and myself will be working with them on um to make sure that we provide space as much as possible um so that we're safe thank you kelly can i add just one last thing actually two quick things this is kara because there were some questions that popped up and i have seen these before so i just want to i just want to address them very quickly um you know esl students are not left out of this equation we've had lengthy conversations about the needs of second language learners i do know that some of the new asl curriculum in particular at the k5 level um there the the company itself we're buying the curriculum from is in the process of developing um digitized modules so um they
099are feverishly working to to to um to have that ready um they may not be completely ready but they are concerned about um you know being able to deliver things uh in a digital environment for all students um and certainly some of the uh the programming and platforms that we're looking at a huge consideration is uh the ability for students to have uh stacked language and to be able to end translations within some of the course content that we're offering so we are very aware of those things we want to make sure that our students are supported and the second thing is there's a lot of conversations around screencastify and wondering if the district can purchase that i did look into that i know that it's something that the teachers got really good at using
100it was free through the spring but it is uh there's still a small there's an option a free version um but we're not going to be able to purchase the uh the full version of that it's it was a little over 15 or 16 000 just for that one app for the district and we are you know looking very heavily at some very expensive platforms and resources for the fall and we just can't do anything but uh folks can use quicktime uh to make to make any uh any movies or videos and that is free if you have an apple or mac book from provided by the district that is already loaded on your software and that is already available to you thank you devon turn it over to you yeah so dr sal please
101uh take this moment to close out i think we are i think we're all fine well we have about 700 folks back in here um you know many questions not all you know not a lot of answers uh uh with explicit uh details but uh categories that we have to deal with um there are things that that that we've had over the years regarding ventilation and other issues that we're not going to be able to solve but we have to make it better um some of these things even if we're in the hybrid model we have to do the sanitation the eating all of that the hybrid model simply permits us to break down the classroom so that um we believe the distancing could be much more enhanced it'll provide the the climate that we
102think would be more conducive to learning for our kids so um you know keep that in mind if you're saying what can i do um write your delegation tell them then danbury uh wants to do what's best for our youngsters and um coming to the hybrid model is the best way to move into next year to uh to service our youngsters and our teachers and our families so thanks for spending today it's time during your vacation time to do this we value you and your comments very much so thank you and be be safe thanks dr sally