001dr. Sal and his team are listening and because it's a listening form there will be no responses given at this time Rebecca do you want to translate that for me oh yeah and meet you dr. superintelligence call us it is like journalists were keeping it Scouten a todos e you don't converse back water skills versus passante Dorotea hell yeah great thank you before we get started I want to just do a couple housekeeping tips as right now we have over 160 folks on the forum with us I'm pleased everyone mute your phone or mute your phone and mute your computer the background noise causes some problems for those that are using your phones or using the app there's three buttons at the bottom of the page that have the chat features and the raise the
002hand features if you'd like to enter a longer comment or comments in a different language please use that chat box feature Nevada rancher hell meows he was his food early color concealer see also in part wargame episode Sergio Fajardo in Barsoom famous organs organs of course Kapadia showdown these fantasy punches they among Zant was a project levanta la mano click ilúvatar suami professor weapon gunther it tombé pas disturbances are do not inspire or Portuguese great wonderful so let's get this underway kara doctor sales executive assistant is going to run our slides each question will appear on the screen and we'll have about 30 minutes for each one so please share your thoughts don't assume that we know what you're thinking and I'm going to turn it over to dr. Sal for our opening comments dr.
003Tsao good morning everyone and thank you for being with us it's wonderful to have Brendan Stephanie one folks with the breakfast I love sharing my table so we had an opportunity and I'm glad we had today's scheduled we had anticipated an announcement from the state regarding the opening we were wondering about things as well as everyone else in the community we were able to do some pre-planning with things but but the actual guidelines are not known to us and we've been also planning with our regional partners as of yesterday with the governor's decision we did have a conference and then that conference he outlined a few things to us and I put some of it in your letter I'm expected by July 24th I'd have to relook at that I'm still analyzing all the data
004to have a plan submitted to this state and in that plan there are number of things that have to happen they incorporated that in my letter but ostensibly what we were at were talked about the reason for the delay was that the state was waiting for the most recent information regarding the covert 19 data health data from each other down so the decision was based on on the return to school but I actually read them to the safeguarding the health and safety of students allowing all and they specified all students the opportunity returned into classrooms full-time starting the fall that was the question we had if we were going to come back in part-time full-time three-quarters time its full-time at this point they so imagine monitoring the school population and when necessary potentially cancelling classes
005in the future they reinforced eyes to its yesterday and the boutonniere in my thinking this is not normal there's no no no abnormal opening with that the expectation of coming each and every day is the information yet now if in fact things change they will deescalate the number of days the youngsters need to be there to the point where it will go through three phrases one everyone back to based on the information reduced the numbers at an increased distancing and then three if it becomes that severe back to enhance distance learning so that's kind of the backdrop and then they talked to us about the thinking and we asked where the discount from they didn't analysis state of nationally of all the best practices they were able to look at international data because this some
006countries have Ernie returned back to school so they've kind of cold I stole that information together and these are areas that they talked to us about that it's gonna have to be cohort which means that they're going to emphasize grouping students by the same class a group of students but teachers as much as possible and they did emphasize that k-8 has a less look more likelihood to do that then ninth and twelve just by the nature of boy we educate our youngsters on social distancing and facility review they want us to review all the building spaces reconvene reconfigure available classroom space such as gymnasiums auditoriums and maximize social distances in system of Public Health guidelines for clarity when that I asked this you know we've been hearing the standard is six feet that's not what
007they're telling us and say as much as possible but when I look at what they're asking us to do is we're not going to be normal we're going to be looking at gyms auditoriums cafeterias it's based in order to create classrooms that have appropriate space and that will work with our Health Department or others about what that actually operationalizes into transportation originated it was going to be limit on transportation but now we're told that the strategies that kind of the umbrella that's been used as mitigation this men against need be the possibility of the virus to be spread that transportation will allow us to run on transportation as normal whatever normal means but drivers and students even in school during transportation aren't aware facial coverings specifically for nose and mouth during that time so that's
008sort of their strategy and I don't want to take up a lot of the time there's a lot of details that are going to have to happen a lot of questions and I said that out just to hear parents if you put your eyes on that material you know how it impacts you and what you say and do are important to us as I said in my last forum it might not be the plan everybody commutes with might not be the best plan but I will try to make it with the court I know it's there their interest in the city to make the safest plan that we can for the youngsters returning to school if they're our own kids coming back so that's going to be a difficult task and I ask I appreciate
009your cooperation and your advice with that in I will open it up please great thank you dr. Salas wonderful comments inviting everyone to your table this morning is excellent so Cara if you can pose the first question a shared screen that would be great as folks hat would like to speak please use under the participants raised can Peter can I just add we have our special ed director Kelly trophies I have dr. K's marrow my curriculum director teaching and learning Cara Wanda who does a lot of our research for us Kevin walleston action Kevin most of my sister somebody's in charge of the transition back to school and we have Board of Education members thank you for being there and Gladys Cooper the chairman Lord I see that she's on as well so the board
010is very open yes thank you all right wonderful so we'll start off with our first question that the governor and Commissioner announced yesterday their reopening plan and how do you feel that Danbury Public Schools can best support your child for an effective and safe return in August and so with that we'll start off with an Rose please unmute yourself then you'll be able to speak go ahead do you hear me we do so I thank you this this time and giving us the opportunity to speak before I even address that question I did want to just say publicly thank you to the Board of Ed and dr. Sal and his team for allowing parents to have the choice in the high school and students to have the choice to either have a past grade or
011have numerical grades I work with I know of many other districts that did not do that and I really do appreciate that that danbury offered that to their students and parents so thank you very much for that right did you want to add something else and Rose as far as this safety and coming back into the schools I really to be honest in my own district I mom but their own kind of task force to do this entry and the only concern I guess I would have is I know we're all going back but I'm just wondering like square footage I know it's really difficult when you have like 3,000 kids in the high school and so I was just wondering is there any thought of doing you know how you're doing ninth grade like
012teams where you have like a team of kids like 125 kids or whatever to a certain team of a you know I can't remember what they called it but I was just wondering if that's a possibility to reduce the contact I don't even I don't know if it could even be but I'm just wondering that that's all I just want to say Heidi and Rosie's next board member and teacher thank you I am a parent of three beautiful children in the district one is a third grader and one is a sixth grader and so I appreciate your opportunity to reopen this forum to the parents and thank you to dr. Stowell his cabinet and the board members who are attending and listening to our concerns some of my concerns really come from considerations of safety
013and I value and appreciate the transparency in this plan and this planning process but one of my students who's a third grader attends KSP which as some may know is one of the last open-style classrooms in the district and so considerations for what environmental and structural pieces can be in place so that students who exist in that cohort model as the Commissioner mentioned are still existing as cohorts on a given day there could be three classrooms that are connected to one another sorry I'm concerned about I was spreading across three classroom is it if it's infecting one classroom another concern that I have is considerations for students who have pre-existing conditions one of my children has a respiratory condition asthma the other one has epilepsy and so concerns for special populations not just my children
014but students who may be a phase two or phase three of the plan when you're going to that hybrid model or you're going to that distance learning model some students may need distance learning even if the majority of the students need the hybrid model just because they are at risk and so I hope that considerations will be made to students in regards to that and lastly as far as my concerns go I think one of the things that are going to be really important is understanding and addressing the level of trauma that students have faced during this time either through losing loved ones or just experiencing that panic of the pandemic so I'm looking forward to seeing how the district will address some of the social emotional needs of staff and students in the time
015of reopening as far as what I believe is an appropriate reopening strategy I really hope that strong consideration will be given to a hybrid model or just phase three until the second wave of the pandemic is over just so that we don't increase the number of cases just by the return to school and those are my thoughts for today thank you so much for listening great thank you Latonya I really really appreciate it I'm gonna ask because we have close to 200 people on this conversation and we'd like to hear from everyone if your thought has already been spoken that you go ahead and I'll just reaffirm that in the chat box and try to keep your comments just under 30 seconds would be really helpful so next up we have iPad it doesn't have
016a name but it just says iPad if you'd like to speak you okay we'll move on to Cheryl Hassan Ian please Cheryl you're muted uh hi I have a incoming tenth grader and my main concern at the high school is the population is so large that one thing that I would be in favor of is a hybrid model where half the students you'd split it up like a B days and half the students would go on a bay a day half the students on B day and maybe C day is is some other format because I don't see how over 3,000 plus students are going to fit in the building safely even with utilizing other non-traditional classroom environments I do believe the students need you know peer contact and would not necessarily be in favor
017of just strictly distance learning for for as an option although some students may like that so I I would hope that part of the plan could be this hybrid model to reduce the numbers because it would cut it in half and that would be much more manageable for the school to safely and adequately provide service and care and education yeah thank you for your comment let me I understand that and I had same concerns I yet but the commissioner and the governor was very clear to me there is no option for that every child has the returns are a B model although may happen and you know if the Kovach virus is more aggressive it may even happen sooner rather than later but the plan has to be three phase phase one all students return
018obviously as medical issues we need to deal with as pointed out that's phase one phase two a hybrid model phase three would be this is learning as a model so those are the three options we have as a community and a challenge to institute the a B might be a possible is a good idea but it may it's not an option for us at least initially in the plan I submit we submit to the state I just want to clarify that thank you guys thank you dr. Tsao I'll go back to iPad someone your name is just iPad if you'd like to speak at this point okay I'll go to either please you taking my question so I wanted to express several thoughts here in the one that the governor has shared and what we
019hear is that children who have compromised immune system or pre-existing health conditions will have a different option but nowhere is any language shared or proposed for families where these children will be returning where we have family members or multi-generational homes with pre-existing health conditions and the possibility of children going to school on a regular basis and bringing home the virus and compromising on the health of the family members is very high so I think this is something that the district should consider I also wanted to ask if the parents will be given an option to choose whether to go with distance learning or whether the child has to return to school full-time and along with that if the family is given an option to choose a distance learning option could that is there a deadline
020rather or a fixed guidelines in terms of doing me to choose in the beginning of the school year or can we pull out the child at some point during the school year if we opted with a distance learning option in the beginning can then in let's say January or the second half of the school year after to have the child go back to school and along with that if the child is a special education student how would that impact their their services so if the family chooses the distance learning option will the services be discontinued until the child is returned or a regular school traditional school thank you so much yeah we'll move on to Michelle Baptista please thank you I have a son going into Westside STEM Academy he'll be going into sixth grade
021and I have a daughter who's gonna go be going in to Immaculate so I know we you know the teachers really did a great job of quickly learning how to do you know the virtual learning and distance learning for the children but I think we we can do a little more concerning that might be at some point in the future where we might be teaching them at a hundred percent right there's that potential there so I just I it's more of a question I am but I'll pose it as a comment I'd love to see you know us use this summer as an opportunity to really look at what schools are doing distance learning on successfully and you know my daughter again she's going into immaculate we have not yet gone to school there but
022they regularly they don't use snow days because the virtual learning and distance learning on those days anyway so just having a resource in the same town I think they you know in partnering and seeing how they do it might be you know an idea and if we're looking for more space I had read somewhere around the matrix building is there an opportunity for us to have classrooms there if we need to have more space and you know I am a little worried around the masks and kids taking it off I mean my kids are actually right now nervous just to be around anybody else but thinking about kids taking off their math I mean is there other options you see kind of those base shields this way you know kind of you have like that
023clear kind of you know cover I know they sell them at Staples for a couple of dollars is there other options and would that be one of them just just the way kids can eat and it kind of be just a different option because the masks kind of can come easily off the little little faces so those were kind of my my comments more around the teachers and getting ahead of it when we have all this time for them to learn Thank You Cheryl we'll go to Kristin summers please Kristen can you hear us has her hand raised okay so is there anyone else that would like to speak or address this question please raise your hand I don't have anybody else in the chat and they raise your hand box yes hello I'd like
024to speak yes go ahead just introduce yourself hi this is a mark I have children in elementary school and district in Denver as well as in the Westside and as parents were extremely concerned about the I know you've mentioned it came from the governor and the Commissioner of the Education Department in Connecticut but I don't see the basis with a foundation as to why they're going to start with a phase one given all the medical and scientific evidence right now that a new wave of Cobra is gonna come in the fall maybe even stronger than what we had previously if anything the planning should be to start with distance remote learning and then see how it progresses but to start in reverse and to put children at risk seems unconscionable you know what's going on
025especially in the summer when temperatures are still in the 90s sometimes in August and children are not about to wear masks and breathe properly in the classrooms I mean just going to places supermarkets shopping centers such as Lowe's for example for 10 minutes with a mask on as an adult it's hard to breathe sometimes so let alone for children having to wear masks all day in a very hot environment it does not seem reasonable and appropriate given the situation going on right now plus if someone needs to sneeze or needs to eat obviously you can't use a mask while you're you're sneezing a reading you have to be able to breathe as well and just want to put it out there if the powers that be on the cold that this is not something that
026seems reasonable at all given what's going on currently thank you Mark and we'll move on to Jay Wright please hi good morning I'm a teacher at Rogers Park school and following what's been happening thank you to all the parents for being here it is great here we are all in this together I mean piggybacks the they put a doll there seems to be discussion ideas behind students who might be compromised to go back health-wise and I see that they talk about it with teachers so I'm just hoping that compromise teachers are thought of when we think going forward coming back how it looks because the number one is getting us back and safety goes along with that we all want to be back but we want to be back consistently and safely so just to
027be thinking about those of us that are compromised thank you thank you for your thoughts on that case summers please hi can you hear me yes perfect thank you I appreciate the opportunity to ask questions and for this forum I have a middle schooler and a high schooler my two questions are around number one is there any sort of thought around different activities such as choir or band that are sort of known super spreader activities you don't wear masks when you sing you to or mask and play instruments and there's lots of breath involved that's my sort of pardon mute his phone that would be great go ahead mrs. summers and also you know the the comments around mask-wearing and schools and there is actually very good scientific data that that shows that mask-wearing does
028help to lower the the transmission rates I work for a large medical company actually and there there's also plenty of evidence out there that when people wear masks of different thicknesses even up to n 95 masks while wearing a pulse oximeter the their the rate and and the oxygen exchange is still is still appropriate otherwise it wouldn't be able to keep the virus in you you can still you can still breathe with a with a mask on it may be uncomfortable and it may be hot but you still do get adequate oxygen it doesn't trap a bunch of tons of carbon dioxide and there's there's lots of good data around that so I'm supportive of that but it's also when you think about Dan very high school in some of the the middle schools the
029volume of children that are in there as is is significant and so actually being able to social distance and going about this in a way that is it's methodical and thoughtful will be hard so that being said when we have kovat likely resurgence plus the flu season will there be any sort of recommendation or on-site you know flu vaccinations to keep at least the rate of blue spread down while kids our kids are going back to school thank you for your comments we'll go on to Audrey Hagen please I I have two kids that are ones going into Broadview next year and one's going in to Danbury high school my question is really look I work from home I'd love to see my kids get out of the house in the fall so I could
030actually work again like a normal person but why the rush for this directive of 100% across the board everybody's going right back you know following the guidelines that's great but those guidelines will clearly change over the next few months I've heard a lot of parents say the same thing a concern about the resurgence and concern about kids wearing masks so my question really is or comment whatever is why this rush to determine this right now and why across the board why is every single district going to do the same thing rather than taking a look individually and working with the teachers and be on-site administration as to the best way to open if it should be open does it okay Thank You Natasha Norton please yes hi good morning I have I have I'm I'm
031a parent I have two kids one is going into King Street fourth-grade the other one is and going in seventh in Rogers Park as well as I'm actually one of your guys on bus drivers for dimmers goal I have you know a couple you know a couple questions like you know with like the transportation aspect is would be one of my questions is how they gonna you know break that down and keep you know myself safe as well as keeping the other kids safe a lot of our you know buses are you know or crowded and just how that looks like and um that's you know one of my questions as well as I have one kid that has he is ADHD so he's high anxiety anyways and just just a joke what that looks
032like with you know if there'll be a mask all day know how that looks like I love you know I've been these boys have been home they have not gone out since one day clothes going March they've not gone out unless to play directly outside here or and is I love being their teacher at home with the online the distant learning and we've worked it out um I'm one of they're gonna have a thing where um they'll do like a part-time or something like that where you know home maybe part-time doing the online learning some of it and maybe some of it in classes or do something like that to kind of shorten them all going in one shot that that's my question is you know how they how they gonna do with these busses
033or they gonna give the option of parents you know to do transportation or what that looks like I know you're still planning but I appreciate you listening to me thank you very much so we have iPad is our next person I am thank you I have two children that go to Park Avenue will be in third and fourth grade and I had a very different experience but both children one teacher was great with a distant learning and one was not my one child is on the spectrum and has several different team members on you know working with him speech ot and they all did a really great job of making sure that he got all of his services and it's hard when you have two children at home doing two different things and not all
034of the staff members are on the same page with the distance learning so hopefully if we have to do distance learning all of the staff and all of the teachers will get more training on how to use Google classroom and how to be more interactive with their kids because these kids are missing not only their friends they're missing the staff that they're used to dealing with every day so when you get no interaction it's really hard and I I also happen one more comment there's been no talk about you know like temperature checks when staffing and kids arrive at school is that something that's going to be considered if they all have to go back we'll be defining those based on CDC and state and local health recommendations Thank You Ann thank you and we
035have a stone please a comment was made earlier by dr. Sal that what's happening in other country was was was taken into consideration and that other countries have gone back to school safely their countries have by and large kind of contain this for a variety of reasons most of which is the citizens believe science exists and actually pay attention to guidelines and it is obvious that that is not happening here in the US and is not going to happen so as much as we all want to pretend that each individual state is an island in Connecticut itself may have things under control right now that is not the case two months from now after everyone returns from their Florida Beach vacation after everyone has hung out and done everything we are one week into a
036soft reopening where people are already doing things there quote not supposed to not wearing masks not following quote the rules we're gonna have kids come into school that will show up without a mask what happens are you sending them home are you just saying well it says if it's possible and it's not possible if it doesn't have it what is the consequence when the kids continue to take off the mask are you basically going to have the mask police in there with each teacher reminding the kid you'd have to put your mask on you'd have to put your mask on kids especially once they get to high school are disruptive and do it you know for that for the funny factor little kids will be compliant most elementary school kids will leave them on if
037they're told to leave them on you have kids on school buses in high school who can't even be talking you know can't even be controlled to sit down and not fling each other with seatbelts and somehow it's now believing that these hundred kids on the school bus are going to keep their masks on there is no way to ensure any of this compliance with these children and we're just going to end up in another system where we're going to then rush distance learning again and I feel like teachers are being set up to fail at this point because they are not given the opportunity and and the directive and the knowledge that you know yeah we're gonna go back to school it's gonna be great but we all know that's not going to happen we're
038gonna end up in another emergency situation three months from now after everyone's planned to go back to school no one's made a comprehensive plan on how to do it from home and the reality is it's gonna have to be done from home and there are plenty of parents who are just not going to send their kids in and if the district doesn't allow for any kind of distance learning those children are going to withdraw their students which means the school gets even that the school board gets less money because these students are now not on the roster so my kids are not going to go back to school it's not going to happen it's been made clear that these that these guidelines are not put into place to keep the children safe so I realize
039I have immense privilege to be able to stay home with them to have a degree in child to education to be able to say you know what it's fine peace out we're leaving but that is you know over ten thousand dollars that the district is now not getting from my children from the state for them being enrolled in Danbury public schools and unless this unless they put in some immediate distance learning that's gonna be real I realized that last time it was all thrown together last minute and everyone did the absolute best they can and I give them all the bad props in the world because teaching online is very different than teaching in person but they've now had many many many months to make this plan and the plan is going in the opposite
040direction of reality just because they want to try and keep it to keep people happy that parents have to go back to work and employers want their employees back but we're just setting them up to fail again and I feel like we're going to come back and now we're gonna have another horrific distance learning experience because we put all of our eggs into the go back to school basket so in essence of time I'm going to move on to Eliana and then to many and then we'll put our question back up our second question and move on to that one I also want to remind folks if then the next question you'd like to raise your hand and you need interpretation we have that available so I'll turn it over to Eliana right now hi
041good morning everyone just a few things and I'll be as quick as possible going back to someone's comment about looking to other schools she's I think she said immaculate I personally felt that the two mid magnet schools AIS and Westside middle school I thought they did very well with distance learning and perhaps they are a resource for planning you know for other schools to be on board with distance learning and everyone to be sort of on the same page so that there aren't some parents that you know are finding that distance learning is not working so they may be a resource also just thinking about the bus comment I know that my son is on a bus in the morning with two children per seat and in the afternoon three children per seat and I
042just wondered if there was a plan or funding to add more buses to eliminate having to have so many children per seat on a bus I also heard the comment about there's no air conditioning in many buildings but per the CDC guidelines they actually weren't for you to be able to have ventilation regarding opening windows and doors to allow in as much fresh air as possible is there a plan to have that safely done I also work in a school so I know that we are not able to safely have doors open but we do open windows and then just thinking about overcrowding and how is this possibly gonna work I I think of shelter Rock school in particular who they've already had pods installed because of overcrowding and those pods are being used they've
043had to have art on a cart because there are so many children in that school and there was no way to have a particular art room they've already been using other spaces so they already use the stage which is in the lunchroom they use the stage as a class area so if we're looking to use you know other spaces and buildings what about the buildings that are using that space already because of overcrowding that does and you know those schools don't have that option then because they're already using that space um so those were just my comments thank you for listening and have a great rest of the day thank you for being on here with us this morning Eliana and I'll move to mini Santos please hi good morning you know thanks for giving
044us an opportunity to talk I have a child who will be going into Broadview middle school and I'm leading towards a more of a hybrid classroom though I do understand you many were losing you I think she's frozen you may have to come back to it yes coming so the only reason I was I'm into the hybrid kind of model is where you have because screen time a lot of screen time is not good for the kids I did put it in my chat also it's not psychologically and even for cognitive skill it's not good for kids to scientifically prove so a hybrid is a better way to go another reason for that is also because I'm an essential worker my husband is an essential worker we have to be back to work we party
045works we could do Part A and B with our child at home if the district choose to go for distance learning but a full-blown day now that's going to be hard if you decided to do it is there a timeframe that you will keep us informed that this is what's gonna happen so we can be better prepared to have someone watch our kids we cannot stay home so another question also was about with the temperature checks I've not heard anything about it now heard of any guidance and no guidelines any of it happening if if there is a plan we haven't heard it I'm not telling there is no plan but it's the parents need to know for all good reasons if they want to stay with a school district or move and it's the
046choice if they you know there are options like homeschooling there are but there there need to be a timeframe we need to know exactly when this will be rolled out but we can make decisions for our kids who are in the school district right now so well that's for now and you know I will be up there in the chat putting up my thoughts but it is safe for the kids we have kids in on-site we have 150 but we don't have 150 on-site but we do have kids so it's been safe with all we see had guidelines which we've did follow so it's been pretty safe the same I I want believe with my child being in the American school system that there will be guidelines and guidance for teachers to follow through and
047it will be rolled out pretty soon so we can make that decision for our kids and one more last thing before I you know with the skill set that was a big piece that's a big piece the skill set with parents is very important many of us not cut out for that we have be half and I have parents who on-site who feel that I'm bringing it to you as a magic cake you know that the skill set is a big it's fine the teachers are been trained but how how are the parents where where do you meet them on that they're on a learning curve so it's important that something is rolled out there for the parents as well to get on the distance learning because what happened this year was not a great
048plan they did it great I know my son's teacher did a great job but it was it was not not working the way it should have work yeah thank you though for giving me opportunity for thank you many if we could put up question number two now Cara if you can share the screen so what we'd like to think about now is our second question of what recommendations do you have with developing the plan and communicating that plan with with you I know when dr. Sal's opening comments he talked about that we need to have a plan to the state by July 24th or 25th I believe it was and so let's hear some ideas on what you think about how you'd like that to be communicated with you and I will add another piece
049in here was this for for-4 valuable and would you consider continuing these with some other more defined questions as we design that plan so I will start with raised hands here either please stove yes thank you well I think that that should be surveys and I think that through this groundhog process there should be a very clear transparency and continued communication I don't know what the best form for that would be for the district but again I think that the parent for parents to feel comfortable and safe to allow their children to return they need to be fully vested and and the input needs to be taken into consideration and and this should all be done as a transparent process and again I think that that in this whole communication process and when we should
050not only consider our children who as many people now taking the comment section are they are silent spreaders but we should think about family members returning to the school or also as some of us are in compromised categories ambassador Ivers what happens if the bus drivers begin to quit how are you Bank it is hard to find five drivers as is and who is going to ensure that the safety protocols that that are going to be suggested or given are going to be followed fully and faithfully thank you thank you and we'll move on to Cheryl please yes hi good morning again just wanted to follow up with a thought I was looking online and Connecticut has some of the lowest high schools in this in the state are at four 393 one high school
051422 enrollment I think that Danbury should petition the governor to look at specifics for each school district in the sin that you cannot compare a high-school with an enrollment of you know 393 students to high school with over 3000 and I think that part of what the city should do is petition the governor for alternative hybrid models given the size of the district and the enrollment secondly in terms of communication many parents need to plan I'm fortunate I have a high schooler so if she's at home if she's at school she's self-sufficient I think information should go out and robocall email on the Danbury public school platform but I think that many parents and students my daughter everyday asks what's the plan what's the plan and not knowing the plan it's challenging but I agree
052that there there needs to be some plan put in place but I would highly recommend that Danbury reach out to the governor and discuss our particular unique needs based on our size thank you Thank You Cheryl and we'll move on to case numbers please you hello thank you again just I think what the parents are saying what I hear resoundingly is we need to lead with safety and we need to understand that the district is leading with safety there is a tremendous risk with the size of our schools and the size of our high schools for there to be exponential growth of community spread should that should coded land in DHS and what the possible impacts can be on our own socio-economic system because those kids bring home this virus kids are going to be
053like even taking temperatures could be an exercise in futility sorry symptomatic but they bring it home to parents and even if parents are not immunocompromised being over 45 having type 2 diabetes being overweight having high blood pressure any of these things increases your risk for significant morbidity and mortality and hospitalization even if you don't die from coronavirus you can have significant long-term impacts and effect and this is often something people are not seeing so I know people need to work and I know people get back to work so what's the what's the most important thing here having kids home and figuring out how to effectively deliver distance learning so parents can keep going to work or sending kids to school and bringing it home to make our workforce so there's a number of things that
054need to be considered and I completely agree with petitioning the governor because what also I don't want to see happen is here in Danbury we have a very diverse population we have a lot of people who are under the poverty line here what we cannot do is make this a crisis of being poor and not having the Reese thank you I'm going to jump over to Liz a please you hi um my daughter actually wants to speak on what she believes because I think one of the things that we haven't done yet is actually listen from a student's point of view we've heard a lot from parents but maybe listening from what a child you know what their concerns are might be valuable so I'm gonna pass it on to my daughter thank you hello
055my name is Anastasia and I am in Park Avenue school and I'm going into fifth grade I don't think we I think the parents should have a choice for for the kids not to go to school because I'm thinking for fifth graders they're going to be like they're not gonna put the mask on because they don't want to and they're gonna think that they shouldn't any other concerns you have about you getting sick or somebody else getting sick we could get sick because people are gonna try to talk to people but they're not gonna want to talk to people with your mouth with their mask on because they couldn't hear people and at recess and at recess thank you for letting her voice her opinion Thank You Anastasia that's great to hear from you I'd
056like to jump into Robin McAlister please hi Thank You Anne thank you all for setting this meeting up I just wanted to say in regards to communication I think that the district did a superb job both as an educator and a parent I was uplifted by the communication from the administrators this was a very challenging very difficult time we felt so isolated and it was just wonderful to receive the the notes of encouragement and hey keep going and also just the phone calls knowing that we were getting updates that we were being informed the sheer ability to go on to the website and be able to inform ourselves and follow up with information to teach ourselves how to use certain it was just really comforting to know that we had the resources available to us
057and that we could support ourselves and our families in this very challenging very bizarre time so thank you I hope that we can continue with these communications I think communication is absolutely key in these situations and that the communication needs to go both ways and I felt very supported by the teachers and staff at shelter Rock as well as the faculty and staff at Westside middle school so thank you all for your efforts please continue it's a wonderful thing Thank You mini-europe next any Santosh you just have to unmute yourself oh yes no I did I did get a chance to talk okay so you're all set I'm all set for now put it in the chat if I have any more questions you know I do okay we'll go to Anne rose hi as
058far as communication I just want to say thank you to dr. Sal and for the team because I feel that you have done your best to communicate to parents by your weekly updates your calls which I feel that those things should continue and the surveys that have gone out you have a website that people can access as well so I think all of those things need to stay in place and I love the idea that you're having these breakfasts or hearing sessions and I think you should also continue those my my only I guess idea would be maybe to make the communication or if you want a survey or if you want something to continue like this that maybe you have an elementary one and then a middle school and a high school because there
059are parents who might have children having very different experiences and questions in in a middle school or an elementary school compared to a high school and so what you've done so far has been amazing and excellent I really appreciate that and we all know that you can make a plan in place today and within another 3-4 weeks from now it could change and so what you have in place with your weekly you know letters and your updates and your robo calls and your surveys and these kind of forms is a fabulous to keep us there I would just now say if you want to have some more specifics that maybe you can just now tailor it to a breakfast for just elementary parents or a breakfast for just middle school or a breakfast for high
060school or some type of communication and in that way but really very much appreciative the transparency and all you've done thank you very much Thank You Ann Rose and we'll move to Mary Schrag please you okay hi my name is Mary I think we need to hear from the teachers you know I think that we need to get their feedback too and how how they feel about getting back into the classroom and you you know see what their concerns are so that's my question thank you all right Thank You Natasha Norton okay I'm sorry I'm trying to fit at the screen uh it was just a couple things you know the communication is pretty good I get constant emails and calls from Demery schools and all kinds of different alerts which is wonderful of knowing
061what is going on when there's meetings or just the kid and keep me in a loop but there's two things that have popped into my mind well I was sitting here just as far as a question with um like any kind of staff and it's just it's just an idea what are its teachers drivers anybody that is within a school system that is around kids of possibly having a test on being tested possibly prior to you know we turn it or whatever that plan looks like that's my first question my second one is Jax which is it but what about like that how would they do like would they do sanitizing stations or stuff like that you know - I would say they open the school throughout the school day they're kind of keep stuff
062sanitized how would they do the sanitation part of it and that's it thank you thank you well that's what's down please I think the district has actually been really great in communicating to the parents you know I get the phone calls and the emails and I think that's great I think that there's not been a whole lot of ability for the parents to communicate back this you know you've had these town halls which for variety reasons that everyone can attend but there haven't been any surveys or anything what I think should really be part of this but I think one two-way communication that needs to go when making these plans is will you send your child back if we do X will you send your child back if we do Y to find the sweet
063spot of where most parents are okay with keeping their kids in school because you know I have been a homeschooler back and forth through the years with all of my kids at various times and I'm so involved in a lot of homeschool groups and I can tell you there has been a massive explosion in the amount of people saying they are not going to send their children back to school unless X is done or unless Y is done or not at all and I think the district cannot plan for next year on the enrollment of last year because it's just not going to be there and and there's so many things that need to take into consideration with that not only does that affect your class sizes but as I said before that really affects
064your funding and what you can afford to do and I think that if there's you know that particular question asked and answered they can make a much better plan to find out how many kids they're actually going to have you Emily did you want to speak you okay I guess not and we'll take our last two comments of about 15 seconds our first one is eliana please hi again really quick I do appreciate robocalls the emails the district's website has been updated the individual school websites have been updated the surveys have been great what I worry about are the parents that do not have access to technology or may not be tech savvy may not know how to join a zoom call because as an educator we run into that problem we often have to
065guide our parents step by step simply to download an app we we take certain things for granted that we are able to do and that we can do well but there are many many parents that I think would benefit from a tool like this that have no idea that maybe it's even happening or don't have access to the technology or don't even know how to download an app so is there a plan to reach out to all of those parents and to make sure that everyone is connected and still in touch thank you and then Annabelle so Nick if you'd like to give us your concerns yeah just a quick thing here one of the things that I would like to point out is the numbers recently are pretty staggering and I mean 216 thousand
066cases of coronavirus in the country last week thirty-nine cases thirty-nine thousand cases nationally yesterday understanding the dynamics of interstate commerce we are a globalized society to say the very least to what extent are is this a moving target in terms of the Sunbelt States looked pretty darn good about three four weeks ago and now it appears that they're heading for a really tough time of it I just wanted to know to what extent is this a moving target at the level at the district level Thank You Nick for your question and we'll move on to Annabelle who is gonna be our last person today hi good morning so first off I I will be honest I am fearful of sending my children back to school however I do recognize the need for both my son
067and daughter to return to school in order to meet their academic and socialization needs um recommendation wise I would like to see and I I know my family would like to see is adding additional to teachers at the elementary school level younger students are not always respectful of social distancing and mask-wearing and also in regards to if we do move to a hybrid or a complete social distance learning situation I'd like to see more interaction between the teachers and students should we return to those models either through a direct classroom feed to the students who are at home if we're in a hybrid situation or having teachers available specifically for interactive remote distance learning I also agree with many of the other parents at the high school and also at the middle school levels of
068petitioning the governor to see if there would be a possibility as to doing a hybrid model considering that we don't know where this is going to be headed and to keep everyone safe and family safe and our community safe and healthy um as for communications I found I believe we need a more district-wide requirements for each of the schools I have children at two different schools and found one school handled communication perfectly we were always well informed and the other school I felt that the communication we were just not getting it either from the teachers or the administrative staff so I would like to see a more district-wide requirements for weekly updates and daily if we do go back to a social distance a daily requirement for teachers and communication with parents as to what's
069going on that's it Thank You Annabelle so that is going to bring on the feedback session forum to an end so I'd like to turn it over to dr. Tsao at this point well thank you everyone for taking the time more questions and answers for me I love being in danbury and my value is a much affirmed when I hear their concerns all of you have for the youngsters as I do we will continue to work with the state I think the the conversation around our space challenges I will tell you has been heard loud and clear in the governor's office in fact in their conversations and they do speak about amber and our growth there's only one other town Mnet's accelerated as we are so that's and that's in the formulas somehow I don't
070know how many now we are going to be given the option but they asked is appropriate and I appreciate that this solidifies my thinking with that what dr. Salim II want to do may not be in concert with what we're a spa and guidelines options are clearly something that's important I hear that I think parents are both sides for various reasons and that might be a reasonable approach but as you know I think was marked that asked um the first step is back which we're a little surprised so we need to work through that the question about would it be different the governor are through the commissioners communications you know in a month and maybe get them that's right a plan has to be threefold the second is the hybrid by requirement but in case
071things change dramatically where they need to move off of everybody attending every day so that's flexible and it's iterative as it develops I will take all of these this information we have a committee that's coming back someone did ask about teachers we claim they have a similar forum for teachers and one for administrators to put that on this their table about how we could operationalize this they are with the kids they're in the classroom they can best inform what we ought to be doing we might not be able to do it at a hundred percent someone talked about more buses more faculty you know we will try the best we can and I think that's the conversation with the state when we talk about our plan it's not about not having resources about trying to
072do what's right and then having a lens to respect in fact the challenge is a space that we do have so I thank you so much for for being here today and I create all goes well and as things develop I will get information out to you by the 24th it doesn't have when has to be filed at the State Department between now and then as I developed something I will alert you do that and hopefully you'll be able to comment and help me guide myself through that process I know the board is credibly appreciative of parents they can time to do this as my staff is so thank you again and stay safe great thank you dr. Tsao I'd like to thank everyone for attending we certainly treasure your thoughts concerns and ideas he's
073safe and be well and we'll be back in touch for our next forum thank you thank you