001we will be starting our meeting in exactly one minute okay one minute good evening on behalf of the board of education we would like to welcome you to tonight's town hall focusing on our school reopening plans before we begin we would like you to know that we anticipate having ample time to take life questions at the end of tonight's presentation but just in case please make sure your question is captured in the q a portion of the zoom at the end of the meeting we will try and answer as many questions as we can in a live manner we also want to let you know that this guidebook that you are seeing tonight is available to everyone via the ausd reopening school website you can also access the ausd copen19 page using the find it
002fast menu on our home page we will post a link to it on our social media and send it out as well tonight we are going to be covering our goals we're going to go over health and safety our decision trees alternative programs social emotional wellness and next steps as we have been planning and working on our reopening plans these four goals that you see here have been guiding our work number one ensuring that we are following the los angeles county department of public health guidelines and orders which have deemed that opening schools for full in-person learning is now safe with some protocols and guidelines in place maintaining an inclusive caring and supportive school culture establishing protocols for health and safety and timely frequent and transparent communication on this page you're going to find a
003summary of the most important aspects of our reopening uh the rest of the book goes into a little bit more detail but some of the most important things that we need to know here are that students are now going to be allowed to have breakfast and lunch at school students are now going to be allowed to have recess and pe masks will be required while indoors for both our students and our staff students are going to be able to participate in club sports and music with some modifications for some of those students are going to have ample opportunities to sanitize and wash your hands while outdoors masks will no longer be required although students and staff are welcome to continue to wear their masks outside if they choose to temperature checks at entrances will continue
004to take place for students and for staff because things change quickly and often we are committed to updating this guidebook and the decisions included here based on the ladph guidelines and orders that are given to us reminder there's a reminder on this page a wearing mask while indoors also a reminder to please update all of your contact information with your school although visitors are now allowed we are encouraging parents to conduct school business remotely whenever that's possible if it's not possible no worries but just a reminder that all visitors are now going to be required to share their phone number and email address due to contact tracing students and staff are still going to self screen prior to arriving to school and signage is going to be continued to be visible and serve as a
005reminder for all of us to wear our mask and self screen as well we are working to ensure that testing will be widely available at all of our sites for students staff and family at this point in time to get into a little bit more detail i'd like to pass it over to mr jorge thank you mr ortega and uh good evening to the community with regards to health and safety students and staff must screen for symptoms such as cough shortness of breath running nose and fever at home before coming to school or getting on a bus anyone with a fever of 100 point four degrees or more should not go to school uh or get on a bus temperatures will be taken and how screening questions will be asked at sites entry points full
006sites will have signage throughout campus to encourage proper sanitation and student debt will have individual partitions parents and visitors uh accessing the school campus will um be limited and parenting visitors will need to sign in and provide their telephone number and email address i if we have a situation that when we have symptoms while on campus uh staff or students remember to volunteer while at school they will be isolated from others from parents and guardians of the student will be contacted to pick them up staff will be central um students and staff will be advised to isolate according to cdc guidelines parents to contact surgical principal prior to returning to school after and to turn it over to mrs jamal uh thank you mr ronkell so on this page we outline um some of our
007protocols and our pp e some of the highlights are that mask and face coverings are required while indoors for both students and staff face coverings must be worn that covers both the nose and the mouth at all times while indoors we have how to videos available on our district website students and staff are allowed to remove their face coverings while eating and drinking and when they are outdoors students will be instructed on the proper face covering protocols but parents are asked to familiarize their children with the use of a face of a cloth face covering which includes the importance of being careful not to touch the mask or areas on the face parents are also encouraged to send a backup face covering in the event the student's face covering becomes damaged wet or dirty there
008are exemptions to wearing a mace a face mask but it requires prior approval visual aids and how-to links are available on our district website additionally throughout campus visual aids are posted to remind us all how to properly wash our hands and how to properly cover while while coughing and sneezing hand sanitizer stations have been placed throughout the campuses both indoor and outdoor and additionally all sites have at least one outdoor hand washing station on this page we are outlining some of our hand sanitizing information as well as some of our cleaning protocols so as stated hand sanitizing stations will be located in all of our common areas such as our lunch areas our npr's front offices and priority locations that have been identified by each site's principal all staff are required to wear a fabric
009face covering unless prevented due to a health condition or instructional com our instructional or communication needs in those instances staff will be provided with a clear face shield personal protective equipment that is available on all campuses will include face coverings face shields additional masks gloves and gowns the district has provided each school with has provided each school and district site with a temperature scanner anyone entering a campus or district facility will be screened as they walk past the scanner the district has invested in both a clorox 360 sprayer and the victory sprayer the sprayers will enable our custodial staff to more effectively disinfect our campuses the units spray a fine mist of disinfectant solution that is statistically charged sorry and adheres to the surface in the room ensuring proper coverage detailed attention will be given
010to high touch areas such as our door handles desktops sinks and door wheels and restrooms throughout the day for transportation our drivers will perform a pre-entry symptom screening and temperature check with a temperature scanner students not meeting the screening requirements will not be permitted on board of the bus students should a student become ill during transit they will be isolated in a dedicated seat behind the driver students will sit in every seat and we will start loading from the back first face coverings are required at all times including transportation vehicles such as our buses a driver may remove his or her face covering to ensure the safety operation of the bus unless within six feet of the nearest passenger on here we talk about other considerations such as our cleaning in our hvac system for
011our cleaning regimen the bathrooms will be cleaned and stocked with soap and water throughout the day and disinfecting wipes and our disinfectant sprays will be provided in every classroom our hvac system has been serviced and inspected across the district to ensure proper operation in circulation of outside air all district hvac systems have been have had the ionization unit installed the ionizer has the following benefits such as it kills bacteria viruses and mold it helps control allergens asthma odors such as from smoke it reduces pressure it reduces pressure loss by keeping coils clean without the expensive uv system and requires no maintenance and at this time i will pass it back over to mr rankill thank you mr mall uh what follows is our notification protocols uh the district always uh will work to balance the
012need for privacy of students and employees the need to communicate with potentially exposed individuals page articulates the steps that the district will take contact trace and communicate with individuals and the school community this process begins with the school or district being notified of a closing 19 positive employee or student that person is directed to isolate and they are interviewed and the contact tracing process begins the individual is also provided with coven 19 resources notification to the school site and employees are sent via email as required districts uh the district will also communicate with the los angeles county department of public health and cal osha as required what follows is the decision tree um for students prior to entering a district campus if the student indicates no symptoms or exposure the student enters the school and
013has a wonderful day if on the other hand the student screening indicates symptoms of coca-19 the school will offer an on-site clogging 19 tests with parents or guardian permission the student's parents guardians is also contacted to pick up the child if a medical provider confirmed that the systems are not consistent with cloven 19 the student must stay at home for their doctor's guidance if the student is provided a test and the test is negative the student must stay home until he or she is symptom-free if the student tests positive then the student must isolate for a minimum of 10 days the student is not tested we treat those cases as if the student has tested positive and again they must isolate if the screening identifies a student with symptoms not consistent with clova19 then the
014site administrator determines if the student should be excused the following decision tree is very similar and it focuses on staff members entering a district the employee indicates no symptoms or closure the employee enters the school site or district facility on the other hand the employee screening indicates symptoms including 19 the district is directed an employee is directed to not report to work if a medical provider confirms that the symptoms are not consistent with program 19 the employee must stay home for their doctor's orders if the employee is provided a test and the test is negative the employee must stay home until he or she is symptom-free if the employee on the other hand tests positive then the employee must isolate for a minimum of 10 days if the employee is not tested we treat the
015case as if the employee had tested positive and also must isolate the screening identifies the employee with symptoms not consistent with kova 19 and the site administrator in consultation with the hr department will determine if the employee should be sent home now what follows is a decision free for fractionated students and staff uh the following two slides are decision trees um for vaccinated students and uh unvaccinated students uh and staff that uh are close contacts to a confirmed cloven 19 positive person uh first allow me to define a close contact the close contact is a person who is within six feet of someone uh with kobe 19 for a total of 15 minutes or more in a 24 hour period or if a person had unprotected contact with uh bodily fluid from someone with cloven
01619 for example copying or sneaking this slide shown on the screen right now shows the decision tree for vaccinated students and staff a vaccinated student or staff is a close contact they are recommended to take a coven 19 test five days after exposure and will be provided a medical grade space covering if the student or staff member are asymptomatic that means you're not not showing symptoms uh they can continue to go to school for work these uh close contact post-contacted vaccinated individuals should monitor their symptoms for a total of 14 days any changes in their symptoms should be reported to the school or the hr office if on the other hand the student or staff member has positive recovery 19 the individual must isolate for 10 days until fever-free without fever-reducing medication this next slide
017is a decision tree for unvaccinated students and staff that are close contact if a uh unvaccinated student or staff member is a close contact they are recommended to take a cover 19 test and will be provided in medical grade based coverage if the test is negative the close contact student or staff member must quarantine at home for 10 days if the student or staff member remains asymptomatic while quarantined they may end their quarantine after day seven if they receive a negative test after day five from their last day of exposure these individuals must still monitor their symptoms through stage 14. if the unvaccinated student or staff member has a positive for kelvin 19 the individual must isolate for 10 days from the onset of the symptoms top fever freeze for 24 hours without fever reducing
018medication and i also just want to end these this information that i just presented on the vaccinated and unvaccinated with a note from earlier that these changes are subject to change as we receive further guidance from the department of of uh public health and also from calculus thank you very much and now i'd like to turn it over to dr mitchell thank you in addition to in-person instruction the district offers a home school program and an independent study program in our home school program students in tk to 12th grade complete assignments independently parents provide instruction and students check in with the teacher on a regular schedule the goal of the ausd independent study program is to provide an alternative to in-person instruction for students whose help may be put at risk by attending class face-to-face
019isp is an educational program that provides instruction based on the state adopted content standards by certificated teachers tk6 students will receive at least 60 minutes of daily synchronous virtual instruction from a certificated teacher as well as additional live academic and social emotional support from the teacher and other support staff seven through twelve students will be enrolled in apex the district's online curriculum which offers a through g aligned courses students will receive weekly synchronous virtual instruction and live academic and social emotional support from a certificated teacher and support staff the conditions and expectations of the independent study program will be outlined in the students written learning agreement which must be signed prior to enrollment parents who are interested in enrolling their student in the ausd independent study program must first register their student in their school
020of residence then complete an interest survey to receive more information on the aosd independent study program which is on the main page of our website and i'm going to put a link in the chat in just a few minutes in case you're interested in filling that survey out ausd will reach out to interested families to schedule meetings to learn more about the ausd independent study program and enrollment ausd also supports student mental health wellness through a variety of services ranging from school wellness campaigns to more intensive and individualized support programs we work closely with partners and community service agencies for additional services to support students and families social emotional well-being support and mental health assistance is available to all ausd families through kerasolas we also partner with mckinley children's center and foothill family who provide
021families and staff with support for our students social and emotional health if you need assistance please call the office of child welfare and attendance thank you dr mitchell uh we are going to have plenty of time to answer some of your questions in a live manner so let's do that now if you are in attendance on zoom and you would like to ask a question please use the raise your hand button in zoom first question we have is from carmen you may unmute your mic miss carmen regalado uh maybe you're muted we cannot hear you i have no questions at this time i'm sorry my button oh no no worries thank you thank you so much okay next we have lara you may mute your mic laura you may unmute your mic okay uh we'll
022try asha ramon you may meet your mike hi um i'm actually asha's mom sorry about that um you mentioned about independent study that we may have the option to enroll our child into that program but it when looking at the the guideline it said that if our child um is you know if if the child is um i forget how it's worded but like if if they're going to be in danger of getting sick or something like that does that does that refer to like for example my child is 11 he doesn't yet qualify for the vaccination and i'm not comfortable sending him to face to face instruction so what would that be sufficient reason to be able to enroll him or for him to be accepted for independent study yes it would and i
023um went ahead and put in that link to the form if you would like to fill that out it's right there for you in the chat yeah if i did get that but my question was if if that would be a reason to be able to apply for independent study yes because i already registered him he in a few months he will qualify for the vaccination and then at that point can i switch him over to face to face yes you sure can that's a great question thank you for that question so yes you are welcome to uh uh have uh fill out the form and uh enroll in independent study and then uh if at you know any time that you are uh ready and interested for your student to return uh we will
024make that happen may i ask one more question i'm sorry of course um i know that this year powell elementary added a sixth grade um just wondering how that's going to be different than sending my child to let's say center middle school are they going to have physical education are they going to have different periods or is it all just going to be like they were in fifth grade with one main teacher yep thank you for that question um so sixth grade is at all of our elementary schools and it is a self-contained classroom uh they do have one teacher who teaches all of the subjects and one of those subjects is physical education oh okay thank you you're welcome next we have mrs connor you may have mute good evening um actually my question
025is the the opposite of the previous question my son marco has not been vaccinated but i'm i opted to enroll him with the in-person learning just in case with uncertainty of this pandemic just in case i feel that safety wise he's i'm not like comfortable sending him anymore to the in-person learning can i switch over to the um online even if it's like in the middle of the of the school year yes you can do that okay thank you for that question okay and also if i can have uh one more question if you don't mind this is regarding the if i can you mentioned about the uh the protocol for those students who are unvaccinated and were in close contact with person who is uh positive for kovid can you repeat again what is
026the process after being exposed to the uh or in close contact with the uh person is uh positive or coveted absolutely i could take that question and we're talking about um and that's needed or not back today okay yes yes correctly so the first step would be to offer the um student a closing 19 test if it's a student who would um seek your permission as a parent um as an additional piece of information we have uh partnered with a organization that has provided our school sites with closing 19 tests that could that are easy to administer so the individual could or student could easily administer the test themselves i will also provide the student with a medical grade um and 95 uh base coverage so that they have that additional protection um and then
027so what ends up happening is the unvaccinated student would need to quarantine uh for the um protocols and um the would be monitoring your system where you would be monitoring your system and if at day five the um the student continues to be asymptomatic then the date after day five the student could um and receive another test if that test is negative on the date after of day five then the quarantine could end okay 57 and so they would be back in school okay okay got it thank you very much of course thank you thank you our next question is from lisa frisk you mean i meet your mike yeah i have a question my son is in a life skills program um if he needed to get a covet test done how is that
028being done is that the nasal swab or mouth swab or what thank you for that question um it is a nasal swab we do have covered testing at all of our school sites that is available and so if you would like to have your student tested you would just need to call the school and let them know we're also able to test families as well but what if they can't handle the nasal swab how is that gonna happen i mean he's fully vaccinated so i'm not too concerned too much just if he comes in contact and stuff you always have the option to um to go to another provider we just offer we do offer those tests if families are interested but you would be able to go someplace else if you wanted to do
029that okay i have one more question he's not too good at wearing a face mask could a face shield work since he is life skills um yes that is an option for um a face shield with a drape yeah so they have face shields and they also have a drape um that is on the face shield and this is this is an option for students who cannot tolerate a mask or have a mask exemption where would i find one of those for him we actually have those available um upon request but they also can be ordered but we are um keeping inventory so that way we can meet the needs of our students and staff all right thank you next we have martha you may unmute your mic hi um can you hear me yes
030we can oh i just wanted to know everything else made sense um do you know if the think together program will also be starting on the 19th or do we have any information about that we do um we will be starting think together we're super excited to continue our partnership with think together they will be enrolling students once school starts you will get some information from uh from your school regarding that okay so i know that my son did it this summer um i the only thing that i wanted to know is do we know if it's starting the 19th otherwise i would have to make you know daycare arrangements um that i'm not sure but we could certainly find that out okay that would be great thank you sure the think together intent to
031enroll for this upcoming school year is on the ausd homepage under headlines and features there you go okay thank you next up we have jenny h you may mute your mic hi can you hear me yes again okay i just was my question um i put it in the questions section as well but i just wanted to know um if we can sign something so that our kid does not have to be forced to wear a face mask but still wants to participate in in person if that's something that us as parents have the freedom to decide for them and if not will you be giving us um masks every day since we don't wish for them to wear them yes we do have masks for the students um and so uh per the recommendations
032of the los angeles department of public health um we uh families that have can have a medical exemption or uh students with disabilities um that would be the only exemption that there is available what if we have a psychological like note that says it's not something that they are okay doing a um a medical exemption okay so we don't have the freedom to choose for ourselves do you need you would need to have a medical exemption that is correct okay our next question is from felipe and rina galvez you may unmute your mic hi um if for any reason our child had to quarantine would she have any access to instruction during that time yes absolutely would that be um packets being sent home or uh zooming with another teacher how would that work i
033think it would depend on um how long the student would need to be out of school we could definitely arrange for if we needed to do independent study if it were you know long period of time um typically when students are out of school uh we do get the homework from the teacher so then they're able to provide if they're able to do the work at home to you know to do their homework if they're feeling well enough to do it okay okay thank you you're welcome uh next question is from monica morales you may mute your mic hi good evening so my question is um you guys did mention about when we drop off our students in the morning for in in-person learning they will get get tested before entering the school um but
034what if you know the student ends up having a high fever or testing positive for kobe um but the parent you know myself i would have to head to work as soon as i drop him off so i would not be able to come back to pick him up what kind of arrangements would you have for the students that need to go home so um if they're we would try we would call the parent um and uh you know and let the parent know that uh the student was not feeling well and then if the parent was not able to uh to to you know pick up the student then we would ask for um someone on the emergency card that might be able to come and pick up the student but we do have
035an isolation room uh for students who are ill and that we would keep the student there um until arrangements could be made to pick up the student okay great uh one more question sure um so if my student does return um to ins in person learning um and then let's say maybe a month later two months later um we decide to do the virtual learning uh is there an option to have them switch back to virtual learning um so our program is independent study and if that is uh something that you are interested in doing really any time throughout the year then you would go ahead and uh talk to the school uh to be able to begin an enrollment process for independent study okay so in that case we would just keep the um
036chromebooks at home yeah that's a that's a great question um we um yeah we are asking uh we're providing the chromebooks uh students that did check them out last year um students are able to continue to keep that chromebook that they checked out uh if they for some reason did not get one they're more than welcome to check one out um and we're going to go ahead and uh and keep that keep that as an option for right now so your student will be able to keep their chromebook at home okay great and i guess sorry one last question as far as the pe rooms go um it's gonna be the same um i guess process right when they're you know changing into their pe clothes um but do you guys have anything set up
037for proper ventilation in the pe rooms so that's when they really come in close contact with other students and stuff yes so um you know oh yes breathing hard they're breathing hard from exercise and you know all the exercises that they do yes ma'am can you hear me um so yeah so we have proper ventilation throughout all our campuses and additionally we have the ability um to open up our windows for those that open as well as keep the doors open at the pe room as well right because that one is more um it's a gym right yes ma'am okay you guys will have maybe the fans on or the doors open yes ma'am okay thank you our next question is from angelica bernal you may mute your mic hi good evening um i just
038had a question in regards to independent studies would the parents have any support from the district or the school as far as like um the the what the students they need to submit just because you know i believe a lot of parents work and as you know like last year was a little tough guiding our our you know our kids into understanding that the work that they're supposed to submit that is a great question thank you so much for asking that um so yes uh the um for independent study um the students and the parents they they have what's called a learning plan that really outlines um what's expected um how often uh you know the assignments when the assignments are supposed to be turned in um and there'll be lots of opportunities uh to
039communicate with the teacher and you know again get support and get help um you know and just be really clear about what the expectations are so yes we will provide plenty of support thank you for that question okay and lastly if um i do decide to send them in person when they're uh out and doing recess um how how are you guys gonna manage to keep students from being too close like our it's like how exactly is that gonna play out so in the outdoor area um we will monitor the students but their uh separation or the minimum six feet or three feet of um requirement is no longer a factor with cde so students are able to mix cohorts they're able to play together but we will have additional hand sanitizing stations outdoors as
040well as the outdoor hand washing stations that students could utilize and they're not rotating um like classrooms correct they're staying in their same classroom depending on the grade level fifth grade would be same classroom uh dr mitchell i'm going to say yes but i'll pass that to dr mitchell well they do yes so they they do have their primary teacher but there are times um when there uh there is uh programming going on right so for example we have some of our schools that have a program that's called um what i need and so um students are uh you know go to different groups and uh work on uh you know different kinds of uh educational opportunities depending on what they might need to work on so yes there are there will be opportunities that
041students will have to perhaps you know work in groups or they might you know switch uh switch a classroom okay thank you next question is from reuben you may i mute your mind hello um we were wondering um with the first day of school my daughter's gonna be in kindergarten um are we able to walk them to the class or is it only drop-off or what's the situation going on just like it was uh last year um in order to add a layer of safety uh yes it's going to be drop off uh only okay so just at the curb that's it just drive through that is correct okay um and then oh let me just clarify um i mean if you're like a walker right i mean yes you can walk them up to
042the school but not into and like to their classroom no no i understand what you mean yeah thank you for clarifying though um and then with the asymptomatic teachers that are allowed to work are the classes that parents to be notified still or is it only if the teacher's symptomatic and can't work that we're going to be notified thank you mr reuben um asymptomatic uh close contact um is that the question so if my daughter's teacher is asymptomatic and allowed to work because there's no symptoms present then are we going to be notified i mean because in other words they can test positive and still be asymptomatic or i mean what's the situation now i'm just trying to understand how kind of hey i think i understand the question so if the um if the
043employee is um test positive and is asymptomatic they are still required to isolate um just as if they were um had symptoms um so a test positive still triggers the isolation for attendance uh and we will follow our notification process uh that that would require us to notify the students in the classroom okay so the a systematic and and not and and continue to working is only if they came in close contact but you don't have any symptoms and they're not forced to test uh so you do you have like uh and this is these are very good questions because uh there may be others uh with some other questions this is pretty pretty uh complicated new new uh territory they're recovering here so if a a teacher is vaccinated or an employee is vaccinated
044and um is asymptomatic then they are not required to quarantine if the um if a closed contact is asymptomatic and unvaccinated they do have the quarantine and they are recommended to test and the test that counts is the test after date five so the test after day five uh if the um if the test is negative then their quarantine could be shortened to seven days and i i will add that on this information uh is uh it's changing um so as i encourage you to be uh to stay current with the information that we're putting up on our on our website for closing 19 because um there was a new update that was uh added today uh that that may be different than the and what i'm sharing right now no i understand the situation
045is completely fluid um and then the other part is inside they wear mask and they're only staying in the same classroom with the same kids outside they don't wear masks they can go play with anybody they want when they are eating lunch is that still based by classroom cohorts we keep them at the same table or is that just they go and eat whatever they please in the cafeteria um it's based on the school so if the schools break us i'd uh dismiss per classroom then that's how it would be um but right now there's no designation that says what a table a student would have to sit at okay so for contract uh contact tracing methods once they're out of the classroom [Music] which is the times when they're not wearing masks there's no
046way to do that correct that is not correct so we still have the ability to contract trace um by enrollment attendance as well as or we have a supervision on our campuses no but i'm saying if my daughter ate next to bob or mary you're not gonna know who they sat next to and my daughter can sometimes remember a kid's name but if she just met him for the first time you know a kindergartner you know uh i can't remember what their name is you know and then they were playing out on the playground 10 minutes later and they came in contact with five other kids there's you know i i find it high like uh highly unlikely that you know we're gonna be able to say oh yeah you know this kid didn't come
047in contact with your kid because they're a fifth grader and they're not in your daughter's class but you know so what's the situation there so you bring up a very good very good point um so i part of the answer lies in the um in the definition of a closed contract which would which we um a person that is within six feet for 15 minutes in the 24 hour time so i it wouldn't be a passer buyer that would be that would trigger somebody that would need to we would need to notify but we do send um notifications to the entire site on letting families um and employees know of a case that occurred on campus no i understand that but with hipaa laws you guys aren't allowed to and i completely understand that they're
048not allowed to tell us which student it was they're just able to say in this school there was a you know there was a case so that letter is not going to tell me who the student was and unless that student says oh i was playing with your daughter or i sat next to your daughter and ate then we're not gonna know that she was in close contact correct i mean with regards to the uh actual naming of the individual who uh tested positive we will not be disclosing that information um but we do um reduce uh elicit the support of the staff on campus on the supervisors in these cases where you have these unstructured uh research times or cafeteria time to see who on the students who were sitting in the area so
049then we could start interviewing students and then from there come to our best conclusion based on our contact tracing but i mean i understand the idea behind contact tracing i just i don't see how it's going to play a part when the only time we 100 know who they're sitting next to or near is when they're in the classroom and that's probably the safest time because they're more steadily distanced and they're all wearing masks facing the same direction most of the time versus outside eating lunch or outside playing they're not wearing a mask they're running around they're breathing heavily they're coughing they're sneezing from seasonal allergies they're talking loud with their mouth open as i see my daughter do as she's eating you know so you know i i just don't see how contact tracing
050is gonna come into play there and it just feels like a falsehood i understand your pointer okay well thank you very much our next question is from christine and good evening i have a couple questions um when the kids get on campus um you we're gonna do the temperature checking again so they're all going to go through like the cafeteria as well um now are we schools are going to start at 8 15 the gates open at 8 and now we have ever mostly everybody coming or not for sure if everybody's coming back but how are we going to get the kids all the way through the time before the bell rings so are we gonna give more leeway for tardiness this year or is that kind of gonna be plain kind of sight and
051see the first two days that's when i'll take that one miss wagner um the temperature scanners uh have a huge capacity of scanning a large number of people at the same time uh so unlike this last time where we had to do a very strict uh six feet apart um and we had to let in you know we had to screen your kid before they walked in uh that did take uh quite a bit of time and an undertaking but the schools did an amazing job even even with all of those restrictions uh still did an amazing job of getting kids onto campus so now um without those restrictions students will will go through the scanner but it's not got to kind of reimagine it's not going to be the way it was and so
052just it's just going to be a flow right and so as as kids are flowing through that the scanner will pick will pick them up uh so so that's that's kind of the difference there um this i have three so the second one also we um last year we had trouble um with are we also gonna get the water dispenser on the outside of the cafeteria because right now we only have the one and last year the kids could not go in the cafeteria at all to fill their water bottles so that was one issue we had um so it would not be an issue i could take that so each school had one installed indoors and one outdoors um okay um i don't know okay if you let me know the school site i
053can follow up on that but it's my understanding that every school has already had theirs installed ellington the k-8 okay um and also the last one is with um when we have an outbreak of kovid is the just the student and the close contact person going to be quarantined or is the classroom itself going to be quarantined how are just because we had an incident already within a function you know that we had to quarantine because we weren't but um i was just curious of how that is gonna go correct the contact tracing process would determine um who in the classroom uh would have to correct it because the closed contact could be multiple people um in that classroom if they meet that definition of what close contact was um so it could be everyone
054in the classroom and if there were um activities in the classroom where you had then they took the 19 if it's just a teacher we would get a substitute and the class wouldn't have to is that correct right statement go ahead and answer that part and then i'll add something up here just just uh if it was a teacher um the uh the same process will be followed with regards to the contact rating um and see who would students were within uh six feet for 15 minutes or more um it doesn't have to be consequence it could be cumulative minutes uh and then for the the covet there was a teacher that we would have to get a substitute for that classroom yeah the only thing i was going to add is that this is
055in partnership with the los angeles county department of public health um so we're not making those determinations in isolation or by ourselves uh it's it's in partnership with the dph and so um different than last time where it was kind of like a cart launch uh this time they're just going to be looking at case by case but i just wanted just to add that it is in partnership with dph why i asked is because we had an incident with a youth group that my daughter attended who had a a kid that was tested positive for covid so as a family we had to quarantine for 10 days so um because but even though they were outside so it was and that's according to la public health but i didn't know if it was differently
056because it's not a school that we were affiliated with or if it's vice versa different but the vaccinated did not have to quarantine it was just the unvaccinated for some reason that was kind of weird it was a touchy subject still lost that your last question christine yeah okay great thank you next question is from helen telling me a mutant mike helen you may ask your question ellen are you there okay we'll try somebody else and next question is from lucy you may unmute your mic hi good afternoon um so i worked in the healthcare facility during the pandemic where we at its peak we're putting you know bodies and freezer trucks at an average of 15 a week so what concerns me about this um what considers how does the la public schooling considers
057an outbreak like how many people have to get infected in order to be considered an outbreak three and in that event does the whole classroom would have to quarantine and i'm talking about uh from children who do not get the vaccination so for example my my daughter is going to be in the in the third grade so she's not eligible for the vaccination but in the event that she does get a um a professor or a teacher that is unvaccinated and then by the way like hip-hop only only uh it only allows that to be in place with um healthcare facilities but my my thing is let's say we do she gets a professor that is unvaccinated and three people get sick would my daughter have to stay at home for 10 days as well
058without knowing on all the different particulars of that hypothetical situation um there is a high probability that the entire class would be and for the three for the three plus cases as mr rogio is saying um dph would actually initiate an investigation um and a public health investigator would contact us and we'd be in contact with them and they would determine um you know those next steps so out of curiosity do you guys have an infection prevention nurse like someone who is regulating um the who's someone who's actually checking the temperatures of the the students the staff anything for any signs or symptoms when they're coming out um if any unvaccinated staff or a student that that's not vaccinated are they required to wear an n95n face shield like is there someone in charge for
059the delegation dr mitchell you want to take that anybody we um we do have staff uh who will be doing the temperature screening uh upon entry um we also uh ask that uh our students and staff are continuing to monitor for you know any symptoms not come to school or work if they you know have any symptoms so yeah we do it we do have uh again we have the temperature scanning uh upon entry uh and we do have that monitored yeah i i get that but um like i said i've i've worked in in a hospital where somebody had coveted and they didn't even have a fever and for the weaker population such as children and the elderly and people with autoimmune diseases it's concerning that my daughter goes to paramount i don't know
060if anybody has any information on that whether they do have um at least in the hospitals we have someone licensed and certified to be an infection prevention nurse um to regulate that um and who is keeping on track on that thing um whether or not because the questions that i'm hearing from these parents are extremely concerning um about like someone saying we have a psychological reason what and you know to each their own but um it's it's a little bit concerning that is that i don't know who's going to be actually monitoring and enforcing those rules so uh one of the things that we uh will be putting in place is we are actually um going to be having some uh licensed health care professionals at egypt websites that will be assisting us um with
061uh with our um with our system okay and that would be that would be put into effect on the first day of school or when you guys have an outbreak um no we're we're actually working on getting that in place um uh we're aiming for a gap we're aiming for the first week of school that's what we're aiming for yeah because um i again it's just i've been in multiple facilities and we were in the red when we said we're in the red is that we have an outbreak and we went from green people didn't want to get vaccinated which was our staff did not want to be vaccinated and they are the one who brought it back into the facility and that's the that's incredibly stressful and it's really hard and speaking from um
062again uh from someone who actually put body back bodies into bags and into freezer trucks during that time i mean it's i i had kovit and i really don't want my daughter having kelvin and that's that's the thing that's like it's scary at this point so um can someone actually at least follow up i don't know if you guys can if there's someone i can contact where if my daughter's professor again is vaccinated or not and are we allowed to ask the professor if they are vaccinated we are not requiring on our employees to tell us if they are vaccinated or not vaccinated even though our children and even though the children in that in that classroom have not been vaccinated meaning you know children under 12. correct wow okay thank you dopiel thank you
063montano uh we're gonna take we have we've gone over uh our time so i do apologize for going over a little bit here but we will take uh one last question i do want to take this opportunity to urge you to please put your question in the q a so that we can capture it in the zoom and we can and we can make sure that we are answering questions via our website so please make sure that those questions are captured in the zoom and we will take again one last question our last question comes from adrina gallegos you may mute your mic hello my question is the kids that are have ieps or have some type of disability are they going to be forced because i know that's kind of hard for them to
064be wearing masks can they come in with just the face shield or they're forced to wear masses as well uh so there are um there there are exemptions for um medical and for uh disabilities as well and so um you would definitely want to uh talk with your school principal about any uh any concerns that you have uh regarding your student okay and i guess my other question would be um seeing as i know the independent wouldn't work for my kids and i am concerned about sending him to school sending both of them to school for different reasons but besides independent independent isn't there anything else for these kids that can be offered to help them out uh the option that we have aside from in person is either independent study or home school aren't
065they both the similar aren't they both the kind of the same yeah thank you for that question um so uh the difference is that with home school uh the t the parents are the ones who really are the are the teachers they're the ones that are um providing that instruction um then the students and the parents are able to check in with our certificated teachers that's the that's the difference between the two oh okay okay thank you you're welcome uh just wanna thank everyone for joining us here tonight we want to thank you for your very thoughtful and insightful questions that you had that helps all of us in the room get an understanding of what we are doing i do want to remind you that we have a dedicated dedicated web page to all
066things uh reopening including the guidebook it was mentioned today that several people use the word fluid changing a lot we're going to continue to be on top of the guidance and the protocols that are given to us and we will continue to pivot and change as those things happen and make sure that we are communicating that uh to you uh at the end of our guidebook there are many ways that you can make sure that you are staying connected to us as a district and so urge you to make sure that you join us in in all those avenues we want to thank all of our staff that has been working extremely hard to ensure that the return of our students and our staff is safe uh we cannot wait until august 19th uh to
067welcome back our students uh we're very excited about that again thank you for joining us tonight and one more time on behalf of the board of education uh we wish you a very good night thank you