Regular Meeting of the Martinez Unified School Board - 10/12/2020

001and welcome to the regular meeting of the board of education of the martinez unified school district tonight is october 12th 2020 a little after 6 30 p.m we welcome all of our attendees joining us by zoom or by telephone we will now call the meeting to order and agenda item 3 is our pledge of allegiance and we would ask that our new superintendent dr julie senior would lead us in the pledge absolutely place your hand over your heart i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under liberty and justice for all thank you for that agenda item four is approval of agenda and tonight i'll be asking both helen rossi and julie senior for input into the agenda as well as

002running the meeting with me um helen rossi do we have any changes to the agenda this evening no we do not okay thank you and agenda m5 approval of the minutes for the regular meeting of september 28th 2020. do we have any public comment on the minutes for the regular meeting of september 28th seeing none we will bring this to the board for approval do we have a do i have a motion please move to approve the minutes second i have a motion from emerging a second from ember mclaughlin student representative how do you vote hi and full board those in favor aye aye those opposed any abstentions and the minutes are approved agenda item six comments from student representative the school reports for the october 12 regular board meeting are as follows los juntas's

003highlights from the week our third grade students shared their writing with classmates and families in a zoom published writing celebration upcoming events elac october 13 2020 at 1 30 pm john muir's highlights from the week jme held its first site council meeting of the year upcoming events pta meeting october 13th at 6 30 pm pta is having a dine and donate at taco daddies on october 24th all day john sweats highlights from the week students are practicing their student of the month theme of respect second grade classes had an awesome zoom adjective fashion show upcoming events pta meeting tuesday october 13th at 7 pm morello park's highlights from the week mpe held its first elac site council meetings thank you for your participation pe students are starting the choose love social emotional learning lessons this

004month pta sponsored danceathon will be held this thursday and friday upcoming events pta meeting tuesday october 13th at 7 pm taco daddy's dine and donate is saturday october 17 11 to 8 pm pta halloween boo bags are available now martinez junior highest highlights from the week mjhs held our first site council meeting with a full team thank you to our staff and students and parent community for your support our first quarter comes to an end this friday october 16th we continue to be so impressed by all the hard work creativity and resilience of our students staff and families congratulations to our 57 bullpups of the month the students were nominated and recognized by their teachers for displaying the characteristics of adaptability or positive digital citizenship upcoming events tuesday october 20th ptsa meeting via zoom at

0057 pm alhambra high school's highlights from the week last week alhambra held our first elac meeting of the year and had great parent turnout alhambra is excited to open fall conditioning camps for football cheer cross country volleyball and water polo this week thank you to the school board and district office for the beautifully renovated swimming pool we appreciate your support and commitment to aquatics instruction and our water polo and swimming teams upcoming events wednesday october 14th virtual ptsa meeting from 6 30 to 7 30 pm thursday october 15th virtual site council meeting three to four pm by senate martinez briony's independent study and martinez early intervention preschool programs highlights from the week congrat congratulations to meipp school psychologist christine raqua for securing grant funding from philanthropic ventures foundation to purchase kumochi a social emotional curriculum

006that utilizes tactile and visual strategies for our preschool students upcoming events we are now recruiting for our school site councils we are seeking parents and community members to serve on one of our three sscs briony's grades tk through 5 viennese grades 6 through 12 and vicente martinez high school anyone interested please contact principal o'connor vicente briones and mei pp families will participate in the great shakeout on october 15th at 10 15 am the end of the first quarter for vicente ryoni's is friday october 16th martinez adult school's highlights from the week this week the adult school has resumed hiset high school equivalency testing online algebra courses started using google classroom and will satisfy the 10 algebra credits needed for graduation students are logging record hours and ingenuity as they progress toward high school diploma completion

007upcoming events october 12th college application workshop via zoom hosted by dvc every woman counts virtual presentation for all mae students on october 13th staff are all participating in wasp committee meetings on the last friday of the month as the school begins the wasp self study report and that concludes the school reports for the october 12 2020 regular board meeting thank you very much robin agenda item excuse me the next agenda item is agenda m7 which are reports from our labor partners do we have any comments from mea or csca this evening i would like to take a moment to just welcome dr senyard to martinez on behalf of martinez education association we look forward to getting to know you and to working with you and making our district stronger thank you for coming our way

008i have a statement also csca would like to welcome dr sanyard um and we look forward to working with you uh it seems lately that every time we have a school board meeting i'm talking about the virus so why should this time be any different i'm certain that all of you are reading as much as possible on the virus and how it will affect us i also know that you deeply care about our employees administrators teachers and classified i don't doubt it for a moment but i would like you to know that at least a quarter of the school employees will not return if school starts prior to january and almost that much if it starts after january one that's a lot of employees to replace people who've worked a long time in the district

009i've heard people say the kids need to go back to school and we agree we miss them so much they're the very reason we show up for every day but we don't want to get ill or have someone else get ill or someone died because we moved too quickly the numbers are on the rise according to a report at cnn an additional 20 000 cova deaths in the last three weeks of october are inevitable said dr tom friedman former director of the us centers for disease control and prevention from the infections that i have already that have already occurred we will see something like 20 000 deaths by the end of the month additional deaths anytime we ignore minimize or underestimate this virus we do so at our peril and the peril of people please

010please please do not move too quickly this shouldn't have a political agenda it should completely be about what is healthy and safe for all students and staff thank you karen and thank you brenda for your comments as well agenda item eight are comments from the pta do we have any comments from the pta this evening seeing none we'll move to agenda item nine staff board acknowledgements announcements reports we do have a 9.1 uh before we move to that do we have any acknowledgements announcements or reports from members of the board seeing none we'll move on to 9.1 helen rossi i believe is presenting on this one and you're meeting helen oh that's the story of my life amy is going to go ahead and present on this for me thank you thank you helen good

011evening president wright dr sanyard members of the board thank you for giving me an opportunity to give you an update on the progress of our racial equity committee um much has happened behind the scenes uh since your resolution in july and um i'm happy to report on the things that we have put in place from july up until this point so just wanted to update you on a few items so um in regards to our racial equity was actually called a so um equity and social justice website that's been highlighted front and center since our last board meeting it was embedded in our information page under happenings around our community meeting information so i wanted to make sure since there was a number of questions from the community to highlight it front and center so

012it is now at the top of our web website it gives information and a link to a separate website that gives not only recommendations and suggestions for our community and for our parents in terms of reading and videos and research and of course this is just um scratching the tip of the iceberg but at least is a place for our community to start it also lists your board resolution in addition to our trainings that have occurred upcoming trainings as well as parent trainings that will start in december so just to give you a little bit of background around the trainings that have happened so um we have been very fortunate to partner with dr laurie watson uh she is steeped in racial equity work and has done so for a bulk of her career not

013only has she been in education in the public sector as well as an administration but she's also been an advocate and trainer for racial equity for a large number of years she's um partnered with many districts in our area and is actually now um created her own um training organization and not only uh trains education or lease or educational entity she also works with local businesses so we're really excited to have her as a partner the intention of dr watson is for her to be working with us over the next couple of years something that we know in terms of this work that is so important is this work is deeply personal in no way can it be a one-shot training or one full day training and now everybody is you know um trained in

014racial equity it really is a personal journey and this is something that dr watson stresses um really strongly with us and so when we were developing the training with her for this year she was very adamant in her experience that we start with people that are ready to do the work and so we designed the training this year to invite people that were ready to go on this journey with us so we we did it in a multi-layered fashion so we did one all employees in the organization to receive a two-hour just introduction to the work and also to get an overview and foundation of the of the new direction that we're going as martinez unified school district and then we invited employees that were ready to have a deeper conversation and have lori dr

015watson facilitate that we invited them to join us with our first cohort and it's a three three week session so each week we meet we had our first session last week and it's two and a half hours starts at two and it goes until 4 30 and we asked for volunteers because it was really important that um people that join the work are really committed to doing this it's really hard work so we had our first session last week with lori we have homework reflection and we're meeting again tomorrow with her um to go deeper into the work and then we have our final session with her next week and then uh we'll receive coaching so the first cohort will receive coaching sessions with her throughout the year in terms of keeping this work at

016the forefront of our personal and our professional life so that's one piece of it then the next piece will be to invite people that you know dates don't always work for everybody and we had um a large interest so we'll come up with another set of intensive um sessions with lori in the next month or so we have to be sensitive with all the holidays and everything that's going on for our employees but we will be setting up an additional cohort and then if we still have interest to continue the cohorts throughout the year so the intention of that model is also to um impact culture from within and with that model of having people that are deeply committed to work the work and influencing their colleagues and the community in a positive way and

017inviting them to be a part of it the part that's not um an invitation or voluntary is the work that we're doing with our ac so our administrative team is required to participate in full racial equity training this year and we're doing that with deborah mcknight she as well has been an advocate in social and racial justice and she has done a number of years was san francisco unified and has worked in special education and was came highly recommended from dr watson and so she met with our ac team and we received a two-hour initial training from her in august um and we have some homework in between and then we have another session we're going to be setting up with her so we'll probably be meeting with her about every other month again around

018um holidays and school schedules and then her schedule as well because both um these women are very sought after in their training so um our next session will be coming up most likely at the beginning of november um and then we have uh homework or reflection or reading that we're required to do in between our meetings with her in addition to that we have a parent series it's going to be a six part parent series with dr watson she's actually launched it with a number of neighboring school districts and it's been very successful um i don't think parents are required to attend all six i think they're encouraged because they build upon each other throughout the time the first one will be december all those dates are actually posted on our web our equity and

019social justice webpage and then as we get closer to the dates we will um heavily advocate advertise at all the schools as well as put it on the website and invite parents as well as offer translation um so that parents can be a part and if community members want to be a part of it or teachers of course it's open to anyone that wants to be a part of the conversation and israel is wanting to do the work i think this would be really important um i'm trying to think what else do i have uh we just recently purchased um so we heard from elementary classroom teachers that they felt that their classroom libraries for lucy calkins were were lacking in diverse books or books that represent um the diversity of the students in their

020classes and so we recently put in an order for a multicultural infusion library so every kindergarten through eighth grade classroom teacher will receive a list of fully vetted out and recommended 50 books for their to add to their classroom library and this comes out of book source and book sources um highly recommended and really fabulous um partner with really with lucy hawkins and with a number of districts also we recently worked to purchase indian shoes which is a replacement mentor text for stone fox in the third grade reading kit so stone fox is not a recognized or approved native american book actually the native american society and organizations feel that it's highly offensive and misrepresents their culture so they've asked that that book be removed from the third grade curriculum and so we have responded

021to that and we are pulling that book as not as a book as it's available to read but it's not going to be highlighted as a mentor text we will be using indian shoes and so i'll be working more closely with their great teachers around how we make sure that that gets implemented over the summer for the secondary teachers we offered an online training course around the book grading for equity and there was an online training course that was offered by the author of this book what's really exciting about the book is that it talks about the need to really focus on what students know versus giving them points or judging them for their behavior it's really around student learning as opposed to what they're or penalizing them for making mistakes in their learning or

022penalizing them for not um showing up it's really tries to move away from a point-based system that's heavily relied on at a secondary level and shift back to more of a rubric or level of understanding at the secondary level so students are able to show what they know versus how many points they can earn so that is work that we're doing at the secondary level and i'm also working with ela department at the secondary level to re-evaluate their core novels to ensure that we have multiple representations of authors as well as subject and perspective um so that we are addressing um a needs of a more diverse and interesting culture as opposed to just what traditionally has been represented in our english classes i think that's that's a lot oh and the student piece um

023at the secondary will be introduced second semester dr watson really felt like the adults needed to do the work and have an understanding of our focus before we start to invite students to be a part of the conversation and so that will take place second semester so this is just a sampling of the many things that we are working towards um and like i said at the beginning of my presentation is this is a multi-year commitment this is not just this year and then this year it's going to be over and we can check that box and say oh yeah now we have racial equity training and we're um we're all set this is going to take uh years of unlearning some of our practices and relearning new practices in order to better serve our

024students and our community thank you amy um i really appreciate the the report and especially hearing about adding indian shoes to the curriculum especially in light of today being indigenous people's day do we have any questions or comments from members of the board yeah jonathan oh go ahead sorry oh go ahead i don't know exactly where my comments go i'm assuming to amy here for this but are we still doing our i guess i would have called that the racial equity committee or the group that we were doing and if so i have a couple suggestions about one a person that you should speak with i think and also how i think we should be having a discussion about how we as a district and as students respond to the fact that the black lives

025matter mural is being paved over with no new placement in sight at least not according to the last i heard from the city so and then the person i was talking about amy is uh gigi crowder who is the executive director of the national alliance for the mentally ill who is her self-african american and is familiar with the bias associated with mental health and racial equity so there are some concerns there and she's very experienced in this area and it might be helpful to have her focus on some of that i can give you her contact information if you'd like that would be fantastic i mean any and all suggestions are welcome and this is something that we're embarking on for the first time really collectively as an organization so i think that would be

026fantastic regarding the community meetings yes we are going to move forward part of it was waiting for our new superintendent to arrive um we really think that the leadership of our superintendent is super important uh for this work um not only the direction and leadership from you as board members but also as our superintendent and being the voice the voice and ultimate advocate for um our community is going to be really important so i'm excited today is her first day so i'm really looking forward to meeting uh with her and just discussing this is obviously one thing on the top of my agenda to discuss with her about how do we move forward to engage the community in a productive way i think we also wanted to make sure that we were focused on the

027right things it's such a big topic um and not to overwhelm our community members and make sure that we're you know starting where we can continue to keep people engaged and feel like they're a part of the action as opposed to overwhelming people so i'm really looking forward to her direction um to take the next step with the community thank you hi i had a couple um comments first of all thanks amy for all of your work um i i there there's just kind of a couple things and i'm certainly not holding myself out to be an expert in this area um and i and i understand that there's been some direction i i myself i really want to let dr senor get her get her feet on the ground and participate uh in this

028really important discussion um so what i'd like is to see if we can bring this back uh either as a report or maybe as um maybe an agenda item i do have some concerns about kind of waiting uh to roll this out to our uh to hold staff and i i appreciate the long-term um i mean certainly the the bulk of the culture change is going to take a lot of time but it's really important to me and i think the reason why i was in support of doing a resolution now is something that it that affects the kids that are in the classrooms today that are participating uh in our activities and it touches everyone so i really would like to see something that we can have a global approach uh to education maybe

029not that deep dive um that that you're working with with volunteers but something that i mean some people aren't going to volunteer but maybe should hear the discussion uh and be a part of the discussion it's very hard to listen to sometimes for people who are uncomfortable but in a lot of ways those are the folks that really need to be a part of that uncomfortable conversation especially if they're in our classrooms uh especially i mean i'd really like to see uh the whole musd community be a part of it including our coaches that are interfacing with our kids as well as you know as board members so i don't want to i don't want to move that all now i want to give dr senora a chance to see it what she thinks is

030appropriate and what's attainable we've got so many things going on but um i i just feel like if we don't respond and put our um really where our money where our mouth is by putting a resolution that we're gonna we want to make change and we wanna we know it's going to take time for the rest of our lives we should be champions but we also need to step up today um and and make that meaningful change to whatever extent we can now um i've received a lot of uh emails from staff uh that would like to see um some sort of all district mandatory training i know all those things come with time and price tags um but i'd like to at least have an opportunity to have that discussion okay thank you yeah

031thank you hi amy thank you for the report i i do really appreciate that the the one thing i wanted to ask i guess is for when we start the six-part parent series are we gonna put that on our website so that if if parents aren't able to show up for the webinar or the seminar whatever it is that they'll be able to access that at their leisure yeah and um dr watson's very open to that she allowed us to record her um staff presentation because we knew that there were going to be staff members that weren't going to be able to attend at that time so i'm sure she would be very open to recording her session and then we can push that out for people that aren't able to attend at that particular

032hour on that particular day i think that would be not a problem for her at all great that'd be that'd be fantastic if we could post a link on our website so that people can access it thank you we do have two people who are requesting to speak in public comment uh we don't normally have public comments during staff reports but hey what the hell um sorry for my language uh so first it's diane fernandez and then craig los already diane fernandez you may address the board and we're a lot we're allotting three minutes for each public comment you may address the board thank you hi yes thank you for letting me speak um can you hear me okay yes please continue okay so um when i heard about this training that was going on

033um in regards to race and um understanding race and racism um and i heard about dr laurie watson i i looked her up just to do a little bit of investigation to see what she was all about and what i read on her website was a little disturbing links to sites on her website go to sites and ideas that have been discredited the teaching implies her teaching implies that white people are inherently racist and that they are born racist and that's based on critical race theory which is i believe dangerous and poisonous in regards to relate race relations and i strongly feel that any training that is based on racism against any race including white people uh should not only be um not taught to anyone but actually condemned in the most strongest language i

034told my daughter that she shouldn't have anyone tell her that she should be ashamed of her race or that tell her she's racist when her all her friends are of multi-colors and all ethnicities and races and so i just want to put my two cents worth out there for what it's worth thank you very much thank you diane pardon me while i move through the steps here up next is craig loves ready followed by by colleen holsinger and then linda oliveira and given that we have a very full agenda i am going to be uh very strict with our public comments this evening so we will limit public comment to uh conclude on on this item to linda olvera next is craig lazaretti craig you may address the board thank you and thank you for

035bringing up this item tonight um one question i have and i'm curious about is the student training component and whether that will be required or built into the curriculum or a voluntary thing um my concern about the voluntary aspects of this is as i think we all know from previous experience with issues like vaping it's very hard to get people to sign up and engage on these issues and a lot of times the people who can benefit the most and we all need a benefit i'm going to sign up for these because i need to benefit and learn more about my own implicit biases and issues of race but it's very hard to get the people who are um most in need uh and can benefit the most to actually take part in these things

036these types of programs and so that's why i think it needs to be built into the curriculum um and that was the obviously the point of my uh petition i shared with you a couple weeks ago is now up to 451 signatures because the reality is as i stated two weeks ago we have documented instances of racism at alhambra high school that have gone on a systemic racism have gone on for over a decade with racist dress-up events and the widespread use of the n-word and no one denies that these things have happened you may not have acknowledged it yet but no one denies that they have happened and just because someone thinks they're not acting in a racist matter or in a biased matter doesn't mean they are not and doesn't mean they are

037not offending students and so that's why we need to really get to the root of these problems and we need to really force the issue a bit and i'm glad i came second here because the other thing i want to impress upon you or ask of you is to really stand strong in the face of the backlash you are going to get for this initiative because we know no we've already seen already with the mural and other issues in town there is going to be a backlash and it's going to be strong because we have too many people in this city who simply don't understand that because they have never experienced racism in their own lives that that doesn't mean racism doesn't exist and that doesn't mean that students and people of color in this

038community haven't been harmed and injured for years and years and maybe they weren't intentionally harmed maybe it wasn't intentional but it's the harm and the hurt is still there and you know this is a thing that we've seen happening a lot lately and my petition on when i put out next door got 400 comments people want to deny the reality they want to deny that we live in a world that is still affected by systemic racism and you know remember john with john lewis told us all make good trouble well this is good trouble to get into and whatever backlash you get stand strong against it thank you craig next is linda olvera and i thought that there was another speaker but it looks as though they've lowered their hands so we will and comment

039on this item uh after linda o'vera you may now address the board can you hear me hello yes please yes please continue okay all right um well i'm uh just totally shocked that so much progress has been made um it sounds good um i certainly haven't had a chance to evaluate it because i've not known about it and i'm speaking from a community person that applied to be on this task force in july and i never heard from anybody again so i'm shocked to hear all of this has gone on never been invited to anything and i'm just wondering how serious you take the community and everything that craig said to you how seriously you take all of that if there are those of us that applied for the committee and never heard from anybody

040again since july i didn't even know that there was a website called the equity and social justice website when did that go up um so um i just don't know how serious you are about the concerns that are coming from the community many of which who have children um and that like craig are hearing about the discrimination that goes on in the in the schools so um i i need to be uh more brought up to date and and i need to know what the status is of my application as a community member to this committee thank you and i i would also reiterate that applications for the committee unfortunately do have to be limited to people who live in the martinez unified school district so as we move forward uh school district community members

041are more than welcome to participate so moving on with our agenda is agenda item 10 public comments under government code 54954.3 members of the public have the right to address the board on any matter within the board's jurisdiction however the board may not take action on any non-agenda item individual speakers will be allowed three minutes to address the board 20 minutes have been allocated for this portion of the agenda additional time is allowed at the end of the meeting if there was not enough time to speak during public comments i will add the admonishment that i've been adding for the last several board meetings this is not meant to be uh an opportunity to to campaign for those who are running for office this is also intended to be public comment means speaking on items

042not currently on the agenda so if folks wish to speak on any items under sections 11 or 12. please reserve your comments for those agenda items so that said we are opening up public comment under agenda item 10. i have one hand raised from tina sherwin you may now address the board hi my name is tina sherwin i am a clinical lab scientist and i have my masters of public health from uc berkeley in infectious diseases i want to talk about covid the state health officer tells us that once we move into the red tier for two weeks we can reopen schools without a waiver for tk through 12. that will be tomorrow the state says we can reopen based on science because the benefits of in-person learning for tk through 12. excuse me mr

043when i i have to ask are you are you speaking about reopening schools i'm speaking about covid so we do have an interview with actual data definitely about excuse me we have an agenda item specifically two related to reopening school this is about code data okay you've mentioned reopening twice please go ahead and share your data we progressed into the red tier on september 29th because our percent positives were below eight percent and they were at only at three percent and a case rate was below seven per one hundred thousand today our county's percent positive tests are 2.3 percent and the case rate is 4.2 per 100 000. today we have even met our equity metric of being below 5.2 percent at being at 4.9 percent if we get our case rate below 4 then

044we will soon progress into the orange tier meaning an even lower risk of covert transmission a brown university study gathered data nationwide from 200 000 kids in 47 states who returned to school in this fall including california the new york times predicted a two to three percent infection rate in schools this brown university study found only 0.13 infection rates in students and 0.2 percent infection rates in staff this does not imply that infections were acquired in schools since community spread is still ongoing the number was not zero but given that our community percent positive in cases are not zero we can not expect zero cases community spread is ongoing that's it thank you thank you moving on to of seeing no further public comments we will move on to agenda item 11 which is our

045consent calendar approval of the consent calendar means that all items listed here under are adopted by a single motion unless a member of the board or the superintendent requests that any such item be removed from the consent calendar and voted upon separately um helen rossi do we have any changes to our consent calendar this evening no changes this evening thank you very much do we have any i'll ask for public comment on the consent calendar do we have any comments from the public seeing none we will bring it to the full board for action move to approve second we have a motion for member mclaughlin and a second from members of gwenza uh see student representative how do you vote i and full board those in favor and there's a post and the abstentions the

046consent calendar is approved moving on to agenda item 12 which are items for board consideration or action agenda item 12.1 review and adoption of resolution number 2021-08 of the board of education of the martinez unified school district authorizing the issuance and sale of not to exceed 30 million aggregate principal amount of bonds of martinez unified school district by a negotiated sale pursuant to a bond purchase agreement prescribing the terms of sale approving the forms of and authorizing the execution and delivery of a bond purchase agreement and a continuing disclosure of excuse me a continuing disclosure certificate approving the form of and authorizing the distribution of an official statement of the bonds and authorizing the execution of necessary documents and certificates and related actions this is an action item it's also an incredible mouthful member fuller

047i will not be participating or taking any vote on this discussion per job for my jobs rules understood and thank you very much okay i have to catch my breath after reading all of that helen rossi hi tonight i have jeff pickett here from isom um advisors to talk about our upcoming um i'll talk about the resolution and upcoming possible sales of bonds jeff good evening everybody thank you for having me um i appreciate your time tonight i'm primarily here to answer questions uh i believe most of you have been through this process if not everyone so they understand the resolution by approving the resolution you'll approve the bond sale up to 30 million dollars um you know i've been talking to helen over the past several months and john from rgm your architect and

048it seems like you can continue projects interest rates as you probably have seen are at all time lows um and your tax base has grown considerably over the past three years so we can now accelerate your bond program and sell this third series of bonds today and again very low interest rates tonight we're asking you to approve the resolution and then that will help continue the bond process we would expect to deliver funds to the district by the end of the year thank you jeff do we have any questions or comments from the board seeing none we will open it up for public comment seeing no public comment we'll bring it back to the board for any further questions and action so i move to approve resolution number 2021-0 and i'm not going to read

049the whole thing jonathan nor nor should you need to i i suffered enough for all of us second we have a motion for member mclaughlin seconded by member ginelli student representative how do you vote abstain and full board those in favor aye those opposed abstentions and we mark number fuller as recused thank you very much jeff we appreciate your time and presence in our meetings as always and thank you for your continued assistance ensuring we are fiscally responsible with taxpayer dollars definitely thank you for having me again thank you good night you're welcome you're welcome to stick around but uh go forth and enjoy the rest of your evening um thank you have a good evening everyone as well agenda item 12.2 review and adoption of resolution number 2021-09 approval of provisional internship permit pip

050request this is an action item stacy joslin good evening thank you tonight we are requesting the board consider a pip for a teacher who has excellent experience teaching in private school but doesn't have the proper credential yet for public he is eligible for a provisional internship permit while he works towards attaining his credentials the pip would be issued for one year so we are asking for your approval and action this evening did you say what subject um actually for special education at alhambra high school thank you okay any further questions or comments from the board seeing none i'll we'll open it up to public comment do we have any comments from the public seeing none we will bring it back to the board for action move to approve resolution 2021-09 second we have a motion

051for remember chinelli seconded by member mclaughlin student representative oh i'm sorry i think this is a personnel so sorry robin you can't vote on this one uh full board those in favor hi close opposed abstentions the motion passes next we move to agenda item 12.3 small cohorts this is for information and possible action janelle layette good evening board um i am bringing back our item related to small small cohorts for your request i am going to share my screen so that the community can see the presentation this evening okay so as a reminder um regarding um what the definition and the guidance for small cohorting is this is different than returning to in-person instruction under the reopening guidelines the california department of public health has issued specific guidance for school districts to open to provide

052instruction for students in cohort groups that are considered stable groups of no more than 16 individuals and that's a combination of students and staff where the groups stay together for all activities during the day and avoid contact with other people outside of the groups in the in the school setting as previously discussed at um the prior meetings we have identified specific student groups that we're recommending to return in small cohorts as part of a phase one there are seven different classrooms that we've identified as the highest need for in-person instruction within these small cohort groups there there are two autism specific classrooms at john sweat one of our preschool programs our counseling enhance program at john sweat and three functional academic or life skills programs one at the junior high school and two at alhambra

053high school at our last meeting i made some recommendations or presented several different scenarios for the board to consider related to small cohort groups of course there's the option to remain in distance learning as we have been and continue to meet to provide iep services through remote learning and there i also presented four different scenarios related to how we might serve students through small cohort groups and the board specifically asked me to bring back information this evening related to items three and four um three being students returning to in person and to an in-person program operated by non-public agency school staff and then specialized services only provided one-to-one so those are the items i'm going to focus on this evening the first one being the small cohort groups operated by non-public agency staff the specific

054proposal would include the the seven classrooms that we've already identified and this this slide shows the specific staffing we need for each of those programs the special education teaching staff as well as the support personnel for each of those classrooms under this proposal um i have worked with one agency in particular to bid this and that would be maxim which is a certified non-public agency and our contra costa selfa holds a master contract with maxim and they are operating small cohorts like this in surrounding districts the board asks her for specific information related to financials of how much it would cost to operate a program like this using agency staff and you can see the breakdown here if the non-public agency were to fully staff the program of all seven classrooms it would be almost

05535 000 per week you can see the breakdown by the cost of teachers the para educators and the behavior techs being the support staff for those classrooms i did provide additional breakdown where if we chose to continue to utilize our own certificated teaching staff to provide instruction through distance learning and have the mpa support personnel working with students in the classroom to access that distance learning that cost would be twenty thousand six hundred dollars per week if we use our district teachers the other option the board wanted more information on was only providing specialized services on a one-to-one basis so currently the guidance under small cohorts indicates that we can provide specialized services for ieps but it must be in a pull out one-to-one setting it cannot be push-in or group services that fall under

056this criteria are occupational therapy speech and language therapy specialized academic instruction physical therapy transition services all the the special education services that are provided to students so they can't be provided on a one-to-one basis so specifically the guidance indicates that students can receive additional specialized services or targeted support and services if they're not a part of a cohort or if they're outside of their cohort from different supervising adults but specifically that those services must be provided in a one-on-one setting with proper ppe and it must be done individually and not with other students so um what i'm going to share with you this this evening is two different scenarios well two phases of implementation if the board um were to provide direction for us to go in this this this route in phase one which

057i would be targeting to begin in november we would be providing specialized services and a one-to-one model for students in identified sdc classes and full inclusion students these services would include speech and language occupational therapy intensive academic services and transition services these services would need to be provided one-to-one as i mentioned scheduled by appointment between the service provider and the family these services would be located at a few different campuses our preschool program john sweat elementary marilla park elementary the junior high and alhambra and it would those services would be offered to approximately 52 students and again this would be phase one i would be suggesting that if the board recommends that we go in this direction that we um expand this as part of a phase two at the end of november following the

058thanksgiving break that we would be um if if we're still in closure um that we would be offering one-to-one specialized services for students in all of our sdc classes um which would grow that group to approximately 100 students who would be eligible for in-person one-to-one services and those would be adding students to our programs from um los juntas elementary john muir and additional students from the junior high and high school so again these were the four um possible scenarios and um i'm open to board questions or comments thanks janelle i've got a question off the bat specifically about the option number four the specialized services only how how many students and how many total staff are involved in that model sorry um it's 52 about 52 students jonathan and um the staffing um it would

059it would be the related service providers who are assigned to those specific schools so we have um depending on the school site um we can we have some schools that have more than one speech pathologist for example that serves students because of caseload issues so it would be the assigned speech pathologist we have a district occupational therapist that serves all of our all of our programs and then um our um special education teachers when you say special education teachers are how many are you referring to um at those specific sites there would be a total of six teachers got it thank you any other questions from the board yeah i and but you're saying that janelle is just for phase one correct the 57 right 52 students right and um you just did this target

060so i don't have it on my agenda item but you're saying that we would then double that number i would be recommending if we're just providing the one-to-one drop-in um that we would be adding additional students as part of a phase two at the end of november so that all of our students who are in our special day classes would be um eligible for these services and of course parents would not have to make their child available for in-person instruction they could continue to receive services through teletherapy but we would um offer it to them so the reason i'm asking the question is that seems like a fairly short amount of time given the fact that you have a thanksgiving holiday in there to see how well it's going and then we don't have that

061many meetings um in november or actually in december so would you be bringing this back to the board to let us know how it's going before we say yeah go right ahead and add all the other kids that's working great or is there would you be asking us to pull back or are we going to get that kind of report at the board's discretion if you would like it to come back for more information there's three weeks between um the phases um which i felt like was sufficient time for staff to get schedules established the routine um and then before adding in additional students but if the board would like the information to come back we can i'm happy to do that um i would say that i would personally like to know how well

062it's going so that we have some sense before it goes from 52 kids to a hundred that's one and then i do have a comment on the um the npa piece um you said that some surrounding districts but when i spoke to you earlier you said it was natomas and one other that i got so are you talking about contra costa districts in which districts are using this particular agency so natomas unified school district in the sacramento area and san jose districts are using maxim to operate these cohorts currently and which is the san jose districts um i'm not exactly sure which district the maxim told me that they're working with several different districts in san jose yeah i'm asking because i'm familiar with most of the school districts in san jose uh so i

063was curious as to which ones you're talking about i have to tell you i have a significant concern about pulling in a non-public agency that doesn't have a very high level as far as i could see from their website experience providing special education services mostly their background as you noted was in healthcare and i think it's a very expensive program and i would like to see how our teachers and our support staff feel about doing this and are they are there enough of them available to do it if we do something if we do the three instead of this four that we were just looking at in other words if we did the whole thing rather than just specialized services can i clarify kathy are you're asking if there are um sufficient district staff to

064operate the small cohorts yes so that information was presented in one of my prior presentations we did survey all of the parents of the students who've been identified for the cohorts as well as all of the certificated and classified staff and that data was presented to meetings prior um about you know staff level of comfort and returning to in person as well as parents desire for students to return okay i i'm still a little confused because you gave us a cost if we were to use district teachers which just need to suppose that in fact we would be using district teachers which would be 20 600 you said right that's why i was trying to clarify so you're asking about having district teachers do distance learning and then with the mpa support staff no having

065if so you put the teachers using our teachers it would be twenty thousand dollars under rather you were competing right now for comparison or you were saying that yes we do have teachers or we're not sure we have teachers i put that down because if the board would like us to move forward in conversation with our unit members around um well it would be continuing what we're doing now having our special ed teachers continue to provide instruction through distance learning we would not need to pay a non-public agency to provide a teacher we would need to pay a non-public agency to provide the support staff to facilitate the distance learning in person so that the two cost differences the 35 000 is for the non-public agency to fully staff the program and the 20 000

066is for the non-public agency to only provide the support staff the para educators and the behavior techs and we would use our district staff to provide the instruction remotely okay i think i've got that so you're saying we could do that or we could do the specialized services phase one and phase two piece that you have here is that correct right there are multiple ways to do this but i'm bringing back just these two because these were the items that the board wanted more specific information on in particular thank you janelle are there any other questions or comments from the board before i open up public comment i do i'm i'm sorry i'm still a little i'm still a little confused about um the proposal of starting on november 1st and then so phase one

067and phase two so if i understand that right we would be just doing distance learning with the exception of specialized services which would be um by appointment only is that right that's right so the services like speech services would um could be provided in person rather than remotely but the students would still access their primary instruction via distance learning and um can you just what what what would that look like um and we were talking about an hour once a week twice a week multiple times a week and are we gonna have issues with transportation it would be um based on students individual ieps so students might have twice a week 30 minutes for speech or 45 minutes a week of speech it's all individualized so they would be scheduled according to their individual iep

068minutes to come and meet with the related service provider for their session um and at this time we would be asking parents to transport their children for these individual appointments okay and and just for clarification when we're saying target target date we're that's just it'd never be sooner but it in all reality it we may not be able to get everything in place so it might be a little bit further back that's right okay all right great thank you that's all my questions hey i think i will not open it up for public comment um firsthand is karen sloper followed by craig lazaretti and karen go ahead and address the board i do have one question um janelle you said six teachers but how many classified that would be a concern to the safety of

069my members and i'm wondering how many pairs are in those six classes do you want me to answer that jonathan yes please okay so um i'll pull my oh i can't show my slides anymore um each on one of the slides karen i did have a breakdown of um how many classified per classroom um there's at least two per class based on our current staffing and some of the classrooms have three okay thank you thanks channel for being available to answer that uh next we have craig lazaretti followed by brenda liao craig bear with me one moment while i deal with technology go ahead and address the board correct thank you ah i'm so sorry i just did that to you my apologies thank you try to try again please yeah thank you okay thank

070you i just want to thank the district and the board for continuing to prioritize our special needs and specialized students in terms of the return in person learning i think we all agree that these are the students who are struggling the most under the current environment or the most need of and um i'm gonna say from personal experience i have a daughter a high umbra student an eleventh grader i know uh distance learning is has been a very much a struggle for her this year and i know we're not alone um it's just a very difficult thing for most students to adapt to but especially students who have learning disabilities i know from her standpoint she feels like she could do much better i'm having some degree of in-person instruction um having said that i

071just want everyone all of you to know as well that i am very sensitive to the health concerns at play here i um i know of people that i've worked with or used to work with or i know um personally who had who have experienced covid and from everything i've heard i wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy i mean it's a bad thing and it's disrupting lives and families and i i definitely want to be sensitive to the need precaution and to be careful and i think as you move forward i think you should definitely [Music] impress upon families and members of the community and parents to need to follow the rules follow the social discipline guidelines to take the precautions we shouldn't even really have to talk about these things but for some

072reason we do in this country because for some reason people in this country feel like what happened wearing a mask is like the the worst infringement on their civil liberties ever and uh unfortunately so many people living here in martinez too i'm afraid so i want as we try to uh try this balance and walk this tightrope i just want you to know as a parent i am sensitive to the concerns of staff and teachers as a parent i will do everything in my power make sure my child is safe and that i don't put anyone else and my family never puts anyone at risk and i just thank you for continuing to try to find solutions is very difficult challenge thank you thank you craig again it sounds like our system is getting a

073bit of some issues with compression here uh brenda liao please address the board i have just a few questions um i'm wondering what the ability will be uh for you to follow safety protocols with the students uh will students be wearing masks how many people will be in a classroom at a time um how will wearing of masks impede instruction and will the amount of instruction that a child gets be the same as they would in the current model thank you now feel free to answer those questions if you can okay i brenda may have to repeat one or two bill i yes nasa will be required for students and all staff in the classroom the class size is limited um based on the department of health guidelines which is no more than 16 individuals

074per classroom so that would be a combination of staff and students none of our cohort classes are over 10 students and then we have one if we were fully in person one teacher and then the support staff so no larger than 16 based on the current guidance for cohorts and um i think you asked how would masking interfere with instruction um i'm not sure i fully understand that question but everyone would be required to wear masks if staff felt like it was interfering in terms of students ability to hear them they could have wear a face shield in lieu of a mask but the requirement is for face covering and shields are an acceptable alternative and is the amount of instruction the same as what they're getting now that depends on what model we're going

075to be using to provide the cohorting i don't did i get all of them brenda or is there another question no you got them all um no so um so will that be a personal decision then by the instructor whether or not to wear a shield or a mask and do you know if one is more um safe than the other i noticed that um at our school some people choose uh to wear both a shield and a mask so the cdc does have specific recommendations um and how shields are used my understanding is that face masks are most effective but face shields are an acceptable alternative especially if there's a neck drape which we would also offer to staff and have provided them for example for staff who are already doing in-person testing um

076that cdc has said that is an acceptable alternative and staff can wear that all day um except it is an acceptable face covering um but uh let's see was there another question did i answer that oh is it their own decision yes it would be their own decision and we also know um you know some students have preferences as well um so we would we would not dictate they have to wear one over the other thank you to now and we'll go back to public comment first we have michelle watkins followed by anne horak martin michelle you may address the board michelle watkins please address the board good evening thank you for the opportunity to speak i am a kindergarten teacher at john sweat elementary and a parent of two students who attend morello park

077elementary i received both surveys as an employee and a parent today i would like to focus my concerns as a teacher since last week i emailed the board my specific concerns as a parent as an educator i am concerned about several components of the reopening plan on draft b of the elementary hybrid schedule it states in very small print that schools with pmtk slash kindergarten classes will be placed in an alternate location and may need an alternate am pm schedule sorry michelle i've got a i've got to interrupt you are you speaking on the current agenda item which is uh the small cohorts 12.3 or do you wish to speak on 12.4 the score reopening plans okay so we're still on 12.3 if you could please uh circle back with us on when we're on

07812.4 greatly appreciate it i'll make sure you get to the top of the speakers list when you raise your hand thank you so much of course and horace martin please address the board making sure we're all on the same page here you are now allowed to address the board go ahead and hi and thank you for bringing this to the attention of the board and the public again i do have one question around the outsourcing to maxim and what exactly that involves and it's probably my mistake that i'm just a little bit unclear on that if we are fully would this be in lieu of teachers and support staff returning and how would that work i guess i just need a little clarification and then i am a parent of a special needs child who

079would be included in phase two i believe he currently receives physical therapy occupational therapy and speech therapy twice a week i obviously this none of this is ideal for anyone he is receiving these survey services over you know various virtual means and they are working um which i didn't really have a lot of confidence in at the beginning of the year but they are and he actually really looks forward to these services i have two concerns if he were to return to these in person without also returning back to the classroom at the same time the first is that my husband and i both work full-time and we are extremely fortunate to be doing that from home however the driving time back and forth for these services would definitely impact the amount of work we

080could do during our day so there would be some definite planning around that that would be difficult for us um and my second concern is that these services really require um especially ot and pt they require like actual hands-on and so the therapist when we do these over zoom a lot of it is the therapist telling us as the parents how to position him or how he should be holding scissors or how she should be holding his pencil my son's young so um we're really just on the very basics um but that would not really be possible without someone actually physically being very near to him and touching him you know putting him in the positions that he needs to to acquire these skills and i just don't know how that can be done very

081safely so i have concerns on that and then same thing with speech while he doesn't need to be extremely close to a person he is used to wearing a mask i i guess we could move to a face shield but it's so important it's vital for him to really see the formation of words and i'd be concerned about how that happens so i certainly don't have all the answers i just um these are the things that are kind of in in my mind looking at these potential options for returning the things that that i feel like i'm sure other parents have also considered um in in thinking about these special services and that's it just my other question though if you could address that about the maxim services i'm still a little confused all right

082thank you ann uh janelle could you answer that question so um the use of agency staff does have to be um discussed with our unit numbers and so we did begin that initial conversation um so i'm not exactly sure any um in terms of your question about how does that work um the option to use non-public agency staff would be in lieu of using our own employees in order to be able to provide in-person services to our students with ieps thank you chanel so i don't see any more hands from public comment i'd like to get some more input and feedback from members of the board um janelle i i've got another question as far as uh regarding option four the the specialized services do parents have have the discretion to not have their child

083engage in in-person one-on-one services yes they can continue as is and continue to receive services through teletherapy great i knew the answer i just wanted to get that out on the air again thank you and any other questions from the board thoughts this is a possible action item so i also want to find out if we're willing to move forward so the possible action jonathan would be to choose three or four because those are those two that we got the most information on or to stay as we're as we are i guess would be the third option well there's really four options um or we do nothing so i suppose there's five options okay i'll put it out there i'm leaning towards number four i think that it it makes the most sense for us

084right now given the resources that we have and understanding that some of these students needs are potentially not being met and they would benefit more from an in-person environment provided that we were able to provide the most safe situation possible thank you jonathan that's how i'm leading too i just wanted to see what the options were when janelle said that in fact parents could stick with what they're doing now which as annie said was working well for their family i just want to be sure families have the most options to do what work is best for them so yes i'm leaning towards number four as well i agree i i really want to see us try and provide some of these uh needs that we know that that we're not able to do uh and

085there's going to be i'm sure there's going to be some planning bumps um but we're also i janelle i really appreciate trying to find a way to get an option uh out to our families who could use it and i mean the the transportation thing is is going to be a real because working parents you just can't drop everything for a 30-minute session so uh hopefully we can have some flexibility different times with those schedules but i think it's gonna we really that's our job is to provide um these services and i think it gives us um a way to bring them back um to the specialists jonathan deirdre you were breaking up towards for most of that and so i have a question for david would it help if we turned off our videos

086would it be easier to get the sound through is it that or something else that's creating that problem it doesn't look like it's it's the video itself it might be the user's uh connection but that that can uh help the congestion if you want to do to do that well let me just saying that yeah that was very difficult let me turn mine off i mean i have other people doing stuff it around the house they're not supposed to be streaming but you know every once in a while it may or may not happen um my my my thought was i i did want to at least put it out there thank you for giving us some information on number three we just have such talented people uh already doing great work i would love

087for us to be able to utilize the folks that we have here um rather than uh trying to go somewhere else but i know we've got to be open-minded and look at all of the available options so thanks for bringing that back um for us to talk about today but i i too um would would uh think that forward the option four would be a good option for us to move forward jeremy and john any thoughts i don't want to duplicate what everybody said but i i i'm all for number four i do appreciate getting more information on on number three but if we can if we can provide an option for the in-person specialized services um to the students and families they can can do that or want to do that i'm i'm on

088board with that i'm fine we're where whatever the boat i might see the motion first but i'm in a good place with my thinking thanks thanks for that john um if the board will indulge me i'll go ahead and make a motion that we adopt option number four uh to create a small cohort for uh creating one one-on-one specialized services i'm not sure if i articulated that very well it's been a long day i'll second the folks understand what my motion was i think we should select number four and just be clear we have transitioned to an action item um great thank you so kathy that was the second right so i believe i don't think our student representative yeah voting on this because it's potentially personnel but robin we love your input either way

089thank you um so full board those in favor aye aye those opposed and the abstentions the motion passes thank you for all for the discussion and thank you janelle for guiding us through this process and thank you in advance to all of our staff who will be involved in this and helping to provide services to our students who are in most need of them and apologies for my technology issues we'll now move to agenda item 12.4 reo school reopening plans this is for information and possible action helen rossi i am bringing back for the board again tonight the subject of the topic of reopening schools and based on feedback from the board after our last meeting we did put out two surveys one for staff and one for parents to try to get some hard

090data on um on who wanted to who was who was willing to return and who was not willing to return so that we could uh move forward with planning and provide the information to the board to make a decision on reopening before i start with that i want to before i share the survey i'm going to bring up um a draft reopening plan that i put together with the help of of my team and i want everyone to realize it's a draft it covers a lot of different aspects of reopening does it cover every single bit of minutia no it does not but it is not a complete document it is a draft document and i just wanted to point out some it is attached to the school website and i want to just point

091out a couple of of um areas on here before i share the survey and open it up for board discussion so bear with me a second here okay i'm assuming you can see that yeah okay yeah it might be better if it was made full screen no helen okay i'm not sure how to make it full screen to be honest i'm looking up here and make it there we go sorry i found it um okay so i broke it down into sections and put as much information that i had at the time when i created it i've been creating it all along in little pieces and talking about ppe and safety protocols what we provide at school what's mandatory what's not about home health screening at home health screening for staff and health screening screening

092the screening should someone get ill on camp and while they're at school whether it be an adult or a child we talked about i talked about social distancing and contact and meetings and walkways and signage and what it would look like on a campus when when the time for children to return comes i talked about what it looked like in a classroom working outside as much as possible inside as well in the classroom how students would enter buildings how they would take lunch if the schedule was for students to have lunch on campus and the actual classroom space arrangement we'd have to um i did have custodial help give me the number of desks that can see in every classroom on the district six foot apart so i have that number what that might look

093like when we set it up will be determined in the next couple of weeks or whenever the board gives me direction as to a reopening date i talked about covid testing and reporting this link right here um is it is a chart that was recently put out by contra costa health services on different scenarios for schools in guidance in case there is a confirmed case it gives you the scenario what you should do and any follow-up that needs to be done so i've attached this here it's the best way to give information because this is exactly where we're going to get the information from and what we're going to have to follow so um let's see trying to get out of this hang on i'm going to stop sharing a second i can't get this

094to come off i was having problems with my computer earlier there we go and um looks like it was just getting frozen again hold on okay it's back on and i'll make it full screen there we go and then um oh i didn't get it off all right hold on a second there we go got it okay sorry about that um i talked about um this is all about contact tracing basically we're going to follow the county health plan we i talked about facility cleaning and sanita sanitizing protocols what has to be sanitized the hand washing we have to teach the hand washing i talked about drinking stations how all the water fountains we're putting all of the i told you two weeks ago we're putting bottle fillers throughout all of our campuses to alleviate

095to make it easier for students to get something to drink as the water fountains themselves the water part will be shut off i talked about indoor air quality i'm working with maintenance right now on changing out several of our hvac machines that are not that are still functioning but may or may not last throughout the year so we're going to be preemptive and we're going to change them out as soon as we get the new ones in i talked about instructional programs and i did not put any draft schedules on until sunday and these schedules here i cannot emphasize enough that they are drafts they're all different ideas put together on paper is this what it would look like when we truly open i have no idea because they are drafts we are in the

096middle of working with our labor groups on what they may on effects of these different types of schedules i know that people wanted to see some type of a hybrid schedule so i put them together and i attached them here and we've had several comments on the schedules themselves they're not good here they're not good here they need tweaking here um they're not gonna work the whole thing but we need to work together to build the schedules that are gonna work for us but i wanted people to understand that there there are schedules out there that can work there are different kinds there's half days there's full days a hybrid schedule can incorporate full distance learning um so a lot of parents wrote in and talked about distance learning and there was no option there

097and the ones the people that um emailed to me i wrote them back and said there is an option for distance learning it's just built into hybrid um it's it's uh there's not one definition of hybrid where you come to school two days and you're home two days it could be that you zoom in to the lesson as it's being taught and you can stay at home five days a week and get your lesson from home five days a week but the teacher would be teaching students in class and on zoom at the same time that is a combination is that what we're doing i don't know that is an option that is built into these draft schedules which are posted on our main website i talked about special education and mental health i provided

098resources for students and for students in their families i talked about extracurricular activities the fact that we're going to be opening up for conditioning tomorrow as soon as we're released and we will be released according to county public health i talked to them this morning and that they're very very strict guidelines in any team or team members that do not follow the above guidelines and guidelines of cif ncs will be removed from athletics conditioning and will have to reapply for participation when the season begins in december we're not messing around this is an opportunity for them to be able to get out with their teams and get some conditioning done it is not mandatory and we are allowing this as long as everyone follows the rules i talk um i do put provide some facts

099here at the end and then a sample cleaning schedule that we could use with our custodial staff um when the time comes for opening so with that i'm going to just review the review the um let's get out of here i'm going to review the um sorry i'm trying to find the thing at the same time i'm going to review the survey which we all know that um i'm going to start with the staff survey we all know that the survey there were a lot of comments on the survey from both staff and parents and a lot of people that were not happy about how the survey was asked of them we did our best to ask what we thought was requested of us from the board and we put together the survey and we

100did get some results now we know the results are not a hundred percent so whenever you have if you survey 100 people and only 20 answer you're not going to get the best results but i am going to share with you what we did get because people did take the time to answer this survey and wanted their voice heard so we had actually 183 responses one came in after i did this slide but pretty much it shows you the percentage of all the responses that we got for staff this is staff responses and that's both classified and certificated so of all the responses we got if you look at um sorry if you look at um alhambra 23.6 of 24 percent of the responses we got were from alhambra and so on and so forth

101out of the 183 responses there were um sorry i wrote the actual number down there were 103 that were certificated and 80 that were classified we picked january 1st as a date we divided the staff survey um what do you what if we opened before january 1st would you return and then the second question was if we opened after january 1st would you return and the reason we did that was there is some people will need to have leave for child care or medical and right now we have special cove leave that would allow people to use this leave up until december 30th so if the leaves available and you need to stay home would you be staying home before january 1st or after january 1st when we don't know if that leave will be

102extended yet so when we asked this question we had a 68 or 100 and sorry 123 staff members said they would be returning um 48 would prefer to work remotely that's our 26 percent and then a few here would take leave retire or continue with the plans for leave that they're already involved with after january 1st it stays pretty much the same it goes up to 131 for returning at a 72 and 48 at remote so you can see there's really not too much difference on the date and i didn't um i thought maybe there would be a little bit more but there was not when i took a look at the comments the comments from about the concerns that the biggest concerns we had 79 people out of 183 wrote a comment most of

103those comments were concerns about safety protocols contact with students and caring for family members at home and possibly getting in you know infected with covid and bringing it home and employing medical issues and leaves they have medical issues themselves or they are a maternity leave or they need child care or some kind of a medical their spouse has some kind of a medical i did put in uh these two which were i consider the the um the less frequent responses but they were there there were people that said they're ready to return people said thank you people said happy to report back in some way shape or form and then some people said um i would like to start small cohorts even if those cohorts were not special ed they wanted to start bringing their

104students in a couple at a time and meeting with them starting to develop some kind of a relationship so then i looked at the parent survey results and keeping in mind that the um responsive parents who sent email and made phone calls there's an overwhelming demand to keep learning distance learning as an option our two options were hybrid or independent study and distance learning can be an option as part of the hybrid model but that was not well understood and we take responsibility for not making that understood when we put that survey out right now i don't know how valid it is we have about 30 i want to say 3 500 families a little less than half and people wrote and said i picked hybrid because i don't want independent study so this is

105a skewed survey but it is a survey and um that's what we have that's what we got for information in the parent um responses we the numbers are right here of where they come from you can see that it's pretty even across the board the grade levels that responded and the i think it's pretty even here if you look at alhambra this is about a third of alhambra um two four this is just a little between the third and a half of of john muir half of john sweat so it's it's somewhere between a third and a half of all schools have have um replied to the survey with a lower response rate from las ventes we also know that our new survey company uh panorama survey does not come in with an identifier for

106martinez unified school district that is something that we are going to do before another survey comes out we're going to work with our vendor and make sure that every survey that comes out of the district is identified as us so that it doesn't go to spam and so that people don't treat it as spam um and that's that was a huge mistake as well so that is that completes my survey for this evening my information that i have to share and i'm now going to bring it back to the board julie do you have anything to add i did just want to add a little bit as information as well helen and i met with the county superintendents today and kind of we're listening to a lot of the plans that everybody else is trying

107to open and work on and kind of right now the overwhelming majority folks are looking at bringing back some small cohorts for special needs students and the majority of the districts are looking at a reopening date in january so i have a question jonathan that's related to that yes please go ahead um when does our semester change i can't remember since i don't have a kid in school so julia or helen it changes uh january 5th or 6th the day that we come back i'm looking up right here uh the fifth thank you that helps so are we to board comments now yes please go ahead john so i'll start the discussion um first thank you for everything helen um here's where i'm just i mean i'll be the guy who puts it out there

108and everybody can say no that was wrong um first i there seems to be a message going out that teachers either have to teach or step down that is not a message this district's giving we're trying to figure it out and but we don't need or i don't want anybody on staff thinking hey either you get back or you don't that's not the first message um if you do the math even if we voted tonight we're not starting school till late october you got thanksgiving they go back then they got finals let's just call it we're not going to start till um second semester i think that's the right call in this situation for two reasons a flu season is coming up so why we're going to go bring everybody together as flu season ramps

109up is kind of this makes me scratch my head b it just doesn't work mathematically i think people want an idea so if we can just put the line in the sand and say we're going to start the second half the other reason is i get this feeling like we're trying to do this one size fits all and i'm really concerned about the secondary especially the junior high in the high school it is so many moving parts that they need time to fix get together and figure this out so in an ideal world i would say we should have a k-1 kindergarten first grade committee a second third grade committee in fourth and fifth i'm not an educator so i'm going to depend on our cabinet you know julian welcome that's your first question but

110i do feel the junior high needs to have their own committee the high school needs to have their own committee so they can figure out between now and the start of the second semester how this is going to work and if it can work um distance learning should be on the table or communication was bad that's okay hybrid has to include distant learning if that means we have to buy cameras and microphones for our teachers that's fine at the same time i want just to float this idea maybe we do distance learning and we do cohorts at the campuses where they can come together talk to maybe a homeroom teacher among themselves get directions but then they go back to distance learning and we put the extra money into mental health resources i'm just throwing

111out that basically let the experts and that's what i would consider the high school people in the junior high in the elementary figure out the solutions for each age group but let's be honest let's just we're not bringing them back until second semester so those are my thoughts um i do encourage everybody this is not a union thing not wanting to go back this isn't this is everybody trying to figure it out and here's the thing when people tell me it's not working the number one reason we're in here is to keep our kids healthy and safe and our kids haven't had an outbreak of kova that i know of so though the education part isn't working the health part which is in the most important part in my book of our staff our students

112in our community it is working we will figure out the education part but let's recognize what the main thing of this all started out with we want our kids to be safe education is second so i will step down off my soapbox but that's my two cents you know john i uh completely agree with everything you're saying and i would i would add on to it not only do i think planning to reopen in the second semester is the best possible idea and allowing the experts to come up with the best possible plan i love your idea of perhaps deferring to grade level committees um you know i i also want to give our our new superintendent a chance to flex her muscles here and and and i have every uh confidence that she'll she'll

113bring a great fresh perspective to this i i also want to see a reopening plan that includes um less rigidity when it comes to the number of students who can be full distance versus those who are engaged in a hybrid model i know that other schools and other school districts are having these discussions and finding solutions to this and um i want to see i i'm giving direction here to staff that i want to see a reopening plan that does allow families to choose pure distance while others choose a hybrid or more level of in-person i think that it can work we just have to be creative and you know i'm i'm just going to put it out there and understanding that a number of people have raised their hands and and folks i really

114hope you're you're listening to what you're saying so it's what we're saying um we know that the survey could have been rolled out better i take responsibility for that as the board president there should have been more oversight there should have been more clear direction to staff if you want to speak in public comment about how you didn't like the survey i would ask you to reconsider your decision to speak in public comment we want to hear your ideas around what's best for reopening so that's it it's the only time i'm going to say it we only we want to hear from people about best ideas for reopening please don't bring up the survey we've heard an earful and an inbox full about it good and bad i might add good and bad because if

115people were paying attention to our last board meeting the direction from the board to staff was let's survey the community again let's survey parents and get a sense of where people are and i hate to say it a number of people who wrote quite frankly belligerent emails to the board uh expressing their dismay over the the lack of perfection in the survey are also the same people who have been frankly belligerent about their opinions on reopening and demanding that we either reopen now or never reopen and nowhere in between so let's have a little less binary discussion and more discussions of nuances and the wonderful gray areas because that's where the lord god resides and you know we just all have to accept that we're learning this as we go but we also have to

116trust our experts who are our staff and i i also want to express a deep appreciation to our labor partners in mea and csea for their continued engagement in fruitful and cooperative and creative collaborative discussions around how to reopen effects bargaining is an art form and they're engaging in it beautifully and i have every confidence that the final product will be one of a collaborative effort that reflects the values of our community and focuses on on the safety of our students and all staff and understand we want our students to come back to school teachers want to go back to classrooms full of students no one wants to endanger anybody and yes the numbers in contra costa are a whole lot better than they were a couple of weeks ago i am beyond pleased to

117see that and i am hoping for the day when we move to the next lowest tier provided that the the state doesn't again change the rubric lord knows if they might you know that's that that's not up to me it's well above my pay grade but things might happen between now and january 5th we all know that i think we've all become accustomed to the need to remain flexible and i do appreciate that a number of people who express trepidation if not outright criticism of continued distance learning in the summertime are writing to me saying hey it's working really well in fact people have been saying better than i expected and my student is gaining from this and we think it's a good thing and teachers are saying well you know i didn't have my

118hopes but i think we've come together and really put forth the best possible models and modes i i love hearing that because it says to me that people are engaged in this process and deeply care but i think we all agree at the end of the day and john i can't say it as well as you said it but the goal is to get our kids back in school so that they can see each other face to face the social emotional learning aspect we just can't provide over zoom or google me or youtube videos and someday we'll all look back on this and think gosh there was a huge level of creativity expressed by our classroom teachers as they embarked in inventing distance learning um enough of my soapbox i thank you all for your

119time and uh other board members please share your thoughts before we move to public health jonathan my thoughts very similar to yours um but i would also say going back in the second semester makes the most sense to me too but i'm not i'm i'm wondering if maybe we should provide staff the option to look at a staggered reopening if you will because i have this vision of as many kids as we have all coming back at once and that would be that could be very chaotic so i think it would be wonderful to open in the second semester i like john's idea about spending money on mental health services because frankly they're not getting much from the county because they are not reopening their clinics for in-person meetings um but i would like to

120see us talk about the possibility of staggering our reopening over i don't know part of the the first month or something like that that's my thought on that especially because we're looking at as i heard tonight thankfully not california but 35 states are on the rise again and that's a huge number out of 50. so that's that's a concern and the fact that we are seeing teachers who have caught covenant who have died and they were teaching at the lower grades so it's not as though there is no risk just because you're a third grade teacher or a second grade teacher so i agree john and jonathan i think the health of our kids and our staff is the most important piece i'd like to echo all of that i really appreciate the the focus

121that has been put on student staff everyone in safety i'd also like to say i think that distance learning of course it's not perfect i'd love to be in the classroom but i will not return if i feel that my safety and the safety of my family and my fellow students and my teachers is at risk and so i definitely think we need to find a way to make sure that distance learning is an option full distance learning i understand that right now it is part of the hybrid but i don't want to have to have a choice between independent or the hybrid because i have family members that i want to keep safe and i don't want to have to make that just that hard decision and i also want to say again thank

122you to all the different comments that have been said i agree that second semester is probably the best decision right now um being able to just say okay we're going to work towards this date is a lot more comforting at least for me so i know okay we're working towards something it's not as up in the air but i think the stability of knowing all right we're going to finish this semester we are in a good spot we don't have to worry about a transition and trying to cover our finals for high schoolers specifically is really comforting and would definitely ease a lot of our concerns and anxieties helen i just wanted to i wanted to thank you for the update and the presentation i'm happy to hear that distance learning will is at least

123being discussed as a potential option under the hybrid solution i like a january opening date as well i think it gives us time to figure out some of the mechanics of uh schedule contact tracing you know all the other protocols that are going to go into getting staff teachers and students back on campus i know there's that also gives a january date als also gives us some time to figure out some of the mechanics of a distance learning option under the hybrid model the one thing that i i think we should probably consider is um just jumping on kathy's comment about a staggered opening i wonder if a kind of a soft opening so to speak for tk and kindergarten would be useful in say december that would give us some feedback and information on

124getting those younger students back on campus and then if we need to tweak any of our protocols uh and uh you know schedules we could do that before everybody comes back in in january and again i don't know if a soft opening like that is possible in december but um i think a staggered staggered opening of some sort is appropriate when we do get students back on campus and the one thing i will say um i i wouldn't mind being back uh in the boardroom again for these meetings i know that uh you know there may be some technological issues but once we get everybody back on campus i i'm happy to return to the boardroom for these meetings as well me too jeremy so i'm i'm right in line with everyone else um i've

125been thinking about it a lot what kind of what makes sense and um your connection is uh very compressed and digitized all right i'm fine go ahead and open it for public comment okay thanks uh i i would definitely echo what jeremy said about and sorry i didn't say it sooner but uh any plan that involves students coming back to campus and mass would would also uh come with uh board meetings happening in person again and we would of course follow all social distancing protocols um and and and also i just wanted to reiterate that i think that if we can set a target date and then begin to work backwards from there i really feel that we're going to come up with the best possible product so uh we're where my thinking is that

126we're not or i wouldn't like to come up with a hard plan tonight other than to say directing staff that we want to open by such and such a date and then work backwards from there with as much community involvement in the process um and and input from students and staff as we can possibly get uh will will yield the best results so i do have 16 hands raised for public comment that is uh nearly an hour of public comment i would ask that people strongly consider of course now there's 21 i shouldn't have said anything but going to cut it off now at 23. just to be clear luis ariazzone you will be our last public speaker um mainly because we have a rule of not going too late we went incredibly long at

127our last meeting i would ask all of our commenters to limit their comments to as short a period as possible you do not need to use all three minutes let other people speak and if you're repeating something that the person said before you also consider yielding your time to someone else or on raising your hand we don't need to hear about the survey please but of course i can't dictate what people say in public comment so the first speaker will be christopher johnson the last person will be luis arizon and i'm using my prerogative to cut it up i was considering shortening the amount of time that people could speak tonight but this is an important issue we need to hear from everybody and so christopher johnson please address the board brevity is all of

128our friends thank you yes please confirm that you can hear me yes very good um for future surveys please be clear whether this is a binding enrollment decision or an opinion that was not clear and two i would request more time to review the details sending out and survey on monday evening for a friday evening response is very difficult for many working parents one other aspect i wanted to comment on with reopening was the choice between the two instructional models was flawed mainly because if you have a family member with an underlying medical condition the hybrid model as presented was is not an option uh cursory google search of edge annuity the independent study program that was presented as an alternative to the hybrid model shows this problem this program is woefully inadequate in providing

129the instruction required for any student who wants to pursue a college degree after graduation even with oversight from an accredited musd teacher distance learning as it is in its current form must be another alternative for musd families like mine until a vaccine reasonable treatment or rapid testing for covid19 becomes the norm in contra costa county thank you next speaker is colleen hall singer colleen you may now address the board and we will be able to hear you thank you very much first of all i wanted to welcome dr dr julie sinyard great to have you the board has done an amazing job at trying to navigate this and i really appreciate that i have the unique experience of having a husband who's a teacher there and a child who is a senior at alhambra so

130i'm seeing both sides of this and how it works we cannot go back in person until we have a vaccine or some type of minimizing symptoms because all we're doing as we roll this out is playing russian roulette as we roll this out we're seeing if this works and we're seeing if that works well the only way to know is if it works is for somebody to get sick and then that's one too many so i also um initially got on here because of the survey you said not to talk about the survey but the survey was extremely important and we need a hybrid model that says teaching strictly from home or being at home because of underlying circumstances also i want to know how you're going to handle substitutes and how you're going to

131handle these absences with these kids and teachers because of a privacy act you're not going to be able to tell us who doesn't who doesn't have covid so we're going to be under these circumstances going with people going to school going with teachers and not even knowing whether or not people have been exposed the last thing i want to say is that until this board can meet in person to vote on these things why are you even suggesting that children go back um we can't we can't do that to our children we just can't or to our teachers they work too hard so that's my soapbox thank you very much for your time thank you up next is ml if you could please identify yourself by your first and last name you might now address

132the board thank you jonathan thank you helen for everything you've done my name is marisa listrigo and i'm a second grade teacher at john sweat elementary i would like to begin by saying i would like to go back to school however i see tremendous mistakes in the current plans so i appreciate helen saying this is a draft because because it is a draft i'd like to voice my voice to be heard for future schedules to begin with i'm a mother of two both at john sweat elementary and my own children will greatly suffer from this in the proposed plan a because my son is in first grade he will begin at 8 45 which is 15 minutes after i am already teaching how will i get my son to school i will have i will

133have already taken a massive i have already taken a massive pay cut to ensure my six-year-old does not fall behind in first grade we've had to hire someone to help him three days a week luckily my daughter doesn't need such support or i would not be bring in a monthly income this is why plan b is also a failed option i do not have the luxury of family members to watch my children plan b is unrealistic for working parents who will watch my children on my children's off days do you realize how much that will cost me i will be working just to pay for someone to watch my children distance learning is a fraction of what our children need which brings me to my last point how could we possibly be be teaching live

134and virtually simultaneously there is no possible way i would love to see someone on the board come and substitute for me in my classroom while trying to juggle the 12 that are in front of me and the 12 online do you know how much time i spend helping seven and eight year olds find things that they need to complete their lessons when i'm not even there with them asking us to do both at the same time is nonsensical with the proposed plans i feel i might not have to find an i might have to find another way whether it is a leave of absence or fmla please consider finding other options either wait until it is safe to return and full time is an option or continue to stay distance learning or what about waiting

135to see how surrounding distance districts do or perhaps teachers who feel comfortable returning could go back and those who are uncomfortable for unfortunate reasons could stay home and be safe distance and be our distance learning teachers as parents and a teacher we must find better options thank you thank you up next is bob holsinger and okay you are now able to address the board bob holsinger hello sorry about that um as you know i'm a teacher i've been a teacher at alhambra for 20 years now and have taught much longer than that appreciative of all the comments i've heard from the board tonight i started off writing down the names of them and it's everyone including our student representative um and helen as well um acceptance of the fact that that survey could have been

136done better uh makes this much easier uh i've done surveys i've read surveys it's not easy so appreciate that the the big things i've had to change most of my comments and my notes are quite scribbly but um concern that's still here for me is the one that pretty much came from the last uh teacher mrs lostrico that we need to have a distance learning option for teachers because i did hear a distance learning option for parents offered and appreciate that as a parent but i didn't hear a distance learning continuation for teachers offered i want to say the state university system has decided to stay in distance learning all year and that certainly shows that that some people and other places are considering that as a possibility echo my wife's concern for a vaccine

137or a serious treatment before we go back echo several people's concerns including some of the board about the board should be meeting in person before we put students and teachers at risk in person and and other staff para educators etc i can speak with experience to the parent with ingenuity i agree edudy is good for catching up but not good for moving forward especially for college-bound students one hour a week is not uh what i would consider a good move to go forward for college bound students that would be the uh the breonis model and um we have all worked out our schedules or at least i feel that the parents i know the teachers i know we figured it out it's not great but we've all figured it out and to consider all of

138the changes involved in moving from where we are to another schedule that might just cause more chaos and i'm not sure what's to be gained um i see the the hybrid models as me seeing my students less often than i'm seeing now and i'm teaching math now which calls for new things every day um i'll i'll stop there thank you thank you up next is stacy de chaucier you may now address the board greetings board and welcome to dr cenard really happy to hear the board be supportive of options for families and especially hearing a willingness to be creative i was pleased to hear acknowledgement around the confusion with the survey because it was a very difficult week for me feeling like i was choosing between two things that weren't a fit for my family

139i have two students enrolled in the martinez school district one in third grade at las hintes and the other in sixth grade at the junior high i'm speaking on record tonight because i do not want my kids returning to school i do not feel safe to do so and i want to continue distance learning at home i want the board to know that distance learning is working for my family it's meeting their academic needs and there's been some real creative efforts particularly at the junior high to provide opportunity for socialization my sixth graders meeting new new friends our teachers have been amazing and have established good schedules and laid out clear expectations i work two jobs from home but i've been given the tools i need to support their success it's not perfect nothing is

140right now but the best we can offer our kids is consistency and stability i want to stay the course please make continuing distance learning an option for the remainder of the school year thank you up next is michelle briscoe you may address the board hello my name is michelle briscoe and i am a first grade teacher at john sweat i am ready to receive students back into my classroom whether it be a cohort with the same students attending four days a week such as the elementary draft a or a hybrid schedule according to the elementary draft b if either of these schedules are adopted this is how i envision making it work in draft a my students are present in my class for three hours i may not be on zoom the entire three hours

141with my class from 8 45 to 11 45 but instead zooming with them in smaller segments as there is independent work that needs to be completed between each online session right now i am zooming with my class three separate segments morning meeting ela and math if draft a is considered i plan to zoom in those three same segments in draft a will there be a recess break for the students or is it a solid three hours of instruction can we build in a 20-minute recess break and then increase the asynchronous assignments from 35 to 55 minutes during the at-home learning time in draft b i will continue with our morning meeting ela meeting just as i do now in the 8 30 to 10 o'clock block students in class will complete the assignments under my

142supervision students zooming with us will log off and complete assignments as they do now at 10 20 we'll begin our math block and zoom together whether in class or at home at the conclusion of the call all students will continue the assignments for the 12 45 to 130 block i will set cite a time sign aside time for small group instruction rather than whole class zoom working with students within small groups especially since we are not 100 back is very important and small group time is missing from draft b the block from 145 230 will give us time to dig deeper into arts science and social studies this is the one and only block that i will repeat and do the same on monday tuesday as i do on thursday friday students at home will

143not zoom with us rather they will be completing some of the weekly asynchronous assignments during that time i do have some questions for both draft schedules proposed when does the elementary prep come in in draft a does that time still come in the afternoon as it does currently with distance learning in draft b is that time all accumulated for the week on wednesday for both schedules proposed how will music and pe fit into the schedule can we move from having pe and music once a week to twice a week in closing and closing my son is expected to go back to in-person learning at clayton valley charter on monday october 19th for more information on how we they are addressing the return i encourage you to look at their public website and webinar at clayton

144valley charter thank you thank you up next is tina sherwin tina you may address the board i wanted to let the board know how distant learning at alhambra high school is going so far this fall on september 24th the high school issued progress reports and they were so bad that the principal sent out an email the next day his email states that some students are showing up significantly late to class and or not attending at all some students are preoccupied during class and not paying attention because they are switching off cameras and taking part in other activities simultaneously on their computers all of these distractions led to missed learning opportunities missed assignments misunderstanding of curriculum and loss of comprehension overall this does not give parents confidence in the distant learning high schoolers are receiving i

145would like to know what percent of high schoolers are now failing due to distant learning what percent are not attending at all in his september 30th email from mr chamberlain regarding online misbehavior he reported an uptick in instance of unauthorized and anonymous entry into some google meet and zoom classrooms and using extremely inappropriate language and name calling this does not give parents confidence in the overall safety of students as they participate in distant learning i support the returns to the classroom with masks hand washing and other safety protocols i would like to know how many students we lost in our district as compared to may of 2020 not offering in-person education while other elementary schools in our county got waivers for some parents to send their kids to other schools for in-person education how does

146an enrollment in kindergarten compare to past years since our district failed to offer in-person education thank you up next is jeff sherwin you may now address the board hello everyone thanks helen for the work you've done so far on the plan i'm a father of a alhambra high school sophomore i'm glad our county is in the red tier and tomorrow our school district will be free to open our schools for in-person learning i'll remind everyone that at these meetings various teachers and board members have stated repeatedly that in-person learning is the ideal situation for students i am disappointed that we could be opening our schools tomorrow but somehow reopening the schools is not an action item but rather an informational item being considered as a possible action item in my opinion this is a failure

147to prepare for an eventuality we all knew was coming all summer long there were numerous meetings by this board discussing hybrid models and state and cdc safety guidelines however we are not in a position to open our schools tomorrow when the state says it is safe to do so the parents have made it clear they prefer in-person learning for their children and although teachers and unions may have their own reasons for the schools to remain closed i do not believe unreasonable fears convenience or politics should override what is best for our kids our schools exist for the benefit of their students and although employees should be afforded reasonable protections they should perform their jobs like many of us who have essential jobs and have continued to work without shortened schedules or working at home since

148this camp pandemic began i know some will argue that our school district if it opens now will be entering into unknown territory and taking unnecessary risks i remind you that 700 elementary school waivers have already been granted in california that's 200 in the bay area alone and believe me if there was a resulting spike in covet cases you would have heard about it by now in conclusion i think we're doing our children a disservice with distant learning and the sooner we get back to in-person learning the less lasting damage there will be for our children thank you very much up next is cindy courtney cindy courtney you may address the board thank you thank you for the time tonight and the opportunity to speak i appreciate it i am a third grade teacher at morello

149park elementary who has taught for this district for 33 years tonight i feel compelled to speak having sat down to watch the news for the first time in weeks tonight i was greeted with the following grim statistics hospitalizations from covet are on the increase in 35 states 215 000 people have died the virus may now last up to 28 days on non-porous surfaces and finally the death of julia davis a third grade teacher from norwood elementary in north carolina who is believed to have contacted the virus from a student the school has now reverted back to 100 distance learning yes i have shielded myself from the news as mentally distressed of the grim statistics coupled with the demands of distance learning was getting to be too much i chose instead to focus on the 20

150students in my class this year giving them the best education i can under the worst of circumstances distance learning is grueling requiring four more hour far more hours than face-to-face learning as well as the demands that it places on our families but it is a sacrifice that i make in order to keep myself and my students safe the thought of coming back to the classroom is a daunting reality overshadowed by the realization that a decision made in haste could cost someone their life teaching is a selfless profession but now i am faced with a guilt-ridden choice of putting myself my family and my aging parents first do i choose the students in my classroom who i've come to admire for their flexibility and determination and love them for their unbridled passion for learning or my

151own family do i risk my well-being as i am in the higher risk group due to my age or disappoint those 20 faces and their families if i felt it was safe to do so i would step back into the classroom i do not feel it is safe the district is not yet ready to return this is evidenced from the premature surveying of families last week to either settle for a credentialed teacher for one hour a week or risk the safety of their child by returning to a hybrid model why was not maintaining distant learning a third viable option and i'm happy to hear that the board is willing to entertain that option now this district is not ready to return simply by looking at the two options put forth for elementary the draft of

152option a the draft of option b both how can the district manage the bandwidth of all teachers on-site teaching at the same point when it struggles with fewer than half of us on site now how can i be expected to supervise students online while teaching the other 12 in person the complexity of this option boggles the mind and will breed an environment of mediocrity at best i ask you to please consider the safety of the students and staff before our endangering our well-being thank you for your time i want to just review the names of people who have raised their hands because of the nature of zoom some of the names have moved around and and i'm not interested in policing the number of folks but we are going to be limited limiting public comment

153to the following additional names craig lazaretti megan nicholella sophia mothers carlos melendez will frisbee tammy welch the karayanagi family kelly bevote um jennifer excuse me jennifer belleville todd navarro michelle watkins monica candace monroe speed and caitlyn raymond if anyone else feels the need to raise their hand i'm sorry we will not be taking any further public comment and again we appreciate brevity as there are many people who still wish to speak craigslist already you may address the board thanks yeah i just wanted to point out you know for all the criticism of distance learning one very positive thing that we should all keep in mind is that if this had been a regular school year with no distance learning at all like we had in previous years our kids would have missed probably a half

154dozen or more school days by now because of the air quality issues with the wildfire smoke and i think most a lot of people i'm sure you all remember very well just the chaos this situation with the air quality created the last several years and unfortunately because of climate change this is the new normal so i think we should really have a permanent distance learning place of nothing else as a backup um you know one thing i really one thing that really kind of frustrates or disappoint me is is to hear people make these blanket characterizations about a situation that it's not ideal that we all agree is not ideal being terrible or all bad for all students all the time and using their own personal experiences as a proxy for all 4 000 families

155in this district you know to one of the previous comments that was made by a caller about some of the harassment or bullying going on on dentist learning well you know here's a news flash for you we've had bullying epidemics we've had racism problems incidents we've had harassment we've had toxic cultures for years and years in the school district with in-person learning you know it happens a lot more when kids are are face to face with each other unfortunately that's not to say that you know business learning is better it's not but you know that's the reality is that you know the reason we have such a popular independent study program at brionis we've had distance learning for years and kids have voluntarily signed up for it because they consider the culture on campus toxic

156they don't want to be a part of it so and other kids in all fairness have wonderful experiences and they're missing out they're being harmed they're suffering they have wonderful experiences they're missing on the socialization and all those other issues but let's stop pretending like one person is a proxy then your own personal experiences are a proxy for air all 4 000 people in this district because you're not and let's stop blaming school district leaders or teachers unions for the mess we're in that's what the blame for the blame is due on the fact that people refuse to wear mass they refuse to follow the rules they've refused to act responsibly if people in this country has simply done what people in europe and other countries have done all kids will be back at school

157right now so next time you see someone walking around without a mask within six feet of each other yeah point the finger at them for a change thank you up next is megan nicolella you may address the board good evening thank you for the time and consideration to this ever changing situation and offering an open conversation upon seeing the possible hybrid schedules brought forth i again have questions mixed with the thoughts of where do i even begin let me preface with the frequent thoughts while navigating distance learning do i enjoy teaching to a wall of inanimate icons no but is it worth opening my social bubble to 80 to 160 contacts not including the contacts my child would come in to with no i do not want my health the health of my children and

158family and the health of my roster students to be the guinea pigs and i feel that this is supported across the board i understand this is for information and possible action but again i'm left with more questions why does every option brought forth seem as though those who are making the final decisions have so quickly forgotten or taken the time to really look into the day-to-day workings of the classroom why do members of the do and the board continue to offer no solutions or options when meeting with the mea bargaining team why should teachers be pushed into a greatly uncontrolled setting when simple simple safety protocols and details continue to go unanswered and underdeveloped in continuing to work together to make the best plan for all i wonder how logistically are the cohorts working on

159campus what would the passing periods look like where are the plans for segmented drop-offs and pickups what supports will be provided for staff when learning and transitioning to manage a class in person in a class online at the same time has the loss of instructional minutes been considered upon managing both platforms at once how are class rosters changing will the current distance learning system still be an option for those of whom it's working for which i do feel that the board has addressed tonight how is the disinfecting actually happening in the various five to 15 minute breaks the options the drafted options are given when will schedules beyond a draft be offered so teachers can feel a little bit more prepared for the potential return distance learning is working for many and why change the

160schedule because some are louder and pushing an agenda for their individual needs why would decisions be based on the well-being for a few and not all social distancing is one proven way to control and quell the spread and all given options push the boundaries in one of the proven successful tactics john and fellow board members thank you for the ideas of having more site-specific committees to be part of the plan and i look forward to seeing the details worked out thank you for your consideration thank you up next is sophia mothers you may address the board uh hello this is uh david mathers actually i'm a teacher at alhambra high school and i've been teaching there for 15 years i just want to make three or four comments based on the hybrid models and my

161experience so far doing distance learning first of all distance learning is consistent and we teachers crt see our students every day which is a big plus the fact that it's online isn't ideal but under the circumstances it's we're doing the best we can and i think most all of it's positive my second point is the hybrid school models are just way too complicated for everyone and switching from a consistent learning model that we're doing now to a complex hybrid model which has i don't say lots of errors in it but it's not easy for anyone as other people have already mentioned uh my third point in my third point which i want to echo which other people have said it's safer for everyone especially teachers and students and everyone in the community for us to

162stay in distance learning for as long as possible at least into january and i agree with the idea of staggering or doing soft soft openings like staggering the classes or the schools opening uh one after another instead instead of one massive opening one massive opening would be i'm sure unsafe and my last point which people have also made before is that when the school board is ready to meet in person in the boardroom would be the earliest time that the school should be able to open uh thank you for your uh thank you for letting me speak thank you next up excuse me is carlos melendez hi thank you i'd like to commend assistant superintendent rossi for the draft program that has been put together um i think those efforts address a lot address and

163touch on a lot of the aspects of safety and watching out for both the administration faculty and students um it is encouraging with the over overwhelming numbers of teacher and parent support of everyone's desire to return back to school even with understanding of what's in the news and the parents statistics um i think that those sentiments should be honored and work towards the problem i feel like this board continues to face and our society continues to face is the definition of safety while guidelines have been set out by the cdc by the county health what exactly are we willing to accept as safe it's it's difficult to manage feeling people's feelings of safety when you know there are established standards by experts and by recognized health uh professionals on what constitutes safety and how we

164can attain that safety um and with that then it it's it's nice to hear that what's encouraging to hear that we're gonna work towards a scheduled start date of january albeit it sounds kind of arbitrary that the most and with the most reasonable thing that we've heard this evening is implementing the staggered start and taking advantage of the time between now when we could open until january um which would be the start of the next semester we need to be taking advantage of the fact that we're a small district that we have small classrooms we have easy immediate access to our administrators and teachers to manage these problems as they develop and start with a with a a staggered opening and get students back into the classroom in a controlled manner with parents that want

165their kids in their classrooms and parents that don't have the option to stay on distance learning so i would ask the board to establish some metrics if we're going to shoot for january as the start date for getting back to school establish the metrics and use some quantifiable data and establish standards by which we can work and make these decisions and not continue to manage off of feelings and hearsay and other other information that is not established in fact thank you up next is will frisbee you may address the board hey guys um the first thing i want to say is i respect everyone's position um you know everybody has their own thing going on and i get it there's a few things that uh that i've heard tonight and over the last meetings has

166been a safety and health and i think that's about kind of piggybacking off the last dude that was speaking is um you know we're kind of talking about a straw man argument to a sense of be specific what do you mean by safety and mental health or health because i'm going to add the mental health because right now what i see is there's there's a mental health issue that's going on that we're not addressing um i've been fortunate enough to the city of martinez to hold the baseball camps and it's worked out tremendously you know we get specific fields we have times that we can be out there and i have a specific group that i'm accountable for and my assistant coach and that's been great and it's brought a lot of good mental health

167to those kids i have no coach myself and my other coach i have no players that have come up positive for covid so that's kind of a relief that i would sit here and look at teachers and i say hey you know it's being done so understand that it's being done and um we don't have to live in fear over things next thing i'll say is is is a frustration for me with the teachers union is the retail clerks union um which is the union that my dad spent over 40 years with those folks are still working construction union people are still working they have no choice they can't say i'm going to stay at home they have no choice so those are things that kind of i think you should kind of take into

168account for um people talk about hey vaccines therapeutics well guess what we do have therapeutics and vaccines are coming but that shouldn't be the answer covet is here and we have to learn how to deal with it and that's the bigger that is really the bigger picture of what we have to understand and we just recognized that the world health organization came out and said we got to stop these lockdowns they're hurting poor people and there's a reality again i respect everybody's position i hope you respect mine if you don't i'm okay with that but i do respect your position i thank you for your time and i'm off to the next person up next we have tammy welch can i address the board hi thank you for letting me speak tonight i appreciate it

169my name is tammy welch and i'm a second grade teacher at morello park elementary this is my 22nd year teaching in the district i am also the parent of two children a freshman and a sophomore in high school i don't i will try to be brief but i do want to echo the comments that my fellow colleague cindy courtney made when she talked about the rising statistics in other states where schools have gone back those do seem far away and yes i understand there's the idea of acceptable risk however clovit19 has come close to my family we have lost a personal friend in this county to covet 19. my 21 year old niece who lives in a neighboring state has been desperately ill for two and a half weeks with covid19 she is on the

170road to recovery thank goodness but we don't get to pick and choose who gets sick who gets well and who is what doctors are referring to as a long hauler as a parent with children with aged parents with health conditions returning to school brings up deep concerns i appreciate the board's discussion and conversation tonight in moving slowly towards reopening i especially appreciate board member fuller's introduction of the idea of a phase reopening and just to remind everyone that though the plans that we have seen for returning to school are drafts there are significant flaws within them and it will take a concerted effort and a decent amount of time in order to make those plans workable i just do feel the need to call out that none of these plans addressed how transitional kindergarten and

171kindergarten would work at schools where you have morning and afternoon sessions if you don't have an empty or available classroom for that pm session that's going to be a big issue yes we need to figure that out among others so i do appreciate the idea of slowing down making this thoughtful and limiting the risk as much as we can thank you for your time up next we have the karianagi family if you could please provide your first and last name you are now permitted to speak hi uh this is jonathan cadyanagi and i am a parent of two students at las ventes elementary i'd like to start by welcoming dr sineyart um as well as thanking assistant superintendent rossi who has worked very hard to do these two jobs and hopefully with the doctor in

172helen you can get a well-deserved break so thank you very much for your hard work i'd like to thank the board for their hard work on this difficult topic and all the new challenges that 2020 has brought us i also support the tone that was said about reopening later in january or later i do want to address the board member uh board member janelle's comments bringing kinder's back between thanksgiving and christmas is unsafe as maintaining physical distance is the most challenging for this group and many of the students aren't seated at desk during the day so it would be even harder to maintain that distance in the classroom and while i appreciate the gesture regarding the in-person board meetings i imagine that we could not get tonight's full meeting attendance into the board room safely

173so and i would also support continuing the zoom meetings postcovid as it does make the meetings more accessible to parents with young children as you can tell from some of my recent emails i'm a fan of thoughtful clear accessible information for all luckily the state of california has come up with a color-coded covid status rating for counties i appreciate a color-coded scale because it's relatable as many of us use a color-coded scale in our daily lives for assessing risk if you would indulge me i would like the board and the district administrators to picture a busy intersection uh the cross traffic at this intersection is a deadly virus and a flu that will cause fevers that will shut down cohorts for 10 to 14 days at a time there are a few different vehicles that

174can be driven through this intersection such as a nimble sports car a van or a school bus for this visualization the board is at the wheel of the school bus when picturing the intersection uh in the color scale i like to think of the purple level as being a five car pileup next to a gasoline tank tanker a reason to turn around and not enter that intersection stay back distance learning just like we did now as you approach the red light intersection uh most of us would stop our car uh you might be able to get that sports car uh or that van through uh if you stopped and looked both ways but you're never going to drive that school bus through and i would never want the school district to think that they could

175get the school bus through running that red light now the intersection with the orange or yellow light is a reason for pause once again the nimble sports car the van might make it through if you look both ways you might decide to push the gas and push through the intersection but i would hope the district will not try and push the full bus through that intersection in my daily uh job i run in-person distance learning cohorts for children sorry jonathan now at a time no thank you for uh allowing me to speak and uh for the tone set by the board thank you next speaker is kelly bebo i'm sorry if i mispronouncing your name hi good evening my name is kelly biebel very close thank you very much for that um i am a

176parent of two children in the martinez unified school district our family has had an outstanding experience with distance learning and our youngest son in particular is thriving and building more connections with teachers than he likely would have during in-person learning i wish to commend the teachers at both the junior high and high school for their flexibility and ability to build genuine connections with students if anyone can find a way to make these constantly changing situations work it is absolutely the martinez unified school district teachers i appreciate the acknowledgement of the issues with the survey and will respect president wright's request to refrain from further comment in that arena i urge the board to give strong consideration to the health and safety of the students and teachers and not to rush students back to an in-person

177environment until we can truly be confident that all parties may do so safely my junior high student even said that if students opt not to follow the basic rules about chewing gum using their phones and moderating their language how can they be expected to follow an entirely new set of rules that could significantly impact the lives of their teachers and peers it is my sincere hope that the district will not allow a small but vocal group of parents to push their own agenda ahead of the safety of our community i believe strongly that students teachers and families should be given the option to continue the status quo of distance learning those who are finding it effective should not have the learning process up ended mid-year i would also like clarification provided to parents on whether

178they actually have a say regarding the timing of a return to in-person learning or if that decision will simply be made by the district in conjunction with the teachers union finally i respectfully request that clear communication be sent to parents about the potential of holding on a return date until the second semester in order to slow the theories and demands for immediate reopening as i expect i'm not the only one who is exhausted by them thank you up next is jennifer belleville you may address the board good evening members of the board thank you for giving me the time to speak i'm a special education teacher at martinez early intervention program i absolutely love my job i am really excited that we now have a draft plan for reopening that tries to solve the complicated

179logistics of scheduling to restore some normalcy however there are a lot of crucial details that are not addressed without getting into the weeds i'd like to point out that we have a very unique needs at mei pp we work with three to five year old students with special needs our students often have difficulty staying in class or sitting still long enough for simple tasks let alone sticking to social distancing guidelines through an entire session on top of this are all sorts of other details from the logistics of toileting and diaper changing running circle time and stations which includes very close contact it will be close to impossible to practice social distancing with our little guys how will we do this we still have a long way to go in terms of addressing teachers concerns at

180a granular level before i'll feel like we have a workable plan to keep everyone safe at this time distance learning is working for my students and families distance learning is the best option at this time to keep everyone safe thank you very much for your time up next we have todd navarro you may address the board todd great thank you jonathan so first of all i'd like to thank helen um very much for putting together a very thoughtful plan and bringing choices back to the community i think what's clear tonight is there are choices and there's going to be a choice that fits every family's needs differently i also think it's important to remember that there are stakeholder groups across the district including site councils and ptas where you can also obtain parent input to

181help with thoughtful transitions back to school campuses there are options for example i like this idea of soft openings at some point an additional consideration for soft openings might be bringing sixth graders back to try it out at the junior high and ninth graders out back to the high school as they did not have those critical transition periods bringing them up through the secondary ranks i'd also like to implore dr cenard helen rossi amy black matt chamberlain and as well as brenda leal to work with our teacher communities particularly at the high school on asynchronous deployment of learning asynchronous learning should not be greater than the amount of time that our students are spending with their teachers a 35-minute period at alhambra high school should not translate to 60 to 75 minutes or greater of

182asynchronous learning on a daily basis that starts cutting into children's emotional time and they're spending way too much time in front of their screens thank you up next is michelle watkins michelle you may address the board good evening thank you for the opportunity to speak my main concern as an educator in the school district is through the lens of a kindergarten teacher and i believe i am understanding that the plans in place are on draft but as an educator it's my job to zoom in on those details that are relevant to my profession and my level of expertise which happens to be kindergarten so i wanted to bring a few points up that are of concern on draft b of the elementary hybrid schedule it states in very small print that schools with pm tk

183kindergarten classes will be placed in a quote-unquote alternate location and may need an alternate schedule this greatly concerns me because for years i have been a pm teacher i would like for these details to be ironed out and i would like to know what alternate location my kindergartners will be placed in if we were to return will we have access to bathrooms that are easily accessed by kindergartners will the district provide all of the necessary materials that we would normally have in our kindergarten wing we do not have the physical space on our campus for every tk kindergarten class to have their own room which is why we've always shared rooms will the district then be providing portables to accommodate our classes also in regard to safety protocols what protocols will be in place so

184that students can safely access their classrooms without being escorted by their parents or guardians on page three of the district safety guidelines it says that parents and guardians are to remain off campus if that is true please explain how this will pertain to students who are in a five-point harness car seat what procedure will be in place so that students are safe when exiting their vehicles and finding their classroom lastly since the hybrid plan includes one group attending live while the other is zooming in i would like for the district to define what zooming in is will webcams be placed in our rooms filming us while we are teaching live how can a teacher be fully present for their in-person students while checking for understanding with their online group essentially this is the job of

185two separate educators one of in person and the other of distance learning i would like for the board to consider reinstating distance learning as a full-time option for teachers and families who are unable to return it would behoove the district to consult teachers who are willing to have a professional dialogue with regard to considering these important points teaching kindergarten requires a great sense of understanding of the nuances of early childhood best practices please provide us with strategies on how to quote unquote minimize the movement of students and teachers or staff as much as practical as stated on page three of the safety guidelines in the reopening plan active movement learning michelle i've got to cut you off we we we're limiting it to a strict three minutes thank you so much for sharing your thoughts

186up next is monica if you can please share your last name as well you are now uh free to address the board monica you may address the book good evening good evening my name is monica booth i'm a former er nurse and i currently work in pediatrics i also do covet swabbing three times a week my husband is a firefighter we have two kids who attend john sweat elementary i'm writing to say that i fully support the kids going back to school i admit i was against this in the beginning but now we have time under our belt and more data showing it is safe to return to school with the proper precautions in place i have been coveted swabbing for four months now my st myself nor any of my co-workers who also covet

187swab have not been infected with coven 19. as i mentioned my husband is a firefighter and works in richmond where that is one of the hot spots in terms of positive cases for contra costa county since kovitz started only one person from his department has tested positive and he did not get it at work with this information i strongly believe teachers can go back to the classroom for in-person teaching with very low risk providing that they wear a mask and face shield just like i do when i go to work i want my kids going back to school provided they wear a mask and practice good hand hygiene we can talk about all the safety precautions but it comes down to two things wear a mask and wash your hands my husband and i are

188both first responders and are in the nitty-gritty of this pandemic and we support our kids returning to school as soon as possible i also wanted to say that i support i agree with jeremy janelli's soft opening plan and another point i wanted to mention was that my daughter saw her pediatrician today and she mentioned that it is safe for them to go to school i also saw on the news tonight the case is going up in 35 states but before we get alarmed we need to look closer at the data where are these positive numbers coming from is it from schools or is it people not social distancing and wearing a mask let's look closer at the new numbers coming out thank you for your time monica booth thank you monica and thank you to

189all those who spoke we are now closing public comment because we have more business to attend to and we have to possibly take action so we're bringing it back to the board and i want to hear if if we've come to some sort of a consensus it sounded like we had one before um so i would like to remind us that we yeah sorry go ahead please hi it's cedric can you hear me a little better yeah and my sorry my system is is being really weird too so i can hear you um i i'd like to uh make a motion to extend the meeting if that's okay at least to give us some time to have a discussion so i'd extend it to 9 45. i'll second that okay so we have a motion

190and a second to extend the meeting until 9 45. uh student representative i full board those in favor those post abstentions we're extending the meeting until 9 45. thanks deidre yeah of course and if i could i i i know we've heard a lot about it and and i agree with kind of the consensus where the board was starting i i think what i did want to say is that you know when we took the kids out of school last march uh we did that under the guidance of our county health department again we look to that a lot this summer as well as this fall when we decided to roll out distance learning right now even though county health is saying that it's safe to go back to school i feel like by listening

191to um a lot of people in our community as well as you know the concerns of of our employees i would like to to give as much caution as we can but we also have a job and a duty to continue to provide education so um i'd like to also move forward to try and put a plan together to get the kids back in when they return in january and i also wanted to make sure we still had a um an in-service day available um first for our teachers which we might utilize when they come back um i'm glad we didn't use it we may you know we may need that um but um i just think it helps all of us refocus on at least a goal or an end date for the next

192couple months so that we have something to work towards split towards things that we can solve those problems and answer the questions about what can we do to make people feel safer so jonathan i would like to see us move forward with a possible to set a possible reopening date or work towards a possible reopening date of january was it the fifth i think to start but i agree with jeremy i think we should do a soft opening i would prefer we wait until january to start the soft openings um because i think starting kids in december may just add to the chaos too much that's my thought with that and lastly i did want to make a comment from several of our folks at this meeting and several from other meetings in the past

193have talked specifically about workers returning such as grocery clerks and that sort of thing and may i remind everybody that the grocery clerks are not seeing people for four or five hours a day our teachers are seeing our kids for that long and the dangers of possible possibly passing on the virus are significantly greater the longer time you spend with anybody so that hasn't been said before i don't think and i think we need to think about that i get it i was a grocery clerk but and it they are considered essential workers um but teachers are essential in a totally different way and they really need we we really need to have them be very safe when we return it also needs to be added that grocery clerks are among the many essential workers

194who have been getting sick and dying yes i totally despite all the most precautions yeah but they also are less likely so even if they have less exposure to potentially infected uh human beings you know they're not in close contact nor captive audience so you know we we need to be really aware of the realities here and i'm not willing to uh make any sort of gamble on safety or say what level of safety is is appropriate because we're talking about human life and to me life is sacred and we we are not in the business of causing harm to anyone um so i think we're coming to the same page here um i've i would like to see a start in the second semester um probably going to anger some people here but i

195do not think us you know soft opening whatever we want to call it prior to the beginning of january is uh feasible nor is it wise given all of the variables that we have to consider and all of the discussions and negotiations that have to take place uh if it does happen wow that's fantastic but why rush it why upset people's schedules any more than they already have been and quite possibly the the more we delay and uh approach this in a pragmatic and thoughtful manner the more likely that there could possibly be a workable vaccine available in the new year god willing or we could just have a better understanding of how to prevent further infection so that's what i would like to see um would you like someone to make a motion i'd

196be happy to do that if you'd like it we don't need to make a motion why not john that's not a hard date we're just giving direction this is we don't have a plan to make a motion as soon as we make a motion you're submitting this and i'm not going to cement any date until we have a very solid plan we can get direction to staff to start working on a plan with a target date of opening up in the spring you don't need a motion to give direction and that way we can have plans come back we can have dialogue with our members our teacher staff our community the sites because we don't have we have drafts that you know are drafts they're very broad drafts so let's start drafting the plan let's

197give dr julie a chance to get involved and roll up her sleeves but we don't need to pass a motion to give direction we never have in 14 years we don't need to start it now um i also would like to a i would like to shoot first you know a january date b i would like to have this broken down by high school committee a junior high committee elementary committee i like to give the expertise back to the teachers and the principals and let them come up with the plans um in the meantime i would like the high school to focus on really what's going on with the homework um not to add more to your plate julie but i really would like to see if we can if there's some things we can

198reach out to help address mental um well-beings of our students there is a lot of anxiety i'm not sure what's available we need to these are the homework and the mental anxiety are issues we should deal with today and as you break if i mean i'm just speaking for myself but as we develop these plans we focus on the safety of our students our staff so we can bring them back in an environment that we all feel is safe as much as we can get and if we're not there i'm okay saying haven't you come back say we gotta stick with distance learning because we're not there yet so i'm done uh this is deidra i i i would like to see us vote on this if not tonight i would like to see us

199do it in the in the next meeting i think our community deserves both our staff and our parents and the community at large need to know that we are committed to a particular date and you know what if we can't make it the date we select then we need to at least be able to tell them by december hey we may not make this date or things are changing um but we can't table things indefinitely and not expect it to have an effect on on our family than our staff and people are making really big choices about their kids under education and their health and safety our our choices are how you know what are we going to do for this district and then we we let people make their own personal choices so i

200would love to see a vote i mean if you guys vote for a date just realize to move the date is going to require a vote to move it and we've been doing that we've been doing that and respectfully john as as much as i've agreed with a lot of what you've said tonight in 14 years on the board we've never had this type of circumstance and deters absolutely correct that people need some sort of target date and if it means that we work backwards including everything that you've mentioned because i think that they're good ideas this is one of those things where we have to take definitive leadership and i'm willing to do that even if it's incredibly unpopular or acrimonious and because it's the right thing to do and i'm not saying that

201you don't think it's the right thing to do but we we have to make some sort of a stand that this is what we are working towards and understanding that stuff absolutely take direction without motions being made but we like peter said we can't keep tabling this we just can't and this is our job i think we need to make it very clear to the community what we're asking staff to do and so i would in fact make a motion to say we aim for a second semester opening and we direct staff to come back with plans for a staggered reopening starting in the fir in the second semester define aim for me that they come up with a plan that they will start on the set the beginning of the second semester but that

202would in fact stagger stagger the sites so not all of our kids are going to start all at once on the first day or second day of the second semester i'm trying to provide staff with the option to come back and say you know that may not work but in the meantime we are giving them a clear vote that this is what we want and i think we owe it to the families and i think we owe it to our staff to do that kathy i i'm not sure if i if i agree with the staggered start it's not really for for me to decide based on any information that we have um i mean i it may very well be the best option um but i think based on the end of that the

203secondary uh actually i think everybody uh ends their half year uh right around the same time which is why we moved the calendar uh so is there a way that we can capture that helen do you know what our official day idra we have a motion there's not even been a second so is there a second well i did as the maker of the motion john i heard what deirdre is saying what i think we should provide to staff is yes we're aiming for it we want school to start again in person school or the option for in-person school because i do think our parents need to have the option as to our staff to do full distance learning but we need to have a plan that starts january the 5th i believe was said

204and the reason deirdre that i said staggered is because the idea of suddenly having 4 000 kids come back in one day i think would be chaotic but i would be happy to make it so that they have the option to provide us with a plan that could possibly include staggered well could we have the motion if there's a second if it isn't it dies and then you can make a re-motion so i just made the re-motion i have no idea if anybody's going to second it so kathy i'm not hearing a second but i would like to take a stab at re phrasing what i feel like you're trying to articulate and because it's late and we're all tired and i would also ask for some order please there's no need to talk over

205each other i move that the board take a a definitive decision to reopen martinez schools in the second semester as soon as possible to the first day of the second semester from now until we reopen we will address this issue in regular reports of every board meeting and regular communications to the community and ongoing discussions and negotiations with our labor partners to and and in in the intervening weeks direct staff to bring more concrete proposals based on these ongoing discussions and negotiations to the board so that as we get closer to the target date of january 5th we can make further take further action on adopting scheduling rollout dates and ensure correct oversight of hygiene protocols contact tracing and every other mandatory step required by state mandates and county mandates to ensure safety and and

206that we can reopen with you know every available option so what you're saying if i understood you correctly is you're making a motion to reopen school as close as possible to the first the first day of the second semester um the only addition i would make to that would be to say it should include an option for full distance learning so we would reopen for in-person learning with an option for full distance learning i can accept that okay so that's your motion that's my second so can i have the whole motion please be re-read on what exactly i'm voting on sure i'll do my best to paraphrase myself after a long night and long day the motion is that we adopt the first or as close to day of the second semester in other words

207january 5th as our target reopening date from now until that date we will get regular reports and updates from district staff on the progress of um putting together a concrete scheduling proposal as well as one one that is meets the needs of our community including an option for full distance learning and hybrid and that's the one i'm seconding okay can we have discussion yes absolutely i will not vote for this i will be saying no because i refuse to cement teachers coming back students coming back to the classroom without a plan to that i would say how can we come up with a plan if we don't know what our date is you give directions to the staff that we tend to open up on january 5th you need to start developing a plan and

208once you have a plan then you can vote to go forward with it but until that time we're asking our families and the rest of our community to remain in limbo no we said we want to do this but you're allowing what happens if coped breaks out you've already voted then the next board has to come in and revoke there's too much time in between here now direction is hey we're shooting for this date it's pretty much a hard date but we're not cementing it and when you pass this motion it's cemented and the only way it can be overturned is through another board vote which we take at every board meeting so i don't understand the interpretation of making a vote we've made multiple this evening alone my case i'm voting now so okay

209i understand you and i disagree with you i would ask julian helen uh can you remind us again the protocols on what happens when an outbreak occurs because it's not really up to us at that point it's my understanding so i would actually call a question i think we need to vote on this before it becomes 9 45 and it is now 9 43. so if you're following robert's rules calling the question we have to vote on calling the question um all those in favor of calling the question say aye hi hi those opposed abstentions i heard one opposed to calling the question the motion passes to call the question so now the motion on the floor is the long one that i articulated of setting a target date of the start of the second

210semester understanding that there can be exigent circumstances but we're giving direction to staff to provide regular updates and put together the best possible plan to to reopen school that includes a full distance learning option at the start of the second semester yes thank you student representative how do you vote i full board those in favor aye aye those opposed yay abstentions the motion passes and we thank everybody for their continued involvement and communication and we don't always have to reach full agreement but i think our intent is shared and thank you again to all staff for providing us with excellent information and we hope we've given you clear direction we look forward to regular updates as we move forward agenda and 13 are additional comments from the public which we will not be needing tonight

211agenda item 14 comments from the superintendent board members and future agenda items i don't have anything further to say but uh either helen rossi or julie senior would like to make any comments i would welcome them tonight i just want to thank helen and this incredible team uh for helping me on my first day it was a very eventful first day i appreciate the direction that we've been given and now we have you know a target to shoot for look forward to meeting everybody and getting busy and getting our kids uh back in school and our staff making sure everybody's safe and healthy and doing so with the best intents and looking forward to working with everybody and to that extent i'd also like to thank the district office staff and and site administrators and

212teachers and classified for um their support in their patients over the last couple of months as we kind of held the ship until we got julie on board i also um want to implore the community members that are listening to come out and volunteer as a citizen oversight committee person for either our bond or our parcel tax we are down members and i'm happy to have you come it's a twice a year commitment to find out how we're spending our bond money are we on track and how we are spending our parcel tax money so please if you're interested at all contact me here at the district office and we'll get an application to you and i appreciate it thank you about any other board members jonathan i'd like to thank helen for really hanging

213in there through this it's been tough and some of the emails have been remarkably difficult to read and to hear i'd like to welcome julie as our new superintendent and i do have a request of the city district subcommittee that that committee actually try to set up a zoom meeting with their counterparts at the city because i would like to see them address the concerns about what's happening to the black lives matter mural which is going to be paved over as i noted and which doesn't appear to have a new home yet and that was certainly a concern of many of our students and and many of our family members so otherwise thank you very much everybody and thanks to the board for taking a stand on this yes thank you all um another long

214meeting kathy we'll we'll do our best to to reach out to the city uh would be a good opportunity for superintendent senior uh to to get to know city staff among all of the other things we're we're we're asking her to do now so um thank you julie thank you helen as always in my opinion you are the mvp and your service will forever uh reside in my mind as as as one of just true yeoman's work and absolutely exemplary and i will forever be grateful and thank you to you all have a good evening be kind to one another we'll see everyone again on the 26th of october