001okay good evening everyone uh it's chris hanke the superintendent and uh this is yolanda hamilton our diversity equity and inclusion uh consultant uh we are here tonight to uh have a town hall for parents um and unfortunately we we really have uh one topic and it's uh why we extended remote learning until january 4th due to the rise in covet 19 infections um i do want to share that i neither i nor the board of education take these this situation lightly in terms of changing uh we do want children back in school but we need to keep people safe a couple of things that are happening around the state the governor just spoke this past half hour to to the state um yesterday there were 6 positive cases uh in ohio day after day we
002keep breaking records in this state uh and unfortunately in all 88 counties in this state including cuyahoga county we have widespread spread infection rates um with that we needed to make the decision to extend the remote learning period to at least january 4th we will reevaluate it as it gets closer i want to go over a couple of numbers with everybody for a couple of statistics i suppose first of all this is what has been jarring for everyone if we look here it took 112 days from the start of the pandemic on march 9th to reach 50 000 cases in the state the next 50 000 it took 42 days the next 50 000 it took or excuse me 48 days the next 50 000 took 30 days so it was shrinking and then in
003the last 13 days the state has seen 50 000 infections it only took 13 days to do that the second piece i do want to share and i shared it during the board work session again is the cuyahoga county uh data which does exclude the city of cleveland because they have their own health department but this covers garfield heights uh in one month uh the rate of infection of people that were tested went from 2.4 percent to 10.1 percent and there there is there is more testing going on however uh according to the board of health and the governor uh this infection rate is is is is mainly due to the fact that there's just more covert spreading everywhere so those are things that uh we took into account when we made the decision uh
004what i what i want to tell everybody and what what the governor and i want to echo the governor um we we need to really uh and i know everybody's tired of this but we really need to get back to basics in terms of wearing masks social distancing washing our hands um not going places that we don't have to uh if we're able to stay in or near our homes it's going to be helpful second thing i want everyone to think about is the upcoming thanksgiving holiday the governor did reiterate that gatherings of more than 10 people are actually against the health order from the state of ohio even in private residences the reason for that health or is it anyone that comes into your house uh that isn't doesn't live in your house could
005potentially carry the virus excuse me i i truly believe that you know especially those folks that have underlying conditions maybe of an advanced age you know have a great potential being hospitalized uh for this virus and we really have to think about all of our relatives and family members as we move forward and my hope is is that you know we we just need to really bear down and keep going and following all the protocols so we can get the children back in school and return to a little bit more normalcy we if you've seen the news you do understand that it looks like a vaccine may be on the way but it's not here right now and so we have to follow all of the guidelines that we've we have been following to really
006drive down the infection rate again additionally the governor also um did warn businesses and especially restaurants bars and fitness centers that if he's gonna look at the numbers within a week and he may be uh we may be going back to the widespread closure like we had in the spring uh with that uh mrs bailey or miss hamilton do we have questions coming in let me see here none yet not at this time uh let me just uh talk a little bit more about uh uh the learning uh that is going on uh we do have uh the remote learning going on we we are in our uh second week of uh today was an asynchronous day we are uh the administrators and teachers are working together on that day to make sure that we're
007serving small groups and we're helping children uh secondly uh we do have uh some students and that will we we will have them remain in the low incidence disability settings uh and families have been contacted individually about those those have been going well and we have not had uh uh issues because we've been practicing mass wearing social distancing uh in those classrooms uh which has been which has been a a very good um very good thing um additionally uh we have been able to uh expand and help uh with some of our neediest families some of their issues in terms of access and places to learn uh which has been important for us uh mrs hamilton do you kind of i mean since we we don't have any questions right now do you want to
008kind of talk a little bit about our equity efforts in terms of all this sure so the equity task force for the district has been working diligently to make sure that we're looking um to fill the gaps and assist parents and families and students with their needs during this time i just want to go ahead and mention this even though we're early on in the town hall that next thursday november 19th we will have a town hall that is focused on understanding um the resources that are available to you during this time we know and um are not ignorant to the fact that this is having um quite the impact on the mental health and socio-emotional well-being of our students in the district so we want to make sure that parents and families are informed
009of the resources that we have in place that you can take advantage of to support your family's individual needs during this time again as mr hankey mentioned none of us really anticipated this being prolonged but again we um want you to know that there are resources in place to support you during this time if you have any questions regarding the town hall or resources i would welcome you to put that in the chat as well as this time and again just to mention the town hall regarding the resources available around mental health and social emotional well-being will take place next thursday which is november 19th at 6 00 pm thank you mrs hamilton and we did have a question come across uh will there be a 2-1-2 schedule for all students once we return our
010plan is to right now is to return in the hybrid model uh on january 4th we hope we can do that uh we hope we then we'll have an opportunity to have all the students in the district um have in some in-person learning um as an educator uh uh i i truly believe that there isn't a substitute for in-person learning but um safety is always first and as as we said throughout the pandemic so we hope to return into the hybrid model on january 4th um and and hopefully if things do normalize we at some point we can return fully but it would have to the the infection rates and and we'd have to go it would have to go way down and we have to go down into the yellow area of the of
011the um of the color-coded system which means that there's not um a lot of community spread so we will be keeping an eye on that um and i will be informing the public through these town halls through our board work sessions and through our regular board of education meetings uh as we move forward um and while while again while not perfect we do appreciate all the parents efforts and we know this is difficult on parents uh helping their children uh during this remote learning period and making sure that they're logging in and and and really engaging with the teachers and their lessons and i'd also certainly like to thank all the teachers um also as an educator very difficult uh uh uh certainly uh teaching through a screen like this uh is is not ideal
012uh but they have uh made great efforts to make sure that they they're engaging with the students uh and um and that they're uh you know really making sure that any of the gaps that are happening in terms of education are are being addressed um i'd also like to thank uh our our third grade parents uh we were able to successfully test all i think but five or ten third grade students so the parents that trusted us to do that safely uh and and with social distancing and mask wearing uh uh we were able to uh make sure all the third grade uh students were were given the state assessment that's that was required of us uh this fall uh we we still don't we we we believe that the state is also going to
013require state testing in the spring uh we have not heard otherwise there's been no change in the law and we will make provisions to do that as safely as possible uh and while certainly nothing's perfect we believe we do have uh a a lot of um things in place to make sure that students are safe uh as they do enter our buildings uh but for now certainly um that's um it's important to make sure that you know you're remaining safe and and remote i see another question here of 212 during remote learning uh that's been modified a bit what we have come for decided is to have the asynchronous wednesday so other than that students are getting direct contact with teachers four days a week we believe that that was probably the best for our
014students it was a change um especially for our younger students where it has been difficult especially in the k k through three area kindergarten through third grade uh not having uh you know direct contact with teachers becomes difficult so uh we are starting with the asynchronous piece um the 212 will will be done in the hybrid model um i guess mrs bailey uh again since we have we looks like we have a little time do you want to talk about the the technology efforts thus far since you're here uh and uh uh you know some of the things we were able to really move forward with uh through the pandemic again you know sometimes there's opportunity in uh in emergencies so absolutely well um i was just telling someone today that we went from not
015having chromebooks go home with children to the pandemic starting and now we are a one-to-one school district that means we have a chromebook for every child in the district and i'm very excited about that mr henke just mentioned how our third grade children had to come in to take the third grade reading test and we always provide technology support during things like that and i was so proud of our students they all wore masks they all remembered to bring in their chromebooks for their tests we had some extra devices in case we needed it and it just gave us a really good window into what's going to happen when when we all get back to school when our students will be able to be using their devices at home and at school you know we've
016been able to provide tech support in every school building parents can call if they're having problems with their device they can open tickets for us we've been able to swap out if there's been a problem with the device to make sure that we have someone that's working we've been able to distribute hot spots when needed and we're working now with the pcs for the people to get some additional hot spots for families so our goal is to make sure that every child has a device has the internet and is able to continue their learning at home i know also at maple leaf right now we have an assessment going on for maple leaf students related to reading and again this is being done remotely with our teachers at school and our students at home and
017the technology is there to support it so i couldn't be more proud of the way that everybody has include especially the teachers changing the way they get provide instruction and the students the way they're receiving it so it's just been i couldn't have wished for anything better absolutely so obviously if you have a problem i guess the biggest thing really to let families know those who are watching is that if you're having an issue with anything by all means call your child's school whether you're a bda student your child has a home school where he or she might have been attending and then make sure you tell them what's going on usually there's someone in the building can help you walk through it you can come with your device we always have extras in the
018building so if there's a problem we can swap it out with you so you can make sure that your child can get back to the learning that he or she needs to be doing so when when all us you know whenever there's a problem just ask we're here to help thank you mr bailey and uh uh uh let's echo that that you know an opportunity in this was that we were able to uh um you know uh uh secure devices for everybody and and we'll continue to do that and that and again echo this is able to make sure that you're reaching out if there's an issue that you need to help with with technology [Music] a couple of other things to reiterate i just want to encourage uh families to check out our website
019for the covet dashboard that's updated regularly on the district's website so you can um refer to that just for real-time updates around covet and then also mr hankey i had a message that came through text from a community member asking if you could clarify um that the january fourth day does not include the preschool and low incidence students oh yeah let me let me again clarify our preschool low incidence students that are currently attending are going to continue to attend uh we will we are monitoring uh the situation in terms of any any sort of issue with with covet infection we understand that nothing's foolproof uh we believe and continue to believe that we're doing this as safely as possible and we'd like to continue on with with our programming uh for those students um
020and uh certainly uh the january fourth day is about coming back in the hybrid model that date oh by the way that date's significant just because it's the day after our winter break it quite frankly is not a natural academic uh date because it is still in the second quarter but i think that it provides us the school district and the families a sense of you know if there's a break then we can come after i did receive some communication today uh um uh from a staff member actually but it's it's an important thing uh that if if our team has considered the fact that you know there could be some spread over over the winter break and we realize that and we're going to be looking at the numbers um and i understand there's
021a bit of a lag you know some of the things we might be seeing right now might might quite frankly be due to halloween uh there were some uh indoor gatherings around the county uh that were probably not uh very safe in terms of mass wearing and social distancing um that could have could have driven driven this raid up a bit uh but and we do recognize that and again it i i reiterate about making sure that you know you're really following the protocols and and keeping those gatherings as small as possible um i know it's difficult i i'm you know i i i'm a family i i you know i have a family i i've got um my wife's got parents i've got parents and our daughter and everything and we're trying to be
022as safe as possible during the holidays so i can continue on with what i do and and as can my daughter my wife and and my parents and and my in-laws you go safely and everybody has those as those folks in their lives so we want to make sure that uh we are doing that i don't see many new questions i do want to uh uh just briefly say uh and i know that we don't have um as many people watching and it could be because of uh you know we did have a board meeting monday we did we did do go over some things but i do want to say uh happy veterans day to all of our veterans we have lots of veterans uh in garfield heights we we appreciate all your service
023uh uh and um and and again we want to keep all our veterans safe too i'll keep reiterating this okay everybody needs to be safe and uh uh please uh make sure that you're following all the guidelines uh with that in the coming days um we will keep communicating with you i know i did not have a friday uh video because we were kind of looking we had the board meeting monday we'll be doing something this friday for everybody uh and and we'll we'll put that out on our mind um if there aren't any questions i know this was a short town hall but i i truly believe in the power of these town halls and we're going to continue on and and as mrs hamilton said november 19th 6 pm mark your calendars we're
024going to have a really great program for you uh and this is going to be the first time i think where we have you know what i would characterize is a is a program we may if we were in person we'd have like say the performing arts center or something but it's it's it's it's going to be virtual we're going to we're going to you know make sure it works so and get get everybody the resources don't hesitate to reach out to me email phone to your schools if you have questions we'll help you so with that if any does anybody have anything else at this time okay all right good night everyone stay safe follow the guidelines make sure that we're staying safe so we we can have the kids come back thank you