001That's a shaking. That was It's not bad. Yeah, we came down the Do you know what Russia would have escaped to this his son Michael did. >> Did you know that? >> So this Sorry. >> You can confirm that. It was supposed to be There you go. All three talked about they have been operating so long. We talked about it years ago. very well. Good. Yeah. back in the same >> how are you? >> I'm sorry. [Music] >> You can call me anything you want, but I don't know if I want to know. This is Your So, [Music] How? [Music] Hey, hey, hey. OC121.22 G5. >> So moved. Second. >> All those in favor? >> I >> here we will be back uh in about 30 minutes. Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. Yeah.
002[Music] Heat. Hey, Heat. [Music] Oh yeah. [Music] Are you are you [Music] Are you [Music] are you [Music] are you are you [Music] are you are you you are [Music] Oh yeah. [Music] Are you [Music] all you? [Music] Are you [Music] Are you Are you [Music] Are you Are you Are you [Music] feeling [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Yeah. [Music] When love comes in, La. [Music] When la [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, hey. [Music] Hey, hey. [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey. [Music] dancing. Dancing [Music] dancing be Dancing. [Music] Dancing dancing. [Music] Dancing, [Music] dancing, [Music] dancing. [Music] You need [Music] you feel me? Happy you here. [Music] You me feel me? Happy here. Here you here. [Music] You won't you [Music] won't you be [Music] Hey. [Music] I love [Music] questioning. [Music] Yeah.
003[Music] Make it good for you. [Music] Good for you. [Music] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. [Music] Good for you. [Music] Good. Good for you. Are Yeah. Would [Music] you forget? [Music] Would forget. [Music] Would [Music] you forget? Would you love [Music] See you guys. Uh, welcome everyone. We're now coming back from executive session. Um, and we're going to have a work session uh to dialogue about the school reopening plan uh that we now I guess have two weeks for. So, um, Mr. Kcki, would you like to start off with a presentation, please? >> Yes. And I just like to remind everybody that our current board mask policy does require masks indoors for events, uh, like this, so everybody should be wearing a mask. Thank you. >> Thank you, everyone. >> We're going to go ahead and get
004started. Board members, you have a print copy of this in your folders. If you don't want to turn around, if you do, fine, you could also pull up uh on your computer uh the last from me has this. Again, I just want to start off by reminding everybody about the assumptions we've talked about in our previous work sessions that the district is going to continue to mitigate the likelihood of COVID spread with regular cleaning and safety protocols in place. We're going to continue to monitor and receive local, regional, state, and national data and input from area health partners and government officials to make informed decisions as we move forward as an organization. Indian Hill is only offering in-person learning at this time and all typical annual school calendar activities are planned and have commenced since
005August 1st and uh our teams are and our our performing arts students are well underway with their activities. >> Mr. Kcki, could I interrupt for one second? Um one of the other board members pointed out we did not do the pledge of allegiance. Could we do that before we start? >> Yes, sir. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you, sir. Thank you. I apologize. When we met last, we talked about and amended the school board uh face covering policy. Masks are required inside all school buildings at all times. Uh we've also discussed having a chance to review and evaluate uh prior to September 14th, which is why we
006set this meeting and then again uh requiring this policy in effect through September 14th. Uh at which time we will also evaluate where we are. Um we know that masks can be removed for lunch and cafeteria while students and staff are eating. Masks can be removed by students already in approved school activities or events indoors related to the practice or competition times during performing arts and/or physical activities such as fizzed, choir, gym, dance, etc. Um, we also ask all visitors to comply with the board policy on campus. And the federal transportation order, which was recently amended, requires masks for all passengers now through January of 2022. That is a change that came out since the last time that we met. We discussed the last time we met a rationale for a bi-weekly review period whether
007it was public or not for our mask requirements in school. And the rationale was to offer consistent opportunities for all children. Uh we know that we don't have vaccines for children under 12 at this time. We wanted to continue to look at regional state uh delta v case load trends. Want to receive input from our pediatric stakeholders. Uh we also know of course as we're operating with our school and most of our students back on campus that we do not have six feet of social distance across campus due to our facilities changes and our in-person enrollment. Uh we've communicated that to all of our parents and families. Um we've also know that we can adapt and pivot our changes our changes to plans if necessary. Some of this is review. Some of this is new.
008So, federal COVID vaccination rates currently just over 52% of fully vaccinated Americans ages 12 and over. Uh, as of the most recent data, I believe it was 52.3%. Um, there was a federal benchmark that has been communicated and set uh to the public several times since June. Uh, and that is a 70% vaccine benchmark for all age groups. The Ohio vaccination rate is currently 64% of all Ohioans are fully vaccinated across all age groups uh 12 and over. Again, there are no vaccines currently available for those under 12. Delta V case loads have trended upwards for the 5 to 17 age group for the past 8 weeks. And Hamilton County's positivity rate right now is 8.4% 4% which is considered significant community spread with the information shared through local health agencies. >> Um I have
009two questions on this slide. One is on the uh delta variant case load trending up. Do we know where it started and where it is now? So what I you know trending up but by how much? And then the second question is on the positivity rate. Do we know of those positive cases are people vaccinated or unvaccinated? >> Um, I'll start with your second question first. What we know is that the large majority of people being hospitalized right now are unvaccinated and those in ICUs that are filling ICUs at all age groups, 98% of them are unvaccinated. Um, what we know about the um first question again is I do not know whether it's a four-fold, fivefold, six-fold increase. And part of the reason I do not personally is because we're taking data that we're
010receiving from partners through uh Children's, through the Cincinnati Collaborative, through Tri Health, and through the Ohio Hospital dashboard, and quite frankly, they're not all the same. Here's some local data that matters that I think is important. And we wanna I want to start by first saying I am so grateful to our families and our students for sharing and for our staff members and faculty for sharing information that is helping us to think about this topic. Um we put out a survey and we have had a uh tremendous response in a short period of time from staff. And if you look at our teacher vaccine data here, um, and how it's changed, as of 8:31, we had over 81 and a half% of our staff respond to a quick survey this week. And of those that
011responded, 92.90% are fully vaccinated. Now, this is incomplete data. So, as we go through some of these slides, we're going to see data that's incomplete, but this is what we know now, and we didn't know this on August 3rd. And so I really appreciate our staff sharing this data. Um we will continue to ask these questions at intervals and we hope to have a more complete set of data. But what we do know is this is really good data and this is a really good rate of vaccination among teachers. So we appreciate that. Same with our students and families. Again, I can't emphasize this enough. It's exciting to know that we put a survey out in one week and that in some cases over 80% or more of those families responded immediately to share this
012information with us. That's a celebration for this community. Um I've worked in schools for a long time. I've never seen response rates to surveys like this on any topic. So I really appreciate it. It's that important. And so when you look at this, we know that grade seven students, I'd like to point out we may never get a 100% response rate and not all seventh graders are 12 years old. So some of them are never going to be eligible for vaccines. But when we look at the percent of respondents who are vaccinated, I think there's some things to celebrate here. Um, and I made the nth grade, I put it in green there just as one example, over 80% of those respondents are fully vaccinated. That's great news. Um, there are many, many communities around
013this state, school districts dealing with far lower vaccine percentage rates than we are. And I think this is a point of celebration for our entire school community moving forward to see these grade levels at over 70%. Now, because it's an incomplete data set, the actual percentage could be lower and and that's important to note also. That's important. Also, any questions about this slide before I move on? We're going to continue to ask families to share and we're going to continue to hope that our response percentage goes up because I think this will help all of us to dialogue about how to move forward. We're also going to continue to let people know about vaccination clinic opportunities so that people can make an informed decision on their own. Here's some other um uh information again with
014our students. Um sorry, I'm showing you the same picture picture here. Um our IH case data uh number of positive COVID cases per building. Again, we've been in school now for nine full school days. Um we've had um two cases that we reported last week and um across two different buildings. Quarantine data again we're looking overall here um we had seven students and one staff member a total of eight um over the last week. So, one of the things we've talked about board members is a decision framework moving forward. We've heard lots of people asking you all and and us lots of questions about how do you go about making decisions. We talked about a rationale for this process of looking at decision matrices and a framework um and for se several reasons. The rationale
015of course would be it provides a process for dialogues around complex issues. Allows us to focus on some values and data that matter to make decisions. allows for regular transparency in our process to the public. Outlines possible solutions or targets, defines a starting point and a conclusion to complex discussions and communicates the decision process to all of our stakeholders. We make some assumptions about decision frameworks as we talk about these as well. First, that you know decisions could be made by the board multiple times and they could change. um data could be reviewed weekly which is something I think we've all committed to looking at reports every week and to do public reviews at intervals to be nimble and I think going back to the start of the pandemic we talked about our administrative team
016has to be able to be nimble and adapt to changing environments uh visual representation uh in a decision framework can help everybody understand how you evaluate something and possible solutions or targets can be adapted over time and of course these things define find success. So, one of the ideas that we share today and again this is just for dialogue. This is not something that's a formal recommendation or a decision that has to be made but a way to think about moving forward. And and when you look at this, we all believe that quarantine percentages and case load percentages, we have a lot of data on this from the last couple of years and we're getting more and more information now about vaccine percentages. So, I'm going to actually work from right to left here for
017a moment. We learned last year that even at our worst, we never had more than 2% of our building populations dealing with COVID cases, positive cases. And so, what we chose here as a current factor for evaluation is that uh less than 1% is good. Over 1% is concerning because we know what happens when we go into the 2 3 4% range. concern grows. Um and and when you look at the column on quarantining, we know that last year during our worst week at the beginning of December before we had to make a shift in plans that we were well over 7% when it came to quarantine and and we we had a lot of trouble staffing our district to operate in person at that time and there were a large number of staff and
018students who were quarantined. So again, we backed off of that number that we knew was uh very serious and arrived at a 5% rate uh of concern. Less than 5% we feel that our students and staff will be able to operate on campus uh without problems, major problems. Uh over 5% we become concerned. When we move to the left to talk about vaccine percentages, again, we know currently that one of our factors is we have an incomplete data set here and that less than 75% of our student population is fully vaccinated. And so what we need to dialogue about in the future is what is a good target and as this data becomes more complete, what could we tolerate in order to get that goal met in the green that would make people feel comfortable?
019And of course, when you look at this decision matrix, all three of these columns are linked. If you look at the language below, if all three benchmarks were met, we would want to dialogue about whether that language should be something that would make us feel confident about going mask optional or providing exemptions to vaccinated students in grades 7 through 12. If two of the three benchmarks were met, would we feel comfortable exempting students who were vaccinated or providing um or sticking with mass required? And again, these are things that that the board could determine. And we felt that if one of the three benchmarks were met, we couldn't move forward. In in some cases, if two of the three aren't met, we're not sure if we can move forward. And and that's something we'll need
020to dialogue about. We do know that staffing ability and unique events could impact this and we know that we could update this dashboard uh for the public so that we could share data weekly moving forward with the understanding that the vaccine percentage column is not 100% accurate because we don't have 100% respondent. >> Yes. >> Question. Um the quarantine percentage you say right now we're greater than 5%. No, what we're saying is that would be the threshold that where we would feel uncomfortable moving forward. Dr. Hooker, just to to clarify, that's not where we are now. That is the factor that we would use to evaluate whether we were in yellow or green. >> And and how many children are in 7 to 12 >> total kids being educated in the seven? >> Over a
021thousand. >> So we're saying that we're willing to tolerate 50 kids in quarantine, not in school, not learning. Well, on our worst week last December, we tolerated over 128. >> Yeah, but we didn't take the mask off. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> We also did not have anybody vaccinated. >> Right. >> So, good questions. And again, we're trying to again look at what would that threshold be if if it was green, less than 5%, would that be comfortable? If it's more than 5% and you're uncomfortable, we could we could adjust those numbers. Other questions about this particular slide before I move on. So the next layer of this is governing body factors. We've heard again language. This this slide is more about the language that would make the board comfortable. So anything in green would
022be the policy goal which would be more flexible than what we currently are hearing from governing bodies. So, the current language that we're hearing from the CDC, from ODH, from Hamilton County uh public health are recommendations, strong recommendations for masking indoors. None of those are requirements. That's the current language. So, our thinking again is anything in green in the future is a goal for policy language that is less restrictive. It is more flexible. And if those benchmarks were met and the board felt that that language was made them more confident, then again we could look at three of three benchmarks, mask optional, two of three benchmarks, possibly mask exempt options for those in grades 7 through 12 with a vaccination proof and one of three we would stay where we are. Those could all be
023adjusted. We could talk about whether we like one of three, two of three, three of three, but that that was our thinking. And that's the current language versus what we would call a goal for the future. Everything that's a goal is in green. Next would be association factors. Again, these are things we hear from partners and local health collaborives um and again associations that put out um information regarding this. So these are just examples. Um, again, current factors and current recommendations from all of the groups you see here, whether it's our Tri Health Partnership, the Cincy Collaborative, or AAPR, recommendations for masking indoors. Tri Health, for example, their doctor group and their association has talked about the fact that if we were locally under three per thousand case rate within our zip code, that that
024would be something that they would feel confident about and a less restrictive environment than what they're recommending right now. Uh the Cincinnati Health Collaborative when we meet and we talk during the week, we talk a lot about the Rate and obviously anything that's less than one is better. when it's over one, that's not as good. So, right now, for example, it might be 1.39 in in this county, that's not as good as 1.0. That would be an example if you if you liked that data value that they share. And of course, AAP um they would take a language recommendation approach where they would soften their language and and we believe just like last spring for them to change their recommendation from masking indoors to something less. It would be tied to vaccine rates and then
025it would it would soften their language and their recommendation would soften that based on vaci vaccinations you might be exempt from wearing a mask indoors in the future. That's why we put that as the goal policy. When we see that language, we'll know that they're being more flexible and they're changing their recommendation. So again, you could decide which of these benchmarks you like, how many of them would trigger a response or a decision. All three slides we just showed you could be linked or you could prioritize and rank order them. We put them into a priority order starting with local data, then governing body language, then partnership affiliation language. That's the order I just went through and I think it it's important for the board to just discuss and decide how you would like to
026prioritize that questions about any of those. >> Not really a question, but I want to point out on the when we're talking about the values and what we're comfortable with um you know when we talk about the 5% you said the um number of 50 kids If we have 80 roughly 80% of our kids vaccinated, you can take those 80% out of the equation because they will never be quarantined unless they're sick. >> Under the current ODH guidelines and the language again that was clarified today, if you are vaccinated, you would not have to quarantine. >> Correct. So, we're talking then about roughly 200 kids and the percentage against that 200. So, I think that's a major distinction. >> Yeah. And I think that's important moving forward for us when we're reviewing data that we
027could look at again over time. We could start to look at the population differently. And and again, the these grids could be replicated for K through six. The reason we're not showing those today is because we know there's no vaccine approval right now, but again, we could duplicate these for K through six. >> Other questions? >> Just one other question. Uh to NY's point, um if we did this, we would have to know how many people were vaccinated in order to come up with an accurate number. You'd know how many >> I think we can get a very close idea. It looks like, you know, from one week to the next, we got a much higher rate of um survey participation. I mean, we'll never know for sure. If we don't get to 100% right,
028that would be a concern that you would never have a complete data set from all of our our surveyed population. It the closer we can get to that 100% response. >> I'm not looking for 100% but I don't think 80% is going to be good enough. But yes, I >> No, but after sending it out one time and getting 80 80% >> Yeah. >> response, I think that's, you know, and if people understand that the more information we have, the better we can make a decision, I think people will participate. I think the participation rate in the survey was excellent >> and I we will send it out again. And I think again I just want to emphasize how proud I am of our students and families for sharing this information and I know from
029the data we have looked at from school districts all across Ohio. There are over 600 of them. We have a high vaccine rate of the respondents that have shared this information with us. We are in really good shape compared to a lot of other areas of Ohio right now and and we should be proud of that and that gives us a starting point for this dialogue to set some goals for the future. >> Other comments or questions or concerns about these? Well, I think to Eddie to NY's point, that's why you're we're talking about percentage and not number of kids because that will change. And based on the student data we have here, the minimum number of kids is that are vaccinated because not 100% have responded, you are looking at close to 80%. So
030when we met last time, we talked about what were the evaluation factors that mattered to the board. And again, this is just a little bit of a review. What we tried to capture in those last three slides were these factors and to focus in on how they could be used. Knowing that we're going to continue to look weekly at local zip code case trends, we have asked the Ohio Department of Health with many partner schools to break out that data demographically for us so that not only can we see case loads by age. We can see them uh we can see vaccine rates by age, by zip code. And um ODH has still not put that data out because they're doing what they call a HIPPA review. But we've been asking, we're going to continue
031to ask and we're going to continue to pull whatever data we can from our partners. Um, we'll look at these throughout the week. We'll look at the hospitalizations. We'll look at the county positivity. We've we've done all of that and then we've included the rest of these three slides that we just shared with you. We think these are a good way for the board to look at either some independent or linked decision matrices to make decisions moving forward. Another thing to point out is if the federal um percentage of vaccinations that the federal government is pushing for is 70%. Then I mean I think that's a great starting point for us. I mean I think in our district we can expect to see more but if the government and you know federal government is saying
03270% there's no reason for us to feel that we have to have 100% or even 90%. So just that I think we just need to keep that perspective. >> Yeah >> the more the better obviously >> 70% is the communicated federal benchmark for all age groups over 12 to remove restrictions that were in place. That was what was communicated throughout the spring and summer months. Has that changed recently? >> Not to my knowledge. It's it was restated again last week. I think that the federal government restates it at intervals. And again, we're not there nationally, right? The number is lower than that nationally, but in Ohio, we're at 64% for the state. and and this this county mirrors the state in many ways overall vaccine rates but our student population that we know with respondents
033is already higher. The only thing I don't see on here and maybe I'm just I think we would take it into account is what are our you know you know six and is what are the recommendations of our trusted scientific advisors tri health and AAP and CDC. I would think that would be part of it. How much? I don't really I'm not trying to make it be a certain number, but I think that ought to be on the list and when we're looking at this in two weeks, we should have all that data uh and see if anything has changed. So, I would think that would be part of it. Yeah. And and Tri Health's best um advice to us right now if we were looking at how to assess moving forward with masking indoors
034um based because right now they're recommending universal masking indoors. our partner association would be to look at when the cases per 10,000 in our zip code come down to three or less per thousand. That would be a a good sign and then they they believe that their language would change. Um with regards to the health collaborative, there are several pieces of data they look at. Our rate is how they start with us every week on our our meetings. We could pick a different value. I could share a little bit more about that with you. But again, these are the things that they're communicating to us in general. >> No, I was just saying I think it'd be nice to have that, you know, that what is, you know, it could change any day, but sure,
035>> I would always want that as part of the information. >> Um, >> and what's the case load in our zip code right now? >> We don't know by age group under 19. They don't break it out demographically. >> And there is a discrepancy here that I think we've heard from people who have shared information with us. Um this is not a judgment against anybody who shared information but if you look at the Ohio hospitals dashboard for COVID and the the 0 to 17 year old cases that they report and hospital admissions they report their number on their dashboard which you can look at day by day is not the same as what our own collaborative or what children's report and so it creates confusion for people including me and I'm not a doctor right
036so just want to keep that in mind as we move forward. >> Um Kim asked that when everyone speaks if they move closer to the mic because she's having a difficult time hearing and she's concerned that others who are listening might have the same problem. >> Thank you. >> So just to review again, do you have any other questions about those slides and the evaluation factors before we move on? Board members, >> I have just one. Can you define locally? >> Well, what we've said for the last year and a half is local would be local campus cases. And when we were looking at case loads last year, board members often wanted to know what the contiguous uh district case numbers were in our zip code. That that's as good a definition as I could
037review. If if that is still how you want to talk about local, I think that's what we've always done. >> I I think it's uh her point is good. We we need to know the local data for 45243 if available, but then we have to have the city and the county and the state data. Have all of that available. I I want to see it all and then we can wait it whatever way we want. But I agree with Elizabeth if available. I'd love to see, you know, what we have in our district. Uh we know what our kids are cuz we have all our kids. Not all of them, but most of them. >> And we we continue to share weekly local campus, local zip code data, state data, regional data, and national data.
038>> Yeah, I think that will be very helpful when we are revisiting it because that gives us more idea about not just what's happening in a district but around. So again, just to go back to these three framework slides, >> all those layers are within those three slides. They're just shown visually in a different way. >> Okay. So, um, other comments or should we move on? Masking protocols. Again, just a reminder, we went over all this before. I'm not going to read through all these slides again. The big change here is bus transportation. They changed the federal order through January 2022. Now, that that's part of a federal law. So, u or has had language that has the effect of a of a law at the federal level. So, all bus transportation um that's masks
039during the school day, to and from school, going to activities for everyone. Um when masks are not required, again, we reiterated this. We've had several people say, "How come we see you wearing a mask, you know, indoors but not outdoors?" Our policy is focused on indoor maskearing. We've had people ask how come people who are in the gym aren't wearing masks during the school day. If if they're in a physical education class, they may not be wearing masks while they're participating. When they're not uh extending themselves physically, they should be wearing a mask. We have had great success in the first two weeks of the school year. I'm very proud of our students and staff for modeling this. I think they've done a great job. Kirk, just I think the board has heard this, but
040people are listening to the meeting. Uh I I think you told us that the uh it told me at least that the u physical education teachers are doing a really good job of trying to maintain distancing uh in the physical education areas. Uh as well as the music teachers that, you know, even though they have the mask off, they're doing a lot. >> Yeah. our specials teachers, our performing arts, music department teachers, our physical education, health teachers, going back for a year and a half now, they've modified lessons and activities. When people are static and not moving, they're keeping them physically distanced. When they're involved in their actual activity, they're allowed to do their activity and remove a mask. And that that's what our teachers have done. And I think that the students in those
041classes have done a great job. contact tracing. Uh just to give people a couple of updates, um we did receive new language from ODH today and um we've also continued to track our weekly quarantine data which we showed earlier. Um we are going to put on another mobile vaccine clinic that'll be offered on September 9th at the Tennis Pavilion parking lot from 10:00 to 1. Again, that is in partnership with Hamilton County Public Health. Anybody is able to participate. We did have questions about whether students were allowed to participate with or without their parents. Every student who goes to one of these clinics gets a parent permission form and waiver signed. Most of them are accompanied by their parent unless they're over 17 years of age. We did vac give vaccines out uh at our
042two prior clinics to 20 individuals who came from the community. So, thank you. And we will offer another of those. And again, it's up to anybody who chooses to participate in those. We're going to continue to offer those opportunities. >> Exemption, >> are they are they the Fiser vaccine? >> Fiser is is what is approved. Yeah. Students and staff again are exempt from quarantine. And we got some clarifying language again from ODH on this today, but basically if you're vaccinated or you're wearing a mask, you will be exempted from quarantine where you have 3 ft of physical distance at all times. There's a slight change in the new ODH language with regards to the duration that you may be around someone. Um, but again, the keys are if you're wearing a mask, you're going to
043be exempt. And if you are vaccinated, you're going to be exempt. I just want to reiterate we have a lot of resources available for students and families who are concerned um and all of our partners and we've had questions about how to contact our partners. Students and families can contact principles, they can contact school counselors, uh we can put them in touch with our school psychologists. We can get them referrals to these resources. they can talk to our director of pupil services uh Erica Leopard. We have people here to help if somebody is looking for help. We talked about future considerations. Um some of you have seen in the news that uh again Fizer was formally approved now by the FDA as of 8:25. Also booster shots have been recommended for adults 16 and over
044beginning September 20th. Those will be available. Uh there is research and some um you know conjecture out there in the community about who needs to get a booster shot and when but they will be available September 20th and again we will share that information with our staff so that they have awareness of that. There is uh state legislation uh pending. There are three bills that will be talked about in September when the legislature comes back into session. Uh many of them are getting back to work now uh informally and formally next week after the holiday. Our communication will continue to be routine. We're going to ask students and staff who are ill to stay home. I'd like to repeat that if someone is feeling ill, they should stay home. We're going to continue to use
045pickup control. We've been using it successfully since since the start of school and it really helps our administrative team to gather a lot of information um and to help people feel confident about coming to school every day. We're going to continue to share this weekly data with the board. We're going to continue to review our health partnerships and talk to Hamilton County every week for evolving news. We've done this uh now for almost two years straight. We're going to continue to report our cases and we're going to continue to provide vaccine information for children and staff as new opportunities become available. Um, and those are all things that, you know, we try to do consistently. We do have to report cases. We've gotten questions about this several times. We have to report cases. It is
046a standing order which has the effect of a law from Hamilton County Health and ODH. And again, there was a graphic we shared before about quarantine and how that all works. I think people have seen that they can access this on our website. Um, board members, did you have any uh questions or comments or concern about the presentation before we dialogue? >> Are you communicating to uh parents that if they keep their children home, they will be not penalized for absences due to illness? >> Yes. Anybody who is staying home, again, our teachers are working with them. that has the same effect as an excused absence. And staff, this is a a a really tough thing, right, for people who are used to coming to work every day and school every day. That kind of
047changed with this pandemic a year and a half ago. We need people who don't feel well to stay home. So I have a one quick question is so kids who are going into quarantine or has been tested positive how are we uh helping them educate since we don't have brace virtual academy are our teachers working with them? >> Dr. Stewart I'm going to let you handle that while I drink some water if that's okay. >> Yeah. Um so interestingly enough last year when we started to see a rise in the students who were quarantined it was nearly impossible for us to meet the needs of all of those students within Brave Virtual Academy. So it really fell to our classroom teachers to be the one to make contact and to help those students when they
048were at home. We received mixed reviews from families about how that went during quarantine. So, we are currently working on a plan that will be a better definition of the expectation um that we'd like to make very public to everybody. What can they expect to see happen during a quarantine? One of the difficulties we'll have right away is that we will probably have less students at the high school level who will have to be quarantined because they have the vaccine. Students who are quarantined at the high school level, though they need contact from their teachers, can be at home and for the most part be very independent. That reverses when we're talking about students at the primary and elementary who do not have the vaccination available to them. And when they're at home and they're
049quarantined, they really do need adult assistance in order to access the curriculum. So that's kind of the problem that we have and we're in the middle of working on that right now so that we can be very clear with everybody about how we're going to try to take care of our students who are quarantined. >> Thank you. >> Can I also ask you one more question? Since school just started, how are our kids doing? >> She's smiling. >> Seeing I am smiling. Seeing our students in school every day is not anything that I will ever take for granted again my entire life. Having students in school is where students need to be. >> Very well said. All right. Um so uh board members um thoughts? Uh I can go first if that's fine. So [Music]
050I think you said it perfectly that students needs to be in school and that's what I think we all are aiming for and that's the best place for them to be to be educated and for their mental and social health it is important that they are in school. So few things that I looked into you know uh that I would like to share with everybody some facts that we already know about is like as Mr. Kenny said that we don't have the vaccine for younger ones that we know. Second was the wearing mask based on Ohio Department of Health says masks have been proven to be extremely effective in slowing the spread of the virus which Ohio researchers conducted on the evaluation last year that shows that ma masking helps control the spread of the
051virus in Ohio school. So that's to know that you know masks are important and they will help us. We have seen that delta variant is affecting younger kids now and the number of kids hospitalized with covid in in United States recently hit record high based on all the data that we have seen through uh CNBC reports. The other thing is the delta variant case loads have trended up for about 5 to 17 age group in past 6 weeks which is important to uh consider. Our local pediatrics ICU is close to capacity and seeing a hospitalization at a rate they haven't seen since the winter surge that has happened. That is something very important to be remembered and our neighboring counties including our own meet the CDC definition of high transmission. Right now positive cases in
052kids have doubled since last two weeks based on Cincinnati Children's. Hamilton County positive rate is 8.4 4 which means a significant community spread. Our buildings as we all know are working in a full capacity and we cannot offer 6 ft distancing and sometimes 3 ft becomes an issue too. So that is something to be considered and the number of yes so the number of new covid-19 cases in Ohio hit their highest level in the seven month last Thursday. which is alarming for me. We all know that vaccine is the best way to control the virus and I'm very proud to say that our teachers are 92% vaccinated which is just amazing. Bravo to all our teachers and I can see that our students uh vaccination rate is going up and hopefully soon we'll see most
053of them vaccinated which will help us tremendously evaluate the situation when we are doing it in future. Now these were some of the facts that we all know about. Now let's move on to things we know based on the scientific studies and what we have experienced together as a Indian hill brave nation during this pandemic since it started for kids in-person learning we all know is the most effective way of learning for kids social emotional and mental health it is important that they are in school with the teachers and their friends last year we saw that when students were put into isol Isolation during quarantine due to exposure or when school went remote due to large number of students staff being in quarantine effective affected badly on their mental health. We know mental health is
054an issue that we all are aware of. It is where it was there before pandemic started. It is still there maybe a little bit more due to so much of uncertaintity and things happening around us and I think being in pandemic is not easy for anyone especially for kids as it creates many kinds of stress and anxiety for them like isolation not being able to see their friends hearing people getting sick around them academics athletics and other social pressure that they go through. It is very important that they are in school so that we can handle some of these problem. Honestly, I think our students have done a great job wearing a mask before and they are proudly wearing it again without complaining as they understand not everyone around them is eligible for vaccine as
055we know. So in my opinion to prevent a bigger problem or for our students better mental health, social health and better performances in everything they do, it is very important to keep students in school in person 5 days as well as as we all know students benefit from in-person learning. some of our experts that we had all been looking for the advice for as we are not an expert. What are I just looked into what are uh they recommending. Our health partner Tri Health is recommending masking indoor. American Physician of Pediatrics is recommending masking indoor. Ohio Department of Health is recommending masking indoor. Cincinnati Children is recommending masking indoor. Center of disease control is recommending masking indoor. Our local practicing pediatrician where we take our kids when they are sick are recommending that kids should
056wear mask indoor because of high number of cases that they are seeing and more and more kids going with symptoms of CO. I think because we are all doing our job of wearing a mask, we are able to keep our numbers low. In comparison to some of the other local schools like Mason has six times more cases, Deer Park has 10 times more cases if adjacent for student population. And to remember these schools had mask option policy. Our kids are doing well. Our numbers are low. I think masks are working. One thing I just want to I just want to take this opportunity to say something to our braves. Braves, you are doing a great job wearing the mask and protecting each other. I know it's not easy, but I'm proud that you all understand
057it's important for a brave nation. So, good job Braves wearing it for future. I would I love Mr. Keni your suggestions with all these I would also like to see uh what's happening in the city the numbers in the uh children's because they see lot of our students there so I would love to see those numbers too >> thank you very much Nancy would you like to go >> uh yeah just um a couple comments one I think we need to be careful when we're throwing stats around my understanding that a lot of the cases of children in the ICU at Children's are due to RSV because there's seems to be somewhat of an epidemic of RSV. So just we need to be clear on our facts. >> Nancy, that is absolutely true. Most of
058the kids are RSV, but there are kids with COVID also. But you're absolutely right. There is a horrible RSV epidemic. >> But it is a myth that our ICU at Children's is full of kids with COVID. It's not. It's RSV. And some of that complication of it what they are seeing. >> Some of that is because they were not getting it last season because of all the masking. >> Um I also want to be careful about the I think we all we need to listen to all of the input from all the agencies but all of the ones you quoted are not regulatory agencies. The regulatory agencies Hamilton County Health Department is not requiring masks. They're working the quarantine around the mask, but they're not coming out and requiring it. So, just >> they're strongly
059recommending that students wear a mask. >> I didn't interrupt when you were talking. >> Yeah, I'm just clarifying that what you just said. >> Let's let Nancy talk. I'm sorry. I was trying to help you, but I think I interrupted you, too. So, I'm Let's let you talk. >> Um, so given the first of all, I really appreciate this work that you all did. Um, it's really helpful to start having some kind of a framework that we can work from, make decisions from and that our parents, our families, our children can start to understand what to watch for. >> I think it's super important and I think it's critical that this board come to some agreements about what those numbers are and how we'll use them and when the decisions will be made. I think
060that's we have to do that as a group. Um, one thing I would like to propose is, um, looking at this exemption from quarantine. Basically, if I'm understanding this all correctly, if you are vaccinated, you will not be quarantined. So, if we have a pretty high percentage of our high school students vaccinated, why can't we as a district do what the rest of the community is doing, the greater community, not schools, and go with if you are not vaccinated, you are required to wear a mask. If you are vaccinated, you may choose not to wear one. So, I think that's something we need to consider. Um, and then lastly, I just want to be sure that we leave here tonight with some type of agreement, next steps to getting this um chart and and the
061lineup of what how we'll prioritize this information because everyone wants to know what's going on and what to expect. So, I think um we just need to be sure that as a group we work this out so that people know what to expect. >> Thank you very much, M. Johnston. >> Uh thank you. I think um Nancy and Kim, you've pretty much covered everything. um what and I agree with you Nancy, we need to work out a matrix so that it's understood by all the parents and they know what to expect and you did make a very good point regarding the ma the masking for kids who are already vaccinated. It does bring up a different perspective on what we've been talking about. But to me, the most important thing is looking at local data
062because that is what impacts us. It's nice to know what's going on in the city without doubt. But we made decisions last year based on our local school population and our direct community as well as our contiguous uh school districts like MadiRaa and Marrymont and Sycamore. And those are a lot the data we collect from that is a lot more relevant to us than what's happening in Lebanon or Mason or Louisiana or somewhere else that doesn't directly affect us. Um, and I I think that's the most important thing is to keep in mind what's affecting us and what's best for our students. And there's no doubt the most important thing is to keep our kids in school and healthy, but we have to do consider their mental health as well as their physical health. And
063we want them to make progress academically and we have to consider all the factors that go into that big picture. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Um, again, um, I think, uh, thank Mr. Kcki for producing all of that information. Um, and I think we certainly need to look at all of that on, uh, the 14th of September. Um, I, you know, mask work that's, we are doing great because they work. Um, and I'm very happy about that. Um, I'm very happy how few quarantines we've had and we've kept our kids in school. super excited about that. Kids belong in school. No question about it. Um I would just say that u the vaccination requirement uh or the mask requirement for vaccinated people, the CDC, American Academy of Pediatrics, both are saying that we
064should wear a mask whether you're vaccinated or not. So I do think we need to look at all of these things. Um, I don't think that I can come up with a matrix of this and this and this will will absolutely the the second that happens, we're pulling the mask off every kid. I I just can't because we we need to look at everything. We need to meet as a board. We need to discuss it. And so, I'm all for collecting all this data. And I agree with you, Elizabeth. I really want to see the local data because you are not incorrect. Last year we made a decision uh that kind of went against Hamilton County and opened these schools with kids in masks notably but we went against the local we we we said
065you know this is what we think and we were found the American Academy of Pediatrics and we were against the CDC. So I don't want to say that if the CDC says that's the end of the discussion. I don't want to say if AAP says I don't want to say if local data shows. I think we need to see the whole thing, have a discussion, bring it forward, respectfully look at everything, and then come up with a decision on September 14th. Uh because I want to look at everything, and I want to compliment the district administrators who've done an amazing job of getting us information and need to continue to do so. Nancy, um I just want to make sure that there wasn't anything you wanted to propose or anything. I don't want to, >>
066you know, I just I Is there anything that anybody wants to propose tonight uh for a vote? I guess what what are other people's opinions of um the situation at the high school >> because we do have so many students that are vaccinated and is there is there wiggle room for at least the high school at this point? Would you, you know, would you all be willing to even have that discussion? >> Sure. Um can I say something about the vaccination, Nancy? As you said that if you're vaccinated, you don't have to wear a mask. I agree uh in regular situations yes you do they should have an exemption but right now we are seeing a surge in the city like at children's at other places that we are seeing the numbers going up so
067I don't think it is a good idea to take that risk of even if they are vaccinated still they are getting infected they may not be uh getting hospitalized but those kids can carry it and pass it on we still have a lot of kids who are not vaccinated. So if we take the mask out right now when we are in the surge it might we may say we might see more number of kids getting infected. Well, we might, but um the number of positive cases per school building have been extremely low and children are going to be exposed outside of the school building because as soon as they leave the building, the masks are off in all their activities, their masks are off. They're not doing any, you know, depending on the child, they're
068not doing a lot of other activities without masks. The exposure is coming from outside the school. So a and at this point even with all that we have virtually no cases. So I don't think taking you know national data or um even regional that is so much different from our neighborhood can be applied to this particular situation. And at some point we need to be able to to have a sliding scale of what we'll tolerate. And I think that's what we really need to work on getting to. >> Nancy, I I like what you're saying. I you we're dialoging on this. I right now I'm not at that point, but I might be September 14th. I'd have to look and see where things are. Uh because I think that it is something that we need
069to see what the recommendations are and what the the local data. But I hear what you're saying. >> But what what difference does another two weeks make? >> Two more weeks with mask on, two more weeks of protection. It's not is the way I'm looking at it. >> Yeah, it's it has been just 9 days since we had full school day. like we had only nine full school days and I think it's too early to act on it and I think by September 14th we'll have more number uh more data and we can evaluate then >> but I certainly would be willing to consider that is not off the table by any means that you know either a graded thing uh because some of the school districts that are not doing horribly have had a
070split where they said K through preK through 7 uh or pre-K through six depending on the school district. So I am absolutely willing to have that discussion uh as a >> Yeah, me too. And and notably a a district right around the corner from us who has optional 7 to 12 has like the lowest case load, lowest quarantines around. So, it's really hard to say that there's a direct correlation between optional and required and in situations where the community doesn't have a case load. >> I totally agree. I think we need to look at the data. I wish we could have a good scientific study on it, but I don't think we're going to have that. So, I do think that we ought to ask uh as best we can to have someone look at
071that and get all that data for us to look at. You're not wrong. Um, so unless there is um other comments from the board, I would like to entertain a motion to uh uh modify the agenda uh to allow for public commentary since we did not have it on the agenda. >> So moved. Second. >> Do we need a roll call, Mr. Davis? >> Excuse me. >> We do. [Music] I did. >> Did I hear earlier you had an executive meeting that was in the house? >> It's in the notice, sir. >> Um, do we need a roll call, sir? >> Sir, no, I can't. Please be seated. >> It's It's on the agenda. [Music] Sir, I'm not really willing to have a discussion with you. Please sit down. I heard what you said. >>
072Mrs. Iikolds >> I. >> Mrs. Singh. >> I. >> Mrs. Johnston. >> Hi. >> Dr. Hooker. >> I uh believe we've had how many people sign up for public commentary, sir? >> Seven. >> Okay. Uh if those people, if you could call them down and you do the timing, that would be awesome. Certainly. Uh we will do this similar to the way we've done it in the past. I will call um the first four people down. The first person will be the speaker. The next three will be on deck to speak. As that person finishes, I'll call the next person down to uh get in line. I will do the timing. There will be five minutes per per person. Uh, and that order will be Joan Garrett, Katie Foster, Jennifer Cedan Harris, and Jeffrey Heineken.
073[Music] >> And if you don't mind, state your name and where you live. >> Yeah, my name is Joan Garrett. Um, I live in Sycamore Township. Um, so by way of introduction, I'm a PhD scientist focused on identifying and overcoming mechanisms of resistance to targeted cancer therapies. I also teach pharmacy students. Um, but I'm here now as a mother to three children enrolled in the Indian Hill schools. Their ages are 11, 8, and six. None of my children are eligible to receive the CO 19 vaccine. So, I'm asking you today to revise the mask mandate to include all indoor activities, including gym and music class, and furthermore, extend the ma the mask mandate indoors until all school children are able to be fully vaccinated against CO 19. My six-year-old son, Henry, started kindergarten at the
074primary school this month. Henry has a rare disease, a congenal myopathy. So congenital means you're born with it. Myopathy is muscle weakness. So this means he was born with a muscle weakness. The genetic causes of Henry's disease remain undetermined. And I've emailed you all separately this morning um and sent you a link to his un undiagnosed diseases network website so you can see more information about that. Henry has a history of recurrent pneumonia and respiratory failure. As an eight-month-old, a rhino virus infection, common cold caused Henry to be intubated on a ventilator for six days. He spent eight days in the ICU, and he was hospitalized for a total of 13 days. Henry has been hospitalized more than a dozen times for pneumonia throughout his life. His medical bills have been over a million dollars.
075Our million-dollar baby is a joy. He loves to be a ninja. He loves to wrestle with his siblings and he always has a funny and sassy comeback for his parents. Henry has had an individual education plan, also known as an IEP, since he turned three when he became eligible for an IEP. Henry has made steady progress and it's essential that Henry be integrated with typically developing peers for his growth and also per the individuals with disabilities education act. So the acronym for this is the IDEA. So individuals with disabilities education act. This stipulates that children with disabilities should be educated and the least restrictive environment. So the acronym for this is LE, least restrictive environment. So for Henry, the LRE means he should be integrated with his typically developing peers and not excluded from indoor
076music and gym because students are not wearing masks. As it currently stands within the school district, Henry cannot attend this curriculum because students are not wearing masks. The risk is too great for Henry to be in a room full of children without masks. No one knows or could predict how Henry would handle COVID 19 infection. Given Henry's medical history, it is essential to limit his exposure by wearing masks until everyone is going to be wearing masks until Henry can be fully vaccinated against CO 19. So, in summary, given the increasing numbers of COVID 19 cases and hospitalizations in children, I implore you to reise revise the mask mandate to include all indoor activities, including music and gym class. and furthermore extend the mass mandate until all schoolaged children can be fully vaccinated against CO 19.
077So, thank you for your time and service to our children. So, I know I have about a minute left because I've also timing it. Um, and so I wanted to read this. I didn't write this. This is this is by Tracy Walker with contri contribution by Tiffany Banks um from the Center for Dignity and Healthc Care for People with Disabilities. Um, schools that do not require masking fail to meet the needs of children with disabilities. Based on the rise of the Delta variant of CO 19 and the increasing number of breakthrough infections, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention CDC revised masking guidance on July 27th, 2021. The CDC continues to recommend that people ages two and older and those who are not fully vaccinated should wear a mask in in indoor public places. In
078addition, the CDC guidance recommends that fully vaccinated people should wear a mask indoors in public areas in areas of substantial or high transmission. So, I'm going to stop there. I think that the next few speakers are also going to read from the same thing. So, thank you very much. I appreciate your >> Thank you very much. You're very good at timing that. >> If you if you have comments that you want directly put into the minutes, if you could leave those with Mr. Nichols, I would appreciate it. Thank you. Uh, the next person up in line would be Amanda Hullbrook. And Katie Foster, you're up to speak. >> Someone else. >> Yeah, that confuses all of us. So again, state your full name and where you live, please. >> I'm Katie Foster. I live at
0799901 Alar Court in Sims Township. Um, I am the mother of a medically complex kindergartener here in the district. And um I agree with what the board has said. All children should be in school. And the best way you can do that is by extending this policy to change it so that masking is also required in gym and music because right now all children are not able to participate in school. All right. Um, so unfortunately the district's current mass policy is in violation of my son's civil rights and the civil rights of other students in the district that fall under the protections of a 504 and IEP. To eliminate this policy altogether would be a further violation of his and his peers rights. I'd like to read part of a statement authored by Tracy Waller
080with contribution by Tiffany Banks outlining these violations and why they're problematic. In the US, uh the Fiser vaccine is the only CO 19 vaccine available to people ages 12 and under. On August 30, uh 23rd, 2021, the Fiser vaccine received full US Food and Drug Administration approval for protection against CO 19 in people ages 16 and older. But as the summer winds down and children return to school, those under 12 are not eligible for any of the CO 19 vaccines. On July 18th, 2021, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued its CO 19 guidance for safe schools, urging in-person learning because remote learning highlighted inequities in education was detrimental to the educational attainment of students of all ages and exacerbated the mental health crisis among children and adolesccents. In its guidance, the AAP recommends universal masking
081in schools for several reasons. including that a significant portion of the student population is not eligible for vaccination and to protect unvaccinated students from CO 19 to reduce transmission. On August 5th, 2021, the CDC issued guidance recommending univer universal indoor masking by all students ages two and older, staff, teachers, and visitors to K through2 schools regardless of vaccination status to protect um the protection of masks higher when worn by a virus spreader, highlighting the importance of universal masking. schools and masking. Studies have indicated a reduction of CO 19 uh transmission with universal masking in schools. Despite mounting evidence in the CDC and AB uh AAP recommendations for universal masking in schools, the topic of masking in schools continues to be a polarizing one for parents and policy makers. According to education week um August 19th,
082eight states had pro had prohibited school districts from setting mask requirements. 14 states in the District of Columbia require masks be worn in schools. Across the country, some school districts have chosen to move forward with mask mandates while others have not. That leaves many students at high risk for contracting CO 19. Children under 12 and children who are immune compromised are especially vulnerable. The American with Disabilities Act under the ADA public entity shall make reasonable modifications and policies, practices or procedures when the modifications are necessary to avoid discrimination on the basis of disability unless the public entity can demonstrate that making modifications would fundamentally alter the nature of the service, program, or activity. Because last year there was masking, universal masking in all areas, it is not considered a fundamental change. A mask mandate is
083a reasonable accommodation that does not fundamentally alter any school district's ability to provide services, facilities, privileges, advantage advantages, programs, or activities to educate children in school. Because many children under age 12 are in school and the Delta variant has created breakthrough infections, increasing pediatric hospitalizations, universal masking not only accommodates children with disabilities and their family members, but also protects all children in school. There are no studies to support that masking traumatizes children. the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, school districts across the country educate children eligible for individuals with disabilities education act and section 504 services, children with underlying medical conditions in the 2019 2020 school year 14. >> Time is up. >> Okay. >> Thank you very much. >> Appreciate it. [Music] Megan Seaman Cosmier, could you please
084come and get in line >> and please state your name and where you live, please? >> Um, oh, my name is Jennifer Cedon and um I live um in the Sturbridge division subdivision. Um, class of 89, four kids in the district. I spoke a couple of weeks ago. Um, none of my children are medically complex. However, um, as I mentioned previously, my 12-year-old has long COVID. Prior to COVID, he was a typical able-bodied, healthy child. Currently, he has unpredictable and severe headaches, cognitive fog, and fatigue that can be debilitating. This impacts his these impact his ability to stay focused and complete multitask uh multi-step tasks without some support. He was not that way before. Although these symptoms have improved over time, we have no idea what lies ahead for him. Similar to the chickenpox virus,
085the co virus can lay dormant in your system for unpredictable periods of time and then emerge unexpectedly, very much like what happens with shingles. Two of my children receive uh support through various means for ADHD and general an uh general anxiety disorder. One has a 504. The other does not currently have one but will need one in the future. In the 2019 2020 school year, 14% of students or about 7.3 million children between the ages of 3 and 21 receives received special education and related services under IDA and public schools. Under IDA, children with disabilities are guaranteed a free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment. Over 60% of students receiving IDEIDA services spend 80% or more of their time within their school and general education classrooms. Under section 504, otherwise qualifi no otherwise
086qualified individual with a disability in the United States shall solely by reason of her or his disability be excluded from the participation in be denied the benefits of or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. If school districts fail to mandate masking, imunocmpromised students with disabilities will be excluded from participation in public education because of CO 19 infection concerns. Under both the IDA and section 504, schools have a responsibility to provide a free appropriate public education and to integrate students to the maximum extent possible. By not requiring masking, schools will have failed to meet the needs of qualified children with disabilities. If complete integration is not possible then under IDEIDA schools must provide a substantially equal education opportunity. Over the last 18 sorry months many schools have provided students
087with online or at home learning. On Friday, August 20th, 2021, the Florida Board of Education approved the use of private school vouchers for children who chose not to wear a mask. However, online education and forcing children out of public school is neither appropriate nor equal. Additionally, many school districts may not have virtual programs available to students on a modified curriculum. The AAP expressed concerns for the mental health of children isolated during the CO 19 pandemic. By not requiring universal masking, some parents will be forced to choose between a free public education and their child's safety. Children from underrepresented groups are disproportionately affected by the failure to mandate masks. More children from under reppresented racial and ethnic backgrounds are identified as having a disability than are children who are white, highlighting the racial and ethnic inequalities
088of the current policy concern. Children living in poverty are also more likely to have a disability than their peers are, highlighting the socioeconomic inequity of the current policy concerns as well. Some imunocmpromised children may not receive special education and related services. In the 2019 2020 school year, about 1.9 million 09 million children ages 3 through 21 were identified as having an other health imp impairment. A federal eligibility category that includes chronic issues such as asthma, leukemia, and other imuninomperence conditions that put children at higher risk for developing COVID 19 complications. In 2020, 1,774 children under the age of 17 were organ transplant recipients. Studies have shown that transplant recipients do not develop the same level of antibodies from COVID 19 vaccination as do people who are not transplant recipients. These immun imunocmpromised children may not
089fall under protections from the IDA and section 504, but schools are still required to reasonably accommodate them under the ADA. Failing to mandate masking is a violation of the ADA, the IDEIDA, and section 504 of the rehabilitation. That's >> time. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Mike WZ, you'll be next in line. >> Mr. President, before I step up there, I have sir point of order that I didn't get to ask. >> I've been vaccinated. I have >> This is your public commentary. Come on up and speak. We'll be delighted to >> do a point of order either. >> Okay. >> You you can come up and speak and tell us anything you want to tell us. >> I'm asking a point of order. That's Robert's rules. You do remember Robert's rules,
090correct? >> Sir, what is your point? >> I'm not going to wear a mask. That's my point. Now, I'm going to try to be as constructive as possible. I've repeatedly said to this board, Title 33 doesn't give you the authority to mandate masks. And in addition, Title 122 has certain requirements that you still continue not to meet. And I asked a very simple question about your executive meeting. I'll get those answers later. I promise you. I want to read a letter that was sent to Governor DeWine by a doctor Ryan Max who's a licensed clinical psychologist has his own group in Westchester worked at Children's Hospital for nine years in the last five of which he served as the clinical director of psychology for the division of developmental and behavioral pediatrics. Imagine that. He wants
091to share with Governor DeWine the powerful mental health data from the CDC as well as data from his own practice where he sees over 5,000 patients per year. Now, why is mental health important? Well, let's read to you one of the candidates uh campaign promises. My vision is to focus on important issues that impact Indian Hill students and families, including education, nutrition, mental health, drug prevention, drug awareness. According to the CDC's website, during the 2020 COVID pandemic for all children under the age of 18, the United States averaged 1673 hospital visits for severe mental health problems per every 100,000 youth. For 2019, the average was 1161 per 100,000. takeaway is the pa p pandemic and its mitigation requirements resulted in a drastic increase in severe mental health problems. Now let's compare that to the most
092current CO 19 hospitalization rates for youth in the United States. According to the CDC's CO track, as of today, and that was August 16th, 2021, the current hospitalization rate for anyone under the age of 18 is 0.4 for 100,000. Think about that. Mental health, it's per 100,000. COVID with three months of Delta variant already built in is 0.4 per 100,000. Data shows that a child is over 4,000 times more likely to have the hospital go to the hospital for problems with mental health than for CO 19. Sharing the same kind of data from his own psychology group, he shows that he used to get 30 calls a day. Now he's getting 175. And the kids aren't just talking about their fear of CO. A high percentage of them talk about problems related to masks and
093social distancing. What an anomaly. Social distancing. I could I could I'm going to put this in the record because I have something else I guess I want to say because it was written to our uh our good friend Governor Dwine. you know, the one who was in Hamilton County last week without a mask. Uh, and that's also going to be part of the record, but I want to relate to other studies because quite frankly, I get tired of cherry-picking. I can cherrypick, too. But there are studies on both sides of the issues. And the biggest part of the issue is, are we hurting these kids who are ages 0 to 19? Most high school kids are 18, but let's see 0 to 19. You know, you can tell me the rates are up dramatically. Yeah,
094if you go from one to 10, that's up dramatically, but that's 10. And I think the rates are now maybe 100. Let's be realistic and let's not continue to punish our kids because that's what you're doing. You're not concerned that for the most part about mental health. I don't know what you're concerned about to be perfectly honest. You know what? Here's what I'm going to do. You I'm going to put all this in public record. You can read it if you want or you can continue to ignore it. That's kind. Thank you. Please state your name and where you live. >> Sure. Um I am Dr. Amanda Hullbrook. I uh live in Indian Hill south on Miami. Um so the south southern part of the district. I have two children. One is a seventh grader
095and uh one is a second grader. So I am an adult internal medicine physician. Um I have practiced formally practiced at Tri Health for a very long time. And actually part of my job more applicable to this um up until about uh June was taking frontline COVID part of my role was actually doing remote care doing frontline COVID calls and first response for some of the probably the largest employers in our nation. So I was taking phone calls from some of our most vulnerable families and most vulnerable areas all the way to other wellstaffed areas really seeing how the variances of community settings um economics um education access um chance everything impacted families. So certainly I could sit here and tell you a lot of very sad stories um of entire families wiped out by
096co um you know we are all here for the kids. I I guess at the end of the day I've got kids. My seventh grader, she hates wearing the mask. Come in here tonight. She's like it's so uncomfortable. Mom, my kid has asthma. She's one of those vulnerable kids. We have a 504, right? That's not why I'm here today. Yes, I want to protect her. She's vaccinated. She's lucky my six-year-old has asthma. He can't be vaccinated. But I want to just respond while I have the time to a couple of pieces of information. I had to stand back for a second and say, why are we debating this? Masks stink. They're no fun. Nobody wants to wear them. I work in the hospital and I don't enjoy wearing all this stuff, but I do it
097because it's the right thing to do because I'm protecting myself and someone else. We have to remember that. Why are we debating whether we put these on if our job is to protect the most vulnerable people, children? We're protecting children. You're debating whether to put a cosmetic thing on or not that actually has profound ability to decrease the spread of COVID in our community. And to answer your question, community just isn't your zip code. It really is all the surrounding zip codes in the area in general. If you look at Hamilton County, our rates right now at our high risk of vulnerability. to correct you on a few things you stated tonight. Um, uh, Superintendent Kcki is the fact that couple of things that is actually recommended that we do wear all including vaccinated people
098wear max back uh, masks indoors because we know people who are vaccinated vaccines aren't 100%. You can still get COVID. It'll be a milder case, but you're going to share it with your neighbor and you're probably going to share it before you ever knew you were sick. And so back to the most vulnerable, there are even people in the seventh grade and up that may not be able to get vaccinated. We have teachers, young teachers, they're going to be pregnant possibly. I can really tell you some very sad stories of vaccinated pregnant women who have profound complications that get COVID during pregnancy. We don't know yet a lot about COVID. It's still very young and Delta's new. It's twice as infectious as what we saw last year. It's more easily spread to thousandfold. Okay. So,
099I just want to remember that. Couple other things. I guess the other thing just when you look at all this data and you look at the up-to-date, I realize that like the American Academy of Pediatrics and you know um the Ohio uh health department and you know the National Board of uh pediatric hospitals and all of those other boards aren't regulatory. But I'm going to guess when each one of you is sick, have a family member that's sick, or you have children that you're figuring out how to keep them well, you go to clinicians who look to those organizations to make the best decision possible with the science that we have today to keep people well. And I have that updated. I did it tonight and I'm happy to share that. that every single one
100of those organizations based on the data we're seeing as of today recommends indoor masking of everyone including those that are vaccinated. >> Okay, >> that's that's not time. I still have 45 seconds. >> Okay, that was mine. So, I just want to really remind you that when we make these social decisions on I hate wearing masks, it's distracting and all those other things, there's no, yes, it stinks, but there's no negative health impact from the mask. Mental health is going to be worse if half your family's vac uh is is quarantined at home and you don't go to school. The studies show that social isolation and being at home, you have increased risks of everything from suicide to major depression, parents that can't work and make an income. We may have a very lofty idea
101of Indian Hill, but we have many families that cannot afford to miss work. So, I would say absolutely we cannot change the mask rule, cannot for under 12. And I really think you should hesitate on changing it. >> Thank you very much. Again, as you come up, please state your name and your address. >> Hi there. I'm Megan Seaman Coster and I live at 5800 Miami. I'm going to finish reading the uh ADA and IDEA information that some of my previous speakers were starting. So, the additional considerations to masking. Many children reside in homes with immuno compromised parents, grandparents or siblings. In 2012, 7 million grandparents reported living with at least one grandchild and 2.7 million reported raising their grandchildren. 4% of these grandparents were over the age of 80. Additionally, many children have siblings
102who are imunocmpromised. If the only option for in-person learning for these healthy children is to attend school with unmasked children, families may be forced to choose between sending their healthy children to school and risking their immunompromised child's health and keeping their healthy children at home to protect the health of their imunocmpromised children. Universal masking in K12 public school buildings has the potential to create an equitable, accessible learning environment for all children and their families. In summary, school mask mandates are essential to decrease the spread of CO 19 in schools. Mask mandates help to protect children under 12 who are currently not able to receive the CO 19 vaccine. Masking helps to protect imunocmpromised children and their families. And that's the end of that. And then I have my own little intro. Um I already said
103my name. Uh I'm here as a parent of two current Indian Hill students. My 11-year-old is too young to be vaccinated. My 15-year-old has had the f Fiser vaccine. Both are happy to mask because it means they and their friends can be back in school. And we all agree that kids being in school in person is paramount. I want to first say thank you to the board for following the science and for voting for universal K12 masking. I am also here to urge you to continue upholding universal masking for all students, all people, for all indoor activities until at least 90 days after the COVID vaccine becomes available for all school age children. With a novel virus like CO 19, we are still learning important details 18 months into this pandemic, and I'm sure we'll
104be learning more day by day. We know that the current dominant strain, Delta, is significantly more transmissible than what we were dealing with last August. This suggests that we need more layers of protection, not less. It means we need better masks and proper maskearing. It means that all indoor activities, including music and gym, should be masked. And it means more social distance, not less. Another important thing that we are learning is that long CO occurs in more than a third of children and adults, even after mild COVID infection. This is important. So, let me repeat it. one-third have long COVID even after a mild infection. Section 504 now covers long CO in our district. How many more 504 plans will be needed for students who have long CO if we decide to ditch the masks?
105I know a lot of CO statistics are reduced to deaths from COVID, but what about impairment to everyday functioning by long CO? Long CO can impact both physical health and mental health. and continuing K12 masking is an important layer of protection here. Please consider this information as you are making decisions on masking going forward. Thank you very much. >> Thank you very much. >> Again, please state your name and your address as you come up. Thank you. >> My name is Mike Wentz. I live at 8220 Shauny Run Road. Um these microphones are great, aren't they? It's too bad the kids don't have them in their classrooms. They got to go seven hours every day without them. Anyway, um at the last meeting, um I spoke from personal experience about the negative effects of maskearing,
106but I'm just a concerned dad. Um Jeff Heineken presented a letter um to Governor Dwine from from Dr. Ryan Max. Um I just like to I was going to do the same thing and I will do the same thing in a little bit different format. Um but um Dr. Max um has experience with current and former Indian Hill students. He's not just some guy that's um has a has a practice in Westchester. Um, I'll read this verbatim and I'll I'll I'll I might um summarize a little bit um due to time constraints. My name is Dr. Ryan Max and I'm a licensed clinical psychologist and founder of the Max Psychology Group in Westchester, Ohio, where we have 15 mental health providers, mostly psychologists who specialize in child and adolescent services. Prior prior to private practice,
107I worked at Cincinnati Children's Hospital for nine years. The last five of which I served as the clinical director of psychology for the division of developmental and behavioral pediatrics, which was the largest division at the hospital at that time. Over the last several months, I have listened to press conferences from you and your medical director and read published letters by groups of physicians asking for max mask requirements to be levied on children due to concerns regarding COVID. What I have not heard throughout this entire public discussion has been data or general concern regarding the mental health of children. As such, I would like to share with you some of the power powerful mental health data from the CDC as well as the data from my own practice where we see an average of 5,000 patient
108visits per year. According to the CDC's website, during the 2020 COVID pandemic for all children under the age of 18, the United States averaged 1673 hospital visits for severe mental health problems for every 100,000 youth. Um, for 2019, that average was just 1,161. The takeaway is that the pandemic and its mitigation requirements resulted in a drastic increase in severe mental health problems for our children. That's not too hard to understand. Um, now those numbers, now let's compare those numbers to the most current CO 19 hospitalization rates for youth in the United States. According to the CDC's CO tracker, as of today, which was last week, the current hospitalization rate for under the age of 18 is 41 out of 100,000. For mental health, it's 1,673. for COVID with three months of Delta variant under its
109belt. It's 041 per 100,000. This data shows that a child is over 4,000 times more likely to go to the hospital for problems such as self harm, crippling anxiety, and suicide attempts rather than for CO 19. 4,000 times more likely. Okay, so we're talking about risk here, right? Um we're all talking about risk. Um he's t he's he goes on to talk about how his um his group has seen over a 400% increase in the last year for local local kids um requesting its services. Um he goes on to say at this point children are losing their child childhoods and with the quality of their education, social relationships and mental health. Um, children more than anyone need stability and consistency to have them go from a relatively carefree childhood to the COVID pandemic and mitigation
110measures to removing those mit mitigation measures this summer only to reimplement them again now will be absolutely catastrophic to their mental health. I'm not here to argue that mitigation policies are recommended by medical experts um can help reduce COVID spread, but the medical risk the medical risk to children from COVID is minuscule in comparison to the medical risk to children from mental health. And unlike a year ago, we now have mountains of data to see this. Um, I'm very happy to speak to you any of your staff and anyone from the Ohio Department of Health should you have any questions uh with regards Ryan J. Max, PhD, licensed clinical psychologist. Um, I just likely I'd just also like to say all all this work you guys have done is is is amazing. studying the charts,
111the graphs, all these things. But the damage that's done to our kids is not gonna show up >> in a graph or a chart or some scientific study. >> Thank you very much, sir. And please, you can give that to uh Jim. And is that it? >> That is it for public participation. >> Awesome. Um there being no further business, I would entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> Some moved. Second. >> All those in favor? Hi. >> Hi. >> Thank you everyone. Exclusive coverage on the Indian Hill Television Network has been a copyrighted presentation of the Indian Hill High School Video Department. Exclusive coverage of tonight's game on the Indian Hill Television Network has been a copyrighted presentation of the Indian Hill High School Video Department.