001foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] laughs [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] trustees on September 17 2020 at 508 PM due to health and safety concerns related to the covid-19 coronavirus this meeting will be conducted by video conference or telephone call at least a quorum of the board will be participating by video conference or telephone in accordance with the provisions of sections 551.125-54-551.127 of the Texas government code that have been suspended by order of the governor members of the public May access this meeting via AISD website site at www.aisd.net the Board of Trustees on September 17 2020 beginning at 609 PM we'll reconvene in closed session pursuant to sections 551.071-551.084 of the Texas government code in accordance with the Texas open meetings act for the topic set forth on our agenda
002we will reconvene an open meeting at approximately 6 15 pm thank you um president May yes um I believe you stated the closed session time incorrectly uh you stated at 609 PM is when we would begin okay we will reconvene an open meeting at approximately 6 15 PM no no as far as when we begin that we're beginning at 506 p.m enclosed you stayed at 609 PM oh my apologies the Board of Trustees on September 17 2020 beginning at 5 10 p.m we'll convene in closed session pursuant to sections 55071 551.071-551.084 of the Texas government code in accordance with the Texas open meetings act for the topic set forth on our agenda thank you very much Dr Rice thank you [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music]
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006thank you [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign thank you Frank foreign we will start our meeting with the opening ceremony please join Dr Aaron Reich in leading Us in the Pledge of Allegiance thank you President Hayes 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 very much Dr Rush just want to remind everyone to please mute um so that no there will be no disturbance to anyone else listening um if you're unmuting and talking please make sure that your phone is silenced thank you next on our agenda we will open our public hearings on schools first the State financial accountability rating system Dr Cavazos thank you president mace and the
007Texas Education Agency released its 2020 Financial accountability ratings for all of Texas school districts state law requires each district to hold a public hearing to discuss its rating and to invite public comment on the rating Tonight Tony drollinger our Executive Director of Finance will present a report on our financial accountability rating following his report we certainly invite public comment on that rating Mr drollinger thank you president Mays board members Dr Cavazos good evening school first is the financial rating system used by the Texas Education Agency to hold school districts accountable for the quality of their overall financial management practices as you well know it is designed to encourage school districts to provide the maximum allocation of the resources into the classroom and it also highlights and discloses the quality of financial Integrity management decisions that
008we make and uh it uh there's it's the first is an acronym and um for the 2020 year I'm pleased to announce that uh Arlington was awarded the highest rating which is a superior and uh which is the same rating that we have received last year and in fact um this system has been in effect for 18 years and for all uh 18 years uh Arlington ISD has received the highest rating for each of those years a little bit of background on the system um I'll let you read that but basically the 2020 worksheet contains 14 indicators and it is based on the student staff and financial data from the most recently audited year which for the 2020 uh report that is for the 2018-19 fiscal year this is the breakdown of the ratings that
009a school district may be assigned a through F you see the point scale listed there over time that scale has collapsed to make the system more rigorous and um a little bit harder to to receive the higher ratings this is the only system the tea has to as a predictor of a school district's Financial Health and depending on how School District fares the agency is able to maybe tell what a school district is in trouble of failing before they actually will fail this is the only real test the tea has to to watch the school district's financial management there are some key components um of the first system as you see here um the report we have to issue an annual financial management report that includes these uh items here among some other things um
010we have to hold a public hearing to give individuals the opportunity to comment on the report which is what we're doing here this evening we also have to make the school first uh evaluation and the financial management report available to the public and as of tomorrow this report that you have received will be available to the public but also on the tea website any interested party can go pull down the the sheets for any uh School in Texas and see what their ratings are as well finally we did have to post an advertisement in the newspaper about this public hearing and and we did that that's what I have prepared for this evening at this time I'll be happy to answer any questions and it would be appropriate to invite public comment um foreign okay
011very good can everyone hear me yes okay there was a little delay there so uh Miss Benjamin do we have any registered speakers for the open public hearing no ma'am we have no registered speakers for this public hearing okay so there are no cards and no register speakers for the public hearing the public hearing on schools first the State financial accountability rating system is now closed now we come to our open forum for agenda items as stated on the posted agenda members of the public who desire to address the board regarding an item on the agenda are required to register by sending an email to the superintendent of school secretary Al Benjamin at aisd.net no later than 3 P.M the day of the board meeting this is Benjamin do we have any requesters registered to
012address the board regarding agenda items yes ma'am we have three registered speakers this evening we have Miss Linda Porter Linda bellfield and Marisol Fritz okay Miss Benjamin I heard you speaking and I'm sorry it might be me having connection issues but I didn't hear any names so if you could please repeat that for me please yes ma'am our first speaker is Linda Porter our second speaker is the Wendell bellfield our third and last speaker is Marisol Fritz okay so I'm looking for Miss Porter yes I'm here I see she's muted so I'm just going to read okay very good I'm going to read um that this is a routine part of the school board's agenda for regularly scheduled meetings this segment of the meeting provides citizens with an opportunity to share their views with the
013trustees on items that are on the Edition tonight it is not intended to be a discussion or a debate and trustees will not reply to the speakers derogatory comments aimed at an individual will not be tolerated Personnel matters are not appropriate subjects for open forum and you will have five minutes to speak Mrs Benjamin will notify you when your time is up and at that time please end your presentation Linda Porter your time starts now okay I can hear you now you are muted supporter okay can you hear me now so hit your unmute button one more time okay okay there you go uh president May is that there was a delay she was responding to your DeLay So the supporters muted again she is I don't know if it's my it may be my
014computer this you're doing it okay all right good evening everyone and uh okay good evening everyone thank you for uh listening to me I had some concerns of us returning back to uh in-person School uh as far as the students and the staff uh one was that uh do we when you all make decisions uh there's a decision based on what the city C has in guidelines for for us returning and the next one was if uh your students parents wants to still keep going things virtual um my thing is what is in place for all of that as well uh as far as keeping the safety of the staff uh will be working and make sure that everything's sanitized and clean on a regular basis uh who's gonna be responsible is going to be
015the staff or you have a separate staff to come in and do that as well and there wasn't my those were my concerns and I don't know if you heard me or not okay I can't hear hear you so I may I cut the bite you know can you hear me now okay now I can hear you yes I'm sorry okay I do believe there is a delay but we did hear you and thank you very much for your comments reporter okay thank you looks like our next speaker Mr bellafel is there yes I am can you hear me okay I can hear you your time starts now thank you thank you okay as usual I want to run through the metrics um first so I'll just uh kind of knock down through the five
016metrics uh going uh going from top to bottom so the uh the seven day mover average of the the covered like illness we are currently flat between 1.6 and 1.8 percent um however the metric for that is a two-week downtrip so we have been flat varying by about just that point two percent over the last two weeks but because we're not in a two-week downtrend the entire County on the school guidance dashboard will be showing red right now so that is a little bit of an issue because of hypothetically we could go all the way down to zero percent and at that point we can't go any lower so that would based on that definition we would trigger the whole County red um they are taking a look at that and seeing you know if
017there's a a way to kind of accommodate that or figure out how to handle that and also see if we have enough data gathered now that we can establish a threshold for coven-like illness similar to what we have for the other metrics but if you go to the guidance dashboard you see everything red that's currently the reason why that code would like illness is flat it's not trending down anymore as far as case counts last week we had 11 24 this week we will be higher we already have 12 49 and we haven't got the whole weekend yet so we will be higher we'll see at the end of the week if we're still below that 2 000 or less metric the positivity rate Saturday and Sunday there were high numbers we are currently 11
018percent but middle of the week tends to be a lot lower on that so I expect by the end of the week we'll probably be back down around the 10 or 10 percent or less there covet beds we show four percent of all hospital beds if you hear reported later by the district that six percent number what they are doing is they're basing that on the number of occupied beds not total beds and that's a improper way to do it so uh to give you an example of why let's say we we were predicting a spike and we cleared out all the occupied beds so the only beds left in the hospital were covet occupied beds well then their percentage would be 100 because that means every single bed in the hospital is a coveted
019patient so of course that doesn't make sense because you have excess you have additional capacity so you really need to be reporting based on total bids not copied not occupied beds when you're reporting so that would be the four percent number looking at wider you know how are other how are other colleges other schools handling this we see colleges are tracking thousands of positive cases around the country but they are not finding any hospitalization so they're tracking those cases and they're not leading to hospitalizations and that's very encouraging because we should expect some results where kids return in school so out of the 200 000 deaths unfortunately in the United States the one positive thing out is it's less than 100 children in the 5 to 19 year old range have died of covid so
020the children themselves are at extremely low risk um from covid now being out of school there are other risks so I know we talk safety we need to think overall safety of our children and the Fort Worth board meeting they had uh two nights ago a pediatrician mentioned in Cook Children's they have three times the number of children in their in the hospital from attempted suicides and coveted cases and a lot of them they believe are just stemming to to some of the isolation and things they're feeling from this just this rough time so just just want people to think in terms of safe you think of overall picture not just in terms of the school setting itself but all that said that doesn't negate the risk of school or staff or the ability of
021children to bring home family so I'm really grateful that we're given the option to everybody to be able to stay virtual the whole school year if they choose to do so and that really leaves the Adult School Employees and I certainly heard the fear in the teacher's voice this last time and I remember the one teacher even reading her obituary and I just want to say I empathize my wife is going to be right there she's working face to face with special needs students a lot of these won't be able to wear masks so I just really hope the district continues to be accommodating as possible especially with those features that have co-moridities and just encourage everyone to research the risk there um and then finally just want a little bit of what other districts
022are doing so you probably know Fort Worth ISD voted not to exercise or waiver this was actually Wednesday yesterday morning real early they voted so they're going to be starting back October 5th Grand Prairie started back September 21st and I think Dallas is starting in that same time frame I'm not aware that any of those are doing the hybrid however so I think we may be unique there um I wanted to throw out real quick I know you probably heard about Fossil Ridge I guess they had to shut down at their entire school that was really due to teachers too many teachers had to quarantine so one of the teachers that had it they had 12 students and two employees um and with that I think with substitutes they didn't have enough substitute so I
023finally the final thing I want to say is one to offer is there any way we can help with substitute teachers if you're at a lack of substitute teachers is there a way I would certainly I have a flexible schedule I'd be willing to help out if you're you have a you know not enough substitute teachers and I know a lot of other parents that may have flexible schedules and would be willing to help too so if there's any way we can help I would certainly like to offer help in that regard thank you thank you very much Mr belafeld our next speaker is Miss Fritz okay there you go I hear you hi uh okay um how many minutes do we have you have five minutes starting now okay great um okay uh good
024evening members of the board uh we are now day 185 of 15 days to slow the spread students are still not in school and when they do return for hybrid instruction they will be treated via Draconian measures imposed by AISD you will have them fill out a covet symptom map every single morning take their temperature at the door isolate them for sniffles cough congestion and symptoms that could very well be attributed to allergies and continuously made to feel that something is wrong with them parents will have to leave work and students will be sent home regularly then they'll have to get a doctor's note to return only to possibly do it all over again the next day when they return they'll have to walk in single file lines like Soldiers made to social distance six
025feet apart eat lunch at their desk and the worst part forced to be muzzled by a mask for eight hours this muzzle is now part of the dress code and falls under the student code of conduct kids that resist will be punished AISD can't even control bullying let alone the forcing of mass what peer-reviewed science does AISD or the Tarrant County and the Arlington Health officials have that supports the efficacy of masks that information should be made to the public and why is AISD enforcing an unlawful unconstitutional mandate in a recent statement by the CDC cloth mass will not protect you from Wildfire smoke cloth masks do not catch small harmful particles in Smoke smoke particles are 0.4 to 0.7 microns per the U.S Environmental Protection Agency the pore size of cloth face coverings range
026from 20 to 100 microns the covet virus is 200 to 1000 times smaller than that at 0.1 microns per the World Health Organization the top U.S Health officials Surgeon General Jerome Adams and Dr fauci initially advocated against mass and then suddenly flip-flop what changed the science regarding the efficacy of mask in regard to respiratory viruses and particle sizes did not change it was the political agenda that changed the bottom line is that wearing the wearing of mass is a medical decision and should only be between a parent and a child's doctor versus Mass next it will be mandatory covered vaccines at the last board meeting one of your board members asked the Tarrant County Health official what would you do with your children he stated that he would not send his kids back to school
027until a vaccine was available this was subjective this was a subjective answer and was highly unprofessional and biased and promoted more fear-mongering amongst the community and could have influenced parents to keep their children home parents should be informed regarding the risk versus benefits of a colored vaccine especially one that has been rushed and proven and not proven to be safe at this point it looks like they may be skipping the animal trials altogether which is the most important part of ensuring the safety of the vaccine in the 1980s the Supreme Court granted vaccine manufacturers immunity from lawsuits surrounding injury and death by vaccines if you or your family member dies from this vaccine you cannot sue them the loophole is vaccine Court which in which uh to date has paid out four trillion dollars in
028regards to those that have died or suffered severe injuries from vaccines all of this information is provided online via government websites and it's it's to everyone's everyone can see it at any point as long as they know about it also I wanted to give a couple of facts I am a front line worker in the emergency room um and I have lost a shift every single week for six months I think this is highly uh odd for somebody for you know it being a pandemic and uh that's been it's been very it's very it's been odd to me um also I'd like to know if you all saw the uh Texas Department of Health uh statistics here this week which they informed the public uh that they mixed old data with new data in August
029also uh more misinformation regarding cases um if you watch the uh Humble ISD they had that their board in their board meeting they spoke of this and broke it down uh asymptomatic transmission rates have still yet to be proven as far as the studies go um and then I also wanted to bring up something from the last board meeting as well uh the the teachers who read off their hypothetical obituaries I've really felt that that promoted more fear-mongering um and I don't it just was very concerning that you know people were that scared to return to the classroom I feel what would have been appropriate is if maybe the obituaries of the students that have died during this closure the actual people that have died like students would have been read because that's actually happened
030and it has been happening and if you get on the Tarrant County website and look at the deaths I I'm I'd like to see somebody else your time it's over okay thank you thank you Miss Fritz thank you okay next on the agenda is our discussion action item starting with reopening schools for the 2020-21 Plan update Dr Cavazos thank you president Mason uh this evening like every board meeting uh in recent memory we are providing an update uh for our reopening plan uh we had an extensive discussion last board meeting so this will just cover some of the new areas and then certainly open it up to questions so I'll turn it over to Dr Brown to lead us through the update thank you Dr Cavazos leaving president Mays members of the board and of
031course our superintendent Cavazos thank you for the opportunity this evening to provide a brief return to school update that we have for you today and we'll cover three major topics today we'll talk about enrollment and our update on our numbers and we'll give a comprehensive update on in-person learning as well as look at some of our AISD data coveted data as well as our Tarrant County metrics we'll be able to share some updated data with you this evening so of course as always we begin with our guiding principles the first one of course being around flexibility and Grace we know of course we're in unchartered territory so we're asking for flexibility and Grace and we're also of course extending that to our stakeholders as well educational Equity making sure all of our students have access
032equal access to resources and of course to a rigorous learning environment whether it's in person or it's virtual and of course prioritizing the health and safety of our staff members and our students as well and valuing input from our stakeholders as you'll hear some updated information around a survey that we issued just a few days ago so we'll start with something super positive and great we had our hello Pre-K event on September 8th and we distributed over 2 900 backpacks to our Pre-K three students and pre-K four students and our teachers were there with the backpacks and did a kind of a drive-through process where you get a handed the backpacks out to our students and and our parents were super excited and we had one of our parents send a note that and a
033picture that says you know when my kid got home he went right to work started writing his name and that the materials that we provided him helped him be successful so we are super excited that our Pre-K threes and fours are launching the school year even in this in this capacity in a positive way so an update on our registration numbers we are currently at about 96 of our projected enrollment which is 56 787 students I've updated you over the last uh several board meetings on our operation registration Task Force at the campus level to really make sure we're reaching out to any of those parents who either had not registered or any of our students who knows that we'd be able to connect with them and provide resources and support to help them register
034so now we'll launch into our in-person learning and we'll start with health and safety we'll just talk briefly about our Tarrant County metrics for in-person learning just to make sure we have the safe environment so we all know the metrics probably by Heart by now so that seven day moving positivity average being 10 or less at least 2 000 cases per week less than that per week um four weeks of data showing stable or declining case counts are covered like illnesses trending lower for two weeks and then the percent of hospital beds occupied by coveted patients being below 10 the final metric does involve the plan that we already submitted to Tarrant County and we got that plan approved so here is the data that is the most current data from the dashboard our seven-day
035moving average positivity rate is 12 percent and that is as of September 12th we have uh there were 1399 cases as of September 12th and right now the end of the week will be the 19th so we'll be able to share that update um after this week closes the seven day moving average for covet-like illnesses is a steady at 1.7 as of as of yesterday actually and as of yesterday four percent of total beds were occupied by covid patients just a reminder about the health precautions for in-person learning our students and staff members and visitors will be required to complete that daily Health questionnaire um if they're experiencing covet-like symptoms or were around anyone who was positive and then we'll be able to view the results of that questionnaire to determine if the student can
036attend in-person learning if the staff member can report to work or if a visitor can getting access to the building and as we said you know many times our goal is to keep covid as much as we can outside of the school and so these precautions are in place to make sure we can try to mitigate that spread so we did talk to you about uh temperature checks at the door and we have been checking temperatures of visitors and staff members and students even during our in-person learning for our special population students and so when now we are actually going to be using thermal body temperature detection devices and this is going to be really a powerful tool for us to be able to use across all of our schools we've purchased over it we've
037purchased 100 devices which will provide adequate temperature screening at the campus and allow us to be able to screen 40 students or 40 people at one time you can imagine when all students maybe you know a group of students come at one time if you have to manually check one student at a time it can be a little labor intensive and a little time consuming and so this option will allow us to be able to move quickly and get our students and staff members in the buildings and to their appropriate Place safely and we plan to launch this on September 28th which will be the first day of our in-person hybrid instruction water supply so we know how much our water fountains are used by students and again anything we can do to mitigate the
038possible spread of covid-19 we have definitely investigated that and so as a result we have disabled and in the process of disabling all of the water fountains in school just that's another mitigation tool or strategy we are encouraging our staff members and students to bring their own bottle of water to school every day we realize that some students may not be able to do that or may forget we're going to have bottled water available and accessible for all of our students and staff members so they're able to drink water in a safe fashion and then as a part of our 2019 Bond we have select Fountains at campuses at each campus actually that will be modified or replaced to include a bottle filling option so throughout the school year it'll be a multi-month process but
039students who bring their own water bottle then would be able to utilize a bottle filling a station and be able to fill with their own water from the station so our campuses as you know have been ready and trying to get ready for a safe and healthy launch to our in-person learning where we have a lot more students of course so all of our campuses um are writing back to school campus plans so with the help of their leadership teams they are working with the area superintendent to make sure that the plans are robust provide all the information that staff members will need as it relates to conference times lunch schedules um who's going to cover plc's how do you engage how do you enjoy recess for your students to make sure it's safe and
040how you're enjoying and experiencing common areas like the copy room the Teachers Lounge again just to make sure we can do our very best to mitigate the spread of coping 19. and this is an example of John's Elementary all of these are hyperlinks actually so if a teacher were to click on one of these it would open up the hand washing schedule for example on the campus so now let's talk a little bit about AISD Cova data and how we are tracking data internally and how we'll be transparent in our communication with the public so we have launched our cumulative dashboard actually today um and the website is right there in the bottom left hand corner this is actually updated on Tuesday so every Tuesday um in in connection with our Annette minority and Health
041Services and our HR department who's looking at confirmed cases and support for those staff members we are publishing this information by school on the dashboard so at any given moment a parent a Community member U.S trustees are able to log on and see weekly how we are progressing with our cases um so as of yes as excuse me as of Tuesday at 3 P.M we had 12 active student cases and um excuse me staff cases and four active student cases and as you're aware this changes daily but it will only be updated weekly so I can share more recent data with you right now in terms of our employee coveted data we currently have 14 employees who've been who have received a positive diagnosis as a result we have 40 employees who are currently under
042quarantine and 30 of those are under quarantine because they they were possibly exposed during work great work at school or in their Department so now let's continue our conversation about in-person learning and talk about stakeholder input just a reminder our hybrid schedule does begin on the 28th and that will be for two very short weeks um where we'll be attending school by Alpha and that's going to be for pre-k 12. we already know who those special populations are who are attending every day the ninth is a holiday so we will actually just have you know nine full days of instruction during this hybrid program so what we were to do um we wanted to make sure we were repolling parents so we know that our parents did submit information when they registered about their intention
043for in-person or virtual learning a lot of time may have tried it may have transpired since they made their original designation so we wanted to read poll those parents so after you the board made um their decision on September 3rd the next day we communicated to our parents district-wide communication that went out letting them know how we were going to repul them starting um last week polling those parents the repolling has been complete as of the 14th and so now we're doing is just making sure that our data tracking system in teams is accurately reflecting what the parent choice is now that campuses have that information tomorrow they will continue and finalize any kind of leveling they may have to do again during this two-week process of hybrid I want to make sure that we
044are that's our opportunity to crystallize our protocols our safety processes and try our very best to have um small as small of the classroom as we possibly can during this two-week period so if we have to make any leveling or adjustments or even parent requests because of extenuating circumstances parents will get that information on Monday so no later than Monday all of our parents will know if there's been a shift in their schedule if not it's going to be certainly if you're a through L you know when you're going to come and M through Z the campuses will be communicating that to our parents so here is um the the most recent survey results that we have again this is it trickles in every few minutes actually so right now we have about 49 of
045our polled parents who want their children to return in person we have about 39 virtual and 12 are unknown and with that unknown it actually can be a couple of a couple of reasons why it's a known to be that we've not been able to make contact with the parent the other possibility is that we're still continuing to upload that data so um we want to get an accurate as accurate of a picture as we can by tomorrow to start communicating with our parents so once parents do make that selection we know there are circumstances and issues that may arise that may cause them to change their mind for example if I initially chose virtual instruction but after a few weeks of learning I decide with my children that we want to go ahead and
046send them in person we want our parents to have that possible that have that possibility and flexibility what we're asking is for up to five days of processing time to Pivot the op to the opposite instructional model it does require some behind the scenes work in terms of scheduling and just making sure that our coding is appropriate in our team system for attendance so we want to have just a few days of Headway on that as you're aware some districts are making parents lock in six weeks or nine weeks at a time and we're sticking with the five days because we know some things happen and some things happen without any warning so what we're asking for is during this two-week hybrid window is that we don't have any changes for example if you choose
047virtual learning and it's October second and you decide that you want your child to come in person we're asking if those changes be implemented beginning on October 13th and that will allow us that two solid weeks to make sure all of our systems and structures and Protocols are in place in solid or when we do allow a lot more students to come on October 13th so the whole goal is that we honor the request of the parents while making sure that we support the need for continuity of instruction for our students and our staff members so for hybrid learning support just to let you know that our asynchronous plan that um that you all approved during our last board meeting was approved by tea and that of course outlined all of our sample schedules what
048the teaching and learning would look like for all of our students pre-k-12 how the teacher and student would interact in that environment as well and so we did get approval to continue moving forward our curriculum instruction team in partnership with office of school leadership and professional learning and our technology team as well um they're creating a hybrid Survival Guide so we're not just survivors we're thrivers in Arlington but we want to make sure that our teachers have additional resources activities ways that they can truly be able to manage efficiently both of those groups having students at home having students in the classroom simultaneously and so this hybrid Survival Guide actually will be published tomorrow so our teachers will have access to this for a full week before they start their um their dual kind of
049teaching environment so again just lots of information considerations strategies they can engage in for their hybrid classroom as a release of Technology we provided an update um over the course of several weeks about the number of devices that we've issued and hot spots that we've issued as well so we we again are still encouraging our students if you've been um if you have been checked out a device from Arlington we ask that you bring that device to school if you are engaging in in-person learning or if you've been working at home using your own personal device we ask that you bring that to school as well and then we're continuing to acquire additional devices and hot spots to make sure that we're able to fulfill the needs as students do come back to in-person learning
050foreign teachers who've been working diligently throughout this entire closure um believe it or not I've already started getting their classrooms ready but they have that flexibility to come in and to work in their classrooms from their classrooms as necessary prior to the start of in-person learning and campus leaders will continue to meet with staff that's going to be designed during the week before we have in-person learning they'll engage in safety walk simulations reduce safety protocols and procedures so that when kids do arrive on the 28th that everyone's prepared for that we're also making sure of course that we are protecting September 24th and 25th so that teachers have designated time to work in their classrooms prepare to paint in as well and of course for principals to still be able to make sure during those
051two days safety protocols have been taught and have been practiced in the building during the two days all of our students will engage in asynchronous instruction um so teachers can be free to work in their classrooms as far as special education programs you know we have the four programs the first four that have been engaging in Daily in-person learning since August 17th we are now going to offer a daily learning for additional special education programs beginning on the 28th and that's for our pre-vocation students our individuals students with severe and profound disabilities as well as our social and emotional academic success students which are C students now this is only for students who are self-contained so for example if it's a student who receives resource learning where they spend most of their time in the
052General Ed environment on the 28th they would still do their hybrid schedule and then starting the 13th all of our students of course if the parents do select in-person learning are able to come to school every day and all of our special education students at the high school level will not attend hybrid they will actually attend every single day if their parent selects in-person learning that was just really important that we're able to capture as much maybe missing learning that the many of those students May ever may have experienced over the last several months of closure so beginning the 13th those high school students who opt into in-person learning can attend a daily instruction we spent some time last meeting talking about Pre-K and Kinder masks so we've done a little digging and some more
053research and so we talked to some pre-kinder and Kinder teachers talked to a few principals as well as Annette minerly in Health Services just to make sure that we're making the appropriate call for our Pre-K and Kinder students and so this is what we came up with is that we are still encouraging our Pre-K and Kinder students to bring a mask to class while they're in the classroom they will not be required to wear um the mask when they're napping or engaging in lessons they will not wear the mask however the teachers will ask them to use the mask to just teach proper sanitation when it's appropriate to wear a mask Etc when they are in the hallways transitioning and there are other groups of students or staff members around we're going to ask our
054students just to mask up briefly to make sure that we are as safe as possible during those transitions and that sums up this brief update this evening for you and I'm happy to take any questions you might have thank you so much Dr Brown do I have any questions from colleagues okay I don't see any question Mr Wilbanks do you have a question thank you president Mays I I do have a brief question uh Dr Brown if you could go back to the last slide about the mask use um and hold on I'll look up something here so I know in our handbook um we were outside of the kindergarten issue would require students to show up with a mask and enter the classroom with a mask but my concern is I think there's some
055language in our guidebook that says if once they're at their desk they're allowed to take the mask off understand taking the mask off when they have to eat but does that go against guidelines allowing them to take the mask off while they're seated at their desk yeah we're going to make sure that they are masked up especially if they're around other students now what we're we're asking teachers to do is to give students mask breaks that's typically going to be when they're at recess it could be when they're in the in the cafeteria eating or drinking but when they're around other students especially in closer proximity we are going to ask them to to keep their masks on okay and I think I think the language in our guide our safety protocol guidebook um I
056was looking for the exact language bear with me no problem I don't have it but it it um can be interpreted that why they're at their desk they can take their mask off and it's not required at that point and I would like us to revisit that and then my other question is um also uh I know Fine Arts is going to be a challenge and um it it definitely the guidelines in the guidebook for Fine Arts said that students will wear them were required to wear the mask coming into the classroom while they're not singing or performing on their instrument will they also be required to wear the mask at that time or just when they when exit the classroom that's correct if they're not engaging in any Coral activity or playing of instruments
057they will be required to wear their masks okay well um our guidelines on the website do not make that clear it says only required to enter the classroom so I make sure that it's clear that they are required to wear the mask um when not performing or when not practical um obviously um when practical or when not performing um they should wear the mask at all times we'll definitely revisit that and I believe that um on page seven of the guidebook um that went out to staff was that the mask is optional at the desk trustee Wilbanks will definitely revisit that and get with them with Annette mentally just to make sure that we are on the same page with what's expected okay great thank you thank you sir thank you Mr will thanks any
058other questions Miss Walton uh thank you president Mays I just want to thank Dr Brown and uh the others who came together to review uh Pre-K kindergarten mask wearing and to come up with a sensible plan uh I I think this is uh uh going to be a good thing and I predict that four-year-olds and five-year-olds will probably do better than some of our other grade levels as far as trying to trying their best to um abide by this and and hopefully at some point we can help all of our students understand uh the the purpose and uh why we why we have to do this uh purpose always helps kids you know to understand and come and to um do what needs to be done so thank you again for all the work of
059the the people involved Dr Brown please pass that along to everyone else I sure will thank you trustee Walton thank you Miss Walton are there any other questions Mr Hogg okay Mr Hogg did you have a question you're muted sorry about that President I was on mute um Miss Brown on the school return to return to school plan for each individual campus will that be posted on their website I know you said the internet teachers can see it will parents be able to see that that was really just for staff in terms of just Transitions and what's happening when you eat lunch so how are you communicating that information out the parents so what's what part specifically because this is mostly more internal like what's going to happen in recess what's expected of the teacher
060um when they're in the copy room when they're in the cafeteria what's expected of students we're using the parent guidebook that we published that actually was just updated by our Communications team to provide more information to parents about what they can expect in the classrooms and that's cool and so you know listen I haven't had a chance to read through those school plans will those be provided to us for us to review Dr Cavazos yeah so there yes and I will tell you that they're customized for schools and so I don't know that um that they're all going to have the same format and things like that it's simply a resource tool for teachers and the staff at the buildings I don't know that um that they're gonna that we haven't set a standard of
061consistency and things like that it's just simply to communicate a tool to communicate uh and as long as long as the and the purpose of this is the communication because it was like which way or hallways going which things of that nature I think that is information parents are going to be Associated now if there's another way we're communicating that out to students and each principle is pushing that out in another way um that's fine understandable but there there were some items that were listed on that without us seeing the links that I want to know how we're communicating out because there's lots of questions about what is going to happen uh the parents want to know how how students are going to transport within the schools how changes between classes are going to occur
062and I know that information is going to be listed in there on the internet and I want to know is that information how is that going to go out to parents because you know there's clarification but that our guidebook is across all districts so how how are you communicating each individual campus so I think and Mr Hogg you tell me if this is helpful not it may be more helpful for us to provide to the board how campuses are communicating pertinent information to this parents we make sure that it meets certain will tell you exactly what they're communicating examples and things versus trying to review 70 you know different things that are really more internal and some external they all are communicating to parents what may be helpful is to share with the board here's
063the way the campuses are communicating with parents and and and the specific kind of highlights of Entry exit hallway lunch and things like that that those are the key factors that's what I want to know because you hear from parents constantly and the questions have already come what what is the plan for this what is the plan for a what is the plan for B and parents want to know um we're asking them to choose virtual versus in person and and there's not a hundred percent they don't you know listen we hear stuff from Individual the district as a whole but we all know parents are concerned about what's happening at my campus and and that's what they want to know so um if we'll if we have a plan of how we're communicating that
064out to parents that that that will suffice uh perfectly fine um on the dashboard Miss Brown when when someone tests positive and then um for that data to change are we requiring a test that they are negative for them to come come back that Annette minerly can answer that question we'll we'll let we'll let Annette answer that Mr Dr Brown yes sir so Annette if you're there I don't know if you heard the question there Annette um currently we're using the CDC symptom-based criteria for ending isolation and so a negative test is not required as long as they've been absent um at the minimum or in excess of the required isolation period and they no longer have an active fever and their all their other symptoms have improved and are improving so minority how does
065that you know you have I can't remember the number off the top of the head 40 positive cases currently um what makes someone not be a positive case they remain someone who tested positive um they they can't come back for a minimum of 10 days from either when their symptoms began or if they were asymptomatic when their test was collected we used the test collection date if they've had no symptoms so six weeks from now someone tested positive and that number's still showing as a positive case well what what will happen is the the numbers that are Active cases will be the cases that reported this week and if you drill down further into the dashboard we'll have the total number of cases that we've had on that individual campus the duration of the time
066we've been collecting data but the Active cases will only be the ones that were reported on that Monday to tea as Active cases that week so that number is just from weekly reports from that week not not not uh not combined no sir the the total column will be the combined numbers but the Active cases those that were reported to ta at the and with that what do we do for false negatives on on tests I'm sorry false positives that that have occurred the the false what I'm hearing from um everyone I'm talking to on the CDC and the Department of State Health Services call weekly from Texas and everyone else is that false negatives are much more common with all the different varieties of tests than false positives okay on either case are we
067tracking and amending numbers are we just leaving the numbers well we'll leave the numbers um in fact what Tarrant County is our standard at this point is if you have had a positive test you are positive because the negative the false negative is so much more common than a false positive um let me ask thanks Miss minerly um let me ask on and Miss Brown tell me what's changed on the you know masks have always been optional so now I guess I'm I want to know clarification of the exact change from what happened before to now on Pre-K and kindergarten students wearing a mask so initially there was no we just said Pre-K and K we're not required to wear masks so what we started what we from our last meeting we got with the
068Pre-K teachers and we got with a few principals to say you know because we're getting feedback we heard some of the board meeting and also from some teachers to say I'm not as comfortable if students are not wearing a mask and so we thought like developmentally what's appropriate um let's kind of dig into a little bit more and then how can we find a balance of teaching students hygiene and how to wear a mask and then making sure in public spaces they Don The Mask but in the classroom feeling like that they would be okay without wearing the mask and so we just wanted to double check and kind of source that with our teachers and with a few principles before we made the final call and that's what we brought for you today okay
069and I think that's fine I think those are reasonable requests but I can tell you listening to their explanation earlier and some of the questions I I was confused about what and listen I have a four-year-old so I understand the challenges it takes for a four-year-old and my four-year-old does great wearing a mask walking into the store going to the store when we need it eight hours a day is a different discussion right and I think that's that's the part that's the challenge on that so so I heard if they're around any other students so in the classroom is that considered around other students or is it only if they're just sitting at their desk they don't have to wear a mask no sir they will not wear them in the classroom only in transition
070so if they're in the hallway and they're around other groups of students that or teachers in the hallways in transition if there's you know minimal transitions for pre-kers anyway of course yeah I mean the other thing is just that you know occasionally putting it on as a teacher is using it as a teachable moment to say this is how you wear it make sure you put it behind your ears this is why it's important but they would not be required in the classroom to wear it now we do realize some parents may say I want my child to wear masks and if they yeah I want her child to wear a mask that's okay too by all means I just the explanation that was coming a little earlier it made it seem like if they're
071around any other students in the classroom even they're going to be required to wear a mask and so I I heard some confusion um with that and and I read it I I agree but when the questions were answered I didn't hear that and maybe I missed misheard or or was thinking of something else during that time but uh that is not so I just wanted clarification um before that from the and let me ask if someone what's the discipline procedures if a Pre-K or kindergartner won't wear a mask well it's not required so it's not a part of the code of conduct for pre-k or so we're recommending of course in transition that the kids do Don The Mask um again minimal transitions but when they do that they are around other students to
072wear the mask so um we're not looking at disciplining a four-year-old if they don't wear the mask we ask them to in the hallway I agree listen in our Pre-K and kindergarten teachers know how to work magic with Pre-K and kindergarten so I just wanted better than we can better than we can so um okay that's all the question I have thank you sir thank you Mr Hogg are there any other questions from trustees yes Dr Rice thank you president Mays uh Dr Brown on the uh the temperature scanners uh just to clarify to make sure uh for campuses that will have uh multiple points of Entry will have enough devices to cover all those multiple points of Entry it's not just going to be one per campus is that correct yes that's correct um
073we are looking of course at the secondary schools that have multiple entry points would need more devices perhaps our smaller elementaries would need only one that's why we ordered an extra you know 25 plus more than our actual school count to make sure we can operate you know at the secondary levels of more of those cameras okay and uh these are uh uh purchased so it's a purchase agreement uh what what stipulations and protections do we have on that equipment in case of a malfunction and emergency replacement and that type of thing I don't have an answer to that I don't know if Mr Upchurch does or Dr C you have that information or if we can get it yeah we can get that information or if Eric you know that information uh readily available
074uh you uh yes we um um trustee rice we have a standard warranty on that equipment and we do plan to keep uh one or two um on standby for replacement we did discuss that with the vendors so that way we can swap one out if we have have any issues okay and um I'm looking at the uh the situation that will hopefully never happen uh so what what would happen if one of these units go down uh at the beginning of school for that particular campus is it going to be we'll just wait and screen as soon as it we can get the uh the the new unit uh to campus that day and let it go or what what will the procedure be um I think that what it'll it'll really be um
075a manual scanning at that point uh with with regular temperature handheld scanner so the process is that the large cameras uh efficiently move the students through and if if there's a positive uh hit then they go off to the side and they have to be uh scanned with the hand scanner so that'll just continue until we can get over there with the camera fix okay very good thank you that that was really the only question I had and um it uh yeah there's definitely to Mr Hog's Point uh previously as far as communication out to parents uh that there's a a a lot of uh information and questions and and I've seen misinformation uh going out there a lot of speculation what is this going to look like uh both as far as the the
076teaching and learning model as well as just the the operational things whether it's with bus or exit entry uh so what I I would recommend if it's not in place for that uh communication plan of course every campus has their own autonomy on on on communication and what that looks like but uh maybe there should be at least a minimum set of District level standards of of what items need to be uh communicated uh at a minimum I I put that out there because obviously at our level we've talked about things pretty consistently that I think are the base level and those are the things that I've heard a lot of uh swirling about as far as uh confusion or uncertainties so if uh if that's not already in place that would be a recommendation
077that I'd have for you on the outside that's all I have thank you yes sir thank you Dr Rice are there any other questions from trustees president Mesa I have a question okay Mr Chapa thank you president Mays I had a question on the bringing devices to back to campus um I know we've checked out a lot of devices and we're encouraging students to bring those back if they come back in person and then also encouraging them to bring their own devices if if they've been using them but what do we do about students who maybe they've been using a desktop um or who maybe for whatever reason the device that they've been using even though it's it's mobile they they don't the parents don't want to come back to school or something like that
078what are we doing for those students yeah that's a great question um and that's one of the reasons why I mentioned that we're continuing to acquire additional devices so we'll be able to fill those gaps at the classrooms and also if we have those situations where we have a student who doesn't have a device where teachers have additional options where they can still engage the student they may have to project their lesson on the you know on the screen so that all kids can see it at once maybe some even paper packets if we have to do that which we don't want to do that but that's also an option so it's really weighing different options depending on if they have it or not so or is continue to acquire devices looking at additional opportunities
079and ways that we can still engage all students with a device or not okay in the classroom and and I know that there's going to be fewer kids in the in the classrooms during the hybrid transition so this may be more of a concern for when we return you know at least right now under the state guidelines anybody who wants to come with the elementary engineer high level uh on October 13th but are we taking any steps to make sure that that because we're going to be using using so much technology this year that there's enough outlets and classrooms do we need to be buying power strips or things like that so they can keep the devices charged Dr Brown's favorite question go ahead Dr Brown yes sir um we've purchased um I think over
080three three thousand Eric maybe 3 000 power strips and again students can still use the um the laptop chart the laptop um I can't think of our word the Chromebook um cart the cart they can charge in the Chromebook cart but we also purchased I think over 3 000 power strips that students will also be able to use because we know we're gonna need a lot more power than we normally do with all those devices so okay and so when we return in person with us would a student be able to leave their Chromebook say in one of the Chromebook carts overnight to charge there would they will be requiring them to take them home every day and one of the reasons why we want the students to take their Chromebooks or their device home
081is because what if we have to go into quarantine that particular class for some reason we want to make sure they have access to technology so students will actually bring their device back and forth to school okay all right and has it been communicated to teachers that they have access to the Chromebook carts because I I have heard through a few different channels that that they weren't aware that that was uh something that they could touch if they're not sure we'll make sure they're sure I don't let us look into that trusty Chapa okay sure some just some feedback that I had got um okay well this is good information and thanks as always for for your hard work on it and I just I wanted to just take a minute to to we started
082getting some emails and you know throughout the week we've been you know now that Tarrant County has their dashboard in place um it it occupies a lot of news coverage it seems of how schools are going through the reopening and and you know I the numbers you presented tonight I think um you know we've got to be at a certain point and I tried to emphasize this in my comments at the last meeting you know looking at this at a little bit more granular level than a county-wide dashboard um because you know as the numbers come down and and given the way some of the metrics are defined they can be really sensitive and so just because on a particular day and we've already had this happen twice now where you know the county goes
083from yellow to red and then it goes back to yellow and then it goes back to red and so just to just to you know a caution for for everyone that to remind them that we're all concerned about student and staff safety and in our reopening and we're looking at that data closely and um you know statistical fluctuations could make that that dashboard go back and forth and I think the most important thing is to look at how the the situation is on the ground here in AISD and the case count numbers are looking much better than they were two weeks ago and so you know we'll continue to monitor it I know Dr Cavazos you and your staff have safety and you've said this over and over again at the Forefront of everything you
084do and we're going to keep doing that and and so I look forward to hopefully those numbers continue to turn the right direction and us getting students back on campus as soon as possible thank you thank you thank you Mr Chapa um Dr Brown I have a few just randomly spread out questions um for the body temperature is there a particular temperature that we're looking for that would set off uh Eric do you know the answer to that Annette minimally probably 100 and that has probably been yes ma'am um anyone who has a temperature of 100 or greater that is um verified by an actual thermometer so if if they come past the camera um what will happen first is they'll be given a cool down opportunity and then we'll run them by the camera
085again if it's still setting off then we'll manually check their temperature and if it's 100 or greater then yes they need to go home but that's a standard temperature at which we would always exclude from school even in non-coveted times okay just wanted to confirm that and then when let's say we have 40 students at a time walk through how easy is it to identify which um which is the 40 individuals are the ones that are setting off the thermometer um well that that actually was why we chose this particular model of camera um because when you're when you're doing a mass screening like that the person who's monitoring has a laptop or a similar device and it has both that it merges both the infrared picture and a standard picture and each individual that
086has when it takes their temperature if it's below the whatever Target you set there's a green box around their face with the temperature reading over their face and if it's too high there's a red box and then over to the side of the screen there are little thumbnails of each individual that that set the thing off so that it's very easy for the person monitoring to know exactly which student it is they need to call over and and do the re re-temperature take check on that individual okay okay um and I am assuming that I will still ask that we have enough Personnel that will be able to be in those positions to read the um the heat thermometers um during entry and exit so I can speak to that for entry um certainly our
087campuses have been asked to create like an arrival team and so they have a set number of team members who will be available every day who will be able to monitor not only that but also the screening to make sure students have screened and so they already have their safety team if you will in place to to do a rival safely okay and they'll be trained and ready to go on day one yes ma'am okay um so um when we start back on the 28th um for those for the secondary level that's doing hybrid do we have any concern over any student that may be confused or not understand that we're going back with certain Alphas for their last names and they get all the way to school how far would they get before they
088find out they weren't supposed to be there that day well I know that our high schools are in all of our schools are going to be communicating again on Monday what the days are that the kids are supposed to come we know things happen and a kid might end up showing up and so we'll deal with it like we would normally so if the kid shows up and they're not supposed to be there try to get a hold of a parent if for some reason we're not able to secure a parent to pick up the child will secure the child and make sure they're able to still engage in learning so um we'll we'll make it work basically okay that's a good answer to make it work um okay um will there be any kind
089of advertising on the bus I know I always ask about buses but my students did ride the bus for a while and their buses were full so that's you know a huge population of our students is there will there be anything on the bus that just says what Alphas is for that day just another way to advertise that information that's a good idea that's a good idea president Mays will work with our transportation team up we can easily do that okay okay um okay so for the one that had um I want my child to continue to do virtual or what my child to be in a class and then you had unknown I just want to confirm that that unknown was not an option for a parent to choose that unknown is what we're
090using internally yeah that's correct that's just students who we've not been able to access their parents she had to get the response or the data is not fully um in the system yet which it should be by tomorrow just wanted to provide you where we are today okay um and then for our equipment which I think is is awesome and I think I've asked this every time and you've always said yes that we will have enough devices for our students as we continue and whether we're doing the um whether they're doing the hybrid or at home and just haven't requested anything we still have enough equipment for our students so right now um all of the requests for Chromebooks have been issued so we don't have any students who are needing a Chromebook at this
091time as far as iPads we have a few outstanding requests we're making sure that we get the keyboards in so that the students will not um fracture them so we have a few iPad requests that are kind of out there that we'll take care of what we've done in the survey is we're asking parents if they want to come back in person we are also asking them do you plan on bringing your device to school so that we can have an idea if we need additional devices that's why um Eric Upchurch and his team have been trying to acquire additional devices just to make sure in the event we don't have enough that we're covered so I mean you know that's a process to get those devices in but we're on it trying to get
092as many as we can right and I appreciate that and we all appreciate that um now speaking on devices I know we all want to make sure that we have devices in the hands of everyone that uses them but I mean you just mentioned that word a fracture how are we keeping up with the inventory of our equipment how often will we make a check or have we already been having to a place for damage how are we keeping up with that Mr Upchurch uh yes uh uh president Mays so we have um been documenting all of the requests in our servicenow ticketing system we work directly with the campus technology professional at that campus to distribute the device to the students and then when the device is distributed to them it gets updated in
093the system after the request ticket does and we we have had a couple of instances where devices have been broken we of course we get those back we swap it out with a new one and then we repair the old one that's that's happened a couple of times we've had a couple of lost devices but we've found those and so we we deal with these as they come in as far as uh as this this tracking has worked really well we were able to recover uh the devices in the spring for the students that left and so we did have an internal audit on on these um on our ticketing system and and we've been following those procedures okay thank you thank you step Church um and then the last thing is just a comment
094I love the hybrid survival guide and I'm sure we're going to have a lot of teachers out there that will appreciate that was a nice touch and those are all my questions Dr Brown and thank you Miss minnerley and thank you stop Church okay so we're going to move on if we have no other questions from trustees Mr Wilbanks I see you're unmuted yes yeah um thank you I I did have one uh important question that I forgot to bring up and so Tracy uh Dr Brown um you guys are currently looking at um the the survey on how many students you're going to have in person and at the same time we're also processing the accommodations for staff so we know how many are going to work remote I'm a resource and process guy
095so I'm really concerned about where we are in terms of um matching up the demand that we're going to have for in person with an actual teacher that will be in in person and kind of if you could lay out in more granular detail how that analysis is going on when we're actually doing the sections and looking I think the one thing I want to continue to praise you guys on in the plan that you guys came up with is we are in much better shape than most districts because we have basically one model that we're trying to match student students we need to serve with teachers in classrooms to serve them um most of our other districts where things are falling apart is uh they've got a much more complex model of a Virtual
096Academy and and now they have two sets of resources they're trying to match up and and falling short on so we've got a very simple easy process and things from this vantage point from what we've what you've shared with us look good but I'm more Curious of what the numbers actually look like for instance um let's say uh campus has two AP environmental science teachers and both of those teachers have medical conditions or comorbidities that we've granted them the ability we have no choice but to let them teach virtually what happens at that campus for those students who now have no um AP environmental science teacher for in person so yeah just where we are and kind of figuring out where those gaps are is my big concern kind of going forward and and how
097you guys are going at tackling and finding that those gaps and addressing those gaps okay so I see two parts of that question one is just about the number of like the staff members and what kind of cases we might have that we need to kind of work through to make sure that we're supporting their needs and the other part is what we do if we have those cases that may require someone to work remotely or virtually so if Scott can take the first part of that question in terms of just cases and just where we are with that and then we can talk a little bit further after he shares do you have a a slide on that that you can Surface or maybe not yet but I I could pull it up while
098Scott is busy yeah that might help because I know we've looked at that but uh again these are daily uh Mr World banks that request and so and I anticipate when we open you know they'll be continuing the request because conditions change and people's situation changes but I think we can give you a snapshot go ahead uh Scott or Mr kale if you have sure thing good evening Mr Wilbanks so we've tried to handle this in as much of an empathetic way and a systems process way simultaneously as possible we've spent the last several weeks making sure that we gave employees several opportunities to report their particular situations and cases in a in a private way uh whether they be underlying conditions or whether they be other things that that concern them from returning and
099we've been managing those individual cases uh with the principal to determine if there's opportunities for remote work and then that's transitioned into other questions and opportunities when remote work is not possible the options that the employee might have um if for example someone has an underlying condition you may be able to accommodate depending on the situation uh work from home or you may not but we've been actively working those now for the last several weeks I think we have our arms around the number of cases that we're working with in conjunction with each campus principle and I'm I'm pretty confident that by the time we get to the first day of school principals will have identified where those gaps in coverage could be and have been given enough time up front to either create an
100alternative instructional setting whether it be the teacher being able to do so from a remote location whether it be a substitute whether it be combining classes there's a lot of different variables that are going to exist at any given campus and any different subject and so rather than try and capture everything in a in a one-size-fits-all we're trying to make sure that in partnership with the principal goals and in partnership with the employees who have those situations that we're working out to the best of our ability how to match those up and I'm I'm feeling much much better that we're coming to closure on that and that we will have those gaps as much under control as possible by the first day of school and so what you see on the shared screen here I
101don't know if you can see that uh I think you can uh is the summary and again this is uh part of the reason you know that this continues to change is because cases are clear people change their mind people you know uh you know put in a request and et cetera et cetera again not because necessarily that eminent of of school opening but because people's lives change and just keep in mind outside of covet we get accommodation requests we're a large school system with many many employees not just teachers but across the district so this is obviously more during this time uh but this is a process that that has been in place so just in summary what you see I think on the top is what was in one of the slides but
102you'll see some of the Active cases um and I'll just I'll let you spend a moment to to look at that uh Tracy if you want to add anything or Scott to to what they're seeing there that that's kind of our latest Mr Wilbanks uh again it still continues to be uh changing and processing and I won't say that's real time I think you know they do this work all day uh some of our benefit staff so it's just a good kind of snapshot I guess and that was and and thank you Mr uh Cal for sharing that and that was for all employees but also dealt with teachers that have current Active cases but what I'm really concerned of it's teachers that are known what you know teachers that parents know are their kids
103teacher right now which for what whatever reason because they have a medical condition that doesn't allow them to be in the classroom when those kids go into the classroom how where are we in determining how many students are going to be reassigned and deal with that kind of disruption I mean people hate change but it's reality I mean um this is gonna when we come back there's it's not we can't guarantee that a student right will have the same teacher when we come back October 13th because that teacher maybe um leave or may have decided to leave because or retire early but most likely because they have an underlying condition that allows them to teach virtually but then so that student how are they going to be served in person if that teacher is going
104to be remote so Mr Wilbanks the easiest way probably to answer it at this level because that is that is a lot of detail there uh is that the the autonomy of the school to regroup so we'll start at elementary and and we'll try to cover as much in in this kind of conceptual way the ability to regroup at a school is the principle has that autonomy so it it's very case specific but I'll get to I guess some extremes uh so if some extremes then you know it'll be a permanent substitute but that happens in normal school years uh where a situation occurs that somebody needs to be out FMLA et cetera and I'll walk it back all the way to the Other Extreme which is you know if if this one particular teacher
105and again it's an extreme none of the students are coming face to face then that continues to be a virtual situation right um I think that probably you know that question uh the the reality is that it will become much more complicated as we begin to open school and we experience quarantine and things like that that question will become much more complicated right now I think we have a good handle on that even on those cases where you know on this extreme we need a permanent sub because or the you know somebody else to reassign what we want to try to do and this has been over and over and and just from the very beginning just our instructional model is we want to minimize the disruption to students and their schedules we've seen what
106has happened in other situations other systems that when students schedules are disrupted it really begins to have an effect across the board for parents and families so we we don't want to have a bunch of schedule changes at a high school for example uh if we can avoid it and so as much as possible we're going to hold true to you stay with your class and you stay connected to your teacher that being said if your teacher is out then we're going to have to find an accommodation or a situation with a substitute it's kind of the hopefully the last resort would be that we have to change students schedules around we want to try to avoid that because we know how disruptive that is and we've still got a long way to go with
107with this situation with quarantine and things like that that we know is is just look around is experiencing all over the place and in terms of other districts and so I think our general concept is connect the students to the teachers and keep them connected both ways uh and we're going to try to stay true to that um and so I think I think what we the numbers that you're seeing are manageable I'll I'll put it like that but I also don't want to set necessarily a false expectation that once we get rolling into one two three seven weeks of school uh that those numbers are not going to really fluctuate and again no fault of anybody other than the situations are going to change and if we have Community situation Community spread in different
108ways then those numbers could change and that's very realistic and I think in terms of parents decision um I think that a parent you know stability in the schedule while it may seem you know like uh well that of course you know uh over time will be will be much appreciated I think by the families and the students that we try to stabilize their schedule absolutely Dr Cavazos and Dr Brown and Dr everyone who's put this plan together I I've seen other districts and I see the struggles they're in now where the um the parent population is revolting because because of their model that they selected their guaranteeing to their students that they're not going to have the same schedule the same teachers the same nothing because of the disruption their model has on the
109system and the limited resources where you might be short teachers and and the amount of students in the variants from school to school and it's not pretty I can tell you that and so we are very blessed here in Arlington ISD for the model that we've selected I know it's going to require a heavy lift on teachers there's a lot of uncertainty there's a lot of anxiety around that um uncertainty but I I can tell everyone based I've looked at districts Barn wide across the state and across the country and and every time I come back to our model it look it looks better and better all the time because of exactly like you said parents and students don't need disruption right now we have enough disruption in this model minimizes that but having said
110that I know we are going to have gaps and there are going to be situations where they keep you know because of teachers being assigned or not able to come in person we're going to have those but that disruption even when it does occur is going to be minimal for our students and our parents and our community and and I applaud you guys for that um but being a process guy I would I would I would love to get a detailed report I'd like to know where not a detailed report but I would like to know exactly how our numbers break down as far as once the numbers are available by campus how many are coming in person how many are virtual and then where those gaps do exist and the plan to address those
111gaps and then the other thing too is it's not just a people resource issue it's a space issue sometimes if we have over 50 percent at a campus are we going to be able to um uh socially distance those students be it at elementary or Junior High and how that's going to work um and if we've mapped out where are we mapping out all the classrooms in the seating and are we able to achieve at least six feet or where those classrooms whether it's going to be sub-optimal for lack of a better word those are the kind of things that I think are important to know and do those kind of Gap analysis system-wide to to see um what we can do to address those guys so um I applaud all the effort you guys
112are doing and I applaud um uh the plan that we have now but I'm looking forward to finding out a little more detail about those things so um uh David um you were asking specific questions were those questions for our secretary to write down that we are requesting from Administration yes okay I just wanted to make sure because her head didn't come up so yeah so she got them all yes does somebody say something I was just confirming with Miss Walton that she had she has them or if she needs me to repeat them okay thank you thank you David yeah I I believe I have them and I was having some of the same questions in my mind so thank you for asking yeah so space where are we in gaps on Space within
113classrooms and where are we with um gaps in matching a teacher resource with in-person students right yes Staffing gaps and space gaps okay I just a little bit there on that um just some patience with that report because it is that is a lot of detail and absolutely I and and it it will change and so you'll get likely a snapshot and and if you and if it changes that day it's not going to be accurate so I I think what would be helpful uh Miss Mays the president mace is is if we could maybe articulate and not necessarily hear but exactly what data is being asked for in in maybe Mr Wilbanks can give us the bullet point so that we make sure we hit the target because we have there are so many
114ways this this this data can be accumulated and when we talk about gaps does that mean for one day or for one month or for a long term sub the whole semester so if I think it's not I think maybe a conversation between you and I and Dr Cavazos to hash out because I don't want to make it a burden what I'm asking for is for instance when we get the number of parents that have requested in person how that maps to specific classrooms for instance which I'm sure you guys are doing or we have an ability to do um beforehand I just and then where are the gaps in terms of uh people resources to serve those students um and and then it it's not tomorrow but you know we've got this coming on
115the 13th so we you know there are a few just a few weeks away and so I would encourage staff that you're not already thinking in those terms for thinking those terms to identify those gaps yeah so those those there is certainly a lot of thought in those terms and a lot of planning it's being managed a lot at the campus level and we want that to be managed at the campus level because that's where those decisions can be made quickly okay uh regrouping of students and reorganizing of of a class and things like that for autonomy down to the principles Mr Hogg agrees with me wholeheartedly on that one so um they're the ones more most capable of being able to handle a situation with the best knowledge and to be able to do
116it quickly and efficiently yeah and and so the point with that is that accumulating that at a system level is is on a real-time basis or even a snapshot basis it may not paint the right picture at the right time but I think further detail I think what would help in in making sure we hit the target with with the board's requesting yeah and let's let's let's talk offline about it before I don't want to cause people to go Rush up I just assume that those were the thing that's the work that we're currently doing but given that it's uh more of a decentralized effort um then there might be a better way to go about it Dr cavaso so we can talk perfectly this week later this week or early next week about it
117perfect thank you I think that's a good idea thank you Mr World Banks thank you Dr Cavazos Ms Fowler I see you're unmuted yes thank you president Mays and I think this is probably for Mr kale so Mr Kell if we have a teacher and here she decides that they do want to come back and and teach face to face but then let's say their home situation changes or uh a parent becomes ill do they have the option then to to request um to be able to teach virtually or to take some time off so yes ma'am so what this is a very fluid situation in most cases for most people whether it be exposures that might occur today that didn't occur yesterday family situations to your point Miss Fowler that could change so there
118there certainly is the opportunity to communicate that a personal situation has changed and then we would go through the same process that we're going through now which is to reevaluate what the options are for that individual we effectively have a list of different things that could apply different types of leave whether it be the federally mandated leave whether it be traditional FMLA whether it be remote work there's just a number of options that we kind of go through to see what best fits the individual as well as as well as the the campus and the needs of the campus and so we'll reevaluate that anytime a person's situation changes and come up with the best solution we can for the individual and for the needs of the campus and serving students thank you Mr Kill
119because I know you know teachers may think yes I'm ready to come back and everything's great and then like you were saying things can change and I just want them to know that they're not locked into anything that that things are constantly changing and that will will work with them and not keep them locked into any situation so thank you very much I appreciate that yes ma'am thank you Miss Fowler um I do have one more question I I hear all of the logistics that we're trying to make sure are covered we understand that things that are happening are fluid and it sounds like y'all are being very proactive on what we can do um but one thing that I do have a concern with is uh the mental health of a lot of our
120students for a lot of our students that will be returning um that have been needing or looking for that social connection a lot of our students that are coming from homes where they've either had family members within the home that have been ill or that are currently unemployed um just all the other things that have been going on that have caused quite a bit of emotional distress on our students in addition to the anxiety and the fear which we have heard from our teachers and I know is very real fear for those teachers that have expressed that that's what they're feeling um so just the the mental um state of our students and our teachers as in their their coming some of them are coming together um what are we as a district uh prepared
121to do or um are planning to do understanding that we are going to have some um some emotional issues that might need to be addressed even before all these great Logistics that we have of teaching um can really impact uh probably a large portion of some of our students and I'm actually speaking of students who I have spoken with that are truly dealing with some very heavy emotions um that is sad but it's very real so I just want to know what if anything is the district prepared to do to help not only our students but also our staff that are experiencing a lot of these things right now foreign and you're right it is real um I will say that I can't speak to all the specifics that our Counseling Services team is armed
122with um and how they're going to be supporting we can certainly get that information to you what I can share is um there is a social emotional Learning lesson as a part of each end of each class period even during closure um there was a designated time that was dedicated to sel lessons and just kind of how do you deal with anxiety how do you deal with stress how do you manage your emotions how do you communicate when you're not feeling well I know that's something that was a part of the curriculum I also know that with our staff it's funny Dr Cavazos and I were just texting about this today that need to remind our staff about our employee assistance program and just how you can take advantage of counseling sessions and if you
123need someone to talk to but also making sure we have that for staff for our students and so I'll be sure trustee Mays to get that back to you all the specific information our Counseling Services team is going to provide for students in addition to the regular counseling support that we do I'll make sure we get that information to you president news thank you very much and then um just as as a board member I would also like to know if it appears that there may be any additional resources that might be needed towards our counseling area or in being able to provide that information for our students and our teachers because to me personally um I believe I'm speaking for most of my colleagues that emotional piece right now is almost as equally important
124as the education in the classroom piece so just want to know if there's any additional resources anything that's needed that we're made aware of that if we need to help in any way thank you president Mays and if I could just I just got a text that we do offer a hotline for students and staff members a counseling hotline that is taking care of by some of our councils in our district so I know that is another option for staff and students but I think it's also about how are we communicating that need and that option to our parents and students and staff and so we'll get you a comprehensive list of all the support we're providing um as relates to these Services as well that is great Dr Brown thank you also if you
125have that number is that something that we could just say um while we're talking about it please I'm sure I'm gonna get it right now okay very good and I appreciate that thank you it might take a moment president Mays but I'll make sure we get that number before we close this board meeting out thank you I appreciate that The Choppa thank you president Mason I missed one question as I was flipping through my slide deck earlier and I just wanted to follow up with I think Dr Brown if it's appropriate for you to answer the question but um you know our number of enrolled students has been trickling up since the beginning of the year and previously y'all had presented on different ways that we were attempting to reach students and you know we're
126getting you know almost a full six weeks into the school year now and we've still got about a 2 000 student Gap from our projections which is which I'm not surprised to see given that that is seems to be a common experience with districts all across the country and I think it was an article in the Dallas Morning News this week about disd's missing maybe 15 000 students um I just wanted to follow up and say and see you know what at this point are we doing uh to continue to try to drive our enrollment numbers and reach those students or or have we established that some of those students are in fact they've moved out of the district or their their parents are just choosing to stay home and and just waiting and see
127or you know what what's the status on that thank you for that question we just actually recently a few days ago looked again at our no-shows the number of no-show students and so we pushed that information back out to campus to say these are the students we have in our system as no shows have you made specific contact with each of these parents so go into that list one more time and embedding it to see if there's anyone we might have missed we know that we did get a lot of students enrolled with our home visits and personal Outreach to parents and so we're just betting that list one final time to make sure that we didn't miss one student in that group so and is there sort of is there any sort of Common
128Thread among among those students as we reach out to those families at this point are are we reaching out and the contact numbers no longer good or they're not at that address anymore or are we actually making contact with families who are telling us and in One Way Or Another We're not coming back to you know right now or we're going somewhere else It's a combination trustee Chapa but a lot of them have moved in with other family members they've moved across the country um during the situation have lost their jobs and have had to take in with other family members so that's been a common theme of what I've heard just um from some of the principals who've been reaching out and making contact so it's more it seems to be more life situations
129that are driving the no-show and not a conscious decision to to leave AISD yes sir thank you what we've gathered yes sir thank you thank you Mr Chapa thank you once again Dr Brown I have that hotline number right now we're listening go ahead and say that before we close out this part um it is 682 area code 682 -682-867-9416 and they can go to we have a resource we have resources available on the website um that they can access but we'll also provide that information to you thank you so much Dr Brown and Mays um the hotline that was given out was for the school counseling there's also a community sport hotline that is very similar to that number it's 682 867-9417 Mr Wilbanks okay it looks like we are ready to move on
130with the agenda our next item on magenta is items to be withdrawn from the consent agenda are there any items to be withdrawn from the consent agenda by any trustee okay I see none so tonight we will be considering the items listed on your agenda under consent items Miss Moss please share bids thank you president Mays trustees Dr Cavazos we don't have any bids or donations tonight nor do we have any items over fifty thousand dollars but we do have a couple of items uh for contract considerations for you tonight okay please continue no that was it so that's the update on the consent and we're ready for hey so is there a motion to accept the president Mays that we accept the consent agenda is there a second nice second okay so I have
131a motion by Mrs Fowler or second by Mr Wilbanks is there any discussion CNN we will vote and we will vote via roll call when I call your name please raise your hand for yes if there's no then say you are not in favor Mr Hawk I vote Yes Miss Walton Ollie Walton I vote Yes Mr Wilbanks David Wilbanks I vote Yes Mr Choppa Justin Chapa I vote Yes Dr Rice Aaron rice I vote Yes Mrs Fowler Melody Fowler I vote Yes and Keisha Mays I vote Yes motion passes thank you much thank you very much Miss Moss okay now we will continue my agenda with our discussion items Dr Cavazos thank you president mace and so this evening we bring a discussion item and really uh more information and the work that's been happening
132with our racial and social Equity work uh and that as a board is fully aware uh board passed a resolution uh this summer to examine uh our systems our culture our curriculum our instruction and so that uh framework uh in terms of this work has been developed uh and Dr Brown has been leading that effort and so tonight we were going to do this the previous board meeting but um but it we pushed it off to this one which was appropriate to to have a good amount of time to to review it uh and so I'll just say ahead of time I want to thank our board one more time for uh for taking that step in that resolution um an examination and I've said this to to different people who have asked me and
133I've said it to publicly as well on examination which is what we're talking about an examination of self of our system of our culture uh it takes courage it takes courage to self-examination whether it's self as a person or self as an organization that we lead and we have the blessing to to to govern in your case govern um a self-examination takes courage and this board has demonstrated that courage because we know that in an examination um we will find things that are not uh the easiest things to deal with uh perhaps things that we uncover that uh that we uh have not necessarily taken note of we've done a lot of strong work around Equity with our bond programs with our instructional programmings Etc but there's much more work to do and this board
134has taken that step and so that courage is something that inspires uh us and the organization and it inspires Us in such a way that when Dr Brown and well first when I sent out to as a district update about this resolution that the board passed the feedback was very positive across the system at all levels not just teachers I mean across different employees and now that we start asking for uh people who are interested in helping and being involved in this in this very important work um we get hundreds of of requests to to participate and that just shows that uh the leadership of the board uh certainly transcends in the organization and and I appreciate that sincerely and so we know that ultimately it's it's the work of serving our students and serving
135them exceptionally well uh but that service is done through the adults so that's why we have to do this examination uh of our system and really address things and and we know it's not quick work it's not work that can be done one day to the next uh and it will be in many ways a discovery process but in many ways also uh a process for people to uh to really unite uh in the interest of students in our community and so I just want to again thank before we even start this discussion thank the the courage that the board took this summer and then thank Dr Brown uh for leading this effort and you'll see the structure of leadership and things like that that we're we're going to talk about tonight but it will
136take all of us and that examination is across the board right it's from from all levels and so uh very very proud uh step for our school district so at this time I'll turn it over to Dr Brown so she can go over the presentation and then we'll certainly have uh opportunity for questions and discussion foreign again I'm excited to um as Dr Cavazos mentioned to share um where we are and that's the very beginning stages of our racial racial and social Equity work here in Arlington ISD so the time is now and we are the people again Kudos and thanks to our Board of Trustees for pastness resolution that was not just words but also we're expecting action behind it so we know this is part of the resolution that you all um did
137right and put together is that all of our students deserve to to learn in a system free of racism um and social injustice so you've charged us with with engaging in a comprehensive examination of all the things Dr Cavazos mentioned to make sure that we are intentional about strengthening improving modifying our institution to make sure they're limiting any unintentional intentional bias or racism that might be present in our system so I'll highlight a few quotes from some of our staff members who we surveyed to ask them how they felt about our about our engagement this work and this quote from an AISD teacher and a graduate of Arlington ISD just said you know just seeing how Arlington's taking this matter so seriously makes me proud beyond words I cannot express how deep my appreciation is
138to be part of this vital movement thank you and this comment was woven throughout the responses that I was able to view in this survey so many people hundreds are interested in joining the cause even when the survey closed they kept emailing saying hey the survey closed you still want to be a part of this so it just shows there's a hunger and a thirst for this and so we're very excited to get the work started so just doing some research and just trying to see what's out there and see what others are doing to address this in their organizations is vital you know we're all learning I'm learning a lot even as I'm preparing this information to share with you today and so this definition of equity and racial Equity by the office of
139equity and human rights was really powerful and it's basically the essence of it is that equities achieved when one's identity doesn't determine the outcome and that the racial part of that is realize when your race does not determine any barriers you might have any distribution of resources or any burdens for any specific group or member of a society so here are some common beliefs we'd like to talk about what we believe and so it's not only words but how are we making sure that we are enacting these words and that we are living the purpose of our beliefs and one is that racial and social Equity is not optional and it's not negotiable it's who we are as a district and this is the Cornerstone and Foundation of which we want to stand that we
140value the racial diversity of our district it is an asset and we um we are excited and proud to have the diversity that we have in our system and that we hold ourselves accountable um to be courageous as Dr Cavazos reference in all aspects of our work and that it's important that we believe that it's important to honor the living experiences of students and staff members in our communities of color and that the racial Equity work that we are launching um here with you this evening is going to be the Cornerstone of our vision it's going to be aligned to our organizational vision and it's going to be embodied in all that we that we so the structure is Dr cavazo's reference and I'll go into more specific detail about each of these components um
141we have our district racial Equity Champion which Dr Cavazos asked me to lead we'll have our steering committee a learning team and a task force and I'll walk you through each of these components but these four groups um basically are the ones who'll be responsible for ensuring that there's a comprehensive examination which is your charge I mean helping us kind of look at the narratives that we have in AISD cultural narratives to make sure providing fairness equal opportunity and that if there are any obstacles that are present or racial inequities that we not only identify those but we also remedy those as well so let's take a moment just to kind of walk through each of these four components of our racial Equity work uh the first part is the steering committee so the steering
142committee is going to be four to six members um diverse District leaders that we have who will regularly collaborate Define the priority Define the priorities prioritize and make sure that we are focused on the racial Equity initiatives helping us establish and monitor progress our outcomes our deliverables and just making sure that we are able to make sound recommendations to superintendent Cavazos that will help Define our next steps in our racial Equity work so again the steering committee a diverse group of senior leaders and others who'll be a part of the process of making sure that we're shaping this work in the way that we have intended to especially aligned to the resolution that we passed in June the racial Equity learning team this was very important and Dr Cavazos wanted to make sure that we
143had members of our organization that we're learning we know that a part of this part of this work is going to be listening listening learning engaging and focused learning around racial equity and making sure members of the team understand the foundational information that we need to make sure that we can disrupt any deficit views about race participate in book studies discussions of texts and really examine our own personal core beliefs and then those of our system that we um that we work in Arlington ISD again that learning team will be a small group of people but that group of people will be responsible for making sure they're learning Cascades throughout the organization this learning team will also make recommendations of district-wide learning opportunities that other everyone can engage in to increase their knowledge and their
144understanding to make sure that we are all um operating from the same space the racial Equity task force again is very important that we have a diverse group of members tasks this will be staff members it will be community members all walks so we have maybe new people to Arlington um ethnic diversity is going to be very important that we can all speak about the lived experiences of the population that we're focusing on initially so this task force is going to monitor the progress of our initiatives and our strategies make recommendations of the steering committee which then of course make recommendations to Dr Cavazos again we want to make sure we are choosing people for the tasks task force who are committed to Leading openly and having those courageous conversations and it might be that
145even those members of the task force need some additional support and learning of how do I have courageous conversations about race and social Equity without isolating my peers or making people quote feel uncomfortable so it's important that we provide that learning opportunity for them and I'll just share you know I've been reading so much lately and so one of the books that that I've been reading is race talk and the conspiracy of Silence I'm also reading a book that I think is going to be important for our learning team as well and it's really about how do you speak about racial equity and use like a like language of healing because that's going to be very important as we're listening to real authentic stories of experiences that were leading from a place of empathy and
146trying to understand an experience of a group of people and then our racial Equity listening leaders this is going to be an exciting part of the work we've had hundreds of people who have reached out and said I'm interested in being a part of this work and we know everyone can't be in a task force and everyone can't be on the focus group but everyone who's interested can participate so one thing we thought about was having racial Equity listening leaders and one of the challenges or the charge this group would have is that they would be engaged they would engage in a listening tour so in their Department if they're working central office or at their campus or even in the community that we ask them to interview two to three people with standardized questions
147about racial equity in Arlington ISD so part of that we'll be able to collect that data and help us identify themes and trends that we may need to further explore and again these listening leaders are the ones who are amped up and very excited about being able to engage in this work and they'll help us collect additional data through personal interviews so it's important again that we're seeking and gaining Clarity and input from our stakeholders to understand their perception of racial and social inequities and biases that may be present in our system so we send a survey out Dr Cavazos did actually a couple of weeks ago initial just kind of remind her about the resolution of the board passed and ask them if they're interested in being a part of this work and so
148we've had over 400 respondents so far and people are still knocking on the door even though the survey window closed but I just wanted to share with you a sample of just years of experience of the of the folks who were interested again very diverse in representation um which is going to be very powerful as we engage in conversation so over 40 percent of the respondents have been in Arlington one to five years I think that's powerful first they're they're newer in the system and they're very interesting and very interested in making an impact and a contribution to something very significant but you can see it spans across even many people who have over 20 years of experience in our system are equally as excited and interested in helping us lead this work so I
149wanted to share a few more quotes because they were just so riveting and just very powerful and one person wrote that you know she was in tears witnessing our district you know addressing this reality and how important it is to take a stand and explore patterns of disparity and those who may feel that their culture is how their culture is represented in our system another one applauds AISD for taking the time to genuinely address this matter this one's an AISD graduate as well and a long time resident of Arlington says I know we can do better our community needs us and then finally it takes a unified effort to change a fractured system I truly believe AISD has the potential to change the world and that really kind of gave me chills I have to
150say that every time I read that statement because we talk about the importance of you know being leaders and being World Changers and we have an incredible ability to do just that so we talked about the importance of looking at self and so looking at from the at the urban Institute talked about different types of racism that can be explored and one ultimately is how are you looking at self first and then with that how are you as a person understanding how your prejudgments your biases uh against an individual or group or race can lead to actions that um sometimes we take against that particular group of people then you look at institutional or structural racism and one of that the first one is really looking at any policies programs that may benefit white people
151versus black people and usually that is an unintentional consequence that we might be able to tap into and then structural racism is is how you look at the interplay of policies practices and programs that uh unfortunately to adverse outcomes and conditions for black communities compared to that of their white counterparts and then all of this is in the context of of historical and cultural conditions so again I think this is heavy stuff it is going to be challenging to have the conversations and do so with courage and for us to really make um the progress that we know and be the organization that we're already fantastic and phenomenal and to add on top of that the work that we'll do here will make it even stronger for all members of our community so this is
152really basically what the cycle is going to look like as it relates to our comprehensive examination um of and provide more insight into our black students staff members and Community experience AISD and I'll walk through each of these briefly the first one is uh Dr Cavazos of course is going to set outcomes key outcomes for this racial Equity work and make sure the steering committee's work plan is is aligned and intact and going to lead to the outcomes that he seeks for us to gauge as an organization the second part of that is making sure that we're involving those impacted most this is not exclusive to only involving and surveying our black students staff and community members but actually just starting with them to get insight into their lived experiences in Arlington ISD and through
153this process um get having them have the opportunity to voice their reality describe how some systems of Oppression may play out and then help us really be able to develop solutions that draw upon their experiences and what they bring to the table and so initially this could be an email survey that we send out to a group of African-American students as staff members and even community members who have been long-standing in the community who certainly have um and opinions about their experience in the Arlington ISD Community as well and then having facilitated focus group discussions those discussions of course will be diverse which is going to be very important that we have other members of the community diverse staff members in the community who are part of the conversation to be able to hear about
154the lived experiences and also be able to offer their observations and what they've witnessed when as it relates to our black students staff members and community members next of course it's important that we gather information so we survey we focus group and then we conduct the listening tours which I referenced earlier those personal interviews that will give us another layer of data um with a lot more people that will be able to tap into and once we collect that data we're able to synthesize it we're able to find any kind of practices or structures themes or trends that we might have identified that might contribute to this particular population feeling marginalized this community feeling marginalized by unintended usually by programs and practices in our system we will likely need to involve external support for this
155and so we have some initial conversations that we that we um have been engaging in with external Partners who might be able to help us with this Equity audit work that we want to engage in but how important it is that people in our district and Community First have an opportunity to engage with people in this system we thought that was really really important and Powerful that people will will be able to look at me and have a conversation with me about an experience versus a stranger which sometimes can provide a strain for some who may not be as comfortable talking to people they may not know so then of course we identify the trends in the data we develop the strategies and then of course we do all of this through our task force
156and then um funneling up to through our steering committee the last part of this is evaluating raising awareness being accountable so it's important that we're executing strategies of course that will be outlined in our district strategic plan that throughout this time that we are tracking the impact of strategies and initiatives over time to make sure that the work that we have done is making a difference in our district and for the specific group of students and staff members consistently communicate with and involve stakeholders will be very important and then make sure there's a safe space for our black staff students and Community to have to be able to share concerns provide feedback and celebrate progress and then of course share our information learn from analysis any unresolved issues with our task force our steering committee
157and of course superintendent Cavazos here's the Cadence of what this work is going to look like you can see we're going to be even busier in October we're going to convene our task force again we have all the members who have volunteered for task force or focus groups and again we asked some very important questions when we surveyed this the staff members in our district we asked several questions one we asked them what is something what's a racial Equity issue that you would like to for us to address in Arlington and it was very interesting responses from lots of people and then we asked them how comfortable do you feel currently having discussions with peers or colleagues about racial Justice or racial inequity so we can gauge how much learning they may need to engage
158in to be able to have those conversations and then anything else they wanted to share with us if they wanted to be a part of the task force a focus group or even just engage in any kind of survey we wanted to kind of get get an idea of where they wanted to engage in the work October we're all going to start our survey and collect data and then we'll have our focus groups in October and November to be able to again we have survey results we'll be able to pull those survey results out have conversations talk about some Trends and themes we identified during those during those surveys and let's talk about this in an open Forum where we have psychological safety for all of members of our group and in their diverse experiences
159and upbringings to be able to come together and have genuine conversations in an effort to be able to grow together and learn from each other I talked about the external support we'd likely need to lean into and that is once we have our focus groups we have our survey now we have Trends having someone externally to help us pull through those Trends and then be able to identify concrete strategies um that we'll be able to recommend to the task force and then to the steering committee and then by by December we hope to have next steps as to the work that we're going to engage in and of course this is not going to be a semester-long project or a one-year project this is going to happen over the course of many years we assume
160once we determine what the actual strategies are that we'll be engaging in um in December and we know that we are going to begin our process of our multi-year strategic plan and so the thought is that our racial and social Equity Focus work would be a part of that plan beginning in 2021 I want to end with this quote by one of our AISD principals who said our racial Equity work will improve relationships among teachers students and parents and improve the educational experience of all of our students with an emphasis on leveling the playing field for black students and people of color so before I take questions I just wanted to Echo Dr cavazos's sentiments and his words and say thank you thank you for your courage and your leadership and um certainly am excited
161about helping be a part of this ground breaking work in Arlington and I'm happy to take your questions thank you very much Dr Brown are there any questions from colleagues okay okay Dr Rice I thought there would be questions so I was being polite because it seems that I'm always hogging the floor here that I don't want to do that uh that's okay thank you very much uh it is uh going to be a remarkable Journey it's remarkable work and uh I I appreciate you I mean it is absolutely important there is uh a very high priority with this in the midst of this pandemic as well as you said and you're going to be even busier but there's no uh no no excuses for a delay that that's for certain so uh definitely appreciate
162it really uh like the way you've laid everything out it's very thoughtful I've seen other uh other agencies other institutions look at this more I I don't know I don't want to sound negative but it seems more of a haphazard approach and hey we'll we'll put a a a focus group or a task force together and and that's about it and what you've devised is truly a thoughtful uh methodical leveled approach uh so that everybody can feel included and yet we still have a a uh a a focus on outcomes and an ability to create tangibles and deliverables to truly change the system um when those things are identified so I really do appreciate that uh the the one thing that I'm curious about is so that the respondent a number it's great you know
163400 plus respondents um if you look at our district as a whole that's about a four percent or so response rate I'd say and it's not a a knock to those that that didn't respond but to me it opens up more of a possibility that there's there's going to be people in our in our world there is in our district I'm sure there are that don't really think there's there's something to really become of this um there maybe they're in a situation they might look like me they they might say I I don't get it I don't think there's an issue um they I've I've been really trying to be humble myself and saying I understand that I don't understand and I I think that's a very valid statement for people to say across all
164lines so what are you working on to try to bring those people uh more to the table that really do need to be part of the conversation as well as part of the solution because if not there there's not an entire entirety of a buy-in uh to to push this reform out further uh and I know it's early in the work but I don't know if you've thought about that or not and if so if not great if so if you could give us a little bit of information on that thank you um thank you for your sharing your thoughts and your words on that trustee Reich I think it's important we only had I say only but 400 plus you think that's not a lot compared to the overall population that we have but
165we have very specific and pretty tough questions um do you want to be part of the task force and let them laying out exactly how much time that's going to be involved with that do you want to be part of a focus group exactly how much time that will be involved with that and so there may be some right now who say I don't have that time to commit however they still could respond to a survey they still could be able to spawn to an interview with one of their peers at their campus another thing that I think is important Dr Reich that we've um that we're thinking about is we look at determining who's going to be on the task force and who's gonna be on the focus group is making sure that all
166that across our district we're looking at to make sure it's equally you know represented so we don't have a higher population of people from East Arlington who are interested in being a part of the focus group that we have all different parts of our district who are represented I also imagine that as we get the work going that we're going to hear from more people who say oh you're actually going to do something with this I do I think I have a problem I have a part in this and then the other part Dr Ryan says once we start getting into identifying what the strategies will be for example if it's going to be a focus on curriculum instruction we might be able to tap into a different set of people who can say oh
167this might be an area where I see myself in working on cultural responsive strategies because it's connected to cni which is what I'm interested in versus being a part of the focus group so I think ultimately it's helping people understand and identify there's a space for everyone in the conversation it's about where is your entry point and helping them find that so as we go along to the process I'm hoping we'll be able to tap into some other people and even make probably some personal invitations of people who may be reluctant but we know they would be a great contributor to the system of work right right I I appreciate that answer and uh the books that you referenced I think it's uh having having that Baseline for people to feel comfortable having those conversations
168being able to ask the questions and address the uncomfortable without fear of of offending and that type of thing that that's that's this is heavy stuff so I I appreciate that there's a lot of work to be done there and I also appreciate what you you said as far as the the diversity within our our district uh geographically because a a certain you know somebody in a the same racial profile in one part of town versus another they they may have completely different experiences uh that might be from socioeconomics it might be from something else but we we've got to do our best to try to capture all of that to into this so that we are well informed and have that true sampling so I I don't think it's an easy task at in
169any way say perform uh in its entirety especially at the beginning foundationally trying to put uh everybody together that that is truly representative so uh I appreciate that I appreciate you taking the lead with this as well as everything else and uh uh certainly look forward to where we're we're moving uh into the future and certainly uh hopeful that there is definitely an enough uh tangibles that we can incorporate I'm sure there will be into our strategic plan as we work on developing that over the next year so thank you very much thank you sir thank you Dr Rice yes Mr Hogg thank you president Mason Miss Brown thank you for all the work and I think it it says listen we have a lot of task force and sometimes we don't have that many
170volunteers it says a lot for this when we ask for volunteers and we have a ton of volunteers for this it it that alone says a ton um let me ask and you may have said this and I may have just missed it on the task force you're reinvolving students on on any of that task force so the thought is we would involve students in focused groups now once we come together with the steering committee we may determine as an appropriate space for students there but we definitely involve students in small group conversations and surveys to be able to get their lived experiences and actually they're going to be talking to Dr Cavazos he's going to be leading those groups with our black students as we move throughout the year so we've not thought about
171putting them on the focus group right now we can or the task force excuse me but we can consider that if we feel like the steering committee thinks that's a good move yeah and maybe that's a question for the task force to help decide and I think that's fine I think I think as a board we've experienced a lot of really impactful conversations from students in our past so I think that is something to explore the other thing and listen I I always try to get to outcomes and I think it's this one's important as we started talking about of sometimes we you have to listen first before you get to that outcome and so I appreciate that I want to make sure and I know will get updates but if there's if there's listing
172sessions or task force items and I don't want just a few board members I want us to almost rotate on some of that for all of the board members to attend and listen I I think you know the the first step in this whole thing we've all talked about is you know developing a plan but listening to everything and and the way you all designed it I truly appreciate it because I think it gets us there um and see some of those and you know you don't usually include quotes and lots of your presentations but I really appreciate you added some of those tonight I think it added a lot to it so I mean Dr Rice so I would just ask make sure I don't know how and that's another question for the task
173force you probably don't want one of us on your task force I get that um but uh find a way for to make sure we're actively working on it and and going through this because it does then come down and Dr Rice said it um and you said it at the very end I was waiting for that part of your presentation um listen we have a new big strategic plan we're about to design it and anyone who's worked with us in the past um there's a lot of districts that talk about their strategic plan and I remember in the last strategic plan we talked about do we add a goal based on equity and we had some discussions about that and we only added we set with one goal we had action plans based on
174some Equity items on there and so we use our strategic plan as a district um we try not to do things that are outside of it we stay focused so I really appreciate like where we get into the outcome and timing-wise it's actually worked out you know we would have adjusted a strategic plan but having a new one that's coming up I think it's really beneficial to us as an organization from our timing so I just wanted to thank you and and get a couple clarification on those items thanks thank you trustee huh thank you Mr Hogg any other questions or comments from trustees okay um Dr Brown thank you very much for your presentation it was very professionally done as expected um always appreciate um your thoughts and putting your personal touch on some
175of your presentations but particularly this one um very happy to see the work that's gone out that shows that we were very serious about the resolution that was made and it appears that the backing of the district is just as serious as making sure that it comes to fruition and how we're going to do that and how we're going to see that um so I appreciate your efforts I'm very excited and looking forward to some of these sit-down conversations and lessons I think that is going to be um uh probably very eye-opening and what will be a how did my mom used to say you know the medicine may go down hard but you sure feel better after it starts working situation that will bring our district closer together and will educate and that's what
176we're part that's what we are we're about educating and this is exactly doing that the educating um Dr Reich had mentioned um who needs to maybe be involved or the people we need to reach out to and it just made me think about preaching to the choir we say that all the time but we know that this is not going to be one of those things the whole purpose of the resolution is because the choir already knows what we know so now it's an opportunity to share that with those who may not know and or understand um so um Mr Hogg I agree with you as well we definitely need to make sure that we are involved not just for the strategic planning but for policy making if there's a policy that comes out of
177this we need to have been a part of learning and hearing so we know how to make those policies I think that's very important to create policies for people you need to understand what those people are thinking and feeling and the task force may come up with some additional things that we as a district see has been missing and be able to address that so once again I am very excited about this task force this resolution and definitely your your work and your fingerprints on it and I believe that nothing else can come from it whenever that is and however many times it happens but positivity for AISD so thank you thank you so much okay no other questions or comments we will continue with our agenda next on the agenda is another discussion item
178for the tasby board policy update 115 Dr Cavazos thank you president Maze and this is another item that we moved to this board meeting from last board meeting and this is an opportunity for the board to get an overview of uh tasbi policy update 115 and our governance committee has already reviewed this uh this packet and this policy so Dr Hill has a presentation that just summarizes that um and and will continue in the process and if appropriate the next board meeting for Action to adopt these policies so Dr Hill board members uh again to discuss tasby policy update 115 which was submitted to us from the association uh later or this summer uh in general this encompasses legal and local policies Associated from uh tasby and how that impacts uh the local board and
179the local districts uh again legal updates and the policy there are changes in law legal policy should not be adopted but only reviewed by the board local policies do need board adopt adoption to revise repeal or or change uh any of those policies uh some of the topics associated with uh update 115 include board policies in general uh compensation and benefits uh freedom from discrimination PD academic achievement accounting and a couple of areas on student welfare and Student Activities in general we've our common process for review is that we'll look at this uh these policies uh with the board governance committee our general counsel in-house as well as uh presenting some recommendations to tasby for review we let every Department that has a policy associated with this update uh make those uh reviews and make
180recommendations for change as well in update 115 there are 141 policies and uh most of those I've failed to uh add the numbers there but most of those are legal policies with very few local policies and a couple of exhibits in there just a closer look at some of the revisions of the local policies in update 115 uh BF local again talks about adding that the language that legally reference policies are are not adopted by the board uh policy EI local dealer academic achievement addresses uh partial credit for students uh for half semester courses and again the academic Services team has looked at that and support that language uh that's recommended by tasby FB local deals with equal opportunity uh equal educational opportunities and it basically says that the district's Title IX coordinator has the
181the right to make every effort to comply and all that we do within the district with the uh Amendments of 1972. uh FD local uh deals with Admissions and addresses the transfer of academic credits for students who are homeless so if a student transfers to the district from a homeless or a families in transition situation that we are to take an extra close look at that transcript and make sure that we offer every opportunity for that student to get those credits uh considered uh their uh situation another policy Feb uh deals with attendance accounting and that's the official designation of the official attendance taking time uh for the district and that's something that's been uh We've operationalized that but Tasman has recommended we add it to our local policy uh again there have been several
182other uh legal policies all of them have been uh presented to all of the Departments uh we'll continue to view the to review these internally uh the board governance committee uh has reviewed these and uh our plan is to bring it back for adoption uh on the October 8th uh meeting uh with the board with that uh we'll be glad to take any questions or further discussion on update 115. thank you so much Dr Hill for that uh presentation 141 policies thank you so much to our governance committee for taking that into account um do I have any trustees with any questions or any comments or would our chair of the governance committee like to make a comment Mr Chapa thank you president Mays uh not much to to say on any one of these
183policies individually with very few exceptions these were recommended changes from tasby to Legal policies which we really don't have much of a say over that's just a restatement of what the law is and then to some of our local policies where there was a lot of recommendations to eliminate some redundant policies or to get rid of some some just language that was not serving much of a purpose or had become outdated I think you know and a good example would be there was one policy that explained in some detail some matters that related to how student athletes are governed when almost all of that same information is is already you explained under UIL policies and so test we took the position that that information was redundant to have it in local policy since all of
184our Athletics are are under the ages of UIL anyway um so that that is it if there are um specific questions this is a discussion uh item um I'd be happy to answer those um and you're given the volume of changes that there were if there are very specific questions um we can take those back uh to the governance committee and and talk about them with it at the administration and Dr Hill okay I'm not seeing any questions or comments so I want to say uh thank you to our governance committee chaired by Mr Chapa thank y'all very much thank you Dr Hill for the presentation and we will continue in our agenda okay so now we've come to our open forum for non-agenda items Mrs Benjamin do we have any requesters registered to address
185the board regarding non-agenda items no ma'am we do not okay then we will continue on our agenda next is our superintendent's report Dr Cavazos thank you president Mason and just a couple of comments and I do want to thank our staff across the district teachers principals counselors bus drivers custodians I know I'll miss somebody Food Services Etc um because of their efforts and so I know the board knows this but sometimes the the it's important to emphasize this to our community and and certainly people watching board meetings that you get a lot of summarized information because there's a lot of information that goes into our presentations and and what you know but sometimes our public doesn't you know maybe know as much is is that there is so much work going on uh at that
186level across the district to produce what you see in a summary level at the governance level with the board and I just sincerely appreciate our school district and all our staff uh because they are uh outstanding and and you know uh to be able to get to this point with with what is a rigorous curriculum instruction and and and while we're dealing obviously with a pandemic and and so I just I just can't miss an opportunity to thank across the district uh all our staff and our students for their patients and their continued engagement you know we have uh we have a lot a lot of students uh vast vast majority of our students engaged and then our parents uh the parents for their patients and and their support and I know this is not
187an easy time it's not an easy time for anyone um and and I know the board puts a lot of thoughtful effort into the decisions that you make uh but that that those presentations that you see tonight uh Encompass a lot of work by a lot of different people across the district and I just I I don't want that to go unnoticed and I want to thank them sincerely uh so with that that that's my report president mace thank you so much thank you very much Dr Cavazos next to our agenda our school board reports do I have any trustees that have a report or would like to make a comment okay I see none um I think just one thing that I would like to say um before we get ready on the 28th
188to do some of our in-person is that is just talking um about um a teacher and um this short little quote it says I wasn't born to just teach I was born to inspire others to change people and to never give up even when faced with challenges that seem impossible and I think that's so appropriate now for our teachers thank y'all so much for everything that you were digging in digging down to do um we understand and appreciate um your efforts uh for returning on the 28th and we are praying that all goes safe and well and to our staff throughout AISD thank you all very much as Dr cavaso said we don't want to miss any opportunities because the work that is going on is extremely heavyless heavy lifting but it's also done with
189a very gracious heart which is one of our tenets here so thank you to the district thank you to my board colleagues for um having a heart a heart of gold is what I would call it and having the best interest of this District in place and I appreciate that so once again this is a blessed District we are very excited as things start happening over the next couple of weeks and we will continue to be here and to be supportive in any way that we can do that so with that being said Miss secretary do we have any items to consider uh yes uh Matt Miss Mary we have a request for a breakdown of the numbers of the virtual versus in-person attendance by campuses and where there are gaps as far as Staffing
190goes or space is available um and um I'm not quite clear on this but on the gaps how long a time would some of those gaps be be there uh and we are going to be patient as Dr Cavazos requested uh to get that huge amount of information uh Dr Brown uh uh said she would be getting a comprehensive list of the counseling and social and emotional uh support um uh things that are out there for our students and for our staff we got hotline numbers tonight that was good and the third thing is um what are the dates for the focus groups on the racial and social Equity uh project uh as leading to board members wanting to attend some of those and observe so I believe that was everything if I missed anything
191and holler out there fellow board members to be clear Mr secretary uh the first one I'm gonna I've withdrawn in lieu of meeting with Dr Cavazos and discuss what's more feasible the end result that we're looking for okay and that will be shared with the rest of us I would assume I think she was laughing Mr wilbank so she was saying why didn't you tell me that before I read all of this no that's okay thank you very much Miss secretary appreciate it thank you president Mays for your earlier okay yes so with that note it is 9 15 and this meeting is adjourned thank you very much