001April 7th, 2020 session is called to order. 10:37 a.m. And um I will call on Mr. McElveen for the first forum topic, wait until eighth initiative. Um thank you, Ms. Lady, and thank you to both you and the chair for um scheduling um this item and the next item so expeditiously after they were submitted. It's much appreciated. Um so, this uh forum uh topic deals with uh encouraging our families to wait until eighth grade um to for smartphone adoption. Um it's a debate I don't think is um uh a surprise to uh many at this table given the conversations we've had about cell phone use and cell phone policy up to the past several years. Um and it's our view this goes very much hand in hand with our our cell phone policy. Um this
002is uh for those who are not familiar with the initiative, an effort to get um families to work um together as a community um to uh push back on earlier cell phone adoption um for the reasons that we're all very familiar with, um the fact that um cell phone use and addiction leads to um behavioral issues, issues with sleep, cyberbullying, mental health, um and educational disruption in the classroom. Um these are all things that I know we we all uh feel feel strongly about uh and um this is an effort to stand with the community members who um believe in the importance of uh pushing back cell phone adoption till eighth grade. So, what I am um proposing to do uh without reading through my uh forum topic submission is to have a conversation here
003um and then bring forward a resolution um at the board table um to uh again support support this initiative. Um and again, this is not pushing things on families. It's just showing our institutional support um for what the Surgeon General has shown to be um a uh something that's been had very negative and deleterious impacts on our students. So, with that, open it up for discussion. Dr. Anderson. Thank you. Um, can you speak a little bit more, and I may be asking you to reread what's on there? I'm I looked at it, but I'm trying to get it open. In terms of what do we intend on um achieving with the resolution? Um, so the concern that's been brought to me from the community is that um, school principals and staff have not been empowered
004to express their support for this initiative. While I think that that support uh in our community and among our employees, um, there has they've they've just not felt the ability to take uh an official stance on this, and I think our um you know, just giving what given what science and what um policy issues have shown is that this um is an important step for us to take. Um, by adopting this it would show that we're a national leader uh on this topic. Um, and I think it also, you know, we we've had um heard a lot of concerns from the community about screen time in general, and also um AI policy. And I think this is a way to show that um this board is um supportive of reducing screen time and particularly um
005smartphone use. Thank you. So, this is just a resolution, that's not necessarily going to lead to particular action. It's just to signal position. That's correct. Okay, thank you for that. Um, I I guess the question that I had is also regarding process because typically resolutions we just bring forward and not necessarily at the for at the um at a forum. Um, would you at some point be looking for some action that is associated with this? Um, well, just to take a step back. I mean, the reason I'm bringing it as a forum topic as opposed to just slapping it on a board of agenda as a resolution is cuz we haven't had a chance to talk about it. >> I see. >> an opportunity to do so. Um, which we would not have to at
006the board table, um, and also would allow would allow me to take any um input that is received from the board and and include that uh in a resolution. Okay, thank you. Um Just two more things. I I think as someone who's brought resolutions before and have and have had to fight for the resolution just to be recognized as a position, not necessarily linked to action, I I do appreciate what you're attempting to do. Um, my other question is if this let's kind of run this through. If we have a resolution that is um supportive of the language that you have here that says wait until eight. What do you anticipate this would mean for activities for our students? Would it be that teachers are making decisions about whether or not to put um devices
007in front of kids we're talking kindergarten, first, second grade at this point. What What do you think is going to be the impact? So, I think the the main impact should be um showing our support for community togetherness and embracing this topic of pushing smartphone use to a later age. Okay. >> Um, I don't foresee any curriculum to come out of this. I don't foresee um the school system to be doing anything more than supporting families in their decision to wait until um a later age for Would this kind of be in um support, I guess, inclusive? I have heard Ms. Lady say a number of times, you know, wait until What was it that the thing that you've used? Don't put this in front of your kids until some age. You mentioned something about
008that, but that you've said many times, and I can't believe I can't recall it. I I think wait until eight. I've said that before. >> Oh, that's Is that what you said? Okay. I thought it was something else. >> And then and then I but then I also tell parents that they need to charge them in their room in high school because if not, you're letting your child go wherever they want to in the world without your supervision. That's that's a Okay, thank you for re-raising that. Would those be the kinds of things you would envelop in this resolution? Just again, signal to parents that there things that they can do, and I would love to add what I've put in my newsletters in years past, which is how parents can password protect um their
009children's phones so that they're not able to access it during the school day. You can set up different things where only text messages work during the school day or only phone or nothing at all. Um, I I would love to let that be included as part of the language as well. If it's just going to be a signal to parents like, "Hey, there are things that you can do for your kids' mental health, etc." Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Dannon. Thank you very much. Um, first I I'm really grateful that you brought this up, and I've gotten a lot of emails about it, all of them supportive. I haven't heard any detractors from it. Um, has there been a precedent just I guess for my own edification, has there been a precedent where the board
010has done similar things like this where we um announce our support for something like this that maybe not is central to schools and education, but is, you know, obviously it it can have a big impact on what we see in our classrooms. Um, yes, I would say it's more of a historical practice. I'd say in recent years we haven't seen as much, certainly during this board term, but um yes, historically. Awesome. And then um have you seen this at other I I know you mentioned being a leader, which is phenomenal. Have you seen other districts or divisions do this at the state level or regionally? Um, it's a good question, and I think that the answer is there's a movement to have other districts adopt this, but um it has not been a common thing.
011So, by doing this it would make us a national leader. Awesome. Well, thanks for bringing it up. Thank you, Ms. St. John Cunningham. Um, so first of all, um number one, thank you for bringing this up. Um, I do agree with the substance of what the wait till eight uh theory is. Um, my questions go more to your statement that says um support system leadership and staff in sharing this pledge and resources with families. Um, so how do you think that's going to look? Who's going to do the work? You know, I um I don't have a clear answer to that, very honestly. I think that um my main goal with this is to allow school staff and school principals to express their support for this. Not necessarily to be pushing it out, but just
012to say, you know, if there's a counselor um in a school uh that's being asked by a parent or a student about, you know, the best age for um engaging in cell phone adoption, social media use, um the later the better. Um, and they can point to the fact that the school board has adopted a resolution saying that um there is community [snorts] support for that. >> So, you mentioned that school staff has not been empowered to do this. Do you have specific examples where school staff has been prevented from doing this? Um, yes, I've I've had anecdotes, and obviously I'm not going to point to any specific individuals, but um there have been community members that have tried to partner with principals and staff in schools who have just said you know, this seems
013like an external effort that um we haven't been empowered to embrace. So, um uh much of the movement has come from PTAs, PTOs, those kind of organizations who have tried to take a a a stance and have been told they can't really incorporate it into the school environment. So, I did look at the website for this organization, um and I I do have some concerns. Um, my concerns are that if a person decides to take the pledge, the pledge is not active until 10 people in that specific grade in that specific school take the pledge. And then they're asking for lists to send out to brought to the broader community. And as we were talking about privacy and AI um and all of that, my concern is the way that that's structured, the way the
014organization structures it. I I do agree with the whole concept of what this is. Um, and as I looked at the website and I looked at all of the things that they do, uh my concern is one, we are and I don't know again, I would be with Mr. Dannon if we have supported a nonprofit organization like this um as a board uh that is advocating something that we believe in, but we are specifically going to the wait until eight. Um, so that is a concern uh when I went through it. My other My other point that I'm going to make is that it's it the website clearly states this is a community-based effort. And I worked in a community school, and I've worked in partnership with community organizations and nonprofits. And so for me,
015I think that those are the models that we should look at to where it does rely on parents and the community um to initiate this and to expand it. I just don't see where our role is in terms of supporting this specific nonprofit organization. Although I agree with everything that they're saying, and I just want to make sure that we don't go into places that we shouldn't be. Um And just based on my experience working as a community school coordinator and partnering with nonprofits, it was done in a different way. That's all That's all I have to say. Um, thanks, Ms. St. John Cunningham. So, um I would say that, you know, we don't have to incorporate that that name uh or um anything like that into the resolution. We certainly don't have to talk
016about community members signing on. This is to express the board's support for the concept of waiting until 8th. Um and it that again that doesn't have to the wait until 8th doesn't have to be part of the title. Doesn't have you know we don't have to show that we're embracing any sort of external nonprofit organization. It is the sentiment that I'm concerned with. Thank you and I share your concerns. My kids did not get it actually till the seventh grade but that was more because mom having heart attacks not being able to contact them when they were in middle school. Thank you Ms. Meron. Thank you Mr. McElveen for bringing this up and I have heard it's of great interest. So I have three thoughts to share. First of all I want to say again
017I not only thank you but thank you for allowing us to have this conversation because we are not having enough conversations about technology in our children's hands whether it's the classroom or the home which we cannot control but we can certainly inform. So you know what I see here is that confirmation that our school divisions are our school divisions are a trusted resource to families. Stating our position on a topic when we state it on our values families know that this is reliable and important. For instance we send communicate communications out about the importance of locking up firearms and also keeping them out of reach of children. We communicate the importance of reading to children early in life. So families look to us. I think though it's premature for this board to issue a resolution
018when the superintendent hasn't yet given distinction about how devices are used in school. I think it's I'm hard pressed to say to parents keep devices out of your kids' hands until 8 when we literally give every child age 8 and younger a device. So I'd rather see us spend our time discussing that. Otherwise it's kind of like the emperor has no clothes. Like how can we possibly expect parents to do what we are saying to do and we're not doing it. I also think that again our time is better spent on policy. We don't have the clarity and you know in fact today I'm actually headed over this evening to Arlington to hear their school board and superintendent talk about the role of devices and they just had a meeting before spring break saying very
019clearly they will not be giving devices to preschool children and they're working to implement that and other changes next year including their middle school students currently do not have laptops. They are piloting having laptops in middle school. They have touchpads. They're also piloting classroom sets of devices. So I applaud all the parents who are raising this up and I just want to do more than say some words at the dais. I want there to be action so the parents see that we really hear them. I also want to say that it's tough to be a parent advocate and I as a board member always want to support our parents but it's you have to have some hard conversations sometimes in your schools and our PTAs one of the three pillars of a PTA is advocacy.
020It's advocacy extra you know enrichment opportunities and community building. So I do encourage encourage parents to to continue speaking up but I also think and this will be my last point is that the school division does not have clarity on what happens when parents want to do something different. Um how maybe I could see staff being very cautious about saying sure you can raise this thing. I mean I've heard the principals are very cautious about sending out events sponsored by sometimes other parent groups. So really what's needed is clarity to principals about their parameters for supporting parent engagement. Thank you Ms. Meron. Mr. Moon. Well thank you Madam Vice Chair. Thank you for bringing this to the board for board's a board's discussion and consideration. I have a couple of questions for you. A if
021this is going to end product is going to be a resolution to be considered by the board. Uh you have as a board member prerogative to bring a resolution using one of your two annual resolution. Is that the way you are trying to exercise? >> Those are proclamations and I proclamations >> I don't see this as an individual effort. I see this as a board effort. >> So I understand about Ms. Meron's a concern related to this particular this particular initiative linked to a certain organization. I don't know much about that organization. But do you know why it is 8th not 7th or 9th or 6th or 10th? I think it's based on what's been expressed by the Surgeon General and other scientific studies that you know that there's a balance between practicality and safety
022and I think you know just generally students have more need for a smartphone when they're in high school. Um >> And And with a bell to bell prohibition they're not going to be able to use it on school ground even if they had it anyway. So you know Dr. Reid if we take a this position is this going to impact on school systems' operations in any way? I don't believe so at all Mr. Moon and I think it's a solid statement that we should wait till 8th grade to have our children have cell phones in their hand. I think that I think we likely all agree with the concept. So I don't think it would impact school operations since kindergarten through 8th graders currently are not able to have cell phones at all anyway. Right
023and obviously in the coming year that'll affect 9 through 12 as well but it will not affect operations per se. The the concept won't. I listening to Ms. St. John Cunning about the sign ups and the re the maybe sharing of lists I I'm not as familiar with what those pieces may or may not entail but I think Mr. McElveen is saying that's not really a part of what he's bringing. It's more just the idea. So I I think the concept is sound. It's solid. I think our staff would agree in general with that and it won't affect operations. >> Thank you. Mr. McElveen also again I thank you for bringing this up for the board's discussion. I generally am in support of you know discouraging use of digital devices until as much as possible
024even including not just for you know those under 8th grade but including someone above age 60. If we could limit that and so I'm hoping that I'm hoping that if there is a board's consensus I'm envisioning Mr. McElveen you drafting a resolution for further consideration by the board and if you could make it a little more expensive that this is not just applicable to those under 8th grade but all of us you might be able to get more support on the resolution. Thank you. Thank you Mr. fix it. So thank you Mr. McElveen. This is a really great initiative but I would even say wait until 9th because uh because I have seen that change in my own you know family when one of my child children said they don't want phone until 9th grade.
025There was a Yeah they said that and it was a very smart decision. I felt very responsible one because it just kept him on the task and away from all the you know craziness on social media and even now my one of my young adult and just turned adult kid they don't like going to on social media that much. Kids are actually getting away from a little bit on you know maybe Tik Tok there's kids are still I get attached to it but overall they don't want to be on Facebook I guess. That's old people's place. So but >> [laughter] >> I'm on Facebook. So I wanted to just say another thing that it is a great initiative but I think it's a parent's initiative more than the school and I would support it as
026as a as a parent as a voice for the community as a past PTA you know leader but I don't know if we taking a stand from school board will do anything at all but I was thinking as a community we do we do need to do this because I think the this devices are getting out of out of control and I I would like in the push this as an own initiative maybe worded differently but maybe give those them flip phones to the kids earlier because some kids do you know parents do want to know they can pick up pick them up and all that. The smartphones are the ones which I feel really really you know scared about the over usage of that and kids you know playing on them all the time.
027I I would I would say we can advocate those flip phones and I think there's a reverse kind of interest now for even adults to go back to those phones where we didn't have our like a mini computer you know with us all the time. So I I don't know about adults right now but at least for the kids we can say that you know maybe they can use start just the flip phones for now and that's what we did for our one of our kid is like just got the fifth flip phone. They can do it. They text and text and call. That's all they can do then. So, that would be just my um But, it's a it's a good initiative in the right spirit and right direction. Thank you, Mr. Um I'm
028going to take a turn before some go backs. Um again, absolutely 100% support this initiative. Um couple concerns for mine and and uh my colleague raised this. This is sort of a proprietary term. Um and my one of my um district directors or staff aids did some diving into the website and couple things. One, apparently you get to some point where there's a link and you you pay for things. So, this is a money-making thing. Um I don't see any multi-language learner materials anywhere on their website. And so, when you talk about a workload, if we formally support something, we must provide that. And I don't know who's going to be the do the lion's share of that work. I'm not saying that's a reason to back away, but there have to be materials for
029multi-language learners. Um and I'll say this, like the the whole what I heard was staff resistance to a formal partnership. You know, I want to empower staff cuz I I certainly my whole career I told parents how to parent. It's my job as a counselor. And some didn't like it. And I did it in in in presentations. I did it in curriculum nights. I did it in college sessions. I did it on sessions on suicidal ideation and social emotional health. I held these up all the time and said, "Stop. Stop. If you haven't done it, don't do it. Don't give it. And take it at night." Um I just traveled for spring break. I didn't see one child old enough to hold a tablet in their hand who didn't have a tablet in their hand
030to entertain them on a bus ride from the airport to another location or in the airport waiting for a plane or on the plane. And I I 100% do not want children having cell phones. And even on the website for Wait Till 8th, the dialogue is around the fact they're not in playgrounds. They're not outside. They're not doing all these other things because they've become addicted to the social aspects of the phone. I also want to clarify that I I do want to have the conversation about devices in our in our children's hands and and whether we should wait and not put a device in a child's hand till third grade, fourth grade. And then how that's being monitored. But, I also need the public to understand that when we put something in a child's
031hands for an educational purpose. Okay, they're not on social media. They're gaining and and and and technology is helping with universal design of learning and it's helping a lot of our children access learning that without that technology tool, they would not access it. It's creating some equal playing fields in the learning environment. So, I want to make sure we have different buckets, you know. And I 100% want people to wait. I just don't think that we can use that the term Wait Till 8th. And I don't necessarily I'm not anti this uh organization because it's fantastic and you know, I wish I'd come up with it. >> [laughter] >> Um because I've been saying it for 20 years. Um but anyhow, that's that's my main thing. And then I do think that uh you know,
032the principal clarity is an interesting comment because they do need clarity. But, if our leaders are not empowered to state what they know is educationally sound, I get that it they don't want to align it or stand behind us a private organization. They need to be empowered to state how they feel and what they believe. And if they're not doing that, then please you've got one school board member that's telling you to take advantage of those opportunities. So, uh I see a couple go backs. I'll start with Dr. Anderson. And let's We're going to have to limit these I think to a minute cuz we have another forum topic. This is a little loud. Okay. Okay, thank you. Um I I just want to make sure we're not losing the focus here because I think
033cuz we also suffered from this with the last board, which is kind of perhaps conflating things that are not necessarily related. Um I I'm hearing that this is just a signal. And the board, and I'm not necessarily saying this board, but I could think of about 15 other things um we've done since I've been on the board that is just a signal to the community about our position when nothing else happens with it. Absolutely nothing else happens with it. It's just a signal of our position. It's a support for a particular thing. That's it. And this is what I believe this resolution will accomplish. What I'm also hearing is, you know, the superintendent says this is a concept that is sound. It is solid. It will have no effect on operations. We're not asking anybody
034to go forward to do anything. It's just signaling what we think, which we hope will help parents to be thinking about what they can be doing. Um and I also heard very clearly the website doesn't have to be mentioned. We have to just take the nuggets that we want and leave the things that don't work. We're not trying to have anybody be spend money, give data in any of that. So, those parameters make me very comfortable to support this. And I also appreciate the opportunity that we have to give input to the resolution at this stage. Thank you. Uh Miss St. John Cunning. Um first of all, I think you were in my head. Um and and I do agree. I think that most of us has have indicated that we agree with the theory
035and concept of not having these in people's hands, you know, in children's hands till they're till they're older. I too and and the point that I wanted to make is at the end of the day it it is about saying this is what we believe. And I too have sat and spoken with parents at the elementary level saying, "Would you let this in this and this in your door?" Because once you give a kid this, you're letting them in the door. And and this is really something that is the parents' responsibility. And that comes down to us telling that telling the parents that this is what we believe. And like I told parents, you cannot be sitting there telling your kid, "Smoking is bad." as you're smoking. And so and so so that is the
036piece that, you know, we as a school system can do certain things. And and I agree with Mr. McElveen's concept and idea. Um at the end of the day, we have no control over what the parents are doing. And they can say they signed the pledge. But, if they're sitting there in front of a screen, they're they're mo- they're modeling bad behavior. So, I just wanted to to put that out there. But, I think all of us agree with the concept. I think that this is a good discussion. And I do agree that we can pick and choose how we see this moving forward. Um Okay. Thank you, Miss St. John Cunning. Miss Meron for go back. Yeah, thanks Dr. Anderson for framing it that way. Um I think and Miss St. John Cunning for
037also saying I think we can pick and choose. You we could use our own language. It doesn't have to be Wait Till 8th. We could say delayed devices. Delayed device use. And I actually think that would be a such a welcome step. Just like again, like we do with the firearms. Please lock your guns up. Please know like this is the research, right? Um so, I would be in favor of that. I And I really think we need to continue this discussion very regularly on our agendas to talk about then what do we do? How do we support parents? Cuz if we're giving a kid a device every single day and then we send that kid home, we're not doing parents any favors. So, we need to uphold our end of the bargain. So, we
038do this and then we you know, April 14th we're working on our AI policy, which has also raised tons of discussions about device use. And we need that clear directive from our superintendent with our input in policy so we can support parents how they really need it um with a fullsome approach. Thank you. Thank you. Um I'm not seeing any others. I'll just echo I think what I've heard, which is uh support for um a resolution regarding personal devices in from cell phone devices in in children's hands. So, um thank you for bringing the the topic. Uh at this point we're going to move on to the second Oh. Miss Lady, it would be helpful to have a consensus on whether the board supports moving forward with the resolution since that's the request of Mr.
039McElveen. Yeah, so Just just to kind of conclude, I mean, um Miss Lady, I agree with your sentiment. I think that um there's been a a lot of good good discussion here um particularly on the on the um concept of kind of decoupling the language from forward with developing a resolution. Um I will share it for feedback uh with the hope it doesn't devolve into >> [laughter] >> um a lot of wordsmithing. Um but, certainly we'll take take into account everything I've heard. All right, thank you. So, we're good to move on to the next topic. Um So again, I'll call on Mr. McElveen um on the forum discussion. Uh do I have to say this? No. Okay, endemic preparedness. Mr. McElveen, thank you. >> Okay, thank you so much, Miss Lady. So, um this
040next topic is something I've been thinking about uh for a very long time, but I wanted to give us a chance to um move away uh from the politicization of this issue. Um uh not bring it up at the beginning of our term, not deal with this when we were dealing with the boundary discussion or other issues. Um but, I thought the time um had come to uh to take a step back um and have an opportunity um to look back on um the system's actions uh during the pandemic um and see um the best steps we can take going forward in terms of pre-pandemic preparedness. Um this is something I've shared with with Dr. Reid for for a very long time now that I was interested in doing. Um, and uh, I think the
041the good thing is that we are far enough removed from the pandemic um, that we can um, reflective, but also uh, we are in a unique um, time where we still have a lot of individuals in the system who are intimately involved in the decision-making at the time um, and probably have their own thoughts about uh, what we could do better next time. Um, secondly, we still have folks uh, in the county, our director of health uh, who is well at that time. Um, so it gives us a kind of a unique opportunity now um, to look at this. I know there's been some effort uh, at the state level to push push for this kind of review as well. Others other districts um, uh, have have done this. I I know Dr. Reid's uh,
042previous district well. Uh, but I think um, this is another example just like the previous one where um, our district can be a national leader um, and looking at uh, best practices going forward um, cuz you know, while I wasn't in the room when those decisions were being made, um, I can recall at the time that we were using plans uh, that were more than this makes experience um, first time at uh, in this Um, and then I would um, uh, ultimately defer um, to the superintendent on on how this would be structured. I would envision staff led um, with the goal um, as is stated firm that this would be findings of this working group. have listed um, you know, fall is a is a bring it back um, but open for discussion. Thank
043you, Mr. Marin. Yeah, thank you Mr. Macelwane for bringing this. I appreciate it. I am just looking at the executive limitation topics and so we just had our safety and security um, EL presentation on March 12th. This could be something that is rolled into that set of criteria that the superintendent maintains you know, a clear plan to communicate with you know, county and state and federal officials. So it could be in the EL 13. Um, it could also be in this Thursday's asset protection. Um, although I think safety and security is really most um, uh, you know, um, accurate. So I like the idea of putting it in an EL um, which we can do at any time. I also remember so clearly Dr. Reid when you arrived being really amazed at the information you
044brought having been in from Washington, the first division in the nation to go through the pandemic and just how differently in such an amazing way you approached what you could not knowing what to expect um, even down to do we have reserves of water of potable water? I don't know where we are with that, but I do think that um, being more focused on it is definitely welcome and you know, I don't now even thinking about it, I'm not sure we ever really debriefed at the county on what could have gone better, you know, um, we did the best we could, but yeah, so I would love to see this get more attention. Uh, thank you. Thank you, Mr. St. John Cunning. Uh, Mr. Macelwane, thank you for bringing this. This is some Oh. We
045Okay. Um, so uh, I Dr. Reid has leadership done any kind of debrief um, you know, cursory or in-depth for the pandemic? So I arrived in the summer of '22 and that would have been a full year after um, I believe Fairfax returned to the classroom. So I I don't know that there was a lot prior to that. We haven't done an after-action since I've been here to my knowledge about the pandemic. We've certainly um, I've um, we've certainly done other emergency preparedness conversations um, and I know our county is uniquely positioned, Fairfax County, and our schools in terms of our joint response um, teams uh, in large part because of our proximity to the nation's capital. And so um, but I don't think we've delivered any type of formal report that I'm aware of
046unless the prior board had commissioned one that the prior superintendent maybe was a part of. Okay, thank you. Um, I I just have a couple of questions in terms of moving forward and and I I do think this is important um, because I was there as we were building the plane like down in the trenches and it it was amazing what was done, but it was also at the same time bringing us all heart palpitations at the time. Um, so my concerns are about this is just to make sure that we can um, bring the diverse perspectives of the particularly of specific communities that were impacted very differently when this happened and how will we ensure that that happens? Um, the other thing is how will student voice be incorporated into the recommendations? Um, and
047and so those are the things that I Have you thought about that, Mr. Macelwane? Um, you know, ultimately I want this to be as depoliticized as possible. So I think having it be staff led is the the appropriate um, way to manage it and I would defer to the superintendent on who should be in the room and what the best um, uh, formation of this group would look like. Um, but I 100% agree that um, we should have different perspectives represented. Um, you know, I've had some outreach in particular from special education community who in many ways went back before many people did and um, had their own issues. So I would hope that they would be uh, represented as one example. Yeah, the reason I I'm really concerned about that diverse perspective is that
048sometimes without even realizing it we make assumptions and we did offer free internet to a lot of families and I can specifically speak to one family that I had to deal with that the assumption was that if you didn't have internet they could just come in and turn it on and hook it up, but there was this one family that their their house had never been wired for internet. So the time that it was going to take for that to happen was a lot longer than for for you're already wired for internet and you can come hook it up. And so some communities were impacted a lot more. So it's like my kid can't get this and was sitting outside of the school trying to do homework. So I think looking at that to me
049is a really important in terms of how that's impacted and in my community very early on we lost a lot of family members because of um, intergenerational housing and the impact that had on the families and it was just different than in other parts of the county and I just think that that's something that we have to take into consideration as we do this um, this work. And that's why I brought up those questions. Thank you, Dr. Anderson. Thank you. Mr. Marin and I had the distinct pleasure to be the two that are in the room currently that lived through the pandemic when it started in March 2020 right after we started two months earlier. And even to make things even more fun, I had the opportunity to that July to become chair and just
050to continue to find our way to do things and I could not stress enough how unprepared we were because no one thought we had to be prepared for something of this magnitude. The emergency preparedness plan that was available couldn't be any thinner and was woefully insufficient to address what we needed to address. And so we made it up as we went along a lot which led to literally 10, 12, 14, 16-hour meetings because we didn't know what we didn't know. And it wasn't until it hit this particular portion of the community or this thing that we're trying to figure out how to make it happen. And Mr. Smith was there. He knows. He sat in all those meetings as well. It was how do we do food? How do we keep bus drivers employed in
051a meaningful way? How do we do V C? It was all of the things. Even as simple as when we had a plan that talked about how to get devices to middle school students, the language well was always how to get devices to students in grade seven and eight. Well, what happened What happens to the sixth graders that were at the middle school? Completely lost in the sauce. And this is with everybody dealing with all of their own trauma around this. So whatever it is personally that you are involved with, you had to come here professionally and try to make decisions that would impact hundreds of thousands of students. That is not the best recipe at all for us to be thoughtful. So while we may not think we might need something that is very
052in-depth, very broad, very um, comprehensive, I think we all know better. We're hoping we don't need it, but it's great to have it. So I appreciate the fact that you're bringing this forward while we are calm, while we do have had we've had some lessons learned and I'm sure Ms. Merryn, myself, Mr. Smith and all of the people who sat in this building for hours and hours and hours can lend to to this to the development of this plan. And just to really identify all of the things, all of the places where we would need to have a measured response. We have not had an after action, but we've had a lot of information that could support that after action. So, I could not be more supportive of developing such a plan because it was
053not great to build a plane as we were flying it for a very long time. Thank you. Um, I'm going to take a turn and I'm going to confess that I'm having some PTSD. Um, and I'm going to be honest. As a director of student services, we were not in the conversation. I can't tell you how many times I heard in all the meetings and briefings I sat through because it was principals and DSSs. To a DSS, "That's a really good question, Robin. That's a really good question, Renee. That's a really good question, Brandon." The followed by, "We hadn't thought of that." "We hadn't thought of that." I begged the whole Put someone in the room. We One year we built three master schedules. I mean, I to this day believe I have to live
054at a chiropractor's office because of 60-hour weeks. And And there were the people working the hardest were our school-based technology specialists, our T specs, and our DSSs and our teachers. And no disrespect to everyone else, but there was no even acknowledgement of the number of hours that other people were putting in. There was no discipline for APs. There was no dipping into I mean, you could go in and watch a class. Um, there should have been some compensation to the people whose lives were incredibly impacted by hours. Um, and I mean, building three masters at a school and and and changing the rules on us cuz you did make it up as you went along. Um, I was not a fan. Um, I think I took most of my aggravation out on staff at the
055central office level for just not talking to the schools and from my perspective. And I think principals learned they had no idea how much a director did. Um, so I'm also going to I don't know that it belongs just in safety and security cuz it's instruction. This isn't instructional thing. It it it kind of lives in two places, right? And um, I do know the impact on the community was different from from space to space. And I'll also say while I understood um, some of the sensitivities around cameras not being on, that can never happen again. Cameras must be on and we'll teach kids how to blur their background. But at the end of the day, there were people who logged in and went to never got out of bed. Um, so we can't have
056that and um, we also need to do a better job and I do commend the people who were working on the virtual high school that we sort of had the following year because of people who had different medical vulnerabilities to returning. Um, and I think we have to be sensitive to those health issues. Um, but anyways, I do appreciate the conversation. I do think we never did debrief, but if we debrief, we need to go back and we need to pull some of the people who are most impacted. And and like I said, I'm I'm shaking talking about this cuz it was just it was it it was the worst. Um, I loved being home with my wife. Um, but I hated the reality that I was standing or sitting at a computer all day
057long. It seemed like forever. So, anyways, I don't see any other placards. Um, I'm going to give people one more chance. Ms. Dixon. So, thank you again, Mr. McClain for bringing this. I I think we do need to have an action plan for future and lesson learned, but I I think the failure was on the part of a lot of different organization. School was left alone to kind of navigate everything their own. School board members were not uh health officials, but were uh basically asked to make a call for a thousand thousands of students and families and so it was a hard task for them too. I I'm I'm sure they you know, I've heard about their 12-hours long meetings and you know, not able to take a break uh for all day sometimes, but
058yeah, but I I just say that we need to have the right stakeholder like you said, we need to have the right people. So, we need county, we need state, we need CDC. We need all the people who need to be in that room to make a plan forward. Again, if this happens again, we cannot be like, "Oh, we don't have a direction from CDC or we don't have it from the county." The plan is to be should be there to act act on it. So, um obviously parents grow special special needs groups. Um, we need a lot of stakeholders there. So, but I think mostly our county and uh state has to give us very clear clear directions on that. So, uh if something like to happen, maybe I want to hear from Dr.
059Reed as well. Your thoughts on this. Um, well I think you're absolutely correct and I think um, listening to Ms. Lady too, it's uh it was a time. I It's ironically in a conversation last evening, I was at a girl's soccer game at Lake Braddock and visiting with one of the assistant principals um, who was talking about just having started paternity leave when the pandemic happened. He came back for 4 days and uh or I think he had been out for 4 days and then the pandemic hit, right? So, um in many ways it feels like it was yesterday. In other ways it feels like it was a hundred years ago again. So, I think it's we can learn a lot when we reflect on history if we learn from it. And um and I
060do for sure agree that it should be a combined effort because um, schools can't do it alone. Um, and the future of our next generations will count on us doing this even better as we move forward. But as a um, it's the Navajo that talk about every decision they make um, is made with the people seven generations from now in mind. And I think that as we think about the work we do as a board and leadership team, um, how important it is to remember those that follow us and and what the paths that we're setting for them. So, I appreciate the topic and I look forward to the task. Oh, Mr. Moon has not had a turn. Go ahead. Uh, thank you. I I just wanted to thank Mr. McLaughlin again for bringing this.
061I I just someone who was not on the board at the time watching from outside. I mean, this is going to be very helpful in case something as awful as this happens God forbid to us again. Thank you. And finally, Ms. St. John Cunningham for GoBack. So, I just want to piggyback and say that it is critical for the right stakeholders to be in the room and I will include people that are actually in the schools that had to implement all of these plans. Uh, which my colleague so eloquently uh spoke to you and the amount of hours and the other really hard-working people that did all of this work too were family liaisons. They were going out, they were bringing food to families, they were making sure all of that was taken care of.
062Uh, and I think that's where schools really recognize the value of our family liaisons. So, I think having those people in the room as you're developing the plan is going to be critical because it's not just what you say up here, but how it actually gets operationalized and what it looks like and who does the work that is really important and critical. And I wouldn't go so far as to say that it was a failure. I think that this was something that never happened at all and that we did the best that we could with what we had and I and so I I I I don't want to say that it was a failure because we had never done this and I remember very clearly at the beginning of the pandemic, we had we
063had no clue how this thing was spread. We were scared to death. So, as time progressed, then you know, we reflected and said, "Well, we should have done this." But we didn't know to do that because we didn't know. All right, thank you. So, the forum topic discussion is adjourned at 10:28. We will take a 10-minute break to allow staff to solve some technical issues before we continue. >> Ms. Lady, I think this forum topic since it's a direction to the board would that not require a consensus vote? It's a I'm sorry, it's a direction to the superintendent. >> Excellent point. Consensus on Mr. McLaughlin's request for establishing a staff-level working group on pandemic preparedness. All in favor? That's all board members present. So, no nays [clears throat] or abstentions. Um, now we are adjourn
064Oh, Dr. Reed. >> I just quick clarification on the timing that you would expect me to return with this report. I just I heard summer-ish, but I want to make sure that >> Summer. fall-ish >> Fall, but flexible. That we can have a conversation about what you think you need to do and time you need to do it. >> I appreciate that. I just want to make sure we hit the target. So, knowing the date >> Right. So, for clarification, we don't have a hard timeline on this because we want to be done with fidelity. So, if it takes a full year or a little longer, it's fine. Okay. We got consensus on that. All right, now the forum the topic we are adjourned at 11:29 and we're going to take a 10-minute break for
065staff to resolve some technical issues. Thank you.