001schools not represented but for student advisors are we like still recruiting or to to get from scriber Lake and Edmund's Heights uh do Dr balderas would be in charge of recruiting we are and we're still working with uh with those communities and have been so it's just been a little tougher tougher fall but we will continue okay great thanks okay we are live and we are broadcasting okay thank uh I'll let it fill up I guess it takes a minute well I'll just go ahead people will be coming in and we are broadcasting so welcome everybody uh this meeting is called to order this regular business meeting of the Edmund School District Board of Directors the meeting for October 13th 2020 uh we met an executive session at 5:00 to discuss a property manner ma
002matter and now we are in our business meeting um Dr balderis would you like to do the land ackowledgement love to thank you we acknowledge original inhabitants of this place this a sish people and their successors lot of tribes who since time Memorial have taken care of hunted fished and gathered on these lands we respect their sovereignty and their right to self-determination and we honor their sacred spiritual connection with the land and water by acknowledging these homelands we commit to working with tribal Nations to further the education aims they have identified in our classrooms and schools thank you thank you and now uh if you like to join me uh for the flag salute I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one
003nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you I always worry I'm going to forget the words I get nervous okay uh first we we have uh would anybody like to make a motion to approve the agenda for tonight I'll second it okay it's been moved and seconded to approve the agenda for tonight is there any discussion hearing none I'll call for a vote all those in favor of approving the agenda agenda for tonight please indicate by saying I I any oppose say nay any abstentions the motion passes and I realized that I wanted to uh before we go any further um we have our student advisers here and they will get the oath of office tonight um I believe Dr balderas will administer the oath um but I wanted to welcome
004them they're all wonderful um insightful um interesting people and I look forward to getting to know you um next we have um uh we want to approve the Schoolboard minutes for September 15th meeting and September 22nd do I hear a motion this is Ann move to approve I second it's been moved and seconded to approve the Schoolboard minutes for September 15th 2020 and September 22nd 2020 is there any discussion hearing none I'll call for a vote uh all those in favor of approving the Schoolboard minutes for September 15th and September 22nd 2020 please indicate by saying I I I any oppos say nay any extensions the motion passes and the minutes are are approved okay Dr balderas take it away so thank you and we do have eight uh student board advisors uh this year
005and we hope to maybe get a few more also as uh director mentioned we're still recruiting but we do have eight and we do have a few tonight so if uh folks can um first we're going to ad administer the oath of office and then I like to maybe have the kids speak for about a minute or so each one just to tell them to uh to disate who they are what school they represent and why they're doing this for uh for our community and for us so first of all if I can have uh all students unmute or you don't have to I guess you just repeat after me and uh and that'll be the loal office so um I and state your name would be helpful if you maybe you would mute how
006about that can you unmute so we can hear you thank you thank you and again we're in a zoom world it's the first time I've had to administer an o in a zoom environment so I please state your [Music] name do Solly swear that I will [Music] support the Constitution of the state of Washington St Washington and will Faithfully perform the duties of student advisor per to the board of directors of the Edmund School District to the board of direct of directors of the Edmond School District according to the best of my ability according to the best to Ability thank you now I'm gonna call you this is probably the easiest way do Zoom so Lily you want to start us off Lily just say a little bit about you I love to um my
007name is Ley Shiner I'm in 10th Grade I go to Edmond e-learning Academy um and I think one reason why I wanted to do this is just be a voice to others for others um just help out with and thank you thanks Lily thank you you might go next hi my name is Zab um I'm a senior at medale high school and I wanted to join just because I wanted to be more involved with my community and really know what's going on and give input and yeah thank you so much Isabella um hi my name is Isabelle and I am a junior at Edmonds Woodway High School um I joined the student um advisory to the board because I wanted to Advocate I want to Advocate um more for my peers and just show them
008that they are supported now hi my name is BND Betty I'm a senior at Mount L CH High School this is my second year as student advisor and the reason I wanted to do um student to be a student advisor is because I think advocacy is important and the best way that we can have um we can express our the impact that of the school board decisions that they make is by speaking about them and giving them our input yeah thank you selia hi I'm sellia Vu I'm a senior at lywood high school um reason why I wanted to do this is to really step up and uh pursue my leadership skills more as well as uh give input from my community at LHS to the school board and such thanks and uh Reka hi
009um my name is rtika I'm a junior at manle Terrace High School and and the reason that I wanted to become an adviser to the school board is so that you know I could be a voice and alazon to um the school board as well as the school and also I mean this is a really good opportunity to connect with um some of the main people who are making the decisions and to kind of figure out the inner workings of the district so I'm really excited and um it's an honor so again thank you student board Reps for taking time out of your busy schedu to be able to be here I know that the the board and broader Community really appreciate your voice and uh I know there's two that could not attend tonight
010but I will provide the their uh their oath at a later time but I want really want to thank you and turn it over to president Kor and the rest of the board thank you and again welcome uh we look forward to hearing from you um just a couple things I mean I don't think anybody voted but students don't don't vote so um uh but uh your voice is very important um tonight um I think if you have something to say um there will be an opportunity towards the end of the meeting normally the school board the board members have a some comments at the end and we'll put your comments your opportunity to make comments uh right before ours um if you have a question or a point of order um you know there's
011a little raise your hand thing somewhere um I will try to be I will try or you could just raise your hand and I will try to uh make sure that I recognize you if it's in order and and make sense to do so so um please I apologize in advance if I don't notice you right away um but I will try um next we have our public our opportunity for public comments the public comment item on the agenda is an opportunity for citizens to address the school board items brought forward during this portion of the agenda will not be acted upon by the board at this time but may be addressed during the superintendent's comment section on the agenda questions may also be referred to the superintendent or staff for examination and later response
012uh the board encourages public comments uh because of the covid-19 pandemic public comments for this virtual school board meeting are accepted in written format um and we will try to read some of those now um we try to limit the comments to an oral reading of 3 minutes and comments should not be personally directed um we have uh quite a few public comments tonight and I believe we're going to read um about 25 of them because many of them are on the same topic uh we won't be able to read all of them tonight but they will be attached to the minutes and will be available for public viewing and each of us will take a look at them as well if we haven't already so I'll begin uh and I will read this is
013from Carrie gner um I'm so disappointed in how this was handled after myself and me and several other parents filled out this survey we were given additional information from our teachers and Paris that absolutely needed to be given out prior to this survey no parent that I've come across realized that by agreeing to a hybrid model meant that they only have two days of interaction with their teachers and the other three days were actual actually asynchronous not remote learning the fact that this wasn't explicitly stated is appalling so now you have survey responses that aren't accurate information was not also not disclosed on what fully remote would be would it be with a teacher at their school one provided by the district I have a son in first grade who is thriving online with the
014teacher we wanted and have had a relationship with for years you're so so concerned about getting K2 back because someone decided that they learn better in person tell me how it is better for them to have two days of in-person learning and then Independent Learning for for three uh it makes no sense to me even if the thought is to go to four days at some point in the future there will still be weeks if not months of them on their own for three days and I know that uh there will be so many kids struggling immensely during that time how are schools going to maintain social distancing in phase three when you have full classes of K through two back at once what happens when schools get shut down again when covid starts running
015rampant which is already happening in schools across the country what's the plan then our teach our kids and teachers are finally in a rhythm they love their classes why in the world are we attempting to do this before the holidays and um uh you must be more transparent on these issues and give parents the chance to voice their opinions after I submitted yes to hybrid earlier today but I would never have done so if I had the correct info you left us with impossible decisions send our kids back for teacher-led learning for only two days a week and have them on their own for three or rip them away from a class and teacher they've already bonded with to keep them remote for four days next we have Jenny anderberg uh both my third grader
016and sixth grader are thriving with the online option that is currently in place they love their teachers are learning a lot and enjoy the social and emotional interaction of the zoom calls they have also enjoyed their small groups on Zoom designated for their specific level the current option to choose between in-person learning versus fully remote seems to not have everything everything all thought through no matter what it sounds like if I choose one option or another they will be ripped from their current class and interrupt their learning and social emotional outlet that is working if I choose in person they will have two days possibly with the same teacher that they love and Thrive with but are stuck with a mask on all day and no good option to socialized with their peers having to
017be six feet or or more feet away not to mention the stress of exposing them to covid uh then three days they will have asynchronous learning for the other three days um as is on Wednesday they are done with all their asynchronous learning within just a few hours including independent reading three days of this is worse than the current situation where they interact with their teachers and peers four days a week if I choose fully remote there's a chance they will be ripped from their beloved teachers and classmates and will be a wreck they might have better options for learning but there are so many unknowns on class structure and the quality of the teachers where time and effort has been taken in account to line them up with the current teachers that have uh
018personality matches and uh to make classrooms even sorry it having trouble reading hang on um when with all the information given the two current options available to us and our kids seem like a lose lose situation on all aspects and I will um uh please look at an option for things to St the same because choosing the two options available currently will be a negative impact on my kids emotional health and the quality of their learning more needs to be done and more transparency needs to be revealed by the school district the next comes from Connie Saxby based on information I've learned from School District employees I'm holding off submitting my survey for now until I get a phone call where I can ask questions I've learned that if Elementary children go back to school
019two days a week they may not be with their same teacher and the other three days are all Independent Learning at home although my kids are in middle and high school we have more time be be before they would potentially go back in person nothing has been said regarding what their schedules will be like will they go back 2 days a week with all new teachers and then be home independently learning for the other 3 days I believe the district is not being forthcoming with information regarding scheduling and are asking families to commit to a schedule under false pretenses based on what they think it's going to be like and not giving them the correct information or any information at all I understand these are very difficult times and an incredible undertaking for the districts
020as well as teachers the children are under immense stress also and have been adapting as best as they can to take can to this point having a complete schedule change is a lot to ask of all of us the next comes from Bridget half halfer halfaker I apologize if I didn't pronounce that correctly hello in mid August the Edmund School District made the decision to eliminate our bus drivers positions this means that the drivers do not have health care this is not okay our bus drivers are an integral part of the education system they should not be overlooked in these already difficult times we understand that busing services are not needed for students right now but their services would be invaluable for transportation of learning materials library books and food to families who cannot always
021access these resources additionally quote on August August 26th Governor Jay Insley issued emergency action authorizing the state to distribute transp transportation funding to districts if their drivers are performing other supportive duties for students such as delivering School meals or educational resources to students unquote this is from the Lynnwood times we should be utilizing this funding utilizing our bus drivers and maintaining their health care we ask you to reassess your decision decision to eliminate these important positions we understand that these decisions are difficult ones to make this is not the time to tear down people in our community instead it is a time to show that we care about every person who is woven into the fabric of our children's education and well-being and the next one comes from oh have I done no I have
022one more uh the next comes from Carmen elot uh why isn't there a quote stay with current teacher option like other schools have done to minimize student disruptions our kids emotional well-being is essential too how many days of teacher-led instruction will remote kids get after this model is implemented what happens when schools have to shut down again when cases show up at our school in every aspect keeping teachers in the schedule and I'm going to pass the Baton to who would like to read the next five I'll go next thank you so the next one is Christine is from Christine Lal dear school board members I would like to express my concern as I have thought long and hard about the timing of starting hybrid on uh November 12th I am all in favor of
023getting kids back in school buildings as soon as we can to do it safely but I think now is not the time if it it is too soon personally it has taken a lot of very hard concentrated efforts with families to get everyone engaged connected and learning on these platforms over the last three weeks I have loved doing this and will continue to do so I feel like we are seeing the fruit of our efforts just now just as one example um I weekly stop by a students apartment building outside and have been coaching on using uh seesaw this was a first grader who was not at all engaged last spring economically disadvantaged a single parent recently homeless and a minority mom has been really trying and with the coaching he is now in class
024online every day and last week completed all his seesaw activities he got praise from his teacher and he was so excited I have a group of students I am following that were not engaged last spring but now are now are online doing activities um feeling a connection to their class and teachers and doing well I feel if we throw in a big change now reshuffle classes teachers and our support schedules we will be back to where we were before school started we will lose so much learning time getting the logistics worked out and physical um routine set up just two weeks after November 12th is Thanksgiving break and a few weeks after that is Christmas break it seems if we want to evaluate until next year um in January we could have more Logistics in
025place prepare families and students for the changes and keep students engaged I feel like if these parents who are putting out a lot of effort now have any roadblocks they will give up personally as I talk with parents they are concerned about less face- tof Face Time and would rather be live online for four days a week than in person for two days a week and online the rest these reasons are aside from the equally relevant ones of our school uh spaces not being ready for groups of kids SL staff and the recent spikes in covid infections as well as that we are entering the time when infections in general rise I was happy to hear that the Highline school district has said they will wait until uh January 10th January to go back to
026hybrid I hope that Edmonds will do the same so that our students can get a good uh length of time for learning I am proud to work for Edmunds and the support we have put in place such as for food child care and the push of equally and success uh uh the push of equality and accessibility for all these supports have helped me connect with families that might now have been open before that might now have been open before thank you please help us as teachers continue to support the learning that is going on now and um not set learning back for our students the next is from David uh paser I hope I'm saying it correctly uh let me get my screen up this retched virus that has Us in the grips of the
027pandemic is clearly not going away soon instead it is spreading more every day infecting and killing often leaving those who survive it with longlasting permanent damage just the past few days have shown an increase in nearly every state including Washington and recently the University of Washington has projected an updated projection of infections and deaths through February 1st 2021 that is an increase of previous projections and there's a a website that you'll be able to get because these will be uh made public um until uh a viable and widespread vaccine becomes available and used um Unless somehow the virus is eradicated it is imperative that we do all we can to be safe that clearly means we must have we must continue to learn and teach from home that is even more the case as flu
028season is right around the corner reopening now puts students staff and all their families at risk we have seen how um this uh this goes uh to with schools and districts having uh to end in-person learning to return to remote to reopen now or even soon would be Reckless and um irresponsible the the virus continues to spread and every day more are infected and more die these are people mothers fathers daughters Sons adults children teachers remote learning is not ideal but it works well enough and students are safe I take such great comfort in knowing that they are safer we are safer and we are still a class still a community I am so grateful for the technology and everyone in the district and everything behind it to make it possible and keep everything working
029but we are far from being safe to return in the school building I hope it will be sooner than it seems but it needs to be only when we can be safe for all thank you the next one is from Mark um Blasco considering covid cases are rising in sish County it is too early to put children back in the classroom if this decision is being made to help out families in need it should be on a small scale only for the families who need to return disrupting the current model when cases are still not at a safe level is reckless and may very well lead to uh deaths or permanent disability ities um in school district families um the next one is from Jennifer Tate I believe let me scroll down a little bit
030H okay hello board members this week I have received multiple surveys both as a teacher and parent in the Edmund School District with both surveys I have been given little or no little to no information on reopening plans I keep reading the words phrases and stages and hearing murmurs of November 12th being the date we bring out um our K2 students back there are no real details included in the phases and stages I have no idea how my children students or myself will be protected from covid I have no idea what the structure of my workday will include to make an informed decision as an employee and as a mother in addition to all the missing information I am completely baffled on why the district is pushing for a reopening plan when our cases are
031back up and we're entering and we're entering flu season and holidays I am very unsettled by us returning before multiple holidays breaks and flu season it seems most logical to um to review a return of students after the beginning of the new year as a teacher in the Edmond School District I'm also concerned about uprooting my students I've had the amazing privilege to meet my classroom families spend six weeks working on social emotional learning and teaching students how to use the technology of Chromebooks seesaw and zoom my students and families are in a Groove and it may not be a perfect solution long term however if we return um too early there is a greater risk of us having to move to remote again I do not see the benefit in the um in the
032pattern of remote hybrid remote in the pattern I think of remote hybrid remote I also am concerned about the choice that many of our students will stay remote I know that the Educators in Edmonds are amazing and dedicated I know my students will be in good hands and vice versa however students should not have to endure numerous changes in their environment this would be another disruption in their education I would like to see Edmunds hold off hybrid plans until after the New Year like many other districts in our area and I think I have one more this is um from Shannon gonalves our our state is in the top five for the lowest covid numbers and yet our kids are not back in school online learning is not working in the first three weeks of
033school neither of my kids successfully um accessed their their programs 100% each day we are into week five and not one week has been 100% successful due to technical issues or internet problems my kids are losing out on a full education they are both high school students who have um semester long classes that won't be made up my son's IEP is not being implemented despite this ESD has opted to return second AR students last the health department states that transmission rates from 10 to 18 is about uh from 10 to 18 is about equal if this is truly the district's concern then why not have 10y olds wait to return with secondary there isn't a good reason to have secondary return last private schools have been doing it and doing it Well Kings is increasing
034the time high school students spend together in person because it is working my daughter attends um uh Edmunds Community College and some of her classes are in person they are managing it ESD needs to get creative and get our high school students back a lot earlier than the uh staged plans prior to now K12 had planned to be hybrid together you damaging children socially emotionally mentally and academically we can figure out a way to make it work for for everyone in a safe way so I will pass this on this is an I I'll take the next one thanks an okay uh looks like the next one is Kim fonson these kids need to get back to in school learning ASAP the next one is Sarah skba or skeba I'm hoping I pronounced correctly I
035writing as a parent and a second grade teacher in the district I feel like the many teachers I know have finally hit their stride with remote learning my own children and my students have bonded with their class and teachers we teachers were told by District leadership to prioritize social and emotional learning and to create relationships with Children and Families for many classes that has happened will the district be able to accommodate families who want their children to stay with their current teacher with the school re-entry plan forcing students to adjust to another teacher and other fellow students will likely cause a negative impact to their learning and overall wellbeing I wonder how many parents across the district would prefer remote learning with their child's current teacher rather than the hybrid model with a different teacher
036and classmates if I had a choice I'd have my own children keep their current teacher and I'd keep my current class and stay remote the intent forms the district sent out we're lacking in Vital Information that we parents need in order to make an informed decision for what is best for our children keeping classes intact with their teacher should be a top priority for district leadership as planning for re-entry continues and then the next one is sheni Colin I have four kids in online learning and I feel my middle high school kids have a very large amount of homework if they have this much homework then I think the deadline should be a week for each assignment I need time to help them all or reduce the workload I have to keep missing work just
037to help them the next one is Heather Miller for the students to survive this year and have a chance of thriving changes to routine and structure need to be minimized with a focus on instructor-led learning four days minimum of teacher-led instruction regardless of continued remote learning or hybrid we should have the option of choosing to follow our child's teacher and support their remote hybrid Choice rather than risk moving teachers whichever option is chosen our kids need consistency and familiarity not sudden changes like this and then shaa Robertson Robertson I am extremely disappointed that we are being forced to choose distance versus hybrid this early before cold slf flu holiday season I have a first grader and as much as I want slash need him to go back to inperson school I'm not willing to risk
038the health of our family by putting him back in school this early therefore the district is forcing me to commit to distance learning for the entire year for both of my kids their mental health will definitely be affected by this choice we are truly looking forward to a February hybrid start date when the worst of the six season would have been over and we would be moving towards Spring I implore the board to rec consider opening at this early date I know there are so many families like ours who have the same feelings as we do thank you for your consideration okay and I'll pass it on this Karen I can go next I believe what Ramona was rap apologies if I did not pronounce that right why is this why is the district forcing
039parents to choose between return to school now or remain remote for the entire rest of the school year it would be better for families no matter how tricky for schools for school to allow families to return to in-person learning at each quarter this would allow families to adjust the covid-19 case numbers and their personal situations throughout the year instead of forcing a binary decision that is in effect for the remainder of the year please consider a returnto person option for each quarter next we have Adam law Adam says I am a parent of a kindergarten at Edmund's Elementary the latest decision to begin hybrid teaching is poorly thought out ill timed potentially dangerous to Public Health and will not be an improvement over the current remote learning option I think we can all agree that
040ine and teaching is best followed by synchronist followed by Independent asynchronous Learning with the assumption that the hybrid model is two days of in-person instruction and three days of Independent Learning all it does is swap four medium value days for two high value days and two low value while also causing a great disruption to the student choosing remote when hybrid becomes available able is disruptive to the student students have just gotten settled in finally having adjusted to their new world in the school system in our case choosing to stay remote means sacrificing our current classmates and teacher for young child this is a massive disruption it's too late in the year to incur large changes like this hybrid is less valuable for the student especially in kindergarten self-directed book work is a very low value
041and the hybrid model triples the amount of time doing this low value work one day a week is bad enough let's not make it worse hybrid is more difficult for the teacher the teacher has to spend two days a week presenting duplicate content which either leaves them with less time to prepare and consequently less learning by the student or they'll need to work longer hours to keep up either the teacher or the student suffers from the wasted time teaching duplicate content hybrid is not easier for the parents given their work schedules many families already struggle to provide enough time with their child during remote instruction their hybrid option will require the parents to spend even more time directing their child due to tripling the number of Independent Learning days even if hybrid was a better
042proposition Who ah where' it go sorry even if hybrid was a better proposition it would need to be a large Improvement to outweigh the potential health concerns due to currently rising Co infection rates in s homish County there's likely no scenario that shows infection rates dropping when we put children who are unlikely to properly follow safety protocols together in closed space even if a hybrid was a better proposition and was a larger Improvement parents do not currently have enough information to commit to an entire year the school district has not provided sufficient plans for all possible scenarios that could could occur over the next nine months how does the covid infection rate need to how much does the covid infection rate need to rise in order to transition back from hybrid to fully remote why
043are we going hybrid if we have a higher infection rate currently than we went than when we went fully remote last year please consider the current plan implementing the hybrid option it's bad for everyone consider I'm sorry the current plan Implement implementing the hybrid option option it's bad for everyone let's stay remote until it's safe to return completely and we have Briana Hudson are we for sure entering school on November 12th the K K2 I feel like you're asking us to make a decision in less than a week that affects our children for the remainder of the year I'm understand needing the intent form for November but it's not really fair to not be able to revisit this again in January why does it have to be all or nothing we're going into cold and
044flu season November is too soon to make a decision for the next eight months what will happen if I say in person and then change my mind will it be okay to change in to remote if not what happens to my student I've seen many similar questions so I hope you will address this before we have to submit the form thank you Diane Walter is there any possibility that the district will decide not to make the upcoming change for the K2 grade class returning to hybrid model we're ultimately unhappy with the idea that because we have decided to stay remote all year that our kindergarten student will now have to receive a new teacher new classmates Etc we feel this is too soon and poorly thought out the ramifications are many this feels wrong the
045students are doing so well in in and in essence have to readjust readapt and lose what they've built in terms of relationships and Rhythm for their routines and Darla Matias one how is the funding going to be appropriated for transportation and the bus drivers once we move to the phases two how are we making sure that that we are reaching the large number of students K K2 k k to second grade in the district who will definitely need to be contacted in regards to the intent form to qualify for transportation once phase one is in full SW swing we will not be targeting everyone who may not have email or mailbox access so many children will not be accounted for uh Gary you ready I am I am okay um next one is Briana Valencia
046on Thursday September 24th Edmund School District staff were informed that a Brier Terrace Middle School was going to be closed for 72 hours due to a posi positive covid-19 why wasn't this information shared with the whole ESD privacy can't be the reason because a all staff were told and B it is possible that there was a positive case in the district without revealing the school as it stands the lack of communication seems to be either garious an agrus oversight or deliberate lack of transparency please explain the justification for not sharing this information with the entire ESD Community as well as a policy for how positive covid cases in buildings will be communicated in the future my second question has to do with providing PPE for t for staff particularly with the end of October opening
047date for phase one according to page 13 of the document entitled employer health and safety requirements ments for school scenarios the special education setting is a medium to high-risk setting for employers thus triggering the need for better PPE what is the district's plan for Distributing necessary PPE to staff members working with these students IE teachers including Specialists Paris OTS pts slps Etc furthermore some types of PPE require training for proper use what is your timeline in terms of when that training is going to happen if we are going to start phase one at the end of October thank you Briana and from Aaron holder I am an educator in the district and love my job my job is different this year and it can be draining and frustrating at times I desper I I wish
048desperately when I'm back in the classroom because it is familiar I know how I would handle these problems in my classroom and I haven't yet figured out how to navigate them in a remote environment when I'm H when I'm having these troubles I go back to my Foundation my Foundation as an educator is that I believe that public education is a promise we are promising our community that if they send their child we will keep them safe I'm sorry uh and we will lift them up we will help them with their potential I do not see how blazing ahead with reopening schools is keeping this promise I do not feel it the the school district I do not feel valued by the school district right now I'm frustrated with how the school district has continued
049to ask me to make more decisions before they have provided me with information before they have finished bargaining with my union whatever your intents I feel this way as do many others you have failed to maintain my trust and do not and and do not owe it to you your continued use of these practices shows understand shows an understanding of your actions if you do not want me to believe that you are putting students first commit to solving problems to to Student Learning Beyond being back in the classroom before it's safe give my Pera a computer capable of running small groups instead of giving her a Chromebook that continually freezes and doesn't allow her to see every student at the same time while sharing her screen transition from mobile hotspots and work with your corporate
050part partner to get families more stable internet routers put effort into helping teachers create pedagog pedagogically sound lessons in a remote setting instead of recommending that we record ourselves reading PowerPoint slides will anyone responsible for making the decision be working in person will any of them be willing to be in schools interacting with students will they send their own children in with students will the district resume assume responsibility when the first students and staff are exposed and potentially have lifelong complications as a result if the answer to any one of these questions is no then is an immoral move forward with inperson learning next from Judy melliot melet what we are most concerned about is that Chloe remains with her current teacher what do we need to do to ensure that happens I feel that
051Khloe has really bonded with her current teacher and that a change in teacher will be detrimental her teacher has been one constant during the school year and then from Lori and Gabe gber de school board members and Dr balderis we want to ensure you understand the position of the school district is putting us in by requiring a decision this week whether to send our child back to school on the hybrid plant or remote a decision that the student intent Forum States will be for the duration of the 2021 school year we listen to the community Forum on 1012 and were Gravely disappointed with the questions not answered in clear details saying a plan will be developed is not an answer we do not know what the in-person day of learning looks like what opportunities peer
052interactions exist how Specialists will teach both cohorts we are left to pick between a notational inperson hybrid model where uh our third grader will be left alone for asynchronous learning three days each week while we are working from home and two remote only option where she will likely have to deal with a transition to an entirely new teacher te and class losing the relationship she's built so far transitions are difficult times for most young children and families during a global pic pandemic when many of our families are already facing increased insecurity and stress you are asking us to commit more to more upheaval without a clear plan and details and seemingly without regard to the Social and emotional welfare of our children sincerely Lori and Gabe gber and last one we have is from Sarah
053Thompson as a teacher and parent I humbly ask that you place the safety of our students and staff as a first priority in making any decisions related to the reopening of our school buildings beyond that the next priority is to make decisions that are in the best interest of our CH students education these sound like basic requests both with all the confusing changing information that's has been coming out we can't can't let these priorities be lost please work with our teachers and listen to the concerns about safety provide what is needed and work in the true best interest of our students bringing them back to buildings can't simply be for the sake of it we need to support we need support in making sure education is still happening amidst all our safety measures and place
054and for those remaining in the remote model please continue to support them and teachers as their education still matters there's so much more to all of this than simply trying to reopen buildings thank you and back to you Deborah unmute yourself Deborah sorry thank you um and as I said before the public comments uh the entire document will be attached to the minutes and available for anyone to read and the school board if we haven't read it we will continue to read all of the comments that were submitted um thank you all for um uh submitting your public comments uh next we have uh our consent agenda do I hear a motion I move to approve I second it Nancy thank you it's moved it's been moved and seconded to uh approve the consent agenda
055as written is there any discussion and I would just like to um tell our student um advisors that the consent agenda typically is a number of business items that we've had a chance to look at um previously individually um so like bills to pay and things like that and contracts that we signed so that we don't take up a lot of time um uh during the meeting going through each one and we can um uh pass all of them as as a body of of items any further discussion hearing none um I'll call for a vote um could I have a roll call vote please Allison this is to approve the consent agenda director I director McMurray I director Chase I director Noble I director Kilgore I and the motion passes the consent agenda is
056approved uh next we have some report of course uh first Dr Bal darus will give us an update on continuous learning you're muted muted here you are here we go do this enough all day and you can still do it right so as stated earlier I want to thank everybody for their comments uh I know Co cases are are going up we uh we got information yesterday from the health Authority that we're up to roughly 72 per 100,000 over the last two week rolling cycle that's a 17 point increase from the previous Mark when we started looking at restarting our schools and because we were in the downtrend for a while hoping it would continue to go down and uh we are going up and that is a concern for us to look at uh
057for uh stage two reopening because again that's that that's a great concern so we may need to be a pause and be able to wait on that until we able to get more of our kids into school we still want to move forward with our roughly 160 kids around 10 campuses these are the kids more that need to be in our campuses with critical needs these are our deaf and hard hearing students um medically fragile students and developmental kindergarten kids so these are students that we do hope to continue to work through I am on a weekly call with the health authority Dr spitters the theom county health official and just this week even after this came out he still remarked that we still need to move forward with some of our students so again
058not that we have to but we are wanting to really bring in this 160 kids in our T campuses and possibly put a pause depending on what the numbers look like you get in mid over here in the next couple two three weeks um for bringing back our kindergarten first second grade kids I think that's just again we won't bring kids in if it's not safe to do so uh for both again kids and faculty I know that we've been compared to a Highline in North Highline for example is 170 cases per 100,000 in CAC it's 210 in CAC area we're at roughly 72 still high and that the threshold is 75 the threshold is 75 I think this is a u scenario that's going to be contining to evolve and continue to be fluid
059and we'll continue to work with our health authority labor and in industry and nopi guidance again we follow all the guidance and know they're uh roughly 30 miles North there's been kindergarten first grade kids in on campus for example I know there's some districts in our area that do have kindergarten kids and first grade kids on campus right now and have had kids on campus since day one since day one and done it safely so again it's hard to compare areas but again right now with their increasing cases we will be looking to possibly pause on the on the I'm bringing students back in in kindergarten in first and second grade at the again that threshold is we're right out we're right at that threshold but we do want to continue with stage one which
060is contining to work with um our uh all all our employee associations that have uh that have employees in our buildings because we still are working on marketing working conditions with all the employees and we continue to do so again so we have a lot of work yet to do I appreciate the staff that been doing all the the heavy lift and U again am going to turn it over to doctors fera and young to work to explain really phase one what that looks like good evening everyone um so phase one like Dr Valderas has just mentioned it's a special group of students who are desperately in need and parents and families have been consistently reaching out to us because they're having a really hard time at home providing services and being the support the
061sole support for their um for their students at home and so with that in mind um we are inviting back again and developmental kindergarten uh Deen heart of hearing um a few intensive support classrooms and individually impaired and so when we talk about stage one it's really that specific population of about 163 students over just 10 sites and out of those 163 students families still have the choice of choosing full remote or sending their students back into the building so they get the services that they deserve and that they desperately need um so I know that there's a lot of questions and comments and concern over stage two and I completely understand that as a parent and also an employee of Edmund school district and we understand that stage two um is really dependent on
062the numbers that Dr spitters and our snow homish County Health officials they are going to advise us well we are not going to move into stage two just because we want it open we will not risk the safety of our of our staff and our students in order to do that so we have like Dr baldera said 72 cases per 100,000 right now that's pretty high 75 is the threshold so right now as a team we're thinking about we're going to continue to plan but we always have to be ready um and confident about doing course Corrections along the way and be really really super Nimble as we make decisions and so in stage one it's a special group of kids families do have a choice and we are working with our staff our uh
063cabinet our central office leaders our school teachers to ensure that we do that right we do that in a safe way and so right now we've got um uh building principles uh with teams of people from central office doing learning walks looking at the spaces um we are trying to plan um and share with the community what that would look like what would a classroom look like for these roughly SE 160 kids and it probably will be less than 160 because some families I assume we'll choose full remote and that's okay and we'll continue to do um the great work that our teachers are doing with that group of students but we do have a very small group of students who really need face-to-face care in our in our district and our staff and our
064principles are really committed to making that happen um in a safe way and so that's what we've been working on um currently just for our stakeholders to fully understand we want to do stage one really really well and stage two we may have to put a hold and a pause on all of this planning and continue with some because at some point we're going to have to bring our kids back in a hybrid model and so we're not going to just forget that H all this work is you know it's not going to amount to anything we're going to still have to plan but that November 12th date is also very fluid we don't know what the numbers are going to be on November 12th so I would like our stakeholders to fully understand that
065we are taking advice from our health officials we are listening to our teaching staff and we are working um in responding to all of your questions too I got a handful of really thoughtful questions from families today really concerned about health concerned about what stage one will look like for their child and so we are trying to um answer all those questions and I know sometimes it feels like there's not a hard yes and no it's because we don't know what the numbers will be but regardless we want to do stage one well and we're going to be focusing on that for the time being Dr vgar do you have anything else to add no uh thank you I just want to add uh that we as uh Dr J mentioned we are following a
066really specific entry uh re-entry plan uh specific uh checklist at each of the buildings uh doing facilities uh adding uh thinking about Transportation classrooms space uh spacing and movement and access reses uh Health uh restrooms front front office I mean is a really a specific work that we're doing um and is Dr J mention um with uh stage one is going to give us the opportunity to do it well and to really go um one step at a time and um I want to reinforce the the idea of a stage two if we cannot open uh and mid November we will have hopefully a plan ready right uh for uh for a stage two and also in stage two I I do want to um make sure that we the board knows that we are
067also paying attention to two other specific groups one of them is the English Learners level one or new arrivals uh because we are uh wanting to make sure that they uh get um good instruction right and and good and an opportunity so we're thinking uh consider in bringing them uh soon and also a students that qualifi for Mento homelessness students so we're also uh um uh trying to figure out a plan for for that specific group but again uh stage one is is giving us the opportunity to really be specific about the work and go uh in detail um about how this is going to look thank you you know there questions and a lot of unknowns yet I know that we've had a variety of community sessions I know the board's reviewed a lot
068of different plans and I know that uh I think our goal as well is to start uh both communicating as a district to the broader Community but also start to engage our buildings to be able to communicate to their own uh communities as well so at the different levels so for example if we're talking about K3 have a presentations be done by our building principles with our support of course so that way they can be really more focused at that building level again because that's what we're talking about right now we're talking Elementary we're talking Elementary right now and what does that look like at the at our different Elementary sites because again every School site has a different footprint in terms of what it looks like I think and different people are going to
069have different questions in terms of uh because of the different Footprints and what they look like and space concerns so that's one of the things we are working on I know people have uh also asked a question about can we move and rotate at different parts uh and times throughout the year that's a possibility it again it becomes a math problem how many kids do we move how much space do we have and uh uh that's that's something that we really want to know as well from our staff in terms of how many staff are going to be able to uh do some remote instruction or how many people are we going to have in in a hybrid when that does happen U so a lot of unknowns yet and again we want to have
070preliminary numbers in terms of what we're looking at and uh but again we will continue to communicate but we may need to put a pause on this current situation on a current re-entry plan just because of our of our current number of of Co I mean we're we're training the wrong way we are training the wrong way and and everybody's opinion is the right opinion in terms of hey it's it's getting to be winter and we're getting inside more and uh I there there is I have a strong worry that we're going to continue to Trend the wrong way I hate to say that but I mean I just see the numbers I mean 17% Spike or 17 point spike in just the the two weeks is very concerning so and open up to the
071board for questions hi Dr belera this is Karen district one um I just had with some of the questions we're getting on the intent survey that parents are filling out uh some of the questions related to um you know what if we have to change and POS and not open phase two in November will they need to um do do an in another intent form can you just kind of address some of the thoughts on on this given that there are so many unknowns yeah so things can change and I appreciate the question director Chase I I think it's it's going to be more in terms of maybe being handled at the building level as well to work with you know what we're working with so for example if there's an intent maybe we can
072work more locally in terms of trying to figure out what the needs are for the specific school for the for the for the school communities said but also for the district we're trying to just engage how many kids to do the math problem with how many teachers we have I think we could do it also at that building level at the so for example we're talking Elementary if I'm in an elementary school how many kids would I have coming in how many staff do I have and actually do them again do the scheduling there so I think our goal is to try and have as much flexibility as possible for our families knowing for that we maybe not be able to take compeny for All Families I think that's the concern as well that's an
073equity piece to it but again we will continue to look at it to answer your question directly is uh if we don't open November 12th which is right now a high likelihood based on information I have right now information I have right now 72 cases per 100,000 if you ask me now if I'm going to open up no I'm not right now but again a month later if the if the if it if they Trend downward I think we we're going to have that discussion but again if we don't open up I think we're going to have to revisit this in terms of later on in December or maybe wait till January in terms of to to have families really again uh restate their intention but but with the point being made with more information
074in terms of what it exactly looks like for a family what they're going to commit to what hybrid looks like what remote looks like and what that St what what uh what U I think we had three one was a c option which is really remote again uh Dr balderas I share the concern that families have about the hybrid model leaving our kids um too long during the week without sort of interaction with their teachers and um I I don't know that there are any answers yet but um I would encourage the District staff to take this concern seriously um it is it hit me in the summer and I called all my electeds all my representatives to ask for money because uh I recognize that you know the idea of leaving my kid cutting
075him loose three days a week was uh a little frightening to me um so um I I would really encourage uh the district to do a little more work and communicate a little bit more about what this is going to look like what uh benefits it has for families over a full remote model because right at the moment I I don't necessarily see it but but maybe there's something that I you know I as a parent don't see yet and um so that's that that's not a question it's just sort of a suggestion that um that we address this yeah I know that uh I think the summer we had 21 work teams I think we had half those being on instructional side of the house working on this with the association and again looking
076at my peer group up and down the I5 Corridor this is the model that's out there the another model is really bringing in our our our kindergarten kids more often and not really bringing in our older kids which is also becomes an equity issue uh becomes difficult to be able to bring in for example split grades if you have Am Pm because of cleaning and transportation and actually that's against the health authorities advice to do that because it's it isn't uh uh uh we're not able to clean as effectively as we can and transport kid Transportation becomes an issue as well so but again to your point I think we will always look at all models and and learn from others I think this is a good a good point because there have been people
077that have been going since day one in a hybrid model and learn to see what's worked well what hasn't worked well and communicate back to our board and our community to uh to engage in terms of you know what what are the pros and cons to each because now that people are going across the US not just to Washington State in a hybrid format uh what are the pros and cons and how do you make it better how do you make it better and again I I don't disagree with what the what you State president Kore is um I think it becomes a um which model fits best for the family I think some families are working right now and there's no one at home for example to work with their kids so what does
078that look like for some families especially we have you know high high poverty rates in our communities and so I think it's some families can and some families can't I think that's the issue and I think uh this becomes a no- win scenario for any system because again some families need us to be in a hybrid for their own livelihood they need us to be in a hybrid and some families don't I think that is the whole Equity piece that we need to talk about because some families have means to be able to stay home with their kids and be able to stay home with their kindergarten kids some families do not some families do not I think that is the issue that we all face and that's why we need to have an option
079to have kids come in I think it's interesting that so many of the comments indicate that learning right now seems to be going well the online ver the fully remote version certainly better than it was in the spring and as we consider all of the different options they're always tradeoffs we we're always going to have to be thinking of safety and learning and sometimes in in this particular situation those come at odds um but I think it's a positive to realize that a lot of parents are feeling like and teachers are feeling like okay we've got this now because going into this there wasn't that kind of feeling but at the moment it seems that um you know we all like none of us like change we all like the familiar we all like you
080know to get into a routine but I do take it as a positive that right now there's so many people who feel like the remote is working well it's safe let's not change it too quickly they don't want to go back and forth um and so I you know I mean we need to consider everything but I just I found the the comments very interesting because there were so many who felt that let's not rock the boat um anyway I I appreciate the people who give comments and even the ones we weren't able to read we read them and they'll be public um but anyway that that it just seemed to me that there was a different attitude than there was let's say in August when everybody didn't know what was going to happen in
081terms of fully remote at least now we know what that looks like and it seems like it's working well for a number of I'm sure not everybody but a number of kids I appreciate the comments I know the survey that we set down I know there's questions about that survey as well that uh maybe could have been again with with more definition of the roughly 50% of the parents have turned returned the survey roughly 10,000 70% want to come back into our schools and 30% do not so out of 10,000 so again I know we have comments roughly 42 today 10,000 survey results uh 7030 right now and again with more information I'm I'm sure that that's going to change also as we go out throughout the year if we were to resurvey again but
082that's the community in terms of what the survey results getting right now I think we need to be aware though it sounds like some of the parents were giving us input without fully understanding what all the options meant and so you know I'm I'm not a parent currently in the district so I didn't see the survey I don't know what it looks like um but I think we need to take into account the extent to which parents were giving us information without fully understanding things about teachers and you know if it's a syncronous learning versus um you know online learning and for those the three days that they're off so um I I find the survey results interesting but I do want to make sure that we what we're getting is really what parents mean
083I I could agree more and what I've seeing up and down the I5 Corridor is more of a 6040 split 60 people wanting to come in 40% not up and down the II Corridor of all the big districts so more of a 6040 split with all the right information out there as much information as we can get I think that's where we'll probably going to be closer too you know I'm just wondering um at least in the comments that we have seen um come in that there seems to be uh a a conclusion that a that if someone is someone's te someone is wants to do a a a remote learning or a hybrid that teachers are automatically going to choose a hybrid model but um uh are we aren't we working individually with teachers
084because you might have a teacher that decides for whatever reason a decision is made that they stay remote so if people were to um opt into remote they would keep that teacher and if someone and and if people in that classroom opted for a hybrid they might get a different teacher in a hybrid merely because of the situation of the teacher do we have any idea what the teacher split is that's something that needs to be bargain as well I know we're currently working with our Teachers Association on that and trying to determine you how do we place people so I have not seen the results from the of the teacher survey but that's something that I know we are currently bargaining with our Teachers Association regarding working conditions and and this is one one
085aspect to that any other questions from the board that that I can answer or staff can answer I know there's a lot from community and again so the one thing I will say is again we'll continue to uh to do a better job of communicating I know we've done a lot of community sessions and I know that we've done a lot of review of different aspects of reopening and I think it's uh we can continue to do uh more in the defining but but I would like to get this down to the building level to the building principal level so they can actually work with their communities because that's where the rubber Meza road is in the at each elementary school right now and be able to help those principles be able to reach out
086to their communities to really answer those questions on the zoom calls or Zoom forums at each community at each School site that makes a lot of sense to me when we get started I think uh if we were able to bring in some of our kids right now uh the 160 or so which would be like Dr Young said maybe less than that it it' be a good starter for us to be to to bring in some of the media's kids to see how that goes and our hope again um I know this has been painful for everybody this is extremely painful for everybody no one signed up to do this no not one no one signed up to do this and this has been a tough situation for all but no no tougher than
087for our kids no tougher for our them for our kids I think that's something that we have to remember that uh we're the North Star for our kids I know that there's you know I get emails about Athletics daily I get I get emails about about field use daily I get emails so again I know there's kids that are craving to come back to to what they know and that's what our hope is and we need to be like Northstar and continue be that norb star for our community as best we can as information does change so I I I appreciate all the comments from the community that we've received and we will do better to uh uh to Res survey if need be because I think again if parents don't have all the information
088you know again I'm an educated person myself I wouldn't want to fill out if I have a lot of unknowns as well I want all the information I can and I think we can provide that information to make sure that we are able to do what's best for again as many for all kidss for all kids as parents make decisions because parents will need to make choices at some point hopefully this year where uh they choose what to do but to the point being made by the board is we have to make sure we have the best options for the families what are the best options that we could possibly do with our kids in our school sites with the faculty that we have so um I know staff are working literally day and night
089on this and it's something that uh uh will continue to keep the board informed but also to keep the the community informed you're muted a little bit so I'm assuming sorry this is like the so I'll go down in history is the the thing that always happens meetings but anyway next we have our child care up update with Dr Young please continue I think I have a few slides to share but if it's not ready that's okay because I can just uh walk you through some of the things that shift so in stage one of um you know what we're planning to do there will be no changes to our current child care plan cherelle do we have the slides Allison cherelle so just moving on for time sake it's all right um so right
090now the current plan which will remain the same in stage one is um Alderwood Boys and Girls Club will remain servicing from their own Alderwood Boys and Girls Club um site says you can share your uh oh I'm reading her note here okay it's fine um and then and then they'll continue to uh put Martha Lake on hold so right now the Boys and Girls Club are were they're not servicing any students at Martha Lake as originally planned because they can they have enough space in their Alderwood facility to be able to do that so in stage one they'll continue to do that um YMCA they are currently at Chase Lake Elementary um and they're doing a great job by the way all of our service provisors are doing a great job and when it's
091stage two I'm going to get to that a little bit there's going to be some changes so kids crew right now are at Mount Lake Terrace um Pavilion their own location but they're also um servicing kids at Terrace Park Elementary as well um right at school is at Cedar Valley and also Cedar Way um they added one more School site because they needed to expand a little bit so in stage one what I just described will remain but when we get to stage two at some given point that's when the major shift starts happening um we're going to open up former Alderwood middle school and we're also going to open up Woodway Elementary because of the AA BB hybrid model so YMCA will be servicing students out of Woodway Elementary for the full day in
092addition to that they'll have some other school sites to deliver AM and PM child care right at school um mentioned to me that they prefer to do only before am and after school PM child care in most of the buildings during stage two so they're not going to be doing full day child care in the two remote sites they'll be continuing just like they did preo times and do AM and PM Child Care kids crew out of Mount Lake Terrace they would like to remain servicing students in their own pavilion during stage two so there there's not going to be significant shifts with uh kids crew and they're thinking right now of maybe servicing AM and PM um CH Care at Terrace Park Elementary but they're still trying to figure out their uh human cap
093needs and andc capacity issues so they're not going to be shifting to anything different um the Boys and Girls Club however will be servicing students from uh from the former Alderwood Middle School site during the full for the full day and and this is why so no building in in our district will have full day child care as soon as the AABB hybrid kicks in because there's cohorts of kids now occupying our buildings so if you for example are an a kid a a day kid for example and let's say you go to lywood elementary and you need AM and PM childcare you can get AM and PM childcare by right at school at Lynnwood Elementary before school and after school on Monday and Tuesday those days that you attend but then as you know
094Wednesday Thursday Friday are asynchronous learning so they're not reporting to their neighborhood School M Elementary so on those days what's going to happen is they're going to shift they're going to shift and attend former Alderwood Middle School Child Care from the boys and girls club and families have a choice or the YMCA at Woodway Elementary um and they've got a choice to do that Wednesday Thursday and Friday so we've got the slides it's okay this is just the childcare locations that we currently have and the blue X is mar the Lake Elementary which is not currently occupied and we added cedarway and that's the blue circle and right at um right at school is uh servicing our students out of Cedar Way currently let's see next slide or not that's fine anyways um does anyone
095have any questions so far about the stage two shifts so Helen this is Nancy yes first of all thank you for all the work you've been doing because it's very complicated um I have uh a suggestion and I have a question so my suggestion is um if because it's so complicated and I listened to the community Forum last night and I've listened to this um and I I think it would be really helpful if on the website there were a very clear um graphic or chart or that lays out exactly what you're saying so people can see depending on their situation what it looks like you know in the fully remote and then in stage one stage two Etc so um I think that's really important because there are people like me who are visual
096and want to see uh that so that's my suggestion my question is um I know that the child care providers have been help part of their role is to help the kids do the remote learning so I guess it's a two-part question my the first part is what have you heard in terms of feedback on how well that's been going and secondly um will that role continue no matter when we're in the hybrid version or the other version for even if it's AM and PM to help the kids follow up on homework or whatever Etc absolutely uh that support we'll continue and I'm going to start that thank you for the suggestion we already have uh an idea for a graphic to show the map we're going to update our map but I really appreciate
097your other suggestion of all the scenarios like with pictures because I'm also a visual learner so I'll make sure that we have that and our team will definitely work on that so thank you um director kadum yes the childcare providers are doing a really really good job right now and our families are giving them really positive feedback um and and we've had some uh Wireless Wi-Fi issues but they've been mitigated within a day or two and and our department has been all over it so we've not heard any connection issues because there's multiple kids trying to connect in a certain area and it's a common area of the school um in terms of the kinds of support that they're giving yes they will continue whether it's remote or hybrid what they're doing currently meaning they're
098going to help log have have kids log in the zoom um they they know how to navigate our learning platforms so you know they're supporting in that way and when it's asynchronous learning and they've got assignments or writing they have to do either on the laptop or even a a writer's notebook that's also being done so for AM and PM the job of our childcare providers staff to be able to help with zooms is not going to happen because you know there's no zooms during AM and PM but there's going to be homework help and it's going to be very intentional and they know that families are really stressed out one of the things that our priv uh providers are con stantly telling us is our families feel so much better now now that they
099understand what's going on with the student schedule we feel like we're more confident to help and there's a really positive um relationship happening so we're going to continue with this model of making sure our our kids are really supported well and they are rocking it like they're doing a very nice job um at first some of the providers reported they can't keep their masks on they keep pulling it down or they keep uh taking it off when they're talking but with lots of reminders I'm not hearing any issues about masks I'm not hearing any issues about airplan arms and kids you know talking closer than six feet they're really following the guidelines and the transition was challenging I'm sure the first week or so but kids are really resilient and I'm hearing really positive stories
100and I will share some pictures um soon of you know kids engaged they're on zoom and there's staff around them and and they're all six feet apart and it's a very clean pristine and organized environment so I get hope um when we think about the hybrid model and going back at some point our child care providers are doing it and I think Edmond School District can do the same and and that's what we're preparing for whether it's November 12th or not um depending on the numbers of cases in our County uh I feel like we're going to be able to be successful around safety because I'm not hearing any uh infections I'm not hearing hearing kids having a hard time uh getting into the zoom and getting their work done if anything um everyone's pretty
101much really excited and all of them are doing a really great job one thing that I do want to add um is I feel like this is a really great opportunity to partner and continue our Partnerships with our local providers and um so this is what we're engaging in in talks right now how can we have ensure that boys and girls club kids crew and YMCA along with r at school how can they all have you know opportunities to service and and and meet the needs of our students and we want to give our families choices choices and providers choices in in price and so you will see that in stage two the YMCA in addition to Woodway Elementary School will be servicing our students AM and PM in in school buildings a handful of
102school buildings right alongside with right at school any any other comments or questions thank you director kums any other comments or questions thank you toss it back to Dr balderas here we go again uh thank you so much for that report and it sounded um really promising um and I look forward to seeing the pictures uh next we have a report on Peach jar with Harmony Weinberg all right good evening thank you so much for um having me tonight I'm gonna go ahead and share my screen um so tonight our my goal is to um explain how our eflyer process works and the opportunity we have to try something new and really expand how we're um communicating with our families so there we go so what I'm going to go over is just our current
103eflyer process and so eflyer process right now is how we share information with our schools from different Community groups and that information and how it's disseminated to our families then I'm going to tell you about Peach jar what it is um and how it works and then I'm going to talk about why we should use Peach jar as a district and my recommendation for it and that the district's recommendation and then the next steps that it would take So currently Community e Flyers the purpose of these um they're to provide a means for nonprofit organizations including our specific partnering um organizations as well as um staff to get information of educational recreational and social benefits of students distributed to families Andor staff the current process we do have a board policy of dist um distribution
104of materials that we follow for how we disseminate this information um and the documentation that's required the approval um disclaim cler that is at required of each flyer to say this event is not sponsored by the Edmund School District um and then the process is that it is we go through all that as a Communications team from our outside agencies they go to our website they find this information we look at it we approve it make sure they have all the right documentation then that is all gathered and emailed to our office managers and then it's the office manager's responsibilities to share those flyers with their students which usually is done through email to families in their weekly or monthly newsletters next we have so what is peach jar so Peach jar is a digital
105flyer management system that delivers important school and Community Information With district school district families um so I kind of want to explain how how it works as a community organization so you would be able to um all of our Community Partners would have pachar accounts with the district they would be able to um send their flyer um to the district through Peach jar it would go they would upload their their um flyer we would check it and then it would be sent to families so really that smooth of a process so it really takes away um sorry my um of course now it doesn't want to work um there we go I have some some uh issues here with the uh slides but yes so it really takes a it's just more direct communication and
106that's what we're really looking for I mean I think that's a goal of the board too we want to just get information to our families as easily as we can so how it works is if we were to launch Peach jar um it would be it's an email service that would automatically um each family would get an email once a day or possibly once a week depending on how much information is is coming in and and that's that's really the process for them and families also have the the um opportunity to unsubscribe if they want to so the district so so again it's it's a choice that families can have to get this information so why Peach jar so really it's direct communication again it takes out all these middle people all this staff work
107time to really just share this important information with our family whether it's a free event for free meals from one of our Community Partners um whether it's a a camp you know that the YMCA is putting on it's just it's it's direct way to upload have it gives and it also gives our providers or our Community Partners more of um an opportunity to just own their material and then we still go through our um forms of of vetting it and making sure it's through the right process so really it's just direct communication um and it's free to the district so usually this would cost us about $28,000 to implement um but due to covid uh peach jar is is waving that fee so so really we never pay anything forever how peach jar makes their
108money is um through our Community Partners but here but here's the deal is that if if I'm the YMCA and I have a free event and I want to send that flyer to all all of our elementary schools it's free to the y MCA if the YMCA wants to um advertise for a camp that costs maybe $100 a week to families they're gonna have to pay $25 per school for that cost and currently they're getting that for free from the district but the process that we currently have is is overwhelming to staff it's a lot of work on office staff to have to manage these flyers as well so the cost benefit is is is really a positive one um I think that as well our our partners will get more out of it they
109can they're not waiting for us to find a time to submit it um if staff lose track of it none of that happens it's all very systematically happening and um they also are able to check if if people opened it like they have those those um those uh analytics available to them as a community partner and that's huge you can pay a lot of money for analytics and d and data so the fact that they could use that um and get that information for free by just paying again for only a paid event that you would have to pay for um so and then also it's as I um I alluded to earlier it does save time so it's just it saves time for our you for our community members and it also saves saves
110a lot of Staff time and as you know office managers are extremely busy and this is just one more thing that they're having to manage and um I see it as a real value ad for our community um so Peach jar is proven successful in our neighboring districts so right now mleo schools has it and and it's been successful Everett schools Shoreline schools and even our friends over on the east um Spokane and that's just a few a lot of people are using this process and I've I've reached out to my colleagues and Communications at these districts and they they all have great things to say about it it's just a really streamlined EAS easy way for parents to get and families to get this information um and then I just kind of want to
111talk a little bit about that cost because I know you know if you're getting a free service and then all of a sudden you have to pay for it that's can sometimes be a little hard to understand but I think there's value in it and I think we have to remember too that the cost of Staff time um for our office managers for just just other groups that are trying to use it there's there's costs there right and so the idea that you would pay $25 per School in this um through the platform versus if you were printing it would cost you $60 to print that so and this is just kind of the state of the world that we're in right now as well being very digitally focused um with covid so now I
112just want to go over the next step so um the first step is to get board support tonight I really want to hear from you and and your thoughts um The Next Step would be to reach out to our Community Partners and let them know that we're going to move forward with this plan and explain to them the why and the how um and then the next step would be the data upload so how that will work with peach jar and again they work with many many districts throughout the country is that they will work with our technology team to get um email information from our parents and that that that is how they're able to submit this information to them um on the Flyers and so for example if the YMCA submitted a flyer
113today right now at 8:10 p.m. parents would not get an email at 8:10 p.m. they would get um an email tomorrow with um that information and then if there were more flyers that came in tomorrow they would not get that information until the next day so basically you're getting one email a day if that so I didn't want families to think oh my gosh now we're going to get a million emails from the district um that's a lot to manage but this way it's really you can know that you'll either get it once a day or you won't get it for a few days or a few weeks depending on um the information that's going out to your school and then the next step is to train um District staff on how to use it
114so pretty majority will be my team and also office managers will have the ability to share with their school events that are happening at their school it's another great way for them to communicate with their Community with Flyers um and then the next step would be announcing Peach jar to staff and families about this process that that we're going to be starting and then we would go live and my goal would be to go live at the end of the month because I really think we can move fast we want to take advantage of the free offer um for this platform that I've just only heard uh successful stories of and then keeping our current Community eflyer process and and transitioning because it takes time to change and we get that changes hard look at
115look at where we've been um so to to spend that the next two months and until the end of the year of really doing the transition um with our Community Partners and and getting more people on board and then the idea is that we could get rid of our our current system which just isn't it isn't as efficient as it as this um platform will allow us to be so now I just if you have any um oh questions I will stop sharing my screen does anyone have this is this is Nancy so I having worked in the district I see the benefits of this um I have two questions I'm I'm curious about uh how the vetting process what's involved in the vetting process at the district level um before something is sent out
116and I'm wondering if parents want to opt out from receiving these flyers and notices is that a possibility yes and yes um so we follow the board policy for vetting it's there's specific things that um organizations have to specific paperwork that they have to submit before even in the current state that we're in of eflyers and how we're doing this process so that would still continue to have to happen the nice thing is is that I believe now each time an organization wants to send email us my team they have to send all that paperwork in through Peach jar um after talking with the rep again today I believe that we would be able to just have that on file and so it just again the YMCA wants to get information out it's going to
117be a lot easier for them to be able to do that and then we will get an alert my team that says the YMCA or WR at school has updated a form or a flyer and then it we it holds with us until we approve it and then once we say that it's been approved um and then I also found out today that we could have it so every flyer automatically will have the the district logo and say this event is not sponsored by the Edmund School District so so again that saves time because currently now that's that's an added step that someone has to take to get on that so we can make sure we're following the the policies in place um and then your question about opting out yes I asked um again
118and I've I've spoken to other parents who who use this in some of those other districts you can opt out it's pretty easy to opt out so how it will happen is if we're able to move forward that pachar would send one initial email out to families once we launch saying this is coming you'll be getting this this is how it works and then at that point or anytime you an email you can go to the bottom and just like you can with all the all the emails we all get these days um and unsubscribe and a family if a family changes their mind um and they want it again um quickly we can work with them and I I talk to pachar about that and the process is pretty pretty smooth to get them
119back on as well um but again I've only heard positive things I I just love how clean it is from my team seeing them send these these like PDFs in an email to office managers it's it's a lot and and just to know that that that process for our office managers could be streamlined it it gets me excited an so so you mentioned that uh schools could use this but if some of their families have decided to unsubscribe because they don't want the YMCA or the right at school then we really couldn't use this for uh for school-based Flyers because then you'd have families that didn't hear about the school event because they thought that it was only YMCA right right and I I think that that will really be at a a school level
120because right now people can opt out of getting emails from us so I send a lot of emails to our community and we we will get calls and people will say I didn't get that email from the district and then we go and find out and do a little backdoor magic and we find out they unsubscribed so whether it's our e newss which went out today had a lot of great information um a lot of the update information that Dr baldera shared um in his remarks was was in that communication so I think that's something we would have to work with dist or with specific school buildings on and how they would let their communities know that because right now it's not the end all be all it's just another way of sharing information um
121so so those are that's a great question an and I I think those are things that we'll continue to to work out but right now I don't know how much the information we're spreading to office managers we don't know where it goes and then they send it out and they don't know where it goes and this will just allow us to track that and kind of see those analytics um and just be able to better find a way to use this communication tool that meets families and and your and your department is the one that's going to vet everything as opposed to the office manager at each individual school right and we do that now so we don't send it to them until it's gone through the process right now so that yeah so we
122do that now do you know how long say muleo or Shoreline or Spokane or Everett have used Peach jar I'm just wondering you know if if you have a multi-year um kind of experience for districts uh preco and in the middle of covid and and what you're hearing uh for those districts who have had it for a a variety of years right and and most of these these districts that I referred to have been doing it for several years it's not new to them not new since covid um for sure I I know one to two maybe maybe maybe farther back um but but I do know that they have history of it and it working um because i' I'd been looking into this you know before covid at um and and working with my
123colleagues and a lot of them had had been using it director Chase did you have a question I did thank you Harmony how's it going um uh languages I I had one question on how we accommodate languages and then also um are we is there a fee for the Flyers to go out to the vendors right now no so I'll answer the second question first there we do it for free so so it's it's staff time again it's the communications time and it's um office manager time and I'm not I don't want it to make it sound like we can't do it we can but when I when I think about and I've talked to parents who who have it in their District um it's just so seamless it's just so easy to go back
124and look at the Flyers like if I missed an email from the the principal or you know just to have a clean place to to keep them all versus maybe a newsletter that might have one information about write at school one about the YMCA or Edmund city council wants to tell us about something you know stuff like that it's just it's hard to keep track and so the idea of this being a really smooth One-Stop shop place to organize it and then your question about the languages is a great one um so how it works right now is is through Peach jar it'll work if your computer is set up if you're a Spanish speaker and you have your computer or your phone already set for receiving everything in Spanish it will do that the
125only thing is the Flyers because of the way that they are designed in PDFs um the act it it can't be easily translated but if if I'm the YMCA and I want it in English Spanish and um Vietnamese it still just cost me $25 per school so so we really can this is also a way we can start working with our community to be like hey we need you to provide this in our other languages or or let us work with you to get these PDFs in in our languages that our that our families are speaking you're welcome all right no more questions um Gary has his hand up too yeah I just one question would you also your your department yourself you put out a lot of emails including the district newsletter would you
126use this platform for the many the emails that your department puts out for districtwide I think it's a POS a possibility the option is there I think um this is something again where we'll we'll ease into really really benefiting Our Community Partners with the cleanliness of this for lack of a better word just the easy streamlined process but that is another Outlet you know no outlet for communication is perfect um you know we've sent out the survey this week and and you know text messages for different things phone calls and and all of our top eight languages and emails and you know so I there's never a perfect way so the more we can diversify and social media as well um the better so if this is another tool that will reach people I think
127it can only benefit us thank you I hate to be the Debbie Downer but it's okay I'm ready my gosh I'm thinking of our really important Community Partners like terce Brier soccer club or Pacific Little League they don't have the kinds of budgets we're talking about um and I worry I I mean I know because I was on the board of one of these things at one time and and I went around to all the schools personally to pass out flyers so I wonder um first of all uh you know if if uh this Cuts them out of something they had before and and then I guess I I worry also that um are our office managers going to be inundated with uh people like me who went out and and handed them a stack
128of Flyers well you can't hand anyone anything right now yeah no I think those that's a really valid point and something that we've thought a lot about and I know that this has been discussed before but I think implementing this right now is a really good time because we're in a really weird time of everything is digital right everything every family has access to technology right now provided through the district so this is a great tool to see if does this work I mean right now it's free to us um and and I would say that the the smaller the little folks that don't have the funds that maybe some of the bigger organizations are I think they need to see this as a value ad because they're going to reach more families because they
129are going to have more control over it of of the document you know they're going to be able to track is is it worth it you know right now they don't know they just say okay like the district's going to send it out we're all going to just hope for the best which is great but we all love data Nancy looking at you Dr Valderas looking at you we love data so I think for these these organizations to have that too will will be a huge benefit and again those types of um Services can be really expensive so to pay um you know a couple hundred dollars to know that the the return on your investment too of like getting eyes out in there and I think it also Dr Kilgore takes us out of
130the marketing business you know like we're a district we're we're here to serve our students first and foremost and we want to share information that's going to help them and their families and so it just kind of takes us out of being that middle person and just allows allows more opportunity for for people to just get that information out so Harmony I just I want to make sure I understand in terms of the cost to the partner organization if the event doesn't have a cost to it if they're doing a service they don't pay a fee correct but if it's something that to go and participate they're trying to sell a service or they're trying like a camp like a camp for 100 bucks a week then they're so so it depends on I mean
131that seems fair to me um that if what they're selling is something they're going to make money on that there's a fee to it but if they're uh communicating about something that is a service to our kids and our families that there's no fee correct okay right thank you yeah and I think that's important to know because you know if you're um you know the foundation wants to put something out and it's a free event you know that's a great outlet for them to quickly get that information out well I I I definitely find it a appealing especially the um amount of man I'm assuming and maybe you have done a little bit of a back of the envelope um analysis of how much person power has gone into these eflyers um it it's probably
132significant um I would imagine but I'm still um concerned about the the smaller groups who are so crucial I I mean it's not nothing you know there's so much part of our community as much as we are and um I'm a little worried about that I I think I mean I think terce Brier probably has the money for this but um but there's you know even the you know people who are offering a $10 dance class you know they're they're not making a dime on that and um they would have to pay a couple hundred to um to uh you know get the word out to our kids I I do you know I'm a little concerned about that um because I guess what I'm what I'm not seeing is a distinction between say um
133a YMCA Camp where they could build the cost into their Camp fees frankly yeah um and somebody who is doing a community event that is is really Net Zero you know they have to charge $5 a person to pay for the license for something um but they're not making money um off of that event and um how would they get the word out if if we're not able to I mean there I'm sure there are ways you know I'm not saying there's no other ways but I I'm just acknowledging that this is one way that they had that will no longer be available to them right and and it does cost a lot more to print the Flyers too I mean I think that even to the district if if before covid I'm not sure
134what schools were doing because I can't remember anything past March um if they were printing it out and sending those homeless students I mean that's also a a district cost too that we I mean budgets are tight right and so I totally get the community aspect and the partnership um but I also think sometimes we just have to try something and see how it works and and and hope for the best and then change as we go look at how we've been working in covid-19 as as your leadership team but you have to try new things sometimes um to just see if it works and I I think that's this is a great opportunity to try because again it's no cost to the district and if it doesn't work after the end of the school
135year we can go back you know I think but I I really think the benefit really outweighs what could be seen as as challenges um but I can't I can't know that until we try it and I I just would really hate to miss out on an opportunity that I think would benefit a lot of families and I'm thinking of our families who want that information and families who want to know about the little leagues or the or the different events or the small soccer teams that they might not have been able to know about it and now they're getting it in English and Spanish on their phone you know just even the text not necessarily the flyer so I mean there's there's so many benefits um that I see that it's just it'd be
136a really great opportunity for us to move forward with you know my I guess my take on it is that that we want to and we have uh we want to be partners with with all of these organizations but I have a real concern about District resources being diverted from other um other reasons for for things like this um whether it's the the office managers having to deal with it or it's somebody having to uh figure out how to get all 500 flyers into individual backpacks you know uh my guess is that when somebody dropped off a hundred Flyers they didn't actually distribute them into the backpacks there's somebody at the office that had to physically do a lot of this stuff and I'm really concerned about um that kind of time uh that the
137district is actually paying for that we have in the past and I I understand shifting and I I I see the concerns about Shifting the cost to uh these you know these organizations including small organizations but to me uh it's Shifting the cost that the district was using and and being involved with onto the organization itself who who it to my mind ought to be the one actually bearing the cost of marketing their own event even if it means they have to factor whatever that cost is into the uh the cost of the event that that to me doesn't seem to be too much to ask well I think to to your point um director McMurray is is that I mean if you're a small organization and you're in just Brier you would just out
138you would just go to upload and you would just hit three elementary schools within your radius because you know kids from Way South or Northeast or wherever else um would would come to that event or would join that League um so you can really Target so if it's $25 a school and you're spending it on three schools um but yeah and to your point it's a lot of Staff time that and I really think of our office managers I mean my team we're we're doing it we're doing like the back door work but really getting it into the parents' hands the family's hands whether that's digitally which is mostly what it is um all that it is now um that's a lot of of time and effort and again I just where's the line for
139us to be I I want us to be good Community Partners 100% but we're also not a marketing agency and so it's finding that balance of sharing information that is going to benefit our families and that's our number one priority this would typically be a staff decision because there's no costes an operational aspect but we did want to bring it to the board so I have the board wrestle with this because it is a because it will impact community and guess who hears about it right the people on his page so you just want to make sure you had all the information and really just get your get your comments to see is this something we want to do because it's a new practice again uh the community will you know will we will get
140emails we will get emails from some of other community possibly but I think once people get used to it to the point being made it's in one of my districts I actually used to be in charge of this I used to be in charge of uh a flyer distribution believe it or not and it did take a little bit of time because of the fact that I was an area director like uh like we have area directors right now or we've had in the past and believe or not an assistant superintendent spend two hours a month working on Flyers uh was a not my uh my time well spent I guess right in terms of but it needed to be done because I needed vented so this is gives an opportunity for us to be
141able to do this and see if it works and come back to the board and and in a reasonable time frame say hey this is uh what we heard and actually talk to our partners to see what the pros and cons were as we move forward but this is our recommendation and i' like to really get the board behind this and why we wanted to be in front of you today I just think it's a great and I look forward to hearing a year from now how it went I just um yeah I I mean I'm I'm interested in in saving us um some effort that I think is is not well spent but I do want to acknowledge that this is going to change things for some of our smaller organizations and um hopefully
142they will be able to uh figure out another way um thanks I'd like to uh um mention that I would like to um um this seems like a um something that we have a lot of enthusiasm for with these current questions that we're bringing up with our current Community Partners so I would love to see um some evaluation on how we're moving forward with this and I am um I am pleased as I do a little research to see that peach jar has partnered with the census to get the importance of the census out there um and participation with schools so so for me um that that does make me tend to look favorably also upon um you know testing out Peach jar so I look forward to regular updates and perhaps we can talk
143about um addressing some of the concerns that we've raised tonight thank you board thank you thank you for the excellent presentation and for the work that you did um next we have a a report on black lives matter with uh Dr varara and Courtney Wooten Carissa Richards and Rita Johnston from our community thank you good evening um again president kilor board members and superintendent Bas uh let me again introduce uh to you Rita Johnston Karissa Richards and Corney wooden um uh Rita karisa and Corney were hired back in February by Dr Armstrong and the department of equity to lead the project that will help continue black lives mod work in the edmon school district so tonight uh they're here to share a report um and their findings and at the end of the report we
144will have some time for questions thank you for joining us tonight thank you Dr bargara for the introduction I think um Rita has a screen share for us to kind of get us started um so to start with to kind of put Us in in the right context and think about where we are um just this week the diversity commission um released a report that talked about how um there have been racist instances in that are Uprising in our community that they're seeing more of than ever before um right across the line from from sish County over in King County and Shoreline there was a an arsonist attack on a black business just two weeks ago um we've had I can't breathe artwork that was defaced in our community over the summer and so we
145wanted to start this report by um going back to just the kind of the big question right why do we say black lives matter and we have as the the three black women who are leading this um this report we have heard all lives matter in response to Black lives matter from other parents in the district we've heard it from teachers from principles and even from District staff members as well so we felt like it was really important to be clear that we say black lives matter not because we believe black lives exclusively matter but because supporting black lives and supporting the black lives matter movement is something that is impactful for all of our students whether they are black or brown or white antiblackness is a really pervasive issue in the United States you've
146probably can think about um protest signs that you've seen over this Summer that has been a summer of racial Uprising that talk about how uh racism is so embedded in the United States culture that when you protest racism people think you're protesting the United States itself we think that for the Edmund School District when we target anti-blackness we are able to really root out racism at its core anti-blackness is is essential to starting to unravel and detangle some of these systems of Oppression that affect all of us and affect all of our students much of what the ASD has done this year has been in response to the covid pandemic because that has been so pressing and so urgent we also want you to think about racism as just as urgent and just as pressing
147the wave of mental health issues that our black and brown students are dealing with and our White students as well is is huge and if we aren't addressing it we're waiting for it to get worse so we are encouraging you to think about black lives matter as something that is integral to every aspect of our school as well and we also wanted to thank um Dr balderas for the email that he put out I think earlier this week that reaffirmed how important this this work is we know that the racist backlash that we are receiving in this community is not unique to this community um but that this is what we can affect right we can we can stand together and stand up for all of our students so I'll turn it over to I
148think Rita next to talk about the history of this project absolutely as Dr Verger said we were initially hired by Dr Armstrong in support of the black lives matter res resolution that you the board approved and passed in February um of believe it was last year and um our project was really to to look at our majority minority District where black students and families are still a hyper minority and focus on how we can prioritize how we can support and how we can provide Clarity for supporting black students within the district and as Courtney says when we support our black students it also supports the brown and Indigenous community and also provides support for our White Community this is very it's not just about black lives it affects all of our students and all of
149our families so our Focus was um supporting our black students and to talk about some of the things that we did um I want to highlight that we did have to make a lot of changes and adjustments because of covid so our initial plans our initial project scope was uh very specific and and so we had to we had to make a change uh first we created some virtual spaces and whenever we were creating these spaces we did sort of two kinds of caucusing at all times meaning we would have student spaces as well as parent spaces we would have spaces for our black and brown students as well as spaces for our white students we would have healing circles peacemaking circles we were teaching organizing meetings we had a juneth um we supported the
150BSU juneth March there were about 500 community members that came out for that hosted in uh June vigil and Open Mic about 300 community members came out for that a community survey went out on what could that look like and what would it take to feel free in education we had 58 responses we took all of our uh qualitative and quantitative uh results responses and we gave that to you the board in a 37 page report highlighting some of the the things that are going on in our district not just for our black students but these are going on for all of our students and I also want to highlight that the three of us have this really unique position within the District of one we are parents of color and so we are able
151to get into and create spaces that as a district you just aren't able to do and we also repres present the entire K through 12 experience and I also want to highlight that a lot of this work is already being done within the district and so we're asking for the board to support this work and to continue to support this work so each the equity Alliance for achievement is working on adding the black lives matter year of purpose and adding action for all of our buildings including this online virtual learning um activities for our students working on building level support it's already happening a lot of the parents are doing the work so again we are really asking the district's support and backing on continuing this work and really uh understanding the impact that it
152has through covid through all of the struggles that our students are having this is impacting them as well so I'm going to turn this over to Carissa yeah so what should ESD do so you can see on the right side of the screen um is The List of Demands that's from The District's Collective BSU the students created this list themselves um and these are the things that they really think would be the most impactful and important to them and also to other students um in our district so they shared this list with the board before so hopefully this looks a little bit more familiar to you um and on the left side we kind of pulled out some of the more actionable items and ways that we can begin to meet the demands of the
153students and so um listening to our students that's at the top of the list the ESD has said that that you agree right that listening to the students is important to you um and you showed that by um signing the resolution um and also in by looking into expanding the ethnic studies curriculum within the um within all of the grades and not just the older grades um and that's what they specifically asked for was to happen was to expand that through G grades K through 12 and not just keep that in the upper grades like it was currently or previously um safety without police officers that's a was a very important um thing that was on List of Demands and also you continued to listen to our students and communities of color um and the
154importance of that they the students spoke several times about their safety being a priority um and the SRO were removed from schools the mandatory anti-racist trainings for everyone is also something that the students recognize the students recognize that the adults need that right they see that um that this is something that we're lacking and that the board and the cabinet members all the way down to teachers and classified staff that that's something that would be important for everyone to undergo that training um and we understand that as a district we really need to have a baseline but we want more for our students than and our district than just a baseline so we want to provide opportunities for people in our district to scaffold up that learning and to increase their knowledge and understanding um
155we want to move past that Baseline and into the anti-racist actions that can really make a difference in the lives of all of our students and staff um and black representation it is now more so than ever so important for our black students to see themselves reflected in their schools and in the district leadership I can we can think of about maybe two black people who um work at the district level at the district office and out of the three schools that my children have attended there's probably less than five black staff among all three schools um matter of fact I was just having conversation with one of my sons today about how he's never had a teacher of color the hate speech policy um it could be created and enforced our students are being
156subjected to hate speech sometimes on a daily basis and there's no baseline or guidance from the district about how to handle it how to report it how to stop it um and that is something that our students are encountering daily and I'm sure that some of you have most of you probably have heard about um the issues that kids have had in Zoom rooms with people dropping in and um saying things or in the chat or um out loud and that's a problem um and the last one is the black student Advocates and black the our black students are asking for advocates for themselves um in the form of adults but they're also asking to be their own Advocates they have asked repeatedly to be included in the decision-making processes especially when those decisions are
157about things that really affect them um directly and the black students want to be a part of the solution and contribute towards um creating some change some lasting change in our district and we are really asking to align with the black lives matter at school National efforts with the year of purpose um that program has been expanded this year and we are really looking to um by aligning with them we are looking to provide a little bit more of that community and safety net for our black and brown students um we realize that we are in the hyper minority here and so by aligning with the national effort that would give us a sense of broader Community um and then it would also Foster that Community between not just the black students but and the
158white students but also all of the other students of color um and that would provide a platform for all of our students of color to continue to support each other pass it back to Courtney I believe yeah thank you um so there's in some ways this has been really beautiful timing for us to give this report right we're in the middle of our Hispanic Heritage Month and we know that our Latina students are um you know not being served well by the district all the time we are one day after indigenous people's day and we know that our indigenous students are not always served well by the district um and by schooling systems in general and we are also the day before um the the day that um our black lives matter a year of
159purpose has held up as George Floyd's Justice for George Floyd day um so his birthday would be tomorrow and so this is um this is really excellent timing to come before the board and to be able to say we would like for you to officially um partner with us on putting a year of purpose together for the Edmund School District so that all of our students understand that black lives do matter and that because black lives matter all of our Lives can matter um we are thinking about things that we can do together and the year of purpose is probably the easiest one there is a calendar that is laid out for us already with um different events that there that is suggested they have different activities that are easy for our teachers to pick
160up and continue working on R and Carissa and I are also developing um our own kind of curriculum that we're using with our families and sharing with other Equity teens and other parents throughout the district um we also Rita and I have done the BLM 365 training and uh I've led the speak up training at um our Edmund's Heights campus as well so there's there are there are things that we're doing already um but that we want to to bring to the district and say you know how can we partner on on a level that works for our our community um we also really want to encourage the board to reach Beyond just the students that you have who are bringing their voices to you and are sitting with you to the students who are
161finding that school isn't working as well for them right the students who aren't volunteering to come to boards meetings still have stories that are really impactful and need to be centered as we're starting to make different choices as a district um up on the right hand side we talk about building trust and bridges particularly between the black brown and indigenous people of color and the Edmund School District I think that this is up at the top of of our list for a really important reason right now right we have we have even in the community comments that were read today we have a lack of trust that's happening because we haven't always been able to follow through in a really consistent way right we still see the harm that's happening and so if we can
162strengthen those connections if we can build those bridges and start to build trust we think that there is more likely to be success for all of our students I also want to Circle back one last time to the idea of mental health care I think that the school district's focus on social emotional learning has been really good we know that the pandemic has affected all of our students I think the the part that's missing is still how are we addressing racism and racial equity in social emotional learning right the way that our students are are impacted by the pandemic and the racial Uprising is different and if we're not addressing it then we're not going to be able to heal that um so I think we can we can open for questions um the work
163that we did last year was really um fun to do and it was really great for our community to be able to come together I'm really excited about the students that we were able to reach out to and some of the um some of the goals that they had that didn't even make it into this little Abridged report but are in that full report for you um but yeah that we're happy to to talk about what's going on this year too right and lastly I also just really wanted to stress that we already know preco some of the discrepancies there's so many reports and there's so much data out there I'm a I'm a data nerd too we already know that our black and brown students are falling behind in some areas we already see
164the discrepancies in discipline we already see the discrepancies in success and now it's even more imperative with this virtual and hybrid learning space that we bridge this Gap thank you thank you are there questions for the panel um this is Nancy I have a comment first of all I want to thank you um I've been regularly ATT attending the each meetings which I know you guys are also a part of and I really appreciate all the work that you've been doing um I also appreciate that really comprehensive report that you gave to the board that was you know amazing to get all of that information I know how much work goes into something like that um and I while everything you're you're doing is important there's one particular thing you said that really concerned me
165you said that there is hate speech going on every day and it the implication is that the district doesn't have a policy or a some systematic way to address that that's unacceptable um so while a lot of the things you're talking about which are very important long-term and relationship building and and building understanding among people and it's all important that piece upsets me because it's every day their kids who are hearing that that's anyway so this isn't really so much for you guys as for the District staff to think about um you know and maybe their answers that they're supposed to be that there are systemic policies in place but they're not being implemented everywhere or the fact that it's remote now brings up a whole new sort of level of we don't quite know
166how to handle it practice but I just I just want to elevate that particular concern as something that's really unacceptable and needs to be in my mind addressed in a in in a short-term way uh that that that can't be going on every day we can't be teaching social emotional learning and have that kind of thing going on unaddressed and unanswered and and we do have policies every District does have anti-harassment policies that are in place civil rights policies that have been placed for for decades and I like to know more information regarding what specific school what specific classroom so that we can address that because again we have no tolerance for that either director cadum and uh if I know about it we will address it I again uh we need to know about
167it and really address it at the building level contact the building principal we do have strong policies in place every District does and we will have no tolerance for that here either well I would be happy um Dr balderas to follow up with you about that I know that have had reports of particularly the nword being used um both preco and also in the work that we've done with our community this year already so there is I think Nancy as you were saying like there is a difference in how hate speech is coming across in Zoom classes and I know that there's been some work done around like Zoom bombings um but from our students perspective and this is what they were said what they have told us is that the n-word in particular is
168not handled well in classrooms or in the buildings so I'm happy to follow up with with both of you about that as well yeah issue so would appreciate a followup with me and Dr Viera and Dr Young yes thank you any other questions yeah hi this is Karen I want to thank you all for the the presentation and I really would like um a copy of the slides if possible um because you've got some really valuable information and I appreciate um continuing this work even with the challenges of covid and and all those implications that go on with that um I there was one of the slides I had a question about one of the slides that's why I I don't quite remember what was on it um but in talking about how we continue
169this this work as we know that that this is a Continuum and so I'm interested in pursuing a continuation of of how is a district we can always do better and I'm also really interested in um um any comments that our student advisers may have because one of the things that we always strive to do is to hear from our students and I'm just wondering if any of our students had any any thoughts they'd like to share you don't have to I know this is your first Zoom meeting but I want to make sure you had that opportunity um to give us any input either now or at the end of the meeting and you'd have to just like raise your hand or something like that so we'd know that you want to speak there
170you go Deborah there's a couple uh B uh I think you can just unmute yourself uh firstly I just wanted to say I really appreciate this presentation especially in light of uh all the things that been have been going on since uh beginning of Spring at least um like nationally up until now um and definitely I uh specifically wanted to pinpoint that point you made regarding um the anti-racism um learning through um starting at a younger age rather than just in like the secondary education because I think um growing up in this District especially um I didn't really know a lot of these things until I grew up I was kind of just I felt like in my own little bubble and if like things were said to me didn't really um like um ially
171registered them as what it was and um unfortunately some younger students do have to I guess grow up quicker than those who don't experience um these things and having that um sort of uh earlier education can really show to all students what is um I guess um how you speak to someone and how what shouldn't be said to uh other people because um like at home kids might not always be getting that as to um like what is racism and how to um I guess prevent that as like your own student um and how you uh talk to other students so I really appreciate that and I hope the district um acts on that yeah uh selia hi um regarding the black lives matter thing and about um how there are instances of racism there
172are in from my perspective as a student but it's mostly outside of school and it's not really within the school's jurisdiction but I do know that Mo for most of the time the school board tries to uh influence other kids to um really push like the diversity of like our community and to accept everyone for who they are but in regards to like racial slurs being said and such there are instances um but they're not addressed really or they just we just move past it like within classroom terms of the teachers being like oh we're going to ignore that like pretend this doesn't happen so I think that teachers should at least I mean have like a full lesson or something about like we have to talk about this instant and why it's wrong and
173why it's not socially acceptable so that's just what I wanted to say Gary yeah um one one of the issues that has been brought brought up by your group and also the board and the district has really wrestled with for a very long time is lack of representation of persons of color in our staff particularly our teaching staff um I know for a fact that the graduates of teaching college in our area the percentage of of um persons of color is far smaller than the percentage of persons of color in our community and so the pool of persons of color that get teaching certificates is very limited um and I suspect at least I've heard that and I don't have data on that that this is also the case for many other District jobs that
174that uh are open so what I'm asking your group is do you have any suggestions on how to address and and just have more people available of color that apply for jobs and what can our district do to improve this and what can your group do also to try to improve this and encourage more applicants of color to apply for district jobs that is a great question Gary um one of the things that I would love to continue this conversation offline one of the things that has come up and that we would like to work with you on uh that that is a possible bottleneck in the hiring process is when the Edmonds District actually opens up the openings um and from my understanding it's it's later than other districts so a part of that
175is those teachers of color have already been hired elsewhere and then as far as what can we do uh a part of our training we feel it's really important when it comes to anti-racism training is you have to have your own personal why so a part of the training that we offer and that we do is really supporting and solidifying what that why is and also our community connections Courtney did you have something to add oh always this is one of my favorite topics right let's talk about how we get more people of color into our district um and I think uh to Echo what Rita said like yes this is a conversation that we could spend a long time on so I I'll happily um look forward to continuing it offline and I think
176there's a couple of different things right the first is if we are failing people of color in our Educational Systems then why would they want to to become teachers right so some of this is very long game right how are we making teaching feel like a viable option how do I make it so that you know our students are looking at their principles and thinking that's the person I want to be when I grow up so that's one one answer um I think Rita has has talked a little bit about the bottleneck we have with hiring I think we also need to talk about teacher retention what does it look like to really support our teachers what does it look like to have admin that really supports our teachers and supports anti-racist work as well
177and then one of the things that one of my mentors told me is also whoever is in the door and who's in the meeting is who you're working with so even if we don't have teachers of color right at this moment that fully reflect our district and our demographics how do we have anti-racist work happening on all levels no matter the color of the skin of the teacher um so I think there's a couple of different ways that we can can think about that I also think it's interesting one of my mentors who's younger than I am was like you know Beyonce can get 28 black trumpet players to show up like that but we're acting like we can't find people of color anywhere now granted she has a lot more money behind her than
178our school district does behind us but part of it is is putting in the effort and putting in the intention too so if this is our priority what do we need to restructure so that it really is our priority Chris I don't know if you want to add to that too yeah well I was just gonna piggyback kind of on that as well as far as what are we doing about intentionally going out and recruiting or looking for those candidates that would be a good fit not just for our teaching positions but for any positions within the district right we can't just advertise that we have openings and expect all of these amazingly qualified people of color to come and apply for those jobs so I think that um any organization or school or anything
179that has that is intentionally looking to hire people of color you we have to look at address and change some of our hiring policies and how are we going about and seeking out those people versus just waiting for them to walk into our front door and say oh look what we did we hired some people of color so um I think it's really important that we look at that entire process and really be aggressive about finding those good candidates and getting them here yeah and also may I uh director Noble um in in my in my role as a new director of uh equity for for the district my uh the last three months uh three and a half months uh number one step number one for me has been to learn about the past
180in our our district and how uh right really look at the practices um but then the next step is to really um again uh look at the past practices take the the good practices and really take the district to the next level so all these points are well taken today thank you again Corney karisa um uh for uh uh for the presentation and Rika for for the presentation today um I'm looking forward to share with the board soon um the goals the goals for for the for the equity department and the goals around Equity pra uh Equitable practices for for our district um I share a preview this morning with Dr Valderas and really when we think about retention and and recruitment of uh a staff of color when we think about ethnic studies when
181we think about uh the black black lives matter uh uh resolution it's all the um all my goals all the goals of the equity department and our Equity work will be based and and again many listening sessions and many reports that I have read and uh again I will be happy to share with the district uh with the board um soon really soon uh in a draft mode uh also for uh two things for you to know what uh we have worked on for the last three or four months and also to get you our input in terms of priorities for our district but uh again I can tell you a couple things that I want to I want to I want to share with you today before uh we move on in terms of
182ethnical studies I had a meeting with Jeff Stone one of our uh teachers that is is in charge of ethnical studies for the district and I was really impressed with the work I've been this is my sixth district and really impressed about where um the work is around ethnic studies he shared with me that right now we have more than a thousand students taking the class uh K12 um and and and we have right now A group of teachers that there are Educators looking to move ethnic studies from Standalone social studies courses in the secondary to the entire ESD system so again I just want to share with you uh that sometimes it it could it may um feel that is we're moving slowly but I can tell you again being in in several districts
183I was really impressed with the work around ethnic studies classes also with the Recruitment and rotation of uh of a staff members that is that is my passion also that I know is Dr Valderas I know Dr Bas was was able to uh really change uh his previous District in terms of uh opportunities for administrators and and staff of course and we're looking forward to do that we're really looking forward to do that to listen the community community members uh and different stakeholders to really understand how we can do this work together right so again I'm looking forward to share with the board more specific goals in the next few weeks here and thank you again for for the presentation tonight so one thing I agre I really want to thank the presenters tonight but
184I think you have in front of you board and Community three senior leaders that are of color probably the first time in Edmond's history you have three senior leaders on your screen right now that are leaders of color in this District I don't think that's happened before you have a superintendent you I am probably the first uh leader of color you've had in this system I'm assuming I haven't done the research but I usually am the one right which is to the point being made by the by the presenters you know we shouldn't have to it's 2020 we're still saying you're the one right we had Dr Young and Dr Viera we have a lot of work to do I think I think the board knows in my previous work of having 40% of my
185principles in my last District about similar size be leaders of color it takes a lot of work it takes Community work it takes Community work Community involvement and Community will I think we can do the work we're going to do it together so I look forward to working with our partners that presented tonight in terms of the work in the future because I think we have a we have a heavy LIF but I know we could do it together so again I want to thank everybody for their comments and Dr V for yours thank you so much yeah thank you so much for this presentation I'm not muted this time um I um I mean I want to remind everyone that this is a significant um this is a priority for the board maybe our
186first one and that's why we hired Dr balderas um for his work uh in equity his Equity work and his track record um and so this remains I I believe I speak for all of us this remains our first priority to um continue to um improve and make progress in these areas um I don't want us I we don't have to have this conversation tonight um but I am still concerned about our why what it means uh maybe it's our what I I'm not sure what the question what do we mean by a safe school for all our kids I think um we did uh make one step it was a small step frankly and what what comes next and and I think some of the other items that were on your on your list
187um those are much more concrete or things that we sort of uh on the board we on the board kind of understand but I I think we're still um a I think it's a little ephemeral you know the the the notion of what a what it means to have a safe school for all our kids and I hope uh that our District staff will continue to lead us in that direction as well but thank you very much this was excellent work and I was uh privileged to be inv you know to attend some of those activities or you know last year and or or see them online and they were all uh excellent so thank you and I I look forward to working with you all in the future as well thank you for having
188us okay on to new business oh if there's nothing else I'm I'm switching screens um uh our first item is a single reading to approve the 2020 to 2021 highly capable program plan is there a motion very I move to approve the IAP plan Sor I second seconded it's been moved and seconded to approve the plan um do we have someone here to talk to us about this year's plan yeah Kim Hunter if I could thank you good evening everyone um so I just wanted to double check that you got the revised plan this afternoon um before we're going to talk about that today so I I typically don't send it out I have the the staff members be able to do that at the public board mean so can you explain the revision yes
189absolutely um so we have been working really hard to figure out how we're going to do our testing and identification process this year with our current situation with covid um we're very confident that we can do the main identification process through the co at testing and that that is made possible essentially because the testing program itself has done a lot of work to make sure they have remote proctoring options and so even if we're still not back in classrooms or able to bring large groups of students together we will be able to give that in a remote way that is still um proctored and given in a a sec format so that we can use that data in a reliable way um the issue that we've run into is that our our second grade Universal
190screening tool has not met those same um that same level of work to provide a way for us to proor remotely um the the technical side of that is that the system is in what's called a lock down or a kiosk browser that students can only access when they're logged out of their Chromebooks and so we have no way to provide any form of coptering in a remote format um students would have to go through the clicks log themselves in and take the test completely independently unless we expected families to provide a separate second device for the Proctor communication screen and we really don't feel like that can be done in an equitable way um we've we've worked really hard with the company to try to figure out some different solutions for this but this
191is just where We've Ended up um in terms of of timeline it's been also very um pressing to have this resolved as soon as possible because we um we really need to get the enrollment numbers to Business Services no later than the end of February and when we work our process backwards that means that that Universal screener would need to be done by winter break at the and that's pushing our timeline pretty hard to communicate to families and invite students to do that full testing um and with our current situation of kind of not knowing if we're going back in hybrid or not we feel that the best option available to us is to postpone the screener for this year and give it to both second and third grade next year so that this group
192of students won't be left out of the process um it'll just postpone it for a year and to refocus our efforts on really that Community engagement with letting families know about this opportunity to do the full testing still to get into the program this year um and our our Outreach to teachers to help support them in referring students to the program that they see that that potential and that promise in um the alternative idea that we came up with but granted um we kind of came to this conclusion yesterday so I haven't had a lot of time to put it all together um um but we were considering if we could use the I ready data to still send some personal invites out to students that are showing that exemplary performance in order to invite
193them to the full testing this year so that those SE that second grade group wouldn't um wouldn't miss out on an opportunity this year so those are the the big changes that uh I revised just this afternoon so it's all been on a very tight timeline uh something can you talk to us about what the screening is it's it's different now isn't it right so we use the um the Nary nonverbal abilities test as our screening Tool uh we made that decision to switch to that last year because of the nature of a non-verbal test being much more accessible to students especially some of the um the groups that we specifically know are underrepresented in our current highly capable population when students score in the 87th percentile in the National percentile ranking or higher we
194then invite them to do the full poat testing for the full identification process to the highly capable program so we use this as a tool to say to recognize and and find those students that are showing um exceptional advancement and invite them to consider the program and it's a way to help us get the word out better as well um because we know that it has been a struggle because not everyone even knows about the program itself so it's also been a way for us to communicate with families at that second grade level hey we're giving this test because we want to see if your student might be a good candidate for this program so um I know it's just one year did you get uh any uh Improvement and sort of proportionality on that
195we did see um in the group of students that we invited we saw an increase in the Hispanic students that we were inviting um and and just a tiny bump in the El students that we are inviting to test unfortunately that didn't translate through into acceptance rates and so I think the bigger question is taking a a wider look at our our full acceptance process to identify ways that we can also make adjustments there in our current year um I'm not proposing that we make those changes yet because I think there have been enough differences and changes in our system and I really want to base that in any changes we do make in our core beliefs about the highly capable program about what highly capable means and what services we're offering and we were
196um the highly capable advisory committee has been starting that work but we're also waiting for a new superintendent to help guide us in that work so that we could make sure our work would align with the district strategic Direction and pieces like that so uh sorry one more question if if I I don't see necessarily a problem um uh holding off a year I I don't know maybe there well actually what is the problem if a second grader does that mean we wouldn't test second graders this year which means they would not enter the program in third grade but they enter and forth they can still test and enter we just won't do that personal invite based on the screening data and so it would delay for a year potentially highlighting some of those students
197that might be good candidates for the program and so yes the overall impact would be that they would be considered for entry during fourth grade instead of third grade I guess I don't get that then so we've screened everybody and identified some subset that might be capable and we just don't ask them well we wouldn't be doing the screening this year okay so so it would be so students I'm trying to understand so students would not be screen this year second graders right and and so but next year they they could be but so the only difference is that they wouldn't enter the program I don't know when they enter is it in third grade or right away or it's for the following school year but we will still be running our full identification process
198and so anyone can still opt into that we just won't be particularly inviting them to that opt in but we won't have the universal screening to do the personal invite well that seems like that would really widen the Gap you know we felt that uh being a a remote for the most part I think we're going to be remote for a while and asking teachers to do one more thing in a remote setting was it beneficial for teachers nor kids so that's why I decided to make the recommendation to staff yesterday and that's almost Equitable thing that I can come up with to ensure that we have Equity next year when we are able to do the testing in the manner that it was really intended to be done and in the current model if
199you think about it you know if students are taking the test at home and very uh individually without the supports from a proctor or the system the experience that they're going to have while taking the test is going to be so drastically different depending on their circumstances that we're very concerned about that Equitable access to the test and the equity of how it's delivered oh I totally get that I agree with that I guess what I'm still trying to understand who is it you're personally who is still opting into the program then any second grader in the entire District can opt into the program and that's why we'll be focusing on that Outreach to make sure families know that it's an option to them um this would just eliminate that personal invite to say because
200of your results on the screener we think you should opt into the full testing okay sorry you all speak up now so hi Kim how are you I know how hard this work is um one thing that you mentioned that I have a question about that I would help me to understand as you mentioned maybe using the I ready uh assessment data but that would just be math so that would sort of skew finding kids who are they you know you know they're they're kids who are strong across the board than their kids who are really math strong and their kids who are really English language arts strong um so I'm wondering do you have something comparable that you're thinking of using so you don't end up with you know being able to give invitations
201to the the math strength kids but not being able to find the humanity strength kids um at from the second graders we do have some IR data in that same respect because we have I believe a little over 60% of our students that have taken at the second grade level that have taken the I ready reading uh diagnostic as well so we could look there we could also look at things like um for students that we have alha 21 data for because when we look at that we're looking for students that have shown significant progress in their language acquisition um so we could also look for students that stand out in those groups in order to invite them for the full testing um we also have and someone correct me if I'm wrong sort of
202the leveled letter reading scale um that teachers administer with students so we could look for students that stand out in that way as well um I just in the timeline I haven't had a chance to say yes that's how we're going to do it but we could do that personal invite still based on a variety of different data um it what worries me it goes back to Deborah's comment about you know going back to widening the gap one thing I remember in the data in the olden days is that there were some school and this is before there was a screener and I think having a universal screener is fabulous particularly a non-verbal one perfect but in the days before that existed there were some schools and they sometimes tended to be the high poverty
203schools were not encouraging their kids or giving the information I mean we just saw much much lower numbers of kids kids from those schools who were being uh opting in to taking the testing and My worry is that with something like the IR assessment uh we don't know to what extent parents have helped kids you know doing it at home we also don't know um the extent to which there are some schools or teachers who are more likely to have had their kids take it and others that aren't so if they didn't take it anyway it just it makes me the whole thing makes me nervous I I do understand the problem um and I I don't think you know I I I guess one option would be to say just second graders aren't aren't
204going to be tested this year I mean that's another option um and which doesn't really upset me because I don't actually think any standardized test scores are particularly valid before third grade based on lots and lots of research but I know that the state you know requires us to do identify kids for highly gifted programs early so um anyway I just think all of those things need to be taken into account um and it's difficult and it may just be one year of going back to old old days where it's you know the halves get more and the Have Nots don't which is horrible but um doing the screener the next year for third graders to make sure the kids who were missed could be found is a really important piece in the whole system
205so I absolutely agree and it is still true that we have some schools that um that really very few students opt in from what we've been trying to do to address that uh last year we started doing a a universal postcard um to families so that they knew about the opportunity and and it has a few little characteristics of what a highly capable learner looks like and then the information about when the parent or the family information night's going to happen and that goes out in English and Spanish um as a postcard to I want to say all of our K we might have not started in first grade but K7 students in the entire District so that we're getting um that information that the program exists out there in a broader sense with our
206new partnership with our Spanish radio station I'm also very interested in making sure that we get um a piece there put out there we communicate it through ews as well um and then it's all posted on the district website and then we're also doing these efforts to make sure teachers know what characteristics to be looking for and are referring students especially during their conferences in um early November so we have really tried to up our our community outreach and our our referral Outreach programs it was all good strategies thank you thanks oh any other questions well thank you for your work in your presentation um are are you looking for a direction from us um so the the the grant for the state has to be approved by the school board in order for us
207to then um receive our funding and so that is important item and so um sorry I was unclear do I send that out to them Gustavo I I mean yes version yeah so okay so what I can do is again we got this late this afternoon and then don't didn't it's not my practice to send something to the board the day of the board meeting so what we can do is have this on the agenda at the next meeting for approval if possible so it's we have a board meeting coming up in two weeks and and I can also send it to the board in a Friday memo with a brief explanation that's not too late that's fine with that I mean that's fine with me thank you the state's already approved our our extension
208of the timeline to submit the board approval so we should be okay on that file and so in in the new one is I think you gave us sort of two options you were considering what or are you set with not doing the universal screen this year for second graders having not heard any major objections this evening I think we're prepared to move forward with that decision and we did um just in case the question comes up um reach out to our highly capable advisory committee for input on that decision as well uh which includes our our administrators of the highly capable programs um the challenged parents Association board and um some different teacher members and they all felt that that was an appropriate move for us to make you know it's just one more
209example of the negative consequences that we're dealing with because we're unable to provide education in the way that works best for kids and community and I'm disheartened but I'm also realistic about the these negative consequences of trying to deal with this pandemic and I am so sorry to have to put things off for a year but it's just one more thing in the midst of a list of negative ramifications and if there's anything that we can gain from it anything we can learn from it that can maybe Edge it a little bit more into a more positive category but I'm just um I'm just sorry that that we're we're at this point and having to have the have our kids uh deal with um postponement we'll do everything we can to increase that Outreach so
210that we're we're limiting the impact as much as possible for our students well thank you thank you for your work and we will um vote on that next time um next we have a first reading no action uh resolution 20-29 the 2021 Capital Levy election to be held April 27th 2021 um is there any discussion we normally yeah and so just for the record uh we are going out for a levy or we hope to um to finish up Spruce and make sure that we can maintain our buildings um and I think also an additional Elementary School is that right Lydia um yeah and so we'll vote on that next time that would gain us roughly $30 million over six years has been presented to the board and with the opportunity for the district to
211be able to stop that Levy and actually go out for a bond a capital Bond at the during during that timeline okay all right we get back to our agenda I tell you Dr balderas you have really pushed us tonight this has been chalk full um next we have our board member comments um director cadams oh actually no I wanted to I I apologize I wanted to ask our students um and I'll just kind of go around my screen Isabella would you like to make any comments um I guess i' just like to say that was um very informational and I learned a lot that did not know I was a part of um high when I was little and I know that so learned that thank you uh oh who do I have uh
212BNA um in addition to what I've already said I just wanted to say regarding the uh reopening plan that I think um based off of the public comments that were read I think um having like you all reiterated um better communication between um I guess the updated plans I understand that um they're being uh updated each and every day or each and every week so they won't be as accurate but I guess getting as much information as we can even if it's tentative out to um our community would definitely help with um I guess more of a a like understanding of what the plan is so yeah thank you leely you have any comments you'd like to make um I just wanted to say thank you for putting this together um but other than that
213no okay thank you uh selia are you still on with us would you like to make any comments um I wanted to say thank you to all the presenters I learned a lot of um skills that you guys presented from the table too as far as communicating and expressing ideas I will take notes of those um with the reopening of school with Corona um my friends I I'm just putting this out but uh I have friends in Canada and they are doing hybrid right now and I asked him like how is it going and they said that um cases are rising and whatnot and now the Canadian system I think they're asking them to go back to online so I'm not sure if that would like and also the public comments also really affected like
214what I think about hybrid and stuff so yeah I think it was very informative thank you and Matika um yeah so uh first of all thank you to all the presenters this has been a very informational and jam-pack agenda um I think uh first of all regarding the black lives matter presid ation um you know I think it's it's definitely a work in progress and it always will be but um I appreciate the thought that went into that that presentation and and all of the conversations that have happened we um at metl Terrace had a zoom bomb incident where it was pretty bad um one of the worst that we've seen with the n-word being used and I think you know as much as we're doing our best to promote an anti-racist um community there
215is definitely a lot of work to be done involving both staff and students that's that's definitely um a conversation on the table that needs to involve everyone and then regarding the reopening plans um one thing that I know is very um prevalent among the students right now is that so somebody mentioned this earlier that you know the what works for one student isn't going to work for another and there are some people that are just struggling Ling with the like Zoom you doing things over Zoom so that's definitely one you know and the60 students that we're bringing back um those are kids that really need it and having the option to um do it versus go in person versus not in person is entirely up to the parents and the students but the fact that
216the district is trying to provide that is definitely appreciated and um if we are and I know that we're going to be in this remote learning model for a while while and I know one of the things that has been a concern is internet um Zoom just is known to take up that much more internet and I know that students out there are struggling to um be able to connect always you know we have issues like the power outages but we also have internet issues throughout the district and most of the time the kids that are under free and reduced launch they are accounted for a lot better than those who are not but those kids that are not accounted for are on the margin of needing that help so I I just want to
217make sure that that um is presented thank you rtika I believe that's all the students who made it through to the end um director cadams would you like to make some comments first of all I'm so excited to have the new student advisors on um student voices are great and and you guys seem like uh I was going to give you advice about don't be shy about speaking up and say your mind and you seem like you already get that and I'm just thrilled that you're going to be on um I do hope we recruit a few more while I absolutely agree with RBG who said that um every room that has decisions made needs to be filled with women um I would like to see and hope that there are at least one or
218two boys who also joined the student advisor group um and that we get a couple of other students from the other schools that aren't yet represented so just a little recruitment message there um for that but thank you so much for joining the board as student advisors and being willing to give us your time because I know you're busy you have um not as busy as if you had all the extracurricular activities that you'd like to have but you have homework and having your voice is extremely important so thank you so much um tonight we had so many important topics um Dr balar you really did uh challenge us tonight with a lot of things but I appreciated all the comments from the public on reopening um Dr Jung I appreciated your report on the
219child care um I think that um we just need to think very carefully and make sure that we try to communicate as clearly as possible with our community but the community needs to give us some Grace as well because man you know life is this is the first for everybody on all of this and it keeps changing um and everybody cares about your kid um uh I thought the peach jar um presentation was interesting because it represents a strategy of the district getting more cost effective and I think that everything we come up with it to be more coste effective is important so I appreciate Harmony's work there and um most of all I really appreciated the three leaders of color who talked about the black lives matter I think there's so much work to
220be done here but just getting the issues out there and addressed and acknowledged is critical for getting the work done so um that whole group is key um and we really appreciate your being here to help with that work so onward and upward everybody thank you director McMurray well I I think um I I absolutely Echo Nancy's comments all the way down the line to me the word that typifies what I got out of our meeting tonight was perseverance and that's not because it's a rather late meeting but because it it shows me the perseverance of people um of Staff community members um students that are sticking with this process even though whether it's dealing with covid whether it's dealing with black lives matter and dealing with racism in in in our system it requires
221perseverance for people to be able to stick with it to continue to um to communicate uh needs and and suggestions so that we can we can keep working toward getting something better we're in a very difficult um uh situation and I'm just so grateful that people are opting to remain in and dig in and continue to be part of the process even when people don't always agree exactly the way things are going um uh and so uh I just I just want to uh say thank you for that thank you for hanging in thank you for persevering thank you for continuing to to articulate what needs to happen how things affect you um and uh I would say that that for our student advisors that's really one of your core values to the board is
222just continue to help us understand what's happening in the district aect how it affects you and provide us with um not only what's going wrong but we also need to hear from you what you think will help make things right so just thank you all thank you uh director Chase thank you director Kilgore of course thank you board members who went before because I can shorten my comments up quite a bit um echoing definitely the appreciation of everyone and also like I really appreciate the routine of the engagement of our new student directors um I would also like to express the appreciation of the presentation and that came with uh Dr vergus and our black lives matter um the group actually I'm not sure what the Consultants are um specifically called but the three women
223that gave the presentation today um on the eve of George Floyd's birthday I think it was very timely and appropriate that we were reflecting upon um the black lives matter movement and how we are engaging it with the district and um in those um in that theme I would like to say I do think that we should be taking a look as we remain in and dig in this work as director McMurray said H to take a look at the black lives matter year of action and engagement um and see how as a district we can continue to engage with this work and along those the theme of digging in I want to point to uh bring your attention to the first black superintendent in the Edmund School District was Hal Reby in 1980 and
224so um it's important to know where we come from as we continue the movement forward and thank you very much and I look forward to continued engagement thank you uh director Noble yeah thank you um I guess first I really want to Echo congratulations student advisers that you you spoke up so much in your first meeting and a zoom meeting at best where you you have to get really kind of highlighted when you're talking so thank you so much I appreciate your comments and I think it's been a great year with student advisers um on the public comments and the opening plan I know that it's a lot of angst out there with the the hybrid schedule and what it actually means um I think it would be a good idea to have better information
225on what the hybrid schedule actually is and that it's that it really the teaching time is really no different than what they have now right now in elementary students are getting about three hours of synchronous teaching time a day for four days a week and with a hybrid schedule they will get about six hours of teaching time instead of three but only two days a week and of course in person so the actual amount of of teaching time contact time with the there'd be contact time in school well hybrid version or Zoom time five uh four days a week in the uh remote version the amount of teaching time is actually very similar so that that kind of uh thing I think uh parents need to understand that it's not a radical change that they're
226they're seeing with suddenly three days off uh the other comment I had on that is I hope that we can think out of the box a little bit on that and perhaps build in some synchronous time on the days off either with Specialists which I know are really required to integrate with the teaching schedule but with Specialists or even uh small groups with Paras on the the non the off days to to help keep students engag so uh hopefully some out of the box thinking could happen on that and perhaps make that possible I don't know if it is um thank You harmony for coming up with a with a great program that I think will actually save the district some money and I I think it's a great experiment and I hope it works
227uh on the black lives matter report it was fantastic and I really really interesting I appreciate all the comments of everybody including our our student Representatives on that and thank you so much for the very thoughtful answer to the question I asked so and I guess that's all I have great uh thank you and I will try to keep my comments brief but I have to uh warn you that I I made the or I came up with them in advance there were a couple of things I wanted the public to know um first of all um I want to commend all the members of the Edmund School District Community from what I've personally observed and what I've heard from other parents and staff this fall is indeed better than in the spring um it's
228not perfect um but I'm satisfied that we're doing things better all around teaching learning communicating and planning um as we continue working and learning together communicating with one another is key and uh for the shared purpose of helping all our kids grow as Learners and individuals I know we'll continue to get better together um I do share the concern that parents have who have noticed that our hybrid model will lead to fewer days in front of a teacher um I worry about kids ability to learn independently for such a long stretch each week so I continue to hope you know urge The District staff to think through that a little bit I don't think that concern is going away I may shut up about it but I don't think it's going away um how uh
229you know as D director Noble said maybe there are other ways that we can keep children engaged the rest of the week um or other ways we can structure the hybrid model or um other things we can think of um but um I don't think the concern's going to go away um but I want to also urge parents and other community members to assume good intentions every step of the way I know that everyone's doing the best they can and uh when the answer is not clear and other people have brought this up when the answer is not clear it may be because it hasn't completely been planned through and we're just you know the District staff are trying to give you as much information as they have and I hope it's become more clear
230tonight that as the pandemic context changes uh we have to change as well so even if we are planning to open the schools to more children if covid numbers go up that may not be something we can do right away and so please give Grace um assume good intent um because I know that there is good intent and there's really heroic work being done across the district every day on behalf of your children um and as people have mentioned you know some of our kids have just significant barriers to access remotely remote learning and um we need to serve those students um uh so so different kids are going to have different uh experiences and different needs um I also wanted to to tell everyone that I personally my kid is coming back when the
231buildings open I think you know we have been challenged the board has been challenged from time to time in public comment to say would you send your kid back would you go back my child is going back when the school district says it's safe to open those schools I believe the school district is keeping us safe and my kids going back if they'll have me I'll go back you know I'm I'm happy to volunteer in the buildings I know that the school district will not um don't take me up on that just now but I'll do a little bit of volunteering no um you know that that I I trust our District staff and so um so yes of course my my child is going to go back when it's safe to go to go
232back um and uh so you know I encourage parents and students uh to continue to communicate your observations and your experiences to the school board uh whether it's by email or public comment you know what's working what's not working what would be nice to have what do you need of course you're you're communicating to District staff at at a more you know concrete level but those uh you know higher kinds of observations um definitely communicate um I also urge you to advocate for kids um at the state level I mean when I first heard about this hybrid model back in the summer the first thing I did was get on the phone with my elected representatives because um without additional funding or without um secure funding uh it it's harder to do and so just
233uh I would urge you to call your representatives and remind them that education is the Paramount Paramount duty of the state of Washington it's in our state constitution and uh they need to make sure that uh we're we're first in funding so sorry if those those comments were long but there were things that I really felt needed to be said to our public and to our staff thank you all every everyone across the board for everything you're doing I appreciate it and now I turn it over to our superintendent Bri as well thank you for all the comments and uh I was on a a doing a presentation over the weekend and was able to be on a panel with other superintendents from across the country one of was uh uh the Chancellor from New
234York City Richard coranza which I've known I've known Richard for a lot of years almost two decades as he's moved to the ranks as well and he described the three pandemics that we currently are working through and it got me to thinking about the three pandemics and not just covid-19 which is impacting everyone at variety of levels but also the economic pandemic that we're working through right now economic pandemic that has shuttered a lot of our buildings but also the racial Justice pandemic that we're currently facing as a as a society so again app I appreciate the the presenters today because you know the the the racial Justice pandemic is heavily psychological toll on a lot of our kids and community members and I look forward to the work ahead I know Dr vergera has
235a we're going to have a presentation I think November 2nd to the board on our Equity work look forward to that but um as you stated president Kore I want to thank the staff our parents and our n especially our kids our kids as we get through this again that's uh I the kids are always my Bullseye always have been always will be that's why I do this job because we try and do what's best for kids and we'll continue to do what's best for kids as best we can and I appreciate the the patience and Grace that people have given because again this has been a heavy lift and uh I appreciate the staff that put hundreds of hours in um to get everything ready and we'll continue to do so uh recently a
236board member asked about the ability to see teaching and learning in a remote setting that was actually director noral so I like to be able to have and let me know if you're interested in doing that be able to visit a remote classroom and I just let me know and I can work with the site supervisor depending on what level you're interested in and get you in the classroom I know Dr Young's working on some of that so I know director Noble um popped the question it was a great question I what does remote look teach look like right now i' love to have the board be able to to check out a classroom or school so please let me know if you're interested couple other things um we are going to have a super
237advisory I know Dr vergera is working on that right now I think we have like 19 applications from across the system so looking forward to a superintendent advisory to help guide the work and to also maybe work on different advisories to help inform the board as well uh next Tuesday Dr Viera and uh Greg Schwab are working on a panel of parents and kids to get in front of the board to be able to see how remote learning is going so that's next Tuesday night for the board so that's something for the board to be able to to kind ask questions and people just to express themselves in terms of how it is working for them right now in a remote settings so again I really appreciate the um the meeting tonight I apologize for
238the length it went a little long I know we have one more agenda item too so I'll be I'll be done so thank you thank you director Chase take it away well thank you uh director Kilgore and welcome to this evening's lengthy in depth discussion topic I know that we're all ready to dive into a thorough discussion of our over 150 legislative positions that wasda has tonight and so let's get started shall we actually I think it's a little late to do that tonight what I really wanted to share is that wda um we did have our legislative assembly as we all know and we had the legislative priorities um for our school for our new student members wda is a Washington State School Directors Association which represents over 1,400 of the elected school board
239members um and serve where we know we serve over um over a million students and we gather and set legislative priorities of the over 150 um positions that we have for us to advocate for at the legislative session the next legislative session starts um January 11th and there is a new list of 15 priorities that um I don't have tonight to share with you um so we are going to I'm going to share that with you at the next meeting however what I really want to impart today is we can engage with our legislators this year and the requests are specific policies that we have that are impacting our district um one of our Representatives um representative lilan Ortiz self sits on the education committee um in the house and she is very interested and
240engaged um in understanding what policies are directly affecting us such as some of the graduation uh requirements that had been brought to my attention um by um uh superintendent Schwab uh not super assistant superintendent Schwab sorry Gustavo um and so we can talk about this at length um a little bit later but I would like to challenge of the board to see how we as a board would like to engage with this material um possibly have a small Committee of me and another board member um reviewing some of the material that comes Forward Thinking about different ways to engage and also for the students we' normally do a field trip to Lobby we'll see what happens this coming year um there'll be different ways for us to engage in a remote Manner and that's all
241for the discussion um I look forward to talking about this more in the future thank you director Chase and it does deserve a longer discussion and hopefully we can continue um continue in the future um I think that's it so uh everyone thank you again for your participation and thank you to everyone in the district for everything you're doing to make sure that our kids get the best education they can have and good night meeting adjourned for e