 and we've issued that guidance to all schools to make certain that they specifically understood what that is. And so know that if you have questions about what is and what isn't permissible in our schools, I strongly encourage you to reach out to Shane Oaks or one of the nurses and they can clarify with you. But we are going about this to ensure that we're meeting current guidance and safety regulations in regards to what's been coming down for recommendations from the Department of Health. And right now they haven't ruled out anything that's not permissible, other than that it should be to ply. And so that's what we're going with at this point. That leads us right into athletics and activities. And athletic and activities guidelines came out. And what that said was is that we would be opening for fall sports. We're at step two right now throughout the state, which means we won't be competing to originally begin. We fully expect, if numbers stay low, that the governor's office and agency of education will move us to step three, which means that we will be able to start competing after we get through the first two weeks of school. And we have ordered PPE for our athletes. Athletes don't want to wear the PPE that we've provided and they are able to wear their own. And I strongly encourage you to go through that handbook. Our Athletic and Activities Directors across the SU and Shane and I have worked on it throughout the past couple of weeks and I feel good about it. And so please make certain you review that and then contact your Athletic or Activities Director if you have further questions. I got to remind you that that handbook is guidance for WRVSU affiliated Athletic and Activities. So a lot of our elementary schools have rec departments. They're more than welcome to access that guidance. But that guidance does not, that guidance is not meant for rec department. So I just need to clarify that. I'm certain I'll probably get some calls from folks around rec departments at the elementary levels and I'll say you're more than welcome to use our guidance. But that guidance is meant for affiliated Athletic and Activities for WRVSU. Inverse and learning schedules are out. We're five days a week at the elementary level and at our K-8s at our smaller schools. There's been some questions around what specifically happens from 130 to 3. What I can tell you as an overview is I've asked schools to make certain that that is enrichment, that that is additional essentials, which is like performing arts, visual arts, physical education, outdoor education, experiential learning, as well as intervention. And those will all occur from 130 to 3. Core content academics will happen from essentially 830 until dismissal. And so that means math, literacy, global studies, science, things of that nature and intervention. Every school from 830 to 9 will implement a morning meeting to help with social emotional learning and socialization within their classroom. 130 to 3 is when teachers will have planning time for the next day because teachers will be in their classrooms with their students. From that time, the students arrive at 830 up until dismissal. And so lunch will occur in classrooms. If there's questions about that, elementary students will be eating breakfast and lunch in classrooms. The virtual learning schedule came out. It's going to be a flip model. And I'll look for Lindy to continue to shake her head, yes. And I get it wrong, Lindy. You just dump right in. But it's a flip model, which means teachers will take their mini lessons and it'll be posted for students and parents to access. One's convenient to them, but it will need to be accessed daily. And teachers will then, within instructional blocks, be there to reinforce that mini lesson, as well as provide small group instruction, both in literacy and math. There is time for additional enrichment or essential time every afternoon. There's a time for a socialized lunch that will be covered by staff. And staff will additionally have office hours or intervention at the end of the day. Special educators across the SU will be providing intervention for students who will receive intervention via IEPs. And we're also working out what intervention will look like for students who will receive intervention, not service via an IEP. So that is all in the works for the Virtual Learning Academy. If your student is signed up for in-person instruction and you feel like after the first week this is just not working for you, we will permit you to join the Virtual Academy. But just know that right now it's important that we get that information in because we're planning accordingly. And I am staffing the Virtual Learning Academy with Virtual Learning teachers at the elementary level. And so that means if all of a sudden we have a huge influx of students, that's going to create a staffing problem for me. And so it's important that if folks are leaning toward the Virtual Academy that that information is provided ASAP so we can plan accordingly. Otherwise it's going to be the detriment of students across the SU. So please get that information in. It's critical for planning purposes. If you signed up for the Virtual Academy, we're asking that you do that for the first trimester because we base social distancing and in-person instruction on the number of students we expect to walk through the door the first day. If you're feeling like that's absolutely not working due to a change within your household or supervision then you're going to need to contact me and I can provide an opportunity for your child to enter in-person instruction but it's going to require superintendent approval. Transportation is something that's come up. We've run a bunch of numbers. We've met with a transportation company. We are running our full roots. We know what our capacity is. It is significantly down. It's 23 passengers, Shane. Is that correct? 23 or 25? Yeah, it's 23 to 25 depending on age range of students and families. Samplings is a big factor. Yes. So we believe we have the capacity to provide transportation throughout the SU on our normal routes. I'm thankful for those of you who agreed to transport your own children. That's going to be very helpful to keep all of our students safe and to ensure that we're able to provide transportation through the upcoming school year. I will tell you that as your superintendent that I strongly recommend that you transport your own children if possible. It's just the safest way to get your children to school. There is going to be a health check required daily. That form went out today. I can't emphasize enough and we will provide them in hard copies and send those home but we wanted you to see them. That is required every day to board the bus. Without the health check, it's really difficult for us to ensure that students are safely getting on the bus. So please provide that. It's also going to help us more quickly get students through our health checks because we will be taking temperatures every day before children enter the school building and those questions have to be answered. The idea is that the best forms filled out when you arrive to school, the forms handed, it's reviewed, we take the temperature, student goes right into their classroom and reports in their classroom. And so that we're not having to ask those questions as students arrive at the building. We're hoping that that creates a much quicker and more efficient way for students to enter the building. There are going to be multiple points of entry at most buildings or two lanes of entry to schools with folks doing health assessments but having that paperwork filled out will be very helpful. There's also an in-person learning agreement. It's important that that's completed. I have to let folks know that the mask is required. That is to keep all students and staff safe. I am committed for us to be an in-person instruction as long as we possibly can. We know we have students that without having in-person instruction they are going to struggle mightily to learn virtually because parents or guardians may not be in the home and that is not fair to our students throughout the WRVSU. Therefore, I have to take safety very seriously. So if students are troubled with masks, I'm going to encourage you right now to reach out to your principal so we can come up with a plan to best support them. But masks have to be worn. If students are struggling to wear masks and parents, if you're concerned that your children might have classmates that struggle to keep masks on, I need you to know there's going to be zero tolerance for masks not being on. We'll put a support plan in place. We'll work with the student but if that student can't keep that mask on that student is going to be asked to possibly attend instruction virtually or we will work out some other means to ensure that student and their peers are safe but it's not going to be permissible for students not to have masks on throughout the day inside or if they can't safely socially distance outside. I've committed the SU to five days a week in-person instruction. I will tell you that I am in the minority across this this SU is in the minority across the state. I believe we can do it if we adhere to strict guidelines that have been provided for safety across the SU and if we implement those with fidelity, I feel confident that we can do this but there is no gray. We have to make certain that we're adhering to those. Internet access survey went out as well today. It's important that you complete that. That's going to give us information in the event that we were half to move virtual. Again, I'm committed to the fact that we're going to be in person as much in as long as we possibly can. I hope it's all year but I don't have a magical crystal ball and I don't know when we're going to go virtual in the event that there's an outbreak or the curve changes. Therefore it's important that we are planning behind the scenes to ensure that all families have access to reliable connectivity and the event that we have to move to remote learning again. So please make certain that you take those surveys seriously because it will be used to inform the work that we have to do that best support you and your family with connectivity. I've mentioned it a few times that this is the plan for the first nine weeks. I know that makes folks nervous but what I know is that we have to continuously improve and I think that it would be very nearsighted for me to say we've got a strong plan and that's what we're going with. I think that this plan is going to have to be assessed throughout and so I've been provided the flexibility by my boards to make adjustments if needed. I'm greatly appreciative of that and the key to all this is that in order for this to be effective is that we have to adhere to the recommendations and guidance that's been provided to us. You have a very committed staff of faculty and administrators and we are committed to provide really effective learning for your students and so that we want to thank you for all your support. You've all been terrific and we are starting in service next Thursday to ensure that we have every eye dotted and every T crossed so that when you come on September 8th you can feel safe and secure that your students are in a really safe and effective learning environment. Same did you have any other additional things or Lindy that I missed and I'm going to look through the questions if you do. If not I know there's some questions already in the chat and I'm going to start trying to answer those now. Amy do we sell 2-ply masks at Joanne's? I don't know what Joanne's is. I think that's a comment that 2-ply masks are sold at Joanne's which is a fabric store. I'm sorry Heather I totally misread that. Thank you Heather I appreciate that and know that the PPE that we're providing students and staff does meet that requirement. Thank you Heather for letting us know that. So there's 43 people on the call and so this can get difficult to answer questions and ask questions if it isn't organized. Star 6 is the way you unmute if you're on the phone and so if you're on the phone right now I want to ask a question if you unmute now I'll see that and then I will call on you by the last two digits of your number. Star 6 I got that right right Lindy. Star 6 not pound 6 star 6. You guys I'm in enough bore means you think I know this by now. Anyone on the phone star 6 if you have a question if not folks that are on virtually via the meets if you unmute I'll call on you and you unmute by hitting the microphone button and while folks are figuring out whether they want to ask a question a few more things to add is if you're more comfortable submitting a question there is a link within the superintendent's COVID-19 tab. I review those weekly and I try to my best to answer all questions in writing and submit those to you on a weekly basis. So I have not gone through the questions right great right just put the link in the in the chat if you're here via meets and you can access it there submit a question I collect those sometimes I take multiple questions because there's a similar question merge them and then submit answers to those questions and like I said if you have specific logistical questions about your buildings schools are some many schools have already held virtual meetings many schools still plan to hold virtual meetings even if they've already held one they plan to hold another one just so you know I know I have schools that are having teachers tape welcome back videos so you get a sense of what the classroom looks like and so no information is going to continue to flow out across the supervisory union on a regular basis and I hope we're not overloading you but I want to ensure that you have all the information you possibly need to make informed decision and that you have an understanding what your child's day will look like bathroom breaks would be permitted we are never going to say to a student they can't go to the bathroom what I can tell you is is that we are designating certain stalls to classrooms and so this way we can better contact trace bathrooms will be cleaned regularly throughout the day and so bathroom breaks are going to absolutely happen and if you're a part of Rudd Middle School there was rumors about portlets that is not the case indoor bathrooms will be used either PE will look a little different across those schools but PE will happen and always essentials will happen some of them are going to be structured in four week or six week chunks and they won't happen weekly because we're trying our best to limit contact of our essentials teachers with different grade levels because what I don't want to do the whole idea of this is if there was an outbreak in a cluster the idea is that that cluster may not come to school but that we would continue to have school open potentially and so there's been questions asked about what happens if there was an outbreak that outbreak will be reported to me we will immediately work as a team of medical providers at the WRVSU with the Department of Health and then we will immediately start contact tracing and the Department of Health will inform me about next steps and some of that was discussed and information that was provided today Stephanie the forms will not be collected as they get on the bus we just ask that the student has the form as they enter the bus great question I'm Matthew we have not gotten to what heating will look like in the 10 classrooms yet part of the idea of the outdoor classrooms is to ensure just like I said we had the hybrid model the first six weeks that we know how to safely social distance that we have a sense of what our numbers in school look like and then we can make an informed decision about what instruction looks like as we start to return back indoors I don't foresee us using outdoor learning spaces all year I see us using that as the first nine weeks and that's why I've tried to say that this plan is for the first nine weeks we will continue to educate outdoors as much as possible but I don't want folks thinking that we're going to be outside the entire school year we understand that that's not realistic and we want to make certain that we have effective instruction in place for our students great question Lisa so if your student is in in-person instruction in school closes or that classroom closes you will do virtual learning with your teacher that won't change if you're in the virtual learning academy and we were to have in a closed school the virtual learning academy doesn't go back to in-person teacher who's now remote and you may say why is that Jamie well if you're in the virtual learning academy we're going to try to create a real classroom culture and socialize students across the SU so that it feels like a classroom and that we're building social relationships throughout that first trimester after the first trimester it may be that students go back to their assigned teachers but for the first trimester your child in virtual learning will stay with the teacher assigned in virtual learning and with their cohort because we don't want to interrupt that instruction and then reintroduce students to a whole new classroom whole new teacher and maybe just a different approach to instruction we're working mightily to have common approaches to instruction across the SU but I can tell you we are not at that level yet you will receive Arthur great question I tried to say that earlier you will receive copies as part of your welcome back packet we are not going to expect you to have to print those off and so you know we're going to assess how the paper goes throughout in survey and if folks feel like a hybrid of a virtual and paper is something folks really want we may pilot that in certain buildings as the year goes through but we feel like this is how we should approach it for the first night Shawn virtual learning will not look anything like it did last year students will be expected to be checking in with content teachers daily they're going to expect to be expected to watch the mini lessons daily and they're going to be expected to have reinforcement throughout the day whether that happens during office hours in the afternoon or in the morning based on parent or guardian schedules or whoever the supervisor is we will be flexible but lindy correct me if I'm wrong the expectation is we are checking with every content teacher every day correct and I think to answer maybe I'm kind of assuming here Shawn we are going to use google classroom as a platform to be able to get information out to families in terms of assignments and things like that so hopefully the technology piece in terms of if you finally mastered as a parent how to get your kid on to google classroom won't be something different it'll just be more the work expectation and how much support or interaction you have with your child's teacher or your student has with their teacher that'll be different than the spring not yet robin there's not a way to do that we may move to that eventually the issue was connectivity around providing a virtual health form right now was a major concern when parents pulled up in a car and if we didn't have access to that outside we were worried we're going to frustrate parents because you've already filled it out and then we're asking the exact same questions again so we feel like we have the technology worked out to do a virtual health form we absolutely will we just didn't feel confident that we had that at this time at all of our campuses Jamie Heather asked a question about symptoms and I don't know if you wanted to answer that if you wanted me to yeah you go for shame so Heather asked if if there are multiple children in a home and one child has a symptom when they do the health screening at the morning that requires them to stay home and not come to school does the other sibling have to stay home as well no that is not the other child if they are free of any symptoms and their temperature is under 100.4 they are free to go to school we expect there to be a lot of people that call into school sick because of the health screening that's going to be done every day at home before children leave for school and I think it's important that we adhere to that practice that we stay home if we have any symptoms or if we have a fever or feeling ill and we also shouldn't jump to conclusions that because somebody has one of the symptoms on this list that they are COVID positive because that is not that is not the case this is not a diagnostic tool for COVID-19 it's just a symptoms list that requires folks to stay home you should contact your school nurse and connect with them about what follow-up steps should be so all right 504 situation or student service via IEP Matthew you will you can expect the same level of interventions that we would try to be depriving students of in-person instruction and that is something that Lindy is coordinating right now with our coordinator yeah with our coordinator students with our our student services coordinator at the WRVSU our special ed director that will look like either small group or direct instruction from a special educator or interventionist Heather as per the IEP Lisa that is a question for the principals about how they plan to handle that I think that I that would be not wise of me to speak to how every building would do that I don't know if it'll be paper copies or emails home so I think that I would encourage you to reach out to your building principal around how they will keep students updated just like they would have been the past if a student was out sick well Robin I mentioned busing before it's the same routes as before times are going to change a bit because drop-off times are different and that information will be getting out ASAP the bus company is working on route times the transportation is limited down to 23 to 25 students per bus but we feel like based on the survey that you all filled out that we will have the capacity to provide transportation and health forms have to be completed before boarding the bus we will also be taking a temperature of students once again after they leave the bus just so folks know so asking parents to take a temperature at home and we will also take a temperature as students leave the bus no problem there any other questions and again you can unmute if you want to use the chat use the chat if you're on the phone it is star six to unmute these are great questions yeah Robert I was wondering if there's going to be health checks during the day throughout the day there's no intention to do health checks throughout the day any other questions I got to tell you all the questions have been great throughout and the support that you're giving us and the trust and I just can't thank you enough that's really helpful there will be lunch Matthew provided for students that are in virtual learning and Lindy will have those details out to you it's going to look a lot like it did in the spring as far as drop-off and curbside pickup but we will be providing lunch throughout the throughout the trimester for virtual learning students and throughout the year if you choose to do it throughout the year yes Stephanie my sense is that how do you absolutely will have an informational night for athletes and I would expect the same from Loretta thanks Robin I really appreciate it we're trying our best to get as much information out to you as possible so you can make an informed decision I totally understand that this is a difficult decision to make and so you know also know that this this target continues to move and guidance continues to change and so we try to change as quickly and swiftly as possible as it changes and we will continue to be responsive to the changes as they come there's no other questions I think they're gonna conclude tonight oh we have one right there no problem Amos they'll happen throughout the day as well as 130 to three we want to ensure that all interventions happen with fidelity so interventions will occur throughout the day and they will also occur from 130 to three based on if students are there from 130 to so that 130 to three time will include intervention as well but interventions will happen throughout the day at least I tried to hit on that earlier so if there's a positive COVID test that will be reported the superintendent's office I'll work with our local medical providers and experts who have been helping us throughout on the COVID task force and recommendations as well as the Department of Health and so we've been working closely with them Shane would be pulled in we would then inform families as much as we possibly can in accordance with FERPA and let you know and we will absolutely be transparent if I can share it I will you'll get to know that I'm as transparent as I possibly can be and then we'll make an informed decision about what that means is whether or not a cluster is not coming back to school or whether it's a specific classroom or whether or not it's at a point where we need to close a building and that will all depend on contact tracing and what's been occurring in that building but you absolutely will be notified. Amos this is recorded and will be posted to the COVID-19 website so if you missed anything I strongly encourage you to watch it and it will be posted I do not have time to type up additional stuff tomorrow I apologize about that but certainly you can watch the recording and that's why I recorded it and you'll have access to it and if you have further questions that pop up and you feel like it wasn't answered if you submit it to the superintendent link for questions I answer those on a regular basis and I'm going to do another answer session no later than Tuesday and next week of questions that have come in over the last week and those will be sent out as well. I just want to let you all know I'm really excited to be serving as your superintendent of schools when I agreed to come to the WRVSU from my 10 year at the William Sound Schools as the principal there I didn't realize we'd be in a pandemic in these unprecedented times but I have a great team around me I'm happy to be here and I feel really confident that we're going to do a great job for you and your family this upcoming school year so thank you all for attending next Thursday night we'll be specific to the virtual learning academy and Lindy will be taking a lead on that but I'll certainly be there as well to support Lindy and that will be next Thursday at 5 30 and we will be specifically inviting folks to have registered for the virtual learning academy to attend next Thursday evening. Thank you all very much and have a great weekend it's gorgeous out there get on outside tonight.