 This program is brought to you by cable franchise v's and generous donations from viewers like you All right seeing the presence of a quorum. I'll call to order this meeting of the Pelham School Committee And we'll start with a roll call attendance Miss Barlow Brenda. I Miss Kenny Kenny presents mr. Manino Manino present and miss Dancer Dancer present and hall present back to you chair McDonald And seeing the presence of a quorum. I'm calling to order the meeting of the Amherst School Committee at 632 p.m. I Mr. Demling Mr. Harrington Miss Lord Lord present miss Spitzer Spitzer present and McDonald present and Now seeing a presence of the quorum of the region school committee. I'm calling to order that meeting also at 632 According to my clock. Um, so please stay present when I call your name. Um, mr. Demling Demling present mr. Harrington Harrington present miss Lord Lord present Mr. Manino Manino present miss Seeger Seeger present miss Spitzer Spitzer present miss Dancer Stancer present McDonald present and mr. Sullivan. Don't think he's here yet Okay, so we are now To order um our first order of business is to approve minutes for a meeting that didn't happen so so with the committee's permission we'll move on to the next Order and welcome mr. Sullivan mr. Sullivan. Can you hear us? great, um So moving on to our next order of business we have public comment and because we Had to cancel our or postpone our meeting from tuesday august 4th tonight We have the public comment that had been originally submitted for that meeting As well as a few other items that were submitted for tonight's meeting um, so I will Start with the um voice messages And with the general ghetto. I live in a town of amherst and I would like To have sia to the cause of both and A vote of starting all remote classes Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Maria Aquino And my I live at Cali Massachusetts I would like to ask the school committee To vote For our remote learning to start the remote learning For all the safety of the students. Please start The as a remote learning. We need the student to be safe. Thank you. Have a good afternoon Two voice messages from the same person and the same phone number. So i'm playing The one that was received most recently Um, they were received within six minutes of each other My name is live. I live in Holyoke, but I work um for the amherst regional schools I work in a specialized special education program and I am calling To encourage you to support a full remote return back to school in the fall for the safety of our students as well as our staff and also I encourage you to think about how you are meeting today virtually For the safety of yourself as well as your family I hope that we would use those same same standards when it comes to our students health and the staff's health I also like to look at the phase one population that is returning back to school First it is our most marginalized group of students I would hope that we don't put their lives in jeopardy just to be returning back to school I think people need to support those students The most and keep their lives As well as the other lives of the students At a very very high standard Thank you. James Lillian Araya. I am a para educator in Fort River school in Amherst And I want to say that I am consider to vote to start the year as remote learning For the safety of our students and also for the safety of our staff. Thank you. I'll share the written comments And just as a reminder this document this full document Is or will be posted on on the website. Are you seeing the document? Does it say okay? Thank you The comments that were received for Tuesday were posted on Tuesday Or Wednesday morning. So those those are available The new comments will be posted and this entire document will be posted as soon as possible I will add this next comment was received was forwarded to me in Spanish Because I don't read Spanish. I translated it my I just used the google translate in my email So I'm sharing that that document for others who may not I may not also read Spanish, but I'm showing both The the rest of these comments were comments that were submitted earlier And I've noted which when they were submitted, but they had gone to been filtered into my spam folder So I have confirmed with each one of these individuals that they would like their their comments shown this week Noting this this comment was played as voice message at our meeting on July 21st So I'm not going to scroll slowly through it This text like I said is included in the document that will be posted on the website And the same goes for this one Which was also submitted and played by voice message. So this is the text of it Which is available online And that is everything so Just for for folks who did not watch Our meeting a week ago when I discovered that I had all of these emails Of public comment emails that got filtered into spam I just want to say publicly that I've created a filter in my and and my arps email Um that any email that comes in with the subject line public comment Is never sent to spam and gets flagged as public comments so that I will see those So um as just as a reminder, um, if you do want to submit public comment for any of our meetings Please do so by sending email with that subject line public comment so that it does get flagged and does not get filtered into spam or Our voice line is always open as well and you may record a voice message at any time Up to 3 p.m. In the day of our meetings and with that Turn it over to dr. Morris for our superintendent's update Thank you So um, I received a number of questions from committee members individual committee members about Distance learning or virtual education term I'd like to start using for it And part of that's because in any of the phasing models that were presented the majority The significant majority of students would start the year in that model So I was going to do slides and I think you're pretty slick of sick of slides and things that I've written So I just going to go overall on that And um as most of you know, that's the third meeting of the night for me So, uh, I think I think we're good on slides Um, the first thing that I want to share is that um, there's been a actually international issue with getting enough securing enough chromebooks There was a supplier In a specific country that was found to be Employing child labor. So a bunch of chromebooks that were sent to this country have now been taken back Because the legal under international law I want to publicly thank jerry champagne who has been amazing at finding other vendors and other retailers It's is affecting many schools across the country as well as in massachusetts desi set up a model Where we could buy chromebooks through them. Um, that would come in late september jerry got Found chromebooks from um, they come from different countries. They don't have there's no supplier issues that way That will be here in early september. So, um, you know between the ipads that we're purchasing for kindergarten students and chromebooks The jerry was able to find a supplier for I think will be in good shape, but you may all hear that Um, that there is a chromebook shortage. Um, and that is a true thing and um, just really appreciate staff Working um all sorts of hours to try to make that happen So we'll keep our fingers crossed But it's a major retailer we're able to find them and that's made it a time of arrivals early september When we get a little bit later to calendar, you'll see that that'll be um, assuming it's on time Well in time for when the school year would start given the change in the calendar at the state level So then talking a little bit more about virtual education planning. Um, so, uh, I don't want to rehash We we had a meeting where we spent a lot of time about um, surveying from the spring and um, What went well and some concerns So a summary from the spring was that uh, families and actually staff most of these were aligned between family staff and students Felt like there was not enough direct instruction. So last year the guidance from desi was much more a resource model, particularly at the kate 8 level Um And so that was a major concern Um, there's a lot of concerns about relationship building and how to maintain relationships, particularly as we enter a new school year starting new relationships online Uh, there was concerns about consistency and alignment that actually played out. I think in some of the public comments I saw that as well Uh concerns about not enough synchronous calls that um, that families were getting and also that there wasn't a set schedule When it was predictable and reliable when things would happen Uh, there was also a concern about large groups, uh, like full classes, particularly at the elementary level Just being insignificant insufficient to engage in dialogue and learning that if you have 21 students on a call Much like we have a lot of people on this call. It ends up being what we're doing, which is one person talking I will say that we experienced that in my administrative team as well At an administrative team meeting with seven people on it today and the level of dialogue was wildly different than even if there was 14 people Um, it happened to just be elementary principles and a couple others And so, uh, I don't think that's a kid thing. I think that's an everyone thing in terms of having meetings online Um, so, you know, there was a lot of concern and a lot of dissatisfaction with how the spring went I like I said then I want to say that this was emergency Just since learning it wasn't virtual education And we want to make sure that for all students who at any point in next year that we're providing A much different level of service We had groups staff whoops work last spring. They came up with guiding principles for distance learning In the fall, they think they're really strong and they're the foundation for our planning Additionally the last week of the week before I forget desi came out with guidance on the distance learning Our virtual education a couple of the changes is that direct instruction is the model It's not resource delivery. So at the elementary level, you may remember distance learning plans, which were a list of things that Families could do that is not what the expectations are for next year There's an expectation for regular synchronous calls For a structured daily schedule For accountability on all ends for attendance and work completed and grading There's also the expectation that full curriculum standards are being taught last spring. The expectation was roughly half half of the day of work and That is is significantly different. So the expectations are much more robust We did get information from the commissioner that he plans to the the board likely will push desi to audit any district That's an a distance learning model to ensure that it's going is working effectively next year That's okay because we're all new at this and we're getting better at it and and I'll get into how we would train folks in a bit and so You know one thing we did is we we've created and posted teacher leader positions for this that would do some work in august But I have a partial release to their schedule in the fall At the elementary and at the secondary level also if you look at for instance the high school assistant principal position trying to imagine how We can have someone it's an interim position Take on some some leadership and support, you know, mr. Sadiq and Dr. Gramaki on that and and we're building our internal capacity all the time So we planned for professional development before the school year again I'm getting the cart in front of the horse a bit But there are 10 days now for professional development that there weren't based on an agreement that desi has shared and so We're looking to find someone who can help us with that with a really deep embedded not rushed Perspective on pedagogy. There's technical pieces we'll have to do But actually, you know, what I believe is that We'll take the time to work on deep online pedagogy and the technical pieces aren't going to be wildly different And google meets is getting more features But a lot of that's going to be pretty similar google classroom is there at the primary grade levels Based on staff feedback. We did look into seesaw, which is a much more user friendly tool at the primary grade levels, but Really what the the professional development we're looking for is how do we support staff and humanize the virtual environment? How do we help them build? Strong relationships with students they may not have met before and how do we prioritize relationships and student support in that setting? Secondly, and I think this is really important and I know it's going to sound jargony But wayfinding How do we learn how to build engaging navigable and student-centered online learning experiences, especially for our most vulnerable learners? One of the things we know is that For all learners, this was a new experience Working in a virtual space and much like our schools if you walk into a school There's a sign and if you walk into a classroom you'll see learning objectives And you'll see what the homework assignment is and students know where to find things That was really difficult last year And we want to provide really in-depth training for our staff in that way Third third really critical piece of student agency how do students take ownership of their learning and increase the engagement? One of the things that we continued heard in the student survey was really clear on this Was that engagement went down as students went into a virtual environment? And so again, we want to make sure that we're training our staff Offering professional development that we can be much more engaging for students and the same thing we want in person We want students owning their own learning. You've heard that a lot Particularly at the elementary level if you look at the their school improvement plans for those of you and who work in the elementary districts You remember that from last year that that's a critical component And we really want to work on what does that look like in an online environment? And finally, what do assessments look like? How are we getting formative assessments? There are some advantages Um About how assessments could work in a virtual space. And so that's really some of the foundational work that we have planned We are planning for staff before the school year We want to work with people who have been virtual teachers before and to do this Um, and Mr. Miro, I see your hand if it's okay with the chairs I'd just like to finish because I'll I'll be done in a second with this part of the Superintendent update And I know I'm going on longer than I usually would but I think there were a number of questions from committee members So I wanted to go into detail So, you know, we're really looking to develop clear models that include the desi requirements Um And include a high focus on small group synchronous calls as well as asynchronous mini lessons Consisting with the guiding principles if you go back to those guiding principles, really There's a lot of um, the they are what they are. They're the guiding principles that are helping us develop models We're not looking at a model that would have students screen time being six hours a day I'm going to be really clear about that. We're also not looking at models that would have screen time being one hour a day We're trying to find that right balance of asynchronous lessons synchronous calls and student work That allow for the right balance And and so that that's really what we're looking for But I think the thing if there's one take home for folks who are watching Significantly more direct instruction Significantly more structure and predictable structure And smaller group sizes Those are the the really big takeaways that we want to do and we want to support our Structuring the day where our staff can be more successful with that We'll have more soon on that and but I wanted at least I felt like there was enough questions where I wanted to give a little more thorough Sharing probably even if we meet next week I'll be able to share much more details on that But I at least wanted to share a broad overview of the work because so much of our work I think rightfully so has been focused on all the health and safety pieces of being in school And when all the plans include a significant number of students being in remote, you know I was remiss in not sharing it But we're all trying to do lots of things simultaneously here So forgive me on that and I'm open to any questions on that before I have a couple other things to share on the update and Mr. Menino and then Miss Barlow I infer from your comments That the person doing the direct instruction will also be doing the distance learning I've asked this question before because I'm concerned About, you know, how many days a week do we expect a teacher to teach? Yeah, so The in our phasing models there would be no one who would be doing both unless they request to do both There are some related service providers who have indicated and some some very Specific roles who have indicated That they might be interested in coming in for some students while working with other students Virtually but in terms of the core instruction like the second grade teacher the second grade teacher Would be either teaching virtually Or teaching in person on a day they wouldn't be both like, you know, and I'll be clear I think I've said this before but I want to be really clear because I'm convinced of it that we wouldn't have like cameras set up in the room where some students would be Accessing live teaching and some students would be actually in the distance learning because they're different pedagogies They're different instructional models And so there has to be Staff have to do one at a time or another they can't do both in my opinion effectively I think you end up meeting no kids needs if you're trying to do that So I feel really strongly on that topic. So I just wanted to clarify that Thanks for the clarification. Yep Mr. Demley Yeah, so I think from a parent perspective These updates are gonna are gonna top out until we get to a point where we can where you or or the teachers or the principals can say Okay, specifically detailed. What is this going to look like? I think at this point people get that We acknowledge that emergency learning wasn't what we want for the fall and that we're going to make it better But what is that and so I don't know if you could talk about schedule at this point Whether that will be part of the public forums and also this this notion of parent training I understand that like the communication the engagement will be better and we don't expect parents to be teachers per se But you know, we've mentioned before that as the grades get younger the need for parent support gets higher, right? and so What are we expecting of parents of of those 90% of kids that are going to start the school year fully remotely? Yeah, so I think the schedules will probably be able to get to next week at the secondary level I don't anticipate them looking wildly different than the three by three block The nice thing about that model is it allows for more dedicated focus So it works. I think from a public health perspective in my opinion. It works It's the best model, but also from a distance learning. I also believe it's the best model At the elementary level, I think it's a little more complex and and we met about it this morning As I referenced that was the primary focus of our meeting and I think by next week We should have at least some mock-up drafts Of what that might look like The alignment piece in particular at the elementary level is something we feel really strongly about improving on So I think the second question you asked is about the parent training and I'm not trying to be I don't know the right word I'm not trying to be difficult But I think I would I would offer caregiver training as the term because One of the things that's going to be really different than the spring is that many families won't be able to stay home It may be older sibling You know in the spring the vast majority of families were home that will not be true in the fall And so we do want to do parents guardians absolutely, but we're going to broaden that term because We we know that that's not the case And we've heard from families and we know that just people are having to go back to work Many more than we're we're home in the spring So we do want to do again that wayfinding and that's both a student piece, but also an adult piece as well And and I think that's where we get into the conversations about what's the appropriate Kind of learning management system at the primary grades versus when we get even to middle to upper elementary and beyond And we heard that from staff last year loud and clear that you know Google classroom, you know, some people felt more effective but for for students, you know Who are going to be in the I mean just being candid they're going to be in the realm of being more responsible And I don't mean responsible because we're asking but they're going to be they're going to have to be Because more families are going to be back at work and there's going to be, you know caregivers that may not be parents guardians. They may not be siblings and maybe You know more typical childcare providers Who are in the role? So we want to make sure that we're offering a lot of training for for all caregivers But also trying to make things accessible for students. We know at k to 12 That was really hard and that's not a critique of teachers That was the fact that we were an emergency situation with like 72 hours to plan for it And then once you set up that structure, you sort of have to live with it It's really hard to change those structures once you're in them And that's the really great thing about having those days before the school year is being able to set up those structures Having them be consistent across schools and across districts so that we can we can really provide both synchronous and asynchronous training for caregivers And it could be that caregivers change But if we're recording those trainings that they're accessible for all Any other questions on this this first part miss spitzer? Um, just one question about the remote learning option. Um You know when when we're delivering stuff in person, it's building based and the staff you have at the building is the staff that you have but in Thinking about these remote options. Is there any thought of Using staff to kind of cut across because there are going to be some students who are going to be remote for the Entire time regardless of what phase we we chew. So are we going to are we looking at ways to kind of? Across and maybe even districts like I'm not sure about like Pelham and Amherst If there's even a possibility that somebody living in Pelham could be doing remote learning with an Amherst teacher I I'm just curious about how now that we don't hope the constraints of building. Are we are we going beyond that at all? Yes, the short answers. Yes, we're looking at models I can't give you great details, but you know our meeting this morning, of course was inclusive of lee our principal of Pelham And we absolutely want to do that and and one of the things that at the elementary level in particular The concerns around alignment were very real and our elementary teachers teach With few exceptions all the subjects and so I think from a staff support perspective We also have to be really realistic. We're expecting last year. We were expecting power standards Very low key half of what we normally would do that is not the case this year and we To be successful in my opinion, we're gonna have to be collaborative We're gonna have to work as teams and we're gonna have to have more discrete roles for individuals across grade levels across schools and across districts I think you highlighted two of them Then we have before because space the place doesn't matter, right? We want to retain that school feeling We want people to have familiar adults that they see every day that are predictable We don't want to make elementary kids have high school schedules where you know every period They're with a different teacher, but we believe there are ways where we can be successful in doing that And actually I think harnessing our resources that way is going to be much better for students and much better for our faculty and staff Because it's really a different model And we're really looking at you know, can we develop asynchronous lessons that are actually shared? Right, you know, I had a middle school teacher for instance share an anecdote last spring where you know, there were Four or five staff members all recording the same Reading of the same passage that they were going to teach in their class That's a really inefficient use of time you know that they're really like It would be much more efficient if one person was recording that and everyone else was planning their synchronous follow-up and and more mini lesson Than that and we have to be working collaboratively I think you know talking to Schools that have been doing this a long time as their core mission One of the things they say is you really have to break down those virtual walls because you're not in a building anymore And so so much of our focus is we're in school buildings There's literal or figurative walls that get built and we really have to take those down if we're going to be serious about providing All the curriculum that we need to do and we need to support kids and families So sorry a long-winded answer to I could have just said yes But I actually think it's a really important point that this should this ought to look different than it did last spring And not just in the emergency ways, but we really do need to have more discrete roles and more collaboration Because we have a lot of staff and we're we're staffed to be in buildings That's the way we define our staffing And so if we're going to be staffing With the same staff to be in a virtual environment We really need to change roles and responsibilities pretty significantly To be effective, you know virtual schools wouldn't have our staffing model, you know And that's not a knock that's saying we have too many staff This is nothing about budget It's that they wouldn't define roles that way because it's not structured that way And so for us we need to think really differently about that and we're starting to have those conversations And again, if you go back to those guiding documents Guiding principles document they talk a lot about different forms of collaboration and teamwork So none of that none of what i'm saying is new. It was really in that document You know all the way back in june. It's just more expanding on it Any other comments questions? I've just got a message that the feed is out and that From somebody watching outside the meeting. Is anybody else getting messages about issues with the feed? On tv or online? um Not sure I don't know why I don't I don't have any messages, but maybe that would be helpful as media to know I'll find out and and I'll put it in the chat. Sorry to interrupt So if I could go on so this is a little bit of an awkward. I have a little bit of a Sharing and it's because the meeting got cancelled Tuesday night because of the storm and how many people were out of power speaking of feeds going and So I know you're both talking about phasing and the larger document And those are interrelated, but I think I'd rather make a bit of a statement Now if that's okay with the chair because I think they feed into that next conversation I know there's things between those, but I just think it makes sense So, you know, what's presented tonight is the result of working collaborative this school committee over the last few months to develop a lengthy document That was in the packet. I apologize how lengthy the document is but there's is a lot there And and so Just a couple notes that we are adding a little more robust section on ELL programming Just, you know, we tried to get it's 47 pages or 45 pages of text plus all the presentations And we got as far as we can get for tonight, but please know that there is more on ELL coming I think also supposedly desi's offering feedback on the initial the quick plans that were submitted So I don't know what that will say But I want to say I understand how challenging this is for everyone And you know the goal is to develop the best plan possible based in the direction of the school committee Whether that's what we've prepared for tonight or whether there's a school committee, you know Offers different advice and and the staff from the administrative staff, you know, we're looking for direction So that we can do our job to make sure we're planning effectively for students Um, I know this situation is evolving and decisions have and will continue to evolve Along with it and if changes are needed in the document, I'll be ready to make them So I do think, you know, I don't want people to feel like the document's done and therefore the school committee Has no opinion. That's far from the case. It's that we have a timeline when we need to submit to desi And we needed to prepare something for you to respond to But I got some feedback and I just wanted to be really really clear that This has been I think will continue to be a partnership between the the staff and the school committees I know there's three separate school committees on the call and you think three school committees may have three different opinions It's happening in some other multi-district organizations like ours And uh, you know, I just want to share that, you know, we're dedicated to doing the best possible within the school committee guidance that we receive So I want to share a few things that were really clear to me So the situation will continue to evolve with the public information public health information, you know, tonight's not an end Whatever happens, but really it's a place to offer formal direction so we can be prepared And I think you all agree with that. I know you've shared it in the past We certainly do and and we follow, you know, all of us follow every single day What's going on in massachusetts and then, you know every wednesday what's going on in our towns and western massachusetts in particular Because it breaks it out a little more every week The second is there's no great decisions to be had, right? If there was all the school committees across the state would be making the exact same decision and that doesn't seem to be happening Um, and it's really trying to make the best decisions available given the information you have And no decision will be as good as the worst decisions school committees have made in the past, right? That there's, you know, it really is trying to make the best of it And so I want to say that publicly because I know there's a lot of advocacy and some of it, you know Within public comments, you've received other emails and lots of different opinions and you're in a really difficult situation And I want to acknowledge that publicly That some people have come to me like, oh, you know, you've Such a terrible job to be super intended during this time and perhaps that's true, but I feel like um Your uh, your jobs are really hard to be decision makers on these weighty issues and so wherever you all land I just want to acknowledge and hopefully the public will as well That I know how many emails I get and phone calls from you all and I know how seriously you're taking this And I want to publicly acknowledge that I think that Not so much fun on the third one, but there's there's wider disagreement on these issues Than any other topic in my 19 years in the district and that all 19 years were in Amherst Pellum or the region So that's saying something and so I just want to acknowledge that there's really diverse thoughts and opinions You know on this matter and and on that topic There's a group of Rhode Island superintendents who came out with a letter that I thought was good But there's one particular section I wanted to read and I'll quote them In the midst of all this uncertainty one thing remains certain And that is that no two households are identical Every family and employee in our school districts has a unique set of circumstances needs resources supports employment conditions socioeconomic realities medical history And mirror myriad other variables These factors underscore our need to focus deeply on equity in all of our proposals and decisions And I really like that because it really describes some of what the diversity of opinions that we continue to receive our I do And it also underscores the challenges of the situation logistically and educationally You know we've made committed to supporting this process the best of our abilities and moving forward is critical at this juncture in time And the last thing I want to say is that I keep coming back and I've talked about it before to the key concept for me of humility I consider all the different perspectives I know that you all do as well those that come through public comments come through phone calls come through private emails and come through You know all the different ways that we receive that feedback And my commitment and our commitment our administrative staff's commitment Through your guidance tonight and beyond is to be part of developing the best plan possible for students And and that's what our commitment is and so We're really looking for this guidance, you know when we go through those documents I'm happy to answer any questions of what's in the documents what's not in the documents Are the thoughts you have and we'll try to give you the best guidance that we have and best information you have There is no certainty You know, and I think that is you know, really the hard thing and the only certainness as I like the Rhode Island superintendents is that we're going to make the best Whatever decisions you all make We're going to do we're going to do the best thing that we can for kids And we just you know collectively feel for you as decision makers on this topic and I feel like wherever you land Wherever that is whether it's consistent with what's presented tonight, whether it's different from that You know, I just want to say for myself I really know how deeply and seriously you're taking all these issues and you're weighing them And I really thank you all for the service other than Brenda. No one signed up for this Brenda, you know, you sort of did from how you joined the committee Perhaps, uh, you know, perhaps Bethany as well But you know, uh, you know, there's no uh pandemic policy that you can go back to in the school MAS and guidebook and say oh, yes during a pandemic This is the obvious decision-making tree and it's really hard and and I just I know you get a lot of competing Feedback from from folks. Uh, and I just wanted to really publicly acknowledge that and I'll stop here But I just think it was worth saying, um to all of you Thank you. Um Sorry, I I lost it listening to that so Yeah Um Great, uh, I think uh, are you so I'm miss lord Hello, thank you. I just have a quick question for, um, dr. Morris And that's around clarification as a new school committee member What we're voting on tonight is the plan that we're sending to desi We're still right. We're not voting on what happened september 16th because there's still metrics and things We're gonna have to figure out or or am I incorrect? Right, so I think between tonight and september 16th a couple things happen one is that um, you know And I'm not going to speak to specifics about that because that'd be inappropriate But there's bargaining that needs to happen with our our units Um and public health data may change and and I think I'll speak to that a little bit when we get into Some of the phasing models, uh, you may see that I added some some and I'm not it's draft You're responding to it for the first time So, uh, I think on both fronts there are lots of work to happen between now But what I'm hoping we get tonight with a vote is what gets submitted which is a direct a direction And I you know I was in a conference call with the commissioner today and he was really clear about that The public health data and they have not set The state may or may not set public health guidance around opening schools and phasing I proposed some draft language that it's just a proposal based on what I'm seeing from other experts in the field, um, but certainly you could set um set that um, and you know, again if if the committees make a decision That's inconsistent with the document that uh was presented. Uh, that's fine and I'll do some quick editing and um, again You know administratively, uh, not that we don't have opinions, but we're going to make what the school committees decide work Uh to the best of our abilities and if that involves, um the decision that you want to support that document Great, if it's that I need to edit that document based on a vote tonight That's what we'll do. Um, and and that's that's how we work collaboratively with the committees. Does that help answer your question? Yes, thank you Any other questions from uh for the superintendent? So I saw there was some questions about, um Whether the streaming is working well. I'm sorry. I was in the middle of my spiel So, uh, I didn't pick up on that, but I don't know if that issues resolved. I just want to Make sure that we're sharing that publicly And if the issues resolve great, if not, you know, I just want to make sure Amherst media is aware If there is any issues so that we can communicate it to them because none of us on this call can solve that problem um I I think mr. Demling and miss spitzer are the ones and miss kenny for barlow. I'm not sure Have been receiving the messages mr. Demling I think the only thing that we can say definitively is that we have some reports that the streaming is not working We have some reports that the streaming is working. So I just got a update from the person who initially texted me to say it wasn't working online and now About a minute ago it started working. So it sounds like maybe Amherst media was able to troubleshoot and solve the problem So thank you Amherst media. That's indeed the case Yeah, thank you Any anything else for the superintendent and his update seeing none In terms of the chairs update, um, I think all of us um have received uh the flyers and and and seen that but there's um on saturday The district and We are hosting an information session for families in the south point area and that will be outdoors. Um I can't remember exactly where um where it's going to be held, but it's saturday at 10 a.m for residents of um the regions around south point and the flyer that was posted by the district includes all of the the um Neighborhoods that are included in that for that information session. Um, the other announcement is a flyer will be published shortly for great Streaming is working again. Um That there will be a town hall information session in q&a On wednesday. Um, I believe we it's at 5 30. I'm sort of looking at dr. Morrison carries in this spitzer um with some health care medical professionals um from the region Um, and so that flyer will be published very soon. If not already Um, and that is open to everybody in the district. Um, these Uh, four or five medical professionals will be Will share some insight on uh, coven 19 and then answer questions that families might have as they're um thinking about uh the fall and um returning to school or not. Um, so that is on wednesday. Um That is all I have miss hall. Do you have any uh chairs update? Um I don't not tonight. Thank you And now we move on to uh school committee announcements. Are there any other announcements miss lord? I would like to invite everyone to our school equity task force meeting on wednesday August 19th at 6 p.m. Thank you Thank you Any other announcements from the committees? Any of the committees mr. Harrington? That's not too much an announcement just but just to uh clarify the location of the event saturday and south point The easiest way to state is if you're in this area, it's near the mailboxes It's the open green area which is right next to the mailboxes Thank you any other announcements from um anybody in the committees not seeing any okay um, so we'll move on to our new and continuing business and um our first item is um Postponed from tuesday our um fall 2020 phasing models. Um, and those uh phasing models an updated version was in our packet um, we looked we saw briefly some uh presentation from uh Actually, I can't remember which date it probably was just last week, but um where we looked at the phasing models and so um That and the survey responses are in our packet. Um, dr. Morse. I don't know if you would like to introduce the the survey and Yeah, so I'll I think I'll present if that's okay. Um I mean it's in the packet, but I just think it's easier for me to talk through There it is There we go. Is that visible? Yes, okay so, uh, this is just the results straight out a survey monkey of the phasing model, but um, I organize it by each um I disaggregated by family responses. Um middle school high school student responses staff responses and then the aggregate So if you remember phasing model one was the most aggressive. Uh phasing model with the shortest amount of time between going from phases. Um Going from phase groups. Um, and so Model two, uh differentiated between elementary and secondary. So the elementary models were a little more aggressive. The secondary was was slower and model three was The slowest phasing and so you could see the results of the family responses Um, the way at the right side, this is just the way survey monkey does it is it assigns, um A score of three points for a first place vote two points for a second place vote And one point for a third place vote and you know, I think like my comments earlier I'm sorry if people didn't hear them there's such diversity of opinions So, you know the phasing model one 50 percent of families responded that that was their Preferred and then 40 basically 40 percent said it was at least preferred There's not often that we get that spread Uh, you know on that but um, this would these were the results of the family responses Uh, these were middle school high school student responses. We did not ask elementary students this Um And you could see they they're very well aligned with with many of the other responses where there's you know Real diversity. They're a little more muted actually than some of the other responses in terms of uh, some of Those but uh, you could see some real differences I think it's worth noting because um, I got this feedback by email as well that we didn't ask About not coming back, but you know anecdotally if you look at the comments Um, a lot of those folks chose phase in model three about not coming back in the fall because it was the slowest phase in um The here's the staff responses. Um, so there's 149 responses, uh or 147 excuse me that answered this question And you can again see um, the staff responses. There was a different spread on the staff responses. Um, then the students and the families but um, kind of interesting to look through On that, especially when you calculate the scores or it gets calculated And here's the all responses. Um And so again, I'll I'll leave it to you to do some of the interpretation of that but um Here, you know, that was the results There was no way to qualitatively Uh capture the feedback Um, are we struggled to because it was so divergent or so diverse in terms of the feedback on the phase in models Um, it ranged I think From folks who felt like kids and all kids should be back right away And they were discouraged that there was phase in models to begin with to folks who Express that you know, there were no phase in model felt sufficient or safe to them And and that was true in every single group that was true in in the responses from students the responses from staff and the responses From families. So, uh, we didn't have a qualitative spread because or summary because the themes were that people feel really differently And that was that was essentially the theme um, so, um When I called there and then before I get into um some uh revised model based on the feedback and some metrics Yeah, uh, dr. Morris. We're I'm we're I'm seeing in chat and um, and the like that we're still having issues with streaming Um, so I don't know and it seems to be the streaming. I think is is what everybody's saying. So um, I don't know if there's anything we can So what am I not sure we can't do anything about it. So I do want us to say out loud that yes, this is being recorded Um, and we'll be available. Um through Amherst media's website and youtube So we did this before so maybe if what happened before it didn't solve the issue But I think it did help when I didn't share the screen Yeah, is it okay if I it's going to be a little more wordy, but if I describe things orally Um, because this is in the packet. This is all information that's on our website in the packet Uh, people hopefully have access to it and um and I think um, if if the committee's okay, I'd prefer to Talk about it orally than have people who are streaming it not have access. Yes agree So why don't I stop there and see if there's questions about the data this um, I just wanted to confirm There was no way to see about differences at like the elementary versus the middle school high school level I mean, I know the students were exclusively Elementary high school, but in terms of grade level that we are not at grade level But like elementary versus middle school high school, we couldn't see a trend that way could we? um I Would I'm just thinking back. Um It seemed like the trends were in unrelated to grade level that that really it's Yeah, I think that's as much as I can say that you know, there weren't clear trends that way about phasing models Even though the phasing models did have different implications, especially phasing model two to three It did have different implications elementary to secondary. Um, I think you know, there was a lot of this question as proxy for whether I would send my child back to school for the parent one or I would choose to come back as a student. Um That's my own interpretation, but I did feel like there was a lot of That was driving a lot of the responses Miss dancer um I would just like to offer a comment in reading through uh, the qualitative Parts of the survey. I felt like a number of people inferred That by only saying there were these phasing models that we were disqualifying Remote learning or online learning Says a little bit of a concern to me Mm-hmm. I would agree any other questions or comments Mr. Deming Yeah, I just just general comment. I mean In in terms of so this was a lot to get through in terms of the survey content So we obviously are not presenting the 200 Plus comments that we got back from the survey, which thank you. Dr. Morse for not presenting them as part of the Slides, but um, but that was a huge piece of this feedback. We had over a thousand respondents um, so Um, I'm uh, I'm glad actually we had a little bit of a delay so that we could get through that um And uh, I mean, you know, it's just I don't know how other committee members have, you know, um Experience the digestion of this as as a piece of the the whole public, um input, um You know, uh experience, but you know, I kind of look at it as like another piece of the puzzle, right and in all these various ways that the public has of expressing Their preference are are all limited and have their own advantages and disadvantages Uh in different ways, right of like like public comment and emails And like all surveys, this is limited. It didn't reach everyone I don't look at this as like a firm conclusion of like what everyone thinks Um, but but the number of responses is pretty good, you know, 120 staff is is pretty good sample size Over 700 parents is very good Sample size, so I wouldn't draw like super exactness from it, but like when I look for clear trends um It's I find it pretty helpful in terms of seeing Um, you know, one what what what superintendent noted, which is within each of those groups the parent I'm sorry the family group the the staff group and the and the student group Um, but there's pretty strong disagreement among even what the top preferences, right? Even if you look at the most extreme case of um, of what the top preferences of the of the uh, the family Uh, of where model one model one only has 50 support That means that half of all the family respondents of those 700 Plus respondents preferred something other than model one and you know, those are those are mutually irreconcilable, right? And and same thing with with with staff and student preference Um, uh, and so those so that's very hard to resolve Um, and and then the other the other big take home for me was how Much model two stood out as as this compromise choice in the middle Something like when you look at the percent choices I'm sorry the percent numbers for model two as the second choice. It's it's really like the runaway favorite um, you know with with the with the percentage You know 72 with the family and 69 with the staff and then um, You know the the thing I looked at was if you look at you know, if If model two is one of your top two choices, it's it's even more extreme. It's 99 of staff Model two is either the first or second choice and 91 of families model two is either the first or second choice um So You know, there's there's a lot more to be said about about the models and the different variations And you know, we'll get into that but I just from from a survey point of view Um as a piece of the puzzle where where we don't want to be drawing super exact conclusions I thought that that general trend standing out so strongly among those three groups as that compromise piece was was pretty notable I just want to add I think you know going this kind of built on miss spitzer's comment or question about sort of the breakout between elementary and secondary because I um Well, I agree that the vast majority um, you know chose model two as their second choice for for parents or families with only secondary students There's no difference between model two and model three um, so in a way, you know, it's without knowing sort of the difference between You know, how how folks were thinking about their their individual students. It's hard to say that two is um It is a compromise for elementary families I would say because those those um for an elementary For elementary students. There's definitely a difference a big difference between one two and three um, but I don't And I I being a little selfish there because I have my kids are in secondary schools And so I don't like well two or three doesn't really matter um from a purse from my family's perspective um Are there any other? Questions or comments on the data I miss miss lord Yes I think what I got some feedback from reading that was that maybe people also wanted the choice of remote learning so Just to present that this is saying one or two because or three because those were the only choices um, and that's why there was confused and like are we yeah just saying It wasn't the choice to say all the mo or go ahead dr. Morris. Oh, I'm not sure No, I think that's right And and we had lots of internal conversations and we intentionally didn't ask that because that would be a separate question on a separate survey and Just because a family or a staff member or somebody would believe it should be all remote We do want to preclude them or exclude them from being able to weigh in on what the best phasing model might be right so so It actually I think would have shifted to that data if we had that option And that's a different question But once you do that then all of a sudden you don't get to vote on phasing model You think might be the best and so, you know one could argue it either way, but we do intend If there's an in-person and a virtual model after tonight We intend to survey families next week. Actually, you know, perhaps even on saturday and bring some paper copies to the event Because families will be there and it might be convenient for them To ascertain what their thoughts are and what they would choose to do So I think we want to get to that but we didn't want to exclude them from a data source and that's sort of what would have happened And I think then we would also wanted to ask have asked different questions on our survey So one could argue it either way, but I think it is You know Basically when I look because I get access to all the data If you look at who voted for question three and who made those comments or who made those comments that you're talking about miss Lord They almost exclusively voted for phasing model three That's not to suggest there aren't people who voted for phasing model three who don't have that But I do think that served as proxy to a certain extent for folks who had that opinion and We just didn't want them to be excluded from the data set And we also didn't want to ask what felt like next week would be a binding question to families and to ask it twice in two weeks Didn't feel so wonderful for us And it's a super valid point. I'm not trying to be defensive. I'm just trying to explain the rationale Any other questions Or comments um so I think I'm a guess I'm a little confused about What we're doing with the voting or the If we are going to vote on phasing And how that relates to finding out who would prefer the virtual method Can can you explain how those relate to each other? sure, um, so um Yeah, so this felt better when it was spaced out over two meetings So I want to acknowledge that point and so the idea is if the school committees What any of the school committees vote Tonight to move forward with a plan that offers the option of in person We would then survey families in short order Um to see what they wanted to do and that's part of what the town hall that you know that miss mcdonald's spoke about Because we then need to know what staffing we need in person versus distance as well Just because we offer an in-person option doesn't mean that all students have to take it right the families have an option of of being Of of choosing virtual education for their child Um, and so I think the vote tonight. It's a little bit murky for me about how you do that because They're sort of they blend into one another and and perhaps some awkward ways They wouldn't know if they were into it at nights and I'm sure someone smarter than me like miss mcdonald's will have A better answer to that question. Well, I don't I don't know if I'm smarter than you but um, but I Tend to think of it this way is um, if we go back we've we've been talking about plans and and and we've already voted on pieces of of of framework and guidance So if you go back to it's in our deck the framework that For for learning for students That we voted A few weeks ago in july Where we talked about the principles where we wanted to Ensure staff and students safety. Um, we wanted to maximize in-person learning in the safest Following our our safety and health protocols and we wanted to Provide the the best distance learning experience possible and then be flexible to adjust So those were the four sort of high level principles that we had voted on and agreed said this phasing model Is is with that in mind where we had said we wanted to maximize in-person learning We also in that document We had provided the option as dr. Morris referenced that families could families and students could opt for the full distance So that doesn't go away by voting on the on the phasing this phasing model is specifically for that first piece about the in-person learning So for families who would like to choose the in-person face-to-face learning This is this is the timing By which we've we would outline and sort of bring people back into the school building in that framework We also specifically requested this phasing in for that in-person learning one to enable staff and educators to Develop and and practice and and and get the professional development and Work that they need to do to learn the new protocols as well as teaching in the new environment We also talked about The phasing in terms of the the sort of slow builds for practicing and ensuring sort of learning and adherence and and Comfort with the new in-person learning protocols and transitions and etc. So I say all that that's all Just a recap of what we had so this this phasing is sort of one piece of that puzzle and the distance learning Is still an option for any and all families miss spitzer I think the tricky thing looking at this data because I think if you wanted to calculate the standard like I doubt There's just statistically significant winner in this. I think it's completely murky and we wouldn't actually be able to choose a winner out of these three options The The thing about this and I fully I want to acknowledge that I fully understand the reasoning that Dr. Morris presented about the way we've done this and that we haven't focused in on the people who are interested in in-person learning but I think I'd be really interested to know that had we focused in on those who actually feel like they'd like to come in I'm going to go out on the limb here and I'm going to say that they probably would have been The group that's more in the same way that you're saying like option three is kind of like the proxy for those Who are not going to come into the schools until there's a vaccine or until the numbers are so low? You know much lower than they are today Um, and so the problem is that if we're designing this to meet everybody's needs It's actually problematic because they have really different needs so the person who doesn't have the option Of you know has a small child and is a frontline worker and can't stay home with that kid is going to have a really strong preference probably for that faster model that is in phase that that first model one and so I just want to acknowledge this is a tricky thing when we're trying to choose because We don't actually know did everybody who choose three three phase three? Are they really just indicating that they're they're not feeling safe right now and they want to delay it as much as possible And that's the reason that option felt safe to them Or maybe they are interested in going back in person and the only way they feel that is if it is slowed down a lot so it just I just want to acknowledge for the committee that the the data doesn't provide us a lot of guidance in it And it feels like we kind of need to Acknowledge that while we're making our decision Mr. Demling So, um, I mean while I might not completely agree with the spitzer that the data is completely murky I I do feel like there's a general trend towards support from model two That being said, I do I do agree with with with what the general point of um, you know, one of the major limitations of a survey is that you don't know why people chose what they did And so you're left to speculation And so it's it's ultimately only a piece in the puzzle. Um, so I I think two other things that to bear in mind at least that I'm trying to bear in mind as as I'm Making my trying to make my decision throughout this evolving conversation here Is you know, there's there's this is one piece of input into deciding what the phasing Model ought to be and what the justifications for phasing are Right. Um, like I mean, I think the two other big benefits of phasing that that Mr. Morse is probably about to talk about but but we've we've mentioned before um, is is that ability to um, uh, to implement an operational system Um in the buildings that has never been done before Right. And so allowing, uh, the building principles and the teachers and the facility staff Um, a ramp up time with a small population and with the children that are going to need it the most right The most assistance to physically implement that. Um to to get that right. Um, that's that's a huge benefit The other huge benefit um to phasing and I don't think this has been mentioned enough is is to distance learning You know, so we had the emergency distance learning in march And we all want it to be distance learning 10.0 that we've talked about Ad nauseam and that we're all anxious to see the details on You know, the big thing that it needs though is a complete mental shift and total buy-in From everybody all students and all teachers at the same time And and and the beauty of the phasing model is that is that it has nearly everyone Except for the phasing group students and staff, you know, that 10% that are there at the beginning You know for a solid month everyone online in this completely new system booting up in a totally new mental model Right of this of this new, uh system not just the technology but the new the new ways the new the new Synchronous the new ways of communicating and and all that. Um, I think that's that's a tremendous benefit For the very reason we put in the framework document, which is You know, it was a priority for our committees that To that the district needs to prepare for the possibility that at some point given the the the metric conditions again I'm stealing dr. Morris's thunder and another two slides We may need to go to full remote anyway And so so we need to make sure at the beginning that that is a fully You know, you know ramped up uh system. So anyway, um, that that's one point the other thing that um, I think And I'm trying to follow back on a important point in the stance arrays, which is how does this vote um, kind of venn diagram overlap into the question of full remote Um, and I I guess I'll leave it mostly to dr. Morris to describe but this this goes right into um, the the notion of um Of establishing metrics as thresholds for going to these phases and including including going to phase one um, I I think was was really key for me when when I read that slide. So, um I'll stop there because I don't want to I don't get into that too much But but to me that's the really important pivot point but that based on local conditions The plan that as presented, you know, could be a fully remote model under under those those conditions And that's why it is is so dependent on those local conditions. And then that that's why it's that um Yeah, I'll stop there I think if unless um other committee members have questions specifically about the survey responses It might be helpful if we let dr. Morris talk about The next two slides where he introduces a new model as well as the the metrics Are there any more questions specifically on the survey? Nope. Okay, dr. Morris Before we do so I do this every now and then I just want to give miss grip co and opportunity She never has to and I don't know if she likes that I do this occasionally But if she um and she may be frozen on her screen Um, but if you know, I always just want to encourage her to participate But it looks like her screen is frozen to me um Likewise, if she's hearing us and wants to jump in I just always you know, especially when it's there's a student survey She's not responsible for the student survey, but if she wanted to offer her insights, I always welcome that So, um I'm going to announce that this is on pages 12 and 13 of the agenda packet That's on our website so that if people i'm not going to share the screen since that seems problematic um and And so, you know, one of the things I looked at based on the feedback Was adding a model four which had priority groups The same starting in you know in mid september. I actually shifted all these back to mid september given the change in the calendar um For the elementary grade levels it was the same But we had more conversations with the secondary principals and mr Sudeeks on the call And the problem with starting with ninth grade or just ninth and tenth grade Was that as opposed to the elementary level or even most people at the middle school level Though not all at the high school level people teach students in all grade levels And there's classes with students in all grade levels. So sort of as we started to um, kind of uh, actualize that model we really started to get away from um looking at grade level, um and um, and then uh thinking about maybe the the phasing would be after the first quarter at the secondary level one day a week Uh, and we could see how that goes and see if it could be expanded After the first semester so that it would be it would cut across all students at the secondary level Um, I think from a staffing perspective that made sense and also from a student perspective There were a lot of concerns a survey about particularly about um juniors and seniors uh about the years about preparing for college and And all those sorts of things. So we tried to address that in a different model I think one of the questions that um, I also received is why is the elementary and models two and four on a different model Different schedules in the secondary and actually goes back to some of the same thinking Is that it's really hard to have ninth grade and then tenth grade and then eleventh grade come in um Just because our teachers are teaching multiple courses and it goes back to actually the question Mr. Muno asked at the beginning, are you teaching virtually or in person and it was hard to imagine How that was going to work with certain grade levels coming in and other grade levels not at the secondary grade level at secondary level It was really hard to figure that out and also A quarter's a good Moment to pause and make a shift if we are because there are courses that shift in the quarter It's a marking period, especially in a block schedule. It's the halfway point So it just the flow of it and the logistics of it made much more sense to us the more we thought about it um, and certainly if there's any um question about You know about that part, you know, either me or mr. Sadiq principal Sadiq and can comment but that that was the significant difference um, and so Um, and so the other part was adding a metrics phase of the original draft of this just said based on public health data Um, but if you look at page 13 in the packet, um, it just uses what's what i'm seeing from, you know johns hopkins university and other medical professionals, um Fewer than 75 confirmed cases per hundred thousand in the past seven days and a test positivity Again, that'd be for hampton franklin county and a test positivity rate below five percent in those counties New york is using the five percent the american federation of teachers landed on that five percent in some language that i saw from them That doesn't that's not our union in amherst But it is a national teachers union And then having a higher standard for moving between phases that Having, you know, looking for, you know, lower numbers. It's hard to really describe this stuff numerically and then casually In in my language about looking at 65 confirmed cases and lower than four percent, you know This is something i'm certainly open to feedback on from from anyone in the room It is what i'm seeing as some standardized measures that people are Using around that. I think it's to miss lord's point earlier I'm not trying to convince anyone these are the right numbers But I think it is really important to have metrics if we are going to make changes If we're planning for in person and we're going to make a change between now and then it should be based on You know, what the the agreed upon metrics. I did check with the amherst health department. I talked to a A physician at um through harvard. I bring them in women So I tried to get as much concrete information from folks in the field that I could I am not an epidemiologist I don't claim to be But I tried to find what are some other places doing You know, the nice thing that what I what I learned is The test positivity rate Is actually a really good marker for Whether test testing capacity is keeping up And then the confirmed cases per hundred thousand tries to get it at the spread So they're they're related metrics, but you know, one might ask are they the same metric? But they're actually related but distinct enough where in my opinion having both of them makes me feel more comfortable And that it would have to be a you have to meet both of them One of the questions I got I know is what if one of them is true like the we're under five percent, but over 75 Cases per hundred thousand and I think it's it's an and not an or From a public health perspective. So again, that's the two things I added From the last time I was looking at the phasing model for and then also metrics to help guide decisions and I think you know My personal viewpoint whatever wherever you all land tonight Is that having clear metrics is going to be really important because I think if we're if our metric is something that's not based in public health It's going to change every week indefinitely If like if our if our metric is is not public health related It's a really hard situation. It's going to wax and wane and you know Like all of us do on these topics. So again, I'm I'm open to feedback on both the models and the metrics But those are the changes since the last time you looked at it Can I ask a clarifying question back on the model for phasing so It's not my grade level, but it's one day a week Does that mean can we infer that that means it's going to the who's in on Any particular day is determined by the courses as opposed to You know saying it's cohort a cohort b. Like cohort a are going to be people in these particular courses. Like how does that So, I don't know if mr. Shadeek if I believe he's on and if he wants to comment a bit on that You know, we are looking at different models at the middle school level One model would be seventh grade one day eighth grade another day and I think that was in some of the documents Because it is a team model that is a little more possible than it is certainly at the high school level. So Mr. Shadeek, I'm sorry to put you on the spot, but you agreed to be on the call. So there you are Yeah So wouldn't be divided by courses. It would be literally divided the school would be divided in half would create the schedule So and we'd have to think about what would be the best way to divide it So it would just be splitting all the classes in half and having half of them there on one day And another half on another day or if transportation wise made more sense to do it geographically But it would it would be my thoughts of you one of the two ways Maybe alphabetically is another way we would do it, but it wouldn't be by subject so much Got it Thank you So What questions or comments from the committee? I'm going to start with miss Kenny and then and then mr. Demling Um, so I actually just have a quick question. Maybe I missed it. I'm sorry So the For the metrics, where do those numbers come from? Like local hospitals Where where is that information coming from? So, uh, yep, it's a great question. So, uh One of the things that's Easier is the confirmed cases per hundred thousand is published every wednesday Um by county. So we have access to that really easily At the current time the test positivity rate is only by town I've actually talked to some of our local representatives and actually with the commissioner as well There's a group of us that are advocating for countywide data Um, because I'll give you an example. There's a town not in our district a very small town in franklin county They had two positive cases this week because they had very few tests it through their average to be at like 7% positivity Which because it's so sensitive because there's so few People in the town that it could be literally Siblings and then the number gets wacky. So we thought having hampshire and franklin county was the right right amount because it's not just We have school choice, right? We have we It didn't feel like if we just looked at our four communities, you know The more we thought about the metric need to be a little bit larger than that Um, so we would have to do some math every wednesday by looking at towns right now to look at all the towns in hampshire and franklin county To get that it's doable. It's a little cumbersome and hopefully in short order It will be done for us by the state, but at the current time we'd have to do it manually Miss spitzer. Oh, right Mr. Demling and it is hand up first. So Miss spitzer Okay, miss spitzer So my comment was directly related to this question of how we're calculating that because I think Would we take the average of the two counties? Like that seems too simple I think we'd have to like weight it somehow and I I think we'd want to just make sure we figure that out up front and publish it somewhere now like these are the sources. This is how we're doing it because um I think the problem is sometimes these numbers like you just pointed out that case They they can be really sensitive and I'd hate to see all us making um Really big changes in people's lives if the numbers move just a little bit and then go back one week to being another way So it's transparent as we can be and as robust in terms of like resilient to To potential small changes would be useful Dr morris can respond to that just in terms of that we would we would uh Like in terms of combining the hampshire county and franklin county data, we would do it on the per capita basis So, you know, that's it seemed like that was the fairest way for averaging It's all on average that we would do that and in terms of the test positivity rate We actually, you know, again, it's cumbersome, but it can be done just adding up all the town's tests Dividing by the positive rate. So hopefully at some point the state does that for us. They're not at the current time, but um, I just you know, wanted you all to um Be aware that we are thinking about how to do that in a way that's fair that doesn't skew the data so a franklin county because it's small a lot smaller than hampshire county that it wouldn't have an Undue effect and yet because two of our town two of our four towns are in franklin county We feel like that's relevant data and we we love our cheese brand levered peoples Mr. Manino I miss a spitzer raised the question in my mind. Does this mean we can go back and forth a dozen times? We we beat the metric we didn't beat the metric we beat the metric in person That virtual virtual In person how many times back and forth will we go? So I think that's a real concern and yet That's why we were you know, this training that I spoke about at the beginning the meaning for distance learning would be for all staff Even staff we're starting the year in person because we can't guarantee that You know that these numbers won't change. There's some things we can control. There's some things we can't control and That's true. Even for individual students who may start in person and choose to go virtual or vice versa, right? There's going to be There's going to need to be flexibility on that But I do think what you're talking about is a real issue And if we're getting close to whatever the metric ends up being and I'm looking for feedback on this I'm not again I've checked in with meant with with with public health folks But I don't claim to be all knowing And this regard or any regard for that matter You know, whether these are the right metrics that people feel comfortable with but but I think you're right right now Mr. Amino right now Hampshire and Franklin County are well under these metrics But there is a county in massachusetts who would be over it not by much but a little bit right now Looking at the data from yesterday. Yes, there's a from yesterday. It's not near us, but you know, I think My personal belief is you develop metrics and you stick with them even if it causes Some challenge because it's it would be just a little bit over but I think a little bit over is over So, you know, that's my perspective. I think when we get wishy That's the way I was and I'm not suggesting you were saying that but when we get flexible with our metrics I think we run into lots of problems in my personal view I'm seeing um several hands. Um, so I'm going to go to mr. Demling because you've been waiting And then I see mr. Harrington is seager and miss hall so, um We'll go in maybe that order Mr. Demling Yeah, so I'm back to model four. Um, I just wanted to say quickly two things about that that I liked about the variation um From from model two is you know, I like the idea of getting all kids back sooner, um You know from like an equity piece and from like a social emotional Point of view, you know, like the idea of not I mean I have to I'll just I just wanted to say this publicly once in our Meetings like the idea of not having eyes on all kids For for like 10 months like we went remote last march, right? So to go to late january To for for some of our kids not to be in the building for that long And that's that's a concern of mine and um And uh, you know, we have we have professional counselors. We have the bright program We have we have teachers who even know social emotional counselors and on their nametag That's that's part of their of their role, right? It's part of their dna and um That that connection that students have um And to not have that until late january. Um, what's concern? So so thank you for that. I like that improvement I also think from a safety point of view. It's it's an improvement in terms of um, we think about the the cumulative exposure to peers as as a variable in cobitx In cobit risk, uh, if you're going to go from zero to two days a week With your peers that's different than going from zero To one and then a few months later to two, right? And so that that gradual increase is also Is also a benefit. So so I like that variation I'm speaking to to the main point. I want to make you about the metrics slide So I'm and I'm taking the sort of like notes furiously here about appointments from menino made Specific detail points about these suggestions and comments about the metrics about an appointment spits are made. Um, miss kenny made Um, this kind of all comes back to a point that miss lord made about, you know Um, if we're potentially voting this this phasing tonight and then this this uh, this plan document that includes this phasing Um, you know, there's there's things that we might be coming back to and my expectation is that we would be able to revisit This this this part of it not not to be wishy washy on metrics in terms of going up and slacking on them But in terms of tightening them up, you know, because I just heard three really Um interesting actionable things that we might want to investigate in terms of making these Potentially stronger or more conservative, you know, because because you can think about turning the dial on these things and Um, you know, if you read the data on phase one If if there are more than 75 confirmed cases in the model that you're proposing This is a fully remote model, right? If if the test positivity rate is about is above five percent This is a fully remote model because we're not meeting the benchmark for for our priority Uh phase one group. Um, so I think this is this is exactly the kind of Focus for our committee's attention to be having. Um, for for me, it's it's it's an absolute requirement I wouldn't feel comfortable Voting a phasing model without it because because it leads to exactly what you described this kind of qualitative in the air of well, how how actually are you going to make the call? Um, you know when you're under all this pressure, um, you know, this irreconcilable preference pressure, you know in the future um, so, uh, you know, I'm I'm comfortable voting a model that includes this data, uh provided that um, you know, you are you are open to the committee coming in our committee revisiting this And that you're open to, you know, the committee potentially weighing in with with stronger metrics if if that's what the committee is Comes to a consensus on That's that's just my feeling on on that Mr. Harrington It's what's I suppose has been Answered to to an extent. I'm just kind of looking for a tighter answer on it So if over say over a two week period we start seeing a trend We're not quite at that five percent number But you know one one week. Well, I'll just take random numbers one week. We're at 1.5 the next Wednesday. We're at three What exactly would our response be? At that point and and how close to that metric do we need to be or do we need to have do we have to be over that number? And so that this is the kind of feedback that we want to have I saw Connecticut came out with some some models And they they you know, what I'm hearing from you. Mr. Harrington is how do you build in? Like a delta model where the change is going to be included What I didn't like about Connecticut's model is that it just was like a continuum It didn't actually lead to a decision-making tree. It was like you might want to go closer to hybrid or remote, right? And I'm not on living Connecticut. I don't want to knock your home state, mr. Harrington, but But you know, I think it was I think my personal opinion is wherever we land there's got to be a clear metric and and one could be you know If there's an increase of Over 1% in a two-week span or a one-week span That triggers xyz But I think just being really clear on metrics and having green and I don't think we're going to do that tonight Um, I mean, maybe you all will but I you know, I think this is your first time looking at this And this is the first time we're discussing it But I do think it's really critical I think it's really critical and I like the The delta model that you talked about. I had trouble actualizing how that would With that functionally work But there's also lots of experts in our area like, you know, that we're going to be in a session Wednesday That might be able to help us with that because I think I think you're right. It could still be low But You know a concern could be a big jump even if it's still under a number and again I'm not wet on four and five percent. That's again what the numbers are in the field right now I certainly am not opposed to Committee members suggesting different numbers and and having that conversation. I'm very open to it miss segar With the metrics I have a quick question and then I have a comment on the models Um with the metrics, I'm assuming that obviously we we'd use the metrics to to bring students back um Could we also combine that with the date is that the idea like You know, we we're not going to bring students back before september 16th I mean, obviously because school's starting but like the dates and the calendars that we're looking at would be part of it And as well as the metric That's exactly right. Yeah, it would be it would have to be both would have to be true in order to return on x date The metrics have to be show that we're ready and that's why for me I set up higher metrics for the phases because I think we shouldn't do it We should have my personal opinion is we should have More stringent metrics if we're going to increase the number of students It kind of gets at mr. Harrington's point a little bit different way that you have one metrics What do we need to have to feel like it's open? It's safe for students to be in school That's that to be in school. I think we'd want to have a higher metric if we're going to say, okay Now we're going to include more people That was again the numbers might change. I like the improvement metric and need a little help Probably thinking about how to how to draft that But yeah, that's absolutely the case that it would be it'd be both and you know I think when you get to a conversation later, I'll perhaps Not about phasing but just in general just have some thoughts about Why metrics are important no matter what the decision you all make is tonight that You know for not using metrics then well, I'll I'll save it for that conversation. I apologize Okay, and the comment I had on the models was I'm personally uncomfortable with having anybody in the school and With the priority group starting on september 16th I'm wondering if as a group if other people feel that way and like moving that group even out a little bit because what that gives us an opportunity to do is to See how our community responds to this influx of college students Like we won't know I think by september 16th what it's doing to the community And it just would give a little more breathing space to see If that positivity rate really starts to to climb up Um, just the five Come back to that and just in terms of a practicality from our agenda perspective because we are talking about the calendar later So I think that's that's where we want to Well, but these phases all have They have dates in them in a sense middle of september middle of october middle of november. I mean are those not strict in any sense or Dr. Morris, I think miss spitzer had her hand up. So I'll defer to miss hall was waiting. So miss hall and miss spitzer Yeah Okay, mine is just really quick just on these um on the metrics Could we say can we say where they are today on these two? Or of whatever the most recent date is that we have to that information Yeah, I can't I don't have the specifics right in front of you, but I can give you the general so The number is around two percent is a little bit under I believe in hampshire and franklin county and miss spitzer's shaking Notting her head, excuse me not shaking your head It's and that that's doing that's calculating it the same way waiting it and doing it per capita. Okay And then the confirmed cases is Shoot I looked this morning and of course now it's gone, but it's it's well under 50 Between the two franklin county is lower than hampshire county right now Excuse me per capita But even probably if you give me three minutes, I can give you the exact numbers on those because those ones are the easy ones They're published weekly. Um, so I can try to find that out as long as No, I I wasn't looking for exact. I guess I just wanted a sense of Scale of like what things would happen say between now and september 16th that would change some decision making and It's sort of uh similar to mr. Harrington's question about like Seeing that delta and how that would impact decision-making. So I just for reference. I wanted it. So that's good. Thank you miss spitzer Sorry, I wouldn't normally um Be bringing this up in the middle of a meeting But um you mass just announced that they are not bringing back students who are learning online to campus. So I This happened at 7 45 when we were in the minute my phone's been blowing up a little bit about this So I I bring this up only because I think it is directly relevant to the conversation We're having because of the concern that miss segar just raised um it I wish so this is I just wanted to bring it to the full committee's attention in case anybody on the committee Wasn't getting this news. Um through their email and and phones. Um, I do have other comments on the thing But Why don't you finish if you finish and then So my other thoughts about the Generally, um, did I just mute myself? Sorry, um are that I was wanting to confirm that For the elementary piece with priority groups in september because they're on specific dates Are we saying that k through one and grade two through three would all be starting at the same block of time? Um, I wanted to confirm that and then I think I just wanted to to put out there That I I personally don't see like There's a model five that I would potentially like to see which is one where we really prioritize the younger kids for in-person learning while um kind of sticking with the the You know more of the more model four option for the older students just because I think for the younger kids and I'm I'm really concerned about what's happening in november in terms of a return of influenza and cold virus You know other coronaviruses that we're used to Just because I think the overlap of the symptoms of Covid and the symptoms of the flu and cold and the guidance that we've seen earlier is going to mean that a lot of students May not be getting covid but they're going to be having a cough or a runny nose And we're not going to be allowing those kids for really good reason to be in school So the idea that we're actually going to be getting fourth and fifth sixth graders in on a regular basis in november to me seems um Unlikely and I want them to be able to build a connection with their community in the school buildings potentially prior to Having to go remote only So I I don't feel quite as strongly about that for the older students because I do think they're going to have an easier time accessing the remote learning Anyway, I just wanted to put that out there as a potentially like an option where we Put more effort into getting the elementary kids back in earlier um Ms. Stanser, did you have a question? Uh, I have just a quick question for miss spitzer. Did that announcement include off-campus students? Or was that just on campus students? I'd have to I don't think they'd have control over the off-campus students, but I have to digest the I didn't Yep so I think what I um Does sort of react into both mr. Harrington's question, which um I agree that there's there's we you know understanding sort of that that trajectory is really important particularly in light of This this new news because I I think Getting these metrics is the most important puzzle piece for us is sort of defining that and sort of defining what we're comfortable with in terms of um community spread and infection rate in in in terms of getting our getting students into school like to me That is that is the most critical piece for us like where where um Schools have reopened in other countries and they've had the outbreaks It's it's because they hadn't had clear metrics and they didn't stick to them um for for their protocols in in schools and um And so I do think sort of outlining that and as several of you have said You know being clear and transparent about what are the data sources that we're using how are we calculating them? what are sort of the change every time and and Not that that's carved in stone like new information might be new information and we might you know decide that we We you know in in in this kind of situation We can't be coming back every single week to sort of hash through and discuss whether we're comfortable with with x or y or z in terms of our schools because With every new piece of information people's fears and anxieties are going to be changing and and and it's on like the the having the metrics is really the guiding force for us to sort of Be able to evaluate where we are and whether whether we're in a situation where we You know we feel comfortable putting Enabling students to be in in the schools. Um at that particular time. So I I do I I would love to keep coming back to it I don't think anybody one of us is Is a public health scientist that's capable of saying this is the right metric. So I I think like continuing the conversation and having reaching out to Um area experts to help guide us and provide Provide that input for us to to be able to make those decisions It'd be great if the state was helping us on that as well So I think that's For me the most important piece of that and I would echo the sentiment actually that a couple people have said that a It feels 10 months feels like a very very long time for any of our students to not have any in person connection with with their With their teachers and each other And at the same time You know figuring out ways that we can sort of I like the idea of that model five that we sort of Jigger the the the elementary students also to be to have some of that sort of Whether if we're not in model one for elementary The other models having those older elementary schools not coming in until November Like how do we how can we sort of bring them? Enable them to have that connection with their school and their teachers before them would be great And I see miss Kenny's hand up um, so I have just another question about the the matrix so That information comes out weekly, right? I think that's what I was understanding So if it comes out weekly, so say this week we're good, but next week The numbers they don't work. So we scale back to all remote learning, right? So Then at what point do you how long does that phase last? So When do you switch back and would that could that like End up being a well this week. We're in school and next week We're at home and the week after that we're back to school like how how long will each one of those? Transitions I guess last Mr. Demley Yeah, I don't have the answer But this has like a direct application to some other data analysis problems in stock trading So basically what mr. Menino miss Kenny are talking about is the whipsaw problem Where you have where you have a system that's going along and you have a trigger point, right? So on this point, it's the 75 confirmed cases of the test positivity rate So what happens when you get into a case where your test positivity rate is 5.1 4.9 5.1 4.9 Do you send kids back every day or every week or every month? So what you do is you establish With with the person that's running the system. What's appropriate for that system? In in order to maintain the health of the system. So in stocks, it's obviously much different discussion. So For our purposes we would talk to the educators. So this is something that you know, so just just me talking I would expect the superintendent and the principals To to think about take this feedback and say, okay Imagine you have the most volatile situation where this is going up and down and up and down How frequently do we want to be? Phasing kids in and out and teachers in and out. What what makes the most sense, right? Is it weekly that that to us? Maybe that sounds a little too frequent But you know, we should talk to the educators. Maybe it's monthly. Maybe it's quarterly And then and then you recommend that and so and so even if you do phase phase back to fully online And the next week the positivity rate drops you don't do anything Until you reach that that you know that minimum period that you're back So that that's one way to solve that kind of a problem in the in this kind of the whipsaw problem It's a really good point down Dr. Morris so So I don't disagree theoretically with mr. Dilling I think you know the reality and this is in some of the documents that desi came out is that at any moment We may have to move remote because of something that happens in the school. I want to be really clear about that I'm not trying to not answer your question But I think then for me the data is based, you know, one data point seven days one data points an average over 14 days So it's sort of baking in the cake That we're getting averages and I think to mr. Harrington's point, especially if it's based on an increase We may want to be more conservative about returning And more quick to to move to remote than the other the other way around But I wanted to answer some other questions or other comments response to some other comments So franklin county right now is 14 per hundred thousand and hampshire county has 30 cases per hundred thousand in the last seven days So That's just wanted to be clear on the data request miss hall had it really was at the touch of the fingers I just didn't have the screen open For that. I think you know my own personal viewpoint Is if the committees want to start in remote in distance learning That I would ask for a more extended period than a month I think if we're gonna if we're gonna do it we got to commit to it And and I think my personal opinion is That commitment should be longer than you know a month or something like that where people are just getting their you know Getting in the flow of it given the training that we're doing It's also the case that I think I want to acknowledge the public comments and some of the feedback we've heard I think much of that is based on Concerns that not about massachusetts data. There was references to some of that But not that massachusetts is going to be the new florida or our zone out of texas But that the situation that we're in right now until there's a vaccine some hope Would be would be different and so, you know, I think If the committees want to make a decision, you know, based on that I would ask for actually an extended more extended period of distance learning I'm not suggesting or recommending this, but I think if that's where the committees are I would advocate not to have a short period like that. Um But really a much more lengthy period. I might think a little differently But also when I think about families who need to make plans particularly some of our most vulnerable families like Leaving them uncertain Doesn't make me I mean feel comfortable and if we're thinking about some of our intensive needs kids and how we're going to meet those kids Kids needs. Uh, I don't have a plan. I know we've been working on a backup one in case this went this way We can't organize a plan for a month for those kids. That's effective You know, we'd have to commit to them for a longer period. So I think if that's where the committees land Uh, I guess my request and I can go into more detail. Perhaps if this is a conversation I you know, I don't know what the right time is probably no one does tonight But since that was directly referenced If that's where the committees are I'll talk about some implications and we can do that more naturally But I would not be in favor of a relatively brief delay in the school year I'd be much more in favor of of a lengthier Lengthier distance learning experience So that our staff can do it. I think the uncertainty Is really hard on planning. It's also really hard on families and kids Um, to not know families are looking at options and they're going to make decisions We need to support them in that and so I guess I I guess I would I think a longer period of clarity Would be better for our staff and our families. Um, that's just my personal opinion, but I did want to respond to it and again, I don't know if this was appropriate moment for it But since it was it was raised on the table, I thought I'd share my opinion. I don't think The comfort piece and I'm not suggesting that's why Miss Cigar made her comment, but but I don't think that's going to get, you know Significantly changed and I think miss spitzer's point about the potential as we head towards cold and flu season I think there's some evidence that things will get more challenging Later so I don't know that's just my my initial thoughts I think if we want to have that larger conversation or whenever we want to have it I can speak more definitively to some of my thoughts about it But I think if we want to go down that road, you know I'd want a much longer period and and and want to really talk about what metrics we'd use On that topic I got a little lost. Sorry. I'm confused and and are you saying when you say Short and short versus Long, I'm not sure what you were referencing. So what I thought I heard was a period Maybe a relatively brief relatively brief period of time before phase one would start Um, that would be after mid-september. So I heard that and miss miss Cigar if I heard that wrong. I apologize. Um, that's what I thought Meaning starting with distance learning in mid-september. Is that Right. So I'll let miss if it's okay with you. I might have misinterpreted miss Cigar's comments and I apologize if I did I I think Is it okay if I speak? Yeah I think what I was referring to when I look at these models was Interpreting them as having potential start dates based on the half months and Maybe that's not the case and it's more of just the pattern set in them and like the What's more important in these models is the distance between the groups coming in Versus the actual start dates and it could have just been a misinterpretation of my part So no, I think I misinterpreted your comment. So I apologize. I think, you know, um I think it would be both the start dates would be based on the public health metrics being in place Both for phase one in terms of the core ones of anyone being in the school Uh, and then the the more stringent ones For phases two and three Uh, to start so I apologize. I thought I heard something different miss Cigar. My apologies So just a clarification just like a hypothetical clarification question So staying on that if if if we vote that this first day of school is the 16th To determine whether phase one actually Is in is in person whatever phase one You'd be looking the 16th Is a Wednesday, I believe when so you'd be looking at the prior Wednesday's data to make that determination Exactly Yep And sorry, there's a rabbit hole that I didn't need to go down because I misinterpreted a comment So I apologize miss Cigar Um Comments I'm going to look at um folks that haven't spoken up yet to see if you had any comments. So um Miss lord Miss Barlow Mr. Sullivan Mr. Harrington Mr. Menino Miss Barlow Yes, forgive me because I might not have gotten this right because I'm still trying to catch up I guess it's hard for me to look at all of this information and think a lot about the metrics For the phases without thinking about what happens and and defining more clear outcomes and metrics If a positive case happens in one of our schools And so I know this isn't maybe the right part of the agenda But it's hard for me to to separate those two things because in the documents It looks like more than one case and it looks like Certain if there's one case or potentially one place you have 14 or 18 students going home for two weeks And then they're coming back. So it's kind of back to miss Kenny's point to like How much we're going to flip flop back and forth? And when are we going to make a call so that the teachers can focus on providing education to our students? So i'm trying to think of what the I'm sorry not to be flip. I'm just trying to see the Is it a comment or is there something you want me to respond to? Oh, I guess I guess maybe a little more clarification on you know, if something happens in the school like I guess I guess a clear metric for when we would Maybe flip to online education in the event that there's an outbreak in one of our schools Gotcha. So when you say outbreak, I think of We're certainly shutting down school if we if we know that there's an outbreak The guidance that we got from desi and from the state kind of to your point I think describes what could happen if there is a positive case, you know, it talks about whether an individual is symptomatic Exposed to a positive one And some of this depends on whether they're, you know, what's a close contact? Are they under six feet for longer than 15 minutes? and So I think that's where their Information gets on and they do want us to contact them in the public health authorities Which we would do for that So, you know, I think the language that maybe is the most important in there is when there's a suspected in school Transmission superintendent consult the local board of health as proposed next steps These steps may include Making a decision to close part of the school For a short time one to three days close the school partially or fully for the longer duration of a 14 day Quarantine period and I think this goes back to the three feet through six feet thing that, you know What's a close contact is closer than six feet for more than 15 minutes And so I think that's why we do, you know, have our contract tracing folks Who can who can go into that I think in reality? This is not in the desi guidance. This is just My one person's opinion If we do have a positive case even if the guidance is that instruction can continue I think Logically families and staff members are going to want to get themselves tested and do that And and that students won't come to school for a couple days even if the public health guidance Is is not as conservative. I think the real guidance is I think that's just the way it's going to play out, right? I think that that classroom Will close and then we have to do the contract tracing around siblings and other other measures around that So, you know, I'm not trying to dismiss the public health guidance I also just think public guidance health guidance gives us What public health experts would recommend and what we know human behavior is is going to be more conservative than that At least that's what we've seen so far on this front. So does that help a little bit with that question? Yeah, thank you I'm sorry. It took me a second to get it I miss but sir and then mr. Deming So I guess just to continue on two thoughts Um It seems like we should definitely have some fixed Metrics, but maybe creating like a dashboard of the metrics that we're looking at So it would be maybe these are the hard and fast ones that we're saying, you know, we cross this line This is a red line. We cross it. We close down schools However, I think there are other things that we'd want to look at like how what's the what's the testing availability in the community Can we get tests if we need them? How long is it taking to get those tests back? Those are things that have fluctuated quite a bit over the course of this pandemic And actually really matter a lot in our ability to keep students and teachers in school If we do start to see an uptake and then the other thing I was thinking is the absent rate You know, so if we're seeing like a lot of kids who are out sick and get in a time period or teachers as well Like maybe that would be something that we'd want to be looking at every week So I'm not I don't want to be didactic about what those metrics should be But I think it might be really useful if we created And I know you're doing this kind of on an ad hoc basis But maybe creating a superintendents update or you bring out a spreadsheet With all of the numbers that you're looking at and the trends in them and what just so If we if the school committee is going to be brought into making this decision about the opening and closing closing It would be good to have numbers that we're looking at over time consistently And and know the sources that they're coming from and how we're weighing them If I might add it's I don't disagree that those are all hopeful I'm not sure we or the district are the right people to be Defining what those metrics should be in the sense that like We have public health officials. We have public health A public health department. I I feel like we're asking our district to step into a role that You know rather than than other than our district Sort of taking on this task of tracking all of these metrics Is there is there an opportunity to lean on Actually people whose job it is to be doing that Rather than asking Dr. Morris and the district to be doing that it I feel like some of these things may be Beyond beyond what we have the capacity and competency to be able to to decide so Mr. Demling Yeah, I mean, I guess I agree with both of you like On the one hand, I I don't think that school committee members should Drop everything we're doing and like ramp up and become professional epidemiologists on the other hand You know this draft metrics table is is to me the most critical piece to the plan Because it is the pivot point between fully remote learning and And the degree to which students are on site and it's you know, frankly It's the piece that's missing from every district plan that's gone fully remote. It's when are they coming back? You know, it's it that's completely left unsaid right and it's it's it's completely left unsaid and A lot of the district plans across the country that say, you know, we're we're back in school But well one of your when anyway, um, so so I feel like um I feel like from school committee point of view and I do understand that And we're always bumping up against this problem, right because of the nature of our committee in the district is that there's always this kind of gray area right between the school committee's role of oversight and and the district's role of of operational Accountability and administration and and where do those lines meet into what detail Do do we actually need to vote and and on that and I get that but but I do I do feel like For me to be comfortable voting The phasing plan tonight. I want to be able to say I I support these metrics as presented and I reserve the right for the school committee to discuss it in the future and recommend stronger metrics If if we feel that that's appropriate, you know, and I don't I don't I don't feel it's it's overstepping our bounds If if we come back and we say we strongly recommend that You know that you add x y z metric I I feel like the superintendent could take that uh under advisement and say that Okay, well based on the Medical experts I've talked with I don't think that's appropriate and then we could have that discussion But that's part of the discussion right like I don't think that um I don't think that input from a school committee point of view Should be shut down. This is this is my point of view. Um, and I feel like Um, because this process is moving so fast as as we knew it would from from the start of this two months ago um That to have such a critical piece, you know that we're like we are signing off on I I feel like um, you know for me I feel like it needs to be at least as strong as presented and then To to have the to have the opportunity to really digest this and and to get to all the comments that that I've written down But I haven't had a chance to you know, uh, uh, really Think through um So that you know next week or the week after if this needs to evolve to different places It can't it can't get stronger. Um, just just process wise I just wanted to note that that we're hitting nine o'clock and and we're also hitting august 6th And so from a committee point of view, I I'm just feeling like our responsibility Is that we need to make a decision on phasing Like tonight and soon Um, just as our responsibility for the district and I'll just share that from my point of view I have a personal preference, but I feel like It's more important for me to support the consensus committee View. Um, I heard miss spitzer talk about a possible model five. I guess I'd like to hear what that is um I I feel like some variant of of model two is is is where we ought to land up I I like I like the model four. I like the improvements it it made but if if there are others Uh, that that have a clear idea of what that is. Um, I guess I'd also like to hear You know, short shortly and clearly and frankly what dr. Morris's recommendation is Uh, as you know as as a factor on a decision Thank you. Actually, I was that was one of the things that was on my list was to go back and say We you know, we're looking at this and we're looking at the data from the parent's perspective Families and students and staff perspective What is you know from an administration perspective that you you'd referenced before sort of the ease of bringing students in or Transitioning at quarter breaks or specific time breaks. So from from your perspective, dr. Morris. What what would be your preference? So I think if we're going to have, um If we're going to do one of the model, I don't know what phasing model five is so I can't comment on that one It seems like, you know, the mystery one But you know from my perspective in our perspective out of the four that are there phasing model four would be The preference for a lot of the reasons that you heard from me and from mr. Siddique earlier just Seems like it makes sense Logistically it makes sense. I know it holds out secondary kids a little longer than some people might want but I think I think just If we focus on a small group at the beginning And particularly the groups that have the Least access to distance learning. I think that's in our best interest. Um, and I think You know, I know some people think it's too aggressive. Some people do it's conservative, but you know, for our perspective I think that's where if we land there that seems like the best approach from my personal perspective But again, I don't know what other models Not I'm not I'm not trying to be flipped with miss spitzer, but it may be that you look at this data and say what about this and and you know, certainly I'm open to other thoughts on the matter as well And miss figure I saw your hand up I was just wondering if you could help me understand something because I'm not sure I'm fully getting this um If phase one has certain metrics and we went with any of these models, let's say we went with model four um I guess what I'm what I'm not understanding and maybe you were talking a little bit about this is Would we be in phase one right away? Or would we be pre phase one with some remote time in there for those that phase one group? So that that's what I'm not clear on in all of this is Clearly by the metrics now. Yes. We could be in phase one Would that start the first day of school? Um, or would you prefer and the administration and staff prefer like? A time in there to get get their remote stuff under their belts and and things settled out a little bit and then enter phase one is is there a This this is what I think I'm kind of missing in all of this is With a time between the phases and what in the initial start Dr. Morris Yeah, so my perspective is that the students in phase one are the students who Are most in need of the commodity that is in-person learning Um, that's a group that has not had in-person learning for months and months and months Uh, we don't know what the future will hold if our data is good at that point I would want to maximize their uh ability to have in-person learning So I would feel like that. I think if we didn't have 10 days before the school year I might have felt a little differently. Um, I frankly, you know, did have feel a little bit differently about that I think with you know, actually 11 Staff days before the school year starts Um, I feel like, you know, if if we're going to start with kids in person I think that's the group that is every day they're in person Even if it's a phase like I know some of the staff have recommended Could we, you know, almost phase it in with not full days, but partial days to start the year I think that makes a whole lot of sense Um for certain populations, but um, that's my my perspective is that it would it would start at the beginning of the school year That every day those students are in school Is a real benefit. Um, and that's not a critique of the students. It's just that's the nature of Being a very young kid and not being able to read or not having You know the linguistic skills and some of the challenges that come with that Or having intensive special needs and the challenges about accommodations modifications occurring In a virtual environment. So that's my my perspective And I think one of the things and and um That came up actually in some of the preschool conversation in the amherst school committee That they had earlier is what we'd want to also do for that those populations is train them that if we do train students So if we do go to virtual that we're building their skill set to be more effective We couldn't do that in the spring. There was no time. It wasn't like on march 13th We could say hey, let's stop what we're doing midday We got this announcement and let's do some ongoing work with students so that they're better equipped To access distance learning in case we need to go there So that we really want to build that into the program so that we're building the capacity of all students But particularly some of our most vulnerable students To be more successful in case we get there in the future So, you know, some of that would have to be actually be some of the initial work And it sounds kind of strange to be training students And working and developing their skills for distance learning But I think that actually was a missing link for many many students who Distance learning didn't come naturally and we were trying to Help Acclimate students to a distance environment from a distance environment And if that distance environment was in and of itself the barrier It really led to some challenge. It has led to some challenges and we'll continue to so That's just my personal perspective on it. I don't speak for anybody else on it Miss spitzer you had your hand up I guess that kind of goes back to seeing that my model five keeps getting run up Um, I'll be more specific. So the the question I had was trying to figure out these The dates so I'm assuming september 16th or the 18th is the first day back for All of the priority groups in across all four models That was my understanding But then we don't actually have any dates or any sense of how long these gaps are between the phases And so I think my concern actually piggybacks really well on what you were saying Is that for You know the second And third graders and even potential, you know, I don't know as well fourth and sixth graders But I feel like for for elementary kids there is uh It's harder to go remote Um, and so there is a strong benefit for even if it's just Bringing them into an environment where they can be in a tent And meet their teacher in person and maybe get some orientation to their chromebook and how this new You know Can we build into this model a way that the especially our younger kids even if it's an outdoor kind of Half a day even if it's not a full five days a week model Can we get them in so they start building that community building the facility with the tools because my big concern with the model that has it's not that Um with the kids starting elementary kids starting in november is that it It just seems to me like a really big Um delay in building those skill sets and maybe that is another dark I didn't really see that in the opening play like I haven't seen a conversation Any details about how we might be doing a little bit of Outdoor in person or some sort of half day kind of phase in for those kids who are going to be starting so late so I'm not going to be I'd be happy to vote for The last model if we could also in the future try to build in some of those Ways of connecting with students in person that might be different from actually being in the classroom for a full day five days a week Yeah, I think um charlotte north carolina, which is starting all virtual And I fully support that I mean their numbers would be well above any of these metrics Or at least it was when I last looked They built in something along the lines of what you're saying for elementary students Where there was some outdoor In-person kind of orientation Yeah, I mean it's something I think it makes sense I struggle If we're outside the it brings around some logistical challenges, you know in terms of like wi-fi doesn't really extend that far outside our building so I'd have to think through some parts like that. I think the other thing is So much of the initial work will be on distancing wearing masks and all that for elementary kids that Um, I have to think I'm just being really transparent here. I'd have to think through How much content would they get because so much of the work would really be around Continuing an orientation of being, you know, physically safe and in this environment. So Let me do some thinking about that. I'm not opposed in principle I just I see some logistical challenges that I'm not saying they're Not over they can't be overcome, but I just I want to think it through a little bit Sort of building on maybe another another way of thinking about that is For the students that will be starting all remote In any of these scenarios At some point they obviously have to come into the building to pick up their materials right to pick up their devices and and that is there Is there any In any of these is there Any sort of initial sort of orientation when they do or is it literally a tactical transactional exchange of handing the material or is there opportunity to have at least some sort of You know face-to-face time small groups or one-on-one In in that which might not be like that. It's a in-person learning opportunity, but it's a it's a check-in and a Sort of relationship building opportunity as opposed to a learning Um instructional opportunity for those So we haven't gotten any detail thinking about that, but this is great feedback that we can You know bring back to the team and continue to think about and try to work with So thank you How are I've heard a couple people mention that they're they're they're feeling that they they could vote Tonight pending certain information um Does It's at how majority of people are feeling at this point or um Seeing some thumbs up Miss hall Yeah, I would just say I I feel like I could vote on this on the pazing Tonight, I mean, I think the discussion has been really good and really helpful and that there's certainly more Conversation to be had around this and some work to be done, but I would feel comfortable doing that tonight Mr. Demley I just Dr. Moore said before I Vote on like so i'm comfortable voting model for unless someone voices like a strong opinion for a different model that i'm open to hearing that um But dr. Moore's I just I guess I just wanted to just ask the question plainly and clearly that Are you open to the committee coming back and expressing? Uh having a discussion and potentially recommending potentially stronger metrics for for phasing. Yeah, I would make sure that that question is is clearly put out there Yeah, um And so yes is the quick answer, you know, I wouldn't expect you to endorse Something as complex as phasing in the first time you looked at it. Um, and I think there's more conversation to be had on that um, so definitively yes Okay, just sort of a procedural question. Would we be voting on each individual model or is there kind of a consensus that The preferred number four would be the one that we would vote on right now or well, so I think it depends on the I always asking myself that the question But I think it also depends on the motion that um that any committee member would like to make for their committee um Miss Seeger I still have one more question on the models um And maybe this will get ironed out and you can tell me if that's going to be the case But it's the distance between bringing in the different groups of the phasing Say we started in phase one right away um How long until phase two and I know there's metrics in there, right? But is there any sort of time too because you could say a week later Well, let's start phase two and then a week later. Well, let's start phase three I'm not suggesting you said that at all. I'm just wondering sort of How how the process might go Yeah, so, um, I think I can be more clear that it would be no sooner than You know for for the length since and model four since that's the one that people are talking about um It would be after indigenous peoples day Um It so I mean a different way to say it and I think to your point Maybe a more accurate way to say it would be no sooner than before indigenous peoples day because it's that's the date but the metrics have to go along with it And for the November date, you know, I was loosely considering, you know after veterans day, but I think Um, a better way to say it would be no sooner than Veterans day, um, because I think that clarifies and thank you for being I didn't pick it up sooner But I think it's a really good point that it's it's no sooner than and only if the metrics allow for Is that a helpful clarifier? I think that's definitely helps me a lot and makes me feel better and like I can vote. So thank you right, um Okay Would uh, would anybody from the region like to make a motion Mr. Demling I move that the embers poem regional school committee adopt the model for phasing schedule moved by demling I'll second that second by mcdonald. Is there any further discussion from the region? miss spitzer procedural question should we state that it would be contingent on Met, you know data Sorry, I'm having trouble thinking but contingent on meeting certain metrics as set by this committee or Mr. Demling I'll take it as a friendly amendment that it is contingent on Meeting the metrics as presented Which may be made stronger by guidance of this committee in the future If if such phrasing is amenable to uh, miss spitzer That's good. Thank you And I'll second that again Okay, we'll move to a roll call vote um Mr. Demling Demling I Mr. Harrington Harrington I Ms. Lord Lord I Mr. Menino Menino I Miss Seeger Seeger I Miss Spitzer Spitzer I Miss Stanser Stanser I Mr. Sullivan and mcdonald I Mr. Sullivan, are you here? The motion passes eight to zero And one not present I'll make the similar motion for the amherst school committee. I move that the Amherst school committee adopt phasing model four with contingent upon metrics as defined and um and Reviewed and revised by as by committee. Is that the amendment that we made? Yeah as as Mr. Demling as um as presented and as um Possibly adjusted by the committee committee's guidance in the future So that's something to that effect I'm not sure something to that effect is official motion language, but I move that we accept uh that we vote to approve model four Um contingent on the metrics as presented And as may be potentially revised By the by the committee Is there a second second Move by mcdonald second and by spitzer We'll call vote mr. Demling Demling I Mr. Harrington Harrington I Miss lord lord I Miss spitzer spitzer I And mcdonald I It passes amherst five to zero Miss hall All right. I since I wrote that down I will move for the Pelham school committee that we adopt the model four phasing schedule contingent upon meeting the metrics as presented And as may be revised in a future by the committee Is there a second second Great move by hall seconded by menino Uh roll call vote miss kenny Kenny I Mr. Menino Menino I Miss dancer Stancer I And miss barlow Barlow I And hall I passes unanimously five to zero We are now uh almost three hours into our meeting. I believe uh, we need to actually move to extend our meeting And I might also suggest that we take a five-minute break um So I move that we uh extend our meeting by 30 minutes We by mcdonald second by Harrington, um, do we need to take I For them we need to take a vote No, I was like, um All is in favor I I Okay, and are we uh, okay to take a five-minute break Okay, it is 9 19. So we will return at 9 25 So I'm gaveling us back in Great, okay, so next on our agenda item. I have to scroll back is um The vote on the back to school plan Dr. Morris, would you Like to I think the full plan is in our packet Yep, um So it's a long document. I'm not going to try to describe all of it. Um, but um I think What it focuses on is is really All the collective work and the guidance that I've received from from votes from the school committees over the last couple months about Uh priorities that the school committee has um working with our With our providers our public health department and again focusing on and prioritizing Learning at the beginning of our students have the least access to to distance learning while still building a remote Model, I mean, I think it's worth noting that the model that you You all that just got voted in means that students the best majority of students in grades 2 to 12 will start in a virtual environment There'd be very few students in And that the vast majority of students at the secondary level wouldn't wouldn't return and staff wouldn't return until november Um, and so it's trying to be very deliberate Uh about starting very small uh with the students who have the greatest need for um For being for in-person education and if the metrics allow then we gradually increase that I think the one thing that I want to be really clear about in the document is that We're still unclear about the capacity to do whether it's a hybrid model or Uh more of the typical elementary model We've been talking about for the upper elementary grades and it's because until we know which students are going to come back And how our staffing models go That's just one thing that even though this is a plan that's supposed to be submitted that will be well Depending if you vote or not, uh, it was intended to be submitted to desi. That's one uh open question Then until we get more data, uh, we can't uh make a determination on our capacity to pull off Um upper grade education, whether that'd be a hybrid model Where they'd be in two days a week, uh, or uh more than that But I wanted to highlight that one because that's one that we've talked about a couple times And we're just not at a decision point because we don't have enough information to be definitive And we'd rather be intentionally Transparenly unclear than to try to be clear in a way that then we have to go back on that decision later But really there's no surprises in the document. Hopefully you felt like there was no surprise in document I know it was really long document. It's it's a compilation of all the things we've been talking about I want to be really clear that, you know, I know you just voted, uh, um phasing piece and Um, I know some people didn't hear this earlier because they weren't on the call is that if there are adjustments that you all feel like Need to be made to this then that that's fine. And really it's just trying to see if This document defines and describes where the committee wants to be in terms of moving forward Um, and if it doesn't then we'll make adjustments to the document and move forward along with it But it was trying to capture in an ever-evolving situation Uh, the feedback that we received from the committee and how to actualize that in a plan to move forward That was both conservative from a public health point of view Um, I think very deliberate in a public health point of view I I recognize there's different opinions about that. Um, and I want to acknowledge them I you know, again, I go back to what people might not have heard earlier is that I know Everyone on the committee as well as myself Reads every public comment that comes in and considers it and considers also in less formal conversations as well Um, so I guess the question for the committee, uh, is this does this description Does this document describe where the committee is now and if it if it does Then great and if it doesn't then we should talk about that and and what adjustments you'd like to see And and I made a misnomer there. I should say committees Um, because you know, I I we meet in this joint way because I think it's worked well so I really want to thank miss hall and miss mcdonald for Uh, organizing this and miss dancer. Mr. Deming as well as being the vice chairs of those committees Um, but each committee is able to make an autonomous decision We wrote it as one, uh, because we've been meeting that way But I also just want to acknowledge the autonomy of each committee to have a discussion and And have its own feelings on this matter as well So I think I'm happy to answer any questions. But again, uh, you know, I'd be curious But I think reading it. Hopefully you felt like oh, I've seen this before Oh, I've seen this before this was from this slide, right? There was the advantage of meeting every week for many many or just about every week for many many Weeks and and more than a month on this is that really is a cumulative process and So hopefully you felt like there was nothing in there that Seemed like it was coming out of left field because it was it was all things that we talked about before And I think that's all I'd like to queue up for it and I'm happy to answer any questions Anyone any committee members would have Mr. Deming So I find this one is one of those funny examples where we meet on something for a really long time Have all these in-depth discussions about the various aspects of it And then we get to the the decision point and then we're like, oh, and we have this massive document like, okay like Like like when we did the the dual language vote, right? I remember that that final discussion was very short even though It was a momentous vote. Anyway, as to your core question of Does this reflect where where we're currently at? I just just speaking for myself. Um, yeah, more or less it it does I I didn't find any surprises as I Mostly as as I read through it. Um I think, you know getting back to something on this Lord said at the very beginning You know, there's obviously a couple, you know, major variables still to be determined But the you know could alter The the environment this this is implemented in and we would have to adjust to that obviously the COVID data and and our staffing resources that's to be determined through Collective bargaining, but those are processes that are are are playing out. Um You know, so I guess, you know, so one thing that the did stick out to me, you know, if we're gonna like you know Look at a detailed level is is the this idea about outdoor learning then it's keep it keeps coming up and um, you know, if if I were to synergize the Too many articles I've read over the last two months about the science of COVID You know, one one of these consensus things that seems to be emerging is is this de-emphasis of of contact trans surface transmission and and the increased emphasis of aerosolized transmission and I always say that we shouldn't play armchair epidemiologist, but here I am. Um, It's anyway it it all the the cumulative evidence it just it just adds more Urgency to be transitioning Our education our learning to outdoors when feasible In addition to all the awesome well-being benefits of it right for playing and whatnot that you know, we I'm sure we all feel so, you know I scan the entire document I found to the extent possible classes will be permitted to meet outdoors Meeting outdoors increases the ability for students to physically distance And when feasible students will eat outdoors That's pretty much it and It's not that I don't believe the district or teachers are Are on the same page in terms of the spirit of trying to get it outdoors I just I would in a this large of a document where where this where this really wants to be a core principal I wasn't I expected it to be a little more In the mainline theme structure of how things are going to go and maybe Maybe that's more on the curriculum aspect. Maybe that's that that will come out more on the detailed public forums But I don't know if you could just sort of comment on that are there major aspects that aren't just appropriate for this document you're thinking about or the administration's thinking about that I'm missing or Or are you still trying to push the envelope about trying to get people outside as much as possible? Yeah, no, I think that's a valid critique. I know mr. Emberlin's on this call. She's someone who Not that others don't but she just maybe You know says the more interesting emails on that particular topic And so I do think there's some resources that we are looking at and I think some like the Hitchcock Center I know mr. Emberlin sent me a link of some of their work So I think it's a valid critique that it's not articulated more clearly In this document, but I think in general as a principal You're right that it remains our principal and I think starting with the populations We start with that's another advantage of the phasing is just when there's fewer students present It allows for more outdoor learning not just under a tent, but just In the same way that our gardening program. We never had a tent and all of a sudden we have a gardening program at our elementary schools that Consistently is a high quality outdoor education. So I think you know, that's something else I imagine ELL is going to be added and I think we can be a little more explicit about that in the document But I think you're right that there's it's not an intentional omission I think it's just trying to compile a lot of information, but we should be more explicit about that So thank you Mr. Harrington I kind of took out a couple little elements and put them in a little side document here, but um So one area that I have well, there's two kind of areas. I have a little concern I see a tad bit more clarity. It's uh, so under the transportation section there's a part About bus monitors the district will make every reasonable effort to provide bus monitors um Are they going to be somewhat of a requirement on the bus and I asked this because of the second part of uh That I needed some clarity on here I I kind of don't feel comfortable putting a lone driver Kind of in charge of certain things like a there's a part if the child presents symptoms Presents with symptoms. The child will not be permitted to board the bus Is there an expectation that it will be the driver that deems that that student won't get on the bus? or I mean, I would just like to see a little bit more detail regarding that because after talking to a lot of drivers that that's a Key sticking point that I I know I won't speak for them But it it seems as there aren't a lot of drivers who are willing to be the lone person to make that call Yeah, it's it's super valid and and I think that's um some feedback we can take in and make some edits there And I think from your comment I don't want to not suggesting you speak for the committee, but it sounds like You know, you'd really like it to be more clear that there will be a bus monitor not recommended Um, you know, and that's something that we've had conversations about and really that's why we're having pushing on the conversation tonight because I think if if the committee is Going to vote a plan that does involve in-person education And then we get to work it was really hard to do recruitment of Who might do that right like this is the first step in a sequence of okay? Who's coming back who's in phase one? We might not ask phase three students yet if they're coming back because that's that might be in november And why would we ask them in august if they're coming in november right? Their minds are probably going to change multiple times But once we know which kids are students what students are coming back Then we got to you know figure out Okay, what are the bus routes and what are the monitors and how many do we need so I think you know that's a cut change I'm very comfortable making and I know some of our administrators have raised that same piece. So That's a friendly amendment as to use your all language I would Second that and thank you mr. Hangton for bringing that up because actually in fact It's been something on my mind ever since my kids were in grade That there's only one adult on the bus and I can't tell you how many times I've sat behind a bus that pulled over because they had to wait for our students to to settle down and And so particularly in this environment. I do think that that should be Stated very clearly that we will have bus monitors So that our bus drivers can really focus on getting our students to school safely um I oh mr. Sullivan, and I think this miss Kenny. Did you have your hand up also? No, okay mr. Sullivan Mr. Sullivan All right, I'm gonna my am I speaking now because I my microphone wasn't working earlier All right, so the my first quote my bus stuff um The first one is I was talking to a bus driver today who Reminded me that the federal motor carriers Association does not allow hand sanitizer on their buses So they can't you can't put a hand sanitizer dispenser on the the Steps of the bus to have kids use it on the way in and out because it can't be on the bus And my other question was If We are sending arms and arhs priority groups in September does that kick in the entire bus system Because if we do don't we have to provide transportation if we open the doors? So the first question i'll have to check on I don't know the answer to that one specifically But I can definitely find out for you and share with the committee on the second question We would be transporting students um At the regional level be a very small number Uh relative to how many students currently ride the bus But you're right there would be transportation offered To families who have students who fit within phase one who choose to send their students in I'm not sure I captured the answer answered your question clearly though. Mr. Sullivan. Is there did I can did I get it or am I missing something? No, you got you got it that the buses need if we open the doors the buses need to roll Yeah Any other what are the questions miss seeker? uh just a general question on page 22 it shows the middle school And I I guess i'm not clear on whether or not crocker farm students will be there because they heard they would be there and then there was A lot of them got moved back. So i'm i'm just not clear if this is Keeping open that possibility because it does show the fifth and sixth graders being in the middle school um And what the current thinking is on that? Yep, so I think that goes back to the uncertainty about whether fourth or sixth grade would use a hybrid model or not And until we know how many students are coming back Um, I don't think we know that yet. Um I think, you know, as you know, we built all the models assuming that 100 of students would come back I think that's you know unlikely to happen. Um, so I do think It's I can't say definitively, you know on that So I have a hard time putting odds on it because there's a lot of variables at play But certainly that decision would need to be made well, but well before november when That phase would start if that makes sense miss hall So this question might be of a little too specific. So I don't answer it if it is But just in the there are multiple references in different areas about special needs populations and then also ppe related to teachers and students in special needs populations Um, and I just you know, a pretty consistent concern that's come up is teachers and staff who work with special needs populations that that it's You know, it's less about kind of like mask enforcement And more about like what the needs of those students are So I guess is it kind of Is it too early to talk about like the you know protections in place for those teachers and staff and ways to make sure that in addition to I mean that there's a reference to training But maybe a little more specificity as to How in addition to making sure the student needs are met also making sure that those staff Are protected as well Yeah, and so I don't want to start talking about something that would be and I'm not suggesting you asked this way That might be part of collective bargaining, but I think what I can say really clearly even today There was an outdoor meeting with a someone who's a trainer in Um de-escalation techniques and one of the things that came up in addition to ppe It's just scrubs for people to use so that if they're wearing Kind of isolation gown that they have something underneath if it's comfortable and and that's something that you know Already went to our nurse manager to most consolino who you know who's already investigating what would be the best products around that so The short answer is I think we were learning from places public school districts unionized public school districts who are having summer programs with special needs students right now You know Hadley holyo, you know north hampton as being a couple examples of that and You know learning from their experience about what's worked as well as from private day schools You know schools that are out of district placements Um, and you know, I think we're able to better understand even compared to a month from now What are tools that would be helpful for for staff members? Okay, great. Thank you Um Mr. Demling and then miss stancer Um, yeah, so uh, so first I just want to Agree with miss mcdonnell and mr. Harrington's um the point about the bus monitors. Um, in fact, uh Uh, the member of the public had had actually asked about Volunteering and volunteering bus monitors and I understand that a volunteer workforce comes with its own challenges but You know times being what they are that's certainly something that um that is is worth worth looking into But but I but I would second that and if it's a budgetary issue let the school committee, you know Let me fight that battle with the towns if we if we need to Uh, but but the question I had was about about parent choice And and and the scheduling of that so so a couple things is so with with the phasing that that that we have, um You know a parent of a Uh, depending on what grade you're at your your student Is is not potentially going back on site Uh until a certain date in the calendar and so so the first Part of the question is is when when are parents making the call? When when do they when do they make the decision about? When are they sending their kid back or not like when do they get that option? And the the second part of that parent Choice parent optionality question is we had talked in general about Well, if a parent does decide to go remote or or in person if that's If their grade is in phase at that time, um, they could decide to to switch periodically, um, that was that was a uh Suggested in the the school committee framework document So so like when when would that happen is is the idea that that would happen At at the the breaks of the phases or or quarterly or or what's what's what's the thinking? Is it that you you commit at a certain point and then you can you can go back to remote whenever you want? What's what's what's the current um status of that? So I think you know, I don't think like many districts there would be any precursor to students going from in person to virtual Um, but the other way around would be at the logical break points. Exactly Are you all surprised that? Unless mr. Deming you had a follow on to that Your original question if it's a different question. Let's go to miss dancer. Yeah, I can I can do that. Yeah, that's fine Okay, miss dancer. Um, so I've had someone Excuse me. I've had someone ask me where the bright program fits. Is that part of the special needs group? Uh, it's not right now and the bright program is so when we thought of the special needs group would be students who um The bright program doesn't require special needs to be a part of it Um, and so that's my cleanest answer for that If anyone needs that are emerging in that way can be part of the bright program. It's not Like a specialized program that makes a placement decision for students of special needs So they would follow the phases Rather than being part of that first group Okay, thank you Miss Kenny So I saw there at one point it said something about um, you know, making sure the kids eat a hearty breakfast So they're not inclined to Want a snack and take off their mask when they're not supposed to um, but Will the school still be doing and then shortly thereafter it said something about the school serving breakfast Is that still something that is going to be happening? Um, because I think there are lots of families that count on school breakfast So, uh, that's another one that we're still working out details on especially because a later school day There are some limits in terms of how late breakfast can be served and still qualify as breakfast under the federal requirements. So um, that is something that um Does need to be resolved and I'll I'll get back to the committee, but I um It's we're trying to see if how late we can push the envelope with um Getting reimbursed for breakfast, you know through the the federal program. Um, because there are some time constraints to that Um, I believe so that's something that we are working on. I think the hearty breakfast was also just if students are coming in at 945 and and we understand students may not have eaten because You know, there may not be food available to them, but for students who are um, that used to be a long time to not eat Um, so that was a lot of the concern was more about nutrition and health miss dancer Um, that made me think of another question. Um, will we be providing lunch for students who are remote the students who qualify for school lunch So, uh, that's a great question. I signed yesterday or today There's some advocacy going on because the federal government has indicated That they're not extending the waiver. Um, that we had this spring That allowed us to provide meals in the way we both have been this summer, but also did this spring um, and so Um, there's some advocacy going on. Maybe something the committee wants to jump in on. Um But it's um The plan would be to do so, but hopefully the advocacy and common sense and decency. Sorry, that's a little editorial But it's 950 uh went out and that we wouldn't position not just our district but other districts Um, and in a pretty awful place that way Mr. Deming Can you briefly describe or send us information on that tomorrow morning about what you're talking about with advocacy because We definitely have some members of the committee that are into advocacy and this this sounds like exactly something everyone here would support Yes Happy to do so Mr. Harrington Yeah, there's a section on So it's on page 16 responses to non-compliance with health and safety requirements So I I'd see that uh It says that you know, we will we get back to it. We will Follow our philosophy of restorative justice and supporting positive behavior I was just wondering And I know it's probably semi redundant if there could be something added into that section that says it that There won't be it won't be punitive measures that are taking that You know a kid not wearing his mask today isn't going to have that follow him on his record or her record You know throughout their education as being a non-compliant being or something about it No, not that It's done by omission not by saying it clearly. So I like that Um, clear language that you offer. Thank you And I appreciate the the part about the commitment to restorative justice I like that we're reinforcing that in in documents like this Miss Spitzer Sorry, um Just trying to bring up the document. Um, so my question has to do on page seven when we're talking about, um The second to last paragraph word says As much to meet the requirements of time on learning set by the state a range of activities will be available in the morning Block at the elementary level for students attending in-person schools such as instrumental music intervention independent reading and others So I'm just trying to understand Because the day's starting so late our students who are at home going to be expected to be doing remote like music instruction in the mornings or what do you because when I look at the block Schedule further on it it shows like the morning meeting and then it shows you know some other stuff So I just wanted to make sure I understood what was meant there Sure, so that elementary students in massachusetts are required next year to have 850 hours of time on learning We're not going to meet that because of the shorter school day for in-person learning So it's trying to feel that Excuse me morning block time with some activities that we couldn't do and the reason instrumental music is there and we still have to Work out details is that's unlikely to happen in person next year for all sorts of health and safety reasons Um, and so we do need to assign some learning activities during that block. Obviously, that's not going to apply to all students every day Um, but to get to 850 hours um, we need to build in some Virtual experience for students um So that we meet those requirements. So, you know, we are working out those details. I think a lot of them will be Can be couched as you know work that's ongoing work from school, you know, quote unquote homework That could be done during that time period. We're not trying to stress out families or students early in the morning But we do have to have on the schedule Some pretty deliberate things. I think instrumental music is actually an interesting one because it is something that Again is going to be really hard to pull off in school. It's incredibly valuable to our students. They love it We believe in it. We wouldn't invest as much Energy and and support for the program and our wonderful instrumental music teachers So that one is actually a really nice idea of how that could Support the time on learning as well But it really is we do need to eventually have that on our schedule So that we do meet the requisite time on learning minutes I Just I guess I just wanted to follow up on that because I just feel like that's going to be a huge burden for any family that's Trying to get multiple kids out the door or working parents and I mean if we can find a if it's synchronous I mean if it's asynchronous and it's something you can kind of do when you But like music instructions seems to me to be a fairly synchronous activity Potentially if you're learning a new instrument. So I I guess it just seems like I'm just thinking about my mornings The idea that I'd also be doing a music lesson while trying to get my kids to school seems impossible Now we were thinking of mostly this being asynchronous and even with instrumental music or music in general When you're doing things virtually like if you've ever been to try to on a group that's trying to sing Just that the slight differences in delay An electronic setting means it's next to impossible for groups of students Like you see those beautiful videos like our high school students did last year That was digitally Todd fruth our awesome high school and summit teacher Collected those and mixed them together that didn't happen live and none of those other ones happen live either because it's it's Quite literally impossible to do So I think there are places even for instrumental music where there can be some asynchronous work Or one on work, but the primary focus is that it's asynchronous Yeah, I'm sorry. I should have been more clear about that in the document and I will These are all great suggestions Any other questions or comments from folks? Anybody who hasn't spoken that would like to speak Seeing then oh, mr. Demley What was the name of the section that miss spitzer was just talking about i'm constructing a motion So I just want to be specific Um, it's on page seven It's the executive summary So it's probably referenced later on as well, but mr. Demley Um, I'm happy to make a motion, but I don't want to I don't want to cut off questions or discussion. I'm just looking at the time Yeah, seeing done So is that okay to go ahead? Yeah I moved to adopt adopt the district reopening plan for fall 2020 for the Amherst Pelham Regional school district with the changes to the bus monitor and non-compliance mask wearing and executive summary sections as suggested second Moved by demling seconded by spitzer any further discussion from the region Miss seager That's just a question. I'm noticing that the next thing we're going to talk about is a school calendar review But the school calendar is in this so is that How does that work? Mr. Demley, I mean Dr. Morris, sorry Um, uh, so it needs to be the state requirement as it needs to be Um, I want a committee member got in touch with me a suggestion for the calendar I if that doesn't need to be voted tonight I think the big thing is generally a commitment that you would support The beginning of the year in terms of having the 10 days plus convocation day for staff as pd Uh, it keeps the staff return date the same which actually I think is really important because I think staff are planning that and so Um, I think if there are other changes in the calendar that people want to talk about, you know, and it may not happen tonight given the time Uh, that's okay I think the state just needs to know that we we have a draft calendar that is inclusive of 10 pd days at the beginning of the school year Even if it's not voted tonight Or before I submit it um So we'll move to a roll call vote with the region Mr. Demling Hi, Demling. Hi Mr. Harrington Harrington, I Ms. Lord Lord I Mr. Menino Menino I Ms. Seager Seager I Ms. Spitzer Spitzer I Ms. Dancer Stancer I Mr. Sullivan Sullivan I And Donald I The motion passes nine to zero Thank you, miss So I'll make a motion for the emmer school committee. Um, I move that we adopt the fall 2020 reopening plan is presented by the superintendent with the changes to the bus monitor non-compliance mask wearing and executive summary sections as suggested tonight second Moved by mcdonald second by herrington We'll do a roll call vote Mr. Demling Demling I Mr. Harrington Harrington I Ms. Lord Lord I Ms. Spitzer Spitzer I And mcdonald I Motion passes emmer school committee five to zero miss hall All right. Thank you. Is there a motion from the pellet school committee? I'll make a motion for the pellet school committee I move to adopt the district district reopening plan as presented with the suggested changes to the bus monitoring mask non-compliance and executive summary as suggested tonight Is there a second second? seconded by kenny All right roll call vote miss kenny Kenny I Miss barlow Barlow I Miss dancer Try again Margaret you were on mute You're on mute Can we count that as an I? That's right and mr. Minino Minino I And haul I motion passes pellum five to zero. Thank you We are now um, we've now extended our 30 minutes already. So um, if we would like to continue it would need to take another Motion to continue um I might also look to the committee for suggestions on um Are there pieces of this that we would like to table for another meeting assuming that that's Allowed by public by open meeting law Given that we've been at this till 10 o'clock. So Um, I think first we should extend for 30 minutes. So is there I move to extend the meeting by 30 minutes I'm sorry Move by spitzer seconded by demling Um, I'm going to take that as a region vote as a region motion. Um, Mr. Demling Yeah, demling I Mr. Harrington Harrington I Miss lord Lord I Mr. Minino Mr. Minino Sorry muted. Um, Minino I Miss seager Seager I Miss spitzer Spitzer I Miss stancer Stancer I Mr. Sullivan Sullivan I And McDonnell I I Each one I can make a motion for Amherst. I moved to extend the meeting by 30 minutes Second Move by spitzer seconded by Harrington roll call vote. Mr. Demling. No, I Mr. Harrington Harrington I Miss lord Lord I Miss spitzer Spitzer I And McDonnell I Does Pelham have the same policy? No, chair said it's okay. Let's go Okay um We we do have um of the next agenda items. We have the calendar review um discussion about outreach with the community, which we talked about two already and Appointing school committee members to the bargaining teams and future agenda planning warrant report and gifts. Um, I might Um, I'm just going to look for some nods from my public meeting experts Dr. Morris and Mr. Demling That whether we can move to table some of these agenda items and and tackle only the appointing of um committee members to the bargaining team and the future agenda planning Mr. Demling As far as I understand it, there's no legal requirement and it's it's your chair's discretion and committee's will How does the committee feel like that plan? Okay Um So in our when we get to future agenda planning, we'll talk about when we'll address these other agenda items but um, so we'll move on to um Item e which is appointing our school committee members to the bargaining team um I In in looking at a um a bunch of policy um policy that we need to look at in light of uh um that um Operating schools in the in a pandemic we we have several policies that um the policy subcommittee has been um drafting um, but and as we were doing that discover there is a policy about appointing members that I've also since learned is is um actually um Needs updating. Um, so it's in the packet, but um, there's um Pieces of it that um, we know are not um Are void um Namely the negotiating agent is is the piece of that so um just to be clear that that was I think we just take that as a reference point um as opposed to Um our guidance right now. So the policy team has a lot to work on um, so we have um, I believe mr. Harrington that you had been appointed as a as a member for the UFC w um So are you willing to continue? In that appointment? Yes, I am. Are there others that are interested in serving with mr. Harrington? It's not a requirement Is it better to have more than one? Dr. Morris, uh, so yes and You know, I think um There's other bargaining groups that might need members. So I wonder uh, respectfully if miss mcdottled might want to See if there's a full Group who want might want to be involved in some of the other bargaining groups and then come back to mr. Harrington and his need for partners Our desire for partners after um, we can maybe look at some of the other groups because there are There are three bargaining groups. I shared with miss mcdottled earlier. I think Particularly for The apea, um, you know, that's three bargaining groups within ones. So that is a more complex set of bargaining groups. Um Just because of the nature of you know, it's it's three distinct units within one so I don't know just my suggestion is See who can participate and uh in that one and see if there are extra members who are willing to join mr. Harrington And some people may have an interest more in in working on uscw. So I don't want to be dismissive of that They may be more of someone's interest too, but That's a good suggestion. Thank you. So, um, why don't we then jump to that one the apea? Uh bargaining team and I know that um Folks have asked um, sort of what does that time commitment look like and sort of giving maybe it would be helpful Dr. Marce if you could give us an idea since I think we have a lot of um, or multiple new members that it might be helpful to understand sort of What that commitment could look like? Sure. So, uh, we've been um Already been in contact looking to start that process next week Uh, they've shared with us that they you know with like they being the uh, apea They'd like to have uh, which is pretty typical session on ground rules. Um, and they they would look forward to having um, sort of two hour time frames for negotiating again Very typical and makes total sense to me and and to miss Cunningham as well. Um, so they'd like to start next week um, and um, they'd be during daytime with the times that were suggested to us Um, so I think the first session perhaps would be an hour and a half and after that trying to block out two hour sessions um, and um, you know, it's a little hard to predict how long these things go, but We try to maintain really good working relationships our associations and and part of that is is um, bargaining good faith And it's a really important thing that school community members can be a part of And so, you know, I would think probably given the time frame that it's august 6th That probably I would imagine two times per week would be You know a reasonable expectation for the next few weeks And primarily um daytime That was yeah, that was what worked best for um, for the members and and we try to work around their schedule at best we can Any volunteers so, um, just this is a region Commitment correct So typically according to policy and I think it's in the packet that the region does Um Assign negotiate. I'm going to double check that because I'm sorry. Um I oh I have that up great, um it's Yeah, so the regional school committee Will appoint, you know, everything's framed as in the first sentence amherst palm regional school committee is responsible for negotiations with Employee bargaining groups. So just that first sentence of that policy Yeah, okay. Yeah Sorry took me a second. Yeah Any volunteers Ms. Lord. Oh, you're volunteering. Yes, okay Wonderful anybody else Given the complexity of this one and the three units I I do think if we if there's another person it would be helpful to have two um, and particularly if we can have two people from different towns, um sort of in the spirit of the policy that Is old No other volunteers okay, um I'm just trying to think I think probably people are nervous about the the time commitment and particularly daytime because I think almost all of us have have daytime uh work commitments jobs that um That pay us so that we can do this volunteer work um, so I is there Flexibility in terms of being on the negotiating team. Maybe um I'm just Thinking out loud if there's any ways that we can think about this that might make it easier for somebody to see themselves Um participating in the negotiating team. Oh, sorry. Ms. Spitzer. I couldn't I can't I have no starting My daughter's child care has closed for the rest of the summer and I have a job that I'm Already reducing my hours on significantly. So there's an absolutely no way I could participate during daytime meetings. Um, I potential I'd be happy to consult or think through like I But I I'd be jeopardizing my employment if I were to Volunteer I not putting up So if there's a way we can do some sort of evening consulting I'd be happy to work with Ms. Lord or Mr. Harrington I think this is really important and I don't want to people think I'm shorting my duties, but the the pandemics affected all of us and our ability to The child care and and work requirements Totally understand. Yep. I don't you know, we have to apologize for that. Mr. Demling Yeah, I was just gonna say I mean, I think any any addition Any ability that we have to to contribute is is appreciated and You know, I mean, you know To the degree we can I think is beneficial. So I don't think If that's five minutes, you know over the course of the entire negotiation That's five minutes that we didn't have that's a point of view that we didn't have and I think that would be beneficial So obviously, you know, we don't have a massive stable of people that are running to An able to volunteer and that's no criticism. I'm not raising my hand either, you know, so You know, it's a tough situation all around So I I don't think you should feel guilty if you can only volunteer a little bit And if you can't make a lot of or most of most of the meeting, um, I think anything You can contribute would be would be awesome. Um, and I would totally support any kind of a flexible arrangement like that I'm seeing I'm not seeing anybody objecting to that. Um to that suggestion. So I think we'll We'll point um miss lord as our under negotiating team and miss spitzer Um Where we're we're feasible Thank you. Thank you both um And then we have a f s c me Dr. Morris, so that's afs me. Um, you know, I talked to miss cunningham before the meeting. Um We were successful in not having a school committee representative Uh this spring to develop a moa with afs me I think we're optimistic that similar um thing could happen. So if there's a volunteer that wants to join That's great. But I think, um, you know, uh from miss cunningham's point of view and I trust her Very much. Um, it'll be um, if there's not another person who can can dedicate the time We can just report back to the committee and executive session how it's going We could always amend that but I think um Given that, you know, all the the things that people shared about joining the other negotiating teams Miss cunningham feels confident and um that we can we can work that out. Um And if you know something changes, we'll let you know, but um, and if someone wants to join it, that's fantastic But uh, people shouldn't feel to like they need to push themselves on that one If the um, if the rest of the committee is comfortable with that, um, I Would say let's let's proceed as dr. Morris has suggested I'm seeing nodding hits. So okay, great. Well, thank you Mr. Harrington miss lord and miss spitzer for stepping up. Um, it's really appreciated Okay, so future uh meeting planning Mr. Manino The suggestion for your future item Mm-hmm I appreciate dr. Morris's clarification on Distance learning how it would be taught. I think an elaboration Would be welcome. Uh, I fear This won't happen, but the boston guidance is that Teachers will simultaneously teach in class and online I don't know how they're going to do that. I don't think we plan on that But I would like uh distance learning discussed in greater detail We also have we um have the 20 20 21 calendar review Outreach Um At some point we need to do the evaluation as well, I I'd really like to make you like get stunned even if it means lowering the bar a bit on The amount of effort we put into it this year, but I want to make sure it's done Um, do we have policies that have been on previous? Yes, we get the policies off I don't know the status of the the letter Um That uh, we were going to that we also had had on the agenda for tonight. We may want to Rethink or relook No, actually that's still still pertains. I would say I'm looking at mr. Demling because you were spearheading that letter writing Uh, which which policies I don't it's not the policy It was the letter um for rapid testing site. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we'll have to think about that. Um Yeah, we'll we'll have to think about that I it's it's too late for my brain to digest the implications of the recent news But while while while we're talking about agenda planning, um, I was thinking um Our minutes are getting kind of backed up and all over the place which is totally understandable given the flurry of meetings Um, but since these are important meetings, and I don't want to Get us into an awkward position where we're just saying. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah About things that maybe we say things we and we don't Anyway, I I think maybe it might be good to maybe batch these things up where maybe um Maybe we get like a whole bunch of them together Mailed out to us where we can have the time to like go through them all and take a bunch of notes And then we have an agenda item that has like, you know, a half a dozen meeting approvals Yeah, a minute approvals and we and we're able to go through them, you know, conscientiously as opposed to just um Realizing that they're the dean Yep, how the people felt about that I I do agree because At some point we're gonna have to approve them and the longer we wait the um so Do we want to look at tuesday? Um, or Dr. Morris So just uh, it depends whether the group wants to continue having joint meetings or not to a certain extent So pelham the next meeting pelham could have would be on thursday Because of melham posting. Uh, i'm just looking at the items you mentioned calendar review Technically is a regional decision. Uh, again, i'm not suggesting that our pelham friends wouldn't have thoughts, but um It is a regional item that um, and it always has been to my knowledge Um, the outreach just since learning planning those seem like joint items Uh policies that's up to the chairs about how they view that typically they go through region first um You know, i've had advocacy for food service in addition to an email that may be something that the committee actually wants to take up um, so it may be the case that we want to um Think about what needs to be joint meetings and then perhaps What needs to be particularly a region meeting? Um, As as compared to a joint meeting because some of the items i mean region we could frankly Post tomorrow and meet on tuesday on some of these things And a joint meeting either could be thursday or waiting till the next week Um, you know the one that seems pressing to me that that's a joint Is kind of the outreach piece Um, so that's the only one that's sort of a bummer that if we've met tuesday um, I don't know if we'd have the good will of the our pelham colleagues to um Roll with what the region came up with in terms of outreach, but that one seems like really timely And perhaps not worth waiting. Um, sorry. I'm trying to solve Issues five hours in I may not be doing a very coherent job, but Understood miss hall Um Yeah, so I mean I have been in communication with the town clerk and it's possible that we could get an agenda to her and post tomorrow so Could we maybe have like an aspirational approach for a joint meeting on tuesday and then The chairs sorry That's Donald could scramble a bit tomorrow and try to figure this out as early as possible and then communicate to the rest of the group Yep, and I think we'd also want to have the executive session giving that negotiations are starting soon with um About negotiations with the full committee so that the people who are involved in negotiations Get to hear from the full committee about the charge and and some thoughts of that that Process can start with the full committee's input That sounds good So I guess tomorrow morning. We'll try to Chair's and I will try to wrap our heads around this and see what we can do Okay, okay miss seager I just want to ask a basic question of um, I know we're talking about tuesday um Are there any sort of on the calendar meetings or Words are not flowing right now um I I've I haven't been able to keep a firm track of when meetings are going to happen Are there any Um, just sort of standing times that the regional committee meets that I should have on the calendar of like Every second tuesday or is it really ad hoc at this point? Um, I just want to can yeah, I'll say okay Thank you We we determine our schedule at the beginning of every Um, what are your so probably in the next couple weeks we'll be doing that for the For the you know through june of 2021 um, but yeah, we ran out of Pre-pre-scheduled meetings um back in june Okay, this is a pandemic sort of Okay, thank you. Yeah um anybody From amherst would you like to make a motion? Luke to jern Move by spitzer Second by herrington. No discussion. Um, mr. Demling Oh my god Mr. Mr. Herrington Herrington. I miss lord lord. I miss spitzer Spitzer. I In mcdonald's eye amherst is adjourned miss hall All right, hello make me proud I'm Second moved by kenny seconded by stancer. All right roll call vote. Uh, mr. Minino Mino. I Miss dancer Miss kenny Kenny I Miss barlow barlow I And haul I pelham is adjourned I move to adjourn the region Is there a second second? I move by mcdonald's second We'll call the mr. Demling Mr. Herrington Herrington. I lord lord. I Mr. Minino Mr. See your eye The spitzer Spitzer I The stancer Stancer I Mr. Sullivan Sullivan I And mcdonald's eye The region is adjourned. Thank you everybody Bye