 This program is brought to you by cable franchise V's and generous donations from viewers like you Seeing a presence of a quorum of the regional school Amherst Helen regional school committee I'm calling to order this meeting at 635 p.m. I will call out your name Please stay present when I call your name. Mr. Demley Is Kenny Kenny present the seeker see your present Miss spitzer spitzer present miss Dancer answer present Sullivan present and McDonald present and At least one of our other members that are not here will be joining us later Also as Mentioned earlier. I would propose that we switch the order of the published agenda And switch to items and begin first Actually, just move item number one to later in the agenda so that we begin with item number two the public comment RSC topics only Continue with athletics item number three And then move to item number one, which would be our executive session. So is the committee amenable to that? agenda change Wonderful, okay So we will begin with public comment For folks that are watching from home. I apologize. I was late in getting the document ready So it is I don't believe that it's on our website yet, but I did post it on my school committee Facebook page so if for some reason you're not able to read along as we as I Project this on screen. Please feel free to wander over to my Facebook page and grab it from there And we have some public comment, right? Sorry, the voice comment is for the joint meeting. So are folks able to see that the public comment document? In just a note Just as a reminder for folks again at home This includes comments that came into our email address with the subject line public comment we do receive a lot of email and There were some emails that came in without the subject line public comment I apologize if you had intended it for public comment And if so, please resend it in with that subject line So that is the conclusion of the public comment So now we move on to what was item number three on our agenda, which is Discussion of the athletics for fall 2020 Yeah, and if I could queue it up and then turn it over to miss Stewart. So What we'd like to do and miss Stewart's done a really nice job Presenting a summary of the information about what the changes to the sports seasons The modifications to fall sports because that's what we're kind of primarily talking about today and Really? Sport by sport going through that with some pros and cons for the end and open up for dialogue I think it's likely the case although the agenda said, you know possible voter That, you know, we're happy to come back next week Because we'd like to present this and you have some public comment But there may be some questions that you have that miss Stewart or I are able to get more information about and we try as best We can and decision this big to have you all be able to Deliberate ask questions and consider it before coming back to next week for a vote So, you know, I think we're comfortable that timeline most schools districts in our area are planning on voting Some have voted already, but when you're voting next week and to clarify why you're voting we are now Going to be starting the year remotely and according to the state rules any districts starting year remotely Needs a school committee vote on whether to have athletics or not if we weren't starting the year remotely It would be a different topic. We still want to fill you in But on this one it actually does require a vote of the regional school committee up or down on athletics So now that I get all that kind of non-fun stuff out of the way I'll turn it over to miss Stewart who has some slides to present They were also in the packet that was is on our website right now, but thank you for being here Victoria Thank you guys all for having me you guys can all hear me. Okay. Yep. Yeah, great So as dr. Morris said I'm going to speak to you guys about the reintegration of athletics in our schools The MIA did come out with a press release on August 19th in regards to the MI COVID task force that they put together in the summer on Fall sports and in this document it states that individual school committee meetings must approve of athletics because we are starting remotely the attached document also has Presents each sports and seasons which we are allowed to have and Additionally the MIA is referred to the EA guidelines to determine the risk levels and activities of each sport So these are the levels of activity that we can have level one being the least amount of activity for a sport to hold That includes any individual or socially distant group activity and then level four being the most activity that we're allowed to have That includes tournaments and if you can't see it on your screen in parentheses. It says outdoors only Each sport is categorized as either lower risk moderate risk or high risk The low-risk sports can participate in all one two three four levels that were seen on the previous slide And as far as moderate and high risk, they have the same rules Love they can participate in level one activities But they can also participate in two and three if modifications are met and the MI did come out with modifications last week for each sport So you can see here I know you guys received the slides beforehand, but the hyperlinks to each modifications for the sports are attached to each sport As you can see the green Cross-country and golfer low-risk sports moderate sports or field hockey volleyball and soccer These are the sports that we are allowed to have in the fall The only sport you see missing here is football Football has been moved to the floating season because it is seen as a high-risk sport And I'll get into what a floating season is a little bit later as far as the winter season goes As of right now Basketball hockey and wrestling are seen as high-risk indoor track in swim and dive or moderate risk in alpine ski and Nordic ski or low-risk sports I just say as of now because as we know things can change They may not see be seen as a high-risk sport and the MIA is in contact communication With desi as well as the EEA on Modifications that may need to be met for winter season sports And they will be meeting again in October to discuss any of those modifications that may need to be taking place So this is the floating season the MIA gave us now instead of having three seasons We have four so the floating season happens right in between winter and spring and Right now we just have football there However, if we choose not to have certain sports in the fall for any reason We would move these sports to the floating season and then the spring seasons the regular spring sports Like I said as of now tennis is low risk Softball track baseball and girls across as moderate risk and boys across our high-risk sports So none of these seasons overlap each athlete can play all these sports because they don't overlap as far as modifications go regardless if you're a low-risk sports a high-risk sport or Can I ask you to hold for one second before so what Victoria's gonna get into now or the modifications for fall sports Because that's primarily what we're gonna talk about tonight is is the ones that are more proximate But I just wanted to pause if committee members had any questions on kind of the schedule and the first part of Miss Stewart's presentation, you know, we could ask it now and then before she gets into the details Miss Spitzer so just a quick question about this concept of a floating season is the Motivation that hopefully in a few months in the safe February that conditions in terms of either testing or Vaccines or you know something outside of the school's control would change otherwise I'm just curious about what why they're considering moving sports to February. I believe it was where It might be really hard to play it would definitely be very difficult to play football outside in February it seems to me At least in our area Yeah, so they're definitely that was the hope Just because football is a high-risk sport right now They don't want to have that one in the fall moving sports such as like maybe golf or volleyball Maybe having some type of normal normalcy of the sport Altogether so they can actually once you see some of the modifications You'll kind of see what I'm talking about because a lot of the modifications don't allow or you know the same type of play You'll see that later on so I think that was the whole point of the floating season and at least also to have football for sure Hopefully I had a question. Did they I read through the the press release and the MIA website on these sports, but I I didn't see any reference to Decision making it The modifications of the sport have been published right now, but how much of that is based or dependent on Local or regional health metrics, right? So this is saying there's a football in the floating season and there's these modifications, but Will things change sort of like moving between? What might be allowed and that I can't remember where there was step one two three four For a high-risk sport does that change at all depending on what your local or regional case count? You know metrics are or is that just sort of It just goes at the part was confusing to me Yeah, so I mean as far as the levels go they are allowing competition to occur But no tournament so the MIA is not going to have any state tournaments all year round regardless of if you're in the spring or not So that is something to keep in mind However, they are allowing competition and I believe dr. Morris you can correct me if I'm wrong But the Board of Health has approved of us having volleyball Which some schools haven't so that's another reason for again the floating season and the levels of play Yeah, so we'll get into volleyball in a little bit, but I think Mr. It's right so for instance in the fall sport. That's the only indoor sport So if you looked at that list, that's the only indoor sport So there are some boards of health locally that are And I'm not speaking to ours and Amherst But that are Recommending that that move to a floating season because it'd be later on as opposed to the other sports which are all outdoors for the fall and So it allows for more local decision-making that the hard thing is obviously you're affected by what our neighbors do So if we're gonna have inter school athletics and no one else moves volleyball and I'm not picking on volleyball I'm not saying it should or shouldn't move but any sport moves to the floating season You need other districts to do the same thing So it's a little bit of a dance right now. We do we have talked about it as superintendents We had a conference call today actually every Wednesday we meet So it is a little bit of a moving target right now because it will there's an interdependence between school committees and superintendents and athletic directors That's perhaps not as well articulated as you would be if we weren't dealing with all the other stuff But I think to miss Stewart's point that that is another point a part of the floating season is the flexibility to make decisions that Perhaps some sports might be better played at another time of year Hopefully that helps them There any other questions from committee? Okay Okay, so I'm talking about modifications just so you guys know these are summarized So there are more in depth and in detail on those hyperlinks Like I said, however cross-country virtual course previews prior to the day of the meet Versus the typical, you know in-person preview the day before the meet can occur staggered start times with eight to ten student athletes just to maintain proper social distancing and Masking to be worn at every start at the finish and during the race But however, if you you know get that head start you can take off that mask And if you have that social distance you can take off your mask But once you see someone and you're close you have to put it back on Field hockey, it's a moderate-risk sport. Um a lot of the rules have changed They have now only seven players on the field including goalie at a time typically it's 11 players on the field So there's less players on the field same-size field and all players must wear face masks as well they can take it off and Take a mask break. They call it in the guidelines They can take a mask break if they're 10 feet away from anyone that's on the field and they also Have no face-offs. So every it's going to be alternating possessions for each possession Golf golf interesting. It is low risk However, we do use a public course. So we just need to keep that in mind when looking at all these modifications We use Amherst golf And more people are golfing now. So only essential personnel are permitted on the course So that means only coaches and student athletes We don't really have control over that because we don't get the course for ourselves when we have practices and games There's needs to be a single t-start time of 10 minutes between each group So that's also something we would need to talk to the golf pro about basically just the director of the course And having that so we can maintain that distance from all the other members that actually use the course And then masks also need to be worn by players and coaches again It can be taken off if you're 10 feet away from one another Soccer seen as a moderate risk sport again a lot of changes in the rules No throw-ins. No head balls. No intentional body contact with anyone that includes shoulder shoulder backing into one another or any other Unintentional body contact. It's also you're not allowed to have Gold kicks drop kicks punts or throws by the goalie in the year beyond the midfield line So everything needs to be touching the ground before it gets the other side of the field And again masks need to be worn and you can take that mask break that we spoke about in the prior and this slides before Volleyball As dr. Moore said, this is our only sport. We do have in the fall indoors and Some of the modifications change the sport up a little bit One the balls do need to be cleaned after each rally and sanitized the front row players aren't gonna have that traditional attack and Blocking game they normally have because they're gonna be three feet away from the net Creating a six foot distance total between team and team to create that social distancing And masks also need to be worn at all times and you can take that mask break But it's definitely harder in that indoor area than it is in the outdoor area to take that break We spoke briefly about neighboring schools But these are just some bullet points of what schools have been doing around us the PVIC the conference that we belong into Put together a survey and some of them are doing full participation and mood football to floating Which you have to do if you choose to do so and then no fall sports at all and move them all to Floating seasons some just moved soccer and girls volleyball to floating season as well as football and then some are just unsure They're still waiting to have their school committee meetings as well And again during these times there are pros and cons to having sports So I'm gonna start with the pros, you know This the overall health of the student athletes the social the social emotional mental the physical health Not having sports since March 2020. It's been a long time and when I say sports I'm talking about high school sports. I may be biased and I played for Amherst high school But there's just something special about playing for a community playing for Amherst and having that across your chest playing You know with some of your teammate some of your friends and colleagues from elementary school And then being competitive with high school sports is really nothing like it Also just the decrease of Screen time we are gonna be starting remote So having you know a different atmosphere for the kids to be in is definitely big and again I do think even though there's some You know mixed feelings about the floating season It is a positive at least if we choose not to if you guys don't choose to let us have fall sports We can move it to the floating season. So that is a positive Some of the cons and concerns are just as I said before kind of is the indoor sport volleyball Just inability to social distance indoors. It's much more difficult than outdoors The spread and the potential spread I should say of COVID-19 within our community Not just concerned about the you know student athletes and the coaches just also who the student athletes coaches go home to every day We just have to keep that in mind and transportation. I'm not really speaking about Extra transportation that's probably needed for the games, you know having to split up both cross-country teams, etc I'm more so speaking about the whole equity issue of kids getting to practices I know we have some volunteers in the community, which I love However, we just have to keep that aware, you know in the back of our minds that some people's transportation to practice was that 715 You know am bus ride to school them staying after doing their homework and then going right to practice And then lastly the use of a public facility. So golf We don't have much control on what goes on at Amherst golf versus we do have more control of what goes on in our fields in our gym as well and These are just the slides that I use you guys can look at these sources too for further detail if there's any other questions feel free Mr. Demling Yes, so thank you very much for the presentation. It's great to have a hurricane at the helm of our athletics department So so thank you for this information. I'm glad that we don't have to vote tonight Because I while I am Very much on board with all the pros that you've listed and all the pros by the way that Parents and public and coaches have have sent in to us recently about the pros of sports that the physical mental emotional Benefits especially for our kids who based on our current raising model are going to be in the buildings until November I think for me, it's just a general comment like the the pros are are pretty well established But like everything in covert for the school committee, nothing is easy here And I think you've already hit on couple of the major concerns that I think we need to as as much as we can Come up with with what's what's the best solution to solve? And I don't think any a lot of these cons are completely solvable But I think I think with the limited amount of time we have we need to get it as good as we can So the transportation inequity is a big one, right? That there's there's no way around it that we're not going to be running buses in the early afternoon and the very late afternoon before and after Practices and games and so kids are going to have to have their own transportation And so this is going to exclude families and students that cannot find their own transportation That might be a small number of students and I'm sure but the parents and volunteers among those teams are going to do the best to support each other and you know carpool and socially distance roll down the windows kind of way and And you know, I hope that that happens But I think we do need to think about Is are there ways that we can help informally organize that in a safe way, right? And that's a way that we can encourage that so that's that's like number one on my list of concerns Number two, and I don't think this is solvable and and I just have to say this publicly Because I feel like a big part of transparency is a public official is being honest The the juxtaposition for the first two weeks of school So from mid-september to October 1st of having kids playing sports, which is a very valuable positive thing And yet having a certain subset of our students are high-need students who we know can't access remote learning Unable to access in-person learning for those first two weeks of school until 10-1 It it it feels That that feel that's it's very hard. It's a hard juxtaposition for me to hold I don't think there's a way to solve that. I know it's only two weeks. These kids are getting back in on 10-1 And maybe we'll talk a little bit more about what those kids can get in those two weeks, you know later on the meeting But I just have to state it out there that that's that's a hard thing I don't think it's a reason not to move forward with sports But but it is something that's that's in top of my mind The volleyball thing I think is very Well stated I read through all this sport by sport guidance. That's definitely the one that stands out like a sore thumb The fact that the state doesn't Classify it is high-risk. I think it's a mistake Given that it's the only indoor sport and But they really don't say anything about What else you should you should be doing given that it's indoor is is concerning to me So I would I would want to hear more from public health officials and from dr. Morris and our own You know Resources about about what the guidance is on that. I'm not surprised that other local health officials have have advised against that and The other detail that stood out to me that I guess that has come up and another topic on school committees It's the idea of gators, right? So gators being these these thinner masks and Threlth MIA guidance it says, you know gators are acceptable And I get that if you are a young person and you are running around at top cardio output You want a thin layer because it's pretty uncomfortable to engage in a high activity And yet there's there's this other idea, right that if we're trying to maximize Safety and you're turning the dials down in some of the other variables like you're going to be Frequently violating the social distancing and you are In involved in very heavy input and output cardio activity You might want to consider turning the dial up on some of the other safety guidelines like the mask requirement so I found that kind of a concerning detail in terms of safety so The special ed juxtaposition. I don't think there's anything we can do to solve that I think that's just What the other concerns that I brought up if there was some details that we come back next week or just dr Morris was constantly, you know, uh I would be interested before but that being said At this moment my current disposition is to vote in favor of everything except for volleyball But I'm open to changing my mind and I am interested to hear what what everyone else has to say on this this weekend Mr. Dr. Morris Yeah, I think the only thing I'll say is uh, I want to emphasize something miss steward said About golf and we have been in touch with miss consolino about that and she actually Has talked to us a bit about volleyball and the concerns around that But I think the golf piece that miss steward said is this it's on a public course The public course wouldn't have the same rules for everyone on the public courses It has for our student athletes So that is um, well, well, it's low risk in the overall context It is a real concern for us about how many people are playing golf Um, and that they don't have the same rules as our student athletes have So I think out of the two sports and miss stewart can correct me if I'm wrong But those are the two that stand out to us that there's a variable That's different than the others, you know, I'm not saying that you know Soccer is not medium risk, but it's on our field. We can control who's there And I think that's the piece around the golf that Makes us, you know a bit anxious Um, is that uh, there's variables. We can't control. It's not our golf course And um, so that's just another one to mr. Dunlinks point about, you know Kind of where we feel more comfortable and where we feel less comfortable. Mr What would you agree with that? Yeah, I agree for sure Ms. Spitzer, I think I saw your hand up earlier. Yep. No, I thank you Um, I guess one of my questions had to also go back to the volleyball issue and um I was curious also about the sports where we might be training and say the locker rooms or the Gym, I mean all of these spaces. I don't think Um, you know, we've been paying really close attention to ventilation in our classrooms Resturting, you know students to being only in places with windows and proper ventilation. So it's been a long time since I've been in You know the the high school gym or locker rooms I'm just curious if or those part of the ventilation study that we're going to be Seeing in a little bit or Have we looked at the ventilation in the spaces that would be required for opening? Up to volleyball and also to the other sports that might require kids to Be in the building I think I can take down on miss Stewart. Um, which is those were those spaces were not tested And I think the general theme that I've heard from other superintendents with the exception are perhaps valuable But for outdoor sports is to use those spaces sparingly Um, because the students aren't coming from school The idea is that they would come ready to play Um, and they would you know, perhaps use bathrooms, uh, which we would expect But that it wouldn't be the typical locker room experience the student athletes have had before that they would You know, let's say for field hockey. They would come they'd go straight to the fields. I'm dressed ready to play Um, and they would go back in their cars and go home. They wouldn't come in for changing or you know, any of that kind of thing Given the context. Um, so really the only use would be bathrooms, but not locker rooms Volleyball is the one piece where it gets a little more complicated students can still Show up ready to play but because it is indoors it adds a variable that I think You know in talking to the health folks, there are some concerns about we have not gotten Directive not to play volleyball from our health department, but There's some feelings That it the nature of being inside adds a layer of risk that's not present in the other sports and I just want to add to um The indoor space our trainers also indoors. Um, however at our athletic director meeting today We spoke about even maybe putting like an outdoor tent for our trainer to be out there Outside to limit the amount of time people are indoors as well. So that's just something that people are doing too Miss dancer Have you had any conversation yet with the people at the amherst golf course to understand what their current rules are? And whether members would be on the course at the same time as the amherst players? Yes, I have been in conversation with them and volunteers that work there as well Um, and people will definitely be on the course. They actually have had an increase of members Join the course this year, which is great for them, but it's also um A little bit of a bummer because they don't clear the course for us to practice and have games and matches I have um A couple questions and some comments also. Um so I guess first first my quick questions on the um We because we're we have to read the school committee has to vote on on the season because we're starting the year remote Would that does that are we voting on the fall season only? Or are we voting on all sports? Um, are we If if we have to sometime it's sometime between now and when we When we get to the winter season if we've had Presumably we're in in person laying and then we close would we then have to also vote on Winter sports or if we're in person learning by then we don't actually vote on winter sports I guess like what are we actually voting on and what is the decision process for beyond fall sports? So as of right now you guys would be just going on about fall sports None of the modifications or rules are out for the winter sports and the other sports to follow Other than we'll have football in the floating season. That's the only thing that would stay the same Um that you guys can't really change Got it. Thank you. Um Um, so There's some some other thoughts and just talking about sort of the use of locker rooms my both of my kids I've been participating in different sports throughout the summer and Club sports and you know, even with the pool they have to walk go to the pool in their bathing suits They're not allowed in the locker rooms and um, so for a lot of the young athletes I think they're they're used to this idea. I mean even the hockey player, you know Going to the the rink and full gear and you know Changing in the parking lot. I mean right now. It's august in in january. That might be challenging but it is very common and You know the kids because they they want to play their sport. It works pretty well They they sort of do what they need to do to be able to play um, but I I will Echo and sort of build on mr. Demling's comments and concerns about how it it It just doesn't sit well um from a school committee perspective that we are Um, you know, presumably voting on sports and you know, if we were to say yes to to a false reason that we're We're at the same time Leaving our high needs students our high needs students sort of not having any in person learning until at the earliest october 1st and that just really Is challenging to sort of accept and again, I I I agree with mr. Demling and what some of the Community has said in public comment that that's not necessarily a reason to say no to sports because of the many many reasons um that you cited miss steward for all the all the all the obvious pros and benefits of of participation in sports um, but it's really really hard to sort of you know, think about Letting down sort of our most vulnerable students In in that sense at the same time that we're doing this and and and to take that transparency and honesty further As as one community member noted in their public comment the difference here is Is not a difference in the school committee, but a difference in sort of the stakeholders that are involved in in making it happen And we don't have a union That we that we're dealing with when we're talking about sports And that's that's not a statement of positive or negative. That's just a simply a statement of Sort of how how we're able to consider Even consider sports at this point Um, and I I do have concerns about the transportation equity I do having had kids that participated in high school sports and seeing sort of that camaraderie and the the parent support of all of the other athletes. I I do feel that if we make a if the teams and the coaches can make that effort to to coordinate the the transportation That will be able to happen. So I would just hope that We we commit to making sure that we're not leaving students out because of um transportation and one one thought that I did have though um Because of the challenge because so many of these sports that we're looking at for fall are outdoors And our lower risk Is their opportunity for us to expand participation in some way? um, I know we have reduced reduced fees for certain sports with reduced and free and reduced lunch families and we have discounts for multiple children that are in one family that are playing sports and I wonder if we can sort of build on that a little bit To enable greater participation in sports so that more students are able to get the benefits um of these and Expanding what we think about and at least for the you know that level one of play which is the the conditioning and the the the gameplay that all of the things that sort of team building um if we can Sort of make that more accessible to more students For just for all of the benefits that you've cited. Um, so I guess that's sort of a comment and a question Um, I don't know if you've given that any thought but that's um one hope And before you answer that um, my last thought is on the gators. Um, I think you know, uh, Mr. Deming cited the single layer I have seen um multiple layers and one of the the other comment One of my kids sports has actually bought gators for all of their students because they have to all of their players because they have to wear the the gators on um On the ice so having you know hurricane Gators that are multiple layers and providing them to all the team all of the players on on different teams might be might be a way to To enable that and then also help help enforce The that sort of protocol um But back to the question about the expanding participation. Don't we have you given any thoughts to Particularly for some of the sports like a cross country or um or soccer that might require less less equipment um and less sort of training um, you know, if they if they're new to the sport in high school or middle school, um Are there ways that we can build on that? Yeah, and I we typically have strength and conditioning in the fall I just didn't put these on the that on the slide because that's not an m.i.a. sport um Even though that's indoors we could maybe make some type of like outdoor Workout type of thing for students also to participate in um, they are allowing out of season coaching I think that was mostly for you know, all the football players that aren't going to have a season this fall um to allow their coach to do some sort of you know conditioning or You know, whatever kind of drills that he's able to put in um That fit all the guidelines and do that and have that opportunity But we normally do have like a strength and conditioning and they maybe like looking for something that's not indoors in that You know in the weight room maybe, you know using the hills and putting equipment outside that could be an idea as well But normally we do have a lot of um, boy soccer we normally have over, you know It's about 60 people try out 60 boys try out, you know our girl soccer team We have two teams as well and our cross country. There's a good turnout normally for them So i'm going to be surprised if more people would join maybe even some football players that don't actually have a season We'll try a sport out as well Mr. Sullivan yes, thank you mr. Demling for um talking about the inequities because I you know the transportation is one of my big ones being out here in shootsberry and also the You know starting sports and not having any students in the school is a big tough as everyone's mentioned is a tough issue And um, you answered my question I was going to ask about football if they'd be allowed to do some sort of training in the Fall non-season and you you answered that one and yeah, um More middle school and you know into murals. I mean we really should look into Doing that because You know the soccer is more the sports are for high school students And we really should encourage as many middle school students to get outside and play as we can Um, let's see that oh my other my volleyball question If we were to give the thumbs up the volleyball and find out that we're the only school that wants to do it in the fall Would we have to re-vote over that could that just get moved to the floating season? um that could just get moved to the floating season but as um, you know Like I said before I had my athletic director meeting this morning and it's almost like 50 50 to be honest with you However, like some people that are actually in our league Um, they are already moving to the floating season versus like long meadow their go for volleyball Some schools are just a go so it's that's actually like a sport that's split But there's enough if we had to go to the floating season. We would have enough people to play Um as well as if we stayed um during this season as well Miss Seager so in thinking about this Transportation for me is probably the highest concern that I have in this especially coming from leveret as well where um like in shootsbury the kids are coming from probably a further distance um I i'm also thinking about the different forces at play between The inequity of not having anybody in the schools and then having sports happening into and in my mind they're They're just very different forces at play there. Um and with the students playing sports, you know We hear more and more about the mental health concerns. We have with families having their children at home All the time and not seeing people and um, you know, I watch my own kids. Are they getting outside enough? Are they exercising enough and stuff like that? So, you know, I'm concerned too that if because there aren't Because we're not having Students in school that we decide not to have sports. I don't think that's um going to be helpful You know, it is a concern is it is a sort of oddity when you look at it and you say well You're not having anybody in the school, but you're having sports, but I really do feel like there's going to be so much benefit to having the students um playing sports That that we really should consider allowing that to happen the bigger thing for me is the transportation and how Do you make it fair? Uh so that those who want to play can actually get there and I love the idea of expanding it to um a bigger group of kids who might maybe not normally do this or just opening it up more Um, so I just wanted to share those thoughts Mr. Demling Yeah, I just briefly wanted to second what miss mcdonnell and the seager um, both both said about expansion this idea that like kids that like Maybe like the lowest bar activity. I guess cross I ran cross country. So I'm not saying it's a non-skill sport but but But like the lowest sort of a bar activity whether that's like soccer or or ultimate or Some kind of like activity where a kid might not normally do sports But if they've been cooped up for six months and then we have this this accessible activity, um Where they might not you know, they might not make the You know the a high school grade soccer team or or some other Thing but there's something some intramural level. Um That you know, maybe that's something that that that would be accessible for a couple months It's I I I I I do also do understand though the challenge with with creative ideas that are given really late and the implementation challenges with Solving those so it's very easy to throw these off the cuff and then say here you go victoria I have fun implementing that for the next few weeks. So, um, you know, um, it's definitely details obviously and I understand the pragmatic challenges, but um Uh, you know I just wanted to say I think that's a great secret This spits air is your hand up Yeah so kind of um I just want to I I kind of let in with my ventilation question and didn't get a chance to kind of weigh in on my thoughts, but I had some Um Comments as well and one is that I I totally agree that the mental health benefits from being able to exercise and also have a social Connection with your peers is really important. I guess as somebody who you know in high school was not much of an athlete at all I It's not only the inequity I see against like they have in the schools closed and the transportation issues But there are also kids who the the thing they get excited about the thing that motivates them might be, you know, I I was on debate team, you know, like like it wasn't athletic But it was a social activity I went to it happened after school and it gave me something to get excited about um as a kid So I know we're not going to decide on that now But the other thing that makes me feel kind of uncomfortable. Like I there there are health reasons we can't do a lot of the dramatic arts and And singing and you know the chorus and and other after school activities But I want us to be aware that there are a lot of after school activities that potentially could be moved outdoors and modified in other low-risk ways And all of these other challenges around transportation and equity that we're talking about are also present for these ones So I guess if we make a vote on this one I just want to make sure we don't forget all the kids who their reason to get excited to go to school is an after school club That doesn't involve athletics So as much as I want to open up athletics to as many people as possible because I I really believe now I've become a bit of an I like it helps my mental health a lot Um, but I don't think it's the only thing that that and some kids are just not able to participate in sports for Physical, you know reasons that I think we all need to to be aware of too. It's not just the economic If there are other inequities So after saying all of that I have a question about, um, you know, when I often LSSE Has intramural sports and often they're using our sorry. Um Anyways, so um other other things that are happening at through LSSE, I know have been put on hold like the pools are open But something other so I'm wondering our Is that still the case that high school students could be playing like soccer or Um intramural softball for example, I remember when I was a kid that was an option. Um Will that be an option and will we be allowing other like non school members to be on our fields or has that Um not been decided yet Um, I can I don't know if dr. Morse you want to speak on it, but I can speak on it a little bit as of right now There's no one using our fields. Um That we have which are the ones I know they're separated So that makes it a little complicated when people drive by the high school and see people in the football and baseball field The softball field those aren't our fields Um, they shouldn't be on our fields right now. I guess I should say but there's nothing blocking them from going on to our fields um And but yeah, there are you know baseball leagues and other leagues happening that lse is running still But as of right now they shouldn't be using our Um facilities like there's no indoor basketball or anything that they normally use as well Yeah, yeah, and the only thing I'll add is that yeah, there are The town hasn't informed us that they are they have approved certain Youth leagues to use the town on fields, uh, particularly the ones that miss steward said But not on the fields that are on the region Region only and excuse me. Yeah any other comments thoughts or questions I just want to state I heard you guys talk about gators a little bit That's also another thing that came up today. Um in my meeting and some schools have voted not to allow gators That's also another option if you guys don't feel comfortable with gators You can just tell student athletes that they can't wear gators and they have to wear a mask I don't think they would mind having to do that Because we can always make you know our rules Higher than the m. I like our grades and our academic rules You know, we have higher expectations than than the m. I. But we do at least have to meet their guidelines at least Okay, thank you So as um, Dr. Morris said, um We're we're not not expecting our um, uh, planning to take a vote tonight. So, um We will come back again and if there's other questions we can do that But if you I'll give everybody one last shot to ask a question while we have miss steward here Um If anybody has any more questions I'm not seeing any Okay All right. Thank you guys. Thank you so much All right. Bye Bye Okay um, so moving back to item one on our agenda Which is uh, so I'm now going to um move that we Enter into an executive session to just Discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation of a pe a ufc w p a a An afs cme If an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigation position of the public body And the chair also declares I declare with the intention of returning to open session Sarah second Second lord second Moved by mcdonald uh second by lauren. We'll take a roll call vote on this. Um, mr. Demling Demling I miss kenny any I Miss lord lord. I miss seager Seager I Miss spitzer spitzer I miss dancer answer I mr. Sullivan Sullivan I And mcdonald I So we will now uh move into executive I'll call to order this meeting of the amherst school committee at 8 15 p.m And let's start with a roll call um attendance. Um Um, oh mr. Demling Hi Um Present are you present? Uh, yes Mr. Harrington present Miss lord Lord present miss spitzer Spitzer present and mcdonald present Amherst school committee is to order Chair hall All right seeing the presence of the quorum I'll call to order this meeting of the Pelham school committee at 8 16 p.m And I'll start with roll call attendance miss kenny any present Miss dancer Answer present Mr. Manino Manino present miss barlow Barlow present and hall present So um, we are starting with um Approving our minutes from We have minutes from august 6th in our packet But not the other dates so we'll at least uh work through august 6th Any welcome, um miss grip go Miss dancer um a couple of I think just uh typos probably in Um In item number six the last paragraph it says the plan we're voting I think it should be the plan we were voting or are voting The plan we are voting And in number nine a the first paragraph last line. I think the word grave should be grade And I think and uh miss hall can correct me if i'm wrong and number nine b Um paragraph four the second sentence It says calling the arps committee to order. I think that should be the pelham committee Miss hall Yes, so thanks miss dancer. Yeah, it does it says that I that I moved That made the motion on behalf of the region and it references mr. Sullivan Um, and then on the following page it says that I moved to extend the meeting So those that just needs to be cleaned up to reference that it was pelham and I did not move to extend the meeting Because we don't have to mr. Demling and then miss kenny on uh item nine a Page six top paragraph Uh the sentence in the middle mr. Demling agreed that the data is murky and that the major limitation of the surveys that we do not know A lot of people chose the option they did. Um, I went back and looked at the tape. Um and basically uh what I said was mr. Demling agreed that uh Mr. Demling, uh, actually Sorry, I'm gonna have to go to what I said um Uh I might not agree that the data is completely murky. I do feel like there's a general trend towards support for model two. However um That's to make this simple The change that I would that would still would make the minutes accurate without adding more We'll just be to change this to mr. Demling agreed that a major limitation of the survey is that we don't know Why people choose the option they did So just changing um striking That the data is murky and that thought just to a so the the new sentence mr. Demling agreed that a major limitation of the surveys that we don't know That clear. Sorry if that was confusing Miss kenny I was there I was in attendance So um, and then All right, all right Think maybe that was it that I saw for myself Okay, mr. Harrington. Yeah, so um in section nine b Towards the end of uh the fourth paragraph it says mr. Harrington said on page 16 If we could add language around by enforcing health measures I think I asked if we could add language Inforced around enforcing health measures I think that'd be the more Miss kenny um When mr. Harrington asked about I thought if you he asked about restorative justice I didn't go back and look at the tapes, but I thought that's what we had talked about Maybe it wasn't the same day Right, right as opposed to having like punitive measures, right? any other um updates changes corrections Seeing none Um, so I I will move for the region to approve the minutes from of our joint meeting on thursday august 6 Is there a second on the region? I'll second spitzer We'll do a real call vote mr. Demling Demling I Mr. Harrington Here you can I Is kenny Kenny I Is lord Lord I Miss seager Seager I Miss spitzer Spitzer I Miss dancer Answer I Mr. Sullivan Sullivan I Mcdonald I Motion passes 9 to 0 Would someone like to make a motion for Amherst? I move to approve the minutes of august 6 2020 second Moved by spitzer second by Harrington we'll call vote mr. Demling Demling I um miss lord Lord I Mr. Harrington Did you hear me lord I? Yes, we did sorry In the Harrington I miss spitzer Spitzer I In Mcdonald I Um motion passes 5 to 0 Dr. Morris, could you remind us in chat how we um what the key controls are for unmuting ourselves? Thank you Chair hall I will make a motion for appellant to approve the minutes of august 6 2020 is there a second? Seconded by stancer Okay, we'll call vote miss Kenny Kenny I Miss dancer Miss dancer I Miss Barlow Barlow I Mr. Menino Menino I And Paul I Okay um Now we move on to um public comment and we have new voice messages and um Some written comment as well and for those that Um hadn't tuned in for the regional school committee um public comment Um, I did not get this um over to the um sasha in order to get it posted to the website before the meeting But for those that would like to um read on their own, um, I did post it on my school committee Um, if you would like to access the actual public comment document Can we start with the voice message? Um, mr. Menino, can you mute yourself please? Oh, you are Sheldon speaking on behalf of the board of the special education parent advisory council The joint statement between the district and APEA announcing the two weeks delay to the start of in-person learning stated We have agreed we have agreed on some broad parameters that we believe will make distance learning more meaningful for all children in the district While cpec agrees that distance learning can be made more meaningful for many of our students It is slightly false to claim that distance learning can be meaningful for all children in the district On monday cpec sent a survey to all students in our district with an individualized education plan or ips We have had over 70 responses so far We are encouraged to hear that many families report that since in-person instruction sees last march their students every Have maintained or even gained skills Sadly though, this is not a uniform condition Significant portion of families report that their students have lost important skills Some families reported that their student is in crisis Please remember these families as you continue to make plans for this school year We will share full resort We will share full results from the survey with you after we have fully compiled them. Thank you Hello, my name is carole gray and i'm giving a comment about The remote learning. I have a student son who's in 10th grade and I was very concerned last spring that there was no synchronous classes We were all told that there would be regular synchronous classes this fall and I read that Part of the union's bargaining demands has initially said that they would not be providing synchronous instruction It's really really concerns me I know other states where kids have Even in the last spring we're doing nine to twelve regular zoom classes on a daily basis meeting with All their teachers and we should be able to do this. We have an excellent school system and yet we've really fallen short for our children I would still like to hear what the plan is for remote learning I understand there are blocks designated But I'd like to know are there going to be synchronous classes with each teacher each day For each block. I think this is what our kids need And it was sorely asked in last spring and we were promised That's what would be happening for the fall I have listened to the town halls. We've been reading the materials But I so far haven't heard any commitment that there will be Synchronous classes with each teacher each day and I really hope that will be happening Thank you Can folks see that document on the screen now? Okay this is um this comment is just the transcript of the voice message that we heard And as mentioned is included in the in the document that will be posted on um the regional school school committee agendas webpage on the arps.org website So that includes um public comment um So we'll move turn it over to dr. Morris or the superintendent's update Sure, so it'll be brief because most of my updates fall under the fall 2020 agenda item, but I have four Um And all of them nice news. So nice to have nice updates So the first one and most prevalent because it's a topic that this committee these committees have talked about recently is um a couple days ago, I guess it was monday we got a an email um that the uh united states food um agriculture um department has Extended the food waivers so that we can extend our food sites within the community through december 31st So, you know, as you know, we've built alternate plans of how to manage that But we're glad not to need them that we can continue Doing what we've been doing that's been very effective of getting meals to families through the rest of This calendar year. So, you know, I want to thank it's a couple of you were involved in that advocacy So thank you for getting involved in it. And I'm glad that we're We're in a better place with that. I'm not needing to adjust Are there programming? second is that this week as you know staff were um Invited to be in buildings to do the professional development. They've not required, but it's been great I've been to three different buildings and Been able to see staff and again, you know, and obviously the safe socially distanced way say, how do people and And have conversations and you know, it feels better to have our school buildings with teachers in it In para educators and other folks It's been great hanging out with custodians and other administrators for the last couple months who have been in But it feels really nice to have other folks occupying some spaces in the building So and that's been great. Obviously staff have been also able to access it from home But for some staff, you know, being away from home has been a really positive thing Just, you know, people are home a lot these days But also accessing the technology and the wi-fi and and and all those pieces The third thing is yesterday as you know is primary day and for the amherst folks And the regional folks too our spaces were used I got to visit crocker farm as well as the high school's voting area I got to talk to constables walk around with You know principal at crocker farm incredibly smooth. I want to thank the town. It was it was incredibly well staffed Um, I'm really glad at crocker farm where it moved to it's just a much better site all around It's much less even if it was a day where students were there sometime in the future and obviously not now It just it's much less getting in the way So kicking ourselves for having never changed that Site earlier, but I really want to thank the town and thank voters for Following if the signage worked, you know, there weren't too many people There's no one wandering but there aren't too many people confused by it and the town did a fantastic job So thanks everyone for that. It went better than I would have Would have thought it would in terms of clarity given that there were new sites Both the high school being a new site altogether But also crocker farm being in a different location at the opposite side of the building And my last one is that we had new teacher orientation last week It was great to meet them with a smaller group of new teachers than we've had in some time But I really, you know, great to meet them and we'll share kind of data in the fall about, you know, hr and diversity Um, that we'll be proud to share But also want to thank the chamber of commerce and other folks who donated goodie bags As they always did this year was harder to do but they get a lot of donations so that our New new teachers got welcomed into not just the district, but to the larger community and kudos to tim shane for organizing Some really valuable experiences for those new folks when they come So we're glad to have them. They're going to add a tremendous amount to our district and Again, I have lots more updates, but they'll be they'll go in the fall 2020 Attend a bucket a little later tonight Great any questions or comments for dr. Morris? Mr. Sullivan question about Food distribution without the umass students being on campus. Does that mean the baby burq is going to continue to help? At least temporarily we're working on what that means. There are students on campus just significantly fewer um in terms of umass and so we are trying to work out those details. Um, but um You know, we're just happy that we got that news monday and now we're you know, mr. Gallo connell you met last time is working out those kind of details But umass has contributed or committed to helping as much as they can given that they have reduced capacity as you noted Miss dancer um, so What about the funding? Is that going to be the money that the town said they would provide for those meals? So since since that waiver got extended It'll be like this spring where we get reimbursed per meal without having to do the long verification process or charge people meals It's like our summer meals program So it'll it'll it'll continue like it did in the spring which financially worked out. Okay for us And i'm sorry, but did that who actually funded the meals? So the government does they reimburse us for the meals as part of the food use lunch program Okay, thank you. Yep. Sorry wasn't clear about that before my mistake any more questions Move on to um chairs update. Um I I don't have an update other than I um wanted to just say um, thank you and um for everybody who's Didn last week to help out when um, I had such poor wi-fi and also um to note that I was an error I had actually received an email from miss seager stating that she had a conflict on that night So I apologize from a seager for saying that actually I did not know that anybody Could not come so um apologies for that Um chair hall. Do you have any updates? I don't thank you Does um, are there any announcements for oh, um, miss lord Yes, thank you chair mcdonald. I would like gladly and Triumphally announce our school equity task force meeting next wednesday at 6 a.m Welcome all. Thank you Oh 6 p.m. Thank you Mr. Demling Yes, and we have our first uh cpaq meeting of the school year uh this friday september 4th at 9 a.m Uh, so cpaq special ed parent advisory council. It's open to everyone in the public But it's uh here for uh parents of students with disabilities because uh, I ep or if you have concerns Um, so easiest way to get that link is just email cpaq at s e p a c At arps.org. You can also find our cpaq on facebook And uh be happy to help you out and um There you go miss spitzer And this is more of a specific to the amherst committee, but there is a jcp jcpc meeting Um coming up on wednesday that mr. Demling and I will be attending and looking forward to giving you updates on The next meeting And that's sorry that's at wednesday at 5 30 to 7 30 Thank you And I'll make one more announcement. Um There is a virtual community forum tomorrow sponsored by the town gown fall reopening group um, that is tomorrow at 5 30 p.m online um Folks from the um, it's been shared a lot on facebook. Um, but just calling that out. Um I think the deadline to submit questions ahead of time is passed. Um, but that will also be streamed I believe on youtube live Any other announcements? Yeah, okay So we'll move on to our new and continuing business and um, we'll begin with the fall 2020 update. Um So for that I will hand it back over to dr. Morris Um, sir, I've got a a number of uh, things to share. It's not a presentation like uh, you know in terms of slides, but a variety of topics um So I will start with virtual schedules. Um, so we are finalizing those Um, I think to to answer some questions that we've gotten not just tonight, but in other meetings There will be synchronous meetings every day, uh for every student Uh, we believe in that and some of that you were still gathering staff feedbacks Uh, next early next week. We should have that all wrapped up. Um, so there's more clarity coming But we believe in daily synchronous instruction in core content areas We've been doing professional development with um an online school actually not for profit school and um They've been great about helping us think about what needs to be synchronous What needs to be asynchronous and and really re-envisioning what distance learning means What we know from them and from research is Trying to replace the in-person experience with the online experience like one for one It's a really different format and that doesn't make a tremendous Uh amount of impact as we'd want and synchronous instruction is is incredibly important Um, you know, for instance, you know, one of the things that I shared on one of the PD sessions I was a part of today is we know that not all caregiver or not all parents and caregivers primary caregivers will be with their child at home Um the whole time that you know, I think some of the concerns about screen time for me. It's it's not necessarily How much screen time it's which screens are students watching are they watching the screens with their teacher? Um Are working with other students are they watching the screens on their television because you know, it's as opposed to uh the spring There's gonna be a lot more parents and guardians who are going to be needing to work and frankly In not necessarily in the home, but even those who are in the home So we really do need to rely on our staff members to be providing that instruction instead of providing resources You know, it's just some national statistics because I think they're important from an equity approach is um, our former secretary of education john king cited these recently um There are huge disparities uh racial disparities on who can choose to work or who is the capacity to work from home Versus who has to show up in buildings. Um, so 20 percent only 20 percent of african americans in the workforce in this country Can work from home only 17 percent of latinos in the workforce Can work from home in the united states and for white families It's an incredibly higher number and so, you know, we do we know that uh for many families of every race But but again those disparities and maybe cousins and maybe older siblings who are uh, you know providing child care for younger kids and so we really need to uh Need to provide that high quality instruction that we do that that we're planning to and and again at the elementary level In particular trying to focus that on small groups because that's how students learn best But even at the middle school high school level, uh, what we've learned is that's really critical um You know, it's interesting looking at some other states. So maryland's like mandating live instructional hours and What you notice is actually, uh, maybe The opposite of what you think might be true that a lot of places who are doing that are having more live Instruction for elementary students and secondary students and while that sounds counterintuitive at the secondary level There could be a small class session students do work And they may be working in groups without a teacher because they're they're able to be more independent whereas at the elementary level Again, that's a little bit harder. Um So we're actively working on it and another reason we feel so strongly about Having a sufficient amount of synchronous instruction Is that learning we believe is and I think there's enough research on it is is is a collaborative exercise that You know that it's learning one-on-one versus learning in a group Offers a subsequently different experience and what we found out from students last spring is They were missing that personal connection. If you remember the there was a survey given in the student piece Everyone believed there was all three groups stakeholder groups talked about needing to have more synchronous instruction But the students in particular talked about it really increasing their motivation um, and so we're going to provide that for them and promote the personal connections and relationships that Students won't have with their teachers like they did last spring because they haven't met them before They don't have six months of experience. So we are going to try to balance those. We want to make sure that we're providing Um sufficient resources for families. We'll be doing more parent trainings Um on the different, you know technology tools that'll start next week Uh and be ongoing, but we also want to make sure that we're providing uh real instruction for students because we know that we want to um We can't assume or expect that uh a parent guardian or an adult will be next to them the full time Working with them on their learning. Uh, we know that's actually not the case Uh that that links into the professional development. We've been working with a an organization as I said called goa Um, some of the focus has been about creating a welcome page welcome video how to humanize an online space for students Uh, the secondary level there's a boot camp that they're they're doing which is is focused on these in the elementary It's a little more uh less focused. It's not a boot camp, but the principles have taken on leadership roles to advance the learning Uh today there was a session on transferring in-person learning to online space and again It gets that synchronous asynchronous piece of what what do we want? What should be in a synchronous lesson and what do we want students to be to be doing on their own? Uh, we've also worked with bright um that program that we've spoken of before and a focus on well-being and anti-racism We'll continue that was part of it and we'll continue Uh to be a part of it. I thought depending on time Um, there was a really nice visual That's describing uh, and let's see if I can share my screen Um that describes some of the goa work that we're doing and it's I like it because it's simple. Um And let's see if I can zoom in enough Where people can make sense of it It's not letting me there we go So if we think about the the work they're leading us on, you know, there's four areas of design for student agency um, so again, how do we get students to organize and how do we get them engaged and and connected to their learning The way finding is a huge piece. That's something that we want to make sure that it's clear that students know when they're supposed to be online Um, they know how to find the resources they need You know, we do this in person. Uh, right if you walk into school and if you walk into a classroom Students know where to get a pencil. They know where their books are in the online world That's a really different environment and it takes really thoughtful deliberate planning Again designed for relationships. I spoke about that and designed for assessment Right. So traditional tests aren't necessarily the best Tool, uh, we could argue whether the best tool in general But they're particularly not the best tool to understand student learning in an online interface So we are actively working with, um, them and they've been incredibly helpful the feedback that I've received has been very supportive And at the elementary level, there's um, kind of message boards Uh, that's teachers have been posting on about all the resources They're learning and what I love about is it really is allowed for our staff members Uh, to learn from one another as well as from the content and you know, just reading through what they're sharing It's do you see that how about this and and the resources are are are being kind of shared collaboratively Uh, which has been a really important thing and one of the quotes I saw Uh, and someone told me was how many times But I wish I knew this in in april Um, I wish I had access to these resources in the spring and obviously that wasn't so much in the cards in terms of The emergency, but I do feel like our staff are getting high quality professional development That'll set up a much more successful experience this fall than what we had this spring Additionally, um, and I'll pause in a second for questions We have one at the high school one in the amour step one one in each of our three districts We've um have three of our staff members who have taken on roles as our part-time roles as distance learning coaches this year They have set up a website that is um evolving on a daily basis That has resources for students resources for families and caregivers and resources for staff members They're providing trainings for staff. There was a optional training on a different a number of different platforms this week They had over a hundred staff members Attend that and teachers could have been doing that or teachers in Paris They could have been doing other things but they saw value in it and they're also as I said setting up Sessions for families, which would be really valuable and something that I think again when we look back last Spring we felt like we didn't do enough of we did a lot over the summer for summer school. We had a lot better success with that um And I think the last thing I want to mention on the pd and distance learning piece before I transitioned to ventilation and Technology in other ways is that we've purchased with our um coven funds a number of digital learning tools Um, so, you know dreambox math keto math every day math online resource We had that uh razz kids newsly uh lexia, which is also literacy and mystery science, which again we had last year So we're providing we have a lot of high quality products for the asynchronous piece That students can be more self-directed on And so we think that that's really going to focus much of our elementary teachers time and energy to provide Active choice and instruction That we know our students need from a relationship perspective and developmentally and for some of that asynchronous time We have a lot more tools at our disposal than we had last spring and we think it's really critical And there's going to be you know training for staff There's a slide deck that one of our distance learning coaches put together Which just clearly explains these tools and we'll be doing some more parent workshops over time on them as well But what we know is that you know, we don't want students on screens for six hours a day Might there's lots of evidence that that's not what we want We also want to provide tools for families who might benefit from having Programs where they can make a choice for more math practice or literacy or science that are highly engaging And much more self-directive because we know how challenging it is for families To be doing what they need to do as well as supporting their children in distance learning That was a mouthful. So I'll pause there Or near full I guess I have a number of other things to share about fall 2020 But that was really focused on the distance learning and professional development part So if there's any questions now, I'll take them and then after that I'll I'll keep rolling Mr. Menino Dr. Moritz, how can the school community member find out what distance learning is like? Can you give us a sample class? You can send out virtual schedules to the parents Could you send the school community members a sample virtual schedule? I I Can't when I walk up and down the street. This is my only time out of the house Neighbors say what's going on? Well, what can I tell there's going to be distance learning? That's all I can tell them It's going on Yeah, so early next week. We'll have that, you know what we presented in the past With which samples we're getting much more refined and now that we have staff feedback We're going to be finalizing those so next week. I can definitely get you that I did send a video of some of the professional development slide deck to school committee In that in that slide deck, there are some clickable links. We can see examples of high quality distance learning So that that may be another place to take a look at in terms of having that resource and being able to understand a little What it looks like And then a point of clarification You've mentioned it before but there will be no opportunity for teachers and parents To get together physically at the beginning of the year. Is that correct? That's something that would have to be dealt with in negotiations with our association Mr. Deming So my question is about what our thoughts are as we as this ramps up and and kids kids Kids use it and the weeks go by as the as the school year goes on What's our plan for for tracking engagement and it's a different question than then assessment I don't mean like academic progress assessment. I mean like Engagement and I'm thinking about this from the point of view of the school committee spent a lot of time in our priority document Right about looking at the spring emergency remote learning and and look and thinking about the fall and Really wanting to prioritize this higher level of student engagement And so I think I think everybody's on the same page and I think that's pretty clear understanding Between between us all about that but then the question becomes okay You know a month from now six weeks from now too much. How do we know that we've done that right? And so how do we track? That that we've done that from like a systems level and so I start to think about general metrics like uh, like attendance Um, but but then you get get into the weeds because you can track attendance in different ways And there may be other types of metrics and and I I don't know all the details of the systems So I'm just wondering of you know, the administrators of these systems must Must be wrestling with these kinds of questions That's one the other thing about tracking engagement is that you know, there's obviously additional challenges with remote learning about um tracking individual level of engagement because You know, you don't want to lose with so many students in a large school district You don't want to lose track of individuals right when you When you when you see kids coming through the doors every day you have so many eyes So many adult eyes so many educator eyes on a student over the course of the day Uh, and it's it's harder. Um with with remote learning. Um, when there's that that There's that physical connection constantly And so how do we make sure that you know kids aren't you know, following through the crack so to speak You know, how do we make sure that not just the kids are doing their assignments and whatnot But aren't that they're engaging so the sort of those two questions of student engagement Aside from progress What your thoughts are on how we are we doing that? Yeah, so I mean, I think as opposed to last spring one thing that's clear is that attendance is a requirement that teachers take every class every day So that's not the full answer, but I want to answer it clearly on the attendance front I think in the larger piece actually this is something that um, you all met obit over the summer and we Are really fortunate that he's doing an independent study with us this fall So, you know great experience for him But I think we are we are the more better the beneficiaries of that and right now He's actually working on a kind of wellness and engagement tool that we would use routinely to get a sense of What's the lay of the land and what are students responding and how are they feeling and and so, you know There's a relationship between wellness and engagement In my opinion, I think there's a lot of evidence around that so that it's not at the only at the individual level But it's at the group level that we're understanding how students are experiencing distance learning and how they're also experiencing The non-academic parts of of distance learning of not being in school We've also talked about doing that in a mixed methods approach where he's able to do focus groups from time to time So we hear from, you know, at least middle school and high school students a little harder But maybe upper elementary grade students Um on how they're experiencing things and again at the younger grades It may be more through the eyes of a parent or caregiver Uh or guardian that we gather that feedback But we we really want to gather that feedback routinely because things are going to be different I mean, I'm I'll be honest I'm concerned a little bit of how things will shift when we go from, you know, beautiful days like we're going to have tomorrow So when the days get shorter and and it's colder And students are outside less often and just, you know, if you're like me tend to get a little nervous in november because it's you know, it's going to be winter And for some people that's great and for other people quite a few that's less great So we want to have that get a baseline and then be able to track that over time To assess both the well-being piece, but also the engagement piece and we want to do it enough, you know, he's looking up kind of Scientifically based tools that will adapt for our purposes But we want to be very clear that it's, you know, not about individual student But we want to have that assessment on the individual student level We do have our counseling team And you know, one of the points of real agreement between the, you know, embers palm education association and us Is really this focus on family engagement So some of the time next week on that pd time will be dedicated to Having staff members start engaging the families that are in their class And so we know that's critical to go from the get-go. We actually have built-in time At the elementary level in particular, but there's time in other schedules for family engagement on a regular basis So it's not having to happen after school But we want to promote as much parent and guardian contact as we can Because we know without being in physical proximity It's more of a challenge and we definitely learned last year that communication was Was was one of the things that people felt wasn't flowing smoothly So, you know between our family center our counseling teams at the school level But also an enhanced view of actually building in time on a daily basis For there to be family communication We feel like those are things that we didn't do last spring that hopefully yield more positive results in the fall Sorry long winded but better than just saying four four words. I hope Yeah, that was helpful any other questions on the First first portion of Dr. Marce's update Here we go, that was that was the bulk of it, but it's certainly not all of it So, um I think I'll stay with the technology theme or distance learning. So Uh Thanks again to the PGOs for raising those funds last year We used most of the hot spots this year We're we're just about using all of them based on the request to have come in from families So that that's a gift that has continued to give beyond the spring So I just want to again plug the Amherst public school or all the PGOs for contributing to that effort Because it continues to be a need in our community We're a little anxious about when Chromebooks will come in You know ours are coming in before the state order, but you know Things aren't flowing as normally as quickly as we'd like So, you know our estimate got pushed back a week for that in the iPads So we may have to kind of raid some of the Chromebooks in the schools and you know Put the new ones in the schools when students come in but You know, Jerry champagne and the is departments doing tremendous amounts of work Has lists from families and staff members on technology needs and we're working as as best we can I believe the student desks for younger students was coming in this week I think it might have come in today, but I've lost track of that If you remember that most of our students at the primary grade levels use tables, but we really need desks And so Hopefully the plan was by Friday to get them in school so we can start setting up We have plenty of time, but we want to get them there as soon as possible We got as you'll notice at the end a generous gifts of face masks From a local company over it's a six digit gift So we want to we'll talk about it when we get gifts But that's another wonderful tool for folks who want to wear that Our staff members or want to wear that plus a mask will have that opportunity. So thank you We also had a great idea at one of the in-person town halls about Buying cloth masks for young kids that they can decorate And make them assets their own and probably their backup because they want to bring them from home But it just it seemed like or if one gets, you know Soiled during the day and so those were ordered and those have come in So that's also really good news and thanks again for all the contributions and suggestions Many of you were at that town hall. I thought it was fabulous and thanks to miss councillor for taking quick action on that The Second last thing on the virtual is We did a non-binding survey of grades of phase two and three families. So basically we did the phase one Survey we got about 68 percent of families Saying they were coming back and that one was a binding survey because it starts soon We did a nine binding warning just for planning. So far we've got over a thousand responses So about two-thirds of the families we emailed We have responses from and to date 69 percent of those Families students would choose in person and 31 percent would be fully remote So it actually matches the phase one almost exactly Kind of interesting one. I wouldn't have predicted it would be that close But it seems like no matter how we ask it ends up being between two-thirds and 70 percent of families suggest that they would want their Children back in school. There was some variation by school For what it's worth fort river had the highest percentage 81 percent choosing in person And the lowest was the middle school at 66 percent Again, not wildly off the average of 69 percent but fort river and pelham were the the highest numbers and The secondary level had number 66 at the middle school 67 at the high school So they were a bit lower than the elementary numbers. But again, you know relative to the scale You know pretty similar, you know fort river and pelham for whatever reason were higher than the other two elementary schools But you know, I thought that would be useful information for the committee to have And We are running into an issue and it may be something that we want to pull up You know at a pelham meeting more specifically sometime soon If you might remember in our phasing plan, pelham second grade Was in phase one whereas in amherst the second grade was in phase two We did that because we have a lot of related service staff that work in multiple grade levels at pelham But what we're finding is with the split of remote and in-person and the collaboration across union 26 we're not sure we can actually Pull that off very well if pelham second grade is on a different timeline than amherst second grade Because again, there are some shared staff in terms of the virtual education So it is something that you know, perhaps next week we can have I don't want to go into depth with all the committees here But it may be that even if we're meeting before a joint meeting It's probably worthy having a pelham specific meeting on second grade because there's some unanticipated consequences Are that have come up with that decision that we probably should talk through That specific to pelham, but I want to just tag it here So that we remember it at the end when we're doing upcoming topics Can you could we pause I saw a pause because I have one more about ventilation and testing results And then I that that'll be the end, but I think this one it was a good place to pause Yeah, I saw mr. Menino's hand. That's why a while ago. So mr. Menino a minor point Does decorating a cloth mask affect its efficacy? No, that's my question How you how you decorate it, but we're not using scissors or anything to decorate it would all be Markers and things that go with that. It's not like we cut out a snowflake or anything like that, you know I had a question of clarification on your comment about the chromebooks coming in. Um, these are the additional chromebooks that are required for one to one For the younger elementary. Is that correct? Yeah, so I mean Well, it really cuts the most of the secondary kids with the exception of the seventh graders and new students would have their chromebooks from last year Um, so it really is looking at the elementary plus seventh grade in terms of the need for Chromebooks, um, so again, we feel comfortable right now with You know ratings the wrong word but utilizing the chromebook carts that are in the elementary schools Um, we were hoping not to do that because then it involves another transition when the carts come in when the chromebooks come in But I think, uh, you know at this point we may not get there So we may have to use the ones from the school site and have The new ones that come in be for the in person, you know in phase one when we get there um But you know, it's you know, it's frustrating for everyone The state just got pushed back to and they were hoping for early late september and now I hear they're at mid october So this is there's actually a bunch of if you google, you know, chromebook delivery issues In schools, you'll find a lot of articles This is a national issue and there are some districts in other parts of the country that are saying not till Thanksgiving so We feel fortunate that jerry was able to find resources that will be earlier than that It's just when they actually will come in and same with the ipads Sometimes they promise a date and it doesn't always come through So a um a related question then is there um sort of a a backup plan for because we don't have ipads obviously in the in the um in the classrooms and because those Grades now are starting for two weeks remote What is our backup plan? It's really to use the cards that we have You know, um, which isn't the best and not every family has requested And I you know just to be really clear not every family at the elementary level has requested a chromebook some feel like they have Whatever they have at home is sufficient. So um, that has really helped us with the numbers real We probably wouldn't get there if it was literally every child who needed by every student who needed one Got it. Thank you. Ms. Spitzer So just a really small thing is that I remember we were all issued ipads by the district and I haven't been using mine I don't know if it's of any use, but I'm happy to bring mine back If it could be of use to to the district Thank you. I will raise that point with Mr. Champagne, um, and we're not doing budget presentations for a while Which is the primary use for those from school committee members. So thank you. I had not thought of that But it really could make a difference. So thank you. Yeah, likewise. I'm sure any of us would be willing to Handle us over. Mr. Minino. Likewise, you can have my computer back Thank you any other comments or questions on the technology portion of the update All right, so the last one is we had ventilation testing Completed over the last two weeks and we've talked about it at this meeting before Really what it was looking for and it's a critical number is air changes per minute or air changes per hour. Excuse me All right, and I just scared but And we were looking at the rooms that would be used in phase one and we did a little more than that And so we tested we had tested over 80 different spaces I think it's worth noting that We did not taste any of this test any of the spaces of the middle school because at phase one It's it's a really small group of students who would be coming to the middle school And so we'd be looking to relocate some of those those students to be the high school That actually idea came from some of our special educators the work in specialized programs There is one supervisor Of specialized programs at the middle school in high school And just because it's so few students opening the school with you know, 25 students Just didn't make a lot of sense for the students themselves nor for the the staffing and custodial and nursing and and all that so So you won't find real testing results at this time for the middle school. The idea is to test phase two Spaces, you know in the month of september. So we get a good read on that But overall it was there were really good results Over 90 of our taste spaces tested over four air changes per hour. That's the increased ashray standard minimum for For covet times if you look at other places other districts, you know, frankly, you know, like There's one district in western mass, but it's a comparative district That, you know, they were they were looking for numbers over two I've heard that from my colleagues in in more incredibly locally So we have a higher standard of looking for four and, you know, over 90 of our spaces Ended up there. So at crocker farm. We tested 14 spaces. They all tested Above four the average was actually 7.3 One thing to note I should have said at the beginning is they were really enhanced by the air purifiers that we bought the HEPA purifiers because they Depending on the size of the space can increase it between one and two air changes an hour on their own And that air is actually considered fresher than the air that would come from an open window At fort river we had 14 spaces tested all of them were over four the average is 5.5 At wow, there would be 11 spaces tested the average is 7.7 There was one space that was under four was at 3.5 or something like that I think and that was the library which was tested in era not that the results were an era But if we don't need that for phase one We wouldn't have students in that space actually in general, but certainly not at phase one But nonetheless, we have that result and we're going to look at what we can do to enhance The air changes in that space At Pelham there were six spaces tested and they all were above four the average is actually 13.3 in Pelham, which is incredibly high At high school we had 41 spaces tested there were five spaces that that fell under Two or three of those spaces Let me look actually I apologize Three of those spaces the units weren't functioning well. They weren't functioning. So we're looking at those And then in two of the spaces the numbers were low And so we're looking at all five of those spaces We feel confident that at least three or four of them we can get working above four and we'll have those retested in the next two weeks The reality is with uh, we we as you know We're planning for phase one being a hundred percent of students in person because we had to we had to Plan for the highest possible number With 68 percent of students planning to be back in person We have enough spaces at our high school to meet the demand Of all the students that we you know would actually be coming back So we're still going to work on it because we know there's a phase two and phase three coming So it's not like oh, we're just not going to worry about it. We're we're going to worry about it and work on them Uh, but we we know we now have sufficient spaces that are have the ventilation Above four for all students in phase one. So it was reassuring to know our buildings aren't super new We're very you know an odd way forcha the more people I speak to there's plenty of schools in massachusetts They have no ventilation except open air and heat right? They don't have Actually, you know vents that are functioning and and thanks to the facilities team for purchasing Uh, can't tell you how many calls or texts i've gotten from other superintendents in massachusetts in the last two weeks saying I heard he bought some things that are helpful. What are they the unit number, you know, um And I feel like i'm like a salesperson for that company now But it's just because you know people were on the ball on our team at knowing that this was going to be Something that was important on the hepa, but also important on the ventilation side as well um Sorry, appreciate all the work that went into that We certainly have more things to do and more things to test but this you know This seems to be the metric that uh across the country seems the most prevalent if like you look at like You know the chan center at harvard and what they're focusing on the air changes per hour seems to be the metric that um Is particularly critical in terms of this the era that we're living in right now And so uh, we're really pleased to see the results and and I think the other thing to note um, and I want to You know, I think it's worth saying These things don't happen by their own. We don't have the newest hVAC equipment It happens because our facilities team Has done routine regular maintenance over the years that has kept these machines running Effectively and that's sort of noted actually in the the cover page that we received from the the hVAC consultants But I think it is really true and I talked to other Places and I'm not going to try to be negative and mention other districts But there are districts really who are finding half their machines not working right now um, whose report are not reports are not coming out with Uh, almost any spaces above four and their equipment's not wildly different than our equipment So I really want to thank the custodians and maintenance staff for the work they do They don't have the Rolls Royce model of hVAC systems in their schools But their routine maintenance and their efforts has resulted in in the data that we got it's not just kind of like Oh, we have a great new building and that's why we have our data. It's actually because of the work And the sweat that our staff puts into the buildings That that helped get the results and I just think it's a really important point because you know again these results And I'm not trying to say they're perfect and there's not things to work on there certainly are But they're really strong compared to other districts that we've talked to particularly other districts with the arrow of building vintage buildings that we have And just I really want to thank our hVAC technician and our facility team and our custodians for the work they do because You know, it's not it's not the work that gets recognized enough But you're you're in a pandemic and you're in a crisis and you realize I'm really glad that they were keeping on top of that work Um, so I'll stop there, but I just you know felt really strongly about Acknowledging that the work didn't happen overnight or just this summer it happened over years where other places You know have really different results that were buildings built at the exact same time Yes, um, um, I'll speak again. I'll let others take course mr. Demling Yeah, so, uh, thank you for that update. That's that's really great news. It's um, you know, it's something That we've known we've we've wanted to get the results of Full of a while. So it's it's it's great. Um is um Like it's just first just logistically if we could get that made available on the website or the fall reopening website I think there'll be a lot of public interest in the um in the information if Whether or not the the actual consultant reporter or summary, um, I don't I haven't seen the actual reports I don't know if it's if it's human readable or not sometimes those are But sometimes people like the source information. So, um But in you know in a way that because I think people have been you know keyed into the idea of um of the indoor air quality being a key piece to this and We've done a lot of we've had a lot of uh lengthy discussions about that on school committee and focused rightly About all the variables that go into that And this is this is one of those key pieces and so um The fact that that like you said years of effort have gone into making this piece go very rightly Um, I think is going to be important piece for the public to understand. Um I guess my question is you know So this this seems like a really big piece that that is has fell into place So like so can we assume now that that like I mean do you feel like all systems are go for for return in person on for phase one students on october 1st Is this really like the one of the big final pieces you were you're waiting it to hear on? Yeah, this is definitely a huge one. Yeah, and this is the one if you again I'm sure many of you are tracking this around the state And this is one, you know, particularly the air changes in the ventilation seems like one where Lots of people are struggling and that's just a sad condit sad state of school buildings in massachusetts That's not trying to put down any other districts who are struggling. I want to be really clear about that but Um, it's really hard. I mean there's depression era schools, right that have never have been updated with their HVAC system They're not going to be it for right doesn't matter how many air purifiers you put in the room. It's just not going to get there Um And so, you know, we still want to look at humidity and other there are other aspects We want to look at but a lot of those other aspects. We're able to do ourselves and we you know, um We're able to us to look at the humidity in our rooms on a routine basis starting at october 1st actually really helps, you know Hopefully by then we're done with the 95 degree days with 90 humidity that make things really hard in terms of ventilation and Comfort level and humidity. So there are other pieces we want to look at but you know If you look at all the research from like the parabola experience, I think I've shared some of that You know all that work really the ventilation piece and how many air changes is a critical critical piece And that's why we emphasize getting that data early on. It's also not one that we can necessarily test ourselves very easily I'll put it that way For those of you who have seen the data table. It's complicated, you know about how you how you quantify this We would put it on the website all together because I think it is a public document If you don't need not to and we're not we're also clear that there's a couple rooms we need to work on right It's not perfect. Um, but you know in terms of getting the sufficient spaces that have the specific sufficient, um air flow And ventilation it was really it was really great news Mr. Manino Following up on mr. Demling's question When do you think We'll have an agreement Whether or not school will be in person on october 1 So by agreement I assume you're talking about bargaining uh with our employees. When will we know that uh In-person learning on october 1st is assured. When will we know that? Yep, so I think the negotiations are ongoing. We had a session today. We have two more this week and we're I think everyone's working as quickly as they can to get to the place that you're talking about but I can't claim to Be able to answer your question Explicitly, um, it's the right question to ask. That's not a critique. Mr. Manino Because it's not something that um, I tend to like to predict things that I can control And this is this is has to be a joint agreement, right? And so everyone's working hard everyone's trying their best Um, but I think next week we'll meet and we'll have an update and I to your point It feels like, you know, it's four weeks away And that's feeling really soon to many people and I want to acknowledge that point that I get that I ask that question An awful lot too The only reason I ask is that the eight people I meet on the road dog walking ask me that one question When will we know? We will communicate when we do know that uh answer to that question loudly and widely I think um, and this is not to to say that anybody anybody on this meeting has the answer to mr. Manino's question Um, but just to clarify for folks at home not everybody that is in this meeting on this call right now um It was part of the executive session that happened earlier where we specifically talked about this Uh, so I just want to clarify so that folks aren't wondering why one of us is asking a question that we certainly should have Knowledge about because we don't all have the same knowledge um The did anybody else have questions or comments about the ventilation? so um, well, I'll I'll add on to um or pile on if I will um that that this is really really good news I did I did read the report um when um when you distributed it to the committee and um and I will sort of join in the in the praise and and just Deep deep thanks to our facilities and maintenance and custodial team that has been working on this um a lot this summer as well as um uh over the years because um In my mind, this was sort of the one question mark that we still had we've put together um our our committees and and the district has put together um A really solid plan for for safety and health and and keeping our students staff and families safe And then back to school in person and this was the piece that as you Pointed out dr. Morris we couldn't test ourselves And so we didn't know until we received this report and I think that this is This is really huge piece. Um and important good news For us to be able to feel confident um in in our plan and then I don't know if this is a question or a comment, but The HEPA filters and our ventilators are not the only items that are helping ensure in or You know strong indoor air quality, correct? There's other other tools This is again just one piece of many that together all of these pieces contribute to making um being in stores in in schools classrooms Um Imaginable for during a pandemic is is that correct? There's other absolutely So, you know the filters within the unit events are all being replaced the exhaust fans being replaced I'll say, you know, it's amazing being at fort river and wildwood, you know Probably mr. Harrington and his other hat and I are the only ones who have Had the opportunity but for those of you who have been in those two buildings to see What a half quad looks like um is just wildly different and and I think in particular to your question Having the vents split so that it's not a shared vent system out Between the multiple quads Um as well as having two unit vents in the space that are blowing and and cross ventilating the air You know, I you know, there's no way to know what the results would have been in the old quad system except I'm not an expert, but I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have been as good With the amount of temporary walls that were up that that you know air travels over but They get in the way and the shared vent system. I just you know, I don't believe it's true I think our challenge can be what do we do post pandemic? But I'm I'm worried about the pandemic problems now and less about the the post ones because the the classrooms are also beautiful Like it it's a strange thing to say it doesn't solve all the problems in the buildings They still need to be replaced but compared to what I've experienced both as a teacher at fort river and and just Walk around the schools Particularly fort river with with the real wall In 1900 square feet, they're huge Spaces that have light coming in ways that it never did and it really opened up the space in ways that I could never sort of imagine They've still got lots of problems, but they've you know from a ventilation airflow It really feels like a different space You know and mr. Harington I'm not going to put you on the spot and asking your other role But you know it it's it's it's not something That you don't realize when you write when you walk in that you you know, you hear you know You get the blurs going from both ways you can open up windows that Even though one's in a courtyard the other one's outside and you can get cross ventilation that way And just knowing that the venting it's really clear that there's an end to that and that it's it's only one classroom at a time sharing that Um, it really does make a huge difference. So all those efforts that our facilities custodial and maintenance department Have made I think you're right contribute to You know a better experience, you know, and we're learning a lot for our post-covid times too, you know Again, that's not where our focus is but I think we're learning a lot about what we can do and how we can do things better Um, and how we can support our our fantastic staff better In terms of custodial maintenance so that you know, we have long-term benefits to this work as well Anybody else have a questions or comments mr. Harington? I was kind of gonna hold off on my comment until I was talking to the facility staff directly tomorrow But yeah, I absolutely do have to commend like the the folks who have dedicated Countless hours to this and in their professionalism We have an awesome staff in general and I kind of want to I don't want to embarrass anyone But our our HVAC specialist is I mean he's hands down Probably one of the most professional people I've ever worked with and I mean his his dedication kind of drove this and I just want to commend him Can I say his name? Is it all right to say his name? Please do Doug Pion is a Doug Pion is an absolute champion. So I just wanted to say that Yeah, we had a we had a consultant a couple years ago came in for a project and said, you know You know your HVAC guys a magician, right? I was like, yes, I do I do I do I'm aware of that Um, but but I'm glad you mentioned that and I'm glad Doug's getting called out publicly because he's really done a great job Thank you for that any any other Comments I'm seeing them And and dr. Marce, I believe you confirmed that this the report you'll be posting it on the fall 2020 Web page. Yeah, we'll put that up tomorrow Wonderful. Thank you. Yeah, we'll put the full report the summer the two summaries, but also the the room by room data Excellent No more questions on this We move on great Okay So next is our future agenda planning. Um, and I think we are looking at having a meeting next week Uh, and a joint meeting of the three meetings again Um, well, I think there's it's going to be another one that's complicated because I think the region's going to have to meet to talk and vote on athletics Pelham, I think we'll have to we maybe we'd do it in separate meetings, but Pelham's gonna have to meet and talk about Great or I would like to encourage us to talk about grade two and what phase they're in and I think that should be a Pelham specific Meeting and then we probably should have an update to mr We need those questions to update the community on where we if there are updates to be had Where we are and and if nothing else to more on distance learning and some of the questions about schedule so, um 926 I don't know if my head's in the right place to think about if we can do all those things and we may need an executive session as well um, so I don't know if we can do all that in one night or if it makes sense to Break it up and do at least one if not more of those topics um Not all together And there may be other things but those are the ones in my head that we have to do Um, we have an update on the we heard on the title nine policy That was another one that I think we We've mentioned in the past meeting. Yeah, I've talked to I'll see I'll um Talk to um, I think the attorney was just about done with the draft of a A sample policy for us to review. So I'll put that on my list tomorrow. Um To see if we can get that Document um out to everybody here Any other um agenda topics mr. Sullivan Yeah, since we got an update on athletics tonight and not everybody participates in athletics I'd like to hear an update on performing arts and possibly clubs mr. Deming Uh, now that we're into September. I know we're gonna have overlapping processes But we do have to at some point start talking about 2020 2021 superintendent goals before the 2020 2021 year ends Actually Oh, I'm sorry. Ms. Segar I understand If if you wanted to respond to him first, that's that's fine now um, what I'm interested in learning more about as as a representative from leverage is It's some future meeting what what's going on with discussions for the sixth graders in Amherst slash Pelham moving to the middle school and I realize that might be totally unholy but At some point I'd love to catch up on it so I can share it with my community Thanks What I'd like to um, also at our next um We've been it probably isn't a joint topic, but also just map out um Our calendar for the year So that we can get back to at least more predictability Or or try to Will ever be predictable during this year, but Yes, mcdonald. Um, I don't know if there's any Evaluation stuff and when that date is um or miss spitzer. I don't I don't know Um, if that's next week or the week after so I couldn't remember I believe it's the week after because committee members have until the 14th to complete the evaluation um So it would be the 21st 20 second the 14th is the monday, correct? Yeah I think so So the week of the 21st would be when we would review the results Right. Thank you Okay, um They're moving on to the next item. We have the warrant report. Um, I know miss spitzer has several I have one so I'll let you look dig up yours and get ready while I read my one um, so Uh, I alison mcdonald authorized by my signature to payables in the amount of 270,499 dollars and 23 cents for a warrant dated august 19th 2020 This includes general fund expenses of 39,000 dollars 39,810 dollars and 90 cents Revolving fund expenses of 230,688 dollars and 33 cents And I signed that on the It looks like the 19th so miss spitzer So a quick question. I have some um annual scholarship payments I'm assuming I shouldn't be reading on the names of the students or should I be That there was no summary provided for me. It's just I have the the warrant so I think you can read them, but I'm probably playing it safe is always a good idea. So I'll just More information is available upon your request if you would like to know more about the warrant scholarships but um, I've got 10 of these so um, I'm going to try to be as Quick as possible, but hold with me. All right. So, um, I carry spitzer authorized by my signature payments for annual scholarships in the amount of $3,000 on um for warrant dated August 13th 2020 um, I also authorized By my signature a request for funds for student activities funds and the principal's checking amount There was a transfer request from the senior high school in the amount of 17,639 dollars and six cents Which was dated July 31st, 2020 I carry spitzer authorized by my signature to payables in the amount of 117,674 and 50 cents for a warrant dated August 6th 2020 for general fund expenses of that amount Um, this was signed by me on august 16th 2020 No one looks like a repeat. I also authorized by my signature a payment for um, annual scholarship on august 20th 2020 in the amount of $500 um I authorized by my signature to payables in the amount of 731,289 and 55 cents for a warrant dated august 20th 2020 That was for general fund expenses of the same amount and was signed by me on august 25th 2020 Um, I authorized by my signature to payables in the amount of 156,944 and 40 cents for the warrant dated august 18th 2020 um, this covered general fund expenses of 125,363 and 23 cents revolving fund expenses of $4,900 and 82 cents and grant fund expenses of 26,680 and 35 cents And this was signed by me on august 25th um I carry spits are authorized by my signature to payables in the amount of 289,562 47 cents for a warrant dated august 28th 2020 this covered um general fund expenses of 164,482 and 96 cents revolving fund expenses of 27 sort of two thousand two thousand seven hundred forty six dollars and 11 cents and grant fund expenses of 122,150 dollars and one cents and other funds um, the amount of 183 dollars and 39 cents and that was signed by me on september 2nd 2020 I also authorized um annual scholarship payments in the amount um on august 26th 2020 in the amount of $2,000 and I believe that is it so thank you great Next we have um moving on to our next item. We have gifts um and we do have some to play I just pulled it up so I can display it dr. Morris if you Would you like me to display it? Sure. Yeah, I'm happy to do it um Is that visible? Yes Would somebody uh Somebody feeling uh interested in in making a motion I'm still unmuted so I'm happy to So I move that the these all to the region I move that the um Amherst regional I I move that the regional school committee except the following guests from the children's theater foundation of america number 1174 to support the amherst regional high school theater program in the amount of $1,000 From scott and karen garmin number 694 to support the amherst regional public school sorry athletics donated Donated their cancellation refund. Thank you very much. It's in the amount of 456 dollars from anonymous dash your cause number 602066808 to support the middle school at the principal's discretion in the amount of 10 dollars From anonymous your cause number 5602078966 To the middle school at the principal's discretion in the amount of 20 dollars From the arps pgo Inc dba arms pgo To support the arms teacher lounge improvements in the amount of 500 dollars From am lithography and packaging corporation 55800 face shields for amherst pellum regional and public schools estimated value of 100 100,000 111,600 dollars such a big number. I'm having trouble reading it. Thank you very much for a total and this total must be oh, this is the total of the non Estimated amount is one thousand nine hundred and eighty six dollars Thanks for bearing with me Oh, and in addition In compliance with state regulations regarding the receipt of gifts I suggest that the amherst rich amherst pellum regional school committee officially accept these donations at its next scheduled meeting In addition the children's foundation of america 2020 robertson award to john becktold In the amount of five thousand dollars and congratulations to him. That's fine And I'll second that Um any discussion? Dr. Morris Yeah, I just want to for those of you who don't know john becktold's a theater teacher at our High school and he won a major national award Um, he's the recipient as you saw of the riba r robertson award Um, and you know, he does a tremendous amount of work and this is a huge honor That it's actually every other year excuse me, um since 2008 and it's just it's it's um It's well deserved. I think you all know I think you many of you have seen mr. Becktold present at the regional school committee about his programming You know those who've been on the committee multiple times and um, it's he is a treasure for our schools and for students And I'm just so pleased that he's receiving the recognition for his amazing creativity and dedication to students. I mean, I always joke if If I'm ever locked out of the high school at any hour, you know I can either call the principal or I could call john becktold because he's probably there And I'm just so glad that his hard work dedication And great work is being recognized. So just want to call call that out So people know what it was that it's it's a huge huge award In terms of the recognition and honor and it's well deserved by john Could you um describe a little bit more about the gift from am lithography, please? Oh, yes, absolutely. So this is um a company that has shifted and they're doing face shields And they reached out to us and said, you know, we're happy to you know, donate some face shields to a local school district and we Thought that, you know, maybe they'd give us, you know, 50 or 100 and they said No, what do you want? And You know, you always, you know, pinch yourself and say really, you know, and they said no No, just tell us what you need. So we looked and uh, we assess what we might need over a whole year if You know, all the scenarios of teachers wearing them and wanting to wear them with masks and um, and they said no No problem. Um, we're happy to do that and they're coming in this week And so they reached out that was all through miss constantly, you know, and and kind of her knowledge of folks in the field So it's it's uh, incredible that there's that kind of donation But I think that's we're fortunate to live in western mass where people Are are really dedicated to kids being in school and making sure everyone's doing that safely It's wonderful. Mr. Menino Are these those plastic masks that look like welding things? That people wear on their head Yes Wow, that's something special That's great There's no further discussion. Um, then we'll move on to a vote. Um, this is Was there a motion to get a second? I second it. Yeah, okay. Sorry But thank you Um, and this is a region vote. So, uh, we'll do roll call vote. Mr. Demling Demling I mr. Harrington Harrington I Miss Kenny Miss Lord Lord I Miss Seeger Seeger I Miss Spitzer Spitzer I Miss Dancer Answer I Sullivan I In McDonald I Um, so the motion passes nine to zero and I believe Uh, does somebody from Amherst Want to make a motion and move to adjourn Lord second Move by Spitzer seconded by lord. There's no discussion. Mr. Demling Demling I Mr. Harrington Harrington I Miss Lord Lord I Miss Spitzer The Amherst school committee is adjourned Somebody making a motion for the region I'll move to adjourn Lord second Move by Spitzer seconded by lord. There's no discussion. We'll move to a roll call vote. Mr. Demling I Mr. Harrington Harrington I Miss Kenny Kenny I Miss Lord Lord I Miss Seeger Seeger I Miss Spitzer I Miss Dancer Mr. Sullivan Sullivan I In McDonald I The region is adjourned Okay, here we are. Um, all right. So our only item is the Superintendent Evaluation and the Evaluation Instrument. Um, so Oh, yes, go ahead Ron Is this being broadcast? We're willing to support our Pellum friends for a limited amount of time. Um, so that it continues to be broadcast Is this a first for our committee? Yeah, they've been very generous the last couple weeks where we've had some small Pellum only meetings Thank you Amherst media I did tell them that when we're back in person that there's often food and we'd invite them That's fair. Yeah, okay um, so dr. Morris sent around his one pager Um with the links to the artifacts and then I had also circulated the evaluation instrument so I guess Any we can talk about timing and also questions Some of the things that have come up Anyone on the committee currently may complete an evaluation regardless of how much time you've served on the committee But it's not a requirement. Um, so with that instrument typically and so Mike, do you know does Sasha will she be able to do the survey monkey thing like she had done for the region? Yeah, she gets a go ahead from you. She'd be all set. Okay. Yes. So she puts together Survey monkey so you can just go through and fill it out that way um so I guess any questions on either the artifacts document or The the actual evaluation instrument Okay, yeah, mr. Manino urinal. Let's go wrong. I'm sorry I found one pager from mike uh informative and helpful As usual I find the questionnaire a little difficult to follow but I figure it out as they go along I want a chance to Evaluate him as quickly as possible Okay, great Any hesitation on voting on the instrument tonight or any other questions? Okay Well, I will take a motion to vote on that instrument I move that we accept the instrument as presented Great second All right, any further discussion? All right, um, all right, I'll do a roll call vote ron Ron yay I didn't know I know I switch back to first names. I can't handle the mr. And that's okay. Um, margaret uh answer I there best there best I Brenda Brenda I and haul I okay um, and then In terms of timing Um, I know for the region They're doing two weeks. I mean did it um Well, I guess Dr. Morris, I'll ask you do you feel like you do you want the when we're done Do you want the presentation to be part of a separate meeting? So you're not getting into these marathon meetings and we can be a little more flexible. Do you have a preference? I don't I mean my my Experience the last couple years is it's a lot of work for the chairs I don't want to minimize that but actual the actual evaluation conversation. It tends to be quite brief Um, like I think a lot of the work my experience is a lot of the work of the committee's been on the front end of like Reading all the artifacts and doing the evaluation and then when when it's actually compiled and voted It tends to be a rather brief meeting. So it doesn't either way is fine with me Okay. All right. Um, and I guess for other Committee members in terms of how much time you have and how much time you need to do this Do folks have opinions? About when we would do it. Yes, they're best Um, can it just not be the same week so there can be a week in between? I am feeling slammed with school committee Steph's the same week as the as the region Yeah, so I was not really paying attention when When is that due? The 14th due on the 14th. Okay Um, could we target something for the following week? That be Okay. All right. Um All right, so we'll do that when sasha puts it together. I'll have her send out a more clear actual deadline Um Okay, I think that's it Um any questions on process or anything? Just when will we get it from sasha? Um, well, I'll I'll send her an email I mean, I think she can put them together fairly quickly, but I don't want to promise a date so Okay Soon ish but she's got Approximately one million other things so but I'll I'll let you know when I hear from her when when she thinks it'll be all right Anything else? All right, I'll take a motion to adjourn I move we adjourn. Whoa. That's the fastest motion Brenda, did you just second? I did second. Yes. Okay. Um, all right, we'll call vote. All right, sarah best Sarah best I Brenda Brenda I run Run I Margaret Margaret I And haul I tell him is adjourned I think everyone good night. Take care