 Good evening and welcome to the St. Rain Valley School District Board of Education meeting. If you could please stand and join me in saying the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Barb, can you please call the roll this evening? Mr. Aaron's absent. Mr. Berthold. Here. Mr. Garcia. Here. Dr. Marder. Here. Ms. Pierce absent. Mrs. Ragland absent. Ms. Segrist. Here. Thank you, Barb. And Barb, were there any changes or addendums to the agenda this evening? There were no changes. OK, great. Then I'm going to go ahead and move into the public comment of the meeting. I'm going to read some comments. We're continuing to take public comment through a special link on the website. So I do have some of those to read. I do also want to note, though, I'm going to take this off while reading, that Paula Pierce and Karen Ragland and John Arons are absent from the meeting this evening. We typically don't meet in the month of July. This is a special meeting that was called so that we can all stay informed on the district plans and provide input to the district plans as it specifically pertains to COVID-19 and opening the school year. Given that Paula, John, and Karen are absent, though, I want everybody to understand they might be absent physically from the meeting, but they have all relayed that they will be watching the video so that they can stay apprised of the plan and also hear the comments from the public. All right. The first comment I have this evening is from Kim Coventry and Kim writes, could we see some more supportive language for the families who choose to remote learn in the fall? When I read the district's reopening plan, I felt a bit ostracized. I had previously read the plans for Boulder Valley and Puder School districts that were shared from friends and family members in the area and they understood and supported the families who decided that returning to school at this time was not the best option for their families. With clear plans on how to support these families and plans for the reintegration of these families when conditions improve. I was dismayed about the district's wording about the online school being for families with health conditions and extenuating circumstances. Without a plan for reintegrating these families in the future or any wording of support for those decisions. Are all families welcome to use this plan? Will students who start the year on this plan be welcomed back when they are ready or perhaps in phases as teachers are also ready to return? The language of the plan made us feel like we were fairly alone in not being ready to return. But after talking with a variety of families in the district, many of them were not comfortable with sending kids back and planned to online or homeschool. Some even had already enrolled in Boulder Valley instead. Because they felt a lack of support for their decision within St. Brain Valley, we have a wonderful district and I would hate to see people leaving because of this. Can we get more support for the challenging decisions facing parents at this time in a way that will keep us united rather than divide us? Don, if you're comfortable, I think I'll read all of them and then you can speak as far as the response goes. Thank you. The second comment this evening is from Wendy McMillan. It must go without saying we can all appreciate the enormity of the tasks the district is working with to create schedules and plans for this fall and the unattainability of an ideal solution. Our family is grateful for options and striving for flexibility. The current state of this evolving situation continues to cause concern and apprehension. However, the way the virtual learning option has been presented, specifically noting extenuating circumstances, implies that families who might wish to consider it must apply and qualify under certain conditions. Can you provide clarification on whether this is being considered a legitimate, supportive option for all families? And if so, will there be points within the year that families of students enrolled in launch will have the opportunity to reassess and be welcomed into their physical classrooms depending on how things change? The next two comments are actually identical. They are written by Melissa Houghton and Elizabeth Honan. And given that they are identical, I am going to read them, read the comment one time. How will the school board ensure that additional public input is solicited prior to making any decisions regarding the 2021-21 school year due to COVID? As part of that, what are the plans by district leadership and the school board to share all district and task force committee discussions in a transparent and public way? Lastly, what are the contingency plans for when a teacher or student tests positive for COVID-19? This comment is from Anya Ploha. As a parent of an incoming 1st and 2nd grader in the St. Brain Valley School District, I was disappointed by the proposed plan for full-time in-person learning put forth by the district for the 2020-2021 school year. The plan lacks specifics on keeping children and staff safe and appeared to ignore current medical trends on how COVID-19 is transmitted and manifests itself in different populations. Among my friends, family, and school community, I see a wide spectrum of personal attitudes and behaviors around combating the virus. And I expected the district would take a more diverse and creative approach in its offering of different education platforms to meet the needs of all families for the upcoming school year. My husband and I do not feel safe sending our two young children to school full-time but prefer a hybrid approach of a few days a week in person paired with some remote learning. Current medical data shows that this would minimize exposure to the virus and would also mean any outbreaks could be caught and contained before having the potential to spread throughout the school slash community. The fact that the remote learning option is only accessible full-time and to students with defined medical or other exemptions to impressing learning is unacceptable. During the last couple months, I have watched as both friends and family in neighboring school districts, Jefferson County and Boulder Valley School District, have received numerous questionnaires around meeting the education needs of family in their district. Unless I've missed an e-mail or communication, I'm unaware of any such input being collected in SBVSD. My questions are as follows. During the last school board meeting on 6 24 2020, Dr. Haddad stated that a pretty representative task force that included administrators, teachers, and operations and maintenance personnel helped in the formation of the upcoming plan to reopen schools full-time. Who exactly were these members of the task force? Were parents also consulted when devising the plan for the upcoming school year? If so, how many families were consulted and how were their desires disseminated into the upcoming school year plans? If the answer is no, how do you expect to meet the expectations of a school community when you are unaware of the needs and desires of that community in which you are serving? What are you doing moving forward to ensure that more parent and community involvement is included in your decision-making for the upcoming school year? This comment is from Chris Johnston. As a parent of a St. Rain Valley Elementary School Child in your district, I have many questions and concerns regarding the plan released last week by Superintendent Haddad. I request at this time that you do not approve any plans for the return to school in the fall without sufficient community involvement. As any parent fully knows at this point, for our sanity and more importantly for their growth and development, we need our kids back in school. However, the fall 2020 reopening plan that was emitted e-mailed to parents in the St. Rain Valley School District by Superintendent Haddad on June 30, 2020 was deeply disappointing. The plan lacks specificity, was not responsive to current understood conditions of the COVID-19 virus and did not adequately meet even minimum state guidelines as outlined by the CDPHE and CDE. While I realize the plan released is not in the final form, there remains many unanswered questions and concerns. Particularly disappointing to me and many parents I have spoken with, was the line noting the desire to minimize the use of masks whenever possible. Everything we know about this virus and the mode of transmission points to simple cloth masks as being a major factor in limiting person-to-person spread. The plan, while perhaps not the intent, appears to appease a small, faction, albeit a vocal one, who opposed the basic scientifically documented fact that masks worn by all while indoors is one of the most effective way to return to gatherings such as classrooms. I understand, as do many parents, that there is no magic solution to any of this. I know that there is no ill intent by anyone on the board or the task force. A rushed return without adequate consideration of all scenarios. However, coupled with the sheer desire to return to normal has been shown in recent weeks in neighboring states to be an approach with dire consequences. All the time and energy going into these plans will go out the window if it all needs to shut down again a few weeks into the year. I urge you and your fellow board members to consider one thing, if nothing else from my letter. We all want to return to normal, but if everything we're doing in the coming weeks and months is an attempt to return to that version of normal, then it is a fool's errand. We are not getting back to normal anytime soon, as much as we all want it. The sooner we abandon that hope for the time being and instead accept and adapt to our current reality and adjust our priorities for the coming year, the more likely we all are to be successful. Lower our standards have more outside time for plain instruction, which is shown to be much safer than indoors, including designated outside areas for each class or grade level, except the kids made a bit behind by year's end. So will all kids across the country and focus on the things that truly matter for their development in the short term of this national crisis will play dividends a year from now when we can celebrate, hopefully getting back to that normal we also dearly miss. Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to hearing from the school board, our superintendent, and our school principal on what the next steps are. I wish you and yours good health, safety, and of course, sanity. Thank you for your efforts supporting our children during these unprecedented times. The final comment is from Katie Topham. In the event that SVVSD isn't able to fully carry out the current 2020-2021 return to school plan, I was wondering if the SVVSD board has something separate in mind for the SVVSD preschools. I would love to see the preschoolers have at least some kind of in-building learning this year. I'm considering online learning for my older two children, but would be willing to send my preschooler in person because preschool classes are already set up to work with a hybrid on-off schedule. The classes are capped at approximately 14 to 16 kids per class and attend on sat-staggering time slash days of the week. Given that preschool is focused primarily on learning through in-person play, socialization, and learning how a school routine works, online preschool doesn't seem like a very good fit for preschools. Thank you so much in advance for potentially passing this question slash request onto the board for the meeting tomorrow. I hope you are staying safe and doing well. All right. Thanks, everyone. And thank you to all of the community members who submitted responses. We certainly appreciate the collaboration and that you are providing input on the district's plan to return to school through sending that email. Don, I think you are going to address many of the issues that were raised in those emails. So I will turn the floor over to you. All right. The first thing that I would share is maybe I will start with that last question since it was the most recent. About preschool? Sure. Yeah. And we outlined in our document that went out on June 30 that we would be offering preschool full-time that we had received that approval from the state. And so that information would have gone out in that last document that we sent related to that came out in my email. So the answer to that question is yes, we are going to have preschool. So, and we're excited that she is interested in doing that because we were too and we were wondering what the state was going to ultimately decide. And then coming back, the first one, yes, all students are permitted to enroll in Longstead. And when we referred to it in our July communication or in our June communication, we referred to it as extenuating circumstances, which includes any circumstance that you as a family feel creates something out of the norm of returning to school. And so in this case, if that is a discomfort with returning, then yes, you are welcome to enroll in the LaunchDead program. It has a very solid curriculum through Florida Virtual, which is what we have in our SFOGA program, our St. Rain online for high school kids currently, but it will be taught by St. Rain teachers. And there's alignment there with our curriculum and standards. So that's the first thing. And then the second part of that question was, can students return to in-person during the year if they choose to do that after starting? And the answer to that question is yes, and we would try to make that return at a quarter break or something that makes sense, but at any time they could return. If there were to be a vaccine, if they were to decide they feel more comfortable, they can. And the second question was basically asking the same things. So I'll bypass that one because they wanted to know those same two questions. The third one around input. Giving input to this process is happening now. The way that we have it set up, people can reply to the board secretary and get questions. They can reply to emails. We invite people to call after they have a chance to look at the plan. They can communicate with their principal. They can call me. And a number of people have. We heard a lot in the spring that informed us. We talked to a number of people who had questions, suggestions, concerns, and so it's been a constant state. And then the other thing in terms of this process is the input is one thing, and then the guidelines and the orders are something completely different. And so it's not as though we're going to take all of the input and be able to make a decision that input can inform us, and it certainly has. And the options that we have, which are the same options that every other school district basically has, is you can have all students return in person, or you can have all students online the way we did in the spring, or you could have the form of a hybrid. And so those are the three things that we have looked at, and we've looked at them collectively as an entire system, and then we've also looked at them by grade level. There's also a principal's video that has been made in collaboration with me, and that will be shown to all the parents of each particular school, and the principal will walk the parents through the school virtually and talk to them about the kinds of things that will be happening in the school. Now we're still six weeks, five and a half weeks, six weeks out, and while that doesn't sound like a long time with the coronavirus, it's a lifetime, because two weeks ago, we didn't have any of this spike going on that's going on, at least not to the extent that it is, and that's why I'm always very careful to say in bold print, this is an evolving process, it will continue to change, this is our best thinking at this point. Now we sent out a communication at the beginning of June, we sent out one in the middle of June, we sent out another one at the end of June, and then our next one will be coming out around July 20th, but even the one that comes out July 20th could change depending on how the virus evolves. But those principal videos will be shown, and people will have a chance to say, wow, that looks good to me, or maybe not so good, I might want to look at a different option. The other question was, who's participating on the task force? I was the participant, our deputy superintendent, our three-area assistant superintendents that oversee all the schools. Each principal had a team with several teachers at their school that looked at these things with their particular school against the collective plan. Our operations and maintenance leadership, our custodian staff leadership, our transportation staff leadership, our nutrition services staff leadership, our athletics and activities director, our technology leadership, our curriculum and instruction leadership, our district nurse, our student services leadership, our human resources leadership, our communications department, our attorneys, Boulder County Health, the Metro Denver area partnership, which is comprised of all of the health departments across the metro area. We got guidance, too, from the American Association of Pediatrics, which has 67,000 pediatricians, and they are responsible for best practices, physical and mental, for infants, children, young adults, or adolescents and young adults. We also received guidance throughout the process from the governor's office, the Colorado Department of Education Department of Health, and then I'm also in constant communication with the other metro area superintendents. We conducted, I don't know, Jackie, probably over 200 meetings in this process, and it's just been constant and probably before the start of school we will have logged in another 200. So it's not an event. This is a process, and at each meeting everyone concurs that this can change dramatically within the next few days, in constant communication. My next meeting is tomorrow, here with the leadership of the Boulder County Health Department and the Broomfield County Health Department and other administrators in our district as well as some of our neighboring districts. The transparency around this is that we have these conversations in these board meetings that are public meetings and can be observed at any time either in person, live, reviewed afterwards, and then the letters that I send out represent a summary of these 200 meetings that we come up with and share that with our community, and then we get feedback. The next question was basically asking the same thing as that question, so I won't answer it again because they were very similar. The next one, I first want to be clear, they indicated we are ignoring the health recommendations. That is not accurate. We are following the health recommendations from Boulder County Health, from the Metro Denver Area Partnership for Health, which includes Denver's County, Jefferson County, the Tri-Counties. We are working with the Governor's Office, the Colorado Department of Education, and then also looking at the Association of American Association of Pediatrics. So I want to be just clear on that and not to be oppositional. I just want that to be on the record that everything we are doing is being driven by the medical field here, as well as what we know about education. Question around cohorts, for secondary we looked at a hybrid model, and so kids would be cohorted because some of the kids would be in school, some would be out, and they would be cohorted in that fashion. Elementary structures are much more structurally cohorted because they are in a classroom and not going to different classrooms every single period of the day like a high school student might. So therein lies how that cohorting would take place. And then the options that we've come up with, the three options are either all online or all in person or a hybrid model. Some of that is based on the health department which is driving much of this. But it's also based on staff availability. In other words we can't simply open it up to anyone's preference because we have to make sure that we have staff available to walk out the plan because we can't ask our teachers to teach during the day and then teach at night to a different group of kids. That would not be feasible. We wouldn't have the number of staff to do that nor would it be fair to them. So we have to pay, and then we also have facilities that are very different. Every school has a different look to it and all of the plans are adjusted because of the facility limitations. I have already covered the task force. I've already covered the principal video which will be another opportunity for parents to see it in person virtually. And then as far as expectations from the community part of it is community preference and part of it is health guidelines and part of it is what our facilities and our staff will be able to walk out in a very safe and quality manner. So that's how we meet the expectations of our community. I want to shift a little bit now and I thank all of these individuals for their questions. I really appreciate it. I actually had a chance to talk to a few of them on the phone and very friendly supportive and I, you know, as a parent I fully understand and appreciate the anxiety. You know, I pulled this out because I think I've been reading as has our team just hundreds of articles and the headline on this one was the upcoming school year has everyone worried. Here's what experts say. So these questions that are being asked by our community are the same questions that are being asked across the United States. This is not unique and so and I, our parents have always been outstanding and they continue to be outstanding and supportive and so I want them to know that at any time they can pick up the phone and call me, they can submit questions to the board, I know that you guys are always welcome to questions personally and via email and just want them to know that I appreciate the questions and I appreciate their continued involvement. The other thing that I would share in looking at our current plan right now it calls for preschool to be in full time it calls for K through 5 to be in full time it calls for 6th graders to be in full time 7th and 8th graders would be on a hybrid model 9th graders in full time and 10th, 11th and 12th would be on a hybrid. That's the plan to date that has been approved and supported by Boulder County Health and it's based on again the ability to cohort the age group of the kid against what medical experts are telling us and then also the facilities and those kinds of things. The other thing that I would share is when these students are at home in the hybrid format of 7th and 8th graders and 10th, 11th and 12th graders, our technology which is unique to St. Brain and not always the case in other areas and again that comes back to our community support is our kids can log in in a synchronous manner so if I'm a 10th grader I'm going to be in the building two or three days a week but the two days that I'm out of the building let's say or the three days I can go into that classroom in real time virtually hear the teacher see the teacher see the rest of the class and participate from at home and every one of our students will have an iPad at home to do that that is equipped with high powered lens microphone and a stand for the laptop so that it's in their classroom and it brings the student at home directly into the classroom in real time and so that's a little bit different than what we experienced this past spring the other thing that I would share in terms of some of the questions that have come up the concern around health and measures and again in our last I know that there was a statement in the document one of the questions that indicated we did not provide any information about how we were going to keep our kids safe in the last document that I sent there was a full section entitled health and safety measures that went into information around social distancing, face coverings student health and hygiene cleaning and sanitizing that will be again submitted to parents and everybody in my next communication what I want people to know is that we have hired an extra staff for custodial staff so that we have our regular staff and then we will have another staff that will come in in the evenings and do cleaning in all of the buildings and there will be spot cleaning throughout the day so our buildings will be in a constant state of being cleaned and we have hired that additional team. We also have ordered hand sanitizer for all of the schools large amounts we will have hand washing available and promoted throughout the schools the social distancing we are now being told in schools three feet is what they are requiring and saying would be appropriate masks I just want to clarify in a perfect world it is at some point when we find a vaccine hopefully to move away but in the meantime just to be clear and I will make this point very clear in my next communication masks will be expected to be worn by students all the way through pre-k through 12 so they are not going to be optional they will be worn pre-k through 12 we understand at the lower grades that can be even more challenging so we will build in breaks and also make exceptions for students who might have some type of a health condition that would put them at risk if they had to wear a mask and so that part I appreciated the feedback and we made that clear to our teachers through our association leadership tomorrow I have a meeting with all of our teacher ARs met again today with our teacher association president they are very supportive of that and so I will clarify that with them as well the other thing is we will have hallway markings and again these things are all outlined in the plan that I submitted to our communities but I just want to share them again in the event somebody didn't have a chance to read them the hallway markings will direct kids different ways to try to keep them separate in our larger schools with high schools and middle schools since we are doing the hybrid we will have much fewer kids in the hallways we also have the block schedule at the high school level which means there will only be a few passing periods as opposed to what they might experience lions high school would be the only exception to that we also will be cleaning our buses disinfecting them between all of the routes students who are on the buses will be expected to wear masks and socially distance as well temperature screening will take place we have 20 thermometers in each building for parents to also screen their children at home make sure they don't have a reading of 100.4 or above check for all of the symptoms that come with covid we know that during the flu season that could become complicated because many of the symptoms are the same but we will ask for parents support there we also have an epidemiologist who has been assigned specifically to St. Brain Valley schools from Boulder County who will be working directly with our nurses who are also certified many of them are certified nurses and if we were to have any kind of a test that's positive similar to what they do with other outbreaks like when we had the tuberculosis outbreak when we have pertussis outbreak they would be the ones who guide and direct and it would be based on the specificity of that particular incident they could tell us to close a classroom they could tell us to close a school they could tell us to close three schools they could tell us to close the entire district that would be dependent on the circumstances but those decisions will be made by the medical professionals and they are assigned directly to work with St. Brain we also have the hybrid model at the high school and middle school model because we have more kids there and they're older and things like that we have shut down the traditional drinking fountains and students will use water bottles as fillers they'll be signage around again we sent this health and safety measures out that includes not only what I just read but the second page of that is what we refer to as safe with seven that identifies seven major things that parents should be doing to keep their kids safe at home and things that we will be doing to keep them safe in the in the schools for teachers who have pre-existing conditions or age issues they will be some of the teachers who have the option to teach online and there will be other recommendations made for them students with disabilities and again this was outlined in the plan that I sent and they will have opportunities they are working directly with our special education department on IEP requirements and we will have the option to bring our students in who need that every day and get face-to-face support and then additional support if they're at home and we'll also be working to make special exceptions for students who might have language barriers or are struggling with other challenges related to travel, social economics, whatever it might be because our goal and our objective is to make sure that every single child that every single child is protected, safe and has access to every single opportunity and so while we have a systemic approach to this we also know that there are going to be times to make exceptions because we're dealing with children and it's always going to be based on what's in their best interest as we know it again I did talk about the launched ed, I think the feedback that some of the community members gave was helpful that the language was perhaps too vague and so I want to make it clear again that everyone has the choice to be in our launched ed online program I also want to let you know that in this letter we spoke about volunteers the career development center the community schools programs and the wraparound programs, athletics and activities, transportation lunches, the innovation center how our funding has been impacted by the massive budget cut that was imposed on all districts as a result of this virus we are in a better place financially because of our community support and I want to keep saying that because our community is second to none in terms of the way they step up and support education and I am truly grateful and this is an example of how when it has protected us from furloughs from staff layoffs from program cuts from a whole host of different things teachers and staff we talked about that if they need an option based on extenuating circumstances the let me just see if there is anything I don't want to be too redundant here in my next communication I will include links from the metro denver area partnership for health that states clearly and I am going to read a couple of those to you as well as the American association of pediatricians and then Jackie will be talking here in a little while because sometimes the question comes up well what happens if we get three weeks and all of a sudden we have to stop we have the technological capacity to move our students to blended learning we have the capacity to move them to synchronous learning from at home and we have the capacity to utilize Florida virtual our teachers many of them have been trained in the blended learning models and the and we also have training scheduled for all teachers prior to the school year beginning so that piece will be in place as well some of the things that I will emphasize in my next letter based on feedback from the community going to highlight that the online is for everyone who chooses it that masks will be required for everyone K-12 with breaks and exceptions to kids with certain needs we will add the research links we will clarify what social distancing means in schools based on the medical feedback we will talk and highlight that we've hired a second crew for cleaning and disinfecting in the buildings we will highlight that lockers are not going to be available for secondary students we will highlight our community schools and wrap around program for preschool we will highlight the epidemiologist and our nurses who will be making medical decisions we will highlight the technology and what synchronous learning will look like we will highlight the fact that we have ordered iPads so that in the event we go out every child K-12 will have their own iPad and we will reinforce the need to register for transportation now I know a number of districts around the state have already reported to their communities that they will not be providing transportation except to kids with special needs we are trying to avoid that and trying to accommodate transportation we're going to ask parents who can drive to do so but we're also working with the Department of Health to figure out how to get more children on the bus elementary schools might be able to get two kids per seat and things like that so we're not in that space to say we're not providing transportation where we are in that space is there might be a few that we can't however we'll try to work around those issues for the kids who need it the most and try to get again from our community some support if they're if they're available to drive their students so those are some of the things I want to read to you a couple of items here this is from the Metro Denver Partnership for Health and it includes Boulder County Public Health it includes the Broomfield City and County Public Health it includes Denver Public Health an environment then in Denver Public Health itself Jefferson County and then the Tri County which is out in that Cherry Creek Aurora Douglas County and it says continued school closures threaten the health and safety of Colorado children in addition to learning losses children faced increased risks of food insecurity potential abuse poor mental health and social emotional wellness and lack of physical activity and these harms may fall hardest on children from lower social socioeconomic families lower income families then it goes on in the background with almost nine million cases of COVID-19 worldwide in the world by pandemic thus far several issues are relevant to school opening are beginning to emerge first children appear to have lower rates of infection than do older persons and when infection does occur they're much less likely to have serious complications than adults second while children including those not showing symptoms can transmit COVID-19 emerging evidence indicates that children are not primary members of transmission and that school reopening is likely to have minimal impact on transmission between students or between students and staff now even though we're requiring the masks and we are working with Boulder County who's recommending masks they're also telling us that it is very low risk especially at the elementary age level and then it says much of the decision making regarding school closures that we dealt with back in the March was based on decades of research showing that schools are a major venue for influenza transmission however the emerging evidence suggests that COVID-19 transmission among children is quite different for example recently published contact tracing data from several other countries indicate that children with COVID-19 illness transmitted infection to very few other individuals in school settings 0 out of 122 in France 0 out of 924 in Ireland and let's see 2 out of 735 children in Australia 0 out of 128 adults in Australia 0 out of 101 adults in Ireland and then 0 out of 900 okay they didn't have the adults for France at least I'm not seeing it but anyways so they go on to say no reopening structure can ensure zero transmission and some infections are likely to occur among students, staff and families whether it's exposure in the home the community or in school on balance we think health benefits of in-person school attendance outweigh the health risks and this document goes on to talk about that and that's consistent with what Boulder County Health is telling us especially at the elementary level that the health risks are I guess on balance we think the health benefits of in-person school attendance outweigh the health risks so this is coming back to when somebody asks are you paying attention to the health professionals the answer to that question is yes and because we have to pay attention to the science this is from the American Academy of Pediatrics 67,000 pediatricians charged primarily with the best interest of infants and this is physical and mental infants, children, adolescents and young adults and it says the AAP the American Association of Pediatrics strongly advocates that all policy considerations for the coming school year should start with the goal of having students physically present in school the importance of in-person learning is well documented and there is already evidence of the negative impacts on children because of the school closures in the spring of 2020 it goes on to say and this is a lengthy document and I will, this is available to anybody who wants to read it but I will just highlight a few of the things and Colorado Department of Health as well as the, or excuse me Boulder County Health and others in the tri-town or tri-county areas have said that they're gleaning a lot of information from this it goes on to say that the filmmakers must also consider the mounting evidence regarding COVID-19 in children and adolescents including the role they may play in transmission and infection it appears to behave differently in children and adolescents than other common respiratory viruses such as influenza on which much of the current guidance regarding school closures is based although children and adolescents play a major role in amplifying influenza outbreaks to date this does not appear to be the case with COVID although many questions remain the importance of evidence indicates that children and adolescents are less likely to be symptomatic and less likely to have severe disease resulting from infection in addition children may be less likely to become infected and to spread infection policies to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 within schools must be balanced with the known harms to children, adolescents, families and the community by keeping children at home it goes on to say there is a conflict between optimal academic and social and emotional learning in schools and strict adherence to current physical distancing guidelines for example the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that schools space seating desks at 6 feet apart when feasible in many school settings 6 feet between students is not feasible without limiting the number evidence suggests that spacing as close as 3 feet may approach the benefits the same benefits of 6 feet of space particularly if students are wearing face coverings and are asymptomatic and it goes on to share the risk reduction of reducing class sizes in elementary school age children may be outweighed by the challenge of doing so and there are several other recommendations consistent with some of the things that we have identified in our plans I also want to share that our operations and maintenance team has put together information about our HVAC systems and we have all meeting code and everything in terms of that air movement and that will be included in my next communication I also stated that we have ordered and have on hand now for each of our schools and our departments gloves, sanitizers and masks and then the last thing that I would say is we checked with the other major school districts and I would want people to know who expressed concern in elementary school not that this means their concern is not appropriate to express and it doesn't mean that it's not valid I just want them to know that Denver all kids in elementary school will be attending five days a week in Aurora all kids will be attending five days a week in Douglas County same thing in Cherry Creek same thing in Jeffco same thing did not get the data from Puder yet in Westminster same thing in Mapleton and Greeley same thing and all of these school districts are working with the same medical advice that we are working with and have made the decision so when we have made the decision to put all of our elementary school kids in all the time it's consistent with every other major school district in the state now if it were consistent with every other but inconsistent with the health recommendations I would follow the health recommendations but in this case the health recommendations that's what they're telling us and I've invited you Joey to tomorrow's meeting with Boulder County Health so that you can be in their room and have that conversation with them and hear from them exactly what they're saying to us what I want our community to know is a few things one is that I could not be more grateful to them for the way in which they have been supportive we went through the spring you know in a moment's notice our community and our teachers were just nothing short of heroic we moved to online in a matter of a few days and our kids responded and I could not be more proud of them I also want them to know that since that we have been working with all of those folks in the task force 24-7 we have logged in over 200 meetings and we are literally on the phone with the county health departments at least three times a week and we have individual meetings with them we are reading we are conversing we are planning and we're trying to keep everyone communicated with but also not having to backtrack every time we send something out because that's been the case with some other districts they sent something out they reel it back in and what we are trying to do is when we get something that resembles some sort of this is kind of where we are but please know it could change we want them to know and then we gather feedback as they respond to the plan so that's the second thing that I would want them to know and then the third thing that I would want them to know is that the only thing that matters to me and to our team situation is that our kids are safe that our teachers are safe that our staff is safe and that our community is safe and that safety is both physical and emotional and while I have a great deal of expertise in the area of public education and the impact of public education I don't have that level of expertise that a epidemiologist would have or that Boulder County Health would have or that the American Association of Pediatricians would have or that any of the Metro Denver area partnership for health would have or the Governor's office would have so I am relying on them to guide us or our nurses here in St. Brain and I want to say to our community please if you have questions just pick up the phone and call or send an email and I will respond and that goes to any board member too and I will send a letter an email to your board member and it's been my experience they respond as well very quickly we are here to serve this community and we are taking this very very seriously I also know that this is the example of you cannot make everyone happy I think I read in there that some of the decisions were designed to appease a vocal minority we are not here to appease we are here to serve and to protect our children and our staff and if the voices are such that they contradict what the health departments are telling us the loudness of those voices will not cause me to change my direction because my focus is not on appeasement my focus is on safety and well-being of our children and I want that to be understood clearly so I will stop there if you have any questions and thank you to all of you and to all of our community I will turn it over to Jackie because Jackie is going to share a little bit about our instructional programs if we have to move offline because of a spike in the virus that continues yep thanks so it's really important I think for our board and our public to have some additional information about our models we may be working in and out of these models throughout the school year and so it's important that we understand the distinction between the programs and the models that we'll be using to serve students I'll start with Launched Ed Academy that is our online program that will be a fully online program for any parent who does not want their child to come to the physical setting of a school this program will utilize Florida virtual online curriculum which is available to students in grades K through 12 it is a common core standards aligned curriculum and connects students with a St. Vrain teacher who will be available to teach live lessons provide specific support monitor student progress and communicate with the parent and the student about that progress there are over 190 secondary courses available from Algebra to AP art history students receive direct instruction for a set number of hours per week for core a few less hours for specials and electives but still direct instruction and they also engage in a variety of learning activities they attend class time with other students they collaborate with classmates they read play games listen to audio clips watch videos there are handwritten worksheets matching worksheets projects and they also perform experiments with things that are easy to find at home to ensure mastery of the content students work through a course from beginning to end of semester so this is not a program likely that we will use for students and teachers to drop in and out of should we need to quarantine for two weeks at any point in the school year classrooms or schools have to close and go completely online our teachers will use their st. brain adopted unit plans, materials and supplemental resources that have been adopted by the Board of Education to deliver instruction in this same way that I described around Florida virtual they will provide live lessons to an entire class post assignments and projects for one tutoring support to students as needed I'm providing you and I'll pass this around with a quality online learning packet that is used by our district professional developers to support teachers in their use of best practices for online and blended learning approaches we will continue to use seesaw and school edgy platforms to deliver any online instruction and in this scenario teachers may be able to teach from their own classrooms we might be able to still bring in small groups of students each week and schedule office hours for students to come in and meet with their teachers in small groups face to face a couple of times a week even if the overall building is closed to large groups of students so that's what it would look like at any point we have to stop and do some teaching online for a classroom, for a school or if at any point the board and the superintendent have to call the school closed or the school district closed for our grade levels all grade levels except for 7th, 8th, 10th, 11th and 12th we will be in school full time when we start the school year on August 18th these other grades 7th, 8th, 10th, 11th and 12th will be in person learning 50% of the time or 5 days over 2 weeks and students will join their courses synchronously or in real time on the days that they are working from home we have ordered specialized equipment as Dr. Haddad alluded to earlier camera lenses and microphones that will increase the visibility and the sound in the classrooms for those students who are at home and online and this will increase the quality of instruction in each classroom some of our best practices will include assigning a group 1 peer partner to a group 2 so if I'm in class that day my partner will be home that day and if there are any questions about what happened or any questions about what the teacher instructed a peer partner can connect with another student and they can do some clarifying questions we will be assigning some roles to students in classrooms to help monitor online technical glitches or questions from students who are at home if they have questions for the teacher coming in during that at home instruction we will be using a variety of engaging materials including short instructional video materials choice boards online discussions office hours and a variety of formative assessment tools and individual and group projects that's what that packet really talks about what are all those best practices that keep kids really really engaged while they're working online examples of all of these activities that are included in those packets and then when we are back in school full time our goals for coming back to school including providing the most normalcy as possible while following all of the prescribed guidelines from our health agencies that keep students and our staff safe our students will participate in all of their courses that they normally would as much as possible we have objectives and specials recess and lunch that includes safe peer interactions and activities it is really important to us that when students are back full time in school or even part time that that feels normal that they have really good peer experiences with one another even if they have to be distanced that we build in time for discussions that we allow peers to have their friendships and interact with one another our principals and teachers have been very innovative in their approaches to structuring the school day we feel when we work with our with our teams at our schools who are planning for the start of school that they are very much up for the challenge and they are very excited to have our students back during the school day so those are our models that we'll be using our hope as Dr. Haddad said is to have our students back in as much as possible while aligning with safety guidelines and if we have to be online and when we have to be online that that also is a very quality experience. Thank you Jackie. Did you have any other comments Dawn before I open it up to the board for questions? Okay. Do board members have any questions or comments about anything that Dawn or Jackie have covered or anything that's been talked about so far? Well, thank you very much for that. I really appreciate the thought and comprehensive nature of the report you've provided. It really has answered a number of the questions that I've heard questions that have arisen in my own mind and those that I've heard from members of the community both through phone calls and email I hope that many of us on the St. Parane College School District community family have been listening in and can have access to the information that you've provided this evening. I do think that it will be as you already recognize increasingly important to convey this information in as many forums actively as possible. I know that I trust that you're doing this and regardless of how diligent we are in attempting to reach out we realize that there may always be some who feel that they haven't had an opportunity one either to know about or two to participate in and I for one I'm going to continue to encourage them to contact you and your staff directly as in addition to initially responding to let them know that we're heard. Absolutely Dick, I could not agree with you more. I also want you to know that we have met extensively with our building principals and they too are communicating with their teachers they have all had virtual meetings with their staff and have compiled questions with their teachers and they also are available to parents to contact their principals directly as well as to contact me or Dr. Capuchin or any one of you so absolutely. Thank you. I think it would be appropriate to have an opportunity for general questions before I have sort of five or six specific questions that are pretty much in the weeds so at the appropriate time I'd be glad to ask those but maybe other members of the board could ask their questions before I continue. Dick, why don't we maybe you know Cheek or Jim if you have comments on this on what we've specifically discussed then we'll go ahead and go to our action item and then your details might fit under in the COVID-19 we're blurring the lines a little bit of our agenda but we do have a COVID-19 update on the agenda also this evening. Whatever you wish. I think that the my comments are with regard to the report. If the report is the COVID-19 report then well I thought that what you were reporting on was our plan to open in light of COVID-19. Yeah, that's fine. So why don't we let Cheek go ahead. Did you want to make a comment Cheek? Sure, just briefly first of all I want to thank the staff for the enormity of what's been worked on here. I know for me myself as a parent of my own thoughts as I've been talking to people who say we want to be all in and the next person says we want to do something remote or hybrid and someone says I want masks so I know the complication of this is big so I appreciate listening to medical professionals the health county health departments those groups and keeping safety first in mind what we can and at the same time balancing that with the fact that we want to be back when we can I think a couple things that I heard that I want to lean on hard is when we say whenever possible whatever possible changes at different times and what was possible two weeks ago might be different today and different again in a couple weeks and so just encouraging families to stay consider the fact we have to stay flexible in this and we have to just move as things change and we want to be nimble in this so I appreciate the plans that have come out so far I also want to encourage families to think about how they communicate with their students about how we know it's not going to be maybe perfect for every person and what they want but how they communicate to their students might have impact on how their students actually engage in what we're doing and so I know that's something I've been trying to think about in my own household and just trying to create a positive for everyone's going to be doing the best they can and you're going to do the best you can and all those kinds of things and so I just want to put that out there as a mindset for folks to think about no doubt teachers are going to do the absolute best I know everyone who's involved in the 200 plus meetings already are doing their best as well so I just want to put that out there and have folks consider that and again thank everyone who's been doing their work on a daily basis so thank you Chico thank you for that and you said something at the end there that it's real our teachers and our staff by nature they want to give 100% of themselves and as we make our plans we have to be mindful that we want every stakeholder to know that we want to protect them and it's important for our teachers to feel comfortable and our teachers and our staff to feel comfortable so that they can support our children in feeling comfortable because that's who's going to be with them in the classroom and so that's also balancing the interests of our schools teachers staff parents students health there's just so many different perspectives and I really appreciate you recognizing that because literally you can go from one meeting where they want this and the next meeting they want the different group wants the polar opposite and so you're trying to always stay grounded in what's what are the medical professionals saying and what's best systemically for our kids and we've worked upon an agreement by everybody but I want people to know that we really care deeply about this Thank you so much information I've been reading everything that you've been putting out to the community and I get a chance to look at what's coming out from a couple of different schools because it comes to my daughter and so I'm listening and on some of the sessions there's very great detail and good questions legitimate questions from the staff yet so this is such a big area it's like developing infinity one question leads to two those two lead to two this goes on and this is not even when we get to the end of this month it's not the end it's just the beginning our parents have to even understand that concept because the success of our district is continued assistance from our constituency those parents are going to have to provide accurate information make sure that they're checking on their children's health making sure that they're making good decisions around that they have to realize it's just going to be we have to get information like if you're going to do transportation supply information so that people who have to do that yet and can get it done accurately who's coming to the school who's not going to come to the school you have to make some decisions because at some point in time it'll be it's the new beginning starts and I think like Ichika was saying and we have to rely on the parents to continue to step up and make understanding we may say one thing next Wednesday and Thursday it can be different and it's nothing we can do about it except relay the information and ask for assistance but the information I've been reading from the pediatrics and the Boulder Valley everything that you're sending out and the information you sent out I thought you have to persevere and read it and every paragraph is information you can't stop halfway through and say oh I get it, I get it because it's not that way and I just think if we continue to get that type of information the people will be more receptive to it and hopefully they'll understand we're here and your staff is doing a phenomenal job but they're going to need those parents to step up at a point in time here in the near future and be successful for the kids so again the staff just thank them they've done this phenomenal all the options and all the information you guys provide makes you feel comfortable knowing that there's stuff going on to me it looks like it should work but things could change I know you're exactly right and I'll tell you to the parents credit and the teachers we went through what we went through last spring our parents were incredible our kids were our teachers were and so that's why we were able to do what we were able to do because of them so I agree with you wholeheartedly thank you Dick into the weeds you go you know I've had second thoughts about the order I think that the important thing is the action item and I can follow up afterwards after if there's still time that will certainly be of time so that's not an issue whatsoever so we'll move on to our action item then Don I guess I just a few closing remarks I do want the community to know that the plan for going back to school is on the district website those people who might not have received might not have children in the schools or received that email communication people can access that on the website your health and safety precautions signing up to ride the bus everything is on there so people can access that there I also do want to let everybody know that our board of education meetings are televised and they're on the website so people can certainly watch those meetings the past several meetings that we've had oh my goodness since March we specifically had a COVID-19 update so people can watch that to hear a historical perspective of where we started and where we are now and everything that's been discussed and certainly want to encourage people at any time to contact the board of education you can contact any one of us our contact information is on the district website we're always willing to speak with you don't hesitate to reach out to speak with Don or Jackie or anyone else across the district if you have questions or want to provide input Don and you and Chico I think everybody has actually mentioned this the importance of relying on the experts and the medical professionals in this situation and I know that you'll continue to do that with safety as a priority and at a very high level and please know I in no way want to minimize the significance or importance of COVID-19 in any way shape or form but at a very high level I do believe the district has put together a plan that at this point is tentative we know that might change the district has put together a plan and has the capacity to be very flexible and fluid in that plan as needed to be responsive to changes but we've really created an opportunity I believe at the end of the day I think about what my responsibility is as a board member and agree with all of you that I want everybody to be safe and I know that all of you are doing the very best you can when you sit in those meetings and parents now the community they have a choice we have a plan that we hope we'll be able to implement and change and evolve over time and if that doesn't fit their ideal situation they can choose to do online learning so there are definitely opportunities they may not be perfect for your family right but they certainly are in my opinion very reasonable and very safe so I guess I want to support your plan and say thank you for everything that you've put together certainly appreciate the input of the experts and I know that you'll continue to do your very best and put the safety of kids at the forefront of your decision and ideally we wouldn't have to be here right now we would just be looking forward to starting school as usual but this is what's in front of us and we all have to be a little bit comfortable with just living with a certain amount of uncertainty as well and that can be challenging yeah so thank you for everything you've done and really do encourage the community to reach out so Jackie you have an action item on here 1.1 which is the recommendation for adoption of resolution for the 2020-2021 educational process of the district and this is something new that we have not seen before but sticks with the theme of the evening which is COVID correct and are you going to read the resolution you know we certainly can sure why not okay we'll have somebody read it I can give you an overview just real quick before you read the resolution you know state law sets our instructional days for students in the state of Colorado so typically we are working under state law which says 990 hours for elementary students and about 1080 hours 1080 hours for secondary students they also set a minimal number of calendar days that students have to be in school for the 2021 school year the Colorado Department of Education local school boards to define the educational process so how will we count time and student contact hours and instructional time which is closely tied to compulsory attendance which we will continue to monitor closely it's also tied to our October 1st student funding count and they will look at how we track attendance for that reason which is a really important reason so what we're basically asking you all to do is to or what we're recommending in the resolution is that you consider our time spent with students face to face as student contact time which makes a lot of sense our time that students spend online with teachers and synchronous learning as instructional time and also time that students spend working on assignments that have been posted by teachers as instructional time and we will line up our attendance taking systems in all of those scenarios to account for the time that students spend on instruction so that's the overview of this resolution great thank you Jackie do board members have any comments or questions before hopefully one of you volunteers to read the resolution no questions or comments dick are you I was just going to volunteer to read it I think the so the resolution itself is a procedural resolution required by the Colorado Department of Education for us to define in each year what constitutes a full day and how we're going to count it count attendance and it's specifically it is specifically to this next school year yes they've only given that authority to local boards for the 2021 school year yes okay so thank you within that context here goes whereas the Colorado Department of Education CDE creates policy and alignment with state law related to school calendars instructional hours and student attendance and allows local school boards flexibility in changing that calendar as a result of emergency closings and unforeseen circumstances and whereas CDE's policy specifies that teacher pupil contact and teacher pupil instruction as time when a pupil is actively engaged in the instructional process of the district as well as defines the minimal instructional days and hours and whereas the COVID-19 crisis has disrupted normal in school operations and requires some or all students to receive their instruction at home using online tools provided by the district and whereas for the 2021 school year the CDE has granted the authority to local school boards to define the educational process including its length of calendar instructional hours requirements as well as defining the delivery of instruction therefore let it be resolved that for the 2020 and 2021 academic year the St. Brown Valley school boards of education defines the education process to include instruction that is delivered in the school setting instruction that is delivered electronically or online from a remote location all assignments that are provided by the teacher in school assignments that are provided electronically by the teacher and independent work time for students that is assigned and monitored by educators further resolved students who are in school or working online in a synchronous manner and or in a hybrid model will be scheduled and assigned independent work for their courses each day regardless of the setting school or home and receive the equivalent amount of teacher-student contact as a typical academic year student attendance will be taken each day regardless of the instructional setting at school online and working independently for each course for the purpose of documenting instructional days teacher-student contact hours compulsory attendance and for the October 1 student count and funding documentation. Thank you, Dick. I appreciate it. If there are no further comments or questions please remain in motion for approval of the adoption of the resolution for the 2020-2021. So moved. Thank you, Jim. And a second by Chico Barb. Mr. Aaron's absent. Mr. Berthold. Yes. Mr. Garcia. Yes. Dr. Marder. Yes. Ms. Pierce absent. Mrs. Raglan absent. Ms. Segras. Thank you Barb. So the next agenda item we actually have this evening is the COVID-19 update. We have covered much of that already, I believe. Don, I'll give you or Jackie an opportunity to make any final comments on COVID and if not then we'll open it up for Dick's questions. Great. Thank you. Dick. Thank you Madam President. Am I the only one that has questions? Apparently. Well, at this point. So I wanted to ask about I noted that with interest that you've made a comment about the HVAC air circulation patterns in schools and it's recently at least within the last two weeks there's been discussion among healthcare professionals about modes of transmission in closed spaces that being that in closed spaces with their circulated air that those venues are at higher risk and I'm wondering if are we looking at possible ways to reduce that risk or mitigate that risk in some way to clean the air as it's recycled recirculated is that part of the HVAC air circulation system update? Yes and one example on the bus they've you know when we have the opportunities to open the windows we'll do that but I'll read this to you and this will be summarized in our report as essential workers when the district restructured face-to-face learning in the local health department guidelines the maintenance department continued working in preparation for the return of school in conjunction with several outside resources we have taken the effort to prepare for a safe and successful year we began this effort in February prior to the state and local mandate to close educational facilities and the reason we started then was because for several reasons but we started tracking this long before it was brought to most people's attention and Brian Lamer and I had talked about starting that cleaning earlier because we were reading about this and there were signs similar to this H1N1 this document drafted by CDC and there's a link there that will be provided outlines best practice for our school buildings in conjunction we design and operate our heating and cooling systems to ASH RAE standards as guidelines are updated with new information we reevaluate our processes readjust and continue to create and support great learning environments some of the lessons we've made include replacing filters in the whole district to ensure optimum air flow in our equipment we have the extended air handler runs times before buildings open and are occupied each day the maintenance crews are manually checking for the proper operation of building exhaust fans and in the coming weeks a visual verification that outside air dampers are operating correctly to ensure outside air is delivered to the classrooms the HVAC heating ventilation air conditioning department created a program that will set minimum positions on all units with just one override to the percentage determined that for the best operation in short we can easily increase the outside air flow in a building some of the new schools like BlackRock have a reset feature that controls outside air based on the CO2 in the space the maintenance department is working with local engineering firms to provide the district with the ability to override this programming sequence and go to a minimum outside air position for our choosing we'll continue to explore and solve the problems to deliver the best learning environment to our students you may also know that the district is working to replace high touch fixtures like drinking fountains we get into whole other things on a personal note St. Rain Valley schools has one of the best automation systems in Colorado if not the nation we have the skilled personnel to operate and maintain these systems we will thrive or other struggle because of our great teachers and support staff that create great places to learn so yes they're working extensively on that so there's a plan so the specific questions would be you know how many what are we planning as a standard for the circulation of fresh air into classrooms per how many times would that be turned over would you like me to read it again it didn't say it talked about it's set to bring in the air flow that's dependent the optimal I couldn't go through it because I'd read it pretty quickly it didn't talk about the number of times the air would be changed in a classroom per hour or per day right but it happens automatically throughout the day to bring in optimal air flow from the outside what is optimal well I don't have the exact number but it's all to that code that I shared with you that is the code specific with regard to reducing a viral contamination in the air is that what the code deals with yes it's outlines the best practice in conjunction we design and operate our heating and cooling systems the A S H R A E standards as guidelines are updated with new information we reevaluate so if it was new information to COVID we would reevaluate readjust and continue to create the learning environment so it could be depending on the weather outside it could be depending on the quality of air it could be the most of things and then it goes on to talk about replacing the filters in the whole system district to ensure optimum air flow in our equipment we've extended the air handler run times before buildings open and are occupied each day the maintenance crews are manually checking the proper operation of building exhaust fans and in the coming weeks a visual verification that outside dampers are operating correctly to ensure outside air is delivered into the classrooms regularly so it's not just it starts and then stops it's a constant thing with our automation system so the filtration system does not deal with the virus it's the fresh air circulation in the building and I'd appreciate that taking a look at that standard because that's not a standard that I believe deals specifically with the virus well I think when you have influenza and you have different viruses that come up every year it's I don't know that there's a filter system that specifically recognizes a virus and addresses it it addresses the air in the system to bring in outside air and that's why they say when you're outside so it's bringing that outside air into the system okay I'm glad to follow up afterwards or continue now if you like I don't know what you're asking other than we've got that covered if you're looking for a specific number then I'll have to go back and get that but the concept to your question is yes that's being addressed so the air circulation is occurring at a sufficient level to protect our children from who are in enclosed space from transmission within an enclosed space correct to the best of our knowledge based on what the experts tell us that air flow is okay my next question actually has to do with the details of those high school students that are taking courses that require everyday attendance those courses like advanced AP calculus chemistry AP biology where typically most classes meet every other day those classes at least for one semester meet every day not only are they among the most rigorous classes we offer but the level of instruction and the pace of instruction is sufficiently strenuous so that a student I would assume that we're making accommodations for students taking those classes to be present in class every day is that correct are you talking about an AP student someone who take an AP chemistry for example that meets every day in the block system now when you say in an alternating block system in an alternating block system they meet every day for one semester and every other day for the second semester yeah so they would be meeting they would come in two days in a row go one through four and then five through eight and then every other Friday and the days that they're at home they would log in and watch you know whatever real time so I'm not sure if what you're saying is are we planning to bring the AP students in every single day five days a week for those not every AP class is that kind of class of course but there are a handful of them and you and I have talked about that over time and I think I've named the ones that are actually the three semester courses which one specifically are you thinking about AP Chem, AP Biology and AP you know I would have to go back and check the general schedule does not speak to that the general schedule speaks to what we have articulated so I don't feel comfortable saying yes kids with AP classes will be coming in every day for that first semester and then every other day for the next semester but they will have work to do every day in the AP classes some of it will be online some of it will be in person and there will also be an opportunity on Saturdays where we're going to have some Saturday school sessions and then there will be also an opportunity and this is not just for AP students because we want to make sure that every kid has that opportunity but after school two days a week there will also be an opportunity for teachers to connect with some of their students it may not be the same teacher class but it would be the same content area and in the case of AP biology it would be a person who's qualified to help with AP biology so we've talked about opening up the school on Saturdays and then two nights a week for some additional support but I don't think the schedule is such that they would be coming in every day for that first semester with that particular class for those students who might have difficulty adjusting to the online schedule and that will occur not only in AP classes but also in the regular classes I think that you've already addressed that what I heard you say was that that would be to cite that the option was available for any student either to go online if they wished to or in person you didn't actually speak about going in person if you were in the high school system but if you're in the high school system and for whatever reason your student does not adapt well to the online experience do they also have an opportunity to attend a full time on a case by case basis in some cases depending on why they're not adapting to the online if they have a reason that they're not adapting and it's something that we can help mitigate yes if it's a preferential thing it may not be as easy to accommodate the other thing that I would share with you is as these AP students are taking college level courses and preparing for college online is going to be a part of their experience in college so part of it's good preparation so yes it's on a case by case basis but if somebody were to come to us and just say you know I don't really like college and I come in every day the answer to that question might not be yes because I wouldn't want to start creating opportunities for this kid and then telling a kid who's struggling you can't come in every day because your needs are important too and so I'm not going to create separate policies for advanced students and then not for kids who are challenged and struggling but yes the answer to your question is with individual needs we try to mitigate that and part of that you can come in Tuesday nights and come in Thursday nights or whatever those kinds of things that we have I'm not asking specifically for the example I used was advanced placement classes because they do meet on a different schedule than most high school students but the inherent flexibility that you've talked about with regard to individually evaluating the needs and experience of each student and then making a decision based on that is what I hoped right it is a long I just want to make sure that we're not talking about telling every single student in our district we're going to accommodate your personal preference because if we do that then we the system blows up so there is a schedule and if there's an extenuating circumstance that comes with a disability or a language barrier or something unique an injury or something yes we will work to accommodate those but if somebody comes in and says you know I'd like to come in every day somebody at the elementary level says you know I'd like to come in on a hybrid even though you're not doing a hybrid we have to be careful not to say that yes we're going to evaluate every single individual circumstance and address it if there are extenuating circumstances that make sense then we will do that but it's not just open for everything sure in addition that's what I'm saying I'm sorry in addition to the Saturday sessions our high schools are also planning to offer after school support for students who may not have been able to be in that day but have questions and need some additional tutoring or support one thing I'll tell you to accommodate a lot of the districts are that I've heard are going to close their schools on Friday and then we've also had a number of school districts that said they're going to eliminate a lot of courses because they don't have the capacity so they're going to eliminate a lot of electives they're going to eliminate and so what we're trying to do is keep the integrity of our academic program in place part of that reason we're able to do that is because we're not millions of dollars in the red as many of these districts are the other part of it is we want to make sure that we're not creating solutions that are worse as we try to accommodate and so what we're saying is we're going to give every child the very best education we can give them and we always make accommodations for kids but I really want to just avoid that scenario where we start saying for our AP kids we're going to make these accommodations and for our other kids we're not and for you we are it's across the board we're going to reflect on every single situation knowing we can't accommodate everybody's preference yes I was not again I'll say again I was not asking for special treatment of AP students I was using that as an example of how an individual student's schedule or experience might affect their ability to learn and I thought you were saying because the AP schedule is unique that they come every day for a first semester the question was so specific around the schedule coming in every day that that's where I thought you were talking about AP yes I should have used a more general example but I think your response is we designed a system that we intend will work in you didn't use a number but I would say 90% of the cases or so and that means that we're going to need to individually to whatever that remaining percent of the cases is on a case by case basis and that makes all a sense in the world to me you brought up neighboring school districts and I was just curious is it true that Boulder Valley and Thompson and Puder and other large districts are holding high school every day no Boulder Valley has not indicated that they're holding high school every day Puder has not indicated that but several other districts have indicated that they are and doing that they you know some of them are cutting back to four days a week some of them are eliminating a lot of courses to be able to condense it to their four cores and then the other piece to it is some of them have just articulated things such as you know when the kids are out of school they're going to congregate anyway so we're going to just go ahead and go for it and some of them don't have the technology capacity that we have to create a smaller cohort and so there's a lot of things I know that there's been some concern expressed by some of our colleagues that if they don't bring them in every day they may not be able to account for them and then that could create some challenges with funding and other things and we're trying to keep our decisions based on health and safety and not start to create again solutions to problems that are you know worse and we're going to try to get to that place too as quickly as we can but these folks that are making these recommendations the partnership for health they're not recommending because if you have like for example a high school of 2,500 kids which is what we have for example I'm not sure how you socially distance 2,500 kids in a building having spent a lot of time in a high school and I'm not sure how you do that with 2,000 kids I'm not sure how you create the safe guidelines that these health agencies are recommending and I you know I'd be interested in seeing how that happens so I think there's a question of if you're told you can do that but you need to follow these social distancing guidelines and everything else I don't feel that we could do that with the high schools or some of the middle schools based on the size of the enrollment numbers but to your question yes there are a number of them that are going every day but in my last conversation and I don't want to speak for Boulder Valley because he'll make his announcements but that was not what he indicated nor was it what I heard from up in Puder yeah that your response is aligns with what I've heard from school board members in both of those districts but I've heard something different you know the parent community is hearing from their parent community and the information that's being communicated in those other districts has been misleading well has led to different interpretations I wouldn't say the information has been misleading yeah no you're exactly right and I know that Cherry Creek and those other places they came out with that announcement weeks ago and so they have not changed but I am curious what they're thinking now given the most recent evolution of the coronavirus and we still got five and a half weeks to go so it remains to be seen you know how that's going to play out for them if we start school with the current plan that we have and things look good as quickly as possible we would move to get everyone in what I don't want to do is make that commitment today of course and they'll start that way if it's tenuous and then two weeks later have to reel it all back in so we'll see but you're correct in what you're saying I'm not sure that I agree with what they're doing at this point thank you quick question families coming back from vacation from Florida or Texas or Arizona if they arrive here you know the day before the week before school starts do we have plans to identify those people or are we going to ask them to self quarantine no we would not there are some states that may create that as a policy if the governor were to declare that that's what we need to do from certain states but we would not ask them to quarantine or test them unless they had symptoms that were over and their temperature dry hacking cough then all the chills, the body aches but it wouldn't necessarily be because they're from a particular state at this point in time as you can tell I'm sort of conveying questions that I've gotten from various conversations and parents I guess the last well just a comment did you mention that K-12 will have an iPad yeah we ordered an iPad for every 5th grader every 4th grader and every 3rd grader and then we're taking the iPads that were in the 5th grade, 4th grade and 3rd grade and moving them down to combine with the ones we have in K-12 so that they will then have full classroom sets and we'll have that all the way K-12 that is simply wonderful then you don't have to double up at home tremendous that's a tremendous asset resource to our families and students you know and to John Aaron's credit when he made the recommendation I don't know was it like 2 years ago 3 years ago that every teacher gets a laptop that is in essence what's helping us today to be able to deliver the synchronous learning so it's not only every student has an iPad every teacher has a laptop every teacher has an iPad and then we have the bandwidth and the infrastructure to manage all that traffic so it's decisions made 3 years ago are coming back to like turn into a good thing that's simply wonderful Don it's a tremendous tribute to the foresight and the resources our community has given us and and I guess the I got a I had a question about the and this is a specific one about are we changing the grading system for high schools to a 4 point system where an F is 0 and an A is 4 is that I was confused when I heard this come from a student from a parent that there's a transition there's going to be a change at the high school level and A is a 4 in terms of a grade point calculation you know a 4.0 and a 3 point like a 3 would be a B but we're not going to identify it as a 4 it's an A it's not a 0 an F could be 59% right in a particular class but an F towards a grade point average would be a 0 yeah of course do you know what I'm saying so if I got a 55% I would get an F in the class but I would get a 0 in calculating the formula for a grade point right you know what I'm saying correct now if it was a weighted class it could be that's why kids can get a 4.5 GPA kids could get a 5 point GPA and we changed the valedictorian thing several years ago because it used to be every 4.0 but now obviously you've seen some of the different ones so am I answering your question though yeah and you're saying that the grading policy is not changing this year compared to last year correct it's an A is an A a B is a B but those used to calculate GPAs would be the 4, 3, 2, 1, 0 right thank you but a parent would see and a student would see an A and their concern was in a particular class the F would be a 0 on a paper with regard to the grade it would not in percentage not in percentage it would be a 0 in terms of calculating it for a grade point average but if it was a an F could be 20% an F could be 40% an F could be 50% if you go up to 60% when you get to 60% and above it's a D, 70% now some teachers have the discretion to create where they've created like a 92 and above is an A something like that but the parent would see the letter grade on the report card when the registrar's office calculates the grade point average an F whether it was a 40% or a 0 on their grade point average right well hopefully I'll be able to respond to that I did say that it didn't seem to me is that a teacher or a parent was a parent talking about a conversation with the teacher with regard to an experience her son had had the only thing I can think of is when we were in the spring we had participation rates of a 0, 1, 2 for engagement and we held kids harmless at the third quarter grade so that may be what they're referring to but as far as us changing our grading system that was an accommodation made for that final quarter of the spring semester that we just finished to hold kids harmless so that might be it well I was confused because it didn't align with anything that I had either experienced or heard our principal also you know our principals were fairly prepped last spring that if questions arose around grades especially as we had to transition to the engagement work piece to sit down with parents and students who had questions with the teacher so you know it may be helpful to involve the principal in some of that conversation because they might be able to answer some of those questions that's exactly what I recommended I felt that if it doesn't make sense it doesn't make sense and you should talk with the people that are the principal and the teacher together if you have further questions sounds like in this case it might have been a particular situation but there is no system-wide changing of our grading system thank you appreciate it yeah no problem any follow-up that you want well as we hear those comments I'll pass them along I guess what I've been doing when I have these conversations is stress that the details are ever changing in response to the exterior environment that we face but the principals, the guiding principals are to provide a fully safe and excellent learning environment for our students where the students needs first we're going secondly that we are of course going to follow all state and local guidelines with regard to health requirements and mandates and the third is that we're going to be flexible as we respond to individual needs if they arise and are in a situation that they'll be evaluated on a case-by-case basis within the context of the overall system so that seems to be reassuring in that general the parents understand that in a general sense and then they are tied up in the details that we at the board level or at least I as a board member am not aware of but I really do appreciate the depth of thought that has gone into clearly has gone into the approach that you're taking and the responsiveness that you've had throughout the process to doing what's the very best for teachers and students with regard to instruction and safety so thank you. No problem, I appreciate the questions and then any other questions that have come up as a result of those I'm more than happy to respond to those as well. All right then we're pretty close to 8 o'clock so we'll go ahead and adjourn I do want to note that we'll be having another special meeting on July 22nd 2020 and then we have graduation coming up on the Saturday after that and would you like to talk about that? Yeah we're excited about that we've got Saturday the 25th for our graduations Jackie and her team have worked really hard we've got the approval from Boulder County and we're hoping for great weather and it should be a wonderful experience it's going to be an opportunity for parents to sit with their child on the field and participate really in close proximity so that's kind of a cool I'm really looking forward to it the other thing that I wanted to say and Jackie you can say something if you want about graduation because I know you've worked really closely with that but the other thing that I want to say is just to reinforce my commitment and our commitment as a system to the equity and the non-discrimination and the anti-racism approach and value that we hold in this district we've had really some wonderful conversations with some community members and with Olga and Johnny and Lulu and our team we're very excited about the fact that we're going to be able to take all of our teachers through learning experiences as part of our professional development and working closely with our community but just want to reinforce that as we're working through all of this we're always refocusing and reinforcing that equity lens to make sure that every single child in this system and every single adult is at the top of our list of priorities in terms of their well-being physically and emotionally so thanks I appreciate it alright so I think that brings us to the end of our meeting thank you everyone for meeting this evening and I would entertain a motion for adjournment please so much bye Chico in a second bye Jim, all in favor bye drive safely thank you everyone