 All right, I just clicked go live. So we should be live streaming. Okay, thank you and welcome. It's April 2nd. We're in the Vermont House of Representatives Education Committee and we're here now to listen to our Secretary of Education. And I think probably the first thing is, how are things going? Good morning. It's good to see you all. Yes, we're working hard and everyone's working really hard to address the needs of our students in the middle of this health emergency. As you know, we've made the decision to keep schools closed for a many of the year for the moment that might change depending on the trajectory of the public health information. But we thought it was important to at least set that context so folks could begin doing more detailed planning, what we're calling continuity of learning. Districts are expected to make the transition to active continuity of learning on April 13th. So we've recently just revised our plans template that is gonna guide districts in terms of how they're gonna describe, how they're gonna achieve that. So we're giving them a week or so to complete that activity and we'll have a better understanding of the diversity of approaches that districts across the state are gonna utilize to meet the needs of students during this time period. That's a key focus right now. It's a work in progress, as I mentioned. So we are, as you might have heard recently, obviously the issues of technology and relying some technology. I know you took some testimony the other day but districts certainly are focusing on utilization of technology to achieve continuity of learning for students but they also have other approaches available but issues of broadband, teacher and student access to the internet, using devices and so forth. All those are coming to the forefront. I can fill you a little bit in on our activities also around those, when I say our activities, the agency's activities. We're also, as much as we're trying to support the field in that regard, we're also considering infrastructure, statewide infrastructure to support this and that really falls into a couple of different categories. One is consideration of expanding out learning management system access. The learning management systems are widely used in higher education, fairly well used in high schools, basically to deliver this idea of a course, if you will. If you think of a college course and high school courses, LMS is basically a digital version platform that allows the propagation delivery of courses online, also provide the ability to teachers to share information. So we have some capacity in the Vermont Virtual Learning Cooperative, which was an entity that was established about 10 years ago. It's fairly wide to use around the state, so we're considering expanding that entity out to provide that option to districts if they need learning management system capability. We're also actively exploring sort of building what we call a Virtual Professional Learning Network for PLN, if you're familiar with that concept in education, the idea of building a platform so teachers can share best practices and develop curriculum and so forth more dynamically. I think it's, we see that as equally as important to sort of the LMS functionality. We need to have a more emphatic and easier way for teachers to share and build curriculum together across district boundaries and sort of this new remote learning landscape. Those are sort of the two major things we're working on. We've had conversations beyond the agency of education working in partner with other agencies and state government on broadband issues. We have, from my perspective, if you remember the American Reinvestment Recovery Act around 2008 or 2009, we made a lot of progress in the state within the boundaries of school districts sort of building out internet capacity to our buildings. And that's largely done through sort of a hub and spoke model, what we call wide area networks where districts bring in a pipe of internet and then make a way to share that out to their individual school buildings. A lot of that work was fairly well accomplished in 2009 or so. But as you know, we have, we call a lot of last mile issues relative to internet access, meaning how do we get out to specific locations down to the household level? And that's emerging as an area of interest across state government. So we were meeting last night with the Department of Public Service and agency of digital services and other folks trying to figure out how we can aggressively deal with these sort of last mile issues as they pop up. So we're gonna try to get a better handle on the need but it varies across the state. It's there's no simple dichotomy on, you know, rural versus suburban. It's even in suburban areas in Vermont. We can still find those last mile issues. So we are, as you might have read in the media, we do see examples where districts and providers, internet providers are coming together to solve problems in that regard. But we wanna see what we can do across state government to help support that activities. I think the issue of, cut me off anytime here. I keep going. I'll give you just a quick update on federal funding a little bit and then I'll pause if that's okay. Okay, great. I know that there are gonna be some tech questions as well. Okay, I'll just go through the federal stuff real quick and then pause. And this was under the chair's prompt of what's going on. So we've been meeting bi-weekly with the Council of Chief State School Officers which is our primary liaison into the federal government and that partnership is very tightly integrated. Recently, the Congress passed the CARES Act. I'm sure you're familiar with that at this point. There's two aspects of that that probably more than two, but in terms of funding, we have what's called the elementary secondary school emergency relief fund of about $13 billion. And then there's a smaller chunk of money around $3 billion that our governor's emergency education relief funds. So 90% of the $13 billion under the elementary secondary school emergency relief fund is allocated to LEAs, meaning school districts. The SDA, the agency can reserve 10% of that. But we're still, the guidance on how these funds are gonna be distributed and so forth is still being developed. But there is the general parameters are sort of known at this point that, we know the larger amount. We haven't seen the specific state allocations and we know there's a sense of urgency. So we've also been, we've also seen that there's waivers attached to this. So there'll be significant flexibility at the local level on how they can use these funds, basically any activity that's authorized under other federal education laws, S, or ESDA, IDA, Perkins and so forth. Any of those activities would be allowable under the use of these funds. The governor's emergency education fund is a nationally, it's about 2.9 billion. Those are administered by governors. Those are targeted to be used for LEAs that are most significantly impacted by coronavirus. Couldn't include higher ed as well. So that's intended to give some of the governor some ability to allocate some funding to those institutions or organizations that have the most severely impacted by coronavirus. But that pause there, that conversation is still evolving and we haven't put out any guidance to the field yet on that because the guidance at the federal level is still forthcoming. But why don't I stop there for now and be happy to take any questions. Great, I know that our House Energy and Technology Committee has been quite interested in this as well. Do you know with the money that we used, the era money that we used in 2009, does that inhibit us from accessing some tech money for schools? Did it inhibit? Yeah, I'd heard something. I don't think so. I think it greatly seeded the building out of a lot of those networks. I know, I was one of the superintendents who were a large number of us who took advantage of that opportunity. I think SilverNet was the provider but we used that opportunity to build out fiber wide area networks for our school districts. And part of it is to use the federal money in conjunction with our E-Rate funding, which is a program that's been out there for a long time. So E-Rate basically provides school districts the ability to get at least the 60% reduction off the costs of internet access. It's been pretty consistent over the years. But I think we've made some progress inside of the school district boundaries to build out infrastructure and better bandwidth, if you will. But that whole model was predicated on the students being inside the building, not being at home. So that's sort of the challenge we're facing now. Well, I think there's, as we continue to say, there's nothing like a crisis to help point out our abilities in the system. And certainly our broadband, we've always known as the problem but it's really accentuated now. I know that there's conversation about, yes, there's long-term build out, long-term consideration of that, but there's also the short-term. What can we do in, is there something, some way in which we could help in terms of the short-term? And are there funds? We're hearing about buses providing. No, that's the kind of stuff you're left with. I'll call it last mile. That's sort of the general term for it, right? So we have individual situations that need to be addressed. And that's always been the challenge in Vermont. I think in 2008, 2009, we were able to build out the general infrastructure considerably across the landscape. But we're still left with these last mile issues. How do we get to individual households or neighborhoods? And particularly now that the teaching force is no longer necessarily located in the school building, the teaching force is distributed out into the landscape as well. So how do teachers get online and to do their work? So we have a lot of those issues. And that's what I was alluding to last night for meeting on just sort of trying to partner with folks and identify funding. But yeah, certainly I think there's a role for the general assembly to consider anything, actively to fund bandwidth, build out. We're gonna be working across agency departments and or excuse me, agencies and departments within state government to facilitate whatever we can to help do that and to leverage our money, whether it comes from this CARES Act allocation or E-RAID or what have you to address those issues. Districts also, as I mentioned, will have flexibility through their CARES Act money to do some of this. And I know districts are already doing that. They're literally paying for family access to internet on a one-off basis, just to resolve some of those instances where there's individual families and teachers that don't have access. So districts are spending money on those issues very much so today as we speak. We also, I've heard from the energy and tech committee is that one thing that would be helpful with them is some kind of data. I think sending people off on a wild goose chase gathering data, but I'm imagining that that data is being collected. Teachers are aware of who could they can connect to and districts must be aware of. Yeah, I mean, it's a pretty little issue as we have a decentralized system. So we are initiating a survey this morning based on our conversation last night that we'll be basically asking districts. And once again, we're down to like the individual teacher and student level, how many of your teachers are not connected based on where they live, based on their homes. So we wanna understand that and we certainly wanna understand how many families aren't connected. So we're gonna solicit a data collection this morning just as quick as we can to get a quick understanding of what the need is and then break that down onto a regional basis because there's different regional solutions out there. Okay, Kathleen James has a question. Yeah, thanks, Secretary French. I just had a question about the continuity of learning plans that do April 13th. I was so interested the other day when we took testimony. I think it was Superintendent Jackie Wilson or soon to be, yes, Superintendent Jackie Wilson from the BRSU who talked about the Massachusetts guidelines that focused on four points. I think it was physical activity every day, review of past learning and enrichment, ongoing enrichment project and contact communication with your teacher every day. And I just thought that was so interesting. We've been hearing a lot about setting realistic expectations. What guidance have you guys given so far what do you think will be our expectations? Yeah, you can find ours on our website. It just went through a revision based on feedback from superintendents. I think the revision basically makes it more implementable, so to speak. But yeah, there's a lot of all pretty much now most states are involved in some form of continuity learning planning, including Massachusetts. Not all states have decided to close their schools for the rest of the year. But yeah, we definitely, I think, firstly have to make it implementable for folks. But your point about expectations is a very good one relative to transitioning online learning even in the best case scenario when everyone, we had all the infrastructure and all the kids had all the devices and the teachers knew how to use the platforms. Even in that scenario, we'd still be talking about expectations because we know teaching online and learning online is totally different than face to face. And we're seeing a lot of folks trying to deploy their daily routines online. It's not how it's gonna work as this settles off. I mean, we have to lower expectations to a certain extent. And in the asynchronous nature of a lot of these platforms is really important to leverage meaning that it doesn't rely so much on minute-by-minute contact and connection. Folks stuff can be spread out over time. So I think we're finding our way with that but you can find our latest guidance on our website. We have a central repository of COVID-19 guidance and our continuity guidance is figures prominently there. Okay, Peter Kahneman. Thanks, I've got a number of questions. So just stop me if I go overboard, Kate. Just a little bit about the federal money. I know you don't have a lot of guidelines yet but this money essentially sort of bypasses the legislative process. Does it also bypass the agency of education and go directly to LEAs? 90% of it bypasses the SCA and goes directly to the LEAs. SCAs, the agency is allowed to reserve 10% of the allocation and there's a set aside within the 10%- But are you involved in the allocation process though? Will you allocate that money and then hold back your 10% for your- That's correct. Yes, we are the deliverers of those funds. And then you talked a little bit about the governor's emergency funds which is a little bit more at the discretion of the governor and it's supposed to be targeted at those schools or colleges that are most affected by COVID-19. And it kind of seems like every school and college is affected equally. They're all closed. All colleges are having to deal with returning money for food and board and room. So how will that money be allocated? That's too early to tell. I think once again, these are national guidelines. You can anticipate every state's in a different scenario relative to that and the use of those funds. But I think it's way too early to understand how Vermont and how Governor Scott might want to use those funds. Okay, and finally, this is a much more on the ground question. Could you talk a little bit about the decision to keep April vacation given the fact that we've lost so much time as it is? Right, so we put out guidance the other day on school calendar and attendance, sort of two foundational issues. Districts and related to that, how we're dealing with the days that have already gone by. So districts have been directed more or less to implement their current calendars for the rest of the school year, but to hold tight on how the end of year will be dealt with because that's an issue the governor has set aside and has directed me to produce guidance no later than May 8th on how end of year will transpire. But districts will follow their established calendars at this point, which means April vacations will be implemented as described in their calendars. The waiver issue, I have authority over waivers. The state board gave me that authority. Typically they have that authority. I've waived the requirements, attendance requirements for the days that have transpired, I believe before March 18th. So those districts will not count, need to be counted for relative to the mandatory minimum of 175 days. Representative Austin. I just wanna ask two questions. One is Congressman Welch yesterday during the governor's news report at 12, said there was a possibly another bill coming, an infrastructure bill, a federal infrastructure bill that would deal with broadband. He's hoping that he could use that funding for broadband. So I'm wondering if the information maybe from your survey data, maybe some of that funding could be access to, to help with schools to use some of that, the third funding that's coming down. And the other question I had is, can we get a copy of the CARES Act? Is it also called the CARES Act for Education that you're referring to? Yeah, I think, well, I'll go back to your first question. Yes, I hope, you know, I'm just following what we read in the media too, who knows what Congress will do. But certainly, I think to the chair's point earlier, we came out of the last crisis. We used 2008, 2009 as an example with better infrastructure relative to the provisioning of broadband in the state, and particularly in education. I would hope that we come out at the end of this crisis in a better place as well. But what we're dealing with now are a lot of the last mile issues, which are, have always been challenging in Vermont due to the rural nature and dispersed nature of our population. So it's just hard, it's hard enough to crack due to the relative inefficiency of provisioning services out in those remote areas. I was just thinking of utilizing maybe that third wave of funding for broadband and not use it, take it out of the education funds that you're getting now. Well, I think, you know, I was just gonna conclude on that question saying that that's a longer term solution. I think to the chair's point, a lot of what we're trying to address now are the immediate issues of going to remote learning, like right now, today, this week, we have teachers who can't get online as students or families that don't have access. What are we gonna do right now? That's a different question altogether. And we're gonna work very aggressively with districts to help resolve those issues. But once again, under the continuity of learning planning, technology certainly will figure prominently, but districts have other non, or say analog ways to provide access to students. What was the second question? If we could get a copy, we've got a really good summary of the employment, it was broken down, the CARES Act was broken down into segments of different parts of the employment. Yeah, what I can do is, I'd be happy to share our organization, the CCSSO, CCSSO is sort of summary of that. You might find that more digestible than reading the federal register. Thank you. Be happy to do that. Kayla Builder. I thank you Secretary French for joining us today and everything you're doing right now. I am, of course, I think along with, the rest was incredibly impressed with school districts. Work so far since March 18th, but particularly in the area of food service. I'm also worried about, frankly, being a potential vector for transmission of COVID. And I know that the state, and this isn't exactly your area, but I know Commissioner Levine has really started talking more about surveillance testing and the need for that. At the same time, I understand there's a scarcity of tests. With all that said, are you hearing anything about, what I would like to see is a real prioritization of those still working in schools, particularly those working in food service, those delivering Chromebooks or other materials to have active surveillance testing that does not wait for people to become symptomatic. I think that would be a highly valuable use of resources. So I'm just wondering if you have heard anything in that direction. No, I haven't yet. Other than I'll make the general observation, I think our health department's just done tremendous work and the data I've seen relative to testing puts Vermont as a leader in that nationally. I think certainly our small population, a relatively small population allows us to be more aggressive in that regard. But everything we know so far from the international experience in terms of best practice and social mitigation or social distancing as a mitigation strategy, Vermont is doing very aggressively, including closing our schools. So I think we've started to see a significant increase in testing in Vermont, which has been found, particularly in the case of South Korea, to be a very effective way to bend the curve, if you will. So I think, as that will continue, what I've observed is that will continue to increase. And certainly the priority now is on healthcare workers. But I expect as continuing to feed students is such a critical function during this time that it wouldn't surprise me to see that expanded more broadly as the capacity increases. Thank you. We have a couple of other topics. Can we talk a little bit about the challenges for independent special ed schools? Regarding funding, we heard a bit about that yesterday. Yeah, I have- Independent special ed school. I mean, the guidance on that is still sort of evolving a little bit. Some of that falls more into the category of special ed schools as being small businesses per se, but in terms of essential services, a lot of that funding commitment will still fall back on the contractual relationships that exists between districts and those schools. Part of the transition sort of period where now as we're moving into continuity of learning after April 13th, part of that transition is to define what is the new normal, so to speak, in terms of the regular ed environment. And we're getting evolving guidance constantly on federal special education regulations and so forth. And districts will be, as they're transitioning into the provision of continuity of learning, they'll also then be modifying their special ed programs accordingly. But that whole financial relationship or programmatic relationship really comes down to the IEPs of students and the need to provide those in supports. But that's evolving, I guess is the best I could say now as we make the transition to continuity of learning. But in terms of, we've heard from a number of smaller schools, private schools that are essentially having challenges related to like all small businesses in Vermont right now in terms of this crisis. So it's on our radar as an administration that I don't have any specific guidance at this point other than the evolving special ed aspect. Okay, thank you. That does seem to be a complex issue. But we also are aware that these schools are dealing with some of our kids that really, we're not able to function within the regular program. So these are challenges. Yeah, the issue of supports for students is a key component of the continuity learning plans districts are gonna be addressing. And as you know, from your personal experience or professional experience, you know, it's even when schools are operating and we have students that are challenged and it's gonna be a priority for us to make sure that we can support those students as best we can in this public health emergency. Kathleen James. Yeah, thanks. Just following along these lines, it was my understanding that the concern about how reimbursement was gonna be handled wasn't only specific to special ed only schools, but just independent schools in the larger sense, like our academies, like Byrne Burton, is that correct? I haven't, when you say reimbursement, reimbursement isn't a term we often use with the non-special ed. So tuition payments to independent schools. So those schools are still providing services. So the tuition payments would continue to be processed. You know, in the case where districts don't operate a school like, you know, use your case in Manchester, Byrne Burton is providing and required to establish a continuity learning plan. So the districts will be paying tuition for those students to be educated by Byrne Burton. For the special ed students. So you're not anticipating any reduction there. I think there was some concern with the way the guidance was originally worded that I guess just that people understand that the staff time and the workload certainly is not decreasing in any way. Well, I was, my previous comments there a second ago where I thought were directed on the larger issue of tuition to independent schools. I think you were asking about independent school provision of special ed services. And I think that will evolve depending on how IEPs will change or not relative to deploying continuity of learning. So the whole question of financial reimbursement and the financial costs of special education are predicated on what services are required to be delivered in those individual education plans. So I fully expect individual IEPs to evolve as a result of continuity of learning. And therefore the provision of those services could change depending on the needs of the students. Which brings us to Act 173. And this just can be a broader conversation later which is given where we are. I know that there are some dates in 173. We're looking at some that are in the Senate bill at the moment, but perhaps what we need to do is have another conversation about other areas of Act 173 that may need delay. Yeah, and Emily's on the phone. I think when we were looking at topics for today, as you know she's, you're not gonna see Ted very often but Emily's definitely our point of person on any of the active legislative issues you're gonna take up including 173 and so forth. So she's capable of being our liaison on that. And I'll defer to her whenever you wanna take up those active conversations. I know you have several active issues that you need some guidance on, but certainly we're gonna be prepared to advocate for a delay in 173 as we will in other issues as well. I think what would be helpful then, Emily, if you could identify those areas for us that need a delay other than the ones that are in the Senate bill right now and communicate with Jim. I'm gonna sign off here if that's okay, Madam Chair, I have to move on. If there's anything for me, I'll leave Emily in your good hands. Fine, I know we had a couple of State Board of Education issues in that phone. She can talk to those as well, I think. Okay, I wanna thank you so much. I appreciate that the agency and the superintendents and the school boards and the teachers and the special administrators are starting to use the expertise that we have in the State to help us sort through what we're doing. I'm sorry you're gonna miss presentation by two teachers or testimony from two teachers. Well, I'll catch up on the testimony later, but thank you and don't hesitate to reach out if I can do anything to help you. Thank you so much. Take care. Take care. Emily, I wanna let these teachers get back to work. So just for 173, can we have you and Jim connect on the issues that probably need to be delayed in addition to the ones that the conforming language? Yes, I'd be happy to do that with Jim. Okay, great. Sound good, Jim? Okay, and just the State Board of Ed Bill, that was another one that I talked about with the Senate yesterday. And is that something that, by understanding is there was some negotiating that happened in the committee? Is this something that's ready to go or is this something that needs additional testimony from your perspective? It needs additional. It needs a pretty substantial additional testimony. I know you're pressed for time, so I summarize the top two points in written testimony that your committee have on your committee page. Okay, great. I think we'll pick that up later because it's not on the emergency level at the moment. It's just a bill that the Senate is asking us to act on. So we'll follow up with that. And I know, Jim, you ended up drafting that for the Senate. So you probably are aware of what the issues are. Yes, sir. Okay, anything else from the committee? Kathleen, I got to you correct. I think that that covers everything with the agency. So Emily, you are more than willing to stay if you'd like to hear. Okay, I think I'll switch over to YouTube so that I don't impact your bandwidth on Zoom. Thanks, everyone. Okay, let me just make sure. Yeah, I'm really delighted to hear from two teachers today. One is Sharon Davidson, who I worked with years ago in Williston. And the other is Alex Extra St. Louis, the second grade teacher from Berkshire Elementary. The committee has been interested in hearing from the ground. How is it going? What are you doing? I did watch a webinar that Sharon did yesterday that probably we probably have one of the most advanced remote kindergarten teachers in the Northeast. So I worry that some kindergarten teachers will watch this and just feel bad about themselves. So with that in mind, let's recognize that what Sharon is doing is something that you've been working on for many years as well. So Sharon, welcome. Hey, hi. Thank you so much for the introduction, Katie. Good morning, everyone. My name is Sharon Davidson, and I have the privilege of being a public school teacher in Vermont. I have had this honor of working alongside my students, families and colleagues, both locally and globally for well over three decades. I am in my 11th year of teaching kindergarten at the Allenbrook School in Williston. I have been using a variety of digital platforms and digital tools for a very long time in lots of different ways. I am passionate about online experiences and feel that they offer endless invitations for connectivity, reflection, and endless ways to explore service learning opportunities within our communities that connect to a larger global need. I am also a former NEA Ed community online facilitator where I facilitated online groups for three years. This is a very large professional national platform where teachers can connect and collaborate. This work immersed me in online learning and helped provide endless opportunities that are available for students and educators globally to help facilitate and inspire learning. I am most grateful today for all of you and for the invitation that you've offered me to share my experiences as a connected educator and how myself, my students, their families, and my school community is dealing with the onset of this pandemic. On Sunday evening, like numerous other schools in the state, I was notified that school was closing. I remember thinking about what I needed to do to make sure that all of my students were safe, they had food, they had resources that they needed, which included connectivity. The connectivity is vital because in kindergarten, my students and my families are familiar and used to using many digital platforms daily to connect with their child's learning. The connectivity is where I would continue to build on relationships, offer support, provide online resources for learning, and a synchronous platform where all families and students would be able to see me and connect with me each school day. Then yesterday, thanks to the amazing Vermont NEA, they offered a K2 remote learning webinar for educators. I had the pleasure of being able to present and share my story with the 254 educators that registered for this event. I am a proud Vermont educator with great passion. I shared and was able to represent my school, my district, and share how CVSD supports innovation, creativity, and supports learning for everyone. It's sad and make greatly to hear yesterday about the many teachers and students in our state that do not have the opportunities that my kindergarten students do. This does not feel fair at all to me. Many of the educators that were present in the webinar yesterday shared their frustrations about not having access and the tools they need and how this is impacting their relationships and the continuing with the children and families continuity, excuse me, with the children and families they are responsible for. Let's change this now. Through positive actions of providing an equitable landscape for everybody, this pandemic is a hardship for all of us. We all have to make adjustments and endless sacrifices to make sure we are taking care of ourselves, our families, and this includes our health, our food, and our education. I think this is also an opportunity, an opportunity for our state to take positive action immediately and provide internet access and devices to schools for their students and educators so everyone can begin to get connected and engage in learning experiences that will provide endless paths for growth. The time is now. Vermont children cannot wait. Vermont educators are a committed, dedicated, caring, and professional group of leaders who want to offer the world to their students. We can help with that. You have the ability to make this happen. I feel so very fortunate because my district has been nothing less than amazing. The leadership at our district level and schools has been wonderful. I hear frequently from my leadership team about next steps, resources for families, opportunities to connect with my digital learning leader to help me and my team navigate the many online platforms that we'll have opportunities to use. And most importantly, leadership in our district always asks this question first. How are you? What can I do to help you? As an educator, the message is my leadership team cares about my well-being. They understand that this impacts everything that I do. I am very, very grateful. As a kindergarten teacher in the Champlain Valley School District, I have always had access to the tools that I need to teach, learn, create, and open my classroom globally. My district has always supported my professional growth as an educator to help deepen my own learning so that I am able to collaborate and teach and enhance learning. They have also helped my students with permission to use a variety of platforms and devices that continue to invite participation and collaboration and the professional time that I've needed for myself to continue growing and learn as an educator. All educators need this type of support for growth. I was very fortunate because all of my families had a device and internet so my transition to online learning was a challenge, but not much of a challenge, like I imagine that many of my colleagues in schools and communities in Vermont who do not have internet access and the ability to help provide families with devices if needed one. Again, the time is now. Please, please show your support for all Vermont children. Thank you all so much for the opportunity to share my voice and support of all children, all families and educators in Vermont. Thank you. Thank you, Sharon. I think what I'd like to do is we'll hear from Alex next and then I'll open it up to questions from the committee. Thank you. So, Alex, I'm sorry, I kind of butchered your name there. Make sure you're unmuted. There we go. Are we all set? Thank you, yes. Hi there, I'm Alex Eskra. I teach at Berkshire Elementary School. I teach second grade. I have been at Berkshire for two years. I grew up wanting to be an educator and it is my privilege to work in Franklin Northeast Supervisory Union and it has truly been a gift throughout my time there. Our district has 91% free and reduced lunch. Students qualifying for that. I have 26 in my class but we did have two moves recently. My class has a lot of academic and behavioral needs. I have between four and five behavior plans that I'm managing and four students on IEPs. And many of my students do not have access to internet and won't for several weeks despite the free internet being offered or lack access to technology. Many of my siblings and many of my students have several siblings or children in their homes that are sharing a single tablet or phone lacking internet access. I strive to provide equitable access to education every day in my classroom between providing education or direction supported by pictures and or building relationships with every student to ensure that they feel cared for and loved. Franklin Northeast Supervisory Union has been working overtime to support educators and students. We get daily email updates with resources and they have truly gone above and beyond in supporting educators and ensuring that our voices are heard. We provide two meals for our students daily because many of them rely on school for food and structure. Weeks ago we surveyed families for internet access and technological tools. There were a tremendous number of families that reported that they do not have access or have access only through a single cell phone shared through a number of school-aged children. I do not fault my district for the lack of information I've gotten regarding this process. They've been doing what they can with the information that they've been given. That being said I have kind of been floundering because unlike several districts I my students don't have access to online resources so while getting links to all these great digital resources is great it's not equitable and I can't justify sending out a link to a website that only some of my students can access and frequently it's those students that are accessing education more readily than students that are unsupported in that setting. So the issue here is on a higher level the districts and the administrations of schools have been working overtime to compensate for the shortcomings of the agency of education and the governor in this situation. Governor Scott announced the closing without alerting the districts. We found out at the same time as our families which was a little bit inappropriate and unprofessional I thought that was not the best way to do it. Closing the schools wasn't a rash decision. I totally understand that it was focused on safety and the safety of my students of my utmost concern but I think it could have been done with more planning and more careful execution. The announcement of the closure was what was rash. I worry about what the agency of education has been doing since the initial closure has been announced. The likelihood of an extended closure was high yet I'm still awaiting guidance for how to educate my students in a way that is equitable and accessible for all of them. My district has worked hard to keep us updated however they have been transparent that they have not received much guidance for these lower grades. Our students above third grade and above have one-to-one technology so that's great. They are able to access these online tools that are so helpful and really delivering instruction that is worthwhile and meaningful at this time but below third grade our students do not have reliable access to technology despite their district doing everything they can to find technology that's accessible for those younger grades. I've spent the last several days brainstorming and researching but any resources that are not online are few and far between. I've spent the last few weeks ensuring that my families and my students are staying healthy are not feeling overwhelmed and I've been maintaining relationships. Many of my families have adults that are essential workers or are still working and are not able to take the time each day to actually teach their students which is not by fault of them at all and many of my family my students do not have familial support for a variety of reasons. Mental health and equitable access is my primary concern moving forward. Receiving suggestions for online resources is not supporting me and doing either of those things because at this time I need to plan education for my students a week from today that is equitable and not online at all. So as of now I will have less than a week to plan begin planning remote learning for my students that is equitable and meaningful because we've been awaiting information from the agency of education for how to move forward in a way that supports the expectations. I totally understand that the situation is unprecedented however I do feel that this has been a looming cloud for a tremendous amount of time and there appears to be a lag in communication between the agency of education and the districts. Education specifically at the primary level is about connection and relationships. I pride myself in my ability to create a community of learners that love to learn. I really take so much pride in the fact that my students beg to read and they beg to explore the map on Google Maps and so much of my instruction is based upon relationships and student engagement. It is vital that we attend to the social emotional needs of our students who are in the midst of a very traumatic event and because we're in the midst of this there's very little processing that's happening. Whether it be that the students don't necessarily understand what's happening or are hearing things and not making sense of it it's still a traumatic event because their consistency and their routine has been very disrupted and we must attend to that need as well. I think it's important that we ask ourselves how we attend to the social emotional needs of our students. I give my family's weekly phone calls. I have consistent interaction with families over email. I share a daily morning message shared by our private Facebook page but I think it's important to ensure that we are meeting those social emotional needs of our students. This is hard. I am heartbroken to be missing the end of the year. I value the safety of my students above all and I feel that school closure was the responsible choice. However, the way in which schools were closed was not setting up schools with a lack of access for success. Moving forward I would like to keep in mind a few things. Kids need connection to learn. We have to understand that there will be a loss of learning at this time. We will be okay. The children will make up the difference in the learning next year and the years to come. Educators are resilient and flexible just like our students are. Next year will be unique. There will be deficits and we must address them and I have no doubt that educators will rise to the occasion as we always do. Grace given by the agency of education is of significant importance moving forward and understanding of the fact that next year will be as much of a learning curve as this new approach to education will be. I understand that everybody is doing their best and I don't want to speak poorly of anyone but I do think that communication and planning moving forward is of the utmost importance as well as consideration of equitable access to learning for our districts that do not have access to technology. Thank you. Thank you. I just wanted to say that what we're seeing is a contrast here. I didn't really mean to set it up in this way. We've got Williston that is a town it's an IBM town that was set up with technology many years ago and we have Franklin Northeast where that is simply not the cases as well as different access to the hardware as well. We have a bunch of questions from people not surprisingly. Representative Goopley. Alice thank you so much and certainly for your dedication. My question in knowing that you have first of all a I think a considerable large amount of students with special needs etc but are you having a daily contact with parents at all? I interact with many parents on a frequent basis. Some families are hard to reach. I make the attempt at least once a week but because of the large number of students I am not able to interact with every family on a daily basis. However the families that are involved on the Facebook page I've created that is private do interact with the post with the morning message I do. So that does give me an insight into many of my students' lives but again it is about that equitable access because there's only a handful of students that I'm hearing from. The parents that you have contact with are they actively engaged in and helping you educate their children? Several are. There are a few that have expressed concerns, frustrations, overwhelmed because they're still working or don't have the means to educate the number of children that they have. I mean expecting parents to teach their children when they have not had the education to do so. I mean I went to college for this, Sharon went to college for this. It's pretty challenging even for one child but to then expect them to do that for multiple children and different age groups is pretty challenging. So I think many of them are feeling very overwhelmed. Well thank you Alex for all you do. Appreciate it. Thank you. Representative James. Thank you. I was just trying to kind of start reading the continuity of learning guidance that the AOE posted last evening and I was just wondering if either or both of you, I realized that this work will be happening at the SU level but if either of you had had a chance to look that over yet and whether you felt that the expectations it sets are realistic for you. I'd be happy to share. I have not had a chance to completely go through it yet. I do again I want to shout out to my district leaders. They've been really great about meeting on a regular basis and looking at the plan and also offering support for teachers to go ahead and make time in terms of having opportunities to create what it is that we think that we can provide for our students. I'd like to echo Sharon. My district is working extremely hard. They are meeting constantly to unpack this document. We were instructed to await further instruction from our district which we'll receive on Friday at our in-service which is a really excellent opportunity for teachers to collaborate amongst each other because I'm the only second grade teacher at my school and for us to have some planning time to tackle this mountain of unexpected stuff. Thank you. Serita, Austin. This is for either or both of you. Just I'm a little concerned about what you're seeing possibly emerging regarding the safety and security and privacy of now having children online. Sharon, you probably have been at it a little bit longer but I have to imagine there are some really bad players out there that are looking for opportunities. So what I do, Serita, in my classroom is before school even starts I have the luxury of knowing who my students are going to be in the fall and so I take that as an opportunity to send out a Google form to survey parents and get their permission for the different platforms and social media platforms that I will be using in my classroom during that year. In that form parents give permission as to whether or not I can use their child's photo or their work samples or things like that. Then the week before school starts I offer about an hour hour and a half session where I invite all families that I'm going to be working alongside that school year along with former parents and former students and then together we have this collaborative model where we share how we're going to be using digital tools and digital platforms in our classrooms. And I think the safety issue is really big because I do work with five and six year olds. So even though parents have given me permission to use a variety of platforms even when I go and share something like through Empatico or National Geographic I'm doing a lot of things with them. I still extend an extra invitation an extra notification to say hey so and so would like to use this photo. Is this okay with you? Just because children are five and six and I am never solely in that position where I am making decisions for the children. Their parents are in the control seat for that. I definitely have a lot of anxiety around students online and students on social media. The reason I opted for a Facebook page is A because many families do have access to Facebook and do have Facebook accounts. So I thought that would be a great way to make sure that they're getting access to it and it's in control of the parents. And the parents choose to join the group. I sent it out as an email and said please join if you would like. You are not obligated to join. And they are welcome to share what they want. And it's a private group. So I approve every person that asks to be a part of it. So it's very much a careful process but I am nervous about other platforms such as Zoom. I mean I've heard things happen on Zoom that are not necessarily private. And I also have the additional concern of students seeing the insides of other students' homes and things like that. It's definitely something to unpack in terms of privacy and safety. Thank you. Sharon, how much time are your kids on a device? And how does that relate to some of the other issues related to social, emotional, physical warning? That's a great question. So I don't really think about it in terms of how much time a child is in front of a screen but rather it's the flip of that. It's how am I using the digital tool and the platforms to help children have an opportunity to have conversations with other people within their community and outside of their community. There are, I have done a lot of work with coding so I do have a lot of sites that are already set up for children where they can do coding online but I leave that up to the parents. But again, we didn't start with coding online in kindergarten. We started with face-to-face and actually using our bodies and other manipulatives, right, to create code. I think it's really important for young children, you don't want to just leave them in front of a screen when there's no interaction. For me, when I meet with my children every morning, I set up a Google Meet and I get on at 8.15 and I'm there till 9.15, sometimes a little bit longer and we officially start kind of our morning together with a message that a student has volunteered to share. And so we do that together. And a lot of the things that we do are routines that I've already set up in my classroom. So I'm not introducing any kind of new routine for them. And so even though we're online and I do have the luxury of having a smart board in my classroom, so for me to continue that, of course we don't have smart boards, right, in everyone's room. But the children, I'll invite them as I'm using my mouse to say, follow the bouncing mouse. This is just like we do in kindergarten. Take your finger and touch the screen where you see the letter S, you know, things like that. So I try not to think about how much time they're spending but my recommendation always has been to parents is to break things up. You know, they have all of these resources and they are in control of what they want their kids to do during the day. I use Google Meet a lot just so the kids can see my face and interact with me and I can see them because part of this challenge of being online now is collaboration is not kind of natural for a lot of people. We have to kind of make this collaboration happen. So things like Padlet or other sites where children can go and post pictures or video where they can show each other in their, you know, in their homes, hey, here's so and so, here's so and so. You know, that's how I'm using these tools. They do have a platform seesaw that our district uses that is private and it is private to families. So children are not, I've turned off the notifications so children are not seeing other children's work right now because I think that would add another layer of pressure for families to feel like, oh my gosh, I'm not keeping up or I'm not doing this. So anyway, I hope that answers your question. Also, I mean, what I saw the other day is you had children out measuring the snow with rulers. We had kids with bags that they had decorated going out and collecting things from the flora and fauna. So it wasn't just always in front of the screen. It was actually tasks related to where they are right now. I see Kayla Belder. Thank you. I just had a question. It's so interesting to hear about all the different digital platforms and the Facebook group and then also understanding the context of that stuff being totally unavailable to some kids. And I'm just wondering in the mode of mixing it up in a varied curriculum, if something kind of old school technology-wise like radio has any place to play here, I'm just thinking of a kind of morning announcements or something that gives some connectivity to a kid, something that a kid can sit and listen to. It's audio, so it's got some limitations. But anyway, I'm just wondering from either of you if you think something like that has a role to play simply because that is a medium where we can at least get audio to basically everyone in Vermont. Anyhow. I would love if that became available. J.K. Rowling has released the rights to Harry Potter. That has to be shared on a private level, so it would be curious to see how it would play out to do it on a radio standpoint. But I have been looking at options of getting audio of me reading the book aloud to my students just because I think so much of primary learning is through connection. And I think what I've heard from families is the connection of hearing your teacher's voice or seeing your teacher's face or having that connection that feels normal in this time of a complete lack of normalcy is definitely something to explore. So I'd love to do a recording or a radio something. Well, and it does seem that you could be doing that on your normal online platforms and that potentially that signal could be sent to an antenna to broadcast. I'm pretty sure that technology is pretty available. So it could be an add-on that sort of makes that type of activity or describing more inclusive. Thank you. That's a great idea. Thank you. Caleb is a musician. I think what we continue to see is there's nothing like a crisis to point out vulnerabilities in the system and inequities. And they are really glaring at the moment. I think there's dealing with the current crisis and there's also thoughts going forward that has really helped to identify some areas of challenge for us, for our kids and for our families. Inequities are stark. Casey too has a question. Not so much a question. Thanks. I just want to thank you all for coming in and sharing one of your co-workers texted me and I just wanted to say hi for her, say or read. So I just wanted to say hi from her. Thanks. Anything else? Sharon, I'd love at some point to get some of your PowerPoint to just show. Sure. I can send that to you, Katie. What it can look like if you have really good access, if your kids have really good access, if your parents are and can be engaged, if you have training in a lot of different platforms, what it can look like. And in the meantime, I want you to know that we hear, we hear the challenges loud and clear. Thank you so much, Katie. I am, I would be more than willing to share with you all of my resources. And I think it's also important to remember that this has evolved for me over time, right? It wasn't like I just woke up today and said, oh yeah, I'm an expert on all these platforms. But again, because of professional opportunities that I've had at my district and a lot of support there too, I think it's really important. I cannot say that enough that in our schools and in our districts that the leadership really supports teachers and this idea to become innovative because it's really, it's always a challenge for educators. You know, I turned 60 this year and I feel like I'm still learning things, all the time, because our world keeps changing. And so this technology offers opportunities and pathways for all of us to kind of think about learning in different ways. And I think this idea becomes really, really important now more than ever. And it would just be wonderful to think that all of the children in our state had internet access and they had tools and that they're educators did too. That would be wonderful. We are trying to get some information on where we actually stand in terms of availability of broadband and then children that have access to broadband and children that have access to the tech, to the tools. We certainly know that in a family of four everybody's trying to use that access if they have it and that's the challenge even in the areas where there are more resources. But even if parents can get those resources, I think what teachers will find and what communities will find is that parents will know what's going on in their child's classroom every day. I mean, that's kind of the beauty of the technology too. It invites parents to learn alongside their children. So it's like they're there with me and their child learning. And it just doesn't get any better than that. And then parents understand kind of what school is like. Anyway, thank you, Katie. Thank you. Thank you all. And I'm muted. Oh, thank you all for having me. I appreciate your listening ears. I do want to take a moment to commend the work that my district is doing once again. They are working constantly to ensure the teachers are supported and families are supported. And I want to commend many of the families that are doing what they can with what they have and creating really meaningful learning experiences for their kids. If it's even just cooking, that is an exceptional experience on a primary level. So I think there are some really creative ways that we can support students that go far beyond what we've been doing. So I think this is also a really great opportunity to explore some more holistic approaches to learning and more hands-on approaches that might not always be available in a classroom setting. So thank you all very much. I appreciate the work you're doing. And I appreciate the recognition of the needs of students all across the state. I just have an interesting note from one of my members about using VPR as a platform. We also know that our parents are pretty stressed. They're not trained as teachers. And we know that the profession is more complicated. And I think people are learning how much more complicated it is. Are there any other questions from the committee? I thank you both so much for what you're doing. This is just gigantic. And I stand in awe. I hope that you are holding up and you have ways of taking care of your own mental health in this. And I think there's nothing else. So thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.