 There we are on that. And the last thing I'll say is that on Thursday, we'll still have a scheduled meeting. The reason that's still on the schedule is on the hope that we'll get the green light on the Act 173 delay. In which case, we would then go through that with Jim on Thursday and potentially vote that out. Jim, do you, do you have any? Senator Peruz, can I interrupt? I'm sorry, it's Peggy. We're live now. Thank you Peggy. Jim, do you have any sense of where they are on the Act 173 stuff? Yeah, they took, I walked them through your language on Thursday, and then there's some changes they wanted to see for today, which I walked them through. And the friendly changes to what you've done. But I think they'll be ready for you Thursday if you want me to walk through that with you. That would be great. So, Ruth, I think you heard, you just had your video off. So we will meet on Thursday. We'll go through the Act 173 language, potentially take a vote. That might be a relatively short meeting, but that would be good at least to get something moving. Corey, did I see your hand? Yeah. And this might just be a semantic saying, I still think we should pass our language and let the house own it. If there's going to come to that point that they're not going to come to us with a reasonable proposal. I don't want them to say the whole legislature sat on their hands. When I think we're sending them a more than fair enough proposal. I see nods. I feel similarly. There's my heart in my head. My heart agrees with you in talking with leadership about it. Tim is pretty clear that he wants to work collaboratively only at this point. We may get to a point this session where, you know, we do more like the normal run of things where we just send stuff at them. They send stuff at them. And then put out of the realm of possibilities that we conference later on over zoom. That could happen but right now we're still in this, you know, zone of unanimity. So, we're not getting rid of the language it's effectively on our wall and they may change their minds but we'll see. One last quick question. The process. So did we, I think we, we voted to allow joint rules to, I mean, they have to approve a committee to vote something. And they already did. Yeah. Oh, did they, they, we could vote on the, we could do what Senator parent suggests but. Yeah. Yeah, I went to them last week for permission. Permission to vote both of these out. But I had promised on a call with Mitzi and the speaker and the pro tem and Kate weapon myself that we wouldn't vote something out if they were against it at this point. So that's, that's kind of where we are. So, yes, Ruth. Just a quick question. Are we going to have time at the end of the meeting to talk about next steps. If so, I'll hold off because I don't want to keep our witness next steps for our committee or on that language for our committee. Yeah, more broadly. Yeah, well, I'll try to reserve 10 minutes at the end and, and we'll, because we have a lot of witnesses today right exactly. Yeah. Okay, great. Okay, sounds good. So, welcome everyone thank you for joining us and for sitting through that bit of boring process. I wanted to, if I could turn it over very briefly to Senator perch like this session was his idea and a good one to follow up on continuity of learning plans specifically with reference to online and the efficacy of that. So that would be improved how it's working. But I'll, I'll let Senator perch like, explain his thinking. Thank you. Mr chair yeah that I mean that was pretty well said that I want to get give time to the witnesses so I won't go on but yeah I was hearing from teachers and parents and students about the difficulty. The question was raised like is, is this the way it has to be, can are there other options that we might look at for the for the last few weeks of the year or last four weeks of the year we, there was a claim or a proposal to close school. I think the committee members all agreed that that wouldn't be a good idea but could there be something else that could be done. Instead of just trying to muscle through this difficult remote learning so reached out to other folks and, and here we have them today. So, I know that Heather Boucher from AOE has a hard stop at 230. Actually, I'm, I'm a little okay now, I have a few minutes now. That's all right, that's all right you're you're first on the list anyway. Oh great. Okay. So, please, any anywhere you'd like to pick up on that general discussion. Sure. Just for the record Dr. Heather Boucher deputy secretary for the agency of education. I'm actually going to co testify with just to careless who's our division director for student pathways, and the committee knows quite well. I thought I would just start with just a couple of dates to remind the committee about that just to set the table about the timeframe we're talking about. It was only March 13 that the state of emergency for Vermont was declared on March 15. Not much more than a month ago. There was a directed the initial directive schools. I'm going to go by Neil kitchen child care for potential workers. And we focus at that time on maintenance of education, which really wasn't about new learning. It was really just a court sort of keep students stable, not in terms of learning but not also be focused on teaching them new material. And schools were also systems were also responsible for and to send a dismissal to the health emergency. On March 17 and March 24, there were new directives, closing childcare and then the full stay home stay safe directive. On March 26, the agency of education put out guidance can see the governor's directive around that time. That was then focusing on students or schools excuse me and education systems, really focusing on and being prepared for remote learning. So I apologize. I'm at my notes here. That gives you a little bit of the timeline about where we were so our guidance said that if schools and districts or who actually was responsible for putting these fans, if they got their planned into the agency by April, we'd be able to give them some feedback on that before the April 13 deadline governor. And we actually when they had an agency and said, you know, said, let's just make sure your final implementation plan is in our by tomorrow, which is the 22nd. And we were half of our would say the real implementation of learning and the reason I'm saying half of our districts is because we're actually in spring break. So half of our districts are currently on spring break. This week, half were last week. Hopefully that makes sense to folks, but typically is how our system runs. Half and half around spring break in particular. We have as an agency provided several guidance documents about what remote learning looks like in best practice. Some principles some essential elements that that was how we actually reviewed each, each lea's plan. We have worked closely, I would say with VSA VPA and any a we did have a miscommunication a misinterpretation of one of our deadlines, and we weren't able to get initial feedback from any a on our tool. But I think we've been working together on some of the concerns as I said that any a had brought up about educator voice in the process. And I think a little bit more about that to a real central aspect of the continuity of learning plan is, is communication and it isn't just communication from school to home, it's actually communication within the education system meaning leadership teachers staff. And then as I said, the final sort of, you know, final final continuity of learning plans are due tomorrow. We are pretty much set just can talk a little bit much a little bit more about the details of our publics. We also had a system in place that was the same system but just with a different team at the agency for our independent schools. So if you will recall the governor's directive said basically all schools. The hard line interpretation of that was indeed all schools, including parochial schools including any school that existed in Vermont. We, there was a fair amount of confusion understandably about that because when it comes down to it as a state agency we don't really have any authority or responsibility over schools that are actually not receiving public dollars. So we had a couple of moments where we were working together with the independent schools Association to help figure out best ways forward. I'm happy to say that I think we're all on the same page. And that has gone relatively smoothly in the past couple of weeks. We all have some data on that but our team is still working their way through because as you might imagine they got almost, I would say, close to double the number of continuity of learning plans. It's an unusual number of independent schools we work with, because all of the independent schools, many of the parochial schools, a lot of the independent schools that are not usually doing a lot of work with us, put forth the continuity of learning plans. And a lot of, frankly, a lot of both our public LEAs and the independent schools were very excited about doing this because they wanted to actually showcase some of the cool ideas they had the work they were doing. And as Senator Bruce was saying before the official start of the meeting, it has gone relatively smoothly, all things considered, given the fact that we, we are in a pandemic and, you know, health crisis. So that's what I wanted to say and then folks have questions for me I'm happy to take them and then Jess has additional information to share. I can't hear you Senator Bruce. Before we go to Jess before we take questions. And that way we'll get all of a we's presentation out. Jess do you have material you'd like to add. Sure. Hi everyone, just a careless division director at the agency of education happy to see you all I have turned off my video in an effort to stay connected to this. Just I guess to give you some broad sort of high level statistics. As far as the total public s us sd is a total of 87 plans have been reviewed. That's inclusive of resubmissions based on feedback. Happy to say that 52 out of 53 have submitted and the remaining outstanding district is is Dresden as we're working out how they're communicating to in both New Hampshire and Vermont. A total of 40 issues sd's have met all 11 essential elements so we only have 12 outstanding resubmissions and as deputy Boucher indicated there's a lot of folks who are on vacation right now understandably. I'm happy to say that we had pretty quick turnaround with the 34 plans that required resubmitting that the majority of them were turned around within one day. Only a few the max number of days to turn around was three days and I would blame myself with that in crossing a weekend and engaging in what I'm calling operations stay married as we manage working from home together. The greatest frequency of unmet elements in the plans can really fall into three categories. The first was planning for teacher illness at 63% of the returned plans had to address that planning for teacher illness. 53% there was no evaluation plan of the continuity of learning indicated and then at 38% FERPA and equitable access issues just needed to be clarified. Now, just to be clear, a lot of this as soon as feedback was provided it clearly was an issue of folks not knowing how to speak to it and there were certainly some situations where it was hard to access linked documents. And so it was just a matter of downloading and resubmitting the lowest incidence of return of continuity of learning plans were around communications and around professional learning and the provision of fate. And the reason I just sort of give you those sort of broad statistics is I think it really demonstrated how focused issues and SDs were on ensuring the provision of fate for some of our most vulnerable learners, the fact that they really prioritize learning to families to students within their own systems and that they were already focused on planning for the future and providing professional learning as folks are adjusting to this remote learning environment. I would say that the concerns if I'm reading correctly and I think I would just maybe open it up for questions but if the concern is around remote learning with a priority on online or digital learning. I just want to just point out that we have we really instituted early on this effort to partner with PBS to provide alternate means by which we can not only serve our youngest learners pre K to five, but also those households that we know do have, they either have low or no internet access. And after this testimony, I'm meeting with vpr to continue to extend pathways into families homes to ensure that we can design learning opportunities and support educators and systems as they're trying to reach every learner in the state. I'll pause there and just say maybe the rest of the time might be best served by answering questions. Let me just ask about that last point. I think that's very innovative. Can you just give us a flavor of what that will possibly look like the PBS VPR pathways. Well, make sure to send along to to genie the link to our continuity of learning webpage that we developed. That's where the landing page for our PBS and our Vermont virtual learning consortium links live. The internal sprint team at the agency that meets twice a week with the PBS team where we design learning activities and additional support for educators where we get about a week's advanced notice of programming. And it is pre K to 12. There's a set schedule that we are able to pre release to educators with those support documents activities, and all of the material all of the media and programming is actually aligned to standards. We were able to sort of adopt what the Los Angeles Unified Union School District, they actually own a PBS channel that's not how we roll in Vermont but it's LA, understandably, but we actually were able to adopt a lot of their programming so that we could focus our efforts on those additional support documents for not only for educators by the way but also for parents. We're hoping that we could model something similar probably not at such a large scale because we have three channels now in the state running this programming but we're hoping to do something similar for radio. That sounds fantastic committee questions for either Dr. Boucher or just to careless Andrew. Maybe we'll hear this from other witnesses so we can maybe just hear from them but I guess my, my concern is that I think we what they've done is is good work to try to do this continuation of the learning of the content that was going to be made this semester. I just wonder if there's a valuation kind of as we go, if the kind of cost in stress and mental anguish from from the people I'm talking to is worth the benefit like that kind of gets to the efficacy of this like, I think to your dear doing like you like again and given the timeframe of the pandemic and everything. I have no complaints there. I just want to see if if there's thinking at all from the agency about is this the best thing for everybody or is there, is there a time where we, where we evaluate as we're going and say okay for the last bit we're not going to we're going to try to back up on the academics and focus on something else or just wanted to know if there was any of that kind of evaluation going on. So I can take the first whack at that and then I'll let Jess add anything if she'd like to. So, first I would actually note and make sure that the committee is aware of that the federal government is requiring us to engage in a system of continuity of learning that has come directly from us DOE. If we don't, if we, if we chose to, you know, just kind of say we're not really going to do any continuity of learning and I'm not sure that's what you're saying, we would actually jeopardize our federal dollars, and there have been significant efforts through the CCS I said, which is to help continue to work because of requirements from the federal government. And I think those are well intentioned because I think the deepest fear we all have is that you know we know that there's already a summer melt that happens with regular school. If we back everything off, we're only going to be in a much deeper rut in terms of our gaps that we usually face. We usually find having said that, as I said earlier again before testimony formally took place. I think we are certainly an empathetic mindset, and we all need to be understanding and aware of the load that we're requiring of both students and families. And so I think we have tried our best to actually provide guidance that would following what other states are doing and what best practice suggests. If followed would make it reasonable, at least somewhat reasonable that students could still learn whether that's being followed to a T at the local level is, you know, something I think that we can talk about and that that's up for debate. I do think as a state as a state agency and as a state, we have an obligation to to not allow a complete backslide in terms of learning. I think we'd be a different position if we were talking only about one month left of a school year versus the entire last third of a school year which is is really when you think about it what what we're talking about, all told. Those are the pieces I think I would say just not sure you would want to jump in on anything, maybe some of the guidance for instance that might help address Senator Perchlich concerns. Sure yeah and I think it is actually a really a legitimate question to ask and I would say that the first thing that we're we're trying to reinforce, but understanding that the authority is going to sort of live at the local level is that less absolutely is more that this is not to replicate the school day within the boundaries of the school building and just move it online. I think all research, all guidance scans of other state education agency task force and documentation, all indicates that that's not what's to happen and and we actually the MIT just came out with a report in which some of our work is also within that we are completely in line with supporting locals and thinking about how do you maintain continue learning new learning, while also understanding that it's not going to be status quo what we were doing before. So things such as requiring and this was part of the continuity of learning plan template is what are those critical proficiencies to keep students engaged to keep them learning to provide a space and particularly I you know I'm thinking about our rising seniors and our graduating seniors and that I'm not sure if it's okay to just sort of say no more school, while also understanding the stressors. I think, as far as sort of evaluating the effectiveness one of the really great things and good fortune for the agency is that we've been able to continue to partner with our colleagues, many of whom are on the call. You know, in talking with Don and talking with Mike and looking at a lot of the work that the Tarrant Institute has put out to sort of hear back what are those needs we know that there are educators who are feeling at breaking point because they are, essentially attempting to do two to three jobs and we know that that is not realistic and so how can we continue to refine the guidance that we put out. As we know that when, when folks are traumatized when folks are stressed, even the intent of what's put out can be confused or misunderstood and so it's important for us to continue to think about how we can communicate guidance in ways that people who are under significant stress and systems that are under stress can hear what it is that we're trying to say and that we can hear from them about what they need. And then I think finally, when I had shared some of the numbers about why plans may have been asked for refinement that 53% in which there wasn't adequate information about evaluation plan. What is a non negotiable within that continuity of learning planning tool is to require systems to monitor and evaluate implementation of continuity learning. And that's where that communication about hearing back from parents about what they might be experiencing hearing back from teachers about the load and demand and stress that they may be under hearing back from students about what they need. And then we take it into the calculus and that folks should see these not a static documents but as living documents that are refined over time. Particularly because we know that everything that we're doing now is preparing us for an eventual reopening and reentry, and that that is probably where the most intense work is going to happen and you want to make sure that we are not asking to sustain and maintain a pace that is completely unrealistic and you know I think that Don has shared some really relevant and important information about the demands that that educators are under but I think the same thing is happening with our systems with our building leaders and with our central office leaders. Okay, thank you. Cory. One question that's come up from a handful of my constituents and I just kind of really need a response here but want to get on the radar with this discussion is. Some parents were saying, and it makes sense at some level that we should be developing a plan so going forward. We shouldn't even be seeing snow days in Vermont in the sense that if we should start to develop a plan where we have a day canceled in the building and then teachers have a lesson to go right to and count that towards student learning so I think this is all sudden done and makes sense to have a conversation what we learned what was effective and this could be a situation with COVID that goes on for some time while we're still trying to get to herd immunity so. But I think there are opportunities and lessons to be learned here to stop other things that impact education in the state more traditionally. Yeah, I would just respond. Senator parent it's actually an interesting idea and in the states I know that pre COVID they do, they actually preserve snow days as as teaching days because they're they're prepared to send home backpacks, usually with younger grade students that actually have educational materials that can be done at home and so it allows them to actually preserve based on whatever that states rules and regulations are allows them to preserve some flexibility in their overall calendar. The educational benefits to students are of paramount importance with that as well because again. It helps them and often these are not. These are more particularly like I said with younger grades and they're more focused on staying healthy and engaged more sort of games focused on a strong academic component, nonetheless they meet the criteria. So that's a good idea. So, let's take Ruth's question and then we'll move to Don tinny, because we're burning daylight. This is sort of a question and then a comment for the rest of the witnesses because what I'm hearing from my own kids and from my many other kids and parents is this incredible sense of loss that students are feeling all the things that they thought they were going to be doing this year and all of the sort of markers of what it means to be a kindergarten or what it means to be a third grader a fifth grader and eighth grader whatever, and especially for our seniors. I'm just, I'm going to start getting teary as I think about this because this is a common theme in my home with three kids, just all the things that our kids have lost because of this situation, and how, how much sadness there is among our students. And I think that the agency and our school districts have been doing a fantastic job of doing this continuity of education and learning and checking in with families and the teachers I know are very aware of mental health issues and. But I guess just in general this, how do we help our students just overcome the sadness of what they missed. I will take a step at that as well Senator Hardy and you're making me feel quite upset as well because we know that this is one of the one of the most challenging aspects of where we are there's there's grieving to be done. Teachers are also grieving understandably and I hear I hear much from both sides. I think you fit the nail on the head and one of the ways we're actually planning on this is that part of a substantial part of the COVID resources must go towards mental health challenges and thinking about what the new normal looks like, both currently, and then also in the next century because because that will also be another transition that will, it's not like we'll suddenly open school when that happens and sadness and grief will go away like we're really going to have a transformed system. And so we are already, at least from the agency's perspective but I think this is a good question for non agency folks to what we're helping to do is to provide our plan is to provide additional resources and guidance around how to use those federal resources to repurpose funds to address exactly this issue. As we know we already have had a significant challenge in many districts and many LEAs around trauma, and this will only compound the issue there will be more students who will be feeling potentially traumatized and who will need assistance from designated agencies and other personnel in the region. And so it's definitely a salient concern for ours and one of our top concerns, I would say. Okay, great. Let's go to Don Tinney, and don feel free to speak about anything you'd like along these lines but I am wondering if, if you share Dr. Boucher's general sense that things have gone relatively smoothly and if not where the rubs are for any a and teachers. Sure. Thank you for the record I'm Don Tinney high school English teacher from South Hero. I hear my role as president from on any a. And I think that I also want to appreciate Jess and Heather's comments and, and the ability to keep our lines of communication open. It's really important in that that continues. I think there's a, you know, a mixed array of how this has been implemented. And just to immediately respond to Senator Hardy, you're absolutely right. The degree of mourning over the losses is certainly part of our students lives as well as is our educators. One of the things that we're doing ever money is we're setting up, we have a phone call on Wednesday with Dave Melnick of NFI, and we'll be providing some webinars directed to social emotional learning and trauma sensitive practices so we definitely see that as is a real need. But here, you know, I just, you know, we, we can't say enough about our educators. Our board of directors that could not be any prouder of the Herculean efforts that they have demonstrated in, in all kinds of ways, doing whatever is necessary to maintain a sense of normalcy for students and their families, as well as preparing, you know, delivering meals to teaching classes in a whole new way. They really have met the challenges. I think in part what has happened in this time is that they have really demonstrated how valuable the services that our public schools provide happen to be. I'm from two practitioners who are currently in the field so I'll defer to them to provide specific details and simply offer a few general observations. I think one of the things that we're learning and this is the initial reason for this is that distance learning is much more complicated and much more challenging and almost anyone could have predicted. It looks nothing like the commercials for the University of Phoenix or Southern New Hampshire University. And we are we're hearing about the varying degrees of success with the implementation of the continuity of learning plans processes going most smoothly in districts where there has been a high degree of collaboration amongst administrators curriculum directors teachers and support staff in districts that did not heed the governor's call for all parties to work together in his March 27 press conference and try to implement plans not created collaboratively. The process has not gone all that smoothly in talking with my counterparts across the nation I know that distance learning has presented similar challenges and every state. This is a generalization I think it is an accurate observations to say that many of our plans are overly ambitious with regard to academic expectations with the best of intentions and an abundance of goodwill. Our educators are simply trying to do too much within the confines of distance learning. I noted that Ed surge which is a new service are owned by the International Society of Technology and education recently posted an article about the approach China took and implementing distance learning. In February their Ministry of Education prohibited educators from introducing new material until the start of the next semester. I also pointed out that paying close attention to the social emotional needs of students, teachers and families is critical to building an environment that supports learning. While no one is proposing an abandonment of academic standards. I do think we need to revise some of our plans to make sure the delivery of instruction is sustainable over time. As we move forward making adjustments and revisions to the continuity of learning plans at the local level, we need to make sure that our members are at the table to provide feedback and ideas in the process. As I mentioned in previous testimony to your committee, the federal every student succeeds acts act requires that educators be involved with the development of school improvement plans. So I maintain that we should follow the spirit of that law and making sure that educators have their voices heard in this process and has already addressed that issue and I greatly appreciate that. Our management collaboration will be crucial as we have we move forward in planning for the reentry of students to our school buildings. One of one of their out of their commitment to their students our members are working harder than ever implementing distance learning, while keeping student health and safety at their as their top priority. The daily schedules during the regular school year provide our students and educators with an assuring routine. They also provide boundaries around the time everyone invests in teaching and learning. I've included in the testimony that's been posted a narrative from one of my colleagues I've known for over 20 years, which explains how it's becoming a 24 seven responsibility. And I won't read that now but it's something you could refer to, we have to get away from this 24 seven mentality that is, you know, created by the online world, right. But first and foremost, our educators want to maintain the human connection with their students. They want to do the best they can to deliver academic instruction it's the human side of this experience that Senator Hardy addressed is incredibly important. A great source of stress and anxiety for our teachers is when they can't connect with their students, students who lack internet access are at a distinct disadvantage in today's world. The gap that we provide between children of poverty and children of privilege is only one glaring example of the socioeconomic disparities that have been accentuated by this pandemic. Now is the time for all of us to reflect upon our entire system and uncover the blind spots of privilege and poverty in our schools. Not to the fact that we have students who qualify for free and reduce meals in our schools, but have we really examined the impact of poverty on the lives of our students. Have we understood the perspective of our students and their families who live in poverty. When we return to our classrooms. How will we counteract the beliefs amongst our students and poverty that they are inferior to their wealthier peers. The stakes for society are high and we must face the historic and contemporary disparities in power privilege and access, which have been presented to us in very concrete ways in the last month. The stress and the socioeconomic disparity is only one of many factors we need to be considering as we plan for the reopening of our classrooms. Educators administrators families and community members need to gather together to begin thinking about how we will most effectively meet the needs of our students in the next few months and years. How do we administer high quality formative assessments to determine what types of compensatory education is needed. How do we make sure that every school is a trauma sensitive school and as a necessary counseling services in place. We can't allow ourselves to be so overwhelmed by immediate demands that we ignore the required planning for what's next. We have much work to do. Thank you. John, would you like to have your two teachers. Present and then we'll ask questions of the three of you. Absolutely. They know a whole lot more than I do. And, and in any order you like. That's up to you, chairman. Well, I have Mike McRae. Well, Mike's not one of mine. Oh, I'm sorry. No, I have, I would be happy to have him come back into the fold, but I have Michael Campbell, Michael Campbell. Mike, would you like to go. Yes, sure. I have prepared remarks. And I want to be. I want to be cautious of your time if this is a two to three meeting. My remarks are about I've read them three times or six minutes. I don't want to. That's fine. We are actually running till 330. Okay. I just want to be respectful of that. Okay. Thank you. My name is Mike Campbell. I first like to thank Senator Baruth and Senator Perchak for offering us this opportunity and a special shout out of course to Senator parent. He's our region's representative. Since 1999, I've been a social studies teacher at Ballistry Academy in St. Albans, and I've been a contributing member of the virtual high school community since 2012. As part of my full teaching load, I facilitate VHS honor psychology course and also would be just sociology course. In exchange, this brings 25 BFA student seats for nearly 200 courses at VHS. I continued with their professional development program and I've completed a certificate of online education through Plymouth State University. I've then been asked to teach to VHS graduate PD courses and I currently help facilitate a graduate level. OTM online teaching methodology for new VHS teachers from all over the globe. Additional VHS positions that I hold are as faculty advisor where new VHS teachers get support in the first online semester. And finally, I've fulfilled the two year position as VHS advisory board member. My BFA classroom teaching methodology is a blended model where I facilitate a hybrid between traditional practices and online practices. Therefore, I fully support online education. You might expect me to follow with a long list of why the response to COVID-19 closure has been a boon. Certainly, there are some empowering success stories, but I would also like to sound in a caution in multiple areas. I fully recognize the emergency nature of the situation and I celebrate all the successes that are achieved. There is no desire nor intent to point a finger, blame it any part of this response. I think we're here for the express purpose to share what is actually happening across the state. My points come from my experience that I've shared, as well as my observation of my colleagues and my students responses. So first to list is some positives. Students are exposed to a new style of learning that they may never be explored out of the situation. Second, students learn to be self-motivated, to take ownership of their learning and practice time management skills. Great. Students are able to create meaningful and creative connections to curriculum when given these online resources and asked to construct various learning products. And finally, this is an excellent opportunity to explore flexible pathway models. However, here are some drawbacks and concerns. This method of learning does not fit all student learning styles. It can actually frustrate learning, which creates additional anxiety during a very anxious time and during an already established epidemic of anxiety. Second, this is inherently unequal where students don't have equal technology access or even online skill sets to learn effectively. Even in families with technological access, there may be more need to use the home computers by all the family than what continuous learning requires. Students can more easily, additionally, students can more easily fall through the cracks as they opt out, unlike a classroom environment. Next, the education system can't simply flip classroom instruction to an online format. Teachers require PD training to properly set up, to facilitate, and to assess online curriculum. Then there is mandated reporting. It must be considered as we are doing some excellent video meeting formats. We are reaching into their personal spaces and privacy issues abound. Nothing can be more vital going to further. Nothing can replace the vital teacher in contact that's critical for achievement. In my opinion, online learning is developmentally inappropriate for younger students. In some districts, educators have not had the leadership role in the creation of the continuous learning plans. And just as we should listen to our medical experts for advice on COVID-19 policy, we must also listen to our teachers in that area of expertise as well. So those are my concerns. Statewide continuous learning plan efforts have been well intentioned with using some of the best practices that I mentioned above. Yet in trying to be as simple as possible, they have still resulted in creating undue anxiety for students, parents, and teachers. FAA has largely switched to the Google classroom, yet teachers still offered over two pages of their own best online programs and resources. Students then must learn to navigate a myriad of excellent online quiz systems and resources where each of these takes time to sign up for and master. You all know that even simple technology can be inconsistent, especially when it's new. Or you have spotting connectivity, or you're simply not thinking straight due to the anxiety of the world. Unfortunately, I have too many examples of student breakdowns and current confusion list here today. Students must also, we must always keep them as the primary focus of our work. And the teachers that they rely so heavily upon come to this continual learning phase with some significant issues as well. Teachers are spending countless hours to learn new online programs, facilitate usage for struggling students, assess only a partial percentage of the students. Some students simply aren't engaged and or give up due to confusion or the lack of access. Teachers simultaneously have their own children to help educate and also provide care for during this time. As all this points to increased anxiety, potential burnout, and diminished learning results. So what to do? Recognize that in short term, we may ask you too much from the whole system and inadvertently causing some damage to social and emotional health. And even to learning as educators, students and parents are cooperatively bending over backwards to try and make it work. Reflect upon the 1918 Spanish fluid epidemic where it came three distinct waves. We have some time to get a PD to our teachers for the fall. We have some time to more deeply, deeply simplify and coordinate basic district staff strategies with even practices with our students in the phone. Prioritize the next bullet is prioritize statement internet access statewide internet access as we struggle with economic uncertainty because we owe it to our students in terms of equity. Once economy boomed with full electric asset access, then integration. I 89 of 99 and I 91 it also boomed, and it will also boom with full broadband access. And finally, make sure the district by district educators voices not only present meets the planning of continuous learning plans that students receive. And I thank you for your attention my testimony. And as always, I'm always open for answering questions and now or at a later date. Thank you. Great. Stephanie Miller. Oh, thank you very much for the invitation. My name is Stephanie Miller I teach fifth grade at Malin space school this is my 21st year of teaching. I'm actually also a resident of Georgia so Georgia is really well represented here apparently. I have just just you know I also have a freshman and a senior in high school so I get, I get Senator Hardy senior issues. So what I first wanted to point out is what we're doing right now is not school. If anything that I have learned through this experience is we are not providing for students, what we can provide for them in the building and I have learned as a fifth grade that it is not possible. The school building the human interaction the connection. The first thing we do as a teacher is we teach them that they are safe that they are built that they belong. We feed them will teach, you know we close them, we give them everything that they need to feel safe. And that was ripped away from them in March. And so, for a good chunk of my students, they're looking for me to just sort of hang out with them they do my assignments. I will be honest at learning how to use Google classroom was a huge undertaking 12 hour days, figuring out how to teach the kids figuring out how to use it myself, no best practice whatever say to use this system and learn it and use it with kids without thinking about it first. But what it's really shown me is the equity issue. There is a huge divide and what my kids are available to access right now. And that divide is not just in what they have for technology or internet. It's what they are emotionally able to access. They have parents who have been laid off. They have parents who are in healthcare and are gone all day. And I hear that we need to assess our, our students. I really think we're assessing their privilege. We're not assessing whether or not they learned my math lesson on decimals. We're assessing whether or not they had an adult at home who understood who made a space for them to work gave them quiet, offered them quiet if I wasn't available. I will say I usually have pretty good boundaries between my work world and my home world. Those are all off the table. To the point that my son said to me one night, are you going to keep answering their emails or can I have some time now to because he needed help. And that really is our reality that we're trying so hard to be there for them when they are available to work that we have spent too much time in front of a computer screen. Many of my colleagues are talking about the physical aspects, our eyeballs are bleeding. We don't spend the day stationary so this has been really difficult for us. And difficult for the kids. They want to be with their friends. They are all mourning the loss. I really do look at the fact that I am right now teaching 23 children in trauma. The way you teach children in trauma is very different than how you teach children when they are available and ready to learn the amount that you can teach them is different. And the expectation of being assessed is really hard kids are getting negative feedback about their availability during a time when they're just not emotionally able to be there. There's a large group of them that are mourning the loss of everything that made them feel connected that made them feel successful, whether it was the sports team, whether it was the final concert of the year, whether it was, you know, getting to play I know the grand festival was canceled. Those are things that kids do that they feel successful in that translate to them being able to do math to to access their reading and we don't have any of that right now. And as teachers are number one goal right now is to help kids still feel connected so that they can feel safe, but what we're doing right now it's not school and if this solidified anything for me. It's all the way up through you know fifth to eighth grade, it will never be appropriate for us to be doing online learning kids need teachers, their parents don't have that access to the knowledge, and this is highlighted this, you know you hear about oh I didn't learn math that way. They're living with their grandparents and they're really saying I didn't learn math that way. And it has shown me the divide, the divide is bigger. What I also know is that my teachers and I are talking about what we need to do in the fall what we need to do when we come back. We know that it's it's going to be different we know we're going to have to take and teach a little bit of what was before, and move those kids forward. We're going to have to try to figure out a way eventually to get a year and, you know, a little bit and of extra work in one year to catch them up over time and that's going to take in some cases two to three years. But this is definitely showed the divide. It is, we are right now we are assessing privilege. We are not assessing what children know. I, I appreciate the bluntness of that, because it's, it's something we should all take away we've, you know, all of us run for a reelection every two years. I can't remember reelection campaign going back 20 years that didn't talk about the need to wire up the state with broadband. And we have not done it not done it not done it. I think this is finally a moment where we might be able to complete that task, given that we have the money coming from the federal government that can be applied to it. And in the same way that we did following the crash in 2008. So, questions for Don Tenney or either of the two professionals that just offered their insights, Senator Ingram. Yeah, I think Don touched on this but I was wondering if you have been aware of either other states or Don actually mentioned other countries where you felt like they were, you know, they had struck that right balance between you know what what can be done remotely and what needs to be left, you know, for the time when we're able to be in person again. And you may say, what's a good model for us. Right, I think in, you know, we, I meet once a week with all the other state presidents and and we're all taken at one day at a time I don't think anybody has found the, the answer and and Deputy Secretary Bichet mentioned you know the the federal government has this doesn't is not going to be satisfied with maintenance of learning, which puts us in a rough spot and I, you know, Stephanie spoke to this eloquently as Mike but the idea that kids can independently essentially independently acquire new new materials, which cover new material is, I think it's just false because the need for that teacher to be with students shoulder to shoulder. I think to answer your question now I don't have, I don't have examples of words done well, and I certainly would not want to go to the Chinese model of the authoritarian, thou, you know, thou are prohibited. My personal opinion is that we should be focused on the joy of learning and fundamental literacy skills that are not, you know, terribly elaborate in terms of requirements of all kinds of different materials, etc. And I'll defer to Mike and Stephanie. Okay. Not seeing any, any hand. Other questions. Okay, then, why don't we move to Mike McCraith. Thanks everybody for having me and thanks everyone for those comments and resonates at all resonates for me. Thanks, Senator Pertrick, I think that you put this together and gave us a chance to connect with the with all of you and just really grateful to all of my fellow Vermonters for everything that you're doing, whether it's, you know, figuring out how to hold Senate Ed committees or, you know, teach remotely and every other problem solving I'm just really proud of our state. Nothing's perfect but I've seen a lot of people rise to the occasion includes including you folks so thank you. I'm going to start off by saying that I'm going to echo a fair bit of what you've already heard and I'll try to move into some new territory but we're not doing continuity of learning we're doing content of learning in crisis and those are two very different things and I think that that's important to just frame everything because it's not as if you know a student said you know what I think I'm going to try a class online, which we have students to that all the time. And they, you know, checked out a computer from the library or they had one at home or something and they're going to, you know, be connected to the flexible pathways teachers that's overseeing online work and they're going to take one class online that's that's not what we're doing. So even the best practices as far as, you know, distance that go. I didn't say for the record my name is Mike McGrath I work for as the assistant executive director for the Vermont principal association. I've worked in Franklin County as a school counselor middle school principal and most recently as a high school principal in Montpelier. So, the best practices for distance ed really don't apply. In this case we're in unprecedented territory not only in Vermont but all over the country and all over the world. There's no one has done this before, even in times when we've been away from school for long periods of time. We didn't have the tools that we have now to be able to hold this kind of meeting right now so that we're in totally uncharted territory. And I think it's important to recognize that, you know, things like our free and reduced lunch rates are probably way up in many places and we just don't know that we also have and this was mentioned. You know, sometimes students of means students of privilege that we might paper might show up as students of privilege as far as economic diversity goes are not because their parents might be really busy. Maybe they're working in the hospital, maybe their nurses, maybe, you know, they're totally occupied as essential staff. So kids that maybe normally we think of it as being privileged are not. So, you know, there's all kinds of nuance in the challenges that we're facing. I want to highlight something that the agency with support from the VPA and VSA and maybe the Vermont NEA, Donald tell me otherwise, if not, got some feedback on the initial cover page for the continuity of learning. They put out a draft to their credit. They have been working around the clock. I've been in contact with just a fair bit and Heather, and I know Jay, our executive director has been in touch with Dan and they have really, really worked very hard and we're very grateful. And one of their initial drafts of the continuity learning plan was useful and also, you know, maybe missing some of the heart that you've heard a fair bit about today. And with some feedback, they redraft the cover letter and listed priorities. And that's not three priorities, though they are not officially ranked but they were in this order where health and safety, equity, and relationships. And that really resonated with my constituents at the VPA. They felt like that those were the things that needed to be prioritized. And one of an assistant principal in Fairhaven, Jen Poquette, sent me an email and said, you know what, Mike, it's really relationships, because you can't really do equity or health and safety without it. If the relationships aren't at the center of what you're doing, you're not going to be able to connect to the kids that you're worried about for health and safety and equity. And I think that that's really something that has risen to the surface is just how crucial, how essential relationships are for all of us as we go into isolation that we are all connected. And that schools drive relationships not only for the school community, but, you know, in large, in a large way for many communities in whole, for celebrations, for getting through hard things together, and for helping raise our young people to be healthy contributing members of society. I just want to reemphasize that importance that those are our official priorities from the agency of education, and we don't want to forget that we want to continue to circle back to that and make sure that our other guidance and our other actions match with those things. So, the other thing that I want to say is that around access, and we know that some kids don't have access, and some teachers don't have access. And, you know, Senator Bruce you mentioned, like that we've been talking for 20 years about broadband, we have to do it now, we have to. It's so important for economy, and I think that, you know, it's almost like a right in the modern world. So, I know that the USDA has some kind of grant available and I think Vermont is a really good candidate for that I hope that you know we're doing some kind of coordinated effort to make sure that we have an application in. We're not to mention the stimulus money that might be connected to being able to bury some fiber optic cable, but but let's do it. If we're going to people are going to realize how easily you can work from home, if you do have good connection, and we're getting why not, you know, say, we're this beautiful or this beautiful state and you can live in beautiful Vermont, and it won't be worth for a company in California or otherwise because you're going to have access. So there's not only that for our economy, but for our students. It's like, like I said, it's a dead stop for kids that don't have broadband or have inconsistent access. And even folks that do have access, we're trying to put everybody online at once. So, you know, I've got all kinds of principles that were like, Well, I can't make that meeting because, you know, my daughter has geometry and we both can't be on there at the same time. I think that that is is a reality for for both kids and adults. And I really appreciate what Jess shared and has been working really hard at with PBS and now vpr to try to find other ways for kids to connect and we've got schools all over the state doing you know, sending home packets, including in my house, I've got a kindergartner here and the packet that's come from Miss Margo has been awesome and he loves to do it. But, you know, it's different, depending on the grade level, and it is certainly not school. So, the other thing I want to say is just underline these, the traumatic impact. Not only is everybody sort of, you know, discombobulated about their own personal safety and their own place in life and we've got all kinds of people losing jobs and and the stress that go up for the adults. But, you know, even just in in our directive stay home stay safe, which I much prefer to like lockdown or something like that. There's implicit bias there. And I know there's no harm intended but the idea of staying home implies that you have a home. And staying safe is the idea that your home is safe. And that's not just not true for many of, for many of our Vermonters and many of our most vulnerable Vermonters who are young folks. And so the idea of staying home in a difficult situation with increased stress and limited access to resources and travel is it means that our, our most at risk students. The issue has been exasperated. And we really won't even know what we're dealing with until we return to school. And lately I've heard many, many administrators talking about what it will mean to come back. And if there is a way to really just focus on those relationships in that community building in the first couple of weeks, or I mean, at a minimum the first week right and just being prepared to have social workers at the ready for everyone to be both mentally and having a specific plan in place where you can celebrate those relationships. You can celebrate being back and do all kinds of TA activities and concentrate on those relationships and see how kids are doing and what they need. It's going to be a start, a return to in-person school like never before. And the more that we can be prepared for that, the better. Okay, I should probably stop you there, Mike. Yeah, I mean, you want me to go for another hour or two, no problem. If we had time, I would be happy to. Thank you very much. I do want to make sure we get to our other two witnesses. So let's move to John Downs from the Tarrant Institute. Thoughts on any of these topics, John. Thank you. And I do have a bit to say, but let me yield to my colleague James will be presenting the same testimony. Oh, good. Well, I think you're still muted James. Good afternoon, chair, and thank you for inviting me and John to discuss more of a long term issue, which is not only what we're doing right now in time of crisis. What will, what will we do when we return in the fall, whether it's remote, or whether it's face to face. And John is going to read our statement that we put together to kind of respond to it and we're both willing to go ahead and answer any questions that you may have. I'm Nathan Nagel. I am a professor at St. Michael's College. I'm also the co director of the middle grades Institute which is a professional development organization that works with upper elementary middle school and high school teachers. This summer at our middle grades Institute we're going to be online, and we're going to be working with teachers on developing plans for the first eight weeks of school that will address the issues either remotely or face to face around trauma around what we should be doing in teaching in schools for our communities, and for our families and for our teachers. So I'll let John read our statement and introduce himself. Thank you James and thank you to the committee. My name is John Downs and I'm the director of the Tarrant Institute for Innovative Education at the College of Education and Social Services at the University of Vermont. In the last 13 years or so we've been helping schools develop more engaging and meaningful learning opportunities for students. And we've done a fair bit when it when it comes to technology integration including much of the one to one integration work that was such a big part of our lives, five or so years ago. James said we're going to take a somewhat longer view of this issue, longer at least than the kind of rest of year continuity of learning plans that folks have discussed but the idea is certainly have implications for what can happen over the next few months. Until mass immunization educates our bodies on how to live with the virus our families and communities and societies are living and learning through this pandemic. And youth are learning through it as well. They will never forget this time a time when for months, they couldn't gather to play with their friends. When they forgot what it was like to visit their grandparents or cousins. When their baseball softball softball and soccer seasons their dances and proms their worship services and holiday gatherings their summer road trips and day camps were all canceled. And a third or more of adults and their families and communities lost their jobs, and those who had their jobs either were lucky enough to stay at home, or risk their lives as essential workers. The pandemic will inform who our children are, what they believe about families society, democracy and the role of schools. Children will learn all this not by watching, not just by watching the adults, but also through the roles they play in addressing the challenges they and their communities will face. We have a choice of designing the response to the pandemic that allows our educational system to continue with the status quo or move in a direction that prioritizes community and the common good. For the former, it would look like doing school remotely focused on grades completing assignments and achieving narrowly construed from standardized test scores. For the latter education would instead focus on their worries and needs, their loved ones their relationships, and the questions and concerns they have about their community, their futures in the world in an equitable and sustainable way. Fortunately, our state's education system already prioritizes learning in and with the community. For decades Vermont has developed policies that have focused on some of these key issues even before Vermont education was faced with COVID. In 1968, the Vermont Design for Education offered 17 statements focused on student centered learning that school districts could implement. In 2002 high schools on the move we met recommended, and I quote schools begin by adapting existing programs and aiming their action plans toward the 12 principles, and that high schools include entire communities and changing the secondary school experience by engaging families teachers human service agencies businesses colleges elementary middle schools in their individual student pursuits, their personal aspirations and meet high standards a high school can help develop opportunities for learning throughout the community and quote. And in 2013 act 77 the flexible pathways initiative set in most set in motion three pillars of personalized learning, the personalized learning plans flexible pathways in and out of school and proficiency based assessment. This vision of community focused learning alive aligns with significant and common challenges for months communities now face. Most immediately for instance are the significant strains on our health systems, food systems broadband connectivity and transportation infrastructures, and most important with regard to school systems, the basic well being of our children. The strains in these systems are extended both in terms of how the services are provided but also in the many jobs they create, many of which are now at risk. Addressing the systems challenges of our communities has long been a focus of educators at the forefront of personalized learning even before act 77. When teachers take on community challenges, they see deeply engaged students in focused coherent and collaborative learning. They see students and community partners embrace the converging interests and passions of youth and adults of schools and their communities. Students witness the power of tapping assets and expertise across even the most distressed communities. They realize the authentic real world application of critical knowledge and transferable skills from across the disciplines, and they see parents community members school boards and others odd by what young people care about and are able to accomplish in the world. The green team at Main Street Middle School believes that students of the 21st century must know and understand how issues related to climate change and sustainability will impact their economies, social, political and geographical futures. They form teams to investigate sustainability issues and collaborate with community based organizations that partner with them. Examples include the mainstream middle school trash audit, in which students worked with Chittin and Solid Waste District to understand what and how much trash the school was creating, and then developed a recycling plan to reduce trash at the school. Middle school students at Orleans Elementary School work with Shelburne Farms cultivating pathways for sustainability program to learn about the UN global goals for sustainability. They use those goals to think about issues that they can address in Orleans and in the surrounding area. They decided their community most needed to seek the goals of no poverty and zero hunger. In response, students with community members planned a community dinner and created a school store to sell bake sale items. The money from both events was then donated to community organizations to fight poverty and hunger in the Northeast Kingdom. The iLab at Winooski High School is a technology rich space in which students have the opportunity to explore their own areas of interest, work with community experts and take ownership of their learning. Students enroll in the iLab, just like any other course in middle or high school, but the curriculum is student directed and project based for students interested in investigating authentic real world issues important to them. Projects include such topics as participating in local peace and justice center, performing a Buddha ceremony for family and friends and creating a wellness guide for new for new American women. These are just several of many examples from over the years and across the state. Vermont is also rich with community partners, the Community Engagement Lab, Vermont Folklife Center, Farm to School, Shellman Farms, VEEP, and many other organizations offer ready to use curriculum that engage teachers and students in community based learning. Other organizations, including Up for Learning, Big Picture, Middle Grades Collaborative and the Tarrant Institute, specialize in helping educators, youth and adults work effectively together to engage in meaningful learning. All of these examples and resources provide opportunities for engaging focused and coherent learning. They prioritize the transferable skills, the most critical learning outcomes for our students future success. They generate vivid and authentic evidence of growth that community members can readily appreciate and are the purpose of personalized learning plans and proficiency based assessment. And the folks involved in this work are already making the transition to the remote context we're living in with now and will likely experience into the future. A core curriculum focused on core community needs is more important now than ever. Teachers and families cannot sustain doing school remotely. The additional school curriculum is untenable and inequitable under any circumstances. Pursued remotely it will compound inequality to a degree that we've never experienced before. School and educational leaders need schools that more directly address community challenges, if they expect taxpayers to pass budgets under such dire economic circumstances. Community members and organizations have much needed expertise and capacity to engage with schools. Yet they are key to that that capacity is key to expanding students connections with caring adults with mentors to see them through this challenging time and partners who model for them what professional and civic participation looks like under the most challenging of circumstances. And state leadership needs education to reduce inequality, promote more prosperous life outcomes for its youth and contribute to long term economic and social stability. State and local leadership need ways to engage and coordinate all available resources to address the challenges of the crises and public health, the economy and community. At his news conference yesterday Governor Scott wondered aloud what it would look like if we seized upon this moment to invent schools we really need. Over the last several weeks schools and districts have wondered as well as they completed their continuity of learning plans. Yet for most of us this last month has been about trauma and triage. As the depth of the crisis sinks in, and its horizon extends farther into the future. We transition to mapping the longer term. The cracks in our society in general, and in our education system in particular are revealed more clearly than ever. As pressure on our systems and our families, educators, neighbors and leaders is forcing us to focus on what's most important. Focusing on what's best for our children focuses us on critical opportunities to build more resilient communities. We can be, we can begin that work now by nurturing community schools focused on a core curriculum with core community needs. Thank you for the time and I welcome your questions. A question James are you also planning to speak. No, I'm not. Okay, joint statement. Understood. Okay, and our timing is pretty good we have just two minutes left any questions for James Nagel or john downs. Thank you. Thank you. The written report. So we have it for our records with any she should put it on the website. That would be great. We'd be happy to offer that. Senator perch. Yeah, I just want to make sure that everybody that gave testimony could, if they had it written out to send to send it and just thank all the different witnesses for participating if we had more time, we could have a longer discussion, but. Okay, so thank you. Yeah, I think if you had to sum up the thematic that I've heard in a number of the witnesses testimony today. It's that the this has caused us to foreground the human. It's kind of mechanical delivery system. Obviously, you've dropped off the human interface and the human interaction communal and one on one, and I hear everybody saying that if we move forward with any version of this. That has to be at the forefront of our thinking and community as john downs pointed out as well. Thanks so much to the witnesses. You've given us a lot to think about. And committee. I had hoped we could have little discussion at the end of this session but we've run out of time so I've asked Ruth if she minds if we move that discussion to the end of Thursday session. So I'm going to stay on the line now with genie, and we'll put together an agenda for Thursday that has 173 walkthrough and discussion, potential vote, and then maybe 15 minutes to a half an hour for committee discussion about where we will go in the following week or two. Anything from anybody before we wrap. Okay, thanks so much. I'll see you all soon. And genie if you can just hang on the line will finish this schedule. Okay. Thank you.