 Welcome to the House Education Committee. This morning we have Secretary French who will be addressing us on some very important items and will be joined later by our chair representative Webb and hopefully representative Conlon will be joining us as well. So Secretary French, we have a couple of questions for you that people have a great interest in. One of them is if you can address the literacy strategy under Act 173. That would be the first item and second would be a response to the anticipated literacy laws. And third we certainly are very interested in school reopening. We're going to proceed and how have we proceeded with that to this date. So you have the floor Secretary. Yeah good morning it's good to see you all hope you're all doing well. The yeah certainly take the issues almost I guess starting with the last one first the reopening has been the focus of our work greater than literacy and other aspects of previous reforms including Act 173. So I think you're aware we issued joint guidance last week with the Department of Health on essentially the the public health guidance that would inform reopening of schools and we see that guidance as being more or less the cornerstone of the guidance that will inform how we reopen schools in the fall. The items we're working on around that firstly the one issue that's emerged right off is the issue of what we're calling hybrid instruction the ability to offer a district to offer simultaneously in-person instruction and remote learning so we're investigating our ability to provide guidance on hybrid instruction. We think on the one hand it would be very useful to have in our toolkit in terms of navigating what no doubt will be a very dynamic situation in the fall. On the other hand we're concerned about attendance issues and some of the regulatory aspects of compulsory education so we're we are reviewing that and I expect to you know engage with our stakeholder groups on that very very shortly to examine to what extent we might want to provide that. Another aspect of sort of related note is the issue I think of decision making because we have as you know a sort of decentralized school system to a certain extent with local control at the district level. I think the guidance I would argue is exceedingly well done in terms of striking a balance between what what are requirements from a public health perspective and what are recommendations but I think we need to get more clear in our partnership with school districts about what you know what role school boards in particular are going to play in some of the decision making around implementing that guidance so that's something we're working on. I have a meeting I believe next week with the school board associations are talking about some of those issues. I think in terms of implementing the guidance I had a discussion last night with the executive group from Vermont ADA that's been working on their own sort of guidance on reopening schools so we're spending some time talking about getting a group of practitioners together around implementing the guidance so that we can help let's say differentiate the guidance into specific instructional areas for example how would the guidance apply in the context of choral instruction versus CTE programs and so forth so I think there's going to be a need to bring together practitioners around specific areas of implementing the guidance. So anyway I'd be happy to talk about the reopening in greater detail but the point I reason I start with that is that it certainly has been the focus of our work and as much as we previously had 173 on the front burner that's been more or less I think pushed to the back burner however one of the issues related to reopening on one of the I'll say motivators in desiring to reopen has to do with our interest in beginning to assess the impact of COVID-19 on student learning and we acknowledge that really to start to do that we need to reopen schools so that brings into focus much of the work of Act 173 in terms of really getting from a systems perspective at the school districts to talk about a comprehensive educational support team you know how we're going to wrap supports around students particularly if we contemplate this hybrid model how are we going to provision supports for students if they're learning online or or transitioning from online back to in person and so forth and that that kind of movement or fluctuation in the routines of schools will be very noted very disruptive to those students who are more vulnerable to that disruption so I think we have a lot of work to do on understanding and provisioning support systems for students in the fall so I think that's that's where a lot of the work under 173 comes back into focus pretty quickly because we were if you remember our focus from the agency was on sort of reinvigorating a conversation on four I would say essential elements from a school district perspective having a coordinated curriculum having a needs-based professional development system a local assessment plan and then a robust educational support system for students those are four things that are in regulation for quite some time and we think should be reinvigorated under 173 I think in particular in the light of COVID that still remains true and we're going to have to put some effort on particularly energizing the student support systems in the context of the sort of fluctuation if you will from instructional dispositions schools and school districts in terms of literacy reform we think that's still essential element that's why we were interested in introducing language at the beginning of the session around that you know because so much of the research behind 173 points the need to focus on literacy in Vermont our efforts on that right now are really around securing additional federal money there's a special ed leadership grant in particular that we've applied for Vermont routinely receives that grant but we intend to focus those funds on building leadership literacy development among curriculum directors and teachers to basically enact those system reforms that we were interested in doing in 173 I will say on a related note we are also able to launch our partnership with Metametrics this was the Lexile-Quantile conversation you might remember that we did proceed with that there was a joint press release last week I believe with Vermont and Connecticut both announced their partnership with Metametrics so I think you know once again as we go into the fall and begin to assess the impact of COVID on student learning there's going to be need to get some data around that and I think Lexile-Quantile sort of standard that provides a perhaps a useful way for us to start to gather that at the state level since we won't won't have us back online probably till a while but why don't I stop there and be happy to talk more specifically about your questions you might have I think in and some of the conversations that we've had in the past few days and there's been a lot of concern about kids coming back to school and the need for additional instruction perhaps even as we discussed bringing in retired teachers for example to help out in classrooms and try and bring these children students back up to their learning levels is that has that been discussed or is that something that will be discussed perhaps with the with some of your meetings that you're looking forward to here yeah I think it'll come up I mean I was struck last night and I said to the group as much this is the core group of Vermont NEA's leadership team that's been working on internally working on their approach to reopening schools and one of the things that struck home for me in that conversation as a former principal you know is the idea that we need to really reopen schools with the idea of addressing the social emotional supports for students first I mean we say that a lot but I was I was struck by which I had sort of sort of tacitly acknowledged in my own thinking if I were reopening school as a principal based on what's happened I would want to run my building for a couple months just to get the routines going because I think just the fact that the routines themselves are significant in the lives of students that in itself will help students get back on track so the message from a lot of the teachers last night will let's not get right back to standards based testing and going in heavy hot and heavy on assessing impact on student learning right off I think and I agree I think I just sort of assume people would take it sort of a gradual celebratory approach to starting the new school year I think that's sort of how you begin the year in most cases anyway but particularly in this situation I think you know we need to focus on getting the routines back online first and really I'm not really sure and I don't think any educators really are about what the impact to date on students I'm COVID-19 so it's hard to understand what that impact will look like from an emotional and social standpoint until we get them back together in that environment I think there'll be a lot of initial excitement about being back at school I can imagine that but I also think very quickly right behind that is the anxieties the concerns you know the parents without jobs or you know all those kinds of things are going to come home to roost pretty quickly inside the school environment so I think we want to be very cautious about coming in really really strongly right off on day one to think that job one is assessing the impact the academic impact of the emergency because the emergency is not over either so you know I think I think as much as possible we need to communicate I need to communicate that you know goal goal one for the fall is just to reintroduce the structure and routines of schools to families and students that they've counted on for stability in their lives and we need to be able to try to do that as goal number one once we get that established I think yes absolutely we'll start to ascertain the impact of the emergency and begin to think about how to do that assessment or how to deploy additional support services but I would agree there's no doubt going to be the need for additional support services but I think it would be premature to start stacking those up right now and I actually would think it would might even cause greater anxiety to start to go in initially with that disposition I think we need to prepare preparing for it and listening very closely and paying attention a lot to the dynamics in the school buildings but this is unprecedented charted territory and I would just I think I'm going to be messaging messaging more about what's goal one is just to open schools safely and let's try to establish the routines in the lives of students and families and then as we get into that matter weeks perhaps end of September we'll start to understand a little bit about provisioning additional supports but it's also I would qualify that to say it's hard to predict what the public health conditions will be in September as well so you know we we're making these assumptions based on what we know right now and what we see you know what we think we see going forward but you know it's clear what's going on in the south and out west and other part other states that you know we we have to be very vigilant in maintaining a disciplined approach on the public health aspect as well so it's hard it's hard to I guess project and I would just underscore the fact the emergency is not over so we have to be very very aware of that. Thank you representative representative Austin you have a question. Yeah thank you secretary French sounds like a good plan. I'm just wondering because again being a former educator I was certified as a principal but I decided never to become one but I've been thinking about if I was a principal you know what I would be doing now and what I'd be doing now like July 1st I would be talking to the teachers in my school and asking them for the five top kids that they're most worried about in terms of being at risk you know in terms of that they were way you know they had huge gaps you know when COVID hit and I'd be July 1st I'd be seeing if I could use the CRF funds to hire screeners or assessors and I'd be inviting student you know I I think Dr. Geller I mean I feel like she could come up with any kind of screening tool at all I mean if he just asked her but I'd be asking inviting parents of those students to be coming in July 1st or you know July 7th and just you know asking just doing a quick simple screening you know to try to assess where they are in terms of their gaps in learning so in September you know be maybe them coming to school you know hopefully again beginning that little transition back into the building maybe one classroom that's all cleaned up I don't want to go on and on with this but I you know I just I feel like they've lost six months now you know and the most neediest kids you know as we know from um you know we just know that they've probably all kids have probably regressed a bit but those kids are minority students are poverty students have probably already regressed even more so than they may have before COVID and I'm just wondering if throughout the summer if you could just find a way to invite these students identified students into just you don't need to answer now but it's just a thought you have two months now to maybe like look at the most you know at-risk students so that on September at least they're receiving teacher maybe the teacher that didn't know them that well because they're all probably moving on to a classroom could begin to kind of at least focus on them and keep an eye on their learning because I I think the way we know if a student is having any issues emotional or learning is when we instruct them and um how it impacts their learning you know always if it impacts their learnings we would look we'd start asking questions um but great statement great statement yeah so I you know I agree you know we have to be concerned about the emotional and again I've been looking for any data I've I've read articles on the mental health recovery of children in much bigger you know much more like volcanoes or earthquakes or guns you know school shootings um you know and the jury is really out on even what kind of intervention you would use let alone in this situation where uh we have no data um so I you know I just I'm hoping we can try to get back into learning and through that like you said not like be very intense but just through that learning then begin to identify who is not you know progressing and who is and then get them to help you know the support they need but um I just I think what's most important for our children is to get back like you said into a routine working with your teachers a structure and and get back to um you know learning no I'm just saying I guess you know to to do a riff on your theme I would say reopening school itself is an intervention you know so we we right so we look at we assume that you know schools open then as interventions are on top of that at this point the fact of opening the school itself becomes the biggest intervention we can do yeah so um you make some good points about the summer and I'm sure districts will work on that I would say you know once again I use the word district that hopefully uh principals won't be doing that on their own with their teachers that they'd be working as part of a school district system to prioritize those supports across all the schools in a school district so hopefully the central office resources and that sort of triage or prioritization should occur yeah but I also expect that the health guidance once again we see a sort of the cornerstone of a lot of the work to about the happen and that there's only going to be so much option in the room per se and I think no doubt there will be aspects of school districts focused on that and we'll certainly be focused we have an element inside the agency that'll be focused on that sort of the intervention the continuity of learning yeah but a lot of the district focus is going to be just on reopening school once again primary intervention and people are going to be reading that guidance very closely trying to figure out how to enact that on a classroom by classroom basis on a school by school basis school buses school nurse offices you know protective equipment hand sanitizer disinfection routines there's a lot of moving parts there yeah and as particularly you know I was a principal at K through 12 school we didn't have I didn't have many other people in an administrative role to run a building of 300 students and that's that's kind of the conditions for most of our principals they wear lots of hats so if I worry that if I'm a school by school basis they're picking up that guidance on their own it's going to be challenging they're going to have to work closely as a group as a school system to really to do this there's a lot of work to do in the summer so the summers are going to go very very quickly and we're going to we're going to do our best to support them and that work but there's I don't disagree with anything you said it's just going to be very busy summer yeah I just would be cautious about assuming there's going to be mental health issues you know I I just would be cautious because again we don't know we have no that's right yeah and I think you know children are very resilient and I think you know we we should go in I think we know there's going to be need for additional services I would say and the tail of this emergency because it's not over will be long I mean so it's not like we're going to jump in in September and fix everything from the spring goal one is to get the school systems back open so we can begin to introduce stability but this this will take a while to work its way through I will say just to put in a plug for a new idea I've been increasingly convinced in the last 36 hours maybe 48 hours that we should have a uniform school calendar for next year I introduced that concept I understand it's late in the session it would require action of the general assembly but I've increased you know I've become convinced that we need to have a statewide school calendar to manage some of these issues so I'd welcome your support and what I what I think I could draft language that effect that people are interested in it but basically it would be something to the effect to give the secretary of education the ability to establish a statewide school calendar in consultation with the usual partner agents organizations and also to say that school would not start earlier than later day just to give that additional runway a week or so would be very useful at this point but there's a number of issues that have come up in the last couple of days one talking to the secretary of state's office about provisioning the election for the year we have a number of schools that are used as polling places particularly the November election is concerning how we would do that with school being in session so I think it's going to be necessary to shut down school for a couple days around election in November so that's going to require again a coordinated response to calendar I think what we're seeing in the higher education community nationally the ability to work with vacation time in particular a lot of higher ed institutions are leveraging Thanksgiving as sort of an early shutdown time and you know I think that's that's going to be very important to consider particularly if the flu season kicks back in and you know I saw this morning that the CDC and others they're ordering more flu vaccine than normal flu vaccine so we have to anticipate that the winter is going to be a little more challenging perhaps and it would be useful to be able to manipulate but to use the school calendar to our advantage as a public health strategy instead of having to do some broader shutdown of schools to really be able to use and to telegraph to parents and communities kind of here's the schedule so I know it's sort of the late in the session it's a radical idea but I would really welcome the opportunity to do that and I think it's it's going to be an important tool and it didn't didn't emerge for me earlier because until the health guidance came out I wasn't really focused on that but I've I've become convinced it would be very useful it would require a change require a temporary change in a statutory language especially at COVID return you know be nice if you had to shut down school that everybody was shut down okay so anyway I'm done good morning Kate good morning Larry why don't you keep facilitating for now and then I'll I'll take our woman to the next group how does that sound very good representative elder thank you and thank you secretary for joining us today with the passage of of the budget I hope it's final iteration out of the house yesterday we've got the CRF money heading heading to schools we hope and so I'll keep this brief but I'm I'm just interested to hear from you about how we can augment district's capacity to leverage these funds to the fullest extent I think that there's the there's a kind of FY 20 coded COVID expenses which to my mind seem like maybe they'll be relatively simple to apply there are then some displacement of previously budgeted funds which is a I will call just a gray area that I don't necessarily need a comment on here but that I'm thinking about and then there's the prep preparation for next year including the HVAC money that now is in there when I brought up that HVAC money at our school which has just had an extensive HVAC study and has determined we do not need to replace but we definitely need to clean our HVAC system which is quite expensive we would love to take advantage of this but we just made the decision we just can't get the labor in in 2020 to come and I said well you know let's check in about that at a later date kind of with our district because maybe efficiency Vermont will be helping with that specific capacity but you know that's not one very specific thing but just kind of obviously leveraging these federal funds and getting every last dollar to some district somewhere is so important and any way you wanted to comment on kind of what what plans for facilitating that especially for our districts with less administrative capacity would be really appreciated just to get that update thank you yeah I have to you're been working very rapidly so I have to get honestly up to speed on what you finally settled on but the mechanics of it I'm sure are pretty much the same we have I think an urgent need to get some cash out into districts now particularly to prepare for reopening and also to maintain continuity of operations for our food service programs so I think you know we'll endeavor to stand up those systems to to hand out the CRF funding on a no doubt reimbursement basis as quickly as we can we're also working on turning on the ESER application if you remember the ESER funds and there's the question there around the equitable shares language that the US Department of Ed sort of introduced some ambiguity shall we say about how those funds should be also shared with private schools we're very close to turning on that application so we expect that application to be on within the week and folks will be able to pull down those funds after July 1 as well so we'll have the basic mechanisms all in play to bring the funds into focus the guidance is out there so that the guidance also includes a section on HVAC so I think they'll have the basic nuts and bolts to begin to start to address the reopening costs if you will I'm sure they'll surface additional costs but the immediate need is sort of like liquidity and maintaining an infusion of you know cash so they can continue on their operational work and we'll certainly pursue the FY20 modeling that we were doing relative to payroll which we think is qualifies for CRF we have pegged at somewhere around 16 million dollars so we have that on a coding ability to do that so we'll do that on the back end but yeah I think you know as soon as the budget's signed and enacted then we'll move forward very rapidly probably after the 4th of July to work with business managers to turn that on as quickly as possible yeah I'm not sure you know how districts we have you know people I think are very early phases of digesting the health guidance and particularly its impact on the physical plant there we're doing a statewide call today with department health and superintendents to literally walk through the guidance in more detail so I think you know as it's early but I think folks as it sinks in a little bit as to what's in there we'll start to understand the priorities from a fiscal standpoint that districts are looking at to safely reopen schools representative James did you have a question I saw your hand up it did go up it's been answered thank you oh okay very good very good we have any more questions for the secretary Larry thank you go ahead I don't have an ability to raise my hand because I'm a co-host just speak up there was some you had some information I think on literacy I don't know if I you spoke to that before I arrived but you had some thoughts on literacy and act 173 he did speak to that okay I'll watch that later to never mind thank you very much for that yeah I just I think as part of our overall intervention it's still very much on the table for us but I mean the larger point which we we discussed is sort of my my sort of recognition that from a messaging standpoint reopening school is the primary intervention on the table right now that we need to do and focus on doing successfully that's the most the best thing we can do right now so we need to really put our efforts into doing that successfully thank you for that focus I appreciate that focus we are going to hear from the field now on how things are going very much appreciate you're visiting with us today this may be our last meeting in June I'm not sure the the CRF recommendations that were in the bill yesterday 961 are now in the Senate I'm expecting that we'll hear something today on how that's all being changed so don't anybody get too attached to anything it's still in everything's still up in the air um so I think what we can do at this point is thank the secretary and thank you so much representative Coupoli and please stay with us secretary friends if you if you can and if you can't we understand yes I have another 30 minutes so I'll stay through 9 30 great okay um so we start with the superintendents we're looking good morning this yeah please and good morning is the audio okay everybody got that audio is good okay so I'm going to ask Avery if she would post a word cloud document that I'm going to explain briefly um and then I'm going to give you a few comments while she posts that I want to just acknowledge that I really appreciated Dan's explanation of where we are it was as good a summation I think of um where we are point in time and where we need to be as I've heard in recent days I agree with him entirely that opening schools is the the the principle or primary intervention that we can undertake right now in preparation for today because I serve as a conduit of the voice of superintendents to the general assembly I sent a note to 15 superintendents and I asked them on June 24th what was occupying their minds what were they thinking about and I asked them to spend three to five minutes each and crafting a response I told them that I would not use personally identifiable information because I wanted them to be very very candid and instead of getting what I think are three to five minutes of comments from each of them I got paragraphs and I was so impressed by the contributions that they made and their thought processes that I decided to take um all of the texts that was provided to me and I had 13 out of 15 respond from all across the state all different types of systems and I put it into a word cloud um I think everyone is familiar with a word cloud but what a word cloud does is it emphasizes the words that are most commonly used both in terms of organization and prominence of display so in this case I think we could say not only is a picture worth a thousand words in this case a picture is a thousand words but if you focus on the center of the of the cloud top to bottom you'll see that the most prominent feature was students which is both understandable and I think satisfying to those that are interested in observing the public education systems response and then the the diagram actually speaks for itself but you'll see that all of the things that you've been speaking about um were featured in terms of the responses that came from superintendents so what I'm going to do now is briefly give you some of the actual um narrative that was provided to me because I think it's illustrative both of the work that's being accomplished the challenges we face and the fact that I think Dan's characterization of what needs to be done and how it needs to be done is is absolutely on point before I give you a few of those select quotes I just want to say that in my observation and I think this is largely agreed to we cannot diminish the magnitudes of the effects of this crisis and while our tendency is to focus on a specific specific task or obligation the magnitude really is navigating the logistical the emotional and the operational challenges not only for schools and public education but for the place of schools and public education um in what I would describe generally as a societal response so now what I'm going to do and I will do it succinctly is I'm going to give you verbatim some of the quotes that I received from these 13 superintendents and in the middle of my review of this last night I sent Kate a text which she probably thought was where did this come from um and Kate I apologize for not responding I asked her if the house education committee would have the ability to meet in the interim between the close of the current session and the and the reconvening in August and my reason for asking was when I reviewed what the superintendents had to say I it occurred to me that a check-in might might be very much in order um and the check-in could could not only understand the actions of the agency in the field but it will help with course adjustments that the general assembly could contribute to or assistance that the general assembly might provide in terms of things that you would address when you come back in August so with that I'm going to slowly but deliberately share with you some of the quotes that came from these 13 superintendents and I'll start now so the first was I am wondering about our budgets for the year and how we will navigate the unanticipated costs associated with COVID-19 there are definitely more than I could have imagined even a month ago how will the COVID relief money be distributed and when will we know the second quote I am thinking about the added urgency that now exists in the equity work that we had already begun I am thinking about how important it is to continue to learn and grow as a leader in order to be best equipped to dismantle systems and structures that marginalize people of color third I am thinking about my students and I'm wondering if they are safe and healthy I'm wondering about their mental health needs how will they respond to returning to an in-person learning environment in general four I am thinking about the continuation of our summer feeding programs and how happy I am that we have been able to continue the delivery portion of our system five I am thinking about our summer program and hoping it was the right decision to allow some in-person opportunities given how restrictive the guidance is how much added cleaning it will be for custodians and how much work they have to do to ensure buildings are prepared for reoccupancy next I have been thinking that we have never worked more collaboratively as leaders both within our systems and throughout our region and state we are holding each other up and sharing our best and most promising thinking in practices doing this work alone is not a place for any of us to be we need each other to be able to get through this next given the many guidelines and requirements moving forward is it truly possible that we can open schools where will the finances come to meet the requirements can we still have an option of remote learning for those who can't or will not send their children to school is the six-foot rule a recommendation or a requirement next what happens to finances if a significant percentage of people choose to homeschool their children next equity is a huge problem in the best of times it is insurmountable in present times there's then another comment about budgetary challenges this particular superintendent does not have a budget and is concerned both about not having a budget and the costs associated with covid the next comment has to do with what school will look like in the fall and what in particular are the implications for students who already have a history of trauma in their lives the next person or the next quote centered on what was believed to be inconsistencies even in what i would add parenthetically is good and evolving guidance from the aoe and health department which which school leaders have participated in but the concern was inconsistencies in the guidance and then followed by this quote i am concerned about the number of areas that are recommended versus required this leaves room for local decision making which normally i would be in favor of but in this case i believe it will create great differences between districts and we are at risk for tremendous disagreement with the unions the next comment goes to the the fact that the nea had announced this week that it asked for a task force or commission on the reopening of schools um and and really that speaks to what i would what i would characterize as the legitimate concerns for labor and the need for management to respond so while i think we have a harmonious collaboration right now and this is these are my words these were not in the quotes that came to me the potential for things to sort of go off the rails in that regard based on disagreement is very real and it hasn't occurred so far but i think folks that understand labor management relationships hope for collaboration but when decisions don't when people aren't in agreement the potential is for for a disruption and and the progress um small p toward the reopening of schools um and then and then somebody commented um i continue to be worried about putting my staff and students at risk by bringing them back as superintendent i feel ultimately responsible for the safety of all stakeholders uh the next comment also went to concerns about both academic and social emotional well-being um the next comment went to concerns about not knowing how the money is going to work um the next comment went to um an understanding that um families feel destabilized given the crisis and the implications of the of the crisis and that individual families are contemplating not only how the system will respond but how they as families will respond and that manifests itself into and i'll use the quote here many parents do not want to send their children to school or they want options aka pick and choose they want to know will there be a homeschooling option available to anyone across the state or will the school provide us with remote learning if we do not want to attend in person the next quote was i have never encountered such fragility among staff another comment about budgetary uncertainty and then finally and i'll add these are really just representative of the theme of the comments that i received back in general um and then finally somebody wrote my community board and my community and school board is pushing back on the reopening of school guidance they are questioning the state's authority to make masks mandatory among other requirements in some cases i'm being asked to ignore um state requirements we have a community that is quite upset that they aren't making all these decisions locally um i and and again there were dozens of comments that i could have selected those were representative and to me it speaks to the the big challenge we face the need that we have to work together and again the the in total the logistical emotional and operational challenges that we face i think that words really can't do justice to the challenge but i do think that the fact that um we are all doing this together we need to continue doing it together and just do the best we can so i'll close by saying i i'm confident that everybody's doing the best we can i'm really both personally and professionally um expanded the the tremendous work uh with colleagues and i'm really appreciative of that and you know it's a it's a challenge that we have to rise to the occasion on but i wanted to let you know what was on the mind of superintendents as of 3 30 p.m. yesterday afternoon thank you thank you thank you very much jeff avery if you could bring the screen back i'd like to go to the principles next and then we'll do the teachers morning everybody get all everything that jeff just shared principles a few on the many of the same feelings obviously i'll just share a few notes with you um kate asked yesterday asked kate yesterday asked things that we learned and i think some of the things that we learned are the importance of in-person instruction um that can't be replaced by remote learning these kids didn't sign up for remote learning it's not like taking a college class when you're an expert in technology we also learned uh the resource for the major inequities we have as a state broadband being one example of those but just the dynamics at home for some kids make it impossible to learn the same way other kids might be able to you heard yesterday from patrick halliday from the aoe mentioned it one example and i sent him an email afterwards saying i thought that really in response to syria's question really drove home the point that kids are in different places school is supposed to be a great equalizer when the kids are not at school we lose that opportunity um we also learned once again how incredibly important our schools are to society not only as academic institutions but in terms of mental and physical health supports for the children themselves as a state and they're a critical factor in our economy most families have both parents working and parents can't work at home especially with younger kids going forward uh some of the concerns that we have as principals or staffing concerns that have already been talked about some national surveys are 25 percent of the school employees may not return this fall it's not just teachers that support staff audience whatever hoping that number is a lot smaller in the month we're concerned about academic regression especially in mathematics and literacy and one of the things that i actually brought up in my our meeting yesterday and i've been bringing up wherever i can is i think one of the ways to address the academic issue is through high quality tutoring in the class where we do get retired teachers like Sarita and uh you know representative web to come out of retirement jump in classrooms and help out some where the regular teachers keep an alertly lesson and then kids are getting small support by training people college graduates and i slowly train they're just volunteers or paid an hourly rate we use COVID funding for that i think that's going to be i think that's really critical i totally agree with Dan though that that's a time initiative that's not an August initiative um i also agree that and you've all heard me talk about statewide calendar i totally believe in the statewide calendar i think we should have done that 25 years ago i wouldn't necessarily started after labor day though because i'm worried about Thanksgiving time maybe they're being uptick after spending time on this guidance workforce listening to the doctors on that committee i think i think Tracy Sawyer's and i are the only two that were on that on that group that wrote the guidance document that we submitted to Dan and to dr ravine i'm concerned about they're being uptick so we may have to shut down some during the winter to go to remote so i'd like to see us kids many days and as we can in person even if it's just to start to normal routine as soon as we get kids back in school and learning routines totally agree with the secretary that's what we should do um Sarita mentioned assessments i think that what we were looking at will be low-stakes baseline assessments just to kind of checking where kids are at not necessarily a standardized and just uh okay where are the holes that we need to help kids plug and that's where i see tutors and people like that trying to help with that right now uh principles are planning uh using the public health guidance that was submitted they're planning for hybrid instruction they're planning for trying to open schools at a state true level hoping to go to stage three the hope behind that would be within a couple weeks we would move to stage three the idea of starting at stage two is simply so that we can see how we can do it to make sure that if we have to drop back to the stage two where maybe in some schools only half the kids are actually physically present a big factor will be the number of students in the school the amount of physical space that they have and what resources they have how this will look at leiland reg high school is different than how we'll look at cbu high school because of the network so when we're in stage two there's going to be a lot of on the ground problem solving by principals leadership teams with support from central office when we're in stage three that'll be much more close to normal school obviously with lots of extra health protections in place uh and then the only the only other thing i wanted to add was um dan had mentioned routines and i just want to stress that routines return to as much normalcy as we can are going to be critical for students and staff and uh he mentioned reopening school is the main intervention and until he said that that really i mean i've been thinking that's the number one thing we need to do obviously but i think he's right i think that is the main invention intervention getting the kids back to school getting him into a routine and then we can see where they're academically i'm less concerned about academics than i am that sense of belonging i don't know if this committee's talked to dave melnick but one of the things he shared is that he's worried about students many students having a sense of abandonment and maybe subconsciously because school was the one real safe place they had for meals for support for adult attention and love for many kids they don't necessarily get that at home and he's feeling like some of them may unconsciously feel like they kind of were abandoned march 12th march 13th whatever boom school's done see you sometime and so there's work to be done there it's going to be about relationships relationships and relationships the first six weeks and that's really all i i need to say everything else has been said thank you thank you very much jay i'm not sure who's speaking for the vermont nea is it is it done yes don tenney thank your english teacher from south arrow for the record president of vermont nea appreciate the opportunity to to join this conversation and while secretary french is here when i also express our appreciation to him joining us as he mentioned a meeting of our our statewide task force i think it indicates the importance of of ongoing dialogue amongst all the stakeholders as as we face these these complex issues and i also want to thank you for your continued support and all the meetings that you have have been engaged with since the pandemic has hit throughout the spring so we did create a statewide task force of our own about two dozen members including bus driver school nurse other another nurse who actually teaches allied health para educators and teachers and their their job is to essentially assess the situation within their local districts and report back to vermont nea leadership and staff to see what we can do to support them at the local level as well as pass on information uh to the to the agency um it's really for us it's a it's a way for us to gather data uh locally and and has been mentioned um most recently we've called upon the aoe to create a what we're calling a statewide planning commission um which includes obviously members of our union um school employees of various types food service workers custodians bus drivers para educators administrators and assistants um but it also definitely includes you know administration school board members families and and citizens and the general public it's it's not um it's not just the union working with the aoe by any stretch um and we really strongly see the the absolute necessity for collaboration as a matter of fact at 10 a.m this morning i'm zooming down to rechers for a conference on labor management collaboration sponsored by the new jersey school boards association and our education association so we really do need to continue this work and you've heard me say that before um when i'm talking about creating safe compassionate learning environments and dealing with issues of trauma um so our our members and this has been mentioned before really see the need for clear consistent uniform guidance from the state to to the local schools um we really appreciate all the hard work that went into the writing of a strong healthy start which is the state guidelines on health and safety it really is a good roadmap but you know we're looking for more some more specific details um specific requirements you know and you folks who's been mentioned before you often hear the phrase local control when it comes to any policy decision we feel though that there's some serious health and safety practices that cannot be left up just to local folks making decisions in the local districts so what we're asking for uh is a is a mechanism that will interpret the health and safety guidelines to allow for the real effective implementation of those guidelines and to make sure the resources particularly will be available for that effective implementation um and so you know we one of the reasons we believe that Vermont public schools are often rated in the top five in the nation is because of the autonomy our local districts have and our classroom teachers have um and it seems sort of counterintuitive to ask to let go of some of that autonomy autonomy when making these very difficult decisions um but we have to make sure that that we get the the the medical science right and and that requires that we have that connection with the Department of Health and it also requires the school bus drivers for instance the custodians of para educators to have their voice in that to say wait a minute how would that work in this situation right so um and and we know that the need for that well coordinated specific you know floor of expectations um we've seen the extreme example when that's not there at the federal level federal government letting the you know governors send for themselves so we and that's not a comparison just an extreme example um you as has been mentioned before we know that the student needs particularly in the area of social emotional well-being um will be increasing dramatically over the return to school this is particularly true for black and brown students who have experienced just gut wrenching levels of trauma uh this year um and so we have as uh Jay alluded to you know Dave Melnick has done a lot of great work in this area uh he facilitated a series of three webinars uh for our members and I'm in uh we're planning also to have Dave facilitate similar webinars for the New England region we've created a coalition of New England states um to provide um more infrastructure more professional development opportunities to focus on um the issues of trauma because I just want to remind folks that we've been dealing with this uh issue for a number of years now and I've spoken to this committee about the challenges that our students face and the various issues around behavior um in our in our public schools before the pandemic hit those all those issues and and trying to meet students needs um I did not go away so we have to some be prepared for that I absolutely agree the opening of schools is uh is is probably one of the better interventions and we're but we also have to make sure that we're taking a true trauma sensitive approach um to best meet the needs of of all our students um and you know I think is is secretary french talked about is did jay the the need for flexibility in the calendar uh we're very concerned that august 26 is going to be here before we're ready so we have to be able to make sure that we have the appropriate resources uh in place um we will continue to argue for the continued suspension of all statewide standardized testing our national organization will continue to make that argument with the federal department of education now is not the time to test our students as jay said now is the time to build and rebuild the relationships that they have with their their fellow students and with educators um if if I were the emperor instead of a union president I would forbid the distribution of a single syllabus at the start of the school year we must take the time to learn about our students as human beings first and to listen to our students stories which will be how they continue to make meaning of their experience in isolation in the last few months and articulate their connections to the communities um we often speak about schools as learning communities now we have to talk about schools as healing communities so as we get to know our students we will discover their interests and their personal and academic strengths upon which we can build really hoping we can avoid the deficit model that would lead to excessive testing to identify weaknesses and gaps so all assessments need to be kept informal need to be formative so we know we're not returning to normal the challenges are complex and it's easy to be overwhelmed and I and I hope your committee will can will be able to continue to provide the oversight of our public school system which will most likely include reports from the field and from the AOE so with those regular check-ins we're hopeful that the needs for resources and perhaps public policy changes can be identified early and just one more one more point I'd like to make around hybrid learning concerns we we agree that a sort of a blended approach will work but we have to be very careful what that means because we we can't we can't be doing two things at once right so it's some people said well you gonna have some students in the classroom some students at home well what does that what does that mean for that classroom teacher are they main are they teaching their class in the physical space at the same time they're managing an online course or students at home right there's only there's only one one person there so we know that our members and we've talked about this in previous meetings were overwhelmed with the distance learning we had many teachers up 10 30 11 30 at night trying to record things that they're ready for the next morning phone calls from parents at any given time of the day and so we have to we have to refine that approach but we must be very cautious as we move towards the an expectation of what hybrid learning means my view of hybrid learning would right now would be have a staggered schedule students physically there on monday then they're home tuesday another group is there on tuesday home wednesday but you're you're giving assignments and things when they're in the room doing the work at home it's not a case of running two separate courses so they just want to just want to be clear about that piece so i'm happy to answer any questions at all thank you i'm going to given our time that we have to leave in in a little less than half an hour i'm going to go right to the the special administrators with tracy and then we'll go to the school boards and i'd so appreciate hearing from you this is a really important conversation for us tracy thank you sounds good thank you um so again tracy sorrier's executive director of the vermont council of special education administrators and i agree with much of what's already been said and i just really appreciate the committee for inviting us so often um and all your very hard work over these last months you know as i reflect back there's just been such a tremendous amount of work that's taken place and it wasn't perfect but i think school's pivoted and since there are some positives to build on i agree that collaboration has been key it's really been outstanding we specifically appreciated aoe's regular um legal team collaboration um with vcs that my members needed uh that made a huge difference and none of us can figure this out on its own and it's been critical to be as consistent as possible um i do believe we all agree it's going to even get harder in the fall um vcs a members as i've talked to you about before concerned about the amount of service that's about to be requested by parents regarding the covet 19 impact on iep goals and just a sheer number of evaluations that will be requested it's going to take additional resources and work and it's just going to be a lot to figure this out because it's not realistic for kids to be in classes for receiving education 10 to 12 hours a day but there's going to be great need um and we are also very worried about the social emotional needs of students as schools reopen um this is going to have to be addressed before academic learning could happen i know others have talked about this this morning but more specifically some of the things um i've been thinking about my members is that really needs to be a focus on around social emotional reentry and then shorter recovery and then longer term recovery for these kids um multi multi-disciplinary teams with school nurses school employed mental health professionals and teachers are going to be key the need for access to school employed mental health professionals of school psychologists school counselors and school social workers and school nurses has never been higher and i keep thinking about you know the elevated role of school nurses and that you know some schools don't have school nurses so it's going to be a really important position i think social emotional screening for kids for sure but i think trying to think about other kinds of check-ins with all students um plus having a process to identify students of high risk of significant stress or trauma from COVID-19 is going to be important um kids are not going to be bringing up these issues directly on their own in most cases i think it's going to be critical to teach and reteach expectations and routines and people have talked about that this morning and really avoid punitive approaches so you know whether it's scripts or at least talking points just consistency and reassuring messages are going to be critical i think the social emotional learning curriculum needs to be intentionally embedded into the core academic subjects like all of us i'm concerned about attendance drops so either through school refusal kids that are medically fragile or just kids are going to be missing a lot more days because of the stricter health guidance and thinks there needs to be a formal plan to have mental health professionals check in plans for individuals who are being compromised or otherwise at risk including those with family members that might be testing for positive for COVID-19 students with health problems or physical disabilities individuals with respiratory problems we also need to involve the school nurse in this area too but it's an area we think a lot about i think we're concerned definitely around stigma for not wearing a mask if it's not possible we strongly supported the guidance to say that masks were required but some kids just aren't going to be able to do it so that's going to be a issue that we're going to have to see how that develops you know related to social emotional and i think the loss of things like choir and performances and those kinds of things that can't be that can't take place because of the health guidelines it's important to acknowledge the potential loss experienced by students because those things contribute to their sense of self so i think that's going to be an issue again as jay said on this call he and i were on the task force around the health guidance and i think bolstering the process of welcoming each day is going to be critical it's going to be very different with temperature checks everybody in masks it's going to be a whole new and scarier way to have to come to school so i think that's just going to be critical to figure out how kids can feel welcomed in that environment i think behaviors need to be viewed through a trauma informed lens as a potential symptom of deficit deficits and regulatory school skills and a prolonged adjustment period that's going to be very important we've talked about this but addressing staff needs has got to be part of this self-care must be part of the school culture that's really important kids and staff are going to have you know issues that we need to pay attention to coming back i think family engagement is critical there's been you know parents are going to have a lot of concerns and fears potentially and we've changed our relationship with families and communities by virtue of going into their living space and that's one of the positives that's come out of this so schools need to capitalize on this and continue to move forward i think we should consider offering family education on specific strategies they could use to help support successful reentry of possible and information on how to seek support if they have specific concerns about their child one of the biggest issues is the uncertainty obviously about how schools will look and continue to look and this is very uncomfortable for all of us we need to address the unpredictable and evolving context and guidance and clearly communicate decision points for additional school closures and plans to support students in academic social emotional and mental health and behavioral health in the event of school closure and i think the last thing i'd say is that i i do worry a lot about the lack of engagement and distance learning after schools closed this spring that it could maybe a warning sign of homelessness and i think they'll definitely be an increase in homelessness because of the economic crisis and there needs to be systems in place to identify returning McKinney-Vento students as well as students who are newly experiencing homelessness i think that's going to be an issue as we think about vulnerable students so i think that's just some more of the specific thinking that we have around the social emotional that's really a that point of reentry is really important and on our minds as well you're muted thank you so much tracy um i wanted to turn now to the school boards we need to leave at 940 so it's probably limited time for questions for us but i think that it's certainly wonderful to hear from you all so is that um sue or sandra good morning susa glowski vermont school boards association i'd like to thank the committee for being willing to spend the time needed to understand all of these complex issues that you're hearing about this morning and hope you're all able to take a much deserve break during the month of july i'm going to give you a short update on school board work focusing on three areas policy work equity and school budgets um last week as you've heard the department of health and the agency of education issued a strong and healthy start which is the guidance that everyone's been talking about this morning we are looking closely at that guidance so that we can help school boards understand what their role is in ensuring a strong and healthy start for school in the fall and as secretary french mentioned we're meeting with him next week on that topic in policy work one of the duties of school boards is to adopt policies which set direction and provide oversight on behalf of the community and they provide guidance for all of the different people within a school there may need to be some temporary changes to existing policies in order to follow the health guidance that was issued last week regarding reopening schools and we are working right now to identify those policies and communicate any issues to school board members um typically boards will have policies on community use of school facilities visits by parents and community members field trips transportation um sometimes dress codes so all of those are going to need to be um looked at additionally there may be a need for some new policies as schools open for in-person instruction um i wanted to let you know about a new policy model policy that's being posted to vsba's website this morning and sent out to school board members covering electronic communications between school employees and students school boards will be adopting this policy over the summer and maintaining it for future years due to the possibility of returning to remote learning if the pandemic worsens and also the possibility of some kind of hybrid learning situation it is more important than ever to have a policy in place that addresses electronic communication between school employees and students moving forward in addition vsba is working on a model equity policy which is slated to be ready for release in july um in early june the vsba along with the vsa and vpa issued a statement strongly condemning systemic violence and oppression that has been put upon black indigenous and people of color in our country and uh we recognize that public education in vermont is not immune to systemic oppression and racism and the need to do more to advance this work beyond the model equity policy so in addition to committing our own employees to participating in ongoing implicit bias equity and diversity training we will also be promoting and supporting implicit bias training for all faculty and staff in vermont public schools and in connection with this we would like to talk with your committee about h714 when you return in august if um if you're able to spend time on that school board budgets for those school districts which have an approved budget for f y 21 those school boards are already starting to plan for budgeting in the uncertain fiscal environment of f y 22 they will be developing projections and cost saving measures and communicating to the community what is known what is unknown and they're going to be starting earlier than usual to develop those f y 22 budgets and in order to take the time that's needed to do that um those school districts that do not have an approved budget yet for f y 21 are still focused on that immediate issue overall um would say that there is great uncertainty about the cost associated with reopening schools to in-person instruction and whether those federal relief funds will adequately assist schools in covering those costs and we expect that we would be returning to this topic when you return in august we wanted to let you know that the vsba and vsa are hosting a remote conference on july 21st and 22nd with a session focusing on fiscal forecasts and difficult budgeting conversations in this new era that we're in overall the conference is focusing on the impact of covid 19 and racism on public education in vermont this conference which is going to be replacing our fall conference will provide relevant timely and actionable information to districts as they plan to reopen schools and the vsba and vsa will be sending all of um you committee members an invitation to attend the conference we really hope that you're able to join us as we think this conference is going to provide important information and context for your legislative work um madam chair and if there's time sandra cameron from the vsba has um some brief comments regarding pre-k great there there is time thank you sandra certainly thank you for having me and i will um shorten what i had prepared so returning to the topic of pre-k and recalling um earlier testimony in the session i want to just organize the thoughts into our core principles that we spoke of earlier around quality equity and simplicity so in terms of quality we certainly know that children have experienced a period of loss social emotional disruption and a wide variation in educational services and you'll remember kate roger is saying that what defines vermont's universal pre-k education is the implementation of high quality effective instruction by licensed educators so the need to have the most skilled educators providing services to students was important before kovat and now it's critical in terms of equity kovat exacerbated the equity issues in our schools um the responsibility for pre-k continuity of education to the public school shifting from a mixed delivery model to the public schools was deliberate but only temporarily shifted the pre-k education delivery model to a more equitable model there are no additional resources provided when that shift happens so some schools with um capacity um and resources to make that shift happen um as we move forward i think um reflecting upon analyzing and preparing for the future should we find ourselves in another state of emergency and or closure one question is whether private pre-k providers are participating in the work to one assess children to address social emotional needs and three prepare for a hybrid education delivery model and if not we may find ourselves perpetuating a situation of high reliance on support from public schools the limited provision of the pre-k hours will in fact result in children spending their day in multiple locations which goes against all guidance at this point in terms of simplicity the services from private programs um that then transitioned um the communication for families that was quite difficult for them going from a private program to a public program mid-year we also heard from the field that the guidance was often delayed um as things were evolving because of the need to be vetted by both agencies some of the suggestions in the aoe guidance that are out now contradict with cdd licensing and um their current guidance which makes the compliance of the cdd rules more challenging resulting in school leaders spring out of compliance with both in fact had a colleague providing with a side-by-side comparison yesterday a multi-page side-by-side of them trying to navigate how they're going to implement both um and i have examples but i don't think we have time so economic crisis crisis is far from over and the efficacy and sustainability of all programs may soon be under analysis thank you for the opportunity to return to the important conversation and thank you for your work you've done this session thank you so much um we have 10 minutes for some questions um i am seeing serita is that a new hand that's yes that is serita i probably should just keep it up no no um i wanted to just say to sandra thank you so much for the journal uh that you put together the report um as i really find that extremely helpful so i just wanted to say thanks for doing that and i just wanted to ask um don um about kind of the balance between assessment and social emotional needs because again i think like we all agreed what's best for kids is to get back into a routine which you know i think of schools as a cognitive system i mean certainly there's emotion in there but the teachers serita time focus the question yeah okay so i'm just wondering how we know as the public you know as legislators how students are performing if we don't have data some data i i think that's important to know but i don't think that's where that's where we begin we should not begin there and and one of the one of the reasons to focus on storytelling for instance and this is directly from dav melnick's work with us if working on storytelling provides the provides every teacher and every pair educated working with the student to identify um some literacy issues within that student but it's done organically and it comes from a place of the students telling their stories and and done in a more organic way i think we definitely eventually would need to to find out where where the quote unquote unfinished learning is but right now is not the time to focus on data and particularly data that assesses the the district as a whole which is much of what standardized testing does yeah but to be purely student centered right and the and the other problem with the testing is that the message is you know this the message to the child is we really just care about you as a as a learner or as a test score as a data point instead of i want to know you know here's one way to do that yeah no i love the storytelling because i i think teachers are the best observers of when a child is not learning we're not they're not and that's data to me you know when they're telling a story and they can't whatever that's the data you know that i'm looking for you know and i i know teachers are really good at that right but we're not going to have that data to be able to you know to publish the graphs and and all that and and the local newspaper yeah but that's real data for the educators to be able to best meet meet the needs of those students yeah thank you other questions down on that quick one to you you met you mentioned something about a um the the guidance coming forward uh the the concept of the challenge between um health and safety needing to be broad and consistent um and the concern about local control you said something about um needing a mechanism to interpret this guidance and if you have ideas on that i'm sure that folks would be interested in right so that's what i mean our proposal is a statewide planning commission to do that and it's not not to create a whole different level of bureaucracy but to to have a mechanism to bring school board members superintendents principals teachers pair educators custodians to look at very specific practices which are going to have to be performed locally um and how do we make sure those practices are following those health and safety guidelines because as you know and in the guidelines it's there are things like whenever possible or where feasible well how do we how do we get around that sort of leaving it to to local interpretation on everything like that so that's what we're thinking about like we have the the um one example right now that there are many questions about is this is the preschool screening the screen i mean preschool day screening for everyone we see the value and importance of that but what's that going to look like what are what we need a few a finer point on the parameters of that process and who's in a level of responsibility and that gets real tricky for instance when we get into what is the expectation of the school bus driver so we have a school bus driver and our task force brought at the point there's no way that he can safely be responsible to be held responsible for screening students as they come on to the bus and therefore we need another adult monitor on the bus to make sure that that happens in a healthy in a in a way that makes sense so you know those are the types of of questions that that we have thank you um i am going to stop us here um committee i am not sure when we're going to meet again um this has been a really important conversation we've had our we've had our head focused on very very specific information of late um and have not been able to pick up our heads to really see what's going on in the field and very much appreciate your your participation today committee um we need to be on the floor in five minutes i will get back to you if i see that we need to um meet again i i just want to make sure i avery is there avery i'm hoping that we'll at least perhaps have one more more meeting before you head off to law school um but uh so very very appreciative of of your work and keeping us together and moving so what appeared so smoothly into a remote situation with a bunch of us you know crazy citizen legislators trying to figure it out as we go along um and your guidance in in that has been incredibly helpful um getting you so much i've really enjoyed it so much avery yeah well we'll see what we can do to pull something together i'm hoping that you can stick around in august and but if you have to go to your to your your law school orientation well i guess we know we're your priorities i certainly hope so for sake thank you again yeah thank you avery yeah guys all it's been an incredible experience i've enjoyed it so much well you'll be greatly missed you will