 This program is brought to you by cable franchise V's and generous donations from viewers like you Seeing a presence of a quorum I'm calling to order this meeting of the Amherst Helen regional school committee at 633 p.m. On Tuesday, September 8th, and we will start with a roll call attendance when I call your name Please see present. Mr. Demling Demling present. Mr. Harrington Harrington present Miss Kenny Miss Lord Lord present. Ms. Sieger Sieger present Miss Dancer Dancer present Miss Spitzer Spitzer present and McDonald present Moving on to our first order of business is a public comment for regional Topics only and we have two written comments, which I will Now share for those folks watching at home These are not yet posted on the website, but they will be posted tomorrow Can folks see this comment? Okay, that is all that we have this evening So with that we'll move on to Our Continuing business discussion of athletics for fall 2020 with a possible vote As a reminder, this is a continuation of the discussion that we had last week With I see Victoria Stewart has joined us and And Give us a presentation a week ago on my a Guidance and changes modifications to various sports for the fall Yep, and I'll just queue it up for for Miss Stewart, which is thank you for the feedback last week and that Discussion and with that this tour did some more work Got some good questions from individual committee members. So thank you. That's really helpful And she's prepared night to tonight to make our recommendation for your consideration And just discussion and consideration with the potential vote as I think I emailed you last week There's some nice summaries of what surrounding districts What decisions they've made So hopefully that was helpful also to understand what what neighboring districts done though the only other one that I believe hasn't voted that's Approximate to us at least that I'm in a lot of communication with this Northampton and they're voting on to Thursday night So I'll queue up the slides for you miss Stewart And I'll turn it to you All right So thanks for having me back again guys from our discussion. I just wanted to recommend the following sports So as we spoke about cross-country I think all the ones on the list are very doable to do and fortunately for volleyball someone we have a nones donor who donated two nets So that allows us for outdoors so we can I just met with DPW this morning They were great. He's like we can put in these two courts easily or field courts. I guess you can call them because they'll be on the grass As flat as we could find them and it's a good opportunity for the kids to be able to play outdoors. There is one school doing all outdoor volleyball Which is East Long Meadow other ones are going to be doing indoors, but I was thinking if you guys are comfortable with indoors we could maybe have Practices outdoors to limit the amount of times players are indoors or we can just do outdoors just so they have an opportunity to play Soccer A lot of people a lot of schools are surrounding us. They're allowing soccer as well as well as field hockey across country And then the only one that I don't recommend at this time is golf and I think we spoke about it a little bit before but Amherst golf In the last like week and a half they got 32 more members With this college students back even though you know UMass isn't really on campus You know some of them already got their apartments beforehand and when school got canceled so they are going to the course and it's hard to control what goes over there versus All the sports that we can have on our own field easier to control what goes on. If you guys have any questions about that right now I'm sorry since there's only one more slide maybe I thought Miss Stewart could just talk about this last slide because actually I think it provides a helpful context to Some of the questions that were asked last week and then we could open for questions if that's okay with Miss McDonald and the Stewart That's fine with me Okay So then there's also other things like the additional expenses that are going to go in because you know COVID is obviously present so transportation Again really transportation to games we're going to have to get maybe two times the buses or we're going to need parent guardian help Waivers are going to have to be done for transportation to games so that's another expense that we have to be We need to have in the back of our minds athletic equipment So it's interesting we're allowed to have games but if you look at the modifications this wasn't really in it from the previous presentation But practices they do need like volleyball they all need their own ball issued balls every single practice same as soccer so that's something we'll probably have to get a few more balls Again in 10 days because sports would start September 18th Game management more like so like security and because we don't know if we're gonna have fans yet some schools are having fans some aren't But that's just something we need to keep in the back of our mind In video streaming possibly just so parents and guardians and fans have an opportunity to watch I know a lot of people would like to watch again at this point in time it's really for just the kids to be able to play however that we may need to add And then other items for coaches also our athletic trainer sometimes I hop on the field as well Just things like that we have to keep in the back of our mind are going to be additional expenses Yeah, and the reason you know we brought this up a couple committee members it came up a little bit last week but Also since last week there's been a lot of questions about you know the costs and couldn't we provide more transportation I think you know frankly with half the number of students that would typically be on On a bus it's going to be more challenging to get particularly some of the teams that are larger like you know mild sport cross country and other ones you know where there aren't cuts and how to get that number of students off to a competition elsewhere There also are some events that typically would have been out of state and we're not in the space right now we would be considering out of state events so so there are some additional expenses and limitations that come along with it I support Miss Stewart's recommendations in many ways because of the kind of both well being implications both physical and non physical well being implications of being active And frankly our students are actively playing these sports as is and I'd rather have it governed with rules that we feel like promote safety as opposed to having students participate in these sports on their own without some of those safety measures So for me it's a hard one because I think you know a number of committee members talked about how awkward it is to talk about having athletics and not school on in person school excuse me On the 18th of September at the same time I think it's in students best interest and we know students haven't been involved through the school and organize athletics for quite some time and just Living here and driving around town you'll see students participating informally in these activities and we'd rather have them do it in a more controlled environment than what would happen without not under the auspices of the athletic department and the school so For me that's you know how I came to my conclusion to support this you know I think Miss Stewart and her team for doing all the work about what are the modifications and the coaches for been patiently waiting and And again we'll go with the school committee obviously how they vote but that's sort of where we're sitting at the moment. Thanks for your indulgence to you know roll through that second slide but I thought it might have implications for questions that come from the first. Thank you miss dancer. I am going to strongly disagree with not recommending that you play golf this fall. Almost all of the students who are going to be on the golf team have been playing at Amherst and other golf courses in the area during the summer. The golf courses all have rules about dealing with covid wearing masks when they're not handling the the flag in the holes not raking the When the students are on the course they are not going to be playing in a group with somebody who is not a student. They are going to only be playing with other students who are there to compete so there may be other people at the course that they are not going to be anywhere near the students on the course. And I think that the students along with the coach can keep the students separated from other people when they're not playing. And I guess I don't understand when you say this is out of our control. Our students and all the other sports are going to other places to play. So I don't understand why you consider the endless golf course to be any different than other locations that you're going to play. Miss Lord or Miss Stewart. Do you want to. One more point which is that I look through the list of four schools that are recommending there's not a single school that did not recommend playing golf. I just one thing I just think it's important to also look at our location. There's benefits and there's also you know nonprofits of living in a college town but there are you know we can't control everyone that's in our town that uses a course. Not everyone lives surrounded by a couple of colleges actually in their town or few I guess we should say. And then the other thing is our coach our coaches perspective is really big to me as well. So when someone doesn't feel comfortable and has addressed it for a majority of the summer and has done a lot of research on the golf board at the Amherst golf. I take the perspective perspective into consideration highly. Miss Lord. Thank you Miss Stewart for your presentation last week. Sorry I wasn't very verbal but dealing with migraine this week I'm better. I appreciate that volleyball would be mostly outside only indoor for games as I understand it. The equity issue that was brought up last week I think is always a continued equity issue who has the money even on free and reduced it still costs money to be a participant. So cost money for parents to come and see. So I'm hoping that post pandemic we can work on these issues of equity even transportation. How do I pick up my child at 10 when I've got two and three year olds at home. So sorry I get a little bit caught up in my brain but I just wanted to thank you for addressing some of the issues. And at the same time I've heard some questions about why are we going to not do in person in school but sports. And I tell people it's a lot easier to be outdoors than it is to prepare and get ready for our HVAC and our standards that we have set that are really safe and strict to make sure the safety is for all of our students inside. So that's my comment for now. Thank you. Mr. Demling and then Mr. Harrington. So for the options for volleyball I guess I guess I wanted to clarify so. So the word on that line that I like is outdoors because that's obviously the problematic aspect of volleyball here and you know this is a hard one for me because I know that. For students who this is their thing this is a very important thing to lose. You know at the same time there are other very important things that students are losing and so. You know I mean I want to be transparent that if we vote not to support volleyball we're voting not to support something that's very important to a number of students and families but you know we need to do we have to do the sort of principle I'm trying to approach this with is. Of course outside of school students and parents are going to choose to do what they're going to do. And we don't have any control of that we don't have total control over students outside of school but when it's within a school sanctioned activity we do and so that's why we're voting on this tonight. And so that that is like that's kind of the point of view I'm approaching this from is that if if I'm going to make a vote about sanctioning volleyball I am in some way saying I feel that we have the necessary appropriate safeguards for our students to participate in it safely. So are we saying so specific to volleyball then on that point are we saying that that the only option is for outdoor practice and indoor games. Because the because right now with the way I'm feeling is is I'm not I haven't heard anything so far that would make me comfortable with indoor volleyball activity. So so are there options that we could approve tonight that would have volleyball exclusively outdoors. Yeah if you guys want to vote on having volleyball outdoors only. I will definitely go with it like you said I some people say like oh what if we do in the spring will things change. Not necessarily right we kind of know all those things may happen and may occur so we may need to do it outdoors anyways and they will have the same rules. So I think yeah we can do it outdoors everything games practices. Mr. Harrington had his hand up earlier and then this fits I see your hand. I actually couldn't be there for the presentation last time so I had to go back and do my homework. I just want to make sure I have my cliff notes right here. So so as somebody who ran cross country played soccer. There were some like adjustments to the game that I know some some very significant adjustments and I was just wondering. Hey are those like mutually agreed upon throughout the MIAA or is this like our own decision. And then also there are some specifics that I want to make sure I had right. So for cross country. If we're you know we're away from the pack the pack catches up they would then don a mask. Is the thinking I think that's what I heard and then on soccer. There was no throw-ins and no punts from goalies. So basically we wouldn't handle the ball at all. Are those accurate. Well goalies will be able to like handle the ball if they punt the ball. They're going to have to make sure their puns accurate. It can't go over midfield in the air. So if it hits it if hits the ground the ball hits the ground before it hits midfield. You're fine. And yes all these are MIAA modifications so all schools should be will be following these rules. However like schools can recommend like we can recommend no gators are allowed. We want all like masks. So some schools are going to recommend those kind of things and implement that those rules into their systems. So if they have other rules. Just there may be more to them like Islam that was going to go outside. They're only doing outside. So if we play volleyball outside that's what we're doing. Even though we're allowed to play indoors at other places. Yes. So the concern isn't the handling of the ball. It's where the ball would be placed essentially. Yeah. I think they mainly did that because there's no headers. So it's going to be. I don't know. You can kick the ball all the way down the field. Yeah. And you're going to let it land and let it bounce until you can actually get it with your feet and for your chest. Yeah. Miss Spitzer. You hear me now. Sorry. So thank you again for for this presentation and for answering all of our questions. I have a question though actually related to what you were just saying with. So volleyball was a sport that I was also concerned about playing in the field. And primarily because as we noted last week, that space hasn't been evaluated yet for the. Whether or not it meets ASHRAE standards, I believe. So one thing I was wondering is if maybe that would be something that we would, I don't know if there's potential for us to be able to do that before we'd allow. Folks to play indoors. But I think that would be a good question. Also, if we say we say we're only doing outdoor volleyball, but then they go play against a team that is having indoor volleyball, then essentially our kids are going to be going into a building to play volleyball. Like, or would we only play with other schools where they have agreed to the same standard of we're only doing this outdoors because it seems like. The same issue with that, you know, that the golf course is bringing up is, it's actually irrelevant here that we can't necessarily control what's happening. And then I guess the. The other question, you know, I, I, you brought up the issue of fans. I generally, I know it's a lot of parents and. Friends and caregivers really enjoy watching their kids compete, but that to me makes me really nervous. The idea of having large groups of people coming together. So I think if I were to vote for this, I, I don't yet feel comfortable with folks attending these events live, or if we do, I think it would definitely need to be capped. And I don't know how you would enforce that. Like, how do you make sure that we don't have very large gatherings at these events? I want to, I'm concerned about that. And then my final comment was, how is this going to be tied to metrics? So say that. I think the numbers right now are looking really good. But if we do see some sort of increase, maybe it's not tied to the fact that we're doing sports. How are we going to roll back? Or what are the. Can we, will we tie this to the metrics that we're using for our other phases? And if we're not going to tie it to that, is there something like an off switch? That there is in case we see numbers rising. And finally, I just want to say, like, I mean, I'm supportive of this for the same reasons that Dr. Morris said, it's almost like a harm reduction strategy. I think it's like, we know folks are going to be out there. And I think it's the best thing you can do right now is to get exercise and spend times outdoors. So I want to encourage our students to do it, but I want to make sure it's done safely and that we're not potentially endangering our ability to have kids come into the buildings and get education by creating situations where we have large groups of people getting together. So thank you very much. And there were several questions. I don't know if Dr. Morris or Stuart, if you wanted to respond before we go to the next question from Ms. Dancer. So I think I got fans. It was a concern. There was a question about volleyball. And would we only play either home games or at other schools that had outdoor courts? Those were the two that seemed, and then the, the one about metrics. And. We say we can't do it. Those are three core questions. Yes. Those were the core questions. Those three. Okay. Well, I'll turn it to Ms. Stewart for, for at least a couple of them. So Mr. Do you want to talk about volleyball? Yeah. So volleyball and traveling. Yeah. Like you said, how golf, you don't control what goes on in other places. You'll know that they're following the MIA rules at the golf course. It's a public course where they're not following the MIA rules per say. So like the mass. Yeah, they're going to be separated. But again. You know, you could potentially meet those three. Okay. Well, I'll turn it to Ms. Stewart for at least a couple of them. Yeah. I mean, you know, you could potentially meet up with someone in a parking lot or like the rules are going to be really particular for every school entrances, exits. And they'll have to be followed. Yes. There are rules at the golf course right now. I'm not saying they, there are no rules at the golf course. However, they don't all follow the MIA guidelines. As well as I just think playing inside at our school. It may have started a little conflict with not having school. And then, you know, being able to at least play outside. That's why we would play at our place outside. So we don't have any of that conflict. Going around saying that we don't let people into our school and kids to learn. So then they'll have the opportunity to still play practice, but they can go travel somewhere else. And then as far as fans go, there are rules. But again, like I said before, my biggest thing is saying, okay, we can't have fans is not an issue to me as of right now, but we can't have fans. We can't have fans. We can't have fans. We can't have fans. We can't have fans. I think parents, guardians, and even, you know, maybe senior nights are different. Like maybe we'll have something else in place for that. But it's all about the kids right now. So I'm just concerned that they all have a place to play. And then there's also rules of like 50% capacity outside on each field. If you have like a stadium and like 50 max in certain facilities. So those are things that we could also look at. We could play. And do you want to speak on the other question or all three? Yeah. So I think the metrics thing. I think is this one, because it traverses many different geographical regions. I think this is where some of the kind of regional average in the state jumping in actually makes sense. I mean, I think you've heard my comments about some of the state maps and different things when it relates to our community and looking at it differently. And I think that, you know, my sense from MIA and from desi is that they're going to be looking at regional numbers about allowing, you know, what metrics do they need to allow for athletics that perhaps might be a little bit different because it is in our case anyway, all outside versus being inside. So, you know, my sense is that that'll be more of a state decision looking at regional numbers because I think just even hearing the stewards comments about other districts, you realize it's a pretty wide area. And I think that's what we're going to be competing with. It definitely covers at least the three counties, if not more for certain sports depending on their conference and division alignment. So it's less localized than almost everything else we do. Ms. Dancer. I have any sense yet at all about referees, whether you're going to be able to get referees and are they going to be responsible for making sure students put their hands on when they're supposed to. And in a cross country race, you know, is somebody going to be monitoring to make sure that masks are done appropriately. But mostly I'm just wondering about the situation with referees because a lot of the referees are older people, retired people. That's actually a great question. So as athletic directors, we're really going to have to work on scheduling games so that we do have enough referees. And we're going to be able to do that. And we're going to be able to go through some soccer referees that don't feel comfortable refereeing the game. But there's definitely ways around it. I mean, we, we deal with that issue without. You know, these kind of situations. So there are less referees that feel comfortable refereeing these kind of games just because it's not their usual game. They're used to refereeing. And then I also think that's also where I was saying we could be paying more people to just pay attention. Because if we were leaving it all on coaches, we would also use, you know, my staff, myself included. I'm at most of the games and especially this year will definitely get probably all the games. So just to make sure that these rules are being followed throughout. And I guess, yeah, cross country would be difficult just because we're going, going everywhere, but we do have a huge parent, fan volunteers that normally help out with that. Just like with the whole making sure people know their parents because you can get lost more often than not as well. I think I'll just add a couple of thoughts before going on to Mr. Deming, I saw your hand too. I, so thinking about the outdoors volleyball, I think that's thank you to the, the family or whomever it was, the anonymous donor that came forward for those, those nets that is a tremendous gift. And I think that, you know, you know, you know, and also in that enables these, this team to be able to continue to play outdoors. And I know we heard last week. That, that a lot of the, that there was some volleyball game. Leagues happening over the summer and they were outdoors and they had great experiences with that. So. That gift is much appreciated. And I do. I think it's interesting, but I would prefer to see all of the games outdoors, but knowing that, that the students, when they travel to, to away games, they'll be indoors. You know, we'll be trusting the fact that these other schools and districts will be following and adhering to the MA guidelines. And presumably there will be some sort of enforcement mechanism to make sure that that is happening. Regarding game management and fans, because I think the two are really tied. I would, I would also agree that. No fans at least to start. It is the best option just to make sure that. Our kids can play. But I do think no matter what we decide with fans, a game manager to, or monitor to be able to support that so that the, the coaches can focus on the game and their student and their kids, their athletes. And during the game, referees can focus on, on what the game play and not have to be doing. So, I think that would be the best option. I think that would be. Policing or monitoring parents or siblings that are running around on the, on this side. I think that will be super important. Whether or not we have fans. I suspect there will be some folks that will try, that will want to show up anyway. And so that will be also something for us to, to be managing. And I had another thought, but I can't remember it right now. So I'll, I'll turn it over to Mr. Yeah. So building on this Lord's point a little bit before. So even in regular times, activity participation that requires a fee like sports is always going to have some level of inequity that we can't perfectly smooth out. And that's always something we should be working on, right? In a, in a, in an atmosphere continuous improvement. It's, it's even more so in this situation, because if you don't have transportation, you rely on your normal school day transportation to get you to school. So you can be there for practices and games. That's obviously not going to be there in this situation. And so we're going to be relying on, you either have your own transportation or you get it figured out somehow informally with your team. Now I don't doubt the, the, you know, the supportive group cohesiveness of parent volunteers and people supporting each other. But that's, that's obviously an imperfect system that we can't formally rely on. So I guess one practical question is, I just wanted to get the confirmation of, I presume that it's not practical for us to run our entire bus system in the early afternoon and then in the early evening before and after practices and games in order to accommodate that transportation issue. Number one, I asked just cause I want to hear the answer publicly cause I've been asked the question multiple times this week. And two, you know, what can we do to facilitate what will be an imperfect and you know, not perfectly equitable process if we approve sports, right? Is there like a way that we can have coaches or central administration just be a little more centrally organizing conscious about, hey, if you have a transportation issue, you know, send a message in and we'll try and help coordinate the best we can. Something we can do to, to minimize the issue as much as possible. Right. So on the first question, you know, the answers clearly know that the folks who do our transportation runs are not our contracted drivers. There are facilities maintenance staff who do bus runs, do work on facilities maintenance, do other bus runs. So they're ready doing that. And at this point in time, cutting into facilities and management schedule, those folks need all their attention to get ready for October 1st. And they'll need that, that won't, it's not like kids come and we're like, oh, good. All the facilities management work is finished. That work is, is all encompassing right now. And, you know, students live all across town with the bus runs, you know, it's just, it's simply not possible. I think Mr. and I speak for her, share the same equity concerns. And I think as it relates to that, I think coaches, but also captains have already been, you know, working on these types of things and thinking about reaching out to their teammates and trying to coordinate that. And I know that there's been a caregiver volunteers who also are committed to that purpose. So I think it is difficult. I think as compared to perhaps some other times, there may be more flexibility for some about providing transportation for, for friends and colleagues, you know, with windows open with masks, all the ways that we would want, you know, to keep things safe. But it's an imperfect solution to use your word imperfect. It seems better than the alternative. But that, that's sort of where we are in terms of that. I wish we could use bus runs, but at this point, our focus for facilities folks has to be on getting schools ready to open. And this would be a huge undertaking. And I think to Ms. Spitzer's point from last week, it would raise a lot of equity issues the other way. So we're providing how much resources for athletics when we're not providing them for students who may have other extracurricular interests that we may not be have capacity to pull off or we've not figured out a way to do that, but maybe that will change. Right. So we could be in a situation we get to from now where there might be other extracurriculars that we do have permission and are able to start running. And so it's not just athletics. You know, I think if we had, if we were going to buy transportation, we'd have to divide it for every extracurricular activity, whether it be drama or arts or clubs or, you know, there's other activities that could occur perhaps before school starts or before phasing starts at the secondary level. And so I think athletics is one part of that equation, but I certainly wouldn't want to set up a dynamic where we're providing transportation for one extracurricular activity and not others. And if you've been at our high school at 3.30 in the afternoon on a typical day, you'll notice how many extracurricular activities are happening. It encompasses frankly much of the school population. So, you know, I think that's another equity concern that I have, which is if we're going to support this for athletics, would we support it for every other extracurricular activity, arts, music, drama, clubs, you know, you know, other activities. And so unfortunately we're not there. I don't know if Miss Stewart has anything else to add in terms of how teams are thinking about organizing for transportation. I think I captured our conversation. But if I didn't, let me know. Miss Kenny. I think it's hard to hear. I don't know if the volume is down on your phone, but maybe just me, but I think it was hard to, to make out what you were saying. Yeah. Our perspective just from a volume perspective. Is that better? It is. Okay. No headphones tonight. I guess. So, um, okay. So where was it? So first I just wanted to take a minute and say thank you to Miss Stewart for not only putting all the presentation together and doing all the research about how our kids could have sports, um, but coming to talk to us and, um, you know, I think all of our children have lost so much over the last six plus months. We've all been stuck in home. Um, and I would feel the feeling, the idea of taking something else away from them that we can do, um, in a safe and reasonable way, it feels not good to me. Um, and I know like having been a high school athlete, that I was a better student during sport seasons. So my grades were better. I got all my homework done. I was a happier, better, just a better human. And I, I still feel like that now when I work out more and go for more runs, I'm a better person. Um, so I think where, uh, especially in the secondary schools where, uh, the kids are going to be home and be in charge of their own learning for so much longer, that having something that feels good and is motivational for them to be part of their sports teams. Um, and, and just to be with other people that don't necessarily live in their own house, like I think those pieces are going to be really, really important. So I, um, would like to support the sports, and in any way we can, that's feasible, that we can, uh, get, get the kids back on their playing field. So again, thank you for all the hard work and time you've put into this. Okay. Um, I think everybody's had a chance to, um, speak up. I'll just pause for folks that haven't spoken or asked a question and make sure that you're all set. Would anybody, um, I'd like to make a motion. Miss Kenny. So I move we allow, I'm not sure how all of these words would go together. All right. So I move that we allow sports to start in the fall, 2020. Season. Yes. As recommended by Ms. Stewart. Yes. Second. Okay. I move by Kenny second by Demling. Is there any further discussion? Mr. Demling and then miss Spitzer. Yeah. Mr. Could you just clarify? So we just, the motion was as recommended by Mr. Could you just, um, in your own words. Describe what the volleyball season will be. Uh, so that would be. Oh, just volleyball season. So we're not going to be able to play in doors when we travel. So practice outdoors. Any games we host outdoors. So no one's coming into our building. And then we can travel still to other buildings and. Like. Change. That was a question. Um, that I had. Um, with that, sir. And could I clarify? Do we need to. Um, specify that we would not have fans in attendance. I'm just wondering if any of these modifications to the MIA rules as stated, or do we. Dr. Morris. Yeah, I would say that I don't think you need to vote on the fan piece. We certainly heard the opinion. And I think Mr. And I both agree with you. And I think if we get to the place where we would want to adapt that, we can come back to talk about it with this group. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I don't feel comfortable with having their volleyball athletes play indoors. Would there be a unpanelized option for those players to. Sit out of those. Such. Games. Yeah, like they can participate in practices, but that'd be every game. But. One. If we play East. That's if we play song metal, which I would definitely try to do just because. Yeah. Thank you. Great. Seeing no further discussion, we'll move to a roll call vote. When they call your name, please say, uh, your vote. Mr. Demling. I. Mr. Harrington. Harrington. Miss Kenny. Honey. Is Lord. Lord. I. Miss Seeger. Seeger. I. Miss Spitzer. Spitzer. Miss Dancer. Come back to you, Mr. Sullivan. I'm going to, I'm going to abstain because I missed most of the discussion. McDonald I. And miss dancer. Dancer I. And I'm sorry, Mr. Harrington. Can you restate your vote? How you voted. They. No. No. That's fine. I, that's what I recorded, but I wasn't sure. The motion passes seven to one with one abstention. Thank you very much, Ms. Stewart. Very helpful discussion. Thanks for having me again, guys. Okay. And now we move on to our next item. So I will move that we enter into executive session to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation of APEA, UFCW, APAA, and AFSCME. If an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigation position of the public body and the chair so declares, and I declare with intention of returning to open session. Is there a second? Second. Moved by McDonald and seconded by Spitzer. We'll now take a roll call vote. Mr. Demling. Demling aye. Mr. Harrington. Harrington aye. Ms. Penny. Penny aye. Ms. Lord. Lord aye. Ms. Sieger. Sieger aye. Spitzer. Spitzer aye. Ms. Dancer. Yep. Did she, I think she's left. Mr. Sullivan. Sullivan aye. Ms. McDonnell aye. So we seeing a presence of a form calling to order this meeting of the Amherst School Committee at 9.09 PM. We will take a roll call attendance. Mr. Demling. Demling present. Mr. Harrington. Harrington present. Ms. Lord. Lord present. Ms. Spitzer. Spitzer present. Ms. McDonnell present. Thank you. Chair Hall. All right, seeing the presence of a form I'll call to order this meeting of the Pelham School Committee at the unprecedented hour of 9.09. And I'll start with a roll call attendance. Ms. Kenny. Kenny present. Ms. Barlow. Barlow present. Mr. Manino. Manino present. Ms. Dancer. Dancer is present. Waving. And Hall present. Excellent. So now our first order is public comment and we have one voice message for public comment this evening. So I will play that. My name is Jean Fay. I'm a resident of Amherst and I'm also a staff member working at Parker Farm Elementary School. I'd like this to be included in the public comment for the joint committee. While I am happy that the air quality of our public schools is finally getting the attention it deserves it's unfortunate that it took a pandemic to realize the effect of long-term underfunding of maintenance and facilities. Achieving healthy indoor air quality should be a long-term goal, not something that is only addressed in a crisis situation. Instead proper maintenance of indoor air should be seen as an investment in the safety and well-being of our students and staff. I urge the school committee to look beyond the age back buzzwords. Educate yourselves about the benefits of a healthy indoor environment as well as the problems poor indoor air quality causes including aggravating asthmatic conditions and respiratory illnesses. My hope is that during the next budget cycle there's more attention paid to maintenance and facilities. When our maintenance staff tell you they need more resources to do their jobs, believe them. Deferring routine maintenance in order to save money in the short-term can not only result in higher costs in the long-term but also health and safety implications. Thank you. So now we'll move on to the next item which is our superintendent update. Dr. Morse? I will be very brief on this one tonight because most of the topics would come up in the agenda but I wanna thank Amherst Media. We've had an incredible number of meetings many interrupted with executive sessions and they wanted me to share that they've upgraded their systems. Hopefully some of the quality of their viewers will be enhanced by their upgrading their systems especially as they've often had multiple meetings. We're not the only committee that's meeting a lot this summer. So more of just a thank you to Amherst Media and sharing with the larger community they've upgraded so that the community has better access to their viewing pleasure of our meetings. So that's it for me tonight on that. Thank you. From a chair's update I don't have anything to update the committees on. Chair Hall, do you have any updates? No, I don't. Thanks. Okay. School committee announcements. Does anybody have announcements to make? Ms. Dancer? If this is the right place to do this but I would just like to say to everybody out there I really appreciate all of the emails that you've been sending us. I have to say that there are some days when I really didn't want to send my email because I knew what I was gonna read and I just think it's so important to have as much feedback as possible and certainly given it to us. I would also like to say that it's been a very anxiety inducing time but the fact that with almost no exceptions every email has begun with something like I understand what a difficult decision and difficult time this is for all of you and really appreciate the time that you're spending and that's made it a lot easier for me personally to proceed with what we're trying to do. So I just want to say thank you. Thank you. Any other announcements? Seeing none. We'll move on to a new and continuing business and turn it back over to Dr. Morris for the fall 2020 update. Yep and I will try to be brief given the hour. So I'll start with some good news as thanks to hard work of our facilities maintenance and custodial departments. We now have 10s up at four sites. So we've got one at the high school which we'll have multiple because of Summit and another piece. We have one at Crocker Farm. We have one at Fort River. We have them outside my general vicinity at the middle school. So I want to just give a sincere thanks and as I am not technically inclined I got to see the one coming up at the middle school and the neat thing was in addition to what it means for students I got to see how they collaborate how our staff collaborate which I don't often get to see in real time in terms of facilities maintenance but they were working on a project and because I was curious because I failed at doing a very small version of what they were doing in my own life in the last couple of weeks. It's now on the ground in my house. It was pretty cool seeing now that goes there and just the same problem solving that our teaching staff, our educator staff I get to see more routinely certainly goes on in very similar ways frankly with our facilities maintenance staff. So I appreciate their hard work and their collaboration and they got two up today. So we went from one a day to two a day. So I want to thank folks for that and I've gotten a lot of questions of like how quickly can we use it and all that and those are the kind of questions that get me excited actually, you know with all the other stuff's rolling around. So I want to let the community know that they're up we're planning to use them as we go into in-person and thank folks for their work. Another update is I think I mentioned last week that both for our binding survey for phase one families as well as our survey for the other families we're pretty much stuck at about two thirds to 70% of families wanting in-person and you all looked at maps multiple times over the course of the summer that assumed 100% in-person. And again, some of the good news is that with 65, 70% in-person it means for instance at Fort River and Wildwood we think we can get all the classrooms pretty much if not all of them into the havesies or the kindergarten rooms that we created we won't necessarily need to take some of those other spaces for that it means being able to expand our space for instance for specialized program to offer them more spaces. And so that's looking better. Crock-a-Farmer we were anticipating every space issues that still type of the issues aren't as significant or severe when we look at that. So we're glad we did the quote unquote worst case scenario from space and now that we have more accurate data we're able to scale back from that in more helpful ways and we look at our space diagrams once we kind of get them back up again we'll look a lot more amenable and then they did the last time around. So that is something I wanted to share we are looking actively at spaces and Nexus will be back in to test more spaces as we go through our phases but we're feeling really good about space in general in our schools much more so than when we had 100% when we were assuming 100%. Our professional development with GOA ended Friday for the secondary and today for the elementary there were some good quotes from staff members that were emailed around in a final email at the secondary level. I think some of them were worth just sharing aloud if someone said for me the big takeaway from this week is that great technology does have the potential to build relationships deep in access and make online classes so much more engaging last spring Google meetings were mostly like classes in real time where people talked about material which was so different than real-life classrooms where it's much more interactive and so it goes on to share that teacher's learning but one of the ones I actually liked the most and I'll paraphrase it was I don't get to see the great work across especially at the high school there's so many departments, so many teachers and one of the most enriching things about the PD was seeing what people are doing in an interdisciplinary way that the health department and the English department, the socialized department were all doing similar work and their message boarding again kind of messages on the message board were able to be seen, they were sharing of work and how we don't often do that enough we don't actually share all the different work that different departments are doing in that way and so that was really powerful for me as well so I thank staff for engaging in that work and being so committed to improving distance learning from last spring. I'm gonna be skipping around a little bit coming on today so we have worked at our staffing where we feel like we will be able to do some adjusted programming for students who choose a virtual option as well as the in class it'll be adjusted because the virtual doesn't kind of lend itself quite as well but we'll be able to offer some Spanish language courses to families who chose virtual I wanna thank Katie Richardson, Diane Chamberlain and Renee Greenfield for their work on creative work it was a big puzzle as all this stuff is and we feel good that we'll be able to offer not just a monolingual option for families who choose virtual won't be the same as the in-person option but it'll be more than what we thought we'd offer at the beginning and that kudos to them and the team for working on that. Last Friday, Danielle Seltzer who's the president of the APEA our teachers and paraeducators and clericals union and I sent out a message staff that allowed for in-person meet and greets and orientations if staff won't choose to do that outside sometime in the next week and so to be candid teachers are just getting their class lists and getting information be able to reach out to families but it really it was a joint agreement and joint commitment that we wanted to open the door for teachers who wanted that experience for themselves and their students to be able to do it we won't do it in like Chromebook pickup day because the idea is that we would want to stagger those times so that we don't have too many people on the site from a health and safety perspective but that came from many teachers asking us can we please have an orientation? Can we please meet our students in person before virtual education starts? So that option is now available and as staff are getting more and more information about their roles and who their students are we'll see more of that when we move forward but I want to appreciate the collaboration with the APEA and Danielle on that. Thursday and Friday of this week we're having caregiver trainings on Google classroom. They're kind of we tried to pick the middle of the day so that hopefully it's like lunch break ish for many families 1145, the email went out today for that information if people can't make it the YouTube links will be live links that will be accessible anytime so they're automatically record on the distance learning website which was emailed out last week there's also other videos that people can access we're working on translations and other things for that but that's part of an ongoing series that we plan to be able to provide more ongoing supports for caregivers than we did last spring so I want to thank our three distance learning coaches Amali Ella and Jay Sri for their work they covered both the Pelham schools the Emerson elementary schools and the regional district is one from each district that have been working on this supporting staff but also supporting parents in our community. I think the last thing is just a little bit about the elementary schedules so I think I'd like to share my screen it's a complicated topic so I think I'm just going to touch on it but I think it's an important enough topic where I want to share this this was emailed out and there's a session Tim Sheehan we're doing like instead of like coffee with a superintendent and curriculum director we're doing it's around coffee time we can't obviously offer real coffee but the virtual coffee will be peppy and our session to be able to talk through the elementary schedules let me share my screen before you share Dr. Morris can we just check to see if there's any questions the committees on the first bits that you've covered? Yeah, sorry about that. Yeah, Mr. Denley. Yeah, so I mean I'll try to make this as short as possible so the short version of my question is because I'm not in these executive sessions right talking about the APA negotiations so the big question on a lot of people's minds still is how are negotiations going and I think most adults in the community approach this question realistically that nobody wants you to say anything to upset the apple cart we understand this is an ongoing negotiation and so if you're not able to share additional details at this time that's understandable that being said I have to ask you every time not only the question are there additional details are there additional details you could share about any progress that's been made and I have to frame it like that because from the point of view of parents the last update that they have was the agreement right from now that's several weeks stale of the in-person will be starting no earlier than 10-1 and that's really it there really is no bead no sense that the community the public has about are things going well should we expect slash hope for a resolution soon soonish are there small or large things that have been agreed to that could be shared and so there's a not only a high level of anxiety but there's preparations right that parents need to make that depend on these decisions and I know you know this I know that everyone involved knows this this is not news but I just feel like since this is the question that we get asked constantly it's just sort of part and parcel of this role here to kind of echo this question to you to just politely put forward to you in this frame so there you go sure so Hala and Sarah best can certainly jump in but the way I would respond to that is we are making progress in our negotiations and we continue to meet we have a couple meetings this week and I think there's a mutual interest in coming to resolution as soon as possible because as much as the community wants resolution I think we were also here from staff members who want you know I think everyone involved all stakeholders were like clarity moving forward and I think everyone who's taking part in that is doing their best to try to move towards resolution and we hope to get there soon I don't know if there's anything that Hala or Sarah best would like to add Oh, sorry I can be acknowledged by the chair first Miss Light Thank you I would like to say I have a strong respect and gratefulness for the work that both sides especially the union has been doing we're all working really hard to find some common ground and some common areas where we will keep our kids safe and educate those that need it the most in the ways that are best it's not easy we all are working super hard and I'm grateful for yeah, I'm just really grateful for the work because both sides have worked for hours and hours and hours on this so thank you to the union Miss Dancer Regarding the professional development I thought people might like to hear a little bit about the conversation that I had with my son this weekend he's a teacher at the middle school and he was excited about the things that he's learned and while he really prefers to be in front of a class in person I think he's, you know to me it was just so great to hear him actually excited about the things that he can do and how good he thought that the professional development was so I just wanted to share that Thank you Mr. Sullivan Yeah, I just want to point out again that this is my new thing it's not IMP math and it's not the girls bathroom locker room renovations but there's the idea of without having transportation the inequities that go into some students being able to meet with their class and some not it just drives me crazy Thank you So I did have a question also going back to one of your earlier topics on space and sort of the percentage of students that are coming back or have expressed an interest in being in-person learning So I think you had mentioned that we would be able to accommodate the 70% of students generally in the buildings and so I just wanted to clarify with regard to Crocker Farm students because I know that was sort of a question Mark was about fifth grades five and six whether they would have to be hybrid or potentially move to the middle school for full time does that impact sort of that percentage and space utilization does that impact sort of how will be how those students will be learning? It does we're still fine-tuning it we still have I don't have that document up but I think there's still 25 to 30 students that were or students families that we're waiting to receive responses by so that's why I'm being a little cautious in my statements because we want to get all the students and again those were non-binding so they could change by the time we get to phase two and three but you know Crocker Farm has a slightly lower so Crocker Farm has a slightly higher response rate desiring distance learning than some of our other elementary schools so you know I think we're optimistic that some of the space needs will be able to be resolved there once we got to tier two and tier three but until we get those last 20 to 30 families it's a you know we're speaking a little bit hypothetically but it's definitely not the picture that it looked like when we were talking about 100% of students returning. Okay, thank you. Any other questions before we move on to the next elementary schedule? Yeah, okay. So I'm just going to talk it through because it's going to be visually overwhelming to look at so I figure a little preview might help. So what we and the assistant principals as well as the principal of Pelham School were the primary drivers on this. One of the things that going back to last spring we had a group of teachers and para educators who got together about distance learning and one of the things they noted at the elementary level was that a couple of things mattered. One is there was a desire for more synchronous instruction. Two was there was a feeling that synchronous instruction for young students in particular made more sense to happen in small groups and having 28 year olds on a call it doesn't really yield the kind of dialogue and inquiry that we want for elementary school students. And the third is that we wanted to have consistency in a structure and a schedule that was true across the district. And so if you go back to those documents you can see more words but essentially that phrasing of wanting to have structures wanting to have small group and wanting to have direct instruction for students. And so just through hours and hours and hours of work and I want to thank them here, folks came up with it. I'm going to show the master which or excuse me the full schedule and then I'll show a grade level version of that. It's going to be a little hard to see. I'm going to zoom in a little bit and then I'll show you one that's a little easier to see but one of the things you should notice right away and it's okay if you can't see all the grade levels is that there's two schedules for each grade level and that is because if we want to have small group it means that we're juxtaposing so if there's a class of 20 students we're going to juxtapose that class and break it into smaller groups of when they're receiving direct instruction. So we have whole class that morning meeting and that's true for every grade level but you could see even in grade one where one group's doing more independent work or recorded many less and the other group is doing literacy. So the teacher is essentially teaching similar lessons and going back and forth between two smaller groups and that was how we could both reduce the amount of screen time for young kids but also have smaller groups where they're having much more dynamic interactive dialogue. You know, I just equated to this group. So there's 14 people on the call right now. If it was five people, like when we get to Pelham the opportunity for dialogue is significantly more the fewer the number of the people on the call is and that's true even more so with young kids. So they were able to juxtapose a schedule where teachers can be with one group of students while the other group is doing more independent work or watching a mini lesson that is recorded on a more regular basis and so they were able to do that across grade levels. So I'll randomly pick a grade level, okay? It's grade level three. So what you can see is that on the right in group A they're having a literacy mini lesson again a recorded mini lesson and then they're having small group instruction from their teacher. While that's happening group B is doing independent literacy having a break and we wanna build in breaks throughout the day and then they're starting a math mini lesson but then again that's a recorded lesson and then the teacher would flip over to work with group B here while group A is having a break in independent literacy. So it is gonna be the case that teachers will be going back and forth between the groups for some of this. There are some opportunities for instance science and social studies to be a full group that's more project based so students may not be on screen the whole time but they're having some synchronous. There's a wind block which is a time where special ed ELL services can be offered in addition to during some of the small group times. It's also a place where instrumental music and some other electives can occur across the district which our instrumental music teachers always struggle with how do you get students from Fort River and Pelham who both are at the same level in violin in the same place at the same time, which is you can't. So there are some odd silver linings to this virtual approach. Again, this schedule is just for virtual but what it works out is it keeps our staff under the agreement of four hours of synchronous or asynchronous instruction a day. It provides roughly two and a half hours of synchronous instruction for students. It might be a little more when you add specials in some other areas but it's predictable, it's reliable. It's consistent across grade levels and across schools which is some of the concerns that we had last year and it really gets at the instruction piece. Last year, we know we provided a lot of resources for elementary families and that was really challenging and this is really focused on instruction. I think the last thing I'll say about it is when you see independent choice, one of the things the district and I wanna thank Tim Sheehan and the other principals is we've invested some of our CARES Act funds and high quality online resources like Lexia Reading and some math programs that are intended to be independent and self, that students even at a young age can work on independently. And so as opposed to other choices, there may be other choices like a choice board where it'd be off screen but there are more choices for our students and families to have high quality practice on their work than what we had last spring where we didn't have access to all these programs. We didn't have time to vet what are high quality science, math and literacy programs online. The reality is there's a lot of good stuff out there that we have not previously invested time, energy and resources into. It's also the case that CARES Act fund, we are dedicating to make sure that these products are effective and we're also thinking when we're in in-person education, we may be able to utilize these. You know, one of our concerns is that it may not be sustainable to keep these programs on when our CARES Act money is no longer with us. But for the time being, we feel much more secure about some of the independent work being high quality than what we had to do last year and much less adult or caregiver dependent because we know that families are gonna be out of the home and maybe the caregiver may be an eighth grade student watching their younger sibling or cousin and that eighth grade student may have all the work that they have to do as well. So, you know, to make a long story short, the focus on small group instruction, the focus at the elementary level in particular is on synchronous instruction occurring throughout the school day. We'll do a session on Thursday. We're gonna try to communicate as soon as we can. I have teachers communicate, you know, this A group, B group thing, but it was the only way we could come up with that avoided the scenario of large group online instruction being at the core of what we do and what we know as research and as well as our own experience last spring is that's not the most effective approach for young students, elementary students. So again, I'll leave it there just given the time but wanted to share that update as well. Okay, thank you. Questions or comments from the committee? Ms. Seeker. I understand that this is the fully remote model at least for the beginning of the year. What does, how does the remote model differ for the students that choose not to come back in November? It would be the model throughout the year. Throughout the year for all students attending the school, whether or not they're there. Exactly, so any student who's attending remotely at any point, this is the schedule. Thank you. And to note at the beginning of the year it's gonna start a little slower, right? We wanna focus much more on community building in a remote environment at the beginning of the year but as we get into academic levels and the GOA stuff is very clear. You wanna build a relationship before you go heavy on curriculum when you're talking about second grade, probably any grade, but particularly with our younger students. But it's really working up to this as our model for instruction that we can guarantee across grade levels across the four schools in two districts. Any other questions, Mr. Demling? So it seems like a, maybe I'm reading it wrong but it seems like a lot of transitions so if you're a young student, trying to manage those transitions it seems like you're gonna need a lot of assistance and I understand that at the youngest grades you're using CSAW and so that'll help a little bit but even the best, most well-intentioned wayfinding it seems like a whole lot of clicks in this program and that's online service and even if it's really well-designed a lot of this small group to that small group I just, I wonder about sort of like field testing those sort of small group leapfrogging from place to place, what our thoughts are about making sure that we keep track of everybody over the course of the digital day there. Yeah, so some of it's about nomenclature and ways you can set up Google Meets with the consistent password. The best case study we have from last year is Comanantes because Comanantes builds in lots of transitions because you have English teachers you have Spanish teachers, multiple of each last year and they were able to create a nomenclature and wording of, for this Google Meet every day it has the same reliable to enter the Google Meet it's the same word every day and this was kindergarten families and that was pretty effective. So I think we have some positive examples from our own district about how to organize the day even though there are these transitions that work we're also looking at paraeducators to be able to assist with some of those transitions we feel like it's a really good role for paraeducators to play to help navigate the way finding because the teachers may be going back and forth but the paraeducators may be a little more constant and for the mini lesson versus small group much like I'm doing here the mini lesson, the recorded lesson can operate without a transition to go to small group. So people can be on this I'm presenting this I could be easily presenting a video that everyone was watching right now and there's not another transition from one Google Meet to another it's really just that I stopped presenting the screen and then the work starts. So I think that makes the most sense when we've seen more simplistic and there are some examples where everyone has an hour of math and everyone has an hour of literacy. So there's plenty of districts that have that model and they're doing whole group for long stretches of time and so for us we'd rather deal with the complexity of way finding than throwing, that's not a nice way to say it I'm just tired, then avoiding complexity and working out nomenclature and resulting with long stretches of time with 20 students on a synchronous call. I mean, you can create breakout groups and I think the middle school had a lot of success with that in particular last year organizing that, but that has its own transition too. Right, because if you're organizing breakout groups then it means people go into other Google Meets and so we found this to be the best compromise but I think for the community and the public to know is that what looks like a transition may not be an actual transition in real time that one could leave a Google Meet open and students get a break and they come back to the same Google Meet and there's a different teacher in it, if that makes sense. Mr. Manino. Maybe I don't understand this. What's to prevent a student in group A from overhearing a lecture that's being given in group B? Like today's meeting, I was not a part of the regional meeting but I clicked and then you were meeting so I clicked out because I don't go to, I don't get into when the Pellum School Committee is organized. I'm not quite sure how you exclude students from one group from activities in another group. You just don't give them the Google Meet to enter. Okay, yeah. So for instance, Ron, let's pretend that the region was meeting tomorrow and we didn't invite you. Yes. You wouldn't know how to get in, right? We have one common code to get in. So they're gonna have two codes to get in. Between group A and group B. Okay, okay. Okay, okay, now I understand. You all have been working so nicely together all summer. We didn't do that to you, but yes. Any other questions? Okay. I don't think you can see me, Allison. No, your video is off. It's not off, it's... Oh, on my screen, I just see, okay. Okay, well, that's interesting. Okay, I'm seeing my video. Anyways, I have a question. Is it okay if I ask it? So I guess, here's my question. We have essentially potentially three groups of students that could be remote, or correct me if I'm wrong about this. So we have those who are choosing to be remote for the entire year, and then we have those who are choosing to be in person. Because we're not gonna be having teachers once we hopefully go into the phase where we have people in person, are we essentially gonna be taking and having then a group C, essentially who's going to be full-time, remote, and will they be getting separate instruction from those who choose to be... So during the remote period, will those who are going to be remote for the full year be having separate remote instruction from a separate group of teachers? So this is what you're seeing with A and B is within one classroom, with one teacher. But if you wanna go down that road, it's a complex road, but I'm happy to do it. So... We're gonna do that tonight. Oh, no, I'm gonna put it in this room. I can nutshell and see if that confuses you more, which is maybe a 50% likelihood or actually clarifies. But it's a really important question. And we're gonna be communicating to this family, so I'm glad you asked it. So at kindergarten and first grade, we asked for binding decisions for families. For those grade levels, we've identified who's gonna be the in-person teachers, who's gonna be the virtual teachers, and the ideas of that would stay static. And they're also the first students who would enter the school. So that's really important, because when you think about October 1st, that would be essentially two weeks of instruction and then students come in. So that virtual instruction is really helping prepare students for their reentry into school, as opposed to looking at a longer period of time. So the people who get their K and one placement later this week, the families, and that'll be clear, should assume that that's the placement that's going on, I don't wanna say indefinitely, but for the duration. At grade two to six, we have non-binding information. We also have a tremendous amount of HR work to do with staff members who requested remote placement, but need to meet with HR or provide documentation to HR. So at grades two to six, we are going to start the year with the knowledge that when students return in person, there may be some shifts of personnel and there may be some shifts of students. We know that some families are gonna change their minds between virtual and in person, between now and either late October or mid to late October or mid November. So we are placing with some of that in mind, but we're not creating year-long virtual classes because we don't feel like we have sufficient staff or student information to be able to do that. And what will be explicit on that communication, Pelham's a little different, but Pelham has his own meeting at the tail end of this. So we can talk Pelham stuff, perhaps in a couple minutes. But I think there is a distinction between K and one versus two to six on both the binding nature of students and also how soon they'd be back in building. So maybe I confuse things, maybe not, but at least you know that there's a difference between K and one and two to six, it's nothing else. So just following up, so then when we're doing all of this placement, we have a third factor though, because normally we would try to like get a nice balanced mix of students across the district, you'd consider all sorts of other factors, but now we are considering, at least for the early kids, what their preference is in terms of their teacher assignments. Absolutely, for K and one, yeah, we felt like it's in the best interest not to have a quick transition two weeks into the year, especially with that age group. And we think about our kindergartners, they've never been to our schools before, for the most part, unless they were in preschool or cracker farm and happened to be a preschool. So vast majority of the kindergartners have never been in our schools before. We really don't wanna start them and then push a transition a couple of weeks later. We want that to build community that lasts and we wanna do that at grade one, two, we don't have enough information if we do that at grades two and six. And we also have a little more time for that community to build and for potential transition to happen when in person starts. It's all a crazy science that our principals and assistant principals are managing. I've saw some quote through the day that what we used to think was complex is now like the easiest things that we're managing. And I really can't wanna think, I had a number of conference calls over the Labor Day weekend with assistant principals and principals of the elementary school working on all this information and working from all this data. And just wanna appreciate how many variables we're managing. And I think you mentioned it in your comment, Miss Spitzer, that we never had to consider before. It's absolutely true. Any other questions? With that, your full update. I am done, yeah. Okay. Good, so moving along to our next item, which is future agenda planning. I will look at what our notes were from the last time we have, I will just say for the Amherst and regional school committees, our superintendent evaluation forms are due on Monday. And so we'll be looking to schedule our meetings. What is that date? The 21st to review superintendent, is that correct? No, second. Yeah, that's what I have, yeah. I think there was a question last time about a policy related to 10 to nine changes. Our attorney said that probably by next week he'll have a draft of something to share with the committee. Okay. So that could be the 22nd as well. Probably. Is it possible that we'll go for a week without a meeting? Okay, and we also had a couple other update on performing arts and clubs conversation. I don't know if that would be ready for the 22nd. No. And hearing about distance learning. And I don't know that sixth grade would be ready for the region meeting at that point either. So it seems like fall update policy and superintendent evaluation would be good. Mr. Denley. Yeah, so should we just presume that if there's a major update on the fall 2020 to be had that that meeting will just get called and scheduled? Like, for example, if that's ready to happen on the 14th of the 15th of the 16th, that will just get scheduled as opposed to waiting two weeks into the 22nd. Correct. Okay. Correct. Any other thoughts, ads, questions, cards? So the meeting on the 22nd, I don't know if that needs to be all three committees at that point or just Amherst and Regen. Is that sound correct? I guess we can, we have time to discuss this. So, okay. So if nobody has anything else that they want to bring up then we can move on. Okay. I do not have a warrant report. I do not have any for Amherst. Does any for the region? You do? I do not. Okay. And gifts. I don't believe we have any gifts this evening. Okay. So with that. I moved to adjourn the Amherst school committee. So. Did you second that, Mr. Harrington? I think Mr. Denley, speak me to the point. I'm happy. I'm trying to judge by who's got the three green dots on their thing who said it. Moved by Spitzer, seconded by Demling. And we'll take roll call vote. Mr. Demling? Demling aye. Mr. Harrington? Harrington aye. Ms. Lord? Lord aye. Ms. Spitzer? Spitzer aye. McDonnell's aye. The Amherst committee is adjourned. I will now move to adjourn the regional school committee. I second. I second. Moved by McDonald's, seconded by Kenny. Roll call vote. Mr. Demling? Demling aye. Mr. Harrington? Harrington aye. Ms. Kenny? Kenny aye. Ms. Lord? Lord aye. Ms. Seeger? Seeger aye. Ms. Spitzer? Spitzer aye. Ms. Dancer? I'm reading your lips. I think you said aye. Mr. Sullivan? Sullivan aye. And McDonald's aye. The region is now adjourned.