It was really stimulating and Frank set of discussions and I think we didn't solve the problem, but we at least articulated the problem. And I think that that was really good. And so, I think the challenge, I think we made clear that there's not only a prospect for an ultimately unfunded mandate, but really just a more general unsolved problem. And I think the critical question going forward is, you know, when we look at making open science happen, you know, is grassroots gonna get us there? Collaborations and partnerships or do we need a sort of higher authority really directing traffic and paying attention? Can the funders provide more information about how it's going, right? You know, how they see things progressing is what they want to happen actually happening? And if not, you know, why is that? Is it because there isn't enough money in the system? Is it because there isn't enough crosstalk? You know, there's a talk about making sure that costs stay reasonable. What is reasonable? Is reasonable going to evolve? And then there's a question of what is particular about chemistry? Are there elements of open science and chemistry that, you know, we need to think about a little bit more specifically and drill down a little more? I mentioned to Sarah, I'm extremely excited to see the ACS repository come online. It's gonna be really interesting to see how that endeavor might facilitate data deposition. I'm also generally excited about a lot of the repositories that have been making headway. And I think you heard Ale say, you know, the NSF runs this repository. Why don't they push people to put their data there? And I think that's a question that, you know, we as a community need to keep asking the NSF, right? Because, you know, they're already putting money into it. The community already supports it. How can we, you know, actually benefit from that synergy? And so I think those are all questions that we I think talked through productively. And now we need to take that information and help other people in the community and especially program officers and people affiliated with funders help them understand that we want to help them help us facilitate open science. Thanks so much, Jake for inspiring. I think we did a lot of excellent, just following up on what you said, Jake, I think we did a lot of excellent problem statement articulation. And I think that's always gonna be your first step in trying to unpack a really large area like this. And, you know, I definitely took note that, you know, we're not only coming into what sounds like a whole new, you know, mandated space, but actually, you know, we're looking at an ecosystem that needed to evolve probably quite a long time before this that isn't quite fully working and it isn't quite sustainable. So we do have a broader responsibility both as a domain, you know, but also an ecosystem of research. You know, how does this move forward? Not only for, you know, new areas of innovation and technology, but just to sustain the scholarly research that we have valued in this country. So that's one thing. Thinking about the problems of, you know, how will global and sector variabilities impact the research experience? Thinking about equity implications. On the one hand, whole plethora of policies and different expectations about what data where, you know, what data models, what publishing models, what fees might be associated with it. So we're definitely in a transitionary zone. So I think we're gonna need to evolve that. One thing that did jump out at me, we didn't really talk too much about this, but maybe this is something we could dig into a little bit more tomorrow is a lot of great activities starting to come up. Lots of communities and different stakeholders working on this, still all feeling a little bit siloed. How do we collaborate even more? How do we not end up with a lot of fair silos so that you're, you know, you just need to go to each data system, like you always have gone to each data system and need to understand and learn how to work with each process or each publisher's policies. So I think that might be something that we wanna dig into a little bit more too. I really think that reproducibility, maybe that could be an helpful framework to think about these problems going forward too. I heard issues of reproducibility coming up both in wet lab scenarios, you know, with the smoking or the evolving cells, but what about computation? I think actually Olaf and Ali spoke both to that, that there's a lot of variability that happens in those environments as well. And so maybe reproducibility, if that's a high, it's an important value to this domain. Where do we wanna go with that? What do we want the outcome of this effort to give us? Can we improve reproducibility in our research as a positive? So not only step out of a long-term, challenging research environment, but actually be able to evolve our domain towards values that we can improve our science on. So I think there's a lot of opportunity, but it's just a lot of work. And I think we're starting from my perspective as a librarian, and I'll probably just echo a lane here. I can't help it, the librarians. We see the back end of things. We're the last stop, help, you know, if everybody comes to us for help. We are in a turning point. I think we have to make this a turning point, whether or not all of the efforts that we're seeing go forward are generalizable or appropriate for all different communities of practice. Everybody does have to make it a turn here. We can't keep publishing and doing research this way. New career, new career students, they need new skills. Industry is evolving, globalizing, pandemics are happening. We do really need to make a turn. That's not quite coherent, but it's just sort of a lot to, there's a lot that happened today, that's great. So I think tomorrow our panel, our last panel is gonna be focusing, if we can dig in a little bit more on what actually can we do to support the research community. And I think we could break that down into terms of what's happening now to support the research community. Are there things that are happening now that we can make more broadly available and broaden the awareness of? And what are the next steps in improving services and support for translating some of these directions into practice, particularly for the research community as the authors and of publications, as the generators of data that we want to be shared. So we're gonna be having our last panel. We'll be hearing from small research institution. We'll be hearing from industry and then we'll be hearing from the library and community specific support services around chemistry and around data curation in the library context. And that'll wrap us up for this workshop. All right, and so we'll see you all. Yes, yes, yes, Mark. Yeah, yeah, yeah, cause they're on Zoom. Thank you so much for. I was gonna say, we'll see you all tomorrow at nine, but wait, there's more. Again, observation, I come from an industrial background. Many people here are talking what I would claim in a very academic way. You have Mackenzie Scott, Bill Gates, all these people out there giving money. When we talk about things like the protein data bank, it seems like we might be a little bit myopic if we only think that federal government is the only funds that can go towards something like that. We can express that they are useful and maybe the national academies could help do that, that some of these repositories might be funded by somebody philanthropic. Gates put a ton of money into one of the largest cancer studies he's ever done. Mackenzie Scott's done a lot of other things that are around science. So it might be if we can make the case that that's another bucket of money that could help solve some of the issues that we're talking about here. Stimulated a little bit of follow-up conversation. Just can't get enough. Well, I kind of skipped over it, but the Schmidt Foundation, Schmidt Futures are actually funding the ORD. Yeah, I mean, Gates Foundation was a big driver of open access around the time that Plan S kicked into gear. I mean, there was, I think one of the reasons that the US even long prior to the Nelson memo, one of the reasons that the US got wrapped up in the Plan S frenzy was because the Gates Foundation had an open access mandate. And that was sort of particularly tied around the CCBY license and making research, not just free to read, but free to compile in various forms. And so, yeah, they've been very involved. And they're like most very wealthy foundations, they have strings attached to what they want to pay and when, which is fine. I mean, that's how they work. But it's certainly not a situation where they're just standing there offering money. There's a lot of, but we're right. Yeah, no, I, yeah. All right, more to come.


Races that marginalize people with disabilities or neurodivergencies. This was originally coined by able-bodied politicians to avoid using disabled, but there's nothing wrong with being disabled so there's nothing wrong with using the word. Disabled or people with disabilities is just fine. Using these words, when not describing the actual condition, many folks with these neurodivergencies or mental health experiences consider it to be unkind or diminishing when these words are casually misused. Try using these instead. Recently, Beyonce and Lizzo landed in hot water for using this slur that comes from the word spasticity. Spasticity in the case of spastic cerebral palsy results in movements perceived as jerky or stiff. Using the slur even in a joking or casual way marginalizes people with disabilities. Instead, try saying unpredictable.


Hi and welcome to the session. Today we will learn about types of relations. So first of all let us understand what is a relation. Let A and B be two non-empty sets then a relation from A to B is a subset of A cross B. Thus one is a relation from A to B if and only if R is a subset of A cross B. So if the ordered pair belongs to R then this implies A is related to B and we write it as A is related to B. Now let us move on to types of relations. So first we have empty relation, a relation in a set A is called relation if no element of set A is related to any element of A that is R is equal to phi which is a subset of A cross A. Next we have universal relation, a relation R in a set A is called universal relation each element of set A is related to every element that is R is equal to A cross A which is a subset of A cross A. Now both empty relation and universal relation are sometimes called trivial relations. Next is equivalence relation. This plays a significant role in mathematics. So to study equivalence relation we will first of all consider three other types of relations that is reflexive, symmetric and transitive. So a relation in a set A is called reflexive if ordered pair A A belongs to R for every A belonging to set A. Next a relation in a set A is called symmetric the ordered pair A1 A2 belonging to R implies that the ordered pair A2 A1 belongs to R for all A1 A2 belonging to set A. And lastly a relation in a set A is called transitive if the ordered pair A1 A2 belonging to R and the ordered pair A2 A3 belonging to R implies that the ordered pair A1 A3 belongs to R for all A1 A2 A3 belonging to set A. So now we have learnt what are reflexive, symmetric and transitive relations. Now let's define equivalence relation a relation R in a set A is said to be an equivalence relation is reflexive, symmetric, transitive. Let's take one example. Here on the set Z of all integers the relation R is defined as the set of ordered pair A, B such that A-V is divisible by 3. And in this we need to show that R is an equivalence relation. So for that we will show that the relation R is reflexive, symmetric and transitive. So first of all let us show that relation R is reflexive let A belongs to Z. Now A-A is equal to 0 which is divisible by 3. This means A is related to A for all A belonging to set Z. So from this we can say that the relation R is reflexive. Next we will show that the relation R is symmetric. So let A, B belongs to Z such that A is related to B. So this implies A-B is divisible by 3 that means minus of A-B is also divisible by 3. From this we get B-A is divisible by 3 that means B is related to A for all A, B belonging to set Z. Thus we get that the relation R is symmetric. Lastly we will show that the relation R is transitive. So for that let us assume that A, B and C belongs to set Z such that A is related to B and B is related to C. Now A is related to B implies that A-B is divisible by 3 and B is related to C implies that B-C is divisible by 3. Now we know that if two numbers are divisible by 3 then their sum will also be divisible by 3 therefore we get A-B plus B-C is divisible by 3. So this implies A-C is divisible by 3 that is A is related to C for all A, B, C belonging to set Z. So from this we get that relation R is transitive. Now we have shown that relation R is reflexive, symmetric and transitive. So that means the relation R is a equivalence relation. Now let us move on to our next topic equivalence class given an arbitrary equivalence relation in an arbitrary set X where R divides into mutually disjoint subsets A i called partitions subdivisions of X satisfying the following conditions. All elements of a particular subset are related to each other that is all elements of A i are related to each other for all i. Second element of a subset is related to any element of some other subset that is no element of A i is related to any element of A j where i is not equal to j and the third condition is union of all the subsets make the whole set X that is union A i is equal to X and all the subsets are disjoint that is A i intersection A j is equal to phi for i not equal to j. So here the subsets are called equivalence classes. Now let us take the same example that is on the set Z the relation R is defined as the set of ordered pairs A B such that A minus B is divisible by 3. For this we have already proved that R is an equivalence relation for this consider the subsets A 1, A 2, A 3 of Z where A 1 is defined by the set X belonging to Z such that X minus 0 is divisible by 3. So in this we will have the integers like minus 6, minus 3, 0, 3, 6, 9 and so on. Now A 2 is defined by the set X belonging to Z such that X minus 1 is divisible by 3. So in this we will have the integers like minus 5, minus 2, 1, 4, 7, 10 and so on and lastly A 3 is defined as the set X belonging to Z such that X minus 2 is divisible by 3. So in this we will have the integers like minus 4, minus 1, 2, 5, 8, 11 and so on. Clearly we can see that all the elements of A 1 are related to each other similarly for A 2 and A 3 and no element of A 1 is related to any element of A 2 or A 3 same is the case for A 2 and A 3. Also A 1 union A 2 union A 3 is equal to Z and A 1, A 2 and A 3 are all mutually disjoint. Now A 1 consites with a set of all integers in Z which are related to 0, A 2 consites with a set of all integers in Z which are related to 1 and A 3 consites with a set of all integers in Z which are related to 2. Thus A 1 is equal to the equivalence class 0, A 2 is equal to the equivalence class 1 and A 3 is equal to the equivalence class 2 and so we have partitioned Z into mutually disjoint equivalence classes that is A 1, A 2 and A 3. Thus in this session we have learnt different types of relations and with this we finish this session. Hope you must have understood all the concepts. Goodbye, take care and have a nice day.


Call the meeting to order at 6.05 or any adjustments to the agenda Do I have a motion to approve the minutes of Tuesday, January 24th? so move Do I have a second? Is there any discussion on the minutes? Board correspondence and communications anything public comments? Wow, we got right here pretty quick So you have my report at hand, but I want to expand a little bit on S56 slash H208 and then S66 And I've been sending you information As I've been receiving new information. I also Have been following this closely and having correspondence on a fairly regular basis with Jeff Francis the executive director of the VSA And I did speak to Sue yesterday the executive director of the BSVA Welcome them together and so And we focused our conversation on S66, but I want to start with S56 and so I also sent you a presentation that presentation have been prepared by Rebecca Webb who is our Regional Act 166 coordinator And so Rebecca is contracted by the Winooski Valley supervisory unions of which were part of To a support pre-k coordinators with the coordination of Act 166 Act 166 is universal pre-k and her biggest role is to ensure that private providers are meeting their responsibilities In regards to quality Education as it has been outlined So that's a big piece of what she does and then we have Renee Hinton who also supports some of that work for us here as an SU And coordinates work around our pre-k teachers around professional development things of that nature and does interventions. I Share that with you to say that's where that slideshow came from There I told you that that I felt like there was a little bit of Her interpretation put into that slideshow when I sent it to you the biggest bullet for me around interpretation And I think this can be argued Is the idea that private pre-k's would have to close She's basing that on up the fact of four-year-olds would all become part Required mandated by law through S56 of public pre a public elementary schools We would be required by law to offer it five days a week Just like we do K through 12 in full days Unless we had a half day, right? So it's the same schedule as we run K through 12 But for four-year-olds the law also provides us a 1.0 FTE for average daily membership and right now we get a little less than a half for Any pre-k student Other big change for our families though is that three-year-olds when I'll follow under the guidance of the agency of education They would remain With the Department of Children's who currently oversees and regulates our three and four-year-old programs Okay, three-year-olds would stay with them four-year-olds would come under the umbrella of the agency of education and Still have the same The regs actually beef up a little more for those of you who aren't familiar with pre-k we like the square footage of classroom Dictates how many students you can serve the staff to student ratios are different for pre-k And so there's some national standards that the agency is going to be basing their expectations on so the three-year-olds are going to be Really the focus of this law would be that three-year-olds and under our service by Private providers and four-year-olds would be service via public elementary schools There was a question I've had is well Does it say that public elementary schools cannot serve three-year-olds it does not explicitly say that Although it does make it clear that you cannot get funding for three-year-olds Other than those three-year-olds who are service via an IEP And it does say that we are required to serve students That are three-year-olds that are served for interventions and supports via an IEP Okay, so I think through drafting they're gonna probably work and clear some of that up in regards to S56 and H 208 they're taking testimony on it this law was drafted by Senators and representatives Without really any consultation With the educational field, okay the same with S66 Okay, these were drafted by reps and so when I've said if you have concerns With these bills is drafted reaching out to our representatives is the most important thing You could do I still stand by that. Okay, that's that's where this was drafted. I do think That that this bill S56 is gonna go through some major drafting and I I have a wondering this is just Jamie speaking I have a wondering whether this bill is gonna be discussed and talked about the table until next year To actually firm it up Is is where I feel like this one might end up being I don't I don't see as much momentum on this bill Right now or having it have as much talk about it as it did a month ago I feel like based on testimony. I think that there's some feeling that they need to do some work on it. I Do think at some point we're gonna have a bill. I Just don't know and this is right now like if I my opinion changes. I will let you all know But right now that's my opinion. Okay. Now if the four-year-olds will Will have to offer the program will they have to attend or be optional? Still optional even for kindergarten students up to I think it's you turn six But we would be required to provide it Or to contract with another public school within 20 mile radius So for most of us other than at Newton Currently in first branch. We do operate public pre-k's and we are serving both three and four-year-olds What we serve in regards to how many hours we provide it does look different We currently have some districts providing full day Programming for three and four-year-olds without fees. We have some growth schools that are providing Part-day pre-k and then they are charging fees in the afternoon for extended care for three and four-year-olds and Then we have a proposal right now in first branch that will go to a vote next week Offering full day three and four-year-old programming for under public pre-k And so I just I mentioned that to say to you that This is something a lot of our families have become accustomed in most of our districts of us serving three and four-year-olds It also has allowed us to provide early interventions and supports for three and four-year-olds Even if they didn't qualify for services via night That is one of the things I get concerned about with the three-year-old change Through our MTSS system. We're providing early interventions and supports without a student necessarily being qualified for supports Yeah, quick quick question you Did I hear you right that we are unsure at this point whether the three-year-olds would If we would still be able to serve them Correct Okay, it's a question. I have out there and I think no one really has that direct answer yet I I think there is a possibility that we could run child care programs if we choose Be licensed and to decide whether we're going to charge a fee or not for a child care program. That's separate pre-k Thank you You would get no credit for it though. There'd be no funding that would follow those three Are we aren't receiving funding now for pre-k, right? You do. Oh, we do Yeah, you get to count each one of those students as it is at point four six ray or point four eight I'd have to look to be sure but yeah, it's either point four six or point four eight. I believe okay Gotcha, so just under a half a student, but they're changing that if they go to this model including the three-year-old This model would be four-year-olds account as a 1.0 And three-year-olds would not count unless they were serviced via an IUP point four six. Thank you, Tara Bill that wasn't too shabby, huh? I had it was right in the range Any other questions on that one before I move to s66? Just that it's still so confusing that whatever information you can share that's coherent and relatively Digestible Please forward it along S66 is The bill that is in response to Carson v. Makin And so what Carson v. Makin did is a Supreme Court ruling that said as a state You cannot provide public funds to independent schools and then also in turn say you're not going to provide public funds To religiously affiliated independent schools That that was a violation of the Constitution Okay, so I know some boards have asked me why Couldn't you jet as a state? Why is this legislation not saying we will provide public funds to independent schools But not religiously affiliated schools. That is what Carson v. Makin was about Okay, so what the What my pillar is trying to do in this bill was to be in response to that And so what they've crafted is a bill that essentially says that public funds will stay with public schools With the caveat of two things one our therapeutic independent schools that service students Who are not having success in public school and need intensive supports? Okay that is permitted and And they created a caveat for the four historical independent schools that at one point were The designated primary public schools for the towns that they sat in now They drew that line there it is My sense is that that could possibly even be challenged the likelihood of that being challenged is Certainly, I think folks would argue less than if you try to create other Oversight for independent schools So that's why they drew the line there currently there's also There has had been talk of is there a ability for the agency of education to have oversight To ensure that independent schools are serving all students and that equitable education is Occurring across all independent schools Right That's another way you could approach this I Will tell you that I think I'll tell you I believe the reason why it wasn't drafted that way is that the agency of education does not have the Capacity or bandwidth to ensure that they can do that and I'm saying that in a public meaning if I was testifying in front of the Legislature that would be part of my written statement and comment I do not believe that they have the bandwidth to do and I believe that the legislature knows they don't have So they've created this other piece of legislation that drew the line there there's some things within this proposed legislation that I believe are Kind of sort of add-ons That didn't necessarily address Carson be making and one of them would be the requirement to designate three schools and so That comes from there is currently State statute that allows boards to designate up to three schools. I Think there could be significant movement on that part of the legislation in regards to draft And I'm not taking it. I am not giving you any opinion right now, right? I'm just telling you where I think there is movement in regards to the drafting of this piece of legislation Where I don't believe there's that is I I believe that there was a sense to want to cap it at three schools because of the complexities of oversight of districts to try to Ensure quality education for the students that attend school choice districts and so for an example I know at times the board has requested that we do a better job keeping track of our students that attend secondary schools An example I can give you though why that's so challenging for us is we have students currently right now in 44 different secondary So our ability to communicate with 44 different schools And have them communicate back and ensure that we're getting data around how our students are doing that is a Significant challenge for us as an organization So I can share one reason why they may be looking at trying to have a cap We are not the only as you are organization that school choice it right there's there's you you'll start to see some of them discuss Kingdom East up in the Northeast Kingdom has Significant school choice. They sit just north of St. John's Berry. So it's Lindenville Burke In that area There's a lot of school choice up on the island schools up in the Lake Champlain Islands There's some school choice up in Franklin East Which is up in the richford area? Okay, so you're and then certainly down In the Manchester Vermont area the burn burn, okay, so and and you'll see often our our traditional historical academies tend to be in Areas where there are school choice towns was at one point That for many of those school choice towns those were designated Designated schools for those towns so an example would be and I can give you an RSU Straford had a long time designation that that for the cabinet That's no longer in place But there was a at one point a long-term designation to TA So where we're at with that 66 is they're still taking testimony. I do I believe my opinion on this bill is is that it's There's a lot to chat talk about it, right? If you look it's on digger. It's in the value news It's on CAX today. The news media is continuing to cover this one. I I think there's a real urgency to do something to respond to Carson being making and To address that and they don't have a tool to address it right now And so I think that out of these two bills This is one that we need to we need to monitor both of them closely. This is one that I continue to check in on With Jeff Francis on at least a weekly basis. So I want you guys to know that I am Accessing that resource to keep a close read on where the bill is Or where folks may be leaning or if there's momentum on the bill And what I'm giving you now what I know about that bill is based on conversations with Sue and Jeff And so that's the overview of that bill And again, if folks have strong feelings, I'd encourage you to reach out to your representatives In your senators, I mean some of our senators that sit within our SU Cosponsored this bill Yeah, I just want to make Are you finished any yes, okay, just a couple comments one is to me our primary vision or mission is what's best for our kids and to the extent that S66 truncates or Reduces the opportunity of our kids to get the education that they need or deserve Doesn't sound doesn't sound good to me I'm not such to say a private or independent school can do any better than what we are doing Secondly is the whole question about costs are our Are we being our funding being bled by all these kids going to private or independent schools and I was looking at some of the numbers and At least from our vantage point here The Sharon Academy, which is the big choice or a choice here has a lower tuition rate And some of the public schools in our area for choice Are far more expensive. So I'd be curious on the Both of these To see what the numbers turn out to be I don't see S66 is providing Us to fill our classrooms and and and take care of our students and save money The other thing is I'm curious about What educational schools are out there and I just guys I'm sorry I misspoke religious affiliated schools and What impact the Supreme Court decision might have on that I don't think that's really really Big so I think it's something that we need to ponder and think about as individual board members in our districts and Figure out what's best for our kids in for our SU and I don't have the answer tonight But I appreciate Jamie being on top of this issue and keeping us informed Anybody else any other questions about my report? Those are two big ones that I wanted to talk them through and answer questions I think it was hard to put that on writing and have it be Folks Jamie you mentioned S56 and H 208 I'm sorry. Are there's that one thing. Yeah, so it's it's essentially identical H 208 cat cars out a little piece that essentially acknowledges that there's districts like Grandville Hancock that don't have a operating elementary school and That they're and they may not have a public school within 20 miles And so that that district would be allowed to contract with a private entity to serve their four-year-olds Which I appreciate that they caught that I mean that is something that Needed to be addressed that S56 didn't address Okay, thank you Yeah, I'm good Okay, thank you So I would just want to highlight the two things in in my report Which just to make sure you had eyes on them the first thing under our goal around a multi-tiered system of supports And being invited to be one of the pilot SUs for this early MTSS work And this is you know a credit to our Pre-K coordinator Renee Hinton who's been working really hard With all of our with all of our pre-K teachers around, you know, what does early MTSS look like? How do we get all of those supports for our students as you know as early as possible? And so she Got this invitation from the AOE And so we'll have one of our schools piloting it and but actually the professional development will be available to all of our school So it ends up that benefiting all of our all of our pre-K's They're excited to be able to have that those important supports in nice and early for our students So we're excited about that. Nice. And then the last thing which is coming up really quickly But we just sort of had the information on so I want to get out the information as much as possible as we're partnering with the Sharon Academy around an additional community conversation focused on Managing anxiety, which we know that a great number of students as well as adults and caregivers and teachers may be you know experiencing for any number of reasons and so they Have identified this psychotherapist Lynn Lyons who comes really highly Regarded and she'll be coming in to do an evening talk. You know, I think mostly for for parents and caregivers Live at Sharon Academy high school, but will also be live streamed home So folks if that's a difficult time for you to get out of your house to go to it It'll be available live stream too. So this is next Thursday evening next week is Incredibly busy week and you may be out of your building out of your homes for other reasons on Monday and Tuesday So but I think this is a topic and we're excited That the Sharon Academy reached out to us to partner on this knowing that you know some of our Families and students might benefit from this conversation as well. So And that's yeah, so I can take any other questions or I can move into the academic data report Ashton anyone So for those of you, I think I've seen a lot of you at your individual District school board meetings. We've talked about the data. So I don't we don't have to go through every detail here But I think it's good for you all as the SU board to see sort of how are we doing collectively as a as an SU We had this again This is our winter benchmark data. So these are the assessments that were taken throughout the month of January Which now feels quite a while ago We're almost closer to the next window than the last window which we'll talk about a little more But in general really pleased with the progress that our students showed between fall and winter, which is about a 13 week period of time between assessments if you are looking at the Sort of the multicolored graph on the second page and you're able to see it sort of a full paper you really can See the difference in fall to winter in each of those grade levels You know my eye automatically goes sort of to those red bars and see how much of those Decrease to those means, you know, we're getting those students who are most furthest behind You know, we're getting them those students are working themselves, you know towards proficiency And then into proficiency levels. So really pleased with a lot of the growth there We still you know as we often say we still have a lot of work to do But seeing that level of growth Over just 13 weeks is is really and encouraging Is great support to our great credit to our teachers and the students that are Doing all that hard work And again the purpose of this data for the most part is for us to identify where are those gaps? And what can we be doing different to serve to serve whole groups of kids individual kids small groups of kids? And we've talked in individual districts about you know, or individual schools about great levels that are identified that we sort of Changed the instructional model. We pushed an interventionist into co-teach. We did something different and we've seen a lot of growth At that, you know at that classroom in that grade level as well. So Our math data is really is really looking really encouraging The next graph just shows those scale scores and we look at scale scores In particular because they grow, you know, it builds on each other That's not, you know, you're going from kindergarten to grade eight each of those numbers are going up Um, and we see, you know, of course our kindergartners came in and took it for the first time And really, you know, show that they they have a good a good grasp on those foundational skills in kindergarten So, uh, I think they're setting the bar high in kindergarten first and second grade That um for us to make sure that we continue to meet their needs and and they make that that same level of growth Throughout the years the content does get a little harder when you hit third grade But I think I think we're prepared to to match their what the they're certainly showing us that they're ready to learn And are accessing the learning so we're excited about that And the next couple of pages are just more on the on the informational side So I don't the only but if you've got questions on it What domains we assess in each of the grade levels that aligns to the common core state standards It just gives you an idea of sort of how how things progress over time from kindergarten through eighth grade And then a series of sample questions for you to look at to see what kinds of questions our students are being asked When they're doing these assessments they're You know, they range the mostly are They're not all multiple choice. Although I notice here that all the questions That you're looking at are multiple choice. Sometimes they do have to do a calculation and put it put it in But they yeah, they see those kinds of questions. They can hear all the questions be asked of them There's an audio component to it if that's helps their learning But this is sort of how it progresses from, you know, a kindergarten question all the way to an eighth grade question Any questions on on the math again, we continue to work on the proficiencies and I do I think we've called it out before I do just want I want to credit our, you know, our Our families our parents our caregivers our pre-k teachers and our kindergarten first grade teachers are really Really meeting our students needs and and helping to implement this robust hands-on Math learning that we think is going to be really influential on how they do moving forward I had a comment if I could make it or a question This is very heartening and I think we're all Going to sleep better and we're When we first had your report and I compliment you and your team and the teachers for doing what they're doing And also the presentation. So it's understandable for us that are In la la land, I guess the one question I had was The change between the fall in the and the winter is dramatic in math less so in english you're going to get to How much do you think of that is the summer gap and I guess I would like to think that tracking our progress when we get our spring results We'll be able to compare our spring results to our fall results or You get a little better sense of that, but How big is it is that summer fall off and and again tell us and remind us what we're doing to try to Reduce that fall off Thank you. Yeah. Thank you, bill. I appreciate your your comments on it I think there's a couple pieces there right the summer looks different for different kids and different families So there's not sort of one calculation on that One thing that is different this year and we're continuing to figure out whether this is exactly the right calendar Is that we did do the assessment in october? And part of the reason there was to get a little bit of a better sense of how instructions actually working for our students during those first You know four four to five weeks of school not just testing them right You know, they're not just getting that summer where they are right when they come in but sort of all right They've gotten in they've gotten the routines. So I don't think I think we have a I don't think this totally reflects summer slide when you have an october assessment window It is linked to getting data too. So that that is a just sort of highlighting why we may end up moving it a little bit earlier in the In the fall and so we may have this conversation next year about how much of its summer slide And also you'll have to remember for the vast majority of our students Track my progress was new to them this fall. We had two districts piloted last year but you know any of our Any of our kind of younger kids You know any of our first graders across the district And a lot of our schools this was a new it wasn't very very different from star 360 But it was different and so in some ways some of our fall performance could just be learning how it works And seeing that I would say that our kindergartners who took it for the first time this january didn't seem to have any trouble What they've also read they've had exposure to other things in you know before january and so they you know They may have benefited from that just starting later in the year Um, so I think that's true. I you're on your question around. What are we doing to help? Diminish and prevent summer slide is a great question I think we I think we have work to do there too and we have some resources set aside in our Our esser funding on covet to think about a little bit more about you know, are there Are the materials that families could be um, could have access to that would help in terms of books I know we do have our sort of our robust summer programming through one planet and the department of Special services to help with students there, but I think it's a good question for us to to pull back and make sure that we are thinking More about how can we help those students in particular that might are more at risk of having that slide Thank you Uh, so let me I'll just I'll go through I notice language arts a bill is correct right the the progress here is not as dramatic as it was in math I think I will say we hoped it would be more And we know that the challenge that we have in literacy right now is um Is different than the one in math and is that we are really trying to change Some practices that we know don't don't work in giving students the foundational skills They need to be really good readers and writers um, and that and Sort of changing Established practice is harder Than teaching like sort of new practice and I would say this is not universal of all of our teachers But if I talk in sort of broad strokes in general we hear that people don't feel like they know as well How to teach math when they're coming out of you know being new teachers Whereas people may think they know how to teach reading. I will say I thought I knew how to teach reading I thought I was doing a great job at home And we have learned differently and so you have to sort of change your practice rather than just learning any practice And that is harder to do And so I think this this is where I sort of think a bit more about like a like a ocean liner trying to turn rather than You know trying it's just it's going to I think it's going to take a little longer And we see some good, you know good progress in When we start to look drill down into the data at um at sort of more discrete levels But we don't see where we're looking at sort of the you know the almost thousand students that do this testing We don't see that those bigger bigger shifts from fall to winter as we did in math Um, I think I'm done all again. I think we are encouraged by where our kindergartners are are starting So I think we're starting with something pretty positive there and we'll continue to to build on that um and In general most of our grade levels if you look at the graph that's on the screen now They are they are closing the gap the gap between where our average score was and where the expectation is Um has gotten smaller. Uh, it hasn't necessarily, you know ticked into the cognitive yet, but it has Has shrunk since the fall and so we're um heading in the heading in the right direction the most part there And then at the end there we've got the questions that just sample questions from the from the literacy part of the Um of the assessment that again give you a sense of what kinds of questions are being asked across the grade levels Any questions or comments on that? content area Thank you. Thank you No, I think I'm good unless I know All right. Thank you guys Yeah, so are you awesome about a copy of my report and um like I've been doing for a few months now I have a rule change spotlight Um since I've done so many changes um in the religion regulations around special education So this month I focused on um functional skills and performance Which is now um included as one of the basic skill areas Um, it wasn't before it was focused more on reading math writing listening skills comprehension um, so now um They've added functional skills to the list and really what that what that is all about is um really just skills that um Children need for daily living whether it be you know personal um skills for work skills needed at home or at school It's just kind of like your routine of um activities for everyday living um And that can include for some students some study skills um organization skills Um, and we're just finding that a lot of skill a lot of students right now are just kind of lacking some of those Those basic skills, so I'm I'm really glad that they added this um as an area of focus um The other kind of big big pieces that have been happening in February um We are in um what the agency of education is calling cyclic monitoring It's monitoring that just happens every three years. They just do like check-ins every three years um, so all of our cyclic monitoring documents Which there are quite a few was due To the agency of education by february 15th, so I got those all in In one of the document areas that kind of stood out that we Didn't fully have in place Was a special education Procedures and policy And I know superintendent canarni just brought that Kind of draft that the agency of education had already had Brought it up to the policy committee. So we're moving forward In kind of that adoption So then we'll meet that piece of compliance for monitoring It's something new um, it used to only be for like your policy on like discipline and And kind of your conduct Which we had that one. So I did send that one in as part of our Monitoring pieces, but we were just missing these other ones which are new Um And then also as part of our monitoring We've been needing still monthly with our acquainted coach And focusing on math, which is maybe another reason why our math scores are going up We've been having a lot of professional development around the math. So So we're we're still, you know doing that. So that looks really well done Um, and then the next piece of monitoring that we're in Which at the beginning of the year in september It was called selective monitoring, but now they've changed the title to targeted monitoring Um, and that was for our post-secondary transition plans So students that are 16 and above their plans for transitioning out of high school either going into the workplace or college or independent living And so All of that paperwork is due tomorrow And I have it all done and it's been submitted So we we're looking um, we're looking great So it just kind of like sitting back and just kind of waiting for for their results But that's been a big a big piece of February. There's been a lot of information Due to the AOE So this month And then the other kind of big piece Is haley's ride Who's the one planet director and I have been meeting to kind of start talking about summer summer intervention ESY or what they call extended school year services And what that will look like and so we're starting to plan that and and kind of get a sense of Who's who's willing to to kind of work this summer? Um, and um, just so then we can get things up and rolling Any questions build-up Am I up you're uh, sorry I'm a common and then a question the common is I really appreciate the the coordination and the emphasis you are making uh with andah Michaela, uh about coordinating and thinking about um Uh professional and development, uh planning for next year. I mean, that's just huge There's no way we're going to succeed unless everybody gets better at what we're doing and that includes ourselves as board members and To hear and see and read what you're doing and thinking about and asking the hard questions is I find really Wonderful. My question is um, could you explain what section 504? Plan that the coordinator would be handling. I know when my son jimmy was growing up in the third grade He had a stutter and had to have special help My gosh, his parents really weren't that much aware of it and he also needed help and spelling and he got both of those and and The sky's the limit now. So um, would you explain what? Section 504 is all about Yeah, so remember we added in the budget Um the section 504 plan coordinator and the section 504 plan is based on The americans with disabilities act the ada So basically it's accessing The school building accessing education based on their disability So it's a way to further school to then document accommodations that way and or services Um that need to be made for a student that has a documented diagnosis or a documented disability That may not qualify under the rules for special education Could you give us an example? Sure. Um, there have been some students that may have um a Slight hearing impairment, right? So they have a disability of you know, a hearing loss But it's not to the effect that it's impacting their academic progress enough for special education But they still need some accommodations Whether it be, you know an amplifying speaker in a classroom or where they sit in a classroom Or the volume needs to be adjusted or their headphones need to be a certain type Right. Um, that would go into a 504 plan Thank you. Sure right Any other questions? Yeah, you're welcome Tara Good evening everyone. Can you hear me? Okay? No Right, you have my report which outlines what is happening in the business office for the month of February or march. Sorry So if there's any questions on that, otherwise we can move to the Projections So this is the projection for the su as of December 31st. So the close of second quarter So you'll see that we have some potential areas of savings. We've got salary budget versus contracts of just under $79,000 Benefits $2,376 And transportation for special education of $385 and that's because we're currently using IDEAD funds Which is our grant to cover those transportation costs So we're not accessing them at this point in time out of the special education budget So we have $466,331 as the potential Expenditure savings as of December 31st So on the revenue side Within the central office budget, we had $131,000 projected for title revenue and we actually currently have $155,570 so we're about $25,000 over there And then we received just shy of $244,000 more than anticipated in our census plot grant for special education And you'll see the decrease in the extraordinary reimbursement is because of the fact that we are using The IDEAD fund to cover the transportation costs for our students We cannot include those costs And what we had budgeted for for the extraordinary reimbursement because then we would be double dipping So right now that is only anticipating tuition that we have paid through December We have many contracted services that have not invoiced us yet So as we continue to progress throughout the year That number will change based on what our students are needing for Above the $60,000 threshold. That is the the maximum that We're to pay and then the state reimburses us For over that 60,000 So you'll see we have the increase in the IDEAD basic flow-through grant So that was a lot of carryover that we had and some additional funding there So that's why we're using those funds to cover our transportation costs right now We're getting a little bit more than we anticipated in the IDEAD preschool grant And then the triple E grant we got a little bit more than anticipated there So overall as of the end of December, we potentially have a $32,000 surplus For the entire central office and special education budget Thanks Thank you, Tara. Nice job. You're welcome Any questions for Tara? All right, Bill. You're running out of questions Well, I was wondering because Tara looks so cool and relaxed And here she is deep in budgeting season with the possibilities of making all these things happen And we're staring at $32,000 potential surface and your experience with us, Tara Would you expect that number to go up or down between now and June? I would say based on Last year I think it could stay consistent prior to that. Um, I would say it was a moving target We've got a pretty good handle on our expenditures and within all of our departments So that the key there is really, you know, if we get a student that moves in that we didn't anticipate That requires, you know, a lot of extra cost like that because throw that number off But yeah, I mean, I'm I'm pretty confident as of December based on what we had paid Wow, thank you Anything else guys? All right. Thank you, Tara Ray Hello everybody. Hi As I bring up my report here and Look back over it I am still waiting to hear from the state about Cognitive and I am still confident that we have a great plan for us here WRVSU And the one thing not my report that I would like to mention is that with the help of some of the folks who are here prior to the meeting Um, we hung up some pictures of students learning around the central office So those of you attending virtually the next time you're here be sure to check those out It's the goal of the superintendent to make sure We are reminded of and celebrate the reason we're here Thank you and now entertaining any questions Any questions for ray? I'll just add to ray. He's been working hard behind the scenes on population projections We expect what that we're going to be able to roll those out By the end of March to all districts in the SU Wow, great. So thank you for those efforts, right? Sure No problem All right, so Maggie let's do it. And Maggie I'll let you roll with us. Thank you. Um, can you put up the Policy on engagement ray or should I am I allowed to do that? I think he's doing it right now, Maggie. Thank you so much. Uh, we moved today to bring the, um Um This policy out of committee and to the full board. Um, specifically just looking at how People board members engage with each other around board business So, um, there's a couple key Lines here, but mostly it is a policy about Orderly and respectful communication, uh and specifically Uh with with board policies. So, um, you know, there have been occasions We had something that came up Recently where someone took um bridge with how a board member was communicating on social media But in under that in that circumstance, um, the board member wasn't acting as a board member. It was their their, um personal facebook Postings and so, um, this this helps clarify, right that when we are engaging as board members We are comporting ourselves professionally and using appropriate language Um, not offensive or objectionable Uh, and that is separate than our personal lives Questions that I can answer Bill I'm so surprised you have a question Yeah, I My question is, um Are we acting when we're as a board member? um When we're at board meetings and and our activity starts when the chairman Gables us to order and it ends when Somebody calls for adjournment and we're adjourned Is that what this policy addresses is from? um, the Initiation of a board meeting to the end of the board meeting and we should behave ourselves and we should Be kind and civil makes all the sense in the world and in fact if we're not there could be a a censure Uh option which we don't have right now and it seems to me is it's nice to have that in our Pocket even though hopefully we'll never never never have to exercise that So the reason I'm asking that is so I step out and I get in my car and I drive home and I stop at Shaw's and I picking up something I won't say what and somebody comes up to me and says bill You know, I can't stand what you're doing about xyz Have to do the school and I get into conversation and it gets hotter and hotter and hotter And I finally can't stand anymore and I go nuts Is that covered that that situation covered by this policy or is it end at the schoolhouse gate Or put in other words at the end of our meeting So so two things That if you'll look at the one two third paragraph in the last line It's the board expects that speech and conduct among and between board members members of the administration Faculty staff students and the public are civil and respectful. So we do hope that if it's a situation that escalates that You know, you can exit stage left without you know Amplifying the situation Right. Um that and then to follow up. There is a censure piece here the very last paragraph Um Says that censure requires a majority of vote of board members. So that is a possible consequence If you are at the grocery store picking up donuts and you decide to get have words with your You know fellow towns person then that that is that isn't that is an option that we could exercise Yep I just I read that But I must say the first paragraph and the second paragraph and most of the third paragraph seemed to point to the fact that this applies to board meetings and when we're Conversing with ourselves whoever's in the audience and I think it needs to be clearer um If that's what it is and I support your interpretation or your Emphasis on that last sentence somehow it needs to be clarified that this goes beyond um our behavior when we're at board meetings to when we're out with the general public and that we're Discussing things and that we it's just we should We should not blow it and and um Because it it affects us all and it hurts us all and so I just think if that's the case here And I totally support that I encourage the policy committee to make it a little clearer that and includes our behavior um outside of board meetings Okay, I will I will I will bring that back. Um I am curious if anyone else has any feedback for me to bring back to the policy committee Well, um, yeah, well, I mean I just um to kind of piggyback on what bill was saying I did read the first sentence in the censure section And it refers to you know board members at board meetings And in the in the conduct of board business And so I guess it it seems like the censure part at least is At least when I read it the first time I read it it looked like It was referring only to conduct in meetings. I guess And maybe that's a place where There could be an edit or something This is in the conduct of board business. So I think one of the things we're trying to figure out and we'll talk about more as a committee is Again, what is a board member wearing their board member hat and when are they Not wearing their board member hat and so we try to capture that on your board business So if I was at the general store asking, you know, wearing my ask me questions about the school board name tag Then then that would the expectation is like I'm I'm engaging in a respectful way, but if I am Picking up my own doughnuts at the store and It was somebody and being disrespectful that if there's a um That there is a consequence that we can use um within within the word suit to say listen, you got to You you can't spot off like that, but I think that's great feedback. So if we're I'm not sure But what we will do with that, you know, I think the idea was that where there's this plane engagement with the public is Specifically around board business like we tried to do that. We're not trying to micromanage people's lives and also Someone has opinions on things in the social media. For example We have to make sure that we're not they're not Being identified as board members if they are trying to Express themselves privately Had a question too Yeah, um You know just thinking about kind of what bill had mentioned and and in a situation um that I noticed that arise on facebook in Stockbridge, um connections Uh So I know in the past um, there there is and was a um a on What was it, uh, I believe our sud had had a Page on facebook and we really haven't been using that platform lately. Um, and I know that a a A resident had kind of called that out online and it was almost kind of a jab and so You know, I think We need to have some sort of I don't know standard as far as social media goes my opinion is that You know, we we have a really great website now. I think sui's and and our sud The we've got a great website. So we're just trying to direct people to that website because it has everything on it So why post anything on social media where? Really, that's just a place and a forum for people to complain Um, you know, I just think it just opens up a can of worms and puts us in a really awkward position Um to start conversation there as a board member um So You know, I think As well as say out in public too at a store or whatever somebody confronts you and it's kind of a um A conflicting topic or or whatnot um, if and I feel like if we're a board member and you feel that that that is you know, that it's uh Creating tension in a conversation. I think that's when we just need to to be able to Speak up and say listen, you know, I hear you but I think the appropriate place to have this discussion is at a full board meeting or at the Um, you know at a board meeting, you know, and we invite you to to be there as public and to have comments Um, that would be the place for you to come and and discuss your what you know and voice your opinion um, I don't think that's For us individually to to really get into out in public um I don't know what would you all think of that but I know especially on social media It's it it can be an issue and it made me realize it as an r-sub member That's something that I want to you know discuss with our board And our next meeting is how we handle the facebook page. I mean, I personally think we need to just Step away from that until the public and yes that everything's on our website And we invite them to to visit our website. It has great information It's a great resource to check up on the staff and the students and all the great things that are going on um But yeah, that's just my my opinion and my comment Thank you All right, so we'll bring that back and we'll talk about it the next policy committee meeting a little further guys Perfect. Thanks for the feedback folks. Thank you The other one is a policy that Annette had mentioned um, that's in your packet or it's it's essentially What would play policy from the bsba that was done in Coordination with the agency of education There's one thing that was added based on my consultation with our attorney and it's in the third paragraph And it says along with relevant regulations and applicable laws It's the second sentence to the end In the third paragraph and that is to just make certain that as by policy, we are saying that You know, there are federal laws as well Right and there could be times when the federal laws and the state laws Or the procedures in that manual that we're talking about that we will reference that they are saying we need to reference Could possibly be in conflict with each other And so that is where we would work with our legal counsel to navigate if there was a conflict So I did not want to put in policy that we would necessarily always follow This manual out of the state if there happened to be something that could possibly then put us in a situation where we weren't following the federal law So that's why that one sentence was added my hope is This is something we need to have on the books. My hope is to have this ready For action next month would be my goal. Just so folks know anybody got any questions or If not, if many will just let this move along negotiations with council updates We are still working towards Meeting you just support staff And Three weeks ago, we're hoping for another meeting next week And that's where you're at in that process Superintendent evaluation your evaluation should have come out an email. Hopefully everybody saw them Please go ahead get those filled out if you can Come back in like to have a perfect score this year. We're having everybody fill theirs out It's a great process for all of us that are involved And we have board member committee Mentor mentee handbook. Did you guys get a copy of that in your email? Our committee's been working really hard. Michaela's been working really hard for us We saw some more edits and stuff that we're working on but we're I started it and put it in my draft That's what you've got to do together and I saw your name when I was through it. Yeah, so Jamie and I have one work to do So we're going to get our letter done. I made a suggestion One of the things that we wanted to see in here was acronyms for board members Tonight listening to all even me being a board member for a really long time. I'm like, what does that mean? I suggested we put that in hard print because I think It would be much easier if you're in a meeting if you could kind of look grab your book and look that up And see what that is while the people are talking about it instead of trying to get to a link But that was just one suggestion. I had we really want other people's feedback We'd like to roll it out for new members coming on board here in march And kind of test pilot it and see how it goes I just want to thank bill for sharing his glossary of terms and acronyms with us because I did I did take a lot of your work that you had started So thank you. That's my link Does anybody have any questions or thoughts? Um We'd love to hear feedback from everybody. So please take a look at it um Slowly as good as as what we put into it and I think Everybody probably has different things or has different ideas of what they might need or want in there. So please Give us a heads up So Ray's going to share a survey link. Um that will um Allow you to get feedback so then I can share it with you That was good bill you got a question No, I just want to commend kathy It's kathy's this is her initiative. She's the one that thought about this Came up with this is pushing this and leading this is in other words that New board members don't have to wait a year to figure out what's going on Yeah, what a loss of resources that is Everybody that joins us has skills and ideas and passions that we want to tap and this handbook is a huge step in that direction to the speed up the learning curve and and to make us more effective board members and as Phil Gore told us the statistically the more effective the boards are The the higher better performance our students Will be achieving there's a direct direct relationship. So kathy I just wanted to thank you a lot for this Thank you bill And I want to thank everybody at the committee. It's a lot of hard work and especially mckayla She's put in a ton of hours on this for us. So it's really appreciated All right, um discussion this full audit Yeah, I'll start and then terry you can jump in Um, so terry and I just received the su audit. We had requested it last week. I I Spoke with our auditors myself directly asking for a draft the final draft of the audit We received a draft tonight that's that's not finalized Um, and we wouldn't have you take action on it this day. Anyways, we do have draft audits for all your districts What terra has been projecting in regards to surpluses and things of that nature I'm feeling really confident in her projections. We're not seeing anything alarming there with balance sheets I want you to know that Our audit is our is out remember for rfp. It's something that we'll talk about next month Um And you know, I I'll say this so terra doesn't have to I'm really disappointed That we don't have this reaction for you tonight And I want you to know that it was certainly a request that was very directed to my Out of my office and directly from me last week Um, I expect that you're going to have one to act on next month And that you have it in plenty of time to review it beforehand So that miss anything You did not um as far as the district audits what caused the delay in getting them out to you is The auditing team that works with our lead auditor Apparently didn't get the communication that child nutrition was centralized So all of your individual district audits They had broken out all of the child nutrition program So I had to have them reverse all of those transactions and move all of that financial information onto the central office as you Audit so that's what caused them the main delay in the individual district audit And I have So the board knows our goal is to have you adopt them by February so that we don't have audits coming in front of new boards Yeah, that was our goal All right, um any questions on the audit? All right Hopefully some new hires next month and that's working hard to solidify some special educators Yeah, I'd like I'd like the board to enter into an executive session on contracts because we do have a transportation bid And my request would be that you invite the business manager and that roads and I actually invite I asked one of our principals to join us Uh principal andra bowen from the white river unified district. She's the deaf one. Well, I'll make a principal in my second Oh, uh, yeah, I'm looking to go into the executive session And we're going to invite Tara, Amy, Honda Okay And do I have a second second? All right so Do I have a motion to come out of executive session? Make a motion to come out of executive session So I can All right, so moved All right, okay now I make a motion to that we Don't accept the bids that we receive for bussen and We explore we direct the superintendent to explore other options Do I have a second second? Any discussion on the motion? All right, hang on. I'm going to do a roll call vote. Um, Amy I Well Hi Maggie Hi Sylvia Hi Tammy Hi Phil Hi Patrick Hi Sue Hi Rodney's an I. Kathy's an I. Did I get everyone? So unanimously we passed up. All right And is there anything else to it? All right guys, I would entertain a motion to adjourn Make a motion to adjourn All right. Good luck everybody at your meetings next week. Thank you. Thank you Good luck. All right, we're gonna get this everybody's gonna pass


Hello and welcome to the International Daily Roundup by People's Dispatch where we bring you some of the major news developments from across the world, our headlines. Donald Trump threatens to withdraw support from the World Health Organization, calls the UN Agency China-centric. Wuhan cautiously reopens after over 76 days of lockdown. Indian doctors protesting lack of protective gear threatened with legal action by authorities. Former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa is sentenced to eight years in prison, and Iraqi Prime Minister-designant Adnan Al-Zurfi proposes a new cabinet. The total number of cases of coronavirus has crossed 1.43 million as of 11am GMT on April 8th, with a number of deaths at 82,000. Over 300,000 people have recovered. The number may be steadily increasing and countries are struggling with lockdowns and equipment shortage, but for some, it's clearly politics as usual. US President Donald Trump has threatened to withdraw support from the World Health Organization. While talking to the press, the president complained about the UN Agency being China-centric and effectively accused it of covering for the country. This is the latest accusation directed against China by the US government that has been consistently blaming the country for the outbreak. During a press briefing held earlier yesterday, the president raised questions about why the WHO did not want other countries, including the US, months in advance, asserting that they should know. This is despite the fact that the US, the WHO and Chinese authorities had communicated to the US early in January itself. He also criticized the WHO for supporting targeted travel bans in early stages, largely due to concerns of economic damage it could have done. In the earlier press briefing the president gave, he even said that the government was withholding all funds to the WHO, he later backtracked on that claim and said that the administration is looking into the option. The US contributed close to 16% of the total contributions to the WHO's budget last year. Meanwhile, health workers in India have been complaining about the shortage of personal protective equipment, including PPE, including N-95 masks, sorry, and other protective gear. The medical fatality in India has supported the health professionals, pointing out that the shortage of resources makes them extremely vulnerable to infections in their fight against the spread of COVID-19. A number of healthcare workers, including doctors and sanitary workers have threatened mass resignations over the shortage of PPE. Just last week in Delhi's Hindura Hospital, 12 doctors resigned. While several doctors in the hospital have stated that they do not intend to renew their contracts with the hospital with a severe shortage of protective gear. In response to these letters, the local authorities have threatened legal action against the medical professionals. Authorities have stated that no resignation of health workers will be accepted at a time when the entire country is fighting the pandemic. The matter was exacerbated after reports emerged of doctors getting infected by the disease in Mumbai's metropolitan region, which has over 700 reported cases, the largest in the country, over 50 doctors have been reported to have contracted the disease while treating patients according to government numbers. In today's infocus section, we take a look at Pakistan where just like India, health workers in the front line of the fight against COVID-19 were detained in Quetta after protesting about the lack of protective gear in hospitals. We talked to Dr. Aftar Basharab of the Red Workers Front. Here is what you have to say. Hello and welcome to People's Dispatch. And today we are going to be talking about the COVID-19 situation in Pakistan. And with us, we are Dr. Aftar Basharab from the Red Workers Front. Thank you so much, Dr. Aftar, for joining us. So first of all, what I wanted to ask was, currently, could you talk a bit about the increase in the number of cases? What are the areas where the disease is spreading the fastest in Pakistan? Yes, currently, according to the government statistics, there are more than 3,500 cases. Cases have been reported in every part of the country, but Punjab and Central Provinces are the most affected areas. And especially the main urban centers of these provinces are especially affected by the corona pandemic. But I think that the 3,500 cases are gross in their estimation because a very low number of tests has been carried out. There was recently a report published in Medical Journal that said that in a country like Pakistan, only 1,500 tests have been conducted in a population of 1 million. And it should be at least 15,000 tests conducted per million. I think that there is a gross underconducting of tests. And if proper quantity of tests are carried out, then a real number of people who are infected with corona virus will be a lot more greater than it. Right. And what has been the response of the government? Has it? Because in many countries, we have seen various models across the world. Some governments are being very proactive. But what is the response within Pakistan? The government response is very, very, very poor. And the Pakistani government had a lot of time because in December, in early January, the cases were, there was even cry about the corona epidemic in all over the world. And as you know that a lot of students and workers go to and fro from Pakistan and China. And there was, there were very clear warning signs that sooner or later, Pakistan is going to be affected with this corona pandemic. And actually the government had a lot of time. Almost it had a time of two and a half, more than two and a half months. But no preparations were carried out. No protective kits were arranged for the doctors and paramedics and nurses. No ventilators were arranged. No special funds were released for the healthcare sector. No, my years were taken that lockdown condition, how the government is going to feed the daily worker working class. The response was absolutely poor.  And even the panic situation started from the second week of March onwards. And it's almost more than three weeks now. But still the situation hasn't improved. And so has the government announced any special packages, any kind of economic relief measures for various sections who might be the most affected? Yes, the government has provided a relief package of 1.2 trillion rupees, 1200 billion Pakistani rupees. But it's a relief package for the rich. It's a relief package for the capitalist, large for the restless. 100 billion rupees have been given as a tax subsidy to the exporting industries. 200 billion rupees will be pocketed by the capitalists in the name of giving wages to the workers, which they will not give. We're pretty sure about that, that money will be pocketed by the business themselves. And then a lot of other tax concessions for the industrialists and bankers, and a lot of other tax breaks, a lot of other subsidies, etc., etc. Recently, the government has announced a relief package for the construction industry. And the government has announced that anybody who invests in the construction sector will not ask about the source of income. So it's basically asking for a whitening of the black money, a whitening of that huge black economy. So the relief package has got almost nothing, has got almost nothing for the poor. So it's just peanuts for the poor. Right. And from what reports you're getting, what has been the situation of, say, the working class, the poorer sections in some of the big cities especially and in the villages also? Well, you see that in a class society, every natural disaster, every natural calamity, it doesn't affect all the classes in the same way. So obviously, the working masses of Pakistan are the most similarly and most hardly hit sections of society because of this pandemic and the lockdowns and the economic crisis that has ensued. And well, almost 70 to 80% of the Pakistani working class are daily wages. And they are actually reduced to 100 in the past two to three weeks. In actual sense of the world, they do not have any food to eat anymore. And food riots are also starting to occur in various parts of the country. And the workers who are working, who are part of the organized labor, the industrial workers, their situation is also not good. And a lot of many of them have been downsized immediately. And even their two to three months' salaries were bit held. And they were not paid for, they were not paid when they were kicked out, they were literally kicked out of the factories by the owners. And so the overall conditions of both the urban working masses and the rural working masses are very poor and there's a lot of hunger, there are hunger riots, there are bread riots happening in the country. China has lifted the lockdown in Wuhan city after 76 days. Wuhan in Hubei province had reported the first coronavirus outbreak last December and had been under lockdown since January 23rd. After the number of cases surged in January, officials decided to impose a strict lockdown in order to curb the spread of the virus. All commercial activities were halted, public transport was suspended and except for essential services, people were not allowed to go out. Later, even the essential services were provided at the doorstep in order to minimize the movement of people. Of China's more than 81,000 infections, Wuhan alone had 50,000 cases. Around 95% of those who were infected in the city have since recovered and were discharged. The restrictions on the movement of people inside the city are being gradually lifted after China declared victory over the pandemic in the past few days. However, precautions are still being taken. Officials are disinfected most of the public spaces including the insides of trains and all passengers in and out of the stations are being checked before the travel. Health checkups are also being conducted at checkpoints and in public places. In our next story, the National Court of Justice of Ecuador sentenced former President Rafael Correa to eight years in prison on bribery and corruption charges. Following the verdict, Correa has been banned from electoral politics for 25 years. The court convicted Correa, former Vice President Jorge Glass, and 18 other former ministers and government officials on charges of accepting $8 million from private companies as bribes in exchange for public contracts and using the funds for the electoral campaigns of their party, the Paris Alliance, between 2012 and 2016. Correa rejected the charges and denounced his sentences in the form of political persecution intended to prevent him and his allies from running in the presidential election schedule next year. Correa, who is currently residing in Brussels, Belgium, along with his family, is likely to appeal the conviction. Correa has strong popular support in Ecuador and has been a constant victim of persecution under the current President Lenin Moreno. In July 2018, the court had ordered a preventative detention of Correa, accusing him of being complicit in the failed kidnapping of right-wing opposition leader Fernando Balda. In August 2019, another preventative detention was ordered against him in regard to the current corruption case. Several political leaders from across Latin America have condemned the judicial decision motivated by the right-wing and imperialist politics of Moreno and have expressed solidarity with the progressive leader. Iraq's new prime minister-designate Adnan Al-Zurfi announced the formation of a new cabinet. Al-Zurfi has also presented his proposed government to the Iraqi Parliament and is now waiting for its notification. He was nominated for the post of Prime Minister by President Barham Saleh on March 17th, a fortnight after the resignation of the previous Prime Minister-designate Mohammed Taufi Qalawi. Qalawi had failed to win the Iraqi Parliament's approval within the stipulated 30 days. Al-Zurfi was previously the governor of the Najaf province. He is a part of the Nasser or victory alliance led by former Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. Both Al-Zurfi and Al-Abadi are perceived to be pro-US figures and are accused of being involved in multiple corruption scandals in Najaf. Major Shia blocs in the parliament including the Fateh block and the Sairoun block have already rejected Al-Zurfi's nomination, calling him the American intelligence candidate. Other pro-Sunni and Kurdish political parties are yet to make a call and their support will decide the future of the Zulfi cabinet. That's all we have in this episode of the International Lady Roundup. To know more about these stories visit our website peoplesdispatch.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Thanks for watching.


Hello and welcome to Monet Cafe. I'm artist Susan Jenkins and I'm going to be bringing you a lesson today That is a technique I use often which is combining watercolor and soft pastel I love this technique because it helps me just keep a more Impressionistic feel which is kind of the focus of a lot of the artists who subscribe to this channel Oh, and please subscribe to my channel if you want more free art lessons like this I'm wanted to show you right now my technique that I use when I'm doing Pastel painting on watercolor paper water color paper paper will warp when you apply water to it So I want to keep it from warping as much as possible So what I do is I just take plain old blue painters tape that you get at any hardware store And I apply it to the back side. I like to work on the side of the watercolor paper. That's the bumpy side Again more impressionistic and it also takes the watercolor better and so this is the back side This is the smooth side and I'm just applying the tape all the way around and I'll have a little bit of a you know Quarter-inch edge off of it then I peel it up and I'm going to flip it over I put a piece of tape on the top to be able to adhere it to the board now What this is going to do it's going to see how I just apply this tape to the very top of it So a little bit is going to stick to my board now So what it's going to do is allow me to paint all the way to the edges now You can see I put that one piece up there to hold it I'm applying the blue tape. It's going to make all of these edges stay down Quite well so that when I do the watercolor painting.  I used vine charcoal I wanted to keep it loose and free, but at the same time it's very important to get your drawing accurate It is the good bones of any good artwork, but at the same time I don't want to be so fussy and detailed, but I want the basics good now I've got my little watercolor palette here.  It's almost better if you just have it kind of crazy and loose here Keeping your values right even with watercolor You know I talk about value the difference between the lights and the darks all the time in pastel painting Well, it works the same for watercolor in any medium so what I'm doing now is I'm just getting a general mood and You know, I I happen to like watercolor painting as well Even though I focus my channel mostly on pastel painting. That's my main medium I use but I use watercolor painting a lot for under paintings So you can just see me kind of going crazy here getting in the values keeping it loose One of the things when you if you start to play around with watercolor one of the tricks is to figure out the amount of water versus paint and to keep it flowing right and so that's a that's a whole another lesson But hopefully you'll just play around with this a little bit It's best to practice don't start a real serious piece if you've never done these techniques before Just get something small and play around and consider it a study Then you won't get too frustrated if it doesn't come out great most likely It's not gonna come out great the first few times you try this just like my things did not come out great the first few times I tried it so um practice practice practice and mostly have fun And don't be afraid to mess something up and throw it away You know work on some cheap supplies at first and and just have fun And if you haven't already done so check out our Monet cafe art group on Facebook. It's a great group We've got thousands of artists from all over the world Learning together that way you can just ask questions and it doesn't have to be just me that answers those questions You get advice from a lot of there's advanced artists Intermediate artists and a lot of beginners on there So if you're a beginner you'll love that group you get lots of advice so again just working through this Getting in the right values for the underpainting. This is called an underpainting if you're curious of what it is a lot of people are very Have a lot of questions about an underpainting just like I did when I got started I heard all these artists throwing these terms out underpainting underpainting. What is it? I mean, it's literally what it says. It's a painting underneath your painting or a Toning your paper underneath your painting and what it does is it establishes a mood It establishes your values and in the end I find it helps for your final piece to have a much more painterly and Impressionistic style so again, I'm just getting in my general foundation right now with the watercolor and Then I'm going to share with you the next thing that we do Which is to make right now This is this paper is not going to take pastel very well Even after I'm done with the watercolor. It's because it's a smooth It's got a little bit of a bumpiness to it because it's watercolor paper, but it will not hold pastel soft pastels to it they will you basically only be able to get like one layer and They just kind of start falling right off and getting muddy after you apply more So we're gonna do a lot of you guys know this already if you've been on this channel We're gonna do a little trick and It's a neat trick. It's inexpensive To make the pastel stick after this so let me get finished with this watercolor painting you can enjoy it I don't think it takes much longer, and then we'll get started with our little trick to be able to apply the pastels. I Thought I'd add a comment here because I get a lot of questions about How do I choose my colors a lot of times? I know my colors may not appear to be exactly what the reference photo is but as a general rule of thumb I basically I think we can train our eyes to see subtleties in color So even though the reference photo to the right doesn't appear to have a lot of yellow in it I had some of the sunlight coming in from my window And if you look if you start training your eyes you can kind of see those yellows in the lower right-hand side on the wall there and kind of up above it and Then of course always with shadows you can intensify them with color Instead of just doing grays you can do blues and purples and try to use things other than black or gray just use a darker value of something and Typically that will enhance your color and your paintings. So that's just a general rule of thumb Oh now for the magic trick. Well, it's not a magic trick, but it's a trick. It's liquid gesso clear liquid gesso That was fast, huh? It's just a product that you can use I use a foam brush and Basically, all I'm doing is you can see putting it on the foam brush I usually work top to bottom and I just give a Kind of a thin layer, but I'm not too skimpy with the application I put enough of it on the brush to really be able to get it on there good But you also might notice some people like oh, you're just blending your watercolor painting, but I like it I think it kind of blends it softens it and makes it an even better Underpainting for creating that mood that I like so then all I do after this is I usually get out my blow-dryer And I just dry it, but it's dry it dried a little darker here And that now it's time to get started applying pastel now as I typically do I start working with Values and getting my darks and I noticed underneath that one Hydrangea the top of the bottle there is some of the darkest dark So just going to go ahead and establish that Because you know value is relative to other values so and color is too In other words something dark will look darker next to something light It won't look as dark next to something of a medium value So I like to try to get some of the values and kind of all over the painting Before I get to set on one area, but I'm again. I'm trying to get some of the values in of this bottle notice I'm staying loose. I also like to go in the direction of how the object would be and That your strokes if you keep them directional They're going to be much more believable. So sometimes people ask me I talk a lot about how different Types of pastels based on their hardness or their softness are better to apply either as initial layers or final layers Basically harder pastels are better to apply at the beginning because they don't take up as much of the tooth or the grit In this case I don't have a lot of grit because all it is is a layer of clear gesso Unlike sanded pastel papers that give you a lot more layering. So I have to be careful of that But medium hardness pastels are good really kind of all over the place, but the softies Oh, I just jumped ahead. Sorry. I missed some video footage there But the real softies are best to use at the end because they will still Apply on top of other layers whereas your harder pastels will hardly show up at the very end of a painting However on that note, I have people ask me often, you know about when I use this pastel or that pastel with soft or hard and Basically, I don't have a gazillion pastels like some artists do so often I pick the pastel Oh, sorry for my head there I picked the pastel more based on the color than the hardness or the softness sometimes. That's all I have is the Something that it may not be the perfect Hardness or softness, but it's the right color. So I usually let color be the main Reason for me making the choice. But that's just a good general thing to keep in mind is that your real softies are Best to use at the end. Some of the softest pastels are the Terry Ludwig pastels. I believe great Americans I don't have any but they're pretty soft and then medium pastels would be more of your Rembrandt's and You know, I actually just recently toured the Mountain Vision pastel company because it's located near me in Tampa, Florida And it was wonderful. Wow. What a great tour There's a video of that tour here on my YouTube channel and go find it if you want to if you're interested in how pastels are made It's very interesting, but Mount Vision pastels. I love those pastels they are a great pastel for really all phases of your work and I Recommend if you're a beginner that's a that's a good beginner pastel to get and in the video of the tour The owner Carl Kelly gives a recommendation as to a good beginner set to get for the for somebody who's just starting out So there's a little tip on that, but you can just see I'm just working Establishing things, but not getting overly nitpicky. See I'm still trying to keep that loose feel I don't have those flowers so perfect. I actually I have the advantage in making these videos of being able to watch them When they're done and I see things that I would change or do differently sometimes I'm like, oh, I wish I had stopped right there and not done anymore but hey, we're all learning and the more you paint the better you get so anyway, enjoy some of this process and Please comment ask questions and feel free to ask me anything. I try very hard to respond To all of the questions that I get on here, but more importantly go find Monet cafe art group on Facebook and You'll get not just me answering questions, but lots of other artists helping you out. So anyway, let's keep painting here and having fun I thought I'd make a point here that as I'm painting this last uranium to take note that I Over the years, I think all artists learn to do this. I learned to paint more by shape and value Then I do what the item actually is or what the object is that I'm painting So you start to train your eye to where you're looking at lightnesses darknesses and shapes and you forget that it's a flower and That's probably one of the best things that I can recommend that you start to try to focus on I did one of my videos a little tip to help to get better at that is actually to turn your reference image upside down and Try to draw it upside down. So if you have a, you know, something Photograph or something on your iPad You can't flip your iPad over because it'll automatically turn right side up You have to literally get in and edit it and make it go upside down if you're on the iPad but try doing that because it's a way that you can make yourself train yourself to start looking at what the the shapes are and Kind of untrain your brain think about what it actually is often. That is a real Negative for us as artists when we start trying to paint what we think something is instead of what it actually Is represented? Because it that's just a real Handicap that we have because our brain tries to fill in things instead of Just numbing yourself to see only what the shapes are and what the values are so anyway Not to belabor that point, but it's in a very very important lesson as artists for us to do I'd like to make a point here on something I Sometimes do at the end of a painting or towards the end of a painting is I start to add little sketchy marks I think it creates energy and movement in the painting and it makes it lively Those pastels that I'm using there are harder pastels. They're called Prismacolor new pastels in you not any W new pastels and They actually typically like I said at the beginning sometimes they don't work when you've got too many layers down But I've actually still got enough grit here to be able to get some of these down But in a minute, I haven't quite done it a lot here yet But in a minute I start using them to kind of make these sketchy outlines I'm doing a little bit there with the darker one then I do it with some of the lighter ones towards the end of the painting what it does is it it kind of Expands the borders of the flowers and makes them not so fixed-looking again, it just adds a real loose and Movement to the painting, you know, so anyway, that's something that I've just kind of learned over the years and Play around with that. It's it's kind of fun and We'll give some life to your painting Well, I hope you enjoyed this tutorial I certainly enjoyed having some time to paint and it was indeed a treasure to find these beautiful hydrangeas in my backyard and Just enjoy this beautiful process of art. Please subscribe to my channel and come back and visit more often