If there's no objection, let's come out of recess for the committee meetings, and we will do 3.0, the welcome portion, which is reception of guests. Guests, you are welcome. After we do agenda revisions, we'll go to public comments, but first, 3.2, agenda revisions. Do we have any? Please speak up if Jonas. Yes, I would like to add an agenda item for the board to act on the draft agreement with the teacher's union. You would like an agenda item to act on the board agreement with the teacher's union. We would perhaps have that as 5.2a, an addendum to 5.2a, would that be acceptable? I think that we would want to do it after executive discussion. Yes. Okay, let's do that then. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Any other agenda revisions? Do I see any hands? I do not see any other hands. So in that case, we may go to public comments, and I think I certainly hope that I see Corinne is here and David and others that I can't keep track of, but who are welcome nonetheless. Do any of you have any comments that you would like to make? This is David Lawrence from Middlesex. Thank you. No comments, David? Okay. Corinne? Nothing for me, either. Thanks. Okay, thank you. And there's a Jay Parker. Is that Jody Parker? Did I understand? Yes, it is. Hi. You're welcome to make a comment, if you like. Nothing at this time. Okay, very good. Anyone else who would like to, any other member of the public who would like to make a comment or would like not to make a comment, please speak up in the next five seconds, or I'll proceed. Okay. Thank you very much. So let's then move on to 4.0 response to coronavirus discussion. And Deborah, I'll turn this over to you. Yes, because there's been so much activity in this project, we, I recently shared with you a detailed document that is a version of an active document that all of our administrative team has been working on since the middle of March. So I'm going to ask you to go to your email, if you please, and open up that document. It's called a copy of WCU USC and you have a view version of that. So by providing you with this in its raw form, I wanted to let you know my purpose was because I wanted you to see the chronology of work that's been occurring in each team. And I believe that every team leader is here from our leadership team. As you can see, we have administrators who are leading this work. So I would invite them if they'd be willing, or I can certainly do so if they would prefer just to walk through the most recent additions. I know the board had expressed interest in hearing directly from the team leaders. So as I think that almost all of them are with us this evening, that would be perhaps one way to go. Let me just check in with our administrative team and see if they have located the documents as well. Could one of you tell me if you have it in your email, please? One of your, I sent it to the group. Okay, it's there. Great. So let's start at the top. And I'd be happy to speak to any of these areas, but if not, I'll team with the administrator who is leading and Jodi Emerson is leading the food or meal provision program. Hi, Jodi. Would you be willing to give a quick update to the board about the work that's been going on in the last few weeks? Sure. We have a great group of people helping us out in food service. Lots of our food service people from across the district, along with paraeducators and a couple of teachers have been working daily in different shifts. We have a morning shift preparing meals. We have a packing cooler packing shift and a loading the buses shift. They kind of work together. We then have the delivery folks, which is a bus driver and at least two people on each bus to help with delivery. And then we have kind of our cleanup crew after that. So a lot of people every day, at least 32 people every day through a variety of shifts that are supporting this work. We every day this week have seen an increase in the number of meals served. We expect to continue to see that increase as more and more people are home for longer amounts of time and needing sometimes a change of pace. Sometimes they're being laid off and they're needing another resource. And we're getting more outreach from families who have younger kids who are not yet in our system who are hoping to access this as well. Thank you, Jodi. Does anyone have questions for us about the meal work that's underway? Are we saying yes? Are we saying yes to everybody? I hope. Everyone is eligible. It's a universal access program now. Great. Thank you. Yes. And that universal access is retroactive to March 20th. So everything was taken care of. But we were never turning people away. Great. Thank you. Jodi, I have a question. This is trial about just safety precautions to keep staff safe. Are there things in place? Does everyone have gloves and masks and things that they need? We have plenty of gloves. We do have people wearing masks, though they're not required by the USDA or the AOE. It is something that people can choose. And most of our, almost all of our delivery people choose to wear them. And everyone who's working in the kitchen chooses to wear a mask. So we do have masks and gloves. Everybody uses gloves no matter what. We also have hand sanitizer on the buses so that between handing out meals, they can sanitize their hands or gloves or both. So they carry a box of gloves on each bus, hand sanitizer on each bus to help with that. And they've been spoken to many times about making sure there's distance between them on the buses or the spaces are laid out in a way that they are separated from each other. Jodi, thanks. Jodi, this is Scott. You've indicated that the demand is increasing. Do you feel that you have the capacity to meet further increases in demand? I think we do. One concern I have is that when, if or when, and I really think it's a when, we do start to have people getting sick or getting tired, we do need a backup resource of people that can volunteer to help continue these deliveries and making the food. We have had capstone. If you've looked at the document, you see this, that capstone had reached out. They have over a thousand volunteers and they were wondering how they could help. So we're hoping to bring in a couple and discuss how they might help and let them get a look at the operations and consider how they might support us. We're thinking they might need background checks. They believe they have some people who already have those in place. But we might be able to start a rotation using additional folks so that we could split our folks in half and use them every other week and then use that other source of personnel. So that's that's something on the horizon. Jody, can I just put something in the back of your mind for thinking of rotation is two weeks is kind of our quarantine time. So just maybe thinking about a two week rotation might be the safest way to go. Yes, thank you. I got a really comprehensive email from Brian Fisher, I think a couple weeks ago now at this point about the procedures that they're going through to make sure the food is safe. Which made me feel great, Jai-El. I just forwarded that to you. Has any more thought been so I guess my first question is where buses are stopping at intersections, are people congregating there and has there been any more thought or planning given to running the buses along the routes, along routes where they don't usually run to make sure that all you know houses with kids are covered there instead of people having to go out you know congregate at the intersection of Gould Hill and Calisra. So I actually have no idea how many people might be congregating in one place so that's something I need to find out more about. I know that there's one stop that I can think of off the top of my head that has a lot of people that receive food there but I believe they leave coolers. But that's a good that's a good question and I'll have to do some research on that. Second part of your question remind me with the second part of your question that running running running buses on roads where they don't normally go because right right thank you we have had people reach out and when they reach out we get their address and we add it if they're not on our route. So it's basically right now it's by people reaching out to myself or Michelle or being referred to us by someone else and so Family Center of Washington County has referred people to us for example and then we find out where they are if they have access to one of the steps already and if they don't then we add them to our route so we are adding. That's great thank you Jody Gillian I know that you collected some of that information in your survey one of your surveys from a couple of weeks ago is there coordination with Jody and her team? Oh yeah the survey that I sent out was actually from Jody so yeah I was just the agent it just made me look good. Got it yes it did thank you. Jody first of all it's an incredible effort and I've been amazed to see how it's come together so I just want to commend you really hard work. One thing I've been thinking about is mud season. I think last year a couple times the buses weren't running so I just didn't know if you've probably given that some thought but it's certainly on my mind is a thing that could happen. They've experienced a little bit of that already and I think we'll just keep dealing with it as best we can. We've dealt with a number of different scenarios as you can imagine some with less people less traffic on the roads our buses are going a little faster than we had anticipated so we were a little off track on that so we've slowed buses down or changed times and tried to communicate with families around that so there's there's little things that happen each day and we're trying to keep up with that and keep people abreast of those changes so if it's a timing change because of mud that makes us go slower or less traffic which makes us go faster we're trying to let people on those roads know that. I think they were fully I think there were a couple days though when the roads in Middlesex in some parts were entirely impassable by the buses and they didn't run at all so it just you know I don't know what it's just something to keep to consider because I think it happened at least once if not twice last year when there were no buses. Okay that is good to know we might have to employ our vans then. Thank you Jodi does anyone have any further questions? This is Lindy I don't have a question but in response a little bit to Jonas I've heard anecdotally from a couple of people I um talked to that the bus driver or delivery person and that's two different routes that I heard this from are very explicit in their directions of how far to stay away and where we'll put the food and giving people their directions about not being too close to the bus or not being too close to each other and the one person I was talking to today said at first we were a little scared by it and then we realized no they're just trying to inform us all about how this is working and now we know and we all spread out so it sounded like they had good direction and they're sharing it with the people they're delivering food. All right did Mary Lynn have a question? I don't know if I saw your hand up. No it was just the two weeks thinking about and Jodi was on top of that. Okay great so if you don't mind I'd like to suggest that we move on to the next area which is special services and this section begins on page three and goes on to page five of your document so I'd like to ask Kelly to please provide us with an update this is an area that's changing by the moment. Yes it certainly is and I think Bill Dice is here as well so Bill feel free to chime in I can't see you so cut me off if you want to jump in. So Bill and I have been working closely I stay very closely in touch I'm a member of the Vermont Council of Special Ed Administrators Board so I am meeting with that crew pretty regularly around just guidance around how to manage our current situation. As you know the first announcement of this first period of time we were in the maintenance of learning and that had some different implications for special education then it does as we move to the continuation of learning so we had a plan in place for this this first period of time and then just yesterday I rolled out to the case managers across the district the new plan going forward and how we might be able to provide specialized instruction to students in light of our current situation that's the language we're using that's the advice we've gotten from legal counsel at this point and in light of the current situation obviously as you know is related to this distance learning and online learning for students and so our special educators are really starting to get creative around how we can meet the needs of kids in this venue. Case managers will be asked to create a distance learning plan for every student that's on an IEP and that needs to be in effect by the 13th of April so they will be reaching out to families if they haven't already to develop this plan and again that's going to look different for every student depending on their needs. I've been meeting with all of our independent school providers and talking about how we're meeting the needs of the kids that are in alternative programs all of our contracted service providers to figure out you know what it means for the kiddos that had support services from outside agencies. I have weekly office hours so to speak set up with the elementary case managers with the high school with bill meeting with our val team as you know special ed has some pretty specific timelines that are outlined for us and we are in this place where we don't have access to kids so our evaluations are coming to a screeching halt and we're figuring out what that means and again within the special ed time parameters and legalities that we are required to follow we are you know working with legal counsel to manage that thankfully I'm sure you've heard we're getting consistent and regular updates from visbit and that is helpful so that we're getting consistent information across the state it's not specific to us around how to manage this and I anticipate that the there's going to be lots of changes within special ed coming from the federal level within that stimulus package that just got passed. Secretary Betsy DeVos has 30 days to roll out some changes to IDEA and so again through the BCSEA I'm watching that very closely and we anticipate that there's going to be changes around due dates and timelines for us and I will continue to keep our case managers and the principals apprised of all of that information that's coming our way. In this particular document I have two links here that I think you'll be able to see the first one is the presentation that I gave to the case managers yesterday that also within it there's embedded links to all of the documentation and things that they're required to do from service logs to communication logs and the distance learning plan and then the second link there is a professional development plan that I recently put together for our support staff for the pair educators and just recently I think Amy Malina is on the line I can't thank you enough she has jumped in and helped me do some research and find some resources to include on that. I just was having a hard time staying on top of everything all at once and so I greatly appreciate her support in that. Yeah I don't know if there's questions or I mean I can get much more detail could go through this presentation with you if you want it. Does anyone have questions for Kelly? I guess for me it's just saying thank you and wanting to make sure you have all of the resources that you need from from us and or from any you know like how can we support this work because this is really we don't want to have a lot of this kids fall off the tracks quickly so do you have the flexibility you were mentioning independent schools do you have the flexibility to work out plans with them to this new learning? Yeah so all of the independent schools that we have are actually helping and creating distance learning plans for the students that they're they've been serving for us and so going forward in terms of what that means for us we will eventually need to take a look at our contracts and to see what that means and maybe potentially do some renegotiating around what the remainder of the year looks like. Right now legal guidance has said leave things alone let things get figured out and then once we know what kids need right we're in the very beginning stages of figuring this out we'll take a look at those details but right now we just need some time to figure out those you know how we're going to support kids in this new and inventive way. Kelly are you seeing increased need are you seeing additional needs happening now as you know that as a result of the crisis? So I think some of our families that typically struggle or kids that we have challenges with when within the system that is starting to be exacerbated in the home and so we're trying to find creative ways from a distance to support families you know some of our behavior support folks are helping families to create daily schedules daily routines some behavior incentive programs to implement in the home things that we would typically do during the school day they're just helping in doing that consultation be a phone be a zoom in order to best support the students in this current situation but yes we have there is a many families reaching out and asking for support. Kelly yeah are the the para educators I know that they're they're helping with the rotation of calls but those of them that are working as the one-on-ones for kids are they able to be in touch with those families more frequently is that has that been happening or is that what your plan might be because they're such a such a key part of that kids daily interaction right so that's some of that has been happening and as we work with families we're you know offering some of that daily support daily check-in for the kids I think right now families are really overwhelmed yeah by the the number of people that they're hearing from and the support right it's while it's it's welcomed but at the same time they're trying to figure out their own home situation I do anticipate over the next couple of weeks when they start to get into some of their routines that would be more readily able to you know be accepted and utilized yeah and thankfully this distance learning plan the way in which it's been rolled out does provide us some flexibility so that right now we offer supports to families if they say we're not ready we're not able we'll check in again in a week or two and that plan can be easily modified and added to or changed as we go through this and one thing when I was listening to us I think it was in the senate ed committee yesterday was this concern with the continuity education plan of if families aren't able to accept some of the services what and it looks like a refusal then what does that mean long term for compensatory services I that was a big discussion and I wondered if you guys have talked about that or has it or is it just something kind of at a later date to discuss that that was an interesting thing that came up yeah so I've had some preliminary conversations with our special educators about this and the importance of having our data points now in terms of where kids are at today within their learning or where they were a week ago and continuing to monitor their progress even while we're in this scenario and then where they're at when we return and those data points will be what will help us to determine who would be eligible for compensatory services when we come back into session but again I think if families aren't able to you know if there's services that would normally happen in the school but given their current living situation if they say we just kind of need to hold back on this a little bit or modify this is that then going to be a potential impact of of contention for compensatory services and it sounded like it sounded like Aaron McGuire was was understanding that that language wasn't perfect and needed to be talked about so I think I just wanted to bring it up as that seems like it could hopefully doesn't pose any problems we'll need to get further legal guidance on perhaps would you agree Kelly yeah and I think that every situation is unique and we look at every you know IEP team has to consider all aspects of each child situation and make the best informed decisions around that that's perfect thank you Kelly you're welcome I would commend you on your zoom setup you you just have a you just you have such a nice background happening nice positioning I'm I'm very impressed by it thanks I'm getting good at it I have work to do yeah it's a new area for all of us to work on right so so we proceed then to instructions yeah so that begins on page five and I'd invite Jen to share some highlights and there's certainly been a lot happening in this area including new guidance and templates on our continuing continuity of learning excuse me plan that we're in the process of developing with our teachers with you as a board we had just articulated common expectations for our teachers and had created a remote learning site to start to compile some resources but at that point in time we're very much in a period of maintenance and just starting that work so since then we've definitely ensured that we're connecting with our students and their families U-32 in particular is using the TA system a lot and our elementaries all established a system whereby every family was and student was getting checked on by at least two adults their classroom teacher and another adult in the building all of that has been happening we have been really focused on maintenance and I will say that that's been a challenge for us I think that our teachers are so so I think they're doing above and beyond what they would need to do in a period of maintenance we're gathering some information from families anecdotally sometimes even we will hear people on a bus run or we'll get an email just to help us improve communication I think we've probably been airing on the side of too much communication is what we've heard it's a it can be a bit overwhelming so we're trying to figure that out you know that on March 26th was when we found out that we're going to be in this period of prolonged school dismissal and we're moving to continuity of learning and some new learning and so we have shifted gears the instructional task force met at Friday so the announcement came on a Thursday evening the instructional task force met on Friday and there was no guidance yet from the state at that point in time so we really spent our time articulating our guiding principles as we enter this period of prolonged school dismissal generating questions something to answer questions if we could and seeing what existed for guidance from the AOE absent attempt late for the continuity of learning plan they did publish something this weekend that was um awfully aspirational and and quite quite cumbersome they've since revised the template and that was just released today thank goodness it's a lot more streamlined I think that the guiding principles in the AOE template are very similar to our guiding principles really focusing on connection with students and families really considering issues of equity which I said earlier this evening in the in the ed quality group that the inequities that have existed in our system all along right now are being exacerbated and are being are much more obvious to us than they might be day to day when kids are reporting to school now we have more understanding of the capacity for parental supports or not access to the internet familiarity all of those things so we need to really hold that as we enter this period of prolonged school dismissal we also are really needing to to be realistic with ourselves to figure out what are the most important things for students to learn to know and be able to do in this last quarter of the school year when they are learning remotely and and then what does that going to mean for us going forward when we are all reunited back at school eventually so we're thinking about that thinking about the transferable skills thinking about how to be responsive to families and really holding the fact that our teachers and para educators are also working from home in many cases taking care of their own families balancing things that in a million years they couldn't have anticipated having to balance and so we want to create a continuity of learning plan that is reasonable and flexible we want to maintain communication and continuity as much as possible and we need to create a plan that is going to be flexible enough for our teachers and our para educators to do their jobs and take care of themselves and their families at the same time so we have looked at a couple of models again I want to shout out to the U32 administrative team they they've really led the way in looking at other models Texas had had a response plan just from various natural disasters in the past Kansas has worked at U32 got their hands on and shared with us before the AOE had the opportunity to do that so looking at those guiding documents thinking about the systems and the supports I want to also hold up our elementary principals who can balance thing a whole lot of things and still thinking about continuity of learning and and not having answers to questions that are really pressing for our teachers and some families so far as we work this out and and also to technology to keep them the tech crew really helping us figure out issues of access and equity and how to shift from a period of maintenance where maybe packets were sufficient when families have internet to to this next phase of continuity of learning and some new learning where we are going to have to engage in some direct instruction and we're going to have to be creative about how we do that when we have families that have some access issues we also know that we need to be flexible because even though there might be a device in every house there might only be one device in every house and families are all working from home or they're all on at the same time and so we have some issues of internet service that we're contending with as well so we're thinking about hybrid models balancing some synchronous gathering times and learning times with asynchronous learning times now that we have that template we can put all that thinking that we've been doing and and early work together in one draft continuity of learning plan that is my charge to bring to the instructional task force tomorrow so that we can all look at it work on it together own it together and then share it out more broadly with our teaching community U32 faculty looked at some of the earliest pieces of that template today and added their input so we've got that already the elementary principles um Keith Kelly Debra and I met today for a while to focus on that for elementary that's going forward that plan needs to be submitted to the AOE by the 8th of April I think our biggest challenge right now and I would welcome any of my colleagues who are in this meeting to speak out is how we are going to shift from maintenance of learning to this next phase of remote or continuity of learning for in a prolonged state we need time to get our teachers ready to do this well you know that whole idea of going slow to go fast we need some time to to get ourselves organized and ready so that we can launch this with the streamlined communication system and a level of predictability that our students and our families and our teachers need and I'd like to at this point just briefly address the last part of Jen's comments in relation to the time that we need as you are aware we have a negotiated agreement with our teachers and our support staff which identifies the number of instructional days and the number of in-service days and we also have individuals who support who who been working with us to try to try to come up with some amendments and adjustments and unfortunately we've not reached a final level of agreement about what that might look like and I realize you're thinking my goodness it's next week however it's true that we just received the final guidance on the continuity of learning plan this afternoon and we have been working in preparation as Jen was just describing to bring all of our ideas together to coalesce and then to move forward with a plan that will drive our next phase of transition so this is a rare request but I'm going to make it and I'll ask you know all of you to to query further if you have more questions about it but I would like to ask the board's permission to have flexibility in how we schedule our time for teachers next week I'm not suggesting that we will not be working but there's a high degree of interest on the part of our leadership team and our principals in particular that based on feedback that they have received from their staff you've already heard from our special services group and know that we have IEPs that need to be rewritten we'd like to devote a fair amount of our time next week to doing the work in preparation for them the next phase of the remaining part of the school year the reason why we don't have a complete proposal is because there's been a lot of conversation and iterations but we haven't reached a final agreement so my request is that you would allow myself the leadership team working with the association to come up with a plan that will enable us to get this work accomplished next week and trust that we will do our best to honor the needs of the families and the community and of course all of you as we make that plan and and I would communicate that out to the board just as soon as it's been finalized any comments from board members I have a couple questions for for Jen can you just describe the difference between the maintenance that we're currently in now and continuity of learning that we're transitioning into how would they look different yeah so the biggest part about maintenance was about reaching out and making connections with students and families and just maintaining learning really mitigating the loss of learning that would happen when kids were not in school we're now entering into a next phase where there's going to be an expectation for some new learning we have a quarter of the year left and and lots of expectations that we hadn't even addressed yet or that kids hadn't had enough opportunities yet to practice so that they can develop their proficiencies it's that piece so that Chris that I think is really important that we we are going to need to pare down our expectations there's no way that remotely we are going to be able to address everything that we would have done if our kids were in school with us so you know as I heard at the U32 faculty meeting today think of everything you want to do in quarter four cut it in half and then cut it in half again right so we're trying to think about how how to help our teachers are to identify what are the most important things that kids need to know how do we set up those learning opportunities how do we systematically collect data about what is not going to be addressed this year given this period of prolonged school dismissal and then we're going to have to think about what that means for us for next year and and future years actually I don't I don't know that we're going to um clean all of clean all of this up or address it in um in just one school year actually I as I said earlier this is going to have reverberations I think for a long time um so you know if we can look at the opportunity to really shift our thinking about what school is and what it looks like and sounds like maybe down the line I guess I'm I'm going to have to remain optimistic that there will be some overlining learning in this whole period that we're in that's that's great thank you Jen that's helpful thank you yeah I I really commend you Jen and all the teachers um and administrators and everything you're doing um it's been a little overwhelming Jasmine received 159 emails in less than a week and um she had kind of a little breakdown because it was really overwhelming and she didn't know she couldn't keep track of it and I was working and I haven't been able to keep track of it and I know that a lot of people are experiencing the same thing um I have a few clarifying questions as a parent more than I guess a board member um one is she said something about not being graded the same way right now because students are trying to catch up on things who I should be should I just be emailing principles I feel like I don't want to overwhelm people um with emails the way I'm being overwhelmed and then my third comment was just my niece who's in Colorado their school's um extended spring break and I don't know um if we could look at that like just having a longer like a two-week spring break rather than just a one-week long spring break to just help everyone adjust and if that's a possibility and would that be a poor decision to extend that so I'm gonna try to remember all three of those things and respond to them one is the communication piece I think that um the feedback that you've provided in a few others um that is exactly why we need to look at streamlining our communication there is not a doubt in my mind that every single one of us is so well-intentioned and it is hard for us not to be seeing our kids all the time and reaching out to them and um and we are hearing that kids are overwhelmed families are overwhelmed by the amount of correspondence even appreciating how well-intentioned it is so that communication is part of that continuity of learning plan we're gonna have to come to some agreements about that and put some systems in place so that you are getting sort of the just right amount of information and I would fully expect that whatever we do in the first week or two of remote learning um we'll do better the next week and we'll do better the next week right if in partnership together we're gonna have to figure that out right that's why is as um unsettling I think as this period of maintenance has been there've been so few answers overall it has been a good opportunity for us to just test the waters and try things out get smarter you know Kelly was saying about zoom like I think all we have all had so many zoom meetings now we understand some of the basic protocols and those things are just going to get better and better so thank you for that feedback um regarding assessment part of what we're gonna have to figure out together as well is what are those assessment practices you know there is no there are so many variables for at-home learning right now um that we have to think deeply about what is the evidence that students can show can can use to demonstrate their learning how how valid is it how reliable is it what does that mean in the long term you know how do how do we figure that out and I think we have to accept that anything that a kid is showing us right now is just a snapshot of what they're able to do right now and it's not sort of necessarily summative um and that anything that we do we're going to have to give opportunities for um kids to show more evidence or re-perform or reassess whatever we want to call it when the time comes and we're all back together again and then the third thing Jayelle I would say is that we have had a lot of conversations as Deborah said before about the nervousness in the system about suddenly transitioning from maintenance to remote learning and and the need for us to have time and and how much or how little flexibility might exist around that especially given that our students and families are not able to to go anywhere right now either right so to to sort of put that out there and have that conversation I think would be something for the board to take up the support of the educators in the system thank you very much Jen um if I might uh just note we're at the eight o'clock mark and um this is vitally important this is really the core of what we're all about um but we should perhaps be mindful of time and the finiteness of attention spans and um life force in general um may I go back to Deborah's request and if I could try to paraphrase it without mangling it I hope um the idea is to give the superintendent and leadership team the latitude to work with teachers with the association in order to set up a mode of work in order to put together the the approach to this continuity of learning over the course of this week did I get that more or less correctly Deborah yes and as I said we don't have a fully articulated plan we've had several proposals and some extensive conversations but we weren't able to wrap that up in a way that was going to meet everyone's needs before this evening's meeting so we're going to take it back up again tomorrow and I would be more than happy to speak with um perhaps you Scott or with our leadership our board leadership team to check in with you once we've coalesced this idea and and just to be sure that you know if you would um if the leadership team from the board would be comfortable with that with delegating that responsibility and then of course we would need to be sure that our in our parents were informed as soon as possible about what that might look like and what that might mean for their students for their children and and for their own work sure um we can do that I would welcome the the position of board members um in our first session if uh Lindy has her hand up oh Lindy yes please and I see Mia does as well I just I have a question about well pretty specifically I don't think we're trying to micromanage how the teachers are getting this work done with Debra and it feels like she's asking our permission for um working with teachers next week which I think is more at the leadership team level as far as in this situation of what they're doing and how they're getting it done and I wouldn't want to get in the way of that as a board um I think my thank you very much the reason my for my asking is because we um we don't have a time blocked out in our school calendar for this coming week for in-service or teacher planning time we are it is listed as instructional time and while we are still in the maintenance mode what I've observed and heard is acceptable from others in around the state and from the AOE to to scale back the student contact to allow the teachers to focus on the work the long-term work and that's what we definitely wish to do next week I don't have an exact schedule I know it's something that other superintendents around the state have done but I feel as I feel that you need to be aware before you receive a copy of our letter uh or a phone call from a community member that this is what we're doing and why I think that Jen's report gave built a strong case for not only what needs to be accomplished by the time that'll be required to accomplish it so we are all in agreement about that it's just the exact structure or schedule has yet to be completed thank you Deborah Mia um my question isn't relevant to that topic Diane has her hand up yeah I have a bigger question and I'm not sure where the discussion lies so I absolutely I hear what you're saying Deborah about the teaching and the teacher's time I guess I would like to have a better understanding of how we are addressing the needs of all of our staff and and ensuring the work of all of our staff and so I'm curious as to when that part of the conversation might also come into play so that we have a better understanding of what's happening in all of our buildings well right now we're talking about teachers across the district in all the buildings and we have some you know very common structures in place at U32 because of the fact that that school is a single building as was discussed we're now looking at how we can support teachers identify what's essential to be taught and to us it's extremely important that we have a common agreement about what our essential expectations are for students between now and years and one example that I used earlier today and speaking with some of our teachers was that if we were to permit every sixth grade teacher to make their own decisions about what might be essential in math for example we will have five different graduating classes of sixth grade students coming to the middle school who may have had some very different experiences at the conclusion of this year and that transition will be all the harder for them if we aren't able to find the time to bring to gather our staff together and allow them to assist us in making common levels of agreement so that's just one example of why the need is there we are we love the fact that our schools are very different and we there's a lot of opportunity for creativity and but in terms of what we teach and that I think is something that we have to reach agreement on across our schools in particular in primary core content areas but I would be happy to hear from other administrators and their thoughts on that before we do may we just go to Chris please and then Jill um okay well I'm gonna defer to Jill okay uh so I just wanted to say I totally support Deborah's proposal if she thinks she needs are okay or at least a heads up for the staff to you know take it sounds like what you're asking for just take a little breath and just at a time when you wouldn't normally be doing planning because the world has changed so much I'm fully in support of that and you know this is this time is so stressful there's this is this unprecedented moment where everyone is stressed there is no one who isn't stressed at this moment no matter what their role is and so everybody needs more time and more space and fewer expectations no matter what they're doing so I'm fully in support of your proposal thanks John Chris yeah so Deborah is this a proposal for all of the teachers to basically have their attention reallocated or redirected that's what the leadership team that's what the leadership team believes is necessary and I support that okay just I'm just asking back questions and so will there be uh no teacher contact next year next week does that mean no teacher contact with students next week well that's a detail we have no teacher contact with I got it the second time sorry the um I think that's what we need to that's what we need to work out an address there's not been I don't have a full schedule I can say that there are schools in our state that are taking that tact this is considered a maintenance period which we discussed as opposed to a continuity learning period this coming week so we feel that between the work that is prepared and sent on this week with a communication to parents that our teachers are otherwise engaged in planning so that the following week we can initiate our new long-term remote learning plan is is what we're asking and I know it is it's unusual but there's so much about this whole process that's been unusual we feel that we feel we truly need our teachers we feel our teachers need the time they've asked us for the time and the more well organized and structured we can be and clear about our expectations I think the easier it'll be for our students and for our families so Deborah are you essentially looking at having next week is a kind of pseudo Easter break and then picking up after well the um we had talked about moving Easter break or winter excuse me spring break so as not to maintain a religious connotation sorry but we've been told that we should maintain a spring break many of our teachers have reported that they would like to have a time that where they are down we spoke about possibly changing the break but remember all of our families are working at home all of the surrounding schools where our teachers are living are going to be having a break during the week of April 20th if we shift our break it's going to create a dissonance with other schools in this in the region so that families who are working with us with children will not they'll be out of sync so there's so many variables to this as you can tell just by every question is raised I mean this could be a you know a couple of day-long conversation but we're trying the best we can to sort it out and and to do what's going to be the least disruptive while ensuring that we're prepared to implement this major undertaking for the remainder of the year thank you Deborah um Keith is pointing out to me that there is a comment from Kate that we need to maintain contact with our students and I noticed that Jonas also has his hand up so I think I speak for most of us you know we totally support take the time that you need do the planning I also agree with Kate that you know some contact you know maintaining contact with students is important um my kid heard from his teacher you know by video uh uh for the first time maybe today the days are running together um but I think it's it's absolutely essential um you know I had another comment but I but I lost it um oh um extending the spring break I think would not be a great idea um we're all every one of us has turned upside down adding another week you know where there's I mean I'm having a hard time finding things for my kids to do that's not Netflix right and having I mean even the worksheets right even the maintenance stuff is something thanks Jonas so um should we approach it this way are there any objections to uh Deborah's um request provided that some contact with students is maintained it's okay well how Scott how would the contact be maintained how would the contact be maintained that would be up to the teachers that would imagine well and so we is there Deborah is there a possibility of that just because if all the teachers are going to be involved in the planning then um doesn't sound like there's opportunity or time for maintaining contact with students so you know I guess in terms of um providing providing expectations for families we should be pretty clear about what will or will not be available completely right there's a reality here that we should be operating out of right and I think there's a couple of things that have been raised tonight that point out um just how very dedicated our teachers are and their desire to maintain ongoing connection and contact with your students um and Mia is here and she might want to address you know the kind of outreach that she's received but I can say that every teacher I've spoken with and there have been many through committees and people who have just reached out to offer ideas and suggestions they are 100 percent engaged in working with their students right now they are including phone calls because as we said we do have some students who don't have internet and we have students with special needs we have intervention teachers who are looking to try to support students who have special programs and plans um I think that there's a lot of desire to on our part to try to help our teachers understand exactly you know collectively what our responsibilities are so that we don't find ourselves in three to four weeks from now with a full staff of burned out teachers I truly have that concern I'm not really answering your question exactly but I'm just trying to illustrate for you that I think our teachers are are extending themselves and I think that we need to make a long-term plan that's reasonable and that we need to incorporate ways to reach everyone as well which at this point has not been a part of our conversation I I know that our teachers would say I don't want to take this time I know that there are several who said I don't want to stop but there are just as many who have so much need for time collectively in particular those individuals who haven't had an opportunity to work together such as our first grade teachers and our sixth grade teachers and our special educators who are working on IEPs they need time they have to pause what they're doing in order to accomplish that thank you just to point out there are a couple of interesting comments in the chat box from Jody and Lisa um Jody why can't the Paras help with contacting students since at least in EMAs there is a para in every room at some point and know the kids and Lisa says at the elementary level there are paras that I believe would have time to contact children for the next week so just pointing out I guess a resource available Lisa um from Berlin we have talked about that too and that's what I was saying I was I had hoped to have a fully developed plan but while we had some several conversations we've not our leadership team has not reached agreement with most recent proposals that were we tried to formulate that were were were brought forward and we just need another day to do that and I'm confident we'll be able to and this feedback end is very helpful Chris did you ask anymore is there is there any I just is there anything in the teacher contract that is that provides any type of obstacle or something to work around and in terms of moving forward the way you proposed well we have a certain number of instructional days and in service days that are set up and we have basically exhausted our in service days with the exception of a half day or a full day at the end of the school year so we you know one option would be to reschedule that we can reschedule any days that are available but we're really talking about adding time in the planning mode not reducing the amount of contact time or the amount of work time for teachers it's just how it's scheduled and it's it is something that our union has to agree with it says it's a negotiated item it's a work day work year working condition related our item which we cannot unilaterally change and we've had great positive conversations about what all the options are we just haven't found um that direct linked path yet which we will I'm confident we can it almost sounds like you're trading instructional time for planning time in a sense during maintenance of learning which is you know again considered a lower level of instructional time by the state in this new world that we're working within at this time right um Jonas did did you have something further lindy had her hand raised lindy um i was thinking because this is unprecedented so the contract might not say it in the past snow days have been turned into teacher days at the end of the year sometimes because they just happen it has happened and i'm wondering if that couldn't be looked at as these are makeup snow days for teachers if there's some issue about how many pd days are in an actual contract that is something that has happened in the past um so if it was considered a pd day the way you're talking about it and the association had issues that might be a way of showing what's been done in the past maybe not the near past but it has been done and it's been done across the state where the last day of school might end up being a teacher day instead of a good day because it falls on a monday and why run the buses again get your number that's a great idea and i also understand that there's been sometimes when those days have been forgiven uh as well in the past but i they as recently as last year several of them were turned into professional development days because we had such a large number of um snow or weather event days so we'll take that back as well and consider that thank you a couple of more comments on the subject in the chat box from diane about somewhat related will this impact the number of days that will need to be made up since it's not a student day and then ellen we have more student days than most schools in the area i know this is due to length of day but what does that even mean anymore so we have we have 175 minimum days um our calendar includes 180 days then we also have a contingency of five additional days or up to five days in the event of a snow or a weather event um recently the guidance from the governor is that uh we don't need to request waivers as long as our students are in session for 175 days that's within this particular year under these circumstances that's acceptable so we do have some flexibility as lindy was describing very good and flor i'm very happy to see has figured out a way to kick me under the table even at a distance um reminding me that reminding me that um we still have more to go on the COVID-19 but we also would like to just at least touch on the memo that was shared with the board um for for the rest i don't want to i promise diane i wouldn't give COVID-19 short shrift and yet um we still have uh health and technology and um social emotional learning well health scl technology facilities child care and finance um what i'd like to do if there's no objection is to um perhaps give them somewhat short shrift uh ask if there's any uh any burning issue in any of those domains that the board needs to take care of and perhaps uh give them some um time to check in in more detail at our next meeting um unless i get unless i get an uproar of outrage from my my colleagues on the board um is there anything i would just like to first thank all of our team leaders and the even if they don't have a chance to speak with you this evening and and bring one topic to your attention in the area of child care um this is a more of a fyi for the board um we are at one point we were required uh and compelled to provide child care then i was uh a voluntary for our staff uh now it's voluntary for us to even provide child care so it's just so interesting how things change over time we are still operating our child care this week and in communication with kim our numbers are dwindling and i'd like to inform me that we may suspend our program uh after friday until additional increased demand comes forward in which case we could reall and reinstate it um it seems with one or two students that it's not of the best use of our staff's time and resources but i think that when um as time goes on it's likely we will have more increased demand so that's the only update i have for that and i know that there were some finance items um as well um but i don't know if that's something that lori feel the need to address at this time or another night maryland has her hand up scott so i my only question was about the child care because i was obviously as i'm essential i'm aware of that shift um and just wondering not not in detail what the contingency plan would be for those families that still need it um but just wondering what collaboration we are going to do so that those those of us that would potentially need it um have access to that sure so if we were to stop we we have lists of people who are either saying we may need it later or we're currently needing it and the very small number of people we would not close if we did not if they did not have an alternative um location because we do understand that they're essential so thank you for mentioning that maryland appreciate it indeed thanks um and i i'm hearing from um from amy and keith and cat um and i ask that all of you who have questions on social emotional learning and health to email cat at her um at her u32 address as keith for technology and um jonas's question to um to keith uh is is definitely a very interesting one so um shall we then uh sorry let me get oriented again should we then floor take a look at that um floor jonas take a look at that document that you drew up if i may scott um there were there were a few things that the board had asked us to report on relation to finance and in advance of this meeting and we if you wish if you wouldn't mind going back to that at some point to collect questions so that lori and i can gather that information and answer questions that you may not if we don't know the answers this evening we could definitely research it for you so excuse me for interrupting but that was done on our uh list of to-dos for tonight um quite right uh and perhaps um if i might just mention if kari uh if you can hear me um after we talk about this memo i know you've been doing a lot of thinking about the financial side of this if you have if you'd like to maybe launch some of those questions um over dinner of course bon appetit so uh floor jonas would you like to uh tackle the memo yes that that'll be great i just realized that not everybody has the the memo because we sent it shared it with you sent to the board but i know we have a lot of administrators on the line so uh it do you want me to send that around quickly so they can see it too or should we just do it as a board since they will be receiving it tomorrow first if you want to see me i i can get it to the teams uh let's i believe i believe scott shared it with you i'll just have to go back to my email yeah it could be shared on the screen that's true how do i do that i have it open but i don't know how do i share on the screen green share button okay one minute a green share button so i don't know if you guys had the opportunity to to read a host disabled attendee screen sharing it says to me okay but i think that you guys had i can i can enable it i'm just i'm just going to get into the leadership board you have it okay here we go thank you so so how do i know it so just put it on the top of my board just click on the one you want here okay you'll see you in front of you yeah do you see it or not yet no um more mine is open if you want me to share it yeah why don't you share it because mine is kind of back maybe because it's a mac i'm not sure but do you mind sharing edlin there we go there we go there you go so if you guys had a chance and jonas please jump in if you guys had a chance to read this before the meeting i know that we send it late basically we wanted to to send a message since the governor announced last week we haven't been able to to really write to the staff and we all felt like as your sort of leadership team from the board that something should go out so i don't know if you have any particular questions or should we point you out at some important pieces of it or are you comfortable with this being shared with the staff i know scott had commented it felt a little bit long i can't really figure out any piece of it that i want to cut but but you know we're open for input did i scroll down yes please the only the only comment i had was on that we are committed to paying all of our employees through this most challenging school year um and then we will honor our contracts i'm concerned that that first sentence i don't want it to be misconstrued so it's in my mind it's different to say we will honor all our contract and uphold our commitments um i think is very appropriate okay committed to paying all our employees so does that mean no matter what we're going to pay them for the rest of the year whether they do anything or not i think we should be open to that yeah if some people can't work that might not necessarily be our fault and i would not want to punish them i think that we should err on the side of continuing to employ people regardless of the challenges that we may have in finding work for them at least through this contract year so my concern is for administrators that now we don't want to empower employees to say i can't work and tell an administrator or supervisor i'm sorry i can't work um i have too much at home and expect to be paid i'd like to make a recommendation if i may excuse me um might we put this topic aside uh for a conversation later on this evening i i want to be sure that we are uh contractual conversations conversations about possible negotiated negotiations to our current agreement are really the kinds of things that would be eligible for executive session um so that would be my suggestion that particular topic not the letter as a whole um but that's my suggestion and you're welcome to agree or disagree i i just have a comment i think i am i'm okay taking the the first full sentence but i think that that we have to make a statement i i am you know but i might be i'd be more of a dreamer but i i i've been with this staff for a long time and i know our community and i think what this the purpose of this paragraph really as we were drafting it it was more about empowering people to know that you know like i don't think anybody in this board wants to be in the place of judging people for showing up and are showing up getting sick or not getting sick we he said it about the bus drivers that we were gonna you know pay them it's all about you know telling people that we are gonna uphold our commitments that we made with them at the beginning of of the year and i think people will be more likely to to do more rather than than less that's just that's just me so if that paragraph needs to be rephrased you know in a different way that wouldn't get us legally i i think it's like we have to address though i mean i think this yeah let them loses its power if we don't address as to whether or not what we are saying is we are going to pay you um and that we're going to assure you of that so i think um if it needs to move this needs to be moved to executive session then i think that needs needs to happen yeah i agree that it should be discussed but i also think it should be discussed in executive session i think the letter is way too long i actually find it really stressful to get any long correspondence right now as someone who's working really hard on this crisis and i i just don't think anybody needs to read long letters i don't think you need to do any of that like the long-term planning all the goals of the i don't think you need any of that in a letter as telling people that we're supporting them in some ways to me it actually kind of um uh add stress because it's sort of saying well even though it's a crazy time we're going to do everything we said so i would take all of that out myself mea has raised her hand scott mea has raised her hand great i i can't see anybody where um mea please you might have been here for some time man i guess my question was yeah it doesn't matter well we'd like to hear it anyway yeah okay well i'm starting to see real a conversation a little bit but um i just had a question back from again i guess um i didn't i didn't quite make that out completely for you've got to mute while mea speaks oh sorry yeah right um my question was Jen was talking i was wondering about how transferable skills were being assessed and about graduating seniors and their graduating proficiencies but i don't know if that would be more helpful to talk about at a later time rather than right now while everybody's talking about the memo yeah what do you think me what do i think i i i guess uh um debora when would be a good time in this meeting to address the question of proficiencies and um and the the situation of seniors i don't know if we have as a leadership team had the opportunity to fully explore that and would be prepared to speak to you about it with i think that there's further research i know myself personally that i'm expecting guidance i said that so often lately i sound like a broken record but the agency of education has promised us some guidance on end of year uh calendaring all of those things and it should be coming out within this week um i'm expecting that information i think that will help inform us and enable us to respond more uh knowledgeably i i know that i can certainly imagine the um questions that every senior has and uh i you know again if steven or gen have had this discussion you know in meetings with the faculty i'd welcome you to just step in and offer whatever you have discussed up to this point but um my understanding it's still decisions final decisions are still under development good um mia uh i can you wait so so here's what scott i'll offer um real thank you steven yes so um so we are working feverishly not really feverish but we are working hard no sorry um so so we're working hard to get this to you mia as soon as possible we've been in contact with a bunch of the other schools and we're talking to them about what's um you know what are we all looking at what are we one of the possibilities um we know that this information needs to get out to our seniors soon um so we're putting that together we're hoping to get it out by the end of this week um so that there's clarity about what the seniors will need to do and we should have at least us start to the state before you great thank you steven i knew it was being worked on i just you know we don't want to make it i didn't want to make any assumptions that it was ready to go so thanks does that make you feel a little better mia hopefully yes great great thank you very much so um we'll uh we'll leave the memo for now and we'll be returning to it essentially when we get back into um we deal with issues in executive session is that everybody okay with that yeah okay super um yes hi lindy um in in the chat there's a chat about people taking sick leave i don't know if that's going to be discussed in the executive session or not but um i would like clarification on that at some point yes indeed i i sent jody a note um in the chat uh just signaling that it would be our intention to take that up as in the context of the executive session discussion so that we can find out more what's going on with that um okay can i add something to that uh yes sorry uh whoever that is okay cat i just want to point out i had said the social emotional committee and the health committee did need to report out tonight but um i want just to really strongly remind all of us that all of our staff um is under an enormous amount of stress i think our fears are rising and our tempers are as well and our patients is getting really well and all of our educators at our entire school community they need to get their basic needs met and having some guarantees or reassurances is incredibly important right now i know that you all care and you're trying to to do that from all of our your base your of various roles and responsibilities just want to make sure that's front and center not just for our students and our families but for our staff as well thank you cat well said okay scott yes maryland i know i asked this before but um do we have eap available to staff right now okay thanks we do thank you for asking good um all right are we ready then to move on to five point oh board or board operations remember we we passed on the finance topic but it's up to the board whether you want to address those try to gain questions or postpone that until another meeting um far oh god you're right yes my apologies and kari meanwhile has been thinking about his questions over his dinner um kari would you like would you like to sort of launch the the investigation actually no i i don't i don't know that this is necessarily the right time i just i guess what i would raise for the board and maybe many of you have probably thought about this but added to the list of all the things that we need to think about concerned about is is the possibility that next year's budget may be in flux for us and i'm thinking in terms of our you know what what the legislature ends up doing with the state education funding and then what our community's ability to pay their tax rates are going to be and there's more that we don't know than we do know and i know folks that are monitoring the legislature um know that that's a that's a discussion that's happening at that level but i think it's something that we need to be in tune with and i would i would suggest two things one is that we we do pay attention to what's happening in the legislature so we have a sense of where that's heading and two is that the finance committee give that some thought in case we need to make um adjustments next year i just wanted to raise that concern and i'll leave it there yeah is there any um any sort of counterpoint that you debora or lori would like to make to what kari just said well i can say that we're asking these questions that you've raised both now and in your previous email communication kari so of the agency of education and we know that we anticipate that there will be more information made available to business managers at their next meeting which is a week from friday we don't know if all of the answers to those questions will be available at that time but we we're really waiting and we're we see guidance two to three times a week on these topics and as you know we are all um i think experiencing the same level of discomfort in that you have addressed lori if you would like to add anything please do so um just to say that the um the big questions i have are with regard to reimbursements and are we going to be shorted this year for having for instance special ed parents delivering food are we going to be shorted for our bus contract um i don't have those answers but i'm putting together a list just like i think kari and you scott had identified i am wondering how many revenues we're going to lose this year by changing the deployment of staff which has to do with revenue received for work not done not because they aren't working in particular it's because of how they're working or what they're assigned to right right i guess one question i'm wondering about that might be helpful is there's going to be a lots of additional costs for things that we didn't anticipate obviously working toward breaking down some of those opportunity gaps that we have for our children but i wonder too where are the things that we're not having to that uh cost savings so to speak so we know we don't need subs we know we don't we're not potentially being trans you know um mileage um so i'm just curious too about um because it helps to shift our lens because we're not in the usual world and so i'm just curious um at some point down the road of of seeing and i've been working on that this week and i'm continuing to work with the school admin assistants and the principals and trying to put together that list um so we will be compiling it and there are going to be additional costs with the COVID situation you're absolutely correct thank you very much everyone are we ready to move then into 5.0 knowing that we will be Jonas so i just want to say one thing they're going to be tough choices to make and you know lori i don't envy you your job but i hope that as we are making financial decisions as we go forward that we are doing it with an eye toward not increasing but rather mitigating the human suffering in our community and supporting people where we can i do not want us to be penny wise and town foolish and cause more damage um that is already being done thank you okay 5.0 ready um i do believe if i if i'm looking at this correctly that i would entertain a motion to approve the school calendar for 2020 to 2021 as presented would anyone care to make such a motion so moved floor moves was that lindy it was lindy seconds thank you uh discussion of the motion i would just like to point out that because of the interruption in our typical operations our leadership team has had an opportunity to come back and provide you with more detailed information about um our preferred professional development time and whether it will be early release as was previously included in our calendar or monthly with approximately a half day so we do intend to do that we're not ready this evening but i felt that it was important that the calendar be adopted so we could inform our families about our schedule for next year and then we can make that update um hopefully within the month okay um thank you debba other discussion questions really silly and newbie question to ask that i finally got the answer to why we have more calendar days than necessary tonight that was like a great aha moment for me but as we discuss maybe i i believe recently we've talked about the change in our schedule our school days etc etc so if we move on to continue that conversation over the year then that would be reflected in the next year's calendar approval is that how that would work well this calendar really looks at days and the one thing that's important to point out is that we must align our instructional on 175 of our instructional days with the regional tech center which is a very tech center right okay so we we can starting back in december we begin a conversation about that amongst the superintendents that share that tech center region but we can't deviate specifically from that without causing us to be out of sync and that's a state statute requirement that we have but when it comes to hours in the day or early release those are things that the board can do without interfering with how many days that we and when the days are scheduled and so that's why i'm referencing that as a later conversation does that get to your question marilyn or you do have yeah kind of i think yeah i think so okay that's helpful thank you great thanks very much um so if there are there any more questions otherwise we can go to a vote and once again elected board members only please click yes for for voting yes on the motion to approve the calendar for the 2020-2021 school year and no if you if you don't if you're voting against that motion where does the clicking happen i'm sorry oh um if you if you click on the participants um uh icon at the bottom you got it great thanks yeah i should ask jael to give these instructions she's the one who instructs me so i am seeing only green yeses um so i shall then declare the motion passed thank you everyone and and i guess um if you click yes again it erases your vote so so that you live to vote again um all right uh we are now on on committee reports and the first of of these is negotiations jonas yeah um so we concluded our negotiations with the uh with the teachers association and we are looking forward to negotiations with the support staff um we uh what the the union negotiators and our committee wanted put together and wanted to express this joint statement uh that the union and the district expressing mutual respect and solidarity in this time of crisis appreciate each other's willingness to work together to find common solutions that benefit the students families and teachers of our district my only quibble with that is the lack of the serial comma at the end of that sentence but i think that that accurately represents um the mood in the room when we finished our last session um we have a tentative agreement um that for a one-year contract uh covering next year given the deep uncertainty that surrounds everything right now um we're going to incorporate the merger language that represents the change from supervisor reunion to school district um we have a tentative agreement on 3.7 percent of new money that also applies to athletics co-curricular and department head stipends there's also other changes including an extension of parental leave to eight weeks and an optional leave day for religious observance that will be taken from sick leave and we are awaiting the union's ratification and i hope that after we discuss this further tonight we will um uh getting around to voting and approving uh the the draft agreement that i think everybody has in their inboxes and i would just point out that because the union is has not completed their ratification which they have informed me they intend to do by midweek hopefully next week that the board motion should state that this approval is contingent upon the teacher's ratification great um we don't need to take any action on that statement that was your committee's statement that was our committee yes jointly with the association yes great excellent it's a good one um any questions board members for uh for Jonas or any other members of the committee are our deep gratitude to you all for getting this done pretty amazing especially under these circumstances we were fortunate to work with a good group of people on the other side of the table we're grateful for that as well thanks to uh questions or shall we move on to policy okay policy chris all yours chris you're still muted let's see if i can unmute you you must have been reading my list but thank you for telling me that i'm muted i was reading your list um so we have a for um we have a for consideration two policies b3 alcohol and drug free workplace and b20 personal recruitment selection appointment and background checks so christ before you continue do you want a motion to approve those is that your role as chair scott i sometimes yes please please okay uh who will move to approve the second reading of approve in second reading policies b3 and b20 sorry uh oh jill made the motion thank you jill uh second i'll second maryland thank you maryland great um so chris take her away any um discussion on these these are back for the second time i believe we've incorporated some language based on our previous discussion um but any any thoughts on let's take it with b3 any um comments on b3 as it is currently formulated yes this is steve let me make sure i'm looking at the right okay yeah b3 uh and i apologize i'm sure i wasn't on the board the first time through but in definitions of drugs the addition of unless prescribed to to me creates a lot of confusion why because the definition says a drug is these things and then you've added unless prescribed so if that drug is prescribed then it's no longer a drug so it's it it's not part of this policy uh you know the intention i think was to take out drugs that are prescribed from being a violation of the policy because it talks about possession use and or of any drug and and so that that was the intent of unless prescribed i understand i understand the intent and i thought it might have been closely related to marijuana but my my point is whether an amphetamine is illegal or it's prescribed if it's influencing what you're doing in the school then it should be covered by the policy and by saying we're defining drugs as these things unless they're prescribed so if they're prescribed then they're not a drug under this definition so therefore they don't fall under this policy so if i'm prescribed an amphetamine if i'm under the influence of that amphetamine while i'm working i'm not covered by this policy i can work under the influence of an amphetamine as long as it's prescribed i can work under the influence of marijuana as long as it's been prescribed because the way this word is we're saying that is no longer a drug under our definitions because it's been prescribed i do remember us talking about this um lord it was so long ago i don't even know what day today is but um and that question did come up and i my understanding from the policy committee was there were people potentially um in trouble because they were taking um you know say they were on an adhd drug or some other drug that is prescribed but without this part of it in there could potentially be in trouble so i thought it was specifically put in there for people who may need to in order to um to be present might need one of these drugs prescribed so that was my understanding of it right and i think you know if you are prescribed we'll use morphine as an example for chronic pain um if you are using that as advised under prescription then you cannot assume that that person is under an influence and not able to maintain their routine daily activity and be able to carry that out with no um undue influential effect and so yes that that is the point of it i'm trying to pull it up to see because then we had this conversation about how do we tease out if someone's under the influence or not um and using it inappropriately that that gets money but we had that conversation i'm trying to pull up how we address it well what we did if you look at the two policies that we have um we struck the word impairing influence right um which is and and um steven you know you're under the influence of a drug if it's doing what it's supposed to be doing which is reducing chronic pain or addressing um an attention deficit sort of you're being influenced by it um but we were i think we were worrying about using medications that weren't prescribed and i guess i my impression is that i thought we there was other policies that would have addressed if if an employee or someone else was overusing the prescription medication so that they weren't able to teach um or do whatever work that we were doing because of too much of the medication yeah jody i feel like you i feel like you um spoke to that when we had this conversation do you remember that i i don't think there's another policy what we were we were trying to address when we would use this policy and it would be when someone was not capable of performing their tasks or duties so that's what we really focused on is like this would come into effect when we noticed someone was struggling with their ability to carry out their job and then i guess the other policy that maybe chris is referring to be around supervision and and making sure that people are performing their essential duties so i this is steven i understand that discussion the way this is worded if someone is under a prescribed drug that's legally prescribed then they cannot be removed from the workplace could not be immediately removed from the performance of their duties and that's what the intent of this policy is if someone's under the influence of drugs or alcohol whether they're prescribed or not if it's influencing their ability to work then they can be removed from the performance of their duties got it okay so so maybe the modifying language would be for the policy um is if an a prescribed medication is impairing an individual's ability to perform their duties this policy applies i think we have to be careful of some of the language because you know there might be a time period where someone's getting used to a new medication i guess to me what it's part of what might help with that is if a person is overusing what's been prescribed then they're not following the prescription anymore and so i'm wondering if that's where the caveat is is that if i have a staff person who's who's struggling and it appears that i'm going to have that conversation and i might hear some of the ways to support so then we get at what the root cause of is the inability to get your job done and then part of that so then they would be at fault or potentially at fault of violating this if they are using the prescription in the wrong way because they're no longer using it as prescribed that's what that says to me i'm just trying to interpret this from an employee point of view and what this tells me if i'm prescribed an amphetamine um then that is no longer a drug so regardless of my performance i can't be removed from my performance of duties because i'm not taking a drug in our own definition we've said if something's prescribed it's no longer a drug so i come to work you know under the influence of something it's impacting my work but it's prescribed so it's that's not a drug you can't remove me from my work so is there um i mean diane's point about saying using the medication as prescribed if an employee or anyone else is using a prescribed medication outside of the prescription or contrary to the prescription that they would be pulled into this policy uh would that address your concerns i see jonis's hand up so i can i i'll go ahead i'm sorry jonis so um if someone is unable to successfully perform their job then they're the fact that they have consumed you know prescribed marijuana or prescribed morphine it's not a get out of jail free card it doesn't mean that they can't be removed it means that there are other reasons why they should be removed because they are objectively not doing their job there are other policies and other procedures for removing people from the execution of their jobs based on poor performance right that have nothing to do with drugs is that administrators yes and those can take time looking at this is steve i apologize i'm jumping in the keyword is immediately removing i suggest that this might be one that the policy committee might wish to return to their committee for further discussion rather than looking ahead with approval yes in the interest of time it sounds like a good i would i would propose that as well and bring back that time to just to address this concerns for that uh an employee who is on medication is not shielded from being unable to do their work is that the goal i would say not shielded i think what i'm here is even though it's not being shielded from being being removed immediately if they are so impaired that yes but it's the immediate removal so he's not comforted by other policies that allow for removal because of um performance because they are not immediate i think is how i i would just ask you know i feel like we already talked about i mean what about us you know what about a teacher who's having you know an acute mental crisis right who or who hasn't slept in two days and is stumbling around the classroom but is not intoxicated we can't immediately remove that person no that's a good i i mean i see steven when we say remove you can remove someone but but not terminate their employment you could remove them from their position and investigate the situation and all of those things uh that's so that's just so that we're clear when we talk about removal you're shaking your head so you agree with me steven yeah yes absolutely i mean that's that's exactly it if we felt that somebody was not capable of doing the job we could remove them and then we go through normal disciplinary procedures and investigations to figure out what the problem is but they would be immediately removed from the classroom right yes so um chris do you uh do you want to go with a friendly amendment to um just to remove b3 and and stick with b20 yes that'd be great we can do that and we'll bring about b3 next time okay so now so now we have one thing i'm the newcomer here if everyone was satisfied with the policy as as it's presented there uh and i'm not you can vote and everyone can say yeah they're okay with it and i'll say i'm not and it becomes policy i mean we don't need to have a hundred percent agreement no but i agree with you steven yes but it's worth looking if it looks like there's a a flaw to address it so you do have a we do have a motion on the table and so one possibility might be for a member to call the question if in regards to steven's suggestion just to see where the rest of the board stands if i may be so bold as to offer a parliamentary solution or that that motion could be withdrawn right uh yeah um there i think uh chris um i i guess i would defer to chris i i would draw the motion if chris would if you you know want to vote thanks we should just go ahead but if you feel like you want to take it back then i'll withdraw the motion um i would i would like to take it back and okay i would like to withdraw my motion okay so uh thank you thank you jill um so we need in that case another motion for policy b20 jill would you like to float that one sure i got so much trouble in the last one at all i move that we approve uh policy b20 as presented by the policy committee by second thank you steven excellent chris i would propose that we yeah i would propose that we mute steven's microphone um so for a discussion in this policy but no any any changes any changes on this policy that as it's been comes back to you folks we incorporated the changes from our previous discussion uh you'll look on page two under recruitment um on paragraph two yeah chris this this is caria i am i had suggested that change and i appreciate i appreciate this it gets at what i was trying to describe my only concern with this is the word annual um annual basis the administration will participate in training um while it's good to be specific sometimes that that seems like it might be too specific and might be you know requiring something of the administration that that you know five years from now just doesn't seem like the right frequencies so my suggestion would be something like periodic or regular or or something along those lines um how about every at least every two years because if you say periodic or regular who knows what that means and let me add deborah is that is that language difficult or is this something the administration does anyway annually i'm all right with the language does anyone have a anyone else have a concern i mean i have a concern just in the sense of if it says annual there's not a training available somebody picks that but uh something more specific than regular might make sense about every two years substituting every every two years for on an annual in comments so what you mean is every two years instead of on an annual basis right okay yes so every two years we substitute for on an annual basis so we every two years the administration will participate and then are the policy is the policy committee going to be the annual the every two year police i think that's a board duty okay that's what i'm wondering yeah you would ask for a report about it i would i would recommend ask for a report ask administration for a report well how about we put every two years the administration will report on its participation that would make sense on its participation in a training to avoid implicit bias and have the rest continued okay bill has a panda i had a comment too chris i think i raised this the last time too which was you added a sentence i like the board and number two the board actively seeks diverse candidate but you left the next sentence which was for minority applicants in accordance with this policy pertaining to non-discrimination so i had issues with both the term minority which seemed really dated and then also the idea that we would only seek diversity to like adhere to our non-discrimination policy i'm not sure that sentence is necessary anymore given the other change that you made um other com board comments i'm because i'm fine with striking that sentence i think you're right jill that the first sentence addresses with the second topic the second second second sentence as well i agree with jill because you also say down below that you will be recruiting right so it takes care of it okay that's on any other any objection to striking that sentence okay any other comments good um if there are no other comments then we can move to a vote once again board members only please click on yes if you're in favor of policy b20 of approving policy b20 and a second reading after which it goes into effect with the changes that have been made um or no you're opposed to it ready go yeah i'm seeing again only green yeses so the motion carries the policy b20 is approved thank you very much chris thank you everyone you're welcome thanks for thanks for the lively discussion amen yes so um so now kari we have the um quality education committee would you like to just give a brief readout of the meeting uh yeah very briefly um we received a report um from um leadership team about the newest improvement planning process and where we are with that and then went over some data recent data about our student learning outcome components and then we um did some thinking about what our charge might be and so we're planning on bringing a proposed charge to the board um in the near future and then um and discuss our next agenda so good organizational meeting thank you very much kari yeah um it was good interesting one so that brings us to uh the consent agenda now we've already approved the minutes um in the early minutes of this meeting before what while we had a quorum but before all the board members had joined so um and i know that six point two um many of us if not most if not all of us have actually sent in uh emails on the board orders but nonetheless we can it won't hurt to to get in the habit of doing them in this meeting um in the public eye uh which is how we should be doing them so i would gladly entertain a motion um to approve the board orders for i think it would have been march 18 to uh april 1st am i would someone uh for the amount given if someone has that readily to hand um to make that motion with the dollar amounts jonas i will move to approve the board orders for four hundred sixty four thousand two hundred twenty one dollars and forty seven cents and twenty thousand dollars six hundred sixty six dollars and eighty two cents covering the period march 19 to april 1st thank you very much a second i'll second that thanks for the um any discussion any questions about them loria was there anything unusual about this or business as usual yes no um we're basically are running the checks on the cycle um we may need to run some off cycle um as we start construction projects this spring but other than that everything's business as usual great thank you very much all right um if there are no other questions or um or comments discussion all in favor please once again board members only click on your yes or no button and don't forget that you need to clear your previous vote before taking another one yes quite right thank you jonas yeah i'll do that the next time for you uh thanks okay so um i'm once again seeing only green circles so the motion carries the board orders are approved um next thank you everyone um next set personnel 7.0 um may i please have a motion um to approve the hiring of hunter heidenberg or heidenberg um as physical education teacher at u32 and as a full-time employee for the coming school year so moved thank you chris second i'll second it indy thank you thank you lindy um any uh any discussion of this if not please as jonas reminded us clear your uh previous vote and by clicking yes very good and if you're in favor board members click yes opposed click no um once again the motion carries and we have approved the hiring of hunter heidenberg as PE teacher um motion to approve brady parker as science teacher at u32 for the upcoming school year so floor moves jonas seconds any discussion scott i would just correct it's bradley parker the paperclip got in the way so it's bradley parker that happens to me all the time thank you steven bradley not brady but bradley parker um thanks so with that correction all in favor please click yes opposed click no and once again the motion carries thank you very much and that's really an error when we think about it that he's replacing kathy topping so that's just yeah um that's uh he's he's got serious shoes to fill yeah um so uh uh um there's always a sad one which would be a motion to accept bill dice's resignation um and i might add with regret and thanks for all his work um for his presence i would anyone care to make that motion no but i will i'm happy to i i still consider maryland as the as making the motion and floor as seconding thank you um any discussion oh bill will miss you so much and thank you so much for all your work and dedication um gosh we'll miss you hey man is bill on the line oh i thought he was earlier did i know i thought he was i just wanted to see you oh okay well he'll just he'll just have to watch the recording we'll have to pass on all the accolades certainly it's been a pleasure working with bill no we won't miss him yeah yeah he's not going so he's not good we're happy to hear that we demand that he move you know very least sad to see him go but happy that he'll be my counterpart next door and we'll still be working together that's great so um once more board members for yes click yes for no click no and chris troublemaker yeah so a protest vote a protest vote let the record show that christ mcvay voted no good um so anyway we have completed the um the public part of the agenda well no no we haven't we have future agenda items um is there anything um that needs to be recorded for future agenda item we we talked about putting a not loose inside of the transition for brian okazaki as part of our discussion for next meeting very true 100 days yeah yes thank you for most definitely yes steven did i did i see you steven had his hand up yes i put my hand up requested an inappropriate time needed but couldn't find one tonight um i tended to beat about the u32 staff saying what you want cut it in half and cut it in half again um i it's hard to hear i would ask that the board and we won't make a decision tonight it's too late but our our executive committee to not require as many administrators that we have here i i know it might put board members out outside their comfort zone people still hear me my it's going wonky yeah you're going in and out steven you can call it yeah can you type it into chat yeah are you asking about let's just move on it's something i'll just do okay good all right um any other future agenda items thoughts requests i would ask that we have more realistic time built into the agenda for covid-19 and the response especially i mean 30 minutes just not that we want to discuss it ad nauseam but um but there's a lot that's happening that staff are working on and will continue to work on um and so it seems a little disrespectful to only have 30 minutes for it i think we're trying yeah basically everything it's a new world and we're kind of feeling our way forward but understood thank you diane um okay so uh if we're done with future agenda items then that concludes the um the public part of our session and i think um we could should probably continue recording until we go formally into executive session then we can cut the recording um do i have a motion to go into executive session for the purpose of discussing negotiations and personnel matters so moved i'll second okay jayla moved and chris seconds debora just wanted to make a comment that the board may have some action on the contract after the executive session so we will reconvene as into the regular session for that um purpose if the board chooses to do so yeah and i would i would like to i i would like to invite a lori jan kelly steven delinger paid on alisha to our executive session i would like to the first part yeah i would like to ask if um what the purpose of that executive session would be um with other administrators but we we're we are going to be talking i my understanding is that we are going to be talking about the that number on the letter the memo that we were talking about about paras and about contracts so i i want them to be part of the conversation okay i didn't know i was i was just i just wanted to know what the purpose of the their inclusion was that's all i'm asking because there's we have a number of other items to go over with the board tonight as well in executive session so including i want to be sure the contract gets the full opportunity for the board to talk about so it can be voted on that's all it's getting you just want to be sure that we don't give that insufficient time yeah and and yeah um and there's also a technical issue as we come out of um how do we notify the public once we're out of executive session just like just like before you would leave your breakout room and you'll go back in a regular session right excellent excellent excellent very good thank you so all right so um we have jayal yes are you saying something someone's trying to say something so i just floor can you tell me who the of those other administrators are again i don't know that i got all of them at it i think you said alisha steven and lori jen and kelly i believe lori was already going to join us right so yeah kelly and jen so kelly and jen alisha and steven okay good thank you okay we have jayam moving um we haven't yet uh voted um so we have the motion and the second so once again click yes to vote to go into executive session and okay you want to see it seems that i have an invitation to the breakout and i can't vote by the button okay let me let me close the room then and and lindy sorry about that lindy asked if jody should be included i'm not sure which jody she meant i i assumed jody emerson but i want to just i'm not i'm not sure what all of the i'm just curious as to what the topic is that we need all of our administrators in and i i'm not personally prepared for lengthy conversations about personnel tonight um i don't know the purpose of this is i always appreciate knowing in advance what your focus is going to be so that i can have information available um so i can invite the entire administrative team and if you wish i just don't know um what the purpose of the conversation is going to be and it's not usual for me not to know so i'm asking for clarification i would reference back to our conversation about a week or so ago about i had requested that we have the opportunity to get some clarity around the mailing that had gone out to staff on i think was march 20th in terms of some of the personnel issues so i think this is kind of becoming part of that conversation given the letter of support so um while yes we didn't say directly that that's what this was i had requested to you that we at least have the opportunity to have that uh memo and those that f a q explain so i believe so i i'm just wondering why all admin needs to be part of the conversation but that is clearly your choice um i don't i'm not understanding the reasoning still i do know about your question diane and uh i think the board has much to talk about in executive sessions so you can certainly proceed if you wish and what we will what we will ensure is that um we stay strictly within the guidelines for executive session and then no other topics are dealt with than those that are appropriate for executive session so anything this session we talk about the evaluation of an employee we talk about the contract negotiations if those are our specific things in relation to personnel that we discuss um so this this might be an open session topic is on saying in some ways yeah if it if it turns out that it is then that's how we'll that that's what we'll take it to so um but i i think shall we shall we do the plunge keith can you are we ready i can open it again if you're if you're ready to go okay we're ready thanks okay welcome back everybody so um i think we all should get a special certificate or give all of you a special certificate for staying in there for so many hours tonight um this is probably just a fraction of what you all have been doing so um anyway all right uh are we prepared for the motion Jonas i will move to um to approve the tentative agreement with the teachers union pending the union ratification very good do we have a second i'll second it lindy seconds all right so any further discussion i don't see any uh any signal any sign of further discussion so um um let's let's once again vote with uh yes and no you click on the participants on the bottom to give you that panel so yes um and i see unanimous uh jail ah great fantastic wonderful so the motion carries and um the next item on our agenda is adjournment um i'm sure you'll be very sorry to hear that um if there is no objection we'll adjourn by consensus yeah with once again thanks yes lindy thank you so much take good care everybody sleep well thanks for getting everything done good night everyone