d might use the word agent Agency that students will really leave their own learning within this and and based on the feedback if you look at that really the places are that That really stand out are these opportunities to connect with students So that teachers feel agency too that they're actually feeling like they're connecting With individual students that they know every student And that they are giving feedback about learning And the idea is that that's going to Help our teachers feel energized because teachers all over the country also we're feeling like it Is this making a difference this online learning? So we want to build that mutual relationship and And I think last time we talked about the first six weeks of school and so a schedule like this is really meant to build relationships And also allow Different places for teachers to teach Students how to do the online learning So again the asynchronous is a way to deliver the instruction But the real juicy time comes in the small groups When a teacher so if you imagine if I were talking to four of you Um, how different that would feel and how I would pause and I would say okay You know, let's turn and talk to each other Um, you share with each person would get a chance to share What they think about this particular math problem. So that's what we were trying to do And certainly our teaching teams will make this come alive And and do the things that we talked about last time in terms of integrating the arts Going deeper into the learning project based learning as well We did put in certain blocks We did like the win acronym We like to call that a win win And so this is really a particular block of time Where service providers Again, that's what the MTS multi-tiered service system another acronym But what that means is that people are coming in to these small groups and delivering the services. So that would be Perhaps our speech or our ot's or pts Are reading our math interventionist Our ELL teachers And you might notice that there's a book in so Really for families because of what uh, dr. Morris was saying and families really need a structure as well So there's the book end of let's gather together in the morning meeting And then at the end of the day We're coming back together because we really want our teachers Who are experts at doing this in the in person But to build the classroom community um Just as a relation related aside as dr. Morris would say we're all learning right now in some of this as principles and There people are doing some great thinking out there one simple idea they had was like, okay You can have online at the elementary level online Jobs, what are some online jobs that people can do just to build that classroom community to have a sense of responsibility And so i i feel i felt that i feel the sense of excitement like i'm learning And that's what we want to create with our teachers and and certainly with the kids um The other part that we threw in there was the asynchronous exploration and What are the things that we want students to have is the sense of That they can explore and explore things that they're interested in and that's what i think are at home learning Gives us an opportunity to dive deeper into that I've done a bunch of talking and and one of the questions one of the questions That we ask is like okay in an online environment. How can you tell everybody's engaged? You know so like if i look out at all of you like how can i tell if you're engaged and and one Way perhaps could be if you ask a question Do you have any questions? I don't like those. Should i say anything else at this point? Could i add two things? Yeah very real one is i'd be remiss this morning I was in a meeting with mr. Sheehan with some of the arts and Instrumental music and they're really interested. So i think some of this we're really clear on two things one This is a draft and the second that this is a student schedule It's not a staff schedule And and i know we said that but i want to really emphasis that point that we were thinking and if you Would go back to the guiding principles more broadly about staff and roles and you know It may look a little different it should look different from all the training i've received in research Then what roles look like in an in-person environment about you know Who's teaching asynchronously and is there a shared mini lesson that then allows for smaller groups to be meeting throughout the day So i just wanted to emphasize both the point around the arts as being something that we're continuing And i got i happen to be in a meeting that was very generative this morning around that and there's a lot of teacher energy That we want to harness and this is draft and that also this is student schedule not a staff schedule So i just wanted to just add those points and then let the questions fly Nick Yeah, i could jump in like with the specials we put that in the schedule But really our specials teachers came up with so many fabulous ideas to integrate the arts into an online schedule And and we want them to then now okay Here's your placeholder But then how how can we do that so that students are are exploring the arts And then coming back and sharing so there really is this sense that they're they're participating In in learning i think that idea of like You're catching and releasing and then children are coming back Because they want to they want to share what they've learned that's that's the whole beauty of all this If it starts to click Okay, i'm done Ms lord and then mr. Menino Yes, thank you for this presentation Mr. Yaffe i have a question about It seems that the at-home learning Has more time allotted than the in school Because they're coming in later than that So i just didn't know if that was true Or if you could address Yeah, i'm happy to take that so it actually has fewer hours of direct instruction than they would have during the school day But the instruction is in smaller groups And you know, I think that's where we get to the balance You'll see this actually throughout our approach as a district is You know, we don't want kids on screen for six hours, right? There are some districts in the country that are doing that We don't want effective use of time And we want to teach the curriculum because kids need to learn And so the best way we could think about how to approach that is We reduce the amount of time that people have to be on screens Allow for independent work but have small groups That teachers can work with so if you look for instance at the schedule from Let's say literacy So if you look literacy here goes starts at 10 30 with an asynchronous lesson Half an hour small group literacy and then you get to independent literacy and mtss And that's a fancy term for you know, what our title one and intervention folks do So for for most students, they're receiving An hour of literacy work. Um, or excuse me. Um, they're receiving 40 minutes Asynchronous and synchronous lesson in literacy that's significantly less than they would get they would get in the school environment But what they are getting is students who need additional support will have that And they're also getting a longer period of time to do work off-screen Uh, you know, or at least more independently and I think for us, that's the right balance And we've been on this meeting for for two hours for five minutes I think we all no matter how engaging mr. Yaffe is and he is engaging Right, that's a really different experience because we haven't had a break to go and work if we'd stop somewhere along the way and I said, you know, uh, mr You know, why don't you write down your thoughts about, um, the, uh, the metrics that would have been, um, He would have been able to be independently working He would have gotten a break from this environment and so it is fewer hours of Quote on quote direct instruction But because there are the work sessions from a time on learning perspective, we feel it's appropriate You know, something that I I'm not in support of and frankly we heard it very clearly Um And uh when we were over on saturday is is having a day or half day that we entrust the families to do work independently You know, really what the model is is an asynchronous lesson that shared and maybe shared same lesson within Fourth graders at a school of fourth graders across the districts in alignment And then small group support to be successful In that work and then time to practice the work that's done more independently And that's sort of the trend that we want to have we want to start with an asynchronous lesson And that's really important because in a full schedule you might stagger some groups So the group sizes can be really small so the teacher schedules might look a little different than they typically do Um, we want to have ongoing support in small groups that students can have Accurately make connections with their their peers And their teacher and get support they need and we want them to be successfully working on independent tasks In the school day that sort of mirrors some parts, but there's no real I mean there is independent work, but the teacher is always there But we want students to be able to shut off their screen and do that work independently So they get a break from being in this environment because I you know I just don't think even at the high school level being online for six hours is is benefiting anybody I think we all can agree on that. We've met for hours and at some point, uh, you know There's uh, it's a kind of law of declining returns on productivity and efficiency And I think especially for our youngest learners. We want to have a real balance there Is the mania? Uh, Mr. Yaffe you almost make me distance learning sound exciting However You get back in on a public comment That one one one person said Who will be teaching the third grade in Pelham? I mean Obviously the third grade teacher is teaching in class We only have one third grade teacher Who will the third grade teacher be to the people in Pelham who choose distance learning? Yeah, so I think that's a better question for me to take on and mr. Yaffe's Public schools, um, I will I'll take that one So, you know, I think for this to work effectively we really need to have a partnership between union 26 Which is the emerson pelham schools? Um, I don't see it being effective and this is not the only small school That's having this problem without going to kind of universal multi-age classes right, uh, which some places are talking about doing Or the other one which we've talked about. I think you've asked about mr. Medino actually Places that are doing live Streaming of the in-school lessons to people who are at home, which pedagogically is uh, to me, uh, horrendously flawed Sorry, I know places are doing that. I try not to be critical But um, I have a hard time running a meeting of the leadership team Which is a wonderfully collaborative group when some people are in person and some people aren't let alone actually teaching young children Um, so for us it will involve some collaboration as we get the student surveys back as well as understand staff concerns and and You know exemptions for staff, which we'll talk about in the executive session tonight I think that's where union 26 collaboration really needs to happen For all the reasons you suggested Mr. Bailey Uh, principally, I have to just give us a quick sample teaser taste of some of these amazing ideas you've heard for for special And we won't learn it Is that because I totally get what you're saying about these like the creativity of teachers is boundless in this space and You'll let them loose and it's it's it's unbelievable. So just give us some some examples of these these ideas that you've heard Well, they created that what I was referring to is some of the things that they created last year you know really as online resources and and You know, you can go it to any of the websites to see But there are things that I think can uniquely also be done at home You know, whether it's the pe teacher creating games that you do with socks, you know in in So I think the other thing is to make sure that it's accessible to everybody or the art teacher Taking on what was called a getty challenge from the getty art museum where students recreate an art masterpiece So you you give them a library of these art masterpieces and then they use their creativity to create these sculptures at home Or or music teacher who's asking the students to go on a a musical scavenger hunt And in their home, you know and figuring out what types of musical sounds So those are just a few that come to mind But there are things that uniquely Because they're so creative that they have to do with the standards of course the standards and And their particular art, but there are things that can be done at home that are accessible to everybody I think that the part that we want to get to is that sort of feedback loop like Again, take an example of this meeting Please don't take any offense at this But you know if each of you had something where you were coming back and you had to present To this meeting your level of engagement and participation You know, not that I want you to do that because you're not getting paid and but You know would be different. So I think that's that's the example of of what we want to get to more So that we're reaching all kids and they're feeling the sense of like ownership And and what as as dr. Morris said agency Does that answer your question? Okay Miss spitzer Hey, Carrie. Hi so I want to Echo that I was very impressed with the specials teachers during The first distance learning experience we had in the spring So it was challenging in many ways, but I always looked forward to having that that weekly challenge And so I have a lot of confidence that we're going to continue to see that high level of creativity Um, I guess I'm looking at this with the eyes of a caregiver And concerned about the fact that we're going to be phasing in and you know, I'm a mom of three I'm sure there are other folks who are going to have one kid in phase one one kid in phase two and I'm supposed to be driving my kid in phase one to school at To arrive at 9 50 well I'm also supposed to be getting my kindergarten or my third grader in a whole class social emotional learning morning meeting And maybe I've got um a baby who also needs to get into her daycare. Um, so I'm not saying this Like this is this is just a problem with the situation we're in and I don't think there's a way to solve this But I think I'm a little worried You know a lot of the challenge of spring for me was trying to meet the needs of three different kids Um with very different needs at the same time and honestly what often happened is, you know, I would just drop out and I am a highly You know, um resourced person and I'm concerned about the folks in our community who don't have as many resources and who may not have a quiet place in their home Or um, you know where their child can kind of isolate and like Focus on this or they may not yet be at the developmental phase where they can navigate the transitions on their own And I think that's the reason for prioritizing younger kids But I guess where I'm a little concerned about thinking this through is like, how are we going to If we're holding kids more accountable, which I think is something we should be doing and saying you've got to do this assignment You've got to show up. We're going to be taking your attendance How are we going to though also be giving that give and take for you have a tough situation at home You may not yet be in that phase That's getting me in person time. So I guess Just thinking about what what's you guys are thinking about this really naughty problem that I I'm worried about for the fall Yeah Okay, um, so I think you know this comes up in multiple places So if you think about lunch one of the reasons we have a long period for lunch And a recess is because we know that that's going to be a time where food deliveries happen And one of the things we know is that was a problem in the spring. So, uh, we you know, not perfect But we and not that it takes all day, but it's not door-to-door food delivery It's in certain locations and I think you're right And that's one of the reasons that we're trying to think about synchronous lesson asynchronous mini lessons that are followed up with synchronous direct and and what you can't see on the schedule is you says group a Um, there's also a group b And group b meets at slightly different times Over the day so that we're it's not going to be perfect. We can't solve the naughty problem naughty not naughty problem that you suggested But I think there is kind of the idea of having flexibility between slightly different times But the asynchronous pieces as the anchor Allows for different times for the synchronous to happen And if there are mornings where with young children there are mornings where your best laid plans don't work Having that asynchronous lesson being available Even if some of the synchronous isn't possible for for a number of different reasons We feel like we'll we'll allow families to at least have that anchor mini lesson that they can watch with their child If the timing doesn't work out on the other end So, you know, we are actively thinking about the equity piece that you mentioned And doing our best to try to accommodate that knowing that every family has a unique circumstance And you know that trying to approach it as flexible as we can without being too flexible where nothing happens And that's the balance we're trying to strike And I think to add on to that with the empathy that Would be just really having that communication with with every family And checking in just to see your unique situation Similarly for teacher to be checking in with the students, whether he's in third grade or kindergarten And just seeing that this parent partnership and communication is going to be even more important during this time Do I call on people? Allison, are you doing that? Do you need me? Oh Brenda, Brenda Hi, thank you. I just want to first thanks for putting all this time and energy into this I'm one of the parents who really wanted more synchronous instruction Um now what looking at this having two kids and two Working parents it looks a little overwhelming and I wonder if you couldn't talk a little bit about Which ones are expressly synchronous and which ones can you move around? I'm just thinking about bandwidth Using up so much energy or whatever we're using google hangouts or whatever And where the flexibility is and how many hours I guess of screen time there will be for these students I can start nick if you like so when you're talking about asynchronous, right? So that's a video that's recorded. Those are generally 10 minutes or less because those are many lessons Which even in person we try to keep many lessons less than that at the elementary level so we see Where it says small group literacy small group and independent math The small group part is the synchronous calls the whole class piece It generally adds up to you know in the neighborhood of two and a half to three hours And that is looking nationally that seems pretty similar There's a lot of places the elementary would go into four hours. We felt like that was a little too much And I think for us the way it's chunked felt developmentally appropriate that it wasn't Long long stretches of being online because for all of us, that's a challenge let alone for young kids Where you see independent literacy that that's not necessarily that screen time That's the follow-up assignment that students be working on And also the into small group and independent math that's 40 minutes But not all 40 minutes would be online. It'd probably be about 20 minutes online and 20 minutes independent Um And some of these again like mtss. That's going to be for individualized students We need to provide small group or even individual reading tutorials. That's not necessarily for every child But you know, the only way to do it is to to add time You know, in other words, we don't want them to not have access All the specials or the other electives we do want to add time So it ends up being about two and a half to three hours At the elementary level and it's going to be graded, right? So if we think about first grade, that's probably going to start a little lower and at fifth and sixth grade be a little bit more Um, but you know, I think you're right the overwhelming number of parents Requested a a schedule and they knew when things were going to happen be More synchronous connection and that that was true of all groups students said that staff said that Family said that and we try to get the right balance. I mean a number of elementary school schedules I've seen have kind of one hour each for math literacy unit study and and and that that felt one hour straight felt a little long Um, and then with with breaks and this one for me anyway I don't want to speak from Shriafi in the principles Although I think I can in this one We wanted to be you know have segments online and segments offline that that flow felt developmentally appropriate So I'm sorry, you know, that's good feedback and maybe in our next iteration we can Make that a little more explicit about what's online and what's not As part of the schedule. So I appreciate that miss Barlow One clarifying question. Well, the student if they miss the asynchronous mini math lesson Will they be ready for the synchronous small group in math or? Right, so that we would want them doing that and I think again, that's where the schedule is showing group a There's another group that that's juxtaposed with that Um, where you know, we do want to teach students staying with their teachers But the idea is that the mini lesson is the core foundational instructional piece And that small group is kind of the next step of a lesson And so, um, we would want to have time we talked this this morning or this afternoon And jerry champagne from is was on other ways to set up reminders in google calendar and seesaw Because that was a request that we received from families last year is you know Can I sync my phone or my computer or my kids computer so that five minutes before The math lesson starts I get a little ping Because we're all so busy in the world and so jerry's working on what we could do to support students and families around that that point any other questions Yeah, we do have a couple other schedules to get through as well. So All right, thank you. Thank you everybody. Thank you very much nick. I appreciate it. All right. Bye. Bye All right, so the middle school. I'm gonna actually go through rather quickly Mr. Sharon had a another commitment tonight that wasn't changeable. Um, so I'm gonna be very brief about it You know what you see on the right side of the screen Really mimics much of what the elementary version was roughly 45 minute segments for the core classes again with a mix of synchronous and asynchronous lessons as well as off-screen time Being consistent and daily check-ins during that morning advisory block One of the things the middle school students who are watching will notice right away is that They're getting up a lot later in the morning that that morning block is really for independent study as I mentioned before the concept of homework is very blended in a secondary environment I wonder if miss grip co could think back to our middle school years and the shock of waking up that much earlier For some students perhaps is welcome for most is not from the information I get from my middle school friends And so really trying to plan some of that independent work what used to be called homework and extensions activity for earlier in the morning So that we're hitting our time on learning Benchmarks, but that people aren't opening up with blurry eyes to a screen Earlier than developmentally middle school students Are ready for it. Um, you can also see that we are working with our after school program and try to figure out Clubs that can meet online And that we really would do one and you saw this in the other one even though it's a student schedule You might be wondering We want to expand prep time and teacher collaboration time in the schedule because we think that will have better outcomes for students In this regard. So a lot of similarities to the elementary Overall in terms of structure But you could see that there's you know different stretches of time You know again shorter blocks in some ways, but we feel like middle school students can handle more classes a day Than their elementary counterparts Um, so I can answer any brief questions on the middle school. It's certainly something that mr. Sharon We'll be talking about next week at the town hall. It's in a little more detail Is seager It would be handy to know in here Which is synchronous, which is asynchronous and which is independent work and some of that is laid out in here But i'm curious and looking at it, you know more explicitly what what is which So all of these as opposed to the elementary level. It's a great point. I should have been more explicit about it all these are courses So the 9 30, you know, it's not every english or language arts class meets at 9 30 But on the student schedule and the expectation with students being present at 9 30 Um, the expectation would not be that students would be on a google meet for 45 minutes for all of english class So I think the way, you know, we are responsible for taking attendance every day and in each course and that much like We are right now So there there has to be some way to to monitor that But it's not the case that the google meet would last all 45 minutes Long but but the idea is that students are in classes at the designated times at the middle school and high school level You know at the elementary level, it's true But you know since it's not staying with different teachers and to say that the courses are A little more gray at the elementary level, but at middle school high school with our courses Their attendance does need to be taken And reported And really I think you know what mr. Sharon would like me to say rightfully So is that these daily check-ins during morning advisory and other things are really critical to build the middle school community Particularly in a virtual environment So it is not the case that all day students are online But it is the case that students are responsible for showing up a class on time And it'd be a mix of synchronous and asynchronous time Another question from miss eager. Yep. I think I just forgot it too Oh, it was about um, I know at the elementary level, there'll be small groups Will there be opportunities at the middle school level to have small group interaction as well There are and and one of the things that if you look at if one look back at our guiding principles It was really trying to think about what's the concept of um, you know And I don't love the term because I think it means too many different things to different people But office hours So it might be that there's a live lesson that's relatively short and the teachers available for the first The next 20 minutes for one group and then the next 20 minutes after that for the other group But you know again at at all grade levels what we know And what evidence would tell us is that large group instruction for long periods of time Online Is not the most engaged, you know, we talk about student agency. It doesn't contribute to student agency So again, mr. Sharon can principal Sharon can talk about that a little more detail and I apologize that he couldn't be here tonight But uh, he'll be he'll be continuing and we can come back here, but on the town hall certainly speak to that as well I had just um one question. Would they um, I see the two blocks for exploratory Would that include world languages or will that be on hold for distance at the middle school next year? Uh, no, that would include one of those blocks for most students would be world language Just that not every student takes world language So we wanted to keep the language the nomenclature more broad than that But uh for the majority of students at the middle school one of those exploratories would would include Uh, a world language time Um, I have a question Um, I think this might have come up at the last meeting as a question The possibility of having some kind of at the beginning um some way for Students to to connect and meet their teachers Perhaps in some kind of outdoor Setting um, has that been talked about? It certainly has that's something that uh, you know, I think when we get into our executive session about bargaining That's something that would have to come up and be bargained for. Um, so But yeah, we've loosely had those conversations teachers have certainly brought that up with me, but um, you know That's something that we would want to work out the details for my health and safety perspective along with our in a collaborative fashion with our association Mr. Demling Yeah, real quick. I see activities and clubs there Is there anything that you can say definitively at this time about what's going to be offered for middle school in terms of activities and clubs with the online experience? Um, if mr. Sharon was here, he could do a much better job than me, which I apologize, but I know, you know, our existing Vella program is actively engaged and they're uh planning for fall So that you know, that's that's one of our larger after school programs and they are partnering with us They know that the middle school is primarily starting in a virtual environment and our planning programming as such So that actually um connects to um, a little bit to my question. So This the schedule Is this for Families who students who choose 100% virtual learning Or is it also for students that will are choosing the in-person hybrid? Program And this is how they'll start and I asked the question because I recall that the in-person schedule had fewer courses per semester It is a difference that way. So so the answer to your question is yes This we feel like at least at this point This would be the draft moving forward both for the first quarter for the vast majority of middle school students The hybrid schedule would look a little bit different But if we would want to maintain this for families who at that point choose to remain in the virtual model Beyond the end of the first quarter Any other questions? Okay. Oh miss digger That that does bring to mind a question for the students who everybody's remote in the beginning and then when Students do start to go back with seventh grade. They'll be back one day a week I can imagine there's going to be a shift in teachers potentially between Um Who's the teachers that the remote students have access to and the teachers who are physically in the classroom? So that could be an interesting Problem to solve. I imagine it is an interesting problem to solve Um, I don't specifically have a question, but hopefully it wouldn't change too much for the students who decide to keep staying at home Yeah, and it's something we're actively your spot on, you know And that's why doing it at the quarter mark at least it's the end of a marking period Which is a very helpful thing. It's also the case that we probably would ask both of the middle school and high school for those tier two students To have a little more heads up than what we're asking for for the tier one, you know So if tier one it's roughly a month before school starts I think we're going to need to ask probably six weeks before so that Mr. Sudeek, Mr. Sharon and their teams can can sort out the pieces that you mentioned because it is going to be complex Okay And I will very gladly turn this over to mr. Sudeek has been very patient. So thank you for hanging out with us at 9 40 mr. Sloven's even more patient because he'll be after mr. Sudeek But they put a lot of a lot of hard work and thinking a lot of staff engagement at their schools on the schedule So I will flip over to the draft schedule for embers regional high school Good evening. I'm so I'm gonna be kind of brief and go through this I think it's a lot of it's spelled out. Hopefully clearly on the on the screen um You see the the idea is for each of the the blocks to have a combination of synchronous and asynchronous Learning so similar to what dr. Morris had said about access to teachers Office hours things of that nature the plan is to have the students be able to access the teacher at different times to have the the synchronous groups Go on And then to be able to schedule times with the teachers Either individually or in small groups as well I don't know if you have any other questions again. It's I don't necessarily want to just read all of the slides, but it's pretty clear I think And again, it is just a draft and we're gonna continue to Try to refine it which one hopes to make the experience or something to have as meaningful as possible in school Miss greek help I just have a question about like advisories because usually we're doing like Like every other week, I think so is there is that built into the schedule at all? So it's one of the things we've been trying to figure out where to put it and how to Have it in the schedule Now that we have fewer spaces to put it in and so one of the thoughts as Is to have it especially when we're in remote learning again every other week, but it could be one like a two 30 to three o'clock time right after school or We've thought about it being in other places as well But potentially eight thirty to nine, but that seems a little early nine o'clock is a little early So basically it's something we're still trying to figure out what makes the most sense you got thoughts And suggestions that happy to hear Miss lord Will there also be the possibility for after school clubs online like at the middle school? Yeah, it's definitely what we've been thinking about a lot of the Club leaders have been asking and some of the students have been asking as well And we're just trying to figure out again finalizing some other pieces Of the puzzle and then but the idea is to try to have as many electives in Clubs next particular activities we can possibly do and online. We know how meaningful those are to a lot of the students so Priority to try to fit in Yeah, I think if I could add to mr. Principal Sadiq's comment, um, you know, we did get a Unusual advisory about athletics today that I forwarded to the committee. I say unusual because there's a lot of What's not, you know, and miss steward and I spoke this afternoon What's not entirely clear is who makes which decision on sports? There's miAA There's the state which came out with something. There's desi So I think they're still sorting through all of those pieces when when there's clarity We're happy and miss steward's happy to come and talk. It didn't feel like there's clarity yet But I know many students and families have expressed an interest in both clubs extracurriculars and in athletics, particularly certain athletics that perhaps are slightly less contact based and and occur outside And so this latest guidance, I think only that we receive this today only confuse things more than clarified things And so when we have real clarity, we'll bring it back to the community As well as to the committee to talk through that, but you know, I've gotten a number of kind of Communications today asking what it meant and then, you know, miss steward and I have to talk tomorrow, but it it doesn't seem like I am any more clear today than I was yesterday. I don't know if you feel the same mr. Sadiq, but that's that's where I'm sitting Yeah, there's still some things that there's not a lot of clarity on but we're actively thinking and trying to Be clarity and come up with as many different options and possibilities to engage students Not only academically but also physically because we know how important it is to their social emotional health I had a question. It appears that this um this virtual schedule is Following the same block schedule that the in-person hybrid Would be following is that Getting correct Correct. Yeah, that was part of the reason we chose this is because it can work for the virtual and the in-person Scheduled as well. Yeah Nice helpful. Thank you Any more questions I'm not seeing any I can't see everybody on the screen. So if I'm not calling if you're waving wildly Um, and I'm not calling on you. Please speak up Yep, okay Thank you, mr. Sadiq. I think everybody appreciate all the hard work you're doing take care Thank you Good evening. Mr. Sloven I feel like I'm always getting the bat clean up and I enjoy that So, uh, we had myself a couple teachers and our clinicians work on this schedule and um One thing that you know, it's been kind of you know, crazy making is that we are a phase one school And we're also creating this virtual, you know, uh schedule. And so We're trying to make it so that it it can Somewhat like the high school be close to what if we had to do Some because some students probably will not show up for us and they'll be virtual And so we're we haven't yet made it so that it's exactly the same like the high school And so I just wanted to note that so it's not one of those situations where you know, it is a draft And it does look different Than the schedule that I showed you last time But but what's important is that we feel like it Will address All our student needs In the classroom and also in a student support situation and so It's going to be really important For us to be able to during Again, like dr. Moore said a block is a class. It's an algebra one class or Or uh, you know a shakespeare class and how that's broken down and how kids are individually supported Is really critical to our success the great piece that we've uh, we've enjoyed is that we had a whole summer school And we've learned an incredible amount from our students About what works and one of the things that we know Is much more helpful than what happened in the spring is synchronous kind of learning and and so So those blocks are definitely places where synchronous learning is going to happen and there's going to be some asynchronous learning um You know the things to mark is at the beginning the beginning of the day we have a really uh What I think is a nice time where students will be able to get support with a pair of professionals um and and connected with uh Um other students during that time if if they want to and hopefully they will And then we'll have this uh Morning mindfulness that'll be run by clinicians that we're hoping Will be which is a really important place that we're kind of easing into our day and connecting with each other because You know one of our our major goals is is agency motivation and relationship and um And we all kind of want to be in that that groove together And then you'll see throughout the day. You see a little screen breaks um and those those are important as well and um at the the end of the day is another time where we'll have some Some check-ins or check-outs with with support staff. It's going to be critical for us To engage all the students in the classrooms But also we are really looking forward to to breakout Rooms meaning and they've been doing it in summer where they actually pair up With adults and they have their own codes and they meet in other spaces and we've found that that's uh been successful last piece Is that i'm really proud to say that uh a few of our students in the summer um presented today about the pros and cons of distance learning and we're going to use that to kind of situate ourselves Feedback wise from the students, but the really cool pieces. Dr. Brady already shared that with uh desi and Russell Johnson and he was really impressed and and it just kind of showcases that when we're when we're Locking in with the students and letting the students voices really come out We're we're going to you know have a better chance at success. So any questions The only last thing I would say is that if you look uh the block that's where it says transition groups. That's a really uh Important part of our community and it includes community meeting and compute Includes therapeutic groups. It can includes advisory or directed support And then we're also going to try to make sure that it includes some leisure connections So questions Mr. Sullivan, thank you for turning on your light My computer's dying here. Um, I'm just curious when are you going to survey the students parents guardians and caregivers about Who's going to return and who's not going to return? That's a great question. And so we're on it. We we've already you know, we already have our lists going The great pieces that our clinicians have been working with families all summer. So the last week or so they they were told about this survey that's coming from central office, but we were already kind of What that first conversation is we did we want people to be able to sit with it and partner with them to To make the best decision for their Their student and their family and so so we're we're on it already one of the one of the what my clinicians have has brought up I would really like to do a town hall kind of Meeting with all the parents because you know, you can only do so many videos or only do so many Emails and so we're hoping that that will help as well, but we've already been in the discussions So, um, literally we have checklists of oh, we've talked with this this family and they and we're not, you know, unfortunately We can't give them everything. I mean, this is the the the trepidation that I feel every day or You know, just kind of not not being in that place of absolutely knowing How how things will end up And certainly getting the variables in place about who's going to be there And who's going to be at home virtually is going to have enough significant of effect on how we Distribute and give our you know instruct so so it is something that I'm hoping We'll we'll be able to solve and or at least get closer to the numbers in the next week or so And that will guide us Hope that answers your question Yes, thank you. And I understand that with a smaller group of Students that you you do stay in touch with them a lot more and are able to do that Than the high school itself. So good luck with that I appreciate it. Yeah, the clinicians are really Locked in with the families and it's you know, it's happening all the time. So we're we're lucky that way Any other questions? Not seeing Any from the folks that are on screen Okay, great. I've got two more slides about the family piece, but thank you principal sloven. Appreciate it. I hope you have a good night Thank you. Thank you very much. Yep Um, so very briefly because at the time, uh, I think it is worth talking about the family and caregiver support So Dr. Gavara worked on these slides with me Um, or she primarily wrote them and you know, I just did a little uh alignment Uh, make it fit with the rest of the presentation But you know that we want to be in contact and I think this was referenced actually by uh, a couple of the principles periodically About what's needed to help their children be successful Um, and and how how do people want to be contacted their work schedules, which came up earlier Uh, we want to support student attendance attendance critical students aren't there. They're not going to be learning with us. Um And so this typo, which is my mistake but para school maintaining attendance records We use our same systems, but that that way especially the most high school There's access to student grades as well as attendance and as well as assignments We want to make sure that everyone's getting the same information. They understand what school will look like in the fall Uh, you know one district phone number, which the family center will manage That does need to answer all inquiries from families so that it's really one stop shopping or uh around that And in terms of technology, we talked about it before I just want to again Thank the pgo because they raised um, so much so much funds that were able to extend that into this year, which um was present, um Also, we saw some feedback last week at the town hall For about headphones. Uh, it came up tonight earlier about, you know, student families with multiple students in Relatively small spaces and how critical it was for the students to have that have access and this again goes to You know where started superintendent update jerry champagne has already ordered a thousand Kind of those, you know your airbud headphones with microphones that can be used And they'll be coming before the school year starts So we are primarily thinking of income eligible families to start with we didn't buy them for every student because we know A lot of students already have them But we we tried to prorate out how many income eligible students that we have across the districts Not every student is planning to start virtually but So if there's a need to buy more we'll have more but we will have access of you know Thank you to the feedback of folks who came to that forum last saturday that's led to direct action That's going to benefit our students and our families And also the last thing I think I meant for reference earlier is one thing we didn't do enough of last year and Was caregiver workshops And I think it's okay that we didn't I don't think there's much carryover because the caregivers may be different people this spring This fall than they were in the spring But we want to be much more intentional before the school year starts about caregiver workshops To make sure we're supporting families with how to support their children in this different environment And I'll end there Any closing questions from anybody? I'm not seeing anything I'm gonna make a Suggestion and I hate doing this because poor policy just keeps getting booted off of the agenda But given the hour and And that we still have an executive session on our agenda I'm going to propose that we table the The item D that I promised we would come back to um, but maybe but I did not say tonight That we table that um for our next meeting, which maybe um is is quite possible to be next week Our folks as the committees are the committees. Okay with that. Yeah, okay Um, I'll move to uh future adenza planning Um, I I sort of already pre emptied them Um, so we're looking to have a meeting um next Thursday um that uh I'm trying to remember. I can't uh, dr. Marseille. Maybe you yep. I'll let you speak to that I think what I had is what you just mentioned with the policies um and um Probably another executive session to hear um, similar to the one we're having tonight um, and There's a question about food service and transportation I'm not sure we're going to be ready on thursday because that group is the one that's most anxiously awaiting the feedback of the survey on tuesday So we talked a little bit about it. Um, but uh, we're going to see if that's possible Um, but I think, you know, certainly an executive session seems like it'd be warranted The policies seem like they're warranted. We may need to get back to the dr. Gavaro went to um, the new Harassment training that the title nine regs changed. I'm not sure we're ready for next thursday It depends on mr. Terry and whether he can get us a draft policy Uh, and how that goes with the policy subcommittee, but since that law goes into effect tomorrow We probably shouldn't wait too long. So those are the the agenda topics. I have hopefully it would be uh, perhaps a Refer meeting. Uh, we we don't add additional items too much miss dancer So I wondered if We I don't know about next week, but we do need to go back to the superintendent evaluation and carry I was going to offer to help with that if if there's any way I could help Miss Smith. Yeah, so, um, I think the big thing has just been actually Trying to give the superintendent some Time to prepare for The presentation. So we have the instrument ready to go. We voted on it I'm the big thing has just been that all this guidance comes coming out day by day and trying to keep up with it I I share your feeling that we need to I I'd like to be able to check that box and not have the school committee. Um, you know Be called up for not not having you know Done one of its main Main goals, but hopefully the community will be understanding that we've been dealing with this goal of the back to school readiness and trying to plan for that. So, um We we could have a conversation offline. Maybe about timing of it later on. Um Or Mr. Jumling's stand is up Yeah, I mean This isn't one of those funny topics, right? We're like It's definitely true that evaluating the superintendent is one of our most important responsibilities and we should do it in a timely fashion and I'm in a little bit of a different place than I was a couple of months ago I mean a couple of months ago. We were obviously still Planning about fall, you know in a major way Um, and and at the time I was thinking, you know, I want to get to the superintendent evaluation before I forget everything that happened Um before covet at this point everything that was in my context memory pre covet has left my context memory And and it's not that I can't go back and remember but you know, that's going to take some effort at this point and Now that we're we're at this where this really rapid intense implementation phase for the superintendent district I I'm kind of reticent to to want to take any Any of that time away from the superintendent district? So I could get I guess I could go either way if if the committees felt strongly that, you know What let's just put this to bed and and and do it I I could go that way if if the superintendent was like, you know, I'd really rather have the eight or 10 or 16 Or whatever number of hours it's going to take to to prep for this then Then I could be swayed that way I guess I I just wanted to put it out there that I am as much as I don't want to drag it out too long I am feeling a little a little less urgency Now now that we are, you know, five weeks to the star school. So Uh, so I guess I have a question. Um Because really so much it seems to me I agree so much Even though we went all the way to march so much of this year really now the end has been about the emergency stuff that we've had to do um, is there any way to Somehow I mean, I know there's an instrument and the state sort of mandates what we have to do but Is there any way we can Get around some of that or minimize some of that and And I also wonder what what superintendent Morris feels about trying to do this. I guess that would be important to me I think we're we're veering into actually talking about the evaluation So I might suggest that we put this conversation on our agenda for next week um And understand that the point of that the conversation next week will be to to discuss the timeline That's perfect. Thank you. Okay miss spitzer so I'm going to be In a location without wi-fi for next week. It's my One-way co-blavigation and I know I've been leading a lot of these conversations about the evaluation I don't want to slow down the conversation, but maybe this would be something where I could talk to somebody else on the committee offline to kind of Do a little planning prior to my departure, which will be saturday morning. I just putting that out there. We can again I don't want to eat it more time now Yeah Thank you Fabulous, okay, so we have um, so we added the Evaluation timeline to next week. I thought I saw somebody else's hand up Did I imagine that? No, okay Okay um We have warrants. Um, I think I probably have um several but I might since we know we're meeting next week. I might report on them next week. Um, dr morris so, um Respectfully if we could vote I you know if the committees could vote on warrants because that's how we pay people. Um, and um I think there's some committees that I don't know and I don't remember which ones that I apologize that If they do have warrants that could be voted tonight, it would it would help with that So I I hate to be a pusher at 10. Oh three, uh in the evening, but I think if there are some warrants Um, actually, you know, I'm thinking of the old system It's just gonna ask the question. I thought we I thought if we sound I'm I'm living in 2019. My apologies for the much larger world We really it would be lovely right now 2019, but uh, that's not where we are today. My apologies Okay, so, um, oops, I just lost the agenda Um, unless uh, Carrie, unless you have some since you won't be here next week, maybe you want to I'm happy to I think I have three of them, but um, maybe if you want to keep talking about the agenda while I pull them up feel free and I'm just gonna Well, I think she's pulling them up. I just want to note that there is a Pelham school committee uh tomorrow afternoon Tomorrow afternoon Pelham school committee meeting, excuse me tomorrow Brief meeting, I think Yes, very brief three p.m I know So I'm just Okay, not muted great. Okay. So I uh, Carrie Spitzer authorized by my signature to payables in the amount of $791 and 50 cents for the warrant dated july 22nd 2020 This included general fund expenses of $9,665 and 93 cents and other funds in the amount of $54 and 1 cent For a middle school gift and this was signed on August 4th 2020 Finally, I authorized by my signature to payables in the amount of $9,719 and 94 cents for the warrant dated june 28th 2020 This included general fund expenses of $9,665 and 93 cents I authorized by my signature to payables in the amount of $1,755,014 and 98 cents for the warrant dated july 29th 2020 For general fund expenses of $1,754,914 and 98 cents And revolving fund expenses of $100 and this was signed on august 4th 2020 and those are the three. Thank you Thank you Okay, do we have any gifts? No um, okay So, um, I will move to a adjourn adjourn the amherst school committee. No, I'm sorry I thought you were I forgot your double chair and I was thinking I'm like don't adjourn the region yet. Yeah, my apologies I'm moving through during the amherst school committee. Is there a second? Lord second Move by mcdonald second by lord. There's no discussion. Um, mr. Demling Mr. Harrington Harrington I Miss lord lord. I miss spitzer Spitzer I and mcdonald I um The amherst school committee is adjourned miss ha Thank you. Is there a motion from palim? I move we adjourn the palim school committee meeting second second Reach. Okay. I will do a roll call vote. Um, miss stancer Stancer I miss barlow Barlow I miss kenny Kenny I And mr. Mayhem We'll count it But all that All right Oh, yes wrong. You didn't disappoint. All right. Thank you Great um Okay, and then I am um moving to adjourn the regional school committee and enter into executive session to discuss strategy with respective collective bargaining or litigation of a pea afsc me And ufc w if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigation position of the public body And the chair so declares with no intention of returning to open session. So it declared


Hello there, it's Sandy and I have a little bit of pyrography to show you, a bunch of gifts that I've been working on to give for the holidays, but it's not a tutorial.  When I was a small child, many many many decades ago, I was very into art as you might suspect. I was that kid who always had crayons and coloring books. At my disposal and I loved, loved, loved getting a new box of 64s on Christmas morning and Santa, if you're out there watching, I dare say I would love a new box of 64s. That would still be sweet. Well, when I was little, I loved to color. I had a passion for it, but I did not have skills for it. That was just not my, my thing. I didn't worry about it because I was a kid. Kids don't worry about comparing their work to others at that point. I'm envious of children for having that kind of ability to create and not compare their work, but I love doing it and the passion was there. The learning took place later. So as I got into a little bit in high school and then way more in college, I started learning really how to draw. But I had grown as, as I was moving that direction toward more refined tools like colored pencils and colored pencil became my jam. That was just something I loved, loved, loved to work with. Even though in college we were exposed to other things, the thing I always came back to was color pencil. That was just what I wanted to do. The other thing that I wanted to do was what I went to college for, which was teach art and sadly all the schools were cutting budgets like crazy and the thing that was getting chopped was art. There was going to be very few jobs left by the time I graduated for me to be able to like have a roof over my head. So I opted to go for a graphic design major so that I could have a job job and put a roof over my head because I liked to eat and you know, not sleep outside. So got myself jobs and what happens to everybody it seems either jobs or family gets in the way of those passions. And since I did get some of my creativity out at work, I really neglected my own art time for maybe 10 years or so. I did not do much drawing at all. I tried occasionally I would get into it for a couple of days and then something would would snap and I would just put that thing aside and it was kind of sad. I really wished that I could get back to that. But I was just moving on with life and figuring when I'm old maybe that's what'll happen when I retire I'll get back to my drawing. Well, maybe in my mid to late 30s, I think it was, I joined a ministry and in this ministry one of the things they did was put on these retreats and at the retreats they would give all the participants these wonderful little things. They would give bookmarks and they would make place cards for the tables. They would make place mats for dinner. They would make little cards to leave for them. Like it was just the sweetest thing. All these beautiful little encouragement things and just keep saying things. They were just lots of crafty things and I thought okay it's creative and it's in the ministry so yeah I'll go join them. And even though I didn't know how to make any of that stuff, I didn't know what they were doing with it and how they did it, I knew there were stamps involved and that I wasn't a stamper because I was colored pencil artist. I was not a stamper but I thought maybe I can go at least help them with my colored pencils. So they invited me to come join them and one Saturday I went to their the church basement and there were just tables everywhere and all these ladies were there and they had massive boxes of stuff. Just massive. I mean I had never seen so much stuff. Boxes and boxes of stamps, things that they have had since like the 70s and they were still using in the 90s. It was nuts and you know okay fine. They've got all this stuff. All I kept thinking was I am not a stamper and they should sell all this stuff and give it to the poor because there are a lot of people who could use like a roof over their head and here we are with these boxes of crazy stuff. Nonetheless I said okay I'm gonna help and I would walk around and look for somebody who had stamped something who needed it to be colored. I had my packet color pencils and I would sit and I would help them color. So that seemed like my contribution. I could just do that and somebody would offer me hey do you want to come over here and stamp with me? I'd be like nope not a stamper I color. That's my thing. Well little by little over time I did start to do a little bit of stamping just a wee bit. I was not going to get involved in buying all the stuff but I would try to step in and help anywhere that I could to just be and assist to them. But one of the things that I was wishing at the time that I could do even though I kind of didn't have any skills in it I wanted to go join the guys because there were men involved in this as well and they were doing woodshop types of stuff at somebody's house. Like I would see the things they made I never really got to see them do it but one guy would make these beautiful pen holders. It was like a like a big pen but it was in a wood thing. It was all carved and gorgeous and there was another guy that his thing was making hierography projects. So he would make bookmarks. He'd get little cups and do some designs on them. It was just beautiful beautiful work and I thought that looked like more fun but again I told myself I can't do that. I do color pencil. Can't do that because this is this is me. This is who I am. This is what I do. But it was the stamping that little by little started to break through that lie in my head that I had told myself for so many years that I do color pencil. That's what I do. You would think that in college I would have learned that because we were exposed to other mediums and other things but it hadn't stuck because I still had that thing in my head that I continued to say over and over again. I can't do that. I can do this. I can do this really well. I can't do that thing over there. Well needless to say while I was working on this pyrography these stories came back to my mind and I was just thinking about those guys and how much I wished that at the time I had not put that out of my head and said I can't do it. Even if all I did was to go watch them and see how they do this because it wasn't until recently that I bought this pyrography kit and you know it sat here staring at me for a while and when I got it out I had just been having so much fun working with these things. Now I don't know if I'm doing anything right here or not. It is quite possible some professional pyrographer is going to come by and say are you nuts? You are doing that the hard way. You need to heat your temperature to this or use that nib for that and you know that's okay. That's that's what people want to do. That's great but what I found I was doing here was taking all that knowledge that I have from being a colored pencil artist and I've done of course before now tons of other mediums but I this feels like colored pencil to me but with a hot pencil instead and I'm just using one color and trying to make darks and lights and create shading and contrast in each one of these pieces which is just kind of a weird but cool feeling. I just like how the textures are going on this even though that might not be traditional pyrography. I have no clue in the world but I felt bolder and bolder as I was playing with this to try something a little bit more to see how much more shading I could get. Could I do some rounded shapes because that's what I do in all my other mediums and if I can do that in other mediums what's to stop me from doing it in pyrography with just a hot pen instead of a colored pencil or a Copic marker or something. So I am super glad that stamping came along and shook me loose from the thinking that I had had back then that I couldn't do anything other than the one thing that I knew I could do really well like it it helped me to see that there's there's other ways that I can be creative and I don't have to just do that one thing it's why I tell people who say I'm just a whatever I'm just a card maker I'm just a scrapbooker and when you say that often enough your brain starts to believe it your brain hears you say it and says okay now I have to make that come true and the only way to make it not come true is to do it and prove to yourself that it's not true and even though you might say well I can't draw either well then learn to draw and then you can do all these other things like you can learn the skills you don't have to be born with that golden pencil in your hand and you can learn to do so much more than you ever thought you could and that's my greatest joy in being an art teacher is seeing people come to that realization and recognize that they can do more than they ever thought so these are some of the gifts that I have made for my family for Christmas I'm going to be making some other small projects in the coming week and putting them on my website either Black Friday or throughout December I'm not really sure how that's going to work out stay tuned to the channel and I'll tell you when stuff's available if you want to take home one of my precious little pyrography things and yeah I can have one for you Christmas all right I'll see you later go create something every day bye bye


Hi, I'm Sergio, and today we're going to show you how you can use the LED globe lights in the Lawn Mumpolec Media Studio. So, since they're LED, they're also Wi-Fi enabled. So, if you want to control them, you want to come and grab one of the iPads located in our equipment room. Once you get an iPad, you're going to want to look for the Flight Electric app. It's got a little house on it and a little Wi-Fi symbol. So, you hit that and it'll prompt up the the app. And you can see here, as you scroll down, there are five different bulbs because we've got five different globe lights here.  If you want to turn them on, you simply just hit the power button. It'll go from gray to blue. And now you can see in the studio that we have all these lights turned on. We do have some pre-made settings. So, if you want them to turn red, you can simply hit the dim red button. We have an orange one. We have one to make them purple. We have one to make them blue, as well as one that just says to turn the house lights up. You can also make new colors if you want, totally up to you. But whenever you're done, you can just come back and press the off button on each of the bulbs. And that way, they don't use any power. And that's it. Thanks for watching. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask one of the staff members here on public media.