total time: 4.82 minutes
total words: 773
total time: 8.1 minutes
total words: 1203
[Cushing]: All right, good morning ladies and gentlemen and members of the Medford Public Schools. My name is Peter Cushing and I am an assistant superintendent at Medford Public Schools. This morning we are sorry we're getting some feedback so just give me one second. So we're here today to try to provide some answers and take as much feedback as possible on our plan to reopen schools. We're really looking to hear what parents have to say. And, you know, please understand that there are certain challenges that we are facing in opening this and reopening schools. I do want to turn it to our superintendent, Dr. Marice Edouard-Vincent. momentarily.
[Edouard-Vincent]: Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining this opportunity to give us plenty of feedback. All of your comments, your questions, your concerns are going to be saved in the streaming chat side. So we're going to be focusing on getting an FAQ out by the end of the week. Shortly after I speak, you're going to hear from several members of our administrative team that are also working to respond to questions as they come forward. We have questions to some, we have answers to some of your questions, but definitely not all of them. So again, this is an opportunity for you to give us ideas, your thoughts, your perspectives, your concerns. We want to take all of that information in to help us better inform what our next steps are going to look like. So I want to say that given the challenging and complicated circumstances, there really is no ideal plan for Medford, but it's about trying to be able to move forward in a way that's best for our students. So I wanted to say that. Again, we don't have all the answers. Things are going to continue to evolve and change. We're going to continue to get guidance from the CDC, from the governor, from the commissioner. So even between now and the start of school, there could be a definite change. I want to also invite you all this Thursday, we're going to be having a school committee meeting starting at 6 p.m. It will be posted later today. So I hope you'll be able to join us on Thursday as well. So I want to give you just a little bit of an overview of where we've been, the overview of the process that we have used in Medford. So we did develop a collaborative process that included stakeholders from across the community. We use three guiding pillars, our three core values, or equity, consistency, and safety. And those guiding pillars help to keep us focused and to let us really know that this is the direction that we're going to be moving in. It helped to drive our work. In addition to that, we had work groups. We had an instructional work group, we had an operations work group, and we had a communications work group. We also had a steering committee. And all of these groups were made up of all stakeholders, teachers, administrators, parents, representing all the different groups that represent Medford Public Schools. And so for that, I am very, very proud of what we were able to do and to accomplish. Last week, we did hold two listening sessions because we had approximately 250 people who wanted to sign up to be part of the process. And those listening sessions that we held last week were an opportunity for those members to give us additional feedback and guidance as we were working on our draft plan that was submitted to DESE last Friday. So, moving forward, what's going to happen? We have to submit our formal plan to DESE on Monday, August 10th. That's our finalized plan. In between now and then, I will be participating in impact bargaining with our teachers union because this is going to require a change in working conditions. And so it's a critical step that needs to happen because of all of the changes that are being proposed. So I will be kind of doing double duty But that's the work that I'll be working on. We're negotiating today and on Thursday again, and then Thursday evening we have our school committee meeting. So I invite you to attend that. So the goals for today's session is really to be able to hear your thoughts, your ideas, your concerns as we work to finalize the plan. We're going to do our best to address your concerns. And if we can't address them during this brief amount of time, we will definitely try to respond to all the questions that have come forward in an FAQ that will be released at the end of the week. So again, due to time constraints, we have representatives that will be able to jump in and start responding to your questions. So I want to say thank you so much. Again, if you have a question, type your question in. If you're on Facebook or if you're on YouTube, please type your questions in and we're going to try to highlight the questions and get as many answers as we can for you today. Thank you again for your participation and I look forward to hearing your feedback.
[Cushing]: Okay. So thank you very much, everybody, for being here. We already are up to 173 viewers. Last night we had well over 300, I think approaching 400 at times. So I'm actually going to take my mask off because the superintendent has left the room. Last night we received some feedback that our masks were down at times. I want to apologize for that. We definitely want to lead by example, but also the three of us, myself, Ms. Galussi, and the superintendent have been working so incredibly closely together that we're actually limiting our contact with our family and friends outside of school, because the work that we're doing to try to reopen schools is really, really targeted and focused, and unfortunately at times needs us to be very close together. Um, but we also do want to be setting a good example for everybody. Um, today we're using a product called stream yard. This is not, um, this is not like zoom. Um, because we were expecting last night was a good example. Our zoom capacity is 300. Literally anyone anywhere in the world could watch our broadcast on YouTube and Facebook right now. And it is automatically recording to those sites as well. So you will always be able to go back and look and rewatch to your heart's content. So we will be working to answer your questions tonight. Right now I want to throw it to members of the panel. starting with, let's go with Mr. DeLava to introduce themselves, as well as tell what committee, what work group they were working on, as well as any information they feel is important to share at this time.
[D'Alleva]: Hello, everyone. For those, I mean, most of you that do know me, but those that don't, my name is Paul DeLeva. I'm the principal of Medford High School and Medford Vocational Technical High School. During this process, I was part of two committees. I was a member of the steering committee, reviewing everything that was coming in regarding the other committees, as well as I was a participant in the remote option of the instructional group so I have some feedback or information that I can answer regarding that particular topic.
[Teixeira]: I am the other Paul in the group. My name is Paul Tispera. I'm the director for English learners and I was on the hybrid committee putting together the hybrid schedule and logistics for that. And I'll turn it over to Joan Bowen.
[Bowen]: Good morning. My name is Joan Bowen. I'm the Director of Pupil Services here at Medford Public Schools. I was also involved in the steering committee and I was also charged with working on the hybrid model for the high school students.
[Teixeira]: And we see Toni. I think she's having connectivity issues.
[Wray]: I'm the supervisor of services and I'm here to answer any questions you have about medical protocols. I do want to say last night I did receive a question about the closing of classrooms and I wanted to follow up with some information from the Department of Ed on this. And I will read directly from the protocols. If there is more than one confirmed COVID case, either students or staff in the school, school leaders and student will work with the local board of health to determine if the transmission is likely happening in class or in school. So we will continue our collaboration with the Medford Department of Public Health and those decisions.
[Cushing]: So unfortunately, Toni's having some internet problems, and they definitely work to get her back in as quickly as possible. Oh, she's back, which is good.
[Wray]: Yep, I apologize. I just want to say that we will continue our collaboration with the Medford Board of Health on making decisions about closing classrooms.
[Cushing]: So I think everybody has introduced themselves at this point. My name, once again, Peter Cushing. I'm the assistant superintendent. I worked on the operations team, and we've been really focusing in on issues of transportation, heating, ventilation, air conditioning. We currently have teams going through our schools and our buildings looking for the parts to repair the areas that, you know, interior rooms that we may have to shut down, especially at our high school, whatever it may be, we are committed to making sure that our facilities are safe and that we have policies and procedures set up to be able to be successful in this area. So we have an email address for you. It's info at medford.k12.ma.us. And we're going to attempt to answer all of your questions. And we definitely are not dodging any questions. We want to make sure that we're being 100% transparent and clear on this. But questions come in so fast and serious at times. that a really good question may get pushed back or something along those lines. I want to once again thank the 215 people that are currently on this call, which is really awesome. If you were here last night, we're going to do our absolute best to answer as many questions as possible. Is there anyone else who would like to introduce themselves? Or Tom, if you want to jump in, introduce yourself, and then let's start going to questions.
[Milaschewski]: All right. Peter, I can come in. I apologize for the connection issues. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining. I'm Tom Villachesky. I'm the superintendent of residence this year. I'm working alongside Dr. Morgan and the rest of the leadership team. I was facilitating the communications stakeholder engagement work group and also a member of the Steering Committee. And my role today is to be trying to get questions out to members of the team. So I'll be kind of working behind the scenes here and pull up the questions that you have, and try to get them to people who can answer them here. So I will do my best again to get up as many questions as I can. They're coming back on my screen. So If I build it all up there, I apologize. But again, I'm trying to get as many as I can covering a broad variety of topics here. So keep them coming in. Let's start. I'm going to show one screen so you can see how this works out.
[Cushing]: All right. So when an in-school student is required to quarantine due to exposure, Tony, I'm going to, well, I'm going to throw this one to Toni Wray. If an in-school student is required to quarantine because of a possible or known exposure, will they suddenly be in a completely new online class for the duration of that quarantine? How will that transition back and forth be handled? Now, so that's both a help and an instructional question.
[Wray]: Right, so I will answer the health part of the question. Yes, if students are required to quarantine because of a possible or known exposure, they should be hooked up to... I'm losing traction again, I apologize. Okay. I'm losing all the connection here, I'm sorry.
[Cushing]: Tom, let's move to another question and we'll come back to this one when Tony's connection is more secure. I apologize, everybody, that we're having these internet issues. As you see, this is a problem that we are facing. If you guys could jump in, I'm going to actually go try to address some of these connection issues.
[Teixeira]: Dr. Cushing, I can answer the second part of this question. So if a student has been in a hybrid classroom, they would continue on that path during the quarantine. They wouldn't jump into the remote. At least that's the plan at this time. Keep in mind, this is still a draft, and this is why we're looking for feedback. But we feel it's best for the student to maintain that consistency with the cohort of students, with the work that they're doing, and do that on a remote basis. So they wouldn't switch from like hybrid to the full remote if they're ill. And then also it's different for every student how, you know, to the level of illness they may have if they're not capable of jumping in and doing the work because they need the rest and whatnot. So we would keep the students where they are. So for this question, we decided to look at the chunks of instruction in four to six week periods and reassess at that time. And I think we may have lost Tom as well. So I'm just going to go to the comment section.
[D'Alleva]: Yeah, I think. There's a couple things that I did notice on the comment section that maybe I could address on the remote end. Some people are asking about asynchronous time versus synchronous time. So on the high school level, the idea is that we want to have a set schedule so that classes, synchronous or asynchronous, are labeled specifically so that nobody is basically stepping on each other's toes. I think some things that happened last year in the spring was we don't want students having to choose which synchronous class to go. We've mapped it out so that basically where you are at like period one on a Monday, it will tell you that that's the class that you're going to meet online. And then The second period on Monday, for example, that's when you go asynchronous and you do your asynchronous work. And then third period, you're gonna do your synchronous work. So it balances out between teacher and student on a full remote plan. And then the idea would be that electives would be based off of days. So for example, if you have, the way our schedule works with electives is A and D day tend to have the same classes. and B and E day have the same classes in C and F. So if you look at our sample schedule that's on the plan, like Monday would be your A elective day. The reason why it's like that is that not every elective meets at the same period. So for example, a student could have an elective first period or another student could have an elective sixth period. So we're trying to make sure we ensure that nobody's stepping on each other's toes and everybody's getting what they need regarding instruction.
[Teixeira]: And with the hybrid model, the way it was set up is we divided the, you know, we would be dividing the students into two cohorts, cohort one and cohort two. Cohort one will be in school on Mondays and Tuesdays. and they will do their independent asynchronous learning on Thursdays and Fridays. The teacher will then be with cohort two on Thursday, Friday for the live in-person instruction. And the students in cohort two would do their asynchronous learning on Monday, Tuesday. Wednesday is a remote day for everyone and this is an opportunity for the teachers to bring cohort one and cohort two together because that is the full makeup of the classroom for some remote live instruction for the students because that will support students with whichever direction we end up going into. If we end up having to go full remote because the governor does another shutdown, the students will have had experience with the remote learning. from their teacher and that would be their class, or if things get better and we can return to school full time, those students will be able to have had opportunities to interact with the other students in the other cohort, which is the makeup of their class.
[Cushing]: So we have a question here from Amanda O'Leary. It does not appear to be clear how much synchronous versus asynchronous time is occurring in the hybrid model. If somebody, you know, working on that model would be able to speak to it, that would be helpful.
[Teixeira]: I can talk about what we did at the elementary level. Joan, you were part of the high school, but at the elementary level, we're doing an asynchronous schedule for the elementary students when they're home. And we're giving them the amount of time that they should be spending doing their asynchronous learning for each class on the days that they're home. Joan?
[Bowen]: And that's a similar model for the high school as well, is the days that the students are working virtually from home, there is a lot of the, we have it scheduled, so it's math, but it would be that asynchronous time.
[D'Alleva]: There is a question regarding remote morning. So for the high school, Homeroom will be asynchronous, I'm sorry, will be synchronous every single day. That's going to be a check-in for our students to meet with their homeroom teachers if we are all remote. And that way, as well, we can have discussions so that, for example, that homeroom teacher, if there's something that we can track who has been in attendance or not been in attendance, Then on an administrative standpoint, we can do our check-ins and things like that with families and students. So every day within the high school, homeroom will be synchronous. And again, it's sort of like a morning meeting with the elementary, same kind of idea. It's more of a time for us just to check in with our students to see what needs would be, and then that information can be filtered out. There's also going to be office hours at the end of the day for two days a week. Again, we're scheduling it so that every teacher has that same time frame, so there's no stepping on each other's toes, and everybody is on the same page regarding that. And I know that's more of a high school discussion, but I think the idea of having a morning meeting, I think that was expressed pretty highly within the committee, and we wanted to ensure that that connection was being made.
[Cushing]: Um, so one of the things that we are doing, um, we have purchased, um, about 2000 Chromebooks. Um, right now there's some supply chain distributions, uh, as well as, um, some, um, issues with, uh, United States customs, uh, backlog at customs. Um, And then furthermore, there are some questions as to the labor that was used to produce some of those. So we've got a lot of different issues going around with getting the Chromebooks. We're still targeted for a mid-August delivery, but we're monitoring that. We do plan to have a Chromebook available for every single student. If we are unable to deliver on that, we will prioritize student need. We do have about 2,200 devices in district at present. We have ordered hotspots using the CARES Act money and those types of things. Joan, there's a question around 504, and I think maybe you can extrapolate this to IEPs as well if you want to discuss that quickly.
[Bowen]: Sure. So with the 504 plan, those are in the general education setting. So those would continue whether on a remote or hybrid plan. It depends on what the specific accommodations are. If it means, say, It could be extra time for tests. We would make sure that your student still gets that accommodation. And the same thing with IEPs, whatever the modifications and accommodations are on for your particular child, we would follow that in either the remote or hybrid learning as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: Awesome. Let's just see.
[Teixeira]: There's a question about Monday, Tuesday holidays and how that would impact in the hybrid model. At least for the first half of the year, we did count out and the Monday, Tuesday group would have one less day than the Thursday, Friday group because we have Monday holidays, we have a Tuesday, the election day, but then in November, and we're not sure how long this will extend into, we have the Thursday, Friday for the Thanksgiving break. So it's evenly balanced with the exception of one day.
[Cushing]: So we also have a question here. Will some of the synchronous instructions be recorded so that students who couldn't attend still learn the material? Would anyone like to jump in on that?
[D'Alleva]: I can jump in a little bit. There's been discussion of doing recordings, but the issue that we run into regarding having students being part of it and not having consent, there's a little bit of stuff that we're trying to work out via that part of it, and if it's the focus of the teacher doing the lessons, then yes, and it will be recorded and then sent out.
[Teixeira]: can't guarantee that at this point in time because we don't know what the structure will look like and we can't say every lesson is going to be recorded. So if the student is absent and attendance will be taken, they would make up the work like they typically would if they had missed a day of school. But school times and class times are not optional. like they were, you know, it was a little bit less structured in the spring with the abrupt closure of the schools. But this is a school day and the school times are something that, you know, teachers and students all have to adhere to.
[Cushing]: So, Tony, we got a question here that is right up your alley.
[Wray]: Okay, I saw that coming through. What I would like to let parents know is that the district has partnered with a local software company who has developed a mobile COVID symptom tracker application. At a later, as we get closer to school, we will make that available to parents. They can sign up as a user and every day log into the app and go through the questions about different symptoms. The app has been developed by a physician. So it will work, the algorithm will work parents through. The decision says you stay home from school or yes, you may go to school. So we will be providing a lot of information about that as we get closer to school. And we hope parents make use of this really valuable tool.
[Cushing]: Um, so we've got a question, um, about elementary hybrid. I'm going to try to bring in principal Demos here, uh, to help out with this one. Um, and let's see, um, if I've added your audio.
[Demos]: Can you hear me, Paul? Peter?
[Demos]: Okay, so hi, I'm Shannon Demos. I'm the Brooks Elementary Principal. I'm sorry about the connectivity issues that we're having today, but what I was just hearing on my right, Peter, is that we had a question regarding the hybrid plan. So in elementary, we are looking at the hybrid plan in a way that meets the needs of all the individual students. We are looking at having the students come in to buildings. two days a week and alternating the cohorts on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday with some combining of the cohorts A and B Wednesday morning for some social emotional time and community building on Wednesday morning prior to them going to their you know specialists or along for the teacher and family parent communication time and some remote learning on Wednesday as well. I cannot see the questions or the comments, unfortunately, because of the connectivity issues in here. Was there a question that I can't see?
[Cushing]: So Shannon, also the question really, the question, there's another question too, focusing on how will the remote work for elementary? Okay.
[Demos]: So when you look at the remote, we shared an elementary draft schedule with the community that allows for the students to mirror their school day as much as possible. That was key to us, right? That structure and that consistency for the kiddos. They'll start their day out with attendance being taken in the morning by their homeroom teacher, their classroom teacher. They'll start with a morning meeting and some social emotional community building every day. Once they finish with that morning meeting, they have been built in a little bit of a movement break, a little continuation of the morning meeting before they jump into an academic block. Once they have that block of time where they have their first academics covered, we've built in an offline break just to get their eyes off the screen, just a couple of minutes for a snack and a movement break. Maybe give them a chance to stretch and get to the bathroom and then come back to sign on again for a second win block, a literacy block. so that we can make sure that we're meeting their needs. Again, after we have that time on synchronous learning for their screen time, we have another block off for their lunch and recess, call them back on for a specialist block, a final academic block of the day, and then we have some office hours where there could be some extra help services or parent-teacher communication at the end of the day.
[Cushing]: Okay, awesome, thank you very much. So there was a question and I can't find it right now, I apologize, around absenteeism and a lot of question around that. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education held a telephone call yesterday that the Commissioner Jeff Riley led, and there are definitely going to be significantly more expectations whereas last March, we really were sent out in an emergency fashion and left to pick up the pieces as best as possible. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is going to be expecting schools to be taking attendance, to be closely monitoring time on learning, which this year is going to be reduced in a typical year. It's 180 days with 990 hours expected for secondary, and 900 hours expected for elementary. At the start of the year, we will have 10 days at the start for professional development for teachers to focus on health and safety protocols, as well as online remote learning protocols. So those 10 days will be used. Those 10 days will not be made up per an agreement with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the three major teachers unions in the state, MTA, AFT, and Boston Teachers Union. So we will be starting, the calendar will be voted this week at the school committee meeting. We will be making that well known to everybody, but we will start the week of the 14th, it looks like. All schools are expected to be in session by September 16th, unless you get a waiver from the state. And so that's the best answer that I have on that, but there is. there are going to be expectations for attendance being taken, all of those different types of things around that. Let me pull up a question here about, can remote learning be done at other times? Anyone wants to jump in on that, feel free.
[D'Alleva]: My thought process is if we've labeled out a schedule that says when Depends what you're talking about for remote because there's the asynchronous and the synchronous part of it. And I think if you're talking asynchronous time frames, then you have to stick to those time frames that are there. Otherwise, if people go in different directions, it's very hard to make sure that there's equity through instruction. But that being said, as Paul Texera said too, we try to consider it like a normal day of school as best we can. So that's kind of the schedule that needs to be followed. But I'm sure like things can be worked out. If you have missed the school day, then you contact your teacher like normal and see what can be done to get that instruction that was missed.
[Cushing]: So one of the things is why is DESI recommending three foot spacing? Does the plan specify six foot spacing? Well, so the CDC has recommended six foot spacing and the World Health Organization, I believe, came out with three foot. But in the United States, given where we are right now with numbers rising, We want to be as safe as possible in really making sure that we're keeping the spread down. Tony, if you want to jump in on this question, absolutely be my guest.
[Wray]: Okay. I would like to add that the contact tracing that is completed by the local boards of health, including Medford, uses six feet as the physical distancing for close contacts. So if we keep our physical distancing at six feet, we are decreasing the exposure that children have in class. Once you move down towards three feet, you're increasing exposure. We decided to go with the safer measure of six feet and be consistent with the Board of Health contact tracing.
[Cushing]: So anyone who can help out with this question about the fully remote for Gabby DaCosta, how will classes be formed for the families choosing fully remote? Will they be grouped with kids who are fully remote only who will be teaching? And some of that we may not be able to answer right now, but thank you for the question, Gabby.
[D'Alleva]: So again, we need to look at, and I know you're in negotiations or with bargaining of which teachers are going to be here and which teachers will be doing remote. And then the other part of it too is, and again, I'm only speaking from the high school level, the idea is to look at what classes have been selected. or recommended by the teachers for students for this upcoming year. And then that plan will be determined who's teaching what, who's teaching what remotely based off of a cohort of numbers that we look at. So I'm thinking about biology, for example. I mean, we need a biology teacher to do the remote part if that's the option that's there. where we would have to have a biology teacher for the hybrid part too. So some licenses and some classes have specific teachers that need specific instructional types that they are able to teach. So that's what we're looking at. So it's still a work in progress, I guess I would say.
[Demos]: Okay. Yeah. I'm sorry. Go ahead. Jump in on the elementary end. It's definitely still a work in progress on our end as well. We are awaiting notification from family members that have maybe decided that their student is going to be fully remote all year long. regardless of what we choose as a hybrid model. And so we'll have to take those students and create cohorts in their own individual classes accordingly and then reassess the class list that we still have for the students coming in. There's going to be so many factors that are playing into this. I mean everything down to like the transportation. where we are limited to 24 students on a bus. It may make sense for us to be looking at the cohorts according to the neighborhoods, because I know as an elementary principal, I'm receiving notification from parents that are asking me to group their students with other families in the neighborhood so that they can help out with learning on the days that they're home. And if they are exposed to the children in the neighborhood, They have become part of a cohort. It might be something that behooves us to kind of take into our process for our class lists. But again, it is work in progress. There is many factors that go into this. Our three core values, I know Dr. Vincent spoke to it yesterday, that we'll always keep in the forefront of these decisions is the safety and equity and consistency for these kiddos. That really drives our decisions. But it definitely is a work in progress. But if you do have specific questions, I do urge the public to just reach out the elementary principals for any questions or comments or concerns they have for us.
[Cushing]: All right. We're going to move to a question now about ventilation. I addressed it at the beginning, but if people came in late. So how are the ventilation systems in the schools being addressed? I have been made aware that it is not up to par, especially at the high school. So the systems at the high school were installed and have been repaired over the years, but they were primarily installed in 1970. And so the standards of filtration and different things like that have changed over the years. and there are certain filters that we just can't install because they would actually lead to a burnout of motors is what we've been told by our ventilation company. Right now we have an outside contractor as well as our three in-district maintenance staff inspecting and repairing elements of the high school ventilation system and the outside buildings that are not currently functioning. And so this is an area of concern for us and we are working diligently to make sure that we are addressing it. We have allocated funds from our federal grants to make this happen and we are looking at and costing out filtration systems on a per room basis. We'll see where that goes with costs. And we are hoping for federal stimulus money to assist us with a lot of these things. Our outside buildings, the elementary schools that were built in the early 2000s have substantially better ventilation and central controls to manage it. We are planning to run our ventilation systems 23 hours a day. DESE is requiring us to make sure that we have them running two hours before occupancy and two hours after occupancy. However, in speaking with John McLaughlin, who unfortunately couldn't be on this call today, we are going to run them 23 hours a day with the dampers open full. Please note that this is going to cause us to have increased costs for electricity and heating costs. As we pull in that colder air, as the temperature drops, we will need to condition it to be heated. So that will be something, but we're going to be working with windows open with our ventilation systems operating at maximum capacity. Principal DeLay, but we got a question for you on freshmen. And then if you also could speak, there have been questions about freshman vocational rotation. I know Mr. Fallon's not on the call, but if you can speak to that as well.
[D'Alleva]: So, you know, the hope would be that we do some kind of expectation for the freshmen, giving them some overview of what's going to occur. I think what's kind of holding us up is we will plan something out, but we need to know what direction we're going. So I guess we're trying to see what happens at school committee on Thursday, and then we're working on planning from that stage. I mean, we all know that we can't gather. And if I was to get a whole group of freshmen within the high school, that would be difficult. So maybe we do it by cohort groups and things of that nature. But that's really still in the planning. And I guess, again, if I have more information, then I will be able to go down a different road from there. And then regarding the CT instruction, again, it is dependent on whether we're hybrid or whether we're remote. If we're remote, then the CT exploratory will go based off of what I stated of the sample schedule. for the remote. So if you see C-Day and you have CTE and it's listed synchronous, that's when you log on. Not obviously the most ideal way of doing vocational instruction, but again, these are just guidelines that we're following if we were to go fully remote. vice versa. I know that the plan does have something regarding hybrid. The vocational school is working on sort of a unique hybrid schedule for their part too that would involve the freshmen attending a class within the vocational school. I think the amount of time is really what the issue is, because if you have different periods for different days, your time frame isn't as great as it normally is. But again, we've been talking to other comprehensive vocational schools, you know, like Everett, for instance, I've talked into that principle. They're running into the same kind of concerns. I think the issue is just which direction we're going will help us guide us where we're going to kind of tighten things up.
[Cushing]: Okay. Thank you very much. Um, so, you know, we've received a lot of questions from parents. There's one here from Heidi about addressing parents who need to work. Um, and that is one of our greatest concerns who can't be there every day with their child. Um, and so this is definitely one of our greatest concerns. We empathize with you. We want to find a way to figure out how to get those, how to really work with those families to either have them in school or partnering with other families. This is one of our greatest concerns. I feel that phone calls from parents, very emotional phone calls, single families, and so who don't have supports to be able to help them out. And this is a, I want you to know that we're trying to work towards an answer on this. It's something that is of great concern to us, for sure. I'm sorry, I don't have an answer for you right now, but we are working through trying to find some scenarios to help people out in this area. Joan, there's a question about sub-separate classrooms. Let me put it up on screen. A place for sub-separate classrooms. And so maybe you can use this to speak greater about your realm.
[Bowen]: Sure. So in the comment section, I see a lot of confusion regarding if I choose remote and what if the other members of the classroom in a subseparate class pick the hybrid model. So I just want to clarify that parents have the right to choose the remote model. And then what we're looking at is for our special education students remote, that there will be in, as my friend, depending on where we're at, phase we're in, what the governor's orders are and what the commissioner's orders are, to be able to provide as many in-person services for students who are identified as high needs. And those would be some of our students in our separate classrooms. So I think parents need just to know that you can pick remote or the school committee is going to pick the plan that the school district follows through on. So it's not that everyone has a choice that you could pick remote or hybrid or, sorry, I forgot the- Person. The remote. Parents to be very clear about that. Looking at our high needs special education students, parents will have the opportunity to have in-person services, or they could choose to do fully remote. And those special education services would still continue remotely with a special education teacher, with paraprofessionals involved, related service providers would either do in-person or remotely. So I hope that answers some of the questions that were coming up in the comments.
[Cushing]: So there's been a question about elementary school children drop off. So our overarching plan is gonna establish guidelines for the schools that the individual school working teams will have to follow and then build out greater planning on themselves because each school is different. We do plan to spray paint on the grounds surrounding the school, six foot markers, So as students are waiting, that they can, and to have students come into the building in six-foot staggered bunches. I know that Ms. Demos is starting to work on plans for her buildings, but we also want to, we need to get children into the buildings as quickly as possible, while and get education started so that students aren't missing time on learning. So this is definitely going to be a challenge for us, especially given I have a two and a four-year-old. I'll tell you, the four-year-old loves to hang with her friends. She hasn't been able to do much since the middle of March. But I remember seeing her on the playground and doing all those types of things. So we are trying to really make sure that we have a solid plan to get kids into the building. And if anyone else wants to speak to that, feel free at this time.
[Demos]: I think you touched base on that perfectly, Peter, the building-based teams that are going to be creating plans for this exact question. There will be specific drop-off as well as dismissal procedures that are different than you've seen in the years past. But it's definitely building-based teams that will share them out per individual elementary school because of us having different layouts of our arrival and dismissal areas.
[Cushing]: I'm just scrolling through the questions. Has anyone seen anything?
[Wray]: There's a question I would like to address, and it's about a question about has the district established standards for testing volume, testing availability, positive test percentages, and turnaround time in order to safely have students at school? I'd like to say that that is a responsibility and under the authority of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, working with local boards of health. That being said, using our electronic medical record system, school nurses are able to safely track students and keep track of the numbers of both COVID positive and COVID exposed children. And we will be using that when we communicate with the local board of health to determine whether classrooms need to be closed down, or reaching out to DESE to see if we need to close a school down.
[Cushing]: Okay. So we've had a lot of questions on busing, and so I expect to actually be speaking to the MBTA today about buses. We are definitely hoping to add more buses from the MBTA to allow for appropriate social distancing. All students are required to wear masks on the buses. If you want to get a Medford branded mask, you can get one at bseenmasks.com if you want to represent your Medford pride. We will have masks available for families. We've had seamstresses donating masks. We'll have emergency masks in case one breaks. But we're really asking families to make sure that their child has masks available to them. Much like underwear, a new mask every day, so it's being laundered and cleaned in that type of situation. But we will work, if families want to donate masks, we will happily take them. And Tony, if you want to just speak about Mass once I talk a little bit more about the MBTA, I have had a little bit of a challenge reaching out to them, but I want to thank Lisa Evangelista for putting me in touch with one of the supervisors over at the MBTA. So I'll be making sure to make contact with them today and make sure that we have some really good answers for our MBTA buses and transportation for our students.
[Wray]: Okay, thank you, Peter. Just a word about masks. We know from our experience that masks made of tightly woven fabric are much more protective. So we would advise parents to buy cotton or cotton knit masks. The style, meaning whether there's ear loops or ties, really is up to the comfort of the wearer. It's more important that the child be comfortable wearing the mask, and be agreeable to wearing it. So that style is a comfort matter. We will be asking people to have a clean mask for every day. During the mask breaks, we would like students to be able to put their mask into a Ziploc bag. label it with their name and that way it protects the mask while they are eating lunch or while they are maybe taking a walk around the school school yard break. Let's see, I have pulled together a resource list, both online and local vendors that sell masks at very reasonable cost. And that is posted in the reopening plan in one of the appendixes. So we ask that people look there for some extra resources. We are fortunate to have a very dedicated group of volunteer seamstresses who are making cloth masks that will be on hand in every school in case a child loses or soils or breaks their other mask.
[Cushing]: Awesome. Thank you very much. I'm just looking through the questions now. If any of the other panelists have seen anything that you'd like to address and jump in on, by all means, go for it at this time as I scroll through our questions.
[Bowen]: actually I've got one for you Joan right here there's a question that says how will stuff yes so IEP will be continued to be held remotely we're going to limit the number of enter the building so I'm meeting you to be totally setting full time. Um, the for remote. Um, so for h kids on I E. P. S. Um, I'm not sure if the person is asking how the services will look on remote, but parents have the option to pick the remote plan. Students will continue to receive their IEP services, accommodations, and modifications based on the remote schedule. So there will be synchronous, there will be asynchronous, there will be telehealth, And depending on if they are a high-need student that is able to come in for in-person services, we will provide those in-person as much as possible.
[Cushing]: I also want to say that we're going to try to have, we're really going to be limiting visitors to the buildings in our plan. We're going to be looking to have, if you need to have a parent meeting, it's going to be one parent at a time, if at all possible. We're going to be doing meetings as remote as possible. we're really gonna be looking to limit the entry of as many people as possible. Now, I understand that this contradicts with us looking for volunteers to help out with lunch, but we're trying to balance the needs of the school versus our financially available resources and managing our, so I understand the innate contradiction there, but we are trying to work through this situation as best as possible. I want to address, will there be a dress code for masks? Other schools have said solid masks only. I've actually seen that put out by other schools, and no, we will not have a dress code for masks. It'll be like everything else. We will follow state laws, and it can't have inappropriate slogans or words or things like that on it, Other than that, if you want to design on your mask wavy lines or whatever it may be, go for it. We will not tolerate any hate speech. We will not tolerate anything inappropriate. And we will be prepared to give your child a mask to replace that if they are unable to comply. Hate has no home here and masks need to be, much like what a student wears to school, appropriate. But, you know, we're not going with just solid masks. I think that would be too much of a burden for families. If anyone else wants to add to that, feel free. But I wanted to address that.
[Teixeira]: There was a question about recess that I can address. The recess schedules will be made by the building principals, but when we did the hybrid schedule, we did allot time for recess to coincide with lunch for all students. And, you know, every school is set up differently. The Columbus has two separate areas where one group can go to one side, one can go to the other. I know all of the buildings don't have that much space around them, but they're going to structure it where students can still play, but do it in a responsible manner.
[Cushing]: Okay, so I also want to address that Mr. DeLeva is working to, and Mr. DeLeva is back on. So I know that you're working on passing time where students can loop around through the exterior of the building. And I know our middle schools are also looking at this as an option. So I don't know if Mr. Deliber, you want to address that while not recess at the elementary or walk around the schoolyard, but you know, an opportunity for students to be outside with their masks off for at least some time.
[D'Alleva]: Yeah, the building team, another. part of that we're trying to go through here is find times where students have the ability to go outside. There's a discussion regarding lunch as well of being outside and trying to have some mass breaks during that time frame. Again, it's a little bit different as You know, we're going more on a on a trust factor. Usually we have better oversight of students when we're indoors. But at the same time, this is something that needs to happen because we're in a pandemic.
[Cushing]: So we want to make sure that we're getting kids out as much as possible. And, you know, while still also for that.
[Demos]: So Peter, I want to make sure that realizing that the grounds at the elementary buildings will be open when we come back to school. It will be outside. We will be utilizing them. There will be sanitation procedures happening with them. But we will be creating schedules accordingly. with the cohort so that we limit the amount of people that are out there at a time. When we say snack breaks, to me, when we're taking a walk around the schoolyard, that would be one of those breaks built in within the day that we allocate for a mask break. A teacher may choose to take the students for a quick loop around the building to get their masks off to get a little stretch break to come back in for their masks on. But we would look at them. that walk around the schoolyard to address that question would be more of the mask break versus the recess, because the recess will be, we will have our field and our playground open and available to the kids.
[Cushing]: Okay. Just scrolling through the question.
[Bowen]: Can I address a question, please?
[Cushing]: Absolutely. Jump right in.
[Bowen]: So there's a question regarding three-year evaluations for our special education students. And when we come back in the fall, reopen in the fall, our goal is to try to do some in-person evaluations with our students, whether it's for educational testing, speech, psychological. So we will be doing that by appointment only. And we have ordered shields for desks that when the student is being evaluated, there will be that shield between the evaluator and the students, so they're our hope for the fall.
[Cushing]: So I also want to address Kristen's question that I just found above this. So will questions not answered here today be considered for inclusion into the Frequently Asked Questions document? The answer to that is yes. I'm going to be spending much of the remainder of today compiling the questions that have been in the info at putting them in a shared Google Doc and moving us towards a document that we can pull together so that everybody can see it. We will update that document. it out as soon as possible. We have received literally hundreds of questions, many of the same questions, and we're going to do our best to answer them all. There are some questions that people may not like the answers to, but one is we've received is, you know, about my child wearing masks. Masks are mandatory at Medford public schools. We are in a public health crisis and we have received some commentary that, you know, that are citing bad science. to be honest, and we are not going to be able to allow students into the building without masks unless they have a medically documented reason or disability status, and then we'll be looking to provide extra protection, be it shields on desks, face shields, different things, but We are really going to be requiring masks for students. Like I said, we're in a public health crisis and we need to do our best to limit the spread. I just want to try and... So somebody mentioned about, are we selling masks as a fundraiser? The answer is we are not. We simply want to provide an opportunity for masks with Medford branding to be available so students can represent their pride. And if we can, the youth masks will be available. I can tell you that they will be available. And we will do everything possible to provide masks for for our families. But we're also looking for help. So if you want to purchase a mask to donate to a student in need, please, we want to make sure that we can. So. All right, so. We will have a decision on before and after school as soon as possible. We're trying to trying to work all that through, you know, Um, as we close out here, I'm going to see if any of our panelists want to say anything. Finally, we're coming up on our time. Um, I want to say that, uh, before I close out, finally, I just want to say, thank you. I want to thank you for your patience, for your understanding. Um, we are working honestly, uh, nonstop to try to get this right. And we want to make sure that we get it as right as possible for everyone involved. But I want to throw it to the members of the team if you have any final closing words before we head off for our day.
[Wray]: I'd like to follow up, Peter, on your closing comment. Our goal is to keep staff and students safe and healthy, and we will follow all of the Department of Public Health and Board of Health procedures in doing so. We don't want to expose anybody to any undue risk, and we will be doing our best to maintain health and safety within our buildings for our students and staff.
[Cushing]: Thank you, Toni.
[Teixeira]: I just want to add, you know, we've spent the past couple months trying to look at how we can completely redesign schools in the middle of a pandemic and keep everybody safe and still provide a quality education. There were some questions about teacher professional development. We are offering professional development for teachers to make this adjustment because we're asking teachers to completely change the way they've taught, whether it's a hybrid model or remote model, this is something completely new. Prior to getting the extra 10 days front loaded at the beginning of the year, we did opt to take that Tuesday election day and make that a PD day for teachers in August. They've been given a platform on a, by a company called Better Lessons, which is specifically designed to support teachers with their instruction in a remote model, a hybrid model, and how they can make that curriculum accessible synchronously and asynchronously. That contract with Better Lessons will go through, even though the training happens in August, they get to remain on as coaches, I think, through October. So teachers will still have access to that professional development once they're in the thick of trying to juggle this different style of teaching.
[Demos]: And Peter, if I might just add a couple of comments. being part of the remote learning model team and planning for the district. I just want to stress to the families out there that the remote learning academy that is being developed right now and in bargain with the teachers union is definitely going to be adhering to strict district curriculum initiatives and it's going to be providing the students with the robust engaging academic experience. It is going to be much different than what we saw in the spring. There's going to be accountability on the part of the administrator, the teacher, family caregiver, student. We are going to be looking into, for the elementary level, a platform called Clever.com. It streamlines the ability for the students to get on their apps and their sign-ons to a one logon process. So I just wanted to have a minute to to encourage the elementary families to look into that Clever system because we're going to be using that clever.com as a platform for our elementary students As you know, we all have K-12, we'll all have Medford email addresses so that they can access all the educational platforms and applications, but this streamlines that login process and makes it a lot easier for the students to access their learning online, which in turn helps with the families at home that are helping to get them onto that remote learning and that more robust schedule.
[Teixeira]: And also if I could just add with the better lessons professional development, that wasn't, it's not just for teachers, paraprofessionals and administrators are also participating in this. So as a district, everybody is on the same page.
[Cushing]: All right. So, um, I want to just take one final question. So, um, it is our goal and hope to put together a parent university, um, with videos and other, um, tutorials, maybe through stream yard, maybe through zoom, however it is, um, to try to make our, uh, to give our parents.
[SPEAKER_06]: Look, we all know this. and in the springtime, we were
[Cushing]: challenge for you as well. And we really want to recognize the best. We're going to end our breads as we come through. We are going to end our and I thank you.
[Teixeira]: So we lost Peter. I'm not sure if everyone can hear me well.
[Cushing]: more information and more updates as they become available. Thank you.
[Teixeira]: I'm not sure if Dr. Cushing is still locked out or frozen, but we want to thank everybody who is on this panel for contributing your questions. We will be taking the questions and putting them into a frequently asked questions and kind of compiling them from the two sessions. It also gives us something to think about. The school committee meeting is Thursday night. you know, please come in attendance and share your views there as well. We'll be taking all of this feedback to tweak the plans as they have been presented to the Department of Ed, and our final plan goes in, I believe, August 10th. Thank you very much for attending, and we look forward to continuing this work with you.
[SPEAKER_13]: Thank you. Thank you, everyone. Thank you, everyone.
[Cushing]: My apologies there. So it's the best when your internet fails on you or your computer freezes. When we're talking about the, talking about going,
[Unidentified]: remote and those types the thing and the bread I cast now and I appreciate a I appreciate everybody
|
total time: 4.82 minutes total words: 773 |
total time: 8.1 minutes total words: 1203 |
||