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[Cushing]: All right, we are live. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Wanted to just let you know that we're going to wait a few minutes as more people join us. Thank you very much once again for joining us on this StreamYard presentation. The way you ask questions is by entering them in the comment box on either YouTube or our Facebook channel. So thank you very much for being here tonight. Thank you very much for your concern and investment in your child's education and our process for reopening schools. So we're just gonna give it another minute or so. for more people to join as the numbers in the last minute have gone from zero to over 100. So thank you and we'll be right with you.
[Galusi]: Alright.
[Edouard-Vincent]: Good evening, everyone. This is Marie Sedvard-Vincent, superintendent of school speaking. And I'm pleased to have this additional listening session to get feedback. Last week we presented at our school committee meeting, and we know that there are a lot of questions that you may have as parents regarding what our plan was that was presented last week. So again, this is an opportunity for us to listen, to be able to look at the comments and questions that you're going to have and respond to them as many as possible. So I look forward to seeing your comments and communicating further. Thank you.
[Cushing]: Um, so, um, we wanted to also, uh, update everybody on where the frequently asked questions are. I'm going to share my screen real quick with you. Um, so, so hopefully. There we go. So this right now, what you're seeing is the frequently asked questions document that we have compiled. There are over 38 categories of questions that you can see off to the side here. And these are some of the questions that we're going to be going through and answering. So it comes out to be just about 100 pages of questions. I have a few more emails to add to that, but I wanted to make you aware of just the level of questions that we've received and the level of care and duty we have to answering them. We're going to be answering them in an executive summary format to make sure that we address as much as possible throughout this process. So while that is a weird look when you share your screen that way. So that's the questions there. The other thing that I want to share with you real quick, and I hope it comes up, I'm going to take the banners down just for a second here. All right. So when you look at that, so that's our reopening right there, the questions that you had. And then we are also going to show you kind of where the metrics are for reopening. And so right now you can see on this graphic which U.S. states meet the recommended positivity levels. And so this was done by Johns Hopkins University. And you can see where Massachusetts is toward the lower end of the tail right there. Also, I just wanted to move forward with information that was released by the governor of Massachusetts today. So he's releasing metrics for the average daily race case rate per 100,000 for COVID-19 in Massachusetts by city or town over the last two weeks. And so when you look at this information, this is from 7-22 to 8-5, 2020. And so you see up in here where Medford is as a green city. And just to give you further clarity, I went through the data that was released today and is posted on the state website and have pulled out Medford's information. So you can go and you can look at all of this information that's online. And so the last 14 days, which really isn't the last 14 days, it's back to 722 to 85. And you look at that, our average percent positivity is 1.3%. And the average daily cases per 100,000 over that 14 day period was 3.4 cases. The population of Medford based on a US census check is 57,633. So that's where the calculation comes from. from what I understand, the numbers from 85 to now are significantly lower than that, but I don't have that officially. And we will try to have that for tomorrow's call as well.
[Galusi]: And do you wanna just clarify the percentage piece that it's the information that the state and even nationally is working on is that the average percent, which reflects that Johns Hopkins chart should be below 5%. I think that's just important to note. So we're at 1.3, significantly below 5%. Right.
[Cushing]: And so depending on where we are, we will share this information continually as it comes out. The state is going to be sharing this on the website. If you go to mass.gov, there's a COVID tab in the upper right hand corner of mass.gov and you'll be able to see the information in the governor's daily press release. So that's where it was found. I will find the direct link to that and link it to our district's Facebook page this afternoon. And we'll also post it to our website this evening slash tomorrow. So, all right. Anything else from the team right now as we see it?
[Edouard-Vincent]: here before we start answering questions.
[Joan Bowen]: All right.
[Tom Milachewski]: All right. Well, good evening, everyone. So I'm going tonight to start taking the questions from the feed and starting to feed them to the group here. We'll try our best to take as many questions as we possibly can. We're shooting to have our session about an hour long just so we can plan here. And again, I'm not ignoring any questions if we can't get to them. There's already probably about 75 questions on the feed, and we'll do our best to get to them. And we will try to prioritize questions that relate to things connected to the phased-in reopening, as we acknowledge there's been some questions about that over the past few days. So let's start with a question from Advocate Mamio asking, please tell us an overview of what you're planning to do. So I think maybe if someone from the team can just share, what are we trying to accomplish tonight with this listening session? And then also, what's our overview of our plan moving forward, just to get everyone on the same page before we dive into some of the specifics?
[Edouard-Vincent]: Well, I would want to say that our overview tonight is to really continue to listen and get additional feedback. We know that we put out the plan last week and there were definitely questions I received since last week. And we wanted to give the community an opportunity to kind of say what are some of the questions they have. and look at what are the additional questions that need to be addressed. So again, that's when I think about what our plan is for this evening, it's really to be able to listen, to see the types of questions that are coming forward, and to see how we can continue to answer all of those questions and see what we can do on our end to continue to meet the needs of the community.
[Tom Milachewski]: So let's ask Ketaj's question about when are questions that were sent to info going to get replies? Dr. Cushing quickly talked about the FAQ document. I don't know if Dr. Cushing could dive in a little bit of detail of maybe the timeline for when we may be able to get some response to those questions and what those responses might look like.
[Cushing]: So we're going to be looking to get that information out to you Thursday afternoon. My over under on that is five o'clock. So, we're really hoping to get that information out to you for 5 p.m. on Thursday. I know that a lot of people don't want to answer the survey until they have some of those answers, and we completely respect that. We are also, the survey will be open until Sunday. And we really thank you for the over, we've got about 1700 students already locked into the survey. As another point, please do not feel that you have to, we're going to be sending out numerous reminders for people. If you've already done the survey, you don't have to do it again. All right. So I'll be sending out an email probably later tonight to everybody who has already registered. Please make sure you double check your email that you enter. As I have found about 20 errors that are preventing a that are preventing an email from going out. So I'm trying to work through that, but please make sure that you have that. The other thing too that I wanted to address was the HVAC situation in our schools. So we are working with a company called WB Engineering, and they are HVAC engineers who will be coming into Medford High School to look at all of our information and to give us an updated report. They should have three engineers in our building next week. So we are working through that right now and want to make sure that we are going to be having a safe and healthy building for everybody here. So that's a quick update on a few things that I was supposed to mention at the start. Anyway, back to the phased-in opening, Mr. Mieleczewski.
[Tom Milachewski]: So our next question, I think we'll turn this one to Ms. Galusi. So the question comes from Jerry. For the full remote option, how many hours a day will the students have a live teacher teaching them versus some self-paced asynchronous learning? I assume Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday has one answer, and Wednesday may have a different answer. So I don't know if Ms. Galusi can just chime in on the level of detail that we've come up with already, and maybe what are some of the unknowns as well.
[Galusi]: Sure, sure. So I think the draft schedule that was in the plan was just like a broad overview of how things could possibly look. And you're right that Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday has more of a typical school day schedule. Wednesday right now has the half day. schedule. So the next phase of the work that we have to do will be to fine tune and come up with those specific details. Now that the school committee has voted for the hybrid and the fully remote plan, now we get some of the task force back together and we have to work on those fine details. I don't have a specific answer at this time because we still need people to come back and do that fine detail work. The only thing I will say that I've said before is that we want to take a developmental approach to how many hours students are going to be expected to be doing live synchronous learning. We certainly do not expect kindergartners and first graders to be on the screen for three hours, but high schoolers may be able to handle three hours of online synchronous time. So once those specifics are ironed out in the next two weeks, we absolutely will give an update to the community.
[Tom Milachewski]: Next question, I know we may not have the specific answer on this.
[Galusi]: So right now with the, so I'm looking at the next question, it's talking about the class sizes in the remote auction. And so right now, as Dr. Cushing had mentioned, the survey is still going. So we have about 1,700 responses. We have to wait and see what those numbers look like in terms of how many families want the remote option fully. We also then have to look based on those families where the breakdown is per grade. So of course we do not want a remote class to be to have high numbers, but it may not have the numbers that a hybrid class would when they're in person. But what we would probably frame it on is what is a typical class size of about 20 students. But it's going to vary depending on enrollment numbers.
[Tom Milachewski]: Thank you, Ms. Galusi.
[Galusi]: The next question from Karen, will there be any way of preserving classes- Preserving classes with assigned schools and teams with middle school, or is that all dependent on what families choose and what teachers? Yes.
[Edouard-Vincent]: Yeah, we would have to say yes. While this preliminary survey has gone out right now, as we're gathering the information to see what families are choosing, at first glance, the majority of families do seem to be selecting hybrid, but we can't say that because we still, you know, we can't say that that's the majority of families choose that. But as families are going to be completing the survey and we have that data, we will be able to say, okay, now based on parent responses for their children, what is it that they would like or they feel meets the needs of their families. So, in that regards, where we are able to preserve a class or try to keep classes intact, we will definitely try to do that within assigned schools and teams. Again, we need to get the rest of those surveys in so we have clear information.
[Tom Milachewski]: Great. Next question is going to Tom.
[Edouard-Vincent]: Tom, you're muted. We can't hear you.
[Tom Milachewski]: Can you hear me now? I'm not sure. Now we can.
[Galusi]: Perfect.
[Tom Milachewski]: Sorry about that. So next question, let's see, is going to come from Jennifer here. If a family is unable to respond to the survey, do they, due to their own work situation being unknown, will students be assigned to a specific model? If so, which model? I know our teams had conversations about sort of what's the default model under the current plan. So I don't know if someone on the team could just speak to that quickly.
[Edouard-Vincent]: We are determined to try to get as close to 100% participation in the surveys. So the first pass has gone out and families that are responding remotely or online. And then at the end of this week, we're gonna take an assessment on Sunday to see where we land. Again, within the first 24 hours, we already have 1,700 families or students accounted for. And so those are really promising numbers. So by Sunday, once we get down to more manageable numbers, we will be calling out to families and setting up other ways to get the survey completed with them. So if a family were to need support, either to have a translator work with them or to have a person speak to them to complete the survey, we would be willing to do that.
[Galusi]: But I do, I think it's important to note though, since you brought that up, Dr. Edward-Vincent, that the surveys were sent out translated and we have had several families responding on the translated versions as well. And the last count for that was an additional one to 200.
[Cushing]: And so, Jennifer, where you're mentioning also that your work situation is unknown, what we want to do is really want to be as flexible as possible and work with families, realizing that, you know, at some point there is going to be, you know, the start of school will be here. So we want to be as flexible as we can while also realizing that we have to build the class lists and those types of things.
[Tom Milachewski]: So our next question, I'd like to bring Joan in. And I see here from Jen. And Jen, I apologize we didn't get your question in a previous session. We're trying our best to get as many as we can here. So we'll definitely get yours tonight. My question is, for students on an IEP who choose to go full remote, will they still have access to the specialist they are used to at their home school for consistency slash comfort?
[Joan Bowen]: So our goal would be to try to do that, but it depends on the numbers of students who are going remote and students who are participating in the hybrid plan. We will look at those numbers closely to see who are the service providers and if that can continue with the full remote plan.
[Tom Milachewski]: Thank you, Joan. So our next question, and I think we've heard this from, I've seen this a few times on the chat tonight, just from Marlo, why wasn't this plan released to parents and teachers prior to the school committee meeting the other night? And I think maybe if someone on the team can speak about just sort of what may be, you know, different in the staggered hybrid model than maybe just the hybrid model and how that all happens.
[Edouard-Vincent]: So one of the challenges that we are facing right now with the hybrid model is at the Medford High School complex in particular, we were aware of some concerns around ventilation. And so we needed to have the engineers come in because there are some new COVID recommendations regarding older buildings. And with the high school complex in particular, being the oldest building, over 50 years old, there are a lot of areas that we knew we were gonna need to be able to address and look at parts of the high school complex where maybe they were being utilized one way and needed to be utilized a different way. So the hybrid model that was recommended, the hybrid model that the work group proposed, it's still that hybrid schedule. But what we took into consideration, again, knowing that we were going to continue to receive updated information, updated medical information, and thinking about the total number of students. So that if an entire building that normally holds 500 or so students, if that building was fully hybrid, fully functioning, all grade levels, at any given time, you could have 250 students, but it depended on the age. And so we tried to look at still going forward with the hybrid approach to instruction. However, staggering those numbers so that we were not overwhelming the system. And so a lot of the medical research talked about our youngest learners, our early childhood, our kindergarten age children, first from a readiness perspective. They don't have actual school experience. And we thought it was critically important to set that foundation. We know that this situation is not ideal for anyone. It's not an ideal learning situation. And I personally feel that our kids are regressing, regressing, regressing, not only academically, but also social emotionally. And so when we were trying to think about this, hybrid staggered approach to say, let's start with some of our youngest learners so we can at least set the foundation. When you think about our early childhood and kindergarten students, some of them don't even have experience yet with using computers or technology. They may use their mom or dad's phone or someone's phone from time to time, but really being able to use the technology And so we were saying we need to get them physically on campus to set that foundation and really set those early readiness skills that are developmentally appropriate for our youngest learners and slowly stagger in the additional grades to the school so that it was a gradual process. So that was the reasoning or the thinking behind recommending the staggered approach. So I just wanted to share that.
[Tom Milachewski]: Thank you, Dr. Robertson. Next question gets at is a operations question from Kathleen. The plan mentions you purchased eight electrostatic sanitizing sprayers. How often do you intend to use those and how will they be spread among all the schools? Seems like not enough for each school to have one. And whoever answers that, if you could also just share about the school-based teams. I think some of this will start to connect with work that they'll do at the school level.
[Cushing]: So Kathleen, thank you very much for your question. So we've not only purchased the eight handheld electrostatic sprayers, I actually tried to go and get one because I saw your question pop up. But we also have two backpack sprayers, as well as the original one that Medford Public Schools had even before COVID started. So what we're going to be doing is we're going to be using them in the evenings and then also we're gonna come up with a schedule during teachers preps where we can have custodians and maybe others go around and use them on spaces. So we are definitely committed to using them. And so just so you know, if you were to go on Amazon and look at them, they're $1,750 a piece. Um, and so we need to be fiscally conscious and our director of facilities and grounds feels that that will be adequate. Um, he's been able to get them for a reduced price. And if we need to purchase more, we will. Um, but just based on how the numbers are running, it seems like a, um, it seems like a, an appropriate number to have at this point, especially with the backpacks and other, um, the other equipment that we have. Um, the formula that goes into the electrostatic sprayer can be used in a regular, uh, spray bottle. and allowed to dry. What the electrostatic sprayer does is it actually forces out the solution in a positive charge that then attracts two negatively charged particles in the room, therefore wrapping around surfaces and giving a complete disinfecting approach. So just wanted to give you that. Our school-based teams are launching now to work on the operational pieces for signage, for cleaning, for the building-based protocols based off our overall plan. A question that I did see come through was about masks. Masks are required for all students. That is a change from when we initially issued the plan. based on the feedback that we received. So just wanted to give you that.
[Tom Milachewski]: Great, thank you Dr. Cushing. Next question, I know we've talked a little bit about the decision to stagger certain ages at certain times and also the particular decision at the high school level. So the question from Heather, could the staggered phase in begin at the high school September 16th versus October 13th Could seniors also have some priority after freshmen? So I don't know if someone could share just some of the rationale between the way that the current staggering in is at the high school level, and maybe get into some of the details about our plans of ventilation at the high school.
[Edouard-Vincent]: Yes, so I would definitely say, and I've received several, some communications regarding seniors and what's required for senior year with students preparing for college and to graduate. So that is something that we can definitely continue to look at. Again, the high school complex at one point in time used to house 5,000 students. The same exact complex, which is now housing 1,200 students. So, we are aware of that. However, at the same time, we are aware we have the engineers coming out to look at some of the work that we will need to do here at the high school complex. So that was part of where we were saying we know that we're going to need to do some work. There are many parts of the high school that are renovated. The science wing is fully renovated, air conditioned. that's in D building and many, many programs on the vocational side of the house are renovated or those spaces have large windows or bays where the windows will fully open and you're able to have a lot of circulation going through. So we were looking at that and taking that also into consideration. So we will definitely continue to look at the staggered dates. And again, there has been a lot of questions about what we can do for seniors in programming. So that was what led to the staggered approach here at the high school, because we are aware that we have to do some ventilation work. So that's something that is you know, high priority, and we're going to continue to, you know, look at that as the school year gets closer, but we wanted to also give ourselves some time for that work to happen.
[Tom Milachewski]: We have a follow-up question, I think, as someone can build off of that, to talk a little bit about the timeline of some of that work, and if, you know, how that information will be communicated. So, from Kate, have engineers gone into the buildings yet, and will information be shared about what they find?
[Cushing]: So our engineers will be in the building next week. As I mentioned earlier, we're working with a company called WB Engineering and they will be starting with Medford High School next week to go into the buildings and Yeah, I mean, we'll be sharing information. There's nothing that we're not going to be sharing. You know, we've put up all the minutes from our work groups are headed to the website. You know, the frequently asked questions I just showed to everybody, we'll be putting that out there. So Ms. Willard, we will definitely be sharing out everything that's found. And in the newer buildings, The engineers will be looking at the original drawings for those HVAC systems so that we can get the MERV 13 filters with the appropriate drops in them so that we don't burn out our motors and don't burn out our equipment.
[Tom Milachewski]: Thank you, Dr. Cushing. I'd like to get Ms. Bowen involved in here. This next question relates to a 504 plan from Maria. Will a child with a 504 plan who chooses to be fully remote, will they still have access to the plan?
[Joan Bowen]: Yes, they will. So any student that's on a 504 or an IEP that chooses the fully remote plan will have access to their modifications, their accommodations, and their special education services. They may be delivered a little bit differently, but they will still receive those accesses to the plan.
[Tom Milachewski]: Great, thank you. And just wanted to quickly, too, there was a question about where surveys are provided directly to people's emails. Everyone should have received an email with a survey. And if you did not, it might be helpful just to contact your building principal to make sure you can get your email address updated. You also could find the surveys directly on the website translated into five languages. So again, if you didn't receive that, you should have through the email that we have on file. So if you did not receive that, just contact your building principal so we can find a way to get that email address updated for moving forward. So next question relates to cohorts and I know there's a lot of conversations about sort of how will cohorts be generated. I don't know if someone from the team can share how will we decide which cohort, which child will belong to cohort B or C and sort of where we're at with that decision making.
[Galusi]: So unfortunately at this time, that's one of those decisions that we are going to be discussing with the school-based team, as well as some of the working teams. So we have had some parents reach out to their building principals with maybe some of their personal needs that they have due to work schedules or family life situation. And we would encourage you to still do so. But our intent is that we are keeping families together because we know that there is no perfect solution to the world we're living in right now, but we really do want to try to do what's best for families. So our intent is to keep families together. which includes blended families as well. If you have specific needs beyond that, I would suggest that you reach out to your building principal, and we are going to do our best to accommodate. But it's definitely going to be a cumbersome logistic puzzle that we are going to be starting to work on at the end of this week, beginning of next week.
[Tom Milachewski]: Thanks, Ms. Galussi. Another question is about, this is a quick one, just about the survey being geared towards one child. How do I address the needs of all of my kids? Just to quickly point out, if you have multiple children, the survey should allow you to fill out the survey once per child. So don't try to consolidate all that information once for the survey. Instead, just fill that survey out once for each of your children. Because again, your preferences for your child may look different for each one, for each situation. So our next question comes from Robert, is about vocational school. No mention was made of vocational school during meetings. Why did Adam spring the vocational hybrid upon the community with no input from the stakeholders impacted by this? I know that the team has had conversations with Mr. Fallon. So I don't know if someone can just update how the decision was made to stagger in the particular grade levels of vocational school.
[Edouard-Vincent]: Yes, so definitely for the vocational school, Principal Fallon was consulted and he shared that for the 11th and 12th graders, at those grade levels during vocational programming, students do the most practical hours where they have their actual hands-on experience learning. Our 10th grade students, which are in the vocational program, They actually, in 10th grade, the way the program is designed, it's more content-based. So the students in 10th grade spend fewer hours or a fewer amount of time in their actual hands-on experience and more time taking the academic coursework. And as the students get older, 11th and 12th grade, and getting ready to move into their careers, it's critically important that those students get the practical amount of hours using whether it's health assisting or electrical work or working on the vehicles and cars that they need that hands-on experience for them to really be prepared. So with that, we spoke with principal Fallon. And when he had looked at the numbers and said that at this point in time, it would be with 110 seniors currently enrolled at the vocational school, that if they had 55 students to do the hybrid, then 55 students could be spread throughout all of the different programs that those seniors would be involved in. And it would be a manageable number to slowly transition in. So that was what was taken into consideration when we made the final recommendation last week. But the hybrid schedule, the instructional schedule of the hybrid team that was created by the work groups That is the schedule that is still on the table. That is still the plan. So whether it's the vocational side of the house or the comprehensive side of the house, the hybrid plan that was designed in the dynamic return to school plan, it's still that schedule. The change is that it was a staggered approach. And at the high school again, with this being the largest complex and with all of the renovated spaces on the vocational side, that was where that recommendation was put forward.
[Galusi]: I think it's important to note though too that A vocational teacher was assigned to the hybrid group. I'm not quite sure what happened, but did not participate in the planning for the group. But that's why we, during those task force groups, reached out to Chad Fallon so that we made sure that the vocational voice was heard. And that's why the link was embedded in that dynamic plan for both the hybrid and the remote model.
[Tom Milachewski]: Before I go to the next question, I've seen a few questions and comments on there about masks. Just want to emphasize that masks will be required for all students. So just wanted to be crystal clear on that piece for the group. Joan, next question relates to IEP from Lisa. So when will students on an IEP receive services? And these are the students who are not necessarily considered high needs.
[Joan Bowen]: Sure. So any student will be receiving a specific schedule that outlines their classes. So if they were to have a co-taught math class, the co-teacher would meet with the general education teacher during that time and co-teach the class. If they had small group math class with a special education teacher, that would be built into their schedule. We would also build in, say, academic support classes, speech, OT, PT, during wind blocks or during exploratory blocks, similar to what we do when we're in school and we have a typical day schedule.
[Tom Milachewski]: Thank you, Josh. So the next question gets at a scenario we all hope it doesn't come to, but certainly something we will have to plan for from Kelly Robin, which is if students are attending hybrid and for whatever reason schools close, will they continue learning as if it were a hybrid from home or will they pivot to remote option? How would that work for the high school specifically? Didn't know if someone would be able to share their thoughts on that.
[Galusi]: Yes, yes. So if your child is enrolled in the hybrid model and they have their schedule with their set teachers, that will continue if the schools have to then close and go into remote. They will continue with the hybrid schedule and educators that they started with. Now, What they may do is pick up some of the expectations and schedules that are working in the remote model, but their educators will remain the same. I hope that answers their question. So in other words, depending on how long we may be closed, you may follow the remote schedule so that you will have that balance of synchronous and asynchronous time, but you would keep the educators that you had within the hybrid model.
[Tom Milachewski]: Thank you, Ms. Colucci. I just want to emphasize, too, we're trying our best to get to as many questions as we possibly can. There's hundreds of questions out there in the chat, and we're trying to get through as many as we can here, and also trying to get to maybe some topics that we haven't yet discussed. So I appreciate your patience and understanding as we try to answer as many as we can. I do see a lot of questions around kindergarten. So I don't know if someone could share, what would a remote day of kindergarten be like? I also heard a few people see that or say their child has a hard time focusing in remote instruction and don't think that they'll have the attention span to be able to last for a lot of online learning. So don't know if someone on the team can share what kindergarten could look like through the remote model.
[Galusi]: So we agree. Everyone right here answering these questions and on this StreamYard session, we're all parents. We all have more than one child. We all know how different they can be as learners and as little people and big people. I know I have two completely different students as children. You're right, and I think Dr. Edouard-Vincent really spoke about the early childhood piece and how really critical it is because they're still developing those readiness skills. And for entering kindergarten, depending on what their a preschool experience, if they even had one, was like, they may be coming in with no readiness skills and it's our job to prepare them to be students. So we know if we're in a remote situation, we do realize, as previously said, that we don't expect them to be on a computer for three hours a day. But the work that's going to start with the teams next week to fine tune these plans, is going to have representation from each level. That's what we're hoping for in working with the teachers union for that, so that we can specifically target those remote plans to the specific levels, because the expectation for a kindergartener in a remote level is not gonna be what the expectation is for a fourth grader or a fifth grader, and certainly not for middle school and high school. So I do apologize that I don't have a more exact specific answer for you, it's coming. but it's definitely going to be a developmental approach.
[Tom Milachewski]: We have a few questions about testing. And I know that this is something that's come up over the past, especially the past week. So I don't know if we can have an update about that or maybe have an update, a timeline to share some information about will teachers and students be tested as it is with tough students.
[Edouard-Vincent]: So for students, we don't have an official testing schedule for students. So students would not be tested at this point in time coming to school. Unless something were to take place, Medford will have additional testing sites, and we're going to be working closely with the Medford Board of Health. However, for teachers, We are working, the Medford Port of Health, the city of Medford, the mayor's office. We are working right now closely with Tufts University to provide testing for teachers. And so- All staff, all staff. Not only teachers, but for all staff in Medford public schools. And that testing would be available on a bi-weekly basis. We are still ironing out those details, but that is something that is definitely in the works. And so, all the details have not been ironed out for staff, but it is something that is going to be available for staff in Medford Public Schools to be able to receive ongoing COVID testing in collaboration with Tufts University. And I'd like to thank the mayor for negotiating that on our behalf. And again, this is, you know, preliminary, early conversation, but by the time school does start up, Medford Public Schools and Tufts University, we will be collaborating to provide testing. So that's very good news. And I'm very happy about that. And I know as time goes by, we will get clearer information for students about where will regular or additional Medford sites be for testing if it was needed.
[Tom Milachewski]: I see a lot of questions around the hybrid model in general. So I, Annetta's question, can we see a test drive of a day in the life of a hybrid student? So I don't know if someone can maybe provide an overview of what it may look like to be in the hybrid model. And then also maybe speak about the student orientation that we're thinking about to maybe help onboard students to get them set up for success in that hybrid model.
[Galusi]: Sure, I think that's very important. I think I'll start there, Tom. So we've set aside about three days for like an orientation so that families and students can come and have time in a safely distant way or manner, maybe outdoors to meet their teachers. no matter what plan. So I know you're specifically asking about hybrid, but that orientation is also going to be for students that are enrolled in the all-remote academy as well. And so during the orientation, parents will be given schedules or have an idea of how things may roll out and have the opportunity to, even though it's brief, but have that face-to-face and start the rapport with your child or children's educators. during those 10 days that the Department of Education has given each district, we're going to spend time. So teachers not only are going to have a lot of time to plan and collaborate for this big undertaking, but they're also going to have some training. And it's going to be around the hybrid model, as well as the remote model, as well as the safety precautions and protocols. So the hybrid, when the students are in the building, We're going to, as close as we can, have it mirror what it's like for them when they're in school. Now, granted, there are certain things that aren't going to be the same. So desks may not be in clusters. They may be separated so that we're keeping the social distancing that we need to keep at six feet. If they're science tables, they're going to have to be at each end if that is six feet. the school-based teams are going to handle what the schedules look like for transitions in hallways to keep it at a minimum. So there'll be a little bit less moving than the secondary students are used to. And that also includes like lunch routines and bathroom routines. So we know that each building is slightly different, and even due to enrollment numbers, a lunch schedule at the Columbus Elementary may look different than at the Roberts Elementary. So the school-based teams that have started their work will come out with a more detailed day in the life of or schedule for a hybrid model. I can answer, like I know in elementary, lunch will probably take place in the classroom with than the students going outside for recess. It might look a little different though at the secondary level. So we will let you know what the schedule will look like in further detail once the school-based teams have mapped it out.
[Tom Milachewski]: Our next question gets at the high school level, and this is something we've heard a few questions about over the past week or so. For high school students planning to take honors and AP classes, do you have the staffing to offer them hybrid and remote? What should parents select if they want to be most likely to be assigned the honors and AP classes they've been planning to take?
[Cushing]: So parents should select the plan that works the best for them. We will be offering AP and honors courses to all students.
[Tom Milachewski]: Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Cushing. Another operations question that I think was discussed in the operational work group was from David. For hybrid, will be hand washing stations in every class and will there be mandatory hand washing breaks?
[Cushing]: So upon entering every room, there will be hand sanitizer. Students should hand sanitize upon entering every room. The elementary schools, and Ms. Galussi can definitely speak to this, they have the instructional classrooms for the grade levels. have sinks in every room. And so we have gallons upon gallons upon gallons of soap for students to use that as well. In rooms that don't have the soap, we have literally thousands of hand sanitizers. I believe the number is 3,000 hand sanitizers for the rooms for us to be able to have that available for our students.
[Tom Milachewski]: So, the next question, I think we, Dr. Duarte-Vincent talked about this. Why wasn't the plan released to parents and teachers prior to the school committee meeting? I'm still seeking an answer. I just wanted to quickly share, too, and then I'll give it to someone else in the team, too, is that when we put forth the possibility of the staggered in, it did not change the work of the hybrid team. So, that hybrid model still remains the same. the work that was done in the hybrid team, that sort of that plan and that schedule is still in place, and does not sort of, the staggered piece does not overrule the work that's been done in that team. So I think as a group here, we all wanted to emphasize that the collective work of those work groups was not, you know, overruled by the, by proposing or entering in a possibility of a staggering approach. Since we've heard a few comments on that, I didn't know if someone else on the team just wants to weigh in on that piece.
[Edouard-Vincent]: I think I would just restate that we definitely built the plan upon what was available to us, building upon what was done from the workgroups that participated in designing both the hybrid and the remote. The staggered approach again was with some of the information that we received, some of the information, some of the guidelines that are available to us. regarding numbers, and also looking at knowing that this is a fluid situation, and at the start of this session, and I'm not sure if you were on for the start, but we showed Massachusetts numbers, but Medford as well, that Medford has compared to many other communities that are not very far away from us. Medford is actually in a very good position right now. And so I, you know, I say that and I knock on some wood, but to say that knowing that it's a fluid situation, knowing the ages of the children, knowing that there is you know, limited work that needs to be done in the outside buildings, working with filters and those kinds of things, that that's what had prompted us to say, let's do the staggered approach so we have our youngest learners coming in and then building the numbers gradually so that, you know, every few weeks we have another cohort come in, and so the numbers will increase steadily. So that was the intention. But from the time that the dynamic plan was released and the work that we were doing between the meeting happening on Thursday, a week ago, last Thursday, that when we went into the meeting, that was a decision that was made at this level to say, looking at all of our, given all of the givens that we have to work with, the parameters that we have to work with, and again, looking at medical guidance, CDC guidelines, et cetera, we felt that the staggered hybrid approach would be what was best for Medford. And again, we're continuing to get feedback and people are asking for, you know, additional grades to be considered for staggering. So we will continue to take feedback, listen to it, but in the end, we do have to make a decision. So that was where we're at.
[Tom Milachewski]: Next one comes from Leticia. How will you ensure the quality of both remote and hybrid education, and especially how are teachers being directed to both? I know Ms. Galussi and your work group started to look at accountability a little bit, and also maybe if you can share just some of the lessons learned from the spring and how those are being addressed as we move into the fall.
[Galusi]: Right. So thank you. So in all of the ways that we have gathered community input regarding their remote experience last year, and through all of the work on the task forces, we heard loud and clear that parents want consistency. That was one of the biggest pieces. So consistency in the expectations for learning for their students at every level and at every department. and consistency with the scheduling. So that was what we wanted. We really wanted to make sure we covered both of those areas. And I think that the sample schedules, though they may change a bit, but those sample schedules really took into account to make sure that we're consistent throughout Metro Public Schools. I think that part of the work in the remote group, because of that experience that educators and parents had, we did spend some time talking about what the accountability would look like at the administrative level, at the educator level, and at the parent, caregiver, student level. We gave you a little sampling in the dynamic plan. We will have more of the details of that once we work through them collectively with the teachers.
[Tom Milachewski]: Next one, I just wanted to raise a good idea by Julia here. Can you do some more of these Q&As broken into elementary, middle, and high school sessions? So many different developmental and operational concerns. It's a great idea and also something we can bring up to the school-based teams because I can imagine that there's a lot of also specific information that's relevant to specific school contexts too.
[Galusi]: Yeah, I like that. I like that idea, Julia.
[Cushing]: Yeah, Julia, thank you very much. We'd love to do that. We'll work with our school principals to have them set up for probably next week just to give people some time and to start planning them out. But we'll start planning them out out there.
[Tom Milachewski]: Great. Next one, and thanks, Julia, for raising that. Next one relates back to the masks for all students, which is, I've heard parents say they don't want kids to have to wear masks all day, and I've heard about mask breaks. Will mask breaks happen outside?
[Cushing]: So the answer to that is yes. Our high school principal has actually worked to have class change work so that students can walk in the exterior of the building. And we're going to try to have the mask breaks outside as much as possible. It's really fundamentally critical, though, that I've seen some other questions about what if students refuse to wear a mask. So there are those students who will have medical reasons. But for those students who are outright refusing to wear a mask, we'll have to really coach their families for remote learning. This is a public health crisis, and we are working as best as possible to prepare our buildings and prepare our staff, as well as to protect our staff and students. And wearing a mask is a baseline minimum that is expected of our students.
[Tom Milachewski]: Thank you, Dr. Cushing. Next question regarding grading and sort of falling behind. Although grading and making assignments required makes sense, I am concerned about my child failing without my help. I will be working full time and can't give her the help that I did in the spring. I think a lot of working parents feel this way. I'd also just like to say that everyone on this call right now has children, if not multiple children. So something that is definitely, we've thought about how do we provide supports to students and make sure that they can sort of stay up to speed, especially for families that, you know, will be working full time. I don't know if someone on the team could dive into a bit more detail on that about some of the supports that may be in place.
[Edouard-Vincent]: So we're definitely going to be providing social emotional supports. And again, there were a lot of lessons learned from this spring. And so when we talked about initially going forward with our dynamic planning framework, the three guiding principles were safety, consistency, and equity. And so, again, an area that we received a lot of feedback that there needed to be greater consistency between schools and between grade levels. That was something that we wanted to have. But also in the spring, because we knew there were connectivity issues, some students didn't go online some students were not as engaged. So now that we've had the experience of the spring, and we've received much clearer guidance thus far from DESE, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, about taking attendance. So if students, when each time they're logging on, whether it's in that remote or on their hybrid days when they're having remote learning, that attendance would be done to check in to see where students are. So if we see students either not showing up or not being able to attend, we're going to be able to catch them a lot earlier so that they don't fall through the cracks. Also, There are going to be some in the dynamic plan where we gave the sample schedules, we do have moments where teachers are able to meet with students. So they're gonna have that set up a few times a day. So that could also be targeted times if they see a particular student who's struggling. There are going to be office hours where they could follow up with certain students to find out is there, a social emotional need that as a district we need to be able to provide additional supports to the family? Or is there something else along those lines that we could be doing? So I just want to say that we're aware of that. Grading will be taking place. Assignments will be critically important. But we're also going to be making sure to be able to follow up with families and students. And Ms. Galussi has some additional information.
[Galusi]: I just want to add to that, just to echo what Dr. Edouard Vincent said, but that we're accounting for some of that time to work with students specifically on those Wednesdays. Because we do know that some students are going to need a more individualized approach to help them navigate the remote pieces. And I mean, I just have to say, you know, I have two children and one just can't do remote and struggle so much. And I had to reach out to the school so that I could get some help to make sure that, you know, she got through. So I would still encourage parents to also keep in communication with the school and reach out to the principals and Councilors so that we can create a plan for your child from the beginning so that nothing is slipping through the cracks.
[Tom Milachewski]: So our next question I know is one that Toni Wray would be able to answer in great detail. So if the answer is that we can share sort of this and follow up in writing after that may be the best that we can do now. But I would just like to raise that I saw a lot of questions around what happens when cases break out, what are the quarantine protocols. So I don't know if anyone on the team wants to jump into that. And if not, maybe share like how we can get that information to families.
[Cushing]: So, Leticia, it is actually detailed in the document. Let me just pull up mine right here. So, I'll get you the exact page numbers, but we do have it specifically detailed out.
[Galusi]: It starts on page 42.
[Cushing]: So, starting on page 42. No, 41. Sorry, 41. Headed through our dynamic reopening framework. uh... and it is there it is is basically pulled directly from the massachusetts part of public health And our head nurse, Toni Wray, was in direct contact with the Medford Department of Public Health throughout our entire planning process. She was the representative because, you know, the responding to the COVID situation has definitely put a tremendous tax on our local resources. And so I'm very grateful for Toni Wray to be there as our representative in direct contact with Marianne O'Connor.
[Tom Milachewski]: So unfortunately we only have time for just maybe one or two more questions here. One we haven't got to yet is around Wi-Fi. So from Lori, what about the families that cannot afford Wi-Fi? I know this is also in the survey about Wi-Fi access, so I don't know if someone on the team can take that.
[Cushing]: Yeah, so Lori, actually yesterday morning, 50 T-Mobile wireless hotspots were delivered to the district. So we have last year, our survey represented that we had 35 families that needed Wi-Fi. I'm actually surprised it was that low, but that's really great. So we have 50 wireless hotspots for our high needs families. All right. Um, to be able to work, to be able to use, um, those wifi spots. All right. Can connect up to 15 devices now. So maybe in, uh, maybe in, um, close quarters, um, they can be used. We'll work with families as more needed. We want to make sure that we have as much connectivity as possible for all of our families.
[Tom Milachewski]: Thank you, Dr. Cushing. So we had hoped to be able to hold a session for about an hour tonight. We're a little bit over now, but I did want to give anyone on the team just a chance to close out the session, answer anything maybe they didn't have a chance to share or anything else about what kind of the next steps in this work are.
[Cushing]: So I want to answer a question from Florence here. Why were the dates of the phases not based on metrics? The metrics were actually released today. So just so you're aware, the metrics were released today.
[Galusi]: The governor gave a press conference today at noon. Right. And that's when we learned about the metrics.
[Cushing]: And so all of the information that I shared with you at the start that I will post to our Facebook page later this evening, was all just published today. The Johns Hopkins table was given to us last week. But the other information from the governor's presser today was new information just as of noon today. We're expecting some more information from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to come out later this evening or tomorrow that we will share just as soon as we get it. others.
[Galusi]: No, correct.
[Cushing]: So, uh, so I, on behalf of the team and I'll give the microphone to the superintendent a second. I want to thank everybody for being here this evening. Uh, we'll have another session tomorrow at 10 AM. Um, we really appreciate the feedback as we move through completely uncharted territory, um, without a star to sail our ship by. So thank you very much. And, um, yep.
[Edouard-Vincent]: Thank you.
[Cushing]: and our superintendent.
[Edouard-Vincent]: Thank you. I just want to reiterate what Dr. Cushing just stated. Thank you to everyone who jumped on. Thank you for your questions and comments. We're going to continue to go through the other questions that we weren't able to get through, but I'm happy we were able to spend just this hour with you to try to answer some of the questions that came forward. And again, for people, if your schedules permit for you to join again tomorrow morning, that would be great. We'll be on from 10 to 11 tomorrow morning for an additional listening session. Thank you and have a good evening. And I look forward to seeing you guys again soon. Thank you.
[Cushing]: All right. Thank you, everybody.
[Edouard-Vincent]: We're going to end our broadcast now.
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