good morning and welcome to this special meeting of the isd 191 burnsville eagan savage school school board the date is august 6 2020 and the time is 8 00 am i'd like to welcome everyone who's joining us this morning we have some very important agenda items um to discuss and receive information on and we're really pleased to know that folks are with us um director courier would you please lead us in the pledge or maybe director shots maybe you could lead us in the pledge this morning i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you we'll start by approving this morning's agenda i will take a motion to approve so moved moved by director shot second subject i can do it by directly is there any discussion seeing none um miss kenny will you please do the roll call vote holbeger hi alt i miller i hume i shot i career chester i and the motion carries thank you next we will turn to the consent agenda although board action is required it is generally unnecessary total discussion on these items in the event a board member wishes to discuss an item that item will be moved for separate consideration do we have anything to move for separate consideration hearing none um i will take a motion the lift moved by director shot second second seconded by director miller miss kenny would you please call the roll alt i miller hi career and dd your mic is muted chester aye hall wigger hi and the motion carries thank you next i would like to welcome dr battle um amina oftadol director of curriculum instruction and assessment stephanie white director of student support services and lisa writer executive director of business services uh we will be learning more about the proposed 191 fall learning plan welcome all thank you chair alt and directors of the board good morning everyone so this morning my team and i will present the three base learning plans for the 2020-21 school year the principles guiding our work engagement to develop these tentative plans and next steps we all know the benefits of in-person instruction and social interaction that happens in schools although i think we responded well to a very difficult situation in the spring we also know that distance learning was not perfect i do have confidence in our amazing teachers and staff members to provide equitable instruction and learning opportunities and support services for students irrespective of the model we have revamped our distance learning and now distance learning 2.0 and our summer programming showed that these improvements can be successful we are committed to providing specialized services as needed has only increased in these plans as we will present tonight as we consider the upcoming school year i have heard from our constituents there are concerns about the transition grades kindergarten 6th and 9th grade students and staff new to a school due to boundary changes and the class of 2021 is anxious about their senior year parents are worried about the health of their children and family members managing the need to work and having children at home staff want to be with their students yet are concerned about doing it safely and employers want their employees to return to work safely so we are all torn with the desire for an in-person learning plan and the need to keep everyone safe during this covet 19 pandemic so this is our dilemma what has the more possible devastating and long-term impacts covet 19 or the non-in-person instructional impacts such as learning loss not adequately addressing mental health needs the social emotional impact lack of supervision for children when parents have to work in others if we were forced to decide today data would indicate an in-person or hybrid environment for all students that said we are monitoring our data which for the counties we serve dakota and scat and scott have been increasing over the measured periods of time so we must be ready to shift any of these learning models as data will shift we are ready to fully implement distance learning 2.0 and provide flexibility for in-person instruction and support services for specialized groups such as pre-k delivery of learning assessments speech and language services and child care for our critical workers this morning i will not declare a base learning model to open the 2021 school year my leading recommendation to the board will be presented thursday august 13th this recommendation will be driven by key questions can we safely return to in-person instruction considering many factors including but not limited to dakota and scott county's covet 19 cases in the last 14 days before the start of the school year covet 19 trend data is it decreasing or is it increasing what is our capacity and ability to implement the health protocols on buses other transportation vehicles and across school and district sites what is the trend data that we're seeing about the disproportionate impact of covet 19 on black indigenous and other and people of color do we have the staffing to support each model and also funding so at this time i'd like to start our presentation and so um we're going to start with a slide one with forward to the fall and i'll give a second as that slide presentation comes up thank you for your patience so as we look forward to fall there are about 34 days left until the start of the school year on september 8th for grades 1-12 and 36 days for kindergartners advance to the next slide please thank you we are planning for multiple scenarios and i'm confident confident that our innovative school leaders and staff have created draft plans that have our students best interests at the center and reflect their values as a community we are also planning to continue our regular school district operations and functions this includes supporting uh education board of education work and providing essential human resource and finance functions we will continue to provide school meals and we will provide child care for those critical workers that i mentioned previously next slide please i want to highlight the ways we haven't communicated engaged our constituents you see a list here of work that we've engaged in throughout the summer in addition to this list just on tuesday several principals met with building leadership team members and yesterday our district instructional leaders met to continue refining our planning also staff has met with different constituent groups to provide input and feedback based on their specific area of responsibility for example members of our school improvement and student achievement team have met with their respective uh colleagues such as the elementary teachers throughout the summer to get their input next slide please so how have we approached and how have we been developing plans for delivering effective instruction and support services in response to the needs of covet 19 we have created a guiding change document grounded in our values of expectations respect integrity and partnership you may be familiar with these documents board members and we have used the guiding change document to guide our work for facilities realignment as well as our boundary there are three components to the guiding change document current realities unacceptable means and desired results i want to highlight a few bullets for each component but at the foundation or what you see before you in this slide healthy and safe students and staff positive relationships support and personalized uh supports so in our current reality covet 19 is a public health challenge and we know district learning exacerbated the burden on children and families disproportionately impacting communities of color we currently have an established infrastructure and skilled staff to deliver distance learning along with systems and resources to ensure access for all students in the desired results section we are giving priority to the health and safety of our staff students families and communities we are building relationships and getting to know students will be at the foundation of learning we have a commitment irrespective of the learning model to improve to increase the commit to giving students access to the support services they need in the unacceptable means section which is captured on the next slide we must not create inequities especially that create or exacerbate in equities for a black indigenous and people or communities of color it is not acceptable to fail to use the equity lens of our culturally proficient school system framework to guide our work it is not acceptable to not adhere to establish policies laws executive orders contracts or not to follow the advice of the minnesota department of health it is not acceptable to make decisions in isolation without input next slide so in for our presentation we will go through the minnesota department of education scenarios that uh we've been planning for this uh summer as well as we will cover governor wallace's order and minnesota's safe school plan we're going to review health and safety and the bulk of the presentation will be giving information about the instructional models as well as our technology plan we will also share the operation support and then we'll go through next steps next slide please so on july 30th governor walsh the minnesota department of health and minnesota department of education released minnesota's safe learning plan that outlined five steps for districts to determine a safe learning model and the three scenarios the district should plan for in-person distance learning and a hybrid model next slide please in the state safe minnesota plan the safe learning plan this slide shows the recommended learning model based on the number of cases per 10 000 residents over 14 days by county of resident so there are steps that we must go through so the next uh slide please shows the county residents so there are steps that we have to go through the first step but it's not the only step it's a beginning step is to look at those cases within our respective counties as of yesterday or the last 14 days i should say dakota county was at 19.8 per 100 000 residents and scott county was at 20.6 as i've said previously both county's trends are increasing and so we must go through step one step two step three step four and step five and then if you see on the next slide um we have information on which one of the three scenarios is recommended based on your uh cases so zero to nine is in person uh 10 to 19 is in pers excuse me zero to nine is in person for all students 10 to 19 is in person learning for elementary students a hybrid for secondary students cases 20 to 29 are hybrid learning for all students 30 to 49 is hybrid learning for elementary and distance learning for secondary and if you have 50 plus it's distance learning for all students please know that the governor expects all districts to offer a distance learning model irrespective of your cases for those families who need that flexibility one more directive i'd like to share is that if you serve two counties if a district serves two counties counties such as we do we have to use the more conservative number and so um as we're looking at the cases over the 14 days the minnesota department of health they will upload weekly so that we will have that information next slide please this slide demonstrates the framework that our school nurses use the framework for 21st school nursing practices it has students at the center bernie bean is our lead licensed school nurse she is a registered nurse with the minnesota board of nursing certified as a public health nurse she is here tonight to answer specific questions you might have regarding health and safety since i am not the health the safety health expert in the district the nurses are the public health experts in our district bernie and our school other school nurses will continue to collaborate with our local public health departments and the minnesota department of health for ensuring the health and safety for students family and community next slide we will implement the required health practices for all minnesota schools and you'll see in the next two slides we've listed some of those social distancing and minimizing exposure face coverings protecting vulnerable populations hygiene practices cleaning and materials handling next slide monitoring and excluding for illness handling suspected or confirmed positive cases of covet 19 water and ventilation systems transportation and support for mental health and wellness so we will implement the required health practices for all minnesota public schools because these practices are foundational to us minimizing the risk of exposure to clove at 19 for our students staff and families additionally we do have a set of recommended practices within the safe minnesota plan and so we will vet uh those recommended practices to see if they are applicable to our implementation of these learning models and with that i will turn it over to amina oftendoll and stephanie white for information about the three learning plans for district 191 thank you thank you members of the board dr battle cheryl um this morning just to let you know as we move into our planning some of the information that we used um to build the plans included our family survey results looking at how much our support we have out in our community for in-person learning hybrid and full distance learning we also next slide we also wanted to respond to our staff survey and recognize some of the concerns that those folks have regarding return to school and address those in our instructional models next slide so as we look at the three models the in person the distance learning and the hybrid we know that distance learning 2.0 as dr battle has referenced really have we have the opportunity to improve that delivery and uh using the feedback from families um students and staff from last springs and the successes that we've seen in summer school we really can look at distance learning in a way for us to deliver robust full comprehensive educational experience in the distance learning model 2.0 we will be using these particular adaptations and improvements we really are looking at incorporating additional required time for synchronous learning um scheduling uh specific office hours for teachers so that parents and students know exactly when they can reach them really making sure that we are incorporating um our benchmark assessments so that we can use that data to move forward even um though we may be using a distance learning platform and really thinking about how we are focusing and streamlining our communications we did purchase additional tools for online independent practice ones that we had practically had kind of toyed with when they were free and tried a lot of different programs this way we now have independent practice tools that students can use during their distance learning days that help us track their student progress align with our standards and allow us to differentiate where students start and what kind of interaction they need to have with those people we know that regardless of which model we go to as a whole district um the distance learning one will be available to all families and so our distance learning 2.0 will be a 100 percent available for families and that we're going to call our um our virtual academy and distance learning 2.0 will be the experience that students would have in a hybrid situation so that in their in-person learning and they would experience distance learning so the restructuring of distance learning 2.0 was very focused uh and responsive to our own learning and the needs of our students our staff and our family slide as we were working on the constraints for our hybrid model and thinking about planning that we recognize that we have three main points of of information that have to balance that includes what our student-to-staff ratio would be the number of staff that we have available and the numbers of spaces that we have available and that we have flexibility in all three of those points in the triangle however um there is that uh spot that circle that creates that barrier that we can stretch our triangle in many different directions but the farthest we can stretch it is to the edge of the circle because that is our maximum capacity so using those three things we examine multiple scenarios we probably looked at the data for um over a dozen different scenarios trying to find the ones that had the feasibility when we brought those back really looked at what would be required operationally to make these uh feasible we really did land on a couple of a couple of scenarios that we feel like would not only meet our students instructional needs and our priorities but also would be feasible within the constraints that are available to us next slide so when we looked at what we needed to have in consideration and our priorities for hybrid learning we would have students spending part of their uh part of their week in person with a licensed teacher and part of their day or part of their week doing uh distance learning for the full day with a licensed teacher now there's many different models but we wanted to see if we could get as much as many students as possible for as much time as possible we also wanted to prioritize our youngest learners and so when we looked at the model we really wanted to look at how do we maximize our staff and our space and our ratios to get as many of our primary age students doing as much face-to-face as possible we also looked at how um to organize our instructional model to be sure that we are following and enhancing all of the health and safety protocols that would be that are required for students in person we wanted to create an organization that would reduce and mitigate exposure and consulting with the student with our school nurses in order to make sure that we were putting into place practices that would reduce that and mitigate that exposure for students and for staff we also wanted to make sure that in the hybrid model we were looking specifically at a strict adherence to our six foot social distancing at all times and that uh plays into our space constraints as well um we wanted to utilize as much of our building spaces as possible and usual and find every uh option within those buildings we also wanted to make sure that we as we designed our curriculum and our delivery models that we were isolating those things that are better served face-to-face and those activities and strategies that uh really uh we've been successful with um through the online um we really wanted to ensure that in every model students had an opportunity for at least one day of distance learning because we believe we will need to pivot back and forth and in order to do that we wanted to build the independence and capacity of students and families who manage their own online activities and having the students have that practice day during the week allows us to do direct teaching of those technology skills and practice those with students and uh use immediate feedback to um during the week to see how successful they could be if we would have to move to an all-distance learning format every student then would have some increased independence and capacity to manage their own online work slide please um when we think about those priorities uh and those considerations the hybrid model that we feel will meet the most of and be one of the best solutions is looking at our pre-k through second grade learners and have them come in person learning for four days a week now we would also be looking at reducing the size of the the pods so a class of students may be divided into smaller pods to reduce the um to reduce the the and mitigate the exposure and would have a licensed staff member with them in that pod um for the entire in person time that would and because of the six foot social distancing those pod sizes would be significantly smaller than our um current class sizes uh asking us to draw upon as much fte that we have uh in in those buildings we think that by giving our students our primary students that extra piece we can better assess where our students are currently beginning their their uh school year and uh adapt our curriculum and our focus to make sure that we are meeting students exactly where they are and moving them forward and examining any learning loss that may have occurred grades three through five uh we would look at having them come in person for two days a week with three days of distance learning uh and grades six through 10 12 would be two days a week with three days of distance learning and those for our students three through 12 we would be looking at taking the entire grade level and bringing in uh half of that grade level as a cohort and then dividing them into smaller pods throughout the building with a teacher um so half of the students would come monday tuesday and the other half of the students would come in person on thursday friday we would have a wednesday throughout the district as a day that would be distance learning for all students it would also provide us with the availability of spaces in the building to extend in-person learning to students who may need that additional support and that could be um you know special opportunities for advanced learners it could also be um focused instruction uh in math for students who may uh need that it could be that students who uh were absent on any of the in-person days with their cohort could come that day and um receive uh significant support to catch them up with their peers so that wednesday would be a day of a lot of flexibility and being able to utilize our building spaces or students more personalized and individualized needs even if we were in the hybrid the full distance learning option for students and families would still be available um and that students could still opt to be part of the virtual academy which would be our hundred percent online slide please uh the in-person learning if our uh we have the opportunity to move to in-person learning for all it does mean that all students would come every day in person but to be very clear it would not be coming back with business as usual the students would be coming back but we would have the enhanced safety protocol still in place we would continue to follow all of those guidelines the only um piece that we would adjust is that would be the social distancing in the classrooms we would do as much social distancing whenever possible in the classrooms but we would not adhere to the strict six foot while students are in the classroom um in all of the the hybrid and the in-person learning we also would no longer do congregate activities where we would bring all students in a grade level or all students in the school together for example we would limit the pods that would be out on the playground at a time we would limit how many students would be in the cafeteria at any one time those types of things and in all of those situations we would maintain this so regardless of which uh model that we start the school year in we would uh we would be able to pivot from one to the other the structures in our high school would uh the schedule all of those pieces would be designed to move swiftly from one to the other so that we could uh for example move from full distance learning for all students to a hybrid model to an all in person and that we would have uh those consistent threads that go all the way through um in all of those situations we would continue to offer the option for a hundred percent virtual academy learning for families who would choose that and uh the survey that we have from parents um from this uh summer indicates there are many families who would like to take advantage of that option thank you amino um we're going to move to the next slide and have stephanie white present and then after stephanie finished i skipped two slides the family survey results and the staff survey results and so we'll go back to those two slides and then i'll turn it over to chair all before we go to operations stephanie good morning superintendent battle good morning chair alt and school board members this morning i'd like to talk to you about some of the um planning that we're doing around the supports for our families and students um the first really um is a item that addresses the communication that we are going to create for families to be able to access the information um and the questions that they have and so we're creating clear pathways for families to get support and persons both in these summer days that we have left but also as we move forward each building as you know has a wonderful student support team i'm led by that principal and the members are social workers cultural liaisons school psychologists counselors and of course our licensed school nurses and so really cleaning up our um our communication for each particular building as well as the summer to help families easily access the information that they need we wanted to point out the amazing um community partners that we have and we continue to grow within our district tom umhofer our community ed director does some amazing leadership around food for our community and families one is called pantry 191 and the other is the brain power and a backpack and so we're pleased to say that those continue and have served so many students and families our community partners continue with the ymca and in particular the ymca of downtown minneapolis and the equity center we have amazing home child care centers here open door pantry has served many students and families henway continues to be a strong partner for us and we have a new renewed partnership there and they um are beginning to take on new uh referrals to help us meet those mental health needs of our students and families they have the capacity now to do tele medicine or teletherapy and so no matter what model we have they'll be able to flex with us in order to meet those needs this arun is is a new partner that we started forming last year um they made some great connections for us and we did some um poignant trainings around trauma um and the the effects of the situation both the um racial violence that our communities have experienced as well as um covet and the trauma that surrounds that and so they have done a great job of providing um training for all of our staff and we will continue that throughout the school year as well we have children's dental and they are going to start actually next week they use our diamond head clinic um because all services paused um we're happy to know that those things are starting to pick up again um in those medical fields and so we're happy that they're coming in and taking um appointments for dental services dakota and scott county have been an amazing partner for us throughout this and i'll let bernie talk more about that um and then of course park nicolette and park nicklaud has three wonderful braids that come into our district and supports of course that diamond head clinic and they will be focusing on immunizations another service that has been paused and we are targeting um that need for our students and families and making sure they know where the immunizations can be received and helping families make those connections and diamond head clinic is such a strong partner for us growing with grief is for students who have a loss and they've served 60 students last year and and then they provide teletherapy as well and this is all supported by the foundation for park nicolette and is free for our for our families um information for all families the broadband internet i think i should let rachel jump in on that one is she here this morning i think she may have technical difficulties oh i got it sorry about that good morning um this last spring we as we moved to distance learning in our emergency method we really realized the needs for a broadband internet service uh for our students at in their homes um many students who did not have internet service uh lost the ability to go to friends homes to coffee shops to stay in our schools to go to libraries and so forth so we've done a significant amount of work over both the spring and the summer to ensure that we have a layered approach to both information for our families around broadband's broadband service in their home as well as providing additional district support when it is needed in the form of a partnership with comcast internet essentials as well as some hot spots that will be available and one of the things as we move when amina was talking about the move to synchronous learning we really are looking at those higher internet needs so when we start to talk about internet that broadband kind of term is really starting to distinguish the ability to really be able to stream like in a video conferencing manner the other thing that we're looking for for supports for families and students is continuing to improve our technology support we know that there is varied comfort with technology and how to access both by students and families from home and so we want to make sure that we have a system in place this fall where technology does not become a barrier for any of our students thank you i think next slide up we're gonna go uh back to our family and um staff survey results so thank you amina of the doll who is our director of school improvement and student achievement stephanie white director of support services and rachel gordon orton who is our director of technology so earlier i mentioned the input and feedback engagement with our constituents so we have surveyed our families um we wanted to highlight um just this one question as it relates to our learning models to what extent do you support or oppose the following models and the greatest support strong plus paired with somewhat was for a hybrid model with 62 percent of parents showing at least some support for that model we receive 2481 responses the next slide represents our staff survey results one question we would like to highlight is how comfortable are you returning to your school or workplace on a normal schedule we receive 488 responses you will see that 30.3 percent were very uncomfortable 34 somewhat uncomfortable 22.3 somewhat comfort comfortable and 13.3 with being very comfortable and so with that uh chair alt i'll turn it over to you we'll take a pause for questions and answers before we move on to operations chair alt thank you dr battle uh yes board members um based on the information that we have uh received thus far um does anyone have any uh questions or comments that they would like to make um to presenters uh director schatz uh yeah thank you for the report i know a ton of work has gone into this and and i'd be surprised if only 12 models and examples were actually um created so i'm sure it's many many more than that i want to go back to the um one of the first slides it's the um the learning models um one based on the number of cases in the county uh sorry forgot which slide it was um just to make sure that i understand and also um our public understands what this is and to make sure if i have the correct understanding so with this um so these are this is the recommended scenarios for these cases right this is not you must you know if we have between 10 and 19 cases this is what we must do this is what mde recommends to do right so i want to is that would that be accurate teresa director shots members of the board this is required um we can go more restrictive but we can't go less okay so that was that was part of part two of this but so that's so that that 10 to 19 that's the that's the maximum that we can do is for 10 to 19 cases the maximum that we can do is in-person learning for elementary students and hybrid learning for secondary students right that's the maximum um that we'd be able to do we can't go um we can't go in-person learning for all students at that level right that's how we that's how we read that chart okay um and this is okay so that's that i think that's kind of the the the piece that wasn't clear to me at first reading of this um chart and i want to make sure that it's clear to clear to everyone um that's viewing this that that that section of 10 to 19 that's the maximum that we're able to do we can do um we can do anything more restrictive than that as you as you point out so i just want to make sure people um have that that it's this we don't just because we have 10 to 19 that doesn't mean that is the thing that we have to do we can that's the maximum that we can do so that's the only comment i i had about this um reported with this presentation i just want to make sure that was clear to everyone no thank you i like to ask bernie bean if she wanted to add any clarification before i move on because this is part of the her conversation with the county health department good morning um thank you for having me with you today um that's the base number um but it's also there's lots of discussions that happen um public health is in works with the nurses continually to look at what the specific demographics are in our community what is the case mix in our community where are maybe some of those cases coming from and then we get guidance also from mdh so it's a continual looping back and forth with the regional team that helps determine with administration what is really the best and the safest model for our district at this time um so this is kind of just the beginning template these numbers these ranges but there's more that goes into interpreting those numbers and that comes from health with from public health and from the minnesota department of health dr schatz you had a follow-up yeah actually yes thank you um that's that there's certainly a lot more that goes into it i had actually received quite a few questions from different people saying oh all we have to do is look at this chart and say how many and how many how many cases do we have in dakota county and then that's the thing that we do and so i just wanted to make sure that people were clear that as you said this is the first step but also this whatever our case number is that's the maximum we can do we can do things that are that are less restrictive as well so that's that's why i bring it up because they're they're i received some questions about that from members of the public about this is not the straightforward um thing that we must do this is the maximum that we're able to do correct okay thank you that's just that that's all director miller i think you had your hand up next thank you gerald um yeah i'll just uh piggyback i just i wanted to come back to this chart i know this is a um out there in the community and everybody's looking at this and so just because i have paid a lot of attention for this and read a lot about the analysis of what the governor was talking about when this was released so just to be clear that everybody understands again this is a starting point it's the beginning of the conversation it's the guidance meant to start where you start with and then go forward from there so um as we were just discussing there's a lot of other elements that will go into this decision um capacity of buildings um individual breakout uh you know or uh places where there might be more um one building might for instance have a uh a break out of the cova virus and you might need to go a certain building into a distance learning for a period of time etc so this model simply is a starting point um and and it was mentioned in the presentationalist repeat because we do span two counties uh governor's guidances uh and these guidances that we take the more con restrictive of the of the few options so if you were listening closely in the presentation earlier you would have heard that scott actually counting falls in the 10 to 19 range and dakota currently falls in the 20 to 29 just for reference point so of course uh we'll we'll have a decision in a few weeks on exactly where we're going to land but just so people understand how to use this chart um i want to thank everybody that you know as darcy said that put the time into this i mean that's an understatement this i know you guys have been working all summer on this and it's been fantastic to see where we're headed and we have a framework in place and and um i know for those listening out there and we have quite a few watching today um i understand that you probably came to this hoping you'd have a definitive answer on where we're going to be with school starting in the fall um but we have some time still uh where in this thing is a dynamic changing environment so please be patient with us but there's i mean what i'm comfortable here as a board member hearing is that we're ready for the scenarios that we need to uh need to execute going forward i do also want to comment on the um the survey results uh if we could just look to that slide for a second um and what was uh um actually very impressive to me was the response rate uh both with the staff and the the teachers in the community two thousand four hundred eighty one i i would harbor to guess that's pretty high uh one of the higher responses you've ever had for surfing in this community so i really really appreciate that uh thank you for the community we're we're incorporating this into our decision-making matrix and i really really do appreciate that especially and also the staff um dr battle there are a few things that weren't touched on in here and um i don't know if you're ready to talk about them yet but uh one would be transportation and some of the challenges that go into that um we bust a considerable amount of our students around in the bus is a very tight captured environment um what we've done think about that a little bit and then could you just speak in general terms how this modeling um has any impact or reflection or or is it a completely separate decision-making chain for any kind of extracurricular activities or even activities that occur within the school day that might not be a sort of classic in classroom time so band for instance or or choir or whatever um so you speak a little bit to those two points yes director miller members of the board um after this q a on the instructional models we will move to operations and so i will ask um executive director lisa rider and dave lake after lisa presents the operations if they can uh specifically answer uh uh transportation questions uh regarding extracurricular that includes um activities as well as athletic um uh sports um assistant superintendent uh gersich will be able to provide additional information about that that when we move to this that next section okay thank you director chester yes thank you um cheryl um my my question is is under each model i mean outside of the 100 in person but with with distance learning um the virtual academy and the hybrid model um being able to i'd like some more information about how um students with special ed needs or ieps are going to be supported or what the flexibility will be for them in um in these models um just to make sure that they're getting the the support that they need um and understanding their the the uniqueness of each of each student needing those services and then in addition to that even under the hybrid model or the 100 distance learning model um how what does child care look like it says that we're going to be providing child care for you know the critical essential workers um i would like an understanding of what that definition is because i'm thinking of families who need to work where both parents still have to work outside the home because it's required for the income for them to pay their rent or pay their house payment or be able to pay their bills or have food on the table but not be able to necessarily be there to support their child for their distance learning um or be able to afford to pay for child care in that instance and so wondering what are the options for for families under those two models who would would really need that child care thank you director chester uh members of the board uh one note as we will possibly have to transition um among the plans i in the governor's executive order and guidance we do have five days of planning to implement if we're going to a different model so i wanted to note that regarding your questions about special education needs i'd like um director stephanie white to answer and then regarding the child care lisa ryder and tom um offer can answer and we also have stacey canopa who's our supports the project kids coordinator for project kids so i'll turn it over to stephanie white good morning thank you for the opportunity to talk about the special education services in all three models what we know about the special education planning and ieps is that we will stick with having each student follow the annual iep due process so we'll have our annual ieps as um as normal write those ieps with rigorous targeted goals and objectives that are identified that are aligned with those needs that we've identified through the evaluation we will also have a flexible learning plan that aligns with the annual iep that will flex with us throughout no matter what process there is so it won't require iep teams to continue to meet every time a plan is changed and those will be done in the fall or at the annual iep meeting time sped form been wonderful in aligning and helping us create these um documents to um to to i guess to write out exactly what we'll be doing so iep teams parents know exactly what happens no matter what model we're in um the other things that i want to highlight is we're spending some time calling our families who are in a smaller self-contained classroom we have about 150 families and so our supervisors are in the process now of reaching out to each and every family it's giving us amazing information and feedback about what the particular needs are of our students in those smaller classrooms we're talking about transportation with them what's the safest way we can get kiddos to school we're also talking about ppe how is it going for them and in their family and starting to pave the way for the supports that we would give that student in order to move forward we also have purchased online interventions that can help teachers and students and families access those general ed curriculum so sometimes um of course our first um our first attempt or our first option for success for kids is to have them access those generally classrooms but sometimes that's not possible for a variety of reasons and so we want to make sure that if it's not possible for a student to access a general ed class we have access to those general ed curriculums it's different from what amina is talking about in terms of practice items we'll actually we'll access those tools as well but we're really um looking into and i've purchased some curriculums and it's for um all students no matter where um they're coming to us in their learning journey we're going to be using some virtual conferencing and interventions and that was something we didn't do in the spring because we didn't have informed parents we didn't have informed staff about what that meant so we're going to do some parent education we're going to do some parent permissions so that everybody knows but that will allow students to meet in small groups and be face to face in that synchronous model and we're excited about that we think it's going to be great i don't know we sat and we got some good feedback this summer on how that's going for special ed students and students who are receiving intervention our ots pts and speech will have still available to them and that might even be if a student is in person in school depending on the exposure of that student and staff and so we'll work with those individual teams to make those good safe health and safety decisions um so sometimes it might be in person sometimes it might be telehealth and sometimes it might be when they are on their distance learning days so the iep team around each particular student will have a voice in that and helping us to plan those um that fit each student the best in our secondary schools the schoology platform that we use allows us to create folders for stephanie i think you can still hear us but you're frozen so um we'll work on that and are you there okay yep so we believe that all of that will help um many students um i think that's all i i guess just overall we will continue to strive to we we will continue to strive as any year in in implementing those ieps to the fullest extent we're going to go after those learning gaps we're going to go after that targeted intervention services that we do like any other year and we're excited about the flexibility that wednesday would bring us we're excited about the um capacity to individualize um throughout this flexible model i think it's going to be really um an innovative time for our special education teams to really think about the personalized learning that's that kids need to do thank you very much uh board members any other questions before i ask my my final questions on this section we have that second question from director chester regarding the child care oh child care yes yeah are we doing we're doing that now okay yeah thank you uh chair and so i'll turn it over to lisa ryder and tom um thank you um so tom can join in as well i guess um with regard to your child care question director chester the idea is that our tier one employees as has been indicated again in the executive order child care throughout the day for them would be available for free during that daytime period before and after school will continue to have a fee for families although we are looking to partner with our county partners in potentially um arriving at a sliding fee with some of that being supplemented potentially by some funds that may be received by through the county so that's in process of discussion at this point in time so we are hoping for some alternative options for families that um that maybe can't afford that full cost of child care and so that's an option as we talk about wednesdays i know that that tom and his team are working very hard on on determining what that might look like or options for families as well given that that would be kind of a district-wide day in which a lot of students may need some additional attention to um with regard to child care so all of this is really dependent upon the learning model that is determined at the given time and what a site may be at as well so we want to make sure we have something that's flexible and easily available for our families based upon their needs could you define what's what tier one means um i don't have it in front of me but it is essentially the critical employees that similar to previous um they've just expanded that to include a few more groups than what was originally the case last spring and so it gets very specific and i can certainly show that out to you i just don't have it in front of me at the moment educators from school staff and child care and school aged care providers would also be included in that now it's very clearly spelled out this time around in addition to the emergency workers please fire all that so they more clearly defined it this time around thank you tom thank you cheryl thank you board members any board member who hasn't yet asked a question or made a comment would like to do so all right um i guess my um my question trying to be a little more explicit stephanie you touched on it um wednesdays um really are being designed both to allow staff to get weekly professional development and continue to hone their craft and also give flexibility for our families and students so you know i know gt was was mentioned math learners some of them who might have been absent that also would include you know students with other unique needs like special ed and english learners that might we might be able to flex them into learning on that day depending on the model that's chosen is that correct yes um we need to um engage in our professional development for teachers in a different way than we did last spring so i'd like amina off the doll to explain the difference between that emergency distant learning learning that we implemented versus what's going to happen um in 2.0 and then also she can share some more information about providing that more personalized support for students amina thank you dr battle um when we think about the wednesdays this spring we really did set them aside as independent practice for students um and and did tremendous amounts of professional development we really want to look at this wednesday in this model for the hybrid to be a learning day for students and so students will still want to will still expect to participate in the synchronous learning that day and have some and have some independent practice assigned to them as well it doesn't mean that they'll see all of their teachers that day necessarily but they will engage in synchronous learning for a variety of different content areas during that time we really wanted to make sure that we did not lose as any instructional time and kept it as consistent as possible for families we will uh that will allow some time uh within the day for some uh collaborative team meetings and for some professional development but it won't be as concentrated as it was this spring because some teachers will also be engaged in delivering instruction and support to small groups during that time one of the things that we look at too might be a specific group of students who with special needs of some sort who really struggle with that independent practice and management of their learning when online may be asked to come into the building and have supervised online time so they're still interacting with the teacher with their peers for that synchronous learning but there is a a an adult who can help supervise and engage keep them connected make sure that they are able to follow along with directions that are given just that additional support even though they are participating in distance learning and so that that's one model that could that could occur it could also be a time to do assessments so at the high school we may have students who need to come in to do some uh demonstrations or live hands-on assessments to earn their certificates or to demonstrate uh different types of project learning and so that could be an opportunity for students to come in and do those things as well it could be an opportunity for a flexible group of students who may need to come together to engage in a specific project um a project learning piece in which they need assistance um the there just needs to be great care taken that we aren't do uh that we're still mitigating exposure for students when they come in for that wednesday and so um there'll be some some pretty strict guidelines uh for that um restrictions on uh the protective wear whether it's masks shields and masks and shields or other types of those types of things but um it really does offer us that opportunity for a team of teachers to say you know what this would be a great opportunity for example my newcomers who have very little academic english at this time to bring them in for a day to uh engage in other types of learning that um they wouldn't have been able to do with their peers in the classroom so while we're delivering services for special ed and el and intervention in lots of different ways there are some instances where we want to reserve the right to invite students to come for that additional dose whether it's for a gt project or whether it's for assistance with their distance learning or whether it's for a very focused um assessment or learning opportunity that can only be done in person thank you um i'll just put a little bookmark because that gets me thinking about transportation and i know that's coming next um and then also just in terms of um rachel your comment about you know making sure that technology does not become a barrier in all of this and correct me if i'm mistaken but i seem to remember seeing just statistics that we were able to successfully connect 100 percent of families in a home in their home environments but we still struggled with um families who were more mobile um is that is that true how are we looking at addressing that moving forward if hot spots aren't going to do it yeah um one of the interesting things about internet access is that it is fluid for many families um and so it's a continuous i i feel like we're continuing wrapping our families with supports for internet we also did not require any synchronous learning in the spring and synchronous learning requires more internet data be available and so we continuously are working with cultural liaisons our social workers our counselors our principals and individual teachers who know their students really well and know family situations and can work to provide it's in some situations it's just information about where to access community resources and in other situations it is uh much more about district supported internet and we have made some adjustments so that the unlimited hot spots that we're not going to run into data issues for our synchronous learning because the feedback has been very very strong but the synchronous part of learning this summer has been one of the big advantages that students and families have seen so we want to make sure that um that we're supporting that and as far as the technology with barriers um i feel i i i hope that we're not really talking about technology very much but that's just an assumed that we've got that um it is it is there and so we can really talk about how we're supporting our students academic and social emotional needs now that just be that platform that exists that we don't need to talk about yeah that's great exactly tom thank you that's um those are my questions um dr battle um i guess we just thank um stephanie white and amina and uh rachel for all being here and all of their their hard work we really really appreciate everything that you're doing thank you so we're going to go to the uh operations slide we'll have executive director lisa ryder present um and please when you get to the transportation please of you and director dave lake who's our director of operations can spend some adding more detail to answer vice chair miller's questions and possible questions that chair all might have lisa absolutely good morning uh chair alt directors of the board superintendent battle for the operations every year we are partners with our families however this year there's an even greater need for all of us to partner together and support one another food and nutrition will have access to school meals through our national school and breakfast lunch program our national breakfast and lunch food program and there is a potential that other state or federal actions may make other options available but at this point in time we are planning to be utilizing the national school lunch program that also offers breakfast as we talk about transportation there is um in the guide from minnesota department of education planning guide they talk about the fact that there is at most 50 capacity on our transportation vehicles so we have identified what that looks like for every single size bus that we have available for our transportation needs with that in mind and knowing that we do not have access to additional buses we therefore are asking that families who are eligible for bus transportation and are able bring their children to school using means other than the school bus transportation and indicate this commitment by opting out of school district provided school bus transportation as we begin this next year once we understand which families that would be comfortable for them to do that will also be combined with the information of which learning group a student is assigned to based on the learning model we are implementing across the district and so all of that will be used for our transportation routers who are just awaiting this information so they can get going on determining exactly which students are on which buses i'm going to pause here for a moment and let dave um dave lake speak to transportation as well and particularly in answering any of the other questions we may have had earlier good morning so as lisa alluded to already we're currently working with cso to set up our routing schedules for all three models we've been in regular communication and meetings with schmidty and sons as well as cso to offer them guidance answer their questions we will have seating charts as our expectation for all buses as lisa was speaking to this earlier 77 passenger bus has 26 seats normally you'll have three per seat but we're going to do this the way we're setting it up now we're going to have 25 of those 26 seats available allowing space between the driver and that that first seat will be off limits um so we'll have 25 on a 77 passenger bus with the exception that we can add if we have family members traveling together they can sit on the same seat so we we will be able to exceed that a little bit uh as family members travel together for a type a bus or sped buses uh we're allowing five on that bus again there's for that type there's six seats we're keeping the seat right behind the driver open so that puts us down to five seats and five passengers seating charts will be expected on all buses like i said one student per seat rather than rather than three which has been past practice ppe will be provided on all buses every driver will wear a mask all students will be asked and required to wear masks hand sanitizer and disposable masks will also be available on all buses and we are adding age-appropriate signage to the school buses as well as a reminder and a friendly uh cube before they get onto the bus as to our expectations and if anyone has any questions i'd be happy to answer so thank you director i like bernie bean while she's still available if she can talk about the math requirement because there are some exceptions and so uh we can talk about how we're going to address that if a parent believes that there's a there's a reason for a child not to wear the mask um and then um assistant superintendent gerschus can talk about uh utilizing our pbis for those cases to make sure that we don't uh make assumptions and have children stigmatized or bullied so i'll turn it over to bernie for that uh chair all please before she needs to possibly go to another media thank you i just also want to review that health and safety wraps around every operation within the school day for the children in the community all procedures plans health and safety is a foundational component that we need to have in place um so all these activities we have been looking at as nurses just to be sure that we are layering mitigation strategies as guided by mdh as far as mass the executive order does say that children 5 and up to adults need to be wearing a mask in a public setting however we know some children that is a learning curve for them and we would be working with those children and those families we want to create the safest environment for the children and for the staff and and i kind of related to wearing glasses for the first time when you're not used to that there's there's some conditioning that needs to happen and we're going to work with families and for children that need to see a mouth for their learning needs we're going to work with that also we have some alternatives for them so it will be individualized student specific meeting the needs that that student or staff have but also creating the safest and the healthiest environment we can in the school system thank you would you like to have the transportation questions asked now would you like uh lisa to continue uh i thought you had said there was going to be a conversation about pbis before transportation do you assistant superintendent gersich did you want to weigh in on that please sure uh thank you uh madam chair superintendent battle and uh board of directors i know i'll be in here with a couple of different talking points um when it comes down to i think one of the common questions people have had as we started discussing mask mandates is how do you you know force kids to wear masks or what do we do if students aren't wearing masks and while i'm not here to say i'm providing you here's exactly what's going to happen what the solution is i want to make sure that people understand that we have systems within within our school sites that really lend well to having these conversations and again i had this conversation yesterday with principals as we talk about masks how are we going to utilize pbis the wearing of a mask is inherently a behavior that we're asking students to engage in so how can we use those familiar languages to teach students these behaviors and use those as our systems to help provide guidance when students are struggling with the ability to do that uh similar uh as dr badalit said there may be situations where students because of their conditions or otherwise are unable to wear a mask how do we ensure that we utilize those same kind of systems to prevent things like bullying or harassment based on the unique nature of what those students are going through so you can expect some more specifics of those things to be evolving as we move forward but it would also be something we'd be working with our principals on and further they'd be working with their pbis teams on as to how are we going to teach because that's certainly going to look different in a kindergarten setting than it is going to in a senior high school elective course thank you thank you um i'll open it up for let's see um director miller you had a question earlier about transportation actually i you know i think it was answered i just my most important um question was um that we're being that it that we're addressing it and that it brought up in this conversation um i do want to i guess more of a comment um you know i am glad we got into a little bit of the weeds on the the size of the buses and the seats and such um and i think what it illuminates is the challenges that we're going to have in just this element of our obligation to their students um i i do i'm going to be frank i'm a little concerned that we're um that we have a reliance on um parents opting out um so of course it is our responsibility as board members to um come at everything with a critical eye and and have a little bit of that uh skepticism so i i trust you guys will um manage that i just i i do i am a little concerned that um because if we don't meet some sort of threshold then we're going to have some sort of transportation bottleneck problem or issues um so just stating that and then you know on the um i'll just take a moment then and skip to the ppe for a minute or two i you know i've done a lot of thinking up about this because generally the conversations in our communities and nationally is simply whether the kids are going back or not um and i think what today has illuminated that there's a lot more to this conversation than than just that simple answer and given everything else if you just set that aside for a minute the simple ass that we're having for our students to wear masks all day you know we've already dressed at a pit here but yeah i can't imagine that the obligation we're putting on our teachers and our staff to work with our kids and get that enforced so i appreciate the the work that's going into it i i think um addressing it from the pbis perspective is an excellent way of taking on into it and i think um brian you've made a great point that you know it's just a further in uh enhancing behavior we have many behaviors we expect of our students in the in the school throughout the day uh before covert came along and uh this would just be an additional one comment to our community that's listening in um we're parents we all are and it's inherent on us to model this at home and you know to as it would be with anything else reminding kids that user pleases and thank you is reminding them to respect their elders respect you know their teachers um all the other things that we do as parents when we're bringing up our kids um regardless of your personal perspective on mask wearing the kids are gonna need to wear them to be in the classroom and they're going to need to wear them to themselves be in the classroom and to make it capable for us to have all the other kids they're going to be in the classroom so i just ask our community to remember that primarily our first and foremost our role is to model good behavior to our to our students our kids um and and help them you know understand that you know it's important they wear them so that's that's all i have gerald thank you dr miller director chester i see your hand is up yeah thank you um gerald um my follow-up questions regarding both um transportation and ppe um again goes along with um special needs or special education um and agreeing with what director miller was sharing i'm also concerned or wanting to know more about the requirements of ppe where there is special needs at play a child who is who may not may have cognitive challenges in understanding the the requirement of ppe or have extreme sensory issues that where it would be hard for a child to keep that on or or have that in place and then with transportation we i got we got information regarding um traditional busing but with special ed busing those buses are are smaller and then also for students who are busing from out of the district in um to what what would be considered or available for for them in this scenario thank you director chester um uh lisa ryder has not gone into the specifics of the ppe but i'd like to ask bernie bean and stephanie white to comment on your specific questions because they do need to log off at 9 30. there actually is a statewide call support from i believe mde and mbh on ppe for our special education uh students and staff so i'm going to turn it over really quickly to bernie and stephanie and any additional questions we'll make sure we get it to them uh after this meeting so stephanie and bernie thank you superintendent battle um and thank you for the opportunity of this question um the guidance specifically to um got tells us to work with that iep team when there are specific needs around ppe and that makes a lot of sense to me and to the team and that each child's needs around that will be very unique and we want to make sure that families and students know that work and staff that we're going to be working with the entire team to figure out what option is available and still keeps people safe and i'll let bernie talk more about this but she's taught us about layering on those mitigations and so if something happens where we need to get closer to a student or to serve them um so we're we're closer than six feet what is it that we can do to mitigate that exposure for that amount of time and so um those are the are the kind of guidelines or thinking problem solving that we're doing around that um just to kind of come at it at a different way than than other than just the basic mask shield and six feet of social distancing and as superintendent battle said we have a meet we have a call today at 9 30 to discuss that specific situation when services are required to break six feet what are the kinds of um mitigations that we should be preparing for in order to keep our students and staff safe and to make sure that the accommodations we're doing fit the needs of that particular student it's a partnership um especially with families for children that do have those special needs it's a partnership and we need to figure out the safest and the best approach for that for what that child can wear and do and how we can keep layering on mitigation strategies to make the environment safe if a child cannot physically remove a mask they will not be wearing a mask according to the guidance um but we will still be working with children we will it's a it's a continual door revolving and we have seen that with covet as we learn more science all these public health principles are based on the science of what we know yes there's a lot that we don't know but the charge for the the licensed school nurses in our health service team is to take that science take those principles and make the environment as safe as possible by layering multiple mitigation strategies i would the nurses will be reaching out to the families that they know children may be falling in those categories and start that planning during the month of august because we want to be ready and we want families to know we are there behind them supporting the health and safety of their child just like chair miller said i would also encourage families to start working with their children now to wear a mask you know no different than you get them ready for school that should be a part of getting them ready for school there's lots of great videos out there to introduce wearing a mask to children um getting them versed in doing that there's things that we can be doing now and will a kindergartner preschooler be able to wear it the whole day no that's a conditioning thing and we will work with those children but i think the main thing to emphasize is we are going to work case by case we are going to layer mitigation strategies right now the nurses are working with the building principles because every building is different and they have the education piece and we have health and safety and as we work together or what i call waltzing together we are going to create a fabulous environment for learning that is safe and healthy for our children it will change as we learn more but that's our stride and that's our challenge and we're ready for that thank you very much that was very very nicely put um board members um i know um stephanie and bernie you both have to leave board members are there any other questions specifically for stephanie or bernie before they have to go okay i don't see any thank you and uh please keep everybody posted um so i think let's see where are we with operations um so now we're talking transportation um director miller had his question um i guess i just have my little bookmark from previously was um a question about how wednesdays might work i mean i i understand that those are different um but in terms of transportation that seems like a very fluid day it will be fluid uh we also know that this will probably require quite a bit of additional time and attention by our transportation routers this year as for example wednesdays we may utilize for purposes of being able to deliver meals to families that need meals and they'd get a full week's worth of meals potentially delivered to their home if they are unable due to transportation or other means to obtain those meals and students are eligible the the other option might be potential kits or other materials educational materials that need to be delivered additionally as has been mentioned there may be some students who may be routed in for various different means and necessities so that would be something that would be communicated and kind of treated more like kind of a here's a field trip we need you need we need a route for this kind of thing so we anticipate that to be a very fluid day and something that is going to take a little bit of coordination as we move into this particularly if students change from if our learning model changes for for a particular site or something of that nature so we'll we'll just need to um really be in collaboration as we move through this next year and i think i know our partners at schmidty and sons and dad cso are are ready and waiting to do whatever they can to support our families it's a matter of us just um really learning the exact learning model we're going to start with and making sure that we get all of the measures in place for that great so we'll return to the um to the slide deck and let you continue with the plan presentation okay so next is our custodial cleaning and we have we will continue as per the mde guidelines for cleaning of our spaces and a lot of that will depend upon the instructional model used at any particular site as well as the use of our space you've heard some discussion of potential use of space that is not typically a classroom and so all of that will require some thought and attention from each of our building custodians and and they will continue to use their known methods for cleaning that meet the guidelines as we look at the personal protective equipment or what we call ppe this has been ordered or received via the county and state distribution processes if we don't have all of that um it was most recently distributed by the state that's that's soon coming and we feel that with all of that in play we are prepared for the start of the school as we get started the question will be how quickly will we run through our supply and and need to replenish and we that will largely depend on the learning model that is in place across our district so it's um it's a matter of being very flexible and knowing exactly where our our sources can be as we may need to order more down the down the road but we know for at least the first couple of months where we're ready to roll with regard to child care before and after school we talked a little bit about this earlier it has been provided throughout the spring and the summer and i have to say we've learned so much from the work that has been done by that team and i think that they have been extraordinary in their measures and we will continue to learn from their experience as well as they will continue to provide that excellent care that is provided for both tier one families that would be through the day if need be as well as our families that have always needed child care before or after school with whatever learning model we are in at the time that need may change for families too and so we want to be able to try and provide enough flexibility to be able to serve our families and we'll do the best that we can with everything related to that i do know that because it's so related to the learning model that at this point in time more details will be coming forward in the future related to child care but we do want families to be assured that if they have a need for child care then they they will we will have something for them to be able to consider and see if that best meets their needs um i would at this moment then um pause and see if there's anything that any of um either tom or dave may feel that they need to um correct if i've misstated anything but otherwise um that that's the conclusion of the operations in partnership with them let's clarify on one aspect i know my staff met again yesterday uh to go over plans again depending on what we end up with and how the district moves forward we will have something in place they've recreated the registration materials uh looking at a more comprehensive uh way to engage more of our community members this time around if stacy wants to add anything that's really all i have we're ready to go for you did you have anything else to add yeah there was an earlier question about um disruption to special education busing um we're not anticipating that that there will be any issue there um normally the maximum capacity is 12. although we're expecting five a normal um a normal route on a on a normal year we're looking at anywhere from about six to eight uh we have plenty of type a buses available so we're not expecting any sort of disruption there so i think we'll be we'll be fortunate in that in that area thank you well do we want to go to the next slide yes and so chair alt and board members this is our last slide so next steps i first want to thank the board for your questions your support during this time i i think your questions today illuminated the complexity of the decision to determine the learning plan for reopening of school i also want to thank you and our parents and students for your grace and flexibility throughout the uh spring and also giving us some grace some time to actually give a close read to the governor's new executive order and the guidance from minnesota department of health as well as minnesota department of education it took time for us to read through all the documents i think within the minnesota safe plan there's probably 12 subset plans that staff members had to uh dive in really quickly and read uh based on their um area of responsibility and then then after reading then we had to really uh use our critical thinking skills to understand it come together they have the common understanding and then also to apply it to adjusting the plans that we have been working on all summer so i cannot thank you enough for giving us patience uh over the last few days to do that work so next steps there may be a possible school calendar adjustment uh we did receive from minnesota state high school league the athletics and activities so i'm going to turn it over to brian gersich who's going to give you more information about those first two uh thank you superintendent battle uh as it relates to uh potential calendar adjustments one of the common questions that has come to me either directly through staff or through some of our leaders is if there's some consideration looking at our fall calendar from a couple of different aspects certainly you know what we're talking about a lot of this is health and safety which is our primary but it's also making sure that we're prepared to provide that high quality world-class education that we're expecting in our community and making sure that we have the preparation to do that so there is uh some consideration is that the response to that about that calendar to make sure that we have the right amount of professional development uh talking about some things like how are we gonna make sure that our parents are oriented uh to this new learning environment as parent roles as well as some potential opportunities for assessments and so we may be coming back to take a look at what is typically first day of students the day after labor day and the week before uh with just you know our instructional staff to go through and prepare that may look different and we may be proposing that looks different to ensure that we are properly prepared that's we're not unique there are a number of districts that have already declared they may push back another week for those instructional days to provide that as well as dr battle and i are both aware of professional organizations that are trying to do this as a collaborative effort with the state to say is this important for us to be able to do so we will continue to watch that the other aspect of school calendar that we're also looking at discussing is is related more individually at our site level without schedules arrivals and departures are certainly an important part of what we're doing as we we want to make sure that we we do this in a detailed way that's safe but also we've got to make sure that we are carving out within our school day the appropriate amount of time we're planning and collaboration uh in doing education in a very different way and i think we all saw a lot of great work by our educators but we got to make sure that we're very deliberate and purposeful about how we're carving out that time as a part of the day and making sure that those opportunities are there as it relates to uh athletics and activities uh two days ago the state high school league did put out their ruling and certainly we as partners and members of the state high school league uh have an understanding of what it looks like for athletics uh certainly on a individualized level i don't have all of the the parameters but the big picture is that both volleyball and football as fall sports traditionally have pushed into a winter slash spring season so kind of a season that's going to happen later other sports and activities will happen but with changes and adjustments fewer contests no scrimmages etc so they are taking some additional precautions and steps in place to run some of those other fall athletics i'm certainly confident that our participants and those or student athletes are keenly aware of how that relates to them and that our coaches are reaching out and already helping make sure that we're implementing some of those things director miller had asked earlier too about the activities i appreciate the work of jay leper he's a high school assistant principal as well as our activities director as soon as the high school league had made their ruling he was right on top of saying so what should we be looking at for activities activities are uh case by case and our site level determined so we don't have the same governing body like we do have with the state high school league so i don't have a determination on each one of those what i have to present to you though is that we do have a process and in discussing that with jay the first layer of that is jay looking at those activities and ensuring are these activities that we do believe can be made safe with modifications precautions or otherwise and if the answer to that is yes then similar and thanks to tom umhofer and our community ed programs that went through a lot of these process with our summer activities they would need to be developing in collaboration with our school nurses plans for how they would run those activities and adhere to all of these safety precautions and at that point be making the determination of can we provide those activities as an educator and as all of us as you've said before as parents we want to see as many educational opportunities as possible we're going to work hard to provide those to make sure that we are taking health and safety of our students and our advisors and our entire populations as a part of those determinations thank you mr gersich and so the next steps to can continue with the additional next steps i will present my leading recommendation at the august 13th board of education meeting we will continue to monitor the covet 19 cases for both counties and at the august 27 ford meeting i'll provide an update um between uh today and the 27th i'd like aaron tinklenberg to share about the ongoing engagement with students listening to family um and also involving staff in the planning um so brian may need to come back in with a meeting with staff staff involved in the planning so um aaron thank you superintendent battle and cheryl to members of the board um we went over at the beginning some of the engagement that we did with staff and parents and students earlier this year kind of leading into all of this planning we have had ongoing communications going out to families in particular as well as staff to let them know the timeline and some of the particulars will have another communication going out today in all of those we're trying to provide ways for families to um send us their questions send us their responses so while we may not have a formal engagement another survey for instance before the start of the school year we are listening to what questions what concerns parents have on an ongoing basis and then we are also working with the student board rep right now uh she and i have been contacted are in connected and working on a plan to set up a couple of sort of informal conversations between superintendent battle and groups of students we held these conversations with parents a week or so ago and they were really helpful illuminating got good feedback from the parents as well and i'm hopeful that that'll be the case with students in fact i'm sure it will be because they always have good insights for us so that's where we are in terms of continuing to engage on students and families and if brian would like to talk about staff engagement as well let him do that actually if uh if amina off the dolls i'll give her an opportunity to maybe comment first uh on some of that and then just kind of fill in if amina is still with us sure um someone we're talking about calendar adjustments and know this staff okay yeah involving the planning moving forward i know we're juggling many balls staff involved with planning we have been engaging our steering committees in our elementary to prepare distance learning lessons uh we have the first four weeks of those lessons uh completed so that teachers can come back and and draw upon those uh immediately we have uh tried to meet with some of our instructional groups as of our specialists such as art music phyad and digital learning specialists to plan what that that might look like for them as well both as a hybrid and as distance learning we continue to work with our departments with our secondary curriculum coordinator to really determine how they're going to organize themselves and deliver the um the curriculum in a collaborative way and so we are working with our our teacher leaders and uh really helping them be part of how we're preparing to move forward with uh many of these different models thank you brian did you have anything else to add no as i mean describe it's an ongoing process with both our building leadership teams at each of those site levels as well as just again continued openness to conversations and meetings and i know we'll be in contact again we have met with and we'll plan to continue to meet with representatives also from rbea thank you so board members i want you to know that as we move forward our plan will be based on the safety of our staff and students and our goal will be to provide families choice and consistency lastly i say to our parents because the plans may change we have to be able to shift as the data may shift i suggest that parents uh have backup plans for child care earlier we listed some of the resources that we have with partnerships dakota and scott county our mental health providers and so we do want to support you in those back up plans if we change models also we ask you to think about plans if your family is personally impacted by a confirmed case of coronavirus our school nurses are a support and so we wanted to make sure that you know we will support you in your plans as we move forward to fall we are in this together and for us to return safely to school and work we must follow the health protocols to be healthy and safe we will continue to work and receive guidance from our board members and once again the amazing staff that has really put all their expertise and talents um first in the spring with the emergency implementation of distance learning and now with this time that we've had to plan for the fall with that that concludes our presentation thank you uh i will open it up for our last round of questions and i see director chester's hand is raised yes thank you um my question is is um with the different models um you know outside of 100 in school learning um at the end of the school year or yeah i think it was at the end of the school year um this last spring um kids were provided with the school supply list for going into the fall and because it can be a financial burden on families having to prepare for um school supplies based off of what we are knowing or planning now will there be a modified list that goes out or what would be the plan regarding school supplies for families thank you director uh jester members of the board so as you know in the spring emergency implementation of our response to cove there were so many uh community members staff members willing to help um and so there are some school supply drives that have already been initiated and so i'll let brian amino or tom to kind of talk about first brian about the school supply list or mina and then tom about we actually had two staff members assigned to help coordinate um all volunteer offers um uh one staff member in amina off the doll's office and then one from tom umhofer's office in our community education so brian yeah i'll just give the honest response which is uh i don't have an answer as far as what that school supply list looks like but what i can do is put that onto a list and make sure that that's something that's addressed and provide those that feedback in the near future it's interesting in the parent zoom conference one uh parent talked about is pulling the list from last year so i know parents are trying to get ahead of this so we'll get that to uh out to our parents as soon as we can yeah my thought was is if we're in in distance learning mode are actually all the supplies going to be needed if you're not in the classroom or in a hybrid setting so like what like you know do are all the supplies you know will the will the list need to be modified to adopt to the education model that will be used all right um director miller i see your hand is raised yeah i would just like to again thank everybody that um came prepared today and and eric you might you're breaking out you might need to start again [Music] now we can yes maybe we um go to director shots next and maybe give your wi-fi a few minutes to refresh itself okay okay thank you i have two questions i think one uh what about yeah that again just thank you to everyone the hours i know they're done i think director miller is finished okay after shots go ahead okay i have two questions uh one is about uh lisa you refer to the um cleaning protocols that we have for you know our custodians you know those which are of course um what we have great standards i'm in place for those are there additional requirements um cleaning protocols things like that that mde is asking us to add to our process i think what it is is about the touch the high touch spots need to be paid attention to throughout the day so depending upon the full use of a building that may differ between buildings as to exactly where and what those are additionally with the monday tuesday and thursday friday and wednesday will probably provide quite a bit more time for some of the other areas to be more fully cleaned midweek between student groups and so that's a positive two week view without learning model and in addition then after after friday then we have the weekend and evening hours to to continue to clean every night as they have been our methods are well in place given the fact that we have the hydrostatic cleaners and in addition um we do have plenty of sanitizing solutions it's a it's i think a matter of you know there's not the try and find some lysol wipes at the store anymore right so it's some of those things are instead maybe not as available as what some people would like to see so instead we have other methods we have spray bottle along with paper towels to make sure that that is available for people to do a quick clean to just clean something before you sanitize it so that's also available too for people okay thank you my other question is about um i see some schools we have you know certainly protocols in place for if students if students become sicker staff become sick things like that and i see you know we've got those protocols in place and so what um what how are we i guess our our students and staff self-monitoring for their own um their own symptoms or how they're feeling before they come to school i'm not sure who's where that whose question that is but uh director schatz and a member of the board i will defer that question to bernie bean and stephanie white because that is a quite a complex response that we need to give you so we'll make sure we get that to you okay thank you thank you uh director miller i see your hand is still up yeah all right are you able to hear me now okay yes i thought first i just wanted to thank everybody again for presenting today and the work that went into getting here i really do appreciate that and i know the primary focus of um this conversation um and the district is educating our kiddos but i do want to be very clear that um for our our staff our teachers our administrators um all them out there uh i want you to know that we we take it very serious so we we are very aware of the um the the challenges and the in the concerns you have as we go back to the school year this year and um it's foremost i know in a lot of these conversations we're having behind the scenes uh making sure you guys have what you need and you're you're you're safe you're comfortable uh you can get back to doing what you uh the career you chose so please know we we respect very much that you know especially the teachers who are going to be out there on the front line every day we have a deep respect for what we're asking you uh when you get back in the classroom and we anticipate your safety leaving our one of our primary concerns or if not our primary concern thank you any other questions from board members before i wrap this up nope okay i had a couple of comments um first i uh in terms of the the serving um meals and snacks um am i correct in understanding that we'll be serving those at our two middle schools and at the high school that's the plan so we have done very well in utilizing our eagle ridge and nicklet locations for the manufacturing of meals as needed throughout the summer months and we want to take advantage of what we've learned and continue that process from those sites is that allows us to produce quite the number of meals that may be necessary depending upon which model learning model we're in so we know that we throughout all the operations areas everyone's trying to find what's that ribbon of um available services that we can provide throughout whatever learning model there is and if they can adhere to that ribbon as much as possible and then tweak it as need be depending upon the learning model that's what we're shooting for so yes we are going to rely heavily on our middle schools and the high school and then depending upon what is necessary at the elementary schools will will adjust because my i guess my comment for for you and your team to consider is that um we're very central and west centric with this plan as it spelled out and outlined today and we have quite a few families on the east side and um looking at you know areas where there is a higher concentration of families i would be really concerned if we don't have something some meals served in a school cafeteria on the east side if that's the means by which we must serve our meals understanding that of course we all are well aware that um food service was able to get incredibly creative um in the spring and in the summer and we know we would love to be able to continue that but if we're not the east side needs to needs to have some representation in the cafeteria i understand your concern and i think that that is a matter of the um adhering to the national school lunch program which then makes it so it's required by the eligibility of the students and which spaces we can use is dependent upon whether they are area eligible but we will work hard to find that location that's on the east side to make sure we're serving thank you and i know this is probably getting a little bit in the weeds but i just wanted to call it out i know that we've talked about um you know getting feedback from uh families in summer school that you know the individual packets that the elementary students received were so very helpful and um i'm sure that you're already talking about this but we went in in one of the recent rounds of budget cuts of course we know that access to printers was greatly reduced and i just want to call that out and make sure that we're not burdening staff with coming up with their own materials if this is really the the the means by which we believe will most best of our families i don't know how you're going to solve it but if it's just something that we need to consider that we know we don't have the same staff doesn't have the same access to printers as they did in the past um and then just a wondering in terms of you know aaron you have talked about getting feedback from families i know in previous efforts we have had an online form for families to share their thoughts that i don't know what kind of form could be might be created with maybe buckets you know for topics for families to share their thoughts and um just wanted to float that out there as a as a possibility um knowing that of course the in-person conversation well the virtual conversations are are enriching too yeah thank you that's a that's a good idea i think it's something we'll monitor and certainly consider even just having a a simple uh provide your feedback form right on the web page uh around fall to 2020 planning is is certainly possible and i know we haven't talked about it but there will be a q a document coming up so that families can can learn from each other's questions yep and that's actually available online and just like we do with other frequently asked questions we'll add to it as we get more questions and as we have more answers awesome um and i guess just a general um comment well yeah one one more thing just from a board perspective i think the answer is kind of obvious but i wanted to check in with fellow board members in terms of our meeting model and a potential change depending on the learning plan that dr battle and her team identify so for instance if if dr bettel chooses and her team decide that that a hybrid plan is best what does that mean for for how we meet and i'll open um director miller is your hand up we're still just not putting well it was up from before but i'll go ahead and take an opportunity to comment um yeah uh well personally i'd be okay um we have a fairly large meeting facility uh coming in and meeting as long as we i think we did this a couple times near the beginning of the break of the uh quarantine period where we could meet uh spread out throughout the room i think um it'd behoove us to probably do that in a do a hybrid model combination where we essentially are doing this but uh we're there in person so um you know use the cameras and the facilities that we have there to broadcast our meetings um live for the public and meet but probably restrict attendance only to ourselves and present and presenters that'd be my opinion but i'm i i also would err on the side of caution given whatever everybody feels comfortable with truck your chester thank you yes um i believe that if we're expecting different models for our staff our staff and our students we need to model that at the board level so whatever the decision is i think that's how we need to follow anyone else i think we're all kind of so um perhaps dr battle i know there are going to be some logistical um planning that needs to happen for us to to do that but you and i can perhaps work together on what a hybrid meeting model might look like for the board and just you know either it's 100 in person it's remote or it's a hybrid and maybe i i'm sure that aaron probably will need to help too with the with the technical side of things so um we'll just add that to our to-do list yes absolutely cheryl and then just a final comment and i'll wrap this up um back to school is going to look different this year and i think in terms of knowing that we have 34 days before our classes you know children our students return to school families and board members and staff all need to think about what do we need to do to prepare ourselves you know if you have a young child in your home it's been mentioned before you know start working with them on the masks dr battle i'm going to challenge you and your team to figure out what kind of training what kind of education needs to happen for our families and our staff to make sure that um [Music] we do our our utmost best to try to make sure we we've provided the information and made information available to families so that you know if if our statistics land within the hybrid model and we have families that need their children to go back to school we've done the background work and our community has done the background background work to make sure that we can do that safely knowing that there are other elements too as well dr babel i know you know it's it's not simply you know are the are the students wearing masks but um you know what can be done with the welcome back week and i know we touched on that too um we've got time and i think we should take advantage of that um and uh everybody just stay tuned we need to get our communities input now and going forward and so please whether you're a staff member or a p or a family member when you see an opportunity to respond and share your opinion we take those very seriously we really value the input of our families and our community and i would love to see response rates i mean director miller pointed out that we had really good response rates both from staff and from families and i wholeheartedly agree at the same time i would love to see us closer to 90 response rates um because that means that really our decision making is truly based on a fair representation of both staff and families as well as our students so stay tuned and stay engaged please with that i will wrap this part of our meeting up and we will move on to the second agenda item inviting brian gersich assistant superintendent and rachel gordon director of technology to share with us plans for online learning and the virtual uh academy welcome both thank you again give rachel just a second here to start the presentation but while she's doing that um i appreciate the way uh gerald kind of closed that because what i want to do is try to make sure that there is a clear line between these two presentations the first one talked about a lot of things with a sense of urgency things that are really happening happening in in imminent and hopefully what you're seeing here is the purpose for this virtual academy in this consideration is about also using that to say let's keep our eyes forward as far as the long term the presentation demonstrated we're going to have distant learning 2.0 regardless based on the governor's order and expectation and based on the fact that we're in a pandemic and it's the right thing to do uh the process of talking about virtual academy is really to make sure that as we're going through this process we're reviewing this educational model to say does this have a place long term for district 191 it's something that has been out there for a long period of time as far as online learning models it's certainly something that that our neighbors and competitors are considering as well from the very start of this pandemic last march i remember being in front of our group of leaders and talking about how as much as this is tragic to be talking about pandemic and death you know within these challenges sometimes present us with opportunities that we have to take a look at we knew going into a distant learning last spring like we did we were going to be doing things technologically that we've never done before and innovation was going to have to happen because we were forced into an area of innovation and i'm really impressed with the work that our educators did and there are a number of of our special areas as well or people who are content teachers where people may have looked at them and said i don't know how your content area is going to work in this virtual environment and a lot of them who said well we'll just see about that and did some amazing work uh within you know being very creative with their content areas um so similar to how our teachers have found new and creative and innovative ways to learn about how they instruct we've got to remember too that we have learners that are understanding and students that are understanding better better about how they learn and they may look at this this distant learning model that they're going to experience differently this fall and say this fits me and as i said it's been out there for a long time and my own children have a very positive experience within their public comprehensive high school but have selected online courses from time to time based on content based on their interests or based on when it fits into their schedule this is an option that is out there and as all of our students have an opportunity this fall to experience it some of them may decide this fits me and so what this really is about is as we're going through this process again keeping that vision looking forward to say should we continue to develop this and offer this as a part of our learning options for kid i would just say as i mentioned our competitors are looking at this as well our neighbors are and when you're talking about an online environment your competitors or your neighbors are not just the people that order your district an online environment can be done anywhere you know it's it's 15 plus years ago that uh thomas friedman started talking about the world being flat when it comes down to your competitors now both for uh employment as well as you know market share um we're talking about that anybody who can be accredited in the state of minnesota could be offering some of these things so it isn't exploratory there is no ask you'll see at the end that there's a timeline as to when if there becomes an ask when that would happen but wanting to make sure that yes a lot of this relates to what distant learning is the concept of virtual academy in this presentation is about does distant learning become a part of standard operating procedures as one more option for the students in district 191 or students from other districts who look at 191 in our robust work with k-12 pathways and say that fits me and i can take that from anywhere and with that i do want to invite certainly rachel gordon uh who's done a tremendous job in her role as our director of technology and really is uh the one who is into the details of a lot of this plan thank you um as brian mentioned uh today is really about time trying tying in the immediate need to offer um our 100 online school based on the governor's executive order as well as looking forward at kind of what opportunities this um leads us to and i think that's one of the things we're so in the weeds with the details of right now that we also don't want to forget about some of the opportunities that this is really opening up and we're seeing some needs from our families and our students and some excitement from our families and students uh for really challenging ourselves as how we how we deliver education into the future so today we have a few slides really looking at that exploratory of what a virtual academy moving forward um will look like i will talk about kind of that dual that immediate right now and what we're doing for um for the fall and into the 2021 school year as well as what it looks like potentially or could look like for the 21 22. and so our goal really is to provide that online high quality and flexible learning opportunity that offers and what we're calling the next generation right of k-12 learning so we have brought a lot of really interesting pieces into our environment in the last few months and uh what we're kind of coaching this as is the 191 virtual academy we really go back to our strategic plan and when i highlighted kind of looking at these i think the the second bullet really speaks to me and how it relates to virtual academy is really serving the unique needs of our students our families and our communities first and foremost and i think i'm going to talk a little bit about how we see some really interesting tie-ins with our pathways model and how we can really develop a unique program for the 191 virtual academy so stage one is our immediate uh need to prepare for the 2021 school year and the option that many of our families are interested in which is that 100 online school we're going to do that and we're going to do the planning with the context of a long-term approach in mind because there are some guidelines and frameworks that are well established for online schools that we feel will really leverage our immediate needs in a positive way and then looking at that proposed beginning in 2021 22 a comprehensive and a supplemental 191 virtual academy k-12 that will provide student and family choice and when i say comprehensive that means a hundred percent the student would not need to come into our building and supplemental means that they may take some of their classes in a face-to-face model here in our buildings and then some of those classes would be completely online so earlier amina shared the distance learning 2.0 and for our virtual academy this fall we really are looking at that distance learning 2.0 as a base we have a lot of background and experience that started in march in our emergency measures to get online as well as some of the tweaks that we've had this summer and have had very positive feedback particularly around the synchronous learning element and around kind of combining those tangible kits and hands-on activity with the synchronous learning we know that in our distance learning 2.0 and our virtual academy moving forward is that we need to have solid supports for advanced learners for our english language learners our special education students our intervention and we know that there are certain benchmarking assessments and standards and all of that will be tied in together based on the guidance that we have from mde for online schools we also know that this is new it's new for our families it's new for our students and the opportunities and how we distinguish the pieces that we put in place for the 191 virtual academy and how they're unique and different and how they can support students and families in their unique needs and we know that students will need to have access to their teachers in different ways so as we move forward we really part of the feedback that we got was the positive connection that students need to have it's if you think about the traditional model where students might drop in before or after class or they might drop into a class to talk to a teacher before or after school how do you mimic those things in an online school so that students have those same relationships with their with their teachers so this is our opportunity to really dig down to um so simon sinek's the circle the y right where you always start with the why of what you're doing and for us that really is we have beautifully unique students across our district and we have beautifully unique families and we want to meet the needs that they have that are unique we want to provide innovative learning opportunities for our students and our families and we feel that there's a there's a tie in with our college and career pathways which is something that is unique in 191 and we feel is a real advantage in our in our district so for the 2021 school year um students do have the choice um to attend 100 online and we do have families from our parents survey that have indicated that they are interested in that option and so we will be providing um that immediately starting in the fall our online school is based as i mentioned before on the distance 2.0 learning plan and it will provide comparable learning opportunities so we don't want students that are choosing our online school to feel that it is in any way a lesser experience that's not what we're looking for we're looking for our our families and our students to know that that is a um world-class education it's delivered in a very different way the third piece is that the framework that we we will be using is from mde and it is the i nicole um online school there's a set of standards that really um these have been established for for years this is not a new uh set of framework of quality programs and things that we are working as we start to look at developing both for this year as well as for the long term in the 2122 we really have for looking at that possibility we've started reviewing the requirements again using those as a foundation for some of the work that we're doing this fall and then also having that long-term approach we will use our experience and stakeholder feedback including our stakehold holder feedback from our students and our families that are participating in our online school this uh this fall and the cl there is an actual application that goes to mde um which is a collaborative process well both within stakeholders within our our district as well as a collaboration with mde themselves and so we work over the context of multiple months um to build and refine get stakeholder holder feedback uh refine the process even more so our application when we do eventually apply to mde if we choose to do that it has been a ongoing conversation so if the board supports a 191 authorized online school provider then this would this would be a draft timeline is that in late november of this year we would bring a draft to the school board looking for potential approval in december and then the mde application would be delivered or would be submitted in january again because that's a collaborative process usually by the time you submit the application you've ensured that you're meeting all the criteria of an online school the 21 22 enrollment options then would include a virtual academy so part of the timeline is based on the on the need for our students to register for the 2122 timeline and making sure that it is in all the registration uh information and it would be launched in 2122 as that essentially a virtual academy 2.0 and at this point i'll open brian if there's anything that you want to fill in and clarify throughout the presentation nope you covered it just to reiterate the the purpose of that timeline it's backwards mapping from if we decided to move forward making sure students know that this is an opportunity in the spring and that's why you see those things coming before kind of uh in that sequence and we did have a good conversation with mde they did say um both a 90-day potential when you when you turn that around the other thing that they also kind of indicated as well is they're getting a number of calls about us so again this is an exploratory that they're experiencing which means while it is a collaborative process we want to make sure that we're being conservative and expecting the full 90 days as part of that process in the event that other districts like ours are backwards mapping from the same time and just the other thing i would notice i just want to thank rachel for her time uh certainly digging into the details and making a lot of calls on this as well as the collaboration that she's had with uh amina optidal and stephanie white throughout the summer on many projects this is being one of those many as they work really together across those departments to create that synergy that we were looking for when we had to start start working together wonderful um this is really exciting um i will so board members um in terms of the approach and the general scope of this uh initial conversation uh what comments or questions do you have uh director miller i see your hand is up yeah thank you uh this is uh exciting and that you know i think um i think one of the the uh what's one of the really great things about this is we're taking a a situation with thrust upon us uh without a lot of anticipation uh at the end of the last year's school year and and um you know have taken and looked at it and said what what can we do with this to extend and create more opportunity for the district so i love that i love hearing that story line um the question i have is how what we're talking about and thinking about uh compares to what's out there uh elsewhere um you know as i was looking at this in advance today i've had conversations with a few folks with uh connections and students around the the twin cities and i'm you know i kind of hear some things like well we've had that for a long time or um you know or or that's always been in place at our district or where someone threw out the the idea of north star a program called north star so i'm just curious if this is just basically uh i'm not basically that's over that's way understating i know there's a lot of work going into this but i'm curious if we're um lining to kind of what some other districts are doing or are we offering a differentiation that might be above and beyond is there more to this than what traditionally is offered as an online opportunity in other districts well rachel take it back i guess yeah that's a that's a great question and one that we spent quite a bit of time talking with our mde um folks with because we don't we're not looking for just replicating what's what's out there we want to create something that is uniquely 191 and so that is part of the planning process is to really look at you know what what makes us um different md right now is seeing a lot of cte emphasis in their online schools that are coming on board um and where we oftentimes see schools starting is in that supplemental area where they're providing supplemental courses where students may take only one or two courses in that online environment sometimes you'll see that where students will take a health class or a phy ed class in the in the over the summer because they want to open up their schedule for something throughout the year we certainly have seen that in our district as well is that because we have such great pathway options is that students want to take those and so part of it would be to ensure that um our students can stay in our district and meet and have those needs met for um a supplemental course here and there and then part of it is really looking at what does um you know our partnerships and pathways really emphasis our certifications and our internships and our ability to reach out and i think we have a unique opportunity there to develop our online school with that focus in mind and really looking at expanding um you know a virtual academy is not the is not the answer for every student but it is the answer for some students um and a supplemental piece is a really nice um layered approach for students to be able to open up the the time like you know the path the place and the pa on the pace of of their learning so that they have opportunities maybe it's an internship that they're working on maybe it's a specific certification and they're doing some industry standard work um so it opens up opportunities for us and i think that's the that's the unique thing that we're kind of looking at for our 191 virtual academy and if i could just offer real quick too oop sorry a little bit of a look just very briefly as i look over the shoulder of my own kids and in in this environment and then i think about answering your question i also think about i want to make sure that we're capturing what makes 191 unique as well and yes pathways is a part of that but as i look over my kid's shoulder and what they're doing what i don't see is the kind of equity lens that we use in our development of curriculum instruction as well how can that also be a part of our planning as a part of our online environment that i again i'm not going to call out which which model my kids are using but i don't see that and i would expect to see that in our model good um been a kind of a segway or follow-up question on that um you know inevitably everything comes down to a lot of things come down to the economics so i'm curiou and and you know we follow this so i encourage you to be prepared for that but um uh and my thing is saying my connection is unstable so i'm not sure if i'm you guys hearing me all right okay um just uh real quick if a student uh if we get somebody rolling from minneapolis or a different district uh um will dollars follow them uh with is this potentially an opportunity to expand our student base outside the boundaries of our geographic location that's accurate that's a part of as i talk about the comments of the world is flat and the fact that our competitors are no longer just those who border us or who have access to us via vehicle uh if students want to enroll with us in an online environment if my own kids looked at the 191 and said they're offering an online class in computer science i could think of a kid who would enroll in that class and potentially do that directly from where we reside so absolutely there does become that portion of it if we can differentiate ourselves and what we offer that's unique we can absolutely compete and draw in potentially students as rachel said in a supplemental environment like my kids do or in a full comprehensive environment once it gets to that point thank you uh director schatz uh brian the earth is not flat um the uh so my question eric stole a little bit of it you know what the um economic um you know question that certainly is a piece but i love this idea as a whole you know not only um because it opens up so many opportunities that we can offer for our students for other students um and i love the idea of as a whole you know certainly we face a lot of challenges with staffing economics things like that and so um there's there's the balance of the excitement of you know what we can do and what we can offer with what we can really do and what we can really offer and so i know that you are you know that's you know it's a that's a big consideration for you but as um you know that's as we've seen the last couple of years our economics have been challenging and um and so uh have our um have our you know staffing needs and you know facilities and all that sort of thing so i love this idea as a whole i think it's a great plan and and i wholeheartedly endorse the um the idea that we have always had in the forefront of not only our students what's best for our students and how we can make the best experience for them but tagging along with that is what makes 191 unique and and and the great job that we do making those extra experiences for our students so thank you for that you know i just those are my those are my pieces that i will be asking about um the virtual academy coming up in the future thank you uh other board members any other comments director hume yes um i don't know that there is an answer for this but one of the questions i've had around 100 virtual academy is how do we make sure that that opportunity is available for all of our students i know obviously school is not a child care center but there are many families who maybe would want to pursue a 100 online option and would not be able to because of their work situation or their child care situation so is that something that we're factoring into these discussions around a virtual academy both beyond this year and also for the current year beyond the emer children of emergency workers and kind of the essential workers yeah so it's interesting for this year is such a different kind of process than what what next year would look like um and i right now there's no specifics over how if if a family wanted in 21 22 to choose an online um during the planning if we choose to move forward with this model we would we would look at the opportunities that we have both within our existing system and how we would support families with that yeah and like i said i wasn't expecting an answer but it it's something to be aware of i think great question thank you anyone else all right um i just had a couple of brief comments um i really appreciate that um of course we're using an established framework to you know to really make sure that what we're doing is is on solid ground and at the same time that we want to be innovative and make sure that what we do is really representative of who we are as a district i i just think that's awesome and i think i just think of um you know obviously pathways are our one um obvious um distinguishing feature of our of our district and you know in terms of equity i think about the um the renovation that you know the the rewriting of the english curriculum and the and and and those offerings that just are so very exciting and kind of expanded the content that um that student into areas that that students uh really are interested in and and would find engaging so um one thing i i rachel i you kind of alluded to it um are you in terms of um partnerships in the community i'm guessing you're going to be connecting with the education network and the chamber on this in terms of figuring out um and and other partners as well in terms of what is it that we can do and include our business partners and our community partners in the conversation that certainly would be our hope as we move forward yes yep great well um i think um do you dr battle do you have um what you need from us um to move forward uh yes i believe we have enough support to move forward with our planning for the authorization of online school approved by the state um knowing that we are offering the virtual academy for our distance learning that's uh required by governor wallace's executive order great yes staff do you need anything else i think we have what we need to move forward awesome well with that um thank you rachel thank you brian i really appreciate um you know the work that you've already put into this um amidst other projects and the work that you'll continue to uh to do on this and we will look forward to hearing back from you later this year um and with that i will declare us adjourned thank you everybody and have a great day you