Updates on the Fight for Quality Public Education in Brevard County, FL
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4:21 - July 21, 2020 special school board meeting
4:24 is now called to order.
4:26 The purpose of this meeting
4:27 is to approve the superintendent’s recommendation
4:29 for calendar modifications based on later start dates.
4:35 Excuse me.
4:36 The video and audio are being live streamed
4:38 allowing public viewing in real time.
4:44 Community members who wanted to make comments.
4:48 Excuse me.
4:54 Community members who wanted to make comments
4:56 were asked to register in advance on the district website.
5:00 (clears throat)
5:03 Those who registered were called last evening
5:06 and their comments were recorded.
5:08 These comments will be replayed
5:10 under the public comment section of the agenda.
5:13 Pam, roll call, please.
5:19 - Mrs. Belford.
5:20 - Present.
5:21 - Ms. McDougall.
5:22 - Present.
5:23 - Mrs. Deskevich.
5:25 - Present.
5:26 - Mrs. Campbell.
5:27 - Present.
5:28 - And Mr. Susan.
5:29 - Present.
5:30 - We will now say the pledge of allegiance.
5:34 - I pledge allegiance.
5:36 - To the flag.
5:37 - Of the United States of America.
5:39 - And to the Republic.
5:41 - For which it stands.
5:42 - One Nation.
5:44 - For which it stands.
5:45 - Indivisible.
5:46 - Under which it stands.
5:47 - Deliberately in water.
5:51 - Okay.
5:53 That brings us to the adoption of the agenda.
5:55 Dr. Mullins.
5:56 - Good morning, Ms. Belford and members of the board
5:58 on this morning’s agenda,
5:59 we have one action item on calendar modifications
6:02 based on later start dates.
6:12 - What are the wishes of the board?
6:14 - Move to approve.
6:16 - Second.
6:17 - Moved by Ms. Campbell, seconded by Mr. Susan.
6:19 Any discussion?
6:22 All right, Ms. Escobar, if you would please call the vote.
6:26 - Mrs. Belford.
6:27 - Aye.
6:28 - Ms. McDougall.
6:30 - Aye.
6:31 - Mr. Susan.
6:32 - Aye.
6:33 - Mrs. Deskevich.
6:40 - Aye.
6:41 - Mrs. Campbell.
6:42 - Aye.
6:47 - Okay, the motion passes five zero.
6:49 We’re not public comments.
6:50 As indicated in my opening statement,
6:52 persons wishing to comment were registered in advance
6:54 on the district website and were then called
6:56 and comments recorded.
6:58 We will listen to the recorded messages at this time.
7:04 - Afternoon, everyone.
7:06 My name is Sue Han and I’m the assistant superintendent
7:08 for facilities services for Brevard Public Schools.
7:11 And thank you for joining us tonight.
7:13 As you know, the current health and safety concerns
7:15 during the COVID-19 emergency guidance
7:17 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
7:19 as well as executive order 2091 issued
7:22 by Governor DeSantis.
7:23 It has been necessary to modify our procedures
7:25 for public comment.
7:26 Tonight, your comments will be recorded
7:28 and we will play them back under the public comment section
7:30 of the school board meeting tomorrow.
7:32 Each speaker at the three minutes,
7:34 our moderator will keep track of your time
7:36 and ask you to conclude your comments
7:38 when you’ve reached three minutes.
7:39 I’ll find that reasonable decorum is expected at all times.
7:43 Please make appropriate for our children
7:44 who may be watching or listening from home.
7:47 Before state your name, the organization you represent.
7:49 - Procedures for public comment.
7:51 Tonight, your comments will be recorded
7:53 and we will play them back under the public comment section
7:55 of the school board meeting tomorrow.
7:57 Each speaker at the three minutes,
7:59 our moderator will keep track of your time
8:01 and ask you to conclude your comments
8:02 when you’ve reached three minutes.
8:04 I’ll find that reasonable decorum is expected at all times.
8:07 Please make appropriate for our children
8:09 who may be watching or listening from home.
8:11 Before state your name, the organization you represent,
8:14 if any, and identify the topic you’ll be discussing.
8:17 We won’t be answering questions on tonight’s call,
8:18 but our staff will follow up with you
8:20 if you have a question or need a response.
8:22 Thank you. - Go ahead, Ben.
8:24 - Hello, everybody.
8:25 Just for those of us, or those of you who are on the phone,
8:27 please go ahead and press zero to make your comments.
8:30 I’m going to state your name and your comment.
8:33 - Hi, this is Tom Westermeyer.
8:35 As a retired Brevard County principal,
8:38 I really appreciate the challenge you have
8:42 ahead of you to reopen school.
8:44 It seems the answer as to who ultimately makes the decision
8:48 is an elusive topic for both the school board
8:51 and even the public.
8:53 What is needed is a clear and concise answer
8:55 to the line of authority to make that decision.
8:59 We all agree the highest priority
9:01 is to get students and staff back together
9:03 as soon as possible in a safe and healthy manner.
9:07 However, there is a perception that staff, health,
9:11 and safety has not been adequately addressed.
9:16 Staff that are at high risk of infection
9:20 are worried about their profession and fragile health status
9:24 upon returning and the possible dire consequences
9:28 they may face.
9:30 I implore you to remember what it’s like
9:33 to have a medical specialist telling you
9:36 if you get infected, there’s a good chance you could die.
9:41 Another issue that although is not the school board’s fault
9:44 in many means is the governor keeps shifting
9:47 the responsibility of reopening to others.
9:51 When confronted with his decisions,
9:54 he chooses to many times revert to a yeah, but
9:58 with an extended response
10:00 that has little connection to the question.
10:03 Sometimes it seems like if you asked him what time it was,
10:06 he tells you how to make a watch.
10:09 The mask restrictions wording continues to be contentious.
10:14 Right now, the current expected status
10:17 sets up the teacher to possible disciplines,
10:21 issues with students.
10:23 Students will be in school for seven hours daily
10:26 with no required mask, but upon leaving school,
10:29 they would be required to wear a mask
10:32 for even just a few minutes in the many businesses
10:35 they could visit with their parents.
10:39 Indeed, a reopening date is an arduous challenge,
10:42 but I ask you to consider the worst case scenarios
10:46 for in-school instruction starting in August
10:49 or one set at a later date.
10:51 Opening at a later date will cause issues like payroll
10:55 and scheduling problems for parents,
10:58 but the most dangerous scenario for reopening in August
11:01 could literally be the possible loss of lives of staff.
11:07 Perhaps one solution could be to offer online instruction
11:11 until a later date, then transition
11:13 to the other options at that time.
11:16 The bottom line is that face-to-face instruction
11:20 is the most risky, and it is your ethical
11:23 and professional responsibility to create the safest
11:27 and healthiest work environment for staff.
11:30 I’ll end with a rather sensitive topic.
11:33 Since the last meeting,
11:35 there’s been a growing community concern
11:37 that at the state, national, and even our local level,
11:42 discussions border on the herd immunity approach.
11:48 In the spirit of transparency,
11:50 honesty, and service to citizens,
11:53 I would encourage each board member
11:55 to clearly and publicly state your stand
11:58 on if you support any components
12:00 of the herd immunity approach.
12:02 By remaining silent on the issue,
12:05 many in the community will consider you implicit
12:08 in supporting such an approach.
12:11 The only other thing I want to add
12:13 is I’ve watched the noisy governor’s press conference today.
12:19 I feel bad for him.
12:21 - Hey, Tom, we’re coming up over three minutes.
12:23 If you could finish up, please go ahead.
12:25 - The governor talked about the need
12:27 to provide opportunities for high-risk staff,
12:33 and the problem with that is that’s a great idea,
12:35 but a district like ours, that would be about 25%,
12:40 and that would be over a thousand positions,
12:42 and I don’t think we have that many.
12:44 Thank you for your time.
12:46 - Thank you very much, Tom.
12:47 Next, go ahead and state your name and your comments.
12:50 - Hi, yes, my name is Elizabeth Shaley,
12:52 and I am a high school ESE teacher in the district,
12:55 and I just wanted to weigh in
12:56 on Dr. Mullen’s reopening plan, like at those dates,
13:00 ‘cause that’s how I feel being a former support staff,
13:04 you know, employee before I was a teacher.
13:06 I know that I depended on that first paycheck,
13:09 and I know if we pushed back the dates any further,
13:12 then Dr. Mullen’s plan, those support staff,
13:15 would be at risk of not receiving a paycheck,
13:17 so I wanted to urge the school board
13:19 to consider Dr. Mullen’s plan.
13:21 With that start date, it does get the teachers
13:23 the extra planning time they need,
13:25 but as well, it takes into consideration
13:28 the IA, the cafeteria staff, and other support staff
13:31 who are also the background faculty in the school.
13:34 The old saying goes, you can’t raise a kid
13:36 or teach a kid without a village.
13:39 Well, the same thing goes with the school.
13:40 You can’t, you know, grab the school
13:42 without the support staff, as well as the teachers
13:44 and administrators, so I would just like the school board
13:47 to ask and consider that they take into
13:51 Dr. Mullen’s plan into consideration.
13:53 That’s all I have to say.
13:54 I would give that to Dallas in my time.
13:57 - Next, go ahead and state your name and your comments.
13:59 - My name is Anthony Colucci.
14:01 I’m the president of the Brevard Federation of Teachers.
14:04 Let me start by saying everyone wants schools to reopen,
14:07 but we don’t want to begin in-person teaching,
14:10 face an explosion of cases and sickness,
14:13 then be forced to return to distance learning.
14:15 Florida’s constitution demands that public schools be safe.
14:19 Teachers and parents want our schools
14:21 to meet that basic standard.
14:23 Today, the Florida Education Association filed a lawsuit
14:27 against Governor Ron DeSantis, Commissioner Corcoran,
14:30 the Florida Department of Education,
14:32 the Florida State Board of Education,
14:34 and the mayor of Miami-Dade County.
14:36 She’s safeguarded the health and welfare
14:38 of public school students, educators,
14:40 and the community at large.
14:42 This lawsuit seeks to return control to where it belongs,
14:46 to locally elected school board members and superintendents.
14:49 Just last week, Governor DeSantis said that schools
14:52 would not be penalized if school campuses
14:54 were not open five days a week.
14:56 If that is the case,
14:57 the emergency order needs to be rescinded.
15:00 This lawsuit does not seek to interfere
15:03 with local school district plans on reopening.
15:05 We believe that decisions such as how and when to reopen
15:09 schools are best made at the local level.
15:11 However, I do not know, nor do you know,
15:14 what the metric is you are using
15:16 to make the decision on reopening.
15:18 Patricia Ebert, Director of Nursing Services
15:21 for the Florida Department of Health in Brevard,
15:24 told you at the July 9th workshop,
15:26 in the past month, our productivity rate
15:28 has increased significantly, and that’s what we look at.
15:32 Right now, our productivity rate is around 11.5%.
15:35 Last month, we were down around 4%.
15:38 She went on to say, race and hospitalization
15:40 are going up, deaths are going up,
15:42 and we are in the wrong direction.
15:44 Yet, you still have no answer on which metric
15:46 you should be looking at.
15:47 The very information you need to make the decision
15:50 on whether or not it’s safe to reopen.
15:52 Without any other metric, you must go with the CDC guidelines
15:56 which say reopening is a hard no.
15:59 If the board is unwilling to start the year remotely,
16:01 at the very least, you must delay the start of school
16:04 as long as possible in order to have time
16:06 to improve your plan and potentially get COVID under control.
16:10 I know there have been questions
16:11 about whether all employee groups would continue
16:13 to get paid with a delayed start, however,
16:15 we believe that the idea that we open schools
16:19 brick and mortar or some go without pay is a false choice.
16:22 What we know is there are common sense options
16:24 available to make this work, including providing
16:27 additional training for employees who greatly need it
16:30 in order to get prepared to carry out the reopening plan.
16:33 Thank you.
16:34 - Next, go ahead and state your name and your comment.
16:36 - Hi, this is Vanessa Skipper, Vice President
16:39 of the Brevard Federation of Teachers.
16:41 The constitution of the state of Florida
16:43 says that the education of children is a fundamental value
16:46 of the people of the state of Florida.
16:48 It is therefore a paramount duty of the state
16:50 to make adequate provisions for the education
16:52 of all children residing within its borders.
16:55 Adequate provision shall be made by laws
16:57 for a uniform, efficient, safe, secure
17:02 and high quality system of public, free public schools.
17:07 We must ask ourselves, is it truly safe for our students
17:10 to return to in-person learning at this time?
17:13 It is hard to justify brick and mortar schools
17:16 opening in August when cases in not only our state,
17:19 but here in Brevard are soaring.
17:22 I have to ask, what’s the metric for safe reopening?
17:26 Who is giving us guidance to whether we should reopen
17:32 or not?
17:33 I am constantly confused by whether or not
17:38 the local DOH can actually tell us
17:41 whether we can close or not.
17:43 Whose guidelines are we using?
17:45 And if we’re not using anybody’s guidelines,
17:48 we should at least use the CDC’s guidelines
17:50 which clearly say it is not safe to reopen.
17:55 The other question that I have and it came about
17:58 as I was at a personal doctor’s appointment this week
18:02 is how many pediatric hospital beds do we have in Brevard?
18:07 How many can our hospitals hold?
18:11 If for some reason we have an outbreak among the children,
18:17 are our children going to be forced to go to other counties
18:20 whose hospitals may already be full?
18:23 I hope the board really takes to heart
18:26 what the governor and the commissioner is asking them to do
18:30 and whether or not they are truly upholding
18:33 the constitution which is asking us to open safely,
18:37 saying that we must provide a safe system
18:40 of free public school.
18:42 The other thing that needs to be addressed tonight
18:45 is making masks mandatory.
18:48 I had the opportunity to attend a local graduation
18:52 and not only did everybody in attendance have a mask on,
18:56 everybody on the field had a mask on.
18:58 Everybody was sitting where they were told to sit
19:01 and I kind of marveled as I’ve seen the huge mask debate
19:04 as I looked around knowing that we couldn’t all be
19:07 from the same political background
19:09 but yet here we were all wearing masks
19:12 and what it came down to it,
19:13 it was because it was during a moment that mattered,
19:17 that graduation mattered for those students
19:20 and every day in our classrooms should matter
19:24 and with studies coming out showing
19:26 that secondary students especially transmit the virus
19:30 just like adults do, we need to protect ourselves,
19:33 we need to protect our students,
19:35 we need to protect our schools
19:36 and we need to make them safe places to learn.
19:40 I would recommend a much later start date,
19:43 I would recommend starting online
19:45 and I would also recommend if we’re going back
19:49 into brick and mortar school buildings
19:51 that masks be mandatory.
19:53 The other item and I know it’s still in the works
19:56 is we really gotta–
19:58 - Hi Vanessa, just let me know,
19:59 you’re a little bit over three minutes
20:00 so if you could wrap up that would be great.
20:02 - Thank you.
20:03 So the last bit is we really gotta know
20:05 what e-learning looks like,
20:07 we need supportive administrators,
20:09 we need to realize what kind of classroom nightmares,
20:13 management nightmares it might create
20:15 and we need to put protections in place for everyone,
20:19 students and teachers alike.
20:20 All right, thank you.
20:21 Next go ahead and state your name and your comments.
20:24 - Hello, my name is Rachel Preston
20:26 and I’m a parent of a rising junior.
20:28 I appreciate the gravity of the decisions
20:30 you’re being asked to make,
20:32 likely not ones that you had anticipated.
20:35 Nonetheless, I strongly believe
20:37 that the decision to not require face masks
20:40 and enforce that requirement is the wrong decision
20:44 and a deadly one.
20:45 A recent Wall Street Journal article states
20:48 and I quote, that face masks are emerging
20:51 as one of the most powerful weapons
20:53 despite the novel coronavirus
20:54 with growing evidence that facial coverings
20:57 help prevent transmission even if an infected wearer
21:00 is in close contact with others.
21:03 The article noted that Dr. Redfield,
21:06 director of the CDC and others
21:09 had recently written an editorial emphasizing
21:12 ample evidence of asymptomatic spread
21:15 and highlighting new studies showing
21:17 how masks help reduce transmission.
21:21 I cannot fathom why or how requiring
21:25 that mask be worn in the school is not doable,
21:28 especially when a majority of the school board members
21:31 seem to believe that they should be required.
21:34 Not requiring masks is essentially saying
21:37 that the school board takes full responsibility
21:40 for failing to fully implement the use
21:43 of the most powerful weapon
21:44 we currently have against this virus.
21:47 Are you really comfortable with the super spreading events
21:51 that returning school will become
21:54 and the deaths that will follow
21:56 because you failed to vote your conscience?
21:58 Because you didn’t want to rock the boat
22:01 because you succumbed to group think,
22:03 I beg you to do the right thing right now
22:07 and make masks mandatory when schools reopen.
22:10 You will not regret that decision.
22:12 - Next, go ahead and state your name and your comments.
22:15 - Barbara Landry, I have a child who is visually impaired
22:20 in Meadow Lane in a media.
22:23 And I would very much so like to see mask mandated
22:28 and I wanna know more about this e-learning.
22:31 Will he be in front of a teacher on a computer?
22:36 And he has an IEP that they take him out
22:39 for reading and math.
22:40 How is this gonna work with the e-learning?
22:43 And I am also visually impaired.
22:46 I just want some answers before I send him to school
22:50 and keep him safe.
22:51 - Thanks very much Barbara.
22:52 Next, go ahead and state your name and your comments.
22:55 - Hi, my name is Mickey Lee Park.
22:57 We need to consider the outcomes
22:58 of real team schools surely.
23:00 You won’t allow the public back inside the building
23:03 to make our public comments, but you wanna send us back.
23:06 And we were never told last meeting,
23:08 we asked our board members,
23:10 sending their own grandchildren and children
23:13 to brick and mortar schools when the school year starts
23:15 or they choose an e-learning as well.
23:17 If you can tell me
23:18 that you are not sending your kids to do e-learning,
23:22 if you are sending them back to do in-person learning,
23:25 it’s fine, I’ll consider it.
23:26 But otherwise I find it hypocritical.
23:28 Our courts have gone back to phase one.
23:31 Even Disney is shutting down various attractions
23:34 because they know that it’s not safe.
23:36 You need to absolutely take into consideration
23:39 that teachers should be allowed to do e-learning at home
23:42 over returning to brick and mortar.
23:43 We are in the red zone, we are not safe.
23:46 You need to be ready to lose a lot of very good teachers
23:49 and not be able to replace them
23:51 if you don’t make the right decision.
23:53 This meeting is for the calendar and I understand that.
23:55 I think we need to push the reopening day
23:57 as far back as we can.
23:59 If we do e-learning, returning to school when it is safe
24:02 will be an easy transition for our children,
24:04 but only when we can safely go back.
24:07 As of right now, with our numbers still skyrocketing
24:10 every day, it is not safe to send children
24:12 and staff back to school.
24:13 We need to heavily consider the consequences
24:15 of reopening schools five days a week,
24:17 especially because you refuse to mandate masks.
24:19 The bare minimum that you can do, you won’t do.
24:22 People will get sick, people can and will possibly die.
24:26 I had a parent call me during our distance learning
24:29 to tell me that their child had gone to the hospital
24:31 for pneumonia-like symptoms.
24:33 And I cried because I was so stressed from my students.
24:37 So what will happen when a colleague or a student
24:39 comes to the virus?
24:40 Who will you blame?
24:41 Because I will blame you.
24:43 If any of my students get sick,
24:45 if any of my coworkers fall ill,
24:46 if anyone I work with or teach dies
24:50 because they have contracted a virus
24:52 that has been proven to be out of control,
24:54 you will be to blame because you made the call.
24:56 Do you really want the knowledge of that on your conferences?
25:00 Please consider that, thank you.
25:02 - Next, go ahead and state your name and your comments.
25:04 - Hi, my name is Barbara Wilcox
25:06 and I am an early childhood educator
25:08 in Brevard Public Schools.
25:10 School board members, I do not envy you.
25:13 You have an immensely important job right now
25:15 and it is more important now than ever
25:17 to get it right the first time
25:20 where the health of the students, teachers and faculty
25:23 will be impacted.
25:24 You will be judged in the years to come by your response
25:27 on how to open our schools safely.
25:29 Right now, it is your watch.
25:32 The only way to open safely is to start the school year
25:35 with distance learning.
25:36 The scientist in the news brief over the weekend
25:38 stated that his goal is not to penalize schools.
25:42 The FDA is suing the state over brick and mortar openings.
25:45 A parent and a teacher have joined together to,
25:48 from Orange County, have joined together to sue the state
25:51 over the demand to return to face-to-face instruction.
25:54 The 18th judicial district has moved back to phase one
25:57 and canceled all jury trials.
25:59 The American Academy of Pediatrics stated
26:02 that public health experts and infectious disease physicians
26:06 almost universally recommend that children
26:09 do not go to school until the positive rate
26:13 is three to 5% over a rolling two-week average.
26:18 Let’s let the Academy of Pediatrics
26:20 be our go-to health advisor.
26:23 Remember, it is your watch.
26:25 If you still can’t find the strength to start virtually,
26:28 then the very least you can do
26:31 for the teachers, staff, students’ safety
26:33 is to make masks mandatory.
26:37 Walmart, Target, Starbucks, Publix,
26:40 and many more businesses have mandated face masks
26:45 just this past week.
26:46 Eastern Florida State College,
26:48 which will reopen with many online classes,
26:50 also has a requirement, not an expectation,
26:55 to wear masks inside their buildings.
26:58 Why would we do any less?
27:00 Remember, it is your watch.
27:03 I can tell you that I’m scared,
27:05 and I’m anxious about teaching this year.
27:07 I want to know that you’re going to do the right thing
27:10 to protect me, my peers, and our students.
27:14 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stated
27:16 that the ultimate measure of a man
27:19 is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience,
27:22 but where he stands in times of challenge and controversy.
27:26 Where will you stand?
27:28 It is your watch.
27:29 Thank you.
27:31 - I’d like to thank all of our speakers tonight.
27:41 - Okay, did any board member wish to respond
27:44 to any of the public comments?
27:46 - Yeah, I’ll respond to one.
27:47 - Mr. Sousa?
27:48 - And after Mr. Sousa and I get to–
27:50 - I just wanted to,
27:52 the lady that called in and she keeps asking
27:55 if we’re sending our kids in and all that stuff.
27:59 I said it in the last board meeting.
28:01 My daughter, who’s nine years old,
28:02 is gonna be getting on a bus going to her elementary school.
28:06 My daughter, who is 17, will be attending her high school.
28:09 And my wife, who’s in her third trimester of pregnancy,
28:12 will be an assistant principal at one of the schools.
28:15 So all hands on deck.
28:17 My whole family will be right on the front lines.
28:19 So if there’s any questions to those,
28:21 I’ve said it over and over again.
28:23 I don’t know if it wasn’t caught last time,
28:28 but that’s it, that’s all.
28:30 - Ms. McDougall?
28:32 - I just want to,
28:34 this really is for every speaker that spoke tonight.
28:37 I really, as a board member, I want to relook at the math.
28:41 I want us to talk about that again today on this agenda.
28:44 And also, I want to be on record.
28:46 No, I do not support the herd mentality, absolutely not.
28:50 So that’s what I have to say at this point.
28:54 - Very good, any other board members?
28:57 Okay, then we will.
29:02 - Belfort, hang on a second.
29:03 - Ms. Campbell?
29:04 - I’m happy to answer Ms. Clark’s question,
29:06 even though I think as a board,
29:08 just as every family, every family
29:10 can make their own choice.
29:11 And as board members, we also can make those own choices.
29:14 But I will tell you, for my three children,
29:16 the answer is yes, yes, and yes.
29:19 - Thank you, Ms. Campbell.
29:20 - Ms. Belfort, I guess I don’t want to be the mom left out
29:23 who’s not stating what their child is doing.
29:25 For our family, I have one child left in our public schools,
29:28 and we haven’t made the decision yet.
29:31 He wants to go back.
29:35 The next child up is 19 years old,
29:37 so he’s basically an only child, home alone.
29:41 He’s home alone while I’m here
29:42 at these 11 and 12-hour meetings.
29:44 And he’s isolated, and he needs to get back to school.
29:50 So I would love to see him in school.
29:56 But I also want, we need to de-densify our schools
30:01 as much as possible, so there’s room in the schools for,
30:07 this is a very cautious line I want to toe,
30:09 because I don’t want to say,
30:10 if you can keep your kids home, keep your kids home.
30:12 But there’s also this line.
30:15 One of the things I have felt most passionate about
30:17 through this whole conversation is smaller class size.
30:21 And if we have to keep him home
30:24 to keep the class size down,
30:25 then I almost feel like we might consider that.
30:28 So we haven’t made the decision yet.
30:29 I would send him back if I knew class sizes
30:33 could be capped at a more safer level.
30:35 But the more we dig into that and the cost
30:38 and the space available of classrooms
30:40 and the amount of teachers needed,
30:42 it doesn’t seem like we can cap that
30:44 at a level that I’m comfortable with.
30:46 So the answer for my family is we’re not sure yet.
30:50 Thank you.
30:51 - Thank you, Ms. Duskovich.
30:52 And the Belfort household is in the same dilemma.
30:56 We are, both of mine,
30:58 I’m a middle schooler and a high schooler.
31:01 Both are eager to go back to school.
31:05 I am quite frankly torn because I,
31:09 as I have expressed, I have extreme concern
31:11 about the exposure for our faculty and staff members.
31:16 And I feel like
31:20 if my children don’t have to be in school to be successful,
31:24 I can limit their exposure.
31:28 At the same time, I know that my children want to be there.
31:31 We know the high quality teachers
31:33 in front of students are important.
31:36 So I know that my son is doing somewhat of a hybrid
31:41 where he’ll be doing some dual enrollment classes
31:44 as well as some classes of his high school.
31:46 But beyond that, we have not made a decision.
31:50 We are having family discussions this week
31:52 to determine exactly how we should move forward, so.
31:56 - Ms. Belfort? - Yes, Ms. McDougall.
31:59 - I just wanted to, well, I don’t know if the people know me
32:03 they know that I do not have any children.
32:05 So it’s not that I wouldn’t send my children,
32:08 but I am concerned as you are about the safety of our staff.
32:11 - Yeah.
32:13 Thanks, Ms. McDougall.
32:15 - Ms. Belfort, if there’s one other thing
32:16 that has continued to come up in public comments
32:20 as well as emails and other things,
32:22 and that is the way we’re having our board meetings.
32:24 I know I addressed it last week,
32:25 but I just wanted to, there was something
32:26 that came to mind early this week as I was thinking about it.
32:30 I just wanna reiterate for people,
32:32 the limiting the public in here
32:34 is not a matter of protecting the five of us.
32:39 When we, all the way back to when we were
32:42 in the stay-at-home order, right,
32:44 where we could only have 10 people in the room,
32:46 even back then, we had in-person meetings
32:51 with the exceptions that the governor made,
32:53 we didn’t have the quorum, but we had in-person meetings
32:55 and we limited to 10 people in the room,
32:57 so it was the five of us,
32:58 the superintendent, our secretary, our attorney,
33:01 and other staff members came in one at a time as needed
33:03 to keep, and we had our techs who were so awesome,
33:06 amazing, working the sound so that everybody can follow along
33:09 but the public comment, we did one meeting,
33:11 and I don’t know if you ever wanna go back,
33:13 we had one meeting, our very first one under the
33:17 stay-at-home order, where we had public commenters come in,
33:20 then we had very few people come in,
33:22 we had caution tape around the microphone,
33:26 it was very difficult for people to communicate,
33:29 and it quickly became, and we quickly realized
33:31 that we need to allow the public to comment,
33:34 but they are either not gonna be able to come in
33:36 or not feel comfortable to come in,
33:38 so how do we still allow the public
33:43 to have their voices be heard
33:45 at a time when many of them are afraid to come here,
33:47 or aren’t able to, or we can’t have them
33:49 in the room at the same time?
33:50 And so I just wanna reiterate to people that
33:52 the reason why we’re continuing to do this telephonically
33:56 for a public comment is because
33:58 that way everybody’s voices get heard.
34:02 And I would say that when we’re ready to go back,
34:05 and the three of us have already shared our concern,
34:07 we’d like to go ahead and open that back up,
34:09 we’re gonna follow, it won’t be a full however many hundreds
34:12 of wanna people come here,
34:13 ‘cause we’re still under phase two orders,
34:15 but that I would say that we need to continue
34:17 to have the telephone option for a time at least,
34:20 because there will still be people,
34:21 I’ve still heard from people
34:22 who want to make a public comment,
34:24 but they’re still not comfortable to come back,
34:27 and their voices should not be heard
34:28 because of their concerns.
34:30 And so I just, that continues to come up,
34:32 why are we opening schools?
34:34 It’s not just that simple, things are rarely ever
34:38 that simple, but the point of us starting it that way
34:40 and continuing that way is because we want everybody
34:42 who wants to have their voice be heard
34:44 to have that opportunity, regardless of where they stand
34:47 or their fears or concerns about being able to come back.
34:50 Gosh, I want someone who, if they’re positive for COVID
34:53 to still be able to come out in a public comment,
34:54 and certainly they wouldn’t wanna be in the room,
34:57 but they still have that opportunity by phone.
34:59 So I just wanted to address that
35:01 since it continues to come up.
35:03 - And just so the board’s aware, I think you’re all aware,
35:05 but we are going back to opening up for public comment
35:09 to actually attend the meeting on July 30th.
35:11 Spoke with Ms. Han last night
35:13 as we were awaiting the public comment for tonight.
35:16 We will be continuing the telephone option for individuals
35:18 to ensure that everyone still has a voice
35:21 in the public comment.
35:22 So she’s working on how we balance all that.
35:26 So thank you, Ms. Han, for facilitating all of this
35:29 and ensuring that our public can get their voice heard
35:32 throughout this process.
35:32 We appreciate you.
35:35 All right, any additional response to public comments?
35:39 All right, then we are going to move on to our action item.
35:41 Dr. Mullins.
35:44 - Ms. Belfort, members of the board and viewing audience,
35:46 at the July 14th, 2020 school board meeting,
35:50 I proposed delaying the start of school until August 17th
35:53 and provided documents detailing calendar modifications.
35:57 At that time, I asked to hold a special meeting
36:00 for the board to take action, which is today.
36:03 Mr. Susan proposed an alternative start date of August 24th
36:06 and staff has been looking into the feasibility
36:09 of that and other options.
36:11 At this time, I’d like to ask Dr. Beth Fetti,
36:14 deputy superintendent, chief human resources officer,
36:16 to present calendar options
36:18 and a new recommendation at this time.
36:22 - Good morning, Ms. Belfort, board members, Dr. Mullins.
36:26 Thank you for the opportunity to come here this morning
36:28 and present some options for calendar start dates.
36:31 I wanted to give you just a very brief overview
36:33 of what we currently have.
36:34 We are currently scheduled to start in the adopted calendar
36:37 on Tuesday, August 11th, 2020.
36:40 This is a student start date.
36:42 There’s an option for Monday, August 17th,
36:45 Monday, August 24th, and Monday, August 31st.
36:49 The staff recommendation to the superintendent
36:51 is an August 24th, Monday start date.
36:55 And I’ll talk about that a little bit later
36:56 in the presentation.
36:59 I’m gonna go past our August 11th date
37:01 because that’s our current date
37:03 and for all sorts of reasons,
37:04 we’re considering other options
37:06 and I will move into the next slide.
37:10 ‘Cause the August 11th date doesn’t address
37:12 the community staff and board concerns
37:14 about starting on time.
37:16 It doesn’t provide for additional pre-planning for teachers
37:19 and these are things we want to accommodate.
37:22 With an August 17th start date,
37:25 should that be the board’s choice,
37:28 teachers would begin on August 3rd,
37:30 students would begin on August 17th.
37:33 The student last day would be the same
37:35 as under our current adopted calendar, May 27th, 2021.
37:39 And it takes the way what we would end up doing
37:42 is giving teachers an additional four days of pre-planning,
37:45 which would provide them a total of 10 days of pre-planning
37:48 prior to students returning.
37:49 We accomplish that by taking non-student days,
37:52 October 12th, February 15th, March 22nd,
37:57 and post-planning day of May 28th
38:00 and moving that to the beginning of the teacher calendar,
38:02 which allows for the additional four days.
38:08 At a glance on this calendar,
38:10 our early release dates remain the same.
38:12 All of our contracted holidays remain the same.
38:15 Winter break is reduced from 12 days to 10 days.
38:20 Non-student workdays are moved to the front of the calendar.
38:24 There’s no payroll impact,
38:26 and there’s minimal impact to start dates
38:28 for nine and 10 month employees.
38:34 As with anything, especially changing things at this point
38:37 in the preparation for a new school year,
38:40 there are some opportunities and there are some challenges.
38:43 The opportunities you can see on the slide,
38:44 it allows, this model allows for an additional
38:47 four teacher planning days.
38:49 That will give time for training for e-learning,
38:51 for safety, for technology, for all of the comments
38:55 that we’ve heard from teachers and others
38:57 regarding plans for the new school year.
38:59 It’ll allow for some training for block scheduling.
39:01 It allows schools to have a little additional time
39:04 on their master schedules.
39:06 Minimal start date changes mean that employees
39:09 are still paid on time.
39:10 The school year ends prior to Memorial Day.
39:13 It aligns perfectly with the Eastern Florida
39:15 State College calendar for our dual enrolled students.
39:18 And in this calendar, to preserve the end of school,
39:20 February 15th, which was a PD day,
39:23 becomes a student teacher holiday.
39:25 For challenges, semester exams would be held
39:28 after the conclusion of winter break,
39:31 January 6th through the 8th.
39:34 Teachers under this calendar,
39:35 and actually all of the calendars,
39:36 when we move those days into the beginning of the calendar,
39:39 it provides teachers with less non-student time
39:42 to input grades at the end of both the first
39:44 and the third nine weeks.
39:46 Gives less time for families to understand
39:48 all of the options and deadlines.
39:49 And in all of the calendars, it makes changes
39:51 to hurricane days and deletes hurricane make-up days.
39:55 It really, this calendar really presents very few challenges
39:58 and all of the challenges can be overcome.
40:03 Moving on to the August 24th start date.
40:07 Teacher first day would be August 10th.
40:09 And again, this would provide 10 days
40:11 of pre-planning for teachers.
40:13 The student first day would be August 24th, 2020.
40:17 The student last day would be June 3rd,
40:20 which is after Memorial Day.
40:21 And again, it moves those non-student days
40:24 to the beginning of the teacher calendar.
40:35 As with the previous calendar,
40:36 early release dates remain the same.
40:39 Our contracted holidays are the same.
40:41 Winter break is once again reduced by two days.
40:45 Start dates for some employee groups will be changed.
40:48 Non-student workdays are also moved
40:50 to the front of the calendar.
40:52 The, under this model, not only will the start date
40:55 for teachers be moved, but the start date
40:57 for the other nine, 10 month employee groups are moved.
40:59 But as I’ll discuss later, we have looked at the calendar
41:03 and we’ve looked at the start dates
41:04 so that we can preserve the first paycheck
41:07 for all of our employees.
41:08 We understand and agree that that is a challenge.
41:12 And we heard a speaker earlier today
41:13 that spoke about missing a paycheck
41:15 and the detrimental effect that would have on her family.
41:18 I believe that to be the case with many of our employees.
41:21 So we’ve worked that out for the August 24th date.
41:26 The opportunities and challenges this calendar presents are,
41:31 again, teachers get additional planning, four days,
41:36 gives organizational planning time to include
41:38 facilities preparation, educational technology preparation.
41:43 It gives additional time for the schools to develop
41:45 and tweak their master schedules.
41:48 It gives additional time for training,
41:49 for e-learning, safety and technology.
41:52 And provided employees begin prior to August 16th,
41:54 we are still able to pay them on time.
41:58 The most important opportunities,
42:01 it does give families additional time
42:03 and it gives time to see where we are heading with COVID.
42:06 But that’s also a challenge on the other side.
42:09 The challenge in this calendar is for parents
42:12 who were expecting school to start August 11th
42:14 and would now have to find alternate childcare arrangements
42:17 until an August 24th start date.
42:21 Some of the other challenges for semester exams
42:24 will occur mid January, January 13th to the 15th.
42:27 Our second semester ends after Memorial Day.
42:30 This schedule does not align with Eastern Florida,
42:32 it’s off by a week.
42:34 There is a possibility of staff overpayments
42:37 and it would require, because we’ll go into June,
42:41 it would require active assailant and fire drills in June.
42:45 The challenges with this calendar
42:47 are a little bit more onerous,
42:48 but we were able to work through them.
42:50 They include the later end of the first semester
42:52 with the exams in mid January, a later end date of school,
42:56 the misalignment with Eastern Florida,
42:58 which is a challenge for our students
43:00 and for our staff that are involved in the Eastern Florida
43:03 State College dual enrollment program,
43:06 but these are not insurmountable.
43:07 These are challenges that we can handle and mitigate.
43:18 Under this recommended model,
43:20 employees will continue to receive paychecks on time
43:22 as in previous years with some tweaking to start dates.
43:26 We will have to adjust some start dates
43:27 for some employee groups.
43:29 We have, you may not know this,
43:30 but we have 18 dates of service calendars
43:33 for all of our different employee types
43:35 and all of them will have to be adjusted
43:37 in order to make sure that we have employees
43:39 starting work at the appropriate time
43:41 so they will still receive paychecks.
43:44 It does provide additional time for pre-planning
43:46 while it maintains that employment
43:48 of our nine and 10 month staff on the current schedule.
43:56 August 31st is another option and it presents challenges
44:00 that are not as easily mitigated.
44:03 This would have a teacher first day of August 17th,
44:06 a student first day of August 31st,
44:09 student last day of June 10th,
44:11 and it again moves all of those non-student days
44:13 I previously talked about
44:14 to the beginning of the teacher calendar.
44:21 At a glance on this calendar,
44:23 there’s an opportunity for missed paychecks
44:26 for certain employee groups
44:27 and by certain employee groups,
44:28 I’m speaking about our nine and 10 month employees
44:31 who traditionally receive either 20 or 21 paychecks.
44:36 Early release days are the same, holidays are the same,
44:39 winter break does get decreased again by two days.
44:42 We would be making large changes
44:44 to start dates for employee groups
44:46 and again, non-student days are moved
44:48 to the front of the calendar.
44:51 This calendar also presents similar opportunities
44:54 and challenges as the other calendar.
44:56 It does again give us the four additional days
44:58 for teacher pre-planning.
45:00 It gives schools a whole lot more time
45:01 to develop their master schedule
45:03 and additional time for our content
45:05 and resource specialists to develop training
45:08 along with the other training we’ve already mentioned.
45:11 Challenges semester exams are toward the end of January,
45:14 21st, 22nd, and 25th.
45:17 We would end school on June 10th.
45:19 We would have specific employee groups
45:21 not receive paychecks until September 15th.
45:24 Those would be employee groups
45:25 that traditionally receive a paycheck on August 31st.
45:30 It would provide for a shorter summer break in 2021,
45:34 making an assumption, which is a challenge right now,
45:36 making any kinds of assumptions,
45:38 that next year we would be back on a regular calendar.
45:41 It does not align with the Eastern Florida schedule.
45:44 It presents a greater opportunity for overpayments,
45:47 still requires active assailant and fire drills in June.
45:51 And then in the summertime,
45:52 it would reduce the number of days
45:54 for summer reading camps and Title I support programs
45:57 and for ESY for students with disabilities.
46:04 So I presented you with the calendar options
46:06 and you have in front of you the presentation
46:08 and you have the calendar mock-up
46:11 that my office completed over the last few days.
46:15 If it’s okay with you guys,
46:17 I have all my paperwork at the table
46:19 so I can take questions there if that will work.
46:22 - That’s fine, Dr. Thete, thank you.
46:24 And thank you for all of your work on this.
46:26 I know it’s been a nearly round the clock effort
46:30 to bring this back to us.
46:31 So we appreciate you and your team
46:33 and all the work that you’ve done.
46:41 Do board members have questions for Dr. Thete?
46:47 (faintly speaking)
46:50 Ms. Campbell.
46:51 (faintly speaking)
46:54 Oh, a few minutes to look at it?
46:55 Yeah, absolutely.
46:56 Mr. Susan.
46:58 - Thank you, Dr. Thete for working so hard
47:00 and diligently to compress, you know what I mean,
47:02 to get this out.
47:03 And Dr. Mullins, thank you so much.
47:06 Quick questions.
47:08 And these are just some clarifying questions.
47:12 If the hurricanes come and all of those other things
47:15 that natural disasters, shutting down school districts,
47:18 all that stuff happens, do we have those days built in
47:21 or are we gonna have to extend to continue past
47:24 the June 3rd day?
47:26 - We do not have those days built in into these calendars.
47:29 However, there are options in exploring board policy
47:32 and looking at the requirements for certain breaks.
47:35 There are opportunities to look at board policy
47:38 for winter break, potentially to make up some days
47:40 in spring break.
47:42 - Okay, and then some people were asking about
47:45 the early release days.
47:47 Is there an opportunity for us to not take
47:50 the early release days and use those and compress our time,
47:56 if that makes sense?
47:57 - So teachers are contracted for 196 days.
48:01 So if we change days, if we change early release days,
48:05 we make those regular days, those add back in hours.
48:09 But that is something we’ve negotiated with the union.
48:11 So to remove those early release days would,
48:14 we’d have to look at negotiations
48:16 and bargaining with the union.
48:17 - Okay, but it’s something that we,
48:18 if we run into a problem, it’s an option that we can do
48:20 on the back end of what we’re trying to do.
48:22 - If you’re talking about in the case of a natural disaster,
48:25 those are options that have come up before, yes.
48:26 - Beautiful.
48:30 And then does this change the final choice time
48:34 for people who are choosing between virtual e-learning
48:37 and all of those things?
48:38 - No, it does not.
48:39 I have not had those conversations with leading
48:41 and learning.
48:43 They’ve got to be able to know who’s choosing what options
48:47 so we can adequately schedule the schools
48:49 so that we can make sure we’ve got classes appropriately
48:54 as the new word is de-densified.
48:56 So it does not change those dates.
48:58 - Okay, and just for point of clarification,
49:01 when is that date, Dr. Sullen?
49:08 - For Brevard virtual school full time,
49:10 we had already extended the date until July 31st,
49:13 was originally on July 17th,
49:17 which was the original date for choice options.
49:19 So it’s already been pushed to July 31st.
49:22 - Okay, and that’s Brevard virtual and all right, thank you.
49:26 - Yep, and for e-learning,
49:29 we’ve asked families right up to the start of school.
49:32 So whenever the start of school,
49:33 elementary is a little different
49:35 ‘cause they have to plan for teacher units.
49:36 So I’m gonna let Mrs. Klein speak to that.
49:42 - For elementary e-learning,
49:44 we want the survey completed this week at the latest
49:49 for your intent, is that something you want to do?
49:54 We know that parents are still trying to make decisions,
49:57 but for us to staff and plan,
50:01 the original survey said the 23rd,
50:04 then at last week’s board meeting,
50:07 we asked that it go to the 20th.
50:09 So truly this week would be ideal
50:13 because we need to find out how many teachers
50:16 we need to staff for each school for e-learning.
50:21 - Thank you, Mrs. Klein.
50:22 And I think it, for everybody that’s watching out there,
50:25 it is a daunting task to try to figure out
50:29 who is gonna be inside your school
50:31 and how your teachers are gonna,
50:32 who’s gonna be on e-learning and everything else.
50:34 So it, one of the common themes that I get
50:37 from a lot of the administrators
50:39 and a lot of the staff is make that decision,
50:42 make it so that we can then work on a backend
50:44 to provide a good product for our students
50:47 and for our parents.
50:48 Because if we continue to make decisions
50:50 up until the last minute,
50:52 it really backends a lot of hard work
50:54 that we’re trying to do.
50:55 And the longer that people don’t make that decision,
50:58 the more difficult it makes for our school district.
51:00 So thank you so much, Mrs. Klein.
51:02 And then, and I’m sorry to keep,
51:03 I’m just gonna run through if that’s okay.
51:05 The fire drills, we were gonna try to see
51:07 about those being virtual and stuff like that.
51:09 So that June 3rd is where we said there’s extra,
51:13 that might be something that we’re still moving on.
51:14 And then Eastern Florida dual enrollment,
51:18 the majority of those classes are online now, right?
51:20 So the impact may not be as bad as we think to offset.
51:23 I was just concerned about some of the conversations
51:25 as far as the–
51:27 - The impact to Eastern Florida,
51:29 and I’ll defer to Dr. Sullivan
51:31 if there’s more to it than what I’m stating.
51:34 It has to do more with add drop,
51:35 making sure staff is available to work with students,
51:37 making sure they get their textbooks,
51:41 transportation for those classes
51:42 that are not virtual classes.
51:45 Did I miss anything, Dr. Sullivan?
51:49 - Quite well, Dr. Theti.
51:51 Yeah, it’s what I like to say the big people conflict.
51:56 And that’s why she said that
51:57 we can certainly work through it.
52:00 In the couple weeks leading up
52:01 to the start of Eastern Florida,
52:03 we are generally working with students
52:05 on textbooks, registration, courses.
52:08 We are locked into payment at the end of drop add.
52:12 And when that drop add happens prior to our staff returning,
52:18 that gets a little bit more financially risky.
52:21 And so it would be something that in the 24th option,
52:27 I think we can make it work, it would be more difficult
52:30 in the 31st option, but we will, of course,
52:33 work together to make that work.
52:34 It just increases the financial risk to the district.
52:39 When students are beginning classes
52:42 prior to the big people returning to the building.
52:47 And so that’s where it gets a little difficult.
52:50 - Thank you, Ms. Sullivan.
52:53 - Ms. Daskevich, did you have questions?
52:55 - Yeah, I think Mr. Susan covered much of them.
52:59 If we have students, is Eastern Florida
53:01 all online for this semester?
53:04 No, so if we have students that need to go to the building,
53:06 I guess we’re gonna be able to arrange transportation
53:09 and such, even though our school will not.
53:13 - So like I said in the original presentation,
53:17 these are issues that we believe we can mitigate.
53:21 - Okay, we’ll leave it at that.
53:23 If I could, Dr. Setti, to some degree,
53:27 depending on the disconnect,
53:30 because as Ms. Daskevich mentioned,
53:33 the courses at Eastern Florida are a combination.
53:36 So some of the courses are online synchronous,
53:40 some of the courses are online asynchronous,
53:43 some of the courses are hybrid,
53:45 and some of the courses are face-to-face.
53:47 So they’ve opted kind of,
53:49 what they’ve done is allow the professors to identify.
53:53 So some of our students may need to physically get to class
53:57 where we don’t have transportation in place.
54:00 - How many, you guys may not know this,
54:02 how many dual enrollment students do we have
54:04 that are using transportation?
54:06 ‘Cause I know many of them are seniors
54:07 and have cars and can get themselves around.
54:10 - It is different at each school,
54:14 but the question comes into,
54:17 in some of our scheduled courses,
54:19 the students take the bus to the school to begin with,
54:22 like to actually even get to their homeschool
54:25 and then transport to Eastern Florida.
54:26 They’re pretty full.
54:28 We’ve got several of our schools
54:30 that cannot accept any dual enrollees
54:34 who would optionally want to use the transportation
54:36 because their collegiate high school fills the bus.
54:39 So I would say quite a few.
54:43 - Okay, so with option August 24th,
54:46 potentially dual enrollment students could,
54:51 our dual enrollment numbers could go down,
54:52 our collegiate school numbers could go down,
54:54 and our number of AA degrees at graduation in a year out.
54:56 - I think it’s manageable on the 24th
54:59 because of the timing of it,
55:01 and we have staff onsite beginning on the 10th.
55:05 So there may be some transportation issues that first week,
55:08 but it’s a little bit more manageable.
55:10 31st gets really difficult
55:12 because we don’t have staff onsite prior to the start.
55:16 - Understand, okay.
55:18 And then possibility of overpayments.
55:21 I’ve had some conversations with Dr. Mullins about that,
55:24 but I think we have to visit that a little bit more
55:28 if we can, please.
55:30 What does that look like,
55:32 and what kind of risk is that to the district?
55:34 - So let me talk to you about payroll in general
55:37 so that you can understand how we run payroll
55:40 and how we’ve run payroll historically.
55:42 We equalize, for lack of a better word,
55:45 payroll over the number of paychecks
55:47 and the number of days an employee works.
55:49 So if you are a 21 pay type employee
55:54 and you work in 193 days,
55:57 we equalize that payroll
55:58 over the entire time of your contract.
56:01 So you may work a few days in one pay period,
56:04 or we may have holidays that are unpaid
56:07 in the middle of a pay period,
56:08 like Thanksgiving or winter break or spring break,
56:11 where you wouldn’t normally get paid,
56:13 but equalizing those paychecks over the time,
56:16 the length, the 21 paychecks or the 20 paychecks,
56:19 allows for you to receive a regular paycheck.
56:22 The possibility for overpayment
56:23 is something that exists every year.
56:26 This year would not be different.
56:28 The difference this year would be
56:29 it would be a slightly greater risk
56:31 with an additional week bumping the calendar back,
56:34 actually bumping the calendar back two weeks.
56:38 In the past, I have the history
56:40 of where we’ve been in our district for the last 14 years,
56:44 and in the last 14 years, there have been cases
56:46 where people have been overpaid,
56:48 and what that means is they sever their employment.
56:50 They either terminate their employment due to resignation,
56:53 or they take an extended leave and then end up resigning,
56:57 or they’re terminated in some way
56:59 before they hit that breakeven point
57:01 because of how we equalize paychecks over the time period,
57:05 and they end up, in some cases, owing money.
57:08 And in those cases, over the last 14 years,
57:12 the district has been able to collect 80% of the funds back
57:17 from 75% of the people.
57:19 So we do work with our employees.
57:22 We do work out payment plans.
57:23 They do end up getting 80% of the funds back on overpayments,
57:28 and I would anticipate the same thing happening this year.
57:31 The other thing that our payroll department
57:33 does very diligently each year
57:35 is they work with the departments in the schools,
57:37 and they work to make sure that when we start school,
57:41 regardless of when that is,
57:42 because this potential exists every year,
57:46 they make sure they call, they work with the secretaries,
57:49 they find out who has come and who hasn’t come
57:51 to start their work year.
57:53 They work with human resources,
57:55 and they are able to mitigate that risk.
57:57 And we have an all-hands-on-deck plan for this year
58:01 to hopefully further mitigate that risk
58:04 with the 24th as a potential start date.
58:08 - Thank you, Dr. Badde.
58:11 One last question, and it’s on the August 31st option.
58:23 You said nine and 10 month employees
58:25 could have a missed paycheck.
58:27 Could have a missed paycheck.
58:28 Do we know how many employees that affects, roughly?
58:33 - Do, it affects approximately 2,269 employees.
58:41 I think that’s it for now, thank you.
58:46 - Thank you.
58:47 - Ms. McDougall, I believe you had a question?
58:50 - You know, I did, but Mr. Sousa checked it,
58:52 and so it was about Eastern Florida.
58:56 And so I think the question is, that was my only concern.
59:01 And I also want to thank you, everybody,
59:04 and your team for working on this.
59:07 - Thank you, ma’am.
59:08 Ms. Campbell.
59:09 - All right, so just really quickly,
59:15 just to summarize for my own brain,
59:18 Dr. Sullivan, the EFSC schedule,
59:22 and that second week in January,
59:23 basically the conflict will be,
59:26 if a student on our block that we have,
59:29 if they, in the second semester,
59:31 are taking a EFSC course,
59:35 where in the first semester they were on campus,
59:38 or they were taking a block through e-learning
59:40 or on-campus learning.
59:42 That’s where the problem’s gonna be,
59:43 ‘cause they’ll need to be,
59:44 if they were doing dual enrollment in that block time,
59:46 both semesters, then it’s not really a conflict, right,
59:48 ‘cause their course will end in December,
59:49 and they’ll start back up in January.
59:52 Am I simplifying that too much?
59:58 - They are going to be really individualized,
1:00:01 and for the most part,
1:00:02 I anticipate us being able to work through them.
1:00:07 - The risk to the district financially
1:00:10 is always related to students who withdraw after drop-add,
1:00:15 and that’s where we are paying for those courses,
1:00:19 and the student is no longer enrolled in them,
1:00:22 and so that’s always a bit of a problem.
1:00:25 It’s an amplified problem when they’re not in front of us
1:00:28 during the drop-add period.
1:00:33 So that risk becomes–
1:00:35 - So that’s more of a first semester problem.
1:00:36 - It’s a both semester problem, potentially,
1:00:39 but again, the scheduling in the blocks,
1:00:42 we can generally work those things out.
1:00:45 Eastern Florida, typically the courses our students take,
1:00:48 they have a variety of sections,
1:00:50 and so given how many courses they will be offering online,
1:00:56 it can offer us some flexibility.
1:00:58 It would be less flexible for the student
1:01:00 wanting face-to-face at Eastern Florida,
1:01:02 which is going to be a lot of their career-oriented courses
1:01:07 that are tied into some CTE and AS degrees, primarily.
1:01:12 - Just on a side note with that,
1:01:14 if our students are doing dual enrollment
1:01:17 or collegiate high school,
1:01:19 and their EFSC course is virtual,
1:01:22 or they would be able to go into a computer lab
1:01:25 or stay on campus and just do that from there?
1:01:28 - That is a hot topic question right now,
1:01:32 because, in theory, of course, yes.
1:01:35 In our current climate of de-densifying,
1:01:38 if it’s hundreds of students that take that opportunity
1:01:41 and the school having to have a safe space for them,
1:01:45 that becomes a little bit more difficult,
1:01:46 so we would certainly encourage those
1:01:49 that can work independently away from the school
1:01:51 to take that advantage in this current climate,
1:01:55 but we certainly recognize that there are some students
1:01:57 will have to make sure have a space to work on their course.
1:01:59 - Gotcha, thank you.
1:02:01 So, thank you for the information about our employee groups,
1:02:08 and I can tell from the, I don’t know what you called this,
1:02:12 the info page that you gave us,
1:02:14 that you guys have really done some creative scheduling.
1:02:17 I know that when I was listening
1:02:20 to the negotiation video the other day
1:02:24 that Mr. Alba presented that, you know,
1:02:27 employees need to show up for work for us to count them
1:02:30 to be able to activate those paychecks,
1:02:31 and it looks like each employee group allowed a work day
1:02:36 so we can count them.
1:02:36 So hopefully that kind of thing will,
1:02:38 ‘cause I was very concerned about the missing paychecks.
1:02:42 I mean, 2200 people in our nine and 10 month jobs
1:02:47 are generally our lower paying jobs,
1:02:50 and you know, with families with spouses
1:02:54 who aren’t employed right now and the financial situation,
1:02:56 it is extremely difficult for me to recommend a plan
1:03:02 that would cause people to lose a half a month’s salary
1:03:06 that they are counting on.
1:03:07 And so I just appreciate the way that you work this in,
1:03:12 and I think with the, of course someone could work
1:03:15 the one day and then resign, or take a leave, or whatever,
1:03:21 but I think we’ve, that really helps to have, you know,
1:03:25 hey, this is a first work day and then have the break,
1:03:28 so I very much appreciate that.
1:03:30 I, you know, this 24th date, with the challenges
1:03:35 that I know that you guys will have to overcome,
1:03:41 you’ve overcome so many, I know that you can do that.
1:03:43 I think that is a good answer to the public
1:03:47 who has asked us to push these dates back.
1:03:49 It gives our teachers another week,
1:03:50 it gives our students another week.
1:03:54 Really, for me, one of the greatest benefits
1:03:56 of the 24th start date, it gives our site-based
1:03:59 administrators and our district-based administrators
1:04:02 time to continue to work on the things
1:04:06 that we’ve, you know, launched,
1:04:11 without having to work to midnight every night
1:04:13 between now and then, and as some of you still will.
1:04:16 But I think that that answers that very well,
1:04:20 and in addition, it gives us some more time
1:04:22 to see the trajectory of our county and our cases,
1:04:26 and I’ve just taken a look at, you know,
1:04:29 the dashboard data, where, you know,
1:04:30 it does look like our state, but especially our county,
1:04:33 I like, you know, where is Brevard,
1:04:34 and we’re starting to level off
1:04:36 and even decrease a little bit,
1:04:37 so we have the chance to see that.
1:04:39 So I think the 24th is an excellent option,
1:04:43 and I very much appreciate the extra work
1:04:46 that you guys did this past week
1:04:48 to continue to take a look at that.
1:04:52 - Ms. Tuscovitch.
1:04:53 - I just have, Ms., Dr. Betty,
1:04:56 the 2,269 employees that would miss a paycheck,
1:04:59 do you have a dollar value on that by any chance?
1:05:03 - One day of payroll, oh, for the entire pay period?
1:05:07 Yes, I believe I do.
1:05:10 The gross for that pay period is,
1:05:17 hold on just a second, I do have it, give me one second.
1:05:22 It looks like, ‘cause it’s not added up on my spreadsheet,
1:05:27 it looks like the gross for one pay period
1:05:29 is about $1.3 million.
1:05:38 - Help me to understand this just for a second.
1:05:40 So they’re missing a paycheck,
1:05:44 but we’ve already budgeted for that.
1:05:47 - So let me explain missing a paycheck,
1:05:49 and I apologize, I should have said this up front.
1:05:52 They’re still going to get paid
1:05:53 the entire value of their contract.
1:05:55 Their pay would just be pushed out.
1:05:57 So they will still receive
1:05:58 the entire value of their contract.
1:06:00 They won’t miss any money.
1:06:02 What would happen is they would be delayed
1:06:04 on getting their first check.
1:06:07 - Okay, are these employees usually paid,
1:06:11 do they separate out over 12 months,
1:06:13 or are they usually just paid for their–
1:06:14 - No, these are employees that are paid,
1:06:16 one pay group is paid on 21 pays.
1:06:18 That’s our nine-month group leaders
1:06:20 in our childcare program, our Brevard afterschool.
1:06:23 The rest of them are paid on 20 pays.
1:06:26 They are bus drivers, nine-month clerks,
1:06:28 nine-month IA’s, campus monitors,
1:06:32 nine-month food service workers,
1:06:34 and I don’t know if I mentioned bus drivers,
1:06:36 nine-month bus drivers.
1:06:37 - So these employees are not getting paid right this minute
1:06:40 ‘cause they’re not working right this minute.
1:06:42 So they would start two weeks later,
1:06:45 and so they would get paid a week later.
1:06:47 - So the nine-month group leaders in Brevard afterschool
1:06:51 are scheduled to have their first paycheck on August 15th.
1:06:54 The rest of the employee groups,
1:06:56 I have approximately 186 of those group leaders
1:07:01 who will get their first check.
1:07:02 They’re on 21 pays, and that starts on 8/15.
1:07:05 The others are on 20 pays.
1:07:06 They start on 8/31, and that’s the balance
1:07:09 of the 2,269 approximate.
1:07:12 It’s as good as the day we ran the data.
1:07:15 The numbers could change, but they would start
1:07:18 on August 31st for their first paycheck,
1:07:20 and that’s what they’re counting on,
1:07:22 which is why we looked at the calendar to adjust it
1:07:26 so they would actually start work within the pay period
1:07:28 to receive that first August 31st paycheck.
1:07:32 - Thank you.
1:07:35 - Ms. Campbell?
1:07:36 - One more really quickie.
1:07:38 Our food service team has done such an amazing job
1:07:43 since March taking care of the needs of our community,
1:07:47 and I know everybody’s kind of waiting
1:07:50 for this direction to move forward,
1:07:52 but do we have, and we’re also,
1:07:54 I know that what they do in providing
1:07:57 and continuing to provide the meals for the summer
1:07:58 has also been dependent on the USDA
1:08:01 and the regulations from the federal government
1:08:04 and some from the state, I think,
1:08:06 but is there any inkling of,
1:08:08 because we’re pushing the start date
1:08:10 for students out to August 24th,
1:08:12 what might be done as far as meals for our students?
1:08:20 - If I understand the question,
1:08:21 would we be able to extend the summer feeding program?
1:08:25 - To some extent. - Later?
1:08:26 Mr. Novelli, are you prepared for an answer for that?
1:08:30 We can certainly follow up with Mr. Thornton,
1:08:31 and it’s a great question.
1:08:33 We can let the board know within the next day or so.
1:08:36 - Right, thank you.
1:08:39 - Any additional questions for Dr. Thede on the calendar?
1:08:43 - Okay, then I will accept a motion on the recommendation.
1:08:49 - Move to approve. - Second.
1:08:51 - Can you be more specific on which one?
1:08:54 - I do. - Move to approve
1:08:55 the August 24th date for start.
1:08:58 - Okay, second.
1:09:00 - So that is moved by Mr. Susan
1:09:01 and seconded by Ms. Deskevich.
1:09:03 Is there any discussion?
1:09:08 - I actually have a bit of discussion on this one.
1:09:13 If you will humor me.
1:09:17 So I think there has been much discussion
1:09:21 from our community about the governor supposedly
1:09:24 indicating that he will not penalize districts
1:09:27 who choose not to open brick and mortar.
1:09:29 And I caution our community to look at actual source
1:09:36 instead of headlines or media reports.
1:09:40 So I would like to take just a moment
1:09:42 to share with our community
1:09:43 ‘cause I know it’s the elephant in the room
1:09:45 and everyone thinks that we now have the freedom to do
1:09:47 whatever we wanna do.
1:09:50 But here’s what the governor actually said
1:09:52 during that press conference.
1:09:53 He said, “Look, my goal is not to penalize people.
1:09:56 “My goal is to give our kids opportunity
1:09:58 “and recognize that when we talk about the coronavirus,
1:10:01 “it’s very important.
1:10:03 “But in terms of everything, all the effects of it,
1:10:05 “there’s been so many effects on people
1:10:07 “who probably don’t even know anyone
1:10:09 “that’s ever been affected and particularly our kids.
1:10:12 “The distance learning is as good as Florida system
1:10:15 “is compared to other states in the country.
1:10:17 “The distance learning is not the same.
1:10:20 “There is an academic gap that has developed.”
1:10:22 And look, we were in a very difficult situation in March.
1:10:25 People didn’t know whether this thing was,
1:10:28 whether kids were big vectors.
1:10:31 I think it was pretty obvious that the kids were low risk,
1:10:34 but there were still data coming out on that.
1:10:37 Now we have more information and my thing is just,
1:10:41 for parents who have any type of misgivings,
1:10:44 obviously I think it’d be so counterproductive
1:10:46 to tell them you have to go in.
1:10:48 I mean, it wouldn’t even work.
1:10:50 It’s not the right thing to do.
1:10:52 They have the ability to opt,
1:10:54 but I also think we do have to be sensitive to parents
1:10:57 who really believe that the school experience
1:10:59 is important for their kids.
1:11:01 And so we’ve got to do whatever we can to kind of meet that,
1:11:04 but I think that’s just got to be done
1:11:06 because it’s the right thing to do.
1:11:08 I mean, you know, to get into a tit for tat
1:11:10 and to do that in the midst of a crisis,
1:11:12 that’s not what I’m looking to do.
1:11:14 I mean, I want to work collaboratively with people
1:11:16 and I just want opportunities for our kids.
1:11:21 I do not want people falling behind.
1:11:23 I’m concerned about what will happen.
1:11:25 I’m concerned about just being able
1:11:26 to be a part of the school community,
1:11:28 having that price of the kids.
1:11:30 I’m concerned about not having activities,
1:11:33 being in the band, doing theater or playing sports.
1:11:36 You know, we’re out looking at you, you know, our athletes,
1:11:39 you know, they need to be able to be out there.
1:11:40 And so there’s all these different things.
1:11:44 So I think when you hear what he actually said,
1:11:47 his intent is kind of clear as mud.
1:11:52 And so I have reached out to the governor’s office
1:11:54 for clarity on what he meant by the statement
1:11:57 that he does not want to penalize people.
1:11:59 And I’ve not heard back yet,
1:12:01 but there are two things that he has said repeatedly
1:12:06 with extreme clarity.
1:12:08 One is that he does not want decisions to be based on fear.
1:12:13 And two is that he wants to be collaborative.
1:12:16 And so I’m hoping that he truly does
1:12:19 want to be collaborative.
1:12:20 And I think, although I have absolutely stated
1:12:25 in our past several meetings,
1:12:26 I am very fearful for our students, their families,
1:12:30 our faculty and our staff going back into schools
1:12:35 when we’re seeing a rise in cases.
1:12:38 I pulled up the dashboard a little bit earlier this morning,
1:12:40 and we are now the same color as Miami
1:12:42 ‘cause we’ve crested 4,000 cases.
1:12:45 And if you look at the map of Florida,
1:12:47 all of central Florida from Tampa to Brevard
1:12:50 is now dark blue along with South Florida.
1:12:54 And someone asked earlier, who’s advising us?
1:12:58 And I know we’ve each been following different paths.
1:13:02 I have reached out to my pediatrician,
1:13:05 the CEO of Parrish Health Center, the CEO of Health First.
1:13:08 I’ve attempted reaching out
1:13:10 to the State Department of Health
1:13:11 and have not gotten a response back.
1:13:13 I have reached out to our local Department of Health
1:13:15 for some additional data.
1:13:18 And so I think that we have a good amount of facts
1:13:23 that indicate that we are moving in the wrong direction.
1:13:27 Our local Department of Health indicated that
1:13:30 last time they were with us at the meeting.
1:13:33 The email that I shared with you all from Maria Stahl,
1:13:36 who’s the head of our local Department of Health,
1:13:38 indicated that we had seen significant increases.
1:13:41 We had more than doubled our numbers
1:13:42 since the beginning of July.
1:13:45 We have seen an increase in positivity.
1:13:48 On June 6th, we were at 0.9% positivity
1:13:52 for the week of June 6th.
1:13:55 Today we’re at 6.2 positivity,
1:13:57 which is down a little bit
1:13:58 from a couple of the previous weeks.
1:14:00 But I think we have some pretty solid facts
1:14:02 that indicate that we are not in a good place currently.
1:14:08 And because we are not health experts,
1:14:10 I think that we have to rely on health experts
1:14:13 to really guide us as to where we go.
1:14:16 And I’m hoping that the governor is honest
1:14:19 in his desire to be collaborative
1:14:21 and to not base decisions on fear,
1:14:25 but instead on facts.
1:14:26 And I think that we have a lot of facts in front of us
1:14:31 that we can certainly justify concern
1:14:34 about the current situation.
1:14:35 So I am absolutely supportive of the move
1:14:39 to the calendar on the 24th.
1:14:42 But I would like for the board to consider
1:14:46 tying some facts to that actual decision.
1:14:50 I provided each of you with this document
1:14:53 that says compilation of recommended metrics.
1:14:58 Everything that you look at from the CDC
1:15:03 to our open up Florida plan
1:15:07 provides some really good metrics
1:15:09 to identify when we should lighten
1:15:11 our mitigation strategies.
1:15:13 And nothing that I’m seeing at this particular moment in time
1:15:17 with regard to our viral trend
1:15:19 indicates that there should be a lightening
1:15:21 of mitigation strategies at this point.
1:15:24 So on this document,
1:15:25 I’ve provided you with the recommendations
1:15:27 from the Center for Disease Control with regard to metrics.
1:15:30 And those are the metrics that they identified
1:15:33 that should be met prior to moving
1:15:34 into a different phase of reopening.
1:15:37 Interestingly enough, schools were not included
1:15:40 in any of the three phases of reopening
1:15:42 for the Florida reopen plan.
1:15:44 We were actually added after all of the three phases
1:15:49 of reopening and it basically said
1:15:51 that we should plan to return to school in the fall.
1:15:55 And that we should slowly reopen during the summer
1:15:58 to close learning gaps.
1:15:59 And that was the extent of specifics on schools
1:16:04 and the Florida reopening plan.
1:16:07 I’ve also included for you Miami-Dade came out last week
1:16:10 and said that they have identified some particular metrics.
1:16:14 Their plan was to reopen on August 24th
1:16:17 pending meeting of these metrics which they worked through
1:16:21 with their local health officials.
1:16:24 Some of you may have seen Governor Cuomo came out
1:16:29 and identified some metrics for the state of New York,
1:16:33 basically saying that they will be 5% or less
1:16:37 over a 14-day period and if they spike over nine,
1:16:39 then they will close down again.
1:16:42 And then the last page, and I think this is important
1:16:46 and hopefully will be considered by our state leadership.
1:16:51 In speaking with our local health experts,
1:16:55 I spoke with George Mekaterian who’s the CEO of Parrish.
1:16:58 He also said that 14 days of declining metrics
1:17:01 is incredibly important before we reopen schools.
1:17:06 We know the latter came out and it was referenced
1:17:08 by some of our public speakers.
1:17:10 The Florida chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics
1:17:14 has suggested that we not open until we have
1:17:16 a three to 5% positive test rate over a rolling two weeks.
1:17:21 Dr. Fauci actually did a pretty lengthy interview
1:17:26 on Facebook this past weekend.
1:17:29 But one of the things that he said is,
1:17:30 “We must ensure we’re meeting the guidelines for progression
1:17:33 “or we must regroup and backtrack.”
1:17:37 And those guidelines were what was identified by the CDC.
1:17:41 And so I would like to ask the board today,
1:17:45 and certainly we can continue to work
1:17:47 with our state leadership and have conversations
1:17:49 about facts that are put before us.
1:17:52 But I would like to commit to opening on the 24th
1:17:57 with the full reopening plan as proposed,
1:18:00 provided that we have some metrics
1:18:03 that we meet at the local level.
1:18:04 And whether that’s our positivity rate
1:18:06 or it’s our number of new cases
1:18:09 or whatever, obviously I think it should be based
1:18:13 on recommendations from health officials
1:18:15 and not just something that we as board members come up with.
1:18:18 But I do think it’s important that we identify
1:18:21 what is going to be our green light.
1:18:23 And if we don’t have that green light,
1:18:26 then I think that we need to look at opening
1:18:27 with our e-learning and our online options
1:18:31 until we can get to that point.
1:18:33 We’re currently seeing a downward trend
1:18:35 in our positivity rate.
1:18:36 And so my hope is that we’re moving in the right direction.
1:18:40 We’ve had a lot more mask mandates that have come out
1:18:43 from retailers and local businesses.
1:18:48 And so I’m hoping that we will continue
1:18:50 to see a downward trend.
1:18:52 But I just have real concern about the responsibility
1:18:55 that we as board members are taking on
1:18:57 to basically thumb our nose at these recommendations
1:19:03 for moving out of our current state into
1:19:08 lesser mitigation strategies going forward.
1:19:14 I will certainly listen to your feedback.
1:19:17 - Thank you, Madam Chair.
1:19:19 Very, very well done.
1:19:20 And thank you for putting this together.
1:19:22 I know that all of us have been spending countless hours
1:19:25 researching all of these things
1:19:27 and to have them in one spreadsheet is extremely helpful.
1:19:30 The metric I’ve been focusing on since the letter came out
1:19:35 was the Florida chapter of American Academy
1:19:38 of Pediatrics letter.
1:19:39 And I’m grateful to them because at least in Florida
1:19:43 they’re the first people that have come out
1:19:44 and given us an actual metric, I feel like.
1:19:47 And so I’ve been hyper focused on that
1:19:49 and I sent you all a spreadsheet this morning.
1:19:51 I don’t know if you’ve had time to open it.
1:19:53 I just quickly went into the Department of Health’s
1:19:57 statistics and pulled their rate of positivity
1:20:01 because as your chart says, three to 5%.
1:20:04 And then what I didn’t know on your chart here
1:20:07 that’s new to me is that Miami-Dade is saying
1:20:09 sustained positivity rate of less than 10%,
1:20:13 which trending towards 5% for 14 days,
1:20:16 they’re counting that as a win for Miami-Dade.
1:20:19 But that’s us, that is us.
1:20:22 - To give that some perspective, Ms. Duskovich,
1:20:25 the discussion was that that would be a win for them
1:20:28 because they were at 20% at the end of the discussion.
1:20:31 So, you know, they’re looking for that downward.
1:20:33 - As of last night, they were at 22.6%.
1:20:36 And I think that’s an important, that’s why I put,
1:20:40 so just for the public that’s watching,
1:20:43 the little spreadsheet I put together for the board
1:20:45 has Brevard, Indian River, Seminole, Orange, Volusia,
1:20:47 Osceola, ‘cause those are our surrounding counties.
1:20:49 And then I looked up Broward and Dade
1:20:52 because everyone keeps saying why are we different than them
1:20:56 and I think this little chart kind of shows.
1:20:59 As of last night, we had a 5.5 positivity rate,
1:21:03 Dade had the 22.6, Broward 17.6.
1:21:08 Even our surrounding counties,
1:21:09 if this is the metric we wanna use,
1:21:10 Indian River last night had 13.2.
1:21:13 We’re in, I know we have growing numbers,
1:21:17 but when I look at the positivity rate,
1:21:20 I have some comfort that Brevard is in better shape
1:21:22 than most, we’re the lowest of,
1:21:26 looks like every single day that I put on this chart,
1:21:29 we’re the lowest of all of our surrounding counties
1:21:32 every single time.
1:21:33 That being said, just five days ago, we were at 6.9.
1:21:37 So it’s fluctuating, but I don’t think I saw it go
1:21:41 above nine point something at any given time.
1:21:45 So which puts us, you know, nowhere near
1:21:48 what Broward and Dade are dealing with.
1:21:51 So that’s one metric.
1:21:52 Especially, so American Academy of Pediatrics,
1:21:55 A, they’re here in Florida, which I like,
1:21:59 and B, they’re talking about children,
1:22:02 which is what we deal with.
1:22:04 And so that metric is what I am interested in looking at.
1:22:09 Not that we discard all these other things
1:22:11 that are on this chart,
1:22:12 but I like that we want to focus in on something real
1:22:16 and have some real metrics to base this on.
1:22:19 Thank you.
1:22:20 - Thank you, Ms. Duskovich.
1:22:21 Ms. McDougall.
1:22:23 - Yes, you know, I don’t want to compare ourselves
1:22:26 to another district.
1:22:28 Our district is our district.
1:22:30 And I am not willing to put our children as guinea pigs
1:22:33 in our schools because we really don’t know
1:22:36 how this virus is gonna affect children.
1:22:39 Everybody says, oh, that’s a transit.
1:22:41 Well, I’m hearing now more from our European neighbors
1:22:45 that children do transmit it.
1:22:48 And I think we have to be very cognizant of,
1:22:55 this is an experiment.
1:22:56 We don’t know.
1:22:57 Kids haven’t been in school.
1:22:59 I’m not willing to risk them.
1:23:01 I am very concerned without any metrics.
1:23:04 And 5%, are we okay with five?
1:23:07 Really, I’m not.
1:23:11 I think it’s reckless.
1:23:16 - So Ms. McDougall, to speak to that point,
1:23:20 I would prefer zero.
1:23:21 absolutely but with all of the health professionals that I have
1:23:26 spoken to they
1:23:26 have indicated that you know the most important thing is that we’re
1:23:30 seeing a
1:23:30 decline over 14 days because of the the incubation period for
1:23:35 the virus when we
1:23:37 see a study 14-day decline then the likelihood that we will
1:23:41 continue to see
1:23:42 an additional 14-day decline is pretty good so I’m with you I
1:23:47 would love if we
1:23:48 were in a place where we could say we have zero but we’re not we’re
1:23:54 not at a
1:23:54 place where we well we’re not even going yes we’re going down
1:23:57 but 14 days we don’t
1:23:59 have 14 days worth a day of going downward right and and that’s
1:24:02 why I
1:24:02 would like to you know suggest that we apply some some metrics
1:24:07 to you know
1:24:08 revisiting so if if we are two weeks out from now and we are not
1:24:13 looking you know
1:24:14 we don’t have our two weeks of positivity rate if that’s what
1:24:16 the board
1:24:17 ops to look at then I think we have to to discuss where we go
1:24:21 from there so
1:24:26 so do you need amendment to your to the recommendations well I
1:24:31 wanted to give
1:24:32 miss Campbell mr. Susan an opportunity to speak if they wanted
1:24:36 to and then if
1:24:37 we decide to go that direction we would need an amended motion
1:24:41 yes so I as far
1:24:44 as the motion of as it stands I think that we can approve the
1:24:49 calendar
1:24:50 separate from the the metrics idea I think that metric needs to
1:24:54 be attached
1:24:55 to the reopening plan because the calendar will be the calendar
1:25:00 right if
1:25:00 we’re going to say the 24th I think I’m understanding you
1:25:03 correctly when that
1:25:04 it’s more of a are we going to start with everybody on e-learning
1:25:10 are we
1:25:10 going to start with the reopening plan as it says with brick-and-mortar
1:25:14 and am I
1:25:14 yes but still the 20 but the calendar would still remain so I
1:25:18 think the
1:25:19 calendar can be voted on without the other I think that the
1:25:23 amendment would
1:25:24 be to our our reopening plan I’m I’m fine with that whichever
1:25:30 way you guys
1:25:31 are comfortable with we can certainly break it out yeah no I
1:25:34 appreciate the
1:25:35 work that you’ve done here and appreciate you know the the input
1:25:37 and
1:25:37 of course we’ve gotten lots and lots of input from the community
1:25:41 one thing that
1:25:42 I think will be important as we look is is that we’re looking at
1:25:47 Brevard we’ve
1:25:48 heard a lot about you know Florida being the hotbed and but we
1:25:52 you know we are I
1:25:53 hear you miss McDougal boat but we aren’t Miami and we could Brevard
1:25:57 could
1:25:57 get in an excellent place and Miami Dade and Broward will still
1:26:01 have a long ways
1:26:02 to go and so I don’t you know we have to look at what you know
1:26:06 where we are
1:26:07 for Brevard as far as which metrics to pick I my only hesitation
1:26:14 is that is
1:26:15 that if we don’t have our Department of Health latest to kind of
1:26:19 help guide us
1:26:20 as to which one might be more important so we’re kind of still
1:26:23 as elected
1:26:23 officials trying to pick what’s the most important one I don’t
1:26:26 know if you would
1:26:27 have any guidance miss Morris - if they’ve if there’s any one
1:26:32 particular
1:26:32 one I know that our letter from miss doll said that she thought
1:26:35 the rate of
1:26:36 community I’m sorry you know which one did she say the positivity
1:26:40 rate is a
1:26:41 good metric to review yeah who was here at our first meeting
1:26:46 kind of listed off
1:26:47 three real quick and and the one that she comes back to me in
1:26:51 every
1:26:52 conversation about is our is our positivity rate okay and I just
1:26:56 took a
1:26:56 quick look I know you guys were looking and providing
1:26:59 information this morning
1:27:00 they divided up in the dashboard into two different countywide
1:27:04 and then
1:27:05 pediatric so as of this morning the overall positivity rate is a
1:27:09 7.8 and our
1:27:11 pediatric rate is a 7.3 I am patty did mention two other two
1:27:18 other metrics
1:27:18 involving just overall case numbers but every time I go back and
1:27:23 talk to them
1:27:24 they talk about the positivity rate yeah I just think we need to
1:27:29 miss Campbell
1:27:30 just real quick is that positivity rate pediatric statewide or
1:27:33 is that for
1:27:33 Brevard County that’s for that’s for Brevard County if if I may
1:27:39 share with
1:27:40 the board and it’s it’s referenced in on the on the spreadsheet
1:27:44 by some of the
1:27:45 metrics the other one that I have heard is critically important
1:27:48 to us here at
1:27:49 the local level also included in Miami Miami-dade and something
1:27:52 that they’re
1:27:52 working on and speaking with the CEO at health first one of the
1:27:57 things that he
1:27:57 mentioned was and it was health first insurance that we spoke
1:28:01 with one of the
1:28:02 things that he mentioned was that we are currently running about
1:28:05 14 days on test
1:28:05 results unless it’s someone who’s in the hospital that has rapid
1:28:09 test and so that
1:28:10 lag time in getting test results I feel is really problematic
1:28:14 for us as a
1:28:15 district and trying to keep students safe if we have someone who
1:28:20 goes out and
1:28:21 they don’t get their test results for 14 days they’re they’re
1:28:25 near the end of any
1:28:26 time that they would have have potentially been recommended to
1:28:29 quarantine and so I really feel like and and I think it was
1:28:33 mentioned by one of
1:28:35 our callers this morning we need to be going back into brick-and-mortar
1:28:40 school
1:28:41 with the best chance possible for reduction of interruption of
1:28:46 education
1:28:46 and our ability to get that information back quickly to be able
1:28:52 to make
1:28:52 decisions to react to sterilize our our schools to do all of
1:28:58 those things I
1:28:59 think is critically important and and that has also been agreed
1:29:03 to by several
1:29:04 of the health experts that I have spoken with and it is one of
1:29:08 the recommended
1:29:10 testing testing is one of the recommended measures from the CDC
1:29:17 and
1:29:17 you’ll see they they suggest in phase two that you should get
1:29:23 test results
1:29:24 back in within three days in order to appropriately respond so I’ll
1:29:28 just throw
1:29:28 that out there the department emergency I can get my initial try
1:29:35 the Department
1:29:36 of emergency emergency management for the state of Florida’s
1:29:38 actually canceled
1:29:39 a contract with one of the labs because of their their lag and
1:29:43 that they are
1:29:44 rewarding those contracts to labs that have been doing faster so
1:29:48 I’m hopefully
1:29:49 you know that time will be shortening up right quick
1:30:03 did you have additional questions miss Campbell or do you want
1:30:04 me to turn it
1:30:06 over to mr. Susan or no I don’t have any okay mr. Susan thank
1:30:12 you madam chair
1:30:12 I’m good for setting some kind of metrics I am I think it behooves
1:30:17 us for
1:30:18 our parents out there to understand because one of the major
1:30:21 issues that we
1:30:22 have right now is our parents are trying to plan right and not
1:30:26 knowing where
1:30:27 that’s going to go and set that is a difficult thing for them
1:30:30 what I would do
1:30:32 is is I would ask madam chair if these there’s so much more to
1:30:37 this than just
1:30:38 setting we’re gonna do 5% right the back end of how we
1:30:42 successfully do what we
1:30:44 would do if this was the case front-end metrics as far as how we’re
1:30:48 gonna set
1:30:49 that I’m open to the conversation I’ll dive deep into it come
1:30:53 back with ideas I
1:30:54 do I just I don’t think today I’m ready to say this is the hard
1:30:59 line this is
1:30:59 what it is but I am willing to open it up for discussion and I
1:31:02 had a quick
1:31:04 question because their 14-day comment kind of triggered
1:31:07 something right do they
1:31:09 if does anybody know miss Moore if I take a test today and it
1:31:13 comes back
1:31:14 positive in 14 days do they retroactive that back to the day
1:31:18 that I was tested
1:31:19 or do they count that on the day that it comes back I love I
1:31:27 love dr. Sullivan’s
1:31:29 answer ish so there every every case is is a little bit
1:31:33 different if you live
1:31:35 alone and you are symptomatic and you have a test result and it
1:31:40 comes back
1:31:41 positive what they’re gonna say is you have to be you have to
1:31:46 absolutely be out
1:31:47 ten days from the time you became symptomatic and three days
1:31:51 beyond the
1:31:52 end of all symptoms if you are asymptomatic and you have a test
1:31:58 result
1:31:58 and it comes back positive it will be challenging to know when
1:32:03 you’re when you
1:32:04 became ill and so they will take the date of your testing and
1:32:09 add 14 days to
1:32:10 it and say okay you are through your quarantine period if you
1:32:14 live with
1:32:15 somebody it becomes much more complicated after that so I
1:32:18 hesitate to
1:32:19 give you a definite answer but I hope that in general answers
1:32:22 your question yes ma’am I’m not miss
1:32:25 Moore thank you so much for that explanation I wasn’t so much
1:32:27 concerned
1:32:28 about what our leave was and everything else and staying home I
1:32:31 was more
1:32:31 concerned about the testing so I am the Department of Health I
1:32:35 receive a test
1:32:36 result that you know Matt Susan is tested positive for coded but
1:32:41 I received
1:32:41 that on July 21st when the test was given on July 7th do I retroactive
1:32:48 that
1:32:49 test to back then meaning that on this the test positivity is
1:32:54 changed or do I
1:32:55 say no no no that’s it because it just kind of throws the
1:32:59 metrics off if what
1:33:00 we’re looking at is tests from 14 days ago tests from today you
1:33:04 know what I
1:33:04 mean because right now we’re looking if there’s 14 days out we’re
1:33:07 probably
1:33:08 looking at a lot of people who tested positive from July 4th
1:33:12 weekend and so
1:33:13 like when I dive into something I really want to see all the
1:33:16 numbers so is there
1:33:17 can you speak to that or I know that might not be your not
1:33:19 Department of
1:33:20 Health right yeah here’s what I can speak to I’m texting Patty
1:33:23 Siebert as
1:33:24 you guys speak just so that you know right now the lag in
1:33:28 testing is five to
1:33:29 seven days I will tell you today and she says it changes daily
1:33:34 if you give me a
1:33:35 couple of minutes I can get an answer to that question so I don’t
1:33:38 have it this
1:33:39 second but I will get it for you the other question the other
1:33:42 thing I did
1:33:43 want to mention is the last time Patty was here she said that
1:33:46 she would
1:33:46 consider BPS employees first responders thank you we’ve had we
1:33:55 have had an
1:33:56 opportunity to test that commitment and she was able to get one
1:34:00 of our people in
1:34:01 within 12 hours of me calling her and she logged her in as a
1:34:06 first responder
1:34:07 and that made meant she get she got her test results back within
1:34:10 two days so
1:34:12 they did follow through and absolutely have worked with us on
1:34:15 that so if you
1:34:16 give me a second I’ll try to get you the answer to that question
1:34:19 and text her
1:34:19 that she did us a huge favor by doing that and thank her from me
1:34:23 because for
1:34:24 her to step up and do that for us the other day was a big I mean
1:34:27 that is a big
1:34:28 task and she did what was right for the community by doing that
1:34:32 so she gets big
1:34:33 I know when because as they’ve done that they’ve talked about
1:34:38 different days that
1:34:39 even back earlier in the summer that we’ve had here’s the test
1:34:42 here’s the
1:34:43 test and all of a sudden there was a big flare that sometimes
1:34:45 there’s what they
1:34:46 call data dumps right where you know there was Monday they from
1:34:50 a whole
1:34:51 weekend they drop them and that’s why they do a 14-day average
1:34:55 and that’s why
1:34:55 they do the averages and right right I mean that’s that gets
1:34:58 inside there I can
1:34:59 also tell you because I’ve been tracking the positivity rate
1:35:03 really closely the
1:35:04 last few days and I keep updating my spreadsheet that days prior
1:35:07 change it’s
1:35:08 super irritating because I’m like we were only five point three
1:35:12 yesterday and
1:35:12 I just looked and now we’re six point six just like so they’re
1:35:15 going back
1:35:16 probably they’re going back and fixing it on the new PDF which
1:35:20 makes it look
1:35:20 like you didn’t you know you didn’t have the right data if you
1:35:23 didn’t look at the
1:35:24 one that was actually printed that day right the other thing I
1:35:31 think just I
1:35:32 identified in research is you know we’ve been people have been
1:35:36 saying that kids
1:35:37 are not getting COVID or that if kids are getting COVID that it’s
1:35:41 not that
1:35:41 severe and I think it’s important to note that in Brevard County
1:35:46 specifically
1:35:47 statewide but also specifically in Brevard County children are
1:35:52 testing
1:35:52 positive at a higher rate than the rest of the residents and so
1:35:59 statewide last
1:36:00 week out of the children 0 to 12 0 to 17 tested 30 percent of
1:36:07 them were testing
1:36:08 positive for Brevard County it was I have it I’ll give it to you
1:36:18 for Brevard
1:36:19 County it was 9 percent last week and 7 percent this week on
1:36:24 children 0 to 12
1:36:26 testing positive which I think is you know contradictory to what
1:36:31 we have been
1:36:32 seeing with regard to children being I think it’s important
1:36:35 though in that
1:36:36 conversation to reflect on the email that the questions I asked
1:36:40 missed all
1:36:41 yesterday yes I sent you all the email that total total since
1:36:45 the beginning of
1:36:46 this children under the age of 18 we’ve had 221 cases we have
1:36:53 had one child
1:36:54 hospitalized who was three years old and they ended up doing
1:36:58 well so I just think
1:37:00 it’s that’s important to keep in perspective people that are
1:37:03 watching and
1:37:03 starting to panic about their kid you know I would like to here’s
1:37:06 a couple of
1:37:07 pieces that I wrestle with right now the CDC makes the
1:37:11 recommendation this is
1:37:13 crazy that if you’re going to have a child right now that if for
1:37:17 some reason
1:37:18 the mom tests positive or has positive antibodies in the system
1:37:22 that they
1:37:22 separate the baby from the mom for the 36 hours that’s there I
1:37:26 will tell you I
1:37:27 will lose my mind if that’s the case right for the people out
1:37:31 there that say
1:37:32 that this isn’t serious they’re wrong it is and we need to take
1:37:36 the precautions
1:37:36 we have the other side to that is is that I was knocking on
1:37:40 doors down in
1:37:40 South Melbourne yesterday and I talked to over 300 people and a
1:37:45 couple of them
1:37:46 were single moms and they were begging me to take the kids back
1:37:51 and they said
1:37:52 to me mr. Susan please you know bring the kids back I can’t
1:37:57 teach my kids half
1:37:58 my kids are staying with their uncles I’ve had to take on
1:38:01 different jobs I
1:38:02 lost my job because of it so there’s another side to this of
1:38:06 individuals that
1:38:07 we need to represent too but I am definitely about sitting down
1:38:11 and
1:38:11 figuring out metrics and working through it from a holistic
1:38:14 perspective to do
1:38:15 what’s right for our people because I think this is real but at
1:38:18 the same time
1:38:18 I think there’s more to just saying we’re closing we have to
1:38:22 figure out
1:38:22 everything and work on it so I’m there I’m I would agree mr.
1:38:26 Susan I know I
1:38:27 certainly don’t want to lose sight of you know the hardships and
1:38:30 and certainly
1:38:31 we know that our kids do need to be back in school for their
1:38:34 their mental health
1:38:35 and there’s their you know social interactions and that sort of
1:38:39 thing but
1:38:39 I also feel like there’s an opportunity for us to come together
1:38:43 as a community
1:38:44 I’ve had multiple churches who’ve reached out and said hey why
1:38:47 don’t you
1:38:47 let us set you know set something up for families in the event
1:38:51 you know that you
1:38:51 guys have to close down schools why don’t you let us set
1:38:54 something up where
1:38:55 we can bring a small number of students in socially distance
1:38:58 them our church
1:38:59 volunteers can help them with their studies during the day while
1:39:01 mom or
1:39:02 daughter aunt or uncle whoever is at work so I I think if we put
1:39:06 our heads
1:39:07 together we can probably come up with some pretty good solutions
1:39:10 and there’s
1:39:11 something to be said also for some of you may not have checked
1:39:13 into your local
1:39:14 daycares because they’ve been open since we closed and I checked
1:39:17 in with four of
1:39:19 mine locally and every one of them has temperature checks
1:39:23 upfront forms that
1:39:24 parents have to sign and they have not had any outbreaks in any
1:39:27 of the daycares
1:39:28 so there’s a lot of and and those I mean it’s a very interesting
1:39:33 process to check
1:39:34 into what they’re doing to mitigate the risks to be successful
1:39:38 the way they are
1:39:39 so there’s a lot to it just wanted to throw that out there you
1:39:42 might want to
1:39:42 check in with your daycares yeah I don’t want to correct you
1:39:45 because I think the
1:39:46 outbreaks have been minimal but in that email I forwarded to
1:39:48 yesterday you just
1:39:49 maybe have not gotten it to yet from miss stall she said we’ve
1:39:51 had one
1:39:52 outbreak in all of Brevard County in a daycare Center it was
1:39:56 isolated they’ve
1:39:57 had a few isolated cases and other daycare centers but no
1:40:00 outbreaks from
1:40:01 those isolated cases yeah I wasn’t talking about ours I was
1:40:04 talking about
1:40:05 oh I thought you said we’ve had no outbreaks and they don’t know
1:40:07 like my I
1:40:08 apologize not Brevard County daycares I checked in with some of
1:40:12 the daycares
1:40:13 that are independent in our area specifically separate from our
1:40:18 daycares
1:40:19 I apologize that’s okay I just want to make sure at people
1:40:21 watching thank you
1:40:22 for that thank you for that I did get an answer from the
1:40:26 Department of Health
1:40:27 about the lag the day the results come back is what the positivity
1:40:31 rate is from
1:40:32 so it’s not from the date of testing it’s the date of when the
1:40:35 results come
1:40:36 back and of course the results come back to the Department of
1:40:39 Health at different
1:40:40 times so if it’s a Department of Health test it comes directly
1:40:44 to them if it’s a
1:40:45 med fast test it might go to med fast and then to the Department
1:40:48 of Health so
1:40:49 that might be the little change up in the in the daily rate is
1:40:52 because they
1:40:53 may get a test result at med fast different from Department of
1:40:57 Health but
1:40:58 it is absolutely the the day that the positive the date that the
1:41:02 test results
1:41:04 come back the other thing is I think we need to be careful about
1:41:07 using the term
1:41:08 outbreak that’s a technical term as far as epidemiology is
1:41:11 concerned it does not
1:41:13 mean there haven’t been any positive cases in daycare centers
1:41:17 outbreak is a
1:41:18 very defined term as far as far as the Department of Health is
1:41:21 concerned and I
1:41:22 can give you that definition as soon as I get it back from them
1:41:25 thank you miss
1:41:26 more so I would recommend that we go ahead and vote on the
1:41:30 calendar as is
1:41:31 because I think any kind of metric yeah as I said before I think
1:41:34 it would be
1:41:34 attached more to the real of how we’re gonna open on August 24th
1:41:38 I don’t think
1:41:38 you’re recommending changing the start date but you know but so
1:41:43 I think we
1:41:43 should go ahead and go on the calendar as is it would be my
1:41:46 recommendation then
1:41:46 that we that we take a further look at adding the metrics to the
1:41:52 attaching that
1:41:53 to the reopening plan itself because that really what we’re
1:41:57 talking about is
1:41:58 if do we want to add something toward the decision-making
1:42:03 process for our
1:42:05 response team you know or all you guys the task force whoever is
1:42:12 you know it
1:42:12 was over making those decisions I think that needs to separate I’m
1:42:16 not I’m kind
1:42:16 of with mr. Susan I’m not sure that I’m really ready to do that
1:42:19 today as far as
1:42:20 picking a metric but I think we could vote on that safely but on
1:42:24 the calendar
1:42:24 and make that change so our people can start working towards a
1:42:27 towards a goal
1:42:28 yeah and if I could state I think we need to give our parents
1:42:31 something to
1:42:32 look at I just think that right now I need some time to look at
1:42:35 it real quick
1:42:36 and we’ve got a little bit of time before the start date one
1:42:38 quick question
1:42:39 that I had is this calendar starts we usually stagger our
1:42:43 kindergartens and we
1:42:44 we have some other dates is that built into this miss Klein like
1:42:47 our ESC some
1:42:48 of those is that a standard we’re doing it like we’ve always
1:42:51 done it’s just this
1:42:52 is the date we start and then those come back at the regular
1:42:55 times correct mr.
1:42:57 Susan we will stagger our kindergarten just like we currently do
1:43:04 okay miss
1:43:06 McDougal are you good you know we didn’t I agree we need to do
1:43:13 at least set a
1:43:13 calendar for our parents and the 24th is looking good but I also
1:43:18 really value
1:43:20 looking at a metric I think that’s very important okay so I will
1:43:26 go ahead and
1:43:26 ask miss Escobar to call the vote on the action item
1:43:30 recommending that we have
1:43:32 the alternative start date of August 24th and then we can we can
1:43:37 discuss
1:43:38 where we go on the other if that’s good miss Escobar
1:43:42 mrs. Belford aye miss McDougal aye mrs. deskevich aye mrs.
1:43:49 Campbell aye and mr.
1:43:51 Susan aye and the motion passes 5-0 with regard to discussion of
1:43:58 metrics would it
1:44:00 please the board to have a suspect look at our calendars for
1:44:03 next week and see
1:44:04 when we might be able to come together for some discussion
1:44:07 through miss
1:44:08 Escobar would you please see what you can do to coordinate our
1:44:10 craziness thank
1:44:12 you and then we had a request from miss McDougal to add miss McDougal
1:44:21 I know you
1:44:21 wanted to discuss masks and I feel like there was a second item
1:44:25 that you wanted
1:44:26 to discuss today I think the metrics will handle that okay it
1:44:31 was about
1:44:32 closing the whole are looking at a time to close so the metrics
1:44:35 will handle that
1:44:36 but I do want to revisit the mask issue okay I would like us to
1:44:41 reconsider and
1:44:43 look at if you want to use the word mandating requiring we need
1:44:50 to do this
1:44:51 all the data is showing that it protects people and it flows the
1:44:57 stress there is
1:44:59 even new data that I just read this morning that talks about if
1:45:03 you’re
1:45:04 wearing the masks there’s chances there’s a 93% chance that you
1:45:10 will
1:45:10 protect someone 93 to 98% that you’ll protect someone else but
1:45:14 also they’re
1:45:14 saying now that if you’re wearing a mask it’s the possibility
1:45:18 that you will have
1:45:19 left the beer if you can get it but I’m feeling that we’re not
1:45:24 we need to
1:45:25 protect our teachers our teachers are scared parents are afraid
1:45:29 I’m hearing
1:45:30 over and over we can’t go into public now without a mask why are
1:45:35 we so
1:45:35 different why do we feel that our students won’t be able to do
1:45:41 this when
1:45:41 students across Europe and Asia and Europe they’re all able to
1:45:47 do this this
1:45:49 is a very basic thing to protect each other and I’m concerned
1:45:53 that we’re not
1:45:54 willing to really mandate this or require it I’m concerned and I
1:46:00 know
1:46:01 people are gonna say oh what about discipline well I really am
1:46:03 more
1:46:04 concerned about somebody getting sick at this point I think we
1:46:07 can work I think
1:46:08 our principals and staff I’m hearing from teachers and other
1:46:13 people and
1:46:14 principals that we want a really firm guidelines we don’t want
1:46:18 to expect we
1:46:18 want it mandated we want it required it’s the one way we can
1:46:22 protect people
1:46:23 and I don’t understand why we’re not willing to do that thank
1:46:28 you miss
1:46:29 Mcdougall any board member wish to weigh in I wonder if we could
1:46:38 if if the board
1:46:39 is interested in changing our language if we could also put that
1:46:44 as a detailed
1:46:46 discussion on this meeting that we plan on doing next week about
1:46:49 metrics so that
1:46:49 we can we’ve got extra time now we just moved the date of school
1:46:56 so I just feel
1:46:57 like we could do some more research since - mr. Susan wanted to
1:47:00 do a lot of
1:47:00 research on the metrics maybe he wants to do more research on
1:47:05 masks and I’ll
1:47:06 get input directly from our community and our constituents you
1:47:10 know what would
1:47:11 be open for a public input at that time you know we’ve asked for
1:47:15 a lot of public
1:47:16 input but it’s been full scope if we’re really wanting to dig
1:47:19 down into this
1:47:20 topic and I think we need to hear from people on all sides of
1:47:25 the discussion
1:47:26 because those that don’t want the stronger language are those
1:47:32 some of
1:47:33 those that are in some pretty bad shape or are struggling with
1:47:39 diagnoses and
1:47:40 things and I think they need we need to hear their voice too
1:47:42 before we would
1:47:43 just make a blanket decision today so miss Estes I really I’m
1:47:48 not saying that
1:47:48 if you have a health concern that you’re expected to wear a mask
1:47:52 I think we make
1:47:52 there’s some I guess I disagree I think we talked about this
1:47:57 last time we talked
1:47:59 about it I don’t know what data we’re gonna find that’s any
1:48:02 different that
1:48:03 says that masks are not helpful I guess I’m just curious miss
1:48:09 McDougal I don’t
1:48:10 I’m not saying they’re not helpful I’ve been reading a lot of
1:48:13 medical journals
1:48:15 lately on them I just think that this is a very lengthy
1:48:18 discussion that needs to
1:48:19 be hand handled with many concerns and we’ve addressed a lot of
1:48:22 them when when
1:48:23 we settled on the language that we did have expected and dr.
1:48:26 Mullins his video
1:48:28 that if I think you put it out yesterday was very clear that it’s
1:48:31 very much
1:48:31 expected but I’ve said in my statements before there’s to me
1:48:34 there’s a different
1:48:35 expectation from a four-year-old and a 17 year old I visited one
1:48:39 of our gears
1:48:40 programs this past week and I watched just observed some of our
1:48:45 littlest
1:48:46 learners with their masks and boy are they trying like they they’ve
1:48:51 got it
1:48:52 down their desks are six feet apart because their class sizes
1:48:54 are very small
1:48:55 I watched them sit at their desk without their mask and the
1:48:59 minute they stood up
1:49:00 a couple of them already had you know put their mask on to walk
1:49:02 around the
1:49:03 room one little boy you know kind of forgot and the teacher
1:49:06 gently reminded
1:49:07 him it was it was a fine environment in that way but then I
1:49:12 watched him with his
1:49:13 mask try to walk around and you know it’s covering up over his
1:49:16 eyes and he’s
1:49:17 trying real hard and he’s pulling it down and touching it and
1:49:20 then I it fell
1:49:21 off at one point and he got it off the ground he put it back on
1:49:24 and he was
1:49:25 trying I mean he was trying really hard miss McDougal and so
1:49:28 when you say our
1:49:29 children can’t I know that that’s not true they can but I just
1:49:33 think there’s a
1:49:34 lot that needs to go it there’s a difference between a four-year-old
1:49:37 and
1:49:37 an 18 year old there’s a difference between our children that
1:49:39 are on the
1:49:40 spectrum there’s a difference between our children that may have
1:49:44 trauma from
1:49:45 other things that we don’t know about maybe they don’t have a
1:49:46 medical
1:49:47 diagnosis and we have to we have to discuss as a board where is
1:49:50 that
1:49:50 allowance are we going to make them have a medical note to not
1:49:53 have to wear one
1:49:53 if we’re going to go to the word mandate from the word expected
1:49:57 if they don’t
1:49:58 have to have a medical note as a parent now I just think this is
1:50:00 a really
1:50:00 lengthy discussion and maybe we need another week to when we
1:50:03 have our meeting
1:50:04 on the the metrics that we can add this discussion to that mr.
1:50:12 Susan I think you
1:50:13 wanted to speak yeah just miss McDougal I I applaud your efforts
1:50:18 and in trying
1:50:19 to make the mandate the masks where some of the issues that I
1:50:24 have to try to
1:50:25 grapple with are how do we deal with the ESC have you put any
1:50:29 consideration into
1:50:30 that like how how do we mandate a mask to those students or do
1:50:35 we would you be
1:50:36 willing to work on a waiver for those students and I would never
1:50:42 as I was
1:50:43 saying before what I’m hearing from people that pediatricians
1:50:50 offices expect
1:50:52 masks when you walk in they take your temperature you have a
1:50:55 mask on would we
1:50:56 make a waiver for certain students we know it’s going to be
1:50:59 certainly some of
1:51:00 our ear see it’s going to be very difficult and I’m not saying
1:51:04 it so I
1:51:04 think we have to be flexible flexible I just saw everybody but
1:51:12 there are just so
1:51:13 many so much data out there they say math is what can work are
1:51:19 we going to
1:51:20 penalize some some students ESC students because they can’t I
1:51:25 mean I think we’re
1:51:26 rational people here I think we really are so I’m concerned that
1:51:34 we’re getting
1:51:35 bogged down on something that we know would be very helpful and
1:51:39 protect our
1:51:40 staff and our no I I agree with you miss McDougal I do I just
1:51:44 when we look at
1:51:45 making the decision a lot of these things come into my mind you
1:51:49 know I’ve
1:51:50 had conversations with assistant principals and principals about
1:51:54 what do
1:51:55 we do with the kid that’s in the class that says no I’m not
1:51:57 going to do it and
1:51:58 he just pulls it off and he just messes with it and and he just
1:52:00 says no I’m not
1:52:01 going to do that that is that is my right okay so then we’ve got
1:52:04 discipline
1:52:05 issues right I I’m not saying because my four-year-old in the
1:52:09 beginning told me
1:52:10 I’m not wearing that thing you can blah blah blah now he puts it
1:52:13 on and he goes
1:52:14 into school he goes into the markets he goes into everywhere he’s
1:52:16 ready to go he
1:52:18 won’t go anywhere without it now right so so it’s possible I
1:52:21 watched a
1:52:22 graduation where everybody had one on and you know what I mean
1:52:26 at the time of
1:52:27 our control we were able to keep them socially distanced and
1:52:30 stuff like that
1:52:31 so I think it’s possible I just need to work through some of
1:52:34 these other issues
1:52:34 and how that works so if we were to say that we wanted to
1:52:38 mandate masks how does
1:52:40 that work on the back end rather than just making a blanketed
1:52:43 off you know
1:52:44 motion I would entertain having dr. Mullins go back with staff
1:52:48 and say if we
1:52:49 did mandate it here’s some of the issues here’s what we would
1:52:51 need to do it that’s
1:52:52 all I I don’t feel comfortable making a motion to mandate masks
1:52:57 I would rather
1:52:58 work through some of these things just like miss deskevich said
1:53:00 and then come
1:53:01 back and try to work on them because I think there’s more here
1:53:04 than just
1:53:04 mandating the masks this is my theory and I have a whole list of
1:53:08 them besides
1:53:09 ESC besides discipline issues I mean my list goes on that I
1:53:12 would just like to
1:53:13 work through that’s all because we have until the 24th more was
1:53:21 it you that had
1:53:22 did you have the work group that was working on mask
1:53:26 implementation it’s not
1:53:28 specifically mask implementation it is about all of the impacts
1:53:32 of our return
1:53:33 to school plan on students with disabilities specifically
1:53:38 students with
1:53:39 disabilities who may be in a self-contained setting and maybe
1:53:41 medically fragile so that team has been working the past four
1:53:46 days on all of the
1:53:47 impacts on them and how to work with the staff members and and
1:53:52 to meet the needs
1:53:53 of those students and meet the needs of our return to school
1:53:56 plan okay thank you
1:53:58 I did get an answer by the way on on outbreak versus versus case
1:54:04 because this
1:54:05 we’re learning more about this illness as it goes it used to be
1:54:09 three in a
1:54:10 particular classroom they have moved it down to two in a
1:54:13 classroom so if there
1:54:14 are two students who both test positive in the same classroom
1:54:18 they consider that
1:54:18 an outbreak within a certain amount of time right I mean you’re
1:54:23 not at at the
1:54:23 same time right okay yeah and I’ll verify that just to make sure
1:54:28 I’m not
1:54:28 giving you incorrect information but right now it’s two positive
1:54:33 cases in one
1:54:34 classroom and I’m assuming that would be whether student and a
1:54:37 teacher or two
1:54:38 students or teacher and an IA or just two bodies that test in
1:54:42 the same
1:54:42 classroom correct and of course our plan right now we’re looking
1:54:47 at if we have a
1:54:48 case what we how we handle that given that there’s no vaccine
1:54:52 for this yet and
1:54:54 we do have past presidents precedents for how we handle that
1:54:57 thank you miss
1:54:58 more miss Campbell I think you’re wanting to speak yeah so I
1:55:01 think we have
1:55:02 two I just want to speak to two things I think we’re kind of
1:55:06 doing two things
1:55:07 parallel one is the mass conversation and two is when we’re
1:55:10 going to have the
1:55:11 mass conversation and honestly I am not really feeling good
1:55:16 about delaying the
1:55:18 conversation one I think that we’ve heard we’ve heard from both
1:55:23 sides and I
1:55:24 think that many of our parents are waiting to make their
1:55:29 decision based on
1:55:30 this mask language and we you know that we set on Tuesday some
1:55:36 of them some of
1:55:37 them still wanting us to do it some of not so it’s for the ones
1:55:40 who have said
1:55:40 to me and there are some that have said you know if master
1:55:45 mandatory I’m gonna
1:55:47 pull my kids to do virtual because you know for whatever reason
1:55:51 for my child
1:55:52 that’s just not going to work there are that there are those
1:55:54 just as well as
1:55:54 there are those who say I’m afraid to send my child back and so
1:55:57 I’m not gonna
1:55:58 be sending I’m gonna be doing virtual and so for us to delay
1:56:03 that decision
1:56:04 then we are you know we’ve talked about parents need to make a
1:56:08 decision and some
1:56:10 of them they’re waiting and they want all the details they some
1:56:12 of them even
1:56:12 have asked what kind of cleaners we’re going to use miss and
1:56:15 before they make
1:56:16 their decision and for the answer that question is it’s the same
1:56:19 cleaner we’ve
1:56:20 always used because I’ve already asked that question but you
1:56:23 know I just don’t
1:56:25 think it’s good to push it off I will tell you how I you know my
1:56:29 how I feel
1:56:29 about masks it’s the same that I have felt about masks I by the
1:56:32 way I I agree
1:56:34 miss desk which the video that dr. Mullins put out yesterday was
1:56:38 very good
1:56:38 and was a very clear he didn’t say we hope you’ll have him at he
1:56:43 said your
1:56:43 child needs to bring a mask to school to ride the bus and if
1:56:47 they don’t have one
1:56:47 we’re gonna have some to offer them and when will be expected to
1:56:51 wear them when
1:56:52 social distancing is is not cannot be met and I think that is an
1:56:58 excellent
1:56:58 standard and I understand and I hear the concerns and I am NOT
1:57:02 anti-mask my kids
1:57:03 wear them and we go in store but we’re talking when people want
1:57:06 to compare it
1:57:07 to you go in a store and you have to wear it you go in the
1:57:09 doctor’s offices
1:57:10 you have to wear it you’re talking about a limited number of
1:57:12 time and I’ll tell
1:57:13 you or me personally but I’m an adult and for my children they
1:57:17 know that when
1:57:18 we come out of the store we can take it off and we can breathe
1:57:22 unfiltered you
1:57:23 know and there there and thank you mr. Susan for bringing up the
1:57:28 undocumented
1:57:29 cases because they’re going to be some students who don’t have
1:57:32 any kind of an
1:57:32 IEP or a medical note but we don’t even know what it might be
1:57:36 like internally
1:57:37 for them to have to do that all day and yes I think our kids are
1:57:40 amazing and I
1:57:41 think so many of them I I too went into our schools yesterday a
1:57:44 couple of our
1:57:44 schools to see our summer programs and I saw little pre-k class
1:57:48 and they all five
1:57:49 had them on and you could tell they brought them from home
1:57:51 because they were
1:57:52 all you know fabric and cute and everything and then I saw some
1:57:55 you know
1:57:55 teachers had them on but then I saw some teachers that didn’t
1:57:57 have one
1:57:57 instructing socially distance in front of their class and I saw
1:58:00 some students
1:58:01 who didn’t have them on if we make it mandatory we cannot buy
1:58:05 the by definition
1:58:06 of the word we can’t make it mandatory without having some kind
1:58:09 of consequence
1:58:10 if they don’t do it we can’t make it mandatory and if we don’t
1:58:13 want to have
1:58:14 we want to have all these exceptions I don’t think you can make
1:58:16 it mandatory
1:58:16 without having this exception and that exception and this
1:58:19 exception and that
1:58:19 exception and you know if we have a teacher who just needs a
1:58:23 moment to
1:58:24 explain something or needs to be able to understand a student
1:58:27 and the student
1:58:28 pulls their mask down because they can’t be heard and they take
1:58:30 it down then all
1:58:31 of a sudden you’ve created a situation where they’re breaking
1:58:34 the rule you just
1:58:36 you just you just are and if the student is passing from one
1:58:40 class to another
1:58:41 class and they pull it down you know then they’re breaking a
1:58:45 rule and I don’t
1:58:46 want it we’re gonna create an environment and I I absolutely
1:58:49 understand
1:58:50 that many people disagree with me you know and some will agree
1:58:53 and some people
1:58:53 don’t won’t think that I’m saying it strongly enough but I feel
1:58:56 like we’re
1:58:57 we’re creating an environment where we’re either going to have
1:59:00 to make a
1:59:00 bajillion exceptions or we’re gonna have to create an
1:59:04 environment where we’re
1:59:04 we’re having rule breakers all over the place I think the way
1:59:08 that we have it
1:59:08 that it’s expected when it can’t be socially distanced leaves it
1:59:13 open so if
1:59:13 you’re out on a field playing a game you can take your mask off
1:59:17 and that is okay
1:59:18 you know if you’re in a class where you’re separated out and you
1:59:24 need to
1:59:24 take your mask off it’s okay and I that is why I still feel and
1:59:29 I really I mean
1:59:31 if the majority of the board wants to delay this conversation
1:59:33 that’s fine but
1:59:34 I just want us to remember that there are many parents who are
1:59:36 trying to make
1:59:37 their decision based on what the decisions that we’re making and
1:59:39 and this
1:59:40 is a big one and some of them if we leave it we’re kind of waffling
1:59:44 we’re
1:59:44 also getting close to that you know July 31st deadline and this
1:59:47 week deadline
1:59:48 that the elementary leading learning has asked us you know our
1:59:52 parents to tell us
1:59:53 if you’re doing e-learning or on campus we’re just pushing it
1:59:56 back and making it
1:59:57 hard for some people to make their decision
2:00:02 miss McDougall so just so you know I wore a mask in the last
2:00:08 meeting when I
2:00:10 was there the whole time and the only time I took it off was
2:00:14 when I had some
2:00:14 water and when I ate and I appreciate when you all were near me
2:00:19 that you were
2:00:19 a mask but just so you know this is an airborne virus but when
2:00:25 all you all were
2:00:26 talking that was just floating around and I’m really glad that
2:00:30 none of you
2:00:31 were sick but that’s the that is what we’re putting our teachers
2:00:36 in and
2:00:38 they’re in a smaller room that I was in I just want you to think
2:00:42 about that I am
2:00:44 very concerned and you’re right miss Campbell some people are
2:00:51 kind of
2:00:52 difficult I get it and then we do have to make
2:00:58 a discussion like the fully from exception nothing is ever
2:01:02 totally black
2:01:03 or totally white there are shades of gray that’s all I’m gonna
2:01:08 say I suppose
2:01:09 we owe it to our teachers and to our parents Thank You miss McDougall
2:01:15 I will
2:01:18 obviously I’ll follow the majority of the board but I will tell
2:01:23 you that in my
2:01:24 conversations with all of our local medical professionals they
2:01:29 have said
2:01:29 that the mandating of masks with the strongest language that you
2:01:34 can possibly
2:01:34 provide is one of the most critical factors to keeping our
2:01:39 numbers down and
2:01:40 I do think that’s important I think that we need to have
2:01:44 exceptions for
2:01:45 individuals many of the other districts that have mandated masks
2:01:49 have done so
2:01:49 with exceptions and tying basically tying it to the dress code
2:01:53 so you know
2:01:54 if we have a child that comes in and my daughter’s wearing her
2:01:57 straps are not
2:01:58 wide enough for at school she calls me and I bring her clothes
2:02:03 or if I can’t
2:02:05 get there they have t-shirts that they will give her to
2:02:07 accommodate so that she
2:02:08 is dressed appropriately at school and I think we could easily
2:02:12 do the same thing
2:02:13 with masks I’m in no way shape or form suggesting that we are
2:02:17 suspending kids
2:02:18 from school over masks but I do think that I do think that we
2:02:24 need to do
2:02:24 whatever we can to ensure like miss McDougal I am I’m very
2:02:30 concerned for our
2:02:31 teachers the the indoor air is it’s it’s scary quite frankly
2:02:41 that we’re and if we
2:02:43 cannot de-densify our classrooms that just makes it I think in
2:02:47 my opinion even
2:02:48 more important that we are are mandating those masks so mr.
2:02:53 Susan miss duska bitch
2:02:54 do you want to put this on for conversation next week do you
2:03:00 want to
2:03:02 discuss and weigh in today what’s your your preference miss
2:03:05 Campbell would like
2:03:06 to not put it off until next week I think she makes a great
2:03:09 point I think
2:03:10 that teachers parents everybody else are waiting to make this
2:03:13 decision they’re
2:03:13 sitting back saying hey what am I going to do right we’re
2:03:17 demanding that by
2:03:18 Friday we tell all of our parents that you have to make a
2:03:22 decision on what
2:03:22 you’re gonna do with one way or the other and we’re not even
2:03:25 sure if we can
2:03:26 make the decision on masks I’m okay with moving towards a
2:03:29 mandate on masks I just
2:03:31 want to know what’s the back end because if I’m gonna put my if
2:03:34 I’m gonna put my
2:03:35 name on something I want to make sure that the back end is okay
2:03:38 I’m gonna make
2:03:38 sure that there’s options I want to make you know what I mean
2:03:41 there’s a there’s a
2:03:41 slew of issues that I have right now with this and I and I need
2:03:45 to make sure
2:03:46 that those issues are addressed before but if you’re looking you’re
2:03:49 a hundred
2:03:49 percent right we’re caught in a conundrum of if we do it then
2:03:53 what do we
2:03:53 do on the back end to make sure that it’s done with fidelity
2:03:56 right we have
2:03:58 discipline issues like there’s another district where they said
2:04:01 that if a
2:04:01 student decides not to wear it that they’re given an opportunity
2:04:04 and then
2:04:05 they’re pushed at you learning are we willing to do that right
2:04:08 do you want to
2:04:09 have it part of the dress code do you want to make it a
2:04:11 disciplinary issue do
2:04:11 you want to make it there’s an infinite number of things but
2:04:14 making there’s one
2:04:15 thing that is for sure there is a percentage of teachers that
2:04:17 will not
2:04:18 come back because we don’t mandate masks there is a percentage
2:04:21 of parents out
2:04:22 there that will keep their kids back because we don’t mandate
2:04:24 masks and both
2:04:25 of those are a tough situation when we’re looking at what the
2:04:28 amount of
2:04:29 teachers that we have and the amount of revenue that we need to
2:04:31 keep the kids
2:04:31 inside for the for our budget so I’m okay with moving forward
2:04:36 with with
2:04:36 mandating the masks as an idea but I want to workshop it to make
2:04:40 sure that
2:04:40 the back end before the final product comes out that’s just me
2:04:43 like I just I
2:04:44 can’t I can’t say yeah let’s just mandated and then not have an
2:04:46 answer to
2:04:47 all the things that I have here that’s all so I’m hearing that
2:04:50 your preference
2:04:51 is that we revisit the discussion next week is that correct yeah
2:04:57 okay miss
2:04:58 deskevich
2:05:05 I think there’s if the word goes I’m a little confused because
2:05:14 it’s six half
2:05:16 dozen six another whatever the saying is the word now that we’re
2:05:22 using expected
2:05:23 in every way that I have seen and heard so far has been expected
2:05:28 I visited the
2:05:29 schools and it looks expected I’ve heard dr. Mullins video to
2:05:33 the parents and it
2:05:34 is expected and then that gives the flexibility as needed
2:05:40 without providing
2:05:41 doctor’s notes there’s just so many questions if it’s mandated
2:05:48 for me again
2:05:49 will you need a doctor’s note to not have to wear one do we send
2:05:52 them home do
2:05:53 we discipline them what what are there’s so much out there that
2:05:56 I think we as the
2:05:57 board have to hand our have our hand in those decisions it needs
2:06:02 to be discussed
2:06:03 at length if we really are going to try to go from the word we
2:06:07 have now to a
2:06:08 mandate literally means a mandate like that that means everyone
2:06:13 that means it
2:06:14 is mandated so then we have to have the list of people not mr.
2:06:19 Susan I have a
2:06:20 question for you your little guy is he in daycare still or only
2:06:24 during the
2:06:24 school year no right now it’s the summertime and he’s not in
2:06:27 okay I was
2:06:27 just wondering if they were wearing masks because he’s for right
2:06:30 and we have
2:06:31 BPK I was wondering if they were wearing masks absolutely so in
2:06:35 the daycare
2:06:37 centers that are not part of the BPS that I visited all of them
2:06:41 have masks
2:06:42 all of them there’s none of them have anything where there’s it’s
2:06:46 not mandated
2:06:47 there’s certain kids when I walked up there every kid had it
2:06:50 they were
2:06:50 temperature checking the kids at the front door so I am and you
2:06:55 know that
2:06:55 plays into it I I personally just think that there’s a lot to it
2:06:59 and we need a
2:07:00 whole plant but miss Campbell’s right you know we have to make a
2:07:04 decision so
2:07:05 yeah and if we again if we if we workshop this to ask all these
2:07:11 detailed
2:07:12 questions that I think we need to know to make a measure that
2:07:15 extreme it needs
2:07:16 to be open to the public so they can speak and I you know I had
2:07:21 an employee
2:07:21 reach out to me recently that has experienced domestic violence
2:07:26 and real
2:07:27 trauma in the recent past and a mask to her is she’s an employee
2:07:32 of ours she she
2:07:34 will not be able to put on a mask while while working so this
2:07:39 isn’t just little
2:07:40 list learners we also have employees that that will have to make
2:07:44 exceptions
2:07:45 for and are we gonna make her have to share that story with her
2:07:48 principal or
2:07:49 with HR like what we it’s a lot of complications with 70,000
2:07:54 children and
2:07:54 9,000 employees and if we are gonna have something that strong
2:07:58 of language we
2:07:59 need the opportunity to really look at all the ramifications can
2:08:03 we can I ask
2:08:04 dr. Mullins to weigh in on it since he’s the one that brought
2:08:07 the recommendation
2:08:08 to us I would suggest that dr. Mullins made the recommendation
2:08:12 of expected so
2:08:13 he probably is is comfortable with that recommendation but go
2:08:17 ahead mr. Susan
2:08:18 mr. dr. Mullins can you kind of a leave elaborate on the
2:08:21 decision that you made
2:08:23 and why well I guess I would remind the board that we we
2:08:30 originally brought the
2:08:32 recommendation of language that said strongly recommended and
2:08:35 after board
2:08:36 discussion and community input from the workshop to the board
2:08:41 presentation the
2:08:42 language changed based on the feedback that we received which I
2:08:46 think reflects
2:08:47 the board’s discussion at the workshop and as well as some of
2:08:50 the feedback we
2:08:51 received I again I heard loud and clear from the board on at the
2:08:57 at the board
2:08:58 meeting that we needed to clearly set the tone and the
2:09:02 expectation of what
2:09:03 expectation means and I’m pleased to hear that was unsolicited
2:09:07 feedback from
2:09:08 Miss McDougal and Miss Tescovitch that the message that I
2:09:12 provided to parents
2:09:13 last night set the bar at essentially it is expected and that’s
2:09:19 a non-negotiable
2:09:20 the expectation is every student bring a mask to school and it’s
2:09:24 an environment
2:09:25 where they are taken on and off as appropriate when social distancing
2:09:30 cannot be adhered to so if the will of the board is to take that
2:09:35 you know I’ll
2:09:36 take the feedback of the board and the direction from the board
2:09:38 if that is to
2:09:40 take it to a next level then we’ll certainly respond maybe we
2:09:43 can ask a
2:09:43 couple of questions to what his recommendation is because I
2:09:46 think that
2:09:46 they’re both in the same so can I follow a quick question so dr.
2:09:49 Mullins I’m
2:09:50 a teacher and I’m inside of a classroom where socially distanced
2:09:54 it cannot be
2:09:55 performed by six feet it is expected that every kid inside of
2:09:59 there wears a
2:09:59 mask along with that teacher correct correct and then in the
2:10:03 event that a
2:10:04 student decides to come in there and says I’m not wearing it I
2:10:07 don’t care no
2:10:08 whatever what do we do there what is that piece if the teacher
2:10:13 would counsel
2:10:14 with a student first and then if that doesn’t become successful
2:10:18 then the
2:10:19 administration would intervene and get to a place they
2:10:22 understand what what the
2:10:23 concern or issue or situation is for the student and or the
2:10:28 classroom and then
2:10:30 anywhere so school buses anywhere in cafeteria anywhere anywhere
2:10:35 there’s an
2:10:36 area where the kids cannot be six feet apart it is expected that
2:10:40 they have a
2:10:41 mask and the staff is expected to have a mask correct it’s like
2:10:49 the same thing as
2:10:50 a mandate so just trying to gauge where we are with are we do
2:11:00 you desire more
2:11:01 time to look into it mr. Susan and revisit the issue next week
2:11:04 do you want
2:11:07 to address the issue today do you I’d rather I’d rather wait
2:11:11 until next week
2:11:12 I would miss duskovich decision today or have a discussion next
2:11:18 week if we’re
2:11:21 considering changing it then we I think we need to delay if we’re
2:11:27 not considered
2:11:28 changing it then we don’t need to have a big old discussion okay
2:11:33 so let me see if
2:11:35 I can whittle this down miss Campbell’s it indicated that she
2:11:38 has no desire to
2:11:39 change it mr. Susan she wants it to be voted today miss McDougall
2:11:44 wants it to
2:11:45 be voted today do you want it to be voted today that’s what I
2:11:49 think is the
2:11:49 first step if I could just interject I think you can come to a
2:11:55 point where the
2:11:57 you can break it down to two questions is the board majority
2:12:01 interested in
2:12:02 moving to a mandate if so you can say let’s vote on mandating
2:12:07 masks today so
2:12:08 everybody knows one way or the other if that’s the move
2:12:12 scheduled discussion
2:12:14 next week about how it looks then staff can prepare or you guys
2:12:20 can
2:12:20 prepare however you guys want to roll that out for that
2:12:23 discussion in
2:12:25 answering those questions and then you achieve both if the
2:12:29 interest is to go to
2:12:29 mandated but then you’re also good at you’re getting the
2:12:34 guidance that miss
2:12:35 Campbell wants the public to have and they can start making
2:12:37 their decisions
2:12:38 for elementary leading and learning and secondary leading and
2:12:42 learning to make
2:12:43 appropriate staffing moves to set up e-learning and prepare for
2:12:50 school
2:12:50 opening but at the same time you’re leaving it open to answer
2:12:54 all the
2:12:54 questions you can always go back and then parents can say well I’m
2:12:59 moving my
2:12:59 kids from in class to e-learning or virtual later on but I would
2:13:07 I would
2:13:09 suggest that I don’t I don’t know if some of you can say if you
2:13:17 were
2:13:17 interested in exploring going to a mandate are you mr. Susan you
2:13:22 still are
2:13:22 committed to having discussion like I mean I am in favor of
2:13:25 moving towards a
2:13:26 mandate only if I know that the kids inside those classrooms are
2:13:30 not gonna
2:13:30 wear their masks that’s what it comes down to for me if we come
2:13:33 back to school
2:13:34 and a mandate would have meant that those kids are wearing their
2:13:36 masks
2:13:37 inside that classroom and protecting our teachers and our staff
2:13:39 and our students
2:13:40 then I’m okay with what we have now but if it’s the fact that
2:13:44 those kids aren’t
2:13:46 doing what we need them to do and wear the masks then I if we
2:13:50 need to put a
2:13:50 mandate down we do it that’s that’s where I’m at like if you
2:13:53 tell me that
2:13:54 right now the kids are gonna come back they’re not gonna sit
2:13:56 there and pull
2:13:56 their masks off and and you know cause a problem and what we
2:14:01 have is gonna work
2:14:02 and teachers are gonna come back and students are gonna come
2:14:05 back I’m good
2:14:06 but if it takes them hearing that we’re mandating masks in order
2:14:09 to come back
2:14:10 and for the health and wellness of our people and everything
2:14:12 else I’m okay to
2:14:13 do that I am that’s what it is for me this desk
2:14:18 events move toward mandate or explore moving toward mandate or
2:14:22 you want to
2:14:23 stay where we are I think with what I’ve just heard I think we
2:14:26 need to workshop
2:14:27 it okay then we will move to discussion on a potential mask
2:14:38 mandate next I think
2:14:41 miss Escobar sent us an invite for the 30th in the morning prior
2:14:44 to our other
2:14:44 we have a work session that morning and then a workshop and then
2:14:47 our board
2:14:48 meeting that evening everyone good so just for the people who
2:14:53 are watching
2:14:53 because we you know it looks like three board members are at
2:14:58 least are saying
2:15:00 they’re looking at a mandate so what we’re gonna be talking
2:15:03 about is what
2:15:04 that mandate looks like or I think they’re I I think miss duskovich
2:15:11 and mr.
2:15:12 Susan indicated that they are interested in exploring a mandate
2:15:16 but they may
2:15:17 decide that they don’t want to go to a mandate after we have
2:15:20 that discussion I
2:15:21 mean I want to hear back from staff because they have extreme
2:15:24 concerns
2:15:24 because dr. Mullins has brought forward a recommendation that’s
2:15:27 not a mandate
2:15:27 and they’re the ones that got to operate this entire operation
2:15:30 so I know that
2:15:31 everybody out there wants to mandate a mask and don’t get me
2:15:34 wrong like I know
2:15:35 it’s what’s best for our people and it’s gonna keep teachers to
2:15:37 come back but
2:15:38 when our own staff is coming to us and saying no we don’t want
2:15:40 to mandate it
2:15:41 what we have is good enough I want to hear that the why right
2:15:45 and and I didn’t
2:15:47 know that we were going to be having this deep in deep
2:15:50 conversation today so
2:15:51 I that’s the reason that I am where I am I want to talk to the
2:15:54 staff I want to
2:15:55 talk to my communities I want to go into my daycares that have
2:15:59 been running since
2:16:00 kovat broke out what are they doing I want to do all that stuff
2:16:03 and then come
2:16:03 back with a strong recommendation I just I I want our people to
2:16:07 be able to wear
2:16:08 their masks but at the same time I want to see what’s out there
2:16:10 and the reasons
2:16:10 behind it that’s all we have three hours of input from our
2:16:21 community and I heard
2:16:23 75 to 80 percent of the people said why are we not mandated a
2:16:28 mask did anybody
2:16:29 get 500 emails in their inbox about some teachers of community
2:16:35 about why are we
2:16:36 not mandating that along with why are we opening school I just
2:16:42 think I’m curious
2:16:45 on what do you what information do you think we’re going to get
2:16:47 that’s going to
2:16:48 be any different than what we have now and either you feel it’s
2:16:52 important
2:16:53 enough to protect our staff and our children or you don’t again
2:16:56 they’re in
2:16:57 a much smaller space then what we are in in the board I
2:17:04 understand what you’re
2:17:05 saying this McDougal but I would say that the majority of public
2:17:08 comment on
2:17:09 any issue that we vote on is the people who feel the opposite of
2:17:12 what is being
2:17:12 recommended and voting on voted on at the time and I’m not
2:17:15 saying that we
2:17:16 would have had 500 emails in either side but there are many
2:17:19 people who wouldn’t
2:17:20 necessarily have spoken up for public comment or sentence an
2:17:23 email because
2:17:24 they were fine with the plan as is I I don’t know that we’re
2:17:29 gonna get 500 the
2:17:31 other way in between now and next Thursday but we will we were
2:17:35 likely to
2:17:35 hear more from the people who feel the other way when we’re you
2:17:39 know having
2:17:41 that conversation and to that point not one of those people that
2:17:45 were speaking
2:17:45 were the people that are in charge of monitoring and putting it
2:17:49 into a plan
2:17:50 and operating it and that’s the people that I want to go back to
2:17:53 and talk to
2:17:53 that’s that’s the purpose behind that I mean I understand the
2:17:56 public comment
2:17:57 look every one of the people on my COVID team that I put
2:17:59 together to transition
2:18:01 or calling for mask mandates and I applaud them but I want to
2:18:04 hear the why
2:18:04 on the back end and I didn’t know we were gonna have this
2:18:07 discussion today
2:18:07 and I would like to do that that’s all I think that’s the key
2:18:10 point to this
2:18:11 discussion is none of us this was not on the agenda this wasn’t
2:18:14 even put on
2:18:15 discussion points we had no idea we were going to have this
2:18:18 discussion today the
2:18:19 public has no idea we’re gonna have this discussion today we
2:18:22 approved a plan last
2:18:23 week with the word as it was and the public assumed that that
2:18:28 was why would
2:18:29 someone email and assume that we’re gonna change our minds a
2:18:31 week later if
2:18:32 that’s what we approved so I think if this is something that we
2:18:36 are
2:18:36 considering changing it has to be in an open transparent way and
2:18:40 you have to
2:18:40 have time for people to know that I mean unless they logged into
2:18:44 this meeting
2:18:45 they would have no idea that we are considering changing our
2:18:48 minds and that
2:18:48 is that is not open and transparent governance I just want to
2:18:52 make a comment
2:18:53 I did put this I did ask for this on the agenda earlier in the
2:18:58 week last week just for
2:18:59 and somehow it didn’t make it on but I did thank you miss McDougal
2:19:04 I didn’t
2:19:04 know that okay so I’m hearing that we are going to reconvene on
2:19:11 the 30th to
2:19:12 discuss metrics and mask is that correct okay miss Belfort just
2:19:21 at the sacrifice
2:19:22 of our not trying to complicate issues but I will I have been
2:19:26 reminded that
2:19:27 part of the reason language was changed to the board meeting was
2:19:30 that the board
2:19:32 indicated in discussion that they were not prepared or not they
2:19:36 did not want
2:19:37 discipline to be part of the consideration of not wearing a mask
2:19:40 which is what led us to expectation which was increased height
2:19:45 level of
2:19:46 expectation level of implementation from the workshop to the
2:19:51 board meeting I will
2:19:53 work with staff and we’ll be prepared to if there’s gonna be
2:19:57 discussion moving to
2:19:58 a required level of mask I work with staff and we’ll have
2:20:02 information leading
2:20:03 to what that would look like in terms of discipline if if the
2:20:07 board chooses to
2:20:08 raise it again does that make sense yeah discipline early years
2:20:13 there’s school
2:20:14 districts that have mandated above fifth grade there’s school
2:20:18 districts that have
2:20:18 what is the plan if a kid doesn’t follow it just those kind of
2:20:21 things and if you
2:20:22 need me to kind of send those to you my thoughts that need to be
2:20:24 answered that
2:20:25 would be great so if there’s specific information you would like
2:20:30 from staff
2:20:30 board members please make sure that you get it to dr. Mullen so
2:20:33 he can do his
2:20:34 best to get those questions addressed for you and we will
2:20:37 revisit the issue
2:20:38 next week is there anything else for today yeah got a couple so
2:20:45 dr. Sullivan
2:20:47 I kind of gave her a forewarning Brevard virtual and these are
2:20:50 questions that
2:20:51 people are asking out there Brevard virtual is there a way to do
2:20:54 the Spanish
2:20:56 translation piece for that website like we do the others there’s
2:21:00 a lot of
2:21:00 Hispanic families that are trying to log on and they were having
2:21:03 difficulties
2:21:04 that a possibility you get an ish I know you all don’t like my
2:21:09 issues for the
2:21:11 website for Brevard virtual school yes no problem there however
2:21:17 the content
2:21:18 which is provided through Florida virtual school does not have
2:21:22 language
2:21:22 translation and so our as a franchise of Florida virtual school
2:21:28 we use Florida
2:21:30 virtual school content and that content currently does not allow
2:21:33 for translation
2:21:35 outside of a student of course choosing to use translation tools
2:21:39 that we could
2:21:40 assist them with so like if I go to the Brevard virtual and I
2:21:43 look on that web
2:21:44 page we’ll be able to translate that piece but it’s the back end
2:21:48 documents
2:21:48 the the pieces that we’re pulling from Florida virtual that
2:21:52 cannot be
2:21:52 translated to Spanish is what I’m hearing you so like a family
2:21:55 can go on
2:21:55 there and understand the process but the actual next step is
2:21:59 where we’re having
2:22:00 issues with Florida virtual being their back end I think yeah I’m
2:22:05 just I’m not
2:22:06 sure I totally understand the question the the actual curriculum
2:22:09 the course
2:22:10 that our teachers implement is from Florida virtual school that
2:22:15 content is
2:22:16 pre-produced and does not have translation feature the content
2:22:21 itself
2:22:22 however there are tools that we work with our English language
2:22:27 learners on and
2:22:28 how to use those tools to translate content so it would
2:22:31 definitely be
2:22:32 trickier we could certainly work with our school staff to assist
2:22:37 parents so a
2:22:39 parent of a non English speaker I would encourage them to work
2:22:43 first with their
2:22:45 ELL contact at their school and to assist them in making some of
2:22:48 those
2:22:49 decisions it’s not super simple but there are some resources
2:22:52 available but
2:22:54 that in that that wasn’t I understand that a hundred percent
2:22:57 that’s the after
2:22:58 I’ve applied that’s something the class where I’m having an
2:23:01 issue with some of
2:23:02 the families down in in Melbourne right now is is that they’re
2:23:05 going online and
2:23:06 it’s very difficult for them to navigate and make choices as
2:23:08 parents because it’s
2:23:09 not in Spanish so I think that what we did with that other one
2:23:13 if we can start
2:23:13 just kind of look at that mr. Cheatham or about the translation
2:23:17 seems like an
2:23:18 easy thing I mean it is that main website is built within our
2:23:23 overall
2:23:24 district website platform that has the ability to do that okay
2:23:29 perfect yep all
2:23:30 right and then also are we allowing AP in Cambridge at the Brevard
2:23:35 virtual ish
2:23:38 summer advanced placement courses are run through Florida
2:23:43 virtual school so
2:23:44 our full-time BBS students are typically navigating both BBS and
2:23:50 FLVS courses and
2:23:51 that is in a normal routine of things Cambridge is not offered
2:23:57 through
2:23:57 Brevard virtual school and so those students who would like to
2:24:01 remain at
2:24:02 home and still participate in Cambridge e-learning is their best
2:24:06 option okay in
2:24:07 the same thing for advanced placement or we’re gonna offer a
2:24:10 couple of advanced
2:24:11 placements for Brevard virtual or that goes to Florida virtual
2:24:14 correct so if it’s
2:24:15 if a student otherwise is choosing Brevard virtual school they
2:24:19 would use
2:24:19 the Florida virtual school courses for advanced placement it
2:24:23 would just depend
2:24:25 if they want to stay attached to provide virtual school or their
2:24:28 home school on
2:24:29 whether they’re navigating it as part of a virtual school the
2:24:34 difference really
2:24:36 with virtual school or e-learning is virtual school is not time-specific
2:24:41 whereas e-learning is time-specific and we’re working hard to
2:24:44 offer those AP
2:24:45 courses at our e-learning centers inside of our schools so if a
2:24:49 kid we are
2:24:49 offering all those courses perfect kids on track like my
2:24:53 daughter’s on track to
2:24:54 take a bunch of APs next year that were offered at viera high
2:24:56 school she’ll
2:24:57 still be able to do that not that she is but if she was to do
2:25:00 move to the
2:25:01 e-learning she would be able to take those you correct our
2:25:03 entire complement
2:25:05 of secondary courses and programs is available through e-learning
2:25:09 some of the
2:25:10 courses may require a few in-person activities for example some
2:25:15 of our
2:25:15 career and tech ed courses where they have to do a lab skill but
2:25:20 yes any
2:25:21 student in secondary could take whatever they would normally
2:25:24 take at their school
2:25:25 on e-learning with a pause I have a little asterisk there
2:25:30 because we often
2:25:31 have schedule conflicts like there’s maybe Singleton’s and you
2:25:34 know as much
2:25:35 as the schedule would work in person the schedule will work e-learning
2:25:39 perfect I
2:25:40 just I think a lot of the parents out there need to understand
2:25:43 that when they
2:25:44 choose that e-learning they’re not only attached to the school
2:25:47 but they actually
2:25:48 have the connection to that teacher that’s there it’s been
2:25:51 teaching it
2:25:52 forever knows the kids is in the community and everything else
2:25:55 and I
2:25:55 think that that’s a good a good selling point not to forget we
2:25:58 agree and and
2:25:59 e-learning and secondary is very agile we’re anticipating
2:26:04 students at various
2:26:06 stages might need to quarantine and might need some more
2:26:09 flexible options if
2:26:11 something is going on at home those students can really easily
2:26:14 do that
2:26:15 that’s the part of why all teachers do it so in order to get
2:26:19 flexibility on one
2:26:20 end that’s the trade-off but on the flip side it identifies
2:26:25 those teachers
2:26:26 classrooms beautiful thank you so much dr. Sullivan for that
2:26:29 update miss Klein
2:26:30 pre-k what’s going on I was trying to not to go to Tallahassee
2:26:35 get in your car
2:26:38 no actually we haven’t received anything formal from the Office
2:26:45 of Early Learning
2:26:46 however we did get an inquiry on how we set up our distant
2:26:51 learning for pre-k in
2:26:53 our last little at home learning experience so they wanted to
2:26:59 see what
2:27:00 work we had done so obviously then they’re looking at things so
2:27:04 that was a
2:27:05 little glimmer of hope so there’s a possibility because they’re
2:27:09 inquiring on
2:27:10 how we did e-learning for pre-k but they haven’t given us
2:27:13 directive of if it’s
2:27:14 going to be a possibility as of yet that is correct okay so as
2:27:18 of right now
2:27:18 unless we hear anything different than the pre-k is probably are
2:27:21 going to come
2:27:21 back but there’s a chance that they might make a decision to go
2:27:24 e learning
2:27:25 and we don’t know and we’re so we’re asking our teach our
2:27:28 parents to make
2:27:29 that decision up until the last day of the summer based upon our
2:27:32 information so
2:27:33 it’s kind of a moving based on talent it’s an ish it’s an ish
2:27:38 there’s a whole
2:27:38 lot of issues out there a lot of issues but yes right now
2:27:42 currently our pre-k
2:27:43 will be in brick-and-mortar classrooms okay next one is is after
2:27:49 care we were
2:27:50 going to get back here’s how we can socially distance plan or
2:27:53 something we
2:27:54 were talking about last week if we got into that point yet so we
2:27:57 are working on
2:27:58 that we’re actually yesterday evening I met with our BSA a team
2:28:05 and we are
2:28:07 looking at how many students we can fit in each of our cafeteria
2:28:11 media centers
2:28:13 we did a survey with our principals to see what extra space we
2:28:17 can have we’re
2:28:18 also looking at our percentage of employees that use the after
2:28:23 care
2:28:23 program to make sure that we include them so we’re working on
2:28:30 that funding
2:28:31 and also on this space I don’t have a complete plan as of yet
2:28:40 sue Han gave us a great little tool yesterday about with the
2:28:45 fish report and
2:28:46 class spacing and so I was playing with that last night and need
2:28:53 to go out and
2:28:55 do some models at some schools to see if it if that information
2:29:00 represents what a
2:29:01 school can actually do yeah because when you were talking about
2:29:04 other space
2:29:04 there’s an opportunity to utilize larger spaces also inside the
2:29:07 classroom whether
2:29:08 that’s you know what I mean the library or those other areas the
2:29:13 only other
2:29:13 question is is that at the end of the day do we have the custodial
2:29:16 staff at
2:29:17 the end of the day to turn back around and clean that or is that
2:29:19 going to be on
2:29:19 our aftercare teachers to try to perform that that was a
2:29:23 question that came up
2:29:24 typically we have custodial staff until after aftercare closes
2:29:28 good okay okay
2:29:32 miss more I texted you over there can you go through that
2:29:35 process once again
2:29:37 I’m so sorry because you did it already and I wasn’t ready for
2:29:39 it but if a
2:29:40 teacher tests positive in the classroom what is the plan if a
2:29:43 student tests
2:29:43 positive in the classroom what is the plan if an athlete tests
2:29:47 positive what
2:29:47 is the plan sorry that’s okay I’m going under the assumption
2:29:55 that schools in
2:29:56 session yes that question yes I’m sorry so it’s up it I’m gonna
2:30:04 give you a
2:30:04 bigger answer than you want so I’ll apologize right up front so
2:30:07 it’s not
2:30:08 just about somebody testing positive it’s also about a
2:30:12 presumption of case
2:30:13 it’s also about if they live with the case so I’ll just start
2:30:16 with the
2:30:17 category of a teacher test positive and I’m gonna go with the
2:30:21 category of the
2:30:23 teacher test positive and is symptomatic so right from the lead-in
2:30:27 of this
2:30:27 conversation you can see that it’s hard for me to give an answer
2:30:32 when every case
2:30:33 is super specific and you know for my peers around the room that
2:30:39 we’ve dealt
2:30:39 with cases I think they’ve seen that every single case we have
2:30:43 to go through
2:30:44 a series of about ten to fifteen questions to get to the answer
2:30:47 that
2:30:48 you’re looking for so I’m gonna give you a really general answer
2:30:51 and it’s going
2:30:52 to be based on the most common scenario it’s that a teacher is
2:30:56 symptomatic and
2:30:57 they test positive they are going to several things are going to
2:31:01 happen we’re
2:31:02 going to meet together convene the rapid response team as soon
2:31:06 as we know we’re
2:31:07 going to determine this the basically the contacts of that case
2:31:13 we’re going to
2:31:14 do a basically a contact tracing that we are able to do based on
2:31:20 the questions
2:31:20 we’re able to ask and from that we’re going to determine if if
2:31:25 we’re going to
2:31:26 close that building down for three days one teacher testing
2:31:30 positive it could
2:31:31 happen that one teacher might be a PE teacher it might be a
2:31:36 music teacher it
2:31:38 might be somebody that had 150 contacts that day so you begin to
2:31:42 see that the
2:31:43 rapid response team is gathering information to determine our
2:31:47 next steps
2:31:48 it could be it’s why this question is so hard for me to answer
2:31:54 it could be that
2:31:56 that teacher gets sent home for the length of time it takes for
2:32:02 her to meet
2:32:03 the DOH guidelines which are ten days from the onset of symptoms
2:32:08 three days
2:32:09 beyond the very last symptom showing which is the very last
2:32:13 cough the very
2:32:14 last fever the very last headache three days beyond the very
2:32:19 last symptom
2:32:20 showing and that’s up to the teacher to make that decision at
2:32:26 three days of no
2:32:27 symptoms right once we have a confirmed case and a symptomatic
2:32:32 case they’re
2:32:33 working with the Department of Health and the Department of
2:32:35 Health is going in
2:32:36 and tracking when was your first symptom and they’re checking in
2:32:40 when is your
2:32:41 last symptom so the Department of Health is guiding symptomatic
2:32:44 positive cases
2:32:45 it gets a little bit more challenging when it’s an asymptomatic
2:32:49 case at that
2:32:50 point we use a 14-day standard unless that person is of course
2:32:55 living with
2:32:56 somebody else who has tested positive and then we have a
2:32:58 different set of
2:32:59 standards so I know that gives you very hazy description of what’s
2:33:05 happening but
2:33:06 the rapid response team has a series of about 10 to 15 questions
2:33:11 that we go
2:33:12 through very systematically asking asking questions to determine
2:33:17 what the
2:33:18 spread might be in in the school to determine whether or not we’re
2:33:22 dealing
2:33:22 with a very isolated circumstance or whether we are dealing with
2:33:26 somebody who
2:33:26 had multiple contacts across multiple different areas of the
2:33:33 building and I
2:33:35 think the example I gave last time and you know I’m gonna give
2:33:39 it again this
2:33:40 time just because I know this is a question for a lot of people
2:33:43 what
2:33:44 exactly are you going to do when there’s a case and they wanted
2:33:47 they want a black
2:33:48 and white answer and the answer is gray and so I’m gonna give
2:33:51 the example again
2:33:52 and I hope you just can tolerate me doing it no no thank you for
2:33:56 working
2:33:57 through this thank you so when we have a student and I’m gonna
2:34:01 take a fifth grade
2:34:01 student that comes to school and there they ride the bus they
2:34:06 ride the bus with
2:34:07 many kids and seated next to them based on our policy is their
2:34:11 their brother
2:34:12 who’s in the second grade so we have those two kids that get off
2:34:16 the bus they
2:34:17 go into the cafeteria they go through the breakfast line and
2:34:19 they sit in the
2:34:20 cafeteria although it is socially distanced and it’s spaced they
2:34:25 eat lunch
2:34:25 at a table with many other well with at least two other students
2:34:30 depending on
2:34:31 how many students we fit at the table they then have some time
2:34:35 outside the
2:34:36 cafeteria where they congregate with their friends because there’s
2:34:39 always a
2:34:39 little bit of time in between breakfast and when they walk into
2:34:43 the classroom
2:34:44 and then they go into the classroom both of them into separate
2:34:48 classrooms and
2:34:49 they are with 20 other students and then the second grader gets
2:34:54 pulled out for
2:34:55 gifted services the fifth grader gets pulled out for services
2:34:59 based on his
2:34:59 disability and then they may go into aftercare after school you
2:35:04 can see the
2:35:05 amount of contacts and the spread across a building that those
2:35:09 two students may
2:35:10 have based on one positive test in that that is an absolute case
2:35:16 where we as a
2:35:18 rapid response team would say that building needs to be shut
2:35:21 down the
2:35:22 parents need to be notified the we need to wait 24 to 48 hours
2:35:29 the custodial
2:35:30 strike team needs to go in and support the local custodial staff
2:35:34 in a deep
2:35:34 clean before we bring the students back into the building so
2:35:38 that’s that’s that
2:35:40 three-day scenario so do masks social distancing any of those
2:35:46 other factors
2:35:47 play into this or no just they were close they’re going it won’t
2:35:51 play in I’m
2:35:52 sorry to interrupt you it won’t play into the decision to close
2:35:55 the building
2:35:55 but it will play into one of the things that comes out from the
2:36:00 Department of
2:36:01 Health letter is parents your child may have been in contact
2:36:05 with a case and you
2:36:07 may want to seek testing it does play into the results that that
2:36:12 testing may
2:36:12 come out because if we don’t have those mitigation factors the
2:36:17 likelihood of the
2:36:19 spread is going to be that in five to seven days when we get the
2:36:23 results back
2:36:24 from those tests we are going to have more more students who
2:36:29 will test
2:36:29 positive which is then going to mean that we’re gonna be closing
2:36:33 the building
2:36:33 again and again and again the mitigation strategies are there to
2:36:38 keep our
2:36:38 buildings open we can’t mitigate what happens after school or
2:36:43 before school we
2:36:44 can’t mitigate if a if a child is attending a birthday party on
2:36:47 a Saturday
2:36:48 or attending Little League at night we can’t mitigate any of
2:36:51 that but we can at
2:36:52 least do our best to mitigate what happens in school and and the
2:36:57 hopes that
2:36:58 we’re not closing school over and over and over again because a
2:37:01 case was
2:37:01 transmitted within our eight hours of the day right sure the
2:37:06 other scenario is
2:37:07 of course you know a fifth grader that gets on the bus is not is
2:37:12 you know is
2:37:13 wearing a mask is not sitting next to a sibling gets off the bus
2:37:18 is noticed as
2:37:20 they get off the bus by an instructional assistant who
2:37:24 temperature check it is
2:37:26 standing outside and says you you don’t you don’t look so good
2:37:30 but let’s go down
2:37:31 to the clinic and they go down to the clinic and after a series
2:37:34 of questions
2:37:35 the nurse either realizes that the child had contact to a case
2:37:38 or is symptomatic
2:37:39 and calls the family and asks the family to come pick them up
2:37:42 the rapid response
2:37:44 team would look at that scenario and realize that the student
2:37:47 had very
2:37:47 limited access we would still do a notification to anybody that
2:37:51 may have
2:37:52 come into contact with that student but we wouldn’t look at
2:37:55 closing down a
2:37:55 building for three days that same scenario that same rapid
2:38:00 response
2:38:00 scenario plays out whether it’s a student or a teacher the
2:38:05 hardest cases
2:38:06 of course are going to be the cases where it’s asymptomatic and
2:38:10 and and we
2:38:11 don’t we don’t realize it’s happening and there’s transmission
2:38:14 before before
2:38:15 we ever realize we have a positive case so what I’m hearing you
2:38:19 say is is that
2:38:19 as we if a student or a teacher tests positive and there’s
2:38:23 multiple points
2:38:24 whether that’s classrooms or whatever there’s a high chance of
2:38:27 us shutting
2:38:27 down a school right that is correct and then we’re shutting it
2:38:30 down for three
2:38:31 days deep cleaning and all that stuff and then coming back by
2:38:34 identifying the
2:38:35 individuals that are saying to the individuals that tested
2:38:38 positive you
2:38:39 have these other stipulations of no you know what I mean no
2:38:42 symptoms and
2:38:43 everything else I just when I was thinking of that the ability
2:38:48 that those
2:38:49 individuals who did come in contact with them who did possibly
2:38:54 get possibly
2:38:56 become infected are still coming back three days later because
2:38:59 the incubation
2:39:00 periods five to seven days and so it’s just a rolling okay it
2:39:04 could be and
2:39:06 that’s always been my concern as well I mean I have two concerns
2:39:10 and you guys
2:39:10 have all brought them up the the biggest one is the return rate
2:39:16 of the return
2:39:17 time of the tests and the fact that there’s an incubation period
2:39:23 and so we
2:39:24 have a lot of people that want to go out and immediately test
2:39:26 and they test
2:39:27 negative and they wait three more days and they test positive
2:39:31 because there is
2:39:32 a five to seven day incubation period is so that’s part of the
2:39:35 reason why it’s so
2:39:36 important that we do have mitigated mitigation strategies in our
2:39:39 schools is
2:39:40 because we don’t want to we don’t want an unending cycle of open
2:39:45 close open
2:39:46 close open close the other scenario you mentioned about a
2:39:50 teacher positivity
2:39:51 rate the other scenario is of course and I mentioned this in our
2:39:55 meetings that we
2:39:56 reach a point where it’s unsafe to operate our buildings just by
2:39:59 sheer lack
2:40:01 of personnel in the buildings we’ve taken a survey of some of
2:40:05 our principles
2:40:05 our secondary principles I haven’t spoken to our elementary
2:40:09 principles yet
2:40:09 about this about what is the rate of absenteeism adult absenteeism
2:40:15 in which
2:40:15 they can safely operate their buildings and we were speaking
2:40:19 specifically of
2:40:20 teachers in classrooms and the average right now is coming back
2:40:25 at about 15% so
2:40:28 there will reach a point where we have to draw that line in the
2:40:32 sand and say
2:40:33 based on teachers being quarantined or teachers being out ill
2:40:37 themselves that
2:40:39 the building will need to be shut down for a specific period of
2:40:42 time just in
2:40:43 order for the building to function so that’s also on our radar
2:40:47 we’re looking
2:40:47 at a three-day plan a 14-day plan and a three-month plan to be
2:40:52 frank and what
2:40:54 needs to kick into place to get students through with it in the
2:40:58 case of a
2:40:58 three-day plan a continuity of instruction in the case of a 14-day
2:41:02 or
2:41:02 three-month plan a remote learning option for students so that’s
2:41:08 where
2:41:08 we’re aware of every scenario what let me rephrase we think we’re
2:41:12 aware of
2:41:12 every scenario but every day I get something new now thank you
2:41:16 so much for
2:41:17 that because that was the piece that I was getting a lot of
2:41:19 questions on is
2:41:20 what happens when this happens what am I as a parent expected to
2:41:24 be doing and
2:41:25 what I’m hearing you say is is that if if you’re notified that
2:41:29 your kid has to
2:41:30 stay home or whatever then that’s your responsibility if their
2:41:32 school stops
2:41:33 we’re gonna go to e-learning right some sort of process there
2:41:37 and then if in
2:41:38 some sort of a plan is going to come out for those transitions
2:41:41 before the start
2:41:42 of school or something yeah so really good question and I
2:41:45 understand why the
2:41:45 parents are concerned our first our first answer to that is if
2:41:48 your child is
2:41:49 ill and symptomatic your whole focus needs to be wellness we
2:41:55 when the child’s
2:41:56 well we’ll do we’ll do what it needs to take at the school level
2:41:59 to get that
2:41:59 student caught up if the student is caught up in an asymptomatic
2:42:03 issue
2:42:03 where they’re home they’re asymptomatic and they’re well enough
2:42:06 to work but it’s
2:42:07 just a one student in one class with one teacher again we look
2:42:11 to our schools
2:42:12 and that teacher to be sending homework the way they would with
2:42:15 any with any
2:42:16 student who’s out ill once we get into a closing the school
2:42:20 scenario for a
2:42:20 three-day scenario the schools are looking at and we I believe
2:42:24 we have a
2:42:25 team that’s going to be getting together I don’t think they’ve
2:42:27 actually started
2:42:27 that work but I could be wrong to look at what does a three-day
2:42:32 outlook like
2:42:33 what we we know what it doesn’t look like it doesn’t look like
2:42:37 an online
2:42:38 remote option because to get it to get those computers out right
2:42:43 and back for a
2:42:44 three-day absence just would never happen we’re looking at you
2:42:48 know at 10
2:42:49 o’clock at night getting a phone call having the rapid response
2:42:52 team meet at
2:42:53 10 o’clock at night and having information out to parents you
2:42:57 know by
2:42:58 6 a.m. kind of like in North up and North when they do the snow
2:43:01 days that
2:43:02 information comes out pretty quick and you have to operate
2:43:04 pretty quick a
2:43:05 remote option just won’t be possible for for that technological
2:43:09 technologically wise is that the right way to say it okay but
2:43:13 for a 14-day we
2:43:14 are looking at a remote learning possibility and definitely if
2:43:18 we have to
2:43:18 go out longer than that so and if we have we checked with the
2:43:23 the DOE to make
2:43:24 sure that if we do transition out for three days that those
2:43:28 three days are not
2:43:29 going to be penalized for not having the kids in 180 days of
2:43:32 classroom for
2:43:33 minutes and stuff like that that whatever work we’re doing is
2:43:35 transitioned
2:43:36 correctly so that we’re not getting penalized on the back end
2:43:39 well we we are
2:43:40 not look we’re not we’re not going out for three days we are
2:43:43 putting in our
2:43:44 instructional continuity plan for three days so those three days
2:43:48 shouldn’t count
2:43:49 against us we’ll double-check that as part of the you’re good
2:43:53 yeah go ahead
2:43:54 the both of us grabbed our mics at the time it is all in that
2:43:58 plan that we are
2:44:00 submitting for DOE approval okay and so in approving that plan
2:44:05 they would be
2:44:06 improving those contingencies as well okay there was a second
2:44:12 part of that but
2:44:12 I forget what it is now what was the second part of it that’s
2:44:15 good okay the
2:44:16 other thing is is that we had an opportunity over the last like
2:44:20 three
2:44:20 years one of the bane of our existence as school board members
2:44:22 is that our it
2:44:23 rains over and over again and we can’t get our grass crews to
2:44:26 cut the grass
2:44:27 right so I was gonna do a concerted effort this year to try to
2:44:31 get local
2:44:31 volunteers to volunteer to cut the grass but we’re saying that
2:44:35 volunteers can’t
2:44:36 come on campus is there an opportunity that volunteers can help
2:44:39 as long as
2:44:39 they’re not going in the building and they’re just doing stuff
2:44:42 like that to
2:44:43 try to help offset it does that make sense to you I think that’s
2:44:47 both a risk
2:44:48 management question as as well as the team question so we’ll
2:44:53 have to get back
2:44:54 just if I can get some clarification to see if they’re not going
2:44:57 to go inside
2:44:58 the building they’re not going to react with anybody inside the
2:45:01 staff or
2:45:02 anything like that are they allowed to come on campus and help
2:45:05 you know what I
2:45:06 mean with that kind of stuff that would be the only thing that I
2:45:09 would ask and
2:45:10 then that’s it I got it all I do want to I want to I know miss
2:45:16 Belford you asked
2:45:17 about something and I gave you half an answer about working with
2:45:21 the little
2:45:22 ones with their masks I gave you the answer of the team that’s
2:45:24 working with
2:45:24 the student with disabilities I do want you to know that our
2:45:28 behavior analysts
2:45:29 led by Jason Lobley Leslie Hall Jennifer Clark are creating
2:45:32 social
2:45:33 stories for our littlest ones they have created a PowerPoint
2:45:36 with voiceover for
2:45:37 safe Steve to walk students through why what it is why it is how
2:45:42 it is and the
2:45:44 best way to keep themselves safe so yes in answer to that
2:45:47 question I I missed
2:45:49 that part and we do have a team working on that that’s awesome
2:45:52 thank you miss
2:45:52 Moore okay is there anything else before we call this meeting
2:45:59 adjourned all right
2:46:01 board members don’t go anywhere we have another meeting after
2:46:03 this don’t forget
2:46:04 but we will officially adjourn this board meeting
2:46:19 you