Updates on the Fight for Quality Public Education in Brevard County, FL
0:00 music
1:34 Thank you.
5:20 Present. Ms. McDougall. Present. Mrs. Deskovich. Present. Mrs.
5:25 Campbell. Present. And Mr. Susan. Present. We will now say the Pledge
5:30 of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United
5:35 States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One
5:40 nation, one nation, indivisible, under the queen’s justice. Deliberty
5:46 and water.
5:50 Okay. That brings us to the adoption of the agenda. Dr. Mullins.
5:56 Good morning, Ms. Belford and members of the board. On this
5:58 morning’s agenda, we have one action item on calendar
6:01 modifications based on later start dates.
6:03 What are the wishes of the board?
6:13 Move to approve.
6:15 Second.
6:17 Moved by Ms. Campbell. Seconded by Mr. Susan. Any discussion?
6:20 All right. Ms. Escobar, if you would please call the vote.
6:25 Mrs. Belford.
6:26 Aye.
6:27 Ms. McDougall.
6:29 Aye.
6:30 Mr. Susan.
6:31 Aye.
6:32 Mrs. Deskovich.
6:34 Aye.
6:40 Mrs. Campbell.
6:42 Aye.
6:42 The motion passes 5-0.
6:44 We are now at public comments.
6:44 As indicated in my opening statement, persons wishing to comment
6:51 were registered in advance on the district website, and we’re
6:55 then called and comments recorded.
6:57 We will listen to the recorded messages at this time.
7:04 Good afternoon, everyone.
7:05 My name is Sue Han, and I’m the Assistant Superintendent for Facility
7:09 Services for Brevard Public Schools, and thank you for joining
7:11 us tonight.
7:12 In addition of the current health and safety concerns during the
7:15 COVID-19 emergency, guidance from the Centers for Disease
7:17 Control and Prevention, as well as Executive Order 2091 issued
7:21 by Governor DeSantis, it has been necessary to modify our
7:24 procedures for public comment.
7:26 Tonight, your comments will be recorded, and we will play them
7:29 back under the public comment section of the school board
7:31 meeting tomorrow.
7:32 Each limited to three minutes, our moderator will keep track of
7:35 your time and ask you to conclude your comments when you have
7:37 reached three minutes.
7:39 I’ll find that reasonable decorum is expected at all times.
7:42 Please keep appropriate for our children who may be watching or
7:45 listening from home.
7:46 Can you please state your name, the organization you represent,
7:48 and it’s necessary to modify our procedures for public comment.
7:51 Tonight, your comments will be recorded, and we will play them
7:53 back under the public comment section of the school board
7:56 meeting tomorrow.
7:56 Each limited to three minutes, our moderator will keep track of
7:59 your time and ask you to conclude your comments when you have
8:02 reached three minutes.
8:03 I’ll find that reasonable decorum is expected at all times.
8:07 Please keep appropriate for our children who may be watching or
8:10 listening from home.
8:11 Before, state your name, the organization you represent, if any,
8:14 and identify the topic you’ll be discussing.
8:17 We won’t be answering questions on tonight’s call, but our staff
8:19 will follow up with you if you have a question or need a
8:21 response.
8:22 Thank you.
8:23 Go ahead, Ben.
8:23 Hello, everybody.
8:24 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.
8:29 Go ahead and state your name and your comments.
8:31 Hi, this is Tom Westermeyer.
8:34 As a retired Brevard County principal, I really appreciate the
8:39 challenge you have ahead of you to reopen schools.
8:44 It seems the answer as to who ultimately makes the decision is
8:48 an elusive topic for both the school board and even the public.
8:52 What is needed is a clear and concise answer to the line of
8:55 authority to make that decision.
8:58 We all agree the highest priority is to get students and staff
9:02 back together as soon as possible in a safe and healthy manner.
9:07 However, there is a perception that staff, health, and safety
9:12 has not been adequately addressed.
9:15 Staff that are at high risk of infection are worried about their
9:21 profession and fragile health status upon returning
9:25 and the possible dire consequences they may face.
9:29 I implore you to remember what it’s like to have a medical
9:33 specialist telling you if you get infected, there’s a good
9:38 chance you could die.
9:40 Another issue that although is not the school board’s fault in
9:44 many means is the governor keeps shifting the responsibility of
9:48 reopening to others.
9:51 When confronted with his decisions, he chooses to many times revert
9:56 to a yeah, but with an extended response that has little
10:00 connection to the question.
10:02 Sometimes it seems like if you asked him what time it was, he
10:06 tells you how to make a watch.
10:09 The mask restrictions wordings continues to be contentious right
10:14 now, the current expected status sets up the teacher to possible
10:19 disciplines, issues with students.
10:22 Students will be in school for seven hours daily with no
10:26 required mask, but upon leaving school, they would be required
10:30 to wear a mask for even just a few minutes in the many
10:34 businesses.
10:35 They could visit with their parents indeed a reopening date is
10:40 an arduous challenge, but I asked you to consider the worst case
10:44 scenarios for in school instruction starting in August or one
10:49 set at a later date.
10:51 Opening at a later date will cause issues like payroll and
10:54 scheduling problems for parents.
10:57 But the most dangerous scenario for reopening in August could
11:02 literally be the possible loss of lives of staff.
11:06 Perhaps one solution could be to offer online instruction until
11:10 a later date, then transition to the other options at that time.
11:16 The bottom line is that face-to-face instruction is the most
11:20 risky, and it is your ethical and professional responsibility to
11:26 create the safest and healthiest work environment for staff.
11:29 I’ll end with a rather sensitive topic.
11:33 Since the last meeting, there’s been a growing community
11:37 concerned that at the state, national, and even our local level,
11:42 discussions border on the herb immunity approach.
11:47 In the spirit of transparency, honesty, and service to citizens,
11:52 I would encourage each board member to clearly and publicly
11:56 state your stand on if you support any components of the herd
12:00 immunity approach.
12:02 By remaining silent on the issue, many in the community will
12:06 consider you implicit in supporting such an approach.
12:10 The only other thing I want to add is I’ve watched the noisy
12:15 governor’s press conference today.
12:18 I feel bad for him.
12:20 Hey, Tom.
12:21 We’re coming up over three minutes.
12:23 If you could finish up, please go ahead.
12:24 The governor talked about the need to provide opportunities for
12:29 high-risk staff, and the problem with that is that the great
12:34 idea of a district like ours, that would be about 25%, and that
12:39 would be over 1,000 positions, and I don’t think we have that
12:43 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.
12:49 Hi, yes.
12:50 My name is Elizabeth Shaley, and I am a high school ESV teacher
12:53 in the district, and I just wanted to weigh in on Dr. Mullen’s
12:58 reopening plan, like at those dates, because that’s how I feel
13:01 being a former support staff employee before I was a teacher.
13:06 I know that I depended on that first paycheck, and I know if we
13:09 pushed back the dates any further than Dr. Mullen’s plan, those
13:13 support staff would be at risk at not receiving a paycheck.
13:16 So I would want to urge the school board to consider Dr. Mullen’s
13:20 plan with that start date.
13:22 It does give the teachers the extra planning time they need, but
13:26 as well as take into consideration the IA, the cafeteria staff,
13:29 and other support staff who are all through the background in
13:32 the school.
13:34 The old saying goes, you can’t raise a kid or teach a kid
13:37 without a village.
13:38 Well, the same thing goes to the school.
13:40 You can’t, you know, run a school without the support staff as
13:43 well as the teachers and administrators.
13:45 So I’d just like the school board to ask and consider that they
13:49 take into 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.
13:56 Next, go ahead and state your name and your comments.
13:58 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, but we
14:07 don’t want to begin in-person teaching, face an explosion of
14:11 cases and sickness, then be forced to return to distance
14:14 learning.
14:15 Florida’s constitution demands that public schools be safe.
14:19 Teachers and parents want our schools to meet that basic
14:21 standard.
14:22 Today, the Florida Education Association filed a lawsuit against
14:26 Governor Ron DeSantis, Commissioner Corcoran, the Florida
14:30 Department of Education, the Florida State Board of Education,
14:34 and the mayor of Miami-Dade County to safeguard the health and
14:37 welfare of public school students, educators, and the community
14:41 at large.
14:42 This lawsuit seeks to return control to where it belongs, to
14:45 locally elected school board members and superintendents.
14:49 Just last week, Governor DeSantis said that schools would not be
14:52 penalized if school campuses were not open five days a week.
14:56 If that is the case, the emergency order needs to be rescinded.
15:00 This lawsuit does not seek to interfere with local school
15:03 district plans on reopening.
15:05 We believe that decisions such as how and when to reopen schools
15:09 are best made at the local level.
15:11 However, I do not know, nor do you know, what the metric is you
15:15 are using to make the decision on reopening.
15:18 Patricia Siebert, Director of Nursing Services for the Florida
15:21 Department of Health, in report, told you at the July 9th
15:25 workshop, in the past month, our positivity rate has increased
15:29 significantly, and that’s what we look at.
15:31 Right now, our positivity rate is around 11.5%.
15:35 Last month, we were down around 4%.
15:38 She went on to say rates of hospitalization are going up, deaths
15:41 are going up, and we are in the wrong direction.
15:43 Yet, you still have no answer on which metric you should be
15:46 looking at.
15:47 The very information you need to make the decision on whether or
15:50 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, at the
16:01 very least, you must delay the start of school as long as
16:04 possible in order to have time to improve your plan and
16:07 potentially get COVID under control.
16:09 I know there have been questions about whether all employee
16:12 groups would continue to get paid with a delayed start.
16:14 However, we believe that the idea that we open schools brick and
16:19 mortar or some go without pay is a false choice.
16:22 What we know is there are common sense options available to make
16:25 this work, including providing additional training for employees
16:29 that greatly need it in order to get prepared to carry out the
16:32 reopening plan.
16:33 Thank you.
16:34 Next, go ahead and state your name and your comments.
16:36 Hi, this is Vanessa Skipper, Vice President of the Brevard
16:39 Federation of Teachers.
16:41 The Constitution of the State of Florida says that the education
16:44 of children is a fundamental value of the people of the State of
16:47 Florida.
16:47 It is therefore a paramount duty of the State to make adequate
16:50 provision for the education of all children residing within its
16:53 borders.
16:54 Adequate provision shall be made by laws for a uniform,
16:59 efficient, safe, secure, and high-quality system of free public
17:05 schools.
17:07 We must ask ourselves, is it truly safe for our students to
17:10 return to in-person learning at this time?
17:13 It is hard to justify brick-and-mortar schools opening in August
17:17 when cases in not only our state but here in Brevard are soaring.
17:21 I have to ask, what’s the metric for safe reopening?
17:26 Who is giving us guidance to whether we should reopen or not?
17:33 I am constantly confused by whether or not the local DOH can
17:38 actually tell us whether we can close or not.
17:42 Whose guidelines are we using?
17:45 And if we’re not using anybody’s guidelines, we should at least
17:48 use the CDC’s guidelines, which clearly say it is not safe to
17:52 reopen.
17:53 The other question that I have, and it came about as I was at a
17:58 personal doctor’s appointment this week, is how many pediatric
18:03 hospital beds do we have in Brevard?
18:06 How many can our hospitals hold?
18:11 If for some reason we have an outbreak among the children, are
18:15 our children going to be forced to go to other counties whose
18:19 hospitals may already be full?
18:21 I hope the board really takes to heart what the governor and the
18:27 commissioner is asking them to do,
18:29 and whether or not they are truly upholding the Constitution,
18:33 which is asking us to open safely,
18:37 saying that we must provide a safe system of free public schools.
18:41 The other thing that needs to be addressed tonight is making
18:46 masks mandatory.
18:47 I had the opportunity to attend a local graduation, and not only
18:52 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.
19:00 And I kind of marveled as I’ve seen this huge mask debate as I
19:04 looked around,
19:05 knowing that we couldn’t all be from the same political
19:08 background, but yet here we were, all wearing masks.
19:12 And when it came down to it, it was because it was during a
19:15 moment that mattered.
19:16 That graduation mattered for those students.
19:20 And every day in our classrooms shouldn’t matter.
19:23 And with studies coming out showing that secondary students,
19:27 especially, transmit the virus just like adults do,
19:31 we need to protect ourselves, 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 into brick-and-mortar
19:49 school buildings, that masks be mandatory.
19:52 The other item, and I know it’s still in the works, is we’ve
19:56 really got to…
19:57 Hi, Vanessa.
19:58 Just letting you know you’re a little bit over three minutes, so
20:00 if you could wrap up, that’d be great.
20:02 Thank you.
20:02 So the last bit is we’ve really got to know what e-learning
20:06 looks like.
20:07 We need supportive administrators.
20:09 We need to realize what kind of classroom nightmares, management
20:13 nightmares it might create.
20:15 And we need to put protections in place for everyone, students
20:18 and teachers alike.
20:20 All right.
20:21 Thank you.
20:21 Next, go ahead and state your name and your comments.
20:23 Hello.
20:24 My name is Rachel Preston, and I am a parent of a rising junior.
20:27 I appreciate the gravity of the decisions you are being asked to
20:31 make, likely not ones that you had anticipated.
20:34 Nonetheless, I strongly believe that the decision to not require
20:38 face masks,
20:39 and enforce that requirement, is the wrong decision, and a
20:43 deadly one.
20:45 A recent Wall Street Journal article states, and I quote, “Face
20:49 masks are emerging as one of the most powerful weapons to fight
20:53 the novel coronavirus, with growing evidence that facial coverings
20:57 help prevent transmission, even if an infected wearer is in
21:01 close contact with others.”
21:03 The article noted that Dr. Redfield, director of the CDC, and
21:09 others had recently written an editorial emphasizing ample
21:12 evidence of asymptomatic spread, and highlighting new studies
21:17 showing how masks help reduce transmission.
21:21 I cannot fathom why or how requiring that mask be worn in the
21:25 schools is not doable, especially when a majority of the school
21:30 board members seem to believe that they should be required.
21:33 Not requiring masks is essentially saying that youth, the school
21:37 board, take full responsibility for failing to fully implement
21:41 the use of the most powerful weapon we currently have against
21:45 this virus.
21:46 Are you really comfortable with the super-spreader spreading
21:51 event that returning to school will become, and the deaths that
21:54 will follow because you failed to vote your conscience, because
21:58 you didn’t want to rock the boat, because you succumbed to groupthink?
22:02 I beg you to do the right thing, right now, and make masks
22:07 mandatory when schools reopen. You will not regret that decision.
22:11 Next, go ahead and state your name and your comments.
22:14 Barbara Landry. I have a child who is visually impaired and met
22:20 Elaine in a media, and I would very much so like to see masks
22:25 mandated, and I want to know more about this e-learning.
22:30 Will he be in front of a teacher on the computer? And he has an
22:35 IEP that they take him out for reading and math. How is this
22:40 going to work with the e-learning? And I am also visually
22:44 impaired. I just, you know, want some answers before I send him
22:49 to school and keep him safe.
22:50 Thank you very much, Barbara. Next, go ahead and state your name
22:54 and your comments.
22:54 Hi, my name is McNeely Clark. We need to consider the outcomes
22:58 of real-time school twirling. You won’t allow the public back
23:02 inside the building to make our public comments, but you want to
23:05 send us back. And we were never told last meeting, we asked, are
23:09 our board members sending their own grandchildren and children
23:13 to brick-and-mortar schools when the school year starts? Or are
23:15 they choosing e-learning as well? If you can tell me that you
23:18 are not sending your kids to do e-learning, if you are sending
23:22 them back to do in-person learning, or are they choosing e-learning
23:22 as well? If you can tell me that you are not sending your kids
23:22 to do e-learning, if you are sending them back to do in-person
23:22 learning,
23:22 it’s fine. I’ll consider it. But otherwise, I find it hypocritical.
23:28 Our courts have gone back to phase one. Even Disney is shutting
23:31 down various attractions because they know that it’s not safe.
23:34 You need to absolutely take into consideration that teachers
23:39 should be allowed to do e-learning at home over returning to
23:42 brick-and-mortar. We are in the red zone. We are not safe. You
23:46 need to be ready to lose a lot of very good teachers and not be
23:49 able to replace them if you don’t make the right decision.
23:50 This meeting is for the calendar and I understand that. I think
23:55 we need to push the reopening day as far back as we can. If we
23:58 do e-learning, returning to school when it is safe will be an
24:02 easy transition for our children, but only when we can safely go
24:06 back. As of right now, with our numbers still skyrocketing every
24:09 day, it is not safe to send children and staff back to school.
24:12 We need to heavily consider the consequences of reopening
24:16 schools five days a week, especially because you refuse to
24:18 mandate masks.
24:18 The bare minimum that you can do, you won’t do. People will get
24:23 sick. People can and will possibly die. I had a parent call me
24:27 during our distance learning to tell me that their child had
24:30 gone to the hospital for pneumonia-like symptoms. And I cried
24:34 because I was so stressed for my students.
24:36 So what will happen when a colleague or a student comes to the
24:40 virus? Who will you blame? Because I will blame you. If any of
24:43 my students get sick, if any of my coworkers fall ill, if anyone
24:47 I work with or teach dies because they have contracted a virus
24:51 that has been proven to be out of control, you will be to blame
24:55 because you made the call. Do you really want the knowledge of
24:58 that on your consciences? Please consider that. Thank you.
25:00 Next, go ahead and state your name and your comments.
25:02 Hi, my name is Barbara Wilcox and I am an early childhood
25:02 educator in Brevard Public Schools. School board members. I do
25:02 not envy you. You have an immensely important job right now and
25:02 it is more important now than ever to get it right the first
25:02 time. Or the health of the students, teachers and faculty will
25:02 be impacted. You will be judged in the years to come by your
25:02 response on how to open our schools safely. Right now, it is
25:02 yours.
25:02 state your name and your comments. Hi, my name is Barbara Wilcox
25:06 and I am an early childhood
25:07 educator in Brevard Public Schools. School board members, I do
25:11 not envy you. You have an immensely
25:14 important job right now and it is more important now than ever
25:17 to get it right the first time,
25:19 or the health of the students, teachers, and faculty will be
25:23 impacted. You will be judged in
25:25 the years to come by your response on how to open our schools
25:28 safely. Right now, it is your watch.
25:32 The only way to open safely is to start the school year with
25:35 distance learning. DeSantis in the news
25:37 brief over the weekend stated that his goal is not to penalize
25:41 schools. The FDA is suing the state
25:43 over brick-and-mortar openings. A parent and a teacher from
25:48 Orange County have joined together
25:50 to sue the state over the demand to return to face-in-face
25:53 instruction. The 18th judicial
25:55 district has moved back to phase one and canceled all jury
25:58 trials. The American Academy of Pediatrics
26:01 Pediatrics stated that public health experts and affective
26:05 disease physicians almost universally
26:07 recommend that children do not go to school until the positive
26:12 rate is 3 to 5 percent over a rolling
26:16 two-week average. Let’s let the Academy of Pediatrics be our go-to
26:21 health advisor. Remember,
26:24 it is your watch. If you still can’t find the strength to start
26:27 virtually, then the very least you can do
26:30 for the teachers, staff, students’ safety is to make masks
26:35 mandatory. Walmart, Target, Starbucks, Publix,
26:40 and many more businesses have mandated face masks. Face masks
26:45 just this past week. Eastern Florida State
26:47 College, which will reopen with many online classes, also has a
26:51 requirement, not an expectation, to wear masks
26:55 inside their buildings. Why would we do any less? Remember, it
27:01 is your watch. I can tell you that I’m scared,
27:04 I’m scared, and I’m anxious about teaching this year. I want to
27:07 know that you’re going to do the right
27:09 thing to protect me, my peers, and our students. Dr. Martin
27:14 Luther King Jr. stated that the ultimate
27:17 measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort
27:21 and convenience, but where he stands in
27:23 times of challenge and controversy. Where will you stand? It is
27:28 your watch. Thank you. I’d like to thank
27:31 all of our speakers tonight.
27:33 Okay. Did any board member wish to respond to any of the public
27:45 comments? Yeah, I’ll respond to one.
27:47 Mr. Susan. I just wanted to, the lady that called in and she
27:54 keeps asking if we’re sending our kids
27:57 in and all that stuff. I said it in the last board meeting, my
28:01 daughter, who’s nine years old, is going
28:03 to be getting on a bus going to her elementary school. My
28:06 daughter, who is 17, will be attending her high
28:08 school, and my wife, who’s in her third trimester of pregnancy,
28:12 will be an assistant principal at one of
28:14 the schools. So all hands on deck. Um, my whole family will be
28:18 right on the front lines. So if there’s
28:20 any questions to those, I’ve said it over and over again. I don’t
28:23 know if there’s a, you know, if there
28:26 wasn’t, if it wasn’t caught last time, but that’s it. That’s all.
28:29 Ms. McDougall. I just want to, um,
28:33 this really is for every speaker that spoke tonight. I really,
28:38 as a board member, I want to relook at the
28:40 mask. I want us to talk about that again today on this agenda.
28:44 And also I want to be on record. No,
28:46 I do not support the herd mentality. Absolutely not. So that’s
28:51 what I have to say at this point.
28:53 Very good. Any other board members? Okay. Then we will, um,
29:00 uh, Belford, hang on a second. Ms. Campbell. I’m happy to answer
29:05 Ms. Clark’s question,
29:06 even though I think as a board, you know, just as every family,
29:10 every family can make their own
29:11 choice. And as board members, we also can make those own choices.
29:14 But I will tell you, for my three
29:15 children, the answer is yes, yes, and yes. Thank you. Ms.
29:18 Campbell. Ms. Belford, I guess I don’t want to be the,
29:22 the mom left out who’s not stating what their child is doing.
29:25 For our family, I have one child left in our
29:27 public schools and we haven’t made the decision yet. Um, he
29:31 wants to go back. It, he is, um,
29:34 the next child up is 19 years old. So he’s basically an only
29:38 child home alone. Uh, he’s home alone while
29:41 I’m here at these 11 and 12 hour meetings. And, uh, he, his, he’s
29:47 isolated and he needs to get back to
29:50 school. So I, I would love to see him in school. Um, but I’m
29:56 also want to, we need to de-densify our
30:01 schools as much as possible. So there’s room in the schools for
30:04 the, this is a very cautious line.
30:08 I want to toe because I don’t want to say if you can keep your
30:10 kids home, keep your kids home. But
30:12 there’s also this, this line that one of the things I have felt
30:16 most passionate about through this whole
30:18 conversation is smaller class size. And if we have to keep him
30:23 home to keep the class size down,
30:25 then I’m almost feel like we, we might consider that. So we
30:27 haven’t made the decision yet.
30:29 I would send him back if I knew class sizes could be capped at
30:33 work at a more safer level. But you know,
30:36 the more we dig into that and the costs and the space available
30:39 of classrooms and the amount of
30:41 teachers needed, it doesn’t seem like we can cap that at a, at a
30:44 level that I’m comfortable with.
30:46 So, um, the answer for my family is we’re not sure yet. Thank
30:50 you. Thank you, Ms. Duskovich. And, uh,
30:52 the Belford household is in the same dilemma. Um, we are my,
30:58 both of mine, I’m a middle schooler and a high
30:59 schooler. Um, both are eager to go back to school. Um, I am
31:05 quite frankly torn because I, as I have
31:09 expressed, I have extreme concern about our, the exposure for
31:12 our faculty and staff members. Um,
31:15 and I feel like, um, if my children don’t have to be in school
31:22 to be successful, I can limit their
31:26 exposure. Um, at the same time, I know that my children want to
31:29 be there. Uh, we know the high
31:32 quality teachers in front of students are important. Um, so, uh,
31:36 I know that my son is doing somewhat of a
31:40 hybrid where he’ll be doing some dual enrollment classes, um, as
31:44 well as, uh, some classes at his high
31:46 school. But beyond that, we have, we have not made a decision.
31:49 We are having family discussions this week
31:51 to determine, uh, exactly how we should move forward, so. Ms. Belford?
31:57 Yes, Ms. McDougall. I just wanted to,
32:00 well, I, I don’t know if any of the people know me, they know
32:03 that I do not have any children. So,
32:05 I, not that I wouldn’t send my children, but I am concerned, as
32:08 you are, about the safety of our staff.
32:11 Yeah. Thanks, Ms. McDougall. Ms. Belford, if there, there’s one
32:16 other thing that has continued to,
32:18 um, come up in public comments, as well as emails and other
32:21 things, and that is our, the way we’re
32:23 having our board meetings, and I know I addressed it last week,
32:25 but I just wanted to, there was something
32:26 that came to mind, uh, early this week as I was thinking about
32:29 it. I just want to reiterate for
32:31 people, the, the limiting the public in here is, is not a matter
32:35 of protecting the five of us. Um,
32:38 when we, all the way back to when we were in the stay-at-home
32:43 order, right, where we could only have
32:44 ten people in the room, even back then, we had, we had in-person
32:49 meetings, uh, with, you know,
32:51 the exceptions that the governor made, we didn’t have the quorum,
32:54 but we had in-person meetings,
32:55 and we limited to ten people in the room, so it was the five of
32:58 us, the superintendent, our secretary,
33:00 our attorney, and other staff members came in one at a time as
33:03 needed to keep, and we had our, our techs,
33:05 who were so awesome, amazing, working the sound, so that
33:07 everybody can follow along. But the public comment,
33:10 we did one meeting, and I don’t even want to go back, we did one
33:13 meeting, our very first one under the,
33:16 um, say, a stay-at-home order, where we had public commenters
33:20 come in. We had very few people come in,
33:22 we had caution tape around the microphone, it was very difficult
33:27 for people to communicate,
33:29 and it quickly became real, and we quickly realized that, you
33:31 know, we need to allow the public to comment,
33:34 but they are either not going to be able to come in, or not feel
33:37 comfortable to come in, so how do we,
33:39 how do we still allow the public to have their voices be heard
33:44 at a time when many of them are
33:46 afraid to come here, or aren’t able to, or we can’t have them in
33:49 the room at the same time. And so I just
33:51 want to reiterate to people that the reason why we’re continuing
33:54 to do this telephonically for a
33:56 public comment is because that way everybody’s voices get heard.
34:00 Um, and I would say that when
34:03 we’re ready to go back, and when I, and you know, the three of
34:06 us have already shared our concern,
34:07 we’d like to go ahead and, and open that back up, we’re going to
34:10 follow, it, it won’t be a full,
34:11 however many hundreds of wanted people come here, because we’re
34:14 still under phase two orders,
34:15 but that I would say that we need to continue to have the
34:17 telephone option for a time at least,
34:19 because there will still be people, 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, and their voices
34:27 should not be heard because of their
34:29 concerns. And so I just, that continues to come up, if, why are
34:32 we opening schools? It’s, it’s not just
34:35 that simple. It, things are rarely ever that simple, but the
34:38 point of us starting it that way and
34:40 continuing that way is because we want everybody who wants to
34:42 have their voice be heard to have that
34:44 opportunity, um, regardless of where they stand or their fears
34:48 or concerns about being able to come back.
34:50 Gosh, I want someone who, if they’re positive for COVID to still
34:53 be able to come out in a public
34:54 comment and certainly they wouldn’t want to be in the room, but
34:56 they still have that opportunity by
34:58 phone. Um, so just, just wanted to address that since it
35:01 continues to come up.
35:02 And just so the board’s aware, I, I think you’re all aware, but
35:05 we are going back to, uh, opening
35:08 up for public comment to actually attend the meeting on July 30th.
35:11 Spoke with Ms. Hand last night as we
35:13 were awaiting the, uh, public comment for tonight. We will be
35:16 continuing the telephone option for
35:18 individuals to ensure that everyone still, um, has a voice in
35:21 the public comment. So, um, she’s, she’s
35:24 working on how we, we balance all that. So thank you Ms. Hand
35:26 for facilitating all of this and
35:29 ensuring that, that our, our public can get their voice heard
35:31 throughout this process. We appreciate
35:33 you. All right. Any additional response to public comments? All
35:38 right. Then we are going to move on
35:40 to our action item. Dr. Mullins. Ms. Belfort, members of the
35:45 board and viewing audience at the July 14th,
35:48 2020 school board meeting. I proposed delaying the start of
35:51 school until August 17th and provided
35:54 documents detailing calendar modifications. At that time, I
35:57 asked to hold a special meeting for
36:00 the board to take action, which is today. Mr. Susan proposed an
36:04 alternative start date of August 24th and
36:06 staff has been looking into the feasibility of that and other
36:10 options. At this time, I’d like to ask Dr.
36:13 Beth Fetty, deputy superintendent, chief human resources officer
36:17 to present calendar options
36:18 and a new recommendation at this time.
36:20 Good morning, Ms. Belfort, board members, Dr. Mullins. Um, thank
36:26 you for the opportunity to come here
36:27 this morning and present some options for calendar start dates.
36:31 I wanted to give you just a very brief
36:33 overview of what we currently have. We are currently scheduled
36:36 to start in the adopted calendar on Tuesday,
36:38 August 11th, 2020. This is a student start date. There’s an
36:42 option for Monday, August 17th, Monday,
36:45 August 24th, and Monday, August 31st. The staff recommendation
36:50 to the superintendent is an August 24th,
36:53 Monday start date, and I’ll talk about that a little bit later
36:56 in the presentation.
36:57 I’m going to go past our August 11th date because that’s our
37:02 current date and for all sorts of reasons,
37:04 we’re considering other options and I will move into the next
37:09 slide because the August 11th date doesn’t
37:11 address the community staff and board concerns about starting on
37:15 time. It doesn’t provide for additional
37:17 pre-planning for teachers and these are things we want to
37:20 accommodate. With an August 17th start date,
37:24 should that be the board’s choice, teachers would begin on
37:29 August 3rd, students would begin on August 17th,
37:33 the student last day. The student last day would be the same as
37:35 under our current adopted calendar,
37:37 May 27th, 2021. And it takes the way what we would end up doing
37:42 is giving teachers an additional four
37:43 days of pre-planning, which would provide them a total of 10
37:46 days of pre-planning prior to students
37:48 returning. We accomplish that by taking non-student days,
37:52 October 12th, February 15th, March 22nd,
37:57 and post-planning day of February of May 28th and moving that to
38:01 the beginning of the teacher calendar,
38:02 which allows for the additional four days.
38:05 At a glance on this calendar, our early release dates remain the
38:11 same. All of our contracted holidays
38:14 remain the same. Winter break is reduced from 12 days to 10 days.
38:19 Non-student work days are moved to the front of the calendar.
38:24 There’s no payroll impact and there’s minimal impact to start
38:27 dates for nine and 10 month employees.
38:30 As with anything, especially changing things at this point in
38:37 the preparation for a new school year,
38:39 there are some opportunities and there are some challenges. The
38:42 opportunities you can see on the
38:44 slide, it allows, this model allows for an additional four
38:47 teacher planning days.
38:49 That will give time for training, for e-learning, for safety,
38:52 for technology, for all of the comments that
38:55 we’ve heard from teachers and others regarding plans for the new
38:58 school year. It’ll allow for some
39:00 training for block scheduling. It allows schools to have a
39:03 little additional time on their master
39:05 schedules. Minimal start date changes mean that employees are
39:08 still paid on time. The school year
39:11 ends prior to Memorial Day. It aligns perfectly with the Eastern
39:14 Florida State College calendar for our dual
39:16 enrolled students. In this calendar, to preserve the end of
39:20 school, February 15th, which was a PD day,
39:22 becomes a student teacher holiday. For challenges, semester
39:27 exams would be held after the conclusion of
39:30 winter break, January 6th through the 8th. Teachers under this
39:34 calendar, and actually all of the calendars,
39:36 when we move those days into the beginning of the calendar, it
39:39 provides teachers with less non-student time
39:42 to input grades at the end of both the first and the third nine
39:44 weeks, gives less time for families to
39:47 understand all of the options and deadlines, and in all of the
39:50 calendars, it makes changes to hurricane days and
39:52 deletes hurricane makeup days. It really, this calendar really
39:56 presents very few challenges, and all of the challenges
39:59 can be overcome. Moving on to the August 24th start date,
40:06 teacher first day would be August 10th, and again,
40:09 this would provide 10 days of pre-planning for teachers. The
40:13 student first day would be August 24th, 2020.
40:16 The student last day would be June 3rd, which is after Memorial
40:21 Day, and again, it moves those
40:22 non-student days to the beginning of the teacher calendar.
40:29 As with the previous calendar, early release dates remain the
40:37 same. Our contracted holidays are the
40:40 same. Winter break is once again reduced by two days. Start
40:44 dates for some employee groups will be changed.
40:47 Non-student work days are also moved to the front of the
40:50 calendar. Under this model, not only will the
40:54 start date for teachers be moved, but the start date for the
40:57 other nine, 10-month employee groups are moved,
40:59 but as I’ll discuss later, we have looked at the calendar and we’ve
41:03 looked at the start dates so that
41:04 we can preserve the first paycheck for all of our employees. We
41:08 understand and agree that that is a
41:11 challenge. We heard a speaker earlier today that spoke about
41:14 missing a paycheck and the detrimental effect
41:16 that would have on her family. I believe that to be the case
41:19 with many of our employees, so we’ve worked that
41:22 out for the August 24th date. The opportunities and challenges
41:28 this calendar presents are again,
41:32 teachers get additional planning, four days. It gives
41:35 organizational planning time to include
41:38 facilities preparation, educational technology preparation. It
41:42 gives additional time for the
41:44 schools to develop and tweak their master schedules. It gives
41:47 additional time for training for e-learning,
41:50 safety and technology, and provided employees begin prior to
41:53 August 16th, we are still able to pay them on time.
41:56 The most important opportunities, it does give families
42:02 additional time and it gives time to see
42:05 where we are heading with COVID, but that’s also a challenge on
42:08 the other side. The challenge in this
42:11 calendar is for parents who are expecting school to start August
42:13 11th and would now have to find alternate
42:16 childcare arrangements until an August 24th start date. Some of
42:21 the other challenges, first semester exams
42:23 will occur mid-January, January 13th to the 15th. Our second
42:27 semester ends after Memorial Day. This schedule
42:31 does not align with Eastern Florida. It’s off by a week. There
42:34 is a possibility of staff overpayments and it would
42:38 require, because we will go into June, active assailant and fire
42:43 drills in June. The challenges with this
42:46 calendar are a little bit more onerous, but we were able to work
42:49 through them. They include the later
42:51 end of the first semester with the exams in mid-January, a later
42:55 end date of school, the misalignment with
42:57 Eastern Florida, which is a challenge for our students and for
43:00 our staff that are involved in the Eastern
43:02 Florida State College dual enrollment program, but these are not
43:06 insurmountable. These are challenges
43:08 that we can handle and mitigate.
43:09 Under this recommended model, employees will continue to receive
43:21 paychecks on time as in previous years
43:24 with some tweaking to start dates. We will have to adjust some
43:27 start dates for some employee groups.
43:29 We have, you may not know this, but we have 18 dates of service
43:32 calendars for all of our different
43:34 employee types and all of them will have to be adjusted in order
43:37 to make sure that we have
43:39 employees starting work at the appropriate time so they will
43:42 still receive paychecks. It does provide
43:44 additional time for pre-planning while it maintains that
43:47 employment of our nine and ten month staff on
43:49 the current schedule.
43:55 August 31st is another option and it presents challenges that
44:00 are not as easily mitigated.
44:02 This would have a teacher first day of August 17th, a student
44:06 first day of August 31st,
44:08 student last day of June 10th, and it again moves all of those
44:12 non-student days I previously talked
44:14 about to the beginning of the teacher calendar.
44:21 At a glance on this calendar, there’s an opportunity for missed
44:25 paychecks for certain employee groups,
44:26 and by certain employee groups I’m speaking about our nine and
44:30 ten month employees who traditionally
44:33 receive either 20 or 21 paychecks. Early release days are the
44:37 same, holidays are the same, winter break does get
44:40 decreased again by two days. We would be making large changes to
44:44 start dates for employee groups, and again,
44:47 non-student days are moved to the front of the calendar. This
44:50 calendar also presents similar opportunities
44:53 and challenges as the other calendar. It does, again, give us
44:56 the four additional days for teacher
44:58 pre-planning. It gives schools a whole lot more time to develop
45:02 their master schedule and additional
45:04 time for our content and resource specialists to develop
45:07 training, along with the other training we’ve
45:09 already mentioned. Challenges, semester exams are toward the end
45:13 of January 21st, 22nd, and 25th.
45:16 We would end school on June 10th. We would have specific
45:20 employee groups not receive paychecks until
45:23 September 15th. Those would be employee groups that
45:25 traditionally receive a paycheck on August 31st.
45:29 It would provide for a shorter summer break in 2021, making an
45:34 assumption, which is a challenge
45:36 right now making any kinds of assumptions, that next year we
45:39 would be back on a regular calendar.
45:41 It does not align with the Eastern Florida schedule. It presents
45:44 a greater opportunity for overpayments.
45:47 Still requires active assailant and fire drills in June, and
45:51 then in the summertime it would reduce
45:53 the number of days for summer reading camps and Title I support
45:56 programs and for ESY for students with disabilities.
46:04 So I presented you with the calendar options, and you have in
46:07 front of you the presentation, and you
46:08 have the calendar mock-up that my office completed over the last
46:13 few days. If it’s okay with you guys,
46:17 I have all my paperwork at the table, so I can take questions
46:20 there if that will work.
46:22 That’s fine, Dr. Thudy. Thank you. And thank you for all of your
46:25 work on this. I know it’s been
46:28 it’s been a nearly round the clock effort to bring this back to
46:31 us, so we appreciate you and your team
46:32 and all the work that you’ve done.
46:33 Do board members have questions for Dr. Thudy?
46:50 Ms. Campbell?
46:50 Oh, a few minutes to look at it? Yeah, absolutely. Mr. Susan?
46:57 Thank you, Dr. Thudy, for working so hard and diligently to
47:01 compress, you know what I mean,
47:02 to get this out. And Dr. Mullins, thank you so much. Quick
47:05 questions. And these are just some
47:10 clarifying questions. If the hurricanes come and all of those
47:14 other things that, you know, natural disasters,
47:16 shutting down school districts, all that stuff happens, do we
47:19 have those days built in? Or are
47:21 we going to have to extend to continue past the June third day?
47:25 We do not have those days built in into
47:28 these calendars. However, there are options in exploring board
47:32 policy and looking at the requirements
47:34 for certain breaks. There are opportunities to look at board
47:37 policy for winter break, potentially to make
47:39 up some days in spring break. Okay. And then some people were
47:44 asking about the early release
47:46 days. Is there an opportunity for us to not take the early
47:50 release days and use those and compress our
47:55 time, if that makes sense? So teachers are contracted for 196
48:01 days. So if we change days, if we change
48:04 early release days, we make those regular days, those add back
48:08 in hours. But that is something we’ve
48:10 negotiated with the union. So to remove those early release days,
48:13 we’d have to look at negotiations and
48:16 bargaining with the union. Okay. But it’s something that we, if
48:18 we run into a problem, it’s an option
48:20 that we can do on the back end of what we’re trying to do. If
48:22 you’re talking about in the case of a
48:24 natural disaster, those are options that have come up before,
48:26 yes. Beautiful.
48:27 And then does this change the final choice time for people who
48:34 are choosing between virtual
48:36 e-learning and all of those things? No, it does not. I have not
48:40 had those conversations with leading and
48:41 learning. Um, they’ve got to be able to know who’s choosing what
48:46 options so we can adequately schedule
48:48 the schools so that, um, we can make sure we’ve got classes
48:52 appropriately as the new word is de-densified.
48:56 So it does not change those dates. Okay. And just for a point of
49:00 clarification, when is that date?
49:02 Dr. Sellin? Um, for Brevard Virtual School full-time, we had
49:10 already extended the date until July 31st.
49:13 It was originally on July 17th, which was the original date for
49:17 choice options. So it’s already been
49:20 pushed to July 31st. Okay. And that’s Brevard Virtual and, um,
49:25 all right. Thank you. Yep. And for e-learning,
49:27 we’ve asked families right up to the start of school. So
49:32 whenever the start of school,
49:33 elementary is a little different because they have to plan for
49:35 teacher units. So I’m going to
49:36 let Mrs. Klein speak to that. For elementary e-learning, we want
49:44 the survey completed
49:46 this week at the latest, um, for your intent. Is that something
49:51 you want to do?
49:54 We know that parents are still trying to make decisions, but for
49:58 us to staff and plan the original
50:01 survey said the 23rd. Then at last week’s board meeting, we
50:06 asked that it go to the 20th. So truly
50:10 this week would be ideal because we need to figure, find out how
50:15 many teachers we need to staff for each
50:17 school for e-learning. Thank you, Ms. Klein. And I think it, for
50:22 everybody that’s watching out there,
50:24 um, it is a daunting task to try to figure out who is going to
50:29 be inside your school and how your
50:31 teachers are going to, who’s going to be on e-learning and
50:34 everything else. So it, one of the common themes
50:37 that I get from a lot of the administrators and a lot of the
50:40 staff is make that decision, make it so
50:42 that we can then work on a back end to provide a good product
50:46 for our students and for our parents.
50:48 Because if we continue to make decisions up until the last
50:51 minute, um, it really back ends a lot of
50:54 hard work that we’re trying to do. And the longer that people
50:56 don’t make that decision, the more
50:58 difficult it makes for our school district. So thank you so much,
51:01 Ms. Klein. And then, um, and I’m sorry to
51:03 keep, I’m just going to run through if that’s okay. The fire
51:05 drills, we were going to try to see about
51:07 those being virtual and stuff like that. So that June 3rd is,
51:10 you know, where we said, where’s extra,
51:13 that might be something that we’re still moving on. And then, um,
51:16 Eastern Florida dual enrollment,
51:17 the majority of those classes are online now, right? So the
51:20 impact may not be as bad as we think to
51:22 offset. I was just concerned about some of the conversations as
51:25 far as them.
51:25 The impact to, uh, to Eastern Florida and, and I’ll defer to, uh,
51:30 Dr. Sullivan, if there’s more
51:32 to it than what I’m stating, it has to do more with add/drop,
51:35 making sure staff is available to work with
51:37 students, making sure they get their textbooks, um, you know,
51:40 transportation for those classes that are
51:42 not, uh, not virtual classes. Did I miss anything, Dr. Sullivan?
51:46 Quite well, Dr. Thetty. Um, yeah, it’s, um, what I like to say,
51:54 the big people conflict. And,
51:56 and that’s why she said that we can certainly work through it.
51:59 Um, the, in the couple weeks leading
52:01 up to the start of Eastern Florida, we are generally working
52:04 with students on textbooks, registration,
52:07 courses. Um, we are locked into payment at the end of drop add.
52:11 And when that drop add happens prior to our staff
52:16 returning, um, that gets a little bit more financially risky.
52:21 And so it would be something that in the 24th
52:26 option, I, I think we can make it work. It’d be more difficult
52:30 in the 31st option, but we will, of course,
52:32 work together to make that work. It just increases the financial
52:36 risk to the district. The, when students
52:39 are beginning classes prior to, uh, the big people returning to
52:45 the building. And so that’s where it
52:48 gets a little bit. Sure. Thank you, Ms. Sullivan. Good. Ms. Tuskevich,
52:54 did you have questions? I think
52:56 Mr. Susan covered much of them. If we have students, or is
53:00 Eastern Florida all online for this semester?
53:04 No. So if we have students that need to go to the building, I
53:06 guess we’re going to be able to arrange
53:08 transportation and such, even though our schools will not. So
53:12 like I, like I said in the original,
53:15 in the original presentation, these are issues that we believe
53:18 we can mitigate.
53:21 Okay. We’ll leave it at that. If I could, Dr. Thede, to some
53:25 degree, depending on the disconnect,
53:29 because as Ms. Tuskevich mentioned, the courses at Eastern
53:34 Florida are a combination. So some of the
53:37 courses are online synchronous, some of the courses are online
53:42 asynchronous, some of the courses are hybrid,
53:45 and some of the courses are face to face. So they’ve opted kind
53:48 of, uh, what they’ve done is allow the
53:50 professors, um, to identify. So some of our students may need to
53:55 physically get to class where we don’t
53:57 have transportation in place. How many, you may, you guys may
54:01 not know this, uh, how many dual enrollment
54:03 students do we have that are using transportation? Because I
54:06 know many of them are seniors and have cars and
54:08 can get themselves around. It’s, it is, uh, different at each
54:13 school, but the, the question comes into, in some of our
54:18 scheduled courses, the students take the bus to the school to
54:21 begin with, like to actually even get to their home
54:24 school and then transport to Eastern Florida. They’re pretty
54:27 full. Um, we’ve got several of our schools that cannot
54:31 accept any dual enrollees who would optionally want to use the
54:35 transportation because their collegiate high
54:37 school fills the bus. Um, so, uh, I would say quite a few. Okay,
54:43 so with option August 24th, potentially dual
54:46 enrollment students could, our dual enrollment numbers could go
54:51 down, our collegiate school numbers
54:53 could go down, and our number of AA degrees at graduation. I
54:56 think it’s manageable on the 24th, um, because
54:59 of the timing of it, and we have staff on site beginning on the
55:04 10th. So there, there may be some
55:07 transportation issues that first week, but it’s a little bit
55:09 more manageable. 31st gets really
55:11 difficult because we don’t have staff on site prior to the start.
55:15 I understand. Okay, and then
55:18 possibility of overpayments. I, I’ve had some conversations with
55:22 Dr. Mullins about that, but I
55:24 think we have to, to visit that a little bit more if we can,
55:28 please. What, what does that look like, and
55:32 what kind of risk is that to the district? So let me, let me
55:35 talk to you about payroll in general so that
55:37 you can understand how we run payroll and how we’ve run payroll
55:41 historically. We equalize, for lack of a
55:44 better word, payroll over the number of paychecks and the number
55:47 of days an employee works. So if you are
55:50 a, um, 21 pay type employee and you work in 193 days, we equalize
55:57 that payroll over the entire time of your
56:00 contract. So you may work a few days in one pay period or you,
56:04 we may have holidays that are unpaid in the
56:07 middle of a pay period like Thanksgiving or winter break or
56:10 spring break where you wouldn’t normally get
56:12 paid, but equalizing those paychecks over the time, the length,
56:16 the 21 paychecks or the 20 paychecks
56:19 allows for you to receive a regular paycheck. The possibility
56:22 for overpayment is something that exists
56:25 every year. This year would not be different. The difference
56:28 this year would be, it would be a
56:29 slightly greater risk with an additional week, um, bumping the
56:33 calendar back, actually bumping the calendar
56:35 back two weeks. Um, in the past I have the history of, of where
56:40 we’ve been in our district for the last 14
56:43 years and in the last 14 years there have been cases where
56:46 people have been overpaid and what that means
56:49 is they sever their employment. They either terminate their
56:52 employment due to resignation or, um, they take
56:55 an extended leave and then end up resigning or they’re terminated
56:59 in some way before they hit that
57:00 break-even point because of how we equalize paycheck paychecks
57:03 over the time period and they end up in
57:06 some cases owing money. And in those cases over the last 14
57:11 years the district has been able to collect
57:14 80 percent of the funds back from 75 percent of the people. So
57:19 we do work with our employees. We do work
57:22 out payment plans. They do end up getting 80 percent of the
57:26 funds back on overpayments and I would
57:28 anticipate the same thing happening this year. The other thing
57:32 that our payroll department does very
57:34 diligently each year is they work with the departments in the
57:37 schools and they work to make sure that when
57:39 we start school, regardless of when that is, because this, this
57:43 potential exists every year, they, they make
57:47 sure they call, they work with the secretaries, they find out
57:50 who has come and who hasn’t come to start
57:52 their work year. They work with human resources and they are
57:55 able to mitigate that risk. And, um, we have an
57:58 all-hands-on-deck plan for this year to hopefully further
58:02 mitigate that risk with the 24th as a potential start date.
58:07 Thank you, Dr. Thede.
58:09 One last question. It’s on the August 31st option. Uh, you said
58:23 nine, nine and ten month employees
58:25 could have a missed paycheck, could have a missed paycheck. Do
58:28 we know how many employees that affects
58:29 roughly do? It affects approximately 2,269 employees.
58:38 I think that’s it for now. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. McDougall,
58:47 I believe you had a question.
58:48 I, you know, I did, but Mr. Souza and so, um, it was about, uh,
58:55 eastern Florida. And, um,
58:57 um, so I, I think that was my only concern. Um, and I also want
59:02 to thank you and your team for
59:05 working on this. Thank you, ma’am. Ms. Campbell. All right. Um,
59:11 so just really quickly, just, just to summarize for my own brain,
59:16 Dr. Sullivan, the EFSC, um,
59:19 schedule in that second week in January, basically the conflict
59:24 will be
59:25 if a student on our block that we have, if they in the second
59:30 semester are taking a EFSC course
59:34 where in the first semester they were on campus or, or they were
59:38 taking a block through e-learning
59:40 or, or, uh, on-campus learning. Is that, that’s where the
59:42 problem’s going to be because they’ll need
59:43 to be, if they were doing dual enrollment in that block time
59:46 both semesters and it’s not really a
59:47 conflict, right? Because their course will end in December and
59:49 they’ll start back up in January.
59:52 Am I simplifying too, that too much? I, it, they are going to be
59:59 really individualized
1:00:00 and for the most part I anticipate us being able to work through
1:00:04 them. Um, the, the risk to the
1:00:08 district financially is always related to students who withdraw
1:00:13 after drop add and that’s where we are
1:00:17 paying for those courses and the student is no longer enrolled
1:00:20 in them. Um,
1:00:22 and so that’s always a bit of a problem. It’s an amplified
1:00:26 problem when they’re not in front of
1:00:27 us during the dropout period. Um, so that, that risk becomes a
1:00:35 first semester problem. It’s a both
1:00:37 semester problem potentially, but, uh, again, the scheduling in
1:00:41 the blocks, we can generally work
1:00:43 those things out. Um, in Eastern Florida, typically the courses
1:00:47 our students take, they have a variety of
1:00:49 sections. And so given how many courses they will be offering
1:00:54 online, it can offer us some flexibility.
1:00:58 It will be less flexible for the student wanting face to face at
1:01:01 Eastern Florida, which is going to
1:01:03 be a lot of their career oriented courses, um, that are tied
1:01:08 into some CTE and AS degrees primarily.
1:01:11 Just on a side note with that, if, if our students are doing
1:01:15 dual enrollment or collegiate, um, high
1:01:18 school and their EF, EFSC course is virtual, or they would be
1:01:23 able to go into a computer lab or stay
1:01:25 on campus and, and just do that from there. That, that is a, um,
1:01:29 hot topic question right now. Um,
1:01:31 because in theory, of course, yes. Um, in our current climate of
1:01:36 de-densifying, um, if it’s hundreds of
1:01:39 students that take that opportunity and the school having to
1:01:42 have a safe space for them,
1:01:44 that becomes a little bit more difficult. So, um, we would
1:01:48 certainly encourage those that can work
1:01:49 in independently away from the school to take that advantage in
1:01:52 this current climate. Um,
1:01:54 but we certainly recognize that there are some students will
1:01:57 have to make sure have a space to
1:01:58 work on their course. Gotcha. Thank you. Um, so, thank you for
1:02:03 the information about, um, our employee
1:02:07 groups and I can tell from the, the, I don’t know what you
1:02:11 called this, the, the info page that you gave
1:02:14 us, um, that you guys have really done some creative scheduling.
1:02:17 I know that when I was listening, um,
1:02:20 to the, um, negotiation video the other day that Mr. Alba
1:02:24 presented that, you know, we, we have,
1:02:26 we really, employees need to show up for work for us to count
1:02:29 them to be able to activate those
1:02:31 paychecks. And you’ve, you’ve, and it looks like in each
1:02:34 employee group allowed a work day so we can
1:02:36 count them. So hopefully that kind of thing will, I, because I
1:02:38 was very concerned about the,
1:02:40 you know, the missing paychecks. I mean, 2,200 people in our,
1:02:45 our nine and 10 month jobs are,
1:02:47 are generally our lower paying jobs. And, um, you know, with
1:02:51 families with spouses who aren’t employed
1:02:55 right now and the financial situation, it is extremely difficult
1:03:00 for me to recommend a plan
1:03:02 that would cause people to lose a half a month’s salary that
1:03:06 they are counting on. And so I just
1:03:08 appreciate the way that you, you work this. And, and I think
1:03:12 with the, of course, someone could work
1:03:15 the one day and then, then resign, um, or take a leave or
1:03:19 whatever. But I think we’ve, um, that really
1:03:23 helps to have, you know, hey, this is, this is a first work day
1:03:26 and then, and have the break. So I
1:03:28 very much appreciate that. Um, I, you know, this 24th date with
1:03:33 the challenges that I know, um,
1:03:37 that you guys will have to overcome. You’ve overcome so many. I
1:03:41 know that you can do that.
1:03:43 Um, I, I think that is a good answer to the public who has asked
1:03:47 us to push these dates back. It gives
1:03:49 our teachers another week. It gives our, um, students another
1:03:52 week. Really, for me, one of the greatest
1:03:55 benefits of the 24th start date, it gives our site-based
1:03:59 administrators and our district-based
1:04:01 administrators time to continue to, um, work on the things that
1:04:05 we’ve, you know, launched, um,
1:04:09 without having to work to midnight every night between now and
1:04:13 then. And as some of you still will.
1:04:15 Um, but I think that, that answers that, um, very well. And, and
1:04:20 in addition, it gives us some more time
1:04:22 to see the trajectory of our county and our cases and I’ve just
1:04:27 taken a look at, you know, the dashboard
1:04:29 data. We’re, you know, it does look like our state, but
1:04:32 especially our county. I like, you know, where is
1:04:34 Brevard and we’re starting to level off and even decrease a
1:04:37 little bit. So we have the chance to see
1:04:39 that. So I, I think the 24th is, is an excellent option and I
1:04:44 very much appreciate the extra work
1:04:46 that you guys did this past week to continue to take a look at
1:04:49 that.
1:04:49 Ms. Tuskovich? I just have, um, Ms. Dr. Thudy, the 2,269
1:04:57 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? Yes, I
1:05:08 believe I do. The gross for that pay period is,
1:05:12 hold on just a second. I do have it. Give me one second.
1:05:20 It looks like, because it’s not added up on my spreadsheet, it
1:05:27 looks like the gross for one
1:05:29 pay period is about $1.3 million.
1:05:31 Help me to understand this just for a second. So they’re missing
1:05:41 a paycheck,
1:05:42 but we’ve already budgeted for that. So let me explain missing a
1:05:48 paycheck.
1:05:48 And I, I apologize. I should have said this up front. They’re
1:05:52 still going to get paid the entire
1:05:53 value of their contract. Their pay would just be pushed out. So
1:05:57 they will still receive the entire
1:05:59 value of their contract. They won’t miss any money. What would
1:06:02 happen is they would be delayed on
1:06:04 getting their first check. Okay. Are the, and are the, are these
1:06:09 employees usually paid? Do they
1:06:11 separate out, out over 12 months or are they usually just paid?
1:06:14 No, these are employees that are paid,
1:06:16 one pay group is paid on 21 pays. That’s our nine month group
1:06:19 leaders in our child care program,
1:06:21 our preferred after school. The rest of them are paid on 20 pays.
1:06:25 They are bus drivers, nine month clerks,
1:06:28 nine month IAs, campus monitors, 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. So these employees are not getting paid
1:06:40 right this minute because they’re not
1:06:41 working right this minute. And they, so they would start two
1:06:43 weeks later. And so they would get paid a week later.
1:06:46 So the nine month group leaders in Brevard after school are
1:06:50 scheduled to have their first paycheck on
1:06:52 August 15th. The rest of the employee groups, I have
1:06:56 approximately 186 of those group leaders who will
1:07:01 get their first check. They’re on 21 pays and that starts on 815.
1:07:05 The others are on 20 pays. They start on 831.
1:07:07 And that’s the balance of the 2269 approximate. It’s as good as
1:07:12 the day we ran the data. The numbers could
1:07:15 change, but they would start on August 31st for their first
1:07:18 paycheck. And that’s what they’re counting on,
1:07:21 which is why we looked at the calendar to adjust it so they
1:07:25 would actually start work within the pay period
1:07:27 to receive that first August 31st paycheck. Thank you. Ms.
1:07:35 Campbell. One more really quickie. Our food
1:07:39 service team has done such an amazing job since March, um,
1:07:44 taking care of the needs of our community.
1:07:47 And I know they’re, you know, everybody’s kind of waiting for
1:07:50 this direction to move forward. But have,
1:07:52 do we have, and we’re also, I know that what they do in
1:07:55 providing, in continuing to provide the meals for
1:07:58 the summer has also been, been dependent on the USDA and the, uh,
1:08:01 regulations from the federal government,
1:08:03 but, um, and some from the state, I think. But is there any inkling
1:08:07 of, because we’re pushing the
1:08:09 start aid for students out to August 24th, what might be done as
1:08:14 far as meals, um, for our students?
1:08:17 Mr. If I understand the question, would we be able to extend the
1:08:22 summer feeding program
1:08:24 to some extent later? Um, Mr. Novelli, do you have, are you
1:08:28 prepared for an answer for that?
1:08:29 We can certainly follow up with Mr. Thornton, and it’s a great
1:08:32 question. Uh, we can let the board
1:08:34 know within the next day or so. Right. Thank you.
1:08:36 Any additional questions for Dr. Thetti on the calendar?
1:08:43 Okay. Then I will accept a motion on the recommendation.
1:08:49 Move to approve. Second. Can you be more specific on which one?
1:08:52 Move to approve the August 24th date for start. Okay. Second.
1:08:58 So that is moved by Mr. Susan and seconded by Ms. Deskovich. Is
1:09:02 there any discussion?
1:09:08 I actually have a bit of discussion on this one. Um, if you will
1:09:13 humor me. Um, so I, I think there has
1:09:19 been much discussion, um, from our community about the governor
1:09:22 supposedly indicating that he will not
1:09:25 penalize districts, um, who choose not to open brick and mortar.
1:09:30 And, um, I caution our community to, um,
1:09:35 look at actual source instead of, of headlines, uh, or media
1:09:39 reports. So I would like to take
1:09:41 just a moment to share with our community because I know it’s
1:09:43 the elephant in the room and everyone
1:09:45 thinks that we now have the freedom to do, uh, whatever we want
1:09:48 to do. But here’s what the, the
1:09:50 governor actually said during that press conference. He said,
1:09:53 look, my goal is not to penalize people.
1:09:56 My goal is to give our kids opportunity and recognize that when
1:09:59 we talk about the coronavirus,
1:10:01 it’s very important, but in terms of everything, all the effects
1:10:05 of it, there’s been so many effects
1:10:06 on people who probably don’t even know anyone that’s ever been
1:10:09 affected and particularly our kids.
1:10:11 The distance learning is as good as Florida system is compared
1:10:15 to other states in the country. The
1:10:17 distance learning is not the same. There’s an academic gap that
1:10:21 has developed and look, we were in a
1:10:23 very difficult situation in March. People didn’t know whether
1:10:26 this thing was, whether kids were big
1:10:29 vectors. We, I think it was pretty obvious that the kids were
1:10:33 low risk, but there was still, you know,
1:10:35 data coming out on that. You know, now we have more information
1:10:39 and, and my thing is just, you know,
1:10:41 for parents who have any type of misgivings, obviously I think
1:10:44 it’d be so counterproductive to
1:10:46 tell them you have to go in. I mean, it wouldn’t even work. It’s
1:10:49 not the right thing to do. They
1:10:52 have the ability to opt, but I also think we do have to be
1:10:55 sensitive to parents who really believe
1:10:57 that the school experience is important for their kids. And so
1:11:01 we’ve got to do whatever we can to kind
1:11:03 of meet that. But I think that’s just got to be done because it’s
1:11:06 the right thing to do. I mean,
1:11:08 you know, to get into a tit for tat and to do that in the midst
1:11:11 of a crisis, that’s not what I’m looking
1:11:13 to do. I mean, I want to work collaboratively with people and I
1:11:17 just want to, I just want
1:11:18 opportunities for our kids. I want, I do not want people falling
1:11:22 behind. I’m concerned about what
1:11:23 will happen. I’m concerned about just being able to be a part of
1:11:26 the school community, having that
1:11:28 price of the kids. I’m concerned about not having activities,
1:11:32 being in the band, doing theater or
1:11:34 playing sports. You know, we’re out looking at you, you know,
1:11:37 our athletes, you know, they need to be
1:11:39 able to be out there. And so there’s all these different things.
1:11:42 So I think when you hear what
1:11:45 he actually said, his intent is kind of clear as mud. And so I
1:11:50 have reached out to the governor’s office
1:11:54 for clarity on what he meant by the statement that he does not
1:11:57 want to penalize people.
1:11:59 And I’ve, I’ve not heard back yet, but there are two things that
1:12:03 he has said repeatedly
1:12:05 with extreme clarity. One is that he does not want decisions to
1:12:11 be based on fear. And two is that he
1:12:14 wants to be collaborative. And so I’m hoping that he truly does
1:12:18 want to be collaborative. And I think,
1:12:21 although I have absolutely stated in our past several meetings,
1:12:26 I am very fearful for our students,
1:12:28 their families, our faculty and our staff, going back into
1:12:33 schools when we’re seeing a rise in cases.
1:12:37 I pulled up the dashboard a little bit earlier this morning, and
1:12:40 we are now the same color as Miami,
1:12:42 because we’ve crested 4,000 cases. And if you look at the map of
1:12:46 Florida, all of Central Florida, from
1:12:48 from Tampa to Brevard is now dark blue, along with South Florida.
1:12:53 And someone asked earlier, you know,
1:12:56 who’s advising us? And I know we’ve each been following
1:12:59 different paths. I have reached out to
1:13:03 my pediatrician, the CEO of Parrish Health Center, the CEO of
1:13:06 Health First. I’ve attempted reaching out to
1:13:09 the State Department of Health and have not gotten a response
1:13:12 back. I have reached out to our local
1:13:14 Department of Health for some additional data. And so I think
1:13:18 that we have a good amount of facts
1:13:23 that indicate that we are moving in the wrong direction. Our
1:13:27 local Department of Health indicated that
1:13:30 last time they were with us at the meeting. The email that I
1:13:34 shared with you all from Maria Stahl,
1:13:36 who’s the head of our local Department of Health, indicated that
1:13:39 we had seen significant increases.
1:13:41 We had more than doubled our numbers since the beginning of July.
1:13:44 We have seen an increase in
1:13:47 positivity in June. On June 6th, we were at 0.9% positivity for
1:13:51 the week of June 6th. Today, we’re at 6.2
1:13:56 Positivity, which is down a little bit from a couple of the
1:13:59 previous weeks. But I think we have some pretty
1:14:02 solid facts that indicate that we are not in a good place
1:14:06 currently. And because we are not health
1:14:09 experts, I think that we have to rely on health experts to
1:14:13 really guide us as to where we go. And
1:14:16 I’m hoping that the governor is honest in his desire to be
1:14:20 collaborative and to not base decisions on fear,
1:14:24 but instead on facts. And I think that we have a lot of facts in
1:14:28 front of us
1:14:28 that we can certainly justify concern about the current
1:14:33 situation. So I am absolutely supportive of the move to the
1:14:39 calendar on the 24th.
1:14:41 But I would like for the board to consider tying some facts to
1:14:47 that actual decision.
1:14:49 I provided each of you with this document that says compilation
1:14:55 of recommended metrics.
1:14:58 Everything that you look at from the CDC to our Open Up Florida
1:15:05 plan
1:15:05 provides some really good metrics to identify when we should
1:15:11 lighten our mitigation strategies. And
1:15:13 nothing that I’m seeing at this particular moment in time with
1:15:17 regard to our viral trend
1:15:19 indicates that there should be a lightening of mitigation
1:15:21 strategies at this point.
1:15:24 So on this document, I’ve provided you with the recommendations
1:15:26 from the Center for Disease Control
1:15:28 with regard to metrics. And those are the metrics that they
1:15:32 identified that should be met prior to
1:15:34 moving into a different phase of reopening. Interestingly enough,
1:15:38 schools were not included
1:15:40 in any of the three phases of reopening for the Florida reopen
1:15:43 plan. We were actually added after all of
1:15:48 the three phases of reopening. And it basically said that we
1:15:51 should plan to return to school in the fall.
1:15:53 And that we should slowly reopen during the summer to close
1:15:58 learning gaps. And that was the extent of
1:16:00 specifics on schools and the Florida reopening plan.
1:16:06 I’ve also included for you Miami Dade came out last week and
1:16:10 said that they have identified some
1:16:13 particular metrics. Their plan was to reopen on August 24th
1:16:17 pending meeting of these metrics, which they
1:16:21 worked through with their local health officials. Some of you
1:16:24 may have seen Governor Cuomo came out and
1:16:29 identified some metrics for the state of New York, basically
1:16:33 saying that they will be five percent or
1:16:36 less over a 14-day period. And if they spike over nine, then
1:16:39 they will close down again.
1:16:41 And then the last page, and I think this is important and
1:16:46 hopefully will be considered by our state
1:16:49 leadership, in speaking with our local health experts. I spoke
1:16:54 with George McAtrane, who’s the CEO of
1:16:57 Parrish. He also said that 14 days of declining metrics is
1:17:01 incredibly important before we reopen schools.
1:17:05 We know the the latter came out and it was referenced by some of
1:17:08 our public speakers. The Florida chapter of
1:17:10 the American Academy Academy of Pediatrics has suggested that we
1:17:15 not open until we have a three to five
1:17:17 percent positive test rate over a rolling two weeks. Dr. Fauci
1:17:22 was actually did a pretty lengthy
1:17:25 interview on Facebook this past weekend. But one of the things
1:17:29 that he said is we must ensure we’re
1:17:31 meeting the guidelines for progression or we must regroup and
1:17:34 backtrack. And those guidelines were what was
1:17:38 identified by the CDC. And so I would like to ask the board
1:17:43 today, and certainly we can continue to
1:17:47 work with our state leadership and have conversations about
1:17:50 facts that are put before us, but I would like
1:17:54 to commit to opening on the 24th with the full reopening plan as
1:17:59 proposed provided that we have some metrics
1:18:02 that we meet at the local level. And whether that’s our
1:18:05 positivity rate or it’s our, you know, number of
1:18:08 new cases or whatever, obviously I think it should be based on
1:18:12 recommendations from health officials and
1:18:14 not just something that we as board members come up with. But I
1:18:17 do think it’s important that we we identify,
1:18:21 you know, what what is going to be our green light. And if we
1:18:23 don’t have that green light,
1:18:25 then I think that we need to look at opening with our e-learning
1:18:28 and our in our online options until we
1:18:31 can get to that point. We’re currently seeing a downward trend
1:18:35 in our positivity rate. And so my hope is
1:18:38 that we’re moving in the right direction. We’ve had a lot more
1:18:41 mask mandates that have come out from
1:18:43 from retailers and, you know, local businesses. And so I’m
1:18:48 hoping that we will continue to see a downward trend.
1:18:51 But I just have real concern about the responsibility that we as
1:18:55 board members are taking on to
1:18:57 basically thumb our nose at these recommendations for moving out
1:19:04 of our current state into
1:19:06 lesser mitigation strategies going forward.
1:19:10 I will certainly listen to your feedback.
1:19:16 Thank you, Madam Chair. Very, very well done. And thank you for
1:19:21 putting this together. I know that all
1:19:22 of us have been spending countless hours researching all of
1:19:25 these things. And to have them in one
1:19:27 spreadsheet is extremely helpful. The the metric I’ve been
1:19:32 focusing on since the letter came out was the
1:19:35 Florida Chapter of American Academy of Pediatrics letter. And I’m
1:19:40 grateful to them because at least in
1:19:42 Florida they’re the first people that have come out and given us
1:19:45 an actual metric, I feel like. And so I’ve
1:19:47 been hyper focused on that. And I sent you all a spreadsheet
1:19:50 this morning. I don’t know if you’ve had
1:19:52 time to open it. I just quickly went into the Department of
1:19:55 Health’s statistics and pulled their rate of
1:20:00 positivity because as your chart says, three to five percent.
1:20:03 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 sustained
1:20:10 positivity rate of less than 10 percent,
1:20:13 which trending towards five percent for 14 days. They’re
1:20:17 counting that as a win for Miami-Dade.
1:20:19 But that’s that’s us. You know, that is us. And so. To give that
1:20:22 some perspective, Ms. Tuskevich,
1:20:24 the discussion was that that would be a win for them because
1:20:28 they were at 20 percent at the time of the discussion. So,
1:20:31 you know, they’re they’re looking for that downward. As of last
1:20:34 night, they were at 22.6 percent. And I
1:20:36 think that’s an important. That’s why I put. So just for the
1:20:41 public that’s watching, the little
1:20:43 spreadsheet I put together for the board has Brevard, Indian
1:20:45 River, Seminole, Orange Volusia, Osceola,
1:20:47 because those are our surrounding counties. And then I looked up
1:20:51 Broward and Dade because everyone keeps
1:20:53 saying, why, you know, why are we different than them? And I
1:20:56 think this little chart kind of shows
1:20:58 as of last night, we had a 5.5 positivity rate. Dade had the 22.6,
1:21:05 Broward 17.6. Even our surrounding
1:21:08 counties, if this is the metric we want to use, Indian River
1:21:11 last night had 13.2. We’re in, we’re in,
1:21:15 I know we have growing numbers, but when I look at the
1:21:18 positivity rate, I have some comfort that
1:21:21 Brevard is in better shape than most. We’re the lowest of looks
1:21:26 like every single day that I put on
1:21:28 this chart. We’re the lowest of all of our surrounding counties
1:21:31 every single time. That being said, just
1:21:35 five days ago, we were at 6.9. So it’s fluctuating, but I don’t
1:21:39 think I saw it go above 9 point something
1:21:44 at any given time. So which puts us, you know, nowhere near what
1:21:48 Broward and Dade are dealing with.
1:21:50 So that’s one metric, especially, so American Academy of Pediatrics,
1:21:55 A, they’re here in Florida,
1:21:57 which I like, and B, they’re talking about children, which is
1:22:03 what we deal with. And so that
1:22:04 metric is, is what I am interested in, um, looking at. Not that
1:22:10 we discard all these other things that
1:22:11 are on this chart, but I, I like that we want to focus in on
1:22:15 something real and have some real
1:22:17 metrics to base this on. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Tuskevich. Ms.
1:22:20 McDougall? Uh, yes. You know,
1:22:24 I don’t want to compare ourselves to another district. Our
1:22:28 district is our district, and I am not willing to
1:22:31 put our children as guinea pigs in our schools, because we
1:22:34 really don’t know how this virus is
1:22:38 going to affect children. Everybody says, oh, that doesn’t
1:22:40 transmit. Well, I’m hearing now more from our
1:22:43 European neighbors that it, that children do transmit it. And I
1:22:49 think we have to be very cognizant of,
1:22:54 uh, this is an experiment. We don’t know. Kids haven’t been in
1:22:57 school. I’m not willing to risk
1:23:00 them. I am very concerned without any metrics. And five percent,
1:23:05 are we okay with five? Really? I’m not. Um,
1:23:09 I think it’s, um, reckless.
1:23:12 So, Ms. McDougall, to speak to that point, um, I, yeah, I would
1:23:20 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 steady 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 for the date 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
1:24:12 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 opts to
1:24:17 look at then I think we have to to discuss where we go from
1:24:21 there so so do
1:24:28 you need amendment to your to the recommendations well I wanted
1:24:32 to give
1:24:32 Ms. Campbell and Mr. Susan an opportunity to speak if they
1:24:35 wanted to and then if we
1:24:37 decide to go that direction we would need an amended motion yes
1:24:40 so I as far as the
1:24:45 motion of as it stands I think that we can approve the calendar
1:24:49 separate from the the
1:24:52 metric idea I think that metric needs to be attached to the
1:24:56 reopening plan because the
1:24:58 calendar will be the calendar right if we’re going to say the 24th
1:25:01 I I think I’m understanding
1:25:03 you correctly when that it’s more of a are we going to start
1:25:06 with everybody on
1:25:09 e-learning are we going to start with the reopening plan as it
1:25:12 says with the brick and mortar and am i yes
1:25:15 but still the so it’s still the 20 but the calendar would still
1:25:18 remain so I think the calendar can be voted on
1:25:20 without the other I think that the amendment would be to our our
1:25:25 reopening plan I’m I’m fine with that whichever way you guys are
1:25:31 comfortable with we can certainly break it out yeah no I
1:25:34 appreciate the work that you’ve done here and appreciate you
1:25:36 know the the input of course we’ve gotten lots and lots of input
1:25:39 from the community
1:25:39 one thing that I think will be important as we look is is that
1:25:46 we’re looking at Brevard we’ve heard a lot about you know
1:25:46 Florida being the hotbed and and but we you know we are I I hear
1:25:46 you miss McDougal boat but we aren’t Miami and we could Brevard
1:25:46 could get in an excellent place and Miami-Dade and Broward will
1:25:46 still have a long ways to go
1:25:46 um and so I don’t you know we have to look at what you know we
1:25:53 have to look at what you know where we are for Brevard um as far
1:25:53 as which metrics to pick I my only hesitation is that is that if
1:25:53 we don’t have our
1:25:53 I hear you, Ms. McDougal, but we aren’t Miami, and Brevard could
1:25:57 get an excellent place,
1:25:59 and Miami-Dade and Brevard will still have a long ways to go.
1:26:03 And so we have to look at where we are for Brevard.
1:26:08 As far as which metrics to pick, my only hesitation is that if
1:26:14 we don’t have our Department of Health latest to kind of help
1:26:20 guide us to which one might be more important,
1:26:22 so we’re kind of still, as elected officials, trying to pick
1:26:24 what’s the most important one.
1:26:26 I don’t know if you would have any guidance, Ms. Morris, to if
1:26:30 there’s any one particular one.
1:26:32 I know that our letter from Ms. Stahl said that she thought the
1:26:35 rate of community—I’m sorry, hang on, which one did she say?
1:26:38 The positivity rate is a good metric to review.
1:26:42 Yeah, Patty Seaver, who was here at our first meeting, kind of
1:26:46 listed off for you real quick,
1:26:49 and the one that she comes back to me in every conversation
1:26:52 about is our positivity rate.
1:26:55 Okay.
1:26:56 And I just took a quick look.
1:26:57 I know you guys were looking and providing information this
1:27:00 morning.
1:27:00 They divided up in the dashboard into two different, countywide
1:27:04 and then pediatric.
1:27:05 Okay.
1:27:06 So as of this morning, the overall positivity rate is a 7.8, and
1:27:10 our pediatric rate is a 7.3.
1:27:13 I am—Patty did mention two other metrics involving just
1:27:20 overall case numbers,
1:27:21 but every time I go back and talk to them, they talk about the
1:27:24 positivity rate.
1:27:26 Okay.
1:27:26 Yeah, because I just think we need to—
1:27:29 Ms. Campbell, just real quick, is that positivity rate pediatric
1:27:32 statewide, or is that for Brevard County?
1:27:34 That’s for—that’s for Brevard County.
1:27:35 Thank you.
1:27:36 If—if I may share with the board, and it’s—it’s referenced
1:27:41 in—on the—on the spreadsheet by some of the metrics.
1:27:46 The other one that I have heard is critically important to us
1:27:48 here at the local level, also included in Miami—Miami-Dade,
1:27:51 and something that they’re working on, and speaking with the CEO
1:27:55 at Health First,
1:27:56 one of the things that he mentioned was—and it was Health
1:27:59 First insurance that we spoke with—
1:28:00 one of the things that he mentioned was that we are currently
1:28:03 running about 14 days on test results,
1:28:06 unless it’s someone who’s in the hospital that has rapid tests.
1:28:08 And so that lag time in getting test results, I feel, is—is
1:28:13 really problematic for us,
1:28:15 as a district, and trying to keep students safe.
1:28:17 If we have someone who goes out and they don’t get their test
1:28:22 results for 14 days,
1:28:24 they’re—they’re near the end of any time that they would have—have
1:28:28 potentially been recommended to quarantine.
1:28:29 And so I—I really feel like, and—and I think it was
1:28:34 mentioned by one of our callers this morning,
1:28:36 we need to be going back into brick-and-mortar school with the
1:28:42 best chance possible
1:28:44 for reduction of interruption of education.
1:28:46 And, um, our ability to get that information back quickly, to be
1:28:52 able to make decisions, to react,
1:28:54 to, um, sterilize our—our schools, to do all of those things,
1:28:58 um, I—I think is critically important,
1:29:01 and—and that has also been, uh, agreed to by several of the
1:29:04 health experts that I have spoken with.
1:29:06 Um, and it is one of the recommended, um, testing—testing is
1:29:11 one of the recommended measures, um,
1:29:14 from the CDC.
1:29:17 And you’ll see they—they suggest in phase two that, um, you
1:29:23 should get test results back in—within three days in order to
1:29:26 appropriately respond.
1:29:27 So I’ll just throw that out there as well.
1:29:28 Do you know that the—the governor has addressed that there—I
1:29:31 know that they had said that the Department of Emergency—
1:29:33 I’m not going to skip my initials right—the Department of
1:29:36 Emergency Management for the state of Florida has actually
1:29:39 canceled the contract with one of the labs because of their—their
1:29:42 lag and, um, that they are
1:29:43 rewarding those contracts to labs that have been doing faster.
1:29:48 So I’m—hopefully, you know, that time will be shortening up
1:29:51 very quickly.
1:29:52 Right.
1:29:58 Did you have additional questions, Ms. Campbell, or do you want
1:30:06 me to turn it over to Mr. Susan, or—
1:30:08 No, I—I don’t have any at this time.
1:30:10 Okay. Mr. Susan.
1:30:12 Thank you, Madam Chair.
1:30:12 I’m—I’m good for setting some kind of metrics.
1:30:15 I am.
1:30:16 I think it behooves us for our parents out there to understand
1:30:20 because one of the major issues that
1:30:22 we have right now is our parents are trying to plan, right?
1:30:26 And not knowing where that’s going to go and set that is a
1:30:29 difficult thing for them.
1:30:30 What I would do is, is I would ask, Madam Chair, if these—there’s
1:30:36 so much more to this than just
1:30:38 setting, we’re going to do 5%, right?
1:30:40 The back end of how we successfully do what we would do if this
1:30:44 was the case.
1:30:45 Front end metrics as far as how we’re going to set that.
1:30:49 I’m open to the conversation.
1:30:51 I’ll dive deep into it.
1:30:52 Come back with ideas.
1:30:54 I—I do.
1:30:55 I just—I don’t think today I’m—I’m—I’m ready to say this
1:30:58 is the hard line.
1:30:59 This is what it is.
1:31:00 But I am willing to open it up for discussion.
1:31:03 And I had a quick question because your 14-day comment kind of
1:31:06 triggered something, right?
1:31:07 Do they—if—does anybody know, Ms. Moore, if I take a test
1:31:12 today and it comes back positive
1:31:15 in 14 days, do they retroactive that back to the day that I was
1:31:19 tested?
1:31:19 Or do they count that on the day that it comes back?
1:31:26 I love—I love Dr. Sullivan’s answer-ish.
1:31:30 So there—every—every case is—is a little bit different.
1:31:33 If you live alone and you are symptomatic and you have a test
1:31:39 result and it comes back positive,
1:31:42 what they’re going to say is you have to be—you have to
1:31:46 absolutely be out 10 days from the time you
1:31:49 became symptomatic and three days beyond the end of all symptoms.
1:31:54 If you are asymptomatic and you have a test result and it comes
1:31:59 back positive,
1:32:00 it will be challenging to know when you’re—when you became ill.
1:32:05 And so they will take the date of your testing and add 14 days
1:32:10 to it and say,
1:32:11 “Okay, you are through your quarantine period.”
1:32:13 If you live with somebody, it becomes much more complicated
1:32:17 after that.
1:32:18 So I hesitate to give you a definite answer, but I hope that in
1:32:22 general answers your question.
1:32:23 Yes, ma’am. I’m not—Ms. Moore, thank you so much for that
1:32:26 explanation.
1:32:26 I wasn’t so much concerned about what our leave was and
1:32:29 everything else and staying home.
1:32:31 I was more concerned about the testing.
1:32:33 So I am the Department of Health.
1:32:35 I receive a test result that, you know, Matt Susan is tested
1:32:39 positive for COVID.
1:32:41 But I received that on July 21st when the test was given on July
1:32:46 7th.
1:32:47 Do I retroactive that test to back then, meaning that on this
1:32:52 day, the test positivity is changed?
1:32:55 Or do I say, “No, no, no, that’s it.” Because it just kind of
1:32:58 throws the metrics off if what we’re
1:33:01 looking at is tests from 14 days ago, tests from today. You know
1:33:04 what I mean?
1:33:04 Because right now we’re looking, if there’s 14 days out, we’re
1:33:07 probably looking at a lot of people who tested positive from
1:33:11 July 4th weekend.
1:33:12 And so like when I dive into something, I really want to see all
1:33:15 the numbers.
1:33:16 So is there—can you speak to that? Or I know that might not be—you’re
1:33:19 not the Department of Health, right?
1:33:19 Yeah, here’s what I can speak to. I’m texting Patty Siebert as
1:33:24 you guys speak.
1:33:25 Just so that you know, right now the lag in testing is five to
1:33:28 seven days.
1:33:29 I will tell you today, and she says it changes daily. If you
1:33:34 give me a couple of minutes, I can get an answer to that
1:33:37 question.
1:33:37 Perfect.
1:33:37 So I don’t have it this second, but I will get it for you. The
1:33:40 other question—the other thing I did want to mention is the
1:33:44 last time Patty was here,
1:33:45 she said that she would consider BPS employees first responders.
1:33:53 Thank you. We have had an opportunity to test that commitment,
1:33:58 and she was able to get one of our people in within 12 hours of
1:34:03 me calling her, and she logged her in as a first responder.
1:34:07 And that meant she got her test results back within two days. So
1:34:11 they did follow through and absolutely have worked with us on
1:34:15 that.
1:34:16 So if you give me a second, I’ll try to get you the answer to
1:34:18 that question.
1:34:19 And text her that she did us a huge favor by doing that and
1:34:22 thank her from me.
1:34:23 Yeah.
1:34:23 Because for her to step up and do that for us the other day was
1:34:26 a big—I mean, that is a big task.
1:34:28 And she did what was right for the community by doing that, so
1:34:32 she gets big hoots from me.
1:34:33 I will tell you, Mr. Seusson, I know when—because as they’ve
1:34:36 done the—they’ve talked about different
1:34:38 days that—even back earlier in the summer that we’ve had, here’s
1:34:42 the test, here’s the test,
1:34:43 and all of a sudden there was a big flare that sometimes there’s
1:34:46 what they call data dumps, right?
1:34:47 Yep.
1:34:48 You know, it was—
1:34:49 Monday. They, from the whole weekend, they put them on Monday.
1:34:51 Right, and then they drop them, and so that’s—
1:34:53 And that’s why they do a 14-day average, and that’s why they do
1:34:56 the averages, and—
1:34:57 Right, right. I mean, that’s—that gets inside there.
1:34:59 I can also tell you, because I’ve been tracking the positivity
1:35:02 rate really closely the last few
1:35:04 days, and I keep updating my spreadsheet, that days prior change,
1:35:08 which is super irritating,
1:35:10 because I’m like, we were only 5.3 yesterday, and I just looked,
1:35:13 and now we’re 6.6 yesterday.
1:35:15 So they’re going back, probably—
1:35:16 They’re going back and fixing it on the new PDF, which makes it
1:35:20 look like you didn’t, you know,
1:35:21 you didn’t have the right data if you didn’t look at the one
1:35:24 that was actually printed that day.
1:35:26 Right.
1:35:26 The other thing I think, just I identified in research, is, you
1:35:34 know, we’ve been—
1:35:35 people have been saying that kids are not getting COVID, or that
1:35:39 if kids are getting COVID,
1:35:40 that it’s not that severe. And I think it’s important to note
1:35:44 that in Brevard County specifically,
1:35:47 statewide, but also specifically in Brevard County,
1:35:51 children are testing positive at a higher rate than the rest of
1:35:55 the residents. And so
1:35:58 statewide, last week, out of the children, 0 to 17 tested, 30%
1:36:06 of them were testing positive.
1:36:08 For Brevard County, it was—I have it. I’ll give it to you.
1:36:18 For Brevard County, it was 9% last week and 7% this week on
1:36:23 children 0 to 12 testing positive,
1:36:27 which I think is, you know, contradictory to what we have been
1:36:32 seeing with regard to children being—
1:36:33 I think it’s important, though, in that conversation to reflect
1:36:37 on the email that
1:36:39 the questions I asked Ms. Staal yesterday, I sent you all the
1:36:42 email, that total, since the beginning of
1:36:46 this, children under the age of 18, we’ve had 221 cases. We have
1:36:51 had one child hospitalized who was
1:36:55 three years old, and they ended up doing well. So I just think
1:36:59 it’s—that’s important to keep in
1:37:01 perspective to people that are watching and starting to panic
1:37:04 about their children.
1:37:04 And I would like to—here’s a couple of pieces that I wrestle
1:37:08 with. Right now, the CDC makes the
1:37:12 recommendation—this is crazy—that if you’re going to have a
1:37:15 child right now, that if for some reason
1:37:18 the mom tests positive or has positive antibodies in the system,
1:37:22 that they separate the baby from the
1:37:24 mom for the 36 hours that’s there. I will tell you, I will lose
1:37:27 my mind if that’s the case, right?
1:37:29 For the people out there that say that this isn’t serious, they’re
1:37:34 wrong. It is, and we need to take
1:37:36 the precautions we have. The other side to that is that I was
1:37:39 knocking on doors down in South Melbourne
1:37:41 yesterday, and I talked to over 300 people, and a couple of them
1:37:46 were single moms, and they were
1:37:49 begging me to take the kids back. And they said to me, “Mr.
1:37:53 Susan, please, you know, bring the kids back.
1:37:56 I can’t teach my kids. Half my kids are staying with their
1:37:59 uncles. I’ve had to take on different
1:38:02 jobs. I lost my job because of it.” So there’s another side to
1:38:05 this of individuals that we need to
1:38:07 represent, too. But I am definitely about sitting down and
1:38:10 figuring out metrics and working through it
1:38:13 from a holistic perspective to do what’s right for our people,
1:38:16 because I think this is real,
1:38:17 but at the same time, I think there’s more to just saying we’re
1:38:21 closing. We have to figure out
1:38:22 everything and work on it. So I’m there. I would agree, Mr.
1:38:26 Susan. I certainly don’t want to lose
1:38:28 sight of the hardships, and certainly we know that our kids do
1:38:32 need to be back in school for their
1:38:34 mental health and their social interactions and that sort of
1:38:38 thing. But
1:38:39 I also feel like there’s an opportunity for us to come together
1:38:43 as a community. I’ve had
1:38:44 multiple churches who’ve reached out and said, “Hey, why don’t
1:38:47 you let us set, you know, set something
1:38:49 up for families in the event, you know, that you guys have to
1:38:51 close down schools. Why don’t you let
1:38:54 us set something up where we can bring a small number of
1:38:56 students in, socially distance them.
1:38:59 Our church volunteers can help them with their studies during
1:39:01 the day while mom or dad or
1:39:02 aunt or uncle, whoever is at work.” So I think if we put our
1:39:06 heads together, we can probably
1:39:09 come up with some pretty good solutions. And there’s something
1:39:11 to be said also for some of you may not
1:39:13 have checked into your local daycares because they’ve been open
1:39:16 since we closed. And I checked
1:39:18 in with four of mine locally, and every one of them has
1:39:21 temperature checks, upfront forms that parents
1:39:24 have to sign, and they have not had any outbreaks in any of the
1:39:27 daycares. So there’s a lot of, and those,
1:39:31 I mean, it’s a very interesting process to check into what they’re
1:39:35 doing to mitigate the risks
1:39:37 to be successful the way they are. So there’s a lot to it. I
1:39:40 just wanted to throw that out there.
1:39:42 You might want to check in with your daycares. Yeah, I don’t
1:39:44 want to correct you because I think
1:39:46 the outbreaks have been minimal. But in that email I forwarded
1:39:48 to you yesterday, you just maybe have
1:39:49 not gotten it yet from Ms. Stahl, she said we’ve had one
1:39:52 outbreak in all of Brevard County in a daycare
1:39:55 center. It was isolated. They’ve had a few isolated cases in
1:39:58 other daycare centers, but no outbreaks
1:40:00 from those isolated cases. Yeah, I wasn’t talking about ours. I
1:40:04 was talking about… Oh, I thought you said
1:40:06 we’ve had no outbreaks in daycares. No, no, no. Like my… I
1:40:10 apologize. Not Brevard County daycares.
1:40:11 Okay. I checked in with some of the daycares that are
1:40:14 independent in our area,
1:40:15 specifically out separate from our daycares. I apologize. That’s
1:40:20 okay. I just want to make
1:40:20 sure people watching have accurate information. Yeah, no, thank
1:40:22 you for that. Thank you for that.
1:40:23 Ms. Moore. I did get an answer from the Department of Health
1:40:27 about the lag.
1:40:28 The day the results come back is what the positivity rate is
1:40:31 from. So it’s not from the date of testing, it’s the date of
1:40:35 when the results come back. And of course, the results come back
1:40:38 to the Department of Health at
1:40:40 different times. So if it’s a Department of Health test, it
1:40:43 comes directly to them. If it’s a
1:40:45 MedFast test, it might go to MedFast and then to the Department
1:40:48 of Health. So that might be the little
1:40:49 change up in the in the daily rate is because they may get a
1:40:54 test result at MedFast different from
1:40:57 Department of Health. But it is absolutely the the day that the
1:41:01 positive the date that the test
1:41:03 results come back. The other thing is I think we need to be
1:41:06 careful about using the term outbreak.
1:41:08 That’s a technical term as far as epidemiology is concerned. It
1:41:12 does not mean there haven’t been
1:41:14 any positive cases in daycare centers. Outbreak is a very
1:41:18 defined term as far as far as the Department of
1:41:21 Health is concerned. And I can give you that definition as soon
1:41:24 as I get it back from them.
1:41:25 So I would recommend that we go ahead and vote on the calendar
1:41:30 as is because I think any kind of
1:41:32 metric, you know, as I said before, I think would be attached
1:41:34 more to the reopening of how we’re going
1:41:36 to open on August 24th. I don’t think you’re recommending
1:41:40 changing the start date, you know,
1:41:42 but so I think we should go ahead and build on the calendar as
1:41:45 is what would be my recommendation then
1:41:47 that we that we take a further look at adding the metrics to the
1:41:52 attaching that to the reopening plan
1:41:54 itself because that’ll it really what we’re talking about is if
1:41:58 do we want to add something to our the
1:42:02 decision-making process for our response team, you know, or all
1:42:09 you guys, the task force, whoever is,
1:42:12 you know, it was over making those decisions. I think that needs
1:42:14 to separate. I’m not, I’m kind of
1:42:16 with Mr. Seuss and I’m not sure that I’m really ready to do that
1:42:19 today as far as picking a metric,
1:42:22 but I think we could vote on the, safely vote on the calendar
1:42:25 and make that change so our people can
1:42:26 start working towards a towards a goal. Yeah, and if I could
1:42:29 state, I think we need to give our parents
1:42:31 something to look at. I just think that right now, I need some
1:42:34 time to look at it real quick and we’ve
1:42:36 got a little bit of time before the start date. One quick
1:42:38 question that I had is this calendar starts,
1:42:42 we usually stagger our kindergartens and we have some other
1:42:44 dates. Is that built into this Ms. Klein,
1:42:47 like our ESC, some of those? Is that a standard? We’re doing it
1:42:50 like we’ve always 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. Seuss and we will stagger our
1:42:59 kindergarten just like we currently do. Thank you.
1:43:04 Okay, Ms. McDougall, are you good? You know, we do, I agree, we
1:43:12 need to at least set a calendar for
1:43:14 our parents and the 24th is looking good, but I also really
1:43:18 value looking at a metric. I think that’s
1:43:22 very important. Okay, so I will go ahead and ask Ms. Escobar to
1:43:28 call the vote on the action item
1:43:30 recommending that we have the alternative start date of August
1:43:34 24th and then we can discuss where we go
1:43:38 on the other if that’s good. Ms. Escobar?
1:43:43 Mrs. Belford?
1:43:44 Aye.
1:43:45 Mrs. McDougall?
1:43:46 Aye.
1:43:47 Mrs. Deskovich?
1:43:48 Aye.
1:43:49 Mrs. Campbell?
1:43:50 Aye.
1:43:50 And Mr. Susan?
1:43:51 Aye.
1:43:52 And the motion passes 5-0.
1:43:55 With regard to discussion of metrics, would it please the board
1:44:01 to have Ms. Escobar look at
1:44:03 our calendars for next week and see when we might be able to
1:44:05 come together for some discussion?
1:44:06 Sounds good.
1:44:07 Mrs. Ms. Escobar, would you please see what you can do to
1:44:09 coordinate
1:44:10 our craziness? Thank you. And then we had a request from Ms. McDougall
1:44:18 to add. Ms. McDougall,
1:44:21 I know you wanted to discuss masks and I feel like there was a
1:44:24 second item that you wanted to discuss
1:44:26 today.
1:44:27 Ms. McDougall: I think the metrics will handle that.
1:44:29 Okay.
1:44:30 Ms. McDougall: It was about closing school or looking at a time
1:44:34 to close. So the metrics will
1:44:35 handle that. But I do want to revisit the mask issue.
1:44:38 Okay.
1:44:39 Ms. McDougall: I would like us to reconsider and look at if you
1:44:46 want to use the word mandating,
1:44:47 requiring, we need to do this. All the data is showing that it
1:44:53 protects people and it slows the
1:44:57 threat. There is even new data that I just read this morning
1:45:01 that talks about if you’re wearing a mask,
1:45:05 there’s chances, there’s a 93% chance that you will protect
1:45:10 someone, 93 to 98% that you’ll protect
1:45:13 someone else. But also they’re saying now that if you’re wearing
1:45:16 a mask, it’s the possibility that you
1:45:19 will have left severe if you could get it. But I’m feeling that
1:45:22 we’re not, we need to protect our
1:45:25 teachers. Our teachers are scared. Parents are afraid. I’m
1:45:29 hearing over and over, we can’t go into
1:45:32 public now without a mask. Why are we so different? Why do we
1:45:36 feel that our students won’t be able to do
1:45:41 this when students across in Asia, in Europe, they’re all able
1:45:46 to do this? This is a very basic thing to
1:45:51 protect each other. And I’m concerned that we’re not willing to
1:45:55 really mandate this or require it.
1:45:57 I’m concerned. And I know people are going to say, oh, what
1:46:02 about discipline? Well, I really am more
1:46:04 concerned about somebody getting sick at this point. Um, I think
1:46:07 we can work, I think our principals and
1:46:10 staff, I’m hearing from teachers and other people and principals
1:46:14 that we want a really firm guidelines.
1:46:17 We don’t want to expect, we want it mandated. We want it
1:46:20 required. It’s the one way we can protect
1:46:23 people. And I don’t understand why we’re not willing to do that.
1:46:26 MS. Thank you, Ms. McDougall. Uh, any board member wish to weigh
1:46:33 in?
1:46:33 MS. Uh, I wonder if we could, uh, if, if the board is interested
1:46:40 in changing our language,
1:46:41 um, if we could also put that as a detailed discussion on this
1:46:47 meeting that we plan on doing
1:46:48 next week about metrics so that we can, uh, we’ve got extra time
1:46:53 now. We just moved the date of school.
1:46:56 So I, I just feel like we could do some more research since Mr.
1:47:00 Susan wanted to do a lot of
1:47:00 research on the metrics. Maybe he wants to do more research on,
1:47:04 uh, masks and get input directly from
1:47:08 our community and our constituents. Um, you know, will we be
1:47:11 open for a public, uh, input at that time?
1:47:15 MS. Uh, you know, we’ve asked for a lot of public input, but it’s
1:47:17 been whole scope. If we’re really
1:47:19 wanting to dig down into this topic, then I think we need to
1:47:21 hear from people, uh, on all sides of
1:47:25 the discussion because those that don’t want the stronger
1:47:30 language are those, some of those that are
1:47:33 in, in some pretty bad shape or are struggling with, um, diagnoses
1:47:39 and things. And I think they need,
1:47:41 we need to hear their voice too before we would just make a
1:47:43 blanket decision today.
1:47:45 So, Ms. Bestowicz, I, I really, I’m not saying that if you have
1:47:49 a health concern that
1:47:50 you’re expected to wear a mask. I think we make, there’s some, I,
1:47:54 I guess I disagree. I think we,
1:47:56 we talked about this last time. Um, we’ve talked about it. I don’t
1:48:00 know what data we’re going to
1:48:01 find that’s any different that says that masks are not helpful.
1:48:05 I, I guess I’m just curious.
1:48:06 Ms. McDougall, I don’t, I, I’m not saying they’re not helpful. I’ve,
1:48:12 I’ve been reading
1:48:13 a lot of medical journals lately on them. I just think that this
1:48:17 is a very lengthy discussion that
1:48:18 needs to be hand, handled with many concerns. And we’ve
1:48:21 addressed a lot of them when, when we settled
1:48:23 on the language, uh, that we did have expected. And Dr. Mullins’
1:48:27 video that he, I think he put it out
1:48:28 yesterday, was very clear that it’s very much expected. But I’ve
1:48:32 said in my statements before,
1:48:33 there’s, to me, there’s a different expectation from a four-year-old
1:48:37 and a 17-year-old. I visited
1:48:39 one of our Gears programs this past week, and I watched, uh,
1:48:43 just observed some of our, uh, littlest
1:48:47 learners with their masks. And boy, are they trying. Like, they,
1:48:51 they’ve got it down. Their desks are
1:48:53 six feet apart because their class sizes are very small. Uh, I
1:48:56 watched them sit at their desk without
1:48:58 their mask. And the minute they stood up, a couple of them
1:49:00 already had, you know, put their mask on to
1:49:02 walk around the room. One little boy, you know, kind of forgot,
1:49:05 and the teacher gently reminded him.
1:49:08 It was, it was a fine environment in that way. But then I, I
1:49:12 watched him with his mask try to walk
1:49:14 around. And, you know, it’s covering up over his eyes. And he’s,
1:49:17 he’s trying real hard. And then he’s
1:49:19 pulling it down and touching it. And then I, it fell off at one
1:49:22 point. And he got it off the ground.
1:49:23 He put it back on. And he, he was trying, I mean, he was trying
1:49:26 really hard, Ms. McDougall. And so when
1:49:28 you say our children can’t, I know that that’s not true. They
1:49:32 can. But I just think there’s a lot that needs to
1:49:35 go. There’s a difference between a four-year-old and an 18-year-old.
1:49:38 There’s a difference between
1:49:39 our children that are on the spectrum. There’s a difference
1:49:42 between our, our children that may
1:49:44 have trauma from other things that we don’t know about. Maybe
1:49:46 they don’t have a medical diagnosis.
1:49:47 And we have to, we have to discuss as a board, where’s that
1:49:50 allowance? Are we going to make them
1:49:51 have a medical note to not have to wear one if we’re going to go
1:49:54 to the word mandate from the word
1:49:56 expected? Um, if they don’t have to have a medical note as a
1:49:59 parent. No, I just think this is a really lengthy
1:50:01 discussion and maybe we need another week to, when we have our
1:50:04 meeting on the, um, the metrics that we
1:50:07 can add this discussion to that.
1:50:09 Mr. Susan, I think you wanted to speak. Yeah, just, um, Ms. McDougall,
1:50:16 I, uh, I applaud your efforts in,
1:50:19 in trying to make the mandate the masks, um, where some of the
1:50:23 issues that I have to try to grapple with are,
1:50:27 how do we deal with the ESC? Have you put any consideration into
1:50:30 that? Um, like how,
1:50:32 how do we mandate a mask to those students? Or do we, would you
1:50:36 be willing to work on a waiver for
1:50:38 those students? Ms. Assistant, I would never, as I was saying
1:50:43 before, um,
1:50:45 what I’m hearing from people that pediatricians offices expect
1:50:51 masks when you walk in,
1:50:53 they take your temperature, you have a mask on. Would we make a
1:50:56 waiver? For certain students,
1:50:58 we know it’s going to be, certainly some of our ESC, it’s going
1:51:01 to be very difficult. And I’m not
1:51:03 saying, so I think we have to be flexible, flexible. I just saw
1:51:10 everybody, but there are just so many,
1:51:15 so much data out there that say mask is what can work. Are we
1:51:19 going to penalize some, some students,
1:51:22 ESC students, because they can’t? I mean, I think we’re rational
1:51:26 people here. I think we really are.
1:51:29 Um, so I’m, I’m, I’m, I’m just concerned that we’re getting bogged
1:51:36 down on something that we know
1:51:38 would be very helpful and protect our staff. No, I, I agree with
1:51:43 you, Ms. McDougall. I do. I just,
1:51:45 when we look at making the decision, a lot of these things come
1:51:48 into my mind. Um, you know,
1:51:50 I’ve had conversations with assistant principals and principals
1:51:53 about what do we do with the kid
1:51:55 that’s in the class that says, no, I’m not going to do it. And
1:51:58 he just pulls it off and he just
1:51:59 messes with it. And, and he just says, no, I’m not going to do
1:52:01 that. That is, that is my right.
1:52:03 Okay. So then we’ve got discipline issues, right? Um, I, I, I’m,
1:52:07 I’m not saying because my four year
1:52:09 old in the beginning told me, I’m not wearing that thing. You
1:52:12 can blah, blah, blah. Now he puts
1:52:13 it on and he goes into school. He goes into the markets. He goes
1:52:16 into everywhere. He’s ready to go.
1:52:17 He won’t go anywhere without it now. Right. So, so it’s possible.
1:52:21 I watched, um, a graduation where
1:52:23 everybody had one on and, um, you know what I mean? At, at the
1:52:27 time of our control, we were able to keep
1:52:29 them socially distanced and stuff like that. So I, I think it’s
1:52:32 possible. I just need to work
1:52:33 through some of these other issues, um, and how that works. So
1:52:37 if we were to say that we wanted
1:52:38 to mandate masks, how does that work on the back end rather than
1:52:41 just making a blanketed off, you
1:52:44 know, motion? Um, I would entertain having Dr Mullins go back
1:52:47 with staff and say, if we did mandate
1:52:49 it, here’s some of the issues, here’s what we would need to do
1:52:52 it. That’s all. I, I, I don’t feel
1:52:54 comfortable making a, a motion to mandate masks. I would rather
1:52:57 work through some of these things,
1:52:59 just like Ms. Deskovich said, and then come back and try to work
1:53:02 on them because I
1:53:03 think there’s more here than just mandating the masks. This is
1:53:06 my theory. Um, and I have a whole
1:53:08 list of them besides ESC, besides discipline issues. I, I mean,
1:53:11 my list goes on that I would just like to
1:53:13 work through. That’s all. Because we have until the 24th. We do
1:53:17 have time. Um, Ms. Moore,
1:53:21 was it you that had, did you have the work group that was
1:53:24 working on mask implementation? Um, it’s not
1:53:28 specifically mask implementation. It is about all of the impacts
1:53:32 of our return to school, uh, plan on
1:53:35 students with disabilities. Um, specifically, uh, students with
1:53:38 disabilities who may be in a self-contained
1:53:40 setting and may be medically fragile. So that team has been
1:53:44 working the past four days, uh, on all of the
1:53:47 the impacts on them and how to work, um, with the staff members
1:53:51 and, and to meet the needs of those
1:53:54 students and meet the needs of our return to school plan. Okay.
1:53:57 Thank you. I did get an answer by the
1:54:00 way on, on outbreak versus, versus case, uh, because this, we’re
1:54:05 learning more about this illness, uh, as it
1:54:08 goes. It used to be three in a particular classroom. They have
1:54:12 moved it down to two in a classroom. So if there are
1:54:14 two students who both test positive in the same classroom, they
1:54:18 consider that an outbreak.
1:54:19 Within a certain amount of time, right? I mean, you’re not. At,
1:54:23 at the same time. Right. Okay.
1:54:25 Yeah. And I’ll verify that just to make sure I’m not giving you
1:54:28 incorrect information. Um, but right now
1:54:32 it’s two positive cases in one classroom. And I’m assuming that
1:54:35 would be whether student and a teacher
1:54:37 or two students or a teacher and an IA or just two bodies that
1:54:42 test positive. In the same classroom.
1:54:43 Correct. Okay. And of course our plan, uh, right now we’re
1:54:47 looking at if we have a case, what we,
1:54:49 how we handle that, given that there’s no, uh, vaccine for this
1:54:53 yet. And we do have past presidents,
1:54:55 precedents for how we handle that. Thank you, Ms. Moore. Um, Ms.
1:54:59 Campbell, I think you’re wanting to speak.
1:55:00 Yeah. So I think we have two, I just want to speak to two things.
1:55:04 I think we’re, we’re kind of doing two
1:55:07 things parallel. One is the mass conversation and two is when we’re
1:55:10 going to have the mass conversation.
1:55:11 And honestly, I am not, um, really feeling good about delaying
1:55:17 the conversation. One, I think that we’ve
1:55:20 heard, um, we’ve heard, um, from both sides. And I think that
1:55:25 many of our parents are waiting to make
1:55:28 their decision based on this mask language. And we, you know,
1:55:33 that we set, um, on Tuesday, some of them,
1:55:36 some of them still wanting us to do it, some of them not. So it’s
1:55:39 for the ones who have said to me,
1:55:41 um, and there are some, um, that have said, you know, if masks
1:55:45 are mandatory, I’m going to pull my kids
1:55:47 to do virtual because, you know, for whatever reason for my
1:55:51 child, that’s just not going to work.
1:55:53 There are the, there are those just as well as there are those
1:55:55 who say, I’m afraid to send my child
1:55:56 back. And so I’m not going to be sending, I’m going to be doing
1:56:00 virtual. Um, and so for us to delay that
1:56:04 decision, then we are, you know, we’ve talked about parents
1:56:08 needing to make a decision and some of them
1:56:10 they’re waiting and they want all the details. They, some of
1:56:12 them even have asked what kind of cleaners
1:56:13 were going to use Ms. Hanton before they make their decision. Um,
1:56:17 and for the answer to that question
1:56:19 is, it’s the same cleaner we’ve always used because I’ve already
1:56:21 asked that question. Um, but you know,
1:56:25 I, I just don’t think it’s good to, to push it off. I will tell
1:56:28 you how I, you know, my, how I feel about
1:56:30 masks is the same that I have felt about masks. I, by the way, I,
1:56:33 I agree, um, Ms. Deskovich, the video that
1:56:36 Dr. Mullins put out yesterday was very good and was very clear.
1:56:39 He didn’t say, um, we hope you’ll
1:56:42 have a mask. He said, your child needs to bring a mask to school
1:56:45 to ride the bus. And if they don’t
1:56:47 have one, we’re going to have some to offer them. Um, and when
1:56:50 we’ll be expected to wear them when social
1:56:52 distancing is, is not, um, cannot be met. And I think that is an
1:56:57 excellent standard. And I, I understand,
1:57:00 and I hear the concerns and I am not anti-mask. My kids wear
1:57:03 them and we wouldn’t go in store. But
1:57:05 we’re talking, when people want to compare it to you go in a
1:57:08 store and you have to wear it, you go in
1:57:09 the doctor’s office, you have to wear it. You’re talking about a
1:57:12 limited number of time. And I’ll tell
1:57:13 you for me personally, but I’m an adult, but for my children,
1:57:16 they know that when we come out of the
1:57:18 store, we can take it off and we can breathe unfiltered, you
1:57:22 know, and there, there are, and thank you,
1:57:27 Mr. Susan, for bringing up the undocumented cases, because there
1:57:30 are going to be some students who
1:57:31 don’t have any kind of an IEP or a medical note, but we don’t
1:57:34 even know what it might be like
1:57:37 internally for them to have to do that all day. And yes, I think
1:57:40 our kids are amazing. And I think
1:57:41 so many of them, I, I too went into our schools yesterday, a
1:57:43 couple of our schools to see our
1:57:45 summer programs. And I saw little pre-K class and they all five
1:57:48 had them on. And you could tell they
1:57:50 brought them from home because they were all, you know, fabric
1:57:53 and cute and everything. And then I saw,
1:57:54 you know, teachers had them on, but then I saw some teachers
1:57:56 that didn’t have them on
1:57:57 instructing socially distance in front of their class. And I saw
1:58:00 some students who didn’t have
1:58:01 them on. If we make it mandatory, we cannot, by the, by
1:58:05 definition of the word, we can’t make it
1:58:08 mandatory without having some kind of consequence if they don’t
1:58:11 do it. We can’t make it mandatory.
1:58:13 And if we don’t want to have, we want to have all these
1:58:15 exceptions, I don’t think we can make it
1:58:16 mandatory without having this exception and that exception and
1:58:19 this exception and that exception.
1:58:20 And if we have a teacher who just needs a moment to explain
1:58:24 something or needs to be able to
1:58:26 understand a student and the student pulls their mask down
1:58:29 because they can’t be heard and they take
1:58:30 it down, then all of a sudden you’ve created a situation where
1:58:33 they’re breaking the rule.
1:58:34 You just, you just, you just are. And if the student is passing
1:58:40 from one class to another class
1:58:42 and they pull it down, you know, then they’re breaking a rule
1:58:45 and I don’t want it. We’re going
1:58:46 to create an environment and I, I absolutely understand that
1:58:49 many people disagree with me,
1:58:51 you know, and some will agree and some people don’t, won’t think
1:58:54 that I’m saying it strongly enough.
1:58:55 But I feel like we’re, we’re creating an environment where we’re
1:58:59 either going to have to make a bajillion
1:59:01 exceptions or we’re going to have to create an environment where
1:59:04 we’re, we’re having rule breakers all over
1:59:06 the place. I think the way that we have it, that it’s expected
1:59:10 when it can’t be socially distanced,
1:59:12 leaves it open. So if you’re out on a field playing a game, you
1:59:16 can take your mask off and that is okay.
1:59:18 You know, if you’re in a class where you’re separated out and
1:59:23 you need to take your mask off,
1:59:25 it’s okay. And I, that is a way I still feel. And I, I really, I
1:59:30 mean, if the majority of the board
1:59:32 wants to delay this conversation, that’s fine. But I just want
1:59:34 us to remember that there are many
1:59:36 parents who are trying to make their decision based on what the
1:59:38 decisions that we’re making. And,
1:59:39 and this is a big one. And some of them, if we leave it, we’re
1:59:43 kind of waffling. We’re also getting
1:59:44 close to that, you know, July 31st deadline. And this week
1:59:48 deadline that, um, the elementary learning
1:59:50 has asked us, you know, our parents to tell us if you’re doing e-learning
1:59:54 or on campus. We’re just
1:59:56 pushing it back and making it hard for some people to make their
1:59:58 decision.
1:59:58 Ms. McDougal wanted to say something. Ms. McDougal?
2:00:03 So just so you know, I wore a mask in the last meeting when I
2:00:10 was there, the whole time. And the
2:00:12 only time I took it off was when I had some water and when I ate.
2:00:15 And I appreciate when you all were
2:00:19 near me that you wore a mask. But just so you know, this is an
2:00:22 airborne virus. But when 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 were sick. But that’s the,
2:00:33 that is what we’re putting our teachers in.
2:00:37 And they’re in a smaller room than I was in. I just want you to
2:00:42 think about that. I am very concerned.
2:00:45 And you’re right, Ms. Campbell. Some people are, have find it
2:00:52 difficult. I get it.
2:00:57 And then we do have to make exceptions. Life is fully with
2:00:59 exceptions. Nothing is ever totally black or
2:01:03 totally white. There are shades of gray. That’s all I’m going to
2:01:08 say. I just say we owe it to our
2:01:10 teachers and to our parents. Thank you, Ms. McDougal. I will,
2:01:19 obviously, I’ll follow the will of the majority of the board.
2:01:22 But I will tell you that in my
2:01:24 conversations with all of our local medical professionals, they
2:01:28 have said that the mandating
2:01:31 of masks with the strongest language that you can possibly
2:01:35 provide is one of the most critical factors
2:01:37 to keeping our numbers down. And I do think that’s important. I
2:01:41 think that we need to have exceptions
2:01:44 for individuals. Many of the other districts that have mandated
2:01:48 masks have done so with exceptions
2:01:50 and tying, basically tying it to the dress code. So, you know,
2:01:54 if we have a child that comes in and
2:01:55 my daughter’s wearing her straps are not wide enough for at
2:01:59 school, she calls me and I bring her clothes,
2:02:04 or if I can’t get there, they have t-shirts that they will give
2:02:07 her to accommodate so that she is
2:02:08 dressed appropriately at school. And I think we could easily do
2:02:12 the same thing
2:02:14 with masks. I’m in no way shape or form suggesting that we are
2:02:17 suspending kids from school over masks.
2:02:19 But I do think that, I do think that we need to do whatever we
2:02:25 can to
2:02:25 ensure, like Ms. McDougal, I am, I’m very concerned for our
2:02:31 teachers. The indoor air is,
2:02:40 it’s scary, quite frankly, that we’re, and if we cannot de-densify
2:02:44 our classrooms, that just makes it,
2:02:46 I think, in my opinion, even more important that we are, are
2:02:50 mandating those masks. So,
2:02:52 Mr. Susan, Ms. Duskovich, do you want to put this on for
2:02:56 conversation next week? Do you want to
2:03:03 discuss and weigh in today? What’s your preference? Ms. Campbell
2:03:05 would like to not put it off until next
2:03:08 week? I think she makes a great point. I think that teachers,
2:03:11 parents, everybody else are waiting to
2:03:12 make this decision. They’re sitting back saying, hey, what am I
2:03:15 going to do, right? We’re demanding
2:03:17 that by Friday, we tell all of our parents that you have to make
2:03:21 a decision on what you’re going to do
2:03:23 with one way or the other. And we’re not even sure if we can
2:03:26 make the decision on masks. I’m okay with
2:03:29 moving towards a mandate on masks. I just want to know what’s
2:03:32 the back end, because if I’m going to
2:03:34 put my, if I’m going to put my name on something, I want to make
2:03:36 sure that the back end is okay. I’m
2:03:38 going to make sure that there’s options. I want to make, you
2:03:40 know what I mean? There’s a, there’s a slew
2:03:42 of issues that I have right now with this, and I, and I need to
2:03:45 make sure that those issues are addressed
2:03:47 before. But if you’re looking, you’re 100% right. We’re caught
2:03:51 in a conundrum of, if we do it,
2:03:53 then what do we do on the back end to make sure that it’s done
2:03:55 with fidelity, right? We have
2:03:57 discipline issues, like there’s another district where they said
2:04:01 that if a student decides not to
2:04:03 wear it, that they’re given an opportunity, and then they’re
2:04:04 pushed to e-learning. Are we willing
2:04:06 to do that, right? Do you want to have it part of the dress code?
2:04:09 Do you want to make it a disciplinary
2:04:11 issue? Do you want to make it, there’s an infinite number of
2:04:13 things, but making a, there’s one thing that
2:04:15 is for sure. There is a percentage of teachers that will not
2:04:18 come back because we don’t mandate masks.
2:04:20 There is a percentage of parents out there that will keep their
2:04:23 kids back because we don’t mandate
2:04:24 masks. And both of those are a tough situation when we’re
2:04:27 looking at with the amount of teachers that
2:04:29 we have and the amount of revenue that we need to keep the kids
2:04:31 inside for the, for our, for our budget.
2:04:34 So I’m okay with moving forward with, with mandating the masks
2:04:37 as an idea, but I want to workshop it to
2:04:40 make sure that the back end before the final product comes out.
2:04:42 That’s just me. Like I just, I can’t,
2:04:44 I can’t say, yeah, let’s just mandate it and then not have an
2:04:47 answer to all the things that I have here. That’s all.
2:04:48 So I’m hearing that your preference is that we revisit the
2:04:52 discussion next week. Is that correct?
2:04:56 Yeah.
2:04:56 Okay. Um, Ms. Deskovich.
2:05:03 I think there’s, if, if the word goes, I’m a little confused
2:05:10 because I, it’s six,
2:05:13 half dozen, six, another, whatever the saying is. The word now
2:05:21 that we’re using expected in every
2:05:25 way that I have seen and heard so far has been expected. I
2:05:28 visited the schools and it looks expected.
2:05:30 I’ve heard Dr. Mullen’s video to the parents and it is expected.
2:05:35 And then that gives the flexibility as needed without providing
2:05:41 doctor’s notes.
2:05:43 Uh, there’s just so many questions if it’s mandated for me.
2:05:48 Um, again, will you need a doctor’s note to not have to wear one?
2:05:51 Do we send them home? Do we discipline them?
2:05:54 What, what are, there’s so much out there that I think we, as
2:05:57 the board have to hand our, have our hand in
2:05:59 those decisions.
2:06:01 It needs to be discussed at length if we really are going to try
2:06:05 to go from the word we have now
2:06:07 to a mandate literally means a mandate. Like that, that means
2:06:12 everyone. That means it is mandated.
2:06:15 So then we have to have the list of people not. Mr. Susan, I
2:06:20 have a question for you. Um,
2:06:21 your little guy, is he in daycare still or only during the
2:06:24 school year?
2:06:24 No, right now it’s the summertime and he’s not in.
2:06:27 Okay. I was just wondering if they were wearing masks because he’s
2:06:30 four, right? And we have BPK.
2:06:31 I was wondering if they were wearing masks. Absolutely. So in
2:06:34 the, the, um, daycare centers
2:06:37 that are not part of the BPS that I visited, all of them have
2:06:41 masks, all of them. There’s none of them
2:06:44 have anything where there’s, it’s not mandated. There’s certain
2:06:48 kids. When I walked up there,
2:06:49 every kid had it. They were temperature checking the kids at the
2:06:52 front door. So I, I, um, and you know,
2:06:55 that plays into it. I, I personally just think that there’s a
2:06:59 lot to it and we need a whole plant,
2:07:01 but, um, Ms. Campbell’s right. You know, we have to make a
2:07:04 decision. So.
2:07:05 Yeah. Um, and if we, again, if we, if we workshop this to ask
2:07:10 all these detailed questions that I
2:07:12 think we need to know to make a measure that extreme, it needs
2:07:16 to be open to the public so they can speak.
2:07:18 And I, you know, I, I had an employee reach out to me recently
2:07:23 that has experienced
2:07:24 domestic violence and real trauma in the recent past. And a mask
2:07:29 to her is, she’s an employee of
2:07:32 ours. She, she will not be able to put on a mask while, while
2:07:37 working. So this isn’t just little list
2:07:40 learners. We also have employees that, that we’ll have to make
2:07:44 exceptions for. And are we going to make
2:07:46 her have to share that story with her principal or with HR? Like
2:07:50 what we, it’s a lot of complications
2:07:53 with 70,000 children and 9,000 employees. And if we are going to
2:07:57 have something that strong of language,
2:07:59 we need the opportunity to really look at all the ramifications.
2:08:02 Can we, can I ask Dr. Mullins to weigh in on it since he’s the
2:08:07 one that brought the recommendation to us?
2:08:08 I would suggest that Dr. Mullins made the recommendation of
2:08:12 expected. So he probably is,
2:08:15 is comfortable with that recommendation. But go right ahead, Mr.
2:08:17 Susan.
2:08:18 Mr. Dr. Mullins, can you kind of leave, elaborate on the
2:08:22 decision that you made and why?
2:08:23 Well, I, I guess I would remind the board that we, we originally
2:08:31 brought
2:08:31 the recommendation of language that said strongly recommended
2:08:35 and after board discussion and community
2:08:37 input from the workshop to the board presentation, the language
2:08:42 changed based on the feedback that we
2:08:44 received. Um, which I think reflects the board’s discussion at
2:08:48 the workshop and as well as some of
2:08:51 the feedback we received. Um, I, again, I heard loud and clear
2:08:56 from the board on at the, at the board
2:08:58 meeting that we needed to clearly set the tone and the
2:09:02 expectation of what expectation means. And I’m
2:09:05 pleased to hear that that was unsolicited feedback from Ms. McDougall
2:09:08 and Ms. Deskovich that the message
2:09:11 that I provided to parents last night set the bar at, uh,
2:09:18 essentially it is expected and that’s a non-negotiable.
2:09:20 Um, the expectation is every student bring a mask to school and
2:09:24 it’s an environment where they are
2:09:26 taken on and off, uh, as appropriate when social distancing
2:09:30 cannot be adhered to. So if the will of
2:09:34 the board is to take that, you know, I’ll take the feedback of
2:09:37 the board and the direction from the
2:09:38 board. If that is to take it to a next level, then we’ll
2:09:41 certainly respond.
2:09:42 Maybe we can ask a couple of questions to what his
2:09:44 recommendation is because I think that they’re both in
2:09:47 the same. So can I follow a quick question? So Dr. Mullins,
2:09:50 I’m a teacher and I’m inside of a classroom where socially distanced
2:09:54 it cannot be performed
2:09:56 by six feet. It is expected that every kid inside of there wears
2:09:59 a mask along with that teacher,
2:10:01 correct? Correct. And then in the event that a student decides
2:10:05 to come in there and says,
2:10:06 I’m not wearing it, I don’t care, no, whatever, what do we do
2:10:09 there? What is that piece?
2:10:10 If the teacher would counsel with the student first and then if
2:10:15 that doesn’t become, uh, successful,
2:10:18 then the administration would intervene and get to a place where
2:10:21 they understand what, what the
2:10:23 concern or issue or situation is for the student and or the
2:10:27 classroom.
2:10:28 And then anywhere. So school buses, um, anywhere, cafeteria,
2:10:34 anywhere, anywhere there’s an area
2:10:36 where the kids cannot be six feet apart. It is expected that
2:10:40 they have a mask and the staff is
2:10:43 expected to have a mask. Correct. It’s like the same thing as a
2:10:50 mandate.
2:10:51 Um, so just trying to gauge where we are with, are we, do you
2:11:00 desire more time to look into it,
2:11:02 Mr. Susan and revisit the issue next week? Do you want to
2:11:06 address the issue today? Do you?
2:11:09 I’d rather, I’d rather wait until next week. I would.
2:11:12 Ms. Duskovich decision today or have a discussion next week?
2:11:17 If we’re considering changing it, then we, I think we need to
2:11:23 delay. If we’re not considered changing it, then we don’t need
2:11:29 to have a big old discussion.
2:11:32 Okay. So let me see if I can whittle this down. Ms. Campbell’s
2:11:37 indicated that she has no desire
2:11:39 to change it. Mr. Susan. She wants it to be voted today. Ms. McDougal
2:11:45 wants it to be voted today.
2:11:46 Do you want it to be voted today? That’s what I think is the
2:11:49 first step.
2:11:50 If I could just interject, I think you can come to a point where
2:11:57 the, you can break it down into two
2:11:58 questions. Is the board majority interested in moving to a
2:12:03 mandate? If so, you can say let’s vote on
2:12:06 mandating masks today so everybody knows one way or the other.
2:12:10 If that’s the move, schedule discussion
2:12:13 next week about how it looks. Then staff can prepare or you guys
2:12:19 can prepare, however you guys want to roll
2:12:22 that out for that discussion and answering those questions. And
2:12:26 then you achieve both if the interest
2:12:29 is to go to mandated. But then you’re also, you’re giving the
2:12:33 guidance that Ms. Campbell wants the public
2:12:36 to have and they can start making their decisions for elementary
2:12:39 leading and learning and secondary leading
2:12:41 and learning to make appropriate staffing moves to set up e-learning
2:12:48 and prepare for school opening. But
2:12:51 at the same time, you’re leaving it open to answer all the
2:12:54 questions. You can always go back and then
2:12:58 parents can say, well, I’m moving my kids from in class to e-learning
2:13:02 or virtual later on.
2:13:03 I would suggest that, um, I don’t, I don’t know if some of you
2:13:16 can say if you were interested in
2:13:18 exploring going to a mandate. Are you, Mr. Susan, you still are
2:13:22 committed to having discussion next year?
2:13:24 I am in, I am in favor of moving towards a mandate only if I
2:13:27 know that the kids inside those classrooms
2:13:30 are not going to wear their masks. That’s what it comes down to
2:13:32 for me. If we come back to school
2:13:34 and a mandate would have meant that those kids are wearing their
2:13:37 masks inside that classroom and
2:13:38 protecting our teachers and our staff and our students, then I’m,
2:13:41 I’m okay with what we have now.
2:13:44 But if it, if it’s the fact that those kids aren’t doing what we
2:13:46 need them to do and wear the masks,
2:13:48 then I, I, if we need to put a mandate down, we do it. That’s,
2:13:52 that’s where I’m at.
2:13:52 Like if you tell me that right now the kids are going to come
2:13:55 back, they’re not going to sit
2:13:56 there and pull their masks off and, and, and, you know, cause a
2:13:59 problem. And, um, what we have
2:14:02 is going to work and, and teachers are going to come back and
2:14:04 students are going to come 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 and for the health and
2:14:10 wellness of our people and everything else, I’m, I’m okay to do
2:14:13 that. I am. That’s what it is for me.
2:14:18 Ms. Deskovich move toward mandate or explore moving toward
2:14:21 mandate, or you want to stay where we are?
2:14:23 Uh, I think with what I’ve just heard, I think we need to
2:14:27 workshop it.
2:14:27 Okay, then, um, we will move to discussion on a potential mask
2:14:38 mandate next. I think Ms.
2:14:41 Escobar sent us an invite for the 30th in the morning prior to
2:14:44 our other, we have a work session
2:14:46 that morning and then a workshop and then our board meeting that
2:14:48 evening. Everyone good?
2:14:51 So, just for the people who are watching, because we, you know,
2:14:55 it looks like three board members are,
2:14:58 at least, are saying they’re looking at a mandate. So, what we’re
2:15:03 going to be talking about is what
2:15:04 that mandate looks like.
2:15:05 Uh, or I, I think they’re, I, I think Ms. Deskovich and Mr.
2:15:12 Susan indicated that they are interested in
2:15:15 exploring a mandate, but they may decide that they don’t want to
2:15:18 go to a mandate after we have that
2:15:20 discussion. I mean, I don’t, I want to hear back from staff
2:15:23 because they have extreme concerns because
2:15:24 Dr. Mullins has brought forward a recommendation that’s not a
2:15:27 mandate, and they’re the ones that
2:15:28 got to operate this entire operation. So, I know that everybody
2:15:31 out there wants to mandate a mask,
2:15:33 and don’t get me wrong, like, I know it’s what’s best for our
2:15:35 people and it’s going to keep teachers
2:15:37 to come back, but when our own staff is coming to us and saying,
2:15:39 no, we don’t want 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 know that we were
2:15:48 going to be having this deep in deep conversation today, so I,
2:15:51 that’s the reason that I am where I
2:15:53 am. I want to talk to the staff. I want to talk to my
2:15:55 communities. I want to go into my, um, daycares
2:15:59 that have been running since COVID broke out. What are they
2:16:01 doing? Um, I want to do all that stuff
2:16:03 and then come back with a strong recommendation. I just, I, I, I
2:16:06 want our people to be able to wear
2:16:08 their masks, but at the same time, I want to see what’s out
2:16:10 there and the reasons behind it. That’s all.
2:16:11 Um, okay. I, I, I have to jump in one more time. Um, we have
2:16:18 three hours of input from our community
2:16:22 and I heard 75 to 80% of the people said, why are we not
2:16:26 mandated a mask? Did anybody get 500 emails in
2:16:30 their inbox about some teachers from the community about why are
2:16:35 we not mandated masks along with why
2:16:39 are we opening schools? Um, I, I just think I’m, I’m curious on
2:16:44 what do you, what information do you
2:16:46 think we’re going to get that’s going to be any different than
2:16:49 what we have now? And either you
2:16:51 feel it’s important enough to protect our staff and our children
2:16:55 or you don’t, again, they’re in a much
2:16:57 smaller space than what we are in in the boardroom.
2:17:02 I understand what you’re saying, Ms. McDougall, but I would say
2:17:07 that the majority of public comment
2:17:09 on any issue that we vote on is the people who feel the opposite
2:17:12 of what is being recommended and
2:17:13 voting on, voted on at the time. And I’m not saying that we
2:17:15 would have had 500 emails on either side,
2:17:18 but there are many people who wouldn’t necessarily have spoken
2:17:21 up for public comment or sent us an
2:17:23 email because they were fine with the plan as is. Um, I, I don’t
2:17:28 know that we’re going to get 500 the
2:17:31 other way in between now and next Thursday, but we will, we are
2:17:34 likely to hear more from the people who
2:17:37 feel the other way when we’re, you know, having that
2:17:40 conversation. And to that point, not one of those
2:17:44 people that were speaking were the people that are in charge of
2:17:47 monitoring and putting it into a plan
2:17:50 and operating it. And that’s the people that I want to go back
2:17:52 to and talk to. That’s, that’s the
2:17:54 purpose behind that. I mean, I understand the public comment.
2:17:57 Look, every one of the people on my COVID
2:17:59 team that I put together to transition are calling for mask
2:18:02 mandates and I applaud them, but I want to
2:18:04 hear the why on the back end. And I didn’t know we were going to
2:18:06 have this discussion today and I would
2:18:08 like to do that. That’s all. I think that’s the key point to
2:18:10 this discussion is none of us, this was
2:18:13 not on the agenda. This wasn’t even put on discussion points. We
2:18:16 had no idea we were going to have this
2:18:17 discussion today. The public has no idea we’re going to have
2:18:20 this discussion today. We approved a plan
2:18:23 last week with the word as it was, and the public assumed that
2:18:27 that was, why would someone email and
2:18:30 assume that we’re going to change our minds a week later if that’s
2:18:32 what we approved. So, uh, I think if
2:18:35 this is something that we are considering changing, it has to be
2:18:38 in an open, transparent way and you
2:18:40 have to have time for people to know that, I mean, unless they
2:18:43 logged into this meeting, they would
2:18:45 have no idea that we are considering changing our minds and that
2:18:49 is, that is not open and transparent
2:18:51 governance. I just want to make a comment. I did put this, I did
2:18:54 ask for this on the agenda earlier in
2:18:56 the week, last week, just for, and somehow it didn’t make it on,
2:19:01 but I did ask for it. Thank you,
2:19:03 Ms. McDougall. I didn’t know that. Okay. So I’m hearing that we
2:19:10 are going to reconvene on the 30th to discuss
2:19:13 metrics and, uh, mask. Is that correct? Okay. Ms. Belford, just,
2:19:20 uh, at the sacrifice of our,
2:19:23 not trying to complicate issues, but I, I will, I have been
2:19:26 reminded that part of the reason language was
2:19:28 changed to the board meeting was that the board indicated in
2:19:32 discussion that they were not prepared
2:19:35 or not, they did not want discipline to be part of the
2:19:38 consideration of not wearing a mask, which is
2:19:41 what led us to expectation, which was increased height level of
2:19:45 expectation, level of implementation,
2:19:49 uh, from the workshop to the board meeting. Um, I will work with
2:19:53 staff and we’ll be prepared to,
2:19:55 if there’s gonna be discussion moving to a required level of
2:20:00 mask, I work with staff and we’ll have
2:20:03 information leading to what that would look like in terms of
2:20:06 discipline. If, if the board chooses to
2:20:09 raise it again, does that make sense? Yeah. Discipline early
2:20:12 years, there’s school districts that have
2:20:15 mandated above fifth grade. There’s school districts that have,
2:20:18 what is the plan if a kid doesn’t follow
2:20:20 it. Just those kinds of things. And if you need me to kind of
2:20:22 send those to you, my thoughts that need
2:20:24 to be answered, that would be great. So if there’s specific
2:20:28 information you would like 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 best to get those
2:20:35 questions addressed for you. And we will revisit the issue, um,
2:20:39 next week.
2:20:41 Is there anything else for today? Yep. Got a couple. So Dr.
2:20:45 Sullivan, I kind of gave her a forewarning.
2:20:49 Um, Brevard Virtual, and these are questions that people are
2:20:51 asking out there. Brevard Virtual,
2:20:53 is there a way to do the Spanish, um, translation piece for that
2:20:57 website like we do the others? There’s
2:21:00 a lot of Hispanic families that are trying to log on and they’re
2:21:03 having difficulty. Is that a possibility?
2:21:05 You get an ish. I know you all don’t like my ishes. Um, for the
2:21:11 website, uh, for Brevard Virtual School,
2:21:14 yes, um, no problem there. However, the content which is
2:21:18 provided through Florida Virtual School does not
2:21:21 have language translation. And so, uh, our, as a franchise of
2:21:27 Florida Virtual School, we use Florida
2:21:29 Virtual School content. And that content currently does not
2:21:33 allow for translation. Outside of a student,
2:21:37 of course, choosing to use translation tools that we could
2:21:40 assist them with. So like, if I go to the
2:21:42 Brevard Virtual and I look on that webpage, we’ll be able to, to
2:21:45 translate that piece. But it’s the
2:21:47 back-end documents, the, the pieces that we’re pulling from
2:21:50 Florida Virtual that cannot be
2:21:52 translated to Spanish is what I’m hearing. So like, a family can
2:21:55 go on there and understand the process,
2:21:57 but the actual next step is where we’re having issues with
2:22:00 Florida Virtual being their back-end.
2:22:02 I think, I, yeah, I’m just, I’m not sure. I totally understand
2:22:06 the question. The, the actual curriculum,
2:22:09 the course that our teachers implement is from Florida Virtual
2:22:13 School. That content is pre-produced,
2:22:17 and does not have translation feature, the content itself.
2:22:21 However, there are tools that we work with
2:22:26 our English language learners on, and how to use those tools to
2:22:29 translate content. So it would
2:22:31 definitely be trickier. We could certainly work with our school
2:22:36 staff to assist parents. So a parent of a
2:22:41 non-English speaker, I would encourage them to work first with
2:22:45 their ELL contact at their school,
2:22:47 and to assist them in making some of those decisions. It’s not
2:22:50 super simple, but there are some resources
2:22:53 available. But that, and that, that wasn’t, I understand that
2:22:56 100%. That’s the, after I’ve applied,
2:22:58 that’s something in the class. Correct. Where I’m having an
2:23:01 issue with some of the families down in,
2:23:03 in Melbourne right now is, is that they’re going online, and it’s
2:23:06 very difficult for them to navigate and
2:23:08 make choices as parents, because it’s not in Spanish. So I think
2:23:11 that what we did with that other one,
2:23:13 if we can start, just kind of look at that, Mr. Cheatham, or
2:23:15 about the translation, seems like an easy
2:23:18 thing. It is. That main website is built within our overall
2:23:23 district website platform that has the
2:23:27 ability to do that. Okay, perfect. Yep. All right. And then also,
2:23:31 are we allowing AP
2:23:33 and Cambridge at the Brevard Virtual? Um, ish. Some of them.
2:23:39 Advanced placement courses are run
2:23:42 through Florida Virtual School. So our full-time BVS students
2:23:46 are typically navigating both BVS and
2:23:50 FLVS courses, and that isn’t a normal routine of things.
2:23:55 Cambridge is not offered through Brevard Virtual
2:23:58 School. And so those students who would like to remain at home
2:24:02 and still participate in Cambridge,
2:24:05 e-learning is their best option. Okay. And the same thing for
2:24:08 advanced placement, or we’re going to offer
2:24:10 a couple of advanced placements for Brevard Virtual, or that
2:24:13 goes to Florida Virtual? Correct. So if a student
2:24:16 otherwise is choosing Brevard Virtual School, they would use the
2:24:19 Florida Virtual School courses for advanced
2:24:21 placement. Um, it would just depend if they want to stay
2:24:25 attached to Brevard Virtual School or their home
2:24:29 school on whether they’re navigating it as part of a virtual
2:24:33 school. The difference really with virtual
2:24:36 school or e-learning is virtual school is not time specific,
2:24:40 whereas e-learning is time specific. And we’re
2:24:43 working hard to offer those AP courses at our e-learning centers
2:24:47 inside of our schools. So if a kid… We are
2:24:49 offering all those courses. Perfect. So if a kid’s on track,
2:24:52 like my daughter’s on track to take a bunch
2:24:54 of APs next year that were offered at Viera High School, she’ll
2:24:57 still be able to do that. Not that she is,
2:24:59 but if she was to move to the e-learning, she would be able to
2:25:02 take those e-learning. Correct. Our entire
2:25:04 complement of secondary courses and programs is available
2:25:08 through e-learning. Some of the courses may require a few
2:25:12 in-person activities. For example, some of our career and tech
2:25:16 ed courses where they have to do a lab skill.
2:25:19 But yes, any student in secondary could take whatever they would
2:25:23 normally 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 have schedule conflicts.
2:25:32 Like there’s maybe singletons and, you know, as much as the
2:25:36 schedule would work in person, the schedule
2:25:38 will work e-learning. Perfect. I just, I think a lot of the
2:25:42 parents out there need to understand
2:25:44 that when they choose that e-learning, they’re not only attached
2:25:47 to the school, but they actually have
2:25:49 the connection to that teacher that’s there, that’s been
2:25:51 teaching it forever, knows the kids, is in the
2:25:53 community and everything else. And I think that that’s a good a
2:25:56 good selling point, not to forget.
2:25:58 We agree. And e-learning and secondary is very agile. We’re
2:26:03 anticipating students at various stages might
2:26:07 need to quarantine and might need some more flexible options if
2:26:10 something’s going on at home. Those students
2:26:13 can really easily do that. That’s the part of why all teachers
2:26:17 do it. So in order to get flexibility on
2:26:20 one end, that’s the trade-off. But on the flip side, it de-densifies
2:26:24 those teachers’ classrooms.
2:26:26 Beautiful. Thank you so much, Dr. Sullivan, for that update. Ms.
2:26:30 Klein, pre-K, what’s going on? I was
2:26:32 trying not to go to Tallahassee. Get in your car. No, actually,
2:26:40 we haven’t received anything
2:26:43 formal from the Office of Early Learning. However, we did get an
2:26:48 inquiry on how we set up our distant
2:26:50 learning for pre-K in our last little at-home learning
2:26:56 experience. So they wanted to see what
2:27:00 work we had done. So obviously then they’re looking at things.
2:27:05 So that was a little glimmer of hope.
2:27:07 So there’s a possibility because they’re inquiring on how we did
2:27:10 e-learning for pre-K,
2:27:12 but they haven’t given us directive of if it’s going to be a
2:27:14 possibility as of yet.
2:27:16 That is correct. Okay. So as of right now, unless we hear
2:27:19 anything different,
2:27:20 then the pre-Ks probably are going to come back. But there’s a
2:27:22 chance that they might make a decision
2:27:24 to go e-learning. And we don’t know. So we’re asking our parents
2:27:28 to make that decision up until
2:27:30 the last day of the summer based upon our information. So it’s
2:27:33 kind of a moving based on
2:27:35 Tallahassee. It’s an ish. It’s an ish. There’s a whole lot of
2:27:39 issues out there. A lot of issues. But yes,
2:27:41 right now, currently our pre-K will be in brick and mortar
2:27:45 classrooms.
2:27:46 Okay. Next one is is aftercare. We were going to get back. Here’s
2:27:51 how we can socially distance
2:27:53 plan or something we were talking about last week. Have we
2:27:55 gotten to that point yet?
2:27:56 So we are working on that. We’re actually – yesterday evening,
2:28:02 I met with our BSA team,
2:28:05 and we are looking at how many students we can fit in each of
2:28:10 our cafeteria media centers. We did a
2:28:13 survey with our principals to see what extra space we can have.
2:28:17 We’re also looking at our percentage of
2:28:20 employees that use the aftercare program to make sure that we
2:28:26 include them. So we’re working on that funding
2:28:31 and also on the space. I don’t have a complete plan as of yet.
2:28:37 Sue hand gave us a great little tool yesterday about with the
2:28:46 fish report and class
2:28:47 spacing. And so I was playing with that last night and need to
2:28:54 go out and do some models at some schools
2:28:56 to see if it – if that information represents what a school can
2:29:01 actually do.
2:29:02 Yeah, because when you were talking about other space, there’s
2:29:05 an opportunity to utilize larger spaces
2:29:07 also inside the classroom, whether that’s – you know what I
2:29:10 mean – the library or those other areas.
2:29:12 The only other question is, is that at the end of the day, do we
2:29:15 have the custodial staff at the
2:29:17 end of the day to turn back around and clean that, or is that
2:29:19 going to be on our aftercare teachers
2:29:21 to try to perform that? That was a question that came up.
2:29:24 Typically, we have custodial staff
2:29:26 until after aftercare closes. Good, good, good, good. Okay. Okay,
2:29:32 Ms. Moore, I texted you over there.
2:29:34 Can you go through that process once again? I’m so sorry because
2:29:37 you did it already and I wasn’t ready
2:29:39 for it. But if a teacher tests positive in the classroom, what
2:29:42 is the plan? If a student tests
2:29:43 positive in the classroom, what is the plan? If an athlete tests
2:29:46 positive, what is the plan? Sorry.
2:29:50 That’s okay. I’m going under the assumption that school’s in
2:29:56 session.
2:29:56 Yes. From that question? Yes, I’m sorry.
2:29:59 So, I’m going to give you a bigger answer than you want, so I’ll
2:30:05 apologize right up front.
2:30:07 So, it’s not just about somebody testing positive. It’s also
2:30:11 about a presumption of case. It’s also
2:30:14 about if they live with a case. So, I’ll just start with the
2:30:17 category of a teacher test positive.
2:30:19 And I’m going to go with the category of the teacher test
2:30:23 positive and is symptomatic. So,
2:30:25 right from the lead in of this conversation, you can see that it’s
2:30:30 hard for me to give an answer when
2:30:33 every case is super specific. And, you know, for my peers around
2:30:38 the room that we’ve dealt with cases,
2:30:40 I think they’ve seen that every single case, we have to go
2:30:43 through a series of about 10 to 15 questions
2:30:47 to get to the answer that you’re looking for. So, I’m going to
2:30:50 give you a really general answer,
2:30:52 and it’s going to be based on the most common scenario. It’s
2:30:55 that a teacher is symptomatic
2:30:57 and they test positive. Several things are going to happen. We’re
2:31:02 going to meet together, convene the
2:31:04 rapid response team as soon as we know. We’re going to determine
2:31:08 basically the contacts of that case.
2:31:13 We’re going to do basically a contact tracing that we are able
2:31:18 to do based on the questions we’re able
2:31:21 to ask. And from that, we’re going to determine if we’re going
2:31:25 to close that building down for three days.
2:31:28 Off of one teacher testing positive? It could happen. That one
2:31:32 teacher might be a PE teacher.
2:31:35 It might be a music teacher. It might be somebody that had 150
2:31:40 contacts that day. So, you begin to see
2:31:42 that the rapid response team is gathering information to
2:31:46 determine our next steps. It’s why this question is
2:31:52 so hard for me to answer. It could be that that teacher gets
2:31:57 sent home for the length of time it takes
2:32:02 for her to meet the DOH guidelines, which are 10 days from the
2:32:06 onset of symptoms, three days beyond the very
2:32:10 last symptom showing, which is the very last cough, the very
2:32:14 last fever, the very last headache, three days
2:32:18 beyond the very last symptom showing. And that’s up to the
2:32:22 teacher to make that decision.
2:32:24 Three days of no symptoms, right? Once we have a confirmed case
2:32:31 and a symptomatic case,
2:32:33 they’re working with the Department of Health and the Department
2:32:35 of Health is going in and tracking
2:32:37 when was your first symptom and they’re checking in when is your
2:32:40 last symptom. So, the Department of Health
2:32:42 is guiding symptomatic positive cases. It gets a little bit more
2:32:46 challenging when it’s an asymptomatic case.
2:32:49 At that point, we use a 14-day standard unless that person is,
2:32:55 of course, living with somebody else who
2:32:57 has tested positive and then we have a different set of
2:32:59 standards. So, I know that gives you very hazy
2:33:04 description of what’s happening, but the rapid response team has
2:33:09 a series of about 10 to 15 questions that
2:33:12 we go through very systematically asking questions to determine
2:33:17 what the spread might be in the school,
2:33:20 to determine whether or not we’re dealing with a very isolated
2:33:24 circumstance or whether we are dealing
2:33:26 with somebody who had multiple contacts across multiple
2:33:29 different areas of the building. And I think the
2:33:35 example I gave last time and I’m going to give it again this
2:33:39 time just because I know this is a question
2:33:42 for a lot of people. What exactly are you going to do when there’s
2:33:46 a case? And they want a black and white
2:33:49 answer and the answer is gray. And so, I’m going to give the
2:33:51 example again and I hope you just can tolerate
2:33:54 me doing it. No, no. Thank you for working through this. Thank
2:33:58 you. So, when we have a student and I’m
2:34:00 going to take a fifth grade student that comes to school and
2:34:04 they ride the bus. They ride the bus with
2:34:07 many kids and seated next to them based on our policy is their
2:34:11 brother who’s in the second grade.
2:34:13 So, we have those two kids that get off the bus, they go into
2:34:17 the cafeteria, they go through the breakfast
2:34:19 line and they sit in the cafeteria. Although it is socially distanced
2:34:23 and it’s spaced, they eat lunch
2:34:26 at a table with many other, well, with at least two other
2:34:29 students depending on how many students we fit at the table.
2:34:33 They then have some time outside the cafeteria where they
2:34:36 congregate with their friends because there’s
2:34:39 always a little bit of time in between breakfast and when they
2:34:43 walk into the classroom. And then they
2:34:45 go into the classroom, both of them into separate classrooms and
2:34:49 they are with 20 other students.
2:34:52 And then the second grader gets pulled out for gifted services,
2:34:56 the fifth grader gets pulled out for
2:34:58 services based on his disability. And then they may go into
2:35:01 aftercare after school. You can see the amount
2:35:05 of contacts and the spread across a building that those two
2:35:09 students may have based on one positive test.
2:35:13 In that, that is an absolute case where we as a rapid response
2:35:18 team would say that building needs to be
2:35:21 shut down. The parents need to be notified. We need to wait 24
2:35:26 to 48 hours. The custodial strike team needs
2:35:31 to go in and support the local custodial staff in a deep clean
2:35:35 before we bring the students back into the building.
2:35:38 So that’s, that’s that three day scenario. So, um, do masks,
2:35:43 social distancing, any of those other factors
2:35:47 play into this or no, just they were close. It won’t play in. I’m
2:35:52 sorry to interrupt you. It won’t play into the
2:35:54 decision to close the building, but it will play into, um, one
2:35:58 of the things that comes out from the
2:36:00 department of health letter is, uh, parents, your child may have
2:36:05 been in contact with a case and you may
2:36:07 want to seek, um, testing. It does play into the results that
2:36:11 that testing may come out. Um, because
2:36:15 if we don’t have those mitigation factors, the likelihood of the
2:36:19 spread is going to be that in
2:36:21 five to seven days when we get the results back from those tests,
2:36:25 we are going to have more, uh, more
2:36:28 students who will test positive, which is then going to mean
2:36:31 that we’re going to be closing the building
2:36:33 again and again and again. The mitigation strategies are there
2:36:37 to keep our buildings open. We can’t mitigate
2:36:41 what happens after school or before school. We can’t mitigate if
2:36:45 a, if a child is attending a birthday
2:36:47 party on a Saturday or attending Little League at night. We can’t
2:36:50 mitigate any of that, but we can at
2:36:52 least do our best to mitigate what happens in school and, uh,
2:36:56 and the hopes that we’re not closing school
2:36:59 over and over and over again because a case was transmitted
2:37:02 within our eight hours of the day, right? Sure.
2:37:06 The other scenario is, of course, you know, a fifth grader that
2:37:09 gets on the bus, um, is not, is, you know,
2:37:13 is wearing a mask, uh, is not sitting next to a sibling, gets
2:37:17 off the bus, um, is noticed as they
2:37:20 get off the bus by, uh, uh, an instructional assistant who’s
2:37:24 standing- A temperature check.
2:37:26 It is standing outside and says, you, you, you don’t, you don’t
2:37:29 look so good. Let, let’s go down to the
2:37:31 clinic. And they go down to the clinic and after a series of
2:37:34 questions, the nurse either realizes that
2:37:36 the child had contact to a case or is symptomatic and calls the
2:37:40 family and asks the family to come pick
2:37:42 them up. The rapid response team would look at that scenario and
2:37:45 realize that the student had very
2:37:47 limited access. We would still do a notification to anybody that
2:37:51 may have come into contact with that
2:37:53 student, but we wouldn’t look at closing down a building for
2:37:56 three days. Um, that same scenario,
2:37:59 that same rapid response scenario plays out whether it’s a
2:38:02 student or a teacher. Um, the hardest cases of,
2:38:06 of course, are going to be the cases where it’s asymptomatic and,
2:38:10 and, and we don’t, we don’t realize
2:38:12 it’s happening and there’s transmission before, before we ever
2:38:15 realize we have a positive case.
2:38:17 So what I’m hearing you say is, is that as we, if a, if a
2:38:20 student or a teacher tests positive and
2:38:23 there’s multiple points, whether that’s classrooms or whatever,
2:38:26 there’s a high chance of us shutting
2:38:27 down a school, right? That is correct. And then we’re shutting
2:38:30 it down for three days, deep cleaning
2:38:32 and all that stuff. And then coming back by identifying the
2:38:35 individuals that are saying to the individuals
2:38:38 that tested positive, you have these other stipulations of no,
2:38:41 you know what I mean? No symptoms and everything else. Um, I
2:38:44 just, when I was thinking of that,
2:38:45 I just, when I was thinking of that, the ability that those
2:38:49 individuals who did come in contact with them,
2:38:52 who did possibly get, um, possibly become infected are still
2:38:58 coming back three days later because the incubation
2:39:00 period is five to seven days. And so it’s just a rolling. Okay.
2:39:04 It could, it could be. Uh, and that’s
2:39:06 always been my concern as well. I mean, I have two concerns and
2:39:10 you guys have all brought them up. Um, the,
2:39:13 um, the biggest one is the, um, the return rate or the return
2:39:17 time of the tests and the fact that
2:39:21 there’s an incubation period. Um, and so we have a lot of people
2:39:24 that want to go out and immediately
2:39:26 test and they test negative, uh, and they wait three more days
2:39:30 and they test positive because there is a
2:39:32 five to seven day incubation period. Um, so that’s part of the
2:39:35 reason why it’s so important that we do
2:39:37 have mitigated mitigation strategies in our schools is because
2:39:40 we don’t wanna, we don’t want an unending
2:39:43 cycle of open, close, open, close, open, close. Um, the other
2:39:47 scenario, and you mentioned about a teacher
2:39:50 positivity rate. The other scenario is of course, and I
2:39:54 mentioned this in our meetings, that we reach a point
2:39:56 where it’s unsafe to operate our buildings just by sheer lack of
2:40:01 personnel in the buildings. Um, we’ve
2:40:04 taken a survey of some of our principals, our secondary
2:40:06 principals. I haven’t, um, spoken to our elementary
2:40:09 principals yet about this, about what is the rate of absenteeism,
2:40:13 uh, adult absenteeism in which they can
2:40:16 safely operate their buildings. And we were speaking
2:40:19 specifically of teachers in classrooms. Um, and
2:40:24 the average right now is coming back at about 15%. So there will
2:40:28 reach a point where we have to draw
2:40:31 that line in the sand and say, based on teachers being quarantined
2:40:35 or teachers being out, uh, ill
2:40:37 themselves, um, that the building will need to be shut down for
2:40:41 a specific period of time just in order for
2:40:43 the building to function. So that’s also on our radar. We’re
2:40:47 looking at a three-day plan, a 14-day plan,
2:40:50 and a three-month plan, to be frank. Okay. Um, and what needs to
2:40:54 kick into place, uh, to get students
2:40:56 through with a, uh, in the case of a three-day plan, a
2:40:59 continuity of instruction, in the case of a
2:41:01 14-day or three-month plan, uh, a remote learning option for
2:41:05 students. So, um, we’re aware, that’s where
2:41:08 this whole conversation. Yeah, we’re aware of every scenario.
2:41:09 Let me rephrase. We think we’re aware
2:41:12 of every scenario, but every day I get something new. Now, thank
2:41:16 you so much for that, because that
2:41:17 was the piece that I was getting a lot of questions on, is what
2:41:21 happens when this happens? What am I,
2:41:23 as a parent, expected to be doing? Yeah. And what I’m hearing
2:41:26 you say is, is that if, if you’re notified
2:41:29 that your kid has to stay home or whatever, then that’s your
2:41:31 responsibility. If their school stops,
2:41:33 we’re going to go to e-learning, right? Some sort of process
2:41:37 there, and then if, and, and some sort
2:41:39 of a plan is going to come out for those transitions before the
2:41:42 start of school or something. Yeah, so
2:41:44 really good question, and I understand why the parents are
2:41:46 concerned. Our first, our first answer to
2:41:48 that is, if your child is ill and symptomatic, your whole focus
2:41:53 needs to be wellness. Uh, we, when the
2:41:55 child’s well, we’ll do, we’ll do what it needs to take at the
2:41:58 school level to get that student caught up.
2:42:01 If the student is caught up in an asymptomatic issue where they’re
2:42:04 home, they’re asymptomatic,
2:42:05 and they’re well enough to work, but it’s just, uh, one student
2:42:09 in one class with one teacher. Again,
2:42:11 we look to our schools and that teacher to be sending home work
2:42:14 the way they would with any,
2:42:15 with any student who’s out ill. Once we get into a closing the
2:42:19 school scenario for a three-day scenario,
2:42:21 the schools are looking at, and we, I believe we have a team
2:42:24 that’s going to be getting together. I don’t
2:42:26 think they’ve actually started that work, but I could be wrong,
2:42:30 um, to look at what does a three-day
2:42:33 out look like. What we, we know what it doesn’t look like. It
2:42:36 doesn’t look like an online remote
2:42:39 option, because to get it, uh, to get those computers out and
2:42:43 back for a three-day absence,
2:42:45 uh, just would never happen. Um, we’re looking at, you know, at
2:42:48 10 o’clock at night getting a phone call,
2:42:51 having the rapid response team meet at 10 o’clock at night, and
2:42:55 having information out to parents,
2:42:57 you know, by 6 a.m., kind of like in north, up in north when
2:43:00 they do the snow days, that information
2:43:02 comes out pretty quick, and you have to operate pretty quick. A
2:43:05 remote option just won’t be possible
2:43:07 for, for that technologically wise. Is that the right way to say
2:43:11 it? Okay. Um, but for a 14-day,
2:43:14 we are looking at, uh, a remote learning possibility, and
2:43:17 definitely if we have to go out longer than that,
2:43:20 so, um. And have we, have we checked with the, the DOE to make
2:43:24 sure that if we do transition out for
2:43:27 three days, that those three days are not going to be penalized
2:43:30 for not having the kids in 180 days
2:43:32 of classroom for minutes and stuff like that, that whatever work
2:43:35 we’re doing is transitioned correctly,
2:43:37 so that we’re not getting penalized on the back end? Well, we,
2:43:40 we are not, we’re not, we’re not going
2:43:42 out for three days. We are putting in our instructional
2:43:45 continuity plan for three days, so those three days
2:43:48 shouldn’t count against us, we’ll double check that, um, as part
2:43:52 of the group. You’re good. Yeah, go ahead.
2:43:54 The both of us grabbed our mics at the same time. It is, um, all
2:43:58 in that plan that we are submitting for DOE
2:44:01 approval. Okay. And so, um, in approving that plan, they would
2:44:06 be improving those contingencies as well.
2:44:09 Okay. There was a second part of that, but I forget what it is
2:44:13 now. What was the second part of it?
2:44:14 That’s good. Okay. Um, the other thing is, is that we had an
2:44:18 opportunity over the last, like three years,
2:44:20 one of the bane of our existence as school board members is that
2:44:23 our, it rains over and over again,
2:44:24 and we can’t get our grass crews to cut the grass, right? So I
2:44:27 was going to do a concerted effort this
2:44:29 year to try to get local volunteers to volunteer to cut the
2:44:33 grass. Um, but we’re saying that volunteers
2:44:35 can’t come on campus. Is there an opportunity that volunteers
2:44:38 can help as long as they’re not going
2:44:40 in the building and they’re just doing stuff like that, um, to
2:44:43 try to help offset it? Does that make
2:44:45 sense to you? I think that’s, uh, both a risk management
2:44:49 question, um, as, as well as the team
2:44:51 question. So, uh, we’ll have to get back to you on that question.
2:44:54 Just if I can get some clarification to
2:44:56 see if they’re not going to go inside the building, they’re not
2:44:59 going to re interact with anybody inside
2:45:01 the staff or anything like that. Are they allowed to come on
2:45:04 campus and help? You know what I mean?
2:45:06 With that kind of stuff. That would be the only thing, um, that
2:45:09 I would ask. And then, uh, that’s it.
2:45:13 I got it all. I do want to, I want to, I know Ms. Belford, you
2:45:16 asked about something and I gave you
2:45:18 half an answer about, um, working with the little ones with
2:45:21 their masks. I gave you the answer of the
2:45:24 team that’s working with the student with disabilities. I do
2:45:26 want you to know that our behavior analysts, um, led by
2:45:29 Jason Lobley, uh, Leslie Hall, Jennifer Clark, are creating
2:45:32 social stories for our littlest ones.
2:45:34 They have created a PowerPoint with voiceover for safe Steve, um,
2:45:39 to walk students through why, why,
2:45:41 what it is, why it is, how it is, um, and the best way to, to
2:45:44 keep themselves safe. So, yes, in answer to
2:45:47 that question, I, I missed that part and, and we do have a team
2:45:50 working on that. That’s awesome. Thank you, Ms. Moore.
2:45:53 Um, okay. Is there anything else before we, um, call this
2:45:59 meeting adjourned? All right. Board members
2:46:01 don’t go anywhere. We have another meeting after this. Don’t
2:46:03 forget. Um, but we will officially adjourn this
2:46:07 board meeting.
2:46:19 Thank you.