{"date":"2020-07-15","type":"Special Meeting","videoId":"vuhxZKBmGsM","audioDuration":17565,"speakers":{"A":{"name":"Janet Lawson","role":"Board President"},"B":{"name":"Liz Wolf","role":"Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services (presenter); also used for unidentified/background voices"},"C":{"name":"María Díaz-Slocum","role":"Trustee (also Dr. Baker, Superintendent, shares label in some exchanges)"},"D":{"name":"Eliana (staff)","role":"Staff/Clerk reading roll call; also María Díaz-Slocum and other board voices sharing label"},"E":{"name":"Alisa MacAvoy","role":"Board Clerk"},"F":{"name":"Dennis McBride","role":"Board Member (former President; per roster Cecilia I. Márquez is Trustee)"}},"utterances":[{"start":240,"end":26240,"speaker":"A","text":"Started. Eliana, can we have a roll call, please? Can't hear you, Cecilia, but you're not muted, so I'm not sure. It might be the headphones."},{"start":26420,"end":27300,"speaker":"B","text":"Oh, now you're muted."},{"start":31540,"end":32260,"speaker":"C","text":"She's here."},{"start":35940,"end":42900,"speaker":"D","text":"Vice president mcavoy, President Lawson."},{"start":43700,"end":54510,"speaker":"A","text":"I'm here. Alisa, are you able to unmute yourself? Not sure if she's able to."},{"start":55230,"end":57870,"speaker":"E","text":"Okay, yes, I just got permission to unmute myself."},{"start":58110,"end":58950,"speaker":"D","text":"Okay, thank you."},{"start":58950,"end":63630,"speaker":"E","text":"It's like being in the backseat of the car and the parent has not allowed you to open the window yet."},{"start":64350,"end":136790,"speaker":"A","text":"Apologies to the audience. We're actually using a different Zoom account, so it's. The settings are a little bit different than what we're used to. So let's see. Welcome, everyone, to our July 15th special board meeting. I've posted some links in the chat box for the agenda and the comment cards, but I'll post those again. There's also information in the chat box if you need Spanish translation. If you would like to speak to the board, please fill out the Google Doc. That's that link in the chat box. Make sure you include your name or whatever your name is as the attendee so that we know who to unmute when the time comes. And due to the volume of comment cards we've already received, we're only going to be accepting cards up through 6:15 tonight. So if you're planning to speak, make sure you get those cards in right now. And just as a reminder that because we're meeting via teleconference, all votes will be by roll call. So do we have any changes to the agenda? I think we're going to. We need to pull item 10.2 because item 8.1 is discussion only. Alisa, you would like to speak. She can't unmute herself."},{"start":142150,"end":143350,"speaker":"C","text":"I'm working on it."},{"start":146470,"end":153910,"speaker":"A","text":"So we're pulling item 10.2. And while you're working on that, I'm going to repost the links for the people have just joined."},{"start":155590,"end":235100,"speaker":"E","text":"Yeah, and Janet, I don't know if this is the right time to ask about this or later, but I did want to talk about, given all the people that would like to speak and also the hundreds of emails that we've already received on this issue. If we could, instead of having our normal three minutes for each person, change that to one minute for each person. And I will say that I was recently on the Palo Alto Unified School District webinar Zoom call for their particular discussion, and they had a minute. They had one minute. And I have talked to a few other board members and other Districts that also, when they have a lot of people commenting, in order to be respectful to everybody and give everybody an opportunity to speak without it going to midnight or 2 or 4am we could go to one minute instead. So I'd like to propose that as well. And then I'd also like to propose that there's some opportunity for the board to have a conversation before it gets too late in the evening. However, we structure the meeting because as a reminder, when we went through the process to close and merge schools, we had some really important discussions that happened around midnight. And I think it's really hard for the community to stay engaged with that as well as for board members to make good decisions."},{"start":237430,"end":241350,"speaker":"F","text":"So I have a clarifying question. How many speaker cards do you have?"},{"start":241990,"end":273260,"speaker":"A","text":"102. So you can do the math on that. I am definitely in favor of having board discussion. I talked to Dr. Baker about this earlier. I think after the presentation, we should have an opportunity to have some discussion and then hear from the. The audience. Because I think that depending on how our discussion goes, that may change what people want to say or whether or not they even want to speak."},{"start":275420,"end":284780,"speaker":"F","text":"So personally, I actually find hearing from the speakers helpful in formulating where I am. So for me, it feels a little out of sequence."},{"start":286620,"end":313140,"speaker":"A","text":"And so I wouldn't be proposing that we have, like, our final say, but just where we're. Where we're at right now, what we're thinking. Since we haven't had an opportunity to speak as a board because of the Brown act, it's hard to know what anybody else is thinking right now. Cecilia or maria?"},{"start":324830,"end":325870,"speaker":"C","text":"Maria's muted."},{"start":327150,"end":329310,"speaker":"F","text":"Cecilia's lips are moving, but you can't hear."},{"start":334510,"end":345360,"speaker":"D","text":"Okay, so I'm with Dennis. I would like to hear from people, if at all possible, if we could go to the one minute or as Elisa suggested, maybe that would help."},{"start":347920,"end":366400,"speaker":"F","text":"So I appreciate if you do the math. It's five hours, but maybe a compromise would be to do a minute and a half, because I think at this late moment, people may have practiced their presentation. And to cut it to a third feels a little drastic to me."},{"start":370090,"end":371370,"speaker":"A","text":"We're at 104 now."},{"start":377370,"end":388330,"speaker":"C","text":"Alisa that would like to say something. Kyle, if you could unmute her. Who's that? Alisa would like to say something. I see she's muted"},{"start":391930,"end":398170,"speaker":"E","text":"one. Is it possible to keep us unmuted so we don't have to go through the hand waving every time wondering if that's possible?"},{"start":399050,"end":407610,"speaker":"C","text":"So I have unmuted you three times, and I don't know how it keeps getting muted. So I will keep working on it on my side. My apologies."},{"start":408650,"end":490540,"speaker":"E","text":"Okay, thank you. I will say that we have gotten hundreds of emails and many of them have gone on for a full page, a couple pages. I know that all of us have been attending a lot of meetings, reviewing all the data from experts around the world, as well as counties and all of that. So although I appreciate that people have speaking cards for three minutes, I do feel like to ask the whole community to sit through five hours worth of conversation is a lot before a decision or direction is made. I do think that other districts handle things differently. There's an option of we take some public comment and then the board has a conversation, and then we can take additional comments. That way everybody gets to be heard. But I think it's actually respectful to the whole community, not go till midnight, 1 2am to make a decision that is this important. I think that everybody needs to hear what the staff and board members have to say as we give direction. And I have found that in other meetings, people drop off as it gets later, so they don't get the benefit of hearing the full conversation. So I'd really like to advocate for one minute. I guess we could do a minute and a half. We need to figure out the math. That's still hours worth of conversation. And again, it's not that I think a lot of what we're going to hear tonight, we've heard now through emails the last couple of weeks."},{"start":493900,"end":506220,"speaker":"A","text":"So, Cecilia, you are unmuted, but we haven't been able to hear you when you speak. No, we can't hear you. Try unplugging your headphones, because that's sometimes an issue."},{"start":514230,"end":514470,"speaker":"D","text":"No."},{"start":526630,"end":584130,"speaker":"A","text":"So we need to figure out. Cecilia, I don't know if you can call in from your phone and use that as your audio, although that's going to require Kyle figuring that out, too. So I'll just repeat that. I'm also in favor of bringing comments down to. I mean, a minute and a half is okay with me. And I think that it's really important for us to have an opportunity to share our thoughts so that the speakers know what we're thinking before they come to us, because they may be repeating all of our same thoughts also. And that doesn't mean that I don't want to hear from the audience. It means I would like to share my thoughts as a board member."},{"start":600140,"end":638850,"speaker":"C","text":"I suggest that we get started with the items that are on the agenda and let's get those out of the way first and then come Back to this. And may I make a recommendation that we go through the presentation. After the presentation, let's take a portion of the comments, listen, and then do that for maybe 30 minutes. What will we get through in 30 minutes? Come to the board and discuss for about 45 minutes, then go back to the comments for another 30 minutes. How does that work? Would that be fine with everybody?"},{"start":639260,"end":652860,"speaker":"A","text":"I think that's fine with me, but we still need to. So we're taking 10.2 off of action. And are there any other changes to the agenda?"},{"start":652860,"end":657740,"speaker":"F","text":"Yeah, this is. Dennis, I'd like to suggest 103 and 10 4. Move to consent."},{"start":659180,"end":667790,"speaker":"A","text":"I'm okay with that if everybody else is. I know, I know. Elisa, we can't."},{"start":667790,"end":668190,"speaker":"B","text":"You're."},{"start":668190,"end":668950,"speaker":"A","text":"You're muted."},{"start":673990,"end":689510,"speaker":"C","text":"It's really ridiculous. Kyle, can you unmute Elisa? Just the board finding is after. If I unmute you and then you mute yourself, you can't unmute yourself again."},{"start":694880,"end":704560,"speaker":"E","text":"Okay, thank you. Well, I'll try to. I guess I'll try without unmuting myself and see if that works and just leave it anyway. Dennis, I'm fine with those changes is what I wanted to say."},{"start":704560,"end":705040,"speaker":"D","text":"Thank you."},{"start":707120,"end":734270,"speaker":"A","text":"And Cecilia Maria, are you okay with those changes also? At least give a thumbs up. Thank you. So 103 and 104 will be on consent. So can we have a roll call vote, please? And Eliana probably needs to be unmuted again."},{"start":739230,"end":739870,"speaker":"C","text":"Okay."},{"start":753640,"end":759480,"speaker":"D","text":"Trustee Marquez. Trustee diazloca."},{"start":759640,"end":760200,"speaker":"B","text":"Okay."},{"start":760200,"end":760840,"speaker":"C","text":"She said"},{"start":763880,"end":765400,"speaker":"D","text":"Vice President mcavor."},{"start":766440,"end":766840,"speaker":"B","text":"I."},{"start":767850,"end":768650,"speaker":"D","text":"President Lawson."},{"start":769210,"end":769770,"speaker":"B","text":"Aye."},{"start":770490,"end":774890,"speaker":"F","text":"So I didn't hear my. I think I had a problem. I didn't hear my name, but I'm an aye."},{"start":778730,"end":789850,"speaker":"A","text":"Okay. It looks like all of our speakers cards are for item 8.1, so we can move on to the bond consent. Do we have a motion to approve?"},{"start":794580,"end":795060,"speaker":"C","text":"So move."},{"start":795860,"end":800500,"speaker":"A","text":"Second, Dennis and Elisa, roll call vote, please."},{"start":800820,"end":801860,"speaker":"D","text":"Trustee McBride."},{"start":802180,"end":802740,"speaker":"F","text":"Aye."},{"start":803060,"end":811860,"speaker":"D","text":"Christy Marquez. Trustee Diaz Locum. Vice President McAvoy."},{"start":812340,"end":812820,"speaker":"B","text":"Aye."},{"start":813140,"end":814100,"speaker":"D","text":"President Lawson."},{"start":814740,"end":815220,"speaker":"B","text":"Aye."},{"start":816420,"end":825740,"speaker":"A","text":"Okay, thank you. Kyle, can you please unmute Maria? Oh, thanks, Will. Item 8.1."},{"start":828060,"end":991130,"speaker":"C","text":"Okay. Thank you. So for everyone attending this evening. Thank you so much. Attend for attending this meeting during unprecedented times. As educators, we are committed to the health and safety of our staff and students. COVID 19 continues to spread in our county and in much of the nation. In the last two weeks and right before this board meeting, I have received 403 emails from staff. Parents. Staff and parents advocating for what they believe will be best for our district. For example, pediatricians have given advice. Parents are concerned about child care. Parents wanting us to consider social pods to assist with Child care, parents wanting total distance learning until a vaccine is available. Teachers and staff afraid to come back to work because of the unknowns of the virus testing, concerns for staff testing regarding the virus itself. How can they get tested? How often can they get tested? Or when and where can they get tested? Who's going to pay for the testing and how will tracing be in place? The number and different voices from whom we've heard tells you the responsibility that the board has as we consider many different needs for the plan to teach our community's children. Emotions are understandably high, but responsibility and caution must prevail in our decision making. The plan you are about to hear tonight was developed by staff with input from teachers staff and through emails from all of those, all those that I just mentioned. Please allow us to get through the presentation. The board will then have a discussion on the presentation and how to reopen schools in August. If you submitted a speaker's card, your comments be heard. And right now I'd like to give thanks to staff members that participated in putting this plan for the last few weeks. And this evening our Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services, Liz Wolf, will do the presentation. And as I said previously, please make sure that let us get through the presentation and you'll definitely be heard and allowed to have to let the board have a discussion on this item as it is so important for all of you as well for us that work for the district to educate your children. So, Ms. Wolf, I'll turn this portion of the presentation over to you."},{"start":991770,"end":1014580,"speaker":"B","text":"Thank you, Dr. Baker. I'm going to share my screen. Let's hope all goes well. Okay, everybody can see this."},{"start":1016100,"end":1016660,"speaker":"D","text":"All right."},{"start":1016820,"end":1989110,"speaker":"B","text":"So thank you, Dr. Baker, board president Lawson, members of the board, members of the panel, members of the community, who are all here tonight to hear the recommendations from two of the subcommittees that have been working since May to make recommendations for the reopening of schools in August. The slide deck has been prepared and changed several times over the past few days because as everyone knows, there's been a lot of changing conditions in our community and in our county. And so some of the recommendations that we are bringing forward to you, it's very important for you to discuss based in the light of some of the current things that are happening in our county, some the of. So I want to talk to you a little bit about the recommendations that are coming to you from our Facilities and Safety Committee and from our Ed Services Committee. Many of you have seen these recommendations because you have been involved yourselves on the subcommittees you have attended the parent webinars that have been taking place over the past couple of weeks. You have been attending the staff webinars. You've been reading the communications from the superintendent. So a lot of this is not new news. But we're hoping that you, as Dr. Baker said, that you listen through our presentation so you can see the amount of thinking and the amount of hard work that has gone into these recommendations based on the guidelines and the information that we had available at that time. And as I said, I apologize for the repetition for many of you, but it's important to see the whole section scan and scope of this information for those of you who may not have heard it before. And actually, last night I had a dream that because this was so repetitious for many of you, that I sang the presentation. But I promise I'm not going to do that. That wouldn't go over very well. I also want to thank Michelle Raymond for turning our rather boring PowerPoints that many of you have seen with just words into this beautiful PowerPoint with lots of color and pictures. So thank you to Michelle. So, as you know, we are in some challenging times right now, and one of the changes that has been taking place rapidly in the past couple of days has been the rise of the positive Covid cases in our community. Right now, Redwood City has the second highest number of positive Covid cases in San Mateo County. We also know that people of color are being disproportionately affected with positive COVID 19 cases. And this information is readily available to you. If you want to take a look at this changing number. It's updated every week on the San Mateo County Health website. We also know that not enough is known about the impact of virus on children. In fact, there's one of our Redwood City students who is very young, who is suffering from COVID 19 right now. We know that children are impacted by this virus and maybe not at the numbers of adults. But we are learning more about the potential illness of the children as well as the potential for the children to be carriers and spreaders of this virus. We also know that very recently the guidance that Dr. Baker referred to from the pediatrics has been updated where a week ago they said, bring as many students back as possible. They are now advising caution and asking that districts ensure that when they reopen schools, they're taking into account the spread of COVID 19 in their communities and the capacities of the school districts to adapt their safety protocols. So we'll be talking more about that as we go forward with the work for The Ed services and the safety subcommittees. We also know that in the past couple of days there's been some pivoting in districts in terms of their recommendations for the reopening of their schools. Many districts were proposing hybrid models and are now stepping back and asking that distance learning be the beginning of the year model for the school year, with a plan to continue to monitor the health and safety conditions as they open it up over time to more of a hybrid version. So those are all things that recently happened in this updating of these slides, and we want you to know everyone who is listening to this, that our number one priority during a pandemic is the health, safety and the lives of our school community, our staff, our students, and our families. We find ourselves in extraordinary times, and we need to address the times that we are in very carefully. And I know that there is a strong wish to return to normal, and we all share that, but we are not living in normal times. So as we embarked on our planning, which began in May, we had some guiding principles for our two subcommittees. Again, we were prioritizing health and safety for the students and the staff. We while maximizing excellent and equitable student learning practices and experiences in all phases of reopening. We've learned a lot from our experience this past spring, and we're bringing that forward as we make plans to ensure that we do a stronger job of educating our students. And we felt it was very important not to make these decisions in a vacuum, but that we make decisions with those who will be implementing. And so, as you see, when you take a look at the names of the people on our subcommittees, it's a widespread group of staff members from each school, from administrators to teachers to nurses to classified staff, all who had voices in this planning. And then we also took the voices of our parents and our community members into the planning as we took down your questions and your concerns in our webinars. Through all of this, our intent was to stay very positive and solution oriented, as difficult as sometimes that felt like with the changing guidelines. But you will see that we have proposed some solutions and taking one step at a time. And now we're taking every day at a time. So what we're bringing forward are our recommendation for two program models to begin in the fall. And this, again, this was the work that we did up through the beginning of July. And our committees are recommending that there be parent choice for either a hybrid model, which would be two days in class, or three days and three days working from home. It's also called a blended model. So both of those names are there. Or 100% distance learning, which means 100% full time learning at home that parents would have the option to choose which of those two models. A little bit of information because we'll go much more into depth in just a couple of minutes. But the hybrid or blended model is reduced in person class size. And so what we're talking about is between 12 to 15 students in class rather than 28 in what is called a stable cohort. And we'll talk more about that in a few minutes. With a reduced daily schedule to accommodate the capacity as well as the cleaning, physical distancing so that the size of the cohorts are determined by the amount of space available in the room for students to keep physically distant from each other and the teachers to keep physically distant from the students. And a combination of in class and at home learning experiences with 100% distance learning being 100% teaching and learning at home through the use of technology. So as I said a couple of minutes ago, we learned from our recent at home experiences. We know that those learning experiences for our students were not uniform across our district. And many teachers, parents and students felt frustrated with the need to pivot so quickly back in March to full time distance learning when we were not prepared. They did not have the training or experiences to feel successful in that kind of environment. And we know that it has also been called crisis learning. Right. And that's what it felt like. And so we have had time to think about what we have learned from that experience and how to do that differently in the fall. And again, I will be sharing more information with you when we talk about our subcommittee work. So these recommendations that we're bringing forward to you have been informed by district staff and parents through a variety of ways. On June 1, we started these conversations with every site having at least a half a day conversation about the possibilities of reopening and what were the questions and concerns. Based on those questions and concerns, we developed subcommittees to address those. So we had weekly subcommittee meetings of staff members with district administrators. There was information again in the superintendent newsletters. We had three parent webinars and we've had three staff webinars. I'm going to talk first about the safety and facilities planning group. And we do have members of that team on the panel tonight if the board would like to ask them some additional questions. So these are the dates of the meetings and what the meetings were about. And these were the members of the safety facilities subcommittee. It was led by Martin Cervantes, the director of facilities, Michelle Griffith, the director of Induction and Tosas, and Sarah Shackle, the principal of North Star. And then these were the very important members who met regularly to work on the protocols and to answer the questions and concerns of our faculty, our staff in our community. Much of their work is centered around this document. And again, we can make this document available to you if you would like to read the whole thing. The San Mateo County Coalition for Safe Schools and Communities. And this work was led by the San Mateo County Office of Education, along with the San Mateo County Health. But there are a number of other members on this committee as well. And in the beginning of June they published their pandemic recovery framework. And in that framework, there are four pillars that they have recommended that be in place fully for a safe return for school. And with these four pillars, along with a phased in approach, moving from a more restrictive environment to a little bit of loosening of some restrictions, which again, we'll talk about in a minute. They believe that we can safely reopen schools. So we'll spend a couple of minutes on each one of these pillars. The first pillar is the health and hygiene pillar, and that has to do with temperature taking. And there are protocols that are being developed to take temperatures daily of the students and the staff. There are cleaning protocols that are also being developed for classroom cleaning, for using electrostatic sprayers to disinfect classrooms daily, along with deep cleaning in between cohorts, which again we'll talk about on Tuesday afternoons and Wednesday as needed, Friday afternoons and Saturday as needed to really disinfect and thoroughly clean each classroom. There are cleaning protocols for the restrooms, and we are looking at hiring additional restroom custodians to make sure that the restrooms are cleaned regularly. There are cleaning protocols for the common areas for hand washing and the campus, the face coverings. There's always been a lot of questions about the practicality of teachers wearing face masks all day long. Can students hear them? And children wearing face masks and keeping them on. And so we recognize that there may be times that students or teachers need to take their face mask off, but we're asking that they be used by staff and students as much as possible. There will be a teaching video that's provided to be used with families and students. And many of you as family members are already, I know, practicing this as you go out into the community. So wearing face masks is no longer something new for your families. There will be Red Cat access audio systems which will be in each classroom that will project the teachers voices. There has been some concern about students who are not able to hear or teachers who may not be able to broadcast their voice loudly enough. And so they will be enhanced by these audio systems. Physical distancing is pillar number three. And as I mentioned earlier, we have developed layouts. Architects have worked with us to ascertain how much space is available in order to keep children's feet apart from each other as well as the space for the teacher to be six feet apart from the students. And we know that there is room in most classrooms for at least 12 and in many for up to 15 students per cohort. Each student will use his or her her own materials. They will not be sharing materials. And so additional materials will be purchased for each student so that they can keep them at their desk. And as I said, layouts have been developed already for this. For the physical distancing in the common areas, any outside areas and activities will be equipment free. So at the beginning of our stages here, which again I'll talk about in a minute, students will not be using monkey bars or any of the PE equipment that may be outside because those are considered high touch areas and will not be able to be cleaned sufficiently for other students to use them right away. We will be expecting students to maintain social distancing as well. The MUB will not be serving food in the cafeteria. It will be converted to a health waiting area with dividers and cots as needed. If students test with positively for a high temperature and are waiting for someone to come and pick them up and take them home, or if they're not feeling well. Pillar four is limiting gatherings. And so we know that certainly at the beginning of the year large group events are cancelled. So any festivals back to school night, open house, canceled, remote events are possible. So parent teacher conferences, the cafecitos at the school sites or with the superintendent, parent meetings and field trips would need to be held remotely. Those are all the guidelines in terms of the pillars for the county. They also have guidelines in the phase in process which I mentioned earlier. So there are three steps for the phasing in and what is determinant about how we move from one step to the next? Are the number of cases positive? COVID 19 cases remaining flat or decreasing before we can move to the next step. Very similar to what's happening out in the community where there are some businesses that are being opened and then they have to close back up because the number of positive cases has been increasing. And the same would be for the school for step One which would be at the beginning of school. No on campus visitors would be allowed, including volunteers. Certainly school staff is allowed, but. But any volunteers are not allowed. All extracurricular activities would be paused, all gatherings would be paused, all meetings would be convened remotely, and we would reinforce the wearing of face coverings by staff, students and any others who enter the campus. Step two opens it up a little bit, not a lot, but if the number of COVID19 positive cases has remained flat or decreasing, then there are a few more people who would be allowed onto the campus. So this would allow visitors and volunteers who support instruction, so parents are coming to read with the students or that kind of thing. But they would need to honor the four pillars. Any extracurricular activities that directly support and intersect with instruction would begin to be allowed. But they would be restricted. But there would be some allowable activities. We could have gatherings for up to 10 people, but again, everybody wearing face"},{"start":1989110,"end":1990630,"speaker":"D","text":"masks as much as practicable."},{"start":1992230,"end":2614380,"speaker":"B","text":"Step three. Again, moving into step three, depending on if the number of COVID 19 positive cases remains flat or decreasing, there would be more volunteers and visitors allowed on campus. There would be more extracurricular activities. We could have gatherings of up to 50. But once again, the strong, strong recommendation for wearing face coverings at all times. So these indicators for moving from step to step have been given to us again by the public health guidelines. They're also found in that same pandemic recovery framework. Depending on the daily number of new cases in the community, which is flat and decreasing, and the number of newly hospitalized patients with COVID 19 is flat or decreasing, there could be movement from one phase to the next. But as you know, right now, both of these are on the rise. There would also be an expectation that the county is meeting the need for testing, especially for persons in vulnerable populations or those in high risk settings or occupations. And many of you saw today what the guidance is around that. And schools are not considered a high risk setting. And so we're not high on the priority list for the county support for testing. So with that, protocols are being developed for the temperature taking, the cleaning, the bathrooms, classroom setup, snack and lunch distribution, and bus transportation. Moving into an overview of the ED services planning process. These are the dates that we had meetings, and these are the content of those meetings. And I'm going to talk to you more about what is being planned for in terms of the hybrid or blended model overview. So we start off with more of a conversation about the idea of stable cohort. And again, based on county guidelines, this is a Defined group of students whose size is dictated by the ability to implement physical distancing within the classroom or within the learning setting. And so the recommended number of students is 12 to 15. The students need to stay together in their cohort. They don't move from room to room. They can go outside physically distancing for probably not a lot of fun PE or recess activities. But they would be staying together and not mixing with any other cohort. Now, they may have more than one teacher during the instructional day. So that would allow for teachers in the primary grades who are team teaching. For example, I think of Adelante that has a teacher teaching Spanish and a teacher teaching English. They could share students during the day by going to each other's classroom. And also for the middle school where there might be four periods of instruction during the morning that the students sit in the same room and four different teachers come to them and teach the content area. So students have five days of instruction. Two of those days are at school and three of those days are at home. But they have five days of instruction. In the hybrid model. What we are proposing is that there are two different cohorts. A Monday Tuesday cohort and a Thursday Friday cohort. We had a lot of different cohort possibilities, but this is the one that makes the most sense for continuity of instruction as well as for the cleaning in between. The cohorts, language arts, math, social studies, science and ELD would be prioritized for instruction while the students are at school. The electives and PE could take place either at home or on site where possible, again depending on the schedule. And we have already been talking to the PE teacher as well as the music teachers for what that might look like if they are providing virtual instruction online. The three days at home learning is lessons prepared by the same teachers. So the teachers who are teaching in the hybrid model are preparing the two days of school lessons and then the three days at home lessons. And so they would be able to preview the material for their in class lessons, review and extend the content that they have taught in class. They could provide project based work for the students to be working on. Not all of the content the students are working on would be videos prepared by the teachers. Some could be online access that the teachers have recommended as well as paper pencil work. If they're writing an essay that might be doing or doing some math problems, might be doing some of that in paper and pencil and uploading it. All of these are possibilities, particularly for the younger children and again possibly electives. PE and outreach by specialists when the students are at home. We are trying to see how students can be reached every day. And also by providing office hours Wednesdays, all students are working at home and teachers have time to prepare lessons for their in class and their at home learning. And it also offers that opportunity for the thorough cleaning of the school site between the cohorts. There are scheduling considerations that have not been determined yet at this time, but we know that we will need to stagger the start times for instruction to allow for temperature taking. We think that we can do this pretty quickly, but we know that probably the first week or so of school this may take some time to get the routines in place, but over time this might be something that could be minimized. And so the staggering of start times might not depend, might not need to be too significant, which would make it easier for parents to drop off their children. We're also looking at transportation schedules and what the impact is of transportation, dropping off students and start times and pickup times. We are prioritizing the youngest students by. There has been an excellent opportunity that has been offered up by our TK&K teachers to spend more time with their students the first few weeks of school, possibly just for step one, where the cohorts would be the amount of time that they're in school would be minimized to not be four hours, but to be two hours and 15 minutes. But that the teachers would be able to see both cohorts of students four days a week. So that is something that is under consideration. And we've been talking with them and there's been some surveys that have gone out to the, to the TK&K teachers because there's a strong belief that these little guys who may not have been in school before need to have an opportunity to meet their teacher face to face, meet each other face to face, get to know a little bit about what school is like, as well as have some more individualized instruction about how to use the iPads for not just playing games, that's what they're doing with iPads right now, but for using them for learning devices. We also, as I mentioned earlier, would not be on campus as long during the school day as we have been currently. We're not calling them minimum days because they're not really. We're calling them hybrid early release days because it would be each day the students would need to leave the campus. Instruction would need to end by 1:45 and that has to do with cleaning. And to allow for the after school program to have at least a couple of Hours of after school time that again, those schedules are currently being developed. Each site will look a little bit different. And this also allows for teachers to have some time after the students leave to check in on the students who are working at home. We know many of you are here tonight to talk about your requests for which cohort your children are in. And this is something that we would like to be able to accommodate. But we don't know if we will be able to accommodate all requests because we know that there are varying requests for the cohorts. There are requests from parents who want their children to be in the same cohort because some of them attend different schools. And in order for them to be able to manage pickup and drop off schedules, it's important for their children to be in school on the same day. And many of these families are also relying on the older children to be at home with the younger children at the end of the day and on the same days for child care. And we also know that child care is an issue for those of you who are requesting to have your children, who are neighborhoods or neighborhood children or friends to be in the same social pause so that you can organize their child care as well. So this is something that we would see what we could accommodate. But it's kind of a big math problem Challenge Mondays through Fridays for the 100% distance learning model overview. Students work at home and different teachers. It would not be the same teachers as the hybrid teachers. It would be distance learning teachers would be preparing lessons for both synchronous and asynchronous learning that would take place Monday through Friday. Synchronous learning means that some of the lessons that the teacher prepares will be live in real time. But we also know that not all students, if there are more than one student at a different grade level in the same house, it's very different, difficult for those students to all be online at the same time. And so some of the lessons that the teachers would be providing would be asynchronous. So they would be lessons that would have been prepared ahead of time that the student could watch at a time that would be more convenient for them. We'll say more about this in just a minute. So something else that happened in the past couple of weeks is the Senate passed the budget trailer bill. It's called Senate Bill 98. Originally it was called Assembly Bill 77. So you may have heard of it called by both these different numbers. But it's the same bill that has given us more requirements in terms of our accountability for the number of instructional minutes in order to receive our funding from the state. So there are a minimum number of minutes that need to be provided, instructional minutes that need to be provided each day. And we tend to go beyond this minimum. But we would ensure that this minimum was being accomplished both in class and when the students are at home. And this budget trailer bill also waived the instructional minutes for pe, which"},{"start":2616140,"end":2616460,"speaker":"D","text":"is"},{"start":2616460,"end":3252060,"speaker":"B","text":"what also happened this spring. So the definition of instructional minutes is a little bit different depending on if the students are in person full time at home or in the hybrid model, if they're in person, the instructional minutes are counted when they're in the immediate physical presence of their teacher. In distance learning, the time value of assignments will add up to the instructional minutes. So again, some of that will be synchronous will be the time value of the teacher working with them live. But as the teacher assigns some of the asynchronous work where they are working on their reading, they're working on their math problems, they're watching a video, they're watching an already designed lesson that has been filmed pre recorded by the teacher and the teacher will be assigning time values to that amount of work that needs to add up to that minimum number of minutes I just showed you. And for the hybrid model, it's a combination of those two. Again, now that the same Senate bill clarified that the districts must continue to provide 180 days of instruction. Last year the number of days of instruction were waived and we were able to provide more professional development. We were hoping to be able to do that again this year, but right now that's not the case. The other component is that we are going to need to figure out and we don't know what this is going to look like yet, so please don't ask. But we're going to need to figure out how to record attendance during distance learning. And so there will need to be some kind of a weekly engagement record that we will be keeping. And it will have to do with the check ins that the teachers do with the students as well as they're turning in their assignments, there will be some kind of reporting. And if students are not keeping up with their assignments and not checking in and not tuning into their teacher, there will need to be outreach on our part to find out what is happening and to make sure that the attendance improves because that will count against our district as lack of attendance on the part of the student. Daily participation is considered for distance learning. Again, I think I've already said this combination of online Activities, completing assignments and then a contact between the school district and the pupil or parents. And failure to do this will mean a reduction in our funding. So I want to give you a little bit of information about the different subgroups. And again, many of you in the audience were on these subgroups. And so you will see just a quick overview of your work here. And I want to assure you that behind each one of these elements there are pages and pages and hours and hours of work that are not being brought forward at this time, but are ready for us as we get started in the fall. So there was a group that worked on at school instruction in the hybrid model. And so their work addressed instructional schedule guidelines, how to accelerate learning, because we know that for some students they suffered from learning loss over the summer spring. And so how do we accelerate their learning up into their grade level standards? Aligning the instructional pacing guides with the priority standards. Again, re looking at what that work will look like in these different models and then really clarifying teacher, student and family responsibilities. This work was led by Linda Montes and Tina Mercer. And then these were the staff members from the different schools and board member that were on these committees. This particular committee there was a hybrid and full distance at home learning option that was a very robust group that worked on a number of things. And again, taking into consideration what we had learned from the past spring, in our quick pivoting that we did into distance learning, we learned that all students Pre K through 8 need access to tech devices and a way to receive support to troubleshoot their tech challenges. And so that is definitely being developed right now. We need to provide multiple layers of support for teachers, students and families to make sure that this blended learning and at home learning especially model is effective. We really need to focus on the professional learning opportunities for staff in curating and reorganizing the existing Internet based content. And we begun that work in June. We had a full week of professional development around a lot of this and all of our teachers attended that. We've also learned that parents would benefit from classes to learn the online platforms. And this is being planned for August. And we also know we need to really focus on our at risk youth who have ongoing social and emotional needs through figuring out how to reach each student every day. So the hybrid and distance learning committee at home committee developed plans for all of these items here through grade level spans, we had teachers from each grade level who worked together to develop recommendations for best instructional practices for synchronous and asynchronous learning, how to Provide feedback what to use for formative assessments to ensure student learning. What does lesson design look like for increasing student engagement, providing student supports, extending their learning Again, the use of the best technology tools, supports to teacher students and families and then how we can really support the collaboration across our district and then from our teachers into the homes around assignments and outreach. We are making sure that each child will have a device. We are working on how to improve Internet access for each family and as I said we are developing trainings for August for parents. We have a new position, a teacher on special assignment who part of his or her responsibility is to ensure that students are successful in this model and to reach out. And then as usual there will be our tech hotline for assistance. And and this is the group of people who worked on this committee that was led by Chandra Leonardo from Kennedy, Jude Noyes from Clifford and Kyle Brumbaugh, our director of technology lot a lot of hard work in this group. Preschool was not one of our subcommittees, but we have information for you from preschool what their current plans are. I know we frequently have people from preschool in our audience that are interested in this. This is our state preschool program that currently has a full day program and they follow the stable cohort model that we are recommending with a Monday, Tuesday and Thursday Friday group. And then we also have an AM PM program that our director of preschool Edna is working to see if it can be extended into a full day program and she was hoping to receive information last week from the CDE but has not received that yet. So as soon as we have that information this program may change also to be the same as the other full day program. We did have a committee that worked on bilingual programs, both the 5050 bilingual program as well as the Adelante and the Adelante Subi and the Mandarin Immersion program. These I know are small for you to read and so when I'm through doing this I will put a link to these charts in the chat so that you'll be able to see them close up. So the 5050 program model has been designed. This is for the in class instruction, the subjects and the amount of time that will be taught in each language. For the Adelante Spanish immersion pathway there's the same information in terms of the percentage of time in Spanish and in English as well as their focus on the transfer of knowledge from one language to the other and so that again that information will be available for you shortly in a larger format. We also have the same information for the in class instruction for The Mandarin Immersion program, the language of instruction at each grade level and led by Lupe Torres Khalil and Lupe Guzman. This was the group of people who worked on that. Special education. We have scheduling considerations here because we have a variety of different programs. For the RSP students who would be in the hybrid model, there would be a push in and pull out combination. When the students are in class, if they're in the full distance learning, there would be outreach to the students. For the students who are in special day classes, they would follow the two day in class, three days at home learning model. And again, this may change depending on transportation. But we're pretty sure that this is probably the final model at this time this has been changed. We want to appreciate the people from the special ed who had to change frequently because of different information about bus transportation. The SCC classes will have four adults to five students. The medically fragile students will come to school four days a week. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday there will be group one and group two and then they will have Wednesdays off special ed preschool. Right now there's a plan for the AM PM session and again more details will be scheduled scheduled if this time can be confirmed by transportation. There will be an AM group from 9 to 11:30 and a PM group from 12:30 to 3. With Wednesdays again students working at home. The special ed service providers because they go from school to school and have then the possibility of impacting the cohorts at the school sites. The first step of the phase in the will be provided by teletherapy sessions and there will be outreach to each student from physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech and language, adaptive PE and mental health through teletherapy. And then this will be reassessed at the end of step one to discuss a plan to provide on site services. So the special ed committee members were led by Patricia Palino, director of Special ed."},{"start":3252060,"end":3253500,"speaker":"D","text":"And these are the people who are on that committee."},{"start":3257590,"end":3339300,"speaker":"B","text":"We had a group that looked at equity and what kind of additional supports are needed for target groups. Because we know that there are many children who need additional supports. They are among them are our English learners and their families, our newcomer students and their families, our foster youth and homeless students, as well as students who need reading and math interventions. So one possibility that is being considered is that if students stay on site after lunch again they need to leave by 1:45. That that period after lunch could be for targeted instruction to provide that kind of support. If students don't stay after lunch, they would take their lunch and go home and leave campus and have their lunch at home. One opportunity would also be Saturday classes that would be possible to provide extra support. We would look to see how our specialists could reach out to the students when they are working at home to check in with them to provide them additional opportunities for supports and conversations to possibly set up small group work while they're at home. We're also looking at tutoring and there are a number of online tutoring ideas that we're taking a look at. We are also talking to people about additional support for newcomer families and what that might look like, additional trainings and then working in collaboration with the Boys and Girls Club to see how we"},{"start":3339300,"end":3341290,"speaker":"D","text":"can support the target groups."},{"start":3342010,"end":3565080,"speaker":"B","text":"And these conversations were led by Ana Herrera at Taft and myself. And then these were the people who were on our committee. There was a child care subcommittee that worked very hard to try to come up with as many creative solutions to both the after school program as well as to additional childcare, knowing that space is impacted as well as the idea of cohorts having an impact on the programs. So the after school programs will run following the same guidelines as the school day. There would most likely be one cohort in the the students would be placed in a cohort. There won't only be just one cohort of 12 to 15 students at the grade levels and then they would run until 4 o' clock in order for cleaning and disinfecting of the school site to take place. And that Red City is working with their community partners on daytime childcare options for off campus days. So they're maximizing as a priority the after school programs with smaller ratios and determining the numbers of families in our community that actually really need this after school care and childcare during distance learning days. And as you can see, we had quite a group working with Patricia Ortiz, our director of community schools and partnerships both from within our district as well as our community partners working to solve this. And our last committee, last but not least was our social emotional support committee because we know how important that is not only for our students and our families, but also for our staff. So there will be an emphasis that supports staff and student emotional well being both through lessons, both through outreach and both through our faculty meetings and trainings. There will be the site support team that will also now include this teacher on special assignment that I mentioned who will support teachers to address behavior concerns within our positive behavior support framework. And time recommendation is time provided in meetings for the mindfulness exercises for the staff to make sure they have that Opportunity to check in and say what's on their mind. Antonio Perez, our director of student services, led this committee and these were the people on that. So these are a couple of slides from human resources. These are among the items that they worked on. And again, if there are more questions for this, Wendy led this group and she is going to be available after this if people want to ask her questions. And these are the people who are on this on her committee. There's a number of things we're still working on, but among them are transportation and again, trying to determine what that will look like and how many. If there will be changing guidelines about how many people can get on the bus. Right now we're told there are not. So it's very limited the number of people who can take the few buses that we have. And so our priority right now is for special education. If we have 100% distance learning option as an option, then we would need to determine if that is its own location, run separately from what's happening at the school sites, or if there are enough students at each school site whose parents select 100% distance learning for them. If that's a strand within each school, we don't know that yet. As a result, we don't know for sure the allocation of teachers to full distance learning or the hybrid learning. And that will be worked on with union negotiations. So I'm coming up to the conclusion"},{"start":3565080,"end":3567360,"speaker":"A","text":"here you're wondering if I'm ever going to stop."},{"start":3567360,"end":3784350,"speaker":"B","text":"You're probably thinking, I wish she's saying that. So I think this is probably one of the most concerning elements that I need to put this up here. And I know that our board wants to talk about this and so that's why this is here. Initially we had been told that this would be the flowchart in terms of if someone in our community or in our school gets a positive case of COVID 19, that they would inform the school principal, who would inform our district point person, who is Antonio Perez, who would inform the superintendent, who would inform the San Mateo county office superintendent, who would then in return inform our San Mateo County Health Department. And then that then the chain would go back in terms of guidance and testing and recommendations about what to do. Well, at the present time, just within the past few days, our San Mateo County Health Department has stepped out of this decision making chain. So they don't plan to offer guidance or testing or tracking support to the school district. So that's of course a huge concern and something that will be taken into consideration as the board has their conversation. But we wanted to bring that forward to you so that everyone is aware of that. So our next steps is that tonight and next week the school board will determine the option or options for reopening Redwood City schools in August. And if there is more than one option for reopening schools, parents will be asked to select one for their children. There will be something that is sent out for parents to choose. If the parents choose 100% distance learning option, that option would need to be maintained through step two. And the only ability to shift back into a hybrid option, should there be one, would be if there was space available. So we just would want you to know that ahead of time if you. If there is an option between the two. A choice between the two options. If you choose distance learning, your student will need to be in there for the first few weeks at least. We will make sure that we update all information with FAQs on our websites. Again, it's always fast breaking news. And we don't have the dates for the tech training for parents, but that will be coming out soon. And if we do begin the school year with a hybrid model, we will need to be prepared to pivot to a full distance learning program model at any time based on what's happening with the COVID 19 positive cases in our community. So just a few words of encouragement here at the end. We want you to know that we sincerely want to see our students as much as is safely possible. We went into education because we love kids and we love to see them. We want to work with them. And so working with them over the Internet is not quite the same. It's not quite as satisfying. But it is our responsibility to keep the health and safety of our children and our staff at the forefront of our planning. So we've designed our program models to provide high quality in class and at home learning. And as you can see, there's been a lot of input into those designs. And each one of those pages that you saw of the elements that people have been working on come with hundreds of documents, of backup documents. So again, we felt it very important to have our decisions made jointly with the staff responsible for the implementation of the program models. We had many, many teachers and classified staff on these committees. And we took our parent input from our. From our webinars. And we'll be taking it from you again tonight. And so we will take continue to communicate with our staff and community as guidelines and situations change."},{"start":3786670,"end":3788750,"speaker":"D","text":"And that's it."},{"start":3792750,"end":3805720,"speaker":"C","text":"Thank you, Liz. So at this moment, Janet, did you want to start with 30 minutes of comments and then go to the board discussion and then start comments again. Or did you want to discuss board discuss first?"},{"start":3806680,"end":3815160,"speaker":"A","text":"Yeah, I'd like to hear. I don't think the board ever came to a decision on what we were going to do and also how long comments were going to be allowed for."},{"start":3818920,"end":3822040,"speaker":"C","text":"So let's see, everybody. The only one that."},{"start":3822680,"end":3824120,"speaker":"A","text":"Maria, are you. Oh, there you are."},{"start":3824440,"end":3851750,"speaker":"D","text":"I'm here. So I said I would like to hear from the people in the audience, if you want. 30 minutes is fine with me, but I think it would be a good idea. I think that we may have less questions now that a lot of the questions have been answered with the presentation from Liz. So I would like to hear from them first and then we can discuss."},{"start":3854550,"end":3858480,"speaker":"A","text":"Cecilia, can we hear from you, Kyle? She's muted."},{"start":3859120,"end":3860080,"speaker":"D","text":"Yeah, there we go."},{"start":3860640,"end":3861200,"speaker":"B","text":"Okay,"},{"start":3864400,"end":3865280,"speaker":"D","text":"hold on one second."},{"start":3868640,"end":3869360,"speaker":"C","text":"There you go."},{"start":3869760,"end":3870320,"speaker":"B","text":"Okay."},{"start":3871360,"end":3874320,"speaker":"D","text":"So I also would like to hear from the public first."},{"start":3878960,"end":3918800,"speaker":"E","text":"I like the idea of hearing from the public for maybe 30 or 45 minutes. So we could cover 30 to 45 individuals at one minute each, and then the board could have a conversation, kind of see where we're at, and then we could allow for the rest of the comments and also have another discussion. And that way, I know we have seen some comments from some of the members in the public, and we've also heard from others that they would like to hear what the board is thinking sooner rather than later in terms of the evening, because many of them have other responsibilities and need to hop off before it gets too late in the evening. So I think that's a good compromise."},{"start":3923840,"end":3925760,"speaker":"D","text":"I don't know where the echo is coming from."},{"start":3926400,"end":3943610,"speaker":"A","text":"Okay, so can we take public comments until 8 o', clock, then have board discussion, and then take the rest of the comments after we've had time to chat? Dennis, how are you feeling about that?"},{"start":3945290,"end":3955210,"speaker":"F","text":"I really like to hear the parents first, but if we're going to do it, I would suggest you just divide it in two. So however many you have divided by two."},{"start":3955290,"end":3955850,"speaker":"D","text":"Okay."},{"start":3955850,"end":3965250,"speaker":"A","text":"I just. I want to say it doesn't mean that we're not hearing from them. It just gives us an opportunity to share what we're thinking and so the audience knows what we're thinking, too. I think that's what a lot of"},{"start":3965250,"end":3966050,"speaker":"D","text":"them are here for."},{"start":3971010,"end":3973490,"speaker":"A","text":"Do we have an agreement on how many minutes we're going to allow?"},{"start":3981650,"end":4011690,"speaker":"E","text":"I shared my position. I think it ought to be one minute, and that way we allow for the most people to have a conversation. The most people to comment. And keep in mind, we've gotten hundreds of emails that have been much more lengthy than One Minute that are expressing a whole range of comments. So I think we've seen the range of comments that people have in the community, and most. And then this will be helpful to hear tonight, because I think we'll get to hear from people in person, or at least well over zoom, I suppose."},{"start":4012970,"end":4013370,"speaker":"B","text":"So."},{"start":4014010,"end":4047230,"speaker":"A","text":"Most of the speaker cards we have are ones that we gotten emails from already, too, which is why I think a minute is fine. Not hearing much. So I guess we'll go ahead with the one minute. I have a timer set up so that you can see the countdown. I'm going to share my screen for that. Our first speaker is going to be Gabriel Lucas, but give me a few minutes to. Well, seconds to get this set up. So, Kyle, if you want to find Gabriel Lucas,"},{"start":4061710,"end":4062510,"speaker":"C","text":"You ready?"},{"start":4063390,"end":4083240,"speaker":"A","text":"I need to. Now I need to share my screen. Okay, so we should. Oh, wait. If Gabriel's ready, I can restart the timer whenever. And then just so the audience knows, you will be muted when the time is up. Is Gabriel ready?"},{"start":4083560,"end":4087720,"speaker":"C","text":"He should be. I unmuted him."},{"start":4094530,"end":4103410,"speaker":"E","text":"Janet, they're asking if you could give the order of the next few speakers. So maybe, say, you know, three at a time or four people could be prepared."},{"start":4104290,"end":4114930,"speaker":"A","text":"So it's gonna be Gabriel Lucas, followed by Pam Barish, followed by Laura Easley. And as soon as Gabriel's here, I'll restart."},{"start":4117570,"end":4118370,"speaker":"C","text":"There you go."},{"start":4122060,"end":4122460,"speaker":"B","text":"You there?"},{"start":4136620,"end":4137140,"speaker":"A","text":"Okay."},{"start":4137140,"end":4139660,"speaker":"C","text":"I permitted talking and unmuted him twice."},{"start":4139980,"end":4147989,"speaker":"A","text":"All right, so then let's move on to Pam Barish, followed by Laura Easley and then Camille Nanini."},{"start":4164949,"end":4166549,"speaker":"D","text":"Good evening. Can you all hear me?"},{"start":4166869,"end":4167429,"speaker":"B","text":"Yep."},{"start":4168549,"end":4169589,"speaker":"D","text":"Good evening, everybody."},{"start":4169589,"end":4170669,"speaker":"B","text":"For those of you who don't know"},{"start":4170669,"end":4209010,"speaker":"D","text":"me, my name is Pam Barish. I am a kindergarten teacher at Henry Ford school. Is my 30th year of teaching kindergarten and my 23rd year in Redwood City School District. While I so appreciate the hard work that has gone into the reopening of our schools in a month, I truly hope that we will be attuned to what is happening in the world around us. If our concern is the health and safety of students, teachers, and staff, and the nature of this pandemic right now is deemed unsafe to reopen in other schools and districts and counties in California, I hope the Redwood City School District will act timely and with the best intentions and use these plans or put them on hold until it is deemed safe."},{"start":4209010,"end":4209290,"speaker":"B","text":"Again."},{"start":4209530,"end":4212170,"speaker":"D","text":"Thank you. Thanks, Pam."},{"start":4212810,"end":4217609,"speaker":"A","text":"Next is Laura Easley, followed by. I'm sorry if It's Kamili Nanini."},{"start":4233380,"end":4235300,"speaker":"D","text":"Good evening, can you hear me? Yes."},{"start":4235860,"end":4237260,"speaker":"B","text":"My name is Lara Easley."},{"start":4237260,"end":4238820,"speaker":"D","text":"I am a parent of a 22"},{"start":4238820,"end":4240340,"speaker":"B","text":"year old, a 6 year old and"},{"start":4240340,"end":4241380,"speaker":"D","text":"a 6 month old."},{"start":4242020,"end":4243740,"speaker":"A","text":"And I have worked as a teacher,"},{"start":4243740,"end":4251500,"speaker":"D","text":"a school leader and currently work for a nonprofit education reform out of the Stanford Graduate School of Education, advising schools"},{"start":4251500,"end":4253060,"speaker":"E","text":"on their reopening around the country."},{"start":4253540,"end":4254580,"speaker":"D","text":"I have worked for New York City"},{"start":4254580,"end":4257980,"speaker":"B","text":"Department of Education, for Denver Public Schools"},{"start":4257980,"end":4259860,"speaker":"D","text":"and for multiple districts on the west"},{"start":4259860,"end":4261380,"speaker":"E","text":"coast, including in the Bay Area."},{"start":4261940,"end":4278740,"speaker":"D","text":"I would like to advocate for increased focus on socio emotional learning, increased planning for the students who are most marginalized and increased focus on getting our children to be able to have social well"},{"start":4278740,"end":4282780,"speaker":"E","text":"being by working with our after school providers."},{"start":4284780,"end":4290820,"speaker":"D","text":"I would like to applaud the work that you have done so far, but ask that you continue to do that work and that you flesh out these"},{"start":4290820,"end":4292620,"speaker":"E","text":"plans further because the work is not"},{"start":4292620,"end":4293980,"speaker":"D","text":"yet done in those areas."},{"start":4298620,"end":4304620,"speaker":"A","text":"Laura so Kimily followed by Melanie Haskell and Brooke Wagner."},{"start":4313990,"end":4314750,"speaker":"C","text":"Could you spell that?"},{"start":4314750,"end":4322390,"speaker":"A","text":"M e l k a m I l e e. Last name is n a n n I n I."},{"start":4326630,"end":4345700,"speaker":"C","text":"Not seeing anything come up in the search. K e m k a m. There we go. Got it. She's gonna need to unmute herself."},{"start":4354340,"end":4355860,"speaker":"A","text":"Are you able to unmute yourself?"},{"start":4368750,"end":4369470,"speaker":"C","text":"She can't."},{"start":4375630,"end":4377390,"speaker":"A","text":"And Kyle, you're not able to unmute her."},{"start":4377710,"end":4385210,"speaker":"C","text":"No talking permitted. I unmute keeps her muted so it's a user setting."},{"start":4393040,"end":4402560,"speaker":"A","text":"Okay, I guess move on to. Is it Melanie Haskell? Until we can figure out the audio for Emily."},{"start":4402640,"end":4404800,"speaker":"C","text":"I don't. The only Melanie Mel."},{"start":4405600,"end":4406080,"speaker":"A","text":"Yes."},{"start":4406800,"end":4409520,"speaker":"C","text":"The only one I have is Melanie Davenport. That's it."},{"start":4410240,"end":4410720,"speaker":"B","text":"Okay."},{"start":4410720,"end":4411400,"speaker":"D","text":"Brooke Wagner."},{"start":4413070,"end":4425870,"speaker":"C","text":"B R O O K E. No. Unless they are a call in person."},{"start":4426110,"end":4427390,"speaker":"A","text":"Are they able to raise their hand?"},{"start":4428750,"end":4429630,"speaker":"C","text":"Yes, they are."},{"start":4431390,"end":4462920,"speaker":"A","text":"All right, so if we're calling on you and you're here but we're not finding you, please raise your hand. Okay, so our next speaker is Mercedes Quiatowski. And we have three other speakers who have put in cards to seed time to Mercedes. So that's Allison Oldford, Cameron Hoffman and Heidi Wallace. And so I have a different timer set for Mercedes. 4 minutes total."},{"start":4466850,"end":4467810,"speaker":"D","text":"Can you guys hear me?"},{"start":4469090,"end":4470530,"speaker":"A","text":"Yes, we can. Go ahead."},{"start":4471490,"end":4495380,"speaker":"D","text":"Okay. Good evening. I want to thank Dr. Baker and our school board of trustees for all their hard work and tireless devotion these past several months. My name is Dr. Mercedes Kwiakowski. I'm a board certified pediatrician and child and adolescent psychiatrist. I work at a large medical group within our community and I'm chair of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Department. I'm also a Redwood City resident and parents of two elementary school students in our district. These are complicated times."},{"start":4495380,"end":4496820,"speaker":"A","text":"I know we're all here tonight because"},{"start":4496820,"end":4693620,"speaker":"D","text":"we care deeply about our children, students and teachers, and want to find the best and safest way for our kids to be educated this fall. Tonight, I'm here speaking to As a medical professional advocating for our children most in need who are truly suffering. I feel compelled to share my recommendations regarding the return to School roadmap that our district is proposing. In my professional capacity as a child psychiatrist, my two greatest concerns when balancing physical safety are the academic and emotional needs of our students. I have several recommendations which I do not make lightly. I deeply value our teachers and staff and their safety. We are a team and we're in this together and we need to work together. Therefore, it is important we create return to school strategies that balance the risk of illness with the hazards of distance learning, remembering that the goal is to mitigate and not eliminate the risk of of COVID 19 Here are my four recommendations. 1. We need balanced metrics 2 prioritization of our younger students 3 optimized classroom instruction time and 4 a full commitment to social bubbles for balanced metrics. 5 days per week is clearly best for our students when it is safe. Our current metrics for returning to school only focus on Covid cases and deaths. We need to add more balanced measures as key indicators for further ability to return to school, including markers of mental health of students, poor educational outcomes, financial instability and domestic violence. Examples could include tracking the number of student deaths by suicide. There have already been some in our region. I can promise you that. I can guarantee you that in our region alone there are more deaths from suicide in teens than from COVID and kids and teens across the state. We could also measure rate of IEP requests, attendance records, percentage of student dropouts, etc. I worry that without the regular face to face contact, a lot of our students who are struggling will fall between the cracks. So setting up these metrics now will help us monitor our students needs. Recommendation Number two I strongly encourage you to prioritize the K through two grades being present daily Monday through Friday. Evidence shows that kids under 10 have very low transmission rates and are the most vulnerable to the hazards of distance learning, so it makes sense that we can safely bring them back first. Selectively bringing back a smaller cohort of the student population would allow us to try a pilot and be more creative with unutilized spaces such as libraries, gyms, cafeterias and outdoor space Number three, optimize classroom instruction. Time to optimize the hybrid model. The two days per week of classroom instruction needs to be full day if we are asking our students to concede the majority of their education for our physical safety. A clear compromise would be to give our students as much time with their teachers as possible when they are already on site. I understand our faculty will need breaks and we should prioritize how to do that creatively while maintaining a full day of school. Necessary cleaning of classroom is not as extensive as we once thought it would need to be and should be done during off hours. Fourth and final, my last recommendation is a call to action. To everyone listening tonight. As much effort as we are all putting into this process, we should require a commitment from all of our families, faculty, teachers and staff that they will minimize all other community exposures and risks to help maintain a safe school environment and allow us to keep our schools open to the greatest capacity possible. Thank you so much. I appreciate your time. Thank you, Mercedes."},{"start":4694820,"end":4700100,"speaker":"A","text":"Next is. Let's see, we have Susan Forker followed by Gloria Comfort."},{"start":4700500,"end":4711390,"speaker":"C","text":"I could not find Susan Forker in the list, so I have Gloria Comfort turned right on right there. She's gonna have to unmute herself there."},{"start":4712190,"end":4712670,"speaker":"B","text":"Hello."},{"start":4713310,"end":4776260,"speaker":"D","text":"Hi, Gloria. Go ahead. Thank you. Gloria Comfort and I emailed you guys. But I want to reiterate for everybody out there that we have some questions that have not been answered yet. If a teacher tests positive for COVID 19, they're gonna be required to quarantine. Will there be a substitute teacher or will they be te from home? If a teacher has six classes, as we do in middle school with 28 students, do all 168 of those students need to then stay home and quarantine for 14 days? Do all 168 students now have to get tested? Who pays for that? What is going to happen at school? How are the parents going to be notified? Does everyone in each of those kids families get tested? Who pays for that? There's so many unknowns, so many questions. A plan needs to be in place before school reopens at all. Thank you. Thank you, Gloria."},{"start":4776900,"end":4779860,"speaker":"A","text":"Next we have Jeanette Melendez followed by Erin Washburn."},{"start":4783940,"end":4784420,"speaker":"D","text":"Hello."},{"start":4785220,"end":4786340,"speaker":"A","text":"Hi, Jeanette. Go ahead."},{"start":4787780,"end":4859880,"speaker":"D","text":"Good evening to all. My name is Jeanette Melendez. I teach fifth grade adolescent at the Selby Spanish Immersion School. And I want to begin by saying that I love my job as an educator. Like many of my teammates, I would love to return to school in person. However, given the recent spike in Covid cases in our county and the many different moving parts regarding safety protocols, testing and tracking. I'm not comfortable with returning to school in person and I would like the board to consider choosing the full distance learning model when the school year begins in the fall. I'm sorry, I'm just trying to make it as short as possible. It's interesting to see how the tables have turned recently on social media. When the school year was forced to switch to the distance learning model in the spring, social media posts were flooded with appreciation to teachers from parents who realized how much work, patience, love and planning is required to teach their children. I was so happy to read these posts because I felt like teachers were finally getting the recognition they deserve. Now all of this has changed. Teachers are now being pressured to return to school in person as if it's our responsibility to fix a problem that should have been handled more efficiently by government officials on the outside of the which occurred in the spring. This is not fair to us as a teacher. I know that face to face learning in classrooms is more effective and."},{"start":4861480,"end":4869080,"speaker":"A","text":"Sorry. Jeanette, thank you. Your time was up. So we have Erin Washburn followed by Ariana Baltay and Jennifer Overby."},{"start":4869400,"end":4872120,"speaker":"C","text":"We just jumped in Susan Forker who was in the list before."},{"start":4872120,"end":4873480,"speaker":"A","text":"Okay, so we have Susan now."},{"start":4873640,"end":4874200,"speaker":"D","text":"Yep."},{"start":4877570,"end":4878450,"speaker":"B","text":"Hi, can you hear me?"},{"start":4878610,"end":4879490,"speaker":"A","text":"Yes, go ahead."},{"start":4880690,"end":4881170,"speaker":"D","text":"Thanks."},{"start":4881410,"end":4884250,"speaker":"B","text":"First, I want to say thank you to the board. I think it's important that we all"},{"start":4884250,"end":4886570,"speaker":"D","text":"acknowledge that nobody joins a school board"},{"start":4886570,"end":4897010,"speaker":"B","text":"thinking they're going to have lives in their hands. I just want to say thank you. The other thing I wanted to mention, the first is a question. We've talked a lot about the framework. One of the things it talks about"},{"start":4897010,"end":4899570,"speaker":"A","text":"is when schools may get shut down"},{"start":4899570,"end":4903010,"speaker":"B","text":"and they have sort of some requirements,"},{"start":4903010,"end":4904050,"speaker":"A","text":"I guess, for schools are going to"},{"start":4904050,"end":4920050,"speaker":"B","text":"get shut down and we meet those now. And so my question is when does the decision get made for August, even if we're moving forward with this hybrid plan that we may start in full distance learning? The other thing I think others have mentioned now is I wanted to talk about equity and what that looks like for our district."},{"start":4921650,"end":4923970,"speaker":"E","text":"I feel like sometimes we have a"},{"start":4923970,"end":4941980,"speaker":"B","text":"different perspective maybe or we lose sight of what equity means. It doesn't necessarily mean giving the exact same opportunity to every family, but to setting a reasonable standard and finding a way to provide supports to families who can't meet that standard. And I think what this means is, is looking at childcare more closely, which has been touched on already, and giving"},{"start":4941980,"end":4947900,"speaker":"D","text":"people a chance to do just using school sites for child care and letting"},{"start":4947900,"end":4948740,"speaker":"B","text":"them do school site."},{"start":4950420,"end":4950980,"speaker":"E","text":"Okay."},{"start":4951060,"end":4956260,"speaker":"A","text":"Thank you, Susan. So we have Erin Washburn followed by Ariana Baltay."},{"start":4960180,"end":5026750,"speaker":"D","text":"Hello. Hello, esteemed board of trustees. I'm Erin Washburn. My pronouns are they, them, Middle school music teacher and the newly elected president of the Redwood City Teachers Association. I truly do appreciate the solution oriented spirit of the teachers and administrators, the committees that worked on this plan. Unfortunately, there are still so many questions, so many more questions and answers with all of the in person models. Especially what do I do if a student tells me that their brother has COVID 19 at home? What do I do if a student is being defiant, refuses to follow safety protocol? Where do I eat my lunch? How do I help my student if I can't get within six feet of them? Basic, basic things are very difficult. Are you seriously going to ask teachers to step out of five months of sheltering in place when the numbers of COVID 19 cases are higher than ever? When so many other school districts around us has decided to go full distance, have decided that fullness is the best way to go. And now county health has stepped out of the testing and tracing process. Thank goodness children don't die from this disease at the rate of adults. But sadly, there are some cases I don't want."},{"start":5028670,"end":5034030,"speaker":"A","text":"Thank you, Erin. Sorry to have to cut you off. Ariana Baltay, followed by Jennifer Overby."},{"start":5043560,"end":5044520,"speaker":"D","text":"Okay, can you hear me?"},{"start":5044600,"end":5045400,"speaker":"A","text":"Yes, go ahead."},{"start":5046360,"end":5110600,"speaker":"D","text":"Thank you to everyone, all of the committees and the honorable school board members who have worked so hard to find solutions. My name is Ariana Baltay. I am an 8th grade teacher in the school district and have been for more than 20 years. I don't think we should go back to the classrooms. While districts all around us deem it unsafe children are getting this disease. We have more and more evidence of that. If we do go back, there are many unsolved problems. I have four main problems that I still see as being major. We don't have testing that's adequate to give us a starting block. We need to clean the rest streams and monitor them with professionals to make sure that the aerolized particles are brought down. Thirdly, the lunch eating needs to be done outside. And finally, the stable cohorts are not in the county. Recommendations for student stable cohorts. They are educator student cohorts, which means teachers should not rotate in middle school. Thank you."},{"start":5111240,"end":5118480,"speaker":"A","text":"Thanks, Ariana. Next is Jennifer Overby, followed by Marissa Selfa and and Caitlin McManus."},{"start":5122080,"end":5137360,"speaker":"D","text":"Hello board members. Thank you so much for allowing us to speak tonight. I can't begin to understand how Difficult your decision is that you're facing here. I thought you. Oh, did we lose her?"},{"start":5138960,"end":5142730,"speaker":"C","text":"Jennifer. There we go. Got her back."},{"start":5143280,"end":5144080,"speaker":"D","text":"Did you get me off?"},{"start":5144640,"end":5145120,"speaker":"B","text":"Hi."},{"start":5146800,"end":5206710,"speaker":"D","text":"So I am normally in front of you speaking humbly as a parent. Tonight I am switching my hats and speaking to you as a proud member of the Redwood City School District teaching community. Not going to take my time to discuss the importance of how we reopen our campuses. But my focus is when and if we decide to go back, that we take the special steps to protect your essential workers. Protecting our community, the custodians, office staff, resource specialists, nutritional services, therapists, nurses, the list goes on. And yes, also your teachers, adults having negative Covid tests before returning to campus is equal to the tuberculosis test that we are all required to get every two years. We need to be setting up our area for success so that we don't spread this through our schools and through our communities. I know I'm out of time. Thank you so much. Thank you."},{"start":5207510,"end":5211110,"speaker":"A","text":"Let's see, we have Marissa Selfa, followed by Caitlin McManus."},{"start":5211830,"end":5217750,"speaker":"C","text":"Both are not in the list. I went down to. Alice is the next one I have."},{"start":5217910,"end":5221670,"speaker":"A","text":"So she's one that yielded her. Or she ceded her time to Mercedes."},{"start":5221910,"end":5232240,"speaker":"C","text":"Okay, so then I will go to. Okay."},{"start":5235840,"end":5236880,"speaker":"A","text":"Caitlin, are you there?"},{"start":5237120,"end":5238160,"speaker":"D","text":"Yeah, can you hear me?"},{"start":5238160,"end":5239040,"speaker":"A","text":"Yes, go ahead."},{"start":5239280,"end":5299200,"speaker":"D","text":"Hi. First, I'd like to thank you guys and all the committee members for all the work you've done to plan for these just extraordinary times. As a parent and a Redwood City middle school teacher, I understand both perspectives. During spring distance learning, we teachers work night and day to engage, motivate, connect with our students. But I can't wait to return to face to face teaching. But only if all teachers, staff and students are safe. Although schools are deemed low risk, we are gathering indoors and this carries a risk of transmission. Although most children are not considered high risk transmitters, the adults on site and the visitors do pose a risk and are at risk. So I just would hope we do anything we can to get the kids back as much as safe. But consider distance learning, especially since many other districts are considering this. So thank you very much."},{"start":5300810,"end":5306570,"speaker":"A","text":"Thank you, Caitlin. So we have Michelle Packet followed by Dana Sutherland and Peggy Klein."},{"start":5309290,"end":5310490,"speaker":"C","text":"I think this is it."},{"start":5319050,"end":5320170,"speaker":"A","text":"Michelle, are you there?"},{"start":5321290,"end":5322890,"speaker":"D","text":"Hi. I think I unmuted."},{"start":5323290,"end":5323810,"speaker":"C","text":"Yep."},{"start":5323810,"end":5324450,"speaker":"A","text":"Yeah, go ahead."},{"start":5324450,"end":5383920,"speaker":"D","text":"Great. Hi. I do want to thank everybody for all the time that they've put into this. I. I see that everybody in the district has put in so much time, but there are a lot of factors that scare me about having myself and My students in school now, some are the lack of hot running water in all rooms, asymptomatic kids or adults infecting others, the lack of adequate ppe, lack of sufficient personnel to monitor social distancing in restrooms and hallways, and the needs of special education students who require closer assistance. Not being met. But what's also unnerving for me is that of course, we daily are finding out new things. Younger children can get Covid and die. And I see my time is almost running out. So I'm going to say it's airborne. We just learned that Covid is airborne probably, and our H VAC and ventilation systems are not ready for us. Thank you."},{"start":5386250,"end":5398410,"speaker":"A","text":"Thank you, Michelle. So, Kyle, just so you're aware, we had Melanie Haskell earlier, and she actually is, I think, listed as Fletcher and has a hand up so we can get to that one also."},{"start":5399610,"end":5411530,"speaker":"C","text":"Okay, so I have. The next one I have is Dana Sutherland. And then I will get. Get back up to the other one. Okay, great."},{"start":5411530,"end":5411970,"speaker":"D","text":"Yep."},{"start":5411970,"end":5412210,"speaker":"A","text":"Perfect."},{"start":5412210,"end":5412550,"speaker":"D","text":"Thank you."},{"start":5416540,"end":5418540,"speaker":"C","text":"So Dana is unmuted now."},{"start":5419340,"end":5420460,"speaker":"A","text":"Hi, Dana, are you there?"},{"start":5425660,"end":5443350,"speaker":"C","text":"She's gonna have to unmute herself. Okay. Okay, so then we'll go to Haskell."},{"start":5444150,"end":5449030,"speaker":"D","text":"I saw my time was running out and I had to say that about Haskell."},{"start":5449510,"end":5450070,"speaker":"C","text":"Yep."},{"start":5452790,"end":5453910,"speaker":"D","text":"Hi, can you hear me?"},{"start":5454070,"end":5454950,"speaker":"A","text":"Yes, go ahead."},{"start":5455270,"end":5455830,"speaker":"D","text":"Thank you."},{"start":5457110,"end":5466950,"speaker":"A","text":"First of all, thank you so much for including social pods in the scheduling considerations. I think that'll greatly benefit families and really appreciate it. My two main points are, one, parents"},{"start":5466950,"end":5475190,"speaker":"D","text":"need more specific information regarding the two learning models before we can decide. And we need it asap, probably much before you. When schools need it, we need it"},{"start":5475190,"end":5481070,"speaker":"A","text":"so we can plan on child care as well as other things. So, for example, in the hybrid model,"},{"start":5481070,"end":5482310,"speaker":"D","text":"I think people really want to know"},{"start":5482310,"end":5485470,"speaker":"A","text":"what's going to happen in terms of a positive case or an exposure reported."},{"start":5486110,"end":5489470,"speaker":"D","text":"That's critical for us to know whether we're comfortable sending our kids back to"},{"start":5489470,"end":5494710,"speaker":"A","text":"school for 100% distance. How flexible is going to be? Are the schedules going to be, you"},{"start":5494710,"end":5497870,"speaker":"D","text":"know, parents working at home, we might not be able to send our kids back."},{"start":5497950,"end":5500310,"speaker":"A","text":"We really need the utmost flexibility in that schedule."},{"start":5500310,"end":5510150,"speaker":"D","text":"And we're worried that we're going to be tethered to a device or a certain time and day that's going to be dictated to us. That doesn't work for our schedule. Have you considered offering a third option of independent study?"},{"start":5510150,"end":5519150,"speaker":"A","text":"I know it's late in the game, but this would be extremely flexible and could keep kids enrolled rather than going to a homeschool model, especially those that do not do well with a really"},{"start":5519150,"end":5520070,"speaker":"B","text":"heavy tech"},{"start":5521900,"end":5525980,"speaker":"A","text":"central digital model. Lastly, librarians are super critical."},{"start":5525980,"end":5529900,"speaker":"D","text":"I have heard that you're considering either cutting them or cutting back to every"},{"start":5529900,"end":5531140,"speaker":"A","text":"other week book checkouts."},{"start":5531140,"end":5533260,"speaker":"D","text":"They're extremely critical to us and our students."},{"start":5533260,"end":5534300,"speaker":"A","text":"A lot of students are in a"},{"start":5534300,"end":5540580,"speaker":"D","text":"book desert where this is the only means they have of getting books. They need them. Okay, thank you."},{"start":5540580,"end":5541900,"speaker":"A","text":"Sorry your time was up there."},{"start":5543580,"end":5544820,"speaker":"D","text":"So let's see."},{"start":5544820,"end":5549370,"speaker":"A","text":"Kyle, what are we on? Peggy Klein, followed by Candice Nance Kerrigan and Sandy Hoover."},{"start":5550090,"end":5550570,"speaker":"C","text":"Yes."},{"start":5554970,"end":5556090,"speaker":"D","text":"Hi, can you hear me?"},{"start":5556170,"end":5556970,"speaker":"A","text":"Yes, go ahead."},{"start":5557130,"end":5623230,"speaker":"D","text":"Hi. Hi, I'm Peggy Klein. I teach at Kennedy Middle School in rsp. I would like to emphasize first, that implementing step one requires that Covid cases be flat or declining, and they're not. Yet. Second, teachers have not made decisions regarding whether they will come back to work or take a leave or quit. The district must be prepared for many teachers to decide it's not worth the risk to come back. Even in the hybrid model, even in good times, hiring teachers is challenging and finding enough substitutes is a nightmare. And it will be worse. Now we have to face what the reality of going back to school in person means. Imagine what classes will actually be like and what kind of learning will actually occur. As challenging as distance learning is, at least students will have their real teachers who will recreate real lessons and want to help their students to learn as much as possible. Students will get a higher quality, consistent instruction feedback and therefore learn more with distance learning than if the district finds itself scrambling to find people to cover class."},{"start":5625630,"end":5631780,"speaker":"A","text":"Thank you, Peggy. We have Candice, followed by Sandy Hoover and Ellie Kolakar."},{"start":5633780,"end":5634820,"speaker":"D","text":"All right, can you hear me?"},{"start":5635060,"end":5636260,"speaker":"A","text":"Yes, go ahead, Candace."},{"start":5636420,"end":5669240,"speaker":"D","text":"I'm Candace. I'm a parent of an incoming kinder student. And I would just like to see if the board could address later on what training teachers have had over the summer, both mandatory and optional, in order to support them through the transition to remote learning. And also I appreciate the slide deck deck earlier where you. You told us that there wouldn't be any volunteers on campus, but I think someone in the last meeting had mentioned if there's any way that parents could also serve as digital volunteers or to organize something around that so that we can help out. That would also be greatly appreciated. Thank you."},{"start":5670200,"end":5676200,"speaker":"A","text":"Thanks, Candice. Where are we at? Sandy, followed by Ellie and Jennifer Mercad."},{"start":5680610,"end":5682130,"speaker":"C","text":"Sandy is unmuted now."},{"start":5682210,"end":5682850,"speaker":"D","text":"Hear me?"},{"start":5683250,"end":5684450,"speaker":"A","text":"Yes. Go ahead, Sandy."},{"start":5684850,"end":5743670,"speaker":"D","text":"Hi, guys. Thanks. I'm Sandy Hoover, who teaches TK at Clifford. I still have some questions that have not been answered. And the questions are all about health and safety. If students and staff call in sick with COVID 19, how many people will have to call in sick before they're going to shut down in school or school? And then are we tracking students and their illnesses? Is there a database? Are we going to be informed about this on a regular basis? There are way too many questions about COVID and unsymptomatic or asymptomatic people to go back now. So I propose that we do distance learning for the first month or two to figure out what the cases are all about. And if we can decrease, then we can come back because nobody misses teaching in person more than I do. Okay, thank you very much. Let's all be safe and stay well."},{"start":5744550,"end":5745670,"speaker":"A","text":"Thank you, Sandy."},{"start":5747350,"end":5757160,"speaker":"C","text":"So there's a L, E, L, L, E, K, O, L, E. And there's a Kevin with the same last name. So that. I'm going to go ahead and unmute that."},{"start":5760190,"end":5762510,"speaker":"A","text":"Okay. So it was L that put the card in."},{"start":5762750,"end":5763310,"speaker":"C","text":"Correct."},{"start":5767630,"end":5768150,"speaker":"B","text":"There we go."},{"start":5768150,"end":5768830,"speaker":"D","text":"Can you hear me?"},{"start":5769310,"end":5770190,"speaker":"A","text":"Yes. Go ahead."},{"start":5770350,"end":5776710,"speaker":"D","text":"Okay. Hi. I'm seeking clarity on what 100% distance learning will look like for families that"},{"start":5776710,"end":5779390,"speaker":"B","text":"choose not to attend in person learning"},{"start":5779390,"end":5785240,"speaker":"D","text":"but do not want to leave the school district for homeschooling. I understand from the presentation that distance"},{"start":5785240,"end":5788840,"speaker":"B","text":"learners will have different instructors than other kids in their school."},{"start":5790920,"end":5799280,"speaker":"A","text":"However, I would like to understand if a student attends. Sorry. Will they still be able to participate"},{"start":5799280,"end":5805080,"speaker":"D","text":"in the virtual events held by their school and or classrooms at their school?"},{"start":5805560,"end":5810790,"speaker":"B","text":"And second, if a student attends a school of choice and opts for distance"},{"start":5810790,"end":5812590,"speaker":"A","text":"learning, will they be able to continue"},{"start":5812670,"end":5814590,"speaker":"D","text":"attending their school of choice when in"},{"start":5814590,"end":5817310,"speaker":"B","text":"person learning for the entire school district resumes?"},{"start":5817550,"end":5822190,"speaker":"D","text":"Or will the choice of distance learning jeopardize their standing at their school of choice?"},{"start":5822910,"end":5825070,"speaker":"B","text":"Thirdly, whether or not the student is"},{"start":5825070,"end":5828110,"speaker":"A","text":"still associated with their. Sorry, that was."},{"start":5829230,"end":5830510,"speaker":"E","text":"Will there be instruction?"},{"start":5831070,"end":5832230,"speaker":"B","text":"Oh, and you answered that question."},{"start":5832230,"end":5832590,"speaker":"D","text":"Sorry."},{"start":5832590,"end":5832950,"speaker":"E","text":"Okay."},{"start":5832950,"end":5833310,"speaker":"D","text":"Sorry."},{"start":5833310,"end":5835520,"speaker":"A","text":"I was making notes. Ah, crap."},{"start":5837910,"end":5838390,"speaker":"B","text":"Thank you."},{"start":5838550,"end":5848310,"speaker":"A","text":"Okay, so Jennifer Mercado, followed by Barbara Mahoney and Kyle. Just so you know, Heidi is also one that seated her time."},{"start":5848870,"end":5849510,"speaker":"D","text":"Okay."},{"start":5855110,"end":5855470,"speaker":"E","text":"Hi."},{"start":5855470,"end":5857110,"speaker":"A","text":"Can you hear me? Yes, go ahead."},{"start":5857510,"end":5862820,"speaker":"D","text":"Hi. Thank you. My name is Jennifer Mercado and I'm a teacher. And it hurts me at this moment to have to leave the."},{"start":5862970,"end":5864930,"speaker":"B","text":"The mode of in person teaching that"},{"start":5864930,"end":5867890,"speaker":"A","text":"was being used to teach because that is what is recommended by our health"},{"start":5867890,"end":5870330,"speaker":"B","text":"institution for everyone's safety during this pandemic."},{"start":5870650,"end":5872370,"speaker":"D","text":"These are not normal times and therefore"},{"start":5872370,"end":5874090,"speaker":"B","text":"we could not return to normal ways"},{"start":5874090,"end":5875770,"speaker":"D","text":"of instruction for the Moment."},{"start":5875930,"end":5878769,"speaker":"A","text":"If we have all the students together, there is danger."},{"start":5878769,"end":5880450,"speaker":"B","text":"And if we do not, we will stay safe."},{"start":5880450,"end":5881850,"speaker":"A","text":"The only way we can mitigate this"},{"start":5881850,"end":5903440,"speaker":"D","text":"risk of exposure, death and long term effects related to Covid of teachers, students and our loved ones. We must return to 100% distance learning until cases are less than 100 per 100,000 cases. Day by day, cases are increasing and so many factors are out of our control at this moment. Even if we do the hybrid model,"},{"start":5904160,"end":5907280,"speaker":"A","text":"as mentioned, the district is not requiring"},{"start":5907680,"end":5914760,"speaker":"D","text":"temperature COVID testing for teachers and temperature checks will be arranged."},{"start":5914760,"end":5916280,"speaker":"A","text":"But there are studies that say that"},{"start":5916280,"end":5918080,"speaker":"B","text":"it's too late by the time they get a temperature."},{"start":5918900,"end":5921060,"speaker":"D","text":"Thank you for your time. I know I ran out of time. Thank you."},{"start":5923620,"end":5965310,"speaker":"A","text":"Thanks, Jennifer. So I'm not. With all the devices I have going on right now, I'm not able to follow the chat. But it sounds like there are some people that are wanting to see time back to Erin Washburn. So I'm gonna. I don't know how to manage this. If maybe the board members can follow the chat and text me who that is so I can get those names together. I don't think there's any other way for me to figure that out at this point. But that, that is the reason that Mercedes, the doctor earlier had four minutes to speak. It was because there were three other speakers that seated time. So Kyle, I think we're on Barbara Mahoney."},{"start":5966030,"end":5966670,"speaker":"C","text":"Heidi."},{"start":5967790,"end":5970270,"speaker":"A","text":"Heidi was one that seated time to the doctor."},{"start":5972440,"end":5976760,"speaker":"C","text":"Okay, so then I'm going to go to Barbara Mahoney, is that correct?"},{"start":5976920,"end":5978680,"speaker":"A","text":"Yes. Followed by Kevin Sugar."},{"start":5985240,"end":5994120,"speaker":"C","text":"So there's a Mahoney, but there's two actually don't know which one. But there's no Barbara Mahoney in the list."},{"start":5995640,"end":5996280,"speaker":"D","text":"Okay."},{"start":5996280,"end":5999680,"speaker":"A","text":"I can't see who's here right now, so I'm not sure which."},{"start":6000880,"end":6008320,"speaker":"C","text":"So I'm gonna go down to Kevin and then we can come back once they identify. Is that all right?"},{"start":6008480,"end":6009360,"speaker":"A","text":"Yes, go ahead."},{"start":6016320,"end":6017360,"speaker":"D","text":"Hello, can you hear me?"},{"start":6017440,"end":6018480,"speaker":"A","text":"Hi, Kevin, Go ahead."},{"start":6018720,"end":6022560,"speaker":"F","text":"Hi, everybody. Want to thank you. As everyone else has, I wanted to"},{"start":6022560,"end":6023760,"speaker":"D","text":"have a few comments with you."},{"start":6024240,"end":6030720,"speaker":"F","text":"First of all, I just want to point out that as a 21 year veteran teacher with Redwood City, I want"},{"start":6030720,"end":6034240,"speaker":"D","text":"nothing more than to be with those students I have year after year, the"},{"start":6034240,"end":6035960,"speaker":"C","text":"eighth graders that I teach and watch."},{"start":6035960,"end":6041760,"speaker":"F","text":"Move on that and being part of the amazing subcommittee putting together the ideas"},{"start":6041920,"end":6043280,"speaker":"C","text":"that you were brought forth."},{"start":6043440,"end":6044400,"speaker":"D","text":"But I also must."},{"start":6045920,"end":6053020,"speaker":"F","text":"I'm also filled with caution. I have two quite elderly parents and 184, 194."},{"start":6054290,"end":6057450,"speaker":"D","text":"There is no assurances of our safety"},{"start":6057450,"end":6066530,"speaker":"F","text":"as teachers, as instructors, staff members. I can't tell you how much appreciation I have for what has been happening behind the scenes."},{"start":6066690,"end":6069410,"speaker":"D","text":"But please be sure that you take"},{"start":6069410,"end":6076930,"speaker":"F","text":"in consideration the changing times when deciding which model is best. At this time, I have to agree"},{"start":6076930,"end":6079810,"speaker":"C","text":"with a distance learning model so that everybody is safe."},{"start":6080280,"end":6081800,"speaker":"D","text":"Thanks again and take good care, everyone."},{"start":6082200,"end":6090680,"speaker":"A","text":"Thank you, Kevin. So if we. I don't know if we figured out Barbara Mahoney, but we have Christy Herrera followed by Jean Martin."},{"start":6097560,"end":6100240,"speaker":"C","text":"Okay, so Christy should be enabled."},{"start":6100240,"end":6101400,"speaker":"D","text":"All right. Can you hear me?"},{"start":6101400,"end":6102280,"speaker":"A","text":"Yes, go ahead."},{"start":6102680,"end":6168560,"speaker":"D","text":"Hi. So I've been a kindergarten teacher in this district for 20 years, and I just want to say, how can anyone say that young kids are less at risk for transmission and should be in the classroom five days a week? We shut down the schools across the country in mid March. So children, by and large have been protected at home for five months and they have not been in classrooms. We don't know what will happen when we put even 12 kids in the classroom. Are we that willing to make our children and teachers guinea pigs? We can't eat in restaurants. Board meetings, staff meetings and gatherings are not to be held in person because of safety, but we can have kids in the classroom. This doesn't make any sense to me. The issue is viral load. I work in an old school building at Hoover with really no ventilation and an antiquated heating system. What about the trauma and effects on student and staff when that first student dies, when that first teacher dies, when that first family member dies, all because we went back to school and transmitted the virus? A small percentage of risk is too much for me when it comes to our students. If we go back before it's safe, some's gonna get sick, some are gonna die, and we're willing to play those numbers games with our lives. What about our stress for the teachers? How does it affect our health and well being? How does it affect the quality of education that we."},{"start":6171760,"end":6177200,"speaker":"A","text":"Thanks, Christy. So we have Jean Martin, followed by Jocelyn Rutenberg. Semke."},{"start":6188810,"end":6189450,"speaker":"C","text":"There we go."},{"start":6189770,"end":6260550,"speaker":"D","text":"I've unmuted. Yes, go ahead, Jean. Yes. Hi. Thank you. I am, unfortunately, the teacher that falls in the 25% of teachers nationwide that have vulnerable underlying conditions. I may likely be the teacher that would see distance learning as an advantage to my health and the students. Quite a big concern I have is if we return to physical learning in August, is the high temperature that Redwood City experiences in August, September, and even into October. The condition of wearing a mask and face shield in a Hot classroom is of grave concern for me and for the students without the outside resources, such as going to an air conditioned library and then having to eat lunch in a hot classroom or lack of leaving the room seems unbearable. I would like us to consider that we start our first month or two months with distance learning so that me, as someone who's in that 25% nationwide category, I speak for myself here, I find that it is still chaos out there. I would like us to fully consider."},{"start":6265590,"end":6302670,"speaker":"A","text":"Okay, thanks, Jean. So I'm trying to catch up with the teachers who have ceded time back to Erin Washburn. I have Anne Barlaffa, Judy Sloan, Suzanne Hillary, Lori Solarizzano in Gina City, and Gina Miller Bowen. Oh, my goodness, you guys. I'm getting too many different texts from different people. I can't keep all the names straight. I was hoping that we could have Erin come back with whatever time is seated to her and then when that is up, we can have a bit of a board discussion."},{"start":6304750,"end":6308870,"speaker":"F","text":"So, Janet. Yeah, another name was Gina Sitti S"},{"start":6308870,"end":6332690,"speaker":"A","text":"I T T E. I have Gina City. I have to find these people on my list also. So Ann, Ginny, Maureen, Mike, Lori. Did I get Judy? Suzanne? So is that seven? Do you guys count seven in the chat?"},{"start":6333650,"end":6335330,"speaker":"C","text":"That's what I count. I count seven."},{"start":6347740,"end":6368940,"speaker":"A","text":"Is that. Sorry, are you guys. Is that right? Okay, so if we want to bring Erin Washburn back, they'll have seven, seven minutes and then we can have some board discussion. I don't have a timer set for seven minutes. I can go ahead and do that."},{"start":6373910,"end":6387510,"speaker":"C","text":"Would somebody put in the spreadsheet, the speaker spreadsheet, and highlight those people who have ceded their time to Erin so that we have a running total of who the next speaker is."},{"start":6388470,"end":6414680,"speaker":"A","text":"Yes, I can do that. Let me know when we have Aaron up. Thank you, Union siblings."},{"start":6416280,"end":6453060,"speaker":"D","text":"All right, seven minutes. All right. So there are so many factors at play. Cleaning schedules reduced, reduced class sizes, gutted classrooms to provide physical distancing plexiglass for some and basic PPE for all. Some increased air filtration. Not enough in my opinion. Unfortunately, there are still more questions than answers with all the in person models. What do I do if a student tells me their brother has COVID 19 at home? What do I do if a student is being defiant and refuses to follow safety protocol? What if I don't have sink for hand washing in my classroom?"},{"start":6453300,"end":6454580,"speaker":"A","text":"Where do I eat my lunch?"},{"start":6454580,"end":6467940,"speaker":"D","text":"How do I help students from six feet apart, six feet away? Basic, basic things become difficult. And that's if things go according to the roadmaps plan. Remember, this is just a piece of paper."},{"start":6468020,"end":6469500,"speaker":"A","text":"I write things down all the time"},{"start":6469500,"end":6531290,"speaker":"D","text":"on paper thinking they're gonna go a certain way. And then I add, you know, you add hundreds of children and I guarantee the plan will change or be subverted in some way or another. Teaching is already an extremely high stress, high pressure job. Resources are already slim. Are you seriously going to ask teachers to step out of five months of sheltering in place when the number of COVID 19 cases is higher than ever? When so many other school districts around have decided full distance is the best way to go? And now county health has stepped out of the testing and tracing process. Thank goodness children don't die from this disease at the same rate as adults. But sadly, there are some cases. I don't want that number of cases to increase. And of course, even if they show no symptoms, they certainly do carry and spread the disease. 31% of the children they tested in Florida tested positive. How can we call that a safe environment? For the hundreds of educators in this district, this is a recipe for disaster."},{"start":6531530,"end":6533930,"speaker":"A","text":"And why, why are we even talking about this?"},{"start":6534170,"end":6543690,"speaker":"D","text":"Because some pediatricians noted that kids should be socialized. Yeah, trust me, I am an extroverted music teacher. I know the importance of socialization."},{"start":6544170,"end":6545810,"speaker":"A","text":"But this isn't really going to be"},{"start":6545810,"end":6603220,"speaker":"D","text":"the most conducive environment for kids to hang out and have a good time anyways. Especially not with a crazed teacher constantly telling them to get away from each other and put their mask back on. Not to mention an in person model. Kids really only get to meet with their teachers and peers twice a week. If we did a full distance model, kids could get to see their teachers and peers every day of the week. At the end of last school year, distance learning was not the most successful model. But that wasn't distance learning. That was crisis learning. Teachers have been training all summer long to learn how to do this better. And kids know how this is going to be. Now starting the school year with a full distance model is the best option we have and will give kids the most access to learning content, the most access to their teachers, and the most access to their academic teams and peers with no threat to anyone's safety. Thank you."},{"start":6610110,"end":6610910,"speaker":"A","text":"Thank you, Erin."},{"start":6612830,"end":6613790,"speaker":"D","text":"So we'll go back."},{"start":6614910,"end":6624910,"speaker":"A","text":"Let's see, we talked about going to 8 o', clock, so we have a little bit more time if we want to keep going with. I think we had Jocelyn up next."},{"start":6625310,"end":6633390,"speaker":"C","text":"So there are two Jocelyn's that are without a last name. There's a third that has A different last name, so I can't differentiate."},{"start":6634040,"end":6637880,"speaker":"A","text":"Jocelyn, if Rutenberg Stem key. If you're able to put your hand up to indicate."},{"start":6638840,"end":6640200,"speaker":"C","text":"There we go. Got it."},{"start":6643240,"end":6644440,"speaker":"A","text":"I'll restart it when you're ready."},{"start":6644440,"end":6650520,"speaker":"D","text":"Jocelyn, unmute. Hi. I'm just gonna read the letter that I wrote to you and then add my two cents."},{"start":6650600,"end":6650880,"speaker":"B","text":"So."},{"start":6650880,"end":6708740,"speaker":"D","text":"I'm the parent of an incoming fifth grader and I'm not comfortable with him, my family, teachers, their families and the community going back to in person learning. With the rising number of cases and death, the still unknown, so much is unknown. And from what I hear, there will be a much more robust online education for our children online. Why risk it? I know there will be setbacks for our children as far as learning goes. I'd rather see our children in school an extra year. I know that sounds horrible. Rather than dead or with long term complications from the virus, which they are showing to have a lot of long term complications are now being proven. Please consider starting the year with distance learning only. We can always go back when the virus calms down. We can't bring back dead students, teachers, family members or community members. Also, when it comes to the social aspect, I agree with what Erin said. These children are going to be miserable. They're going to be nagged all day and I. That's just. I don't think they're going to be happy. Thank you."},{"start":6713710,"end":6718430,"speaker":"A","text":"Thanks so much. So we have ann lucero."},{"start":6725710,"end":6789710,"speaker":"D","text":"At the beginning. Thank you. At the beginning of this presentation, there was a quote by Einstein that said, in the midst of every crisis lies a great opportunity. We are missing the opportunity if we send our students and teacher back to school. We've been training all summer to know what to do. We have an opportunity to be a part of the change that is happening to education whether we want it to or not. And it would be a missed opportunity to send our kids back and do something, excuse my language, half assed. Because it's the best we can do. And I truly do believe it's the best we could, we could do in that situation. But dangerous. And to make it clearer, I would think that sending our kids back the way, even though it's the best we can, the way it would be is the equivalent to pulling up your pants and leaving your penis sticking out. And I want you to have that visual because that's what it would be. So please do not start us with kids in class. Thank you."},{"start":6793530,"end":6803450,"speaker":"A","text":"Thank you, Ann. So we have, I think we have Christina Kim followed by Dionne Smith and then I think we'll pause for some board discussion."},{"start":6807930,"end":6811930,"speaker":"C","text":"So there's a Christina without a last name that I'm going to unmute right now."},{"start":6814810,"end":6815850,"speaker":"D","text":"Great. Can you hear me?"},{"start":6816090,"end":6816760,"speaker":"A","text":"Yes, go ahead."},{"start":6817870,"end":6818190,"speaker":"B","text":"Hi."},{"start":6818430,"end":6879340,"speaker":"D","text":"First of all, thank you guys all so much for all of the tireless efforts that you have done. I'm actually. I have a son who's an incoming kindergartener at the Mandarin Immersion program. And we're really excited. We actually moved to Redwood City because we love the diversity. We've heard so many great things about all of the tireless teachers and educators. So thank you so much for that. While we're. We're so excited to do in person learning, unfortunately due to other family members who are compromised health wise, we want to do the 100% full distance learning. And as more and more schools are doing full distance, though, I was disappointed to see that there was a more of a full fledged plan. It's great that teachers have been training over the summer, but I would love to see that in that in detail, especially as we get closer to the start of the school year and all also what that means for immersion programs because that's one of the reasons that we joined the district. So thank you again for all of the tireless teachers, staff and educators have been coming up with this plan."},{"start":6884060,"end":6886780,"speaker":"A","text":"Thanks, Christina. Kyle, do you have the next speaker?"},{"start":6887020,"end":6897590,"speaker":"C","text":"Yeah, I'm going to bring it up right now. Okay."},{"start":6901110,"end":6972510,"speaker":"D","text":"How are you? I'm a first grade teacher at Clifford and I recommend the distance learning model. I love my job, but I fear being in a room with 12 to 15 new students that I have had no contact with and the possibility of transmission. Students and staff will be risking their lives going back into the classroom. It will be a logistical and social emotional nightmare for all. Temperature taking, hand washing, six feet apart, eating inside and the extra costs alone. How emotionally damaging will it be when I have to sidestep a student when I try to. When they try to hug or touch me or tell them to step away from me. And these are little first graders. This is not a good learning environment for students or staff. I deeply sympathize how hard this is on parents who are struggling with unemployment or fear of homelessness or with parents that continue to work without a child care option. It just isn't safe to go back into the classroom in a hybrid model. I'm sorry about the dinging. People are texting me. Our country has worked to decrease COVID 19 numbers, but they are still rising. Our county, excuse me, there are 704 cases in Redwood City. Could These be some of our parents, students or staff members. We don't know. We need to stay home and flatten the curve that sadly continues to rise. Thank you. Okay, thanks."},{"start":6973070,"end":6997620,"speaker":"A","text":"So, board, are we comfortable having a little bit of a discussion and then we can hear all the rest of the cards? Because I feel like at least some of the thoughts that I have to share, I think I would like for the audience to hear before we hear from more people. So, I mean, I don't need to go first. Is there somebody that would like to"},{"start":6999380,"end":6999820,"speaker":"D","text":"speak?"},{"start":6999820,"end":7001140,"speaker":"A","text":"Alisa, did you want to talk?"},{"start":7003460,"end":7157640,"speaker":"E","text":"Sure, I can start. So, first of all, I want to say thank you to everybody who's on the call. I think at the high point we had close to 900 people. Just to give you an idea of how many people are interested in this topic. And like I said early on, we've had hundreds of emails come in the last week and texts and phone calls. I also want to just thank our staff who has worked so tirelessly the last, well, many, many months. But those that are on the planning committee for this opening, really thank you from the bottom of my heart. I know how hard you, you've worked and it's been extra time given all your other responsibilities with the school district. So thank you and thank you for all the parents and community members who have really been putting a lot of thought into all of this. And I appreciate every single comment that I've gotten. They've all been unique and I think very thoughtful and has helped me in terms of my thinking. I also wanted to let you know that I know many personally as well as all of our school board members. We have been on regular weekly calls with other county elected officials, with school board members. We have been reading experts out of Stanford and UCSF and Harvard and John Hopkins. The list goes on. So we have really what's interesting is that, you know, as a locally elected school board official, you're a layperson for the most part. There are some with an educator background. But we come to the position and we learn as much as we can about education in order to do the best job we can to provide a high quality education in our community. Right. And so now in the last couple of months, we've had to also become health experts. Right. And as have our educators had to become health experts. So it's been a heavy lift. And I just want to acknowledge that. And I also just want to say that. But we don't take any of these decisions lightly. They're huge. And I think we heard the whole spectrum of what we're dealing with tonight. And actually we've heard even more through emails and through the conversations having. And I very much feel for those workers and parents who need to get back to work. They need to support their families. They need childcare as well as education for their students, for their child. And I appreciate that, you know, some of our parents are more equipped than others to set up a quiet place"},{"start":7157640,"end":7159200,"speaker":"D","text":"for children to work and to be"},{"start":7159200,"end":7215100,"speaker":"E","text":"educated and to provide that support to their students. So this is not easy. With all that said, I have spent well, I spent the day doing a lot of things, but one of the things I did is I went on the county website to look at the latest health care data. And in case we haven't had an opportunity to do that, I did early on in the chat, put the link. And I recommend for those of you that are not checking that daily or weekly, you should be doing so. So what I found is that and what many of you have found is that this week alone, in the last seven days, we've had the highest rates of virus contraction than we have the whole time we've been in this pandemic locally, right? And so this week was the highest and it was higher than the week before and the week before was higher than the week before and the week before was higher than the week before. So we are only seeing increases in those that are contracting the virus in San Mateo County."},{"start":7215420,"end":7216940,"speaker":"D","text":"I'll also say when I looked at"},{"start":7216940,"end":7299920,"speaker":"E","text":"children's data for who's getting positive rates, we have 5% of the children are positive rates, children being 0 to 9 years old. And then we have another 7% of the positive rates in San Mateo county are coming from our 10 year olds to 19 year olds. So yes, children are being positively infected with this virus. And we already heard early on from Liz Wolf that one of our own students is actually medically having some real complications. So we know that that happens. I am very cognizant and protective of our teachers and our staff. That is part of our responsibility as a school board member is to honor and to protect our teachers and staff. And so in looking at this data, I just don't see how in my good conscience I could say we're going to send people back in person in the hybrid model or full distance or full time at this point. I also want to say that recently and this came out, and I think some of you were surprised to see this, is that school board members and superintendents have been asking the county health department for assistance in Testing, tracing and tracking for months. And we thought we were actually going to be getting some of that. And just in the last week it has become clear to us, including today on the county elected call, that in"},{"start":7299920,"end":7302320,"speaker":"D","text":"fact, the testing, tracing and tracking will"},{"start":7302320,"end":7352860,"speaker":"E","text":"be up to the school districts to really manage. And you know, part of the issue around the testing trap, tracing and tracking, particularly of children, but really if everybody is, there's a privacy issue around that. So it's not as easy as you think to basically gather that information, share that information, figure out who had contacts and all of that. And we've heard a lot of details from the professionals in the county health department who are doing that. And frankly, there's just not going to be enough of them to handle the caseload that's coming forward, I believe anyway. So, bottom line is, you know, we hear from the federal government, the state government, the county, we hear from parents and community members. I firmly believe that schools ought to be a priority. Our students ought to be a priority, our next generation ought to be a priority. However, by our actions, we are not"},{"start":7352860,"end":7354020,"speaker":"D","text":"making them a priority."},{"start":7354020,"end":7468880,"speaker":"E","text":"Right. We have opened a lot of things in society before we've opened schools. And because of that we're seeing increased risks in viruses. We're also not being given the resources we need to help open schools. So we're not getting the testing, tracing, tracking, we're not getting assistance on extra resources for cleaning, for the personal protective gear that we need, for all the things that we would need. It's basically like setting up a clinic or a hospital setting in order to do the job of educating now. And we're not getting those resources to do it. So I believe that we can do a good job with distant learning. Is it as good as being in person? No, I don't believe that, but I believe that it's the safest thing to do. I understand. And we know that the distance learning, it was crisis learning, last couple of months, it was not where we wanted it to be. And I agree that we have done a much better job with professional development. We've had the time to do it, curriculum being developed, digital tools, all of that sort of thing. So I have confidence in our staff that we can increase the rigor, increase the expectations, find the best practices that we had in a couple of months ago and make sure that all the teachers and classified who are supporting students and management supporting are using those best practices. So that's sort of where I'm at. I really appreciate all of this. This is not easy. I also want to Acknowledge that in the last week, many school districts who had said they were going back full time or hybrid are actually shifting gears or having conversations about shifting gears as the virus is making an uptick not only in our county, but in the state and the country. And many school districts who have recently had these conversations are going to distant learning to begin with. And I'll stop there so other of my colleagues can speak. I've got some other things I'd like to to say, but I think that's"},{"start":7468880,"end":7469920,"speaker":"C","text":"a good place to stop."},{"start":7471360,"end":7476160,"speaker":"A","text":"Elisa, would somebody else like to. Dennis, was that a hand?"},{"start":7479200,"end":7709190,"speaker":"F","text":"So I'll try to figure out what I had that Elise I had so I don't repeat it. I do want to start by thanking Dr. Baker and his team for a lot of people on the call. You probably don't know that the cabinet and Dr. Baker, the only time they get to take time off in principals is July and they've been working seven days a week, 16 plus hours a day to do this. So thank you very much and the committee of over 120 people. Thank you for all your work. Reading the chats, one of the questions is why are we spending so much time on the hybrid if we're not going to do it? And so I will address that. I've been trying to keep an open mind and recently I've seen the data that shows the data is going the wrong direction for me and so I've been slowly switching. I understand the concern of working parents who want to know who will watch their children while they're at work. As a parent, I would be very worried if I had to deal with this. Fortunately, my children are all adults. I know parents are concerned about social, emotional learning and the ability to connect with their child's wonderful teacher. We all know that can produce magical things. I do think we pivoted to distance learning so fast that it was not as effective as you all would have liked. So parents are concerned when they hear the word distant learning today. At the end of the day, I feel like we're charged with making sure our students, teachers, staff and administrators are safe. That to me is just the paramount thing. We are charged with making sure our students are learning and developing. With respect to cohorts, I've had a number of parents say to me, cohorts in the classroom is kind of a joke because these kids leave and they, they go everywhere. They cross, mingle, etc. I can clearly attest to that. We had a neighbor that had a graduation party for every eighth grader. And every kid and parent that came up there, nobody was wearing a mask. They were all hugging each other. You can drive around Redwood City and you can see that again. That just makes it harder when the kids come to school. School we have seen in the past pre Covid where parents do send their children to school sick and students can be asymptomatic. And I think, I really think it's too early to really know what the long term health impacts are on the children. So yeah, they do have a lower case of getting it. But I think listening to doctors like Kaiser and ucs, I just don't think we know. I heard a quote that was great and that's the risk of reopening are uncertain. The harm of staying home is clear. 60% of our teachers have indicated they do not want to come back to work. And currently we have 25 subs out of 140 that are willing to come back. And when we had 140 and we didn't have Covid, we never had enough subs. So I can see us being in a situation where we're going to have teachers sick or uncomfortable for the day and they're going to call in sick and we're not going to have people that teach the class. I think there's a whole list of things that we would have to do to make people comfortable. I just want to reiterate Elisa's comment. I find it appalling the county medical officer can abdicate his responsibility. If you go back in history, we've had no norovirus and they've been very prescriptive in what they've required us to do. And in fact it's been extremely helpful because we're not medical people. And now with COVID they're just washing their hands of it and it's just irresponsible. Today the state of California announced they have four tiers of testing and teachers are now considered tier three. So and the county has said they're from testing a thousand people at least that. Help me. Was that a day they were saying or it's a day, right?"},{"start":7709190,"end":7710350,"speaker":"E","text":"Yeah, It's a day. 1,000."},{"start":7710990,"end":7874830,"speaker":"F","text":"Yeah. Now they're going to 500 a day, so that's going to be less testing. I am concerned that it's unrealistic to ask a teacher to teach four days a week and to effectively prepare two lessons plans for their students on the fifth day. I think it would be much more effective and easier to do one set of lesson plans. Well, I am hopeful that the one week of Training that teachers received at the end of the year will allow teachers to be better prepared to teach. I truly believe right now that distance learning is the safest. I feel bad saying that. I totally understand what's against distant learning. Who helps the students at home if the parents are both working? Who actually watches the students? How do you teach effectively? So every child has a positive experience and then clearly a big one that we've heard over and over is child care issues. And so I realize and appreciate that is an issue. I think we have to come up with a robust plan, ensure students are getting educated and teachers are working with students so teachers can be that caring adult. I think we need to have a plan that every parent staff member understands and we need to hold everyone accountable. Teachers will have to step up and parents will have to step up. We are in this together. I think we need to come up with a very specific schedule of our expectations. What time will kids go to school? Will they get packets? Will there be in what time will they have small group instruction? How often will the teacher be in contact with individual students? And I've had many conversations with teachers and they have said they are up to the task and they look forward to doing it. We make sure we prioritize our most. Prioritize our most vulnerable students, like special ed students, English language learners, foster children, homeless students, newcomers, math and reading intervention. And we need. We need to make sure not only your students have devices and connectivity with hotspots, but they're. They can actually get on. By that, I mean we provided devices, we provided hotspots, and some of our students live in sus congestion. I'm going to take a glass of water since this is not working. We had students who have the equipment, but they can't get on because there's just so much traffic that the Internet's not working. I know Dr. Baker is working with Cal Brumbaugh and in the county on seeing if we can't solve that. And I think the next step after that is we have to come up with a very concise plan of what triggers when we come back and how we have some sort of metrics of parents and everybody are very clear on what's going on. And again, I will assure you this was not an easy decision. I bounced back and forth between hybrid and full distance. But I just feel like with the numbers going up in the community, that I have to go back to number one principle, keeping students and teachers safe. Thank you."},{"start":7876670,"end":7882030,"speaker":"A","text":"Thanks, Dennis. Cecilia, Maria, would you like to share? Go ahead."},{"start":7882430,"end":8181350,"speaker":"D","text":"So I also would like to thank everybody that send in emails and comments and who has participated in all our meetings and webinars. I really appreciate the community and our staff feedback. I think that the goal, I know the goal for the Redwood City School District is to have a safe return to school. But when the health conditions allow it, and at the present moment, as you heard, that is not the case, we do have the two different options because I firmly believe in parents having a choice. However, the conditions at the moment don't allow us to have that choice. In my opinion, as Elisa said, we've been doing a lot of research. I myself spent days and days researching and evaluating. Every time I received an email with, you know, the data and so and so says this, I would go and research it and have thought about all the different possibilities and the stress that families are under during this time. We're having to provide for childcare, having to figure out what to do with everything, work. And I know that for some people having the two options seems like a waste of time, but I don't think it is. Because if there's a vaccine or not, if, but when there's a vaccine, we need to be able to change our plans once again, or if the conditions, our health conditions improve, then we can certainly reevaluate this. The other thing that I don't think people in our community understand is that we also have preschools. Preschools have a totally different set of rules and guidelines. And I don't know what the rest of the board feels, but I think that we should start together and we should do it in the same manner if at all possible, because many of the families who have children and preschools also have children in our elementary schools. There's been a lot of references to the American association of Pediatrics and their recommendation. And while I agree that learning in person is what's best for children, they also did say that we can do this, but only if it's done safely. For me personally, I have to think about the data, the science, and what the conditions are on the ground. While I appreciate that Oakland and LA are going their own way, I have to think about what's happening in San Mateo County. I have to think about what's happening in Redwood City. And you know, Dennis is right. The county's not providing us with a lot of the stuff that we need when it comes to testing, but they are also being told to cut down the testing. As you heard, it's not that that's what they wanted to do, but that's what they were ordered to do. Why? Because there's a need for those supplies somewhere else in the state. You have to think about the whole. And right now I think it's 80% of the population of California lives in these counties that are the hotbed of the virus. Someone said that we would have blood in our hands if we sent people back. They talked about family members who are ill. They talked about people who have died of COVID that they know of. And I personally feel very strongly about that. I just, you know, I know how hard it is when a class mate dies or when someone in the family dies. And I think that that has been one of the things that has been really weighing on me. We talk about the children being our future. So to me, if there's no tomorrow, there's no future. So I will have to agree with my colleagues and opt for the distant learning for many of the same reasons that they also said that's. I'll stop there."},{"start":8183750,"end":8185350,"speaker":"A","text":"Cecilia, would you like to go?"},{"start":8187750,"end":8412340,"speaker":"D","text":"Sure. Can you guys hear me? Yes, we can. Hold on one second. I'm sorry, I had the phone too. So again, everyone, all the staff that were part of the task force is part time, A board member, of course, who would have thought that we would be in this situation and a pandemic. Again, I've gotten probably over 200 emails and I do want to acknowledge that I have read them. I do work full time and I have actually stayed up to like 2:30 in the morning checking emails and then going to sleep to wake up early to go to work the next day. Hearing from again, you know, pediatricians and I read a lot of articles, they talk about trauma and frustration. And although those things could be treated, I feel if something happened, death happens that could can cause somebody even more trauma. Not just the family, but perhaps the classmates. Again, kids might not get as sick as the adults. They are carrying the virus. And we're exposing the teachers again. Then there's more people at different households that would be, you know, at risk. To me the priority would be teachers, staff. And I actually have a really hard time because my son would probably better off at school, not just because of his friends, but because of the academic piece. So the hybrid model would work. It would work. But again, as the cases of COVID have rised, I just can't help but to be fearful. And I know that they say we have to let go of fear, but I rather live in fear than to be living with the guilty conscience. If something was to happen, I mean, it makes Me really sad. It breaks my heart that we are going through this. And again, you know, we get emails. Some emails are some very nice one thanking everybody. Some emails are not very nice. It's convenient for a lot of parents and I get that it's a very hard situation when you are actually having to go to work and not having child care and dealing with the daily situations that this pandemic has brought to a lot of people's homes. But again, to me, one death is way too many. My priority is definitely the safety of everyone. So I would say I would go with the. And of course when it's safe, we can rebuild and go back to, you know, our normal, if you call it that. Again, it is a real situation. But at this point that's, you know, I'm with my colleagues, it's assisting everyone in the district. So that's it."},{"start":8415620,"end":8476310,"speaker":"A","text":"So thanks guys. I have, I've kind of typed up a few of my thoughts. I've been just scrambling ideas on notebooks throughout the week or so and I tried to put everything together really in no particular order. Some of it is repetitive from what we've already heard tonight from my colleagues, but they're important thoughts to me. So I'm going to go ahead and repeat everything that I have. And most of you know, I'm not very long winded anyway, so I won't keep us long. Here to start out with, I wanted to just share many of you went to the Fireside chat with Stanford Dean of medicine with Dr. Fauci. Some of the things that I wrote down, Dr. Fauci's words this week. He says this continues to be a really serious problem of historic proportions. COVID 19, still poses a global threat. And let's see, this is the most challenging virus he's dealt with in his entire career. And he says we need to draw"},{"start":8476310,"end":8476630,"speaker":"D","text":"back,"},{"start":8478630,"end":8713760,"speaker":"A","text":"you know, looking at data. I'm a data driven person. The virus significantly disproportionately affects the African American and Latinx communities in San Mateo County. 49% of the positive cases are Latino and our district population is 66% Hispanic and Latinx. So that's just something to consider. We don't know the chronic long term effects on those who have recovered from the virus. We only have six months of anecdotal evidence and that doesn't even bode well for long term effects that we're seeing. I know people are talking about, you know, studies that point at children are at low risk of infection or being spread or. But the reality is all of those studies took place after schools around the world were closed, so children were already in a protected environment. And we simply don't know what the epidemiology would have looked like had we not closed schools when we did. In fact, there was a report out today from Florida that 54,000 children were tested and 31% of those came back as positive with COVID 19. On Monday, Governor Newsom said that local decisions need to be made based based on the conditions on the ground. So what are the current conditions on the ground in Redwood City? As we already heard tonight, Redwood City has the second highest positive cases in the county, following only slightly behind the city of San Mateo in the last 12 days. San Mateo county has seen the four highest daily positive cases to date. And on March 13, when we decided to close schools for just, that's the only there were only a total of 31 cases in the county. And as of Yesterday, we have 4,254 positive cases. So today on our county call with, you know, elected and business leaders all around the county, there were over 200. We learned the positive positivity rate is expected to grow. The state has capped, barely at testing, 500 per day when it used to be a thousand. They have a new tiered priority list that puts educators at the very bottom of the top three tiers, only above asymptomatic people who may have been exposed. We know that the county is not going to help us with testing. They have made that very clear that it's on the school districts. As you've heard, Dr. Morrow is refusing to assist our district if, if a student tests positive, if the teacher tests positive. We've been asked, when do we quarantine the classroom? When do we close a school? Dr. Morrow says that's up to us. Last I checked, Dr. Baker didn't have his PhD in public health, and none of us do. We are not the health experts. In addition, there's really no requirements for anybody to report to us that they tested positive. A teacher doesn't have to tell us, a student doesn't have to tell us. They're not legally required. And if they find out they're positive, tests are taking 2 to 11 days to even come back. So in that time, how many of our families have been exposed? Also on the call today, Jackie Spear reiterated that it's more important now than ever that we be practicing social distancing. And I don't believe that that the hybrid model can bring us to that level of social distancing that we need right now. If you look at our school, our district's website, our beliefs, the number one top number of our beliefs, children learn and succeed in a safe environment with challenging and enriching instruction. And I simply don't believe that we can bring children into a safe environment in class, but that we can provide challenging and enriching instruction through distance learning. And I wish that we could go back in time and rebrand what we called it in the spring. It wasn't distance learning."},{"start":8714320,"end":8715600,"speaker":"B","text":"It was crisis learning."},{"start":8715920,"end":8757260,"speaker":"A","text":"And I think that going forward in the fall, we won't have crisis learning. We can have distance learning. So my final thoughts are I was not elected to gamble with people's lives. I'm elected to be an advocate for health and safety of our students, our staff, in our community. I believe that if we were to reopen, even with the hybrid model at this point, there will be loss of life. And to me, and I believe everyone on the board would say one loss of life is too many. So those are my thoughts. Thank you to the audience who let the board have some discussion for half an hour. Are we going to go back to public comments now or if anybody else wants to."},{"start":8757340,"end":8883430,"speaker":"E","text":"Elisa, I just wanted to add, thank you very much. I appreciated hearing from my colleagues and I appreciate all that you had to say. One thing, you know, keeping an eye on the chat with almost 900 people in this meeting tonight, we're getting a lot of good comments, I think, on how to make us even more successful than the plan we currently have. So I think it would be great to try to capitalize on some of the ideas that parents, teachers, community members are bringing up in the chat. I know we've gotten some of those in the emails. So I think one advantage of us making a decision sooner than later is that it gives Dr. Baker and his team an opportunity to really focus on the learning that we're going to have. And I also wanted to bring up, in case it's not clear, I think some of the conversation that I've had is even if you went in with the hybrid model, you had a disruption of having to send people home. It actually could be worse than just going in with distant learning because you could be going into school, going home, going into school, going home, along with sicknesses along the way. So I feel like if we can help make a decision tonight, we can really gather a lot of these great ideas with how do we support parents at home with their child care issues, with their need for social, emotional contact with other students, all of those sorts of things that people are bringing up. I really believe that working together, I think that we can really provide an inclusive and protective environment for our families. So anyway, I just want to say let's try to capture that in some way. I even had some ideas, Dr. Baker, if we, you know, depending upon what we decide tonight, there might be some opportunities for additional webinars to further define what the distance learning would look like, to further define what the independent learning would look like. I think there's a lot of questions about what are the details around that. So again, we could help kind of front load some of that information out to the community and maybe again, get some ideas back. Anyway, just, you know, those are some additional thoughts I'm having as we think about how we move forward together."},{"start":8885270,"end":8920090,"speaker":"A","text":"And I do want to add that we, you know, we've heard from a number of teachers who feel like they're very prepared to go into full time distance learning from the professional development that they had, particularly at the last week of school when we ended early to allow them to do that. And I know the county has been offering some more PD throughout the summer. I don't know if anybody wants to right now address kind of what the training is that the teachers have been receiving. I think some of the community would be interested in hearing that."},{"start":8922250,"end":8932729,"speaker":"C","text":"So, Janet, did I hear you say that you wanted to let the community know what the trainings the teachers experienced during that week that they were off?"},{"start":8933450,"end":8940330,"speaker":"A","text":"Yeah, I think a brief overview or just so people know what was going on."},{"start":8940650,"end":8967010,"speaker":"C","text":"Sure, we can do that. So at this point in time, Kyle, I need you to make sure that Linda's not muted so that Linda can speak to that. And then I know, Wendy, you probably were involved with the six through eight, so you would probably want to speak to that. So if we could have both Dr. Montes and Wendy Kelly unmuted and start. So Linda, you can start. Thank you."},{"start":8967650,"end":9155160,"speaker":"D","text":"Thank you. So we had an opportunity to have and for a full week professional development. And so there were a number of opportunities that teachers had. So some were mandatory sessions and others were self check kind of sessions where depending on the teacher's expertise, they could differentiate their pd. So, for example, those that were required that we wanted all to attend were sessions on effective instruction for online learning in the areas of language arts, in the areas of math. We looked specifically at an online assessment, knowing that we were going to need something for this year, so that was a required session. We had opportunities for teachers to deepen their understanding of platforms that they were going to Use Google Meet, for example screencastify, which is a tool for them to do pre recorded lessons as well as use online math programs called Dreambox and as well as for the tk. Through second grade teachers learn about an online platform called Seesaw which is the place where teachers or students can upload their assignments. In addition, we had sessions on social emotional learning, how to provide support for those students who are English learners, how to build community and on online platform specific lessons on how to teach small group reading intervention and in math during when teachers are required to do small group reading instruction sessions on digital citizenship to teach students protocols on how to interact online, et cetera. So a number of opportunities, all of which were pre recorded and these actually I'm looking right now and we have these recorded and the teachers have been on these platforms that we sent out. So it's a Google Doc basically where they have links to all these pre recorded sessions and I've been reviewing some of these. In addition, I just want you know, future what's coming up of our staff development has worked on many units to how to start the school year that includes effective instruction looking specifically also about how to work with students who've had this interrupted learning experiences. And we're also providing professional learning now on priority standards from guidance documents that are national guidance documents for how to prioritize standards in language arts and math specifically for coming back to school during this interrupted school time. So it is very different from what we had last March where many of the students didn't even have the Chromebooks or the iPads, etc. And some of our teachers were just learning these platforms. So I am confident that what will happen in the fall is very different than what we had to experience this past spring. Thank you."},{"start":9155480,"end":9157880,"speaker":"C","text":"Thank you, Linda. Wendy."},{"start":9158600,"end":9244530,"speaker":"D","text":"Linda said it beautifully. I would agree with everything that she just said because many of these items that she mentioned also stream through eighth grade and the social emotional learning pieces. But I think what was really great about this opportunity to have this week specifically is that teachers were able to really work through and reflect upon some of the areas of concern that they, that they had over the spring and to really, you know, hone their craft to the next level and they could self select areas that were applicable to them. And so I think just one. One additional item I want to add is that many of the items that were focused on for 6, 8 as well as the items that Linda mentioned were content specific because in middle school we tend to have content specific areas. And so what was great is the math teacher could dive into how truly teach math online and all the resources that that entailed for that particular math teacher and work with other math teachers. And I have to chuckle a little bit because I'm on the Google Doc right now and I see many teachers already on it, I mean still on on the Google Doc as they are progressing through their own time, even in the summer. So I agree with Linda. We learned a lot about what happened in the spring, what to do, what not not to do. And in all fairness, I think that we were working in this crisis environment and we are now looking ahead to a full fledged year of consistent standards and expectations for teachers and students. So thank you."},{"start":9246290,"end":9247330,"speaker":"C","text":"Okay, good."},{"start":9250050,"end":9253250,"speaker":"A","text":"So we're ready to go back to public comments?"},{"start":9253650,"end":9255170,"speaker":"D","text":"I think so."},{"start":9255170,"end":9264390,"speaker":"F","text":"Janet, quick process question. Usually at 9 we take a break. Do we want to take a five minute break now and then just keep going or do you want to do more and then take a break in a half hour, say"},{"start":9266150,"end":9266510,"speaker":"B","text":"board?"},{"start":9266510,"end":9268710,"speaker":"A","text":"What do you think? Do you want a five minute break?"},{"start":9269510,"end":9367780,"speaker":"E","text":"Yeah, I think it probably makes sense to take a five minute break before we do that because we might lose some people. I just want to acknowledge a few comments that I saw that I think are important. There were a few comments as to why did we go through, why did we give surveys and give information if we were just going to do distant learning anyway. And I hope that it's been clear that our intention all along was to try to get kids back to school as much as possible. And that was the whole start of things in May and the whole surveying along the way and all the parent webinars and input from teachers and all of that and staff have been about trying to get kids back on school. I think it's just been in the last couple of weeks where the health data has not looked great and it's been clear that, that the school districts are not getting the resources around testing, tracking and tracing and extra resources for cleaning and PPE and all of that, that many school districts have been shifting to distant learning. So I just want to be clear that I have been and I know all of the colleagues and Dr. Baker, we really have been very open minded in trying to move in the more hybrid model all along. So I'm sorry if it feels like that was discounted, but I think all of that information has gone into what we prepared and eventually all of this is going to be used. I mean we're in this pandemic for a while from all accounts, even if we get a vaccine as early as the end of the year, early next year, it's going to take a while to get everybody vaccinated. So we're in this for a while. So everything that we've done to date, I'm confident will be used as we move forward in trying to educate kids. So I thank you for filling out the surveys because I do think we need them."},{"start":9367940,"end":9389710,"speaker":"A","text":"Yeah, no, Elisa, I think that's a really good point because I want to say as a parent, I have three children in the district and people have been asking me what, what I would choose for them. And up until a week, maybe a week and a half ago, I said the hybrid method, the hybrid model would be what I would choose for my kids. And obviously that's changed. I don't think the hybrid model is safe for anybody at this point."},{"start":9391700,"end":9433470,"speaker":"E","text":"And then the one other comment I think we're seeing a lot of is around childcare issues and really supporting our parents at home, our family members at home. So I do think that, you know, we need to do some more thinking about what are some options of how we can do that, working with our partners, maybe as a group advocating out to the county and state about what we need to help our parents provide the child care and the assistance to their kids because it's going to take all of us working together. But I think there's a lot of creative ideas that we've seen through emails and in the chat that I think we need to try to work on. So I hope that also is clear that we want to help support our families at home."},{"start":9436110,"end":9446420,"speaker":"A","text":"Okay, so let's go ahead and take a five minute break. We'll be back at 8:46 and I'll take some time to read up on the chat that I've missed out on."},{"start":9466900,"end":9513870,"speaker":"D","text":"It. It's."},{"start":9517960,"end":9518200,"speaker":"C","text":"Party."},{"start":9594550,"end":9595030,"speaker":"D","text":"Somebody."},{"start":9628640,"end":9629120,"speaker":"C","text":"Shut it."},{"start":9645610,"end":9661290,"speaker":"D","text":"It's."},{"start":9768850,"end":9770450,"speaker":"A","text":"Cecilia. Do we have you back?"},{"start":9775020,"end":9777140,"speaker":"D","text":"Okay, awesome."},{"start":9777140,"end":9779020,"speaker":"A","text":"And Kyle, are you back with us?"},{"start":9780860,"end":9781500,"speaker":"C","text":"I am."},{"start":9781660,"end":9792460,"speaker":"A","text":"Okay, great. So we can get back to our public comments. We have Ellen Jacobson followed by Tiffany Anderson and Betsy Snow."},{"start":9802550,"end":9803870,"speaker":"C","text":"Let me look here real quick."},{"start":9803870,"end":9804390,"speaker":"A","text":"Hang on."},{"start":9807190,"end":9815029,"speaker":"C","text":"Oh, Okay."},{"start":9816630,"end":9817750,"speaker":"A","text":"Ellen, do we have you?"},{"start":9817750,"end":9819670,"speaker":"D","text":"I hope so. Yep. Hello."},{"start":9819670,"end":9819990,"speaker":"B","text":"Okay."},{"start":9819990,"end":9820230,"speaker":"E","text":"Hi."},{"start":9820230,"end":9867420,"speaker":"D","text":"Thank you board so much for your thoughtfulness tonight and looking at data and protecting our community's health. As a parent and a teacher, I know that's a really difficult choice that you're asking us to decide. Let's put the money we were going to use into getting PPEs and other protocols into place and let's find a way to provide tech for those that really need it. Let teachers Start learning these platforms that you spoke of and making the online learning more robust. Our children may be our future, but our. But our teachers and staff provide the path to get them there. So, again, thank you so much for thinking about protecting the entire community and our valuable staff in our district. Thank you."},{"start":9869180,"end":9872540,"speaker":"A","text":"Thank you, Ellen. Tiffany is up next."},{"start":9881670,"end":9882630,"speaker":"D","text":"Hi. Can you hear me now?"},{"start":9882950,"end":9883750,"speaker":"A","text":"Yes, go ahead."},{"start":9883910,"end":9936650,"speaker":"D","text":"Okay, thank you. So, first and foremost, I'm a former teacher myself, and I am currently a Henry Ford mom. As somebody who has personally witnessed the devastation and death of COVID firsthand, I am very hesitant to send our children back to school at this time. And I'm especially hesitant to put our valued teachers and staff at risk. These people love our children, and they work tirelessly to care for and educate them. And I find it very concerning that we would knowingly put them at risk when the science around this virus is still so unclear. I also understand parents are struggling to adjust to these new circumstances, and rightfully so. None of this is ideal, but we must accept that so much of this is out of our immediate control. And all we can do is all we can do. And we shouldn't expect more of people who are already bending over backwards to accommodate us. We need to protect ourselves, school and broader communities, and our children and teachers should not be the canaries in the coal mines. Thank you. Thanks, Tiffany."},{"start":9938250,"end":9943450,"speaker":"A","text":"We have Betsy Snow, followed by Nooshine Caviani, followed by Megan O'Reilly Green."},{"start":9945209,"end":10021890,"speaker":"D","text":"Hello. Hi. My name is Betsy Snow, and I am the library media specialist at Sequoia High School. So I want to say that I'm on board with distance learning, and I want to speak more to the notion of eliminating any site, library staff, or librarians. It's essential now more than ever to have all hands on deck as we approach distance learning. And the librarians at the feeder schools and to these high schools are essential to making sure that kids have a love of learning and that they are excited about literacy in all forms. So while students may not be able to physically go to libraries in the way they were in the past, the librarians can be trained and have been trained, I believe, to do read alouds and book talks via Zoom, Google Chat, or other, and they still have a plethora of resources that they can provide. So I want to make it very clear that my statement tonight is about eliminating any library positions, that I firmly am against that and would ask the board to reconsider that if that is still up for discussion. Okay."},{"start":10021890,"end":10026290,"speaker":"A","text":"Thank you, Betsy. We have Nishin, Megan O'Reilly Green. And then Katherine Stewart."},{"start":10040780,"end":10043500,"speaker":"C","text":"Attempted to unmute three times now."},{"start":10046780,"end":10049100,"speaker":"A","text":"Okay. And they're not able to unmute themselves?"},{"start":10049419,"end":10052620,"speaker":"C","text":"No. Oh, he could, but just not doing it."},{"start":10054700,"end":10059020,"speaker":"A","text":"Okay, I guess we'll move on to Megan."},{"start":10062870,"end":10135290,"speaker":"D","text":"Hi, I'm here. My name is Megan O'Reilly Green. I'm a small business owner in Redwood City. I have a licensed in home daycare and three children. My eldest attends one of the programs at Orion Alternative School. And I'm the interim co PTO president of Orion Starship. And although it's not my biggest concern for myself, my biggest concern for our district is inequity in education during distance learning is the unavailability of child care solutions. So I know the district has been hoping to find a child care partner, but I know from personal experience there's a shortage of child care and many businesses have closed. So I have a proposal that the PTOs assist their community in developing child care solutions within the educational cohorts. I think that'd be beneficial because they would be distributed relatively randomly as opposed to parents getting together and providing their own sort of cohorts, and that may or may not be distributed equally. I have a lot of practical ideas about how the PTOs can facilitate this with an eye toward increasing equity. So we have a team working on this and we like to make our solutions available to the whole district. So email me if you can. Hopefully Dr. Baker can give my email out to everybody."},{"start":10138900,"end":10150660,"speaker":"A","text":"Thanks, Megan. And I know that you've been emailing Alisa and myself also. So if somebody would like to reach out to you, they can contact Alisa McAvoy or myself and we can get you connected."},{"start":10150660,"end":10150980,"speaker":"D","text":"Also,"},{"start":10153860,"end":10165670,"speaker":"A","text":"I think we have, let's see, Kathryn Stewart, and then I believe Indra Hernandez is next, and she had a community member seed time to her, so she'll have extra time."},{"start":10167830,"end":10168710,"speaker":"D","text":"Shall I go ahead?"},{"start":10169270,"end":10170070,"speaker":"A","text":"Yes, go ahead."},{"start":10170390,"end":10173150,"speaker":"D","text":"Hi. Okay, so I'm really glad for all"},{"start":10173150,"end":10174790,"speaker":"E","text":"the comments that everybody put, both in"},{"start":10174790,"end":10197040,"speaker":"D","text":"chat and just talking, because it covered a lot of the things I wanted to talk about. I think every parent can give whatever they're capable of giving. In my case, I do a 10am kids free zoom meeting Monday, Wednesday and Friday. And I'm not a genius or anything, but I can handle second grade mathematics. And we do try to give them"},{"start":10197200,"end":10198640,"speaker":"E","text":"fun time at the end so they"},{"start":10198640,"end":10206640,"speaker":"D","text":"can do show and tell or they can play Prodigy or something at the end so the kids can talk to each other. And I think there was a lot of talk about social and emotional and"},{"start":10206960,"end":10210320,"speaker":"E","text":"I'm all about academics. I want to make that clear."},{"start":10210800,"end":10236840,"speaker":"D","text":"However, I do think it's great if the kids can just sit there and chit chat with each other at the end of a lesson. Lesson. So any other parent who's interested in doing that, you may not be a teacher, but you might be enough of a teacher to do that. And I definitely think that our teachers, I certainly love the teachers in the Mandarin immersion program. I think they're fabulous. But parents can also try to give time so that other parents can take"},{"start":10236840,"end":10238000,"speaker":"E","text":"a break for a minute."},{"start":10240720,"end":10253020,"speaker":"A","text":"Thanks, Katherine. So next we have Indra Hernandez and I have the Anna Francesky seated time. So what I'll do is just run the timer twice because that's a little bit easier."},{"start":10266620,"end":10379200,"speaker":"D","text":"Go ahead. There I am. Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much for all the board members. We really appreciate all the time that you guys have been spending and researching and you know, it's very valuable to all of us from the preschool program, the cdc, because we can feel that you care for all of us. When you guys mentioned one life, it's important for us, is very important what you guys been saying. We've been working very hard. We have been day and night preparing materials and videos and everything. And you guys are witness of that because I email you guys all my portal and all my videos and all the hard work that we have been doing for the children. Although we know that the state are the ones that make the decisions for our program because of the different regulations that we have. But it's true they can regulate all the decisions. And I know we belong to the Redwood City School district and we are very happy to belong to the Redwood City School District and we can feel protected by you because we're in the same umbrella. As we approach to come back next week, I have surveys on parents and at this point I have one father or one little child that is in the hospital with COVID very ill. So I don't want that to happen to any of my children in my classroom. And so as another mother with some symptoms. So please help us. We want to come back, but when it's safe. So if we continue distance learning, we will appreciate that because that will help our children. And we are now more prepared than before. So thank you very much and God bless you."},{"start":10381680,"end":10389120,"speaker":"A","text":"Thanks, Indra. Next we have Rita Melissa, followed by Mary Belprato Parenti, followed by Eric Sutton."},{"start":10391360,"end":10392400,"speaker":"B","text":"Hello, can you hear me?"},{"start":10392880,"end":10393680,"speaker":"A","text":"Yes, go ahead."},{"start":10393760,"end":10404080,"speaker":"B","text":"I am a Redwood City School District teacher at Adelante Selby. I am reading a letter comprising 26 teachers on our site. Dear Esteemed Board, we write to you as a collective unit of teachers from"},{"start":10404080,"end":10406240,"speaker":"D","text":"the Adelante Spelby Spanish Immersion School."},{"start":10406400,"end":10415300,"speaker":"B","text":"We share a common desire to do what is best for our students, staff, teachers in the community. We are concerned with starting the school year with the proposed hybrid model. We believe and have faith that the"},{"start":10415300,"end":10417380,"speaker":"D","text":"district is committing to providing our community"},{"start":10417380,"end":10435900,"speaker":"B","text":"with a safe working and learning environment and we appreciate all the hard work that has gone into planning for the upcoming year. However, with the rise in Covid cases in our community, we believe it is not safe to open schools at this time. Our staff participated in training that the district provided in June and we are committed to teaching our students by implementing a robust and rigorous full distance learning model."},{"start":10435900,"end":10437140,"speaker":"D","text":"We have learned from our experience in"},{"start":10437140,"end":10443890,"speaker":"B","text":"the spring and have a clear understanding of what full distance learning requires. We acknowledge that we are essential workers and recognize we can fulfill our professional"},{"start":10443890,"end":10448090,"speaker":"D","text":"duties to our students from the safety of our home. We respectfully urge the board to take"},{"start":10448090,"end":10454090,"speaker":"B","text":"into consideration the lives of teachers, students and staff when weighing in on your decision. We thank you for your time and dedication."},{"start":10454090,"end":10455170,"speaker":"D","text":"Respectfully yours,"},{"start":10457330,"end":10457850,"speaker":"A","text":"Rita."},{"start":10457850,"end":10458130,"speaker":"B","text":"Thank you."},{"start":10458130,"end":10466040,"speaker":"A","text":"And I know you read through that very quickly, but just so everybody knows, the board did receive that via email email today. So we all have access to that"},{"start":10468120,"end":10470560,"speaker":"D","text":"to read through it if it was"},{"start":10470560,"end":10472640,"speaker":"A","text":"hard to catch everything that you said"},{"start":10472640,"end":10473560,"speaker":"E","text":"in your One minute."},{"start":10474920,"end":10477960,"speaker":"A","text":"So we have Maribel Prado Parenti, followed by Eric Sutton."},{"start":10480440,"end":10480920,"speaker":"B","text":"Hello."},{"start":10484120,"end":10550420,"speaker":"D","text":"Hi, my name is Maribel Parenti. I work at Adelanta Selby Immersion School. And and my point is also to when schools opens and when school opens in August, I do want, like many of my colleagues, proceed with distance learning. And I want to make a very clear point to some of the parents that are writing comments in the chat that it's not that we don't want to go back to work, is that we are seeking for safety, not only for us, but for our whole community, including you parents, school bus drivers, custodians, the cafeteria staff, that we have PE teachers, our students, our librarians, our whole community. Given the rising of this crisis that we're facing right now. And as many of you stated, the cases are just going up because people are not being careful and we teachers."},{"start":10554820,"end":10561540,"speaker":"A","text":"Okay, thank you, Marbel. Sorry your time ran out. So we have Eric Sutton, followed by Katie Goetz, followed by Julia Fang."},{"start":10564900,"end":10566100,"speaker":"C","text":"Hi, can you hear me?"},{"start":10566180,"end":10566980,"speaker":"A","text":"Yes, go ahead."},{"start":10567380,"end":10567750,"speaker":"D","text":"Great."},{"start":10568060,"end":10629720,"speaker":"C","text":"Yeah, the Pokemon teacher from Roosevelt and now the virtual Pokemon teacher at Orion. And I'm so happy to hear what is Almost unanimous support from our community for distance learning. I wanted to start with a little math. If 1% of Redwood City has COVID 19, then there's a 95% chance that a group of 300 has COVID 19 and a social circle of 15 families approaches that number. So I think when the. When the board is thinking about how to reopen, we need to be thinking about those numbers as it sounds like we are. So I wanted to focus on distance learning. We need Google or zoom. Groups of five, not 15 or 30. Teachers do have time for shorter, smaller daily meetings. And there needs to be support for social pods by allowing co located students to have the same teacher and the same meeting schedule because it's very difficult otherwise."},{"start":10632680,"end":10633080,"speaker":"D","text":"Great."},{"start":10633320,"end":10638920,"speaker":"A","text":"Thank you, Eric. We have Katie followed by Julia Fang and Joan Perez."},{"start":10654690,"end":10718070,"speaker":"D","text":"Good evening. Hi Katie. I was originally going to come on this call and talk about balancing immersion education in the hybrid model and making sure that kids classroom time was focused on the immersion language. However, with the pivot towards simply offering a full distance model, I am asking for clear guidelines and expectations around how parents, especially non native speakers of the immersive language, will be equipped to help their students during full distance learning. I don't speak the language that my children are being immersed in and I am concerned about how that educational opportunity will be facilitated and just hope that there is a thought and intention being put into immersion in the distance model. Thank you very much."},{"start":10720390,"end":10727590,"speaker":"A","text":"Thanks, Katie. Kyle, the next person you have on your list is actually a duplicate comment card so we can move on to Julia."},{"start":10728390,"end":10731670,"speaker":"C","text":"Okay, so she is unmuted now."},{"start":10731830,"end":10733190,"speaker":"A","text":"Okay, go ahead, Julia."},{"start":10735510,"end":10737110,"speaker":"C","text":"Oh, she left."},{"start":10739910,"end":10746070,"speaker":"A","text":"Okay, maybe she'll come back. But we can move on to Joan Perez followed by Michelle Butler and J.J. schneider."},{"start":10758800,"end":10760720,"speaker":"C","text":"Okay, so Joan can go ahead."},{"start":10761360,"end":10784800,"speaker":"D","text":"Hi. I've been a teacher in the district for 16 years and I want to recognize that this is a very difficult decision for our district with many variables to consider. And I chose to speak tonight because there is a lot of noise in our community, but there doesn't seem to be much noise about the safety of our teachers and our staff. I know there's a large group of parents rallying to get back to school. I'm also a parent in the district"},{"start":10784880,"end":10787560,"speaker":"B","text":"and have seen the emails and the social media posts."},{"start":10787560,"end":10833770,"speaker":"D","text":"And when I took the survey in June, I too hoped to get my middle schooler back to school. We know that students need to be in the classroom, but now we also know that many teachers are uncomfortable returning. So I'm glad to hear what the board is Feeling tonight, we look forward to the day that Dennis McBride can come to our school and visit with his pink box of donuts. We want that sense of being back to normal, but these are not normal times. We're in a pandemic with many uncertainties. And I just wanted to say that Mr. Dr. Michael Ryan and the World Health Organization stated that if we suppress the virus in our communities, then schools can return. We are not suppressing the virus. And infectious disease specialists like Jessica Rivera have stated that schools were."},{"start":10835210,"end":10837530,"speaker":"A","text":"Sorry, Joan, your time ran out."},{"start":10838890,"end":10842410,"speaker":"C","text":"So Julia is back here. I'm going to try to mute her."},{"start":10847850,"end":10849170,"speaker":"A","text":"Yeah, go ahead, Julia."},{"start":10849170,"end":10853450,"speaker":"D","text":"Oh, great. Okay. I was trying to talk earlier, but it seemed like I was muted."},{"start":10853450,"end":10853890,"speaker":"B","text":"Okay."},{"start":10853890,"end":10921440,"speaker":"D","text":"So thank you so much for taking so much care on our reopening plans. Initially, I wanted to actually speak to seeing if our younger students could have an exception to having outdoor, safer, kind of in person, kind of cohorts, but it seems like we're kind of moving away from that, and we're not necessarily even considering providing outdoor learning experiences, even when there are spaces available on some campuses. My kids are in mi and so if we're moving to online only, my question would be, how does online only immersion work? It seems like it's extremely difficult. And just basically from my observation of young children like them, sitting and paying attention in front of a screen for more than 30 minutes is super difficult. So how do we make immersion interactive, engaging, and provide as much instructional minutes as possible to our students? Please help us figure out a way. Thank you for your kind consideration."},{"start":10923600,"end":10930000,"speaker":"A","text":"Thank you, Julia. So we have Michelle Butler followed by Ms. JJ and then Maria Stockton."},{"start":10939050,"end":10940610,"speaker":"C","text":"Lots of Michelle's in the list."},{"start":10940610,"end":10941130,"speaker":"A","text":"I know."},{"start":10949770,"end":10950810,"speaker":"D","text":"Can you hear me now?"},{"start":10950970,"end":10952170,"speaker":"A","text":"Yes, go ahead."},{"start":10952250,"end":11016020,"speaker":"D","text":"Okay, thank you. And I just. I'm so grateful for the board and for the school district and for our parents. I have an adult child with autism that I haven't been able to hug in five months. And he's counting on us as a society to do a better job. And I would hate for our families not to be able to hug their grandparents and to be distanced from them for nine months. I know we can do a good job with online learning. I'm excited that we're going to take data and track it better. In special ed, we have to track specific goals. And some of my students really made progress on their goals during those months. Now not all of them. And I have to do a better job, and we have to do a better job, but it was promising and I bought a four Foot pointer because you can't buy six feet pointers. And it took more than my queen size bed. So that's been a good visual for me thinking about children coming back, needing to be in the middle of a kitchen, king size bed apart. Thank you."},{"start":11019380,"end":11025700,"speaker":"C","text":"So I cannot find a listing for J.J. schneider. If they could raise their hand, that would be great."},{"start":11026420,"end":11027300,"speaker":"A","text":"Are you still here?"},{"start":11028980,"end":11035540,"speaker":"C","text":"And. And then Maria Stockton. There's several Maria's without any last names attached, so."},{"start":11037060,"end":11042670,"speaker":"A","text":"Okay, so J.J. or Maria. Can you guys indicate which one?"},{"start":11043390,"end":11044830,"speaker":"C","text":"Got it. There's Maria."},{"start":11053150,"end":11054989,"speaker":"D","text":"Is this time for Maria Stockton?"},{"start":11054989,"end":11056110,"speaker":"A","text":"Yes, go ahead Maria."},{"start":11056110,"end":11058670,"speaker":"D","text":"Oh, okay. Thank you. I'm sorry, I didn't see that."},{"start":11059310,"end":11059710,"speaker":"A","text":"Okay."},{"start":11059710,"end":11119100,"speaker":"D","text":"Maria Stockton, president of CSEA Redwood City 5, the classified support union and 41 year district employee. I'm also a member of the facilities committee. And when we began, I felt assured that the staff and students working and at the sites would be protected and learning in healthy and self environments. But that was when the numbers of the virus were going down. Now with the day's growing numbers, every day I feel less assured that this is the right thing to do. At this time. Please remember we have had instructional assistants working alongside with our teachers, giving them support as well as our students on online learning, which has worked out well and should continue and use others classified for support. I am also at requesting the district meet with CSEA and RCTA leadership to create an agreeable process to inform our staff whenever they have been exposed to somebody who has come down with the coronavirus on site. Thank you."},{"start":11121670,"end":11132230,"speaker":"A","text":"Thanks Maria. Kyle. Ms. JJ may be listed as Josephine. Okay, and then so that'll be followed by Brian Howell and Jeanette Serrano."},{"start":11132550,"end":11137429,"speaker":"C","text":"Okay, so I have enabled Josefina."},{"start":11138470,"end":11140230,"speaker":"D","text":"Okay, so Janet, can you hear me?"},{"start":11140310,"end":11141270,"speaker":"A","text":"Yes, go ahead."},{"start":11141510,"end":11203930,"speaker":"D","text":"All right, so I'm a fifth grade teacher at Henry Ford. This is my 16th year teaching the district. I'm also a parent of an incoming fifth grader. Trust me, I'm not a fan of distance learning. You know, as a parent of a 10 year old, I know how hard it was to teach my own kid. In the spring she was sleeping in late. I was having a hard time monitoring her iPad all the time. But the priority is to keep teachers, students and families safe. We need to make a decision based on data we have now so we can plan for the start of the year. It's not okay to potentially lose staff, students, students and parents to Covid because of exposure. Exposure which can be prevented at schools. We as teachers have no control of who's coming into our classrooms. And neither do you. You cannot guarantee our safety. We were willing to close our school and Covid cases were half as bad as it now. So it'd be ridiculous to even consider us coming back in the fall with the cases in California at all time high. Do the right things. Start the fall with distance learning and keep looking at data and revisit options in the spring. Don't put us all at risk. Thank you."},{"start":11205450,"end":11211210,"speaker":"A","text":"Thank you, Ms. J.J. let's see, we have Brian Howell, Jeanette Serrano, Joan Solari."},{"start":11217530,"end":11220170,"speaker":"C","text":"Okay, there's Brian Howell. Hi there."},{"start":11220650,"end":11222530,"speaker":"F","text":"I have much to say, but I"},{"start":11222530,"end":11237130,"speaker":"C","text":"can't put it any better than our amazing school board, teachers and community just did. Thank you. But real quick. My name is Brian Howell and I'm a Redwood City school teacher. I start every school year with the same question I ask my students. What do you think I care most about this year?"},{"start":11237690,"end":11239050,"speaker":"D","text":"Listening, getting good grades."},{"start":11239050,"end":11239650,"speaker":"C","text":"They answer."},{"start":11239650,"end":11241010,"speaker":"D","text":"I tell them what I care most"},{"start":11241010,"end":11253250,"speaker":"C","text":"about is their safety, their emotional and their physical safety. Students need to feel safe to learn and take educational risks this year. Unfortunately, I have no control over their safety."},{"start":11253880,"end":11255600,"speaker":"D","text":"How can I accept this precious gift"},{"start":11255600,"end":11260840,"speaker":"C","text":"you have given me when I have no control over your child's safety? I can't protect your children and that's"},{"start":11260840,"end":11264960,"speaker":"D","text":"not okay with me. Distance learning is an opportunity for students"},{"start":11264960,"end":11266480,"speaker":"C","text":"to become self motivated again."},{"start":11266480,"end":11268200,"speaker":"D","text":"They will be learning for the excitement"},{"start":11268200,"end":11270120,"speaker":"C","text":"and the intrinsic joy of discovery."},{"start":11270200,"end":11271840,"speaker":"D","text":"Every student has it within them."},{"start":11271840,"end":11278160,"speaker":"C","text":"It just might need to be dusted off or maybe pressure washed, but it's there. The work I create inspires me to"},{"start":11278160,"end":11280080,"speaker":"D","text":"keep challenging them with more rigorous, high"},{"start":11280080,"end":11282180,"speaker":"C","text":"quality digital learning experiences."},{"start":11282180,"end":11287260,"speaker":"D","text":"I know digital learning can be very valuable to education and can reignite the excitement and joy."},{"start":11288780,"end":11301340,"speaker":"A","text":"Oh, thank you, Mr. Howell. I love your enthusiasm, but you ran out of time. So we're going to move on to Jeannette Serrano. Let's see. Joan Solari and Franklin Herrera."},{"start":11307670,"end":11308150,"speaker":"C","text":"Okay."},{"start":11310950,"end":11311430,"speaker":"D","text":"Hello."},{"start":11311910,"end":11312430,"speaker":"C","text":"Yep."},{"start":11312430,"end":11312710,"speaker":"D","text":"Hi."},{"start":11312710,"end":11313110,"speaker":"A","text":"Go ahead."},{"start":11313430,"end":11381670,"speaker":"D","text":"Hi, I'm Jeanette Serrano and I've been a kindergarten teacher here in Redwood City. This will be the 33rd and final year. Like most teachers, teaching for me is a passion. It's part of my identity. And like many teachers, you know, we give, you know, from our own pocketbook. We give more hours than we are required. Where there are weekends, we give our vacation time. So I'm just so grateful to the board that to give up our safety is not something else, that we have to sacrifice everything else we give willingly for the children. I have total confidence that, that we will be able to accelerate Learning and put in interventions to help the children when we get back to the classroom to be with them the way we want to. The teachers warn this, but this is what we need to do so that everyone is safe. Thank you to the board for following the science. Thank you, Jeanette."},{"start":11382790,"end":11383750,"speaker":"A","text":"So we have Joan."},{"start":11384460,"end":11384820,"speaker":"D","text":"Where are we?"},{"start":11384820,"end":11388780,"speaker":"A","text":"Joan Solari, Franklin Herrera, and then Cynthia Alvarez."},{"start":11397740,"end":11402380,"speaker":"C","text":"I can't find Joan Solari in the list."},{"start":11402700,"end":11409640,"speaker":"A","text":"Joan, if you're able to put your hand up so we can find you, we'll do that. But let's move on to the next speaker."},{"start":11409950,"end":11410670,"speaker":"D","text":"In the meantime,"},{"start":11420190,"end":11472060,"speaker":"C","text":"Hello, everyone. I learned at a very young age to make a difference in my community. And I will be speaking as a father, a member of the teaching staff, and a very active member of our community. I work at Kennedy School and I am a soccer coach by night. And believe me, I miss our kids. And I agree that the kids need to go back to school, but at what cost? Do we really want to put ourselves to the test and hope for the best? Put at risk our community and break down our health system? We are lucky to live in this area with this. Slow down the infections and flatten the curve for a while. But as we are learning, as soon as places are opening, the cases are increasing at a faster pace. Do we want to be a city that will. Will be desperate for help, or do we want to be an example, a city helping others? It is bad enough dealing with the irresponsible people around us."},{"start":11472380,"end":11474340,"speaker":"D","text":"Bottom line, are we going to be"},{"start":11474340,"end":11478460,"speaker":"C","text":"part of the solution or part of the problem? Thank you."},{"start":11481020,"end":11487340,"speaker":"A","text":"Thank you, Franklin. So we have Cynthia Alvarez followed by, let's see, Esther Burnt and Vanessa Sanchez."},{"start":11487900,"end":11510720,"speaker":"C","text":"So I cannot find Cynthia. So if you could make yourself known, that'd be helpful. And I'm gonna drop down to Esther, And she is not there either. Esther's not there either. So I'm gonna go to Vanessa Sanchez."},{"start":11524810,"end":11525530,"speaker":"D","text":"Can you hear me?"},{"start":11525770,"end":11526890,"speaker":"A","text":"Yes, go ahead."},{"start":11527130,"end":11579740,"speaker":"D","text":"Awesome. Good evening, everyone. My name is Vanessa Sanchez, and I'm a second grade teacher at Adelante Spanish Immersion School. While I know that in person instruction is irreplaceable, I urge you to begin the school year remotely. Planning time is sacred and scarce for teachers. Let's not waste any more of this time on planning multiple models. We can revisit when it's safe to do so. I would also argue that this experience could be traumatic for students when a slip in hygiene monitoring can lead to the death of a student, family member, or staff member. The focus of both teachers and students will not be on academics. Lastly, with a range of child care needs, it is irresponsible and quite frankly ignorant to assume that everyone has the resources to commit it to stable cohorts outside of the classroom to make the hybrid model work. Padres, por favor Cican defendiendo los derechos de susijos. Parents, please continue to advocate for your children. Thank you."},{"start":11581820,"end":11587020,"speaker":"A","text":"Thanks, Vanessa. So we have Sarah Gurkes, Suba, Marty, and then David Weekley."},{"start":11590620,"end":11597910,"speaker":"C","text":"Okay, so this is. We need to promote to a panelist who allows her to speak because she has a version of zoom."},{"start":11608470,"end":11611910,"speaker":"D","text":"Hi. Sorry, I'm nursing my baby to sleep right now."},{"start":11615430,"end":11617870,"speaker":"A","text":"So we just wanted to mention that"},{"start":11617870,"end":11619350,"speaker":"D","text":"if we're going to do the papers,"},{"start":11619350,"end":11622940,"speaker":"A","text":"the all distance learning at home or"},{"start":11622940,"end":11624420,"speaker":"D","text":"any of the distance learning at home,"},{"start":11624820,"end":11630060,"speaker":"A","text":"that, you know, one of the really difficult things is if you have two parents that are working that they may"},{"start":11630060,"end":11631380,"speaker":"D","text":"have meetings at a certain time."},{"start":11631780,"end":11634660,"speaker":"A","text":"So the really strict schedule of having"},{"start":11634900,"end":11651910,"speaker":"D","text":"online meetings with the teachers can be really difficult. So I guess we just want to have more information on what the attendance and the synchronized learning would look like. And then also if this can't be more flexible, if there could alternatively be an independent study program that would allow"},{"start":11651910,"end":11653710,"speaker":"A","text":"for a more flexible schedule."},{"start":11653870,"end":11661470,"speaker":"D","text":"I know Modesto City schools has rolled out this. This is an option. So they're doing distance learning and then they have an option for independent study."},{"start":11663470,"end":11664670,"speaker":"A","text":"And then the other"},{"start":11667550,"end":11670910,"speaker":"D","text":"topic was the after school program, which sounds like it"},{"start":11670910,"end":11672320,"speaker":"A","text":"may not be happening now, but I"},{"start":11672470,"end":11679190,"speaker":"D","text":"think it's important to keep the cohorts together for that if we do do something like that. Thank you."},{"start":11679430,"end":11695030,"speaker":"A","text":"Thanks. Sarah Suba, Marty. David Weekley, Michelle Lehrer. Okay, go ahead."},{"start":11695510,"end":11766630,"speaker":"D","text":"Respected RCST board members and Dr. Baker. My name is Subha Mati and I work as technology coach in the district. I am here to urge you to consider distance learning option for our students and staff when school reopens in August. As a person in the high risk category for Covid 9 infection for health reasons, I have been torn apart to make a decision between work and the risk factors involving my family. With the current trend, if I choose to come to work in person, I am putting myself in harm's way and risking my health and my family's well being. But on the other hand, as tech coach, I have extra interest in getting us ready by choosing my health over work. Now I feel bad that I am letting our RCSD community down by not being there for them. If the board decides early on on a distance learning model, it will give teachers time. Be certain of mind without Worrying about their safety and motivation to continue their learning and training of the best practices. We all know that a relaxed mind and body is needed for creating any optimal learning environment, even for teachers. Thank you."},{"start":11769350,"end":11774870,"speaker":"A","text":"Thank you, Subha. So we have David Weekley, followed by Michelle Lehrer and then Michelle Mehrani."},{"start":11777310,"end":11779150,"speaker":"D","text":"Hey, everybody, I'm David Weekley."},{"start":11779150,"end":11783870,"speaker":"F","text":"I'm a parent of an incoming kindergartner in the Mandarin immersion program and a three year old."},{"start":11783870,"end":11785630,"speaker":"D","text":"I have two the need for testing"},{"start":11785630,"end":11796830,"speaker":"F","text":"and the need for outdoor instruction. First, I'd like to see regular testing as one of the pillars of a safe reopening. Without the knowledge of when the virus is spreading, we won't be able to effectively contain it or respond to it."},{"start":11796910,"end":11798670,"speaker":"D","text":"We'll find out about it much too late."},{"start":11798830,"end":11807720,"speaker":"F","text":"Secondly, I'd like to see outdoor instruction incorporated more seriously. Evidence so far is that outdoors is much safer than indoors. We have the best weather in the world."},{"start":11807720,"end":11809160,"speaker":"D","text":"Let's use that to our advantage."},{"start":11809320,"end":11811400,"speaker":"F","text":"Thank you all for caring so much about our kids."},{"start":11814360,"end":11817320,"speaker":"A","text":"Thanks, David. So next we have Michelle Laird."},{"start":11829330,"end":11830370,"speaker":"D","text":"Hello, can you hear me?"},{"start":11830530,"end":11831330,"speaker":"A","text":"Yes, go ahead."},{"start":11831730,"end":11906370,"speaker":"D","text":"Oh, great. Thank you. Hi, I'm Michelle and I'm a psychologist and the preschool special education coordinator for the district. So I am speaking on behalf of over 30 staff members who work in our special education preschool program. We teach the most vulnerable, our youngest students. We start our children at 3 years 0 months up until kindergarten. We have the most vulnerable, the most severely impacted with disability students. Most of our students are non verbal. They are. Excuse me, I'm sorry. They are significantly delayed and they require hands on teaching for every type of teaching. And I think our teachers are very much looking forward toward seeing our students again. But we really do think that we are placing our students at high risk. And if I could just have one extra second. It is one of our students that has tested positive for Covid and is now on medical lockdown. Quarantine. Quarantine. Quarantine. Quarantine."},{"start":11912700,"end":11915340,"speaker":"A","text":"Okay, thanks, Michelle."},{"start":11918300,"end":11925420,"speaker":"C","text":"So we have Vanessa Sanchez and Joan Solari who've now popped back up. Do you want to go back and pick those up?"},{"start":11925740,"end":11929580,"speaker":"A","text":"Yeah, that's fine. Trying to find them on my list."},{"start":11933430,"end":11936310,"speaker":"C","text":"There's Joan Solari right there."},{"start":11937910,"end":11962480,"speaker":"D","text":"Hi, everyone. Hi. This is Joan Solari. I've been a teacher in the district for five years. I've taught since 1995 in elementary school. And I just have to say what has been said by so many other teachers in our district that as much as we want to be back with our kids, the science does not support it and we have to go with the science."},{"start":11963440,"end":11966040,"speaker":"B","text":"So, you know, I really appreciate all"},{"start":11966040,"end":11981960,"speaker":"D","text":"the support that we've been given tonight, but this is just an unprecedented time that we have to follow the data that goes with this. So thank you. Thank you."},{"start":11981960,"end":11984110,"speaker":"A","text":"Joan. Kyle, who was the other one that you said pop back?"},{"start":11984340,"end":11985540,"speaker":"C","text":"Vanessa Sanchez."},{"start":11992420,"end":11996420,"speaker":"D","text":"Hi. I actually already had a chance to speak. I just forgot to put my hand down."},{"start":11997620,"end":11998620,"speaker":"A","text":"That's why I can't find you."},{"start":11998620,"end":11999860,"speaker":"D","text":"I must have crossed your name off."},{"start":12000660,"end":12004660,"speaker":"A","text":"Okay, so we have Michelle Mehrani, Jennifer Wenzel and Alex Herrera."},{"start":12017870,"end":12021790,"speaker":"C","text":"Yeah, there's three Michelle's without last names."},{"start":12024270,"end":12026430,"speaker":"A","text":"So Michelle Mehrani. Can you put your hand up?"},{"start":12034990,"end":12039400,"speaker":"C","text":"So do you want to go to Jennifer and then come back?"},{"start":12039400,"end":12040160,"speaker":"A","text":"Yeah, let's move on."},{"start":12054400,"end":12130370,"speaker":"D","text":"Hi, can everyone hear me? Yes, go ahead. I am a RCSD teacher. I have been teaching at RCSD for over 13 years and I care deeply for all of the students, families, staff and teachers. I am also the mother of a two and a half year old little boy. Lately I have spent many sleepless nights worrying about just the idea of returning to a job I love because of this virus. I cannot shake the overwhelming concerns I have about returning to school and facing the possibility of bringing this virus home to my family. I keep reading about cases where people were practicing the recommended safety precautions and still got COVID 19 when they left the safety of their home. There is still so much we don't know about this virus. If we open up our schools with the current level of community spread, even in the hybrid model, there is a high likelihood that people will die. Even a single child, parent, teacher, staff member or loved one is too high of a price to pay when it comes to when it could be prevented with 100% distance learning. I'm out of time. Thank you so much for listening tonight and I really appreciate everything the board said tonight. I feel relieved too after hearing them. Thank you."},{"start":12131170,"end":12138690,"speaker":"A","text":"Thanks Jennifer. So we have Alex Herrera, followed by Wendy Bittler, Bailon and Sophie Minchin."},{"start":12138690,"end":12141330,"speaker":"C","text":"So we have Michelle Myrani first."},{"start":12141790,"end":12142110,"speaker":"D","text":"Okay."},{"start":12150990,"end":12157629,"speaker":"C","text":"And just disappeared again. Okay, so we'll go down to Alex Herrera."},{"start":12161630,"end":12163470,"speaker":"D","text":"All right. As the son of a 20 year"},{"start":12163470,"end":12165750,"speaker":"C","text":"veteran teacher in the RCSD and as"},{"start":12165750,"end":12168200,"speaker":"D","text":"a substitute teacher myself, I understand the"},{"start":12168200,"end":12169560,"speaker":"C","text":"risk that would be taken if kids"},{"start":12169560,"end":12170520,"speaker":"D","text":"were sent back to school."},{"start":12170840,"end":12172120,"speaker":"C","text":"It's playing with fire."},{"start":12172280,"end":12175560,"speaker":"D","text":"Not only would the kids be at risk, but their families as well as"},{"start":12176040,"end":12177280,"speaker":"C","text":"the teacher and their families."},{"start":12177280,"end":12179040,"speaker":"D","text":"Essentially return to school would be jeopardizing"},{"start":12179040,"end":12179960,"speaker":"C","text":"the health of thousands."},{"start":12180040,"end":12184920,"speaker":"D","text":"Would you put yourself in that position of the teacher and coop yourself up in that classroom? Probably not."},{"start":12185000,"end":12186560,"speaker":"C","text":"Because at that point the viral load"},{"start":12186560,"end":12188680,"speaker":"D","text":"is too high and simply not safe."},{"start":12188920,"end":12190840,"speaker":"C","text":"If the prisons are releasing inmates early"},{"start":12190840,"end":12193080,"speaker":"D","text":"due to congestion and restaurants aren't allowing"},{"start":12193080,"end":12194970,"speaker":"C","text":"customers, customers inside for a meal, why"},{"start":12194970,"end":12196450,"speaker":"D","text":"would you send your children into a"},{"start":12196450,"end":12197570,"speaker":"C","text":"classroom for a few hours?"},{"start":12197810,"end":12199810,"speaker":"D","text":"Sure, mental health is an issue, but"},{"start":12199810,"end":12201250,"speaker":"C","text":"life and death is a bigger one."},{"start":12201730,"end":12204130,"speaker":"D","text":"RCSD already experiences a shortage of subs"},{"start":12204130,"end":12206450,"speaker":"C","text":"on a daily basis and will continue to be."},{"start":12206610,"end":12210770,"speaker":"D","text":"The decision is to go back as a sub. I would not return and put myself"},{"start":12210770,"end":12215810,"speaker":"C","text":"and my family at risk. Thank you. Okay."},{"start":12217170,"end":12217650,"speaker":"A","text":"All right."},{"start":12217650,"end":12218210,"speaker":"D","text":"Thank you."},{"start":12218610,"end":12220430,"speaker":"C","text":"Third type for Michelle here."},{"start":12220830,"end":12221470,"speaker":"D","text":"Okay."},{"start":12223950,"end":12224470,"speaker":"B","text":"Okay."},{"start":12224470,"end":12225230,"speaker":"D","text":"Can you hear me now?"},{"start":12225310,"end":12225790,"speaker":"A","text":"Yeah."},{"start":12226430,"end":12229310,"speaker":"D","text":"Yeah. Welcome. Welcome to zoom in in the classroom."},{"start":12230110,"end":12231630,"speaker":"A","text":"Anyway, I'm Michelle Mahrani."},{"start":12231630,"end":12244590,"speaker":"D","text":"I have taught kindergarten at clifford school for 20 years. Most of what I wanted to say tonight has already been stated. I want to thank all the people that have worked this summer to try"},{"start":12244590,"end":12248580,"speaker":"A","text":"and work, work on a hybrid model to get us back in the classroom."},{"start":12248580,"end":12256580,"speaker":"D","text":"Because nothing makes me sadder than not being able to go back into my kindergarten classroom and greet a brand new group of kindergarteners."},{"start":12256580,"end":12258100,"speaker":"A","text":"But I will tell you, at this"},{"start":12258100,"end":12261099,"speaker":"D","text":"point in time, it is not safe"},{"start":12261099,"end":12264060,"speaker":"A","text":"for the students, it is not safe for me, it is not safe for"},{"start":12264060,"end":12286699,"speaker":"D","text":"my office staff, my administrators, my custodial staff, my co workers, and it is not safe for my incoming kindergarten students to be in a classroom with me. I appreciate the board's comments and listening because there are obviously a variety of opinions and I hope going forward that"},{"start":12286699,"end":12288140,"speaker":"A","text":"we all can be at a classroom"},{"start":12288540,"end":12290460,"speaker":"D","text":"at some point in time. Thank you."},{"start":12295020,"end":12296060,"speaker":"A","text":"Thanks, Michelle."},{"start":12297910,"end":12298150,"speaker":"D","text":"See"},{"start":12300870,"end":12301270,"speaker":"A","text":"Kyle."},{"start":12301270,"end":12301630,"speaker":"B","text":"I think."},{"start":12301630,"end":12302710,"speaker":"A","text":"Are we on Wendy now?"},{"start":12304870,"end":12305430,"speaker":"C","text":"Yeah."},{"start":12308550,"end":12313830,"speaker":"A","text":"And that's gonna be followed by Sophie Mintyr, Stephanie Kelsing and Alec Duncan."},{"start":12314310,"end":12341600,"speaker":"C","text":"So there's. Let's see what we. I tried all three names and none of them came up clean with okay, spelled that way and the two last names down to Sophie."},{"start":12352890,"end":12353210,"speaker":"F","text":"Hello."},{"start":12353930,"end":12420600,"speaker":"D","text":"Hello. Thank you. I want to acknowledge that both of the proposals shared this evening place enormous burdens on our teachers and just want to acknowledge considerable strain that they will face under either scenario. I also want to emphasize, emphasize the point that school is also a necessary form of child care for many, many families. And I really appreciate the previous comments by other participants and by trustees to that effect. Unfortunately, even though the full time remote option has been very well thought out and is very well reasoned, it will still be completely untenable for many families. Some families will be able to pick up the slack, although it will be stressful. But not every family has one. Let Alone two parents who are able to work from home and can oversee their kids remote learning or have has extra income to devote to hiring outside help. So please, please prioritize equity and additional child care solutions as you move forward. Thank you."},{"start":12421640,"end":12422280,"speaker":"A","text":"Let's see."},{"start":12423080,"end":12423800,"speaker":"D","text":"Where are we?"},{"start":12424040,"end":12425080,"speaker":"C","text":"Stephanie Kausing."},{"start":12425080,"end":12425560,"speaker":"D","text":"Stephanie. Yes."},{"start":12425630,"end":12426430,"speaker":"A","text":"Yes, thank you."},{"start":12427790,"end":12428590,"speaker":"C","text":"There we go."},{"start":12429150,"end":12430510,"speaker":"D","text":"Hello, can you hear me?"},{"start":12430590,"end":12431470,"speaker":"A","text":"Yes, go ahead."},{"start":12431550,"end":12462250,"speaker":"D","text":"Excellent. My name is Stephanie Kolsing. I'm a teacher at Orion Elementary School. I've been a member of the Superintendent's Advisory Council and have recently been a part of the Education Services Committee to meet reopen schools. I've spoken to many teachers in our district who are afraid to speak out. They're scared for their jobs, their lives and the lives that their loved ones. Teachers want to be with their students this year and every year. But it's not safe. Since most teachers have already talked about all of this facts, I'd like to move forward and say with distance learning,"},{"start":12462570,"end":12464810,"speaker":"A","text":"teachers need access to their work sites"},{"start":12464810,"end":12466370,"speaker":"D","text":"and a safe schedule to follow while"},{"start":12466370,"end":12467170,"speaker":"A","text":"they are on site."},{"start":12467170,"end":12487380,"speaker":"D","text":"During distance learning, teachers will need access to classrooms for quiet places to record, to do our small group reading and creating seesaw lessons or voice recordings. We will need access to to copiers to create materials for students. Teachers will need access to librarians so they can get books in the hands of students and custodians on site to clean as we go. Thank you."},{"start":12489860,"end":12498100,"speaker":"A","text":"Thank you, Stephanie. So we have Alec Duncan, followed by Aida Ortiz De Aguilar, followed by Zoe Wilson."},{"start":12505230,"end":12513150,"speaker":"D","text":"Hello Redwood City community. So far there is no preventative vaccine,"},{"start":12513710,"end":12527070,"speaker":"C","text":"cure or treatment for the deadly debilitating COVID 19 virus infection. Opening schools to students in August is not a good health choice for the students, teachers, staff and parents."},{"start":12527550,"end":12530210,"speaker":"D","text":"And the potential disastrous health health consequences"},{"start":12530530,"end":12539730,"speaker":"C","text":"will weigh heavily on all of us. If any students or staff contract COVID 19 virus disease through exposure at our schools."},{"start":12540210,"end":12541330,"speaker":"D","text":"Thank you very much."},{"start":12543570,"end":12548850,"speaker":"A","text":"Thank you. Alex, Aida, Zoe and then Kayla Kamley."},{"start":12556380,"end":12599090,"speaker":"D","text":"Okay, thank you. I want to thank all the members of the board and Dr. Baker and the rest of the RCSD admin. As you mentioned, my name. My name is Aida Ortiz. I'm a preschool teacher. I would like to speak on behalf of my colleagues. We would like to ask the board and RCSD admin to reconsider reopening the cdc. We want to go back with the rest of the of the elementary school teachers. In the meantime, we want to continue with distance learning. We have received training and we are prepared to deliver distance learning instruction. We value our health and safety and the health and safety of others. Thank you."},{"start":12602130,"end":12604930,"speaker":"A","text":"Thank you, Aida. Up next is Wilson."},{"start":12605490,"end":12610650,"speaker":"C","text":"So also with an old version of Zoom. So promoting to a panelist, will I talk?"},{"start":12615290,"end":12615770,"speaker":"B","text":"Hello."},{"start":12616250,"end":12616610,"speaker":"D","text":"Hi."},{"start":12616610,"end":12617050,"speaker":"A","text":"Go ahead."},{"start":12617610,"end":12621930,"speaker":"D","text":"Oh, hi. Thank you. I just wanted to say I really"},{"start":12621930,"end":12624890,"speaker":"A","text":"appreciated all the remarks from the board this evening."},{"start":12626090,"end":12629010,"speaker":"E","text":"You guys have been incredibly thoughtful in"},{"start":12629010,"end":12630810,"speaker":"D","text":"this whole process and thank you to"},{"start":12630810,"end":12635060,"speaker":"A","text":"everybody for all their do they've been doing at every level to make this happen."},{"start":12636340,"end":12637940,"speaker":"E","text":"I feel like we've been one of"},{"start":12637940,"end":12639460,"speaker":"A","text":"the better districts about all of this."},{"start":12639940,"end":12642700,"speaker":"D","text":"I just wanted to reiterate that I"},{"start":12642700,"end":12644700,"speaker":"A","text":"feel that distance learning is the way"},{"start":12644700,"end":12648980,"speaker":"E","text":"to go when we start for this year due to the circumstances."},{"start":12649700,"end":12654260,"speaker":"D","text":"It's really ripping my heart out to not be with my kids, especially because"},{"start":12654260,"end":12655540,"speaker":"E","text":"I do teach eighth grade."},{"start":12655540,"end":12658020,"speaker":"A","text":"And as the doctor mentioned earlier, they."},{"start":12658830,"end":12660110,"speaker":"D","text":"They can be at risk for a"},{"start":12660110,"end":12663830,"speaker":"A","text":"lot of things and it's hard to not be able to be there to"},{"start":12663830,"end":12665630,"speaker":"D","text":"support them face to face."},{"start":12665630,"end":12670350,"speaker":"A","text":"But I know that overall this is that distance learning will be the best decision."},{"start":12670830,"end":12671390,"speaker":"B","text":"Thank you."},{"start":12672430,"end":12673070,"speaker":"D","text":"Thank you."},{"start":12673790,"end":12688920,"speaker":"A","text":"So we have Kayla Kamley, followed by Jasmine Obondo and Patricia Alcocer. Hello. Hi, Kayla."},{"start":12688920,"end":12689320,"speaker":"F","text":"Go ahead."},{"start":12689560,"end":12690000,"speaker":"D","text":"Hi."},{"start":12690000,"end":12691440,"speaker":"A","text":"My name is Kayla Kamley."},{"start":12691440,"end":12696280,"speaker":"D","text":"I'm a first year teacher at Roosevelt, moving from kindergarten to first grade."},{"start":12696280,"end":12702160,"speaker":"A","text":"I just wanted to agree with my fellow colleagues about starting online distance learning"},{"start":12702160,"end":12707720,"speaker":"D","text":"100%, especially for our younger students. I think starting school with mask on"},{"start":12707720,"end":12708960,"speaker":"A","text":"and not being able to see their"},{"start":12708960,"end":12714700,"speaker":"D","text":"teacher's face as they read facial expressions. Expressions. To get to know their teachers and to trust them is super important."},{"start":12715260,"end":12723500,"speaker":"A","text":"So getting to know us online and without having all of the policing of washing their hands. Don't touch this. You know, use your own supplies."},{"start":12723580,"end":12735220,"speaker":"D","text":"You can't hug your friend, you can't hug us. I think that will be more detrimental to their social emotional health than being online where they get to see their smiling friends, faces and their teacher and"},{"start":12735220,"end":12736870,"speaker":"A","text":"get to know us on a more personal level."},{"start":12737740,"end":12738940,"speaker":"D","text":"I just want to say thank you"},{"start":12738940,"end":12742020,"speaker":"A","text":"to everyone who's spoken today towards starting"},{"start":12742020,"end":12745260,"speaker":"D","text":"online and for the board for listening to us. Thank you."},{"start":12747500,"end":12752540,"speaker":"A","text":"Thanks, Kayla. So Jasmine Abondo, Patricia Alcocer, Suzanne Ruiz Dunlap."},{"start":12754380,"end":12762610,"speaker":"C","text":"So Jasmine, I cannot find in any of the lists. So the next one is Patricia."},{"start":12763640,"end":12764040,"speaker":"A","text":"Yes."},{"start":12766760,"end":12787400,"speaker":"C","text":"So I'm gonna go with just the straight Patricia and hope that this is the right person. No. So I'm gonna drop down to Suzanne."},{"start":12787880,"end":12788610,"speaker":"D","text":"Okay. Okay."},{"start":12789970,"end":12800290,"speaker":"A","text":"So then we're gonna have Suzanne Ruiz Dunlap. Suzanne, Hello. Was that one that seated time? I'll have to look that up. Rory Sayres. And Sylvia Antonelli."},{"start":12801490,"end":12823870,"speaker":"C","text":"So Suzanne is. No, not on the list. And Suzanne Pillay, I believe, did C for Tyler. So go down to Rory. And Rory is no longer there either."},{"start":12825470,"end":12834990,"speaker":"A","text":"Okay, so we have Sylvia Antonelli and then Kyle. Just so you know, based on timestamps, we. This is where we need to. After Sylvia, we need to flip over to the Spanish cards"},{"start":12837310,"end":12838270,"speaker":"E","text":"that we'll call on."},{"start":12838910,"end":12839390,"speaker":"C","text":"Okay."},{"start":12851160,"end":12851960,"speaker":"D","text":"Can you hear me?"},{"start":12852120,"end":12853000,"speaker":"A","text":"Yes, go ahead."},{"start":12853560,"end":12855240,"speaker":"B","text":"Hello, everybody. Good evening."},{"start":12855800,"end":12904460,"speaker":"D","text":"I'm Sylvia Antonelli. I teach third grade at Adonis Selby Spanish Immersion. And I am grateful to the board members and a lot of parents, a lot of people who are expressing that they are in agreement with us. I'm talking as a teacher and as a human being. Like the model, the model of instruction, it's something that can be reverted. It's reversible. Losing a human life, it's not reversible. It's totally irreversible. So I really appreciate everybody who talked about starting the school year with 100% distance learning. We are going to do our very best."},{"start":12904460,"end":12906380,"speaker":"B","text":"We really want to help our kids"},{"start":12906780,"end":12914380,"speaker":"D","text":"and we want to go back to the school, in the classroom when it's safe for us and for everybody, students and families."},{"start":12914620,"end":12915820,"speaker":"B","text":"Thank you very much."},{"start":12922310,"end":12929430,"speaker":"A","text":"Thank you, Sylvia. So I think we have Suzanne Dunlap posted in the chat that she's here."},{"start":12929910,"end":12943280,"speaker":"C","text":"Yep. So she reappeared, Trying to unmute."},{"start":12952000,"end":12952480,"speaker":"D","text":"Hello."},{"start":12952960,"end":12953600,"speaker":"C","text":"There you go."},{"start":12953760,"end":12977960,"speaker":"D","text":"Oh, great. Yay. Thank you. Yeah. Everything I wanted to say tonight basically has been said beautifully by the board members and also by the teachers. I just want to say that full discipline learning is the safest way to protect all our families. I'm really more concerned right now after listening to the preschool teachers and I'm sorry, I don't remember her name."},{"start":12977960,"end":12978680,"speaker":"B","text":"Michelle."},{"start":12978680,"end":13002570,"speaker":"D","text":"I think it was Michelle. HR was her initials. I work in the Railway State School District. But just hearing that story about this children that she works with of severely special ed of the three year olds, I'm just saying fight for, for those children. Please consider, continue talking to those special ed teachers and also the CDC for all the preschool programs."},{"start":13002570,"end":13003450,"speaker":"B","text":"Thank you so much."},{"start":13006890,"end":13032350,"speaker":"A","text":"Okay, thanks, Suzanne. So, Kyle, we're going to flip over to the Spanish ones. We have Carlos Castillo will be up first. And so for those that need translation, we'll. You'll have twice the amount of time. So what I'll do is I'll run the timer for Spanish and then when that's out, we'll need to end there and flip over to. For English translation."},{"start":13032910,"end":13036670,"speaker":"C","text":"I have an Yvonne Castillo, not a Carlos Castillo."},{"start":13042670,"end":13044110,"speaker":"A","text":"So I don't know if that's."},{"start":13044670,"end":13060150,"speaker":"C","text":"Don't know if that's one. I'm going to go ahead and enable it for a second here. Okay."},{"start":13062870,"end":13072000,"speaker":"A","text":"So. Carlos, is that you? On evon account. Okay."},{"start":13072080,"end":13076320,"speaker":"C","text":"Want to go? So Elena Ortega ceded her time."},{"start":13076480,"end":13080240,"speaker":"A","text":"Elena ceded her time to Jacqueline Rodriguez."},{"start":13080960,"end":13081520,"speaker":"D","text":"Okay,"},{"start":13084240,"end":13085520,"speaker":"C","text":"so Jacqueline's next."},{"start":13096970,"end":13146620,"speaker":"D","text":"La. Reunion dela de. De san mateo. Individualisado Paris. Apprentices. English Education."},{"start":13176480,"end":13178960,"speaker":"A","text":"Yeah, who do we have providing the translation?"},{"start":13179440,"end":13181280,"speaker":"C","text":"So should be."},{"start":13185520,"end":13186800,"speaker":"B","text":"I think she's waiting to speak."},{"start":13189360,"end":13190800,"speaker":"A","text":"Does she need to be unmuted?"},{"start":13191600,"end":13193280,"speaker":"C","text":"No, she's unmuted right now."},{"start":13204810,"end":13206650,"speaker":"D","text":"The translations in the chat."},{"start":13208970,"end":13247940,"speaker":"C","text":"The translation is in the chat. They spoke about the meeting, you know, of course, thanked us for the meeting that we had on Friday. And then about the meeting that occurred with San Mateo County Education, with the superintendent at the county of Ed, along with three board members. Members. And with that meeting, there was a. There were priorities or commitments that were made vis a vis the county Office of Education regarding individualized support for students, customized supports for special populations, a guaranteed minimum of instructional minutes, parents included in the decision and feedback process as much as possible."},{"start":13252350,"end":13256830,"speaker":"D","text":"Okay, can you guys hear me? Hello."},{"start":13257950,"end":13258350,"speaker":"B","text":"Hi."},{"start":13258350,"end":13258910,"speaker":"A","text":"It's so."},{"start":13259710,"end":13267790,"speaker":"D","text":"Oh, hi. I guess my microphone wasn't working, so I switched to my headphone. Okay, so I have the comment here. Do you guys want me to interpret?"},{"start":13267950,"end":13268670,"speaker":"A","text":"Yeah, go ahead."},{"start":13269150,"end":13366600,"speaker":"D","text":"Okay. Hi, my name is Jacqueline. I am a mom and an older innovative and my. My son attends to Hoover. And the chat is in English, but thank you, Dr. Baker, for the meeting yesterday. On Monday, July 13, the district, the high school and Innovate, we had a community event with the officials in the meeting and also with the county of San Mateo and they try to advocate for them for this following. We need one, one plan to approach the lows of learning because of students are falling behind. Two, also individualized help for students during office hours and also at social emotional needs. Three, special needs. Special. Special needs for the population with special needs and also for learning for those learning English and those with that just arrived. And four, we also need a definition, a clear definition or the minimum of the minimum warranty at instructional minutes. And five, also childcare and also the technological advance. All the board members and the people have to be working together to give us an education with a high quality. Thank you for your time."},{"start":13369800,"end":13377240,"speaker":"A","text":"So we have Angelica Solorio, Patricia Perla, and then one, there's one Argueta."},{"start":13388850,"end":13423340,"speaker":"C","text":"Okay, so I don't have Angelica in any of them. Patricia right there. Okay, so Patricia is able to speak."},{"start":13424220,"end":13503100,"speaker":"D","text":"Okay, thank you to all the board members and thank you for listening to our concerns. I am proud to teach free school children. I am recommended to continue with distant learning as the COVID curve goes down and tasks have an essential for the reopening of preschool. As today meeting with. Today meeting with some of my families I was able to face their fears and concerns of sending their children to the classroom. I want you to consider their decisions to keep them at home. Preschoolers tend to become more sociable and show their emotions by getting closer by hugging, crying and we have to comfort them. It is difficult to keep them preschool a distance from others. And also following the precautions of COVID also wearing masks preventing them from expressing themselves. I read a quote at the beginning. We want to see our students as much as they safely as possible. I want to add our families and teachers as well. What is more important right now in the classroom and say the contagious and health store the contagions. Thanks and God bless you. Thank you."},{"start":13503100,"end":13518470,"speaker":"A","text":"Patricia next to Juana Gueta, Claudia Ariza and then Marlena Goanna Mendoza. And then Kyle. If you can also mute Jacqueline."},{"start":13532310,"end":13569150,"speaker":"C","text":"I can't find one on the list. I'm dropping down to Claudia. There's a Claudia Mimi that I will. Mark Marie Elena."},{"start":13571230,"end":13572430,"speaker":"A","text":"Did you not find Claudia?"},{"start":13572670,"end":13576990,"speaker":"C","text":"I found in Naples and it was open and nothing happened."},{"start":13577070,"end":13581070,"speaker":"A","text":"Okay, so Maria Elena and then Mercedes Northern."},{"start":13581550,"end":13594840,"speaker":"C","text":"Okay, so Maria Elena is here. There we go."},{"start":13595000,"end":13595880,"speaker":"D","text":"Can you hear me?"},{"start":13596120,"end":13597000,"speaker":"A","text":"Yes, go ahead."},{"start":13597800,"end":13708510,"speaker":"D","text":"Okay, thank you. First of all, thank you for listening to us. It's very important that for me it's very important that you're taking the time to listen to all the parties involved. First of all, I want to tell you that at this point I feel like everything points out that the safest thing to do is the distance learning. Until the numbers go down, then when it's safer. The plan that you put together so beautifully together and spend so much time is not going to be wasted. We will be using it. So thank you for that. Also I want to let you know that this morning I went to take some goods to a family who was. Was very needy. As I was there they were taking. They live in an accomplished apartment in Redwood City. And as I was there, I saw that they were taking a male person out because he was. He tested positive for Covid and he had children in the district. Nobody knows yet if the children are infected too. But you know, that got me worry that it gave me the idea that we need to make sure we test everyone before we go and be placed together. At the schools because we don't know who has it or who doesn't. I think we have to start clean and keep an eye in there. And also another thing is like Ms. Leor mentioned the psychologist, my students, I'm especially teacher and my students need a lot of hand over hand help to do any assignment, changing diapers and all that. So it's not that we don't want to go back, is that it is not safe. We are risking the students life and also the teachers. Please consider going 100% standard and thank you for all you do."},{"start":13708750,"end":13744900,"speaker":"A","text":"Thanks Marlena. Mercedes Northern and then we'll be going back to the English, English speaker's cards. So that would be Amy Vosberg. Casey. Hello Janet."},{"start":13744900,"end":13747380,"speaker":"B","text":"And thank you members of the board as well."},{"start":13747860,"end":13752620,"speaker":"D","text":"I was just wondering if the board considered like in private schools that the"},{"start":13752620,"end":13755980,"speaker":"A","text":"teachers provide live scheduled classes for the"},{"start":13755980,"end":13761780,"speaker":"D","text":"day, including recess and that the teachers ask students to complete their assignments on"},{"start":13761780,"end":13767660,"speaker":"A","text":"time and that the students have accountability. That is my first, the first question."},{"start":13767660,"end":13794280,"speaker":"D","text":"The second question is that if they, when a school goes back to normal, God knows when that if, if they can start with outdoor classes or outdoor classes can be considered. My third point is if you could offer resources and counseling to, for students that are at risk. Thank you."},{"start":13795630,"end":13796510,"speaker":"A","text":"Thank you, Mercedes."},{"start":13799070,"end":13810910,"speaker":"C","text":"Janet. So we have Yvonne Castillo and Jose who popped back up to the top. So I'm going to. Yvonne is unmuted now."},{"start":13818830,"end":13820430,"speaker":"A","text":"I don't see Yvonne on the list."},{"start":13821260,"end":13821900,"speaker":"B","text":"Where are we?"},{"start":13827660,"end":13829580,"speaker":"C","text":"Jose was on the,"},{"start":13837500,"end":13838140,"speaker":"B","text":"The ones that"},{"start":13838140,"end":13844860,"speaker":"A","text":"we missed from the Spanish cards were Carlos Castillo, Angelica Solario, Juan Argueta and Claudia Ariza."},{"start":13844940,"end":13848220,"speaker":"C","text":"Okay. Yeah, so I'm gonna go back to the English list."},{"start":13850540,"end":13855660,"speaker":"A","text":"So that's Amy Vosberg, Michelle Ban and then Elvira Cortez."},{"start":13861660,"end":13876230,"speaker":"C","text":"Amy. So not seeing Amy on the list anymore. Both first and last name. Michelle Bond right here."},{"start":13879670,"end":13916430,"speaker":"E","text":"Janet, can I interrupt for just a minute? I'm sorry, but in the chat I'm seeing some requests for people to be respectful. I think there's some hurt feelings that some people are expressing. So I would just ask our community if at all possible to be mindful of all of that. I think that would be helpful. I mean we're getting some requests to turn off the chat, but you know, I think it is a vehicle for public comment and all of that. But I do think, you know, I just asked if people could be respectful. That would be helpful."},{"start":13916750,"end":13917470,"speaker":"D","text":"Yeah, thanks."},{"start":13917470,"end":13946170,"speaker":"E","text":"And I do hope that, you know, as a district, I think we're going to go back and look at the chat to get Ideas and to. Of informing us on how to do the best job we can for our students and families and staff. So as much as possible to try to be helpful in the chat and respectful, I think will benefit us all. I know we're all frustrated. We're all tired. This has been really hard, this pandemic. But we all need to try to work together for the benefit of our kids."},{"start":13946810,"end":13952980,"speaker":"A","text":"Alisa, thank you. With everything I'm managing on this end, I had to close the chat. I can't follow it at all right now."},{"start":13953450,"end":13953690,"speaker":"B","text":"So."},{"start":13954010,"end":13960050,"speaker":"E","text":"Yeah. And, Janet, you're doing a great job. You've got a big. You and Kyle are really rocking it, getting us doing awesome."},{"start":13960050,"end":13961370,"speaker":"A","text":"I was gonna send an email later."},{"start":13962090,"end":13962450,"speaker":"D","text":"Yeah."},{"start":13962450,"end":13963250,"speaker":"A","text":"Thank you, Kyle."},{"start":13963250,"end":13964170,"speaker":"E","text":"Thank you, Janet."},{"start":13965610,"end":13980330,"speaker":"A","text":"I'm gonna be downloading the chat so that I can read it later. And I would definitely echo what Elisa says that please just be kind and respectful. This is. I mean, it's so hard for everybody, and everybody's doing the best they can."},{"start":13980490,"end":13980890,"speaker":"B","text":"So"},{"start":13983290,"end":13985290,"speaker":"A","text":"I think. Michelle. We have Michelle up."},{"start":13985290,"end":13986490,"speaker":"C","text":"Yeah, Michelle is up."},{"start":13987130,"end":13987610,"speaker":"D","text":"Hi."},{"start":13987930,"end":13991210,"speaker":"B","text":"I. I'm just going to say that"},{"start":13992330,"end":14037580,"speaker":"D","text":"I'm going to thank the board by not speaking for a full minute, particularly because those who came before me, my esteemed colleagues, so eloquent, were already expressed that which I would have expressed. I'd just like to keep one thing in mind as well, that when we were talking about going to a hybrid model and then being ready to turn on a dime to go to full at home learning, so too does the reverse hold true. And that is if we started out at home learning, and we'll be able to turn on a dime and go back into the classroom. And that's the good news. So thank you for all you're doing."},{"start":14039340,"end":14040380,"speaker":"A","text":"Thank you, Michelle."},{"start":14041100,"end":14041620,"speaker":"D","text":"Let's see."},{"start":14041620,"end":14044180,"speaker":"A","text":"We have Elvira Cortez followed by Gwen"},{"start":14044180,"end":14044780,"speaker":"D","text":"Minor,"},{"start":14048300,"end":14053500,"speaker":"A","text":"and then I think we have Angelis abuser."},{"start":14056230,"end":14059830,"speaker":"C","text":"So Elvira is up and ready to go."},{"start":14059910,"end":14122700,"speaker":"D","text":"Okay. Hi, my name is Elvira Cortez, and first, I want to say thank you to every member of the board, Dr. Baker and everyone. I've been working for the Redwood City school district for 21 years, and I am the teacher and site supervisor at the Roosevelt site. I want to express my concern about reopening its week working with little kids 2.9 up to kindergarten. We constantly have to remind them to wash hands, supervising while they're on the bathroom to cover when they sneeze. I mean, I know you know all of that, and I thank you for doing your research. So my question is why keep our child development centers open if it is unsafe for regular school? Our little ones are actually are less valuable than our regular school. I know they're not. So please, please reconsider not opening until we all do it together. Thank you."},{"start":14124140,"end":14127580,"speaker":"A","text":"Thanks, Elvira. So, Gwen Miner."},{"start":14129500,"end":14195130,"speaker":"D","text":"Yes, thank you. Dr. Robert Redfield from the CDC during an interview this week said, quote, I think the fall and the winter of 2020 and 2021 are going to be probably one of the most difficult times we've experienced in American public health. End quote. And that was a moment of just unusual candor and it kind of resonates with your. The board's decisions tonight or decision. When these outbreaks occur, they occur in waves over the course of 12 to 18 months. That means we aren't even halfway through this disaster. I support a distance only model for the foreseeable future. And with all the talented, hard working individuals in our community, I believe we should come together to support families with the trauma they are experiencing and to help them solve the child care component. And the teachers should turn to developing the best online learning experience possible. A continuum of safety is not acceptable under these circumstances. Thank you all of you for everything. Thank you."},{"start":14198970,"end":14207290,"speaker":"C","text":"So Janet Angelus, if you are still there, make yourself known, please, by a hand raise. So it's just going to drop down to Adriana."},{"start":14208010,"end":14213220,"speaker":"A","text":"So, okay, so it'd be Adriana Beharf, James Carrig, and then James Flom."},{"start":14222660,"end":14223380,"speaker":"C","text":"There you go."},{"start":14230100,"end":14231220,"speaker":"A","text":"So do we have Adriana?"},{"start":14232340,"end":14242230,"speaker":"C","text":"Adriana, she was unmuted and then re. Muted. There we go. Yes."},{"start":14243910,"end":14312760,"speaker":"D","text":"Okay. Hi everyone. My name is Adriana Behar. I'm one of the preschooler teachers and I will talk as a teacher and as a mother because I have a daughter. To the attendance at Garfield. Thank you. The board meeting to keep us updated with all this information. I know that we have concerns about going back to school for us, the preschoolers. We need to go back and reopen next Tuesday. I feel that it's too soon. Our little ones. I know that it's important to be back to school and that education is very important. But it's very dangerous right now to go back to school for me, for you, for the children. So I believe that we should stay home and do long distance. We, the teachers, preschoolers, we took trainings. We work so hard. We learned too many things very soon. Long distance. Video, Google meetings with the children. Seesaw parents love and our families. They would like to be in long distance. Thank you."},{"start":14315010,"end":14315730,"speaker":"A","text":"Thanks, Adriana."},{"start":14317010,"end":14317450,"speaker":"B","text":"Let's see."},{"start":14317450,"end":14318450,"speaker":"A","text":"James Carrick."},{"start":14323890,"end":14324370,"speaker":"C","text":"Hello."},{"start":14325490,"end":14326530,"speaker":"A","text":"Hi. Go ahead, James."},{"start":14326610,"end":14382940,"speaker":"C","text":"Okay. Hi, my name is James Carrick. I am a teacher and parent in the district. I got into teaching to educate and keep children safe. I did not get into teaching to save the economy or jobs, as harsh as that sounds right now. I also did not like President Lawson said sign up to gang with lives. I do believe we need to start in distance learning. I just finished summer school with two other teachers and read an article recently. Three teachers contract Covid, one dies. That could have been one of us. Kimberly Chavez Lopez Byrd, 61, contracted Covid during summer school. I believe she's the first teacher to die of COVID doing her job. I would like you to think of your favorite teacher, your child's favorite teacher. What if it was them? How many other teachers or students or staff members will have to die before we realize now is not the right time to reopen? Do we want to risk any of our Redwood City families and staff? Do we want to risk being the next district to lose teachers or community members? I say no. Thank you."},{"start":14385740,"end":14390140,"speaker":"A","text":"Thanks. James. James Flom."},{"start":14390620,"end":14393340,"speaker":"C","text":"Yeah, I could not find him in the list."},{"start":14393920,"end":14396400,"speaker":"D","text":"Okay, so"},{"start":14399520,"end":14404080,"speaker":"C","text":"I see two Heidi's, but not the one listed."},{"start":14404320,"end":14408080,"speaker":"A","text":"So Heidi Schoen, you said is not there."},{"start":14409120,"end":14411280,"speaker":"C","text":"Yeah, not. Not in the list."},{"start":14411440,"end":14416800,"speaker":"A","text":"Okay, so we have Abed Kamal, Michelle Ortez, and then Michelle Smith."},{"start":14418160,"end":14423530,"speaker":"C","text":"So a bead is Boom, boom. I'm getting blown up right now."},{"start":14426570,"end":14427690,"speaker":"A","text":"Can we meet James?"},{"start":14429450,"end":14443610,"speaker":"C","text":"I just muted James. Okay. Okay. So a bead is able to speak."},{"start":14444090,"end":14444590,"speaker":"B","text":"Okay."},{"start":14445860,"end":14447620,"speaker":"F","text":"Hello. Can you guys all hear me?"},{"start":14447940,"end":14448820,"speaker":"A","text":"Yes, go ahead."},{"start":14449780,"end":14459300,"speaker":"F","text":"So we must think about the safety of our children, the teachers and school staff. We must also take a hard look at what a child can bring home to their beloved Nana."},{"start":14460020,"end":14461820,"speaker":"C","text":"Given the lack of testing, it would"},{"start":14461820,"end":14487750,"speaker":"F","text":"be reckless for us to send our children to school on the hybrid model. Having just finished teaching a class at Stanford on Zoom, I would strongly encourage greater online teacher student interaction. In the remote learning model, it was a lot easier for me to cater to the needs of the students who were online in real time. The ability to look at a quizzical expression of a student told me when"},{"start":14487750,"end":14488830,"speaker":"C","text":"I was not getting through."},{"start":14489470,"end":14506590,"speaker":"F","text":"The final outcomes of the learning from the class were consistent with this experience. I would also encourage you all to consider the concept of regular pool testing for all students and teachers for when we do go back to in person teaching. Thank you very much for all you are doing."},{"start":14510270,"end":14510910,"speaker":"D","text":"Thank you."},{"start":14510990,"end":14513790,"speaker":"A","text":"So we have Michelle Ortez and then Michelle Smith."},{"start":14516590,"end":14517950,"speaker":"D","text":"Hi, can you hear me?"},{"start":14518270,"end":14519150,"speaker":"A","text":"Yes, go ahead."},{"start":14519630,"end":14520230,"speaker":"D","text":"Good evening."},{"start":14520230,"end":14521950,"speaker":"B","text":"I've taught fifth grade at Roy Cloud"},{"start":14521950,"end":14525320,"speaker":"D","text":"School for 21 years. I am also an RCSD parent."},{"start":14525320,"end":14526920,"speaker":"B","text":"My son is a rising fifth grader"},{"start":14526920,"end":14563890,"speaker":"D","text":"at Roy Cloud School. I've wanted to be a teacher since I had Mrs. Rosemary Behrens as my own 5th grade teacher at Roosevelt School. To those commenting that teachers don't want to work, I want to go to work. I want to be with my students. I want to be with my colleagues. This shouldn't be parents versus Teachers. As also mentioned in the comments, this should be parents and teachers versus COVID 19 another item weighing heavily on my mind is the negative social media chatter. With all due respect, please stop. Please turn that energy around and put it into helping teachers and rcsd. Rather than lambasting teachers for wanting to be safe and wanting to keep your children and families safe, you could put"},{"start":14563890,"end":14565930,"speaker":"B","text":"that energy into contacting the county or"},{"start":14565930,"end":14568410,"speaker":"D","text":"state for more child care help for those who are in need."},{"start":14568570,"end":14569770,"speaker":"A","text":"Let's all work together."},{"start":14569850,"end":14570490,"speaker":"D","text":"Thank you."},{"start":14574650,"end":14587400,"speaker":"A","text":"Thanks, Michelle. Kyle, before we go on, just so you know, so you see what I'm doing over on the spreadsheet, several of the ones at the end are duplicates from ones we've already heard of from. So I'm just crossing those off."},{"start":14587880,"end":14590520,"speaker":"C","text":"Yeah, so you're just, you're hard striking through them."},{"start":14590760,"end":14597720,"speaker":"A","text":"Yeah. So we have Michelle Smith and then Ariandi Jimenez and Linda Elkins."},{"start":14598200,"end":14603640,"speaker":"C","text":"Okay, got it. Okay, so Michelle Smith is active now."},{"start":14605010,"end":14605330,"speaker":"A","text":"Hello."},{"start":14606930,"end":14669780,"speaker":"D","text":"So first I want to thank you. You addressed much of my comments, but I would like to share the proposal that I emailed to you. I wondered if we could leverage our existing relationships with our child care partners and existing subsidies to go all distance learning while using our schools as child care programs for those who need it most. Focusing on working and single parent families, low SES and homeless, and housing insecure students so that they have a safe, safe place to be. The current hybrid plan presented leaves everyone in the lurch, leaving our most vulnerable families without good or affordable childcare options three days a week right now. Both of my kids are currently in a summer academic program called ATDP through this UC Berkeley Graduate School of Education and has gone online this year. We're only a half week in, but the combination of asynchronous and synchronous learning by really leveraging and like really using the educational apps and zoom along with materials provided by the program has already worked really well for my kids and they were they're excited to do it every single day. I would love for the district to learn from this type of research bed of Education as we move into the new school year. Thank you."},{"start":14670660,"end":14674660,"speaker":"A","text":"Thanks, Michelle. Ariandi Jimenez."},{"start":14676660,"end":14677860,"speaker":"D","text":"Hi. Am I unmuted?"},{"start":14678100,"end":14680140,"speaker":"A","text":"Yeah, go ahead. Hi, everyone."},{"start":14680140,"end":14681350,"speaker":"B","text":"My name is Arianna Jimenez."},{"start":14682060,"end":14683420,"speaker":"D","text":"I am a new third grade teacher"},{"start":14683420,"end":14686980,"speaker":"B","text":"at Hoover and first, I'd like to thank everyone on this meeting and thank"},{"start":14686980,"end":14688380,"speaker":"D","text":"you for letting me speak tonight."},{"start":14688860,"end":14690260,"speaker":"B","text":"I'd like to start by saying that"},{"start":14690260,"end":14693460,"speaker":"D","text":"I do not believe that returning to school in person is the best for"},{"start":14693460,"end":14695220,"speaker":"B","text":"the safety of our students, families, teachers"},{"start":14695220,"end":14714710,"speaker":"D","text":"and all other school staff. As mentioned earlier in the meeting, it's known that communities of color are being the Most affected by COVID 19. Reopening schools will place our students of color families at an even greater risk coming in contact with the virus. It's known that nearly 49% of all Covid 1919 cases in San Mateo county"},{"start":14715510,"end":14717190,"speaker":"B","text":"are made up of Latinx residents."},{"start":14717590,"end":14719710,"speaker":"A","text":"And yet the population in San Mateo"},{"start":14719710,"end":14728670,"speaker":"D","text":"county of Latinx people are 25% or less than 25%. Thinking as a teacher who teaches at a school with a predominantly Latinx student"},{"start":14728670,"end":14730070,"speaker":"A","text":"population, it's deeply concerning."},{"start":14730070,"end":14732680,"speaker":"B","text":"Thinking about the possibility of returning the"},{"start":14732680,"end":14744640,"speaker":"D","text":"school in person and putting my community at risk. It's crucial that these statistics are being considered as we move forward with the plans to reopen school or to go forward with the 2020, 2021 school year plan. Thank you."},{"start":14746320,"end":14751840,"speaker":"A","text":"Thank you. Linda Elkins, followed by Carrie Schmidt and then Allison Gilmore."},{"start":14753120,"end":14822510,"speaker":"D","text":"Hello. Hi. Go ahead. Thanks. Hi. So my name is Linda Elkins. I'm a parent of of three elementary school kids, grades one through four. I am unexpectedly more than I would have thought, very much in the minority. Speaking up as a parent here on the Zoom, I did not expect that. I will say I am an advocate of the hybrid model. I'm an advocate of getting our kids back in school as much as we can. My kids are doing camp this summer. Had a very safe experience that we prepared for this throughout the through the county guidelines, through the four pillars and have done a significant amount of research on how it can be safe. I have been following along the board meetings and so much has changed in the views in the past two weeks that if we progress the other direction in the next four weeks, how quickly can we pivot back to getting kids in school? And I know there was one comment that we could pivot immediately, but trying to pivot to that hybrid model, you know, in a week when we haven't structured that, why don't we approve both models now and then if it speaks going to online, how do we pivot when we can in the future? So we can get them back in the school as quickly as possible. Thank you. Thanks, Linda."},{"start":14822830,"end":14825830,"speaker":"A","text":"Let's see, Kerry Schmidt followed by Allison"},{"start":14825830,"end":14827390,"speaker":"D","text":"Gilmore and then Rob Hager."},{"start":14828030,"end":14832110,"speaker":"C","text":"I could not find Kerry Schmidt, so I just activated Allie Gilmore."},{"start":14832510,"end":14843010,"speaker":"D","text":"Okay. Hi, I'm Allie Gilmore. I'm a mom of an incoming third grader and a preschooler receiving therapy from special ed in Redwood City. I met some of you at the"},{"start":14843010,"end":14844570,"speaker":"B","text":"recent Innovate meetings and I want to"},{"start":14844570,"end":14850210,"speaker":"D","text":"thank you for taking the time to listen to us. We see that the parent priorities were considered in today's presentation and we appreciate that."},{"start":14850930,"end":14853170,"speaker":"B","text":"It's clear that we're headed in a different direction tonight."},{"start":14853170,"end":14862780,"speaker":"D","text":"And honestly, it's disappointing for me, but I hear you teachers and I see that there is not an easy choice here. So in the spirit of collaboration, I'd like to advocate for a couple of things."},{"start":14863100,"end":14864900,"speaker":"B","text":"First, let's think seriously about how we"},{"start":14864900,"end":14866460,"speaker":"D","text":"support parents and families in this."},{"start":14866540,"end":14869980,"speaker":"B","text":"How do we educate parents to be co teachers? How do we give families safe child"},{"start":14869980,"end":14871580,"speaker":"D","text":"care coordinated with distance learning?"},{"start":14871900,"end":14873580,"speaker":"B","text":"Second, let's start filling in the details"},{"start":14873580,"end":14876700,"speaker":"D","text":"about distance learning like you've done for the hybrid model over the last few weeks."},{"start":14876860,"end":14880100,"speaker":"B","text":"How many instructional minutes, how many of them are synchronous, what is supports for"},{"start":14880100,"end":14882060,"speaker":"D","text":"special populations look like, and so on."},{"start":14882380,"end":14884420,"speaker":"B","text":"And finally, please help us parents advocate"},{"start":14884420,"end":14891710,"speaker":"D","text":"on the district's behalf. How do we help you get the support you need from the county health, health department, State of California, or whoever else to reopen safely as soon as possible?"},{"start":14892030,"end":14893670,"speaker":"B","text":"Help us direct our passion and our"},{"start":14893670,"end":14898350,"speaker":"D","text":"energy where it's needed so we can all get to a better situation for our kids as soon as possible. Thank you."},{"start":14901150,"end":14902910,"speaker":"A","text":"Thanks, Ellie. Rob Hager."},{"start":14904110,"end":14904470,"speaker":"B","text":"Hi."},{"start":14904470,"end":14905150,"speaker":"F","text":"Yes, thank you."},{"start":14905870,"end":14907070,"speaker":"D","text":"I am a parent of two students"},{"start":14907070,"end":14910150,"speaker":"F","text":"entering the fifth grade here in rcsd. I want to start off by saying"},{"start":14910150,"end":14916520,"speaker":"C","text":"I am a proponent of a full distance learning solution, potentially with parental home cohorts if possible."},{"start":14917720,"end":14920440,"speaker":"F","text":"Thank you for the presentation earlier out"},{"start":14920440,"end":14921480,"speaker":"C","text":"of it was a lot of good information."},{"start":14921720,"end":14924680,"speaker":"F","text":"Had some concerns out of that first"},{"start":14924680,"end":14927400,"speaker":"C","text":"off, like how often would teachers and staff be tested?"},{"start":14927800,"end":14931680,"speaker":"F","text":"And the presentation said we need to be prepared to pivot from hybrid to distance learning."},{"start":14931680,"end":14934040,"speaker":"C","text":"But I didn't see any information regarding"},{"start":14934040,"end":14936320,"speaker":"F","text":"thresholds of when we'd be switching back and forth."},{"start":14936320,"end":14937240,"speaker":"C","text":"That would be good to know."},{"start":14938040,"end":14940040,"speaker":"F","text":"Also had some additional questions about what"},{"start":14940040,"end":14941840,"speaker":"D","text":"happens if a student runs a temperature"},{"start":14941840,"end":14944640,"speaker":"C","text":"during these hybrid classes."},{"start":14944720,"end":14949280,"speaker":"F","text":"You know, when they fail a test, do they require a COVID negative test to come back to class?"},{"start":14950240,"end":14951720,"speaker":"C","text":"And then my last question, like are"},{"start":14951720,"end":14956640,"speaker":"F","text":"the charter subject to the directives of the district or they have the freedom to make their own decisions regarding to"},{"start":14957200,"end":14959440,"speaker":"C","text":"full full distance or hybrid learning."},{"start":14960400,"end":14962440,"speaker":"F","text":"Lastly, I don't see that there's."},{"start":14962440,"end":14963840,"speaker":"C","text":"I see there's little harm in starting"},{"start":14963840,"end":14969530,"speaker":"F","text":"with full distance model for the the fall trimester and then reevaluating in the winter. And I don't want to see RCSD"},{"start":14969930,"end":14972650,"speaker":"C","text":"become an experiment on the peninsula for Covid."},{"start":14973290,"end":14973850,"speaker":"F","text":"Thank you."},{"start":14978570,"end":14987210,"speaker":"C","text":"Okay, so I've looked Laura Rivera and Maritay Barbosa not there and then going down."},{"start":14987770,"end":14990590,"speaker":"A","text":"That would be our. Then Stephanie Vance would be our first"},{"start":14990900,"end":14992100,"speaker":"D","text":"final speaker card"},{"start":14995940,"end":14999140,"speaker":"C","text":"and she is not still in the room either."},{"start":15000420,"end":15003940,"speaker":"D","text":"Okay, so it sounds like that is"},{"start":15003940,"end":15005380,"speaker":"C","text":"the end of all the speakers cards."},{"start":15008020,"end":15022330,"speaker":"A","text":"I'm going to stop sharing my screen. Okay, so I think there are some questions that came up that we can address tonight. So Dr. Baker, do you want to address the charter question?"},{"start":15023690,"end":15046820,"speaker":"C","text":"The charter question. They need to follow the four Pillars and Pandemic guide of the San Mateo County Office of Education at this point in time. From what I understand, the charters are going to be doing a combination of hybrid and distance learning. That was as of two weeks ago. I don't know if anything has changed since then."},{"start":15052980,"end":15096900,"speaker":"A","text":"So there are a couple of thoughts that I realized I didn't get to I missed in my comments earlier. One of them is I know that Dennis sent an article out, I think it was Contra Costa county is talking about doing what they're calling hubs, where for some of the higher risk kiddos, the special ed English language learners, those that might need a little more help and I think those would be something for us to look at once we get going with a distance learning. Is there a way to open up little hubs here or there for some of those kiddos to check in with their teachers safely?"},{"start":15097380,"end":15264920,"speaker":"C","text":"So Janet, go ahead. Once we determine the manner in which we're going, then whether you call them hubs or whether you call them other types of bubbles or whatever, we are going to look and see what that will look like for our most needy students. We have our students who are our English language learners. We have our students that are on free and reduced lunch. So what are we going to do additional to support them? And so that is something that we are going to be looking at and making sure that we assist those students and those families, basically all the families that are on the bayside. There also came up information, not information, but questions in regard to the after school programs. As you know, Patio Ortiz is working diligently not only with the after school school providers that we have at our schools, which are Boys and Girls Club, the ymca, Parks and Rec and others. But she's also working county wide to see what could occur at our school sites when we're not using, you know, a classroom or so forth. So that is in the works too. The, the other piece is to. For parents to really understand if you were in those programs such as the Boys and Girls Club, Parks and Rec, the Y, those programs will still exist. But they are waiting for us right now to determine what our schedule is going to be before they move forward. They have hired their personnel and at one point in time we have the personnel that start coming in about 2 o' clock and start working with the kids for another two hours. But, but from what I gathered tonight, we're going in another, we're going distance learning. That's what I'm hearing. But I'll get further clarification in a few moments. We can probably do talk with our partners to see how much more support they can give us. And then there was another piece in regard to access to classrooms that teachers felt that they wanted to have access to classrooms and also be in their classrooms if they're doing the distance learning and do it from their classrooms where they have all their materials, other supplies. You know, they also have that huge monitor that each of them received last year. So that is another piece that we're going to have to talk about. And also I know Wendy Kelly will be working with the rcta, with the union with an MOU on what that would look like, if that's also a possibility. So trying to see what are the questions. Hold on. That's all I put. That's all I wrote at this point in time. Yes."},{"start":15265720,"end":15271240,"speaker":"F","text":"So Dr. Baker, another theme on chat was why can't we do outdoor classrooms?"},{"start":15273160,"end":15533780,"speaker":"C","text":"That's a good question. We could do outdoor classrooms, get the tents. We'd also have to make sure that we had the kids capability also utilizing electricity and so forth that is needed for the devices and everything else that's going to be used during that time when kids are in school. So I'm not saying that we couldn't, but then, you know, we would be in the classroom, we'd have to take them out at night. Not unless we're going to hire, you know, security guards to be around on the outdoors where those tents are to make sure that nothing is disturbed in the evenings while kids are not there. So there was another big piece about the preschool and we're talking about the preschool. I'm not talking about our Special ed preschool. I'm talking about our child development center. It is true that we did receive a letter from the state Department of Education indicating that we need to start classes on the 21st. Edna Carmona, who is the director and the principal for the preschool, has been working diligently and all these emails going back and telephone calls with the management person at the state department. And Edna, I know you're, you are texting me right now, but let me. It keeps texting. What has been taking place as we want to get clarification if we can, number one, get a waiver and start later with the rest of us. Number two, what happens if we say, fine, we're not going to start on the 21st, but we're going to wait and begin when the rest of us start our program. Now does that penalize us with the funding? As you all know, the funding for preschool is entirely different. It's a whole bucket of money with different regulations. It's amazing the type of regulations that exist for this program. So we're trying to see if that is even possible to take place with us either if we don't get the waiver, can we just not start? And if we do not start, what does that do with the funding? Does the funding then get penalized and we do not receive it or if we have received it, do we have to send it back? So all of that is what we're trying to find out at this point in time. So I understand where the teachers are concerned about having, having to start possibly earlier than the rest of the district, but let me just turn this off. But I understand that how they're feeling. But if we are going to go in the direction and you do not want to have the preschool program start until our program starts and what that means is we're going to lose X amount of funding for preschool from the state. Not unless we can get the waiver and they can say we can do distance learning like they had been doing previously. And we're still waiting for a clear answer. But the answers that we get back and forth from the state, they don't really make any sense. If they leave it up to us, just tell, just say that, leave it up to the lea, fine. So I don't have a clear answer on that. If you would like me to say stop the program, I'll stop it and we'll just deal with the consequences when it happens. But at this point in time, CDE is not giving any clear guidance. So that's when I need feedback from you. As to how you would like me to proceed with that, The other pieces about the tracing and the testing, we already went through that. The county, the county of, the county of San Mateo, the county health department, as you all know, has left us on our own at this point in time."},{"start":15534420,"end":15534820,"speaker":"B","text":"And"},{"start":15536820,"end":15578250,"speaker":"C","text":"I don't. I have no answers for our staff in regard to that. And I know you've been on calls, those Wednesday calls that you participate in with other officials within the county. And I suspect that was, as you know, you did indicate that you heard that yourselves also. I heard it about a week ago when Ms. Wolf was showing that chart. I was in true belief that that's how we were going to move forward with if a child tested positive, if a parent tested positive, if a staff member tested positive, that chart needs to be reworked because it no longer exists in that fashion."},{"start":15579850,"end":15580170,"speaker":"D","text":"Yeah."},{"start":15580170,"end":15637410,"speaker":"E","text":"And I do think, you know, thank you for those comments, Dr. Baker. There were some comments in the chat about where some areas that people could advocate, and I do think assistance for all school districts in California around testing, tracking and tracing. That is a place where people could contact state legislators, the governor, you could also contact our county in terms of helping provide that. I know that the San Mateo County School Boards association board of directors is talking about having some kind of a public forum and some advocacy work around the resources that school districts need in order to open safely. So I do think there's opportunities for those of you still on the call to help advocate for the testing, tracing and tracking because frankly, you know, we just, we don't have the budget or the expertise to conduct that on our own."},{"start":15637970,"end":15703630,"speaker":"C","text":"It was mentioned at a superintendent's meeting yesterday because it was brought up with Congressman Speier. And we were told that it was a possibility that it could be done, but it would. At the district, it would be a hundred dollars per test. And the Superintendent, there were six, 17 of us there at yesterday's meeting. It was at $100 per person. Then. How often does a test have to be given? We can't even afford that. But one thing that we probably should look into is those of us who sit on Redbird City 2020, and we have, I think, a meeting tomorrow. Kaiser's at the table. I don't know if Kaiser would be willing to assist us in some fashion. They're located right in Redwood City and they sit at the table with those of us who are members of that, that group. So it's a possibility, right? Elisa Janet sits on the committee with myself and with many others in Redwood city."},{"start":15705070,"end":15715550,"speaker":"A","text":"I think our meeting with Redwood City 2020 is an opportunity to really push for our partners to step up with testing and child care and all of our other needs."},{"start":15720360,"end":15742680,"speaker":"C","text":"So was there anything else that you want to go over before you continue your discussion or go and continue your discussion or direct me in a manner in which I can go so that myself and my team can start working relatively soon on the items that we need to work on and especially some of the items that were here in the chat."},{"start":15743720,"end":15752170,"speaker":"A","text":"So, Wendy, were you going to address the question on the librarians? I think you may have have in the chat, but were you going to for those that aren't following chat?"},{"start":15753130,"end":15753450,"speaker":"B","text":"Sure."},{"start":15753450,"end":15802730,"speaker":"D","text":"I can repeat what I had written in the chat that I'm pleased to let people know that we're actually working on a librarian schedule. In the HR subcommittee, we went through all classifications. We're trying to figure out what each classification to work schedule would look like for next year. So there's been some great ideas about book distribution. And we're the librarians actually already have a firm place a plan in place for that. And then reading intervention supports for students as part of their job description. Literacy skills development is part of the librarian's job description. So we are looking at various parts that might need to be negotiated with csea. But we had a really productive meeting on Tuesday to try and figure it out. It was a great collaborative meeting, very productive. So I'm feeling hopeful about that. It's just trying to iron out all the details now. Great."},{"start":15802730,"end":15843600,"speaker":"C","text":"Thanks, Janet. The one question that did come up, and I saw it in the chat, was about independent study. An independent study is possibility. You know, that's one that's an item that's in one of our board policies. And I know that's been brought up, up and down the county among among school districts. And so that is possibility at this point in time. It does does say 20 days, but the superintendent has the option of extending it. So if that is something that parents are interested in, that's something that we can also take a look at and see how we can materialize that piece of education."},{"start":15845440,"end":15904110,"speaker":"E","text":"Yeah. And just Dr. Baker, because I've had a number of parents reach out to me, I think these are parents who are interested in more of the homeschooling idea. So it's a little bit different than the distant learning, because the distant learning, of course, would be much more structured and led by the teacher in conjunction with the parent, of course, at home. But this is much more the parents sort of setting the schedule and all of that. So I do know it's a little bit more like a homeschooling model. So it might be event. I mean, one of the things I was thinking about is it, you know, probably like you said, every district now is being asked about this. Is there an opportunity maybe for the San Mateo County Office of Ed or some group of people to get together to help define what this would be? I do think a lot of parents just want information. Is this going to be available? What would it look like? Because they're all trying to make choices right now, so the sooner we can come up with something, the better in terms of what it might be."},{"start":15908120,"end":15912840,"speaker":"C","text":"On that. Also, they did say they were willing to help on that independent study model."},{"start":15913640,"end":15943970,"speaker":"D","text":"Right. So, John, I think that I would like to see that as one of the options because like Elisa said, there are families who have been asking for it. And I think that if that is what will help their families, then I think we should try and do that for them as well. And I know you said that you can extend that, so that would be something I would personally like to see added to the menu."},{"start":15947090,"end":16045390,"speaker":"E","text":"And then the one other, you know, we talked about some of our groups of students who may need more support with the distant learning idea. And you touched upon sped, you know, special ed, English learners, our homeless foster youth. I'm also wondering, are there special things that we could be doing for our TK and K, given that this is the first exposure to us? And I know there's some teachers who really wanted to meet in person with their kiddos every day. And if that's not, if that's not possible, are there other things we can do or, you know, and I do know it's a little bit different with younger kids, but I chatted with one of the board members from the San Mateo Union High School District today, and they decided last night to go all distant learning. However, they're going to set up learning centers at the school site for certain populations. And these would be outside. And I don't even. I don't know if they're going to be ongoing or special sorts of things when they can do them or what have you. But, but I think they were talking about there's some ideas for certain kids that need to have that face to face. Is there a way we could do that safely? And I think what they're thinking is they would not be. They would be supervised, but not with teachers. So, again, you know, I know that you're talking with all the superintendents, all the time. And this is such a fast moving idea, but maybe there's some ideas out there that we could talk about in terms of supporting some of those groups."},{"start":16050670,"end":16052430,"speaker":"C","text":"So, Janet, did you want to."},{"start":16052910,"end":16053270,"speaker":"D","text":"So."},{"start":16053270,"end":16080840,"speaker":"A","text":"Because. Yeah, so this is just a discussion item, which means we'll have to ask the superintendent to come back with an action item next week. So what I think I've heard from the board is that we would like to. To reopen schools in the distant learning fashion. Is that, I guess the proposal that we would like Dr. Baker to bring back next week to approve."},{"start":16081880,"end":16134500,"speaker":"E","text":"Can I also just make a quick comment? So I was on a CSBA committee meeting today, and we started the meeting with a chat about what different school districts were doing and actually interested in. Interestingly enough, not all school districts are requiring action on this. Some school districts are giving direction to their superintendent and delegating the superintendent to make the decision. So I just bring this up because, you know, we had this as discussion item. We certainly can take action on it in a more formal way. But I will just say that not every school district is doing that. Some school districts are just having conversations and saying, okay, so superintendent, here's the direction. You're the. You're the operator. Go forth and do it. So anyway, I just bring this up. Bring that up. I mean, it's fine to go ahead and take action if that's what we want to do, but I don't know that it's mandatory."},{"start":16138500,"end":16156390,"speaker":"D","text":"Well, I think we have all the requirements that we need to meet in order to open up if, you know, if we don't have. Have the spread under control and you can't open up. So even if we set that, then how are you going to meet those goals? I just don't see that."},{"start":16158390,"end":16162710,"speaker":"F","text":"So I think we actually need to vote on it because I think we need, as a board, to own it."},{"start":16165750,"end":16166310,"speaker":"D","text":"Okay."},{"start":16166470,"end":16171990,"speaker":"A","text":"But we need to give clear direction to Dr. Baker tonight what we want him to bring back to us."},{"start":16172220,"end":16172460,"speaker":"C","text":"Us."},{"start":16173820,"end":16177500,"speaker":"F","text":"Well, I thought I heard every board member said they want to do distant learning."},{"start":16178140,"end":16178620,"speaker":"D","text":"Yeah."},{"start":16179900,"end":16227450,"speaker":"E","text":"And I would say, you know, until the health conditions allow us to bring our staff and students back safely to campus. And then, you know, there was some conversation about, do you have a minimum time frame to make it readily available for everyone to plan? That includes our staff as well as parents and families. So does it make sense to say at a minimum, it would be the whole first trimester? Which brings us up to, I think, kind of the end of October, early November, with, you know, checkpoints that we'd be checking, like, what are the health conditions or do we want to set something else? It feels like we ought to have some boundaries around that parameters."},{"start":16229210,"end":16256420,"speaker":"D","text":"Well, I agree with you. However, I just thinking of all the stuff I read and all the information that some of our experts are providing, this is supposed to be one of the worst periods. So I would say perhaps after December."},{"start":16259620,"end":16273780,"speaker":"A","text":"I think we just need to watch the data and if we are not trending down or even flattened, then there is no possibility of coming back until that happens. So I don't even know if we can put a date on it."},{"start":16276740,"end":16296330,"speaker":"E","text":"Yeah. And I guess my suggestion was not that we would, that the first trimester would be the, like we wouldn't bring back kids earlier. I mean, just for planning purposes. Right. But are you saying that we just keep it completely open and every week we're looking at the health data?"},{"start":16301930,"end":16306630,"speaker":"A","text":"You know, I don't have an answer for that one. I don't know."},{"start":16311670,"end":16312470,"speaker":"C","text":"So, so."},{"start":16313110,"end":16315430,"speaker":"D","text":"And then I guess I would want to add just for."},{"start":16325110,"end":16327270,"speaker":"A","text":"So that was Cecilia."},{"start":16327510,"end":16331290,"speaker":"D","text":"Sorry."},{"start":16333760,"end":16334080,"speaker":"A","text":"Yeah."},{"start":16335280,"end":16338560,"speaker":"D","text":"Just for clarification. Yes,"},{"start":16344960,"end":16347920,"speaker":"A","text":"Cecilia, go ahead. Cecilia, go ahead."},{"start":16348880,"end":16350000,"speaker":"D","text":"Okay. So can you hear me?"},{"start":16352240,"end":16352800,"speaker":"A","text":"Yes."},{"start":16357280,"end":16372640,"speaker":"D","text":"In order for us to guide Dr. Baker as to what is going. Decide to obviously start 100% distance learning come back. Are we talking the hybrid model?"},{"start":16376080,"end":16389020,"speaker":"C","text":"That's not what I heard. Oh my gosh. What I heard was that you were all in favor of, of distance learning. What we would need to determine"},{"start":16390940,"end":16391260,"speaker":"D","text":"going"},{"start":16391260,"end":16526410,"speaker":"C","text":"to be the first trimester. Are we going to make it until like December and then when we come back in January, provided that all the data is in a positive light for us going forward, that with cases that are very, very low, maybe hopefully thinking that, you know, very least not existent at this time, at that time bring every, bring people back. But we would need to get guidelines from, I'm hoping from the county office of Education, because each district right now is depending on themselves to determine what those guidelines are going to be. And as superintendents, we said we, we are so close community wise that we cannot just do it community by community. We need to have the county determine what those guidelines would be. For example, in New York, the governor has, has placed certain criteria and guidelines for like the first, I think when school starts in August, prior to August, there has to be a percentage of positive cases. He put a percent. What percent that needs to be before the school can even open up. Once your community, you're in that community and you open up and you're going, you're doing in classroom education, then you look every week to see if the virus is increasing. If it's increasing above a certain percent, then he's making sure that the whole school closed down. We don't have guidelines like that. Our guidelines do not exist. But we as superintendents of the county of San Mateo county are asking for guidelines because we do not believe that we are the experts in this field to determine, you know, yes, there are too many active cases that we need to, you know, shut down schools and go to total distance learning. So that's something we don't want to do, and that's something I don't want to recommend. But at this point in time, what I hear you saying is let's start with distance learning. Let's go through the first trimester and see where we are. The first trimester puts its up. Puts us. Puts us up at. And I'm looking at Wendy, at about what? November."},{"start":16528490,"end":16531690,"speaker":"D","text":"It's about early November, about November 10th. Ish."},{"start":16532090,"end":16639560,"speaker":"C","text":"And then we started with them and then we normally have conferences and then it's Thanksgiving. So if we would start and be sure that we're going to have it for at least that amount of time and see, number one, the expectations that we put forth for staff and for parents to understand what that's going to look like will be in place. We will be checking in to make sure that it's happening. Number two, we will be checking with the data, hopefully with some medical experts within the county that can help us with the COVID 19 positive pieces that come about, and then determine what our next steps would be during right before that trimester ends. At this point in time, nobody knows what's going to happen. I mean, is everyone saying that, yes, the fall and the winter are going to be really horrible, but we don't know that for sure. We don't know that for sure. That's what they're speculating. So I think if you give us a period of time that we definitely know that we're distance learning during that time. There are different. There are different dipsticks that we as administrators, as teachers and parents are going to determine how well this is going also because there are going to be expectations. What the teachers have learned just with that one week that they had off and what they've been doing during the summer is entirely different from what happened when we pivoted in the spring. Entirely different. So give us the time that is needed. I say the first trimester should be the trimester that we work with. And we determine after that within a few weeks before it Ends. What are we going to do? Are we going to continue or can we start moving back and bring kids?"},{"start":16644049,"end":16663969,"speaker":"D","text":"And I would say one of the things that the parents can do to help is perhaps since the county's following the state, maybe to lobby the state, the governor, to do the same thing like they've done in New York and give us those metrics that we can follow. Because as you said, we are not the experts."},{"start":16667249,"end":16726440,"speaker":"C","text":"Right. And I don't want to waste any time like someone on the chat says, we're going to be wasting all this time. And so in October, I don't want to waste all this time in October. We're not going to do that. I know parents did not. I'm not going to say all I know some parents did not have the best experience with the distance learning, but we learned a lesson and we are taking a good look at what happened and making sure that that doesn't happen again. Noting that our teachers will have expectations of what that distance learning is going to look like, knowing that parents will know what those expectations are and knowing what expectations parents are going to have. Because we cannot do this alone. We cannot do this type of teaching alone. Give us the old brick and mortar and we can do it. This we have learned. We've gotten better at it, but we're not excellent yet. But we're going to need support from all parties involved."},{"start":16732920,"end":16735720,"speaker":"A","text":"So, Dr. Baker, do you have direction?"},{"start":16735960,"end":16739239,"speaker":"C","text":"You want me to repeat what I think lead the direction is?"},{"start":16739320,"end":16740440,"speaker":"A","text":"Yes, that would be good."},{"start":16740600,"end":16784980,"speaker":"C","text":"Point in time is to bring back an action item next week that's going to promote distance learning. With that action item, we will put some dates in there of what it's going to basically look like for the rest of this time until school begins, what trainings and so forth that we can put in place for our teachers. We already know that we have purchased. I know Kyle knows this better than me because we've been talking about it, but he knows exact amount. We purchased to $250,000 worth of iPads for our TK's, TKK and One Preschools."},{"start":16784980,"end":16785300,"speaker":"F","text":"Right."},{"start":16786580,"end":16916930,"speaker":"C","text":"And so preschools as well. Preschools as well. So that will need to have the training with our teachers and then also get the trainings up to date for our parents in doing that. And so they have a true understanding of what that's going to look like at home for them. So I will come back with items that will be taking that we'll be doing before school starts on August 19th. And then one other thing that I wanted to Mention. I know there were some chat on the lot. There was some chatter on the comments here that didn't understand why we couldn't just start school a little later and give our teachers some additional time and training. They thought because we're basic aid, we don't have to worry about. About that. That's not true. We're a school district. Yes, we are basic aid, but we're receiving supplemental concentration funding. And if we were to not have 180 instructional days, the state will require that we give some of those dollars back and for Redwood City School District for each day. It's not. We're not teaching within that 180 that we took two or three away. It's going to cost us around $160,000, so we can't do that. So I know some chat was going on. Well, just start a little later, get the teacher some extra time, extra training. State's not allowing for any waivers. They want the 180 instructional days. So we have got to figure out a way in which we can provide the teachers with the training. And then also at the same time, with this training and when Wendy is going to create the ambulance MOU with rcta, our teachers union, that there is a mechanism that we can bring them back for certain days and certain times and pay them some dollars to get the additional training that they need."},{"start":16920130,"end":16923410,"speaker":"A","text":"Okay, so does the board agree with that? That's the direction."},{"start":16925170,"end":16929040,"speaker":"F","text":"Yeah. I'd like to talk about after next week for a moment. So."},{"start":16929190,"end":16929430,"speaker":"D","text":"So"},{"start":16932150,"end":16954840,"speaker":"F","text":"I think we really have to invest a lot of time in special ed, in the special needs students to make sure that those students are served. And I think we need to come out with, for lack of a better term, kind of an expectation of what we're expecting. Like, you know, in the spring we said we were going to not do grades, and I'm assuming we're planning to do grades."},{"start":16955310,"end":16959630,"speaker":"C","text":"We're planning on doing grades. That's an expectation. You're planning on doing grades. Right."},{"start":16959630,"end":16974910,"speaker":"F","text":"But I think. I think it would be helpful for parents to have kind of a list of, you know, what this is going to look like. Like how many hours are we expecting students to be with a live teacher versus not a live teacher, et cetera."},{"start":16975150,"end":17092050,"speaker":"C","text":"That is all going to come, Dennis, the expectations for teaching, expectations for students, expectations for parents, because we're going to need help, especially when it comes to those children that are receiving iPads for the first time and we're having to train the students how to use that iPad. Maybe some have had accustomed to it, but others may not. And so the teachers will be building these different types of units and so forth to work with. The parents know what exactly they can do at home with the child on the iPad. So when the teacher comes on, the teacher's not constantly, you know, starting from the beginning again. So all of that will be in place. And there was a really. I had seen previously, and I believe it was Dr. Montes that put together with her group the expectations and the minutes and everything. And it was all charted out. But we need to get our teachers to understand what that's going to look like. We have not shown it to everyone because we need to have our teachers involved. We have put together a model, but the teachers need to be involved in seeing what this model is and then taking it forward. But it has specifics. You have not seen it. And we're not going to share it with anybody, just ourselves, so that we knew we had something as a model to move forward with. It does exist, but it does mean that we all teachers, staff, principals, all administrators and parents, we all need to work together to make this work. And I'm happy to entertain the different ideas that are on the chat to see if it'll make this more viable and more of a success for Redwood City. Because we definitely do not want to be in any type of situation that we were previously. And I can assure you that's not going to happen again."},{"start":17094450,"end":17115460,"speaker":"A","text":"And then I just want to address our. Just so everybody's clear, this was listed as a discussion item. And because it's a special board meeting, not a regular board meeting, our attorneys have advised us that not to make it an action item tonight, but that we would have to bring it back next week. So that's why we're doing it the way we're doing it."},{"start":17116420,"end":17116820,"speaker":"D","text":"But"},{"start":17118580,"end":17126980,"speaker":"A","text":"unless this virus disappears overnight, you can assume that the action item that comes forward next week is what the board is going to approve."},{"start":17129540,"end":17202740,"speaker":"E","text":"And Dr. Baker, I might just add, I mean, I think Maria was getting to this a little bit. And I've seen some comments in the chat we might want to think about. In addition to the trimester, do we just say that we go through this calendar year and then, I mean, we'll be evaluating along the way? It may be that we have to go longer full distance learning if the virus is still out there in such a high way. But I don't know because I think, you know, I do know that a lot of the colleges are actually going to of. I mean, most of them are doing Some form of distant learning. But those that are having kids on campus, a lot of them are talking about ending kind of in that mid November and actually having kids home, recognizing that you're going to start having the flu season and all of that, and it's going to be hard to discern whether they have the flu or the virus. And so I don't know if that's easier or not. And I also saw that some families were saying it might be easier to plan for childcare and other sorts of things for that whole time period. I don't know that we need to decide this tonight, but I guess I just personally want to say that I'm open to the idea, and I think I heard Maria say that as well."},{"start":17202740,"end":17203060,"speaker":"B","text":"But"},{"start":17205460,"end":17213780,"speaker":"E","text":"to not lock us into just the trimester idea. If when you go back to the drawing board with staff, you think, oh, you know what, the recommendation might be better to say this."},{"start":17215550,"end":17267950,"speaker":"C","text":"Okay, so what I'll do is I'll work with staff. We'll start working soon. It's not going to be all laid out for you next week. On Wednesday, we will be having meetings, you know, starting tomorrow. And they're all here. We'll have. Starting starting tomorrow. And then we will come back at future meetings and show what this looks. Looks like. And probably have virtual meetings with. So that parents can. Parents can see what that looks like also. And then also meeting with staff. By staff, I mean our teachers and our instructional assistants who are going to be working closely with the teachers of what this needs to look like when we reopen on August 19th. Okay. All right. I got orders, so I know what to do."},{"start":17270420,"end":17286180,"speaker":"A","text":"All right, well, thank you, everyone, for hanging in through that discussion. We will finish that up next week. But we are now onto our consent Items. We move 10.3 and 10.4 to consent."},{"start":17287780,"end":17291780,"speaker":"D","text":"Do we have a motion to approve? So moved."},{"start":17292340,"end":17292980,"speaker":"A","text":"Maria."},{"start":17294590,"end":17294830,"speaker":"D","text":"Second."},{"start":17295790,"end":17296830,"speaker":"A","text":"Is that Elisa?"},{"start":17296910,"end":17297310,"speaker":"E","text":"Yeah."},{"start":17297310,"end":17297630,"speaker":"B","text":"Second."},{"start":17297950,"end":17298390,"speaker":"C","text":"Okay."},{"start":17298390,"end":17301950,"speaker":"A","text":"Thank you. So, Eliana, can we have a roll call vote, please?"},{"start":17305870,"end":17306990,"speaker":"D","text":"Trustee McBride."},{"start":17307230,"end":17307710,"speaker":"F","text":"Aye."},{"start":17307950,"end":17317950,"speaker":"D","text":"Trustee Marquez. Aye. Trustee Diazloko. Aye. Vice President Macable."},{"start":17318430,"end":17318830,"speaker":"E","text":"I."},{"start":17319400,"end":17320200,"speaker":"D","text":"President Lawson."},{"start":17320760,"end":17330120,"speaker":"A","text":"Hi. So just a reminder, we took 10.2 off of the agenda, but we are item 10.1."},{"start":17334040,"end":17348000,"speaker":"C","text":"So that's the. That's the resolution that we have in place for connect that, you know, they are the last. Yeah. Because the other two resolutions already came before you. This was the last one that hasn't come."},{"start":17348480,"end":17350240,"speaker":"F","text":"Actually, I think we're doing 10:1."},{"start":17350480,"end":17351280,"speaker":"D","text":"Oh, yeah."},{"start":17351520,"end":17354720,"speaker":"A","text":"10:1 is the LEA."},{"start":17356480,"end":17433800,"speaker":"C","text":"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. That is the LEA. Yes. This is the LEA. Sorry, I should look at this closely for Selpa. And I know there were some questions in regard to how it was dated, but the county Selpa gave it to the Special Ed department, making sure that we had this approved at one of our board meetings. And they did it without changing the date on the information, but we can still approve it in this manner. And I think Patricia sent some information to some of the board members that asked about the date. I think. I think it was dated June 30th, if I'm not mistaken. I don't have it in front of me at this point in time, but it was dated June 30th. And in regard to that, it seems like every year when this. And this happened last year, if I'm not mistaken, every year when they send this out, it's dated June 30, and sometimes it doesn't get to our board meetings until August. It just happened that we're having a board meeting in July, and you're getting it now. But it is an official resolution, and it can be approved with the date that it's coming from the county. We already checked on that with our attorneys. Also."},{"start":17438920,"end":17440920,"speaker":"A","text":"Are there any questions or comments on that?"},{"start":17441720,"end":17459650,"speaker":"F","text":"Yeah, I talked to Priscilla, and, you know, this is a new requirement. Like, there's schedules on there that we haven't seen before. And the budget's actually the budget of all the special ed departments in the county. So it's not just the county numbers. It's actually every school district aggregated up."},{"start":17462530,"end":17471490,"speaker":"C","text":"And I know Dennis's question was, why don't they do a resolution? What Dennis said that we all use, but I don't know."},{"start":17480220,"end":17492060,"speaker":"A","text":"Anybody else. Then we would need a motion to approve it. I'll second Dennis and Elisa. Can we have a roll call vote, please?"},{"start":17495820,"end":17496940,"speaker":"D","text":"Jesse McBride."},{"start":17497260,"end":17497740,"speaker":"F","text":"Aye."},{"start":17498060,"end":17508690,"speaker":"D","text":"Jesse Marque. Aye. Trustee Diaslocco. Aye. Vice President McAvoy. Aye. President Lawson."},{"start":17509330,"end":17509890,"speaker":"B","text":"Aye."},{"start":17511410,"end":17517650,"speaker":"A","text":"Thank you. That brings us to the end of our agenda 1055. And we'll see you back here for our next."},{"start":17517650,"end":17523330,"speaker":"E","text":"Janet, I'm sorry to interrupt. I just want to make sure we don't. Can somebody save the chat?"},{"start":17523330,"end":17525320,"speaker":"A","text":"I was going to ask Kyle, because I'll be."},{"start":17525470,"end":17526910,"speaker":"E","text":"Because we're not able to do that."},{"start":17528270,"end":17535150,"speaker":"A","text":"So, yeah, I was gonna ask Kyle. I don't think any of us can save the chat, so if you're able to."},{"start":17537950,"end":17541630,"speaker":"C","text":"I will save the chat before I sign off."},{"start":17541710,"end":17542110,"speaker":"A","text":"Okay."},{"start":17542110,"end":17553320,"speaker":"E","text":"That would be great, because I think there's a lot of ideas in there that we want to capture and make sure that we answer the Q and, you know, in our Q&As that we have and things like that. Okay, thank you."},{"start":17553480,"end":17557080,"speaker":"C","text":"There are some of those comments we can use in our planning, too."},{"start":17559160,"end":17563720,"speaker":"A","text":"All right. Thanks, everyone. So we'll see you next week at 6pm."}]}