Virtual Town Hall Meeting

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[1] Phuong Nguyen: Good evening, everyone. Welcome.

[35] Mark Triplett: Good evening. Welcome, welcome. We're going to wait a couple of minutes for people to come in and then we'll get started.

[104] SPEAKER_18: Welcome everybody. One more minute and then we'll get started. Thank you all for joining us. Looks like we're almost at 200 people, and then we'll get started at 200.

[146] Mark Triplett: All right. Good evening. Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us. My name is Mark Triplett. I'm the superintendent It's great to be back with you this evening. I have with me some very important people, including Ms. Calderon, who's the principal of McGregor, the school's both Bridgepoint, Crossroads, and Adult Education. I also have Ms. Ingham-Watters from HR, and Ms. Pierce, our instructional assistant superintendent, and Ms. Gutierrez, our executive assistant for the superintendent's office, as well as we have Ms. Boise doing our ASL interpretation, interpreting, excuse me, and Ms. Guevara doing our Spanish interpreting. So thank you again for joining us. If you need Spanish interpretation, if you could just click the button for interpretation, that you can find it there. Should I say that? And Ms. Gutierrez, you want to say that in Spanish as well?

[222] SPEAKER_27: Buenas tardes a todos los que nos están acompañando. Les avisamos que tenemos interpretación en español disponible en su página o en su teléfono de la pantalla en la parte de abajo. Hay un círculo, un globo, un mundo. All right, thank you, Miss Gutierrez. All right, well, let's get started. Miss Gutierrez, are you able to put the slides up? Oh, there we go. [Translated] Good afternoon to all who are accompanying us. We advise you that we have Spanish interpretation available on your page or on your screen phone on the bottom. There's a circle, a balloon, a world. All right, thank you, Miss Gutierrez. All right, well, let's get started. Miss Gutierrez, are you able to put the slides up? Oh, there we go. [End]

[266] Mark Triplett: Wonderful. Thank you. So, so this evening. This is our virtual town hall for July 27 again. Great to have everyone with us. I hope that you've had a wonderful summer and we're quickly getting to to the start of school. Um, so, um, as you probably recall, we had a town hall meeting in June to discuss what, uh, at that, at that point we knew about, um, how the, um, uh, the, the fall and reopening of school would look. Um, and there was a lot of things that we didn't know at that point. Um, we hadn't gotten some significant information from the state yet. And so we promised you that we would hold another meeting in July. once we had the information, more information from the state to share with you. So here we are tonight, and we are intending to discuss the instructional options for your children for the 2021-22 school year. So we will go over the instructional programming. Then we will also talk about a particular option for independent study, virtual option. And then we'll talk about next steps. And then we should have time to answer as many questions as we can before closing out. And that's our agenda for tonight. So with that, I'm gonna turn it over to Ms. Pierce to talk a little bit about the timeline that has occurred in this last year and a half that's got us to this point.

[370] SPEAKER_25: Yes, and so I won't, I won't actually repeat the timeline since this is something we've done prior. We talked about how we started with SB 98, starting back in July 2020, and we talked last time about how we were expecting more guidance from the state to come out in June. It came out about two to three weeks later than expected. It actually came out closer to the mid of July. And so we have been working with what we anticipated would occur from that new guidance and now putting it into actualization in the last few weeks. We're working very hard to do so. Next slide.

[413] Mark Triplett: All right, thank you, Miss Pierce. So this evening, we are going to talk about back to school. And as we stated at the last town hall, this year, we have two options. And this is what's been the guidelines and the requirements that we've received from the state. The two options are in-person instruction in school or independent study virtual learning. So that's for students who and families who need to continue to learn virtually and not be in person. And so this upcoming year, we will not have the hybrid model that we had this past year, where at certain points, students had a half day of school in person, and then other students had the second half of the day at home. So it's going to look different this year as we continue to to overcome the pandemic. And so tonight we're going to explain more about those two different options for this upcoming school year. First, though, we wanted to go back over, as promised, the results from a survey that we gave to the community in June after our last town hall meeting. So if you recall, we sent out a survey in English and Spanish asking families, based on the information that all of us had at that point in June, what they felt like their preference would be. This is a non-binding survey, but it's really helpful to us to get a sense of what families will be interested in for the fall. So we had 1,672 responses to our survey total, and of those responses, 94.7% said that they prefer the in-person option for the upcoming school year. 5.3%, so a very small portion, said they prefer to continue with a virtual option, the independent study option. Fortunately, we are going to provide both options. So families are able to decide what is best for them. But we wanted to make sure that we were offering both in-person as well as a virtual option this year. So we're going to go rather quickly over a little bit more detail around the results of that survey. So what you can see here is Berks Grove primaries results as well as Berks Grove intermediates. And you can see pretty close in terms of the number and percentage of families who wanted to be returned in-person versus the number that want to remain in a virtual option. The blue represents those who want to go with in-person and that is roughly around 92% in both schools and around 7.5% said they wanted to opt for the virtual option. Here was the results for Kennedy and Lincoln. Kennedy had 100% of the respondents saying they wanted the in-person option. Lincoln around 5% saying they wanted virtual and about 95% saying in-person. And you can see now for Coyote Hills, which is the Merge School of Graham and Snow. The families said most want to do the in-person option with about 1% saying they would really want a virtual. And then music, about 3.5% saying the virtual and the rest saying in-person. And then Likewise, for Schilling, you can see the results, a little under 4% wanting virtual. At Newark Junior High, a little more than 3%. And then lastly, Memorial did have the largest population, although still very small, of families who want to remain in virtual, around 7%, with about 93% saying they wish to continue in-person. So again, that non-binding survey, but just helps to give a little bit of context to what people were thinking, at least in June. And these results are actually very similar to other surrounding districts, roughly the same percentages overall. So this seems to be, or at least was the sentiment in June, and we're really eager now to discuss with you what the in-person option will look like as well as what the virtual option will look like. So I'm going to turn it back over to Miss Pierce to talk a little bit first about the in-person option.

[714] SPEAKER_25: So we're sure that the question is, what will in-person look like? First of all, we are excited to continue this and to really build off what we learned from reopening at the end of last year. So without further ado, we're going to go through what in-person will start to look like. And knowing that there will be changes as new guidance comes out, but we'd like to get you a picture of what that looks like tonight. So instruction will be five days a week. It will be regular in-person full day bell schedules at all grades at all NUSD schools except for our virtual option, which we will talk about next. There will be standard inclusion of things like lunch and resource with outdoor equipment and play structures and play equipment You'll start to see after school and extracurricular activities available as well. Obviously staying up with updated guidelines and we expect those guidelines to continue to be updated just as they were last year over time. So some schedules here. We have our elementary, our junior high, our Newark Memorial, and our Bridgepoint schedules start and end times. You'll notice just some change here with Newark Memorial Elementary more or less stays the same with BGP starting just 15 minutes after because they have some students that attend both schools. With Newark Memorial, there is new state guidance that comes out in 2023 where all high schools cannot start before 830. And since our high schoolers got quite used to sleeping in a little bit over the course of this past year, we thought this was a great opportunity to start that shift over to 830 instead of going back to an early morning start just to move it back down to 830 again. So we're taking the initiative to do this a year early and hopefully provide some consistency for our high schoolers. That being said, we're going to talk about some of our safety guidelines for what in person will look like.

[846] Catheerine Ingham-Watters: And this is me.

[857] Mark Triplett: Great. Thank you, Miss Pierce. So, yeah, we're going to go over some of the guidelines. And these are some of them are direct quotes from the state guidelines. And you will notice that some things have changed. But we are we intend on fully following the California Department of Public Health, as well as the County Public Health Office of Public Health. So in terms of masks, this is an important one to note. Masks per the law by the California State Legislature, masks will be required for both students and adults in kindergarten through 12th grade school settings. So masks required for all of us, regardless of vaccination status in in school settings. We do or we are able to provide opportunities for mask break zones outdoors during instructional breaks such as recess and and and things like that. And that will be supervised by by its school staff. And it does not mean that There's no masks outdoors at all, but what it means is there will be special areas where students would be able to take a mask break. But again, this would be supervised and regulated by the school staff. In terms of physical distancing, so these guidelines have changed. And as a direct quote from the state guidelines, recent evidence indicates that in-person instruction can occur safely without minimum physical distance requirements when other mitigation strategies such as masking are implemented. So we're intending and we're required to fully implement the masking strategy. But we will we will not be having the same six foot or three foot physical distancing requirement. However, having said that, we want to try to continue to as much as possible. have physical distancing, but it does not, the guidelines have stated that it does not have the same level of importance as the masking. In turn, one thing that we are going to continue to really prioritize and emphasize for our students is hand washing and hygiene. And so our site staff will teach and reinforce the washing of hands throughout the day and teach students about making sure that they are avoiding contact with their eyes, nose, mouth, covering coughs. and sneezes, etc. And we will, we will be supplying all of the necessary supplies for supporting the healthy hygiene behavior, such as soap, tissue, face coverings, hand sanitizers, and other other equipment. So in terms of nutrition, we will have cafeterias serving food. And in addition to the cafeteria, we'll be providing outdoor spaces for eating lunch and snacks. We wanna make sure that that's being utilized as much as possible. And despite the very low risk of transmission from surfaces and shared objects, we will continue to clean all food areas both before and after every meal. So the guidance and the science has said that transmission is realized that it's very low in terms of surfaces and shared objects. But nonetheless, we will be being sure to be doing proper cleaning protocols. And I'll talk a little bit more about that in a minute. There it is. So we will continue to clean and disinfect high use surfaces daily, cleaning daily, disinfecting high use surfaces daily. We will continue to use the misting systems to disinfect in the evenings. They proved very effective last year and we'll continue to use those this year. In terms of contact tracing and protocols for quarantining, so we will continue to follow the same protocols and continue to adapt any revisions that happen to those protocols. In the spring, I want to just really commend our staff at all our school sites, as well as our COVID liaison, school nurse, who really did a fantastic job of following the protocols, implementing contact tracing where necessary, and really doing everything to keep our students safe. So that will continue. In terms of the daily health check that was implemented in the spring, that is no longer a requirement to actually check the app. However, we are going to have families completing the daily health check before coming to school. That is an expectation. However, this will be self-monitored. In other words, students will not need to show their phone or parents showing their phone when they get to school. We'll still have the data, but it doesn't need to be right at the entrance of the school being presented. We will have staff most likely continuing with the daily health check app and we will be monitoring that as well. And then vaccinations. So we have really, really proud of the partnerships that we've had with a variety of different organizations, health organizations, hospitals, et cetera, this year to provide vaccinations. We'll continue to provide opportunities for all eligible students and adults to be vaccinated. Currently, as I'm sure you know, the age is 12 and up. are eligible. And so we'll continue to have those kind of opportunities for students to be vaccinated, offering that on site. at schools and also providing opportunities for off-site as well. There is information, and you'll have access to this deck after the presentation, facts about youth vaccinations. Just want to say, as I'm sure you've seen in the news, that scientists, doctors, the health care officials are very clear about this is the way that we're going to put an end to this pandemic. And so we want to really encourage everyone who is eligible to to be vaccinated, protecting themselves and others. All right, so that was the information about our in-person learning this year. Wanted to now shift gears and talk a little bit about our Crossroads Independent virtual option. And to do that, we're going to kick off with Principal Calderon, who's going to talk a little bit about the program.

[1318] SPEAKER_26: Hi thank you. Good evening everyone. I'm Principal Calderon from Alternative Education so both Crossroads Bridgepoint and the Adult Education Program as our superintendent shared. So there's going to be some changes due to the changes in state law that are going to affect our Crossroads Independent Study Program which has operated for a number of years successfully to serve our alternative education students. This year we're going to be shifting to a virtual TK-12 program. So who is this option for? It's for students in grades TK through 12 who have health issues and must remain home for health and safety. It's for families who want their students to only participate in a remote learning setting. And as always, it is for secondary students who prefer a dependent learning for a variety of reasons.

[1372] SPEAKER_25: And again, just like Miss Calderon said, a lot of this has shifted. There was a lot of advocacy actually in the months of June and July around independent study. trying to take the learning that we've had from this last year around our virtual options and really make sure that the best of it stays true moving forward while we also return and get excited about returning to in-person as well. So some of the major changes are really around who is available to independent study. It really is determined by the parent or guardian of the student and whether or not they feel that it is the best option for their child. There are some new policies regarding live interaction and synchronous instruction, depending on age, which we'll discuss a little further, as well as tiered re-engagement procedures and documentation for student participation. So really ensuring that if a student is going to choose this option, that they stay up with their independent work and that they continue to show positive attendance as part of their process. So what does What are the goals? To provide a virtual option for families unable to attend in-person classes. That is comparable in rigor to an in-person program. We also want to create a sense of connection and community. Independent studies can feel very isolated. And so through creating an option within NUSD, we hope to create that community. through cohorts of students and teachers. And then we also, again, want to leverage some of the existing instructional approaches that we've learned from the past year. So there's a couple definitions that we would like to review before we begin. The new law can be confusing, so we want to front load some of these definitions. Some require live online interactions, and interactions are anything that's between a student and a staff member. This could include peers, so it doesn't have to be one-on-one. And it's really for the purpose of maintaining school connectedness. So examples of this could be wellness checks. It could be progress monitoring to see if students are staying up on their classes. It could be mini lessons where a teacher is noting that maybe students are all struggling with the same topic. And so they pull together a small group of students to do this work. It could be instruction. It could be a variety of things. The difference between live interaction and synchronous instruction is that synchronous instruction is more classroom style instruction, where it is the whole class or the whole cohort. Sometimes it can be small group or one-to-one, but it's happening at the same time. And it's provided by an NUSD teacher advisor for that student. So examples of that might be SEL lessons, social emotional learning. It could be coming together again for many lessons on instruction and so on. And so how NUSD is integrating this new law with our current existing policies and programs is that grades K through six will have daily synchronous instruction for all students, meaning as a class that will come together at least daily for that synchronous instruction coming from an NUSD teacher to students. For grades seven and eight, it will include a daily live interaction Um, it will be when I, when we say live, let's not get confused. It's kind of like live when you're watching live, uh, the new channel, right. It'll still be a virtual, um, but it will be in real time. Um, and then at least weekly synchronous instruction for all students. And then in grades nine through 12, as students become more independent, um, and are able to take on that independent learning, um, More readily by themselves. Um, they will have at least weekly synchronous. They could have more, but at least weekly synchronous instruction for all students throughout the school year. So at this point, we thought it might be good to share with you some sample programs. Now we're calling these sample programs because obviously there could be shifts depending on how many students are enrolled. A teacher may choose to shift a program elements around, but we wanted to start to give families an idea of what it could look like. So for instance, for our elementary program, so this would be for our TK through six, you would see students receiving the same content that they would in an in-person class. They would be getting ELA, ELD, mathematics, science, history, and social emotional learning, and really community building. The way we see this working now, and again, this could shift depending on the elements of the program, is that they actually do a wheel of direct instruction, small group instruction, and then independent work after each of these content areas, or worked in through the day. And so an example with that would be on the next slide. You can see kind of what, the first period would look like. Everyone would come together for a morning meeting. Then it might be a two-hour English language arts block. But in that two-hour session, the teacher is providing direct instruction to the whole group, pulling small groups throughout, and then allowing kids to work on whatever work that they've been assigned independently during that time. Then they would take a break, repeat the same thing for mathematics. take their lunch break, repeat a similar structure for science and history, and then end together with an SEL, social-emotional learning integration. Again, making sure that we really focus this next year around supporting our students socially and emotionally. Friday would be the same, except it would follow a minimum day schedule that you would see similar to an in-person instruction as well. So some details. So Crossroad Independent Study Program, it has the same parent leadership group, and they combine with Bridgepoint. So things like SSC, there's still opportunities for parents to be involved and really show leadership within their sites. District curriculum will be implemented, but it'll also be supplemented with some online tools. And then combination classes, we want to be very transparent about that, depending on how many kids in each grade level are opting for a virtual program. you might see a fair amount of combination classes. For instance, your TKK might be combined, or even grades 1, 2, and 3 might be combined. But our student ratio will be equivalent to in-person. So if you're generally seeing a class of 26 to 1, that's what you would expect to see in a K-6 program virtually as well. Now, for our secondary program, it's a little bit different. We will be partnering with Edgenuity, which is a online program that offers rigorous instruction in each content area, because as we know, as we get into the secondary level, we need more of that content specific support for each of our students. So we're going to go through some sample schedules here as well. For our junior high, because again, they have that daily live interaction, their schedule may look something like this, where on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, they're taking online classes, they're doing their asynchronous work, but at some point in the day, they're scheduled with an NUSD credentialed teacher to do some, or staff member, to do some sort of daily interaction where we're progress monitoring, we're doing a wellness check, we're seeing that they're keeping up with their classes and so on. And then in the afternoon, if they need any additional help from that teacher, they could drop into their office hours or tutorial sessions as well. Now our online program does offer support. So they do offer things like if a student is struggling in a lesson and they're not quite understanding, they can actually go to the program itself and request a live teacher within that content area as part of the program for additional assistance. And that live teacher can come on and provide that reteaching. There's also tutoring available through Edgenuity as well. But again, we want to maintain that connectedness to their school environment, we want to maintain that connectedness with their NUSD teacher. And so that daily live interaction would happen with NUSD staff or teaching staff. On Wednesdays in the schedule. they might, for instance, at least one time a week, they're going to have a synchronous instruction. That's when the whole cohort will come together and they'll get live instruction from an NUSD credential teacher. More often than not, this will be a social emotional learning lesson or a community building lesson, again, with the purpose of really building community. That doesn't mean they're limited to one, but at minimum, you will see at least once a week synchronous instruction. For our high school students, it's very similar to our junior high, except they don't have that daily live interaction. If we start to see students fall behind, you might see teachers start scheduling daily live interactions. to make sure that they stay up to pace with all their schoolwork. But again, as students get older and they're more independent, this is an independent study program. And so you'll see students, again, attend those online classes, continue to engage in asynchronous work, continue to ask for help if they need it through edunuity, but also, again, stay connected with NUSD and with their teacher and with their classmates through at least weekly synchronous instruction from an NUSD credentialed teacher. And again, the purpose of this is really building community. So here again, there are options for parents to get involved in leadership. And students will have an NUSD credential teacher advisor. And we will actually strategically assign that when possible. And then again, instruction will be supplemented through edgenuity. All right, Ms. Calderon, do you want to talk about the advisor roles?

[1949] SPEAKER_26: Sure, so at the secondary level, each advisor will be responsible for building cohort community through weekly synchronous social-emotional learning lessons by cohort and collectively, documenting daily engagement, so synchronous, asynchronous, virtual with academic coursework, providing daily live interaction for our junior high students in seventh and eighth grade, monitoring student progress and coursework, implementing multi-tiered re-engagement strategies as needed, Providing regular feedback on assignments, for example, writing drafts, etc. Supporting students academically, answering questions, clarifying content, providing instruction as needed, connecting students to support and helping to prepare for assessments, and of course, answering student and family emails. So if this is an option that you are interested in pursuing, the process for enrollment is as follows. We are asking that you complete the Crossroads Transfer Request form by August 6th, that's next Friday. If your student is in special education, we can still accept your application, but eligibility will be determined through the IEP process. So you can submit this form, but just know that decision will be pending IEP team approval. So upon completion of the form, your child will be dropped from their home school and transferred to Crossroads Independent Study Program. And then we will be contacting you regarding the independent study contract. This is a legal requirement that we've always collected, but it's especially important this year because it's a legal requirement if your student is participating in independent study. So our next steps as all the other schools Crossroads starts on August 12th. So if you are choosing in-person instruction you're automatically going to be enrolled in your home school based on where you live. If you're again interested in joining us at Crossroads please submit that transfer request by next Friday August 6th and all of my fellow principals will be sharing more back to school information very soon.

[2079] Mark Triplett: Thank you, Miss Calderon. I think I was supposed to take that slide and I missed it. So thanks for stepping in. All right. So we thank you for your participation. We've been also trying to field questions as we are getting them in the question and answer section. So, we do have some time now to answer questions that are being put into the question and answer. And so, Ms. Gutierrez, if you could read questions for us, and then the team here will do our best to answer these questions. And I believe we can take down the slide deck at this point.

[2131] SPEAKER_28: All right, thank you, Dr. Triplett. We'll start off with the first question being in regards to the TK program and what the schedule looks like.

[2140] SPEAKER_25: So the TK program will mirror what we see in the primary grades. I will say that the first two weeks, generally, for our TKers, they do go on a minimum day schedule as they get prepared and used to and accustomed to school. So while I'm not going to go through every TK option at every site, I would say definitely check in with your individual site to make sure that you're up to date on those times and options.

[2166] SPEAKER_28: Thank you. And there's a question related specifically to students with IEP. If a student chooses independent study and has an IEP, will those services still be provided through the independent study?

[2181] SPEAKER_25: Yeah. So that, that's a really important question. Um, and one that will be answered through the IEP team. So in general, um, in the, and in the past, uh, independent study has really been discouraged for students, um, in special education. Um, that being said, it is, it's not discouraged. Um, but we want to make sure that whatever services we're providing through the independent study program will meet the student's needs according to their IEP. And because that is such an individualized process, Um, it is required to go. So, so families can, um, fill out the form and do a request. Um, but we will still need to go through the official process with the IEP team to ensure that, um, their IEP can be met through an independent study program is kind of the short answer.

[2227] Mark Triplett: All right. And, um, I believe I'm missing the monitors. Do you want to explain a little bit more about the TK and the kinder schedule for

[2236] SPEAKER_21: TK and kinder is a little bit different. So transitional kindergarten is a half day schedule and they get dismissed every day before the lunchtime block starts with the exception of TK SDC students. If the student's in special day class, they do attend the full day. Kindergarten is on a modified schedule, the first two days and the first two full weeks of school. And then they'll transition to full day, the third full week of school.

[2273] Mark Triplett: Thank you.

[2274] SPEAKER_28: You're welcome. Thank you. Continuing with TK, will independent study be available for TK students?

[2286] SPEAKER_25: So yes, it will be available. Again, I really want to be clear, a lot of the TK instruction is around socialization and really getting to know how to interact with peers. And so while it will be an option, we really want to consider that as we consider that option.

[2308] SPEAKER_28: And then in regards to students who start off selecting, there's actually a few questions regarding the transition between independent study and in-person study, and then the possibility of being able to switch back and forth.

[2325] SPEAKER_25: All right. So yes, there is a couple of things that families should be aware of. If they opt for the virtual option, students cannot be enrolled in two schools at the same time. That is illegal. They cannot do it. We couldn't do it even if we wanted to. And so what that means is that if students opt for the virtual option, while if they decide to go back to in-person, they can do so. We highly recommend that that happens at the trimester or the semester mark for secondary students, trimester for elementary. However, they do have five days to go back to in-person to make that happen. We recommend those times because if students go back and forth, it's really going to be disrupting to the student's educational experience. That, you know, they'll get into new routines, it's a different teacher, it's a different program. And so we really want to kind of discourage that, the back and forth, because it will over time disrupt learning. That being said, if you decide the virtual option and there's no longer space at your home school, the school that you left, we will find an alternative school. The priority will always be the school that you left from, but we cannot save that seat because again, we can't enroll your student into two spaces and two schools at the same time. So yes, students can go from virtual to in-person or from in-person to virtual. But again, we discourage too much movement since it will disrupt the learning experience for your student.

[2419] SPEAKER_28: Thank you. The next question is in regards to the classroom setting. What will classrooms look like for the students in regards to the safety measures like safety shields, masks, number of students, distancing, et cetera?

[2434] Mark Triplett: Great, I can answer that. So, um, the, the classroom, the number of students in each classroom will go back to the, the normal pre coven numbers, so that really depends on the grade grade level. but we'll be following the regular state enrollment numbers for each class. And in terms of the shields in the classroom, the desk shields, those are still available. That's not a requirement, but just as in the spring, teachers have the option of utilizing those shields for the desks.

[2473] SPEAKER_28: Thank you. There are a few questions regarding the eating and cafeteria situation for the students. What is, what are the, what are the, how will the cafeteria scenario look like for the students, especially regarding distancing masks, things of that sort?

[2490] Mark Triplett: Yeah, so the guidelines say that, that schools should utilize as many different areas for, for lunch as possible to then, to minimize the, the amount of contact between kids. So schools will be doing that. They'll be developing plans for how to do that, including utilizing the cafeteria, but then also outdoor spaces, as well as classroom spaces. So that's really gonna be based on each school coming up with a plan for how to utilize all those spaces in a way that students are effectively spread out. But when students are eating, of course, they will have to lower the masks to eat. And that was the case in the spring as well. And students did a really good job of safely doing that. And so that, that, that will continue.

[2545] SPEAKER_28: Thank you. The next question is regarding the daily reporting app and how parents can get access to that.

[2553] Mark Triplett: Great. Yeah. We'll have the, there is a, what do you call it? A QRS code. Is that, is that the right term? Yeah, there's a QRS code that will be available to all families. They can access it from our website or at the school, be posted, and also flyers will be handed out with it. And so then families can utilize that to do the daily health check at home. Like I said, they will not have to present that. when they enter the school but what we do expect that every family will be doing a health check of their of their child before coming to school every day as well as staff.

[2598] SPEAKER_28: Thank you. The question is that even though mask break areas will be available if a parent is asked that their child not remove their mask is that a possibility?

[2610] Mark Triplett: Yeah, absolutely. That's definitely a possibility, and families just need to speak with the school, the principal, and the teacher.

[2619] SPEAKER_28: Thank you. Will students with IEPs still continue to be supported with the additional resources needed if an independent study is chosen? Ms. Calderon, can you help with that?

[2642] SPEAKER_26: So any IEP accommodations would be determined by the IEP team. And so if Crossroads is approved by the IEP team, then any of those accommodations and modifications would be included as part of the plan.

[2656] SPEAKER_28: Thank you. And Ms. Calderon and Ms. Ingham-Watters, if you guys can continue helping with these questions in the meantime. If, and this is another more specific to IEPs, if a student has an IEP and they are, it says that they are with the SUB school, will that option still be available if they select independent study? Sorry, go ahead.

[2687] SPEAKER_21: That seems really specific because that's a non-public school situation or contract. The best advice for that is to contact the Office of Special Education or the Director of Special Education, Jan Hamilton, to specifically talk about that, because that's a little bit different than our schools. That's a non-public school question.

[2713] SPEAKER_28: Thank you. This one could be very specific, but it says, what about the RSP students? Will they have more face-to-face interaction with their instructors?

[2726] SPEAKER_25: So again, we'll have to review each IEP and see what we can offer. We are putting things in place to see, again, if students have language needs, if students have special education needs, what kinds of extra supports can we provide. But it really is very individualized. So what we recommend is that families again set up an IEP meeting and discuss what potential next steps could look like and really discuss whether or not they feel like it's a good option once we can give that information to them.

[2760] SPEAKER_28: Thank you. The next question is regarding a possible COVID exposure scenario and what safety measures and protocols the district follows in such cases.

[2779] SPEAKER_25: Yes, sorry. Are we on the COVID exposure potential? Yes, thank you. So we do have a COVID liaison registered nurse who helps us follow our protocols. So if in the event there's a positive exposure, we start with our contact tracing. We make sure that anyone who needs to be notified is notified. And again, these are all based off of our state and county regulations, which our COVID liaison goes through training to make sure that they're well-versed on. And they continue to have meetings to make sure that any updates they are up to date, up to speed on. So we would go through our process of contact tracing. We would then go through our process of notifying any school sites or classrooms. If needed, we would quarantine students or even entire classes or even entire schools if that was what was needed in the event that there was an outbreak. We are set up for distance learning. So in those events, we would bring back our technology and go into distance learning for the length of the quarantine time.

[2848] SPEAKER_28: Thank you. The next two questions are asking for clarification regarding the going back and forth from independent study to in-person. both whether if they start off selecting independent study, can they go back to in-person? And if they then start off with in-person, can then they choose to go independent study?

[2875] SPEAKER_25: Yeah, so if they decide, if the family chooses in-person, they decide then they want to do, can they return to in-person?

[2881] SPEAKER_28: Is that the question? Vice versa. If they start with independent study, can they move to in-person? If they start with in-person, can they move to independent study?

[2889] SPEAKER_25: Yes. So absolutely. If they start with a virtual option, they can return to in-person. If they start with in-person and they want to go to the virtual option, they can. Now again, if they start virtual and want to go back to in person. Any transition we're going to strongly recommend that you wait until the trimester for elementary, or the semester mark for a secondary students, only because we don't want to specifically for secondary we don't want to West with any credits, especially those that are required for graduation. And for elementary, we don't want to disrupt the flow of what they're receiving by way of teachers, routines and structures and things like that. That being said, again, if they're virtual and want to go back to in-person, if they want it sooner than that, that we have five days to make that happen. Now, if they start from in-person and wanna go virtual, and they decide that later in the year, we will do our best to make that happen as soon as possible, but depending on, it really depends on the numbers of students, any given week, whatever fluctuation we're having. And so there may be delay one way or the other, but again, we're gonna try to meet students specifically around the semester and the trimester mark, which is also in the best interest of the students, to be honest.

[2966] SPEAKER_28: Thank you. The next question is regarding the MCA program at Newark Memorial. If a child joined the MCA program, will they still be able to be part of the Crossroads program and the MCA program at Newark Memorial?

[2986] SPEAKER_25: This particular question, I'm unfamiliar with.

[2992] SPEAKER_21: The MCA is the Media Communications Academy, so it is a specialized program with specific staff. So again, this one may be, we may need Principal Rangel to support this parent specifically to what MCA looks like for their child.

[3012] SPEAKER_28: Thank you. Next question is for this upcoming school year, will students be going back to field trips, will they be having field trips?

[3024] SPEAKER_25: So we anticipate, uh, the answer is yes. However, we're going to continue to follow whatever guidance we get from Alameda County and, um, California department, um, of health. So, uh, currently we are actually waiting on a little bit more guidance for field trips and specifically for band and music. Um, and so that should be coming out shortly.

[3045] SPEAKER_28: Thank you. This question is specific to the junior high. Will the Think Together program be available at the junior high for in-person learning?

[3053] SPEAKER_25: Yes, it will. Junior high, Coyote Hills, and Schilling Think Together will be working.

[3061] SPEAKER_28: Do any of our schools have a uniform policy?

[3068] SPEAKER_21: There are guidelines. regarding kind of like a dress standard and those will be in the parent-student handbook that is sent out in September. But if you have any specific questions relating to what that looks like ahead of time, you're welcome to contact Ms. Gutierrez in the superintendent's office and we can give you a preview of what that looks like. But there's no uniform per se, like a traditional uniform, no.

[3099] SPEAKER_28: Thank you. The next question is, what will sports look like at the high school?

[3106] SPEAKER_25: So again, we anticipate that sports will be up and running. We were able to do that at the end of last year as well. But again, as new guidelines come out, we're just going to continue to follow those guidelines. And so that will happen on a sport by sport, season by season basis. So look forward to getting that information soon.

[3125] SPEAKER_28: This is a little more specific, but regarding PE uniforms for the junior high, where will parents be able to acquire those for their students?

[3135] SPEAKER_21: So the junior high is having their orientation days. I believe it's the third and the fourth of August. And so I would contact Newark junior high directly if you haven't received communication. regarding the orientation days for seventh and eighth graders. At those two days, depending on your child's grade, parents, students will have an opportunity to buy the PE, it's optional, but to buy the PE gear if they'd like for their student.

[3166] SPEAKER_28: Thank you. This next question is asking for more clarity regarding the drop-off schedule for the students at the junior high. What does that look like?

[3181] SPEAKER_25: That question, I think, should actually be directed towards Ms. Krishna to see when campus monitors and all of that will be set up. So at that point, I'm going to defer that to the site.

[3193] SPEAKER_28: Thank you. And then, will after-school programs be available at all campuses? Or what do the after-school programs look like?

[3205] SPEAKER_25: So again, we know Think Together will be running at the three sites, Coyote Hills, Schilling as well as the junior high. We also have other afterschool programming that's unique to each site. Missing in Waters, please feel free to add if you have any information about that. But we anticipate that there will be afterschool programming as well.

[3231] SPEAKER_28: And there's a question from a parent asking how masking is enforced for the students during school.

[3245] SPEAKER_21: I would say, um, all of the sites really set their expectations for what is expected at school, um, with their behavior as well as, um, the safety expectations. And so really taking time at the beginning of the year with parent and guardian support about that expectation, um, is our first step. And then, you know, for the younger grades, we have, um, supervision at recess at lunch. So teachers are walking around, ensuring students are being safe, and that would include any kind of reminders needed to put the mask on. And then at the secondary levels, we have campus monitors who would be doing that same sort of supervision. So it's general supervision for behavior and, you know, being in places they should be, as well as enforcing that expectation of wearing your mask.

[3299] SPEAKER_28: Thank you. This is, what does the structure look like for special day classes for in-person study and independent study?

[3311] SPEAKER_25: So again, I would really defer that because every program is different. We run a variety of SDC programs. And so each one is gonna be slightly different in how they function both in independent study and in-person. And again, some of our programs will have a more difficult time than others adapting for an independent program-like style, which is why we really recommend that it's a decision made by the IEP team. And in fact, legally, it must be done by the IEP team.

[3343] SPEAKER_28: Thank you. And the next question is, will the high school be participating in the state-free lunch program?

[3352] SPEAKER_21: Yes, all students 18 and under have access to the free lunch program.

[3360] SPEAKER_28: Thank you. And again, more clarity in regards to being able to switch back and forth from one program, the in-person program, to the other. Is there a commitment? When and how can parents transition from one program to the other?

[3379] SPEAKER_25: Yes. So again, it does not have to be a commitment for the whole year. We do recommend that any transition happen at the trimester for elementary and at the semester for secondary. Um, that being said, if a student mid year, the numbers start to rise and you decide you want to choose the virtual option. Um, we will make accommodations to, to ensure that that's a possibility. Um, and the reverse is true. Um, if you start in virtual, you can go back to in person. Now, we cannot hold your space at your home school, though. So if for some reason that space is no longer available, we will find another in-person school for your child to attend. But we cannot save the space when you leave. But again, we make sure that we try to make that a priority for students that are returning that they get their home school, the school that they left first. But again, that will happen as families choose one or the other option.

[3436] SPEAKER_28: Thank you. And the next question is, will there still be before and after school care at Kennedy?

[3443] SPEAKER_25: I think we should definitely refer that back to the principal at Kennedy just to make sure that all of the information there is up to date.

[3453] SPEAKER_28: Thank you. When are parents expected to see their school assignments, teacher sorry, teacher assignments for their child

[3466] SPEAKER_21: I don't have a specific date from memory, but that typically is kind of rolled over via the parent view access that parents have that's the what parents use for registering their students that's usually how they'll go into parent view and see teacher assignments. But that's typically done, I'll just say average because I don't have the exact date, but that's typically done like the Thursday or Friday before school starts.

[3499] SPEAKER_28: Within a week, I would say. Thank you, Ms. Ingham. Also related to the school, the same question, but the school supplies list.

[3508] SPEAKER_21: So the school supply list should be accessible through the school sites. So I would say look out for communication from the school sites. Office managers just returned to school this week, so they should be able to push that out and otherwise direct parents to their website or somewhere else to get that school supply list if parents are eager to get shopping for back to school.

[3538] SPEAKER_28: Thank you. And there's a question if parents are interested in communicating with their principals, are the principals available, currently available to answer parent questions?

[3551] SPEAKER_21: Yes. So the principals are back from their short summer break. And so they can be reached via email or phone through the school site information.

[3564] SPEAKER_28: Thank you. Then there's another question from parents if a parent if parents will be able to volunteer at school sites this year.

[3573] SPEAKER_25: Current guidance really is about limiting sort of non-essential visitors. And there is some discussions around requiring visitors to be vaccinated if they're not essential. So that's not necessarily staff or anybody else, but visitors or volunteers coming in. Now, those decisions have not been made yet. So while there may be opportunities for volunteers to come in, we want to be really clear that we're doing it safely. And so our first priority is gonna be around getting students back. And then our second priority will be around how we can support volunteers in getting back into our schools.

[3612] SPEAKER_21: I just wanted to review the teacher assignment question. I said about a week before, but I'm receiving in the moment updates that it's the Monday that school starts. So the ninth is when parents should be able to access ParentVUE for teacher assignments. And it looks like we're just about closing up. One thing I'd like Ms. Pierce to just reiterate is the transfer form. So that is the key piece with a turnaround time. And so just reiterating how parents and guardians can access that transfer form, if they need to come and pick it up, download it, print it, if it will be mailed to them, just to make sure that that's clear for our participants this evening.

[3657] SPEAKER_25: Great, so that form will be, yes. So at the end of this presentation, we're gonna send out these presentations so you'll have access to all of the links. We're also gonna post the form on our website by the end of, most likely the end of tomorrow, at the latest by the end of the week. So you will have access to all of these materials. Again, we just wanted to make sure you had a chance to see them. I do see one more important question. So I think this is a good one for us to end on. Are vaccinations going to be required for students? We cannot require them at this time, although other vaccinations are required. So don't forget things like Tdap and things like that. Those are still required. This one is not, and we cannot make that decision as a district. And so to be clear, they're not required. We are highly, highly, highly encouraging all of the adults and all of our students that are 12 and over to receive those vaccinations if they get the opportunity to do so. and we'll continue to make those locations available to everyone as they become available. So with that being said, yeah, thank you guys so much for joining us this evening. We are incredibly excited to welcome students back to school. I hope you can hear it in our voices. And we look forward to seeing you, actually seeing you, not necessarily behind a screen, very soon. Have a great evening, and we look forward to soon. Don't forget.

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