I had rather a lot to say and ask last night about our plan. Some of that was captured in Scott O'Connell's coverage; here are the notes I was speaking from (I don't usually write things out in this level of detail, but I thought it was warranted). You'll note that not everything here is what I said.
from my notes |
I want to
start by saying publicly how much I appreciate the degree to which the School
Committee has been looped in periodically (in non quorum groups) to get
periodic updates and give feedback. I know of communities in which essentially
no one knew anything until the plan was being presented; that is not the case
here, and I think the plan is better for it, but also the governance is better
for it. Overall, I support what is being proposed here, and that is in part because
I feel as though I understand the basis on which decisions were made.
I also think that one of the best things we have done during this term is spend
time listening to people. It is an accident of time that the SOA public meetings
and the pandemic happened during the same year, and while that is tragic in
many ways, it means that we have spent hours and hours as a committee in public
session listening. There isn’t always a lot of that. There has been this year.
We, as a local government, be remiss to vote this evening without noting in the strongest possible terms: we have been let down by every other branch of the government.
We could talk
at length, and many have, of the abject failure of this federal administration
to do what needed to be done to open schools safely. People and local governments
did their parts: we shut schools, we stayed home, we masked up. And, despite
the best efforts of our own delegation, we do not have the massive testing and
tracing needed, and we do not have the supported needed for our schools and for
our families. The latest CARES Act fell apart last week, and we are $14M poorer
than we were a month ago. And the coronavirus continues to spread, continues to
kill people, and grows stronger every week.
And thus we are faced with impossible decisions, in which real harm will be
done by every choice we make. That has been passed down to us by lack of
leadership of every kind elsewhere.
Not enough has been said about the ways in which the state has let us down, as
well. Yes, Massachusetts has done better than many on dealing with the virus,
but that is a sliding scale. When it comes to schools, we have never recovered
from the state that left it to every single district to call school off before
the Governor acted. We saw the same leadership in action this week, when two
days before an already-extended deadline, the Executive branch took a single
metric, put it on a state map, and tried to use it to pressure committees to
send everyone back into buildings. That is an abuse of their authority, and we
are overdue to call it what it is. This after the Department’s guidance has
been incomplete, misleading, and frequently unhelpful. I would ask, Mr. Chair,
if some of that fire your office brought to the letter to Spectrum could be
brought to a letter to our state delegation from this Committee, and note the
many many ways in which the Executive branch has let us down during the
pandemic. From an education perspective, Massachusetts has not been a leader
during this pandemic.
I would
also make a motion that we call on the state to have ongoing, easily accessible
free testing with a quick turnaround operating across the state before any
district brings students into session. I would further ask that we share that
request with our fellow Committees and ask them to join us in that call to
action.
And so to
the plan, which, as I said, overall, I support.
I turn first to page 32 and the three overarching priorities there expressed:
parity and interdependence of physical and emotional safety; equity and racial justice;
and collective care.
This is a great focus. This is where our message, particularly our message to
families, should BEGIN, though. This caring, this equity and justice focus,
needs to be where the letter to families start, and it should be threaded
through the document, as an indication that it will be threaded through the
work that follows. We should not bury this only in the Student Supports section,
but should elevate this to front of our message, and should test all else were
doing against this standard, much as our SOA plan puts “equity at the forefront
of our decision making.” I would ask that we shift our letter and language to
families to reflect that.
p. 2 The
letter speaks of the Parabola Project; what has happened with them?
p. 3 and following:
throughout the document we speak very definitively of “after first quarter” and
“November” It seems clear to me, however, that our timeframe is not nearly that
definite. Am I correct?
I would move, Mr. Chair, that we add language “at the earliest” or the like
throughout (and I can send that to administration if they like) so we are very
clear with our students, families, and staff as to what we actually expect
here.
p. 4 I understand why the paragraph regarding preparation of school
buildings was included, but I would suggest that it be stricken; what families
need reassurance about now is the work that has been done this spring, summer,
and early fall to prepare teachers for remote learning. We have work to do and
trust to regain on that, and families need to know what has changed since May.
p. 5 Was
city health data part of the decision process?
Mr. Chair,
we need a matrix by which we will make decisions regarding children returning.
The buildings alone should not determine this. My understanding is that there
have been meetings with our Board of Health; I would propose that we have
discussions with them, and review the models of other districts to have one to
determine paths forward from November.
p. 8 and
the attendance description here is a problem. There are going to be families
whose child cannot be on a machine at 8:30 every day. There are children who
have to go to daycare, and those daycares have already said that they will not
oversee instruction. There are going to be power outages. There are going to be
days when the internet fails. We cannot hold families and children
accountable for failures of Spectrum, Eversource, the weather, and lacks in
childcare. We are in danger of creating a host of dropouts because of our
own inflexibility.
I understand the stress on synchronous learning; I also know that it continues
to be deeply inequitable. If we feel that we are as a district unable to provide
students space and oversight for that—which is something other districts are
doing—then we need to give ground for families and undependable utilities here.
I would suggest that a student not joining synchronous learning is checked in with;
if contact is made and work is submitted within 24 hours, that student is marked
present. This is a policy matter.
Also, we shouldn’t be reporting families to DCF.
p. 9 bottom What does the last bullet mean?
p. 10 could
a student be determined to need less than 4 days in person?
The
schedules need more movement, more breaks, more space.
p. 17 7:20 is too early. Our partners created their programs around a
high school schedule. That schedule should adjust to students, not to partners.
p. 20 What does the family engagement to English learner parents look
like? Who is involved? On what partnership are we drawing?
Also FAMILIES NEED SUPPORT PERIOD
Mr. Chair,
I would want updated plans before we decide to send students back into buildings
again.
p. 24 In
Transportation, I believe we want to give this the force of procedure rather than
guidance
p. 26 We need more specifics here about bathrooms, sinks, soap, and
access. Hand sanitizer and handwashing are not equivalent. Students should be washing
their hands AT LEAST before and after lunch (or any eating), but more frequently
as needed. This should be written into this.
p. 28: is
unworkable. How many days until a teacher is out of sick time and a student is
considered truant? This is why, without greater testing, faster turnaround, and
contact tracing, we cannot do this.
p. 32 tracking family engagement and check in staff; we need
consistency across the district on this. We had families that never heard from
anyone, and families that heard from people three times a day. Every student
needs a person, and that’s it.
p.33 This long description of BCBA’s seems not necessary to what is
being provided here.
p. 36
Families need an easy dependable way to contact their schools. This is hard now,
especially with offices closed. Each family should get a school letter that
specifies where to find information, who people are, and how to reach them.
p. 37
Community organizations say we don’t work well with them. In digital learning,
much is assumed here of family familiarity with the technology. We know we have
families that will struggle to get their students onto Google Meet. We have
been offered community support and tutoring; we should take folks up on it. We
need everyone on board here.
p. 38 How
are clubs and band and all working?
p. 40 This
should flow from page 32, and does not enough. Teachers are a GUEST in student’s
home, and we must remember that and THEY must remember that. It should be
stressed here that students are in their OWN homes, not in a classroom. Teachers
are the interlopers. Thus students may absolutely turn their cameras off. They
may have a drink. They may use the bathroom. They may dress for whatever their
home calls for.
p. 41 Parameters on assignments must be allowed. We cannot have the same
levels of homework we usually would have; to have a child spend five hours on a
computer and then at 3 need to spend five or more hours again, as in high
school, is cruel. Time outside of class MUST be prioritized for students to get
outside, to get active (something which is not mentioned in the document) and
take care of what is needed in their households.
I will also freely confess that I have no idea how to check my children’s
assignments.
p. 44 Can all such assessments be conducted remotely?
p. 46 Training
should include public health and nursing professionals. I do not see that
included.
I do not see a training regarding the very different states in which children
may be in now included.
p. 49 How
many of our families now have internet access?
How many of our students now have devices?
What is the impact of 25,000 students jumping on the internet on Sept. 15 going
to be?
I would propose that the administration please next week have at their own
homes, three people join different video calls at the same time, and see what
that does to the internet. I would ask that this be done BEFORE more planning
happens. Families are going to need more bandwidth that we are giving them and
than they are supplied.
p. 52 On videoconferencing: it is crucial that
families and students know they can choose to have the camera off, and that
teachers have stressed to them that this is a STUDENT not a teacher choice for which
the student may not be penalized. I would make a motion that we collaborate
with our student members to jointly produce a remote learning common rules and
rights before school begins.
p. 52 May
families request an alternative packet? Or is that an editing error
Video cued to when I started speaking after the jump
No comments:
Post a Comment