We've implemented several years worth of change and technology into the first three weeks of school. It's been a lot. And, now it's time to come up for a breath of air. In this episode we talk about in-person and virtual learning, canvas, and district enrollment.
1:00 - Welcome
6:30 - In-Person Learning
11:00 - Doing both, In-Person and Virtual
18:00 - Canvas
36:35 - COVID-19 Update
39:40 - Adding Staff + District Enrollment
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, everyone. Welcome back to episode two. Um, before we jump in, just a couple things. This one was recorded in a little bit smaller of a room than last time. And so, um, if their voices sound a little bit muffled, it's because they are, uh, we couldn't social distance, and so everybody kept their masks on, um, which is an ideal for audio quality. Um, secondly, even though warned about it from the first episode, Doug, uh, continued to let his excitement be expressed sometimes through, um, um, his fist and the table. And so that may come through a little bit every now and then. So let's go.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Yeah. Well, why don't you introduce this thing and then let's just kind of,
Speaker 3 (00:41):
So, is, is Doug a guest? He's not one of you.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
Hey, Kevin. Hey everyone. Welcome back to podcast. Hi, Susan
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Now? Well, I don't, I'm, I'm not sure what's keeping me up at Wake this morning, but leave it to a four year old to put you in your place, uh, where a group of fourth graders walked by me a little bit ago, and they were all so cute walking and having smiling and having such a good time, joking and laughing. I looked at 'em and said, Hey guys, can I, can I join your class? And a little four year old boy didn't miss a beat. He looked right at me, right straight in the eye and said, Nope,
Speaker 2 (01:43):
And so, you know, leave it to a four year old or remind you, uh, who you are and where you go. Uh, I, I think there's a lot of things that, that are, that are keeping us up at night and, and we're not sleeping very well. And, and, and, you know, I, what, what dawned on me, you know, when when you don't sleep at night, you, you have the opportunity to really take a hard look in that mirror and, and figure out, you know, you whose fault is this? Who, who has blame? And, and in a pandemic, you know, there's not anybody to blame. Uh, but you, you look in the, you look in the mirror and think, what could have you done better? And, uh, met with principals, uh, this morning. Um, and, and, and one of the things that I wanted to look at 'em and say, you know, uh, we, we were gone for five months.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
We, we came back into the building, uh, together as, as a team the very first time in, in, in late July or early July. And as they came into the building, um, we just really picked up with the stress that was on our shoulders and dove right in to this pandemic and, and how we were going to try to stand this system up that supported kids, that supported teachers, and that supported this community. And I think I sent a really powerful, uh, to our leadership who, who in turn may be maybe pushing it out on our staff that there's really not room for margin. And, uh, I looked at our principals this morning and said, you know, I'm, I'm sorry I set that tone. Um, this work is, is overwhelming. It feels like it's not doable. It's, it's, it's, it's causing tremendous stress on all of us, but it is doable.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
And, and we have to give each other permission to have margin to be able to say, you know, there are 10,000 things we need to fix today, much less what we need to fix tomorrow. And, and what we have to be able to do is look at first things first. We have to be able to say, today we're gonna solve problem. We're gonna solve this problem together as a team, and then tomorrow we'll solve another one and we'll solve another one. And, and, and, and I have no doubt somewhere along the line we're all gonna look up and think, wow, this really was doable. But I don't think we can do that. If we don't give each other the opportunity to say, we have to have margin and we have to understand we're not gonna be perfect. Um, things aren't gonna be at the level that, that we expect them.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
I think that's what I appreciate about our teachers more than anything. Uh, I don't, I don't hear them yelling that this is too much work. This is not doable. Right. What they're saying is, we, we can't deliver the kind of quality we know it's gonna take to make sure kids are successful. Right. And I, and I think, I think it's, I think that's powerful. And I, and I think the way we start to get there is to recognize we have to have margin. And this is gonna be a process. And this is not gonna be fixed overnight. It, it's gonna be fixed down the road. And, you know, Kevin and I have started talking about, you know, the analogy, uh, you know, as, as humans, you know, what do we need? Well, we need, we need oxygen, we need food, we need water. Uh, but ultimately if somebody cuts our oxygen off, we're gonna die much quicker than if, if somebody cuts off our food or, or, or, or, uh, water supply.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
And, you know, when I look in the mirror, somebody oughta probably cut my food supply off and, and that might help me in the long run some of this
Speaker 3 (05:48):
So we're, we're really just dialing things back, stripping it down, and trying to create margin for folks, as Doug says. And I, I know having worked with Doug for a long time, it, it's, um, it's hard to, to recognize and acknowledge sometimes that things aren't perfect, that, you know, people need margin. 'cause sometimes you just go and go and work and keep going at what you're doing. But at some point we recognize and hear from our teachers, you know, that this is extremely challenging. And so really, you know, Doug talked about the need for continuing to provide in-person instruction in an environment that's so different. Uh, the truth of it is what we've always known in, in-person instruction, it is very different than it's ever been. Um, yes, it's in-person instruction, but it comes with a whole host of challenges in terms of masking and social distancing and how you get kids in and out of buildings and, and, and really hearing from parents the fact that our parents are a missing piece of what's going on right now, that they, they're not at the school, they're not able to walk their kids inside. They're, uh, so in-person learning is just very, very different. And, and it's a challenge in and of itself, even though we've participated in help facilitate in-person, in-person learning for years, that in and of itself is very different than it's ever been.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Yeah. We, we, we heard, we, we've heard from parents over the last few days, really emotional parents that are really empathetic, that they're supporters of school, uh, but they're the missing ingredient, especially for those parents who have chosen for their kids to be back on site. Uh, we, we have, we have first time parents, you know, pre-Ks or kindergartners, and they've yet to be inside the school. Right. And, you know, if they've had other kids that, that have gone through the system, they've at least been in the school. But, you know, if you're brand new to Amarillo, you moved here in June or July or during this pandemic and you put your kid in school, you, the, the odds are you, you've not even walked inside the school. You registered online, you took all of that and you trusted us, uh, to drop your child off at the front door and say, I love you and, and, and this we're you, you're gonna have a great day.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
And, and those parents haven't been in the building. And so we, we've done a lot of things that have just changed the dynamics of, of how we, how we deliver school. Ultimately. Every one of these decisions that we've made, it's about keeping the schoolhouse doors open. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
Yeah. And I think we're used to thinking of parents as our partners in education, and now they're remote partners and, um, can't come into the school building. So that, that makes it hard. It makes it a real challenge for teachers when we don't have the volunteers, you know, in the school building to help us.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
It, it, it absolutely does. And, and, you know, and, and what we have to be prepared to do is, is reexamine policy stances that, that we made even just a few weeks ago. And have we outgrown that policy or that stance? And, and are there things that we can do differently today that, that, that creates more of a partnership? Uh, I, I, I told our principals, uh, you know, I, I serve with a team of eight that I, that I respect so much. I'm a part of a, a team of eight. And, and really our goal is, you know, how, how do we say yes more than we say no? Um, because when people are getting yeses for the right reasons, people are happy, people are making progress, people are moving forward. And, and, and quite frankly, we, we we're living in the midst of this pandemic that so many of the things we've said are just no. And so I think it's important that every time we've said no, regularly, periodically we're going back looking at saying is, is that no still necessary? Is it still really necessary to wear a mask? Is it really necessary not to let people into the building? What are those things that we have to do with understanding? The ultimate goal is how do we keep schools open?
Speaker 4 (10:12):
Yeah. So I, I love that idea of oxygen and just kind of getting back to the very basics, because when you think about it, in four or five weeks, we've, we've implemented, jumped into the deep end on, uh, something that normally would've taken a year or maybe even two years. And we've asked, we're asking so much of teachers right now, and I think we're hearing out there that, you know, a, a significant number of teachers are trying to, are needing to prepare lessons for both in-person and virtual learners. So, and they're, you know, struggling with that. Yeah. So how are we helping that? So how are we making it better?
Speaker 3 (10:54):
I, I think really we've, we've, we've really tried to focus on, you know, how do, how do we help teachers figure out how, how to teach both sets of kids? And so, again, what, what we've always done in, in-person looks significantly different because of the implications of C O V I D. And then on top of it, we have a, a number of kids who've made a decision that the best thing for them to, to be at home and learning virtually. Um, or even those kids that unfortunately end up in a quarantine or, um, or end up testing positive and have to be at home for a period of time. And so our teachers begin to have to try to figure out how do we teach both kinds of kids? And that is,
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Well, in, in reality, Kevin, you know, our, our, our teachers, they have real ownership in these kids. And, and, and, you know, is right, wrong or indifferent, you know, when, when we made this decision, we pushed this decision back to campuses to make a determination who's gonna serve in person, who's gonna serve the virtual kids? And, and by and large, some out of necessity. But, but really because of teacher ownership, many of the decisions were made without even understanding why we, how we were making that decision that I wanna serve my kids, I wanna serve 'em in both environments. Right. And, and, and so without really understanding even what that really looked like and, and what we figured out over the last three weeks, uh, it, that, that's a pretty tough hill to climb up. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Uh, but, but I think what we've learned is when, now that we understand what some of the problems are, not we as in the superintendent, but as we as classroom teachers and principals, they're starting to see the dilemmas and, and they're starting to come together. And I'm so proud of it, the collaborative effort that says, Hey, as a team, I figured this out, or Kevin's figured this out, or Susan's figured this out and together we're making inroads and we're making this easier. And, and, and we may very likely, we may very well find out as we keep moving, there are some places that we really ought to, you ought to just be an an in-person teacher, or you might just be a virtual teacher. Uh, and there are other places you're gonna look at and say, you know, as, as, as tough it is to do both, right? It, it might be worse if, if, if it's just the virtual teacher, because you start thinking about preps and you start thinking about numbers of kids and where those kids are located throughout the city, there's just not a cookie cutter approach of a win with this. Where the win happens is with, in those collaborative efforts with teachers and for administrators and for parents and for community to listen and say, okay, we hear the problem. And so let, let's see if we can fix this today. And so when we,
Speaker 3 (13:56):
You know, I've been inspired actually in the last week or so, 'cause it reinforces, you know, a lot of times people say, you know, Doug, I don't know how you do your job. Or Kevin, I don't know. How do you do the job that you do? And, and really what we do is in some semblance is irrelevant to what's going on. It's not the most important thing that's happening. The most important thing that's happening is what teachers are doing. And so it's really reminded me that teachers and their ability to solve problems, they're masters of the last few days. We've been in situations where, you know, we're not taking the mentality of, you know, how do we, how do we list a problem on a sheet of paper and give it to somebody else and at, at, even at the e s e to figure out, teachers are in conversations with one another where they realize, I don't know how to do this in virtual learning, and does anybody in this room or does anybody at my school, or does somebody else who teaches sixth grade do they know how to fix this problem? And we've watched teachers do that. And really our conversation, and really what we want to communi communicate today is how do we strip it down and create more of those opportunities for our teachers to, to have a conversation, to collaborate with one another and really figure out how do we make in-person and virtual learning in a very different environment, productive for
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Kids? Yeah. Well, that description, Kevin's using, you know, as complex as this thing is, not everything is complex. You know, when you trust the people who are on the front line and you bring to them together. Last Friday, we watched a group of high school teachers that came together from across the district, look at us and say, you know, there are a lot of things that we've gotta get fixed, and we've gotta get right to make this tough. But, you know, the very first thing that we could do if we could just figure out how to make check attendance from, from a positive assumption instead of a negative assumption, that would make all our lives so much easier. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
And only then do we go in and make a check mark that Susan's absent. Well, in, in this new virtual world, we were just doing the opposite. We were assuming everybody is absent. And so, and the reality is about 90% of our kids are being, are engaged every day in the virtual world, at least at the, at the high school level. And so teachers were having to touch 90% of their kids instead of 10% of their kids. And so just that, that, that conversation about can we not fix that? That's an easy solution. Yeah. There are some simple fixes. Yeah. There, there are some. And, and if we can just all get to the table together and make those decisions together and communicate those, we, we have a way to start chipping away at, Hey, there's a problem solved, so what's the next problem? And, and what are the ones that we can solve today?
Speaker 2 (17:02):
What are the ones that we can solve two or three days from now or a week from now? And, and really what we're able to see, and and what I, what I'm fearful for are the people in the trenches can't see those fixes yet, you know? But, but with the groups that are coming together saying, if you'll fix this, if you'll fix this, we're starting to see conversations that are going to fix those things that maybe it wasn't just the flip of a switch, but it, it takes seven or eight steps. Those are happening. And, and I, and I truly believe over the next week to 10 days or so, many of those fixes that can be made relatively sim simply are gonna be made. Uh, and and so I I I, I think that that's exciting to know that, that that teachers are the ones that are driving those discussions and, and asking us, these are the things that we need you to fix. Right?
Speaker 4 (17:54):
Right.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
I think we've, you know, I think we've heard also that our, our parents and students need us to back up and, and recommunicate and retrain them about how they can jump on in canvas and, you know, maneuver problem areas and how they can, parents can be watchful of what's going on with their kids and know that they're engaging and know that they're participating. So really, you know, kind of the third priority for oxygen that we've identified over the past week is how, how do we help teachers navigate the struggles that we're having in Canvas? Because again, back to what Doug said earlier, this is, this is something we've done in four or five weeks that we would've normally taken months or even up to a year to fix and implement. And we're doing it all in the midst of kids coming back in a very different time.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
And so what are we doing to beef up and, and provide additional support? How do we create the right conversations for teachers? And in some stances, how do we stop doing some other things that distract us from the most important priorities for us right now, um, to, to make, to make school a place where staff want to come to work, kids can come in person and engage and do what they need to do. We can keep the school doors open for those that want to come in person. And for those that want and feel like they need to be at home and doing it virtually or get forced into that position because of illness or quarantine, uh, we have, we have a, you know, an offering for them that's engaging through Canvas. Well, but
Speaker 4 (19:33):
Kevin, what do we do about those virtual kids who aren't engaged?
Speaker 3 (19:37):
So I, I think that's another place where we're having to double down, you know, for those that are having some kind of a technology barrier, or they're having trouble logging on, or they're just, for whatever reason, not engaging, it's, it's a challenge. And so, you know, how do we, how do we really create the right conversations with parents and kids? And if, if, if it's really not working for you Yeah. How, how do we talk about should you come back in person?
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Well, I, I think it's even, I, I think we just have to, we have to be honest with one another. You know, we, we were outta school from March to May, and, and, and quite frankly, the, the expectations for kids and what they needed to accomplish that time were at a lowest level of something we would, we would never accept during a normal situation. And, and I, I quite frankly, you know, there, I think there, we, we have a segment of, of our, of our virtual kids who, who, who have a perception of that's, that's the way the virtual school ought to be now. And in reality, virtual school is just like a regular school. And there, there are a tremendous amount of expectations that come along with being virtual. And, and for those kids who have not found a pathway in to get engaged and start working, I think we have to have really hard conversations with parents and say, you know, this, this is not about finding an easy way outta school.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
This is a way to make sure we're all safe. And, and if you're, and, and if your kiddo needs to be in a virtual world, we respect that. And we get it because of compromised health immune system, health systems, immune systems issues, because grandparents live at home and we're afraid of, I get all the reasons why we wouldn't want kids to come to school, but, but if our, if our child is not engaging in school and taking the ownership in that, you know, as, as, as parents and as educators, we need to have hard conversations about, we, we need to get your child back in school and, and we need to figure out how to get them reengaged. 'cause if we don't get them reengaged at, at some point, it's not gonna be five months that we, we've lost education. It's gonna be a year that we've lost education.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
And, and that's just criminal. And so I, I think we have to be, I think we have to be with one honest with one another. You know, why, why are kids in person? Why are kids in, in the virtual world? And when it's not working on either side of that, we need to have the courage to say, but well, maybe this environment works versus that environment. And, and, and we need to be honest with parents. We need to be honest with, with staff members and, and, and, and we need to look to say, are we really doing what's best for kids? The thing about this pandemic that I just love, you know, you know this, this is about 10,000 problems going in a circular motion. And, and so you, you work on a little bit of a problem here, and you move and, and, and it never fails.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
You, you recognize this problem. And before you get five minutes into the conversation, there are 15 other problems. And that kind of circular discussion around the big environment I get excited about it drives my friend across the, across the table from me. Just insane because of that linear need and of, of answering questions in, in that linear mode. Right? And, and so I, we, we all just have to recognize that, that we all have different styles of solving and attacking problems. And, and, and we just need to be able to come to the table and work together to solve these. And if we'll do that, we'll, we'll have the right people at the table. We, we'll, we'll find these solutions.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
You know, we, we've talked about how to decrease complexity for teachers. We, we, we probably, one of the things we need to talk about is, you know, for unengaged or kids or kids that are struggling with virtual learning, we've talked about, you know, should we, for at least a period of time limit electives or limit o other things in their schedule that aren't essential at this point, so that they can become engaged on the most important things and get back on track with school and, you know, not forever. Uh, I think in a lot, a lot of things in this conversation that we're talking about today and that we've been talking about with our teachers, this isn't a conversation that's something that's gonna be in place for, you know, forever, for till the end of the first semester. Maybe not even, you know, till the end of, of, of November, so to speak, you know, but for a period of time, how do we give some margin to both teachers and kids that are working on virtual learning and trying to figure all of this out and trying to help, you know, get everybody engaged.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
And so that every day as we come to work in school, whether that's in person or at home, how, how do we try to make every day a little smoother and, um, and get everybody in whichever environment they're going on? And it smooths out over time. You're,
Speaker 2 (24:28):
You're, i I, you know, that that is about unattended consequences. You know, everybody in, in, and in today's society and today's world, everybody has the solution. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
And in this asynchronous world, that's just not true. Right? And, and so, so maybe, maybe the answer is those kids really need to, to be given, you know, the priorities of, of the cores and, and maybe a vital additional class or so. And, and what that does is, what that means for a kid is they're having one less experience mm-hmm.
Speaker 4 (26:09):
Well, okay. I wanna get back to our, our, we talked about, we're talking about oxygen priorities, and there's really four of 'em. We've talked about, um, in-person learning, we've talked about virtual learning. Um, and the next thing is, is canvas. And, you know, we're three weeks into, into school now, and, um, teachers are, I mean, yeah. Doing an abnormal job, you know, learning all this and implementing all this. Um,
Speaker 2 (26:37):
I, you just can't break enough on, on how teachers are doing this, Susan, and, and they're trying, and, and I don't blame 'em. Uh, the, the stress, uh, I, I, we, we remind everybody, you know, when, when we move into an initiative like this, and remember it wasn't just one initiative. It's we're adding virtual, we're adding all the safety, we're adding an L M Ss, we're adding one-to-one initiatives, and we're adding all these new platforms to help support the, you know, and so, so the list of what we're implementing is just at a breakneck pace. Historically, if we were gonna just do one of those initiatives, a large one, like an L m S, we'd take a full year at least to do that. We'd spend, we'd spend months investigating, which is the best l m s mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
We didn't have that opportunity in this. We, we had an opportunity to say, we need one. And this seems to be as, as the best option that we have at the moment. But we did that in literally days where we would've taken months, right? And then, and then when you think about once you've, once you've settled on it, we'd have taken another six to seven months to try to integrate in this term canvas with skyward, with eduforia, with attendance, you know, all those different mechanisms. W we would've spent a lot of time with programmers and, and, and, and behind the scenes how to integrate this. And then we've started rolling this out in phases and test pilots. And maybe we'd have just done it at one high school, or one level, or one grade level, and we would've slowly rolled this thing out. And, and what all of us know that have been around, and we've, we've rolled these kinds of systems out. Even when we take the time to do that, when it rolls out, there's still so many issues that we all look at one another and think, what do we do to one another? Mm-hmm.
Speaker 4 (28:51):
And what are some of those solutions? What are we, what,
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Well, what
Speaker 4 (28:55):
Are we doing to beef up support
Speaker 3 (28:56):
For teachers? You know, we're trying to, we're trying to make a catalog of Yeah. Of solutions. So we have a lot of conversations that are beginning to happen. We have teachers that are able to answer the questions and provide ideas on how to solve problems that other teachers, their colleagues are having. And really what we've started moving down the road to do is how do we catalog those in a document where teachers can go on or into a document and look at it and scroll through and, oh, this is the problem I'm having, and look, it looks like this teacher that teaches over in a, a different part of our city, or in a different part of my cluster. This is how they're solving that problem. And, um, and, and, and I'm try that because that's, that, that might be something that I, that I can make work for my kids for the way I teach. And really what we may find is that's not the ultimate way that that canvas should be manipulated in order to do it. But that's what we're having to do for right now in order to create that margin and have that oxygen to breathe. And, um, and
Speaker 2 (30:03):
So, well, it ought to be a crime if somebody at one school has found a solution and there's another campus that is just drowning in it because they haven't figured that solution out. What whoever helped 'em solve it. And, and that became really clear as we started pulling, you know, staff members in to, to brainstorm what are the problems, what's the priority, and how do you attack them? And so, so this, you know, canvas for Dummies idea is, is is just one solution around that. Uh, we're, we're coming together as teams. Another way we're solving these problems when we identify the problem at attendance that we talked about a little bit ago mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
And, and for, for all. I know, maybe we've solved it this morning and, and we've changed that, but, but that'll be coming. There, there are. So, so we've, we've created this list out there of where the problems are, and we're really, what's the first one you want us to tackle? What's the next one? There, there are just issues around, you know, when we've, in other products that we've used, you know, you've, you, you're able to clone lessons and you're able to just, you know, and, and move it from, you know, one day to the next day or, or move it from one year to the next year. And, and that's not as simple in, in Canvas. And, and so we're, we're, we're talking about this, this cross-referencing that's not the exact right term.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
Cross-listing.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Cross-listing, thank you Mr. Phillips cross cross-listing. I, I knew I I didn't have it, right. But, you know, cross-listing, which, which means if I teach Algebra one all day long, all I have to do is create that in, in first period. And the cross-listing goes all the way across my schedule. And, and so I'm not having to recreate that for, for every period, because in this new l m s, it's not just about a lesson plan for teachers. We really are creating content for kids across, across our schedule. So it's important that whatever I give first period, I can give second period that I can give fifth period.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
You know, it, it's, and really we're focusing and having to wrap our mind around how, how do we create, uh, a hope, you know, that this is gonna get a little bit better every day. How do we create a lot at the end of the tunnel for our teachers and, and provide them support to do that? And really, honestly, I I, this probably is a good place where we jump off over into what may be one of the biggest unknowns and biggest challenges that we have, Mr. Loomis. And that's, that's how do we recapture our enrollment gap? And so right now, you know, we're, we're down a little bit over a thousand kids from last year, and we're really working hard to think about how do we get those students back. So, you know, that that may be a kind of a, we know that's happening. We can see in some of our classrooms where we have a, a lower number of kids, probably one that people are able to see pretty, pretty obviously is in pre-K and K. Yeah. Uh, and we see that we have a lower number of kids in those areas. And so, you know, we're, we're also Why, why do you
Speaker 4 (33:18):
Think that is? In pre-K and K?
Speaker 2 (33:20):
We're, we're down, you know, we're, we're down pre-k k, uh, between six and 700 kids. And, and as you talk to parents, you know, there, there, there are several things that play here. Uh, the very first time in my life, I'm a first time parent and I have a four year old, and I am I really gonna send them to school. I can, you know, I, I can keep 'em at home and, and I have more of a control around whether they end up in social contacting with this virus. And so I, I, I think there's a fear and, and I, and I really get that with first, especially with first time parents. Um, and, and there's, there's also many, many of our families have multi-generational families that are living together, especially with younger kids, outta outta necessity. And so the question is, do I send my four year old when I don't have to send my four year old and have, have the chance that they, they come back and, and we contact the virus?
Speaker 2 (34:13):
Uh, that, that's an issue that we're, we're hearing some other, some of the other issues are, you know, I'd really like to send my four year old, but right now I have 'em in daycare. And, and what my biggest concern is, what caught us in March is all of a sudden the school's closed down. And if I've given up my seat in, in, in the daycare and schools closed down, I don't have a place for my kids and I'm still going to have to go to work short of, of, of a, of an overall shutdown. And so those are all sort of compounding that around those pre-K and K kids. 'cause 'cause they don't have to be in school. And so one of the best things that I think we can do is, is we continue with the safety protocols that we've put in place and, and we continue to march along with trying to limit the, the positive case numbers.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
You know, I, I, Kevin, I, I didn't look this morning. I think we're around about 90, 90 cases of positive, of positive cases. And, and remember 90 may sound like a big number coming outta my mouth, but we, we've got over 31,000 kids and we have about six or 7,000 staff members. And so that, that is a very, very small percentage of positive cases that are happening. So I think one of the things, one of the messages that, that we need to get out is that schools really are, we, we're doing a lot of things to keep things safe. Uh, we're, we're all masked up. We're using lots of hand sanitizer. You know, our board allowed us to purchase, uh, desk shields, which, which really, if, if you've, if you've seen pictures, you look around those classrooms and you think, wow, there, there are a lot of barriers in this room to keep that virus from spreading.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
Because one of our biggest concerns was, you know, the, the social distancing in a classroom is virtually impossible unless you're just gonna allow 10 kids at a time into the classroom, and sometimes 10 kids would not allow social distancing. So I, we've built a lot of, we've, we've put a lot of protocols in place, um, and we're just now getting all those up and running, you know, and again, another one of those, we made some decisions, but it took some time to get here. So really we, we've we're three weeks into this before we get all 30,000 of those shields in. But as of last Friday, they were all delivered and out. And, and so as you look at pictures or you tour classrooms and you walk through classrooms, you think, wow, it, it feels
Speaker 3 (36:35):
Good. So, you know, for all the things that seem like a struggle and are not where we want 'em to be, I mean, I, I think there's something that's going on that's good. I mean, we're at less than one half of 1% Yes. As far as cases that are going on in our schools. And so, you know, we're, we're, we're really focused on how do we, how do we create the safest environment that we can? How do we keep the doors open? How do we keep schools moving? Uh, and, and all the while, you know, how do we help support teachers as, as the backbone of, of what's going on instructionally in our schools? And again, doing that with a lot of empathy and realizing that we have folks that are trying to recreate the wheel, so to speak, and they really are having to figure out how do we, how do we work through in-person instruction that's impacted by covid? How do we, how do we create an environment virtually that's that's good for our kids? How do we navigate through a a learning management system that's just very difficult and going through kind of bumps in the road? And, um, and then how do we try to recapture some of these kids that aren't with us, at least currently? And, um, and don't lose hope, uh, as we go to do that. And so, um, you know,
Speaker 2 (37:53):
And, and, and we, we will start to look at our pre-K and K as, as we get a little further into this. I'm not, I'm not naive to believe that, you know, after three weeks we can state, you know, we're not getting, we're not getting a large increase of positive test rates. I, I'm, I'm, I'm absolutely not saying that, but, but at least over the last three weeks, schools have felt predominantly as a safe place. And the vast majority of the positive cases, I can't say all of them, but, but well into the, you know, 97, 90 8%, the, that those contacts are not happening in the classroom. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
You, you, you go home and, and of an ev you know, of an evening, a a relative ends up, you know, testing positive and, and, and in that family unit, you're not wearing mask. And, and it's gonna happen. And, and that's where we're seeing those kinds of things happen. And so I, I think it's just important that we remember, let, let's let, what can we do to mitigate this? You know, can we, wearing masks using the hand sanitizer, good hygiene, the desk shields. And if we'll continue to do those things, um, we have a chance to, you know, at, at the end of October to be able to look back over our shoulder and say, you know, our infection rate has been really low. Now, I, I pray to God that's, that's what we say at the end of October. 'cause I don't know yet, but at least in the initial looking at it, the positivity rate coming directly out of, of infecting one another at school has been, been, been relatively low, uh, especially out of classrooms and, and out of, out of the, out of the normal school day.
Speaker 4 (39:40):
So I think, um, we're hearing from teachers out there that they're just, they're just overwhelmed. I mean, a lot of, a lot of teachers are saying, you know, this is just almost more than I can do. Yeah. And, and we're hearing things about, you know, can, can we add staff? Can we add teachers to take some of this burden? Can we add, um, you know,
Speaker 2 (40:01):
Yeah, we
Speaker 4 (40:01):
Helpers. Um, is that a possibility? And I,
Speaker 2 (40:04):
Everything's on the table. Um, you know, uh, what, what can't be the fix at one place can't automatically just be the fix for the next place because, because that's not necessarily the best solution. And, and so, you know, we, we have spent, when, when we was really clear, uh, as we talked to the, to the four, uh, presidents of our teacher organizations a, a week or so ago, it, it really became clear in some places at some different levels that really we, we need to think about do we just either do in-person or do we do virtual? And, and so we've, we've spent the last really since that conversation in, in deep, deep data dives on do, do we have the personnel and do we have the staff to do that? And, and I, and I would tell you, if I'm just looking at a level, at the elementary level, we're starting to believe that we, we could, we could make those kind of thing those kind of moves happen, um, across the district, if that's the answer. Um,
Speaker 2 (41:16):
Am I moving too much and dancing too much? No, you're not. Am I getting They're tagging. Oh, guys, for those of you that are out there, um, they've, they've, they've told me I move too much. I tap too much, I make too much noise. Uh, I, some, I think they're trying to plotly say if we had medicate the superintendent, we could get a clean, uh, podcast
Speaker 2 (41:58):
But we staffed up in the spring for 32,000 plus kids. Today we only have 31,000 plus kids. And so when, when you do the math, you know, we're somewhere in the neighborhood of, you know, 30, 40, 50 teachers overstaffed, depending on certifications, depending on a lot of things. And, and so, um, we've gotta first figure out, you know, can we utilize our staff differently? And those have a lot of unintended consequences and, and things that we may or may not like. And when, I mean, we, I'm, I'm really talking about the classrooms, the, the campuses, but we're gonna have in, in the coming days, and we've already started, we're gonna have those kinds of conversations and, and we're gonna start making moves and we're gonna try to start alleviating as much as we can. Places where, where it's just not clear that you can do both mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
Speaker 2 (43:41):
The, those, those problems are not ever gonna get solved there. They're just, they're just going to, to get larger and, and, and it's gonna polarize us even more. What I can tell the staff is, you, you have a superintendent, you have a board, you have an executive team that is committed to finding the answers for you and being a part of the solution. And so ultimately, if, if the way we have to fix this is through additional staff, and we've, we've done all the things that we can do to get efficiency out and, and, you know, maybe some hard decisions about do we, do we have, do we need to look at our virtual kids and are we asking them to cover too many classes? And, and by, by lessening the class loads there, all of those, all of those kinds of conversations, once we get there and, and we can't find another solution, absolutely. We'll start to look at do we need to add personnel? And who is that personnel? And how does that look?
Speaker 3 (44:41):
Um, and that's really a process. Mr. Loomis. I, I mean, I think, um, you know, what, what we have to continue to, to, to remind people of is that, you know, we're, we're listening to what is being said. Um, I'll, I'll just be really honest. You know, I've had people look at me and say, are you having fun yet? And the real truth of that is no
Speaker 3 (45:28):
We're helping them get back on track, or we're finding new ways to help them learn. Um, we've had kids recently tell us that new programs that we've created in the midst of all of this is helping to refocus them on school and, and, and will prevent them from dropping out, and that will eventually help them graduate and, and move on to the next thing in their life. So, you know, I, I just think I would encourage everybody hang in there, know that we're listening. We're, we're working on solutions, and we're trying to create margin for you and for our district, and we're trying to really focus on what are the four or five things that are most important that we're calling oxygen priorities. And, and know that, that our, our efforts are focused in, in that direction, at least for the next little bit so that we can, we can make this, um, a, a better, better October and then a better November as we move towards, um, you know, the holiday break and, and move through the rest of this school year. So, hey, thanks for joining us. I know in the first Susan, we ran a little bit long this time. We tried to shorten it up.
Speaker 2 (46:33):
Well, that didn't work very well.
Speaker 3 (46:34):
Yeah, we, we, we can all just kind of keep on going and keep on going, but again, we appreciate you as we try to help everybody navigate through these different times. And, and we ask that you continue to come back next time for our next, uh, episode of Schoolwork.
Speaker 4 (46:49):
We'll see you next time. Cut.