During the 11/23/2020 Board of Education meeting there was an update on the Fully Virtual Plus rollout at the elementary, middle, and highschool levels. This was the final administrative staff report before the Board actually moved on to business.
Nan Bunnow spoke about the elementary level rollout. The first phase of Fully Virtual Plus began October 26 and focused on providing in-person instruction at McKinley Elementary to the 16 elementary Newcomer students. The second phase is focused on providing Tier 3 literacy interventions with literacy interventionists, Level 1 and 2 English learner services with EL teachers, and student support groups with school counselors. Each elementary building has a different start date for phase 2 depending on transportation and other logistics. Some buildings had already started and for the rest they had a targeted start date of the first week of December for in-person English Learner and literacy instruction and the second week of December for student support groups. They anticipated having approximately 125 students receive in person literacy interventions, another 125 students receiving English Learner services, and 140 students participating in the student support groups.
It sounded like, at the elementary level, co-curricular activities would only be offered virtually and there would be no in-person options. These would take place if there was interest on the part of staff and students. Some co-curricular activities that they believed could be successfully offered virtually are Student Counsel, talent show, musical or play, intramurals, and choir. [I’m curious how intramurals, outside of e-sports, could be offered virtually]
James Huggins provided an update on the Fully Virtual Plus rollout at the middle school level. The initial phase included identifying the additional intervention/engagement needs of their students. They currently (as of 11/23) have approximately 50 students who are attending/scheduled to be on-site [It was not clear to me whether they were actively at school yet or simply “scheduled” to be at school] as part of their At-Risk programming. [As you may recall, At-Risk programming is for kids at the high school level who are at risk of not graduating or at the middle school level or are very unengaged]. They have been reviewing alternative education programming. That process began earlier in November and involved a quantitative/qualitative data review process via their student services teams which took into account multiple data points including attendance, fall i-Ready scores, previous interventions, Tier 2 and 3 supports, Canvass activities, and student services team referrals whether from staff team or others than are referred to the team.The at risk program began in small pods/cohort groups per grade level and have additional potential to grow with additional students as part of the programming based on student needs identified. [That seems like an awfully convoluted way to say that there are 50 middle school students who are possibly receiving on-site services.]
Other areas implemented during the initial phase included social and academic support groups which can include in-person meetings with students in person. There are also Lunch Bunches meetings [please correct me if I’m wrong, but my recollection is that those are virtual groups that involve teachers hanging out with students during their lunch period]. Additionally, all students either in-person or virtually at home receive universal Second Step lessons which occur during homeroom. Future social/emotional and academic needs are continually being reviewed and they plan to take advantage of Panorama data to further that.
On-site programming began in November for middle school English Learner and Newcomer students.
Between Classroom Connections students and those receiving in-person Fully Virtual Plus services there are “approximately” 180 middle school students receiving onsite services. [Personally, I find it unprofessional that he didn’t have a specific number and that he didn’t break out how many were in Classroom Connections vs actually receiving Fully Virtual Plus services. Frankly, it seems inappropriate to include Classroom Connections students at all in an update about the Fully Virtual Plus rollout since they have nothing to do with Fully Virtual Plus.]
The middle schools are also offering nearly 50 virtual co-curricular club activities and opportunities outside of the school day. Approximately 690 students are participating in these activities which include Eagle leaders, forensics, student council, yearbook, international club,running and workout clubs, sign, pay it forward, great baking, artist guild, middle school jazz, photography, improv, middle school deca, aspiring authors, history club, e-sports, and many more. These are being led by staff advisors.
Ben Vogel then gave an update on the Virtual plus opportunities at the highschool level. These take place both during and outside the school day. During the school day East, West, North, and Central have each been focusing on specific groups of students to support their academic, social and emotional needs. These students have been identified through special education staff members, alternative education staff members, English Learner staff, and also student support teams. At present time during the school day each high school has approximately 100 students onsite for at least part of the week through Phase 1 opportunities targeted specifically at students who have an identified need in the area of executive functioning skills, social emotion support, english learners, and other academic needs.
As of 11/23/2020, all of the highschools were working to move to Phase 2 which would increase the opportunities for students to access equipment and learning resources. As a reminder
In addition to curricular support during the school day, they’re also supporting co-curricular opportunities outside the school day with virtually and in person. Examples include students at North involved in the One Act Play, students at East doing robotics, Students at West running a series of master classes to learn about theater. Much of this is done virtually.
Winter sports are also underway as well. Approximately 10-12% of high school students are involved in a winter sport. As of 11/23 all winter sports practices are underway.
They then opened things up for questions from the Board.
Gary Jahnke wanted to get an idea of how many middle school students were participating in extracurricular activities this year as compared to last year. By his calculation about 25% of students are participating in extracurricular clubs/activities.
James Huggins couldn’t give a number because he would be guessing, but he could certainly “circle back to that”. He thought they have strong participation not only in sports but in the other activities. [And as examples he listed drama, theater, and musicals which struck me as being literally the same thing. Everybody has a brain freeze once in a while, so I can’t fault him too much for that, but it did make me chuckle.] He thinks they’ve had pretty high participation rates this year
Gary pointed out that these are new opportunities that students didn’t have in September.
James agreed and said that there’s been a lot of work underway to really be creative in determining future opportunities for kids to explore, learn new things, and to be able to participate in different ways. He said there would be more to come on that in December..
Barry O’Connell asked Ben, James, and Nan if any of them had concerns about having kids coming into school given the spread rate in the community.
Ben Vogel stated that to say there are no concerns wouldn’t be accurate, but he thought they could valance how to use mitigation efforts to provide a relatively safe manner for kids to come and get the social and emotional support they were crying out for.
Per Ben: “To answer your question, are there no concerns? No, there are concerns if you walk outside our door, but we believe that by having them at school and by having our coaches and all these people who are following these mitigation standards very closely and carefully that that’s a balancing piece that we want to take part in.”
Barry pushed back and reminded everyone that the governor has suggested that people stay only within their bubble because of the intensity of the pandemic at this moment. He then asked James Huggins what his thoughts were and if he had concerns.
Per James: “I think there’s concerns, Barry, with–and I think it comes down to making sure that we’re doing so safely and responsibly by implementing, you know, the safety protocols and mitigation strategies, and having small groups come back, doing so in cohort groups. That’s kind of why it’s began slow and small as far as bringing students back in our fully virtual plus. And I know there’s been a tremendous amount of effort and work with the school safety reentry teams working with the school nurses being very careful to make sure we’re putting those protocols in place. We’ve also had students obviously involved–at our schools–with special education programming for quite some time, as well as our Classroom Connections, so we’ve had those students in our buildings in those programs and there’s been many things that we’ve learned in that process too, Barry.”
Barry then said that the Board received a letter indicating that the West basketball team was practicing without masks. He also said there was an image of one of the highschool coaches coaching girls; the girls were masked, but the coach was not. He wanted to know what the administrative team does when mitigation strategies are violated.
Ben said that if someone would be not following those strategies then that would be addressed. He was not aware of the incidents Barry mentioned and said he would follow up if they believe people are not wearing masks. He checks in with the ADs on a regular basis and they’re working very closely with the coaches.
Judy Baseman said that they had refresh training on safety protocols just the week before.
Julie King stated that mitigation strategies violations would be handled with the same progressive disciplinary steps as they would use for any infraction.
Barry asked if AASD has an independent Covid officer like Kimberly does to make sure that things are being complied with?
Judy said they have talked about designating a point person at each site, but she reminded him they already have nurses at schools. They’ve talked about nurses being a resource for people as well.
Per Julie, they do have a district Covid team, which has principals at each site as well as school nurses, HR, and communication individuals. They meet weekly, even bi-weekly and they’re testing and looking at their protocols. They recently reviewed with school principals a checklist/walkthrough/audit they can perform on a regular basis to make sure those mitigation strategies are in place and being followed to fidelity.
Barry did not respond directly to that but said, “My last statement is just simply that all around us states of Michigan, Minnesota, are going to fully virtual–none of this is going to be occurring in those states. We have counties in Wisconsin that are doing that, we have districts all around us doing that, and we’re going the opposite direction, and I just am very concerned about it, and I, frankly, don’t agree with it, so…that’s my statement. And I hope that it works out and no one gets seriously ill, and that no parent gets infected, or grandparent, or teacher, or community member, because of spread in our community due to our own efforts in this area. And I get the idea of serving kids’ needs. I understand the needs, but we’re in the midst of one of the worst pandemics in history. You know, it’s a hundred years ago that we had anything close to this, and it calls for different times and different things, and there’s going to be additional stress no matter which way we go. So, enough said by Barry.”
Deb Truyman then responded, “I just want to give a big shout out to the teachers and advisors for stepping forth to put this out there for the kids. It’s very needed, and thank you to all the teachers and staff members who are providing these opportunities. And, again we need to do it. So, thank you, that’s it.”
Superintendent Judy Baseman then said, “At this point I think we all agree that our kids do best, we do best, with in-person instruction. That’s what we were all trained to do, that’s what our kids are used to, and it’s this constant tension–constant tension–from March on forward of how do we give the best experiences for our kids while balancing that with safety. And as time has gone on the answers have not gotten easier and it just–it just–I just–I want you to know that we all are struggling with how to give the best that the kids need, especially the ones who are struggling with mental health challenges who are not engaging with the safety piece. And it’s a struggle, daily, for everybody on this call and everybody in our community. We share this. I just–I wish we could come together around some efforts as a community and I know people criticise me for calling on the community, but the community can help us, and we’re two months out from our target date, and a lot can happen in that time. And so, can we agree as a community that we all play a role in this? And so the tension is there for everyone. We want to do the best for our kids, but we also have to keep our students, our staff, our families safe. No easy answers.”
After those speeches, the meeting returned to questions.
Kris Sauter wanted to know the number of students who would be coming back who are not currently in school. If she added correctly there would be about 390 or 400 students at the elementary level who would be coming back in addition to the students who are already there. She wasn’t sure about the numbers at the middle and high school level and wanted to know what they were.
Nan Bunnow said that she was correct about the number of elementary students but in order to keep them at a safe level some of the students would be there in the morning and some in the afternoon. They would not all be there at the same time.
James Huggins reiterated that, between Classroom Connections and Virtual Plus programming, approximately 180 students are back at middle school sites. [Again, it seems inappropriate to be adding Classroom Connections kids in with that number.]
180 won’t necessarily be the final number. They’re continuing to evaluate student needs. They have some small pods in their at risk programing, and James is aware that some students were identified as being eligible to join who have not taken them up on that opportunity. The total number of in person students could grow. There is no specific ceiling or cap.
Per Ben Vogel, at the high school many of the in-person services happen in 2 hour blocks, and students might come in once or twice a week. 100 students come in over the course of a week, but they’re not all there at the same time.
Kris wanted to know if sports sports groups are in addition to the 100 students Ben mentioned.
Ben confirmed that was correct. Sports are outside of school hours.
You can view the entire meeting here: https://youtu.be/-H-2LJ8eOAU
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