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With students and families in new ways and in some cases have opened up new and deeper relationships.

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We have seen state agencies work together in completely new collaborative relationships to support the state of Colorado anyway we can.

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And we've seen policy makers, you, the state boards, the governor, move to adjust policies and meet the times.

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And we can take all of these warnings to the bank and we can draw on them later as we move through this situation.

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And we still have so much more to do.

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I don't want to say that all of these opportunities have not been without the other side of it,

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which is, you know, connections we have lost and things we need to do better.

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It is incumbent on us as leaders that we must be able to double down on how we support students during this time.

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We need to pay a special attention and focus and prioritize our students and families who have suffered the most during this time.

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Those that are in the digital divide, those that are helping their families with work, those that do not have the access to families who can support their learning at home.

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Our English language learn our students, our special education students that really struggle with any type of remote learning.

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And especially those students that we can't find right now.

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We really need to keep being creative, innovative, and keep finding the energy to support these students and families.

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I fear that the COVID slide is real, and by COVID slide I mean the achievement, slide as well as the opportunity slide.

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And so it's going to take every one of us and all of the panelists on this call and all of the educators across the state to address this with new ideas approaches priorities and focus.

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And so I know we're up to the challenge.

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I know that we can do it better if we work together.

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And with that, I'm going to start moving into the slide.

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So thank you for providing me a little opportunity

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to provide my experience in my context before we move through this.

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I'd like to interrupt for just a second.

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People cannot loop.

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There you go.

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People will not be able to see these slides,

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but they will be online afterwards.

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So, you know, that's how this technology has to work, but you will have an access to the

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leaders.

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Thanks.

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Great.

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Thank you, Madam Chair.

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Okay.

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So, I'm just going to go through a couple snapshots about what CDE's role has been during

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this time.

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And I know all of our many other panelists will be providing their perspective in their role

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as we move through.

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But CDE's role during this time has really been largely about communication.

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I think you could hear or ask any one of the superintendents you're going to talk to later.

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They probably hear from us too often.

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I've been on multiple calls and focus groups of superintendents in the last two days.

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We talk weekly, daily.

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We have multiple newsletters that go out and CBE updates, but go out to give all of the new updated guidance and keep communication channels open.

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We've been assessing the needs of districts throughout this time.

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We've been adjusting numerous policies and processes and regulations as appropriate.

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So, you know, there's been many, many challenging things as we've had to provide more flexibility.

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Adjust policies that make sense, provide waivers where it makes sense,

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and provide new processes where we need to.

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We've been distributing the CARES Act funding and that has been a heavy list and I

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continue to change and more with as requirements and regulations from the federal

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government become clearer.

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We've been providing technical assistance to the field and other stakeholders during this

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time.

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And we spend a lot of our time coordinating with other agencies, specifically the Colorado Department

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public health and environment and the governor's office on health guidance and other guidance.

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And we've been one thing that wasn't on this list is we've been supporting emergency

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feeding throughout the state of Colorado. So as schools shut down, we still figured out ways to

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support our districts to be able to provide school breakfast and lunches to families in need.

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And we've been coordinating per year legislation last year.

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We've just started coordinating a stakeholder group to talk about the impacts of policies.

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The impacts of COVID on critical policies such as educator evaluations, assessments, and

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accountability.

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That work has just started and it will be completed around December.

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Next slide. Thank you.

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Some of the highlights of what we've accomplished thus far. This is a very short list compared to what we could write.

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But we have worked very hard in partnership with the Attorney General's Office, the Governor's Office, the OIT Office and CDE to increase broadband access or Wi-Fi access across the state.

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As I said, taking a chance out of a digital divide, it's by no means completely solving the problem, but it is helping.

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We've been adapting to new daily realities and helping our districts do the same throughout our communication tools.

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We host SEDE regular focus groups advisory groups, stakeholder groups to make sure that we have a finger on the pulse of what is going on and what is needed.

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and what supports our field needs.

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We developed a comprehensive tool kit with health guidance,

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with CDPHE, so that tool kit includes everything

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from learning modes, to health screening,

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to different ways to think about remote learning,

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even if you don't have Wi-Fi access.

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We're planning for our 12-hour count.

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I know this was a big issue.

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something our districts are worried about is something we're all concerned about around how do we

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account for students? How do we know who's engaged and what does that mean for our enrollment?

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We've distributed all of the federal relief funds

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that we are in that process of applications and distributing those relief funds.

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And just recently, I'm happy to announce we secured a $16 million federal comprehensive literacy grant

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that we'll be able to use over the next several years.

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Couple other things, just to mention,

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we've worked with the Governor's Office on several initiatives

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that innovative grant program called Rise,

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the Colorado Empowered Learning Program to increase access to online learning

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and AmeriCorps to support engagement and tutoring

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of some of our students who we need to find. We need to reengage. We've also worked with a number

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of entities. It's far too many to note here, but on a public broadcasting partnership,

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to broadcast lessons on TV for students and families. This is also another way to close

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of digital divide, if families do have TVs.

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And we just launched a press,

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our public relations campaign on the importance

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and critical nature of reading at home.

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We think this is more important now than ever,

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you know, as families tend to be,

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you know, some of the core teachers of our students.

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Next slide.

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One of the things we did early on when the pandemic kit is we worked in partnership with the Colorado Education Initiative to conduct a needs inventory.

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And this was to get a broad brush lay of the land of what our districts need in this time of a pandemic.

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At this time, it was very new to everybody.

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So this data is a little bit data now.

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We are thinking of doing another of needs inventory

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to see how the needs have changed.

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But we broadly assess needs.

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We have been asserted in late March to early April.

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In the state, when I taught priorities that came across,

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we're student emotional support, technical support

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for delivering remote learning.

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online and structural support for our teachers and family engagement practices.

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So that's the bottom bullet is that we found approximately 6% of our students,

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which is about 53,000, did not have access to a Wi-Fi enabled device,

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and approximately 8% of our students 65 to 66,000 of students did not have access to the internet at home.

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So

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this is another way to look at the needs that we saw in that needs inventory, you'll see the top four that I already mentioned, students emotional support, technical supports for remote learning, online instructional support for teachers and family engagements, but you'll see a variety of other things, like supports for human resources practices for this year.

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helping to draft communications for families,

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helping to think about instructional time during this pandemic.

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And support for learning management system.

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You just stay on that slide for a minute, Melissa.

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Thank you.

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So we look to these needs,

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and we knew that we needed to focus here first.

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So, this is where, you know, we started to partner with the Office of Information Technology with the Attorney General's Office and the Governor's Office to say how do we start to close these device device and the Wi-Fi device and I think many of you saw that we made an announcement a couple weeks ago to provide at least 35,000 Wi-Fi hotspots and hopefully more with different partners across the state.

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and we're providing some of our effort, care,

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spending to supplement that and to close those

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digital divides.

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We've also worked with the Card on

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Town and Powered Learning Center,

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which is the statewide really digital learning platform.

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And again, that has helped to support

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learning platform across the state,

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but it has no means by no means solved to the problem.

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So, a lot of these things are getting us closer,

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but there's still a lot of work to do.

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And now, you know, that we're several months in,

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I would say I've heard needs that have changed to,

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you know, more related to time, resources, and support

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to catch students up.

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More physical building upgrades, like ventilation systems,

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More staffing support to support our teachers and staff and parents and bus drivers.

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And yes, more access to learning management systems, online learning management systems, and teachers who are experienced in remote learning.

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Next slide.

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So let me know right now about the school year.

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Today, we, CDE staff are tracking different plans around how what school settings they're using right now.

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You know, it's been important to the governor and to us.

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To still have a local control atmosphere where the virus looks different in different communities and so continuing to give those decisions to local communities based on

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the health data in their area.

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So we're tracking those plans.

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Those districts plans have and continue to change quickly.

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They've done local conditions and outbreaks.

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So if there's never a static data collection,

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it's always adjusting and changing as schools

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have had to make decisions to quarantine or shut down

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or come back online, or sorry, come back in person

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because their numbers have gone down.

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So I'm on daily calls with superintendents,

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district staff, our rural communities,

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to assess the changing needs.

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And we also, you know, do our regular yearly collection

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and analysis of data that we have,

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including student dropout rates, grad rates,

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you know, truncy rates, those sorts of things.

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But those are only on a yearly basis.

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And we continue to engage with stakeholders,

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including you all, starting this conversation,

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to assess if any additional or adjusted data

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should be collected in response to the current crisis.

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As I mentioned, we've reviewed the public information

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for about 173 of the 185 districts and those fees.

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The reason you see that number at 185 is we're including the doses in that, so that represents about 98% of students across the stage.

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And also districts that we've reviewed, we found the large majority of districts about 73% are offering an in-person learning option.

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So many of those districts are small.

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All in rural districts. I think they have a little bit easier time getting, well, I won't say easy. There's no such thing as easy right now. But they have been able to be a bit nimble and flexible and get back into in-person learning.

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And if you think about the number of students, we estimate that about 37% of students

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statewide have access to insert some learning, but this was, you know, about a week or so

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ago, and plan for changing quickly.

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We already know some districts who are trying to accelerate their plans to get back to in-person

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learning, or maybe accelerate their plans for their younger students, or their more at-risk

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students to get back to in-person learning, so they're being flexible and changing their plans as the

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situation warrants. So as I noted, district with most multiple options, the elementary schools are

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more likely to be in person than middle schools and high schools, and that largely follows some of

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health data, but says younger students are left likely to transmit and have lower rates of

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this disease.

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There are many districts that offer in-person or hybrid inspections that also have an online option

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for family, so even if they're in-person, they're offering to online options, so they're essentially

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doing two types of schooling, which can also be a staffing challenge, so that families can select

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if they're not comfortable returning to school in person. And so some of our district leaders

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have estimated that as many as 25% of their families are choosing remote learning options.

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Even if there is an in-person or a hybrid option available.

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So for the school year, what don't we know, and what should we know?

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At the statewide level, including the state board and CDE, there is significant interest

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and better understanding all of these different learning formats, and how well students are being served

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in them. I know that our district superintendents are also very interested in that.

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So, we really are desire there is really student focus.

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It's, you know, even though this is a challenging time, how can the adults learn from this very quickly?

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And pivot and adjust our support as we can within the health situation.

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Traditionally and under existing statute, you know, we don't monitor or collect data from districts in kind of real time.

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And we usually do a one year collection on attendance.

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And we haven't really measured student engagement

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or any specific learning formats in the past.

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That has really been the purview of the district.

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So the question is sort of what data are needed

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at the state level in order to best support our student

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school year?

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How do we balance the needs for districts to focus

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on all of those things I talked about that they're grappling with, with data recording requirements.

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And then if we do need any more data or support, we should talk about the why,

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there's our data collection and the what of that data collection, meaning how will we use that information?

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How will we make that information actionable so that we support students?

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So those are some of the, you know, important questions we've been asking ourselves as folks have asked us, you know, what are you collecting? How are you, how are you keeping your finger on the pulse of what's going on?

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So those are all very valid and important questions. And we're really trying to earnestly find a balance there.

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So with that, I believe that concludes my presentation, and I hope that that gives you a sense of, you know, what's going on in the state.

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And we try to address the specific questions you asked us. But we're happy, as I said, or as the chair said,

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City staff will need help throughout the day to answer questions as well.

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Okay, thank you so much.

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We're going to have about five minutes for questions.

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So don't forget to raise your hand and we can get that done.

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And I'm going to settle a little time on because that's what I like to do.

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All right.

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Let me see if I can't take everybody from here.

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So let me get on to this guy.

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No.

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This is not as much of a thing.

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I got everybody.

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All right.

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So there's a few questions.

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Let me show you basically.

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Thank you, Madam Chair.

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So can you all on slide six?

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The number one request in the London,

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understanding that there's these are requests from schools and school districts.

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Number one request there will be most most support for students.

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can you don't understand what that is?

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That seems like an inappropriate involvement by government in families, and so I'm trying

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to understand why would we be taking parents to places like to me.

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I was like, the government's going to take the place of the parent, the emotional support,

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and how do we, how do we reflect parents, what would be my concern as a parent, as saying,

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How is the government providing emotional support to my child, affecting my families and churches, values, and such things?

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So if you can help me understand what I will be.

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Dr.

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Thank you, Madam Chair, representative Bayesley.

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I appreciate the question.

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This was more of an input survey for this information day-day boss.

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We, you know, so I don't know that we have come up with a specific role around this, as I mentioned.

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We look at this list and we say, what areas should we participate in?

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This is merely them stating what their needs are.

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I do think that in addition to families, you know, teachers do play a role in supporting our students and helping them through challenging times.

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And so I think they have asked for support and resources and tools and they have, you know, many of our partner organizations have done that work.

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So I wouldn't say that it's been a strong role of the Colorado Department of Education, but we do have some tools and resources relating to how educators can support their students.

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Okay, thank you. I have a whole network of churches that can partner as well by the way.

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That's great.

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Yeah.

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Representative McCluskey.

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Chair.

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And I want to start by thanking you, Dr. Antis, for a great overview.

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It is literally impossible to represent every school district experience, every educator,

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student experience, and parent experience at this time.

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And I think you did a great job of just highlighting where we are and what is going on.

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I also want to give voice to the end of your presentation and talking about data.

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I really appreciate that there are a lot of good questions that we are trying to ask and answer right now.

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And I respect that in the midst of just taking care of our kids, which is our highest priority, making sure they're on tracks to learn and stay safe.

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But we're also being, we also want to know specifically where kids are, what is happening

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with attendance. That's student engagement question. Can you speak a little bit to

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while we're very aware that the collective data is challenging, how we can do it in a really

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thoughtful way. And to the data that we need most at this moment, given how stressed we are on so many other priorities.

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Madam Chair, thank you for the question.

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You know, I'm going to be honest, I think I'm grappling with that around how we can do it.

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most effectively and efficiently, to be honest, I think that is why CDE did some collection

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on our own by going to public websites by finding the communications that district have been

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doing to their families because I do believe they have a lot on their place right now.

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But I also totally recognize that it is an absolutely valid and important question to know

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you know, how is this working like where, how, how many of our students can't we find and how might, how might we be able to support them?

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I think we really, we do need to think about what is the state role in that.

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We, we provide a lot of technical assistance from like our dropout prevention team and our coordinated support team that have, and our field services team that have personal relationships with districts across the state.

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and they're working with districts on a one-on-one basis to help support them.

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But I would also say that our districts are struggling with this too.

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I've seen several school leaders that actually get emotional

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about how hard they are trying to find all of their students in some cases

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that we can't find five students.

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We haven't been able no matter how much we've called.

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We've reached out.

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We've checked their churches.

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We've checked their food banks.

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You know, we can't find them and then I've had other major districts so we can't find a much larger number.

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And so I think they too are grappling with how to really find those families and support them.

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We just launched the Governor's Office just launched an initiative with AmeriCorps to help support.

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Some of that student engagement and finding students so we're hopeful that that will help.

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But I think that is the question when the information changes so quickly, the data collection is a challenge.

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And so I'm definitely open to those conversations and ideas and then what do we do with that data to help support them?

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Okay, thank you so much.

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We're not going to be heading on.

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We're going to hear from stakeholders.

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different stakeholders now on a state level guidance and district plans for reopening schools.

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Each presenter will have five minutes. We're going to hear from a panel with three members at

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a time, and then follow each panel with about another five minutes of questions. So presenters,

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just continue sharing your screens once you are done with your presentation. And it's when

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you're trying to speak, please select share screen and begin that presentation. So first we welcome back,

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Dr. Anthony's. We didn't get enough of it for the first time, so we're having more.

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We will also welcome Dr. Ronda Hannaford, who's the Associate Commissioner of School

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Quality and Support for the CDE and Dr. Brian Early, who's the Medical Epidemiologist,

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Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. So please welcome them all and we thank you

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all ahead of time for all the work we're doing for us. Thank you.

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Thank you, Madam Chair.

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I am going to share my screen, I think Justin has made me a post, give this a try.

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We let up technology.

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Now, I'm a presenter.

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Let's try that again.

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Justin, can you just come from that you can see the presentation, OK?

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This one.

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Thank you very much.

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So it is definitely my pleasure to join you all today,

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and to share a view of the state level guidance.

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And the reopening plans for K-12 schools

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may 26 CDC issued the 2020-2021 planning framework

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in toolkit and in August the color department of public health and environment issues

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outbreak guidance that is also included in the B.C.D.E.Tool Kit.

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At C.D.E.E. developed the planning framework in toolkit guidance,

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we did so in alignment to the state public health orders on C.D.P.E.T.E. and the governor's executive

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orders. About local public health agencies could support their county school and district

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reopening plans. The goal of toolkit is to assist with safely reopening schools, relative

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to community status of COVID-19 impact, and it is definitely not a one-size-fits-all framework.

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The toolkit continues to evolve with new executive orders and state public health orders,

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and we continue to receive feedback from the advisory committee and many existing stakeholder

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channels. There's feedback because there's been very helpful in the development of the guidance.

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We also have a feedback forum on the toolkit for anyone who would like to share

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confirmed ideas with us, and we created a new feature to explain my asked question section.

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a question button that anyone could ask question directly to the Department of Education.

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That includes five sections. There is a health and safety section, continuity of morning, conditions for learning, planning and communication and policy and funding. Our partners at DDPHU have come alongside us in developing the health and safety section.

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Publicity of learning largely focuses on the different returns of school models, which could be in-person, hybrid, or remote learning models, conditions for learning purposes, well-being and connectedness and planning and communication.

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It's connected to just that, planning on what the possible start-up focus look like as well as communication to families and the community as needed.

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And then, any policy and funding impacts, some other types of districts,

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we received feedback

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that it would be helpful to identify what in the toolkit is required, guidance, or a

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consideration.

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So with public health orders changing often, we have continued to work to update what is identified

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as required guidance or considerations in the toolkit.

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So, if an item is labeled as required, this was in a current state public health order or executive

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order for T12 education. If the item is identified as guidance, this is a recommendation for

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how to implement a statute rule. Guidance is based on best practice and provides direction

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for how to operationalize the requirement set forth in various orders. All effort should be

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made to follow the recommendations and feasible. And last, if an item is identified as a consideration,

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This is an idea to think about our districts make their own decisions.

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The guidance goes by grade level and phases, and it varies across age groups based on the size of COVID transmission patterns,

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among those children and adults.

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It includes guidance for physical distancing, face covering, cohorting, and class sizes.

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In addition, the guidance includes school environment guidance, connected to cleaning and disinfecting,

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in relation and HFAC systems, as well as guidance for best transportation and many, many other areas.

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So, as this has now, I get to introduce Dr. Brian Burley from BEPG to share with you

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up the health guidance. Thank you.

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Thank you, Ron. I'm Brian Burley. I'm a medical epidemiologist at CDPHG. And we are involved in creating guidance

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but if you control what a God rated industry is, institutions in different contexts,

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and schools are generally one of the most critical ones, and it was really grateful to

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the Naval Partner with CDE and every step of this process, organizations bring very different

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strengths to the table, and we're grateful for the level of collaboration and all part of this

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process. One of our most important jobs in Korea school gardens is helping schools and parents

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make choices about who should be in class and what to do with someone feel sick or has a positive COVID test or in exposure.

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And this is really a difficult balance.

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This is one of the make sure schools are safe and places possible for students and teachers.

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And we also wanted to support and ensure all the benefits of person learning that we can, including the social, emotional, physical, and personal.

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All the other things that schools do for our students, these are besides just writing,

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So, we've created really what is a suite of guidance that is designed to help students in the parents, teachers, schools, district planners understand what to do with someone's field sick, how the screen and what the next step should be.

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Preparing to feel like a simple system screen that can be completed every day.

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And if someone is out of school, we have actually a pair of flow sheets depending on

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the emphasis of COVID in the region.

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To help them understand, when is it appropriate for them to come back to school?

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If there's been to get better quickly, can they come back right away?

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Or do they need a positive or a native COVID set to come back?

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Or should they plan on waiting the entire isolation period?

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And it sort of walks parents with schools through that process.

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And then there's also the very fiscal question of what happens to this close context

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of somebody who's doing sick or may have a positive COVID test.

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How do you identify this close context?

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It's a people who are in the same class, in the same sports team, people who set near them.

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We have some guidance around that and we're always developing more and we're finding it.

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And we really think of our guidance as living documents.

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We try to make major changes that have been announced in February, finding from terminology

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and rewarding as the on-posted confusion.

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We're actually undergoing a first major round of revisions right now with the goal of really

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team by a midway up to over.

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It would continue to gain feedback from our local public health partners, school administrators,

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teachers, parents, clinicians, which all help guide our process. And we're taking some of those major themes and taking the existing stakeholder sessions over the past few weeks.

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To talk about ways that we may be able to address the most important issues that we hear at time and again, and it's a little bit new perspective to be back.

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I think Katie Anfield spoke to us earlier, but we're also very, very data-centric data-hungry

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organizations, and also in the beginning of the school year we established some new ways

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to collect data about the experience of schools, including a weekly survey to school, and

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a hand data collection specifically for outbreak in schools, and also partnerships with researchers

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at Children's Hospital and Colorado University to understand more effective disease control

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in school, in other contexts as well.

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We're also actively seeking success stories to think that it's done well.

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School has done a great job of disease control without disrupting

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in-person education and talking to schools that have had a lot of

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challenges for that.

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School that have found difficult to be in-person,

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schools that have had to open and close because of cases.

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And working to craft our guidance and in a way that makes it possible

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for more schools to be in-person more often.

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with that in with that, I'll pass it back to Rhonda and thank you all for this.

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Thank you Dr. Early.

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As Dr. Early shared, the guidance is continuing to evolve.

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And this is just a look of a few of those examples within the last few weeks.

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Additional guidance has been developed and has a part of the toolkit guidance.

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Both the dial metric guidance and paper at home and the ventilation H-axis guidance

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guidance was released from the D.P.T.E.

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In addition, guidance for learning pods was jointly released from the D.E.E. and the Department

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of Human Services and my D.E.E. included guidance for performing arts and we continue

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to update the toolkit with new executive orders as they are made public most recently

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with the extension of the state mask order.

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So this concludes our presentation and thank you Madam Chair for the opportunity.

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Thank you both.

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I appreciate this.

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Good information.

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Five minutes now for questions.

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So let me get back on to the people that I can serve.

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Your handbell.

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I'm quite serious part out yet.

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Sorry.

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There's something.

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I'm sorry.

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I haven't quite figured out.

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There we are.

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All right. Now, let's have your hands.

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You can raise it.

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We have five minutes for questions.

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What kind of questions?

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After our panelists today.

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You guys were so good.

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You covered it all with no questions.

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And it's early in the morning.

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So have lots of time.

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So I want to thank you both.

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Very, very much for your time.

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And all the work that you put into this.

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Oh, and there is representative gotten her down there.

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Sorry.

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Here's the bottom of my screen down there.

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Thank you, Madam Chair, and just for whoever wants to tackle this, and maybe just for everyone to tackle it.

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I'll cover her, you personally, the students in the remote settings are receiving a quality education.

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And I'll let anybody kind of tackle that.

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And we've discussed quite a few things there, but it may be this is better for the initial presentation, but just trying to get that to yourself that I have, and I'd like to hear some perspectives.

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I think the reality is that it does vary and you'll talk to Superintendents and they'll be honest

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with you about, you know, districts that didn't have the foundation and haven't, you

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One Wi-Fi and devices, you know, a test and a challenge.

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So there certainly are struggles.

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We hear from parents and families that do struggle remotely.

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00:39:42,080 --> 00:39:47,380
And just like everything, I would say that there is a variety of, you know,

445
00:39:48,160 --> 00:39:51,960
a quality out there and that our districts are working very hard to improve.

446
00:39:51,960 --> 00:39:56,160
The quality is quickly as they can, but there's a continuum for sure.

447
00:40:02,920 --> 00:40:07,440
Yeah, thank you. Thank you for that everybody. Are there any more questions?

448
00:40:09,380 --> 00:40:16,000
Okay. Thank you, all three doctors for all of your incredibly hard work for all of us, so we appreciate it. Thank you.

449
00:40:19,280 --> 00:40:20,780
We're zipping a lot on here.

450
00:40:21,820 --> 00:40:24,620
We now have, let's see.

451
00:40:25,420 --> 00:40:35,180
We have our next group of presenters. We have Heidi Baskfield. She's a vice president of population health and advocacy for children's hospital in Colorado.

452
00:40:35,980 --> 00:40:42,480
Dr. Dan Kheimen, who is the chief medical officer for Children's Hospital, and Roberta Gilles,

453
00:40:42,500 --> 00:40:47,040
who is the clinical manager and school nurse at Children's Hospital in Colorado.

454
00:40:47,740 --> 00:40:54,160
I'd like to welcome you all for taking on a lot more than you normally do, I'm suspect during

455
00:40:54,160 --> 00:40:57,200
this time period, and we want to thank you.

456
00:40:57,260 --> 00:41:02,580
So welcome, and then just introduce yourself to us who you are, and then when we can go on

457
00:41:02,580 --> 00:41:02,960
from there.

458
00:41:03,260 --> 00:41:03,740
Thank you.

459
00:41:03,740 --> 00:41:10,180
Madam Chair, members, thank you so much for allowing us to participate today. I'm hiding back, Bill.

460
00:41:10,800 --> 00:41:14,100
Vice President, population health and advocacy here at Children's Hospital.

461
00:41:14,100 --> 00:41:15,960
Still nice to see all of you.

462
00:41:16,600 --> 00:41:21,900
And as Madam Chair explained, we have Dan Hyman, our chief medical officer,

463
00:41:22,600 --> 00:41:26,520
and Bobby Gillis, who oversees our school nurse team here as well.

464
00:41:26,980 --> 00:41:31,920
We don't have slides, so we'll minimize your technical need to toggle back and forth.

465
00:41:31,920 --> 00:41:34,260
We'll keep this at the conversational level.

466
00:41:34,620 --> 00:41:37,900
We're going to share today how we've been partnering with schools.

467
00:41:38,020 --> 00:41:40,840
We're going to talk briefly about what's been working

468
00:41:40,840 --> 00:41:43,900
and some of our opportunities at the first excited

469
00:41:43,900 --> 00:41:45,200
to take any questions.

470
00:41:45,880 --> 00:41:47,880
Not everyone understands or knows

471
00:41:47,880 --> 00:41:52,040
that children also actually oversees a team of school nurses

472
00:41:52,040 --> 00:41:55,320
that supports a large number of schools

473
00:41:55,320 --> 00:41:57,660
and students throughout the state of Colorado.

474
00:41:58,160 --> 00:42:00,220
So I'm going to be in the middle of the first

475
00:42:00,220 --> 00:42:06,240
So Bobbi, to talk about this program to give everyone a little more insight into how that program works.

476
00:42:07,000 --> 00:42:07,370
Bobbi.

477
00:42:08,260 --> 00:42:08,920
Good morning, everybody.

478
00:42:09,680 --> 00:42:10,060
Thank you.

479
00:42:10,980 --> 00:42:16,940
So our team of 34 school nurses contract with the school district.

480
00:42:17,360 --> 00:42:19,880
Charter schools, private schools, and child care.

481
00:42:20,020 --> 00:42:23,620
We provide services to 347 sites.

482
00:42:24,040 --> 00:42:27,160
And we touch about 78 children's lives.

483
00:42:27,160 --> 00:42:33,760
In the model that we provide services in a concentrated model that might be a little bit

484
00:42:33,760 --> 00:42:38,640
different than some other school districts, and that they have an on-site nurse providing

485
00:42:38,640 --> 00:42:46,540
services all the entire school day, our Comfort Pages model that we practice under is

486
00:42:46,540 --> 00:42:48,980
a really specialised type of school nursing.

487
00:42:49,420 --> 00:42:52,460
We consult with the school's on policy development.

488
00:42:52,460 --> 00:42:59,060
Really, our practice is grounded in public health focus that health promotion and disease prevention.

489
00:42:59,840 --> 00:43:04,460
We are partners with CDD, CDPH, and our local health department.

490
00:43:05,200 --> 00:43:12,680
We coordinate student health care facilities that have significant chronic health conditions, as well as acute situations.

491
00:43:12,680 --> 00:43:22,480
And we work very closely with our parents, and families, students, and school staff so that we can be an integral part of that team.

492
00:43:23,220 --> 00:43:30,400
A little bit different in our role is that we delegate healthcare task to unlicing the VISTA personnel in the school setting.

493
00:43:31,300 --> 00:43:33,360
So I'll be doing a lot of trades and supervision.

494
00:43:37,460 --> 00:43:38,160
Thank you, Bobby.

495
00:43:38,640 --> 00:43:40,120
Madam Chair, if I may continue.

496
00:43:42,120 --> 00:43:42,700
Thank you.

497
00:43:42,700 --> 00:43:47,160
So, let's just talk about numbers that you need to know what we've been up to in the

498
00:43:47,160 --> 00:43:48,060
state of COVID.

499
00:43:48,540 --> 00:43:53,060
As soon as the pandemic kicked off, we heard very quickly from our school partners that

500
00:43:53,060 --> 00:43:58,400
they've been presented from having as close to real-time access to our infectious disease

501
00:43:58,400 --> 00:44:05,160
team members and experts to provide guidance on how to operate safely amidst the pandemic.

502
00:44:05,160 --> 00:44:16,860
So every other Thursday, a week old town hall with all of our school partners and other stakeholder groups involved with the Colorado Alliance for School Health.

503
00:44:17,220 --> 00:44:35,140
And in those school town halls, we provide up-to-date information that is developed in partnership with our friends at TDPHEE, like with Dr. Early and our friends at CTE, where we provide as much information as we can to give schools the information they need on how to keep their environments safe.

504
00:44:35,140 --> 00:44:42,660
How to manage COVID as it shows up in their environment and also how to deal with other implications from the pandemic.

505
00:44:42,980 --> 00:44:58,460
So for example, we have a town hall scheduled for tomorrow afternoon and we'll be talking about mental health, which I know for everyone is a billing concern about how do we adequately support the medical needs of our kids, our families, and our staff during this very time.

506
00:44:59,240 --> 00:44:59,700
Additionally,

507
00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:08,340
We provided materials that will be sent around all of you in a link, also located on our website, that provides a two-ordered

508
00:45:08,340 --> 00:45:16,300
approach to managing COVID in the environment and a resource to how to deal with a wide variety of

509
00:45:16,300 --> 00:45:22,760
systems and sort of on the ground information of how to deal with sickness illness in the COVID

510
00:45:22,760 --> 00:45:30,780
pandemic in the schools. Finally, we also developed a script pad for schools to be able to use

511
00:45:32,040 --> 00:45:38,180
that allows essentially a daily interaction with families and staff, but they can turn in

512
00:45:38,800 --> 00:45:44,200
whether or not they're symptom free when they arrive on school sites to be able to provide

513
00:45:44,200 --> 00:45:49,640
the school to information they need to safely manage their kids and their staff help.

514
00:45:51,100 --> 00:45:57,140
One of the things we wanted to share with everyone that continues to work very well is the partnership

515
00:45:57,140 --> 00:46:03,260
that we have both with the state agencies and CDGG and CDE as well as our part of the

516
00:46:03,260 --> 00:46:09,640
local public health and so we will tell you that even though everyone is building this as we

517
00:46:09,640 --> 00:46:15,480
go and figuring this out that the strength of the partnership between all of us remains very strong

518
00:46:15,480 --> 00:46:20,520
to be able to say foundational in the success that we have continued to see.

519
00:46:20,980 --> 00:46:24,640
There are opportunities that I would tell you that we continue to see as well.

520
00:46:24,780 --> 00:46:29,140
And that has to do a lot with the fact that with more and more children coming back to

521
00:46:29,140 --> 00:46:31,780
in person learning, there are resource challenges.

522
00:46:32,160 --> 00:46:37,040
And those tend to exist in both the school and the local public health settings with respect

523
00:46:37,040 --> 00:46:42,800
to having enough resources to adequately manage the sheer amount of work that has to be done

524
00:46:42,800 --> 00:46:47,800
to effectively respond to questions, answers, and engage in contact tracing.

525
00:46:48,160 --> 00:46:53,200
And while everyone is putting extra hours in every day, seven days a week,

526
00:46:53,560 --> 00:46:59,260
that continues to be a challenge experienced by all of us and our partners.

527
00:46:59,440 --> 00:47:01,980
And I want to hand the floor back if I may, Madam Chair,

528
00:47:02,180 --> 00:47:06,920
to the body to give a specific example of what we've seen sort of embodies,

529
00:47:08,000 --> 00:47:10,900
those are things that are working in some of our ongoing opportunities.

530
00:47:10,900 --> 00:47:13,660
Thank you very much.

531
00:47:15,180 --> 00:47:15,580
Thank you.

532
00:47:17,140 --> 00:47:19,100
Well, I just give a quick example.

533
00:47:20,380 --> 00:47:25,100
So a parent calls the school reports that a child has a positive COVID test.

534
00:47:25,700 --> 00:47:27,980
The school leader then notices school nurse.

535
00:47:28,220 --> 00:47:29,380
It's Friday afternoon.

536
00:47:29,920 --> 00:47:33,640
The school nurse then contact the local public health department to report

537
00:47:33,640 --> 00:47:36,700
get further instruction about contact tracing.

538
00:47:36,700 --> 00:47:42,240
And then there happens to be in the particular instance where there isn't a call back

539
00:47:42,240 --> 00:47:42,760
timing.

540
00:47:43,160 --> 00:47:47,360
So the school site principle is sort of wondering now what can we tell the parents?

541
00:47:47,700 --> 00:47:48,860
How do we connect with them?

542
00:47:48,940 --> 00:47:54,760
They're from Monday, Monday, Monday, and the communication is finally connected to the Zavada.

543
00:47:54,980 --> 00:48:00,140
As a unit by Monday morning, the parents wasn't on their email so brought the child's

544
00:48:00,140 --> 00:48:00,380
school.

545
00:48:01,140 --> 00:48:06,560
So we have some challenges, some opportunities with communication.

546
00:48:06,560 --> 00:48:11,180
And I think most of that has to do with this is when to all of us.

547
00:48:11,400 --> 00:48:17,000
We are trying very hard to work with the guys on that we have from the state and think

548
00:48:17,000 --> 00:48:26,460
goodness from the CDC and we are understandably focused on having children to be in school

549
00:48:26,460 --> 00:48:29,800
and ready to learn because that is our focus as a school nurses.

550
00:48:29,800 --> 00:48:32,640
We understand parents are frustrated.

551
00:48:33,840 --> 00:48:38,120
There is probably a need for more education for parents

552
00:48:38,120 --> 00:48:39,480
that they know wider.

553
00:48:40,040 --> 00:48:44,220
Child is the quarantine for someone else's positive COVID.

554
00:48:44,480 --> 00:48:47,080
If they're going to cohort where they need to quarantine.

555
00:48:47,840 --> 00:48:51,320
And we also understand that our local public health departments

556
00:48:51,320 --> 00:48:53,060
are under the source.

557
00:48:53,280 --> 00:48:55,680
And our wonderful partners with us.

558
00:48:55,680 --> 00:49:10,720
So we are strapped to provide the best services we can in this pandemic, these are really, we have more of an opportunity for a better work.

559
00:49:11,020 --> 00:49:11,820
I think if this

560
00:49:14,700 --> 00:49:15,180
can.

561
00:49:15,180 --> 00:49:19,520
Can that have to be shared if I may include any other time here?

562
00:49:20,120 --> 00:49:20,680
I want to.

563
00:49:20,940 --> 00:49:27,320
So let the committee members know that in addition to the other resources that childrens have made,

564
00:49:27,320 --> 00:49:30,080
and we'll continue to make available to our school partners.

565
00:49:30,960 --> 00:49:36,100
We partnered uniquely and closely with more public schools

566
00:49:36,100 --> 00:49:39,640
in the distribution of over 2,000 times

567
00:49:39,640 --> 00:49:43,220
of healthy and fresh food and continues to partner with you.

568
00:49:43,820 --> 00:49:47,700
So not only feed families and give them access to these healthy foods,

569
00:49:47,920 --> 00:49:51,960
but also the continuation of information about COVID

570
00:49:51,960 --> 00:50:01,200
and how to gain access to help as they need it, and in that we will conclude and be happy to entertain

571
00:50:01,200 --> 00:50:01,840
in the question.

572
00:50:02,060 --> 00:50:03,480
Thank you so much again for having us.

573
00:50:04,440 --> 00:50:04,700
Okay.

574
00:50:05,520 --> 00:50:10,160
You're going to happy to explain this today, and thank you, thank you, and you're doing a wonderful

575
00:50:10,160 --> 00:50:10,980
job.

576
00:50:11,440 --> 00:50:19,620
I think in the past we always thought there was a school nurse on site, and that's not the

577
00:50:19,620 --> 00:50:23,620
So I really appreciate you jumping in and doing extraordinary work.

578
00:50:25,080 --> 00:50:28,660
Dr. Hyman, did you want to contribute something before we get on to questions?

579
00:50:30,300 --> 00:50:30,780
Questions?

580
00:50:31,060 --> 00:50:34,320
Heidi and Bobby presented the information that we were looking forward.

581
00:50:34,440 --> 00:50:35,380
Thanks, Madam Chairwoman.

582
00:50:35,940 --> 00:50:36,800
You guys are good.

583
00:50:37,260 --> 00:50:37,720
Just do it all.

584
00:50:38,020 --> 00:50:38,320
Okay.

585
00:50:39,000 --> 00:50:42,780
So what questions do we have for any of our speakers today?

586
00:50:45,390 --> 00:50:47,330
And if your picture is not up in your raising your hand,

587
00:50:47,730 --> 00:50:48,350
cannot see you.

588
00:50:48,390 --> 00:50:49,110
Oh, there it goes.

589
00:50:49,110 --> 00:50:50,890
representative kind you?

590
00:50:54,370 --> 00:50:57,230
I think for that presentation you guys certainly have your

591
00:50:57,230 --> 00:51:02,170
against full. I was just I was just wondering in a scenario that was kind of depicted

592
00:51:02,170 --> 00:51:08,330
and whether that was just kind of a enromeration of multiple issues or certainly a scenario that

593
00:51:08,330 --> 00:51:14,130
could play out. How many students that would kind of fall into that scenario have actually

594
00:51:14,130 --> 00:51:20,510
found themselves and I hope the answer is not, but certainly how many students have found themselves

595
00:51:21,650 --> 00:51:23,090
hospitalized, and that's sort of the thing.

596
00:51:23,150 --> 00:51:25,650
I'm just trying to get a gauge on the impact

597
00:51:25,650 --> 00:51:27,790
that we're seeing there in terms of hospitals,

598
00:51:28,610 --> 00:51:29,870
and the scenario where we have students

599
00:51:29,870 --> 00:51:30,990
that have to be quarantined

600
00:51:30,990 --> 00:51:33,930
that once they are identified as COVID-positive,

601
00:51:34,090 --> 00:51:34,970
parents and that sort of everything,

602
00:51:34,990 --> 00:51:37,070
coming to hospitalization of the students and both of

603
00:51:40,650 --> 00:51:41,010
those.

604
00:51:41,030 --> 00:51:42,390
Suffer than it is, I'm excited.

605
00:51:43,330 --> 00:51:46,570
And then you can talk about what that situation

606
00:51:46,570 --> 00:51:47,890
will work with.

607
00:51:54,150 --> 00:51:54,950
You're muted, Dan.

608
00:51:58,980 --> 00:52:00,440
Come on, so I would know how to do this.

609
00:52:00,720 --> 00:52:02,860
All of us, thanks for the question, representative, that nurse.

610
00:52:02,860 --> 00:52:09,840
Um, you know, fortunately, we have not had a huge number of children hospitalized in the state.

611
00:52:10,320 --> 00:52:14,680
I'm really under any circumstance and, you know, her children's, we've had a couple hundred kids who had

612
00:52:14,680 --> 00:52:20,480
hospitalizations and extended ED observation, but there's a, I mean, a particular scenario that

613
00:52:20,480 --> 00:52:27,020
probably was talking about, I'm not sure what actually happened, but the general risk to kids has

614
00:52:27,020 --> 00:52:33,060
And fortunately, not been what we've seen with adults here in Colorado or I'm a country

615
00:52:33,060 --> 00:52:34,380
or the world for that matter.

616
00:52:35,140 --> 00:52:40,600
We don't yet exactly know why it is that children are more protective from significant

617
00:52:40,600 --> 00:52:41,240
illness.

618
00:52:41,580 --> 00:52:46,220
It's something that I hope we will learn soon and be able to use that information to help

619
00:52:46,220 --> 00:52:50,560
with future therapeutics and just our management of this novel virus.

620
00:52:52,240 --> 00:52:59,200
But the issues with exposure have mostly resulted in isolation and quarantine and

621
00:53:00,440 --> 00:53:04,440
meet-up potentially then risks to others in the homes of those kids who are exposed.

622
00:53:05,420 --> 00:53:08,040
But it certainly is not resulting in significant hospitalizations.

623
00:53:13,620 --> 00:53:15,780
It's good to hear. Yeah. I'm glad about that.

624
00:53:16,220 --> 00:53:19,880
Did anybody else have a question for our esteemed panel here?

625
00:53:22,520 --> 00:53:25,880
How often do you get children's hospital treatment here without you having to go there?

626
00:53:25,880 --> 00:53:34,380
Representative Bethner. Thank you. I'm in Aurora. I'm the State Route for Aurora. We'll be the Senate

627
00:53:34,380 --> 00:53:40,640
Tour for Parts of Aurora, where children hospital is located. So I really have that advantage.

628
00:53:41,220 --> 00:53:49,820
I just want to thank them for their partnership with Aurora with food and medical information.

629
00:53:49,820 --> 00:53:51,300
and it's been invaluable.

630
00:53:51,540 --> 00:53:53,900
So I just want to say thank you.

631
00:53:56,610 --> 00:53:58,110
Thank you very much.

632
00:53:59,070 --> 00:54:01,090
Well, we really appreciate your time today.

633
00:54:01,450 --> 00:54:02,950
So thank you, thank you.

634
00:54:03,250 --> 00:54:06,430
And then we hope to keep in touch with you.

635
00:54:06,910 --> 00:54:07,350
Thanks.

636
00:54:09,070 --> 00:54:11,790
I will tell you that people have been wondering

637
00:54:11,790 --> 00:54:15,050
if they can be seeing the slides that are being presented.

638
00:54:15,550 --> 00:54:18,870
And if you get on to the Senate Education web page

639
00:54:18,870 --> 00:54:22,910
on the alleged Colorado.gov website,

640
00:54:23,190 --> 00:54:26,630
you will be able to see all of the slides

641
00:54:26,630 --> 00:54:27,870
that are being presented today,

642
00:54:27,890 --> 00:54:29,770
because I know it's hard to be at home,

643
00:54:29,810 --> 00:54:30,810
and you can't see who's talking,

644
00:54:30,950 --> 00:54:32,430
and you can't see what they're talking about.

645
00:54:33,290 --> 00:54:35,150
So this should be able, this should help everybody,

646
00:54:35,310 --> 00:54:36,050
a little bit there.

647
00:54:37,690 --> 00:54:43,250
Okay, our next panel, we will have, let's see,

648
00:54:43,750 --> 00:54:46,090
Brett Miles, who is the executive director

649
00:54:46,090 --> 00:54:53,070
of the Colorado Association of School Executives, Cherry Rinch, Executive Director of the Colorado

650
00:54:53,070 --> 00:54:58,230
Association of School Boards, and Amy Bakker-Other, who is the president of the Colorado

651
00:54:58,230 --> 00:55:05,650
Education Association. We'd like to welcome you all to our technology wonderland here.

652
00:55:07,010 --> 00:55:16,070
So I will have you go and just introduce yourself to the people who can't see you,

653
00:55:16,070 --> 00:55:27,370
Thank you for the invitation, I'm Brett Miles Executive Director of Case, the Colorado Association of School Executives.

654
00:55:27,670 --> 00:55:36,430
I have known many of our Colorado superintendents for a great number of years and never have I been more impressed with their leadership than I am right now.

655
00:55:36,430 --> 00:55:52,130
We've seen the best examples of perseverance, leading with moral purpose, increased communication and collaboration with each other, with state agencies, with their communities, all the while adjusting to the changing rules, declining resources and limited personnel.

656
00:55:52,130 --> 00:55:59,130
as kids are rising to the occasion and leading with the best interest of kids in mind at a time when there's no playbook.

657
00:55:59,570 --> 00:56:01,610
No past president to draw on.

658
00:56:01,730 --> 00:56:02,550
Like you, I'm sure.

659
00:56:02,930 --> 00:56:09,130
I'm so proud to have these fine leaders in charge of our districts and schools during this most unusual and stressful time.

660
00:56:10,330 --> 00:56:12,170
As Dr. Anthony stated in her opening,

661
00:56:12,710 --> 00:56:20,850
every administrator I know has been working at breakneck speed to analyze ever changing guidance to determine how to best integrate that into their plans.

662
00:56:20,850 --> 00:56:35,930
Don't give me wrong, ever changing guidance is not a complaint, nor a criticism, everyone, including our partners at CDE and CDPHG has been working so hard to keep up with the latest information and communicating it out as soon as they could.

663
00:56:36,450 --> 00:56:42,630
The problem of good communication is that it needs to evolve constantly to be relevant, accurate and helpful.

664
00:56:42,630 --> 00:56:50,650
As Dr. Hannahford said earlier, CDE first put out guidance on May 26, CDPHG, but out there

665
00:56:50,650 --> 00:56:55,750
first guidance on cases about breaks and schools on July 20th.

666
00:56:55,970 --> 00:57:01,150
Most school leaders had already been going with their plans, and then we got a revised

667
00:57:01,150 --> 00:57:07,450
diversion of that on July 30th, and then again on August 13th, when some of the schools

668
00:57:07,450 --> 00:57:14,570
already planning on opening as soon as the 7th. But all of this was okay and it was needed so

669
00:57:14,570 --> 00:57:19,710
that we had the best information. It just added to the stressfulness as we went through this. So

670
00:57:19,710 --> 00:57:26,150
our district is faced in unseasing barrage of information and guidance. And all of it needed to make

671
00:57:26,150 --> 00:57:32,610
these high stakes decisions about reopening. I say all of this to help provide context for an incredibly

672
00:57:32,610 --> 00:57:37,370
chaotic world, our public leaders have been living since March, trying to reopen schools

673
00:57:37,370 --> 00:57:40,930
with rules changing what's what seems like daily.

674
00:57:41,870 --> 00:57:48,310
So, with rules changing, resources limited, they have a unique context in each one of our districts

675
00:57:48,310 --> 00:57:51,430
that probably comes as no surprise to you whatsoever.

676
00:57:51,950 --> 00:57:55,610
The one case asked superintendents to share the restart plans.

677
00:57:56,150 --> 00:57:59,950
We found there are almost as many approaches as we have districts.

678
00:58:01,110 --> 00:58:05,630
A district that prepares for the New Year, a case to have superintendents to share their

679
00:58:05,630 --> 00:58:11,970
restart plans, and despite this overwhelming sense that they have to do their daily job,

680
00:58:12,090 --> 00:58:14,790
we have a 90% of our superintendents respond.

681
00:58:15,910 --> 00:58:20,930
There are no hard and fast rules to apply in these districts, and everyone made their own choices

682
00:58:20,930 --> 00:58:21,930
for reopening.

683
00:58:22,710 --> 00:58:26,310
School districts are varying sizes, it took very similar approaches.

684
00:58:26,310 --> 00:58:31,330
School districts that look identical right next door to each other, took very different approaches.

685
00:58:32,210 --> 00:58:39,270
We have in school district that 55 students that show a vibrant model, just like a district that 25,000 students.

686
00:58:40,030 --> 00:58:45,490
We had 31,000 students district open virtually, so did a school district of 150 students.

687
00:58:46,510 --> 00:58:52,650
We have districts offering in person learning, ranging in all sizes up to 22,000 students.

688
00:58:52,650 --> 00:59:00,670
Matter of fact 80 of the 85 districts under a thousand are opening in person.

689
00:59:01,150 --> 00:59:06,090
At the end of the day, it's by each plan, each school district shows there are a couple

690
00:59:06,090 --> 00:59:07,890
things that were true in every circumstance.

691
00:59:08,610 --> 00:59:12,470
Everyone wanted school just like it was last fall.

692
00:59:12,870 --> 00:59:14,990
It was the preferred option of everybody.

693
00:59:15,690 --> 00:59:22,630
Even though the rules, the guidance, the technology, the bus routes, the cohorts, the

694
00:59:22,630 --> 00:59:29,850
personal leave of employees, the contact tracing, the PPE, ordering new supplies, finding

695
00:59:29,850 --> 00:59:36,290
that you can't get to supplies, countless communication with parents and students. Above all,

696
00:59:36,350 --> 00:59:42,930
else we had to be ready to welcome back students who suffered trauma, who suffered isolation,

697
00:59:43,770 --> 00:59:49,210
who needed the care and connection. And that's what's on every leader's mind in this state as we

698
00:59:49,210 --> 00:59:54,970
start. Our students have their worlds upended last March. When all of a sudden they no longer

699
00:59:54,970 --> 00:59:59,970
saw their friends, their teachers every day, their activities were canceled, everything seemed

700
01:00:00,000 --> 01:00:13,000
And steady and unfamiliar. They will take time to build back stability for our kids that they need so badly. And our educators are mindful, and will need long-term plans to ensure the students have this extra support.

701
01:00:13,000 --> 01:00:24,240
I can't speak strongly enough about the countless new considerations our educators and leaders have related to keeping students and staff safe.

702
01:00:24,760 --> 01:00:35,740
The fact that no matter what plan a district opened with, they first have to ensure that we have safe and staff in students.

703
01:00:35,740 --> 01:00:42,680
For example, our district's offering in person learning, know that they also need to be ready for

704
01:00:42,680 --> 01:00:47,960
resurgence in COVID-19, and they could be supposed to close again and pivot in the moment's

705
01:00:47,960 --> 01:00:48,200
notice.

706
01:00:49,040 --> 01:00:53,860
The last thing I'd like to share with you today is that public school administrators are working

707
01:00:53,860 --> 01:00:55,740
harder than ever to serve their communities.

708
01:00:56,460 --> 01:01:00,960
Loft and are in very different places in relation to this pandemic.

709
01:01:00,960 --> 01:01:06,360
Some families are angry that their students are required to wear masks.

710
01:01:06,960 --> 01:01:08,740
And other families are scared.

711
01:01:09,080 --> 01:01:10,180
The masks aren't enough.

712
01:01:11,100 --> 01:01:14,960
There are teachers who are afraid to go back to the classroom because of their own health,

713
01:01:15,140 --> 01:01:17,820
vulnerabilities, or those who live in their house.

714
01:01:18,380 --> 01:01:20,740
But they are desperate to go serve children.

715
01:01:21,220 --> 01:01:23,180
And they are desperate to make a living.

716
01:01:23,820 --> 01:01:30,220
I say all of this underscore the point that the heightened emotions and stress of all of us

717
01:01:30,220 --> 01:01:33,260
have to come to some degree about COVID-19.

718
01:01:33,580 --> 01:01:38,880
They're playing out in a large-scale, amplified ways in each school district.

719
01:01:40,380 --> 01:01:46,640
We are all trying to balance the Austin conflicting views and beliefs within our own communities

720
01:01:46,640 --> 01:01:52,620
with a commitment above all else to serve and keep the staff and student states.

721
01:01:53,560 --> 01:01:58,740
Thank you for letting me share a perspective of school administrators and the

722
01:01:58,740 --> 01:02:00,860
have you answered any questions at that time?

723
01:02:04,940 --> 01:02:07,660
You covered a lot of a lot of people in those statements,

724
01:02:08,140 --> 01:02:11,980
so I appreciate getting so many so much input from you.

725
01:02:12,160 --> 01:02:13,060
So thank you.

726
01:02:13,460 --> 01:02:16,620
Who would like to go next at a vet group?

727
01:02:17,000 --> 01:02:18,500
Sherry Rinsch, Mr. Rinsch.

728
01:02:18,820 --> 01:02:19,340
Yes, welcome.

729
01:02:20,100 --> 01:02:22,180
Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the House

730
01:02:22,180 --> 01:02:23,500
and Senate Education Committee.

731
01:02:24,120 --> 01:02:26,100
My name is Sherry Rinsch and I'm the Executive Director

732
01:02:26,100 --> 01:02:28,000
of the Colorado Association School of Arts.

733
01:02:28,620 --> 01:02:31,240
It's an honor to represent all of our locally elected

734
01:02:31,240 --> 01:02:36,780
board members who just like you have taken a sworn oath to uphold the Constitution and to fill

735
01:02:36,780 --> 01:02:42,160
the duties of their office. Today's a valuable opportunity to share with you what's happening

736
01:02:42,160 --> 01:02:47,020
in school districts across the state during one of the most complicated back to school times in

737
01:02:47,020 --> 01:02:52,960
history. And if our hope but by the end of the day you'll have a better understanding is what is happening

738
01:02:52,960 --> 01:02:58,860
and we want to be able to build those relationships with you so that we can better serve you

739
01:02:58,860 --> 01:03:00,940
and you can better serve our constituents

740
01:03:00,940 --> 01:03:03,460
and our students across the great state.

741
01:03:04,240 --> 01:03:06,280
Since mid-Marchs when COVID hit our state

742
01:03:06,280 --> 01:03:08,260
can have these health dozens of virtual meetings

743
01:03:08,260 --> 01:03:11,000
with over a thousand attendees and total.

744
01:03:11,640 --> 01:03:13,440
Giving us feedback on what's happening.

745
01:03:13,760 --> 01:03:16,180
We're trying to learn what is unique and different

746
01:03:16,180 --> 01:03:18,980
across the state, and there are so many common themes

747
01:03:18,980 --> 01:03:19,700
that we're hearing.

748
01:03:20,140 --> 01:03:22,200
So it's an honor to share a few of those with you today.

749
01:03:23,220 --> 01:03:24,760
First of all, as you've heard already,

750
01:03:25,180 --> 01:03:28,060
we are in the middle of a storm, unlike any other.

751
01:03:28,060 --> 01:03:35,760
Our school districts each have their own story to tell. Each district is unique when it comes to their local context regarding COVID.

752
01:03:36,420 --> 01:03:39,700
From the age and infrastructure of their buildings and their ventilation systems,

753
01:03:40,260 --> 01:03:47,820
to broadband access, to outbreak statistics, to teach your shortages, to class sizes, each district in community is unique.

754
01:03:47,820 --> 01:03:53,800
Schools are literally building a plane while trying to fly it, and this new evolving guidance

755
01:03:53,800 --> 01:03:58,360
is being developed in real time means that schools have to communicate and act quickly.

756
01:03:59,040 --> 01:04:00,700
They also have to make decisions quickly.

757
01:04:01,300 --> 01:04:08,880
And this continues to be complicated as the information about the virus evolves and as we learn more.

758
01:04:08,880 --> 01:04:14,200
School districts are trying to navigate cohorting, isolating, warranty and re-entry, just like

759
01:04:14,200 --> 01:04:17,920
you heard earlier from our other constituents here.

760
01:04:18,500 --> 01:04:22,940
Schools are now out to be experts, and this is really creating challenges for communication

761
01:04:22,940 --> 01:04:29,040
because one thing that can communicate could change and be different within the next 24 to 72 hours.

762
01:04:29,820 --> 01:04:32,880
School board members have said they've had many leadership challenges.

763
01:04:32,880 --> 01:04:39,060
Some of those include the dividing and disagreement in their communities.

764
01:04:39,900 --> 01:04:44,740
As Brent mentioned, people have different feelings around math, social distancing.

765
01:04:45,720 --> 01:04:49,720
There's not always consensus on what type of educational model should be in place.

766
01:04:50,480 --> 01:04:54,880
School board members are receiving hundreds if not thousands of emails and phone calls daily.

767
01:04:55,680 --> 01:05:02,020
They're having to work quickly with their superintendents to meet regularly as this guiding guidance

768
01:05:02,020 --> 01:05:05,320
and continues to change on almost a daily basis.

769
01:05:06,400 --> 01:05:09,640
Some of their other major concerns and sleepless nights

770
01:05:09,640 --> 01:05:12,460
are about how do they reopen with the safety

771
01:05:12,460 --> 01:05:14,280
of staff and students in mind.

772
01:05:15,240 --> 01:05:17,880
Everyone is trying their best to navigate this crisis,

773
01:05:18,280 --> 01:05:20,640
and I believe TD Ansus said it really well

774
01:05:20,640 --> 01:05:23,120
when she talked about her mantra being around race.

775
01:05:24,460 --> 01:05:27,240
We also know that some of the challenges

776
01:05:27,240 --> 01:05:29,000
that school districts are facing aren't new.

777
01:05:29,140 --> 01:05:30,520
They've been existed before,

778
01:05:30,520 --> 01:05:35,560
What's happened now is they are now spotlighted and exacerbated by COVID.

779
01:05:36,120 --> 01:05:45,000
So many inequities are developing at a breakneck pace that we can't even communicate them all to you today, but we will try our best.

780
01:05:46,320 --> 01:05:49,380
Our schools are typically our largest employers in our communities.

781
01:05:49,940 --> 01:05:59,440
As you've heard, they've been working to feed families, provide mental health support, childcare, and more to their vital safety net for our communities.

782
01:05:59,440 --> 01:06:05,740
They always have been throughout the spring and summer, we see numerous stories about the

783
01:06:05,740 --> 01:06:08,280
life line that schools represent to their communities.

784
01:06:09,240 --> 01:06:14,320
Schools have literally tried to move mountains to acquire enough technology, devices,

785
01:06:14,580 --> 01:06:18,080
hotspots, and everything they need to serve their students with online curriculum.

786
01:06:18,860 --> 01:06:22,080
But as you've heard, distribution and society channels are often delayed.

787
01:06:22,720 --> 01:06:27,540
Families are having to share multiple people using one computer or device.

788
01:06:27,540 --> 01:06:37,560
And then there are literally mountains in our state that have prevented us having by that access that is good infrastructure where kids can actually be offline.

789
01:06:38,580 --> 01:06:44,100
Many of these challenges and successes are things that you've heard before around teacher shortages.

790
01:06:44,880 --> 01:06:51,460
Teacher pay in Colorado has been the least competitive in the nation before the pandemic and it continues to be.

791
01:06:51,460 --> 01:06:58,020
for state and mental health, Colorado ranked six as the worst state for teen suicides before the pandemic.

792
01:06:59,520 --> 01:07:04,060
We have, as we said earlier, talking about numerous inequities growing, our achievement in

793
01:07:04,060 --> 01:07:07,580
opportunity gaps in Colorado are among the largest in the United States.

794
01:07:08,240 --> 01:07:13,280
60% of districts have transitioned to one or more of their schools to a four-day week,

795
01:07:13,580 --> 01:07:19,500
and that was before the pandemic hit. As we all know, we'll talk a little bit later today about funding.

796
01:07:20,260 --> 01:07:26,560
We've heard from districts across the state that many examples of shortages, whether it's

797
01:07:26,560 --> 01:07:32,540
teacher shortages, lapses, substitutes, other staffing shortages such as bus drivers, that

798
01:07:32,540 --> 01:07:36,600
are really quickly in the efforts to give students access to an equitable education.

799
01:07:37,940 --> 01:07:39,080
That's eight feet, probably so.

800
01:07:40,060 --> 01:07:42,620
The Anthropocene and Alamos not authored in off-ed.

801
01:07:43,300 --> 01:07:47,900
And she talked about how six of their 13 bus drivers have either retired or left the position.

802
01:07:48,520 --> 01:07:55,040
These stories are prevalent across Colorado, and these continue to exacerbate the inequities

803
01:07:55,040 --> 01:07:55,620
that exist.

804
01:07:56,660 --> 01:08:01,600
So, I want to thank you for the invitation to spend this time with you sharing, learning,

805
01:08:01,720 --> 01:08:06,940
and growing together in order to best serve the 900,000 students in our Colorado Public

806
01:08:06,940 --> 01:08:07,360
School.

807
01:08:08,480 --> 01:08:12,280
Your interest in desire to provide the necessary investment in our schools is an investment

808
01:08:12,280 --> 01:08:13,300
in our infrastructure.

809
01:08:13,820 --> 01:08:22,380
We've always known that strong public schools serve as catalysts for our communities, and strong public schools provide the bedrock to our economy and our democracy.

810
01:08:23,320 --> 01:08:25,980
The pandemic is only making this reality more clear.

811
01:08:26,920 --> 01:08:29,700
I would forward to addressing your comments and questions throughout the day.

812
01:08:29,840 --> 01:08:34,880
And again, thank you for this opportunity to highlight the amazing works that our districts are doing every day.

813
01:08:36,520 --> 01:08:38,320
Thank you, Director Rich.

814
01:08:39,340 --> 01:08:41,220
Who was like, oh, baby, Bob Ollert.

815
01:08:41,580 --> 01:08:43,660
Are you, you can't come on photo-wise.

816
01:08:43,720 --> 01:08:44,280
Is this correct?

817
01:08:45,780 --> 01:08:46,220
All right.

818
01:08:46,720 --> 01:08:48,640
So that's a baby box there.

819
01:08:48,860 --> 01:08:49,200
That's her.

820
01:08:50,420 --> 01:08:51,800
Thank you, Madam Chair.

821
01:08:52,660 --> 01:08:54,920
And thank you, officers, for the time today.

822
01:08:55,900 --> 01:08:58,780
I will, I'll see if I can turn my video on for a second.

823
01:08:58,900 --> 01:09:01,560
I'll see if it works to wave and say hi.

824
01:09:01,560 --> 01:09:11,820
I am the president of the Colorado Education Association, I am a high school counselor, but I am also a mom.

825
01:09:12,500 --> 01:09:16,460
And I have three kids at home who are doing remote learning.

826
01:09:17,900 --> 01:09:22,480
We are all doing it together. My husband is also a middle school assistant principal.

827
01:09:22,780 --> 01:09:28,680
So there are times when five of us are trying to access our broadband, our internet,

828
01:09:28,680 --> 01:09:31,460
and it does not always go well.

829
01:09:31,580 --> 01:09:33,780
So one of the things is a mom that I have learned

830
01:09:33,780 --> 01:09:38,320
to avoid some of the tears of kids getting kicked off

831
01:09:38,320 --> 01:09:41,820
and getting disconnected from their remote learning

832
01:09:41,820 --> 01:09:46,720
is to keep my video off so that it doesn't impact their access.

833
01:09:47,480 --> 01:09:50,300
So I apologize for not being on video,

834
01:09:51,080 --> 01:09:54,540
but I do appreciate the time to be here with you all today

835
01:09:54,540 --> 01:09:58,640
to share the perspective of the over 39,000 educators

836
01:09:59,100 --> 01:10:02,400
that the Colorado Education Association represents.

837
01:10:03,340 --> 01:10:06,680
The CEA represents our classroom teachers,

838
01:10:06,960 --> 01:10:09,760
our school social worker, school nurses,

839
01:10:09,840 --> 01:10:13,280
school counselors, health aid, food service workers,

840
01:10:13,420 --> 01:10:17,740
bus drivers, mechanics, all of the wonderful people

841
01:10:17,740 --> 01:10:22,640
who serve the students of Colorado every single day.

842
01:10:22,640 --> 01:10:31,910
As has been stated, and I will not take time to reiterate any of the things that others have said,

843
01:10:32,640 --> 01:10:43,420
but I will tinker that this is, hopefully, the most challenging opening to schools that any of us will face.

844
01:10:43,660 --> 01:10:49,980
It is my greatest hope that we will all see our way to the other side of this,

845
01:10:49,980 --> 01:10:54,740
and not have to experience an opening of school like this again.

846
01:10:55,100 --> 01:10:59,380
Nor like this brain that we all live through as this began.

847
01:10:59,980 --> 01:11:06,720
We are now at around seven months of being in this time of experiencing a global pandemic

848
01:11:06,720 --> 01:11:14,600
and working as hard as possible to ensure that the needs of our students and families are met.

849
01:11:14,600 --> 01:11:28,580
As others have stated, we at the CEA just as our amazing educators and some instances literally shifted their entire method and mode of teaching and learning in a 24 hour period.

850
01:11:29,280 --> 01:11:38,520
We at the CEA did the same to ensure that we were connecting with our members and our members are those that educate the use of Colorado.

851
01:11:38,520 --> 01:11:49,600
We have done numerous surveys since March to connect and engage and here from our 39,000 members across the state.

852
01:11:50,720 --> 01:11:56,100
We have at times a share the results of those surveys with you all as legislators.

853
01:11:56,900 --> 01:12:04,300
And if you don't have any of those, we are happy to email those to you post today's hearing.

854
01:12:04,300 --> 01:12:11,520
So if you would like any of that information and you did not receive it, please reach out and we would be happy to share that with you.

855
01:12:11,900 --> 01:12:23,800
As this panel is talking about the return to school, I would like to talk with you about where our educators were and are with the return to in-person learning.

856
01:12:24,560 --> 01:12:28,980
One thing that I would note is that our schools did not close.

857
01:12:29,420 --> 01:12:32,720
Our educators never stop teaching their students.

858
01:12:36,840 --> 01:12:47,480
They continued to unbelievable circumstances to show up every single day to provide teaching and learning to students.

859
01:12:48,720 --> 01:12:51,300
They continued to do so to this day.

860
01:12:52,060 --> 01:12:54,760
Many are afraid for their own life.

861
01:12:55,520 --> 01:12:59,800
They are afraid for the lives of those in their homes whom they love.

862
01:12:59,800 --> 01:13:03,580
Whether it be their own child,

863
01:13:04,660 --> 01:13:07,080
who has enemy and compromised system,

864
01:13:08,100 --> 01:13:10,820
or a parent who they are working hard

865
01:13:10,820 --> 01:13:14,800
to support and take care of.

866
01:13:16,060 --> 01:13:20,220
They continue to show up to serve the students

867
01:13:20,220 --> 01:13:21,880
that they love.

868
01:13:22,800 --> 01:13:25,260
Many are worried about their students.

869
01:13:26,300 --> 01:13:27,820
I saw their answers pointed out

870
01:13:27,820 --> 01:13:31,040
From do not know where their students are.

871
01:13:31,660 --> 01:13:34,960
They try every single day to connect with them,

872
01:13:35,360 --> 01:13:39,040
but find out how they may be, or where they may be.

873
01:13:39,660 --> 01:13:43,240
But they continue to show up whether it be in a building,

874
01:13:43,660 --> 01:13:44,380
wearing a mask,

875
01:13:47,070 --> 01:13:48,430
or via a computer screen,

876
01:13:49,290 --> 01:13:52,310
so that they can provide learning to their students.

877
01:13:52,650 --> 01:13:57,010
I know the question with us about the quality of remote learning,

878
01:13:57,010 --> 01:14:03,430
And I can share with you as a parent and as the president of the Colorado Education Association

879
01:14:03,430 --> 01:14:10,930
representing 39,000 educators, if there is not one educator that I know who is not giving

880
01:14:10,930 --> 01:14:17,150
every single ounce of their being to ensure that quality learning, teaching and learning

881
01:14:17,150 --> 01:14:17,890
is happening.

882
01:14:18,790 --> 01:14:20,590
Well, it is not a perfect system.

883
01:14:21,790 --> 01:14:26,030
It is a system where everyone is giving their all to ensure that they are meeting the needs

884
01:14:26,030 --> 01:14:34,190
students. We learned many things from the spring about how to provide remote learning and many changes

885
01:14:34,190 --> 01:14:43,090
districts along with their teachers and educators worked overtime to learn new methods and ways

886
01:14:43,090 --> 01:14:49,670
of providing remote learning of shifting from remote learning to hybrid to in-person, etc.

887
01:14:50,950 --> 01:14:59,350
As Dr. Antis said, we need to meet one another with grace, but I can assure you that everyone is working hard.

888
01:15:00,000 --> 01:15:08,140
Provide the best learning possible in this environment. As we survey our members about the safe return

889
01:15:08,140 --> 01:15:15,720
to in-person learning, it was clear that there were four things that educators asked to be met

890
01:15:15,720 --> 01:15:23,240
in order to assure a safe return to in-person learning. One, being employee voice, who knows better

891
01:15:23,240 --> 01:15:28,680
than the impacts of what the decisions would be than those who are actually doing the job

892
01:15:28,680 --> 01:15:34,940
every single day. So our educators ask to work collaboratively with their district leadership,

893
01:15:35,360 --> 01:15:40,720
around things such as making the plans to return to school. An example is, you know,

894
01:15:41,280 --> 01:15:46,020
there were as the guidelines were coming out. There were things that were suggested such

895
01:15:46,020 --> 01:15:52,080
as only half of the students can be on a bus. So who better to talk about what the implications

896
01:15:52,080 --> 01:15:57,220
of that would be than the actual bus driver who drives those routes every single day. So

897
01:15:57,220 --> 01:16:01,080
employee including employee voice with one of the top expectations.

898
01:16:01,660 --> 01:16:04,740
Also that safety protections must be provided.

899
01:16:05,220 --> 01:16:08,380
That included PPE as well as establishing

900
01:16:08,380 --> 01:16:11,960
and clearly articulating the health and safety protocols

901
01:16:11,960 --> 01:16:14,780
that would be in place for students and staff.

902
01:16:15,900 --> 01:16:19,860
We also asked for community transparency that data must be

903
01:16:19,860 --> 01:16:23,080
made available to all family staff and community members

904
01:16:23,080 --> 01:16:25,300
around what is driving the decision.

905
01:16:25,300 --> 01:16:36,840
And of course, a top priority was ensuring equity for all for students, staff and families to be provided with equitable access to education.

906
01:16:37,480 --> 01:16:39,680
No matter where the learning is occurring.

907
01:16:40,180 --> 01:16:49,380
As has been stated before, there have been many barriers to learning for certain families and students and I would point out as well as for our educators.

908
01:16:49,380 --> 01:16:54,860
Just that we saw that we have students who are sitting in parking lots to try to access

909
01:16:54,860 --> 01:16:55,780
Wi-Fi.

910
01:16:56,300 --> 01:17:03,120
Many of our teachers were doing the same, sitting in a hot car, in a parking lot to have access

911
01:17:03,120 --> 01:17:07,340
to Wi-Fi so that they could provide a lesson to their students.

912
01:17:09,060 --> 01:17:16,440
We have worked very collaboratively with K. Cassie, the governor's office, the Colorado Department

913
01:17:16,440 --> 01:17:25,340
education to ensure that our students and educators are safe to return to

914
01:17:25,340 --> 01:17:32,580
in-person learning. There's a lot of work that is love to do. Even though as I

915
01:17:32,580 --> 01:17:38,340
said before we are seven months in to this experience we know that we are not

916
01:17:38,340 --> 01:17:44,000
out of the woods yet and that we must all come together and that same collaborative

917
01:17:44,000 --> 01:17:50,720
spirit to work, to ensure the safety of our students and our educators.

918
01:17:52,420 --> 01:17:58,000
I will close by saying that the top concern, one of the top concerns that I have as the

919
01:17:58,000 --> 01:18:03,660
president of the CEA, and I think many of you know my background is as a school counselor,

920
01:18:04,680 --> 01:18:07,940
is for the mental health of our educators.

921
01:18:08,840 --> 01:18:15,340
I have never seen the stress and anxiety that our educators are experiencing at the level

922
01:18:15,340 --> 01:18:23,980
that it is right now. In fact, I myself personally have had to refer for people for educators

923
01:18:23,980 --> 01:18:32,200
to the suicide hotline. There is stress and anxiety that our educators are feeling right now,

924
01:18:32,200 --> 01:18:39,720
whether it be because they are under tremendous pressure to learn a new message in mode of delivering teaching and learning.

925
01:18:40,260 --> 01:18:46,220
Whether it be because they are worried about their students and their home circumstances,

926
01:18:46,860 --> 01:18:56,700
whether it be because they feel like they cannot meet their students' needs in the best way that they know how in a virtual environment.

927
01:18:56,700 --> 01:19:02,380
But our educators are feeling tremendous stress and pressure.

928
01:19:03,300 --> 01:19:07,680
And my best hope is that we can remember that our educators

929
01:19:07,680 --> 01:19:13,160
to deserve the respect and attention from all of us

930
01:19:13,160 --> 01:19:15,720
to ensure that their mental health and well-being

931
01:19:15,720 --> 01:19:19,940
as they work to serve the students of Colorado is top of mind.

932
01:19:20,200 --> 01:19:22,700
I look forward to working with you all as we

933
01:19:22,700 --> 01:19:33,120
Problem solved together, how to resolve these problems that we are facing right now with solutions that speak to all of our students and educators.

934
01:19:33,120 --> 01:19:37,580
I thank you for your time today for your work that you are putting in.

935
01:19:37,980 --> 01:19:43,680
As we navigate all of this together and then happy to answer any questions that you may have. Thank you so much.

936
01:19:46,740 --> 01:19:49,340
Okay, we have about five minutes for questions.

937
01:19:49,900 --> 01:19:52,460
And it looks like Senator Story,

938
01:19:57,700 --> 01:19:57,700
please.

939
01:19:57,760 --> 01:19:58,900
It's important, everyone.

940
01:19:59,820 --> 01:20:03,440
It's a pleasure to be online with all of you.

941
01:20:05,040 --> 01:20:06,360
It's unfortunate, of course.

942
01:20:06,560 --> 01:20:09,940
I think many of us feel this that we are not in person

943
01:20:11,100 --> 01:20:14,080
and have them, you know, don't have all those added benefits.

944
01:20:15,180 --> 01:20:17,400
But still, I think this is an important meeting,

945
01:20:17,540 --> 01:20:22,020
and I'm really grateful to those who work so hard to pull it together

946
01:20:22,020 --> 01:20:32,700
representative McLaughlin, a senator taught, and staff, and everyone else that was all the stakeholders that were involved to put this together.

947
01:20:33,460 --> 01:20:45,040
And I also just want to share some appreciation for all of the folks that are working so hard in the education realm.

948
01:20:45,860 --> 01:20:57,100
The payrolls that just folks, the EA, Cass BKs, those that are yet to come, CVE, also CDPNT for

949
01:20:57,100 --> 01:21:02,720
all the entities that work every day to provide education for our kids.

950
01:21:04,080 --> 01:21:09,140
I don't think there's anybody in the room that can argue that in-person learning is absolutely

951
01:21:09,140 --> 01:21:17,620
the best option, best practice, the thing that we all want to most for our kids, but certainly

952
01:21:17,620 --> 01:21:22,200
given to health circumstances that we are in the midst of and have been for the last seven

953
01:21:22,200 --> 01:21:29,960
months, it just clearly isn't possible for everyone to be able to meet that practice that we

954
01:21:29,960 --> 01:21:36,680
all appreciate so much. And I certainly look forward to those things ahead where we will have

955
01:21:36,680 --> 01:21:44,420
opportunity again and we will pull back together. Our kids will get back up to speed. Our teachers

956
01:21:44,420 --> 01:21:49,520
will get in a better place where they're more comfortable with the teaching that's going on,

957
01:21:49,680 --> 01:21:58,500
then what they're surviving through right now. I also just want to reiterate what Amy was just saying

958
01:21:58,500 --> 01:22:08,020
if you minutes ago about teachers that are challenged by what they're facing, relative to

959
01:22:08,020 --> 01:22:12,800
and worried, no matter where they are, whether it's in-person learning or remote learning,

960
01:22:13,300 --> 01:22:20,780
there are plenty of educators who are doing those two things simultaneously. At the same time,

961
01:22:21,080 --> 01:22:27,720
they are teaching remotely while they are teaching in-person and building. And I just can't even

962
01:22:27,720 --> 01:22:31,700
imagine the stress of that scenario as well.

963
01:22:32,940 --> 01:22:34,100
So, thank you very much.

964
01:22:34,460 --> 01:22:38,080
My hats off to all of you for the immense work that you are doing.

965
01:22:38,820 --> 01:22:40,520
And we will get through this.

966
01:22:40,520 --> 01:22:41,480
And it will get better.

967
01:22:41,620 --> 01:22:43,620
Can I look forward to those dates as well.

968
01:22:48,940 --> 01:22:49,120
Thank you.

969
01:22:49,240 --> 01:22:50,680
Senator Todd, did you have a question?

970
01:22:52,180 --> 01:22:52,520
Much.

971
01:22:53,860 --> 01:22:55,780
And Brad and Sherry and Amy.

972
01:22:56,300 --> 01:22:58,940
I'd like for you to just kind of share a little bit.

973
01:22:58,940 --> 01:23:11,000
I know that we're hearing from school perspective and oftentimes the parent voice is the voice that we might not be hearing from right now.

974
01:23:11,120 --> 01:23:20,440
But I want to ask you to share a little bit about how you make sure that you are allowing that parent voice to be engaged and involved.

975
01:23:20,440 --> 01:23:28,700
And maybe just give an example of some different things, I know that different different tendons

976
01:23:28,700 --> 01:23:35,920
maybe are reaching out to the community, maybe having sort of students and parents involved

977
01:23:35,920 --> 01:23:38,800
community meetings and that kind of thing.

978
01:23:39,160 --> 01:23:50,180
But I do want to make sure that to all of us that we are really cognizant of what that

979
01:23:50,180 --> 01:23:56,720
and how in addition to trying to meet the needs of everybody, how that is being approached

980
01:23:56,720 --> 01:23:57,680
in different districts.

981
01:23:57,860 --> 01:24:02,920
And again, you don't need to go into great depth, but just give some examples of what

982
01:24:02,920 --> 01:24:06,300
that outreach may be looked like to make sure that that's heard.

983
01:24:10,890 --> 01:24:13,970
Todd, I have a jump in from Calzvi.

984
01:24:14,350 --> 01:24:19,290
I know as we've been talking to our school board members across the state, they are talking

985
01:24:19,290 --> 01:24:26,290
about that the move to virtual meetings has really increased participation at the community level.

986
01:24:27,290 --> 01:24:33,770
But many are also superintendents and teams are doing Facebook Live before meetings during

987
01:24:33,770 --> 01:24:38,470
meetings after meetings and they're starting to see that really demand for communication.

988
01:24:39,550 --> 01:24:46,330
They also know that not every family member or parent is able to access Facebook Live or whatever

989
01:24:46,330 --> 01:24:50,170
mode of communications that they're using to their social media channels.

990
01:24:50,450 --> 01:24:53,330
And so they're looking at multiple ways to communicate messages.

991
01:24:54,170 --> 01:24:58,810
I think our school board members, as I mentioned earlier, are being inspected with

992
01:24:58,810 --> 01:25:05,350
human health and complexity, and complexity.

993
01:25:06,210 --> 01:25:08,890
Some parents, and statistics, mean first.

994
01:25:09,710 --> 01:25:14,130
One moment, represent a world's people yourself on these things.

995
01:25:16,900 --> 01:25:29,260
Madam Chair, I want to do my video is not working, so you can't see me reach my hand, so that's why I wanted to do me in there, so I do have a question when we get up.

996
01:25:29,260 --> 01:25:32,840
And then when we come on, can you tell me something?

997
01:25:40,530 --> 01:25:44,530
I've never thought, this is about the Galaxy case.

998
01:25:44,610 --> 01:25:47,670
This last week, we had the good forces

999
01:25:47,670 --> 01:25:50,470
to have about 50 superintendents together.

1000
01:25:51,030 --> 01:25:54,290
And one of the topics was the positive things

1001
01:25:54,290 --> 01:25:57,190
that are going to keep on this learning experience.

1002
01:25:57,190 --> 01:26:00,490
I'm just complaining about what the struggles

1003
01:26:00,490 --> 01:26:04,330
and many of those sort of communication topics.

1004
01:26:04,330 --> 01:26:10,870
The quick little week we have an email video chat the last two minutes to let parents know

1005
01:26:10,870 --> 01:26:18,010
what's up to date or up to speed. Hearing from that more people are zooming in to the

1006
01:26:18,010 --> 01:26:23,890
school board meetings that were never available to be zoomed in before. So that was a scene

1007
01:26:23,890 --> 01:26:30,430
that came out of our superintendent conference last week was that the additional communications

1008
01:26:30,430 --> 01:26:32,630
in place, start going away.

1009
01:26:37,570 --> 01:26:40,110
Is there anything any fellow that Senator Todd?

1010
01:26:40,590 --> 01:26:41,270
You can.

1011
01:26:44,080 --> 01:26:44,200
Thank you.

1012
01:26:44,340 --> 01:26:50,540
I think it's important that, you know, what we wanted to do today would make sure that we

1013
01:26:50,540 --> 01:26:53,800
were getting an overview and not individual stories.

1014
01:26:54,520 --> 01:27:01,340
And so this was not enough to have, you know, parent, parent come to us.

1015
01:27:01,580 --> 01:27:05,860
But we want to make sure that there's always has been heard and we appreciate very much

1016
01:27:05,860 --> 01:27:11,460
your representation and giving a clear explanation as to how that voice is

1017
01:27:11,460 --> 01:27:15,920
are being heard at the at the local level, which is the most important level.

1018
01:27:16,200 --> 01:27:17,940
So thank you very much, appreciate it.

1019
01:27:19,360 --> 01:27:19,920
Thank you.

1020
01:27:20,040 --> 01:27:20,960
Representative Gatner.

1021
01:27:25,900 --> 01:27:27,020
Thank you.

1022
01:27:27,020 --> 01:27:27,220
Thank you.

1023
01:27:27,220 --> 01:27:28,220
My question for Amy.

1024
01:27:28,500 --> 01:27:29,760
Thank you for being here today.

1025
01:27:30,100 --> 01:27:32,120
But I hope there's a lot of us that are

1026
01:27:32,120 --> 01:27:40,080
that click into more in this survey of dimensions and get to the details, get things around

1027
01:27:40,080 --> 01:27:41,140
that.

1028
01:27:44,640 --> 01:27:51,100
This is quite important for us to understand, just brief kind of general questions about the survey.

1029
01:27:51,300 --> 01:27:53,700
In the sense of, what was the makeup of the survey?

1030
01:27:54,720 --> 01:27:59,500
How many and what percentage of respondents in the survey were active classroom teachers?

1031
01:28:00,300 --> 01:28:04,140
And then finally, what was the geographic distribution of the server?

1032
01:28:04,680 --> 01:28:07,120
Because I think that there's a lot, those three questions are pretty important.

1033
01:28:07,500 --> 01:28:13,020
We look at surveys to really understand the impact of those responses and what that really

1034
01:28:13,020 --> 01:28:17,440
means for teachers across the state of Colorado and those that are members of your organization.

1035
01:28:20,090 --> 01:28:20,370
Yes, sir.

1036
01:28:20,550 --> 01:28:25,010
And I, hopefully, I, at the Excuse me, sorry, Madam Chair, may I respond?

1037
01:28:29,740 --> 01:28:29,860
Sorry.

1038
01:28:30,800 --> 01:28:31,060
Sorry.

1039
01:28:32,760 --> 01:28:35,160
Sorry, I just didn't want to overstep.

1040
01:28:35,240 --> 01:28:35,720
Thank you.

1041
01:28:35,800 --> 01:28:38,220
And thank you for the question, Representative Geitner.

1042
01:28:40,280 --> 01:28:43,540
And like I said, we will be happy to send this out to you.

1043
01:28:43,660 --> 01:28:45,740
But just we've done multiple surveys.

1044
01:28:46,440 --> 01:28:52,560
Like I said since March, the one I was specifically referring to as a survey that we did in early July

1045
01:28:53,240 --> 01:29:00,240
as this kind of the return to in-person learning conversation started getting to a heightened level.

1046
01:29:00,240 --> 01:29:08,280
So, at this particular survey, we surveyed 9,800 educators across Colorado, the respondents

1047
01:29:08,280 --> 01:29:16,240
were from 122 school districts in Colorado, and so I'd be happy to break that down

1048
01:29:16,240 --> 01:29:17,420
for you further.

1049
01:29:18,440 --> 01:29:25,840
As I said, we do represent all educators certified as well as what is sometimes referred

1050
01:29:25,840 --> 01:29:32,080
to its classified staff, we refer to them as ESC Educational Support staff, but that is

1051
01:29:32,080 --> 01:29:39,360
those support staff, our paraprofessionals, bus drivers, food service workers, etc.

1052
01:29:39,980 --> 01:29:47,920
The majority of our CA membership is in the certified staff category, but we do have a portion

1053
01:29:47,920 --> 01:29:52,300
of our membership that is representative of the classified or the support staff.

1054
01:29:52,300 --> 01:29:57,680
So when we have respondents to our survey, obviously it's going to match that demographics

1055
01:29:57,680 --> 01:29:59,600
where the majority

1056
01:30:00,000 --> 01:30:04,600
The respondents are going to be in the certified categories.

1057
01:30:05,620 --> 01:30:14,680
But as I said, for this particular survey, it was 9,800 respondents, which is a large representative sample of our 39,000 educators,

1058
01:30:15,700 --> 01:30:20,140
and that represented respondents from 122 school districts.

1059
01:30:20,140 --> 01:30:27,800
And so we were serving them around, and this particular survey, their sentiments on how we should

1060
01:30:27,800 --> 01:30:36,060
return to, for schools should it be 100% remote, hybrid, in person, what their concerns

1061
01:30:36,060 --> 01:30:41,260
and worries were their students, were what their concerns and worries were for themselves,

1062
01:30:41,420 --> 01:30:42,080
with educators.

1063
01:30:43,000 --> 01:30:49,480
So we will happily email this out to you all, and I'm happy to, at any time, if you

1064
01:30:49,480 --> 01:30:56,040
I would like to set up a further more extensive conversation with me to talk through that I'm more

1065
01:30:56,040 --> 01:30:58,860
than happy to do that as well.

1066
01:31:10,410 --> 01:31:14,930
Representative Geiger was at any follow-up on that year, okay, okay.

1067
01:31:15,050 --> 01:31:15,350
So, no.

1068
01:31:16,090 --> 01:31:17,610
Okay, Representative McClusky.

1069
01:31:18,990 --> 01:31:19,110
Thanks.

1070
01:31:19,950 --> 01:31:21,190
Thank you, Madam Chair.

1071
01:31:21,910 --> 01:31:28,450
I really want to thank our three panelists appreciate this focus on local control and customization

1072
01:31:28,450 --> 01:31:36,550
being flexible and nimble in our communities that range from very small rural communities to large urban centers.

1073
01:31:37,050 --> 01:31:44,930
My question about three of you, and maybe start with Amy first, sorry, Ms. Baka Ollert.

1074
01:31:45,890 --> 01:31:54,070
Quickly, what more can we do to safely support reopening from your perspectives?

1075
01:31:54,070 --> 01:32:01,410
what can the state do right now to help, you know, give educators confidence that, you know,

1076
01:32:01,530 --> 01:32:06,550
their safe, their classrooms are safe, what can we do for our superintendents and executives

1077
01:32:06,550 --> 01:32:08,990
and certainly our school boards as well?

1078
01:32:13,800 --> 01:32:17,080
Yeah, you may just jump in. Thanks. Thank you so much.

1079
01:32:17,180 --> 01:32:23,300
And thank you, Representative McCarthy, for the question. You know, I think that the best thing

1080
01:32:23,300 --> 01:32:27,780
that we can continue to do is to work collaboratively together.

1081
01:32:28,660 --> 01:32:38,560
I think we have been calling from the CEA for clear and consistent guidance, clear and consistent guidance from the state.

1082
01:32:39,460 --> 01:32:51,140
And as you heard in earlier presentations from CDPHE, we now have that outbreak and school closure guidance, which is very informative.

1083
01:32:51,140 --> 01:32:59,680
We do need to continue to work together to ensure that that is being followed and implemented across the state.

1084
01:33:00,660 --> 01:33:08,320
And we do need to work together to educate our families and our communities about that guidance and how it works.

1085
01:33:08,320 --> 01:33:21,420
It was put together for a reason and that reason is to ensure the utmost help and safety of our students and educators as we return to in person learning.

1086
01:33:22,020 --> 01:33:30,800
So I think we need to continue to monitor the situation and ensure that the guidance is being followed.

1087
01:33:30,800 --> 01:33:41,640
Some of the things that we are addressing is we do have some places, for example, where the state-wide mask mandate is not being enforced.

1088
01:33:41,940 --> 01:33:59,960
And so we're continuing to work with the local health department as well as the CDPHE to work on those things, but we all need to work in the spirit of collaboration to ensure the things that we know like wearing masks will help.

1089
01:33:59,960 --> 01:34:06,060
And I mean, of course, the other thing is we need to continue to advocate for funding.

1090
01:34:06,480 --> 01:34:15,480
We, at the CEA, are working extremely diligently to push on the federal level to get

1091
01:34:15,480 --> 01:34:18,820
more funds to Colorado for resources.

1092
01:34:18,820 --> 01:34:26,180
One of the things that has been extremely important is the ability for districts to do testing,

1093
01:34:26,180 --> 01:34:36,540
COVID testing, not academic testing, but COVID testing of employees, and that is a very expensive

1094
01:34:36,540 --> 01:34:38,100
endeavor for districts.

1095
01:34:38,500 --> 01:34:43,380
Some are partnering with the community partner that has made that helpful.

1096
01:34:44,180 --> 01:34:47,740
Less than that cost, but it is still an extreme cost.

1097
01:34:47,740 --> 01:34:59,020
One of the Metro Districts, for example, is paying $760,000 for six months to provide testing for its employees.

1098
01:35:00,100 --> 01:35:12,460
So that funding, the ability to have the things that we know are needed like PPE, disinfectants, cleaning supplies, as well as testing, that all requires resources.

1099
01:35:12,460 --> 01:35:20,840
and so we have got to work to ensure that our districts and our schools have the financial resources necessary to meet those safety standards.

1100
01:35:21,740 --> 01:35:22,460
Thank you.

1101
01:35:26,060 --> 01:35:26,500
Thank you.

1102
01:35:27,480 --> 01:35:29,900
Representative, welcome back.

1103
01:35:37,710 --> 01:35:37,950
Thank you.

1104
01:35:38,510 --> 01:35:38,630
Okay.

1105
01:35:43,520 --> 01:35:44,060
Here we go.

1106
01:35:44,240 --> 01:35:45,400
Madam Chair, my back.

1107
01:35:51,770 --> 01:35:53,070
And my back with you, Madam Chair.

1108
01:35:54,270 --> 01:35:55,190
But yes, you are.

1109
01:35:55,350 --> 01:35:56,410
We can hear your best spirit.

1110
01:35:56,850 --> 01:35:57,470
Thank you.

1111
01:35:58,270 --> 01:35:58,550
Perfect.

1112
01:35:58,550 --> 01:36:02,030
It's loud and clear as a challenge here in the Sun and the Latin communities.

1113
01:36:02,690 --> 01:36:08,570
My question is for the entire panel and the long term effects of this, but I covered

1114
01:36:08,570 --> 01:36:12,910
even a district of distinction about a four or one out of five of our students from

1115
01:36:12,910 --> 01:36:13,510
our profession.

1116
01:36:14,510 --> 01:36:19,010
And the managers, you know, I get brain and they all look 58% of third day are not being

1117
01:36:19,010 --> 01:36:22,330
proficient in reading and it's hard to teach reading remotely.

1118
01:36:23,070 --> 01:36:27,790
So the two-part question, the volume pack will just have on achievement, do you believe?

1119
01:36:28,570 --> 01:36:36,570
And the second part of that was the how many years will COVID be used as a reason for our test scores not improving.

1120
01:36:46,840 --> 01:36:48,420
So today there will soon.

1121
01:36:50,100 --> 01:36:57,460
There's no question that every one of our educators want to see the students meeting all of the standards.

1122
01:36:57,740 --> 01:37:01,880
That's what we strive for each time as a school leader yourself.

1123
01:37:01,880 --> 01:37:09,460
know the all of the different inputs to go into that and certainly COVID may be one short-term input,

1124
01:37:09,700 --> 01:37:16,120
but certainly it is not the long-term input. Long-term input is getting high quality educators

1125
01:37:16,120 --> 01:37:25,280
so want to be in this field and to have the resources that we need to keep them, to have people rallying

1126
01:37:25,280 --> 01:37:30,320
behind these educators and letting them know that they're doing a good job in keeping that going.

1127
01:37:30,320 --> 01:37:37,060
I'm not worried about there being a COVID excuse, I am worried about any of the distractions

1128
01:37:37,060 --> 01:37:42,060
that we can have to keep people from getting back to first instruction to good high-quality

1129
01:37:42,060 --> 01:37:43,280
grade level instructions.

1130
01:37:43,880 --> 01:37:47,660
We've got to use every minute that we have this year to make sure that we're focused

1131
01:37:47,660 --> 01:37:49,980
on first instruction.

1132
01:37:51,060 --> 01:37:56,880
And that'll help us make sure that this double-long summer slide that we usually, you know,

1133
01:37:57,060 --> 01:37:58,960
we usually have the summer slide, you know, that well.

1134
01:37:58,960 --> 01:38:06,140
The double-long summer slide, we're going to be able to do this if we can stay focused on

1135
01:38:06,140 --> 01:38:12,140
instruction in schools as long as we can, using all of our time, hopefully just for teaching

1136
01:38:12,140 --> 01:38:14,900
and out for anything else.

1137
01:38:22,060 --> 01:38:22,280
Thank you.

1138
01:38:22,400 --> 01:38:22,880
This is Amy.

1139
01:38:22,880 --> 01:38:24,700
I'll just quickly add in.

1140
01:38:24,720 --> 01:38:30,940
I mean, I also think that we need to acknowledge the bare things that our students have learned

1141
01:38:30,940 --> 01:38:38,380
during this time that a test camp measure or that, you know, but that will serve them well

1142
01:38:38,380 --> 01:38:38,720
in life.

1143
01:38:38,900 --> 01:38:43,420
I know speaking of the parent, my students have learned a lot about resiliency.

1144
01:38:44,520 --> 01:38:50,120
They have also, they now are like my IT tech support at home because they have learned so

1145
01:38:50,120 --> 01:38:56,680
much about technology and about, but they are also learning about, you know, how to adapt,

1146
01:38:57,100 --> 01:38:59,620
how to face challenging experiences.

1147
01:38:59,620 --> 01:39:07,440
So there are things that our students are learning, aside from the academic side, but I would

1148
01:39:07,440 --> 01:39:15,560
absolutely agree with Mr. Miles around that we and I believe our educators are doing this right now.

1149
01:39:15,740 --> 01:39:23,160
It's been in every second ensuring that we are providing those resources, those interventions,

1150
01:39:23,160 --> 01:39:27,240
those supports for students need right now to catch up.

1151
01:39:27,340 --> 01:39:30,420
Well, being mindful of where our students are from,

1152
01:39:30,720 --> 01:39:33,200
a social, a group social, a national land as well.

1153
01:39:33,880 --> 01:39:35,900
As I believe it was breath that pointed out,

1154
01:39:36,140 --> 01:39:40,140
we have many students who are coming back into our school settings

1155
01:39:40,140 --> 01:39:43,080
after experiencing a lot of trauma.

1156
01:39:43,320 --> 01:39:46,300
And so we have to be cognizant of that as well

1157
01:39:46,300 --> 01:39:50,360
and need those needs so that students can get back to a path of learning.

1158
01:39:53,200 --> 01:40:14,200
I represent Wilson. I would concur with everything that Pat and Amy have said. I think the other thing that you'll want to keep an eye on is we are all part of the COVID task force that Commissioner Anx was talked about this morning that will be making some recommendations later this year.

1159
01:40:14,200 --> 01:40:34,300
So that's one area I would I would point to I think that collaborating with your locally elected school board members would be really critical to understand what's happening locally and in your school districts and really I think we said it that we said we have to minimize distractions and prioritize instructional time.

1160
01:40:34,300 --> 01:40:45,320
We know that students are going to lose ground and so we need to get back to the instructional core, prior to prioritizing that time and accelerate learning.

1161
01:40:45,940 --> 01:40:51,800
Really, those are those priorities that we want to happen in those local control decision making towers.

1162
01:40:55,100 --> 01:40:57,180
Okay. Thank you all. Senator Bridges.

1163
01:41:02,440 --> 01:41:06,820
I think that Representative Wilson really said this question up for me really well.

1164
01:41:06,820 --> 01:41:13,900
And for us, I want to say thank you to the teachers who are all ready before the staff could do.

1165
01:41:14,160 --> 01:41:17,780
Whether it was appropriate to do and that have been asked to do more.

1166
01:41:18,160 --> 01:41:25,000
And one of the things I don't think that should be on the teacher's plate is making sure that every kid is in class.

1167
01:41:25,180 --> 01:41:30,960
And so I know that we've had a lot of questions about where is the parent voice,

1168
01:41:36,760 --> 01:41:36,780
you know,

1169
01:41:36,780 --> 01:41:41,060
around it for those parents who probably wouldn't have been able to show up today.

1170
01:41:42,600 --> 01:41:47,940
We have, especially in my district, a huge number of kids who are homeless.

1171
01:41:48,600 --> 01:41:53,060
And I want to know what we're doing to make sure that those kids who are part

1172
01:41:55,140 --> 01:41:55,260
of those

1173
01:41:55,260 --> 01:42:01,260
kids who aren't in classrooms right now, what are districts doing to reach out to those parents

1174
01:42:01,260 --> 01:42:05,880
to make sure that they have the resources they need to make sure those kids are in school.

1175
01:42:06,540 --> 01:42:12,400
Representative Wilson mentioned that the 58% of third graders are on grade level for reading.

1176
01:42:13,440 --> 01:42:18,640
There's going to be a whole lot more of those if there's a bunch of kids that aren't even in school.

1177
01:42:19,600 --> 01:42:26,020
And it's not ideal circumstances, certainly, right now, but whatever kind of school we can get kids into,

1178
01:42:26,220 --> 01:42:27,920
we need to make sure that they're there.

1179
01:42:28,760 --> 01:42:32,660
So what are districts doing to reach out to those parents, reach out to those kids?

1180
01:42:32,660 --> 01:42:38,560
And especially as we look at something like, you know, Jim mentioned that it's tough to be loud and clear in these mountain communities.

1181
01:42:39,500 --> 01:42:44,160
So, you know, we've got broadband as an issue. You can't, it's tough to get online if you don't have a cable.

1182
01:42:44,500 --> 01:42:46,980
It's tough to have a cable come into your home if you're living out of a car.

1183
01:42:47,540 --> 01:42:50,200
So what are we doing to get internet for those low-income kids?

1184
01:42:52,340 --> 01:43:00,620
Madam Chair, Senator Bridges, a great time we question and just learned about this last

1185
01:43:00,620 --> 01:43:02,340
week as an example.

1186
01:43:03,780 --> 01:43:08,460
The down and free month school district superintendent Brenda Craig was just telling a group

1187
01:43:08,460 --> 01:43:14,300
of her colleagues this last week about their effort that they're calling rescue and recovery

1188
01:43:14,300 --> 01:43:17,840
initiative and that's exactly what they're doing.

1189
01:43:17,840 --> 01:43:20,060
and they have allocated different staff members

1190
01:43:20,060 --> 01:43:23,600
time just to make sure that we're finding all of the kids

1191
01:43:23,600 --> 01:43:26,400
that went off the grid right now.

1192
01:43:27,000 --> 01:43:30,900
And some of that is Aaron Choice.

1193
01:43:31,580 --> 01:43:34,960
And some of that is just circumstances beyond people's control.

1194
01:43:35,820 --> 01:43:38,720
I heard the same thing happening in several other districts.

1195
01:43:38,720 --> 01:43:41,300
They talked about it in communities where you don't think

1196
01:43:41,300 --> 01:43:42,040
about that first.

1197
01:43:42,140 --> 01:43:43,940
Like in Lillton, they're talking about that.

1198
01:43:43,940 --> 01:43:54,720
I know that big numbers up being Greeley there's a pill superintendent up in Greeley is also doing the same thing really concerned about finding the kids.

1199
01:43:55,440 --> 01:44:04,900
So I just thought that everyone was reacted to Dr. Craig's initiative when she shared it last week at our superintendent conference.

1200
01:44:04,900 --> 01:44:07,640
And then many people chimed in with those similar efforts.

1201
01:44:07,720 --> 01:44:10,580
I can tell you, it is first and foremost on people's mind.

1202
01:44:11,020 --> 01:44:12,340
We're worried about them.

1203
01:44:12,560 --> 01:44:16,360
The four of you first started when we were trying to figure out how to get connected

1204
01:44:16,360 --> 01:44:21,780
for meals, back in March, in the middle of the instant shutdown, and it continues in that same

1205
01:44:21,780 --> 01:44:22,860
effort right now.

1206
01:44:23,180 --> 01:44:27,440
But I just thought I'd share that quick rescue and recovery initiative down a free month as

1207
01:44:27,440 --> 01:44:28,900
an example of what you're asking.

1208
01:44:31,110 --> 01:44:34,110
And Madam Chair, I'll be jumping on that question as well.

1209
01:44:34,150 --> 01:44:38,650
I mean, one of the things that, and this goes back to Representative McClusky's question

1210
01:44:39,570 --> 01:44:46,090
that could be a helpful role of the state, and CDE, is working to put some of this out,

1211
01:44:46,870 --> 01:44:52,990
but putting information out about the requirements to attend school and to be president

1212
01:44:52,990 --> 01:44:59,970
school, one of the things that we're hearing from some of our districts is that as

1213
01:45:00,000 --> 01:45:29,980
They're making these calls to figure out where families are. They're hearing some things like, well, you know, I just, I've decided I'm not going to send my, my student to school this year. I'm not sure it's safe. And so CDE is recently just put out a document around learning pods. And some of the, you know, requirements with that, that has been very helpful. But I also think that, you know, whatever the state could do to put information out to just help them.

1214
01:45:30,000 --> 01:45:38,080
understand that it's not optional to be in school and that schools, you know, as we've

1215
01:45:38,080 --> 01:45:43,900
all shared today are working very hard to ensure safety. I'm pretty, I'm not aware of

1216
01:45:43,900 --> 01:45:50,980
one district, I'm fairly confident and Brett or Sherry or Michelle could correct me on this,

1217
01:45:51,380 --> 01:45:57,000
but I'm pretty sure almost every single district is offering a full remote option to those families

1218
01:45:57,000 --> 01:46:02,960
to want that. But it is super important that families understand that this is not a year off

1219
01:46:02,960 --> 01:46:07,020
that we're not, it's not just kind of an optional here where if you want to attend, you can,

1220
01:46:07,040 --> 01:46:13,420
if you don't, you don't have to. So anything that the state could do to help push that information

1221
01:46:13,420 --> 01:46:18,580
out again to help educate families around that to be, would be extremely helpful.

1222
01:46:19,860 --> 01:46:24,600
And, Amy, if that on, you might be at school with the governor in superintendent, that was

1223
01:46:24,600 --> 01:46:30,800
direct request during that phone call about anything that can be done with PSA to make sure that

1224
01:46:30,800 --> 01:46:37,060
people are hearing the importance and the legal requirement to have students in school.

1225
01:46:39,910 --> 01:46:44,990
Madam Chair, if I could just jump in, I know a lot of our school districts are the student voices

1226
01:46:44,990 --> 01:46:50,750
of priority and they're really what we've heard across from our regional meetings recently is

1227
01:46:50,750 --> 01:46:57,290
They may be playing counselor, social workers, or other support staff to really specifically focus

1228
01:46:57,290 --> 01:46:58,630
on finding kids.

1229
01:46:59,190 --> 01:47:04,910
I know when we were talking, I heard district 49 down in PICS, PICS, the entire PICS

1230
01:47:05,610 --> 01:47:10,550
region is looking for 4,000 students right now and so they're all pulling out all the

1231
01:47:10,550 --> 01:47:14,310
staffs trying to find kids because they know it's very important.

1232
01:47:14,450 --> 01:47:19,130
We've heard from other districts that they may only have 10 or 20 students that they need

1233
01:47:19,130 --> 01:47:25,510
find, but when they talk to parents, when they do find them, they're doing what Amy was talking

1234
01:47:25,510 --> 01:47:29,510
a little bit about is they're just opting out of school so they're calling at home school

1235
01:47:29,510 --> 01:47:34,370
but they may not be following the regulations and the instructional priorities that need to happen

1236
01:47:34,370 --> 01:47:40,530
for home schooling. And so those are really important messages. I'll just reiterate again that

1237
01:47:40,530 --> 01:47:44,370
any help that you can help get that out in your communities would be really valuable.

1238
01:47:46,490 --> 01:48:00,590
That's great. Thank you. If I may Madam Chair as a follow-up, what it sounds like I'm hearing is that it would be helpful to have some best practices maybe shared amongst superintendents and perhaps collected by CDE and then shared it back out.

1239
01:48:01,230 --> 01:48:11,130
And then it sounds like it may also be helpful if CDE were to inquire about what those numbers are and what the popular things that we're looking at are,

1240
01:48:11,130 --> 01:48:16,170
not coming into terms. And to Amy's great point about parents need to make sure they know that kids

1241
01:48:16,170 --> 01:48:22,890
have to be in. There's a lot of barriers that I think are a lot of parents feel right now,

1242
01:48:23,290 --> 01:48:28,390
a lot of challenges that maybe just know what the resources are. So for instance, if you're

1243
01:48:28,390 --> 01:48:33,170
putting in a car or in a hotel room, you don't have access to broadband or you don't have a device

1244
01:48:33,170 --> 01:48:40,950
that can get online. What are the resources that those parents can go to to help them make

1245
01:48:40,950 --> 01:48:47,750
plan. How can we help parents make a plan on how to get their kids the education that we all are

1246
01:48:47,750 --> 01:48:54,170
here dedicated to making sure they get? So some parental support, some communication to parents,

1247
01:48:54,470 --> 01:48:59,530
and then some connecting of parents with resources, and then maybe some overall CDE best practices.

1248
01:49:00,430 --> 01:49:02,630
That sounds right. Am I reflecting back accurately?

1249
01:49:05,670 --> 01:49:06,690
I say yes.

1250
01:49:09,770 --> 01:49:14,490
No, I think this is a really important, this is one of those things that has been revealed

1251
01:49:14,490 --> 01:49:21,510
through COVID-19 about the housing that has not, and people may have broadband access, but

1252
01:49:21,510 --> 01:49:24,450
they have five kids in the house, and they have no computer.

1253
01:49:24,990 --> 01:49:28,530
So great, what do we do with them, and how do we get in touch with them?

1254
01:49:28,750 --> 01:49:33,230
And it is a lot easier if your parents are both working at jobs that you don't get to do from

1255
01:49:34,630 --> 01:49:43,850
Nobody make sure that they're going to school and I think we as a state need to all work on that and make sure that every child is educated and educated properly.

1256
01:49:44,310 --> 01:49:51,730
So thank you for bringing that up Senator Bridges because I think that's a really important aspect of what we should be looking at.

1257
01:49:52,030 --> 01:49:52,410
Thanks.

1258
01:49:53,410 --> 01:49:54,790
There are any more questions?

1259
01:49:55,990 --> 01:49:56,750
Raise your hand?

1260
01:49:57,010 --> 01:49:58,130
No hands being raised.

1261
01:49:58,130 --> 01:50:01,730
I cannot thank all of you enough for joining us today.

1262
01:50:02,030 --> 01:50:06,670
The information was very, very useful and we're deeply appreciative of that.

1263
01:50:06,830 --> 01:50:11,990
So thank you for all your work and we know where to find you if we have more questions.

1264
01:50:12,510 --> 01:50:13,370
So thank you.

1265
01:50:16,870 --> 01:50:20,310
Okay, our next group is Michelle Murphy.

1266
01:50:20,730 --> 01:50:21,890
I've seen her waiting here.

1267
01:50:22,250 --> 01:50:25,130
She's the Executive Director of the Rural Schools Alliance.

1268
01:50:25,890 --> 01:50:27,290
Then I think it's Shalor.

1269
01:50:27,530 --> 01:50:28,170
Is that pronounced?

1270
01:50:28,170 --> 01:50:28,870
Is that Shalor?

1271
01:50:29,550 --> 01:50:29,690
Shalor?

1272
01:50:29,690 --> 01:50:39,410
You'll hear me. President of the Colorado League of Charter Schools, and Terry Crowe Lewis, who is the executive director of the Colorado Charter School in particular.

1273
01:50:39,870 --> 01:50:44,390
So I'd like to welcome you all. Dan, I've never said your name out loud.

1274
01:50:44,750 --> 01:50:45,050
You don't.

1275
01:50:45,930 --> 01:50:50,330
Yes. For the wind. Okay. Thank you very much. I'd like to welcome all of you today. Thanks.

1276
01:50:56,410 --> 01:50:58,630
I will go. If that's okay, Madam Chair.

1277
01:50:59,290 --> 01:51:00,710
It is indeed. Yes. Thank you.

1278
01:51:01,110 --> 01:51:02,570
Thank you. And thank you all.

1279
01:51:02,570 --> 01:51:08,230
really heartfelt thanks to all of you legislators for making the time to listen and better

1280
01:51:08,230 --> 01:51:13,030
understand to get a clearer picture of what's happening in our schools and communities.

1281
01:51:13,410 --> 01:51:18,190
I think that most of Katie, that's the rent that's talked about a lot, if not most of our

1282
01:51:18,190 --> 01:51:23,890
rural schools are back in person learning and I think there's a perception sometimes what that

1283
01:51:23,890 --> 01:51:29,830
means business is usual and that certainly is not the case and I think cherry Amy and Brett

1284
01:51:29,830 --> 01:51:34,950
a great job of kind of highlighting from the state perspective what's happening in our schools

1285
01:51:34,950 --> 01:51:42,050
and communities. I also want to thank Dr. Antha and Dr. Early. We at the rural Alliance as soon

1286
01:51:42,050 --> 01:51:47,810
as COVID hit, started initiating weekly Zoom calls for our members on Wednesday morning and Dr.

1287
01:51:47,870 --> 01:51:53,850
Antha showed up at the first meeting as good Jennifer Oaks and any of her staff to answer

1288
01:51:53,850 --> 01:51:58,910
specific questions from districts about what the heck is going on, where are the resources and

1289
01:51:58,910 --> 01:52:05,110
can they do? And Katie got their answers on her staff showed up every week since then without

1290
01:52:05,110 --> 01:52:09,770
exception. Dr. Early joined us once a guidance started to come out and so let you all

1291
01:52:09,770 --> 01:52:14,510
give you a sense. I think those of you who are a world know the opportunity to have an audience

1292
01:52:14,510 --> 01:52:20,190
with the state to give immediate reaction and then to see changes. Sometimes, not as quickly as

1293
01:52:20,190 --> 01:52:25,330
we'd like to see them to see changes in the guidance to reflect rural circumstances has been

1294
01:52:25,330 --> 01:52:37,110
greatly appreciated, and I'm here today, I will try to be brief, so it's not my strong suit to and highlight what are our rules, what are our rules and circumstances.

1295
01:52:38,470 --> 01:52:45,610
I think it's really, really, really important that we understand first that the disease looks very different in most of our rural communities.

1296
01:52:45,610 --> 01:52:53,570
We have lower transmission rates, we have a great deal of controversy around politics and the

1297
01:52:53,570 --> 01:52:57,170
mass requirement, which mind you didn't come in until July 15th.

1298
01:52:57,450 --> 01:53:01,330
So we were still having to make decision as we knew we wanted to be back in school, but

1299
01:53:01,330 --> 01:53:05,430
in most part it wasn't an option, first of all, obviously it's the greatest learning opportunity

1300
01:53:05,430 --> 01:53:06,390
for our kids.

1301
01:53:06,710 --> 01:53:12,210
Or else schools didn't, we couldn't run bus routes in a staggered manner to support a hybrid

1302
01:53:12,210 --> 01:53:16,710
approach. We just, that wouldn't work because our bus drivers either, we didn't have enough buses,

1303
01:53:17,430 --> 01:53:21,810
our bus drivers teach our schools. So they had it couldn't run several routes in the morning

1304
01:53:21,810 --> 01:53:26,550
or throughout the day. So we had to get them back. Also, and we talked about it, broadband.

1305
01:53:27,170 --> 01:53:32,630
We have schools. I think more than a handful of schools that have, you know, up to 50% of their

1306
01:53:32,630 --> 01:53:37,810
kids who don't have salad access, a manning, imagine learning online with the connection that

1307
01:53:37,810 --> 01:53:42,470
representative Wilson has, and that's kind of a strong connection that compared to some

1308
01:53:42,470 --> 01:53:50,050
who have none or the satellite seeds, which are really breakdown, so the option of going remote

1309
01:53:50,050 --> 01:53:55,690
and or hybrid while some are doing that just wasn't real for our rural schools. And what they

1310
01:53:55,690 --> 01:54:02,530
had to navigate and maneuver in order to figure out how to do that safely, could they do that safely,

1311
01:54:02,530 --> 01:54:08,230
Again, oftentimes in communities where the disease didn't feel real, because they're when the

1312
01:54:08,230 --> 01:54:12,770
outbreaks were really small, the impact on the hospitals were when we saw here in the

1313
01:54:12,770 --> 01:54:13,310
print range.

1314
01:54:13,910 --> 01:54:19,230
So, just an incredible stress, in order to sort of what I call the COVID marathon that our educators

1315
01:54:19,230 --> 01:54:23,370
at all levels of the systems and our parents and our students have been navigating.

1316
01:54:24,650 --> 01:54:31,530
So, highlighting that a couple of other things to highlight is the huge strain that that stress

1317
01:54:31,530 --> 01:54:34,970
is putting on our already maxed out rural systems.

1318
01:54:35,250 --> 01:54:39,650
In particular, our health care systems, local public health, and forgive me.

1319
01:54:39,650 --> 01:54:42,410
I'm jumping all over the place, but I'm sort of how I roll.

1320
01:54:42,950 --> 01:54:49,770
Our local public health, a serious, serious, no judgment in the state-major factual capacity

1321
01:54:49,770 --> 01:54:50,530
concerns.

1322
01:54:50,970 --> 01:54:55,450
And I was part of the Children's Law Alliance, as part of the Children's Hospital's

1323
01:54:55,450 --> 01:54:56,530
Coalition in that cash group.

1324
01:54:56,830 --> 01:55:01,350
And I remember sitting in a presentation by Try County Health Department with the Department

1325
01:55:01,350 --> 01:55:08,350
they had set up to support schools and the resources and the feedback that they were able to provide

1326
01:55:08,350 --> 01:55:13,690
and thinking, oh gosh, that would make a difficult job, you know, still difficult but easier.

1327
01:55:13,890 --> 01:55:19,630
In our community, sometimes we don't have folks in the public health position. People have left

1328
01:55:19,630 --> 01:55:24,310
that position. They haven't been rebuilt. Some of our public health don't really see their role.

1329
01:55:24,630 --> 01:55:29,210
They leave it all up to the state and the problem is that up until now and we make steps

1330
01:55:29,210 --> 01:55:51,590
Every day every week every month, the guidance is created for bigger systems and bigger schools and bigger communities without, again, it was guidance, but no real clear flexibility or direction to local public health about how they might grant more flexibility around some of the safety measures in the rural environment.

1331
01:55:51,590 --> 01:56:02,530
So it's a great, great, excuse me, it's a place where we've seen great change and great growth and great responsiveness, but there's still a lot of confusion on the ground.

1332
01:56:02,770 --> 01:56:18,330
I learned earlier this week that in one of our counties students are direct students that are enrolled in concurrent enrollment classes where they go to the community college or being prohibited from coming back to campus because of the cohort concerns.

1333
01:56:18,330 --> 01:56:25,350
So we have juniors, in one district, very small district, 22 juniors and seniors who cannot come to campus

1334
01:56:25,350 --> 01:56:28,630
because they're taking concurrent enrollment.

1335
01:56:28,750 --> 01:56:33,330
That's a real challenge and not surprisingly, in some of their neighboring districts where they're

1336
01:56:33,330 --> 01:56:38,790
not implementing that requirement or that recommendation, those districts that are following local

1337
01:56:38,790 --> 01:56:44,030
guidance are losing, and we'll talk about this more on the student count conversation,

1338
01:56:44,270 --> 01:56:47,250
are losing students to their neighboring districts.

1339
01:56:47,250 --> 01:56:53,110
So just a ton of confusion, sort of, that one-size-fits-all approach I say at all the time

1340
01:56:53,110 --> 01:56:57,830
that really, really brings true in this context.

1341
01:56:58,950 --> 01:57:03,650
Talk about broadband, want to highlight, we are grateful and optimistic about the $2 million

1342
01:57:03,650 --> 01:57:11,130
coming from a CDE and that grant program, but also very clear that that's not even going

1343
01:57:11,130 --> 01:57:16,150
to, you know, it's not going to fill the gap, I'm not sure we know what the answers are,

1344
01:57:16,150 --> 01:57:20,490
but it's going to take a far better, bigger commitment from the state and from our federal

1345
01:57:20,490 --> 01:57:26,590
government to really move things and change that digital divide in our rural communities.

1346
01:57:30,170 --> 01:57:36,130
Real critical, again, my way of things that we're happening before the pandemic and are now

1347
01:57:36,130 --> 01:57:42,210
exacerbated as our educator shortages, critical, critical shortages of nurses, a mental

1348
01:57:42,210 --> 01:57:46,750
health providers, counselors, not only within our schools, but within our communities.

1349
01:57:46,910 --> 01:57:51,670
Our healthcare providers, in rural communities, just sometimes don't have the capacity to,

1350
01:57:51,790 --> 01:57:56,050
especially now that we're reopen and all the referrals when kids show up with the sniffles

1351
01:57:56,050 --> 01:58:02,290
or a cough or a fever and how to manage that, absence of testing and our quick responses

1352
01:58:02,290 --> 01:58:09,210
on testing opportunities around telehealth, but I don't think we've really seen that get a

1353
01:58:09,210 --> 01:58:15,990
attraction just yet in the rural communities sort of the list goes on and the examples I

1354
01:58:15,990 --> 01:58:19,610
could give are endless and I think you all know me know well enough to know that I will go

1355
01:58:19,610 --> 01:58:26,050
on endlessly so I won't. I'll stop there and then happy to answer any questions at the end with

1356
01:58:26,050 --> 01:58:32,030
the rest of the panel and thank you again. Thank you so much for being here today. Who would like to

1357
01:58:32,030 --> 01:58:39,070
go next? Yes thank you Madam Chair, I'm happy to jump in and go next and I do have just the guide

1358
01:58:39,070 --> 01:58:43,890
comments and give them most accurate information possible. I do have a few slides real quickly

1359
01:58:43,890 --> 01:58:46,870
that I will tee up here.

1360
01:58:55,880 --> 01:58:56,180
Second.

1361
01:59:00,530 --> 01:59:01,950
Looks like a snowstorm.

1362
01:59:04,370 --> 01:59:07,910
Yeah, so as it looks like it actually

1363
01:59:07,910 --> 01:59:14,410
seems that I'm having difficulty finding. So I'll speak through it now which is totally fine

1364
01:59:14,410 --> 01:59:16,910
And I'll close up.

1365
01:59:17,250 --> 01:59:19,750
So just me, I just made you a presenter, sir.

1366
01:59:20,030 --> 01:59:21,090
Oh, OK, great.

1367
01:59:21,610 --> 01:59:22,350
So here we go.

1368
01:59:23,070 --> 01:59:24,110
You got to see that now?

1369
01:59:27,730 --> 01:59:27,830
Great.

1370
01:59:28,970 --> 01:59:30,610
So just by way of real quick background,

1371
01:59:31,830 --> 01:59:33,750
as Representative McLaughlin said, my name is Dan Scheller.

1372
01:59:33,790 --> 01:59:36,170
I'm the president of the Colorado League of Charter Schools.

1373
01:59:37,090 --> 01:59:39,490
And I just wanted to give a quick background

1374
01:59:39,490 --> 01:59:40,590
on who the league is.

1375
01:59:40,610 --> 01:59:42,970
And the Charter School landscape is in Colorado right now.

1376
01:59:43,710 --> 01:59:45,550
We are a nonprofit membership organization

1377
01:59:45,550 --> 01:59:51,770
for the state 251 charter schools, about 90% of which are our members in our organization.

1378
01:59:52,550 --> 01:59:56,990
We provide a number of different services ranging from operations, support, to professional

1379
01:59:56,990 --> 01:59:58,930
development, to policy and advocacy.

1380
02:00:00,000 --> 02:00:05,820
And we're proud to note that we have one of the strongest charter school laws in the country.

1381
02:00:06,940 --> 02:00:11,420
And by way of landscape, we have charter schools all over the state.

1382
02:00:12,260 --> 02:00:18,780
261 schools across 70 different cities and towns ranging from rural communities to suburban communities to urban communities.

1383
02:00:19,220 --> 02:00:26,280
And collectively those schools serve 128,000 students, which is about 14% of the state's public school population.

1384
02:00:27,780 --> 02:00:33,040
It's always worth reiterating that all charter schools on their law are organized as non-profit entities.

1385
02:00:33,400 --> 02:00:37,740
There is no such thing as a private charter school or something that sometimes gets confused.

1386
02:00:38,720 --> 02:00:44,480
And charter schools collectively are serving higher percentages of students of color and English language learners across the state.

1387
02:00:45,500 --> 02:00:52,000
So, purposes of some survey information that we've put out at a field just so that we

1388
02:00:52,000 --> 02:00:54,300
have the most up to this information.

1389
02:00:55,800 --> 02:00:57,580
I'm going to grab that if you're a high school.

1390
02:00:59,280 --> 02:00:59,680
So sorry.

1391
02:01:02,920 --> 02:01:06,420
Here's kind of the current, most recent snapshot of where our schools are at.

1392
02:01:06,660 --> 02:01:12,340
We surveyed the field about 45% of our schools indicated that they are in a back

1393
02:01:12,340 --> 02:01:19,220
100% in person with remote option, there's an additional 7% that are 100% in person, but

1394
02:01:19,220 --> 02:01:26,120
18% indicated that they're currently operating in 100% remote environment and then the remainder

1395
02:01:26,120 --> 02:01:29,080
in a combo of in person remote hybrid.

1396
02:01:29,720 --> 02:01:33,360
Also wanted to get a sense from our schools of where they see this or how they see this

1397
02:01:33,360 --> 02:01:39,760
impact enrollment. And while we're in a place right now where we don't know 100% where enrollment

1398
02:01:39,760 --> 02:01:45,500
is going to land for a number of places. We did see kind of a split here, 42% of our schools

1399
02:01:45,500 --> 02:01:53,480
indicating anticipating a decrease, 42% anticipating an increase and about 17% predicting

1400
02:01:53,480 --> 02:01:54,340
no change.

1401
02:01:56,940 --> 02:02:01,900
Our schools have been very much into with their communities as they have been

1402
02:02:01,900 --> 02:02:07,760
making their restart to see it. So we surveyed and asked our schools what have been the major

1403
02:02:07,760 --> 02:02:14,580
criteria and factors you've been utilizing and they overwhelmingly indicated that they've been

1404
02:02:14,580 --> 02:02:19,620
coordinating with their parents and their teachers as well as public health officials to figure

1405
02:02:19,620 --> 02:02:23,680
out what is the best way to restart school for their individual community.

1406
02:02:26,410 --> 02:02:32,370
One question we often get is how are charter schools what is with dynamic like with their

1407
02:02:32,370 --> 02:02:37,570
districts and with their authorizers and we have found from 90% of our schools that they're

1408
02:02:37,570 --> 02:02:44,710
characterizing the nature of their relationship as their authorizer with their authorizer as being in a good place and being positive.

1409
02:02:45,370 --> 02:02:51,070
I should note that about 85% of the 260 charter schools in the state are authorized by local school districts,

1410
02:02:51,070 --> 02:02:57,310
the remaining 50% 15% by the charter school institute, which Terry will speak to momentarily.

1411
02:02:58,810 --> 02:03:05,550
And then just two quick questions. We asked about primary challenges and the thing that our schools are most proud of in the midst of all of this turmoil.

1412
02:03:06,650 --> 02:03:12,670
Primary challenges, somewhat reflective of what others have already said today, but a lot

1413
02:03:12,670 --> 02:03:18,250
of the change in guidance has been one of the biggest obstacles to figure this out.

1414
02:03:18,870 --> 02:03:24,210
It's been changing so regularly that has created a lot of difficult dynamics to manage

1415
02:03:24,210 --> 02:03:25,470
for our schools.

1416
02:03:26,110 --> 02:03:31,450
Technology, particularly in the remote environment and making sure all of our students have access

1417
02:03:31,450 --> 02:03:40,510
to broadband and to the internet and has been key along with a few other items listed there.

1418
02:03:41,010 --> 02:03:45,910
And then the thing that consistently came across that schools are most proud of is the

1419
02:03:45,910 --> 02:03:51,190
way that they have been able to adapt and the ways that their staff have adapted in the current

1420
02:03:51,190 --> 02:03:51,910
environment.

1421
02:03:53,470 --> 02:03:59,470
The charter mechanism, one of its upsides, is that it creates a lot of opportunity for

1422
02:03:59,470 --> 02:04:06,370
this and in this environment in particular that has enabled the school schools to really change

1423
02:04:06,370 --> 02:04:14,290
and adapt as the conditions have changed on the ground. So have an answer any particular questions

1424
02:04:14,290 --> 02:04:19,170
as we go forward but hopefully that provides you a snapshot at least of where the charter school

1425
02:04:19,170 --> 02:04:22,930
landscape is as we would have covered right now. Thank you.

1426
02:04:25,310 --> 02:04:26,570
Thanks for sharing that with us.

1427
02:04:29,020 --> 02:04:29,540
Next,

1428
02:04:36,070 --> 02:04:42,330
this is Terry Krilewitt's, I have two slides and I'm wondering if I should share them

1429
02:04:43,010 --> 02:04:45,530
or Justin, are you going to put them up?

1430
02:05:07,040 --> 02:05:10,800
I'm not sure if I'm presenting those because they're not coming up.

1431
02:05:10,960 --> 02:05:13,520
So I can just speak to them as well.

1432
02:05:13,860 --> 02:05:18,780
If you're a presenter, you may want to try to reconnect your screen again

1433
02:05:18,780 --> 02:05:20,140
because it's showing your whiteboard.

1434
02:05:21,140 --> 02:05:21,620
Okay.

1435
02:05:22,580 --> 02:05:24,140
We don't want that.

1436
02:05:33,340 --> 02:05:35,280
We can skip that.

1437
02:05:35,720 --> 02:05:37,980
Because I'm going to be showing you things that probably shouldn't show you.

1438
02:05:39,320 --> 02:05:41,260
So, I'll go on.

1439
02:05:42,740 --> 02:05:45,220
I'll just go ahead and I'll just talk to them.

1440
02:05:45,460 --> 02:05:47,060
If you've definitely had to find it anyway.

1441
02:05:47,760 --> 02:05:48,860
So thank you, Madam Chair.

1442
02:05:49,000 --> 02:05:50,920
Thank you to the entire,

1443
02:05:52,200 --> 02:05:53,300
Oh, thank you, Madam Chair.

1444
02:05:53,340 --> 02:05:54,500
I need to get this out of this.

1445
02:05:57,200 --> 02:06:09,420
The entire committee for listening to us and sharing all the different thoughts from around the state and all the different organizations about what everyone is experiencing.

1446
02:06:10,220 --> 02:06:14,640
You will find that our charter schools are going through the same thing.

1447
02:06:15,760 --> 02:06:23,460
They are in the same situation as all the other schools in terms of how hard it is to do this work.

1448
02:06:24,700 --> 02:06:28,780
and how challenging it is to meet the needs of students.

1449
02:06:30,400 --> 02:06:31,540
So, charter school institutes,

1450
02:06:31,760 --> 02:06:37,260
let me give you a little bit, and do I need to get to this at whatever one of these is my wife board?

1451
02:06:40,030 --> 02:06:40,550
Yeah, there we go.

1452
02:06:42,550 --> 02:06:47,890
So, our schools, we have 42 schools, one of these give you a little context.

1453
02:06:48,370 --> 02:06:51,710
We're in 23 different towns and cities throughout the state.

1454
02:06:52,190 --> 02:06:53,410
Eight of our schools are in rural.

1455
02:06:53,410 --> 02:07:02,630
So, you know, Michelle talking about the challenges of rural schools are real and what rural districts are feeling, our schools are right there as well.

1456
02:07:03,230 --> 02:07:07,630
We have 15 different school models and we're serving about 18,000 students throughout the state.

1457
02:07:08,130 --> 02:07:23,390
In terms of our demographics, if you look at statewide averages or students, we have a higher percentage of minority students, a higher percentage of students that are

1458
02:07:23,390 --> 02:07:32,290
of 504. We see our fed populations continue to take up for a variety of reasons. We are looking

1459
02:07:32,290 --> 02:07:39,310
at what do we, and how do we focus our work in the midst of COVID and go forward with how

1460
02:07:39,310 --> 02:07:45,330
the best-educated students, as an authorizer, we continue to focus on ensuring that all students

1461
02:07:45,330 --> 02:07:51,290
have access, and then we continue to push equity issues. And we do that in a variety of ways.

1462
02:07:51,290 --> 02:07:57,410
We are expanding our support around school school governance because we're all in this together in school board.

1463
02:07:57,510 --> 02:08:02,870
School charter boards need to be engaged in this work to make sure we're meeting the needs of communities.

1464
02:08:03,570 --> 02:08:09,590
And we continue to advocate for the access to resources for our schools.

1465
02:08:09,590 --> 02:08:18,390
We're a small subset of schools, as Dan said, our 21 schools in the charter schools in the state, we have 42.

1466
02:08:18,990 --> 02:08:23,510
Small subset, 15% of the charter schools we authorized.

1467
02:08:24,030 --> 02:08:27,690
And so how do we ensure that our schools have access to resources?

1468
02:08:28,850 --> 02:08:32,270
Well, what are we learning as we go through this process?

1469
02:08:32,270 --> 02:08:40,410
We know that we have to work incredibly close with our schools more closely than we ever have before.

1470
02:08:41,490 --> 02:08:49,170
As Commissioner Hampice said earlier, you know, their work has shifted our work has shifted, we're having more communication, more interaction.

1471
02:08:49,750 --> 02:08:54,410
They are with districts we are with our schools. What do we see in terms of learning plans?

1472
02:08:54,410 --> 02:09:00,230
We see about 40% of our schools are doing in person primarily in person although offering

1473
02:09:00,230 --> 02:09:07,930
all kinds of different options and 40% are primarily in remote and then we have the

1474
02:09:07,930 --> 02:09:08,450
hybrids.

1475
02:09:09,010 --> 02:09:14,910
We see more to like different schools moving quickly to an in-person environment, our

1476
02:09:14,910 --> 02:09:19,730
world schools have primarily been in person from the beginning of school.

1477
02:09:19,730 --> 02:09:25,750
We see up and down the front range more of our schools moving to an in-person option.

1478
02:09:26,710 --> 02:09:30,990
We have been tracking, we tracked them by talking to them weekly.

1479
02:09:31,330 --> 02:09:34,410
We have peace managers that work with our schools on a weekly basis.

1480
02:09:34,950 --> 02:09:40,110
And what we see is we've had a few schools, have to quarantine, we've had a few cohorts

1481
02:09:40,110 --> 02:09:45,910
needing to quarantine, we've only had one school, have to shut down or do go completely

1482
02:09:45,910 --> 02:09:48,710
remote for a certain period of time.

1483
02:09:48,710 --> 02:09:56,670
And what we're seeing now is that no case to case, no student student transmission of this disease.

1484
02:09:57,490 --> 02:09:58,770
No, we haven't seen that.

1485
02:09:58,890 --> 02:10:04,410
We've seen teachers coming down with, of course, you know, unfortunately having COVID,

1486
02:10:04,830 --> 02:10:08,490
but we don't see students as students, which is really interesting and helpful

1487
02:10:09,230 --> 02:10:14,670
that we are our schools are addressing the needs really well of all our students.

1488
02:10:14,670 --> 02:10:16,490
What else are we seeing?

1489
02:10:16,750 --> 02:10:18,410
Can I not have to take up too much time?

1490
02:10:19,070 --> 02:10:22,610
We see that our communication in our supports

1491
02:10:22,610 --> 02:10:24,330
are helpful to our school leaders,

1492
02:10:24,970 --> 02:10:26,310
that we are doing surveys,

1493
02:10:26,770 --> 02:10:27,850
we're doing weekly communications,

1494
02:10:28,190 --> 02:10:30,570
and we're doing a weekly all-school leader meeting

1495
02:10:30,570 --> 02:10:33,050
on top of the weekly individual calls.

1496
02:10:33,590 --> 02:10:38,290
We also see that things like cohorting is working,

1497
02:10:39,650 --> 02:10:44,650
but like everyone else has said,

1498
02:10:44,650 --> 02:10:49,950
I've never, in all my years and I've been in education for a long time, like many of you,

1499
02:10:50,390 --> 02:10:59,250
have seen this kind of stress and this kind of anxiety and can just warn out their exhausted.

1500
02:11:00,250 --> 02:11:05,810
And that's what we see from our parents and that's what we see from our students, our tire.

1501
02:11:06,430 --> 02:11:12,490
You know, we know when they're working remotely and I have a child who's upstairs right now working remotely

1502
02:11:12,490 --> 02:11:18,610
and buy new the headaches come on, staring at a computer, many of you might be suffering

1503
02:11:18,610 --> 02:11:22,050
from that now since you've been on this and this early this morning.

1504
02:11:22,550 --> 02:11:30,650
So the physical, the emotional stress on everything from students to teachers to school leaders

1505
02:11:30,650 --> 02:11:36,970
to parents and to districts and CDE to try to figure out how do we meet the needs.

1506
02:11:36,970 --> 02:11:45,330
We also care over and over from our schools because that we have to prioritize safety and well-being,

1507
02:11:45,830 --> 02:11:49,150
and that that is what is the number one issue.

1508
02:11:49,650 --> 02:11:53,190
We want, of course, and we will ensure that students are learning.

1509
02:11:53,490 --> 02:11:58,490
Students can't learn if they're not doing safe, and if they're not taking care of them themselves,

1510
02:11:58,910 --> 02:12:00,690
or if they're not, they're not taking care of them.

1511
02:12:00,690 --> 02:12:07,250
We, as an authorizer, have shifted our work just like all of you, everyone in the world

1512
02:12:07,250 --> 02:12:11,030
that was as working here and everyone is on this call, has shifted their work.

1513
02:12:11,290 --> 02:12:17,210
And how we shifted our work, we've wanted to be more responsive to the community that we

1514
02:12:17,210 --> 02:12:17,750
are serving.

1515
02:12:18,450 --> 02:12:23,690
So we talked to our schools about being community responsive and we expect that we will be

1516
02:12:23,690 --> 02:12:24,370
as well.

1517
02:12:24,370 --> 02:12:32,370
And so we do that by ensuring that our schools are providing access to all students that they are finding every student,

1518
02:12:32,750 --> 02:12:36,510
that they are providing a way for that student to access the education.

1519
02:12:37,370 --> 02:12:40,550
We ensure that our schools are still held accountable.

1520
02:12:41,290 --> 02:12:43,850
And so by that, we're still going through a renewal process.

1521
02:12:44,090 --> 02:12:47,970
And I talked to all the advisors around the country, and many have foregone that they're like,

1522
02:12:48,010 --> 02:12:49,810
we're not going to do a renewal process this year.

1523
02:12:50,250 --> 02:12:52,130
We'll just get to it next year.

1524
02:12:52,310 --> 02:12:53,490
We'll extend their contract.

1525
02:12:53,490 --> 02:12:56,950
But we're still working with our schools through that process.

1526
02:12:57,470 --> 02:12:59,050
We might have to revise things.

1527
02:12:59,370 --> 02:13:01,430
We might not be doing in-person sight visits,

1528
02:13:01,430 --> 02:13:04,750
but we are working with our schools around that process.

1529
02:13:05,150 --> 02:13:10,750
And then we also want to ensure that our schools are doing our agile

1530
02:13:10,750 --> 02:13:14,530
that they are, that we are advocating for them,

1531
02:13:14,770 --> 02:13:16,870
and that they have the autonomy they need,

1532
02:13:16,950 --> 02:13:18,870
but autonomy is different these days.

1533
02:13:19,330 --> 02:13:23,050
They have less autonomy in some ways and more autonomy in others.

1534
02:13:23,050 --> 02:13:26,290
And I'd say the burden of autonomy is real.

1535
02:13:27,250 --> 02:13:32,130
To have to make these decisions about should they have an in-person learning environment,

1536
02:13:32,410 --> 02:13:33,730
should they quarantine a cohort?

1537
02:13:34,170 --> 02:13:36,430
Do they work with the local public health officials?

1538
02:13:36,850 --> 02:13:38,390
And how do they do that?

1539
02:13:38,410 --> 02:13:41,710
And making those decisions the weight of those decisions is real?

1540
02:13:42,950 --> 02:13:48,130
And I want to talk about all the innovation and the creativity that we see in educators.

1541
02:13:48,130 --> 02:13:54,370
can we do? Well, we cannot ignore that the stress that they feel as they're trying to do with

1542
02:13:54,370 --> 02:14:00,250
that. And our students are the ones that feel it the most acutely. Our students are the ones that

1543
02:14:00,250 --> 02:14:04,990
are trying to figure out this. As they all turn to the parents and the adults and say,

1544
02:14:05,590 --> 02:14:11,650
how do we get through this? And I say to my 15-year-old, I've never experienced this. So we are all

1545
02:14:11,650 --> 02:14:16,210
in trying to figure out how to help our students because the end of the day we have to make sure

1546
02:14:16,210 --> 02:14:18,570
that they're learning and we have to figure out how to do that.

1547
02:14:18,730 --> 02:14:23,670
So enough of my soapbox, but thank you for listening to me about what the work that our

1548
02:14:23,670 --> 02:14:25,770
schools are doing and how they're serving the students.

1549
02:14:28,110 --> 02:14:28,390
Great.

1550
02:14:28,490 --> 02:14:28,790
Thank you.

1551
02:14:28,890 --> 02:14:32,750
And I think what you just said is that we all want the same thing.

1552
02:14:32,790 --> 02:14:38,010
We might be going about it differently, but we all want our students to be learning and challenged.

1553
02:14:38,530 --> 02:14:41,610
We want our educators to live through this.

1554
02:14:42,110 --> 02:14:46,790
You know, we want to support everybody who's involved in here, so thank you for that.

1555
02:14:46,790 --> 02:14:53,950
I will have five minutes for questions. Is there anybody who would like to go? I can see your hand.

1556
02:14:54,170 --> 02:14:56,310
Representative, oh, thank you, Representative Wilson.

1557
02:14:57,530 --> 02:14:59,550
I would have been so disappointed if you hadn't.

1558
02:15:02,160 --> 02:15:07,700
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm enough, but this supports you. This question is probably the best

1559
02:15:07,700 --> 02:15:14,660
standard by Michelle, because of the rural alliance group. Is there any guesstimates on the percentage

1560
02:15:14,660 --> 02:15:21,200
of loss of traditional gate crossings to the online homeschool piece of this, as we look

1561
02:15:21,200 --> 02:15:27,160
forward, getting through COVID? The impact on school budget is obviously with the pretty significant

1562
02:15:27,160 --> 02:15:29,340
and obviously give it real areas.

1563
02:15:29,900 --> 02:15:31,240
So there's any guests in the,

1564
02:15:31,240 --> 02:15:33,460
there's any conversation taking place over the law

1565
02:15:33,460 --> 02:15:35,800
of students that may not return to the traditional

1566
02:15:35,800 --> 02:15:37,140
cultural system.

1567
02:15:40,070 --> 02:15:41,290
Yes, thank you, Red Bull.

1568
02:15:41,290 --> 02:15:44,170
And I'll just roll in to the answer.

1569
02:15:44,950 --> 02:15:46,850
I think most of it's anecdotal data

1570
02:15:46,850 --> 02:15:49,330
has reported to me by the circumstances

1571
02:15:49,330 --> 02:15:52,150
that the students and I will just talk about it more.

1572
02:15:52,430 --> 02:15:53,870
During the finance section,

1573
02:15:54,010 --> 02:15:55,770
but it's anywhere between two.

1574
02:15:56,070 --> 02:15:59,210
And you know, upwards of 10% of a drop in enrollment.

1575
02:15:59,850 --> 02:16:07,430
This year, due to a myriad of reasons, including losing students to the online outside of district online piece.

1576
02:16:07,830 --> 02:16:14,510
There's also in district online opportunities, neither of which though really changed staffing requirements in the buildings, right?

1577
02:16:14,690 --> 02:16:22,890
So there's not enough kids moving from one place to the other, and I think a pretty strong belief that a lot of the kids were already starting to see kids come back.

1578
02:16:23,190 --> 02:16:28,550
From those online programs, their parents are realizing that it's not a great fit for a lot of kids.

1579
02:16:28,550 --> 02:16:33,790
And we're expecting to see more and more students come back.

1580
02:16:34,010 --> 02:16:36,430
One of the problems is after the October 1 deadline

1581
02:16:36,430 --> 02:16:38,830
and what student count deadline and what that looked like.

1582
02:16:38,930 --> 02:16:41,930
But again, we can cover that later this afternoon.

1583
02:16:47,020 --> 02:16:51,640
Yeah, I represent nine rural school districts in just 69.

1584
02:16:52,560 --> 02:16:56,940
And I would say most of them, they started off at home or in school.

1585
02:16:57,520 --> 02:16:59,980
And almost every student can't wait to come back to school.

1586
02:16:59,980 --> 02:17:02,360
there have changed their online.

1587
02:17:02,380 --> 02:17:05,440
They can't wait to see their friends again and come back in.

1588
02:17:05,880 --> 02:17:08,440
And these are very, very different districts

1589
02:17:08,440 --> 02:17:09,360
that I represent.

1590
02:17:09,800 --> 02:17:12,560
And that's kind of been what they're all telling me.

1591
02:17:13,860 --> 02:17:15,840
So they're not necessarily losing them to anything

1592
02:17:15,840 --> 02:17:18,200
but they can't wait to be with their friends again.

1593
02:17:20,020 --> 02:17:22,100
So are there any other questions?

1594
02:17:23,740 --> 02:17:25,460
Well, thank you all so much.

1595
02:17:25,660 --> 02:17:28,660
We appreciate and understand all the hard work

1596
02:17:28,660 --> 02:17:33,540
doing to make this happen into address the needs of our students in Colorado.

1597
02:17:34,340 --> 02:17:34,880
So thank you.

1598
02:17:35,020 --> 02:17:35,160
Thank you.

1599
02:17:35,420 --> 02:17:35,620
Thank you.

1600
02:17:35,860 --> 02:17:36,460
Much appreciated.

1601
02:17:38,120 --> 02:17:39,480
Thank you.

1602
02:17:40,420 --> 02:17:40,760
Okay.

1603
02:17:41,360 --> 02:17:42,120
Our last.

1604
02:17:42,920 --> 02:17:43,820
Pamela presenters.

1605
02:17:45,140 --> 02:17:45,880
It's Cali.

1606
02:17:45,880 --> 02:17:47,600
I think it's LeBuck.

1607
02:17:47,860 --> 02:17:51,740
President of the American Federation of Teachers and Senator E.V.

1608
02:17:51,740 --> 02:17:56,240
Houdak, who's the Public Policy Director for Colorado Parent Teacher Association.

1609
02:17:56,240 --> 02:18:01,260
And I know she will tell us how many parents or how many people she represents because that's

1610
02:18:01,260 --> 02:18:03,360
she always starts and I can never remember the number.

1611
02:18:04,140 --> 02:18:06,000
So I'd like to welcome you both here today.

1612
02:18:06,260 --> 02:18:07,300
Thank you.

1613
02:18:09,060 --> 02:18:09,120
Hi.

1614
02:18:09,320 --> 02:18:11,520
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

1615
02:18:12,420 --> 02:18:18,300
I really appreciate the opportunity to speak to you all and I'm very grateful to be presenting

1616
02:18:18,300 --> 02:18:26,160
alongside with Senator Fudac, because teachers and parents want this in thing.

1617
02:18:26,160 --> 02:18:28,720
And I think that that's what we'll find.

1618
02:18:29,180 --> 02:18:35,320
I know that the AFT have been collaborating with parents to find out what they want.

1619
02:18:35,460 --> 02:18:42,780
We've also done national surveys, including parents, and we know that the vast majority of parents

1620
02:18:42,780 --> 02:18:47,920
and teachers, both want kids to be back in school 100%.

1621
02:18:47,920 --> 02:18:54,720
And also want health and safety to be the deciding factor about going back into school.

1622
02:18:54,720 --> 02:19:00,120
So, my name is Kelly Leaba, I am the president of AFT Colorado.

1623
02:19:00,880 --> 02:19:07,300
We represent higher ad as well as public service employees, but also teachers, care professionals,

1624
02:19:07,680 --> 02:19:14,160
student nutrition workers, and other support professionals in a couple larger districts in Colorado,

1625
02:19:14,480 --> 02:19:16,120
and then some very small districts.

1626
02:19:16,660 --> 02:19:18,320
There are also rural.

1627
02:19:18,320 --> 02:19:29,100
So, the reopening plan for districts across Colorado, as you know, very greatly with the beauty and somewhat the curse of local control.

1628
02:19:29,560 --> 02:19:39,840
I think it's great for our role districts. I think it's put some pressure on our Metro districts where we have school boards faced with some impossible decisions.

1629
02:19:39,840 --> 02:19:46,020
If they were to truly follow the health guidelines that we're getting from the CDC and the World Health Organization,

1630
02:19:46,640 --> 02:19:53,180
I'm not sure anyone would be in school, but that's not really an option that anyone wants right now.

1631
02:19:53,720 --> 02:19:59,220
So we're all just doing our best working with what we have including some quarantines.

1632
02:19:59,380 --> 02:20:05,160
I believe Doug was kind of school district currently has two schools that have switched to full remote for two weeks

1633
02:20:05,160 --> 02:20:09,000
because we simply just have too many teachers who are on quarantine.

1634
02:20:10,020 --> 02:20:14,620
I do think that masks are working and our procedures are working and we're not having

1635
02:20:14,620 --> 02:20:23,480
a lot of in-school transmission, which is obviously the best news, but the quarantineing

1636
02:20:23,480 --> 02:20:31,840
is pretty restrictive and we do end up putting a lot of people out and we are starting to

1637
02:20:31,840 --> 02:20:35,140
issues with not enough teachers in the building.

1638
02:20:35,560 --> 02:20:41,840
And even if you can get substitutes in a classroom and have a teacher video casting

1639
02:20:41,840 --> 02:20:47,380
into the classroom, I know one of the leaders in Douglas County School District was telling

1640
02:20:47,380 --> 02:20:51,720
me yesterday, they end up with concerns that they don't have enough employees in the building.

1641
02:20:52,000 --> 02:20:56,820
When we've got subs in the building, we have to then be concerned about this safety of our students

1642
02:20:56,820 --> 02:20:57,980
in case of emergency.

1643
02:20:57,980 --> 02:21:04,940
We don't have people in the buildings who are familiar with the procedures in case of emergency.

1644
02:21:06,880 --> 02:21:17,760
I want to echo what Amy Doc Ollert talked about with the emotional concerns that we have with our students, teachers and staff.

1645
02:21:17,760 --> 02:21:24,440
Certainly our students are coming to us with, this is a traumatic experience and we know from

1646
02:21:24,440 --> 02:21:30,420
Mavela's hierarchy of needs that kids don't learn when we haven't addressed their trauma

1647
02:21:30,420 --> 02:21:37,060
and their emotional needs. So we have to, we have to, we have to be honest about that and meet

1648
02:21:37,060 --> 02:21:41,340
our kids where we're at and I know that a lot of districts are really focusing on the social

1649
02:21:41,340 --> 02:21:45,420
emotional learning and doing a really good job focusing on that.

1650
02:21:45,800 --> 02:21:50,500
I too am concerned about the mental health of our teachers and support professionals

1651
02:21:50,500 --> 02:21:55,500
who are doing their best to work in three different modalities.

1652
02:21:55,960 --> 02:22:05,640
A lot of teachers as I believe you said that I'm sicker are teaching hybrid so kids in their

1653
02:22:05,640 --> 02:22:10,700
class kids were at home who will be in the class tomorrow at the same time as they're working

1654
02:22:10,700 --> 02:22:16,640
with those e- Learners. And that's a pressure that's putting on teachers, the pressure

1655
02:22:16,640 --> 02:22:22,520
that they put on themselves to do that really, really well is wearing on them. And we have

1656
02:22:22,520 --> 02:22:29,840
two members this year who are people that I was instantly blown away and pressed with. These

1657
02:22:29,840 --> 02:22:38,300
people new to the profession, young, full of innovation and creativity, bringing this energy

1658
02:22:38,300 --> 02:22:44,140
and light to our profession, but I'm so grateful for and they built up resigned, because

1659
02:22:44,140 --> 02:22:50,840
this has just become too much for them, fortunate not to have encountered any one who I needed

1660
02:22:50,840 --> 02:22:57,980
to refer to the suicide hotline yet, but that moved me to share Amy talk about that.

1661
02:22:58,820 --> 02:23:12,020
I know that Sherry Ranch also talked about what are school board members of faith things and what our district leaders are faith things because they really are in an impossible decision or position.

1662
02:23:12,560 --> 02:23:26,920
We don't have a lot of specific and consistent guidance at the federal level and our state is doing our best to get us that guidance, although some of it has come only a week before we are to return to school.

1663
02:23:26,920 --> 02:23:56,900
And then you've got that parent input, and our districts are doing a great job at accepting that parent input, doing surveys, having tax for tax force, focus groups, open to receiving emails, and then presentations at school board meetings or public comment at school board meetings, but not all of it have been, been kind or understanding or empathetic and one of, one of the acting superintendents in Douglas County last week.

1664
02:23:56,920 --> 02:24:05,600
really displayed a model of empathy that I think we all could learn from and understanding that

1665
02:24:05,600 --> 02:24:11,280
everybody is in a tough position right now. Students are in a tough position, parents are struggling,

1666
02:24:11,900 --> 02:24:17,560
teachers school staff are struggling, administrators, and school board members, and then

1667
02:24:17,560 --> 02:24:24,360
our leaders like you all are struggling. We're all doing our best. We all want to be in school

1668
02:24:24,360 --> 02:24:29,300
100% we all agree that that's what's best for kids, but we also don't want to put the

1669
02:24:29,300 --> 02:24:37,560
health and safety of anyone at risk. So I think that we need to approach each other with

1670
02:24:37,560 --> 02:24:44,100
a lot of understanding and find what we had in common and then really focus on what we can

1671
02:24:44,100 --> 02:24:49,700
do to make this safe for our kids. And I am looking forward to the budget discussion at the end

1672
02:24:49,700 --> 02:24:57,380
the day because I think that ultimately the resources that our schools need are the key to

1673
02:24:57,380 --> 02:25:02,760
not only bringing us all back to 100% in personal learning but keeping us there. Unfortunately,

1674
02:25:02,880 --> 02:25:08,900
our numbers right now this week are starting to see that Labor Day spike. So I have real concerns

1675
02:25:09,660 --> 02:25:19,400
as districts are headed back to Seoul in person learning. And I have definite concerns about second

1676
02:25:19,400 --> 02:25:29,180
semester, and the lack of federal funding to help us navigate all the different challenges

1677
02:25:29,180 --> 02:25:35,600
we have with the e-learning and the staffing as I think Michelle talked about when you've

1678
02:25:35,600 --> 02:25:39,860
got some kids on e-learning and some in person that doesn't change your staffing needs.

1679
02:25:40,060 --> 02:25:45,260
It's not like it really works out that we can take a teacher out of a school and put them

1680
02:25:45,260 --> 02:25:47,200
find them to e-learning because the numbers

1681
02:25:47,200 --> 02:25:48,700
never shake out like that.

1682
02:25:49,400 --> 02:25:53,740
So as we look at bringing kids back to 100%.

1683
02:25:53,740 --> 02:25:57,680
I have real concerns about the hiring

1684
02:25:57,680 --> 02:26:00,140
that we may need to do in different districts

1685
02:26:00,140 --> 02:26:02,660
to be able to support all that, especially

1686
02:26:02,660 --> 02:26:04,960
because we've don't run over crowded classrooms

1687
02:26:04,960 --> 02:26:06,200
at this time.

1688
02:26:06,720 --> 02:26:08,220
We never run over crowded classrooms,

1689
02:26:08,760 --> 02:26:10,780
but I do think there are some real benefits

1690
02:26:10,780 --> 02:26:14,440
that we are seeing from our hybrid learning.

1691
02:26:14,440 --> 02:26:23,160
And from e-learning, that's allowing greater opportunity for assessments, social emotional

1692
02:26:23,160 --> 02:26:28,660
connections with our kids because our teachers are reporting when they've got 12 kids

1693
02:26:28,660 --> 02:26:29,360
in a room.

1694
02:26:29,500 --> 02:26:34,940
It's an actual move a lot faster on building those relationships, which are so important

1695
02:26:34,940 --> 02:26:37,380
to then move forward with the academics.

1696
02:26:37,380 --> 02:26:45,520
I think our kids have stepped up and are really being incredible A-Learners, and even the youngest

1697
02:26:45,520 --> 02:26:51,760
kids are finding success with that, and I know we will have one of our E-Learning teachers

1698
02:26:51,760 --> 02:26:58,440
will be on later this afternoon, and she can talk about the relationships that she's been

1699
02:26:58,440 --> 02:27:01,880
able to develop supporting E-Learners.

1700
02:27:01,880 --> 02:27:06,640
So I don't think that this is all doom and gloom.

1701
02:27:08,740 --> 02:27:14,460
I think that I'm not here to bring this cord to the conversation.

1702
02:27:14,540 --> 02:27:17,980
I'm here to say we have some real challenges with some real needs.

1703
02:27:18,220 --> 02:27:21,220
But we also are finding a lot of innovations

1704
02:27:21,220 --> 02:27:27,000
and some real positive outcomes from our forced situation here.

1705
02:27:27,280 --> 02:27:30,080
So I will hand it off to Senator Houdak now.

1706
02:27:32,130 --> 02:27:40,950
Thank you so much. We appreciate what you have to share with us. So Senator Houdak, I don't, oh, be aware. How are you? Welcome.

1707
02:27:48,120 --> 02:27:49,560
Senator Houdak, you're still muted.

1708
02:27:52,670 --> 02:27:55,190
If you don't have one screen, assume you're just not paying attention.

1709
02:27:55,790 --> 02:27:57,010
All right. Okay.

1710
02:27:57,930 --> 02:28:02,990
So I know I'm the only thing between everyone and lunch. So I'll try to keep this short.

1711
02:28:02,990 --> 02:28:09,290
I do have a PowerPoint that they're putting up on the screen.

1712
02:28:11,390 --> 02:28:15,010
Thank you Rachel for doing that.

1713
02:28:19,900 --> 02:28:20,360
We

1714
02:28:24,420 --> 02:28:26,120
should play the Japanese call on this.

1715
02:28:26,480 --> 02:28:27,160
I know, right?

1716
02:28:27,420 --> 02:28:30,120
Well, I really appreciate the opportunity.

1717
02:28:31,060 --> 02:28:34,240
On behalf of PTA for the parent voice,

1718
02:28:35,180 --> 02:28:38,460
I know Senator Todd asked about it,

1719
02:28:38,680 --> 02:28:41,520
and some of the other speakers have mentioned it.

1720
02:28:41,520 --> 02:29:10,520
Here we go, okay, so a PTA in parent, so just to review that of the mission and one of the main purposes of PTA is to make every child's potential a reality by engaging in empowering families and communities to advocate for all children and you mostly see PTA because we advocate for laws that improve children's

1721
02:29:10,520 --> 02:29:14,200
health education and well-being in various ways.

1722
02:29:14,760 --> 02:29:15,280
Next slide.

1723
02:29:20,150 --> 02:29:23,950
And we are, oops, you went too far, but back there.

1724
02:29:24,450 --> 02:29:28,210
We're a national and state network of parents and families.

1725
02:29:29,010 --> 02:29:36,110
And we work with educators, schools, businesses, and communities to help accomplish our mission.

1726
02:29:36,710 --> 02:29:39,410
And as Representative McLaughlin mentioned,

1727
02:29:40,050 --> 02:29:43,470
I usually share that we have about 20,000 members

1728
02:29:43,470 --> 02:29:50,430
Most of whom are parents of children in public schools, but anyone who supports our mission can join BTA.

1729
02:29:51,970 --> 02:29:52,370
Next slide.

1730
02:29:53,390 --> 02:29:59,970
So, PTA came out with a position statement and this is going to be several different slides so that I can cover it.

1731
02:30:00,560 --> 02:30:20,280
Because we advocate for healthy learning environments for students and staff, and we believe we believe that all school, health, well-less and safety plans should be based on science and factual evidence, and should change as new scientifically acquired information becomes available.

1732
02:30:20,280 --> 02:30:40,160
This approach is why our position is that schools should reopen only in accordance with the guidelines outlined by the CDC, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, and their local departments of health for whatever county the school is in.

1733
02:30:40,160 --> 02:30:47,400
We support federal and state programs that provide additional funding for schools to enhance

1734
02:30:47,400 --> 02:30:54,300
building safety, including ventilation systems, structural improvements that allow appropriate

1735
02:30:54,300 --> 02:31:00,520
physical distancing, student isolation as infection is suspected or documented.

1736
02:31:00,520 --> 02:31:13,220
effective personal equipment for all students and staff, actionable testing for students and staff,

1737
02:31:14,100 --> 02:31:19,380
hardware and technological access to support students through digital learning and additional

1738
02:31:19,380 --> 02:31:23,740
staff to help facilitate small groups and physical distancing.

1739
02:31:23,740 --> 02:31:30,520
And we urge both Congress and the State of Colorado to ensure that all students have access

1740
02:31:30,520 --> 02:31:34,780
to reliable, broad, and Internet access.

1741
02:31:36,080 --> 02:31:36,600
Next slide.

1742
02:31:37,440 --> 02:31:43,400
When in-person learning cannot be achieved safely, schools and districts should provide high-quality

1743
02:31:43,400 --> 02:31:49,520
remote learning options that are equitably accessible to all students and families.

1744
02:31:49,520 --> 02:32:08,480
We believe that family and student supports must be maintained, both while schools are in person and while they're using remote learning, including food and nutrition services, mental health support, special education services and English language learning support.

1745
02:32:09,890 --> 02:32:10,890
Next,

1746
02:32:16,240 --> 02:32:44,040
and finally, the conclusion of our very long position statement, PTA urges all school districts legislators and the Department of Education to include parents, educators and students in all decision making relating to reopening school plans, and to provide clear communication avenues to address concerns before, during and after plans are developed.

1747
02:32:46,060 --> 02:32:54,820
We had a forum on reopening schools on August 19th, and we did a little polling during that time.

1748
02:32:55,720 --> 02:33:00,840
And we asked, first, do you feel like your opinion, this is parents?

1749
02:33:01,380 --> 02:33:07,740
Do you feel like your opinion has been solicited by your school district regarding reopening and remote learning?

1750
02:33:07,740 --> 02:33:15,820
And while 67% 2 third said yes, it is troubling that one third said no.

1751
02:33:17,300 --> 02:33:26,000
And our other question was, is there a system established with your school district to provide feedback during the reopening or remote learning?

1752
02:33:26,460 --> 02:33:33,280
And you will see while it is about half and half, a little more than half, 54% said no.

1753
02:33:33,280 --> 02:33:40,340
So, this is the parent point of view, I know we heard from the districts, and they are doing

1754
02:33:40,340 --> 02:33:46,800
a great job of school boards and the school administration are doing a great job to try

1755
02:33:46,800 --> 02:33:57,220
to react, reach out, but it's still the case that some a third of parents do not feel

1756
02:33:57,220 --> 02:33:59,620
like their opinion was solicited.

1757
02:33:59,620 --> 02:34:09,440
That's different from them calling and, you know, making statements or showing up at a school board meeting via Zoom or whatever.

1758
02:34:10,080 --> 02:34:13,040
They don't feel like their opinion has been solicited.

1759
02:34:13,680 --> 02:34:26,960
And I've got to say that in some ways, PTA feels like we were not reached out to be equitably on committees that are looking into this.

1760
02:34:26,960 --> 02:34:34,660
And when CDE looks for parents, they should be looking to PTA first because we are the largest

1761
02:34:34,660 --> 02:34:39,140
child advocacy organization representing parents.

1762
02:34:40,970 --> 02:34:51,130
Last slide, education week recently took parents feedback in a national survey and they

1763
02:34:51,130 --> 02:34:56,590
asked what level of trust do parents have that their schools will keep their children healthy

1764
02:34:56,590 --> 02:35:06,990
for in-person instruction. And while half said, somewhat to very high trust, 21%

1765
02:35:06,990 --> 02:35:16,210
about a fifth were on the fence, and 30% said they have low to non-existent trust that their

1766
02:35:16,210 --> 02:35:23,990
school will keep their children healthy and in-person instruction. And they delved deeper into

1767
02:35:23,990 --> 02:35:33,110
who were the ones who said, loaden on existence, and they found that 39% of them were black

1768
02:35:33,110 --> 02:35:38,850
parents, 33% were Latino parents, and 26% were white parents.

1769
02:35:39,470 --> 02:35:47,310
And they also did find that of those with loaden on existence in trust, 37% were parents who

1770
02:35:47,310 --> 02:35:49,410
said they planned to vote for Joe Biden.

1771
02:35:49,410 --> 02:35:54,870
just a little political information inserted there.

1772
02:35:55,890 --> 02:35:57,170
So that's our presentation.

1773
02:35:58,550 --> 02:36:00,770
And I'd be glad to answer questions

1774
02:36:00,770 --> 02:36:03,330
although I know we're over the time

1775
02:36:03,330 --> 02:36:08,190
for this morning meeting and we're into lunch now.

1776
02:36:14,160 --> 02:36:15,200
Can't hear you Barbara?

1777
02:36:16,180 --> 02:36:17,720
First, because I typically do.

1778
02:36:19,100 --> 02:36:20,220
Okay, so I'd like to touch you

1779
02:36:20,220 --> 02:36:22,900
and represent it look off as far as the question is okay.

1780
02:36:22,900 --> 02:36:25,700
What questions do you have for our speakers?

1781
02:36:27,300 --> 02:36:28,040
Yes, Representative Wilson.

1782
02:36:30,490 --> 02:36:31,890
Thank you, Madam Chair.

1783
02:36:32,570 --> 02:36:38,270
So I have to ask, Senator, it's 37% said they're going to vote for Joe Biden.

1784
02:36:38,450 --> 02:36:41,310
Is that mean 60% of our vote for President Trump?

1785
02:36:46,220 --> 02:36:55,000
I actually do not know that maybe of those with lower non-existent trust that was just those.

1786
02:36:55,520 --> 02:36:56,640
So it could be.

1787
02:37:00,320 --> 02:37:08,840
And actually, you have it backwards, I think, it's said that of those with lower non-existing

1788
02:37:08,840 --> 02:37:16,320
trust, so maybe you're right, those who don't trust schools, maybe the two thirds of them

1789
02:37:16,320 --> 02:37:18,480
do plan the vote for President Trump.

1790
02:37:23,090 --> 02:37:26,090
Okay, and we are now taking all politics out of this

1791
02:37:26,090 --> 02:37:32,610
discussion, because this is all of that listening. So thank you, everybody. So what I'd

1792
02:37:34,650 --> 02:37:39,450
I saw a question somewhere that I didn't know was in the Q&A, I didn't know we had a Q&A

1793
02:37:39,450 --> 02:37:39,970
out here.

1794
02:37:40,210 --> 02:37:40,790
It was working.

1795
02:37:41,550 --> 02:37:46,510
That someone asked, and it was a while ago, which schools do and they have staff in quarantine

1796
02:37:46,510 --> 02:37:50,490
and not enough subs or staff to cover those classes.

1797
02:37:54,430 --> 02:37:56,730
And Kelly, maybe that's something you've run into.

1798
02:37:57,690 --> 02:37:57,970
Yes.

1799
02:37:58,330 --> 02:37:58,590
Yeah.

1800
02:37:58,630 --> 02:37:58,990
Thank you.

1801
02:37:59,130 --> 02:37:59,890
I appreciate that.

1802
02:38:00,170 --> 02:38:04,990
We have two schools on full remote learning right now because of that.

1803
02:38:04,990 --> 02:38:07,230
we just kept any staff on quarantine.

1804
02:38:07,710 --> 02:38:10,430
They're not sick, they're not in isolation

1805
02:38:10,430 --> 02:38:12,690
because they've tested positive for COVID.

1806
02:38:13,750 --> 02:38:16,410
And as I'm sure many of you are aware,

1807
02:38:16,610 --> 02:38:19,930
we have had a crisis of substitute teachers for the years.

1808
02:38:20,450 --> 02:38:22,650
So currently what we're facing as well

1809
02:38:23,310 --> 02:38:26,770
is teachers being asked to cover their colleagues' classes

1810
02:38:26,770 --> 02:38:28,170
during planning time.

1811
02:38:28,490 --> 02:38:29,910
They don't necessarily have to teach,

1812
02:38:30,030 --> 02:38:34,570
but we have to have an adult in that room managing the classroom

1813
02:38:34,570 --> 02:38:41,510
while the teacher who's on quarantine is at home zooming in to the classroom or Google meeting

1814
02:38:41,510 --> 02:38:46,590
into the classroom. But this is at a time when we're telling you that teachers have never

1815
02:38:46,590 --> 02:38:53,190
worked harder and never been more stressed and then also are facing the personal trauma of

1816
02:38:53,190 --> 02:39:00,450
fear of becoming ill or bringing home that illness to a family member and their planning times are

1817
02:39:00,450 --> 02:39:07,130
and for that. We also have, we know that district's level employees are being asked to go back

1818
02:39:07,130 --> 02:39:12,490
into the classroom so that's going to stress on our upper administration because they can't

1819
02:39:12,490 --> 02:39:17,550
get their job done because instead they're being asked to show up in classrooms as our building

1820
02:39:17,550 --> 02:39:23,530
administrators, counselors, special service providers who are unable to do their jobs because

1821
02:39:23,530 --> 02:39:29,750
they're showing up in the classroom. So the system just isn't really set up with the capacity

1822
02:39:29,750 --> 02:39:38,670
to can't go much more of this and I think that what we all can do is watch our behavior

1823
02:39:38,670 --> 02:39:45,170
outside of school, wear those masks, don't join in large gatherings through everything

1824
02:39:45,170 --> 02:39:49,770
we can to keep our community transmission down, because we really aren't transmitting in

1825
02:39:49,770 --> 02:39:54,330
our school, but what happens in the community is greatly affecting what's happening in

1826
02:39:54,330 --> 02:39:56,470
schools in our ability to stay open.

1827
02:39:57,530 --> 02:39:59,370
Okay, thank you.

1828
02:39:59,830 --> 02:40:05,510
Any other questions for what parents are thinking from Senator Houdak or anybody else?

1829
02:40:05,790 --> 02:40:06,970
Yes, Senator Todd.

1830
02:40:08,710 --> 02:40:10,510
Evie, I really appreciate you.

1831
02:40:11,330 --> 02:40:12,650
You bringing that parent voice.

1832
02:40:12,950 --> 02:40:20,170
You've done such a great job of advocating for PTA and really broadening that and recognizing

1833
02:40:20,170 --> 02:40:26,130
I think how important it is, and I think there was concern that maybe there wasn't a parent

1834
02:40:26,130 --> 02:40:36,650
per se that was on the on this, I keep wanting to say Zoom call, but this call, and so I

1835
02:40:36,650 --> 02:40:38,150
really appreciate you bringing that forward.

1836
02:40:38,590 --> 02:40:47,490
I guess the question I would ask of you is how do we engage, how do districts engage parents

1837
02:40:47,490 --> 02:40:56,050
more. Right now, I know our superintendents and school boards are just absolutely

1838
02:40:56,050 --> 02:41:04,050
inundated with individual emails, calls, trying to set up meetings, trying to set up different

1839
02:41:04,050 --> 02:41:10,870
kinds of venues, but obviously there are still groups of people that are feeling left out, feeling

1840
02:41:10,870 --> 02:41:19,470
like their voice is not heard, is it at individual school level? Is it district level? How would

1841
02:41:19,470 --> 02:41:25,370
you envision and perhaps from PTA's perspective? How would you see that being the most

1842
02:41:25,370 --> 02:41:32,190
effective? Because it is. As we said, local control district by district school based by school

1843
02:41:32,190 --> 02:41:36,190
based. So if you would respond to that, I'd appreciate it.

1844
02:41:39,010 --> 02:41:44,330
Okay, well, obviously it is very different in different areas.

1845
02:41:44,690 --> 02:41:51,510
I've had representative Wilson tell me numerous times that in rural areas, the district people

1846
02:41:51,510 --> 02:41:58,770
know all the families because there aren't that many, whereas in the school district where

1847
02:41:58,770 --> 02:42:05,370
my child went to Jefferson County, we'd have like, I don't know, at least 85,000 students,

1848
02:42:05,370 --> 02:42:14,290
But it has to be on a school-by-school basis, and PTA is a good organization to utilize,

1849
02:42:14,490 --> 02:42:18,050
to create those kinds of communication techniques.

1850
02:42:19,050 --> 02:42:24,490
Also, there are school accountability committees, which are required by law,

1851
02:42:24,950 --> 02:42:29,050
and they're supposed to have representative parents on their committees.

1852
02:42:29,050 --> 02:42:43,810
And I think that anytime a parent reaches out in any way to the school, that can be a parent who potentially could be asked to be representative.

1853
02:42:44,310 --> 02:42:56,270
I mean, what we usually do is we say, if anybody complains, then that's the first person you go to, to ask to be on a committee.

1854
02:42:56,270 --> 02:43:07,290
And we've had some success with that on accountability committees if they complain about what's going on you ask them to help to be a decision maker.

1855
02:43:09,230 --> 02:43:15,450
And we've done it in PTA and on our PTA legislative committee as well.

1856
02:43:15,850 --> 02:43:26,250
If they care to reach out, now with our most vulnerable populations, this is a problem because we're not even sure we're reaching out.

1857
02:43:26,250 --> 02:43:38,610
students. But we can ask students to share with their parents and then of course we probably

1858
02:43:38,610 --> 02:43:44,770
need a lot of language translation for some of our most vulnerable populations.

1859
02:43:47,870 --> 02:43:48,130
Thank you.

1860
02:43:48,130 --> 02:43:50,670
We need a translator as well as what I'm trying to say.

1861
02:43:50,670 --> 02:44:03,100
And I just kind of wanted to point out that we heard early on that there was a seem to be

1862
02:44:03,100 --> 02:44:08,260
a lack of parental involvement in this discussion, and I think families are experiencing

1863
02:44:08,260 --> 02:44:09,580
the brunt of the impact.

1864
02:44:09,720 --> 02:44:14,380
Not to say the teachers aren't, of course, I know that they are having not come to doors.

1865
02:44:14,520 --> 02:44:19,640
I think as many of us are doing right now during this election cycle, if not uncommon, each time

1866
02:44:19,640 --> 02:44:26,580
I run into a, I run into, not just currently a teacher as well, and that they express their concerns and everything.

1867
02:44:26,860 --> 02:44:30,600
And I think it's, it's helpful that PTAs here.

1868
02:44:31,220 --> 02:44:35,740
If I understand correctly, there's about 20,000 members that make up PTA.

1869
02:44:35,860 --> 02:44:39,920
But we look at our student population, and that's, you know, close to a million.

1870
02:44:40,500 --> 02:44:43,440
And so we're only really looking at maybe hearing.

1871
02:44:43,440 --> 02:44:47,800
And this is probably a conservative number two percent

1872
02:44:47,800 --> 02:44:50,680
of our parents across Colorado through PGA.

1873
02:44:51,260 --> 02:44:52,880
And so before we go down the path,

1874
02:44:53,060 --> 02:44:54,980
I think it's saying that we have parental involvement

1875
02:44:54,980 --> 02:44:57,580
through PGA, I think it would be a little disingenuous

1876
02:44:57,580 --> 02:44:59,840
if we really drove that point to Colorado.

1877
02:45:00,000 --> 02:45:06,960
I think we would have learned a lot more perhaps positions ourselves that are truly understanding

1878
02:45:06,960 --> 02:45:12,500
the impact on families. How do we open this up to parents, families, you know, students

1879
02:45:12,500 --> 02:45:15,540
to give that perspective? I just wanted to offer that.

1880
02:45:20,660 --> 02:45:25,860
Yeah, okay. I wanted to say a couple of things.

1881
02:45:25,860 --> 02:45:50,860
And this statistics and thank you all for this conversation with statistics about the parents who don't have trust is pretty much generational historical it's what I have always seen from the people of color about the trust in the system so I think that that's something that we need to deal with

1882
02:45:53,180 --> 02:45:59,160
Equity issues have been exacerbated because of the pandemic, so we just need to keep this in mind.

1883
02:45:59,340 --> 02:46:00,300
So this is just a statement.

1884
02:46:00,580 --> 02:46:06,440
So thank you, Senator Houd after showing that slide, but it is something we need to address.

1885
02:46:07,320 --> 02:46:17,980
Regarding parents, we are all into what our parents and my health district, my parents are constantly reaching out to me.

1886
02:46:17,980 --> 02:46:24,920
And more than that, they're reaching out to their school board and the superintendent of schools.

1887
02:46:25,560 --> 02:46:38,960
And since I think we all agree with local control, I think it's really good that the parents are reaching out more than ever to their schools, to their school boards, and to me as a legislator.

1888
02:46:38,960 --> 02:46:44,580
Not saying that there's not more work we can do to make sure that we hear those parent voices,

1889
02:46:45,380 --> 02:46:54,020
but in this really surreal time, I'm not hearing that parents are not being able to voice their opinions.

1890
02:46:58,810 --> 02:46:59,210
Thank you.

1891
02:46:59,970 --> 02:47:02,330
Are there any other questions today?

1892
02:47:03,350 --> 02:47:03,550
Okay.

1893
02:47:03,890 --> 02:47:05,790
Thank you both very, very much.

1894
02:47:06,370 --> 02:47:10,810
For joining us today, we really appreciate your voice and the hard work that you're doing.

1895
02:47:10,810 --> 02:47:12,690
and so much appreciated.

1896
02:47:14,510 --> 02:47:18,770
And I'm now with my giant hand sanitizer here.

1897
02:47:19,270 --> 02:47:21,070
I'm going to say that we have, how is that?

1898
02:47:21,950 --> 02:47:24,130
We have a, I just leave it at lunch break.

1899
02:47:25,150 --> 02:47:27,370
I'm sure that you all arranged that something

1900
02:47:27,370 --> 02:47:29,410
would be delivered to you in the next 20 minutes,

1901
02:47:29,850 --> 02:47:31,570
but I'm not getting anything at my house.

1902
02:47:31,610 --> 02:47:32,850
I will tell you that.

1903
02:47:33,530 --> 02:47:38,210
But anyway, I will see you back here at 1235.

1904
02:47:38,530 --> 02:47:39,150
Has that?

1905
02:47:44,030 --> 02:47:44,690
There you go.

1906
02:47:45,970 --> 02:47:52,170
we might just use that instead of a gal it's much safer so so welcome back everybody we're very happy to

1907
02:47:52,170 --> 02:47:58,950
help you enjoy the lunch that I sent out all of those of you who signed up and I'm sorry he didn't

1908
02:47:58,950 --> 02:48:04,510
sign up because we're not delivering any more of this long trip from Durango to wherever you are so

1909
02:48:04,510 --> 02:48:06,190
We're not doing that.

1910
02:48:06,650 --> 02:48:09,710
So, we are now on

1911
02:48:10,510 --> 02:48:12,970
Section, let's say we're doing

1912
02:48:12,970 --> 02:48:17,350
addressing barriers to remote and in-person learning right now.

1913
02:48:17,550 --> 02:48:20,730
So this is part two kind of part three of our

1914
02:48:21,850 --> 02:48:25,830
discussion today and we're very excited to have our guest speakers.

1915
02:48:26,710 --> 02:48:29,690
We're going here from stakeholders on strategies, districts and schools

1916
02:48:29,690 --> 02:48:33,410
are taking to address the barriers to remote and in-person learning

1917
02:48:33,410 --> 02:48:39,370
of which there are many and they change every single day, I believe, so we're excited to hear

1918
02:48:39,370 --> 02:48:40,870
what you have to say on this.

1919
02:48:41,410 --> 02:48:51,610
So we have, let's see, and I'm thinking, okay, we have some people who are going to be online,

1920
02:48:52,250 --> 02:48:53,970
ready for questions if you have them.

1921
02:48:54,050 --> 02:48:58,930
They won't be the panelists on the next one, but if you have questions, they'll be available.

1922
02:48:58,930 --> 02:49:06,650
And that would be Annie Bocke-Ollert from C.E.A. questions only, Brett Miles from CASE for questions

1923
02:49:06,650 --> 02:49:14,690
only, Sherry Rinch from Caspi questions only, Michelle Murphy from Rural Schools Alliance questions

1924
02:49:14,690 --> 02:49:20,110
only, and Dan Schaller from Colorado League of Charter Schools questions only.

1925
02:49:20,630 --> 02:49:25,210
So if you have some of those, they will jump on and help you out.

1926
02:49:25,750 --> 02:49:29,550
Okay, so now we have Dr. Melissa Colman.

1927
02:49:30,550 --> 02:49:31,050
No wait.

1928
02:49:33,320 --> 02:49:35,420
Any, I'm not sure if I have the right one on here.

1929
02:49:35,680 --> 02:49:36,580
I have the second panel.

1930
02:49:36,740 --> 02:49:37,660
The first panel.

1931
02:49:44,500 --> 02:49:45,720
Please, please enter.

1932
02:49:47,180 --> 02:49:47,260
Yes.

1933
02:49:47,640 --> 02:49:47,980
Okay.

1934
02:49:48,840 --> 02:49:49,760
Dr. Colman.

1935
02:49:51,420 --> 02:49:52,020
Are you good?

1936
02:49:52,700 --> 02:49:53,140
Are you good?

1937
02:49:53,140 --> 02:49:54,420
Are you good?

1938
02:49:54,420 --> 02:49:54,640
Okay.

1939
02:49:54,840 --> 02:49:54,920
Okay.

1940
02:49:55,000 --> 02:49:57,160
Welcome Dr. Colman.

1941
02:49:57,360 --> 02:49:58,180
Thank you.

1942
02:49:58,180 --> 02:49:59,500
I'm all the way to Capitol today.

1943
02:49:59,900 --> 02:50:00,680
So, thank you.

1944
02:50:02,060 --> 02:50:03,740
Well, thank you.

1945
02:50:05,140 --> 02:50:07,400
Now, let's get our members of the Joint Education Committee.

1946
02:50:07,860 --> 02:50:12,760
I am Melissa Colton Associate Commissioner for a student learning at the Colorado Department of Education.

1947
02:50:12,840 --> 02:50:14,700
I'm actually in my office today.

1948
02:50:15,080 --> 02:50:20,360
And so right up my window is I look at over the capital and coal taxes right here.

1949
02:50:20,920 --> 02:50:27,700
So hopefully we won't have any emergency vehicles going by, but those of you who recall what is going to be at the capital building,

1950
02:50:28,000 --> 02:50:29,100
but that's always the possibility.

1951
02:50:29,100 --> 02:50:36,060
It's my pleasure to start the business up to the presentations regarding the state and districts

1952
02:50:36,060 --> 02:50:39,480
are addressing barriers to remote and personal learning.

1953
02:50:40,000 --> 02:50:44,300
When no did I make before beginning is that presenting some information from my colleagues

1954
02:50:44,300 --> 02:50:50,260
from a class CBE that may require me to address questions that you have following today's

1955
02:50:50,260 --> 02:50:53,380
presentation should be unable to answer them in the moment.

1956
02:50:53,920 --> 02:50:58,220
And knowing that there is important information for you to hear from Colorado's education leaders

1957
02:50:58,220 --> 02:50:59,680
to my district's an organization.

1958
02:51:00,400 --> 02:51:01,900
I will keep my portion brief.

1959
02:51:05,740 --> 02:51:08,320
So as you know, the COVID-19 pandemic has

1960
02:51:08,320 --> 02:51:10,460
presented both challenges and opportunities

1961
02:51:10,460 --> 02:51:13,640
and meeting the needs of all students across the state.

1962
02:51:14,280 --> 02:51:16,760
CDE, we have enormous respect and appreciation

1963
02:51:16,760 --> 02:51:19,100
for great work, our district, school leaders,

1964
02:51:19,640 --> 02:51:23,100
educators are doing to address these needs during this time.

1965
02:51:23,380 --> 02:51:25,440
Because not to mention all of the support parents

1966
02:51:25,440 --> 02:51:29,620
are providing their children during this unprecedented time.

1967
02:51:29,620 --> 02:51:34,740
A provider group will review some of the work CDs involved with on that issue.

1968
02:51:35,780 --> 02:51:40,280
First, we know that emergency seating continues to be in during this health crisis.

1969
02:51:41,020 --> 02:51:50,480
Last spring, the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued waivers to allow the summer food service program to operate in schools closed in person learning.

1970
02:51:51,000 --> 02:51:57,080
These waivers were recently extended to allow sponsors to operate the program through December 31, 2020.

1971
02:51:57,080 --> 02:52:02,680
This allows sponsors to provide free and nutritious meals to students and involve in remote

1972
02:52:02,680 --> 02:52:04,280
and or in-person learning.

1973
02:52:05,320 --> 02:52:09,760
During this time, sponsors have tested out new ways to attract customers to various meal

1974
02:52:09,760 --> 02:52:12,620
service models and increase market efforts.

1975
02:52:13,320 --> 02:52:18,060
meal service examples included dried up grab and go, home delivery, and mobile meal

1976
02:52:18,060 --> 02:52:18,600
sites.

1977
02:52:19,400 --> 02:52:24,720
The sponsors have also explored partnerships, for example, partnering with their district's

1978
02:52:24,720 --> 02:52:38,120
education, or mobile food delivery, and also local organizations school boards with administration, community members, and even local restaurants to feed staff to boost morale.

1979
02:52:39,460 --> 02:52:42,560
Another need that is a reason is how to manage remote learning.

1980
02:52:42,560 --> 02:52:51,380
So we've seen an emerging trend in some communities where parents are forming small groups learning groups for their children.

1981
02:52:51,620 --> 02:52:53,640
These have been termed learning pods.

1982
02:52:54,360 --> 02:52:58,340
With this emerging questions regarding state responsibilities have come up.

1983
02:52:58,680 --> 02:53:08,460
So we've looked into this issue and it worked as a governor's office and CDHS to create a parent guide to provide information related to safe operation of learning pods.

1984
02:53:08,460 --> 02:53:15,720
The guide covers health, safety, and educational considerations for parents, as they seek to support their children.

1985
02:53:17,200 --> 02:53:23,880
Another clear need during this time relates to connectivity, to something that has come up during many of the previous discussions.

1986
02:53:23,880 --> 02:53:28,640
So the State of Colorado was created a public private partnership with the Governor's

1987
02:53:28,640 --> 02:53:31,740
Office, Attorney General and C.E.

1988
02:53:32,080 --> 02:53:36,880
The information with Internet Service providers and other community-focused organizations

1989
02:53:36,880 --> 02:53:42,100
to provide blogs and access to students with remote learning needs for this school year.

1990
02:53:42,420 --> 02:53:48,040
Two major programs that participating in this effort, one is Project 10 million, which will

1991
02:53:48,040 --> 02:53:56,060
provide up to 34,000 low income student households in Colorado with free Wi-Fi hotspots and

1992
02:53:56,060 --> 02:54:02,320
100 gigabit data for this year. The other is the Connecting Colorado Student's Grant Program,

1993
02:54:02,700 --> 02:54:09,480
which will provide $2 million in grant funding from CDE's CARES Act Fund to support school districts

1994
02:54:09,480 --> 02:54:15,720
and providing broadband access to low-income families and school staff. This effort is made possible due

1995
02:54:15,720 --> 02:54:21,520
strong support of multiple partner organizations and bills on the survey information that was

1996
02:54:21,520 --> 02:54:28,240
in focus previously in the partnership between CDE and the Colorado Education Initiative and April.

1997
02:54:28,700 --> 02:54:33,560
I sure that approximately 66,000 students lack internet access needed.

1998
02:54:35,440 --> 02:54:41,140
And as you've heard from our presentations earlier today, that we are hearing from schools and

1999
02:54:41,140 --> 02:54:46,500
So educators are working very hard to connect with their students and schools across the state.

2000
02:54:47,000 --> 02:54:50,860
Because this topic was covered, I think, pretty extensively.

2001
02:54:51,700 --> 02:54:57,340
Earlier today, I'll just note that we have been working hard to learn from what practices

2002
02:54:57,340 --> 02:55:04,920
are being enacted across districts to engage students, which focus primarily on making sure that there is

2003
02:55:04,920 --> 02:55:12,760
that can be seen in connection so that kids can connect with that to their schools so that

2004
02:55:12,760 --> 02:55:18,580
they can re-engage with learning, especially our students who have had the most significant

2005
02:55:18,580 --> 02:55:19,580
challenges.

2006
02:55:22,150 --> 02:55:27,050
It's also clear during this time that English learner space unique challenges and that teachers

2007
02:55:27,050 --> 02:55:30,030
and school and district leaders are working hard to meet these.

2008
02:55:30,610 --> 02:55:35,170
It's important to note that despite the challenges, English language development is part of

2009
02:55:35,170 --> 02:55:40,970
universal instruction, and that grade level content needs to be provided with adequate

2010
02:55:40,970 --> 02:55:46,270
scapled and supports that English learners need to access grade level content being

2011
02:55:46,270 --> 02:55:50,070
provided even in remote learning situation.

2012
02:55:50,790 --> 02:55:57,950
The CDE has worked to support districts through the development of adjusted guidance for

2013
02:55:57,950 --> 02:56:03,110
many of the practices that are required for students who are English learners such as identification

2014
02:56:04,190 --> 02:56:09,330
as well as providing resources and supports for distance learning.

2015
02:56:10,230 --> 02:56:14,170
We're also keeping a close eye in any relevant, federal flexibility that is issued

2016
02:56:14,170 --> 02:56:18,710
as well as resources and supports from across the country so that we can thus support

2017
02:56:18,710 --> 02:56:20,470
our students and educators.

2018
02:56:22,050 --> 02:56:26,110
Finally, we recognize that students and disabilities are facing unique challenges

2019
02:56:26,110 --> 02:56:29,830
which I'll discuss a little bit of mind up on the next slide.

2020
02:56:29,830 --> 02:56:42,130
Those of you who are have printed out, these slides will notice that as made a game day decision and switch order of these last two slides, I hope I haven't confused any of them.

2021
02:56:42,590 --> 02:56:48,170
We know that our school districts are working hard to meet the needs of students with disabilities to create them viable solutions.

2022
02:56:48,590 --> 02:56:50,950
The CDE is made every effort to support our schools.

2023
02:56:50,950 --> 02:56:56,950
However, I believe that you'll hear this from our panelists later on following my presentation

2024
02:56:56,950 --> 02:57:02,650
and our feedback from districts. We recognize that districts continue to face significant challenges.

2025
02:57:03,630 --> 02:57:09,350
As we implement the requirements of the Individual Disabilities Education Act, here are a few that we've noted.

2026
02:57:10,330 --> 02:57:17,550
For a meaningful implementation of individual education programs or ITPs in remote and hybrid settings,

2027
02:57:17,550 --> 02:57:30,150
In some situations, it's very difficult to deliver the specially designed instruction, called for anesthesia by EEP with the frequency and intensity needed to make progress for student disability.

2028
02:57:31,390 --> 02:57:43,750
And the potential budget impact of modifying and delivering services to students and remote or hybrid services that require to make under IDEA is a significant concern to districts.

2029
02:57:44,830 --> 02:57:52,070
Staffing shortages that have been ongoing and issue in special education for a number of years

2030
02:57:52,070 --> 02:58:00,430
is exacerbated during this time and is stretching the Henry sources of our district.

2031
02:58:01,330 --> 02:58:05,430
And finally, accessibility to online instructional options is very limited,

2032
02:58:06,450 --> 02:58:11,970
or non-existent for some families, making it difficult for school to access and support students.

2033
02:58:11,970 --> 02:58:21,950
With those significant changes, our deafness, the federal law, our guidance, our staff is working hard for districts of these challenges, by developing resources and guidance,

2034
02:58:22,210 --> 02:58:26,830
specific to the unique issues and questions generated by this health crisis.

2035
02:58:27,150 --> 02:58:32,310
These are all available on our website as well as through our technical assistance.

2036
02:58:32,310 --> 02:58:41,930
And then finally, I'll highlight one portion of the tool kit that my colleague Dr. Hannah

2037
02:58:41,930 --> 02:58:46,950
Ferb referenced earlier today regarding some of the reopening guidance and this is

2038
02:58:46,950 --> 02:58:54,470
looking at some of the available resources for a well-being and connectedness and addressing

2039
02:58:54,470 --> 02:58:56,330
some of the unique needs of students.

2040
02:58:56,330 --> 02:59:07,390
So we'll see if by clicking on this link, we'll actually see the links that I have drawn to on our website.

2041
02:59:08,050 --> 02:59:16,950
So within the toolkit, there are resources for well-being and connectedness, providing teachers with support for students,

2042
02:59:16,950 --> 02:59:36,550
Connecting us in belonging and responding to community me, our team has worked very hard to provide these additional supports and considerations for our districts and schools as they are working to support kids during this time.

2043
02:59:36,550 --> 02:59:43,250
And we have also provided some resources, specific discussions with learning gaps, students

2044
02:59:43,250 --> 02:59:47,530
have dropped out in English learners and students experiencing homelessness.

2045
02:59:48,530 --> 02:59:55,970
So that's, they're the ones that shop for educators to go to as we think about our topic

2046
02:59:55,970 --> 02:59:59,610
at hand, which is barriers presented by remote.

2047
03:00:00,000 --> 03:00:11,620
First and learning. So I'll stop sharing now recognizing that we have a number of other panelists who are here to present, but I'm happy to answer questions.

2048
03:00:15,790 --> 03:00:28,790
I agree with that. If you'd like to share today, I don't see many people with faces on right now. So if you have questions, need to ask.

2049
03:00:30,190 --> 03:00:36,670
Okay, Dr. Colson, thank you so much for sharing all this with us today and for all your hard work behind the scenes.

2050
03:00:36,870 --> 03:00:41,330
I know a lot that's done when we're not looking so thank you.

2051
03:00:41,990 --> 03:00:43,830
Thank you.

2052
03:00:43,870 --> 03:00:48,630
Okay, we now have our next panel, which has a few people on it.

2053
03:00:48,950 --> 03:00:53,970
Dr. Rob Anderson, who is the superintendent of Boulder Valley School District.

2054
03:00:53,970 --> 03:00:58,810
Kathy Gebhardt, who was a board member with Boulder Valley School District.

2055
03:00:59,890 --> 03:01:05,010
Chris Kadosky, he is a superintendent of Adam's 12-5-star school.

2056
03:01:05,730 --> 03:01:09,830
Kathy Plomer, who is the board president of Adam's 12-5-star school.

2057
03:01:10,310 --> 03:01:12,730
And DCTA President Dave Lockley.

2058
03:01:13,290 --> 03:01:15,390
So I'd like to welcome you all on today.

2059
03:01:15,610 --> 03:01:21,650
Thank you so much for your time and energy and hard work that goes into this presentation today.

2060
03:01:22,730 --> 03:01:27,430
You want to play nose goes you may, but whoever wants to go first, please do.

2061
03:01:35,490 --> 03:01:37,110
Kathy, are you about it?

2062
03:01:37,190 --> 03:01:38,430
You want to go alphabetical?

2063
03:01:38,610 --> 03:01:39,530
You guys go first.

2064
03:01:39,890 --> 03:01:42,330
That's the folder to take the lead if you're right.

2065
03:01:42,510 --> 03:01:44,750
I thought we were going alphabetical, but I'm ready to go.

2066
03:01:44,830 --> 03:01:45,810
Would you like me to go?

2067
03:01:45,810 --> 03:01:46,470
Go first.

2068
03:01:46,950 --> 03:01:47,270
All righty.

2069
03:01:49,790 --> 03:01:53,510
And we do nose goes, and I have full of all the time that we're talking about.

2070
03:01:55,530 --> 03:01:58,790
Mostly for clearing the table and feeding the test.

2071
03:02:00,450 --> 03:02:02,970
Madam chairs and members of the Education Committee.

2072
03:02:03,290 --> 03:02:05,250
This is a great honor to be able to present to you.

2073
03:02:05,370 --> 03:02:07,290
And thank you for your time today.

2074
03:02:07,470 --> 03:02:10,930
And for your dedication and devotion to public education.

2075
03:02:11,750 --> 03:02:12,650
I'm Kathy Gebhardt.

2076
03:02:12,790 --> 03:02:15,750
I am the Vice President of the Boulder Valley School District Board,

2077
03:02:16,010 --> 03:02:19,310
the immediate test president of the College of Association of School boards,

2078
03:02:19,730 --> 03:02:22,330
and the Western Regional Representative for Colorado

2079
03:02:22,330 --> 03:02:24,610
for the National Association of School boards.

2080
03:02:24,910 --> 03:02:28,110
But I'm here today to share with you some of the stories from my own

2081
03:02:28,110 --> 03:02:30,250
Buddhist strict, Boulder Valley School.

2082
03:02:31,350 --> 03:02:35,450
I'll tell you all we know from the presentations today and over the last six months,

2083
03:02:36,130 --> 03:02:38,150
if these are extremely challenging times,

2084
03:02:38,450 --> 03:02:42,590
but we welcome the opportunity to come together to address not only our challenges,

2085
03:02:42,710 --> 03:02:43,810
but our successes.

2086
03:02:44,530 --> 03:02:47,210
In Boulder, as in communities across the state and country,

2087
03:02:47,630 --> 03:02:51,090
the pandemic has not impacted all our communities in the same way.

2088
03:02:51,090 --> 03:02:56,710
We have seen schools across the state and the country come together to support our students and their families.

2089
03:02:57,150 --> 03:03:02,550
As you will hear from our neighboring districts, our schools are in a central part of the safety net for our communities.

2090
03:03:03,130 --> 03:03:05,830
We provided food assistance throughout the spring and summer.

2091
03:03:06,150 --> 03:03:14,250
Distributed laptops and families who needed them provided the important social networks that we needed to keep our families together through very trying times.

2092
03:03:14,250 --> 03:03:20,150
In Boulder, our focus on equity doesn't relate to the structure of our schools, but rather

2093
03:03:20,150 --> 03:03:25,250
is guided by our commitment to our struggling learners. Our focus is on our students and

2094
03:03:25,250 --> 03:03:31,250
we want our students to be back in school as soon as they can be safely. Expanding supports

2095
03:03:31,250 --> 03:03:37,370
for these populations is challenged by the untenable financial situation we all face. Communities

2096
03:03:37,370 --> 03:03:43,290
with high medical exemptions such as ours face additional financial challenges. So I thought

2097
03:03:43,290 --> 03:03:51,290
I would talk a little about what we've done for parent engagement because I've heard some concerns about parent engagement in some of the comments this morning.

2098
03:03:52,110 --> 03:03:58,430
So parent engagement is an important role to us as a board and to us as a community and a school district.

2099
03:03:58,850 --> 03:04:04,410
In addition to our more regular methods of communicating, including participating in board meetings and emails.

2100
03:04:04,710 --> 03:04:10,210
And I'll tell you we had our first hybrid board meeting last night and it went seamlessly thanks to the efforts of our staff.

2101
03:04:10,210 --> 03:04:18,650
Our community has been able to participate with us and to communicate with us during board meetings throughout the pandemic through emails and through Zoom meetings.

2102
03:04:19,410 --> 03:04:26,350
We've also meet regularly with our district parent council, our district accountability council, and our Latino parent council.

2103
03:04:27,090 --> 03:04:35,730
In addition, our district accountability committee met through the summer to continue to give us guidance through the summer as we were navigating all of the challenges of COVID.

2104
03:04:35,730 --> 03:04:41,190
We also established a working group to guide us with what we're calling our back together

2105
03:04:41,190 --> 03:04:41,950
plan.

2106
03:04:42,390 --> 03:04:45,650
And parents in that group work directly as voting members in the group.

2107
03:04:46,310 --> 03:04:50,410
We have sent out surveys that were sensitive to the fact that many of us are over-servated

2108
03:04:50,410 --> 03:04:53,790
and may not respond to them quite as much as we might have been in the past.

2109
03:04:54,690 --> 03:05:00,310
In addition, we host a weekly live interaction program with parents in the broader community

2110
03:05:00,310 --> 03:05:06,370
called let's talk EDSD and we get on average of 500 to 1,000 participants every week from

2111
03:05:06,370 --> 03:05:06,910
that.

2112
03:05:07,190 --> 03:05:11,230
And our school board meetings has always been live and we have a very robust participation

2113
03:05:11,230 --> 03:05:14,650
in our community in watching our live board meetings.

2114
03:05:15,570 --> 03:05:20,690
So I think that gives you at least a sense of how important our community engagement is.

2115
03:05:21,170 --> 03:05:24,990
And our superintendent, Dr. Anderson, will also talk about the efforts that he takes.

2116
03:05:25,710 --> 03:05:30,230
We take our emails, we respond to every email, our board president, and our superintendent

2117
03:05:30,230 --> 03:05:32,610
And then so they don't just fall on deaf ears,

2118
03:05:32,890 --> 03:05:34,850
although it makes you like that to some of our community.

2119
03:05:35,930 --> 03:05:38,490
I'd also like to talk about what we do as a board member.

2120
03:05:39,110 --> 03:05:42,470
Our general responsibilities have continued through the pandemic

2121
03:05:43,050 --> 03:05:45,110
to continue to listen to our community

2122
03:05:45,110 --> 03:05:48,990
to oversee budget prioritizations, to modify policies,

2123
03:05:49,250 --> 03:05:51,290
and that last night we were modifying our policy

2124
03:05:51,290 --> 03:05:52,930
and visitors to our schools.

2125
03:05:53,470 --> 03:05:56,550
We had to modify our policies to address attendance issues.

2126
03:05:57,230 --> 03:05:59,190
And we understand how struggling populations

2127
03:05:59,190 --> 03:06:04,150
are impacted and thus modify and further prioritize our budgets to meet those needs.

2128
03:06:06,820 --> 03:06:11,620
In addition, one of our primary responsibilities, I believe is also what we're doing today,

2129
03:06:11,760 --> 03:06:16,420
which is to work with our other elected officials to let you know what our challenges and our successes

2130
03:06:16,420 --> 03:06:18,320
are so that we can meet them together.

2131
03:06:19,440 --> 03:06:24,560
Our common values of a strong education system of opportunity for each and every student,

2132
03:06:24,920 --> 03:06:30,200
and I believe that a strong economy requires a quality public education as it develops a quality

2133
03:06:30,200 --> 03:06:35,480
workforce that will drive a vibrant call that economy as we work to come out of this economic

2134
03:06:35,480 --> 03:06:41,380
impact of COVID. So a little about our district, our board decided to vote on an overall plan

2135
03:06:41,380 --> 03:06:47,480
for learning back in June, given how he knew back then, guess what it's changed. We had a five step

2136
03:06:47,480 --> 03:06:54,660
plan that seemed perfectly reasonable back then. We are now looking at a plan two plus, which was

2137
03:06:54,660 --> 03:06:59,720
not on our radar screen back then. But we did provide our families with three options, which may

2138
03:06:59,720 --> 03:07:05,200
a little different than what other school districts have done. One is common. We have completely

2139
03:07:05,200 --> 03:07:11,420
online to Boulder Universal. We have online learning to school and then we have in-school

2140
03:07:11,420 --> 03:07:16,640
and able to return. We had over a thousand families if I have my numbers right and Rob will correct

2141
03:07:16,640 --> 03:07:21,400
me if I'm long that signed up for Boulder Universal. But we found most of our families love their

2142
03:07:21,400 --> 03:07:26,280
school, not surprisingly, and wanted to be able to come back when we could. So our new plan

2143
03:07:26,280 --> 03:07:29,540
are too plus, which was developed with our working group,

2144
03:07:30,080 --> 03:07:33,220
as our K-True 2 and Intensis Special Education students

2145
03:07:33,220 --> 03:07:38,080
coming back next Monday, with a phase for bringing in our 3-2-5

2146
03:07:38,080 --> 03:07:40,460
to a phase in plan and a hybrid approach

2147
03:07:40,460 --> 03:07:42,220
for our middle and high school students.

2148
03:07:42,660 --> 03:07:44,360
With our hope that all of our students

2149
03:07:44,360 --> 03:07:47,840
will be back in some portion of in-person learning

2150
03:07:47,840 --> 03:07:49,060
by the middle of November.

2151
03:07:49,780 --> 03:07:52,020
Please keep in mind that Boulder is the little unique

2152
03:07:52,020 --> 03:07:54,240
in that we share our community with the University

2153
03:07:54,240 --> 03:07:55,000
of Colorado.

2154
03:07:55,000 --> 03:07:59,180
And as many of you may have read, our numbers two and a half weeks ago, we're looking

2155
03:07:59,180 --> 03:08:04,160
just fine, and now I think us and another few counties may be the state in increasing

2156
03:08:04,160 --> 03:08:05,060
numbers of COVID.

2157
03:08:05,160 --> 03:08:07,440
So we're always having to adapt to that.

2158
03:08:08,300 --> 03:08:12,900
I'd also like to talk a little bit about the CARES dollars in the Esther Financial Support,

2159
03:08:12,900 --> 03:08:17,900
because we are very appreciative of that coming from the federal government and from the

2160
03:08:17,900 --> 03:08:18,380
state.

2161
03:08:18,940 --> 03:08:24,640
In bolder, we received about $14.3 million dollars, and that our targets received approximately

2162
03:08:24,640 --> 03:08:28,540
a million dollars. These resources we use to support employee,

2163
03:08:28,540 --> 03:08:30,820
personnel protection equipment,

2164
03:08:31,340 --> 03:08:33,880
teacher Chromebooks, and a system to allow remote teaching,

2165
03:08:34,560 --> 03:08:37,440
as well as the increase in instructional time from the spring.

2166
03:08:38,360 --> 03:08:40,420
We're also like you've heard this running experience

2167
03:08:40,420 --> 03:08:43,520
and they could decline in enrollment as on many districts.

2168
03:08:43,820 --> 03:08:47,500
Our current projection is that we've lost around 1100 students.

2169
03:08:48,480 --> 03:08:51,180
So enrollment averaging is helpful, but not sufficient.

2170
03:08:51,180 --> 03:08:57,040
But we would like to partner with the state is defined a way to have enrollment stabilization,

2171
03:08:57,480 --> 03:08:58,720
which would be very beneficial.

2172
03:08:59,640 --> 03:09:03,920
A commitment as soon as possible to that will allow us to stabilize our communities,

2173
03:09:04,620 --> 03:09:09,820
stabilize unemployment, reduce uncertainty about school options next spring and fall,

2174
03:09:09,900 --> 03:09:12,260
and help our struggling learners as soon as possible.

2175
03:09:13,180 --> 03:09:17,860
With enrollment comes in under-projections, we ask the appropriation remaining constant

2176
03:09:17,860 --> 03:09:23,780
And it's used to reduce the debt owed to K-12, which, as you all know, is over a billion dollars.

2177
03:09:24,620 --> 03:09:30,900
And as I close, I would like to remind all of us that, as board members and as elected on the officials,

2178
03:09:31,480 --> 03:09:33,100
we need to keep in mind the collective.

2179
03:09:33,720 --> 03:09:38,140
And this quote was just sent to me by our brilliant communications director of CASB season

2180
03:09:38,140 --> 03:09:41,020
and make, and I just want to share it really quickly at short-eye promise.

2181
03:09:41,740 --> 03:09:46,540
The brilliance of the human species lies in our ability to put collected interest ahead of our own.

2182
03:09:46,540 --> 03:09:51,140
We have the opportunity every day that contributes collective efforts and others was.

2183
03:09:51,380 --> 03:09:55,400
These contributions will live on well beyond our brief lifespan on here on earth.

2184
03:09:55,600 --> 03:09:57,360
Thank you, and I remain open for questions.

2185
03:10:01,620 --> 03:10:04,580
Okay, thank you very much, Kathy, for your hard work.

2186
03:10:04,880 --> 03:10:06,060
Who would like to go next?

2187
03:10:07,160 --> 03:10:08,280
You had a Kathy.

2188
03:10:08,660 --> 03:10:10,320
We'll just start with the Kathy's today.

2189
03:10:11,680 --> 03:10:12,700
Thanks, we got Matt and Chair.

2190
03:10:12,880 --> 03:10:16,680
I think that I'm going to be speaking next, can everyone hear me okay?

2191
03:10:17,220 --> 03:10:17,360
Yep.

2192
03:10:17,720 --> 03:10:18,120
We're good.

2193
03:10:20,480 --> 03:10:27,760
Thank you for having me, Rob Anderson, and the crowd superintendent of the Boulder Valley School District here in Boulder, Colorado.

2194
03:10:28,560 --> 03:10:31,840
Certainly have learned a ton over the past seven months.

2195
03:10:32,860 --> 03:10:40,380
And when I think about one of the things that I think that has learned the most is that our public education system is really built upon predictability.

2196
03:10:40,380 --> 03:10:48,680
The ability to predict staffing, student enrollment, funding, being able to procure and understand

2197
03:10:48,680 --> 03:10:52,540
a supply chain so we can get what we need for our kids and be able to predict safety.

2198
03:10:53,280 --> 03:10:58,060
And I'll tell you, community members, that we are operating and incredibly unpredictable

2199
03:10:58,060 --> 03:11:00,640
environment and each and every one of those areas.

2200
03:11:01,160 --> 03:11:05,300
I would say that there's really two big challenges I'd like to speak to you all today

2201
03:11:05,300 --> 03:11:09,520
that hard you haven't been shared and some of them actually have.

2202
03:11:09,700 --> 03:11:12,480
And that is the reliability of information

2203
03:11:12,480 --> 03:11:15,520
and the logistical challenge that this pandemic creates.

2204
03:11:16,200 --> 03:11:18,660
That not everybody may understand or see

2205
03:11:18,660 --> 03:11:21,120
those especially working outside of school districts.

2206
03:11:23,000 --> 03:11:25,420
The reality that we're dealing with is the fact

2207
03:11:25,420 --> 03:11:28,700
during a pandemic have an incredibly short shelf life.

2208
03:11:29,040 --> 03:11:30,960
And where we're talking about expert guidance,

2209
03:11:31,440 --> 03:11:35,200
local health situation as Kathy just referred to.

2210
03:11:35,200 --> 03:11:40,220
Here in Boulder, which has changed drastically over the past three weeks, the logistical

2211
03:11:40,220 --> 03:11:44,240
challenge that we are all running into and trying to make everything work.

2212
03:11:44,400 --> 03:11:47,640
I've been referring to those as running into invisible brick walls.

2213
03:11:49,200 --> 03:11:51,720
Information and all these things are shifting rapidly.

2214
03:11:52,520 --> 03:11:58,940
Rapidly, if we're lucky, something stays true for two weeks, and if stakeholders don't

2215
03:11:58,940 --> 03:12:01,220
stay engaged constantly, they're misinformed.

2216
03:12:01,460 --> 03:12:03,480
I think that creates a communication issue.

2217
03:12:03,480 --> 03:12:13,540
and Boulevard School District, so we've gone in great lengths to constantly communicate and update our parents and provide them opportunities to share their concerns and engage with our staff regarding their questions.

2218
03:12:14,860 --> 03:12:21,380
In regards to the judicial challenge in regards to staffing that several folks have spoken to earlier,

2219
03:12:22,980 --> 03:12:32,900
there's a big challenge in regards to in person versus online requests from parents and regards to options that they're looking for for their kids to best serve their needs.

2220
03:12:33,480 --> 03:12:36,160
versus the online ability of staff.

2221
03:12:36,280 --> 03:12:37,860
And I would say that every school district,

2222
03:12:37,980 --> 03:12:40,020
school charter school private school,

2223
03:12:40,260 --> 03:12:42,240
any school would have you had this formula

2224
03:12:42,240 --> 03:12:43,520
that they're wrestling with.

2225
03:12:43,980 --> 03:12:46,420
In our district, we had about 4% of our parents

2226
03:12:46,420 --> 03:12:48,400
who wanted to sign up for online.

2227
03:12:48,760 --> 03:12:50,900
And we had about 20% of our teachers

2228
03:12:50,900 --> 03:12:53,600
who qualified for medical exemptions.

2229
03:12:54,160 --> 03:12:55,640
All of the medical documentation

2230
03:12:55,640 --> 03:12:58,140
that we collected was from licensed physicians,

2231
03:12:58,540 --> 03:13:01,140
followed CDC guidance and the governor's executive orders.

2232
03:13:01,140 --> 03:13:06,800
So the end result for us is limited staffing for in-person learning, even when our health partners

2233
03:13:06,800 --> 03:13:07,600
theme it says.

2234
03:13:08,100 --> 03:13:10,820
And so that's one of the many challenges that we're wrestling with.

2235
03:13:11,800 --> 03:13:16,120
I will tell you that there's been some great successes and I think that our greatest success

2236
03:13:16,120 --> 03:13:23,000
and Kathy alluded to this is that in this really difficult time where there's the potential

2237
03:13:23,000 --> 03:13:31,120
to be split apart as the community we're working incredibly hard to come together, we've

2238
03:13:31,120 --> 03:13:37,560
administrators parents to help us work through some of the logistical challenges and understand

2239
03:13:37,560 --> 03:13:43,920
everything that it is that we're dealing with. I think that every interest group or or state

2240
03:13:43,920 --> 03:13:48,460
holder has a set of blind spots as we're navigating this and so by working together we're able to

2241
03:13:48,460 --> 03:13:53,700
share those blind spots and come up with solutions that we feel like that are working. I would also

2242
03:13:54,320 --> 03:13:58,540
be remiss if I didn't share with you a success or incredible partnership with Boulder County

2243
03:13:58,540 --> 03:14:03,780
public health and group group public health who have guided and directed us in regards to the health and safety.

2244
03:14:04,720 --> 03:14:09,280
We've also had I think significant successes in regards to technology.

2245
03:14:10,060 --> 03:14:18,560
We have developed a public private partnership with live wire, which is an arrangement in which we give them real estate for their transmitters and receivers.

2246
03:14:19,160 --> 03:14:21,240
And access to our dark fiber and our buildings.

2247
03:14:21,240 --> 03:14:23,660
and then they allow us to get free internet

2248
03:14:23,660 --> 03:14:25,600
for qualifying students and also share

2249
03:14:25,600 --> 03:14:26,540
in some of the revenue.

2250
03:14:27,180 --> 03:14:29,560
We have five schools serving students

2251
03:14:29,560 --> 03:14:31,300
right now, three schools underway

2252
03:14:31,300 --> 03:14:34,760
and hope that will fold three in the next three

2253
03:14:34,760 --> 03:14:36,620
or is a full district rollout.

2254
03:14:37,100 --> 03:14:40,060
And I would end similar to some of the things

2255
03:14:40,060 --> 03:14:42,860
that Kathy shared in an environment

2256
03:14:42,860 --> 03:14:45,200
with increased unpredictability.

2257
03:14:45,880 --> 03:14:47,420
With all of the things that I mentioned,

2258
03:14:47,900 --> 03:14:49,920
I think the one thing that we can make predictability

2259
03:14:49,920 --> 03:14:55,320
funding. And so to make sure that we're properly funding our schools with the understanding

2260
03:14:55,320 --> 03:14:59,980
that working within a pandemic our expenses are going up they're not going

2261
03:15:00,000 --> 03:15:15,940
Now, certainly, there are some savings, but we're finding expenses going up. And that if funding is another challenge and variable that we have to deal with it, certainly, it creates increased complexity in what is one of the most complex problems I think public education has ever had to solve.

2262
03:15:16,440 --> 03:15:25,480
So, again, appreciate the opportunity to speak with you all today. And I'll pause, I don't think that I'm sure I'll be next, and then happy to respond to any questions you may have.

2263
03:15:26,600 --> 03:15:29,000
Great, great. Thank you so much for all this.

2264
03:15:29,680 --> 03:15:32,800
There's a lot, so thank you.

2265
03:15:33,000 --> 03:15:35,840
Okay, Adam's 12, you can do a nose goes between you here.

2266
03:15:37,060 --> 03:15:39,060
Sorry, decided that early on.

2267
03:15:39,620 --> 03:15:39,760
Good.

2268
03:15:40,080 --> 03:15:42,800
Adam's here, I'm very honored to be here today

2269
03:15:42,800 --> 03:15:44,640
to really share our experiences

2270
03:15:44,640 --> 03:15:47,640
in Adam's 12th, the Honcing Public Health and Safety

2271
03:15:47,640 --> 03:15:50,500
with our commitment to educating all students

2272
03:15:50,500 --> 03:15:52,560
in a crazy time of COVID.

2273
03:15:53,760 --> 03:15:56,240
We recognize that the impacts of the pandemic

2274
03:15:56,240 --> 03:16:01,420
are everywhere in our greater for some than others, and our commitment is to not let anyone

2275
03:16:01,420 --> 03:16:06,860
fall behind. I want to start by sharing how Adam's 12 and I know many other districts

2276
03:16:06,860 --> 03:16:11,800
really stepped up to serve our families and students the spring and summer that's a huge

2277
03:16:11,800 --> 03:16:17,660
important part of the store because we really are about educating our kids but caring for them as

2278
03:16:17,660 --> 03:16:20,320
of individuals and families too.

2279
03:16:20,840 --> 03:16:26,600
So staff members, this summer, we served 890,000 and 87 meals.

2280
03:16:27,380 --> 03:16:34,060
We've distributed 24,642 comb books to try and bridge that digital divide

2281
03:16:34,060 --> 03:16:37,560
and have provided 261 hotspots.

2282
03:16:38,520 --> 03:16:41,280
Over the summer while school was technically closed,

2283
03:16:41,360 --> 03:16:45,880
we have staff members supporting mobile food and resource distribution efforts,

2284
03:16:45,880 --> 03:16:51,280
And they also staff 20 days of resource sharing at two of our high schools.

2285
03:16:52,420 --> 03:16:54,720
This took a great deal of community partnership.

2286
03:16:55,280 --> 03:16:59,980
Donations were coordinated and collected from 15 community organizations.

2287
03:17:00,520 --> 03:17:05,300
And I would say partnership has been one of the key successes in how we've dealt with COVID

2288
03:17:05,300 --> 03:17:08,640
with our counties, our cities, and our local agencies.

2289
03:17:08,640 --> 03:17:16,520
In addition, 251 referrals were processed for things like housing, rental assistance and

2290
03:17:16,520 --> 03:17:16,900
utilities.

2291
03:17:20,860 --> 03:17:29,510
We heard a lot this morning about stress and it's, you know, out of 12 has worked to complete

2292
03:17:29,510 --> 03:17:34,110
three district-wide learning and operational transformations since March.

2293
03:17:34,110 --> 03:17:38,490
So, the first one was the remote learning in March that we all experienced.

2294
03:17:39,330 --> 03:17:44,170
Our second was when we decided as a district that we would start this fall with remote learning,

2295
03:17:44,370 --> 03:17:49,350
and now we are transitioning to a new state of being by October 1,

2296
03:17:49,770 --> 03:17:58,110
to in-person options, K-5 will go K, will go 5 days or 6 through 12th grade will be in a hybrid.

2297
03:17:58,930 --> 03:18:01,370
Parents can also select to remain remote.

2298
03:18:03,290 --> 03:18:08,410
It's been important for us to hear from our community and teachers, we have conducted numerous

2299
03:18:08,410 --> 03:18:13,570
staff and family surveys along the way during our decision making process.

2300
03:18:14,330 --> 03:18:20,470
We try and provide regular weekly communications with staff and families, videos, newsletters.

2301
03:18:20,870 --> 03:18:27,070
Of course, our board emails are open and have been utilized extensively during the process.

2302
03:18:27,550 --> 03:18:32,930
We've also done focus groups with teachers and have groups that are now working on real

2303
03:18:32,930 --> 03:18:37,870
hammering out all those on the ground details of how class is going to look in these new models.

2304
03:18:38,930 --> 03:18:46,190
So in a regular year, decisions on learning how to go to your complex in a COVID year, they're almost dizzying.

2305
03:18:46,430 --> 03:18:52,510
Whether you're looking at teaching in person, remote or a combination, so that's been a huge challenge.

2306
03:18:53,790 --> 03:18:56,230
I'll mention a little bit more about safety.

2307
03:18:56,230 --> 03:19:06,370
That's been a huge priority as I know it is for older valiant others with what's very hard and close with our two public health agencies to look at trends.

2308
03:19:07,130 --> 03:19:12,270
Each district is making decisions based on what's happening with COVID data in their area.

2309
03:19:12,930 --> 03:19:22,570
And we have strong, safety measures in place in schools, including masking, ventilation, cohorting social distancing and those kind of things.

2310
03:19:22,570 --> 03:19:28,350
And that really causes our staff to look at each space and a building, and basically reconfigure

2311
03:19:28,350 --> 03:19:31,030
how we can use it based on public health guidance.

2312
03:19:31,930 --> 03:19:38,350
Now we're adding sports and special events on top of it and it's really the picture of complexity

2313
03:19:38,350 --> 03:19:40,750
couldn't be more complete.

2314
03:19:41,930 --> 03:19:46,970
I will just add the four paths of Mike over to Chris, how much we appreciate our staff,

2315
03:19:47,050 --> 03:19:52,390
administrators, teachers have stepped forward and really gone above and beyond what

2316
03:19:52,390 --> 03:19:59,110
are normally demanding jobs require and some of them have two fears as we look to this

2317
03:19:59,110 --> 03:20:03,910
transition about going back to in learning classroom in the classroom and exposure.

2318
03:20:04,190 --> 03:20:09,230
And we're doing our very best to make everyone feel safe and secure as they go back to learning.

2319
03:20:10,270 --> 03:20:12,830
So thank you for your time and I'll be around for questions.

2320
03:20:13,570 --> 03:20:15,130
I'll turn it over to our kids for intended.

2321
03:20:17,790 --> 03:20:20,850
Madam Chair committee members, that's a privilege to join you this afternoon.

2322
03:20:20,850 --> 03:20:23,590
I'm Chris Getowski, Superintendent with Addams 12.

2323
03:20:24,050 --> 03:20:26,930
I understand the committee might have some interest in morning more about our learning

2324
03:20:26,930 --> 03:20:31,910
pod implementation and addams 12, so I'll start there and then transition into a few other

2325
03:20:31,910 --> 03:20:35,570
key challenges and barriers that we've been working through.

2326
03:20:36,130 --> 03:20:38,510
Learning pods are born out in necessity for us.

2327
03:20:38,750 --> 03:20:44,890
Addams 12 found itself along with most of Addams County back in late July with a really high rate of

2328
03:20:44,890 --> 03:20:46,070
transmission in the virus.

2329
03:20:46,070 --> 03:20:53,890
We have levels that under new CDPHE guidance made us high risk, under the safer at home,

2330
03:20:54,130 --> 03:20:59,170
dial and recommended that remote learning, the implemented instead of in person.

2331
03:21:00,070 --> 03:21:03,830
And so what we're in pods that we saw as an opportunity, especially at the elementary and

2332
03:21:03,830 --> 03:21:09,470
middle school levels, that have smaller groups of students up to 12, come to a classroom

2333
03:21:09,470 --> 03:21:17,350
be more distance six feet or more as possible with small group systems, and we've be able to

2334
03:21:17,350 --> 03:21:22,390
have smart groups that kids potentially be quarantined if that was necessary. We've found that

2335
03:21:22,390 --> 03:21:27,350
over 4,000 students were able to access plumbing prizes. We implemented them. Our demand was

2336
03:21:27,350 --> 03:21:33,830
greater than that. We weren't able to staff all of the demand that was out there. It allowed us to

2337
03:21:33,830 --> 03:21:37,350
deal with some of the barriers that come with remote learning. One is internet connectivity,

2338
03:21:37,350 --> 03:21:43,830
And so students who had internet connectivity challenges at home were prioritized in terms of one-in-put access.

2339
03:21:44,950 --> 03:21:52,130
Some students because of language barriers or because of technology, technology being unfamiliar to parents,

2340
03:21:52,770 --> 03:22:00,570
being supported adequately at home would be challenging and so we hope to have staff members and some tech training that could help students get back online

2341
03:22:00,570 --> 03:22:05,410
or bigger than 1,000 in online curriculum, and so that was a second need that we were able to address.

2342
03:22:05,810 --> 03:22:10,990
Being kids together in the setting allowed students to have their social emotional learning needs better mat

2343
03:22:10,990 --> 03:22:17,750
and to build community and connections with one another more readily than a truly online setting.

2344
03:22:18,450 --> 03:22:25,690
And then on the parent side it allowed those who have what responsibility to have their kids safely taking care of and supervise and supported

2345
03:22:26,310 --> 03:22:36,930
While they had to get off to work, it also allowed us to support first responders and medical providers and our communities so they could take on those important duties and serving the community.

2346
03:22:37,930 --> 03:22:44,290
And then finally, the third leg of this stool that was helpful to support our support staff, our classified staff.

2347
03:22:44,290 --> 03:22:47,790
They were the ones who came in and supervised these morning pods.

2348
03:22:48,430 --> 03:22:56,430
The previous jobs have been bus driver, care professional, food service employee, before

2349
03:22:56,430 --> 03:23:01,470
an after school care employees and a number of roles beyond that, and we're able to

2350
03:23:01,470 --> 03:23:03,150
transition them into the space.

2351
03:23:04,030 --> 03:23:08,110
They were comfortable with kids, they worked with kids in the prior roles, they'd have to

2352
03:23:08,110 --> 03:23:12,890
do quite a bit of learning around technology and classroom management, no doubt about that.

2353
03:23:12,890 --> 03:23:24,690
But it was a great way for them to continue on with the support with they always do in supporting student learning and also be in a spot where they could continue to earn a full-time paycheck if that was their interest.

2354
03:23:25,330 --> 03:23:29,850
And it worked really, really well for us in terms of managing all of those interests that I've described.

2355
03:23:30,550 --> 03:23:37,190
Today as our last day with learning pods not because they've not met expectations but because the virus rates have improved.

2356
03:23:37,190 --> 03:23:41,590
in a significant way in Adams County since late July, and we feel like we can safely

2357
03:23:41,590 --> 03:23:46,850
quickly transition into some in-person learning next week as Kathy had mentioned.

2358
03:23:47,990 --> 03:23:52,230
So, while there's some pieces of brown learning positive, I'd be happy to answer more questions about.

2359
03:23:52,690 --> 03:23:58,050
In terms of barriers, I've heard others speaking about these same issues of funding and staffing,

2360
03:23:58,150 --> 03:24:02,310
and I'm going to reiterate those same things with some different data points.

2361
03:24:03,270 --> 03:24:06,610
So, one of the data points I think is helpful to know is that there's tremendous scarcity

2362
03:24:06,610 --> 03:24:10,490
in terms of finding staffing right now to do the work.

2363
03:24:10,930 --> 03:24:13,690
A lot of talk about some of the challenges that can exist

2364
03:24:13,690 --> 03:24:16,670
and having sufficient teaching staff

2365
03:24:16,670 --> 03:24:19,270
depending on medical conditions they may have.

2366
03:24:19,650 --> 03:24:20,870
For us, an Adams 12.

2367
03:24:21,370 --> 03:24:24,650
On the bus driver's side of things, we have over 30 bus drivers

2368
03:24:24,650 --> 03:24:26,850
that are currently out on reasons of absence

2369
03:24:26,850 --> 03:24:28,470
or are resigned or required

2370
03:24:29,110 --> 03:24:31,590
because of their unwillingness to work

2371
03:24:31,590 --> 03:24:33,910
in an in-person setting in these circumstances.

2372
03:24:33,910 --> 03:24:39,310
is that's about 25% of our staff in our transportation group.

2373
03:24:39,830 --> 03:24:44,030
And so, puts districts in a position where oftentimes you're forced to make difficult decisions,

2374
03:24:44,390 --> 03:24:47,690
like no longer providing transportation as soon as the high school level.

2375
03:24:48,230 --> 03:24:52,750
We're not there yet in ABAM's 12, but we are razor thin, in terms of having sufficient staffing

2376
03:24:53,310 --> 03:24:55,450
in transportation to do that work well.

2377
03:24:56,090 --> 03:25:02,290
Likewise, we find ourselves like other districts very short on substitute teachers, typically

2378
03:25:02,290 --> 03:25:08,430
have a pool of about 600 substitute teachers and even what that large pool, many of them say

2379
03:25:08,430 --> 03:25:14,030
I can't work today or I can't work in that assignment and we struggled even with 600

2380
03:25:14,030 --> 03:25:19,590
in our traditional pool that has sufficient class coverage a hundred percent of the time.

2381
03:25:19,910 --> 03:25:25,510
We are off on we are at 85 to 90 percent of our sub and they can see we have been filled and

2382
03:25:25,510 --> 03:25:30,010
instead we usually have administrators and teachers covering classes. Right now we will have

2383
03:25:30,690 --> 03:25:36,910
288 subs in our pool, so about a third of what we typically have, and so that creates challenges

2384
03:25:36,910 --> 03:25:37,890
in terms of coverage.

2385
03:25:38,670 --> 03:25:42,910
A lot of requires is that you have an all hands-on deck approach where you take folks who

2386
03:25:42,910 --> 03:25:48,710
have other valuable roles like instructional coaches who help educators implement curriculum

2387
03:25:48,710 --> 03:25:49,290
well.

2388
03:25:49,610 --> 03:25:55,170
Look at data about how students are progressing, adjust instruction, depending on what data

2389
03:25:55,170 --> 03:26:00,030
shows, differentiate their instruction to meet the needs of diverse kids in their classroom.

2390
03:26:00,870 --> 03:26:03,770
And we need to have coaches come in and feel classroom spots.

2391
03:26:04,590 --> 03:26:09,750
And you have social, emotional learning specialists doing that and visual literacy professionals

2392
03:26:09,750 --> 03:26:11,130
doing that same work.

2393
03:26:11,470 --> 03:26:15,550
There are gaps out there in terms of the other work that they do that's tremendously valuable.

2394
03:26:15,930 --> 03:26:20,330
But I think it's going to have some adverse impacts in terms of student learning and growth this year.

2395
03:26:21,530 --> 03:26:27,250
At the other point that I would highlight around funding and need in the COVID era is we

2396
03:26:27,250 --> 03:26:34,010
want a little bit backward in our funding, given the BS factor, negative factor, increased

2397
03:26:34,010 --> 03:26:34,870
this year.

2398
03:26:35,190 --> 03:26:38,730
That was largely offset but not all the way with federal funding.

2399
03:26:38,970 --> 03:26:44,110
We still were net $3.2 million to the negative and add them as well as you blend those things

2400
03:26:44,110 --> 03:26:44,770
together.

2401
03:26:46,370 --> 03:26:56,050
And so often folks talk about some of the obvious needs that come in serving kids in a remote setting or dealing with COVID, whether it's online curriculum,

2402
03:26:56,390 --> 03:27:03,730
more computers, finding ways to get kids connected to internet, buying PPE, testing staff and students for COVID,

2403
03:27:04,630 --> 03:27:06,650
what's really talked about is class size.

2404
03:27:06,970 --> 03:27:13,910
And I think many of us find ourselves in the spot of either needing the higher and more staff to provide appropriate class sizes,

2405
03:27:13,910 --> 03:27:21,370
or super-sizing remote online learning class sizes because that's the way to balance out the equation.

2406
03:27:22,450 --> 03:27:28,770
So in Adam's 12, what we find is our classrooms will accommodate no more than 24 students with rare exception

2407
03:27:28,770 --> 03:27:31,670
and in-person settings at the elementary level.

2408
03:27:33,590 --> 03:27:40,570
And our typical model calls for us to have up to 29 students and many of our elementary classrooms, especially in grade 3 through 5.

2409
03:27:40,570 --> 03:27:57,710
And then that deficit that we find ourselves in, as we accommodate those constraints, so we have students into a physically safe environment, as we need 50 more teachers to either maintain 24 students in a class and an in person setting.

2410
03:27:57,710 --> 03:28:25,830
And the key of reasonable class sizes in the online setting, if we weren't to have another 50 teachers that we either hire or that we staff by having instructional coaches and social motion running specialist and digital literacy specialist to go in, our class sizes in remote would be 40 to 50 plus an elementary that is just not going to work in terms of helping to navigate through build relationships get their questions answered.

2411
03:28:26,370 --> 03:28:31,850
So I believe not only short-term but long-term one of the very profound challenges facing

2412
03:28:31,850 --> 03:28:37,130
us is to have smaller class sizes than we traditionally do and funding some of the

2413
03:28:37,130 --> 03:28:40,350
essential for us to be able to make that work well.

2414
03:28:40,970 --> 03:28:44,690
The final thing I would talk about in terms of barriers and challenges relates to quarantine

2415
03:28:44,690 --> 03:28:48,330
and there have been some references that I've heard to that today.

2416
03:28:49,290 --> 03:28:54,610
I know that public health officials are talking actively now about whether there can be modifications

2417
03:28:54,610 --> 03:28:59,110
to quarantine, both in terms of duration of quarantine and scope.

2418
03:28:59,770 --> 03:29:02,850
And so I would just share with the committee some of what I've heard in those conversations.

2419
03:29:03,550 --> 03:29:09,290
We want to some discussion about whether 14 days is the appropriate length of time to quarantine individuals.

2420
03:29:10,150 --> 03:29:22,910
I've heard public health officials share with me that 95% of the transmission that happens following exposure to someone who is positive occurs within the first 5.1 days following that exposure.

2421
03:29:22,910 --> 03:29:37,490
And so I've heard a number of public health officials questioning whether a 14 day quarantine is necessary given the only 5% of what they're seeing in terms of document transmission occurs during the final nine days of quarantine.

2422
03:29:37,930 --> 03:29:40,910
That's an important factor for us to consider.

2423
03:29:40,910 --> 03:29:47,250
is something that limits our ability to have a productive learning and in-person settings when we're

2424
03:29:47,250 --> 03:29:51,930
having a certain staff and students out for 14 days, as it proves to be necessary

2425
03:29:51,930 --> 03:29:58,130
improving from a public health lens, we completely supported on the staff side announced for all

2426
03:29:58,130 --> 03:29:59,970
I just, um, in hearing something.

2427
03:30:00,500 --> 03:30:08,320
Questioning whether that is the right duration to use. And then the second related issue is how big should the scope be in quarantine.

2428
03:30:09,140 --> 03:30:21,200
There's been a conflict that we've seen for quite a while at school administrators about quarantining those based upon exposure versus quarantining staff and students based upon their membership in a cohort.

2429
03:30:21,200 --> 03:30:32,700
On exposure at so much more limited targeted quarantine approach and that you only placed students in quarantine who've been within six feet of one another for 15 minutes or longer.

2430
03:30:33,940 --> 03:30:50,240
And as an expose to someone at the virus, in a cohort situation, you might be placing 200 students within a group of classes at the high school model who've been around each other over their six to eight course day over the prior to school days.

2431
03:30:50,240 --> 03:30:54,400
And so, obviously, the number of students and staff that you're touching can

2432
03:30:54,400 --> 03:30:59,900
different dramatically depending on what you use the cohort basis for quarantine or

2433
03:30:59,900 --> 03:31:06,020
the more targeted approach based upon exposure, I'm welcoming the dialogue I hear going on with

2434
03:31:06,020 --> 03:31:10,820
public health about that piece because it has huge implications about whether in person, whether

2435
03:31:10,820 --> 03:31:16,440
it's every day or a two-day per week hybrid, which we're doing at the secondary, it has huge

2436
03:31:16,440 --> 03:31:18,660
applications about whether that can really work

2437
03:31:18,660 --> 03:31:21,900
and a productive and consistent way for students and families.

2438
03:31:22,440 --> 03:31:24,220
Thanks very much for letting me share it today.

2439
03:31:26,740 --> 03:31:29,460
Well, thank you, Superintendent, for really showing us how

2440
03:31:29,460 --> 03:31:33,240
difficult public education is in these conditions.

2441
03:31:34,600 --> 03:31:39,160
So it's not just an easy, yes or no, do it this way or that way.

2442
03:31:39,620 --> 03:31:42,300
So I'm very much appreciate your contribution today.

2443
03:31:43,460 --> 03:31:45,980
So Dave Lockley, please, and welcome

2444
03:31:45,980 --> 03:31:48,160
Yeah, I'm introduced yourself and carry on, please.

2445
03:31:51,440 --> 03:31:53,940
Members of the Education Committee, my name is Dave Lockley.

2446
03:31:54,320 --> 03:31:58,340
I am the president of the District 12 Educators Association,

2447
03:31:58,600 --> 03:32:01,340
not DCCA, I'm like you said previously.

2448
03:32:02,060 --> 03:32:03,540
I won't take up any no problem.

2449
03:32:03,860 --> 03:32:04,920
Representative McLaughlin,

2450
03:32:08,000 --> 03:32:11,800
here to represent the employees of Adam Swell.

2451
03:32:11,900 --> 03:32:16,640
My colleague, Paul Williams, who's originally going to be here today.

2452
03:32:16,640 --> 03:32:21,480
to be emergency room and was unable to join us today.

2453
03:32:22,300 --> 03:32:32,540
So, I do have some notes here for him, so I'll be able to share a little bit of their perspective as well.

2454
03:32:33,500 --> 03:32:42,580
One of the things I just wanted to take to point out about what I think is the most important thing that's happened in Adam's 12 throughout this entire process.

2455
03:32:42,580 --> 03:32:54,260
And there's really one of the foundations of what I think makes that unswell, successful, is the collaboration that exists between our two employee associations and the superintendents and school board.

2456
03:32:55,000 --> 03:33:05,860
We have made sure that as a system that employees had a voice and a say and were respected throughout this entire entire process.

2457
03:33:05,860 --> 03:33:29,960
That has been the case. From day one, we were sitting in the warm room waiting to figure out what we were going to do when COVID-19 first started hitting all the way up to today and yesterday and all of this week as we're trying to solve many of the problems that super intended about to be with able to highlight and I think that's one of the things that's going to make us successful and continue to make it successful throughout this entire

2458
03:33:34,950 --> 03:33:40,350
mixture and mentioned some of the employee perspective of a box around the pods.

2459
03:33:41,010 --> 03:33:43,630
that Adam Swag was able to,

2460
03:33:47,080 --> 03:33:53,440
I think overall employees sounded to be successful as an opportunity to one provide,

2461
03:33:53,500 --> 03:33:53,900
I

2462
03:33:58,580 --> 03:34:04,940
had employees who might otherwise have been able to not be able to receive the same kind of hours.

2463
03:34:05,680 --> 03:34:17,320
And many of them have, in fact, been able to increase their hours from doing, you know, a two or three hour employee to being a full time employee during this time.

2464
03:34:17,320 --> 03:34:20,040
There's also been employees in the classified realm.

2465
03:34:20,480 --> 03:34:22,780
That's my daughter's kind of a nice little arm-to-meeting unit.

2466
03:34:23,880 --> 03:34:26,180
Okay, I'll give that to you by the side about that.

2467
03:34:26,360 --> 03:34:30,160
One of the joys of working at home on these days,

2468
03:34:33,410 --> 03:34:36,570
many of these employees have been able to find a new interest

2469
03:34:36,570 --> 03:34:40,630
in working with our students that maybe didn't have the opportunity

2470
03:34:41,210 --> 03:34:43,230
and are now looking at new opportunities,

2471
03:34:43,450 --> 03:34:46,390
whether that's becoming a classroom pair and they work before

2472
03:34:46,390 --> 03:34:49,030
or maybe going into teaching or somehow getting more

2473
03:34:49,030 --> 03:34:56,810
involved with our students. So it's been a stream success. I've been an employee at parents

2474
03:34:56,810 --> 03:35:03,150
and I'd graduate at about 12, basically my entire life. I've lived here at a whole time and I

2475
03:35:03,150 --> 03:35:11,210
have never been a router of our community, of our staff and everyone that we've done and tried

2476
03:35:11,210 --> 03:35:18,590
to take all of these challenges ahead on. At the same time, there's a lot of here.

2477
03:35:18,590 --> 03:35:21,350
and concerns in our whole community.

2478
03:35:21,790 --> 03:35:24,190
You know, the parents I watched are teachers

2479
03:35:24,190 --> 03:35:26,990
work tirelessly for my daughter,

2480
03:35:27,130 --> 03:35:29,290
but you just saw her a few her little cameo

2481
03:35:29,290 --> 03:35:30,170
and my son.

2482
03:35:30,430 --> 03:35:33,590
But knowing that they're, they're five or fours

2483
03:35:33,590 --> 03:35:35,930
and they're ALPs, they're advanced running clients.

2484
03:35:36,310 --> 03:35:37,770
And as my son, they can get the parents

2485
03:35:37,770 --> 03:35:39,110
for the herding name.

2486
03:35:43,620 --> 03:35:46,080
Joy of the being a home.

2487
03:35:46,240 --> 03:35:47,980
They ran into each other for my apologies,

2488
03:35:48,460 --> 03:35:49,780
representatives and senators.

2489
03:35:52,320 --> 03:35:57,220
is that they weren't, they're not, their educational needs are not being met in this

2490
03:35:57,220 --> 03:36:01,080
current environment. Not because our teachers aren't struggling, that's hard as they can

2491
03:36:01,080 --> 03:36:06,900
be able to meet it, but just the limitations of being online. And even when we move into

2492
03:36:06,900 --> 03:36:12,200
persons, the limitations of not being able to have individualized curriculum that needs one of them truly

2493
03:36:12,200 --> 03:36:19,360
needs. The differentiation is going to be a challenge and a struggle that each of our educators are going to work tirelessly

2494
03:36:19,360 --> 03:36:29,580
to be able to accomplish, but at the end of the day there is going to be loaning gaps, and that is the biggest shame and the biggest heartbreak I have, it's actually what keeps me up at night.

2495
03:36:29,960 --> 03:36:36,200
It's the fact that my students and all of the students about them 12 are not going to get everything they need this year.

2496
03:36:37,500 --> 03:36:44,560
And that's, you know, not because the superintendent and our associations and our teachers aren't doing everything they can.

2497
03:36:44,560 --> 03:36:48,260
It's just that we don't have the resources to be able to do that.

2498
03:36:48,560 --> 03:36:52,980
She's pretending to get out, she's talked about online classes for those families that are at risk,

2499
03:36:53,640 --> 03:37:01,380
or fearful of returning to in person at 38, 35, that is just a size and number that is just

2500
03:37:01,380 --> 03:37:07,100
unable to meet those needs in an online environment. It's just impossible to make it happen.

2501
03:37:08,620 --> 03:37:13,060
Our staff had fears about returning about what it's going to look like as we pivot from online

2502
03:37:13,060 --> 03:37:19,300
instruction to in-person instruction. These fears are real and are going to be something that we're

2503
03:37:19,300 --> 03:37:25,360
all going to have to live with as we try to adjust into these fears every single day

2504
03:37:25,360 --> 03:37:31,300
are going to be a challenge and a struggle because instead of focusing on what the students need

2505
03:37:31,300 --> 03:37:37,580
and interacting with those students, they're going to be the momentary hesitation of MI2 close to

2506
03:37:37,580 --> 03:37:45,060
students. Am I putting this student or myself at risk? Instead of being able to feel like they

2507
03:37:45,060 --> 03:37:49,700
can openly participate in activity, whether it's before or after school or students, there's

2508
03:37:49,700 --> 03:37:55,840
this fear of what's going to happen. Am I putting my own family at risk? Right now we have a deadline

2509
03:37:55,840 --> 03:38:00,940
for our educators about making a decision about whether or not they're going to return. And I

2510
03:38:00,940 --> 03:38:14,720
have been fielding and my colleague Paula's well, hundreds at this point probably thousands of phone calls and emails and text messages and I think a carrier pigeon or two of just peers and concerns about what are they going to do.

2511
03:38:15,120 --> 03:38:18,620
How can we help them and I don't have an answer for that.

2512
03:38:19,000 --> 03:38:21,620
I don't think any of us on this call have an answer for that.

2513
03:38:22,960 --> 03:38:26,480
Our educators are at a breaking point and our system is at a breaking.

2514
03:38:28,660 --> 03:38:33,920
more support. We need more support from the state. We need more support from the federal government. Our

2515
03:38:33,920 --> 03:38:40,240
district has done everything possible. Everything within their power, they have done over backwards.

2516
03:38:40,660 --> 03:38:47,460
They have done everything they can, but we have run out of cars. We run out of trips. We have nothing

2517
03:38:47,460 --> 03:38:55,680
left. And our students don't have until next year. They don't have until next week. They need help from

2518
03:38:55,680 --> 03:38:58,700
the federal government in the state government's day.

2519
03:38:59,720 --> 03:39:01,420
As I've been in this district,

2520
03:39:01,620 --> 03:39:04,800
I have seen the highs of the best funding we've ever had

2521
03:39:04,800 --> 03:39:07,480
as a system, and I have done nothing

2522
03:39:07,480 --> 03:39:08,760
but watched that change,

2523
03:39:09,160 --> 03:39:10,640
and the support from the federal government

2524
03:39:10,640 --> 03:39:13,540
in the state change to the point now

2525
03:39:13,540 --> 03:39:19,340
where I have to tell my son that we can't have the class

2526
03:39:19,340 --> 03:39:20,160
by the beginning.

2527
03:39:20,780 --> 03:39:23,120
He doesn't get the interventionist time that he needs.

2528
03:39:23,420 --> 03:39:24,920
And that breaks my heart.

2529
03:39:24,920 --> 03:39:36,760
As an educator and as a parent, I had to get my son on a 504 for his learning disability and it took me too long because before all of this was happening we didn't have enough resources.

2530
03:39:38,080 --> 03:39:53,420
Now, we are nowhere close to enough resources to be able to meet our students and the shame that I am watching and there's like kind of like watching a train wreck happen is that we are going to have more deaths.

2531
03:39:54,140 --> 03:39:56,420
We are going to have more struggles.

2532
03:39:56,840 --> 03:40:00,900
Our students are going to fall further behind, not because every one of our educators and I just

2533
03:40:00,900 --> 03:40:07,860
are going to do every single thing possible, but because we have nothing left to give.

2534
03:40:09,890 --> 03:40:14,190
Thank you, representatives and senators for your time today and allowing me to speak.

2535
03:40:15,130 --> 03:40:19,710
I would just like to also thank Superintendent Debussy and Board President Cuomo for their

2536
03:40:19,710 --> 03:40:23,110
ongoing partnership and collaboration with myself and Paul Williams.

2537
03:40:23,110 --> 03:40:28,950
I wanted to begin and end in that way because that is going to be the key that we'll get all

2538
03:40:28,950 --> 03:40:32,530
districts through that just they can work together at the community.

2539
03:40:33,450 --> 03:40:33,730
Thank you.

2540
03:40:33,970 --> 03:40:37,870
I will be available if you have any questions or comments from the afterwards.

2541
03:40:40,580 --> 03:40:40,740
Okay.

2542
03:40:40,780 --> 03:40:41,520
Thank you so much.

2543
03:40:41,640 --> 03:40:47,340
I think all of you kind of brought to life in the nitty gritty of what's going on in the schools,

2544
03:40:47,600 --> 03:40:48,860
which I think most people don't.

2545
03:40:49,080 --> 03:40:49,340
It's not.

2546
03:40:49,460 --> 03:40:51,820
You can't always take that overall view to look.

2547
03:40:51,820 --> 03:40:58,340
I do want to tell you before we get started with our five-minute minutes of questions that you

2548
03:40:58,340 --> 03:41:02,860
representative Michael Finjene could not be here today for this moment, but she wanted to

2549
03:41:03,740 --> 03:41:09,100
say that she's hearing you and she's on your side on this, okay? So just thought I'd throw that

2550
03:41:09,100 --> 03:41:14,780
in for you. So let's start with five minutes of questions and Senator Bridges, you had one.

2551
03:41:17,410 --> 03:41:24,070
Madam Chair. Yeah, I first of all, it's unbelievable what it is that you all are doing.

2552
03:41:24,650 --> 03:41:29,810
What you, what you've been asked to do and how much you've been able to do with, frankly, the

2553
03:41:29,810 --> 03:41:34,490
underfunding of education that we've had in this state is just a chronic challenge since the

2554
03:41:34,490 --> 03:41:39,610
invention of the negative factor, which I call the unconstitutional factor, since I think that,

2555
03:41:39,850 --> 03:41:43,770
you know, there's a, there's a duty that we have under the constitution to fund and we're not

2556
03:41:43,770 --> 03:41:50,790
But somehow the court said it was okay, so that's my general attitude about the negative factor.

2557
03:41:51,410 --> 03:41:55,290
But I've heard of you today say that there should be a whole harmless immediately.

2558
03:41:55,510 --> 03:41:56,730
We should just state that immediately.

2559
03:41:57,690 --> 03:42:04,510
And then it goes back to my comments earlier in today's session about the kids that aren't there right now.

2560
03:42:04,810 --> 03:42:12,630
And the parents that wouldn't even be able to be here today, if there was some opportunity for them because they're just underwater.

2561
03:42:12,630 --> 03:42:17,970
they're just overwhelmed. And I am deeply concerned about the fact that, first of all, we don't

2562
03:42:17,970 --> 03:42:23,650
really have any good numbers on what attendance looks like. In districts, we don't have insight

2563
03:42:23,650 --> 03:42:31,150
into why some of those kids have sort of disappeared. And without being really assured that every

2564
03:42:31,150 --> 03:42:37,110
district is using every means necessary, every means available to try and get those kids in the classrooms,

2565
03:42:37,770 --> 03:42:43,530
that we would have a whole harmless for those districts, especially when some districts really

2566
03:42:43,530 --> 03:42:48,470
are doing everything they can to get those kids in the classroom, if other districts

2567
03:42:48,470 --> 03:42:52,290
that are just like, well, we'll get them on anyway, there's no incentive for them to go out

2568
03:42:52,290 --> 03:42:53,090
and find those kids.

2569
03:42:53,470 --> 03:42:58,890
And as the last speaker put it, our students don't have until next year.

2570
03:42:59,590 --> 03:43:04,230
We need to do everything we can to make sure that these students are in classes this year,

2571
03:43:04,230 --> 03:43:09,930
even with the challenges of educating someone this year we need to make sure those kids are

2572
03:43:09,930 --> 03:43:17,370
classrooms. And so I'm deeply in comfort with the idea of a whole harmless announced now before

2573
03:43:17,370 --> 03:43:27,290
we even know what the data is here in our Colorado School District. I'd love to hear some thoughts on that.

2574
03:43:28,350 --> 03:43:32,570
Would anyone like to join in? Yes, I'm super kidding. Good asky.

2575
03:43:34,990 --> 03:43:39,790
So, Senator Bridges, I'll just share some data that may or may not be helpful in terms of the issue you've presented.

2576
03:43:40,330 --> 03:43:47,970
And Adam's 12 is the figure today, we're down 718 students district wide, 732 of them are elementary.

2577
03:43:48,210 --> 03:43:52,070
So, actually, slightly up at middle and high schoolers were sitting here today.

2578
03:43:53,350 --> 03:43:59,210
Probably, more than 60% of those students at elementary are from kindergarten first grade.

2579
03:43:59,730 --> 03:44:04,810
What I often hear is that parents aren't sitting in their kids because of the lack of effort,

2580
03:44:05,050 --> 03:44:08,190
or lack of desire on our part to serve them.

2581
03:44:08,750 --> 03:44:13,570
Many of them are registering their kindergarteners, so that they can have a more typical experience

2582
03:44:13,570 --> 03:44:15,790
a year from now, or at least that's a whole group of parents.

2583
03:44:16,510 --> 03:44:21,710
Others just have such great concerns about the virus that they're not willing to send their kids

2584
03:44:21,710 --> 03:44:27,290
who came in person setting, and because we've had some more structured remote learning in

2585
03:44:27,290 --> 03:44:31,210
Adam's 12, and I think a number of districts have done that, less asynchronous like

2586
03:44:31,210 --> 03:44:36,010
we have in the spring, a more structured synchronous instruction where the educators working

2587
03:44:36,010 --> 03:44:42,410
with students from literacy from 9 to 930 and math from 10 to 1030, that more structured

2588
03:44:42,410 --> 03:44:44,310
approach for some doesn't work as well.

2589
03:44:44,510 --> 03:44:49,810
They want greater freedom just to do learning at home to meet their needs, and there becomes

2590
03:44:49,810 --> 03:44:54,090
certain point where you just can't have enough models to meet all the needs and do

2591
03:44:54,090 --> 03:44:57,970
any of it well. So that's a piece of it. The other thing that would

2592
03:44:57,970 --> 03:44:59,970
sum it out there is this class.

2593
03:45:00,000 --> 03:45:13,120
Besides peace that I mentioned before, number one, I think we're making earnest efforts to have a lot of different models to meet the needs of kids, so we're making the right shared decisions and other factors that are driving them not annoying their kids.

2594
03:45:14,600 --> 03:45:18,880
But we'll also need to serve kids in smaller environments than we have before.

2595
03:45:19,140 --> 03:45:28,100
And so one of the benefits I see is that most of the kids who aren't coming right now and annoying are elementary, and that's where we need to have a much smaller class sizes.

2596
03:45:28,100 --> 03:45:33,980
So whether you're doing in-person or remote, you can manage it appropriately, and keeping hold

2597
03:45:33,980 --> 03:45:37,500
harmless around student enrollment count would allow us to do that.

2598
03:45:39,970 --> 03:45:40,310
That's great.

2599
03:45:40,410 --> 03:45:45,070
It sounds like you have, you have, you have insight into exactly which kids are missing

2600
03:45:45,070 --> 03:45:46,910
and why they're not there.

2601
03:45:47,730 --> 03:45:51,550
And what I would hate to see is other districts that haven't invested the time and energy

2602
03:45:51,550 --> 03:45:57,910
and resources and finding out that information, still get rewarded the same as you, given

2603
03:45:57,910 --> 03:45:58,890
all the work that you've done.

2604
03:45:58,890 --> 03:46:05,230
So I'd love, is there that kind of insight in every district in the state and is there

2605
03:46:05,230 --> 03:46:09,550
some way that we can get, we can make sure that that's compiled at a statewide level?

2606
03:46:15,420 --> 03:46:17,100
Do miles, would you like to go?

2607
03:46:18,560 --> 03:46:24,660
Just with like dad, kind of registered, it's really right now that number is hard to find

2608
03:46:24,660 --> 03:46:31,780
because of this October count window, so that won't get solved by districts, they won't submit

2609
03:46:31,780 --> 03:46:33,960
that until almost the end of November.

2610
03:46:34,620 --> 03:46:37,600
So I feel very confident that each school district

2611
03:46:37,600 --> 03:46:40,860
is going to be able to tell the story of why those students

2612
03:46:40,860 --> 03:46:41,820
aren't there.

2613
03:46:42,260 --> 03:46:45,800
It's just right now everyone is compiling that in total

2614
03:46:45,800 --> 03:46:48,260
because we're just opening up that window

2615
03:46:48,260 --> 03:46:49,440
and starting that process.

2616
03:46:49,940 --> 03:46:54,500
It's already a cumbersome event in a lot of our school

2617
03:46:54,500 --> 03:46:55,300
districts anyway.

2618
03:46:55,920 --> 03:46:58,640
And so going through those normal channels, people who

2619
03:46:58,640 --> 03:47:00,780
are normally in charge of looking at October

2620
03:47:00,780 --> 03:47:05,960
count stuff are contact tracing, taking temperatures, doing some other things right now too.

2621
03:47:06,260 --> 03:47:10,080
But I feel very confident we'll have that at the end of that count window.

2622
03:47:10,780 --> 03:47:15,700
The one thing that we've just asked everyone to consider is that we superintendents before

2623
03:47:15,700 --> 03:47:21,320
you today and all the others across the state entered into all of those contracts with their employees

2624
03:47:22,440 --> 03:47:23,920
in May and June.

2625
03:47:23,920 --> 03:47:33,220
And so there's our other this contracts right now and then then we find out now who's coming in and who's not coming in.

2626
03:47:33,440 --> 03:47:40,140
So those contacts are going to make up anywhere between 75 to 90% of the total budget of some of these school districts.

2627
03:47:41,140 --> 03:47:48,000
So lots of understanding and grace will be needed and as far as the idea of an incentive.

2628
03:47:48,000 --> 03:47:56,500
I wholeheartedly believe the incentive is among the educators that just want their kids in the building not a budget incentive.

2629
03:48:02,240 --> 03:48:03,260
Thank you Senator Bridges.

2630
03:48:04,800 --> 03:48:12,920
I would say the one challenge that we have is, and I shared with us earlier, is that all of our systems aren't built for what we're dealing with.

2631
03:48:12,920 --> 03:48:19,000
Right, I think our district Adams 12 as Brett's head districts across the state of Colorado are doing everything we can

2632
03:48:19,000 --> 03:48:22,860
to make sure that the kids that haven't shown up will figure out where they are.

2633
03:48:23,280 --> 03:48:25,920
Because when they come back, we're going to have to serve them.

2634
03:48:26,240 --> 03:48:29,320
We have an obligation to serve all of the kids within our community.

2635
03:48:29,540 --> 03:48:31,320
We take that obligation very seriously.

2636
03:48:32,500 --> 03:48:37,200
I don't know that you can change the funding system to meet the needs of where we are.

2637
03:48:37,200 --> 03:48:45,400
So the idea that you would hold funding harmless or create different systems to account for

2638
03:48:45,400 --> 03:48:50,060
where we are today, I think is going to be critical for us to continue to serve the communities

2639
03:48:50,060 --> 03:48:51,640
that we're having to serve.

2640
03:48:55,600 --> 03:48:57,700
Representative Geitner, let's get with you in a minute.

2641
03:49:01,200 --> 03:49:01,680
If

2642
03:49:05,720 --> 03:49:14,540
you're talking to me or if you're talking to me or if you're talking to Representative

2643
03:49:14,540 --> 03:49:19,420
I'm sorry, not the online in person, learning will be beginning soon or maybe that decision

2644
03:49:19,420 --> 03:49:24,980
is yet to be made, but in light of the online learning that has been happening, I saw

2645
03:49:24,980 --> 03:49:30,360
the Boulder Valley School District Community Schools Child Care Program for the fall 2020

2646
03:49:30,360 --> 03:49:34,840
COVID-19 Justice Child Care rates, let's take it and revise at 10 or 11.

2647
03:49:34,840 --> 03:49:48,820
And it speaks to or addresses the, it's called the school age care, so that obviously school age students that could take place in K through five and K through eight schools.

2648
03:49:49,380 --> 03:49:59,420
And it looks like it's $740 a month and so my question is that it seems like there are parents that can afford to probably pay to have the in person option.

2649
03:49:59,420 --> 03:50:02,660
But it seems that they're effectively paying twice.

2650
03:50:03,280 --> 03:50:05,020
And so when I look at the COVID crisis,

2651
03:50:05,240 --> 03:50:07,300
I'm just, I guess the question I have had to do

2652
03:50:07,300 --> 03:50:09,220
at how equitable is that,

2653
03:50:09,660 --> 03:50:11,820
where you have this type of a scenario going on.

2654
03:50:11,880 --> 03:50:15,400
If you could address that question, I would appreciate it.

2655
03:50:16,820 --> 03:50:18,220
Absolutely, Representative Gardner,

2656
03:50:18,740 --> 03:50:20,320
so thank you so much for that question.

2657
03:50:20,840 --> 03:50:23,580
I would say that as we, as we began to open,

2658
03:50:23,780 --> 03:50:26,040
as we ran to some of the logistical challenges

2659
03:50:26,040 --> 03:50:27,320
that I referred to earlier,

2660
03:50:27,840 --> 03:50:30,180
we knew that we would have to stand up

2661
03:50:30,180 --> 03:50:33,640
some type of care for our community and for our families.

2662
03:50:34,220 --> 03:50:38,440
We were very clear with our community that for those that we're in need and weren't able to afford.

2663
03:50:39,020 --> 03:50:45,380
The rates which were at a discounted rate are roughly $40 a day that we were going to work with those folks.

2664
03:50:45,660 --> 03:50:48,520
We subsidized those programs as well.

2665
03:50:48,960 --> 03:50:53,480
As we ran into these challenges of not being able to open schools in our hybrid plan,

2666
03:50:53,540 --> 03:50:56,580
which we had planned to because of staffing issues that we dealt with.

2667
03:50:56,580 --> 03:50:59,360
We felt an obligation to our community to stand that up.

2668
03:50:59,360 --> 03:51:06,720
We had hundreds of students participating in that, and again, those that had need, we were able to reach out.

2669
03:51:06,800 --> 03:51:07,980
We were able to work with those families.

2670
03:51:14,910 --> 03:51:15,910
Representative McCloskey.

2671
03:51:19,920 --> 03:51:20,840
Thank you, Madam Chair.

2672
03:51:22,240 --> 03:51:24,920
I just want to offer a couple of things in this conversation.

2673
03:51:26,180 --> 03:51:33,340
I know our school district certainly starts there in Roman, there October 1st in Roman count process.

2674
03:51:33,400 --> 03:51:34,560
The minute school begins.

2675
03:51:34,560 --> 03:51:39,160
And I want to remind everyone that we are early, early in the school year.

2676
03:51:40,640 --> 03:51:42,260
I think these are really good questions.

2677
03:51:42,880 --> 03:51:47,280
Jeff, sorry Senator Bridges, I believe you've raised an important issue finding our

2678
03:51:47,280 --> 03:51:47,900
kids.

2679
03:51:48,380 --> 03:51:54,640
I believe by the end of October that we really will have accounted for the kids that we're

2680
03:51:54,640 --> 03:51:56,240
struggling to capture right now.

2681
03:51:56,360 --> 03:52:00,180
It is tough to think that any district doesn't care where the kids are.

2682
03:52:00,180 --> 03:52:06,620
Thank you, Brett, for your comments that, you know, every educator is most concerned about the

2683
03:52:06,620 --> 03:52:07,860
student and the student learning.

2684
03:52:08,820 --> 03:52:14,720
I wish the funding piece wasn't connected in the way it is at this moment because I think

2685
03:52:14,720 --> 03:52:19,620
that tends to distract us from what the real priority is and that's knowing where our kids

2686
03:52:19,620 --> 03:52:20,760
are and how they're learning.

2687
03:52:20,760 --> 03:52:48,500
I thought, here from this panel in particular, just your perspective on, you know, where things were, say, even a month ago for they are today, my hope is we're starting to settle into some routines and that you're beginning to feel a little more comfortable in these, that may not be exactly like comfortable with these challenges, but you're beginning to find your way.

2688
03:52:48,500 --> 03:52:57,400
You know, I do remain concerned that we just need that bolster of confidence right now that we really can do this.

2689
03:52:57,760 --> 03:53:07,920
And I'd love to know and hear that you're having some success. So if you can speak to just what you're seeing right now that really is positive and working well, I'd love to hear that.

2690
03:53:16,170 --> 03:53:17,330
Thank you for that question.

2691
03:53:17,330 --> 03:53:22,590
We're at McLaughlin or Reck McClowsky because they do think that, you know, when you feel

2692
03:53:22,590 --> 03:53:26,010
the repulled out from underneath you it's hard to figure out where it is when it's being

2693
03:53:26,010 --> 03:53:30,610
put back and if you can trust it. But we're just starting next week but I have to say that

2694
03:53:30,610 --> 03:53:35,770
the hope is and we are feeling very comfortable in our plan because we had so much engagement

2695
03:53:35,770 --> 03:53:40,690
with our community and putting it together. Teachers, as Rob said, and parents, and administrators

2696
03:53:40,690 --> 03:53:46,710
and so what I'm starting to see is some hope that that'll work and some acknowledgement that

2697
03:53:46,710 --> 03:53:50,570
in the way of that plan of place that it could change that we get at the quarantine that things

2698
03:53:50,570 --> 03:53:54,430
are going to change and I think people are getting used to that as kind of the new normal

2699
03:53:54,430 --> 03:53:58,810
and just needing to know that they have a structure that could change and then go back I think

2700
03:53:58,810 --> 03:54:03,830
is giving us some comfort. Does that help? Because I don't think we can make the promise that

2701
03:54:03,830 --> 03:54:08,010
you know this is the way it's going to be, but we have a plan, we have a plan for what happens when

2702
03:54:08,010 --> 03:54:12,150
things fall apart and then we have a plan to put it back together. And so I think that's really

2703
03:54:12,150 --> 03:54:14,070
comforting and helpful for our community.

2704
03:54:16,540 --> 03:54:18,480
Thank you, Superintendent Grasky.

2705
03:54:19,880 --> 03:54:24,680
I love that to share that we're in a place of just adapting and hitting our

2706
03:54:24,680 --> 03:54:29,480
scribe with where we're at the answer is that because of these multiple transitions and

2707
03:54:29,480 --> 03:54:34,920
models that we're president home and mentioned before, we're in another place of transition

2708
03:54:34,920 --> 03:54:35,700
right now.

2709
03:54:36,040 --> 03:54:38,840
And so that's creating a lot of stress and uncertainty in our system.

2710
03:54:39,780 --> 03:54:43,580
One of the bioproducts of our approach, too, is that a number of our students will have

2711
03:54:43,580 --> 03:54:48,720
different educators who are working with them, depending on what choices they've made for

2712
03:54:48,720 --> 03:54:52,140
online versus in-person learning as we make the transition.

2713
03:54:52,500 --> 03:54:57,740
So there's a lot of transition and a people that we go through, a number of folks at the

2714
03:54:57,740 --> 03:55:03,380
central office have become more adapted, managing cases of presumed positive cases or

2715
03:55:03,380 --> 03:55:08,080
confirmed positive cases and implementing quarantines and doing it in a way that causes

2716
03:55:08,080 --> 03:55:15,680
a lot of stress and fear than it did through the summer, but just still to be candid, a lot

2717
03:55:15,680 --> 03:55:20,000
of a lot of stress for our families, students, and educators, because of these transitions

2718
03:55:20,000 --> 03:55:21,720
and trying something new.

2719
03:55:25,230 --> 03:55:25,690
Thank you.

2720
03:55:25,990 --> 03:55:26,330
Thank you.

2721
03:55:26,450 --> 03:55:26,750
Yes.

2722
03:55:27,230 --> 03:55:27,870
Mr. Lockley.

2723
03:55:36,280 --> 03:55:42,920
I go much of what Superintendent Gadowski said around successes around learning the tools and being

2724
03:55:42,920 --> 03:55:45,780
a little bit more flexible in these spaces.

2725
03:55:46,720 --> 03:55:49,960
But I would say that it's flexible as we are

2726
03:55:49,960 --> 03:55:52,120
and as many tools as that we are learning.

2727
03:55:52,580 --> 03:55:55,040
Every one of these transitions that we make

2728
03:55:55,040 --> 03:55:59,000
loses precious learning time for each one of our students.

2729
03:55:59,820 --> 03:56:02,140
It takes, you know, on the best case,

2730
03:56:02,300 --> 03:56:04,420
when you're at 100% capacity and flexibility,

2731
03:56:05,080 --> 03:56:08,060
it takes time, day, sometimes weeks for our students

2732
03:56:08,060 --> 03:56:10,280
to get used to a new learning method

2733
03:56:10,280 --> 03:56:12,280
if they are not, they are not used to.

2734
03:56:12,280 --> 03:56:16,960
And so, you know, I watched that with my own students, and I watched that with educators,

2735
03:56:17,580 --> 03:56:20,840
where you met at the beginning of the school year, even though we started last year,

2736
03:56:20,980 --> 03:56:25,260
or ended last year, we in online learning, they still took them a week and a half or so

2737
03:56:25,260 --> 03:56:26,700
to get used to online learning.

2738
03:56:27,120 --> 03:56:31,280
It's going to take them a week and a half or more to get used to in person learning again.

2739
03:56:31,660 --> 03:56:37,280
And each transition kind of create that ripple effect that will happen.

2740
03:56:37,420 --> 03:56:41,780
So although we are becoming much more flexible in our ability to provide

2741
03:56:41,780 --> 03:56:42,800
and

2742
03:56:45,940 --> 03:56:47,660
they're still going to be a

2743
03:56:53,830 --> 03:56:53,970
chance.

2744
03:56:53,970 --> 03:56:54,890
Thank you.

2745
03:56:55,030 --> 03:56:55,270
Thank you.

2746
03:56:55,770 --> 03:56:57,530
Thank you.

2747
03:56:57,650 --> 03:57:03,090
I just feel like it's important with all the conversation about lack of resources and

2748
03:57:03,610 --> 03:57:06,210
and they appreciate your comments from Adam's county.

2749
03:57:06,450 --> 03:57:11,410
The challenge is you're facing and being stressed to the limit and having to

2750
03:57:11,410 --> 03:57:19,610
compensate and compromise and and and and be

2751
03:57:19,610 --> 03:57:27,410
you need to get done. That's the domino piece right behind the economy where the folks,

2752
03:57:27,990 --> 03:57:33,450
the citizens who ultimately pay for all this, that they're in the position of suffering now.

2753
03:57:34,770 --> 03:57:41,410
So, you know, the education does not directly generate revenue, it consumes the revenue,

2754
03:57:41,990 --> 03:57:49,350
but it comes from a an economy that is able to support it. And that economy has been not

2755
03:57:49,350 --> 03:57:55,310
hard and so as we have this perpetual emergency order in place that does not allow our natural

2756
03:57:55,310 --> 03:58:03,190
economy to go forward then it's not going to get better and I just need to understand we don't

2757
03:58:03,190 --> 03:58:09,690
have sufficient money now and we'll have less next year the economy is prevented from generating

2758
03:58:09,690 --> 03:58:17,410
the revenue that you guys need so we need to let off on this on the knocking down the oppression

2759
03:58:17,410 --> 03:58:24,190
of the economy through this perpetual emergency order so that we can get back to an economy

2760
03:58:24,190 --> 03:58:30,650
that's cooking again so that we can then afford to fund education like it ought to be funded.

2761
03:58:31,410 --> 03:58:37,470
But right now it's reflective of the community around you and it's real important that

2762
03:58:37,470 --> 03:58:42,430
education be connected to the community around and understand that all of those parents are

2763
03:58:42,430 --> 03:58:53,570
suffering in their households first and then they're suffering through the money that they are not able to pay through taxation to support the education of their kids after that.

2764
03:58:53,970 --> 03:58:57,350
But it starts from the top and we're going to suffer for a while.

2765
03:58:58,470 --> 03:59:04,630
So just to be honest and open with y'all, the money is not there now.

2766
03:59:04,950 --> 03:59:06,870
We'll not be there next year as well.

2767
03:59:06,870 --> 03:59:11,670
It'll be even less next year because there's because the economy is shut down for some time.

2768
03:59:11,990 --> 03:59:16,610
So hopefully we'll get picked back up in another year or two, but it's going to be a long right.

2769
03:59:19,810 --> 03:59:24,570
Thank you. We have a one question from Representative Geitner and one from Senator Sireen and we'll

2770
03:59:24,570 --> 03:59:27,270
have kind of off here. Okay. Thank you. Representative Geitner.

2771
03:59:27,850 --> 03:59:31,390
Thank you, Madam Chair. I just a follow-up on the question that I had asked earlier.

2772
03:59:31,930 --> 03:59:38,970
I guess my question, what I'm trying to reconcile is when it comes to the child care aspect and

2773
03:59:38,970 --> 03:59:43,990
asking parents to pay for that, and realizing, of course, that they're also there for education

2774
03:59:43,990 --> 03:59:47,770
through their tax dollars and that sort of thing, so they're essentially paying twice.

2775
03:59:48,190 --> 03:59:54,370
Is there a component of risk that I'm not aware of that is only available in the classroom environment

2776
03:59:54,370 --> 03:59:57,150
that is somehow not available in the childcare environment?

2777
03:59:57,390 --> 03:59:59,970
I guess I'm having a hard time looking forward to that.

2778
04:00:01,280 --> 04:00:12,140
Highly, how these risk under one form, I guess, of in-person, but not risk and other. And certainly, I guess we could talk about how it's maybe just smaller group or that sort of thing.

2779
04:00:13,200 --> 04:00:26,380
But at the end of the day, these parents are paying twice, and they're not even, you know, I would argue probably getting what they originally thought that they would be paying for the first time. So I just put that out there and hopefully I get some clarification.

2780
04:00:28,940 --> 04:00:34,560
I absolutely represent a guy there and as I shared in our presentation, and I think this is a

2781
04:00:34,560 --> 04:00:42,340
certainly confusing for lots of folks in our community, the staffing issues that we ran into

2782
04:00:42,340 --> 04:00:46,720
was a major aspect of us not being able to open and hybrid.

2783
04:00:47,680 --> 04:00:53,800
So when you only have 4% of your parents who want to go online and you have 20% that all five

2784
04:00:53,800 --> 04:00:56,800
for medical exemptions under Governor's executive order.

2785
04:00:57,160 --> 04:00:59,900
We had to take some space and time to figure out the logistics.

2786
04:01:00,300 --> 04:01:02,560
We brought our community together to do that.

2787
04:01:02,600 --> 04:01:06,740
We're looking forward to begin to moving into K-2 in person,

2788
04:01:07,240 --> 04:01:08,640
starting on the 29th,

2789
04:01:08,860 --> 04:01:11,400
our working group prioritize that group above others,

2790
04:01:11,780 --> 04:01:14,340
because we certainly know and understand the child care aspects.

2791
04:01:14,560 --> 04:01:18,980
And certainly, we understand the economic impacts

2792
04:01:18,980 --> 04:01:24,320
and our responsibility to provide custodial care.

2793
04:01:24,880 --> 04:01:27,420
We tried to create a rate that was lower than anywhere else,

2794
04:01:27,740 --> 04:01:29,200
privately being offered in the community,

2795
04:01:29,560 --> 04:01:31,300
and again, subsidized that rate for those families

2796
04:01:31,300 --> 04:01:33,940
that were in need, certainly through different avenues

2797
04:01:33,940 --> 04:01:37,180
and folks were able to reach out with those in regard.

2798
04:01:37,700 --> 04:01:39,100
And so, not just to help issue,

2799
04:01:40,880 --> 04:01:43,240
but in regards to why we opened up child care,

2800
04:01:43,520 --> 04:01:46,460
but the logistical challenges that sometimes are difficult

2801
04:01:46,460 --> 04:01:47,420
for folks understand.

2802
04:01:48,300 --> 04:01:49,320
Mr. Lockley.

2803
04:01:52,390 --> 04:01:54,090
Thank you so much once again.

2804
04:01:54,610 --> 04:01:56,730
I answer the representative's question.

2805
04:01:56,730 --> 04:02:02,910
I think that's one reason why Adam's 12 went with the pod approach so that we could provide the best healthcare.

2806
04:02:03,650 --> 04:02:09,930
I'm sorry, the safest environment with the best educators that we could at no cost.

2807
04:02:09,930 --> 04:02:11,910
Those pods were opened up at no cost.

2808
04:02:11,910 --> 04:02:23,070
There was limited safety, but we maximized as many staff members and flexed as many opportunities as we could to provide as much and needed much as they need as possible.

2809
04:02:23,570 --> 04:02:30,710
You know, I think none of the people on this call are epidemiologists or experts in diseases or that kind of stuff.

2810
04:02:30,870 --> 04:02:35,650
I think on this particular panel, so I can't speak to one being more healthy or not being healthy.

2811
04:02:35,650 --> 04:02:45,530
I do want to respond and I apologize that was going to jump in before switching to this question around the funding issue and that trying to catch my to the economy.

2812
04:02:45,870 --> 04:02:49,710
You know, my own household, my wife has gone through furloughs.

2813
04:02:49,850 --> 04:02:51,710
We're losing money every day.

2814
04:02:52,370 --> 04:02:55,090
As we're trying to, you know, go through this pandemic.

2815
04:02:55,130 --> 04:02:57,530
So I definitely understand, I live in my community.

2816
04:02:57,770 --> 04:03:01,610
I see my neighbors who have lost jobs and others.

2817
04:03:01,610 --> 04:03:07,850
But the thing I would just remind this committee and everyone that's called, I hope we don't have to remind them,

2818
04:03:08,090 --> 04:03:18,850
is that education is not a thing thing as a road or a baseball stadium or those kind of things that are impacting people today.

2819
04:03:19,230 --> 04:03:23,330
Education is an investment in the economy of tomorrow, not the economy of today.

2820
04:03:23,490 --> 04:03:29,730
So if we stop funding education today, we'll make excuses about funding education today.

2821
04:03:29,730 --> 04:03:32,490
Then what we're doing is sacrificing the economy tomorrow.

2822
04:03:32,870 --> 04:03:37,050
We won't have a workforce that companies are going to want to invest in.

2823
04:03:37,110 --> 04:03:40,630
We're not going to have a workforce that will generate the revenues that the

2824
04:03:40,630 --> 04:03:42,570
representatives was referring to.

2825
04:03:42,710 --> 04:03:49,010
Education is not something we can put up for a year to build this road next year or the following year.

2826
04:03:49,230 --> 04:03:53,450
Or pick the possible in my neighborhood that's bothering me for a while that I've been bothering

2827
04:03:53,450 --> 04:03:54,730
my city about for a while.

2828
04:03:54,730 --> 04:03:57,590
We can't put that off for students.

2829
04:03:57,910 --> 04:04:00,350
Kids get one chance at kindergarten.

2830
04:04:01,170 --> 04:04:03,230
They get one chance at an education.

2831
04:04:04,130 --> 04:04:05,870
We don't have time to put them off.

2832
04:04:06,110 --> 04:04:10,410
My son and every other kid in Adam's 12 and across the state,

2833
04:04:10,790 --> 04:04:13,010
only get the learns to read right once.

2834
04:04:14,250 --> 04:04:17,530
And so we don't have the luxury of time in this space.

2835
04:04:20,210 --> 04:04:21,370
Thank you, Senator Story.

2836
04:04:25,310 --> 04:04:27,370
Thank you, Representative McLaughlin.

2837
04:04:27,370 --> 04:04:38,110
I appreciate your comments, Mr. Lockley, and I feel we're having many expressions about

2838
04:04:38,110 --> 04:04:45,610
the daily tragedy that is unfolding before us within public education, not due to lack

2839
04:04:45,610 --> 04:04:54,630
of work and effort and collaboration that's going on amongst educators and staff across the

2840
04:04:54,630 --> 04:05:01,950
I really appreciate all of that, but we were underfunded in public education before COVID happened,

2841
04:05:02,990 --> 04:05:09,030
and it was wrong then, and it's even worse now, and it's true.

2842
04:05:09,790 --> 04:05:13,530
There's going to be less funding next year as well.

2843
04:05:13,590 --> 04:05:19,270
So we have a long road ahead of us, but we need to improve our funding to become,

2844
04:05:19,270 --> 04:05:25,410
as was stated more predictable, more stable, to address our current needs relative to COVID

2845
04:05:25,410 --> 04:05:30,070
while we're working through public education and the instruction of students.

2846
04:05:30,450 --> 04:05:38,250
But we also have to have ultimately a long-term, predictable, stable, adequate funding mechanism

2847
04:05:38,250 --> 04:05:44,810
to rebuild public education and put it back in a place where it really needs to be.

2848
04:05:44,810 --> 04:05:52,850
So one question that I have for the panel relative to the CARES dollars that came, you know,

2849
04:05:52,950 --> 04:05:59,750
while that was a significant chunk of money over $500 million dollars that was spread across the

2850
04:05:59,750 --> 04:06:12,370
state. And some people will say, you know, that it was offset by the reductions in revenue and the

2851
04:06:12,370 --> 04:06:18,670
Equal, right? The COVID dollars, the CARES Act dollars, had to be spent on COVID-related expenses.

2852
04:06:18,930 --> 04:06:26,330
And what I want to know, now that school is just getting underway and there's a little more

2853
04:06:26,330 --> 04:06:36,450
opportunity to address, you know, more existing needs relative to COVID, how has that funding been that the CARES

2854
04:06:37,770 --> 04:06:43,070
are you seeing additional gaps now where you wish you had more?

2855
04:06:43,710 --> 04:06:46,090
Cares dollars or has it an adequate,

2856
04:06:46,950 --> 04:06:52,170
like what other additional needs do you see that could have

2857
04:06:52,170 --> 04:06:56,250
or could be covered by dollars that are COVID-related

2858
04:06:56,250 --> 04:06:58,650
because of changes that you've had to make.

2859
04:06:59,430 --> 04:07:02,590
Say Senator Story, we are discussing that in great detail

2860
04:07:02,590 --> 04:07:08,370
in our last segment of this. So, I don't want to have another repeat of it. So, I

2861
04:07:08,370 --> 04:07:14,010
think these people will be around. So, let's put that question off. And that's all we

2862
04:07:14,010 --> 04:07:20,250
will talk about is COVID, because we wanted to end our day on a cheering note. Okay, so that's

2863
04:07:20,250 --> 04:07:26,770
okay with you. Yeah, thank you. I just want to say thank you to all of you for joining us today.

2864
04:07:28,170 --> 04:07:31,650
You know, you're, you're kind of working every day and it changes every day. So, all the work

2865
04:07:31,650 --> 04:07:37,290
did yesterday have to kind of redo and rethink the next day. So I really appreciate everything

2866
04:07:37,290 --> 04:07:44,630
you're putting into helping our schools and our educators and our children and our future.

2867
04:07:44,750 --> 04:07:50,430
If you want to put it that way too, Dave Lockley I think that was a good one. So thank you very much

2868
04:07:50,430 --> 04:07:55,570
and we look forward to hearing from you again. If we have questions and you feel like you need to

2869
04:07:55,570 --> 04:07:59,430
up in, please do. Okay? Thank you so much.

2870
04:08:03,330 --> 04:08:08,210
Okay, we have our next list of presenters. We

2871
04:08:08,210 --> 04:08:13,070
have Brandon Lachan, who's Executive Director of North Rout County Community Charter

2872
04:08:13,070 --> 04:08:20,170
School, Chad Miller, CEO from Pinnacle Charter School, and George Welch, who's a superintendent

2873
04:08:20,170 --> 04:08:26,750
of Fremont R. E. One in Canyon City. So please welcome them aboard and thank you for joining

2874
04:08:26,750 --> 04:08:31,310
us today. There's one. There's another

2875
04:08:39,050 --> 04:08:43,470
kind of everybody here. Um, I will get, um, which one

2876
04:08:43,470 --> 04:08:45,010
of you would like to start off today?

2877
04:08:49,460 --> 04:08:52,400
And the chance that looks like I had George and fun to me, but I'd be more than happy

2878
04:08:52,400 --> 04:08:54,200
to step up and speak up.

2879
04:08:54,400 --> 04:08:57,660
All right. Please do. Do you have a photo of you on here?

2880
04:08:57,860 --> 04:08:58,580
Oh, it's over. Go.

2881
04:08:59,820 --> 04:09:01,480
There he is. Oh, thank you.

2882
04:09:01,600 --> 04:09:05,260
Well, once we'll find a real quick one of our hardships in our school, if we have very limited

2883
04:09:05,260 --> 04:09:07,000
with internet in our community as well.

2884
04:09:07,220 --> 04:09:09,560
So Madam Chair, members of the educational committee

2885
04:09:09,560 --> 04:09:12,320
and fellow educators, my name is Brenna LeChance,

2886
04:09:12,900 --> 04:09:15,020
and the executive director of North Rock Community

2887
04:09:15,020 --> 04:09:17,920
charter school, and that's that little beautiful school

2888
04:09:17,920 --> 04:09:19,280
that some of you may have passed

2889
04:09:19,280 --> 04:09:21,320
when you're driving north of Steamboat Springs,

2890
04:09:21,440 --> 04:09:23,880
a lot of people wonder what and what that little beautiful

2891
04:09:23,880 --> 04:09:25,460
building happens in the middle of the mountain,

2892
04:09:25,640 --> 04:09:26,940
but that's how a wonderful school.

2893
04:09:27,540 --> 04:09:29,660
If you were to ask me if I could imagine a school

2894
04:09:29,660 --> 04:09:31,160
you're starting out with a pandemic,

2895
04:09:31,800 --> 04:09:33,580
and then along with not being able to go outside

2896
04:09:33,580 --> 04:09:36,000
due to a wildfire, 10 miles away from our school.

2897
04:09:36,600 --> 04:09:39,620
I probably would say that would be the perfect storm for any educator.

2898
04:09:40,260 --> 04:09:43,820
And thank you for allowing me time today to share with you how we kind of handled these

2899
04:09:43,820 --> 04:09:47,400
adversities as a small, rural public charter school.

2900
04:09:48,080 --> 04:09:52,840
I think when I hear a lot of discussions talking about front lanes in the differences of,

2901
04:09:52,840 --> 04:09:58,400
maybe large urban schools versus rural schools, what I feel in what I hear is that I feel

2902
04:09:58,400 --> 04:10:04,860
little of being blessed. Being a small rural school really does allow us a level of flexibility

2903
04:10:04,860 --> 04:10:12,700
and innovation because our student count is 110 kids, creating a plan for safety and best practices

2904
04:10:12,700 --> 04:10:18,060
for students. It's pretty, it's much, I would say, easier than maybe some of the individuals

2905
04:10:18,060 --> 04:10:23,960
talking about 6,000 students. We are a school that we took a coach of we have a schoolhouse approach,

2906
04:10:23,960 --> 04:10:29,160
We are K-8 school along with the preschool next door, and what we kind of created as we

2907
04:10:29,160 --> 04:10:33,840
have created nine separate school houses with nine separate locations, and there's very

2908
04:10:33,840 --> 04:10:38,220
limited interaction between our grid level cohort, so obviously we do that for many purposes

2909
04:10:38,220 --> 04:10:39,000
many reasons.

2910
04:10:39,680 --> 04:10:44,160
Our school is currently operating at five days a week, full day, 90% of our students are in

2911
04:10:44,160 --> 04:10:50,440
attendance, with about 10% of the students doing a synchronous living with our school in

2912
04:10:50,440 --> 04:10:55,920
classroom. A big huge part I would say is having very specific protocols, specific safety protocols,

2913
04:10:56,640 --> 04:11:01,680
and other part being small career of a 24-7 illness reporting system. So a parent has an individual

2914
04:11:01,680 --> 04:11:06,220
that they can call at any time of the night to be able to walk through the process of what could

2915
04:11:06,220 --> 04:11:11,420
be potentially COVID or what could be potentially wildfire related and or allergies are called.

2916
04:11:11,560 --> 04:11:17,940
You can imagine the difficulty of a school nurse or myself trying to juggle what that decision is based

2917
04:11:17,940 --> 04:11:20,240
on some of the symptoms that are happening with kids.

2918
04:11:21,160 --> 04:11:24,520
One thing that we did do this year, we invested,

2919
04:11:24,960 --> 04:11:29,140
we invested in purchasing or utilizing additional staff,

2920
04:11:29,500 --> 04:11:30,720
we needed three additional teachers

2921
04:11:30,720 --> 04:11:32,140
to create a plan and play.

2922
04:11:32,680 --> 04:11:35,000
So we as a small school kind of went to the piggy bank

2923
04:11:35,000 --> 04:11:36,880
and made a decision that we're gonna utilize

2924
04:11:36,880 --> 04:11:39,940
some of the resources that we have saved up over years

2925
04:11:39,940 --> 04:11:42,180
to be able to offset some of our difficulties

2926
04:11:42,180 --> 04:11:43,580
that we're managing today.

2927
04:11:44,580 --> 04:11:47,300
And included that is the sense of recovery.

2928
04:11:47,300 --> 04:11:51,340
I'm really glad to hear that a lot of people are talking about the desire and the need for

2929
04:11:51,340 --> 04:11:52,120
special education.

2930
04:11:53,040 --> 04:11:56,540
And we're excited to hear because we actually increased our service time for all kiddos,

2931
04:11:56,840 --> 04:12:01,320
giving more time for those kiddos that maybe had a larger recovery process from the spring.

2932
04:12:02,480 --> 04:12:07,680
And I'd like to say one of my co-leaders, Chad Miller, he had a wonderful idea of calling this a return to learn plan

2933
04:12:07,680 --> 04:12:10,640
because I think there could be so much focuses around COVID.

2934
04:12:10,700 --> 04:12:12,540
And I understand the importance of that.

2935
04:12:12,540 --> 04:12:16,840
But we also got to remember that our kids need to get back a school and focus on the social

2936
04:12:16,840 --> 04:12:19,540
and emotional wellness and the academic wellness of our kids.

2937
04:12:20,100 --> 04:12:24,820
So when you think about that as a whole, we did develop our plan and it was heavily involved

2938
04:12:24,820 --> 04:12:30,860
with leadership staff, parents, community members and it really was to make sure that if we were

2939
04:12:30,860 --> 04:12:35,760
going to put our front foot forward, it was ensuring that all members run the same page.

2940
04:12:35,840 --> 04:12:38,360
And I think that this really paid dividends for us today.

2941
04:12:39,320 --> 04:12:46,000
So I would like to echo along with everybody else, increase and in need and decrease in revenue.

2942
04:12:46,160 --> 04:12:48,560
Obviously is another perfect storm financially.

2943
04:12:49,460 --> 04:12:50,780
And that's difficult for any school.

2944
04:12:51,000 --> 04:12:54,820
A small rural school like herself or a large urban school.

2945
04:12:55,580 --> 04:13:01,820
A one very difficult aspect and hurdle that we've been handling for a while is our community does not have internet.

2946
04:13:01,980 --> 04:13:06,760
We don't have any source of broadband and actually we're a very poor cell phone service as well.

2947
04:13:06,760 --> 04:13:09,920
So this morning is not an option for our community.

2948
04:13:10,400 --> 04:13:12,540
When we did go to different learning in the spring,

2949
04:13:12,920 --> 04:13:14,940
it wasn't even that tent to get kids hot spots,

2950
04:13:15,040 --> 04:13:17,840
because hot spots don't work when you don't have cell phone coverage.

2951
04:13:18,400 --> 04:13:20,940
So our school became the outdoor classroom,

2952
04:13:21,020 --> 04:13:23,140
and we had campers and new halls

2953
04:13:23,140 --> 04:13:26,140
and large vehicles that kids were able to access,

2954
04:13:26,300 --> 04:13:27,760
so they could simply get the internet

2955
04:13:27,760 --> 04:13:30,660
to access the learning that was happening from the teacher.

2956
04:13:31,480 --> 04:13:32,960
And I said that with you, because I would say,

2957
04:13:33,080 --> 04:13:34,280
that's one of our major hardships.

2958
04:13:34,280 --> 04:13:39,580
small and rural, there's some blessings to it, but at the same time when our society goes to

2959
04:13:39,580 --> 04:13:45,320
different learning, things change quite a bit, and it became very big hurdle to jump through.

2960
04:13:45,840 --> 04:13:50,860
Another part that I would say, just to echo there, is I understand the component of accountability

2961
04:13:50,860 --> 04:13:55,900
and regulatory aspects, but what I find myself struggling quite a bit, or at most school,

2962
04:13:56,040 --> 04:14:01,200
I have to do the same reports that a school of 5,000 students have to do, which has been

2963
04:14:01,200 --> 04:14:05,760
difficult for, I would say, our administration is just trying to handle the audits that are

2964
04:14:05,760 --> 04:14:10,900
still coming our way. The change of UIP documentation, I just think that the continuation

2965
04:14:10,900 --> 04:14:15,840
of those regulations on top of just trying to create a safe school, at times is a lot to

2966
04:14:15,840 --> 04:14:21,260
juggle. And I think maybe this is what I'm speaking from the heart, and to my fellow administrators

2967
04:14:21,260 --> 04:14:26,520
and teachers and educators, and that's that one AM thought, you know, I think that this time,

2968
04:14:27,720 --> 04:14:38,380
You lay up and bet any wonder with so much stress and so much on the shoulders that you made the right determination that we are people.

2969
04:14:38,820 --> 04:14:45,200
And I think the humanistic side versus the administration side sometimes we don't really play the administrative hat.

2970
04:14:45,600 --> 04:14:53,480
And I often find myself going to clock in the morning with a heavy heart and a full mind and not sharing it the next day and what's going to come this day.

2971
04:14:53,480 --> 04:14:59,960
And I sure that's who you all because as we're educators we're also people and we're also parents and the important thing we all

2972
04:15:00,000 --> 04:15:10,080
Just kind of understand that as a whole. And then I've heard a few questions here in regards to the use of prayer funds. And I think it's important to speak to our small rural community, utilize care funds.

2973
04:15:10,080 --> 04:15:18,100
As I mentioned, we did increase our staffing quite a bit, so I'd say the majority of our care funds will drive through increasing staffing. So we could get to our small cohorts.

2974
04:15:18,840 --> 04:15:27,300
So we could go to a five day in person plan, but also the obviously with PPE, you know, increase in cleaning and purchasing more student states of devices.

2975
04:15:27,300 --> 04:15:37,920
And most importantly, as a small individual school, and I think, you know, Representative Wilson could articulate this, as I'm done with this, I am the school cleaner as well.

2976
04:15:39,120 --> 04:15:41,620
So it's a lot of people wearing different hats right now.

2977
04:15:41,920 --> 04:15:48,180
As a small rule environment, we did not have a, you know, a cleaner per se to the level that we need.

2978
04:15:48,200 --> 04:15:52,380
We didn't have specific technology needs that we did then that we do now.

2979
04:15:52,380 --> 04:15:54,740
So I find myself at my staff and myself

2980
04:15:54,740 --> 04:15:56,860
or I'm wearing a lot of different hats.

2981
04:15:57,800 --> 04:16:00,540
So in ending, for those who have never been to our school

2982
04:16:00,540 --> 04:16:03,380
or Northrop County, I like to welcome you all

2983
04:16:03,380 --> 04:16:04,680
and reach out to me if you want to come

2984
04:16:04,680 --> 04:16:05,840
to a nice beautiful location

2985
04:16:05,840 --> 04:16:09,380
and learn about a small rural public charter school does,

2986
04:16:09,480 --> 04:16:11,160
I would be happy to share.

2987
04:16:12,280 --> 04:16:13,540
Well, I might take you up on that.

2988
04:16:13,900 --> 04:16:14,420
So beware.

2989
04:16:15,140 --> 04:16:16,380
What is it?

2990
04:16:16,980 --> 04:16:18,120
So yeah, let's have a look.

2991
04:16:18,420 --> 04:16:19,380
I'd like to go next.

2992
04:16:20,460 --> 04:16:29,180
I would love to. Thank you, Madam Chair. The committee, I just wanted to thank you guys for the opportunity to speak to you today and represent my community.

2993
04:16:30,060 --> 04:16:33,600
And give you just a little bit of an insight of what we're dealing with.

2994
04:16:33,820 --> 04:16:37,560
We're kind of that school that's in between the big school and the little school.

2995
04:16:37,560 --> 04:16:42,000
We serve the Westminster Federal Heights

2996
04:16:42,000 --> 04:16:45,180
Thornton, unincorporated Adams County area.

2997
04:16:45,940 --> 04:16:50,080
And so we have a rather large footprint in this area.

2998
04:16:50,440 --> 04:16:52,380
We have about 2,100 students

2999
04:16:52,380 --> 04:16:58,320
K through 12 in our school and enrollment is up for us.

3000
04:16:58,840 --> 04:16:59,900
In fact, we're full.

3001
04:17:00,140 --> 04:17:02,700
We can't take physically in our building anymore kids,

3002
04:17:03,320 --> 04:17:04,240
obviously with the regulations.

3003
04:17:04,240 --> 04:17:10,980
and online, about 35% of our kids are on our online platform strictly right now.

3004
04:17:12,180 --> 04:17:14,200
It's a challenge, but again, we're full.

3005
04:17:14,200 --> 04:17:15,320
Kids are coming here.

3006
04:17:15,640 --> 04:17:18,040
I believe just because of the platform we have.

3007
04:17:18,680 --> 04:17:24,540
Being a public charter school, we are able to be just a little bit probably more nimble

3008
04:17:24,540 --> 04:17:27,460
than some of our other leaders at the larger district schools.

3009
04:17:28,020 --> 04:17:30,320
You know, when it was last April and May,

3010
04:17:30,320 --> 04:17:33,460
And obviously our job is to predict the future.

3011
04:17:34,340 --> 04:17:42,220
I started looking ahead and I realized really quickly what we were doing to adapt to the quick shutdown that we had.

3012
04:17:43,020 --> 04:17:45,760
Probably wasn't the most effective and we needed to do something different.

3013
04:17:46,440 --> 04:17:49,860
So by the first of May we had already started developing our own platform.

3014
04:17:50,880 --> 04:17:54,320
So no matter if a child is in class or at home,

3015
04:17:54,640 --> 04:17:57,520
they're still working off the same platform, the links are all the same.

3016
04:17:57,520 --> 04:18:02,440
And we wanted that continuity knowing that we were probably looking to go into another year

3017
04:18:02,440 --> 04:18:04,380
where we could be going back and forth.

3018
04:18:05,040 --> 04:18:07,040
So, we started developing that platform.

3019
04:18:07,660 --> 04:18:18,840
We had a summer school in June in which we had a full four weeks to test the platform, work out some of the bugs so that we would be ready to roll that platform out going into the school year.

3020
04:18:19,620 --> 04:18:23,900
As you guys can imagine, any time you're a new curriculum, new platform, new technology,

3021
04:18:24,060 --> 04:18:27,880
there's hiccups, but we're working through those, and it seems to be working really

3022
04:18:27,880 --> 04:18:29,580
well in the environment that we're in.

3023
04:18:29,860 --> 04:18:35,020
And in fact, it's working so well now that we plan to use it, even if things go back to normal,

3024
04:18:35,080 --> 04:18:37,160
this will be the new normal for us.

3025
04:18:38,560 --> 04:18:43,340
Just to give you an idea, if you want to know about our school, you have to understand the students

3026
04:18:43,340 --> 04:18:44,260
that we serve.

3027
04:18:44,780 --> 04:18:47,380
About 87% of our students are minority.

3028
04:18:48,060 --> 04:18:51,920
45% of our students here in the school are English language learners.

3029
04:18:53,880 --> 04:18:59,040
We are pretty much the epitome of a title one school about 80% of our kids around

3030
04:18:59,040 --> 04:19:00,380
free and reduced lunch as well.

3031
04:19:02,000 --> 04:19:06,680
We're serving a high risk community and this is a community that brought some challenges

3032
04:19:06,680 --> 04:19:11,540
to us, especially going into the year, not knowing what enrollment might look like.

3033
04:19:11,880 --> 04:19:15,480
We're families moving away, jobs were lost, are they moving out of state?

3034
04:19:15,480 --> 04:19:16,840
what's happening with our families.

3035
04:19:17,340 --> 04:19:20,300
So we had to stay in very close contact with them over the summer,

3036
04:19:20,500 --> 04:19:24,480
just to find out what was happening and can continue to support them.

3037
04:19:24,760 --> 04:19:27,720
You know, as it's interesting hearing from all the other school leaders,

3038
04:19:28,160 --> 04:19:31,540
we have such different schools and we're in such different areas,

3039
04:19:31,860 --> 04:19:34,940
but really the challenges we're all facing are relatively the same.

3040
04:19:35,340 --> 04:19:40,360
You know, our job is really to determine probabilities and risk appetite.

3041
04:19:41,180 --> 04:19:44,540
You know, what is the probability of something happening and trying to predict the future?

3042
04:19:44,540 --> 04:19:52,420
And then using surveys with our staff and our community and our parents and our students to let them tell us what our risk appetite needs to be.

3043
04:19:52,700 --> 04:19:57,400
You know, we combine those two and that really drives a lot of the decisions that we make moving forward.

3044
04:19:58,040 --> 04:20:03,340
Our particular school, we started a little over a month ago, believe you're not in a hybrid format.

3045
04:20:04,140 --> 04:20:07,700
We've had our challenges but for the most part things have done really well.

3046
04:20:07,700 --> 04:20:16,860
And in fact, we're starting to get it ready to roll out phase two, which will start next week in which all of our K5 will be in four days a week.

3047
04:20:17,580 --> 04:20:25,180
Again, we are in a hybrid model where we are online on Wednesday so that we can sanitize the buildings and keep our cohorts very separate.

3048
04:20:25,900 --> 04:20:35,620
We've continued to bring K1 in four days a week, and we've encouraged all of our sped students as well as our English language learner students to come in four days a week as well.

3049
04:20:35,620 --> 04:20:37,520
And that seems to be working.

3050
04:20:38,520 --> 04:20:41,820
But a lot of the challenges we face have been logistical.

3051
04:20:42,480 --> 04:20:44,660
We have transportation over half of our kids.

3052
04:20:45,060 --> 04:20:48,600
We bus into our school every day and bus home every day.

3053
04:20:49,340 --> 04:20:53,860
With nutrition services, making sure that when our kids are online,

3054
04:20:54,300 --> 04:20:55,460
how are they getting fed?

3055
04:20:55,620 --> 04:20:58,880
And so we're making sure our buses are out there delivering food.

3056
04:20:58,880 --> 04:21:01,740
And we have drive up food service here.

3057
04:21:01,840 --> 04:21:05,600
And we're making sure that we're touching

3058
04:21:05,600 --> 04:21:08,480
Making sure we're giving those basic needs.

3059
04:21:09,740 --> 04:21:11,480
You know, somewhat of this pandemic,

3060
04:21:11,560 --> 04:21:13,240
especially here in Adams County,

3061
04:21:13,960 --> 04:21:16,860
there's a socioeconomic piece to this.

3062
04:21:18,100 --> 04:21:20,600
A lot of our families have had to continue to work.

3063
04:21:21,160 --> 04:21:22,580
And so because of that,

3064
04:21:22,980 --> 04:21:25,400
we have a higher case load here in Adams County.

3065
04:21:25,740 --> 04:21:28,080
And so we as a school had to take that into consideration

3066
04:21:28,080 --> 04:21:30,360
and make sure that we're protecting our kids.

3067
04:21:30,940 --> 04:21:32,940
We are not seeing spread within the school.

3068
04:21:32,940 --> 04:21:37,900
anything that we've seen has come in from the outside. The big challenge that we're having is

3069
04:21:37,900 --> 04:21:43,380
with staffing more than it is with students. If we are having to to quarantine staff,

3070
04:21:44,040 --> 04:21:48,340
when we get to say our high school, for example, we get to five or six staff that might have to be

3071
04:21:48,340 --> 04:21:53,800
quarantined. That's when we're looking to probably have to transition online. The COVID piece doesn't

3072
04:21:53,800 --> 04:21:58,800
scare me as much as the quarantining and the lack of staff piece. There are also substitutes out there.

3073
04:21:58,800 --> 04:22:03,600
In fact, we are, our administrators, other staff in the building, we are the substitutes.

3074
04:22:04,000 --> 04:22:06,540
And there's only so much of us that goes around.

3075
04:22:07,240 --> 04:22:12,500
So those are some of the pieces that we're having, but there's been a lot of innovation in this as well.

3076
04:22:12,740 --> 04:22:19,300
And again, I think some of the changes we've made, we will continue to move forward with even after the pandemic.

3077
04:22:19,940 --> 04:22:24,840
You know, we have one of the big logistical issues, and I know some of our larger superintendents are having the same issue.

3078
04:22:24,840 --> 04:22:30,340
Is getting kids in the building in the morning? How do you screen? How do you purchase screen? How do you make that decision?

3079
04:22:30,700 --> 04:22:34,640
How do you break those kids up in the house and back in the cars at the end of the day?

3080
04:22:35,440 --> 04:22:39,820
You know, we've put a lot of things in the place like thermal temperature scanners and a lot of those types of things

3081
04:22:39,820 --> 04:22:46,240
So we're very efficient with that on getting those kids in keep in safe while we're here and we're catching some of the kids who are running temperatures

3082
04:22:46,240 --> 04:22:48,180
I know a lot of asymptomatic

3083
04:22:48,720 --> 04:22:54,440
But at least we're catching some of them and it's creating that community where they know if I'm running a temperature

3084
04:22:54,440 --> 04:22:59,400
I'm not going in today, mom, because they're going to say, I'm running a temperature, and they're going to call you that, right?

3085
04:22:59,400 --> 04:23:01,360
And so it's putting a lot of those things in place.

3086
04:23:03,540 --> 04:23:10,940
Just to finish, I want to talk about some of the things that we're really thinking about as school leaders right now over the next three to four months.

3087
04:23:11,440 --> 04:23:19,900
The first one is budget concerns. Obviously, October, Councilor, I'm the corner. We're up in enrollment, but we didn't know that we didn't know where we would be coming into this school year.

3088
04:23:19,900 --> 04:23:23,860
And I know there's a lot of schools that are down in a moment, and that's a challenge.

3089
04:23:24,560 --> 04:23:27,160
We're also looking at the budget and will there be a decision.

3090
04:23:27,980 --> 04:23:30,000
Financially, we have all hunkered down.

3091
04:23:30,340 --> 04:23:32,480
We've taken some cuts for doing the best we can.

3092
04:23:32,760 --> 04:23:36,160
But we're also trying to save as much money to get through this potential

3093
04:23:36,160 --> 04:23:41,820
decision that's coming up as well as the budget cuts that we know are probably coming next year.

3094
04:23:42,280 --> 04:23:45,840
We're really hunkering down to make sure that we're taking a conservative financial approach.

3095
04:23:46,040 --> 04:23:47,580
So we're ready for these things.

3096
04:23:48,860 --> 04:23:51,920
Another big challenge is this upcoming cold and flu season.

3097
04:23:52,340 --> 04:23:55,060
Here at Adams County, we're starting to see cases spike again,

3098
04:23:55,360 --> 04:23:57,320
and we know cold and flu seasons coming,

3099
04:23:57,900 --> 04:23:59,700
and the symptoms are all the same.

3100
04:23:59,820 --> 04:24:03,560
So when staff starts calling in saying, I've got a cough.

3101
04:24:04,320 --> 04:24:05,860
I've got to runny nose, I've got a fever.

3102
04:24:06,200 --> 04:24:07,740
We know that's going to hit us hard,

3103
04:24:07,960 --> 04:24:10,780
and with no substitutes, we have to be ready to shift on a dime,

3104
04:24:11,160 --> 04:24:12,740
back to our online platform,

3105
04:24:13,140 --> 04:24:16,680
for however long it takes us to get our staff back in the building.

3106
04:24:16,680 --> 04:24:22,820
So we know it's going to be choppy these next few months and but we're we think we have the system in place

3107
04:24:22,820 --> 04:24:28,140
We're prepared for that so our kids continue to learn so they're still rigor in that education and

3108
04:24:28,860 --> 04:24:33,040
We try to keep as much continuity in consistency within that platform as we can

3109
04:24:33,980 --> 04:24:37,340
The other big piece is when it comes to staffing

3110
04:24:37,340 --> 04:24:41,060
We've had to shift a lot of staff to meet the model that we're running today

3111
04:24:41,060 --> 04:24:46,560
We're also having to hire additional staff to meet the needs of the numbers and meet the needs of the students

3112
04:24:46,560 --> 04:24:51,120
we have. What that's going to look like in a year from now isn't what it looks like today,

3113
04:24:51,220 --> 04:24:54,900
and so we're going to have to shift staff and move them back to a different model than what

3114
04:24:54,900 --> 04:25:00,320
we're running today. So it's a challenge on staff just in that regard. Staff is pretty stressed

3115
04:25:00,320 --> 04:25:05,080
out right now, and we're doing our best to maintain culture. It's really interesting how this

3116
04:25:05,080 --> 04:25:11,840
pandemic has really exposed culture in a lot of organizations, not just schools across the board.

3117
04:25:11,840 --> 04:25:18,040
And I feel like we have a strong culture here and that's really what's helped us drive to where we are today.

3118
04:25:18,520 --> 04:25:21,800
We have a lot of challenges coming up, but it's kind of, I hate to say,

3119
04:25:21,800 --> 04:25:29,340
it's been kind of a fun process to be a part of that and change and adapt and see things work in a positive direction now.

3120
04:25:30,060 --> 04:25:35,640
So again, I want to thank all of you for the opportunity to give you a little insight into our window here at our school.

3121
04:25:36,280 --> 04:25:39,180
And should there be any questions and certainly willing to answer any of that.

3122
04:25:39,680 --> 04:25:49,440
Okay. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. We're getting a little short on time. I'm going to add two people to this panel here.

3123
04:25:50,200 --> 04:25:54,920
And then I will let you go next Miss Uelsha. Okay, so I'm not putting them ahead of you. Don't worry.

3124
04:25:55,780 --> 04:26:02,540
the Chris Self from Meaker and Sherry Wright for Montezuma Cortez. So if you guys could come up

3125
04:26:02,540 --> 04:26:06,720
and join us, I know we were running a little late and you were promised that you'd get to go

3126
04:26:06,720 --> 04:26:13,700
earlier than this, but this is too interesting for us, I'm afraid. Okay, Mr. Wells, now it's your turn.

3127
04:26:16,450 --> 04:26:24,430
For your patients and time waiting to hear from us, you're putting in a lot of work today

3128
04:26:24,430 --> 04:26:27,110
and I appreciate the effort you're making to lessons.

3129
04:26:27,410 --> 04:26:28,690
So my name's George Welch.

3130
04:26:29,150 --> 04:26:31,730
I'm in my 24th year as a superintendent of schools

3131
04:26:31,730 --> 04:26:34,570
in Colorado, all 24 in Colorado,

3132
04:26:35,190 --> 04:26:37,890
last six have been in Canyon City,

3133
04:26:37,910 --> 04:26:39,670
I'm in my six in Canyon City.

3134
04:26:40,350 --> 04:26:41,790
I did provide some slides,

3135
04:26:42,230 --> 04:26:44,310
but there were really more for me than for you.

3136
04:26:44,790 --> 04:26:48,490
So I'm just gonna refer to the Bob Bile and Spain.

3137
04:26:48,490 --> 04:26:51,110
But what I wanted to know about Canyon City schools,

3138
04:26:51,110 --> 04:26:58,730
We're in a rural setting, free-mont county, south, and west of Colorado Springs, directly west of

3139
04:26:58,730 --> 04:26:59,050
Pueblo.

3140
04:26:59,590 --> 04:27:08,370
About 3,600 kids, about 500 staff, about a 60% free reduced lunch population, and another thing

3141
04:27:08,370 --> 04:27:15,170
about us is we hover around 18% special education population, which depending on the year

3142
04:27:15,170 --> 04:27:21,950
be the highest percentage of special education population in a district in Colorado.

3143
04:27:22,230 --> 04:27:25,110
So that's a major challenge that we deal with.

3144
04:27:25,350 --> 04:27:31,170
How did we open and actually our timeline as this is we've actually had our doors,

3145
04:27:31,250 --> 04:27:38,370
all our doors open since August 10th and all students welcome to come to school since August 17th.

3146
04:27:38,690 --> 04:27:41,770
And miraculously so far no positive cases.

3147
04:27:41,770 --> 04:27:49,890
Yeah, because we take very serious all the advice about mitigation that we've come from the CDPHG.

3148
04:27:50,470 --> 04:28:03,770
We have a K-5 in person all student every day plan that we're doing and we're doing the cohorts and limiting the number of adults exposed to those kids as everything recommended by CDPHG.

3149
04:28:03,770 --> 04:28:10,730
Six through eight is in person, but our teachers are also doing synchronous digital with that.

3150
04:28:11,490 --> 04:28:18,930
Any child in grade six through eight since we never had an online sixth grade program can do so,

3151
04:28:19,170 --> 04:28:26,410
by in essence coming in and participating digitally in a video format very much like this.

3152
04:28:26,750 --> 04:28:29,910
9 through 12 is a hybrid where we're going alternating days.

3153
04:28:29,910 --> 04:28:31,290
This is a typical thing.

3154
04:28:31,630 --> 04:28:36,730
A lot of high schools are doing because of large populations and the difficulty to cohort.

3155
04:28:37,410 --> 04:28:43,630
I have a daughter, in fact, it's her senior year and what's today Wednesday, so she's

3156
04:28:43,630 --> 04:28:44,270
not in school.

3157
04:28:44,330 --> 04:28:45,670
She's doing it synchronous.

3158
04:28:46,050 --> 04:28:52,830
We're doing it synchronous and blended and as some folks who have the teacher voice

3159
04:28:52,830 --> 04:28:58,150
or speaking about our teachers who are doing more than you can possibly imagine what

3160
04:28:58,150 --> 04:29:06,190
possibly expected. We do have a full digital option for K through 12, most of it's happening,

3161
04:29:06,190 --> 04:29:12,490
sort of parallel to what's going on, 6 to 8, but we felt we needed to create an actual digital

3162
04:29:12,490 --> 04:29:20,930
K through 5 program, which we've done and we kind of hang that all on edge, do it and have hired

3163
04:29:20,930 --> 04:29:27,290
some staff to run that. As everyone else has said, that's helped us to limit the size of

3164
04:29:29,950 --> 04:29:35,170
classes in those cohorts, so that's been pretty big, and there was some discussion early

3165
04:29:35,170 --> 04:29:43,370
on about the focus on social emotional supports for students. And since we basically, we were

3166
04:29:43,370 --> 04:29:48,250
hard during the fourth quarter, but we recognized that kids being away for so long, we were worried

3167
04:29:48,250 --> 04:29:54,970
that there may be some need for them to readjust to in person school, and we had a sort of a two-week

3168
04:29:54,970 --> 04:29:59,970
planned process by which to reintroduce them to school and we feel like it's been

3169
04:30:00,000 --> 04:30:02,700
Very successful because what we found most important

3170
04:30:05,230 --> 04:30:07,750
when regular learning as much as possible.

3171
04:30:13,570 --> 04:30:21,170
90 percent of the kids who are currently participating in instruction on our district are involved in in person learning.

3172
04:30:21,910 --> 04:30:26,820
And we've heard some numbers trying

3173
04:30:29,730 --> 04:30:35,720
to do it and put our heart are dealing with those kind of levels of potential challenges.

3174
04:30:36,600 --> 04:30:43,260
keep it within the CDPAG guidelines, the size of cohorts, number of adult contacts per day,

3175
04:30:43,380 --> 04:30:48,460
and I'm not saying we can do it all the time. Sometimes the rules we're trying to apply

3176
04:30:48,460 --> 04:30:50,120
our local circumstances to

3177
04:30:54,640 --> 04:31:00,720
a district's dealt with. I'm sure is we had some late smart people,

3178
04:31:00,860 --> 04:31:06,980
I would say, jumping off the ship. I'm going into retirement or going to do something else

3179
04:31:06,980 --> 04:31:12,840
because they saw the challenges ahead of them and filling those positions have been very difficult

3180
04:31:12,840 --> 04:31:17,680
and in addition to that, I don't think you will hear any school district in a state of

3181
04:31:17,680 --> 04:31:21,760
Colorado. I don't think any of them before this had the whole problem of providing

3182
04:31:21,760 --> 04:31:28,700
substitutes when they were lacking teachers with as far as handling that situation.

3183
04:31:28,940 --> 04:31:34,960
We're really struggling now, most of our students are saying thanks, but no thanks. There's not enough

3184
04:31:34,960 --> 04:31:45,160
money for me to go in and expose myself to that, so we're having to find ways to do to deal with that.

3185
04:31:46,180 --> 04:31:54,140
Some of the other big challenges I've been dealing with technology platform, which is Google has been a problem at times,

3186
04:31:54,140 --> 04:32:02,820
School of degrees, then a problem at times, some of our online textbook and curriculum platforms

3187
04:32:02,820 --> 04:32:06,980
have been a problem at times, and I think it's because everyone on the country is doing exactly

3188
04:32:06,980 --> 04:32:10,840
what we're doing, and no one was really fully ready for it.

3189
04:32:11,060 --> 04:32:19,360
And I would echo the Gdowski's measure of when we're losing kids, where we're losing them

3190
04:32:19,360 --> 04:32:26,340
we're generally losing them to all in school and at the very youngest ages and I really appreciate that term

3191
04:32:26,340 --> 04:32:34,540
Chris that you got some kindergarten's red shirt and that may be exactly what's going on in those early, early,

3192
04:32:34,740 --> 04:32:43,400
great else. So we are doing some pretty innovative things I think and that is put yourself in the

3193
04:32:43,400 --> 04:32:50,560
of a high school teacher who has to have their kids in person half their kids online and some

3194
04:32:50,560 --> 04:32:57,700
of their kids are just pure digital and doing sort of a blended model and the workload for that

3195
04:32:58,300 --> 04:33:02,200
and the change of work called for that just tremendous.

3196
04:33:03,380 --> 04:33:09,920
What we've done to solve our substitute problem may not be a long term solution but we're paying for substitute

3197
04:33:09,920 --> 04:33:16,460
for dentists for every classified staff member who is able and that means that we can

3198
04:33:16,460 --> 04:33:22,700
within a building within a cohort, places a classified staff member in front of a class

3199
04:33:22,700 --> 04:33:28,840
unfortunately pulled them out of their regular job for a day but pay them more to do that

3200
04:33:28,840 --> 04:33:33,440
because we feel like the first thing we've got to do is put a capable person in the town

3201
04:33:33,440 --> 04:33:41,680
the class each day and we've been doing that. We've been identifying and addressing the impacts

3202
04:33:41,680 --> 04:33:46,940
of what we would call an extended summer slide. I heard some people talk about folks trying

3203
04:33:46,940 --> 04:33:52,100
to identify that. We've identified it and we've identified that it's not so bad. It grades

3204
04:33:52,100 --> 04:33:59,040
three to five where a lot of the kids have solidified their reading skills. We have identified

3205
04:33:59,040 --> 04:34:04,140
that it's horrific that great state you do, where we were in the developmental stages of that,

3206
04:34:04,460 --> 04:34:09,660
and so we've addressed that to a great stem all extended already by expanding some summer

3207
04:34:09,660 --> 04:34:15,700
interventions and expanding school year interventions with our students in regard to reading.

3208
04:34:17,640 --> 04:34:27,880
With an 18% special education population, we find and I think everyone tells you that the

3209
04:34:27,880 --> 04:34:30,380
especially if every system is in person, face to face.

3210
04:34:31,420 --> 04:34:35,160
And when we're able to do that, we're doing it well,

3211
04:34:35,420 --> 04:34:38,620
but we feel we have to offer that choice to our parents.

3212
04:34:39,100 --> 04:34:40,840
And some of the parents are choosing to try to do it digitally.

3213
04:34:41,420 --> 04:34:44,580
And what we're doing is when evidence is showing

3214
04:34:44,580 --> 04:34:46,280
it's not working, we're intervening.

3215
04:34:46,560 --> 04:34:48,400
I'm saying, you gotta get your kid here at school

3216
04:34:48,400 --> 04:34:53,360
because it's gonna be most successful for them.

3217
04:34:55,320 --> 04:34:56,960
We've been doing a lot of engagement.

3218
04:34:56,960 --> 04:35:13,400
And then, it's tracking, of course, we find that it's easiest to do when it gets yours up in schools a little bit trickier to do when it gets fully digital and we're trying to do our best to tracking engagement through a student work completion as opposed to see time.

3219
04:35:13,400 --> 04:35:20,800
How we're spending our COVID dollars, we received a little over $2 million in cash, $100,000 in

3220
04:35:20,800 --> 04:35:27,100
S.R. and I'd be lying to you if I didn't say the bulk was going to replacing what you guys

3221
04:35:27,100 --> 04:35:31,960
took away because of what to have to take away because of current economic systems. So most of

3222
04:35:31,960 --> 04:35:38,800
it backfields that keep the current staff that we have. However, we've also used the dollars to set

3223
04:35:38,800 --> 04:35:43,780
parallel online options, address health and safety, needs, masks,

3224
04:35:44,220 --> 04:35:48,680
thermometers, everything we're doing with that, accessing technology for all kids.

3225
04:35:48,900 --> 04:35:53,380
When the pandemic hit, we didn't have a device in the hands of every kindergarten

3226
04:35:53,380 --> 04:36:00,020
administrator now we do. And we've spent dollars catching kids up with things like additional

3227
04:36:00,020 --> 04:36:06,540
interventions and summer academies. And I like to close out my really talking about the stressors

3228
04:36:06,540 --> 04:36:08,540
that you're seeing with the system.

3229
04:36:09,320 --> 04:36:12,940
Instructional staff, for lots of good reason,

3230
04:36:13,180 --> 04:36:15,140
and then some just because, you know,

3231
04:36:15,180 --> 04:36:18,620
when people, well, I guess when they consume

3232
04:36:18,620 --> 04:36:20,620
most of their information on social media,

3233
04:36:20,740 --> 04:36:24,600
things thin at a control, very worried about their health

3234
04:36:24,600 --> 04:36:27,560
for sure, but I think what's being exacerbated

3235
04:36:27,560 --> 04:36:31,320
for folks is the unknown about what next spring is.

3236
04:36:31,660 --> 04:36:33,520
And once again, I understand you guys don't have

3237
04:36:33,520 --> 04:36:42,700
tools to provide more dollars for us. But if there's anything we can do to guarantee people

3238
04:36:42,700 --> 04:36:49,360
that should we have kids who need to be served, we'll still need them. That would go I think

3239
04:36:49,360 --> 04:36:57,820
a long way as well. And I want to echo Mr. LaChance to comment about the regular before

3240
04:36:57,820 --> 04:37:08,900
We've talked about this as CDE did reach out to him this morning and Dr. Antis, thank you so much for recognizing everything everyone's doing around the state.

3241
04:37:09,560 --> 04:37:14,400
And thank you so much for talking about the principle of collecting data right now to inform our decisions.

3242
04:37:15,100 --> 04:37:20,080
However, big part of what CDE does as well is regulatory in terms of conducting audits.

3243
04:37:20,080 --> 04:37:25,560
And I just want to tell you one school district story and happens to be my former school district.

3244
04:37:26,360 --> 04:37:33,460
They're trying to open their doors with 700 kids in a community where I think three people have already died from COVID.

3245
04:37:34,060 --> 04:37:36,960
No more than 2,400 people in that community.

3246
04:37:38,260 --> 04:37:47,280
And they have about 35% of their students because of those local fears participating in an online only as opposed to a person.

3247
04:37:47,280 --> 04:37:53,760
And they get knocked on their door and they're dealing with a parrot audit, a Colorado Bureau of Investigation

3248
04:37:53,760 --> 04:37:58,760
audit, and then the Colorado Department of Education recently called and said, hey, we're

3249
04:37:58,760 --> 04:38:01,580
going to audit your redact process.

3250
04:38:02,440 --> 04:38:08,000
And for crying out loud, if you guys can do anything, can you tell people to get off people's

3251
04:38:08,000 --> 04:38:12,240
back right now, so they can focus on the kids and provide the kids what they need and support

3252
04:38:12,240 --> 04:38:17,220
their staff instead of checking boxes and doing that, because it'll be time for that later.

3253
04:38:17,220 --> 04:38:21,280
And I know it needs to be done, but I think it's ridiculous to do that right now.

3254
04:38:21,780 --> 04:38:26,040
So I'll be available for questions for a while, and then I'll step off.

3255
04:38:27,220 --> 04:38:28,060
Okay, heard.

3256
04:38:29,660 --> 04:38:30,940
Have that crystal.

3257
04:38:33,790 --> 04:38:36,550
I see a little box there with a CS series.

3258
04:38:37,330 --> 04:38:40,510
I'm Chris Kelly. I'm the superintendent of the school's in Meeker, Colorado.

3259
04:38:41,390 --> 04:38:42,690
Sorry, it's proud to name.

3260
04:38:43,030 --> 04:38:45,230
Sorry, I'm a school administrator. I've been called much worse.

3261
04:38:45,410 --> 04:38:46,110
That's okay.

3262
04:38:47,360 --> 04:38:51,000
Small School District Northwest Colorado, we have about 700 students.

3263
04:38:51,580 --> 04:38:59,280
We are currently 100% in person, save for a kid or two that has to be quarantined

3264
04:38:59,280 --> 04:39:06,220
for a few days, or a small percentage of our students having engaged in a district online option.

3265
04:39:06,260 --> 04:39:10,900
I think you're going to hear from me a number of the same themes that have already been shared

3266
04:39:10,900 --> 04:39:14,120
over the last couple of hours or so.

3267
04:39:14,740 --> 04:39:18,680
One of the first ones I want to share with you is that our staff is really at capacity.

3268
04:39:19,120 --> 04:39:23,440
Not only have we changed how we deliver instruction even though we're in person.

3269
04:39:23,800 --> 04:39:28,560
There's certainly a number of differences in how that happens on a day-to-day basis with COVID precautions.

3270
04:39:29,240 --> 04:39:36,100
We've placed upon our teachers' expectations to prepare for distance learning in the scenario that we have kids who are quarantined.

3271
04:39:36,100 --> 04:39:43,060
We have to move into our hybrid or our distance learning models that we have ready to go with the virus conditions.

3272
04:39:43,660 --> 04:39:49,160
change. And then on top of that, they have to teach reading in math and science and those

3273
04:39:49,160 --> 04:39:56,680
things we are engaged in a very intensive, early literacy grant that is needed in our school

3274
04:39:56,680 --> 04:40:02,880
district, but it requires a ton of work for teachers. We are looking at new science curriculum

3275
04:40:02,880 --> 04:40:06,740
that we're implementing this year, we're in the middle of a major, major building project

3276
04:40:06,740 --> 04:40:13,000
for our community, and so those are things on top of COVID that our teachers are dealing with.

3277
04:40:13,780 --> 04:40:19,100
In addition to the fact that teaching is a hard job anyway, and it's underpaid and undervalued

3278
04:40:19,100 --> 04:40:24,980
in our current culture, and so somewhat to echo what George has said, if anything that

3279
04:40:24,980 --> 04:40:30,960
the legislature can do to help remove some of those burdens or expectations on our staff,

3280
04:40:30,960 --> 04:40:37,520
It's greatly appreciated certainly at the very least these don't add in the additional expectations to staff right now.

3281
04:40:37,780 --> 04:40:41,800
There are some good things and some bad things that have come for artists for doubt of the pandemic.

3282
04:40:42,260 --> 04:40:44,800
Certainly we've made some advances in our use of technology.

3283
04:40:45,080 --> 04:40:52,500
We have some staff members who had to be kind of pushed into that and it turned out to be a good thing because they brought into their skill set.

3284
04:40:52,880 --> 04:40:57,200
Probably the greatest thing that's happened is the realization of the value of what happens in our classrooms.

3285
04:40:57,420 --> 04:40:58,840
There is no environment.

3286
04:40:59,480 --> 04:41:04,300
There's no environment in our culture that replicates the learning that occurs in the classroom.

3287
04:41:04,520 --> 04:41:09,440
And that's the main reason that we've pushed so hard to be 100% in person learning.

3288
04:41:09,720 --> 04:41:14,840
Certainly we can engage in a learning process through online forums and that's a way to supplement what we do.

3289
04:41:15,020 --> 04:41:15,840
It does not.

3290
04:41:16,480 --> 04:41:18,680
It does not replicate what happens in the classroom.

3291
04:41:19,360 --> 04:41:22,720
We're dealing some of the negatives we're dealing with just like everybody else.

3292
04:41:22,760 --> 04:41:25,020
We have some staff members who we've lost.

3293
04:41:26,140 --> 04:41:41,060
A lot of times we joke about rural school districts that, oh, hey, the superintendent's the bus driver as well, I have driven a bus route the last couple of days because we don't have qualified bus drivers, so that's not really a joke. It's a real thing that actually does happen.

3294
04:41:42,220 --> 04:41:48,180
We have lost some students as well to either homeschool or private or profit online programs.

3295
04:41:49,120 --> 04:41:51,740
There is a concern around how it's going to impact us financially.

3296
04:41:52,020 --> 04:41:55,580
I think my career concern is the learning that we're using to that.

3297
04:41:55,580 --> 04:42:00,260
I had a conversation with a parent who said, hey, I'm going to take my kid to an online program.

3298
04:42:00,840 --> 04:42:08,100
And then we have engaged with every single one of those parents in our school that should have made that choice to find out exactly why they're doing that.

3299
04:42:08,100 --> 04:42:11,760
So, to the question of, do we really know what these kids are doing and where they're going,

3300
04:42:11,760 --> 04:42:15,620
I can tell you every single family I know why they have made that choice.

3301
04:42:16,040 --> 04:42:19,940
At any rate, talking with this parent is, well, hey, this school district has recently decided

3302
04:42:19,940 --> 04:42:24,020
we decided in late and late in the game really August that we were going to offer it on my

3303
04:42:24,020 --> 04:42:24,480
program.

3304
04:42:24,800 --> 04:42:29,200
So I tell this parent, we're going to go ahead and offer this online program for students.

3305
04:42:29,260 --> 04:42:30,340
Are you interested in that?

3306
04:42:30,500 --> 04:42:34,080
And her response is, well, I'm not really, I don't, I really don't want to be bound to

3307
04:42:34,080 --> 04:42:37,620
schedule. So if I, you know, let's take like gives the grand juncture and the win with for the

3308
04:42:37,620 --> 04:42:42,880
day, I can do that. What kind of priority is that parent have on the learning that's going

3309
04:42:42,880 --> 04:42:47,360
to occur? We're going to get that kid back at some point. It might be October 2nd, might be after

3310
04:42:47,360 --> 04:42:52,240
Christmas, it might be next year, and there has not been a priority on learning in that household.

3311
04:42:52,740 --> 04:42:55,780
That's not true of all of our household. It's probably true of the majority of them,

3312
04:42:55,920 --> 04:42:58,860
if you go back to my original statement around learning that a person in the classroom,

3313
04:42:59,240 --> 04:43:03,060
that can't be replicated. So we're going to get those kids back and we're going to be responsible

3314
04:43:03,060 --> 04:43:07,520
to ensure that they've learned what they're supposed to learn, but then we have a loss of time

3315
04:43:07,520 --> 04:43:13,460
with them, we have a loss of resources as well too. I think you know, part goal for this school year

3316
04:43:13,460 --> 04:43:17,240
has been to get kids in classroom and keep them in classrooms and they're really isn't any

3317
04:43:17,240 --> 04:43:21,740
other focus beyond that right now. We know that that addresses their social emotional well-being

3318
04:43:21,740 --> 04:43:27,380
to be in a classroom around professional educators and adults that are invested in them.

3319
04:43:27,560 --> 04:43:30,980
We know that that benefits them from the learning standpoint as well too, but that requires

3320
04:43:30,980 --> 04:43:37,820
It's a ton of focus on the changing environment that we'll add in per vaccine several times.

3321
04:43:38,060 --> 04:43:43,320
It's almost like the old cartoon where you have the dam that's leaking water in the cartoon character.

3322
04:43:43,380 --> 04:43:46,680
Stick to the finger in the dam here and then it leaks over here and then it starts to leak.

3323
04:43:47,180 --> 04:43:51,380
The minute you think you got things figured out, there's another problem that comes up.

3324
04:43:51,780 --> 04:43:57,080
And some of that self-inflicted because we have different guidance from federal and state and local levels.

3325
04:43:57,080 --> 04:44:02,720
And some of that's because conditions are changing and it can't really control the fact remains

3326
04:44:02,720 --> 04:44:07,300
though that the path is unclear for us in terms of how we're going to be able to get kids and

3327
04:44:07,300 --> 04:44:09,300
questions and keep the main classrooms.

3328
04:44:10,180 --> 04:44:14,560
I'll echo George comments on, George's comments on the use of our COVID dollars, much of

3329
04:44:14,560 --> 04:44:18,400
that was going to backfill the reduction and funding that we saw.

3330
04:44:18,700 --> 04:44:22,600
And the number one thing in all of our budgets is personnel, but salaries and benefits.

3331
04:44:22,600 --> 04:44:28,060
And so to be able to employ the adults that we need to help kids learn and help support the learning,

3332
04:44:28,200 --> 04:44:34,360
it goes along with that as primarily what we use those dollars for certainly we were able to buy some cleaning supplies.

3333
04:44:34,880 --> 04:44:38,000
I was spent a thousand dollars on devices for students.

3334
04:44:39,220 --> 04:44:43,800
Yeah, I'd be able to buy face masks and face shields and thermometers like everybody else did as well too.

3335
04:44:43,920 --> 04:44:52,320
And what's so we're able to use those dollars to make those purchases that the primary use of those COVID dollars was to keep people employed.

3336
04:44:52,320 --> 04:44:54,460
that are making a difference in the lives of children.

3337
04:44:55,440 --> 04:44:59,680
I am concerned greatly just like everybody else is around the finance picture.

3338
04:45:00,080 --> 04:45:12,640
I think it's important for our legislature to understand it in a small rural district when there are reductions in funding that requires a reduction in personnel, because that's the biggest piece of our budget.

3339
04:45:13,120 --> 04:45:21,000
And when we reduce personnel in a small rural school district, we are either completely cutting educational programs altogether.

3340
04:45:21,520 --> 04:45:25,340
Or we're increasing class sizes by 52 100%,

3341
04:45:25,340 --> 04:45:27,700
because we only have two or three sections for a grade level,

3342
04:45:27,700 --> 04:45:30,000
or content area to start with anyway.

3343
04:45:30,260 --> 04:45:32,240
And so we can't use that a common state.

3344
04:45:32,460 --> 04:45:35,160
I don't kind of would use the students to teach a ratio

3345
04:45:35,160 --> 04:45:38,120
or to maybe programs on pause,

3346
04:45:38,440 --> 04:45:39,880
where we are eliminating opportunities,

3347
04:45:40,260 --> 04:45:41,080
help them out of the students.

3348
04:45:41,880 --> 04:45:44,620
I think I'm very grateful to be in New York, Colorado.

3349
04:45:44,760 --> 04:45:47,060
I know we have a staff that's committed ed team.

3350
04:45:47,060 --> 04:45:48,900
Children and they're going to continue to do that

3351
04:45:48,900 --> 04:45:53,020
and they are working as hard as I have ever seen a staff work.

3352
04:45:53,540 --> 04:45:55,480
This is my 11th year as a superintendent,

3353
04:45:55,520 --> 04:45:57,280
my six-year in Meeker,

3354
04:45:57,620 --> 04:45:59,360
and so not as much experience as some,

3355
04:45:59,460 --> 04:46:01,980
but more than others, but I think every superintendent

3356
04:46:02,680 --> 04:46:04,340
across the state will tell you at this point

3357
04:46:04,340 --> 04:46:07,200
and they have never seen a greater commitment to education,

3358
04:46:07,320 --> 04:46:10,120
then what they're seeing from our staff right now.

3359
04:46:11,000 --> 04:46:12,820
So certainly, we are grateful to be involved

3360
04:46:12,820 --> 04:46:14,520
in that even in a very, very important very time.

3361
04:46:15,200 --> 04:46:16,960
I'll be around for questions as well to begin.

3362
04:46:19,550 --> 04:46:25,510
Thank you, thank you, and finally, Sherry Wright, who just happens to be from my part of the state.

3363
04:46:25,590 --> 04:46:27,510
Thank you for joining us today, Sherry.

3364
04:46:28,090 --> 04:46:29,030
It's nice to see you.

3365
04:46:30,730 --> 04:46:32,570
Thank you, thank you for having us.

3366
04:46:32,830 --> 04:46:35,510
And I am from the young only 45 miles away.

3367
04:46:39,230 --> 04:46:40,110
Can you hear me?

3368
04:46:40,190 --> 04:46:41,770
I have a mute button up.

3369
04:46:48,520 --> 04:46:51,660
I just want to let you know, I am from a very small area.

3370
04:46:52,180 --> 04:46:57,890
And you get the notice that my broadband and is speeding.

3371
04:46:57,890 --> 04:47:12,570
So, of course, I am not interrupting those cameras, but I want to tell you there, I'm sure, you're going in and out, you might have to turn off the video, sometimes that's all it takes to get away from it.

3372
04:47:12,870 --> 04:47:14,650
Everybody memorized what she looks like.

3373
04:47:17,750 --> 04:47:18,730
All right, great.

3374
04:47:20,030 --> 04:47:26,750
I just want to start with, we started planning on what we were going to do for the opening school year back in July.

3375
04:47:26,750 --> 04:47:34,530
We formed a committee with our parents, our administration, teachers, and board members and tried

3376
04:47:34,530 --> 04:47:38,350
to determine what we were going to reopen our school.

3377
04:47:38,790 --> 04:47:40,910
That being said, it changed.

3378
04:47:41,410 --> 04:47:45,770
The only thing that we have learned to count on is that it's going to change.

3379
04:47:47,150 --> 04:47:54,450
Our teachers have decided that they really wanted to have in-person if at all possible, because

3380
04:47:54,450 --> 04:48:01,190
kids need the social, emotional aspects, and also they need it to be educated. They feel like

3381
04:48:01,190 --> 04:48:08,590
they could do a best person in person. So we did a survey, and requested parents to

3382
04:48:08,590 --> 04:48:14,170
survey monkey and asked parents to respond, and the majority of them said that they did

3383
04:48:14,170 --> 04:48:24,430
want a person to person. And we are carrying out the survey now to make sure that we are

3384
04:48:24,430 --> 04:48:29,310
We decided that we were going to start school on August 17th,

3385
04:48:29,450 --> 04:48:32,590
however, the week before our teacher said,

3386
04:48:32,790 --> 04:48:33,470
we're hitting overload.

3387
04:48:33,690 --> 04:48:34,750
We cannot do it.

3388
04:48:34,830 --> 04:48:35,950
We will not be prepared.

3389
04:48:36,550 --> 04:48:41,250
So we moved back, which was a little hard,

3390
04:48:41,450 --> 04:48:44,450
but we moved it back to August 24th.

3391
04:48:44,450 --> 04:48:52,490
At this time, we have approximately 1,573 students meeting in person.

3392
04:48:52,490 --> 04:49:02,890
We have 770 students online, three of them are elementary, 300 are elementary and 430 are secondary.

3393
04:49:05,390 --> 04:49:09,290
And approximately 100 youth mountain tribes are also online.

3394
04:49:12,110 --> 04:49:19,130
The reason that the parents chose online is not mostly because they were scared.

3395
04:49:19,510 --> 04:49:22,150
They did not want their kids to expose anything.

3396
04:49:22,770 --> 04:49:26,250
But another reason was they did not want their children wearing masks.

3397
04:49:29,670 --> 04:49:36,870
So our homeschooling has grown a lot because they are just not trusting anybody at this point.

3398
04:49:36,870 --> 04:49:39,570
and they feel like they can educate their kids best.

3399
04:49:40,130 --> 04:49:42,610
Media has not helped us must on that aspect.

3400
04:49:45,470 --> 04:49:49,670
We are so district is currently working with the community

3401
04:49:49,670 --> 04:49:54,710
to enlarge better structures or setting up hotspots,

3402
04:49:55,470 --> 04:49:58,610
working with Wi-Fi companies and trying to get everything going.

3403
04:49:58,850 --> 04:50:03,970
So that the kids online will have access to it.

3404
04:50:03,970 --> 04:50:14,210
We are very small and we are agriculture, so there is very little online infrastructure for our schools.

3405
04:50:14,950 --> 04:50:22,870
Our district realized that when deciding to reopen our schools that we needed some advice from medical experts.

3406
04:50:22,870 --> 04:50:30,070
So, the district, our administration, decided to form a health safety committee and

3407
04:50:30,070 --> 04:50:35,290
to which involves our head school nurse, our county health department, and our local

3408
04:50:35,290 --> 04:50:38,110
hospital, a doctor, and two board members.

3409
04:50:38,750 --> 04:50:44,630
And with that, we determined how we were going to open the school's best, what needed to

3410
04:50:44,630 --> 04:50:51,410
be done, and what we would do if we ever had a COVID breakdown.

3411
04:50:51,410 --> 04:50:59,550
So, I did do some, we have a ready pre-grass here, and I did send them in, but I don't know if I

3412
04:50:59,550 --> 04:51:03,850
made it on time, but it is so self-explanatory.

3413
04:51:04,050 --> 04:51:07,310
I did not want to take time to go over something that you can reach yourself.

3414
04:51:07,570 --> 04:51:08,510
It's very colorful.

3415
04:51:09,790 --> 04:51:11,770
It is very in depth.

3416
04:51:12,430 --> 04:51:19,650
So, you need to read that and see how we're going to be handling all of, if we do, when we do, have our

3417
04:51:19,650 --> 04:51:28,710
break. We meet by weekly now. We start off meeting weekly and now we meet by weekly or as needed.

3418
04:51:29,310 --> 04:51:38,450
The local school next door to us had an outbreak of one COVID person and they had to shut down their school.

3419
04:51:39,730 --> 04:51:45,630
So that caused us to meet one more time just to make sure that we were ready for if it's given in our community.

3420
04:51:47,090 --> 04:51:58,610
We've used our care funding with installing sexy glass and our different offices so that we can protect the personnel, cleaning supplies.

3421
04:51:58,810 --> 04:52:00,870
Oh my goodness, that is amazing.

3422
04:52:01,810 --> 04:52:15,050
We have spent up to $45,000 just on cleaning supplies, which is our kids are safe, but to go along with all the cleaning supplies that we have.

3423
04:52:15,050 --> 04:52:19,690
We had to hire six additional custodians to utilize the supplies.

3424
04:52:20,490 --> 04:52:24,470
We clean our schools before school after school in between classes.

3425
04:52:25,230 --> 04:52:28,170
We are very careful to make sure that we keep everything going.

3426
04:52:30,230 --> 04:52:37,190
We have purchased 132 Chromebooks, which gives us Chromebooks for each student so that when

3427
04:52:37,190 --> 04:52:44,890
we go, when we have to move online, every student will have a Chromebook and can do the online

3428
04:52:44,890 --> 04:52:54,550
classes. We have hired, let's see, we have hired two online coordinators,

3429
04:52:56,930 --> 04:52:56,930
because

3430
04:52:56,930 --> 04:53:05,010
when we get, we've paired with CDFL for online learning and they were overwhelmed. So we

3431
04:53:05,010 --> 04:53:10,450
have two online coordinators that check in with our kids, make sure that everything is running smoothly.

3432
04:53:10,450 --> 04:53:16,870
We have donated eight elementary teachers to keep track of our elementary students.

3433
04:53:16,870 --> 04:53:23,690
Make sure they're up the speed and they're doing their work and we have two middle school

3434
04:53:23,690 --> 04:53:28,490
core teachers and two middle school elective teachers to keep track of them.

3435
04:53:29,050 --> 04:53:34,830
And in our high school teachers, we have designated one hour for them so that they go online

3436
04:53:34,830 --> 04:53:39,850
and they are available to answer any questions or help students that are having issues with

3437
04:53:39,850 --> 04:53:41,070
online classes.

3438
04:53:43,680 --> 04:53:47,280
We have changed our transportation and to a

3439
04:53:47,280 --> 04:53:52,920
consolidation that stops which has caused some angst amongst our parents,

3440
04:53:54,340 --> 04:53:57,700
but we did have to start being a little more

3441
04:53:57,700 --> 04:54:02,080
conservative on our money and so four best drivers have retired.

3442
04:54:03,560 --> 04:54:08,680
We bought 10 tents so that we can hold outside classrooms.

3443
04:54:08,680 --> 04:54:14,900
We have buy that the elementary schools, two at the middle school, and two at the high school.

3444
04:54:15,660 --> 04:54:20,900
So that they can go outside and work out there.

3445
04:54:21,720 --> 04:54:32,680
We are sure approximately 172 students this year that have gone home schooling, charter school, private school, home school.

3446
04:54:33,600 --> 04:54:37,220
And so that's going to be hurting us quite substantially.

3447
04:54:47,500 --> 04:54:48,840
You're Mountain Tribe.

3448
04:54:49,660 --> 04:54:52,860
We have been working closely with them to keep them in the loop.

3449
04:54:53,640 --> 04:54:59,600
We will be held in a meeting October 20th with them to make sure that we are doing things

3450
04:54:59,600 --> 04:55:03,500
that the way they perceive want us to do it and that we can make their needs.

3451
04:55:04,040 --> 04:55:08,840
We have donated one elementary teacher to go out there and work with their online students

3452
04:55:08,840 --> 04:55:12,840
and two secondary teachers to work with them.

3453
04:55:13,360 --> 04:55:15,860
So we're trying to keep in post-contact and working

3454
04:55:15,860 --> 04:55:18,120
with their education department very carefully,

3455
04:55:18,880 --> 04:55:20,660
and closely to make sure that all needs

3456
04:55:20,660 --> 04:55:22,680
are being met with them.

3457
04:55:25,880 --> 04:55:28,840
We are.

3458
04:55:30,140 --> 04:55:33,000
I guess this comes to the part that I really don't

3459
04:55:33,000 --> 04:55:34,920
think that you guys want to hear.

3460
04:55:37,680 --> 04:55:42,240
But we appreciate the money that you gave us.

3461
04:55:42,860 --> 04:55:52,580
But we lost $300 per student this year, which was substantially considered that we have 27,700 students.

3462
04:55:53,740 --> 04:55:56,440
So that really hurt us in our general budget.

3463
04:55:58,160 --> 04:56:00,920
The care money does not go in the general budget.

3464
04:56:01,120 --> 04:56:04,580
We've had to, it's designated spending, which was used and we appreciate.

3465
04:56:05,500 --> 04:56:10,520
But at this point, we're looking at $2.8 million of the shortfall for next year.

3466
04:56:10,520 --> 04:56:13,280
And we're going to what are we going to do?

3467
04:56:13,680 --> 04:56:15,060
Is it going to be attrition?

3468
04:56:16,040 --> 04:56:17,020
Are we going to program?

3469
04:56:18,160 --> 04:56:19,940
Are we going to have larger classes?

3470
04:56:22,020 --> 04:56:24,700
It's really stressful right now.

3471
04:56:26,180 --> 04:56:33,080
So for the end on Apologies note, last year, the school board voted to put an H-back system in all of the schools.

3472
04:56:33,860 --> 04:56:36,180
And that we use that with our one time funding.

3473
04:56:36,240 --> 04:56:38,320
It is still because of COVID.

3474
04:56:38,500 --> 04:56:39,500
It is slowed down.

3475
04:56:39,500 --> 04:56:50,120
So we still have two schools for it to go into, and we did buy the special filters to keep the air circulated, the way it needs to be, so that we can keep our kids safe.

3476
04:56:51,460 --> 04:56:57,980
At this point, I'd like to tell you, thank you. And if you have any questions, please let me know.

3477
04:56:59,710 --> 04:57:01,610
Thank you very much, Sherry.

3478
04:57:01,870 --> 04:57:06,430
These are, I wish we could share these stories with everyone.

3479
04:57:06,770 --> 04:57:09,510
You know, this is much too small of a group.

3480
04:57:09,770 --> 04:57:13,210
I think for the stories that we're hearing about what's really going on in schools.

3481
04:57:13,670 --> 04:57:17,430
And so I appreciate it and you need to know that we hear you.

3482
04:57:18,910 --> 04:57:20,610
I will give some time for questions.

3483
04:57:20,850 --> 04:57:23,170
Is there anybody who has a question for this group?

3484
04:57:23,670 --> 04:57:24,830
Representative Wilson.

3485
04:57:26,570 --> 04:57:27,230
A real super.

3486
04:57:29,080 --> 04:57:33,020
Thank you madam chair and just to let you know my computer been shutting down in the

3487
04:57:33,020 --> 04:57:33,500
once in a while.

3488
04:57:33,620 --> 04:57:40,040
So when I disappear it's become my computer shut down just to protect you for our Senate

3489
04:57:40,040 --> 04:57:45,460
and House Education Committee members Superintendent Welch was talking about the rule community

3490
04:57:45,460 --> 04:57:46,560
and so forth.

3491
04:57:46,840 --> 04:57:51,800
I want you to know that for my full county area that's the Urban Center so all the other

3492
04:57:51,800 --> 04:57:56,260
districts are much smaller so just protect perspective and you'd like well you know that's just

3493
04:57:57,040 --> 04:58:07,260
That's actually an urban state for my district, but I think it's been a lot of something I think's critical for us to hear, but he said the K2 slide was for Linda's.

3494
04:58:07,960 --> 04:58:15,220
And I'd like to clarify what you mean by horrendous and what they are doing to help offset that slide of all their future extension.

3495
04:58:18,810 --> 04:58:28,590
And what the date on talking about is we did the beginning of your civil testing and for folks who were close enough to education.

3496
04:58:29,430 --> 04:58:35,330
Oh, especially through the Reed Act, you've been practicing multiple times during the year.

3497
04:58:35,770 --> 04:58:45,050
And with the shutdown and the move to digital, we weren't able to actually do an end of year.

3498
04:58:45,050 --> 04:58:52,110
levels assessment of all our students because we didn't have face-to-face and so we were faced with how do you

3499
04:58:52,110 --> 04:58:59,510
Do some sort of apples to apples data and what we decided to do is do a last four years of analysis of what mid-year

3500
04:58:59,890 --> 04:59:05,590
December January data compared to following year beginning year data looks like

3501
04:59:06,750 --> 04:59:08,730
And we were able to

3502
04:59:15,050 --> 04:59:15,550
Interact?

3503
04:59:16,050 --> 04:59:16,050
Thank

3504
04:59:18,160 --> 04:59:19,480
you.

3505
04:59:19,540 --> 04:59:19,900
I understand.

3506
04:59:21,220 --> 04:59:26,200
And so what we did is a multi-year comparison, mid-year data, to begin a year following

3507
04:59:26,200 --> 04:59:27,540
year of students.

3508
04:59:28,080 --> 04:59:32,040
And so you couldn't do incoming indicators because that wouldn't make sense.

3509
04:59:32,380 --> 04:59:37,160
But what we saw, as I said, is for grades three, four, and five, of really a typical

3510
04:59:37,160 --> 04:59:38,100
summer's line.

3511
04:59:38,400 --> 04:59:41,120
As if it were normal in 12 weeks, summer.

3512
04:59:41,580 --> 04:59:46,260
What we saw for our kids from kindergarten first, first, the second, second, the third

3513
04:59:46,260 --> 04:59:53,440
was I would say at least double the academic loss in reading ability as measured by the

3514
04:59:53,440 --> 04:59:58,920
civil's metric from mid-year, the prior year, to beginning of year.

3515
05:00:02,540 --> 05:00:14,560
We did, however, when given an opportunity to have a four week reading a academy with some of those students during the summer, we saw a quick regain.

3516
05:00:14,560 --> 05:00:21,880
And so I think there, you know, if you have some good techniques in the hand for intervening

3517
05:00:21,880 --> 05:00:28,460
and you have the resources to be able to do it, I think it's very possible over time to catch some kids up.

3518
05:00:28,900 --> 05:00:31,020
But we were all mortified.

3519
05:00:31,180 --> 05:00:35,760
We were all thrilled that what it looked like, grade 3 through 5, we were all mortified, and those younger

3520
05:00:35,760 --> 05:00:36,320
grade levels.

3521
05:00:36,480 --> 05:00:38,340
I hope that makes it more cool.

3522
05:00:42,240 --> 05:00:43,660
Yes, you're presented to Dave Lee.

3523
05:00:44,900 --> 05:00:52,060
Thank you, Madam Chair, and just real quick, I want to thank everyone, I appreciate all of you

3524
05:00:52,060 --> 05:00:58,160
educators for all that you do. Mr. Lachanson, particular, I just want to thank you for

3525
05:00:58,160 --> 05:01:05,840
your resourcefulness, for just the can do. Let's figure it out attitude that you're grabbing

3526
05:01:05,840 --> 05:01:10,400
the mop bucket as soon as everyone's gone home. I bless you for all that work. I know you're all

3527
05:01:10,400 --> 05:01:15,540
work in real hard. So thank all of you for that. But boy, Missile chance, you just

3528
05:01:15,540 --> 05:01:23,240
pitomized what we look for in fellow government employees, trying to treat the taxpayer

3529
05:01:23,240 --> 05:01:28,080
as the customers they deserve to be treated and take the care of those kids. Thank you

3530
05:01:28,080 --> 05:01:36,420
for your heart. You know, I also want to appreciate Missile chances. Suggestion is within

3531
05:01:37,560 --> 05:01:47,820
the authority or at least the capability of the legislature and that is to try to reduce burden of administrative requirements.

3532
05:01:48,560 --> 05:01:51,940
So I think that is a very reasonable request that we ought to pursue.

3533
05:01:52,660 --> 05:02:00,140
So let's talk about that. We can't do much at all when it comes to getting more funding.

3534
05:02:00,140 --> 05:02:05,080
But I think that we could pursue some special effort

3535
05:02:05,080 --> 05:02:08,360
to try to reduce the burden of government

3536
05:02:08,360 --> 05:02:09,660
state government requirements.

3537
05:02:09,820 --> 05:02:10,840
So thank you for the suggestion.

3538
05:02:12,880 --> 05:02:13,400
Thank you.

3539
05:02:13,520 --> 05:02:14,900
Senator Starty

3540
05:02:20,980 --> 05:02:22,340
always takes a second.

3541
05:02:22,560 --> 05:02:24,040
Find that unmute button.

3542
05:02:25,040 --> 05:02:26,280
Thanks, Rep. McGlockling.

3543
05:02:27,440 --> 05:02:29,260
For those of you that have mentioned,

3544
05:02:29,780 --> 05:02:34,440
the use of CARES Act dollars is part of your innovative effort

3545
05:02:34,440 --> 05:02:41,620
going forward. One of the basic things was PPE for those of you that are bringing students back

3546
05:02:41,620 --> 05:02:54,540
to school in person and can you share with us where the if it cares dollars were used for

3547
05:02:54,540 --> 05:03:06,260
purchase of PPE and if districts and schools were having to find their own forces for our PPE or how that was working

3548
05:03:09,740 --> 05:03:10,760
in me care again.

3549
05:03:12,080 --> 05:03:15,900
Representative Mozacan and the members of this committee I appreciate the time to take into account.

3550
05:03:15,900 --> 05:03:21,400
I did in thank you when I spoke earlier and that was a poor fall on my part, so I apologize for the thank you for that.

3551
05:03:21,400 --> 05:03:29,200
We bought a lot of stuff off of Amazon that's, you know, really where we got a lot of our items, there wasn't a ton of help.

3552
05:03:30,320 --> 05:03:43,480
We got about, we got $430,000 cash and then $76,000 an extra money. So that's a lot of face masks that you can buy for, you know, $500,000, which is why we allocated some, you know, greater portion of this on the elsewhere.

3553
05:03:43,480 --> 05:03:46,800
but as far as the PPE in our district, we would pretty

3554
05:03:52,310 --> 05:03:52,630
much agree.

3555
05:03:52,630 --> 05:04:01,370
The PPE of George Welch and Kenyan City is with masks requirements to require kids to bring them.

3556
05:04:01,730 --> 05:04:05,450
And I don't know if you ever taught a milk school kid, but sometimes I'm bringing down a pencil over it.

3557
05:04:06,850 --> 05:04:17,770
And so a key to being able to function is we've felt that we've had to have disposable masks available to every kid who needs to wear masks should that situation arise.

3558
05:04:17,770 --> 05:04:21,350
because we're doing things with disciplinary actions

3559
05:04:21,350 --> 05:04:23,250
to try to make sure they bring the darn things.

3560
05:04:24,650 --> 05:04:25,930
But it's a help.

3561
05:04:26,330 --> 05:04:29,330
And the other help is, is we're doing complete

3562
05:04:30,490 --> 05:04:35,030
symptoms to get some kids in the door every day twice

3563
05:04:35,030 --> 05:04:36,450
of the high school, because we have an help

3564
05:04:36,450 --> 05:04:39,310
at us, and so being able to purchase those

3565
05:04:39,310 --> 05:04:41,510
thermometers has been a gigantic help as well.

3566
05:04:45,560 --> 05:04:47,980
Yeah, so many unexpected expenses, you know,

3567
05:04:47,980 --> 05:04:50,480
I mean, when you had to buy tents and thermometers

3568
05:04:50,480 --> 05:04:56,300
some things that we want to pay our teachers and educators and that's not all where that money

3569
05:04:56,300 --> 05:05:01,920
is going, saves their lives, but it's not, you know, they're not getting any paycheck for it.

3570
05:05:03,320 --> 05:05:05,440
So, why really appreciate all the work you do.

3571
05:05:05,960 --> 05:05:10,520
You know, I represent rural districts, and I know that it isn't easy no matter what size it is

3572
05:05:10,520 --> 05:05:16,580
in no matter how near you are to another city, small school districts have special concerns.

3573
05:05:16,580 --> 05:05:19,480
And a thousand dollars for you is huge.

3574
05:05:19,640 --> 05:05:27,980
A thousand dollars for mother districts may not be as big, but when we cut your budget by even 5% I know that it's very painful for you.

3575
05:05:29,340 --> 05:05:38,620
So we understand what you're going to and I really, really appreciate your time and all the work you're putting in to helping your kids and teachers be successful.

3576
05:05:39,120 --> 05:05:41,060
So thank you. I really appreciate it.

3577
05:05:41,060 --> 05:05:48,420
So, so thank you very much everybody for joining us today on this one and then we'll go on to the next the next phase.

3578
05:05:49,360 --> 05:05:50,060
Thank you.

3579
05:05:50,900 --> 05:05:51,220
Thank you.

3580
05:05:54,420 --> 05:06:00,160
Okay, we now have John Paul Burton and Tammy Johnson.

3581
05:06:00,580 --> 05:06:05,280
John Paul's from well school district and Tammy Johnson is from Boses.

3582
05:06:06,480 --> 05:06:06,900
Welcome.

3583
05:06:08,500 --> 05:06:09,440
Thank you.

3584
05:06:09,700 --> 05:06:10,360
There they are.

3585
05:06:10,600 --> 05:06:11,140
All right.

3586
05:06:11,820 --> 05:06:15,140
Do you want to just jump in?

3587
05:06:18,820 --> 05:06:23,080
I'll let Tammy introduce herself and then I will proceed with our own thing.

3588
05:06:24,200 --> 05:06:25,060
I am Tammy Thompson.

3589
05:06:25,060 --> 05:06:28,940
I'm the director executive director and special director of the Uncompatible

3590
05:06:28,940 --> 05:06:31,960
Bocees located in Ridgeway, Colorado.

3591
05:06:32,160 --> 05:06:35,140
We serve five school districts clear to the Utah border.

3592
05:06:35,840 --> 05:06:38,840
I am also the president of the Colorado Bocees Association.

3593
05:06:40,950 --> 05:06:48,950
And I'm John Paul Verdon director of exceptional student services in the well-darky, poor school district here in Windsor, Severance, and West Greenlead.

3594
05:06:50,430 --> 05:06:55,190
And just one of what you all know, we are representing the consortium of special education directors,

3595
05:06:55,850 --> 05:07:00,530
which doesn't represent 100% of administrative units and districts in Colorado.

3596
05:07:01,710 --> 05:07:08,050
We've got some examples for you from across the state of both creative and adaptive solutions to remote and interpersonal learning,

3597
05:07:08,050 --> 05:07:15,310
As well as common and unique barriers for providing students and supports for students with disabilities during these challenging times.

3598
05:07:15,610 --> 05:07:32,090
But before we jump into those, I just want to indicate that we absolutely or I do absolutely agree with many of the challenges, especially Dr. Colesman Chair from CDD that we've been facing in all the other superintendents and school personnel.

3599
05:07:33,250 --> 05:07:39,610
It's really interesting time and one of the things we've often said is we're reinventing our entire industry

3600
05:07:39,610 --> 05:07:45,430
in a matter of months and it's, it is in the adaptive challenge, we just want to echo all of the

3601
05:07:45,430 --> 05:07:47,290
agreement with all the things that have already been said.

3602
05:07:47,990 --> 05:07:53,190
So with that I think Tammy's going to kind of share with some of these some of the things that we've been dealing with.

3603
05:07:54,470 --> 05:07:54,870
Great.

3604
05:07:55,110 --> 05:07:59,770
So just to start, I'd like to provide a little, a little grounding for you.

3605
05:07:59,770 --> 05:08:08,770
By federal and state law, all students with disabilities have an individualized education plan and that's designed to meet their unique learning needs.

3606
05:08:09,750 --> 05:08:20,570
A big challenge for all of us across the state is that the federal government did not grant us any waivers for serving those students with disabilities during the pandemic.

3607
05:08:21,250 --> 05:08:35,010
What that means to us is that the IEP that was designed for in-person, normalized learning during a typical school that needs to be adapted to these new learning environments.

3608
05:08:35,910 --> 05:08:39,810
And those environments vary across students and across districts.

3609
05:08:40,950 --> 05:08:49,130
And also that will vary throughout the school year depending on its cohorts of quarantine and that kind of thing.

3610
05:08:49,130 --> 05:08:59,050
We can assure you that the school districts across the state are doing their best to meet the challenges for our students with creative and adaptive solutions.

3611
05:08:59,710 --> 05:09:03,330
I've represented the best-spoken of all of our colleagues across the state.

3612
05:09:03,850 --> 05:09:08,550
And we're looking at these creative problem-solvings and partnerships with the parents.

3613
05:09:09,650 --> 05:09:19,010
And lastly, our focus continues to be the health and safety of students and staff while we're also trying to provide individualized educational support.

3614
05:09:19,010 --> 05:09:25,010
all of our students. And so we're going to kind of tag team here some some challenges and

3615
05:09:25,010 --> 05:09:32,610
and some of our responses. Thanks, Tammy. Some of our challenges include access online learning

3616
05:09:32,610 --> 05:09:38,310
which many people have already talked about, but some of you need to challenges included for students

3617
05:09:38,310 --> 05:09:44,430
with disabilities might be physical and motor. So for instance, many districts are providing

3618
05:09:44,430 --> 05:09:49,750
Chromebook updates, this forward learning, we have some students, and I'm sure many others do.

3619
05:09:50,010 --> 05:09:55,190
Who typically aren't able to run a mouse or run a track pad, so we might have to provide them a touch screen.

3620
05:09:55,930 --> 05:09:59,130
A different little bit different technology with an iPad or something like that.

3621
05:09:59,710 --> 05:10:05,110
So making sure that what is available to everyone is also accessible to students with disabilities.

3622
05:10:05,110 --> 05:10:07,370
per educator support.

3623
05:10:07,510 --> 05:10:09,710
That was not the same as existing learning.

3624
05:10:10,450 --> 05:10:17,190
Being able to use our classified personnel to reach out and work with students when they are in home, remote learning situations,

3625
05:10:17,650 --> 05:10:24,730
and helping them navigate both the general education online offerings as well as targeted special education instruction.

3626
05:10:27,860 --> 05:10:34,140
So different strategies, the different different districts of views is a variety of recording classes.

3627
05:10:34,220 --> 05:10:39,840
So students can go back and watch over and over what the instruction was rather than being just hearing a plot.

3628
05:10:40,080 --> 05:10:43,580
So for those students who need repetition live streaming some classes.

3629
05:10:44,140 --> 05:10:51,740
So a remote in student may be at home with their connecting to their live class via Chromebook or 360 degree camera, things like that.

3630
05:10:51,740 --> 05:10:58,800
I would say one of the challenges with that has been some of the world wide supply chain issues.

3631
05:10:59,060 --> 05:11:04,800
You know, they're getting some of that technology that's definitely been in impact both in many districts.

3632
05:11:04,920 --> 05:11:12,940
And I think it's even been in the mainstream news as far as APS having difficulty getting thousands of Chromebooks things like that.

3633
05:11:13,360 --> 05:11:18,340
Using lots of different options like accessing Colorado digital learning and other online platforms.

3634
05:11:18,340 --> 05:11:23,860
We've heard other superintendents talk about the common platforms, so the parents and students aren't

3635
05:11:23,860 --> 05:11:28,820
happening to move between different learning management systems and all of the states and

3636
05:11:28,820 --> 05:11:34,000
one thing and then making sure that one thing is accessible and advocating for students with disabilities

3637
05:11:34,000 --> 05:11:40,020
to come into building during A and B cohorts for at least some level, some in-person instruction

3638
05:11:40,020 --> 05:11:45,140
and I know many districts have discussed that if or when they do go to full remote that as long as

3639
05:11:45,140 --> 05:12:01,000
You know, local health and state county health departments and governor or Governor Tory orders allow for some in person learning that that would be a priority for students with disabilities, but they would be able to come in at least for some in person learning even if everyone else is remote.

3640
05:12:01,000 --> 05:12:09,400
And in special education staff provides courses to students, actually, on remote days, so we've been on the days that other students without disabilities may be

3641
05:12:09,400 --> 05:12:18,000
asynchronously learning at home, reaching out to those students with disabilities to provide a little extra support and help them access that material.

3642
05:12:18,660 --> 05:12:30,960
Some other unique challenges has been around students who require sign language interpretation, and having virtual sign language interpretation synonymously with their synchronous learning with their classrooms.

3643
05:12:30,960 --> 05:12:36,140
and there are some lectures, and even if it's a recorded lesson, if they can't hear it,

3644
05:12:36,340 --> 05:12:38,080
I've been to have that virtual assignment with interpretation.

3645
05:12:38,440 --> 05:12:43,800
So that's been an interesting one that I know many of us have worked with.

3646
05:12:44,940 --> 05:12:48,120
And we've adapted and we've gotten there, but it definitely has provide some interesting challenges.

3647
05:12:48,920 --> 05:12:53,400
Other sensory disabilities, or any student with the sensory disabilities such as vision or hearing,

3648
05:12:54,520 --> 05:12:57,060
how do you need challenges because of the online environment?

3649
05:12:57,060 --> 05:13:00,920
So we may have to provide amplification headphones,

3650
05:13:01,840 --> 05:13:05,280
Braille materials through mail drop-off or home drop-off,

3651
05:13:05,360 --> 05:13:09,120
where the online context simply not accessible with your umbrella or their.

3652
05:13:10,300 --> 05:13:14,540
Significant students with significant cognitive physical disabilities may have some access,

3653
05:13:14,540 --> 05:13:16,080
limited access online.

3654
05:13:16,780 --> 05:13:20,460
And we talked about, you know, not being able to run a mouse or

3655
05:13:20,460 --> 05:13:24,660
understand the content that's being provided through the general learning management system.

3656
05:13:24,660 --> 05:13:29,600
And so, a lot of that application occurring to bring that to a level that they can access

3657
05:13:29,600 --> 05:13:31,140
it and be successful.

3658
05:13:32,400 --> 05:13:36,000
Students just with reading, our largest group of students with disability and the state,

3659
05:13:36,160 --> 05:13:39,280
those with learning disabilities, with reading difficulties.

3660
05:13:40,160 --> 05:13:47,080
Online presents a ton of challenges with so much tech and happened to do that.

3661
05:13:47,160 --> 05:13:53,020
So, making sure that we have add-ons into Chrome or other browsers that allow them to get text to speech

3662
05:13:53,020 --> 05:13:58,980
And listen to the content and not get so much reading to see, especially for students who are that's their primary disability.

3663
05:13:59,960 --> 05:14:04,020
So just making sure we have this accessibility tools turned on.

3664
05:14:05,800 --> 05:14:14,500
And then some of the other challenges we've also struggled with is some parents not wanting to send their students with disability to school.

3665
05:14:15,080 --> 05:14:18,240
And not necessarily having a medical reason to do so.

3666
05:14:18,240 --> 05:14:24,940
Therefore, homebound isn't necessarily an option of medical homebound, but working with

3667
05:14:24,940 --> 05:14:30,820
families to try to ensure that, you know, we're following the scientific safety guidelines

3668
05:14:30,820 --> 05:14:35,600
set forth by the state and county health departments, and that it's as safe as we can possibly

3669
05:14:35,600 --> 05:14:36,140
make it.

3670
05:14:36,640 --> 05:14:40,640
And I think that comes back to relationship and working with families, but as many of the

3671
05:14:40,640 --> 05:14:44,880
superintendents have already, you know, we have had some students and different districts

3672
05:14:44,880 --> 05:14:50,140
reported that parents have just opted to stay home and homeschool and for now.

3673
05:14:50,440 --> 05:14:56,040
It's not a year off, they are signing homeschool people work and taking on that responsibility.

3674
05:14:57,320 --> 05:14:59,820
But I know for our special directors and staff.

3675
05:15:00,000 --> 05:15:09,000
It's really hard to watch when we're not able to get those staff system, the kids, the student, or the school, and provide them with the support we know they need.

3676
05:15:10,380 --> 05:15:29,280
And then staff do the very best they can with serving students virtually, but they're just not the same, especially when a lot of cues for attention, you know, in a face to face setting a teacher might be able to just do a non-verbal cue by touching a student on the shoulder of the arm to get their attention and to refocus.

3677
05:15:29,280 --> 05:15:33,700
And when we're learning disconnected via the internet,

3678
05:15:34,420 --> 05:15:35,760
I can't reach out and do that right now.

3679
05:15:35,940 --> 05:15:39,460
So everything becomes verbal and it becomes obvious to everyone else.

3680
05:15:39,860 --> 05:15:41,460
And so there's just some challenges like that

3681
05:15:42,500 --> 05:15:44,620
that people are doing the very best they can

3682
05:15:44,620 --> 05:15:48,680
and trying to find strategies around those things.

3683
05:15:48,980 --> 05:15:51,120
And Tammy, you want to take it from there?

3684
05:15:52,400 --> 05:15:56,460
One of the other things that is gravely exacerbated

3685
05:15:56,460 --> 05:15:59,480
to buy the pandemic at this time,

3686
05:15:59,920 --> 05:16:01,820
but it's not a new problem for us

3687
05:16:01,820 --> 05:16:03,480
in the field of special education

3688
05:16:03,480 --> 05:16:05,860
and Brett Meillm, and Melissa Coltman,

3689
05:16:05,900 --> 05:16:07,040
both addressed this earlier,

3690
05:16:07,500 --> 05:16:11,960
is shortage of qualified special education staff and providers.

3691
05:16:13,940 --> 05:16:16,160
We've been struggling with this issue for years,

3692
05:16:16,280 --> 05:16:18,020
and we continue to struggle with it.

3693
05:16:18,940 --> 05:16:22,380
And this pandemic has greatly hindered our ability

3694
05:16:23,140 --> 05:16:25,240
to try to meet the needs of our students.

3695
05:16:25,240 --> 05:16:31,520
Some of the solutions and responses across the state are hiring available private providers.

3696
05:16:32,100 --> 05:16:36,640
However, the cost of these providers are well beyond what the school district pay providers,

3697
05:16:36,640 --> 05:16:38,200
if we were to hire them ourselves.

3698
05:16:39,120 --> 05:16:44,600
And that's the cost of writing in their exceeding our budgets that we have in some areas in order for

3699
05:16:44,600 --> 05:16:49,640
us to continue to meet the requirements of our special ed students across the state.

3700
05:16:49,640 --> 05:16:56,860
special education staff, or with people with multiple licensure areas, such as myself,

3701
05:16:57,820 --> 05:17:02,140
we're wearing multiple hats and we're doing different jobs just to meet the needs.

3702
05:17:02,680 --> 05:17:07,380
So, an example is a rural special education director who is also providing speech and language

3703
05:17:07,380 --> 05:17:13,500
services on top of where they're full-time director job, just because they hold that license.

3704
05:17:15,980 --> 05:17:21,600
Our director group is across the state where we're really good at coordinating with each other.

3705
05:17:21,980 --> 05:17:27,580
And especially directors in our regions, we have regional directors of special education that meet frequently.

3706
05:17:28,540 --> 05:17:36,080
And we work really closely with the other directors in our region to share and to co-op services whenever possible.

3707
05:17:36,080 --> 05:17:42,300
So we can share that, that qualified, how do the qualified certified licensed staff.

3708
05:17:45,100 --> 05:17:52,000
And hiring retired specialized teachers and retired specialized providers used to be one of our go to.

3709
05:17:53,180 --> 05:18:05,140
We are not able to do that as much anymore, because a lot of those teachers or staff are just not willing to risk their own health to come back and work with our anidious population.

3710
05:18:05,140 --> 05:18:12,180
And that has been a really good hiring pull for us that is just not accessible for us at its time.

3711
05:18:14,120 --> 05:18:14,400
Thanks, Tammy.

3712
05:18:15,260 --> 05:18:20,960
A couple of the other challenges that we've been working on is, and I think it's one that we've

3713
05:18:20,960 --> 05:18:25,260
heavy on all of our hearts for our teachers and our special directors is that the concept of least

3714
05:18:25,260 --> 05:18:30,400
restrictive environment is impacted for those students in a virtual learning situation.

3715
05:18:30,620 --> 05:18:35,120
And then their access to non-disabled fears is although it's equitable because that's

3716
05:18:35,120 --> 05:18:39,820
everybody else is doing when they're learning at home. It's not the same when building those social

3717
05:18:39,820 --> 05:18:44,960
skills and for those kids that have social skills goals and we're working on communication

3718
05:18:44,960 --> 05:18:51,540
and building friendships and things like that. That is an area where the concept of LRE or

3719
05:18:51,540 --> 05:18:56,460
these restrictive environment is really challenged because it's typically been the number of

3720
05:18:56,460 --> 05:19:00,640
students without disabilities and the number of students with disabilities in the same space at

3721
05:19:00,640 --> 05:19:06,760
time, and it's how that's calculated in. And now it just makes us think differently about how we

3722
05:19:06,760 --> 05:19:12,640
are going to work on those and how we might have to set up small loops virtually, rather than in

3723
05:19:12,640 --> 05:19:17,680
person in the, you know, with a Google counselor or something like that. So definitely that's

3724
05:19:18,240 --> 05:19:22,600
challenges, they're going to mean they're not addressed to different. One of the other challenges

3725
05:19:22,600 --> 05:19:27,640
definitely been around conducting questions evaluation, remembering that the federal government,

3726
05:19:28,240 --> 05:19:33,280
IDER, OSF gave no waivers around meeting our 60-day timelines for initial evaluations.

3727
05:19:34,760 --> 05:19:38,780
And so we've been working on trying to do as many as we can virtually.

3728
05:19:39,020 --> 05:19:44,280
I know many districts have been doing, especially with early childhood, where parents will

3729
05:19:44,280 --> 05:19:49,040
send in videos of what they're seeing as far as challenges and what we're working as much

3730
05:19:49,040 --> 05:19:50,120
as we can with that.

3731
05:19:50,320 --> 05:19:54,520
Being able to be in person some of the time for most of our students have definitely helped,

3732
05:19:54,520 --> 05:20:08,540
But we do have situations where we're just about ready to, you know, we're scheduling a time to do a achievement assessment with the student and next Tuesday and we find out this Friday that they're in quarantine for two weeks.

3733
05:20:09,280 --> 05:20:14,160
And so it just sets back to the timelines and making sure that, you know, those quarantines come to the most in the afternoon time.

3734
05:20:14,160 --> 05:20:19,980
feels like. And so just knowing that that compounds and takes two weeks out of our 60-day

3735
05:20:19,980 --> 05:20:25,000
timeline, you get that work done. And then that means it's going to be maybe more impactful

3736
05:20:25,000 --> 05:20:29,700
to that student when they do return, because that may be time that they are missing other

3737
05:20:29,700 --> 05:20:35,120
instruction to get that assessment. So it's just balancing those challenges and meeting those

3738
05:20:35,120 --> 05:20:39,760
timelines. We are working on things like encouraging our providers to get their assessment done

3739
05:20:39,760 --> 05:20:45,540
as early as they can, just knowing that the penny may drop at a minute and then may lose access to those students.

3740
05:20:47,700 --> 05:20:52,760
So the lack of relief from the federal government to provide even, you know, some kind of

3741
05:20:53,420 --> 05:20:57,700
written agreement that we're going to do this, extend this for two weeks because of code,

3742
05:20:58,220 --> 05:21:05,340
because of a situation where somebody's out for two weeks is definitely compounding the issue.

3743
05:21:05,340 --> 05:21:10,240
And then adapting our IEP is immediately the requirement, our IEP meeting.

3744
05:21:10,420 --> 05:21:16,500
In fact, we were already that Tammy might not make this time with us today because she was in a virtual IEP meeting.

3745
05:21:17,140 --> 05:21:24,400
This is one of those that's both a kind of a blessing and a curse that this is taught us in the past.

3746
05:21:24,600 --> 05:21:32,280
It was kind of the last resort that we have on IEP meeting when people in the video are calling and now it's really become a norm.

3747
05:21:32,280 --> 05:21:33,840
And I think for the most part, many of us

3748
05:21:33,840 --> 05:21:35,500
have found it to be very effective.

3749
05:21:36,660 --> 05:21:39,300
It's definitely, I think, an area where

3750
05:21:39,300 --> 05:21:42,640
by having an IEP meeting like world doing right now,

3751
05:21:42,740 --> 05:21:46,020
parents don't have to leave work as early or, you know,

3752
05:21:46,100 --> 05:21:48,200
they may not have to leave a half-day of work

3753
05:21:48,200 --> 05:21:49,580
to do one hour meeting.

3754
05:21:50,020 --> 05:21:51,460
They might be able to go sit in their car

3755
05:21:51,460 --> 05:21:53,580
on their lunch hour and get that meeting done.

3756
05:21:53,900 --> 05:21:57,400
And so I think it's honoring people's time, a great deal.

3757
05:21:57,960 --> 05:22:00,440
But it definitely does create some issues,

3758
05:22:00,440 --> 05:22:05,800
especially if parents are wanting to switch back and forth from in-person learning to remote learning

3759
05:22:05,800 --> 05:22:09,980
and different things like that. Or if they want to go online because one of the requirements

3760
05:22:09,980 --> 05:22:17,520
of the IDEA and the ECEA Colorado exceptional children's education act is that we do have to have

3761
05:22:17,520 --> 05:22:22,660
a reevaluation whenever a student motion brick and mortar to online. And so that compound with

3762
05:22:22,660 --> 05:22:27,120
a number of meetings that we have to have in any year.

3763
05:22:28,420 --> 05:22:30,540
You know, the online virtual ITs are good.

3764
05:22:31,380 --> 05:22:34,280
When they're working, when people have access to technology,

3765
05:22:35,120 --> 05:22:37,860
but we know we have many families who are participating

3766
05:22:37,860 --> 05:22:40,940
by phone because they don't have a laptop with a camera

3767
05:22:40,940 --> 05:22:41,760
that they can do this.

3768
05:22:41,760 --> 05:22:42,920
And so there's called an option.

3769
05:22:43,400 --> 05:22:44,380
So it's not perfect.

3770
05:22:44,740 --> 05:22:46,720
Definitely definitely everybody's need.

3771
05:22:47,160 --> 05:22:49,880
But there are some variables in there that we're working on

3772
05:22:49,880 --> 05:22:52,440
to try to make it as accessible as possible all the time.

3773
05:22:52,440 --> 05:22:58,920
And then making sure one of the things that the color of department of education is provided

3774
05:22:58,920 --> 05:23:04,560
as guidance on is writing contingency plans for when learning modalities change in a school

3775
05:23:04,560 --> 05:23:04,900
district.

3776
05:23:05,140 --> 05:23:09,480
So if we go from, you know, our elementary right now is full-time brick and mortar, but if we move

3777
05:23:09,480 --> 05:23:16,260
to a hybrid, having the process in the IEP that articulates the parents with their input

3778
05:23:16,260 --> 05:23:20,980
with those services look like in a, if we're only able to attend in a hybrid model.

3779
05:23:20,980 --> 05:23:50,200
So we're working on those so like a whole new layer of requirements in the IEP process and I've actually just been refining what that process is looking like in our district and it is a lot as a whole other probably half hour discussion in an IEP me so just out layers of adding to that and then just again I want to echo all the concern and methods that we've been working to communicate with parents.

3780
05:23:51,440 --> 05:23:57,040
Making sure that they have voice and choice as much as we can possibly reasonably accommodate

3781
05:23:57,040 --> 05:24:02,260
in their IP plans and their school days, whether it's full remote, whether it's online, whether

3782
05:24:02,260 --> 05:24:08,500
it's hybrid, and just trying to get their input as far as their students planning and what's working for them

3783
05:24:08,500 --> 05:24:09,800
and what's not.

3784
05:24:10,120 --> 05:24:14,660
Those are just things that have definitely changed our industry and the conversations we're having with parents.

3785
05:24:16,550 --> 05:24:26,350
One of the areas that is a huge issue, especially across both these, which are multi-school district administrative units,

3786
05:24:27,030 --> 05:24:31,630
is that a lot of those both these are in different counties.

3787
05:24:32,470 --> 05:24:40,650
So, an example is, my both these have five school districts, and we have three county health departments that we are working with.

3788
05:24:40,650 --> 05:24:48,150
It's very hard for me to come up with and other directors of both these across the state and even single district administrative units.

3789
05:24:48,310 --> 05:24:54,630
I know that there are a few districts on the eastern slope that encompass several counties.

3790
05:24:55,550 --> 05:25:05,530
What we have problems with is that the virtual flood of information that comes in every day from all these county health departments trying to distill that down for each district.

3791
05:25:05,530 --> 05:25:13,630
And then trying to disperse that information is, it is very hard to get that information

3792
05:25:13,630 --> 05:25:14,550
out to our providers.

3793
05:25:15,150 --> 05:25:19,350
And one of the issues with that is that we have identified service providers that cover

3794
05:25:19,350 --> 05:25:24,390
in these multi-districted administrative units that they cover every single school districts.

3795
05:25:25,630 --> 05:25:30,610
So one, both of these might have a physical therapist that covers all five of their school districts

3796
05:25:30,610 --> 05:25:38,510
And have to go into all five of those districts, which means they could be a 20 school bit a week or every other week.

3797
05:25:38,950 --> 05:25:55,810
And so while we are trying to meet all of the required guidelines from all the county health departments, sometimes we can't meet both cohorting requirements and that kind of thing.

3798
05:25:57,070 --> 05:26:23,470
At this point in time, special education and general education teachers and principals and our related service providers are feeling overwhelmed and they're feeling exhausted with managing the changes and the community expectations along with struggling their own families needs and then the day-to-day challenges that can make all of these changes that happen so frequently in the work.

3799
05:26:23,470 --> 05:26:29,430
The one thing that I can tell you is that special education directors all over the state,

3800
05:26:29,730 --> 05:26:34,690
they're focusing on providing needed services for all of our students, and we're focusing

3801
05:26:34,690 --> 05:26:39,450
on that rather than focusing on all of these barriers that are placed in some of us at this time.

3802
05:26:40,890 --> 05:26:44,870
And, you know, an example of that, we were asked to share a little story.

3803
05:26:44,870 --> 05:26:49,150
An example of that is, at this time, across the state, there are very many

3804
05:26:49,150 --> 05:26:56,330
If at all any opportunities for remote learning for preschool students yet some of these

3805
05:26:56,330 --> 05:27:03,630
preschool students are most needy children and so we come up with some unique ways to serve

3806
05:27:03,630 --> 05:27:08,490
those kids and across from the bar are both these we've actually about those students

3807
05:27:08,490 --> 05:27:13,190
to go on to homebound services even though they don't qualify for homebound services just

3808
05:27:13,190 --> 05:27:18,350
so we can meet their needs for occupational therapy and speech therapy and the end of those

3809
05:27:18,350 --> 05:27:23,670
education classes, so we continue to work hard across the state as directors of special

3810
05:27:23,670 --> 05:27:26,130
education to meet the needs of all of our students.

3811
05:27:27,550 --> 05:27:32,870
John Paul and Tammy, thank you so so much for your contribution to a very special

3812
05:27:32,870 --> 05:27:34,050
population of students.

3813
05:27:34,270 --> 05:27:38,530
I do appreciate that and they're all over the state and we couldn't do it without people

3814
05:27:38,530 --> 05:27:41,810
like you advocating for them all the time.

3815
05:27:42,010 --> 05:27:46,930
It's not just a state home and you know, do your work at home kind of thing if parents don't

3816
05:27:46,930 --> 05:27:52,850
know what they can do or, you know, without their teachers, they're very lost up there.

3817
05:27:53,190 --> 05:27:57,890
So I don't see any questions, but I would just like to say thank you very, very much

3818
05:27:57,890 --> 05:28:05,270
for all of your hard work and we hope to keep in contact with you over the next however

3819
05:28:05,270 --> 05:28:05,990
long.

3820
05:28:07,170 --> 05:28:07,390
Okay.

3821
05:28:07,590 --> 05:28:09,090
Thank you for joining us today.

3822
05:28:09,090 --> 05:28:10,650
I really appreciate it and you wait a long time.

3823
05:28:10,970 --> 05:28:11,630
Thank you.

3824
05:28:11,870 --> 05:28:12,350
My pleasure.

3825
05:28:12,610 --> 05:28:13,030
Thank you.

3826
05:28:16,480 --> 05:28:16,700
Okay.

3827
05:28:16,700 --> 05:28:18,260
We have one speaker left.

3828
05:28:18,640 --> 05:28:22,200
We have Kathy Dorman, who's going to join us.

3829
05:28:22,380 --> 05:28:25,200
The others, they've luckily, has already participated,

3830
05:28:26,400 --> 05:28:28,120
and the podiums had an emergency.

3831
05:28:29,580 --> 05:28:31,080
So we have Kathy.

3832
05:28:31,080 --> 05:28:32,140
Kathy, you ready?

3833
05:28:32,920 --> 05:28:34,720
OK, I knew pictures.

3834
05:28:36,140 --> 05:28:37,160
OK, Kathy, welcome.

3835
05:28:37,300 --> 05:28:37,940
How are you?

3836
05:28:38,500 --> 05:28:39,500
I am well.

3837
05:28:40,940 --> 05:28:43,580
And I hope everybody is hanging in there.

3838
05:28:43,580 --> 05:28:51,240
this has been a quite a marathon session. I want to introduce myself to you. My name is

3839
05:28:51,240 --> 05:28:57,560
Kathy Dorman and I am a science teacher in the Douglas County School District. This is my 37th

3840
05:28:57,560 --> 05:29:06,260
year. Didn't know that your 37th was going to be, yeah, this exciting. I am 100% teaching

3841
05:29:06,260 --> 05:29:13,380
learning. I have an ADA accommodation. Our district went to a hybrid model but we have 10%

3842
05:29:13,380 --> 05:29:18,420
of our students that chose to do e-learning. So I am teaching a group of kids from Ponderosa

3843
05:29:18,420 --> 05:29:26,400
High School and I'm also on the executive board with AFT Colorado. So I thought I'd start off

3844
05:29:26,400 --> 05:29:35,280
I just telling you a little bit about my experience in the last month and kind of what I do and

3845
05:29:35,280 --> 05:29:42,020
My day today started about 715. It was a little unusual because I had to do more multi-tasking today's

3846
05:29:42,020 --> 05:29:48,440
and normal. So I've got a couple of computers set up. Today I had 14 meetings scheduled with

3847
05:29:48,440 --> 05:29:54,600
individual students who would come for 15 minutes to visit with me and I can check in on them.

3848
05:29:54,600 --> 05:29:59,560
I make sure that they're doing okay. Check their welfare. See if they have questions.

3849
05:30:00,000 --> 05:30:29,780
And make those connections with them that are so important. And while that's happening, and also trying to grade work, our school district decided to use a genuity as the platform, not the platform, but the system for doing this 100% e-learning. And so what I'm doing is managing 44 kids, night through 12th graders, and all the classes that they're taking. So I am not teaching them science per se,

3850
05:30:29,780 --> 05:30:35,480
I'm helping them with their science, but I'm helping manage all of their coursework and I'm also

3851
05:30:35,480 --> 05:30:43,260
grading their work as well and giving them suggestions and feedback and it's a pretty busy day when I'm doing all of that.

3852
05:30:43,620 --> 05:30:48,300
There's the last to the spoke I understand exactly what they're saying.

3853
05:30:48,400 --> 05:30:58,040
I have a number of kids who are on IEPs and 504s and work I'm trying to adjust the content for them and the expectations for them.

3854
05:30:58,040 --> 05:31:01,900
so that their plans can be met.

3855
05:31:02,580 --> 05:31:05,500
And so all of this is kind of a constant juggle.

3856
05:31:05,740 --> 05:31:07,880
I am learning so much myself.

3857
05:31:08,500 --> 05:31:10,060
I hope we have a stop learning

3858
05:31:10,060 --> 05:31:13,600
and so one benefit coming out of this

3859
05:31:13,600 --> 05:31:16,880
is that it forced me into this environment

3860
05:31:16,880 --> 05:31:21,620
that I wouldn't have done in and caused me to grow as a teacher

3861
05:31:21,620 --> 05:31:24,480
and as a tech savvy adult.

3862
05:31:26,480 --> 05:31:33,020
One thing I do want to point out since we're talking about barriers, I feel like some of the

3863
05:31:33,020 --> 05:31:41,760
the angst that I hear from my students and concerns that they have are the unknowns, the

3864
05:31:41,760 --> 05:31:43,740
uncertainties with the system.

3865
05:31:44,500 --> 05:31:52,260
And when I see districts talking about moving from saying a hybrid model to 100% in person

3866
05:31:52,260 --> 05:32:00,120
are now going to go back to 100% online, that when you make those shifts for kids, it's really

3867
05:32:00,120 --> 05:32:07,000
very difficult for them. I think it's difficult for adults, but kids really want consistency

3868
05:32:07,000 --> 05:32:16,820
and structure. And so in my opinion, as a teacher for this long, I think we may be better

3869
05:32:16,820 --> 05:32:21,400
sticking with a plan until there is some kind of a natural break like

3870
05:32:21,400 --> 05:32:26,760
sad semester. That's my personal opinion because I see on the anxiety that

3871
05:32:26,760 --> 05:32:33,060
it's creating for kids who I talk to. They're worried about things like

3872
05:32:33,060 --> 05:32:37,620
you know, good-mines and grades and the things that kids always worry about. The

3873
05:32:37,620 --> 05:32:42,920
other thing I want to talk about is the students that I have and you know, I said

3874
05:32:42,920 --> 05:32:44,980
I had an ADA accommodation.

3875
05:32:45,760 --> 05:32:49,420
Well, many of my students, it's a family member.

3876
05:32:49,720 --> 05:32:50,660
It's their mother.

3877
05:32:51,260 --> 05:32:53,840
I have three students who their mother

3878
05:32:53,840 --> 05:32:55,540
is just entered hospice.

3879
05:32:56,560 --> 05:33:00,500
And so they can't risk being in that hybrid model

3880
05:33:00,500 --> 05:33:01,880
or going to school in person.

3881
05:33:02,520 --> 05:33:05,980
And that's a whole other set of concerns.

3882
05:33:07,180 --> 05:33:09,160
But here we are in Douglas County.

3883
05:33:09,160 --> 05:33:15,760
and you wouldn't think that this would be an issue, I have students that have to go to work.

3884
05:33:15,920 --> 05:33:22,160
They're doing e-learning because they're fast food jobs that is going on during the day

3885
05:33:22,160 --> 05:33:28,640
is their families income because in this economy, their parents have lost their jobs.

3886
05:33:29,620 --> 05:33:37,040
And so, you know, they don't have too many options and so they're grateful for the opportunity

3887
05:33:37,040 --> 05:33:40,400
It's still being school, even if it's at 10 o'clock at night.

3888
05:33:42,840 --> 05:33:48,200
So it's kind of interesting, there's so many things that it's really hard to understand

3889
05:33:48,200 --> 05:33:52,120
unless you are a practitioner actually doing this.

3890
05:33:52,260 --> 05:33:59,560
And so what comes, I want to make, is that it's so important that every worker of these concerns

3891
05:33:59,560 --> 05:34:05,600
and issues, and you're doing it right now, that there's collaborations, but we, you know,

3892
05:34:05,600 --> 05:34:12,580
super important that the actual teachers and the staff and in the school, the people that are

3893
05:34:12,580 --> 05:34:20,920
boots on the ground have some input and some decision-making in the things that are happening

3894
05:34:20,920 --> 05:34:30,080
as these districts move through this very, very stressful situation. We see things maybe that

3895
05:34:30,080 --> 05:34:48,320
You wouldn't see if you were sitting at a desk trying to make the decisions, but actually talking to kids working with kids or going to school and being in that situation, it gives us insight and I think sometimes that is not honored.

3896
05:34:49,320 --> 05:34:51,400
So I am concerned about that.

3897
05:34:52,480 --> 05:34:54,380
You've heard it over and over again.

3898
05:34:54,680 --> 05:34:57,960
My colleagues are so stressed out.

3899
05:34:58,360 --> 05:35:04,940
My colleagues were doing hybrid teaching because they're teaching kids in person at their school.

3900
05:35:05,340 --> 05:35:08,580
But they also have kids who are streaming into their classroom.

3901
05:35:09,300 --> 05:35:12,820
And this is two jobs, not one job.

3902
05:35:13,840 --> 05:35:16,560
And they're worried about their health and well-being.

3903
05:35:16,560 --> 05:35:24,340
I'm lucky. I'm safely in my home and I was lucky that I was able to get this e-learning

3904
05:35:24,340 --> 05:35:30,980
position. So my stress is not the same stress that they have and I really, really worry

3905
05:35:30,980 --> 05:35:38,580
about my colleagues. I had close friends tell me that they're at the breaking point. It's September.

3906
05:35:39,820 --> 05:35:45,940
We don't get to the breaking point as teachers in September. So, you know, in the system depends

3907
05:35:45,940 --> 05:35:52,960
on the staff and on the teachers because, you know, they have to be healthy for the kids

3908
05:35:52,960 --> 05:35:55,220
and they have to be able to do this work.

3909
05:35:55,920 --> 05:36:02,580
So I'm very concerned when I think and I hear some of the conversations about funding

3910
05:36:02,580 --> 05:36:07,240
and I know you have a whole other section on it but we've been talking about it all day

3911
05:36:07,240 --> 05:36:10,600
because you can't talk about barriers unless you talk about money.

3912
05:36:10,600 --> 05:36:16,160
But, you know, the educational system is the foundation for a society.

3913
05:36:16,840 --> 05:36:19,840
This is not the thing to underfund.

3914
05:36:21,640 --> 05:36:27,780
I'm worried that there isn't going to be money to continue learning in January.

3915
05:36:28,340 --> 05:36:34,680
We don't know if there is, and these kids whose mom is in hospice, you know, is that seeing

3916
05:36:34,680 --> 05:36:39,380
I'm going to comment, all of a sudden, we're mirror-appest, so we're going to be back 100%.

3917
05:36:39,380 --> 05:36:41,080
It doesn't look like that.

3918
05:36:41,740 --> 05:36:47,880
So I'm discouraged when I see what I see and experience what I experience.

3919
05:36:48,240 --> 05:36:52,560
And we're talking about the system that's going to be underfunded for years.

3920
05:36:53,940 --> 05:36:55,220
I don't know.

3921
05:36:55,400 --> 05:36:59,500
I just think that we need to get our priorities a little bit different.

3922
05:37:02,620 --> 05:37:16,380
The other thing I just want to mention, because I've been doing this online teaching, please don't think that you need less teachers because you can have bigger class sizes when you're online.

3923
05:37:16,380 --> 05:37:23,320
it doesn't work that way. I'm teaching a goal for now too so when I'm done here, I'm

3924
05:37:23,320 --> 05:37:30,320
going to be going to a class where I'm an instructor for about 30 teachers in our district

3925
05:37:30,320 --> 05:37:38,080
to get into a relationship for ELL to put on their license. And this is a very big group.

3926
05:37:38,240 --> 05:37:44,840
There's four of us teaching the class for 30 teachers so that we can go and break out rooms

3927
05:37:44,840 --> 05:37:51,340
have individual conversations. So to think that maybe we could cut budgets, cut people

3928
05:37:51,340 --> 05:37:59,340
because we can go to this e-learning thing and put, you know, 45 kids in a class that would

3929
05:37:59,340 --> 05:38:04,360
be very, very poor instruction. It would not be helpful.

3930
05:38:07,520 --> 05:38:10,040
So I want to just finish by saying

3931
05:38:10,040 --> 05:38:34,220
there's some positive. I really truly believe kids are very resilient. I think we're all going to be okay. I have to because I've made it through 37 years, you know, and we are okay. We've never had this kind of a crisis, but we're going to be okay. We just have to make sure, you know, we keep supporting people where they need support.

3932
05:38:34,220 --> 05:38:43,220
And there is a positive that's coming out of this when I have virtual meetings with kids that 15-minute virtual meetings.

3933
05:38:43,900 --> 05:38:46,200
I don't get to do that at school very often.

3934
05:38:47,420 --> 05:38:54,560
I have 25-30 kids in a classroom, but to talk on a computer face-to-face, one-on-one with a kid,

3935
05:38:54,980 --> 05:38:57,460
I'm learning so much about them.

3936
05:38:57,460 --> 05:39:07,320
And so that's a positive and then the left positive is I never would have come to this committee meeting because I would have been teaching all day at school.

3937
05:39:08,040 --> 05:39:18,980
And so I really do think this model you will include more public members to your committees, to your when you're in sessions.

3938
05:39:18,980 --> 05:39:24,400
More people would be able to be participants, and that's what our society is built on.

3939
05:39:25,540 --> 05:39:28,820
We're a society of people that are participating in their government.

3940
05:39:29,720 --> 05:39:31,800
So, that is what I had to say.

3941
05:39:32,120 --> 05:39:34,440
And thank you very much for allowing me the opportunity.

3942
05:39:35,780 --> 05:39:38,220
Well, thank you, Kathy, and I think you're absolutely right.

3943
05:39:38,920 --> 05:39:45,680
I appreciate that that is a great positive that you get to know each student individually better.

3944
05:39:45,680 --> 05:39:48,860
And it's a gift that we didn't know

3945
05:39:48,860 --> 05:39:51,380
we were going to get out of this, so that's good.

3946
05:39:51,520 --> 05:39:53,380
It's good for them and good for you as well.

3947
05:39:54,260 --> 05:39:56,560
So any questions for Kathy today?

3948
05:39:57,060 --> 05:39:58,420
Yes, representative Geitner.

3949
05:40:02,010 --> 05:40:04,550
So that was interesting, and I appreciate that perspective.

3950
05:40:05,170 --> 05:40:07,310
I guess I have a question in light of some of the concerns

3951
05:40:07,310 --> 05:40:11,330
that were brought up, and I think a previous speaker

3952
05:40:11,330 --> 05:40:12,770
kind of touched on some of the concerns,

3953
05:40:12,890 --> 05:40:15,170
and that was, you know, a waiver process

3954
05:40:15,170 --> 05:40:17,310
for the evaluations that are federally required

3955
05:40:17,310 --> 05:40:18,350
and these sorts of things.

3956
05:40:18,830 --> 05:40:23,130
Then saying, hey, we may not be able to afford e-learning going into the future, cost

3957
05:40:23,130 --> 05:40:31,430
around hiring stead teachers on a private basis, which is more expensive in these sorts

3958
05:40:31,430 --> 05:40:31,650
of things.

3959
05:40:32,070 --> 05:40:38,390
So it brings to mind the $1.6 billion in the state of Colorado receives that was allocated

3960
05:40:38,390 --> 05:40:39,910
by Governor Polis.

3961
05:40:40,210 --> 05:40:46,170
When in fact, maybe we should have exercised and paused there, heard these concerns, and then

3962
05:40:46,170 --> 05:40:50,890
legislature could have certainly acted to allocate those dollars to address some of these

3963
05:40:50,890 --> 05:40:51,150
reasons.

3964
05:40:51,470 --> 05:40:56,330
I think that's the point that maybe is, I know certainly I hadn't necessarily considered

3965
05:40:56,330 --> 05:41:00,590
in hindsight, it's certainly always 2020, but I think it's important that we are mindful

3966
05:41:00,590 --> 05:41:05,470
of, you know, Colorado did get one point six billion dollars from the federal government and

3967
05:41:05,470 --> 05:41:10,230
it would have been, I think, appropriate, giving some of the issues that we're facing now

3968
05:41:10,230 --> 05:41:15,670
that are coming to light now as it was also six months down the road that that money could

3969
05:41:15,670 --> 05:41:20,910
otherwise better than spent in terms of these types of concerns that we're hearing today.

3970
05:41:21,190 --> 05:41:24,770
So I would just offer that kind of a summoning, you know, in the future, certainly,

3971
05:41:24,770 --> 05:41:27,710
hopefully we'll never find ourselves on this position again, but we're a little bit more

3972
05:41:27,710 --> 05:41:32,010
mindful of exercising some caution and talking to something down a little bit to say,

3973
05:41:32,330 --> 05:41:36,190
hey, but we don't know what the future might hold. Let's look at the issues that we're certainly

3974
05:41:36,190 --> 05:41:41,090
to face as we progress forward. So $1.6 billion could go a long way,

3975
05:41:41,090 --> 05:41:45,110
I believe in solving some of the issues that we were hearing about.

3976
05:41:46,130 --> 05:41:50,930
Well, I don't appreciate that, and I don't know, I mean, we did have march through

3977
05:41:50,930 --> 05:41:58,510
nice to learn some of the problems that we were going to face, but maybe, you know, where

3978
05:41:58,510 --> 05:42:05,010
the ball was dropped, is this point I made, is that did teachers and people who were actually

3979
05:42:05,010 --> 05:42:12,110
on the ground, come in and give advice, they asked, yeah, and you know, it is hindsight, it's hindsight.

3980
05:42:12,950 --> 05:42:17,070
So in the future, you know, I'm here. I'd be happy to just give advice.

3981
05:42:21,310 --> 05:42:25,290
Okay. Well, thank you very much. I appreciate that contribution representative

3982
05:42:25,290 --> 05:42:30,010
Geithner and thank you Kathy for joining us today. We're very appreciative. Thank you.

3983
05:42:30,230 --> 05:42:37,070
Yeah, I don't know if I've ever been in a room like this before. Very, very powerful. So cool. Thank you,

3984
05:42:40,830 --> 05:42:47,010
We are going to take a 10 minute break and then we will be back to have a joyful discussion.

3985
05:42:47,930 --> 05:42:52,130
What we're going to do with the budget is we're not going to talk about student count.

3986
05:42:52,390 --> 05:42:57,850
I'm here that will be another discussion because it happens later and all the details are not worked out.

3987
05:42:58,230 --> 05:43:00,230
We'll do kind of a big overall.

3988
05:43:00,230 --> 05:43:07,930
but we would really like to know from people what they did with their care's money and how it affected things

3989
05:43:07,930 --> 05:43:14,850
they share, how it affected spending just for this year. So pretty narrow topic about cares and what we did with that money.

3990
05:43:15,250 --> 05:43:23,530
Okay, so that's it and we will see you in 10 minutes. Thank you. All right, here we go.

3991
05:43:24,350 --> 05:43:34,490
We are now on the last leg, the last bottle of hand sanitizer leg for our education committee

3992
05:43:34,490 --> 05:43:34,810
here.

3993
05:43:35,570 --> 05:43:40,090
This part will be about the budget, and although we could probably go on for days about

3994
05:43:40,090 --> 05:43:47,390
the budget, what we've decided in this part, and Wilson, we may do it before you aren't

3995
05:43:47,390 --> 05:43:53,510
retired for this job, but what I'd like to do today is see what is going on.

3996
05:43:53,510 --> 05:43:59,690
going on with the CARES Act money that came in that can only be used for COVID-related experiences

3997
05:43:59,690 --> 05:44:01,250
and COVID-related expenses.

3998
05:44:03,170 --> 05:44:05,690
So that's kind of what I want to hear today from everybody.

3999
05:44:06,150 --> 05:44:09,070
We are going to keep it to five minutes per speaker.

4000
05:44:09,650 --> 05:44:13,410
The last one there were so many really great stories that kind of let everybody go on this,

4001
05:44:15,010 --> 05:44:16,090
but I'm an English teacher.

4002
05:44:16,250 --> 05:44:20,650
Having a great sort about the budget is a pressure on me, and this is going on.

4003
05:44:20,650 --> 05:44:27,390
So we will keep it to a five minute time period and five minutes for questions and we're

4004
05:44:27,390 --> 05:44:33,850
hoping we can do a very broad view of the budget and what's happening with schools and

4005
05:44:33,850 --> 05:44:41,970
we just kind of want to know so far this year before any count money comes in because that

4006
05:44:41,970 --> 05:44:44,890
will be a whole other discussion and we're going to have with CE.

4007
05:44:45,530 --> 05:44:50,370
We want to make sure that what have you done so far this year not in the future.

4008
05:44:50,370 --> 05:44:55,150
So we're just asking kind of a snapshot of what's been happening so far.

4009
05:44:55,370 --> 05:44:56,950
All right, have that good with everybody?

4010
05:44:58,850 --> 05:44:59,970
Okay, so our first...

4011
05:45:00,000 --> 05:45:11,380
We have lots of people who can answer questions. We have a Sherry Wright from Cortez, Kathy Scholar from Adams 12, Kathy Gibhardt from Boulder Valley.

4012
05:45:12,620 --> 05:45:21,520
And the first person we have on deck is Jennifer Oaks, the Chief Operated Officer for CDE, and I bet she's excited to join us today.

4013
05:45:21,520 --> 05:45:25,920
So, she ran, no, no, we won.

4014
05:45:26,480 --> 05:45:27,240
Jennifer, hear me?

4015
05:45:27,640 --> 05:45:28,340
Oh, we can.

4016
05:45:28,740 --> 05:45:29,400
Oh, how are you?

4017
05:45:30,640 --> 05:45:30,920
Great.

4018
05:45:33,130 --> 05:45:39,030
So, I know that you all had, you know,

4019
05:45:39,030 --> 05:45:42,110
briefly mentioned that the October counten as district

4020
05:45:42,110 --> 05:45:45,070
had mentioned earlier, you know, as a process that started

4021
05:45:45,070 --> 05:45:49,990
the first day in school, and we'll go through October 31st and then.

4022
05:45:49,990 --> 05:45:58,010
And so it's a big process that's underway now and that there is that averaging that can

4023
05:45:58,010 --> 05:46:02,410
cater and we'll talk more at a later time about this do not cover counts.

4024
05:46:03,130 --> 05:46:12,470
So in today's, I just had a couple of slides that I wanted to share to give an overview.

4025
05:46:13,030 --> 05:46:15,070
And let's see, is it working?

4026
05:46:17,780 --> 05:46:19,100
I'm not there.

4027
05:46:19,100 --> 05:46:28,520
And by sharing my overview of the CARE VAT, hopefully, the CARE VAT has a number of different parts.

4028
05:46:28,840 --> 05:46:36,180
So one of the first biggest pieces is the ESR funds, the education stabilization funds.

4029
05:46:36,360 --> 05:46:41,060
And so Colorado received about 121 million of that.

4030
05:46:41,740 --> 05:46:48,560
And so initially, then first 90 million of that went to district space upon their Title I,

4031
05:46:48,560 --> 05:46:55,400
allocation methodology, and there was about 12 million that is set aside for state funds that

4032
05:46:55,400 --> 05:47:02,380
can be used. There's also the gear funds through the Governor's Office about 44 million

4033
05:47:02,380 --> 05:47:11,100
there for both higher ed and K-12, and then the Coronavirus relief funds that 510 million that

4034
05:47:11,100 --> 05:47:19,260
to districts. So with the S3, 109 million that 90 million or 90 percent went to districts based

4035
05:47:19,260 --> 05:47:27,300
on the Title 1, this can be sent through September 30th of 2022, so there's a little bit

4036
05:47:27,300 --> 05:47:35,180
more time with those funds. It is related to anything in response to the COVID response.

4037
05:47:35,180 --> 05:47:43,940
That's five hundred and ten million that went out to districts, CSI, and also facility schools in the BOSI.

4038
05:47:44,100 --> 05:47:51,920
Those needs to be spent sooner by December 30th of this year, and again, they're related to COVID relief type funds.

4039
05:47:52,760 --> 05:48:00,700
With that ten percent that was the state reserve, we have allocated 4.6 million of that.

4040
05:48:00,700 --> 05:48:03,960
That was really to school districts,

4041
05:48:04,340 --> 05:48:08,020
post-season tribes that did not have as much relief

4042
05:48:08,020 --> 05:48:11,080
from that first 90% distribution.

4043
05:48:11,820 --> 05:48:18,820
So on the 4.6 million, 750 will go to Bocis to address

4044
05:48:18,820 --> 05:48:21,240
special education funding needs,

4045
05:48:21,600 --> 05:48:24,940
and also the Bocis schools that are brick and mortar schools

4046
05:48:24,940 --> 05:48:29,280
to help them transition over to potentially the hybrid

4047
05:48:29,280 --> 05:48:38,080
or remote learning. 70,000 is going to the two tribes in Colorado to help their students.

4048
05:48:39,300 --> 05:48:46,360
And then 320,000 is going to support 11 districts based upon the title 6 funding, again,

4049
05:48:46,520 --> 05:48:53,540
to support the educational needs of our Native American students. And that about 1.5 million

4050
05:48:53,540 --> 05:48:58,180
went to districts to supplement the money that they received in that 90%

4051
05:48:58,180 --> 05:49:04,380
the districts that really got a smaller allocation in that. And again, we tried to focus on the

4052
05:49:04,380 --> 05:49:11,080
needs with the highest needs students. There's also 2 million that is going to support broadband

4053
05:49:11,080 --> 05:49:18,780
activity. And then there's about 6.9 million that's been set aside. So we learn more about what the needs

4054
05:49:18,780 --> 05:49:27,140
and that that 6.9 can be used to address those leads as they come up and identify later this fall.

4055
05:49:28,120 --> 05:49:31,980
After the student October count is when we know more about the needs of districts.

4056
05:49:32,860 --> 05:49:44,080
So that gives you a very, very high overview, but I think hopefully it's a little set up for the next presenters and I will be here for additional questions.

4057
05:49:48,010 --> 05:49:57,390
That was really great. Thank you. We got the slides a little late, so I did like to digest quickly, so I will look for those on.

4058
05:49:59,010 --> 05:50:00,530
But thank you very much.

4059
05:50:01,970 --> 05:50:06,010
So I can't see everybody yet. I'm not sure how to get. I never know how to get back on to everybody.

4060
05:50:07,230 --> 05:50:09,370
There we are. All right.

4061
05:50:10,650 --> 05:50:12,430
Okay. Does anybody have questions?

4062
05:50:16,270 --> 05:50:25,550
see any day you go I keep thinking you're waving your hands. Okay well I can't thank you enough for doing this. I know that

4063
05:50:25,550 --> 05:50:32,090
this has been a stressful part of your life to be doing all this so I'm very very appreciated. Thank you very much Jennifer.

4064
05:50:33,350 --> 05:50:35,570
Yeah. Thank you.

4065
05:50:37,700 --> 05:50:46,760
Okay next we have is going to be four people on this panel. There will be Brett Miles from case Amy Baka older from C.A.

4066
05:50:48,920 --> 05:50:51,660
Let's see, Michelle Murphy from rural schools,

4067
05:50:51,760 --> 05:50:55,880
Lions, Sherry Ranch, from school boards,

4068
05:50:56,900 --> 05:50:58,980
and Calileba from AFT.

4069
05:50:59,400 --> 05:51:01,300
So if you could join us on here,

4070
05:51:01,340 --> 05:51:04,740
and you will each have your five minutes to talk.

4071
05:51:10,050 --> 05:51:10,930
You want to go back?

4072
05:51:11,030 --> 05:51:11,770
Do you want to go first?

4073
05:51:12,130 --> 05:51:12,610
Thank you.

4074
05:51:13,550 --> 05:51:15,010
Madam Chair members of the committee.

4075
05:51:15,090 --> 05:51:17,870
Thank you so much for all of us in today.

4076
05:51:17,870 --> 05:51:23,950
and I'm sure you just like us extremely impressed with all of the real stories from our teachers

4077
05:51:23,950 --> 05:51:25,670
and board members and superintendents.

4078
05:51:26,590 --> 05:51:30,870
Everyone in this room, the virtual room, is very well aware of how this app legislative

4079
05:51:30,870 --> 05:51:36,150
session ended with a $1.17 billion budget stabilization factor.

4080
05:51:36,530 --> 05:51:42,150
I remember when it was all past we heard from many of you right on this call, how devastating

4081
05:51:42,150 --> 05:51:46,270
it was for you to pass that budget because you understood the impact so it's going to have

4082
05:51:46,270 --> 05:51:51,250
Colorado schools. And we look forward to working with you to reverse the damage done and

4083
05:51:51,250 --> 05:51:55,830
restore back to our constitutional level for starters, you know, and then of course for

4084
05:51:55,830 --> 05:52:02,570
that aspirational level where we can lead the nation in equitable funding. School leaders across

4085
05:52:02,570 --> 05:52:06,910
the state, I can tell you, are appreciative that the public schools for the target of a large portion

4086
05:52:06,910 --> 05:52:13,270
of that care dollars for Governor's Corona, my risk relief fund. We understand that there were

4087
05:52:13,270 --> 05:52:18,150
many, maybe in deserving places where that money could go, but to be clear, but not to care

4088
05:52:18,150 --> 05:52:22,270
dollars, it would have been catastrophic for our schools this last year.

4089
05:52:22,790 --> 05:52:27,270
School districts are concerned that the increase in the BS factor will still be here

4090
05:52:27,270 --> 05:52:31,730
along after the December 30th deadline of spending these coronavirus relief funds.

4091
05:52:32,150 --> 05:52:36,690
So we need to work together to address this looming impact on schools early on in the

4092
05:52:36,690 --> 05:52:41,590
legislative session, and all of us are ready to join in on those conversations.

4093
05:52:41,590 --> 05:52:46,710
While the CARES dollars provided an immediate question, to the blow from our budgets, it

4094
05:52:46,710 --> 05:52:47,330
will last.

4095
05:52:48,110 --> 05:52:52,670
And it came with its own set of restrictions and limitations and owners reporting that

4096
05:52:52,670 --> 05:52:58,590
we're starting to get into now, something that is particularly felt by our smallest districts

4097
05:52:58,590 --> 05:53:01,830
who have no capacity for extra reports and data submissions.

4098
05:53:02,670 --> 05:53:09,330
These CARES dollars were spent on PPE on laptops, interesting story, there were a lot of

4099
05:53:09,330 --> 05:53:14,730
spent on Chromebooks and laptops, but we're not even sure it can get delivered here by December

4100
05:53:14,730 --> 05:53:21,930
30th and be invoiced in time to be able to submit those CRF funds for reimbursement.

4101
05:53:22,150 --> 05:53:26,910
These dollars were spent on training days, they were spent on taking furlough days, back

4102
05:53:26,910 --> 05:53:34,270
out of the calendar that we were put in early on, days without pay, they've spent on stuff.

4103
05:53:34,270 --> 05:53:41,030
I know districts are using this sub 20 full time subs in because you have to have that full time sub in the cohort group.

4104
05:53:41,390 --> 05:53:48,350
You can't have a sub bouncing around from cohort to cohort, or the whole school shutdown when you get your outbreak.

4105
05:53:49,690 --> 05:53:53,870
So, navigating these grant requirements was a very stressful this last summer,

4106
05:53:54,290 --> 05:53:58,210
or especially for our superintendents and CFOs.

4107
05:53:58,290 --> 05:54:01,590
I'm trying to make sure that we have the appropriate use for all of these funds.

4108
05:54:01,590 --> 05:54:08,450
I'm appreciative how well CD works with us to give us input on the big list and test out some ideas that we have.

4109
05:54:08,590 --> 05:54:14,570
But nonetheless, they were restricted and they were, and they have a timeline.

4110
05:54:16,250 --> 05:54:20,490
The fact of the matter is that it costs more to start school this year than it did last year.

4111
05:54:20,750 --> 05:54:25,890
So, the CARES money were intended to offset the BS actor. It did help, no doubt.

4112
05:54:26,370 --> 05:54:31,070
But it didn't cover all of those new and unavoidable expenses for reopening this year.

4113
05:54:31,070 --> 05:54:38,670
So school's use care dollars for online programming, extra custodial time, nursing services,

4114
05:54:41,500 --> 05:54:43,060
temperature checkers at the door.

4115
05:54:43,860 --> 05:54:49,620
So all critical that keeping schools open and keeping safe as we're through this.

4116
05:54:50,320 --> 05:54:55,760
So I think let's just take a second before we wrap up on funding to just please remember

4117
05:54:55,760 --> 05:55:01,500
As students and staff return to our schools, virtually or physically, all of our associations

4118
05:55:01,500 --> 05:55:07,280
here are keenly aware that having students return to a safe place, having staff return

4119
05:55:07,280 --> 05:55:13,860
into safe environment, all focused on high-quality, grade level instruction is the top priority.

4120
05:55:14,460 --> 05:55:20,380
Neither the students nor the staff in person or in line are walking into the school with any

4121
05:55:20,380 --> 05:55:26,820
healing of normal seeds, paying attention to the trauma is for most of our minds and the

4122
05:55:26,820 --> 05:55:31,800
attention of the mental health of the staff and students must be in place before the

4123
05:55:31,800 --> 05:55:36,320
learning can happen. We're all ready to get into teaching. Every single one of us want to

4124
05:55:36,320 --> 05:55:41,400
get into teaching and we know that we have to take care of this trauma in order for that

4125
05:55:41,400 --> 05:55:47,180
to happen. This is happening every day in every one of our schools. You know, there's no

4126
05:55:47,180 --> 05:55:53,660
and all comes down to resources and prior to COVID, we already had gaps in broadband across our state.

4127
05:55:54,280 --> 05:55:57,420
We already had a teacher's shortage, pain worse nationally.

4128
05:55:58,360 --> 05:56:00,960
We already had them in devices and students hands.

4129
05:56:01,400 --> 05:56:02,960
We already couldn't find bus drivers.

4130
05:56:03,260 --> 05:56:04,800
We couldn't find substitute teachers.

4131
05:56:05,280 --> 05:56:08,290
We were already spending reserves to fix risk and willers.

4132
05:56:09,240 --> 05:56:12,120
All of the stressors schools have been feeling this fall

4133
05:56:12,120 --> 05:56:14,100
have been with us for years.

4134
05:56:14,100 --> 05:56:28,180
So, if there is a silver lining, then it's that the stress and chaos of this pandemic is that the fragile state of the educational system was masked by talented educators and is now fully exposed.

4135
05:56:28,660 --> 05:56:35,160
And we must increase our urgency to address public education funding for our students now in the future.

4136
05:56:36,480 --> 05:56:37,440
Thank you.

4137
05:56:37,620 --> 05:56:40,160
I appreciate that very, very much.

4138
05:56:41,300 --> 05:56:42,200
The shared wrench.

4139
05:56:42,680 --> 05:56:43,480
You're next.

4140
05:56:44,220 --> 05:56:46,180
Thank you Madam Chair and members of the committee.

4141
05:56:47,180 --> 05:56:49,620
I don't want to give you this too much.

4142
05:56:49,800 --> 05:56:54,880
I think Brett really hit the nail on the head when he spoke on all the highlights there.

4143
05:56:55,360 --> 05:57:03,480
I think just to reiterate that school districts and school boards are really trying to figure out what they're going to do after December 30th.

4144
05:57:03,480 --> 05:57:09,940
deadline when all the care money is to be spent by is really looming before them. What

4145
05:57:09,940 --> 05:57:17,240
we know is that fibreds, learning, remote learning, and even in-person learning costs so much

4146
05:57:17,240 --> 05:57:22,680
more now than it did before. There's a amount of restrictions that are in place, the smaller

4147
05:57:22,680 --> 05:57:27,500
class sizes and smaller groups that we have to have more teachers, more staff. You heard new

4148
05:57:27,500 --> 05:57:34,840
For example, today of what that's going to look like, whether they're in-person, remotely or in a hybrid model.

4149
05:57:35,760 --> 05:57:43,280
We know that at the same time, Brett mentioned that we as many of these costs were already burdensome on our districts.

4150
05:57:44,020 --> 05:57:50,320
We have mental health issues that aren't going to go away. They're going to be exacerbated by the trauma that Brett was talking about.

4151
05:57:50,320 --> 05:57:58,820
Those teens through the side rates don't just disappear with the amount of isolation that's happened, that is a real fear, but those rates could increase.

4152
05:58:00,100 --> 05:58:03,360
Teacher Pay has historically been low for Colorado.

4153
05:58:03,860 --> 05:58:13,960
It's at the lowest nation right now, and we are not doing justice by our teachers and all of our staff that are working so hard these days.

4154
05:58:13,960 --> 05:58:22,640
There are, you heard examples of, for a day's happening across the state, there are cuts all over the place.

4155
05:58:23,260 --> 05:58:34,440
People are worried about how to maintain staff after December 30th, especially the number of staff that are going to have to put them in these restrictions in safety precautions in place.

4156
05:58:34,440 --> 05:58:40,460
We've heard about the digital divide, we've heard that we have so many of our districts,

4157
05:58:40,460 --> 05:58:43,120
60 percent that are only four days a week.

4158
05:58:43,560 --> 05:58:48,800
So what that looks like as we go forward with the massive budget consolidation factor

4159
05:58:48,800 --> 05:58:50,640
is before us?

4160
05:58:51,320 --> 05:58:56,660
We are going to have to, I think George will set it best around the K2 reading.

4161
05:58:57,520 --> 05:59:00,520
We are going to have to accelerate learning and touch,

4162
05:59:01,360 --> 05:59:10,610
that takes more money, resources need to be invested, smaller groups of kids need to be working with specialized reading teachers to help make that happen.

4163
05:59:12,220 --> 05:59:15,000
And of course the safety costs are in numerous.

4164
05:59:16,720 --> 05:59:24,420
We've known for years and we haven't been able to make up the difference with budget stabilization factor.

4165
05:59:24,420 --> 05:59:33,760
It's been over $8 billion since the last recession and we have lost a generation of kids to have fully funded education.

4166
05:59:35,340 --> 05:59:50,160
We know that money won't solve all of our problems, but we need at least foundational adequate and equitable funding to make sure that we have predictability as one of our superintendents said for the future.

4167
05:59:50,160 --> 05:59:56,040
We need stability within our education system to ensure that we have workforce development

4168
05:59:56,040 --> 05:59:57,620
capacity for the future.

4169
05:59:58,260 --> 05:59:59,800
We want our economy back.

4170
06:00:00,000 --> 06:00:13,580
We want it to be one of the strongest in the nation, just like it was before COVID. But if we are not able to educate the future, the future workforce, we will not be able to be one of the strongest economies.

4171
06:00:14,520 --> 06:00:25,080
It's really important that you remember, again, all of this short amount of federal funding is not going to make up the difference, so the success that we're seeing at the state level.

4172
06:00:25,080 --> 06:00:31,780
We are also advocating with Congress and at the national level for what needs to go into a federal package.

4173
06:00:32,440 --> 06:00:33,940
It still won't be enough.

4174
06:00:34,460 --> 06:00:40,340
And so we implore you to think about that and understand you very difficult decisions of head.

4175
06:00:40,560 --> 06:00:46,660
And we appreciate your willingness to work with us and how to solve those problems that lie ahead.

4176
06:00:47,540 --> 06:00:49,800
And with that, I don't want to take too much more time.

4177
06:00:49,800 --> 06:00:54,800
Thank you very much for your willingness to listen today and I know it's been a long day.

4178
06:00:55,040 --> 06:00:55,800
So thank you.

4179
06:00:56,760 --> 06:00:57,620
Thank you, Director Grinch.

4180
06:00:59,480 --> 06:01:00,700
How about Amy?

4181
06:01:04,350 --> 06:01:04,770
I'm sure.

4182
06:01:05,630 --> 06:01:06,590
And I apologize.

4183
06:01:06,930 --> 06:01:10,450
I do have to hop off right after this to get on to another meeting.

4184
06:01:10,750 --> 06:01:15,570
But I appreciate the time and commitment you all have put in today.

4185
06:01:15,570 --> 06:01:21,570
to listen to everyone and appreciate your questions and your responsiveness and

4186
06:01:22,230 --> 06:01:25,050
Fred said look forward to continuing the conversation.

4187
06:01:26,010 --> 06:01:31,790
I will just add a few quick points regarding the funding situation and the

4188
06:01:31,790 --> 06:01:33,330
CARES Act dollars specifically.

4189
06:01:34,270 --> 06:01:39,130
As was pointed out, the CARES dollars do have to be spent by December 30.

4190
06:01:40,090 --> 06:01:43,730
There are certain things that those CARES dollars could be spent on.

4191
06:01:43,730 --> 06:01:52,530
We know, as I was pointed out, we had, she's significant needs prior to COVID-19 impacting

4192
06:01:52,530 --> 06:01:54,950
our schools and our districts.

4193
06:01:55,630 --> 06:02:01,110
For far too long, we have been putting band-aids on gushing wounds and expecting that those wounds

4194
06:02:01,110 --> 06:02:03,850
will just close up with a band-aid.

4195
06:02:04,090 --> 06:02:06,890
We need sustainable long-term solutions.

4196
06:02:07,230 --> 06:02:12,810
The CARES Act dollars were another band-aid that was much needed, but it is not going

4197
06:02:12,810 --> 06:02:14,210
to solve our problems.

4198
06:02:14,450 --> 06:02:16,830
One of the biggest worries that we have right now

4199
06:02:16,830 --> 06:02:19,890
with the CARES Act Dollars are some of those things

4200
06:02:19,890 --> 06:02:21,370
that I mentioned earlier,

4201
06:02:21,730 --> 06:02:24,110
that districts are using those dollars for.

4202
06:02:24,370 --> 06:02:26,410
Those needs are not going to go away.

4203
06:02:26,870 --> 06:02:28,190
So the districts, for example,

4204
06:02:28,230 --> 06:02:31,450
that are using CARES Act Dollars to provide COVID testing

4205
06:02:31,450 --> 06:02:34,650
to their employees come December.

4206
06:02:35,470 --> 06:02:38,070
We are sure that the need for testing

4207
06:02:38,070 --> 06:02:39,670
is not going to go away.

4208
06:02:40,090 --> 06:02:42,430
Those districts that are using CARES Act Dollars

4209
06:02:42,430 --> 06:02:50,170
to provide those technology needs to provide those health and safety sanitation needs like

4210
06:02:50,170 --> 06:02:55,970
hand sanitizer. So deep disinfectant, et cetera, those needs are not going to go away.

4211
06:02:56,170 --> 06:03:03,290
So we absolutely look forward to partnering with you all to figure out how we come to a sustainable

4212
06:03:03,290 --> 06:03:10,190
solution. We had way too many statistics prior to COVID-19 that we as a state should not be

4213
06:03:10,190 --> 06:03:11,910
and they're just getting worse.

4214
06:03:12,010 --> 06:03:20,190
I've already mentioned on this call, Colorado now ranks worse in the country for teacher pay.

4215
06:03:21,330 --> 06:03:22,670
We should not be proud of that.

4216
06:03:22,790 --> 06:03:27,130
We have an educator shortage that existed prior to COVID-19.

4217
06:03:27,510 --> 06:03:32,370
And as we've heard today, that is just probably going to get worse.

4218
06:03:32,850 --> 06:03:37,450
As we see the number of people resigning, retiring, leaving the profession.

4219
06:03:38,550 --> 06:03:45,690
So, yes, while the CARES Act dollars provided a buffer, we must need a buffer and a desperate

4220
06:03:45,690 --> 06:03:46,230
time.

4221
06:03:46,650 --> 06:03:51,710
We are not seeing our way out of that desperate time by a date on the calendar, by December

4222
06:03:51,710 --> 06:03:52,150
30.

4223
06:03:52,730 --> 06:03:59,830
So, we must come together collectively to find the solutions to ensure that a child no matter

4224
06:03:59,830 --> 06:04:04,850
there's a code, no matter where they live in Colorado or attend our public schools, if

4225
06:04:04,850 --> 06:04:12,210
have access to a high quality public education system that gives them the resources and supports

4226
06:04:12,210 --> 06:04:18,770
that they need. Our current 11th grader in Colorado has never experienced a fully funded

4227
06:04:18,770 --> 06:04:25,090
public education system and we must do better than that. So again, I truly appreciate the time

4228
06:04:25,090 --> 06:04:32,610
today. This conversation, I look forward to the future conversations. As I said, my best hope

4229
06:04:32,610 --> 06:04:36,390
is that we are all willing to work collaboratively

4230
06:04:36,390 --> 06:04:39,290
and together on solutions to ensure

4231
06:04:39,290 --> 06:04:41,670
that our public schools are serving

4232
06:04:41,670 --> 06:04:44,470
and meeting the needs of our students and our educators.

4233
06:04:45,070 --> 06:04:46,910
And thank you all for the work

4234
06:04:46,910 --> 06:04:50,770
that you are doing during these very challenging times.

4235
06:04:51,830 --> 06:04:52,350
Thank you.

4236
06:04:52,530 --> 06:04:54,030
And this thank you Ms. Boko Older

4237
06:04:54,030 --> 06:04:56,450
and she has to leave right now for another meeting.

4238
06:04:56,670 --> 06:04:59,530
So she's very excited to continue her meetings today.

4239
06:04:59,710 --> 06:05:01,550
So thank you for joining us today.

4240
06:05:02,610 --> 06:05:03,410
Ms. Murphy,

4241
06:05:05,830 --> 06:05:13,500
you're now, you, you, you, you, you, you, I actually don't have much to add.

4242
06:05:13,680 --> 06:05:18,280
I think that Brett and Sherry and Amy covered just about everything.

4243
06:05:18,540 --> 06:05:24,360
I want to reiterate Superintendent Chris Sally's point about the impact of cuts on rural

4244
06:05:24,360 --> 06:05:29,360
and particularly smaller rural systems who have less space to trim and don't have economies

4245
06:05:29,360 --> 06:05:30,020
of scale.

4246
06:05:30,340 --> 06:05:33,820
What are my superintendents said on our Wednesday morning call, which is going to cut ourselves

4247
06:05:33,820 --> 06:05:34,600
right out of business.

4248
06:05:34,600 --> 06:05:39,280
So, I'm going to get weepy and I'm going to turn to every single one of you and Senator

4249
06:05:39,280 --> 06:05:40,180
Todd and rep Wilson.

4250
06:05:40,440 --> 06:05:44,260
We're going to miss you desperately in this regard, especially, but we're going to need

4251
06:05:44,260 --> 06:05:47,480
help figuring out what to do with our rural schools.

4252
06:05:49,760 --> 06:05:56,040
Also, I want to say to you, without whatever you can do, to help move a federal stimulus package

4253
06:05:56,040 --> 06:06:01,480
a second package without that to everybody else's point, comes to 730, a lot of our districts

4254
06:06:01,480 --> 06:06:06,500
are not going to have the money, you are not going to know where they are, how they are going

4255
06:06:06,500 --> 06:06:12,260
to allocate those dollars to the council additional counselors, the nurses, the online

4256
06:06:12,260 --> 06:06:14,320
funding, all of these pieces.

4257
06:06:14,840 --> 06:06:18,980
So, we've had senators spend it and gardener on our Wednesday morning calls.

4258
06:06:19,520 --> 06:06:24,380
I would love to extend an invitation to any or all of you to join us where everyone is morning

4259
06:06:24,380 --> 06:06:24,840
at eight.

4260
06:06:24,960 --> 06:06:30,300
We have upwards of 120 swirls, superintendents, Sherry and Brett are with us and it's a great

4261
06:06:30,300 --> 06:06:34,860
time to hear from them because I don't know if you guys disagree but the most impactful testimony

4262
06:06:34,860 --> 06:06:39,960
today came from our district leaders so no offense to my colleagues but so please do join

4263
06:06:39,960 --> 06:06:45,180
us in here from the directly and lastly I would say the school finance project today survey

4264
06:06:45,180 --> 06:06:48,640
of all of the districts I don't think they all responded but they've got some resources

4265
06:06:48,640 --> 06:06:53,380
on their website about where specific cuts were being made where they'll have to be made

4266
06:06:53,380 --> 06:06:58,760
and we just can't be having conversations about more cuts or we can't be having them in any

4267
06:06:58,760 --> 06:07:03,140
kind of light-hearted way without knowing the consequences for all of our kids.

4268
06:07:04,120 --> 06:07:06,840
And thank you all for the time today greatly appreciate it.

4269
06:07:08,520 --> 06:07:14,040
Thank you very much for being very, as a role educator, I appreciate it.

4270
06:07:14,240 --> 06:07:15,760
I always appreciate your words.

4271
06:07:16,240 --> 06:07:16,640
So thank you.

4272
06:07:16,960 --> 06:07:17,380
Thank you.

4273
06:07:17,460 --> 06:07:18,180
We're upon you.

4274
06:07:18,200 --> 06:07:18,940
You said that sometimes.

4275
06:07:22,480 --> 06:07:23,040
Cali.

4276
06:07:23,120 --> 06:07:24,500
Cali, leave off, please.

4277
06:07:25,040 --> 06:07:25,300
All right.

4278
06:07:25,300 --> 06:07:27,500
I can't believe that.

4279
06:07:28,260 --> 06:07:28,960
It's definitely.

4280
06:07:29,360 --> 06:07:32,700
If T. Colorado president and yes,

4281
06:07:32,880 --> 06:07:35,240
take Michelle said everyone's a for me.

4282
06:07:36,520 --> 06:07:38,180
We're all on the same page.

4283
06:07:38,520 --> 06:07:38,980
Here we are.

4284
06:07:40,480 --> 06:07:45,900
The fact here that the cuts that that had to be made.

4285
06:07:46,560 --> 06:07:49,300
The CARES Act funding and the CRF.

4286
06:07:52,700 --> 06:08:01,300
We also had all the additional costs of trying to run our schools in the middle of this pandemic and so they didn't.

4287
06:08:02,520 --> 06:08:08,420
We're still behind and we're all pretty darn terrified about what's going to happen in January, honestly.

4288
06:08:10,080 --> 06:08:16,400
So to give you some specifics, you know, Kathy Dorman spoke as one of our e-learning teachers.

4289
06:08:16,400 --> 06:08:23,760
Many Douglass County hired many e-learning teachers on one semester contracts and or they

4290
06:08:24,400 --> 06:08:31,300
have teachers from a school come into becoming an e-learning teacher and so they've placed

4291
06:08:31,300 --> 06:08:35,340
another teacher in the building who's on a one semester contract.

4292
06:08:35,940 --> 06:08:41,900
So at the end of December those teachers will no longer be employed by our district and

4293
06:08:41,900 --> 06:08:45,020
and Douglas County in particular, we will no longer have access to

4294
06:08:45,020 --> 06:08:49,540
edgenuity, which is the system that our district chose to use.

4295
06:08:50,080 --> 06:08:52,560
So, e-mourning cannot continue forward.

4296
06:08:53,060 --> 06:08:59,380
And we can't tell students who are at a high risk of

4297
06:08:59,380 --> 06:09:04,460
deaths from COVID or live with family members who might be at a higher risk

4298
06:09:04,460 --> 06:09:07,720
that the school needs just not an option and you'll have to come to school.

4299
06:09:08,840 --> 06:09:12,040
We also have increased costs for substitute teachers.

4300
06:09:12,320 --> 06:09:13,640
You've got a lot about that today.

4301
06:09:14,480 --> 06:09:18,060
There's a real lack of subs out there.

4302
06:09:18,180 --> 06:09:22,120
A lot of our subs have been our retirees who cannot come in and sub now.

4303
06:09:22,660 --> 06:09:24,220
So we're having to pay more for subs.

4304
06:09:24,300 --> 06:09:26,500
And we won't be able to do that after January.

4305
06:09:28,040 --> 06:09:29,420
We keep these not going to go away.

4306
06:09:29,640 --> 06:09:30,700
We're going to need that.

4307
06:09:30,980 --> 06:09:33,880
A lot of schools have resorted to getting giant tents.

4308
06:09:33,880 --> 06:09:41,360
called Vocal or Instrumental Music in and that's been great, but we're going to still have

4309
06:09:41,360 --> 06:09:43,720
to rent those kids and then need the money for them.

4310
06:09:44,100 --> 06:09:49,620
We still need all those cleaning supplies and the COVID testing, like Amy talked about,

4311
06:09:49,860 --> 06:09:55,120
and staff dedicated to tracking down those kids that aren't showing up.

4312
06:09:55,560 --> 06:10:00,400
So all those additional costs are needed and like everyone else here, AFT is working really

4313
06:10:00,400 --> 06:10:06,580
with our federal government to secure funding from the federal government, so any help that you all

4314
06:10:06,580 --> 06:10:13,400
can do with that as well, reaching out to our Senators and Senatives is appreciated and

4315
06:10:14,180 --> 06:10:15,440
like everyone else.

4316
06:10:15,860 --> 06:10:20,040
Thank you so much for your time today for listening to all of us and being open to these

4317
06:10:20,040 --> 06:10:24,560
conversations that are not easy to have, but are very, very important to have.

4318
06:10:24,780 --> 06:10:29,040
And so I look forward to our future conversations about the count.

4319
06:10:30,320 --> 06:10:41,980
Okay. Thank you so much. All of you. We now have five minutes of questions. If people have questions for this wonderful group of people, please let's hear it.

4320
06:10:42,400 --> 06:10:43,620
Yes, represent it basically.

4321
06:10:45,100 --> 06:10:58,620
Sure. So we've heard for all day now all the appealing to this group to the legislators at the state level for sufficient funding.

4322
06:10:58,620 --> 06:11:02,140
And it's a preaching to the prior kind of a thing

4323
06:11:02,140 --> 06:11:03,880
in that we're with you on this.

4324
06:11:03,880 --> 06:11:09,320
We'd like to, we're dealing with the reduction in

4325
06:11:09,320 --> 06:11:12,360
all the funds, and of course needing to balance that

4326
06:11:12,360 --> 06:11:15,020
with the healthcare mental health and all the other agencies

4327
06:11:15,020 --> 06:11:17,180
that are making similar pitches and so on,

4328
06:11:17,400 --> 06:11:20,200
but we're just, the pot has got a lot smaller.

4329
06:11:21,880 --> 06:11:24,120
Well, I wonder especially Ms. Murphy,

4330
06:11:24,240 --> 06:11:26,440
as you talked about having had conversations

4331
06:11:26,440 --> 06:11:31,660
with several government personnel at the official and so on.

4332
06:11:31,940 --> 06:11:36,960
I never heard Governor Paul's name mentioned all day long, not a single time.

4333
06:11:37,260 --> 06:11:42,820
I wonder if any of you have appealed to him that he's the one person who was holding up the

4334
06:11:42,820 --> 06:11:56,420
economy. He's the one person who could open the state economy and let the revenues start to get

4335
06:11:56,420 --> 06:11:59,720
Anything that's appealing to him to get us

4336
06:11:59,720 --> 06:12:04,980
full off the break and let the people start paying for their houses

4337
06:12:04,980 --> 06:12:09,480
and stop sending their kids to go make house payments by work

4338
06:12:09,480 --> 06:12:10,680
and a part time off to this.

4339
06:12:10,920 --> 06:12:13,800
It's those families that were talked about earlier

4340
06:12:13,800 --> 06:12:18,940
of a family that is sending kids to go work a fast food.

4341
06:12:19,460 --> 06:12:22,420
Those are the ones that the schools are dependent on

4342
06:12:22,420 --> 06:12:25,600
to generate the revenue to pay for the education,

4343
06:12:25,600 --> 06:12:32,520
pay for the schools. It's we've got to let this economy take off and there's just one

4344
06:12:32,520 --> 06:12:41,000
person that is in that critical path. And so that's my question. Is anyone asking Governor

4345
06:12:41,000 --> 06:12:44,520
Polis to let the economy go?

4346
06:12:52,340 --> 06:12:57,820
I guess not. Okay, there's a problem. I'll speak up to that.

4347
06:12:57,820 --> 06:13:05,520
This Senator Todd and I think part of what we're seeing from the governor as we have seen from

4348
06:13:05,520 --> 06:13:10,890
a couple of decisions that have had to be made just this week with CU, sending students home,

4349
06:13:12,540 --> 06:13:17,740
compliance, compliance. The governor has said, wear a mask, social distance.

4350
06:13:18,560 --> 06:13:23,460
And as people have done that, restaurants have reopened, business has reopened.

4351
06:13:23,460 --> 06:13:26,940
and it has moving forward in a very positive line.

4352
06:13:26,980 --> 06:13:28,440
I think we're seeing that all over.

4353
06:13:28,680 --> 06:13:30,700
I know we've been to the mountains.

4354
06:13:32,020 --> 06:13:39,280
Summit County, we've been to Aurora and Denver metro area

4355
06:13:39,280 --> 06:13:42,280
and seeing when people come play,

4356
06:13:42,620 --> 06:13:45,920
then I think that businesses will continue to open.

4357
06:13:46,140 --> 06:13:48,020
And I think that's what the governor is saying.

4358
06:13:49,680 --> 06:13:52,960
So when you say it's up to one person,

4359
06:13:52,960 --> 06:14:05,020
I think the governor's heard from many of us, I'm quite sure he's heard from, I know he's heard from me in terms of what is the plan and what are we looking at.

4360
06:14:05,420 --> 06:14:19,500
And again, the more people comply, the less incidents and as we kind of look at what is happening with the number of people I think we're still around 140 times that are in the hospital.

4361
06:14:19,500 --> 06:14:42,140
But in terms of overall what we're seeing is that when people comply, the numbers go down in businesses and restaurants can open and I know I talk with my restaurant here and owners and and they are thrilled to be able to see the progress that's going because people are complying.

4362
06:14:42,140 --> 06:14:48,480
So I guess I would, that would be my response in terms of I'm not going to be silent on that one

4363
06:14:48,920 --> 06:14:55,880
Reptitive basically because I do think the governor is listening. I think he is and I don't agree with him on everything

4364
06:14:55,880 --> 06:14:59,980
So please don't think that this is just a blanket a grief

4365
06:15:00,000 --> 06:15:07,980
But it is a matter of saying, if we, as the state, can keep things under control, we can continue moving forward.

4366
06:15:08,400 --> 06:15:19,540
And so that's my response to it and I think that's what we're seeing, even with our schools and being able to see that that's where the success is.

4367
06:15:20,320 --> 06:15:23,500
It takes some compliance during these tough times.

4368
06:15:23,500 --> 06:15:27,660
Thank you, Senator, for that response, but I will not be silent either.

4369
06:15:28,620 --> 06:15:31,640
It is not his job to force compliance.

4370
06:15:32,160 --> 06:15:38,840
It is his job to enforce the people and let them act in their own self-interest, which is

4371
06:15:38,840 --> 06:15:42,060
to behave in a way that keeps everyone safe.

4372
06:15:42,420 --> 06:15:48,000
But instead, he does demand compliance with the threat of jail time.

4373
06:15:48,000 --> 06:15:51,400
My constituents are not thrilled with it.

4374
06:15:51,520 --> 06:15:53,600
They're ready to run him out of the state on a rail.

4375
06:15:53,980 --> 06:15:54,880
They're furious.

4376
06:15:55,360 --> 06:15:57,920
I've got a lot of constituents coming to be saying,

4377
06:15:58,420 --> 06:16:01,600
my business is in threat of having its license pulled.

4378
06:16:02,440 --> 06:16:04,440
They're overregulating us.

4379
06:16:04,540 --> 06:16:05,840
I have people coming to me saying,

4380
06:16:06,040 --> 06:16:09,100
I have lost my house because of this.

4381
06:16:09,560 --> 06:16:11,460
It's desperate for a lot of people.

4382
06:16:12,100 --> 06:16:17,360
And it's desperate for people are not allowed to make the balance choice

4383
06:16:17,360 --> 06:16:23,520
in their own self-interest, but rather because they're being demanded to be compliant by

4384
06:16:23,520 --> 06:16:27,380
someone who's behaving in a dictatorial fashion instead of as a governor.

4385
06:16:27,900 --> 06:16:28,780
He's wholly inappropriate.

4386
06:16:29,400 --> 06:16:31,720
He is the one, educators hear me.

4387
06:16:32,000 --> 06:16:37,340
He is the one preventing you from getting the funding that you need.

4388
06:16:37,920 --> 06:16:44,820
We're ready to give those to allocate the funds accordingly, but he is stopping the economy

4389
06:16:44,820 --> 06:16:53,100
going by unnaturally and perpetually having an emergency order condition, which the law allows

4390
06:16:53,100 --> 06:17:00,080
him to do for 30 days and he continuously extends it and has displaced our economy.

4391
06:17:00,740 --> 06:17:01,460
Okay, thank you for that.

4392
06:17:02,460 --> 06:17:03,020
And there's a pin.

4393
06:17:03,120 --> 06:17:03,800
We're moving on.

4394
06:17:04,280 --> 06:17:04,840
Thank you very much.

4395
06:17:05,520 --> 06:17:06,040
Okay, thank you.

4396
06:17:06,080 --> 06:17:11,020
We're moving on our five-minute trip, so thank you both for contributing and we'll

4397
06:17:11,020 --> 06:17:12,420
we'll go to our next panel.

4398
06:17:12,960 --> 06:17:17,860
So, it's a short one, it's just a little one, so thank you all very much for joining us

4399
06:17:17,860 --> 06:17:20,620
in the last half of the week, really appreciate it, thank you.

4400
06:17:22,480 --> 06:17:30,340
Okay, we have Terry Crowe Lewis and John Paul Burns, you're back again, so we're not gonna

4401
06:17:30,340 --> 06:17:30,760
see you.

4402
06:17:35,230 --> 06:17:36,850
I'm happy to like you come first.

4403
06:17:38,210 --> 06:17:41,150
Thank you, thanks, my hon. Chair, and thank you to the committee members.

4404
06:17:41,290 --> 06:17:44,410
I know today, it's been long and you have, um,

4405
06:17:44,910 --> 06:17:49,550
it's really been so attentive to all of us as we talk about our needs and, um,

4406
06:17:49,550 --> 06:17:50,710
what's going on in the field.

4407
06:17:51,510 --> 06:17:55,390
I'm going to try to keep it short and, and I'll have to step off and so I'm going to

4408
06:17:55,390 --> 06:18:01,790
speak a little bit for all tarders, um, in the state to 261, but has a reminder

4409
06:18:01,790 --> 06:18:05,830
on the tertiary School Institute and we have 42 schools that we authorized.

4410
06:18:05,830 --> 06:18:10,290
Our school is using it similar to what everyone else is doing.

4411
06:18:10,810 --> 06:18:14,310
We are purchasing PPE, we're purchasing technology.

4412
06:18:15,050 --> 06:18:17,270
We have a very small staff.

4413
06:18:17,350 --> 06:18:24,630
Our staff is about 25 on which we operate not so much like a district, but sometimes we have

4414
06:18:24,630 --> 06:18:24,830
to.

4415
06:18:24,970 --> 06:18:31,550
In this case, we have had to help our schools get PPE, the supply chain is challenging, we've

4416
06:18:31,550 --> 06:18:35,570
delivered it, we've purchased it, we've driven through the schools to deliver it.

4417
06:18:35,570 --> 06:18:41,330
And so, PPE is tough for all our schools, especially our small school schools to get that.

4418
06:18:41,870 --> 06:18:42,830
What else we're doing?

4419
06:18:42,950 --> 06:18:45,770
We're using it some for staffing, but really it's about equipment.

4420
06:18:46,470 --> 06:18:51,730
And the other thing I'd like to really stress is we push our efforts funds and COVID dollars

4421
06:18:51,730 --> 06:18:57,650
out to our schools, but unfortunately that's not been the case for all schools.

4422
06:18:57,710 --> 06:19:03,770
It's about equity and we talk about ensuring that there's many inequities for all

4423
06:19:03,770 --> 06:19:21,810
And what we have seen throughout the state is a recent survey in the last week that the lead did with all their members on how they are receiving and if they're receiving COVID dollars, half of those respondents said they have not received $.

4424
06:19:21,810 --> 06:19:29,210
So, we have to ensure that the money that is available, and there's not enough, we all agree.

4425
06:19:29,530 --> 06:19:34,050
Everything that we've heard before, we agree, we're finding the same challenges.

4426
06:19:34,630 --> 06:19:40,630
But at least the dollars that are available, we need to ensure that they are shared equably or equity.

4427
06:19:40,950 --> 06:19:44,890
There needs to be equity and shared with all our schools.

4428
06:19:44,890 --> 06:19:50,710
Because the other public school students, and the rural schools, the challenges that I can

4429
06:19:50,710 --> 06:19:56,470
so identify with, um, the needs that they have, and when I break them and I met with a

4430
06:19:56,470 --> 06:20:01,470
school in crisis last Friday, and they talked about their financial crisis, they said,

4431
06:20:01,710 --> 06:20:07,470
we're $660,000 in $60,000 short, where they're serving 230 students, what will we do?

4432
06:20:07,770 --> 06:20:11,410
Like, you use your reserves, they said, there's not enough, I think you'll close your doors.

4433
06:20:12,310 --> 06:20:13,690
Yes, that's your reality.

4434
06:20:13,690 --> 06:20:19,030
We don't have money to give you. If you cannot make it work, you'll have to close your doors.

4435
06:20:19,470 --> 06:20:21,790
And every one of those families will be impacted.

4436
06:20:22,830 --> 06:20:29,470
So we understand when the margins are thin and very slim, like you're going to see in all the rural schools

4437
06:20:29,470 --> 06:20:32,370
and the rural districts what they're struggling with.

4438
06:20:32,650 --> 06:20:35,350
Same thing with our schools. We don't have a cushion for them.

4439
06:20:35,370 --> 06:20:39,150
We don't have money we can give them. They're going to have to make those hard decisions.

4440
06:20:39,150 --> 06:20:45,270
So I guess my plea to you today is the dollars that are available, the dollars that we do have,

4441
06:20:45,310 --> 06:20:48,110
just make sure that all our schools have access to those.

4442
06:20:48,710 --> 06:20:49,670
So, thank you.

4443
06:20:54,130 --> 06:20:59,670
We have one of your schools in Durango, and now it's two of them.

4444
06:20:59,690 --> 06:21:02,530
We have a middle school of high school and out in middle and animus.

4445
06:21:02,650 --> 06:21:03,350
Thank you very much.

4446
06:21:04,190 --> 06:21:05,330
We support them.

4447
06:21:05,750 --> 06:21:06,770
Very much so.

4448
06:21:06,990 --> 06:21:07,170
Okay.

4449
06:21:07,170 --> 06:21:07,470
There you go.

4450
06:21:08,630 --> 06:21:09,110
Okay.

4451
06:21:09,370 --> 06:21:09,970
Where are you?

4452
06:21:09,970 --> 06:21:10,630
Oh, there you is.

4453
06:21:10,630 --> 06:21:11,170
John Paul.

4454
06:21:11,170 --> 06:21:15,390
You're in my corner, so I don't know what you do in the corner here, but please join us.

4455
06:21:16,130 --> 06:21:17,070
Thank you, Madam Chair.

4456
06:21:17,390 --> 06:21:18,690
Thanks, everybody, for hanging in there.

4457
06:21:18,750 --> 06:21:22,010
I know it's been a long day, and I'll try to keep this brief.

4458
06:21:22,630 --> 06:21:26,990
Just want to also think our partners as a part of the Department of Education for providing this information.

4459
06:21:27,890 --> 06:21:28,850
I do have a handout.

4460
06:21:29,090 --> 06:21:30,270
I believe it's in your package.

4461
06:21:30,810 --> 06:21:33,910
It's got some purple and green ink on it.

4462
06:21:33,970 --> 06:21:37,630
It's as a consortium of Director, Special Lab, overview of possible Special Lab funding.

4463
06:21:37,630 --> 06:21:44,010
I'm going to try to share that file really quick, but we will see if I am able to real quick.

4464
06:21:48,380 --> 06:21:49,500
So let me open that.

4465
06:21:50,420 --> 06:21:52,440
So hopefully you can reference it from your packet.

4466
06:21:53,440 --> 06:21:54,220
Oh, yeah, here we go.

4467
06:21:54,340 --> 06:21:54,960
Now it's coming up.

4468
06:21:58,710 --> 06:22:03,130
So I'm glad to be participating again on behalf of the Consortium of Social Education Directors.

4469
06:22:03,750 --> 06:22:09,770
As I mentioned earlier, our membership is 100% of director's special education in all public schools in Colorado.

4470
06:22:09,770 --> 06:22:21,970
So as a consortium member, I also chair the special education fiscal advisory committee or C-FAC, which issues manual report to the legislature regarding special education funding in Colorado.

4471
06:22:22,750 --> 06:22:25,510
The chart you have today is one that consortium develops annually.

4472
06:22:25,990 --> 06:22:33,550
My purpose here is to give you information about special education funding and as impact on schools, local school districts and administrative unit budgets.

4473
06:22:33,550 --> 06:22:46,870
It is not specific to COVID-19 but consider this data compounded by the impacts of COVID-19 and all of the things we've already discussed today in the challenges.

4474
06:22:47,430 --> 06:22:51,690
The data that you'll be looking at was compiled from the 2018-19 school year.

4475
06:22:52,210 --> 06:22:57,530
The 1920 school year data is not yet yet, obviously.

4476
06:22:57,530 --> 06:23:02,930
So, a couple of basic points you may already know them, but they're worth a quick review.

4477
06:23:03,170 --> 06:23:07,570
The current model for special education funding was developed by the legislature in 2006,

4478
06:23:08,350 --> 06:23:09,770
in essentially three tiers.

4479
06:23:10,310 --> 06:23:14,990
Each with a set full funding formula to your A to your B and the high-cost school.

4480
06:23:16,050 --> 06:23:20,490
If you look at the top of your chart, all students with disabilities included in the

4481
06:23:20,490 --> 06:23:22,450
pupil counts that result in TRA funding.

4482
06:23:23,270 --> 06:23:26,030
And the funding is based on the previous year's December count.

4483
06:23:26,030 --> 06:23:29,230
So for example, this year's funding is based on 2019.

4484
06:23:29,790 --> 06:23:33,070
So it's always a one-year late reimbursement,

4485
06:23:33,530 --> 06:23:36,390
not representative of our current needs.

4486
06:23:36,930 --> 06:23:40,310
Chair V is comprised of those students with more significant disabilities

4487
06:23:40,310 --> 06:23:42,790
who generate additional funding on top of Tier A.

4488
06:23:42,910 --> 06:23:44,790
At the time of the funding model was developed,

4489
06:23:45,270 --> 06:23:53,030
again, in 2006, the $1,250 per Tier A plus a 6,000 up to statutory limit

4490
06:23:53,030 --> 06:23:57,930
was considered to be the average cost to serve a student in the Tier B category.

4491
06:23:59,130 --> 06:24:04,230
And so the commitment to the gradually increased funding to the full 6,000 was supported in the field.

4492
06:24:04,830 --> 06:24:08,530
We've never seen 100% or 6,000 funding on that.

4493
06:24:08,730 --> 06:24:12,770
In fact, last year was the highest at 47% of that.

4494
06:24:12,770 --> 06:24:16,030
Exit some additional funding we received in the 18,000 school year.

4495
06:24:16,710 --> 06:24:22,290
Looking at the chart, you'll see that in 2019 there's total of 108,481 students

4496
06:24:22,290 --> 06:24:26,330
in Colorado with disabilities, which is an increase of 4,030.

4497
06:24:26,530 --> 06:24:30,530
We heard from people today indicating that there's been uptics in the number of students

4498
06:24:30,530 --> 06:24:36,830
with disabilities in their districts, up 430 from the private previous year, that constitutes

4499
06:24:36,830 --> 06:24:39,090
each one of those is funded at $1250.

4500
06:24:40,410 --> 06:24:48,390
The total of $24,266 in Tier V is an increase of 123 students over 2018 count.

4501
06:24:48,390 --> 06:24:56,530
You can see that the students in tier B are funded this year at $26,629.99 and 93 cents

4502
06:24:56,530 --> 06:24:57,090
to be specific.

4503
06:24:58,030 --> 06:25:02,530
Her student, this is actually a decrease from last year's funding because of the overall

4504
06:25:02,530 --> 06:25:07,510
increase of the students with disabilities in first, must be funded in tier A.

4505
06:25:08,210 --> 06:25:14,230
So essentially, what is left over is what's funding in tier B. This year tier B is currently

4506
06:25:14,230 --> 06:25:19,510
We have 43.8% of them statutory maximum of 6,000.

4507
06:25:20,350 --> 06:25:25,470
We have two new charts at the bottom of page three that you will, as I can take a look at,

4508
06:25:25,670 --> 06:25:30,230
that we believe are critical to a fuller understanding of the actual cost of serving students

4509
06:25:30,230 --> 06:25:31,870
as disability and Colorado.

4510
06:25:32,590 --> 06:25:33,850
Mr. Barry, we're going to have one next.

4511
06:25:34,370 --> 06:25:35,370
Okay, thanks.

4512
06:25:38,810 --> 06:25:45,490
The top chart is ultimately representation of the portion of special education

4513
06:25:45,490 --> 06:25:51,450
that falls to school districts, general fund, to support the uncovered costs of special

4514
06:25:51,450 --> 06:25:51,990
education.

4515
06:25:52,690 --> 06:25:56,210
You can see 65% of those costs come out of the general fund.

4516
06:25:56,630 --> 06:26:01,550
And again, this is excess costs for special ledges, or all of the costs that are separate

4517
06:26:01,550 --> 06:26:05,270
and not general led, parts of the covering the regular day.

4518
06:26:05,870 --> 06:26:12,490
And then the last chart is ultimately, if the whole point of that chart is just to show

4519
06:26:12,490 --> 06:26:26,750
But even if we were at a hundred percent tier B funded $6,000, that only take the seven percent cut into the general fund impact that we're looking at.

4520
06:26:26,950 --> 06:26:30,590
And so a lot of times we look at, well, we fully funded tier B, we'd be there.

4521
06:26:31,170 --> 06:26:34,870
And as you can see from these pie charts, that's clearly not the end to the answer.

4522
06:26:35,410 --> 06:26:41,650
So, I mean, it is a great help and we would all very much appreciate it, but there's a lot more of that share that would be left.

4523
06:26:42,690 --> 06:26:49,490
So ultimately, I want to leave time if there is any questions that the pandemic has definitely

4524
06:26:49,490 --> 06:26:55,670
driven up the cost of special education from technology, PPE, a lot of our students have

4525
06:26:55,670 --> 06:27:02,330
medical, fragile, medical, fragile needs, and so there's additional PPE, medical needs that

4526
06:27:02,330 --> 06:27:07,570
come on top of that. Again, these are 18, 90 numbers. It'll be really interesting to see what these

4527
06:27:07,570 --> 06:27:12,630
was like eight years from now after we've calculated not only last spring but then further

4528
06:27:12,630 --> 06:27:14,970
more than 2021 school year.

4529
06:27:17,540 --> 06:27:20,600
I would take questions at this time.

4530
06:27:21,200 --> 06:27:21,800
Thank you so much.

4531
06:27:22,600 --> 06:27:26,080
I've been kind of putting everybody on the five minute break on the side.

4532
06:27:26,540 --> 06:27:29,320
So, so what kind of questions do

4533
06:27:35,910 --> 06:27:39,990
you have?

4534
06:27:42,740 --> 06:27:45,740
Mr. Braden, would you come over here for a

4535
06:27:55,150 --> 06:27:55,470
minute?

4536
06:28:03,500 --> 06:28:05,160
Something going with the phone.

4537
06:28:07,730 --> 06:28:08,570
Can you hear me?

4538
06:28:11,120 --> 06:28:12,140
I don't know. It's coming from you.

4539
06:28:12,320 --> 06:28:14,200
I don't know.

4540
06:28:23,860 --> 06:28:26,320
She's asking if anyone has any questions.

4541
06:28:27,800 --> 06:28:29,220
For the last presenter?

4542
06:28:32,180 --> 06:28:33,320
Step right up.

4543
06:28:34,220 --> 06:28:34,980
Raise your hand.

4544
06:28:36,300 --> 06:28:37,000
I dare not.

4545
06:28:38,260 --> 06:28:38,820
Good plan.

4546
06:28:42,110 --> 06:28:43,630
Anybody else with a hand?

4547
06:28:46,630 --> 06:28:46,930
Anybody?

4548
06:28:48,250 --> 06:28:48,910
Hands up.

4549
06:28:53,240 --> 06:28:54,540
Closing remarks, Rep.

4550
06:28:54,640 --> 06:28:57,440
McLaughlin, that you can mouse or sign.

4551
06:28:57,980 --> 06:28:58,460
Oh, look.

4552
06:28:58,780 --> 06:28:58,920
Rep.

4553
06:28:59,560 --> 06:28:59,940
Buckner.

4554
06:29:00,300 --> 06:29:01,420
You have to do that.

4555
06:29:01,780 --> 06:29:06,980
Well, I don't have a question for the last person that I am just so appreciative of everyone

4556
06:29:06,980 --> 06:29:08,620
who participated today.

4557
06:29:09,220 --> 06:29:11,240
You know, this will be like a listening tour.

4558
06:29:12,260 --> 06:29:16,540
And with our opportunity to learn from those who have their boots on,

4559
06:29:16,540 --> 06:29:24,240
ground and we've been on this call since nine o'clock and I don't regret one minute of

4560
06:29:24,240 --> 06:29:28,180
how many hours we've been on this call because I think it was so important to hear

4561
06:29:28,180 --> 06:29:38,680
from everyone, you know, this is uncharted territory, I mean we're all still in trauma

4562
06:29:38,680 --> 06:29:46,820
over this pandemic and in this uncharted territory you know we just have to keep having

4563
06:29:46,820 --> 06:29:54,050
understanding and knowing that everybody doing their best doing the best they can

4564
06:29:54,620 --> 06:29:57,700
under unsurmountable almost circumstances.

4565
06:30:00,000 --> 06:30:22,980
If there is so much from the rural school today, I grew up in a rural area, so I know what that's right. I was a special education teacher. I know some of the obstacles that they're having to climb and get over. So I'm just appreciative of everybody's honesty and honestly, law comments about what's going on.

4566
06:30:22,980 --> 06:30:31,940
I also want to say that, you know, I talked to the governor, we don't agree on everything,

4567
06:30:33,060 --> 06:30:39,480
but we have conversations and every one of us should have conversations with our governor.

4568
06:30:40,440 --> 06:30:49,320
But to say he's a dictator, I think that's a little bit much because we all are in uncharted territory.

4569
06:30:49,320 --> 06:30:57,120
We all have to do our part to make this situation as good as we can make it.

4570
06:30:57,560 --> 06:31:03,780
We all need to talk to the governor telling how we feel because he needs to know how we feel.

4571
06:31:05,860 --> 06:31:12,420
But you know, let's have some understanding and know that everyone, including the governor,

4572
06:31:12,420 --> 06:31:20,080
including everyone in the national level, we're doing the best we can with what we have.

4573
06:31:21,000 --> 06:31:25,880
And some people are doing a better job with what they have and others.

4574
06:31:26,720 --> 06:31:29,060
But people, let's keep working together.

4575
06:31:30,880 --> 06:31:33,940
And what's the people working together?

4576
06:31:34,000 --> 06:31:37,680
Because if we work together, we're going to get through this.

4577
06:31:38,480 --> 06:31:39,940
If we don't,

4578
06:31:42,770 --> 06:31:44,010
it's not a lot of benefit.

4579
06:31:44,550 --> 06:31:52,650
let's not work against our own best interest. Let's work together and I guess I thought

4580
06:31:52,650 --> 06:31:57,130
all I want to say is I'm like a bee and cooped up in my house too.

4581
06:32:00,070 --> 06:32:07,150
I'll jump in, this is Senator Todd. Until we get Representative Block 1 here, I think we

4582
06:32:07,150 --> 06:32:13,330
I have one final panel and my correct, Annie, is that right?

4583
06:32:16,090 --> 06:32:18,010
And, oh, we can hear you now, great.

4584
06:32:19,570 --> 06:32:21,130
Yeah, that's it, Nancy.

4585
06:32:21,690 --> 06:32:22,630
We're done.

4586
06:32:23,110 --> 06:32:23,890
Go ahead.

4587
06:32:24,410 --> 06:32:25,390
I'll set that up.

4588
06:32:25,390 --> 06:32:26,050
You're going ahead.

4589
06:32:26,090 --> 06:32:27,690
I'm just saying that that was the last panel.

4590
06:32:28,070 --> 06:32:29,070
So, you can talk that.

4591
06:32:29,170 --> 06:32:30,930
Okay, all right, great.

4592
06:32:32,190 --> 06:32:37,310
I know we've all had all kinds of, I know my video went off and all kinds of different things.

4593
06:32:37,310 --> 06:32:41,830
And so it's been a long day, but a very beneficial day.

4594
06:32:42,050 --> 06:32:46,270
And I would agree with what Representative Buckner just said

4595
06:32:46,270 --> 06:32:50,890
in terms of it is a matter of everybody working together.

4596
06:32:51,150 --> 06:32:52,110
We've got to listen.

4597
06:32:52,370 --> 06:32:56,230
We've got to work in a collaborative manner.

4598
06:32:56,530 --> 06:33:01,210
And it is, it's very, very beneficial to share the harder

4599
06:33:01,210 --> 06:33:09,930
facts and the hard stories. And recognizing that we are all witnessed together, we are to

4600
06:33:09,930 --> 06:33:18,070
a point where the financial constraints are real and the economic situation that we are all

4601
06:33:18,070 --> 06:33:26,610
in in Colorado and nationwide is certainly a challenge, but at the same point recognizing the

4602
06:33:26,610 --> 06:33:34,510
reality, the people that are online every day and making sure that we are giving them the

4603
06:33:34,510 --> 06:33:41,730
kind of support that makes their jobs not easier because it is teaching and working with

4604
06:33:41,730 --> 06:33:48,210
students is, I believe, a very high calling in it's one of the most demanding and difficult

4605
06:33:48,210 --> 06:33:56,350
jobs ever do and so I'm so appreciative of the input and the leadership that we have heard

4606
06:33:56,350 --> 06:34:00,890
today, a wide spectrum of leaders across the state.

4607
06:34:01,450 --> 06:34:03,710
So I just personally want to say thank you.

4608
06:34:04,510 --> 06:34:06,910
And I don't know if we will maybe have another problem,

4609
06:34:07,430 --> 06:34:10,730
but if not, I just want to say thank you for letting me be

4610
06:34:10,730 --> 06:34:14,910
a part of public education and the solutions for Colorado.

4611
06:34:15,610 --> 06:34:16,530
Thank you.

4612
06:34:21,060 --> 06:34:23,600
I just want to say thank you to everybody

4613
06:34:23,600 --> 06:34:27,400
because it was a long day, but I love so much.

4614
06:34:34,940 --> 06:34:48,740
But I just learned a lot from everybody today. And it was a really good listening. There's a lot of experts in the field out there. And you know so much more than I will ever know. So I really appreciate that you shared it with us.

4615
06:34:48,740 --> 06:34:54,480
I wasn't crazy either. I represented basically that Colle and our Governor of Dictator

4616
06:34:54,480 --> 06:35:01,440
because you disagree with him. Dictator is a pretty awful connotation. And I'm not sure

4617
06:35:01,440 --> 06:35:07,980
we should applaud this to, um, obviously we elected in Colorado. So I think we need to be careful

4618
06:35:07,980 --> 06:35:14,400
about our word choice. That's on there. But for the rest of you, thank you so much. And thank

4619
06:35:14,400 --> 06:35:18,720
you two representatives and I'm not saying thank you that time. I just appreciate that you

4620
06:35:18,720 --> 06:35:25,200
joined us today. We will be having a meeting at some time to talk more into the budget and to

4621
06:35:25,200 --> 06:35:31,180
the school count. But too many people didn't feel like we were ready to go there yet. We didn't

4622
06:35:31,180 --> 06:35:36,920
know what we didn't know about it. So we will be doing another one. So so the day we don't know what

4623
06:35:36,920 --> 06:35:42,980
that is. But we will share that with all of you and that you know. Okay.

4624
06:35:42,980 --> 06:35:45,500
But I think, basically, I don't feel like you.

4625
06:35:45,740 --> 06:35:48,880
I love you all too, and especially you, Janet Buckner.

4626
06:35:49,520 --> 06:35:54,600
You know, I'm a little exercised for the sake of my constituents, and that's why I'm so exercised here.

4627
06:35:55,480 --> 06:35:58,780
But you, and I've said, I don't want to throw any more gas on it.

4628
06:35:58,820 --> 06:36:00,540
Thank you, I appreciate you so much, Janet.

4629
06:36:00,860 --> 06:36:02,680
Hugs to you.

4630
06:36:04,370 --> 06:36:05,130
I love you.

4631
06:36:05,430 --> 06:36:07,310
And I just want to thank everyone too.

4632
06:36:07,350 --> 06:36:11,170
It was a great day, and a wealth of information.

4633
06:36:11,170 --> 06:36:18,710
and really appreciate the deep thoughts and deep concerns shared by so many who represent

4634
06:36:19,350 --> 06:36:26,970
the best of public education from our students, to our parents, to our educators, our executives

4635
06:36:26,970 --> 06:36:33,610
and superintendents as well as our school boards, they all play a very critical role to

4636
06:36:33,610 --> 06:36:39,570
the process of public education and we have a lot of work to do. We had a lot of work to do before

4637
06:36:39,570 --> 06:36:51,430
COVID and now the fires are raging and we need to work on putting those fires out and then we need to work on rebuilding because there's a lot to be done and I think we have the capacity to do it.

4638
06:36:51,750 --> 06:36:53,570
We just need to set to work at it.

4639
06:36:54,470 --> 06:36:56,210
So thank you for everybody's input.

4640
06:37:05,380 --> 06:37:06,380
We see you at another time.

4641
06:37:07,280 --> 06:37:08,540
Don't you wish you could always move me?

4642
06:37:08,760 --> 06:37:10,640
No, I mute myself and you want me to turn it back on.

4643
06:37:10,640 --> 06:37:11,560
I don't understand this.

4644
06:37:12,200 --> 06:37:15,380
So anyway, so we will see you at another time for a budget meeting.

4645
06:37:15,380 --> 06:37:18,400
Thank you for all your wisdom that you shared with us today.

4646
06:37:18,760 --> 06:37:19,320
Very appreciated.

4647
06:37:20,400 --> 06:37:21,160
Thank you.

4648
06:37:21,160 --> 06:37:21,940
Thank you everybody.

4649
06:37:22,420 --> 06:37:23,740
Be safe and stay healthy.

4650
06:37:24,380 --> 06:37:25,280
Thank you very much.