[5:29] [Music] in a normal school year we don't have virtual q and [5:35] a's but uh for this year as all of us know uh we have been placed into a year [5:40] with a covid virus and tonight uh we are here to answer questions uh [5:47] the process for this night was started last week where we asked parents [5:52] community members for questions about the school year and tonight i we have assembled [6:00] experts who have worked very hard through since march to plan for this [6:06] school year and there are people aren't at this virtual q a [6:11] who also work very hard but i'm going to introduce who is here we have chris holden from normandale [6:16] elementary we have jeff jorgensen from special ed we have our director of teaching and learning [6:22] jody d st hubert principal katie mahoney from highlands we have our [6:29] our health coordinator mary hyman we have our director of communications mary whiting [6:35] we have our technology coordinator nathaniel lindley assistant superintendent randy smazel [6:41] and you also you just heard me say thank you to zach horn who is our tech uh specialist tonight running the um [6:48] running the technology for us so uh tonight um we're gonna keep this [6:54] uh conversational and um i'll be asking our experts the questions that [7:00] you as parents sent in um and i'm going to start by what brought us to this point um what [7:08] brought us to this point was a pandemic caused by covid19 [7:13] our mission in schools is to educate children to give them engaging learning [7:19] experiences but we also know that kids learn best in a safe environment so [7:24] this year with covet we have to ensure that we have safety are as a priority [7:32] as we look at protecting our students and our staff so uh i'm going to begin [7:39] to talk about uh what put us into what we call the hybrid and the virtual [7:45] so the statement we work very closely with the state of minnesota the minnesota department of health as well as the [7:51] minnesota department of education and throughout the answers and the responses to the questions you'll hear [7:58] some of those protocols that the department of health and department of education are asking us [8:05] to implement come through in the answers so we started out by looking at [8:12] the numbers from hennepin county and uh in the numbers up from hennepin [8:18] county as it relates to the virus we look at the 14-day average of a number of cases [8:26] per 10 000. so last week we looked at the two-week average and in [8:31] hennepin county there was 19.49 cases per uh 10 000 people in hennepin [8:38] county and that has gone down from a high of 24 [8:44] about three weeks ago it did go down again this week we get our numbers on thursday and it went down to 19.21 [8:53] cases per ten thousand so a decline still staying staying fairly [9:00] flat the state of minnesota tells us that at that number our students can be [9:09] um uh both hybrid so it's it's actually at the breaking point [9:14] uh both hybrid 20 to less than 30 cases puts us both [9:19] hybrid so when we started out we were clearly in both hybrid category the numbers slightly dipped below 20 [9:27] last two weeks and it doesn't mean it's an automatic into the next scenario we have other [9:36] things that we have to ensure so the other piece we have to ensure is that we have the protocols in place [9:42] and we are working on that it's been very successful at the secondary next week we will uh implement the [9:49] protocols with the elementary so there's two parts to making the decision on [9:54] in-person hybrid or distance one is to ensure that the 14-day case rate [10:01] per ten thousand the second is the ensure that we can implement the protocols so we will be [10:08] monitoring these numbers every week and we also will be working closely with [10:16] the department of health and the department of education in making the decisions different model [10:24] but that is not going to happen in the near future [10:29] we will make that move when we have more confidence in the numbers the [10:35] numbers stay where they're at and they're continually going down we will listen to the department of health and we also make [10:41] sure there are protocols in place so that's what put a those numbers uh [10:46] put us into uh both a hybrid uh in both the elementary and our middle [10:52] school and our high school in addition to that we also have implemented protocols [10:59] we have all of our of our all of our buildings have got signage that [11:06] remind people of masking as well as the six foot social distancing we have markers on the [11:13] floor we have markers on the floors in our schools that direct kids in a particular [11:20] direction to ensure that we maintain social distancing and we also have classrooms [11:28] uh spaced out to allow for that six feet between students as well as the six feet between [11:34] our staff so that's a little bit of background on uh how we got uh to both hybrid uh we all program [11:43] edina virtual academy so some questions came in on the dynavirtual academy and [11:50] so we have a hybrid and a virtual so we will implement those two scenarios [11:58] i will have to say this week it has been implemented very well at the middle school and high school and [12:04] my travels through those schools uh kids and teachers were engaged i also [12:09] know that in the virtual uh kids were engaged in um meeting teachers and um getting oriented [12:16] to to the school year so um i'm going to begin asking the questions that um [12:24] uh parents have sent in um i'm going to uh ask the staff to [12:31] be sure to add more to what i mean what i just added there's um this is a complex [12:39] complicated uh piece of uh complicated system to communicate even [12:45] in a regular school system it's it's complicated to communicate but i want to make sure that [12:51] the staff here have the invitation to add more to what i've said so um we're going to start [12:59] talking a little bit about what the decision making around the models i'm going to add [13:06] i will talk about what happens when we have a covet outbreak we're going to talk a little bit about this [13:11] these protocols um we have some questions from special education [13:16] um of course we have uh technology questions uh and uh several of us can respond to [13:23] that we also have uh instruction excuse me questions from or about the instructional models [13:30] which include the virtual academy as well as distance learning so with that i'm going to [13:39] begin and i'm going to uh the question is we have two models running right now we have a [13:46] virtual model and a um hybrid model and i'm going to address [13:52] this assistant superintendent randy smazel um the question comes up is [13:58] how how do we allow for shifting between the learning models [14:04] at each of the grade levels thank you john good evening edina [14:10] families first of all we're excited for this opportunity to answer some of the questions that you [14:16] have sent in and we appreciate your partnership and your time as we go [14:22] through and process these and continue to collaborate to build a really great experience for our learners this year we [14:29] did offer families a choice of these different models as john mentioned early in august and we asked for [14:36] families to commit to their choice for the first semester of the school year [14:41] we've been processing those choices and we now have aligned our staffing we've aligned our [14:48] teachers we've aligned our class list to the choices that families had submitted we do understand that families [14:55] were submitting those choices with limited amounts of information and we also understand that [15:01] depending upon what families chose it also affected how we would program moving forward and [15:08] and that goes back to the point that john mentioned around the complexity of [15:13] problem solving and meeting these needs and designing these two new models for our school year [15:21] so when we look at the numbers we see that about 23 percent [15:26] of our elementary students are participating or signed up for the virtual academy experience that [15:34] meant that we had to assign about 33 teachers to teach those courses we have teachers teaching [15:40] all grade levels in the dynavir academy at the elementary level and there's about five or six different [15:48] teachers per grade level across those different grade levels and across the district for the most part students are in [15:55] course they're in classes with their peers from their home or neighborhood school but in some cases [16:02] that just simply could not work because of the numbers and so we do have some sections [16:08] where students are mixed across different schools we do look at the silver lining in that [16:14] in that they do get a jump start on meeting some students that they'll be going to middle school with so there's definitely a positive and it [16:20] is an opportunity to expand their social circle with kids that they know so we really do try to look at some of the positive [16:26] elements of that if we looked at middle school 26.5 percent of the students signed up for [16:34] virtual learning only at the middle school and about 25 percent at the high school in total we have about 2050 of our edina [16:41] students signed up for peer virtual learning and about 6 300 signed up for the hybrid learning so [16:50] it's it's a it's a fairly large number uh what the virtual academy looks like [16:55] at elementary is is quite a bit different than what it looks like at the secondary level and we have explained previously in the [17:02] board meetings a little bit about that but if we have some other specific questions to that we'll speak to a little bit later today [17:08] so with all of that and knowing all of that and knowing that we've had to try to staff [17:14] this with our class guideline policy and use that to follow at the [17:20] elementary level we have achieved a pretty tight balance between [17:25] our teachers and our sections in the eva elementary and in our hybrid sections our hybrid sections are also limited by [17:33] the amount of space that we are allowed to have students in at the schools and we basically built [17:40] out a template for a six foot diameter space for every student in every [17:47] classroom and it really told us what our capacity is for those rooms and so we have achieved a balance between the [17:53] hybrid and the eva and so with the start of school we're no longer accommodating any [17:59] requests to make moves between those two models the models have been staffed [18:04] and again we've asked families to commit to that first semester there may be some situations where a [18:10] student is covered positive or maybe a person at home is covered positive and a student [18:15] needs to stay home for a period of time and we would see that as a temporary [18:22] homestay where they would be working in their classes from home and they would still remain with their hybrid peers and they would [18:28] return after that quarantine period is done for kindergarten they may join [18:34] a kindergarten virtual academy classroom for part of that time [18:40] but then once that is that time period is done then they would return back to the [18:45] hybrid learning experience uh at the secondary level also again [18:51] we're um asking for no more uh requests to shift from one model to the [18:57] other it is a little bit easier for us to shift students from hybrid to eva at the high school level and at [19:04] the middle school level but um at this time not the other way around so we're trying to stay with [19:12] what has been requested we've staffed it and we're ready to start the school year [19:17] from a staffing perspective around that so i hope that answers that question john thanks randy uh [19:24] a question came in there are there any plans returned to school more than two days per week are we making plans for four day week return [19:31] assuming milestones are met and what are those milestones so we are uh being we will [19:37] uh being directed and guided by actually the minnesota department of health but also i need to bring in our [19:43] close partner the bloomington public health department and they work closely with us [19:49] on when we can safely shift into a more [19:55] in-person model if you will face-to-face setting [20:00] we want to be sure that we're placing kids into groups that are safe as it stands right now we [20:07] have no plans to shift to a four-day week or into an in-person model but it is something that [20:13] we will be monitoring and something that the state will be monitoring the milestones that i think we would be [20:19] responsible for measuring is whether we maintain our protocols uh making sure that [20:27] what interactions and the movement of kids within the school are safe [20:33] so that we can continue to mitigate and keep the virus load low so [20:40] i as the superintendent i wish kids were in school six days a week i [20:46] really want to get kids back into school but i also want to keep my keep the students safe i want to keep [20:53] the staff safe and most importantly i want to keep families safe so i really uh rely upon [21:00] the direction from the department of health so shift uh shift from that decision making [21:07] into a little bit more about what happens when we have a positive [21:13] test i'm gonna read some questions and mary hyman are our school district uh health [21:20] coordinator and just a invaluable person through all this uh gonna respond to this so the question is [21:28] if my kids are in hybrid classroom at united high school what need to stay home due [21:33] to a positive virus do they need to notify someone of the temporary change in plans [21:41] thank you yes when you when you um so we have students that may [21:47] be staying home that might be positive for covet or maybe they've been exposed and so they're home for either 10 or 14 [21:54] days or potentially more than that it'll be dependent on the exclusion guidelines [22:00] but what you need to do is just call your attendance line at your school and just notify them [22:08] that you know the the student needs to be switching from the hybrid model to eva and and then [22:16] someone from the school will be contacting you because it might be that we're not we're not we didn't [22:22] realize you have symptoms or maybe the symptoms are one of you did a screening and you [22:28] need to stay home um and so we'll be having to call you from the school that will [22:34] probably be one of the school nurses or health services staff and and then uh we'll be moving forward [22:42] just maybe with a classroom teacher or depending on the grade level um if that'll be homeroom teacher it'll [22:48] be just depending on the grade level but yes and um you know because a student if [22:54] they're home with symptoms they might be too ill to actually participate and do [22:59] to do school work or they might be just needing to stay home with minor symptoms and still be able to [23:06] do school work so those are the the things that will talk you through it and um but the first [23:11] thing would be to stay home and then we'll move forward with the attendance clerks and [23:16] then they'll go forward from there at the school site oh john i just this is katie can i just [23:23] add something because i know this is an elementary audience and i just want to make sure we're being really clear [23:29] that in elementary if you have symptoms and are staying home and you're in the hybrid model you will [23:36] not switch to the eva model while you're at home um [23:41] quarantine or with symptoms i just want to make sure that that's really clear for our elementary families [23:46] there won't be an actual switch into eva you would just remain in remote learning um in hybrid and [23:52] communicate with the homeroom teacher and our and our health associates for next steps [23:58] great clarification katie thank you uh mary if a covert exposure is determined what will the what what's the communication plans [24:06] um well we actually worked through that um a little bit today at the high school so um it's actually fresh and this is uh [24:13] this is definitely a real thing um so we we've put together a [24:18] step-by-step process that we're still continuing to work through it at the elementary and the secondary [24:25] level so um you know the calls have been um coming through the attendance line or [24:31] maybe a parent calls and speaks with a classroom teacher or somehow the school is cut contacted [24:38] and then from there um we're going to be connecting with the parent or the guardian and then um [24:45] doing some more this would be probably this licensed school nurse calling going through the questions that we have [24:52] um uh the minnesota department of health has given us some guidance questions about um [25:00] type of symptoms we go back 48 hours into when when was the last time they [25:07] were at school if they were at school did they participate in any extracurricular [25:13] activities um you know how did they get to school are they do they come in that school bus [25:19] are they in a car pool um are their siblings and then from there um we go back to [25:26] the um the administrator and the principal group and um and then we we come together with [25:33] the communication plan um part of that is also we have to figure out where [25:38] how did as a family where are you um uh are you calling because your student [25:46] was exposed and is now positive and then um you know we kind of have to do some [25:51] real investigation on that work and then from there we will work with the communication plan and message out [25:58] to the whole school or possibly it's just a small cohort of of the 20 group of 25 students [26:06] and then if there's anyone else that needs to be notified there because they might be a close contact it's um [26:14] it's a lot of this will be on a case-by-case basis but within that like today for example we [26:21] worked with the minnesota department of health and bloomington public health and they gave us some examples of who [26:27] might be some of the close contacts and we follow the exclusion guidelines [26:33] that are set by the minnesota department of health and so there's multiple pieces that [26:38] we're relying on and then with all that in mind work with the principles and get a [26:43] communication out to you with the families okay thanks mary um i think you [26:49] addressed the next question read it anyway what will be the protocol if there's a coveted exposure in at any school in the united school [26:56] district is their entire school shutdown partial school shutdown so that's really going to depend [27:02] upon the individual case and uh how many [27:10] individuals came in contact or uh entire school shutdown would be [27:17] there's a large number of students that have that are infected could we do a partial [27:22] school shutdown it could be just the group of students or a couple groups of students that came [27:29] in contact with a person who was positive so we would work real closely with the [27:35] department of health and bloomington public health to make a [27:40] decision on whether a school a classroom a group of students athletic team [27:48] uh needs to be uh that needs that that activity needs to cease so i don't know if you [27:53] want anything more to that mary and some of the some of the the key things that you've probably heard so [27:59] much about our social distancing wearing a mask and um [28:07] oh my gosh what's the other one hand washing but when when we when we do a lot of the [28:12] investigation as far as a close contact it's um what was the length of time was it [28:19] was the length of time you were with the person that we know now is positive was it greater than 15 [28:25] minutes and was were they less than six feet distance um incline and contact so those are the [28:32] two the two questions along with were they masked but um so if you're wondering about close [28:37] contacts we actually have the mdh exclusion guidelines on our website [28:43] under coven monitoring and the safe um the safe learning spaces [28:48] so um a lot of the these things that i'm talking about are definitely already on the website [28:54] good um i'm gonna address this one to chris holden mr holden from normandale will [29:00] kindergartners stay distanced in the classroom will each child stay at their desk the majority of [29:05] the day at that age interaction is so important i'm trying to get a sense on how their [29:10] day will look yeah so uh to the best of our ability we'll try and maintain social distance [29:17] of six feet for kindergarteners and staff but obviously young kids they do need to [29:24] move so our teachers are ready to provide movement breaks for the students throughout the day [29:30] at normandale our students will be moving from uh their classroom to a companion room [29:37] regularly just to get the wiggles out we'll be taking outdoor breaks we do have music art and phy ed [29:44] scheduled into their day so we know that they they need breaks and they need movement but we also want [29:49] to do our best to maintain that social distance whenever possible [29:55] thanks chris uh i'll give this one to katie mahoney from highland elementary um will [30:02] teachers have plexiglass or a berry between them and the students so it kind of depends on the teacher in [30:08] general um we plexiglas is not one of our mitigation strategies as mary just [30:14] mentioned um masking six feet social or physical distancing and hand washing are our main priorities [30:22] for mitigation we are um and we will be practicing that [30:28] a lot uh next week with kids as we launch the school year we will be really doing [30:34] a lot of work with protocols around all of those mitigation strategies and [30:39] some of our staff especially like our front office staff and any staff that has to do more [30:46] um more a close kind of intervention or testing like our multilingual teachers [30:52] or our access teachers or our speech and language teachers if they have to um and our health associates if they are [31:00] um potentially unable to keep the six foot of distance and it could potentially go longer than [31:07] the 15 minutes then we are trying to have plexiglass available for them but we [31:15] in a general rule our mitigation strategies are really masking the six feet of distance um for note for [31:23] um for no you know not being under six foot of distance for longer than [31:28] um that 15 minutes and then hand washing as well thanks katie and we've mentioned [31:35] masking a couple times and there was a question i think i'll insert here why are some students exempt from wearing face [31:41] coverings and mary can you answer that yes um there are um [31:47] in policy 308 which is um the edina school board recommendations [31:54] for masking and they follow along with all the recommendations from the minnesota department of health but [32:00] there um if uh there are some um areas of students that's um it's really [32:06] just very very difficult and are exempt from wearing a mask so it's for students that aren't able to [32:12] wear them due to developmental behavioral and medical condition um and so if um i was actually just [32:19] reading from the policy so if there is a student um that also is [32:24] younger and is not able to say to from a developmental standpoint they're not able to take their mask off by [32:31] themselves we just have to really monitor to make sure that they're breathing you know safely and that they're [32:37] comfortable under the mask and when i say comfortable it's because they might have some other condition [32:43] that um we just need to be um you know be more watchful over and um you know for students that are [32:51] right now maybe having just a little more difficulty getting used to that mask you know we're really just trying to build [32:58] some masking tolerance and through um just through some recommendations of [33:05] how the teachers are at the elementary group are working so hard on so those are the things that we're [33:10] working on but um you know the the american academy of pediatrics is really not [33:16] writing or recommending too many exemptions for masking and so there are those are those are the [33:24] limitations from a physical developmental and um you know those sorts of conditions but [33:29] um you know we're trying to try to work on that and so far it looks to really be [33:34] very they're doing a great job thanks thanks mary uh mr holden how will [33:41] staggered opening and closings work for hybrid students yeah so um we have a lot of kids coming [33:48] into our buildings on any given day and our plans are to stagger the arrival and dismissal of [33:55] students to spread them out uh in those hallways as they're moving uh either to cars or to buses so we'll [34:02] take the example of normandale most of our buses arrive at the same time in the morning [34:08] so we'll have staff outside on the frontage road releasing students from the buses in a staggered fashion so that [34:14] they can get through the hallways without crowding uh and without um uh sort of not without [34:22] getting in each other's way uh same thing at the end of the day we'll be dismissing kids from their classrooms [34:29] so as buses arrive we'll um release those students whose buses have arrived and students whose buses have not [34:35] arrived they will continue to wait in the classroom until their their bus number is called so in that [34:41] fashion we're able to stagger the dismissal and maintain a little more social distance in those high traffic times [34:49] thanks and uh katie um how long are you expecting or how long [34:54] should we be expecting pickup and drop off to take um can you compare what do you expect um [35:02] as comp and how would you compare to next year from what you're expecting yeah i mean i i can just um also just [35:09] say from what chris just explained about normandale that sounds pretty similar to what is also happening [35:15] at highlands as well as other schools and we um you know i i really think we'll get [35:21] it down um fairly quickly our buses because we are now early start [35:27] uh our buses are there waiting for kids right at dismissal so we're really lucky now [35:32] that our kids can come out of their assigned doors and walk to the buses that are waiting [35:38] for them get on the buses and the buses pretty much leave right away or want to leave as quickly as possible [35:45] from highlands or from any of our schools and so then we can start to um really [35:50] move the parent pickup line along so like chris just mentioned we have a lot of [35:55] changes to the staggering and to how kids are exiting or entering the [36:00] buildings i know at highlands this year we're using we're utilizing all seven of our doors [36:06] and kids are entering the door that is closest to their classroom and staying right in that pod area with [36:13] their classroom spaces so that's a big change at highlands and i know [36:18] a lot of the other buildings are doing the same and so i think there's a lot of changes but i really think [36:24] after the first few weeks we'll really get it down and it will be like clockwork um as it [36:30] always is we are really asking parents to not come to the schools early [36:37] um we have a lot of parents that like to start those carpool lines really early and i know i've been communicating to [36:43] hyland's parents now for a few weeks that um school ends at 2 25 and we are really [36:50] asking parents to not be in the carpool or the pickup line until at least [36:55] 2 15. please do not come to the building before 2 15. there's just a lot of buses [37:01] that need to come in and out and that will help us move things along quicker so we really [37:06] appreciate the partnership and we know we can do this um we can get it down quicker if we all work together [37:13] so thanks katie so the next question oh go ahead i think another thing to keep in [37:18] mind is um so our capacity is normally you know five to 650 students in a building but [37:25] we'll be at half capacity on any given day so even if the numbers uh for parent [37:31] pickup go up we're still we're still probably going to run a little bit lower than [37:36] normal just because we only have half of our students in the building and half of the families picking up on any given day thanks chris good [37:43] point um well next question uh most schools are their own building normandale elementary is in a shared building with [37:50] both early learning and edina community center so does normandale have its own air [37:55] air ventilation system that is separate from the other program areas and yes it does uh all any dyna are divided up into [38:04] multiple ventilation zones uh so for example normandale which primarily occupies the [38:10] entire second floor even has multiple zones so um they do have separate zones and they're [38:17] separate from the other program areas and in addition to that [38:23] our buildings and grounds director will tell us that in any in a normal year we would [38:31] uh manage the air coming in and the air going out depending on [38:36] the air temperature outside and heat that air to make sure that we are energy [38:42] efficient in this year we are opening up our ventilation system so it uh maximizes um exhausting that air [38:51] in the school system out into the atmosphere so um we are [38:57] really controlling our air ventilation in our schools the other question that came up was um [39:03] what is transportation doing with regards to keeping [39:10] kids safe from kovid so we have about 50 percent of all [39:15] students will be transported um uh this the buses themselves will be [39:21] running at capacity there will be no more than 35 students on a bus [39:26] um the kids will load from the back to the front to minimize [39:33] passing by other students all siblings will be sitting together we will have one student per seat [39:42] with the exception of siblings no one sits behind the driver windows and roof vents are open and [39:49] masking everyone wears a mask as required for cleaning we disinfect the [39:54] high touch areas between runs the handrails the bars and the backs of seats and then twice a day [40:03] all the morning routes and again after all the afternoon routes the buses are sanitized [40:08] using electrostatic foggers so um as katie indicated with uh pick up and [40:14] drop off you know give give us a few weeks uh around um you know around september 21st [40:21] we will begin to look to see if we need additional routes there has been some requests for that but we're going to wait and see how [40:28] how our students use the transportation going to school so that's [40:35] uh the questions that we got from safety with facilities and protocol i'm going [40:40] to shift to special education and ask [40:46] jeff jorgensen to talk about starting out with what level 4 plans or ieps or those waiting [40:52] for evaluations how will children with disabilities receive the supports and services [40:58] they need so so obviously covet has been a struggle for all of us and for special [41:03] education obviously for students that need that additional support those additional hands-on types of services this has been [41:09] a real challenge and so we've we've worked very hard with our teams and our teams have [41:14] been reaching out to families to try to develop plans to maximize the amount of in-school time that we have with our [41:20] students but also then to enhance our services online many of our services that last [41:26] year during the distance learning model were largely in direct types of services [41:31] have now been changed over to more direct which means face to face with the teachers whether that be [41:36] uh the students being in person face-to-face or whether that's virtual face-to-face so we've enhanced a [41:43] lot of our services to provide more opportunities for students to get directed learning and so those services for students with [41:50] ieps and with 504 plans those that require additional services accommodations and sports [41:55] we're working through that in the teams that serve the students to enhance those services to maximize [42:01] direct service time and to really make a solid plan for how to move forward with assisting students in making progress on [42:09] their on their goals how will they receive those services and supports well again randy's talked about [42:14] you know the the number of students that we have that are on virtual learning and those that [42:19] are also in the hybrid model uh right now in the hybrid model uh that's the the best percentage of our [42:25] students but we do have a number of our special education students and 504 students that are accessing virtual [42:31] services and that that becomes a larger challenge for us to receive [42:36] or for students to receive some of the services that they need and so we we're working very hard with [42:43] both dhs and with the minnesota department of education and making sure that we're getting those students the free and [42:49] appropriate public education that they need that's going to look different for every single student the other thing that i'll talk about is [42:55] just the evaluation plans that that we are executing so whether or not a student has been in a virtual learning [43:01] model or they are in the hybrid learning model face-to-face our school psychologists and evaluation teams have [43:08] had the go-ahead to begin those evaluations so students that were awaiting evaluation process [43:14] are now being evaluated i talked to one school psychologist just today who said they they completed three evaluations within [43:21] the last two days and uh and that's pretty rapid uh for the evaluation process to be [43:27] completed over just a couple of days of connection points with students so we are seeing a higher number of our [43:33] students being evaluated and those that were put on hold last last spring have first priority those [43:38] that are coming in that need evaluation will also be receiving that evaluation as they come due [43:45] as for both 504 plans and for individual education plans or qualification for special education [43:53] uh and jeff we uh have students who need the one-to-one support or they qualify for [43:58] uh pca services maybe you can tell me what pca the assistant services in their homes um [44:05] will the dyna cover this cost or whereas mde currently dhs won't let families use pcas [44:12] or parent pay for distance learning but the child qualifies and parents just desperately need this to help their [44:18] child through the day at home so personal care assistant or personal care attendant [44:23] is what pca is is standing for it's uh it's a term that is is utilized by the department of [44:30] human services quite regularly in terms of providing pca waivers so that students [44:36] can access additional supports within the home there's a qualification process [44:41] that parents need to go through in order to get those services and uh and yes we i was just in [44:48] discussion with dhs this morning along with many adina parents and our representative heather edelson i [44:54] am talking with both dhs and mde on this very issue because we we do know that the pca [45:01] services tied to the department of human services uh has been has been challenged in terms of [45:07] that when students are in school those pca services are not available and so students that have chosen either [45:13] hybrid that are in the hybrid for you know two to three days out of school and those attending virtual [45:20] are at risk of losing those pca services and so one of the things that we've been doing [45:25] since uh mde has provided some additional guidance in this area is is trying to work with dhs and md to [45:31] come to a reasonable solution on how we can get the students the services they need [45:37] obviously the the county has identified these students as absolutely in need of supports and services [45:43] and that they've awarded pca vouchers to pay for those services and now the now we're as we're walking [45:50] into the virtual model of school there's a challenge that the school should be providing those services as [45:55] well but that's not an easy shift and i will just be real transparent with that it's not an easy shift to make from pca services over to [46:02] one to one services in the home as a matter of fact the minnesota department of education has been very clear in their communications that none [46:08] of our staff can go out and serve within the home environment that is a [46:14] restriction at this point in time if we're in either hybrid or we're in distance learning uh our [46:19] staff cannot go into the home environments but there was some there was some guidance that came out most recently from mde [46:26] that talked about the possibility of schools contracting with outside agencies to provide some of those [46:31] in-home services um that is that that was a very gray area and and i know that from the time that that [46:38] went out on last friday until now we are we're working hard with minnesota department of ed to try to [46:45] clarify what that means and how that can actually take place um but the parents that are that are [46:51] struggling i think the most right now are those that are potentially learning losing those pca services during the course of the day so our [46:57] priority is to get that taken care of and with the assistance again of families within our community [47:03] with representative edelson mde and mdh we believe we're going to come to a [47:08] solution that will assist us with a lot of these families for students that are receiving need [47:14] that one-to-one support in terms it's on their iep or their individualized education plan [47:19] our teams once again are working very hard but we don't have good solid solutions yet for how to provide those one-to-one [47:25] services within the home um and so we're again working with families to the best we can in terms of [47:32] covering those support services when students cannot be in attendance with us at [47:37] obviously our ideal is that those students would be able to join us within the school but because of specific conditions and [47:44] because of parent choice those students may not be able to join us within the school we will be looking at each one of these on a case-by-case [47:50] basis and we will attempt to get those services out to the home if that the iep team deems [47:57] them as hugely necessary and students cannot be in attendance within the school environment [48:03] thanks jeff we're going to shift to technology so nathaniel lindley our [48:09] technology coordinator is here to um the first question is uh will edina [48:14] high school students be able to access outlets to plug in their laptops when they are at school [48:20] yes we ask that students bring their devices fully charged each morning and many of the devices will last all [48:27] day on a full charge with their battery but there are common spaces at the high school and in the [48:33] media center where there's outlets and accessible places for students to plug in should they need to okay [48:41] next question nathaniel is for elementary school students in the hybrid model if they do not have [48:48] a district device such as a chromebook at home but do have another another [48:53] device like a desktop computer should they be bringing their district device home [48:58] if so will they be bringing the device back and forth to school will they be able to charge it at [49:03] school kind of goes to the first question yeah that's a good question in elementary we do encourage the students [49:09] to take their device home each day that they're at school and leave the charger at home [49:15] so the same model of charge it up overnight bring it to school fully charged bring it to home at the end of [49:21] the day and charge it at night the difference is that the the district device [49:26] should if needed at home then it's there and available rather than leaving it in the classroom which is what we did last [49:33] year good um and this might be a question for our our principals [49:40] and um teaching and learning director with parents working from home in students learning from home bandwidth [49:49] will inevitably be stressed at times how will teachers handle these bandwidth issues for example if a student is in a [49:55] google meet but suddenly drops out due to bandwidth issues will they be able to make up the work [50:01] or access the lesson and will they be penalized [50:06] so um i i can answer that this is this is jody and i [50:12] um i i absolutely our staff will be understanding and supportive so [50:17] we we know that this will happen and when it does we will work with you and they will not the students will not [50:23] be penalized um so the opportunity to make up the work and collaborate [50:28] on um working around the issue will will always be present and and jody most of the um their [50:36] material will be posted on seesaw or schoology depending on what platform they're using right so they can [50:41] go back to that yes it will and we'll um discuss the best ways to record [50:47] lessons so that they can be accessed at other times as well thanks uh would there be an [50:55] upper limit of how long a student must be at his or her monitor by grade level as we don't want [51:01] young kids to sit on the laptop for long durations so um i know wants to take that [51:10] i can take that i think from our technology department our guidelines follow the recommendation [51:17] of the american pediatrics group and screen time we also differentiate [51:22] between good screen time that's interactive and learning versus passive screen time so [51:28] each grade is a little bit different but we try to follow those guidelines in terms of the expectation [51:33] great thank you nathaniel why must kids use district chromebooks we invested in a new hardware this [51:40] spring and have gotten comfortable using and navigating it um [51:46] from our point of view it's preferable if the students in grades three through seven use a district [51:52] chromebook because it's a common platform that we think is more reliable but a student is not prohibited from using a [51:59] personal device and on our e-learning squared website on the district website there's an [52:04] explanation of that the requirement is usually that the device they have can run the chrome [52:09] browser so that they can access google apps schoology and other resources in a common platform [52:18] um nathaniel will some of the app applications like ixl [52:24] con mr khan academy read works on student portals be made available again [52:31] yeah last spring a lot of companies gave us uh free access to tools and we took advantage of that [52:36] unfortunately now we're needing to pay for some of the access so ixl for example has been purchased a [52:43] subscription for grades three through eight and a few schools have purchased additional subscription licenses for [52:49] their students but generally applications that are available to students show up in the [52:54] portal and can be used that way okay um next question uh how do i view my [53:01] three kids schoology accounts is there a way to see their assignments and other info [53:06] without having to log in separately as each student yeah actually through our parent portal [53:13] there's an access to schoology and then um the parent has a log into [53:19] schoology which has some limited access to visibility to each of their students coursework and and things if there's any [53:26] questions about that we have the family dashboard on the website and there's some tutorials there about how to use [53:31] schoology or seesaw or the parent can email their teacher and ask questions [53:37] to make sure we have that visibility working good thanks nathaniel um [53:43] there's a question here nathaniel just on the general overview of schoology even though my kids are grades nine and [53:49] seven i'm i'm still often frustrated trying to navigate schoology and don't know how to receive [53:55] alerts or specific classroom information i can sympathize with that it's [54:01] sometimes hard to know which alerts are important and which ones aren't and [54:07] as i said on our family dashboard under technology there's some guidance on using schoology and [54:13] at that age level at seven and nine perhaps asking your student to help you look at your account because the [54:19] students are very good at navigating schoology and setting things up might be a strategy to sort of sift through [54:25] the information good okay we're going to shift now to talking [54:31] about hybrid and virtual uh the instructional models that we're implementing [54:36] and there are some questions related to that um going to start out with the first one is [54:41] why does my hybrid student have a virtual teacher when they are in an in-person in the classroom setting [54:50] randy do you want to address that sure i don't think we have too many cases of this at the elementary [54:56] level but there are certainly some situations and in some cases it's in the best interest of the district to have [55:03] the teacher teach remotely what we have done in those situations is [55:08] we also have there's other additional adult support in that classroom so [55:13] in a sense students in that classroom will get two teachers if you will and in some cases that might [55:21] that might go on for an extended period of time it might be the semester it might be the year in other cases it [55:28] might be for a shorter period of time or even a day or a few days there's a lot of factors that go into [55:34] planning out our staffing and where teachers are located where teachers are teaching from [55:40] and um and we have to address all of those factors so good and uh [55:47] i i guess there's some questions on the other types of programming we've we usually staff and provide students uh [55:55] and one question uh is will the young scholar program uh now take a back seat given where we [56:01] are we we are collaborating to make sure that the young scholar program does not [56:06] take a back seat so we are committed to providing that program and the services to our students [56:12] thanks jodi um well we now have more regular parent-teacher conferences [56:19] his parents now have to take a have to play a bigger part in in a child's education and i'm going to ask the principals to think about [56:26] this but i want to also but i also want to commend our leadership and our teachers for [56:32] having a pre-start school elementary conferences these these i think are very beneficial [56:39] the teacher gets to meet the families to meet the student before they come in the classroom there's [56:44] great benefit and actually some research that shows that impacts achievement so i just want to commend uh the work [56:51] that our elementary teachers have done this week and as well as our secondary uh teachers have done in [56:57] orienting students to um to the uh to their courses and their [57:02] subject matter so i don't know if you want to say more katie and chris [57:08] well i'll just say at normandale we've done early conferences for years and we've reaped the benefits of those [57:15] over the course of the school year we try and build positive relationships with families early on in the school year get the kids in the [57:22] building and to see their teacher in their classroom and find out a little bit more about them before they actually are [57:29] in our classrooms and so it's great that other buildings are able to do that this school year [57:34] i think our teachers would like to conference with families more it's always a question of how does that work with the calendar [57:40] and with their contracted days so that's something that we certainly would want to explore with [57:46] our teaching and learning department and our hr department going forward yeah and i i the only thing i have to [57:52] add is just that i think it's not it's not really a parent-teacher conference as much as [57:58] partnering with parents to keep learning and growing on how to do this to the [58:04] best of all of our abilities so i think one thing coming out of the spring that we learned [58:09] um is just that parents parents need support and parents need us to help guide them on how to do a google meet [58:14] with five-year-olds and how to um how does how this all works so just [58:20] thinking more intentionally around building those partnerships and working um together to support each other [58:27] in this important work of educating educating their children so that's more of what i think our focus [58:32] is and um and then it will be more typical parent conferences around how the students are [58:38] progressing um in regards to learning like they normally would [58:44] thanks thanks katie thank you chris um it was uh next question is relates to [58:51] tests and assessments it was always a difficult task to assess how well students are doing in class and this [58:57] problem is further exacerbated by the online approach should we expect more tests at regular intervals [59:05] enter doesn't drop i know jody and want to take that one what [59:11] we will definitely be um supporting our teachers and providing more regular assessments that are more formative type [59:19] assessments getting to know how the student is doing in the classroom on a day-to-day basis based on the instruction that was taught [59:27] recently so that that will be important to support teachers on how to do that in [59:33] a virtual setting and how to do that effectively and we're also working very um diligently [59:39] with an assessment committee to look at more standardized tests and um think through if they how [59:46] they will be used this year making sure that they're reliable and valid and that the information that they would [59:51] provide actually will help us guide instruction and correct me if i'm wrong jody we're still kind of awaiting what the state is [59:58] going to do with the mca tests and the tests that they would provide to students [1:00:05] you are correct in that and as we work on an assessment team and think through all of these questions we're definitely [1:00:11] collaborating with the state as well as other experts in other districts thanks [1:00:17] can we expect the district to begin to tailor the in-school virtual plan or the virtual [1:00:24] plan to meet the needs of the various ages of students and they're really [1:00:30] this question is pertaining to self-directed studies so uh randy do you wanna yeah i think if [1:00:38] i'm understanding the question correctly i will try and take a shot at answering it but [1:00:43] if i've uh not answered it correctly maybe some others can jump in if you have a different perception of what that question is [1:00:50] asking so we have these two models hybrid and [1:00:55] virtual learning at home or remotely and both of these models [1:01:00] are going to require are going to require greater degrees of student agency [1:01:06] than probably we've ever required in school but at the same time it's really [1:01:12] important for us to understand and know that our teachers are scaling [1:01:18] into teaching into these models we've never started a school year teaching in these [1:01:24] models and it's really important to offer patience and grace as our teachers are scaling into what [1:01:30] does it mean to teach in a hybrid model and what does it mean to teach in a virtual model [1:01:36] and what are we asking of students and there's going to be there's going to continue to be a lot of learning [1:01:41] about what's working really well and what's not working with these two models and a lot of adapting and use of [1:01:47] feedback from kids and use of feedback from families and from principals and from district [1:01:52] office etc to continue to modify and the experience and meet the needs of our learners so i [1:02:00] will say yes that will but that will be a work in progress as we are just getting [1:02:05] started and many of you know of course the elementary school day as you know it hasn't officially [1:02:11] um started other than these um partnership conferences that katie alluded to [1:02:18] so we're just getting started on that work so um we'll just ask that we need some time to [1:02:23] continue to scale into that thanks randy um i'm gonna read two questions that were sent in um and [1:02:30] really i think we addressed this uh earlier with mary's response to when a [1:02:36] student has a positive covid test um but this is this these two questions have a little twist to that will hybrid students be [1:02:43] allowed to connect virtually instead of hybrid for a day if they aren't feeling well enough to attend in [1:02:48] person if so how will they check in with teachers will teachers be looking for students in both places [1:02:54] online if not in class the second question is if my kids are in hybrids and expect [1:03:00] to be in the classroom at the high school but need to stay home due to a positive virus do they need to notify someone of [1:03:06] the temporary change in plans well they will not be absent but rather will do eva until they are cleared [1:03:12] to return to school so it's that hybrid student who who can't be in class [1:03:19] and would like to access the activities and the um instruction in a virtual setting [1:03:25] so i know randy do you want to talk about how that would happen and what would happen in that situation [1:03:32] yeah i think we spoke to it a little bit earlier this evening but basically the idea is [1:03:38] that if the student is not able to attend class face-to-face that they'll be still [1:03:44] attending or participating in their class or their grade level programming [1:03:50] virtually and they would continue to do that until a quarantine period of time is done and then they're [1:03:55] able to rejoin their hybrid peers so we would work with that family [1:04:01] through communications with the teacher communications with the school about what those student needs are and [1:04:07] we understand that that in most cases would be a temporary situation thanks randy um [1:04:15] have some questions related strictly to the edina virtual academy how will teachers make sure eva students [1:04:21] are fully engaged in the learning when not presenting in the classroom [1:04:28] jody do you want to take that yes i can do that um so so teachers are we're working hard [1:04:35] to support teachers and um in trusting themselves as room um while giving them grace as they [1:04:42] learn how to do teaching in in some new ways but they will be [1:04:48] um watching and connecting with the students and giving feedback on assignments [1:04:54] when students are giving those assignments the feedback will be given but also when students are [1:05:01] present in classroom through a google meet teachers will be watching for different engagement strategies during [1:05:06] that time so they'll use best instructional practices and and learn as they go and how to best connect with kids when [1:05:12] they are are virtually um in a virtual setting and not present with them [1:05:18] great um randy i think i'll take give you this next one um will eva work [1:05:24] exactly like in the spring since you were here in the spring um or is it going to be synchronous [1:05:30] remote classes for each subject or teacher with several touch points throughout the day between teacher and [1:05:35] virtual students are these video classes or just audio or recorded video [1:05:41] yeah so google meets will be our technology of choice that teachers will be using [1:05:47] it'll be a combination of synchronous and asynchronous learning experiences or i would say live teaching [1:05:55] live interaction and then work that students may be doing independently [1:06:01] they'll be both whole group small group there might be discussions there might [1:06:07] be individual conferences or individual conversations with parents and students [1:06:15] etc so it really will be a combination of a variety of different activities that the teachers will be [1:06:21] using uh there will be more and there is an expectation that there will be more synchronous or more face-to-face [1:06:29] digitally time for learners with their teachers than they [1:06:34] had in the spring there was a lot of asynchronous activities that they had done in the spring and i think our [1:06:40] learning from that is that families do want more of that synchronous learning opportunity [1:06:45] the live teaching the live connections and so we're working to build that into [1:06:51] that particular model now uh we also have uh instructed our teachers to you know [1:06:57] be able to record the google meet so there will be times of course we understand that students might not be [1:07:02] able to be present because they're sick or for a variety of reasons in which case that particular lesson [1:07:08] would be recorded and would be available there might also be lessons there will also be lessons that [1:07:15] are recorded ahead of time that will be in the different platforms schoology or sisa that um [1:07:21] families and students can access so some some lessons will be presented and pre um in a format that will engage [1:07:28] students in the learning and then follow up activities with that that's good thank you jody thank you [1:07:35] randy um we have some elementary questions i was going to throw out the whole group [1:07:41] what access will eva elementary students have to specialty teachers will these classes be led by their [1:07:47] assigned schools specialty teachers or does eva have different specialty teachers [1:07:55] so um our eva students will have access to art music and phi ed just like the hybrid [1:08:02] students in many of the cases uh they'll be [1:08:07] working with some of the same teachers that they had back in their home schools uh depending on how sections break out [1:08:14] there may be some uh sections that would be taught by maybe a countryside teacher to a [1:08:19] conquered eva section but by and large they're going to be familiar faces for our [1:08:25] students thanks chris um how will instruction [1:08:32] be individualized for elementary eba students or virtual students at different learning [1:08:37] levels so i i'll respond to this question and [1:08:44] it brings me back to some of our other responses that we'll be working very hard to understand and get [1:08:50] to know the students and providing as as as best [1:08:55] individualized and small group instruction as we can um supporting teachers and doing whole [1:09:00] group lessons and then moving to small group lessons and then moving to individualized lessons [1:09:05] and finding structures in order to do that within their day our goal of course is to get to know the [1:09:11] students and make move them along and make sure that their learning is maximized and they're growing at the rates that they should be and [1:09:18] elementary eva students had uh conferences this week like our hybrid students [1:09:24] correct yes that is correct well and i also just want to add that elementary eva students will have full [1:09:30] access to our gifted and talented advanced academics teacher teachers as well as our intervention [1:09:36] staff for reading math multilingual and special education [1:09:41] so we really will first work to get to know our student and then provide the appropriate [1:09:47] pathways to make sure that they stay engaged and are learning in the right at the right speed [1:09:52] at the right level like we would if we were in person so someone could say something else [1:10:00] so katie answered the next question thanks katie i'll ask ask it anyway um what access [1:10:05] will eva elementary students have to other school specialists like uh gifted programming so i think [1:10:11] you already answered that yep um how will media [1:10:16] library book check out for eva elementary students work [1:10:22] um at normandale we have a day set aside for eva students to come in [1:10:27] and check out books and we're looking at wednesday so the initial model that we're trying [1:10:34] to run with is students would request books we would pull the books for them and we'd have [1:10:40] them available for pickup on wednesday good [1:10:46] um i think uh somebody talked about this but i'm gonna ask it again realistically how much [1:10:52] live learning time i probably would interpret that as face to face or excuse me not face to face but um [1:11:02] i'll leave it live learning time will an eva first grader receive [1:11:10] realistically i think as we're learning and growing that it's really hard to give a specific number [1:11:16] and i know that um that that's something that would be helpful for people to hear but nathaniel earlier referred to using [1:11:23] best research and guidelines in terms of having students on devices and so we'll continue to follow those [1:11:30] guidelines as he referred to that earlier and also think about best practice with instruction so if a first grader is in [1:11:36] front of us face to face we know that the focus time for them with a [1:11:42] large group instruction time is like 10 minutes at max right so the instruction um [1:11:49] that might be direct will be for short periods of time however then the teacher might still be [1:11:54] present in a variety of different ways in order to continue to support the independent work and the small group [1:12:00] work that's going on so we're trying to be very conscious and supporting teachers as they learn how to do this in a little bit of a [1:12:06] different way but also being developmentally appropriate for our students and their age ranges thanks joanie [1:12:15] i'm going to shift to a concern that you hear in the media that obviously [1:12:21] came through the concerns of edina parents and it's a real concern um i'm going to read these questions [1:12:27] give some responses but i'm going to ask jeff who's been doing an awful lot about social emotional learning [1:12:33] um and uh so the question one of the questions what social opportunities will eva elementary [1:12:40] students have um the isolation lack of play opportunities and no socialization has [1:12:45] been extremely hard for families will students attending eva have an opportunity to participate school organized safe in-person [1:12:52] socialization pod events will the school and district consider a plan to ensure young kids [1:12:58] have opportunities to learn and grow through flies safely where they are currently isolated due to [1:13:04] health and equity circumstances um the i just want to let all of you know [1:13:12] that youth enrichment through community education will be opening on monday and they are going to be offering a [1:13:18] variety of sessions with different times days and activities and with virtual and in-person options the programs are [1:13:25] putting together will provide the connection and the social interaction [1:13:30] that this person is asking and is also we know very important also our volunteer services um [1:13:38] department is collaborating with the united give and go to look at ways to involve high school students as mentors [1:13:43] and leaders for younger students they're exploring different ideas looking for any ideas that families may [1:13:48] have i'm going to give a name of cheryl gunnison community ed who's the contact and she said she's welcome welcomes [1:13:55] emails from anyone with ideas to share about how to help kids connect and how to support families [1:14:01] so cheryl gunnis and community ed can help with that but i'm going to uh [1:14:08] another question is one of the main benefits of schooling is getting kids to work in groups and social interactions are we planning to [1:14:15] have more presentation group presentations group activities to ensure that that [1:14:21] that they get the chance to interact and also that it doesn't hamper the development [1:14:26] of their socialization skills so i think jeff i'm going to just have you talk a little bit about social emotional learning [1:14:31] you've been i know you did some training with teachers um and just getting um [1:14:38] in response to this how we're approaching this yeah the the social emotional learning is is definitely challenged when we get [1:14:44] into the eva model and and again i think our individual teachers are the ones that are best equipped to handle a lot of the these [1:14:50] concerns that are coming forward uh so we've tried our hardest especially at the elementary level and also at the [1:14:56] secondary level to to really help equip teachers with some great strategies for helping with the engagement process with [1:15:02] our students engagement within the virtual setting there's a lot like engagement within a regular education classroom except you [1:15:08] don't get all the body language that you would otherwise get and it takes a little bit more effort in terms of the facilitation of the class to make sure [1:15:15] that students aren't being that wall flower in your classroom when they're on the screen together and so we really emphasize the need for [1:15:22] you know those optimistic openings and sharing uh sharing of experiences but [1:15:27] directed sharing in terms of truly trying to steer students towards um building those relationships with one [1:15:32] another and building those relationships with the teachers and so we've talked about our castle model just saying these [1:15:39] these are very essential practices that we want to have established in each one of our classrooms our teachers have already gone through [1:15:45] some of that training are benefiting from that training and then there's that second tier that [1:15:50] that students that may be continuing to struggle that as teachers are identifying those soft signs the students really struggling [1:15:56] with that social interaction there may be something else going on and so we've also set up a better continuum [1:16:02] of services in our in our tier two services which are those services provided by our social workers [1:16:08] and our psychologists within the system that are able to come in when teachers are needing some additional assistance [1:16:14] and ideas on how to engage students effectively and and also provide some direct service [1:16:19] to students if students are really struggling within the classroom and may reach out to parents and ask you know how we can be of assistance [1:16:26] in helping their students navigate some of the concerns that they're having that being said there's also that third [1:16:32] level of intervention that we have available which is our frasier services there are partner services for our co-located mental health services and [1:16:39] they're offering a full full service model online virtually to students and families [1:16:44] that are referred to them or are seeking access to those services so we've we've really been very [1:16:51] thoughtful in our process this year uh in terms of teacher preparation but also in [1:16:56] the maintenance of the continuum uh but the most essential element is again that our students are connecting not just [1:17:02] with the adult that is leading those classes but they're also giving those opportunities to interact with one [1:17:07] another and so that is an emphasis and i know that some of our principals can probably talk about that a little [1:17:12] bit better than i can in terms of what teachers are already planning what they're already doing but we know we have equipped them [1:17:18] with some skills to be able to effectively work with students and to identify those students that might be struggling [1:17:25] i do know that our eva elementary coordinator josh jansen did share um some resources and [1:17:31] lessons that the social workers have created with the eva staff today so that they have [1:17:37] those lessons for the tier one support that jeff is referring to and that he as a the coordinator is [1:17:44] really committed to supporting staff and making sure that we're looking through the whole variety of tiers and supporting our students [1:17:54] okay i know katie or chris want to add more to what you're seeing this i know we've had primarily [1:18:00] conferences this week are building those relationships but do you say anything more about the social [1:18:06] interactions that you expect to see so i think um [1:18:13] one of the pieces that our teachers are really cognizant of is that um our students are coming off of a [1:18:20] strange spring and maybe it's dream summer and so they're working really hard to [1:18:26] not only build those connections between kids but between themselves and their students [1:18:32] and provide some space and time for that to happen in an academic setting [1:18:37] all of our buildings are are working with uh sel curriculums and programs to [1:18:44] address some of those social emotional learning needs in a systemic way and those aren't those efforts aren't [1:18:52] new to schools it's just that they're more at the forefront right now [1:18:58] yeah i would say the same i think the energy right now is really relationship focused getting [1:19:04] back to school really getting to know kids again and um build that trust in those relationships [1:19:11] uh in the classrooms in order to get back to learning um there's a real art form to this that [1:19:16] teachers are pretty masterful about um and that is already been the pulse in the building this week [1:19:23] um is just really welcoming students and families back and i'm getting excited about uh all the [1:19:30] changes and embracing that um as our new normal and then [1:19:35] trying to find the silver linings and um and just uh and one of the big silver linings is [1:19:40] that we actually are lucky enough to be in person um there's a large number of us that get to be in person [1:19:47] and and we're we're really lucky uh that we get to do that so we're trying to focus on the silver [1:19:52] linings um and build those relationships so that then we can have the trust to get back to learning okay well uh [1:20:01] thank you um for your uh expertise and your thoughts time [1:20:07] planning that went into this i want to we are done with our questions i want to commend the [1:20:14] edina parents that brought these questions forward we we uh as a as a leadership team [1:20:21] and i know as our teachers know that the partnership between what happens in schools and with our [1:20:28] families is very strong in edina and for having the um uh [1:20:33] for the number of questions that um you've asked some the questions you're asking [1:20:38] or questions we've asked and continue to ask so our students will begin to engage in the [1:20:46] system we've put together and i'm sure they will begin to have questions um on [1:20:51] what were what we are delivering to um edina kids um i know [1:20:58] that we have worked very hard and are working hard to maintain a safe learning environment [1:21:05] and i am very confident that the students when they enter into their [1:21:11] classrooms will be in a safe environment with the talented edina teacher [1:21:17] um and and that teacher will guide them through a great learning experience this year so [1:21:24] we will continue to communicate what this what happens this school year [1:21:32] as well from listening to what is happening to our culture [1:21:38] as it relates to this virus a lot of this remains unknown but once we know something we will be [1:21:45] sure to communicate with you so thank you for your questions thank you for uh listening to our responses [1:21:52] again if there are questions that you still have i direct it direct you to your principal [1:21:58] and or your teacher as it relates to your student we want to be sure that we personalize [1:22:04] in the