Tonight #RPSBoard is having a meeting to discuss school reopening scenarios at 6PM. I’ll be live tweeting the meeting in this ⬇️ thread.
This is an article that explains the role of state guidelines about reopening in the discussion.
dailypress.com/news/education…
dailypress.com/news/education…
There has been some confusion about if public comment will be read at tonight’s #RPSBoard meeting. It’s not on the agenda but as of ~1PM on IG they posted that they are accepting public comments until 1PM. So what’s the deal RPS? 🤔
Oh look! Documents have been added to the agenda for tonight. I wonder when they were added because they sure weren’t there when I checked around 6PM yesterday. I thought the rule was they were supposed to be posted for public consumption 72 hours before the meeting. 🤔 
Now I’m looking at the documents. There were 6,839 people who responded to the family survey. Per the RPS website there are “nearly 24,000 students.” So that’s a 28.5% response rate. #RPSBoard
Of the family respondents, only 1,081 responded that their student receives exceptional education services. Only 334 responded that their student receives ESL services. #RPSBoard
I’ll post the closer up images once we are in the meeting but this is the family responses for each schedule rated from very unlikely to very likely. You can see that only one is an outlier for distaste and that’s the Saturday school option. Going to be hard to make a choice.
There were 2,374 teacher and staff responses. I do not have a count on how many teachers and staff members there are total in RPS to give a gauge on what the response % is. #RPSBoard
Interesting. A majority of our teachers and staff don’t have school age children but the majority of the ones who do live in the counties. This will come in as a factor of discussion as we talk about coordinating RPS schedule with the surrounding counties’ schedules. #RPSBoard
On the teacher and staff survey regarding schedules you can see a significant distaste in the Saturday option with the most favorable opinion of alternating days option and basically the same opinion on the other options. #RPSBoard
There are 60 pages of family survey responses to “anything else you would like to add.” There are 37 pages of family survey responses of alternative schedule suggestions. #RPSBoard
There are 39 pages of teacher and staff survey responses to “anything else you would like to add.” There are 24 pages of teacher and staff survey responses of alternative schedule suggestions. #RPSBoard
Okay we’re getting started. They just said there is no public comment so I guess whoever is in charge of RPS social media was totally wrong. #RPSBoard
For some reason the zoom meeting isn’t set up to see all #RPSBoard members at once and it is rotating through who is speaking. Not sure why this has changed from previous meetings but it’s a little jarring to have the screen constantly flipping.
#RPSBoard member Burke just joined.
He says there were over 4500 family respondents but I manually calculated the numbers and it was over 6,000 as mentioned in my previous tweet. So idk what’s up with that discrepancy. I wouldn’t be claiming lower numbers than 28.5% response rate. 4500 is only 18.75% response rate.
Maybe I did my math wrong. If so.... damn... 18.75% is a low response rate to be talking about for data to make such an impactful decision from. #RPSBoard
Here are the responses to the family survey for the 4 schedule surveys. Kamras notes even distribution among option 1. Says option 2 appears to have most support. Says option 3 was not popular. Again notes even distribution in option 4 but most chose very unlikely. #RPSBoard
Kamras notes that a significant number would be in support of a fully virtual schedule in the fall. #RPSBoard
Kamras says 1800 school based staff is a significant percentage of school based staff. #RPSBoard
Here are the staff results for schedule preferences. Kamras notes option 2 is the most popular with staff as it was with families. #RPSBoard
Kamras notes while most staff are comfortable or very comfortable with virtual education tools, most indicated they would like a half day or a day of professional development. #RPSBoard
Kamras says in his parent advisory group an idea came out based around equity that evolved option 2 where some students that need additional support (those with IEPs, ESLs, etc) would be given the option to come to school 5 days a week. #RPSBoard
Karma’s says option 2 with the equity enhancement is the administration’s leading recommendation at this time. He says at this time because by August, we may be in Phase 4 or Phase 5 and physical distancing may be relaxed at which point we may be able to bring all students back.
He goes on to say that as long as physical distancing is in place, they can’t bring all students back. #RPSBoard
His hope is for #RPSBoard to discuss tonight and then adopt a plan on July 9th. There are a number of health and safety things that have to happen regardless of how they open that are already underway.
Page wants to know if we have the person power to make sure the schools are sanitized on a daily constant basis. Kamras says a sizeable portion of the CARES money would go toward that. They have thought about short term additional custodial staff. #RPSBoard
They have a task force leading these preparations efforts that Hudacsko is leading. Hudacsko says each building is being prepped by custodians for a professionally contracted deep clean. They will also do an additional defogging of the buildings. #RPSBoard
They are also using some of the CARES money to buy some equipment like defogging equipment so they can do that ongoing in house. #RPSBoard
Page is now asking about temperature checks as part of the protocol when students and staff enter the building. Hudacsko says they have focused on building cleanings to date. The VDOE and CDC guidance does include daily checks though that the task force will focus on. #RPSBoard
Page asks how are we reaching out to parents from low participation schools to get their input? Kamras says Dr. Harris shared a communication plan a week ago (obvi that wasn’t in a public meeting so idk what that comms plan was). Kamras is now running through all the places
they plugged the survey. #RPSBoard
Kamras says he thinks the data gives a decent sense of what families are thinking and feeling. Plus on the staff front participation was very high. #RPSBoard
Doerr says she doesn’t feel personally equipped to make this decision in 9 days. She feels she is missing the perspective from the medical community. #RPSBoard
Doerr’s questions:
1) what is the VDOE required timeline?
2) who is admin working with from medical community to vet these options?
3) what is the cost? where is the state on supporting from additional funds? #RPSBoard
1) what is the VDOE required timeline?
2) who is admin working with from medical community to vet these options?
3) what is the cost? where is the state on supporting from additional funds? #RPSBoard
Kamras says they are working things out on cost and will have that to them soon—best chance for $ is federal stimulus package. Kamras offers to invite Dr Danny Avula to the next board meeting to offer medical community perspective. VDOE deadline is 10 days before start of school.
Young has reservations about picking winners and losers by picking who will be getting resources all students need. He is kind of rambling so I think this is his opposition to the equity approach Kamras is recommending. #RPSBoard
Young wants to know how many students we can get back in the buildings at a time. Kamras says the proposals were predicated on 50% but based on the surveys we know there are maybe 10-20% that won’t send their students back in person. #RPSBoard
Now Young wants to solicit families down and identify their preference instead of making assumptions for them based on their status and they can try to accommodate as many as they can.
......uhhhhhhhh what was the survey that got 18.75% response then? 🤔🙃
#RPSBoard
......uhhhhhhhh what was the survey that got 18.75% response then? 🤔🙃
#RPSBoard
Gibson wants to know more specifics about transportation. how do virtual hours count for classroom hours? Are they definitely giving folks the option to opt out regardless? How can we make this a more regional discussion? #RPSBoard
Kamras has met with central VA schools and has had convos with Cfield and Henrico (mostly Henrico). He knows Henrico is looking at a similar option to the one they are recommending but they have their own board. #RPSBoard
Barlow asks for a greater opportunity for public comment before a final decision is made so he would like one intervening meeting before a final decision is made. #RPSBoard
Barlow would like to hear a little more about what expectations they will have for staff every day. What about PPE? Will masks be provided for all students? What if a student shows up without a mask? What if there’s a COVID infection among staff or students? #RPSBoard
Page is still concerned about family survey participation. What is the mask requirement? Do teachers have the ability to opt out? What if teachers are exposed? Is there substitute support? She can’t see making a definitive decision on July 9th. #RPSBoard
Page is the 3rd board member who has expressed concern about making a decision at the July 9th meeting. Which, at the last meeting... they talked about how they weren’t supposed to meet til late July but that would be too late to make a decision so they added the July 9th meeting
specifically for the purpose of making this COVID reopening decision. #RPSBoard
Doerr would like a medical task force to advise them unless Dr. Danny Avula is the authority. #RPSBoard
Kamras asks if the SHAB could play that role. (That’s the School Health Advisory Board). Doerr says maybe but maybe augmented. #RPSBoard
Felicia Cosby just joined. #RPSBoard
Young has some real reservation about leaning too far on virtual initially because of a potential for a second wave forcing them that way. #RPSBoard
Cosby also wants another meeting before the vote but she says voting on the 9th. In any event.... this is a 4th board members that wants another meeting before a vote. #RPSBoard
Cosby is also asking about PPE. She’s now asking about drilling down on the capability of virtual tracking equipment to be able to drill down by school (in the spring it could only show unique log ins). #RPSBoard
Barlow lives with a COVID nurse. He says it is the black and Latino population being devastated by covid. He doesn’t want us to be operating under an illusion that we have made it past a first wave. #RPSBoard
Barlow thinks we should be framing this discussion around improving virtual instruction because the reality is we are going to have students and families and staff be impacted by COVID. #RPSBoard
I really don’t understand why board members ask all these questions and chair Owen just keeps it rolling to another board member for their comments instead of having the admin respond to their questions. What is the point of this meeting if they aren’t getting questions answered?
Burke would like to know what the scenario would be starting the school year with a virtual learning path? #RPSBoard
Burke says she could vote sincerely tonight but she has a heavy emphasis in her comments about the seriousness of COVID. #RPSBoard
LOL. Owen just brought up that they added a meeting for July 9th for this and didn’t have one originally. 😂
Gibson requests more of the details fleshed out posted for the community before the next meeting. #RPSBoard
Owen dovetailed off a convo Gibson started trying to get the board to get a nodding sentiment of the board of options that are plainly off the table. People weren’t really going along with it. #RPSBoard
Kamras jumped in and said that he is coming away from the meeting with the direction that he needs to flesh out option 2 with an equity lens. Owen says there is also a lot of interest in a virtual option. Kamras says that goes without question. #RPSBoard
Young brings up the impact of COVID disruption on mental health and the need to return to normalcy or something that looks like normalcy as soon as possible.
As someone who lives with mental illness and had to make the decision to reopen my office, I have a lot to say. 😣
As someone who lives with mental illness and had to make the decision to reopen my office, I have a lot to say. 😣
Page wants to reach out to more parents to receive more feedback. #RPSBoard
Doerr would like to organize a meeting with their peers in the counties. #RPSBoard
With that this meeting is adjourned. For now the next step is for Kamras to bring a presentation of option 2 (the alternating days option) with an equity lens (high needs students e.g. IEP, ESL, etc in classroom 5 days/week) and full virtual to a July 9th meeting. #RPSBoard
Honestly it seems like general consensus was that they would not vote at this next meeting and would add another meeting but there was no discussion of when that next meeting would be. #RPSBoard
Welp. Until the 9th folks....
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