School Committee: August 10, 2020

Transcript machine-generated with Whisper speech recognition (the source video has no caption track). No speaker labels; proper names and dollar figures occasionally misheard. Click any timecode to jump to that moment in the source video.

0:00 I’m willing to make a motion to approve the plan as presented from John. And I just trust that our educators are doing everything they can to get our students in as quickly as humanly possible. That’s not part of my mission at all. I mean, to be honest, I think that we’ve data laid it out to have a commitment of phasing in K-3. So accept it as is with a commitment to phasing K-3 as soon as possible. Okay, so what I’m hearing is, can I get a motion to accept the three-phase plan that John has presented this evening with a recommendation for continued consideration in allowing early learners to phase in before October 5th? So moved. David moved. Second. Emily second. I know we’ve talked a lot, but does anybody have anything else? I think the only thing, Megan, to just put out there, and I’m always really careful with how I compare the experience at Tower and what Tower can do versus an experience at a public school and what a public school can do. Because there’s pluses and minuses on both sides. But I, you know, as there’s a balance on remote, and it is difficult, and it is definitely more difficult for the littler kids, but I did see little kids, 3KK or second, third, engage, understand, and learn remotely last spring.

1:51 And we saw it even in sort of as we hobbled along in the public school, you know, every single kid didn’t not learn here. So I think, you know, there’s there’s very abilities in learning. I think, like it was said, we have to trust our professionals to be able to move this plan forward and really give it wings. And I don’t disagree with that at all. Like I said before, I think they are resilient and adaptable. I think they can learn. I do trust our teachers. I don’t think they can manage it on their own. And to its, you know, I just, I don’t think they can manage it on their own. And I think as the kids get older, they can. And it makes it a less, less burdensome on families. And I just think having that remote situation for those early learners who cannot manage it independently, logging on and off, that’s, you know, and then is it how effective is it for them at the end of the day? I do just want to say I said my two cents enough times now. I’ll give you five. The only committee member that had a kindergartner last year and has multiple early learners, I watched her learn how to read on Zoom. She had a reading tutor twice a week and she wasn’t reading when she went into it. And we had actually just filled out it.

3:25 People were, and they taught her to do it. They did what they were supposed to do. Was it ideal? No. Is it really hard to manage multiple young children at home at the same time? Yeah. Is it what I would ever choose to do? No. No. But I do have a problem with micromanaging now our administration and our teachers. I just, at some point, I think we need to trust people that they’re putting our children’s best interests first. And I’m not feeling that. I’m not kind of micromanaged anybody, but I am going to give my two cents because I feel strongly about it. But I’ll set it now. So, Emily. Just real quick, I think it’s important from what Sarah said that her daughter learned to read in the small reading group. Is that what you said? So I think this is an opportunity for our teachers for us to give them, give them the support that they can teach differently. Be creative. Step out of the box. Know that that’s going to be okay and that we support them all the way up to the top. That if they want to try something different, smaller classes, because that’s my daughter had one too, a reading group. And that was what saved her for remote learning. So I think if teachers know that we are supporting them in this, I think that they can come up with creative ways, hopefully in that short period of when they have to be remote to help them learn.

5:03 Because at some point they will be remote and they’re going to have to figure out a system and a curriculum that is going to work for students. So I think that’s important. I think that’s a really great point, Emily. And it was one that had kind of spun through my head at various points, you know, earlier today and yesterday of that. That the businesses and sort of the professionals who did best in all of this were the ones that got creative and were allowed to think outside the box and encouraged to think outside the box and really move whatever their specialty is and figure out how to make it work for them and for whoever they are marketing to. And now we find ourselves in this position of having, of sort of supporting our teachers and our administrators to be able to do the same for our kids. And I think that’s a really good point. I think just to follow on from that, and Emily, it’s exactly my point, is that there are constraints that this committee can help mitigate because we control, not control, but oversee policy and budget. And budget is given, you know, can be a constraint in these situations. So making sure that as a committee, we’re committing to supporting moving that forward. So I think that’s exactly my point. Like, if there’s a constraint that we can solve, let’s make sure we know that it’s there and talk about how we solve it.

6:34 Because that’s the piece, and maybe it’s because I’m not in these committees, but that’s the piece that, you know, I want to make sure we’re done. All right, well, we have a motion to spend seconded. Anything else? One clarification, John, did you say it was going to be optional for them to be in buildings or mandatory in this plan? That’s where it’s good to have such a close working relationship with Joan. I meet with her every Wednesday, and we will need to begin impact bargaining for a number of considerations for hybrid learning, remote learning, new modalities, people wanting leave. So it is my preference for teachers to be in classrooms, but I don’t think that I’m in a position tonight to say mandatory. Then I’m going to call for a vote. So Sarah Gold, yes. Sarah Fox? Yes. Megan Taylor? Yes. David Harris? Yes. And Emily Barron? Yes. All right. Thank you, everyone.