Cheri DeLacy called the meeting to order at 12:15

 

Pledge of Allegiance:  John Delaney led the pledge

 

Invocation:  I slept and dreamt that life was joy; I awoke and saw that life is service; I acted and behold service was joy!  Rabindranath Tagore

 

This speaks to the spirit of Rotary - simple and straightforward.  We are learning how to reengage ourselves and navigate unchartered waters in this time of COVID-19 and especially during these demonstrations.  All lives matter so we should be respectful, thoughtful, and understanding of those struggling with these emotional events.  We are grateful to Emily Beach’s work as she and her staff has helped us understand the situation and the way forward.

 

Program: 

Nancy Magee, San Mateo County Superintendent of Schools at the San Mateo County Office of Education, gave the talk and was introduced by Sheryl Young (thank you to Sheryl for getting us such an important and timely speaker).  Nancy Magee has a BA in English from San Diego State University and a master’s degree in Library and Information Science from San Jose State University.  Her first teaching job was as an English instructor and coach of the varsity boy’s water polo team and the boys-and-girls swim and diving teams.  She came to SMC ten years ago and took on cyber bullying and the bullying of children with special needs.  These were difficult problems at SMC schools 10 years ago.  She developed the “respect 24/7” program to deal with these challenging issues.  This was adopted throughout SMC schools in 2012.

 

Nancy indicated she is a red-badge member of the Rotary Club of San Mateo and can use this talk to check off of one of the items on her new-member to do list.  Her father was a lifetime Rotarian.  She thanked Emily Matthews for getting her scheduled to speak. The SMC office of education has developed a guide to safely reopen district schools this fall. We have webinars every day to get the 300 or so administrators at district schools ready.  They listen to the webinars to help them with their planning.  We prepared our Framework early and were pleased to find that it aligned very closely with guidance released by public health authorities and the California Department of Education.  Nevertheless, we combed through the state guidance to make sure we were fully aligned with it.  Nancy feels very good about the work everyone did and now there is a need to educate the community since everyone has an opinion regarding how schools should open.

 

As background, please consider that as of today in SMC there are over 2330 cases and those are surging due to increased testing and more opening of society and 94 deaths; social/school modifications are expected until vaccine use is widespread; the second wave is a threat, and 15-to 20% of families may opt to learn/work at home and this might continue.  

 

Here is a quick overview of the county wide Pandemic recovery framework for schools to reopen safely.  We begin with a discussion of the equity lens and doing this better, the four pillars of public health, examples of revamped school operations and the challenges ahead.  As regards equity, we need to do better for those who need more and try to balance access to opportunity since some students have plenty of resources and others do not.  We accomplish this by providing every student access to what they need when they need it so all have the best chance to be successful.

 

We have the four pillars of a safe return to school and these consist of health & Hygiene, face coverings, physical distancing, and limited gatherings.  As regards health & Hygiene, this consists of staying at home with any illness; building handwashing and cleaning routines into the daily schedule; conducting health screenings including temperature checks, and training for students (chance to educate them), staff, and administrators. 

 

As regards face coverings, we have found over and over again that if least 60% of the population wore masks that were just 66% effective in blocking transmission, the epidemic could be stopped.  The more effective the mask, the bigger the impact.  We will be recommending an incremental approach to wearing face coverings during class time, which will be for TK/Kindergarten students 25% of instructional time; first graders 50% of instructional time; 75% of instructional  time for second graders; and 100% of instructional time or as close as possible for third through twelfth grade students.

 

As regards physical distancing, the idea is to keep everyone 6 feet apart.  Ideas to strengthen stable environments by reducing the random mixing of students and staff (for the safety of both) as much as practical through practices such as a quarter/block schedule where students only take three classes at a time instead of five or six classes, which reduces teachers interaction  with students by half; students move less frequently by rotating teachers not students; and students have assigned rest rooms and prescribed play areas.

 

As regards limited gatherings, the classroom is not considered a gathering; however, groups outside the classroom are considered gatherings and all or most of them will be conducted virtually.  Future guidance will track SMC health advisories so when the county allows gatherings beyond 10 so will the schools.

 

As regards the Framework Toolkit, educational aspects include planners and administrators then teachers and staff, students, and the community.  Regarding school operations, consideration will be given to the already mentioned quarter schedule and block schedule, how to utilize outdoor spaces in unique ways; A/B groupings that is two different groups of students attend school at different times; focus on high need students for in-person learning; and virtual instruction from specialty teachers, and resource and support teachers.

 

All of this leads to the challenges ahead such as building teacher and staff confidence it is safe to return to school; coordinating child care, managing additional costs, especially for cleaning; supporting school-wide climate with different groupings;; engaging families; and responding to changing health conditions.  We may have to pull back a bit and then move forward.  We at the county school district offices have technical advice and can answer questions.  We also will be providing webinars.  Go to info@smcoe.org or call 650-802-5515. 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheri - wonders if the sectioning off students in separate wings of a buildings or the number of classes a student might take was to help with contact tracing? 

 

Answer - This helps with physical distancing and it does make contact tracing easier by limiting groups and movement around the school.  This limits the impact if someone was found to be positive and then a quarantine had to be instituted for the student grouping involved.

 

Jim – What will be the impact on sports?

 

Answer - Major league baseball was trying to come back in July but now that has slowed.  Colleges will not be playing football in the fall and this will trickle down to the high schools.  As a result, there will be no contact sports in the fall such as football. Cross country may be allowed depending on guidance from the CIF and local orders on gatherings.  We are encouraging physical education during the day especially outdoors.  We want kids to be working out and teams should be able to get out on the field and work on their conditioning.  Nancy does not think we will see competition and league play the way we are used to.

 

Emily – Do private schools follow the recommendations of public schools?   

 

Answer - All schools public and private must follow the health officer’s guidance.  Private schools are happy to follow the advice of the SMC Office of Education.

 

Cheri – Obviously, there are wide differences in teachers’ and administrators’ ages and demographics.  What are you doing for higher risk teachers and administrators? 

 

Answer – We use the CDC guidelines regarding higher risk persons 65 years and older and those with underlying conditions.  Superintendents and school leaders are surveying their staffs to find out who has concerns and who is comfortable coming back.  Those with concerns are worked with individually and can be accommodated in different ways –   some schools are developing a whole array of distance learning options and can let the at-risk teachers work remotely, or they can find other types of work they may do that would lessen risks, or they can consider various kinds of leave options.  Parents very much want their kids back in school and school district leaders are working on their plans and will have them out to parents in early to mid-July.  The most important thing is to follow the four pillars to ensure the safest environment possible for students, faculty, and administrators.  We also are giving families the option of having their children continue only through distance learning.

 

Cheryl – What do you anticipate will be the emotional and mental health needs of kids and what will be the impact of lost learning because of the early closing of schools this academic year and what resources will be available to address that? 

 

Answer – Given the way you introduced me, you know that the mental, social, and emotional health of children is primary for me.  We have done all kinds of work to help students stay connected during the time we worked using distance learning.  We also are going to be releasing a companion document to the framework that will be a mental health guide for supporting students and staff as they return to in-person learning.  What we believe is students are truly resilient number one and number two if they can come back to school in any manner, they will be happy to do that.  Some worry about the face coverings and whether that will inflict emotional damage to them but kids take their cues from adults so we need to be comfortable with face coverings and educate the students as to why we are using them.  We also to the extent we can staff up with counselors and planning to have curriculum addressing social and emotional needs.  Finally, we plan to allow the students to articulate their needs in varying ways through drawings, singing, writing poetry, etc.  Clearly there is a need in, and we are addressing it.  As regards the learning loss question, some students will have more resources at home and more access to information and those kids are going to be just fine.  The kids that were behind and are under resourced will receive our principal focus.  Some schools are doing pilot summer schools in small bubble cohorts of 12 only and other districts are bringing in additional tools and do assessments so you can target areas of greater need and address them with students.

 

Julius - I have a couple of questions.  Are you getting a lot of people retiring suddenly? 

 

Answer - yes, we are.  It is a time for people to reassess and some districts have come up with retirement incentives to make those decisions easier.   Also, CA schools are going to have a 10% cut in funding.  These two calamities are crossing over and we may need more staff and we lack the funds to do that.  We are trying to be creative in the ways we support our staff but yes more staff and faculty will be retiring. 

 

Julius asked a second question.  Some private schools are closing.  Are you getting a lot of students transferring from failed private schools? 

 

Answer – I think it is too early to tell.  We have not heard of a lot of schools closing yet but the possibility needs to be on our radar looking ahead. 

 

Bob Doerr – I wonder what questions children have about what is going on regarding COVID-19, and how will those questions be addressed at whatever level the student might be?  Also, are teachers being trained to deal with that? 

 

Answer – absolutely.  It is a really thoughtful question and the working group that developed the framework also worked on student materials for teachers to use to deal with student questions and to explain why school operations have had to change but that these changes are not permanent.  Child care emergency agencies have found fewer children getting sick from other illnesses because of the more germ-free environment that all of the actions to combat COVID-19 have helped create so in a way we are getting healthier.  We want to create games and songs of joy that will create a good student climate, and we have a team working on that at the SMC office of education. We will be working around the clock to develop a joyful and positive school climate so the kids will be happy to be back in school.  The kids will adapt.  They will follow our lead.  Bob comments on kids taking signal from adults and sometimes adults do not realize how critical those examples are.   Nancy responds they will follow our lead.  She goes on to make he point that these are extraordinary times and this has not happened to the American education system ever.  It is therefore really important they everyone pitches in and helps as much as possible.  School leaders really need community support.  When people get worked up on one issue or another this becomes a new emergency and takes time away from the really critical work that school leaders need to do.  If we do not do this going back to school well, we will need to pull back to distance learning so our support really matters.

 

Pierre – Pierre asks what is the coordination between you and private schools? 

 

Answer – yes, we are working will all the schools – public, private, parochial, chartered, and early learning communities as well.  All of our tools and training programs are available to all schools in the county.

 

Cheri thanks Nancy and tells her that she provided a valuable and thoughtful presentation and the club will donate 5 polio vaccines in her name.  Nancy response she is grateful and thanks everyone for inviting her.  Cheri goes on to mention that Pete Wanger who just joined the meeting is having a birthday today.  She also thanks Cheryl for the great work she is doing for the club.  She also thanks others who have joined the meeting.