January 11, 2021 at 5:30 PM - Board of Education Regular Meeting

Discussion (Visible on Public Minutes):  Our student representative, Skyler Stone, led us in a moment of silence in honor of Charlie McKenzie and for the lives that were lost on Capital Hill.  She also led the Pledge of Allegiance.

Discussion (Visible on Public Minutes):  Mrs. Robinson ask if anyone would like to remove anything from the Consent Agenda.  Mrs. McKay  states she would like to remove 2.D. Approval of 2021 Board Annual Agenda from the Consent Agenda and move it to the Regular Agenda. 

Discussion (Visible on Public Minutes):  -Laptops arrived for Cleveland Middle School.  Dr. Dyer wants to thank the technology team for  distribution.
-General Assembly Special Session on Education will begin January 19.  Some items on the agenda will be Funding, Teacher Pay, Accountability, Learning Loss, and Literacy.
-$2.9 million received from the bond issues for the PIE Center.  More funds are anticipated as those funds are drawn. 
-The new $900 billion federal COVID-19 Relief Package will meet the needs of students furthest from opportunity, supporting student well-being, making up lost instructional time, and capital improvements related to COVID-19.  The state of TN will receive $1.1 billion, CCS will receive $5.4 million.  The Board asks if this could help fund a summer program?  Dr. Dyer says yes it could be a part of this funding.
-Read 360 Program.  This is optional grants for access to tutoring and online supports, access to professional development and materials, and assistance with implementing strong reading instruction.  TN received $100 million, and the CCS amount is unknown.
-Martin Luther King Jr. Day is Monday, January 18 and schools will be closed.

Discussion (Visible on Public Minutes):  Vanessa Hammond with the Bradley Cleveland Public Education Foundation gave a year in review for the program.
-One year ago they outlined a mission of their strategic plan and priority objectives.  They are on target for both for fulfilling their mission and improving the organizations sustainability.
-The program support for 2020 included supporting 6 Cleveland City Schools, additional support helped addressed the unique expenses associated with COVID: Virtual Learning, and providing a safe environment.  Specifically $352,895 supported CCS in 2020. Of that amount, $255,016 was directed toward COVID related programs which was provided from a Tennessee Community Cares Grant.
-She wanted to praise Lynn Voelz and Cindy Geren for working on this grant.  
-This support through BCPEF represents a 1,100% return on investment for CCS based on your $30,000 support to the foundation for 2020.
-There have been 5 teacher grants for 2021 that have been awarded for 5 teachers for $17,230.  At Yates Primary, CMS, and CCCE received the grants this year.
-On our redesigned website you can see different programs that the program is funding.
-For the CHS project there were many donors to this project from the Fitzgerald's Family Foundation in the form of the Fitzgerald's Innovation Award and the George R. Johnson Foundation. 
-The executive committee wants to thank the board members for the operational support for the foundation.
-The Board thanks her and the organization for supporting our teachers.

Discussion (Visible on Public Minutes):  -Mr. Kelly Kiser states on December 31, 2020 the Families First Acts Corona Policy expired.  This policy entitled employees to 10 days of paid sick leave.  This was not renewed by congress, so there is no mandatory requirements to fulfill this.  Employees will just be on their own to use their own sick days to quarantine.  We are proposing this Policy 5.3051 COVID-19 Leave, which will allow 10 days total for the year for our employees to use for quarantine.  For example:  If a staff member used 4 days in the first semester, then they would have 6 days left to use for COVID19 quarantine for the 2020-2021 school year.  In the first semester we spent $36,000 on these days.  Mr. Kiser spoke with Mrs. Cindy Geren and she agrees that the budget can sustain this for the second semester.
 

Discussion (Visible on Public Minutes):  -Dr. Dyer focuses on the Student Success and Portrait of a Graduate Task Force Update.  Several meetings have now been held working with our partner, NIET.  Committees include elementary, secondary, and Portrait of a Graduate.  On 12-9 and 12-10 numerous focus group virtual meetings took place with the following groups - central office, elementary admin, secondary admin, elementary instructors, and secondary instructors.  We want as many diverse opinions on this as possible.
-Overall Takeaways from the Focus Groups.  Strengths -Community: School, district, and local communities were all listed as strengths.  There was a clear sense of community support and engagement.  Innovation: consistent trend that the district is willing and excited to be on the forefront of new learning opportunities.  Educator Support: the readiness and ease of getting support from their school and district is a strength.  Opportunity for Growth - Focus: changing or adding priorities, programs, and consistency at the district/school as sources of difficulty as it relates to depth of implementation of various programs.  Alignment: shifting roles, responsibilities, and shifting priorities was observed to be a challenge.

Discussion (Visible on Public Minutes):  -Dr. Jeff Elliott states in December our county active COVID-19 numbers was 750 and tonight our number is 1216.  Some of the numbers we look at on a regular basis are the positivity rate in our community, our 7 day average with the new cases, hospitalizations, and the weekly update on our website for our CCS staff and students.  Since our last update I want to thank our teachers for all of their work with virtual teaching.  Also, our transportation department delivered the food prepared by the nutrition department.  Dr. Elliott rode the bus and saw how important it was to deliver that food to the families.  The first week back in the 2020-2021 second semester we started with Reconnection Week.  It was important to do this because CHS students had new schedules, the laptops were distributed at CMS, and we had several virtual students who returned to traditional learning.  We still have around 500 students still in our Virtual School.  On Tuesdays in January our Task Force will meet to determine what plans will be made for the following week so we can send out communication to our families about the following week.  
-Dr. Dyer wants to second Dr. Elliott in thanking our teachers, teacher aids, transportation, nutrition, and the AOB staff.
-He states the plan the Board approved in June as our Reopening Plan has been effective and worked for this school year.  But, he feels part of his job is to stay up to date on new research and bring that to the Board to see if we need to revise our plan.  
-Dr. Dyer presents the Schools and the Path to Zero: Strategies for Pandemic Resilience in the Face of High Community Spread.  This document is from Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Howard University and Brown School of Public Health at Brown University.
-Why new guidance now?  -in the survey it states "We can now recommend that schools be open even at the very high levels of spread we are now seeing, provided that they strictly implement strategies of infection control."  In June and July, we were still in crisis mode, and our current plan was based on current knowledge of virus spread, etc.  "This briefing focuses on measures of infection control necessary for in-building safety at high levels of community spread."
-The CCS total Fall 2020 COVID Cases were: Students 181, Staff 58 and a total of 239.  Clusters associated with schools often seem to originate from outside the school rather than as a result of within-building transmission.  These numbers do not reflect what were just transmitted within school transmission.  This is also what happens outside the school walls.
-General Topics in Settling on a Strategy.  Trust- Four Challenges: a. ensuring students, staff, and educator communication is clear and concise on what we know and don't know about safety related to COVID-19.  A health and safety committee is recommended as a strategy.  b. Continuing to build confidence in public health guidance and away from the politics of COVID-19. c. Continuing to build trust and consistency with our families.  d. The level of acceptance of vaccination in our community.  2. Transportation: a. Continuing to promote safety of our bus transportation.  Recommended 20-40 air changes per hour can be achieved by keeping windows down a few inches while the bus is in motion. 3. Infection Control: a. 3 months of research shows that schools that are in-person and sing effective mitigation are unlikely to be super-spreaders events. b. The best infection control measures include: masking (We are already doing this), Hand and bathroom hygiene (We are already doing this) , achieving 4-6 air changes per hour of "clean" air through ventilation/filtration (We are already doing this). 3 ft. social distancing for young learners at all levels of community spread, 6 ft. social distancing for secondary when levels of community spread rise above 100/1000 daily new cases; 3 ft. when below that level.  Robust quarantine and contact tracing practices.  Where feasible, surveillance/screen testing for COVID-19 (under consideration).
-What Research is Showing about COVID Transmission in Schools.  Growing evidence that students are not at heightened risk from school re-openings.  Dealing with adult risk: Schools reopening with strong controls in place have limited impact on community transmission rates.  The COVID-19 School Response Dashboard shows that school staff have a cumulative infection rate (Aug-Nov) of 1.9% vs. 1.5% for the communities in which the schools are located (research states further investigation is needed on this.  Also, the higher number includes suspected cases where as the lower number includes only confirmed cases).  Teachers face no greater risk than other comparatively low-risk front-line workers such as grocery clerks or retail workers-and far less than meat packers and health care aides, for instance.
-Study Recommendations for Prioritizing Openings.  1st Priority - Grades preK-5 and students in particularly vulnerable groups at grade levels preK-8.  2nd Priority - Grades 6-8 and students in particularly vulnerable grade levels 9-12.  3rd Priority - Grades 9-12, capacity requirements may be met by adjusting the percentage of students in the building at one time through hybrid scheduling.
-Implications for the CCS plan: Does our current COVID plan serve the best direction for CCS to continue to follow OR Does the board believe moving to a plan with the priorities mentioned in this research make sense for our community?  Are we implementing universal precautions to the degree necessary to implement this type of prioritization plan?  What this revised COVID plan could look like:  Green Phase: All schools are in-person preK-12 following universal precautions.  Yellow Phase: Grades preK-12 are in-person, but additional mitigation strategies are implemented including elementary students having specials in their own classrooms, etc.  Red Phase: Grades preK-5 are in person with our most vulnerable special population students also in person grades preK-12.  Secondary students come to school on a hybrid A/B schedule Monday-Thursday and Friday would be virtual for all secondary students.
-The Board asks with the split group.  How would they be split up?  Dr. Elliott states the students would be split into two groups.  A Group and B Group.  For example the A group would be in person Monday and Wednesday, and at home learning Tuesday and Thursday.  The B group would be in person Tuesday and Thursday and at home learning Monday and Wednesday.  Every student would be virtual on Friday.
-Skyler Stone ask how the groups would be split up?  Dr. Elliott states we will use the students last name to split them into groups.
-The Board asks with the A/B schedule would it allow for the 3-6 foot spacing?  Dr. Dyer states it will still be a classroom by classroom basis but for the most part it will easier to spread out in the classroom.
-The Board asks if there are going to be any impact for the staff?  Dr Elliott states they spoke with the principals and based on previous situations from this school year and they think it would help.  Mr. Kiser states this would give us more flexibility to target a specific closure that might need to take place.
-The Board asks if we can break down how many staff and how many students are quarantined/isolated on our weekly report on Fridays at 3:00 pm. Dr. Dyer states we can do that.
-The Board asks if the new strand of COVID-19 hits the Chattanooga/Cleveland area would this plan be able to adapt to it?  Dr. Dyer states yes, we will have multiple phases in the red phase.
-The Board would like more clarification on the phases of the red phase.  Dr. Elliott states they haven't set a number to determine the levels of red phases and what those numbers would be to close school.  This will be a discussion for the Task Force.
-The Board asks if Dr. Dyer has spoken with Dr. Cash or Dr. Johnson?  Dr. Dyer states he has spoke with Dr. Cash about the spread in their schools, but he has not spoken to her about this particular plan.
-Skyler wants to know if you have thought about the teachers and how this would effect them?  Dr. Elliott states both CMS and CHS has technology to support this online learning, but on the in person days the teachers would only be focused on the in person students.  Skyler wants to know if Dr. Elliott thinks this will delay the curriculum?  Dr. Elliott states it will be a transition but our teachers have adapted well.  Dr. Dyer wants everyone to remember our diversity in this system.  We have high economic status and lower economic status with our students.  Dr. Elliott spoke with Gena Reed and they are looking to cover the food delivery.  At the end of the students in person day they would take home meals for the next day, and also there will be meals to be picked up at the schools.  
-The Board asks would the community number of 1,081 trigger us to the red phase?  Dr. Dyer states yes it would.
-The Board asks have we looked at different hybrid models and if we still have WiFi/connectivity issues?  Dr. Elliott states they have looked at other school systems.  They believe this plan is better because the students won't be away from school for such a long time.  For Example:  If group A went on Monday and Tuesday they would have 5 days off before they came back to the school building.  This plan also helps with food distribution as well compared to trying to cover 3 days worth of food at once.   Dr. Dyer states the wifi/connectivity at CMS and CHS have been successful from what he is hearing from the principals.
-The Board asks how is the substitute situation?  Mr. Kiser stated it is still a struggle.  We have had more substitutes apply lately.  
-The Board asks if we do approve this would it begin next week?  Dr. Elliott states we would start next week if it is approved, and if the Task Force feels the plan is ready to be sent out on Wednesday.  
-Dr. Dyer says the snow day/inclement weather day will remain the same, it will be a day off of school.  Our students will not be required to log into virtual learning.
-Mrs. Robinson recognizes the parents for how well they have handled these challenges.
-Dr. Dyer recommends moving into the new plan if the Board chooses to do so.

Discussion (Visible on Public Minutes):  Sklyer states her report is fairly short because they have been out for 3 weeks.  HOSA students qualified for state.  The softball team was picked for this school year and she knows they will be dedicated players.  She wants to show her appreciation to the system and board members for their COVID-19 relief efforts.  COVID-19 hit home to her because her father was sent to the hospital and couldn't find a bed. So, she would like to encourage everyone in the community to your part and wear masks.

Discussion (Visible on Public Minutes):  Mrs. Krista McKay states she would like to move the "Tennessee Legislative Network Representative to TSBA" in February to the "As Needed" section.  She would also like to delete the "Report on NSBA Annual Conference" in May AND delete the "Announce dates for NSBA Annual Conference and NSBA Advocacy Institute" in October.  She would like to move "Strategic Plan Initiatives" from the "as needed" section to show up every month.

Discussion (Visible on Public Minutes):  Mr. Cogdill ask if they could switch the order of the Site Committee items so Mr. Strong and Mr. Templeton could get back on the road home.

-3.G.3 Mr. Taylor states we need to decide if we are going to lease the property to Lee or give the property to Lee.  After talking to the city attorney we would have to meet a specific criteria to give the property away to Lee, and we will not meet this criteria.  Mr. Taylor recommends we lease the property to Lee.  After speaking to the city attorney, and Cole Strong, Vice President of Operations for Lee University, the lease would be a 20 year renewable lease for $1/year.  We would get approval of any lighting on that property and there would be a tree buffer on the property.  
-The Board asks if we would be able to build a walking bridge?  Mr. Taylor states he has looked into this and with the ADA laws it would be very difficult and very expensive to make this happen.  What is more feasible would be a walking path that would go around the sidewalk but further back from the road.

3.G.1 Mr. Brian Templeton states since the last meeting we have been trying to pin point down the scope of services work for the facilities plan.  The scope talks about working with Hal and taking his information in his 5 Year Capital improvement plan. Mrs. Robinson says the old plan has been a great source of reference since 1996. Mr. Templeton reminds the board they pulled the Denning Center and CHS out from this plan so they can take a more in depth look at both.  Mr. Templeton refers back to the attached document and the fee schedules and hourly rates.  Mr. Cogdill asks if Community Techtonics gave them a start date?  Mr. Templeton states they can start soon, and it could last around 6 months.  The Denning Center project will start next week doing field measuring, so we can come back and report what we found.

3.G.4 Mr. Taylor states we have had some interesting things happen since the last meeting.  We have a 4" water line that feeds the west wing.  It has broken underground and it is a large break, but it came at a good time before Christmas break so we could dig underneath.  There is an orange fencing up now to protect our students.  They believe the line is broken at the stairway in the commons.  This line is near the sewer line which needs to be taken care of as well.  Mr. Taylor would like to get a plan together so we can get some estimates on how to fix it.  Mr. Cogdill states the old walkway and asphalt were still underneath the building so they had to drill through that which made it longer than expected to temporarily fix.  Mr. Cogdill states it could take 2-3 summers to fix the problem.   The Board asks if this is the whole pipe or part of it?  Mr. Taylor states its the whole pipe.  The Board asks if the sewer line is still working?  Mr. Taylor states it is still working, but it is taking a lot of repair work.  Mr. Taylor states the temporary fix should keep it working until summer.  Mrs. Robinson states we give the go ahead for the engineer to work on this project.  Mr. Templeton will bring back findings at the February meeting.

3.G.2 The easement you have voted on before was for TDOT.  This is a right of way for Cleveland Utilities.  Mr. Taylor goes over the attached paperwork for CMS and CCCE.  He is asking for approval to accept the money and approve the right of way. Mr. Cogdill ask if the awnings will be done by summer?  Mr. Taylor states that it will be close to summer.

Discussion (Visible on Public Minutes):  -Dr. Dyer would like to take nominations on who the board want to elect as Chairman.  
-Dr. Dyer would like to take nominations on who the board would want to elect as Vice Chairman.  
-Dr. Dyer would like to take nominations on who the board would want to elect as Chairman Pro-Term.