On January 5, 2022 the district held a Town Hall meeting on the January return to learning with virtual. Notes were taken live, please forgive typos and name misspellings. I will correct later.
Present were representatives from each grade level. I joined during the introductions, so didn’t catch everyone.
Attending: Swift, Cluley, Hilton, Parks, DeAngelis, Fidishin, Linden, Heyward, Trustees Kelly, Johnson, & Lazarus
Our Summary
The COVID surge is causing numerous positive cases in AAPS faculty and staff. With mandatory quarantine times, this leaves AAPS unable to safely staff the schools.
The district is gathering data on staff cases and how long each person will be in isolation. They have testing events in place for staff and faculty including 1000 rapid tests on Friday. After getting those results, they will make and communicate a decision for next week. When possible, they will limit virtual learning to a classroom, grade level, or school and will be driven by staffing levels.
Their goal is to make a decision for a week at a time and to make the decision on Fridays for the coming week.
Dr Swift emphasized that the district prefers in person learning. However, they cannot provide that with the current level of staff absences. The current cases affected almost every building. Cases are expected to stay high for the next few weeks. They have enough staff for virtual learning because teachers who are positive but asymptomatic or finishing quarantine time after recovery (or supervising their children in these categories) are able to teach.
At this point AAPS has used the 6 built-in “Act of God” days. They can automatically request another 3 days. Be prepared for the district to use virtual synchronous days instead of snow days. During the pandemic, the state allows unlimited virtual synchronous days that match full days of school.
Editors Note: The one topic they did not touch on was the impact of the COVID surge on student attendance. 75% of students must attend to count as a day of school. With virtual school they may not have a good grasp on the impact. Virtual School on Wednesday had 90+% attendance.
Introduction
Swift: Began on virtual learning on Wednesday, January 5. I’m proud of strong return with 90-91% students attending at all levels virtual classrooms.
I know there were a lot of sacrifices made to get folks technology and all set to go. Our tech team had more than 800 calls today.
We continue a commitment to in school learning. We’re focused on navigating the challenges to get as many in school days as possible. We are not in the situation we were in a year ago. I know folks felt we were back where we were a year ago. It’s a dramatically improved situation.
Some of the tools, I was delighted this evening to see 12-15 boosters will be approved. Another level of protection. A high performing team to identify case tracking. High vaccination rates in our county. Our staff is the most highly vaccinated staff I know of in the state and across the country. About 96% on teaching an in school staff. Universal indoor masking. Boosters now available for 16+ and in coming days for 12-15 year olds.
Current Situation and want to share data and facts.
Over recent days a dramatic rise in COVID cases and the impact of that increase on the ability to safely staff schools with professional, support, and operations staff. This week we have modified the return from winter break to use virtual Wednesday to Friday of this week to mitigate the COVID transmission in post-holiday time.
Dramatic rise directly impacts every aspect for in school learning. Approximately 3000 team members, teachers, staff, nurses, food & nutrition staff, transportation, etc. They are all key to successfully operating our schools. It is stafing 1200 classroom across 31 buildings. 15000 meals served daily, cleaning 3.5 miillion square feet an operating 131 buses. I don’t note as an excuse, but is a part of our reality. Everyone of those areas are impacted by the dramatic escalation of cases.
What are we facing now as we look ahead?
The significant uptick we have seen in previous days is unlike anything we’ve seen previously. We understand this is ilkely to extend a few weekst hrough Jauary. We don’t know, we don’t have a perfect crystal ball. But this is wthe best estimate.
We will struggle to staff our schools adequately for a safe and secure. This is absenteeism from passing of COVID cases from staff. It has to do with mandatory days of isolation, having to care for immediate family member. That is on top of normal absences that occur for eveyrone.
The encouraging news is vaccination and boosters are the best protection from serious illness and hospitalization. But we will continue to face issues.
We will continue to hold priority of having students and staff in person as our top priority behind health and safety. We will use all tools available to us. We are workign to keep staff, students, schools, and community safe and learning together.
Events from our Sponsors
Next Steps
A temporary transition to virtual learning to allow mitigate post-holiday surge and ensure we are able to move to virtual learning when needed. This week staff COVID cases are being processed even now. This week cases are many times as any prior week. We will issue a report as we do every Friday.
Nurses are now confirming with each staff member who has tested positive the number of days of isolation and confirming earliest possible return dates to ensure we have every position covered.
We conducted testing on Monday. WCHD will have a test event tomorrow evening (I understand it is full). Ms Bacolor and nurse/support team will have a testing event for staff on Friday with 1000 additional test.
Based on the outcome of our testing data and analysis of earliest possible return dates, we will provide an update by Friday to when we will be able to transition from virtual to in person learning. This decision will be based directly on ability to safely staff schools.
Moving forward, when an emergency safety measure is necessary we will transition to virtual learning. The transition to virtual will be made on classroom, grade level, or school by school basis. Based on ability to staff safely, high cases in a classroom, grade level, or school or guidance from WCHD based on an outbreak situation.
I appreciate the difficulty of last minute transition. These notices are hard on everyone. We are doing everything in our power. We are trying to determine viability of school operations as early as possible. But situations can change dramatically over a few hours or a day as they did last Thursday or Friday. We won’t give up on in school learning until we don’t have another option.
How Can We Help
I appreciate the emails of parents asking how we can hlep.
Ensure vaccinations and boosters is most important.
Secondly to monitor daily for any symptoms in students, staff, families.
If you experience any symptoms you must remain home regardless of vaccination status.
Questions
COVID Testing in AAPS
Parks: We understand many testing sites have backups. We are offering testing to 1000 staff on Friday. To support families, we have registered for state’s backpack testing program. When we get word they have shipped, we will notify families.
Why don’t we mandate vaccines for staff and students?
Swift: We took a stand early last July to require staff to submit vaccination or be prepared to test weekly. We’ve done that throughout the year. Folks ask us about mandating for students. But, a school district doesn’t have oversight over vaccine requirements. That is MDHHS that has the authority to mandate. We are monitoring if that should change and will follow through as we do with all other childhood vaccines.
What if I prefer my child to complete assignments, but not participate in Zoom? And Why aren’t we doing the schedule we used last year with asynchronous?
Linden: Parents always have decision making capacity and if they feel zoom delivery is a barrier, they can keep students off of Zoom. Please know when district is on virtual live days, the state requires us to take attendance. That means students on at the start of school with their teachers. If a student isn’t present, they will be marked absent. Please know when students miss a live video conference, their work is always accepted. Teachers and administrators work hard to make sure students don’t fall bendind.
As far. as schedule, we are required by the state to observe a full school day. For secondary, that means students are expected to be live for each class. There will be variations in how long students are on Zoom or working independently. At elementary, there are breaks for recess, independent work that they can be off zoom.
Johnson: When you talk about studets being marked absent, a parent will need to approve that absence and call and report that absence tot he school office.
How will Special Education services be provided in virtual
Fidishin: I will take that question. They will continue as scheduled via live video conferencing. Amount of time is based on student needs. They may push into live classrooms or use breakout rooms as needed
How are students being supported at this time
Hilton: From an elementary perspective, we want our students to feel supported. Frequent communication and outreach to ensure access and support. Social emotional learning efforts in circle times and morning meetings. Building support staff will be reaching out to support students and families.
Heyward: Virtual school day follows in person learning bell schedule. They do get all their breaks, lunch, recess on teh schedule. Teachers will allow students to enter breakout rooms for extra support, work independently offline for computer breaks and are provided.
DeAngelis: I’ll add a few things. Our intervention specialists & support staff are reaching out to families to make sure needs are provided for .Media specialists are providing tech support. Specific to 3 of our high schools is the 3 on semesters is communicating about expectations of first semester and exam week coming up January 18.
About Mechanics of Synchronous Virtual – Can we switch to A2V Asynchronous
Parks: Short term enrollment in A2V is not recommended by us as a district or the state. The curriculum is different, the alignment of progress and assessment isn’t the same. A2V shift can be done at the semester with a commitment to stay that way for the semester. At Elementary connecting with Ms Coker si the best.
Swift: With parents thinking about a transition to virtual, I know we don’t have many spaces left in elementary version. But if folks want to inquire about that, what do you recommend?
Hilton: I think the best to do is reach out to Robin Coker principal of A2Virtual at elementary.
What is being done to ensure Zoom classroom are safe
Linden: We’ve worked really hard on this. Teachers do a prescribed checklist to ensure Zoom is secure. No one who is not authenticated or invited is able to attend.
What was the Data Used? How did we know we wouldn’t be ok this week? What about next Week?
Swift: I appreciate the questions. The data we are using is really one metric, the ability to staff buildings due to COVID infections among staff. On Friday there looked to be significant impact to our schools broadly. It mirrors the increase of numbers of the county. The second piece of data is the nurses contacting each staff member to determine when their days of isolation are completed. We have had staff members need longer to recover. And finally the dat from Monday testing event, tomorrow evening, and our own staff testing on Friday. All that will further inform if we can report on Monday and in how many schools.
Our default setting is to be open in person as soon as we move from
What I would say to President Biden, is our students and our teachers need to be in school learning. That’s where we want and choose to be. But on the other hand it is not possible to open a school unless we can do it safely.
This is not like a year ago with looking at county or state data. This is looking at our own data. There may be days we can’t do bus services, or where operations are modified, or certain groups by class, grade level, or school need. to attend virtually. That is our reality. Hopefully we can move through this quickly.
I want to touch on athletics quickly and do resonate with the concern about that continuing. We will monitor that very closely. We do have academic and other teams continuing work together. Those students have submitted proof of vaccination or weekly testing. We will monitor closely and suspend them if we see problems.
Instead of Shutting Down the Entire District is their thought to targeted approach
That is our plan moving forward. But we need to stabilize this post-holiday impact across the system. We need to see the data by this Friday. Wait times for test results are sometimes taking a couple of days. We know folks need time to plan and will give the update as soon as we can.
Johnson: A question and clarification. What you’re saying is we’ve been doing specific classrooms or schools throughout. It does happen and has been happening. Can you talk a bit about when the decision is made district wide?
Swift: It’s when operations are threatened to staff in most locations. That’s what we saw at the end of last week. Every school was going to be impacted. That’s when we need to make the decision at the district level. We hope when we stabilize a bit we won’t have to return to a full district situation. But we’ve learned none of us has a crystal ball.
How can we staff virtual learning if we don’t have enough for in person?
Swift: We will achieve higher attendance rates because we are virtual. We have many staff who are in isolation who are home and teaching. Virtual is not as directly impacted. Only those who are so ill, they can’t work. But many absences are staff observing days of isolation or quarantine.
What is status of how days count and will we have to extend years
We are currently at 6 days which are allotted as Act of God Days. by the state. The state allows us to apply for 3 additional days. So far we are ok. With the virtual option ready to go, we intend to remain in good shape through the balance of the school year. If we get to that place, of course we will continue to update.
Events from our Sponsors
Based on last year, why were we not able to go straight to synchronous
Linden: Some of it is readiness. We had devices returned and reissued. A lot is involved in training staff for remote. Trying to ensure connectivity and other issues for students was also going on through Thanksgiving break.
Swift: I should have included it in the introduction. Over Christmas and New Years we made orders for additional KN95 masks. They will be delivered prior to Monday. We also have had surgical masks that can be layered with cloth masks. We are taking steps to ensure as much testing as we can provide. We’ve applied for and requested teasting from every entity in the state. We are not the beneficaries of hospital netowrk that Detyroit Public Schools benefits from.
We appreciate partnership with MDHHS and have offered 8vaccine and booster clinics. We wil continue to do all of that that we can.
Thoughts about staying virtual longer vs going back and forth
Swift: That is a concern and I appreciate the community raising it. We want to avoid the yo-yo in and out. But we feel the setting has to be in person and moving to virtual. asneeded.
Sub Pool
Swift; We are widening the sub pool. We do have a strong pool of substitutes. We are also working to get answer on COVID surge impact on building and regular subs.
Will AAPS have additional booster clinics
We have made teh request. I know MDHHS is working hard to schedule 3rd party contractor team. We are asking for any and all events they can support in our schools. We were at meetings with WCHD and they stressed commitments to get as many vaccine booster clinics. We know they will help at middle school and even 9th grade.
Are you following revised CDC 5 day quarantine for staff
We are awaiting updated guidance. We anticipate updated guidance, but it is not out yet from WCHD and MDHHS. We expect that to roll out and will impact whether it is the 5 or 10 day. There is a lot of discussion. School guidance is always distinct from general population guidance. Look for communication from us. We do expect school guidance to be adjusted.
I do have from Ms Bacolor, we have been approved for 3 more vaccination clinics.
Will you be/why have you not prioritized keeping youngest kids in school & shifting staff to make that possible
Swift: We want to prioritize our youngest learners when that is possible. That is a priority. We have not had days where it was simple enough to just staff elementary by keeping secondary virtual. I know I worked with this team and others on looking at how we will analyze toward youngest learners who have more difficulty accessing virtual learning. We know there are middle and high school learners at extreme risk as well.
What are specific things have made staffina bigger challenge in Ann Arbor than other districts
Swift: I interact & meet with superintendents daily. There isn’t a district that hasn’t been significantly impacted by staffing. We haven’t gone to congregating larger groups in cafeterias because of lack of teachers .If we get to the point of making those copromises, we will share with the community. We are grateful many in our cmmnity have worked extra hours on their planning times and working extra hours. We are cdoing everything we can to staff our buildings.
Per state regulations how many virtual days is AAPS allowed
Swift: I don’t believe there is.a real quantitative answer.
Linden: The state of Michigan allows to shift to live synchronous during the pandemic. There is no limit following the same schedule as in person.
Swift; I will address concerns for folks who have setup travel plans for midJune. Of course we publish the calendar and families plan on that. We. have not used all the days the state will allow us. We will do everything we can to hold to that June date. The state automatically allows for the application of 3 additional days.
Based on testing results you said you’d decide on Friday, how close are we to metrics? Are there specific schools at a greater risk
Swift: We are deep in analysis and waiting on test results We can’t give an indication of that. We will communicated on Friday. The 1000 tests on Friday are rapid and we’ll have that data right away.
Is there testing for students as well as staff?
Swift; The Friday event is for staff. We continue to conduct responsive testing for students. We have not been equipped to try to get capacity to with tests or personnel to give tests to give 22000 tests a week. We can’t do that. We will monitor and test as we see cases rising in schools. That has not been provided for Michigan public schools
Please reshare policy for vaccinated students who are close contacts
That will be guidance finalized from WCHD. Students who are vaccinated will have a distinction. We are waiting for. that to settle out.
Learning Loss
<Sorry, I got a phone call and missed this section>
Why Don’t we postpone until staff is available and extend into summer
Swift; I believe everyone’s first choice is to get through this time and get students back into school. We want to maintain. continuity of learning and avoid losing further days to either. I do understand the choice about virtual, but we want to continue our school year. There will probably be times we need to deal with an unprecedented staff impact.
Considering High Staff vaccination why can’t they teach from home and zoom into classrooms
Obviously that doesn’t work at elementary. But we have a large number of teachers teaching this week that couldn’t be in person. We will look at this.
Please restate when we will know next week and if it is district or school by school
Swift: We will share on Friday. If it is district wide (wide-spread impact) or if it is around a few schools and most will open on January 10. We wil share COVID case reoport weekly.
Have masking requirements change? KN95 or K94?
Swift: We have ordered those. The guidance has not changed on masking. We are awaiting updated guidance from WCHD. That could be adjusted, but we aren’t aware of any adjustments.
Do school principles have authority to decide
Our school principles are working around the clock with our executive directors. They are engage in the conversation and know more detail typically.
With the decision coming on Friday, is that Just Monday or the Whole Week so families don’t have to decide day by day?
Swift; We want the full week of planning if at all possible. It is our intention to go week by week.
Conclusion
Cluley: We will be turning into a video that will be posted on the website. The headline is already up and will probably be uploaded first thing tomorrow morning.
Swift: Thank you to everyone for participating. We appreciate everyone. We are working to ensure the goal of having students in school.
Kelly: I noticed one thing and that is safety. People hear safety and think COVID. But it’s more than that. It’s child:adult ratios, staff trained in treating allergies or other life threatening conditions, etc. We all understand the challenges for families. But there are a lot of facets to look at for safety operating the district.
Lazarus: Thank you t panelists and community for attending the town hall. Hopefully it answers the questions. I know some answers may not be as specific and detailed as you awnt them to be. We ask your patience.
Johnson: I reiterate what the other trustees said about leaders and staff. Thank you for your work day and night. I also want to thank parents, students, community. This isn’t easy. We have kids going through this as well. We see this. We have heated discussions about all these decisions. The tradeoff is last minute decisions or calling off sooner.
