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Town Hall Minutes

Town Hall – Thursday, August 6, 2020

Town Hall – Wednesday, June 24, 2020

Town Hall – Wednesday, June 3, 2020

Town Hall – Wednesday, May 13, 2020

Town Hall – Wednesday, April 29, 2020

 Thursday, August 6, 2020, 5:30PM – 6:15PM

Town Hall Minutes

Hello and welcome to the Town Hall
Maria:  Thank you for coming to our Children’s Workshop School Town Hall Meeting.  One that is supposed to be informative for you and when we are done, we hope that you have enough information to make your decisions for your families.  Reopening team is made up of teachers, Maria, and 3 parents.

Tonight we will be presenting the reopening plan we have put together for September.  Before we present this plan, I would like to share with you that it’s a plan because we have to submit a plan for reopening, it’s our responsibility.  As much as we want to be in school, we can’t wait to be in school, and have our kids back in school with us, because that’s our work, our joy, our passion!  It is a plan where I feel that right now, at this point in time considering all the unanswered questions that we have, still waiting for guidance around, it’s a plan that I don’t feel comfortable with, I’m not comfortable with the plan because I don’t feel as an administrator I can guarantee your child’s safety in the school.  We are going to present district guidance that we’ve gotten, but I want you to pay close attention to the health and safety piece because that’s going to be key.  When you look and think about it, one of the things that you will have to prepare for is that if you decide that you want live teaching, you want to bring your children to school and you select that, you should plan for there being an interruption at some point in time.  In your child’s day or in your child’s week.  Given how school is going to happen, and the fact that temperature taking is not guaranteed and not taken with every child, there will be an interruption because someone is bound to come down with COVID, it can happen and I’m afraid that it will happen.  I am uncomfortable, the team and I have discussed this, so please pay attention to that safety piece. 

What the day could look like:
This is a draft plan for the rotation plan for students on what the school day make up will be for groups with hybrid teaching.  It is a 4 group model, that 4th group is full time remote group of students for families that are opting into that choice.  This rotation of the other 3 groups who are moving between in person teaching and remote is a rotation that occurs over 3 weeks.  Each group will be guaranteed the same day each week at school, for example group 1 will always go to school on Tuesdays, group 2 on Wednesdays and group 3 on Thursdays.  Mondays and Fridays will rotate within the groups, so that by the end of 3 weeks, each group will be in school 5 days.  Unfortunately due to the DOE plans for elementary schools and what we can accommodate with our school community, rooms and space, each student will only be in school 5 days every 3 weeks. 

Recently, the DOE released an elementary school sample schedule in what the day will look like.  The morning would look the same for students.  Teachers are being asked to come in early for some planning for remote students (both hybrid and remote only), but students will arrive as usual.  Students will then have their day. 

The DOE has come up with an instructional lunch, so students will learn through lunch.  Then the DOE wants you to understand that students will be leaving an hour earlier than the normal end of the school day.  The reason why that is happening is for teachers to plan for students for the next day.  In order to maintain the amount of instructional time mandated, students will participate in that working or instructional lunch period.  Teachers’ prep period are now shortened to 30 minutes, and will have 20 minutes for office hours to contact families, particularly the remote families.  We would like to reiterate, that in no way do we see this schedule as ideal, but this is coming from the DOE that we will be doing the best to work with in the format that we do at CWS. 

CWS curriculum/ district teachers with both groups hybrid/full time

  • All students will be using the CWS curriculum (hybrid and fully remote students).

The district has now said we will not have support for our staff in remote work. As of now, teachers will be responsible for all in-person and remote teaching and learning.

Health and Safety

  • Parents will be asked to take temperatures before sending children to school.
  • We will be limiting exposure by having only students and staff in school
    • Only teachers and students will be allowed in the school building…. Sorry to parents who normally linger with Joyce and Maria in the office or go up to their children’s classroom as this will not be possible.
  • Masks/ Social Distancing
    • All students and staff are asked to wear their masks at all time, please start this now, to practice for back to school.
    • In order to social distance and remain 6 feet apart, we will be using the hybrid model and setting up learning pods. 
  • Air filtration system
    • Due to the age of our building, we do not have an air filtration system. In lieu of that, the DOE has said we should keep our windows open to encourage air flow in the classrooms.
  • As a school we would like to note that the district will not be sending anyone to implement our health and safety plan.  Our staff will be required to do this work.  While these practices will help lower our chances of an outbreak at school, there is no such thing as zero risk. 
  • If a student shows symptoms while at school, that student will be sent to the isolation room (Maria’s office), and a staff member will be monitoring that student.  The student will remain in the isolation room while a guardian is called and asked to pick up that student.  Upon pick up, the student’s family will be encouraged to go get tested for COVID-19.  However, that student will only be monitored, students are not required to be tested.  However, students will only be allowed to return to school once they meet certain criteria:
    • Clearance from a health care provider
    • The student has to be symptom free for 24 hours without medication. 

Keeping in the loop

  • There are so few decisions being made, and although we have our plan.  The inability to  execute the plan is very much out of our control due to many healthy and safety procedures. 
  • We only get information when you get information from the mayor’s office.  We don’t know more.
  • All of the information discussed today can be found on our school website, we will share the link within the chat of this meeting and include it in meeting notes.
  • Please continue to monitor the website and Bloomz in order to identify new information.

Question and Answers – any questions not answered, please know we do not have the information yet but will address the questions as soon as we are able.

  • If there are 2 or more cases of COVID-19  is based on the building not just the school.  The website has more information if needed and what the official DOE process is. 
  • As for curriculum, we will be planning our typical CWS curriculum.  In the Fall, remote learning will look differently than it did in the spring in many ways. 
  • If a child is participating in full time remote and then decide to switch to hybrid, the child will smoothly transition, as we are creating classes and assigning children to classes regardless of their learning preference to start the school year.
  • In person and remote live streaming: We would be able to do a couple of classrooms, but due to the age of our building and the amount of classrooms across the entire building mean we wouldn’t be able to live stream on a daily basis and for everyone, but it’s something we are still looking into.
  • Our first/second grade classrooms, will continue, as a diverse group even if we move into remote. Due to social distancing, we will have no more than nine, but there will be a mixture of 1st and 2nd graders regardless. 
  • As for the start date, the DOE hasn’t released a start date yet.  
  • As for services such as speech and OT on IEPs, we have not made this decision yet.  There might be services in school when the child is in school or may be provided remotely but no decisions have been made yet.  There are mandates on children’s IEP when services will be provided but services are still under discussion and we are awaiting guidance. 
  • There will be live teaching throughout all grade levels.  We are trying to figuring out how that will look.  With the recent information we were given in which we will not be given help in order to provide remote teachers and locations, and therefore will keep you updated. 
  • We are not sure about recess.  Right now we are not sure about how this will happen.  We have looked into closing off the street and adding tents outside, but nothing is confirmed as of now.  As of now we are looking to keep groups within their designated rooms. 
  • As of opening the windows and airflow, we will open them, but there are classrooms that are not fully opened and windows must be open the entire time even in inclement weather and winter.
  • As of drop off and pickup:
    • The DOE says they will be providing PPE for both children and staff, so hopefully we will provide a mask if needed.
    • CWS will use the lobby, PS94 will use the cafeteria, and EVCS will use the school yard, regardless of weather.  We will also be sticking to specific staircases, ours being the ones behind security in the lobby. 
    • We are currently figuring out how to manage students during drop off an pick up as safely as we are able to.
      • Our day will still begin at 8:40 and it will end at 2:00.
  • We don’t have all the information about teachers and what each teacher would be teaching, but we will provide that as soon as we can.  Information is constantly changing and being updated. 
  • Bathroom Use:  We will divide all bathrooms so that all 3rd floor bathrooms will be only for CWS members, 4th floor will be solely for EVCS and 5th floor for PS94.  The 2nd floor bathrooms will become gender-neutral, the bathroom near their office will be for EVCS students and the one near the office will become a CWS bathroom.   The pre-k classrooms have bathrooms. 
  • Cleaning:  There was a meeting by DeBlasio about cleaning that was not well received by Cuomo. 
    • Staff will be required to clean and take kids temps and much more.  As many parents know, you’ve been the ones to provide cleaning supplies for years.  We can’t see that changing at this moment. 
    • The DOE says they will be cleaning the building, but we do not know how this will be occurring.  We have always been the ones to keep our buildings clean but not during the school day. 
  • We have a 3 day as opposed to 2 day rotation schedule. 
    • We need to think about all the teachers we have rotating in and out on aa regular basis.  We also have to consider how many rooms we have that meet the requirements.
    • The DOE is also not providing furniture, so we need to make do with what we have, which means tables, so we need to do the best we can and will be creative in our distancing.
  • Breakfast will be distributed, but how that will happen is unknow at this time.  There will be breakfast and lunch for those who aren’t in school for the day.
  • Are we able to help organize pods once schedules are filled in. 
    • Once we have determined those pods, we cannot share your information, but you can opt in to have the class parent share private information for you to coordinate pods yourself.
  • We are working on what to do with materials for students.  We have very little left in terms of materials from last year, rooms were left abruptly.
  • Students will not be expected to be online for the entire school day if they are remote learning or participating in hybrid on a remote day.  We are still working on what the plan will be, but unsure at this time.
  • We will be adding in some physical activity, however we will be paying attention to the guidelines on physical activity in indoor spaces. 
  • As for survey results on our school community’s comfortability in coming back:
    • A little over 50% of families have said they are interested in the hybrid model
    • About 30% are already choosing remote only.
    • The rest are undecided at this time. 
  • Many of these results are based on the safety within the building. 
  • Families can move from hybrid to remote learning at any time.  Families can opt into hybrid learning from all remote learning at quarterly dates, but they are forthcoming.  The group they will be placed into will depend on the numbers within each group, since we have a three group model, we would be able to spread out any students added into hybrid.
  • Will there be opportunities for kids to be in the yard? We are coordinating with the other schools to see what we can manage given it’s a shared space.

Closing

  • We appreciate the trust in our staff and school and want to be as transparent as possible.  Whatever you decide, we are here to provide instruction, but we want to do all of this in the safest way possible. This is all temporary and we will be able to get back to school together at some point in time.  At this time, we have submitted our plan, but really think about your options.

 Wednesday, June 24, 2020, 5:00PM – 5:45PM

Town Hall Minutes

Welcome and Introductions
Maria: Welcome everyone to the second Town Hall. Introduction of Instructional Lead Team member panelists: Maria – principal, Scott – grade 4, Helen – Pre-K, Jean – grades 1-2, Jeff – grades 1-2, Susan – grades 1-2, and Crystal – special ed. Jessica – grade 5 is unable to join us because she just had a beautiful baby yesterday. Congratulations Jessica!

Community check-ins
Maria: Please remember that the staff is here for you if you have any social-emotional needs, food needs, housing needs, or anything else we can help you with, please reach out to her or Dorothy.

Fall Update
Maria: Right now, there is no news about when school will open in September.  There are a lot of questions of how school will begin or what school will look like for next year.  There will be plans and suggestions, but nothing is going to happen until the Department of Health gives the okay and signs off that it is safe to return to school.

DOE has given possible options that schools have to look at. Since we are an elementary school and our students are so young, one of the things we have to think about is safety.  Social distancing in school will be a problem especially with young children. There are many issues on how to social distance in our overcrowded school building.

Several options have been presented and as a staff we have looked at the possibilities, thought about them and given some feedback.

Helen: Explained the DOE’s 3 possible options – classes would be divided into different groups

-Option 1 – Alternate Days
Monday and Wednesday: Group A in school & Group B at home doing remote learning
Tuesday and Thursday: Group B in school & Group A at home doing remote learning
Friday: rotating schedule with one Friday with Group A at school and then the next Friday it would be Group B at school.

-Option 2 – Alternate Weeks
An entire week of Group A at school while Group B is at home remote learning.
Then the next week the groups swap.  It is one week in school and one week at home.

-Option 3 – Alternate Days with Full Time Remote
Monday and Tuesday – Group B at school; Group A remote learning
Wednesday and Thursday – Group A at school; Group B remote learning
Friday – reserved for select students who may need additional support, students IEP, SEL.  Students will be coming in smaller groups for that support. 
Group C in Option 3 – full time remote learning at home, for families who want to be at home Monday through Friday and not coming into school at all.

Maria: The options that we choose are going to depend a lot on whether the questions we have are answered or not.  One of our biggest questions – What about our budget? 

We haven’t received our budget yet.  Schools have been told to cut their budgets. There might be the possibility of less staff to deal with any one of these possibilities. Until we get our budget, it is really hard to decide or determine what we are going to do.

These options could change quite a bit by September and the DOE and DOH will make the decisions. Cuomo has said it will be decided by late August. We don’t know if it will be a mixed model, fully in-person, or fully virtual and don’t expect to know before then. We are just as frustrated with this uncertainty as parents.

Summer Communication and Bloomz
Maria: I will be reaching out to our school community every two weeks this summer via Bloomz to share any updates I have and just to stay in touch.

Jean: Please check Bloomz over the summer. This will also be how you find out whose class your child will be in next year. In August you’ll receive your new teacher’s welcome letter from Bloomz, instead of it being mailed home.

Maria: Teachers will not be available over the summer as they are getting a much-deserved break, but you can contact Dorothy or me if you need support over the summer.

DOE accounts, Year-End Reports, and DOE Summer School
Crystal: There are a few different DOE accounts that Dorothy has been sending information about and every family needs to setup. If you need your OSIS number to setup, please contact Dorothy.

New York City Schools account – This is how you will get your child’s year-end report this year, which will be available after July 6. It will not be the lengthy narrative report that we usually do. https://www.schools.nyc.gov/learning/in-our-classrooms/nyc-schools-account

Your child’s DOE account – This handle is used for student zoom, and this email will be the only email address used for DOE summer school this year. https://www.schools.nyc.gov/learn-at-home/technical-tools-and-support/doe-student-accounts

End of Year Celebrations
Scott: We’ll be continuing our tradition of having end of the year celebrations. Pre-k will have dance parties, kindergarten will have lunch dates and celebrate the poetry they wrote on Flipgrid, first and second grade are making goodbye videos for one another on Flipgrid, third grade will be sharing culminating projects for their Native Americans Unit of Study, fourth grade will have writing celebrations for their personal memoirs, and there’s going to be a special tribute to the fifth graders to honor all of their hard work this Friday, June 26.

Curriculum and Welcome Videos
Jeff: The teachers worked hard and made curriculum videos for families to watch together about what to expect next year. They can be viewed here: https://cwsnyc.org/aboutcws/curriculum/

There is also a welcome video that introduces all of our CWS teachers and staff that can be viewed here: https://cwsnyc.org/aboutcws/administration/

Summer Google Classroom
Susan: Every family is invited to join an optional CWS Summer Google Classroom. The code to join this is available in Bloomz. Teachers have posted resources by grade if families are looking for engaging activities this summer. Teachers will not be reviewing any work or communicating with families in this classroom, it is just a place to access resources. Included are links to free books for students and families to read over the summer. The District One website also has excellent resources available http://www.district1nyc.com/.

Families will lose access to their current Google Classroom on June 27. If you want to download any work you’ve uploaded to your current Google Classroom please do so before June 27. To do this from your computer or tablet, click on “Classwork” and “View my work.”

Closing
Maria: In closing, thank you all for all of the patience, kindness, and support you have given to the teachers, children, and other families during this school year. It was a long three months but we all made it. We are looking forward to seeing you back this fall and promise to be in touch with any updates as they become available. Thank you for being a part of the CWS community!

 Wednesday, June 3, 2020, 5:00PM – 5:45PM

1. Community Check In – Maria

  • Teachers checking in with families.  Maria has been speaking to families through Coffee chats and one-to-one.  Teachers and Maria are addressing what has been happening this past week including the death of George Floyd.  As a staff we are all feeling the pain.
  • We are school that was created to be a diverse and integrated space for families. We have been a school that has dealt with situations that required regrouping. For example when the school started it had to start in a different building, but came together. After September 11th and schools closed, our Muslim families were afraid to send their children to school, but our school came together to encourage them to return.  Our school curriculum is social studies based utilizing the beliefs of Martin Luther King, Jr.
  • With COVID-19 there has been an increased need to support the Asian families at our school because they were being blamed for COVD-19. 
  • With the death of George Floyd and its aftermath and we are struggling to fight for what we believe.  We are concerned with what our students are hearing and seeing.  We are diverse community and we are all impacted.
  • Where to go from here:  Families look at us for support, asking how do we talk to our children, how do we take care of the children?   Educators feel responsible for the messages we are putting out but we are not there in the school building.  We are not able to group together as we have in the past and listen to the children in person.   
  • Families and teachers need to listen to the children, let them express what they are feeling through talking, writing stories, poems, songs, and drawing. Let the children be creative and be children.
  • Expressed the wishes to hear from parents who need support and want to have a discussion about what is happening; what is hurting.  Families can reach out to their children’s teachers.  The school is a child’s home away from home.
  • Resources to help families cope with trauma as well as talk about current events with their children are being sent via Bloomz and Google Classroom.

2.  Updates – Maria

  • Summer School: Summer school will be for third grade and up. Summer School is for children who are recommended or mandated to attend, and it will be remote. We do not have any additional details at the time.
  • Promotion In-Doubt: Promotion will not be based on engagement during remote learning. We will base promotion on the child’s entire portfolio of work including before the schools closed. Teachers will share decisions about promotion by June 12.
  • Progress Reports:  There will not be standard CWS Progress Reports.  Children’s reports will be posted through STARS and not mailed, which is good because many families are not at their regular address right now. It is important to follow Dorothy’s postings and directions about setting up your child’s DOE username so that families can log onto STARS at www.myschools.nyc and get their child’s report.

3.  Wellness Check-In – Jean

  • We are hearing from families that children are suffering from a lack of social interaction, for which on-line work is a poor substitution, and a lack of motivation and focus to do their work. Their stamina is off. Parents expressed how their children are normally motivated in school but their behavior has changed during remote learning. Parents are reaching out to teachers to encourage their children to do their work. During wellness check-ins in May many parents expressed their children are “hitting a wall” and missing school and friends. 
  • Parents have dual roles as parents and teachers. This is uncomfortable and confusing for both parents and children.
  • Teachers are checking in and also understand the difficult and stressful situations families are experiencing as they try to manage and establish routines for their children.  Teachers are expressing that work is posted but every family needs to work in a way that works for them. Teachers are checking on work but there are many different home situations and the teachers respect that. 

4.  Resources for the Summer – Susan and Aliceyn

  • They are creating a separate Google Classroom platform for the summer with summer activities to include entirely optional activities such as: reading, writing, and math links and lists, free resources, link to District 1 Website and messages from Aliceyn who is our universal literacy coach. This if for families who want the resources, but it is not added work. There will be age-appropriate supports shared by grade level from Pre-K to Fifth. Grade. This will be a new Google Classroom website and is separate from the current on-line classrooms. More details will be shared later this month.

5.  Fifth Graders Moving Up Ceremony – Jessica

  • The fifth graders decided that they did not want virtual Moving Up Ceremony, so they will come back in the next school year, to do it in person during a Community Meeting. Teachers and staff are preparing something special for the fifth graders.

6.  School Welcome Videos – Jessica

  • We are creating welcome and introduction videos of teachers and staff for new families to CWS and for CWS families whose children are going into new classes. There will be cohort-specific welcome videos which more details about each grade’s curriculum and what the new school year will look like. We would usually do this in person.

7.  Wrap Up –  Maria

  • There will be a parent workshop with Dr. Hayley Watson to help parents talk to their children about what is happening.  Date is not known at the time, but it will be posted.
  • There are questions about September, but we do not have answers.  Waiting for the DOE to give more guidance.
  • There will be budget cuts, but there has not been a meeting about specifics yet. We have an active SLT and PTA and families will be involved in the planning.
  • We are currently setting up classes for the next school year, but we do not know which families are returning or not.
  • As soon as we know, what is happening and any information, we will notify families. Families can send questions and let us know if their children are feeling anxious.

8.  Next Town Hall Meeting

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 Wednesday, May 13, 2020, 5:00PM – 5:45PM

Welcome and Introductions
Maria: Welcome everyone to the second Town Hall. Introduction of Instructional Lead Team member panelists: Maria – principal, Scott – grade 4, Helen – Pre-K, Jean – grades 1-2, Jeff – grades 1-2, Susan – grades 1-2, Crystal – special ed, and Jessica – grade 5.

Community check-ins
Maria: Please remember that the staff is here for you if you have any social-emotional needs, please reach out. Touch base with someone at CWS. Dorothy is available. Bloomz is another way to reach out. The phrase “we are in this together” is what we are all living by. In May of each year we have an open house. This year we are having ‘check-ins’ with each family individually. Teachers are making schedules to check-in with families. Please sign-up.

When will school open?
Maria: There are a lot of questions about when school is going to open. We do not know when the school building is going to open, but there is still school going on now. The building is closed but school is still happening. We wait for directives from the governor, mayor, and chancellor. Governor Cuomo put out a 4 point plan and schools opening is part of the last, fourth part of the opening plan. Transportation, hospitals, and food all have to be in place before schools can open. The health system has to be available. If a child were to fall in the playground, where would they go? The city has to be safe. How all of this will happen we do not know, there are a lot of questions.

How to get information during the next few months
Maria: Remote learning will stay in place until the end of the school year. There are many directives about remote learning and resources for parents. You can go to the DOE website for remote learning, or your child’s google classroom page. Bloomz is also a place to get current information. Every family should be on Bloomz. If you need help please email cws.bloomz@gmail.com or ask your child’s teacher.

Coffee Chats with Maria
Maria: I have Tuesday morning 15 minute coffee chats. I have scheduled times to talk with individual families. It reminds me of our regular school day in the building. I am in the office in the morning and parents pop in and say do you have a minute to talk? And we go into my office for a quick touching base. It is going well. I have time for 4 chats each Tuesday. Jessica added that to sign-up for a coffee chat with Maria is on Bloomz as well as Google Classroom the links are posted. The link is available here to sign up https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScX9TV6JV5DWdYnVJDfwbRPBc1oPbkH1W7LQmHbORl2g3HWcQ/viewform

Live Teaching Question
Jessica: There was one question submitted for this meeting that was addressed at the last Town Hall meeting, so Jessica said she would briefly address it again. The question was “Now all students have devices. Why are teachers not doing more live teaching? A few sessions per day or all day?” Teachers know the importance of live instruction and are doing many forms of live sessions. We have made a philosophical decision to not create situations that widen gaps due to privilege and access. Many of our students are not able to join live sessions for extended periods to log on daily at a specific time for a variety of reasons. We have decided to tailor our teaching to allow students to be able to engage for the vast majority of work when they are able to versus on a prescribed schedule.

It is important to note that the Chancellor has stated that live teaching is not a required aspect of remote learning. However, teachers have found ways to have live interactions and find ways for students to be properly supported.

Maria: If anyone needs to revisit this topic or have more details and more description. The answer to the same question from the last Town Hall is in those minutes, as well as this week’s minutes. This is the last time we will address this question.

DOE approves Zoom
Maria: There is exciting news about the DOE use of Zoom, but also some confusion. Crystal will speak to this. Maria has been using zoom. Today, when I logged on it said that the DOE has gobbled up all of my information and now ’owns’ my information and account. There are issues with it.

Crystal: The DOE has approved the use of Zoom. People are excited about it, however we will be taking it slow with zoom. Teachers must use their DOE email addresses, students must sign up for and then use their DOE email addresses to login for each meeting, the teacher must schedule and facilitate the entire zoom meeting through the DOE.

Students and teachers must only invite students to participate through their DOE email addresses. It will take a while to roll it out and most of our teachers will not be using zoom this school year because of all of these difficult restrictions. You will be getting information about how to set up a DOE email address for each of your children. It will be a step by step process, it takes time, if you need help with the steps, please reach out to teachers to help. Because this is a multistep process leading up to using zoom, most teachers will not be using it this year. We do not want to lose any families in the transition process. In the long run, we hope each family will set up their child’s DOE email account to connect and use in the future with zoom or other platforms down the road. It is coming. We’ll be prepared for the future, but using zoom is not happening right now.

Maria: We want to avoid losing families in a new setting up system. The child’s OSIS number is required, it is a multi step process, it takes time. We have 33 days left in this school year. We want to stay the course and stay with the platform we have now and continue our communication.

Grading Policy
Maria: We know you have received documents around DOE grading policy. We have had meetings about the new grading policy. CWS has always prepared 7 page narrative reports in June. During this remote time, the reports will look different. We will be using the DOE remote learning system in STARS, so that we can be in compliance with the DOE.

Susan: The chancellor has put out a new platform for students to be graded. No numbers with a narrative, but a MT for meeting standards and N for Needs improvement. You will be getting a one page printout with MT or N. K-5 teachers will be inputting the grades in the DOE Stars system. Please submit any questions on this topic for the next town hall meeting.

Promotion Policy
Maria: Today there was a principals meeting with the superintendent about the grading policy.

The discussion was about how the grading policy impacts on our district and our school.

Tonight the DOE will send a separate promotion policy. I have not seen the new policy. Everyone will be learning about it together. When I read it, you will be reading it. Our staff will discuss it together at a later date. We will see if it is different or how it is different from the grading policy.

Art and music
Maria: Now we are experiencing a new way of teaching. We have always integrated the arts into our main curriculum. We have not relied on before or after school. It is inclusive in our curriculum and not exclusive. We have a music program with three types of classes: music, dance and song. We didn’t have many weeks of it before we left the building. We have been trying to find a way to integrate it into remote learning. Jean is the point person for getting our music program into our remote learning schedules. The program is funded through a grant which has hoops to jump through and accountability issues.

Jean: We got the music program through a grant. Seth Ginsberg is an CWS alum dad of 2 boys. He runs a music camp and has connections with many other artists, dancers and drummers. He wrote an Arts Partnership grant for Prek-5th grade. He brought 3 teachers, a drumming teacher, dance teacher and music/singing teacher. All of the classes have met their teachers. Each class gets one of the teachers. For example, my class has music/singing with Seth. Some classes have African dance with Leithis. Dylan has 7 classes for drumming. The teachers will remain teaching the same classes to keep the personal connections. They will upload taped sessions so that CWS teachers can put music into their weekly schedules. We will also see Seth and the other two arts teachers in Friday’s Community Meetings performing or singing. You may not recognize them. We are still dealing with paperwork, but very soon the sessions will begin. Kids will be excited to see those special teachers.

How are the teachers?
Maria: I’ve been joining in many of the live sessions with children. Luis has math tutorials twice a week. There have been poetry celebrations, small group writing sessions. There is a lot being offered. Kids say to me “Hi how are you?” One child sent a message about my morning message. He was glad to know that I was not alone in the school building. We are all ok. We are missing our school environment. Teachers are very supportive of each other in school and out. Some staff have had some losses. Some are staying inside.

5th grade
Maria: I do have concerns about our 5th graders and families. Firstly congratulations about your acceptance into middle schools. We are very happy about that but we want you to know that a lot of the work you are doing now is very important. Teachers are working hard to prepare you for your middle school adventure and journey. It will be different. We want to support you. We want you to be able to do work in a remote setting, ready to be a 6th grader which includes setting up a schedule for yourself. You will need to be independent, for signing in, touching base to get help. I wanted to throw that out to 5th grade families.

Closing
Remember, the PTA is still active and moving forward. They have meetings. When we plan as a school, we always include parents in our planning. You will be informed as we move forward. We are still trying to get a grip of all of this. Minutes of this meeting will be posted. Questions can be submitted for the next meeting at the link below and will be addressed in written form in the minutes.

We are all in this together.

Link to submit questions for Town Hall on 6/3/20
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSekAXjYBxTzVYmeyyfuB0RLZy-jqd9ZeQvTmC2LLD2eHdagQQ/viewform?usp=sf_link

The next virtual town hall will be on Wednesday, June 3 at 5pm. The link will be shared on Bloomz, the website and your child’s Google Classroom page a few days before.

Answers to questions sent in during the Town Hall that were not addressed by panelists:
Do you know if we are still paying for band?
Yes, the PTA is still paying for Ed Covi, our band teacher. He continues to work with students remotely.




 Wednesday, April 29, 2020, 5:00PM – 6:00PM

Jessica:

  1. Technical items regarding webinars
    • You will be able to see us, we cannot physically see you and we cannot hear you.
    • Questions—type into Q&A on bottom and the panelists will look at them
      1. Today, answering some questions from the school survey
      1. All questions that are asked in the Q&A are answered in the meeting notes to be sent out

Maria:

  1. This will be the first meeting but there will be a second meeting on May 5th
  2. Hope to answer a lot of your questions, more questions will be answered
  3. Addressing questions that were sent in the survey, the survey will remain open
  4. Still families in our school, students in our school, who have not received devices
  5. We’re all coming up for air in our 33rd day of remote learning; left school 47 days ago—who knew that on March 13th when we left school and our kids left school, we would not be coming back
  6. We ask that you do bear with us. In 33 days I feel that we have accomplished a lot. According to the Chancellor there are states and other places that were beginning remote learning as of yesterday, and there are some states that do not, have not begun their remote learning yet. So I have to thank our staff, everyone who was able to pull all of this together in 33 days.

School Re-opening

  1. Mayor says that school will be closed for the rest of the year so we won’t be back until September although we’re not really sure when school will reopen
  2. When we come back in September we don’t really know what that’s going to look like. I believe that the Mayor and the Governor are getting together and they’re trying to figure out exactly how life is going to be in our schools in New York City and in general
  3. While remote learning is something that we were able to do in 33 days it’s not really something that we planned. We were kind of thrown into it 33 days ago, again I think we’ve done a pretty good job

Social Emotional Issues and Learning

  1. We have to think about the students in our school and our families. Based on what we are hearing and the communication that’s coming across through this remote learning, there’s a lot of social and emotional learning when we return to school.
  2. We don’t know exactly what families in our school are going through, our children are very confused and not happy, having to deal with a mode and a way of learning that is unfamiliar territory for all of us.
  3. Some families are dealing with loss, not just our family members but there are people who have lost their jobs
  4. Having to deal with this pandemic has really brought to light the Haves and the Have Nots. As a school we’ve always been socially proactive so that has come to bigger light because we’ve always known that there has been a lot of disproportionality
  5. We will have to reach out to city agencies. The teachers and Jennifer, our guidance counselor, on staff are reaching out to as many people as possible, trying to have as many resources as possible for families. If there is anyone out there who really needs help and support with anything, reach out to a trusted member of our school community, either guidance counselor but definitely your child’s teacher.
  6. The first task was to make sure that every child in our school had access to this new way of learning. It is a major disruption. Kids coming to school early in the morning, stopping by the office and saying hi to the turtle, saying Hi Maria, needing breakfast. Now that this is not there for the kids, so we’re trying our best to remotely communicate and help.

5th graders

  1. 5th graders were really looking forward to their Moving Up Ceremony, and all of the rituals in place to prepare them to move onto Middle School. We are missing this so we are going to plan something very, very special for them. Exactly what it is we don’t know yet, but we will have an event.
  2. Our 5th graders did get into their Middle Schools. Congratulations to them and their parents! If you have any issues or concerns around middle school placement or choices, just let your child’s teacher know.

Modifying Curriculum

  1. We have to modify a lot of the protocols— putting together assignments, due dates for the kids, making sure that we are flexible with children and families in remote learning.
  2. If you live in a household with more than one child, you have a middle school child and you have a younger child—which one are you going to help? Another issue that the teachers in our school are also dealing with, their families helping their children. Not only are we working to get curriculum, lessons and everything planned out to your children, but also making sure that our families are taken care of as well.
  3. We’re trying to keep as close to how we operate, how we teach, and how we work at our school. Our school is a progressive model and there’s a lot of group work. With social distancing when we come back to school, will that remain and how will that look? There are a lot of protocols and guidance that we’re getting from the Department of Education that we will have to follow.
  4. Today there was a grading policy distributed and discussed by the Chancellor and Mayor that we also have to take into consideration. How is it going to look in our school? Because we do things differently and plan according to how it best fits the students of our school and our families, the expectations are still in discussion. But we have to follow those guidelines from the DOE.

Platforms

  1. First it was Google classroom, then Zoom, and now Microsoft Teams. There are many platforms considered by the Department of Education and we have been going from one platform to another depending on which one is best to use, will allow us to reach more people, and can make life easier for our students. We have been going back and forth, please be patient and bear with us.
  2. We are also trying to help families who have never had to communicate in this way because now children are home. Our kids are very smart and will play around with the computer. They have had enough experiences at school to manage the keyboard and press those buttons that they should press, and sometimes shouldn’t. At home, parents are becoming the teachers and we will help you as much as we can. Teachers have been addressing the students as a whole, organizing smaller groups, making themselves available to do one-to-one communication and sessions with students. Remember it’s only been 33 days so that’s still something that we are working on.

Community Meeting, Yoga/Mindfulness

  1. Proud that we were able to keep Community Meeting because it’s very important and a lot of fun. When I go into classrooms and small groups to talk to the kids, the feedback is they really enjoy having Community Meeting.
  2. Thanks to the PTA for continuing to support the Yoga program and Mindfulness videos, which the kids enjoy and now the family can enjoy as well. Families can participate and benefit from what children benefit from at school.

School Budget

  1. We do not have a school budget yet but have been told that they were going to be major budget cuts for all of the schools.
  2. Our school is very small and we keep our classrooms that way. There is no guarantee that can continue to happen, that we’re able to have those out-of-classroom positions that we have designated and have had before as a luxury.

Prekindergarten/Kindergarten Admissions

  1. Prekindergarten offers have been made. It’s really frustrating because we don’t have the systems that we always have when we are in the school building so we are asking those waiting for a PreK or K placement for your patience.
  2. Kindergarten applications went in and offers have been made to families. One very sad note is that there are pre-kindergarten students in our school now, who have applied for kindergarten and did not get in. Those who did not get in, please bear with us. This whole admissions piece is a work-in-progress because we have to wait and see who accepts, who doesn’t accept. There’s always a family or two or three who have been given a placement in our school but want something else so all of that shuffling happens. If you did get an offer you have to let us know whether you are going to take that seat or not. If your plan is not to return to CWS or to the city in September, let us know.

Summer School

  1. There is no information regarding summer school for elementary school kids yet. Summer school is being planned for middle and high school students, which is the priority for the DOE right now so elementary summer school is unlikely.
  2. Even for the middle and high school students, summer school might continue to be remote learning—that has not been decided yet.
  3. As far as the budget cuts go, there is a freeze on hiring we’re not going to be able to hire any new teachers. Life is going to look very different for us.

School surveys

  1. So far there have been 101 responses to our survey and we’d love to get more.
  2. Every family in our school has not been connected yet, which is not great for the kids because they really have to be able to do their work.

Gym, Art, and Science

  1. Out-of-classroom teachers are Gym, Art, and Science teachers. People don’t realize that the Gym teacher sees every child in the school, except for the Pre-Ks, and that’s over 200 students. The Science teacher also sees 200 students and the Art teacher also sees 200 students. These teachers have to plan for all the classes in our school.
  2. A lot of the work that is done requires materials and tools that you may not have at home, so we are trying to really work on what we can put in place, moving forward with Science, Art, and Gym. It’s a work in progress right now.

Attendance

  1. Questions about attendance, whether it’s mandatory or not. Attendance is something we have to keep track of, and there’s a lot of documentation with remote learning. The Department of Education is still trying to figure out the remote systems to put in place. No one is in the building and all are working from home. Crystal will answer the attendance piece.
  2. Crystal:  A question on our survey—Can attendance not be mandatory? According to the Department of Education these are still considered school days so students must be present every day and have some sort of communication with their teachers. This constitutes many different ways as per each individual teacher has classes set up, but every student must be present every school day and that is what is expected from the Department of Education.
  3. Maria: There are check-ins that the teachers have put in place and some of those check-ins are for children to just login everyday, or a question of the day that children will login and answer. That is so that we can keep track of your child’s attendance.

Promotion-in-Doubt

  1. Before school was out, several people received promotion-in-doubt letters. Promotion in doubt means certain grades, skills and learning that your child may not have mastered yet. During the promotion-in-doubt conversation it was a heads up and we were going to put a plan in place for your child to meet specific goals. If your child met these specific goals then promotion is possible. If the goals are not met, then it’s probably best if the child repeats a grade. For those of you who received promotion-in-doubt letters, if your child has been keeping up with as much work as they can during remote learning, I believe your child will be promoted. Again we are waiting to hear more about promotion-in-doubt, moving kids forward or holding kids back from the Department of Education.

Sharing Student Contact Info

  1. There were some questions about getting addresses and emails of your child’s classmates and other families so Helen will give you a little bit of information on that.
  2. Helen: Due to privacy concerns the school cannot share emails of families. However, at beginning of the year we had class parents who volunteered to collect that information, and probably sent out a questionnaire to the parents who are willing to share, and a list was compiled. So you can reach out to your class parent if you’d like to get in touch with someone from the class.
  3. Maria: Because we are not allowed to do that.

Is Art and Science Required?

  1. Is what’s being assigned by Gary and Toni work that is required or suggested if you’re already doing Art and Science work with your child? We look at work developmentally, such as in the early grades: a student’s eye-hand coordination; their understanding of different assignments; and how they carry them out. With Science there’s a lot of research and independent study that has to be done.
  2. If you are working with your child on specific projects then it is suggested that you keep copies or pictures of those projects, and exactly note the skills, tasks and understanding. Keep a portfolio of the work that your child is doing at home and then the Department of Education will decide whether we can accept it.


Live Learning Daily

  1. Jessica: Why is live teaching not possible throughout the entire day or everyday, at a given time or for a class or for a grade? That decision was made very consciously, not something that we quickly decided not to do. We are aware that other schools are doing it. The reason we’ve decided to not rely on that as a main source of teaching and learning with kids is an equity issue at the core. Not all students, as Maria mentioned earlier, have access to devices and even when all students do get devices delivered from the city, many are sharing devices within a family.
  2. While it’s great that the devices that were sent from the DOE were set up to be able to access Internet independently, it is not reliable connection. I was actually on the phone with a parent for an hour, and I can attest to the fact. While the city has arranged with Spectrum to have free internet for families who didn’t have it before, it is not reliable at all.
  3. We don’t want to create an experience where students who have the privilege of reliable access to technology and reliable access to Internet are able to engage in that type of learning and students who are not having that reliability are excluded from that.
  4. We have students that are not only in our school in different grades but across many levels with siblings in middle school, high school and college. Different people trying to use many devices, trying to get on at the same time with the Internet in your home.
  5. We also have a lot of families whose children have to step up to the plate to take on responsibilities at home, particularly older children at home. 5th graders and 4th graders taking on a lot of responsibility in terms of younger siblings and household work to help out.
  6. We’re trying to be very mindful of all this and trying to create experiences that allow students to be able to connect with their academic work at various times throughout the day. We don’t want students to miss out because of what may be happening at home.
  7. Maria: We have a lot of students who receive other services and are scheduled to meet with related service providers during the day so their schedules are full. If we taught synchronously all day long students would be missing parts of lessons because they would have to meet with a related service provider. In the school building related service providers are able to come into the classroom and push-in, which means that they’re able to support and help the kids while in the classroom so they don’t have to be pulled out. Remotely there are confidentiality issues involved, and these are mandated for services for children.

Recording Lessons

  1. Jean: Why can’t teachers record every lesson as if they were in the classroom? Before addressing that specific question, all questions have been taken from the survey unique to our school. There are two different surveys, one by CWS and another survey by the DOE.
  2. Regarding the type of lessons and how each teacher is presenting online, it’s definitely been a work-in-progress. In the first weeks, a lot of the questions were related to accessibility of the students in the whole school. Our primary concern was getting people devices, online, etc. Then we just had to set up our Classroom and each teacher was pretty isolated, figuring out Google in those first weeks. Cohorts met for hours and hours and hours, and individual teachers were trying to figure out how to present to their particular grade level with the amount of information they had to deliver in a many different topics— Math, ELA, Reading, Writing. It took time and the greatest source of support has been each other.
  3. Teachers are delivering the information about their topic or multiple topics or subject matter in the way that they think is best for their group, and that varies greatly with the different teachers. I think upwards of 90% of our teachers in our school are delivering their lessons in some kind of tape format. As Jessica mentioned, giving live lessons and doing live meetings left many of our students out. So many of us moved over to taping ourselves which was really uncomfortable for many of us and continues to be uncomfortable. The organizing of the lesson as well as the taping of the lesson takes many hours of work for a 20 or 30 minute lesson. It is all new to us and we don’t have materials at home. We know that you also have very little materials at home. There are so many things that we have to consider to deliver the information, both visually and auditorily, in ways that are appropriate for the age of our kids. Maria has always been very supportive of what teachers feel comfortable with in their delivery. Thanks for hanging in there with us as we move onto another couple of months of remote learning.
  4. Maria: I think that remote learning is going to be with us in some form or other, even when we get back to school. We have had a Tech Team for over 10 years now working on our technology and how we use it, what we need to have in our school.

Experiential Learning/Global Society

  1. To have that experiential learning where kids go out on trips and experience the real world, and also using technology to become and be aware of the world around us. Now more than ever it’s going to be very important for us too. One of the reasons our kids go to the farm is that they can see what the interdependency between the city and the country— milk doesn’t just come from a container in the store, it comes from a farm from a cow.
  2. We’re finding with this pandemic that not only do we have to become aware of or bring in more learning to our kids about the interdependency between the city and the country but globally. How are we interdependent? How does what we do here in the United States are having an effect or an impact another country? How was what’s happening around the world have anything to do with us or impact us? How do we become responsible global citizen?

School as Home

  1. In visiting the classrooms and joining the kids either doing a read-aloud or small-group instruction or a one-to-one or a Story Time, what they enjoy most is being able to see each other. We try to make that happen even though sometimes it’s a little chaotic because everybody wants to talk at the same time, are pushing buttons, or they’re tired.
  2. But I have heard from the kids when I’m in there, they look around and go, Oh Maria’s there. Hi, I say to them. I’ve heard children say to their teachers, We miss you, we were so worried about you, where you been?
  3. One of the most interesting comments that I’ve heard from kids is, How is the school? They are concerned and are curious about what is happening to their school, their home, their building. This is home for them. Children come to us—sometimes it’s 7:00 in the morning and they don’t leave until 6:00 or quarter of five. So that’s where their life is.

Teachers

  1. Schools are so essential, and teachers are part of that. We do this this work because for us it’s not just a job, it’s what we love to do. But you have to understand that at the same time we are human. We have our lives, we have our families, we have ourselves to take care of. When we leave the school building, we’re able to come home and take care of ourselves and everything else that we have to do. Remote learning is really hard because there are expectations that are really unfair and hard for us to meet.
  2. When you have a question or share a concern with the teacher, if you send the email or the question after 4:00pm and/or you send it on a weekend, you may not get an answer until the next school day. That would be Monday if it’s a weekend. We do pay attention to email and gather everything, but remember that we are planning constantly and continuously even after the school day is done.
  3. There are families who cannot get on a laptop or computer until the evening, or people have to take turns working on their assignments and then handing them in. That’s when they come to us. We try to take care of them and respond by the next day but you have to remember we are on constantly, almost 24/7 now, so please bear with us.
  4. In the school building we have to thank the custodians because they’re taking care of everything there. Somebody is taking care of the turtles, there was a picture the other day of a very clean tank and the turtles floating around.

Survey

  1. There is going to be another Town Hall meeting and we’ll wait for more questions from you and will try to get those answered as much and as quickly as we can.
  2. Remember to work on the CWS survey, which is still up, and also work on the survey from the Department of Education.
  3. There are many resources that are constantly being posted. Dorothy posts all of the resources that she can find from the district for families to take advantage of. If there is anything that you need or if you hear of a family who is in need, please let us know and we will try to put everyone in touch with the support and the help that is needed.
  4. Jessica: There are two links—the one for the CWS survey and then one also from the city—that will be embedded in the notes posted from this meeting.

Instructional Lead Team

Maria: This is the Instructional Lead Team of teachers (ILT). In the past it was the Principal’s Cabinet. Everyone go around and introduce themselves, this is the CWS Cabinet.

Scott: Scott, I teach 4th grade

Helen: Hi, I’m Helen, Pre-K teacher

Jeff: I’m Jeff, 1st and 2nd grade teacher

Jean: I’m Jean, 1st and 2nd grade teacher

Jessica: I’m Jessica. I’m a 5th grade teacher

Crystal: I’m Crystal. I’m a special ed teacher that works in Kindergarten and with 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students.
Susan: I’m Susan, 1st and 2nd grade teacher

Closing

Maria: Well everyone, thank you very much. We will try to answer whatever questions you sent in the Chat and the minutes to this meeting will be posted. So I just want to thank you very much and we missed you all, we miss all the kids, we do have fun in school.

Jessica: Please also note that there is going to be a PTA meeting tomorrow at 4:30. That has been sent out to everyone. We’ll send out the Zoom link again. So please join the PTA tomorrow at 4:30.

Maria: Okay thank you everyone, and have a good night. Bye

Links:
CWS School survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSetwKF1tDw1zsitYVUsBouGO-Z2q05okpqpXh6ReHV5ynwlAQ/viewform
City Survey: https://www.schools.nyc.gov/learn-at-home/remote-learning-survey

Answers to Questions sent in during the Town Hall:

How will the standardized tests work for kids that are currently in the 2nd grade and will have to take these tests next year?

  • There has not been any discussion by the Department of Education regarding the state tests for the 2020-2021 school year. Whenever information is given, we will be sure to share it.

Have we found any resources or best practices from the homeschooling world, parents that have done this before?

  • There have been resources posted on Bloomz via Dorothy and in the Google Classroom pages under Family Resources. Our wonderful PTA is also compiling suggestions from families and will be sharing ideas.

We have been working with our daughter every day and trying to turn in as many assignments as possible.  We would like to have more feedback as to her progress and how she will be evaluated for the year.  (How) Can feedback and visibility into a child’s progress be increased?

  • Within the typical schooling process, students do not always get extensive feedback on every single piece of work they complete. Teachers are working hard to provide feedback on work they deem suited to teacher comments. As Maria noted, the chancellor has just come out with his idea for a city-wide grading policy. We are reviewing this and figuring out how it works with our work at CWS.

Is there free public WIFI in NYC for children that have access to devices, but potentially cannot afford internet access? Just want to thank you each of you for your hard work and efforts to continue the education of our children!!! Thank you, it matters and it is making a difference.

  • Yes, there is free internet. We’ve posted on Google Classroom, through Bloomz and mentioned during the Town Hall that the city is providing free internet through Spectrum for those who need it. The information is also included below. Also, devices provided by the DOE are supposed to come internet ready, connected to the internet through T-Mobile.
    • Families are able to enroll in free high-speed internet service from Spectrum by calling 844-488-8395.

My son really misses Coach K. Is there a way to have some live time activities, much like the Yoga being offered or pre-recorded videos with Coach K?

  • Coach K will start weekly videos geared towards the different grade cohorts starting on Monday. So Pre/K will get an age appropriate video, the 1/2s will get a video, the 3/4 cohort will get a video and the 5th graders will get a video.

Can we have more live teaching for kids?

  • Jessica addressed this question during the Town Hall, please see the notes for more information. Below is an excerpt…
  • That decision was made very consciously, not something that we quickly decided not to do. We are aware that other schools are doing it. The reason we’ve decided to not rely on that as a main source of teaching and learning with kids is an equity issue at the core… We don’t want to create an experience where students who have the privilege of reliable access to technology and reliable access to Internet are able to engage in that type of learning and students who are not having that reliability are excluded from that…We also have a lot of families whose children have to step up to the plate to take on responsibilities at home, particularly older children at home. 5th graders and 4th graders taking on a lot of responsibility in terms of younger siblings and household work to help out…We’re trying to be very mindful of all this and trying to create experiences that allow students to be able to connect with their academic work at various times throughout the day. We don’t want students to miss out because of what may be happening at home. Please remember, live teaching is considered an option by the chancellor and is not a requirement of any teachers. Not all teachers are able to have live interactions due to personal situations or even simply feel comfortable sharing their home spaces/life publicly. All teachers are working very hard to find ways to meaningfully connect with students during this very challenging time.

Can we get pre-recorded video lessons from the teachers for ensuring that the kids are engaged on that topic?

  • Jean addressed this question during the Town Hall, please see the notes for more information. Below is an excerpt…
  • Teachers are delivering the information about their topic or multiple topics or subject matter in the way that they think is best for their group, and that varies greatly with the different teachers. I think upwards of 90% of our teachers in our school are delivering their lessons in some kind of tape format. As Jessica mentioned, giving live lessons and doing live meetings left many of our students out. So many of us moved over to taping ourselves which was really uncomfortable for many of us and continues to be uncomfortable. The organizing of the lesson as well as the taping of the lesson takes many hours of work for a 20 or 30 minute lesson. It is all new to us and we don’t have materials at home. We know that you also have very little materials at home. There are so many things that we have to consider to deliver the information, both visually and auditorily, in ways that are appropriate for the age of our kids. Maria has always been very supportive of what teachers feel comfortable with in their delivery. Thanks for hanging in there with us as we move onto another couple of months of remote learning.

I understand freeze in hiring…will there be any anticipated layoffs of any positions?

  • Maria will not know the true state of the budget till it is released over the summer. Therefore, we can’t say for sure about anything till the budget comes in and Maria has had time to review it.

Can you share some of the results from the survey? Particularly interested in how upper grade parents are experiencing remote learning.

  • We are currently still collecting data from the survey as it is still open. We are planning on presenting initial findings to the SLT and then will figure out how to share some of the information that is not identifiable to individual families.

The Department of Education has also not given out all devices so what is the policy on those children who don’t have access to either? You cannot penalize children if they have no access, how is CWS handling those populations of children?

  • Children who do not have devices are not being penalized in anyway by our school based student work evaluations. Teachers and staff are spending a great deal of time monitoring attendance and student interaction on Google Classroom. However, we are required by the Department of Education to log in all children who have not met the attendance requirements. Please know, we have also been very vocal advocates for these students (particularly thanks to our amazing parent coordinator, Dorothy), making sure the district and city knows which students do not have devices as of yet. Staff has been in one-on-one communication with families still waiting for devices. A wonderful update Dorothy was able to recently give us is that all students (over 100) from our school who applied for devices have received them. Only students who applied this week haven’t received them yet (5 students).

Have IEP services been reduced because of remote learning?

  • In times of emergencies, flexibility is permissible for mandated IEP services.  This includes group sizes, duration, frequency, and/or location. During our current state of emergency, flexibility is not only permissible but the only possible way to deliver services in matters of group sizes, duration, frequency and location. Special Education Remote Learning Plans (SERLP) have been developed for each child with an IEP. The SERLP outlines the services that are available during remote learning. The SERLP includes all services offered to a child with an IEP at this time including that which has been refused.

Lessons are designed with every student in mind, at their level, with supports and differentiations built into the lessons just like in the classrooms.  Families and children may not be aware of these modifications and considerations, but the teachers have designed the lessons with them built into it.   If your child does not need a particular lesson differentiated, then it would not be differentiated just like in the classroom.

Will the last day of school still be June 26th? Thanks!

  • Yes, the last day should still be June 26th.  There has been no discussion within the DOE regarding changing that date.

How can we help families fill out the census?

  • CWS is planning on posting links for families to be directed to the website where they can fill out the census.

Can we find resources for families with limited English and also we may have parents who may not be literate in English or their own language-so maybe videos and visual tools too?

  • Teachers have reached out to families with limited English to check in on their individual needs and supports that are needed for them. Fortunately, since Google Classroom is an online based forum, the Google translate plugin offers automatic translation. Bloomz also offers translation to the language of a family’s choice. For instance, these minutes are posted directly on our website which has the Google translate feature built in so families can choose their preferred language.  Families that need additional support in navigating Google Classroom have been contacted by staff and received one-on-one support. Because we are a small community and know our families well, we are able to respond to each family’s needs. If your family needs additional support, please Bloomz message (or email) your classroom teacher or Dorothy.