We may actually have to be very flexible with our school models. Trying to create things that honor the social distancing requirements, but dont create a system thats scary for kids. The thing that i miss the most about school is constantly having something to motive me. That feeling of gratification when it comes to learning a subject and applying yourself. I want to see my friends and my teachers. I also miss my friends, and i also misplaying. I miss recess at school. I want to go back to school in the fall. Its not going to be a common open for every Single School district in the district. There is no one size fits all. Together we are working to meet the needs of our 6. 2 million students. Abc7 presents education a bay area conversation. And there is so much to discuss. Thank you so much for joining us for this special edition of abc7 news. Im ama daetz with lyanne melendez. Instead of our 4 00 p. M. Newscast, today were going to spend the hour talking with experts and you in an abc7 listens virtual town hall on education. Ama, were taking a closer look, right, at the future of education in the wake of covid19. This is an important onehour virtual town hall airing on abc7, on abc7news. Com, youtube and facebook. February. In midfebruary, many families were planning for graduations, some were Getting College acceptance emails or even thinking about summer. Then all of that came crashing down without warning. We were left feeling vulnerable, not knowing what the immediate future would bring. It seems so very long ago. In february, with limited reported cases in the u. S. , americans were told the risk of coronavirus may be lower than the flu. Youre exercising an abundance of caution. Meanwhile, many educators were already calling for action in schools to minimize the risk of it spreading. You wash your hands, number one. Just wash your hands. By midmarch, covid19 had exploded into a Worldwide Public Health crisis. Colleges shifted from inperson to online instruction. The k through 12 Public School system followed suit, issuing a temporary closure order. This decision will pose difficult times for the families and students who depend on our schools. Inschool meals and afterschool programs were halted. Many hoped this hiatus would give the virus a chance to somehow dissipate on its own. It never did. Citing concerns over the continuing spread of the virus on april 1, governor gavin newsom announced all Public Schools were to be closed for the rest of the year. We should not prepare to bring our children back in to the school setting. This sent students, teachers, and parents diving into unknown, uncharted e get their instructional time, how do i manage work, how do i manage the household . Overnight a teachers Education Plan included a new platform, zoom remote learning. Of course there is no institute for inperson education. Hi, boys and girls . Its miss martinez. How are you . Teachers like Marissa Martinez improvised, trying anything to engage students while her 11yearold daughter recorded her lesses, all of that while taking care of her toddler. You must be exhausted. I am. Its a fine line of insanity. Let me tell you that much. I dont pay my babysitter during the day enough money i believe now. Ive realized that. Distance learning also highlighted the Technology Gap among students. Some School Districts relied on their diminishing funds and donations to quickly purchase laptops for students and devices that would give families Internet Access at home. This pandemic has made clear that Wireless Service should be just like water, electricity, its a necessity. Many students resisted Online Learning and acknowledged that technology cannot replace teachers. I felt like while i was in a classroom, i was learning a lot more. It was a lot more spontaneous and unpredictable. I could interact and talk with my peers and the teacher asked questions if i wanted to. And in this new online format, i found it hard. There are expectations that schools will reopen in the fall ok li. Person learning, like vhoeearsfran they have already trained staff to take a childs temperature three times a day. No more than ten in a classroom. Each child will have a box with supplies and a tray they will carry around. All sanitized at the end of the day. And those hula hoops will be eoa distancing. Theea been addressinghat on zoom with the children and talking about social distancing and andy, who is the lead teacher along with tina in this classroom has told children they can spread out their arms. And if you can touch someone, youre a little too close. So as we envision any classroom in the next school year, Actor Tom HanksSkyline High School class of 1974 offered some words of hope for the graduating class of 2020, and for anyone who wishes to listen. You have been chosen by fate to lead the way in whatever our post pandemic world is going to be. Make it a great one, would you . Were all relying on you. L disss whel today. Zooming in today we have nancy aberon, is only school superintendent, dr. Matthew, San Francisco unified district superintendent. Dr. Kyla johnson, trammel oakland unified district. And tony thurmond, california state superintendent of instructi instruction. You heard tom hanks say make it a great one. Now have i so many questions for you. I want to start the conversation with dr. Matthews. If you have the opportunity, the chance to sit down with, lets say an Elementary Schoolchild, to sit down and tell him what the fall will bring, what it will look like, what would you tell him or her . Thank you, and thank you for holding this town hall, this meeting. A number of things. We long to be back with you. We miss you so much. We long for you to be back in the classroom. But one of the things we have to do is we have to make sure its safe for you to be back. As a district were going through a planning process with the community to figure out what that learning will look like. And then when we can bring you back in a safe way. I definitely would highlight that whats paramount and most important is your safety. Thats what i want to ask state superintendent thurmond. Districts are desperately waiting for the California Department of education to release the socalled road map to reopen. I call it the how to reopen. Its happening im told in early june. Does that give districts enough time, lets say, its june, july and then august. Will they have enough time to prepare . Absolutely. Thanks for the question. And we call we call it a how to also, because we understand that this has never been done before. And for a thousand School Districts to move together, we want to make sure that theyve got the best interesting that can be provided. Weve been calibrating by talking to our School Districts a the same time. Last week we hosted a call for a thousand school drink, and weve been doing the same this week as well. And we know through our best practices that we have ways to keep our students safe and ensure they can receive a quality education at the same time. And lets talk about that a little more. I know san mateo county, in fact, their office of education has already put together a Pandemic Recovery framework, a draft of it anyway. So while these School Districts are waiting for state guidance, lets talk to you, dr. Johnson trammel. Whats your timeline on getting a plan together . We encourage you to speak to eefr talk to each other. You dont have to wait for us to jump in either. Well, conversations i know in our districts and most of the districts with the wonderful folks that im surrounded with tonight, weve actually been thinking about the fall since march. And just in learning and what this pandemic, learning about the virus, were in the middle of a Global Health crisis, there have been in conversations going on to begin to imagine and have parents, students have hosted various insta lives with my students just around. It takes a minute for people to digest the gravity of this moment and what it means for our schools and for society. And so i think back to dr. Matthews point whats important now. And it was underscored in our webinar with the state is the importance of involving community and involving many people and the planning, and as ive been saying over and over again, the fact that were planning under conditions that will continue to change. And so were going to have to continue to be nimble and evolve. And what we may arrive in terms of a plan in july, by the time we open up in august, we may have to shift then. So that takes a minute. Many conversations, you know, for people to digest what it is that were planning for with lots of unknowns. And trying to get as much information about all the worries and fears that people have, given that the level of uncertainty that were all living in. Dr. Johnson trammell, i have a followup to that. You wanted to involve parents obviously. There is a survey out there what that fall reopening would look like. You mentioned that some might be inperson instructions. Some might be online instruction. There was even one of the sixr se where you ask parents do you think we should go year round . That would pretty much solve the problem right there of lost time. Is it practical . Is it financially practical . And have you involved the unions . The teachers unions . I think we all have to be clear. There is no plan that can be concrete and ready to go without our labor partners, period. Theyre a crucial and critical stake holder in this. And we also want to know from parents, because when were planning, and im home schooling two children. So i live this crazy life every day. And my kids are 10 and 12. I often think about what life is like for parents that have a 1yearold and a 3yearold. And so its important to kind of get the planning and perspectives of the whole spectrum from prek to 12. So were where at in this stage of gathering all of the whatif questions, the concerns so that we can calibrate as were continuing to scenario plan obviously with our labor partners, with our principals, with some of our key essential workers that are going to have to help carry out the plans that we all are gngrre nt tco. Ndm one of those who has a kid between 1 and 3. She is 2 1 2. So i have a lot of questions about the really little ones. San diego unified School District, i want to talk to you a little bit for the things we know need to be worked in for kids who might return back to school such as masks. How do you deal with that with the little ones . My little one is sure not going to be able to wear a mask or keep it on or understand why were doing this. Have you guys worked through that at all . So let me ill answer the question in a minute. But i first want to open by thanking you for putting this together. I think its a great opportunity for people across the bay area to hear from the practitioners doing this work. I want to commend the incredible work that our teachers are doing, taking a system that is in person predominantly and moving it online overnight. And then the parents that are out there sitting side by side with their little ones in many cases because they are young, and then the parents of the older students are the caretakers of the older students are ensuring that theyre continuing to engage just like the circumstances that were under. Im a parent too, so i have a lot of empathy. Were also highly trained individuals in this field. However, we find it challenging as parents to be able to navigate all the requirements of having Students Learning from home. So big thank you to everybody for the patience, the understanding, and the compassion that weve seen. Regarding any health and safety requirement, i really believe that as leaders, that is front and center of our thinking, and we will obviously look to the medical experts for guidance. I just in my county really grateful for the leadership of dr. Sara cody. She has been incredible in communicating with us and as this environment is changing, but i do know that that is top of mind for families. We put out a survey and that is coming in as the number one priority of families, understanding what is going to be required to ensure the health and safety of students. So i do and i know across all te conversations that ive had with leaders of systems across the state and outside of the state, that is top of mind. Okay. And we want to pause right here. We are going ctinue t conversation. Cling messages fm studes theyr now and what theyre looking forward to. And you are part of this abc listens town hall. We want you to join in the conversation and ask questions. Go to facebook, youtube, abc7news. Com, or the abc7 news app to weigh in and interact in todays virtual town hall. One thing i would like to see in the future is we would do some work at home and some work athiing that theres going to be, like, people probably like police or something thats like making sure people are six feet away. And im looking forward to going back to school in fall because i want to see my friends and my teachers. Two weeks on and two weeks off. Annabelle . I want to go back to school. Charlie . I want dont want to go back to school. Dont want to go back to school . Honest. Very honest answers from Bay Area Elementary School students about what makes Distance Learning difficult. Truly. We were talking during the break, inviting our listeners to also participate and ask questions. And one of those was of course how do we include special needs children. To any one of you, please. Well, i would just say t putting out guidance every week on how we support our children with disabilities, including those who have been served through Distance Learning. And well continue to provide that support to our one thousand School Districts. We know and have heard from some that there may need to be some exceptions to practices like wearing a mask. For some of our students who may have sensitivity to wearing a mask, and that we may need to think about ways that we can serve those students safely that mean that others may need to really maintain six feet of distance while were supporting those students for the safety of everyone. So we know its complicated, but the things that were asking people to think about doing in school are the things that were really asking everyone to do right now, hand washing, wearing a mask, and maintaining six feet of distance. Our Child Care Centers are doing it right now. Its complicated. I know its hard to get your mind around it. It is for me as a parent, you know. But this is what were going have to do to really work towards keeping our students safe and the people who care for them, our educators. I would say the other area that where were getting information from is from our parents. And our parents are consistently at every board meeting. We have advocates for our special needs students, and they are letting us know what is working and what we need to do better. And its not only just you need to do better, but this is how. So taking that information as i think the entire system is learning, and were going to continue to grow and figure out how do we do Distance Learning for all of our students in a way that provides them a high quality education. Can we talk about money for just a second . We all know this is going to cost districts a lot of money. Superintendent thurmond, how confident are you, and perhaps all of you, that we will get federal dollars . And what if we dont . Well, i cant speak the what the federal government is going to do, but i can tell you that we continue to advocate for them. I was on the phone with the head of the department of agriculture this week because there is 500 million that california could be using right now to make sure that hungry kids get a meal. There is no question we need the support of the federal government that Speaker Pelosi has been calling for to make sure that we have the supply, very supplies that were talking about. So we need to continue to call on the federal government to support all of our state, not just california. If that doesnt happen, then California Legislature is going to have to make some decisions about whether or not we can provide additional revenue for our schools. Because there is no question that our schools need the revenue to take on these additional requirements. What im confident about is that the state of california will work with our schools to assist our schools in getting face covers and Hand Sanitizer and the resources needed to address health and safety needs in our state. Im very confident of that. And i want our School Districts to reach out the our office if they need help in how to access those types of supplies. So lets talk to the superintendents here now. If there isnt money, this is a difficult question, a difficult conversation. If you have to make cut, where do you even begin . Everyone is so vital to help take care of our kids and give them the education they need. Lets begin with you, dr. Johnsontrammell. One thing i want to say is i believe we have to plan with the reality in mind, but we have to lead knowing that there is abundance. There are resources out there. And i know theres lots of advocacy. I want to thank our governor, the state. There are many advocacy groups that are focused on putting pressure that really needs to be there for the federal government to really step up and support Public Schools across the nation. Whether were talking about food distribution. Thats one area. Whether were talking about closing the digital divide. That is another area. And i want to continue to lift up in this moment the need to continue to invest in teachers and broadening who are thinking about as teachers at this moment. Its our classroom teacher, but its going to be our paraeducators. Its going to be our social workers, our nurse, our counselor, our youth workers. Wer