[Tiffanie N Harrison]

I do not want to get too granular on this. I have already sent my comments via email to Mr. Poolman.

I would like to prioritize a nationwide search. I would also like to work with firms who have had success in hiring both Superintendents and other Executive leaders.

I agree with Trustee Weir’s timeline adjustment suggestions. Dr. Bone, I do like how you have outlined more community engagement.

[Tiffanie N Harrison]

Dr. Xiao, I agree with you. Which would mean that I would be moving the consideration of reconfiguring school year as a higher priority. The correspondence we are receiving from educators and the recent increase of daily cases is alarming. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel with a vaccine. I would like to prioritize the safety of our community at this time.

[Tiffanie N Harrison]

Good Afternoon Fellow Trustees,

Per our conversation on Thursday, December 10th, my priorities are below. I also would like to have COVID19 added to the agenda for the Thursday, December 17th meeting.

-Teacher Retention *** (Teacher Prep and Support)
-Workload challenges*** (Figuring out use of the 5 additional virtual days. Giving families and educators adequate time to plan for this.)
-Measuring how students are doing in both environments (right now we are making many assumptions based on individual experience/perception of in-person vs. remote learning. More data is needed here. More qualitative feedback from a wide cross-section of students and families)
-Focus on student mental health ***
-2-way meaningful communication – staff and parents/students (include skip level teacher to district, etc.) ***
-Safety – student and staff NEED TO DEFINE SAFETY (I will put in writing that I did not appreciate the condescending commentary about teachers just needing more communication and education around the reality of COVID19. Teachers know their present reality. There are some classes that are able to follow all recommended COVID19 safety protocol across the district and then there are others that are operating at full capacity and/or without enough cleaning resources. Teachers also see who is out and know who they are covering for and there have been many reports of dashboard inconsistencies…we need clear and consistent data to be able to more reliably measure and define safety)
-Consistent and Clear Data – measuring the same things (Again, inconsistent reporting from district leads to a lack of trust. Transmission rate for Elementary school is 2%, where is that same metric for middle/high school, irrespective of extracurricular exposure. If the transmission is related to school in any way, it needs to be tracked)
-Proactive Planning***** (contingency plans needed. Clear and quick communication between district/families/staff)
-Accounting for every student from last year (we need clear answers on who we have not heard from all year. And clear plans and execution to reach them)
-Compensatory Education, budget impact, need, teachers need to be involved (LSG) I also look at this is student-focused outcomes. We know outcomes are rough. Rougher than usual. We need to begin focusing on our strategy for recovery as opposed to simply lamenting learning loss. Learning loss is normal in the present situation.

Items I would like to discuss further:
-Keeping Schools Open, Classrooms ** (As we are seeing higher community spread, we are seeing higher numbers of COVID+ students and staff. There has also been a lot of staff outreach about the COVID dashboard underreporting. We need clear and consistent data here. Even if we must go virtual for a time, schools are not closed. Pre-planning allows for robust online learning experiences. We need excellent contingency plans in the event that we do have to close ~buildings. We need to be communicating and planning for how possible closure impacts SPED/Dyslexia/TAG/Free and Reduced Lunch, etc.)
-Encourage in-person learning, maybe bring back if failing at home *** (I do not agree with bringing back failing students as a rule. When we look at demographics, those who are failing are also often from families at highest risk for COVID19 exposure and/or mortality. It would be good to do some work around ~why these students are failing before assuming that in-person learning is the answer. If we believe in mental health and social and emotional learning like we say we do, we need to find the root cause and see if it can be addressed before making assumptions)

Things that are important but maybe not the most pressing priority to me right now:
-Testing/Advocate to TEA to suspend STAAR this year (I would like to talk to Trustee Feller more about this. I would be willing to do some of this advocacy at the legislature when I can better articulate up and down sides)
-Covid dashboard simple indicator for each campus
-Reconfigure the school year to make it safer
-Education gap/graduation rate (this falls in line with compensatory education. We need to be planning ahead for the inevitable. We also need to be conferring with Colleges/Trades/Universities to see what their response is to incoming Freshmen knowing the impact of COVID19)

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