Name Issue being addressed Comments to be read in Board Meeting Mask can become hot. I am worried that if a young child doesn’t know how to adjust it to breathe; it could cause children to pass out, be lethargic, or lead to other health and safety problems caused by not getting enough air. This could also impinge on special needs Mandatory mask children and those who have asthma. I also have concerns that kids adjusting the masks, leads to them touching their faces and concern in elementary mouths more. I fear mask in younger children will lead to more problems. I understand the need to protect and that is why I am Aimee Paris aged children. speaking out. I was very concerned about the 2 day per week schedule proposed by the district for our approval. I teach first grade and those students can't learn to read effectively unless they have guided reading on a daily basis. I am also very concerned that opening with a full-time traditional schedule is being considered. This would be ignoring the state and federal recommendations of social distancing. Putting 25-30 students in a small classroom sitting side-by-side at desks or on the carpet would not allow 6 feet between students. Here is my proposed schedule: 1. All classes would be split in half with half of the students attending from 8-11 and the other half attending 12:30-3:30. 2. Students would attend Monday - Friday with Monday being a shortened schedule for collaboration. Students could possibly attend 8-10:30 and 12-2:30 on Monday. Collaboration could take place between 2:30 and 3:30. 3. During the 3 hours of school, teachers would teach guided reading with phonics concepts, math, and writing/comprehension. Guided reading needs to be taught daily and cannot be done online. 4. Specialty could be 2 days a week for the AM students and 2 days a week for the PM students Tuesday through Friday. 5. Science could be taught on the other 2 days of the week for each session when students did not attend specialty. 6. During the break between AM and PM sessions, teachers could sanitize the room, eat lunch, and work on preparing online instruction for phonemic awareness, spelling, vocabulary, social studies, or whatever is needed. 7. Grab and Go lunch and breakfast meals could continue so we are not putting students and teachers at risk with a large gathering in the lunchroom. 8. Recesses might need to be handled as a short period of Go Noodle or other activities in the classroom. 9. Kindergarten teachers are already teaching 2 full sessions each day. I am not sure how to handle splitting those classes unless they attend on opposite days. This is also difficult because of the essential and foundational work the Kindergarten teachers are doing to teach letters, sounds of letters, sight words, counting, writing, etc. Many parents have talked to me pleading that their children go to school every day for a period of time. Parents are stressed out with working and trying to be a teacher as well. Please consider this schedule and any revision you wish to make in order to allow our students to safely attend school every day of the week. Thank you, Mimi Heaps Martha Heaps Fall School Schedule Vineyard Elementary (Mimi) with COVID-19 First Grade Teacher I have a kindergartner. I feel it is detrimental to her social and emotional well being to keep her 6 feet away from her peers and teacher. She needs to learn to interact appropriately. We will be teaching our children to be disrespectful and unsociable by telling other kids "you can't sit here by me or we can't share or play." They need interaction. No social distancing and no modified school Sariah Crafts Social distancing days please. My comment addresses cell phones in public schools. So many scientific studies and been proven to show that cell phones negatively effect children. They increase depression, anxiety and suicide and are detrimental to education and social interaction. Schools cannot ban children owning cell phones but we can ban having them on campus. Let's ban cell phones in schools. I don't want my child Sariah Crafts Cell phones having access to other children's phones. No cell phones on campus PLEASE!!! I have grave concern with the prospect of a full opening of ASD schools in the fall when we continue to see a continuous rise in infection to death rates with COVID19. This fact is increasingly concerning due to metrics released this week from CDC, Columbia University, and other current studies that show the infection to death rate among the average teachers age in ASD is one of the fastest increasing infection to death rates. I strongly urge the board to consider alternative educational models in order to protect its Opening schools during employees and the children. While this decision by the board is ethical at its core it also will possibly prevent future legal hardship for Dan COVID pandemic the district. I would like to ask the school board to consider banning cell phones from public school campuses. I see no viable argument for why a child requires a cell phone at school. Elementary and Middle school-aged children in particular. As a parent, watching trends of suicide and depression in teens and youth, I am adamantly opposed to my own children having access to cell phones and social media of any kind. The content available to children on phones is horrifying. I am certainly capable of banning cell phone use for kids my and even their friends within the walls of my own home. However, once at school the decisions that another parent has made to allow their child to have a phone are now effecting my child as well. If another child decides to show my child an inappropriate video on their phone, there is nothing I can do about that. Cell Phones on I request that serious consideration be given to a mandatory cell phone ban on elementary and middle school campuses. A review of Elementary and Middle the data seems to make this move not only prudent, but absolutely necessary for the development and mental health of the younger Kaleb Crafts School Campus generation. As the Board meets remotely due to the danger of COVID-19, I want them to ask themselves if it is truly safe for them to have our children and teachers return to their crowded schools and classrooms in just a few short weeks. The current trends for cases in Utah continue to increase at a steady rate with no sign of slowing down. It is more dangerous to return to school now than it was when school switched to on line learning back in March. As a parent of three school aged kids and a preschooler, I understand the desire of many parents to return to school. I want my kids to be able to return to school but I am very concerned about sending my high risk students back to their over crowded classrooms. I am asking that the board seriously considers adopting the combined in person and on line learning approach that was mentioned in a survey sent out a few weeks about. Only having half the students in the schools, classrooms, and buses will greatly help with social distancing measure and potential contact tracing should it be needed. Our Children and the school staff need to be safe when return. COVID-19 and returning Please do what is in your power to decrease the number of students in the school at one time. Following the current trend in Utah, Anya Oakes to school in August things are only going to be worse in August. Lets not turn our schools into COVID hot spots. The junior college association just announced they are delaying all sports to the Spring of 2021. While this may create some problems with scheduling I agree that giving the medical and science community more time to fight Covid-19 without large numbers of athletic events going in our communities would be of benefit to the students , teachers and their safety. I also think that rearranging the timeline of traditional school year (Jan - August) should be considered. With the uptick in Covid cases lately it feels like we are rushing too quickly back to “normalcy”. I think it is wise to start with the bare minimum of activity on school campuses and am in favor of partial School year and sports day and online classes. It would be easier to emotionally to gradually add to the school year than to have to stop completely. Thank Kevin Baird calendar. you for your hard work and concern for the children in the Alpine School district. Please consider let kids go back full time M-F. If sports can happen then full time school should occur. Those who do not want to go back to school there should be an online option for students and teachers. By offering online it will decrease class sizes and protect teachers who are uncomfortable with live session. Online schooling for my kids was a joke! And no social life killed them mentally. Alison Opening of schools Thank you for considering full time school. Name Issue being addressed Comments to be read in Board Meeting Is it wise to return to school in the middle of a global pandemic? The argument that children are resilient is really only half of the discussion that we should be having.