Minutes 04-28-2022 School Boards

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6 helpful in establishing effective communication with families, especially those where English is not their first language. She said OCS is looking to hire another family liaison to assist in communications with families where there is longstanding distrust. She said that community connectedness is crucial. She said that the family liaisons have regularly offered Parent Academies in several languages to discuss report cards, Power School, FAFSA, and computer classes. She said OCS is in the process of securing a bilingual office assistant at each school, currently there are eight. She said OCS is looking at ELA curriculum changes, more development for teachers with PLC training, and is in the process of selecting a new SEL curriculum. Chair Price made opening comments on behalf of the Board of Commissioners. She noted the importance of technology and internet access for education, economic development, agricultural and rural businesses, health care, and more. She said the pandemic highlighted the need for broadband in all households to ensure a sound basic education. She said the county assisted some families during the pandemic with hot spots, but this assistance was temporary and insufficient. She said broadband is essential to bringing equity and closing the achievement or opportunity gap. She announced that on April 26, 2022, the Board voted on a contract with North State Communications to deploy broadband in the unserved areas of the county. She said the plan will provide access to at least $9,898 households and there is a list of precise locations to be served. She said the county will continue to add households to the list if it is discovered they have been omitted inadvertently. She said the plan allocates $10 million in ARPA funding as a grant to North State to offset the capital cost of a rural fiber deployment. She said the total cost of the project is around $45 million. She said that current service pricing is available on the North State website, and the contract requires North State to provide a 200 MBPS package for $40 per month until at least two years after construction is complete. She said service will be available to households on a staggered schedule, with the first services being available in the spring of 2023, and all identified locations being completed by December 31, 2024. She said the contract also includes standards and metrics for customer service, network quality, and reliability, to ensure a responsive and reliable network for residents who choose to subscribe. She said the Board cares deeply about children in Orange County and wants to work with school systems to prepare students to compete and thrive in a global 21 st century society. Will Dudenhausen invited Carrie Doyle to discuss school safety. Carrie Doyle said it has been a good year health-wise despite the challenges. She said the demands on teachers, nurses, principals, and staff, has been immense at times, and she appreciates all those who persevered. She said OCS tightened down on masks during the Omicron surge. She said that if 2% of any school's student population tests positive, then that site returns to mandatory indoor masking for one week. She said most weeks, schools have had numbers in the single digits, and the 2% threshold has only been passed at two sites over six weeks. She said after one week of mandatory indoor masking, those sites have returned to few or zero cases. She said OCS is continuing to use outdoor spaces, which were built up during the pandemic, and is providing masks and onsite testing. She said OCS has also recently broadened opportunities for visiting and volunteering in schools. She invited Will Atherton to speak. Will Atherton said OCS has a new director of security to ensure a comprehensive and consistent approach across all schools in case something happens. He said OCS has also assigned a Head of Custodians at each school that looks at all facilities windows and doors and identifies issues and addresses them as quickly as possible. He said OCS is also working with SROs to ensure they are walking around campuses and doing thorough checks as well. He said many security improvements cannot be discussed publically, for obvious reasons, but said this is an area of focus for OCS.