Dad's Truth

Dear School Committee Members and Superintendent Phelan,

Thank you for your continued service to our town, and especially to our children...

Obviously these past 6 months have brought diverse and unforeseen challenges.

I am not writing this with a tone of: anger, malice or threats; my intentions are to communicate from a neutral position with transparency.

I believe the recent, “Return to School” poll data was represented incorrectly, which rendered it statistically irrelevant.

If you could please take a few moments to review the facts below, they should help you decide to permit the parents of Belmont students to re-cast their vote on Hybrid / Remote Only for the upcoming accelerated dates of Phase 2 “K-4 Hybrid” - starting the week of 10/5/2020.

Thank you for your: time, patience and diligence during this unprecedented global pandemic.

Response to 9/22 School Committee Meeting:

The deadline for parental decisions regarding “Hybrid / Remote Only learning formats” was 9/17/2020. • Parents/Guardians selected the following… • Hybrid: 73% • “Remote Only”: 13% • No response: 14%

Of those parents/guardians who responded…

• Hybrid: 85%

• Remote Only: 15%

“We have directly contacted all families who have not responded to follow and complete the form.“

Let’s Assume 85%/15% is correct...

Poll opened Thurs, Sept 3rd 3:39 PM

Results gathered from 9/3-17 - 2 week period

Those numbers were in response to an email which advised:

“We are planning for the return to remote learning on September 16, 2020.The Hybrid Instruction Model, a combination of in-person and remote learning, will begin for all students, K-12, in Phase 3.

Based on survey data, and additional feedback from families, we know that there are some families whose children are unable to attend school in-person, and need a fully remote learning option.

We are asking all families to let us know their decision for each child by 4 PM on September 17th.

So the statistical data that was collected, and presented was for Phase 3, starting no sooner than 10/26:

Of those parents/guardians who responded…

• Hybrid: 85%

• Remote only: 15%

“We have directly contacted all families who have not responded to follow and complete the form.”

This same data is 100% statistically and mathematically irrelevant (just incorrect) to represent the the choice of parents signing their children up to be included in Phase 2 “K-4 Hybrid” - Starting the week of 10/5/2020 since it was collected for 10/26/20 as they voted.

This is analogous to taking stock prices for Apple in August 2010, and applying them to your portfolio today…

Or comparable to counting how many children are in Lexington schools, and using that to determine how many pizzas to buy for all the students in Newton...

3 factors were in play when the poll was initially taken:

1. The dates make the data now irrelevant. (no sooner than 10/26 vs. starting the week of 10/5/2020)

2. COVID percentages have shifted post Labor Day and into college season (Belmont’s numbers are increasing from Grey to Green)

3. Anyone that planned for arrangements dependent on the original timeline, has now had to make significant changes, and reevaluate their decisions (date was moved by 3 weeks)

We can consider that 2/3rds of those votes were gathered in the first few days of polling, and up to 80% in the first week.

So that said, 66-80% of those hybrid votes were coming off the Summer COVID high of happiness/distancing, and prior to the Labor Day results.

You can say a 3 week shift is insignificant, but I would argue...

All of this planning.. collaboration, communication.. over months… gone in one vote… one meeting… based on inaccurate, irrelevant, incorrect data...

We live in 2020. It doesn’t take 3 weeks to collect and analyze data...

You can run a poll in minutes, days, or in one week, and you will have 80% of your votes.

Supporting survey collection stats:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/curiosity/time-to-respond/

The majority of responses to surveys using an email collector were gathered in the first few days after email invitations were sent:

• 41% of responses were collected within 1 day

• 66% of responses were collected within 3 days

• 80% of responses were collected within 7 days

Only 11% of responses were collected during the second week of the survey period, and another 4% during the third week.

Random sample of 500,000 individual respondents who received survey invitations (using the SurveyMonkey email collector) in 2009 and 2010. We excluded the first week of January, the last week of November, and the last two weeks of December to normalize for US holidays. We limited our analysis to surveys that collected between 50 and 500 responses, so any single survey that received thousands of responses did not skew the results.

Go to the Documentation tab where you can find a pdf of the reference poll example

On Oct 13, 2020, at 10:16 PM, Darias, Janice <JDarias@belmont.k12.ma.us> wrote:

All the of the purchased equipment is in the buildings and tech staff are available to help support the installation. This includes webcams, speakers, and power cords. If there is something else that the educator needs, they should reach out to their principal. The IT staff and the technology integration specialists are also available to support teachers.

Thank you for providing this feedback.

Kind regards,

Janice

Janice Darias

Assistant Superintendent

Belmont Public Schools

-----Original Message-----

Sent: Tuesday, October 13, 2020 10:12 PM

To: SC <SC@belmont.k12.ma.us>; Phelan, John <JPhelan@belmont.k12.ma.us>; Paisner-Roffman, Heidi <hpaisnerroffman@belmont.k12.ma.us>

Subject: Technology needs for Remote Learning Cohort

Superintendent Phelan,

It was brought to my attention that some teachers at the Wellington Elementary School do not have the technical equipment necessary to meet the learning needs of Cohort A/remote learners. I waited until today to confirm this, and it was in fact the case. It also appears to be true of classrooms in several other grammar schools across the district. Several teachers have purchased equipment themselves in order to teach effectively? As a teacher, I would do the same, but this is not an appropriate solution, nor does it address the issue that classrooms were not supplied/installed as you assured...

This is problematic on several levels. Not only was my student unable to hear their peers this AM (limb cutting/air filtration didn’t help), but they were unable to see the work written on the board. As always, the educators and my family remained as adaptable as possible; I supplemented the lesson, and communicated with the teacher (who is always available/responsive). I know that between the teacher and my family, we can make this situation work. My concern is with the families that do not have this flexibility, and the position that teachers are being placed in.

As was mentioned this evening at the School Committee meeting, “lots is happening behind the scenes”. Why do the teachers not have basic supplies like document cameras, and why are the teachers the delivery system being used to explain this to parents? If something was committed toby yourself, or by the School Committee, (as has occurred several times lately) it is not appropriate for the teachers to be asked to communicate for upper administration when items are not followed through on. I know that you are already aware of the toxic dichotomy that exists between some local parents and teachers. I feel that it is harmful to contribute to that. I have heard your praise for educators many times, but providing them with what they need for best practices is what truly matters. If there are logistics that are making obligations challenging or impossible, I think that transparency is preferable at this point.