Superintendent Kimberly Rizzo Saunders reports the ConVal School District has filed a lawsuit against Monadnock Tent and Event in order to recoup losses caused by unusable outdoor tents the district rented from the business to support in-person learning.
The suit was filed on Wednesday, Oct. 7 at Hillsborough County Superior Court.
In all, the district will be seeking $220,236.99 in total damages from Monadnock Tent and Event. This amount includes a refund for the money spent on tents that were not able to be permitted, labor costs, engineering costs, and electrical work.
“This lawsuit is meant to hold Monadnock Tent and Event responsible for their failure to live up to the responsibility of ensuring that the tents provided to the district could be permitted for use,” Superintendent Rizzo Saunders said. “This failure resulted in significant disruptions to the start of the school year, putting an increased burden on our staff, students, and their families during an already challenging time. After a good faith effort on our part to resolve this issue, this step is a last resort for the district as we work to recoup the taxpayer funding that went toward tents that we were ultimately unable to use.”
In late August and early September, the district became aware that tents over 400 square feet that it rented from Monadnock Tent and Event would not meet the permitting requirements set out by the state of New Hampshire. The permitting challenges were created by the vendor’s inability to provide the necessary data, certificates, and other required documentation to the necessary authorities per the contract and the representations made by the vendor.
As a result, the district had to modify its reopening plan and transitioned students at Great Brook, South Meadow and ConVal Regional High Schools to a remote learning model for the beginning of the school year.
As of this week, the District is fully implementing the Reopening Plan. On Monday, Oct. 5, South Meadow School seventh and eighth graders began attending classes in-person, as well as all ConVal High School students in the blue cohort. Students in grades 9-12 in the gold cohort will attend in-person together beginning on Oct. 13, and the two cohorts will rotate as scheduled going forward. In-person learning was scheduled to have begun for those students on Sept. 8.
The district will provide additional updates as they become available.
The Monadnock region school districts are very busy developing and implementing our local school reopening. I’d like to highlight the work that went into ConVal’s reopening plan: it is the result of three months of community-wide efforts of the ConVal administration, the educators and school staff, the public health professionals, law enforcement, town administration, parents, and the school board.
This joint effort resulted in a plan that considers the safety and health of students and all school staff, and utilizes community resources to meet these needs. The plan utilizes research and data in identifying those practices that give the nine communities of ConVal its best chance at opening safely.
School districts across the state have reviewed the plan, and have also found the plan to be thorough and far-reaching, and have requested permission to use parts of the plan within their own.
ConVal parents have met with their individual school principals and teachers to get the information they need to make the right decision for their children.
I am most proud of our nine community collaboration that made this plan possible, and the support that has been evident between all parties throughout this process.
I’d also like to highlight that it is the commitment of our communities that make it possible for school districts to consider opening – the ability to open schools safely is dependent on the community transmission rate. When you wear a mask and maintain social distance guidelines, you are helping our schools to reopen and supporting families across the region.
Thank you to everyone and let’s keep up the good work!
Safety. Safety first for our students, educators, parents/guardians, and the community at large.
This is the overarching theme of the ConVal reopening plan. Our ConVal administration has worked diligently to provide a plan that is both safe and flexible to ensure the best education environment achievable in these difficult times.
Committee teams, comprised of over 120 individuals representing all required disciplines plus outside stakeholders ConVal administration, have developed a comprehensive plan that best reflects the requirements of our ConVal Community. Using a combination of in-school, remote and distance learning environments the ConVal district will have the flexibility to adjust the learning model as COVID-19 situations develop.
The Reopening Implementation Team related four instructional modes to the CDC’s four levels of community transmission and mitigation. These levels are designated as Blue, Green, Yellow, and Red.
The decision to move from one level to another level will be analyzed in real time by the district's COVID-19 monitoring team which is made up of local health professionals and district staff. Data from on-site monitoring, local and state information will all factor into the decision process. We are currently planning on our opening in the Green level.
The School Board has also been extremely active in having input to the plan, approving of the plan and being active participants in the steering committee overseeing the development of the plan.
Since our plan has been published, ConVal administration has been contacted by other districts — both in-state and out-of-state — to seek permission to use areas of our plan to assist them in developing their own plans. This is a testament to the completeness and direction we have established.
As with any plan, it is only as good as the time it was written, with the information available at the time it was written. With the overarching goal being safety, we expect the plan to be a living entity. The plan is only as good as the leadership is to execute it and to adjust as the situation requires. The ConVal community is uniquely privileged to have both the plan and leadership to navigate us through these uncharted waters.
Flexibility is also a key component to this plan. Everything will not be as it was. The success of our school year depends on all being as flexible as possible in their needs and requirements. We are all in this together. We are ConVal.
Since the end of the 2019-2020 school year, the ConVal School Board has been working collaboratively with the district administration and a variety of committees made up of building administrators, staff, teachers, and community members to plan for the reopening of the District for 2020-2021.
In order to keep you informed about this comprehensive group effort, which is being undertaken by over 120 individuals throughout the summer, we have put together an overview document entitled COVID Reopening Communication. The .pdf file outlines which committees have been formed, what their focus areas are, and what fundamental principles are used to guide the work.
Over the coming weeks and months, we intend to keep you updated at regular intervals about the reopening plan and its implementation. Please check this space for future updates.
[post_title] => Reopening The District For The 2020-2021 School Year
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by the Members of the ConVal School Board
The following video presentation is dedicated to all those in the ConVal community who, in the words of one ConVal School Board member, organized "the absolutely superb, professional, timely, and unflagging response of the entire ConVal team during this unprecedented challenge."
"No words can express our pride and gratitude for all you were able to make happen for the children of ConVal in such trying times," noted another. "We realize that your own lives had been turned upside down as well and to try to create calm, confidence, creativity, and commitment to your students went above and beyond."
One board member reflected on the exceptional "devotion to students, teaching, and ethic of care" demonstrated by faculty, staff, and support personnel: "What you have done is truly remarkable, and I am in awe of how you have all stepped up to the challenge!"
Other board members remarked on the teachers' firm focus on students, despite the unsettling developments precipitated by the pandemic: "You always kept the ConVal kids in the center of your vision, and didn’t let go," observed one. "I have heard many stories told by students, parents, and school leaders about your dedication and the beyond-the-call-of-duty efforts you made on behalf of students this spring," wrote another. "Please wear your pride openly this summer, both as an individual and as part of a conscientious and devoted team."
"As we all know, leadership can make a difference," commented another member of the Board. "In ConVal’s case, we are truly blessed with a dedicated, responsive, and capable leadership team."
Please enjoy this presentation and take pride in the tremendous work you all have accomplished.
[post_title] => Thank You From The School Board To All In The ConVal Community
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by the Members of the ConVal School Board
In representing all in the ConVal School District, the ConVal School Board would like to express our sincerest appreciation to our parents, guardians, and students for your incredible patience and flexibility as we conclude the 2019-2020 school year.
We understand the enormous responsibility and challenges that Remote Learning placed on parents, guardians, and students as you had to create time, space, routine, and support for learning at home. We realize that all of our families are experiencing a difficult time and that there are many other needs, in addition to student learning, that are critical as we work through this crisis together.
We are so thankful to our families and students for all the amazing gestures of kindness and generosity we keep reading about. From donating to food banks, sewing masks, thanking first responders, doctors and nurses. Writing notes of gratitude to teachers, staff, bus drivers, and food service workers. Sending videos and slideshows of students singing songs, creating art, performing science projects, or just to cheer up those around them.
We honor all of you and your acts of generosity and kindness, patience and resilience, and the fortitude and determination you have demonstrated.
Each May, as sunny days multiply and the end of the school year is just around the corner, sustaining students’ attention to schoolwork becomes more challenging.
A recent survey of ConVal parents and teachers reflects this annual phenomenon, but also shows that there is still a high level of student engagement with their remote learning activities – 80% of parents and teachers say that students are “engaged” to “highly engaged” with remote learning.
The latest survey was sent to parents and teaching staff on May 1; more than 900 responses were received. ConVal Superintendent Kimberly Rizzo Saunders has summarized the survey results in her “Weekly Update” sent to families and staff on May 8th. You can see the Weekly Update by clicking here.
Good Communication; Manageable Workload. The May survey reports parent and staff responses to multiple-choice questions and records “comments” that respondents add to provide detail. Parent and staff responses to questions about teacher-student communication have been substantially favorable and consistent with results from the first version of the survey administered in early April. Parents give high marks to teacher-parent communication and the teachers express appreciation of good communication by Administrators. Most parents feel that their children are managing the workload for classes, with 85% of respondents sharing that their children were managing “well” to “extremely well.” The shift to four days of instruction has been positive for most families as well as for teachers. Most parents find the challenge-level of assigned work to be appropriate, though, consistent with the April survey, some parents feel there is too little work or that the work is too easy, while a similar percentage say the workload is too heavy and the work too difficult. Additionally, some parents have asked for more small-group or one-to-one interactions with the classroom teacher.
Isolation. Parents were asked to identify areas of additional need. Emotional support for students was far and away the highest priority for parents. Their added comments highlight the social isolation children are experiencing. Some parents are seeking more resources to address children’s social-emotional needs and mental health as well as more online supervised social interaction opportunities for students. In immediate recognition of the need expressed the ConVal school counseling team reviewed emotional support resources that could be recommended to parents. Lists of those resources are available on the ConVal website through the “Remote Learning” tab at convalsd.net.
Technology Challenges. Another parent concern is for support with the remote learning technology. A low, but important, percentage of families still have problems in connecting to the remote learning platforms and in using the various tools. Comments about technology indicate connectivity issues when multiple family members are online, as well as a need for more information about using digital resources, especially Google Classroom. The convalsd.net “Remote Learning” site has information on use of remote learning tools. Despite our best efforts, which have included deploying hundreds of hotspots from both Verizon and US Cellular, internet access continues to be a challenge for some families. Access to devices is growing, as is the ability to stream videos.
If You Need Help. Superintendent Saunders emphasizes that if a family does not have access to a device or the internet to please reach out; ConVal will work with each family to attempt to resolve access and device issues. Also, if a child is struggling academically or emotionally, she encourages parents to communicate directly with their child’s teacher, school counselor, or the principal for suggestions for help.
As Kimberly Saunders noted in her conclusion, “We Are ConVal, and we are ready, willing, and able to assist you as we wind down our school year.”
We want to thank all the ConVal teachers for all they are doing and making happen for our students and families during this unexpected challenge.
We have always respected our teachers’ dedication, knowledge, passion, and the connections they make with our children. But this year, there are no words that can begin to express how appreciative we are for all that our ConVal teachers are doing.
The Covid19 Pandemic has thrust the world into a place it hasn’t seen in the lifetimes of our current generations. To see the changes that we are all struggling with is to see a world-down to the family level – that is challenging all of us to re-evaluate where we have been and where we are going.
School districts across the United States are
reimagining education to be delivered where there is no physical school, no
physical classroom, no physical classroom community. Over the past years, schools have adopted
strategies to maximize their ability to deliver the wider world to their
students by utilizing the internet and online resources as part of their
curriculum. In higher grades, whole courses have been delivered online,
offering wider and more flexible selections to students. There was never an
expectation that remote learning would replace what communities, families,
teachers, and students so highly prize about our physical schools: the
classroom community.
The possibility of whole communities being
shut down was on the horizon with the news of a new coronavirus ravaging Wuhan,
China. On return from February Winter Break, teachers and administrators began
work to shift their classroom curriculum to a format that can be delivered
remotely. The need to re-translate curriculum began on March 14th, and
continues to evolve as the virus has changed how we operate as a community. The
first step was for all school staff to prepare materials for a learning menu in
reading, writing, math, and unified arts, for use at home in the event of an
extended shut down. Classroom lessons had to be translated to a format that
could be delivered in a new medium. At
this point, everyone was still unsure of what the virus would bring, and were
hoping for a two-week hiatus before returning to the school buildings on April
6th. For this three-week period, login information was sent home for any
learning platforms currently in use by classrooms. Teachers and administrators
engaged in a comprehensive “reformatting” of the traditional classroom.
Starting on March 18th (far ahead of many districts) teachers were reformatting
and delivering instruction at the same time – flying the plane while building
it simultaneously. Schools use technology to enhance curriculum, but research
has always confirmed that the most effective and crucial part of education is
the relationship between teacher and student. Principals and teachers explored
how this connection would be communicated in this all remote world, most
importantly for the most vulnerable students – the youngest and special
education students.
Many problems had to be solved. Younger
children require lots of adult supervision, and require free and outdoors time
and exploration that caregivers or parents need to provide. If the parents are
trying to work remotely, this creates serious problems. For 2nd-4th graders,
they may need help in finding sites, logging on, reading instructions, clicking
in the right place, typing answers, staying on task, again, a high degree of
parent involvement. ConVal administration worked on two huge tasks: ensuring
all students had a computer, and all students had internet access. This became
especially crucial as April 6th approached and it was clear that the virus was
only getting started, and the shutdown was going to continue. Students in
grades 5-12 have a personal Chromebook for use in school, due to foresight of
our nine communities in voting for budgets that continuously look forward.
Students in grades PreK-4 have access to home computers only if there is a home
computer. Internet access is a well-publicized problem for our nine-town school
district, and has been the target of planning and legislative efforts over the
past five years for a host of reasons – but now the ability to deliver an
equitable education depended on the ability to ensure all children who needed
one had access to a computer and the internet. The administration, with the
cooperation of internet companies, delivered100 + hotspots along with
additional Chromebooks and other appropriate technology.
At the same time, the question of how to support children and families who had depended on meals that were delivered in school had to be confronted, a need that became very clear as more and more families lost their jobs and their income. The administration immediately stepped up to develop a program where breakfast and lunch would continue to be put together by our food service contract, and delivered by our school busses.
As the shutdown continues, ConVal continues to
learn and adapt. Where the classroom was the predominant platform used to
deliver lessons, the new platform had to be constructed from the available
remote tools, and lessons rearranged to be effectively delivered on this new
platform. The process of moving instruction online is a time consuming and
bumpy process: verbal classroom instructions and reinforcement must be clearly
written in themes and directions, to be delivered by a third party – the
computer. Where any confusion over assignments or lessons could be cleared up
immediately, or with a short pull-out, separate time must now be scheduled.
Teachers must always provide additional access for instructions, feedback, and
follow up. Special education students do not at this point have access to
Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, nurses, or their one-on-one aides.
Administration is developing compensatory services for those students whose
IEP’s require them, ensuring these students will retrieve the progress that they
have made, and allowing them to continue progressing.
There are many styles of delivering remote education; teachers must figure out which matches their curriculum and their students. Some classes depend on morning check-in, some are using Google classroom, Zoom for online live classes, and most post office hours when they are available for student questions and help. Online resources must be curated for appropriate content, level, and support to the lesson.
At the same time, there are efforts towards the developing structure and a community environment of their school and classroom. Teachers are constantly assessing and measuring the amount their students are mastering, the level of their engagement. The social-emotional aspect of children feeling secure in their environment is one of the most important underlying facilitators of learning. Online lectures don’t work – teachers must devise other ways for lessons to be delivered. One of the most powerful learning strategies included in every classroom is the ability of students to support and mentor each other. The biggest challenge is creating this online community that will engage and allow collaboration across the class. Other challenges include measuring engagement, managing behavior, and dealing with overloaded platforms. Presentations must be crafted for on-demand relearning or rescheduling.
Classroom environment and curriculum cannot
always be transferred online--especially for PreK-through grade 2, and for
students with special needs. For those parts of the district that have weak or
no bandwidth to support online technology, it's not possible. Students who live in dead zones have no
access to the school at all. For those students, the lessons must be translated
a third way – hard copy packets. These packets of a day’s lesson must be
copied, collated and sent to students on a weekly basis.
ConVal is well-positioned to meet these challenges as they have an administration and teachers who have previously completed work in integrating technology in their curriculum delivery. That is not to minimize the challenge of-overnight-switching from using technology as part of a classroom model to using technology as a classroom. That is a heavy lift, and the work continues as there is no clear end in sight.
The impacts of COVID-19 on the finances of the ConVal School District are not clear.
The Administration and School Board are in the process of determining the impacts but, at this time, there are many unknowns. The effects of remote instruction can be increased expenses in some budget lines and potential cost savings in others.
As soon as accurate estimates of these costs and savings are known, they will be communicated to towns and citizens in a timely fashion. Please see this document for details on the budget mechanics as well as some questions and answers regarding potential budget impacts.
Superintendent Kimberly Rizzo Saunders reports the ConVal School District has filed a lawsuit against Monadnock Tent and Event in order to recoup losses caused by unusable outdoor tents the district rented from the business to support in-person learning.
The suit was filed on Wednesday, Oct. 7 at Hillsborough County Superior Court.
In all, the district will be seeking $220,236.99 in total damages from Monadnock Tent and Event. This amount includes a refund for the money spent on tents that were not able to be permitted, labor costs, engineering costs, and electrical work.
“This lawsuit is meant to hold Monadnock Tent and Event responsible for their failure to live up to the responsibility of ensuring that the tents provided to the district could be permitted for use,” Superintendent Rizzo Saunders said. “This failure resulted in significant disruptions to the start of the school year, putting an increased burden on our staff, students, and their families during an already challenging time. After a good faith effort on our part to resolve this issue, this step is a last resort for the district as we work to recoup the taxpayer funding that went toward tents that we were ultimately unable to use.”
In late August and early September, the district became aware that tents over 400 square feet that it rented from Monadnock Tent and Event would not meet the permitting requirements set out by the state of New Hampshire. The permitting challenges were created by the vendor’s inability to provide the necessary data, certificates, and other required documentation to the necessary authorities per the contract and the representations made by the vendor.
As a result, the district had to modify its reopening plan and transitioned students at Great Brook, South Meadow and ConVal Regional High Schools to a remote learning model for the beginning of the school year.
As of this week, the District is fully implementing the Reopening Plan. On Monday, Oct. 5, South Meadow School seventh and eighth graders began attending classes in-person, as well as all ConVal High School students in the blue cohort. Students in grades 9-12 in the gold cohort will attend in-person together beginning on Oct. 13, and the two cohorts will rotate as scheduled going forward. In-person learning was scheduled to have begun for those students on Sept. 8.
The district will provide additional updates as they become available.
Superintendent Kimberly Rizzo Saunders reports the ConVal School District has filed a lawsuit against Monadnock Tent and Event in order to recoup losses caused by unusable outdoor tents the district rented from the business to support in-person learning.
The suit was filed on Wednesday, Oct. 7 at Hillsborough County Superior Court.
The Monadnock region school districts are very busy developing and implementing our local school reopening. I’d like to highlight the work that went into ConVal’s reopening plan: it is the result of three months of community-wide efforts of the ConVal administration, the educators and school staff,
Safety. Safety first for our students, educators, parents/guardians, and the community at large.
This is the overarching theme of the ConVal reopening plan. Our ConVal administration has worked diligently to provide a plan that is both safe and flexible to ensure the best education environment achievable in these difficult times.
Since the end of the 2019-2020 school year, the ConVal School Board has been working collaboratively with the district administration and a variety of committees made up of building administrators, staff, teachers, and community members to plan for the reopening of the District for 2020-2021.
The following video presentation is dedicated to all those in the ConVal community who, in the words of one ConVal School Board member, organized “the absolutely superb, professional, timely, and unflagging response of the entire ConVal team during this unprecedented challenge.”
“No words can express our pride and gratitude for all you were able to make happen for the children of ConVal in such trying times,”
In representing all in the ConVal School District, the ConVal School Board would like to express our sincerest appreciation to our parents, guardians, and students for your incredible patience and flexibility as we conclude the 2019-2020 school year.
We understand the enormous responsibility and challenges that Remote Learning placed on parents,
Each May, as sunny days multiply and the end of the school year is just around the corner, sustaining students’ attention to schoolwork becomes more challenging.
A recent survey of ConVal parents and teachers reflects this annual phenomenon, but also shows that there is still a high level of student engagement with their remote learning activities – 80% of parents and teachers say that students are “engaged” to “highly engaged” with remote learning.
We want to thank all the ConVal teachers for all they are doing and making happen for our students and families during this unexpected challenge.
We have always respected our teachers’ dedication, knowledge, passion, and the connections they make with our children. But this year, there are no words that can begin to express how appreciative we are for all that our ConVal teachers are doing.
The Covid19 Pandemic has thrust the world into a place it hasn’t seen in the lifetimes of our current generations. To see the changes that we are all struggling with is to see a world-down to the family level – that is challenging all of us to re-evaluate where we have been and where we are going.
The impacts of COVID-19 on the finances of the ConVal School District are not clear.
The Administration and School Board are in the process of determining the impacts but, at this time, there are many unknowns. The effects of remote instruction can be increased expenses in some budget lines and potential cost savings in others.
