- Hi, I'm Alison Lebovitz.

And we're going to spend the next half hour talking about what's next for Hamilton County Schools.

We'll have information about summer programming and we're going to look ahead at next school year.

We'll also talk to pediatrician, Dr. Allen Coffman, about the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines.

Stay with us.

(soft upbeat music) And we're here with Dr. Bryan Johnson, of course, Superintendent of Hamilton County Schools.

Hello, Dr. Johnson.

- Hello, how are you?

- Good, welcome back to the studio.

- Glad to be back.

I can't believe that we have been doing segments like this for nearly a year now, but I am thrilled that you're back to give us some very promising news about not only where we are right now, but where we hope to be in the fall.

- Absolutely, it's been a interesting year to say the least, but so proud of the way our teachers and leaders and students and staff have responded in this community.

And so we believe that we are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but it's gonna be important to stay the course.

- So what is your message to parents right now as we just approach the end of school.

We have a little less than six weeks till the end of school.

And then I know you only have a one-week break between then and summer school, but we're not there yet.

I think people are eager to get to the finish line, but what is your message to parents and students as we approach the end of this school year?

- Absolutely, so the same mitigation strategies that we implemented, things like wearing masks, distancing, additional disinfecting will be the same strategies that are gonna get us through the end of the school year.

So we're gonna have to stay true to those things.

We know, as we look at world news that we see some countries in which there are spikes in cases, and we wanna do everything we can obviously in our local community to guard against that.

And so it's gonna be really important that we continue to implement those strategies to make sure that our students can remain in classrooms.

- And I know a lot of parents are asking, "Will masks still be required in the classrooms "until the end of the school year?"

- Yes, we communicated about a month and a half or so ago that as we began to learn more and more and more about the virus that we were gonna be able to come back to school and not just come back to school, come back five days a week.

But in order to do that, those mitigation strategies, things such as mask would be expected through the end of the school year.

So we'll continue that practice as we go through the rest of the school year.

We did transition away from the phase tracker.

And so of course, we had a phase tracker that articulated what phase we were in, whether we were hybrid or whether we were five days a week, or whether we were fully remote, we've transitioned away from that.

But in order to remain in the classroom, which is the most important thing for us or for our students we feel it's important to keep our strategies in place.

- And the Safety Pledge also is still continuing?

- Absolutely.

One of the most important things parents have done this year and we're so appreciative of, is there's been a heightened awareness around maybe any symptoms that students have had.

And myself, I always share as a parent when my sons had a cold or sneeze, we've been a lot more careful than usual.

And he's got to miss some days this year, which probably he may enjoy more than we have.

But it's really been out of an abundance of caution.

We wanna make sure that whatever's going on with him isn't COVID and that he doesn't spread that.

So we wanna ask parents to continue this whole true to the end.

If you're sick, and same for our employees, if you're sick, please stay at home.

We want you to also wear your masks.

We want you to distance and be true to that Safe Pledge.

- I know Summer Reach is also really critical as we start to end our school year but look to summer plans.

And I know we're going to have Kelley Weiss on with us right after you, but give us a little highlight of what that will look like.

- So last year we started our initial pilot or beta test so to speak of summer programming, in which we really targeted for our students that we knew needed the most opportunity to really move forward academically.

So we'll continue that this summer, we'll expand it.

I believe 41 sites and Kelley we'll get into all of that, but we really look to take advantage of this opportunity to accelerate.

There's a lot of conversation about learning loss.

We don't talk about it from the standpoint of learning loss, we're talking about it from the standpoint of wanting the acceleration.

The truth is everybody across the country has been in this spot for the last year.

And so how do we accelerate the learning for students?

We look forward to the summer being able to do that.

- So I'll counter phrase, instead of summer slump we're gonna call it the summer bump.

- [Johnson] Still with it, summer bump.

- That's it.

- Yeah, summer bump.

that's what we're looking to do this summer.

- And then after summer, I don't wanna jump ahead too far but I know everybody's very eager to hear what you think fall will look like for Hamilton County Schools.

- Yeah, we're confident at this point that we'll be in school five days a week.

We're not gonna have a phase tracker, we don't anticipate having to have that level of strategy in place.

There will be enhanced mitigation, we wanna do all we can.

What we are learning is that obviously the vaccine in large scale probably won't be fully available for all of our students at that particular point.

And so we're gonna have to continue with heightened awareness around those things.

But we'll be five days a week.

And determinations about masks and all, that's a major question, we'll make those determinations as we get later into the summer.

- Okay, but some things will change.

I understand you're not doing HCS at Home.

- That is correct.

- Starting in the fall.

It will still go on until the end of school.

- That is correct, so we'll continue HCS at Home.

Which HCS at home, the difference in HCS at Home and virtual is remember HCS at Home kept the student connected to their home campus.

Whereas virtual is a separate school site.

And so as we go into this next school year, we won't offer HCS at Home but we will still offer virtual school programming.

- Okay.

Look, as a parent, we know that forget the summer, where we fear, but this past year has just been an anomaly to say the least.

What's gonna happen come fall to make sure that our students are not just prepared but haven't lost so much that they're gonna be struggling for that next academic year.

- Absolutely.

So the way we're approaching summer and Kelley will get into this, is we were looking at it in two parts.

The part A, the first three weeks is really about making sure that any standards or any academic learning for the current year that we're in we make up as much ground as possible.

And the second three weeks it's gonna be looking at really accelerating and getting you prepared for the next grade.

I give our teachers and leaders and staff so much credit.

We've continued to benchmark, we've continued to really assess where our students are.

So we have a pretty strong pulse on exactly where our students are.

Our students will still sit for the state assessment as required by the state.

And we'll get a really clear picture from that regard.

So we're gonna take all that information and use it to tailor individual learning plans to support our students exactly where they need to be.

- And finally, I wanna make sure people know the reason they used to see us in the studio fully masked, was because that was the safest way for us to interact in person.

But now a year later, we are both fully vaccinated, according to CDC guidelines we're allowed to be in the same space indoors.

What is your recommendation to those who can get vaccinated?

- Yeah, so the vaccine is so important.

It's a key step, it's a key strategy.

It's why we press so hard to have access toward for our teachers.

We need our community at large to take advantage of that opportunity as much as possible because it is the path to normalcy.

We all wanna get back to normalcy, we all wanna get back to gathering and the events.

And people need people, we need relationship.

And the way you get there is through things like the vaccine.

And so it's really gonna be important.

I personally, as you mentioned, have been vaccinated and I'm excited about what lies ahead because of it.

- Well, I just wanna say a huge shout out to you and load of gratitude to you, your staff, and your team, your teachers, your administrators, I think everybody watching here cannot thank their educators enough.

- Yeah, we have a great team of people that work so hard and a phenomenal school board that really sets the vision for us.

And now we're humbled to be in a great community that support public education.

- What are you looking forward to most next school year that you weren't able to do this school year?

- I think the ability to just engage.

We've had an opportunity to go into classrooms and do different things, but there's also that heightened awareness about the virus.

So I just look forward to that normalcy kinda returning, school leaders not having to deal with as much contact tracing and all those different elements that have come into the school year.

So that return to normalcy is gonna be well.

- We can go back to the normal stress.

- Just the normal stress.

- The normal.

- That's right.

- Well, thank you Dr. Johnson.

And we will be right back with Kelley Weiss to talk about what's coming up this summer, stay with us.

(bright upbeat music) - I chose to get vaccinated because I think that it's the right thing to do to help our community and those around us who are at risk.

- To do my part to help stop the spread of COVID-19.

And I also can't wait to hug my friends, family and students again.

- To help save my life in the lives of others too.

- Hello, I got vaccinated to protect my children and my students here at Big Ridge Elementary.

- I got my vaccines to see my mom, my dad and my grandma.

- It's for safety for myself, my students and the community.

- I got my COVID vaccine to help stop the spread and end this pandemic.

- I got vaccinated for my family and my friends, my coworkers, and my students.

(bright upbeat music) - I'm here now with Kelley Weiss to talk about what's happening this summer for Hampton County School students.

Hi Kelley, thanks for joining us.

- Hi, thank you for having me.

- All right, so a lot going on.

A lot going on in general, but I know that people are really excited about this Summer Reach Program.

Tell us what that is.

- I am super excited about Summer Reach this year.

Summer Reach is going to be an extended summer learning program for our students.

There'll be two, three-week sessions, one June 7th through the 25th, and the other July 7th through the 27th.

And so this year, what summer is going to be, that first three-week session is really firming up what students learn this year, focusing on the standards that they learn this year and making sure they're really cemented with the students.

As you know, we've been in and out of school, and so we wanna give students an extended chance to really have a firm grasp on what they learned this year.

And then July we're starting, everybody's promoted and we're moving on to those standards that they would begin to learn next year, with this thought that every student is gonna come in feeling more confident if they have an idea of what is covered.

So we want to give them a chance to really accelerate in the coming school year.

- Now, is this K-12?

- We have a K-Five group, which will run 8:30 to 3:30 every day.

And then we have a middle school group, which will be from 8:30 to 12:30, Monday through Thursday.

And then we will have high schools doing credit recovery in June.

And then in July, we'll focus on a group of our freshmen, who will have a chance to do our Freshmen Acceleration Academy.

And those will be from 8:30 to 12:30 Monday through Thursday.

- Okay, so if I'm watching this now, how do I know if my student is either required to do this or eligible to do this?

- We are going to be sending out invitations to families for all students that we are looking to have come to us and then there'll be an opportunity for all families to sign up through Power School on our forms page just like they did for HCS at Home.

They can go into forms, sign their student up, and then as there's available spaces, we will notify them that they've been accepted.

- Okay, I have so many questions.

So does it happen at your actual school or are there gonna be certain sites and you're gonna be designated to that site?

- We have a lot of sites all over the county so that there will be opportunities for local learning.

And they will have a notice on which site that they will be going to.

Some will be their local schools, some will be more centralized because there'll be several schools that go there.

The neat thing about that is that kids are gonna get a chance to interact with students that they may not typically get to interact with.

So they'll have opportunities to make new friends, learn from other people and interact with students that they may not interact with all the time.

- And then are you familiar right now or understand the safety protocols that will be instituted or have y'all decided that yet?

- We are going to follow CDC guidelines, and we'll do social distancing, we'll do hand-washing.

We're gonna make sure our students are safe.

There will be nurses available, and everything that we need to make sure that every student has the opportunity to learn in a safe environment.

- Okay, so take us through a typical day.

Is it going to feel just like a school day in the middle of summer, or will it really be centered around the fact that we know these students have gone to school all year, even if some have been virtual, and making it more accommodating towards that sort of mindset?

- We wanna make sure that students are having fun.

We know they're coming in to learn, but we also wanna make learning fun.

I mean, that's our goal every day, to make sure that when students are there they're enjoying their learning experience.

But this we're going to have some camp-like feels.

I know that some of our teachers are already planning fun things to go with the different themes from our ELA lessons.

They're planning different activities with games and manipulatives for math, we're planning in innovation hour, so that there will be a chance to do art or music, or some different science labs that they may not typically get to do.

So it's going to have a feel that it's different than regular school.

There will be kind of a camp-like feel to some of it, and then there'll also be the opportunity for them to learn in a different way than they would normally.

- Now, I know there are other two things that parents worry about during the traditional school year, transportation and lunch.

- Both are recovered.

- I mean, look at that.

- This opportunity is at no cost to parents.

So there's no cost for summer school.

We are providing the transportation, we're providing the food, their kids get to come and learn, and we get to have fun with their students and help them be ready for next year.

- Can a student sign up for one of the semesters and not the other, or is it the whole summer or nothing?

- Absolutely, they can choose, if they have family plans in June but the parents want them to come for July to kind of get them back in the swing of things, sure.

If they have plans in July but the parents want them to come to June, we're open to that too.

They can come to one, the other or both.

- Okay.

I know you said you're gonna be sending invitations out.

Will it be required for some students or a portion of the student body, or is this really just suggestions for those students who might need a little more help?

- For those students that we really want to come, the school will reach out and talk to the parents and they'll go through that.

If there's some that we're concerned about for making sure they're really ready for next year.

But it's an opportunity.

It's not like, previous when you think summer school and, oh, I have to go because, and that miserable feeling of, oh, summer school.

This is different.

This is a learning opportunity that's going to be engaging and filled with different opportunities.

- Well, Dr. Johnson, I had just discussed this.

I can't imagine there's anybody out there who isn't concerned on some level that their child needs just a little push before they go back to what I'll call conventional school environment.

So I feel like this is a gift to everybody.

- I view it that way, but again, I'm in love with this program that I am helping to develop and the people we're working with because everybody in the district is having a hand on providing students with an opportunity that's different and exciting.

- So I wanna make sure people understand that this has never happened before, we've never done this program.

- We did a Summer Reach Program last year, but nothing like this, this is an evolution of that.

We have built it out so that it is truly a different experience from last year.

But kids loved it last year, so if they loved it last year, I know they're gonna love it this year.

- And then how have you recruited the teachers for this program?

- We sent out the call and said, "Are you interested?"

And they said, yes, resoundingly.

So our teachers are amazing.

They have stepped up, they wanna be involved.

I'm getting emails hourly (laughs) of different teachers saying, "Hey, I missed this, but can I be part of it?"

And so they wanna be there for the students because they've missed their students.

They've missed the opportunity to work with them on the times we've been out, so this to them is a gift of having more time with their students.

- Even further proof how amazing our teachers are, right?

Like after a year like this, for them to be jumping at the chance to continue to teach.

And in an unknown environment is just amazing.

- Yeah.

We are very lucky for the teachers that we have and the willingness that they are to work with our students day in and day out, even beyond the regular school year.

- Well, thank you, Kelley.

And this sounds like a tremendous opportunity for every student in Hamilton County.

Remind parents and those who have a student in their home, an email will be coming.

What is the date that they can expect to see a notification for them to enroll?

- Emails will be coming by next Monday, so it'd be the 20th.

And we will have the signups on Power School, so they can click into the form section on Power School, and there will be Summer Reach.

- Perfect, thank you so much for joining us.

- Thank you.

- And now we're going to hear from our own Alea Tveit, who is going to tell us about a new broadcast channel, WTCI Educate, take a look.

- Thank you for watching this special presentation from WTCI PBS and Hamilton County Schools.

We'd like to take a moment to tell you about an exciting new addition to our channel lineup.

WTCI PBS has always strived to provide engaging educational content for all ages.

That's why we've launched our new channel, WTCI Educate.

This free broadcast channel can be found over the year at 45.4 and on EPB channel 304.

The channel is aimed at learners of all ages, providing engaging classroom content in a variety of subjects and grade levels.

During the day WTCI Educate air standards aligned K-12 educational content produced right here at WTC, or by our community partners such as Hamilton County Schools, Tyner Academy and UTC.

In the evening, Educates shifts gears to PBS World, where you will see news, documentaries, and cultural programming you won't see anywhere else.

Learners of all ages, we can't wait for you to join us and learning and exploration on WTCI Educate, the communities classroom.

- I think we can all agree that we each need to do our part to help stop the spread of COVID-19.

And of course the latest weapon in our arsenal is our vaccines.

Last week, I had the chance to talk to pediatrician, Dr. Allen Coffman, as part of our weekly Facebook live show, Calling Dr. Coffman.

And he discussed the importance of getting the vaccine.

Take a look.

- Hi, Dr. Coffman, thank you so much for joining us.

- Hey Alison, how are you doing?

It's good to talk to you.

- It's great talking to you and I'm doing great because I am so thrilled that in Hamilton County, 16 year olds are eligible to get the vaccine.

And as the mother of a high school student that was the best news that I could have ever heard.

And I know you have two teenagers at home as well, so my question to you is, what is your advice to all the parents and guardians watching right now in terms of getting their 16 and 17 year olds specifically vaccinated?

- So the simple answer, according to Nike is just do it.

So they definitely need to do that.

My middle daughter, she's 18, and she's actually getting the Pfizer vaccine as we speak.

So we're very excited in our house, one more step toward immunity in the Coffman household.

I think it's very exciting that we're seeing that our high schools potentially can have such an increased level of immunity as we move into the next couple of weeks.

Especially as we think about doing things like prom and graduations and getting even safer.

The question that parents have to me is like, "Why should I get my kid vaccinated?"

- Right, people watching this wanna know.

Is it safe and is it effective?

And if we can answer that definitively, I feel like people will have greater confidence.

- Yeah, and so to the point with safety, this has been the most analyzed kind of dissected vaccine and rollout and really medication rollout in the history of medicine.

We're now over 150 million doses just in the United States.

We're seeing that this is a very, very safe vaccine.

So for a very few rare people, they will have an allergic reaction to it that can be significant.

But even in those cases, it's not recommended that you don't get the vaccine.

It's just recommended that you get it somewhere where they could help you if you had an allergic reaction to it.

With children, very safe there's no, I would have no concern as a parent in the 16, 17, 18 year old age group.

And then the question comes up, okay, so you're saying it's safe, why should I even bother doing it?

It's like, 'cause it's a hassle.

And I think we're gonna see it's getting easier and easier every day in Hamilton County, more and more places that you can get the vaccine.

And so I think first off, the good news is if you've not had coronavirus, you've got two big weapons now.

We know what to do in regards to masking and social distancing, and now you can also get vaccinated.

So it's in your control to keep yourself from getting coronavirus, which is extremely exciting, I think.

And so with younger folks, people say, "Well, they don't get that sick."

They get sick.

This is an illness that you wouldn't wanna have.

It could take you out for a week from school.

We're seeing probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 to 15% of folks in some of the studies are showing what we call the long COVID symptoms.

So profound fatigue, they get very dizzy when they change position.

We're even seeing cognitive changes in some children and young adults, similar to inattentive ADD.

So you have the opportunity to keep your kid from having those problems.

And then I think, like we've been talking about for the last year it's on us at this point to take care of our communities.

So a lot of people have been sticking their necks out in Hamilton County Department of Education, you have a lot of teachers and administrators that have put themselves out on the front line to keep education going for our children.

And now it's our turn as parents to help them continue to do that by getting our teenagers vaccinated.

- And when we talk about really safeguarding those people around us, we have to say the teachers, our administrators are a critical component of that safeguarding.

And especially if we're looking at the fall and any chance of having a semblance of normalcy and full in-person classes, we're not out of the woods yet.

I think people, when they hear about the vaccinations coming on board, think, oh, COVID is over.

We're not there yet and vaccinating our kids is really that critical next choice.

- It totally is.

I mean, our hospital levels, our new cases, our death rate even has plateaued, it's not gone away.

I think the other concerning thing is that around the world we are seeing coronavirus enter the fourth wave, so the case rates around the world are increasing.

And we're also seeing these new variants show up that are potentially more effective and more dangerous.

And so to think that this is just going away is really a fantasy at this point.

And so we all have to do our part to continue to protect each other and protect our communities.

And right now that next step is making sure our teenagers, our young adults, those who haven't been vaccinated, to get vaccinated now when they have an opportunity.

- What do you say to those parents who are saying, "I hear you, but I feel like I need to wait "to see how this pans out?"

- I think the rollout of this has been amazing.

So you look at the technologies that make these vaccines, they're not new technologies.

They've been around for almost a decade now.

So a lot of it comes out of work around malaria and HIV.

So these aren't new things that just were made in the last year.

We've just had an opportunity where we have an application where they work well.

We now have over 150 million doses that have been given.

So we're not at the start of this.

If you wanted to wait, waiting is over.

We've got a lot of people that have gotten it.

There's so many layers of analysis that are happening.

So for example, in my family, I had some family members that were concerned when they heard about the J&J vaccine, and that there were millions of doses that were potentially contaminated.

And I said, well, you're hearing about the system working.

So these companies have rigorous quality controls, there was a concern, and they threw those away.

So there's multiple layers of safety.

And we have the data now that shows with the Pfizer vaccine and the majority of vaccine to be extremely safe.

I think if you're a data person like I am, you wanna see, let's see the pudding, let's taste it, make sure it tastes right.

But we're at the bottom of the bowl.

So when you get your bowl, it's time to eat it up.

- Well, thank you, Dr. Coffman.

I love the analogy, love the advice.

So you've heard it here, go get vaccinated.

- Let's do it.

- If you have a child, a teenager eligible don't waste time.

Thank you so much, Dr. Coffman.

- Oh, you're very welcome Alison, always good to talk to you.

- You too.

I want to thank Dr. Johnson, Kelley Weiss, and Dr. Allen Coffman for joining us tonight and thank all of you for tuning in.

And just before we leave, Dr. Johnson, if parents have more questions, where should they start their search?

- Absolutely.

So obviously your homeschool is a great spot.

They will have information but also our district website, www.hcde.org.

- Perfect.

Thank you, Dr. Johnson.

- Thank you very much.

- And thank all of you for joining us.

(bright upbeat music)