Town Hall Meeting (01/21/25)

Revere Town Hall Meeting

17:32:27 We have Ms. Dukes here to explain how to utilize of closed caption.
17:32:34 So Ms. Duke, can you please explain how to use closed captioning?
17:32:41 Yes, thank you. La mente no vamos a poder prover tradución durante la reunion, pero si occupa introduces a bajo de su pantalla.
17:33:04 En español. The new bumps that I keep. And in chat.
17:33:22 Yamos a prover. La presentación en español también.
17:33:28 Yes, yes.
17:33:30 Painting muscles. So welcome everyone to our town hall And I want to start off by expressing our gratitude for your support.
17:33:41 We appreciate your flexibility and understanding through this unprecedented time. We appreciate your cooperation.
17:33:49 And management of the situations that are very fluid And we appreciate your ability to adjust quickly.
17:34:01 My name is Dr. Anthony and I am the principal at Paul Revere Middle School.
17:34:07 And I wanted to introduce my admin team. I'm sorry we couldn't get the pictures up for you, but they're here.
17:34:14 So we have Mr. Caretz, we have mr evans We have Mr. Shannon. We have Ms. Mavashov, our magnet coordinator, and we have mr Brett Shabbata.
17:34:29 Right now, I'd love to introduce to you Mr. Nick Melvoin, our LAUSD board member, and we also have Allison Holdor pohill.
17:34:40 Our director and senior advisor.
17:34:44 Thank you, Dr. Anthony. It's nice to be with you all this evening. Obviously not under the circumstances we would have hoped.
17:34:51 But I appreciate seeing the Paul Revere leadership and so many families on here. I just want to start by acknowledging You know, that our hearts are with you in this community, which is not just a community I represent, but my community.
17:35:03 I know that many folks on this call are displaced, lost homes, or are still out of homes.
17:35:09 Allison Holdorff, who you see on the screen, my district director who's here, former Paul Revere parent.
17:35:15 She lost her home and we're living this all with you. And so we're here both on a personal and professional level. And I think the resilience of the greater Palisades, Brentwood Paul Revere community has been incredibly inspiring, and we're really grateful. I will be relatively brief.
17:35:30 We just wanted to thank you for joining tonight and talk a little bit about our goals, not just for this webinar, but also kind of our goals over the last few weeks and then the next few weeks and taking care of your children and your families.
17:35:42 The first is, of course, safety, making sure your kids and families are safe. And you're going to hear a lot about that. The next is keep getting this school open for those who need a place to drop off their kids, who are comfortable sending their kids back.
17:35:55 And who want a sense of normalcy. It's not lost on me that our kids over the last few years have missed far too much school, whether that was during COVID or winter break or holidays and the list goes on.
17:36:05 I was thrilled to see that we had just around 82% attendance at Paul Revere today. We know families are impacted for a number of reasons. Some have left temporarily, some have left long term.
17:36:14 Some can't access their homes, but to have the vast majority of kids back today with their peers and teachers was really gratifying.
17:36:22 We also want to let you know that our goal is to keep this community together. That means not only the folks who are on this webinar and who are there today, but families who have had to relocate and who might want to come back to Paul Revere who aren't able to access Paul Revere for a week or a month.
17:36:35 Or even a year, making sure that there are spaces for these families and that we can welcome them back when the time comes. And so the operating manifesto, the mantra right now of this district and of our office is getting to yes
17:36:50 What's right with your family and being there to support you.
17:36:53 We couldn't do that without the incredible leadership of your school, Dr. Anthony of Region West and of the folks you're going to hear from today.
17:37:02 Two things I want to communicate and that you'll hear more from Carlos Torres, and I think we might be joined by Joe Lou, the CEO of the Coalition for Clean Air, who is a friend and colleague, is that the district is doing everything to make sure the campus is safe, whether that's physical campus, the air quality with filters, with air purifiers, with masks, with potable water.
17:37:22 With daily monitoring of air quality and of cleaning of horizontal surfaces. And you're going to hear from from both Carlos Torres and again, hopefully Joe Lou, the CEO of the Coalition for Clean Air, about what the district is doing to keep your family
17:37:35 And your kids safe. But we're also going to talk a little bit about the flexibility that we have within state law.
17:37:41 The exceptions that we're advocating for around state law for families who might not be able to physically get back to Paul Revere, either because you are out of the region or the state, but you'd like to stay with Paul Revere.
17:37:51 And you'll hear a little bit about independent study options, the virtual academy. And I just want you to know, and you'll hear from our incredible local superintendent, Dr. Collier, that we're exploring all possibilities of what that might look like for families who can't access this campus physically or who feel uncomfortable doing so. So I just appreciate that this team's coming together. This is a fluid and evolving situation.
17:38:12 And I appreciate your grace and flexibility as we're working. One, you know, when the school is in an evacuation zone, we, of course.
17:38:19 Can't physically get there. And so we can't open school when it's in a zone that's still close to the fires or the burn scar, we know that we're going to be monitoring air quality and also toxins that our current AQI doesn't monitor. And you're going to hear more about that. And we know that this is evolving.
17:38:36 That the air quality and the conditions today may be different than a week or two when the debris removal starts.
17:38:42 You're going to hear the posture from me and from my office is one about flexibility of over communication and of those overarching goals, which is the safety of your children, keeping the school open to the extent we can for the vast majority of families who want and need a place for their kids to be.
17:38:57 Today, tomorrow, for the weeks and months to come. And then three, to keep the Paul Review, the incredible community together. So with that, I'll hand it back to Dr. Anthony, but we'll also put my information in the chat. I know most of you know me or know my district director, Allison.
17:39:10 But we're all here for you and understand the unique needs of each family. And so I will end with that, which is we want you to do what's right for your family. And I'm not going to second guess or question your decisions. We're going to be here to find ways to support those decisions. And again, huge kudos and thanks to the school leadership. And then I think I don't see Joanne necessarily right now, but when Joe is able to join.
17:39:30 I know he will and we'll just share some words about the work we're doing in partnership with the Coalition for Clean Air.
17:39:37 And his assurance that LA Unified has best in class mitigation measures in place. So thank you, Dr. Anthony, for your invitation and for your leadership.
17:39:46 Thank you, Mr. Milvoyne.
17:39:52 And so our agenda for this evening what has to take is to explain what has taken place to prepare us to return to Paul Revere.
17:40:02 The resources that we have to support you and your child through this transition And there will be a place for questions.
17:40:12 At this time, I'd like to introduce to you Mr. Carlos Torres, the Director, Office of Environmental Health and Safety. Mr. Torres.
17:40:23 Thank you, Dr. Anthony. Appreciate it. A couple of things I wanted to start off with. One, to thank Joe Lou. I don't know if he's on here or not, but I don't see him up here. But I didn't want to
17:40:37 Glance over that too much. Coalition for Clean Air is a nonprofit that that does exactly almost what their name says. They're a coalition for clean air And they are, it looks like Joe is on now. Is he able to talk?
17:40:50 Because I know we wanted to maybe we wanted to maybe Joe, can you… Well, I'm going to keep going unless he unless he comes in okay So anyways, we've worked with the Coalition for Clean Air who are are environmental advocates and who do nothing more than try to ensure that we have the safest, cleanest air here
17:41:11 In Southern California. It's really hard, obviously, when we have these type of situations that we're enduring.
17:41:17 Over the last week or so. So that being said Coalition for Clean Air and Joe are one of the people that helped us set up our own Know Your Iron network Which I'll get into in a second.
17:41:29 So for my office, Office of Environmental Health and Safety, in a nutshell, we are like the internal Air Quality Management District, Health Department, Cal OSHA, EPA.
17:41:41 So we have that role and we work with our colleagues.
17:41:46 And so some of the questions that were sent to us that I have up here on the slide on the deck here that I wanted to go over.
17:41:53 Was regarding whether or not surfaces have been tested for ash. So what I want to talk about that is Most of the inside of the classrooms were actually in really good shape.
17:42:07 In other words, there wasn't a lot of ash inside of classrooms, which were very fortunate.
17:42:13 For that. So what we did in talking with environmental consultants and others is instead of sampling to determine whether or not there was ash on any of these surfaces, we went and did what what the next step, which is to actually conduct
17:42:33 Cleaning of all horizontal surfaces. So everything was wet wiped mopped or HEPA vacuumed, all horizontal surfaces.
17:42:42 So the sampling would have just told us, hey, you need to hit these areas. And instead we decided In an abundance of caution to do all surfaces.
17:42:52 And again, the interiors of our classrooms at Paul Revere were actually in pretty good shape.
17:42:58 We didn't have a lot of ash. And that that's probably because you know doors windows were shut and we have a really good HVAC system, which I'll talk about in a second.
17:43:09 So the surface and soil sampling weren't deemed necessary either by us or by environmental consultants. And we brought those consultants in to talk to us to basically look to see what we did.
17:43:22 What our plan was. And we told him You look at us, you look at every single school site that we've cleaned and you determine whether or not we need to do more. And if any sampling is you feel in your professional
17:43:38 Outlook, if you think that we need to do sampling, then please let us know.
17:43:42 And they really didn't. Because from what I said before, we decided to clean everything.
17:43:49 So then one of the other questions, and some of these are a little bit out of the order, so I apologize for that but um it'll still all come together.
17:43:58 It was really about the absence of water supply in the area. So at one point, I think Paul Revere was under the do not drink order.
17:44:08 As of right now, all the water is clear to drink there. We've been consulting with dwp And all the mains, all the fountains, all the faucets have been flushed.
17:44:20 Just to make sure. There was a question that came forth to us in the days proceeding about who's making the assessment that schools pay for reopening This is really a collaborative effort from school operations, our facilities folks, maintenance operations.
17:44:38 In my office, Office of Environmental Health and Safety. Together we have together double check, triple check, I mean, quadruple check every aspect of whether or not we should open.
17:44:51 And it was consulting outside Environmental consultants as well. And like I said, they went to every single school. They developed their scope of work based on our request for assistance.
17:45:03 And they walk through and inspected every school this weekend. And then lastly, after everything was done, oh, I want to gloss over this. Our facilities folks who are also on the line.
17:45:15 They did a tremendous job. They not only hired outside companies, cleanup companies like Servpro, not Servpro.
17:45:23 Specifically, but like that. They came in and did cleaning and then our own district staff also did more cleaning. And so when our consultants came through they were very, they felt that we did everything we needed to do in order to open the school.
17:45:39 But there might have been a couple areas they said, you know what, maybe this area needs to be touched up and our M&O teams did a terrific job doing that.
17:45:49 And then we walk through with the principals and UTLA chapter chairs from each of the schools They're invited to do a walkthrough and just so that we can get their voices As well, because that's really important.
17:46:03 And at the end of the day, all parties agreed that the cleanup efforts satisfied those requirements.
17:46:08 I don't want to gloss over this, but we are following the California EPA's guidance for schools with smoke impact. We're following that. There's a CDE document that we're following and there's also a Office of Emergency Services.
17:46:25 Guidance that we're also following. Okay, next slide, please.
17:46:30 Thank you. So with these consultants they are preparing final reports. Those take a couple weeks, maybe, hopefully before then.
17:46:43 Those will be available. We want full transparency. And so what I plan on doing is creating a website on my website, the OHS website, it's pretty easy Phillyusd.org slash OEHS.
17:46:59 And we will host those reports there. So you'll be able to see them there.
17:47:04 One other question that came through. Which is, will there be an industrial hygienist cleaner on campus? So I believe they're referring to industrial hygienists, which are very specialized person that that person that essentially studies how hazardous materials affect the body, right?
17:47:25 And so these consultants, we hire these consultants that have IHs on staff And they developed a scope of work and oversaw their team of scientists and engineers during their assessments.
17:47:40 I don't want to tell you that they were on site. It was such a quick, we did this very Quickly, we want to make sure that we wanted them to come and take a look at what we did and so
17:47:51 Set up this weekend. So they developed those scopes of work and they reviewed um they're right now reviewing all the field notes for all the scientists and engineers who are actually on site and they will be the ones who will be signing off on the
17:48:07 Final reports that i plan to to post.
17:48:12 Longer term debris removal from burn sites? Are there protocols in place?
17:48:17 To test for the presence of ash on campus. So this is another category. So in other words this is You know, there are sites around the Palisades obviously that are or were burnt and there's going to be a lot of cleanup.
17:48:33 So we are going to be very tied closely to our regulatory agencies, the people who are responsible for doing that cleanup, and we are going to ensure that our voices are maintained or heard.
17:48:46 It's very important to me to make sure that I feel confident in what we do.
17:48:53 I have to make sure that we feel confident in what the agencies are doing, the county, the city.
17:48:58 In terms of these cleanups. And so we're going to be asking for their protocol when they start ramping up to do this cleanup.
17:49:04 To ensure that the the interests of our students our staff, our school community, their safety is paramount.
17:49:14 So we understand the need to clean up these sites, but it has to be done in a way that's health protective and environmentally protective as well.
17:49:24 Okay, I'm ready for the next one, please. Air quality. This has really been a really good um something that came through i see uh joe's on.
17:49:34 Hi, Joe. This is probably a great spot for you to come in, Joe.
17:49:44 Awesome.
17:49:42 Sure, happy to do so, Carlos, and talk about the Know Your Rare Network, but Let me just start off by saying that, you know, as with board member melvoin i i I feel for those of you who have gone through this disaster
17:50:01 And hope that all is as best as can be. We're all facing some very difficult decisions and issues here and I know you have to use the best judgment you can and you're desperate for good information and we've been trying to get that information out to people so that they understand the problem
17:50:21 Involved with exposure to smoke. Soot and ash. But I can tell you that coal-ish for Clean Air and and with Carlos and his team at the office of environmental health and safety have been working together for many years to put together
17:50:35 This Know Your Air Network, which involves more than 200 PM 2.5 sensors.
17:50:41 That miraculously enough. Don't depend on electricity because they have solar panels and they have batteries and they have cellular information. We have one within two kilometers of every school in the district We had one on one Palisades Charter Elementary.
17:51:02 It actually survived. It was on the one building that did survive.
17:51:06 And it's still working if you go on to know your network, you can click on that sensor and get the readings from it.
17:51:11 It tells you some very important information about PM 2.5. It doesn't tell you everything.
17:51:17 But it does tell you what's going on. At that sensor.
17:51:23 Of course, there are other things that we're concerned about. And the various agencies are trying to help with that.
17:51:31 But I can tell you based off my experience of working with the Office of Environmental Health and Safety over these years.
17:51:37 They've just done a tremendous job of trying to protect your children, your school children.
17:51:45 You know, there weren't a lot of good things that came out of the COVID pandemic, but one good thing that did come out of it was that LAUSD retrofitted every school, every building with every building very protective air filter system. The MERV 13s are better.
17:52:01 And that makes a huge difference as far as we're concerned. And obviously the cleanup activities that have taken place at Paul Revere and other schools are really important to minimize any risk.
17:52:14 I can't say that everything's eliminated. Every risk is eliminated but I can say that I can say that the effort that has gone on so quickly to do this and to make the schools as safe as possible for the kids.
17:52:28 Is very impressive. Carlos, I just thank you. And Jennifer Flores and your team and board member melvoin And Allison Holdorff, who's a dear friend of mine, I've known since 1987.
17:52:41 I guess I got to tell you that, you know, feel for her and her family the loss of her house.
17:52:48 She hosted my… wedding, what was it? The wedding party, pre-wedding party at her house in that house that burned down during the fire So we go back a long ways and she's been working like crazy to make sure that everything is going well with the district.
17:53:07 And with your school. So appreciation to all the staff and who are doing all this hard work and the board members who are making sure that the kids are protected.
17:53:16 Anything else you wanted me to talk about the Know Your Air Network, Carlos, or does that cover it?
17:53:23 I think it covers the only thing I was going to go into and if you want to, it's there's been a lot of discussion in the media lately about whether or not we can use PM 2.5 as a way to determine whether or not the air is actually clean.
17:53:36 And I was going to go into it, but I bet you, Dr. Liu.
17:53:38 Yeah, it's one way, it's not the only way, right? And so we have the air quality index, which the South Coast Air Quality Management District makes available to people.
17:53:47 Both on their website and through their app and you have the EPA's Air Now page that has that information also.
17:53:57 And those AQI numbers are based on mostly on particulate matter and ozone, ground level ozone, which is known as smog.
17:54:06 They give you some of the information you need to know. That's the first thing I check before I make decisions about whether I'm going to go out and exercise and do things like that.
17:54:15 But what it can't tell you is what's going on very hyper locally And… So you need to be also concerned about those things. There are toxic chemicals that are in smoke, soot, and ash.
17:54:30 That this sensor network won't pick up. But the best thing you can do if you're being exposed to those is to wear protective clothing and clean things up.
17:54:41 Carefully. Do not use leaf blowers. That would be the absolute worst thing. You don't want to get that stuff back up in the air and where people can breathe it in. So yes, I mean, it's very good, very helpful.
17:54:56 For what it does. It's not the only thing to look at and to be concerned about.
17:55:00 Perfect. Thank you, Dr. Liu. Appreciate that. Like you said, it's a starting point. So we look at that first. The second thing that we look at is whether or not it's And we're going to be dealing with this for the next you know
17:55:13 Foreseeable few days, maybe even weeks. The next thing we do after looking at the air quality is determining is it's Does it smell smoke? You smell actual smoke.
17:55:25 If you do, even if your air quality network says that it's clean, if you smell smoke that's the shift to indoors. That's what we do.
17:55:35 Or if you see ash. Falling now with different wind patterns we could have ash that gets that's picked up that's right now in the mountains or that could be pushed up into the atmosphere and start falling.
17:55:49 So that's another that's another thing that we look at. And that's really it's easily and it's something that's hyperlocal that we can we can ascertain for ourselves at the school level. So it's not just whether or not your phone tells you they're always as good as
17:56:06 Does it smell and do you see ash. That's really, really important. It will allow our principals to to make that quick decision. Let's go ahead and move into indoor activity schedules.
17:56:16 So we look at all those things. We look at different smoke and haze maps.
17:56:20 So there's a bunch of things that my staff is constantly looking at, not just because of this fire but We sent out advisories.
17:56:30 All the time regarding air quality, weather, heat, et cetera. And so this is something that we constantly evaluate.
17:56:39 So it's not just just now it is a full-time job for us here.
17:56:43 Ready to go to the next one, please.
17:56:48 Joe mentioned it. All of our schools are equipped with MERV 13, which is really, really great.
17:56:55 The air conditioning, the ventilation system is running This is much cleaner than most hesitation, I can tell you that.
17:57:07 There's a little note on here, purifiers have not been needed because the air quality is good. Regarding last week.
17:57:14 The air quality was actually very good. It was cooperating with us last week after, of course, a really terrible week before.
17:57:23 But for your school, air purifiers were brought in. Because of the proximity to the fires, we decided this is probably a really good use of our air purifiers.
17:57:33 So in addition to the MERV 13, the standalone air purifiers are in all classrooms and most spaces like offices and such.
17:57:44 All the filters by our M&O, great M&O staff. They went in and changed all those filters.
17:57:52 So in other schools, they were inspected If they were still clean, they left them in if they're still clean.
17:57:59 But for these schools like yours that were so close proximity to the fires.
17:58:04 They were all changed out. And then… My team, M&O, everyone's been out at these schools various times all throughout the weekend. Yesterday, we were at all these schools.
17:58:19 Really making sure that everything that we could possibly do to ensure that that there's a comfort level for parents that it was there.
17:58:30 So all that was done. We felt pretty good about it, but we understand everyone has to make their own decision about what to do for for their families but we felt very, very confident that we were achieving all the goals set forth
17:58:43 By the Cal EPA and Office of Emergency Services.
17:58:49 Next, please. So we talked about the water quality, the do not drink orders.
17:58:56 So water is safe to drink at water Paul Revere. So there's no issues there now.
17:59:04 And regarding other precautions that are in place. Masks will be available for all staff and students It's not necessary, but if someone wants to wear a mask.
17:59:15 Please, we encourage it. And so they are available for students and for staff Then we already talked about the air purifiers.
17:59:29 And then inclement weather schedule or indoor activity schedule that's where our principals, our administrators, our staff have that ability so if something were to change, we have some windy conditions coming And if all of a sudden we get ash or smoke
17:59:47 That we pivot indoors. They have that ability and are encouraged to do so.
17:59:54 I don't know if that's it or there's another slide. So… Adrian Pacheco, I'll just mention he's the person that was tied to the hip, at least by the phone and his crew who did incredible incredible job of getting your schools, each school, including Paul Revere ready so
18:00:15 They did all the hard work. I come in and say, you should do this and you should do that.
18:00:19 They did the hard work though so acknowledge that to adrian.
18:00:26 Mr. Pacheco, would you like to… speak or do you have a comment?
18:00:34 Yeah, well, first of all, I do want to thank Carlos for the shout out.
18:00:38 Of course, it's a great pleasure to lean forward and be a part of this effort in such a such a challenging time for the school district and of course for our families And for our students in the impacted zones.
18:00:54 So for facilities. It is truly a… It is truly our… our duty to come in and take care of our campuses and do that when it's needed the most. So it is my pleasure to be here. And of course, we're going to be answering as many of the questions that are being posted on the
18:01:15 Q&a and just be a little patient with us and we will definitely get to everyone's questions.
18:01:22 Thank you.
18:01:25 Now I'd like to introduce Sosi Badrasian, Director of District Nursing Services.
18:01:34 Hello, good evening, everyone. I too want to send out my sincere thoughts for everyone that's been impacted by these disasters.
18:01:43 I am the director of nursing services. I also have with me today Ms. Andrea Coleman She's the region nursing administrator for Region West.
18:01:55 So from a health standpoint. We want to encourage students if they're going to be outdoors or if there is they're smelling smoke or if there's ash that they should be wearing a mask.
18:02:11 The masks are available at schools. And they can ask for one whenever they need one.
18:02:17 Obviously, the masks are not to be used daily, you know, repeatedly, they need to be changed out daily.
18:02:27 And it's recommended, obviously, if you do smell smoke and you do see ash to stay indoors and then also wear those masks.
18:02:36 It's my understanding that schools will adjust to inclement weather schedules if these situations are present.
18:02:44 And my recommendation for, I did see some questions about asthmatics or children with respiratory conditions.
18:02:52 It's our recommendation that if a child has a chronic respiratory condition such as asthma.
18:02:58 Or they have a weakened immune system. There is a school nurse at the school.
18:03:05 And we would recommend you consult with the school nurse if the school nurse is already aware of your child's condition.
18:03:12 If your child has medication at school, then great. If your child has a history of asthma and maybe they haven't needed an inhaler in the wild.
18:03:22 It may be good to consult with your healthcare provider and get that inhaler to be available at school should they need it.
18:03:30 And um it's best to also consult with your healthcare provider about any other concerns you may have and then bring that to the attention of the school nurse at the school site.
18:03:42 So he or she is aware of what's going on specifically with your child and things they should watch for.
18:03:51 Thank you.
18:03:56 And now I would like to introduce our Region West Superintendent, Dr. Denise Collier.
18:04:08 Thank you so much. First off, I just want to thank you, Dr. Anthony, for your leadership during this time. We know that this has been a difficult time for our families.
18:04:18 And so our task really is to provide a school that we know is safe for you and for your kids to be able to come back. I want to thank the Office of Environmental Health and Safety. They partner with so many different agencies.
18:04:32 Local national agencies to ensure the safety of our schools. And so myself and Dr. Bryant were part of the team with Dr. Anthony walking through the schools to make sure that every class had a filter running all weekend long. Like there's so many things that happen.
18:04:46 To ensure the safety of our students. And so I know in this brief meeting, we can't even tell you all the things we've considered, all the things that have happened. I just want you to know that our facilities department was there all weekend.
18:04:58 Office of Environmental Health and Safety, they're all weekend. And this is not something new. These agencies and these departments have been working on this kind of response. So we know some things we already want to do.
18:05:11 But my task today really is to thank them for the work that they do and also my operations, administrative operations.
18:05:18 Dr. Bryant, next slide. But I also would like to say that we know that every family is different. Some families have moved in other areas.
18:05:27 Or as the nurse said, some families, their kids may have a situation where they don't want them back at school. And so Part of what I want to say is that there are options for families.
18:05:38 We definitely want you to stay at Paul Revere, but my responsibility is to make sure that you're aware of all the different options that are available to families.
18:05:46 So the next slide. So there is long-term independent study for families who need that. I am aware that Tragically, so many families were displaced or lost their home. And so we just want to make sure that if you're not here in the area and you need long-term independent study.
18:06:04 That is available that's an available option. We also have the virtual we have the virtual academy and we have the City of Angels program And so tomorrow night, and we will send this out to all of the parents We have a virtual academy open house webinar for parents who are not comfortable sending their kids back for whatever reason. Maybe you're not in the area or you just aren't comfortable with something. We have virtual academy for you.
18:06:29 We want parents to be able to have options in LUSD. And so that's part of why we're having the open house tomorrow from 6 to 7 p.m. For parents who would like to just learn more about that option.
18:06:41 Certainly, we do think that Paul Revere is a great place for you to be, but we want you to have that. Next slide.
18:06:49 So the other thing I want to tell you is I'm aware As the Regional West Superintendent, if there are people who've spread all over the place right now and so One of the things is that if you're in a new area, you can go to your resident school if need be.
18:07:06 Or if you need help. You can call our enrollment counselors and they can help you enroll in a school that's closer to where you are now if you've moved areas.
18:07:16 Also, there's some space available at some of our magnet programs. So I wanted to make sure you know that.
18:07:21 And I've already talked to you about some flexible student schooling options for your students.
18:07:28 So while we are here to ensure the strength and the strong opening of Paul Revere.
18:07:34 We also want to make sure you know about these options. So thank you for joining us. And here is my Administrative Operations Dr. Deborah Bryant.
18:07:45 Oh gosh, it's the evening. I'm sorry. I've been working a lot for three weeks. So good evening, everyone.
18:07:51 I just want to tell you that my thoughts, my prayers go out to the families that have lost their homes, are dealing with family members or others that have lost their homes and you may be providing shelter for them. So again, my thoughts and prayers to all of you
18:08:06 And I know that there's lots of questions I see in the chat. I'm trying to answer as many as I can, but I know that there are questions also for the school. So we will definitely make sure we can get to as many questions as possible this evening and it is recorded and we can save the chat and get the questions answered.
18:08:25 Again, I just want to make sure that you make the best decision for yourself and your children as far as it comes to their safety And we don't ever want anyone to feel that we're not genuine.
18:08:38 And I'm trying to make sure, but we do know that families need a place for their children to be a safe space. And I just want to say that We are working closely with you. We want your kids in a safe space in school, whether it be in school or with yourself. But again.
18:08:54 Thoughts and prayers to you, your families, those of you who have family staying with you or friends We just want to make sure that support is there.
18:09:02 For you. So thank you again for joining this meeting. I know that a lot of you are dealing with a lot and we appreciate your time.
18:09:09 And the questions that you are asking. And I will now turn it back over to our Sally Mae, who is our school mental health administrator to provide you with some resources. Thank you.
18:09:22 Good evening, everyone. Thank you for having us. And again, I just really want to just share that we're here to be of best support for everyone. So we'll go through information on how we're supporting your students, your children through the transition. Okay.
18:09:39 I just want to share that when we have our students as they're returning, some of them are not opting to return at this moment, we have a variation there.
18:09:47 We do have crisis counselors available on site at Paul Revere. And also, I just want to share with you that Our teachers, our staff and parents are able to refer students for crisis counseling. That is an option that is available to you. I'll share that in a minute.
18:10:07 The other thing I wanted to highlight is that we do have a psychiatric social worker, Paul Revere, who's there and will be there for the remainder of the year.
18:10:16 And so those are already in place. Here is you will find the QR code and you are able to refer a student your child To receive counseling. And when we're looking at our crisis counseling, it's really, I want to really thank our team. It's a multidisciplinary crisis team.
18:10:36 And so really made up of all the professionals that are here to support children. It could be nursing, psychologists, school psychologists.
18:10:44 Pupil services and attendance are counselors psychiatric social worker. So it's really that whole multidisciplinary team approach to support our students. I just wanted to give you that piece of information. Next.
18:10:59 So what we do during these times, we're using cycle. I just wanted to give you a little feedback, a little bit of a how we support our students. And we have materials for families as well. The psychological first aid
18:11:12 It's actually PFA is what we're looking at as a tool. It's an evidence-based informed approach for assisting children, adolescents, adults, families in the immediate aftermath of a critical incident or disaster. And our PFI is designed to reduce the initial distress
18:11:32 Caused by traumatic events. And it really helps with short term and long-term adaptive functioning. And so here you'll see it on the slide. It's got listen protect, connect, model, and teach. When we're looking at listening, it's really that's just basic, right? We understand that. We want to listen. We want to really pay attention to our children and look at their nonverbal as well, their body language. Are they eating? How are they doing? Just checking in with them.
18:12:00 How are you? How are you doing? If you would like to talk to someone, let me know. I can connect you. Making sure that those are available to them. Just really paying attention to their feelings and their behaviors. When we're looking at protect, really looking at how can we continue with the stability and consistency, that's tricky right now. You're in this online platform or you're going to be going to school. There's a lot of change in everybody's lives.
18:12:24 But anything you can do to be consistent and to maintain that stability will be really helpful to students and returning to school back in person. This is where I'm observing this at our other schools where we see our Palisade students and our Marquess students coming back to school. You can see them bouncing back resilience with their friends and laughter. So this is where for them that consistency is really helpful.
18:12:47 So really want to reassure them that we're safe right now. That's under the protect module. Also, adult conversations. We have middle school students that look like big bodies but in truth are they're really developmentally they're really young, right? And so really considering when we're having those adult conversations, making sure they're not within that space.
18:13:09 And also if you're going to be watching the television, the news, because you want to be updated, consider reducing the volume on it.
18:13:16 Or closed caption. That reduces the amount of stress that is impacting them when we're needing to find out what's going on in the city, right?
18:13:27 What will help you safe? Asking the student, new child, what can help make you feel a little better connecting with that. And then if we're looking at connect, my encouraging to families is.
18:13:39 Use that time, that consistency, whether it's driving them when you're on a drive somewhere, whether it's mealtime or bedtime, using that time to connect with them.
18:13:49 Is going to be really important. And modeling. When we're modeling, we want to model that calm how we're coping ourselves And when we're looking at teaching, teaching them really how are we dealing with this? How are we being able to model
18:14:05 Positive coaching, positive coping strategies. And I always think of how I use it for myself.
18:14:10 I do a lot of self-talk and today's a new day. Today's going to be a, tomorrow's a new day if that's needed, or I'm going to be okay. Everything's okay. All I need to do is show up, right? So whatever self-talk and we all have our own style is really implementing.
18:14:24 So these are the pieces. I'm going to make sure that actually I already do. In the next slide, you'll see there's a link.
18:14:31 And you will be able to access it. It's actually the next one, but we'll pause for a minute. I want to highlight this other resource here for you.
18:14:39 This is resources for students and families. This is really an amazing opportunity for families to reach out.
18:14:45 When you call this number, you'll be able to access these type of information, whether it's mental health.
18:14:53 Food and housing enrollment, health insurance, and additional resources. So this is a good option for you. It's from 8 to 430. We had some extended hours.
18:15:03 We'll go to the next slide. Here are two big important pieces. The one on your left, it's the early childhood mental health consultation line. This is really good because if you have younger children in the home.
18:15:19 Birth to eight years old, hey, where are you going to call? This is a good number to call to get some ideas on how to talk to your child.
18:15:26 I had a parent say, you know, what do I tell my two-year-old? How do I tell them? And when we're stuck in these binds, we adults need that support. So that's a good number for families to reach out.
18:15:39 The one on the right is the National Child Traumatic Stress Network. It's really a parent's guidelines for helping children impacted by wildfires. It's a nice document that has different talking points and guides for parents. So this is also available to you.
18:15:55 The link that I had mentioned is here at the bottom. It's our LAUSD.org school mental health SMH. And that's at the LAUSD website. So if you're able to click on this or access it via the chat.
18:16:07 That's going to be helpful, but know that that's available through lausd.org. In there, you will be able to access the psychological first aid that I went through and mentioned.
18:16:19 As a tool for yourself and for your family. Great. Thank you.
18:16:29 And I believe…
18:16:30 There are additional support for families, LAUSD. Region West has a clothing boutique. It's open 7.30 a.m. To 4 p.m. At Beethoven Early Education Center.
18:16:44 It's committed to playing a vital role in providing essential resources to those affected by the fires.
18:16:50 They will be offering clothing, shoes, gift cards to help those in need during this difficult time.
18:16:58 And our goal is to ease some of the burdens families are facing by ensuring they have access to the items that will make a meaningful difference in their daily lives.
18:17:15 And so here's the QR code that you guys can use.
18:17:20 And we will be answering some of your questions. So here's the QR code if you did not receive it.
18:17:33 Dr. Bryant, did you have any other information you'd like to share?
18:17:39 So there were some questions that I couldn't answer that the school could answer. And I'm just going to ask those questions A lot of the other questions are, of course, air quality, some, and I was trying to keep up but
18:17:53 There's been lots of questions about the lockers and perhaps yourself or Mr. Pacheco can answer that.
18:18:00 And there's also a few questions about the air purifiers that the alleged teachers decided to turn on or off.
18:18:10 They did not keep them on all day and doors were open.
18:18:13 So I just wanted to see if we can get a couple of answers to those questions. Lots of questions about the lockers not being cleaned and why they were asked for their students to clean out The other was… the air purifiers and the door oh
18:18:30 And the inclement weather? And one more.
18:18:35 Students running the mile. Did they not run the mile? For the remainder of the semester.
18:18:41 I know those weren't all your questions, but I just wanted to touch on the ones that the school could possibly answer.
18:18:47 Dr. Anthony or… Adrian.
18:18:48 Okay, so as far as the lockers, it was communicated that the campus was clean if the lockers do have ash, we can definitely have Our maintenance and operations staff go through and revisit the lockers.
18:19:06 In walking around campus today, we didn't notice glass doors open.
18:19:11 We didn't go into every single class, but the classes that we did visit, the teachers had the air purifiers running So I can definitely reach out to our staff to ensure that they continue to keep their doors close and make sure those air purifiers are running.
18:19:32 As far as running the mile, no one is running the mile and there are no outdoor activities at this time.
18:19:40 As far as keeping the mile closed for the rest of the semester.
18:19:45 That depends on what our district leadership tells us and you know how healthy it is to be outside so I can't answer that question at this time.
18:19:57 Thank you. I just wanted to also answer a few questions about the virtual academy.
18:20:05 So with the virtual academy. It's a whole new, it's a school itself. There's seven different academies and I know that there will be a Zoom meeting tomorrow and hopefully we can share the link in the chat.
18:20:20 That provides more information. So the virtual academy, there's seven different academies.
18:20:26 They have their own teachers have their own principles and they have their own counseling staff.
18:20:35 Students, some students remain in the virtual academy for the entire school year or until they culminate or graduate.
18:20:42 Some students remain in the virtual academy for a short amount of time and then they're able to return back to their school. But I know that there are some situations Because Paul Revere with the magnet.
18:20:56 So we are working with our magnet office to determine next steps. And we don't want to seem insensitive because we do know families are trying to find lodging and homes and trying to figure things out.
18:21:08 But I wanted to let you know. The virtual academy is a whole separate school.
18:21:13 You will, so you won't enroll in the virtual academy And you'll disenroll from Paul Revere.
18:21:21 Oh, so there's the, I just kind of jumped ahead. So there is the slide.
18:21:27 So it won't be the same teachers. It will be different teachers who work for the virtual academy schools.
18:21:36 And the environmental reports, as stated, I think I answered in another chat.
18:21:41 They won't be available for two weeks. And I think those are the questions I wanted to answer live.
18:21:49 And I'll go back into the chat to see what else I can answer.
18:21:53 And thank you so much for your time again and for listening. I appreciate you.
18:22:01 Back to you, Dr. Anthony.
18:22:04 So there are a few more questions. A parent had a question about buses. Yes, LAUSD buses.
18:22:12 Are available. However, I know our metro buses that we typically have are delayed due to sunset not being available or having access.
18:22:25 To everyone. So I just wanted um parents
18:22:34 To hear that.
18:22:37 There were also questions regarding is revere zooming Unfortunately, Revere is not Zooming. We do not offer a Zoom option. However, Dr. Collier did discuss other options for virtual learning.
18:22:51 Which is right here, our LAUSD Virtual Academy. They're having an open house tomorrow. So if you scan that QR code.
18:23:01 You would get the webinar information and there's also a bit.ly link here for you to register.
18:23:07 For that information webinar.
18:23:13 And I do want to say that we have been working with our labor partners in LA Unified, our teaching, but right now we don't have virtual for palvere, but we are working with our labor partners. And as we come up with more options for families, we'll be sure to share them with you.
18:23:33 Hi, this is Sosa from nursing again. I see that Ms. Coleman posted the nurse's information in the chat, but it's only available to hosts and panelists.
18:23:44 So I just want to mention his name is daniel martin.
18:23:48 And his email is D as in dog, A, N as in Nancy, I-E-L.
18:23:54 Dot martin at lusd.net. And the Region West Nursing Services Office phone number is one, zero.
18:24:05 Two, three, five. 3770.
18:24:10 And please feel free to reach out to either the nurse or the nursing office for the region.
18:24:15 Thank you.
18:24:18 I see a lot of questions also regarding if I take my kid out, can I bring them back?
18:24:24 And Dr. Collier Gotham Bryant, you may need to support me with this, but it's my understanding if we have space if we're in their catchment area If we have space in our magnet program they are
18:24:41 Yeah, so I just met with the magnet office today. And so we're making a plan moving forward, knowing that some parents may move out of the area.
18:24:52 Or not be able to come back this school year. So we're working with our magnet office, which will provide you an update shortly.
18:25:01 But certainly if you are not at school the next few weeks, you don't need to worry about losing your spot at the school at all.
18:25:08 And that's our goal. And so I just wanted to make sure that parents know that you have to make the best choice for your child And so we're working with our magnet office to make sure that we do hold some spaces for students who may not be able to return.
18:25:27 Thank you for that.
18:25:33 There are a lot of questions that are very technical in nature.
18:25:40 And asking about things in the air, environmental safety, who's checking.
18:25:47 The air on a regular basis and how the environment is affecting revere So I'm going to ask if Mr. Torrance can maybe speak to some of those things about ongoing
18:26:04 Thank you. So I think we'll also have an opportunity to take a look at the Q&A afterwards and answer them in another venue.
18:26:12 But yes, my team is absolutely going to continue to do the work that they normally do, which is reviewing air quality indices, whether it's our own no air network or the air now the EPAs, CAL FIRE's, all those different things. But again, that's
18:26:31 That's the first step the other parts are or very easily and it's they're so easy that i think they're um people take it for granted that they're not as important. And really, if it's smoky outside, that's an issue if it's if it's
18:26:46 Ash, if there's ash falling in the sky, that's an issue.
18:26:50 But like before, when we're talking about doors opening doors Air quality was good today.
18:26:57 As long as there wasn't smokey out there you know so That's very important to understand.
18:27:06 Overall, we are going to be engaging with the health department and with the the state health department as well, local and state to help deal with these concerns that are out there. Because right now most of the guidance is
18:27:23 For schools like Revere and neighborhoods like reviewers and is reviewers and is essentially just clean up your ash and do so in a safe manner and that's it. And we know that there are more concerns. So we're looking to see if there's more guidance out there. Right now, there isn't anything that would say that we need to do
18:27:41 More sampling or anything it's just really maintaining or cleaning up ash as it comes.
18:27:47 And keeping our schools as clean as possible during this effort. So we'll continue to do that.
18:27:53 And like I said, we're not We haven't made up our minds about anything If we learn new information that says that it makes sense for us to do added steps that we haven't done, absolutely. We'll take those extra steps. We are very
18:28:10 I think my organization is my organization very conservative in terms of safety and the environment and so We'll continue to have that.
18:28:19 Lens when we're looking at this. And specifically, we'll have to go answer some other questions.
18:28:27 Later, but I just wanted to give that as an overall assurance that we're going to be looking at this, not just today, not just this week.
18:28:36 Not just this month. It's going to be an ongoing thing.
18:28:42 Thank you, Mr. Torres. So at this time we are approaching 630. I just want everyone to know that we have captured your comments and questions and we will answer those questions and provide you with a link so you can see our answers.
18:29:01 I want to thank everyone for being here and I am hopeful that this answers some of your questions, many of your questions And we are here for you. Thank you for coming.
18:29:16 And have a great evening.

Published January 28, 2025 Print