Ready-2-Return (R-2-R) Services and Self-Assessment Tool

TMSolution, Inc. is offering a new suite of services to schools and districts, Ready-2-Return (R-2-R). A TMS School Reopening Planning Team is available to assist school districts with their planning needs. These services are available to current client districts at no charge. Other districts may request a quote for services by calling 1-855-TMS-0411 or emailing info@themanagementsolution.com.

In order to help districts and schools with assessing your readiness to reopen, TMS has developed an online R-2-R Assessment tool. This tool will help school leaders determine where their strengths lie and where they still face challenges. You can take the survey here: https://forms.gle/N1XEHGKahQuodc6t5.

CDC Issues Decision-Tree Checklist for Schools

The CDC issued a checklist document for guiding schools through when and how to reopen in the wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic. While not as comprehensive as some would hope, it does provide a series of steps that schools will need to take to open safely, providing a decision tree for when and how schools will reopen. A copy of the checklist and decision tree can be found by clicking this link.

The TMS Team is continuing to keep on top the guidance coming out from federal, state, and local sources and is committed to working with our clients and others on ways to plan for the future of schools with our Associate Consultant for Security and Critical Response Planning, Ian Cyr. If you would like to know more about our critical incident response planning services, send an email to info@themanagementsolution.com.

Massachusetts Commissioner of Education Releases Guidance for Remote Learning to the End of the School Year

On Friday, April 24, 2020, Jeff Riley, Commissioner of Education, released the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s (DESE) guidance for remote learning for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year. This document gives an overview of pathways to continue engaging students in learning over the coming weeks and outlines support the DESE will provide to educators in the coming weeks.

In addition to this overall guidance, the DESE has also published Elementary Prerequisite Standards and Secondary Prerequisite Standards in English Language Arts, Math, Science, and History/Social Science designed to help districts build a roadmap for learning experiences from now to the end of the year. Dr. Judy Houle, Senior Vice President of Entrepreneurship, has a background in curriculum development and is reviewing these standards as well as others for areas not addressed in these guidance documents in order to assist our clients, as needed with the implementation of these plans. Please email Dr. Houle if you would like to learn more.

Another key area that will need to be addressed in the coming months is re-entry into schools, once the pandemic subsides. TMS will be reaching out to our clients to provide assistance in planning for the new normal. If you would like to know more about TMS’s Critical Incident Response Plan Services, particularly as they pertain to re-entry into school, please email us or call 1-855-TMS-0411.

Districts Answering the Call

During the past week, all schools in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island have risen to the call to implement remote learning as our schools continue to remain shuttered due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. TMS would like to recognize the countless hours of work done by school administrators, teachers, and other staff to ensure that students are continuing their learning and that those with food insecurities receive nutritious meals. We’ve all heard and seen the stories of the commitment of educators to their students across the country and we want to highlight what some of our districts are doing. You can watch Dr. Marlene DiLeo, Superintendent of the Ware Public Schools, deliver her video message on April 6th to families about their remote learning plan. Hadley Superintendent, Anne McKenzie, posted an encouraging video on April 10th.

The Southern Berkshire Regional School District banded together to not only provide meals, but to prepare learning packets with two weeks worth of work that were driven across the five-town region by school buses. Due to connectivity issues that still persist in the Berkshires, paper packets are being provided to every student to supplement online experiences. This video documents their work for the first delivery of learning packets. Enjoy this video presentation from Ludlow’s own “Child of the 80s,” Superintendent Todd Gazda on the challenges of staying at home during the shutdown.

Every district is choosing to send messages of encouragement to their students and families in their own way. TMS is honored to support the work our clients are doing during this difficult time - we are in this together!

Assistance for Massachusetts Students with Food Insecurities

The Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) has partnered with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) to try to widen the net of meeting the needs of students and their families who face food insecurities during the COVID-19 shutdown. On Friday, it was announced that the DESE and DTA want to extend benefits to students who are on free and reduced lunch in school so their families can receive a preloaded Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card to help with the purchase of food at home. Schools have been asked to help identify families in need of this benefit.

Massachusetts Superintendents are scheduled to receive more information on this project on Monday, April 6, 2020. Those with the role of SIMS data collection were invited to Friday’s call. TMS was also on that call. If you would like more information, email Judy Houle, Vice President of Entrepreneurship - judy.houle@themanagementsolution.com.

More Resources for Educators

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) has put together a set of resources for remote learning through its Learning Keeps Going website. Not all the resources are digitally based, but those that are have been vetted and are ones that are free at the current time.

Several ideas and resources are available through this site’s many links (many not requiring a robust online portal), including this article from the NY Times with daily writing prompts and weekly “What’s Going On with This Color?” and “What’s Going on With This Graph?” interactive discussions aimed and engaging students in learning and critical thinking.

The ISTE site has links to areas for teachers and leaders (including tips for developing remote learning plans), parents, and webinars with tips on implementing remote learning. It’s definitely worth checking out.

USDA Waiver for Massachusetts

On Sunday, March 29, 2020, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education ‘s Office for Food and Nutrition announced that the USDA approved their application to waive the 50% or more poverty level for schools to provide meals and receive USDA reimbursement for those meals. This means that all schools, regardless of poverty level, are eligible to serve meals to students with food insecurities and receive reimbursement. This is great news for students in need!

There are more details to come, but this is a positive first step. TMS wants to express our appreciation to all the food service workers on the front lines, working tirelessly to ensure that those who need food receive it.

Ready? Set? Go? A Guide to Implementing Your District's Remote Learning Plan

With the extension of school shutdowns due to COVID-19, we know that everyone is scrambling to get some sort of remote learning experience up and running in their districts. When dealing with a crisis of this magnitude, it is easy to respond to chaos with chaos. Dr. Judy Houle, SFO, Vice President of Entrepreneurship, has experience in the world of virtual learning with a background of two years as Executive Director of the Greenfield Commonwealth Virtual School (GCVS). Having lived through the experience of shifting that school’s model of delivering instruction, she learned some valuable lessons worth sharing. There are several guiding principles that districts must consider when implementing remote learning plans:

1. Be methodical

2. Keep the gateway to learning simple and consistent

3. Make sure you have systems in place that are equitable for all students

4. Partner with Parents/Caregivers

5. Be mindful of IT supports needed

6. Make sure resources are vetted for quality, alignment to standards, and ease of deployment

7. Remember that remote learning is a process.

Judy has published an article on Linkedin that addresses these points in greater detail. Click here to read the full article. If you would like to talk more with Dr. Houle about your remote learning plan, send an email to judy.houle@themanagementsolution.com.

Remote Learning Resources and Additional Assistance Available from TMS

Governor Baker’s extension of school shutdowns in Massachusetts to May 4th has now moved us into a new phase of providing an educational plan for students in Massachusetts. We are adding resources to a Google workbook as we get them. Click here to view the workbook. There are many resources that are helpful for both online work and for downloading assignments and worksheets for those with limited bandwidth who might need paper resources for their students. One of the latest resources that has been added is from Google, especially for teachers, that guides the process of setting up an instructional workspace for remote learning. It is on the Google worksheet or click here to see the slide deck. The suggestions for how to navigate the day are helpful, no matter what platform you are using to deliver instruction. Hoonuit has also opened access to all New England educators for the remainder of the school year. Their online professional development are helpful for transitioning to online learning. You will find a link on the general resources tab of the Google workbook.

If anyone has additional resources to share, please email Dr. Judy Houle, Vice President of Entrepreneurship, who will happily update the Google workbook. There are several tabs for you and your teachers to explore, one for general resources and others by content area.

Judy Houle is our resident Curriculum Specialist with extensive experience with online/remote learning and is willing to help our current clients with making that transition at no extra charge to your current contract with TMS. Please email Judy if you would like some assistance. If you currently do not have a contract with us but would like some assistance, please email info@themanagementsolution.com to request a quote for those services.

TMS will continue to monitor for updates as they become available and will work with our districts to respond to them on both the business and curriculum/instructional fronts. We encourage our partner districts to reach out to us for any assistance you may need.

Wishing you all good health in these trying times, The TMS Team

Curriculum and Instructional Resources for Remote Learning

As part of the Curriculum and Instructional Services we provide to districts, we are offering up a list of curated resources that teachers can use to work with students remotely during the COVID-19 shutdown. We will continue to update this list as we become aware of new resources. The resources are housed in this Google Sheets Workbook, which has tabs for general resources followed by tabs by content area. If you know of additional resources to add to these lists, please email Judy Houle, Vice President of Entrepreneurship and our curriculum specialist, and she will add them to the workbook. More and more digital content providers are opening their platforms for free during this pandemic. We were mindful of platforms that are free and can be used on a variety of devices. We hope you find them helpful. TMS Clients can also request support for remote learning, at no extra cost to your current contracts, by emailing Judy Houle, who has expertise in this area.

Business Administrators Conference Call on March 18th

Members of our TMS Team sat in on a conference call with Jay Sullivan from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education on March 18th. The purpose of the call was to gather questions to share with the Department of Revenue/Division of Local Services. Here is a synopsis of the phone call.

1.    These are initial conversations, and it may take a while to reach a course of action.

2.    Collaboratives were concerned because their revenue is mainly tuitions and sometimes transportation.  Jay said what is clear is that they can pre-bill and be prepaid, so that should not be an issue.

3.    Town Accountants have the authority to kick back other pre-payments, hence this call. (c.41 sec 56.)

4.    Many questions about transportation, some not wanting to pay, others wanting to maintain good relationships for post-covid reality.  This will be part of the conference call to DSL, but at this point they recommend:

-Checking the contract with school counsel to see what is obligated to be paid

-Negotiate with vendor as to actual expenses (leases and salaries valid, maintenance and gas, not.) The latter may be more legit expenses, and hopefully there will be clarity from DLS.

-Make payments yet? NO.  Jay indicates that February could be paid, as service was rendered.  March wouldn't be due yet, and hopefully there would be more clarity by then.

5.    Other topic questions - can payments be made without SC signing a warrant -NO

6.    Will there be reimbursements for districts not at 50% Free & Reduced, but providing lunches?  A provision for this is in the House (Congress) passed bill that went to the Senate....TBD

7.    Some town accountants want to treat all town depts the same, and not pay teachers.  Jay reminded all that if 95% of NSS is not paid out, CH 70 will be reduced next year.

Extensions - Circuit Breaker extraordinary relief submission extended from 3/31 to 4/7, EOYR Audit submission extended from 3/31 to 4/30.

Another conference call has been scheduled for Friday, March 20th. TMS will be on the call and update this page with any new information.

Kicking the Tires on Zoom!

Join TMS “Zoom-master,” Judy Houle for an interactive session for TMS clients on using Zoom for meetings during the COVID-19 shutdown. Judy will demonstrate the features of Zoom and answer questions that any new users may have. She will also share some tips on best practices for larger meetings, such as School Committee meetings, TEAM meetings, etc. The session has been scheduled for Thursday, March 19th, at 10:00 am. If you would like to join us, please RSVP here.

Here’s the information to join the session:

Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/3439857181

Meeting ID: 343 985 7181

Dial in by phone (not ideal, but you can at least hear the information : +1 929 205 6099

Legal Issues Surrounding COVID-19

Some of our clients had questions regarding payment of hourly employees during the mandatory shutdown. Here is the advice we have received from legal counsel:

1. We were provided with a sample MOA for the purposes of entering into an agreement with your union officials, which was used recently in a Massachusetts district. Click here to access sample.

2. Most clients are still paying staff differentials to affected employees (i.e., paraprofessionals who get differentials for 1:1, toileting, etc.).

3. With regard to spring coaches, most clients are planning to either prorate based on when the season may start or not at all if the season is cancelled since the work is not being performed at all and is completely separate from the employee's normal job.

4. Most clients are just paying those who may be called in to work (food service, custodians) their normal wages regardless of whether they work or not. Some clients are thinking about paying something additional if employees actually have to work, but in the opinion of counsel this could cause issues.

Based on research by legal counsel, the use of a platform for electronic signatures for warrants (i.e., DocuSign) is acceptable.

TMS has also learned that the National Student Transportation Association (NSTA) is urging both federal and state governments to require school districts to fund transportation during periods of school closure. You can read more about this issue here. We will continue to monitor this situation.