Welcome to perspectives from WFSU Public Media I'm Tom Flanigan the program using the zoom platform for what we believe is the final time pre-recorded on Tuesday, July 27th for playback on Thursday July 29th the show to be aired on WFSU fm we’ll also have it archived on WFSU.org well let's see I've got my backpack I've got my marbleized notebooks here and my folders I have some colored pencils and I got a protractor I'm good to go by gosh it's going to be back to school time all across Leon County here in just a matter of days really but you know amidst all the excitement and the the back to school thing that we go through as parents and the kids certainly go through and and anticipating that face-to-face return to interaction there's also a bit of trepidation we must admit because the local coving case circumstances are again becoming very uncertain and we do see rising trends and that adds some new elements of course of caution and uncertainty to the equation so what better way to address those and of course other matters concerning the education of our kids in these uh interesting times is it to talk with some of our community's most influential educators so let's welcome to perspectives in alphabetical order Jason Flom director of the cornerstone learning community Jason it is good to see you getting in a few final moments here before returning to the fray right uh that's right thanks for having me Tom I appreciate it it is so good to see you we also of course welcome back to these microphones Rocky Hanna Leon County schools superintendent and Mr. superintendent good to see you you look excited looks can be deceiving no I am just excited I'm excited to be on the show with you today to share with our community uh some of our thoughts as we reopen our doors here in that couple of weeks we appreciate you being on we also extend appreciations to James Milford head of school at Maclay School and Mr. Milford it is good to see you sir thank you Tom pleasure to be here let's just kind of go around the table and again because we are looking at circumstances that are changing literally hour by hour we must emphasize to anyone listening to this program that there could be changes uh even between a few days ago when this was recorded and when it's actually hitting the airwaves right now but just quickly Jason what is the situation for um cornerstone right now oh things like masks and social distancing and any other precautionary protocols that you're looking at as of this moment for a return to school uh yeah so like James and Rocky student safety is at the top of our priority list and so for us we're just following every cdc guideline what the scientists say we do so masking indoors will still be a thing and it's looking like even for vaccinated students they'll be masking inside continuing physical distancing we will allow some students closer than six feet because we know how safe it is and continuing with our air filtration ionizers and the hvac units and air purifiers in the classrooms and continuing to find opportunities for students and teachers and people to connect while still maintaining those safe mitigation measures in terms of hand washing you know all the things uh that we need to do that we know to stay safe all the different the tools that we have uh we'll be putting those back in place uh the only thing we're not doing is any sort of travel restriction um but all the other things that we did last year we'll do again this year okay great superintendent Hanna any change from those sorts of uh protocols as far as Leon County school district is concerned first let me say how much I can empathize with Jason James and the other school leaders in our community in both our public and private schools we're just the lucky individuals who are stuck in the middle of a very politicized and contentious pandemic and uh so those of you that want one of our jobs here yeah come on one of our board meetings we all have different boards but to Jason's point you know the protection of our students is uh first and foremost job one we did however make a change and we have decided to make mass strongly recommended for those individuals who have not been vaccinated but optional um it has not come without controversy I did that based on a lot of the numbers that I've seen coming from the Leon County health department as far as the hospitalizations rates of children ages 5 to 11 who are not yet eligible to be vaccinated so we have made masks optional but strongly recommended for those who have not been vaccinated of course we're trying to encourage as many folks as possible to to be vaccinated that are 12 years of age or older um but again it has not come without a price but I will say also Tom before we turn it over to James it in my in my opinion you can't make a decision for the good or the whole based solely on the conditions of the feud and so I've been up many nights thinking about this thinking about the reopening it's like it's like a movie we had a movie from the beginning of the pandemic through the close of school last year and now this is the sequel so we have you know the the same characters the same actors and a lot of the same challenges we faced before but I will say all in all this summer is uh a lot better than last summer last summer there was so much anxiety so much fear of the unknown uh that we although we are still having talks about uh the protocols and practices we had in place and we'll continue to have there's not nearly the fear especially now that we have a vaccine you know in our community for those that are eligible okay Mr. Milford uh as far as Maclay is concerned you don't have the same kind of prescriptions that the public school system has you can have perhaps a little bit more discretion when it comes to what you do but what is the situation at Maclay as you head back into the classrooms so I suppose i'll answer it and talking and I know Jason and Rocky do the same thing it's really about a layered approach and our approach is not that much different than any other school so what the cdc recommends is you know you have all of these pieces that you can build your plan on and all of our schools and and you know kudos to Rocky because he has the most diverse schools we can pull off different things based on our building our classroom size our staffing all of those things for us same thing air filtration distancing is very important even last year we were not always able to pull off six feet but distancing is extremely important mirroring the public school system we did go mask optional early summer when the kobe cases were very low we remain mask optional and would like to be there as we start the school year but again as as we think about building this mitigation protocol I think all of us have that similarity maximizing outdoor space where you can thinking about where you're eating lunch and where you're eating snacks thinking about vaccinated unvaccinated people thinking about air flow and uh i'll also just echo all of the attention that the faculty and administration I know we've all been working all summer to try to figure it out and it is uh seems like a moving target sometimes but um I know I also speak for every administrator in Tallahassee and everywhere else as we're watching um and ultimately we want to do what is child-centered because ultimately that's what it's about it's how can we make the experience in the classroom for the student um and excellent and give them as much of an uninterrupted educational experience as we can one of the things that we just released today last year we had a virtual option and basically just a vision in and outside of each one of our classrooms and we repealed that a little bit it was very difficult in the lower school from a developmentally appropriate standpoint it's tough it's tough on the teachers and it's tough uh and I don't necessarily think reasonable to expect a six-year-old to sit in front of a device for six hours right but what we have done is today we released a modified concurrent virtual classroom to bring that back just to add another layer of choice for our families so that's one of the one of the recent changes we've made that's actually taken us back to the formula that worked really well for us last year that's a great segue to the next thing I wanted to know we'll stay with you if we can Mr. Milford since you you kind of broached the subject here as you look ahead to options that you may have to put in place depending on circumstances we saw what happened with Tallahassee memorial reinstituting its its covent ward in essence uh recently at what point do you say hey we're going to have to go back to some kind of a hybrid or even a fully virtual scenario as far as Maclay is concerned do you have that in place so from a Maclay standpoint well i'll back out just a little bit and just say how proud I am of our region and our public schools for getting kids in classes last year and giving that an option I talked to colleagues across the nation and it it certainly saddens me that there is a significant portion of students last year that never saw their school that were never ever able to connect and I know all of us believe that it's the connections that that make it um meaningful so for us we have always shied away from saying okay this is the number that's going to be the trigger for us because life's just not that simple it's just not and it's a multivariate uh or a multi-variable equation that you have to that you have to look at so for us we pull as much data out of the state that we can look here locally at least for Maclay we have great we prioritize the visibility of what's going on in leon and the surrounding counties not necessarily what's going on the state not necessarily what's going on the nation what's happening in tennessee really doesn't matter with my population so it is we try to be very transparent with our families and let them know what triggers we could pull again it's a layered approach so each one of those things uh you can change uh here and there and again I think in in the school's purview you have these levers to pull and then on the outside there's a lot of conversation and Rocky mentioned sort of the politic the political aspect of all of that we try to scrub all of that out and let's think about what's going on what's best for the kids what are we seeing here in terms of COVID you know what did we see and what did we learn empirically in our school system and our buildings last year what did we see over the summer what are we seeing now and that's the nice thing about the school systems that we have here is we can be nimble uh each one of Rocky schools can be nimble and and adjust as they see fit uh in ways that they're that they're allowed to same thing with Jason school so so for us I do have parents who want a number you know when we get this positivity rate what will happen and um I've just found it's not that simple and we want to be thoughtful and responsive because when you pick a number sometimes you can overreact and sometimes you could under react um so sounds like one of those absolutely horrific equations that I used to see in advanced algebra which I i totally blew it was horrific Jason Flom as far as cornerstone same kind of thing you're just trying to be as nimble and flexible as you can be as the uh different information comes into your order you say hey now we're gonna do that yeah I like James said there's so many different variables almost the answer to every COVID related question is it it depends uh on so many different factors and um you know like Rocky Hanna put in his uh recent tasty democrat post you know we have you know incredible leaders in all of our different schools who are making those you know on the ground floor decisions uh that we have to rely on uh we're not offering a digital academy this year uh it was it was a nightmare for for teachers and for you know for students and families just being able to keep it up was and we've learned a lot over the past year uh since march 2020 when we knew nothing uh and now we know a lot about how we can run schools safely and successfully uh in order to you know take care of our teachers as well because they're fatigued and tired just the same as all the administrators all around the world uh really so needing to put things in place that help to make the teaching profession sustainable is an important piece but in terms of what what would have to happen for us to quarantine a class or to you know go back to a hybrid model um there's it would have to be an incredible episode for something like that to happen at this point just because we know so much more and the testing is out there and we know how to keep people safe uh so we're in a much better position than we were last year at this point well that's that's certainly to be hope but to your point then and we'll defer to superintendent Hanna on this one here you said you can make those determinations literally school by school depending on the circumstances and the district you know has a lot of chromebooks out there to help if you have to to go back but still we're dealing with a variant that might be a lot more as the science says infectious and uh more apt to uh propagate itself throughout the population than maybe what we've seen before so you've got to be looking at that too and going whoa we just have to be ready for whatever comes yeah absolutely and I i'd love to hear from Rocky and James on this but uh finding substitutes right now is extremely difficult because who wants to go into a classroom after a teacher's tested positive no one wants that job I get ghosted on interviews all the time so I you know i'd be interested to hear how y'all are doing but that's one of the things that could potentially shut down a classroom or or part of a school is if we just don't have people to be in a classroom Rocky will defer to you here because you've got a lot more teachers and substitutes and other staff to to worry about in this thing well to first adjacent point we've learned a lot over the course of the last 18 months you know when this first happened and we went home on march 13th friday the 13th of 2020 I came back to my office and I pulled out the superintendent's uh handbook and I looked for the chapter of how to deal with a global dynamic it wasn't a chapter there will be now for whoever is next and we're still we haven't finished it yet hopefully we'll finish it soon but we have learned a lot and what we pulled off last year whether it was us and our traditional public schools or Jason or James at Maclay was nothing short of miraculous James mentioned there were hundreds and hundreds of school districts across the country that were shuttered for the entire school year last year kids haven't been in school many of them since march of 2020 but we opened our doors we gave our parents families choices and options those that wanted to come back we welcome back with open arms last august uh you know that was the governor's desire we talked a lot about funding and not to again to make this a political issue had the governor not weighed in at all it was absolutely the right thing to do to open our doors in august I firmly believe that I will always believe that although again last summer our parents were happy because we were giving them choices and options our our employees however were scared to death to come back to school to come back to work but again we learned a lot we broke down over 9 000 desktops we broke down every desktop we had in our inventory to give out to kids that were at home for remote learning until our chromebooks arrived before christmas I mean there was a lot of work that went in but we again are such better prepared this time this fall than we were going into last fall so we are paying attention we work very closely with the Leon County department of health when it comes to contact tracing and uh enforcing quarantine protocols which is killing all of us really with the with the continued quarantine protocols going into this fall that kids in close contact have to if they're unvaccinated especially our young children have to be at home for two weeks but we are positioned in a much better place than we were last year but again I'm just so proud of our school administrators our teachers to ask them to do that hybrid model again this year I just I couldn't and although we all public private uh charter and otherwise did our very best to engage those kids that were physically in our classes as well as those kids that were emoting in it was tough I went into some primary classes and the teacher was you know the kids that were remoting in it was uh susie leave the puppy alone johnny put this put the scissors down stephen please sit up in bed sit up in bed son I mean it was just so much management those poor kids can barely stay focused while they're in school much less trying to do it like we are here zooming and so i'll use my wife christy a sixth grade science teacher as an example she had 15 kids that were physically in class another eight that were remoting or zooming in and to engage both of those groups simultaneously was was quite a challenge and I just couldn't in good conscience do that to our teachers again I think we would have a revolt on our hands we did it for that one year so kids kept that connection to their home zone school but this year we're still giving families choices and options and those that that aren't in a good place we are trying to divert to leon to leon virtual school who has been named the number one virtual franchise in the state of florida if they want to continue to distance learn because they just aren't in a good place still we started last year of our thirty thousand twenty thousand were at home and ten thousand were in school during the course of the school year we we flipped where twenty thousand were in school and ten thousand were at home so we still have ten thousand of our of our children that haven't been in school since march of 2020. now we're hoping all of them will return this fall we're we're very optimistic now then we face an uptick reopening of the coveted wing in the hospitals the delta variant again a lot more fear and anxiety but I keep going back to what I said uh with the interview with the democrat this we when this we're rolling into last fall we didn't know the impact this was going to have on school-aged children the virus itself and if they were gonna act as super spreaders neither one of those things came to bear we again have seen zero hospitalizations in Leon County for children the age of five to eleven only four hospitalizations with zero deaths of ages 12 to 18. so it has not this virus for whatever reason has not had the adverse impact on school-aged children as it has on you know people my age and it's also been proven that these children are not acting as super spreaders they're not taking it home to to mom and dad and grandma and grandpa so and we're very thankful for that so those are the numbers that I rely on but if we see because of a new variant man this is our kids are getting sick our kids are now going to the hospital we can we have the ability to adapt and adjust but like Jason Jason James both said this I don't want to put a metric on it I don't want to say this is the number the positivity rate this is the number of the hospitalizations because everything if we learn anything everything is very fluid and always changing and we are constantly adapting to those changes but we are positioned going into this august in a much better place than we were last august no matter what happens Rocky does that also includes staffing whether it be teachers or support staff in school or administrative staff or or whatever it's hard enough just finding someone to populate a restaurant at this point how are you we had a teacher shortage crisis well before the pandemic we had a substitute teacher crisis well before the pandemic this only exacerbated those problems and so the subs like most of them are retirees they're older individuals they are all excited about coming in and I've increased subpay from ten dollars an hour to fourteen dollars but even fourteen dollars an hour they're like I'm good man so we you know are trying to do the best we can to operate within the the protocols of the cdc and the health department to keep our children and our employees safe and also keeping our schools open and operating but yeah whether it's hiring teachers hiring paraprofessionals substitute teachers bus drivers we have a huge bus driver food service workers it's just you know like it is with other with other industries in uh you know in lehigh county in the state of florida and I would say throughout the country James and Jason you guys okay as far as staffing goes or are you still hurting too well i'll go ahead and jump in it's certainly tight we're still looking for a few positions as Rocky said this is not a new issue it was just something that was accelerated and exacerbated by cope one of the great things about people who work in schools as we're just about willing to do anything so the only way we made it through last year was I had office staff doing lunch duty or playground duty and you know I i was in uh corners of the school that I typically uh are not and that's okay and I i think we're gonna do what it takes to take care of our kids but I do believe there's a longer-term issue that all in education have to figure out and it's just the sustainability of the career and making sure that it's valued and but one of the things that we're focusing on here and I would say really shifted to last year was just the mental health social emotional wellness of our faculty and staff in general so one of the things that that we did we shifted pretty quickly back in march and our rallying cry was to battle isolation and promote connections and it was that's another thing educators in general love to connect and all of a sudden we made them go home and and you have to connect over zoom which is great for some people but it's so so very hard masks barriers distancing all of those things work against those things that really help our faculty specifically our faculty our faculty and staff recharge and be able to be present and pour into our students so we spent a lot of time and resources last year trying to think about and researching how do we how do we love on our faculty how do we take care of them how do we support them whether that be time whether that be you know depending on their family so as we move forward to this year that was already high on our list but now you just add the additional anxiety of uh everything that you listed Tom it's all the more important and it's not going away at least the way I view it is it's always been there but I believe it's going to stay on the top of my list for a long time just trying to care for my faculty as best as I can and Jason von you don't have quite as many personnel to be concerned with as James or certainly Rocky but how's cornerstone uh we're doing pretty well we're like like James and I'm sure like Rocky we're still hiring for a few positions uh for the fall which is coming pretty quickly uh down the pike and it's been funny because I mean I'm one of the founding faculty at cornerstone and we still have some some founding faculty and we typically have people for a long time but we lost you know more people in the past year than we normally do so it's made for some strange mid-year hires during a pandemic and trying to onboard new folks it tends to be a complicated procedure because like James was saying this year in particular is an incredibly isolating year for our educators you know who was you know they needed to keep their cohorts separate from other cohorts they needed to kind of stay away from you know teachers that they care about and that they normally connect with having all staff meetings via zoom uh so it just further exacerbated that sorry for the noise behind me I'm gonna there's a jeep pulling in so finding ways to help people reconnect is is an important piece and you know making the profession seem like it's it's a safe valuable place for people to spend their time uh is is a part of it and that emotional well-being that we need to be thinking about for our students we need to continue to think about in terms of our faculty because if we're expecting them to continue to nurture students at the level that they need to nurture an entire community that's been traumatized to some level or another in different levels for different people we know that this has exacerbated the inequity in our in our systems entirely uh so making sure that we're nurturing and caring for our teachers well-being so that they have the space and they're able to be in the place to care for the students emotional and social well-being as we're trying to reconnect at a time that we're still asking them to be physically distant this is our special back to school edition of perspectives from WFSU Public Media just heard from Jason Flom he's the head guy over at the cornerstone learning community Rocky Hanna the superintendent of schools for Leon County James Milford the head of school at Maclay School and Mr. Milford I know you you have to bail here for another obligation coming up so I wanted this next question to go to you first this is about the impact that the preceding 18 months has had on students even the most well equipped and conscientious and super smart kids have had some stumbles along the way what kind of programs do you have available at Maclay to help any kids who have fallen behind get back up on track and and recover any of that lost momentum so uh i'll i'll take that in two parts one I am constantly amazed at the resiliency of our children so that so that's one thing um we uh if you look back through history history is not easy and so I certainly have faith in uh humanity and our children and I i saw how they came back to school last year and you just you had to because they had masks on you had to look at their eyes but they're smiling they're happy they're they're there they're making it so uh I have faith in that resiliency uh from a Maclay standpoint we we refer to it as our center for academic excellence and it's our monitoring arm does a lot of things here but it's our monitoring arm for our students to make sure that we're proactive to see where the students are struggling here or there you know that's one of the things that I think we do really well here just all of our school system our Rocky school system and Jason in my school you know we focus on the students and we want to notice we call them camouflage kids here it's really easy to come into a school system and do a little bit more than the bare minimum and maybe you're not necessarily pushing either side or either one of the edges and just mark time as you go through I think with great educators who can focus who feel supported you notice students like that so it's as we look back on the last 18 months I've been extremely impressed with how our students showed resiliency we talked to our students a good bit about their own mental health about them advocating for themselves if they're struggling here here are the support structures that you should ask for and ultimately as parents I mean I've had three kids go through uh the school systems here you're just hoping for charismatic adults that are taking notice and an active interest in your child and we can build great systems and great institutes but ultimately it comes back to great faculty who care and I think um all three of us on this on this uh call have great people doing all those things so it's just a matter then of having that perception that sensitivity on the part of faculty and other staff members at the school to say hey here is an individual child who is having some challenges we need to drill in a little bit deeper here and all come to the floor to to help out in that regard yeah and I think it could be faculty but it in our systems well at least in the clay system i'll speak for us and in a given day the coach or the director of an arts program may spend more time with that child than a given teacher so it's important that you think about everyone in your system and ultimately um will you be noticed right so that that's what we want to do we want to partner with parents I mean that's another big piece uh it is a partnership and I think all of us you know Rocky talked about the the manual um I joke and I'm like look this is my first pandemic I'm learning as I go and uh so I think we have to be vulnerable we have to be humble we have to um just keep the student-centered focus for it and as we move forward put the systems put the people in place to notice and then rally around those students that need the support as you go James Milford the head of school of Maclay School thank you for taking time to join us today sir and we'll let you get on to your other appointment that you have we appreciate you and uh happy back to school time for macleigh thank you sir take care James all right thanks guys well great here okay well Rocky let me go over to you because and uh you've got the same kind of situation here some kids who are facing challenges you also have some schools that are facing some some challenges as well I'm thinking like oh I don't know hartsfield and oak ridge and riley and bond and pineview that are sort of they're they're trying really really hard but they're sometimes missing the mark on that what kind of programs does the district have to help out not just the kids but maybe those struggling schools as well as you try to bring this back to a more normal kind of school year you know last year we spent a lot of time time focused on the the social and emotional well-being of our children uh you know we were struggling as adults uh imagine what our kids were how they were dealing with this and I saw a lot of those elementary students that were very isolated sitting in the corner sitting six feet apart had their mask on but uh that that took its toll on them as well so we spent a lot of time last year focusing on our kids to make sure they were in a good a good place a good safe place physically and emotionally we didn't focus as much on standardized testing and getting ready for standardized testing and a lot of the standards there was a lot of academic rigor that happened but in addition to that there was a lot of just making sure we were all good the adults and the and the children um we did have a a drop in third grade reading scores I honestly expected it to be worse than it was we're going to have the rest of our scores come out the end of this week potentially but we were not focusing I told our principals don't that's don't worry about it we first we have to keep everyone safe from the virus then we have to make sure everyone's in a good space and a good place emotionally dealing with the virus both in school and at home then we talk about instruction um so growing into this year again we have 10 000 students that potentially are returning that have not been in school in over a year and a half so we have to do a wellness check with them are you a good are you in a good space are you okay and then we'll start getting into the standards and and uh talking about uh preparing academically for the assessments in the spring we did have a summer 850 program we identified kids and suffered a large number of large amount of academic regression during the course of the pandemic we contacted their parents and invited them to a summer program and all of our elementary and k-8 schools our middle schools were doing credit retrieval we had a program for high school so we had programs in pre-k 12 throughout the summer for identified students that had suffered a lot of academic regression throughout the course of the pandemic we'll roll that into the fall begin to do assessments to see exactly where each child is and then to build an education plan around uh where they where they are in the when they return to us in august but again I just so kudos to our school administrators and to our teachers uh we have a very healthy public school system private schools and we have a very healthy all-encompassing school system here in Leon County and that's because we have amazing school leaders but even better teachers and I'm just so blessed and fortunate to be a part of it you know I've been with the school system my entire career I'm a product of our public schools I love Tallahassee I love Leon County and although it has become contentious which is disappointing that we have seen even a pandemic draw political lines and uh at the end of the day we're we're just trying to do the best thing for our kids and to keep them safe and to educate them the best we possibly can but I would say to the adults uh we we have to put partisan politics aside and the the enemy is the virus the enemy is not each other in your personal beliefs and so I'm just I'm over all of the arm wrangling and finger pointing and at the end of the day we have to protect our neighbors and help each other one thing that I am quick to notice excuse me as I'm sure anyone listening to this program is that the interaction the personal connection between you Rocky and and James over at mclay and Jason at cornerstone and I'm sure the folks at uh charter schools like arts and sciences and jp2 and there seems to be more of a collegial and community spirit amongst educators in this town than maybe you might see elsewhere where there are battle lines drawn between the public schools and the uh private for-profit charters and the full privates and all that I'm not hearing any of that here well you know you know I've said that they're all our children they're all our children and I have you know strong feelings about voucher and charter expansions but I've told when a charter once a charter school is accepted or we have private schools that come to me need help at the end of the day they're a Leon County kid whether they're public private charter whatever and we are here all in this together and I would never turn my back on a child no matter what school they attended okay and and Jason for the cornerstone kids here uh a couple of them come back and they are are struggling what do you do how do you help them out and bring them back into the fold well before I get to your question Tom I just want to say Rocky how happy I am to hear you uh talk about you know with your principles you know prioritizing the social emotional well-being I'm i'm speaking as a parent because my I have a daughter who's going to be going to leon uh starting in the in the fall um and you know she's been practicing with the soccer team and already starting to sense that that sense of community that they have over there that you helped start um my parents went to leon but they sent me to god be so I didn't get to be a legacy with them in terms of um students coming back and we know that there's learning loss and it can't all be quantifiable you know sometimes what kids learn at this at these stages you know through you know for us pre-k through eighth grade is about how do we get along how do we communicate how do we check for understanding just in terms of how we solve complex problems with one another so there's things that we can't easily assess but there are things that we can so if we're to meet children where they are we have to start by figuring out where they are so having some universal screeners to help us know you know where kids are as well as uh finding ways to have an accommodation plans for students who need it who are you know following through in terms of you know we already have a neurodiverse population we've got you know gifted students we've got students on the spectrum we've got you know like like our public schools we've got students who are behind we have students you know with adhd we have students who have some venn diagram of all those things and then we have you know whatever normal kids are so you know much like you know Rocky all the students in Leon County schools it's very diverse groups so we've already got a student services program in place that we've had since we started cornerstone um and so we'll continue to have that we've increased the number of people working in that program so that we can continue to to figure out where students are and then meet them where they are you know the goal of having them inspired and empowered requires vigorous learning uh and in order to get there we have to make sure that the tasks we're asking them to do meet them where they're at and have you know real world context for them uh so make so having one-on-one times for for students to connect with someone else having small group interactions uh having opportunities for having integrated exchanges so that we can have students who are you know who need a little bit more time can work with students who who who you know are perhaps accelerating um or students who are accelerating having chances for them to to be challenged in new and authentic ways uh we don't yet know what lessons we're going to be able to take from kovid because we're still in it so our students are continuing to learn is just now how do we capitalize on that learning and get it back on track towards where we're trying to go and then also what can we learn from what we've done that makes this time valuable for them because they're they're experiencing something that no other generation has experienced in a lifetime uh so there's there's going to be an indelible mark that has the potential to shape culture in a positive way and shape learning in a positive way teachable moments abound out of this that is for sure well since we're talking about back to school time a little public service announcement here uh starting this weekend and for the next 10 days that is july 31st through august 9th the state of florida is featuring a tax holiday on back to school supplies which includes such staples as clothing uh certain electronics of course notebooks and the perennial protractors does anyone ever really use those things I must have seen stashed away here that I accumulated over the years when I was in school I don't throw anything away but but speaking of money back to you superintendent Hanna the state of florida's department of education is from what we hear now in receipt of some what 15 billion dollars in federal money to help out local schools when they have to deal with coven-related expenses so yourself other districts what are you doing to encourage the release of that money to help you guys out as you try to gear back into reality here great question uh Tom you know we had prepared ourselves financially uh several years ago in case of an emergency we built up a very healthy fund balance we added to our emergency reserve uh I'm a very physical conservative when it comes to preparing and understanding finances and that we never know what what may happen in the future this is a great example that so we were prepared financially to withstand uh the pandemic although it would have been a really stretched for us none of us thought that the federal government would just turn the money machine on but they did and they have sent resources to help support our local economies and to our local schools I have expressed my frustration about those dollars and and the timeliness of them arriving here to local education agencies the legislature got their hands on it and decided that they were going to do a you know exercise a power play on the dollars and put categoricals on them and I think uh what's ironic to me is the state of florida you hear the governor speak of this to protect the sovereignty of our state and the state doesn't want to be held to lots of regular federal regulations and bureaucracy well we feel the same way as a local school district and as a county in Leon County in the city of Tallahassee that it's fine if we want to say we're protect the sovereignty of the state but then just don't turn around and do the same thing you don't want the federal government doing to local school districts and local communities and that's the frustration that I feel is that we have lawmakers from parts unknown saying well the schools they don't need that money they don't even know what they would do with that money that's that's ludicrous and the federal government intended those dollars to flow to local communities but the city of Tallahassee has an allocation that lehigh county has a large allocation yet Leon County schools still waits now we uh we are encouraged by some recent conversations with uh the second round of cares or esser money for us uh uh that it already is gonna become available this summer but we're about to start school you know so I feel some fresh frustration uh but again I just have to you know there's some things I can control and some things I can't unfortunately I you know I'm not the governor I'm not the speaker of the house or the president of the senate or the education commissioner I'm with superintendent leia county schools but part of my job is to continue to advocate for the resources due to our public and private schools here in Tallahassee and lehigh county and i'll continue to do that and I believe you have a pretty strong advocate there in the uh state superintendents uh association driver's seat as well who if uh is not able to pry them at least is able to keep the pressure on the the powers that be both at the department of education and in the governor's office Jason howard how's cornerstone doing financially you guys okay yeah we're doing all right uh you know there was a hit in enrollment um but the ppp funds last spring uh really helped out and then there's been a recent eans grant which is an emergency assistance grant that allows us to be reimbursed for the past year worth of COVID related um costs from you know uh bringing in a whole bunch of sinks to install on all of our porches to building a big tent over our basketball court which we affectionately call the court room now and make a big outdoor classroom and other places where we've had to you know make changes to campus and so the federal government coming through in those two places has been really allowed us to be in a place where we feel very confident going into into this fall school year that is frustrating to hear Rocky uh it's it's ex exacerbating thinking about how often um politics gets its hands deep into the weeds and doesn't allow for local control when it you know schools know their kids better than anyone else and what their schools and need and to have it dictated by places far and wide away is uh is just it's troubling and frustrating it is it is frustrating and let me let me say this uh also that you know the the I agreed with I don't agree with the governor all the time and I don't agree with the commissioner all the time but I think keeping our schools open last year was absolutely the right thing to do um so even if he hadn't weighed in on that decision I felt strongly that we should give our parents choices and options keep our schools open those that felt comfortable with our doors would be open those that didn't it wouldn't but I am concerned about we see it at the federal level with executive orders we're seeing it now the state level with executive orders they're exercising their will at both the federal and the state level and almost exceeding in my opinion exceeding their authority to dictate how local communities operate that is very concerning to me well folks uh before we give a few moments here for some wrap-up comments from both of you uh this is a special question for you Mr. superintendent from our news director uh lynn hatter she's wondering about the status of the after school program with bond elementary she's had a great deal of interest in that she said ask Rocky about that so I said yeah I will yes so you know we're going to have conversations it it's alive and well till then we're good but you know there have been some changes here uh recently in the numbers we have a a call with our elementary folks later this afternoon to potentially look at getting them back in some type of bubble until you know things settle down a little bit locally with the new variant and maybe potentially restricting people that are allowed into the bubble like we did much like we did last year at least for the for the time being but you know we have a school board meeting coming up we'll have those discussions we'll have many people from the community weighing in on those discussions but at the end of the day we we want our kids back to being kids back things back to normal them breathing air without mass then being able to go on field trips and being able to play on playgrounds and being able to have pep rallies and you know Jason mentioned about his daughter entering leon high school I talked to a senior last year from leon that said you know Mr. Hanna we we didn't feel like a class we were all socially isolated uh we we felt like we were individuals just graduating from high school that there was no connection there was no uh sense of a class and I just this has taken its toll on adults but it's really you know these kids didn't ask for this and so it's our responsibility to protect them to keep them safe while also realizing understanding that they're kids and then they they will never get this time back in their life they just won't uh but we'll continue to monitor what's going on here in Leon County and make adjustments as necessary Jason if we can ever help you we've always had a wonderful relationship with you guys at cornerstone uh just I'm a phone call away I mean that if I can help you personally with your daughter because at the end we said this from the beginning we're all in this together we're all in this together let's put the ugliness aside roll up our sleeves go back to work uh doing what we do best and it's educating children yeah Jason Flom director of cornerstone learning community any final thoughts here so you got a minute or two to wrap it up please yeah I you know I think to Rocky's point um you know leading with compassion is is what we need to be doing now we've got this global situation going on so we've got some context for learning about you know what is happening the world over and gives us a chance to capitalize on cultivating empathy both in terms of our educators um empathizing with each other but also with students and being able to connect them around the world you know in terms of how do we put context and what sort of experiences are people having so that the students are seeing that even though we are continuing to keep them distanced and isolated that they are you know we're all in the same storm but in paddling our own boats and so how can we how can we lead with compassion so that we can you know reach across uh you know our our boundaries uh and and find the hidden opportunities here and and I think you know we've we've got a tremendous community I'm really fortunate for Tallahassee being the kind of the bubble it is in our wonderful panhandle area because we have such uh visionary leadership uh leading our students and our schools and working together and I think that that we I keep looking for the what's the opportunity here uh you know will kids learn how to read faces better because they've had to just read faces losing just the eyes and then once they get the mouth too they're like they're going to be like brilliant savants at reading people's emotions I'm hoping but it all comes back to how do we have you know compassionate and inspired and empowered leadership uh so that we really put a global stamp on this experience so the kids leave and grow up with something that they can look back on what's the story we want them to tell about their time in our school systems during a pandemic and that's the question I keep going back to and thinking about you know how do we manage this both for as a parent but then also as a Tom real school leader you sign off I know but thank you to WFSU thank you to kim you guys have been wonderful supporters and partners with all of our children all of our schools here just we're very appreciative very thank you absolutely well we appreciate anyone who is laboring in the vineyard of education nowadays never an easy task for sure and now made even more challenging and exhausting let's be honest and frank about that and certainly we'll stay in touch with everyone in our community when it comes to the education of our kids and any information that needs to be gotten out quickly you know we're just an email or a phone call away guys so again Rocky Hanna superintendent of schools for Leon County Jason Flom director of the cornerstone learning community and uh a little earlier in the program we heard from James Milford the head of school at Maclay School and to all of our educator friends who are listening to this program uh have a good good semester and let's all hope for the very best and thank you for joining us on perspectives produced by the way by WFSU Public Media in Tallahassee thanks to Evan Rossi, Paul Dam, Amy Diaz de Villegas, Devin Bittner, Brandon Brown, Trisha Moynihan and Lydell Rawls.

Our Director of Content Kim Kelling is executive producer and I'm Tom Flanigan after nearly a year and a half of producing this program virtually, Perspectives returns to its traditional live and studio interactive format next week on Thursday, August 5 our in-person panel will be talking then about our juvenile justice system both locally and statewide and the latest initiatives to improve that system to help more troubled young people get back on track that's going to be our next perspectives including your live calls and emails next thursday from WFSU Public Media take care