Academics, Innovation, Evaluation, and Technology Committee - Regular Meeting

Evaluation and Technology Committee meeting for May 6, 2026. I now call the meeting to order. The time is 12.09. Before we get started, I'd like to state the membership of this committee. We have Dr. Dorothy Bendos-Mindigal as a committee chair, who is absent today. And we also have Ms. Mary Blanco as vice chair, who is also absent today. We have Dr. Steve Gallen, Mr. Roberto Alonso, myself, Mr. Danny Espino as an alternate member, and Ms. Lisa Santos as an alternate member. Our first order of business is to approve the committee meetings of April 15th, 2026. Any questions or comments from the

Do we have a second? All in favor? Okay, it is moved. We now move to our C items. Our next order of business is our C items. Can I get a motion to move it to the floor?

Okay, any questions or comments for Ms. Pauline? Ms. Pauline, I want to tell you and your team and Alex, you guys have been great. I really appreciate the time that you guys have taken, not just in putting this together, but in answering our questions and meeting with us and being accommodating on how our meetings occur. It's really exciting to see it. I mean, there are some difficult decisions we'll have to be making, but it's important that we have that clear pathway that not just this board has, but that our superintendent and future leadership in this district will have as a guiding light

Thank you so much, and I echo the sentiment. It's really been a moment of reflection for me because one of the first few things I got to do as a school board member was participate in the creation and adoption of this strategic plan, and when it came, this is our second to last time that we get a chance to reflect and close out the 21-26 plan, and so I really sat reflecting and thought, okay, how did that go? What can be done better? What should be different? What went really well? And there were obviously clear successes. I know it's not final yet, but around some of our VPK enrollment, aroun

Any questions or comments? Yes, your merchandise, Ms. Ross.

Yes, through the chair. On that particular issue, I'll have plenty to say when the appropriate time does come in reference to that arena that has just been addressed. I spoke... very much about that issue last time around and I will follow up with whatever new comments I may have at that point in time. As far as this document is concerned, first of all, I want to thank everyone involved in the process. This doesn't just happen by clicking your fingers. It's a lot of time-consuming moments that have to take place so that you can get the input from all stakeholders. internal and external, and th

Thank you so much. Any further questions or comments? I do want to recognize that Board Member Geller has joined us. Thank you for being here, sir. Okay, our next board item that we'll take up is C2.

Thank you again to you and your team for all the hard work on this plan. I know that you've met individually probably with every board member, but does any board member have any questions or comments on the plan that's been proposed? Board Member Spino, you're recognized.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Tiffany. Thank you, Alex. This has certainly been a great experience. think this this plan is really a roadmap to make us a stronger market participant which at the end of the day is what we have to do is compete we welcome the competition and without the competition we may have done things a certain way now in light of the competition we got to shift and do things a little bit differently and there's a resonating provision on there that says smarter footprint stronger schools which is at the core of at least what i'm trying to do in the district with the closu

Thank you so much, Board Member Spino. And just as a follow-up to that, I think you make a very good point. And I actually have a question for staff, now that you brought that up. I consolidated one school campus, which, by the way, did it in the same fashion that you're doing, and it's been very successful with Country Club Middle that was shut down, and all the resources were consolidated at Lawton Childs. Our students have access to more magnet programs now. They have all the incredible teachers in one building versus we had part-timers bouncing from one school to the other. and we immediat

Yes, he's sitting back there. Quietly. Very quietly.

And by the way, if you don't have the answer right now, we can have a report. I think it's important to the public, because this is something that's going to be discussed a lot, and to Board Members Espino's point, we need to know exactly where those dollars are going and how they're being reinvested into the education of our students.

Let me just finish wrapping up. I mean, I appreciate your explanation. still doesn't answer my question on exactly where the funds are going. Um, and I'll follow up on a separate meeting, but I think it's important and something I think the entire board should think about, right. As we're doing these, cause, um, my view is the dollars, um, should be getting directly reinvested into that area and supporting the schools in that area. Um, going into a general fund and not knowing where it's ending up at. And, um, honestly, you know, When a district managed charter comes in, I'm actually going thr

Okay, I agree and disagree. we'll have further discussion on this because in this scenario there's no dollars going to the local school. From what I'm hearing is it's going to general fund and it's funding professional development at the building and who knows where it's going. This community, that school belongs to this community. So any revenue that we're generating from that school, at least a portion of it at the very minimum should be going to that community, especially to an aging building down the street, which is Lawton Childs that needs a lot of work that we moved all these students t

Sir, I don't mean to interrupt you, but just to clarify the record, and this board, I think, has been pretty united on this. We are not selling properties. We are only leasing properties. I have not heard of any properties being sold, and at least me, I'll speak for myself, I've always been committed to that policy. 100 years from now, forget 50 years from now, I don't want anybody to say that this board gave away all of its properties and that we had an influx of individuals and we now need that property and this board is the one that disposes those properties. So in none of my conversations

Thank you so much, Board Member Gellerin. And I apologize. I probably took this off task. And to Ms. Pauline, I know this is about a strategic plan that we're on here. So if we can bring it back to that. But I do want to give Board Members. Let me just say this, Mr.

And I think in further conversations, you could probably meet with legal counsel and they can explain some. Because there are laws, and you've been in Tallahassee and had that experience. there are some state laws and policies in place that guide us in that process. Board Member Espino, you're recognized.

Thank you so much, and Board Member Alonso, Mr. Chair, thank you for your comments, because we all have our perspective through which we view it, and I don't always know, I most of the time don't know what you guys are doing in your districts. But the question, the conversation is indicative of the fact that I think we do need a key result that crystallizes this. Because I certainly can understand Mr. Steiger's point, but I also resonate very highly with yours because the fact remains, and I'm looking at this as a developer, where if I'm going through the pain and suffering of going through th

Thank you so much, Board Member Spino. I think that's a great idea, and in speaking with staff, I think they had shared with me that this is a living document that can always be updated and changed, but I think having it in writing will be important so that that way the person coming in, be it he or she, knows that this is something that they can meet with staff at that point and come back with suggestions to the board Board Member Colucci, you're next.

Thank you. And I do want to echo the sentiments of my colleagues. First of all, Board Member Geller, and I've been saying this for years, we need to have a plan of what we're going to do with our assets, because right now I don't see a strategic plan, and that worries me. The second thing that worries Board Member Espino and Board Member Alonso said, you know, if I'm going to go out into my community and ask, let's consolidate. Let's make our schools better. We owe them that transparency of where those funds are going to go. That's my take. Thirdly, I do agree and I'm going to chime in with wh

Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. And I'll echo all the thanks and gratitude, certainly. And Ms. Pauline, you said 190. You meant 190,000 input points into this plan because it's really impressive. So I have to put on the record, it's 190,000. Thank you. No worries. And so I'll keep it as high level as I can at this point. it is important to me that in the document that we vote on on wednesday that we um for these metrics and i was adamant about this in the previous plan and think it's important to include in here for the metrics for which we do have a baseline that we include it and name it in th

Right, so we get pretty close to $10 billion if we look at our 10-year outlook. So when I look at that 10-year outlook and then I see an objective that's pushing for getting rid of $1.5 billion in the next five years, knowing that every year this changes, and unless we take drastic action, it continues to increase because if we hold on to assets the way they are, that deferred maintenance goes up and up and up. Is that correct through the chair?

Okay, so maybe staff can share, enlighten us on maybe some of the conversations around why this felt like a rigorous but attainable metric, and I'd really like to consider increasing the dollar amount on this, just objectively looking at the data. It seems like it just objectively won't be enough.

Through the Chair, to make sure I understood correctly, you are saying that through the plans you have for the right-sizing of facilities, either by building or by repurposing, you can, you project that you'll reduce deferred maintenance by about $500,000 a year?

$500 million a year for the next five years through the Chair?

Okay, so through the chair. So I think this ties to the discussion that I've had through our ABC items that we are taking the right steps and we are methodically doing this, but we have to accelerate pace because if we don't, we still hit that sort of limit where we didn't do it fast enough and so we didn't release enough of our fixed costs to reinvest into the experiences of our students and families. And so I think this is a metric that's also highlighting that from a different angle that with your current projections, we only feel like we can get to 1.5 billion of getting rid of 1.5 billion

I'll just add on that, and I'll recognize you, Mr. Ross. I completely agree with you, and we need to move at a faster pace because $1.5 billion is not even scratching the surface. And that's just talking numbers. We're then talking about the facilities in which our students have to go into every day, our teachers have to teach in, our principals have to manage buildings that are in serious decay. When we look at this, Mr. Perez, are you factoring in here? We've had discussions, and this can be anywhere, and I don't want to say numbers, but there will be a number of schools that will be consoli

So to Board Member Colucci's question earlier on a plan, I think we have a lot of plans going on and we have a lot of things working. And by the way, thank you to you and your team and Dr. Cabrera, who I see back there. She's running around with a million different plans and ideas that we throw at her weekly. But is there a list? Because I think we need to be strategic on this, right? And it's part of our strategic plan on what schools or what properties are costing us the most money right now that are in the list of possibly being repurposed at some point. And those should be our number one p

I have a lot of data in my head, and this is not my full time. Mr. Steiger, I'll go to you right next. If you can send the top 10 list and maybe provide it, at least to me, but maybe to the rest of the board of those facilities, just so that we all have an understanding, maybe top 10, top 20. I don't know if other members of the board would like to see that data, because I would love to get on your dashboard, but I have a lot of dashboards and a lot of different information I'm looking at. So if you can consolidate that and provide it to the board, that'd be helpful. Mr. Steiger.

Do we have any other further comments from board members? Ms. Rojas, you're recognized, and then I think board member Gutter will close it up.

Thank you very much, sir. I'm going to be very, very brief. first and foremost again I want to give kudos to everyone involved in this process I alluded to earlier and I'm going to repeat it again you've listened carefully to the stakeholders including us we're just part of a team here teamwork is what makes that dream work like I always say but we've listened to external stakeholders as well as those critical players in our schools our principals our and members of our workforce. Most important to me is the fact that this is the North Star that we're going to be following. And I said it many

Mr. Price, can you clarify? Is that right?

Thank you so much, Board Member Geller and I think we do have some UF grads sitting in front of us, so we gotta be careful with the gators out there. All right, we have a final comment from Board Member Colucci, and then I think Ms. Santos still had another follow-up.

Thank you, and I'll be very, very brief. I just would be remiss if I didn't thank the team. This was a tremendous undertaking. I really enjoyed our conversations. uh they were good ones I think we are definitely headed in the right direction we know the challenges that face us what lies ahead and um you know I I'm confident that we will get there as a district together so thank you for your work I commend you and I know that we have to make some some fine tuning along the way but we will do so so thank you thank you so much Miss Santos

Thank you. The comment that I mentioned, I would close with this. On page 20, I think the matrix for new initiatives and programs is actually probably the most important tool that we're going to get out of the strategic plan. As Mr. Steiger said, once you adopt these objectives, it's really up to the administration to meet them. And this decision matrix, I will use it on myself when I have these what I think are brilliant ideas. But sometimes once you run it through the matrix, they don't really add up to be a strategic priority. And I promise to Cabinet to hold myself accountable to this deci

Thank you so much, Board Member Santos, and thank you again to the team. And I thought this was a very good conversation. It's important that we have it. This is the guiding light for our district, so I'm glad that every board member has been so engaged. and involved in this process. With that, we now move over to C3.

Yes, Board Member Rojas, and then Board Member Geller after.

Thank you very much, sir. And I was reading through this, and I did have a few questions that I wanted to have a little bit clarity on. I did see where it stated that this management agreement is one that we've never done before, ever. So keeping that in mind, I did have a couple of questions. The first one I have is, I'M ASSUMING THAT THIS IS A PRIVATE SCHOOL OPERATING IN ONE OF OUR FACILITIES, CORRECT, THROUGH THE CHAIR? THROUGH THE CHAIR, THAT IS CORRECT. OKAY. THE NEXT ONE IS IN SECTION 3, UNDER PERSONNEL AND SUPERVISION, BASED ON WHAT I HAVE READ, ARE ANY MDCPS EMPLOYEES GOING TO BE HIRED

So through the chair, and I don't know if Mr. Mateo wants to add anything to that or not? Okay, great. So the bottom line is MDCPS employees ultimately will. Exactly, through the chair. Through the chair, they may. All right, mm-hm. All right, if this is a private school, do we do the same type of, or will we? Because we haven't done it before, obviously, with anyone else. But do we do any of this with private schools in the county outside of us doing it here? Has anything like this been done before?

With us, but are you cognizant of anything like this happening anywhere? Not with us directly, but with other entities or not? No? Through the chair?

Are these students going to be MDCPS students or not?

Okay. The district liaison, are we going to have to hire someone and assign someone to assume this particular role or not? Through the chair. No, we have a person on staff. Thank you. And I did look at the a la carte menu that was listed, and this provided us a... It was provided to us as part of the agenda that I read. And so this menu included practically just about everything that we do for our schools. So can you elaborate on how this is going to work? Again, I know that we do provide some services to charter schools, but in this one, it seems like we're providing everything. So if you cou

Thank you. And lastly, through the chair, who are the students that are going to be served?

Okay. That's what I wanted to know. Thank you. That's all I have, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Mr. Rojas. And Board Member Gutter, this school is actually in your district, so I'm sure you've met with them and understand what's coming. Or maybe you can give us a little enlightenment as to this provider.

Thank you so much, Board Member Geller. And for the record, the provider is in your district, but the school is in District 1 that's being occupied. So it's a mix of two board members coming together to provide a great product and some revenue for our district. So thank you. All right, so that concludes all of our C items. Can I get a motion to move our C items to the board meeting?

Okay, our next order of business, the H items. Can I get a motion to move our H items to the floor? Move it. We have a second? Second. All in favor?

All right, our first item is H3, and I believe that is my item. So it's actually a timely item that I bring as I just arrived back this morning from Washington, D.C., from the Ed Safe Policy Conference where we were talking about innovation and artificial intelligence through all of our schools and the impact that it's having and the changes that it's bringing, right? And it's no secret to us as a board that our district is a leader and innovator. Miami-Dade County and the Florida Task Force actually won an award yesterday for being the trailblazers across this country in innovation inside of

Chair Rojas. Thank you so much. Board Member Alonso, thank you so very much for bringing this agenda item forth. It's so critically important. As a matter of fact, I had a very, very similar concern, and this goes back to June 21st of 2017. At that point, I proffered a board item, and I titled it Digital Addiction. because of the very same reasons that you have stated even way back then and I said we're culprits look around the room right now stop and everybody's on the phone and that includes us all of us we're all part of this and so going to restaurants as you alluded to seeing that there's

Thank you. And do I have anyone else? Yes, Board Member Santos.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to say that I really appreciate the approach that's being taken here. I think we all see every day the challenges of screen time and what it's doing, especially in children's brains that are still developing. And so I'm very curious to see the results of learning about, you know, where our students, like you said, what's working, what's not, what we should shift into, what we shouldn't should shift away from. And I'm very glad that that we're taking this on. So thank you, board member Alonzo, and I'll gladly co-sponsor.

Anyone else at this time? I love the item. I've been a strong proponent of really, really monitoring screen time, especially the younger the child. Cognitively, it is There was just, and I brought this forward in an article not too long ago, just a couple months before you brought the item, we had a discussion about it, about how this generation they're showing that is less cognitively developed than the previous generation and there's links to show that it is because of all of the screen time. So now I'm sure that there are people that can argue against that or for it but I think it's time fo

Right. So and a follow up question. If you were to say required, I know it's 45 minutes for I ready in math and reading. So that's a total of 90 minutes. Additionally, so that's. they could do that in class or on their own through the chair.

So my concern is this, and it always was as a teacher, when you have the students on the computer during class time, it becomes almost like a substitute for the teacher. I'm not saying that it can't be an assistant, it can't be, not a substitute, but I understand for DI, but I value every single moment that the teacher has with that child. So I'm very hesitant to put a child in front of a screen when they have a limited amount of time with a teacher, where they can interact, where they can have conversation, where they can engage. Also, I really like when they, even if it's DI with a consumabl

But do we have, like, if we're going to adopt, for example, XYZ program, do we sit and really analyze with the matrix and with the committee to say this is beneficial or we already have something like this so that we're not replicating and adding more screen time and more dollars?

And I think that's critical, twofold. First, because of the screen time, and secondly, because it's our fiduciary responsibility to look out for the taxpayer dollars and not be replicating things that cost millions of dollars that we don't need to. So the younger, again, I will say this again and again for the record, the younger the child, the less time they need on the screen. So Board Member Alonso, I fully support the item. I'd like to be a co-sponsor. Does anyone else want to speak at this time?

No, thank you to fellow board members for your support. And look, I love innovation, but as a parent, I have concerns all the time. which is why I strictly try to always focus on teacher-supporting tools rather than actually student-facing tools. And I think it's something that we always talk about on innovation. And because people do listen to this meeting, and I want to put it out there because yesterday I learned of something. I'm not somebody who chats with my phone or uses any tools, but parents, and I'll say this even next week at our Wednesday meeting, parents need to be aware of what t

So may I have a motion for co-sponsors? Second, all in favor? May I have a motion to move the item as amended? Move it. All in favor? Aye. And I'll turn it back over to you.

Thank you so much, Vice Chair Colucci, for your help on that. Our next item is going to be H4. This item is... Your item, Board Chair Rojas, H4.

Thank you very much, sir. And I would like to, at this time, bring H4 to the floor, which is school board endorsement commemorating the 124th anniversary of the independence of Cuba, May 20th, 2026. And this is an agenda item which I'm very, very proud of. And it follows a historical endorsement of the school board commemorating, again, the 124th anniversary of the independence of Cuba, which we observe May 20th, 2026. And by the way, to our previous chair, who's no longer with us, this was something that she was so proud of as well, and I would love to go to different events that she held, an

Thank you so much, Madam Chair. Do we have any comments? So we'll start with Board Member Geller.

From your lips to God ears. Yes, thank you. Any other board members? Board Member Colucci. Oh, you're, okay. All right, so can we have co-sponsors on the board? Second. Second. All in favor? Aye. Okay, move the board item as amended to the board meeting. Second. All in favor? Okay, our next board item is H5. That is your item as well, vote member Ross.

Yes, thank you. And this is the recognition of the Florida Seal of Biliteracy Program in Miami-Dade County Public Schools. This agenda item before us now recognizes the very successful implementation and continued success of the Florida Seal of Biliteracy Programs within Miami-Dade County Public Schools. This distinction established by the state of Florida honors high school graduates, again, who have demonstrated tremendous proficiency in two or more languages, underscoring the academic, cultural, and economic value of multilingualism. As one of the most linguistically and culturally diverse

Thank you so much for bringing this meaningful item. Do we have any questions or comments from any board members? All right, co-sponsors? Move it. Second. All in favor? Aye. Move the item as amended to the board meeting? So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. Okay, our next board item is H6, and this is your board item. Board member Spino.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As you all recall, the state of Florida adopted a Victims of Communism Day, which we furthered by doing a Victims of Communism Week, and after its first year, I'm proud to say that there were activities throughout the county with speakers and activities, videos. I can tell you that the level of engagement with Armando Ayalares and Miami Springs Senior High or the roundtable conversation we had at SAS West was, it was better than I thought. I really had, you know, I have kids and I know how much they care about stuff or don't care about stuff, especially the older boys, do

Thank you so much, Board Member Espino, on this great item. I will call upon the previous board member who just brought another item, which is very connected to this, Venta de Mayo, right? So, Board Chair Rojas, you're recognized.

Right, exactly, absolutely not. Number one, I'm thrilled to see this item in front of us, extremely important. And it truly has been an interesting journey I remember way back when you were not on the board yet, I proffered item H3 at that time. And that was at the meeting of May 8, 2022. And that's when, for the first time, the official endorsement and support for the implementation of the newly adopted Florida House Bill 395, which was Victims of Communism Day. It was the beginning of a journey, truly, that has brought us to this point in time now. where we are today. And learning about the

Thank you, and through the chair, I did, I went through every one. I went through the elementary, and then through the middle school, and highlighted each one of the areas, and senior high. When you go to the senior high school, You see there is nothing listed at all. So maybe that's something that we may want to then take a look at.

Thank you. So back to Board Member Espino's item. I fully support it 100%. And at the appropriate time, I would like to be a co-sponsor. And once again, thank you for bringing this very important item up.

I think. Okay, any further comments from board members? These board items always bring up great conversations, right? And allow us to make sure that we're doing what we gotta be doing. So thank you. Co-sponsors?

All in favor? Aye. Move the board item as amended.

Okay, our next board item is H8. This is board member Santos' item. Board Member Santos, you're recognized to present your item.

Thank you so much. Right in time. Colleagues, I really appreciate your support in adopting the post-secondary success framework years ago. As we know, post-secondary includes college, career, military, basically all of the pathways that our students can take to lead them to success beyond the high school graduation and diploma. Since the adoption of this student post-secondary success framework, there are so many great things that have happened. I want to just call out one that really stands out, and I don't know if everybody knows this, but we lead the state, thanks to the work of our academi

Thank you so much for your board item. Any questions or comments on the board?

All in favor? Aye. Okay, we now move over to new business. Do we have any new business from any board members? No? Okay. Board Member Santos, you're recognized.

Thank you so much. One friendly reminder to my colleagues that at our next week's meeting, we'll be celebrating Academic and Career Signing Day, so please wear your college gear or display it on your part of the dais, please, so we can celebrate our students all together. It's across our entire county. And secondly, a quick follow-up. We did receive transmission of the follow-up to the follow-up on board member Colucci's January item on advanced pathways. And I had two quick follow-up questions on that for Ms. Diaz. Through the chair, one, there's a program that's outlined as one of our offeri

Thank you so much, yes, and through the chair, appreciate the thorough follow up on what we offer and the timeline for moving forward, how we're gonna identify and then notify parents as well over the summer. So can you tell us how you plan to notify those parents of eligibility and program options? I know in the plan it says during June, July.

Thank you. And through the chair, I know many of our schools have been doing this, will continue to do it. Is there anything different as a result of this plan that we're going to be doing? I think maybe the universal identification, basically, of students seems like a new thing. It kind of was more hodgepodge before. Is that an accurate read through the chair?

Thank you so much, yeah, through the chair, I had a student who told me, because in ninth grade, my counselor did walk me through the pathway, I was able to start and be on track to get my associates before my high school graduation. And thank you again to Board Member Colucci for bringing that item.

All right, thank you so much, Board Member Santos. We now have Board Member Colucci.

Thank you, and I do want to thank the team for going back and addressing all of the concerns that I have. I really appreciate it. It's much more comprehensive now. I do, you know, I really like on page 204 how it shows the data reveal a clear correlation between proficiency levels and advanced course placement. So when we analyzed our data, when we have these advanced pathways, when we have this advanced placement, we're seeing our proficiency levels rise. And I'm glad to see that there is a plan in place now to try to move our students. Because when we challenge our students with accelerated

Thank you so much. And I'll move to Board Member Rojas.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mine is very brief. It's we're fast approaching graduations, and right after that, summer school. Could you please tell us about what is happening with summer school for this particular year?

Through the chair, thank you so much. That's very comprehensive. I'm sure you probably already have identified the schools where they're going to hold the summer schools and the summer camps. Are we going to get a document related to that soon? Through the chair?

So through the chair, thank you so much. And I'm sure that you're going to have all nine board member districts with representation, of course. So my last question has to deal with the fact that because of the arena that we find ourselves in fiscally, is synergy still going to take place? And if so, how is that being funded through the chair?

So no, I didn't get an answer to my second part of the question. If so, how is it going to be funded? Again, fiscally, we're trying to be very conservative right now. So I just would like to know that answer.

So through the chair, no longer at the college as we had in the past or anything like that, and the food is being donated, all of that is, there's no cost. Through the chair. Brown bag lunches. Thank you.

This is just very, very brief. Thank you, Mr. Chair. To just go off of what Chair Rojas said, these camps, summer camps, those are at a cost to the parents, correct? Through the chair?

Thank you, Mr. White. Okay, and then through the chair, just a follow-up question, and I don't know if we have this or not. Are any of those camps, do we have opportunities to maybe hone in on those third graders that are, or those elementary schools that are the 12% level three to offer them perhaps an enrichment? Because you know sometimes, not sometimes, all the time, Summer comes and kids get back in the fall and they've forgotten. Just, oh, I don't remember that. And then you have to, you spend quite a bit of time. So maybe we can offer through the camps, maybe just a small portion of the

Thank you so much, Borna Colucci. And, you know, just on the summer school side, I was made aware and asking during spring and during the winter break we did open up some schools and there was very little if not minimal if not maybe no attendance at them so if we open up summer school in some schools let's make sure students are attending and that there's a plan if students don't show up that staff can go back home and we don't have to pay teachers because there were schools in my area that had very minimal students and a time that we're now trying to find cost savings to pay staffers just to