[Music] Thanks for joining us here on North Metro TV as we continue with local decision 2025. And we're going to talk now to Matt Odet who is with the In Noah Henipin School Board District 4 running for reelection. And Matt, we appreciate you stopping by. and we always give uh the candidates an opportunity to tell the viewers uh who you are and and why are you running again, Matt. >> Good. Well, thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. Um I'm a I'm a local person, so I grew up actually in Andover and I'm pretty happy to be serving the community where I grew up. Um I'm running for reelection. and I really want to be continue to be a voice for for kids and for parents and for other people in the community who want to have a say in the direction of our schools. Um I think that I got started in this actually during the pandemic when uh like many people um as a parent we didn't feel like we had a good say in what was happening in schools and people had a lot of concerns at that time it was about distance learning and things like that but um as as time has progressed parents have really uh taken a different role a more active role in schools and they certainly do want to be represented on the school board and I've been a person who has felt that, you know, I've really been called to do that since since I started. >> Do you see the uh pandemic repercussions to this day? >> We do. Um the the distance learning in particular was pretty devastating on um student academic behavior, academic performance. Um so really we've not recovered to the levels that we were at pre- pandemic with respect to how kids are doing academically. It's just sort of like a lot of things seem to be lost or missed during that time. Distance learning was really hard and um you know that missing thing at every level of education is pretty important and I think we still are seeing that. We also think we're seeing seeing impacts related to student behavior and discipline um that may or may not be connected to the pandemic. So it was just generally a you know for a lot of reasons a pretty difficult time but a disruptive time for schools for sure. So, you've got four years experience on the school board. How can that help you moving forward for perhaps another four? >> Yeah. Well, being on the school board is unlike things, you know, things that most of us do in our in our daily life. So, it it takes um it took me at least um you know, the better part of a year just to get acclimated to how school district operates, what what the board does, how they function. So, I really feel like, you know, having that four years of experience really gives me a a running start in terms of just the the pure process of being on the school board and then being really plugged into the issues both broad and narrow specific to our school district. Uh, you know, what's happening now, where are we at, uh, with the various issues and, you know, it I have a clear point of view on a number of the issues that are before the board on a pretty regular basis. So, I think that, you know, that's certainly a benefit of being an incumbent. You just kind of have the lay of the land and understand how things work. And, um, I certainly would intend to be able to just pick up right where I left off and continue. >> So, the district has had to get out the cutting knife and make some hard decisions, multi-million dollar budget cuts. I think there's still $8 million left to uh try to, you know, slice out of the budget. Yep. Uh, how challenging has that been? and and and where do you see the remaining 8 million coming from? >> It's been it's been a real challenge. You know, it started close to 30 million. And so, you know, when you when you take a look at doing that in in a school district, um cutting budget, you know, generally means since about 85% of expense in a school district is is tied up in people um people's jobs. It's difficult when you know that decisions you have to make are going to impact the livelihood of of you know, staff members and other people that are working in the school district. So uh that alone is a is a big challenge. The next part of the challenge is figuring out well what's the right thing if you ha in a in a situation where you have to make cuts what's the right place to cut and of course there are not you know not everybody agrees on where to start with that for myself I've really wanted to place as much priority as we can on academics and on on the classroom so I have proposed that really the district should follow more of a zerobased budgeting model to try to figure out staffing and um and the budget and the district. So, my proposal was uh we should staff uh and fund all of our classroom teacher positions before we do anything else and then build up from there. And um that isn't really the way that the district administration manages the cutting process. And so, you know, there's been some disagreement between myself and others related to that. I've really just wanted to try do our best to try to protect that classroom and that classroom teacher as much as possible when we're making cuts. It's been hard. Yeah, no doubt. So, Anoka Henipin has does have a huge footprint. I mean, you're talking two counties, rural cities, you know, he heavy dense suburbs. So, it's it's a big mix. Yeah. How do you find harmony on the board with, as you said, there's some differing opinions. That's to be expected, but uh how do you find some kumbaya? >> Yeah, I I I don't know that I would look to necessarily say that there needs to be kumbaya. There needs to be partnership. and our board, you know, has been able to uh partner uh on on matters that, you know, are less controversial. So, a good portion of what comes before the school board is is what I might call pretty routine business. There's a lot of there's different requirements that the board has to take care of. And um you know, there a lot gets made about disagreements that we have on the board. Not much gets made about the fact that we don't have disagreements about everything. So, I would say that our our board is pretty good at working together to try to manage through the routine business. And the disagreements really uh really only come in areas that are controversial not just on the school board. They're controversial all over our society. And we've seen the polarizing nature of politics and the devast you know, frankly, the tragic behavior that we've seen in in, you know, here in Minnesota and across the country recently. And so, the there are significant issues in society. It's not a surprise that they're being worked out in schools as well. and there can be disagreement when you know those things are discussed. >> Is it fair to say though that that you want to put a ring around the teachers that's your number one priority and then and then cut from there? >> Well, when when it when it comes to schools in general, my one of my top priorities is academic performance. We've got to figure out how to restore academic performance where it was. You know, >> nearly half our kids can't do can't perform at grade level in reading, math, and science. And so when you take a look at the district's budget, which is roughly $750 million, we need to cut 30 million. I really believe that we have to try to find cuts somewhere that aren't uh right there in the classroom at this time while we're trying to get uh momentum going again and uh you know, boost learning and academic performance. I just think we really can't afford to make cuts there at this time. >> School safety, I it's a hot button issue. It really has been for a couple decades now, but it seems to be really bubbling up. Uh, how can you let parents know that when their kids get off the bus or get dropped off in the morning and come back in the afternoon, everything's going to be okay? >> Yeah, it's a it's a tough it's a tough thing. You know, we really have schools are unique. There's threats from both outside and from inside. So, from an outside perspective, which would be people who are, you know, outside the school, not not not uh maybe not students or staff who would come into the school and and want to do bad things. Um the the district has put quite a bit of priority to security and safness in schools. Um the board has supported what they've wanted to do. So whether that is things like access control or monitoring or communication and just protocols. Um as a board member, I can be supportive of those types of things. Partnership with local law enforcement. You know, um the state legislature a couple years ago passed a law that forced uh school resource officers to leave schools because they didn't feel they could be there anymore. I was I was the the lone board member who stood up with the ina county sheriff and all the local police chiefs to try to uh call for a change to that law and it did eventually get changed and we got our SRO's back. So having a police presence in school is a good is a good thing. I support that and would continue to support that and and more going forward. On the internal side of things, um, we've got a lot of problems with student behavior and with po both district policy and with state law that are making it very difficult for what I like to say is the adults in school to feel confident and supported that they can deal with difficult student behavior. So things like uh, you know, fighting and violence um, are on the rise in our schools and um, we need to make changes there to um, sort of bring that back under control. So um, those are serious issues. is another one that I'm pretty passionate about wanting to try to solve. >> And how do you combat that? What what kind of uh you know resources would you give teachers or latitude would you give them? Are they allowed to actually physically break up a fight or is that a taboo now? >> Well, that's part of the problem. So, they they definitely don't feel confident or comfortable that they can. So, I think as a as a district, we need to do everything we can to make sure that teachers feel supported. Um, and I I've even gone so far as to say indemnified, legally protected from um when when they act uh in the in in the interest of trying to maintain safness. So part of it is support, part of it is internal policy that would, you know, really give um teachers or other staff members the the most um I guess I'd call it options as possible to be able to deal with student behavior. And then the other part that the district could could engage in is we could use our position as the largest school district in Minnesota to advocate down at the capital for changes to laws that um have been passed in some cases foolishly in my opinion that have resulted in a situation where you know I think this is really important. The adults in school don't feel that they can control the behavior of kids. That's a real problem and we're never going to succeed if that continues. Uh what what besides the teachers, what are your other priorities in protecting uh certain people with the budget and the cuts? >> Um well, I it's not so much of a protection thing. It's you want to take a look at essential what what is the most essential elements. So, you know, if I go back to this idea I have with zerobased budgeting, which is really just a way of um rather than starting with a with a budget like fully um I guess uh developed, you start at the ground floor and and if you're going to add something in, you'd be able to take a look at it in a chunk, understand what it is, um understand how much it costs, uh what its value is, how you can measure it, what our success measures look like, and before you place an item in the budget, you be sure that you can sort of justify it as a good use of money. And so if you could imagine doing that, you know, in multiple multiple multiple levels, um you know, you would be able to try to sort through things that are um maybe they're good, they're good activities, but when you're forced to make a cut, uh you know, you separate it. So my example always is on in my right hand, I put a teacher. In my left hand, I put literally everything else. And I say there's a lot of things that could go in the left hand that are that are good things that are things that we would want to have in school if we had unlimited resources. But in a situation where you don't have unlimited resources, I think you really have to ask, you know, should it should it should the cut go to the a classroom teacher or should it go to something else? And that's all that I'm really proposing to to do as a way to steer through it. And for reasons that um I I think I do understand and sometimes maybe aren't well described, our district administration doesn't want to do it that way. >> So the Anoka Henipin mission statement is to quote effectively educate each of our students for success. >> Yeah. end of quote. What What does that mean to you? >> Well, it means a couple of things. I mean, when we talk effectively educate, I think we've got to have proficiency levels that are far higher than they are today. So, uh, a lot of people get wrapped around the axle related to testing and whether testing is valid or not. Well, you have to have some objective measure to determine whether being successful. And so I think certainly performance on standardized testing or other uh measures to evaluate um academic success is critical. Beyond that um you know we look we're a community school. So, you know, if you have employers out in the community, we want them to be able to see our graduates, you know, as somebody that is ready to be employed, that is able to be, you know, no matter what the job is, whether it's a professional job, whether it's a trade or just some other function in society, we want to be able to produce graduates that, you know, for sure the people, the businesses and others in our community know that, you know, they can come to our graduates and and have a successful candidate for a job. So there, you know, there's a lot of different measures you can use, but those are just a couple that I would name. >> Is there anything else that you would want to do in in the next four years if you get reelected that maybe you haven't done yet? >> Yeah, I think there's um a lot of them are still related to academic excellence, but um you know, I I would uh another thing that I think needs to happen in order to get there is uh we have to deal with the issue of cell phones. Cell phones in schools um are a are a real problem and I think our board um needs to uh work on communicating to families why we need to ban them from school. Um what we have learned through time is that not only are cell phones a huge distraction for kids and they are they're disruptive. You know they kid has it in their pocket it beeps. it buzzes. They want to know what it is. And if you if you know anything about trying to concentrate, those little distractions just kind of constantly take kids away from it. But beyond that, kids are doing things with phones, whether they're filming things in school they shouldn't be filming, or whether they're involved in social media and it's having a real negative impact on mental health. A lot of depression and different things have been connected to to u social media and to phone use. And so, you know, I I have an objective uh at this point that would say that even it it might be difficult as a parent to to say, "Wow, I think I need to send my kid to school without their phone." I think our schools are going to need to ban phones completely if we're going to be successful in making this learning recovery that we need to make. >> So, you're saying you can't bring the phone into school as opposed to say maybe you get into school, it's in your locker, you check it at lunchtime, it goes back in your locker, you go back to the classroom. You want the total ban? I do. Um it's it's it's when when the phones are in the environment uh the students fixate on them and they they uh the concern would be that they will they will be a difficult and sort of like a constant thing for teachers to try to manage. Who has their phone? Did they put it in their locker? Do they have it away? And you know, if I am if I'm a student and I know my phone is in my locker, will I be able to focus? Yeah. And and so, you know, there's a lot of people who think it would be really difficult to completely ban them. I think it can be done. Um just like you ban any other contraband in schools. And yes, we will need support from families and others. And yes, there needs to be consequences to kids who bring them in. That's the only way you're going to help reinforce that. But I think if we ban phones, we'll go a long ways toward fixing some of the depression problems we have, some of the behavior problems we have, some of the academic problems that we have. And you know, as I talk about this when I'm out right now campaigning, uh you'd be surprised how many parents admit that they know we need to do it. Um they think it's going to be hard. They're they're have a variety of reasons why maybe they're a little bit of afraid of it, but almost nobody tells me, "Oh, no, we don't need to do it." And so sometimes we have to do those kind of tough things. And I think it's time. And just to follow up to that though, I'm sure a lot of parents have said, "Well, what if I have to get a >> in touch with my kid? How do I do it? Can you go to the front office and rely on them to get the message?" >> Yeah, you can. I mean, the schools have ways to communicate into the classrooms and to find kids in school. And so, it maybe won't be as pinpoint precise as we're all used to. But if I told you that having the phone in school was such a negative detractor to your child's ability to be successful in school that, you know, I think it needs to be banned, I would hope that people would kind of acknowledge it. and we look at our kids and we see what they're doing with their phones and we look at what we do with phones, you know, but I think the difference between adults and kids is our brains are formed and we have bad habits too, but we're not trying to, you know, be educated at that time. And so um and we're, you know, it it's just it's a societal problem. I think schools have to take a leadership role in um helping parents know what to do and telling them we got to do it. >> And finally, tell the viewers why they should vote for you. Yeah, you should vote for me if you if you can appreciate the experience I have already in dealing with schools. Um, I know I've come a long ways in figuring out how the system works. You should vote for me if you're a parent or another community member who is concerned about the direction of schools and you want to make sure that you have a seat at the table. I'll be your seat at the table. You should vote for me if you're concerned with the fiscal uh responsibility, the fiscal direction of schools. I you know I I've got 30 years of experience manage managing people and businesses and uh people have seen me put that to work in the school board. I'm the guy that asks tough questions when it comes to the budget and you know I want us to be fiscally responsible. It's a commitment we need to make to the community. >> All right. Thanks for stopping by Matt. >> Yep. >> All right. He's Matt Hadet Anoka Henipin School Board District 4 running for reelection and this is local decision 2025. [Music]