[Music] aoy minetonka I'm David law superintendent of minetonka public schools thank you for joining us today for the 24th episode of our podcast aoy vonka as the 2023 24 school year comes to a close we have experienced the year-end class parties being celebrated our students completing their final assignments our teachers finishing up their teaching and Grading and nearly 900 seniors walking across the stage at US Bank Stadium to become our newest alumni it's been an amazing year and I'm happy to take a few moments to pause and reflect as we transition into the summer I've asked our high school principal Jeff Ericson to sit down with me today and share his thoughts about the school year and some of the highlights from MHS which is truly a school of opportunities within a district of opportunities principal Ericson thanks for taking time to visit with me this afternoon it'll be great to summarize a year inaka High School absolutely thank you superintendent law so our theme for the year has been excellence and how we live lead and learn and you have mirrored that with a lot of the initiatives here at school how has have those themes of excellence and student learning and well-being and support and operations how is that rippled into the school in terms of your goals for the year well I think we started the year uh as every year really strong strong about our our expectations our goal our community I mean homecoming is almost the third week of the school year which is a great great way to kick off that work but we started with all aboard which is helping set our our Norms how we work together as a community how we treat each other that goal of belonging in that first week so people really have a strong finish welcoming the class of 2027 in the building how will they help have a positive impact on our building and also setting the year strong we just say goodbye to our seniors and how they at the start of the year how will they set that tone for the year how how was all aboard how's that different from a typical back to school event well some places might just say here's the rule book take a look at it versus this is our staff entering in conversation with the students about what do we want the year to be like what are the goals that you have what's the support that we have in our school we have a tremendous support network of counselors obviously our teachers but it's really laying out what the road map is for help for support expectations so we're all on the same page it's led by our teachers so it's not somebody over announcements or a PA it's teachers engaging that conversation with students about what we want this year to be like so you do a variety of things to make students feel welcome at school and that I think are fairly unique among high schools what are some of the back to school things you do or intentional connection things you do to create a sense of belonging at the high school well part of welcoming our incoming n9th grade class so before the school year starts all of our nth graders come on campus they meet with their first mate their senior leader their Mentor that person they they met previous to the end of the school year the previous school year so they know who a connection is we start strong with that that connection they meet with their counselors in small groups right away so they know who their counselor is and then really all of the work around respect what our expectations are for respect in our community we have a respect retreat with all of our ninth graders we really work on that foundational level of who we are as a community how we treat each other and really enlisting our students to be leaders in that work so that happens right away there's a lot of intentional effort we brought in a speaker for nth and tth graders again around how do we learn each person's Story how is love stronger than anything else in terms of how we work with each other and communicate so I been impressed with how you incorporate seniors into the climate and the building you have a principal's Advisory Group you have other student leadership groups what are some examples of the role students play and setting the climate well student voice is critical I mean a lot of our not a lot but many of our decisions come from students I mean some of our curriculum decisions come from students but that student Voice through our student advisory counsil principal advisory counsel they meet with me monthly and give me feedback about what's working what's not we introduced a new schedule this year new passing time new lunches so they give us feedback we have a student belonging committee that helped guide some of worker on empathy this fall or the spring rather so that's a leadership team we have a student Innovation team so they studied five different topics about what will make MHS better so we really rely on student voice and insights in leadership to make our school better and then we have the ability to act on those ideas yeah uh our last podcast was three students in their experience at the high school and they really showcased the fact that there was something for everyone and that they really felt challenged and a chance to really have fun at school now shifting to academics this year you did something called anchor time and it was a shift from what was previously mass time can you talk about structurally what that did and then what how that impacted the academics so previously we had mask which was minaka academic success time it was Wednesdays from 7:55 to 8:40 even that was critical to be during the school day so Transportation there no barriers because the students are here but for students that was just one day a week for 40 minutes and so we and something embedded in the school day so we created a very uh unique schedule in the sense that on we had a day or a weeks which was period 135 those periods on Tuesday Wednesday Thursday were 25 minutes longer one attached to period three one attached to period 1 three and five so they had additional 90 minutes every week for additional support so they could get that support in the classroom that they're at they could use our new system of the Hub and get a pass to go to a different teachers room so they had that time built in the day to get help to do work and to stay on top of things and students said they were more on top of their work because they had that time built in during the day and for teachers you could access students more frequently than just once a week and students did not need to wait that long to get that help so that was every week uh Tuesday Wednesday Thursday and attached to every single period so over the two week cycle you could always have that additional time with your teacher and students would know that and get the help they need and you showed some data about how that's made a difference we had a high rate of students requesting to go went to to classes um our academic's performance was was strong but just that sense of I I can get help when I need it I'm not waiting a week and uh students having voice and what they wanted to do during that time so it's called anchor time because everything of course has an tical theme here right but I realiz like what do I need what help do I need our Writing Center was open so if you wanted to work with a writing coach registration season our counselors were in the Commons during anchor time students could get a pass go down there and get an a question answered in five minutes didn't need an appointment and Qui got whatever they needed so we're going to expand that next year with more opportunities for support uh academics tutoring during that anchor time it really was a positive change so anchor Tim was one part you also had a theme about engagement what did that look like and what what was different and how did it work this year well I think one of the things we noticed after the pandemic was just this sometimes a casual run attendance and so our Focus um was really students in class engage in learning every day now that may seem logical but we really had that focus of tracking students down because many times an attendance issue could be a symptom of something else so coming with a lens of support and also accountability making sure students were in class and we had a a major improvement in our attendance which translates to students being engaged on top of their academic work it was now the senior year is over really was our smoothest and with seniors and for them also to be on track so just lots of checkpoints along the way to make sure we're supporting students in responding in real time yeah I I was impressed at the the drop and failures the big jump and attendance in a class I I think that's noticeable for and it probably will set the tempo for the next few years yes talk about the expansion of experiential learning you know all Under One Roof what was new this year and what's coming so it's been a great year our goal is for every student to have some type of experiential learning and so part of the work was the momentum Aviation so um this is the first year we launched our Aviation one and then second semester uh drone which is the considered Aviation 2 and so we had we hired a full-time teacher Scott Schaffer just won an award for outstanding Aviation instructor and so we're very fortunate to have him but we helped students find their passion you could go to the new Aviation classroom at 7:20 and see kids all locked in as they would say on the on the aviation simulator practicing um we had our first student rece his drone certification one of the most popular videos on my Instagram account was from prom which was done by a student who was our certified drone uh pilot and he put something together so he's excited so it is about finding students finding their passion so that was a big addition a huge win uh next year we continue Aviation with flight school one and we'll have a section one section of 35 students doing world history and Aviation flight school one with the goal of the written exam and that'll be at the new Vantage momentum building and then the following year will be Aviation 2 and uh physics is the combination uh one other worth noteworthy part is all of our students in aviation one had a discovery flight yeah so and I think you had it we're up on one of those and so they all have their log book I mean that's currency toward what they want to do and just was a a testament to our amazing community that was all donated by one of our alumni so the students had a $250 experience for for the little price of $25 to be up in the air so anyway we're grateful for that Community with a loft Aviation they were honored at the celebration of excellence and for the public they can go and look at our May board meeting where you had two students talk about their experiences in aviation just incredible and I think it really goes to the the goal of the school and the board and the district that every student finds their place in the high school so we're excited about launching the next levels of Aviation next year well I had visited with students in last week's podcast and they they talked about pingpong club and marching band and deca how how do you allow an environment or create an environment where students can innovate activities to connect H how does that all happen I really think it's just the philosophy among everybody in the building one of our values as a school is curiosity and so I think there's this constant idea what if clubs is a great example if students has as as Elias did I want pingpong Club I think in 10th Grade he gets a club going fills out a form we we find an advisor and off they go so they're only limited by what their ideas are and same thing with classes whenever we look at different courses we really have student voice in that process and so um it's every adult in this school being committed to Student Success and creativity and really curiosity that's what creates all the opportunities one other piece that I I've been impressed with during my two years here is we do board recognitions every month just the hundreds of students that are achieving at very high levels and state level competitions whether it be in music or the Arts or academics what do you think is the magic that breeds so much excellence in student performance it is pretty amazing you look at it um one of my goals through the Tona HS in principal Instagram account is how do we acknowledge and celebrate our students and to keep up at times with all the things that they're doing quiz ball just had an amazing run great and uh and and had great success um so I just think it's we hire we've got great people we hire great people who are committed to working with students and are willing to say let's let's try this out you know that mentality of we've always done it that way doesn't exist here it's just okay what what can we do and students drive that too they they're driven and they wouldn't say this but I think they would say they wouldn't say it this way like it's cool to do well in school it's cool to show up get engaged find something that they like and then they are whenever they figure that out they're driven you can be here in robotics they're here at 11 o'clock at night several nights getting ready for whatever competition so whatever it is Athletics Arts academics they they just really are excited about what they're doing and then that's our goal to help them find that passion or sometimes they find out what their passion isn't yeah right and that's what they talked about too is it's as valuable to find out what you're not interested in as what you are interested in so uh you know we we have had the ability to showcase the schools from around the country who come and check it out and it's always interesting for them to see and experience this and ask these same questions and uh and we learn a little bit from that I learn as you explain how things work in those visits too so it's great to be a showcase site for that so looking forward to the next school year what's what's next at menot talk high school well I think it is that we have this spring launched our new facility at the Vantage momentum building and so um we have all of our Vantage strands running next year one of the strands the multimedia Communications is back so we've got really strengthen our numbers in our Vantage program our Aviation will now launched there are three fight flight simulators in that new space and some look at the combination of world history and Aviation so you know history through flight and what that course will be so I think it's launching that um we also we are continuing to grow our math of home renovation and that we have a new Math course we got a great number of students enrolled in that class enrolling that out and so I think we look at the courses that we have and then we always come back to our culture you always say that if the senior class has a great year generally the school does and so I work with our seniors a lot in the fall about what does it mean to be a leader how do we lead by example how do we welcome our students and so we'll start that process up in August of welcoming our new seniors and to see what they will do to help lead the school and so my job is help facilitate that process help get their voices to the table and then really helping our students develop Vision to then action this class I just graduated I think over their four years they raised over $200,000 for family friends so it's all those pieces that that get driven by determined students and us trying to help them uh put their ideas into action thank you for visiting with me this afternoon it's been great to recapture the year and learn what's coming next and thank you all for joining us for this episode of our podcast aoy menona take a relaxing summer break we look forward to seeing you next fall and we'll see you around [Music]