Ahoy Minnetonka. I'm Jackie Getty, executive director of communications for Minnotonka schools and your host of AHOY Minnetonka season 3. I'm joined today by superintendent of schools David Law for a kind of state of the district update. So there is lots going on and lots to talk about. We started off the school year with some really big changes. Uh the middle school programming was one. Can you talk a little bit about what the change was and how that's going? >> Yeah, you know, our middle schools in their previous state were uh that program was created in 2007 and the district really implemented immersion programming at that point in time and there were some challenges at implementation that we had uh carried through just our immersion students not being able to fully access their advisory programming. And then that model served its purpose for a long time. But the longer we went, the more we realized there was a gap between middle school programs and what we offered at the high school. Our high school just with robust experiential learning under middle schools staying static with that 2007 program. And there's a need to accelerate students or intervene when students are struggling that our our previous model didn't allow. So, is it time to do a refresh for electives and and uh maybe address that need for immersion students to fully participate? And there's also a lot of things that we're, you know, teaching character education, study skills, real life skills that students need. All of that was blended in into this block schedule, a schedule that many of our neighboring districts had done. Why is that? And Eden Edina had done that. So, we were we were really shifting to something that other schools had done and had experienced and done well. We had done site visits and determined that this was the direction for us. So it was a big shift for teachers from teaching 170 lessons of you know 50 minutes to 85 lessons that were 85 minutes long. Our teachers did a lot of work with that uh developing some of this new coursework. Some people ask uh is it more expensive to offer additional courses and it's really a shift of where students are attending for these elective options and our foundation did a great job donating to pay for the supplies for those new electives. We're really fortunate to have that partnership and this these new opportunities to remediate and intervene and have advisory. I've talked with parents and I've talked with students and I've talked with staff and staff are still in that adjustment phase. Clearly, um this is early in the process and you know, if you go from being very confident with what you're teaching every day to having to adjust on a daily basis, I I empathize with those staff and the work that they're taking on. students perspectives, especially our sixth graders I've heard from, they love it. They love these longer periods. They love that there's homework that's not due for every two days. And parents response has been pretty positive. So, we're early in the year. This is probably the bumpiest time, but very positive feedback so far. >> Well, it's exciting and I think exciting, too, for the students that get to um look into some of the programs that they're going to see at the high school and kind of get a little taste of some of them because there's so much once they get to the high school. So, well, great. We'll keep an eye on that. We'll learn more. Another big change this school year was the student cell phone use approach at the high school with students storing their cell phones during class. Um are you getting mixed reviews on it or what are you hearing? >> You know, it's funny. This really hit as a national conversation a year ago. Um states across the country were having these discussions about maybe we're going to ban all technology in school. Minnesota took the approach that we want every district to really study it and implement what makes sense in their local community. local control in Minnesota and across the country is is powerful. We surveyed our staff, students, and parents. Last spring, our our parents said, "We think the policies are aligned. You know, our current practice isn't nothing in elementary school. Middle school, it can come to school, but keep it stored all day. High school, our practice was it could be out in the hallways. You shouldn't have it out in class." But what we heard, our students, not surprisingly, said, "We think this is working." Our staff said, "We're spending too much time in class with students being distracted." So over the summer, the high school administration doubled down with listening sessions with staff, students, and parents. Again, came up with the policy similar to many other districts around the metro metro. Store it during class. And so, uh, they have places to store it. Either their phone trees, apologize, phone trees or, um, you know, uh, cases to store it. We visited with students uh early in the process and we sort of got this reluctant. This is working better than I thought. They said kids are more engaged in class. Kids are having more conversations in class. Um teachers are I think very positive about that because they they aren't policing in class. Um the most valid points our seniors have said to me is when I go to college, they're not going to have a shoe tree to store my phone. I'm going to need to learn these independent skills for monitoring my technology. Students have commented that the end of class there's sort of a lineup to get my phone. We're working through that. I I would say it's surprisingly positive emails from parents across the district. I haven't received a single parent complaint about the cell phone policy in an email, I don't think, or very minimal. >> That's great. Well, again, another thing that we'll just keep looking at, see how this goes. I know that you take some time each week as you're able to visit teacher classrooms u and to see what's going on in there. Can you talk about that? Maybe some of the highlights of what you've seen or what surprises you or excites you? >> Yeah, I I have two types of visits. I try to be visible in buildings every week as my schedule allows. And sometimes it's just a walkthrough. I'll check in with the principal. I'll ask maybe is there something happening in the building that you'd like me to attend to? Or I'll just walk through and every year I'm more familiar with more staff. So I'll just peek in. I'll stop talk with teachers on their prep on what they're prepping or I'll peek into a classroom to watch. Um just it's interesting for me to see how teachers are both either teaching and connecting with students and engaging or specific things like our new literacy materials or looking at how immersion is doing new literacy. Um I also at the start of the year I try to visit the classrooms of every teacher of the year that was identified at the celebration of excellence and it's really fun to tell those students I'm here because your teachers were recognized as being the teacher of the year for your building and teachers or students are so funny and teachers so are so bashful about that and humble. Um I invite board members to come with our board members sometimes visit with those visits. I'm letting the middle school electives get established and then I'm going to start through with the rotation of what's happening in our middle schools. I also do a visit for our high schools do for national merit finalists and perfect ACT scores. They identify a teacher that was impactful to them. I try to visit all those teachers if I can. I have the last few years. Another way to see students who students say see teachers who students say this is a really impactful teacher. And then when I'm in those classrooms as parents call and talk about their students experience in the building, I can balance that with what I've had firsthand. And it's been it's great. And teachers always say, "Hey, stop by anytime. Spend an hour in here." And it's it's hard to spend that much time in a thousand classrooms, but I do try to get into as many classrooms as I can. >> That's awesome. Uh, homecoming highlights. So, it wasn't too long ago, what, two weeks ago, we had homecoming. Um, what are some takeaways of of that week that stand out for you? >> You know, before I came, I talked with Dr. Peterson about some of the unique things that happened and one of his points of pride was the parade and excelsier. He said it's just a it's a snapshot of a community. He called it Americana. Uh, uh, the feeling of a community connection. And when I tell people about it, they don't get it. But I I like to get to the homecoming parade and walk and see all the students on their boat floats. Um, because they're they're having so much fun and they're interacting with the community and there are parents there connecting with students and then the streets are lined with community members. Um, and then from that event to other student activities through the week. coming to the football game, of course, a successful game, but more than just a successful foot football game, almost 10,000 community members here. One of my favorite events that weekend that your department hosts is the alumni awards that next day where we nominate uh you know posthumously sometimes graduates who have made an impact, teachers who have made an impact, teams going into the hall of fame, seeing those people come and and that that breakfast connecting with people who attended school in the 60s and 70s and the pride that they have coming back and saying I don't recognize that place but that's where my locker was or this teacher was so impactful that whole week and connection and then a very successful homecoming that dance that night too. A community building for the high school. It's it's having people come home, but it's also a celebration of community. >> Yeah, that was a really fun event and it was fun to see people come back and say, "What used to be here? I'm in this space right now. What is Yeah. So, great great event. So glad you could be there for that." There are some other fall events coming up and I know there's some that you look forward to as well. Do you want to talk a little bit about >> Yeah. You know, one of my favorite events I mentioned earlier was it's this uh academic breakfast for students who've been the national merit uh semi-finalist or perfect ACT score and all those students anonymously they identify a teacher. The teachers get invited to the event but they don't know which student nominated them. So in the event we recognize the students for their academic accomplishments and their parents are there but then students go up and read the name of the teacher that they invited to the breakfast and the teachers stand up and you can see you know sometimes tearful eyes and points of pride and you know uh some teacher will be nominated and three or four other students will be like yeah that would that's a great choice. So that's a really fun one and that's in the next few weeks here. Then we have um in November something unique to Minnetonka, the celebration of service for students, families, staff, community members that met certain criteria for meeting this uh service recognition. 50 hours, 100 hours, hundreds of hours of serving our school district and service is important to Minnetonka. So that's one of my favorite events in the fall. Um then you know coming up we're we're at the end of fall activities which means postseason tournaments for sections and state participants in many of our activities. It means our um fall musical at the high school Oliver this year. I'm excited for that. We you know we have a lot of students involved in that. >> You've mentioned before you bring your family to all of the musicals. >> I rarely miss a musical in Minnetonka. And then we get into the holiday season which which is performances from our elementary schools through high school for instrumental music and vocal music. Always a very fun time to celebrate in the community. >> So fun. There is a pilot initiative to have students on the schoolboard. We focused our whole last podcast um talking to some of the students who are serving on that advisory group. How do you think it's going so far and how do you work with the students to prepare them to really get the most out of this experience? >> So we met in August and we laid out the foundation. You know, just as a reminder for people who didn't watch the last podcast, our students created this model. The model they created was rather than to identify two students who come to every board meeting, they wanted to create a panel of students that would be representative of the school and then they would self- select which board meetings they come to and what was teacher nominated students. Students would have to accept that nomination. Then the student body voted for who those students are. So those students all were identified last spring. We laid the foundation with them in October about, you know, what it or in August, excuse me, what it means to be on the school board, what the school board talks about, how agendas are set, and then every week of a schoolboard meeting, we preview the board meeting one more time, and I make sure that the two students who are attending, they know the topics, they know what questions might be asked or what, you know, what the board might be talking about. And then we preview a meeting two weeks later so that they can identify who's coming to that. And then if there are some things they want to gather from their peers about that next topic, they have a chance to do that. And then when we meet for that next meeting, we can say, "What have you heard from your peers?" So, um, >> and they're they're voting members. They're non voting. >> They're not voting members because, you know, by state statute, our schoolboard members are elected in the community. They are participants. They have the chance to weigh in if they have questions. They've we've given feedback on participation in AP or IB classes from their students perspective. They've talked about how they're prepared for the board meetings at our last board meeting. As we look at future board meetings, you know, our board does a lot of business and operational items like reviewing bids for construction projects for next summer or reviewing student assessment data or previewing policies. We talked about a policy about schoolboard members participating remotely. I think our student schoolboard members have learned a little bit about some of the mundane that is part of the schoolboard process. But then in the planning meetings, I'll ask them, you know, were you well prepared and what did you learn? And to hear them talk about it, they were like, it was so exciting and it was fun to sit there and it was fun to talk and and so I I I think it's going well. It's just one more example of how, you know, we're about students as a school system. It's good to hear students perspective about how that's going. You know, our schoolboard does listening sessions with students in the fall and spring. We have a student forum. We have students in the Vantage program that are participating. We have student school board members. This is a board we are actually uh selected from the National School Boards Association to do a presentation on student participation. It's incredible. >> That's great. That's great. Well, it's going to be fun to see that continue. I did speak to one of the schoolboard student schoolboard representatives after the last meeting and she commented that she was really impressed by the fifth graders who spoke um who got up to speak from their school perspective. They were talking about belonging efforts at Deep Haven and she said, "I don't think I would have been that composed in fifth grade. It's really fun to see." So, it's fun for students to have um that experience. Um schoolboard goal setting is coming up. That seems interesting because we just started the school year. How does that work? What's the goal timing? we have existing goals. >> So, it's really important um for the school board and for me that our community knows what our priorities are. And those board goals are really driven by data, by input, by communities um comments. And so, as you know, our school year starts with a survey in May about how our community thinks our district is doing. You know, we survey everything from curricular areas to student safety to perceptions of belonging to bullying and and that's shared publicly in August. That's the first starting spot of what should we be working on as a system. Now, certainly if something surfaced in that survey that was crisis, we would adjust on the spot and do what we could. But it's really measuring our long-term projects and determining where do we, you know, we have very limited time to work with teachers. Uh we have very limited time to to work with committees. Where should that priority work be? So we start with that community survey. Then what just happened at a board meeting, we shared all of our student data from last year's student assessments. Now the for the public, as a reminder, students take those tests in April and May, but we don't get the data from the state until October. So, we can't use that data to plan for this year um over the summer. We're really using that data to say how are we doing on a longitudinal scale. What's our trend data looking like for reading proficiency and math proficiency? You know, we're fortunate that we're one of the top few districts in in our area and certainly in the state in reading and math proficiency, but there's always room for improvement. >> Those drive board goal setting. the timing of it in November is the board has this discussion in November about what are we seeing and what are we considering but it really if you talk about quality implementation we start staffing and budgeting in January and so we need to be thinking if we really need to be shifting an investment in staffing for experiential learning in the high school or for literacy support at the elementary school we set our calendars in April >> all of those things need to be considering what are our priorities as an organization? So, we budget, we staff, we calendar in January through April. All of that can be done informed by schoolboard goals. So, the board has these discussions and it isn't a throw it out every year and start from scratch. It's which of these things have we like for this year where we've done some amazing work in nutrition services. They're going to be presenting at the next board meeting. um that's probably going to drop off as a priority so we can shift priorities on other things because we we don't do everything forever when we have reached a level where our data shows hey we're we've arrived on that that's operational >> and we'll maintain that >> and we'll maintain that level of excellence. So um we read the goals publicly in January but we have all spring to be monitoring how things are going in our system. Then in May we have another check-in to say are these still the right things? maybe something's changed legislatively or some other surface uh something in the community, then the board approves them in June and that gives all of our administration all summer to finalize and operationalize. >> So, balancing budgets seems to be something that districts across the state struggle with every year. Why is that? >> Like any family budget or business budget, we're matching our revenue to our expenses. And what happens in the school system is sometimes expenses climb significantly faster than revenue. And we're in that cycle in the state where um you know certainly everyone in the country is dealing with the cost of of medicine and insurance. And I we have an example where two years ago our insurance costs jumped by 20%. When that happens, our employees paycheck goes get smaller because the cost of insurance is bigger than any cost of living in and I mean so we're trying to take the revenue we get and match the expenses. Our biggest expense is people and our biggest people are teachers and paras >> and we're a people business >> and we're a people business and sometimes I laugh people say if the state gives schools more money it'll just go to teachers. 100% that's the case because that's who that's who's in front of kids. We have a thousand teachers almost. We have just a handful of people in other positions. Our para educators are the next biggest group. So as we match those costs along with fixed costs that we can't adjust, transportation costs are you know the cost of fuel, the cost of you know insurance for all those things, the cost of employees in transportation, utilities, natural gas and electricity. Unfortunately for all school districts across the state, our increase, our inflationary increase that's coming from the state isn't keeping up with those costs and probably at an unprecedented pace. So while student enrollment is fairly stable to slightly increasing in Minnetonka, our costs are climbing significantly higher than our revenue. And what that's doing is we're having to rightsize the number of people because that's our only offlet is either we're we're um negative spending on our people or we're reducing people. And so sadly, we've cut almost $8 million over the last two years. We don't want to do that. We can't offer high quality program with fewer people doing harder work. So our goal is to match our revenue to our expenses. >> So what can families or staff or students do to help? Um, the state funding formula for education has two parts. There's what the state gives every district, a little bit extra that the state gives districts with certain needs, and then local taxes. Minnetonka maxed out what local taxes were almost a decade ago. And most people don't understand, the state sets a cap on how much districts can raise locally. For districts that don't get as much in the categorical portions of the state, they've leaned heavily on local taxes. We're trying to adjust it. So about every 10 years or sooner if possible, the state will adjust how much can be raised locally to offset the rising costs because the state isn't keeping up with the general fund and categorical funding. What I've heard from our communities we've made cuts is what can we do? Advocate with us at the capital and then let us ask our community. Certainly if our community says we can't afford anymore, that's okay. Then the message is we'd have to make adjustments. but asking our our community to advocate with us. >> Um we have a community action for student education committee, a case committee and so there is a website um on our website for that where people can sign up to be a part of it and then they would get kind of regular updates on what they can do to help. >> Absolutely. I send in we had about a hundred people last year. I send updates on a weekly basis of what's happening at the capital, who they can be reaching out to to push things forward. I understand there is a student led vantage project that's going on that is about this topic that you've kind charged that class with doing. Can you talk a little bit about what they're exploring? >> Yeah, our public policy group has taken on some really complex issues. Two years ago it was AI and education. Last year they talked about our student schoolboard um pl or proposal. This year they've taken on the incredibly challenging project of funding for education and how do you adjust and they had a first they had the house of the Minnesota House researcher Timm do a presentation for an hour then they had a survey person who surveys the state on tax tolerance and education funding do a presentation with them and so now they're in the process of gathering information. Their end goal is to make recommendations for how state funding might be different in the future to account for some of these changes in different tax bases from one district to the next or state. I mean certainly the easiest solution is well the state should just give us all they have but the state has limited budget. I'm mentoring one of those students. I've been in that classroom several times. You know I've heard them say this is really hard. It is really hard. Education funding is complex and challenging. But now we have, you know, 50 students who understand it probably as well as most elected officials and more than most of our community members that can be at least thinking about what do we do about it. >> Fantastic. We have an $85 million building bond referendum that will be on the ballot. Let's talk about that. How did that come to be? >> You know, this is my fourth year. I had been here about two weeks before I had community members start talking about needs in our system. you know, uh, most school districts, maybe every decade, maybe every two decades, go back out to the community and say, "Let's make an investment in our buildings. In Minnetonka, the last time our district did that was in 1996." So, with with the board, we said before we um identify what we'd like to do, let's ask our community. So the board in the fall of 2024, excuse me, in the spring of 2024 did an open invitation to community members who would like to work with us on this project. We got about two dozen community members to participate representing kids at all levels, all parts of our community, uh some of our local civic organizations. They did a tour of every building. They look at they took input from the staff, walked through the building and said, "Based on everything I've seen and heard from staff members, here's what I recommend." They made a list. Then they prioritized that list 3, two, or one top priorities all the way down and said, "This is what we think the district should focus on." That first list was about $200 million. That was sticker shock for the board and the community. So then we winnowed that list from last November of 24 till about January of 25 down to $85 million of the critical needs in the system. Not making more space for more open enrollment, but how do we maximize our current programming? What that community task force found out is that our middle schools had gone the longest without a significant investment. So about 50 million of that $85 million is going into our middle schools. um performance space and gym space that they're really lacking. Science classrooms that they really need that are dedicated, bathrooms in almost every facility. Um our staff and our students, we have more kids than we had when we built these schools. More bathrooms makes sense. Middle schools and high schools are getting expanded cafeteria space and the high school's getting a counseling department upgrade. So, minimal investments at the high school compared to other spaces, >> but they've had the most investments. >> They've had the most investments. Yeah. the the two ways that districts can do this are are small improvements every summer or some pretty big investments. So, with that $85 million price tag, our finance department found a way to structure that debt. So, as things are paid off over the next few years, payments for these new uh investments are coming on. So, year-over-year, the building bond portion of taxes won't increase. So, we can do $85 million and that portion of taxes won't go up. That is maybe the only question we've gotten and it's only been from a handful of people is how is that possible that my general obligation bond part of my tax won't go up but we've seen the charts. >> It's sort of like taking a second mortgage on your house where as you pay off other parts of your home improvement you pick up a new part so your mortgage payment doesn't go up but you're able to do new additions on your house. It's very similar concept. And people ask well would our payments go down if we vote no? um as things are paid off, that's the potential. This board has done smaller projects over time, so there's a chance that the board would say, "If this didn't pass, well, we'll try to do one of these projects using another funding stream." Um, that's certainly a possibility. This is much more tax efficient for our taxpayers to do it in one big chunk and stretch it out over a longer period of time. Um, but it is by paying off other things and picking up new debt to stack over that. There's also a chance with our finance person Paul Bourgeois that he'd build this he'd structure this as interest rates drop where even if they vote yes in three or four years taxes could still go down on this building bond. We just had that conversation and that's just really based on long-term interest rates. But what we can say for sure is payments won't go up on this bonding portion of taxes. >> And so that is on the ballot on November 4th. And we also have three schoolboard seats that are open. And so we do have a page on the website that has a link to all the information about the referendum and then also a link to the schoolboard candidates and to their personal websites that they're running. >> We we certainly what I if you see on my social media or when I talk and I think I've given a dozen or two of these presentations I want community members to be informed and to vote and I like for the school board I don't tell them which candidate to vote for. Learn about each candidate and vote. And for the building bond I can't say vote yes but I can say be informed and vote. I know we're running long, but I have two more things I really want to ask. There is a national government shutdown right now. Um, and we've gotten questions. Is that impacting funding for school districts? And is it impacting funding for our school district? >> No. Right now, no. Our existing funds are in place for the year. There aren't any uh announcements federally that school funding will be cut out of this year's funding cycle. There's always the opportunity as they're readjusting for future years budgets that things could be adjusted, but the shutdown isn't affecting our day-to-day budget currently. Certainly, it's a I mean, we aren't calling any federal people to get answers on things we might have questions on because those employees aren't currently working, but it's not impacting our funding. >> And then a final question, you are the president this year of the National Association of Superintendent, AASA. Um, what does that entail? What have you been doing this year as president? and what kind of exposure and opportunity does that give to our school district? >> So, I was president-elect last year. I had the chance to work with that organization and leaders from across the country on what are the next 10 years of public education. What do we need to be focusing on? And there's a document called the public education promise that was that came out last year. We actually our school board during our goal setting, we previewed that. There are five pillars of the public education promise. student- centered learning, real skills for real life, um a highly qualified and um staff members, you know, f filling all of our jobs, strong community partnerships that are mutually beneficial to the school district and the community partner and measuring what matters. What does our community think we need to be measuring from our school system? During my presidency, I've had the chance to talk with other leaders about that, to tell that story, to advocate for schools across the country. I've talked with leaders in other states about um what this looks like in our state. I've had the chance to talk about different models from across the state where people are already doing that great work so that it's possible because our our country has told us these are things that public education needs to be doing. So I I've just had the chance to learn about it and actually bring some resource to Minnotonka and showcase some of our work. There's some this spring through AASA, we're hosting a mental health cohort for schools across the country about how we implement mental health and suicide prevention at the high school and and how we can get better doing that work, talking with other experts. So, it's been a balance of ambassadorship for public education across the country, learning about what's best practice, bringing resources to Minnetonka. It's been very exciting and it's a volunteer opportunity above and beyond my superintendency. You're still doing your superintendency first and foremost. Um, anything I didn't ask that you wanted to share? >> No, we just talked uh on the state of the district. There's just a lot to be excited about in Minnetonka. >> Well, we're excited and we'll be bringing you back throughout the year to hear more about what's coming up. So, thank you again for joining us today. And thank you to those of you listening and watching. Please send us your questions, suggestions, and ideas for podcast episodes. You can send those to communications@minitaschools.org. See you next time here on AOY Minnetonka.