Ahoy Minnetonka. I'm Jackie Geddy, [music] executive director of communications for Minnetonka schools and your host of Ahoy Minnetonka season 3. [music] I'm joined today by superintendent of schools David Law to hear about what's happening this time of the school year from his lens. Superintendent Law, thanks so much for joining us today. Last time we touched base on here was actually in February and now here we are in May. What are some things on your mind this time of year? What are maybe the things that fill your calendar? This is a really fun time of year because it's so much celebration and so many culminating events that sometimes kids have been working on all spring or all year. So, uh you know, we celebrate years of service for employees. So, this is the time to get in every building and celebrate employees who have been here 5, 10, or 15 years. And later in May we do a celebration of excellence and celebrate employees who've been here 20, 25, 30, 35, and as you know from a former podcast 40 years. >> That was a fun one. Two teachers celebrating 40 years. That was a really fun to talk about. >> Great stories to tell. We're also in getting in buildings and talking to students about their year-end accomplishments. Our middle school presidential excellence awards. And so students who have met set criteria um on the federal level but locally. And then celebrating those students and their parents come in and they do a breakfast and they'll have you have some treats. But it's so fun to see students at the the end of their event. Or at our elementary schools as students are making those transitions to middle school or middle school to high school. All of those culminating activities. And then, you know, it's spring season, outdoor activities, track and lacrosse and golf. And I was just at an adapted softball game earlier this week. Seeing our students shine. The spring plays coming up. End of year concerts. Just a lot of fun culminating events. Graduation, of course. >> Coming up. Sail graduation. Our Minnetonka High School graduation. Those are some of my favorite events of the year. And this week, teacher appreciation week, which is also just a really exciting time to go around and thank teachers for all that they do. It is. I was So, as I was walking to tape this podcast, there was a group of students in the hallway kneeling down. I said, "What are you all doing there?" Writing thank you notes for teachers for teacher appreciation. Community members always ask me, "What can I do that would matter?" Just a note of kindness to your child's teacher or teachers about something specific you appreciate goes such a long ways. This is a business where relationships matter and appreciating those people who are caretakers for your kids, what a perfect time to do it. I know also happening in the spring, the board does kind of its final set of planning meetings, looking back at the goals, and also doing some other planning activities. They had their planning session recently. What did they accomplish at that meeting that you can share? So, a lot of you know, this is a board that has set goals at preliminary in November. Then we share them publicly in January. You share them at a board meeting. Then we spend the spring gathering information. And then about this time of year we like look at other things that might come in. Legislation, community input. And then consider are these our goals that we're going to have for the next year. So, during that planning session we did a little bit of that. We looked at some student data. Really promising data. Not surprisingly, the longer our students are in our school system, the more likely they are to be proficient. The more likely they are to graduate on time. So, and then what can we do to support those students who are new to our system, our English language learners, our students who are receiving services in special education. All of those factors and reading proficiency and math proficiency. We looked at that data as a school board. You know, one of the things we're hearing a lot about is technology in our school system both across the nation and locally. Are we using the right amount? How do we give guidance to teachers? How do we support parents with that? So, we had a little bit of a discussion about that. We have that as a board goal for the 2026-2027 school year. What are we going to do with it? How do we clearly communicate that? All of those were productive conversations. And then we have a newer board with all of our members serving for 4 years or less. So, spent a lot of time with the Minnesota School Board Association about how do high functioning boards work together? We spent the afternoon on that. Set some mutual agreements about among board members, setting agenda items, gathering community feedback, talking to the community. All of that I I think it was a wonderful day. I think our school board members said that, too. What are some of the things that that MSBA shares are important things that boards, good functioning boards, do together? Or ways that they work together that are that really qualify them as a high functioning board? What does that look like? Well, our board heard a lot of things that they're doing well. One of the things that they encouraged the board to do was gather input, look at data, and set goals. And then report on those goals. That is the hallmark of a Minnetonka school board. We you do a community survey in the summer. You share that in August. Our board processes that information. We look at student data. We survey our students. We survey our parents. We survey them on high interest topics throughout the year. But then we set goals and we ask our community, are these the right goals? Those are some of the things high functioning board members do. Then hold themselves accountable to the community. Our community survey shows about 80% of our community says, "I trust the board to do what's right for our kids." We're We're trying to get that last 20% always. But the board is and at the same time, that's a really high mark for success in community trust. >> Yeah, we've heard that even from an expert in survey development saying you guys are well above the average of what school districts see in terms of trust and engagement from the community. Um and speaking of engagement, so some exciting discussions about community engagement opportunities that the school board gave some thumbs up to that we're planning to roll out. You want to spill the beans a little early and maybe talk about one of them? Yes. One of the board goals since I've been here is to look for new and innovative ways to connect with the community. And uh our communications department uh looking at some national models for community engagement, as you know, came up with a citizens academy. Um we haven't decided what the name of it is yet. It'll probably be something nautical. But it's an opportunity for a small group of community members to really take school district 101 and spend a set number of time, maybe six times throughout the year. We're still determining the number of days. Maybe a half day all on the operations. What does buildings, buses, and food look like in the school district? Then a half day in what is all the What is in HR? Then maybe a half day in teaching and learning and a half day in finance. Just to understand that so that by the time they're done, they'll understand all the aspects of our school district and be able to articulate a whole lot more about how school districts work and function. Um where other districts that have done this have reported that those 20 people, those 15 people, become great ambassadors for understanding what's happening in the school system. So, look for the community can look for an application to participate in that. We're hoping to get lots of interest and to start with a small group and build it up next year. Yep, we hope to roll that out by the end of May, take applications throughout June, and then have inform those that are in it if we get enough interest to run it. And then that it would kick off in the fall. So, so stay tuned for that. But just a little sneak peek. You presented at the National School Board Association recently along with a current student and with several of the school board members. What was the topic there? And how did it resonate with the audience, which were mostly school board members? Uh yeah, probably about 90% school board members, maybe 10% other district administrators or superintendents. >> From across the country. >> the country. And the topic for our school board, we submitted an application because we this board had studied student voice at the school board and actually had gone to the conference 2 years ago and looked at different models and decided to come back and ask our students, "What would you think it looks like to have high quality engagement with the school board?" And our Vantage program students came up with the model and in a Shark Tank type competition, the winning team presented school board in November of 2024. >> Yep. And the board processed that model and then agreed in last spring to pilot it this year. So, that at the high school where we are, we the model essentially is that teachers identify students that they think would be great representatives for this opportunity. But students make an election four per grade level of which students they think represent them well. So, we started in August with sophomores, juniors, and seniors identified. Nominated some freshmen in November. And then I prepped those students ahead of a board meeting on what's going to be on the agenda. Giving them that broad perspective of here the pros and cons of any interesting topic. You can ask me questions. You can process it. Then they go to the board meeting. They listen to the discussions. They participate not as a voting member, of course, because they by statute community members elect voting members of the board. But they give input. And they rotate which students attend based on their schedule or sometimes based on their area of interest. They have been going since uh September. We are at a board member in April, they presented on how their year went. And it was just fascinating. I was surprised because if you've watched board meetings, I've watched many. I know. Sometimes it can be 2 or 3 hours of some very dry conversations. And after one of those meetings, I asked the student board members, "How did it go?" And they said, "I loved it." And I thought, "How interesting." But they were engaged. Their feedback, if you listen in April, is it made the process more real. They felt like they were behind the scenes. Now, they weren't really behind the scenes, but they were much more informed about it. They said things like, "I talked to my parents every night about what's on the board agenda. I talked to my classmates. Sometimes I gather feedback from my classmates. I love that I've got to talk at a board meeting about what students think about a topic. So, it's been really interesting. They unanimously they wanted to stay on for next year. We'll keep about half of them. >> Wow. Yeah, so that new kids get an opportunity. >> new kids get an opportunity, but we'll let the ones who are on be elected again if if that's what happened. >> If they get elected. And that's probably nice, too, for some of the new ones coming on to have a few that they can learn from and learn alongside that have been through it. And our student that came with us to present at the national conference was on the winning team. And she also has facilitated a student forum, another way that we gather information from students. And our school board has lots of student rep uh representation. You know, our principal has an advisory committee. Our teaching and learning team has a student advisory committee. We have students sitting on the community ed advisory committee. We have students on the calendar committee. So, there's lots of ways for students to give input, but this is just one more voice along with the student forum. And our school board each pair of board members has adopted a grade level. Two have a freshman and they'll track them through high school. Two are at sophomores this year after starting as freshman. And so, we're getting to see the progression of a group of about 20 students and hearing their perspective on the high school over time. So, you stay with them all the way through Each pair of board members stay with that group of students. They meet fall and spring. So, in a perfect world eight times they'll meet with the group of students. So, I know you're paired up with one of the board members. Have you seen a class go all the way through yet or >> We This is our second year. I had seniors last year and I had freshman this year. Completely different perspectives. Seniors were leaving feeling very good about their future. Freshman came into high school and said, "Wow, this is a lot to get in." But even from fall to spring you can see some growth in students. So, the state legislature's underway. How are things looking this far for the education sector? What are lawmakers focused on right now that could impact schools? I know we have a really active parent student >> We have a wonderful CASE committee. Over 100 parents and about six students who are really involved. We went to the capital in um in March. >> No, April. >> Or April. Thank you. We went to the capital in April and visited with our elected officials. Students came with. Uh it's a non-funding year. Which means what? Which means every odd year the state resets the biennial budget. Okay. Every even year is typically a bonding year and a policy year. So, this is a bonding and policy year, but there's still financial implications in a bonding and policy year. And some of the things that are coming up to be decided next year like a proposal to cut $250 million in school funding from the special education cross subsidy. That would impact all districts. So, there's some preliminary discussion, even a bill in the house not to have that happen. Lots of discussion about school safety and some one-time money to support school safety. Um looking at you know, we have been capped in how much our community can support us from over a decade. And ask our elected officials to revisit those caps. They haven't kept up with inflation. We're getting some traction on board authorized levy. It's called local optional revenue revenue. There is interest in maybe revisiting that next year. The voter approved levy more and more districts hit the cap every year. We hit the cap in 2017. So, both of those if the state can't keep up with funding schools, then you've got to throw it back to the community to say, "Communities, are you interested in increasing school support?" We're getting traction in those areas. Trying to uh realistically say at the capital, "If you're not giving us more money, you certainly can't give us more tasks." Because uh you know, the READ Act that we're entering into probably year three of implementation in the fall. We're We're not done with that. It wasn't fully funded. Please we While we've been doing the READ Act, we've cut 5% of our teaching staff. I've said that many times down there. We want to see the results of this wonderful new legislation. Giving students less support during that time and asking teachers to do more isn't going to move us forward. You know, the READ Act should have been um funded at a time when we were increasing support for students not decreasing support for students. So, acknowledging that because math is the next topic coming up. And I'm I'm so sympathetic to our elementary teachers that are teaching new materials this year and new instructional methodology. The worst thing we could do to them in another year is say, "And let's do the same thing for math while they're settling in." So, you know, all I've just mentioned a lot of different policy type things that would be good for kids. Just acknowledge the work we're putting on teachers. You know, give them Let them catch their breath before we do anything things and then adequately fund them. Teaching is is a wonderful profession. Our teachers work very very hard. Let's give districts the opportunity to hire extra teachers to support them or invest in teachers. It seems like we have a really good relationship with our local legislators. It was impressive that they were all willing to meet with I mean, we had four or five that met with us. Um some of them I mean, their schedules are so busy especially during session that they'd come off the floor and meet with us. They would set time aside to meet with us. Um talk about building those relationships and and why that's important. Well, they are representatives of our community. They acknowledge that we're the voice in our community and we're a big voice because we service you know, in a public school system we service all the families of school-age kids. And so, all of them take time to meet with us. They'll reach out. They'll ask opinions on things. Um during sessions they they'll be on the floor and I'll get a text and say, "Hey, I'm on the floor. This topic came up. What do you think?" And to the best of my ability if I can, I'll say either let me get some information and I'll get back to you. It's a partnership. They understand that they're trying to meet our needs the best they can in a complex system. And um certainly we have our parents reach out to them because I want them to know it's not the superintendent asking this. I'm asking this on behalf of the parents in my community, but I want you to hear from those parents, too. And many of them will hold town halls with our community on topics not just education, but on a variety of topics. And so, they're trying to be good representatives of our Minnetonka schools community. So, here's one that's a little controversial. I know that there's been a lot of chatter, a lot of talk about student iPad use with our youngest learning levels across the nation and putting a cap on that or even removing that at the K1 or pre-K1 level. So, talk about that and the possibilities and the impacts. So, you know, one of the things I want to say is parent concerns about this are real. You know, I I just had a robust 2-hour conversation with our students about how technology use in the classroom has changed over time. And all of them say two things at once. They say, "For our youngest learners, really limit access to technology because it's addictive. And yet you have to teach students how to appropriately use technology in the elementary level because by the time middle school and high school kid hit, it's critical as a tool to learn." And so, our students are recognizing they don't see their future without technology. They see school plays a role in teaching students about technology and using technology to learn, but they're also sensitive to the fact that it could be very easily too much. You know, we had this conversation that we're in school about 35 hours a week of the 100, you know, 50-plus hours in a in a typical week. The majority of time is outside of school, but school plays a part in teaching appropriate technology use. This is I'm regurgitating language from uh about like I said, the the sophomores and juniors that I had conversations with about. You know, they acknowledge they're all different in their use. One of them said, "I only want paper." All the rest of them said, "Oh my gosh, but the iPad amplifies my ability to learn, but teach me how to use it appropriately." So, so what will that mean for us or how does it work? Like right now if there's a school district in another state that or a whole state that is not going to use technology in K1, could that happen nationwide or is it state by state that that's decided? >> The only way that could be decided if it The federal government doesn't have the ability to set expectations in schools locally. The schools are really controlled first at the at the district level and then through state legislation. School boards have the ability to set policy. A school board could choose to have no technology. But um we are we are so technology driven right now because all of our curriculum is digital uh across our system and many of our standards acknowledge that there's a digital environment. But a state could say, "We're going to prohibit schools from using technology in grades for K and one or K12." Our state standards are written right now and our like our READ Act is written that we'll be doing screening and that screening a lot of times is done with technology. So, it would be really hard to say in May of 2026, "Stop in September." Because everything we've trained teachers to do right now involves using some technology even in grades K and one. Kindergarten readiness screening, early literacy, phonemic awareness, all of those pieces are tech driven. You know, our our teachers can do it as a class in 20 minutes. If they're going to do it individual student by student, you're looking at 3 weeks time. So, acknowledging Without tech. Without tech. So, it's possible. If it's a priority, we have to look at what we're going to sacrifice then. Then that teacher's going to have to have to do some one-on-one testing. Or you know, we're certainly not staffed to hire an extra teacher for all of our students at that level to do that individual testing. That it If the state was to say abandon that, I think what they know is we're going to either have to completely scale down our standards for K and one learners or staff up. Put a lot of money into it, right? Well, our teachers are very intentional, try to be very intentional about the use of technology. That really has been our approach, right? And that is how they're trained, how they train each other, and how we intend things to to move. But you did say that the school board is going to study this. So this is an action step on one of the goals. What we are constantly doing is I think our our first goal is clear communication. I just heard a parent discussion about scope and sequence. Like what what should parents expect of technology use in you know, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade or in 4th and 5th grade. And so we, you know, we're going to continue to send those messages. We had two different board agendas this year on technology, one in November about screen time. Amanda Fay, executive director of technology, did a presentation on best practice in screen time, then another one in March on data privacy and all the ways we protect student data. So we're, you know, we're studying it, we're presenting on it, we'll be communicating about it, we'll be setting clear expectations for teachers on it. Good. We'll probably be touching base on this again. I think as those discussions absolutely continue. So as we wrap up, I would do want to remind the school community that the Celebration of Excellence Awards event is coming up. It's where we honor dozens of teacher, staff, and school volunteers. It's on May 14th, it's at the Arts Center on 7th. It's open to everyone, it's free. It starts at 6:00 with the reception, 7:00 with the presentation, and it'll be emceed by Superintendent Law and our school board chair Kimberly Law. More details on the district website homepage and all are welcome. We'll also be live streaming it and we'll have that live stream link right on the homepage of the website and it'll turn into a video afterwards. So if you miss it, you can still watch it. We look forward to seeing you there and we look forward to seeing all of you there. Thank you so much for agreeing to be here today with us, Superintendent Law. We appreciate it. Absolutely. And thank you to those listening and watching. Please send us your questions, suggestions, and ideas for podcast episodes. You can send those right to communications@minnetonkaschools.org. See you next time [music] here on "Oh, Wait, Minnetonka". >> [music]