Hello everyone. I'm David Law, superintendent of Minnetonka Public Schools. And I'm Karen Jordan, director on the Minnetonka School Board. We're glad you're able to join us this evening for a school board recognitions program. It's important to take the time to acknowledge and celebrate the outstanding accomplishments of our students, staff, and community members. We begin most of our regular board meetings with recognitions to highlight the positive impact that so many people make in our district. Tonight, we're recognizing boys hockey state runners-up, boys swimming and diving state runners-up, a boys wrestling state qualifier, mock trial state qualifiers, science bowl state qualifiers, science Olympiad state qualifiers, and chess state qualifiers. We will begin with our winter athletics recognitions. The Minnetonka boys hockey team qualified for the state tournament this year, where the Skippers finished as a state runners-up after a very close final game. The team is led by head coach Shawn Goldsworthy, along with assistant coaches Steve Aronson, Steve Johnson, Mike Johnson, and Thomas Schutt. Before we recognize each athlete by name, let's hear more about the team's season. Good evening, Minnetonka School Board and guests attending tonight's meeting. My name is Tom Streeter, and I'm honored to provide a recap of the past 2025-2026 boys hockey season. As many of you know, our team advanced all the way to the state tournament championship game, losing to Moorhead in what was voted as the most exciting championship game in Minnesota State High School hockey history by a score of 5 to 4. The outcome was not what we wanted, but that doesn't diminish the outstanding season that our players and our coaching staff occurred. Uh over the past season, our team finished with a final record of 26-3-2, which was the fourth best in school history. We won our fifth Lake Conference championship in the past 9 years. We were the Section 2AA champions for the third time in the past 9 years, and we competed in the state tournament championship game for our third time in the past 9 years. We had several players who were nominated for individual awards, including 10 of our players being named to all conference for the Lake Conference, or honorable mention. Our senior goaltender Chase Jurdy was one of three finalists for the senior goaltender award, and we had two defensemen, Tate Hardacre and Danny Browning, were two of five finalists for the Defenseman of the Year. Our head coach Shawn Goldsworthy continues to provide an outstanding program for our young men who compete, and we are proud to represent Minnetonka High School. Thank you for your commitment and for your support this past season. Congratulations to the following student athletes. Max Aronson, Daniel Browning, Boon Chartier, Tavin Dabchuk, Evan Enck, Braden Haper, Tate Hardacre, Cash Hardy, Chase Jurdy, Jordan Johnson. Gavin Carl, Trent LaRosh, Gabriel Lindholm, Caden Lindsey, Cameron Merrick, Cooper Renall, Mason Schimanauer, Elliot Schultz, Liam Schultz, and Ethan Sturgis. The Minnetonka boys swim and dive team had an incredible season. In the team's 10th consecutive state appearance, the Skippers earned second place as a team. The Skippers also earned an individual state title for the 400-yard freestyle relay, which included team members Benjamin Jabbs, Cole Ludahl, Brixton DeWitt, and Rowan Irwin. In addition to the team's success at the Minnesota State High School League tournament, the Skippers also won the true team state tournament. Academically, the team was also honored with the State High School League's Silver Academic Award, because the team representing Minnetonka at sections had a cumulative GPA of 3.50. The boys swimming and diving team is coached by John Bradley, head swimming coach, and Sam Freitas, head diving coach, along with assistant coaches Sarah Bilsky, Dan Bilsky, Anna Sealing, Stephanie Venice, and Jeff Hopwood. Let's hear more about the team's season. Everybody, my name is John Bradley. I'm the Aquatic Director for the district, and I'm also the girls and boys head swim coach. The boys swim and dive team had an incredible incredible season this year. We ended up finishing second overall in the Lake Conference. We were the true team Section 2AA champions. We were the true team state champions for the larger two AA division. We were the 2AA MSHSL second champ section champions, and we were second overall at the MSHSL state meet. Uh many thanks to all of our athletes, our coaches, our parents, our fans, and everybody who made this season a truly memorable one. This team was tight, they were solid, they cared about each other, and at the end of the day, I think they did the best job they could pretty much every time they hit the water. Thanks so much for thinking about us, and we're looking forward to a great year next year. Thank you. Congratulations to the following student athletes. Aidan Randall Larson, Soon Hong Chua, Brixton DeWitt, William Finucane Tuccio, Shawn Freeze, Rowan Irwin, Benjamin Jabbs, William Jabbs, Alexander Korolev, Henry Lindberg, Cole Ludahl. Owen Lund, Lucas Malherbe, Caden Nagel, Cameron Nagel, Camden Raether, Andrew Raether, Allison Sulkin, Henry Schultz, Alexander Sue, and Joshua Weeder. One Skipper freshman, Evan Breitling, qualified for the state wrestling tournament this year. Evan was runner-up in the Section 6 AAA individual tournament in the 107-lb category. At state, he competed in the first round in the consolation bracket of the tournament. The wrestling team is coached by Josh Fry and Joel Shrimp. Congratulations again, Evan. The Minnetonka High School mock trial team qualified for state this year for the second year in a row, and the second time in school history. At state, the team earned third place overall, improving upon Minnetonka's 14th place finish at state last year. Two Minnetonka students were recognized with all-state awards. Hailey Holm, all-state witness, Juliana Lewandowski, all-state attorney. The mock trial team is coached by Kim Meehan and Caitlind Lockner. Let's learn more about the program. Hey, mock trial team. This is Coach Meehan, Coach Lockner. Just want to congratulate you on the extremely successful season. We had a lot of new brave faces this year. A lot of friendships were forged, and we saw a ton of growth and a lot of objections. Thanks so much for all your hard work and dedication. It's been wonderful. And not only that, but you made school history, and you should feel so proud. This was our second year in a row going to state, and this year you placed third, something no other team has done before. You've created quite a legacy, and we are very excited for the years ahead. Thank you so much for all of your hard work. Congrats. Nice job. Congratulations to the following mock trial competitors. Anweshan Adikari, Alexandra Colville, Hailey Holm, Chengyan Shu, Emma Kim. Juliana Lewandowski, Mallory Lockner, Shawn Rook, Silas Serneck, Felix Wyandt, and Natalia Yurecko. Minnetonka High School Science Bowl had three teams of students qualified for the state competition this year, where they placed second, fourth, and fifth overall. The team is coached by Minnetonka High School science teacher Allison Peterson. Let's hear more about the team's season. Congratulations to all the science bowl teams of MHS. It has been a great year with some great success. We placed second, fourth, and fifth in the Minnesota Science Bowl regional competition. Your performance is a testament to your hard work, dedication, and sportsmanship all year. While at regionals, you all did the right thing and represented us well. We look forward to next season. Congratulations. >> Congratulations. >> Congratulations to the following Science Bowl team members. Mihir Kurana, Eric Kowalski, Grayson Lee, Jacob Lee, Ryan Matthew, Kristenza Nielsen, Anirudh Pulavarthy, Alex Wren, Addison Shee, Liam Sullivan, Nicholas Trujillo, Evan Tran, Andreas Wallickson, Zachary Wang, Siyuan Wu. Science Olympiad is one of the premier science competitions in the nation. Competitions run like a track and field meet featuring many events focused on different scientific disciplines. This year's team placed 12th overall. The team's advisers are teachers Joe Cassette, Allison Peterson, and Bhuvana Nadakumar. Let's hear more about the season. Hi, I'm Allison Peterson. And I'm Joe Cassette. We're the advisers for Minnetonka High School Science Olympiad team. This Science Olympiad season was defined by growth, teamwork, and students stepping up for one another. Many of our team members took on new events, challenges, and contributing new ways to strengthen the program. This year Minnetonka finished 12th in the state in some strong individual performances at the state competition. Grayson Lee and Audrey Gett earned second place in Anatomy and Physiology, and Stella Kelleher and Jacob Lee earned second place in Astronomy. Jocelyn Wang and Addison Shee placed fourth place in Bungee Bungee Drop. We're proud of the effort, adaptability, and commitment [clears throat] these students showed throughout the season. We're excited to continue building on this momentum moving forward. Congratulations on your season, Science Olympiad. Congratulations to the following Science Olympiad team members. Audrey Gett, Stella Kelleher, Maximilian Kenny, Grayson Lee, Jacob Lee, Allison Lay, Catherine Nielsen, Kristenza Nielsen, Elise Reiches, Lila Reiches, Addison Shee, Sawyer Taddy, Jocelyn Wang, Izeta Yurner, Last month Minnetonka students competed and excelled at the state level chess tournament. At the high school level, the team from MHS placed seventh. At the middle school level, the team from MME placed second, and the team from MMW placed sixth. At the elementary level, the K5 team from Scenic Heights Elementary placed seventh in its division. Let's hear more about our chess state qualifiers. Hi, my name is Aditi Kannan, and I am a freshman at Minnetonka High School. My name is Aarti Kannan, and I'm also a freshman at Minnetonka High School. Today, we would like to talk about our success as a Minnetonka High School chess team at the most recent chess Minnesota State Scholastic Tournament occurring on March 7th and March 8th. This tournament had over 150 students participate, and over 22 teams, and Minnetonka placed seventh. We are extremely proud and happy of our achievements as we have worked very hard towards it. I would also like to recognize our teammates' contributions. Me, Aarti Kannan, Asher Jeevananthan, Alexander McKinney, Alex Miller, and Wyatt Marcus. We built multiple connections with our high school teammates, and we can't wait to make more next year. Thank you. Hi, my name is Avi Prakash, and I'm a fourth grader at Scenic Heights Elementary. The most impactful part of chess for me has been learning how to focus, planning my moves, and keep trying when the game is challenging. I am very proud of qualifying for the state chess tournament because it reflects all the time and effort I put into practicing. Chess has taught me how to be a stronger thinker, >> [snorts] >> to be confident, patience, and sportsmanship. Thank you. Hi, my name is Angela Lee, and I'm a seventh grader at MME. Competing in the Minnesota Scholastic Chess Tournament was an exciting experience for our team. The most impactful part was learning how to stay calm under pressure. Every match pushed us to improve, not just individually, but as a group. I'm most proud of how we supported and encouraged each other, and celebrated wins together. Overall, we did a great job, and everyone contributed to the success of the team. Congratulations to the following state chess participants. From MHS, Asher Jeevananthan, Aarti Kannan, Aditi Kannan, Wyatt Marcus, Alexander McKinney, and Alexander Miller. From MME, Angela Lee, Katie Lou, and Harrison Tan. From MMW, Rishi Bommareddy, Ilya Chukhno, Aims Jeevananthan, and Samuel Vincent. And from Scenic Heights, team Nandith Natraj, Avyukth Prakash. That concludes our recognition program for this evening. Thank you again for celebrating with us. The school board meeting will begin shortly. Good evening. Welcome everyone to the Minnetonka School Board April 9th meeting. I would like to call this meeting to order. May we all stand for the pledge to the flag, please? May I please have a motion to adopt the agenda? So moved. Dan, may I have a second, please? >> Second. Megan. All those in favor? Aye. >> Aye. Aye. Any opposed? We have an agenda. All right, up first we have Oh, and you know, may I please welcome our student board representatives this evening. We have Christie Watrous and Micah Lazarus for the second time. I think for the second time for each of you all. Welcome, and thank you for joining us this evening. Okay, first up we have one of my favorite school reports, Superintendent Law. Madam Chair, members of the board, as you're all aware, on a monthly basis we bring schools up to the board for a chance for staff and students to talk about what's happening at the school. Tonight we have a rare treat. We have a doubled up school board report night, starting with Excelsior Elementary, and then right after that, Community Education. I would invite Principal Jennifer Smalls from Excelsior Elementary to come to the podium. All right, here we go. Let's try it again. >> [clears throat] >> Madam Chair, members of the board, Superintendent Law, and valued community members, thanks for being here. What you're about to see tonight is a direct reflection of our system goals in action. Real work, real growth, and real results. I'm honored to share the stage tonight with some of our Excelsior Elementary staff. Tonight you'll hear from Principal David Wicklund, fifth grade teacher Jennifer Kett, and two remarkable students, Ava and Henry. So, we'll focus on two of our board goals that align with our building goals. Excellence and well-being, called connectedness and belonging, and excellence in student learning and support. We're going to kick things off tonight the same way we kick off every single school day, with the intentions that unite our entire school each morning with our pillars. We will be respectful, RESPONSIBLE, CARING, AND SAFE, AND NEVER QUIT. OUT OF THE MOUTHS OF OUR RS Kares. >> I think I skipped one. Excuse me. There we go. All right. And so, then we're going to move on to David Wicklund is going to share a little bit more about excellence and well-being, connectedness and belonging, and how it starts with us. Thank you, Jen, and Madam Chair, members of the board, Superintendent Law. I'm so honored to be here and be be with Excelsior after years of being at Clear Springs as the assistant principal. This year I'm at Excelsior and and sharing the stage with Henry and Eva and Ms. Kitt. Um just knowing all their work every single day and how important it is and and everything that they do, it's it's it's just incredible to be down the road and be at Excelsior. We wanted to start with how really truly we're living in excellence and well-being, and it's really does start with us. It's really super important, especially in our time right now, that we as the adults in in the building at Excelsior are modeling what it looks like to be connected, to to really really enjoy being around each other, to sometimes stopping a staff meeting and getting out the bowling kit that the PE class does and taking 10 minutes and just enjoying each other in each other's presence and modeling that. I think it's a really really really important goal. We know that anything with connectedness, there has to be intentionality around it being connected. And for us as a staff to model that in our time, I think it's really really important so that our kids see us every single day in the in the hallway as connected people that care about them and love them every single day. So, for our work, especially with connectedness and well well-being, it really really really starts with character education. And so, this year we've really really in Minnetonka, I'm super proud of the work that's been happening in Minnetonka around character education, around social emotional learning. Christine Breen, I know is here. I would give a shout-out to her around all of her work with with SEL and all the things that are happening in the district and some of the continuations of the work that's been happening here at Excelsior. Last year, Excelsior really championed what it looks like to have belonging themes. And so, this wheel kind of represents putting a lot of the elements that we've been doing this year together. Our belonging themes and carrying bigger belonging themes like empathy, cooperation, honesty, and carrying those themes throughout the months. This year, though, we have now what's called Character Strong, which is our SEL curriculum. So, now we have a little bit of curricular muscle and weight behind some of our themes that teachers are teaching every week in their classrooms. And so, that's been an amazing addition. We started our year the first couple weeks in in September with Social Thinking, which is another social emotional curriculum that really gives kids language on how to speak in in social context and how to read the room. And so, that's been a really really important piece. You know, Excelsior has these kind of core pillars that you heard our RS Cares today say the Skipper Way. So, if you come to our in the hallways, if you go to a bathroom at Excelsior, you would see what it looks like to be the Skipper Way, to be respectful and responsible. There's a bigger broader themes for all of us on how we live and come into the building every single day. And then really we're grounding a lot of our work in in Edu Climbers. It's a it's a data tool that we use that houses a lot of our data for our universal screener called Sabers and how we really try to gauge how our students are doing around character education. I Our district is taking huge huge steps in in what it looks like to do character education and SEL in a big way, and I think it's reflected in our kids that you guys see. I think it's reflected in our community. So, I'm super proud of it. Here's our goal around it. We do have some data which tells us, you know, how we're doing. And again, Sabers is our universal screener. And one of our goals, you know, in we do this three times a year and measure how our kids are doing every, you know, every three times a year and and how they're doing with with questions that the teachers will rate their students on. How are how are they doing in cooperation? What does it look like? Are they organized? Are they able to regulate themselves? And in the beginning of the year we we saw about 9.2% of our students that were labeled some or high risk. And what that meant is we know who those students are, and then we can start to plug them into some interventions, and I'll talk to to you about what those are. But then by the spring this year we we wanted to decrease, and we did decrease to 7%. So, we're seeing huge results. In the winter actually we even went down to 5.5%. So, that that means meaningful numbers and meaningful work. Each, you know, percentage point, there's kids behind that. And so, we know who those students are who need more from us. We know who those students are who can be models for us in our building. And so, we're trying to live that out every single day with this goal. So, we do have a tiered system of supports for SEL just like in academics. And again, with now with some of our SEL components of curriculum that we have, our tiered system is a little more robust. So, I'm just going to quickly go over these. And this is things that you'll see at Excelsior and and every other site in Minnetonka. First, we have tier one. So, we start every single day with morning meeting. We have Character Strong curriculum that every student gets every single day. We have classroom lessons that are happening that are embedded in the day. We know that it's important that it's embedded in our curriculum so every single student is getting it all the time. We have a lot of different kind of groups to plug in for students to even in the tier one with with midweek relaxation. We have classes that are pausing, you know, when they pick them up from from recess and lunch and bring them back to the classes and and doing some calming strategies. We have resource shares that are happening with our counselors on site who's sharing resources to teachers to try. We have lunch bunch groups that are happening constantly. So, that's just kind of tier one. Every student is getting this hopefully every day and and throughout the weeks and throughout the months at Excelsior. We have students who need more. So, then we can plug them into what would be called tier two strategies. And those would be specific. So, you know, if if if a student is is identified as maybe an at-risk or has an at-risk area, maybe they would plug into we started this year a gym club, for example. Matt Raverns, our PE teacher, shout-out to him. He starts three days a week started pulling students who needed a little boost in in um in how to regulate and and be ready to regulate their body and in to start their school day. So, he has started a gym club where students come down and they start their day out in activity. Like what a awesome. I wish I could get up in the morning and run and come to work, but our students we we have a small group of students doing that every single day kind of getting a workout in, doing some cooperative work together, and then getting to class. An amazing tier two opportunity. We have Thread Cafe and Craft Club. We have a counselor on site who's doing lunch groups, and kids are threading and and like knitting during lunch and talking and connecting and really relaxing or even doing craft cafe where they collaborate and do a craft together and build some skills in friendship and and social skills. So, a really really really cool. Lots of opportunities in Minnetonka. And then tier three, of course, when we know that students who have a maybe even a higher need of support could get one-on-one meetings. We have staff, myself, Ms. Mazel, who are running around the building connecting with students every single morning. We have a on-site relate counselor who who can do some of that work in our building. And grief therapists as well through some mental health services. And then ultimately, too, we even have students who and we have an amazing robust special ed support in our building. A shout-out to our special ed staff in all of our buildings, but who really support our kids who need the highest level of support every single day. They show up and do that work. So, this is kind of our tier our three supports of tiers that we have for all kids, and we're really proud of it. Um We also, on top of that, know I I know this this I I put this in here because I think it was just something that we live by. Our climate team talked about this for 20 minutes one day what what success really like does look like. What people think it looks like is a straight line, but we really know in schools and in life success is kind of messy, right? And success needs intervention. Success sometimes needs a person, an adult in their life who taps them on the shoulder, who um who makes them really seem seen and belong. And so, we believe that. I think that's a foundation that we have at Excelsior. Here's another image. We had an inclusion day where every student got orange bracelet. And really trying to live into these some of these values and make it visible for kids every single day. And so, we have climate teams that are constantly checking in on the climate of our building. They meet monthly. We have student support teams, multiple student support teams that meet twice a week that are talking about kids, what's happening in the building, where what students need more from us, what students need less. And so, we're doing that work day in and day out. All right. I wanted to end with this before I give it to the amazing Jen Kitt. We had an amazing speaker named Ryan Hack who came to our building this in the beginning of the year in October who talked to us about this theme called A Different is Awesome. He is a individual who was born with one hand or one arm. And so, he spoke to our building about what it looks like to be different, how what makes us different is actually truly makes us unique, and what makes us unique is our superpower. That was kind of the broader theme of what Ryan spoke to us as a building. Out of that came a lot of different things, but an amazing assembly for everyone. That was fun. But then beyond that, Jen really put empowered our art teacher to create a mural in our building. So if you come to Excelsior, turn, go down the main hall, turn the corner to the right, and you'll see this amazing colorful mural that's going to stay, and it's going to stay for a while. And it every kid had a tile and and a mosaic to put it together, and it really was this kind of making again visual art of what it really looks like for us to be together and to be what makes us unique, what makes us awesome, too. So I'm super proud of this work. I'm super grateful to Jen. Ms. Mazel has been an amazing mentor and role model, and she's doing amazing work every single day at Excelsior and doing this type of work, making kids feel welcome and safe, and it's an awesome community. So I'm going to pass it over to Jen Kidd or back to Ms. Mazel. Okay, you go, and then and then Jen. Can we go back? I just want to see the kids. >> [laughter] >> Unfortunately, not the amazing Jen Sma or Jen Kidd, but you get Jen Mazel. All right. So the next topic is excellent in student learning and support. So this has not been an easy task, but a heavy lift this year that we're very very very proud of. This wasn't accidental. None of it was. Everything you're going to see over the next few slides, it traces back to intentional decisions made consistently by people that showed up and did the work. So what does that mean? Well, you saw the wheel, the SEL wheel, we have a literacy wheel as well. We have implemented two different programs this year that were a heavy lift that we're really excited about, Arts and Letters and Functional Phonics and Morphology. We also have spent a lot of our time with intentional planning. The teachers have all gotten together. They we've given them half days multiple times a year where they can sit together, they can collaborate, and they can actually plan out a module that will last for several months. Alongside of them was a Tier 1 coach that they could ask questions to that was very skilled and knowledgeable about these two curriculums, and it they they have seen great growth in being allowed that time to do that. We've done observations and walk-throughs as principals. We've had the opportunity to the teaching and learning team set it up so that we could walk alongside the Great Minds trainers, watch different lessons, evaluate those lesso- lessons, and have reflection time about what really quality robust instruction looks like so that we can look for that and coach teachers as well. We continue the professional development, which we're really grateful for, across the system that helps all of us grow. That also means tricky different schedules. This happens every year, but this year it was a little more challenging. We had to highlight and carve out enough time for literacy and plant it in the morning, which is not an easy task, but it is something that we know is the right thing to do around literacy day to day. And so you can see our kindergarten, first, and second grades, we've prioritized that and we'll continue to prioritize that moving forward. So high-quality Tier 1 literacy has been our focus for the for the whole year, grounded in the science of reading, which you've heard a lot about. It's the first and most powerful line of defense. Tier 1 is meeting the needs of about 80% of our population through explicit instruction and systematic teaching of phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. It's everything in one, and as a literacy coach for 10 years, I am so excited that we have something so comprehensive and so robust, and we're seeing results now. In addition to that, our Chinese immersion staff have been able to walk alongside of us and study the science of reading as well. They've adopted many of these evidence-based strategies, taken a close look at how to make their liter- literacy instruction even stronger. They've the teachers have piloted revisions to literacy screening assessments, they've updated their scope and sequence, and integrated explicit instruction in character recognition and fluency. They also are seeing great gains. Science of reading is about what all kids need, not just what some kids need. That's the big shift. The lessons are robust, engaging, and teachers work really hard to follow the lessons as designed, trusting the process, walking around with a manual Velcroed to their hip. Right, Jen? And the kids see it, and it's okay, right? Because we want to do it well, and to do it well, we sometimes have to follow a script for a while. And so that's what that that's what it looks like for all of our teachers. When I walk through classrooms, I see high levels of interest, quality of what's being delivered. Not that it hasn't been quality in the past, but it's so laid out for them, and the kids are so engaged. They're excited about it. You can see here they're focused, and we still have a little fun. And so now I'm going to turn it over to Jen and our students from Excelsior that are going to engage you in a real-life lesson in morphology. Hi, I'm Jennifer Kidd. I'm a fifth grade teacher at Excelsior, and for the last 2 years I was part of the district language arts committee charged with selecting our new language arts curriculums. My team last year at Excelsior participated in the pilots of Wit & Wisdom, Functional Phonics and Morphology, and Arts and Letters curriculums. And as we all know, implementation of new curriculum is challenging, right? But we have been really really excited to implement all of these new curricula in our classrooms and just see the growth and the excitement in our classrooms. So I am thrilled tonight to have joining me two students from my fifth grade, my amazing fifth grade class, and they are excited to share a little morphology with you this evening. Hi, my name is Ava. One thing that I really enjoy about the morphology curriculum is learning new words. I know in the future this will help me understand more difficult words and material. Hi, I am Henry. Something I enjoy about the Arts and Letters curriculum is reading all the interesting books and studying the artwork. Tonight, we want to share one of our morphology activities with you. We focus on two new morphemes every 5 days. On the third day of the cycle, we complete an activity called unknown word solving. We're hoping that you would play along as our our students as they lead you through this activity. Are you Okay with that? Yes. Good. >> [laughter] >> First, we would like to show you an unknown word. Without any other information, does anyone have a guess about what the word geochronology might mean? Of Earth? Great prediction. >> [laughter] >> Next, we will share a sentence that uses the word geochronology. Volcanoes and glaciers help us understand the geochronology of the Earth. Can anybody use context clues to predict what this word means? Um geo is related to things about the Earth, so an ology is a study of something, so study of something related to the Earth. Wonderful thinking. Finally, we will share the definition with you. Geochronology is the study of the past using data from the Earth. Our class was able to define this word that was previously unknown to us because we were able to put the morphemes together. We know that geo means Earth, chrono means time, and ology means the study of. Unknown word word solving is one of our favorite morphology activities, and Mrs. Kidd always brags about how talented we are when we decode these hard words. Thank you for participating in our morphology activity. Maybe this activity will help you read more difficult material, too. >> [applause] >> Um I just have to add it and I know Dr. LaDue has been in my classroom with us as that happened. It we're not kidd- I mean, the the words that these kids are taking apart based on this. They were I mean, constantly, you know, we're pull- throughout different yesterday? There was something about chrono. Oh, no, in our our one of our books today it was chromo, and they said, oh, the col- that's color. And they're just pulling I mean, geochronology, I say to them all the time, go home and talk to your parents because if you go home and tell your parents you know you took apart the word geochronology and defined it, they're going to be amazed. So this is happening on a daily basis. It's it's really exciting. It's really exciting as a teacher to see We love this new curriculum. So, thank you. >> [applause] >> So, with all of this hard work comes results. Um we are on target to surpass our goal, which is very exciting. Our goal was that reading will increase from 59.3% in the spring in 2025 to 61.1% in spring of 2026. And we are on our way to surpass that goal. From kindergarten foundations to fifth grade mastery, Excelsior students are demonstrating significant progress across all literacy domains. 98% of our students in our first grade maintain decreased levels of risk in early reading readiness measures, and 33% improvement in correct words per minute for our second grade, and in fifth grade, this is amazing. Zero students remain in our error correcting plus an average correct words per minute CBM of 172. And for those of you that don't understand what all of that means, just know it's great gains. And the work still continues. This is what year one looked like. A cartful of treats to share some love for a school full of hardworking people and a team that showed up every single day to do this work. We look to 2026-2027, where maybe we can set the manual down a little bit. Thanks, everybody, for letting us share our story. >> [applause] >> Thank you so much to Ms. Mazel. That was wonderful. And Ava and Henry, fantastic presentation. You're both so well-spoken. And I mean, I think it's obvious why the board members This is one of our favorite times of all board board meetings is when we get to hear directly from the students. So, thank you so much. You did a fantastic job. And also to the board members for your great great work. >> [laughter] >> Thank you again. Any questions or comments? Megan. Um thank you for teaching me a new word. I'm learning a lot from morphology by like being around it. It's kind of been interesting. Um I actually do have a question, and I'm not expecting anybody to have actual numbers. I'm going to preface my question with I don't expect you to have data memorized. But I'm just wondering if um that decrease in students that were presenting as at risk on the SABERS from fall to winter is correlating with fewer behavioral referrals, cuz I think you know, one of the things that we hope is that students can be in class more, right? Because every time they get referred to need to go to the principal or to a para or whatever for behavior, that means that they're out of class. So, are these activities kind of anecdotally reducing the number of students that are, you know, having to or that I can imagine that PE in the morning, too. Like getting those wiggles out before going to class would hopefully kind of alleviate some of those behavior problems. >> That's a great question. So, a couple things. First, for gym club, for example, you know, Matt um Matt Raverne, who's our PE teacher, and in collaboration with Angie Johnson, who's our counselor, um did a little pre-surveys with teachers, too, to kind of knowing results. Like, rather than saying, "Hey, let's try this and see if it sticks." Or, "Hey, that that kid's out of my room for 15 minutes. It seems like it's working." Like, are are are we seeing those results when it comes back into the classroom? Are they, you know, more regulated? Are they able to, you know, be more engaged in their class? One of the things our student support teams are constantly doing in in Excelsior, um we do this every week. We look at data. That very much that data on on office referrals. On, "Hey, how many times does a walkie need to be used for a student support call?" For example, that's the life of, you know, elementary, middle school, high schools, and that's the life that I live as an assistant principal. So, it's meaningful to look at that data every every week to see, you know, are there patterns? Are there students in particular that we need to give more support to? Are there areas? Are there during parts of the day? So, that we can respond. Hey, if if sec- third grade recess, we're seeing an uptick in things that are happening out there, how are we going to support students on the soccer field? I mean, those are tangible ways that we can lower those numbers and decrease. So, yes. So, the numbers in SABERS would tell us that decrease would tell us that yes, there's less office calls, and there's a direct correlation. And we need to make sure that we continue to look at that data, too, cuz that's a whole 'nother set of data that's really really important, if that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. Tanya. I just want to say thank you for all your hard work. And um I love seeing this picture here honoring the staff um for everything they they're doing with the SEL curriculum and the new literacy curriculum. And then a shout-out to the students over there. I I can only see Ava, right? A future in teaching, perhaps? Okay, nice work. Thanks, guys. Mike. Yeah, and speaking on behalf of physicians and I believe uh law students lawyers, um those knowing those roots is so important. Like, if you know roots really well, you will understand med- the medical language so much more easily, and that's half of medical school, I believe. So, stick with that that concept. It'll serve you for the rest of your life. Thank you so much again. We appreciate you. Okay. And now we'll call up our community ed team to do a presentation. Uh executive director of community education, Kim Carlson and team. Welcome. Okay, you want to help me? Well, good evening. I can hardly stand up here much longer. We've been so excited to be here tonight and talk about community education. Uh Molly's going to share her belonging efforts and some of the literacy work. And then Louise uh Weir and Ellery Funk from aquatics and marketing are going to share some of the excellent work they've been doing and some exciting stuff with uh our aquatics. And then Jenny and I are going to wrap it up um talking about some of the events and activities. So, without further ado, Ms. Molly Bonnemann. Right here. You ready? I don't need my joke book. Okay, I know I Okay, can I introduce us? Is that okay? Can you say good evening? Good evening. Madam Chair. No. Okay. My name is Molly Bonnemann, and I am the coordinator of Minnetonka Preschool, ECFE, and Junior Explorers. And this is my friend Can you say your name? Ben. I feel like Excelsior teed us up so perfectly because our conversation tonight is about how the adults help with belonging. Ben, can you tell everybody what do we do every day when you come to school? Where am I sitting? Um right on the side. Yeah, and what do you do when you come to school every day? Tell tell you a joke. Why do you Why do you tell me a joke? Because I like when you laugh. >> I know. What's your favorite part about coming to school? You think it's >> When I get to listen to music on the way there. Oh, that is a good part about it. What's your favorite part about coming to school? What do you like to do when you're at school? Play. Yes. Cuz play is the work of being a kid, isn't it? Cuz you're learning and playing. >> I tell my joke? >> Oh, of course. Okay. How many jokes do you have? Three. Okay. Should we start with the first one? Okay. You can go ahead. What did the janitor say when he popped out of the closet? Oh gosh, what did the janitor say when he popped out of the closet? Supplies. >> [laughter] >> Why are you so funny? Be- like surprise, and he has school supplies in his hand. >> [laughter] >> That's right. What's the next one? WHY DID THE CHICKEN cross the street? The street? Why did the chicken >> No. Why did the chicken cross the playground? Why did the chicken cross the playground? To get to the other slide. >> [laughter] >> That's a good one. That makes people laugh. Okay, are you ready? Okay. So, Ben is one of our exceptional students, and he, at four, can read. And so, he has decided he would like to read you a joke tonight. Okay, do you want me to use my finger to help you? Yeah. Okay. A chicken marches into the library. Should I lower this down for you? There you go. How's that? There we go. There. Okay, right here. A chicken marches into the Wait, I want to look at it. Okay. Wait, I need to hold this up so I can look at it while I'm Wait. Would you like me to hold it for you? Yeah. Okay. Here we go. Can I use my finger? A chicken marches into the library, walks up to the library desk and says, "Book, book, book." The librarian hands a >> [laughter] [laughter] [clears throat] >> All right, come on. What happens here? What does she hand him? What? Okay, the >> librarian The librarian hands over a couple of thin paperbacks and watches the chicken leave the library, walk across the street, through a field, and disappear down a hill. The next day, the chicken is back. It walks right up to the librarian, drops the books on her desk, and says, "Book, BOOK, BOOK, BOOK." >> [laughter] >> IT SAYS, "BOOK, BOOK, BOOK." The uh The librarian hands over the a couple couple a few more books on a few more books and watches the chicken drag grandma away. The next day, the chicken comes for a third time and once again goes through the same routine. This time, once the chicken is out the door, the librarian follows across the street, through a field, and down the hill to a small pond. On a rock at the edge of the chicken No. On a rock at the edge of the pond is the biggest frog the librarian has ever seen. The chicken walks up to the frog, drops the books books book on the pond's edge, and says, "Book, book, book." The frog hops The frog hops over, uses its front leg to push through the pile, and says, "Read it, read it, read it." >> [laughter] [applause] >> You did great. Thanks >> [laughter] >> All right, so I know everyone likes to say they have the best job in the district, but I win. Hands down. Oh, don't forget your book. Thanks, Ben. One of the routines of our day, when I can, is I sit at the front of the building. Um and as you can see in the pictures, I have little routines with lots of different kids. And Ben has started telling me jokes at the beginning of the year, and he doesn't come on Wednesday with a joke because I typically have a meeting. And so, if I am sitting there and it's Wednesday, I'm in trouble because he did not prepare me a joke. Um The other piece that we really are always spending time on, but have been having a lot of fun with this year, is um our literacy efforts. And I know at each year I present, I talk about our Read the Rainbow. And this year, our Read the Rainbow just got cooler. I don't even know how it's possible, but it did. Um the administrative assistant for Kim had seen an advertisement at the library for a reading line for adults. So, you could call in on phone number and listen to a book being read. He's like, "What if we could do this? What if we could do this for Read the Rainbow?" And I was like, "You figure out how we can do it, I'm in. We'll make it happen." And so, with the help of um Kevin from the technology department, we set up a voicemail box and people can read a story into their phone and we post it up and every week there's a new story to be listened to. The value we find in this and the reason we chose it to do it this way is that it doesn't involve any screens. And so, it's a very easy way. So, if you're in the car, you dial the phone number, put it on your speaker, kids can listen to it as you go, and they can listen to it over and over and over again. And then for this year, it's being read by the adults within the district that are interested in reading. Um Amanda Faye read the picture with uh the book with no pictures. Um Kim read a book. Two of my teachers have read a book. A para read a book. I've got like four in the queue just in case we need them. Uh Superintendent Law is up next. So, we want to encourage you to read a book. So, this uh QR code will take you to our Google Form. It's your book to choose. I recommend uh reading it out loud without and then listening to it because sometimes the pictures are a big part of the story. I read a book and I was like, "Oh, nope, not as good without the pictures." So, and then it just has to be under 10 minutes. Um my son, Bo, who's here today, uh uh recorded the intro. So, when kids call in, it goes right to a little sound bite, and then he invites them to listen to a story with him. And then we read the story. It's a little music. Zach gets has a lot of fun picking out the music as it goes with each book. Our current book is read by Teacher Cassie, and it's The Pigeon Has to Go to School, and it's awesome. So, I recommend storing the phone number. It's a great tool for when and if you ever need to help a kiddo regulate. So, I'm going to pass it off to Louise and Ellery. Louise and Ellery. Thank you. Wow, what an act to follow. >> [laughter] >> Hi, everyone. My name is Ellery Funk. I am the Aquatics Recreation Program Coordinator for the district. I'm here presenting with Louise from Community Ed. She's the Marketing Specialist, if you don't know her. And we are here to share some exciting information on a new project that we have collaborated on between Aquatics and Community Ed. And that is the rebranding of some of our programs. So, Minnetonka Aquatics is a large umbrella within the district that includes swim lessons, rec swim team, swim club, masters swim team, certification classes, and diving. I supervise the swim lessons and rec swim team programs. Aquatics officially joined Community Ed in fall of 2025. And when we started working together, we saw some opportunities for development. So, we decided to rebrand my programs into Tonka Swim School. So, why rebrand? We were experiencing some parent confusion on people who want to be involved with Aquatics in the district, but they're not sure where to start. So, Tonka Swim School, or TSS, is going to be the first step in our very comprehensive Aquatics feeder program. So, wherever your child is at, if they want to swim or they want to learn to swim, we have a spot for them. And we start them off in lessons, and then with the entire Minnetonka Aquatics program, they can move all the way up to swimming um for the club at the high school level and beyond. And in addition to these goals, we also wanted to create a contemporary brand using the verbiage of swim school, right? Parents know what that is, what that means, and it kind of makes the whole Minnetonka Aquatics umbrella a little bit clearer, and parents and participants know where to start and what the goals are for them if they choose to continue swimming with us. So, the process of rebranding, what we've done so far, um as I said, it's been a collaborative planning between Aquatics and Community Ed. Uh we wrote a new mission statement, which is Tonka Swim School is focused on making swimming fun, accessible, and safe for all. Our mission is to provide high-quality swim instruction from our experienced instructors to instill confidence and skills in participants. We also had a logo designed, which you can see there on the slide. And we had a promotional video created, which we'll get to watch a clip of in a moment. We also have updated the website and have developed our brand and messaging. So, this has been a really fun project for not only Ellery and I to work on together, but um we've also had help from Kim. Um we've had had help from Andy, JB. Uh Daniel helped with the logo. So, it's been fun to work with the District Communications team on it as well. Uh we've also had input from parent voices, which has been great. Uh you'll see a parent featured in the video shortly. Um and we've also took feedback from parents as we developed the rebrand and really thought about how we can make this um more understandable for parents. Um so, what's next? We're really looking forward to officially launching it for our fall 2026 catalog um which will come out in July. So, look out for a cool feature in there. Uh and we'll show you a little piece of the video. We've had such a wonderful experience with Tonka Swim School. The instructors [music] are incredibly patient and skilled, which makes such a difference for young learners. Living in Minnesota, learning how to be safe in lakes and [music] pools and other bodies of water is a true life-saving skill. And I love that these classes are [music] affordable and accessible for families. >> [music] >> Thank you. >> [applause] >> We have the best team. It's so awesome. Um I'm here to talk about our upcoming spring and summer events. And >> [clears throat] >> excuse me, what I hope you'll see, besides the calendar of events, is just how Community Ed plays a critical role in well-being, connection, and belonging. Um so, we get we're getting people out of their homes, putting down the devices, Um getting into our gyms, our classrooms, out on our beautiful trails. You'll see the Tonka Trail Trot in the middle there. We're just out in the forest. So, really our work in community education creates spaces where relationships are made, wellness grows, and people come together. And I was thinking about Tour de Tonka, too, just watching [clears throat] everybody celebrate each other, coming in, encouraging each other, and just community coming together for such a big event. So, I'm [clears throat] going to let Jenny come up and share a little bit about our summer activities. Good evening. Thanks for the opportunity to be here. Jenny Bedurka. And summer is always an exciting time with lots going on in community ed. We have over a thousand different camps and classes available for both youth and adults. And hopefully, you've all received the catalog at your home back in February. And a new one will be coming to homes very soon, which is our planning guide. I'll switch to the slide, and that's our planning guide there. It's a week-by-week schedule, and we get lots of positive feedback that people really enjoy that to be able to plan their summer activities. Explorers has our school-age childcare program offer full-day care throughout the summer. Our numbers are up a lot over last year, so we're excited to have 740 students enrolled. Um Our theme for our K-5 group is sort of a time travel through the decades. So, every week they'll be looking at a different decade, and maybe some of what were the popular toys that kids played with, what were some things that happened during that time. So, we're we're busy planning for that. Junior Explorers will be at MCEC exploring nature. And we also have a program called Quest, which is for middle school students. An opportunity to be with us for the full day throughout the week, but we go on different adventures out in the community every day. So, some big growth in that program as well with 339 students. A few fun new things that we're planning for the summer. Something called Kids College. It's a week-long program in July where students are going to be able to pick a major and a minor throughout the day that they're with us. It could be art, improv, sports. Um And then they'll have team-building activities, and they'll get to go between programming throughout the day. We're also partnering with Excelsior Fire Department, South Lake PD, and the City of Shorewood to do a safety camp at the end of August. We're excited about that. And based on feedback we've received from families, there's some interest in being able to pair some of our maybe morning and afternoon recreation and enrichment classes. So, we have something again this year called Lunch Bunch where families can pick a morning and afternoon. They can hang with us for lunch in the middle, and their kids can be there all day. So, the planning guide Louise did a great job of highlighting each week what the Lunch Bunch options are, so the families can really put those together. So, we're excited for another fun summer in community ed. We hope folks will come out and join us. And just in closing, if you're interested to read a book, that is the QR code for that. If you'd like to volunteer, we need lots of volunteers to make all our events happen throughout the summer. And if you'd like a link to the planning guide, you'll find it there. But thanks for the opportunity to be here tonight and share a little bit about community ed. Thank you so much, Kim, Molly, Ellery, Louise. Am I forgetting? And Ben, Jenny. You guys have a phenomenal team. You do such great work, so thank you. Any questions from the board? Sure. Tanya. So, my family has used the ECFE and community ed service since we first moved here 7 years ago, and I love it. I talk about you guys highly. We have lifelong friends that we've met through our ECFE program, and the parenting class that we had through that, you know, when you separate from your kid was invaluable. And I just I'm talking about your stuff all the time out there. So, hopefully, if you haven't tried, give it a go because there's something for everybody. So, thanks for all your hard work. Oh. Megan. I just wanted to throw out two things. I think rebranding to Tonka Swim School makes tons of sense because I have answered that question so many times over the years cuz there was there was confusion about aquatics versus learn to swim versus club. So, I think that was smart. And the Lunch Bunch, I think is a great idea. So, I'll be really curious to see how that works out cuz I've heard many times oh, a 9:00 to 12:00 camp doesn't work for me because I have to pick them up at noon, and I have to go back to work. So, I think that that's like a really savvy way to hopefully bridge that programming. So, I'll be curious to see how many people take advantage of that. But I love the idea. Yeah, initial interest has been pretty strong. We opened registration in February, and I think most all of the sections will run of it. So, hopefully, we'll get some more interest as the planning guide goes out to homes. Karen. Just a quick comment. Thank you for being here, and I I think Ben's got a future in like, I don't know, late night or, you know, comedy or something. So, you better get his autograph now before he gets too famous. Is all I have to say. Thank you. And the aquatics rebranding is is great, too. I echo what Director Sallinger said. One question. Is 740 summer explorers, is that up from last year? Yes, it is. It's about It's over a hundred more than we had last year. That's great. >> Yeah. Thank you so much. We appreciate you for being here. Thank you. Thank you. Great. >> [applause] >> Okay, next up is community comments. One sec. All right. Awesome. So, I will just read the guidelines for the community comments. Welcome to the Minnetonka Schools Board Meeting. In the interest of open communications, the Minnetonka School District wishes to provide an opportunity for the public to address the school board. The opportunity is provided at every regular school board meeting during community comments. Anyone indicating a desire to speak to an item included in the meeting agenda, except for the consent agenda and or information that personally identifies or violates the privacy rights of an individual during community comments will be acknowledged by the board chair. When called upon to speak, please state your name, connection to the district, and topic. All remarks shall be addressed to the board as a whole, not to any specific members or to any person who is not a member of the board. If there are a number of individuals present to speak on the same topic, please designate a spokesperson who can summarize the issue. Please limit your comments to 3 minutes. Longer time may be granted at the discretion of the board chair. If you have written comments, the board would like to have a copy, which will help them better understand, investigate, and respond to your concern. During community comments, the board and administration listen to comments. Board members or the superintendent may ask clarifying questions of you in order to gain a thorough understanding of your concern, suggestion, or request. If there is any response or follow-up to your comment or suggestion, you will be contacted via email or phone by a member of the board or administration in a timely manner. >> [snorts] >> Please be aware that disrespectful comments or comments of a personal nature directed at an individual either by name or inference will not be allowed. Personnel concerns should be directed first to a principal or executive director of the department, then to executive director of human resources, then to the superintendent, and finally in writing to the board. First up, we have Faye Wong. Welcome. Good evening, all the board members and Superintendent Lo, and everybody's here. And I'm Shuchun Wong. I goes by Faye, easier for everybody to pronounce. And I'm a fourth-grade teacher at Scenic Heights, and this is my ninth year. And somehow I saw my students here. Which this is my ninth year in the district, and then my oldest one this year is graduating from high school, so I'm pretty proud. But um thanks to Ben's presentation, you think teachers probably do better public speaking. But thanks to Ben, released tons of my stress here. So, the topic I want to discuss is about the calendars. And I just want to say how appreciated the Chinese Chinese immersion teachers committees, not communities, the communities, and everybody to think about Sorry. Like you see how much like this year's I know I listened to the last board meetings, and there was some discussions about it. And we just want to say in those past couple years, and we had some arguments about it. And we just want to appreciate how the school board the superintendent, all different department with technology, with communication, and all different peoples being there to support us. Like earlier this year, we got a survey talking about how we feel about Chinese immersion Sorry, Chinese New Year celebration. And also then we did discuss about the the how to how to do the Chinese New Year gala this year with everybody's, especially from high school volunteers. Some of also some of my old students who's been the student leaders this year, and they brought us tons of the great great suggestions and to cover the you know, we're getting a little bit old, and then with their new brains, bring some fresh ideas to us. And we just want to appreciate that. And then with the board this year's the calendar committees also bring up with either having the New Year's off or not. And then we just want to say whether it's being voted in regardless result, we just want to say this is a milestone for us being recognized and being valued. So we just want to say thank you to everybody sitting on the board. And also I know the board and the communities, everybody have some questions regardless, you know, extended school years and some other things about, you know, who's the belonging, sometimes it's being inclusive but also a little bit exclusive in somehow. So in other ways we would want to think about the board members and all the communities and all the also every teachers, everybody to think about some more productive ways in terms of the, you know, the calendar. Somehow maybe how to not extend the school years but also including all the communities. Not only someone's like who like me caused some troubles in the past couple years speaking loudly but everybody else who's like, you know, somehow step behind not being speak up. And we know some other like what that have the flexible day flexible learning day at home or some similar district have some things that allows us to have those times being valued. So those are some we just want to say appreciations and then we're not asking for this year but more longer terms how could we cooperating with all different departments. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you for being here. Okay, next up Ray Taha. Good evening members of the school board. My name is Raymond Taha. I'm a senior at Minnetonka High School and a student representative to this board. I'm here tonight in support of taking a school day off for the Lunar New Year in the 27-28 school year. This past February and March, many Muslim students in our district including myself observed the holy month of Ramadan fasting each day from sunrise to sunset. At its conclusion we celebrate Eid al-Fitr, one of the most important holidays in my culture. A day centered on family, tradition, reflection and community. In previous years my family and many others faced the same difficult choice. Miss school and fall behind academically or attend school, miss one of the most significant days of our year. This year the board made the decision to recognize Eid with a day off. That decision mattered. It removed that conflict and allowed students like me to fully participate in my culture and my family without compromise. For that I sincerely thank you. As you consider the 27-28 calendar, I ask you to extend that same consideration to students and staff who celebrate the Lunar New Year. Approximately 10% of our students participate in the Chinese immersion program and dozens of staff members observe this holiday. For those students Lunar New Year is not just a cultural event. It's a deep meaningful celebration of identity, family and tradition. Members of the board, I was given the opportunity to fully celebrate a holiday that matters deeply to me and I believe my peers deserve that same opportunity. While I understand logistical challenges this may present to elementary school families, this decision would reflect Minnetonka's continued commitment to serving the changing demographic of our district and keep bringing top talent in. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you, Raymond. >> [applause] >> Okay, thank you. Okay, next up we have the approval of the Minnetonka Foundation teacher grants. Superintendent Law? Madam Chair, members of the board, one of the highlights of the Minnetonka Public School System is our incredible partnership with Minnetonka Public School Foundation. On an annual basis that foundation generates revenue and identifies teachers to give those resources to. Tonight we will be hearing about that process, the nomination or the selection of teachers to receive those grants and we will receive the gift. Welcome. Perfect, thank you. My name is Heather Markert and this is Jamie Hanson and we are here with the Minnetonka Public Schools Foundation. One of our favorite nights to to be part of it as well. So the Minnetonka Public Schools Foundation is honored to present for your approval our recommendation to award $136,150.41 in grants to 49 different grant applications across the district. We consider ourselves to be very fortunate to work as partners with such an amazing school district and to help these outstanding teachers provide additional educational opportunities to our students through these grants. Throughout the foundation's 40-year tenure we have funded over 1,080 grants totaling 1.8 Sorry, I'm just going to get a little over 1.8 million which is pretty incredible. This year we received 78 requests seeking over $300,000 in grants for the 26-27 school year. After careful consideration and discussion the foundation board voted to approve 49 of those requests and we provided you some detail on those. In addition there were there was additional grants that were able to be funded through existing district resources that we uncovered when we met with the district leadership and shout out I think some of them are still here. So thank you to the group in the back who we met with earlier or actually last month. And lastly we have presented three of the requests this year um to the endowment committee portion of the Minnetonka Public Schools Foundation to possibly fund on an ongoing basis. And so we're going to reach out to those people soon. So we're excited about that. And if it's fully funded that will be over $70,000 as well. So we are asking for the school board's approval of these grant awards this evening and we will notify grant applicants of the final decision in the coming days. Something new this year is the recognition process. In the past we have had a ceremony where we have all of the recipients come and it's been a little bit of a burden with the schedule. Some schools get out at 2:40, some don't get out till 4:00. And so we're going to try to go into the schools this year and celebrate them with their students and their peers and we would love to have you join us. And so look for an email in the coming days if it works in your schedule to join us. We would love to have you join us in the buildings as well. So this concludes our presentation of teacher grants and we're happy to take any questions that you guys might have. Congratulations. May I have a motion to approve the Minnetonka Foundation teacher grants? >> So moved. Mike, may I have a second? Second. >> Second. Karen. Thank you. All those in favor say I. I. >> I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Congratulations and thank you. Well done. Thank you. Just one more quick note. We do want to highlight that the Minnetonka Alumni Association partners with us as we fund some of these grants as well. So we just want to recognize their support for these grants also. And and thank you for your support. I it's we appreciate the liaison that comes to our meetings and all of you that dressed up so wonderful >> [laughter] >> for our Dream Makers event as well. So thank you for continued partnership with us. Thank you. It's wonderful. Thank you so much. Okay, next up we have our community engagement report. Superintendent Law? Madam Chair, members of the board, one of the school board goals on an annual basis is to create innovative opportunities for the school district to engage with our community. We have started over the last few years to provide an annual update on how the board engages the community through this community engagement report. Tonight Executive Director of Communications Dr. Jackie Gaddy and Executive Director of Community Ed Kim Carlson will be coming through with that presentation. Dr. Gaddy. Superintendent Law, Madam Chair, members of the board, thank you for the opportunity for Executive Director Kim Carlson and I to present to you. We felt that it made sense for us both to talk about the ways that we engage the community since there are so many engagement opportunities across community ed as you heard earlier as well. So community input of course plays a critical role Let me [snorts] start my slides. In shaping the direction of our schools and our district-wide initiatives and we actively seek to inform, to gather information and input, to provide opportunities for people to engage and to really answer questions and concerns that people have and give people those chances to have volunteer opportunities, participate in programming and continuing to build those strong relationships is a component of your school board goal for the district excellence and leadership and organizational support. So as we looked at all the different ways that we engage different constituencies we decided to kind of bucket it out by groups and we started with parents. Parents have an opportunity to participate on a lot of different advisories and committees across the district from teaching and learning advisory and mental health advisory to the finance citizens finance committee and the calendar committee is another example. Parents have the opportunity to take surveys throughout the year. We do of course the annual survey at the end of the year but an example this year we also did as as Faye Wong mentioned we did a Chinese immersion Chinese New Year uh for uh we gave it to parents and to uh teachers. And then also middle school programming that was new this year, we reached out to middle school parents to hear about their thoughts on what that programming was like for their family, for their student. Um and Yeah. And um as you know um Molly Bonnamy here tonight, too. She surveys our ECFE and our preschool parents. Uh there's a satisfactory survey that goes out two times a year. And um we also heard from aquatics. They involve our some We often involve our parents whether it's through surveys or focus groups on getting their input and feedback, which has been invaluable in to to making us accept those a success. Um we also have had task force, which some of you have been on, um talking about um safety for explorers, checking and check out process, as well as uh priority registration systems for explorers programs. Uh other ways that um we're either informing or engaging parents as through the principal's weekly emails, providing information and opportunities to connect, the superintendent's monthly emails to our entire community, and of course all the one-on-one formal and informal meetings, calls, uh emails, um the Orono-Minnetonka podcast. We really try to provide content that we think is going to be engaging to families. Um our PTO [clears throat] and PTA connections, we meet with the leaders of the of the PTO and PTAs with Superintendent Law every month or every other month depending on the time of year. Um the CASE Committee, which we will talk a little bit more about in a later slide, um and Tonka Pride, which is a committee of parents that really work with us on Tonka apparel, um and focusing particularly on the E8 audience, um the booster clubs, the Minnetonka School's Foundation, which you heard from earlier who is an amazing contributor and supporter of the district um with many parents there, the school news postcard, which gets mailed home to every family, and as well as MCE catalogs, which Kim tells me are four times a year. Four times [clears throat] a year we also have our adults with disabilities, the SOAR program, that goes out four times a year as well. We have um preschool catalogs and early childhood screening and adult basic education also send out different publications. Um some of the other things that we do, so when there's a new baby in our community, we send out a incredibly cute onesie, if you haven't seen them, um and they also get just a welcome to our community, and then screening sends out a postcard letting them know that it's time um to come and have an early childhood screening, and they get a postcard and a welcome and tell them a little bit about what we're doing in community education in our preschool and ECFE programs. And of course too with the events and activities, there's all kinds of opportunities for parents to get engaged uh through coaching and uh Tour de Tonka other events, so. And these were just a few examples of the way that we reach out to parents, the community ed catalogs, our podcast. Um the CASE Committee examples there, a new element that we've added this year, which is a social media component, so the members of the CASE Committee get an opportunity to engage their own uh influential groups on social media to get more people interested and involved in advocacy, and the school news postcards that go home. The next group that we're looking at, which is such a critical group, is our students, and uh that's been an incredibly um important focus area for us, um and that the school board has really led that initiative this last year. Uh in particular focusing on the pilot with the students um on the school board, so welcome to you both, and it's just been a pleasure to hear all of the insights and perceptions that you have in the the feedback that you're giving so that the board really has that that lens and that voice. Um but the school board's also been very active in meeting with their own cohorts. Um so that's for the public because they know. Um throughout the year at the high school, and the students at the high school just led a session. Um last year was the first year of it, and it was led by administration, and this year the students took it on and led a session focusing on a couple of topic areas, and then it was presented to the board so the board could listen to the students talk about things like counseling, talk about things like anchor time, and really hear those firsthand, which was was pretty incredible to have that that lens, that opportunity. Um also we really try to incorporate student voice during the school reports. We've seen that from principals and from um from the program directors, and you saw some of that tonight, which just makes those um board presentations so powerful. In the recognitions portion of the school board meeting, right before the school board meeting, there are our often video submissions from students talking about the value of the programs that they're involved in, and that's always fun to see. Um and then uh surveys, we do surveys with students throughout the year, and again this year we heard from middle school students about that middle school programming to hear how it was working for them, and that was a a valuable lens. Um and um principal weekly emails, superintendent monthly emails, high school and middle school students get those as well. Um the feature stories that we do, the videos, the podcast, we really try to capture student voice and to really share the experiences that students feel they're having in our programs because that's the authentic um value to that. That's That's for them what's really happening, and to be able to share that um we we love that authentic voice. Um the morning show is students talking to students at the high school, and of course there's lots of clubs and groups. Yeah, I would just add that also um of course there's a lot of career opportunities for students within community education, so we're always encouraging that. Summer events and activities, um we tapped our Vantage students and worked with our catalog design with Louise Weir, who you met tonight, and um she also worked with fourth and fifth graders to take a look at our shirts that we make for our events, and worked with them on the design, and also with our youth service um group that met and worked at uh with our design as well. And these are a couple of the examples. The the top one there is the student school board representatives group, and not all of them, but that was a a group that met that day with Superintendent Law and two of you. Um and then the lower um uh photo on the I guess it'd be your left, is um the students facilitating that um MHS-led uh forum, student-led forum at the high school. In the middle there, Superintendent Law presenting with his former student mentee, who's a recent Minnetonka graduate at a national convention. Um and then the two on the on the other side are uh former school board chair Patrick Leo Halloran with two students from the school board um representative group that were talking about. It was at the beginning of the year when it was first getting started, and they were talking about what this was going to be like. And then the bottom one is the winning proposal because that all came about because the Vantage students gave you models that they thought would be a good model for having students on the school board, and that was the winning group that got to then present to the board and to the public. Uh the next group that we wanted to really highlight as a stakeholder group that we're um always working to engage are our teachers and our staff. Uh we start the school year really with workshop week, but then with back to school kickoff bringing everybody together so that we really start the school year powerfully and positively. Uh school board presentations at the board meetings often have teachers, as you saw tonight, uh with Jennifer Kitt, and recognition videos we often have teachers and advisors who are talking about the success of students and their accomplishments. Advisories and committees often have teachers and staff on them. They provide such a valuable lens, um and we are also often surveying our teachers, so again the examples this year being that middle school programming. We talked to middle school teachers, and um the Chinese immersion Chinese Lunar New Year questions that we had, we also had that for our Chinese immersion teachers and parents. Um principal and cabinet level communications, the superintendent's monthly emails, Tonka Insider, which is an internal e-newsletter, we send that out monthly or bi-monthly, that really gives people the opportunity to engage, find out um discounts on community ed classes is something that we always highlight, uh volunteer opportunities, um and just days that are important. Uh the podcast, feature stories and videos, traditional media, those often have a teacher lens or a teacher voice in them. We've really tried to increase the teachers on the podcast this year, that's been fun. One of the most recent ones, if you watched it, was two teachers who have been here for 40 years celebrating 40 years with the district, and we got a lot of feedback on that, that that was a really fun one for people to watch and to hear the history. Um and then annual presentations with Superintendent Law and our security coordinator at each site so that people understand um what are our safety practices, and they feel really engaged and empowered with that information. And these are just a few examples of that. We also have appreciation weeks, and so we on social media, my colleague Mary Cornelius puts out um staff spotlights on the different groups that are being celebrated that week. be the parents, it might be the teachers, it might be our bus drivers, um and then those are examples of advisors speaking during school board recognitions, uh guests on our podcast, that's next week's podcast, and that um the gal in the red is Yisun, she is the chair of our K-5 Chinese immersion program and a teacher at Scenic Heights. She's amazing, and was really fun. That's going to be a really fun episode, so I hope you'll tune in. And residents. So residents was a uh a big push this year as we had an informational campaign to really help people feel educated and aware of our building bond referendum so they could get their questions answered. They felt like they had good information to make the decision they wanted to make about it. Um we do mailers with our residents, so we do the school news postcard, catalogs to residents, and the annual report every year that goes in October. The state of the district presentations, this year we again presented at the Waters with Superintendent Law. He did a coffee and conversation with seniors there, and we were invited to a real estate office in Eden Prairie. That was interesting. They said we get a lot of families that want to move into your district and we want to be knowledgeable about your school district. So Superintendent Law gave them an overview and they were fascinated. They really liked that they were getting the right information that they could then share with families. So we're thinking of more of those. And then he presented as well at Excelsior Morning Rotary which is a really robust Rotary Club here locally. Volunteer and event opportunity. Yeah, with our [clears throat] residents as well we have again tons of opportunities for events and activities to that for them to be a part of it. Often times residents reach out to us and say hey I they've got a specific skill set or talent or passion that they want to share and they want to teach a class. Most recently I met with Ann Sen and just a passionate community member and very involved in our district and we went and visited Vantage and looked at their beautiful kitchen and she's really excited about offering a creative cooking class and has some ideas and is meeting with our staff right now. So really excited and so it's our community residents that are out there that come to us and sometimes we come to them but giving us some ideas for classes and if hey have you thought about so that's been fun and then also we communicate with our residents. We mail out when we're running some of these big activities to let them know hey we're we're going to be in the neighborhood and we have about 200 kids coming through with youth try and often times they're out there cheering them along and that's been a lot of fun too. And then another example is well the events that we have in the community from Tour de Tonka to the Veterans Day to athletic events and concerts and we really try to make those welcoming and find avenues for people to come into the district. We offer opportunities for guest speaking for mentorships for as Kim said teaching courses or participating in courses and then the traditional media has been wonderful to at helping us to engage residents in most recently providing nominations for celebration of excellence so we got a number of nominations that came from community members who their children had a teacher previously and has since graduated but they wanted to nominate that teacher or that staff member. So those are some examples. One other one is as we're looking at solutions for parking and traffic at MME we've been communicating regularly with a group of neighbors who want to be apprised of what we're doing there and so we've been regularly emailing them updates about where things are at in particular with the passing of the building bond and there's some money there and some opportunity for us to make some changes to the path for cars so that not everybody's parking in the neighborhood and walking in. So that's another way we reached out and these are just a couple of examples. Some of that is the building bond referendum mailers, the website. We had a video on there as well and then an example of one of the community ed classes. Alumni. So we are great partners with our alumni association. They are wonderful and they find ways for alumni to come back and be involved. We have an annual awards brunch that happens on homecoming weekend. The alumni association also participates in the homecoming parade and we provide communications support for them and event logistics support. We draft the Minnetonka alumni magazine. It's now digital but still has tons of engagement which was great to see. Students are often invited back by the high school. I wanted to give the high school shout out on this. They've had Vantage students come back and talk to students in the Vantage classes about what they've done with their with their diploma, what they've done with their experience at Vantage since they've gone off to college or into the working world. And then I did want to call out again the student that presented nationally with Superintendent Law. So we try to feature things like that as well and in feature video stories, our podcast we've had alumni on and then also if we see great things happening that the newspapers or the TV stations are picking up we'll reshare those on social so that our alumni are getting a nice shout out. Here's some examples. That's the alumni association at the homecoming parade and at their annual awards brunch and that's the the board right there down in the corner and an example of the digital magazine. Close partner organizations and groups. Well you met some of the members of the foundation earlier today and of course they're amazing and provide a lot of support for our teacher grant program and this year giving them a huge shout out they've also supported our celebration of excellence so they're providing the awards for it this year and the next two years which is just amazing. That's really the biggest cost of that event but it gives us that opportunity to really celebrate our teachers, our staff and our school volunteers and to engage the whole community in that process. We fill the arts center for that. So the theater so it's about seats about 700 and it's packed in there. For those of you who've been to it it's pretty amazing to see but that's a really great opportunity for the community to come together. And then our PTAs and PTOs are also great partners. The family collaborative if you've been to that meeting it's a bunch of community organizations and supporters that come together quarterly. That's one of my favorite events to go to. It's a meeting but it feels like an event and really exciting to see all of the support for our community through that. And engagement. Tonka Pride is a parent committee that I mentioned earlier that sells Tonka apparel and they're a great partner in helping us to really engage the community in wearing that Tonka spirit, that Tonka Pride. Tonka Cares, the associations, the Diamond Club. We're seeing all the work that's been done at the high school and the Diamond Club is a big part of that. The Anchor Club which is the swim booster appearance and other boosters as well, the Skipper Booster Store. And then I did want to call out that Hennepin County Emergency Management Group and our other law enforcement partners have been amazing partners for us. We met with them earlier today. We meet with them every three months. A few of us so our security coordinator and then Mary and I from communications and today their focus for the quarterly meeting was on communications and public information and how we all work together when there's something going on how do we make sure that people are getting the information that they need, that we're all collaborating. They've been fantastic. They've invited us to their regional resource training kind of behind the scenes of what they do if there's a big event and we're observing up close so we can see what they're focused on. We know what we would be focused on if something was happening in the school but to see what they're doing really empowers us and we are working now collaboratively with them on a tabletop that will have about 12 people from our group and a kind of executive group and then 12 from theirs across Minnetonka police, fire, EMS and their mayor's office and to really find to to walk through an active situation tabletop and to in real time talk about okay this is happening what are you doing what are we doing. So we're excited about planning that. And then the city of Minnetonka great great partner and great partners as Kim works on Tour de Tonka. Yeah, we go across and present to a lot of different cities that we ride through but they're also really critical in making us have a successful event so that's been great. Also Hennepin County sends out people and works within our SOAR program or adults with disabilities so officers are coming in and helping with class, setting up kids, dancing, doing all kinds of fun stuff. And then most recently last year we started a e-bike safety course which Scott Gerlicher and the PD departments kind of it was a major problem in still want we wanted to do something to address it so we got together and and put together bike safety course and we're going to have another one coming up now. And as Jenny mentioned too they come in and do some safety camps for us for the kids and also with our adult basic education classes they come in and do some citizenship stuff so they've been an amazing partner. Prospective families do you want to start? >> [clears throat] >> Prospective families. Yes. Turn the page Kim. So yes in the spring we have family fairs for ECFE preschool open houses. We invite a lot of those first time families into our building and get them kind of acquainted with what it looks like and we have a Valentine's dance, there's a fall dance all in our early childhood program. And we also do a kindergarten after preschool now what and we've had principals come in and kind of share what each of our kindergarten programs might look like and so I think that's this is our second year that we've done that. Yeah which is fun and nice pairing with what we've been doing with kindergarten information nights with the principals at all the elementaries provide they each provide usually three in the fall and then this has been another just way for those preschool families who are already having that Minnetonka experience to extend that experience and learn more about okay what's the next step. We do a lot with providing a comprehensive website, flyers, postcards, brochures just all kind of steering people to the information that they might need. There's lots of different options for kindergarten from Chinese immersion, Spanish immersion to RSK, English and so giving people the different ways in Tonka online another option. And then too we are promoting Tonka online as an option K-12 and so giving people the way in for that. Principal Erickson does a pizza with the principal for students that are transferring in during their high school years or looking to. We do a lot with content marketing, organic marketing which is really just storytelling. It's unpaid. It's getting the stories of students out there. This is what it's really like to be in Minnetonka. And then we do some paid social media posts where we take that content and boost it. We do paid search so if you're Googling something about best kindergartens or best schools in Minnesota we try to get up higher with that boosted search. Digital ads, multimedia we do a lot with video. Andy Smith's an amazing videographer and he provides just some outstanding videos that capture what students do in Minnetonka. And then we do some targeted emails with timely information. And these are a couple examples of things that we do. So, Community Action for Student Education or the CASE Committee um really ramped up really ramped up last year and then really has sustained that. So, we have about 100 parents, students, school board members, um administrators, and community members, and students who are and parents who are really actively involved in this and we're hoping for a really good turnout next week. So, on Monday we have Day at the Capitol where we go and speak to our lawmakers and talk about advocacy, talk about adequate school funding that lifts all boats. Um and so, people can write letters, they can uh make calls, do meetings, but coming to that Day at the Capitol or attending hearings is also a great way to be involved. And new this year um Superintendent Law sends a weekly email to the group that's involved in CASE. So, if you're interested in CASE to the public, um be sure to check out the website, just search CASE and there's a sign-up form there so you'll start to get those emails and you can have some guidance on well, who could you reach out to? What are things to advocate for? And then two, we send that group of social media posts that they can post on their own social media to engage their own audience, their own family and friends. These are a couple other ways to provide input and get involved with the district. Um we have Let's Talk across the website, so that's just an engagement tool where people can if they don't know how to find what they're looking for, they just have a question, they can put a question in there, it'll get routed to the appropriate person and responded to. We aim for 2 days. It doesn't always happen, but we really try. Um we have an incident bullying reporting tool that is a part of that Let's Talk, um confidential tool. There's a story suggestion form at the bottom page of every single web page on our website. Uh we get a lot of story ideas from that actually. Um school board meetings, you heard community comments tonight. We also have citizen input at the study sessions and then of course all the different ways that you can get involved and and reach out to [clears throat] people. And we also added look at our career opportunities. There are a lot of them. We have a really robust careers page on the website, so check out what's available here and really get involved that way. And then look at programs and volunteer opportunities. There are lots of ways to get involved with this district. So, those efforts reflect um what we feel are the district and the board's commitment to ensure and stakeholders are engaged and have a meaningful voice. And uh we'll continue to refine and expand our opportunities to really make sure that we're providing the district that people want. We're happy to answer any questions. Very robust. Thank you. That's so much work. Thank you for all you put into that. Do we have comments or questions from the board? Anyone? Thank you. Awesome awesome job, you guys. Thank you so much. >> Thanks. Next up, we have the approval of bid for site work component of an MMW project, Superintendent Law. Madam Chair, members of the board, each each time this comes, it's amazing. I want to say here we go because we are starting our building bond process at Minnetonka West by doing some pre-work so we can start formally building those uh extensions to the building. Tonight, uh Executive Director of Finance and Operations Paul Bourgeois will summarize the bids to do the site work component at MMW. Mr. Bourgeois. Thank you, Superintendent Law. Madam Chair, members of the board, uh this package is about a $2.5 million estimated cost uh to do uh relocation of the existing uh driveway drop-off. We have to kind of move it out a little bit uh to create a space to stage uh for our contractors to stage for construction of the uh gymnasium and performance venue. And actually and then also they'll be staging for the science rooms on the back. Uh but then to do that, we also have to create space for uh additional stormwater. Stormwater is the the magic elixir that everybody has to take care of in terms of these construction projects. So, you have to um we have to create space for a stormwater pond on the site. And to do that, we basically have to turn the field about 90°. So, we're basically rebuilding the field. It's actually going to be better than it's ever than it ever was by the time we're done. But this first package is about a $2.5 million estimated budget. We did have um a good a good uh turnout. Uh there were six bidders and the low bidder was Rachel Contracting LLC at $2,360,000. Uh that's about 100 Well, it is $140,000 below the estimate, so uh that of course will continue to be going into the project, but we're doing what we can to save money. It's about uh 5.6% below the estimate and we were a little bit nervous with the price of diesel fuel in particular. Uh but we we've got a bit under budget, so it's the first one, so we're we're kind of like a steam train just starting to get going here. And uh so, this is the first one, so uh there's a lot of work going on behind the scenes. And uh so, you'll be getting a few more of these bid packages over the next few months. Thank you. Thank you. May I have a motion to approve for Rachel Contracting LLC? Is that that's the one, Mr. Bourgeois? Okay. So moved. For 2.36. So moved. Sally, may I have a second? Second. Karen. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor? Are any any discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you, Mr. Bourgeois. All right. Moving on. Next up. Okay, we have the approval of the 2027-2028 calendar. Superintendent Law. Madam Chair, members of the board, as a reminder, uh over the last few years Minnetonka has gone through the calendar process to preview and approve a calendar 18 months in advance giving parents as much time as possible to be to be thinking about breaks during the year and and vacation planning or child care planning and all of those pieces. That process, as you'll hear tonight as a reminder and as we heard at the last study session, involves our calendar committee. I've had a handful of questions about this, I'll clarify this. Each spring we push out at board meetings and in communications through the communications department as much as we can to get people involved in all of our committees. The main committees we look for recommendations for are our teaching learning advisory committee, our um finance advisory committee, and our calendar committee are probably the three that we get the most interest in. We don't get dozens of applicants, we get a handful and we select uh from there We We very rarely turn away um any unless there are multiple people for the same target group like elementary school, middle school, high school or across um specific interest. Uh uh Executive Director of HR and General Counsel Angie Flowers goes through that list to make sure it's a breadth. It also includes, as she'll share tonight, the various employee groups that have um a stake in the contract or have calendar specifications in their contract. That committee meets and runs through a variety of parameters, specifically state statutes or, you know, the calendar itself on an annual basis as it shifts, the timing of Labor Day, um how all of those things play out and input that we receive throughout the school year. The board will receive emails from time to time, as the board has heard many times about, it's very challenging to have midweek days off for child care needs and people don't submit those just during the calendar process, but they might submit them in September or November when those things come through. All of those, when I get those, are they'll email me directly and say, you know, why why is this uh happening in the calendar? And I'll the all that feedback to the calendar committee to seed that conversation. That calendar committee meets with all those parameters and then brings that to the board typically at a study session so there can be board conversation. Um and in a typical year, you you might remember that as we looked at a very late Labor Day, the board asked if other districts started that late. We went back and did a summary of the very late Labor Day, I determined that another school district United actually always starts before Labor Day and they use the construction exemption from the state to do that. And uh committee met, revised the calendar, brought it back to the board, and the board approved a calendar for this current school year coming up that will be starting for before Labor Day as will the 20 um 26-27 and the proposed 27-28 are two calendar years because of a late Labor Day. So, the interplay between the calendar committee and the board, many times it's one one proposal comes to the board. There there's very little um discussion and and it can be approved at the next meeting. There has been examples where with board dis consideration, the committee has gone back and gathered additional information. I want to provide one other clarifying point. We did a survey on Chinese immersion and the Lunar New Year unrelated to the calendar because we had received feedback about the amount of impact for teachers as Facebook tonight. We wanted to make sure that our teachers across both of our two schools that do um in our middle schools, but primarily elementary schools, we were gathering teacher input on how they valued preparing for the Lunar New Year event that happens actually has happened at a different time of the year than the Lunar New Year uh for last few years. We asked questions about should are you spending an adequate amount of time in the class? Are you compensated for the additional time outside of class that you need to do to prepare for this event? Is the timing of this event event convenient for you? Do you have other recommendations? All of that survey that you heard multiple times tonight wasn't part of the calendar committee process. It was part of how our teachers are preparing for the Lunar New Year celebration that we have at Minnetonka High School. Anecdotally, we gathered information from that survey that talked about the Lunar New Year itself that fed into the calendar committee, but I want to make I want to be transparent with the community and the board. We didn't secretly survey the community about the Lunar New Year outside of the calendar process. We did that survey back in November about how do our teachers and parents feel about the Lunar New Year event separately. Tonight, Ms. Flowers is going to be doing a second presentation to the board about the calendar process and recommendation, and then the board I'm aware has also heard some questions from the community and so the board has the option to either approve tonight or move this forward for some additional consideration. Ms. Flowers. Thank you. I think that covers it. Any questions? >> [laughter] >> No, thank you Superintendent Law, Madam Chair, members of the board. First, I just want to thank the calendar committee for all their work, their transparency, and great discussion, and the time that they give. As you know, the calendar committee consists of students, parents, teachers, paraprofessionals, and building and district administrators. We come together each year to bring a calendar recommendation to the board. I shared with you earlier before our first meeting the process of the calendar committee and how it works, and then at the study session went into some detail about our meeting that we had on February 24th. Including our discussion recommending starting before Labor Day and adding the Chinese Lunar New Year as an observance to the calendar. As a committee, we took into consideration the required parameters, some that Superintendent Law just spoke to, such as contractual agreements, 184 teacher duty days, 170 student contact days, which allows us to provide three full professional learning days to our teachers, conference days, and the statutory requirement, an exception that actually allows us to begin before Labor Day in 2027 and 2028. We had a very robust discussion around that with beginning before Labor Day because the committee wanted it to be clear that this is not something that we want to become a norm. It's just because of the calendar and the way that it falls in '27 '28 and '26 '27. The '25 '26 school year was the first year that we observed Yom Kippur and Eid. With this change, we heard from community members who had an interest in the district observing the Chinese and Lunar New Year as well. This year, there was a recommendation made in out of our committee to add Chinese Lunar New Year. We took a vote on it and 16 of 27 members supported it. So, we got a majority vote. It was not a unanimous vote. We had a lot of discussion um specifically around how the Chinese Lunar New Year is not a religious holiday. And as of now, all of our observances are religious. They involve some form of fasting, so we had a lot of discussion around that. And we also talked about um the impact when students are fasting that it has on students. And the Chinese immersion community also mentioned the impact with the celebration and the long hours and everything involved and celebrated with the families. They shared that although it's not religious, it is their community's main holiday and their largest holiday. They shared it had significant meaning and there's a lot of time and energy put into the day with their families and their friends. It's important to acknowledge both the Chinese and the Lunar New Year. We talked about that. Is it Chinese New Year? Is it Lunar New Year? The community wanted it to be Chinese {slash} Lunar New Year so that we were recognizing both. And observing this day, what was shared with us is that it allows them to be seen and acknowledged. There were also people who were opposed to lengthening the school year and concerned that opening the door to cultural celebrations versus religious could lead to other cultural observances and school running much later into June. Although we did not have a unanimous vote to add Chinese Lunar New Year, we did have a majority, so the recommendation was brought forward to the board. You have the detailed dates and a copy of the calendar in front of you, but I'd like to share a few of those dates with you. August will continue to be our workshop and planning week beginning on August 23rd with the first day of school scheduled before Labor Day on August 30th and kindergarten beginning on September 1st. There won't be school on Friday, September 3rd, which will still allow for a three-day Labor Day weekend. In November, professional learning for teachers will be on November 1st. Thanksgiving break again is starting with the day before Thanksgiving. Very popular change and no one wants to touch it. Um and then that brings us to winter break uh beginning on December 23rd through January 3rd. Our teachers will come back a day before our students as they did this past year and past two years, and they'll have professional learning on January 4th. Our paraprofessionals will have professional learning on January 21st, and the first day of the Chinese Lunar New Year would be observed on January 26th if this recommendation were to be approved. Eid is set to be observed on February 28th, but that could change because it's a placeholder. There's no way to really predict when it will occur. And the committee is pleased to have spring break occur again in March and only in March instead of April, running from March 27th through March 31st. And I was talking to some of our neighbors and they're looking at the same week. The last day of school for students with this recommendation will be on June 8th, and the last day for teachers on Friday, June 9th. I think it's also important to mention that we will be updating our assessment calendars so teachers and educators know about certain dates to avoid for big projects, studying, um and to have that awareness students may be fasting or observing or celebrating. And we also provide a comprehensive list of observances so that we are recognizing those in our community who celebrate and they were leaning into our belonging work. That's all the comments that I have on that and I'm ready for questions or comments. Thank you, Ms. Flowers. The board has determined that additional time and information are needed to further study cultural observances as they relate to the proposed 2027 and 2028 calendar. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Minnetonka Public Schools Board of Directors directs the administration to continue studying cultural observances and the potential impact on the 2027-28 school calendar. And be it further resolved that the proposed 2027-28 school calendar shall be brought back to the board for further discussion and action following completion of the study. Is there a motion to adopt the 2027-28 school calendar study resolution? So moved. Megan, is there a second? Second. Mike. Any discussion? Sally? Yes, thank you again. And yes, thank you to the committee members because I the word robust has come up in conversations with multiple people on this subject, and I really appreciate that. I know that those aren't easy discussions and lots to consider. Um I just want to express that I am grateful for the time that people are spending acknowledging this need, and I appreciate too um Wong Law Sure you talking about the importance of this to to staff because that is something that hasn't been very prominent in the discussion up till now, and I I want to make sure that that's acknowledged as well. So, I think it's a good idea to take this back for more discussion because of the opportunity for that to advance the education. Right, uh you know, it would be possible for us to take a vote on this tonight um and perhaps lose that opportunity to address more broadly across the community what this is about and why it's important to people and really acknowledge that some of the things that have come up, particularly around midweek um days off and things like that and what that means to families. We we really want to give that enough um airing to be able to I think be respectful about that and discern that fully. So, I'm certainly supportive of that. Thank you. I'm Megan. Um I would echo a lot of what Director Brown just said. Um I would also add that the concerns that I've had about at not that I've had, that I've heard about um adding this day have not been um in the negative of not wanting folks to be able to celebrate a day that is important to them. I think that has not been the concern. What I've heard is what you kind of alluded to that it's really hard for working parents to have a Wednesday off and we have so many 40 weeks in January, and February, and March that it it I think feels like a challenge. And so I'm wondering if one of the things that we can do before we bring this back is if we can think of creative ways to offer support to families for those kind of extra, you know, I know we have some that have like full day camps um since this is not a federal holiday or something that's in the the contract, I don't know if there's a way to be creative around offering explorers or community ed something for parents who are working that would take it a kind of off their plate of figuring out child care for elementary. So I I too just appreciate the extra time to be thoughtful about it and make sure that the community is heard and that we're doing what's right for as many people as we can. Thank you. Appreciate that thoughtfulness. Mike. Yeah, and I think one other thing to keep in mind also when if we send this back to the committee is that the committee traditionally just looks at these issues on a year-by-year basis and doesn't really necessarily look into the future. And I think with this in particular one of the things we need to consider is whether or not we are going to consider this a sort of a permanent addition to the calendar or one of relative convenience for lack of better way of putting it. We do have some interesting uh sort of combinations coming up uh following the 27-28 calendar year, so 28-29 uh we actually have 3 years in a row where uh where the Lunar New Year and Eid actually fall right almost up against each other just due to how the calendars line up. Um and so not only does that that maybe change the equation a little bit as far as how we consider those fitting into the calendar and whether or not we need to consider adding on the like Edina does adding on that week before Labor Day. You know, the I think one of the things that the community doesn't necessarily understand as as easily as we do who have been through this process a number a number of times is that any adding any one day doesn't necessarily lend itself to uh lend lend itself to adding like a significant amount of time to the calendar year for for school year. Um it's actually the combination of how all the individual holidays and MEA weekend and everything else fall into a given calendar year that determines how long each of those breaks is going to be and how they all fit together actually determines how long the school year ultimately ends up running. So um but with that in mind maybe it's it's worth looking into the future a little bit and saying, well, is this something that we are going to it's it's going to cause bigger ripples downstream um even if it's just more of a cursory look than than a real sort of knock-down-drag-out look that you usually do for a given calendar year. Director McColl, great points. We did have that conversation about what we're what the recommendation is and we talked a lot about are these things permanent? Are they for this year? And we clarified and agreed this is the recommendation for 27-28. So there wouldn't be an expectation that any calendar year is necessarily going to repeat itself. And we also discussed what happens when a holiday falls on a weekend. There wouldn't be any expectation to observe the holiday if it were on a weekend. Yeah, that that is a point that should be made for this particular calendar. Eid actually falls on I remember it's a Saturday or Sunday Sat- Saturday, I believe for the 27-28 >> a Sunday. Right. >> potentially be Monday, so we have the placeholders. Right. So it's it's something where it's we may be exchanging one for the other for for this calendar year. Tanya. Um thank you everybody for your comments and I I just wanted to reiterate something Fay Wong had said in when he spoke to the board, which was Wayzata's flexible learning day. So I'd be curious to look more into that. What do they do? What does that look like? Um is that something we could think about doing or maybe the calendar committee can talk about that. So thank you for bringing that up. For sure. It would be something we would need to negotiate if we were to consider that. Christie. Um an idea we could have for some sort of flexible learning day that we should probably or that we could look into is during Heart Week at the high school. We have this day where students choose if they watch a movie or play cards with their friends and um I was thinking that since we want this to be a day where for people who need child care, they we could have an opportunity of hosting kind of like it wouldn't so at the high school it's a buyout, but it wouldn't be in this scenario, but like the same structure as the buyout where for like elementary school, they could offer where their students could go and play cards with their friends or watch a movie. So it's not like people who are celebrating that like are missing any actual content, but still having a way so that they're not just sitting around in the school doing nothing. Thank you for your ideas. Appreciate it. Karen. Um first of all, I want to thank you and the calendar committee for all the hard work. Um I know that it's not easy wrestling with all these questions and dates and we're sending you into the next couple of years, which is actually appreciate Director McColl bringing that up. That's a very good point to look at. I would like to echo a lot of what has already been said. Um but really just want to say appreciation that and appreciate the um willingness to do the extra deep dive into this. >> Dan. Um yeah, thank you for the for the thoughtful process. I was I was ready to approve the calendar as is. I think the addition of Chinese Lunar New Year, well, while I know not everybody is a fan of it, I think it's it's great that we're doing more to recognize our communities and make them feel included and make space for their celebrations and I just want to say if you know, it sounds like we are going back and and looking at the calendar a little more to evaluate this and um I I I find it hard to distinguish between um you know, the relative meaning of a religious holiday and a cultural holiday. You know, I don't feel like it's appropriate for for me as a board member to sit in judgment of what somebody else's holiday means to them. So I just want to make sure that we're all being mindful of that and trusting these communities that when they tell us a holiday is important to them and it holds meaning and that they want to be able to celebrate it that we really take that to heart and and listen. So thank you. Thank you. Tanya. Thanks, Dan. I 100% agree. Thank you. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Thank you. Motion carries. Thank you, Ms. Flowers. All right. I would just Madam Chair Yes. Um with that guidance, so we all understand what the expectations are this could likely come back for the May study session for a June approval if we still want to be a year and a half ahead on the calendar. Uh we will based on things we heard tonight gather as much information as we can to have that additional discussion. Okay, next up we have the consent agenda. May I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? So moved. Dan, may I have a second? >> Second. Karen, all those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Next up we have board reports. Anybody from the board? Dan. Um I would give a report on community education, but everyone already heard Kim Carlson speak twice this evening, so I think we got the uh the full rundown. A lot of great things are happening. A lot of sign-ups coming up. Look out for opportunities to volunteer, to register for summer courses, things like that. Thank you. Megan. Um I just have a couple of Sorry. >> [laughter] >> That was very exciting. Um I just have a couple of things from the PTO PTA leader of events that are coming up. Um on April 18th from 9:00 to 1:00, there is the reuse and recycle event at Minnetonka High School. And um there's more information about that on social media, but you can clear some stuff out of your house and then there's also the Tonka Pride sale going on here at the District Service Center on April 17th and 18th. So you can do some like room swapping. You can get rid of some stuff, get some new gear all in the same weekend. Thank you. Tanya. The Teaching and Learning Committee met and Dr. Ledoux shared at our last study session on March 17th about the emergent curriculum, so that was the majority of the meeting for that. Um a couple takeaways I had or a couple things that stood out comments by parents just um asking about the snap testing stamp testing actually right this stamp. Sorry, I don't have an eighth grader yet, so. Uh and do they need to do it as often or or just kind of thinking about um that for their kids. And then another comment that was brought to us from a parent was um the when students join our district at the high school level, which tests are necessary and how how we can maybe acclimate them faster and get them into classes faster. So, it was a pretty good conversation and some things to think about. Dr. Mike. Um from the Mental Health Advisory Committee, just a reminder that May is Mental Health Awareness Month. It's coming up and we will be having our May meeting once it's already started. So, I just want to make sure people are already looking out for that uh in in just a few weeks. Thank you, everybody, for the reports. Next up, Superintendent Law. Um >> [clears throat] >> we're starting fourth quarter, which is an exciting and and conclusory quarter. Uh if you haven't seen, all kids are starting their activities. Uh shout out, the spring musical's coming up. Spamalot. I know that one of our student board members was running straight from play practice here. So, uh I we're excited to see that show. But uh I also am giving a teaser for the next board meeting. We are having our students present on the student school board advisory and we had a uh meeting right before spring break where all the students had a chance to talk about their value with participating in the board. I I think our members of the community and the members of the board will be surprised to hear the energy that our student school board members had and and the value that they see in that. At our next study session, students will be presenting on that. And uh certainly one of the things that we're seeing as our as uh Rey Taha showed tonight, our students are learning how to come and speak to the board. So, there has been some payoff already. So, I'm just a preview of what's to come. Thank you. Any announcements? Karen. Well, as you already heard, CASE Committee is meeting, right, Co-chair Sally? We are meeting on Monday morning, bright and early, right in this room, I believe, probably about 8:00. If you want to join us, please join us. We will go from here up to the Capitol, meet with some of our legislators, watch some sessions in the I think the House and the Senate, and just generally uh advocate for Minnetonka because it's not a what a well-known fact, but we spend less than the state average to educate a student. And so, we just need a little bit more help from the state legislature to do that. But, Monday morning, here at 8:00 if you want to join us. Thank you for all the work you guys are doing on CASE. Um all right, I think that means we are adjourned. >> We need a motion. Oh, I'm sorry. We need a motion. I do that every time. May I have a motion to adjourn this meeting? So moved. Tanya. May I have a second? Second. Abegayle. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? We are adjourned. I'm sorry. Sorry.