“Show your pride, support the hive. It would connect with our strategy E of the Dina public schools strategic plan to engage parents, school and community and to point out that every hornet should be supported every day.”

“This is a day to build off of. um this is the beginning of something new that we'll be doing at the ed front.”

“I thought it was a great event. I was at one of the elementary schools that day and there were a lot of kids wearing green, staff wearing green. That was really cool.”

“The role of Edina give and go is to build an equitable and connected community. Um, we help to ensure that every student in Edina public schools has a true opportunity to thrive. Um, by leveling the playing field outside of the classroom.”

“When you have a child that is engaged around anywhere from 44 to 80 hours, so that sweet spot and out of schooltime programming throughout the summer. Um, and then you also go into the school year that really makes a marked difference in that child's life in terms of that achievement, that learning, the knowledge base, that opportunity.”

“I am fortunate that money has never been a consideration or has never needed to be a consideration when I choose clubs and activities for myself. But for many of my fellow students, this is not the case.”

“We have a child thriving in theater thanks to your support. We have a chess guru who has won awards thanks to you. We have an aspiring gymnast thanks to you. And we have a basketball athlete who experiences community when her disability often isolates her from her peers.”

“And so then the next day the parent came in and I sat down with them for an hour, went through, you know, heard all about what they needed, went through the application form with them and wrote the check and that student is going will be going to Chicago next MEA break.”

“I know that you guys focus on mostly extracurricular and you mentioned enrichment. has um eini given go ever thought about um starting earlier than kindergarten as Brian Williams eloquently stated um that a lot of times kids start behind and so I was just wondering if that's something that you ever thought about is is there any way to offer enrichment opportunities before kids even start kindergarten?”

“Just thank you for the opportunity and the trust to lead this district with you in partnership. just excited about the next 15 months.”

“We know that we're strong in our mission and vision, and it's embedded into every single thing that we do. And you see that through each of our reports that we had tonight and our discussions that we have day in and day out.”

“We talk about innovation, we talk about engagement, and we talk about transition. So for us as a school district, we recognize that we're about academic excellence, about innovation, about student centered learning. The words that continue to stand out to me in everything that we do relate to integrity, to compassion, to courage, commitment, appreciation, and responsibility.”

“We recognize that without community engagement and family engagement, we would be nothing. And so we recognize and want to continue to look for ways to partner.”

“It's clear that in your short time here, you have listened, you have made honest observations, and you're here to work together with us. So, um, I think as our tagline says, we are going to continue to define excellence with you.”

“I thought let's kind of break this up into two different pieces. And so I broke it up into the narrative version of the assessment plan which includes the assessment calendar. Now to meet our statutory requirements, we need approval on the assessment calendar.”

“I just wanted to note that on the first page that's like an overview page, um there are two paragraphs that highlight what um will be specifically given in English for both our Spanish programming and our French programming. And I know that um in our last board discussion, we had conversations just around how we're balancing the amount of time that our students are taking assessments and getting the accurate instructional information that we need to make sure that they're thriving and meeting our metrics.”

“I wanted to thank you for how in-depth you went in the description of the tests and the tests and who is it for and what it is for all the parents who have been on the portal and their test results page going what is a reading what is CBM meeting I don't understand this is your cheat sheet for all of that so I hope we can link this description into all of the emails from principles saying you know testing season is coming this is what it means because this was really helpful.”

“I appreciate your thoughtfulness and I would just encourage us as a leadership team to keep that in mind is the assessment work the instructional time um and is a value added and then potentially and I don't know if that I can't remember off the top of our my head everything we're asking in the panorama data but it could be interesting at some point to ask a question around data because d is only going to become more sophisticated, especially once we start bringing AI in and all of these things and I can see increased pressure to keep doing more and more testing is to potentially look into which is ironic I know but collecting data on our students um level of stress with the amount of testing and making sure that we're um hitting that right balance at least from a student perception perspective.”

“We needed to revise the practice to um reflect what we're able to do. And so we have revised the language. Um so the district will provide a written plan to each each site as it reads before this addition. um it's much more comprehensive and is not reflective of what we do in our system.”

“Because so much of our student data is electronic and this was a little outdated that um we're not lessening any security, it's making sure that our policy reflects really the times um that are here right now.”

“We really needed to tighten up use of ex exempt absences to more closely align with how the Department of Education would expect us to utilize them.”

“Each secondary site must develop and maintain a sightspecific party plan with clear procedures for implementation and monitoring. this is a a different language than what is presently in the policy um and more closely aligned with what our practice is right now.”

“I know that attendance is something that we do hear from um from time to time about just staying on top of that and and enforcing policy. And it's also something that if you pay attention to the state or national conversation, many school districts, if not all school districts are grappling with that.”

“I believe that new language around tardiness will be really helpful because then one of the things that I will do as a means of monitoring it is making sure that each building does have a tardiness plan in place that is known and is being monitored.”

“This policy was specifically around uh a student uh being violent with a staff member. And so we re we've revised language or recommending revisions to make sure that the policy is actually reflective of that.”

“So by removing that um it gives me pause a little bit. Um because I'm just thinking about our staff members um and their safety. Is there another policy where that is addressed or is this MSBA's recommendation or a legal re recommendation?”

“And this also doesn't prohibit us from sharing that information. And that's why I said sometimes practice is different.”

“In a perfect world. teachers will know about that because they play a huge role as you know in trying to um make sure that doesn't happen anymore and watch for signs of whatever the conflict is.”

“It is not doing any harm and that it could be helpful for um site level administrators um and giving a little framework around homework expectations for parents and students if they have questions um around too little homework, too much homework, which is our guess as to how this policy actually came into existence.”

“We did want to clarify that we added some um verbiage at the very end under D um Roman numeral 4 D. Um just to make sure to acknowledge that not all students learn the same way and we did not want the policy to feel punitive.”

“Teachers and actually last year as well that they um really appreciate this policy and yet there were not necessarily defined clear um steps for families and students to take if they did want to opt out of an assignment or an activity because of religion.”

“We actually collaborated with the high school staff on this one um starting back in the fall. And that staff included um Principal Pillean who's the head of the science department where this comes up um the most within physical earth science.”

“Does this policy align with the statute that was passed by the legislature last year regarding reading textbooks and reading texts um and religious exemptions?”

“I have to first and foremost say that uh none of this would be possible without all of our teachers who have been involved in our committees and it just happens to be teacher appreciation week. So, let's just give them all a shout out.”

“The proposal we have before you and I even have letters from the curriculum companies saying that regardless of the state standards, if we stick with uh the 2011 standards or move forward um to the new standards uh regardless the resources that have been recommended here um actually align with both and so we are not in a situation where we would need to do an overhaul um either way.”

“The teachers who have been such a key piece in this process are super eager to get started. They recognize that they need updates. They are eager to get new resources in their hands so that they can have a better aligned curriculum.”

“Here's the good news, right? And and it's really realistic. So you asked questions about some of the um assessment overload on students and we also have to think about the overload of curriculum adoptions on teachers and our K5 teachers are all uh getting new um reading literacy curriculum next year and so with that they are that curriculum has three units that are aligned to social studies standards.”

“We've got Jaime's team who is poised and ready to work through some of that. Um, really, really helpful in implementation science processes to have a team of early impleers go through it first.”

“Thank you for addressing the background and that no matter what is decided, this curriculum aligns with our next step. So, I appreciate that. And then I I really appreciate the additions to this report, like just the background, the context, the why. Um, I know that was extra work. So, I really appreciate that because it just helps us make the best decision.”

“Minnesota laws allow intermediate school districts and special education cooperatives who don't have their own taxing um jurisdiction or authority to access the tax base of their member school districts um so that they can generate long-term facilities maintenance revenue and keep their facilities in a state of good repair.”

“The D's proportionate share of this long-term facilities maintenance revenue will be $143,737, which is a 75% increase over taxes payable in 2025, directly offset by a reduction in lease levy um revenue for the same year. Overall, it's a difference about of about $995 from pay 25 to pay 26.”

“There was an effort to clarify some more clarification around when we can charge for tuition. And so I just wanted to point that out to board members that that there was additional verbiage added.”

“There's we're fast approaching the May 19th um closing of the session. Um there are a lot of education bills that are up for negotiation and um and could have significant impacts the public schools and other public schools around the state.”

“So, we have a call to action to contact our legislators and Senate um Senate and House uh education finance committees to hopefully preserve some of the uh funding mechanisms um that were involved in the 2023 session and some of the other things in the out years.”

“It's a busy time of year in April and May for our students, families, and staff. So, just honoring the work that they do each and every day, and I'm grateful for the work and the care that they put into it.”

“And this is a collection that actually was in the Southville Mall dating back to 2019. Uh and it was with an organization called the Art of Edina. And it was the philosophy and mission to promote community art in public spaces.”