Edina Public Schools — Transcript

Tuesday, January 7, 2025Analysis complete

3 Topics in This Document

EPS 2024 Resident Survey Results

Superintendent Search Process and Timeline

Academic Calendars for 2026-2027 and 2027-2028 School Years

Full Extraction
Approved unanimously
Informational presentation; no vote required
No formal vote; board consensus to proceed with four search firms for RFP, with detailed recommendations at January 21st work session
Informational presentation; calendars will be discussed at February board meeting and voted on for action in March
Board consensus to postpone winter retreat
Informational; no vote required
Approved unanimously

I see new faces now on the School board this is probably only my 20th iteration of the ad school board over the years

Peter Letherman, Morris Letherman Group [0:21:34]EPS 2024 Resident Survey Results Presentation

the survey says and I'm going to start the caveat up front for those that have been on the board you can see the trend um that happened between 20 and 21 okay public opinion on quality on education as a whole it's apples and oranges to compare it back to what it was before the pandemic

Peter Letherman [0:25:31]EPS 2024 Resident Survey Results Presentation

the typical drop right now is about 35% from what the excellent rating was to what it is currently there's only one school district that actually has a higher excellent rating today than they did before the pandemic everybody else the norm drop is about 35%

Peter Letherman [0:26:07]EPS 2024 Resident Survey Results Presentation

high taxes right at the top that is a 2020 2 change that we saw um everybody got their assessment in the spring of 22 and they were happy uh things were up 20 25% and I swear only about five people in the entire State realized what that was going to do to their taxes

Peter Letherman [0:28:25]EPS 2024 Resident Survey Results Presentation

the key takeaway is it's an outstanding rating one of the top two uh that we have in the last two years now we do follow up with those that say some or very few and say what students what type of students learning needs are not being met it is the underachiever it's the struggling student

Peter Letherman [0:31:17]EPS 2024 Resident Survey Results Presentation

a question on the Texas um because this is their statement that it wasn't asked correct where you gave them choices this is their statement they didn't necessarily differentiate between the high taxes related to the school district versus the overall tax bur that their experience in property tax

Board Member [0:29:50]EPS 2024 Resident Survey Results Presentation

the core no uh you have 16% disagreeing with that the norm last year and all the referendums we worked on uh was 30% core no um it's get that's getting to the high side which is why we only saw 41% of ref funding requests passed last year

Peter Letherman [0:41:39]EPS 2024 Resident Survey Results Presentation

the goal now is increasing the enthusiasm uh by showing them you know what they value the broad curriculum the success of the students uh the academic quality all of those sorts of aspects

Peter Letherman [0:52:28]EPS 2024 Resident Survey Results Presentation

there's a fundamental dissonance on education funding yes they are more confused now than ever on the adequacy of funding um it is driven by the governor and the legislator's Victory laps in 21 and 23 um and then at the same time hearing District after District making Cuts

Peter Letherman [0:58:44]EPS 2024 Resident Survey Results Presentation

our district is seen as a marquee District across the state of Minnesota and a desirable place to work that came up time and time again

Board Member (Governance Committee) [1:14:02]Superintendent Search Process and Governance Committee Update

the second bullet point there is that our board is seen as a function desirable board to work with um and you don't have to you know I'll just leave that there

Board Member (Governance Committee) [1:14:29]Superintendent Search Process and Governance Committee Update

the average superintendent search in Minnesota is actually three and a half months um with most lasting between three and six months

Board Member (Governance Committee) [1:14:55]Superintendent Search Process and Governance Committee Update

I personally would like to have a more local candidate in the sense of someone that knows the context of dying out the state of Minnesota um the City's metro area for me that might be more important than someone who's been a superintendent the already in wiconsin Iowa Illinois

Board Member [1:24:20]Superintendent Search Process and Governance Committee Update

similar to the last search the candidate we got was a person who had experience in all that context had not been a superintendent yet but was ready to make that jump for me that I think would be more important

Board Member [1:24:40]Superintendent Search Process and Governance Committee Update

I would say add them as as a fourth component for you guys to kind of work through figure it out and then come back with you know your top what you think is right

Board Member [1:27:02]Superintendent Search Process and Governance Committee Update

we don't even know what date we're talking about at this point so you know we that's a big thing out there that will certainly play a role in our next steps

Board Member [1:36:03]Superintendent Search Process and Governance Committee Update

I appreciate you acknowledging the different board parameters that we put for both the special services as well as the um diversity in terms of different cultural beliefs population um I've seen that now the last couple years and it's like you can see it clearly as it's lated there

Board Member [1:52:06]Academic Calendars for 2026-2027 and 2027-2028 School Years

one of the things too that we have learned it's been a great cultural learning experience for us too is is although we have we placed Ed on here we won't really know when ID will begin until probably a week or two before the actual date

Sonia Sailor, Executive Director of Human Resources [1:54:41]Academic Calendars for 2026-2027 and 2027-2028 School Years

I think went back to that balance right it's like it the goal also was not to every year have one group be somewhat if you allow disadvantaged by the choices that we're making

Board Member [1:55:25]Academic Calendars for 2026-2027 and 2027-2028 School Years

I'm waiting for some some high schooler to create an AI package that does this for you there was a great business opportunity there for anyone listen outside the table

Board Member [1:52:29]Academic Calendars for 2026-2027 and 2027-2028 School Years