“I think it really speaks to the partnerships that are alive and well in Edina and how fortunate we are to have such to be a part of such a generous community... we are truly a better system and a better district because of your donor.”

“While this update begins to capture many accomplishments across our district, it clearly reflects the depth and breadth of our success, our collective success and our commitments. We are well positioned to build on these strengths and chart a bold path forward grounded in our community shared values and guided by the ambition vision of those making sure our strategic plan happens well and right.”

“I would just like to extend a thank you to everybody that works here, volunteers here, all of your kiddos here um for the excellence... it takes a village to make that excellence happen.”

“I have anecdotal observations that the number of the nature of the requests has changed. So I'd hear about some requests like right before I joined individual citizens of Adina seeking specific information. What I see more now are requests from organizations who probably only respond to a bid. So they want to know how much we've spent for XYZ services um for some period of time.”

“If you want to know how much we've spent on busing services over a period of time, that may or may not be easy. um someone might request, you know, copies of all of your invoices and check registries. And what I do in those instances, especially when you kind of get a sense for when you're one of potentially dozens of people who are being asked the same information in some of those requests, I go back to them with an estimate of how much it would take for MERT to access all that information and they're oftentimes not quite as interested.”

“when it comes to mandated reporting of child neglect, um that is something that is is incredibly important in our in our system and it's really important that so having those citations embedded in the policy in this case is is just very helpful for the worker.”

“the existence of this policy is um to bring the district into compliance with code of federal regulations that require all local education agencies student learners policy... the district is meeting its obligation to the federal requirements of promoting either the reduction or the prevention of childhood obesity as well as promoting physical activity for all our students.”

“we really tried to parse out um what should be in policy versus what are administrative tasks and that's why you'll see less as far as the policy implementation piece and monitoring piece.”

“I think that that is um a good point. Um, and I guess the reason why we're recommending that it be struck is while I can't identify something specific that we do to identifying those signs um, at this particular moment, this is actually not it's a requirement that we don't need to do as a result of an active shooter drill.”

“an active uh shooter driller simulation um includes law enforcement being involved um some some type of stimulation. Um and we just don't do that. Uh we follow the byst standard response pro protocol which really focuses on getting students and staff into rooms that are locked, lights are out and shades are drawn and everyone is is quiet.”

“I know we talked about that on policy committee last year that we're a district that doesn't do active shooter drills but the verbiage of what is in here now are things I would think we would want whether it's health teachers whether it's um advisories talking about how do you be a good how do you look out for somebody that and it doesn't even have to be a school shooter. It could be deforming themselves or risk a suicide.”

“To me it seems like it's not appropriate for the emergency management policy. But when we talk about our student wellness, not of course what we just renamed, which was the food part, but the actual mental health and well-being from that standpoint, there's some components of this that I think are probably more more appropriate in that area on top of just from a policy standpoint.”

“this resolution has been reviewed, vetted, and recommended by administration as well as the finance and facilities committee. It has been discussed by the board at the June 1st and 2nd board retreat, the June 9th work session. We had a public hearing earlier this evening, and now it is up for action.”

“thank you for considering the administration's recommendation to extend our operating referendum um from taxes payable in 2028 to 2037 which is going to provide the district some long-term financial stability.”

“anytime you're um seeking authorization for levies and things like that that it's always the intention to want to come to the community and ask for that reup and so on so forth. this particular situation given the nature of this levy what it's been for many years as as director talked about in his previous presentation this has become sort of a standard across public education throughout the state of Minnesota so this is in line with pretty much every other district throughout the state is not an outlier and the legislature in its wisdom decided to say hey let's not add on the cost of another election that we need to run in order to at a high probability that the that the community would support this.”

“school districts are not allowed add anything on to what they're already paying. And so again, that's really want to be clear with the community to say this is not increasing in terms of adding additional, it's keeping the same thing for an additional amount of time.”

“in order to access long-term facilities maintenance revenue, the school board must approve both a 10-year revenue and 10-year expenditure plan, which will allow the school district to maintain um the very important investment that community members have made in the district over the last 100 or so years and to continue to maintain the buildings in the state of good repair for the next 100 years.”

“so our our overall debt and capital plan can be as neutral from our taxpayers as possible. only do that um through the way we structure our principal interest payments and both non voter approved and voter approved debt.”

“Future years, we'll be in that 25 to 24 range. And in fact, um, four to five years from now and even beyond that, you'll see some significant step downs, which will give future boards the flexibility to either add facilities or to better um, and improve current facilities, which are purposes that are not allowable to use maintenance.”

“I've just appreciated the collaboration um and the continued focus on the good capital here in uh AD public schools and I'm just grateful for the continued discussions around how I can add to the already well done work. Looking forward to it.”

“when you look at goal number four, ensuring a seamless leadership transition. And this was really important when we had our our um retreat um and as we were defining not only our goals which is this is our number one goal for the school board but um also having Dr. Whitman's expertise not only as a superintendent but also in his um other capacities that he's had in his career of recruiting and hiring um for other districts uh superintendents. I just want to just talk about the the collaboration between those two.”

“I'm appreciating cabinet and I'm resonating with Director Woodard's remark. We are as busy if not busier in the summer than we are any time of the year.”

“It's especially nice today because we also had Nate Swenson and Paul Pzel uh weigh in and and were invited and part of some presentations because of the good work and the focus areas uh here in Edina public schools.”

“I don't know that I was ready for being in the parade anytime, but there were hundreds and hundreds of children uh and grateful. I was particularly uh entertained when a high school student grabbed a bunch of candy, took what he wanted, and threw the rest back to us.”