This is a project that starts long before December so starting usually end of October beginning November our fifth graders they start researching local charities that help the people in our community each student chooses a charity that they really feel strongly about and then they write a persuasive essay.

Not only has this service learning project helped teach our kids how to conduct research write persuasive essays and count money but it also helps build empathy and just to Echo what Heather said um no adult nor I don't think any of the kids kids um had a dry eye when they watched that video with the pinky swear Foundation.

My kiddos uh go to Cornelia obviously and they always love the the craft fair and it's it's always a great event so I just want to say thank you guys for for doing that and um it's just a great program and really happy to hear about it.

Professional development is crucial for our Educators and the direct impact that it has on our students is um UND it's really hard to to state the full impact that um we see when our students um reap the benefits of strong professional development... the phase one educators will most of them right will have new teachers and when I say phase one that's um K through three teachers as well as special ed Educators and um a great majority of them will be done with letters um PD by the end of this year.

My question is on the timing of this additional day in April um I know specifically at the secondary level when you're getting kids ready for AP tests Etc taking one more day out of their their class time can be impactful so just wondering if um why a I mean you sort of explained why April but is there an opportunity to shift to a different part of the year.

When we look at any month there are unique challenges with it but you are absolutely right that the spring becomes um complicated with all the testing going on across the system so if um what we're doing today is discussion and then we do have this coming back to the board for approval in June if the board does approve the request then we do need to sit down with the calendar committee and really look at the best date um considering all those factors.

We want to start conversations with Edina resident families as early as possible... we took a look at our early childhood screening appointments and found that um appointments were booking up really quickly and a couple months out which was a really just a clue that you know what we should really look at increasing our capacity in order to better serve our families as well as again increase these opportunities to begin a conversation with our families.

We're going to have a track for parents and we're going to have a track for for students because we know from our student research that kids really want to know what their middle school experience is going to be like... they want to know are they still gonna have a good time are they still G to have activities and field trips and opportunities to socialize and know that middle school is going to be more than just work work work.

I would love for us to continue on the efforts and the resources that might be needed for this for us to remain proactive and engaged through the entire process for all the categories you talked about... I'm concerned about how we keep going and keep giving you or enabling you with the resources so you can continue to be successful in the areas that we need because this is only going to get harder.

The most significant thing that I would say [about competitors] is that they've got the people to be able to execute... there are certain things that I saw and have experienced right in my shopping experience that were just fun and and someone spent thousands of dollars to make happen um some of the things that happen on an ongoing basis aren't that expensive a drip email campaign but you need someone to be able to do it.

Under the general statement of policy um I was wondering if it should include um it says the district will meet all state and local construction requirements and I was wondering why we don't include Federal um for things like the American Disabilities Act it just seemed odd that it was only state and local... I would just never want anyone to think if they're looking at it that we're not following federal law so which I know we are I just I thought it was worthwhile to include that.

A lot of the state statute is derived from from federal guidance and were we to um have construction approved by the Department of Education there's a whole review and comment process that we have to go through um they would be lining that up against federal law as well.

I was wondering if you could explain under 4D um an indiv it says an individual with a disability may not be required to provide documentation such as proof that the animal has been certified trained or licensed as um the animal and I was just wondering is that under the law or why that was added... and then the only other question I had was um I didn't know if it should be added to this policy or not but I was wondering if we wanted to make it clear somewhere that any trainer Handler of a service animal is required to comply with all background checks or any other checks that volunteers are required to do.

That comes out of the law and I believe that it was case law that that determination was made... I think that's a good point um and maybe what we can do is follow up and find out the correct place for that whether it's within this policy or maybe it is covered by another policy as far as human resources goes or under our visitor policy.

I was wondering if this would be the appropriate policy for somewhere else to talk about maintenance of pools and specifically stating that all of our pools are maintained subject to federal state and local laws like the the Minnesota State Pool code to make sure that we're letting the public know that not only is our equipment our our lifeguard all of these things up to code but our actual pools are up to code... I do think that it is a good thing to state to the public that we maintain our pools to code for state law and any local if this is the appropriate policy it's totally fine with that I just think at some point it would be good whether it's in a building grounds policy or something to make sure that we are not only doing that but that we're stating that we do that.

I would recommend that it doesn't need to be cross referenced I think that it stands alone in its proper bucket... a12 doesn't specifically name pools it just mentions the health and safety plan in general um which is kind of an umbrella term um and also future proofs the district for future laws that come into place and would keep our policy modern.

I was wondering if under section four under r VI and use of video and electronic surveillance in the first SE first number one when we talk about video surveillance will be viewed by School District Personnel um do our school resource officers count as school district Personnel or do we need to clarify in our policy that um our school Source officers and or law enforcement can view our video surveillance if need be... I'm just wondering if since we are stating who can access it if we need to state that or if it's obvious that if there's a something happens that law enforcement can access it.

Whenever it would require the need to have an SRO involved then that is when they would bring in the SRO... it's always Administration that is providing that information it's never the police department that's just going in to review that information so as the policy stands right now it's it speaks accurately to what happens um how how the policy is administered and if you um we could look at it to see if that would bring greater Clarity to the public if we need that.

The board really values the partnership that we get to have with APAC and um we really appreciate the opportunity to respond to the requests and to work in partnership with you um moving forward... based on recommendations of hiring a cultural liaison for um an American Indian cultural liaison uh hopefully a lot of the issues that were brought forward will be able to be addressed.

I have been in contact with some members just because I I am dependent we are dependent on our APAC to help advertise the position so that we can get the right person into the job... when the time comes that we do have candidates that we can interview I will be reaching out to the APAC to see that if we can have parents that are available to join on the phone call the interview that would hopefully be face to face.

The school board values its relationship with our American Indian parent advisory committee and thanks the members for their collaborative input and their work on behalf of the district's American Indian students and all Edina Public School students the district looks forward forward to partnering with APAC to implement the initiatives that are described in this letter.

The district is a member of intermediate 287 a Cooperative School District that supplements a number of our programs um that are offered in the district... State Statute does allow them to um kind of piggyback on the member district property tax basis in order to generate long-term facilities maintenance Revenue in order to access those funds member districts must agree to do so by board resolution.

The team 100% of the review team actually rated the overall experience with study sync when they were piloting as favorable... the package will um be in front of our uh middle school students with a high level of rigor in some new and exciting text and then applicable responses to activities in both a digital way and a traditional paper and pencil way... through a strong partnership with the study sync team as well as our business office we are able to be creative with funding and split the cost of the materials across two years.

One of the things that really struck me was how we talk about younger grades learning to read and older grades reading to learn and this program seemed like a very strategic approach to how do you read to learn and it's applicable to not just the language arts classes but you could take those strategies and apply them to a journal article how do I read a scientific magazine.

I have been so impressed with our Middle School language arts experience and the curriculum that they've that they've had so I'm thrilled to hear that they really liked what this new product has to offer as well... I really appreciate the work that our English language arts team have has done previously but also as they move forward... the thoroughness of the process that the design team went through to come to that recommendation and how you laid that out in the packet um was outstanding.

I'm not a huge fan of this I think it's the right thing to do from a budgetary perspective um I'm concerned about Schoolboard elections getting lost in the regular year elections with everything else that people are voting on so I would just implore the community of Edina to make sure that they still pay attention to our School Board elections um that they don't get lost in the shuffle of other larger races that are going on during even years and that as much as possible people resist the urge to um politicize and line our school district elections with the political races that will be going on um our Schoolboard races are supposed to be nonpartisan.

Board policy 403 covers the discipline of School District employees... we had a thorough conversation in a prior work session about adding some additional information to this board policy particularly around the idea of adding definitions to Aid the reader to understand specifically the um some newly added drugs that are prohibited by this policy... the board's policy committee uh met and added a section three definitions um you can see added the relevant drugs and alcohol uh to this particular policy.

I wanted to share this with you because it really highlights the power of eps programs such as unified program and the Spanish language liazon to ensure that all EPS students can be successful in reaching their full potential we are so lucky to be in a district that prioritizes these types of resources and it is so powerful to see how they can lead to a truly inclusive environment when they work together as intended.

My son bold printed underlined loves school he cheers when it is Wednesday morning and he knows he will go to the ELC he sings songs from class all the time tells her family about how wonderful his teachers are and wants to read the books they read in class... he fell last weekend at the playground and asked if I would get Kim to give him a hug he recently told his grandma that Mary Ellen was his best friend.