CompletedEdina Public Schools - School Board Regular Meeting March 3rd, 2025

Edina Public Schools - School Board Regular Meeting March 3rd, 2025

Date: Tuesday, March 4, 2025 at 2:45 PMActual: Tuesday, March 4, 2025 at 2:45 PM

The Edina School Board's monthly Regular Board Meeting!

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Published Tuesday, March 4, 2025

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e e e e e e e May March 3rd and we do have a quorum so I will call this meeting to order the first order of business is agenda approval do I have a motion to approve the agenda for tonight's board meeting so moved second we will vote to approve our agenda all those in favor say I I any opposed tonight's agenda is approve Dr Stanley will you please review tonight's agenda for us and the community yes chair so we have excellence in action really excited about that this evening and then we may have hearing from um members of the public you have a few consent agenda items to approve we're hearing about our uh social studies curriculum adoption our budget parameters um and then um you have several policies for review and then for Action we're moving to adopt the literacy curriculum um din public school's academic Calendars our achievement integration budget the American Indian education program vote of concurrence and there are several policies that have moved to action stage as well leadership committee updates superintendent updates and um there is information only um in the board packet as well thank you this month's excellent in action will feature examples of team instruction at the Normandale Media Center our guest speaker is lanaa West Normand Dale's media specialist and I believe we have some third and second graders with us today and I'd like to welcome up to the microphone viven putz Alicia vermani Max Dixon Wilder laase and Jack Papa John thank you all for joining us here tonight you're welcome you're welcome Mercy I should have said Mercy Mercy come on up here Alicia come on up here okay um thanks to their these adorable kids um families for bringing them up here to share their great work that they do um at school so uh if you take a look our first slide kind of describes what a library media center is for us and we know that libraries are the heart and soul of a school for literacy development and that means that we grow great readers uh we are a hub also for things like creativity and Innovation and one of the things that we like to practice is how to empower our kids to be the innovators of the future and that is through our steam experiences our design thinking and our coding experiences with um a we're piloting a new kind of um way to do that this year here so we have our first guest is Alicia and she's going to tell us a little bit about what we work with and we work with Legos maybe some of you have heard of them before Legos in schools is a little bit different than working with Legos at home um we know that it helps them become problem solvers critical thinkers it helps them work on their creativity and collaboration and when we say collaboration are we talking about working together or working apart together we're working together Alicia can you tell us why you like to work with Legos I like Legos because I can use my imagination to code and if I make a mistake when I'm doing a build I can easily fix it and learn from it thank yo…

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Topics Discussed (10)

Excellence in Action: STEAM Education and Coding at Normandale Media Center

K-12 Social Studies Curriculum Adoption

Fiscal Year 2025-2026 Budget Revisions and FY 2027-2028 Budget Parameters

Policy Review: Four Policies for Discussion

Elementary Literacy Curriculum Adoption: Benchmark Advance

Academic Calendars for 2025-2026, 2026-2027, and 2027-2028

Achievement and Integration Fiscal Year 2026 Budget

American Indian Education Program: Vote of Concurrence

Policy Approval: Eight Policies for Action

Board Leadership and Superintendent Updates

Full Document Analysis
Approved Unanimously
Information/Presentation Only
Approved Unanimously
Discussion Only - Action Deferred to Next Month
Discussion Only - Action Deferred to Next Regular Meeting
Discussion Only - Action Deferred to Next Month
Discussion Only - Action Deferred to Next Month
Discussion Only - Action Deferred to Next Month
Discussion Only - Action Deferred to Next Month
Approved Unanimously
Approved Unanimously
Approved Unanimously
Approved Unanimously
Approved Unanimously
Information/Updates Only
Approved Unanimously

I like Legos because I can use my imagination to code and if I make a mistake when I'm doing a build I can easily fix it and learn from it.

Alicia Vermani [Student]Excellence in Action: STEAM Education and Coding at Normandale Media Center

I like building something that I think looks good and making a story about it sometimes I have a story and build something that goes with it.

Vivian Putz [Student]Excellence in Action: STEAM Education and Coding at Normandale Media Center

I like to figure things out and... I just put a coding block up and I press go to see what it does before I make a code.

Jack Papa John [Student]Excellence in Action: STEAM Education and Coding at Normandale Media Center

Libraries are the heart and soul of a school for literacy development and that means that we grow great readers... we are a hub also for things like creativity and Innovation.

Lana West [Media Specialist]Excellence in Action: STEAM Education and Coding at Normandale Media Center

I have more of a comment first of all I'm very impressed that all of you came tonight to to share your stories in front of us and the community of Edina and I just wanted to let you guys know that my daughter started coding and doing Legos about your age and she just came back from the regional Edina robotics tournament um for the high school.

Board Member Ellenberg [Timestamp]Excellence in Action: STEAM Education and Coding at Normandale Media Center

We've been doing some deep work um looking at the resources that are being recommended in this report and looking to see if standards would revert back to Old standards so 2012 standards still aligned if updated still aligned.

Bethany van Ael [Assistant Director of Teaching and Learning]K-12 Social Studies Curriculum Adoption

We found that there was a very big energy around connection to literacy um K5 alignment across all six sites accommodations for multiple levels of learning styles and increased opportunities for those depths of knowledge in the content and common assessments.

Jamie Hackinson [Dean, Creek Valley Elementary]K-12 Social Studies Curriculum Adoption

The print to put print in front of our Learners thinking about the literacy aspect to that and having them have it in their hands having something they could write on they could cut apart they could take home they could share um in their learning.

Jamie Hackinson [Dean, Creek Valley Elementary]K-12 Social Studies Curriculum Adoption

The standards really will the interpretation of the standards is really what guides our our work in terms of that component of it... our curriculum then is complementary of that right that's kind of we I I like to use the language it's like our vehicle right it's like our vehicle of delivering that.

Bethany van Ael [Assistant Director of Teaching and Learning]K-12 Social Studies Curriculum Adoption

I think I've said that with Ela also um so I think that really getting to the essence of what those standards truly do drill down to what guides usk you for that clarification so I it's just I'm trying to inform myself and anyone else for that matter so it's really the standards right that are then promoted and and dictated by the legislature and mde in terms of what will then come from that um and so any questions or challenges or changes to those standards that then don't reflect maybe what we all might want to value and put as for what we think is appropriate again using an example of US History um that's really where the argument needs to be made as opposed to in what you guys are doing in your interpretation is that fair to say.

Board Member [Timestamp]K-12 Social Studies Curriculum Adoption

As good as the administration might think it is at at budgeting as new and better information does come along we do like to continually revise those so that we have the most accurate information available for both decision- making at the board level as well as informing our public.

Mert Wooder [Director of Finance and Operations]Fiscal Year 2025-2026 Budget Revisions and FY 2027-2028 Budget Parameters

Luckily um our Revenue estimates were quite conservative we budgeted in a very conservative Manner and so even with that pration we're still likely going to exceed actual Revenue in terms of or against what we budgeted so that's good news and kind of why we maintain that conservative approach.

Mert Wooder [Director of Finance and Operations]Fiscal Year 2025-2026 Budget Revisions and FY 2027-2028 Budget Parameters

The financial position of the district continues to be stable in the short term with um budget reductions looming in fiscal year 27 or fiscal year 2028 at the latest this additional one million does not change that trajectory at all.

Mert Wooder [Director of Finance and Operations]Fiscal Year 2025-2026 Budget Revisions and FY 2027-2028 Budget Parameters

I don't have a question director Woodard I just wanted to thank you and the rest of the finance team for um being fiscally conservative especially in the times that we have right now where there's so many unknowns and um being so spoton with your um assumption that you've made and I just really appreciate your diligence to our finances so thank you.

Board Member Ellenberg [Timestamp]Fiscal Year 2025-2026 Budget Revisions and FY 2027-2028 Budget Parameters

The policy is um very well written quite vague which is I think the intent um anytime a non-personnel injury or liability occurs on School District premises the um injured party I guess their insurance is always primary unless the district could be proven to be negligent and I think this policy achieves that General um sentiment.

Mert Wooder [Director of Finance and Operations]Policy Review: Policy 534 (Emergency Health Situations and District Insurance Limitations)

The federal law would supersede our our um District policy so we would go and revise it so that it would be an alignment.

Jody Remsing [Director of Student Support Services]Policy Review: Policy 535 (Education of Homeless Children)

We were having some discussion like could you read into this right sending out Facebook post so um and again we landed on the the policy itself does not change or confuse administrators in in any way and that was the concern the committee had and since there wasn't any um concern about us having the policy or conflicting with um any advice from any other um League that we wanted to keep it there just to make for clarification for parents and we also didn't want to send a message by removing it that where it's open season for recruiting in Idina.

Board Member Ellenberg [Timestamp]Policy Review: Policy 517 (Student Recruiting)

I think it's most often applied just in conversations with um activities an Athletics director Troy Stein um that it's often applied in the the realm of Athletics and given our leadership of Athletics became another reason why we wouldn't want to remove any kind of protection if you will or any message that this is something that we take very seriously.

Staffan Edwards [Director of Communications]Policy Review: Policy 517 (Student Recruiting)

The one substantive change that was added is um in relation to an exigent circumstance existing that that would essentially supersede the requirements of this policy so as a tangible example our um if law enforcement were to come to the school because of a suspected um threat where there is imminent danger um that they would be allowed to take the steps necessary to intervene um without following the standard protocol of this procedure so it's a very narrow um circumstance that would allow that to happen.

Nate Swenson [Assistant Superintendent]Policy Review: Policy 519 (Student Interviews by Outside Agencies)

Benchmark Rose to the surface was many reasons mostly it was a comprehensive um program which meant that they had components of all of the reading rope that were already baked into the system... the is program atalante was that companion program that helped fill that need um so those were all of those were some of many that had it just kind of rise to the top and again unanimously across the board with all of our teachers on that committee Benchmark was the number one choice.

Bethany van Ael [Assistant Director of Teaching and Learning]Elementary Literacy Curriculum Adoption: Benchmark Advance

I'm going to say as we've been early implementing so that team has been implementing it this year the feedback on the program continues to get stronger as we go which is really incredible not only that but we're seeing impact on kids already um and so kidss are engaged the writing is so rigorous kids are writing more um writing more um deeply than they have in the past and teachers are very excited with that.

Bethany van Ael [Assistant Director of Teaching and Learning]Elementary Literacy Curriculum Adoption: Benchmark Advance

I want to make sure people understand that this curriculum is going to be used for tier one instruction which is for all students in the classroom and we've been talking so much about our literacy plan I do not want community members to think that we're changing materials in our literacy plan for intervention that this is a new curriculum to replace our existing tier one curriculum.

Board Member [Timestamp]Elementary Literacy Curriculum Adoption: Benchmark Advance

I did take a peek at winter data and it's looking really strong so I think we feel really confident well we have to adjust on purpose sure but that's an incredibly great rating from mde even though it's not the highest rating and it's a good fit for our students which is what we're looking for.

Board Member [Timestamp]Elementary Literacy Curriculum Adoption: Benchmark Advance

We're making a change to our connect and assess days at the elementary level to rather than have those be the Monday and Tuesday of the first week of school to actually have them be on the pre preceding Friday the Friday of teacher Workshop week and the Monday of um the first week of school with Tuesday being a day for our elementary teachers to be able to spend time really assessing um and reviewing the data that they've collected over the course of those two days before elementary students arrive on Wednesday.

Nate Swenson [Assistant Superintendent]Academic Calendars for 2025-2026, 2026-2027, and 2027-2028

In the state of Minnesota um you can start before Labor Day if you have construction projects that total a minimum of $400,000 or more so in um in accordance with the board's guiding change document um and this has been going on I believe for at least five years at this point um there there the long-term maintenance plan within our school district that that occurs to our buildings to our facilities every summer far exceeds that amount of money.

Nate Swenson [Assistant Superintendent]Academic Calendars for 2025-2026, 2026-2027, and 2027-2028

I just wanted to tell you that I appreciate the intentionality of how you've built this plan and how it links directly to the district's um metrics plan um I just I really appreciate that I appreciate how we're measuring students measuring their success um and um it's a job well done so thank you.

Board Member Ellenberg [Timestamp]Achievement and Integration Fiscal Year 2026 Budget

They thought very hard about it and what they felt and wanted to they were unfortunately not able to be here tonight but what they did want shared with the board was they feel that we have made a very good effort and progress towards the 15 recommendations that were made last year and they would like us to keep making progress that we were towards then so they um decided to vote concurrent because of the work that is in place and a lot of the work they are extremely happy with the work that Dwayne is doing in the elementaries.

Dr. Erica Piper [Timestamp]American Indian Education Program: Vote of Concurrence

Because I think for a non-native student to be so moved by a presentation to then want to write an article and share his story with everyone so a lot about our commitment to the programming and our native students in the district.

Dr. Erica Piper [Timestamp]American Indian Education Program: Vote of Concurrence

I want to make sure that you have what you need in order to be successful with that and so not that this is a rhetorical question at the moment but it's more I want to make sure that you feel empowered that okay as you continue to work through this process and even though we did the budget just now do we still have what we need to do to continue to deliver on the commitment that Erica was talking about we have to make sure that we're supportive in that in that regard to you and your team so I just want to make sure that you know that.

Board Member [Timestamp]American Indian Education Program: Vote of Concurrence

I really want to acknowledge um the girls hocky team for any of you who were at that game it was a nailbiter it was some of the best hockey that I personally have ever watched and that's including the wild um I could not have been more proud of the girls and I know they were so dis disappointed but um to go into double overtime like that was pretty incredible so I am incredibly proud of our our um girls hockey team and hold your head up high because um you've made all of us proud.

Superintendent Stanley [Timestamp]Board Leadership and Committee Updates

It just never ceases to amaze me just the amazing opportunities their kids kids have and just the great work that they do.

Superintendent Stanley [Timestamp]Board Leadership and Committee Updates