[0:00] and what the impacts might be I know you might not know 100 but what we're what [0:06] you're looking at for again Public Schools okay well I'll get started maybe with a [0:11] policy partner all right the change and so in Minnesota [0:16] um employees public employees have the right to organize into marketing units under the public employees Labor [0:23] Relations Act commonly referred to as hellra and Powerade also defines what is [0:30] what's considered a term and condition of employment in terms and conditions of employment are considered mandatory such [0:37] as a bargaining one of the policy changes that came out of this most recent session is that uh stamping [0:46] ratios were added as a term and condition of employment prior to this [0:52] the number of personnel that an employer a public employer um [0:59] employees it was actually considered an inherent managerial rights and that has [1:05] been changed under this new um policy to whereas stacking ring shows [1:11] it's no longer an inherent manager though right meaning that it's now the subject of amandatory subject of Harmony [1:18] so standing ratios applying to all public employees um and of course all School District [1:25] employees the policy change also went up one step further in the case of School [1:32] Employees and added adult to student ratios in classrooms and student [1:38] Personnel ratios to terms and conditions of employment [1:43] and in Edina for many years the school board has approved the class size you [1:52] know a double two student ratios class items minimum and maximums within our [1:57] school district but those things will now also be the subject of bargaining [2:02] the last thing that was added under terms and conditions of employment is [2:08] actually student testing which is something that hasn't been part of a mandatory subject of marketing in the [2:15] past maybe I'll ask Dr Woodard to actually talk about what Financial impact [2:24] and the financial impact at this point is as director Shaw mentions relatively unknown we're still Gathering data and [2:30] making our best projections um Sonia covered the rest of the material very development and [2:35] comprehensively I'll just add that I believe that e-learning days and how we operate those other districts are also a [2:41] tournament condition and also those terms and conditions apply to all of our own units I think the teachers unions [2:48] are getting the headlines for this one but it applies to all groups [Music] great thank you [2:54] the next piece I believe will go to both of you as well has to do with unemployment initiatives [3:03] on the policy side of that so prior to May 28th um 2023 when this new law went [3:11] into effect School term employees in the state of Minnesota so meet the people that work [3:16] nine or ten months per year have not been eligible for unemployment insurance [3:22] during the summer months and that that was changed during this last legislative [3:29] session specifically for non-instructional employees and what [3:35] we're hearing in the news a lot is hourly employees that's the language that they're using but deed which is the [3:40] agency that oversees unemployment has been very clear that what they're they're really they are looking at it as [3:47] instructional employees and non-instructional employees within a school district and so non-instructional [3:54] employees will be eligible to apply for [3:59] unemployment during the summer term of course um unemployment Minnesota decides [4:04] whether or not they are eligible that is not something our school district has [4:10] any uh authority to make that determination so [4:16] in the school district that not instructional employees typically means our paraprofessionals whether [4:24] um uh classroom paraprofessionals or or special education paraprofessionals our [4:29] bus drivers um we have nine and ten month clerical positions within the school district we [4:37] also have health services Associates within the school district that work on [4:42] school term schedule and then although in a Dyno we subcontract for [4:49] nutritionalist services in place in many school districts that would also include [4:54] nutritional food service employees as well and so [5:00] um what that means is that after the school year ends the people that fall in [5:08] this category can apply for unemployment life unemployment workspring for all other employees throughout the state and [5:15] then of course assuming that they don't have another job in the summer which may prevent them [5:21] um from receiving unemployment they they'll likely be eligible for that as [5:27] well and that includes Community Education exactly Community Education [5:34] absolutely Dr Stanley so our nine-month Community Education [5:41] yeah so the way unemployment Works in terms of the compensation to the individual seeking that assistance it's [5:46] based on their average weekly wages um for the previous calendar year um for a maximum of 12 weeks most [5:53] employees will receive about 50 of their weekly wage to a maximum of 857 per week [5:59] again for the 12 weeks and that would also apply to winter break and spring break I believe and not just the summer [6:04] terms the district's maximum exposure per the eligible employee groups would [6:09] probably be around 1.2 to 1.4 million dollars the state did appropriate a 135 [6:15] million dollar fund to compensate school districts for this that fund is supposedly meant to last to fiscal year [6:21] 2027. whether that's true or not or whether that would be enough funds is to [6:26] be determined thank you both um my last item was the paid Paid Family [6:34] Leave Act and I'm not sure who is the best [6:41] um yes I I can I can speak to the policy portion of this so this one is set to go [6:49] Bismillah um is set to go into effect on January 1 2026 so we still have a little time to [6:56] figure out all the details but it really the idea is that they've been talking about this in the state for a number of [7:03] years now is to set up a system that's similar to unemployment [7:10] insurance for people to apply for wage [7:15] benefits When um it's necessary for them to miss you know uh be absent from work for having [7:23] having a baby taking care of a family member for their own serious medical [7:29] condition those are the the largest largest ones follows along very closely [7:35] with the FMLA Family and Medical Leave Act which is a federal act however this [7:41] of course provides wages as well family and they have MLA the federal Family [7:46] Medical Leave Act provides for job protection and it provides for [7:52] um your employer must continue your insurance just like you were working but [7:57] is actually unpaid leave it doesn't provide any wage replacement during that time and so the Paid Family Medical [8:04] Leave Act the Minnesota law actually will also provides wage replacement in a [8:10] very similar manner to unemployment insurance and it's the maximum length of [8:17] paid benefits annually for an employee would be 20 weeks with a qualifying event [8:25] um and the qualifying event would have to be at least seven days um absent and then all employees would [8:33] be eligible for this benefit after not after they work for the employer for 90 days [8:41] in terms of the financial impact the way this works is the state's going to set up a trust and the trust will be funded [8:46] by employer and employee payroll deductions and so the maximum contribution from the employer will be [8:52] point seven percent of all taxable wages that the employer pays out so for this [8:58] school district that's going to be about eight hundred and thirty thousand dollars per year potentially that we would have to contribute to this trust [9:05] thank you so we know that there are there are specific education related [9:12] pieces of legislation that happen but this is good examples of how other parts of what is happening over at the Capitol [9:18] will also affect our schools and I didn't know I don't we're not going to have a budget conversation now but [9:25] um I wonder if it would be helpful to just kind of explain the time frame of when things are going to be shown to the [9:31] board as we're in budget planning mode right now absolutely if you refresh the [9:37] board book tomorrow at about noon or before end of day you'll see a budget document that details our bird process [9:44] what happened at the legislator legislative session excuse me and also each of our funds depicted in a [9:51] governmentally accepted Italian principles in that format so although details should be available tomorrow and [9:56] there were some information presented at last week's special meeting so check that out as well okay thank you [10:03] so at this time I'll open it up for questions if anybody has a question you [10:08] can raise your hand we'll be very informal about this [10:16] go ahead I have a question about this radio ratio Staffing regarding the class [10:23] sizes so who's gonna are you understand that now is the the board and now we'll [10:31] be depending on if they unionized or how is how it how we will what what how who [10:37] will decide and not the size of the classes now so ultimately the school board approves [10:44] the collective bargaining agreement that's brought before them so so the way it works is with all different employees [10:52] within the school district is directly ordered and I sit down and and go through negotiations with the employee [10:59] group with their with their designated team um following once we reach what's called [11:06] a tentative agreement between the two teams then the employee group takes a [11:13] vote and if they that vote passes it's called the ramification and then at that [11:19] point the that proposed agreement goes to our school board for final approval [11:26] the school board is of course included however all through the entire process [11:31] they're updated they provide the financial parameters for the negotiation [11:36] for our negotiations team and they will be a obviously included in any type of [11:42] Staffing would show a discussion as well [11:49] my question was kind of similar around the part that went with that [11:55] um with the bargaining unit deciding testing what does that mean does that [12:01] mean if they decide you don't want to spend so many days doing testing will no longer do maps or we'll no longer do [12:09] um fast Bridge or I mean what does that mean so with the read act we legislation says [12:18] that we are required to use in our particular place we use fast for a child [12:25] um so when it comes to our comprehensive literacy screening that that will need [12:31] to continue we know that the Minnesota comprehensive assessments are required by state law so that will still have to [12:37] continue we use other assessments right so um we capture data via Panorama for um [12:45] social emotional well-being we capture an information we capture or we'll begin [12:51] capturing um information starting with some schools and some grade levels for the [12:57] cognitive abilities test the co-get [Music] um really looking at talent development and natural abilities [13:06] um and so those pieces are negotiable and we as as [13:13] um Dr Saylor said um she [13:18] mostly her in this particular case but Mark will be there as well um we'll continue to work with Union [13:24] leadership to negotiate those pieces but when it comes to our literacy efforts [13:30] is now a state statute with the breed act and so we will continue using [13:37] Church thank you are there any other questions sure I [13:44] have a question about um so if you're able to recoup some of the funds that you've invested in [13:49] letters what um is your plan to reinvest that in the [13:55] school or do you have to go back to the education fund or do you work with them [14:00] to create a new plan or do you expand your training and [14:06] yeah so there's it's a great question and it will allow us to just continue to [14:12] fund but really those funds would go come back they'd go into the general fund we actually have a plan like I said [14:18] we are so fortunate to just be in a really good position like this so we what redex says is that [14:25] by next year we need to have our primary teachers as well as interventionists [14:31] um trained we have been in the position where we've been doing that training now and actually our early childhood [14:38] teachers as well we've been working on that training now since 2021 so we're really in a good position we don't know [14:44] how much we're going to get reimbursed but we do know that we are actually [14:49] moving to begin letters is is primary Aspire is for intermediate moving into [14:58] secondary up to 8th grade and so we're actually going to be moving into that training with some of our intermediate [15:05] teachers um by 2027 teachers Early Childhood through eighth [15:11] grade need to be trained and again we're just in a really good and unique [15:16] position that we have so many of our teachers trained already so those monies come back we could certainly use those [15:23] that refund to go to work some other expenses they will come back to the job [15:29] you know okay so they could go for it [Music] [15:36] well we know that we're committed to continuing our efforts so but when they [15:42] come back in they do go into the general fund okay [15:47] Sarah another question um for 9th through 12th graders is anything [15:54] being done for those kids that have slid through um can that funding go to [16:01] to bump their system up reimbursement funding is that your [16:07] return to yeah so um first of all we actually just really you can tell I'm [16:13] really proud of the teaching and learning team right because uh they moved fast Bridge [16:18] into ninth grade already and so we've already been using fast bridge in ninth grade we've already been able to support [16:25] students with their reading and just really excited about what we're seeing with that [16:31] teaching learning is also brought to the board um for just initial review our [16:38] comprehensive 9th and 12th grade literacy plan and once that is approved then we're able to to see you know what [16:45] we will need to do we've actually added a for for this coming school year we've actually added a reading course at the [16:52] high school level so this is a commitment that we already have when it says that those funds go [16:59] into the general fund that's just because the funds came out of the general fund without specific funding [17:05] being set aside for it but we do plan to continue our operations and fun [17:12] as well it sounds like we have some really good things money coming in and other things [17:19] that are going to require money going out I know that we'll see a fuller budget picture tomorrow or later [17:26] um overall is it a net positive or people pleased with the outcome of the session or do you feel like there are [17:33] maybe some misses of things we didn't get that we wanted that's a great question [17:41] first of all I just a superintendent I've never even say that I'm not excited that we now have 47.8 of the special [17:49] education cross subsidy coming in that's a huge event I mean that is a tremendous win and that is something that our [17:56] students were down there advocating for and it made such a difference you know [18:01] we have additional unfunded mandates and we won't know [18:07] the true impact of those until 2026 for exposure or every District won't know [18:14] the impact of um unemployment so what happens with the new unemployment it's [18:21] also reimbursed right so we we have to have money set aside to pay that out [18:28] first and then and then we'll submit for a reimbursement later and so it's about cash flow right yeah they have those [18:34] money so that you can set those aside um we won't know the impact with class [18:40] sizes until we go through the negotiations um [18:46] we have a class range and if we went with the lowest numbers in our class [18:51] range it requires significant number more teachers which requires significant more [18:58] funding and so we are incredibly excited for the for the cross subsidy we're [19:04] excited for four percent two percent we are really excited for the um [19:12] the tied to general fund to inflation because what that guarantees us is that [19:18] we know we will get nothing less than two percent there were years I've been in education for a really long time [19:23] there were years when we got zero percent they were years where we actually in education gave back to the [19:28] state to help them fund other things um and and we will receive no more than [19:35] three percent the great thing is we can start to plan out and budget in a way that other [19:42] businesses are able to do that because we just never knew where we were going [19:47] to be at that stabilization is the key to all of it which was [19:53] okay when is the next negotiating period starting with the teachers [19:58] um it starts with Summer oh [20:06] yeah does anybody else I have a good question do you have a mentorship program for your student [20:13] um students on your board as they as they go through they can mentor the [20:18] younger students to be leaders in that advocacy I think so I think that that's [20:24] our hope a lot for this coming school year that's not a big effort we that is one of our big hopes for this coming [20:30] school year as we're seeing the importance of student voice on this committee and the importance of making [20:36] sure that we are continuing to grow this group and use our students as the [20:46] as the ones to influence the school body right and to help shape what this looks like [20:53] looks like I'm sure there's such a learning curve too for for those students so learn all the aspects of what [21:07] I had no idea about like the status of Education policy within Minnesota and [21:13] like being on the community it's definitely opened my eyes to show that like education education finance and [21:19] especially policy is extremely complicated and I think it's like it should be a necessity that everybody knows and having like the new members [21:26] and we Mentor them but that's even more educate more educated public and we can [21:31] like talk about these issues more like explaining it in like more lead terms and it would just make more sense [21:38] thank you so much yeah sorry it definitely was a learning curve regarding um [21:45] well just following bills and speaking to Representatives as well just um [21:51] putting everything in terms that you can understand as well as when we had like younger students with us especially [21:56] making sure that they were um they understood what was going on as well as speaking to the representatives and [22:02] having that opportunity to voice their concern as well as support yeah it wasn't just the representatives [22:10] of this District as well they did they did a lot of Outreach efforts for other people in the education plans committee [22:16] and those types of things that um so you're you know obviously we converse a lot with our Representatives directly [22:22] but the overall community structure they did a lot of work with those folks as well so that's a great exposure for them [22:30] and next year we hope to have Dr Woodard give us another class on education [22:36] funding because [Music] let me thinks the more members of our [22:42] community the more students and everybody understands that we're all better [22:49] well if nobody has any other questions we will adjourn this evening thank you so much for coming once again we'd love [22:56] it if you'd like to um keep in touch with us at the Lac we will be posting our breakfast again next [23:02] year we'd love to have your name so we can reach out thank you [23:11] thank you so much