[0:02] welcome everyone this is Stacy Stanley superintendent of Edina Public Schools [0:08] and I really want to say thank you so much for joining us um this evening for [0:14] our community input session about budget reduction reallocation Revenue generation or our Burg process [0:22] I'm really excited to have you here um your voice is so important as we go [0:27] through this process a couple of weeks ago our business director Mark Woodard [0:33] shared with the school board that we currently would have a four million [0:41] dollar shirt fall if we kept everything exactly the way it was all the Staffing all of the expenses [0:48] everything like that this year and we moved it into next year [0:54] um and we received the same same uh income if you will receipts that we have [1:02] received and so tonight is really an opportunity [1:07] to really provide detail to the community we've had a couple of other face-to-face [1:14] sessions and next week if you choose if you just think oh I really need to get to a face-to-face session we do have a [1:21] couple more face-to-face sessions um available and that those will be or [1:26] those sessions can be found on the website under our finance budget 2024. [1:34] website so we're going to go ahead and get started [1:39] and um it would be great if you could just type in the chat give us an idea of who [1:48] is in the room so if you go ahead and just type in the chat and [1:54] um it'll be great for everyone to get an idea of who is in the room [3:00] all right so just to give you an idea for how we will connect with one another [3:06] tonight there is a chat box um in YouTube as you're coming in on [3:12] YouTube and that's how you will submit um information but I'm going to go ahead and get started [3:18] um because I want to let you know that all of the decisions that we are making around budget are driven by our vision [3:26] and our mission you know our vision is for each and every student to discover their possibilities and Thrive and we [3:34] have certainly worked hard over the past 18 months to really start to bring in [3:40] high quality programming uh to whether it's steam or whether it's [3:46] the Dual language Spanish Immersion or whether it's our comprehensive literacy program uh to make sure that each and [3:53] every student in our district is discovering their possibilities and thriving and then of course we have our mission [3:59] our missions that Edina Public Schools is a dynamic learning community [4:05] delivering educational excellence and preparing all students to realize their [4:11] full potential through academics activities and opportunities we encourage creativity we [4:18] Foster curiosity and develop critical thinking skills we support every [4:23] student's educational Journey by creating a caring and inclusive [4:28] School culture that supports the whole student so again [4:34] our vision and our mission when I'm working with my team that is driving any [4:41] decisions that we have to make um as we look at budget reductions or [4:46] reallocations or as we really try to be creative and look for Revenue generation [4:52] as well so for this evening this is the general [4:59] um agenda we're going to use a process called irot in just a couple of minutes our business director Mark Woodard is [5:06] going to come on and he's going to provide some information you know overall information about where we are [5:13] with our budget that I stands for information then we're going to give you a chance to provide your reactions again [5:20] those will come through the chat feature and any questions that [5:26] you might of the chat link any questions that you might have [5:32] um you'll be able to put those in there and mert and I will be able to do our best to answer those questions and then [5:39] the O stands for options or ideas and and what we want to hear from you during [5:45] that time is what are the priorities that we need to make sure [5:52] um we focus on and so what are the what are the must-haves what are the items that we we should not take off the table [6:00] um if you will and then finally that D it stands for decision and we'll talk a little bit [6:06] later about a timeline and and how that decision is made uh mert is going to [6:11] talk about education funding particularly in Minnesota he's going to go over uh generally our forecast for [6:19] fiscal year 2024 with the general fund and then again we'll have an opportunity [6:25] um to hear your reactions and to answer questions so at this point I am going to [6:31] invite our director of Business Services Mark Woodard [6:36] uh onto the program thank you Dr Stanley good evening those [6:42] attending virtually tonight pleasure to be here um before getting into the Edina specific discussion tonight I'm going to [6:48] speak a little bit about education Finance in the state of Minnesota which will provide greater context for [6:53] tonight's discussion I would also like to remind everyone at this time that for more detailed information please visit [6:59] the business services page at edinaschools.org where you'll find the district's most recent financial statements and also the most recent [7:05] truth and Taxation presentation both of which will provide much greater detail than what you'll hear from us tonight [7:12] foreign overall public education Finance in the [7:17] state of Minnesota is extremely complex not only is it super regulated by the legislature the majority of the funding [7:23] is also tied to very complex formulas that aren't easily understood by the public or those even working in [7:28] education the easiest Revenue source to understand is the basic education formula this is a [7:35] Formula that's given to every school district across the state of Minnesota and it represents about 47 percent of [7:41] this District's general fund Revenue so the district structure and programming are super sensitive to any changes to [7:47] this formula the calculation here is extremely simple it's a per pupil allotment that's [7:53] multiplied by the number of students we serve on on any given day while the formula allowance is a stable [7:58] source of Revenue we found that over the past 20 years it doesn't keep up with inflation and the rising costs of [8:04] Education as you can see from the chart that's displayed right now over the last 20 [8:09] years the formula has increasingly lost value to inflation to the point where if the formula had been tied to inflation [8:15] since 2003 we would receive an additional 1263 dollars per pupil above [8:21] and beyond what we do now which represents about 11.8 million dollars for the Edina Public Schools that is [8:27] greater than the unassigned fund balance that we ended the previous fiscal year with foreign [8:34] you're going to sense the general theme of inadequacy as we speak tonight in one [8:39] area where that's extremely apparent is in the broken special education Revenue system not only is the special education [8:46] Revenue formula extremely complex there are about 78 different calculations actually that derive the revenue more [8:53] importantly it's extremely deficient in the 1970s the federal government mandated that a certain level of [8:59] services must be provided by law to our special education Learners which we really love to do however the federal [9:05] government has not fully funded that mandate and neither has the state of Minnesota and Edina the cost of our special [9:11] education programming is about 22.5 million dollars per year and the total revenue we receive is only 14 million [9:18] leaving a difference of about 7.5 million that Gap is something that we commonly refer to as the cross subsidy [9:25] and that cross-subsidy is funded from our basic general education Aid as well as local property tax dollars which take [9:32] away from some of the other opportunities we can provide to all of our students across the district [9:38] um you'll see a number of other programs listed on the the screen in front of you those are also areas which suffer from [9:44] cross-subsidies to certain degrees much smaller nature than the special education cross subsidy how are they all [9:51] add to the funding issue that we suffer from while we do strongly believe that the [9:56] state doesn't provide enough funding to school districts across the state and we are engaging our legislative action [10:01] committees in order to better that situation we have to acknowledge that we make decisions locally that only [10:08] exacerbate the issue that's because we provide a great number of programs and opportunities for our students [10:14] opportunities that each and every student does deserve however that does come at a premium price [10:20] overall the fact that the basic basic education formula lags behind inflation and that there's a significant special [10:28] education cross-subsidy that means that each each year each School District virtually across the state has a problem [10:35] of having to cut budgets simply to maintain their operations and that's no different in Edina [10:41] foreign that brings us to our projections for next fiscal year please remember that [10:48] these are initial and preliminary in nature and do not represent reality at this point in time we're taking a level Services [10:55] revenue-based budgeting approach to our budget development basically that means as Dr Stanley mentioned earlier we're [11:02] assuming that everything that is in place today meaning staff programs schools [11:07] Etc will be in place next year from there we've calculated what we think our additional Revenue will be and [11:14] also what our additional expenditures will be the number one driver of Revenue in the [11:19] state of Minnesota about 80 percent is tied to enrollment that's an area where we're being extremely conservative with [11:26] our projection as of today we're serving of about 8 500 students K-12 and at this time we're [11:32] projecting stable but flat enrollment of 8 563 students for next school year [11:38] this is a figure that will continuously monitor up until the start of next school year and we will staff [11:43] accordingly to that for the basic education formula which as [11:48] I said earlier was our main Revenue Source we're projecting an increase of two percent meaning that will increase [11:54] from about 6863 dollars per pupil to 7 000 adding [11:59] about 1.3 million dollars in revenue for next school year over the last 10 years the formula has [12:05] an average increase of about two percent um so we might be somewhat conservative considering that there's a massive State [12:11] Surplus which I'm sure you've heard about please keep in mind that every percent that's added to the formula represents [12:18] about 665 000 of additional Revenue um so it would take about six percent [12:23] from the state for us to eliminate our budget gap for next year [12:29] the operating referendum which was approved at the December regular meeting as part of our truth and Taxation [12:35] hearing is one area where we do have some local autonomy to increase our funding in 2017 the residents of Edina [12:43] Public Schools and the Edina City voted to increase our operating referendum and [12:48] tie it to inflation so for next school year we'll see an additional 229 dollars for pupil or an additional 2.2 million [12:55] dollars of additional Revenue our capital projects Levy is also one that's tied to inflation so when the [13:02] property tax base grows that Revenue Source grows accordingly and in proportion we're expecting an additional [13:08] 450 000 from that Revenue source at this time we're projecting that all [13:13] other Revenue sources will remain flat meaning that our additional Revenue in total above this year will be about four [13:20] million dollars moving over to the expenditure side staff compensation accounts for about 80 [13:27] percent of the district's expenditures that makes it the key driver of any changes to expenditures overall assuming [13:35] there's no change to the number of students we serve meaning the number of Staff we employ we're expecting an [13:40] additional 5.7 million dollars of expenditures for staff compensation or about four percent [13:47] we're also assuming assuming increases to supplies materials contracted Services utilities and other non-salary [13:53] items and the amount of 1.7 million dollars or 4.59 percent in total we [14:00] expect to spend about eight million dollars more next year than we are this year offset by an additional 4 million [14:06] dollars of Revenue leaving a deficit of four million dollars assuming no changes [14:11] to our operations or Staffing again I'd like to remind everyone that these are preliminary and conservative projections [14:17] at this time do they do not represent reality and we're working very diligently as a school district to [14:24] prevent that reality from occurring [14:49] I think you may be muted Dr Stanley [15:07] sorry for those technical difficulties everyone but um we are back on so [15:14] um now is the opportunity for you to share your initial reactions [15:20] comments or questions there's a link there that says reactions in the [15:25] description box and so to do that you're just going to click on that [15:31] um on that link and then you can just start typing in as we receive them I [15:36] will go through them read them out loud and so that everyone else who is [15:42] participating in the webinar is is able to hear your thoughts and reactions as [15:47] well and also you know what questions might you have what you know what circulating through your heads right now [15:54] as you hear the information and reflect on the information that Mark shared with [15:59] you so we're just going to take a moment to [16:05] wait till everyone has a chance to get in to [16:10] that get into that link and start to share [16:16] your thoughts [16:35] and murt head uh shared earlier that if [16:43] if uh the the base funding first for our students had [16:49] um kept up with inflation we would have nearly 12 million dollars and then he also shared about the cross subsidy our [16:56] cross-subsidy for our students who receive special education services is [17:02] about seven million dollars and our students with special education [17:08] individualized education programs deserve that instruction [17:13] um they need to have that instruction and we are never going to pull back or to provide the minimum instruction so [17:20] that we don't have that cross-subsidy that would that would be an immediate if if the state funded that that would be [17:28] um seven million dollars that we would receive back and then there's another cross subsidy for students who receive [17:35] multilingual learner support and that is 1.2 million dollars we have that up [17:41] together that would be a diff reference of 20 million dollars in our general [17:46] fund you can imagine what that would do for all of to help support all the great [17:52] things I have been out talking in the community and sharing you know my vision for a [17:58] couple of years in that I want starting with the class of 2027 each student will [18:05] have had an internship they will have or an apprenticeship depending on the pathway they want to take they will have [18:12] earned a micro credential or they would have earned an industry standard [18:17] certification I have this idea that we will have a [18:23] pilot training program at our high school and so you can imagine how [18:30] just how much help that 20 million dollars would be and so I am out advocating along with my superintendent [18:37] peers yesterday our legislative action committee hosted a breakfast we had our [18:43] Representatives representative Edelson there representative you came there to [18:48] really share where the legislature is at at this point um one thing that you could do is to [18:56] contact our legislators contact representative Edelson contact representative you came to let them know [19:03] that we really advocate for that [19:10] um for the the basic formula allowance to [19:17] be aligned with inflation we advocate for the cross subsidy for special education and for English learner [19:24] Services um to be fully funded that is incredibly important for our [19:32] for our system in Edina [19:38] I don't see necessarily [19:44] um any questions or reactions coming in so [19:50] um I'm going to give it a couple more minutes because I have to believe that there are our reactions your reactions [19:57] when they come in they don't capture in this spreadsheet they will not capture your email address they will not capture [20:04] your name or anything like that um just your reactions will be captured [20:09] and then like I said I'll be able to share those out with other members who [20:14] are on the call right now and or I'm sorry on the on the webinar right now [20:22] and I believe there are nearly 20 people who are on the call right now [21:05] foreign [21:10] okay so I think we may have figured it out if you could go and refresh your [21:17] screen and then uh start to type in I think we're going to be able to get to your [21:22] reactions now [21:29] so um an individual had said thank you for the conservative approach and for [21:34] this information sessions if all things stay the same could we expect this [21:40] shortfall every year moving forward also mert do you want to talk about that [21:46] we're going to go ahead and bring mert back up on stage and do you want to talk about that [21:52] I'm not actually seeing the question could you repeat that um please Dr Stanley absolutely so the question is if [21:58] all things stayed the same could we expect this shortfall every year moving [22:05] forward also absolutely if the shortfall was not addressed next year it would simply grow [22:12] in the subsequent Year my initial projections say that a untreated 4 million dollar deficit would grow to [22:19] about 6.6 million dollars two years from now so we really need to address this potential issue now so that we avoid [22:25] severe consequences in the future one of the things that we did not talk [22:32] about was um our fund balance and um Mark could [22:38] you just talk a little bit about what a fund balance is what our policy level fundamental balances in Edina Public [22:45] Schools absolutely so the fund balance is basically the revenues less the [22:51] expenditures over time so since the district was founded on July 1st 2022 [22:57] our fund balance our unassigned fund balance was about 8.1 million dollars which represents roughly 7.4 percent of [23:05] our general fund expenditures the board policy dictates a minimum fund balance of about six percent and that fund [23:12] balance really can be seen as a savings account or a rainy day fund something that protects the district from [23:18] unintended disasters Global pandemics unforeseen expenditures things of that nature and and also it's something that [23:24] the credit rating agencies look at Edina is one of three school districts in the state and one of 93 out of about 13 000 [23:32] public school districts in the country that hold a triple a bond rating from Moody's credit rating agency that's the [23:38] highest rating possible and one that gives us access to the best interest rates rates on the market when we go out [23:44] for debt which is a direct benefit to taxpayers of the district so it's really important that we maintain our financial [23:50] stability not only for the current year but for generations to come [24:20] thanks for that mert I apologize for that [24:26] you would think that being going through the pandemic and everything I would know to unmute myself [24:33] um so if you I apologize for the delay in your ability to submit your reactions [24:38] questions um if you still do not have access to that if you just go ahead and refresh [24:44] your screen you should be able to have um editing access and you would be able [24:50] to go ahead and send those uh questions comments um initial reactions in to us and again [24:57] we don't see the email we don't see a name all we see are the questions or [25:04] comments okay so what other [25:11] initial reactions might you have before we move on to the next level which will [25:17] be um what we really want to hear from you and that is what are the priorities that [25:23] you want us to um consider um you know what what are the items that [25:29] we absolutely cannot take off uh the table from your perspective [25:38] we'll take it one more minute and then we'll go ahead and transition into the [25:46] next question [26:06] okay I do see [26:12] oh okay so um an individual wrote I did notice that [26:19] I couldn't submit if I wasn't logged in to the Edina account and so [26:26] I want to see here um the way we do have that set up is that anybody should be able to access [26:32] that um who has the link um [26:41] how about if you try to refresh one more time [26:46] and hopefully that'll bring that up for you [27:32] all right so what I'd like to do is to have you start just thinking about [27:39] what are those priorities that you hold um from your perspective as a member of [27:46] the dining Public Schools Community maybe you've heard some things from your [27:51] children maybe you have some very specific things that you have in mind maybe you are a a grandparent and you [28:00] have some ideas and so if you could just take a minute to think about that [28:07] and in just a moment I'm going to invite you to begin to submit your priorities [28:14] and ideas into that using that Google form that's Linked In the description [28:20] box we'll give you a couple of minutes and we'll come back together [29:14] okay so again you are going to select the link that says priorities and ideas [29:20] that's in the description box and you should be able to go in and just start typing in what those priorities are and [29:30] uh we'll go ahead and be able to do the same thing like we did with the reactions and uh share those out again [29:36] this does not collect email addresses it does not collect names and so it will be [29:41] completely anonymous [29:47] so we have our first comment coming in [29:55] and um [30:00] the comment says there is still see here okay there is still learning [30:08] gaps with students from the 2020 to 2022 school year [30:13] and would like for the priorities to have more staff in the classroom and not in the roles that aren't outside [30:20] of the classroom students need more support with direct support there needs to be transparency [30:27] on roles that aren't involved with students directly [30:34] okay that's great those those are that's an example of exactly what we're looking [30:40] for so more Staffing in that's working with students directly [30:47] as opposed to um as opposed to Staffing that's work that [30:54] doesn't work with students directly um question here how how can we bring [31:01] Volunteers in the community to come in to support small groups and working with students with Reading Writing and math [31:08] skills I built in each month several half days [31:14] uh to get out into the schools and you know make certain that my presence is [31:19] out um in the schools and it really helps me to see what's happening in our schools I [31:24] know that I've met volunteers who are in helping um is that Concord and uh there actually [31:32] was a grandma and grandpa that were in helping to support small groups I would say reach out to [31:39] um the principal of your school and let them know that you're interested [31:46] um another what are the budget priorities to retain high quality teachers keep class sizes low thank you [31:54] that's exactly the type of uh priorities and what we're talking about we are [32:00] interested in hearing from the community [32:11] so please just continue to enter the priorities and I will continue to uh you [32:18] know read them out as we receive them so that you can hear what other fellow community members are are thinking as [32:25] well thank you [32:33] again to to you're going to click on the link that says priorities and ideas in [32:39] the description box and that is the link that you'll be submitting the information in [33:14] foreign [33:28] not seeing any additional priorities at this point [33:35] um I went back to check the list of reactions initial reactions comments questions as [33:42] well and I don't see any additional information in there either [33:50] give it a few more minutes and then [33:55] oh here we go [34:03] so it reads Edina has a high percentage of [34:09] staff that have been in the district for a long time a majority of these staff have master's [34:16] degrees or above I have had students go through the district and the staff that have had a [34:22] lot of history and experience in the district are a huge priority how can we make sure that we are able to [34:32] retain them um so some things that we've started this year that is a phenomena with with [34:40] education in across districts and superintendents we are meeting about [34:47] that as well but one of the things that we are really looking at that we've started in the district um in particular this year is [34:54] um focusing on the wellness of staff and so [35:00] um we have a district-wide wellness committee that has uh quite a few people [35:05] on it Dr Anne Marie Leland our director of Community Education and strategic [35:11] Partnerships is the project to lead and she has a smaller group an executive [35:16] group executive committee that consists of community members um [35:22] I'm Kathy rendelman sits on there we have teachers we have nurses it sits on that sit on there and then the wider [35:30] group for the planning consists of teachers administrators you know really folks who are in our schools working [35:36] with our students every day and we're getting feedback from them you know what are some things [35:42] um that can allow you to continue to heal as the pandemic was very hard on [35:51] everyone and especially hard on the Educators who were right there working with students and so some things that [35:57] we've done that we've received really positive feedback on we had a you are [36:03] super um day in schools where each school we [36:08] sent out soup out to the schools and that's where the super comes from staff really said that they appreciated that [36:15] most recently we have had massage therapists that have been in the schools [36:21] I was out in schools the other day and Countryside Elementary I was there and [36:26] actually they said hey there's there's an open spot in in one of the massage [36:34] um chairs would you like to take one I said nope we're going to save that for teachers but um that is something that [36:39] staff have said that they are really really appreciative of as well um we are also um surveying staff [36:48] um to find out what will benefit them and then we're really working with administrators to make sure that we have [36:54] a strong culture and climate you know in any regardless of the industry that you [37:00] work in we know that morale impacts retention and so we are really working [37:05] on that morale great question another I more statement [37:12] but high quality teaching staff support services for students in Wellness very [37:17] concerned about the mental health of students absolutely um you know we continue to look for ways [37:26] to make certain that students are able to have access to Mental Health Services right on campus at the high school [37:35] um and then we're also looking for ways that our students can have access to [37:41] those Mental Health Services in our other campuses and so we partner with the Dyna education fund and we are so [37:49] grateful for their monetary supports to help seed the onboarding of mental [37:56] health practitioners and then we are able to continue with that which again [38:03] is really important for our students and important for why we really need to hone [38:08] in and focus on uh getting the monies for our cross-subsidy as well as [38:15] um that basic formula um being aligned with inflation [38:21] um we actually are about to start serving our students we use panorama and the [38:28] Panorama survey has some questions in there that um help focus on and let us know how our [38:34] students are doing with with their mental health and that is really important data that we are now able to [38:41] track year over year to really determine if we are making progress and supporting [38:46] our students another question how do you balance the ability to be Innovative in programming with [38:54] needing to fund basic core needs of students um that is a great question and I will [39:02] tell you one of the ways that we do that is through a great partnership with our [39:07] Edina education fund for instance this fall we were one of only 39 districts [39:16] around the world to be accepted the only in Edina to be accepted to participate [39:23] in the student space flight um experiments program and that is the [39:31] Innovation that we want to see with steam programming uh Edina education fund actually uh funded that application [39:38] it was uh 27 000 we had um 175 more than 175 teams of students [39:47] participate fifth through 12th grade in addition to that I mentioned that a [39:52] dining education fund is really helping us with to support our mental health [39:59] needs of our students and um it is the it is through those [40:05] Partnerships that we're able to do this uh in addition to Dyna uh education fund [40:12] is also supporting our comprehensive literacy plan efforts they have uh supported our efforts to work on [40:19] dyslexia by helping to fund getting our teachers trained in the [40:25] letters training which really hones in and focuses on the science of reading so you know we have to look for creative [40:33] ways as mert said um we Define excellence and we expect [40:39] Excellence for our students you know in the state constitution it says that in [40:45] Minnesota uh schools are are expected to provide an adequate education while any [40:51] dyna for Generations we've provided an excellent education and we're continuing [40:56] to look for creative ways and Partnerships that allow that to happen [41:02] so another comment that came in is [41:09] um the district is doing a nice job with balancing the budget with District goals [41:14] please continue to keep the transparency open to the public absolutely you know [41:20] we have a website um if you go onto our website and you type [41:27] in 2024 budget in the find it fast you will come to a link to that website and [41:32] you will able you will be able to get updates for that um we will continue to give updates at [41:38] the board and then continue to provide updates to our administrators so that [41:43] they can share those with the community as well here's another statement I've had [41:50] students that have received special education services please do not cut [41:55] back on the supports in place currently schools are short paraprofessional staff and that has a negative impact on [42:02] students how can we continue to make the focus uh I'm sorry to make the focus [42:08] student-centered it seems like there's has been more special education leadership roles at the district level [42:14] that weren't always there one of the things um so [42:20] um our former director Jeff Jorgensen retired and I was able to hire Jody [42:26] rumsing who came to us from wyzetta public schools Jody has an extensive [42:32] background um in the area of special education and once she came in one of the things that [42:38] she spoke with me about was the need to really have very specific secondary leadership supports and very specific [42:45] Elementary leadership supports that is how we will continue to elevate our [42:52] special education programming I will say this I firmly believe that our special [42:57] education students deserve the supports that they're getting and we will not hold the back those supports that the [43:06] team identifies that they need and so when I say that we have that seven [43:12] million dollar cross subsidy that's not to say um that we would ever pull back or try [43:18] to save money there it is to say that we are are advocating to to [43:24] um get the funds to make certain that our our students are you know their IEPs are [43:30] funded um another question would there be any consideration for any public or private [43:37] Partnerships for programming classes that could offset the cost [43:42] and is that allowed for public schools so when it comes to actual general [43:48] education special education classes you know teachers have to have license unlike private schools you know [43:56] oftentimes they don't have to have um those specific licensures in their [44:01] area oftentimes they can bring in you know organizations that are providing [44:07] supports but as a public school entity we are required for teachers to have [44:13] licensures um and that's important because uh someone [44:19] said earlier that our most of our teachers are hold the master's degrees we have many teachers that are [44:26] nationally board certified which means that they could go and teach in any [44:32] state in the United States and they are nationally certified teachers are very well rare it is a very comprehensive [44:41] rigorous process that you have to go through to become nationally certified we need and want the teachers within our [44:50] system to make sure that we can continue to provide an excellent education so no [44:57] we aren't able to build those for General instruction now what I will tell [45:03] you is that um one thing that is part of my vision as we move forward is 612 Pathways and [45:12] that aligns you know with the vision I have around apprenticeships internships micro credentials and Industry standard [45:19] certifications and um Dr Leland our director of Community Education and business Partnerships is [45:26] out there building Partnerships with local businesses major businesses to [45:33] make certain that our students will have access to those internships and those apprenticeships that does help that does [45:39] enhance that classroom learning experience [45:45] thank you I'm going to check and see if there are any other initial reactions that [45:53] those who are participating shared and I don't see any right now [46:00] give it a little bit more time and then I'm going to transition into what our [46:06] next steps will be this is all incredibly helpful [46:11] um I you know if I do a quick summary knowing that we have to do a deeper dive [46:17] into this qualitative data it is you know we don't want class sizes to be [46:24] impacted we want to be able to keep our high quality teachers [46:29] um you know figure out how to continue with [46:34] Innovative programming using some creative um strategies because that's important and [46:42] um continue to be transparent and continue to provide quality special [46:47] education services give it a couple more minutes before we [46:55] move on to to let you know what the next steps will be [47:06] and again you can submit initial reactions or any priorities ideas that [47:12] you want us to focus on as we um move forward in looking at budget [47:18] reductions or reallocations or Revenue generation [47:42] while we're waiting I will just say again that um to struggling [47:47] encouraging them would be um just very grateful if you would reach out to um your your representative in [47:57] the legislature to let them know just how important it is um for us to be fully funded for the [48:03] special education and English monor cross subsidy and um for the [48:10] base funding formula that we receive to be aligned to the [48:17] aligned with inflation that just makes again such a difference and as mert said with aligning the base formula with [48:25] inflation alone we would have nearly another 12 million dollars [48:31] to help serve our students [48:38] okay um a couple more [48:43] statements here that I see um just great information and appreciate [48:48] the responses and then the pathway ideas wonderful and an amazing opportunity for [48:55] so many students you know we are feeling that same type of energy right now with [49:01] our work on Pathways we actually had the Stanford design school come in to [49:08] provide some professional development to our design team which by the way includes students across our secondary [49:15] schools in fifth grade because that student voice is so important and so we [49:21] are as excited we know that this is going to allow us to innovate on and [49:28] Elevate um you know our quest to Define Excellence [49:33] so thank you for for those comments [49:43] and I think what we'll do now this is what I will say those [49:48] um reactions uh you'll be able to con as long as you keep the link you'll be able [49:54] to continue to submit your reactions even after um we are done this evening and you'll [49:59] be able to continue to submit your priorities and ideas even after we're finished I only ask that you submit them [50:05] by February 1st we are going to take just all of this qualitative data and [50:11] begin examining it on February 2nd so please if you didn't get a chance to put [50:19] information in using the links go ahead make sure that you keep them and you can add that later so now we're going to go [50:26] ahead and talk about what what are the next steps so we started Martin I started our [50:33] community feedback sessions on Monday we will run [50:38] these through February 1st again their site um level of course we have our virtual [50:44] um this evening if you again did not Garner the information that you were [50:50] hoping for we do have a couple of more uh sessions next week so on Monday [50:56] January 30th from 6 to 7 PM we will be at Valley View Middle School cafe [51:03] um our honed in focused is the Valley View and EHS communities but these [51:08] sessions are open to anyone in the community and then on Wednesday February 1st from 6 to 7 PM we'll be at Highlands [51:16] and uh really targeting the countryside and Highlands communities in just the [51:22] same they will they are open to anyone so please if if you're interested in coming face to face because you just you [51:30] feel like you need a little bit more information please do join us so then [51:36] starting like I said starting February 2nd through the 9th we are going to do a deep dive and analyze all of the [51:42] feedback that we've collected and then develop an overall summary [51:48] um you know we're going to be looking for themes and patterns that we're seeing we will put that into a [51:54] comprehensive report form that uh that includes a set of administrative [52:01] recommendations and that draft of those administrative recommendations will be posted in the [52:08] school board packet on Friday February 10th uh for the February 13th school [52:16] board meeting and then that will also be posted on that website that I talked about earlier the fiscal uh year 2024 [52:23] budget and planning web page so you'll be able to Garner that information at [52:29] either of those uh either of those places and [52:35] on February 13th the board will go through the information they most likely will have additional [52:42] questions may give us some feedback may tell us to go back and you know work on [52:47] a few things and then we will bring the final recommendation to the board at the [52:52] end of February with the goal of having uh the recommendation for the Berg [53:01] by March 1st so again thank you so much for joining us [53:09] this evening we really appreciate you taking out your time we know that you're incredibly busy and [53:16] um I said before we use our vision and our mission to drive all these decisions and at the Forefront of our vision and [53:24] Mission is our students and our teachers so thank you very much I should say [53:30] students and all of our staff including our teachers thank you very much and have a great evening