[0:00] are already at capacity where do you expect to put these new students that come in as a result of new families [0:05] moving in in open enrollments so to sum it up we feel very passionate [0:10] that this issue needs to be addressed immediately High numbers in our schools are rutted in the city's growth Edina [0:17] Public Schools has grown fast and furiously this is not a way to make Edina a better [0:23] community we believe it polarizes us because there is not enough thought or planning to [0:28] help support and accommodate all the additional needs this creates we have all moved to Edina [0:35] for excellent schools and a thriving Community what we are seeing is a continued momentum towards further [0:41] decline to the educational results in the community that has been the result of the past educational excellence [0:49] thank you thank you next up is Carrie Lessard [1:02] hi hi everybody thank you for allowing me to speak and I appreciate it my name is [1:08] Carrie Lessard I am a former Edina graduate from the class of 1999 and I [1:14] have three children two of which are Indiana Public Schools one which will be an incoming kindergartner and yes I did [1:20] fill out my kindergarten registration form um so one my topic is about the Edina [1:28] Public School deficit so it's kind of building on what Laura and Amy just spoke about I attended the budget [1:35] meeting I believe it was the 25th of January at Creek Valley and so Dr Stanley and [1:42] mert were there and I appreciate all of the information that they shared with us [1:47] so a few follow-up questions and I understand that you won't be able to answer these but a follow-up would be [1:52] greatly appreciated so knowing that there are hot spots or hot zones bubbles [1:58] if you will in certain grade levels it it feels that [2:03] um the turnover of turnover of older families and younger families moving [2:09] into single-family homes and some high density buildings in the area not only in the creek Valley area but other areas [2:15] of Edina will put more stress on our schools [2:20] um knowing that we have a deficit this is not allowing us to really include any additional staff members to put some [2:27] relief in the classrooms and ensure that all of our students thrive so my questions are [2:34] based on the meetings the budget meetings that were attended by some of the community members when will we [2:40] understand or know what some of those proposals or opportunities are that people did not want to lose what what [2:49] the parents wrote at the on those little index cards at the end of the meeting the second is [2:55] when will we understand what the impact is of the deficit and what actually is going to be affected so when will that [3:03] be known to the public another question that I have is for the four million dollar deficit that we know [3:09] that we have were was this known or discussed during some public hearings for taxes payable [3:15] in 2023 um that was between November 25th and December 28th of 2022. [3:22] um if it was known was it discussed there um and if it wasn't uh or you know why [3:28] did the public first hear about it then in January if there was maybe an opportunity to discuss that earlier [3:34] another question is were there any larger expenses that happened in the last fiscal year that are contributing [3:41] to this deficit that we need to be thinking about for the future um and my last question is in order to [3:50] balance the budget what are opportunities that we as passion passionate parents can do to help [3:59] relieve this stress on our Public School System we understand that seven thousand [4:05] dollars per pupil of funding comes from the state of Minnesota with each student that our schools serve however the [4:11] concern is that we don't have the space thank you for your time thank you and just so you know [4:17] um the information about budget alignment was presented at our work session tonight and is presenting [4:24] um again tonight and it's in the board packet so thank you um next up is Mark um Hassan stop [4:33] I apologize for the pronouncement it's written poorly so it's not [4:39] uh good evening everyone I appreciate the time to be here today I thought it was time to put a face and a body to all [4:45] the emails I send you at midnight after these conversations uh so it's an absolute pleasure to be here uh for that [4:51] so uh anyways I have three items uh for three uh three minutes today I will be [4:56] speaking about the kids club registration process which I understand is on your docket for later uh in the [5:01] evening so the first thing uh this is an issue of supply and demand it appears that there is way too much demand for [5:07] the supply and I believe that that should be solved with increasing the wages to attract more people to work for [5:14] kids club I did some math based on the work uh session work group session from [5:19] the last meeting and found out that there's a hundred percent margin for kids club that means that if you take a [5:26] hundred dollars it costs you 50 and you get to keep 50 that goes into the Edina Community endowment so I think it's a [5:33] really good opportunity to increase the price if you do it three dollars a day you can maintain the indicted community [5:39] Community endowment and you can weigh you can raise the wage by 40 percent [5:45] three dollars a day you can give everyone that works at kids club a forty percent raise that's what I do for a [5:51] living I do Financial modeling just kind of maths my thing I guess um so that's number one [5:56] um that would also help fix the deficit with a 100 margin which is great and you'll be able to fund those that can't [6:02] afford um so that's number one that I'd really like you to do I think that the prioritization process I was designed is [6:08] being a little defeatist and you're kind of giving up on attracting more people by prioritizing and making levels for [6:13] people um based on a uh Lottery a computerized Lottery which isn't the way that I want [6:19] to you know serve my children uh second um I want to encourage you to prioritize [6:26] those in the Edina School District Beyond those that are in open enrollment [6:31] um I think that the open enrollment rules are the state of that if someone's outside of District they get a spot if [6:37] someone if there's space well clearly there's not space in the uh kids club program for those [6:43] um there's not space for everyone in Edina and there are people that are live outside the school district that get in ahead of those that live in the school [6:49] district so I'd really like you to consider uh doing that for those that live here and uh vote for you I [6:56] certainly have voted for at least one of you here uh third [7:01] um a little bit more input to the visibility uh for the participants in kids club it seems like there's work [7:07] group meetings and there's like emails every couple months uh we don't always get read in and then there's kind of uh [7:13] General statements like we pulled some people and asked them and it's like well I don't know any of those people I wasn't one of them so it'd be better to [7:20] to hear a little bit more transparency from y'all and I know it's busy so you can all do so much uh in closing uh I [7:27] want to thank you all uh because you are very responsive uh Dr Leland is just [7:32] fantastic to work with I may not always like uh what I hear from you but I appreciate the access and the [7:38] willingness to meet with me and that is very amazing Graham and Henry love Miss Jayla and Mr Sean who they've worked [7:45] with things kids club in the past and I just really want to advocate for them to have an opportunity to continue using [7:52] that excellent service so thank you for the time this evening thank you uh next up is Owen Michaelson [8:01] well it is so nice to see you all and Julie and I joked that my being up [8:07] here for the second time in as many months is my attempt to go viral so we'll see if that happens [8:14] um Owen Michaelson former School Board member and I'm here for two reasons the first [8:19] of which is I gotta State how much free time I have now that I'm not on the board it's just unbelievable I've looked [8:26] at today's packet and I glanced at it and it I've glanced at it for 15 minutes whereas I used to spend hours as all of [8:34] you do so I want the viewing public to know how many hours a week everybody all [8:40] eight people up here spend to be conscientious executors of the job of [8:45] being a school board member so thank you very much for that in the hot seat on a lot of a lot of decisions so thank you [8:52] the second reason I'm here is when I was in the board we spent a lot of time talking about inclusion [8:57] and inclusion's a laudable goal and this afternoon this evening later on you'll [9:02] be voting on the election proposal to have the city and you cooperate with [9:09] running the elections in 2023. so that's sort of a fade accomplate that's going to happen what I want to do is plant in [9:16] your minds that when you consider the next election [9:21] cycle that you think about putting these on cycle in the general election on even [9:26] years because it's much more inclusive off-cycle elections have between 40 and [9:32] 20 percent general elections almost always have 80 percent turnout that's [9:37] twice at least twice as much by definition that's much more inclusive [9:42] now inertia has its own ways habit has its own ways and so the election will be [9:47] in the fall of 2023. so but I just want to plant a thought in your mind for the [9:53] sake of inclusion to have the elections moved to on cycle [9:59] so it's so nice to see your handsome pretty mugs again see you later thank you [10:05] that is all for our speakers from the public thank you everyone for coming and [10:11] sharing your thoughts with us we are now going to move on to our consent agenda director green is going to be abstaining [10:17] from voting on our consent agenda is there anything anyone would like to remove from the consent agenda [10:25] do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved is there a second second we will now vote to [10:31] approve the consent agenda all those in favor say aye aye anyone opposed the [10:37] consent agenda has been approved we're going to move on to our discussion um items for the tonight first up is our [10:44] achievement and integration plan for 2024 to 2026. I'd like to invite up Dr [10:50] Randy smozzel and do you have a special guest with you I have three specials three I'm glad I [10:57] didn't introduce anyone then I'd like them to come up and join me maybe sadly you can sit here and Sarah and Victoria [11:04] can sit over here [11:13] thank you uh good evening chair Ellenberg superintendent Stanley our school board members and our community [11:19] members um thank you for the time this evening to talk to you a little bit about achievement and integration [11:26] I want to start off by saying that the vision of Edina Public Schools is for each and every student to discover their [11:32] possibilities and Thrive and if we key in on three words each and every that is [11:40] what the achievement and integration plan will allow us to pursue so achievement integration is a statute and [11:47] it's supported it's a supported program to pursue racial and economic integration increase student achievement [11:54] by reducing disparities and creating Equitable opportunities the plan is in [12:00] alignment with District strategies and it provides more power behind the strategies in particular to support our [12:07] underserved Scholars I'm excited to be joined by silee Amara prakar who is one [12:12] of our cultural Liaisons or South cultural South Asian cultural liaison and then we have Sarah Hinson who is one [12:20] of our teachers of avid over at the high school and Victoria Moreau who is a [12:25] senior at Edina High School and also participate in the Avid class so we'll give them a few minutes to speak in a [12:32] second tier next slide thank you uh so what I'm [12:37] going to show you is just really quickly a few highlights and details from the report I'm not going to go over all of [12:43] the report uh for the community there's a very detailed report around our plans [12:48] around achievement integration there's four different goals and 10 strategies and we'll highlight a few of those [12:54] elements this evening including our process around how we got there so uh in [12:59] the slides you'll see a little brief introduction of some of the requirements from Minnesota Department of Education [13:05] around achievement integration plans we are expiring our old plan and the new plan goes across the next three years so [13:13] we would submit a three-year plan to mde I want to share a little bit about our process of gathering input and listening [13:20] to others our various stakeholders and then in the report specifically we list [13:25] the different themes or our key learnings from those stakeholders and then that plan has goal strategies and [13:32] measurements of progress so the first three goal categories that are given to us from mde are reducing [13:39] academic disparities for underserved students promoting integration and classes and programs and diversifying [13:45] their staff and then they give us five strategy categories that we have to select from and our goal is to just kind [13:52] of identify all of those areas so integrated learning environments increasing family engagement [13:58] professional learning opportunities that raise academic learning rigorous [14:03] curriculum and Recruitment and Retention of diverse staff which includes teachers and administrators [14:09] and then the other part of the plan is to get some very specific indicators that indicate progress on implementation [14:15] of the strategies but also impact of those strategies [14:22] if you go to the next one thank you so these are this is a list of uh our [14:28] groups that we got the opportunity to speak with so we attended these meetings we ran a start stop and continue kind of [14:35] conversation talked about what's working and gathered input from over 120 stakeholders to assemble this report and [14:42] again many of the themes of those listening sessions are in the report if you go to the next one [14:50] so four key goal areas so just a high level overview of these goal areas the [14:56] first one is success in Gateway classes so what are Gateway classes they're described in the school district data [15:04] metrics plan and they really help us understand what are those powerful [15:09] levers that create access for students in their future whether they're going on to college whether they're going on to [15:15] Career or just Civic life and those particular classes are specifically [15:21] earning a certain letter grade in algebra before grade 8 or in grade 8 [15:27] getting the letter B getting a letter B for letter grade in biology and a grade [15:34] of a b in ela particular the U.S lit and comp class in 11th grade and then [15:40] passing the Minnesota Civics test so what we know from past research is that [15:45] these are key Gateway benchmarks that create access and opportunity for Learners so monitoring [15:52] really closely in particular are underserved Learners and their progress and access around those key Gateway [15:59] classes I have a fast Bridge monitoring which aligns with some of our other initiatives across the district [16:05] participation and advanced courses and again diversifying our work staff [16:11] to move on to the strategies I'm going to highlight three of those the first [16:17] one is developing career Pathways so by career Pathways we're talking about alignment of experiences [16:23] and courses with Capstone opportunities and those Capstone opportunities could look like micro credentials industry [16:30] certifications internships apprenticeships and by aligning those what you're helping kids understand is [16:36] how classes and experiences in school are a pathway to Opportunities and then on the back end is the opportunity to [16:43] partner with our business World our non-profits other organizations the city of Edina Etc to create these authentic [16:51] experiences where students are able to apply their learning and new and novel situations and show that level of [16:57] Competency from all the skills that they've gained through Edina Public Schools we also have one around family [17:04] engagement and I think I'll turn it over to siley to talk a little bit about the [17:10] role of a cultural liaison around family engagement and maybe also around professional learning support in the [17:15] school district hello everybody [17:21] um so family engagement basically we view it as both sided so [17:30] the families learn how to engage the school system as well as we are getting [17:35] the full cooperation participation and positive um participation of families so as you [17:42] know along with me my team we have Blanca this uh the Spanish-speaking [17:48] liaison abdicader the Somali liaison and Albert are Equity specialist and we work [17:55] with everybody right from zero to five at ELC to K through 12 in the district [18:02] and so we work with students we work with teachers staff admin as well as parents uh and [18:10] um so getting that piece of family engagement whether it's translating materials or interpreting whether it's [18:17] Consulting with families uh during various meetings uh whether it's staff [18:22] training about different cultures and cultural uh issues [18:28] um and um as and as I mentioned that helping families navigate the school system [18:34] whether it's at the beginning of the school year in the middle of the school year or at the end of the school year so [18:40] uh uh I I was just telling Ryan it's very hard to describe what we do because it's [18:46] on such a spectrum uh do you want me to add anything else okay [18:54] we have opportunity for uh questions at the end for follow-up uh one of the other strategies that we describe in the [19:01] achievement integration plan is a program we call Avid advancement via individual determination [19:07] and uh who better to describe what it's like to be an avid than one of our Avid students so uh can I interview you is [19:15] that okay okay Victoria here we go uh so how would you describe the impact [19:21] that Avid has had on you as a student in an avid class okay I [19:28] very very nervous um Avid has made a huge impact in my life I started Avid in seventh grade [19:34] because my friends were doing it I thought it was just going to be another class boy was I wrong it became a [19:39] community it became a place where I can be myself Edina it's pretty hard [19:45] um just to be different than the norm of what you think and in Avid I don't have to be anyone other than myself I can [19:51] come in and I know I'm accepted I know if I I don't get math very well it's [19:56] hard for me I know I can go in and I can talk to anyone and they will help me to the best of their knowledge there are [20:03] multiple students who I know I could go to and be like hey it's not clicking my brain I've gone to my teacher multiple times he's not helping me can you help [20:09] me and they will help me in a heartbeat if I have a personal problem I can come to my teachers I can come to my fellow [20:15] students in Avid and it's really become a safe place and just a home inside of [20:21] Edina High School and it is so hard being called being a high school student going into college and my Avid teachers [20:27] have helped me get into college helped me look for scholarships helped me interview for my first jobs helped me [20:33] write my resume helped me pay my taxes like they have done everything under the sun for me and it's all because of avid [20:40] and it has opened so many doors for me and it has changed my life in so many ways [20:49] that was super powerful and you did it all without notes so I'm very very impressed because I have my notes here [20:56] that I keep refer to so the second question I'm going to ask you is so what [21:01] would you tell a younger student who's thinking about joining Avid what would you what would your advice to them be [21:08] I wrote notes for this too but I'm not going to look at them um actually this is a personal story my little sister is an avid she is ninth [21:15] grade at United high school and she did not want to do it she hated it she still [21:21] does not want to do the class but I tell her you have to stick with it like my ninth grade year it was hard for me I [21:26] didn't want to do Avid either I was like oh it's just another credit but then as the years move on you grow with the community you build and you create a [21:34] family there and you click with people and I've had opportunities to meet people I would never talk to otherwise [21:39] and I just tell her like you have to stick with it and she's already met people that she would never talk to otherwise and I know that when she I [21:48] know it's hard at first especially because she wants to finish all her credits and then have a nice clean [21:54] schedule senior year but if you take Avid and continue to take Avid you will reap the benefits Avid keeps you on top [22:01] of your work Avid gets you this is gonna sound kind of cliche but it gets you money for college like a lot good money [22:07] for college and it gets you good skills for college it might suck at first but [22:13] if you stay with it you will reap the benefits 100 percent [22:19] I think you should continue as a public speaker because you're very very good [22:25] and we need to give you the microphone more I'm going to turn it over to Sarah to talk a little bit about as the [22:31] teacher of avid what are some of the experiences that you've had what do you what do you see as the impact on a [22:37] broader group of students and anything else that you'd like to share with the board about this program that we use [22:43] achievement integration to fund and so that's why we're doing these interviews [22:49] um I would just say that I've been working in Avid in Edina for over 10 [22:54] years and in that time I've had the privilege of working with many students [23:00] and walking them through their High School experience helping to create a community to support them as they [23:06] worked to be their best selves I pushed them we push them to do their best work [23:12] to develop skills for college to push themselves an expectation in [23:19] Avid is that every student try at least one AP class at some point in their high school and I we're to the point we might [23:25] be able to say every but we're certainly close to each and every student is doing that we have four full cohorts [23:31] at the high school 9 10 11 12. um but I've also had the opportunity to watch them then our our belief in Avid [23:39] is that we're not just about getting into college we're about getting out and I we have at former Edina Avid students [23:46] all over the metro in grad schools and law schools and working in public policy [23:52] and doing all kinds of amazing things these are students who are often the first in their family to go to college [23:59] and I think I know they would say because I've we just had a panel come [24:04] back recently but they would say that Avid and what they were able to do through Avid change just the trajectory [24:10] of their lives and sort of their family's lives so it's been amazing to be a part of and watch and um [24:17] we're definitely helping students navigate A system that doesn't always feel welcoming or open to [24:24] them and and go all the way through with it [24:30] I had the pleasure of sitting down with Sarah and doing about an hour-long interview with her about the impacts and [24:37] I will say I was blown away by all the examples that you shared and then I had the opportunity to come in and do a [24:43] focus group in the classroom and we're talking when we're talking about things [24:49] that are working in terms of reducing disparities I came away from that focus group so impressed that I said this air [24:55] we have to have at least one at least one of the students come speak to the board thank you next slide please [25:04] so um we'll skip this one because I already spoke to that in terms of some [25:09] of the key indicators and just briefly say that we are able to access about 1.3 million dollars uh worth of Revenue when [25:16] we have an approved plan that approved plan is a two-part process it's first approved by the board then approved by [25:21] the Minnesota Department of Education you have a list of some general budget [25:26] expenditures one of the items that I do want to share that I haven't really [25:31] talked about yet is that we partner with Hopkins in doing some of this work and so we'll be running a summer Avid Bridge [25:39] experience with Hopkins that we've been doing that for a while and it's a great opportunity to learn from each other to [25:45] share staff to share students and create some very unique experiences the last [25:50] budget slide we'll share that some of the budget expenditures are for indirect services for professional learning and [25:57] for oversight and with that we'll turn it back to the board to see what questions you have thank you very much board members [26:04] director Bergman thank you very much for the presentation um I'm curious given their last number [26:11] which is the budget um 1.3 million dollars so that is what's allocated for this what would the actual [26:17] demand be for everyone who'd be eligible to be in the AVID program who would want to be in the AVID program [26:23] what would we need in order to fulfill that [26:28] might anyone want to take a guess Sarah I don't I don't we have certainly seen [26:35] growing enrollment in Avid we started a few years ago with a ninth grade elective class and then a 10th an 11th [26:42] and now it's in all four grade levels and those are very full sections at [26:47] those different grade levels and it really has created some sustainability to it from the from the standpoint of [26:54] how many kids are participating any idea Sarah how much other demand is [27:00] out there what would you say about that I don't know I really don't [27:05] um but we've grown I mean I don't even know like seven eight years ago I kind of thought [27:11] it was going to fall apart we were doing and now all of a sudden it really is exploded and [27:17] [Music] um it's I don't there I have kids coming to me all the time asking me now how to how [27:23] to get an avid so I I don't know I don't know how to quantify it though let me ask it a different question yeah I appreciate that let me if you don't mind [27:29] let me just ask I'll clarify my question is it fair to say that we do not have [27:35] enough spots for everyone who might want to be in Avid is able to get into Avid [27:40] today in any grade level that we're offering it thus far we have been creating sections [27:47] based on numbers of students who have registered so we are meeting then the demand at [27:53] this point we are are there any limitations or hurdles that prevent us from growing to whatever the demand [27:59] eventually would be can we is there I'm just trying to future plan ahead are there any limitations or concerns that I [28:06] would want to be aware of because this program listening to the student but listening to the other presentations we've had over the last year about Avid [28:12] is sounds like an incredible program we're being quite successful with as far as dealing with a number of different strategic initiatives that we have [28:19] I just want to make sure that then we have the ability the capacity to deliver to the students who identify with it [28:25] that we're able to offer it to them well I will just say that we are we have [28:30] one well we have full groups at each grade level and I would say if we go beyond where we [28:38] are right now we're going to need additional Staffing period um our our 12th grade section has nearly [28:45] 40 students in it I'm in there and other teachers in there Albert McGee's and they're often and we we could still it's [28:52] so much there's so much going on there's so much support that's that's necessary in a in a complex school system and then [29:00] the college system which has gotten so difficult um and so [29:05] um I I think we're maxed that's what I'll say right now but I'm not sure where that's going to go in terms of [29:10] enrollment okay and then the last question if you don't mind me just as a catalyst to that is that given the fact [29:16] that we're coming out of covid and we've have so many issues that kind of were created with covid this is where I'm trying to get from the [29:22] demand opportunity process if we're maxing where we are today but Avid might be a great program that could certainly [29:28] help with the issues that coven might have introduced especially at the middle middle school level going into High [29:33] School I'm just trying to like at least identify not answering it but just identifying is this another potential [29:39] solution if we were able to provide capacity for it I if you have an opinion [29:44] on that great if not it's just an open-ended question certainly the programming in Avid does a lot to build [29:50] executive function in kids and we know that executive function was something that was [29:55] um affected in kids because of covid so it is an opportunity for doing that and then going back to your previous [30:01] question one of the things that's exciting now is that the sections that we're seeing in Avid are really [30:07] self-sustainable from the numbers of kids that we have in there when we first started Avid we had low enrollment [30:13] sections and so we supported those sections with some additional FTE and [30:19] we're seeing that that's just continuing to grow and legs are coming under the table thank you director Greene thank you [30:28] um thank you for the presentation it was great um thank you Victoria right that's her name the outstanding um I have a [30:34] question about the money piece so if we get 1.3 million dollars from the state [30:40] right because this is a legislative this is um we have to do this right this by [30:45] law if our if there is a need kind of what um director Birdman said if there [30:51] is a need that grows does that money grow according to how many are enrolled or is it the type of or are we evaluated [30:57] by the type of program that we have yeah it is tied to the student population that we have so different [31:03] factors of the student population then help calculate the money and so we're we're predicting about 1.3 million going [31:10] into next year got it okay thank you for the clarify but it might increase over time got it that makes more sense okay [31:16] thanks director Shaw [31:23] comment Victoria you did awesome and I don't think any of my fellow board [31:29] members will disagree with me I cannot wait we cannot wait to celebrate with you on June 5th and we will we promise [31:36] we will so thank you [31:41] director Neville yes and mine is also just a brief comment I want to thank you Victoria for sharing [31:48] beautifully what that experience has been for you and I want to thank Sarah and siley for your work with all of the [31:55] students and families you serve I've had the opportunity to participate with avid [32:01] to a certain extent just a sliver of all of the depth that you are providing and [32:07] I know it makes an impact in our community thank you thank you [32:14] director gabler I act all the thank yous for coming and speaking to us tonight and I think as we [32:21] are looking at our budgeting process and knowing that we have some success in [32:27] some of the programs that fall under this and knowing that um you know silee when you were talking [32:33] about all the things that fall under your role being aware of the capacity and so you know if we have [32:41] just keeping that in mind as we as we're moving it towards budgeting and hopefully a state process where we might [32:49] see some more funding um you know it sounds like we have a lot of success stories coming out of avid and so making that an opportunity and [32:56] also our cultural Liaisons which have pretty full plates just making sure that we're supporting them in their work so [33:02] thank you I think that's all thank you guys so [33:08] much and thank you thank you Victoria for coming and speaking to us appreciate it [33:14] um next up we have Dr Ann Marie Leland and Julie gabrielson with the 2023 Kids Club registration process [33:31] good evening chair superintendent Stanley and directors my name is Dr Anne [33:38] Marie Leland and with me today I have the fabulous Julie gabrielson coordinator of operations and Facilities [33:47] thank you for joining tonight we're both going to talk through [33:52] again the process around Kids Club registration as we presented a few weeks [33:59] ago at a work session we wanted to give you an update a little bit on [34:06] I think there's there's actually no changes to the slides other than just one piece of information we added around [34:13] some families that are CCAP or child care assistance program eligible [34:19] and that's about it so we're just going to go through the presentation thank you [34:25] good evening thank you for having us here so just very briefly I'll go through the [34:32] background and how we got to where we are and then dive into the process and priority levels [34:38] um so it was about a year ago when we opened a registration for summer 2022 [34:45] and for our current school year for school age care and [34:51] we had always used a first-come first-serve registration process last [34:56] year our online system crashed due to high demand and many families were left [35:01] frustrated and couldn't couldn't submit their contract request and therefore had [35:08] little to no chance of getting into after-school care this year through through that learning we learned [35:16] that many families were frustrated and they were asking for change and for more transparency in how we accept kids club [35:21] contracts so we've worked to create a new system that is fair and impartial [35:26] for families while also remaining administratively manageable starting with our feedback process we [35:33] gathered feedback from families community members internal Partners other community ed departments in the [35:40] Metro and across the state and gathered all that feedback and put together a new [35:47] process um so jumping into that actual contract [35:52] acceptance protocol um we'll start by giving families a two-week window to request a contract [35:59] contracts as they come in will be assigned a priority level and based on those based on their qualifications [36:07] and that contract priority will be given as long as the contract is requested [36:12] during that established two-week window once that two-week window closes [36:17] contracts will be accepted by priority level level by level and then as if we look at our contracts [36:24] and there have been more contracts requested than what space will allow we'll use a randomized computer Lottery [36:31] with no preference for the date that the contract was requested [36:37] just a few few points of clarification contracts must be requested each subsequent season uh once one student [36:44] has their contract requested or contract accepted all students in a family or [36:50] within a child care account will be accepted any contract that isn't approved [36:56] initially will be held on a wait list for consideration as space becomes available [37:02] and then any contracts that are requested after that initial two-week window will be added to the bottom of [37:09] the wait list regardless of their priority qualifications with one exception for newly hired District [37:14] employees so these are our priority levels the [37:20] first priority being students of District employees the second is students who receive child [37:27] care financial assistance including County child care assistance Edina give and go or Community Ed child care [37:33] assistance in the current school year we have eight families who would qualify at [37:39] that level six of whom reside in Edina [37:44] priority three is students entering kindergarten up to a predetermined number at each site that predetermined [37:51] number would be in ratio with kindergarten enrollment at that site um and then any students any [37:57] kindergarteners not accepted at that priority three get rolled into their next highest level [38:03] uh priority four is those siblings of kindergarteners who were accepted in in the priority three [38:09] and priority five is for students who requested a contract in the respective [38:14] previous season so for summer 2023 that would be any students who requested a contract in summer 2022 [38:20] for school year 23 24 that would be any students who requested a contract for the current school year and that's [38:27] regardless of whether the contract was accepted or remained on the wait list so just by asking for one and then priority [38:34] six would be all other students [38:39] um so kind of in summary this is just the timeline of where we've been to where we are to where we're going [38:46] um looking back really this process started in July Gathering feedback working to build a new registration [38:53] process um as Dr Leon said we were with you in January [38:58] and since then we've spent our time sharing the new process with families [39:04] making sure that they know what to expect that there's no surprises tomorrow at 8 A.M our contract request [39:12] window for summer opens for two weeks and then we'll work process work through [39:18] processing that and on March 28th at 8 A.M we'll open up a two-week contract [39:24] request window for next school year before we begin processing those contracts [39:31] thank you very much Julie that was great and we are just here to answer any questions that you have about the [39:39] process thank you for coming back and presenting that to us and the rest of the community [39:44] and two board members have questions [39:49] director green sure hi thanks um I just have a quick question can you just talk briefly about the process of [39:57] once you are accepting the contracts where how high can we go and how do you [40:03] determine how high we can go in terms of acceptance because I know it has a lot to do with Staffing but if you could [40:08] give just a little bit of background that would be helpful thanks yep so what um so what our account my counterpart [40:14] who oversees the kids club program does is um they have been surveying current staff to see what [40:21] their intentions are for summer and next school year we also know from history about how many [40:27] new staff members we can hire and so that's um a mathematical game that they [40:32] know not game but process that they know um to to best predict how we will be [40:39] staffed for summer and then for next school year um and then we'll determine the number [40:46] of contracts we can accept you know we kind of look at where those kids fall on [40:51] which days and determine can we accept more and so it's really not like a one and done type of thing we'll accept as [40:58] many contracts as we can look at what we have look at how Staffing is coming along and continue to accept more [41:04] contracts um you know until everybody is being served [41:10] great thank you and one other just follow-up question so some of the incentives that were put in place for [41:15] hiring are still in place as we move through to the next school year correct [41:23] yeah um so we've we have sunset at the incentive program [41:29] um as we we tried lots of different things this fall to recruit staff and we kind of as we looked at them we [41:38] saw what worked and what didn't work to get staff in um the incentive program didn't seem to [41:44] be the thing that was drawing new staff members in and so we did Sunset that program okay thank you but the increase [41:50] is still there the pay increase yes okay great thank you director Aram well I think that answered [41:57] my question I was asking if you're going to keep the incentives for if you had a chance to evaluate whether or not like the students the high school students [42:03] and whatnot what's going to be impactful enough to keep it for next year uh so the education career pathway that [42:09] that course is available um to students and was great and we [42:16] loved our high school students the staff so you'll keep that I guess I I was thinking that was an incentive program [42:21] if that if that's not in classified as an incentive program then no I believe it's actually in the course catalog for [42:27] high school for next year and students will be able to sign up for that again they've been some of our best employees [42:33] so we're definitely keeping that option open for students and that's part of our intent around building career Pathways [42:40] as well director Shaw thank you both for that presentation [42:46] thanks for your work on this Julie I appreciate it um I I did want to make a comment also [42:51] in appreciation I think it's important to recognize that there is such great demand because it is such a great [42:57] program right like Edina is really lucky and we're somewhat unique in that there is this demand from [43:03] you know a spectrum of families that want this care um so thank you for your work to try to [43:10] create a space for every student and every family that wants it so I just want to acknowledge that [43:15] um and I just I've heard a few comments that I and I think this is going to be very obvious but just for the sake of [43:22] saying it and for their Community to hear it there it is the intention that we will try to serve every student [43:28] that we can that there isn't we are not trying to restrict but we are trying to [43:34] serve every student we can to the best capacity that we can with Staffing in space and all that stuff so I I've heard [43:40] it said that we're trying to cap it and I don't think that I I want to just have a say [43:45] it out loud and that's all no thank you for that clarification that you're correct we're not trying to cap the [43:50] program we're not trying to cap enrollment um it really is about getting employees [43:56] hired and staffed appropriately in terms of ratio for students [44:02] sorry um thank you very much um I think the question I would have for [44:08] you is that when we do the March enrollment period for the fall and we [44:14] get all the two-week requests of contracts and we'll get a bulk of them at that time I would assume [44:20] and we realize that oh we do not have enough staff to be able to serve everybody then you guys will continue to [44:26] work innovatively to figure out how to find the staff necessary so that we can [44:32] meet every request that is brought to us assuming that we have the space capacity to address that correct [44:40] correct okay so the key thing from my expectation is we're going to come back [44:46] and discuss all the different options that are then available to you you're going to keep trying to see if we can crack that nut to figure that out and [44:52] we'll know in March unlike what we saw in this fall we're going to get a good idea of what the demand is going to be [44:58] because I know there's discussion over this past year where we just seen a one-time huge situation coming out of [45:04] covet or was it going to go back to historical patterns or is this now going to be the norm we will know those [45:09] answers once we get through the real in the registration process but then we'll be able to identify what that need is [45:15] and then figure out where we want to go with that yeah excellent point there's really no Trend [45:21] data because of covid so that it will be our first year in being able to look [45:27] back and compare what we have in terms of enrollment coming into March so yeah [45:33] again thank you so much for that clarification and acknowledgment director gabler [45:39] hey Echo thank you for coming back and speaking to us about this I have if you could could we go back in the slides to [45:46] look at those priorities this has been an interesting process to walk through and I'm really interested to see what [45:53] this next go-around does produce like director Birdman was talking about I [45:58] think we'll have a better idea after we see if these changes were you know we've [46:03] we've changed the pricing for incentives we've looked at a lot of things over the past year to hopefully improve the [46:09] process um I am wondering if with these priorities [46:14] because I think there is a little bit of confusion out there can you speak to Priority three and four how you came to [46:21] those decisions what that means for families because it might not be clear by reading that slide [46:27] yep so the intent of priority number three is to really level the playing field for kindergarteners who haven't [46:34] had the opportunity to request a contract in previous years so it's really taking those kindergartners and [46:40] allowing a portion of them to get that priority five access um so it's not about [46:47] um you know trying to guess it um who is in more need of care but leveling the [46:52] playing field when it comes to accessing registration so we'll look at [46:57] kindergarteners at least in January made up 16 of our elementary enrollment so [47:05] when we look at each specific site we would say okay we're going to make sure that at least 16 of our kids club [47:13] enrollees are also kindergartners and and give them that priority three [47:19] access thank you because I think that was a really important part is that it's it's in proportion to the number of students [47:27] that they are in a student building so if you're it's not going to be kids clubs just full of kindergartners right [47:32] right they're um almost as though it's replacing the outgoing fifth graders perfect [47:38] um and then I think just going forward I you know as I said in the next once we [47:44] kind of see first of all how summer goes because I think that might be a precursor of what to expect for when the [47:50] school year goes forward but we know we're the only show in town we know demand is going up and so once [47:57] we have more of this data I'll be really interested to know if we can fiddle with [48:02] more of this information because more of the the levers um we still do run a pretty good product [48:09] for the price that we charge and so I'd be interested to kind of know if that's [48:15] something that we can look at so down the road thank you [48:22] anything else thank you thank you very much um next up we have a teaching and [48:29] learning director Jody D St Hubert with our K to five science curriculum adoption recommendation [48:36] and Mark Carlson and Brit these and a bunch of other people that I can't [48:44] remember their names and Kristen Greene and I apologize to everyone else [48:50] a wonderful teaching staff that's here [48:59] uh Dr Stanley Chair of Ellenberg and rest of the board members thanks for having us here uh this evening to talk a [49:06] little bit about elementary science curriculum adoption we were here at the [49:12] board work session a few weeks back and shared a little bit about the process about some of the rationale and really [49:19] what I want you to hear tonight is more from the teachers so I brought a lot of people with me these all of these [49:26] teachers have been a part of this process over the many years that we've been going through it so we have uh we [49:34] have Brit these from Creek Valley Michael Smith from Cornelia Kristen [49:40] green who's been in a leadership role here with uh Cornelia as a Dean we have [49:45] Alyssa Barnes And We Have Allison kanath this is from Countryside and Allison is [49:52] from Concord and they're just going to share a little bit about their passion about their experiences so far are with [49:58] mystery science and what they're they're seeing with that process so I'm just going to turn it over to them and I'm [50:04] going to sit back and we'll take questions at the end Mark do you mind really fast before you [50:09] turn it over for people that this might be brand new to sure that didn't listen to our work session could you just give [50:15] like a two sentence overview of the recommendation you're making and why our teachers love it so much certainly I [50:21] would be happy to um so we we are recommending the purchase of Mystery Science for our K5 [50:29] curriculum it is a um it's a online based curriculum that is very flexible [50:35] it's a very in alignment with the ngss or the national standards for Science [50:41] and the Minnesota Science standards as well it really is a program that we feel [50:46] strongly is also can be a backbone for development of steam as we go forward as [50:53] well so we really feel like it is something that is is going to be a [50:58] really good structure for us going forward in science to kind of replace our science curriculum from the 1990s so [51:07] that's I hope that's enough thank you [51:13] all right we'll pass it to the teachers um some further background might be that this has been a fairly long process it [51:21] was interrupted multiple times due to the last few years and so the team [51:26] started a handful of years ago uh really digging into what our current science [51:31] curriculum resources are and what these new standards are going to look like and [51:37] it is a dramatic shift in how students engage in science and so really we [51:43] worked hard to ensure teachers can understand what phenomena based science [51:48] is what it sounds like and what they will be doing investigating they will be [51:54] doing so much more of the thinking and questioning and investigating with [51:59] science and so our goal was first to lay that Foundation of understanding the [52:05] standards and then we were charged with so how are they going to do this and [52:10] that's where this team looked at many different resources and found that mystery science is our best [52:16] recommendation for really moving forward with Next Generation thinkers in science and these [52:24] teachers sitting at the table here tonight have dabbled in it they have jumped in with both feet and the [52:31] excitement that you will hear when they talk about Mystery Science when they talk about what their kids are doing [52:37] that is what we want you to know about the resource that we have found to [52:42] really be what we hope to be the best choice for our students moving forward with science so the experts can talk now [52:52] oh I get to go first all right well I have been teaching in [52:57] Edina since 1996. and um I've been using the same science [53:03] curriculum since 1996 and so um which is it's been wonderful and it's [53:09] been great to use but what I have found with mystery science is that my students [53:15] it provides an opportunity for my students to really engage and [53:20] communicate and collaborate and ask themselves why are we learning this and [53:26] trying to figure out the answer together and mystery science as you know is an [53:32] online based science curriculum that provides many different mediums for kids [53:38] to learn it provides videos photographs that are current for first [53:44] grade it provides read-alongs it highlights the text for them and it it [53:50] it is self-paced so it provides an opportunity for us to stop and think and talk [53:57] together and work on these collaborative sheets that make them talk about what [54:03] they see what they think and what they wonder and I have we just did a little [54:09] activity about what do I love about first grade and so many of my students said because I get to do science [54:16] and that has been a first to see so many students so excited about [54:23] science the materials I know it is an investment but the materials that we used were very [54:31] minimal things that we can find in the classroom but I have seen students we did a lesson [54:39] on Vibe Sound Vibrations light everything and it connected everything [54:45] back to an alligator whose throat vibrated and everything we were learning [54:51] went right back to okay now let's bring it back to the alligator and we did rulers and we flipped them and they [54:58] could hear it vibrating and they came up with you know everything that made sound vibrates and it all got connected back [55:04] to this visual that they could see the alligator's throat vibrating and so it really reached all of my students my ml [55:12] students my special ed students it was very relatable to everyone and it got [55:18] everybody having genuine and really great conversations around science [55:26] and I love teaching it I think it's great to think about the students but it is fun to teach and it's fun to see [55:32] these kids get so excited so yeah thank you Brett thank you Dr Stanley and thank [55:38] you for inviting us back we had a brief presentation at the work session a while ago and I appreciate all your comments [55:45] uh we are excited about this curriculum really this resource the curriculum are our standards and this aligns so well [55:52] with those standards and kids get excited about it and as teachers use it [55:58] and I'm it and what really speaks to me about this about this program is how it [56:03] went through um covid with all the distance teaching and how we I could still deliver science [56:09] instruction to my students at home it wasn't perfect we didn't have all the things we need but we were able to [56:15] create little take-home kits that parents could get and they could do these things at home I'm really looking [56:20] forward to this uh possibly being adopted by the district because I think it's really effective students are [56:26] excited and every teacher that that encounters it really gets our gets [56:33] excited almost immediately and that excitement carries over to her students and so uh that's a really powerful thing [56:39] and um today we did a we did a lesson on you know how does the heart work in relation [56:45] to Valentine's Day we did our friendship parties last week and they were fabulous but you know this is what a normal [56:52] normally a heart it doesn't really look like that it looks like this and kids were super engaged and they wrote a [56:59] Valentine's card to their heart and saying thank you about how it works but we were we had paper that we were that [57:06] they were crunching to encounter heartbeats we found our pulse we had discussions about uh during our [57:13] lesson about what the heart does and what they thought it did and it was it's just really engaging and and having [57:19] seeing kids have genuine discussions around science phenomena is what should [57:25] be happening and this really allows that to to move forward so um it's exciting so I'll turn it I'll [57:32] turn past the mic so thank you for listening again [57:38] I will Echo everything that Brit Michael shared we are so excited to finally [57:43] bring Mystery Science to you all we've been working on this for years and years and years and we are just we are sewing [57:51] we're giddy if you can't tell that we're at this point and we're piloting it with our classrooms and our students are [57:57] loving it I'm a kindergarten teacher at Countryside and we my students truly [58:04] believe they are scientists and I think that is so much um thanks to Mystery Science and the [58:11] Hands-On inquiry base phenomena the discussion that we're having they walk away from each lesson truly knowing that [58:17] they are a scientist we just got done with the wild weather unit and it's all about different types of severe weather [58:24] and how you prepare for the weather and they had lots of great connections to blizzards but we also learned about [58:30] hurricanes and we learned about tornadoes and the students every single [58:35] morning would come in and I can think of one student in particular said are we doing that weather science today and he [58:41] was so engaged he couldn't wait for it and um one just little story we in our class [58:48] our curriculum for uh literacy part of it is making meaning and every single [58:54] week we do a little recording on seesaw with one of our our answers to a Mickey meeting question and last week was all [59:01] about occupations and careers in non-fiction um specifically doctors and zookeepers [59:07] and after um our little lesson they went back to their spot and they recorded themselves [59:12] of what would be a career that they would want to follow for a day just like we kind of followed the Zookeeper for [59:18] the day and 14 out of 24 my students all said that they would want to follow a [59:23] scientist because they would get to learn about the animals they get to learn about the weather and they're so [59:28] they're so engaged and just in love with it we can't wait just to hopefully share [59:33] this even further so a piggybacking out a lot of it was [59:38] already said I'll try and introduce some other pieces um one of the things that the kids repeatedly say or mentioned is Mystery [59:45] dug in that he is the Catalyst for delivering the information um and frequently you'll hear them when [59:52] the video Mr Doug said and I truly think they think mystery Doug is a friend I [59:57] mean he has that kind of connection when he comes through it's but it's amazing when times kids will refer back to him [1:00:02] so clearly he's making an impact I think it also has to do with the way he and the curriculum ask questions they ask [1:00:08] questions the way kids ask questions so I think that automatically makes them [1:00:13] feel like peers like scientists with the curriculum and the presentation presentation of it as a fifth grade [1:00:20] teacher as we delve deeper into some content I think it's also very forward [1:00:26] thinking to have a curriculum that will continually update without having not [1:00:31] being tied to a textbook in some way that will stay static for the next 10 [1:00:36] years or however long we would have this curriculum we have already we see it in real time that mystery science is [1:00:42] updating new lessons the less it is slightly different than it was five months ago when we looked at it so that [1:00:49] I I appreciate that that I will always feel like I have the most current and [1:00:54] best information regarding content um I think they're they've been very [1:01:00] receptive they seem to be receptive and the changes they're making seem to be coming from suggestions from their users [1:01:05] teachers such as us and so that kind of responsiveness I [1:01:10] think from the curriculum developers is also a huge selling point for us so 23. [1:01:18] so we'd like to open for any questions if you have any board members [1:01:24] director Neville just a quick comment and I shared part of this with most of you at the workshop [1:01:31] session it is truly one of the most fun sections of a board packet that I've had the pleasure of reading through I love [1:01:38] the examples loved the the hyperlinks but I want to applaud all of you for the [1:01:44] rigorous research that all of you did to try to discern what is the best program [1:01:50] for Edina Public Schools and for finding something that really aligns with steam [1:01:55] which is consistent with the district's goals it's not just good with stem it's [1:02:01] really bringing the Arts into steam which is part of the district goal [1:02:07] um I think you've just knocked it out of the park thank you director green yeah my echo director [1:02:15] Neville her comments um can I I asked this in the work session but I think it would be worth talking about again can [1:02:21] you talk just a little bit about how this curriculum builds for going the kids going into Middle School [1:02:27] sure so um it really is a line it's really comes down to the standards and its alignment through the standards so [1:02:33] if we think about the way ngss is laid out it's it's it's three-dimensional and [1:02:39] that will that will um go throughout starting from kindergarten all the way through high school and as as we look at [1:02:45] the three dimensions it really kind of lays out for teachers what it should look like in K2 what it should look like [1:02:52] in three five six eight and nine twelve so teachers can look through in fact some of the PD that we're going to be [1:02:58] doing next week will be around that development how does it look like in my three five range and then how will it [1:03:06] look in six eight so that I make sure that what I'm teaching now is going to align with what they're going to need [1:03:12] next year or next few years when they're in middle school or high school so there is that alignment through the way [1:03:19] they've developed the standards overall and then this is super aligned with those standards as well [1:03:24] thank you that's fantastic it will be very fun to see the data years from now on the impact that this has on our kids [1:03:31] when they hit the high school so word then but will be a while director Aram thanks for [1:03:40] your persistence with keeping this going when you presented it was I forgot how many years you all said it was but it's [1:03:45] been a long time um I had two questions one is related to just the difference in the way and the [1:03:51] model of teaching like is it focused more on like group learning or is it compared to what previously was done and [1:03:57] then second do you think there's um I don't know if we've talked about it at all but the opportunity to align when [1:04:03] it comes to like the future internships and some of the micro certifications and whatnot that we're hoping for in [1:04:09] um in 2027 was the Target right um you know is there something we can do to align with that from a board [1:04:15] perspective or commitment yeah so as we think about um if we think about the elementary years it's really going to be [1:04:20] about building the base so that they can kind of start making their movement towards those things and and excitement [1:04:26] exactly so I I think that it aligns with that I don't know that we're going to be [1:04:32] talking about micro credentialing at you know the K2 or 35 live level but but it [1:04:37] will kind of set that base for them to be able to to do some of that work later on I'm sorry what was the first part of [1:04:44] your question oh the first part was just about just this the way that it's taught is it is it significantly different because it's great versus individual [1:04:50] yeah so if if we if we think about uh the way these new standards have been developed with this three-dimensional [1:04:57] approach um olds the the way we used to teach science was much more about information [1:05:03] more um I think you you've hit it every time it's it was Trivial Pursuit science [1:05:09] whereas this is really more about being a scientist and investigating science from the from the eyes of the child as [1:05:18] opposed to from the the vantage point of what do I need to know for this test so [1:05:24] it's really a much more of a scientist approach to to the to the learning of science [1:05:30] director Shaw um I have a comment and a question my comment is thank you once as everybody [1:05:37] has said for sticking with us I'm sure you guys have spent years just waiting [1:05:42] to see the Foss boxes go and and this is very exciting and I know that it'll free up some space and the black and white [1:05:48] boxes will go been there seen it um my question has to do with the updating can you talk a little bit about [1:05:54] how that Dynamic updating works is that is there is there a set Cadence of when [1:06:01] the curriculum gets updated or is it just as needed it's a really good question so uh it is it is [1:06:08] um something that's updated on a regular basis but what they do do is let's say that we have a lesson that we want to do [1:06:14] and they've updated that lesson and if you're ready for the uh the old lesson [1:06:19] and they put a new one in they still have the link to the old lesson so we have the opportunity to go back and and [1:06:26] do that one so if that's something that I have a passion around that's still there they don't get rid of it but they [1:06:33] do say here's what it here's what it is now if you want the old one here's the old one here [1:06:43] thank you um listening to that help me understand given that you all represent different [1:06:48] buildings um in elementary school would would a student be kind of in the [1:06:55] programming of the curriculum see the same things in each second grade level regardless of what building that they're [1:07:00] in then given the fact that you have this adaptability and so on so forth I'm just wondering is it more teacher driven or is it more kind of at a higher level [1:07:07] driven as far as what's going to be provided it's a really good question so we we will provide a scope and sequence [1:07:12] for the district as a whole so if a student were at Cornelia and moved from Cornelia to say Concord they would be in [1:07:20] the same place generally so we we are one of the things that we have to make [1:07:25] sure that we do to make sure that science is strong is that we have an oversight or or just a general scope and [1:07:33] sequence that we know is being followed across the district and that's something that will will be overseeing from a [1:07:38] teaching and learning standpoint great thank you and then the only other comment I was going to have is I really love what you said is that the the the [1:07:43] programming that you're experiencing with this is not only great for your you know all it's for all students you said [1:07:50] you said it was for your you know ml students and your special services students and so and so forth that to me [1:07:55] really with all of your excitement the whole point about our vision about making sure we're we're getting every [1:08:01] student and getting their possibilities and Thrive that's really when you see a curriculum kind of coming into something [1:08:06] new how does it deliver on that promise and so that was that so I really appreciated [1:08:12] you acknowledging that director gabler thank you I've had the opportunity to [1:08:18] see this a couple of times so I've had my questions answered but I wanted to ask one of Alyssa is it really the 100th [1:08:24] day of kindergarten today yes and no it's supposed to be tomorrow [1:08:30] however with our snow day we had already sent out our parent volunteer sign ups [1:08:36] and we have a Countryside we do a big day of service tomorrow so it would have been a little much to do both on the [1:08:42] same day so we counted the snow day and then we kept going so we did celebrate day 100 today got it do you only wear [1:08:48] that sweatshirt once a year only once again [1:08:53] yeah any other questions well I just wanted to thank you guys and as a one that's [1:09:00] dissected owl pellets three times with my kids and their teachers I wish [1:09:06] this would have been implemented 15 years ago but thank you very much this is great work so and it will be up for [1:09:13] Action next month yeah so yeah maybe we'll get to see you again so thank you very much [1:09:22] next up we have our district equity and inclusion plan board update with Dr [1:09:28] Randy spazel and director Jody D St Hubert [1:09:44] oops [1:09:49] well that is uh it's fun to be here and present after hearing that excitement around our science that's that's ahead [1:09:55] of us and and the connections that that has to all um so many of our Pathways and strategic plan work [1:10:01] and um I'm here now to talk about our district equity and inclusion plans so [1:10:07] good evening chair Ellenberg Dr Stanley board members community members I want to introduce clearly Dr smozel assistant [1:10:13] superintendent is here with me today and also our South Asian liaison uh [1:10:20] I know that and I was trying to focus on your last name silee amarok pukar is [1:10:25] here with us as well so we're excited to have you here and highlighting the important work that we're doing our [1:10:30] Edina District equity and inclusion plan aligns with strategy B in identifying areas of focus that will [1:10:37] will help with the attainment of an equitable and inclusive School climate one area focuses cpss culturally [1:10:44] proficient school systems cpss is a framework that consists of a set consists of a set of four tools cpss was [1:10:53] originally founded by Terry cross and we have specifically been working with Dr Trudy Arriaga Dr Ariaga has been working [1:11:00] with us to help build our knowledge our understanding and our implementation planning on cpss Dr Ariaga is a [1:11:08] collaborator and Senior associate associate of the center for CP culturally proficient educational [1:11:14] practices over the last seven or over looking forward and looking ahead over the next [1:11:21] several years our Edina goal is to have all Edina staff no matter what their [1:11:29] role trained in the tools of culturally proficients school systems as well as [1:11:35] operating a high level of implementation we have outlined that in the report and the details of that are there I also [1:11:42] want to highlight that over the last year we have had 99 staff members trained in the tools of culturally [1:11:49] proficiency Dr Arriaga has trained this first round of 99 staff members and what we call cohort a in cohort B and Dr [1:11:57] Ariaga has worked with 19 Edina staff members to become trained facilitators so that they have the skills and [1:12:04] knowledge and to help continue the training for all the other staff in the [1:12:10] Edina Public Schools we just had our first session with our trained facilitators leading that last week [1:12:16] siley was a huge part of that and some of her teammates and it was extraordinary Dr ariego was there and so [1:12:22] did a debrief with us after each session and so having her support is really integral in the work the next component [1:12:29] that's really integral is the implementation right it's one thing to learn the knowledge and have the [1:12:34] conversations and engagement and what the framework consists of and the next important step is implementation so [1:12:41] we're really excited that we have a symposium um coming April 21st which will be here [1:12:46] before we know it um for cohort A and B staff that have been trained and at that Symposium [1:12:52] they're going to take it up they're going to have an opportunity to talk to their colleagues about how they have implemented their learning into their [1:12:58] day-to-day work in their systems to ensure each and every student in Edina is able to discover their possibilities [1:13:05] and thrive um we will continue to bring updates on the training to you as a board and that [1:13:12] impact of that on our system there I don't want to go over everything in the report but there were a lot of fun [1:13:17] highlights within the report on the impact that we are already seeing it have on students whether it's day-to-day [1:13:23] observations that we're seeing systems that we're trying to change in terms of opening up doors and making sure there [1:13:28] are not barriers as well as some educational data points that are in there to highlight to highlight the [1:13:35] impact and the other component of our report is for Dr smuzzle to highlight on [1:13:40] one of our critical advisory groups thank you Jody um one of the pieces I do want to call [1:13:46] attention to is just this idea of one of the tools in that framework is about [1:13:53] overcoming barriers and what's significant about that is [1:13:58] that it helps people really dig into what are some of the root causes of the barriers and how do we really understand [1:14:06] those so we can figure out what are the solutions and that's what that framework really helps you dig into [1:14:13] and again as Jody mentioned there are some examples of that impact but one that I just want to take a moment to [1:14:18] highlight is speaking to some of our fast Bridge assessment data and so if [1:14:26] you are looking at table one we have students in grades K1 and the graph [1:14:32] monitors growth as a flat modest typical and aggressive [1:14:37] what would be typical to see in the aggressive growth the bars on the on the [1:14:43] far right would be a 25 or 30 percent gain so if we look at K1 we are seeing [1:14:49] um 41 hitting aggressive growth so way past the typical bar that's for all uh [1:14:56] if we're looking at multilingual Learners 37 percent again far past what [1:15:03] we would see as typical and students with IEPs 37 percent [1:15:08] if you go down to the next table in Grade 9 through 10 look at multilingual Learners at 45 percent that's across [1:15:15] grades two through nine looking at students with IEPs 31 percent [1:15:21] there's some great celebrations in our academic data and what's so powerful about this and doing this work around [1:15:28] the tools is we are unpacking barriers across the district unpacking root [1:15:34] causes and I think it's a great example of how our work in this cultural [1:15:39] proficiency framework is lifting learning by removing barriers so we just wanted to highlight that for [1:15:46] a moment as Jody mentioned we have a group that we started about a year and a half ago [1:15:52] called the District Equity advisory committee the district Equity advisory committee is consists of teachers [1:16:00] parents admin a cultural Liaisons we have an alumni that's on the committee [1:16:07] and we've had students in the past and this year we haven't had such good [1:16:12] attendance from the students so we're going to continue to work on that but one of the things that the district [1:16:18] Equity advisory committee does is they they provide a platform for discussion [1:16:23] about equity uh issues or Equity concerns across the [1:16:28] district I love this quote um that Dr Arriaga has used inner [1:16:35] training that diversity is a fact Equity is a choice inclusion is an action and [1:16:42] belonging is the outcome that's why we're here for each and every to feel like they belong so that they [1:16:48] can Thrive right and so this particular committee is focused on having [1:16:54] conversations and thinking about recommended actions to advise back to [1:16:59] Administration that will help move our district forward um in particular one of the things that [1:17:06] we've really focused work around is providing some feedback back to policy committee around specific policies so in [1:17:12] the report we reference six different policies that we have spent time in six separate meetings going into great depth [1:17:20] and detail about what about this policy could we move a little further to the [1:17:26] right on our Equity Continuum and what suggestions or improvements might we [1:17:31] provide around that and then bringing that again back to staff who are responsible for different policies that [1:17:38] come back to the policy committee but I would also like to maybe have siley [1:17:43] speak a little bit about Deke and you're a member of Deke you've been on here you help do the planning for the committee [1:17:50] so maybe you could share a couple highlights yeah sure thank you [1:17:57] so as Dr smazel said Deke consists of [1:18:03] all the different stakeholders basically so we have teachers staff cultural [1:18:10] Liaisons we have students parents and we have tried to include parents from [1:18:15] different cultural groups so to say that are represented in Edina and [1:18:22] each time they're given the policy and some questions to go with it as to how [1:18:27] they can review it and we have had some very authentic feedback like for example [1:18:33] this last week we talked about um how we are going to bring activity to [1:18:39] policy review process and so there were a lot of good ideas that came about both [1:18:46] the process as well as the content how to review it from an equity perspective uh especially to make it culturally [1:18:53] proficient so uh there has been like there have been good discussions and [1:18:58] it's a good platform to let especially the parents and students to weigh in on [1:19:04] things that they usually don't get a chance to weigh in all and uh we have [1:19:09] had some good discussions thank you siley um so Deke is one of the [1:19:16] elements in our Dei plan of trying to elevate voice and honor voice across the district and as Jody mentioned the other [1:19:24] uh element that we were describing was the training around cpss and so we just [1:19:30] wanted to bring a couple of highlights of some of the work that we're doing across the district and those two Arenas professional development elevating voice [1:19:37] and share a little bit of that this evening with the board with that we'll turn it back to the board for questions [1:19:43] board members director Aram just a general questioner [1:19:49] your opinion do you think that um and I'll probably get the snake acting this but um it would be worthwhile to have a [1:19:56] board representation on Deke as well as another subcommittee of the board we've talked about in our Retreats about [1:20:01] different ways to outreach different groups and and hearing different voices from um [1:20:07] different areas outside of PLC and some other things like that that are kind of more traditional and so I'm wondering if [1:20:13] there's a if you think it'd be worthwhile to have a board presence [1:20:19] well we always appreciate the voices of the board and if it were my decision I [1:20:26] don't know that it is so we would honor that but I think that's a a great suggestion and so if that happens we [1:20:33] will welcome each and every one of you with open arms [1:20:38] great answer any other questions [1:20:44] um just a brief one thank you for the depth of the work I know that Dr ariega has made a big impact with the district [1:20:50] already I'm grateful for the board's opportunity to have some chance to work with her and I know [1:20:56] that this is making a big difference what I would encourage is with as the work moves forward and we have continued [1:21:03] positive measurement that has been shown in this report for example how do we [1:21:09] celebrate that with the community and that's probably it's one thing to be able to [1:21:15] change those metrics within the district and really make this a better environment and have much better [1:21:23] learning happening but beyond the learning meeting our strategic goals of making sure that each and every student [1:21:30] feels valued knows that they belong here important to share that with the [1:21:35] community so that when they leave here and go back into their neighborhoods they know it's not just it's not just [1:21:41] here this is part of what we believe that all of these students belong here [1:21:46] they are contributing to our school Community we're all better teachers [1:21:53] better board members better community members because they are here [1:22:00] foreign absolutely [1:22:06] um thanks so much for this too and um as I've been on policy for the last three [1:22:11] years and deacons really had a big impact on the work that we're doing [1:22:17] um really in that advisory capacity it's really important to make sure that we [1:22:22] are listening it's one of our goals as a board member it's it's stated in our board goals actually to make sure that [1:22:29] we are using that Equitable framework with um within our policy making so it's [1:22:35] just been really um I think we've made a lot of really good movement and I know a lot of the wins that we're getting sometimes are [1:22:42] really you're not able to track I know we still have a lot of work to do though so I just wanted to acknowledge that and [1:22:48] just I'm looking at these policies and I know there's ones from last year that aren't even on here so there's been a lot of work over the years so I just [1:22:54] really appreciate that so thank you guys very much [1:23:03] next up we have business director mert Woodard and our fiscal year Cost Containment strategies [1:23:10] and as director Woodard is coming up and before he moves into his report I just [1:23:17] want to take time to think our internal and external stakeholders many of you came to the Berg meetings [1:23:26] and your voice really mattered it was so helpful for us in making decisions and I [1:23:35] just truly appreciate that um you know I had said at the meetings all [1:23:41] the time that my goal was to prioritize class sizes and um and to have the least impact on [1:23:47] schools and I really do believe that the feedback allowed us to do that I do want to clarify that through an [1:23:54] extensive audit of our e-finance system and by updating our staffing protocols [1:23:59] and procedures to those that are now used around the state of Minnesota to [1:24:06] tightly align with student enrollment we found some staffing inefficiencies at the middle school level and you're going [1:24:12] to hear more about how we anticipate that there will be a minimal impact both [1:24:19] for mert and maybe Dr smozza will come back up as well um also I want to say that we're very [1:24:25] grateful for the one-time Esser and cares dollars that were provided to help us meet the required social distancing [1:24:31] mitigation efforts that really help to keep our youngest Learners in school in [1:24:37] person during that time um yet unfortunately those dollars will [1:24:43] come to an end on June 30th and um and unfortunately we need to adjust the [1:24:51] paraprofessional Staffing accordingly really important to note we heard this [1:24:56] lots of questions about this as we were out talking with community that these adjustments do not impact special [1:25:03] education supports those supports are provided based on student individualized [1:25:09] education programs or their IEPs and merch shared several times that as a [1:25:15] district we are required to demonstrate maintenance of effort meaning if all of [1:25:21] a sudden we just dropped 50 percent of the level of support for [1:25:27] students with IEPs the state would question that how could that possibly happen and so mert and um director [1:25:35] remsing work on a report every year to really focus on um that maintenance of effort finally we [1:25:42] are aware that Governor walls has his proposed biennium package on the table [1:25:48] and that has led a lot of people to wonder why in [1:25:55] consultation with me director Woodard has set the budget conservatively at two percent for an increase of two percent [1:26:03] both in fiscal year FY 2024 and fiscal year FY 2025 [1:26:08] really important to note that with every legislative session there are also [1:26:13] proposed unfunded mandates so for instance right now there are two Bills [1:26:19] currently making their way through the legislature that have strong bicameral support actually that would also have a [1:26:26] significant impact on the general fund so those dollars that are coming in they're already going out if if those go [1:26:34] through um one is hf20 and the other bill is HF 827 or SF 680 depending on which side [1:26:44] you're in um house or Senate and um the first one focuses on the unemployment insurance [1:26:50] for hourly employees during the summer months when they're off and then the [1:26:55] other one focuses on increased prep time for teachers either one of those both [1:27:01] really great ideas would have a significant impact on the [1:27:08] general fund and so with this in mind I say that we [1:27:13] have to be fiscally responsible and to prepare for [1:27:18] you know what we don't know yet which is really tricky and we usually find that out in June so [1:27:25] um having shared that information I invite director Woodard to share his [1:27:30] report good evening Madam chair board directors Dr Stanley those who are still in [1:27:37] attendance with us tonight at the January 9th work session I shared with you a financial forecast of the [1:27:44] 2023-2024 general fund budget including a projection of what the net effect on [1:27:49] the fund balance would be were we to maintain and continue our current operations this fiscal year in the [1:27:54] subsequent fiscal year many assumptions were used to develop that forecast and those assumptions remain today however [1:28:00] before I begin to describe those assumptions and the resulting parameters I'd like to do a quick recap of public [1:28:06] education Finance in the state of Minnesota as we stand today which might be somewhat redundant for those who have [1:28:12] heard this before but I think it's always a good idea to remind the community about our financial realities [1:28:18] this is also something that we did at each of our five Community meetings as part of the Berg process [1:28:25] overall public education Finance in the state of Minnesota is extremely complex it's also super regulated by the [1:28:31] legislature and the majority of funding is tied to complex formulas that aren't always easy to understand the most easy [1:28:39] to understand Revenue source which is also the most significant is the basic education Revenue formula often referred [1:28:46] to as the formula allowance um this Revenue Source represents about 47 percent of the district's general [1:28:53] fund Revenue so the district's operations and programming levels are very sensitive to any adjustments to [1:28:58] this Revenue Source the calculation here is super simple it's the number of pupil units served any fiscal year multiplied [1:29:05] by the allowance figure for Edina Public Schools that represents about 65 million dollars of our budget [1:29:11] which as I said is about 47 percent while the formula allowances are [1:29:17] relatively stable source of Revenue we found that over the past 20 years it does not keep up with inflation and the [1:29:22] rising cost of Education over the last 20 years the formula has increasingly lost value to the point where if funding [1:29:28] sources had been tied to inflation during that time period we'd receive about 1263 dollars more per pupil which [1:29:35] translates to about 11 point million dollars of additional Revenue all things being equal [1:29:41] the next area where state aid is an adequate is in special education Aid the state and federal government mandate [1:29:46] levels of service which we gladly agree with however they don't fully cover the cost of providing those services at this [1:29:53] time we spend about 22.5 million dollars per year on special education services bringing in revenue of about 15 million [1:29:59] the gap of 7.5 million dollars is often referred to as the cross subsidy which [1:30:04] we make up for out of our basic education Aid and local property tax revenue which limits these Services we [1:30:10] can provide not only to those special education students but to all students [1:30:15] uh the simple conclusion that we can draw from this is that most of our Revenue Authority is tied to funding sources that don't increase with the [1:30:22] rise of our expenditures namely Staffing this leaves us in a situation where we have to consider Budget containments on [1:30:28] a year-to-year basis as Dr Stanley mentioned many are [1:30:35] speaking about the State Surplus so it's important that we address that while we're hopeful that the governor's proposal or better proposals are [1:30:42] appropriated by the legislature develop developing a budget on political prospering probably isn't responsible [1:30:49] and not something that we'll recommend at this point also the governor's proposal interestingly caps on the basic [1:30:55] Revenue formula increase in the subsequent biennium at a maximum of three percent and it's likely to be [1:31:01] closer to 2.3 percent at this point the district's recommended [1:31:07] assumptions and parameters for next school year are as follows we will maintain an unassigned fund balance of at least six percent of unassigned [1:31:13] expenditures which is the board minimum policy the district under the 2022 [1:31:18] fiscal year with a fund balance of 7.37 percent and it's projected to end the current fiscal year at around 7 to 7.25 [1:31:26] percent for enrollment we're using flat enrollment at this time but also [1:31:31] factoring the additional two sections of the Spanish dual language program at Countryside Elementary [1:31:37] um we certified our property tax levy at 8 563 or 63 students rather and the [1:31:43] property tax revenue dollars are guaranteed as a result for the next fiscal year any adjustments will be made [1:31:48] in fiscal year 2025 depending on the actual number of students served [1:31:53] basic education formula where our recommended parameter is about two percent which is one point [1:31:59] um 137 sorry pupil dollars per pupil unit this results in an additional 1.3 [1:32:05] million dollars of Revenue the increase over the last eight years has been 2.06 percent so even though nothing has been [1:32:12] appropriated at this stage we're fairly confident that we'll receive at least two percent um worthy Governor's proposal of four [1:32:18] percent to be appropriated by the legislature we receive an additional 1.3 million dollars over our current [1:32:24] assumptions our operating Levy allowance of twenty one hundred and five dollars per pupil [1:32:29] unit is indeed a fact at this point we certified that at our December truth and Taxation hearing um so that's not an [1:32:35] assumption at this point that will result in an additional 2.2 million dollars for context Edina Public Schools [1:32:42] is at the State Maximum so we're unable to get any more voter approved operating [1:32:48] referendum dollars the capital projects Levy is also a fact [1:32:53] at this time we'll receive an additional 454 thousand dollars that funding source [1:32:58] is directly tied to increases to the property tax base of the district at this stage we're assuming that all [1:33:05] other Revenue sources will remain flat [1:33:12] for class sizes we're assuming that there will be no changes to the current ratios and Staffing that means 20 to 24 [1:33:19] at kindergarten 22 to 25 in second grade 24 to 26 in third grade 25 to 27 and [1:33:26] fourth and fifth grade 28.15 in Middle School and 30.85 at High School [1:33:33] we will assume that we staff The Specialist and teacher on special assignment positions at the same level [1:33:38] we currently do we recommend no additional non-licensed staff are hired at both the school and [1:33:44] Department level we recommend that special education Staffing remain the same unless the [1:33:50] demands of individualized educational programs dictate that we add additional Staffing [1:33:56] salaries and fringe benefits are estimated based on settled contracts predictable step movement and expected [1:34:02] increases to expired contracts overall we're budgeting using assumed 4.03 [1:34:07] percent increase in the aggregate to all staff members that's going to result in an additional 5.7 million dollars of [1:34:13] expenditures for non-salary budgets including utilities supplies fuel Etc we're [1:34:20] assuming a 4.59 increase or an additional 1.7 million dollars above the current year [1:34:27] for our operating Capital revenue and expenditure budgets we are recommending Distributing funds based on the current [1:34:32] allotment sizes and finally we recommend a budget of 1.5 million dollars for other [1:34:38] post-employment benefits and Severance costs which is in alignment with our current Actuarial study [1:34:45] overall we expect that the assumptions and parameters just described would result in a four million dollar deficit [1:34:51] to the district's unassigned fund balance policy which would immediately put us out of compliance and likely [1:34:56] result in the removal of our AAA credit rating um when the board approves those parameters we'll immediately recommend a [1:35:03] Cost Containment measure to the tune of four million dollars for context that last February's board meeting the prior [1:35:10] Administration presented a forecast of a deficit of about 3.7 million dollars in fiscal year 24 which is quite close to [1:35:18] my calculation which was done with a totally different platform [1:35:23] at this point we'll open it up to discussion together [1:35:31] director Shaw yep thank you for your work on the smart um could you maybe for [1:35:37] the benefit of audience and community members watching at home talk about if [1:35:43] we were to lose our AAA Bond rating there is a pretty significant Downstream [1:35:49] ripple effect that happens right so if we dip into our general fund we lose that rating [1:35:54] excuse me there are some unintended consequences that would also hit our budget as a result of that can you talk [1:36:00] a little bit about that so people understand the importance of maintaining that absolutely director shot just for [1:36:06] context there are only three school districts in the state that have a triple A rating and 93 out of about 16 [1:36:12] 000 school districts in the country the result of losing that rating would mean that we would have to issue more debt to [1:36:18] complete the projects that we otherwise would have so our principal and interest payments for taxpayers would increase so they would [1:36:24] directly notice that on their property tax statements thank you [1:36:34] any other questions from board members [1:36:39] yep Mark can you talk a little bit about what happens when we spend down the fund [1:36:46] balance um the amount of years that we would have to do something like that and how [1:36:51] that could lead to statutory operating debt yeah so the state of Minnesota would [1:36:57] place a district under statutory operating debt once it reaches a negative 2.5 percent unassigned fund [1:37:04] balance so we're quite a way away from that we won't allow that to happen however the operational effects of that [1:37:09] would mean it would be much more difficult for the district to pay its obligations including payroll we may [1:37:15] have to enter into borrowing against our future state aid receipts or other lines of credit which of course bear interest [1:37:21] costs so it's a there's a large trickle-down effect of doing that and were we to not make any adjustments we [1:37:28] would face that situation in fiscal year 26 or 27. [1:37:33] Birdman um I think it's important maybe for you to just give another background as to [1:37:39] when we talk about our fund accounts right we have I believe it's 13 different accounts something to that [1:37:45] effect then each one has a different statutory and legal requirement what you can and can't spend the money on the [1:37:51] general fund being the one that's the most gives us the flexibility to do what we do which is why we want to maintain [1:37:56] the ability to have a fund balance but I know there was a comment earlier tonight I've seen it online where people say [1:38:02] well in our community ed budget for instance where we have maybe have a surplus or something like that well we can then if we grew that that budget or [1:38:08] that Revenue bucket that would somehow be able to offset the four million dollars that we're talking about here could you maybe just try to address how [1:38:16] the different fund accounts work and how what the limitations that are available to you to be able to find the revenue [1:38:21] necessary to cover all of our expenses absolutely director bourbon great question we have about eight different [1:38:27] governmental funds that are possible in this school district State Statute and [1:38:32] governmental Accounting Standards dictate how we account for those funds the Community Education fund which you [1:38:39] reference is considered a special Revenue fund meaning revenues derived and expenditures made must fit that [1:38:44] specific purpose every year we have an audit from an independent CPA firm that [1:38:49] ensures that we're using those funds appropriately so we can't simply increase our fees for kids club and [1:38:55] transfer the money into the general fund director Neville yes thank you thank you [1:39:01] for the background I really appreciate it I'm wondering if you could just clarify for the board and the community [1:39:06] a little more information regarding enrollment uh you I appreciate what you [1:39:11] included in your introduction and in the packet but um what I'd like to hear a little bit [1:39:17] more about is the general picture of enrollment not necessarily site by site [1:39:24] or grade by grade with Edina Public School residence [1:39:29] within the school district boundaries does our residential enrollment [1:39:34] fill all of the seats needed to balance our budget [1:39:40] absolutely director now a great question at this moment in time I believe resident enrollment makes up about 77 [1:39:45] percent of our student population so we would be quite inefficient in our [1:39:50] class sizes and the number of Staff we have did we not if we did not have open enrollment that might result in the [1:39:56] closure of programs schools Etc so it's very important that we maintain our current class size ratios [1:40:02] by supplementing our resident enrollment with open enrolled students thank you [1:40:10] thank you director what what are all this work um and for [1:40:16] um the intentionality of of the way this is laid out can you um can you talk just [1:40:21] a little bit about the prioritization of the different line items and if they are listed in a priority basis or not just [1:40:30] for those reading it and I think she's talking about the Cost Containment okay well I'm talking about [1:40:35] Cost Containment and then the feedback categories too both do we want to address that in this item [1:40:41] or wait till the Cost Containment item oh that's fine we can wait [1:40:48] yes if you could talk about the Cost Containment items and that document that would be great [1:40:53] at this point the order in which those items appear on the documents were not prioritizing any particular manner [1:41:00] however a robust process was used to develop those measures three different [1:41:05] finance committee meetings countless meetings with the administration including billing principles and other [1:41:11] leaders throughout the District Five Community meetings and a lot of thought was put into that Dr Stanley began each [1:41:18] meeting by reminding us of our guiding principles and our mission our vision and I think we really aim The Cost [1:41:24] Containment measures outside of the classroom to the best of our ability super difficult to do when your budget [1:41:30] is made up of about 82 percent staff compensation [1:41:37] thank you I think it's also important as we're if [1:41:43] we're gonna are we gonna get further into the Cost Containment component is that where we are now at this point yeah [1:41:48] I think there's some confusion about the order of our agenda items so I apologize director Woodard so I think the board [1:41:54] was expecting the Cost Containment first and the other one second and you were so if you could [1:42:01] start if you could go into some of the Cost Containment information um that would be helpful and just [1:42:06] continue with that on this agenda item so absolutely chair allenberg so in order to address the projected four [1:42:13] million deficit for next next school year the administration utilizes the budget reduction reallocation and [1:42:18] revenue generation process otherwise known as the Berg Gathering stakeholder input was the main goal of the Berg and [1:42:25] to that end the district held the aforementioned five town hall meetings hosted a staff survey had countless [1:42:31] meetings with senior level leaders as well as building principals and discuss the matter in detail at three different [1:42:37] finance committee meetings a more detailed description of the Berg and our findings including some categorization [1:42:44] of the feedback we received is found in tonight's materials the containments were developed by myself my cabinet [1:42:51] colleagues the building principals and we're confident that the Cost Containment recommendations will not [1:42:57] impact the classroom or will minimize the impacts the classroom and to our existing staff as I said incredibly [1:43:03] difficult to do considering the composition of our expenditures I'll quickly describe some of the [1:43:09] proposed Cost Containment recommendations before again opening up for discussion [1:43:14] the business services account specialist is a proposed reduction that's one one [1:43:19] staff member 1.0 FTE the anticipated amount is ninety thousand dollars [1:43:25] um those current duties have been absorbed by myself and other staff members who are confident that we can [1:43:30] maintain the accounting discipline of the district without that position Business Services professional [1:43:36] development conferences and travel fees we believe that we can eliminate and do some of those Services in-house as well [1:43:42] as suppress the amount of conference and travels we do each fiscal year that would save about fifteen thousand [1:43:48] dollars um the countryside Edition construction chargebacks the district recently issued [1:43:54] debt to finance the construction of that addition due to our outstanding credit rating we were able to generate an [1:43:59] additional three hundred thousand dollars of construction proceeds which we can apply to the administration [1:44:04] administrative costs of building that facility my salary portions of my salary [1:44:10] portions of the buildings and grounds director salary portions of principal Bergman salary Etc [1:44:16] long-term facilities maintenance chargebacks each year the district expends about 10 to 15 million dollars [1:44:22] for deferred maintenance needs those expenditures are accompanied by administrative costs that we believe are [1:44:30] appropriate within that funding source so we'll allocate about a hundred thousand dollars to that [1:44:35] lease Levy for graduation there's no reduction to the actual expenditure here [1:44:40] however by law we're able to generate Revenue to rent graduation facilities so we'll begin doing that that's something [1:44:46] the district hasn't done in the past Food Service fund and Community [1:44:51] Education fund chargebacks those programs rely on general fund infrastructure in order to operate be it [1:44:57] utilities the physical space administrative costs Etc we think that allocating a portion of those costs to [1:45:03] those funds is appropriate and we'll look to do that on a year-to-year basis while also maintaining the financial [1:45:09] Integrity of those individual funds curriculum Capital each fiscal year the [1:45:16] teaching and learning department is allocated about four hundred thousand dollars to pay for a new curriculum for [1:45:21] next school year we believe that we can eliminate or defer about a hundred thousand dollars of those expenditures and then bring the budget back to four [1:45:27] hundred thousand dollars in fiscal year twenty five so that will save about a hundred thousand dollars next school year [1:45:36] the alternative teacher Compensation Program used to be cost neutral hover due to Rising costs um and revenue [1:45:43] that's stagnant program realignment is now in order we have a peer coaching position that will be vacant as of July [1:45:49] 1st so we'll recommend eliminating that position as well as making other minor program adjustments to save about 185 [1:45:55] thousand dollars we will recommend the discontinent of the teacher fellowship program the [1:46:02] individuals who are currently part of that program will likely remain as part of the district Staffing contingent upon them meeting performance [1:46:10] standards and other requirements of holding those positions so in the future we will recommend that [1:46:15] no additional fellows are added to the district [1:46:22] the student support services department has a number of administrative and non-classroom staff we believe that [1:46:29] through realignment and attrition we can reduce the number of Staff in that program and not affect the classroom so [1:46:36] they're about 1.5 ftes there that we believe we can eliminate [1:46:41] the district's capital projects and Technology Levy does not pay for all of our technology needs so there are some [1:46:47] unassigned general fund expenditures we believe we can reallocate to that funding source to the tune of about five [1:46:52] hundred thousand dollars the achievement and integration program similar to the alternative teacher [1:46:58] Compensation Program is now out of alignment expenditures exceed the revenue that we produce from that [1:47:03] program so we'll recommend some Administration administrative realignments excuse me and eliminations [1:47:09] to increase or reduce the budget by about 150 thousand dollars [1:47:15] um the most notable figure on this Cost Containment recommendation is the Middle School license right sizing [1:47:23] the district established its per pupil Staffing a number of years ago and has [1:47:28] adjusted that as the middle school program changed from a six to nine to a six to eight structure [1:47:34] that transition has unfortunately resulted in some inefficiencies in Staffing we've also seen enrollment [1:47:39] decline at Valley View and South View due to Bell time changes as well as the re-establishment of program capacities [1:47:45] of 336 pupils per grade level we've discovered those and we will recommend [1:47:50] that we right-size those programs to fit with our established ratios that's something that we would recommend [1:47:57] regardless of our budget situation Dr Stanley mentioned our Esser funds and [1:48:02] some of the Staffing that were added as a result of that funding we added about 15 paraprofessionals to maintain [1:48:08] in-person instruction during the pandemic at kindergarten and first grade we added about 15 professionals which we [1:48:14] will recommend reducing that's something we would recommend regardless of the budget containment [1:48:19] situation again and then finally an operating Capital freeze each fiscal year these School [1:48:26] sites and departments are allocated operating Capital dollars we think a one-year pause makes sense given that [1:48:31] those programs often have carry forward at the end of the fiscal year [1:48:39] thank you for reviewing those um so now I'll open up the questions about [1:48:46] um these specific reductions as well as any additional [1:48:53] questions you might have about um the budget assumptions and how they are [1:49:00] impacting the reductions on director Shaw yeah thank you um I just wanted to take [1:49:06] a minute to give a little bit of information to community members who maybe were not a part of our work [1:49:12] session where we discussed this I wanted to take an opportunity on behalf of the finance and Facilities committee to thank mert for his work on this and [1:49:19] share that in our meetings that there was some pretty overwhelming appreciation for this work I likened it [1:49:27] earlier to kind of going through a checkup right like going through and figuring out what needs to have [1:49:34] attention brought to it in order to help make our budget and our district healthier and so I appreciate the work [1:49:41] in that it's not easy but for the [1:49:46] long-term health of our district to give us space and opportunity for when other [1:49:51] things come to our plate we need to make choices like this so I just wanted to [1:49:57] share that and I don't know if Michael or Dan if you wanted to share anything else from our finance and Facilities meetings [1:50:03] yeah I think what's important is that um you know director Woodard has just [1:50:09] come to the district as of you know middle of last year um and not only is taking on the process [1:50:14] of doing the core job but part of what he's doing is in the process is ensuring that we're doing a constant review of [1:50:21] what our financial picture is are we right-sized are we aligned properly are we looking at all programs and services [1:50:27] to make sure that we're extracting the most benefit for the least amount of cost and a lot of the things that you [1:50:32] see here and this is what happened in the finance committee as we were looking at things to where [1:50:38] um where realignment is the term that he's used several times tonight these would be things that we would do anyway [1:50:44] even if we did not have a four million dollar deficit projection that's then there that's The Prudent fiscal [1:50:49] management that's required to run this public entity um so I want to make sure the community [1:50:55] understands that well yes whenever you see a four million dollar number that's a scary thing and then you talk about [1:51:00] cuts and so you're talking about there are humans that are involved in the lives on a full-time equivalent that [1:51:06] typically is a person let's not be insensitive to that and so on and so forth but there are several things that [1:51:12] are coming out of this that show that these things would have needed to be done regardless of whether we not had that deficit or not what we're trying to [1:51:18] do is then right size correctly so that not only can we address our concerns for this next year but more importantly we [1:51:24] have things that are coming in the in the following year and the year after that and we're not quite sure what the state funding is going to be we have to [1:51:30] be prudent as far as how we want to handle that so to me I just want to make sure as a financing Committee Member and [1:51:36] as a person who's been through this now for a little while this is an excellent part of fiscal [1:51:41] management that director Woodard Dr Stanley and the team are doing and while it is difficult to always find these [1:51:47] types of areas these are the prudent steps we need to take regardless of where we're going to go from the state [1:51:52] the last thing that's really important too the state won't make its decision until after the fact [1:51:59] and so we have to make decisions now based on what we think it might be and plan for the worst and if it's better [1:52:06] well then how do we then address going from there it's a lot easier to address something that's better than something [1:52:11] that's worse in this space and so I just would ask the are my colleagues and the [1:52:17] community to recognize that that's the approach that we're taking here it's not meant to be doomsday but it's meant to be appropriate for where we're going [1:52:22] from that standpoint I think that's a very very solid financial management strategy to employ so thank you [1:52:29] foreign Michael covered a lot of what I was going to say but um the one other [1:52:35] element that I that's come out of the finance committee that I wanted to highlight was there are other opportunities that I think that are out [1:52:41] there for the district that we can look at from a from a proactive way that I think we're going to be tasked with over [1:52:47] the next few years just to kind of meet it whether it's the way former business was being done and opportunities for us [1:52:53] to to either change policy or change structures in the way we do things and I won't go into the specific details that [1:52:59] you've mentioned before but you've highlighted some things in the finance committee that might be opportunities for us to change or manage strategically [1:53:07] the the financial piece of it that I think are going to be important that the community be aware that we're still looking at those pieces as well [1:53:15] thank you any other questions from board members or comments [1:53:21] good um the only thing um director Gaylor brought this up in the work session and [1:53:27] I keep thinking about it too is um can you just talk a little bit about if [1:53:32] um if the state funding changes what what that looks like for this decision making because I think that's an [1:53:38] important thing to set expectations um and I know Dr Stanley you also [1:53:44] mentioned some things that are going on at the legislature legislature right now [1:53:50] great question director Greene as Dr Bergman mentioned earlier we likely won't know until late May or late June [1:53:56] about what the next biennium will bring for us financially at this point as the business director I think it's prudent [1:54:04] for me to recommend that any additional funding hit the fund balance however that would be a board direction or an [1:54:10] end directive to give to us in terms of the priorities what would come back when would it come back what would it look [1:54:15] like so we would look to guidance from you director air [1:54:20] um I know it's been asked in a couple meetings that I've been a part of is you know there's Community Partnerships that we have with whether it be ptos or [1:54:26] you've got a give and go or or are you down ahead fund and those types of things that um are there are there activities from a [1:54:33] fundraising perspective that they can do that could help offset any of these items are these if there's like a [1:54:39] one-time piece of it that they wanted to Target for those types of things is there is that something we would [1:54:45] recommend um in here just to fill a gap and I don't know if you can answer that question or not but I know that's been [1:54:51] asked by community members uh thanks for the question director m I [1:54:56] can answer it in terms of my philosophy behind fundraising um I think allocating resources from fundraising to ongoing [1:55:04] positions is tricky because those funding sources are not stable they're not predictable ptos change from year to [1:55:10] year depending on which students are enrolled so I'd like to build our staffing based upon state aid and local [1:55:15] property tax dollars which are much more predictable in nature we're very thankful for our Community Partnerships [1:55:21] and we welcome enhancing those but long-range planning I don't consider those fundraising efforts at all to be [1:55:28] honest um I appreciate that you know typically [1:55:36] those fundraising dollars are really good for one time purchases right so right now we are grateful for the Ed [1:55:43] fund for the work that they're doing to help support us with letters funding that's going to be a one-time purchase [1:55:49] that's not ongoing um to try to staff longitudinally based on fundraising it [1:55:57] just is not some it's just not fiscally sound so foreign [1:56:03] so for the sake of clarity um I just like to walk through a couple of the feedback categories that we [1:56:10] received and make sure people understand how they relate to the recommendations [1:56:15] and the first um feedback was to continue to Define Excellence to provide students with the [1:56:23] same excellent educational opportunities basically do not make reductions to curriculum Talent Development language [1:56:30] art music and physical education and we are not recommending that at all correct [1:56:35] absolutely we'll be maintaining our current class sizes all the Specialists all of our physical education art music [1:56:42] Etc no reductions to those Staffing student support services do not make reductions in the area of special [1:56:48] education Mental Health Service English learner services and access absolutely as Dr Stanley mentioned [1:56:55] earlier there's something called maintenance maintenance of effort meaning that each fiscal year we have to spend at least one dollar more than the [1:57:01] prior fiscal year on special education services unless we can demonstrate that there's been a material decrease to [1:57:07] individualized education programs which we're not anticipating at this point okay and then um [1:57:15] a couple of the other ones were related to budget reduction suggestions that [1:57:22] um we took into consideration such as Administration non-classroom [1:57:27] expenditures I just wanted to ask you to clarify really fast in one of the [1:57:35] um I keep getting all the um in one of the um [1:57:41] assumptions that we're making you had mentioned that we won't be adding staff [1:57:47] could you please clarify what that means related to [1:57:52] um Staffing follows pupils and so if we do have a growth in pupils it allows for [1:57:58] growth in staff but what we mean by no growth in staff is we're not going to [1:58:04] add staff beyond what the pure pupil allotment budget that we have correct [1:58:10] absolutely chair allenberg you hit it on the head um assuming staff or pupil units remain [1:58:16] flat there would be no increase so we're not altering the ratios if enrollment appeared we would adjust our staff [1:58:22] accordingly okay okay thank you any other questions I think there's just one other [1:58:28] clarification not from you but I think that is important to share is that even [1:58:33] though your your parameters talk about a two percent funding for the next two years from the state even if it went to [1:58:39] four percent that would only add another 1.3 million dollars to the revenue total from there [1:58:45] it would not make up the difference that the amount of funding that the state would actually have to allocate in its formula to actually help us actually [1:58:52] achieve what we're looking for we would need a considerable amount either on the basic funding formula or in the special [1:58:58] services cross-subsidy both there's a number of things that would have to happen in order for that to magically [1:59:05] fill the Gap is that correct that is correct if the governor or the [1:59:11] legislature appropriates six percent on the funding formula that would take care of this issue the cross-subsidy [1:59:17] recommendation would add about 3.5 million dollars as it stands today and so that would also make a big impact [1:59:23] however that's really one-time funding all of that can be undone by the next legislature as part of the 2024 general [1:59:30] election so so again it's just an important to understand that when we're trying to figure out how to fiscally manage and [1:59:36] budget going forward that even with a surplus that's available today it in and of itself would not necessarily solve [1:59:43] our problem for the long-term future absolutely correct also worry to Simply [1:59:48] Break Even year over year we would eventually be out of compliance with our fund balance policy because our [1:59:54] expenditure base will grow every single year thank you [1:59:59] thank you director Woodard I appreciate all your work on this next we're going to move to our policy [2:00:06] review with policy chair Regina Neville thank you chair allenberg I just want to [2:00:14] begin with a brief thank you to director Greene and the members of the policy committee who have preceded me with [2:00:21] their work on policy they've done made significant effort to bring policy [2:00:26] review up to date and have also established a thorough record and [2:00:32] tracking um process for taking a look at policy review and for cross-reference so I'm [2:00:39] grateful for that and I'm happy to join as the chair for the policy committee we [2:00:44] have three policies in tonight's agenda all are here for discussion the first [2:00:49] one policy 302 the superintendent has no changes and I'll just pause to see if [2:00:56] there's any if there are any notes that anyone would like to make regarding 302 [2:01:04] uh director Neville would you just explain what it means when a policy comes through as rapid review [2:01:11] rapid review thank you yes so there are some our general process process for [2:01:16] policy has discussion at the committee level and it will bring into that process [2:01:21] um the cabinet members who are assigned to that policy and also any additional members of the district Community who [2:01:29] work with that policy directly we will be taking a look at that policy for [2:01:34] changes in State Statute to make sure that our policy is updated to comply with statute and also any changes in our [2:01:41] district so does that policy still meet the needs of our district so many of the changes that we'll see going forward in [2:01:49] different policies reflects some of those different adjustments wrapper review means that [2:01:54] they're are none of those changes applicable everything is still in compliance with State Statute there are [2:02:00] no changes in the Minnesota School Board Association General policy and we have [2:02:05] had no recommendations at the committee therefore we're suggesting that we just bring it here for discussion and then [2:02:11] approval at the next meeting so if there are no other suggestions [2:02:18] regarding 302 I'm going to move on to 301 this is [2:02:24] also discussion it's regarding School District administration just a couple of items that are being recommended for [2:02:30] this particular policy in section two the general statement of policy there's language added to reflect the goal for [2:02:37] Equitable access to education and then there's also some clarification in [2:02:43] paragraph number three General responsibilities subparagraph C to [2:02:49] include the superintendent designee with the list of other staff members who apply to this particular policy are [2:02:57] there any questions or clarification requests for 301. [2:03:04] okay I'm going to move on to 613 graduation requirements there was considerable discussion regarding [2:03:10] graduation requirements and also a lot of work done by our cabinet so I'd like to invite Cabinet member jodyson Hubert [2:03:18] to join us to give us some background [2:03:24] thank you director Neville policy 613 is highlights graduation requirements and [2:03:30] I'm just going to walk through the highlights of the changes and answer any questions that you might have the first [2:03:35] discussion was around the number um Roman numeral number two general [2:03:41] statement of policy the last sentence was added just to make sure that we are [2:03:46] being inclusive of all our Edina students as we increase Pathways and opportunities and so examples of [2:03:52] students that that might pertain to would be students in some of our options programming or Edina virtual pathway [2:03:59] um so that that is the first area that I wanted to highlight and then I go I'm going to move to just noting that [2:04:07] um under the cross references we did put policy 624 their online learning to [2:04:12] refer back to in conjunction with that statement um we also in appendix one went through [2:04:20] and the main changes there are in alignment with the new standards [2:04:25] um that are happening specifically number three is specific to science [2:04:30] number five is specific to the Arts and then you'll see a number two jumping [2:04:36] back to math that's not necessarily new standards but we're making sure that there was Clarity of language there in [2:04:42] the most simplest form that we we could um we could provide and then number seven is just making sure that we're [2:04:48] updating the number of elective options that a line also with state requirements and then the final exciting addition is [2:04:55] appendix 2 where we added um our our very exciting Edina Public [2:05:00] Schools portrait of a well-rounded Edina graduate to the policy [2:05:05] are there any questions that I can answer I have one question for clarification so [2:05:12] in the appendix number two talking about math Six semester credits of mathematics including an Algebra 2 credit or its [2:05:20] equivalent so we took out in grades 9 through 12 does that mean students who achieve that say before they get to [2:05:27] ninth grade is that meeting their requirements and they would not be responsible for taking any additional math exactly it is meeting their [2:05:34] requirements okay it is strongly still required that they continue with math all the way through [2:05:39] High School it benefits them as they go into their higher education or whatever whatever they like to pursue After High [2:05:44] School but but if they do hit Algebra 2 say as an eighth grader I just want to make sure I understand it [2:05:51] clearly that's part it the algebra 2 is an eighth grader fits within the okay thank you [2:05:58] can I ask a follow-up question um to that so but that isn't a change in the way that it is currently done it's [2:06:05] just a change to reflect the policy of what's already being done at the schools yes correct it's a point of [2:06:11] clarification within the policy to try to align with current practices and make sure that's clear great thank you [2:06:22] thank you Jody are there any other questions regarding 613 that board [2:06:28] members would like the policy committee to consider before we bring it back for action [2:06:33] okay I think that's all we have thank you yeah I think you're up next yeah [2:06:41] we're going to move on to our action items do I have a motion to approve the student travel so moved is there a [2:06:48] second second we now welcome director of teaching and [2:06:54] learning Jody D St Hubert to talk about student travel opportunities thank you chair Ellenberg Dr Stanley and board [2:07:00] members I'm excited to have these travel reports in front of you for Action they have um all of them have been brought to [2:07:07] discussion at a board work work session and discussion at a board meeting and [2:07:12] there were questions at the last board meeting there were questions around scholarships and so I did want to just [2:07:17] give a high quick highlight and information on the follow-up in regards to that had an opportunity to meet with [2:07:24] assistant principal Jen Carter at the high school and also one of our travel experience leads who does a lot of trips [2:07:31] just to touch base on where we're at with those travel experiences and how we're providing the support to not only [2:07:38] remove the barriers but escort students through and that was a good conversation one aspect that's really important to [2:07:45] bring to the board that will continue to highlight when we bring further travel experiences to you is that a lot of the [2:07:51] Partnerships that we we currently have with our traveling Partners have [2:07:56] scholarship opportunities built in that we partner with and those that don't we [2:08:02] are making sure we will continue to make sure that there are fundraising opportunities however an exciting next [2:08:08] step is that um we're going to get a small group of Staff together to see how we can be provide some cohesion and [2:08:14] coherence to that fundraising opportunities so that there's a collective effort in trying to make sure [2:08:19] that we again open doors and escort our students through there was also a conversation around communication and [2:08:25] where and how we're communicating that these options are available for students and families and so we're excited to [2:08:32] continue to grow our work in that area and I feel there's some really strong action steps already in place I wanted [2:08:38] to bring that update and then the other thing that I wanted to make sure I did all the other reports are as they were [2:08:44] within our discussions and they're the only one that has changes to it is the high school social studies travel based [2:08:51] on learning commemorating the 80th anniversary of D-Day when Mr Griggs the travel coordinator [2:08:57] for that experience he was recently contacted by the agency that we're working with and unfortunately the trip [2:09:05] as it was laid out in the first report was sold out and so there's highlighted in the report there there's an option [2:09:11] that we would like to present here and it is the changes would be that they are [2:09:16] still able to do the tour in alignment with the standards and what we presented [2:09:21] with those standards in the first round of presentation and that would just be a switch to starting the tour in Berlin [2:09:29] and so it is more of a Germany France instead of the England France experience [2:09:35] because the England France is what sold out there is a slight cost increase for families and that's stated in the report [2:09:41] at 290 dollars and then the dates of travel would vary slightly but would still be in the summer range of 2024. so [2:09:50] I wanted to highlight that information some changes everything else has remained the same [2:09:57] do board members have any questions or comments about the travel [2:10:02] all those in favor of approving the student travel say aye aye anyone opposed the student travel is approved [2:10:10] thank you very much do I have a motion to approve the budget assumptions and parameters second [2:10:21] did you get any of that Anne Michael was the first James okay okay [2:10:28] um we discussed this earlier but does anyone have any um [2:10:33] questions for director Woodard about the budget assumptions and parameters [2:10:41] nope all those in favor of approving the budget assumptions and parameters say [2:10:47] aye aye anyone opposed the budget assumptions and parameters are approved do I have a [2:10:54] motion to approve the general obligation Capital notes and Facilities maintenance bond series 2023-a so moved is there a [2:11:01] second second director Woodard thank you chair allenberg at the June 2022 regular [2:11:06] meeting of the school board you approved an updated 10-year long-term facilities maintenance or ltfm plan to finance [2:11:13] deferred maintenance projects throughout the district the district has elected to utilize a mixture of pay-as-you-go Levy [2:11:19] Authority as well as bonded debt to finance those projects an ltfm debt issuance was always planned for this [2:11:24] fiscal year however the administration believes it to be prudent to issue a small Capital note in conjunction with [2:11:30] that issuance to finance planned Pupil Transportation vehicle purchases as well as plan technology device purchases [2:11:37] this will allow the district to spread the payments for those devices across the useful life of those assets instead [2:11:44] of paying for those upfront in the current fiscal year that will provide the district with some short-term budgetary flexibility the district would [2:11:51] not begin making payments interest and principal payments until fiscal year 2025. the resolution has a reimbursement [2:11:58] built into it meaning that we'll pay for the equipment out of our pockets now and [2:12:03] be reimbursed by the proceeds this spring the resolution also includes a parameter regarding the sale and a true [2:12:10] interest costs maximum of four percent we'll hope to issue at about three percent but that's that's an estimate at [2:12:17] this point we're not sure what the the interest rate Market will do between now and may however whatever we issue at it's going [2:12:24] to be much less than a traditional financing of a vehicle or device which would be upwards of five percent based [2:12:31] on the multiple quotes and banks that I spoke to over the last several weeks um please note that the capital note [2:12:37] principal and interest payments will be paid for out of the operating capital and capital projects Lobby funds which [2:12:42] are actually two very stable funding sources for the district this is a relatively unique strategy for [2:12:47] the district not something that it's done before so it's been reviewed in great detail by the finance committee of [2:12:53] the board and the district's Municipal advisors our advisors will be present at the March work session to formally [2:12:59] present a full pre-sale report we'll then recommend ratifying the bids that were taken at the April or May school [2:13:06] board meeting um with that the recommended action is before you [2:13:12] director Shaw thank you um I did want to take a moment to let you guys know that this did come [2:13:17] through finance and facilities and there was a robust conversation about it I want to take a moment to acknowledge and [2:13:24] give thanks to mert there for the creativity and the thoughtfulness that [2:13:30] he put into this is not something that's been done in the past and so I just want to take a moment to say that he really [2:13:35] did go above and beyond to make this opportunity available to us and to recognize these cost savings to us so I [2:13:41] wanted to take a moment to thank you for that Mark thank you [2:13:46] I was going to say something similar to director Shaw just saying uh thank you for [2:13:52] highlighting that this was a new um strategy for the district because that was one of my questions as was if [2:13:59] we had done this before uh director were is there any downside or risk to us taking this approach [2:14:06] the only downside is over the life of the assets which is between five and eight years five for the devices eight [2:14:12] for the buses will incur interest costs but again we'll spread those over the [2:14:17] life and each fiscal year we'll make sure that we budget for the principal interest costs meaning that we'll take [2:14:24] what our maximum revenue is and immediately remove what the principal and interest payments will be the capital projects Levy fortunately is [2:14:31] tied to the increase to our property tax base so each year we'll get more money out of that funding source and operating [2:14:36] Capital will also increase as our buildings age and as we enroll more students [2:14:42] thank you any other questions or comments [2:14:47] we will now vote to approve the general obligation Capital notes of facilities maintenance bonds series [2:14:53] 2023a all those in favor say aye aye anyone opposed the general [2:14:59] obligation Capital notes facilities maintenance bond series 2023 are approved thank you very much [2:15:05] do I have a motion to approve the 2023 School Board election agreement between the city of Edina and Edina School [2:15:11] District so moved second um so this has come through the [2:15:17] governance committee and it is an agreement um for a division of labor between the city [2:15:23] of Edina and the Edina School District to conduct the 2023 general election and [2:15:30] only the 2023 general election for the school board um the attached resolution is an updated [2:15:38] partnership agreement because the original agreement was outdated this [2:15:44] agreement has been reviewed by District legal counsel Trevor helmers and his recommended changes are reflected in [2:15:50] this document if approved tonight this will then go to city council for their [2:15:56] review and vote um that includes the board's changes next week do any other members of the [2:16:02] governance committee have any comments no I just wanted to re-emphasize that [2:16:08] this is just for the 2023 election only um that this is a [2:16:14] agreement with the city just for this upcoming election only and that there is [2:16:19] a partnership committee that is meeting I am not on that committee but meeting to talk about next steps for both the [2:16:27] city and the district to move forward so and I think I'd only add that this [2:16:33] basically just moves us forward from the same things that we've been doing with the city for the last 30 years this [2:16:39] agreement is basically incorporating that for one more year so nothing is changing so the confidence in the election process that the city's been [2:16:46] running for the school district will be maintained for this year while we consider what the future is going to be [2:16:54] any questions comments from board members all those in favor of approving the 2023 [2:17:01] School Board election agreement with the city of Edina say I I anyone opposed [2:17:08] um the election agreement is approved do I have a motion to approve policies 212 214 and 217. so moved is there a [2:17:17] second second director Neville these are policies that have all been [2:17:24] reviewed by the board no changes since we've last seen them I think we're ready to go unless there [2:17:30] are any other questions from board members [2:17:35] we will now vote to approve policies 213 214 and 217 all those in favor of [2:17:41] approving policy 212. sorry 212 I have a typo I apologize we will now vote to [2:17:48] approve policies 212 214 and 217 all those in favor say aye [2:17:54] aye anyone opposed policies 212 214 and 217 are approved [2:18:00] that is all for Action items we'll now move on to board leadership and committee updates [2:18:07] anyone I just have one quick update the legislative action committee um member Shaw and member Aaron and [2:18:15] myself if anyone is interested in helping to Advocate the legislature [2:18:20] which is a lot of action going on for Education please go to our website go to [2:18:25] the website under school board and you will see a lot of information you can sign up for our mailing list we have a rally day going on at the Capitol on [2:18:32] March 8th that we'll be joining with Partners in other districts in the state to really advocate for a lot of the discussion that we heard tonight about [2:18:38] funding and helping to one of our number one prioritizes to work on stabilizing [2:18:44] education funding for public schools in our district and throughout the state so [2:18:50] please check that out thank you director green we'll now move [2:18:55] on to superintendent updates [2:19:29] all right thank you testing testing okay great [2:19:35] is it related to a member of our transportation department and the subject line said Thank you Mr Mike it [2:19:42] said uh dear Dr Stanley Caroline and Jeff uh Carey is our director our [2:19:49] transportation supervisor and um Jeff is the assistant supervisor said please express our heartfelt gratitude [2:19:56] to Mr Mike Graham's school bus number 54 driver today Mike returned to our home [2:20:03] at the end of his day to drop off Graham's Miss pay misplaced backpack [2:20:10] G was having a lot of anxiety about it and Mike came through in a clutch way [2:20:15] these are the moments of kindness that shape our children in future generations and then [2:20:22] um I thought that I would add Jeff's response he said Mike is indeed a great [2:20:28] driver not to mention a really great person all around so thank you so much [2:20:35] Mr Mike Mike [2:20:41] and then this is this one is just a little bit delayed and I would just be [2:20:46] completely remiss if I didn't read it this came to actually the school board and it said we are sending this note [2:20:52] today i'm sorry this is from um Molly at Berry Patch school she says [2:20:59] we are sending this note today to express our gratitude to the district on the Excellence of the Early Childhood [2:21:04] Special Education team here in Edina a long time Community partner we at the [2:21:10] berry patch schools are blessed week in and week out by the team of Specialists [2:21:15] that come alongside students in our two schools as well as other Early Childhood centers in our community we were honored [2:21:24] to have our staff receive a full morning of training from a team of Edina Early Childhood special education staff in [2:21:31] October Kate strand led the team in creating an outstanding collection of information [2:21:37] and resources on speech and language development autism spectrum disorder [2:21:42] sensory processing and the screening and referral evaluation process for families [2:21:47] Cheryl Parish cash Cassie B practices a million times bjerky [2:21:55] Armstrong Meredith pecky Ann Gantt and Kate each presented in their area of [2:22:02] expertise The Berry Patch team came away from our training further connected to the ecsc [2:22:08] team encouraged and motivated to continue the hard rewarding work in our [2:22:14] classrooms and inspired to continue learning ourselves we wanted to be sure [2:22:19] that the school board members know how grateful we are for this team and their foundational work in our community not [2:22:27] only with our young children but also with those of us coming alongside these children and families [2:22:33] in honor of the gift they gave our team we are giving a 500 donation to Edina [2:22:40] give and go in honor of the Dyna ecsc team it takes a village to raise these [2:22:47] kids and we are blessed to be part of it with you warmly Molly [2:22:53] it's amazing I mean it just shows just the incredible [2:23:00] impact that our teachers have not just internally with the students who are in our schools but [2:23:06] um Berry petzers many many others residents in the community and so that's just something to be really proud of [2:23:13] and then this came from Linda Noor she says hi Dr [2:23:20] Stanley I had to share with you how wonderful [2:23:26] our dmts staff are I have been with the district 18 years [2:23:31] and have always found the staff helpful friendly and quick to respond I can only [2:23:37] imagine how many emails calls and requests they get each day especially [2:23:42] Natasha and yet every time I contact Natasha [2:23:48] with a question in parentheses I try not to bug her too much smiley face she is so quick to [2:23:55] respond and help I really appreciate her and her staff have a great day Linda [2:24:01] Nord due process specialist [2:24:09] then we just had some staff that were just recognized uh for their greatness [2:24:14] so Lindsey smaca who's a high school teacher and she leads our [2:24:20] um Global student program um was awarded the AFS USA Global [2:24:27] educator award which we're super excited about Chris Griggs one of our social studies teacher is the Minnesota Council [2:24:34] social studies teacher of the year which is amazing [2:24:41] and then Giovanna marguly fourth grade teacher at Cornelia and Emily wagy I hope I [2:24:49] pronounce it I did it good I practiced so much um who is an access teacher at Highlands [2:24:55] they are nominated for Minnesota teacher of the year [2:25:01] that's exciting and then [2:25:08] finally we got we received news today [2:25:14] um that we were awarded the youth skills training grant for 100 [2:25:21] 000 to support our Pathways work [2:25:27] and a huge thank you to Dr Leland Dr [2:25:33] smozzle and director de Saint Hubert very well done thank you [2:25:42] so those of you who stayed here he got to partake in all that great news right that is awesome that [2:25:51] that's all of my announcements thank you Dr Stanley that's amazing [2:25:56] um with that do I have a motion to adjourn the meeting so moved [2:26:02] is there a second second all those in favor of a journey say aye aye anyone [2:26:07] opposed no one ever opposes um we are now adjourned thank you