[3:27] foreign from a recess and a closed session and [3:35] start our Open Session and our first item on our Open session is our approval [3:41] of our agenda do I have a motion to approve tonight's agenda [3:48] so removed second we will now vote to approve tonight's agenda all those in favor of approving tonight's agenda say [3:55] aye aye anyone opposed uh tonight's agenda is approved [4:02] um we're going to continue with our annual election of our board chair and other board officers [4:09] first is our board chair are there any nominations for the office of board [4:17] chair yes I would like to nominate Erica allenberg [4:23] for board chair are there any other nominations for the office of board chair [4:31] are there any other nominations for the office of board chair if there are no other nominations for [4:37] board chair the nominations for the office of board chair closed we will now vote for the office of board [4:44] chair all those in favor of electing Erica allenberg for board Chair say aye [4:49] aye anyone opposed I'm Erica allenberg is elected board chair [4:56] we will continue with the election of other board officers nominations are now for the office of Vice chair [5:03] are there any nominations for vice chair I would have a nomination for Julie [5:09] green for vice chair thank you are there any other nominations for vice chair [5:15] are there any other nominations for the office of Vice chair if there are no other nominations for [5:20] the office of Vice chair and then the nominations for the office of Vice chair are closed we will now vote for the office of Vice [5:28] chair all those in favor of electing Julie green to the office of Vice Chair say aye [5:33] aye anyone opposed Julie green is elected vice chair we will continue with the office of [5:40] clerk are there any nominations for the office of clerk [5:46] I'd like to nominate Janie Shaw nope scratch that I'm so sorry that's okay [5:52] sorry to the public are there any other nominations [5:58] I would like to nominate Karen gabler are there any other nominations for the [6:03] office of clerk if there are no other nominations for the office of clerk then the nominations [6:09] for the office of clerk are closed all those in favor of electing Karen gabler for the office of clerk say aye [6:17] aye anyone opposed Karen gabler is elected Clerk we will now continue with [6:22] the election for the office of Treasurer is there a nomination for the office of [6:27] treasurer I would like to nominate Janie Shaw for the office of treasurer [6:32] are there any other nominations for the office of treasurer are there any other nominations for the [6:38] office of treasurer if there are no other nominations for the office of treasure then the nominations for the [6:43] office of Treasurer closed all those in favor of electing Janie Shaw for the office of Treasurer say aye [6:50] aye anyone opposed Janie Shaw is elected to the office of treasurer we will now continue with nominations [6:58] for the office of assistant Treasurer and assistant clerk which are three [7:03] different roles um so if there are any nominations for the roles of assistant Treasurer or the [7:09] two offices of assistant clerk um please name them now [7:15] and I would personally like to nominate Michael Bergman for assistant Treasurer Regina Neville for assistant Clerk and [7:22] Dan Aram also for assistant Clerk are there any other nominations for the [7:27] offices of assistant Treasurer or assistant Clerks are there any other nominations for the [7:32] offices of assistant Treasurer and assistant Clerks if there are no other nominations for [7:38] the offices of assistant Treasurer and assistant clerks then the nominations are closed all those in favor of electing Michael [7:45] Bergman for assistant Treasurer and Regina Neville and Dan arum for the office of assistant clerk say aye aye [7:51] aye anyone opposed Michael Birdman is elected assistant Treasurer and Regina Neville and Dan [7:57] Aram are elected assistant Clerks thank you everybody for participating in [8:02] that process we have no members of the public here to speak to us so we're going to move on to [8:07] our consent agenda is there anything anyone would like to remove from the consent agenda [8:14] um can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved is our second second all those [8:21] in favor of approving the consent agenda say aye aye aye anyone opposed the consent agenda is approved and now [8:29] we're going to move on to our two discussion items and our first discussion item is on our Edina virtual [8:34] pathway program our elementary program specifically and we have assistant superintendent Randy [8:41] smozel and our virtual pathway coordinator Steve Collison here welcome [8:48] good evening uh chair allenberg superintendent Stanley our school board members and community members I'm joined [8:55] by Stephen colison here this evening to talk to you about a proposal administrative proposal for [9:03] the future of EVP at elementary and EVP started as Edina Virtual Academy [9:10] during the pandemic time and then once it was approved by Minnesota Department [9:16] of Education or once we were approved by Minnesota Department of Education to be a K-12 comprehensive online provider [9:23] that was rebranded as Edina virtual pathway the program I will [9:29] emphasize has provided a quality education in particular at the elementary level has provided a quality [9:36] education for our Learners we've received positive feedback from the staff from the students and from many [9:43] families for the last few years but we have had declining enrollment in that [9:50] EVP Elementary program and it is at a point where we don't see [9:55] that as a viable option moving forward and so the proposal this evening highlights a few of those elements [10:03] around that that proposal and what our plans would be moving forward [10:08] our recommendation would be that we take we plan out a two-year phase out and [10:14] that we offer EVP Elementary in grades four through five for next year for the [10:20] 23-24 school year um in 2122 we had about 90 students and [10:27] this year we have about 29 students in EVP Elementary so you can see that that enrollment has declined substantially we [10:34] currently have two teachers teaching in that program our proposal would be that would move down to one multi-age section [10:41] next year and would involve one staff member as the classroom homeroom teacher [10:48] you have as part of your resolution a summary of the budget for EVP both at [10:56] the elementary level and at the secondary level and one of the things that we would um [11:02] articulate is that that those expenses are primarily around Staffing some [11:07] materials but our primary expenses are around Staffing the FTE for the classroom teachers and then in some [11:14] cases some partial Staffing for Specialists that also provide some support services for students [11:21] although the costs of K5 have been [11:26] um have been negative to the district the overall budget has been positive [11:32] because of the enrollment at the high school level has carried the elementary [11:39] expenses so we are net positive this year but we don't want to continue with [11:45] a program that is also net negative in terms of Revenue at the middle school level we have not [11:52] had sufficient enrollment since we made this offering and we've had a few [11:58] families who have signed up to participate in a virtual option and we [12:03] have worked with another school district to be a partner with us for families [12:09] that have wanted that option so that we can offer that option to the other [12:15] school district um at the high school level we have been [12:22] running Edina virtual pathway this past year and we've continued to see growth at the high school level in our [12:28] full-time students participating in that Edina virtual pathway we've had we [12:33] currently have 39 students at the high school level that are participating but we have hundreds that are participating [12:39] on a part-time basis so the niche that we see or the need [12:45] that we are trying to fill really gets much more substantive at the high school [12:53] level and so that is something that we see as the future of the dynavirtual [12:58] pathway and where we're going um in successive years [13:03] in terms of communication we have notified parents or guardians of this proposal after we had posted the [13:10] information to the board we have shared this with principals and and The Proposal with the teachers and then [13:16] pending board decision on the January 9th regular session [13:22] uh we will also notify parents um depending upon where we're at with that decision and then we'll continue to [13:29] survey families for needs as we move forward and many families we know will [13:35] come back into a brick and mortar environment and other families may want to continue to participate in an online [13:42] environment and that's where our tuition agreement with Bloomington Public Schools will come in where they will [13:48] remain enrolled as the Edina Public School students we will retain some of that Revenue but then the other Revenue [13:55] will go to Bloomington Public Schools all of that will culminate when we finalize our staffing in March of this [14:04] year as we try to prepare for the following school year so all of that is [14:09] in the resolution that you have in front of you that was a very quick summary I'm going to turn it over to Stephen to see [14:15] if he has any other additional comments you'd like to have hey everybody thank you for having me no [14:22] that was a very good summary I suppose there are only two points of clarification that I would add to that [14:28] um one regarding the notion of uh families who want to stay online and [14:35] would they return to in person or leave the district it should be noted that [14:40] under this proposal almost all of the students who are online right now would [14:46] be able to continue online even though we saw this as a program that [14:52] we're proposing to phase out in part due to financial reasons but also because there's sort of a gap [14:57] between the elementary offering and the high school offering we also felt that [15:03] we had um you know we made a commitment to our families we wanted to if we could do so in a way which was financially [15:10] responsible meet that obligation and so the proposal initially was take the [15:17] existing grades and let those students continue through and phase it out here's [15:23] the thing about that though next year we would have had one classroom that was [15:28] our 2-3 classroom would have only had five students um are uh fourth and fifth grade cohort [15:34] is larger and so we can have a very healthy sized classroom for that so [15:40] under this proposal for next year only five of our existing students would be [15:47] um either would be in a place where we wouldn't be able to offer them our own online program and I say only I don't [15:54] want to minimize the potential disruption to those families whom we've [16:00] served well and have had a good relationship with um so I by no means want to minimize [16:05] that but I just wanted to stress that for most of the families who are participating when you die in a virtual [16:10] pathway at the elementary Level under this proposal we would continue to offer [16:16] it the other place I wanted to um provide some clarification was around the budget [16:23] and finance at the elementary level relative to the revenue generated by [16:30] enrollment we are operating at a deficit as described there we are relative to what [16:37] was allocated to EVP well below that number because that number was allocated under the [16:44] assumption that would be serving a larger number of students and in fact when you add the costs of both the [16:49] elementary and secondary programs we still come well short of the money that's set aside in the budget so when [16:57] we talk about operating a deficit for elementary I just wanted to make sure that that was clear that we are coming [17:03] in well below what was budgeted at the secondary level our Revenue exceeds the [17:12] costs for students there so if we treated our budget as really being tied to what our [17:19] total revenue generation was if we compared that to our costs EVP still is [17:26] costing the district less than we are generating separate from whatever was budgeted so [17:33] those are the only two things that I had to add anything else to add before we take questions I think we can turn it back to chair [17:40] Ellenberg for questions right do board members have questions [17:45] yep so thank you very much for very good information [17:50] um I'm just curious uh from the 90 students that we had in um that dropped down to 21 which kind of precipitates [17:57] the enrollment loss that was in there do we have a sense of how many of those might have come back into the brick and mortar um environment in Edina [18:05] I'm sorry that I don't have all of the numbers uh for that um the majority of them [18:10] um and the ones who didn't return to in person in their home districts uh I I do [18:16] not recall a single conversation of anybody who stayed online but opted elsewhere it was just a matter for those [18:24] families where their resident District wasn't edine if they didn't geographically live nearby [18:31] so it was entirely a people opting to return to in person whether or not it [18:36] was Edina or elsewhere excellent thank you go ahead just one question do you know [18:43] other districts that were offering Elementary based virtual programming were they experiencing the same thing [18:49] were they seeing that and it's basically becoming a high school level of flexibility [18:55] I want to say yes to the first part and add some um clarification to the second yes the [19:01] decline in enrollment at the elementary level and in fact decline [19:06] um somewhat of a decline in enrollment broadly online is something that other [19:11] providers are seeing in this proposal we are positing that [19:17] um the number of people who are online right now are the ones who are there because that's the style of learning [19:24] that suits them best that what we're seeing is really the tail end of the [19:30] people who are in it out of concern around coven and that isn't something that is Edina specific however for a [19:39] district that has a larger population let's say eight percent of the [19:46] population online learning is really the thing for them eight percent of a larger [19:52] District would be viable to continue and so that's why there are some larger districts who are continuing their [19:59] Elementary programs even as they've seen perhaps as a percentage seen their enrollment fall [20:08] go ahead Julie um I don't have any questions I actually um thought I was going to ask the same [20:14] thing that director Birdman asked but I just wanted to say thank you because I really appreciate this proposal and this [20:20] proactive approach to say okay here's where we are here's where it makes sense I thought the information you provided [20:26] was fantastic and I just also wanted just to say thank you because I know the last three years [20:32] um I think that the EVP programming showed the ability to adapt and to be [20:39] flexible and meet the needs of our students in such a unique experience and [20:44] so I know our community appreciates that and the data showed us time and time [20:49] again with all the reports that would come back the impact it had on students was it was exceptional and so I just [20:55] want to say thank you for all that work so um I agree with the proposal and the [21:00] recommendation but I just wanted to say that because I and I know the two of you have put a ton of time into this so [21:07] thank you so much and if I can take the opportunity I myself have only been working with EVP this year uh Randy and [21:16] Dr Stanley have been working on it for far longer but I really who knows if they're going to watch or hear this but [21:22] I really want to uh call out the EVP elementary teachers and paraprofessionals most of them have been [21:30] there the whole time they've been working on it for years and years and years this is their baby and the high [21:37] quality education they provided is entirely due to their efforts well I say entirely there's been some support from [21:44] dmts and it takes a village right but um I I hate to Hate to accept that that [21:51] thank you when uh really uh the those the teachers who aren't here with us today are and the support staff are the [21:59] ones who've really done the work so thank you and I'll pass on that that thank you to them okay thank you yeah I [22:06] will share that please yeah I mean I remember the students coming in and just like they were they lit up and they [22:12] really excelled in that environment and I think we learned a lot about there are so many reasons why people or [22:19] students would choose online learning um it can't just be assumed for one thing or another so I think it really taught [22:25] us a lot about student needs and meeting student needs so please share that along to your colleagues so thanks [22:31] Regina um just a brief comment I support the recommendation it makes sense I [22:37] appreciate the presentation I just went director green ended with and what we've [22:42] learned about the profile of students whose needs we can meet I would really [22:48] appreciate any data or information that can be captured for just our teaching [22:54] and learning curriculum development not to be shared tonight but just to have in the future that there is a need [23:00] and really applauding Edina and our instructors who are meeting this need [23:06] recognizing that we as a system need to adapt and that there's a positive [23:12] outcome for that so really grateful that there's a variety of needs that are being met and served by this procedure [23:19] this process I would just value knowing a little bit more about that to see how it could inform other decisions so thank [23:26] you thank you and I of course want to recognize that that need will remain [23:32] even in absence of this offering and that's where the partnership with a larger neighboring district will for [23:39] those students who really online is the need for you know whether it's health [23:44] anxiety whatever it may be or simply they learn most easily that way [23:51] um that we I'm pleased I would be reticent to offer this if we didn't have [23:56] a good solution ready for those families that need it because the need will will remain even after our current students [24:02] you know graduate to Middle School just as those students when they graduate Middle School some of them are going to [24:09] say you know I'm ready to try in person but for those who are continuing online we already would have had a plan in [24:16] place for them to provide those services in partnership with another District [24:22] thank you um I have two questions one is um [24:28] I support the recommendation but I was wondering if um there's a minimum threshold for [24:36] grades four and five that you guys feel that we should meet in order to run [24:42] grades four and five next year because I think there's a balance between being customer friendly and wanting to [24:50] support our students and the reality of being fiscally responsible so [24:55] I'm just wondering from an Administration perspective I I mean I would hope that we can get [25:02] all 29 students but let's just say something happens and only 12 decide they want to sign up are we committed to [25:09] running it no matter what and is that your recommendation or is there is there some sort of cut off where it's just not [25:16] feasible to run this yeah I think that's a really good question [25:22] um chair Ellenberg right now we believe we will have 25 students and so that [25:28] some of our due diligence work is to guarantee that we really do have a viable section here we believe that that [25:36] section will be viable but it could present a scenario where maybe it's not viable and then that that would cause us [25:43] to not offer it but I think what we need to do maybe is talk about what that [25:49] number would be and we could bring it back on Monday before the board takes action on it I think that would be good [25:55] because I I would hate to approve it and set expectations that we're going to run it no matter what and then families be [26:02] super disappointed and like I said maybe you guys talk and the recommendation is [26:07] that we want to meet the needs of our families no matter what but then I would like that information [26:13] presented to me because it could have an impact and I'm not saying it will but it's just something to consider [26:20] from a decision-making perspective so it's also nice to be transparent [26:26] about because assumedly there is a number right if there was literally only one student left we'd probably have to [26:33] consider maybe referring them elsewhere so being transparent about the number in advance seems wise I'll note that this [26:41] year we're operating at a deficit relative to generated Revenue because we [26:47] have class sizes of around 14 per teacher [26:52] and so there is room for that say 25 to drop to 20 and still have a much more [27:01] favorable student-to-teacher ratio so there's I mean essentially other than [27:06] five students what we're proposing is consolidating our entire program which now is two teachers into one so there is [27:13] room for students who maybe say oh if the program is closing maybe now is a [27:19] good time to return to in person I'm anticipating there'll be some of that there's room for some for some of that [27:25] to occur but coming at with a okay where is that number for the recommendation I [27:32] think that makes good sense okay and then my second question is that I assume it's sort of a Pros well I guess it is a [27:39] process question is that I assume the board will it might come in two questions because I assume the board has [27:46] to vote to um basically eliminate the EVP program over time for grades e through eight [27:56] and I know I asked this um when we talked about it but I was [28:02] wondering if if that's the wording or however we were the resolution or what [28:07] we approve does this preclude our eighth graders from taking High School level classes online [28:16] it would not okay um that um that for purposes of mde [28:22] having a first I suppose there's two points one as long as we're approved [28:28] with mde we can we can have our middle school students as long as the board [28:34] wish to in the district wish to as far as mde is concerned we would be we would [28:39] be able to continue to do that even if we were to and so there's two different things right there's the district [28:46] determining do we want to offer it and then there's the state's permission [28:51] to offer um from the state's standpoint they have something where you can simply put something on pause [28:57] is language that they introduced this year because so many districts jumped [29:02] into online learning um and even smaller ones than us found they [29:08] didn't have enough students to do any grade level but rather than completely withdrawing [29:14] their permission to operate so we'll put it on pause you retain the right to do it without having to get reauthorized if [29:22] you decide to come back later I'm not sure what the length of a pause is I'm [29:27] not sure the MD's specified but I would propose though it doesn't say it here [29:32] that there's no reason for us to go to mde and ask for for them to withdraw [29:38] the right to offer until they say we've reached [29:44] such number of years without offering it um so probably the intention would be to [29:50] maintain the permission to offer it you know another pandemic ramps up again all [29:56] of a sudden Lots families want to go back that retaining the right to offer it so long as we're able to I think [30:02] would be a good thing but no we looked into it I specifically asked mde great [30:08] okay thank you I have anything else [30:13] thank you thanks for all the information and all the work on this appreciate it thank you thank you thank you [30:19] [Music] okay our next discussion item is a process overview [30:25] um of the City School District Board election partnership process [30:31] um let me just pull this up so this is coming from the governance committee and at our 1212 work session [30:39] the city and the school district agree to be beneficial to have some further meetings to come up with a mutually [30:46] benefit beneficial solution and then we agreed to have governance to [30:52] work work on a suggested process and that's what we're seeing tonight is [30:58] the suggested process to work together with the city for this [31:04] mutually beneficial solution and so there's some background information and then it's a fairly [31:11] simple process the only thing that I wanted to note is there's two different colors on the [31:18] process one is for the 2023 election resolution that's supposed [31:24] to come to the board for discussion in on the ninth which is next week and [31:32] action in February and then the broader issue of what do we do with future elections which is the blue that's the [31:39] overarching process so I'm happy to walk through it or if you guys have questions [31:44] feel free to ask but Julie or Stacy do you have anything to add from governance perspective [31:52] I think the only thing to add is that I think it is complicated like for the [31:57] community to look at this and so just to be clear again like we have [32:03] um there's two different things working at the same time we have the upcoming 2023 election in November that [32:11] um we did get a resolution from from the city a contract to move forward that the [32:17] city would still continue to run that election and that's what we'll be discussed on Monday [32:23] um so I think it's just a little bit confusing for the community [32:28] um to follow this so anything that we can do to help keep communicating that [32:33] that there's two different running courses here I think is helpful so I just wanted to anyone listening out [32:39] there can hear that thank you Julie [32:45] um I mean the basic process I think is what we talked about briefly and our [32:50] meeting and then governance talked about having the city and school get together to talk about what are common priorities [32:56] and goals and then see if there's a preliminary plan then coming back to the board to get board feedback sort of [33:03] going in and then out and then out until we have a mutually agreed upon plan [33:09] um once we have the 2023 plan in place it's not quite as urgent but we still need to [33:16] get it figured out this spring so this goes until an um in April end of April [33:22] time frame so yes just a point of clarification so [33:27] what's important is that for 2023 it's basically continuing on with what we've been doing for a very long time with the [33:34] city running the election for on our behalf as a vendor basically that we pay to make make that happen and that's what [33:41] the resolution that was just provided to us by the city that we're going to be asked to consider and approve [33:46] that's step one as Julie was just saying but now the second part is then talking about okay going forward after 2023. [33:55] what we're going to do for an election standpoint related to the school district that's what's going to be discussed as far as what are the options [34:01] what are the considerations what might the city be able to do with us what might we need to do so on and so forth [34:06] these are all the questions that anyone in the community might have this is what's going to be discussed between the city and the school district to [34:12] determine okay what is the school district going to do going forward correct after 2023. correct and I think [34:21] there also though is a sense of somewhat urgency after we have the [34:27] resolution figured out for 2023 because the seats that are up it would it could potentially impact those seats if things [34:35] get shifted so for community members or anybody who would be running for election [34:40] it's important that they would know if there's a shift if they're running for one year if they're running for three [34:45] years five years or how so that's the real impact so that we're that's why we're [34:51] even though it says it might not happen until 20 impact 20 24 25 it actually impacts this election so that's a good [34:59] point of clarification absolutely thank you [35:06] okay um so it looks like um the ideally we're targeting the first [35:16] week the first week I'm sorry the week of 116 23 to have a a meeting between the city and the [35:23] schools um and I know that Stacy you and I believe Scott have had a couple of Converse [35:30] conversations through emails back and forth about planning a couple of meetings and I does this align with [35:37] yeah this um the dates and everything completely aligned with what Scott and I were thinking and [35:43] um two offices are working to identify times that board newly elected board [35:49] officers would be able to be in those meetings okay thank you that's it [35:55] that's all for this discussion item um are there any leadership or committee updates from board members [36:04] um the only committee update is the legislative action committee is having their legislative breakfast a week from [36:12] tomorrow Wednesday January 11th from 7 30 to 8 30 in room [36:17] 3 48 so we have all of our Representatives coming including two [36:22] national Representatives so we invite everybody to come everyone is welcome from the public great thank you [36:29] anything any superintendent updates nope [36:34] um do I have a motion to adjourn the meeting so moved oh all those in favor of a [36:42] journey say aye aye aye the mo or the meeting is adjourned thank you thank you [36:54] foreign