[0:30] good evening good evening it's seven o'clock [0:38] ladies and gentlemen we're gonna call the meeting to order [0:48] [Music] good evening tonight is monday september 13th then we do have a quorum so i will [0:54] call this meeting to order the first order of business tonight is agenda approval do i have a motion to [1:00] approve the agenda so moved do i have a second second [1:06] i was going to ask if um we could move the um to make a change in the agenda [1:13] we have an existing motion to approve the agenda so we'll have to vote on [1:19] approving the agenda first [1:25] or do we want to can you tell us what the change you want to make us yeah i was just going to move the assessment plan from discussion [1:33] from information to discussion from information to discussion so are you guys [1:38] okay approving the agenda with the alteration of um [1:44] the assessment plan being a discussion as opposed as opposed to an information item i would just ask the question if [1:51] if administration is ready to prepare to discuss it and not have as just an information item correct that would be [1:57] my question [2:04] yeah and if you'd prefer to send it to teaching and learning first that would be fine that would be another option [2:12] so why don't we leave it as an information item and then it can go to committee [2:18] okay [2:28] i mean it's already been posted it's already there right okay that's that's fine and i'm [2:34] also going to ask to pull the um the board norms off of the consent agenda okay you can do that when we do the [2:40] consent form okay so all in favor of approving the [2:45] agenda say aye aye all those opposed say nay the agenda is approved um we're now [2:53] going to move on to hearings from members of the public um thank you to everyone for coming to [2:59] the meeting tonight to speak um and i want to remind members of the public who wish to address the board that pursuant [3:05] to board policy 206 we ask that you do not duplicate information that has been previously [3:11] presented if you have a complaint about individual employees board members or [3:16] students in the district please direct any of these comments to the appropriate site administrator the superintendent or [3:22] submit them in writing to the board the board typically does not respond to or have discussion on any issues presented [3:28] but questions raised during presentations will receive follow-up as directed by the board [3:33] i would like to remind all speakers that your presentations are limited to three minutes when you have 15 seconds left of [3:39] your three minutes and when your three minutes are finished i will have a visual prompt for you [3:44] to notify you to finish up your statement and then to finish up your statement at the three-minute mark please [3:51] um first up is dr sarah preble so welcome dr [3:57] preble [4:03] great thank you very much for having me here tonight um first of all i wanted to thank you all for taking such quick action uh in the [4:10] resolution that you discussed at the special meeting earlier with regards to requiring vaccination or weekly testing [4:16] for staff and teachers i think it will set a high standard and show the community how important covert [4:21] vaccination really is i work at a major hospital in minneapolis and they are delaying elective cases [4:28] starting today elective surgery cases this is due to a lack of staffed beds [4:34] what is a staffed bed it means that we don't have enough nurses to care for all the patients that we need to care for [4:40] we have icu patients on ventilators for hours in the er waiting for an icu bed [4:46] we have people with significant heart attacks sitting in the waiting room of the er because there aren't enough er [4:51] beds we also have patients in smaller hospitals that need higher levels of care and they can't transfer to our [4:57] hospital either at all or for many days why am i telling a school board about my [5:02] hospital staffing issues it's because your actions and the policy of this school board [5:08] directly affects the surrounding community not just our eps community not just edina [5:14] but the entire metro and the state of minnesota our community is at high risk right now [5:19] and everything that you can do to help prevent the transmission of covid will prevent our it will benefit our [5:25] community that's why i'm pretty troubled to see that there was time spent during tonight's special meeting on criteria [5:31] about when to change the masking requirement there are so many other important things to deliberate about [5:38] and masking is an a necessary thing for the foreseeable future and we [5:44] need to follow the recommendations of major public health organizations like mdh and cdc [5:49] and not make up eps specific criteria let's talk about how to increase [5:55] vaccination rates in the eps bipot community let's talk about how kids eating lunch together in the school rooms during [6:01] periods of significant or high transmission is going to lead to outbreaks in school transmission and [6:06] multiple exposures and quarantines let's talk about screening testing for students and staff [6:13] even if eps can't immediately support in-school screening testing you can absolutely send a strong message to the [6:19] eps families that weekly testing is an expectation and will help keep kids in school more [6:24] consistently you can make them aware of the mdh recommendation and where to easily get [6:30] tested and last but not least let's talk about having a more robust curriculum for [6:35] students on quarantine thank you thank you dr preble [6:44] next up is abby metzler [6:52] [Applause] [Music] hi i'm abby metzler i have a [6:57] first grader at creek valley elementary and i'm also a physician uh in the area [7:04] and i just wanted to kind of share i didn't prepare much but let you know kind of my what our experience has been and where i think we should be focusing [7:11] more on so about five days into the school year we had had i think 12 first graders in [7:18] one classroom and then another handful in another room on quarantine so those students are out [7:23] so of the four classrooms we do have a significant number out i know you all were talking about how the [7:29] numbers are low but unfortunately that's not been our experience um when those students were quarantined [7:36] i was getting messages and talking to the parents about what are we supposed to do how are they going to learn how to get tested they [7:43] didn't get recommendations or sent home with any test kits they had heard that the state was going [7:48] to be providing tests and that didn't happen so i think we have a lot of work to do and i think we should be [7:55] focusing on how we can best support those students and keep our kids safe right now in the schools in the current situation [8:03] i'll also put into context that in our communities right now our health care systems are not doing [8:09] well i work mostly in a clinic but also do a few weeks in the hospitals and even in [8:14] the clinic settings we are being asked to see patients with higher acuity double book patients [8:21] see people instead of sending them to the emergency rooms because the emergency rooms are full and understaffed [8:28] i will share a there's a scenario i'm in neurology so we would typically get all sorts of [8:35] transfers in at the major tertiary care centers in town from the outside centers [8:40] and so we have patients with uncontrolled seizures and status epilepticus being managed in emergency [8:46] rooms in rural areas because we do not have any place to put them at echo dr preblin that we have [8:53] people in the emergency rooms who should be in the icus and we have no beds in the state to put them in [8:59] so the scenario right now while again i'm happy to hear that overall our rates are low in school [9:06] we are part of the community and i think we need to be doing everything that we can to support our community as well [9:12] and be making sure that the parents and students are safe and know what the plan is and how they can be part of that too [9:21] so thank you for the testing and for teachers and the vaccination support i [9:27] think that's huge i would love to see more for students as well and really focusing more on the [9:33] robust plans now for when students are exposed at school and less about how to take mass [9:39] off i would love that to be a priority we are not there yet thank you [9:45] thank you very much [9:53] next we have jason doctor [10:08] [Music] [10:13] dr stanley chair ellenberg and directors thank you for the time to speak [10:19] first i want to speak to oops and i just lost my page here oh got it okay first i would i want to speak to [10:26] the draft resolution to require eps staff to be vaccinated against covet or to submit to regular testing [10:32] the eme governance board has overwhelmingly voted to support this resolution we agree that vaccinations [10:39] are our best tool to keep our students our colleagues and our communities safe and our schools open [10:45] no one asked for our support our support is voluntarily given that is what partnership can look like [10:52] teachers helping to shoulder the load and share the burden of this decision [10:57] shouldering the load is something we are with which we are familiar however in march of 2020 that load increased [11:03] dramatically we stepped up and leaned into the work the sacrifice that needed to be made [11:10] we know that you value the work we did and continue to do so throughout the spring summer and now [11:16] fall teachers have received accolades from parents board members and district administrators for going above and [11:22] beyond last year to ensure positive learning environments and opportunities for our students we [11:28] now ask for more than words we appreciated your attendance at our last negotiation session and the message [11:35] of partnership you brought we value that partnership as well to be honest this round of negotiations [11:42] has been difficult and a strain on our partnership let me try to summarize [11:47] we met with the district's negotiation team for the first time on april 19th we reported that information from our [11:53] member survey said that salaries and workload were primary concerns we listed online teaching support for [12:00] our equity and anti-racism efforts and construction of ftes specifically special education ftes as issues that we [12:07] would like addressed we have had very limited success advancing these issues at times we have [12:13] felt that our concerns were dismissed or disregarded when it came to district concerns and [12:18] proposals we felt sometimes threatened and bullied these perceptions were communicated and [12:25] they were received and they were understood i only tell you this because it didn't always feel like a partnership [12:31] we have moved past this what had been a contentious environment has become more collaborative relationships are being [12:38] built on july 7th we exchanged our first financial proposals [12:45] throughout we have negotiated in good faith our proposals have been reasonable we feel that we have held up our end of [12:51] the partnership we have been cognizant of the district's budget forecasting [12:56] reducing our ass to a point where would be the smallest total dollar package in 10 years [13:02] every day we have to wait for a new contract is harmful at a time when we are concerned [13:08] about the mental health of our students and staff we don't need this distraction every day contributes to teachers stress [13:14] and anxiety let's get this deal done let's let our teachers focus on what they love their students thank you [13:22] thank you jason [13:35] elizabeth hillstrom elizabeth hillstrom [13:41] hello my name and i leave my mask on right i [13:46] can't but i'm thinking my name is elizabeth hilstrom a teacher for 21 years 18 of those in edina public [13:52] schools i'm a two-time nationally board certified educator and some of you may remember me from [13:58] commencement last year as i was selected by the student body to be the faculty speaker i am asking you to reconsider eme's [14:05] contract offer i am here with my colleagues to ensure our students walk into a safe and inspiring place every [14:12] single day this year i have 159 students in five classes an additional 31 in my advisory [14:18] that's a total of 190 students and today i know every single one of them by name i'm terrible at names but i know i [14:26] realize how important it is for students to be known by their name to be seen by [14:31] other people and to be heard by their teacher i don't need to go back to last year to [14:36] provide you with examples of a dining public school teachers going above and beyond i can just go back to yesterday i [14:42] took the time yesterday to send the following email to both a parent and ehs student because she had gone out of her [14:48] way to make edina a welcoming place last week i wrote end quote [14:54] i just wanted to say thank you for having such a terrific daughter she is making our class and our entire school a [15:00] better place last week she stopped by during flex and another student came in who had shared that they really felt [15:05] alone in the school your daughter went above and beyond as a student and a human being to talk with this individual [15:11] and let them know that they are not alone end quote an email on saturday i reached out to another [15:17] student who ran her first half marathon yesterday i wanted to be sure [15:22] that she knew i had really listened to her when she told me what she was undertaking and that i'd be thinking of [15:27] her on race day on friday i was frantically grating while eating my lunch and a new student [15:33] to a dine in public schools came into my room lost and confused the three different schedules he had to [15:39] master as a new student at edina were too much for him i pushed my lunch aside and my work aside and i said we'd figure [15:46] this out together after 10 minutes staring at this very confusing schedule i interrupted one of [15:51] my incredible teacher neighbors who set aside her lunch and her work to help us as well [15:56] finally after 15 minutes i realized this was going to take a trip to the office so we went there together [16:02] returning to my classroom my lunch wasn't eaten grading unfinished but i had made a difference in the life of a struggling [16:08] edina student these examples are not of curriculum planning or grading or attending [16:13] required meetings the time designated for that during my school day generally becomes time to [16:18] help students in need like last thursday when cree walked into my room during my prep hour completely overwhelmed by how [16:25] to even start the college process again i pushed my work aside because she at that moment was the most important [16:32] thing i could give my time to i am not unique i am the average edina public school teacher what i am doing i [16:38] learn by watching my amazing colleagues not only are we preparing them to be successful college students we are [16:44] preparing them to be human beings who care about other people and want to create a better world teachers are the [16:50] greatest resource edina public schools has please acknowledge that with actions as well as words thank you thank you [17:02] shannon seaver shannon shannon seaver [17:16] i'm not as bubbly i'm shannon seaver and um [17:21] dr stanley and terry allenbergen board members i'm here to talk about our what we've been doing this last year [17:27] over and above and beyond a couple things in the last year as you guys know [17:32] we've learned how to pivot which is a word that we consider a swear word now and um so but [17:39] hearing from the doctors in the community i have a feeling we're gonna need to learn to pivot again so we need to have [17:46] that understood that that may need to happen um i gave up my family time to keep um [17:53] our my head above water with the students and with teaching both class and virtual it's [17:59] doubled the load uh and um we also had to come up with our own [18:04] virtual content and especially with videotaping you can imagine how much more time that took [18:10] um i was also available for my students after school because a lot of them were [18:16] taking care of their siblings and couldn't do school during the day because they were doing school with their siblings and then had to do their [18:23] own school work so i had to be available at night so i put in 12 to 15 hour days easy [18:29] um but even in in despite all of that [18:34] i teach ap computer science my ap scores went up 20 percent so 20 percent more students passed the [18:42] ap test um i taught summer school and helped those kids that struggled [18:48] last year and they all passed and after that i took four weeks of training so that i could teach [18:54] engineering classes this fall so i only had two weeks off this year um [18:59] worked day after day oh and last year i had i had a hysterectomy and the day after i'm [19:05] sorry it's just it's true um the day after i started teaching [19:10] the day after and i have another colleague that had surgery and started teaching the day after her surgery as [19:17] well and lost a lot of sick days and to get those back i got mine back but she didn't um so [19:23] um we also i'm sure many of us had to upgrade our internet that's a big cost [19:28] you know um just to make sure that we could communicate and do what we need to do to do our job and lastly um [19:36] i'm one of the eight people that last year got nationally board certified in the middle of all [19:42] this and i found that that process was harder than getting a master's in math [19:48] so that if you can imagine that was a lot of work and trying to make it work with kids at home kids there and so on [19:57] so i just wanted to say um i i plead with you guys to consider [20:03] what the contract will be and that we should at least get inflationary [20:08] meaning you know how will you be happy with yourselves if we have to pivot again [20:14] and the teachers are having to go above beyond but didn't get inflationary [20:20] meaning of our salaries thank you thank you [20:32] alex alex gold [20:38] [Music] hello [20:44] my name is alex galt i'm a math teacher at the high school um and i have had so much fun this year i get [20:52] to see kids in the room and we get to like correct a factoring mistake on the fly and then move on we get to um play [20:59] 24 which is really fun in the classroom um we get to it's a math game don't [21:04] worry we're still doing math um we get to um you know just see each other and just [21:10] talk and and it's something that i really missed last year i worked really hard last year without that kind of joy [21:18] i worked all year i created the entire ap calculus curriculum [21:23] bc online so that every single lesson was a video and i'm really happy that [21:29] those videos exist but um i also had two little kids at home so i was doing that [21:34] while i was trying to figure out what their google classroom meant [21:40] um and i just um it was all around me teachers were working really hard last [21:46] year and the joy was missing um and i just want to warn you [21:52] about um you don't want to lose us you want us to teach your children we [21:58] you want people who have the joy of seeing people in the room and [22:05] and the joy of of being with young people we love it and so you [22:11] you just don't want to deprive us of a living wage [22:16] um when as a math person i could get a different job i love this job so please [22:23] pay me to do it thank you [22:30] tim castor kim pastor [22:36] kim castor [22:45] hi everybody my name is kim castor i'm starting my 22nd year [22:50] of working in the french department the world language department at the high school and i also work on student [22:56] council which includes homecoming and all the other events during the year i would like to start by saying that the [23:01] dedication of this teaching staff behind me and the enti and the people that are not here tonight did not start in march [23:07] 2020. you know this as well because you've heard the accolades at least for the 20 years that i've been here it's [23:13] been one thing that keeps me coming back i was only going to stay five years because that was a part of my [23:18] international travel plan but somehow the time seemed to have disappeared before march 2020 we were already [23:25] meeting with kids we were already innovative we were already working the technology to the best of our ability [23:31] and to keep kids engaged and for sure in the language classes we were asking kids to speak the language participate be up [23:38] be moving etc so what happened last year in my department we were doing google meets [23:43] for four days a week because how do you get a kid to learn a language other than speaking it they have to be there but at [23:49] the same time there that meant that we had to give up a full saturday a full sunday sometimes both evenings to be [23:56] ready for the next day even with the wednesdays that we graciously got by the throughout the rest of the year it was [24:03] tough to be ready and in my own situation i have five different schoology pages that do not connect [24:09] so each time i posted something had to be in each time i posted something we had office hours as you've heard [24:16] tonight that were in the evening when it worked for kids it was helping kids get better for test scores on the [24:22] ap test or helping kids be ready to be mentally capable to turn their camera on [24:28] hopefully and talk in a language class or just be there because it was hard to [24:33] be anywhere at the middle of the year we were redesigning lessons to make sure that they worked online to keep kids [24:39] engaged we have always given 200 and cova did not change that and now that we're back [24:46] in person i can tell you as a student council person we've asked the high school staff to participate it's a [24:51] secret somehow in homecoming it's an overwhelming response because they want to help us build the culture and to help [24:58] kids feel spirit and identity now that we have two classes that really don't understand what it is to be a high [25:03] school student we're helping kids figure out how to be in person and around other people since [25:09] they've been home for for 18 months and we're rethinking our lessons that we were doing before covet to make sure [25:15] that they're in class worthy because at least for me at the high school juniors and seniors we kind of have to make sure they're [25:21] getting their money's worth otherwise they why am i here i could do this online last year honestly was the hardest year [25:28] in my 27 years of teaching obviously not all of them here it was harder than my student teaching year it was harder than [25:35] teaching internationally and i know that the summer i needed every single day to recharge and be ready and start this [25:41] fall so please help me focus on my classroom help us focus on our classroom and find a settlement soon [25:48] thank you [25:55] debbie frendel debbie krengel [26:06] everybody is so well spoken already and i'm nervous so just be aware of that [26:12] my name is debbie kringle this is my 21st year as a teacher in edina public schools [26:17] the first 16 years i was a special ed teacher at concord elementary and the four years prior to this i've [26:23] been a peer coach in the district and as a peer coach i have a privilege of working [26:29] with teachers from early childhood all the way up to high school i get to have conversations about their [26:35] goals and best practice i hear them challenge themselves to continuously innovate and meet the needs of every [26:41] student and it's an amazing job i'm so lucky to have it and it gives me a broad picture of how [26:48] our students experience the district from their early years to their senior year [26:53] so knowing that my colleagues and i have started this school year without a finalized contract push me to speak [26:59] tonight last night as i was trying to compose my thoughts for this meeting to figure out a way to share the immense level of [27:06] dedication and expertise we have in this district i kept getting stuck it's just not [27:11] possible to capture it all in three minutes or less so i crossed out the parts that made me [27:18] teary and so i think i feel like i'm gonna get through it in the last 18 months we've all done [27:24] work we never thought we would or could do i've seen teachers learn new technology platforms in just [27:31] days i've seen teachers carve out instructional spaces from their dining room tables and corners of their basements i've seen [27:39] support staff react quickly and definitively to meet the mental health needs of our students [27:44] i've seen elementary teachers in our virtual academies create a whole new definition [27:50] of what it means to be a classroom fostering an incredible sense of community and connection and achievement [27:56] for kids who needed school to exist in the safety of their own home i've seen early childhood special [28:02] education teachers serve as coaches and cheerleaders for parents who are isolated at home [28:07] i've seen teachers on screen and in front of classrooms and nobody likes to be in front of the classroom they like [28:13] to be moving in the classroom they were all doing the best they could and our best in this district is [28:20] exceptional so in the hundreds of conversations i've had with our licensed staff in the last [28:26] 18 months we've been scared and we've been vulnerable and we've been committed [28:32] and we've had to remind ourselves that the essence of teaching the essence of working with our students and [28:38] families hasn't changed this isn't an easier year we do get the energy and joy of having [28:45] students in front of us we get to collaborate with each other in person having spontaneous conversations [28:51] about our work and our lives we're connected again and being connected feels great but there's still [28:58] a lot of uncertainty and there are a lot of unknowns to navigate and starting this school year without a [29:05] contract in place is an uncertainty we shouldn't have to carry i know you've recognized and appreciated [29:11] the work we did in the last year and a half and we know how hard it's been to lead our district through all of these [29:16] challenges this work of leading a district is a partnership and we are here for it [29:22] thank you [29:32] mike mccarthy mike mccarthy [29:46] my name is mike mccarthy and i've been teaching fifth grade at concord since 1999. i assume we're all familiar with [29:52] our district mission statement but in my 22 years here time and time again i've seen educators also live by an [29:58] unofficial mission statement we'll make it work when the pandemic hit students and teachers had to instantly [30:03] adapt to a makeshift online school and families had to adapt to not having child care as well as managing learners [30:08] at home in my house we had both as my wife teaches and we had one and three-year-old boys who no longer went to daycare [30:14] together we needed to coordinate schedules for two classrooms along with snack snaps and diaper changes all while under the constant threat of a naked [30:21] toddler crashing a live math lesson many of my peers handled similar and [30:26] even more challenging situations while remaining fully dedicated to serving our students it wasn't perfect but through [30:31] it all we said we'll make it work last august just a week before workshops i learned i'd be part of the edina [30:38] virtual academy in a matter of two weeks we invented a completely new school of [30:44] thin air the dedication innovation and perseverance shown by my eva fifth grade team was limitless i lost track of the [30:50] number of times we're all in communication working late into the night as we prepared both live and flip lessons for the next day [30:57] we were united by our common mission we'll make it work for those teaching in person it was even [31:02] more challenging starting hybrid going online back to hybrid finally to full classrooms in the spring despite the [31:08] stress and demands of constant change uncertainty and reinvention pushing many of our teachers to their limits and [31:13] beyond one of my the hardest working colleagues [31:19] left teaching completely after this year less stress more money in the business [31:24] world the sentiment was the same we'll make it work meanwhile with my eva students we took [31:30] on the challenge of creating an authentic learning community with kids from three completely different elementary schools it took time it took [31:37] effort but they showed up every day to our meets ear to see each other and eager to learn on the last day of school [31:42] when many of us finally met in person for the first time in our excitement and our happiness and joy we knew [31:48] we made it work through it all no matter the challenge over and over again we'll make it work [31:54] from august 2019 to august 2021 the median home price in edina has increased 15 percent [32:00] taradelle knots are going for a half a million dollars the robust health of the property tax base that partially funds the schools is [32:08] largely driven by families moving here because of our outstanding schools and educators in june the governor and the [32:15] legislator agreed on the largest school funding increase in 15 years two weeks ago the us department of event announced [32:20] the approval of 1.3 billion dollars in federal funding for minnesota's american rescue plan [32:26] in contrast as jason mentioned eme is only asking for the smallest total dollar settlement [32:32] in 10 years so in light of all this i remain hopeful the negotiations team can return to the [32:38] table in good faith and find a way to say we'll make it work thank you [32:58] thank you [33:05] thank you for everyone for speaking tonight i appreciate everyone's engagement with the board and we're [33:11] going to move on to a presentation about the first day of school through the eyes of leaders [33:20] all right i'm going to invite dr schmazel to come up and [33:26] we are going to have an opportunity to just talk about what those first few days of school have [33:34] been like through through our eyes through some principal's eyes and [33:40] once he gets settled in there i'm going to go ahead and get us started [33:48] [Music] good evening and i work at the edina [33:53] early learning center what's the video it's been wonderful to welcome him [33:58] go for it sorry i can assume zach can hear me in the [34:04] back good evening dr stanley chair ellenberg school board members community members staff students [34:11] we are excited to have the start of the school year upon us i've had many opportunities to talk with [34:18] staff and administrators out in the schools and i know that they're excited about seeing the kids [34:23] being able to make connections in a way that we're most familiar with being back in face-to-face instruction [34:29] we welcome over 8 400 students back to our schools this fall so we're excited about that we have launched as [34:37] many of you know a five section uh online elementary learning program under the umbrella of [34:43] highlands elementary this year that's a that's a new program but it's kind of a carryover from what we did with the [34:49] online learning last year and we still are continuing to [34:55] work on a day-by-day basis with some of the challenges that kovid presents to us whether it is [35:01] analyzing our masking and other mitigation pro protocols constantly or monitoring [35:07] tracking for positive cases or managing some of the transportation issues that we've had [35:13] with the challenges of finding enough drivers and being able to maintain that [35:18] we've had a great uh kickoff this fall led by dr stanley welcoming our staff [35:24] back and i know that our orientations and our open houses have been well attended and uh there's been a lot of [35:30] excitement in those uh spaces as well and uh with that we'd like to just show [35:36] a little celebration video from some of our different levels we have leah byrd here from [35:41] the early learning center and karen bergman from countryside elementary toyah pryor our new uh principal at [35:47] valley view and then andy beaton will finish it off from the high school so zach can you play the video [35:52] yeah our kids and families well at the same time making some new friends i'm happy to share that our baby and toddler [35:59] ecme classes are once again full as well as our morning preschool and we have two [36:06] all-day pre-k programs with wraparound care it's been wonderful coming back together [36:11] as a learning community and we are so grateful for all of the support from our edina community for our youngest [36:17] learners hi everyone karen bergman principal at countryside elementary we are off to an [36:24] amazing start to our new school year it was great welcoming our students and their families back through open house a [36:31] few weeks ago and now we have all of our students with us here every day and it is a great joy [36:37] we're ready for more opportunities for our families to join us and participate [36:43] in all of the great things going on hello everyone my name is joya pryor i [36:48] am the principal at valencia middle school we are off to an amazing start this year our fantastic team has spent [36:56] time aligning the volume middle school vision with the district vision we have been laser focused on building a safe [37:03] inclusive community of compassionate lifelong learners should discover their [37:08] talents and embrace their authentic selves there's been nothing short of amazing to see our scholars in school [37:15] every day and a special thank you to our families and i've been supporting our vision we appreciate your partnership [37:23] hey hornets andy beaton here just want to give a thank you to our families for your support for our students who've [37:28] really done a great job following our protocols and our staff for getting us ready for the school year it's really [37:34] been an exciting start we are very full and we have lots of students here at the high school and it's really been a [37:40] tremendous start so appreciate all your efforts and we'll see you soon [37:47] so our formula is simple it's safety inclusion and relationships and those [37:52] things add up to launch learning for kids and so we want to have those kinds of environments available for all of our [37:58] learners and with that we'd like to celebrate the kickoff of the 21-22 school year [38:04] for sure thank you so much uh dr schmazel i want to add that i have been out into [38:11] each and every one of our schools and it has been amazing for the teachers who are here thank you [38:18] i've had an opportunity to meet with most of you either in indiv in school group meetings [38:24] or taking some lessons in in in your classrooms i had the opportunity to participate in art lessons and french [38:31] lessons and last week i loved being able to come out and read to the kindergarteners that [38:37] was one of the highlights i've had outdoor lunch i've had indoor lunch [38:43] so it's been a great experience and then really just seeing our early learning center students our [38:50] youngest hornets come back to school and just how excited they were how excited their [38:56] families were and just um the newness of school you forget that a [39:03] little bit until you look look at school through the eyes of a four-year-old or a three-year-old it is a really big deal [39:10] so um it has been an amazing return to school and i [39:16] am so happy to have all of our students back in school in person [39:24] thank you dr stanley and dr smazel we're now going to move on to our consent agenda and i know there is a [39:30] request to move board norms is there a request to remove anything else [39:36] nope okay um do i have a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved is there a [39:42] second second we'll now vote to approve the consent agenda all those in favor say aye aye [39:49] anyone opposed okay do i have a motion to approve school board norms so moved do i have a [39:56] second second okay um so the school board norms were [40:03] reviewed at our board retreat on august 28th and two changes were discussed at that retreat that were recommended to [40:10] the norms for this fall one being that dr stacy stanley suggested to help her from a meeting [40:16] management perspective um so you'll see under the section meeting [40:22] protocols bullet point three [40:28] it only says superintendent now as opposed to team members and superintendent the second change was [40:34] requested by director jones who wanted to add under the communications portion [40:40] number three it says to speak and or write in an official board capacity as opposed to [40:47] just speak so those are the two changes that were made content from the board retreat was to [40:53] make these two changes and then have a more thorough review of the board norms when the new board is [40:58] seated in january um so i'll now open up any discussion about those two changes or anything else [41:05] i don't need to have any any discussion my interest in removing [41:11] it from consent is there are some issues on the board norms that i haven't agreed with and i've never voted in favor of it [41:19] so um that's just all so i'm prepared to have a vote [41:26] i'm just confused you didn't did you have it removed off i thought ellen ellen did but i would second i [41:32] would go along with her so it's just a procedural thing for me oh i just was curious by ellen what her [41:39] thoughts were since one of the changes were something she said at the board retreat yeah no i i still [41:45] agree with making that one change um in the past i've not agreed with the communications [41:51] prop protocols that are written in there and they while the board has changed those [41:57] um that we really haven't changed our our board norms to really [42:03] mirror what's going on right now and um and the other the other part of [42:09] i mean there's just details throughout that i have been uncomfortable with [42:14] before and there has been other changes there's [42:20] some wording changes in here that we're not called out something i'm [42:25] looking at meeting protocols the word um a word was inserted for a [42:32] regular meeting and um actually it was it has to do with uh the meeting agendas [42:38] um uh making being able to make changes to [42:44] agenda items at regular meetings i would i would want to change that to regular meetings and work sessions [42:51] and or special meetings if if enough um [42:56] uh um notice was given so i i there are enough there that i i don't [43:03] think i will be supporting these [43:08] okay um can i make one quick comment absolutely so i just want to um i want [43:14] to support um the conversation that we had at the board retreat that um [43:20] none of these issues did not come up at the board retreat in my memory that you guys just brought up right now so we [43:26] have talked about these two changes and then revisiting this with the new board seated um in january so [43:32] um i'm in support of that plan that we all discussed at the board retreat um not knowing that these [43:38] were concerns that were still lingering or going on so i just wanted to make clarification that that's where [43:44] we were i think we i think we all acknowledge that they're things that need to be tweaked and updated the process that we defined at the retreat [43:51] was to make these quick changes because we didn't have time nor we all acknowledge that they're [43:58] up to four new board members that are going to be here um and that the best process would be to make these two quick changes and then [44:05] have a more thorough review coming up yeah that's my recollection too thank you and and for the public we [44:10] have had um i don't know two three four lengthy robust discussions [44:17] uh earlier this year and maybe at the end of last year that were fair and extensive [44:22] and i had some issues with things like recognize the distinction between [44:28] monitoring data and management data i don't see that distinction and for that reason and a few others i [44:35] can't accept the board norms as they're written but we have had a fair discussion and we've had the vote on it [44:41] in the past so it's been procedurally appropriate and fair [44:48] so i'll just note that we have had as owen said previous discussions and i think that everybody on the board is [44:54] aware of the various positions of people on the board and it really wasn't necessary at the retreat for [45:00] owen or ellen to go through the whole litany or their their issues from before so in fact i appreciate the fact that they [45:06] didn't because they were discussed and so that's about it [45:14] okay all those in favor of the board norms say aye aye all those opposed [45:22] okay the board norms are approved um we're now going to move on to discussion um the first item up for discussion is [45:29] dr randy smaazel with the 2022 2023 and [45:34] 2023-2024 school year learning calendar [45:50] uh good evening again i'm joined here for our calendar proposal presentation [45:56] with um [46:13] student a senior at the high school and has been a part of our discussions with the calendar committee conversation [46:20] with that i'm going to have harper kick us off with our vision statement great so um [46:26] as you said thank you for having me my name is harper i'm a senior this year we wanted to emphasize that throughout [46:33] our meetings of the calendar committee we reminded ourselves to keep in mind the [46:40] district motto which is to that defining excellence to achieve our vision and for each [46:47] sorry for each and every student to discover their possibilities and [46:54] thrive thank you harper with that we'll uh hand it off to kate [47:00] to uh give us a little background about the committee itself sure so the calendar committee was charged with [47:06] proposing new calendars for the 2223 and the 23-24 school years to the school [47:11] board in september which is what brought us here to talk to you tonight the calendar committee this year [47:16] consisted of the assistant superintendent dr schmazel the director of human resources the director of [47:22] communications two building administrators a district cultural liaison [47:28] a community and service coordinator or and two parents six teachers and then of [47:34] course harper joined the team which was awesome to have a student on the team [47:40] thank you kate some of the work that we did around the calendar involved at first discussing with the [47:47] board some of the board parameters for for building out those calendars and in the board parameters we define context [47:53] in reality we define the desired results and some of the unacceptable means [47:59] the calendars themselves should support the learning process of course accommodate much of the construction [48:06] that we do every year in edina address breaks and professional development [48:12] and conferences and data days which are built into it and then also acknowledge the needs of our families [48:19] we did have a variety of different discussions along the way we look at statute we look at making sure that we [48:27] achieve enough hours of instruction per that statute that's listed in there [48:32] we did talk to other districts along the way as well in terms of uh and looked at [48:37] some of the materials they had put out about how they structure their calendars and then talked a lot about different [48:43] types of breaks and how to organize that time we know that the breaks are important part of the learning process [48:48] as they help refresh and rejuvenate and get people ready for that intensive learning that sits in the dyna public [48:54] schools and we also continue to talk about when we collect student learning data and how [49:01] we do that how that fits into the calendar process we talk about how and when teachers collaborate and how and [49:07] when teachers receive professional learning all of you know that the the intensity of professional learning [49:12] continues to increase as expectations of what teachers are able to do continues to leverage higher [49:19] and then also how we communicate learning with parents and when that happens and speaking to conferences and [49:24] things like that we also discussed some of the different activities that kids participate in and [49:30] how that lays out in the calendar and how the calendar aligns to that and also looked at previous work that was done [49:37] around calendars both board presentations and data collection that was done with the community [49:42] so all of those informed our discussions across the time period of six weeks that has led us to uh the proposals that [49:49] we're here to speak with you about this evening so we have two options that we want to talk [49:54] about and they're subtly different um what we did to generate these options [49:59] is we had a large group of staff that went through a level up training if you will about professional [50:05] learning communities it was teachers and administrators about 130 and these [50:10] this group of 130 is charged with help us helping us lead professional learning communities to [50:17] another level in edina public schools moving forward and we began to launch what's called our plc playbook [50:23] in edina and really working on the first three plays as we head into the fall so as we discussed [50:29] early releases and how those are used to help professional learning communities collaborate and look at student data and [50:35] make decisions about learning the calendar committee made a recommendation that we do a little focus group work [50:42] with that group of 130 because they are the most trained and the most recently [50:47] trained group that's receiving some of the latest and greatest about professional learning community work across the [50:53] country so we did talk to that group and that helped evolve into these two proposals [50:59] jen will talk a little bit about some of the data that we found from that group and [51:04] the proposals involve an idea or a way that we could phase early releases out of the system [51:11] provided that we're able to manage that collaboration time in the rest of the calendar so i'm going to turn that over [51:18] to gin to speak a little bit about so as you can see from the visual early releases are different you know at [51:24] every single level but collaboration needs to be central and so there was interest from the [51:31] groups and the open-ended responses they spoke to wanting the collaboration but the challenges that exist with the early [51:37] releases and so we felt our group really wanted the two proposals to be able to try to try something new [51:44] or go back on the traditional model of having the four early releases throughout the year so that's where options a and b came from [51:51] thank you and with that we'll turn it to harper to talk a little bit about some of the attributes that sit in our [51:56] existing calendar proposals so for both the 2022 through 23 and 2023 [52:03] through 24 calendars we have a pre-labor day start date for the school year [52:09] as well as 171 student contact days and two connect and assess days for the [52:14] kindergarten through fifth grade elementary schoolers there's also five professional [52:20] development days six in option b and um then 170 student contact days [52:27] two data days one at the beginning or one at the end of semester one and one at the end of semester two for a teacher [52:33] grading there are 16 hours of parent student teacher conferences and four early [52:38] releases in option a only but option b has no early releases and they [52:43] all collect into one non-student contact day and then there's a two-day mea break [52:49] with a two-week winter break and a one-week spring break and all of these attributes meet the [52:54] minimum hour requirements for the statute 120a [53:03] so really the differences between a and b are similar option a is going to have you [53:10] know the similar to the past calendars with four early release days throughout the year versus option b has one day of [53:17] eight hours um that is in april april 21st in 2023 and april 29 or 19th and [53:23] 2024. we worked very hard to keep things aligned throughout the district [53:28] both early learning through the high school we as randy talked about with the plc playbook we're going to continue to [53:34] coordinate weekly plc time throughout the district but then some of that collaborative time would be embedded in [53:39] those professional learning days [53:45] all right so i'll talk a little bit about connect and assess days as those would be new to our district [53:50] so when thinking about innovative ways to align our calendar with the district's vision and mission one of the [53:55] ideas was adding connect and assess days for our kindergarten through fifth grade students [54:02] these days are already being used in some of the surrounding districts including bloomington and shakopee if [54:07] approved these first two days of of the year would be used to build relationships between teachers students [54:13] and families to set goals and complete assessments we feel this practice aligns with the [54:18] core beliefs of edina public schools including but not limited to starting the family school collaboration on day [54:24] one completing assessments so that moving toward academic excellence can start on day one and inclusion by [54:31] allowing each student to have individual time with their teachers prior to school starting [54:41] thank you kate in terms of a future calendar process we [54:47] had intended to have a rolling calendar developed prior to covid [54:52] we got a little bit behind and distracted with some other elements and we want to get back to that process [54:58] so what we've proposed this evening is a two-year calendar and then we would reconvene next fall and prepare the [55:05] following year calendar and then would continue to do that each year so trying to stay about two years out [55:12] for the board and for the community i think would be helpful and with that we will pause and say [55:17] thank you and i would like to publicly thank all the committee members who worked very hard over the last six weeks [55:22] and a lot of discussion debate and see what questions our board has for us [55:30] great thank you all so much and i want to echo the thank thank you to the committee members those that [55:36] presented tonight and those that are not here tonight and i'll just open it up to the rest of the board for any questions [55:41] or comments that board members have i see owen trigger happy with this uh button right [55:47] there so go ahead owen thank you chair element two uh comments one of which is [55:52] i am excited that we're trying something creative with the early release days because among other things they've been [55:58] tough on the families to plan for time to have somebody at home so i think that this is really good that [56:05] you're thinking about ways to shift that and not lose the benefit that that had been providing for the staff [56:11] the second thing is really i'm really excited about when hearing about connect and the access assess days [56:17] um because i think it's uh imperative that we jump in and find out where the kids are at right away [56:24] before we get the teaching and the interventions and so we've got a pretty good benchmark of where the kids are at [56:30] so and then there's an emphasis on connecting with the kids so i think that's a real good initiative [56:40] no questions julie yeah i have one question um i echo everything that owen just said um [56:47] almost word for word so that's all great i have a question in january um we [56:53] always have two back-to-back three-day weekends i'm sure you guys have looked at that right where there's three days [56:58] in the middle of the week and i'm just curious if you guys looked at attendance [57:04] at during that week for for kids and like i mean i know [57:09] there are there's always a series of three day weekends or four day weekends in that january february time frame but that one [57:15] in particular i just always i'm just curious i'm not i don't have an opinion about it either way i'm just wondering [57:21] what your thoughts are with a three-day week in the middle of that sandwiched in there [57:26] so it is sandwich right in the middle and it falls right around finals at the high school right closing up semester [57:32] one and semester two at the middle schools um so we really looked at overall that [57:37] year in terms of the testing schedule ultimately we'd love if we could have finals before we go to winter break it's [57:44] just not possible with a number of days to keep the semesters equal and so they actually the three day [57:51] weekends kind of fall you know there's a three day week with that data day on friday [57:56] so it's a tuesday wednesday thursday and those are the finals at the high school that makes sense okay [58:01] thank you and i know that there's always options too sometimes students will take it ahead of time or they won't have a final they'll have a okay great thanks [58:08] that's a good clarification janie hi um first kate thank you for all of your [58:14] years of dedication to the calendar committee for those that don't know kate could do a calendar in her sleep she's [58:20] amazing so and she's the one that counts the days so a couple things one i am a huge [58:25] supporter of the rolling calendar so thank you for keeping that at the forefront i'm also in support of [58:30] collapsing the early release days and turning it into one day i have a couple questions about the [58:38] connect and assess days i absolutely love the idea the concept everything that can [58:44] be done and i think it wholeheartedly supports what we're trying to do my questions kind of revolve around would [58:51] is the expectation that the parent would be with the child and if it is i'm wondering what kind of conversations [58:57] have happened maybe with val with kids club just making sure that this is an equitable opportunity for students so [59:03] that we have child care opportunities for them is if transportation is a barrier in [59:08] making this happen like how can we work as a district to make sure those days are successful i'm totally assuming that [59:16] you guys have thought through the whole this is the right number of hours for the students to be in school all of that [59:22] but i just want to make sure that there's a lot of thought behind making those as successful as possible because i think [59:28] the intention behind them is amazing so so yes i can speak to the connected necessities a little bit more [59:35] i've experienced them as a parent in my home district and it's just been a really welcoming way to [59:41] start a school year most of the time i think in both the districts that i looked at it is the [59:48] parents and children at an assigned time going usually they have like a 20 minute 30 [59:53] minute time spot typically the parents will wait outside the classroom while the teacher takes a [1:00:00] child in to do a quick math and reading assessment to get some baseline so that they don't have to do it during their [1:00:05] instructional time with all of the students there and in the meantime the parents are often filling out paperwork about their [1:00:11] goals and priorities for their child that year and then the teacher comes back to the table with the student and [1:00:17] they meet all together and talk about those goals and priorities for the year so it really is a great time to connect [1:00:23] to individually different than open house when the teacher is trying to manage all 30 sets of students and [1:00:28] parents in the classroom they can really make that individual connection we did have uh rachel hicks who [1:00:34] organizes community ed services for kids club and and before after school care and so she was part of those discussions [1:00:41] as far as being able to offer days for kids to be at school we didn't discuss [1:00:46] transportation to school or what it means for parents having to get off of work and come in but we did think about [1:00:52] the kids and the kids care for those two days being added on to the year so the so the thought behind if there [1:00:59] was a child who needed to be at school that morning for child care reasons but then maybe their [1:01:05] appointment time was later that that there would be a place for them maybe they could still bus into school still [1:01:11] bus home okay i just want to make sure we're thinking obviously i assume you guys are thinking through all that stuff thank [1:01:17] you [1:01:22] and my one question about that first of all thank you for all your work i think it it i totally agree with what has been [1:01:29] stated in support of all this but i'm i'm wondering though if there is some flexibility on those [1:01:36] two days if you know there are many families that just cannot [1:01:42] get off of work during the day and i'm really concerned that i don't want those kids to feel as if [1:01:51] they're behind and and i'm wondering if you could shift some hours to the evening [1:01:58] yeah i think that's a great possibility that's what we do with conference days you know we have a couple of comp days during the school year that we use for [1:02:05] evening conferences so that we can meet parents schedules and their work schedules and so i think that's one of [1:02:11] the possibilities that could happen that we could shift some hours to eight to noon those days or however you want to [1:02:17] do it and look at it a little differently i absolutely think that's a possibility great thank you [1:02:22] um and the the other question that i had and we talked about it a little bit is it's that [1:02:27] the fact that the additional day is in april could you speak a little bit to how that [1:02:35] how that fits with the other days [1:02:41] and how you see this being used by the [1:02:46] teachers i can speak to why we chose april dependent on where [1:02:53] spring break falls the spring can come to sometimes be a longer time that students are in school because you have [1:02:59] it's broken up more in the fall and so we tried to find a place where it was you know in the middle of mca [1:03:05] testing and it would only be one day so it wouldn't be disruptive of that because that's something that goes on in grades three through 12. [1:03:12] and in addition we wanted um to find something that kind of worked in terms of like possibly planning for next year [1:03:19] that was a big conversation topic that we had in terms of looking at you know district-wide plcs and really [1:03:26] collaborating on the data that we've been collecting throughout the year at times i'll also say that we do do [1:03:32] curriculum adoptions and we purchase new materials and we offer training to staff [1:03:38] and sometimes it's difficult to get that training in before workshop week in the fall so it does give us an access point [1:03:45] to staff prior to launching off in the summer and then they're able to receive those materials receive that training [1:03:51] ahead of time and then as jen mentioned it does offer another [1:03:56] opportunity to impact learning in the last five to six weeks of school there is a chunk of school still left after [1:04:03] that april day may is a very solid learning month and it does give us one last push and one [1:04:09] last opportunity to have our teachers collaborate on things that need to happen with student learning between [1:04:16] that point and the end of the school year great that makes sense thank you very much [1:04:23] um i know i spoke to you briefly about this director schmazel or assistant superintendent sposel i apologize um [1:04:31] did we check with um troy stein about making sure spring break did not fall in [1:04:36] the middle of major tournaments i did the dates i think this turned out the [1:04:43] dates are not um published for 2020 okay but they are published for 2022. okay [1:04:49] typically we see um some of those events happen a little bit earlier in the month and if we go back [1:04:57] to october of 2019 we surveyed 2914 parents those were the responses [1:05:04] anyhow and we asked for some preference data on when do you want this break in the [1:05:10] spring and we gave them some options and what surfaced to the top was that third week [1:05:17] of march is the sweet spot if you can get it in that third week that's where most of the parents across the district [1:05:23] had preferred it and that's what they gave us back for data so we went back to that data set to try and figure out what [1:05:28] is where's the best place to place this particular break great thank you [1:05:35] anything else great this is great great job guys thank you thank you [1:05:41] thank you uh we're going to move on to a return to school update and i'll turn it over to [1:05:47] dr stanley all right thank you very much so [1:05:53] it's hard to believe that it was almost a month ago that we came here thank you [1:05:59] uh to put forward that the team and i came to put forward our [1:06:04] initial proposal for return to school plan and as part of that plan there were some [1:06:10] components including providing an update and so this is intended to be an update [1:06:18] as one of those plans we notified the community that we would be [1:06:24] creating metric monitoring guidance regarding masking and we had a conversation about this [1:06:32] during the work session some things that i noted in feedback that we received back is that rather [1:06:39] than using the chart format here that we would create a decisive flowchart [1:06:45] that we would need to clarify which metric is it city is it county or is it [1:06:50] site that will be used in the event that um [1:06:56] one of the metrics is different from the others there was a a request to connect with [1:07:02] trend data on uh quarantine and vaccination rates which in just a moment i'll share some [1:07:08] of that information and that we rather than looking at age range we would look at a grade band [1:07:18] i am wondering if there's any other feedback at this point [1:07:24] and i don't have feedback i just wanted to note from a process perspective that it would be coming back to the board on [1:07:29] september 28th [1:07:40] the only thing i wanted to add in is i had um suggested that we add in some information about testing [1:07:47] and how testing fits into the story about how we're monitoring i understand [1:07:52] this ask was for masking but i think it's an important piece to add in [1:07:59] what we're doing currently and what we're going to be talking about adding in [1:08:05] thank you for that reminder i appreciate that okay [1:08:11] any other feedback [1:08:16] dr stanley we talked about this briefly at the work session could you elaborate just a [1:08:21] little bit about the the nature of the testing yes and actually that is part part of [1:08:28] this presentation you're going to go with if you're willing to wait just a moment okay no that's okay all right just it is part [1:08:35] of this this presentation and i um i would like to [1:08:41] make sure that we are for me i'm not an expert in any of this [1:08:46] and i just i'm wondering when i look at something like this i [1:08:53] want to make sure that we're following cdc and mdh [1:08:59] recommendations and it's really hard for me [1:09:05] to understand from looking at this what is [1:09:10] what when we are following it and when we're not and so [1:09:15] um i can give a little bit of information about that well first of all from cdc you'll remember that we moved into universal masking [1:09:23] because communities were in high or substantial community transmission [1:09:32] that is what caused across the united states us to move into universal in or [1:09:38] the recommendation for universal indoor masking and so that is from the cdc [1:09:45] vaccination rates while early on you know we had heard many [1:09:52] different times about herd immunity right and we had heard first if you get 65 percent next if you [1:09:58] get 85 percent i have been um out there researching and uh what dr fauci said is you have to [1:10:05] look at your own community vaccination rates and you have to look at how your own community vaccination rates may be [1:10:12] impacting um positively right the community spread so [1:10:19] limiting the community spread um and so that [1:10:24] that is where that comes from the quarantine rates uh prior to kovid [1:10:33] in schools in particular related to influenza the minnesota department of education [1:10:40] used to look at the percentage of students within a classroom within a school [1:10:46] that we're demonstrating influenza-like symptoms now [1:10:52] i want to be clear to the community in no way shape or form am i saying that covid19 and any of the variants are [1:11:01] the same as influenza at all whatsoever i'm just sharing where [1:11:06] i'm getting this from and what they used to look at is is a five percent threshold and so [1:11:13] that is where the five percent comes from and that came from the minnesota department of education of course it was [1:11:19] prior to covet 19 and related to um again the influenza rates at that [1:11:26] time you know we certainly weren't calling it quarantining our students or anything like that we would send them [1:11:31] home though and the classroom was closed down until [1:11:43] [Laughter] [1:11:50] were closed down until you know certainly we could disinfect and then students [1:11:55] were demonstrating that they had did not have [1:12:00] influenza symptoms so that is where that information came from so it was not just [1:12:07] randomly if you will selected and i do realize that uh [1:12:14] coven 19 and its variant are not the same as influenza [1:12:26] could i ask really quickly and i meant to ask this in the work session so i apologize this plan this has [1:12:33] dr kelly has has he seen this was he a part of the development of it [1:12:39] dr kelly has seen it and [Music] [1:12:46] what dr kelly would advocate for is that our students would remain masked [1:12:53] okay that's what i was wondering thank you remain masked for how long [1:12:59] indefinitely i think through the lens of dr kelly the best [1:13:05] way to keep our kids safe and healthy is that they would remain masked [1:13:16] not in definitely through the life of the pandemic i think is what let's not scare anyone yeah not [1:13:24] indefinitely obviously we're talking about doing the pandemic and you know even the information you provided [1:13:30] he um i'm sorry about that lenny um one of the things that he spoke [1:13:36] about is the fact that we don't have immunizations for our elementary students [1:13:42] and that is a really key factor for him that [1:13:48] he really recommends that we have to take that into consideration [1:13:53] when we're thinking about moving away from universal masking [1:14:01] but based on this information right now that's not even on the table because we're not in any no we are currently [1:14:08] used to any of these metrics correct this is forced like thinking ahead down the road okay [1:14:14] yes absolutely again community asked for metrics i've [1:14:20] continued to receive email from families looking at metrics and i thought that it [1:14:25] was it's responsible it's being responsive that we needed to put together [1:14:32] a plan for what that would look like right now according to last set of information [1:14:38] that i received the community of edina is in high transmission and so we would not move [1:14:45] beyond universal masking at this point i think that's an important [1:14:50] clarification julie and just to make sure community members and parents understand [1:14:56] loud and clear that the creation of the metric is not an indication that we are [1:15:03] in any place that we would be recommending a change but i do believe that there is value in creating a metric [1:15:09] and evaluating what's been put forth so i just want to make sure that those that there is a [1:15:15] distinction there well and we from a process perspective we told the community that we would [1:15:20] evaluate in 30 days and that metrics needed to be established by then [1:15:26] so we had something to evaluate on and so we need to keep our commitment to the [1:15:32] community to go through this process what the 38 days is the [1:15:37] september 28th that i said that we would be meeting again um [1:15:42] at that point so yes and that's because school started on august 30th and so that's why we're looking at [1:15:49] the 28th yep and just to confirm with the community [1:15:55] dr kelly is in an advisory role and his recommendation is not binding and we are [1:16:01] trying to derive a criterion upon which that decision would be made [1:16:06] and so we're talking here about for instance a 25 or i'm sorry 85 vaccination threshold would um [1:16:14] more likely put us into a masking strong recommendation as opposed to universal masking [1:16:20] so that's what this is it's a build out for that criterion yes and [1:16:25] if conditions for community transmission allowed that so it's not just that vaccination rates [1:16:31] are high but it's that our community transmission and other circumstances allow it [1:16:37] i just want to make sure i say that so people didn't hear that all of a sudden vaccination rates are going to trigger a change [1:16:48] and will you and you will be presenting the board and the community with the um [1:16:54] what is the standard or what is the number for high and substantial [1:17:00] moderate and low yes [1:17:08] perfect okay so [1:17:13] another agreement that we made was to move to a [1:17:18] localized covid 19 monitoring page um we heard london uh [1:17:24] clear from the community that they wanted to get updates on our fully vaccinated students [1:17:31] and staff and i need to be clear that we don't have access to that information yet we do not have [1:17:38] the release for that data for for the adults in our system [1:17:44] our community wanted to know about our confirmed cases and the quarantines that are in our schools and [1:17:50] so i'm going to share with you a page that will go live [1:17:55] after this meeting and while it is pulling up [1:18:03] it is it will be located on the family page so [1:18:08] it is under families 2020 2021 family [1:18:13] dashboard and then covid monitoring [1:18:23] so the board can't see monitor oh can you email the link just to the board are we not able to click [1:18:29] into it yes i will email the link it just isn't live yet the audience can see yeah [1:18:37] i haven't seen it see the data [1:18:47] yep i can do that right now and i'll try to do the both and we'll see how talented i am right now so [1:18:57] nurses are tracking the data and they are inputting the data um [1:19:03] and sending it into uh community into mary hyman and then it [1:19:08] goes to communications every friday afternoon so you will see on the page that there [1:19:15] is a date actually i wonder mary can you send the link [1:19:22] thank you so much i appreciate that um mary woody is going to send the link [1:19:28] to you so um at the top of the page you will see the date that it was last updated this [1:19:34] is friday's data so this is from september 10th [1:19:40] it lists the percentage of students fully vaccinated in grades 912 and in grade 6 8. [1:19:48] so right now or as of last friday we had [1:19:53] 77.17 percent of our students in ninth through twelfth grade vaccinated [1:19:58] and fifty point four one percent of our students in grades six through eight now it's important to remember that in order [1:20:05] to be vaccinated you need to be twelve and i reported at the august 17th meeting that we knew even on march 1st [1:20:13] we would still have well over 200 students who have not sixth graders who [1:20:19] have not turned 12 yet in our middle schools [1:20:27] i also want to note something that i think is important for us to take pride of you also remember that at the time on [1:20:34] august 17th our 9th through 12th grade vaccination fully vaccinated rate was 73 percent [1:20:42] and now we are at 77.17 percent and that just shows that our community is continuing to be [1:20:48] committed to getting our students uh vaccinated and again strongly recommend [1:20:54] because we know that that is the safest measure [1:21:02] in ensuring that our students are not infected and don't get ill [1:21:07] so as we move down on this page um we have the total number of employees that we have 1200 [1:21:14] total number of students um that we have which is uh 8 400 at this point we had [1:21:21] we had closer to 8 500 at the start of the school year and you'll see under there there's the [1:21:28] confirmed edina public schools employee covet 19 cases now again this is of september [1:21:35] 10th right because it's the friday it's always the friday before and again i just want to put here you'll [1:21:41] always see the date at the top of the page so new confirmed staff covet cases this [1:21:49] week which was as of last week there was one case [1:21:54] total number of staff with confirmed covid since august 30th we had two cases [1:22:00] confirmed cases 8 400 students [1:22:06] confirmed edonia public schools student covid19 cases [1:22:12] we've broken that down by early learning [1:22:17] and elementary and then secondary okay so [1:22:23] the other thing is we wanted to clarify that there's a difference between quarantining and isolating [1:22:29] and so when our students are identified as positive for kovid they are isolated [1:22:37] as opposed to just being quarantined and there is some confusion in the community [1:22:42] regarding the number of days that students are at home and so [1:22:47] what i would say is we just aren't able to compare student case to student case and i know [1:22:54] how it is typical to talk to your neighbor and to find out from your neighbor and it may seem like we're [1:23:01] using different days that students are out of school and it is just case-by-case basis and there's a [1:23:08] difference between isolation and quarantine and so i encourage the community to just [1:23:15] know that our nurses are working diligently and we want our kids in school and so we are not going to [1:23:23] create a situation where our kids are going to be out of school longer than they need to be [1:23:29] so as of uh september 10th the [1:23:35] total number of confirmed cases that week early learning in elementary was 15 [1:23:42] middle and high school 4. the number of students with confirmed [1:23:49] covid cases since august 30th 26 early learning in elementary [1:23:56] and 10 total for middle and high school can i interrupt really fast of course so the [1:24:02] 15 is a subset of the 26. correct okay thank you yep [1:24:08] thank you for asking [1:24:13] and then the last area that we have is related to quarantines [1:24:19] and so i will start on the left-hand side and that is the dining public schools [1:24:24] employees who are in quarantine and this is broken down by quarantines [1:24:30] related to close contacts in the school setting or at a school sponsored activity [1:24:35] in quarantines related to close contacts outside of school so in a non-school [1:24:42] setting so the number of staff who are in quarantine due to close contact in a school setting [1:24:49] as of the 10th of september we were at three the number of staff in quarantine due to [1:24:55] close contact outside of school was at zero we'll move on to the right hand side [1:25:02] and under public school students who are in quarantine so the number of students in quarantine [1:25:07] as a result of close contact in a school setting or school sponsored activity [1:25:14] for early learning in elementary total 31 again this is of [1:25:19] last friday for middle and high school totaled two [1:25:27] the number of students in quarantine due to close contact in a non-school setting [1:25:33] early learning in elementary 29 students [1:25:38] in middle and high school three students so in this particular case this is not a [1:25:44] subset these are two different sets of numbers and our bus [1:25:51] our school buses are considered a school setting yes okay yes yep [1:25:57] so dr stanley these are this is a snapshot in time this is as of september 10th okay thank [1:26:04] you yep as of september 10th and again these numbers will be updated every [1:26:09] friday have you been able to drill in and [1:26:16] find out for the 31 elementary students [1:26:23] where during the school day are they is are they close contact yes thank you is it close [1:26:30] contact occurring is it a lunchtime issue is basically my question yeah we actually have been able to look into [1:26:36] that and i don't know jeff if you want to come up or i can just share um as i spoke with mary there is not [1:26:44] evidence that this is happening specifically during lunch so um one of the things that we [1:26:52] are looking at i know the principles are just you know we're now into into week two [1:26:57] and it is we're going to be really specific around the social distancing we're going [1:27:04] to just really shore that up i don't have the actual numbers for you [1:27:10] and perhaps i could get those for mary of if we were looking which is related to [1:27:18] close contacts in a cafeteria setting i would just be interested in making sure we're continuing to track [1:27:26] not just that there's quarantines but where specifically within the school days are [1:27:32] the quarantines happening so then we can on the back end figure out what can we do [1:27:38] better from a protocol perspective to stop these from happening if we see patterns right and so we are tracking [1:27:46] that information and utilizing that information site by site [1:27:51] so for instance like i said principals um i was i was at a school actually presenting uh [1:27:58] last week and um as part of the principal update [1:28:04] he provided very specific information related to [1:28:10] making certain that we are shoring up our mitigation efforts [1:28:17] can i just add two comments of course um i just want to say this is extremely [1:28:22] helpful i think it's really smart i like how it's weekly i like how it's consistent [1:28:28] so that expectations from the community um know where to look for something that it [1:28:33] gets updated on fridays so i just want to say bravo it's very easy to follow and very easy to see [1:28:40] and i do think it really does lead to then more information on where close contacts are happening or [1:28:45] where blind spots may pop up i know one of the things last year i think this is before your time dr [1:28:51] stanley i can't remember but i know randy had gone in and um with staff and done kind of a dipstick onto like are we [1:28:58] getting you know is there a point where mask um [1:29:03] kids aren't wearing masks or whatever it would be and um i think that was helpful i think this [1:29:09] goes right into that into that work so thank you this is great [1:29:16] this is great and i want to thank you for that um but i'm just wondering if it's possible [1:29:22] also since we are talking about trends if you could [1:29:27] also provide the board with just put this into a spreadsheet and and [1:29:32] update it every week so we can see all the columns for every [1:29:38] week as as new cases come in we can see [1:29:43] last week we had five cases this week we have [1:29:49] 10 cases or whatever it's really hard for me to to look at this and think you [1:29:57] know if i get this next week i'll have to pull up two different [1:30:05] pages and see and compare [1:30:10] it's just it would be a little easier to read in a spreadsheet form i'm just wondering since you're collecting the data anyway [1:30:18] i'd second that excuse me i think it'd be great to have some sort of maybe chart at the bottom of this that shows [1:30:25] the trends cumulative as the weeks go on how are we doing we're trending up we're trending down [1:30:33] and something that i think this is great another thing i'd be interested in is a percentage what [1:30:38] percentage of the early learning and elementary school population does this comprise to give us a sense of scale [1:30:46] so those are my two observations i was just gonna to echo maybe [1:30:51] you know you send us your weekly email updates if this information could just be populated into a [1:30:57] google document that created those graphs for us i think it could be [1:31:03] if you feel as if you have the resources to do it it could be automated and then it would be helpful to see that there's [1:31:10] no information that isn't i mean i we could also do it ourselves i'm just going to i'm a firm believer in that but [1:31:17] i do believe that there is benefit and seeing trends as we're making decisions so so i would suggest [1:31:23] if we feel the trend information is valuable that we just provide it to the public on this page and that we get the same information and [1:31:31] that it's as simple as providing week of october 10th [1:31:37] this is whatever and week of october so it's a build it's [1:31:43] i think you showed me a similar type of graph or it's basically a table [1:31:48] so you can yeah i just want to make sure that the page stays as clean as possible on [1:31:55] the website so i don't know if there's a way [1:32:00] to create a rolling trend i just want to but i want to respect and appreciate the [1:32:05] intentionality behind keeping the page as simple as possible for the public facing [1:32:11] but i also agree with that it would be information that others might be interested in so i know i'm not giving [1:32:17] you a solution but i'm saying that i see both sides of it and i do see benefit at least at the [1:32:23] board level of seeing trends especially as we make decisions [1:32:33] so i think trends would be good to see i don't think i need to see a numerator for the number of students there are [1:32:40] so i don't need the percentages [1:32:50] actually i can get the denominator [1:32:57] all right thank you [1:33:04] okay so next we're going to move on to where we're at with covid19 testing [1:33:11] and i did bring forth the staff resolution for [1:33:16] required vaccination or weekly testing at the [1:33:22] work session and i'm wondering if we stopped there and see if there were any questions [1:33:29] about that or if we're ready to move i don't think they're questions i just [1:33:35] for anyone that wasn't able to watch the work session before um the proposal was [1:33:40] brought forward to have required vaccinations or the option [1:33:46] to do weekly testing for staff including contractors that interact with students [1:33:55] and the that will be coming forward september 28th for a vote [1:34:03] and i believe that's it but i just wanted to make sure that and i would just like to um state that [1:34:10] earlier this evening um the president of eme jason doctor [1:34:16] uh shared that for that membership they fully support moving forward with vaccinations or [1:34:24] weekly testing okay and then next for student testing [1:34:32] i want to let the public know that we have submitted our orders [1:34:38] for our tests and while i understand [1:34:44] that it has been well communicated to the public about testing and the [1:34:50] supports that we are receiving from uh the minnesota department of education we have submitted the order for the test [1:34:57] but the tests have not arrived yet so it isn't that we are not testing [1:35:02] and we have the test kits we are waiting for them to arrive and i'm looking over [1:35:08] at jeff jeff i don't know if you want to come up and share some additional information [1:35:24] for dear ellenberg dr stanley steam board members just uh it was following up mary was not able to make it [1:35:29] tonight's meeting so i am a poor stand-in she is much better looking than i am [1:35:35] um so that being said we just want to do a little update on the uh the symptomatic testing that the state is [1:35:42] asking us to participate in within each of our districts across the state as dr [1:35:47] stanley said the test kits have been ordered we got that in right away when we first heard this information was [1:35:53] coming out the state notified us last week that they were there was a delay in just the supply and demand of the test [1:35:59] because the entire country is moving in this direction all at the same time we did just receive notification today that [1:36:05] we're hopefully going to start receiving some of those shipments yet this week and so with that we can begin [1:36:12] symptomatic testing and what i want to emphasize with symptomatic testing is that largely these tests are designed [1:36:17] for students that are exhibiting symptoms at school so if we see a student that is [1:36:23] exhibiting some symptoms at school when the parents take that student home at night [1:36:29] during that day that they can be sent home with a test kit and that test kit can be administered within the home [1:36:35] environment we won't be doing any of the testing on site [1:36:44] why wouldn't we be doing the testing on site in order to conduct testing there is a [1:36:51] specific level of certification that is needed [1:36:57] i cannot i do not know what clia stands for but i have talked to mary about this quite a bit [1:37:03] there is a certain level of additional certification to conduct those [1:37:08] tests on site that we don't have yet and so at this point [1:37:14] we are moving to send those home with families they would conduct the tests and then they would bring that information back [1:37:23] i thought i remembered a nurse one of our nurses coming in specifically asking for these tests [1:37:30] yes that was one of our nurses one of our lsns that came into one of our previous board meetings talking about [1:37:35] that for us in order for us to go in that direction we would need to have all of our nursing staff trained up in the [1:37:42] clay standards they would have to be they would have to be garbed in full ppe during that time period so the n95 mass [1:37:50] and they would have to they would have to have the protection on the gloves and and everything else there's a certification [1:37:56] process just to go through the the appropriate fitting of the n95 mask just an update on that we are pursuing [1:38:02] that so we can see whether or not that is something that would be viable for us but right now we're also running into a [1:38:08] supply and demand issue with n95 mass that can be appropriately fitted to the faces of our of our teachers n95 [1:38:15] masks have to be of an appropriate fit um and while n95 masks are now available [1:38:21] they are not available in all necessary sizes for us to be able to get our nurses access to these n95 nas [1:38:32] can i ask a clarification so i was under the understanding that we did have a clia waiver for these tests i was [1:38:39] told that was part of our testing committee work last year and um so i know mary's not here to [1:38:45] answer but i would like us to go back and look at that in the options because [1:38:51] we were able to test on site last year and they were able to actually do diagnostic testing within the [1:38:57] nurse's office last year as well so i guess there's a miss here with why [1:39:02] there would be a delay and what something's not [1:39:07] there's there's a miss somewhere so if i would i can definitely go back i know when i spoke with mary last week she [1:39:13] said that there is additional clia waiver certification training that is needed [1:39:19] and i will i will go back with her and get that informed information why the additional [1:39:24] requirement is there right right and what the and and this is the bionex is that a test that came from [1:39:32] that the government says we have are they dictating that test or we are allowed to do any type of test [1:39:37] do you know from my understanding what she shared with me is that is the best test for symptomatic testing [1:39:47] okay and to follow up on julie's questions um [1:39:54] what's the turnaround on the binax test the results come back in how long 10 [1:39:59] minutes very fast rapid results very fast okay and there's two to if [1:40:04] there's two tests in the bionx and one is 10 minutes and the recommendation is then to do it again in another 24 to 36 [1:40:11] hours if i'm not mistaken that's how it works and the students confirm that the test has been taken by bringing [1:40:19] it in the next day and showing it to the nurse on duty no i'm sure how's it verified [1:40:28] no they don't bring it in it's self-reporting [1:40:34] i don't know how mary has it set up i wish mirrors are here to share that [1:40:39] information because she knows all of those details um and i can guarantee that we'll we'll be able to get to that [1:40:45] information in the summer okay and then the following question is can a family elect to new use a different test if [1:40:51] they wanted to they had that if it had they have it at home or [1:40:56] so so as mary emphasized to me we've been promoting families to get test kits [1:41:02] to have on hand within home since last april and so the binax test kits are really [1:41:07] supplemental to that and so if a student is symptomatic at home and parents want [1:41:13] to utilize a test they can actually utilize that one of those tests that they've [1:41:18] hopefully they've had on hand within the home environment and if not we can make the accommodation [1:41:24] for them to get a hold of a binex test or they can have a different test taken [1:41:29] from their clinician or from down at their clinic okay and will a successful [1:41:35] negative result be necessary in order for the student to return to school [1:41:41] to attend if they're systematic yes okay just had to hear that out loud yes [1:41:48] and i think we need just some more clarification too what what you jeff your answer um [1:41:55] about the testing that was done at home ahead of time because my understanding that was for asymptomatic testing [1:42:03] that was done that's been the push from the state like more of like a screening of surveillance type testing which is [1:42:08] different and so i guess i just i'm not i need a lot more information [1:42:15] on how this is going to work and to owen's question like families should be able to do their own [1:42:21] test and what that looks like we need to give them guidance on that [1:42:27] i'm going to echo that i feel like there's some holes that we would need filled with information from mary [1:42:34] i'd like to think that the opportunity to have [1:42:39] symptomatic testing in the school is to also help allow us to keep students in school and so if there is an [1:42:46] opportunity for nurses to administer those tests in school i'd really like [1:42:51] for us to pursue that i'd also like to just make sure that we're clear that families if they are [1:42:58] concerned about their student their symptomatic student either [1:43:05] i'd like to think we are giving them the opportunity to use other testing options if if they feel so [1:43:11] if they aren't sure they want to do i believe the binex is antigen and versus pcr so we're going to get [1:43:18] make sure we give family those options and then my next question is [1:43:24] so if kids go home in quarantine so i'm i've been exposed because erica has it [1:43:30] i'm going home i'm in quarantine am i being sent home with a test i would think [1:43:36] not i would think maybe that's i i'm trying to understand that too since [1:43:42] that's not a symptomatic that's a quarantine are we so i would recommend maybe at our 28th [1:43:49] meeting that if we could have similar to the flow chart like a testing [1:43:55] protocol this is the recommended test this is when the student will get it [1:44:02] um they're going to be testing at home this is the required [1:44:09] um waiver parent if it's going to be at school yeah all of these more the grainier [1:44:16] more granular detail and then if if there's an exposure are we going [1:44:21] to just some of those right some of that faq and also we had talked a little bit in [1:44:27] the work session about how so this is symptomatic testing but also for surveillance testing if [1:44:34] there could be a decision flow chart about that becoming a part of one of our mitigation strategies as well [1:44:41] because i think when we talk about you know different [1:44:47] circumstances in the community different levels of transmission in the school when we have that conversation we're [1:44:53] talking about masking i agree that testing should go hand in hand with that and that [1:44:58] schools around the country school districts and states are doing surveillance testing and we know what [1:45:04] surveillance testing is because we were one of the first to do it and so i think bringing that in as part of the [1:45:11] decision flow chart is going to be important especially if we're talking about potentially you know even if taking masks off is on [1:45:18] the table that this should also be a part of it uh i just want to make a suggestion [1:45:23] since there are a lot of questions and ideas here which is that since the board members are currently thinking of it that [1:45:30] everybody who has questions send an email to the superintendent tonight or tomorrow so that all the questions can get [1:45:36] captured i saw her writing madly but as just as a practical matter this [1:45:42] is sort of a hot area everybody should take it within the next 24 hours send an email to the [1:45:48] superintendent then we can have that follow up on the 28th and if action is needed before then at least she has [1:45:54] those questions in a handy format that would be my suggestion [1:46:03] okay then i am going to invite dr smazel and [1:46:08] jody d saint hubert to come up and talk about [1:46:13] covenanting mitigation updates in particular what is happening when our students are [1:46:19] quarantined and they need to learn from home [1:46:28] [Music] hey good evening chair ellenberg dr [1:46:34] stanley and board members we we've highlighted the different [1:46:40] quarantine processes for students when they're individually quarantined and need to be learning at home [1:46:46] um the the one thing that we are very proud of is the level of consistency that we've been trying to [1:46:52] build around the plan which is something that we heard in previous board meetings the importance of that consistency [1:46:58] and the other thing we're proud of is we know that this is a work in progress right that we have a plan for now but [1:47:04] that we need to continually be assessing and evaluating how that plan is working for students and families and [1:47:12] evolving that plan and so we're at a base level of what the plan looks like right now with the needs that we're [1:47:17] currently seeing in quarantine at our elementary level our students that would go into [1:47:23] quarantine would get an email message from their teachers right away that has a video describing [1:47:29] what what the resources and supports are in place for those students that are at home in quarantine [1:47:36] they do include some must-do lessons that students should be doing [1:47:41] when they're at home in quarantine if they're feeling up for it and they are asymptomatic and able to do those [1:47:47] lessons and then there is a plethora of may do activities as well so there's [1:47:52] additional resources that will be provided in addition to that we are committing to [1:47:57] two times a week check-ins with the students and that check-in might be [1:48:03] a variety of different people based on the resources and needs in the in the building in that classroom at that time [1:48:10] in addition to that we really want to emphasize how when the student returns to school after however [1:48:16] long that time needs to be that the teacher is a hundred percent committed to team on seeing where that student is [1:48:23] at academically on the materials that they missed that were engaging in as they could [1:48:29] in in that assessment then making sure that they get caught up i would liken that to like if a student [1:48:35] is out with the flu or if a student is out on a vacation teachers are really committed to that [1:48:41] okay we have the student back in our space we need to see where they are in terms of the material they missed and [1:48:46] really support them in person at this time the secondary is also teaming very [1:48:51] closely together as a secondary team both at the middle schools and the high school [1:48:57] and they are communicating also together that things will need to adjust and change [1:49:03] based on what we see going forward they have communicated in a variety of different places that for extended [1:49:09] absences that may or must occur that they will provide materials for students [1:49:15] either asynchronously or synchronously through the schoology website and that does or the schoology [1:49:21] resource and that does bring me back to elementary too we are continuing to encourage families to be accessing csa [1:49:28] in schoology and accessing the lessons that are there for the students and there is specific communication [1:49:33] about students reaching out to teachers when at any time they need help with the resources and materials that they're [1:49:40] accessing at the secondary during that time [1:49:49] before we move on to information about lunches and cafeterias are there any questions [1:49:58] you mentioned asynchronous and synchronous and i was under impress the impression that [1:50:06] we were going to be all in person and that there wasn't going to uh that we were not going to do dual modality this [1:50:12] year in our teaching delivery i was wondering if that's if i have that wrong [1:50:17] or yeah so that so so this is specific to the secondary where that communication is given right now at the elementary we [1:50:24] are not providing the live streaming or the synchronous so at the secondary is going [1:50:29] to be very much based on individual situations mostly will be um the [1:50:34] asynchronous lessons there might be an unusual situation where it needs to be synchronous for example maybe a special [1:50:42] education student on a unique iep where that might need to happen and so that has been [1:50:48] communication among the administration team that that that might be an option at certain times [1:50:55] but in any event i mean right now if you're signed up for [1:51:04] eva courses you're having eva courses but when you have not signed up for eva [1:51:10] courses and you're not a special needs student with an iep that [1:51:16] might need this our students and getting [1:51:22] remote delivery right now they are not yet the communication is that it could [1:51:27] be in the future so this was on the the communication [1:51:34] that principal beaton shared with i'm not on his email yeah so with the high school [1:51:39] um parents and so is communication with them and that is specific to the individual [1:51:45] situations that the students are involved in right now they are not providing that [1:51:50] however it could be in rare situations [1:51:56] so i don't get this flipped around the we will be doing some level of remote [1:52:03] learning at the elementary or at the secondary no no the elementary [1:52:10] is a hundred percent no live streaming asynchronous lessons that families need [1:52:15] to access for through through schoology or css okay so it's the secondary that we may have [1:52:22] some remote there is yes possibilities okay so we're exploring this we've not made commitments to it [1:52:28] yet right that's a good way of saying it on okay and you clarified it's for [1:52:34] students that have unique learning needs in those rare situations that might be occurring [1:52:42] i wanted to say thank you for acknowledging that it's a work in progress and that you're continuing to [1:52:48] evolve it into what works best for our students so i want to say that i appreciate that and recognize that work [1:52:54] i also wanted to say that as a parent i witnessed a back-to-school night for one of the middle schools last week and was [1:53:02] amazed at the consistency that is that is happening across all teachers in [1:53:11] having options for kids when they if they are home and the fact that lessons still continue to be [1:53:17] online in schoology pages and that the work that's being done by our teachers to have that as an option if [1:53:24] kids unfortunately are home i just wanted to recognize that work to you so you know that that it was very [1:53:30] much appreciated by myself and a lot of other families so i have um [1:53:37] two comments or questions one is i want to know if [1:53:42] as an administrative team or elementary school administrative team are we going to be [1:53:50] tracking students that have multiple quarantines because [1:53:55] i think that obviously there'll be a greater impact to learning and [1:54:02] mental health if quarantine stack on top of quarantines and we might have to come up with a [1:54:07] different approach to students that um for some reason or [1:54:12] another miss um more than i mean quite frankly if it's [1:54:18] more than one quarantine right that's a month of school that a kid's missed [1:54:23] that we need to come up with a different approach the second thing is um [1:54:31] i really want i mean we can't always have real-time feedback unless you want beepers like i used to have in the 90s [1:54:37] when i worked in an agency in chicago but i really want to know if you guys feel [1:54:44] that you need more resources to reach our students in the at the elementary level [1:54:50] that are being quarantined because i think that [1:54:56] i think that we knew about the delta variant over the summer but the reality is that from a [1:55:04] resource perspective we don't have the same resources that we did from a financial perspective that we [1:55:10] did last year so if you guys see [1:55:17] even within two weeks or three weeks and you dr stanley that we really need to ramp up to give these kids a more [1:55:23] enhanced learning experience when they're on quarantine let us know because [1:55:28] that's a bored decision that we need to make from a prioritization of resource perspective [1:55:34] but i'd rather rather have that conversation sooner than later um [1:55:40] and so if we start seeing larger number of kids quarantined or [1:55:46] if there's something that we can do creatively with [1:55:51] the eva system i don't i don't know and i don't want to just throw stuff out that people are going to [1:55:57] freak out about but that i guess that's my main sentiment is please come to us [1:56:03] um as soon as possible that you think wow we really need to ramp up something to offer these kids more thank you i [1:56:10] think [1:56:21] okay and dr smazel do you want to talk about the efforts that we have in the cafeteria [1:56:27] sure thank you and good to see you again um [1:56:34] we have mr eric hamilton and i have walked a number of cafeterias and particularly at [1:56:41] the elementary level and one things that we discussed is the [1:56:46] the way in which we're able to move air and exchange the air in the cafeteria so [1:56:51] we've maxed out the air exchange system and in many cases it's exchanging that [1:56:57] air six or seven times per hour so that's a significant amount of air [1:57:02] that we're moving and exhausting out of those rooms and again trying to keep the freshest air possible in that space in [1:57:10] addition to that we've also ordered hepa filters three per cafeteria in the k-8 system [1:57:18] and those provide just another layer of filtration with the air that is in that space [1:57:24] when we talked about lunches this fall with the principles [1:57:29] one of our criteria was let's try to get kids to the biggest space we can let's try and spread them out as far as we can [1:57:37] because we need distance between them when we're trying to mask and [1:57:43] putting kids in the cafeterias actually creates in most cases the greatest [1:57:48] amount of space as compared to the classrooms that's not necessarily true in some of [1:57:55] our kindergarten classrooms so we've kind of went back to kindergarten some kindergarten students eating in the [1:58:01] classroom because those kindergarten rooms in some cases are very very large so it does give us an opportunity to [1:58:07] spread kids out as well the other thing that we want to make sure is that kids mask on the way in and [1:58:13] they mask on the way out and we're tied around those protocols and then we have continued to expand the [1:58:19] way that we can use the outdoors we've had a beautiful fall so far this year i will say [1:58:25] probably 100 of the highland students eat outside every day when i went down to normandale about [1:58:31] two-thirds of the students were eating outside i was over to concord this last week and they just kicked off their outdoor lunch [1:58:38] program and had a significant number of students eating outside and all of our elementaries are now [1:58:44] doing that in one way shape or form so if we can encourage kids and support [1:58:50] them either through volunteers or other staff in supervision with them eating outdoors [1:58:55] it just provides yet another layer that we can address and then we've also [1:59:00] talked to some of the administrators about the idea of breaking the lunches into shifts [1:59:06] between recess and lunch so that we can have [1:59:11] the number of students that go in there and those would be those would be strategies that we would employ on days [1:59:17] where we can't leverage the great outdoors like the rainy days and things like that and just try to navigate [1:59:24] those lunch shifts by breaking students into smaller groups to be able to do that [1:59:29] also at the secondary levels trying to use multiple spaces for lunches has been important [1:59:35] we have multiple spaces at south view multiple spaces at valley view and the high school [1:59:40] many cases we're continuing to leverage the gyms which makes it difficult for some of the teachers [1:59:46] to teach physical education and health to be able to access those spaces but we're continuing to work through [1:59:52] alternatives to that and really just trying to again keep kids safe when they're eating [1:59:58] the food they need to rejuvenate for learning [2:00:06] okay so that concludes the covid mitigation updates and any additional [2:00:12] questions [2:00:19] yeah i have a couple questions um so thank you for [2:00:24] um this this is new this year the ability to eat outdoors [2:00:31] at lunchtime at every building i think that that's very important an extremely important [2:00:38] aspect i know that weather's going to turn cold and um [2:00:43] i'm just i'm listening to um how we're approaching this and i'm just wondering [2:00:49] if you could speak a little bit to you know when [2:00:55] uh one of the things that the uh [2:01:01] uh center for disease control states is that you know when you are um [2:01:08] [Music] not able to provide one layer of mitigation then maybe there would be [2:01:14] others so i i was wondering to talk a little bit more about cohorting [2:01:19] um in order to prevent spread during lunch and i i know that [2:01:25] we've talked a little bit about it but um i'm i just wanted to make sure i [2:01:31] understood the the thinking behind having kids going to the cafeteria where [2:01:38] they're not truly in cohorts [2:01:43] and they're without masks yeah so we still leverage that to some [2:01:49] degree so even in the cafeteria we have certain classes that sit in certain spaces when kids eat outside they eat [2:01:56] with their class they're not eating with the other classes they're eating with their class so we're still trying to leverage that cohorting concept [2:02:03] whenever possible okay i i i'm going to be interested in [2:02:10] hearing follow-up um at the next meeting on how we're going to be handling winter time [2:02:15] with with lunchtime and the other thing that i'm i'm wondering [2:02:21] about and i haven't heard is that i do know that with after school [2:02:28] you know before school after school activities that is another time [2:02:33] where where we are definitely mixing cohorts [2:02:40] and i was wondering what the school policy is on [2:02:48] testing our additional you know other schools are doing additional testing for students in activities in after [2:02:55] school activities and um i'm just wondering where we stand on [2:03:01] that yeah i don't know if i can really speak to that at this point i don't know stacy [2:03:08] or val if you have anything else to add about additional testing for before school or [2:03:13] after school activities or any other layers of mitigation on that now right now the testing that we have [2:03:20] in place and valve please do come up the testing as we move forward right now [2:03:25] would be the symptomatic testing we have not added for athletics activities or [2:03:30] before and after school additional testing val do you want to talk about [2:03:37] the mitigation efforts and things like that that are happening in before and after school programming [2:03:43] sure good evening superintendent stanley and members of the board [2:03:48] we're continuing to follow the protocols we did last year our staff is meeting regularly with our [2:03:56] school principal and teachers so if there's anything from the school day that we need to know then we follow up [2:04:01] with the family alongside the principal so the same exact protocols are happening after [2:04:09] school that are happening during the day we have families of students [2:04:14] it is not enough it is not strict cohorting so there is mixing but [2:04:21] at this point as in summer we have excuse me we have not had transmissions that have come out [2:04:28] of an after-school setting i think there are different strategies that are being used [2:04:35] through the minnesota state high school league there's a whole other set of strategies so i think that troy would be [2:04:40] better to speak to that but i think they're also on our on our pages in terms of [2:04:46] what is available for families and my yeah i think that's all i can speak [2:04:52] to questions on that you know i thank you [2:04:58] um so i i i appreciate that and at our next meeting i'm hoping that [2:05:04] that we are continuing to look at the cdc recommendations and and part of that is [2:05:09] that for those times for after-school activities there's an additional layer [2:05:15] of level of mitigation and i just want to make sure that we're we are [2:05:21] paying attention to that because um it is [2:05:26] uh research is showing that those after-school activities are are [2:05:32] our primary sources for spread in the community just so you know too the students are are following all masking [2:05:38] protocols inside activities and again mirroring the school day in terms of that [2:05:43] so um thank you okay you're welcome can i just add anecdotally really quickly that um [2:05:51] having a student in a false sport communication from the coaches has been outstanding [2:05:57] with explaining the implications of masking inside and with different activities [2:06:03] if they're inside going into cheetah to get wrapped they are masked i mean it's been very clear [2:06:09] that the goal is to keep the kids playing and keep the kids sports so i just wanted to add that in because i have found in my experience this fall [2:06:16] with a student athlete it has been nothing short of just excellent so i [2:06:22] just wanted to let you know that um two comments really fast um for [2:06:28] lunchtime i would love to see like very specific [2:06:33] expectations that say um like i think it's great that cornelia is [2:06:39] 100 outside but i would love to see sort of a threshold that says our expectation is [2:06:45] as a district is that no more than however many i guess would have to be [2:06:51] based on square footage but no more then x percent of kids per capacity can be in [2:06:57] a room during lunchtime having lunch and very specific thresholds for [2:07:04] expectations for lunch time and i have two rationales for that one is because um [2:07:12] we can't if we don't set district-wide expectations it's hard for us to monitor what's happening in every single [2:07:18] classroom at lunch time um but then i know that i don't want their i also don't want there to be in [2:07:24] equities in across schools based on what schools can get the most volunteers and [2:07:30] i think it's wonderful that we have wonderful volunteers [2:07:35] at certain schools but i think doing something like that would will sort of force us as a district to see where we [2:07:42] might have to actually building resources to help all of our schools have [2:07:49] the expectation that we have this district-wide for the optimal [2:07:55] lunchtime environment as opposed to and on a consistent basis as opposed to having it [2:08:03] be so dependent on volunteers because i do think you will see a variance in the [2:08:09] ability of schools to be able to bring in volunteers for lunchtime [2:08:14] activities [2:08:28] okay any additional questions i captured that information athletics and [2:08:33] activities look at testing the next time that we come back specifically for lunch time [2:08:39] really put together a protocol based on square footage what percentage of kids would be in or out [2:08:45] and then really looking at that through the lens of equity to ensure [2:08:50] that students regardless of the school that they attend will be able to have access [2:08:56] to lunch outdoors or any whatever we determine is [2:09:02] the safest environment that is not dependent on access to a volunteer [2:09:09] if it is great but if it's not what do we do then as a district [2:09:14] and and maybe you can come back with a i i am not clear on what the policy is for [2:09:20] our um events [2:09:27] are you referring to testing or i'm referring to like football soccer [2:09:34] yeah so in in the return to school plan it's outlined around masking [2:09:41] and that so i just want to make sure if you're looking for something in addition to [2:09:46] this so it's outlined that when students are [Music] [2:09:51] not having physical exertion they will always have their masks on whether it is practice or whether it is [2:09:58] during a game are you looking for something meditation i'm thinking of spectators oh [2:10:04] is it involved volunteers are in there too [2:10:10] thank you stacy and thank you all for the updates and the work you've done so far this year [2:10:16] okay okay we're going to move on to policy review and i'll turn it over to director [2:10:21] michaelson thank you chair ellenberg we have two policies for discussion today [2:10:28] 6 27 and 5 and 9 12. [2:10:35] um 6 27 let me get organized here [2:10:40] educational programs fine arts athletics and activities participating in [2:10:45] participation in academic eligibility um we [2:10:51] heard from troy stein on this with the sikh committee's [2:10:56] impac [Music] observations and it has [2:11:03] a lot to do with the breakdown and making a distinction between minnesota high school league and non-minnesota high school league and um [2:11:12] and nikki tusher is right here to offer some color commentary [2:11:18] on uh on why we did this so vicky and so this is a part of a trifecta of policies [2:11:25] and so this one is about participation and academic eligibility and i think that's the grounding point um for the [2:11:31] board to hear because different policies do different things and this one's to convey to [2:11:37] our participants what those eligibility components are so it's not the activities fundings one or it's not um [2:11:44] so it's not those two policies so a couple points that i just want to changes that i want to point out because [2:11:49] you do see a lot of red lines within this policy one is the first one is [2:11:54] we eliminated the definitions because we were getting stuck on the definitions as a policy committee on what is an [2:12:00] activity what isn't an activity what is a club and that's not really the purpose of this policy the purpose the purpose [2:12:05] of this policy is to talk about eligibility so then you'll see the new section three talks about the minnesota [2:12:12] state high school league sponsors activities it talks about the eligibility violations of penalties it defers the minnesota state high school [2:12:18] league but then on top of it it talks about things that we require as a district and so that's one of the changes is it got rid of all of the [2:12:25] violations but instead of referring to the minnesota state high school league um and then just the district on the the [2:12:32] additional um consequences um on the district behalf which is really that um [2:12:40] element of service back to the community and that's what you'll see in the first one um [2:12:45] similarly you have section three and then you have section four section four it does the same type of thing but for non-minnesota high school league rules [2:12:52] um it also talks about one of the most important things that we heard from troy and the fact committee was around the [2:12:58] curricular component they wanted to make sure that students didn't have a curricular [2:13:04] penalty like if you were participating in a theater production or as part of a class [2:13:10] or a performance of some sort that you didn't miss those performances and so that's [2:13:15] now embedded in our policy um and then i think there's one other [2:13:20] change that i thought we'd point out and that's um it goes all the way back down to um [2:13:26] section eight and in section 8 you'll see some changes around improvement plans [2:13:32] for gpa components of things and the changes in that one now comport with what we're actually doing to help [2:13:38] students who who may be in that academic component where they need [2:13:43] additional uh guidance and so that improvement plan component and so those are the four major changes within the policy director [2:13:50] michaelson is there anything else you'd like me to highlight i think you pretty thoroughly describe it all [2:13:57] any questions [2:14:02] no okay i think we can then move on to policy 912 [2:14:08] which deals with community relations and we are recommending that we rescind because [2:14:14] this is redundant and perhaps you could take it from here nikki sure um one of the reasons the [2:14:21] policy committee talked about rescinding this is it was created at a time where we as a district needed to to define our [2:14:27] our partnerships and what those look like we now have contracts and other mechanisms that defines those [2:14:33] partnerships and so this is something that's just no longer needed and that's why we talked about rescinding it [2:14:40] so what do you mean by we have contracts that define it because this was adopted as an effort to spur the creation of [2:14:47] more partnerships so when we enter into something like um some partnerships with their districts [2:14:53] for example it's one that i was brought to my attention i'm actually going to look over at val a little bit too since i've only been here for [2:14:59] this last time for a year and a half but the contract itself actually talks about if we can share data and things like [2:15:05] that back and forth between some of the organizations that we're working with versus this policy itself had a data [2:15:11] practices component of things and we'd rather spell that out with the relationship with the entity [2:15:18] versus in this policy itself [2:15:26] when we reviewed it money as a committee no one could understand [2:15:32] a lot of the verbiage and we figured if all every single person on the committee was confused [2:15:40] about what was the point between this and then we were like well would ed fund be considered part of this [2:15:46] they're concerned of a different policy then we were wondering why do we have [2:15:52] this since it doesn't seem to actually be doing anything right now i think that the goal is to try to spur [2:15:57] the creation of partnerships that was the objective if it didn't accomplish it then [2:16:03] so be it i don't think that this policy i think if we want to create [2:16:11] partnerships i think it belongs in the strategic plan not in policy and so which it is in the [2:16:17] strategic plan and it is also in dr stanley's board goals or superintendent goals too [2:16:23] and working toward policy minimalism if it's not necessary why keep it [2:16:34] so currently if um i'm just wondering i'm looking at at [2:16:40] what was deleted and one one of the things that was deleted was the school board will approve all formal [2:16:46] partnerships with memberships joint agreements contracts and service agreements these partnerships must be documented in [2:16:52] writing in accordance with this policy and its appendices contracting authority resides solely [2:16:59] with the school board so i'm just wondering when we take that out [2:17:04] is there another how does [2:17:10] is there another policy that speaks to what's being taken out or are [2:17:17] we now are is the administration now able to [2:17:23] create partnerships without approval of the school board [2:17:29] and it depends on what type of policy or what type of partnership you're looking for and so you have vendors which we do [2:17:36] have a in the 700 series we have contracts that are approved by the board for those vendor relationships and so [2:17:43] then you have partnerships that you might develop where you want to share information back and forth and those would be something [2:17:48] that would come to this group to be approved as a contract and so there's only very few and i i don't have it off [2:17:54] the top of my head but there are very few binding components on director [2:18:00] superintendent stanley um director tope and the board itself are the contracting entities for the [2:18:07] district in my recollection and so those are the people who can bind the district to [2:18:13] a contract yeah and i'm thinking of for example at the high school [2:18:18] we create the district created a partnership with a korean school [2:18:25] and that had to come before the board and i'm just wondering if we get rid of [2:18:31] this is it is does that need is is that the [2:18:37] type of thing that could be approved just at the high school level [2:18:48] that's an interesting question um i'd have to know what the what the partnership with with um the [2:18:54] korean school entailed and what that what that meant and so depending on you know if it's an [2:18:59] affiliation where it's just a friendly affiliation that's one thing but if there's information sharing or resource [2:19:05] sharing then that's when it that's when the full board um itself would get involved is that those types of things [2:19:11] where you're committing some type of an obligation to a an external entity [2:19:16] that's that's where dr stanley or the board itself would be um part of that conversation if it's a loose affiliation [2:19:23] meaning um we're we're gonna talk about we're gonna we're we're partnering with [2:19:28] this entity to you know share ideas um just on how to become a better school [2:19:34] that those are those are often casual conversations so it depends on what the partnership that it entails and i'm not [2:19:40] familiar enough with the partnership that you speak of to know um what that partnership [2:19:45] entailed i was gonna um thank you very much for that dr tischer i was going to say [2:19:53] you know if if it required any form of in-kind donation partnership or financial [2:20:00] partnership my recollection of this policy was it [2:20:05] was anything that was ten thousand dollars or greater [2:20:10] right um in relationship to that policy and so as we were reviewing it [2:20:18] it seemed like maybe it was something at that time that was necessary [2:20:24] and because we have many different as dr tricia said we have [2:20:30] 700 series of policies that are really going to put in [2:20:35] a system of checks and balances to make certain that we you know do not have [2:20:41] an administrator an individual going out and creating these um [2:20:46] partnerships that would require financial commitments uh that the in the district [2:20:52] that we weren't prepared to handle right and i'm i'm not even as you know i [2:20:59] i appreciate we would definitely for financial commitments we would definite i would [2:21:05] expect that we would have a policy covering that but i don't know and that's why i'm just asking i just don't [2:21:11] know i don't know our policies well enough to say when we are creating partnerships [2:21:19] is there some board oversight and i i just would i would request that that [2:21:25] i echo that i think just turning it since this is just discussion but turning that over to [2:21:32] director michaelson to say when this gets brought again for a vote [2:21:37] that you've thoroughly vetted that this isn't a layer of a check and balance that we're removing [2:21:43] so i think i think that makes total sense ellen in that vein [2:21:48] lenny since you were here when this was drafted and accepted [2:21:55] being the the voice of the the historical voice of institutional memory [2:22:01] do you have a recollection as to uh some of the trade-offs and [2:22:07] and what janie just brought up so other than this policy was adopted as [2:22:13] a mechanism to look for new partnerships and then create a structure by which new [2:22:19] partnerships could be entered into so that rather than have a policy [2:22:25] unwritten that says go search out partnerships the goal was to have a policy written [2:22:30] that says go search out partnerships but here are the parameters and you'll see that [2:22:35] there was supposed to be a framework for creating formal partnerships that's listed in here so it was to try to expand [2:22:43] resources outside the district that we might be able to utilize in being innovative in [2:22:49] expanding our reach so it's it's been filled with guard guardrails okay so it's been five years [2:22:55] since it came into being has it fallen short of its goals [2:23:00] has it lived up to it so i think that we could do a better job [2:23:05] of forming partnerships and taking advantage of resources and we've talked about that for a number of years and in [2:23:12] fact that's why it's in the strategic plan so i think the strategic plan has revisited the concepts [2:23:18] underlying this policy and so then the policy again was to say what are the guardrails that exist [2:23:25] as you engage in the activities that we have listed as a focus in the strat plan [2:23:30] is the language in the strat plan strong enough to um hold the objectives and purposes that [2:23:38] this policy was created to serve i think ellen and janie's [2:23:44] feedback was good that the policy committee should make sure that [2:23:50] the the intent or the check and balance of making sure the board has oversight over [2:23:58] partnerships we just need to make sure that that is not lost in policy and if it is we [2:24:05] either add it to a different policy or retain that aspect of it so i would recommend that we [2:24:11] bring it back yeah and just for that aspect and make sure okay that part let's do that then [2:24:19] all right so that concludes our two policies that we're under review thank [2:24:24] you nikki for coming up thank you uh john tope director of business services um do [2:24:31] i have a motion to um approve the proposed property tax levy pay 21 so [2:24:37] moved second [2:24:43] good evening director tope good evening chair allenberg [2:24:48] superintendent stanley and members of the board tonight we begin the process of [2:24:54] certifying our property tax levy for pay 22 which will cover our fiscal year 2223 [2:25:01] your report starts on page 210. we have received three reports from the [2:25:08] state three levee reports from the state you have the first one in your packet [2:25:13] it does not really represent a a proper certification of the levy [2:25:19] because there's some items that are missing from there and so on page 211 if you want to scroll to that [2:25:27] i put some items in gold [2:25:32] and those are the market value referendum right at the top that amount is going to be going down [2:25:39] slightly we have adm estimates that we have to have [2:25:44] corrected by the department of education a little further down [2:25:49] the alternative facilities long-term facilities maintenance levy i've actually put the number in there that i [2:25:55] think we're going to be very close to because that wasn't in that first levy [2:26:00] report that is in your packet re-employment insurance right underneath that is going to go down significantly [2:26:07] by about 233 thousand dollars and then if you scroll to the next page you'll see a debt service [2:26:16] get there uh our debt service will be going up [2:26:22] slightly uh based on the next agenda item so with those estimates uh it looked [2:26:30] to be around a three percent increase from the prior year so very reasonable increase even with the approval of the [2:26:37] increase in the capital projects levy which are voters approved on may 11th and the 7 million dollar bond issue [2:26:44] we usually have a recommendation that you approve it at its maximum and certainly tonight with the way the levy [2:26:50] reports are running from md i would definitely recommend that [2:26:55] so traditionally we do actually approve the maximum and then we adjust it as we learn more during the rest of the year [2:27:02] so i would definitely be in favor of what you're recommending and even at the maximum [2:27:08] the three percent kind of falls below a number of the prior years [2:27:17] anything else i agree we'll now vote to approve the general oops did i move on to the next stitch [2:27:23] sorry yes to approve the 21 um [2:27:29] pay 22 property tax levy all those in favor say aye aye [2:27:36] anyone opposed um the tax levy is approved thank you director tope [2:27:43] do i have a motion to approve the general obligation school building bonds series 2021 b go moved is there a second [2:27:50] second oh thank you for staying [2:27:55] so late i know you're i know you're used to being here [2:28:04] yeah we had a bond uh bid on september 8th wasn't it jody [2:28:11] september 8th and we had five bidders uh i'll let jody bring you all the good news [2:28:16] all right so if you will look at the results page which is the first page of the report you'll see that we did [2:28:22] receive five bids and um above that you'll notice that the underlying rating of the district was affirmed at triple a [2:28:29] which is the highest rating that moody's assigns you along with two other districts in the state of minnesota are the only districts that have that rating [2:28:35] so it's edina minnetonka and wazada that have the aaa rating from moody's so [2:28:41] i should recognize john for his work in preparing for that rating call and representing your district so well [2:28:50] very helpful the process they ask lots of questions he's kind of on the hot seat for a while and so he [2:28:56] did a really really nice job of of assuring that you uh maintain that rating and making the um rating agency [2:29:03] confident in what's happening here in united public schools so that was that was really great to [2:29:08] have his um effort um and we appreciate that very much so you'll see that the low bidder was [2:29:15] hilltop securities out of dallas they have been bidding more regularly and finally won so it was great to see that [2:29:21] they have an office now in st paul and so i think they've got a bigger presence here um the low bed was at a 1.63 basically [2:29:29] the high bid at a 1.91 and you'll see that in the notes there [2:29:34] we were estimating 1.8 percent in the pre-sale report that my colleague [2:29:40] matthew hammer presented to you um in august so [2:29:45] that is good news to see it lower and in the you'll see that the [2:29:51] treasurer and john already signed off on the proposal form and locked you into that nice low rate and um that was lower [2:29:59] than the the interest rate that we had in the parameters resolution which i think we had set at 2.3 percent so we were well [2:30:05] below that and below the pre-sale estimate so all that turned out great you'll see the attachments included to [2:30:12] the priests to the sale day report the bid tab is first with the five bids that you received from hilltop out of dallas [2:30:18] texas as i mentioned piper sandler i'm sure was very disappointed they were very close behind hilltop and they're [2:30:24] local here in minneapolis baird out of milwaukee wisconsin and then a couple of new york firms so [2:30:31] great to see that much interest in your bonds and then the remaining pages are financial schedules or the next few [2:30:37] pages i should say our financial schedule is just updated as compared to the pre-sale estimates that we provided [2:30:42] so exact same schedules and then finally the rating report which starts on attachments page six and gives the [2:30:49] background and rationale for moody's affirming your aaa underlying rating as [2:30:55] well as assigning a credit enhanced double a true rating so that is everything all great news and [2:31:02] the tax impact will be less with the two questions and what we had [2:31:08] communicated during the election so i think on a six hundred thousand dollar home we were expecting about thirty 34 [2:31:13] dollars if i remember correctly and i think we're at like 23 now um that's a little bit of an increase in your tax [2:31:20] base and with this nice low rate everything has come together well and so it'll be a little less than what [2:31:25] taxpayers might be expecting for taxes payable and 22 once the levy gets library reports gets updated and [2:31:31] finalized all right great news yeah thank you you're welcome so now [2:31:37] tonight technically we are ratifying the approval we are not approving it but we're simply ratifying the approval that [2:31:43] was engaged that was done by the treasurer and john that's correct you authorize them to [2:31:48] approve the bond sale and sign off on the proposal form should it meet the parameters which it did and so yes [2:31:53] tonight is a but your action is ratifying that award just wanted to clarify that's all [2:32:00] okay we will now vote to approve the general obligation school building bonds series 2021 b all those in favor say aye [2:32:08] aye aye anyone opposed okay the bonds are approved thank you so [2:32:14] much thank you thank you thank you all for your hard work great opportunity to be of service of you once again it's [2:32:19] always wonderful working with you and with john of course thank you so much thank you john for your hard work [2:32:26] do i have a motion to approve the 2021-2022 board goals so moved [2:32:31] is there a second second great um so a draft of these board goals [2:32:37] was presented and discussed at the board retreat on august 28th and board member and superintendent feedback was [2:32:42] solicited and integrated into this new version of the board goals these goals have been reviewed for [2:32:48] alignment with stupid superintendent stacy's goals i'm working on a calendar [2:32:55] of proposed board meetings that superintendent stacy and i have been working on superintendent stanley i apologize this [2:33:02] is always the time of night when i start making mistakes in the board meeting so um [2:33:08] so i'm going to provide an overview of the board meetings that align with our board goals at the september 28th board [2:33:16] meeting and so i'll just open it up to questions or feedback before we vote on [2:33:22] the board goals um i'll go i was hoping that we could um [2:33:30] and i apologize that this wasn't something that i got in earlier um i was hoping that we could [2:33:38] beef up our board communications and engagement item to include instead of engagement [2:33:46] instead of it saying revisit board communications and engagement requirements [2:33:51] i thought we could use a more open word like procedures or opportunities and i'm [2:33:57] not sure if the board would be interested in or if this would be the place where we would list out some of [2:34:03] those opportunities or if we just left it in general as more procedures and opportunities [2:34:10] i like the change of requirements to opportunities okay [2:34:16] does anybody have other feelings on that no i had a similar comment um about um [2:34:23] and i like the word consistency so i think we talked about that at the board retreat too like [2:34:29] and i don't think we go into any more detail because really the whole point to revisit is the goal is to revisit it but [2:34:34] like just the consistency and um and i think it also [2:34:40] talks about um or brings in community feedback which we've talked about [2:34:46] and i think that's the best i would add in community feedback to their revisit board communication engagement [2:34:52] and consistency with opportunities um so maybe revisit confused [2:34:59] i think i follow revisit board communications and engagement opportunities [2:35:05] with an eye towards consistency and community feedback and community [2:35:10] feedback and i that community feedback piece [2:35:15] i thought when we we talked about that at the board retreat was um when dr stanley had done the thought [2:35:22] exchange like it was a new way of thinking of things so it's not necessarily changing any of it but just [2:35:28] looking at how we take feedback um just revisiting it it's not necessarily [2:35:34] to change anything [2:35:41] sorry i have a proposed change that says revisit board communications and engagement [2:35:46] opportunities within an eye towards consistency and community feedback [2:35:53] does anyone have an issue with that no okay [2:36:02] any any other comments or questions i love the calendar matching up with the [2:36:08] board thank you for doing that work because that will be great [2:36:16] okay we'll now move to vote um [2:36:22] all those in favor of approving the 2021-2022-4 goals say aye aye aye [2:36:27] anyone opposed the board goals are approved do i have a motion to approve the [2:36:32] 2021-2020 2022 superintendent goals [2:36:38] is our second second uh these were also discussed at the board retreat um with some changes made [2:36:44] and then we had a discussion um in the work session and [2:36:53] i guess we can just start off where well i think dr stanley you took some notes on some [2:37:00] verbage changes that you we're accepting of i don't know if you [2:37:05] want to just go through those as friendly amendments before we vote absolutely so under the magnet schools [2:37:12] uh to add a bullet point that would say with an intentional focus on pre-k5 [2:37:17] through i'm sorry pre-k through fifth grade in the fall of 2022 that was related to the discussion of [2:37:24] currently it shows the interconnections between early learning and [2:37:31] flew it all the way through 12th grade and adding that bullet point [2:37:36] would allow for the specificity that we are initially focusing on early learning through fifth grade [2:37:44] for the launch in fall of 2022 and then [2:37:50] uh under super tr superintendent transition and onboarding [2:37:55] that i would create a bullet point there regarding developing and finalizing [2:38:02] metrics to monitor the proficiency levels for our students [2:38:10] are there further comments or questions about the superintendent goals [2:38:16] so and i had emailed dr stanley about this in terms of onboarding new [2:38:21] candidates there's currently a plan to have a instructional session [2:38:27] school board candidates but i think that it would be prudent in november and december post-election [2:38:33] to have orientation programs for the new newly elected members [2:38:40] kind of run by each of the different departments [2:38:46] yes and as i look at the leadership development which is strategy d [2:38:52] it would make sense that that would fall right under there [2:38:59] i'm not following but um [Music] [2:39:09] so the only comment i have is that um i think these are fairly aggressive goals [2:39:15] and um i want you to come back to us if you feel that [2:39:20] you need it's similar to the comment i made earlier if you need support from a [2:39:25] resource perspective or a reprioritization perspective [2:39:31] that you feel that something's not going to get done what do i need to do [2:39:37] because we really you're amazing and we don't want you to [2:39:42] burn out so please communicate openly with us about your progress towards these goals [2:39:48] and if there's anything more we can do to support you from a board perspective absolutely i believe we talked at the [2:39:55] retreat about providing maybe an every other month update to the [2:40:00] governance board [2:40:05] and don't be afraid to move a date later on i mean things don't always work [2:40:11] exactly as we planned i'd like an update not just people in the governance not just the governance [2:40:18] board right i i mean [2:40:23] if you wanted to give feedback originally to the governance board and then have that [2:40:28] brought to the full board but um the best way that this this board [2:40:34] functions is when we all have hear the same information so [2:40:41] okay we'll now vote to approve the 2021 22 superintendent goals all those in [2:40:48] favor say aye aye anyone opposed the superintendent goals are approved [2:40:53] we will now move on to policy um do i have a motion to approve policies 6 29 [2:40:59] and 9 13. is there a second [2:41:04] second excellent i'll turn it back over to you director michaelson [2:41:10] we have two policies for action tonight 629 student fundraising [2:41:15] in 913 partnerships with parent organizations and booster clubs [2:41:20] and do i invite any discussion we might have on this there's no changes since we discussed it [2:41:27] no changes okay no changes [2:41:34] so director allenberg i think we can vote on it oh we have to go through nine are there [2:41:40] any questions on 913 no okay [2:41:45] um we will now vote to approve policies 629 and 913. all those in favor say aye [2:41:51] aye anyone opposed um policy 629 and 913 are approved [2:42:00] do we have any leadership or committee updates [2:42:08] yes okay hang on just one second i have to [2:42:13] pull it up i have an update from our [2:42:19] ed fund hang on [2:42:34] so it's some exciting news i'm just going to [2:42:40] read this is on behalf of the ed fund and their the heal together mental health campaign [2:42:47] so last thursday evening the edina city council approved their first of two rounds of funding through the american [2:42:53] relief plan act arpa the city of edina was allocated 4.9 million dollars in [2:42:59] federal funds through arpa and will begin distributing approved funds and implementing programs [2:43:04] in fall of 2021. we the ad fund is pleased to tell the [2:43:10] community that the ad fund has received 142 000 towards the heal together mental health [2:43:17] campaign this grant allows our schools to increase the number of school-based mental health providers provide [2:43:23] district-wide staffing assist families through the summer offer benevolence funding and boost community [2:43:29] education funding will meet our anticipated programming needs through the 2021-2022 school year [2:43:36] and though we know our work this is from the ed fund that we know our work is in the area of mental health and wellness [2:43:41] is ongoing and forever evolving this grant provides much needed funds and alleviates some of the burden on edina [2:43:47] public schools family so a big thank you from the ed fund that have contributed to this initiative [2:43:54] and if anyone listening would like to hear more about the heal together campaign and support this gun ongoing [2:44:00] work please visit edinadfun.org so excellent work [2:44:06] i'm looking over i know jeff jorgensen has been a huge part of that dr stanley and [2:44:12] the leaders of the ed fund so thank you and thanks to the community for that and thank you city [2:44:18] yeah thank you for the city to the city of edina for your partnership and supporting our schools i just really quickly wanted to [2:44:25] recognize ann noss who is our new administrative assistant to the board [2:44:32] and superintendent and you've just been doing a rock star job so i know you're new to the district so i [2:44:38] wanted to welcome you so thank you and welcome thank you man [2:44:47] are there any superintendent updates other than all the ones you gave during the board meeting [2:44:54] actually i do have some updates and i had just a fantastic weekend [2:45:00] my friday started or ended my weekend started with the football game [2:45:06] and it was fantastic to be out there seeing the students just spending time [2:45:13] together and families just really excited to be there together and our [2:45:18] amazing band i they were just phenomenal their precision [2:45:23] just left me in awe and then on saturday i got to participate [2:45:29] in the 9 11 uh recognition ceremony that was held at utley park and [2:45:35] again our band students brought the attendees to tears they played [2:45:42] taps and then they played an amazing just moving rendition [2:45:49] of amazing grace and so um that was really exciting and then i got to end my weekend at the human [2:45:57] rights and relations commission really listening to our community [2:46:02] members really listening to our students who came to speak [2:46:08] which was pretty amazing and i was grateful for having the opportunity to speak on [2:46:13] behalf of the district so uh some great things are happening in edina [2:46:20] and i am incredibly uh to be here i want to send a tremendous [2:46:26] thank you and shout out to all of the volunteers who are helping with lunch outdoors there is absolutely [2:46:33] no way that we could have lunch outdoors without the volunteers and as i went out [2:46:39] and about to schools i met grandmas and i met grandpas and moms and dads and even aunts who are [2:46:47] there helping to make certain that our kids can be outdoors eating as safe as possible [2:46:56] and then i do want to share that i was made aware [2:47:01] that some erroneous information was released this week regarding our mca scores [2:47:08] and i really want to thank olg for the partnership [2:47:13] and the immediate correcting of the data they i was able to connect with their [2:47:20] headmaster she she explained that the data that was released was actually state scores [2:47:26] and not edina scores the dinosaurs are correct out there on [2:47:33] the minnesota department of education website the wrong scores were just pulled and so [2:47:39] i want to thank them for that partnership in correcting that information and sending that out right [2:47:44] away we appreciate just their relationship and partnership and then i [2:47:50] really want to say that it is important for our community to understand that our reading scores stood [2:47:57] firmly in a space where we were in public schools that we [2:48:03] were in and out of different models instructional models [2:48:08] last year and our scores were very strong as strong in some cases [2:48:15] and we had 1200 less students complete the mca [2:48:22] test last year and these were some of our most highest performing students in 2019 [2:48:28] so we can only imagine how well overall our students would have performed on the [2:48:34] mcas this year and then i think it is really i would be remiss [2:48:40] if i didn't state that we had 1400 less students complete the mcas [2:48:47] and again those students when we looked at their scores from 2018 [2:48:52] they were some of the strongest performing students so i appreciate that [2:48:58] uh the minnesota department of education said you know take this uh data with a grain [2:49:04] of salt i want to say that our teachers did an amazing job our [2:49:10] families did an amazing job and i am incredibly proud [2:49:15] of the performance of our students and again thank you very much to olg for immediately [2:49:21] sending out information to correct that um that misinformation [2:49:27] and then uh finally i want to say to our families thank you so much for your patience with transportation [2:49:34] we know that there has been a shortage and in the in the board packet you will see that [2:49:42] we are working to make our wages more competitive we know that [2:49:48] with our students who have transportation because of special needs we know there [2:49:54] is a shortage in drivers we are working diligently to make certain that our kids are able to get to school safely and i [2:50:02] just really am grateful for the families who are putting uh your students in our trust [2:50:08] and know that we are working diligently to make sure certain that we can get transportation [2:50:14] drivers hired i know that all of the transportation directors around the metro area met today to talk about this [2:50:22] very problem because every district is experiencing this and so just thank you [2:50:28] so much for your patience and thank you to the board for investing in um [2:50:34] in our transportation and our custodial workers thank you [2:50:40] thank you dr stanley um with that we'll adjourn the meeting and have a good night everyone thank you