[4:59] 7 not 5:00 7:05 February 12th and we do have a quorum so I'll call this meeting [5:05] to order um do I have a motion to approve tonight's agenda so moved second [5:11] okay all those in favor of approving tonight's agenda say I I I anyone [5:17] opposed the motion passes and the agenda is approved um Dr Stanley would you please [5:24] review tonight's agenda for us absolutely so we have our zephrus team [5:30] that is here for excellence and action we're really excited to hear about all of their successes of course we will be [5:36] hearing from members of the public several consent agenda items uh you're going to receive an update on the [5:42] comprehensive literacy Plan update on uh alternative comp compensation plan [5:49] memorandum an update on polling places for the upcoming [5:54] primaries um you will then receive a preliminary Cost Containment recommendation we have several policies [6:02] that we are going to bring before you that have been reviewed for action it's our social studies guiding change our [6:08] International um recommendations you guys are going to hire me again um the [6:15] Pupil Transportation vehicle purpose uh purchase and then um any committee [6:21] updates my updates and then we will return thank you Dr Stanley um we're [6:27] going to move to our excellence and action for this month and this month's [6:32] Excellence excellence in action is featuring our Edina High School zephrus team with Daniel ambor our zephrus [6:40] advisor I believe he's here oh he just left you guys to [6:48] come well I'm sure you are all outstanding responsible individuals and they're going to share their national [6:54] awards that the zephrus recently won um we have tell me if I mispronounced anyone's name or if you want to [7:01] introduce everyone that would be wonderful for me so welcome we have irva [7:06] jaah editor and chief so I'm irva I'm the editor and chief of our high school [7:11] publication zephrus um and besides me we have Carmel and Iris who are just two of [7:16] our lovely Award winners so if we want to move on to the next slide so we're [7:21] here with edana zepis for the high school newspaper and what we really do is we get content out to high schoolers [7:27] so we have five to six print distributions um throughout the school year we have one coming up and then we [7:33] publish content almost daily online we've gotten pretty big into multimedia lately which is pretty exciting but one [7:40] of the big reasons we're here is because of the National High School press Association conference that we just went to so um if we want to move on to the [7:47] next slide so the National High School journalism convention was something that [7:53] we had the opportunity to attend last November and so basically what it was was there's a biannual Gathering um that [8:02] uh the national Scholastic press Association does and we were super grateful we got to go and it was a lot [8:10] of presentations breakout rooms and we really got to talk to people talk to [8:15] people in the industry and um really get the inside scoop of what journalism looks like um a really cool aspect was [8:23] we got to hear from the Boston Globe team um as our keynote speakers but one of the very very exciting reasons we [8:30] were there was Awards so next slide we did have four finalists for [8:36] awards so this starts off with Carmela for aad award and then we have Iris and [8:41] Laney who are here um who did this wonderful editorial piece cartoon um [8:47] that won I think what is it fifth place and then Iris also got um a finalist [8:55] award for portfolio of the year as one of our artists and then Olivia who took a photo of the Mina Creek won an [9:02] honorable mention award for her photography um but it doesn't stop there so next [9:09] slide oh um it didn't update but something very exciting we just got Awards back from another thing that the [9:16] N National Scholastic press Association hosted their clips and clicks competition where um again Carmela won [9:23] an award for her layout from this year and then one of our writers our managing editor Celeste won an award for an [9:29] editorial she wrote um about what the Israel Hamas conflict means for journalism um but this is just our state [9:36] awards that came back last October where we won really a big variety of awards [9:42] including layout our photography our art our writing um and so we've really come [9:48] a long way and this was really one of the ways that we saw all of that come to [9:53] light in just the recognition we've received and so obviously this would not have been possible without the support [9:59] we've received through Edina Public Schools and we are super thankful so next [10:04] slide thank you for your support and please be sure to check out our work we're still putting content out and we [10:11] really can't wait to see what we do and so yeah thank you so [10:24] much thank you for your team for coming um so many of you came would each of you like to tell us your favorite thing [10:30] about being on the zephrus or maybe the favorite thing you've covered okay yeah to press that no sorry [10:39] hello my name is Iris libson I'm an artist on staff and probably well the [10:45] community of zephrus is just fantastic and I've grown a lot as a person I've [10:51] learned to take a lot of pride in my work and I've yeah I've learned a lot [10:59] lot of life lessons I've learned to take opportunities um due to the connections [11:04] I've made on staff and the lessons they've taught me and then also I'm really proud of my work on zephrus and [11:10] my abilities to represent my communities and my peers and the people around [11:23] me um for me it's definitely been wonderful to be able to work with um all [11:29] kinds of people who come from different backgrounds and be able to collaborate with people I've never ever thought I would talk to before um and being layout [11:37] or the design editor it's been a really helpful experience for me to kind of not be in charge of people but help people [11:44] um reach their ultimate potential and see them on that Journey um just today we did a little like graduation ceremony [11:51] for all of our layout staff um so that was a really fun experience to be able to see them kind of grow from being like [11:59] novice at layout to being really confident in their [12:10] abilities um hi my name is Lany I am a staff writer and the copy editor [12:15] although I will be handing over that position in the next week but um my favorite part about being on staff on [12:21] zephrus is the amount of opportunities I got to try new things I joined the staff last year and within that time period I [12:28] have um I have worked with Carmela on layout I have written so many different styles [12:34] of writing that I would have never gotten the chance to write otherwise um I've worked with the multimedia team and [12:39] I have gotten really really good at noticing what other people cannot do including semicolons so [12:46] um so I really appreciate that I just think there's a wide breadth of opportunities that um come with the [12:52] skills of Journalism even if you're not planning on necessarily going into the field of Journalism um whether that be [12:59] knowing how to ask people questions or KN how to listen to [13:08] them I'm Jane I'm the co-managing Eder with Celeste who couldn't be here tonight but I would say one of my [13:14] favorite parts of zephrus is being able to kind of learn how to be a leader in a very relaxed environment like we [13:20] definitely have a publishing schedule we definitely have things to get done but it's a very forgiving environment and everyone's kind of got each other's back [13:26] so similar to what iris said about the community it's just something you can kind of grow through cuz I joined as a sophomore and I always looked up to the [13:32] people on editorial board and now we're here and I'm here and I'm like whoa that's kind of crazy but it's really fun [13:37] and a fun way to learn so [13:44] yeah hello my name is Maggie Baker I'm the art director on staff I think just [13:50] really just the best part is just having like a voice in the community and just learning such good communication skills [13:56] that you know will help you late later in life and really just yeah just everything about it is a lot of [14:05] fun hi my name is Claire and I'm business manager and staff writer for [14:10] our zhis publication and I think what I really love about zis a little more specific I really love and appreciate [14:17] the idea like producing process of it all and like finding these ideas and angles to form these articles um I think [14:24] what I love most about it is just how we can take the most like mundane or like broad top and really make it interesting [14:30] by finding an angle or unique perspective to it and I think I've learned to use those skills and apply it [14:35] to my overall like leadership skills and like problem [14:45] solving hello uh my name is ADT SES I serve as one of the co- multimedia [14:50] editors um unfortunately our other one couldn't be here today unless she's here somewhere um but what I basically do is [14:57] I just create and push out the content that you see online on Instagram X but I [15:02] prefer Twitter and um anything else that we see online and my favorite part of [15:08] zephrus has to be the kind of like the go-getter attitude that everyone has in there you can really join zephrus as any [15:14] type of person and come out completely different I think that goes to speak about the depth and the experiences that [15:21] a newspaper will give you so um Call of action to everyone if you have like a family member or a friend who's going [15:27] through high school and wants to join our newspaper please encourage them to do so we'd love to have them on staff so [15:38] yeah and then I'm irva I'm the editor-in chief as I already said but my favorite thing about staff is definitely the [15:44] community as everyone said it's really just the most incredible group of people you could ever get to know and this is [15:50] our edboard plus other people that have been super involved and I'm so thankful for all of them and especially our [15:57] adviser Daniel am born who could not make it tonight but we all like we saw that message of him being like oh I [16:03] can't make it but we were all kind of like oh we know what we're going to do it's okay we have each other's backs and we're here and we got through everything [16:10] and so it's really like the stuff that he's kind of taught us throughout the way and we couldn't have been here [16:15] without him so we're here and we're here to stay is [16:26] yeah thank you for coming here to speak to us tonight um I have to say if you [16:31] haven't if you're in the audience and you haven't checked out the zephrus it is really a great publication I love reading what you put out and um I think [16:41] that adid you talked about it if people want to get involved should they contact you through [16:48] that or check out your website what's the best way for people that are watching that would like to get involved to get [16:54] involved sorry to not think I'd be here longer but um we actually have applications coming [17:00] out in March we have people apply to be on staff um around before spring break we review applications and then you'll [17:07] know whether or not you're on staff before Administration tells us we have to have that in um and so um we usually [17:13] have that information on websites for incoming high school students we go into English classrooms we have teachers [17:19] recommend us students um we'll find you if you're interested and so either yeah [17:24] email us on that reach out to literally any of us on Instagram or our Instagram Addie Dan zis um we're pretty responsive [17:32] so please join we'd love to have you on staff thank you so [17:43] much thank you a great job are you staying to for the entire board meeting [17:49] to uh outstanding [17:56] yeah okay we're going to move move on to hearing from members of the public [18:02] um good evening and thank you for being here tonight everyone on the board and [18:07] our district leadership team value your input um and we do appreciate everyone that's come here tonight to speak to us [18:14] in order for our community comment agenda item to serve all including the public that is here to speak it is [18:19] important that individuals understand the process tonight and our expectations of those at the podium and in the audience when you signed in and asked to [18:27] speak you acknowledge and understanding and adherence to board policy 206 which are Community comment guidelines [18:33] pursuant to this policy each speaker has a maximum of 3 minutes to speak when those three minutes are up you must [18:39] conclude your remarks if you do not wrap up quickly I will ask you to stop if you continue to speak you will be rolled out [18:46] of order and potentially asked to leave the boardroom this time is not designated to address items concerning [18:52] specific staff or students and personal attacks by anyone at the podium are unacceptable if this happens you will [18:58] will be warned and if you persist you will no longer be able to continue your remarks any feedback about District employees needs to go to their [19:04] respective site level leader the superintendent or be submitted in writing to the board we ask that [19:10] audience members listen attentively but do not interrupt applaud or disrupt the meeting in any way it is important to us [19:17] that the space continues to be one of order inclusion and respect and we are all responsible for doing our part to [19:22] maintain that environment while the public comment period during our board meeting is an important function and [19:28] serves as a vehicle for our board and Community to hear stakeholder concerns our board is also here to accomplish the [19:35] important work of our district board policy 203 provides guidance for how our board meetings will operate and states [19:42] that are regular board meetings Must In by 10 as such if there are an excessive number of community comments that can [19:48] potentially prohibit board work from getting done in a timely manner um which tonight we have over 30 um we have a new [19:58] policy that um limits the number of people speaking to 15 [20:04] individuals um please know that board members if you don't get called to speak [20:09] that um you can email us or board members can make a motion to extend our [20:15] um Community comment time um if you are here and there are multiple individuals [20:21] expressing the same Viewpoint I'd ask that you consider deferring your time to somebody that might be talking about [20:27] something else um and then finally during the public comment period our role as the board is [20:32] to listen but this is not the place for the board to resolve any concerns and as such no comments will be made from the [20:39] board um issues will potentially be referred to the superintendent for appropriate [20:44] followup thank you for your cooperation um our first speaker is [20:49] carara [20:57] Hart [21:11] chair allenburg members of the board and Dr Stanley thank you for allowing me to speak tonight my name is Cara Hart I'm a [21:19] resident of this community a graduate of Edina High School a parent of three kids [21:24] who attend Edina Public Schools and a music teacher at Creek Valley ele [21:29] I care deeply about this community and the success of its Youth and I know we share that commitment to our children [21:36] you have a large responsibility to manage the finances of the school district and that means being faced with [21:41] difficult decisions regarding the school district's budget I have concerns about the [21:47] proposed changes to the schedule and Staffing for music PE art and media at the elementary school it is still [21:54] unclear how much FTE would be cut as the message we received received from our principles and from the admin when I [22:00] asked for clarification said six ft whereas the board packet said 4.1 [22:05] regardless this would reduce the music curriculum that we deliver by 40% and we would have far fewer contact [22:12] hours with our students throughout the year this change would also also impact music programs at the secondary level as [22:19] our students receive music Foundation at the elementary level while I am [22:24] concerned about the reduction in music education I teach because I love children I care deeply about their [22:30] growth and development as whole children our youth have faced a faced a very traumatic last few years and I know the [22:37] leaders in the room are well aware of the challenges that has created The Specialist classroom [22:42] supports these students and their social emotional well-being my general music classroom [22:48] which is not a coral classroom as labeled in the board packet is far more than just learning about music I'm [22:55] committed to creating a safe and inclusive space for all all children to have a place to succeed this includes [23:01] our students with the most unique needs served in site based programming who participate in need D unified as [23:07] Specialists we are uniquely capable of fostering a learning environment where each and every child can experience [23:14] success each and every child including those in site based programming deserve to have that [23:20] opportunity based on recent Year's decisions of the school board they have identified steam as being a priority in [23:26] our elementary schools The Specialist team is leading the charge on developing and implementing this curriculum at [23:32] Creek Valley this includes a specialist steam Extravaganza week in March as well as a collaborative steam focused [23:38] curriculum developed by our Specialist Team and implemented throughout the year this proposal would provide us less [23:44] opportunity to further the steam initiative in our professional development as Educators it has been [23:50] made clear that this school board and the administration are committed to educating each and every student the [23:56] Specialists program in the elementary school is an integral part of delivering on that mission I understand there are a [24:03] lot of things to consider when making budget decisions but from my perspective as a parent and as a teacher this feels [24:10] like a big loss which would have a lasting impact on our kids our students and our education thank [24:17] you [24:23] perfect Zachary Baker Zachary Baker [24:41] am I good to go do I need to okay chair allenburg members of the board Dr Stanley my name is Zach Baker I [24:50] am a physical education teacher at Creek Valley Elementary and a graduate of Edina High School thank you for allowing [24:57] me to speak this evening I understand the board has some difficult decisions to make regarding the district's budget [25:02] cuts I have concerns regarding one of the proposals and how it will impact our [25:08] students social emotional and physical well-being as well as the lack of [25:13] transparency at the administrative level and disappointing leadership in the roll out of this proposed cut physical [25:21] education plays an integral role in the development of the whole child it improves students physical [25:28] mental social and emotional health it boosts their brain function academic [25:34] performance and happiness it teaches them valuable life skills such as teamwork discipline resiliency and [25:42] empathy my physical education classroom is a safe and inclusive learning environment where all students can [25:48] experience success no matter their ability in my in my class students learn [25:53] how to move their bodies fluently develop physical skills as as well as personal and social skills necessary for [26:01] a lifetime of Health to my understanding The Proposal would cut our student contact Time by [26:07] 40% this decrease would have a significant impact on our students opportunities for movement and growth [26:13] the CDC recommends that children ages 6 to 17 should be getting a minimum of 60 [26:19] Minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity every day while I do not [26:24] believe that all of this should happen at school um as Educators we must [26:29] prioritize our students physical and mental health I ask that you re-evaluate [26:35] the proposed budget cuts and look for non student facing reductions cutting [26:40] our students time in PE will deprive them of the movement they need throughout the school day our students [26:46] deserve an education that focuses on both their body and their mind to prepare them for life thank [26:54] you thank you hey [27:11] Higgins does it just go oh yeah sorry hi my name is Katie Higgins and I'm a sixth [27:16] grade language arts teacher at valy viiew middle school I'm here tonight to tell you about a project that my sixth [27:22] graders just completed this project would not have been possible without the direct collaboration and co- teing with [27:29] Angie Endo the media specialist at valy viiew Middle School my Learners just [27:34] created their very own podcasts the planning and preparation for this project was a joint effort between our [27:41] sixth grade language arts team and Angie our media specialist students first were [27:47] required to self- select a historical fiction book Angie pulled dozens of [27:53] historical fiction novels for students to Feast on during our book taste ing event before they settled on a novel [28:00] that was a good fit for them and while the book selection process is a breeze for many of my students some of my [28:07] kiddos really struggled to find a book that matched their interest level and their reading ability but huh never fear [28:15] Angie made it certain that our media center has a wide range of titles and reading levels to make sure that [28:21] historical fiction novels are accessible for all readers next students read their books [28:28] and they identified historical events and people that they were curious about and the next piece of this large project [28:35] was to research those questions and do some digging into the people the wars the protests the Discrimination the [28:42] events that changed our world thanks to Angie and the resources on our Valley View Destiny page we have trusted [28:49] kid-friendly sources for students to access in order to research safely Angie taught my Learners how to [28:56] research and not plagiarize she shared online tools that helped with annotating and a note-taking [29:03] process that students can now replicate the next time they have a research [29:08] project but our collaboration didn't stop there students now had to take this research summarize their historical [29:14] fiction novel and create a podcast together Angie and I taught students how to be sound Engineers they [29:22] recorded edited and published their own podcasts adding music and sound effects [29:28] to enhance their written words I invite you to come visit Valley [29:34] viiew and see these projects for yourself be sure to bring a device so you can take a picture of their QR code [29:40] that the students included on their podcast promotion posters this collaboration could only [29:46] happen because we have a full-time media specialist at Valley View I don't want only half of my students to have an [29:52] experience like this I don't want to limit access to this project because I [29:58] can't access the expertise of my colleague every single period of the school day in a building of almost a [30:05] thousand students we need a full-time media specialist so that these collaborations can happen all the time [30:13] not just some of the time or I would fear none of the time thank [30:22] you Joshua O'Brien Joshua [30:51] O'Brien good evening everyone I'm Joshua O'Brien I'm a proud parent of two students at Concord Elementary [30:57] school one of my students is in the room today actually all three of them are I excuse the noise in the background there [31:03] but that's how serious this issue is for me that we were willing to bring a 2-year-old a six-year-old and a seven-year-old to the meeting today but [31:10] um one of my one of my children is a type 1 diabetic and excuse me if I get a little emotional as I'm talking about [31:16] this because it is literally a life or death situation for us every day that we deal with this so I want to take you [31:22] guys back to um one of the most difficult days of my life which was January AR 12th [31:28] 2021 that was the day that my three-year-old daughter uh was diagnosed at the time with type 1 [31:35] diabetes our world was rocked um everything that was simple uh going to [31:40] the library going to visit grandparents going out for ice cream all of those things all of a sudden became [31:46] dramatically difficult things to do um but my wife who was just amazing uh [31:52] researched learned and became kneee in diabetes and she uh became just the best [31:58] caretaker you could ever ask for in your life um fast forward a few years and [32:03] something that's challenging for everybody in this room at one point or another in their life uh taking their K [32:09] to kindergarten class uh that it was time for us to do that um add the layer [32:14] on top of that which is we are literally turning over our precious 5-year-old [32:19] child at the time um to other people to care for her every single day of her [32:25] life um this was was extremely challenging for us and I don't mean to minimize how challenging it is for PE [32:31] for parents to drop their kindergartens off because believe me I saw many people crying just as it was and uh no shame in [32:36] that I understand it completely but um I want to take you through just a quick day in the life of what it's like to be [32:42] um both a student and a nurse uh for a type 1 diabetic so the minute we drop our daughter off um the nurse uh at that [32:50] point then takes control of our child's day um she has luckily a a glucose [32:56] monitor on her at all times as well as an insulin pump to administer her insulin for her um but at that point [33:03] it's the nurse's job to understand if our child is going low on her blood glucose or if she's high and how to [33:09] correct it this is not something that you can do just by reading a brochure or looking online at how to take care of [33:15] diabetes um this involves deep training and uh the nursing staff at Concord has [33:20] done a phenomenal job when it comes to doing that some other challenges we have is every time our daughter has to eat um [33:26] she has to be administered insulin this is not a light task it's not something as simple as giving her an ibuprofen or [33:33] you know putting a bandage on a knee insulin is not an exact science it doesn't kick in the minute that you [33:38] apply it so um nurses learn uh by the child how long it takes for insulin to [33:44] kick in for a certain child my daughter is six years old and she's small compared to a a large High School uh [33:49] male it may take different amounts of time so every time she has a snack every time there's a party all those things [33:55] are critical for her um um I'm literally standing here today to tell you that when I drop my daughter off her [34:01] situation is life and death and I just cannot stress to you enough how important it is to have a full-time nurse in her school every day that she [34:08] is there and I hope you guys will reconsider any budget cuts to full-time nursing staff thank [34:21] you freten Meyer fr [34:34] Meer hello everybody School Board cabinet and [34:39] Community thanks so much for coming tonight I'm Stephanie Jasco the licensed school nurse at Cornelia Elementary [34:45] School I hold a master's degree in nursing with an emphasis in public health and I'm also a nationally [34:51] certified school nurse I'm here today to voice our team's concerns for the detrimental impact reducing our licensed [34:58] school nurse staff in half we'll have on the safety and well-being of students [35:03] and staff in our district before making that decision it's important to fully understand what it means a common [35:10] misconception is that School nurses hand out ice packs and put on Band-Aids licensed School nurses are duly licensed [35:17] by the Minnesota Board of Nursing and Minnesota Department of Education our role is to eliminate health and [35:23] structural barriers ensuring students medical and mental health needs are being met at the intersection of health [35:30] and education we follow standards of practice including care coordination leadership quality improvement and [35:37] public health The Cost Containment proposal indicates the current health service associate model will be [35:43] maintained although most of our health services Associates are unlicensed staff [35:49] they are not required to have a formal medical training or education other than CPR the reduction proposal would leave [35:56] multiple SCH schools without a licensed Medical Professional and therefore the current health service associate model [36:02] will most certainly be affected this will impact the response to Medical emergencies life or death and limit [36:08] timely access to students life-saving medications our district invests thousands of dollars into building safe [36:15] environments and systems but how will this investment work without the essential workers needed to respond in [36:21] an emergency our health services team recently conducted a five five-day Time [36:26] study to collect data looking at multiple factors to highlight a few important [36:31] facts in our school district we have 9 students with asthma 55 students with [36:37] seizure disorders 389 students with life-threatening allergies 20 students [36:44] with chronic health conditions that require gastrostomy tubes tracheostomies ventilators Etc we have 27 students with [36:52] type 1 insulin dependent diabetes we have 500 140 students with significant [36:58] mental health or behavioral health conditions this total equals 1,540 students which is 10% of the ad [37:06] School population these students require specialized medical to support to access [37:12] their education although it is stated in the Cost Containment proposal that medical needs of students have been [37:18] considered it is clear this is not true for all students could our licensed School [37:23] nurses who are here tonight please stand up [37:35] I'm so proud to serve with each of you and I truly believe we put the each and every into 's [37:42] Mission um we are here to advocate for the health and safety of our students and staff and we hope you take our [37:48] concerns into serious consideration and partner with us in recognizing the essential role our current Health [37:54] Service model provides thank you [38:03] Holly maton Holly [38:17] mat good evening my name is Holly I'm a teacher of the deaf in the district and [38:23] a nomination a nominated person for teacher of the year in the state of Minnesota um this past Thursday was an [38:31] experience in irony for me and I want to thank you the board for consideration [38:37] tonight and what I uh will be talking about I received a lovely handwritten [38:42] note from Dr Stanley congratulating me on my teacher of the year nomination [38:49] and my dedication for my service to students and the difference that I make [38:55] and I really appreciate that note thank you later in that afternoon I was called in to um find out that my one ft 1.0 FTE [39:06] is on the Block and your proposal that you received tonight which means 11 students that I serve are [39:14] supposed to get folded into two other teachers in the district who serve as Deen Hardy hearing Stu first D andart [39:21] hearing students as you can hear in my voice that's shaking it creates a lot of [39:26] emotion and me because students will be impacted tonight as I sit here in this [39:32] room I I come in here and see how there's things happening in here that my students wouldn't be able to access and [39:39] that's part of what I do my Lens comes in to notice those things so when people are clapping and you are saying the [39:44] names I can't hear you my students wouldn't be able to hear you so that's part of what I do is come into our [39:50] classrooms and help our teachers to learn what they need to be able to provide access [39:57] I had a student this past week tell me that she tells her teacher to wear the the microphone but then if the teacher [40:04] doesn't do it she's scared to do it because she doesn't want to be a nag I work with students to make that [40:10] work I was nominated as a teacher of the year by a student here in [40:16] AA and I very honored about that because that student made that [40:22] recommendation because she now has accommodation she understands her accommodations and she is getting her [40:29] accommodations that is what she wrote that I help her do that most people think it's just about hearing aids it's [40:36] more than that and it's about meeting those Equitable and inclusive situations across our [40:43] district it's doing dhh day which we invite you to on March 7th which we are [40:48] holding for all of our students to come together it's dealing with Valley View changing their schedule this week so [40:55] that Fridays are now Club days so now all of our schedules have to change we can't see students on that day where do [41:00] we fit those times in students minutes are going to be missed they're not going to get service [41:06] with just two teachers from birth to graduation it's been taking three of us [41:12] to do that and I've been here this past seven years and it makes a difference in our [41:17] students and I work closely with the nurses I work closely with all these people to provide access for those [41:25] students thank you thank [41:31] you Lisa Burnham Lisa [41:54] Burnham Dr Stanley honorable School Schoolboard members this is my 29th year [42:01] as a counselor at Idina high school tonight I am here representing idina's 612 school counselor team to address the [42:08] proposed Cost Containment directed toward reducing counselor extra Duty days from 18.5 days to 10 days as [42:17] Educators parents and community members who are concerned about the well-being and the education of our kids we know [42:24] that we are in the midst of a mental Health crisis adolescent mental health statistics from the CDC show that the [42:31] number of young people with anxiety and depression has risen nearly 30% between [42:36] 2011 and 2021 the number of teens and young adults with depression has more than doubled 42% of high school students [42:44] have reported experiencing persistent feelings of sadness including 15 57% of [42:50] girls and 69% of glbtq plus students nearly one in three high school girls [42:58] have reported seriously considering suicide overall onethird of adolescents [43:03] report poor mental health Edina School counseling team are the First Responders [43:09] for student mental health when families have concerns about what is happening with their son or daughter they reach [43:14] out to us why do they do this because they have strong trusting relationships with us time and time again we connect [43:22] with families during the summer to talk over a schedule change to anxious moments about the year ahead and to [43:28] address questions regarding the college application process we are repeatedly thanked for what we do for the extra [43:34] time that we give for seeing our students and families for where they are at and for going above and beyond what [43:41] is expected reducing family access to counselors is confusing given that [43:46] mental health and wellness is part C of Edina Public School strategic plan [43:52] counselors are at the Forefront and the Heart of the district goals as outlined Bel below any reduction to counselor [43:58] days will have significant impacts on Edina students and families this move to reduce counselor Duty days is in direct [44:05] conflict with 's District strategic plan our district has an important focus on [44:11] retaining Edina families counselors are the first point of contact for our families and are the consistent touch [44:17] Point throughout their tenure in the ad system cutting extra Duty days will substantially and negatively impact a [44:24] family's ability to receive and share important information crucial to their students Learning Edina parents have [44:31] always appreciated our responsiveness and our ability to personalize the educational experiences of our Learners [44:38] the reduction of extra Duty days will detrimentally diminish our ability to plan programs attend to the individual [44:45] needs of our families and compromise our capacity to serve our community in meaningful and realtime ways the impact [44:52] of a $74,000 loss will have longstanding ing consequences for our school community on [44:58] the overall quality of the social emotional and academic development of our EPS [45:05] students thank [45:12] you Brian [45:24] Joy [45:33] good evening my name is Brian Joy I am uh Adina resident I am a father to three [45:39] uh boys in the Adina School District uh one at Highlands one at southvw and one in the high school I'm here to uh read a [45:46] letter I wrote to the board when I heard about the budget cuts dear Edina school board members and [45:52] Dr Stanley I write to you to address the proposed call Cost Containment measures in particular the DraStic reduction in [45:58] the licensed nursing staff which to my reading is approximately 50% reduction in the LIC and nursing staff across the [46:05] district some of you may recall that the last time I wrote a letter to the school board was over three years ago in the [46:11] height of the pandemic to advocate for the health and safety of our children in full disclosure I am fortunate enough to [46:17] be married to one of our District's wonderful licensed nurses however I write to you not as an AG grieved [46:23] husband but as a parent pediatrician and pediatric subsp specialist I am a [46:28] pediatric cardiac intensivist at the University of Minnesota I am co-director of the Pediatric Heart Center and [46:34] medical director of both the cardiac Intensive Care Unit and Intermediate Care Unit at M Health Fairview Masonic [46:40] Children's Hospital in short I care for children every day with complex and [46:45] chronic medical conditions and health needs licensed School nurses are essential to creating an environment [46:51] where medically fragile children with chronic medical conditions can achieve equitable education there's evidence that shows [46:58] that lower school nurse to student ratios lead to Improvement in students health and educational outcomes both the [47:05] American Academy of Pediatrics and National Association of School nurses strongly advocate for at least one [47:11] licensed school nurse should be in every school in their most recent policy statements I am proud of the community [47:18] that we live in and the fact that our district can accommodate children with the most complex of medical de needs [47:23] including children with medical technology such as tracheostomies feeding tubes and Insulin pumps I am [47:30] also proud of the fact that we have the resources to start to equal the playing field for those children who can't have [47:36] the same access to Medical Care that most of us enjoy I am fortunate to have three [47:42] healthy Sons but if I did have a child with complex or chronic medical problems [47:47] and these nursing reductions were to be approved I would start looking at other school districts that could meet the [47:53] standard that is currently set by the dyc public school school's nursing staff now is the time to support our nurses [47:59] and not further disadvantage those most vulnerable children in our community thank [48:06] you thank you Adrien [48:24] Burman hi everyone my name is Adrienne Burman [48:31] I'm an Idina resident and an Idina public school's parent of three our family has lived here for 10 years and [48:37] continued to be impressed by the breadth and depth of the Adina Public Schools it's the main reason we chose Idina as a [48:44] parent with a background in education and educational Administration I know far too well the challenges that our [48:50] industry faces Rising costs with little to no supplemental revenue is real [48:56] painful and frustrating and yet I've watched for years and marveled at how [49:01] you've creatively managed the budget under Perpetual pressure each year a new wave of cuts each year a new exercise in [49:08] financial contortionism I'm impressed amazed and appreciative that these Cuts have always [49:14] limited the direct impacts to our students but this proposal includes cuts [49:19] that would dramatically impact our kids significantly cutting our School nurses leaves a vacuum of need that cannot be [49:25] replaced by other school staff members reducing our Arts music PE and media [49:31] staff will also have a disproportionately negative impact on schools these should not be the actions [49:37] of a district that Prides itself on Excellence graduating well-rounded students with endless College [49:44] possibilities there are students who need those spaces to feel their best selves and to reach their potential [49:50] there are students who Bloom not with their classroom teacher but in relationship with specialists lists with [49:56] whom they engage year after year I want to be sure that you've explored all [50:01] non-student facing angles things like synergies with other districts on professional development or [50:07] administrative tasks reducing technology subscription costs improving Transportation routes and I also have to [50:14] wonder at what point we need to look at the other side of the Ledger Revenue generation I'm not an expert on school [50:21] Revenue options and I acknowledge that while we live in an affluent Community we want to ensure availability and [50:27] accessibility for all students but with that in mind here are some ideas to increase funding elementary school style [50:35] Community Connection events happening at the middle and high schools increased use of renewable energy corporate [50:42] sponsorships slippery slope I know team club fundraisers that would alleviate [50:47] District funding needs the ultimate for hisb team this weekend raised $4,000 bagging groceries at [50:53] Jerry's increasing are facility rental prices small increases or new activity [50:59] fees for certain school activities Sports Music Theater robotics Etc [51:05] charging other districts to learn from our professional expertise for example in the science of reading that was [51:11] heavily invested in in the past year or two increased grant writing and higher [51:16] parking passes for all bus eligible students at the high school $300 for the entire year is absurd and it might fix [51:24] some of our traffic problems too another angle is to reinforce and [51:30] amplify existing institutions that are well structured and have untapped potential like the Ed [51:36] fund and give and go I'd like to see our district share their message and perhaps [51:42] encourage our community to engage in the concept of fair share dues thank you [51:53] you Sarah [52:03] Brunson chair allenburg members of the school board and Dr Stanley my name is Sarah Swanson I'm the media specialist [52:09] at Adina High School in a national board certified teacher this fall marked my 25th year teaching in the district and I [52:15] am also a District Parent last March I testified in front of the Minnesota Legislature to restore funding for [52:21] school librarians in the state of Minnesota he dinina Public Schools as a leader in K12 media programming with a [52:26] full-time media specialist in each building it makes sense I would advocate for students and staff across the state [52:31] to have what we have in Nina the best and because that's what each and every Minnesotan deserves on that day 11 [52:37] months ago I would never imagine that I would be before you tonight asking you not to cut edina's exemplary Library [52:43] program in half the Cost Containment proposal is devastating for students staff and families in the 2002 year the [52:51] district asked the community to support a technology Levy and while the ballot language did not spe specifically include media Specialists that was the [52:57] intent you asked media Specialists to be the face of the levy campaign because you believed in the work we do and the [53:03] powerful impact it has on students staff and families I urge you to stand by the original plan of the tech Levy school [53:09] media Specialists are magic makers we are more than books but let's start there we help students find that just right book spark and nurture love of [53:16] reading with students the district has a focused goal on literacy media Specialists are experts in kids what [53:21] they want to read and making that match we support student teachers in that work too Beyond reading and literacy we also [53:26] help implement the new state steam standards the Elementary media Specialists have Ted coding with Bots for years as well as 3D printing [53:32] circuitry and the engineering design process further the news is right with the dangers and harms and negative impacts of social media on kids media [53:39] Specialists teach students digital literacy skills this level of teaching working with students and staff is only [53:45] possible with a full-time licensed media specialist the tech Levy language supports funding for technology staff [53:50] media Specialists are technology staff this month Elementary media Specialists are teaching students how to create [53:56] strong passwords every day across the district media Specialists fix Chromebooks and provide technology instruction does that not make us [54:02] technology staff EHS has nearly 2700 students and over 200 staff members I [54:08] work with and support each and every one of them as do my fellow eight media specialist colleagues in their buildings [54:14] that's quite a bang for your buck media Specialists specifically curate print and electronic collections where there [54:19] materials for all Learners in the school from picture books to Advanced reading and post High School resources media [54:25] Specialists provide immediate audiobook access for qualifying students and teach them how to use this District funded resource media Specialists train new [54:32] teachers on how to navigate all the tools in the D a portal media Specialists work with building pair of professionals Community Ed staff and [54:38] custodians to help with all their technology needs and questions this isn't just anecdotal evidence the research is clear library media programs [54:45] led by licensed media Specialists have a statistically significant impact on each and every student finally board members [54:52] I ask you to talk with your own children about their impact the school library his head on them I bet they'll remember the author visits and the many varied [54:58] computer SC computer science experiences and a warm friendly person who greets them by name and helps them find books and supports their personal academic [55:04] interests the school library is the heart of the school these proposed cuts are liing like ripping out half of the [55:09] school's heart and a body can't live with half a heart thank you thank [55:18] you Mila doic Mila [55:24] doic [55:43] dear members of the school board thank you for your service to our community I know that this is a very difficult [55:49] position and I don't en Your Role I do want to address you in two roles that I [55:54] play number one I am a physician I'm an ey surgeon um I'm involved in public health internationally and domestically [56:02] number two I'm a mother of a child in the school district my child has potentially life-threatening chronic [56:08] illnesses as well as special needs as a physician I want to Echo Dr joy that the [56:14] American Academy of Pediatrics which we should really note is the National [56:19] Authority on the health and well-being of children officially recommends that there is at least one registered nurse [56:26] fully trained professional in every school at all times our children face more health [56:32] problems than ever before we know this chronic diseases like obesity asthma are all on the rise this necessitates [56:39] trained professional being on site at all times but also things happen at school new seizures new food allergic [56:47] reactions and I want to emphasize these are life-threatening within minutes falls from the gym equipment [56:54] invol evolving head trauma that needs to be triaged by someone who knows what they're doing these complex and varied [57:01] issues require a trained registered nurse who also knows the student body to [57:07] handle these situations in a safe and standard of care manner it is gross negligence to leave [57:13] our most vulnerable population our children without the care of a fully trained registered [57:19] nurse on a personal note I have to tell you that my special needs child with chronic illnesses derives enormous [57:26] benefit from the regular interaction that she has with the nursing staff that she knows that she's comfortable with if [57:33] she didn't know them if they were a rotating locom tenants nurse that the district hired at a cheaper rate she [57:40] wouldn't feel comfortable taking her medicines and she would suffer our children have to be healthy and safe to [57:47] do well in school our children are a vulnerable population they cannot speak [57:52] up for themselves and for for our children for our children to be healthy and safe they need a full-time [57:59] registered school nurse on [58:05] site thank you Jenny [58:16] beish Jenny [58:22] beish just press this button [58:28] there you hi board thank you for letting me speak this evening I'm a resident Evie Dina and also a parent to two kids [58:35] in the school district and I also happen to be a parent of a kid with type 1 diabetes at Highlands [58:42] Elementary sorry type 1 diabetes requires constant [58:47] daily monitoring not just for health maintenance but actual survival it is [58:53] crucial that we have a well-trained staff in schools which is a protected right under Section 504 of The [59:00] Rehabilitation Act this act prohibits discrimination against people with di [59:06] disabilities and ensures that they have access to the same educational opportunities as everyone else schools [59:13] that receive federal funding are mandated to meet the needs of students with type 1 diabetes and provide [59:20] reasonable modifications and accommodations including staff trained [59:25] to check blood glucose levels administer insulin training to recognize symptoms [59:30] of being high or low blood sugar which could be fatal and know how to respond [59:35] in emergencies support staff to enable students to participate in sports [59:41] extracurricular activities and school sponsored field trips without requiring parental attendance as a condition of [59:50] participation I am in regular communication with the nursing staff at Highlands and they sit right behind me [59:57] today on a good day I'm in contact with the nursing staff three times a day [1:00:02] that's just a good day on a bad day when Mason's numbers are high and low all over the place I might be on the phone [1:00:10] multiple times in one single day and getting four five six text messages this [1:00:15] level of communication with the current staff and this is just one child in one [1:00:21] school of hundreds any reduction in School staff within the health department would render our current [1:00:27] support model unsustainable this situation would be dire for students with any complex [1:00:32] health issues I urge you to consider the lives of our students with type 1 diabetes and other severe health issues [1:00:39] when making the decisions about the budget cuts their lives depend on a well staffed Health Department thank [1:00:49] you thank you Jeff Cook [1:00:55] Jeff Cook Jeff [1:01:01] Cook oh actually that's not allowed under our [1:01:07] policy the person has to be here to read their own statement I'm a nursing staff [1:01:13] at the school can we make an exception she they have to be home with their children tonight I know I'm sorry we [1:01:19] can't allow people to speak on behalf of other people they have to be here to do their statement [1:01:24] my apologies I'm sorry yeah if they submitt it to us yeah we read everything that we [1:01:31] receive so sorry about that John [1:01:45] roor good afternoon good evening thank you for taking time to listen to us [1:01:51] today I'm John Ro I'm here with my wife Jen 12 years ago we were living in Minneapolis and both of our children [1:01:58] were in preschool and both were diagnosed with a rare neuromuscular disorder it was our pediatrician who [1:02:05] said if it was my family I'd mve to a Dina they have the best health services he's ever come across we took his advice [1:02:13] we moved to the Pamela Park neighborhood and we immediately began to get services [1:02:19] for our children as they went to Concord and South viw [1:02:25] fast forward 10 uh 10 years to 2022 and our physician at chette Children's informed us that our daughter would need [1:02:32] major reconstructive surgery on both of her feet uh we do one foot and then we do [1:02:38] the other foot and it's about a 10-month process for surgeries and recoveries and it was right in the [1:02:43] middle of Franny's sophomore year at Din high school we started to realize the amount [1:02:49] of significant time she would miss in person in school and it's difficult to quantify [1:02:55] this the stress and the anxiety that our daughter felt and then also that we as parents felt and then we were assigned [1:03:02] to our uh licensed registered nurse Gretchen Meyer and we are immediately put at ease having an experienced [1:03:09] licensed nurse meant that we would work with someone who understood the depth and the gravity of the the surgeries and [1:03:16] the recovery um and then she could customize a dynamic learning curriculum around our [1:03:23] daughter we will never forget the words that Gretchen told us she said parents I got this I'm on point I'll handle [1:03:29] everything make sure that Franny's in check with everything academically and in the school and you guys have enough [1:03:36] to worry about with her at home and healing and her emotional [1:03:42] well-being to her word Gretchen set up the academic plans and handled all the communications with the teachers so [1:03:48] Franny could get through the process of her surgeries pain management and ease [1:03:53] her way back into the schoolwork as she moved through medications and recoveries at home our plan to move to ad Dina 12 [1:04:01] years ago came to fruition this year and the Dina Public School nurses and Health [1:04:06] Services Program went above and beyond our expectations we beg you to not cut the [1:04:14] EPS Health Services or any of the nursing staff in anyway we beg you to [1:04:20] lift the students up when they're most vulner vulnerable demonstrates the empathy and the [1:04:26] compassion that helps to find the Adina School District we are here to plead that these [1:04:33] critical services are not only available for us but any family in the district and any future families that are [1:04:39] coming please choose to continue to invest in the staff in that staff and [1:04:47] the programs with integrity and compassion and we can't express how [1:04:53] grateful we are are thank you very much for your time thank [1:05:02] you Mike and Leah Berkland Mike and Leah [1:05:13] Berkland good evening everyone we're Mike and Leah Berkland residents of udina with two kids at [1:05:18] Countryside um wanted to while acknowledging that you guys have many [1:05:23] difficult uh U budgeting and trade-off decisions um before you uh to try to preserve [1:05:29] funding for um School nursing as much as you can we moved into the district two years ago because we weren't confident [1:05:35] that our former District was able to keep um our children safe our daughter pton is Special Needs medically complex [1:05:42] has had over 20 surgeries and has missed years of her Elementary School life because she's been living in the hospital um you know she's teeny tiny [1:05:49] she's going to be 40 PBS her whole life she has a Fusion from neck to bottom so she's easy to knock over uh she also [1:05:56] loves School more than anything she starts her school day with uh hugging bus driver Jackie in the morning at [1:06:01] pickup she ends her school day by hugging bus driver jagie at um afternoon DRP off we're pretty sure she hugs [1:06:07] everyone else in between um in our former School District you know she was in a classroom there's lots of little [1:06:13] kids running around uh one of the other kids um inadvertently knocked into her she fell over you know not a hard fall [1:06:20] onto a carpet but she still got uh you know brain bleed and multiple um skull [1:06:25] fractures um and you know brain bleeds are they're a serious issue there's a mortality rate there people and kids die [1:06:32] from that sort of situation all the time especially when you have a lot of underlying medical complexities um which pton does we able to get her the care [1:06:38] she needs she's she's she's fine she's alive and well and happy but the point of that story is um you know life and [1:06:45] death situations can happen like that in a school setting and the importance of um licensed Professional Medical Care is [1:06:52] just of critical importance to us you know families like us we don't sometimes [1:06:58] maybe have a ton of options you know a lot of families like us keep their kids at home because it's too dangerous [1:07:03] that's not an option for us that would crush Payton's Spirit um you know like private schools aren't an option for her [1:07:09] as we found out um many public districts aren't an option for her you down in public schools does such a wonderful job [1:07:14] we view it as as as a Haven you know we talk with Wonder nurse Kim maybe not [1:07:20] daily but a lot I think it's it's it's close to daily yeah and the uh the the [1:07:26] trust and the safety that we feel there just like is the most amazing it feels like aieve it feels like we won the [1:07:32] lottery and we would um love if you guys could find a way to preserve that um as as much as possible um so that's the the [1:07:40] personal one and then the the the broader one you know there's a lot of kids like Payton out there um you know [1:07:46] they're the the DECA stacked against uh the the special needs student population in terms of you know trying to live [1:07:53] their fullest life live their happy healthy lives and so um cuts to um [1:07:58] nursing I think will um will fall disproportionately on a student [1:08:04] population that already has a lot of disadvantages so that's that's [1:08:09] that thank [1:08:15] you Beth gazel did I pronounce that correctly you [1:08:21] did good job good good evening everyone my name [1:08:26] is Beth gizal and I'm fortunate to serve as a licensed school nurse at Edina High School working specifically with the [1:08:32] special education population I have my master's degree in um nursing as well as [1:08:38] I'm a nationally certified Li uh school nurse my heart really goes out to you guys I was a hospital leader for a [1:08:44] decade it is hard managing budgets so I just want to express appreciation for the hard task that's ahead of [1:08:51] you I'm here tonight to share my story of why I am a proud and dedicated [1:08:56] licensed school nurse and why I'm asking you to carefully reconsider the budget cuts being proposed to start off I want [1:09:03] to stare share a story that was a win from last school year I had a student who I screened their [1:09:09] Vision the student needed a referral promptly referred them to an opthalmologist immediately discovered [1:09:15] they needed eye surgery within months this student had eye surgery and now can [1:09:20] see clear and be better to learn and school without the important screenings [1:09:26] that take place in the school environment by licensed staff that care may not be [1:09:32] achieved another example I can think of of approximately 20 students at the high school who have eeden disorders who are [1:09:40] effectively able to maintain their School attendance through direct collaboration and support of the licensed School nurses and are therefore [1:09:47] able to avoid impatient treatment I know I was cced on a few emails from a couple of the students I directly were worked [1:09:53] with whose parents are incredibly grateful that their kids are not impatient and missing out on their [1:09:59] education in their high school years I also appreciate that the health service associate role is being maintained an [1:10:06] important piece of information to consider is only 25% of our Health Service Associates are actually [1:10:12] registered nurses it's not a requirement of a job it's a bonus of the job a requirement of the job as [1:10:19] Stephanie stated earlier CPR certification with as much as respect and value our Health Service Associates [1:10:26] that means any one of you could get trained in CPR and be responsible to manage the care of a type 1 diabetic a [1:10:32] seizing student a student with a tra and a vent while the licensed school nurse is serving another building you may be [1:10:38] on your own responding to those scary it's definitely scary only [1:10:44] RNs have the scope of practice to assess triage competing priorities and develop [1:10:50] a culturally competent individualized care plan that comes from years of nursing experience I'd like to point out [1:10:56] another goal of the burg process is to improve thirdparty reimbursing imbursement in terms of nursing Billings [1:11:03] only tasks performed by a registered nurse can be buildt to Medicaid therefore any of the district [1:11:10] services such as daily medication administration con continuous glucose monitor reading or gastrostomy tube [1:11:17] feedings could not be buil and reimbursed through Medicaid if it's not performed by a registered nurse [1:11:22] therefore we would be losing funding with the direct um cuts sorry babbling on so [1:11:31] thank you I'd appreciate reconsideration thank [1:11:40] you um board that was 15 speakers and we have about six more individuals that are [1:11:46] requested to speak um I would like to make a motion to extend our community comments for 15 more minutes in an [1:11:53] effort to try to get everyone in to speak um that's the motion on the table [1:12:00] second um there's a motion and a second on the table um all those in favor of [1:12:06] extending Community comment for 15 minutes say I is anyone opposed um the [1:12:12] motion carries so we're going to extend Community comments for 15 minutes to try to get everyone in um and we for sure [1:12:19] want to hear what everyone has to say if you can just try to stick to the three minutes as close as possible which everyone is doing a great job I really [1:12:26] appreciate it um Melissa [1:12:33] padock thank you for extending the time to hear from everyone um I will try to [1:12:40] keep this rather brief and condense some of the things that I wanted to say um to [1:12:46] things that maybe have not already been said um I am a parent of two children in [1:12:52] our school district I'm an employe employee of the school district um I'm very concerned about the idea [1:12:59] that we would be cutting licensed School nurses um in half uh one of the things [1:13:05] that was shared um in the meeting before was that um you know there's a school [1:13:11] nurse shared between two elementary schools and it's actually there's a couple nurses that are already shared [1:13:17] between two elementary schools um even at the school that my children attend [1:13:23] there is a shared nurse already so I want to make that clear that I feel like we have amazing staff you know um the [1:13:31] the health aids um but even as it is we still don't have one licensed school [1:13:38] nurse per building um they are split and so furthering that to say that we're [1:13:45] going to cut 50% of those just I I don't [1:13:51] understand how we're going to then rain these amazing health aids that we have that have been trained to care for our [1:13:59] kids um they will find other jobs and they will leave and then we will be [1:14:05] compounding this issue even further um one of my children has Type 1 diabetes [1:14:12] um I get super emotional whenever I hear any parent talk about their children with type one because it's like a club [1:14:19] you never want to join and there are several people in here tonight that know exactly what that's like um my son was [1:14:27] diagnosed when he was 18 months old and we left Chicago to come to Minnesota to [1:14:33] be closer to our family to find some community that could could help us with [1:14:38] this new adjustment in our house and when we started looking at places to live Edina was a school district one of [1:14:46] the few that had licensed School nurses in every building that is what brought [1:14:52] us to this community initially I love it for many reasons but that is what brought us to this community no other [1:14:59] question we could have gone anywhere around here and we chose Edina for that reason um one of the things that I think [1:15:07] hasn't been mentioned is that the School nurses that we do keep will now be busy [1:15:13] doing other things than just caring for our students with medical needs they [1:15:21] will be sitting in IEP meetings and 504 meetings which they are required to be [1:15:26] in so there will be more administrative tasks for these individuals than there currently are now [1:15:33] which again means Less Direct Care for our kids when they need us so those are [1:15:39] a couple points that I didn't hear raised I just want to make sure you guys heard thank [1:15:48] you uh Sarah atzinger [1:16:00] good evening I'm Sarah singer I am a proud sixth grade science teacher at Value View Middle School I'm here [1:16:06] tonight to emphasize the importance of having a full-time licensed media specialist at the middle level after 20 [1:16:12] plus years of teaching middle school I know that quality knowledgeable media Specialists who are truly passionate [1:16:18] about their job are hard to come by here is a snapshot into our day in the live [1:16:23] and how it is greatly influenced by our media specialist Angie Endo every Monday [1:16:28] priority to the school day some of the staff Gather in the media center where Angie leads us in a circle teachers are able to join together to meditate share [1:16:35] gratitude and Center ourselves before our hectic day this has been essential to our mental health at valy viiew we [1:16:42] start our day in advisory oops what is that you forgot your Chromebook you need [1:16:47] a book to read for silent reading oh you forgot your Chromebook yours isn't charged okay go to the media center go [1:16:52] to the media Center that happens all day long back to advisory one of the [1:16:58] highlights of our week is listening to the Valley View tv broadcast organized produced and facilitated by none other [1:17:04] than Angie another highlight of advisory is flex time where students are able to meet with teachers or in clubs with [1:17:10] other students with similar interests Angie often curates book collections that are tailored to these groups often [1:17:16] marginalized groups of students who rarely see books with characters like them on to science class let's take a [1:17:23] field trip Angie has organized a traveling exhibition on cars topography our students are able to explore the [1:17:29] amazing 3D models and learn about a new topic when we have research projects Angie helps the students find current [1:17:35] relevant information whether it be in the form of a book or an online resource next comes my prep period our science [1:17:41] curriculum doesn't have Minnesota specific information that aligns with the state standards so we need to find our own resources thank goodness we have [1:17:48] our media Specialists to help us last but not least Angie is Contin continuously helping us navigate the [1:17:54] everchanging landscape of technology for example AI she not only gives us ideas [1:17:59] for new and creative ways of delivering content she partners with us in its delivery our media centers are the heart [1:18:04] of our schools and the people that run them are irreplaceable full-time employees thank [1:18:13] you thank you Owen Michaelson Owen [1:18:21] Michaelson [1:18:28] good to see you all Owen Michaelson former board member I have basically two comments to make first of which it's [1:18:35] very different from what has been spoken here but it is in concert with it and I applaud you for your new changes in [1:18:43] community comment because as a board former board member I remember how important it was to hear from the [1:18:49] community you can just hear the passion here and you can learn so much so so thank you for still having Community [1:18:55] comment and then for putting parameters on it because we've seen some significant disruption you have to go [1:19:01] about your business so thank you for putting some boundaries down because the community wants to hear from you but we [1:19:07] want you to be able to do your work too my second comment is uh the last two [1:19:14] months or so may have left some of our Jewish friends and neighbors feeling [1:19:20] undervalued menaced and not appreciated and I want to have them hear from the [1:19:26] microphone that our Jewish friends and neighbors are appreciated and respected [1:19:31] you are valued and you belong in Idina thank [1:19:38] you thank you Evan [1:19:45] Johnson Evan [1:19:51] Johnson [1:20:01] chair allenberg superintendent Stanley member of dis the boards my name is Evan Johnson and I'm a tech per over at South [1:20:07] Middle School ac across the way I'm here to urge you not to approve a budget that would reduce the media specialist roles [1:20:13] in our schools Cost Containment in the 20124 25 Cost Containment recommendations that will be presented [1:20:20] later tonight from this packet there's aom recomendation that will cut the time media Specialists spend in our schools [1:20:25] by half that is to say half as much enthusiasm for eing half as much expertise on literature and have as much [1:20:32] insight into the evolving landscape of New Media that is constantly interacting with students every day I've had the [1:20:39] privilege of working closely with some of our media specialists in both Elementary and secondary schools in the district and I can safely say on behalf [1:20:46] of anyone that has ever worked with them that they are necessary part of our school environments for staff they offer [1:20:53] experience into how literature and Technology can be used in classrooms or how to Inc incorporate it in better ways [1:20:59] I cannot think of a staff member that has asked one of our media Specialists for help or advice on something and left [1:21:05] with anything less than a plan to get that information or resource to them for students it's even more they are a [1:21:12] wealth of knowledge and insight into exploring new ideas and resources that they never even knew existed before they [1:21:18] take a student's interest and help expand it beyond what they learn in class personally as a lifelong learning [1:21:24] myself going up to a media Specialist or a school librarian and they can help you find that exact thing that you're [1:21:30] looking for plus more is one of the most magical experiences you can have as a learner these are not positions that can [1:21:36] be done half the time the needs and Curiosities of our students don't take a break halfway through the day I urge you [1:21:43] not to vote on a measure that would Rob our schools of such great resources for everyone Edina Prides itself on [1:21:49] excellence and that is dependent on her students getting the knowledge and resources say they need to succeed please don't make that harder for them [1:21:55] to get thank you for your time and consideration on this matter thank [1:22:03] you Ashley croh Ashley [1:22:21] Cron [1:22:29] good evening my name is Ashley cron I am the current Highlands media specialist a past president of the information and [1:22:35] Technology educators of Minnesota and a henip and County Board member I want to thank the board and District leadership [1:22:43] for your past commitment to ensuring each School's library media program is led by a full-time media specialist [1:22:49] which is the Staffing guideline from the American Association of school Librarians I also want to thank you for [1:22:54] making this decision decades before the new annual funding from the state to pay for Staffing library media Specialists [1:23:01] this is just one action that marks Ed as not only one of the best districts in the country in the state but as a leader [1:23:08] across the country let me detail what edina's library media program does with nine full-time media Specialists we grow [1:23:15] the Lifelong Love of reading seeking and ethically using information libraries technology use and digital literacy and [1:23:23] everyone we interact with students and staff have learning experiences with computer science coding Robotics and [1:23:30] digital citizenship all of which supports the district's new steam initiative as well as traditional literacy and reading we support students [1:23:36] personal and academic interests while also supporting staff families and community members we are continually fostering [1:23:43] connections that will last well beyond any individual's time here furthermore we are the exemplification of the [1:23:49] professional educator licensing and Standards Board descriptors for library media Specialists teachers instructional [1:23:55] Partners information Specialists program administrators and leaders Edina Public [1:24:01] Schools has chosen time and again to transform the educational outcomes of each and every student with just one [1:24:06] positions position perhaps you prefer test data edina's literacy scores are on [1:24:11] the rise and media Specialists are a part of that I promise this isn't just wishful thinking on my part research [1:24:17] shows that maintaining or increasing library media specialist Staffing makes test scores go up and not just those [1:24:23] related to reading when Staffing is reduced test scores go down would you like me to cite my sources as a [1:24:29] librarian I must please check your email inbox later for a message from me with a research [1:24:35] compendium detailing the numerous impacts of library media services on school communities as well as our lure [1:24:41] document this data isn't a recent change or a one-off to borrow a phrase for my students it's been true since the late [1:24:49] 1900s and even better the findings remain consistent over the years two years ago I was actively recruited by [1:24:56] multiple staff and community members for several months while I was leading Minneapolis public schools Library program this is now my second year in [1:25:03] Idina and it feels like we provide the dream public school education and library media services that each and [1:25:08] every student and staff members deserves Edina feels like home and that's something considering I attended Eden [1:25:14] Prairie Public Schools as my first day of school skirt that I made and the camp rot shirt I [1:25:20] designed shows a full-time media Specialists will do almost anything to engage and connect with our school [1:25:26] Community I implore you please keep demonstrating your decades long [1:25:31] commitment as the board weighs Cost Containment options please maintain the Staffing of Li of edina's library media [1:25:37] Services because it is what each and every student staff family and Community [1:25:43] member deserves thank you thank [1:25:49] you Terry crib [1:25:55] Terry crib Terry [1:26:08] crib thank you for allowing me to speak my head is spinning from all the eloquent uh statements people have made [1:26:15] and um before I get into my main purpose right now which is instructional [1:26:21] services on the budget um I mean the stories about from the [1:26:27] families with children with diabetes and all the other issues it's we I think the school [1:26:34] district has been very lucky because as far I've only lived here four years but I haven't heard anything traumatic but [1:26:41] the way the world works is budgets get cut we things have been going well and [1:26:47] then one thing happens one horrible thing happens and then it's the worst nightmare that the school district will [1:26:54] have ever seen and the expense will be horrific but beyond the expense the [1:27:00] personal impact so we all know this but I feel like it needs to be said because [1:27:06] this country often is very reactive um instead of proactive and well you don't [1:27:12] represent the country but when we have students who are you know doing drills because of guns and things like that you [1:27:19] know our priorities are a little messed up in general beyond the school but um and then all the other [1:27:25] Specialists are just crucial I've been thinking about it lately unrelated to the budgets yes school is about reading [1:27:32] writing and arithmetic that's you know what the saying was but it's so much more than that and everyone's different [1:27:39] and finding their Niche it could be one of those Specialists that has the most extraordinary extraordinary impact on [1:27:45] someone's life and it's they're crucial to everyone's well-being but I I can't [1:27:52] speak with great um Insight on this because I've only recently learned about it but there's um a line item I believe [1:27:59] that's instructional services and it sounds like it has exponentially increased since in several years and I [1:28:07] imagine I don't know what this means it's a non-con line item but um the [1:28:13] budget has swollen in that regard and I think um if there is an already [1:28:19] transparency on that that I'm just not aware of Cu I confess to not doing my homework um before speaking up here but [1:28:27] uh we need to know about it because maybe that's where there can be something reduced um and I would love to [1:28:34] learn more about that and if there's something out there please um gu shed light on that but um these we're we're [1:28:44] we can't be we have to be proactive I mean this school district is [1:28:50] exemplary and what's being proposed osed will make us just average like everyone [1:28:57] else and I don't think that's what udina is all about thank [1:29:04] you thank you um that concludes our remarks from members of the community so [1:29:10] thank you everyone for coming tonight and um adhering to our um policy um [1:29:16] we're going to move on with our consent agenda is there anything anyone would like to remove from the consent [1:29:23] agenda do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved is there a second second we will now vote to [1:29:30] approve the consent agenda all those in favor say I I is anyone opposed the [1:29:37] consent agenda has been approved and now we're going to move on [1:29:42] to our discussion topics our first um discussion topic is our prek to 12 [1:29:48] comprehensive literacy Plan update [1:29:54] and we have director of teaching and learning um jod D St Hubert and assistant director of teaching and [1:30:00] learning Bethany van AEL welcome thank you [1:30:08] yeah you ready for me to get started okay wonderful well chair allenburg [1:30:14] members of the board Dr Stanley and community members uh it is a true honor to be able [1:30:19] to sit in front of you and give a update on our comprehensive literacy plan um I [1:30:24] was with you just in October updating you um on our fall progress and now we [1:30:30] have winter progress so I don't have a clicker so I'll just say next slide do I [1:30:36] oh I do have a clicker thank you perfect so we will start with some very [1:30:42] important celebrations um there are many we are seeing some [1:30:48] really impressive results based on the hard work of our staff and students um [1:30:54] mainly when we look at our letters implementation we are seeing some direct impact on our K3 students which you [1:31:01] you've seen in the board report the percent of kindergarten and first grade students are um ex just astoundingly [1:31:08] grown in the past three years since this letters work began we are seeing an increase in 20% from three Winters ago [1:31:15] when we track the winter Trend data we're also seeing over 80% of our students in K1 making typical and [1:31:21] aggressive of growth when we think about other similar assessments a a appropriate goal in similar assessments [1:31:28] is about 65% and so 81% is incredible um and we're also seeing that same rate of [1:31:34] AG uh growth with our El Learners um and then again you'll just notice that there [1:31:39] are other points here of increase for our first second and third grade students up [1:31:45] 78% um and then as we go down the list you'll start to see some of the impact on our um middle school and high school [1:31:52] students so the second to last bullet we have the middle and high school students um that are achieving Benchmark in Auto [1:31:59] Reading Auto reading assesses our foundational skills so we think about those building blocks for reading those [1:32:05] are really critical to have in place um and so in our middle and high school we're seeing that and then the [1:32:10] percentage of nth graders that are meeting Benchmark is 3% higher from just three years ago you will see more Trend [1:32:16] data in this report because we H uh for K3 because we have more Trend data we're collecting that we just started [1:32:23] implementing fastbridge for this data um the screening data last year for our fourth through 10th grade um 10th grade [1:32:29] just started this year so with that one thing I want to keep in mind is that while we are looking at really critical [1:32:36] data right Dr sley always says literacy is the currency of power for our students and we know that to be true but [1:32:42] we also know that it has a direct impact on their social emotional learning and more than anything we want healthy happy [1:32:47] kids and so this is really important in terms of a big picture um also so really [1:32:54] quickly I'm going to go through just as an update just the categories of how we're responding to the winter data [1:32:59] you've seen all the celebrations and all of the key data points in the board report um but we're going to just speak through just some four key areas prek [1:33:06] through third grade we're going to stay the course it's working we're seeing incredible impact and we're just going to keep deepening the work um in fourth [1:33:13] through fifth grades we are working with our literacy coaches I'll give an example here in a moment of how we're using diagnostic data um for students [1:33:21] that are not meeting The Benchmark now in the winter to dig in deeper to see um how and where we might lean into [1:33:27] specific literacy and intervention strategies to support students in making um more aggressive growth Sixth and eth [1:33:34] uh our Middle School are also working with our coaches Rosie and Katie are working really intensely to um dig into [1:33:40] the data to look at the specific interventions and the screening to intervention we talk about that a lot in fastbridge those intervention reports [1:33:48] and then also um enhance and deepen our tier one instruction mostly around vocab [1:33:55] and comprehension that's the theme that's coming up with our intermediate and secondary students um so you'll see [1:34:01] something similar in our ninth grade um classrooms especially with um our College reading readiness with Sarah [1:34:07] burges she's really looking at how to implement fluency interventions vocab and comprehension so with [1:34:13] that um my slide's not [1:34:18] working uh oh my clicker is not working next [1:34:24] slide okay this is Tiny and you can't read it I'm sorry this is a process that we work through um these are just kind [1:34:31] of an if then chart of the thought process I said I've said it in the past but I wish we had um titled our [1:34:36] comprehensive literacy plan a comprehensive literacy process because that's what it is we are constantly [1:34:42] collecting data and responding and it's just a cyclical pattern um with the questions that are on this these are [1:34:47] just aligned to mtss so we're looking at 80% of our students meeting benchmark if that's a yes then we lean into our [1:34:53] intervention plans um if that's a no then we look at our tier one instruction this slide is a long list [1:35:01] that you don't need to read carefully however it's important to note these are our Diagnostics we have um with our letters [1:35:09] learning and our um superb literacy coaches we have a uh wide range of ways [1:35:16] that we can diagnose and lean into um looking at additional data [1:35:22] if students are not meeting Benchmark and this is just a long list categorized by the five pillars of where we can turn [1:35:28] to get more information so an example of this is a student in our in our school district a [1:35:34] fifth grade student who presents as a really strong reader right this student is high performing in subject areas um [1:35:42] but but the teachers were noticing that he was starting to struggle with multicab words um and so uh something [1:35:48] else that the student noted was that um he was he said I really prefer to read fiction over non-fiction because there's [1:35:54] too many big words in non-fiction and so that raised some red flags for the teachers and so what they chose to do [1:35:59] along with the um help of the literacy coach is to use some of these Diagnostics so they looked at the [1:36:05] students decoding and the morphology in fastbridge and they noticed the student was at high risk for that so while his [1:36:12] overall General reading score was at Benchmark and Beyond there were some um [1:36:17] areas that were weak for this student that were impacting how he felt about reading and how the books that he was [1:36:23] choosing and so after that this the teachers began to um dig into that [1:36:29] diagnostic data and from that a plan was created so this is just an example of how um the data is used to further [1:36:38] action steps right and the ultimate action step is providing some sort of a response and the response in this case [1:36:43] is the intervention teacher is going to pull this student for um I think it was 15 minutes yeah 15 minutes per day for [1:36:49] two weeks for an intervention burst and they're going to monitor that and they're going to hopefully see that that's working and having a positive [1:36:54] impact if not they'll go back to the Diagnostics and keep working but that will be communicated to caregivers [1:37:00] throughout the process so that's just one example and it's happening across the district in so many places are I I [1:37:05] can't say it enough but I'm speaking and bragging on behalf of our literacy coaches because they are doing such an amazing job working alongside our [1:37:12] teachers and our teachers are embracing that coaching and it's really working for kids um also in Middle School here's an [1:37:20] example of a response plan in this case we have leadership teams there this is this data is new this data is very new [1:37:27] for our our secondary staff and so they are leaning into looking again at the [1:37:32] screening to intervention plans which that's a a specific report in fastbridge that uh triangulates the data on the [1:37:38] back end and then uh shows exactly what instructional plan will be um most appropriate for the student and so [1:37:44] they're using that again what's surfacing mostly is fluency vocab and comprehension at our secondary levels [1:37:50] and so they're taking that administering the interventions sometimes it's during Flex time um other times it's during [1:37:56] like an LA Plus Class other times it's being done potentially with um a support staff or um in the tier one classroom an [1:38:05] addition to that is how are we also tweaking our tier one instructions so that we are providing that additional [1:38:11] support around the vocab and comprehension since we know that that's an area of need across many um of the [1:38:18] classrooms this clicker is not working there we go this is just another example [1:38:24] of the agenda uh for one of the data meetings um if you could click into one of these links up at the top in the [1:38:29] first uh step you would see a spreadsheet with every student listed and that student's um screening [1:38:35] intervention plan with a column that says how are we responding and how are we monitoring it so when we look and we think about our vision of each and every [1:38:42] that spreadsheet would um have all of that just visible for us to illustrate [1:38:47] that um commitment to the to the mission and vision so so again all you can see all of the steps that are taken right [1:38:54] now this this meeting happened last Tuesday and so we're literally just real time right now right so they're taking [1:39:00] these plans and they're going to be implementing these plans this week um and continuing to work through that the other piece of this and you see a little [1:39:06] snippet of it in the corner called Aspire Aspire is the extension of letters letters as you know is our K3 PD [1:39:13] that's that rigorous Rich PD around how we um Now teach reading around the science science of reading this is for [1:39:20] our intermediate secondary students or teachers I should say who are teaching those older students and so that is um [1:39:26] PD that we are implementing again real time we're just getting started February 20th as our PD day where we'll be [1:39:32] leaning into that to equip them to be able to do this work and finally in our nth and 10th [1:39:38] grade response plan I think it's really important to continue to reiterate they just started implementing this 10th grade has only given this assessment two [1:39:45] times now and so it's just that first bu bullet is the system is just getting used to acquiring this data and using it [1:39:53] um I would say with the strong Partnership of Leanne fely um she's working alongside with uh Sarah Burgess [1:39:58] and the um ELA teachers at the high school um but working on using that data to again lean into that vocab remember [1:40:05] the trend the theme right we have vocab and comprehension coming up a lot for our upper uh grade readers and using [1:40:12] that in terms of um informing instruction and informing intervention for our College reading readiness class [1:40:18] which you know is at the nth grade level and finally oh my gosh this [1:40:26] clicker this is about adjusting our sales right so we are taking in all of this information and we're using it to [1:40:33] um just continue to highlight areas that need our attention while continuing to keep like I said just continuing at our [1:40:41] K3 level to do the work that we see as working and having such a strong impact and then we'll just continue to build on [1:40:46] that as um as we go along in the journey so I appreciate that again I just can't say it enough that I'm bragging on [1:40:53] behalf of the coaches and and teachers that are doing this hard work they're doing an amazing job um the teachers in [1:40:58] Ed have embraced this new way to teach reading and it is outstanding I was just at a community night for our families at [1:41:06] conquer where the teachers were giving a sample lessons integrity and having the the parents in the room um break apart [1:41:12] words and and phic chunks and um using all of the strategies and that's happening across the district so it's [1:41:18] really really um impressive and I honored to share this on their behalf because they are the ones that deserve [1:41:25] all the credit with that I will take any questions thank you so much um before we [1:41:30] turn over to questions I just wanted to uh remind the board that this is purely an update where we won't be voting on [1:41:36] anything and so um this is a periodic update that we get from um our wonderful [1:41:42] teaching and learning team about how the roll out of the new literacy plan is going um I see that it's not sorry it's [1:41:52] I have the wrong name but it's not green so it's that's why you can't see it says Dan has a question [1:41:57] but I have no idea where mine is um thank you very [1:42:02] much my my one question at this particular juncture [1:42:16] is yeah that's a really good question I'm goingon to say the amount um the [1:42:21] increase that we're seeing in our K3 students was an incredibly pleasant [1:42:27] surprise I've worked with this type of data for a very long time in many different roles in three different [1:42:32] school districts and seeing an increase of 20% in three years is unbelievable so [1:42:38] I'm going to say that that is that was a pleasant surprise [1:42:46] yeah director gaer thank you um thank thanks for this update um I have a question great [1:42:56] results it's exciting to see this um one of my thoughts that I had as [1:43:01] I read this as the state has rolled out the read act and there's definitely work [1:43:07] across the state to train our teachers in the science of reading and I'm so grateful for the work that our teachers have put into this and to see the [1:43:14] results were seen I am wondering I would love for our legislators to see this the [1:43:20] M that we have made in training our teachers and the results it's paying off [1:43:26] because districts are not able to afford letters training and so it's [1:43:32] thanks to our partnership with the Ed fund with the city of Edina that we were able to do it and we are leading the way [1:43:37] and so my head goes to how do we get this before our legislators to say we need money to be able to train our [1:43:43] teachers and this is the results we're seeing results so it's something that I [1:43:49] I am curious about about if that comes from you know us as seven board members [1:43:54] our Administration but it's just um this needs to be shared and there ask needs [1:44:00] to be for more funding to fund the read act I am just G to make one comment that [1:44:07] there has been exciting information from MD released recently that um we are getting the ball rolling and submitting [1:44:14] the numbers of staff that we need to continue to train and um then we work [1:44:20] directly with the company which is letters and then letters actually builds the state so the PD of letters um will [1:44:29] begin to be funded um through the legislation in mde what Indina is doing [1:44:34] uniquely and I do think it is is part of the results is that we are paying teachers for time and that is not [1:44:41] something that we will get funding for um we're also leaning into some [1:44:47] additional Resources with that PD um for example sound WS is something that we've you know been showing videos of or [1:44:53] teachers are engaging in they're learning how to use soundwalls in the classroom in connection with the PD and [1:44:59] that is like another resource so we are excited and very grateful that there is some funding coming and we'll need to [1:45:06] continue to lean into um the unique and excellent way that udina wants to continue this work um and acknowledge [1:45:14] the hours for our teachers and time part pay them and we can continue to share the celebrations um wherever we're able [1:45:21] to be yes it definitely needs to be shared because it's I think we're a model of what's working well I would [1:45:27] agree with you on the same funding um question do you know if we are eligible [1:45:33] to be reimbursed since we were early adopters of this and invested heavily in [1:45:39] this we are not there's not reimbursement [1:45:48] okay other questions or comments from board members I just want to thank you guys [1:45:55] and all our Educators that have done the training it's a lot of training a lot of [1:46:01] hard work I thank Dr Stanley and your team for your leadership it is amazing [1:46:06] and I'm just so grateful um for all of it it's amazing result and I can't wait [1:46:12] to see it progress so thank you very [1:46:19] much [Applause] um next discussion item is our teacher [1:46:25] evaluation alt comp U memorandum of understanding and we have liby sanvic [1:46:33] here and Debbie kingle is that right excellent just a matter of pointing at [1:46:40] it yeah yeah this direction to go y okay [1:46:46] um good evening chair elenberg Dr Stanley board members um I did want to just give a quick highlight that this [1:46:52] teacher evaluation and alternative compensation memor memorandum of understanding reauthorization has been [1:46:59] discussed at a board workshop and will be brought back to the board on April [1:47:05] 8th for action and we're um very fortunate to have Libby and Debbie here to not only highlight the components of [1:47:12] um the amazing work that is done within our teacher evaluation program but also highlight the changes that are being [1:47:19] recommended for the change in them you and so I will turn it over to [1:47:25] Libby good evening every two years we need to [1:47:30] reauthorize our teacher evaluation and ALT comp or qm memorandum of [1:47:35] understanding and we have chosen as a district to take those two separate statutes that govern those two programs [1:47:42] and combine them into one program so that is why we're looking at the memorandum of understanding as just a [1:47:47] single document um before we get into the specifics of what are being [1:47:52] recommended for changes for the next 2-year period of time thought we'd take [1:47:58] a little bit of time and talk about some of the program elements that are contained within our program and are [1:48:05] defined through statute um as a reminder to there is qm funding that is 23ds the [1:48:15] state onethird is levied by the district it's about $262 per student that we end up [1:48:22] receiving to fund this program that pays for the seven positions that are part of [1:48:27] the program it pays for all of the teacher incentives that are awarded through the program and um also is how [1:48:34] we're funding our mentoring program currently for new teachers so the program elements three of the main ones [1:48:41] that the teachers engage in the most are our professional growth plan student [1:48:46] learning goals and site goals The Professional growth plans are the observations all of our teachers and [1:48:53] when I say teachers it's anyone who um falls under the agreement between em and [1:49:00] the district so that would include um myself my peer coaches but also School [1:49:05] social workers School nurses um and all of our classroom teachers including some [1:49:11] of our preschool teachers this year are eligible to participate as well um and so everyone is observed at least three [1:49:18] times during the school year our n probationary teachers are observed by the six peer coaches in the program all [1:49:24] our probationary teachers are observed by their building principles when I say [1:49:29] they're observed a full observation cycle includes a pre-observation conference a form that's completed and [1:49:35] submitted by the teacher the observation event and then there's a post-observation conference with the [1:49:41] teacher and the Observer um principles do have an event [1:49:48] complete one event in the third year of every non-probationary teachers process [1:49:53] as well all teachers if they successfully complete their pgp are eligible to earn a [1:50:00] $1,448 incentive successful completion of the pgp is also an expectation for [1:50:06] teachers to earn their step for the following year and then we have the student learning goal all of our teachers write a student learning goal [1:50:13] which is a smart goal um that is supposed to be last the entire year [1:50:19] focusing either on their students or a targeted group of students that have been identified by data analysis in the [1:50:26] fall those teachers that successfully excuse me Implement their [1:50:31] student learning goal are eligible to receive a $272 incentive in the spring and then [1:50:37] the final component is the site goal and our site goals are the standardized test based um goal that is part of a site sip [1:50:45] plan they just identify which of those sip goals relate relateded to a standardized test will be used as their [1:50:52] site goal this year those site goals have an incentive equal to $1 that was a [1:50:59] reduction that was made for this Academic Year as we tried to make budget cuts last year to the program which [1:51:05] resulted in decreasing our number of coaches by one and then decreasing that incentive from $90 to [1:51:13] $1 all of our teachers are evaluated using one of two rubrics [1:51:19] we have a classroom teacher rubric and a non-classroom teacher rubric both of those have 16 descriptors standards of [1:51:26] proficiency and three levels of performance our um principles and our peer coaches [1:51:34] engage in teacher evaluation training throughout the year so that we can ensure that the program is implemented [1:51:40] with Fidelity and your performance rating isn't dependent upon who your [1:51:45] Observer is so we try to flush out some of that INR reli ability and program [1:51:51] expectations in that training and our peer coaches have all attended um the [1:51:57] 8-day cognitive coaching Foundation seminar and we use cognitive coaching and reflection really as the basis of [1:52:04] those pre-observation and postobservation conferences that our coaches are having with their teachers [1:52:09] so an example of our rubric is shown here this is descriptor 16 which is [1:52:16] identical with um both our non probation or no our non-classroom and our classroom rubrics and you can see the [1:52:23] standards of proficiency that are identified along with the three levels of performance for a teacher to be [1:52:28] marked at proficient they do need to demonstrate proficiency on all of those standards of proficiency either through [1:52:34] observation or conversation with their evaluator so in the um board packet you [1:52:41] do have um see a lot of survey results Every Spring we do administer a program [1:52:48] survey and we really I think get amazingly great results um which really [1:52:55] shows the degree to which our program is being implemented across sites with Fidelity um to highlight [1:53:03] two um the two that are on the far right which I know are hard to see um but when [1:53:09] teachers were asked my participation in the teacher evaluation program supported my professional growth as a teacher this [1:53:15] year 93.6% of teachers agreed or strongly agreed with that statement and when [1:53:21] asked my participation in the teacher valuation program supported my efforts to positively impact students engagement [1:53:28] participation and achievement this year it was a 95.5% agree or strongly agree rate and [1:53:34] those responses that response rate matches what we have historically gathered from the program as well there [1:53:41] is additional data in the board packet um from those surveys including some um [1:53:47] questions that we asked last spring related to the program change and rather than read over uh some of the survey [1:53:54] comments that I put in this packet I'm going to turn it over to Debbie who was a peer coach in the program for six [1:54:00] years and has returned to the classroom as a specialed teacher at conquer to share an example or two of the impact [1:54:08] this has our program has on teachers and students in the [Music] [1:54:13] district okay I'm Debbie Kringle I'm a special ed teacher at conquered Elementary I started in the District in [1:54:20] 2001 in that role as a special ed teacher and um the last six years I was a peer coach and now I'm back at [1:54:27] conquered um and so again I'm here just to personalize the slideshow and tell [1:54:33] you a little bit more about what it really means to experience peer coaching and I think I can speak to that both as [1:54:39] a teacher and as a peer coach and so as a teacher what I appreciate most about [1:54:45] our our District's teacher evaluation program is just this built-in opportunity to pause and to think and to [1:54:53] breathe and just consider our work it's a it's just a built-in system it's [1:54:58] something we have to do as teachers and honestly like it's all of [1:55:05] us like as soon as you pull into the parking lot um any morning like you just go and you just do your job and do all [1:55:12] the things in front of you and respond and prioritize and we all do a great job [1:55:18] at that but we actually get better at our work when we have a chance to stop and think about our work and talk about [1:55:24] our work and reflect on our work and so um I just as a teacher that's what I [1:55:31] appreciate most is that we're required to do this teacher evaluation work as [1:55:36] employees of a public school system um but just having that forced pause to [1:55:42] make us think about our work it's just this moment of breath and opportunity to [1:55:48] remind ourselves oh yeah I I mostly know what I'm doing or I know how to ask someone for help around what I'm doing [1:55:54] and so um as a teacher that's what I really appreciate about it um as a peer [1:56:00] coach I appreciated having a case load of teachers for a full threeyear cycle [1:56:06] mostly and um that gave me time to establish trust with the teachers I [1:56:12] worked with um to be a consistent support person and to eventually get to [1:56:17] those really vulnerable conversations s that get at our beliefs about teaching and learning and who we want to be for [1:56:24] our students um our program framework the descriptors that Libby was talking [1:56:30] about the rubrics provided me with a Common Language I could use across grade [1:56:35] levels across jobs across sites to talk about best practice with teachers um I [1:56:42] think the real power in this teacher evaluation program is that it is both [1:56:47] It's ability to focus on both the personal and the system um the personal happens in all of those one-on-one [1:56:54] conversations between a teacher and their coach about a lesson and the kids [1:56:59] in front of them but then when you step back and this is kind of the part that amazes me is when you step back and you [1:57:06] think about as a system all of those conversations happening from ear [1:57:11] childhood through High School across sites I feel like that gives us a really [1:57:16] um strong metric that captures the High degree of skill and achievement and [1:57:23] investment that our teachers have in the district um and I think Libby has more slides but I can answer more questions [1:57:30] if you have any to Debbie's point about the number of meetings at one point I was tracking [1:57:37] how many meetings the coaches were having and at the end of the year it was well over 5,400 meetings that were [1:57:43] happening intentionally because of this program that weren't happening prior to [1:57:50] qm and teacher evaluation um which really is amazing when you think about [1:57:55] the amount of individualized professional development that exists at any given time in any day in any [1:58:02] building um because of these programs so that brings us [1:58:08] to reauthorization um so every two years we do have to reauthorize the program and [1:58:15] it does need to be agreed upon by both the EM governance board or approved by the EMA governance board and you as the [1:58:22] school board um the timeline that I just went away from we have been working on this um [1:58:31] since last spring with that spring survey where we did um survey our teachers identifying potential areas for [1:58:40] change or to be um re-evaluated with this process so we got some stakeholder [1:58:46] feedback there and then this fall we've had anou re authorization committee that has met with three em members myself [1:58:54] Debbie Jason doctor and three District Representatives jod D Hubert Mike praski [1:59:00] and Chris Holden um and right now we are in the process of bringing it to both boards for discussion and then action in [1:59:09] March and April because we do need to have it reauthorized by May first of [1:59:14] this year so the changes the big changes that we are recommending [1:59:19] um or that are coming out of this committee number one um adding specific language to our mou focused on our tier [1:59:26] one and our tier 2 licensed teachers they're a unique group of teachers who actually aren't probationary um and need [1:59:34] a different pathway through our program than we currently have because right now the program really just focuses on our [1:59:40] traditional probationary teachers and then our non probationary teachers um [1:59:46] reimagining what our mentoring and induction program can B we are proposing to cut the pgp or the [1:59:55] professional growth plan observation incentives for our probationary teachers beginning next year current probationary [2:00:01] teachers in the system would continue to receive the full incentive through these [2:00:07] next two years um but they would probationary teachers moving forward would receive 25% of that incentive in [2:00:14] year 1 50% of the incentive in year 2 and 75% of the incentive in year three [2:00:20] the savings from that reduction would be reinvested back into our mentoring and [2:00:27] induction program that then in turn would benefit our new teachers the hope [2:00:33] is that we would be able to increase the compensation for our mentors offering [2:00:38] them more training opportunities both prior to mentoring and then during the school year as well um changing the [2:00:47] frequency and structure of our observation process for our non-probationary teachers is another [2:00:53] recommendation last year we did as I had said we had to cut a peer coach for this Academic Year so our peer coaches are [2:01:01] working with upwards of 84 teachers and scheduling three events three [2:01:07] observation events for the year is more challenging with more teachers so we're [2:01:12] proposing moving that to just two observation events during the year a semester 1 event a semester 2 event and [2:01:19] then instead of having a reflective conference as a separate um event and that's reflection on the implementation [2:01:26] of new learning um that that would happen once in the three years during the three-year cycle that teachers have [2:01:33] um and then finally we are proposing a lot of language changes just to bring [2:01:38] theou in line with current practice and address some issues that have come up over the last two years um some of this [2:01:46] includes deadlines Clarity on the final performance ratings when we have multiple evaluators and then clarifying [2:01:54] our performance assistance levels and the entire list of all of the proposed changes especially all of those language [2:02:01] changes is there in that board packet both with location of theou and then also the rationale for that change and [2:02:08] so with that um are there questions for us board members what questions or [2:02:15] comments do you have I just want to thank you you know you [2:02:21] you had a great presentation at the work session I think it was last month so this is excellent I'm assuming that em [2:02:28] and administration are working in collaboration to the changes and I see on the schedule that Em's governance is [2:02:34] going to be taking this up for Action in March and then it will come back to us for Action in April yes do we see any [2:02:41] reason why that's not going to happen no when it was brought to um em in January [2:02:48] for discussion there were no objections to the proposals that were brought forth [2:02:54] excellent thank you great thank you so much appreciate [2:02:59] appreciate your your attention to this and thank you for coming tonight thanks um so fellow board members I don't know [2:03:07] if you've noticed but it's already 905 and we have a lot of our agenda left [2:03:13] um I think we need to vote to extend our meeting and then I'd like to take a five minute re us um so we are chipper for [2:03:22] the rest of our meeting um I would like to make a motion to extend our meeting until 11 [2:03:29] o'clock second all those in favor of extending [2:03:34] our meetings hold 11 o' say I I I the motion is enthusiastically approve [2:03:43] oh I'm sorry are there any Nays sorry the motion is approved and then can we [2:03:48] take a five quick five minute recess thank you sorry for people waiting for us to talk about the [2:04:17] budget [2:11:22] and I believe uh we have Dr anarie Leland Community educationist strategic partnership director and mert Woodard [2:11:28] Director of Finance and operations to present this item to us and only director anarie Leland or [2:11:37] only director anarie Leland [2:11:46] okay good evening evening chair allenburg superintendent [2:11:53] Stanley directors and Community we are here to talk about the elections in our [2:11:59] schools so a part of the agenda tonight has the information that went out to all [2:12:07] of the schools that are the selected sites and those sites are conquered [2:12:14] Cornelia Countryside Highlands and South View Middle School there are five elections [2:12:22] that will be taking place in our schools Tuesday I'm sorry March [2:12:29] 5th April 30th May 14th August 13th November 5th you'll note that three of [2:12:36] those dates the March April and May are during school [2:12:42] days the August 13th is not we do not have students in our buildings and [2:12:48] November 5th is a holiday without any students uh that communication also [2:12:57] outlines that a school may not prohibit the use of a building as a polling place [2:13:02] and that is in statute uh the communication goes on to [2:13:10] make sure that our principles know who to contact for any questions uh concerns [2:13:18] they have but this is the city of Adina working with us and choosing us to be [2:13:26] their polling locations on that second page is the the things that we need to [2:13:33] make sure we're doing we've got a team in place on Community Education since we [2:13:39] are Des the designated office for facilities we are working with the city [2:13:45] directly to make sure the city clerk and Deputy clerk know that we [2:13:53] uphold and uh are very concerned about our student safety and want to make sure [2:13:59] that is the top priority when it comes to having any anything going on during a [2:14:05] school day and certainly as the Community Education director I also have [2:14:10] um concerns about our out of school time programming so what we're doing is there [2:14:16] is a checklist on that second page uh we'll be doing each of those things uh [2:14:21] we have site visits this coming week this week uh in fact with all five sites [2:14:28] the city clerk and the deputy clerk will be out measuring spaces making sure that the rooms or locations within the [2:14:36] buildings are um able to be secured and um able to be monitored by [2:14:44] the election judge that is assigned to that site [2:14:50] in talking with uh the principles I met with them today and um Dr smallz all [2:14:57] Tyler Morris ree who is on my facilities team and Julie gabrielson who is a [2:15:02] coordinator within the community education um Department we met today [2:15:08] just to go over again the um the logistics and that we will confirm that [2:15:16] we will have radios handed to the election judges once they come in and [2:15:23] are a part of the the team during the day so they'll have radios it'll be [2:15:29] switched to channel channel the custodial channel so they'll be able to talk back and forth if there's any [2:15:35] concerns we will have staff assigned to monitor all the logistics of that day [2:15:44] and the administration will be uh closely monitoring the situation as well so they will be right there making sure [2:15:52] the flow of people in and out is appropriate um talking with principal [2:15:58] Karen Bergman she has had many years of this [2:16:05] work and polling places in our schools I don't know how many years [2:16:10] exactly but I think there's quite a few um and she assured me that this is been [2:16:18] common practice and that they're a well-oiled machine at Countryside so we [2:16:23] are following the protocol that they're using and standardizing that across all [2:16:29] of the schools South View is unique in that it has a separate entrance uh and [2:16:35] going forward I was able to work with the city clerk Sharon Allison to combine [2:16:42] locations for conquered and um South View to to poll at the E the Edina [2:16:51] Community Center City gym for the April date going forward and I will continue [2:16:58] to work closely we have a great collaboration and a and a very good connection with the city to um just [2:17:05] continue to explore other options as well but there are not as director [2:17:11] Woodard said um earlier today there are just not very many public places in our [2:17:17] community to have um elections so with that that was a lot of [2:17:23] talking at you I'm sorry about that do you have any questions or M did you want to add anything I'm sorry director [2:17:30] wooded sorry no um board members what questions or comments do you [2:17:40] have oh sherff go ahead it's okay um so in addition to the security [2:17:47] issues within our school um having been the parent who was the hall monitor for [2:17:53] voters on several occasions oh sure one of the issues that we also face is the [2:17:58] traffic flow and patterns outside of our school absolutely we consistently had people who are aren't familiar with the [2:18:04] traffic patterns I wouldn't know the traffic pattern if I went to a different Elementary School of you know people driving the wrong way through the [2:18:11] one-way Loop or we had someone drive across our basketball court once to get close to the gym door okay will we have [2:18:18] people outside directing or signage or anything for the flow of traffic we will [2:18:24] certainly have signage and um to Just note your concern and um observation we [2:18:29] will make sure we have proper protocol outside thank you um I just another question um so today a secure was placed [2:18:37] in some of the schools just because of an incident in the community should that happen on a voting day do we have it in [2:18:45] our ability to follow through with our security protocol and lock down our building yes they still they are our [2:18:50] buildings and we have um ultimate control over what those buildings need to be in terms of our safety [2:18:57] protocol yep go ahead director gabler great question and to add off of that [2:19:04] where we will have people voting are we able to secure our students in an area [2:19:09] where they will not cross with voters that is our our extreme hope uh so one [2:19:16] of the things that we'll be doing of course Countryside with its uh nice [2:19:21] vestibule area that is new um that will be completely separate Highland's team [2:19:27] is working tomorrow together to make sure they can figure out the best location possible um Cornelia again well [2:19:35] oiled machine um principal MSA has a plan that will absolutely mitigate as [2:19:42] much as possible um it it by law we have to have separation is so so um no matter [2:19:49] what we will ensure that to our the best of our ability great Y and I appreciate [2:19:55] the work that's gone into this because I know this has been a lot of work on your part and on your team um I appreciate [2:20:02] that you are continuing to work with them to figure out Alternatives and the example you gave about conquer for April [2:20:09] is a great example of that and I encourage you to continue with it finding alternative options um for [2:20:16] anyone that is listening tonight and concerned about this um I think we [2:20:21] recognize that the district has made steps in the last several years to not hold school on the November election day [2:20:29] and so as this document that you shared with us says we do not have if we are [2:20:35] asked to give up our schools as a polling place we have to by law give them up so if people are concerned about [2:20:42] this they should be contacting their city council to express those concerns [2:20:47] and ask for them to investigate other options to hold as polling places and I [2:20:53] just wanted to make sure that that is very clear that this is we don't get to decide if our schools are used or not [2:20:58] correct thanks thank you I would just like to add on to that in addition to those that represent us at the state [2:21:05] since it's a state law dictating Yep this right two quick comments um one is it's [2:21:12] an extraordinary moment that we have five elections in this short period of time [2:21:17] aberation we would not typically have that even in a presidential election year so that makes it a little bit more [2:21:23] even weighted in the terms of how much touch points it has for us that's number one um and then number two is that with [2:21:30] our Raptor security system that we have implemented at all of our buildings clearly that wouldn't be used for people [2:21:36] who are voting but my question would be is if you still had outside people who are not there for voting would they [2:21:42] still be required to use the Raptor system to gain other access to the rest of the secure part of the buildings always Bo thank you [2:21:49] m and the election judges and any part of the election team will be rored in [2:21:56] yep um so my question is additional question around security and I appreciate the Genesis of this law and [2:22:04] um why it's important to have public facilities for voting uh it's unfortunate that our society has changed [2:22:11] so rapidly that our schools are now um not considered safe and parents rightfully so like me do not want the [2:22:19] general public traing through their facilities for voting um that um being said like Karen said we [2:22:27] don't really have a choice um my specific question and concern is around [2:22:34] um what we do to actually secure the separation between the two some of our facilities is a lot easier than others [2:22:40] you mentioned like South View in the past we've utilized Administration or [2:22:45] volunteers thank you Cheryl for doing that I'm uncomfortable with putting Volunteers in our Administration in the [2:22:53] position of basically being security guards um they do that enough on a daily [2:22:59] basis they're put in that position in if God forbid something happened [2:23:05] um I feel I just don't feel that it's right for us to basically have them be that [2:23:13] barrier between a voting and the schools [2:23:18] um and so I would advocate for um if we need to to like either hire private [2:23:26] security to ask the police to help um whatever we can do to not have that [2:23:32] responsibility fall on the shoulders of um either volunteers or administrators [2:23:38] so thank you and I just do want to make sure um one of the things that has been [2:23:44] s suggested back and forth is having parents parents be volunteers and that will not be happening um this time [2:23:52] around and uh I just appreciate the feedback and and as we continue to [2:23:58] investigate the logistics and the safety protocol this week we can certainly make [2:24:05] that assessment and those determinations thank you and thank you for your work I know this is not also what you were [2:24:11] necessarily hired to do so I appreciate it and I appreciate all the thoughtfulness and um what was put upon [2:24:17] us and keeping our students safe but making them accessible for polling places may I just add that even though [2:24:23] our legislative action committee agenda and our sort of priorities have already been established for the Year this might [2:24:30] be something that we might want to extend further both as a district and for the board and including with the [2:24:36] city to say hey um we need some Evolution on this area um and it's not [2:24:42] going to come from solely just Edina trying to figure this out this is going to need to be something at the state level to recognize where we're at with [2:24:48] that so just a thought to my colleagues at the other end of the the table um that we might want to consider and given [2:24:54] that we're going to be at the capital on the 5th if I'm not if not Ming it's a good way to plug that um that uh we [2:25:01] might want to recommend that thank you thank you thank you you're welcome [2:25:07] thank you um we're going to move on to our uh preliminary Cost Containment [2:25:14] recommendations that's last isn't it right okay um for fiscal year [2:25:37] 2025 good evening Madame chair members of the school board um here tonight to present to you our preliminary Cost [2:25:43] Containment recommendations for fiscal year 2025 [2:25:49] have a short agenda for you tonight um first of all we're going to review how we got here um give the members of the [2:25:54] audience and Schoolboard a review and recap of um where the recommendation was derived um we're going to talk about our [2:26:01] uh process for how we determine which Cost Containment recommendations are brought forward to the school board for [2:26:07] consideration um we're actually going to go through our Cost Containment recommendations line by line providing [2:26:12] the amounts and also a description of um what those containments would be and if any ch es to our operations occur as a [2:26:18] result of those changes and then we're going to outline any next steps so before I begin to speak about [2:26:26] fiscal year 2025 I'll um take you back to fiscal year 2024 which we're [2:26:31] obviously currently operating um at that time we assumed that there would be um [2:26:36] additional expenditures above revenues to the tune of $4 million that became our Cost Containment um recommendation [2:26:42] for the current school year um we were able to address all of those needs locally assuming that the the state [2:26:47] would not appropriate any additional funds above the 2% that they historically did um so we kind of took [2:26:53] care of our problem on our own and um decided to allow the state to actually come through with historic funding [2:26:59] before we um deployed those funds into our school district's budget um we're proud to report that 80% of those [2:27:05] containments were concentrated outside of the classroom and outside of instructional areas um a trick that um [2:27:12] over time will become less and less likely to be repeated as we become leaner and more efficient outside of the [2:27:18] classroom in the end state did come through with historic funding um the school district received an additional $5 million above what it anticipated um [2:27:26] the school board subsequent to that um decided to deploy those funds to staff compensation school board was um [2:27:32] informed as to what that would do to our financial structure going forward and that's a strategic decision made by the [2:27:38] school board supported by the administration and that brings us to our Cost Containment for fiscal year 2025 [2:27:44] where we believe that we will need to constrain the budget by by at least um $2.5 6 million to be at the board [2:27:50] minimum of 6% however at the January 8th school board meeting the district administration's recommendation is to [2:27:56] contain the budget to the tune of $3.62 million bringing the unassigned fund balance to 6.9% which is where we ended [2:28:04] fiscal year 2023 um a containment of $ 4.27 million was also presented an option that um [2:28:10] ultimately the administration did not recommend to the school board since this is not a funding year [2:28:17] going forward we're anticipating that um State Appropriations will return to Historic Norms um adjusted for inflation [2:28:24] we do know that the general education formula will be adjusted for inflation going forward however at a cap of 3% and [2:28:30] I'm quite certain that for fiscal year 26 um it will be in the region of 2.2 to 2.3% as inflation comes [2:28:38] down um it's important to recognize that this isn't a one-year containment these containments are meant to sustain the [2:28:43] school board school board's budget for um the next two years at least um hopefully more um the containment option [2:28:51] of $ 2.56 million which I think we'll discuss a little bit later only buys the school district about one year of [2:28:57] financial stability um after that we'd need to do significant Cuts once [2:29:03] again the process for determining what containments we bring to the school board um we're part of the burg process [2:29:09] budget reduction reallocation and revenue Generation Um this is a pretty intense and intimate process where we [2:29:15] engage with a variety of stakeholders including staff parents students um various committees senior leadership Etc [2:29:22] um we kicked off that process with a virtual um or a video recorded video that was sent to a number of [2:29:28] stakeholders we held seven um different kind of town hall meetings information sessions and um feedback Gathering [2:29:35] sessions at our various School sites a live virtu session again for all number [2:29:41] of stakeholders we hel cond different of me information sessions [2:29:49] SCH sites [2:29:57] sers s by school [2:30:03] sites s just really hard to try to make a [2:30:09] choice between two of the worst decisions and [2:30:15] and we realize that you know I want to say that in no way shape or form are [2:30:21] these recommendations meant to diminish the value of any of the individuals who [2:30:27] would be reflected here and um and then it's not to minimize your [2:30:33] dedication it's not to minimize the contributions that are made in the district so as we go through these I [2:30:39] know it can be hard um to hear these items but we're going to start out um [2:30:46] with with information that we received from the thought exchange thought exchange is the way that we Garner [2:30:52] information in addition to the burg staff we did have some staff attend um the burg sessions out in buildings um [2:31:01] and and in departments that we went to and uh we use the thought exchange [2:31:07] for individuals to submit their ideas as well now in the original uh packet and origal Bo to the [2:31:16] information anduse the thought exchange for individual to submit their ideas as [2:31:22] well specifically original um the top 10 [2:31:27] resp the individual to subm their IDE was [2:31:35] shared original changed earlier [2:31:45] top [2:31:50] shared for individuals to go in and put their thoughts in their ideas and a Cost [2:31:56] Containment and then the other individuals actually rate those ideas [2:32:02] one to five stars so there's on one hand 192 [2:32:09] thoughts that were put in we had about 300 just over 300 staff members participate across units this is just [2:32:16] not for teachers this is a cross unit so this includes our our bus drivers it includes our custodial staff it is [2:32:23] everyone and 192 thoughts were put [2:32:28] in and um there were thoughts that will go over that were ranked the highest in [2:32:34] a moment um but first what I've added in is the top common responses from [2:32:42] participants now thought exchange uses AI it's not chat GPT but it's something [2:32:48] similar to that that thought exchange uses and so using AI it goes through and [2:32:56] it looks for themes um in the information and then it will pull out a [2:33:03] thought that was related to a theme and so the top 10 Common responses are on [2:33:09] the screen there I know it's a little bit hard to read but please go back to the board packet because you'll be able to read it more deeply ranges from [2:33:17] number one common responses from all participants get rid of student focusing [2:33:22] on student prep option all the way to number nine reexamine necessity of board and [2:33:30] director level positions and their cost and number 10 offer more community and [2:33:35] adult education and kid classes to uh increase funds in between there there [2:33:41] are a variety of things that focus on um the retirement age age um preserving [2:33:47] teacher salaries increasing Revenue through third party reimbursement so those were [2:33:54] the top 10 Common responses again out of the whole um 192 these are the themes [2:34:02] that came through and then I'm going to go to the next slide and this was the [2:34:10] original slide that was put in along with the the word cloud um that was put [2:34:17] into the board packet and this was based on having a [2:34:22] strong understanding of school Finance so um on the other slide um increasing [2:34:30] Revenue through third party reimbursement was number two on this slide it moves up to number [2:34:37] one and again it goes all the way down to number nine create efficiencies in the delivery of [2:34:44] services um can save money and create a cleaner schedule um to decrease [2:34:50] administrative number 10 decrease administrative positions who are the furthest from direct student impact many [2:34:57] roles in the district office do not seem to directly impact um teachers or students and once again in between there [2:35:05] um there was information about preserving teacher salaries really looking at [2:35:10] extracurriculars um looking at enrollment in classes and um and re-examining necessity of board director [2:35:18] level positions cost which is number six so then the other way that thought [2:35:29] exchange looks at data is by how thoughts are ranked so again [2:35:37] first of all there's 192 thoughts AI goes through looks for the common [2:35:43] thoughts of all those 192 another way is the thoughts that are [2:35:49] ranked what are the the top thoughts that are ranked um and so here I added [2:35:55] this in here it's really small because I wanted to really use a screenshot right out of thought [2:36:02] exchange um but you'll see that thoughts are ranked from 4.6 down to [2:36:09] 4.4 the first thought top ranked thought teachers and support staff are crucial [2:36:14] to directly impacting students and their growth cut should not impact these [2:36:22] positions and then moving from there the thoughts were related do we need do we [2:36:28] need all of the new cabinet positions that have been created in the last few years you I will say that um I did have [2:36:37] four retirements on my cabinet those positions are not new they are just people who are new to [2:36:44] those positions there is one new position and Mer's going to talk about that that position was created via a [2:36:52] reorganization so merging two positions together in order to create one um [2:36:58] really important position that we need in our district that's overseeing several programs and there's a cost savings to that M will'll go over that [2:37:05] in just a bit um a lot about looking at deal positions um decreasing [2:37:12] Administration um you know assistant director all of that information is in there and [2:37:17] I wanted to make certain that those top 10 ranked comments were present within [2:37:25] the information as well so hopefully you know as I've [2:37:30] explained it you can understand see how there can be common responses top 10 [2:37:38] that are different than necessarily the top 10 that were ranked by staff who went in and did the [2:37:44] ranking so [2:37:50] um let me see here um we are going to move into the actual recommendations for [2:37:57] the cost containments and again [2:38:02] um it's a difficult decision um all around and [2:38:08] um please do not see this as as not valuing positions um which I know would [2:38:14] be very difficult but not valuing the role or the people who hold those [2:38:20] roles thank you Dr Stanley just like to reiterate that um we do understand this is a very sensitive subject and um [2:38:27] personal local and immediate as you like to say for U many of our staff um we've tried very hard to keep um cost [2:38:34] containments not budget cuts um the school district will spend more money next school year than it does this year um so we like to use containment um we [2:38:41] have concentrated 59.65 per of those containments into non-program itic areas of the school district and we'll [2:38:47] continue to try and do that as as best as possible as I go through the different Cost Containment um [2:38:53] recommendation items I will call upon um various colleagues who are content area experts that can speak with a little bit [2:38:58] more clarity around some of the recommendations than I [2:39:08] can so the first containment recommendation is a uh reduction of one full-time equivalent of District [2:39:14] administrative staff to the tune of $243,400 um this uh reduction would not [2:39:21] materially impact School District Operations in any way the remaining duties would be spread across the remaining administrative [2:39:30] staff last school year the district decided to um not fill a vacancy in the [2:39:36] business services office to the tune of one full-time equivalent um that will cost about $9,600 next school year we [2:39:43] anticipated bringing that position back so that we we could continue to be um the most prudent stewards of the [2:39:49] district's funds um however due to the um fact that we prioritize aiming um [2:39:54] containments outside the classroom we think it's appropriate to continue to defer that rehiring of this position and [2:40:00] we'll make doe in the business services office as best as possible I'd like to also illustrate um kind of a real world [2:40:07] example regarding how lean we are um operationally and administratively a neighboring School District that's um no [2:40:13] more complex than we are serves the same amount of students um currently staff's 12 FTE in their business office um while [2:40:19] we have the uh just the eight providing the same level of service if not better um than that school [2:40:27] district um this containment relates to the um staff re reorganization that Dr Stanley mentioned our multilingual [2:40:34] learner programming and achievement and integration program leadership um we were super lucky to find a staff member [2:40:41] that has a very high level of expertise it's not easy to procure in this um labor Market um that's going to lead [2:40:47] both of those programs the elimination of two other positions and the creation of this one actually yields the district [2:40:52] an additional $7,300 of fund balance and that will continue to grow over time as those other two positions don't grow [2:40:58] with inflation as they otherwise would [2:41:07] have the school board and Office of the superintendent are allocated discretionary budgets much like our various School sites um budgets that are [2:41:14] utilized to advance the district's vision mission and strategic Direction things such as our Wellness initiatives [2:41:19] um surveys to staff and and families um professional memberships the school [2:41:25] district has with um very vital Partnerships throughout the state legal fees um things of that nature we think [2:41:31] that we can do a pause of about $150,000 for at least next school year and we'll have to re-evaluate um how that affects [2:41:38] the school district's operations going forward but we feel pretty comfortable that we can um make those [2:41:44] deferments [2:41:50] deferral of capital expenditures this is one that um came up last school year um School sites receive about [2:41:56] $260,000 in the a aggregate um from our operating Capital fund and we pause that [2:42:01] for this school year um there hasn't been that much disruption none that I've heard of anyway and so we think we can [2:42:07] do that again next school year again without materially disrupting um the school district um furthermore we think [2:42:13] we can defer certain capital expenditures and Acquisitions in our transportation and buildings and grounds [2:42:19] departments to the tune of 245 to $275,000 um unfortunately assets do fail [2:42:25] um sometimes unexpectedly and we'll have to replace those if and when that happens however this time we have no [2:42:31] indication that that will occur um the teaching and learning Department also deferred curriculum purchases to the [2:42:36] tune of $100,000 a school year we think we can continue that for a further fiscal year um I believe that all of [2:42:43] these um deferrals as I like to call them need to come back for fiscal year 2026 absent any new financing sources [2:42:50] that we might have access [2:42:56] to uh my colleagues will begin to come to the podium at this time we have a $50,000 recommendation to reduce our [2:43:04] professional development budget um this is one that's not going to have any impact at all on classes or classrooms [2:43:11] and Director D St Hubert might want to speak to that more eloquently than I [2:43:16] can I'll just reiterate that we um feel strongly that we're able to make this [2:43:21] cut um just by aligning some of our resources and providing some efficiencies we have some title $2 which [2:43:28] also provide professional development and so just getting tight about what we're using um in what areas and um [2:43:36] really just taking a pause and step back from asking teachers to do some additional work that would be time card [2:43:42] pay so agreed that that will not have a large impact it will have no impact directly on our classroom and we'll [2:43:48] continue to do the great work we're doing in professional [2:43:59] development medical bill reconciliation is actually a revenue generating item um [2:44:04] the school district currently offers um medical insurance to all of its employees of course um a third party [2:44:10] administrator currently performs reconciliation duties um we are fortunate to have a high level expertise [2:44:16] and competence within our human resources department and we're going to begin doing that inhouse and that will [2:44:21] save us the 48,6 15 with no disruption I might [2:44:32] add student support Personnel Aid um $161,000 this is a new funding source [2:44:39] the lawmakers put into place in the during the 2023 legislative session um [2:44:44] this mon must be used to hire additional licensed counselors psychologists social workers or nurses um we in fact employ U [2:44:52] multiple of each of these positions and so this money will be used to support whichever model continues in the [2:45:05] future athletic events and raising fees is something that's um a recurring topic something that's come through all of our [2:45:12] surveys as well as our in-person Burg sessions um if we were to align our ticket fees for students and families so [2:45:19] increasing by $1 to match the Lake Conference um based on historical volume [2:45:24] uh a couple of trend years of trend data we're able to generate an additional $23,000 of revenue for the school [2:45:30] district um that's one that has um there's a cap on how much we can do [2:45:35] however I don't think our our stadiums are filled to capacity so if you can tell 20 people as Dr Stanley says and [2:45:41] they'll tell 20 people um we might derive more Revenue here [2:45:54] um participation fees for athletics and activities is also an area we looked at um as I found out recently we have an [2:46:01] increased fees in about four years an average $15 increase per participant across [2:46:06] 1,835 participants will yield an additional $27,000 um students and families who are [2:46:12] um under hardship and unable to pay will still have access to participate fully [2:46:18] um those will be reimbursed by other [2:46:27] sources high school parking fees is also one that came up several times throughout the burg process um we [2:46:33] currently have 330 spots at our high school we're charging $300 per year to park um increasing that to $450 so $150 [2:46:41] additional per Spot Will yield the district $49,500 um that seems like a sizable increase [2:46:48] however over the last 16 years there's been no increase um had that fee increased by an average of about 2 and a [2:46:54] half% over those 16 years we'd currently be charging around the $450 so we think a right sizing and [2:47:00] realignment is kind of [2:47:08] overdue transportation is an area where we are constantly looking at being more efficient without disrupting the current [2:47:14] service model um drivers um retire each year um some [2:47:20] uh have attrition to other reasons um as we continue to investigate our routing [2:47:26] and how efficient we are we've discovered that some routes U perhaps can be rerouted without any disruption [2:47:31] to the family and so as drivers retire and we become more efficient with our routing we think that we can un uh leave [2:47:37] vacant rather two positions within our driving staff um again with no disruption to [2:47:43] families so that's a a savings of nearly [2:47:50] $80,000 class size midpoint open enrollment is a revenue generating item [2:47:56] um last school year the school board directed the administration to um staff our kindergarten first and second grade [2:48:02] cohorts closer to the lower end of the school board's desired class size ranges um at kindergarten for example that's 20 [2:48:08] to 24 I believe um the midpoint obviously would be 22 in that case this school year our average class is lower [2:48:16] than that um were we to add an additional 29 to 32 students at the kindergarten through second grade level [2:48:22] we would still uh maintain Fidelity towards those desired class size ranges while bringing in [2:48:29] um I'm skipping forward here um additional Revenue the $215,000 I'll um [2:48:35] speak to that a little bit um that's the net increase of Revenue um we would derive more than that with 30 students [2:48:41] however um due to the um ever changing and more complex learning profiles we found that as students enroll in the [2:48:47] district um we might need to add additional staff um be it due to IEP requirements or other requirements that [2:48:54] we're obligated to fulfill and so we've pro-rated the revenue increase by about 40% so we're comfortable with that [2:49:09] figure licensed Staffing efficiency is another thing we um look at constantly the school board has previously [2:49:15] mentioned um provides the administration with desired class size ranges um sometimes Staffing is inefficient where [2:49:21] we staff at a higher rate than the class size indicates it should be particularly at the middle school level if you'll [2:49:27] remember last school year as the school district transitioned from a uh a true Junior High model to more of a middle [2:49:34] school model so the ninth grade moving over to the high school the Staffing was not necessarily realigned um in previous [2:49:41] school years um we did make that adjustment last school year for this school year year not 100% efficient we [2:49:46] still have about 1.6 FTE hanging out there um so we'll right siize that for next school year additionally um [2:49:54] sometimes students move into the district there's movement that's unanticipated and class sizes at the elementary level go above those ranges [2:50:00] and when that happens the school board um may direct the administration to hire additional staff and split those classes [2:50:07] so that they're within the range um that happened at a couple of our schools um last year and this year as those cohorts [2:50:13] move through the grades and those class sizes become larger we're able to eliminate staff and still be within our [2:50:19] desired class size ranges so we'll do that at the elementary level for next school [2:50:24] year that's a savings of about $337,000 2.6 FTE um one at the [2:50:31] elementary 1.6 at the middle [2:50:36] school student Support Services we believe we can um leave vacant certain [2:50:42] unfilled positions to the tune of 2.8 million as well as reorganizing um other positions that's going to save the [2:50:48] district about $300,000 in terms of um how that works operationally and what our model looks [2:50:53] like um director of student Support Services jod remsing can speak to that um before Dr Stanley makes a [2:51:00] comment so I believe it's an adjustment of 2.8 FTE not $2.8 [2:51:06] million that's an important distinction thank you the um cost containments that are um [2:51:14] being recommended from student Support Services would be a 1.0 FTE um position [2:51:20] at e High School working on 504 plans this position became vacant this fall [2:51:25] and we've had um a difficult time permanently filling the position we currently have a temporary part-time [2:51:31] person who's been assisting with those duties um next year we will be able to fulfill those duties with existing staff [2:51:37] at Edina High School um the other positions we have we have a um a 0.1 [2:51:43] adaptify teacher again through attrition through um retirement um point to occupational [2:51:49] therapist this um would be a position uh a portion of FTE from a staff that has [2:51:55] taken a leave and has said that that has worked for them and they would like to reduce their position to that amount we [2:52:00] had an unfilled school psychologist position this year um of 0.5 FTE we've [2:52:06] been able to get by this year um and so moving that one forward again that would be through attrition a staff wouldn't be [2:52:12] um personally affected and then 1.0 de heart of hearing teacher um we currently [2:52:18] have a um great model on the district but it's expensive um there are other models that exist where special [2:52:24] education teachers could provide case management and to have heart of hearing teachers um would be a part of the team [2:52:31] instead of um providing service to all areas so those would be areas for cost savings within our [2:52:41] department do you want us to ask questions or comment comment now or wait till the end I think we should follow a similar [2:52:48] format to the work session okay I um I have a question which you answered [2:52:55] earlier but I'm G to ask it again for since this will be recorded um could you um please explain for the 504 [2:53:03] coordinator um where who will pick up the work for that position sure so in [2:53:10] all of our buildings we work together with our building principles to really um design staff who will be able to [2:53:15] fulfill 504 case management responsibilities so throughout our district we have um School social [2:53:22] workers that are um fulfilling those roles in the elementary and also the middle school and talking with the [2:53:27] principal at the high school um we're looking at um social workers and school counselors their student Support Services team taking on kind of breaking [2:53:34] up all of the different um 504 plans so that they would be evenly distributed or [2:53:40] in a way that um he determines would work best for his team um so we would go from one person having them all to [2:53:46] having a variety of people thank you for that I um when you [2:53:54] talk about it being personal and immediate having a student that has graduated that had a 504 plan at the [2:53:59] high school um I'm a little concerned about um this partic well all of all of [2:54:09] these are very concerning but obviously when it's something you have an experience with it's very easy to uh [2:54:15] to um illustrate in your um your own mind but this one in particular I'm just concerned about the volume of students [2:54:22] that we have that have 504s at the high school um the difficulty that we have at [2:54:29] times um just because of the high school schedule it's hard to parse them out and [2:54:36] adherence all across all the students all the different classes so I'm a little concerned about [2:54:43] um getting rid of this and making sure that we have adherence to the 504s and [2:54:49] putting more on our counselor's plate and then taking away time from our counselors It's just it's clearly not an [2:54:56] ideal scenario and so that I just wanted to articulate that um which you already know so um but I thought it'd be remiss [2:55:04] if I didn't articulate that [2:55:13] so um I just wanted to make a uh observation related to the [2:55:22] deaf heart of hearing um position and then adding more to a [2:55:28] special education teachers plate from a case management perspective [2:55:34] um who are already spilling over uh I just want to make sure that that's very [2:55:41] thoughtful um to Echo what what chair allenberg said having personal um [2:55:48] experience with just case loads and different things um I just want it to be a very thoughtful consideration as [2:55:55] you're looking at that change we appreciate your concern for students with disabilities thank [2:56:12] you the talent of development um leadership of the school district has been analyzing our current model we [2:56:18] believe that we can um adjust our staffing allocation to the tune of point2 full-time equivalent across our [2:56:24] six elementaries yielding an adjustment of 1.2 FTE or roughly [2:56:29] $177,500 um Director D St Hubert is here to speak about the impact to the [2:56:37] programming so as we think about talent development and Cost Containment um we're looking specifically in the area [2:56:43] of our curiosity lab um the point two is there in place for curiosity lab to look [2:56:50] for and find talent in all of our students and we are able to maintain [2:56:56] that purpose um with the the administration of the coat for all students in second grade um so the FTE [2:57:03] again is primarily uh curiosity lab potentially a little bit of young scholars but it won't go the FTE won't [2:57:10] go into any of our math or reading programming and we feel very strongly in [2:57:15] teaming and working with our talent development team that we will be be able to maintain the vision and purpose of [2:57:21] our [2:57:29] programming one question oh I sorry I had one question for you so as the Kat potentially identifies more children who [2:57:37] would be in our talent development program would we still be able to service those kids um the Kat will be identifying [2:57:45] talents and strengths in all kids and so what we are doing and we're very dedicated to doing is working with [2:57:50] classroom teachers so that they understand the unique strengths of other students with more depth our teachers [2:57:56] know our students very well and are very good at recognizing strengths and talents but this will give them a [2:58:02] specific area and then in instruction in the tier one classroom um we will be [2:58:08] providing professional development to tap into that um it will also be part of our portfolio to to help identify more [2:58:15] students who might need specific service in math and reading but it is definitely not um intended to be used as the only [2:58:21] way of identifying more students and we're continuing to evolve programming all the time to do our best um and [2:58:29] commit to making sure we are servicing [2:58:34] students other [2:58:42] questions our next set of Cost Containment recommendations um need to be viewed as [2:58:50] options that um perhaps may not be compatible with other reductions or containments um one such example is the [2:58:58] licensed media specialist adjustment that's being proposed um currently the school district staff's nine full-time [2:59:03] media specialist so one for each of our sites um the recommendation is to move to a model that staff's um 4.5 [2:59:10] districtwide in whatever assortment that might look like in the future um that would save the district roughly [2:59:17] $532,000 um director of media and Technology Services um Natasha Manas da is here to speak about the [2:59:25] impacts good evening chair elenberg Dr Stanley and members of the board um so as director Woodard said um the the [2:59:32] proposal on the table um is for a reduction of 4.5 media Specialists um and that is in the option a category as [2:59:39] you also know um there's an option b category um where media Specialists would be part of the elementary rotation [2:59:45] and I just want to point out that um option A can't be selected if option b is going to be selected so these are um [2:59:52] either or choices in this matter matter um in this model uh as director Woodard [2:59:58] said we would ruce our media specialist by 4.5 we would continue to have a 0.5 media assistant in each building which [3:00:04] is currently what we have and a 1.0 technology Pera in each building which is what we currently have um one of the [3:00:11] things to point out because I do think it's important for able to understand is that last spring legislation did pass um [3:00:17] a law that does require the state to have one full-time FTE licensed media [3:00:22] specialist in our district and we do have that um this model would obviously be above and beyond that but um we are [3:00:30] meeting that uh compliance there and I welcome any questions you [3:00:35] might have uh my question is more for director [3:00:41] wood um we were able to discuss this at the work session but if you would please [3:00:46] talk a little bit about um the 2021 what we referred to as [3:00:52] the tech Levy because at the time when voters voted on that one of the items [3:00:58] that was advertised under that was that our media specialist with one in each building was one of the selling points [3:01:06] and so can you explain a little bit about um of of why we're seeing this [3:01:14] cut in that area absolutely uh director gor thanks [3:01:19] for the question um I'll start actually in 2011 which is when the um technology [3:01:24] Levy as we know it kind of came into existence we did have a a capital projects Levy in the school district prior to that however 2011 saw a massive [3:01:31] increase um prior to that we were generating about a million dollars um from our local taxpayers um voters voted [3:01:38] in favor of increasing that to about $4.5 million in 2011 um at that time the [3:01:43] ballot language was specific regarding the additional Investments the school district would make with that funding uh [3:01:50] media specialist licensed media Specialists were not listed among those so when voters went to the poll booth [3:01:55] and U reviewed the ballot language um those items were not there um in 2021 [3:02:01] same uh the ballot language did not include those there were Communications made um by the school board and [3:02:06] administration at that time um some of those individuals are are no longer here I certainly was not um that promoted [3:02:13] licensed media specialist being funded out of this funding source um actually not allowed by State Statute Minnesota [3:02:20] 126c do10 sub subdivision 14 um prescribes 27 different uses of um [3:02:26] operating Capital Revenue which is the same as the capital projects Levy only difference is voter approval versus non- [3:02:32] voter approval however um it is possible that the school board and administration at [3:02:37] that time identified emerging technology needs that were paid out of the general fund um that would simply be shuffled [3:02:44] into the um increased capital projects Levy freeing up space for media Specialists I can't speak for the [3:02:49] individuals that were there at the time I can simply um give you my interpretation of the law as the Chief [3:02:55] Financial Officer of the school district and um licensed media Specialists are not one of those one of those uses of [3:03:02] funds thank you for that explanation and I'm assuming knowing that history that [3:03:08] you were not here for um you have looked at ways for us to move you you are [3:03:16] excellent at this director water finding uh revenue streams and um you have [3:03:23] investigated if there is any way that we can work within that Tech Levy to [3:03:30] reshuffle things and stay within the law I'm not going to make you I'm not going to ask you to break the law absolutely I [3:03:38] have um it's important to note that the capital projects Levy um funds a number of different items not just are um [3:03:44] potentially media Specialists um those emerging needs um continue to to rapidly [3:03:50] change for example in 2011 when the tech Levy um basically came into existence in the school district cyber security was [3:03:57] not really a concern right um school districts Across the Nation are facing multi-million dollar um ransomware [3:04:04] attacks um luckily the school district has in place a rob a robust um cyber security posture excellent staff [3:04:11] additional Insurance um all that cost a lot of money um the school district um has deferred for years um enhancements [3:04:18] upgrades and replacements for its um security camera systems um those are [3:04:24] going to cost upwards of $700,000 to replace um we have other physical security needs that are um eligible for [3:04:31] capital projects Levy use that we're currently not doing again we don't have a stable funding source at this time to [3:04:37] address those so those are deferred into the future um and again we're going to continue to to staff license meia [3:04:43] special um a total reduction is not being recommended in fact it would be unlawful [3:04:48] to do so and so we're trying to um fit more pieces into the puzzle while the [3:04:53] puzzle is not really expanding as much as we would like to on that note given that the [3:05:00] legislation that now provides for at least one media specialist for a district how much money was the state [3:05:06] actually providing to fund one or more Specialists uh for a district yeah so [3:05:13] the new legislation um and this is going to be a set dollar amount for however long the state decides it to be uh $161 [3:05:21] per adjusted pupil unit least of about 9450 adjusted pupil units that's roughly $152,000 of Revenue which we use to [3:05:28] support the um at this moment in time for this school year more than $1 million of Staff compensation that we [3:05:35] outlay for our our media specialist staff thank you um and to again [3:05:40] reiterate we currently have nine correct and we've had nine for how [3:05:46] long if you had to estimate a long time a long time right before it was legally [3:05:52] required to have any correct yes so as I was discussing with [3:05:59] someone when we had our recess we're starting here the state is down here is only just [3:06:05] now got on the plane field and our challenge is that from a financial standpoint because we have $3.6 million [3:06:12] that we're trying to fix figure out what to do with it's not that we're not providing services but we're having to make very difficult decisions as to how [3:06:19] do we right size things nobody wants to take it from nine down to anything lower than nine but we're struggling to figure [3:06:27] out where we're going to find at least in the in the C this category 500 plus [3:06:32] thousand give or take from where we're trying to go if we don't can't do it in media specialist then we have to find it [3:06:38] somewhere else is that correct that's correct absolutely I don't think you could could have laid it out any more [3:06:44] perfectly I just wanted to make sure thank you um one concern I have about this um [3:06:54] topic is our ability to um teach our [3:07:00] students the digital literacy standards and um I'm concerned about having one [3:07:07] media specialist for two sites if they'll be able to do the curriculum [3:07:13] across six grades two sites um because it's not just digital literacy it's [3:07:18] quite a few other things our media center um Specialists do so I wonder if you could speak to that um given this [3:07:26] day and age and how important a lot of those skills are for our students yeah obviously extremely important as [3:07:31] director W even led to cyber security um we know that we'll have to you know really take a look at our media [3:07:38] programming and make sure that we are sorry there's something in my eyeball um um well we really have to take a look [3:07:45] at our curriculum and may prioritize those efforts and make sure that we are able to hit those standards what we do [3:07:51] know is that we have several examples um of other districts to look at and to [3:07:56] understand how that model is still being employed because regardless of what number of media Specialists that we have in our district we still um have an [3:08:02] obligation to meet those standards so we will do that regardless of what the model looks [3:08:12] like [3:08:23] the alternative to an adjustment um of our media special staff is actually to maintain all n FTE and um make them part [3:08:31] of the rotation at the elementary level uh meaning they would um take the place [3:08:36] uh to some degree of um music and physical education time for students um [3:08:42] it's not a straight 1.0 reduction across the elementary sites our elementary sites are are different in size they [3:08:48] offer a different number of sections so the reduction we believe is closer to 4.1 FTE rather than a six um something [3:08:54] we'll continue to analyze um two of our resident experts at the elementary level are here to speak about um what that [3:09:01] looks like programmatically and the experience for students so to start with what the current reality is um currently [3:09:07] in an elementary um school week a student has fied twice a week for 45 minutes music twice a week for 45 [3:09:14] minutes art once a week for 60 minutes and then a media time that's in addition to that that isn't a prep um period for [3:09:21] classroom teachers PE music and art do provide um prep for teachers uh the The [3:09:27] Hope or the um the suggestion to move to a 4-day rotation instead of a five day a [3:09:32] week rotation would be fied for 45 minutes music for 45 minutes art for 45 [3:09:39] minutes and then media would be 45 minutes so media would become load bearing as opposed to an additional [3:09:45] teacher on site thus the savings of the money um it does decrease PE in music time it uh our time stays pretty [3:09:52] consistent because currently it's just once a [3:10:05] week first of all thank you principal dalquist and Bergman for staying so late it's already been a very long day for [3:10:11] both of you and and also thank you for your service considering that you've already announced your retirements at the end of the year so I just wanted to [3:10:17] go on record to say thank you for all that you've done so far um we had a very detailed conversation [3:10:23] in the work session I'm not trying to go back through all that again um but for the people who didn't get to visit with [3:10:28] that the whole point of this is trying to figure out how to take from a specialty standpoint we're taking into [3:10:34] that the four different areas that we talked about from PE music [3:10:40] um uh the media specialist and art um that we're expanding from there the [3:10:45] total reduction in actual student engagement in those four subjects can [3:10:51] you just qualify that a little bit for the audience um the students are going to [3:10:57] receive a specialist time each day no matter which uh which option we have [3:11:03] it's a mix of what will that option look like um in the current rotation they see [3:11:09] music and physical education twice as often is They See Art and media um in [3:11:16] the new uh plan they would still see physical education music um art and then [3:11:24] now media as a part of that rotation um so kind of an equalization of all four [3:11:31] areas uh rather than one being one being greater than the other so um the amount [3:11:37] of instructional time during the day will be the same um in both options uh [3:11:43] it will just be the a matter of what is that mix um that we're going to provide for them um the amount of time each day [3:11:52] over that week's period of time is going to be essentially the same um outside of [3:11:57] their regular classroom um the uh the idea of making media Specialists [3:12:03] loadbearing is very similar to what our art physical education and music folks [3:12:09] are doing right now in that they're providing the preparation time for our classroom [3:12:15] teachers just for clarification when you say the amount of time can you describe [3:12:21] what you mean are you saying the amount of time that fied teachers and music teachers would have with students are [3:12:28] the same or are you saying that it is the block of specialist time that would [3:12:35] be the same thank you for asking that clarifying question yeah it's the latter [3:12:40] um one of the questions that was asked during our work session question earlier was um how how will this make the time [3:12:46] during the student day different will there be more time outside of the classroom or um within that so that I [3:12:53] was thinking of that as I as I responded so the amount of time uh that kids will [3:12:58] have access to uh The Specialist Team uh will be the same in their day today as [3:13:05] it would be in that um new configuration would it be correct to state that it will go from [3:13:13] for for uh vocal music and PE twice every 10 days twice days twice [3:13:24] every five days to twice every eight days is that correct correct okay I did [3:13:30] the math correct thank you yes and then really quick one other question that didn't came up but I [3:13:35] thought was really important to articulate was the impact of prep time for the teachers that as the specialist [3:13:42] time that we had have today some of that um specialist time is used for prep time for teachers to work on certain things [3:13:48] what would be the impact if we went to this new rotation model what impact if any would there be on the prep time for [3:13:54] the uh classroom teacher for the classroom teachers the uh the their amount of prep time would be the same um [3:14:01] in that we're required to give them a particular number of minutes based on their student contact UM each day um so [3:14:10] that will stay the same because they will still have a scheduled uh preparation time when their students are [3:14:16] at specialist class um one of the things that we had talked about earlier this evening was uh just the fact that um [3:14:23] depending on on which building it's at it might look a little bit different as far as their ability to connect with uh [3:14:32] grade level colleagues um during a common preparation time one of the things that uh we had also talked about [3:14:38] earlier is the fact that uh at each of our elementary buildings we we have three buildings that are at uh 23 or 24 [3:14:46] sections uh within their building and that's super easy to schedule when you have a 4-day schedule uh such as what's [3:14:54] being recommended um three of our buildings Countryside Normandale and Conquer um have greater than 24 sections [3:15:03] um so we'll need parts of some specialist teachers to make sure that we have equal access for all of our [3:15:11] sections um so I just wanted to clarify because [3:15:16] it's um really late and um there would be four specials under this proposal but [3:15:22] in a five-day week there would be a special every day the cycle would just start over on day five so there would be [3:15:29] gym twice a week or music or art or media depending on the week correct um [3:15:35] instead of running on a Monday through Friday schedule uh we would be running on day 1 two 3 4 1 two 34 [3:15:43] the nice thing about that is uh when you have a week where maybe there's a Monday [3:15:49] holiday or not not class on Friday or whatever it might be um and that way [3:15:55] kids um have that constant rotation and uh they don't have some weeks where oh I [3:16:01] don't I didn't get music this week or I didn't get art this week um in that way that's that's one plus to uh to either [3:16:11] schedule um thank you for the presentation and for being here to speak to this um you know director wood you [3:16:19] told us that this year was going to be rough when it came to budget cuts so we've been warned um but I I feel like [3:16:28] the two choices we have here are kind of picking between terrible and [3:16:33] terrible um I'm a little reluctant I mean both of these models are not ideal [3:16:41] but I think it was really well said by some of our speakers earlier this evening how much those Specialists mean [3:16:48] to our kids and for a lot of our kids that's where they're able to [3:16:54] thrive and with the skyrocketing number of mental health needs and coming out of the pandemic I [3:17:02] just whether it's our media Specialists whether it's our fied teachers our music [3:17:08] teachers um we have really defined Excellence because we've [3:17:16] shown in those areas we're not like other districts that have cut their media Specialists or their choir or [3:17:22] their music teachers to once a week so I'm really struggling with this one just [3:17:28] in the fact of it's a really it does impact our kids it impacts every kid so [3:17:37] um I'm not stating anything that anybody in this room does not already know I [3:17:42] just um we have such a robust Sports and and music program that [3:17:50] um this one really Cuts so thanks for letting me Express [3:18:04] that thank [3:18:11] you uh the next Cost Containment recommendation item uh pertaining to licensed School nurses is also on [3:18:17] whether there are two different options one is a um adjustment from 9 FTE down [3:18:22] to five and also from 9 to 4.5 um the difference is um contingent upon the [3:18:29] choice that's made regarding the specialist rotation and also um Capital deferments I think um the range there [3:18:35] was 635 or or 605 to 635 so depending on the combination of choices um there will [3:18:41] be only one one option left to pick for the licensed School nurses um director reming is here to speak about [3:18:49] that with the model that um director Woodard um spoke of we would have um [3:18:55] licensed School nurses that would um share assignments between two to three buildings um for next school year um [3:19:02] what we would do is we would base our staffing um on on acity of need Acuity when we talk about this is kind of like [3:19:08] when you go to the hospital and they triage um the severity of the of the me of the medical need um same as as when [3:19:15] we were Staffing based upon Acuity and so um buildings that have students with more severe medical needs things that [3:19:21] cannot be delegated um they would have additional um LSN Staffing we would also try and strategically staff our Health [3:19:29] Service Associates who are also registered nurses at those buildings um so that they would have um High skilled [3:19:36] care um things that can be delegated um by licensed School nurses include things that are predictable and that don't [3:19:43] require judgment things that are written down um with actions that are easily followed so that people aren't having to [3:19:49] make judgment calls so things that that that would include is you know checking some um blood glucose um insulin dosing [3:19:56] based upon a set scale medication administration um things that you can do with training um our licensed School [3:20:03] nurses are unable to delegate anything that requires assessment clinical reasoning nursing judgment or critical [3:20:10] decisionmaking so there are some things that our licensed School nurses need to be the people um providing the cares for [3:20:17] in this model um that we were kind of referenced other districts maybe are using too um it really there's a lot of [3:20:25] case consultation a lot of those writing plans so that things can be followed and to remove that judgment piece um for [3:20:31] delegatable [3:20:38] work child please don't interrupt the board meeting I'm sorry I know this is very emotional but I I understand but I [3:20:47] can't have board the board meeting interrupted uh director I'm a question [3:20:52] for you it was brought up earlier um the delegation part and then I'm just trying to map to the thought exchange where it [3:20:59] talked about third party reimbursement and then a previous comment that was made in public comment about um not [3:21:06] being able to bill at a certain level so Health Associates versus um RNs and those types of things can you explain a [3:21:13] little bit about um are we maximizing or optimizing our third party reimbursement [3:21:18] based on what we have and then um would this impact anything in terms of um our [3:21:23] ability to collect Revenue if the if the model changed to this um proposed piece [3:21:30] yeah I think it it is true that when we have um licensed School nurses they can bill for [3:21:36] evaluations medical administration tube feedings and other nursing cares when they're able to provide one one cares [3:21:42] they cannot bill for any procedure that's delegated to someone else now that being said if it's a registered [3:21:47] nurse who's providing that as a health service associate we can bill for that if a student is eligible for medical [3:21:53] assistance and the parent provides uh consent for the district to bill for that service um unlicensed people are [3:22:00] unable to bill for that and so um our current model does allow for greater billing [3:22:05] opportunities the way that it's set up [3:22:12] um when it another terrible Choice here um when it comes to our school nurses [3:22:20] are we putting ourself at a legal risk to have like I'm thinking about nurses [3:22:28] are sometimes tasked to be in well oftentimes IEP meetings and I don't with [3:22:35] our Rising number of special ed student like how does that how do we feasibly get all that work done [3:22:42] and the legal requirements we have with this model so we do have some [3:22:48] students with some high high risks who um medically fragile students who do have private care nurses and we do have [3:22:54] additional Staffing for those nurses and so that would be something that if we had students that we needed to add [3:22:59] additional Staffing we were unable to that would be a recommendation that I would bring forward then for [3:23:04] consideration to see if we could obtain additional Staffing because we don't want to put any of our students at risk [3:23:10] um but really what this would be is a model where our licensed School nurses would be providing the cares that can't [3:23:16] be delegated and um doing our very best to make sure that no students are placed at [3:23:24] risk on that note um given that we're at nine now and we're talking about going [3:23:29] to either five or 4.5 was the 4.5 or five connected to the needs for which [3:23:37] we're serving today in those high-risk areas so was was the current [3:23:43] recommendation based upon our ability to serve those student needs yes meaning that at let's just use five as the [3:23:49] example as having five lsns that for the need across the district for the high [3:23:55] level of care that you were just articulating for the staff does that 5.0 [3:24:01] based on our analysis ensure that we can meet all the needs that we currently [3:24:07] have so with our current um buildings South View d high school and Cornelia [3:24:12] have the highest Acuity needs within the district and so in looking at the current this recommendation would allow [3:24:18] for us to provide additional Staffing at those buildings with a five 5.0 [3:24:29] okay I don't have any um questions but I just wanted to comment that [3:24:35] um for the parents that are watching obviously this is very [3:24:42] emotional and your children um are of utmost concern to us so don't take any [3:24:49] questions or comments about any sort of decisions that we've made and don't [3:24:55] um it's all of these are very important to us and we understand these are your children they're your most pre precious [3:25:03] assets as my kids are mine um so um we've heard you loud and clear and um we [3:25:08] just I just wanted to comment on that so thank you I think the last comment I [3:25:14] would make about this particular topic which we talked in the work session is that when you talk about the nurses and [3:25:19] you talk about the media specialist Andor the rotation for the specialist That's a million dollars that's a [3:25:25] million dollars of cuts of the $3.62 million that we identified that we [3:25:31] needed to cut in order to make the budget work what we're challenged with is that [3:25:38] we don't have enough new Revenue sources that at least have been readily identified up to this point for us to [3:25:44] figure out how to not cut a million dollars in those areas is that [3:25:50] correct absolutely correct yes okay so I'm just trying to make sure we're clear [3:25:57] for everyone in the room everyone at home everyone on this board everyone in administration that's actually the [3:26:03] problem that we're facing at the moment is that just in this area the most strenuous issue that we're facing is a [3:26:10] million dollar to figure out and the recommendation that's come forth to us so far has been [3:26:16] in nursing media specialist Andor the Specialists this are the cuts that we need to make to human beings who are [3:26:22] providing this service today and we need to figure out okay what does that then look like if we move forward with these [3:26:28] Cuts how are we going to continue to take care of the students needs so I know we're not making [3:26:35] decisions tonight this is going to be incredibly difficult to figure out how do we meet all the needs that we're [3:26:42] required to meet that we want to meet but with the fact that we don't have the [3:26:47] money currently allocated to be able to do that and so all I can say as far as the [3:26:54] different topics that are here I personally am probably the most concerned about this particular [3:27:00] one I think the comment that I heard earlier tonight was equity for all and [3:27:05] when we talk about our special needs students whether they're um learning differences or more more importantly [3:27:11] their physical and medical needs those are people we need to serve there's no substitute for [3:27:17] that and so we're challenged to figure out how are we going to meet their needs with while we figure out the balancing [3:27:23] of the budget so I take this really to heart and I've been part of this now for [3:27:29] several months being on the finance committee looking at the different elements there are no good choices here [3:27:35] and all I would ask is for all the people who've emailed us and we received at least 50 letters today or yesterday [3:27:42] or the day before that are talking about this particular issue um we welcome any [3:27:48] brainstorming on where we can go with Revenue because cutting is where we're left with because we don't have enough [3:27:54] Revenue to make up and we're limited as to what we can do with that so please understand we get that [3:28:02] and we know the impact of that but we're struggling to figure out how best to address that and the Administration has [3:28:07] come to us to say when we look at all the factors that are in place this is our best recommendation [3:28:15] today is that correct that's correct okay thank you I [3:28:22] just had one quick question um can you help me with the math in terms of the student support Personnel Aid and how it [3:28:28] relates to the Cost Containment piece of it and is there a cap on that is that why it's limited to 161 or is how does [3:28:35] that math work out yeah so there is no cap um if we served $100,000 students [3:28:41] that Revenue would increase in direct proportion so the only cap is how many students we can [3:28:47] serve absolutely were we to not have that funding source available the reductions to counselors social workers [3:28:53] nurses and school psychologists in the aggregate would be by an additional one to 1.5 [3:28:59] FTE thank you I just didn't know if it was like a grant or if it was something else so thank [3:29:06] you can I move back to the uh licensed School nurses I um model do we have an [3:29:14] example we talked about this a little bit at the work session as well do we have an example from other like size [3:29:20] districts as far as um them being able to um utilize that sort of [3:29:28] model with with students student health still being such a priority um what examples do we have that that has [3:29:34] possibly worked or you know what what examples do we have where we've been able to go to a a 4.5 or a five [3:29:42] for a district of a like size so I think the examples out there I [3:29:47] think through the public comment today they spoke to other districts and um what the services are offered there and [3:29:53] I think that Edina has really had a unique Health Services model one that um our team is rightfully proud of um but [3:30:00] it's an expensive model as well and so I think when you look I know um when we look at comparables for other districts [3:30:05] it's not uncommon for licensed School nurses to share buildings um it's it's [3:30:11] less common for us to have you know one or more within buildings which is something that we've been able to afford [3:30:16] for many years and that's been wonderful but it's [3:30:31] [Music] expensive I believe this is the final [3:30:38] item on our list pertaining to um extra Duty dat days for our school counselors the school district currently staffs um [3:30:44] 15 counselors um which equate to 14.5 full-time equivalents um each counselor [3:30:49] is part of our um Edina Education Minnesota um Collective buring group [3:30:55] they each work 184 days uh just like every other teacher however these staff receive an additional 18.5 days above [3:31:02] and beyond the 184 in addition to an extra duty stien of about $2,491 the school district is [3:31:09] recommending the adjustment downward from 18.5 additional days to 10 additional days with a with a [3:31:15] commensurate um reduction of Duties um which jod D St Hubert our director of [3:31:20] teaching and learning will speak to our counselors provide really [3:31:26] important services for our students and our families um they fall into three main buckets and they are academic [3:31:31] social and emotional learning as well as post-secondary support and planning um we do know and recognize that the [3:31:38] reduction in these days will um need to to be evaluated very tightly with the counselors um a creation of a list of [3:31:45] things that are covered during that time and then in collaboration with our administrators at the secondary level [3:31:51] determine what support team will fill in those responsibilities um with with the [3:31:58] reduction of the counselors It's really critical that we look at the lens of the services um as a support team effort and [3:32:06] um for example principal pel has already been leaning into this months ago in terms of bringing and the counselors the [3:32:11] social workers and the administration together um so I do want to highlight that those summer days the primarily um [3:32:19] will primarily fall on Administration in terms of picking up those three buckets and the the list of things that we [3:32:24] collectively create any questions or [3:32:32] feedback the only comment I'd like to make that I made at the work session was when we think about counselors especially at the high school um given [3:32:40] where we've come from from Co and so on so forth and even though our ratio for students per counselor is considerably [3:32:45] better than maybe the average Minnesota school district um it's very [3:32:50] disheartening that we would need to go in the opposite direction of where we're going with counselors where I would love to see us having more counselers so we [3:32:57] can meet the needs of students versus in the opposite direction but again because of the Cost Containment issues that we [3:33:03] then have this is one of the factors that we're still having to look at thank [3:33:09] you [3:33:21] so at this point that's the entirety of our um various recommendations um the two different options and the [3:33:26] configurations are displayed on the screen both achieve the $3.62 million Cost Containment recommendation um from [3:33:34] the administration to the school board um I don't have the tally um visible now but I believe it's somewhere in the [3:33:40] range of 15 FTE districtwide School District currently employs more than 1400 full-time equivalents um 59.65 per [3:33:48] of those reductions are concentrated towards non-programmatic non-instructional areas um we wish it [3:33:54] was 100% um unfortunately it's just not possible so um I think next steps are [3:34:00] for the school board to um kind of synthesize analyze think about about um [3:34:05] these containment recommendations um provide feedback and guidance to the administration we come back on March 4th [3:34:11] with our formal um recommendations which we'll seek approval for um we'll immediately begin formal budgeting [3:34:18] activities um once the school board provides approval um for the containments that are recommended on March [3:34:24] 4th thank you Mt um do board members have additional questions um or information that you would like the [3:34:30] board sorry not the board the administration to provide for our next um work session or any um comments that [3:34:39] you would like to provide [3:34:49] um uh I brought this up a little bit in the work session but I'm wondering [3:34:56] if um we can investigate or if we've fully [3:35:02] investigated the threshold to which our community is willing to um endure more fees um I threw out [3:35:13] the example of looking at paying for busing um we talked a little bit about [3:35:21] increased fees for athletics maybe going a little higher on that understanding [3:35:26] that um to preserve some of the items on here it's going to it's not going to be a one thing obviously you've worked [3:35:33] really hard to come to these recommendations and I'm sure today has not been the best day of your life um so [3:35:41] I do want to thank our Administration for the work on this um I think as [3:35:46] somebody who has taught in other districts it is not common for the community to be engaged in this process [3:35:53] like you have engaged our community the listening sessions the thought exchange the video um that [3:36:02] doesn't happen elsewhere and so I really want to thank you for providing that [3:36:07] opportunity and for the people that have reached out to to us uh chair Ellenberg has said this we do read all your [3:36:14] comments we do take that into consideration and this is a terrible [3:36:19] position to be in nobody runs for Schoolboard to cut budgets um so I thank you for the work [3:36:25] on this and um yeah I think one of the things that I just I would maybe implore to look at if [3:36:34] there's more of an appetite for some fees um just a comment on that Karen I [3:36:39] fully support that I having sat on um [3:36:46] the board when we worked on Transportation that specific piece is so [3:36:51] complex I would absolutely support looking into that I think that would be [3:36:57] something that would be a year-long process that would need to be brought back to the board next year um I don't [3:37:04] think that's something that could be done with a good recommendation time to [3:37:11] do anything for this year um but I I am actually interested in looking into that [3:37:17] just not for this year I don't think that's feasible that's reasonable and thank you for that perspective on that and that [3:37:23] kind of goes to something I think you brought up in the work session too is if there are certain costs that we can [3:37:30] maybe defer to study some of these things but I don't know that that's a reasonable solution either I [3:37:38] think we're trying to come up with ideas too so director arum um one just question [3:37:44] related to um the midpoint for uh enrollment pieces of it and it'd be [3:37:50] interesting to see um what what the number would be if we went one more standard deviation or whatever you want [3:37:55] to call that increment beyond the midpoint um to see if that how that would impact um the uh the overall cut [3:38:03] numbers and whatnot and then um if you could do that and then there was a comment made earlier in the um Community [3:38:10] comments related to the 504 requirement for care um if there was any kind of clarity that we could get um from that [3:38:17] just to um from a legal standpoint that'd be appreciated absolutely we'll look into [3:38:23] those and and bring those back for discussion next month anything on this side of [3:38:30] the I would just say that you know we have wonderful Community Partners um that are constantly always [3:38:37] looking out for how to help the school district operate certain types of services whether it's the Ed fund or [3:38:43] give and go or some other elements um those are some of the natural ways in which the community can also participate [3:38:49] with fees and other contributions to things but those in and of themselves are not necessarily going to fill the [3:38:55] bucket um and so I'm very open to how do we ideate further as far as where do we [3:39:02] go from revenue the problem is is that we have 40 days maybe or less to figure [3:39:08] out what we can do with this um given all that we've done um so I just want to set real expectations that I don't think [3:39:14] we're going to see some magical answers in a short period of time that we're going to fill up a hole of as I said [3:39:20] before just talk a million dollars for the areas that we're most concerned with tonight um that's that's a real heavy [3:39:26] lift to figure out how we're going to create that so i' love more opportunities if you can find them but I [3:39:33] I'm not sure we're going to be able to do that Dr gor oh were you finished me [3:39:38] yeah you can go ahead sorry no I was just going to add one more thing because why not um I think one of the important [3:39:45] things that we have not talked about tonight but director W you're always really good about bringing our attention to this and this was part of your Burg [3:39:51] meetings the advocation for State funding it has not kept up with [3:39:56] inflation and you have a wonderful graph that people can find on the district website that shows even with the [3:40:02] historic funding we had last year we are M many dollars behind where we [3:40:10] should be and so when people are feeling frustrated with this process and we are too talk to your state [3:40:17] legislators school funding this is the this is what happens when we are not fully funded is we have to make these [3:40:23] terrible decisions on the cuts so you director [3:40:30] arum I turned myself off um I had a couple of comments and then a couple [3:40:35] questions um first was just wanted to express my [3:40:40] appreciation for you director Woodard um you are an outstanding business director [3:40:47] and any frustration like Karen said about this and this process really needs [3:40:53] to go to the state um anything director Woodard has come up with is not a judgment on his part or Dr Stanley's [3:41:00] part it's um because of the financial position we put in so I just wanted to [3:41:06] express appreciation for you and you have found pockets of money legally that um you're just a [3:41:14] financial Wizard and I really really appreciate it and I want to make sure that the community understands that and [3:41:19] um knows what assets that we have from a business director and superintendent [3:41:25] perspective um despite how challenging this is um I want to speak specifically [3:41:32] to the number of times it was brought up that we should make cuts at the administrative level I understand that [3:41:41] it can seem like that is a super easy fix that they're large salaries I also work closely with our [3:41:48] administrative team it is so lean and our administrative team works so many [3:41:56] hours and while they don't directly touch our students as in walk in the [3:42:01] classroom even though Dr Stanley does quite often they are critical to the success [3:42:07] of our school districts School District and if we had more money I would [3:42:13] actually love to give more money at the direct at in our admin team [3:42:19] because I see how hard they work each week so I just wanted to say flat out [3:42:25] that I'm not supportive of anything that digs into our already lean admin and just express my appreciation for [3:42:31] administrative team and I do not want this budget cut to be about admin versus [3:42:37] teachers versus this versus this our district does not survive without every single person working um and being part [3:42:45] of it it is a little microcosm an organism that needs every single person [3:42:50] to function and I appreciate every piece of it um so I do not want this to become [3:42:56] a this for us versus them um everyone is valued I value everyone and um I just [3:43:04] wanted to express that um knowing how lean our admin is so thank you here here [3:43:11] um now on to my questions now that I had said Thank you m you can I have some [3:43:16] questions for you um I know that you've done this but I'm just going to ask for [3:43:21] the hundredth time if you can see if there's anything at all that can be [3:43:28] allocated to the tech Levy and not that I don't love everything that you're doing and I know you don't have a lot of [3:43:33] money but one thing that we talk about our communities [3:43:39] willing to to pay for things one thing that we spend a lot of money is our onetoone computer which I think is [3:43:46] great um if somehow we could displace [3:43:51] that I also am very well aware we have students that cannot afford computers so I don't want that to be I am very [3:43:59] sensitive to that fact but to me that's a nice to have thing not necessarily a [3:44:05] necessary to have thing I'm also acknowledge the fact that there might not be anything we could even do with [3:44:11] that budgetary space But if you would be willing to look again to see if we [3:44:18] looked at our onetoone to computer system is there even 10% of our media [3:44:24] specialist time that when they fix computers that that could be um deployed to the tech Levy um that is one thing [3:44:33] I'm interested in doing and then I might be a minority of one here but I would [3:44:38] actually be interested in um deferring voting on the school buses until next [3:44:44] month if that's possible um to really understand um if there's any money that [3:44:51] we can save by deferring our school bus purchase for two years again fully [3:44:58] appreciating that we have a lot of age buses um I just have a really hard time [3:45:06] if I'm talking about school buses versus humans that touch our our students again [3:45:14] I don't know if the answer is we can do nothing with that and we don't recommend it but I'm not comfortable voting on [3:45:21] that without fully exploring that option but I'm only one board member so if the [3:45:27] rest of you are like that's that's a horrible idea I'm concerned about the [3:45:33] continual deferrals that we have I'm comfortable with examining that for one more month before we actually make the [3:45:38] decision on the purchase from that standpoint have the finance committee maybe take a look at that to see what's viable from that standpoint but I think [3:45:45] we have to be very cautious as a as a as an entity as well as a community [3:45:50] deferrals don't mean that we don't ever have to pay the piper for that they that cost keeps going up regardless of [3:45:56] whether we pay for it now or later so it's not a sustainable pathway but I [3:46:02] totally understand and I would agree with you a th% that when we look at the people that [3:46:08] are taking care of our littlest humans and our most vulnerable humans um if we is there any way we can squeeze [3:46:14] something with that that might be an area to look at but I don't in general support a long-term deferral of things [3:46:21] we've already deferred things already and I'm concerned what the impact of that so I would agree I would support [3:46:26] you in terms of taking another month and relooking at that I'll leave it there that's all I'm [3:46:31] asking is taking a month to look at it not making a decision on it but again [3:46:38] I can I a question question on the Cost Containment um the first few item [3:46:45] preliminary recommendations we have the $600,000 defer Capital expenditures is that next year then we have that 600,000 [3:46:52] that we're going to be looking at the same way I mean that's going to come up correctly again I mean right that's could to pop up the same way where we're [3:46:57] going to have to adjust things again right absolutely we would need to to find cost containments um in that [3:47:04] ballpark I believe I mentioned in at the June 8th regular meeting that the 3.6 $2 [3:47:09] million gets us nearly two years of financial stability at the end of those two years we'd be looking at 785,000 or [3:47:16] so of cost containments um these deferrals coming back into our budget kind of represent a portion of that um [3:47:22] you know there are other strategies perhaps that we can employ we'll continue to look at those and and bring those back to the school board and to [3:47:29] our various committees but at this time the recommendation would be to bring those back in fiscal year 26 we're [3:47:34] already doing some of those deferrals as is right now already [3:47:41] looking at those and those aren't one time things those we already deferred them from this current year yeah right I mean so we're already trying to find you [3:47:48] are you and your department are already trying to find those deferrals absolutely for example we operate a [3:47:53] number of school buses that are over 20 years old um they're prone to failure [3:47:58] they they're costly to maintain they're arguably unsafe um and so we want to to [3:48:04] replace those as soon as we can I mean it underscores I don't know I don't mean to [3:48:09] start yapping at 10:49 p.m. but it underscores 15 years of uh School [3:48:16] finance that we're looking back from 2008 2009 2010 when when you have your [3:48:22] graph or when we can look at those things um I remember covering many of those school budget situations in other [3:48:28] districts when they were making very similar cuts and at that point there's just not low hanging fruit and when [3:48:35] we're a business or we're not a business but we're an organization that it's 80% people um these cuts are going to hurt [3:48:43] and there's no doubt about any of this none of it is good no our district is not going to be better tomorrow and we [3:48:50] all know that and it it's not easy it we don't say that to be flip about it but I [3:48:55] don't see an easy way to to move ahead and I just want to be clear I'm not advocating for or against I would rather [3:49:02] look at it as part of a bigger package when we're looking at other things next week if it's even an option so [3:49:10] but again if the rest of you want to vote on it tonight that's absolutely fine I it's just an idea I had [3:49:20] so director Ward were you gon to say something along these lines I wasn't but I was going to say [3:49:26] that the school board isn't or the administration rather isn't formally recommending any action tonight so no vote should occur regardless on the [3:49:34] buses though well on the budget in General on the buses um were you to say you don't want to vote you want to defer [3:49:39] that for a month um we risk not having access to those buses there's about a [3:49:45] year lead time on buses in the country at the moment um we've been kind of promised those by um the vendor um they [3:49:52] may choose to make money and and sell those buses to another willing customer so that's a risk um one that we would [3:49:59] adjust to if that's the board's will and desire would it be delayed one week till [3:50:07] our work session to see if there was any savings that could be gained we could work with that [3:50:14] is that okay or is that okay with the rest of you as a board it's okay yeah [3:50:22] okay I'm trying any other [3:50:29] comments um I'm going to make two motions one is that we extend our board [3:50:35] meeting um to 11:30 um so I would like to make a motion that we extend our [3:50:40] board meeting to 11:30 so moved second all those in favor of [3:50:47] extending our board meeting to 11:30 say I I anyone opposed the motion carries [3:50:53] and the board meeting is extended to 11:30 um I would like to make a motion um to remove the sale of the buses from [3:51:00] our board agenda so moved is there a second second all those in favor say I I [3:51:07] anyone opposed um the motion carries so our uh rest of our agenda will be um amended to [3:51:13] remove that one action item um and put it on our agenda for our work [3:51:21] session okay um we're going to move on with our policy [3:51:27] discussion all right director wood do not go too far because you're up first um we are [3:51:34] discussing um several policies this evening the first one that is up for [3:51:39] discussion is policy 421 gifts to employees and [3:51:46] Schoolboard and just as a general reminder all of these policies in the um [3:51:52] this section up for discussion have gone through the policy committee for [3:51:57] discussion feedback and each policy has a administrator that's assigned to kind [3:52:03] of be point for that thank you thank you director gabler um policy 421 one [3:52:09] regarding gifts to employees um no substantive changes um recommended by [3:52:15] the administration to the school board for consideration it's a well- written policy makes absolute sense there's been [3:52:20] no changes to the law um at this point we would um probably spend more time focusing on the actual um I guess [3:52:28] adherence to the policy districtwide and and how we can monitor that um that's very challenging and and perhaps not the [3:52:34] best use of time um however in terms of the policy itself it's it's well written no changes recommended [3:52:39] Ed thank you board member oh do you want to do that oh I had a question okay I was going to ask if any does do any [3:52:46] board members have a question I was just quick on the trigger um a quick question I had was the sentence the [3:52:52] superintendent has discretion to determine what value is limited was moved from C to B and I was just [3:52:58] wondering why that was because it was talking about business items in C and [3:53:05] then it got moved to B where it's talking about gifts from parents so I [3:53:11] was wondering if there was an intent behind why that was moved because it actually seems like we [3:53:17] would more want to limit it for I don't know I was just trying to understand [3:53:24] yeah my recollection is that we prefer to have that language come in the proper order so be ahead of C also we want the [3:53:31] language to apply to all gifts not just those from a particular party got it so just a thought for you [3:53:39] guys to take back to policy because I took it as sort of like a value judgment of which item it went in is maybe that's [3:53:45] a separate statement or in both or in both okay since to your point it's for [3:53:52] everyone [3:53:57] so do you want to speak to that okay any other questions on 421 all right we will talk about that [3:54:04] and then this will come forward for Action next month um next um is policy 515 protection of [3:54:14] privacy of student records and for this one we have director mon stey [3:54:24] welcome thank you um policy 515 um protection of and privacy of Student [3:54:31] Records um largely the changes to this policy two things really um one of the [3:54:36] things that we did was try to align this policy more more with the msba model policy um in the past we had veered just [3:54:43] slightly from it and so we wanted to kind of bring some of that alignment back also in the legislative session [3:54:50] there was a change to language around um student directory and what that entails [3:54:55] so there were some large changes in section 3E around directory [3:55:01] information so you'll see those in there um some of the added definitions that were included in the policy were again [3:55:08] from must be a model policy um you'll see um B biometric record obviously [3:55:14] we're trying to update the times as that's a new data point that we collect or not collect but that we have access [3:55:20] to um and then we provided some clarity [3:55:27] around sorry this is a real lengthy policy um around educational data and [3:55:35] when we can release um information to an eligible student student or their parent [3:55:40] or Guardian questions regarding this [3:55:47] policy sorry I'm the policy question person I have a couple of questions um [3:55:54] my first question was I was a little confused on Section 7 under release of [3:56:00] directory information section 7 A2 okay it says the school district may [3:56:08] not designate a student's home address telephone number email address or other personal contact information as [3:56:14] directory information is that because only the parent can do that that's because that's [3:56:19] part of that change in legislation of what is considered directory information so those items aren't [3:56:27] directory information anymore which items like the address and [3:56:33] the so if you go to sorry a lot of pages um section 3E it [3:56:40] designates what is included as director information what is no longer as included in director information so that should match that [3:56:50] section okay am I making it more confusing and I no I was I that's why I [3:56:55] was confused so is your oh okay that makes sense thank you that's clear okay that clear sorry I [3:57:02] wasn't sure if your question was about if we offer that in director I didn't notice that they were scratched out [3:57:08] before so I apologize no no it's okay um and then [3:57:13] under 9 x X One [3:57:20] X um you said nine yeah 9 C I need to find it now wherever it is it's a very [3:57:29] long policy page 18 page 18 c [3:57:37] um where am I oh where it's the new sentence where [3:57:45] it says um where it says end or attorney [3:57:54] data is that are we talking about confidential Legal Information corre or [3:58:00] is that different than attorney data and I was wondering if confidential Legal [3:58:05] Information was a better definition of what we were talking about we would be talking about confidential Legal [3:58:10] Information um I guess that this matches the model language from msba policy um [3:58:17] but I would be happy to look at it further if you'd like it was just I was just that is what it's referring to as [3:58:22] conf we talked so much about sort of our terminology we use all the time is confidential Legal Information so I was [3:58:29] a little confused by what we meant by attorney data I don't care either way I was just a question if that was a better [3:58:36] definition of what we meant so we don't Define that up above um so [3:58:42] maybe that's and you don't have to answer now again it was just you could take that back to policy okay and I I [3:58:49] have two more questions sorry in okay where was [3:58:55] I um I did a poor job trying to figure out where I was that's it's really long [3:59:02] as I looked okay there's a section under who has the right to review and inspect [3:59:08] educational records I was wondering if we should include legal guardian because we talk [3:59:15] about parent of the student and eligible student or parent of an eligible student in all of our other policies we [3:59:22] also list legal guardian which page you I'm sorry it's [3:59:27] page 23 um xyv [3:59:33] x1v a at the very bottom it says parent of a student student or an eligible [3:59:39] student or the parent of an eligible student you're right we do that is a [3:59:45] that is a procedural style thing that we can can change okay okay thank you [3:59:53] that's it I just had one quick question um in section c or sorry e uh is there a [4:00:01] page number yeah page two page two than you section uh e MH sub a student social [4:00:12] security number are there other um National identification numbers that we should include in that like if there's a [4:00:17] Visa number or anything like that is is is that um broad enough you know what [4:00:24] that's a really good question and I'll take that back to um our district attorney just to verify that we have covered our basis like I said this is [4:00:30] from msba model policy so i' think we've covered our basis but I can double check [4:00:37] that and just for background uh director monast has worked tiously on this policy [4:00:43] as you've seen it is pages in pages and she's worked really closely with um msba [4:00:50] and um our District's legal council on this to make sure we get it right so thank you for your work on that yeah no [4:00:56] problem thank you thank you okay moving on uh next up is policy [4:01:04] 601 which is educational competencies academic standards and instructional curriculum and for this one we have [4:01:10] Director D St Hubert here to walk us through thank [4:01:24] you thank you for policy 601 there are primarily updates throughout um the [4:01:30] policy that just um really include specifically our new language for portrait of a well-rounded Edina [4:01:37] graduate and then align with new language um that also comes with the mde [4:01:43] standards and adjustments that have been made so you'll see um portrait of a well rer D graduate throughout and an update [4:01:52] there and then some clarification around mde language so it aligns in our [4:01:57] standards or in our policy and then we go to the appendix where the visuals um [4:02:04] are updated in both areas um we had our old profile of the Next Generation EPS [4:02:10] Learner in there which has a lot of the same things but we have our updated portrait of well rity dinr and then the [4:02:17] second appendix um really highlights some of our talent de development framework language um that we [4:02:23] highlighted with the board last year are there questions or feedback [4:02:29] for this is a style question but didn't we remove school from almost all our [4:02:34] policies and just call it District under definitions [4:02:40] a we added in school to this policy and I'm pretty sure we've deleted [4:02:46] it from almost all our other policies I think it's the second listing [4:02:51] is I'll go back and check on that we just check because if you look under the general statement of policy it says the school district is committed and it also [4:02:59] is under the purpose as school district so we'll check on that will you just check that yeah thank [4:03:07] you even though I'm on the policy committee [4:03:12] I do have two comments um under on page two under the district [4:03:18] has B so 5B we have list we have combined science [4:03:25] Technology and Engineering I actually think we should list science [4:03:30] separately as a separate subject matter I actually think we talked about [4:03:35] that well no we actually moved it two be we we were like one has to go cuz it was listed twice but the more I look at that [4:03:43] I think it just needs to be a standalone subject matter yes and then Tech and [4:03:48] Engineering can go together but that's my thought um and then my second [4:03:54] question uh is under uh I think listing from missing [4:04:00] from that list in B is music because yes we have visual media [4:04:07] and performance in arts but if you look further into the policy down in F the [4:04:14] elementary schools will offer the following we do list music as a separate entity and also include visual media and [4:04:21] Performing Arts and same with middle school so I think we should be consistent and list [4:04:28] music does that yes does yep so those are just two little minor things I think we should change yes consistency with f [4:04:35] and B and adding the music and the the mhm okay any other questions board [4:04:42] members all right thank you D hbert okay [4:04:47] and then next after that we have uh 602 the organization of the school calendar [4:04:53] and school day which we are going to get to hear from someone we haven't heard [4:04:58] from yet tonight oh oh you're coming oh that's right this is a tag team one um Dr smle [4:05:07] and director Monto stey good evening uh I think this will [4:05:14] be brief we have just a few minor edits to the language of uh policy 602 which [4:05:20] are which you see in there um a couple of updates to Legal references and then we have proposed to [4:05:27] remove the uh e-learning plan due to inclement weather from the appendix to [4:05:33] policy and uh because we post that on the website so not trying to keep an [4:05:39] updated plan in two different places but to have that updated plan on our [4:05:44] website that is accurate that is accurate uh so that's it questions any [4:05:52] questions board members we'll check on that school district one here because I see we've inserted it here too um I did [4:06:00] check style guide and itate oh great thank you for doing that appreciate [4:06:05] it all right thank you thank you to the two of you um and then [4:06:11] last for discussion we have uh 6113 so Director D St Hubert for making sure you [4:06:18] get your steps in before midnight um graduation requirements [4:06:24] and okay at policy we talked about this in two phases and this is phase one of [4:06:30] the update um the update is specific to the appendix and it highlights um in [4:06:36] number four of under in the appendix under two where it says Edina Public [4:06:42] Schools graduation requirements number four highlights the eth semesters for social studies that the board approved [4:06:48] this fall and then um number seven has minimum of 10 semester credits of [4:06:53] elective options um so the reason we're approaching this in two phases is because we acknowledge and want to [4:06:59] assure um that we have a work group that's looking at the elective options [4:07:05] and we have some variables right now the state that are unknown so we don't want to make too many changes um both of [4:07:13] these changes apply to our current eth grade students will be entering nth grade next year and the timing of this [4:07:20] is important so we're providing as clear so we're providing clear communication to them as a register for their High [4:07:26] School classes um speaking to the elective credits in phase two and the [4:07:31] unknown variables they're very specific to the personal finance requirements of the state um we are they're still in [4:07:39] conversation mode and we have a team ready to um continue to engage in the [4:07:46] work we're doing as long as we get as soon as we get some more definitive answers from the state on what that will [4:07:51] look like so again that will Broad in our view um as we have more clarification from legislation on [4:07:57] Personal Finance of the elective options and take us into a phase two where we will be bringing this back for [4:08:03] conversation at a later date in need to update this for Clear communication with [4:08:09] registration in Phase [4:08:14] One um I normally would never recommend this but I'm wondering about do we want [4:08:21] to rec do we want to put in policy um for the graduating class of [4:08:29] whatever these are the standards my concern is if you have a freshman or you have a [4:08:35] sophomore and they check policy they're going to think oh I'm off for my [4:08:41] social studies standards sure and I wouldn't given that we're going to be looking at this again and revising it [4:08:48] again I'm just concerned because it only does affect this one class right now [4:08:53] it's actually out of alignment for a lot of our other students yeah I don't have a great solution other than that that [4:08:59] was actually discussed at the high school PTO meeting right I think we talked about this in the policy [4:09:04] committee but I think the the catalog does sort of kind of address that question does it not when they're [4:09:10] actually looking at the information and so and so forth related to that so even though I understand why you'd be [4:09:16] hesitant but while you're asking for the recommendation is it necessary per se given that the other documents that [4:09:23] students and families are looking at will specifically indicate what is applicable to [4:09:29] them I like your idea though I I wonder if we can add another like underneath [4:09:36] that that says you know currently it says eight semester credits of social studies um either we add on to that one [4:09:44] for you know for the graduating class of such and such but then under the [4:09:50] electives minimum of 10 semester credits of elective options and yeah maybe it's [4:09:56] not a separate line but I do think we need to call it out because even though most people are not reading policy for [4:10:02] their guidelines we do want our policies to be a resource for people [4:10:08] should they look there and it is unclear this is only specific as it reads right [4:10:13] now to that eighth grade class it is for graduating class of that eighth [4:10:19] grade class I think it's 228 it's it's late right um yes and and and moving [4:10:25] forward after that or something to indicate that or at this point I think just leaving it at that class because we [4:10:31] do need to come back and revisit for the phase two part and you had spoken in policy to that that phase two is really [4:10:38] a comprehensive look at our graduation requirements is that safe to say it is we've already started looking at [4:10:44] comparison districts and um digging into what we can yep comprehensive look and [4:10:52] just one clarification here so for that eighth grade class at this time we're [4:10:57] we're saying it's eight social stat credits which the board has voted on and we're taking that credit from their [4:11:03] electives but going forward if in phase two we recommend I'm just going to throw something out we eliminate one of the [4:11:09] health requirements MH would they be grand I mean would they stick with the [4:11:15] 10 or could we come back and say you get an elective credit back does that make sense yeah that [4:11:22] would be really because we'll have certain years [4:11:31] with we don't know typically I can say typically what happens is when a change occurs [4:11:51] all sorry I'm so sorry typically what happens is when a change comes all of [4:11:57] the students that were in a class before that change they're grandfathered [4:12:03] everyone else they're not grandfathered okay so the comp [4:12:08] too much yeah because what you're saying is if by chance something occurred where there was a reduction of a credit [4:12:15] somewhere that would open it up for it not necessarily to be an elective credit that they would [4:12:21] lose and um really complex for 11:14 I think [4:12:29] that's great for the committee to look into I was going to say I have some thoughts in relation to what we're [4:12:35] already learning but yes perect thank good question yes board members any further questions on this all right [4:12:42] thank you MH thank you that concludes our discussion [4:12:48] items we're going to move on to our action items and you're the first one um do I have a motion to approve the social [4:12:54] studies guiding change document so move is there a second [4:13:01] second um director dcer there are no changes to the social [4:13:06] study is guiding change document um in relation to what you've seen at the board Workshop discussion or the last [4:13:12] board meeting so no updates no changes and could you just clarify what [4:13:17] this is for for people that might not be following along yes absolutely so um our Minnesota state standards are being [4:13:24] updated in social studies so we have a social studies curriculum review team um beginning to engage in work of what that [4:13:31] will look like if um resources or any changes need to occur with PD and [4:13:38] instructional pedagogy and that um is Guided by a guiding change document as [4:13:44] the initial phase of that review and the full imple implementation of the new [4:13:49] standards are not till 2627 is that correct yes that is correct thank you [4:13:56] yes thank you any other questions all those in favor of [4:14:01] approving the social studies guiding change document say I I anyone opposed [4:14:07] on the social studies guiding change document is approved do I have a motion to approve the 2024 2025 international [4:14:14] travel recommendations so moved is there a second [4:14:20] second Director D St Hubert okay these international travel proposals have been [4:14:27] brought to a board workshop for discussion and a board meeting for discussion there's one proposal that is [4:14:32] an elementary uh proposal for our Normandale immersion students to have an [4:14:37] exchange experience in France and then the remaining seven experiences are at [4:14:42] the high school in align with different content areas and standards um at the high school um every single one of these [4:14:51] have gone through the action steps that align with policy and um will be [4:14:57] excellent experiences that align with our strategic plan and the portrait of a well-rounded Edina [4:15:04] graduate do board members have questions or comments ments on this action item we will now vote to approve the [4:15:11] 2024 2025 international travel recommendations all those in favor say I [4:15:17] I anyone opposed the motion carries um and it is approved thank you do I have a [4:15:24] motion Oh I thought I heard something do I have a motion to approve the contract renewal for um Dr Stacy [4:15:30] Stanley so moved is there a second second um this is a um action item to [4:15:38] approve um a three-year contract for um Dr Stanley um a little bit of the [4:15:44] background on this agenda item um Dr Stanley's contract is um is ends her [4:15:52] current contract ends June 30th of 2024 um and so in order to pre preserve [4:15:58] her employment here in the district um the board has decided to offer her a new contract um and the contract um is a [4:16:06] another three-year contract which is standard for um superintendent contracts um and um I think I speak for the board [4:16:14] that we're very happy to um have an extension of her or not an extension it's a new contract but an extension of [4:16:21] her tenure here um me Public Schools um I do want to speak to um the fact that [4:16:28] we are in a um Cost Containment phase [4:16:33] and we are offering Dr Stanley um a salary in increase um I um won't speak [4:16:41] for the rest of the board but I will speak for the um fact that um I consider [4:16:47] Dr Stanley an outstanding superintendent um she leads um one of the largest lake [4:16:55] conference um school districts and I think that her salary needs to be commiserate with the leadership she [4:17:02] provides our district um and with other [4:17:07] comp comparable school districts um so although [4:17:12] in from a um if I were to pick timing for renewing [4:17:20] her contract I would not choose to do it in the middle of Cost Containment but I [4:17:25] do not want to devalue um this contract and what she [4:17:31] provides for her school district by not offering her a salary that um is worth [4:17:36] her leadership um so that is why this recommendation is here with this salary [4:17:43] increase um I also um even though it is [4:17:48] um what some might think a large percentage um in the grand scheme of our [4:17:55] budget the dollar amount of what we are offering Dr Stanley is a very small [4:18:02] percentage of our budget and as I stated before I think she's too valuable an [4:18:07] asset to risk undervaluing her as a leader um that being said I will turn it [4:18:13] over to um other members of the governance board if they have anything they'd like to contribute and the rest [4:18:20] of the board after that I think I just want to Echo and add that [4:18:26] leadership is not a given just because someone holds a title or holds a position they actually have to exude it [4:18:32] they have to have people who will come to them they have to have people who will follow them they'll have to PE have [4:18:38] people who will work really hard and stay late until almost 11:30 at night um [4:18:43] that just doesn't happen just because you show up that happens through your dedication and your hard work and the [4:18:49] trust that people put into you to be able to move forward and it what what [4:18:54] was evident to me during our review during in the governance committee um and the value that Dr Stanley has [4:19:00] provided to us in our three years so far and that we know we're going to get for at least at least another three but [4:19:06] hopefully 7 to 10 um it's an investment into our district just like every other [4:19:13] investment that we've made in the value and talent that we have within our district it needs to be commiserate with [4:19:20] all the other Investments that we're making because we can't actually succeed in what we're trying to do without proper leadership thank [4:19:28] you director gaer um without reiterating what's already been said um if community [4:19:36] members haven't had a chance to read the cover letter for this I think it lays out the landscape of where our current [4:19:43] reality was with our superintendent salary um and I just want to say for the [4:19:48] record it's it is it is a tricky timing it's a really tricky timing on this and um as someone who has worked with as I [4:19:56] already said tonight other districts um Dr Stanley's leadership is instrumental [4:20:03] to the direction and some of the things that are happening right now in her district and um I believe she does [4:20:09] deserve this this raise so are there any other comments or [4:20:16] questions just a comment not to reiterate everything but I I concur with um chair alen Berg's comments earlier [4:20:23] and um the the fact that Dr Stanley is a huge asset to this community so um I'm all in favor of [4:20:30] this if there are no other comments or questions we will now vote um all those in favor of approving the contract TR [4:20:36] renewal for Dr Stanley say I I anyone opposed um the uh I'm sorry it's really [4:20:45] late the motion is approved and um the contract renewal um is approved thank you [4:20:52] sorry congratulations you get us for three more years [4:20:59] yay oh [4:21:05] m [4:21:16] oh do I have a motion to approve policies 406 506 514 526 [4:21:24] 66.5 715 807 810 and 902 still moved is [4:21:29] there a second second second policy chair oh um sorry um [4:21:40] so are there do I need to discuss each one of these no is any questions I just [4:21:46] wanted to verify are there any questions since this has come through the policy committee and the board has had a chance [4:21:51] to ask questions at the uh January meeting are there any questions about [4:21:57] any of these policies that are lingering shockingly I do not have a question okay great board chair would [4:22:05] you like to call for a vote then uh hearing no questions we will now vote to approve policies 406 506 514 526 66.5 [4:22:15] 715 807 810 and 902 all those in favor of approving these policies say I I [4:22:22] anyone opposed um the policies are approved and that concludes our action [4:22:28] items yay um are there any board leadership or committee [4:22:34] updates uh legis ative action committee has our day at the capital on March 5th [4:22:41] and we are taking a bus with some students who are on our board down to the capital um to advocate for our platform [4:22:49] and everyone is invited to join us we would love it if we had a big group [4:22:55] supporting Public School financing and uh a host of our other [4:23:01] topics thank you I hear some zippers over there not done [4:23:07] yet um Dr Stanley any superintendent updates um I just have a couple and [4:23:13] actually they were um just shoutouts that came in for a couple of members on our um administrative team and so the [4:23:20] first one that I'd like to re read is for the HR department it says I would like to express my gratitude for your HR [4:23:28] department to approve my request to take a holiday um vacation day related to the [4:23:35] lunar new year um and to also go above and beyond to enable me to feel welcome [4:23:42] within the district this is the reason I choose to work in Edina thank you and [4:23:49] happy Lunar New Year um so that was to um [4:23:54] the the entire HR department and I just want to say they work tirelessly to make [4:24:00] certain that our staff um knows that they belong within our district and um [4:24:06] that is because of director Sonia sailor and so Bravo to [4:24:14] you okay and then um this other one came in um earlier this afternoon it says [4:24:21] hello Dr Stanley and Schoolboard members I wanted to write a quick note to give principal Bass the public recognition he [4:24:26] deserves for the wonderful Vibe he has brought to valew Middle School this year in speaking with other parents and [4:24:35] staff I I know I am not the only one who appreciates his positive presence there [4:24:41] have been hopes most mostly joking that principal bass will hold a retreat for [4:24:48] adults knowing that he we would feel better coming out than how we felt going [4:24:54] in his weekly emails to parents and Guardians leave us feeling more capable [4:24:59] to tackle big things with our children in our world today if we can feel that [4:25:04] way just by receiving one email a week how lucky are children to experience [4:25:10] principal bass on a daily basis he reminds us that students make mistakes [4:25:15] however through education students can learn from those mistakes and come out better human beings on the other side he [4:25:22] teaches forgiveness and importance of moving forward a lesson many teenagers [4:25:28] need and caregivers need to remember is we guide them through these often difficult years for all parties involved [4:25:35] I along with many others are so thankful all uppercase to have principal bass to [4:25:40] be part of our middle schooler support system and to have him as partner in raising uh these sweet little beings to [4:25:47] be conscientious kind well-educated members of society thank you for being [4:25:53] you principal [4:25:59] bass so I did I did send that along um to Patrick to fill his bucket today but [4:26:06] I wanted to read that publicly as well thank you very much um if there's [4:26:12] nothing else um from anyone um do I have a motion to adjourn so moveed is there a [4:26:18] second second all those in favor of adjourning say I I anyone opposed the [4:26:24] motion passes and we are [4:26:35] adjourned