call the meeting to order this is the regular meeting of the school board May 16th 2016 we do have a quorum uh can we start Rick by having you review the agenda for us certainly can uh tonight's agenda uh we will uh remind uh the board as well as community members we had two meetings since our last regular meeting in April we had a special meeting on April 25th where we took action on uh the four field Turf projects as well as some additions at the high school that were not approved at the previous April meeting and then we had some informational updates at May 2nd the board met in a work session at that time we talked again about construction as we geared up for construction and also our next gen EPS which is our strategic initiative moving forward as we look at tonight we have be approving minutes from those meetings we'll also be uh some great recognitions and we'll be recking excuse me we'll try that with no mic that didn't work so well um so anyhow back to the story we had the special meetings we had a work session that the board participated in um the approval of minutes we have some recognition tonight and we will take care of that business as soon as we move through this agenda we do have time for a hearing from members of the audience we have a variety of consent agenda items a little bit different for board anything that's been a routine item we've uh moved to the consent agenda I'll hit those in Greater detail at the time of the meeting again these are routine items that we take care on a regular basis uh many of them relate to fees and activities that are going to occur in the 201617 school year as well as a variety of gifts and field trips as we gear up for the following year uh as relates to reports we'll receive an update from our leadership team around some of the work going on with our construction project as well as planning for the 1617 we have a variety of policies that we're moving forward uh that the policy committee is asking for the board to consider in discussion uh the action items will include the schematic drawings from early Ed uh two items around guiding change documents these are problem solving documents first around the daily schedules that we'll be looking at for the fall of 2017 as well as uh taking a look at new school start and end times as it relates to uh when we start our school day and end our school day as it relates to Transportation we'll start talking about that process those decisions won't be made until fall 2016 we get an update on some leadership positions and then um again move into more work on the construction side of approving some furniture a lot of Technology purchases then the board will move into a closed session as the uh School Board Administration meet to talk about the negotiation parameters for contracts that'll be coming due July 1 2017 and that will conclude tonight's uh meeting great thank you very much before we get into the agenda we have two items that are walked in one is a change to the Personnel recommendations can I get a motion to substitute the walked in personal Personnel recommendations for the ones under 5A so move second any discussion hearing none all in favor of replacing the walked in personel recommendation say I I any opposed that's carried that is now our new Personnel recommendations we also have a walk-in for unrequested leave recommend can I get a motion to add that item 7h can I get a second second any discussion hearing none all in favor say I I any opposed that is passed and that now becomes 7 H don't let me forget it all right next we have approval of the minutes you're getting ahead of me uh we have the minutes from the work session of April 11th 2016 to regular meeting of April 11th special meeting of April 25th and the work session of May 2nd can I get a motion to approve those minutes so move second are there any changes to those minutes hearing none all in favor of approving the minutes say I I any opposed that passes now we are on to recognitions and we have a variety of recognitions at Spring the utopians we'd like to invite them up to the front if they could come forward this is our Southview Middle School academic Triathlon team and this is a first for me and we're going to learn more about what they've been all about um but we congratulate them for um their state champions uh in the area of uh academic triathon [Applause] so what I'm going to ask you to do is just if we can go down the road I'm hand you the mic first and last name and uh something that you really like about being part of the academic Triathlon team uh I'm Calvin stepen and something I like is just getting to practice and try and compete with friends I think it's fun my name is Chloe mayor and one thing that I like is the variety of activities that you do at an academic Triathlon tournament my name is Lucy Yang and one thing that I really like about academic Triathlon is all the puns you can include I'm Michael Dolson and one of the things I like is just making a lot of new friends and bonding with your teammates and you know really getting to know them okay so let's talk about this puns thing right away tell us a little bit about some of the activities that you're involved and there's three type of events as I understand and if you could just talk a little bit about those okay so there are three basic types of events the first one is a combination of two types of faceoffs you have the written portion and the oral portion second type is mind Sprints where they're like short 8 to 10 minute activities that usually involve creativity and creative processes Etc third part is party in a box which has been the hardest for us this year it's where you create a skit in 40 minutes and it's harder than you might think so and you compete with kidss teams from out the Met metro area what tell me a little bit about that uh well we have our regional meets and they are with teams around surrounding the metro area and at our regional tournament there were I believe about six teams each comprised of about five people and talk a little bit about that state championship when you had that experience how did you think you were going to take it to the top or did you have a feel of how things are going well I think that we were kind of we didn't think we were going to win we were kind of not sure but we thought that we did well at some of the things but we weren't so sure but we we're glad that we won so when you got that feeling that you were a champion of this whole thing what was that first feeling that you had uh we did it pretty cool wasn't it yeah well on behalf of the entire school board and administration and uh all the students in the school district we congratulate in this great accomplishment we have a picture that we want uh s p a board members going to recognize you with congratulations you guys I've had the pleasure of watching these kids for three years as my daughter participated as well and they were amazing and it was just such a wonderful thing to see them go to Stage go to the stage uh tournament and then to hear then they won was just we're so proud of them so congratulations you [Applause] guys [Applause] con next we'd like to recognize our math team members uh so I'd ask Coach Alex G to come up as well as I think Kendrick Bell belland is here is Michael here and uh Michael Tang is not able to hear today but coach tell us a little bit about this whole experience and uh a little bit about the team that uh again brought back a state championship some very great amazing accomplishments yeah we came in second this year second to wetta um competitive mathematics is kind of a fun thing to coach because when I was student teaching my advisor said you know you you're going to have to explain math to kids who don't get it as well as you do and coaching is just the opposite I have to be in a room full of kids who get it way better than I do um and Kenrick is one of those kids um and Michael Tang is also one of those kids um both of them had perfect papers on the Invitational event um the top 50 students in the entire state of Minnesota are invited to compete in that event um Michael and Kenrick stood on stage sat on stage and had to answer problems with a timer um and write their answers on a whiteboard and hold them up and it looked terrifying um and Michael won that competition which is called the math bowl um and then Kenrick and Michael also both had perfect um papers for their individual events for the tournament so they tied for first place in the at the state tournament for Minnesota kri can I talk a little bit Yeah so tell me about your interest in math you're a senior what's what is this math going to take you someplace uh what's the next steps well um I'm going to the uh University of Minnesota right now I'm I'm in the College of science engineering so I'm definitely uh looking at something in math uh right now I'm looking to probably double major in math and Latin but we shall see that okay okay so talk about you know the value because it this was all quick response work that you end up doing and it's a lot of pressure it's a lot of problem solving quickly in your head how do you think that's going to help you going forward maybe not just in in college but just uh in your work world or how do you see this as being a real benefit this type of competition well I mean I obviously see myself ending up in a career in math so it will help a lot there and just with anything like um planning for school in a given day or like everything is a problem that needs to be solved to some degree so that that should help with everything and the like the preparation for these competitions is extremely thorough because you have to address every possible problems so that's obviously helpful in all sorts of walks of life great well kenri congratulations coach congratulations another very successful year and we want to take time to recognize you [Applause] officially awesome thanks and finally we want to recognize the Japanese team Japanese team members here here they come coach you want to come right over here talk a little bit coach about uh this whole competition again this is might be relatively new for the community and and the work that they do that's involved in this uh highend competition in the area of Japanese language and actually um high school has been very uh doing really well at the competition called jqu which is at the state level and uh these three students actually participated as this group last year and they didn't couldn't win so this time they had to they had to win right so they were really motivated from the very beginning and I was very lucky to be able to coach these students and then um after winning the uh state level they moved on to the National and they ranked uh 10th among 24 uh teams and all the um many teams are from like California or Virginia they they are all really good schools and so they in that sense they really did really well I think I can feel your passion for this competition so it's great to have you on here in name and uh a little bit about uh the competition that you know how do you enjoy it what what drives you to get involved in this uh my name is leaf rolson and uh I find you know language a fun thing to explore so having an excuse to really be challenged in that field is a lot lot of fun and by proxy when you're studying foreign language you learn about the country that it's from you get to try a lot of food so so it was a it was an enriching opportunity great great um hi I'm Katherine Yang and Katherine talk a little bit about last year you know you must had a passion to come back and do better on this and uh the excitement that uh you had when it was a championship quite honestly uh not really okay she's the special one on the team you're the special one on the team what the no it's just that I've been studying Japanese longer than they have been and I can't really say I'm super motivated to do it because it comes so it's been part of your world it's not really like it kind of comes naturally so and then there's like we have to participate we have to win and then s was like we have to win this competition so I like okay okay so you'll be part of that okay I'm Monica pinkerman uhuh and Monica talk a little bit about the experience of going to Nationals and you knew that it was going to be a lot of quality teams out there what was that feeling going out there and then finding out that you can compete at that high level well when we won J quiz um as Captain I was really excited because we got third last year and then this year we finally made it to first and I was really excited and being able to compete against like the higher level students at Japan Bowl was really exciting because we got to see that there is more Beyond just what is at J quiz because after you finish J quiz and you sort of know what it's like there you're just sort of like oh I want to compete at a higher level I want to do better because for me Japanese is a really big passion and so being able to just have that sort of those people above you to sort of strive for and work harder and better was really invigorating and a lot of fun think congratulations coach team again amazing season we can commend you on a great uh competition here at the state level but also at the national level Great accomplishments let's get a picture [Applause] congratul and finally we'd like to ask Jack Rice to come forward Jack didn't win anything at the state level he didn't win anything at the national level and Jack does have his high school diploma already but we want to recognize Jack as an amazing uh Community member uh Jack has been involved in this community in so many ways at the city government level Jack and I know you've just been a city Advocate and you d a public schools Advocate your whole life pretty much um and uh this past about a year better than a year 19 months and 10 days 19 months in 10 days uh Jack began working with us as we were uh on the project of trying to find land for the uh new bus transportation garage and Jack was instrumental in locating some land and helping us negotiate that deal and volunteered all his time in that it's an area of expertise for him uh when he was fully employed before he became a professional golfer but uh you just gave him your time Jack what was the passion and the interest uh for you to give that kind of time to help us uh accomplish this big task that we had of finding land in the city of viina well you know when I growing up my my parents were always involved in the community activities one of my dad's favorite quotes was from Theodore Roosevelt who said every person should give some of his or her time to the up building of the profession and the community to which they belong and I remembered that and it's you know it's kind of fun it's kind of easy to do really once you get involved in doing it and so that's where it came from and also I if you ever get any of our Christmas cards with our our our grandchildren my wife Edy and I go to the first day of school we're down the road want to see the get on the school bus and of course when they were little kids that was fine but now that our senior in high school of course didn't want to be in the picture this year getting on the school bus that's kind of dorky I guess but you know it's a great feeling to me in America to see how I think of myself going home home there's millions of school buses all over the country bringing these kids to Great public schools and off they go they get on happy and that's you know it's a strength of our country as I think so that's one of the reasons I was here R Well Jack we can't thank you enough I mean it was amazing and the negotiations was not easy it was challenging and you were uh just a master at it and uh on behalf of the board and the community and staff we do want to commend you and thank you for uh your work and I'm going to ask lny wal and Friedman to present uh thank you very much say one more couple more things you can't ever get a politician away from the microphone uh really the school board should be commended I want to this is a team effort and the school board and the staff and Rick and Margo and Eric and our and I will say this also for the school board they were very nice allowing us to bring on board some outside experts that were very very helpful uh the uh working with the world Architects is a great pleasure pleasure we had a a couple of appraisers helping us we had a couple uh other people um really most importantly Barbara Ross our attorney we was a specialist in this particular area which which was very helpful to us all along the way but the board was firm and they were courageous and um they made these are some tough decisions these are tough big decisions to be made and um I can tell Kendrick if he wants something to do he can go into real estate cuz math we need the guys like I happen to know his father very well and his father's very smart in real estate also so Kendrick you don't have to worry about just going to Real Estate it's been my pleasure to my my pleasure to do this I also want to if I may just give a shout out to Kathy Cella who was a big part of this going along and we had coffee 15 times together looking at the site and talking around it's been fun to do it and I'm happy to do it but don't ever if Rick Dron ever call you and says I just want to have a little conversation with you in my office now what what's one little favor I want to ask you that was 19 months and 10 days [Applause] ago de clear next item on the agenda is uh hearing from the members of the audience um we've got a few ground rules for hearing from Members we do have a policy 206 in which we request that people who speak do not uh make comments about individual employees or board members if if you have a question or a comment about individual submit it to uh Dr dresen uh we ask that you limit your conversation to three minutes and we do have I think about nine speakers tonight so if somebody who has come up before you has said whatever you're going to say if you could just keep your comments a little bit briefer that would be great uh we typically do not have discussion on the issues that are presented um in the event that there are questions that come up someone will get back to you we will start with Mr ancelmo thank you I'm glad it's alphabetical I get to get out of here earlier my name is Dario andamo I'm a resident here in Idina we have three kids in Idina Public Schools I'm uh here to uh talk talk about the subject of the turf fields uh I've been uh sort of monitoring and watching the conversation this and been meeting with some of the people on it since it's been an active Topic in the community I'm a occasional uh candidate for public office here and unlike you I've not won so I don't have to do the hard part here but my uh concern is is that there looks to be a a big issue with some potential liability uh having three kids in the middle school and having coached on those fields I understand some of the issues about the heat and temperature um there's some other issues that relate to the toxicity of the chemicals and the products that are in the crumb rubber um you know that's a concern you know it sounds like it's a a minor concern but it's still a concern and I think it's something that's worth giving a second look when I look at the price and the Alternatives and I had a meeting today to look at some of the things that come from companies whether in the field turf or green play there are some organic options that a place like Edina that typically is a leader on these things might want to consider it's more money I'm not big in wanting to spend my money or or other people's money but it's something we want to look at the way I look at it from a business standpoint it's a small investment for a big and important issue our children safety and future liability thank you thank you next will be Miss Flanigan hello yep you're good hello I'm Cammy Flanigan how are you this evening good thank you I'm G to take these off because I can't read it in June and December of 2014 the district engaged in a survey of random households in Idina this survey was conducted by Morris letherman company I'm going to use the December results for reference according to the survey results released when asked what they most liked about Idina Public School 26% said excellent academics 19% high quality quality education 19% good teachers 14% good academics 11% variety of programs 4% Sports 8% scattered 2% unsure when asked about financial management 22% excellent 50% fair I'm sorry 50% good 177% Fair 4% poor 6% unsure when asked about a tax increase for facility needs Safety and Security upgrades came in first at 74% supporting 23% opposing in athletic fields and space improvements came in last with 53% supporting 45% opposing on page six of the same survey there is a graph for the reaction to the plan here are the results of the graph 48% good idea 25% good idea strongly 177% bad idea 8% bad idea strongly 3% unsure when asked with the component leading to the no vote is artificial turf came in at 34% flexible furn Furniture 19% and bus garage 16% on December 8th 2014 at the school board meeting two options for Fields were discussed option one approximately 7.3 million replace grass fields with Turf two at East and two as West Campus replace EHS tennis courts replace Turf and track at kolman option two approximately $5 million replace grass fields with Turf two at East and two at West replace the EHS tennis courts a $2.3 million difference in a summary of board meetings referenced in the January 12th 2015 meeting on the December 8th the board discussed the two options for the fields and the board directed the administration to include additional options in in parenthesis replacement of turf and track at kman only if within the budget on January 27th 2015 the district recommended the $7.75 million option at the May 15th 2015 in the Next Generation facilities concept proposed under invest in District infrastructure outdoor athletic space improvements to improve safety of pling Services address accessibility concerns and meet growing demand for outdoor competition space including repairing or constructing turf fields at east and west campus on May 15th the referendum passed with 3785 yes votes 2869 no votes roughly 10% of the population voted the numbers speak for themselves when you ask the people what they wanted they overwhelmingly said security enhancements artificial turf fields came and last among things desired and in fact when asked would cause 34 4% to vote no the district threw out the survey results and chose artificial turf even though the stakeholders said different I spent 6 hours over two days sitting at an artificial turf information table at Jerry's last week the two comments I repeatedly heard were what's wrong with grass and why won't the school board listen thank you thank you very much next is good Miss AED AET hi um first of all I appreciate you giving me the time to speak in front of you tonight um my name is Katie offet and I am the head girl soccer coach at High School I also come in with a very unique perspective that I'm not only a resident of Edina but a mother of school-aged kids in Edina as well um I would just like to address the um Crum rubber Turf from my perspective as I think it is an extremely unique one um do I think chumb rubber is dangerous absolutely not um to me the fact is simple science isn't there to prove anything other than the fact that it's playable um do I think that there are more injuries on Chrome rubber absolutely not one of the biggest things that I've been seeing um is the argument that um you're more likely to have a concussion with the Chrome rubber um I can speak directly to that I have been um coaching on the turf um at kman since since it's Inception uh same thing at he High School um concussions won't be stopped no matter what the playing surface is um and most of the time concussions are from either elbow to head head to head ball to head um hitting the ground um grass wouldn't stop it um a different form of turf wouldn't stop it unfortunately that's part of the sports that are played on the turf um acl's uh major prevalent injury within soccer um I in fact tore my ACL last summer for the second time playing soccer um and I did it on grass not to say that it doesn't happen on Turf but it is by no means um related or um because of the turf um does the turf get hotter than grass have I noticed it yes do I think it's a problem absolutely not the Women's World Cup team um protested playing on Turf last summer in Canada uh do I think that they had a right in doing so actually I do um the Women's World Cup team plays at such a higher more physical higher rate more physical game of soccer than any high school or college program in the United States they were also playing in the middle of the Dead Heat in July upper 90s was the um the air temperature making the turf probably close to 100° um Edina High School athletics um and Steve cheetah has protocol set forth if it does get too hot um that we would immediately um pull the kids off the turf if that were the case um in my 15 some years of coaching at Edina High School that has never happened um and I don't think that you know I don't see that moving forward we're in the extreme heat from maybe two weeks out of the year for our preseason in August um and we've never had an issue um at that at that um rate um and you know my bottom line my job other than the soccer piece of it is to you know keep the hund and some girls in my program safe um do I think that the Crum rubber Turf is doing anything um to endanger that absolutely not and in fact I hope that my three kids can someday um play on some form of the turf Edie D high school thank you thank you very much uh next is Mr Guston no yes he not okay Miss hacket welcome back thank you hopefully I'll get the microphone thing down one of these days but thank you for having me um my father Thomas Graham Jr who negotiated nuclear and conventional arms treaties for his 30-year tenure and the US government once said to me Clover everything is negotiable you just have to find the middle ground so I sit before you tonight offering that middle ground offering you a solution where Adina Public Schools gets its new artificial turf playing fields and where the parents and citizens of ad that are opposed to the toxic to the use of a toxic substance where their children play get their piece of mind it is very simple because you have stated you cannot wait until the federal study initial results come out at the end of the year to install these fields your community and my 670 change.org petitioners demand that you re at the alternative non-toxic infills and choose one we have done our research on the Alternatives and there is one that is tested and vetted and non-toxic it may not have been around as long as crumb rubber but it also does not pose the same hazards to our children and environment that crumb rubber does it is not made of toxic material it does not heat up the plane surface the way crumb rubber does it does offer impact safety assurances it does offer anti-mold assurances it does offer antibacterial assurances and it is able to be used with our current vendor field Turf it is the NextGen infill it is the future of artificial turf it will bear out to be on the right side of history in this debate green play organic infill is comprised of a proven blend of coconut fibers and cork it provides enhanced foot stability and lower gmax it yields the lowest surface temperatures of any Synthetic Turf available within 20° Fahrenheit of natural grass in addition greenplay is nonabrasive and 100% recyclable greenplay is used by schools colleges and training facilities across the country when called by safe members for a testimonial on how they like their infill the following response was given it's great tremendous amount of advantages we spent 5 years studying this we didn't think it made any sense to use crumb rubber green play would cross cost approximately $30,000 more more per field we at safe believe that it is a superior product to Crum rubber in every way and that IT addresses our concerns as well as the board's concerns and I do not believe this particular product was ever considered by EPS because the vendor rep herself told me that she sent 24 introductory emails to EPS with not one response please look into this further please consider this non-toxic alternative to crumb rubber yes it costs slightly more but how can you put a price tag on our environment and children's la longterm health I for one do not want my children or anyone else's to be the long-term study that has never been done on crumb rubber please take us out of this crumb rubber debate be the progressive leaders you claim to be think outside the box reassess the material as it becomes available to you air on the side of caution for our community's sake protect our children and environment first and foremost use an alternative non-toxic infill it is the middle ground and it is the right thing to do for the safety of a din children and for the prosperity of this great Community if you do not please be assured that we will continue to watch you question you and hold you accountable for these decisions we will remember that when you were presented with a choice to protect our children from intimate contact with toxic chemicals you chose not to chemicals which the leading expert in the US on children's environmental health has said there are no safe levels does that sound like it's good for the kids absolutely not work with us not against us and we will work with with you your hands are not tied at this point we have read of schools that have switched their info from crumb rubber to an alternative as close as 3 days prior to installation they paid the upcharge out of an abundance of costume you can do the same it does not make their original choice wrong it just means that they were presented with new information and they acted on it you can do the same thank [Applause] you next is Mr Northrup hello thanks for having me my name's Jeff Northrup um I'm in favor of uh whatever solution you can come up with that gets us the most playable fields in um my understanding is that we don't have any more green grass space we would love more grass space but we can't make it out of thin air so my understanding is that the best next back next best option is Turf and so whatever you guys decide that gets us the most turf fields is what I'm in favor of um our grass fields um that we have are over utilized right now right now and they are unsafe um this discussion started a long time ago primary primarily from a health and safety perspective um when you walk the district grass fields they are unsafe for play and in fact I believe that last fall a uh primary grass surface was taken out of uh rotation for safety reasons um we don't have enough grass fields to support our current needs we don't have enough fields of any kind to support our current needs and our athletes are at risk uh either due to Old Turf or bad grass pitted Fields whatever I think it's important that I state that I'm not pro chumb rubber by any means I'm not pro cancer um I've got four kids in the program uh that are in the ad Public Schools I've read as much as I can about the Crum rubber debate and all the reasonable Alternatives I can't find any research that uh produces a link between Cancer and crumb rubber not saying that there isn't I just haven't seen it ironically uh research has shown significant links between chemical fertilizers and CA and cancer um and yet there's very little scrutiny that's been placed on the organic um infills I'm not opposed to the organic infills if you guys want to put organic infills on with the same amount of turf fields I'm all for that as long as we get the same number of of fields as we can get um I did find on the field Turf website however that um weeds that grow in organic uh INF Phil fields are treated recommended treatment is with uh chemical fertilizers so keep that in mind um I'll just leave you with an anecdote U on Monday April 4th at recess on a district field uh an 11-year-old that I know I know quite well she broke her ankle uh running at recess on a district field she currently has uh eight screws in her ankle as she broke her ankle uh straight through her growth plate she'll be able to go weightbearing uh this week after she gets a 2-in leg screw taken out of her uh ankle so this is a serious issue the safety issue is very serious to those of us that have field sport field sport athletes and I just encourage you to do what you can to get us the most safe playable surfaces thank you thank you next we have Miss Schuler the Right microphone hi thanks for the opportunity to uh briefly testify my name is Kathleen Schuler and I work for conservation Minnesota I'm the co-director of healthy Legacy which is a public health Coalition working to eliminate toxic chemicals from consumer products and this year we actually worked on a bill at the state legislature it didn't pass but we're going to keep working on it that would create a moratorium on uh new fields and playgrounds that use the Chrome rubber material until we have better safety data um so we're working on this issue because it's an inherently toxic material and it's there's potentially significant exposure for young children and athletes you probably heard about the Yale University study that showed 96 chemicals some of which are carcinogens and um brain toxins are found in this material you I believe you received a copy of a letter from Dr Philip Landen that was addressed to me and Dr landergan is a pediatrician and the dean of global Health at Mount sin school of medicine he's known as the father of children's environmental health since 1993 he has highlighted the unique vulnerability of children to chemical exposures previously that wasn't recognized his letter addresses the health risk to children and athletes from exposure to Crum rubber including including the heat effects and the potential exposure to toxic chemicals which I'm sure you've heard a lot about um the other handout we gave you is our our Billa sheet that highlights some of the studies showing the U toxicity within the material um so I just wanted to quote something um one part of Dr Lander's letter any level of exposure to known carcinogens or neurotoxins is too much there are no safe levels of exposure to these chemical goals especially for children no safe levels the most effective strategy for protecting children from exposure to chemicals and crumb rubber is to prevent the installation of playgrounds and athletic fields that use this material so time and time again we wait for damage to be done before acting um you have the opportunity to proactively protect a dinina Children and Youth from immediate or long-term adverse health effects um I don't know if people remember the issue of the the Arsenic treated wood that was a number of years ago so we put this wood in playgrounds um because it was resistant to rot and the safety of it was question in 1978 but it wasn't taken off of the market in 2004 which meant that there were Decades of exposure to children to arsenic treated wood and I think we have the opportunity to prevent that happening with the grum rubber Fields um you have a lot of money at stake here in your decision- making and all the more reason to use the safest material possible and prevent risks and costs down the road um I'm a grandparent I wouldn't want my grand kids playing on it um so I ask you to take the precautionary path and substitute cork or other natural material for crumb rubber in the new Adina fields to protect children and athletes thank you so much thank you very much next we have Mr Matt Meyer thanks for having me uh I'm the president of the D Football Association I've been part of the football association for going on 11 years have a currently have a 11th grader that plays football and um eighth grade girl that plays on all the district Fields uh during school uh cheer leading um you know when I joined the board all we talked about was our Fields they haven't been updated uh in our facilities uh for 40 years the field down below by the track by the high school you can't even use anymore um so you know I support the school board's decision because I know they've put a lot of thought into this because for 11 years we've talked about it we've asked you guys to upgrade your fields and you guys put a lot of time thinking about you know what should we do how should we upgrade and um you finally came to a decision um and um you know it is a safety issue across the board um mainly on uh grass fields it's also uh uh being able to play and jam a bunch of sports and a bunch of games and practices in on grass fields where you lose about 1,500 hours a uh a year in grass fields from letting them um uh regenerate uh drain outs and a a lot of uh delays and not able to um you know player practice you gain about 3,500 hours on uh turf fields now if it's crumb rubber or synthetic my point of view on that is there's not enough proof that synthetic is the right option we don't know if it hardens over time we don't know um if we're going to have to replace it earlier there's just not enough facts uh with crumb rubber there's over 100,000 fields that have that and there are facts that it is sustainable and it's a good option and a good investment um I'm just going to leave with this a lot of people have said a lot of facts and um you know the accurate thinking is uh science is an art of gathering and classifying facts separate facts from information I've heard a lot of information here but I haven't heard a lot of FL facts here against I've heard a lot of information against crumb rubber but I haven't heard a lot of facts um separate facts into important and non-important assemble important facts in your own way to form a fact-based opinion number four seek councel or your Mastermind alliances which you guys have uh professionals if you're struggling with one two or three so my point here is accurate thinking I believe you guys and gals and the school board have done cuz we we've been talking about tur fields and improving in facilities for years we're finally here and I think you guys put the right time and the Right facts in in place um you're not listening to information or assumptions you're putting the facts down so I appreciate it thank you thank you next is Miss Seaman hello hello this one work yep hi I'm Liz Seaman I'm a mother of three young children and a wife to a lacrosse coach before I get started I just want to say that it takes a lot of courage to stand up here and speak to the school board of one of the top school districts in the state and in the country for that matter I think it's important for some of you to realize that we're not here to give you trouble we're here because we're concerned about our children and we elected you to be concerned too some of us stand to have young children who will play on Chrome rubber for decades we're asking you tonight to consider using an alternative non-toxic infill for the proposed artificial turf fields I personally spoke to the head of a private school in Santa Monica California who after much due diligence decided to use field turf's pure fill which is a cork-based material their decision was triggered by the NBC investigative report push back from parents and his own the head of school's gut feeling that young children should not be exposed to the carcinogens in crumb rubber they ensured that the gmax rating of the pure fill was the same if not better than Crum rubber they said cork infill is being used extensively in Europe with great performance as they have been moving away from crumb Rover for about a decade now they traveled to other towns who had alternative infield fields and said they looked fantastic and we have the option to do that here in the Twin Cities as well in terms of cost it was about $80,000 more about third a third more money on a field that has the same square footage of a soccer field and in addition he said that field Turf offered a great $0 maintenance program for a few years due diligence like this showed that he was listening to the concerns of met so many parents nearly 700 parents friends grandparents and Edina neighbors have called On You by signing a petition to ask for an alternative non-toxic infill if you allow me I'd like to read some of their comments we can't take risks with our children regardless of the cost please listen to all of us who are concerned about the addition of chrome rber Fields why expose kids to a substance whose long-term effects are not known when there are so many viable Alternatives another mom said my daughter got this stuff in her eyes and it was days before her eyes were okay this is horrible stuff one person said I am signing this be because although there may not be substantial proof that the toxins in the turf specifically are the sole reason for medical issues the more little doses of these toxins that we surround our children and ourselves with equate to a lot of toxins with no one culprit that can be clearly identified another person said Edina School District let's be a leader in the country by bypassing crumb Rubber and instead putting alternative infill on our Fields be the district that leads and shows the country what it looks like to listen learn and Lead another person said I am a pediatrician and a parent and I have serious concerns about the use of rubber info finally another person said we are honestly appalled that the school board has abruptly chosen to replace natural Playing Fields with crum rubber despite legitimate environmental and health concerns this is not a matter of helicopter parents being alarmist this is a matter of public health and environmental cost the school board should not take as lightly we ask that the school board please consider the multitude of studies and research in papers and articles being published on a national scale about the actual damage the Crum rubber can do to our land and more importantly to our children children directly find Alternatives think critically about the options and stop the clock from ticking on the school board's Hasty and arbitrary deadline and listen to Edina citizens and parents of Edina students Crome rubber does not belong in or on Edina fields and the school board should find a non-toxic alternative that doesn't make their students sick and that doesn't cause environmental damage to Idina for generations to come and finally one simple but powerful statement we are paying for this why do we not have a say in this we are not trying to stop the turf fields we're asking you to use an alternative non-toxic infill this is a win for the school board this is a win for our children and this is actually a win for field Turf the workers will be wearing hazmat suits with masks when they install the crumb rubber will our children no thank you did Mr Guston show up okay we won't wait for him then um I want to thank everyone for speaking tonight although there we don't have this as a discussion item or an action item we do welcome people's comments U although as I said in the beginning we don't typically respond I'm actually going to break from that tradition a little bit tonight and make some comments about Crum rubber uh my comments are based both on my own observations and participation as well as information that I've received from fellow board members and from Administration but I want to begin by talking a little bit about the history and then I'll address a couple of the questions that have been raised so the district's use of crumb rubber dates back to 2004 with the installation of new turf fields at Coleman and at valy viw Middle School High School uh when the decision was made 12 years ago to put that product in it was an informed decision that represented the best available option at that time both of these fields have been great successes they're popular with coaches athletes and the general population of students they have received greater use than was originally anticipated and have outperformed their specifications they've been low maintenance and have had excellent playability and I do apologize I think I'm going to exceed my three minutes these Synthetic Turf Fields have been in use for a period in excess of the products expected Lifetime and the district has gotten its return on its investment as the field at kman sees considerably more play than the counterpart of the high school we have made arrangement to replace it using funds that are not from the referendum with regard to the new synthetic Fields the district began examining its options with regard to the outdoor program and competition spaces approximately 7 years ago with a feasibility study in 2009 and a task force in 2010 one reason the district began examining its options was because of statements by stakeholders that there was a need for additional field space that our current Fields were not adequate to meet the community needs steady and deliberations continued through 2014 and included obtaining input from The District's athletic department communication commun Community Education Department the community as well as an independent architectural firm and a civil engineering firm in 2014 the district conveyed a community task force to study district-wide facility needs and that's what led to our referendum that task force assessed these studies and affirm the need for additional synthetic tur fields to address safy and maintenance concerns as well as to meet the growing needs for such spaces during this process various board members on multiple occasions have pressed for careful consideration of natural grass as an alternative to Synthetic Turf ultimately through continued discussions and assessment of options District administration and Consultants continued to recommend artificial turf as the best solution to address these concerns board members continued to indicate to the administration that we were were satisfied and that we believe they were proceeding in a reasonable fashion this process culminated with the board's approval of a review and comment document which was then submitted to the Minnesota Department of Education in January of 2015 this document outlined in detail the projects for which it was seeking for which we were seeking authorization from the community the document which was published and is still available on our website notes that the proposed projects would include outdoor field and Court enhancements at both the District's East and West campuses to improve the safety of playing surfaces address accessibility concerns and meet growing demand for such spaces the document then went on to explicitly state that the district intended among other things to convert four worn out natural turf fields with Synthetic Turf to accommodate a wider range of activities following the communities approval of the referendum and proposal in May of 2015 the district proceeded with construction planning having been aware that there are questions raised in other parts of the country about crumb rubber the board facility committee and we have a series of committees set up to work underneath the board our facilities committee including a a working group of committee members began reviewing Turk Turf options in the fall of 2015 in December and January the facilities committee carefully researched and reviewed the existing literature on the subject of Crum Rubber and alternative infills the committee made reasonable efforts to identify and review all studies on this issue a compilation of This research is available on our website the facilities committee's final review of the choice of Synthetic Turf occurred on January 21st 2016 at that meeting a preference for natural grph was again raised by a Committee Member and again the determination was made that the best option was Synthetic Turf the possibility that Crum rber could pose health or environmental risks was discussed as well as considerations of durability cost maintenance and along with the various Turf options in studying the issue the facilities committee came to understand to an understanding that is best summarized in language that was published last month by the Minnesota Department of Health and that is exposure to chemicals in CR Mur is likely to be small and unlikely to increase the risk for any health effect the facilities committee also heard from and questioned the Project's architect the construction manager and a civil engineer on the issue of crumb rubber versus infill options all agreed that crumb rubber was a well- tested safe and appropriate product to use for this project the committee was also informed that the crumb rubber product currently being installed is its third generation while many of the anecdotal concerns and media reports raised have been in reference to Prior generations of the turf the committee was also informed of the continued use of Crum rubber infill throughout the United States and in Minnesota so for example crumber is currently being installed at Blake school and by the we Zetta School District after being reviewed by the facilities committee and in accordance with the original project schedule discussions of the field Renovations came before the school board on December 15th and again on January 25th around that time the district received its first communication from a district resident expressing concerns about the use of crumb rubber to give this resident and anybody else who had concerns an opportunity to be heard on the issue the board postponed final approval of the field Renovations allowing the public the opportunity to express concerns at three separate board meetings the public engagement on this is absolutely appreciated and all comments were carefully considered as is clear from the history I just reviewed the comments while passionate did not raise new issues or provide new is new information because the board had already undertaken a study of these very issues the point has been made made before but I want to repeat it when members of the committee raised questions and concerns we paused we reviewed what was being said and considered whether the district should change course emails have been sent us saying that we should delay or use an different info in evaluating these concerns we had to balance the information available to us with the request being made the information on the district's website addresses many if not all of the questions raised to date so I'm not going to recap all of them one of the most significant factors in in the decision to go forward is that there are no peer review studies that show a link between KB rmer infill and claimed health concerns and there are numerous studies which have concluded that there are no health risks while there are few if any actual peer review studies about the safety and durability there are numerous reports that have verified the safety and availability there was a recent legislative Hearing in which there was a reference to 90 studies that were conducted that said that crumb rubber was safe while some have suggested that we should delay going forward until there's more information that suggestion presents its own set of issues and is presently unworkable as noted in our information it's problematic to delay because we will then not have enough fields to meet the existing needs in the fall much less address the increasing demand further the bids that we have received for the soil work were very favorable and we wouldn't get the benefit of those bids if we didn't start that work now in addition we have no insurance no assurances that there will be any more information available by the end of this year so we have no assurances as to the length of the delay or that the delay will reveal any information that warrants using a different product we did in response to concerns build into the process the option to not go forward with the installation on the west campus in the event that there were definitive conclusions reached in a timely manner and that was done in response to community input the most recent suggestions that have come to the board are that we eliminate artificial turf at the baseball field and then use the savings to purchase what has been described as a natural infill alternative or to Simply substitute a different infill product in this regard however the district has already opted to eliminate the infield baseball turp as part of scope schedule and spending review therefore there are no savings that would be available from that action to apply towards a different kind of infill more significantly there is no consensus that alternative infills are better depending on the infill the issues with alternative infills range from safety issues because the infills are harder physically on the players to respiratory concerns to difficulty maintaining the fields to use issues with rain and concerns about durability and longevity we've read the information submitted To Us by various individuals regarding choices made by other communities but that's only one piece of information that we have to review as I noted other communities are still electing to go forward with chrome Rubber infill and electing to continue using existing Fields ultimately the administration in making its recommendation to the board and the board and relying on Administration and our outside experts had to weigh the various pros and cons what I've just reviewed is not every fact that has been considered but it does illustrate that the process that's been followed and how we arrived at our decisions and actions in April as everyone is aware we have already voted to move forward on the district's recommendations to install artificial turp with a crumb rubber infill at this point we've accepted the bids for the soil work and we've signed contracts for the installation of the fields those actions were taken after each related board vote and were done in the normal course we cannot now cancel those contracts without additional costs to the district as this summary makes clear the board's decision was result of a lengthy transparent and deliberative process our Administration and the board believe that the decision we made is based on the available scientific evidence and is fully consistent with all available guidance from the applicable Regulatory Agencies such as the EPA and the Minnesota Department of Health it's consistent with the decisions being made by neighboring districts at the very same time and it reflects the needs wishes of families in our district again I want to thank everybody for coming and speaking before the board we do always welcome input we do listen to what the community says we just don't always reach a decision that matches what everyone says to us or what when I say everyone what this we have had people tonight come some have spoken in favor some have not again I thank everybody next item on the agenda is the consent agenda is there anyone that wants to remove anything from the consent agenda please don't it I artificial but I didn't hear anybody say that they want to remove anything from the consent agenda uh can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved all in favor say I I any opposed motion passes we are on to discussion and reports if we can pull up the uh leadership report please um tonight we'll uh just give you a quick update on um just what's going on in the district and some uh timely items including um the work on the nextg construction uh this again where we're looking at how do we maximize the scope of the project which which we approved uh uh in the referendum and in the review and comment with the schedules that we need to match as long with spending because we have a dollar amount that we have to dedicate and stay within that budget line um Again part of that spending and scope was to take a look at a um 2% value engineering or adjustments and costs uh as we uh encouraged our Architects to make sure we challenged uh the design teams to get absolutely the most they could out of uh the dreams and hopes of they had for the each uh of the 10 sites we also recognized that as we rolled that forward and costing that we probably needed to dial some of that work back and so uh the administration and the lead construction team which is including our architect and construction managers continue to work on this effort we worked at the board facility meeting uh board facilities committee as well as uh at the May 2nd board uh work session where we talked a lot about those adjustments and those are being made we'll continue to make those throughout the project because we continue to Value making sure that we align a spending and making sure the spending is maximized along with what the intent of the project was so we're staying true to the scope of the project and we're managing the budget uh from a scheduling standpoint the high school construction has begun nothing again with the uh the building itself but a lot of Preparatory work is occurring um at the high school uh this fall we'll be moving on our elementary sites um looking at uh doing some bid work both for the countryside Edition and the conquered Edition and also starting to look at the uh Transportation construction that needs to occur uh later this winter in 2016 we'll begin looking at Normandale Elementary and that'll cause the district office which is where some of the space will be to be moved up upstairs then in 2017 we'll be bidding out Cornelia and moving Cornelia to the uh level of response immediately for 2017 and having construction then at those four Elementary sites as well as a district office uh as we move into the summer of 2017 we'll be heavily working uh on all of our sites uh it's going to be a very busy summer next summer as both South View and Valley View will join in as long as well as the Early Childhood construction this joins the other elementaries the transportation as well as the high school which will be an ongoing project and then uh as we move into the fall of 2017 into that school year we recognize that the high school will be wrapping up its work a Valley View will continue as it moves forward as as will um additional projects going then in 2018 being Creek Valley Highlands and then uh moving into the summer we'll have Creek Valley Highlands South vield will be concluding its work in Valley View we have a substantial amount of work that blends both construction as well as some of the maintenance projects that we put on hold we're blending those together the maintenance projects are uh using our alternative facilities fund so it's a different pot of money as it were and so we're really making sure that we blend to maximize uh the efficiency of the projects when we're taking a look at maintenance things like roof Replacements and Road Replacements and uh our heating and cooling systems all those type of things blending those with the improvements that we want to make on the instructional and safety side so that that's kind of our new schedule it'll take us into 2018 but we do think it's a good doable schedule again as we look forward the middle schools are moving forward with their planning and have another meeting set um for later this week the office uh our schematics on the office district office is being finalized transportation is in that design phase and they're doing some costing we're also starting to look at the property sale of our current facility um again we talked a little bit about what's happening at the high school we know that in the fall of 2016 the high school Commons area will be completed East Campus we began work on the earth work today um we are not pursuing as uh um the chair mentioned earlier tonight uh we're not pursuing the ball field on the lower uh Coleman field that will remain a grass field we'll make some improvements on that as it relates to drainage but not going with Turf um and then we'll also be quite a bit of resurfacing of the parking lots in and around the community center and uh making those enhancements again that's not construction dollars that's part of those alternative facility funds security plans we continue to move that forward we're looking at some temporary facility improvements as relates to security at our elementaries and then also making sure that as we move into construction that we have emergency plans in place with the construction that could be going on in and around the school areas uh as relates to nextg uh later tonight we're going to be asking the board to take action on some leadership positions we have a very busy 201617 and we're busy right now uh at the elementary level we're bringing in a new reading curriculum which is going to be very exciting but uh it takes a lot of training and a lot of extra efforts but it's really going to be good for our young people we're looking at a new master daily schedule for the fall of 2017 we want to work on that we'll be bringing a new world language into all of our schools and uh that again will be new a lot of planning going on in 16 so we can Implement in 17 and finally start exploring the integrated curriculum and how we can continue to grow that forward so a lot of planning occurring in 201617 at the middle level they two are looking at a new daily schedule as it moves to a 68 model looking at revamping its courses and curriculum material they have a design team working on that right now we're also going to be expanding and revising our advising program uh at the middle school so so those things are all in the planning process the high school is very active again they start May term and we'll continue to move that forward the new daily schedule again because it's moving to a 912 School setting we're looking at changing courses and curriculum offerings there too we're looking at advice expanding The Advisory Pro program for our students in grades 9 through 12 making the transition of our n9th grade staff up to the high school and then also doing the planning as it relates to both 9th and 10th grade transition in the fall the district level we have two studies that are going to take action on one study will be beginning the school start and end time study uh that will take us uh from May right into the September season uh we'll be getting input from parents and from the Transportation Company the community staff uh the construction projects will continue to be a priority for us and then uh continue to move forward with personalized learning so all those are major efforts with that in mind um we talked quite a bit uh at various settings in the HR committee as well as uh teaching and learning committee committee also at the work session just about the need to make sure we had enough leadership support to make this all fall together um and so the administration is making some recommendations tonight for an addition of two full-time uh equivalent Elementary Dean type positions to support our elementary principles and site leadership teams looking at a 67 Middle School design teacher and special assignment or tosa to help with some of that work um eight Middle School leadership stiens so we'd have some teachers working beyond the Reg time to support their work and developing some of the programming necessary the high school already has a team in place their part teachers that have some release time during their school day and so we'd carry that forward one more year and also the mayterm coordinator with that in mind there's some funding related to that that we'll ask the board to take action on a majority of that funding is coming through um uh internal funds that we have but we will be seeking an additional $185,000 of onetime funds from the board we do feel knowing where we sit with a budget for this current year that we'll have funds available to help us carry that through but we know with this in mind that we can be successful in implementing those initiatives that I talked previous about but there'll be action at that later in the evening as it relates to leadership positions we want to welcome Tim Anderson will will be the new South viw uh Middle School principal Tim is already engaged helping with some volunteering and spending some time with Dr Bess Russell who is a current Middle School principal but Tim will move into full swing in the very near future asell Katie Mahoney Katie is uh going to be the new Highlands principal she was previously a teacher at Highlands and then went to two different schools to complete her train her uh continued leadership experience and she be coming back to uh Ed public schools and we welcome her as a new Highlands principal we're in the stages where tomorrow we'll be interviewing eight finalists for the Valley View assistant Middle School principal and expect to have that position in place before the end of the month we are wrapping the school year of 201516 around the edge here it's June 3rd graduation is June 4th but our summer programming begins immediately June 7th so it is not a summer vacation time in our school district as the Community Education many of our uh additional programming options for our students all begin right away uh on Monday June 7th it'll be a very active time in our schools for learning as we gear up for the upcoming school year and that concludes the uh leadership report any questions or comments on that otherwise we can move forward any questions I'm curious if you would say some more about the two FTE for the elementary school dean okay so um with the implementation of the two reading um the excuse me the reading uh curriculum as well as we're in the second year of a writing curriculum so we want additional support to help our teachers in implementation of that we're looking at Daily schedules looking at implementing the new world language program those are all significant initiatives that we want to make sure we have enough support for our principles and that work our principles need to be the instructional leaders so we want to maybe have some support as far as getting them out of some of that day-to-day management efforts our elementaries are large schools and so it's a busy schedule for our leadership and our leadership teams at the site level just can't carry all those duties along with the principal so that additional support we'd be splitting up uh probably three and three in some fashion where one uh Dean type position would take on three schools and work collaborative with those three schools and leadership team and then one would work with the other three how long do you see this going on this is a one year these are all one year these are all one-ear leadership positions into that transition thank you y any other questions that on any other questions moving through to policy review Regina are you taking us through the I will take minor number of policies there minor number seems like we're poised to move a few forward um for discussion items the most extensive recommendations for edits are in policy 620 the course credit for learning policy committee had a lot of extensive discussion about meeting the needs of all students and making sure that students had the opportunity for right matching a course that was at their particular level and that's the intent behind this policy is to offer alternatives to students beyond our regular curriculum so the language that is exists in this policy suggests some rewarding for clarity and process and the um appendices are re the introduction is Rewritten and again that text is Rewritten for clarifying exactly what happens and in which order so I just want to pause on 620 to see if there are any questions or suggestions that people would like us to take back to the policy committee um I had a couple questions when reading this policy um one I didn't see an option because we're just talking 912 is that correct Regina um for course credit for learning essentially this is a n this is a 912 because it's what it's what counts toward graduation credits so yes so when a lot of our um courses revolve around AP I'm wondering if a student were to take an AP test um say before the upcoming course that they would need to take and pass it at the levels that we've discussed in here which I believe is 80% um would that qualify them to receive credit by assessment Randy is that a question that you can answer because I don't know or we can take it back to the committee regarding and I'll just repeat the question too if a student takes an AP test prior to taking a high school course that High School course can they receive the credit for the course if they pass the AP test uh that's an interesting question I don't think it's actually come up in the time that I've been here it seems rational but I think we need to take that one back and talk about that we do have some students who take AP tests and never take the course and of course they get that credit uh potentially to transfer at a university level so but do they get the credit counted on their High School trans High School transcript I'm not aware of any situations where we've done that or needed to do that but I can take that back and and we'll take a look at that at the high school with the counselors okay because I think we should take a look at that because I I mean I was reading through all the options of ways that they can demonstrate and that one seemed to me an one that should be considered as a way to demonstrate proficiency um the other question I had we've talked a lot about uh fied and currently I know as a district we have required two fied uh credits for graduation although the state require requirement is one um outside of changing that what about allowing particularly athletes or kids who participate in activities that more than show that they have athletic abilities and could could we not count that if you're on the football team the soccer team whatever it is you run marathons on a regular basis could we not have something that would qualify them to not have to take one of those fied credits I think all of that falls under that umbrella of being a competency based system and so part of our discussion in the 912 program team will be to identify those competencies in areas where students can show competency and essentially if they have the competency then they don't need to do the course or the requirement so part of that is clarifying what are the competencies for these courses what are the ways that students can can um achieve and show those competencies this policy that you just discussed is an important one because what we're saying through that policy is if the students already have that competency then they get that credit so that policy is guidance for us in that realm and moving forward that's one of the conversations we're having with the 912 team is um what are those Pathways or avenues that students can use to show competency um and that will affect course Tak behaviors down the road okay and then the last question I had was just around this concept of a test for receiving credit and you know I know that it said that their teachers could participate in helping to uh put that together I'm wondering what other oversight there would be with that to make sure that we're not creating tests that make it that would that would cause a student to pause and say it's not worth it I'll just take the class um you know and I noticed that we had something in here that said the test had to be no more than four hours which I'm not sure how we came up with for hours i' just I'd love to hear where that came from but I just I don't want us to ever discourage a student from trying if they really feel that a course is not something that they need and they can show proficiency agreed uh the discussion around the four hours came out of looking at what are those maximum windows for things like AP tests and some of our longer at AP tests are about 3 hours and 45 minutes uh the often times uh ACT test plus the writing is in that time window so trying to give our teachers a a similar time window to create an assessment process that gives quality evidence that students have learned everything that they need to demonstrate for that course so thinking up to 4 hours would be a reasonable time window to be able to show evidence of all the things that has to occur in a one-year course and uh the other part of um improving the assessments as part of the uh credit by assessment process is to make sure that those assessments are valid and are reliable and are the same assessments that are used for the course now that part of it has been a journey because we haven't had common Summit of Assessments uh for many of our courses but that's the direction that we're headed and so when a student does credit by assessment we want to be able to use the common Summit of assessment for that process so that's being developed in these courses as the as the requests come in great thanks Randy you know when going to that 4 hour we at our last policy meeting talked about that at length and most of us on the board had agreed that 3 hours is what most AP tests are doing it's what the AP Literature test does and it seemed reasonable so I'm disappointed to still see it there maybe it was just a disconnect as messages get back to you there may be a need for you at some policy meetings where you know we're diving more into things that are in your lane just so we don't have that disconnect but I'm not comfortable with the 4 hours being a time limit for a high school assessment when 3 hours gets you out of a college course for numerous courses I don't see why we need to have our students there for four hours yeah we just um looked at what are some of the maximum time windows for some of the AP tests and um and so that was the maximum time window so we just applied that to the opportunity here I think the most important part of the process is to make sure that the assessment is a valid reliable assessment and it provides high quality evidence that students have learned the requirements for the class now in many situations that may be less than 4 hours but surely not going to be more well the example use act plus writing you know think about how many things are being tested evaluated and that's sort of a whole student that that one score summarizes almost your whole High School career sometimes the way some colleges use it and it's looking at your ability to write it's looking at math it's looking at other um aspects of your education it's a whole aspect we're talking about one course credit by assessment so that was part of our conversation at the policy level as well and most disturbing the history of some of these courses is testing not do you remember Lisa how many hours the longest was the it was long Yeah well yeah and we're not talking four five that wasn't even the halfway point process and so to say we just need to make sure we have the the test be a grid assessment of where the student is in my mind that that leaves the boundary too open which is why 3 hours as an upper limit seemed reasonable and I think I I understand the the if you if you look at some of the other assessment processes like um take a program like International back of laurat and look at their assessment processes there the students there actually have to show multiple times during the year demonstration of understanding and if you if you added up all of the assessments through the IB process which has a very rigorous assessment process um and and they have to have a very very rigorous assessment process because they have to guarantee that no matter where you took the course you have a consistent result but it is many more than 4 hours for something like IB to demonstrate that learning and that's per course so so again I think the most important part is the quality of the evidence in that time window but you're talking about during a course for that sure and when if you count formative assessments almost every hour a student has every day in a given course could be looked at as valuable time it sounds like an argument to say there should be no way to test out of a course to get credit by assessment that's certainly not the conversation we're having and I don't think we should compare credit by assessment length of tests with the cumulative formative and summative test minutes or even just summative over the course of a whole semester it's just not it doesn't seem like that's a helpful comparison so I I would suggest taking the comments back for discussion determine whether there's a reasonable basis um for the recommendation that is within the policy and then move it back to the board which is what we will do are there any other comments on 620 other than what we've covered no the only thing I would mention as I reviewed this again is is um when I look at for example the the types of assessment that this might include which it could include a formal written test a performance-based assessment a demonstration of skills an interview presentation exhibition or and or written composition um my concern is that the way it is written it could be all of those things and a 4-Hour test so again I go back to Sarah's comment that this shouldn't be um set up as a as as a as a hurdle that is set up so that no student would ever try to do this um and because if if that's the case shouldn't even have it um so I I think to me that has to be tightened up so we don't have for example science class where you have to do eight of these things and a math class we only have to do one um it just it needs to be tightened up for me and I would Echo the AP question we mention in the policy that a student who satisfactory completes an an advanced placement International baloria course or PSO um satisfies satisfies the requirements of corresponding to that course of study so so if they have that it satisfies so it would seem to me that an AP test would satisfy that as well so if we don't believe that's the case then we have to rework that as well so those are two of the comments that I would echo which what I'm hearing is it sounds like we do believe that that is the case but this is all material that needs to be talked about back in policy we have to flush a little bit more y yeah the AP thing I just wasn't sure if it meant that you didn't have to take the course you could just take the test that's where I was confused so that's why I wanted Clarity on that one okay I'm GNA move on to 911 um use of Volunteers in school here uh first I want to do I want to thank Stacy Guyer because she spent a lot of time streamlining language in this policy and in the subsequent policies for clarity and to make sure that they are easier to navigate any questions on 911 yes yes yes I do yes um I was reading through this policy as well and um some of the concerns that came up for me and it it really for me is more around the elementary level where you have much more parent involvement in the classroom and it can be anything from I'm going to volunteer for my teacher uh for my students teacher once a week to do math or the room parents are putting a party together and they've asked for volunteers and I've raised my hand yep I'll come in and you know with the party um so when I was looking at the background check part of this you know currently from the way I've seen things happen in my experience is we're not doing background checks for for just the kind of here and there type of stuff um of course anytime that we would go to camp or anything like that parents have to get a background check because they're going to be away with students overnight um so this seemed a little bit um as though we're going possibly a new Direction unless unless we haven't been following things to a te in the past um I just kind of wanted to better understand if if we're going to put up walls for parent involvement with with this process we ask okay any other notes on 911 okay 400 series so there's several policies in the 400 series all of these address personnel in I'm just going to select several that really had no substantial changes 401 402 404 405 and 407 really didn't have anything substantial where there are a few more notes to take a look at is 403 discipline of School District employees there's additional language added for clarification of intent and then procedures for administering the policy are moved to an appendix which is more standard just for policy format and um 406 public and private Personnel data the changes here comply with Minnesota statute updates so those new updates are referenced at the end of the policy and that's the primary driving force behind those changes but looking at this particular group of 400 series policies are there any questions that we should take back before we move for Action next month the question I have is whether given the recent dear colleague letter from the Department of Education we should be considering adding gender identity to the list of protected classes in 401 in 401 thank you I will ask about that any others uh just a minor comment Regina in four on 403 the new appendix maybe putting the title of what that's linked to it's it right right now it doesn't have doesn't State witht yeah we can do that in case someone received that you don't know where what it's what it's connected with makes sense and let's see that's it for the discussion items thank you no other questions on policy we will move on to our first action item the first is the Early Childhood schematic design proposal can I get a motion to approve that so moved I get a second second all right and who is our presenter here anybody going to do a summary Susan uh this is similar there's no changes since the um update that we provided for you last month um in terms of the Early Childhood schematic design it represents the just those big rocks on the first floor of how we want to reconfigure the first floor for a comprehensive Early Childhood space to include some security updates and some integrated C uh classroom spaces for our early childhood special ed our early childhood family Ed and the family center and our School Readiness programs so we would be moving forward with that as a schematic design which will then allow us to move into that next phase of design development with user groups we did did see this before are there any questions I just had a general question um is the the layout of the rooms I'm assuming are are interchangeable to a certain extent if if you have more threes classes or more prek classes that things will be able to move around and flux within the spaces that you're uh creating uh at this stage with the schematic design we haven't articulated those specifically um we do want to make sure that we're building in for flexibility as program enrollments change but uh you know we've sort of kind of when we've done with the schematic design is gone through and articulated um how many spaces we know we need based on current program and then what does it allow us for growth and um but we haven't particularly said this is automatically going to be a 34 program or something but it does will allow us some flexibility obviously I I would say that given the the range of the programs some are not going to be as flexible as others those that are built more for parented won't necessarily align with those that would be built for our um you know three-year-old programs kind of thing any other questions or discussion hearing none all in favor say I I I any opposed motion passed on to the next motion next action item sorry and that is the guiding change plan for daily schedules can I get a motion to approve that so second and Rick are you on that one yeah we again pre previously we discussed this at our April board meeting we also had some discussion a little bit at the work session as well as at our teaching and learning committee again this is is a process for studying our daily schedules and the important thing here is that we match up our elementary middle and high school so that as we look at uh the schedule adjustments we want to make sure we have funding that can sustain any change in uh Staffing models that would come out of these three our high school and middle school have already begun their work on looking at design models our elementary has also begun their work they're probably not quite as far along but it's a blend thing where you're designing program and also trying to get schedule in place because they work together and so this would allow us to frame that uh we would be coming back to the board sometime this summer with an update uh again we would expect to have action on this in the October November time frame uh so this would be new schedules for the fall of 2017 any questions any discussion hearing none all in favor say I I any opposed motion carries next action item is the guiding change plan for district start end times can I get a motion please so second you're up again yep uh this was again uh something that we discussed at the April meeting we briefly talked about it at the May 2nd meeting also at the policy level we had some discussion on this uh there was uh additions put into this guiding change document or the study process some because of the complexity as it relates to everything from uh where some uh schools start early to provide students with additional opportunities for help or breakfast programming um we also have to partner with some of the private contract services that we have so we just added some more language around this study we are hoping to do some uh contacts do some survey samples with parents on the interests and priorities they have uh we'll also be having a forum where we get input before recommendations are drawn uh early next fall again this would be something we likely bring back to the board for further discussion and action on this would likely be an October November plan as well this again everything's in place for next year there's no significant changes in the calendar uh or excuse me in the school start and end time but this would come into play for the fall of 2017 so this does give us plenty of lead time also we're working closely with a couple other school districts that are doing the same type of work uh Burnsville is in the fall of 2016 is actually moving into that and we're working with them closely to see how they did their planning again to help us in our work and they can also be that double back check to make sure we're not forgetting something as we get into these efforts okay any questions any discussion hearing none all those in favor of approving The Guiding change plan for district started end times say I I I any opposed motion passed next we're on to the 201617 leadership positions can I get a motion please so moved second okay and this is I think what you just spent a little bit of time on did I talked about it at the leadership report again I can't stress the importance of making sure that we have enough leadership uh efforts again this is what we have learned from other school districts how they have uh gone into these type of changes be it the oio school district or the Burnsville School District or other districts at a national level Westside outside of Omaha um but when you're trying to make this type of progress in your strategic work and making this kind of change to make sure that we are shaping uh learning going forward we need to make sure we have some of this one-time support available it's been a very effective tool for us when we've been piloting projects through the strategic planning process now that's at the time when we're really looking at design and implementation and we think this extra support will serve us well again a majority of this funding is coming from us what we can do uh in reallocation of current funding everything from strategic planning to uh relooking at some of our staffing funds as well as teaching learning funds but there is a one-time funding request for dollars out of our current budget it'll be carryover funds from this year tuned of $185,000 so would ask the board to support this again we're looking at an opportunity where we can bring some teachers who are close to the action but also have some leadership interests and probably some talents built up that we can bring them on uh onto this work uh to help us in our planning any questions or discussion I was just going to point out that that Rick did contact all of the HR committee members and uh run this byas um my core questions to Rick were what does Margo think for the financing of it and um you know again it supports the core work that we're trying to do as a district so if that supports that I think it's important and I believe Margo gave it a thumbs up so that was the last piece in the puzzle yeah and I I just want to note that as we've watched all the work that Administration is doing trying to get all these things lined up for 2017 we've asked you a number of times whether you need additional funding for positions and so now that you said yes uh are we all all in favor of voting to approve the 201617 leadership position say I I I any opposed motion carried next is the high school upper commons furniture package Margot Susan one of you want to take this one oh wait we got a motion to approve the din High School upper commons furniture package so moved second all right I'll start with the uh process part and then Margo can talk about the dollars part how's that so as you know we had a a a task force of Staff throughout the the January and February that looked at the variety of different student furniture options that we had available from the earliest little kiddos all the way up to the uh high school students and so with that we are moving forward the first one we always said that we wanted to make sure that the furniture arrives in conjunction with completion of construction so the first completion of construction will be those upper comons that you heard about earlier from Dr dressen and so we have some furniture options that the uh the district secondary task force put uh put in place in terms of here's some options that we can choose from and then the site selected those based on those options and so we do understand them to be line with what we're looking at districtwide and in line with budget I'll turn it over to Margot to talk about the [Music] purchasing all three of the vendors um are the purchases are made uh through the State Contractor a Cooperative purchasing uh type of arrangement so again uh similar to um many of our purchases the bidding or the quoting has already occurred and then we're doing it through this uh partnership and it's within the FFN budget any questions any discussion hearing none all in favor of approving the D High School upper commons furniture package say I I I any opposed motion carried uh it looks like we have a series of Technology purchases for I wonder if we can combine these all into one action item what the purchase of Lenovo Chromebooks purchase of desktop computers purchase of desktop computers for pltw purchase of iPads purchase of laptops from CDW purchase of subscription to Microsoft purchase of Lenovo ThinkPad um maybe we can talk about all these together can I get a motion to consolidate all those I would move to consolidate those uh items 1 through 7even under technology purposes purchas sorry and can I get a second second any questions or discussion hearing none all in favor of consolidating those seven into one say I I you opposed all right we're now now can I get a motion to approve the 1 through S technology purchases second all right now so Steve just simple form all seven go every year good evening board every here I I come to you with the um purchases for desktop computers Chromebooks laptops these are predominantly used for our students and our staff they're Guided by our technology Vision the Chromebooks are to help satisfy the e-learning squared initiative which will fulfill uh getting a cart of Chromebooks for every third grade and ensuring that there's sufficient uh Chromebooks for our secondary schools as well the desktop laptops and tablets are for Teacher refresh desktops are on a 5-year refresh refesh and the laptops and tablets are on a 4-year refresh we're um seeing a pretty uh interesting Evolution at our secondary schools where our teachers are really going mobile and starting to use laptops and moving around with those laptops so they take those laptops to professional development to plc's as well as work in their classrooms finally uh the Microsoft subscription allows us to ensure that we have Microsoft operating system Microsoft Office um and virus protection and email for the district the other benefit is for students and staff they're able to receive Microsoft Office for free so one of the benefits of that package I bring these to you uh this time of year so that we can start planning for purchases July 1st and these are all within your budget yes this was presented at uh finance committee and um it's all within because actually Steve did a whole presentation on his uh the the budget specifically around technology which was the referendum that we passed in the fall of 2011 and this all falls within that I just have one question first I want to thank you and your team for all the work on organizing the technology it's moving through quickly we have a lot of staff and students adopting what is new for them so there's been a lot of support needed so thank you for that my question is about the Chromebooks I know we've had some issues in the past with the durability of Chromebooks in this little back on that abolutely and thank you for asking uh we consistently evaluate the Chromebooks to make sure that they're going to provide the best uh product and value for our students for learning but that they're also going to be durable what I'm happy to report this year is that the Chromebooks we're purchasing actually will come with a three-year warrranty with them and so that they will be covered for uh any defects from the products also as um next month we'll be looking to uh discuss the Best Buy web store and what the parents will be purchasing and in that one we're looking to get it built into the price so at the same price that our parents been paying in the past a three-year accidental damage warranty for those parents that means three years if they drop it break a screen or something like that it is covered under warranty so uh it's um I think competition and I think technology is starting to continue to push the price down but the quality Still Remains um strong on the Chromebooks thank you that warranty thing was a huge thing as a having a child who is on her third year of the Chromebook and having to pay I I mean I chose as a parent to buy the warranty when we bought this to have it included now is I'm really impressed so thank you for doing that for our families and students and Steve you're getting feedback I take it from people that the use of these has been effective and you anticipate continued effective use indeed I I believe a couple months ago I did a board presentation we do survey our parents staff and students about the use of e-learning squared the use of technology and uh predom it's been very positive I think uh numbers were 80% of the students gave e-learning Square favorable rating and uh 70 some per of the parents gave it a favorable rating as well but we still monitor it uh one of the topics that we are talking about is uh just making sure that we understand what the needs of the technology are and working with the teachers to ensure that the technology is be is going to be utilized for instruction and be utilized as a positive aspect for instruction and again continue to mitigate the negative aspects of Technology are there any other questions any discussion hearing none all those in favor of approving the technology purchases listed 1 through S Chromebooks desktop computers desktop computers for pltw iPads laptops Microsoft subscription ion and ThinkPad tablets say I I any opposed hearing none the motion passes next agenda item is policy review we are going to take these separately uh can I get a motion to approve the policy 5113 so move there second second Regina do you want to walk us through this I'm sure we saw this last month we did we saw this April 11th there have been no notes or changes since that meeting are there any questions tonight about policy 513 hearing none all those in favor of approving policy 513 say I I I any opposed motion passed next can I get a motion for approving policy 538 so moved Regina can you walk us through this we also saw this last month we did see this on April 11th and it's there are no changes to this since we saw it I just want want to reiterate some of the same comments that we shared from the policy committee and I believe these are comments that other board members have made over time we continue to support field trips we also recognize how complicated this policy is to put together and to implement so we're grateful for the work of Staff members who have put together requests we have many that have come into tonight's packet that give us a heads up on some plan trips um our main goal is concerns about equity and that includes Financial Equity um Equity of access and opportunity for field trips we recognize that there's confusion about non-district sponsored field trips and which are district sponsored so our goal moving forward is to continue to clarify that and safety for students so we've had um thankfully we've had non-incident field trips so that's a good thing but that's because of a lot of careful Planning by staff and chaperon so we do appreciate that we do want to bring this policy forward for approval tonight because we recognize the need for people to plan for 1617 and going forward so that is why it's before us this evening right are there any questions I I could just add that um I'd like to add the the uh thought that this was put together by a task force of Staff members who are very involved in field trips so they had a lot of influence on some of the modifications because they're often the users of it we also had legal counsel take a look at this and finally um we uh did seek uh input between this reading and the last reading for staff to put come and share their thoughts and insights as well and they were supportive of the changes any questions any discussion heing none all in favor oh go ahead I have questions I still have concerns around this policy I appreciate Gina's Regina's comments that it's a work in progress I'd like to make sure that we continue to review this policy um again as I was reading through this other things came to light you know we have the definition of instructional trips versus supplementary trips and and speaking for this parent I've yet to have a child go on a field trip that didn't cost money because no matter what we do if if they have to leave campus on a vehicle which is a bus they have to pay for it so unless they're walking to a park there is nothing that is truly an instructional trip that is covered by school funds so now granted many of our field trips particularly in elementary school are very inexpensive overall but as we've talked about already previously that there are many other trips though that get very expensive very quickly um and I get the supplementary and the optional but some of my questions go back to that I really want us to continue to wrestle with is you know how are we deciding what is sanctioned and unsanctioned I really think we need to get clear language around that and how we determine that um and also at the very beginning of the policy we talk about educational competencies which I think is important but there's times when a field trip or or a camp you know how are we asking them to Define that what's does it is there a particular subject area you know just some clarity around that and also I mean there are fields trips that our students do take that I would consider I don't know what you want to call it a fun trip you know a celebration trip how about that at the end of the year that I don't really feel would qualify as something where they could list out educational competencies specifically but it is done to celebrate our students or something that's fun so I just think we want to be sure that we're requesting this but we know that it's always attainable or or you know are there times when they can you know step outside of that specifically um and then the other thing around um sanction versus non-sanctioned when I was reading some of the language about subc costs so if a teacher will be out of class and a substitute teacher is needed um I thought I read that that was not covered by the school district and I want I was wondering if we're being consistent with that always I'd have to so that that's for a nonp I think that's the non-district sponsored field trips and I would want to go back and reread to make sure that I'm understanding that correctly but in a non-district sponsored field trip that would be the case otherwise teacher pays sub to be in their room on a non-sponsor or the company that's overseeing the project District [Music] okay when that gets to some of this conversation about what's School sponsored and not but if it is school sponsored then back feeling for the adult in the campus makes sense to be part of our school district and if it's not school sponsored that doesn't make sense to have that burden beond the district if it's a trip where the teacher says I'm just not going to be able to be in school because of a a trip that's not going through the district the conversation about what's I'm just wondering if there's still gray area there continues and that's one of the things that was holding up this policy as well as the access question um the reason it's here tonight is because not having a policy was creating a lot of problems for those who are trying to make plans for the upcoming school year so then I do understand that and so even the the field trips that we just approved tonight I'm assuming that they worked under the old policy even prior to this so so perhaps we could just put this on an earlier re-review cycle hey actually it's always on it never goes off never goes off this one this one never goes off and and with the reasons that we've stated tonight so this will continue to be discussed throughout you know the coming months by the policy committee it doesn't cycle off but we've all stated we need to approve this so we have updated language for the current year okay thanks so that people can submit any suggested language changes to the policy committee yes absolutely okay so just just a technical question in in C2 there's a reference to the extended trip coordinator as stated in Section Five Below and I think section five it oh did five go away I think five may have gone away and it's in the appendix anyway so just I'll take a look at it thank you we'll we'll take a look so that would be a friendly the amendment to uh tie those together sure so move all right are there any other questions discussions so with that friendly Amendment all in favor of approving policy 538 say I I I any opposed hearing none policy 538 has been approved you have any wrapup information we' move to close session and oh wait we we added we added we added H unrequested leave recommendations can I get a motion to appr motion to approve the unrequested leave recommendations so move I get a second could I get a second second so we had this last month right um yes there are two notices so one it's a formal notice um indicating that these two teachers are un requested leave because they are tenured and we do not have any current positions they have an opportunity to come before the board to ask any questions they did not so now you're taking formal action so okay reason so are there any any questions from the board or discussion Sarah I think we do a roll call on this one okay garby I Goldstein I Meyer hi Neville I O'Brien hi patl hi Wallen fredman hi all right um before we go to close session I want to note that we have uh recognition of staff list Paul Andress is is uh received a recognition Nathaniel Lindley received the recognition and Jane Tierney received a recognition for their work on behalf of the district and now we need a motion to go into close session pursuant to State Statute 179 A14 subdivision 3 and District policy 206 thank you can I get a motion so move second all in favor say I I any opposed so we are now in closed session we're going to move to room 348 then we'll come back here to uh adjourn the meeting to open and open and close