[0:25] [Music] [0:50] good evening everyone my name is stacy stanley and i am the superintendent for edina public schools and i am really [0:58] excited to be here with you this evening thank you so much for joining us i am [1:03] appreciative of the opportunity for us to learn from dr nick kelly and then have the [1:09] opportunity to join in together in uh the ability to listen to one another [1:15] to hear others perspectives as we seek as a district as i seek [1:21] to garner your your ideas and to garner your considerations that [1:27] we should look at as we move to develop and finalize our 2021-2022 [1:35] return to school plan and so i am going to invite dr nick kelly to [1:42] join me on stage here thanks again uh dr kelly for being here with us if [1:48] this evening everyone what i'd like to say is we know that there are going to be many questions that come in and so [1:55] um you should see a link to a form where you can submit questions [2:01] now i will be moderating those questions this evening i will try to get as many of them in but my goal [2:08] is to make certain that the community voice is present and it's engaged and so any [2:14] questions that i don't get in during next presentation i [2:20] will be working with our communications department to make sure that they get answered via a faq that will be posted [2:28] on our 2021-2022 family dashboard page so again [2:35] i will uh take as many questions as i can uh during the presentation and then [2:41] uh we will make certain that your questions are answered in faq so [2:46] please continue uh to add your questions to the uh form that we have created for you [2:54] so without further ado i'd like to welcome dr nick kelly who is our [3:01] public health administrator and he is an epidemiologist uh having come from a district where i [3:07] didn't have access to an epidemiologist uh you know in [3:12] at my fingertips it has been really great to get to know dr kelly so dr kelly go ahead [3:19] thanks dr stanley it's a pleasure to be here and talking a little [3:25] bit about kovid and some of the realities we're thinking through for the return to school [3:33] so i'm going to do a little background of why somebody from bloomington public health is talking talk about covid status public health [3:39] guidance and then talk a little bit about some myths with covid19 so first off i want to just acknowledge [3:47] this has been uh our third school year we're talking about covet it impacted [3:55] cut a school year short dramatically changed an entire school year and this is our third school year where [4:01] we're dealing and managing with cobit focus on what you can control think [4:07] about how you can manage stress reality it's stressful for parents and [4:12] it's stressful for uh the kids that we're getting ready to send back to school [4:19] and so think through what you can be doing to to manage that and look for the good things [4:24] i always like to talk about look for those helpers the the people doing good stuff in the community [4:30] helping everybody what is public health um it is public [4:36] health is not the the organization that just says you can't do certain things um where public health is as a field as [4:43] focused on what we as society do to assure people can be healthy that's what public health is all about [4:50] is making places for people to achieve their their greatest uh potential [4:57] and bloomington public health has been serving the city of edina since 1976 and in case you're wondering [5:04] why we're talking about coved with the city of edina minnesota statute 145a talks about what [5:10] community health boards do the city of edina is a community health board and we're dealing with the reality of [5:16] preventing the spread of infectious disease which is one of our statutory responsibilities [5:21] towards the city of edina in their residence bloomington public health as i said has [5:27] been doing this since 1976 and our mission is to engage the community in promoting protecting [5:32] improving the health of all a lot of our work is focused on the population edina public schools serves [5:39] we're very focused on young kids and ensuring they have the best future possible and [5:46] feel free to look at our annual report there but it talks about the wide variety of work we do [5:52] and most of that is focused on young kids so sars cov2 that's the name of the [5:59] virus that everybody calls covid covid's the disease sars cov2 is the [6:05] virus that causes the disease and this is a graphical representation of [6:11] what uh electron microscopy and a computer image looks like of sars cov2 [6:16] the virus that's causing us to have all these conversations about cobit [6:22] like many of you i vividly remember when we found the first case of [6:29] covet here in the united states or in minnesota on march 6 and then a few days later [6:36] all of our worlds changed i'm a parent of three little kids so when the governor released the plan [6:44] about what we're going to do with schools i was feeling the same thing you all [6:49] felt uh trying to figure out what am i gonna do with a uh a kindergartner uh trying to [6:55] finish the end of the school year and think about first grade um not not an experience i want to deal [7:03] with again and then we saw these executive orders um really driving [7:08] the change the guidance and how we worked across the state well the good news that i have for you [7:15] is i don't see that happening again this is looking at case rates in edina [7:22] over the last uh it's a seven day rolling average per hundred thousand [7:28] and you can see uh all the way on the left we had that beginning march starting to go up we had that july spike [7:35] in edina where the mayor in the city put in that mask mandate and then we we started the school year [7:42] and we had that really steep rise in november had that additional peak after christmas [7:50] went down and then we saw our march surge with alpha the the b117 variant [7:56] and you can see we're starting to tick back up a little bit we are in a very different place than we [8:02] were at the start of last school year and i think this school year is going to be very different [8:08] we have different tools and processes to manage covid and that's namely a vaccine [8:15] here in minnesota we are doing really really well with vaccine coverage our our [8:21] vaccination rates are are really good in edina [8:26] they are doing really really well from a vaccine [8:32] standpoint so about 81 percent of a dinos population [8:37] over 12 is is fully vaccinated that's remarkable and that is really going to [8:44] help change the trajectory that we're seeing here in edina about 84 of the population has had at [8:50] least one dose now when you think specifically about [8:56] school-aged um edina did some phenomenal work with the [9:01] district with some very engaged and passionate parents last year and 68 of our 12 to 15 year olds in the [9:09] dyno we estimate are fully vaccinated and for our 16 to 17 year olds it's about 82 [9:16] so that is that's phenomenal coverage and 76 percent of 18 to 49 year olds in [9:23] edina we we see is fully vaccinated we do see a bit of a difference by race [9:29] or ethnicity so black non-hispanic and hispanic populations are about 56 fully [9:36] vaccinated so we have good vaccine coverage in edina and that is really going to change [9:43] uh what we see with some of the trajectory and and concerns we have moving forward [10:00] so something else that's changed and become more clear is how covid [10:07] impacts our kids and and the youth in our community [10:12] originally we were thinking it was a minimal impact very little transmission some of those [10:19] realities have changed and our data has become really clear [10:24] kids get covid just as likely as adults and other people in the community [10:29] and we've seen some interesting dynamics change across the country as people were not in the workplace and [10:35] schools were in session and then both things were in session and then things changed over summers um [10:41] we see a bi-directional relationship with with basically community spread and cases in [10:48] the schools and we've gotten really good data over the last school year of what works [10:54] really well to prevent uh cases of covid in the school setting and one of the [11:00] the number one things is to have really low rates in your community and then there's lots of mitigation [11:05] strategies that can be put in place that can really limit the spread of covet in the schools [11:11] and that's what the cdc and mdh guidance is based on is is the evidence base that's been acquired [11:17] over the last 18 months to how we can keep kids in the classroom because that is the [11:22] primary goal is to keep kids in school learning in front of incredibly talented teachers [11:29] and growing with their classmates while protecting them from covid [11:35] we've seen some changes especially in the last week around vaccination and covid and [11:43] the thing i want to highlight here is vaccines are an incredible tool and they are [11:49] incredibly powerful way to change the trajectory of this pandemic [11:54] the the media stories about what's been happening with delta and vaccination are a little bit [12:02] misleading the vaccines are working as as well as we expected they are providing phenomenal levels of [12:09] protection against death and severe illness and they're doing a really good job preventing people from getting sick [12:15] symptomatic illness that's what those vaccines were designed and tested against was preventing symptomatic illness [12:23] hospitalization or death and they're doing a great job at it so while there's [12:29] concerning stories in in the press the the safety the efficacy of how well these vaccines [12:35] work is right where we would expect it to be and they're performing phenomenally well [12:42] from that standpoint though minnesota has provided [12:50] guidance on how to handle confirmed cases of covid and so they're it's important for everybody to realize [12:57] uh minnesota statutes uh it's actually minnesota rule [13:03] 4605.77 actually require schools child care other [13:08] child serving facilities to report cases of covid and many other infectious [13:15] diseases to the state health department so that's one of the things that that will happen at all schools [13:21] that's one of the non-negotiable covid reality it's a reportable infectious disease and [13:28] so cases of covad will get reported and processed as we work to make sure our kids [13:34] and our community stay safe this fall the cdc put out some [13:41] very robust guidance that was updated quite a few times over the last year and [13:48] most recently in early july about how we manage and [13:53] provide safe learning environments for our children it is tied somewhat to some case rates [14:00] and processes for for one of the mitigations they recommend and that's screening testing but in general the rest of the [14:07] recommendations are are there as layers of mitigation to keep kids safe [14:13] mdh basically took those recommendations reviewed it agreed the science is rock [14:21] solid on the best way we can protect our kids while focusing on keeping them in the [14:26] classroom and minimizing those disruptions and so they put out this guidance [14:31] for school districts to follow and we'll highlight some of the key points in that process but first wanted to draw [14:39] your attention to the the metric that the cdc is using to drive [14:45] decision making is based on case rates and so you can get case rates from the cdc it's [14:51] covid.cdc.gov and then there's the covid data tracker and so [14:57] as of this afternoon hennepin county was at 65 cases per hundred thousand which puts us [15:03] in the substantial transmission and so this is a little different than what you've been used to with the cases [15:09] per 10 000 over 14 day period this is cases per 100 000 over a seven [15:14] day period and it's county not city based the reality behind that is recognizing [15:24] um as as much as um we all like to think our communities are [15:29] our islands and they're just these amazing little places um [15:35] edina is not confined to its borders and so staff support staff teachers [15:42] students are coming from all over the metro to work teach in edina [15:50] that's a testament to the amazing district but that also means what stays in the [15:56] diana doesn't always what happens in edina doesn't always stay in edina so the the reality is covid cases occurring [16:03] anywhere in the metro especially within hennepin county have an impact on what's happening in the dyno [16:09] and so a diana's case rates lower than the county case rate but throughout this entire pandemic our [16:16] case rates have been tracking with hennepin county very closely along [16:21] with the state of minnesota we're often under it but when they go up we tend to go up when they go down we [16:27] tend to go down and so using the county metric is a good way to understand what's going on [16:35] and then getting vaccinated as i said vaccination is is the best single thing [16:41] you can be doing right now uh to get uh your kids into school [16:46] and be safe in school and as a parent to three kids i am anxiously waiting when i can get my [16:53] kids vaccinated i will have a kindergartner and a second grader starting school this fall [16:59] i cannot wait until they can get vaccinated we don't have as high of a vaccine [17:05] coverage as i think everybody would like to see uh it'd be great if if all of our [17:10] students were the 80s to 90 percent vaccinated and our community rates are getting that [17:16] close but our our youth rates aren't quite there and so the more you can do as parents to [17:22] get support vaccination it's incredibly safe very effective and it is the single [17:29] greatest intervention we have right now to help you have a normal school year [17:36] so the school guidance as i said vaccination is key that is the cornerstone of this entire [17:41] process the adults around your kids the parents the coaches the the [17:51] anybody else involved in their life on a regular basis should be vaccinated and that that is [17:57] one of the the ways you can make sure cova doesn't enter the reality [18:03] that's something that we do as as i do as a parent with three kids that can't be vaccinated [18:09] is is i work very hard to make sure they're not around parents that aren't vaccinated or [18:15] other adults that aren't vaccinated and we take mitigations to protect them in places we can't [18:21] so the idea of people starting to put on a mask now because we had a certain case [18:27] level my my partner and i've been masking since masks went on we've never stopped [18:36] the best practices for covid operations and they're called best practices because [18:41] this this is the evidence-based data we have for driving how to protect kids in school [18:47] environments based on experiences we've saw in the last two school years masking is [18:53] at the top of that list the ability to have source control and [18:59] then some aspect of protection for the wearer is a phenomenal [19:04] tool to control a respiratory pathogen like covet [19:09] when everybody's masked in a classroom that has a hepa filter you see a dramatic reduction in in [19:16] particles in that classroom and that that means everybody's breathing [19:22] and inhaling cleaner air and seeing less covid in that environment if it gets [19:27] introduced it's a it's a relatively straightforward simple process that [19:35] my kids seem to be surprised when they're not wearing a mask and we go somewhere they're like don't i need to do this like nope nope we're [19:41] doing it outside we don't need to go inside anywhere they seem accustomed to wearing it [19:47] physical distancing is another thing to think through the [19:52] keeping at least that three feet of distance and a little bit um so you don't get some of that direct [19:58] uh droplet reality um and maintaining some of that cohort [20:04] is a good uh strategy and we've seen that consistently [20:09] uh distancing plays an important role isolation and quarantine um they're [20:16] they're hallmarks of public health tools and that is one of the key things that [20:21] we expect to continue to see simply put don't come to school sick [20:26] whether you're your staff or you're a student coming to school sick means everybody else is getting exposed to whatever is [20:33] causing you to be sick that's not saying allergies there's allergies are a reality [20:39] but it is the if you're coming to school with symptoms that are consistent with covid [20:44] um you need to know it's not covid and and getting people out of the school whether [20:50] they're staff or students that have symptoms and out of that environment protects everybody else and then that that's that [20:58] isolation so if you if you do have symptoms you're staying home for a period of times [21:05] that is [Music] a frustrating reality as a parent [21:11] i i know that feeling when you wake your kids up and getting ready to send them to school or daycare [21:17] and there's a cough and then there's not feeling well and you got that 20 30 minutes to figure [21:22] out my entire day just changed [21:27] i'm hoping that is less frequent this school year um with the vaccine coverage but that's [21:33] a reality that unfortunately we know too well um but [21:39] that does so much to protect all of their classmates and the rest of the staff [21:44] in the building screening testing is something that is encouraged especially when we're [21:49] dealing with high rates in the community and that is a way to do [21:55] something similar to test the nest last year where you're doing regular testing to make sure that nobody's [22:01] coming in with an asymptomatic case kids are more likely to be asymptomatic we've seen that [22:07] and we've seen when you do more robust universal testing you can detect prevent and maintain [22:14] operations much better than if it's just the sporadic testing [22:20] and then ventilation i know edina has done phenomenal work in getting hepa [22:26] filters in the classroom changing their ventilation system and really doing a lot of work to make [22:34] sure that the air your students are are in all day is as [22:39] clean and safe as possible and that is something that we we probably don't talk enough about from a public health [22:45] strategy of how important it is it it changes some of those dynamics when [22:52] you're in environment that has really really good ventilation like a school it changes the reality for [22:59] what we're seeing with kobit the frequent hand washing and good respiratory etiquette [23:05] i don't consider that a covid specific thing i think that's just a common sense reality that everybody needs to do [23:10] regardless of covid same thing with cleaning taking care of those frequently touched [23:16] surfaces and doing good cleaning practices is just a no-brainer [23:21] with the different respiratory and influenza like illness or or contact uh [23:27] infectious diseases we see with kids it's just a reality and then [23:32] that's staying home when you're sick so critical to do and our [23:38] our country as a whole tends to have that challenge with presentism of i can get through it i can get through [23:43] it and hopefully covid's helped change some of that of that actually impacts a whole [23:49] lot more people than just you one of the the things that i want to [23:56] help uh get across is kovit is a complex [24:01] challenging reality and whether it's it's listening to me [24:06] or or somebody else think about where they being humble and talking [24:12] about what they don't know what they can't explain and the uncertainty because that is [24:18] pretty pronounced in different times with covid look for those additional changes and [24:24] then think about where you're getting trusted information sources so there is uh [24:30] a lot of ways to get information about coping and the science continues to change and we [24:37] continue to clarify what what's happening what's not happening [24:42] and how that needs to adjust our our response and so if the information that you're [24:49] counting on for for covid does not adjust does not acknowledge uh some of the humility and uncertainty [24:56] um i would encourage you to look for different information um i have had to to talk several times to [25:04] the the edina incident command team about oh things changed um this is this is our [25:09] new science this has changed and you got to be comfortable dealing with [25:15] that things are going to change and there's going to be tweaks and modifications to the process and i encourage you to look at cdc and [25:22] mdh there's phenomenal staff there working around the clock to try and make sure [25:27] they're processing the best science to support decision making [25:33] and then thinking about uh schools and and and myths so there's a handful of myths that we [25:40] see questions on and one of them a group of them deal with masking [25:46] there's concern about co2 or being able to breathe well wearing masks [25:52] we have no evidence for that masks surgical masks and respirators which are [25:58] even more restrictive for for breathing are commonplace in multiple industries [26:04] in our society not just healthcare and surgical masks are worn all over the [26:10] world on a regular basis with young kids to to older adults [26:15] with no concerns about co2 oxygen issues or infections [26:22] and so masking following the guidance from cdc and mdh on the time of masks and how to wear them and clean them [26:29] and the type of material to use there's no safety concerns or or issues with masking [26:36] and the impact on covet on kids um early on it was a it was [26:43] easy to talk about we're not seeing the impact on kids the the magnitude of the impact uh [26:50] kovit has had on kids is pretty monumental [26:55] uh so when you think just in sheer numbers um there's been over 200 000 kids [27:03] that have been hospitalized with in in the last year and a half we've seen [27:10] quite a few here in minnesota number been in the icu the [27:17] cdc estimates we've seen about a little over 22 million cases of kovid and and people under the age of 18. [27:25] and we've seen close to they're estimating between [27:31] three to five hundred deaths in kids under 18. [27:37] that is a shockingly high number um in a really bad flu year we may see [27:44] a little over 100 kids die from influenza in each one of those is typically a [27:49] really big deal in their community i've i've talked to parents uh [27:56] just being hospitalized let alone getting intensive care is often a life-changing experience and [28:04] we've seen more than we would wanted to see [28:09] in our community we've seen uh seven kids or under under 10 be hospitalized [28:16] um with covid in edina in the last year and we've seen [28:22] challenges uh continue to see those challenges with understanding the impact of cobit on the [28:28] long term some of the studies are saying about one in three people that have had cobid [28:34] will have symptoms that last longer than the duration of the illness and we see that impacting pediatrics too [28:42] we also have the the multi-inflammatory uh syndrome the misc uh there's a little [28:48] under 5 000 cases of that that have occurred since covet emerged in kits and so there's a lot we don't [28:56] fully understand about the impact of kobit in kids yes they get sick [29:03] and by sick i mean we tend to not see um we don't see the same hospitalization [29:09] we don't see the same death rates but we see kids getting sick at the same rate [29:15] that adults do and that sometimes means it's easy to say well it's not that bad in kids and so [29:22] those numbers tell us how bad it is and then you think about the number of kids [29:28] in the u.s that have lost at least one parent to covet it is a staggering number [29:35] globally about 1.5 million kids have lost parents uh due to coping it's about a [29:42] hundred thousand here in the united states of of kids that don't have a parent because of [29:48] cobit and then you think about the the mental health um some of the other realities that kids [29:54] are seeing um it's been a profound impact and and that's something [30:00] that i don't think you can take for granted and then vaccination we hear miss all [30:06] the time about well vaccines cause this or it affects my fertility or it does this or that we actually have [30:14] a few mythbusters about vaccines for covid on our website cdc and mdh do too [30:23] simply put our the vaccines we're using to fight against kovid are incredibly safe they work incredibly well [30:30] and they are best tool to keep kids in the classroom if you're like me and have kids that [30:36] can't be vaccinated yet we're counting on the rest of our community to be well vaccinated and [30:42] follow mitigations to keep our kids safe [30:48] so if if you're still looking for getting a vaccine for for your kid or for you um go to vaccines.gov enter your zip [30:56] code and you'll see multiple options for getting vaccinated or text your zip code to 438829 [31:04] and you'll get these are the places you can go get vaccinated we do clinics at our building here in [31:09] bloomington we're happy to help you get registered for a vaccine [31:16] and with that um i don't know dr stanley did any questions pop up [31:23] hi nick thanks a lot um actually a few questions did pop up and first of all nick i will say [31:28] and i will say this to everyone else they with the data that you gave and the studies that you talked about um [31:35] individuals there are a few uh questions where they're asking about the research that supports that [31:41] and so we will make certain that we are able to get you to the research [31:47] that nick is citing the um data from related to uh student deaths so i want [31:53] to make sure that we will get that to you and we'll we'll make sure we get that posted [31:58] um right now we have 110 questions and statements that have [32:03] popped up and of those the vast majority are advocacy for masks or advocacy not [32:09] for for masking and there are questions about will we require vaccinations right now [32:16] the state of minnesota is not requiring vaccinations uh specifically for 12 up that's the [32:23] question and specifically for high school and so that um the state of minnesota is [32:28] not requiring that questions about hybrid learning right now our goal [32:34] is to bring students back to school five days a week to be in school all day long and [32:40] consistently as possible and so hybrid model is not a model that um the minnesota department of education [32:47] has uh expected us to develop this year um you know is a question and it's a [32:53] fair question um is this truly a listening session or is it a session and we already have our plan [33:00] in place what i can honestly say to you is we don't already have our plan in place i am intentionally reaching out to the [33:06] community to garner your considerations to get information from you in addition to [33:13] the emails that i've received because i understand how complex this is as as [33:19] dr kelly shared he had his kids at home learning next to him last year i am a [33:24] grandmother and i know how hard it was on my kids and so i am a person where i i do believe in [33:30] garnering um voice and garnering the information [33:35] around consideration so we do not have that information um pre-planned which um hopefully this will [33:43] help that will help to explain there are questions about quarantining and what that will specifically [33:49] look like in our district we are currently in the process of reading through cdc information [33:55] reading through mdh information putting together a plan that we will [34:01] submit to the school board of directors um that that information will be in the [34:07] board packet and then we do have a board meeting on um monday evening where they will hear the information [34:14] my cabinet team and i will present uh with a recommendation um there's questions about air [34:21] filtration and dr kelly um shared and i was really impressed [34:26] in meeting with eric hamilton the work that has been done to make certain that we have air purifiers in each one [34:32] of our classrooms and they have hepa filters that we have updated um our ventilation systems we [34:39] know how important that is that is really the theme [34:45] of the um questions that are coming uh coming forward and again [34:52] what we will do is we will go through every one of the questions there are some that are [34:59] statements in their advocacy statements but we will go through every one of those questions we will look for those patterns and we [35:05] will make certain that we get those posted on an faq so that those responses are [35:10] there not just for you but for the other folks in our community who are wondering about them as [35:16] well so dr kelly thank you so much for your time this evening we [35:22] really appreciate it i think it is important for our community to have a common [35:27] baseline understanding of information that we are looking at as that i am looking at is the district [35:35] superintendent and um so dr kelly i appreciate you being here um to share that common baseline [35:42] information it's my pleasure that's great so now we are going to transition [35:48] into the next phase of our time together and that is using a crowdsourcing tool called [35:54] thought exchange i am really excited for laura milne to join us laura is a thought [36:00] exchange leader i am also pleased because this thought exchange is a trial it is [36:07] not something that i've had to pay for it is not something that i've [36:12] had to pay the facilitator for thought exchange is a complicated [36:18] technology tool and as talented as i am [36:24] with technology i wanted to make certain that we had someone who was an expert to utilize uh this tool and to [36:31] facilitate this process so i'm going to invite laura on to the stage [36:37] hi dr stanley hi laura it is great to have you here this evening again laura is a thought [36:44] exchange leader she has facilitated many thought exchanges um the whole goal and opportunity is for [36:51] us to be able to hear one another right now we have nearly 600 people [36:57] um my last number that i came that came across was about 507 people and you can imagine [37:04] there's just no way that we would be able to bring 500 plus people together in one [37:10] evening to share our perspectives to really [37:16] provide us with information and considerations that we should look at and so this is a way for us to [37:23] do that to as i shared in my outreach video to eliminate as many barriers as possible [37:30] to ensure that as many members of our community are able to be engaged so laura i'm going to turn it over to [37:38] you so that you can walk us through the process and get us started thank you sounds great hi everyone thank [37:46] you so much dr stanley for inviting me to be here and thank you dr kelly for that really important information [37:52] um my job now is to help bring all of your voices into the conversation i [37:57] can't believe there are almost 600 people in this stream so um what i'd like to do is and offer an [38:03] opportunity for us to have a virtual real-time network discussion um essentially [38:10] thought exchange is we're a community discussion platform and what what it does is it allows you [38:17] to share your thoughts and perspectives on a particular topic in response to an open-ended question [38:23] but also allows you to read and rate the thoughts and perspectives of others so essentially what we do is we [38:30] prioritize the most important things to us as a group in real time [38:35] so in a moment i'm going to share my screen you're going to be asked to respond to a [38:41] single open-ended question and that question is based on the information shared this evening [38:48] and our collective desire to have students safely and consistently learning in person that's the goal what thoughts questions [38:56] or considerations do you have to share so i'm going to ask you to either [39:02] scan the qr code if you have a phone or you can go to tejoin.com [39:09] and type in the nine digit code that's on the screen you don't need to put the dashes in just nine digits [39:15] um and then respond to that question so in your own words tell us how that [39:21] information landed with you and understanding that the desire is to have students safely and consistently [39:27] learning in person what additional questions do you have what considerations or thoughts do you want us to know about [39:35] so after you've shared your thoughts you'll be invited to to read and rate the thoughts of others [39:40] and what we'll essentially do is find out what is most important to most people by looking at the ratings [39:46] and what's rising to the top so i'm going to hit this timer here [39:52] we'll be a little flexible with the time we'll see how it's going i can see there are already 147 [39:57] 150 people um in the exchange we have one thought added so far we'll [40:02] see that number continue to creep up um i'm going to resist the urge to talk [40:08] through this because i want you to give the question some thought and respond to it in your own words [40:18] and i believe the link there's probably a link shared as well that i can't see that you can just click on [40:26] and if you're if you don't have a qr scanner then tejoin.com and then the nine digit code on the [40:36] screen [40:45] so i'll give it another 30 seconds or so and then i'm going to move forward to a visual of the discussion [40:51] happening i just want to make sure everyone has a chance to get in before i do that [41:17] perfect so all right in a minute and a half we've already collected 109 thoughts [41:25] i'm going to click forward here please continue sharing thoughts and questions please continue rating the [41:33] thoughts of others if you haven't done that yet um and we're looking now at a um a live [41:39] visual look at this lovely bird's nest that we're weaving together that's our [41:45] that's our conversation happening as we rate one another's thoughts [41:51] so something to keep in mind is that you we already have over 200 thoughts you don't need to rate them all [41:56] each person in this discussion is seeing the thoughts in a different randomized order so the views are being [42:02] distributed across all of those 240 thoughts so just try to rate 20 30 thoughts rate as many as [42:09] you'd like there are some algorithms that are making this a an equitable process for level playing field for [42:16] everyone's ideas [42:38] so what you're seeing on your screen here the thoughts that are rising to the top are the ones [42:43] that are being highly rated by everyone so right now the number one thought says i agree with prioritizing in-person [42:49] learning that means that everyone who's seen that is rating it quite highly it's rising to the top so [42:56] please after you've shared your thoughts continue to read the thoughts of others rate each thought one to five stars and [43:03] that helps district leadership and dr stanley understand what is most important to most of you [43:31] thank you everyone for participating this is wonderful [43:40] so just about two minutes left in in the exchange we're just doing a short live exchange this evening to capture [43:46] um perspectives coming out of dr kelly's presentation these can be longer multi-day uh [43:52] conversations but we're just gonna do a quick crowd source tonight 415 thoughts that's wonderful [44:00] so continue rating if you've already shared a thought continue reading and rating the thoughts [44:05] of others we've got about a minute and a half left [44:40] so just so everyone knows um tomorrow dr stanley and i will be meeting we'll be going through [44:45] all of these thoughts the 445 thoughts and still climbing um and we'll be uh doing some theming [44:52] and and kind of digging into the narrative and and where most people are agreeing and and where [44:58] people are misaligned and we'll certainly work to share back that information just under a minute left to get your [45:04] final thoughts and ratings in and then we'll we'll take just a couple minutes um and and scroll through some [45:11] of these these higher rated thoughts and i'll let dr stanley speak to that um and then i'll let you carry on with [45:18] with your session so another 30 seconds get your final ratings in [45:36] you can see um these thoughts have shifted around as as we've all gone in and [45:42] starred the different thoughts some very high rated thoughts about [45:48] vaccines okay okay so i'm going to close this [45:55] exchange for now um just so we can take a look at the highest rated thoughts [46:01] close that up thank you so much for participating that's actually incredible participation in six minutes [46:07] um 469 people weighed in sharing 486 thoughts that means that some of you [46:13] shared more than one thought which is encouraged and absolutely allowed in a thought exchange the thing that makes [46:19] things important are the starring um so we had 800 over 8 000 points of interaction [46:26] um amongst all the thoughts so let's just um let's take a minute here i'm gonna move [46:32] to the next slide um and i'll just scroll through a couple of these top thoughts it looks like [46:38] there's a lot of agreement the highest rated thought in the exchange it's important for my child to return to totally in-person learning [46:45] it's better for their mental health mm-hmm so that that's a highly agreed upon sentiment [46:50] um amongst these 469 participants yeah and i would say laura i just have [46:57] to tell the participants that we are in total agreement as well i my goal is [47:04] to have students back in school five days a week all day long and as consistently as [47:12] possible so please know that we are in complete agreement with that that's great yeah very high agreement [47:19] here um in favor of returning to in-person learning um there's a thought here we need all [47:26] staff to be vaccinated you know nick shared that just period [47:32] across the the state we have high up vaccination rates you know um in edina we have high vaccination [47:38] weights we know that you know we have teachers that don't necessarily love any diet um what i have heard is across the state [47:46] uh teacher vaccination rate is very high as well um you know that is there are hipaa [47:54] um you know hipaa regulations that i need to follow as superintendent and so you know [48:00] i've not you know asked every uh teacher to um state whether or not they're vaccinated [48:06] but we know those high vaccination rates are important and our teachers want to be safe as well [48:13] absolutely um and congratulations i did i i'm coming to you this evening from [48:18] western canada but i i caught the stats and it sounds like the vaccination it's already quite [48:24] a high rate in a diner so congratulations on that um highly rated thought here asking for [48:30] consistent communication in a timely manner planning for family staff in the community [48:35] absolutely and that is what this webinar and thought exchange is meant to be to [48:41] really be able to again engage you know with 469 participants [48:47] to get feedback in 8630 ways in such a short period of time is [48:53] pretty incredible and i agree i believe that um that communication needs to be consistent [48:59] and ongoing and please know we are we i will lead the effort in [49:06] doing the best to make that happen um communication went out with a timeline i'd like to share the timeline [49:12] so we have this information that we're gathering and we will go through as laura mentioned i'll be meeting with her tomorrow morning to [49:19] [Music] really go through the details of the report of all the data that [49:24] each one of you has provided us and then i am working with my cabinet team to [49:30] make certain that we are looking again at information from minnesota department of health from the [49:36] minnesota department of education we're developing a plan that information [49:41] needs to be to the board and it will be posted on thursday [49:47] and then again we will be meeting with the board to provide a more deeper dive overview [49:54] which you will be able to watch that or you'll be able to join us [50:01] in the board meeting and then that is the overview and then on august 17th the board will [50:07] be coming together to take action on that plan i realize that we have an early start because of [50:13] the construction this year and yet i believe that it is in the best interest of families it's [50:19] in the best interests of staffs of staff and of course our students to make sure that we get this [50:24] as right as possible um because we don't want to have to turn around and make [50:30] last minute changes and and so much of that is this this kind of [50:35] feedback and you know open communication and i see a lot of gratitude in this exchange for um the work that dr [50:43] kelly is doing and um gratitude for you know prioritizing in-person learning [50:48] and all the work that's being put in place um to prioritize that the data shared [50:54] i think the the transparency and the data shared this evening was wonderful i see um i see that informing a lot of the [51:00] thoughts in the exchange i'm looking forward to doing a deeper dive um tomorrow um is there anything else [51:06] that that i can touch on dr stanley you know i uh appreciate just your [51:13] insights having uh facilitated so many uh thought exchange and again i appreciate the trial [51:18] this was of course really important for our community and for you to be able to come through with that i appreciate that so [51:26] actually i thought we were going to need a lot more dime community in to engage with one another and that [51:31] is the beauty of the thought exchange where we are able to hear from so many people and to get your feedback and your [51:37] feedback on what your fellow you know peers are saying in the community so quickly [51:44] that we are actually not going to have to keep you for much longer than this so again thank you so much for joining [51:50] us i at last count i heard that there were 560 [51:56] plus people that were on this evening and what that shows me is what i have learned [52:01] is i've been out and about in the community edina is amazing we care and what i want you to know is i [52:07] care i care about you i care about each one of your children i don't take it lightly that i [52:15] have that responsibility i care about our staff and we're going to do our very best to [52:21] make sure that we get this as right as we possibly can during a pandemic so thank you for your [52:27] time this evening and continue to look for updates and again the first will be [52:33] the overview that we will submit that will be posted for the board packet on thursday [52:41] thanks and have a great evening