good evening and welcome to the february 24 2014 regular meeting of the edina school board we do have a quorum this evening i'd like to call the meeting to order first i'm on the agenda is the approval of minutes we had a special meeting on january 27th a regular meeting on that same day a special meeting on february 8th and a special meeting on february 10th i had a motion to approve those minutes so moved second moved and second any additions or corrections to those to those minutes has written so you know all those in favor of approving those minutes as written please signify by saying aye aye opposed motion carries uh rick could you please walk us through this evening's agenda sure i will uh first of all highlight just some of the meetings the board did have in february earlier this month the board did meet with the edina minnesota education minnesota edina governing board for a good strategic meeting a lot of discussion around how we can grow our partnership and appreciated the dialogue there was follow-up that did occur from that and then further plans of how we can grow that partnership will continue to evolve in the weeks and months ahead school board met in retreat on february 8th a saturday morning a lot around leadership training dr jim rickebaugh from wisconsin was our facilitator for that training board did a lot of planning and then guided the administration on some next steps on february 10th and the board did hold another work session where we talked a little bit about leadership plans for the upcoming calendar year also talked some preliminary discussions as related to the 2014-15 general fund budget and finally discuss the architectural rfp our plans for an architect who could possibly be leading us into our next phase around potential building project this evening earlier in the evening at five o'clock the board again met in a work session to further review our 2014-15 budget the administration provided an update on that report on that budget and the planning that's going on there is a task force that's working on that we have some place between 750 and 500 000 of adjustments that need to be made on our 100 million dollar budget the administration will continue to work on that we'll be working with the finance and facility committee and bringing a formal plan forward at the march school board meeting the board also then received an update on some of our strategic work as related to both the birth through grade five study and the six through 12 study and that concludes the work that the board has done since the last regular meeting in january thank you rick we do have one correction to this evening's meeting we're going to add an item c2 related to the mechanical at highlands elementary mechanical improvements and that's to accept the withdrawal of several bids that were submitted incorrectly get a motion to insert it's almost second moved in seconded uh margo did i use the correct terminology there do we have to specifically list which ones they are uh i can list them for you if you is that needed for the motion i guess is the question uh yes i believe so okay we would uh accept the withdrawal mcfarland ebert and mizinger okay thank you and we would have that motion prior to the highland mechanical approval okay so we will make that uh c1 and we will make the approval of the mechanical c2 sorry for that confusion also in the consent agenda in the field trips we are adding one additional field trip for the deca group going to uh georgia in april that was already added to the budget but they're added to the agenda and the board already has that including their agenda so it's not really a walk-in but just an informational update since it was first released in a thursday afternoon in the consent agenda thanks rick so all those in favor of uh approving the addition of the highland mechanicals bid withdrawals as item c1 making the highland mechanical approval c2 signified by saying aye aye opposed motion carries the meeting agenda has been amended we do have a member of the audience who asked to come speak tonight we would ask lionel dorville to come up and share a few words thanks lionel good evening board and thank you for having me can you hear me yes okay so i come here today to talk about school expectation because currently i feel that there's a disconnect with my expectation as a parent and the school expectation and the communication or the information that's put out there so currently and the disconnect may be that i'm a guardian not necessarily a parent for a young man at currently at the high school that has faced some challenges and thus far i haven't received not one phone call and if anything i think with my school board run and added push around this topic i would have hoped that i would have made myself a target that i would be contacted if there was any challenges that i as a parent can help the school facilitate which i have not been contacted to date so currently i'll receive a phone call if he's late if he missed a class but there's no phone call if his grades may not meet my expectations or the school expectations of being proficient for college preparation which for me is problematic currently the transparency around what is needed to address some of these challenges and in thinking of the school-based criteria i'm trying to figure out as a parent is it the working memory that he struggles with is it the process speed that he's struggling with is it the non-verbal intelligence or is it deferable intelligence and that's the full iq measure that currently schools utilize to assess and measure some of their work and counselors i know we're limited in our resources but i'm surprised at this point that i haven't received a phone call email or any contact from the school counselor to come in and plan a strategy to assure that we are meeting expectations and i as a parent can fulfill my duty to assist my child in the school in any way shape or form and lastly i think those counseling hours are very limited you have a short 20-minute window where you come in and this is supposed to be an assessment or a disclosure of information where i get an insight into what my child has been going through throughout the school year which i think is limited and not consistent with our mission to help all kids in our off-road vision and mission so i thank you for your time and i look forward to hearing from anyone in the future thank you thanks lionel we will follow up with you after the meeting thank you for your time next up we have a recognitions rick right we have uh two of our staff members who are joining the ranks of the national board certified clares hanson and geneva fitzsimmons they'd come forward please we can recognize them for their extra efforts and the work that they do first congratulations so talk a little bit about what was all involved in this effort to get to that next level performance and why you were interested in pursuing it okay in order to do national board you have to complete a test in which it is in your area of expertise which is spanish for me high school spanish and there was it was a pretty intense exam you had to do listening reading writing you know all different things speaking um a lot of different pedagogical things um as well as write four different um essay papers and two of them were about your videotaped classroom work and then one of them was about following two different students along um along a curricular unit and and talking about the pedagogy behind that and um it was and then another one was actually your documented accomplishments so different things that you've been involved in and how that has progressed to you so it was it was pretty intense so talk about if you look back at the training what's one of the biggest difference makers as you look back from that experience that you you feel like you've gained in becoming nationally board certified i think that i just do everything now with more intent behind it i think it's very easy to come have several years out of school and then get into your routine and sort of just do the same things we're used to doing in the classroom because they have worked in the past and become a little mundane at times and so i think this was a great process for me because it really made me reflect on why i do things and what was the purpose behind that and you know also talk to different colleagues about things and really think about different ways that i could implement new technology and you know different strategies great great i'll ask chair meyer to come forward and recognize you thank you very much congratulations geneva you too joined the ranks and nationally board certified busy things always going on your world and uh what again challenged you to take this on and talk a little bit about what you see is some of the highlights from your experience i was looking for something i had my masters for quite a long time and i was looking for something that i could do in my classroom and this really fit the bill again we had the similar the four portfolio entries that you did in your class and i thought that was really valuable learning along with my students and being able to reflect on what my practices and really improving that the content area that test was hard wow um six areas and it was timed 30 minute sessions and it and it was it was a lot but it really stretched me professionally and i i feel i feel um re-energized and like she said like i'm doing things with more of a purpose now and of course you were the bonus winner because you were also named the 2013 minnesota music educator of the year by your colleagues and that's a very prestigious award and talk a little bit about your passion for music and a little bit about the organization that you're involved in that recognize you for this work um this award was given by the minnesota music educators association which is the umbrella organization for minnesota band choir orchestra classroom music collegiate pre-k and every year they award up to four awards and another middle school director in 196 also received the word so i'm very honored and humbled because when i found out i got it i was um a little hesitant because there are so many wonderful people out there that that could get the award so i was humbled but excited and um what was the rest of your question you know where did you get the music turned on and how do you bring that alive for your kids music came naturally to me growing up i don't know if you guys are aware of this but i am the youngest of 13 and everybody played an instrument and it was i was going to concerts from when i was little so this is i've always known this is what i wanted to do and what i wanted to be and and i love playing with kids every day so that is my passion well again congratulations to you on the national board and also being recognized by your peer at the state level great accomplishment i almost forgot ryan gallagher my goodness ryan gallagher right up front here don't forget me oh my gosh how embarrassing here you drive all the way here ryan congratulations recognized by the dyna magazine as a top teacher in our district it's kind of a great recognition because you're representing a lot of teachers but let's talk a little bit about your work as far as what brought you into education and um your work that you do each and every day for our young people in edina well uh first of all i really am humbled by the award but i'll take it i really appreciate it um you know but just like any educators it's really about the results of the students that excite me the most and that's why i'm in this profession and i'm really proud of the business department we have here we have two teachers and alicia cevino's the other one and we work really hard with our students we prep them for business plans ad campaigns like job interviews and all those skills like that so it's been a really exciting year for for you i don't know if i dodged your question no you did you did a great job but talk a bit about deca yeah and the work because you're you know the point person on that work and it's up to over 100 students a lot of excitement around that talk a bit about first of all maybe what it stands for but then also some of the work that that that organization does for our young people okay well simply put deca is a high school marketing organization and the exciting thing for me is like last year we had students here that won nationals and that was the first as a breakthrough for our program so our students are really excited about that like the program like i said earlier we we spend time learning the content but we also expand and the kids do advertising campaigns and job interviews and business plans they they write them they do the creative visuals and then they they present them in front of you know professional judges so it's it's really fun practicing with them and working with the students throughout the year on it ryan again on behalf of the community congratulations to you there you go congratulations congratulations all three of you next up we have our early childhood presentation uh we actually have an absentee on uh early childhood so uh we're gonna postpone that lori den who is presenting tonight is not able to attend and so we will have them come another night for the board and we'll move right into our other reports if that's okay great me i asked margo bach to join me as we uh plan for our general fund budget again as the board's aware in the community probably as well we have several different budgets that we work from but the one that drives our machine the strongest is the general fund budget and we're going to talk a bit about that as well as the board will be acting later tonight on the capital fund budget i'm going to kind of drive the ship and marco and i will jointly share this the information in the slides uh briefly where we get our source of money the majority comes from the state uh just under 70 percent and the remain uh next area is uh lo about 29 percent local property taxes we are very dependent on the state and um when we get one one and a half percent or increases from the state that is just a certain portion of the pie we also provide a service to students so as you would expect service takes people to provide and so our major expense is salaries and benefits for the staff that provide that service another way of looking at our expenditures is by program area and um we do focus as well while we should the our expenditures on direct instruction or instructional support to students just under 80 percent of our budget is either direct or instructional support type services historically we have had budget adjustment periods and this breaks it out by dollars in the various areas such as administration direct instruction instruction support we also have broken that out by percentage again we do try to keep any adjustments away from the classroom the more consecutive years you have of adjustments more difficult that gets to do but you can see how that has broken out in the last seven years we've already gone through the long-range financial planning parameters for the base financial plan uh we do have uh increase from the state uh for 14 15 projected beyond that for the base plan we're planning on zero percent we have expenditure assumptions the addition of all day every day kindergarten and then we're using this as the kickoff or the framework for our budget discussions and we have been using that since december we are taking a multi-year approach and a year ago we looked at this same graph and looked at 1314 and 1415 and changed the trajectory of where our fund balance would go and that revenue and expenditure gap and that's what we're looking at again this year for january and making adjustments so that as we look out to 1516 making some adjustments in 1415 will help help that multi-year picture so we have we are well on our way in this process we have had multiple updates uh for you as a board at work sessions also finance and facilities committee we've had three or four budget task force meetings we've met with the full administrative principal teams multiple times and gotten feedback on the last six or eight weeks and we are meeting again tomorrow morning and we'll prepare uh final information to go to finance facilities committee next week and ultimately to first reading at the board in march with final approval in april so as we were preparing for the budget and again what we've talked about at the board work sessions as well as at the committee level we recognize that we have some adjustments to make reductions new revenues maybe realign some of the funds we currently have but we're someplace in that 500 to 750 thousand dollar range on a hundred million dollar budget so some placement half to three quarter of a percent adjustment that we need to make we also recognize there's probably some items administratively given our strategic plan that we want to bring back as enhancements or things that will align us better to some of our strategic priorities that could be one-time funding or ongoing funding but in the end of the day we recognize that we need to make sure the revenues and expenditures get to that balance line as we looked at the budget adjustments we used a lot of information that was previously provided to us from other studies that have done in previous years as well as got input from the administration at the site levels as well as the district office identifying a variety of different tiers of reductions that first tier would have the least impact to the classroom that tier four actually not tier two that bottom number has the greatest impact we recognize that probably we're looking at both tiers one and two as we go forward with our planning and tier one again will be some new revenues that we're able to generate and some other adjustments tier two we could have some impact on staffing as we look at that but some of this is dependent again on what we do on the enhancements and so administrative we've identified some areas that we want to grow or improve our priorities with as far as it from staffing or programming we've set our priorities as the highest priority being tier one the second to being tier two and the third being that third tier of two hundred thousand dollars again uh this task force is making the study we provided a brief overview to the board earlier this evening but we'll come back with a formal presentation at the march 17th meeting also this is going to the committee level uh earlier uh early in march the recommendation at this time just in general numbers is that we will probably use all of the tier one opportunities that we have before us as well as some significant tier two adjust uh adjustments which would bring us to about just about a million dollars and then we with that in mind we could possibly bring in some new enhancements either through one-time funding or ongoing the board did provide us some additional direction at the work session tonight but it's early in the game as they say and so we'll come back formally for a discussion item in march 17th and then the board will take formal action at its april meeting we've also got a capital budget that we'll be acting on tonight and demargo did review this uh to the full board at the january meeting but uh again thought we would just touch on this before the board takes action later tonight so i'll ask marco just to walk through this if she could we have completed our capital request project as i explained earlier in my presentation in january the requests were different this year because of education and and what uh when we will be out in buildings doing mechanical repairs and that kind of thing some of the requests were less knowing that a particular building or area might be on the list two or three years from now the remaining dollars we typically spend in the key area for buses building improvement and repairs emergency types of things we also spend for textbooks and for site allocations and also because of the kindergarten additions we will there the portion in review and comment that the department said we can't take out a lease lobby are the desks and chairs of furniture is fixturing equipment that'll come out of capital and then some dollars for strategic initiatives as we move forward with our studies so you see a side-by-side comparison from 1314 to 1415 the major change there is the concord and cornelia furniture and fixtures addition that need to are required to come out of capital as far as building projects and capital approval of that of the four hundred thousand right now we are um there are a few projects that have been approved all are under fifty thousand dollars uh they're they're very small again because the major areas are being addressed by the alternative facilities plan our 10-year plan we also are setting aside equipment dollars and prioritizing there where there is a high need for replacement of our buildings and grounds equipment it's very very old our staff has done a fabulous job of keeping equipment well beyond the useful life and so we're prioritizing and developing a replacement plan for that so the funds and buildings and grounds will be used for a combination of emergency fixes within the buildings and then also equipment replacement yep that covers it so again the board will be acting later tonight on that item and if there are any questions as relates to the budget that we'll take them at this time can you just share with us briefly some of the process that you have gone through in looking at the budgets in terms of getting input and ideas around how to make these adjustments we took multiple steps one is to look back at previous berg processes as you saw in the presentation tonight there was four tiers and we're really focusing on two tiers um we've gone back to previous bergs and saying uh what were in those lower tiers or third and fourth or fifth depending on the year that we did not address or or make adjustments to we also looked at comparative data in other districts uh and where are we spending more per student than in other districts maybe we're making a conscious choice that is something we have wanted to do but just having that conversation and also done multiple levels of brainstorming at a staff level in terms of what i would say across even at our principal and administrative meetings where um what i would call cross-functional team where we're in groups together and brainstorming about uh you know have you ever thought of this at the elementary or the district office that kind of thing did you miss anything margo um your last slide showed on capitol building projects based on request of 400 000 and an earlier slide had said we had three million dollars of requests for 2 million worth of capital projects so is this saying we're only using at this point 400 of that 2 million or is that 2 million what goes for all of the capital projects we're approving 2 million goes for all the capital projects to include buses and textbooks and so the process requires every you know everybody to request that a component of that then is the buildings and grounds okay and historically we've been more specific on what we're recommending at this time so we can get out for bids but again because what we will approve is much lower in dollar amount and the bigger items are in the 10-year plan we're just allocating those dollars to buildings and grounds yeah i was just confused the way that was called out on that one slide so thank you for clearing that up additional questions thank you thank you about every other month i um decided that i just gave a quick update on uh to the board and the community about just a variety of leadership topics that are occurring in the district that may spur some additional comments or thoughts i'm going to ask my colleagues on the sidelines here to also add some comments but we do have a lot going on in the district again we're very focused on our strategic work of this learning being the constant and as we start moving this strategic initiative forward over the next months we'll continue to see how we're going to use time and talent funds and space in new ways to make sure that our students are really ready for the world that lays before them it is about that excellence that we continue to value and so we'll continue to be in that same place of strong uh that strong academic base a lot of opportunities and options available for our students what we're really doing is that continuous improvement of where we need to advance our excellence and so as we look at both at the secondary level and our birth to grade five that's work that we'll be working on driven by our mission so this is some of the excellence that we recognize at the secondary level does not have the birth through grade five these are some of the things that as we do our study we know that it's important that we continue to maintain this value of personal relationships the high quality staff that we look at high expectations in the areas of arts academics and extracurricular that we continue to provide choice and options for our young people that they have opportunities to learn to lead and serve and that they truly are ready for that post-secondary world or that career success that they they strive for and that families strive for when they have their children attending united public schools and that we continue to have a continuous commitment to continuous improvement through best practices as we know that we don't tend to get out front of things but what we watch is what is the best research that is working and then we make sure we implement those best practices in a very successful manner uh as we look at our programming there are really three areas of study the birth through grade five we're in the phase of doing some discovery work on that as we shape some general recommendations the grades six through 12 study we'll have some more defined recommendations as we start moving that forward and we'll actually be piloting some of the programming next fall and then next year in 2014-15 we'll be doing a community education service plan so we'll have all of our programming that we provide this community under one umbrella next generation the work that's been going on uh in our next generation work has been again information we're now into this input and recommendation development and then we'll start formally acting on those recommendations in may and june in the birth through grade five area i might call on randy schmazel or gwen jackson just to give a brief update to the board and the community about some of the work going on with the birth through grade 5 study so our birth to grade 5 committee has been looking at feedback that we receive from staff through a survey feedback from the community and feedback from our students in grades three four and five and we have been looking at the data from that those surveys and looking for themes themes from the surveys that will then translate into options that we'll be able to take back to staff to students and to the community to get feedback in addition to surveying our staff community and students we've also been visiting other schools and looking at unique programming that they have to offer we've also been examining the research in education in the early years up through elementary school and have looking at innovative articles so the inputs that are going to impact the different kinds of options that are being produced come not only from the survey but from research and from these innovative schools so we are right now at the point where we are trying to bring all of that information together and generate some of those options that we can then take back out and gather some feedback around the grade 6-12 study again had a series of 15 different areas of action i'm actually helping facilitate that we have an implementation team of six teachers and three principals who are driving these recommendations around how we make sure our young people are ready for the global world they're going to live in so we're taking a strong look at what that means around world languages and the competency levels around that we're taking a look uh at personal development leadership skills and how we continue to say what are the competencies we're looking at versus a degree but what really do we want our students to be competent in and what do they want to what do we want them to master so they leave udine public schools that we know they'll be successful we're taking a look at the personal um learning and advising saying what are some pathways that might not be that typical one that's uh right now available but would be helpful for that student going forward so we're looking at different ways of delivering instruction different ways of giving students opportunities to experience their learning we've got this unbelievable staff that we know will help support them on that and what they're also doing is looking at new ways of advising and supporting our young people in their learning and their families because as we get into more choice and more options as we get into looking at how we want to make sure our students understand their strengths and how they learn best and what their possibilities are we recognize it may take some more support to do that so looking at a network of support that can help advise and be beyond that counselor and so we'll be piloting some of those programs the fourth area that we're looking at is the focus on students and staff collaboration the power of team we're seeing the benefits already in some of the piloting work we're doing earlier this school year we heard about the high school's wednesday collaborative time where the students are really working together during a pause in the day to help each other with their learning but we're also doing more around staff collaboration uh at all the schools and then finally how we use our time and our space our grade level configurations our schedules our school year how do we make sure that that really helps align to the success of personalized learning experience for all of our secondary students so we'll have some general recommendations coming forward around advising around the world language competencies these recommendations be coming forward in april uh the e-learning square plan we've actually been i think we're in our second year of that model i'm going to ask steve buettner just to give an update on where we are with this this is that bring your own device but steve if you maybe take a step back and then take a look at some of the next steps that might be evolving uh through the task force work that your team's been on certainly thank you as a district we are looking at e-learning square is actually uh i like to think of it as more of a a stool that has three primary legs on it one of them is the device the other one is the professional development and then the digital instructional content last year we did piloted at the ninth grade and then this year we we again did e-learning squared at sixth and ninth grade uh we are reviewing the success of that project and looking at what's working and what's not working we've surveyed our students our staff and our families we're collecting that information and we're tabulating that right now and then we're also working closely with the teaching and learning department the leadership at those schools to figure out what's our next what's the natural evolution of those programs and we hope to have recommendations soon for um our evolution of that project thank you steve then you can see the other areas that will probably be bringing recommendations where we'll start piloting around alternative instructional models starting to think and go study deeper into schedules looking at grade level configurations what's the best way to deliver instructions to the success of our students so looking at that at the secondary level and then looking at some alternative and new ways to use our school facilities to enhance learning uh within the schools where we are in this whole process is it is a design flow process so that the first two stages around discovery and interpretation that's really where our birth through grade 5 study is at this point i would say our secondary study is in that experimentation study phase where they're starting to finalize recommendations we'll be doing some pilot and prototype work so that by the spring of this year they'll be soon moving into the evolutionary stage where we start taking the learnings that we've had and start exploring that on a piloted basis on a phased-in basis some other leadership updates we continue to have negotiations going on with our local teachers union there continues to be very collaborative spirit about it and ongoing discussions we remain very hopeful and appreciate the problem solving that's going on by both the district leadership team as well as the union leadership team that's moving forward on that but we're hopeful that soon we'll be able to bring that to a resolution point we did have a tentative agreement earlier this year but need to move forward on that from a leadership standpoint uh later to date the board will be approving the change in status of jason doctor jason currently is the assistant principal at south view middle school and his first love remains in the classroom and so jason has requested that he uh he's been a very successful experience as an assistant principal at southview but has decided that he'd like to return to the classroom so we're going to honor that request we'll have an opening at that level we continue to take a look at different ways of making sure we are having learning going on even if the weather doesn't cooperate in minnesota and as i said we are not going to let any weather beat us so we're getting creative on how we're going to address both the extreme heats whether it's hot or cold or whether the snow comes of what's the best way we can continue to provide services so we're looking at a variety of fronts we've received quite a bit of input from parents staff along the way but we'll have a formal plan that we'll be presenting to the board in april and may it might be may before it's all finalized just again on better ways we can make sure the learning continues if minnesota is going to have this kind of winter again this is not something that's been typical to us but we're going to respond accordingly there was also press earlier this month as related to food service and serving of meals if students didn't have lunch money available while the district has some protocols that we continue to that would limit that that is not occurring we continue to work very closely with families if the family does not have or the student is short money as it relates to receiving a meal and we work very closely with the family on a personal relationship around that we have not denied any family of the school year that as far as getting a meal because we know that that nutrition and learning they do go hand in hand we'll continue to take a look at that protocol so as we roll that out in 1415 there'll probably be some clarification around that as well another area that we're studying as a school district administration of the student fees is the fees charged to students that are part of just the regular ongoing school year and so we're assessing again what we need to do to make sure that we are aware of those fees if those fees are appropriate making sure there's a check and balance system in place around that and those recommendations be going through the policy process uh earlier again this month i think was last week minnesota department of education released some a new report around graduation rates i'm going to ask chad schmidt to make a few comments related to this new report yeah good evening everybody so uh in 2012 the state i think i'm on the state of minnesota um altered the graduation rate calculation method that they were using it prior to this districts and states around the country were using uh their own basically way to calculate graduation rates so now there's a universal way that has really come from the feds to the states and it is a four-year cohort model so what we do is we track all students starting in ninth grade who should then graduate in four years students who come to us in tenth grade who should graduate in three years come to us in 11th grade who should graduate in two years come to us in 12th grade graduate in one year and this is then an accumulation of that so the four-year graduation rate that you see on there is reflected back on our class of 2013 that graduated in june and 92 percent of students met that four-year graduation rate and then we look back at another year of time so the five-year graduation rate for the class of 2012. so that's students who graduated in four years plus students who took a little extra time to finish uh gret uh that rate is 97 and you see a similarity for the uh six-year graduation rate too the trends in our four-year rates um low 90s basically so the last five years 90 90 93 94 last year and then 92 this year we are continuing to dig into that data so disaggregating it by student groups to see how different groups of students are graduating as well as some of what we need to do is track individual students so there are some students for whom we don't know necessarily what happened when they left us at grade 10 they did not register in another minnesota school and so their status is at an unknown so some of the work on our side is about trying to track each one of them you know so now it's about going backwards a little bit to track each student but more importantly it's about going forward making sure we track each student when they leave our system where are they going next and having some idea about um what's next in their in their education so your last comment would lead me to believe that someone who started here in ninth grade and maybe left in 11th grade they're still counted in our graduation rates in the year they would have graduated if they had stayed here as long as they did not go to school in another minnesota school and have a record on file so a student who um left our school system in let's say spring of junior year as you said kathy and we thought they would come back for the senior we didn't know any different but they didn't come back for their senior year and they didn't register in another minnesota school so their record is is basically an open case of not knowing where they went next but if they the family moved to colorado or florida and they finished off their career their high school career there then our records would look like that child didn't graduate from high school unless we find out that information that's partially correct so we could we could code them as moving out of states but if we only knew that they were there here in spring and we thought they were going to come back and fall and they didn't come back in the fall then it's sort of left as an as an open case so that's part of what i think our improvement is around tracking students when they exit our system so that's a step for us to take internally but kids who bounce around from high school to high school but within the state of minnesota they're counted as graduated from the last place that they are on a minnesota school record that's correct okay thank you complicated yeah so those folks are not in the denominator for our statistic so the last students that she just described yes you're correct they are not counted in our um in our account okay so if we had a lot of kids leave because they weren't doing well in the system that would still make our numbers look good potentially if they registered in another minnesota school and and were there as of the last record then um yes they would not be counted against our graduation rates is there any way to figure out or look at why people are leaving and whether it's a positive or a negative reflection on the school so again i think that's part of our tracking as students are leaving getting some clarity about not only where are they going next but why are they moving out of the system historically the burden's been on the school that they go to to request the records and keep us posted this now is putting a little more burden on this current school to try to track that student and again if they just leave and we don't know it it's a challenge so we're just again schools throughout minnesota are kind of wrestling with that same issue right now thank you just in regard to tracking our students do we track or gather any data on resident 273 students that potentially leave the system at some point or choose not to go to our schools do we do any analysis and why so not universally sarah but i think so if we talk to the school principal or maybe a school counselor they would probably have a fairly good idea of most students why they're no longer attending one of our schools okay that's where the personal relationship was with the student and with the family but as a system that data is not necessarily collected in a way that we could disaggregate and analyze okay thank you chad yep thank you questions about strategic plan or some leadership work going on that haven't been covered yet well finally i'd just like to recognize cheryl erickson cheryl was a long time teacher in the edina public schools and died earlier this month after a very challenging battle with cancer cheryl was a physics teacher at southview middle school she was known as mom to students to staff she that's the type of passion teacher she was she would do whatever it took for someone to be successful and it was her colleague or whether it was a family or a student she was going to be there for them and she battled very hard with this cancer and lived the fullest life she could she had moved from physics to looking at working with more of our students at risk because she had such a deep passion to make sure all kids could be successful last saturday the her church community recognized her and it was just a wonderful memorial service about her life and it was so powerful because there were so many students that came back and they had a time of open sharing and the stories those students told about the impact mom or cheryl had on them was uh it was really something and so we lost a great colleague in cheryl but the good news is always is that she shared much of her life and her skills with us so we know that that spirit that cheryl had for young people and learning is being carried on she'll be missed we send our condolences to her family and um again recognize cheryl erickson born in 1959 died in 2014. thank you rick next up we have our consent agenda get a motion to approve so moved in a second second moved and seconded to bring the consent agenda to the floor uh rick could you please walk us through i will there are a regular personnel recommendations both for our k-12 program as well as our community education services we do have a variety of recommendations because this is the time when we are requesting leave actions by our staff as they look at the 2014-15 year we have our expenditures payable for uh february and then the amended school board meeting date that we now have set for april our commendations and then again the generosity of our community with a variety of gifts and finally is that field trip that the deca team orion's team is going to georgia in april and that would conclude the consent agenda items thank you dr dressen any discussion uh regarding the consent agenda any item anybody like to remove the consent agenda prior to its approval seeing then all those in favor of approving the consent agenda as presented please signify by saying aye aye opposed motion carries uh first item on our action agenda we heard about it earlier this evening in a presentation the capital budget project request can't a motion please so moved it's been moved and seconded uh to approve the capital project request for 2014-2000 um any discussion on all those in favor of approving the capital project request for 2014 2015. please signify by saying aye aye opposed motion carries uh the next item is the uh creek valley mechanical improvements get a motion please second it's been moved and seconded to approve the creek valley elementary school mechanical improvements this uh went out for bid a little additional background please margo yes we had a very competitive bid process for uh creek valley and for highlands also um we had seven bidders for creek valley and um would recommend the uh successful bidder of qe contractors for creek valley elementary school as you will i'll just add this for both the agenda items coming up both are above the the construction budget we have talked about that at financing facilities last year we were very fortunate in our mechanical bids for concord that we came in under budget when the market around us was coming in about higher was somewhat of an anomaly and the the market is very tight out there districts are doing projects like we are and also adding uh facilities for all day everyday kindergarten that kind of thing so the market is very very tight so we are seeing that on this side we did discuss it at length at finance and facilities committee uh the priority for our tenure facility plan is to replace the mechanical systems at all the 18 months worth of work that or 24 months worth of work and prioritization that is the priority we are already seeing benefits of the results at concord for having an updated hvac mechanical system in terms of quality of learning environment in terms of air quality and so the recommendation is that we move forward with these what we will do and are doing is evaluating other projects that are within the 10 million dollar plan for the two two years and um specifically one area you know some of them will be smaller and we'll continue to see how the other smaller bids come in and we're hopeful that maybe we can gain some dollars in some other areas as we work through the buildings one area we will put on hold at this point in time will be the valley view parking lot for a combination of reasons one it it's a sizable project and the other is that because of uh some of the study work that we're doing in terms of where might facilities go for middle schools and high schools and with the secondary study and the facilities planning it may make more sense to hold and we talked about this at finance and facilities hold on that until we know what if and what if anything we're going to be doing at the site so that will be one option that we're looking at and we will the administration will continue to look as quotes come in report to finance and facilities and make sure that we stay within budget we do have a little room potentially in this falls levy but not a lot of room so we're going to use a combination approach and that's very descript but it's for both agenda items and i i figured the question might come up because they both are over the the initial budget and is are the the overruns in what we've budgeted and what they're coming in is is it holding a similar percentage for other school districts in in sort of the western suburbs yes it is and actually the um what we did for highlands because that was the first one that we actually received bids on and um the range that we received from vendors at the time that day um without okay and then we had um three vendors withdraw their bids for errors in their in their bids we thought we'd better wait and see how creek valley bids come in to see if that was just kind of an anomaly for highlands or if that's the trend for our district and um and in the meantime other bids have come in in other districts and so it's it's where this market is right now thank you any familiarity with this uh contractor or uh references uh yes there was familiarity with our architects and i also believe eric has worked with them too okay there's no questions or comments regarding the creek valley elementary school mechanical improvements which came in at four point seven million all those in favor please see him five saying aye aye aye opposed motion carries uh next up we have two motions regarding the highlands mechanical the first one is the highlands mechanical uh bid withdrawals motion uh bring that to the floor so moved second moved in seconded uh just touch on this for a second margo please as i stated earlier the we had three bidders which is is unusual in a bid process that submitted bids and then afterwards found heirs in their bed and requested adult withdrawal and so you see those attached in your materials one is mcfarland construction company ebert construction company and meisinger construction company and the recommendation is to approve their withdrawals the the area was sizeable and i think we would put the district at risk holding them to meeting that bid and we do want to have a good performance and a good project done and so would recommend approval of their with do we think this is anything other than just a totally weird coincidence that we have three bidders on one project who all after the bids are open say oh by the way we made a huge bidding mistake so one was an individual type error the other two had a same contractor you know because they have subcontractors and the subcontractor had given two of the vendors in an incorrect number so two of them um yeah they were using the same resource and information so that's why two of them had had it does this reflect the volume of projects happening around the metro area or the state or is it just simply a coincidence i haven't i haven't seen three in one bit i i think it's just a coincidence that day we also had somebody walk in at like ten seconds after two o'clock that day which and they'd been in the i mean it was just a very unusual day might have been a full moon i'm not sure thank you margo so the motion of the floor is to accept the removal of the bid withdrawals uh can you have a motion to approve i'm sorry can i get a vote all those in favor of approving the bid withdrawals please signify saying aye aye opposed motion carries next up we have the highlands mechanical approval the bid came in at 4.4 million he had a motion so moved second moved and seconded for the highland elementary improvements any additional discussion all those in favor of approving pleasing highways saying aye aye aye opposed motion carries uh next up we have purchase of data and internet lines and service and emotion please so moved second it's been moved and seconded uh steve buettner any thoughts to share yes thank you the internet is becoming quite a a critical resource that we um use on a daily basis what we're doing is ensuring that we have two lines of connection to the internet so one is through ties which we we have in a contract right now this is a secondary line that we'll be using not only to provide redundancy but also drive traffic along those lot that secondary line as well our hope is is that that relieves some of the pressure on our on our main pipe and also then provides a backup in case we have internet outage a prime example is last week during certain times of the day our internet connection was going up to 600 to 900 megabits and so we are consuming quite a bit of internet right now which is good but we just want to make sure that it's always available especially as we move more and more towards an anytime anywhere learning environment so do we have two um different connections now or is this a new thing that we're adding this will be we have two existing connections now and so this is um one that we'll we'll put into place more as a redundant one as opposed to concurrent ones so are we so what i guess what i'm saying is are we replacing a provider that we already have or is this like adding it something new no uh this is uh this is utilizing our existing line i'm sorry so we'll have two lines we have two lines and we'll continue to have two lines what this allows us to do is uh file for e-rate for both of our lines and get reimbursement for both of our lines and is our are we going with the same person who gives us the second line now or is the person that we're taking is that new is gonna be a new provider that's a great question we are going with the existing one and the and what we're doing is so we'll continue with ties we have been using oet and we'll continue using oet uh they have a fiber connection to our buildings and so that reduces the cost associated with the connection so we pay for our internet service or the amount of bandwidth then also being connected to the internet and oet and ties both provide us fiber connections of the internet we'll continue to use both of those companies so if one of the issues is that the line goes down if we're using the same provider do we run the risk that that second line goes down no i'm we have two specific five pieces of fiber one coming from ties and one coming from the office of enterprise technology so if one of our connections got cut then the traffic gets routed over the secondary the other line so having two lines allows us to have a failover let's increase our capacity for data at the buildings that's correct was there a need to increase capacity because i thought within the past year we had approved additional funding to already increase capacity we it not only does it provide redundancy but it also increases capacity and so it provides the both goal was redundancy that's correct am i reading this right that comcast but for the transition would have been cheaper that their their price quote came in cheaper than than oet but they did not provide information of what would be that connectivity cost and so their proposal was that we would use cable connections in order to do that that generally is not as reliable that's something we're not familiar with and then there be associated costs for the hardware to sit to connect that on it and so yeah their their price for the internet service was cheaper for the the amount of internet traffic but they were very vague and they didn't include the total costs of what it would be to connect the pipes if you will additional questions or comments and the cost of 37 800 is for a 12-month period that's correct okay uh additional discussion all those in favor of approving the purchase of data internet lines and service placing by saying aye aye opposed motion carries next up we have student policy 502 in a motion please so moved second so moved and seconded we've seen this before there haven't been any significant changes i understand since we last saw it anybody want to uh walk us through our review uh just a quick review the policy was brought before the board at our meeting on january 27th to with the primary change of guidelines being removed from the body of the policy and placed in an appendix at that meeting there was a recommendation that there be reference to the appendix within the body of the policy so that reference has been added in paragraph 4c thank you regina any discussion by referencing it in the policy does that mean it has to go to the board before the appendix can be uh no no the intent was to provide a look here a guideline or i guess a road map so if someone wants to find that appendix to know well i don't see any of these guidelines in the policy it's just acknowledging the fact that there is an appendix so they would know to look there i thought last time there was some concern that given the importance of doing searches that perhaps that should be in the body of the policy itself rather than just a reference to it certainly take a look at it at the policy committee meeting we can look at it yeah that was the question that was right it was thank you and i will say that the event we did have an event where we piloted that and it was random testing every so many students it was very successful we did not have any students who had any issues at the dance and so we thank the students and staff and our liaisons officers for successfully implementing it but i heard from my son that some people requested to be tested there it is the experience that's right and which test are you referring to breathalyzer i'm sorry i'm sorry yes sorry that way they should be able to figure it out it's the breathalyzer test that we're again making sure our dances and the school after that evening event would be successful for our young people additional discussion so what i'm hearing is we're going to prove it now but we're also going to send it back to policy and ask that question again and i have that note okay david that makes sense sure all those in favor of approving student policy 502 as amended please signify saying aye aye aye opposed motion carries that's it for action items this evening uh discussion we have uh policy 533 who from policy would like to walk us through go back okay i have i won't go through all the detail but a general overview of the placement of 533 up for board review there's a wellness committee that has been reviewing wellness for the district the scope of this policy is specifically looking at food nutrition and physical activity the wellness recommendations that have been discussed with teaching and learning have a broader scope so this policy is focusing primarily on nutrition and activity there is language that we can see here that suggests a lot of rewording as well as an amended appendix so the policy committee has already had quite a bit of discussion about what's here we look forward to adding any other recommendations from this group that we can take back before it comes back to the full board for approval and the fact that it is limited to food nutrition and physical activity for this particular policy is a lot of the the wording in this policy is required by federal law to receive the various grants and to comply with the various food programs for our school lunch program so we're complying with federal law so that's why it's it's more limited than a whole student wellness policy okay i guess my question was around the appendix um which i from what i understand is new appendix one it's revised i mean there has been an appendix in the past but then these guidelines are similar but and i was just i know at the top it says that we will adhere to the following standards and i wanted to verify if those standards were as cathy just said federal mandates or if some of these are things that we're trying to achieve you know when we're talking about you know trying to find fresh and locally sustainable foods um you know i'm not sure that's always possible so what but that's what the language says will be offered when possible so realizing that okay that's a an aspiration not necessarily will always be able to be accomplished and in this case by intention not putting in a recommended percentage or minimum quantity and then and just for example in our own policy committee we had a discussion about 2d about the kinds of milk that you can offer and we worried it wondered about that and questioned that and it is specific to the federal regulations and that's the milk we have to re to supply and we're not allowed to supply any other so okay right great um maybe a silly question but how is this policed or who's the who are the food police who is the food police over there that would be under transportation buildings and grounds food service and finance we do have a student wellness committee that has administrative representation student representation and parent representation we randy and myself co-chair that and we have done quite a bit of work with the committee we also have looked at other districts specifically spent some time in minneapolis and what their policies are like trying to obviously nutrition for our students an activity for our students is important we value that trying to balance and find what's right for edina in terms of having that criteria we also feel at this time we've been working on it for a good year and a half timing is right to update the policy because we also it provides us direction and to move forward as a committee with other things and it's also useful information as every three years we're required to go out for bid for our food service management contract so then we have this information of what the district expectations are the vision is and and like some of the wording suggests we will try for some things there are some things that uh are absolutes obviously the federal requirements are absolute you see two appendix the first one is new it's an the committee is used to seeing a more detailed appendix which is reflective in appendix 2. i would envision i think we envision that at some point that may phase itself out um but at this point in the transition we wanted to provide more specif a broader appendix one with more specificity in appendix 2. randy in appendix 2 there's still a breakdown of calories is that still the the current guidelines or have those shifted in the because i know there was the law but then i thought some of that had changed the guidelines you mean in um it's under appendix 2 and it says daily calories and if that's under the hph the hh fka that is absolutely federal regulation i mean anything in that had been relaxed not true okay and then my other question is back under appendix one number seven how are we addressing where it says consider the religious ethnic and cultural diversity of the student body and meal planning meals will reflect a wide variety of diverse items we did have some discussion over this specific entry at the policy committee we didn't reach any particular conclusion some of the discussion basically covered how much of that is really attainable without um drawing the wrong conclusions so do we want it in the appendix i mean is it it's mandatory i know i don't know if that particular line is mandated that when i can't answer that particular question margo do you know you know i will have to double check i'm having trouble accessing from my ipad so i'm also going up memory so that's something randy and i perked up no we know i know the line that you know actually that's a question that we can take back to find out if it's mandated language or if it was part of the discussion also just asked the question is this more of a food and nutrition appropriate language or does it belong in a global awareness area but the concept behind this is to expose our kids to different types of food and grow their their palettes but i'm wondering if it's appropriate in this context it may not be appropriate in this but it's not just to grow kids palettes it's also to respect the food choices of children who come from different cultures that when they come to the food lunch line there'll be something there that they feel like you can recognize or may have dietary restrictions right yeah we cover dietary restrictions above it in number six but we can specifically bring this one back to pilot we can specifically discuss this line right now what numbers that's we do dietary and number 6b thanks yeah if i meant dietary like keeping kosher or you know not being able to eat pork or or having meat in dairy together well that's what he's doing yeah two different types of language there is language in the policy that addresses making sure that foods are provided that respect the different dietary either requirements of that an individual may have for health reasons or for religious reasons and then there's another the other language that i understand you to be referencing sarah addresses intentionally students like the one that that david just referenced two different categories of language traditional uh yeah go ahead someone else have a question uh my question is if we have multiple student wellness policies is this the best title because the title to me tells me this is everything that we have for student wellness so that's just a question for the committee to think about it it's high for the food yeah we're talking about we talked about it it's why food and nutrition and physical activity was added to the language because of what you're addressing but what i hear you saying is that maybe wellness doesn't belong here at all did that work would you consider striking that word that's whatever the committee comes up with or at least to say student wellness topics are also covered in these policies as a reference yourself i don't have a strong preference i just if you're looking for student wellness info and you don't have a second place that's obvious i'm just have it available so that was additional discussion thank you all excellent work policy uh information announcements uh just a reminder again to the board that we are going to cancel the march 3rd work session will not be holding our third work session the april meeting that we are now moving the regular april meeting will be april 24th to thursday make sure we publicize that also the state of the community address that both it's a joint address between the city and the school district will be held on february 26th also again will be uh televised live march 3rd and then rebroadcast on our cable network and again it's a combination of the state of the city and the school district for the community that would conclude my informational announcements additional announcements there's a pcn forum coming up on the 10th of march that i think is a really great topic for families and our children and it's actually the first time pcn is inviting parents if they choose kids slightly older so maybe third fourth and up and the topic is around learning from our mistakes moving outside your comfort zone i just thought i'd share that because it's a first for pcn to encourage parents to bring their kids thank you sarah any other additional items any motion to adjourn it's all moved it's been moved and seconded uh any objection adjourning this at this time none we are adjourned thank you all you