[0:16] [Music] [0:46] hi i would like to welcome everyone to the edina school board 2022 legislative platform meeting [0:52] um just a few notes following the capital's current protocol due to covet restrictions we are hosting [0:58] this meeting today virtually as well the way that it is structured is that we [1:04] are doing a presentation and a conversation between the legislative action committee of the dyna public schools and our state representative [1:11] representatives that um represent edina public schools as well um a quick thank [1:17] you to all the representatives here today that have carved out time of their busy schedule to have this um conversation with us [1:24] um in addition in the um along with the community we have other school board members and other elected officials [1:29] listening in um as well and then um for any community members that are out there listening [1:35] along i want to thank you so much for joining us if you have any follow-up questions or feedback or if you're [1:40] interested in becoming more involved with the legislative action committee please email us at legislative.action [1:47] edinschools.org and if you have any questions for the state representatives i would encourage you to email them directly [1:54] with any feedback or questions this year the edina school board is [1:59] excited to focus on re-energizing the lac and next year our plan is to continue that rebuilding work and to [2:06] bring more opportunities for participation with the community and with that i want to get started and [2:11] we're going to first start with introductions my name is julie green i am i serve on the edina school board and [2:17] i am chair of the legislative action committee and i'm going to pass it along to um representative [2:23] director erum hello my name is dan aaron i am on the [2:30] dine school board as well my first term in the indiana school board i'm very excited to be a part of [2:36] the lac and really looking forward to working with everybody on the call and in the community [2:43] and next will be dr stanley i believe hi everyone my name is stacy stanley [2:49] and i am the proud superintendent of edina public schools really great to be here with you today [3:04] i am jeff jorgensen i am the director of student support services here at edina public schools and one of the [3:10] administrative designees to the legislative committee [3:15] great and then we'll pass it along to our representatives i think you guys can each introduce yourselves that'd be great [3:22] thank you for having us this is state senator melissa lopez franzen i'm a resident of edina i have two little boys [3:28] five and six in the dinah school system so i'm very excited to be here and listen to all of you been elected since [3:34] 2012. [3:40] my next heather okay good hi i'm heather edelson i'm the state representative for edina i have [3:46] been in office now for three years i've served on education finance and now i'm on education policy happy to be here [3:55] and i am state representative steve elkins i live in in bloomington district [4:00] includes parts of uh bloomington edina uh minnetonka eden prairie includes the [4:06] uh the southern most neighborhoods in edina as well and like representative hadelson i'm in my uh i've served three [4:12] years great [4:17] um go ahead member aaron yes i just wanted to introduce um for the state of the eps i [4:24] want to introduce dr stacy stanley i'm very excited to work with dr stanley and her administration and her her team [4:32] to kind of partner and collaborate for the community and in general um there are some [4:37] great opportunities that the district can have right now and we're hoping that this committee can work with her and her [4:43] team and really make a historic impact for our students in the community dr stanley [4:48] thanks a lot director aaron i really appreciate that i first want to start by i'm really thinking [4:54] director greene director arum for actually relaunching the legislative [5:00] action committee it is such an important prong within the work that we do within education i'm really grateful for [5:07] senator lopez france and being here for representatives edelson and elkins being here because they really are our [5:13] advocates they know edina and represent us at the capitol better than anyone else can and of course i'm grateful for [5:20] um one of our directors director jorgensen to be here this is a passion [5:26] of his in the advocacy especially within the areas of special education and [5:31] student support services and so just really delighted to be here with everyone so they told me that i just [5:36] have a few minutes for an update on the state of the district and you know i could talk for 25 minutes [5:43] but i won't do that really what i'm going to talk about is what i i believe many of those who are [5:49] watching many of our residents many of our families are interested in is to know where we're at with covid [5:54] mitigation and what i want to say is i am really proud to say that we are in a really good place [6:00] my team put together a phenomenal covid surge response plan that has allowed us [6:07] to stay in person this entire time and not in person without [6:12] learning opportunities students have been learning in schools i've been out in our schools i spent two [6:18] and a half hours out at the high school last week really being able to connect with students as they were preparing um [6:24] you know for their finals and things like that um right now you know i'm gonna find some wood to [6:31] knock on nothing before i say this but right now we are in a good place we have consistently every day [6:37] seen staff absences go down and when i say staff i'm not just referring to teachers [6:43] teachers bus drivers paraprofessionals all the the roles are our food services [6:49] all the roles that really play a significant role in making certain that our students have um a really high [6:56] quality learning day we've consistently seen those absences tracked downward we've uh consistently [7:03] seen the absences of our students track downward to the point where today we are [7:09] at a typical normal absence rate that we would see with students so that um that makes me happy [7:17] as well that lets me know that our community is uh becoming well um and we are really [7:24] working to take care of ourselves and that our mitigation efforts in the district such as universal mask wearing [7:32] continues to work to not only help you know our students within the district but also to really help our [7:38] community as a whole the other thing that i would like to talk about a little bit is just [7:46] our our movement toward our work around literacy and we are really excited our [7:52] we have teachers who are in letters training we have teachers who have been trained in our [7:59] district assessment model so that they know exactly how to provide the instructional um targeted [8:06] targeted instruction that our students need to make certain that we are moving along our comprehensive literacy [8:13] plan our our director of teaching and learning will be providing an update about uh the launch [8:20] of our 6-12 plan in about a week but then we'll get a comprehensive update to the community as well [8:27] on that and then finally in december our board of directors approved um our work toward [8:35] launching a pathway for dual language spanish immersion school we have 48 [8:40] spots and there were nearly 150 applications for those 48 spots and so [8:46] what that tells us is there is significant interest for second [8:52] language learning language immersion within our community and we're just really excited to be able to uh continue [8:59] to watch that the planning for that to move forward and uh we are in the early stages of [9:05] working with the university of st thomas as we begin our efforts to develop what [9:10] i call a marquee a marquee early childhood through 12th grade steam [9:16] program we have strong middle school stem programming we have strong high [9:21] school stem programming we want to make certain that this is comprehensive e12 [9:26] and that we are known for that all around the state and all around the upper midwest so [9:32] again i could probably go on for a long time but i won't do that those are just some key pieces that i wanted [9:38] to share with the community and giving an update about the state of eden public [9:43] schools thank you so much dr stanley that was [9:48] great we are going to dive right into the legislative platform and go through the different priorities [9:55] that the school board approved of these earlier this year a few things also to note is that [10:02] as we go through the priorities these are top issues for the district and for minnesota but in no way are they all [10:07] incumbency as you as representatives know there's that's a nothing ever is right um but we are [10:14] hopeful that they do reflect um edinstra on commitment to education into education and not only in our district [10:20] but in the state and we're hopeful that we can identify some ways that we can align with um you all and all the work [10:26] that you're doing um at the capitol and collaborate going forward so we are going to get started [10:37] so up first is stabilize education funding link the basic formula in local optional [10:44] revenue to inflation to provide a stable and consistent funding stream that allows school boards and administrators [10:50] to engage in long-range and innovative planning allow locally elected school boards to [10:55] renew existing operating referendum at the same level and increase english learner funding to reduce the shortfalls [11:01] in these important programs and we thought a good way to talk a [11:07] little bit about this and and the impact on edina is to bring um director jorgensen and [11:14] dr stanley in to add anything anecdotally here [11:20] certainly so um thank you for that i mean this platform really aligns clearly with our needs but [11:26] so important we know that the uh referee referendum levy dollars really help to [11:33] support our efforts to do what i say is not only defining excellence but taking [11:38] us to the place where we elevate it and we illuminate our excellence within our [11:44] district um you know right now we have a cross subsidy for [11:50] our multilingual or english learners of about 1.1 million dollars that's what it [11:55] was last year and um i just actually checked the other day [12:00] with our uh our coordinator for el services because i wondered as we welcome our [12:08] afghani new afghani residents into the district i wondered the impact and he actually shared with me that he is going [12:13] to be on a webinar this afternoon right now we have uh six six students who have joined [12:19] the district um from from our new afghani neighbors and we know that that [12:25] will only increase and it it wouldn't be surprising because we have the ability to offer an awesome education to do so [12:32] though we need to be fully funded in order to do that and so i am in full support of [12:39] the platform and i know that jeff has some things he wants to add as well [12:44] yes i would just add to the english language learner conundrum that we have here in edina is [12:50] that school districts that have larger populations of ml ml students [12:55] actually have a little bit easier time because they they hit a threshold at which additional ml funding comes to [13:02] them and that affects their compensatory funding that affects a lot of different federal funding that comes to them as [13:08] well because our population is relatively small here in edina we're still required to develop the full continuum of [13:15] services for our el learners and we need to be able to adjust to their levels at which they're being [13:21] acculturated in their in their language acquisition and where they're at with their language acquisition i think one [13:26] of the things that we just want to point out here is is that we we understand the [13:32] the different variables that are trying to be balanced out with the eo funding issue [13:37] which is we oftentimes take from one program source funding source and reallocate those funds to el services [13:45] and what we're really asking for is a consideration of actually new dollars being put on the el formula [13:52] to be able to address these concerns when we don't have that critical number [13:58] critical percentage in our district to be able to serve these populations [14:03] adequately without going deeply into a cross-subsidy type of uh scenario and so [14:08] once again we're asking for that increased funding but asking for that funding not on the [14:14] backs of another program in which we may take money from so be actually new allocation of funding [14:20] so thank you for your consideration thank you both um okay we're gonna move [14:28] on to the next one we'll go through all the priorities and then we'll allow for responses from the [14:34] from representatives [14:41] next is strengthen and support special education and intervention programs [14:46] increase special education funding to reduce shortfalls in this important program and fully fund special education [14:51] to eliminate the cross subsidy increase funding for the adsys program and base funding on the number of [14:57] students eligible in the district and lastly create a special student status for students in intermediate [15:03] school districts requiring an extraordinary level of care and increased state funding for these [15:08] students and i'm going to pass this right over i'm guessing director jorgensen will [15:14] want to respond yes thank you director green for passing that on to me this is one of my passion [15:20] areas and so let me just talk just a little bit about these different bullets um increasing of the special education [15:26] funding to reduce our shortfalls uh we've been after idea idea to obviously [15:31] fully fund special education since it was established and we've gotten very little traction on that [15:38] and uh we're hoping potentially with the current administration that we might get a little bit of leverage uh going on [15:44] those federal dollars and so that's definitely something that we want to want to pinpoint but the other side of [15:50] it is is that we're we're trying to also take a look is both short-term and long-term and the addition of [15:58] funds that would address sufficiently address the cross-subsidy we've seen this year after year and we we get a [16:04] little bit of a boost when we reduce our cross-subsidy periodically [16:09] and then it just continues to grow year after year again as as we just haven't been able to keep up with the cost of [16:16] living i know that governor wallace's budget last year included allocation of some funding uh towards [16:22] the cross subsidy to reduce the cross subsidy um i don't know that's in his budget proposal this year i think i heard some [16:29] other things about more or less a refund coming our way but we would really emphasize a need to address the cross [16:35] subsidy and the cross subsidy addressing the cross subsidy is actually beneficial for both our special [16:41] education programming and for our regular education programming obviously as the cross subsidy goes up [16:47] the the amount of general fund dollars that we're utilizing to pay down the cost of special education is taking away [16:53] from other efforts that the district might be able to do so this could be actually a remedy in a lot of different [16:59] areas we just talked about el funding and saying you know what we we don't have enough district resources to be [17:06] able to sufficiently meet the needs of our el population there's across subsidy there [17:11] but if we were to really address the special education cross subsidy that might alleviate some of the some of the [17:17] cross subsidy that we're experiencing won't alleviate it though so be just as much of a cross substitute but at least there'll be dollars available to [17:24] allocate in that direction we're doing it both and we'd love to have both and here in terms of reduced cross subsidy [17:30] and special education and reduce the cross subsidy in in our el uh programming as well but we understand [17:37] that this is a tough one but this this benefits general education it benefits [17:43] the continuum of services if we can reduce that special education across subsidy and build in a formulary where [17:50] we're keeping up with that cost of living increase that we're experiencing on a yearly basis [17:56] the second bullet is that we made wonderful progress last year and we want to thank you as [18:02] as legislators last year for making some movement in the access program by allowing special education students in [18:08] certain circumstances to access ads's funding so thank you very much for [18:13] the for the services for allowing that to take place we did get movement on that but now we're [18:19] talking about something that has been a concern for a very long period of time within our state as well which is every [18:25] school district in the state of minnesota is captain the amount of funding that they get to [18:31] re or that they're able to apply towards access funding and that's regardless of the size of the district it is capped at [18:38] the same number so literally you can have a school district of 1200 students accessing [18:43] exactly the same amount of access dollars or alternative delivery of specialized instructional service dollars as is an [18:51] edina as is minneapolis as is the saint paul and so there's there's really not uh any [18:58] type of uh of an adjustable platform in access right now and i understand that's [19:04] to cap the amount of dollars that are there so that we can actually calculate out how much that cost [19:09] but ads this has been probably one of the most effective programs run by the [19:15] minnesota department of education on reducing the number of students coming into special education [19:21] programming and we would want to invest more in abscess to support the wonderful [19:28] intervention efforts that are taking place that are actually helping us to control the overall special education [19:33] numbers uh so we'd like to have consideration of an increase that would that would allow school [19:40] districts of larger sizes to actually have a formulary where that number would [19:45] actually increase so consideration of that and then finally the special student status for students [19:53] that are attending the intermediate districts this is just part of our tuition billing formula that we don't [19:58] think sufficiently really addresses our student needs sometimes [20:04] when and every school district has these they have students that are considered to be uh of such a need level that we really [20:12] do need to move heaven and earth to serve our students they can be upwards of a hundred thousand dollars a year in [20:17] terms of their overall service and what we'd ask for is consideration of special [20:22] status for those students a lot like we have for students that are placed out of state [20:28] that's off the tuition formula that something the state identifies as a special student status and so the [20:34] reimbursement is coming directly from the state of minnesota as opposed being charged back through the through the [20:40] basic tuition formula so that would be our consideration [Music] [20:46] thank you jeff well christine would you like to add anything before we move on uh you know i certainly echo everything [20:53] that jeff shared and i would say when it comes to our students uh who receive special [20:58] education uh supports i i just cannot stress more [21:04] that we know the impact on the of the pandemic has been significant for them and so the work that [21:10] we are doing with the um iep support plans to really work to make certain [21:15] that we are bringing students back up to the academic levels that we wanted them to be is important and that does require [21:23] uh the additional funding i would also say that for abscess that [21:29] is critical for our literacy plan um abscess programming is is is [21:35] there to target students and get their reading skills up to level before they would be [21:42] identified as needing special education supports and so that is our that is our [21:47] primary and ultimate goal and so that is why uh it is critical and then finally i [21:52] don't know how many people know about the intermediate school districts but um we work with um intermediate school [21:59] district 287 which is a school district that is works in collaboration with [22:04] districts around and within the west metro area um that [22:09] they are able to provide much more comprehensive special education services than we are able to [22:17] provide right here within our district and as jeff shared sometimes those [22:23] comprehensive services can be upwards of a hundred thousand dollars per student and that funding [22:30] comes from our general fund as opposed to us receiving additional funding from the [22:37] state thank you i'm going to pass it along to [22:45] member arum yes our third priority is going to be ensuring safe and modern school [22:50] facilities the first part of this would be increasing the safe schools levy in state aid to allow school districts and [22:56] intermediate school districts to hire additional support staff and address mental health needs of students [23:02] and the second portion of it is removing the per pupil limit and expand allowable uses for the long-term facilities [23:08] revenue to allow school districts and intermediate school districts to enhance safety through security modifications [23:14] remodeling and additions to existing buildings uh dr stanley or dr director jorgensen [23:20] would you have any comments on either one of those two bullets um i can uh chime in here and then [23:26] jeff i know that you'll have some things to follow up on you know we are really proud of what we've done in the dining [23:32] public schools to make certain that we have forced entries so all of our vestibules are secured and we are [23:38] certainly adding things like our video cameras [23:44] we have the most comprehensive walkie-talkie system that connects each [23:51] and every one of our schools together i can hear anything that is happening on milwaukee right here in my office any [23:58] calls that are being made in in any of our schools and so um that is fantastic [24:03] we know that we put some security measures in place um to really ultimately work to prevent with [24:10] intruders and we know that anything any technology that we have in our schools the moment we [24:17] actually it was probably outdated before we got the resources to even install them in our schools because technology [24:23] is on a rapid cycle turnaround and so we definitely want to make certain that we [24:28] have the funding that we need to continue to update it isn't a one and done for certain um with those resources [24:36] either either the hardware or the software and then again [24:41] i know so many people hear me say this when i'm out speaking the impact of the pandemic on our students is has been strong i i [24:49] actually have a student representative leadership team at both [24:54] at our high school in both of our middle schools and when i went out and started working with them to figure out what [25:00] their platform was that they wanted to work on mental health was the number one thing [25:05] that came across for in our middle schools and at our high school level and so we know that that investment is going [25:12] to make a difference because looking at the whole child is really very important i can't say enough about [25:19] long-term facilities again we're very very fortunate that eric hamilton john [25:25] tope had us in the position where we were already updating our hvac and [25:32] before you know it we are going to need um additional updates in you know five to [25:37] ten years and so um we definitely need those funds to make certain that our schools are are up to date [25:46] and if i could just throw my voice in on the increase of the safe school levy we're we we consistently and i mean very [25:53] consistently and i think edina does this very well is that we we braid our funding sources together out of various [26:00] areas to ensure that we are able to put together a sustainable stream of funding [26:06] for the services that we have in we've we've done this very well i think [26:11] in our in our mental health efforts but as you know uh as the adage goes how many social workers do you need uh the answer is [26:18] always one more uh just simply because as soon as we get a mental health provider in we have we have needs that [26:25] exceed the provider that is able to provide those services and although we're trying to develop that continuum [26:31] where we're at tier one tier two tier three to so that we're increasing the capacity of our staff i think we've obviously seen [26:39] over the past two years a disintegration in our students overall level of mental health capacity functioning and also our [26:46] teachers and related service staff so what we're looking for in in the ask for the safe [26:53] school levy is that once again this is more of an equitable measure [26:59] for school districts to apply in order to get to a sustainable level of funding [27:04] to help support mental health professionals or mental health practitioners within our system again i [27:10] want to thank the legislature for moving forward on on things that were related to school-based mental health and the [27:17] grant opportunities that came out but once again because of our demographic here in edina public schools [27:25] we're not eligible for a lot of those types of resources those [27:30] having access to those types of resources not within our ability to even apply for [27:37] but an increase the safe schools levy would allow really a uniform increase to school [27:44] districts across the state that would allow us to levy our taxpayers to help provide that sustainable funding for our [27:50] mental health efforts within the school district so thank you [27:58] our next slide is going to be our next topic would be increasing and diversifying the teacher workforce [28:05] this would be involving removing the barriers and providing incentives to address the sorts of substitute teachers [28:10] school bus drivers paraprofessionals and other staff the next part of it would be continue to [28:16] expand the programs and incentives to attract develop retain teachers of color and lastly maintain multiple pathways to [28:23] licensure in the tiered licensing system i'll pass that to dr stanley and director jorgensen [28:32] all right um so although i've been in education for more than two decades [28:39] many individuals don't know that my first career was occupational therapy and i actually came into education in [28:47] the 1990s through a grow your own [28:52] program and so i am a strong advocate of that since then we have received [28:58] much data related to the benefit of having teachers of color in systems um [29:04] we know now that uh if a student who is a student of [29:10] color has a teacher of color by the time they're in third grade it increases [29:15] their um their potential for graduation [29:21] um i can't remember the exact percentage but i feel like it was like by 66 [29:28] which is incredibly important and we also know the impact for our students [29:34] for our white students the benefit of having individuals working with them that bring in multiple perspectives so [29:40] we know that it is a win-win um we are really grateful for the to the [29:46] state where they have created the grow your own uh grants and they actually invested more into those grants and [29:52] we'll be applying for the next cycle we applied for the last cycle we didn't make it but we will apply for [29:58] this next cycle and i'm confident that we'll be able to be funded for that it would be wonderful to start a grow your [30:05] own program both for the staff that we have within our district as well as for students [30:10] where they could earn some college credit take some courses and create that pathway for students at the high school [30:17] and then um certainly we know the economy with [30:23] with jobs and with hiring i mean it is really tough out there no matter where you're at i was talking to a gentleman [30:28] who owned several retail stores the other day and he just spoke to how difficult it is to actually bring on the [30:36] number of members into his workforce that he needs to be um to be effective and so um any of the [30:43] barriers that are put in place along with some incentives to get um you know our bus drivers in especially our [30:50] paraprofessionals especially our paraprofessionals that would uh be fantastic [30:57] the only thing that i would like to add here is just a great big thank you an example of a program that is working so [31:02] well beyond the grow your own models that are out there right now but the the minnesota department of [31:09] employment and economic development moving forward utilizing some of those [31:14] arp funds that they receive to pay for the tuition of individuals to go through [31:21] um the the health assistant training or the the certified nursing assistant [31:27] training is something that we've had some of our paraprofessionals look into and actually access [31:34] the program as soon as it became open or as soon as it opened at hennepin county technical college was filled with in [31:41] just a few days so there are people looking for opportunity [31:47] to increase their their ability to to serve and this was a this was a very simple [31:54] thing to do but removing that tuition barrier for individuals to be able to access a service like that that can give [32:01] them a brighter future in terms of accessing school districts or accessing our community and large in [32:08] an area of great need right so healthcare has an enormous need right now and we're experiencing that within [32:15] the public education system as well our nursing services and health services have been challenging [32:22] and especially in those areas where students require some level of nursing care in a one-to-one basis [32:29] there wasn't enough nurses to go around there is still not enough nurses to go around and so we need to build our [32:34] capacity to serve dee did deed did a wonderful [32:40] thing in terms of leveraging those dollars in a way that's going to make an immediate impact to our economy [32:47] and to a needed area of service if we can envision a way to do that same type [32:52] of thing for our educators to be able to have that fast track and the ability to remove [32:59] that barrier of tuition we can really make a significant change [33:04] in the way our operations are being challenged right now thank you [33:14] so based on that we kind of wanted to open up a little bit now to the legislators to see if they had some [33:19] comment or feedback um you know obviously we had our four platform pieces we could certainly work through [33:25] those as we go if that's an easy way to do it or if there's certain ones that the legislators feel that they wanted to [33:31] address right away please feel free to comment on one of those otherwise i can just say that we [33:37] can work backwards and kind of go on each one and you can each take a chance and respond do you have a preference [33:46] um it's a star unless senator friends and you want to start you can go ahead or we can toss the coin [33:51] just like the popcorn [33:57] uh okay i'm gonna i'm just gonna go um i thank you so much for all of these [34:03] issues i i there's honestly great ones we just had a meeting at hopkins um legislative [34:08] action committee as well and um i have to you guys are doing a great job i mean for just restarting i mean watch out [34:15] hopkins um so the issues are are really good ones and there's they're definitely ones that [34:22] sitting on education policy that i've been hearing a lot about um so the the stabilizing i think you know [34:29] just generally what you're going to really see as a priority this session is for sure funding obviously you've heard that we have a seven billion dollar [34:35] seven point eight billion dollar surplus um i think we are going to try to look at some of those um specifically the el [34:42] uh funding uh for the state i think it's 160 or 118 million 116 million um in [34:48] total in terms of the deficit uh so that's definitely that will be a top priority [34:54] um i know that workforce and trying to incentivize um making sure that we have [34:59] teachers and staff and bus drivers and all that to make sure that we keep kids [35:05] in school is incredibly important so that is definitely something we're [35:10] looking at um the iep iep support plan bill with the [35:16] extra work i just want to note that was my bill and i want to thank you all i know that that has for teachers um and for our [35:24] special education staff that has been a heavy lift and i just want to thank you [35:30] i know families with children that have ieps including myself uh are incredibly grateful uh to [35:38] really get that second look back and you've been doing great work so thank you for that uh just another one to touch on [35:45] definitely this uh the special status for the in intermediate school districts i have a question with that one do you [35:52] know who's carrying that bill is that been introduced because this is the first time hearing of that one so that's not been carried in the past [35:58] and so that's something that may all actually require us to to take a look at authoring something [36:05] thank you for that question yeah i think that's great and and um jeff i would love to chat with you [36:11] offline about that i think that's a great idea and i think that this would be a great year to bring that bill um so [36:18] you and i worked on policy for sure together i'm just looking at hold on my other area let's see increase school [36:23] levy that's been talked about i'm here i know that there's bills that are moving on that um [36:28] and then in terms of the increase in diversity of uh in terms of our workforce [36:34] we last year we made an historic investment of 30 million dollars [36:39] in ensuring that we retain and uh recruit uh teachers of color i i know [36:44] that we will be looking at um hopefully that investment has gone out hopefully we are seeing increases [36:50] unfortunately with the pandemic continuing we are still struggling um and i think [36:56] teachers students staff are under a great deal of uh stress as you all know [37:02] i i think that's the issues that i wanted to cover the only other thing i just want to say is i'll be carrying the innovation um [37:08] our instructional hours bill which allows some flexibility in terms of the instructional hours that we uh cc that [37:14] will be a pretty big bill we have brought that last year um but this would allow some flexibility i know uh [37:21] superintendent stanley you've talked about um you know these great micro [37:27] um micro great uh micro uh sorry micro credentials [37:33] micro credentialing and apprenticeships and internships and i think that is a great idea i love [37:39] that and you know i called you right after we i heard about that um i think this the instructional hour [37:45] seat time flexibility on some of these things would really um provide some great opportunity for you in that work [37:51] so and then we will also be having i author the letters um reading literacy uh and i we got a three [37:59] million dollar appropriation for that we will be seeking uh roger chamberlain i have talked to him [38:04] it looks like we we're going to try to for more on that because i don't know that edina has ever received any of the letters funding [38:10] um no i don't think so um and so anyways that's all i've got thank you guys [38:17] in the interest of time i'll try not to repeat myself but i do want to tackle a few of the items that i've changed my [38:23] view over time so previous to dr stanley being our superintendent we're so [38:28] excited to have her on board and bringing fresh ideas and fresh perspective to our district [38:34] i was elected in 2012 like i mentioned earlier and at first i was very adamant [38:39] about you know the legislators legislators role in the legislature to [38:44] fund appropriately all these areas especially education when it's up to our constitution and our role in in [38:50] government to adequately fund education and as you all know and you're experts in this field we [38:57] haven't done a very good job at it so the issue of indexing to inflation i've always been hesitant because i've [39:03] always thought it was our role to do the right thing and fun education adequately appropriately [39:09] and into the future i've shifted to to say you know i'm tired of talking about inflation and [39:14] right now everyone's dealing with inflation and i think right now we understand that better than ever uh so [39:20] the fact that we could put it in um an inflation um link to the formula is [39:26] something that i'm more open to particularly when we see that there is so much need especially after these last [39:33] few years the schools starting from custodians teachers bus drivers school services [39:39] nurses counselors interns paraprofessionals volunteers parents it's been all hands on deck so [39:46] we're not going to get out of this pandemic stronger for our state for our state economy if we don't fund our [39:51] education and its foundation so i'm excited about all the innovation that you're talking about whether it's [39:57] additional uh bilingual programs or esteem i'm very [40:02] excited about those too especially with my little ones i'm coming into the school system but also because i think [40:07] it's the right thing for our state and how do we support that so i've shifted there um i've shifted also on the [40:14] referendum because we have to do and govern smartly and more efficiently so um you have my support when it comes to [40:20] those things and obviously when it comes to having supports for special education [40:25] and safe and secure schools and teacher workforce uh you know some i don't serve [40:31] on education committees at this point i used to i'm on the finance committee so you can count on my support where it [40:37] comes to any single bill dealing with funding for education that and fully funding education to the extent that we [40:43] can leverage some of that surplus again in that surplus we don't include the inflationary factor so it's less than [40:50] 7.8 billion it's closer to six but still we need to deal with uh the one-time [40:57] ability that we have as a state to support education and and really standing up the morale of our workers [41:04] across our state starting with education i think it's fundamental uh and lastly um the diversification of [41:09] our workplace um at every level in schools it's it's no [41:15] different so we've done some newer funding we haven't seen the outcomes because it's pretty [41:21] new but certainly we know that there's going to make that's going to make a difference and and to the extent that we could talk [41:26] again about workforce how can we support just like that it was mentioned the cna program for nursing it was done in [41:33] record-breaking time it was done in record-breaking funding um and and we have people on the ground [41:39] that are changing professions because they they've been exposed to this opportunity so it's exciting to know [41:45] that that there's ways that we can retrain we skill and retain people in in our workplaces so [41:51] i'll see my time to representative elkins so i know had some audio problems but it's back online [41:58] everything you've done thank you i i got to hear all of uh [42:04] senator franzen's discussion so i'll build on that a little bit so as she mentioned [42:09] we have a projected 7.7 billion dollar budget surplus right now um but because of a decision that the [42:16] legislature made way before any of our time um that projection includes inflation and [42:22] revenue but not in costs and uh so when the uh it is part of that [42:27] 7.7 billion dollars for footnote uh representative ludchesky years ago at [42:33] least got a provision in the law that allows the uh minnesota management budget to put a little asterisk with the [42:39] footnote on it with a rough estimate of what inflation would be if it were included and in the latest budget [42:45] forecast that's 1.1 billion dollars so as again as senator branson said the [42:50] true surplus is closer to uh you know six million dollar six billion dollars than [42:56] seven and um so but you know given that we have this historically large surplus i think this is uh uh [43:05] an ample time or a right time to start taking that bull by the horns and so i am developing [43:11] a general bill as a member of the state government finance committee in the house to [43:17] include a more detailed estimate of [43:22] of inflation on the cost side into that those budget projections so i'm i'm started working already with the house [43:29] research um with britta rattan in minnesota management and budget with the state economist or columbus [43:37] to develop a bill that would appropriately uh in a fairly detailed fashion build inflation into the state's [43:44] budget projections and as you guys know the state's largest you know single [43:50] general fund budget item is k to 12 education and the biggest part of that is of course [43:57] the salaries and benefits for teachers and other employees of school district [44:02] the last number i heard is that typically employee costs are about 80 percent or more of the typical school [44:08] district's budget so um i'm going to be working to make sure that that inflation forecast you know [44:14] effectively reflects uh an assumption that uh the wages and salaries for uh teachers in particular [44:22] are are going to go up in uh in parallel with the wages and salaries of other [44:28] similarly well-educated employees in the workforce um so that we have a baseline that grows [44:35] assumes that teachers will continue to be fairly compensated into the future and [44:41] i guess i've just i've just started working on this project right now i'll also be reaching out to the minnesota [44:47] center on fiscal evidence which is the state's kind of leading um best [44:53] respected uh tax uh policy uh advocacy group um so i'll i'll keep you [45:00] posted on what i'm doing there but i you know very very strongly support all of the policies that you've laid out today [45:06] especially those related to fiscal stable stability [45:15] thank you any other comments that we had from the [45:20] group at all dr stanley do you have or director [45:26] jorgensen do you have any feedback or questions that you have i was just going to say i really truly [45:32] appreciate uh just the thoughtful process that you're putting toward um the supports senator [45:39] franzen i appreciate just your willingness to be upfront in the journey [45:45] that you've gone through to move in that direction and the pandemic and the impact of the pandemic has [45:52] certainly opened our eyes in so many different ways to see [45:59] the impact for students across socioeconomic status across their [46:04] linguistic abilities to be able to see that when we have the funding [46:09] you know that that we that our students deserve quite honestly [46:15] in order to serve them we can do better and so we truly appreciate having the three of you [46:21] um out there in our corner advocating for us well i'll just i'll just close by saying [46:28] a big thank you to um to all of you again i wanted to say legislative action [46:34] committee so an example of action is uh heather and i have been texting [46:40] already about setting up a time to talk about sponsoring getting a bill sponsored to address uh one of the [46:47] topics on our on our list so uh once again just thank you for not just the [46:53] listening to our concerns but also being able to remark back and and looking into [46:59] ways that you can support that that platform so thank you all so very much [47:04] thank you for those comments i absolutely echo what um dr stanley and director jorgensen said um thank you [47:10] guys so much for your time um the only question that i have as we wrap up here is is with this virtual format i know you know [47:17] what is the best way to that you want to hear from not just the dinah school board legislative action committee but [47:23] also um stakeholders what is what do you recommend [47:29] i can start i just give my cell phone out six one two nine six eight four five six six [47:34] i'll get to you be patient but again six one two nine six eight four five six six i got some regular um folks that want to [47:41] chime in on every subject and i'm more than happy to hear you but if i can be of help um i certainly want to [47:46] prioritize that excellent thank you yeah i'm not giving you myself a note okay [47:52] i'll give myself you kind of have to with melissa doing this now um six five one three five [48:00] eight six nine six and i put my email in the chat can the everybody watching see no but you know what we will do um post [48:07] from this um meeting we will post it on the legislative action page of the website so that everyone has access and [48:13] and can see the priorities and and actually a recording of this a link to the youtube channel so [48:18] um which would be great yeah and i i'm pretty easy to get a hold of i'm otherwise retired and so i'm [48:24] really good about answering my email i prefer that method to the cell phone but [48:29] you guys know how to reach me excellent great well just on behalf of this um the edina school board and this [48:37] legislative action committee i just want to thank you again so much for taking the time um to listen and have this conversation [48:43] um i it's it's great and i i thank you ahead of time for the work that's to come in this session because i know that [48:50] um it's a lot of hours it's a lot of effort and um we know that education is at the front of your mind so we really [48:56] appreciate that um and for any again anyone who's listening out there if you have any thoughts or you [49:02] want to join our efforts please email us at legislative.action edina schools.org [49:08] and i just want to thank you again so it's this is a wrap so [49:13] thank you stay safe