[0:13] yes we can all right I'm going to call the meeting to order today is the [0:20] organizational meeting for the Dyna school board the January 6th 2020 [0:25] meeting for old times sake we'll have the superintendent run through briefly the agenda is an organizational meeting [0:33] so tonight you elect the board chair your part officers approval of minutes [0:38] from a previous from previous meetings consent agenda has affirming [0:43] appointments and some authorizations of financial issues issues financial things [0:52] and then designating depositories a newspaper and then as a organizational [0:58] plus you have a discussion Jon's going to talk about the revised 1920 budget and then discussion on board committees [1:06] and the appointments and then a discussion on policy 6 so on all right thank you she didn't mention it we do have a [1:12] quorum the first agenda item is the annual election of officers and we start with the annual election of board chair [1:18] are there any nominations for the office of board chair I'd like to nominate Erica Alan Berg Erica Alan Berg is [1:27] nominated are there any other nominations for the office of board chair and by the way we're required to [1:33] make multiple requests for those in the audience are there any other nominations for the office of board chair if there's [1:39] no further nominations than the nominations for the office of board chair are closed we will now proceed to [1:45] a roll call Alan Berg Fox Janey [1:59] Sean hi Jones Michaelson hi green I wall [2:12] and Friedman I Erica is the new chair congratulations and you get the gavel [2:19] we're gonna stay in our current seats for now Thank You Lenny Thank You Ford [2:27] now we're going to move on to the nominations for Vice Chair are there any nominations now for the [2:33] office of vice chair I'd like to nominate Lenny Weiland Friedman Lenny [2:39] wall and Friedman is nominated for vice chair are there any other nominations for the office of vice chair and are [2:46] there any other nominations for the office of vice chair if there are no other nominations for Vice Chair then [2:52] the nominations for Vice Chair are now closed and again we'll do a roll call vote for the office of vice chair well [3:01] in Freedman all right green aye [3:08] Jones shot I box.i hi Lenny wall and Friedman is [3:21] elected vice chair and we'll continue with the election of board officers and nominations are now open for the office [3:28] of clerk are there any nominations for the office of clerk I'd like to nominate Ellen [3:36] Jones ellen jones has been nominated for the office of clerk are there any other nominations for the office of clerk and [3:43] are there any other nominations for the office of clerk if there are no other [3:49] nominations for the office of clerk then the nominations for the office of clerk are closed and we'll do another roll [3:56] call vote for the office of clerk freeman.i green aye [4:02] Michelson Jones shot hey Fox I allenburg I Ellen [4:14] Jones is elected clerk and we will continue with the election for the [4:19] office of treasurer are there any nominations for the office of treasurer I'd like to nominate Matt [4:29] Fox Matt Fox has been nominated for the office of treasurer are there any other [4:34] nominations for the office of treasurer are there any other nominations for the office of treasurer if there oh no other [4:42] nominations for the office of treasurer then the nominations for the office of treasurer are closed and now we'll have [4:49] a roll call vote for the office of treasurer wall in Freeman all right Green hi Michelson Jones [4:59] ha hi Fox okay allenburg hi Matthew Fox [5:06] is elected treasurer will now continue with the election of other board officers nominations are now open for [5:13] the office of assistant treasurer are there nominations for the office of assistant treasurer I nominate Owen [5:20] Michelson for assistant treasurer are there any other other nominations for [5:26] the office of assistant treasurer are there any other nominations for the office of assistant treasurer if there [5:33] are no other nominations then we will vote on the office of assistant treasurer by roll call well in Freedman [5:41] all right green eye Michelson Jones Shaw by Fox hi Alan Berg hi Owen [5:55] Michelson has been elected assistant treasurer and we will now continue with [6:01] the election of assistant clerk [6:06] are there any nominations for the position of assistant clerk so I would [6:11] nominate Julie green and Janey Shaw for the two remaining assistant clerk spots [6:17] there's been a nomination for the two remaining positions of assistant clerk for Julie green and Jeanne Shaw are [6:24] there any other nominations for the office of assistant clerk are there any [6:30] other nominations for the office of assistant or offices of assistant clerk if there are no other nominations for [6:37] the offices of assistant clerk then the nominations are closed we will now vote on the offices of [6:43] assistant clerk by roll call wall in Freedman I green aye [6:49] Michelson Jones sha hi Fox I Alan Berg [6:57] hi Julie green and Janie Shaw have both been elected to the office of assistant [7:03] clerk and that concludes the portion of the meeting to elect officers for the board [7:11] okay thank you everyone we're now going to move on to the portion of the meeting [7:17] where we approve minutes do I have a motion to approve the minutes of the December 16th special meeting and that's [7:23] December 16th regular meeting so moved can I get a second Erica I'd like to [7:31] pull out the 1216 meeting minutes I one [7:38] second I think we have news whether there's a second if there isn't a second then that motion doesn't go and then we [7:43] would deal with the pull out request a second so I'll all that was in favor of [7:51] approving the minutes of December 16th special meeting in December 16th regular meeting actually we need to do a roll [7:58] call vote oh I'm sorry are there changes [8:03] to the meeting minutes from December 16th and December 16th regular meeting [8:08] yes fairly simply I'd like to change the [8:16] member Jones made a motion to move the enrollment report from information to [8:22] discussion I'd like to scratch that to action and change that to action the [8:29] following minutes read member Pat's lost second and the motion discussion ensued [8:34] regarding the districts the reports historical detail the plan board [8:39] dashboard and an overarching budgetary lens versus a more detailed view I'd [8:45] like to add to that member Jones stated she wanted to present as an action item [8:51] that the school board would direct administration to reinstate the enrollment report that has been provided [8:57] to the board in prior years instead of the new report John tupa stated that it [9:03] is possible for him to reinstate this report so the only change is that I'm asking is that actually my motion was [9:11] for action and the sentence with respect to member Jones stated she wanted to [9:18] present as an action item that the school board would direct administration to reinstate the enrollment report that has been [9:25] provided to the board in prior years instead of the new report John Tube stated that it is possible for him to [9:31] reinstate this report so and I can pass [9:39] that around to you guys if you want to see it the the red is the only thing that I'm asking you to done if you need [9:49] to read it and I have one prepared for [9:55] the audience but I just I actually only need you to see this I'm not requesting anything else at this time so it's a [10:13] call for action that the next board meeting there be an enrollment report I'm not right now we're just approving [10:20] minutes and I just wanted to add that to the minutes so it's just the read that I'm saying I'd like to add to the [10:27] minutes okay does anyone have an objection to adding the read content [10:34] that Ellen wrote to the minutes from the December 16th regular meeting and [10:40] changing the minutes of the December 16th regular meeting as written by [10:46] important member Jones I do not have an objection so would so many would we vote [10:56] on approving the minutes with the change yes we would approve the minutes with [11:01] the change noted as listed by okay and then we would have to do a roll call [11:07] vote of approving the minutes from December 16th board meeting in the December 16th [11:14] special meeting with the with a sentence as listed yeah so you've got a motion [11:21] pending to approve the minutes you have asked for an editorial change in editorial change has been requested with [11:27] no objection we could just do a roll call vote approving the minutes that editorial change okay hi hi hi hi I [11:51] so the meeting minutes have been approved with the change as listed here and so that will get updated and then [11:59] John will the new minutes be posted for the next meeting what's the protocol for [12:05] that or just what the update [12:12] okay okay thank you so next we normally have hearing from the audience of the [12:18] audience but I don't believe we have had any requests tonight is that correct no [12:24] Green forms filled out okay just to remind everyone you're welcome to come [12:29] and speak before the board you can either request to speak online or you can come the night of the meeting and [12:35] fill out a green form and you're welcome to speak and we also have the time slot between 6:30 and 7:00 to speak if you'd [12:43] like to ask a question to the board or to the administration is more interactive sessions so feel free to [12:49] submit a question for that if you're interested in doing that we're now going to move to our consent agenda and are [12:55] there any items to remove from the consent agenda or can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved all [13:04] those in favor of approving the consent agenda we will approve through a roll call vote aye [13:14] I I the consent [13:24] Genda has been approved and we'll move to our discussion items I believe our [13:29] first item up for discussion are the is the budget and so we'll have John to [13:36] come up and discuss the budget with us [14:07] good evening newly elected chair Alan Berg and members of the board superintendent Shultz tonight for [14:14] discussion purposes we're presenting the fiscal 1920 revised budget we did have a [14:20] fairly good discussion about the revised budget in the Finance Committee earlier today at 3 o'clock I believe [14:29] director Friedman was there along with director Foxx just a couple of items on [14:37] the 1920 revised budget you'll see in the construction fund that there is a [14:42] plan spend-down of monies who we issue 24.9 million dollars worth of long-term [14:48] facilities maintenance bonds last spring so we are starting to spend those dollars down during fiscal year 1920 and [14:57] I see Zack has that up now so on the the other thing that I would mention is on [15:04] the debt service fund so towards the bottom of the page Zack we had a bond refunding that we did in October we [15:12] would refinance the 2011 B building bonds and you'll see a separate line [15:17] item for that the refunding was a current refunding meaning it all happens in the same fiscal year so both the [15:23] revenue and the expense is equal and there will be no fund balance for the refunding bonds left at the end of 1920 [15:31] moving on to the top of the page where we get into the general fund I would [15:39] direct your attention down to the general fund unassigned line because that's the most important line for the [15:46] district and on the far left column [15:53] you'll see audited balanced June 30th 2019 and the number to look at is 6 [15:58] million 7 64 615 so that's what our audited number was as presented by the [16:03] auditors at the November meeting when they presented the audit so as we did [16:09] our revision we are coming up with total revenues in the general fund on a sign [16:15] on just focusing on that line of about ninety nine point eight million dollar that's in the white column the gray [16:22] columns are what the original budget was so you can see those for comparison purposes and then expenditures are 97 [16:31] million seven hundred and thirty one thousand seven hundred eighteen dollars and we do have a fair amount of [16:37] transfers where you can see up above we are subsidizing various programs in the [16:43] district and I'll give you an example we just talked about it this morning and lead team we have restricted for basic [16:52] skills ml we get two hundred ninety one thousand seven hundred eighteen dollars of revenue for the multi-language [17:00] program or a ll ESL it's called by a number of names and our expenditures [17:06] projected in there are 1 million two hundred eighty five thousand one hundred ninety seven dollars so that column [17:13] where its revised required transfers shows that difference between the revenue and expense so that shows how [17:19] much that the dinosaur board has chosen to subsidize that ëall program by follows the same methodology throughout [17:26] there so that amount in the revised required transfers column is 2 million [17:33] 654 4:16 and if you start with their beginning fund balance of 6 764 at in [17:39] the revenue subtract the expense and the required transfers so that's that's an expense as well so we spent about 2.6 [17:46] million subsidizing programs you'll get to the final number of 6 million 157 761 [17:52] so it's a slight decrease from our audited balance of 6 million 764 but the [18:00] reason I wanted to see the gray columns is that's the original budget and that's what Margot bulk our former director of [18:07] Business Services was projecting so you can see we're not too far off from that number as well so I think I'll stop [18:17] there and see if there are any questions [18:26] are we still at our 6% the the six [18:31] million 157 761 number director Michaelson will put a slightly below 6% [18:39] if everything in this budget comes out exactly the way it's written on the page [18:44] yes okay we can recover and get it back to 6% fairly easily yeah you know any [18:50] recovery that we do we have a couple of levers that we talked about in the finance committee that we can pull if [18:57] you you don't you won't see it tonight but our enrollment report is a 19 [19:03] student increase from last month so that's a positive we are offering more [19:08] seats in the second semester at the high school so I think that will be another [19:13] positive to our enrollment and the other thing that we talked about in the Finance Committee was we have been [19:19] talking for a number of meetings now about purchasing having having our [19:24] vendor purchase our cell towers in the form of a lump sum payment to the [19:30] district right now we currently get those dollars on a monthly basis or one [19:35] of the cell towers is a payment every five years so we can monetize those as [19:41] well in a lump sum payment for both of those cell towers the numbers that are on the table right now are around the [19:48] 300 to 350 thousand dollar amount if you took that if we can get that taken care [19:54] of before the end of the year and added that to the 6 million 157 we would be over 6% thank you [20:08] we can this week especially so there is a commitment from the board and from the Finance Group to maintain a 6% capital [20:15] reserve so with John coming in new in the department we have been using very [20:20] conservative projections and metrics so for instance on that cell phone tower even though we have a high level of [20:26] confidence that would come through or marking about at zero so contracts aren't in hand in sign we don't count [20:32] those and so going into this year there are some revenue triggers John mention enrollment cell phone towers another [20:38] there are a few other places we can look and then there are some additional expenditure things that we'll look at on [20:43] a monthly basis now that your assistant treasurer you'll be able to join me in not starting in February I'm excited [20:49] about it okay they think this is a [20:55] little bit of an aside from the 1920 revised budget but my plan is to start putting in front of the school board a [21:01] monthly report so that you can see exactly where we are is a little it'll be a high-level report so you can you'll [21:09] be able to see how we are trending for the school year that we're currently in [21:14] you'll be able to look back one year and two years so you can see how that trend is going and you know what percent we're [21:21] into the fiscal year versus what percent were spent and I'm really trying to focus more on expenditures on that [21:26] report but I want to start putting that in front of the board I just want to add [21:31] it does say action on this there's no action on this tonight it's uh this is your discussion and then I believe it's [21:37] placed on the consent agenda for the next right next week next Monday [21:43] are there any other questions for John regarding this great thank you John [21:51] thank you okay we're gonna move down to the board committees and this has been [21:57] posted I'm for everyone to look at does anyone have any comments or questions about the board committees and board [22:03] assignments so oh and I think you had a [22:11] couple yes I would like to I'm looking [22:18] for MSP MSP a nominate Ellen for the [22:26] chair of our MSP a liaison as she is our LEC director and I think it'd be fitting [22:32] for her to be in that position because she's so close to our lobbying efforts [22:37] on behalf of the district we want to coincide with what's be congruent with [22:43] what MSBA is and then I had a second one [22:53] and I'd like to be on the LA sea still [22:58] but in a secondary role and had Julie be the assistant chair of the LIC [23:06] so those are my recommendations [23:18] okay so just the board have any issues with Ellen being the representative for [23:29] MSBA and changing those around that's fine he [23:39] said he said he said MSBA a MSD yes so you want to remove yourself [23:50] from a MSD got it oh no do you want to [23:57] remain an alternate or just I would like to yeah sorry about that confusion no [24:04] that's okay [24:09] are there any other comments or questions [24:15] yeah the forum doesn't really show where the terms end for some of these and so I [24:21] think that that is it's a little bit unclear many of them end in the end of [24:27] June so I don't know how I mean it's not a really big deal on any of those I'm [24:32] you know I'm currently serving a term [24:37] MSBA that should end in June and I'd like to [24:43] continue with that it's not a big deal to me though if I'm an alternate or if I'm the delegate but it maybe we should [24:51] as a group to talk about how this this is always going to come up and maybe we [24:56] want to change our own internal terms of terms yeah no I think that's a good idea [25:02] it is confusing because summer in June somewhere around right and and so I mean [25:09] so now it's unclear our am I going to continue is Julie going to start in June [25:15] or I mean we made it very clear with a MSD right so the way this is set up [25:23] Julie would take over effective now under M ba even though the I mean I kind of [25:31] viewed this as when new people come in we fill slots but we also just take a [25:36] look to see what changes make sense even though it is you're right a June 30th [25:42] term so that's the way it is set up it doesn't need to continue that way but [25:48] that's the way it's set up right and that's fine I mean I don't I really don't care about that but I do think that it it's just I think you're right [25:55] it's I think it would be very helpful to add when when are the terms and then if [26:01] we're going to be changing it in the middle well if it should be more clear I [26:07] agree with you right oh I love Sarah had [26:12] the term and a column but most of them [26:18] are no but I think it's there are some of the summer yeah I think some of them coincide with the [26:24] school year and then some of them right elections right right so that if you're a liaison to a school it's kind of a [26:31] little bit different to switch mid-year I think that those are the ones that [26:36] should definitely continue during the entire school year all of the school site ones the other ones I'm not sure [26:43] how important it is because those could [26:49] change at elections or beginning of the year I'm at the end of people have a [26:56] strong preference so we can figure it out we can keep the defaults and just [27:02] have exceptions like this is an exception no I think it's fine I I think [27:08] what the changes that have been made are totally fine I think it's just to your point I think it'd be good to have more [27:15] clarity and when the terms are up and and then if there's an election and it's [27:20] going to choose shift things around we could be more clear why and if that's [27:26] going to impact terms or not so are there any other comments or feedback [27:31] about this No okay [27:39] I lost my notes about what we're talking about okay we're gonna move on to a [27:44] discussion about policy 601 Lenny do you want to review this for the board yeah I've got some notes on this so there's a [27:52] number of reasons why policy 601 is currently on the agenda so at the November meeting it was relatively clear [27:59] that the creation of the policy didn't follow our normal process as a result we didn't have sufficient opportunity to [28:05] discuss with administration and teachers whether this policy is best for the district as a whole as well as the [28:10] ramifications from adopting the policy best practices for our board encourages [28:16] if not requires that a minimum we consult with educational professionals prior to adoption of education policies [28:21] our failure to do so creates questions as to whether the adopted policy best serves the needs of the students in our [28:26] district in my view were obligated as a board to always determine what best serves the needs of all the students in [28:33] our district in addition it was also clear from letters we received from the incoming board members that a majority [28:40] of the currently constituted board didn't favor adoption of policy 601 at [28:46] that November meeting our administration stated that they would like the opportunity to work with the board on creating a new policy 601 and that they [28:53] believe they could provide input they would honor many of the concerns expressed by those supporting the policy [28:59] prudence as well as best practices dictates that we should take advantage of our professionals and seek their [29:04] guidance before fully implementing policy 601 I'm also concerned that it's [29:10] not possible to actually implement policy 601 by the fault 2020 so one [29:15] example is the changes in the middle school those will likely require not just the creation of a couple new [29:21] classes they'll also require a completely new schedule and then potentially a change to the middle school model so given that background I [29:29] propose the we direct administration to put the implementation of section Roman [29:35] numeral five K of the current policy 601 on hold at the same time we should [29:41] direct administration to form a working team that will get input from teachers and administrators to bring to the board [29:46] provisions to policy 601 consistent with best practices in making this recommendation [29:51] I want to be clear I'm not advocating in any way for a reduction in options for our high achievers rather I believe that [29:58] there are better ways to provide more options for all of our students and that we should do so only after receiving guidance from our professionals and only [30:05] in a timeframe that we can meet so while we undertake those steps I would also [30:11] proposed that the current board adopt a new policy six the one that mirrors the prior policy 601 in its entirety so we [30:18] can avoid confusion as to the direction so in summary I would propose that we [30:25] vote at the next meeting to put section 5 promo number 5k on hold and that said [30:33] schedule for discussion reinstituting the old policy 601 so those were my [30:41] thoughts on policy 601 and the reasons for it so I'm kind of curious as to where others are on this [30:53] I'm sympathetic lending with your concerns that it may be too aggressive a [31:00] time frame and that the administration [31:06] and implementers didn't get full voice on it and I'd be really happy to [31:12] entertain that and hear from them I am pretty enthusiastic about the policy as [31:18] approved in November I as I stated then I can just reaffirm now that I think it [31:24] meets a demand by the community there we have a disproportionately large number of gifted and talented students in the [31:31] district 80% of our kids tested 50% or above and I think it's pedagogically [31:38] sound a lot of kids would love that it would fulfill on a commitment we made [31:44] to the gifted and talented community in November of 16 that we would have a more [31:50] consistent GT offering at this point and I think January February of 2020 we [31:57] would be a little bit more consistent with our GT offerings throughout the [32:02] middle school and not had drop-offs and all of a sudden there's no accelerated [32:09] class enriched class and six and seventh and eighth grade and la ten and la nine [32:17] I think it provide more consistency internally and more consistency externally to many of our peer districts [32:23] also have these programs so and you [32:29] didn't bring this up but one of the concerns had been the price and I and the I think the there's an over [32:35] interpretation of what we are trying to do it would really leave untouched in many ways the middle school the elementary schools and so it'd be a lot [32:43] less expensive than I think the administration was suggesting so those [32:48] are my general thoughts [32:56] can I just ask a question about clarification so under is it K number [33:04] five for with that also be affected by what you're saying the middle school is [33:10] addressed in number four give me a [33:16] second [33:33] kay is under five so it's Roman numeral v five sub K so [33:46] this would be all of K thank you honey [34:01] could you just explain what you had in mind with um with the process both timeline and process for what you're [34:08] proposing next so the timeline would be tonight's the night for discussing [34:14] whether we want to make a change the the January 13th meeting if people wanted to make a change ie putting it on hold that [34:20] would be the time that we would vote as an action item to put 5k on hold and [34:26] that would be a discussion item then for adopting a new policy 601 just for [34:32] clarity sake and then the February meeting would be in action we would then seek input from [34:38] administration as quickly as we could for them to gather a team of people to provide input because this is what they [34:45] said in November which is that they thought that they had ideas that would help supplement the policy so I don't [34:51] have a specific time frame because since this is the current word of the board I haven't spoken to administrators about [34:58] this any timing [35:05] okay so 601 is up for policy review and [35:12] was up this year for policy review so this is not out of sequence and I will [35:21] take exception to the fact that that there was some procedural error in or in [35:28] the development of this the policy committee did work with administration [35:34] at least with in the policy committee and did ask for feedback and did ask for [35:43] it to be taken to teaching and learning so I am going to push back on the fact that there was [35:52] some procedural error in the development [35:57] of this I will say that we did not hear from administration until the last the [36:04] day of the vote despite the fact that it had been discussed since June in the [36:12] policy committee meeting and so I would [36:17] like to hear more from the district teachers and staff if with respect to [36:25] what may be wrong with this but I am going to I am going to push back on the [36:32] fact that there was some procedural error so with respect to this policy I'm [36:40] actually very excited about this policy this is something that people have [36:46] talked about for decades and I think that it would both be an asset a [36:54] strategic asset for the community at a time when people are looking for whether [37:01] or not edina is committed to offering rigorous classes and programming for [37:09] talented students and so I'm just I'm actually that was why it was why at [37:17] least I put it into the original drafts of the strategic plan because it was to [37:23] retain students and it was to attract students and especially serve all of our [37:29] students every everyone else so I'm [37:35] actually very excited about maintaining this and I understand that there are [37:42] some concerns about whether or not operationally it's feasible with the [37:49] capacity of our administration our administration so I can appreciate that [37:55] and truly wished that they had been brought into our policy committee [38:02] meetings so we would have been able to say well let's look at our curriculum review schedule and if we do we would [38:11] notice that right now we are on the final stages of our science review where [38:18] it will be implemented our new science curriculum will be implemented in the [38:23] fall so at this stage normally the board is looking or has already in the past we [38:32] had said we wanted to see new course offerings in October and so this I'm I'm [38:40] curious about the timeline because this does affect what is going on right now [38:47] in curriculum review for example for science and in science science happens [38:56] to be the course that enriched science aid is one of the most popular of the [39:03] enriched courses at the Middle School's at South you about a hundred and fifty [39:08] students of sign up for enriched science and so that is something that I am I'm [39:17] quite engaged with is to make sure that we are designing our curriculum this [39:25] year to prepare students for next year [39:32] if we if this timeline is delayed we are [39:37] not giving the district the direction that I was hoping we would be able to [39:44] give them currently at South you for example about 50 students are signed up [39:51] for the sixth grade accelerated class so what happens with all of the other 100 [39:57] students that typically take enriched science at South you you know I'm just [40:03] saying that now would be the time where it would be efficient for our curriculum [40:08] development team to be developing the enriched classes are we are going to lose out on another [40:15] subject of with within our curriculum [40:22] development cycle so that's one of my major points right now we are in the [40:27] process of stage one for a curriculum review of language arts in the secondary [40:35] so it is very important it's either stage 1 or stage 2 I think [40:41] it might be even stage 2 where we are actually in that process of designing for those two new courses and the only [40:50] two new courses at the high school proposed by this policy so so I am [40:57] concerned about the timing that the board takes this is something that [41:03] should not if if this board decides to move forward with Lenny's proposal I [41:10] would make sure that there is a very tight timeline so that we don't miss the [41:15] opportunity to incorporate any new course proposals into the current [41:23] curriculum review so that's one of my major points is I don't want to lose [41:31] time with putting this off a minor point is 6:01 contains our competencies which [41:39] we have not discussed it as a boards for about a year and and that is something [41:48] that we had talked about as a board that we would discuss as part of our strategic plan it seems a bit unusual [41:56] that we would be only if we are going to [42:03] be looking at this right now not looking at competencies along with our [42:08] comprehensive new comprehensive plan strategic plans so that's the other [42:14] point the third point I have is that there were several inaccurate statements [42:20] in the administrative slideshow based and I [42:25] understand it based on the fact that they were not communicating with the policy committee so they didn't really [42:31] understand what was being proposed so they had they had additional funds for [42:40] teacher training which we did not intend at all we used the word qualified we [42:47] don't need additional certifications and that was a Miss a total miss budget [42:55] there were several others with respect to the number of courses being proposed at the high school new courses being [43:02] proposed for only two not ten so the numbers that are embedded in that [43:09] slideshow are inaccurate and so yes it would be good to get more accurate [43:15] information out there and and the other [43:21] aspect of this that just everyone is is seeming as making it seemed so unusual [43:30] that the board would be considering adding an additional class at the high [43:37] school at this time I will remind you that in February of 2018 the [43:46] administration came to the school board and recommended an additional class at [43:54] the high school in language arts called ap seminar their estimate for [44:01] development costs for that class was $5,500 and it would be prepared and [44:10] ready to go later that year so I'm just [44:16] saying that a lot of what I'm hearing that this is a financial incredible [44:23] financial burden and that that it the timeline is too tight I [44:31] think that we can discuss those things and fine-tune this policy but I'm [44:37] actually quite excited about this policy I think it will attract and retain our [44:44] students and at a diner schools and I think it would be a great way to serve their needs so so those are my points [44:53] right now so I want to give everybody else a chance I just I do have to note that I do respectfully disagree with you [45:00] that this followed a normal process or even a correct process and that input [45:05] was sought but what just gonna have to agree to disagree on that and so I have other comments but I know that other [45:10] people speak first no I wanted to reiterate something similar that you said that administration didn't [45:16] communicate with the policy committee and that's not factually correct nor fair to say in fact Lenny and I in a [45:23] mirror met multiple times and aamir being at the head of the policy committee we asked him and John asked [45:30] him multiple times do you want administration to come to the policy committee and he said no at this point [45:36] we don't need administration to come to the policy committee and he we probably had three four meetings where we went [45:43] through the questions and we said and John's like what do you need from administration and he said nothing at [45:50] this point and so I think it's incredibly unfair to say that administration was not communicating [45:57] with the policy committee because John and a mirror in front of Lenny and I had many conversations in which Amir said we [46:04] don't need anything from the administration at this time because we proposed why don't we bring teaching and [46:11] learnt we bring Randy to the policy committee why don't we bring teachers to the policy committee and Amir said no [46:17] not at this time we don't want them at the policy committee and so that's the direction that was given to our [46:23] superintendent and then we came to the full board multiple times and said we [46:30] need to talk to administration before we bring this to the full board and multiple months in a row the full board [46:37] said no we are not interested we bring this to vote so not only was John [46:44] given the instruction from the head of the policy committee that were not interested in talking to administration [46:50] but the full board said sent the message multiple times because I brought it up I [46:56] said we have to have a work session with our teachers and our administrators and the board said no I brought it up at a [47:04] full board meeting and I said we should not vote on this until we have multiple meetings and you guys said no you said [47:10] we need to bring this to a vote so I'm very unclear and frustrated that you're [47:15] now telling me that we should have met with administrators when it was brought up time and time again that we need to [47:22] hear from administrators and we need to hear and you guys said no it's more important that we vote on this in [47:27] December then that we hear from administrators so I it's very unclear to [47:33] me why you would be frustrated oh I'm on I was on the policy committee and for [47:40] some reason the it it it deviated from a standard policy so the policy no it [47:49] seriously some money created an ad hoc [47:54] committee with you and Erica and Amir to discuss something that board created [48:01] that because we all agreed we should create as a board you were there as well [48:06] and so was Owen and we all agreed we have too many questions about this [48:12] policy we have too much stuff to grow through we need to create an ad hoc committee to weed through all this stuff [48:18] that's how the ad hoc committee was created completely separate from the policy committee right so but why why [48:24] when it was brought up in the summer time why wasn't the district [48:30] administrators involved the policy that was passed was not brought up in the summer time the first time that language [48:36] appeared was like in late August it was but we wanted to we actually were [48:42] talking about it and we did we had a month on reflect that so I am I am [48:47] actually just going to reiterate it was not this board members intention [48:53] to leave out the administration and I will continue to say that that we we [49:01] tried to go through the right policy right procedure according to policy and [49:07] so I'm actually a little really [49:12] frustrated that it the normal procedure for a board would have the [49:18] administration at least present to the board the meeting that it is being [49:23] discussed and not the meeting that it is voted so that was at right and we said [49:30] we right so so so maybe we're all [49:35] frustrated but I am incredibly frustrated that that didn't happen so that we couldn't have made some of the [49:41] changes that you are suggesting ought to be changed but my my main point is that [49:49] I feel that there is a whole lot of good in this policy because it can bring [49:58] forth open and transparent discussion on what is it that we feel will retain and [50:08] attract students to Edina and what will serve their needs the best the other the [50:14] other point that I was going to make is that many of the discussion points about [50:21] financing the new programming all those specified in here was it was not very [50:33] well detailed and I think that if we are going to go into this next stage I would [50:40] really like to have a better understanding of the budgets for [50:45] teaching and learning because we can't just be stating that this is going to [50:52] offset another program without really taking a look at what those budgets look [50:58] like and that's what I would be requesting if we're moving forward that the board has a better understanding [51:04] of the teaching and learning budget so I completely agree with what you said and I agree with what you said and this is [51:10] why my suggestion is that this entire discussion is taking taken out of policy [51:16] and put in our strategic plan which is what I tried to get the board to do months ago because we absolutely should [51:23] have a discussion about how do we best meet the needs of all of our kids how do [51:29] we challenge and provide differentiation so that we are attracting students into [51:38] our district so we do have a robust gifted and talented program so we are providing differentiation so we do [51:45] understand the budgetary parameters we cannot solve those problems via policy [51:51] that is not the mechanism to solve those problems you can't write policy to solve [51:57] those problems we have to start with the key question which is how do we serve [52:03] the educational best interest of all the students in our district that has to be done via our strategic plan and then [52:10] once we've done that we absolutely have to make sure a policy backs up what [52:17] we're doing and I fully support what Lenny's suggestion suggesting because [52:24] we're going to keep writing and rewriting this policy and bring it's going to be a very convoluted process if [52:31] we can't answer these questions as a board and an administration and make sure that we are creating programs that [52:41] answer that question as opposed to answering the question and creating a [52:46] shell of a program and then making sure we're but it's like back fitting and [52:52] retrofitting and I don't think we're going to get the best result that we want and in the meantime we've we've but [53:01] created this convoluted process that's not going to work and so I actually agree with you and I agree with you and [53:08] I think it will provide a more robust process for doing this and I think it [53:14] will send the message to the community if it's list in a strategic plan and it says we as a [53:20] community are absolutely committed to gifted and talented we're committed to [53:26] differentiation and and then it's incumbent on our administration to say this is how we're gonna do it we're [53:32] gonna do it through the review cycle we're gonna do it through this we're gonna do it through that and then it's [53:38] our job to hold them accountable for that and absolutely we have to do all of those things I just disagree that the [53:45] best approach to take is to try to answer that through policy I don't think you can do it [54:00] well a couple things we have to I don't know if the public knows this but we'll [54:06] be meeting for four hours twice this week to talk about the strategic plan so [54:11] we can indeed bring it up at that point I think that'd be very fitting for us to do it and policy is an expression of our [54:18] strategic plan and of our intentions and so it would fit well into that and what [54:24] I see is we have an opportunity now to solidify some possible gains with gifted [54:30] and talented and enriched learning as Ellen mentioned the science curriculum is coming up for review right now and so [54:37] the policy modifications are congruent with that and so we could perhaps Lenny have a hybrid that we could preserve [54:43] some of the changes in the 601 policy and preserve those aspects that are [54:52] congruent with what's going on in the curriculum review cycle and then we have the LA 10 and la 9 classes in review [55:01] I think it's next year and so we could put the deadline out instead of this [55:07] coming fall to 18 months from now and so we could perhaps take parts of what [55:16] we've proposed or actually what we approved was 601 keep those and table [55:23] the other things that the other elements of the modifications the 601 that would [55:28] be too time-consuming or whatever whatever adjective you want to apply to [55:33] it so are you are you just proposing [55:41] that we change the dates and some of the items in here that we changed the dates [55:47] on dla classes to a year out from now so [55:53] we're not talking this fall but the following fall it's and that actually is congruent with then the natural [55:58] occurrence of wanted appear in the curriculum review cycle anyway and so [56:07] then we would be able to have a separate class for LA nine in LA ten in the fall [56:12] of twenty-one so again I think our first I [56:18] agree with that Erica said which is the first step should be to finalize the strategic plan which would then provide [56:25] overall guidance as I look at it I think that there are better ways to attract [56:30] and retain and retain students than what policy 601 has set forth but one of my [56:37] issues is I'm not comfortable making that decision without input from the professionals within our district so I [56:44] could give you all sorts of reasons why I think one pathway is better than another pathway but I don't think it's my job to sit here and do that [56:51] independently and so to me I'm not actually willing to keep any part of [56:58] that 5k without input from the professionals that are going to talk [57:04] about what's best overall for all students again my personal opinion is that there are better ways to attract [57:11] and retain and there are opportunities that we are going to miss if we adopt that policy but that's just my opinion [57:17] I'd want to talk to professionals and ask them so merely changing the dates [57:23] doesn't work for me because it it now all we've done is change the date by [57:29] which we aboard have made an independent decision without input and so that doesn't work from my perspective and [57:36] I'll actually agree with that Lenny because I think especially when you're talking about this science curriculum [57:41] Owen the middle school science class is the one that we heard pretty clearly from the educational leaders that would [57:48] have a pretty dramatic ripple down effect and could potentially change our model so I think just changing leaving [57:55] that as is because it's in a science curriculum review kind of goes against what the board heard back in November so [58:03] I'm in agreement with Lenny suggestion I think the educational leaders and the [58:08] administration were pretty clear that as it's written currently this is a domino [58:15] effect that that maybe we aren't ready for yet and I think it warrants much [58:20] more discussion so what I heard in November was that [58:30] they were going to maintain the enriched classes that are currently being offered [58:36] so that would be eighth grade science enriched eighth grade science so I would [58:42] expect that there would be still and [58:47] enriched eighth grade science and I would expect as we had hoped [58:54] as they design it that it would be not that it would be at an honors level so [59:04] I'm just I'm just reiterating that that's what we as a board will be [59:10] expecting from the administration even if we pull this out this is the one that [59:15] has the most immediate impact and that we are not getting rid of an enriched [59:20] class that we have the policy indicates that we would want to others 6th grade [59:28] and seventh grade and so what Lenny is proposing is that we would be reviewing [59:35] this and not directing our [59:41] administration to develop a sixth grade and seventh grade enriched class unless [59:48] they feel that it is something that they are interested in developing is that [59:55] what I'm hearing I would say that we would be directing them not to follow [1:00:02] the directions of 6:01 to create a sixth and seventh grade science class that is [1:00:08] true in terms of what happens for sixth and seventh grade that depends upon the discussion with administration teachers [1:00:15] and the board so I don't have a prediction as to what those classes might look like because in fact we might [1:00:20] find that in science that the compacted science and some other permutation of [1:00:27] sixth and seventh grade science works better than starting to go towards and ridged models I just don't know and one of the things [1:00:34] we need is we need feedback on the compact that's how many students are taking it because I think it's two or three sections are [1:00:41] taking it in one school and two and the other and you know what metrics have we [1:00:46] picked for analyzing it and has it been deemed to be either a success or on the road to success without answering those [1:00:55] I'm not in a position to speculate as to what's the next step I will say that I [1:01:02] am NOT as tied as rigidly to the curriculum cycle and I said this before [1:01:09] which is if we miss a curriculum cycle but we believe that the best interest of [1:01:14] the student is to create a new class out of cycle then it's the board's job to [1:01:21] find that out for administration and allocate additional funds for work outside the normal cycle because I think [1:01:28] you had expressed the concern that if you don't do something now you got to wait 10 years and my view is if you don't do something now but it makes [1:01:34] sense in two years then you have to just look at the budget and go is that the way that we're gonna allocate our funds I don't know if I answered your question [1:01:43] no that's that's right I just wanted to make sure that we were we had all [1:01:48] understood what was said at the November meeting that they were going to maintain those enriched classes and so for eighth [1:01:57] grade and that an eighth grade science is the first one that is being currently going to be new in the fall of this year [1:02:07] so I'm just I sometimes we all shake our heads at these meetings but this one we all understand that that's what we [1:02:13] should be expecting and there may be more if people ask me it will there be a [1:02:19] 7th of 6th grade and seventh grade in which class I will have to say no if this is the action of the board we don't [1:02:26] know yet and so I just wanted to make sure that I understood what was being [1:02:33] verbalized here okay we're all shaking our heads yes yes yes but that is my [1:02:38] butt and my expectation or what I would like to see is that [1:02:44] regardless of what decision is made or what direction that we go is that from John and the administration teaching and [1:02:51] learning is that I think some of the anxiety in the community and from the [1:02:57] board comes from the vagueness of the curriculum learning cycle and the [1:03:04] vagueness of like the pathways and the vagueness everything seems off in the [1:03:09] ether and what I would like to see is that okay we have language arts [1:03:16] secondary curriculum review cycle what does that actually mean does that mean that we will see new classes in what [1:03:24] year and we should be able to actually see on a calendar for the community to [1:03:30] see but what does the curriculum review style cycle actually mean and then what [1:03:35] does it mean for classes being developed and when will parents want to know when [1:03:41] are my students going to see that that's what parents want to see how is it going to affect my student and then what year [1:03:48] and I think that's what we owe the community is if we're going to be [1:03:53] reviewing and doing things through the curriculum review cycle what does that [1:03:58] actually mean from a practical perspective and then as a board if we see that and we don't think it's [1:04:04] acceptable or fast enough then we can say to you you know what that doesn't [1:04:09] seem that seems too far off if we want to add something or do something I [1:04:15] really think we need to move pull that forward but right now I feel that there's a lot of swirling and stuff [1:04:22] because everything is there isn't a plan everything's out there I will agree that [1:04:32] there are some things that seem to be out there I mean the the talent [1:04:37] development framework there is no implementation plan on that there's no [1:04:44] plan real plan that states what is that going to look like so yes I agree and I [1:04:51] would like it to be a little less squishy policy 603 [1:04:56] as a curriculum review cycle it clearly states step one budget and review so [1:05:01] right now in this this school year we [1:05:08] are the budget or review would be part [1:05:14] of the sciences in there and next year so I so so I'm not sure if you've seen [1:05:23] this and whether or not we just we just revised it in April of 2019 so it should [1:05:32] be fairly accurate yeah I've seen that I more mean that communicating to the [1:05:37] community when does if based on that [1:05:44] communicating in layman's terms to the community if we have a science review cycle that means as a board if we are [1:05:52] going to be talking about new classes when does that even occur because it [1:05:58] wouldn't be clear to me as a parent what that means and what it means for my [1:06:03] child and then if you are going to be changing curriculum when would that [1:06:09] affect my child and so I'm I'm talking about sort of translating that into [1:06:14] almost like a project plan format for parents and then helping us as a board [1:06:20] make sure that things aren't too far off because then some of the some of them [1:06:26] also based on when the state for example like the science we pull that ahead of [1:06:31] the curriculum review cycle and so or for the one class for the compacted class so I think if you put it in a [1:06:39] different format as far as when classes would actually drop and when those [1:06:46] conversations will begin I think it could be helpful for the community to [1:06:52] better understand and for us maybe to understand when some of these decisions [1:06:58] will be made [1:07:04] I just want to add in I'm also in support of moving section K one of the [1:07:11] things that you brought up Ellen is the budget and I think there are a lot of outstanding fiscal questions regarding [1:07:18] the budget and the impact and the school programs in November when the administration and principals talked and [1:07:25] they said it would have impact on classes outside of that framework of adding just to pull out additional [1:07:32] academic classes I would like to believe them and trust them that they need more [1:07:38] work they can see exactly what those impacts are I think that's going to be a really important piece in determining [1:07:45] what this policy looks like moving forward and then second the other piece [1:07:50] of that policy that I think and needs to warrants a lot more discussion is even [1:07:57] identification of gifted and in there there's a lot of room for interpretation on how do we identify someone who is [1:08:04] gifted and talented is it self identifying is it is it is it just test [1:08:09] scores as a teacher recommendation I don't know if we have the consistency through all of our schools right now [1:08:15] currently that do that you know you look at we heard from Katie Mahoney over at [1:08:20] Highlands in November and it would have a major impact on the CP program because they don't do pullout currently but [1:08:27] according to that policy they would have to then offer that additionally you [1:08:32] could have a class where if it's based on just test scores you could have three kids that test into [1:08:38] that and they get their own class right they would get their own class with their own teacher based on the policy [1:08:44] the way that's currently written and that's when I look at the impact I think that there is a lot more behind the [1:08:53] spirit of it I think a commitment to and sending the message the commitment to [1:08:59] academic excellence and a rigor in our schools is is super important to make [1:09:05] sure that it's part of our strategic plan which I hope that this week when we meet for we have eight hours plan that [1:09:13] we can talk about that and make sure that that is a priority it absolutely is that's what I hear from [1:09:18] the administration and that they would be able to look at things and they have ideas on adjusting stuff but I defer to [1:09:24] the professionals on this and those kids and they know our students so that's where I stand on it just to correct you [1:09:33] on two points one this policy doesn't affect school choice the cave the any of [1:09:41] the this because in school choice gifted and talented programming is already [1:09:50] handled differently for school choice programs people who opt into those to [1:09:56] school programs know that they are handled slightly differently than in [1:10:01] other programs and then the other point about sorry can I think of it can I ask [1:10:17] a follow-up question to that Ellen so in a choice program how is the how are they [1:10:23] gifted and talented students then I mean are they they're not separated out it's [1:10:29] just and it's just handled differently and so this policy wouldn't really impact that at all because it the way [1:10:37] that this policy was written was to simply maintain what we are currently [1:10:43] doing in standard elementary schools and with gifted and talented it was not [1:10:49] meant to add any additional classes just as so my other point was going to be on [1:10:56] class size just as it there are some things about class size that this [1:11:02] wouldn't it this doesn't supersede another policy that would say if if we [1:11:08] currently had four people sign up for enriched language arts at South you we [1:11:14] would not offer that class and we don't so this policy doesn't deal with class [1:11:21] size like that because as you can see from the earlier section it doesn't talk about class size [1:11:27] I think we just identified a key actually issue with the policy and why our administrators are confused because [1:11:32] the policy actually specifically states the elementary schools will offer separate advanced learner pullout [1:11:38] classes in grades three to five for math and four to six for reading so that's [1:11:44] what we state our elementary schools will do and it doesn't specify that it will be different for choice programs [1:11:50] and we heard from our one of our administrators that said you just wrote and are going to pass a policy that [1:11:57] tells me to do something different then my current protocol what am I supposed to do now your this dictates to me a [1:12:05] change and but what you intend and what [1:12:13] our policy states are two different things so this is exactly why we have to [1:12:18] do something about these words because we now either have our elementary school [1:12:24] administrators and teachers thinking if I go by what our board just told me to [1:12:31] do I have to change the way I do gifted for our choice programs and so we either [1:12:37] need to change what this policy says so they don't do that or and this is [1:12:44] exactly why I was concerned about passing the policy because intention is great but the policy says something [1:12:52] different than your intention a statement mm-hmm love reassurance is that my kids went to [1:13:00] Highlands and that's the only elementary school that varies from not having [1:13:05] pullouts and at the time that my kids went they had pullouts and so the [1:13:11] Highlands has a lot of experience with doing that so I think we could just fall [1:13:16] back on previous models and we could work out the language and so to your point on Erica if there's some ambiguity [1:13:22] language we could work that out in the case of VLA classes nine and ten the [1:13:27] district had decades of experience of having two separate classes and so we're not reinventing the wheel it's already [1:13:33] happened before and but you know spirit of moving forward Lenny so if we were [1:13:40] to talk about having the administrators come I would be excited to have them come as soon as possible and we could [1:13:46] hear from them could not lose much time and the strike while the iron's hot so [1:13:55] do you have any ideas about that no because I have I mean I don't have a [1:14:01] time frame I haven't had the opportunity to meet with administrators to arrange [1:14:07] for their coming here because there hasn't been any direction from the board I would like to see propose that we have [1:14:18] them come fairly soon the next month before we have our discussion or the [1:14:24] next February at the February board meeting is that possible [1:14:31] so I don't know the answer and we would have to define the question and then the other thing that is upon us is the [1:14:40] registration materials are going out and so either the registration materials list these classes for the registration [1:14:46] materials do not list these classes so implementation of 601 requires both [1:14:52] registration issues as well as you know at the middle school scheduling issues in terms of the middle school model I [1:14:59] mean there are a series of questions that were posed though we never got [1:15:06] approval to answer and so we'd have to go back to those questions I I can't [1:15:12] give you a time frame my interest would be to move as quickly as possible but I [1:15:18] don't have information for you [1:15:27] does anyone have any other questions or points they'd like to make so it looks [1:15:33] like based on the discussion we all have this on the on the agenda for the 13th meeting for action for delaying the [1:15:40] implementation and then discussion as a new policy for 601 as well in the 13th so we'll be discussing this again on the [1:15:47] 13th and then we need to talk to administration about setting up a meeting to your point Bowen as quickly [1:15:53] as possible giving the time constraints as far as of class registration and then [1:16:00] I think it also would be relevant to talk about in the strategic plan maybe [1:16:06] we can bring it up on Tuesday or and/or Thursday as well I think that's all for [1:16:13] our discussion items and we have no action items tonight do we have any leadership updates from you John no [1:16:20] leadership updates the only thing I wanted to mention and I think oh and mention it before was that we have to [1:16:26] work sessions this week on strategic planning one is on Tuesday and one is on Thursday and I believe they're both from [1:16:32] 5:00 till 9:00 is that if that's correct and then we also have a work session on Monday before a regular board meeting [1:16:38] and we'll be talking about interventions and us time study if anyone wants to [1:16:43] join us for that and then our regular board meeting our regular board meeting [1:16:48] is Monday the 13th and that is all if anyone I think that's it I believe that [1:16:56] completes our meeting and we are adjourned so are there any objections to a journey [1:17:01] sorry hearing that we are adjourned