looks like so do we know we're ready I think we are good evening everybody I'm gonna call to order tonight's listening session we do have a quorum for those people that want to speak we would ask that you fill out a green sheet and then bring it up over to Margo and then she'll make sure I get it with the focus tonight on school start times and educational benefits to our students it is appropriate that we take a moment to recognize the work of our educators and our staff on behalf of the Dinah school board and the administration we want to acknowledge the work that's being done in our district we've asked a lot of our teachers our staff students and community at large for moving in 9th grade to the high school to major constructions their projects to programs and new technologies we could never attempt to accomplish any of this high level of excellence that defines Edina without the guidance and support of our educators and staff Edina teachers are educators scholars role models innovators and compassionate advocates and today we want to take the time to recognize them our staff is second to none and the glue that keeps our district together on behalf of the board in the district I would like to thank our Edina public school teachers and our staff for their work and its positive impact on the students in our greater school community I would now like to welcome everyone again this is our second listening session we're excited to get input from the public before we start tonight's list listening session I want to go over a few parameters for tonight's session first we're gonna begin by having dr. Schultz just give a quick overview and then we will then take comments from individuals again green sheet makes it easier for us we ask that you limit your comments to three minutes I have a timer over there in Val Burke who's going to send me a signal when your three minutes are up and then I will ask you to complete your thoughts we ask that you do not comment on any individuals you have comments about specific individuals please bring those to the attention of the superintendent directly I'm gonna call the names of the current well right now we don't have a lot of speakers if we turn out to have a lot of speakers on what I'm gonna do is going to call the name of the first speaker as well as the second speaker so we can keep the process moving we do ask that you do not applaud any of the speakers it will take up time that we could otherwise use to listen to more people so with that said I would call Becky Peterson Oh yep sorry so before we get started we have [Music] [Music] [Music] thank you as the school board continues to make its decision so I'm gonna go through this rather quickly just to get you grounded so the school board's considering the research that's happening across the country that is telling school districts especially high schools and middle schools to have adolescents start later I suppose we could ask the ninth graders in here what time they get up I'm not going to do that but it's we know that their sleep ships the research shows their sleep shifts into a later time so this research is being considered as the school boards making this decision and the National Sleep Foundation has been instrumental with its science in communicating the the impact that sleep has on student engagement and attentiveness so when a school district begins to ask this question about changing start times there are variables that play into that and of course the biggest variable is that interaction that engagement that happens in school but the other part is is how do we then get students to school at the time we want them to start learning so the school board over the last since November in addition to considering this research they began to consider different schedules this is the current transportation schedule and this just shows the shows the the current schedule you can see that we have Valley View and South view starting in the first tier so that's a first run that the buses take and just to look over there I want you to pay attention to the numbers here this is this particular tier of of schools the students we pick up for these three schools takes 36 buses to do that for the second tier Normandale olg and the high school it takes 42 buses and then the rest of the elementary schools including the continuous progress schools it takes 45 buses this is a fiscal issue this this does cost money the the goal that we're trying to reach here as far as the budget target is 42 buses so what we did as a school school board and administrative teams to look at what can we do with schedules what can we do with these transportation schedules one of them we looked at was was a two-tier schedule a two-tier schedules means that we're going to have two passes through the Dyna School District to pick up kids and we looked at this schedule and to see if we could start classes around eight four one tier of schools and then at nine four second tier of schools and when we did that calculation to calculate how many buses it would take to to transport this number of students we found out it took 56 buses to do that for the first year in 53 for the second that's 11 buses over what our fiscal target is and so then it begins do you make this change and buy the buses and as after deliberation and looking at other schedules the board landed on on this schedule to consider and I and our administrative team are also bringing this forward as our recommendation you can see that the it takes 42 buses in each of the tiers the elementary schools start time is at 7:50 the high school Normandale in OLG is at 8:30 and our middle schools would be starting at 9:20 so after workshops and discussion the liberation calculations we also play a little bit with the non transportation zones so sometimes they're called walking near Nia's to see if we can extend those to have less buses to change those times and we weren't able to manipulate that enough to get that to happen so this is the schedule that we're putting forward and this is the schedule that the board is considering and will consider and you have the opportunity to respond and and give viewpoints to the school board regarding it so the process the board is going to have another listening session in February twenty-seventh on this transportation option school boards also continues to take emails and reads them and records them on February 26 there will be a board discussion at their board meeting around start and end times March 12th will be another board discussion and then March 19th is the date when the board will make a decision on the start and end times so with that we're going to invite you forward to to provide your perspective your viewpoint and your thoughts on the start time proposal as chair ball and Freeman indicated there's a sheets in the back to fill out speakers will be given three minutes to speak if your view was expressed by another and you want to reiterate it please try to do so to preview and fashion to make sure that we get everybody here to give the chance to just to express their viewpoint and then as as always let's model and respect them are a commitment to a real good civil discourse tonight so with that I'll turn it over to chair wall and Freedman to conduct a listening session all right thank you very much and our first person today is becky peterson welcome grab a microphone hi okay couldn't get my computer to work I couldn't get my notes to print so I had some like witty intros I compared start times to lima beans and I got none of it so I'm gonna just sort of try to say a few of the things that I had scrawled down because I've been here before and you guys kind of know what I think my concern with the choices are that I think that neither of them are good neither of them are great and I don't know that we can get some other choices but that's what I would ask you to consider is if we can get something else I think they're both extremes I think 750 is too early I think 9:25 or 920 for middle school is too late and it's too late for elementary school I mean living it right now and it's totally fine with me but it's too late I think for the elementary to consider no it's been brought up the safety issue of having kids out early but I think you have to think about more than just darkness but it's colder when it's earlier the snowplows haven't come through I've been watching to see when the plows come on my streets they're not plowed yet or they're coming through and if you ever watch elementary school children at a bus stop they're lunatics they slide into the street on sleds they do crazy things and now when we mix in darker and plows and things I think it's not safe so I'm very concerned that those first bus pickups would be 7 o'clock even perhaps earlier when you talk about the choice program schools I'm concerned about when we talk about things being better for working families that we have decided that working family looks only like a parent that works from 7:30 to 4:30 and we don't consider other working makeups and that would include parents who now have kids finished at 2:25 in the afternoon that's very early and for those that need aftercare that could be three and a half hours of aftercare that's all over half the day moreover more than half the time they've spent in a classroom is now in a gymnasium versus maybe an hour before an hour after I think that split up seems a little bit more reasonable in my opinion but three and a half hours in the gym feels very long to me mm-hmm I would ask about some things that might be considered in terms of the buses first bus efficiency from my house I can see three bus stops I could get to all of them within 20 seconds I'm not saying I want my kid to walk down the block if they can be at the end of my driveway but I sure want them to walk down the block if it makes us need less buses or go faster or things like that so I wonder about if we have too many stops going on I wonder about the capacity of the buses especially high school buses because I know that we have a lot of people driving that never actually take the bus and I wonder what we can do with that I wonder about charging for using buses for choice programs we could have vouchers and things for people who are on lunch programs and things like that so that it's not unfair but and my children are in a choice program to be clear but maybe when you're in a choice program that's something I just think there's more to consider I know this is totally incoherent and it would have been a little more coherent if my friend so that's all I just would hope that you'd consider maybe a little less extreme [Music] good evening board chair superintendent board members I'm dr. Brian bass principal of a pre-k through eighth grade school in Saint Paul public schools served 12 years as a principal and during all of those years I've served in the capacity with children who are at the secondary level I am in support of the the recommendation that is up here with middle school start times moving back and I just I can't emphasize enough in the in the deliberation that's going on with the board that putting our children's health and their academics at the front of this conversation is what should be driving the decision versus X curricular activities I think I think the other points will be raised or having have been made I have submitted a letter as of Sunday evening so you should have that in your board packets I did ask my seventh grader at Valley View to write her letter because I think it's important to have student voices at the table when when thinking about the decisions that we're making so dear school this is from estelle seventh grader of a love you dear board members as an epa he done a basketball association basketball player and being at the older end of my EBA travel basketball career my team has given the later practices the majority of the time on most nights that get home from practice anywhere from 8:45 to 9:15 if I don't have any homework left and I don't need to shower I'm in bed by 9:30 or 9:45 this gives me about eight and a half hours of sleep 9 hours tops but sometimes my brain can shut off and I can't fall asleep till 10:15 10:30 most mornings I'm a zombie and I and I have a really hard time focusing up focusing until about periods period one or period two ends in conclusion the middle schools early start time makes it hard for me and my teammates to get enough sleep even a start time of 8:30 would have a dramatic impact on my ability to focus and retain what I'm learning so that's what that's from the voice of a of a seventh grader and mom or dad did not mess with that that's that's her that's her that's her writing and so I just want to underscore that that I think the focus of the conversation has to be on our children's health and academics and and what's going to put them in the best situation so I I do hope that we are able to at the end of this move the middle school start times back past 8:30 thank you thank you next is Amy Gilbertson and after Amy will be Patrick Dao welcome I'm sorry thank you I miss you try itself you middle school and passionate about middle school in the learning success of those students middle school learners are not being honored in the present proposal in my opinion for these reasons student access to learning facilities for example high school athletics want to be allowed to enter the building prior to the end of the school day I feel that this is distracting to the students from learning and making them feel uncomfortable in their space for example changing in the locker rooms we had swimming diving synchro in there and I had sixth graders in my PE class it would be hard for them high school athletics wants to be allowed to warm up on the sides while middle school PE classes is wrapping up again distracting the learning from meeting their learning targets then to the hour is prime time for synthesis of learning past practice has shown that athletics will need the field even earlier on game days and this is only magnifying these exact same issues finally there was a possibility of mourning practices if warranted this would affect facility used with community ed morning swim physical education classes setting up their learning space for the day such as that secondly I'd like to address the Equality of transportation to before school activities and frequently asked questions that say that there not be before school activities this will most likely continue at the end of the day students who have parents who can drive in places in the morning will continue to be able to do extracurricular activities and those that don't will miss out some students will need before school care if both parents work this will likely negate the sleep study that's present another concern in our building is the theater program with the potential of theater either not existing which is taken away an activity that many students are passionate about and care about and get them to school actually every day it will have to move to the a.m. which becomes an equity issue of who can get a ride plus kids attending all 5 days and the gates of the sleep study as well all activities are important to students in success many students we know thrive on being a part of these amazing opportunities we have in place so while it's not based on the athletics or the activities these are things that drive our kids to do really well and I've been a coach for many years to help with that I'm afraid we're gonna lose both students and great leaders with all these changes that are in place it's finally I can't help but wonder what is the data that we're hoping to generate as a result of this it seems at the beginning that we're talking about financial and budgets and I get that these time changes affects 70% of our students families and staff so I'm wondering will our you know is it that well our standardized testing go up with you know what we're hoping for more sheep are we hoping from our equitability the sleep studies present show is that younger kids and older kids so 14 to 18 which doesn't hit the target middle school age of 11 to 13 which is what is actually at our school or is this the case can the younger kids stay at the later time because it seems we're assuming that middle schoolers are going to get more sleep but the way the new schedules proposed we could argue that kids will be getting less sleep trying to balance activities they're just going to start later and with the later school schedule they might be getting up to do or finish what they need to I do appreciate your hearing all this sides of this huge issue it's huge it's not fun for anyone middle school is my passion I love what I do I love the district I commute a long way to be a part of the things that are here I'm just not sure that the sleep study hits the mark that's intended I am Not sure all the negative consequences of school curriculum facility use and all the activities are going to fail through the changes that are taking place so thank you so much thank you and after Patrick now will be Janet Chan's welcome thank you for the time thanks for letting me speak I'll be brief I my daughter's a kindergartner and I've only been any dinah for about a year and a half so I'm somewhat new to learning how the process even goes so I was kind of shocked to find out that all Gees buses were being used with the Dinah public system and I just feel that if a private school is gonna be using public school bus things they should maybe be the first one on the list I like the list but I wish it would maybe start if one if lg's using our public school buses and I guess again I should kind of digress a little bit I was told that they pay for them and it helps our budget I mean if if that is kind of the case should we looking at like busing other schools to to help our budget I mean you know I saw that's just kind of that doesn't make sense anyway but so with that being said I would like to maybe see with these times at the high school starting the earliest so it's all these times where I like but then have OLG first if they're gonna use our buses then high school and followed by then elementary schools and my reasoning behind that I just feel that if you're in high school you're gonna have more responsibilities after school sports jobs this goes on and on and I feel you're gonna need more time to do that at the end of the day and getting out at 2:30 would allow that if you get out it might be tough for jobs I mean if you're having a job and had to do a sport I find that almost impossible as a high school student and my reference is obviously 17 years ago or whatever but it just that just doesn't compute to me I feel if you're older you start earlier and then it goes on from there and that's just my reasoning on it really right there so one I just don't understand the buses with being used OLG and you know also even to that that obviously takes time out of every public school system if you're I mean I understand that Normandale and ology are probably kind of close but again I didn't OLG is a Catholic back Church they probably have tons of money where they can get their own buses so I just again I just don't get it I need more again with me not only being a kindergarten me like be here in here and a half I apologize my ignorance on the subject they're just not getting it so maybe anymore inside that but that's my reasoning behind it and that's why I think maybe start times should be different with high school being first so on and so forth so thank you thank you after Janet Jan's comes through so meta welcome good evening seem like it's on when you get here when you're out there you can hear it but okay thank you thank you so much for the opportunity to speak tonight and chairman thank you for the email and the message that you gave tonight thanking the teachers it means a lot and we truly appreciate that in this year of very intense challenges where we are trying to keep the students at the forefront and that is why I am here tonight it's wonderful to be thanked but no one has asked us our opinions as middle school teachers no one has come to leadership team or asked middle school teachers you have given us statement of experts and yet you're not asking our opinion and that is why I felt called to come tonight to speak for middle school students based on the research that you are showing and I agree with very strongly with one of our previous speakers that the health and the academic success of our students needs to be at the forefront what some of the solutions that are suggested in admin and board papers present primarily a high school athletic focus over middle school academics and the solutions and the challenges that that would bring to middle school learners is very very frustrating and disturbing to me having high school team start to practice before middle school is done can deny students 60 hours of instruction by taking away 20 minutes a day 20 minutes isn't a long time but when it's a full school year that's 60 hours of instruction another suggestion was to accommodate middle school teachers who coach at the high school we can just change their prep time to the afternoon which would change team schedules which would reduce student success because teachers are teamed where there can be most successful a simple change in schedule has the trickle-down effect of not helping our learners at all move advisory to the end of the day it is best practice and has been proven because we've done it both ways and it's best practice to have advisory at the end of the day putting it excuse me at the beginning of the day putting it at the end of the day gives it a throwaway quality and the students focus is not at all the same as it is with what we currently have the proposal actually lists bus availability as a concern but doesn't list the loss of a middle school learning time and access to facilities I find that disheartening I agree that this decision tree based on the health and the academic success of our students and I agree that we should respond to the research that is there and that is why I would like to see discussion of having the middle school in the second tier being fiscally responsible with the three tier system and move the students that are here tonight that have difficulty getting out of bed the 14 to 18 year olds to the later tier where the research shows they should be and not move the 10 11 and 12 year olds to the later time which does not coincide with the research of the older teenagers Edina makes decisions based on data so I brought some data today excuse me could you absolutely my percentage of grades from my period one two classes at eight o'clock to my one and two o'clock there is a seven to nine percent higher grade level in the morning classes they have greater completion time deeper discussions with higher-level thinking there are more DS and FS in the afternoon with interventions needed what will that difference be expanded at four o'clock I really appreciate your time and your listening ears on this very very central middle school issue thank you thank you and after Feroze Amedda will be Robert Jelinski welcome hello everybody is this mic working okay thanks for giving me the opportunity to speak my son Aiden is in second grade at Creek Valley and he has moderate autism spectrum disorder he's Ben's most of the day in the special education classroom and my concern with elementary moving so early and if it does happen that from 2:30 til 6 o'clock or whatever to working parents would be off of work there's a three and a half to four hour time window that we have to occupy kids with autism and they need structure and scheduling and I'm wondering if there's any way we can all work together and find a way to have appropriate after-school care for them right now in Creek Valley at least there are five to six students that do the after-school care at kids club and they're assigned a paraprofessional and it's not really a structured program but they have the pair of following them around and we were wondering me and a couple other parents in different schools because I'm I'm on the Special Education Advisory Council and I was just talking with the other parents and there's a couple groups on Facebook as well with all like dying as special-needs moms and I just like writing the idea by them if this change does happen how does it affect you and most of the parents from the two who have two working parents are just like we don't know how it's gonna affect us because right now with schools ending at four my boss has adjusted my schedule I can go and pick my child up but if there's such a large time window then we're just concerned is there a specialized schedule thing where our autistic students and Down syndrome students have something for them to do so I did send a pretty long email to you guys last week I know you're getting a ton of email and the superintendent graciously called me and we spoke about it as well but I would love to help you find a way to facilitate finding appropriate programming for the kids so if there's so as me another lady Kate qawalli who's also on special occasion by Special Education Advisory Committee and we would all like to come together and help you find a way to do it and my husband had a really great idea if he could do a request for proposals from Frasier or partners and excellence or any other a be a provider Frasier would be your best bet because they also serve kids with Down's syndrome and other special needs so they could give you a request for Proposal and you could work with their suggestions as well so that would just be my request thank you very much thank you after Robert Solinsky is Jani Shaw welcome I'm gonna be trying to be reasonably brief because a lot of the points that I wanted to make were brought up before so I'll just refer back to what's been said earlier for those I just want to say I you know as everyone has said and I I know that it is true across the board that obviously we are almost concerned with the performance of the kids and of their health all of the kids need more sleep than they get and of course I'm sitting here I have my eight-year-old right there and so I'm worried about how early the younger kids have to get up just as the older kids parents are worried about their so we're all a little bit in the same boat I also just want to say as a piece of perspective that I've been managing nonprofits for about 25 years for a living and let me just say that if I were coming in as a consultant not that you've asked for one or a neat one but I will say that you are trying to solve a financial problem in terms of the buses with a programmatic solution which anybody who spent considerable time in the nonprofit will tell you that that's really not best practice the first way you have to look is to see if there is a financial solution to the financial problems so if there is a way just to say to go back to figuring out a two-tier mark I realize would have higher costs and so there are other things that have to be dealt with there we're really shortening the the time span and trying not to affect the programming quite so heavily some specifics I you know just to say again these are the things that particularly affect me I heard conversation earlier about the younger kids being out earlier hours which means it's still dark I also want to point out that that's not just when it's still dark that's also when traffic is at a much higher level right now my daughter goes out for the bus at about ten minutes to nine which frankly is kind of late but the morning rush is pretty much done and the amount of traffic that's going by is much less and it's much safer going the other way is is really worrisome for someone again I also live on a major thoroughfare so maybe I'm a little more worried about that than others might be I also want to refer back to the comment that was made about people who have their kids in in aftercare as Julia is in aftercare and if we're talking about adding yet at least an hour probably more than that to the other end of the day just to say that we're solving one fiscal problem by causing another for a lot of working families and that's you know that's real it not only affects just to say the the the dollars for the care there's also a meal time spread that I was just thinking about as I was coming up that you should probably consider right because in aftercare I know that they get snacks and things like that but you're talking about what I assume is gonna be a wider spread from mealtime in school until the time that they're done at the end of the day and we're actually getting solid food so these are just a few that I wanted to bring up I appreciate your time you have my questions thank you thank you very much after Janie Shaw would be Traci Mercado welcome hi guys hello I am not jealous of you I'm just gonna say that um I'm just basically here to say I have a lot of trust in you guys I have a lot of confidence in this district I know that this is probably one of the hardest decisions but I also know that no matter what happens we as parents we're gonna be okay and our kids are gonna be okay we're not talking about too dramatic of an issue in the grand scheme of things but I just you to make the decision I'm not the expert on educational things and that's why I want you to know I trust you my only request is that I'm urging you to give people time with whatever decision you make I've had conversations with teachers at South you who I adore I have a seventh grader there and I don't more most importantly I don't want us to lose staff over this that's a huge scare of mine we've worked really hard to get where we are in all of our schools and I don't want to take any steps backward so whatever decision you make my family will support but I just urging you to give it time to let people take the time they need to make it work for their families also maybe this is a great opportunity to have conversations with the athletic associations in Edina maybe have some hard conversations about practices and times and looking at rescheduling some of those dome times or ice times or something and maybe use this as an opportunity to do a little bit better for our kids and I know that myself I know many other parents would be grateful to help with something like that so I'm up here to say thank you and that I trust you and that we can do this no matter what happens and there are parents out there that will help you thank you thank you after Tracy Mercado will be away you're on Shang hi I have an elementary aged boy and a middle school age boys so I've got two kids who will be affected by this decision I wanted to thank you first for having this listening session I think it says a lot about you wanting to represent the broad parent group I support the recommendation to flip tier 3 and tier 1 the couple of reasons why would include that it does prioritize academics over necessarily extra qulet extracurriculars I think both are important but at the end of the day if you look at research and it talks about the type of hours of sleep that kids at this developmental stage need I think it's the right decision if that's the only option ideally I think a 2 tier or 1 tier system would be great but we know that that's not practical or financially feasible at this point so I just wanted you to know I support that recommendation I think it does take into consideration developmental stages of children middle school aged kids tweens teens are having big developmental changes physically cognitively they're under more pressure for many this is the first time that they are experiencing more rigor and responsibility academically and it is a time and place when they're really building a foundation to enter high school and develop those skills and habits and so I appreciate you prioritizing focusing on what's the best for that school day and the extracurricular impact I'm confident we can work out with before or after school alternatives also I applaud you for using data to inform your recommendations and decisions I think that's important and at the end of the day we're happy with the fact that we have this board that is listening to us and we can't please everyone so take everybody's feedback and we appreciate what you're doing and frankly the families will adapt you're not gonna please everyone we will all adapt whatever the decision is that you make so thank you for your hard work and dedication but I do support the recommendation it will be hard to get my elementary aged child up early in the morning however I think with the level of academic pressure and workload that middle schoolers are under these days their sleep is incredibly important to determining their ability to function well in school the final note would be I would just want to make sure that we are including staff feedback because this is going to impact the teachers as much as the students and I would hate to lose great staff over a timing issue so I assume that that's being factored in but from a student perspective I support the recommendation thank you thank you welcome thank you for letting me speak I think a lot of people before me have said many things that will challenge this recommended plan one for all is other competitions when scheduling the activities for middle school students and high school students and also of course the little kids now gets much earlier so there's safety concerns and for the parents too and on top of that there's also financial concerns because now the little kids goes gets to home much earlier than the older kids siblings who might actually be able to watch them if the current schedule so I think I appreciate that the board is looking at the house of the students I guess so if if that actually that assumption gets realized then it may be worse impact on us but I think that's a very big assumptions for example that we assume that just say well the middle school students just going to come get up later but they're not going to go to bed any different but that may not be true I have a sixth grade graders at my home now he's not saying into any of the athletic program yet but just for his house as ever doctors would recommend that he would need to some some sort of exercise so he does have swimming a few days in a week now if he now right now he's utilizing the gap but a couple hours between after school and two we both work so after all we both get home at about 6:00 he used that time for his homework and other academic things but then if the school had out at 450 or so forth for 30 for 50 or so that basically gets him home and then no time to for homework and then when we got home and fed him and he goes to activities and he goes with his exercise and after he come back about 8:30 then he started homework then he's just gonna shift everything later right now we can convince him to get out too bad about 10:00 maybe 9:30 when he finished stuffed 10:00 10:30 or so but within that news proposed schedule he basically had to shift a couple hours later after his exercise done after a 30 or so then he has no choice but to stay late so it's not I mean I think right now it's I mean we as a parents it's do you have some power to convince them to go to bed a little earlier but then with this new proposed schedule there's basically they have to there's no other way around that's my point thank you thank you the last person that signed up is Jacob burning so if you would like to speak tonight then quickly fill out a form and provide it to Margot or Val welcome thank you thanks a ton for the opportunity and I would say that having lived through last yearís is a significant improvement from last year so appreciate everything that the board is doing so I'm here representing myself obviously as well as my wife because we operate as a team so I'm gonna read to you from some email that we had sent to you so dear dr. schultz and board first we would like to thank you for your service to the community and for all the work spent on the school start time discussions second we recognize that this is not an easy decision with competing viewpoints and the inherent challenge of balancing parent and teacher concerns with logistics and financial considerations third we've done a fair amount of research on the subject of elementary school start times and have personally in store a variety of different start times as such we think we can offer a well-informed view of it we have a 3rd grader and a kindergartner at Concord Elementary with that in mind we are very supportive of earlier start times for elementary students we have spoken with several teachers all of whom believe early start times best support younger students learning and development at our previous school district in Colorado our local elementary school start time was 7:35 and enjoyed broad community support it is also very clear that views on this question of Elementary start times are not uniform while we recognize that start times have significant implications for family schedules and that some families benefit from later start times we think it is best to center the decision on the constituents who matter most students and teachers when viewed through their eyes it is clear that the prevailing evidence supports earlier start times for elementary still drew here's a sample of that evidence I'm not going to go into the details but one was the whys out of school the district so I'm sure many of you have gone onto the web site and gone through the process by which they made their decision and all the research they've done both primary and secondary to support their decisions ultimately they landed very similar to your recommendation number two Minneapolis public school so they conducted us there's not as much a lot of the school start times and the implications for sleep and academic performance have a bias and their samples towards middle and high school kids there isn't a lot on elementary schools but the Minneapolis public school did have a 1998 study that supported earlier start times for elementary kids well we are supportive we know that many community members have or will express concerns regarding the earlier start times for elementary while obviously 750 is only 10 minutes earlier than eight o'clock getting that start time to 8:00 a.m. might actually appease some of those people's concerns I recognize per hour earlier comments that you are balancing multiple factors in polluting financial logistic needs some of the objectives we have heard from fellow parents include elementary kids safety availability of afterschool programs and kids who stay up and sleep in with all due respect we think that these objection objections while well-intentioned and well-informed do not overcome the evidence in favor of earlier start times for elementary kids this question has been raised by many school districts such as Wayzata and as a result it has been debated well we're not the first school district to deal with these questions the the the conclusion many of the districts arrived at is earlier start times are better for elementary kids again we fully support the earlier start times and we recommend voting for implementation in the 2018 2019 school year and thanks again for the improvement in the process and the opportunity to speak we did get another person signing up Robin Gould by the way this is again our last speaker so got a minute or two to fill out a green form welcome it's a sign all right good evening um my name is Robin Gould I have a daughter at the high school and a son who's at South u and we specifically moved to dine at this summer my husband took a job in the area and I guess I was not I just came to listen because I'm a former middle school teacher myself and a parent of a south vo parent but I guess one of my observations especially as a former middle school teacher is is is that I've seen very specifically at South youth this year the school really working very very hard to embrace the middle school concept I think one of the one of the purposes of moving we did our research into the district of moving the ninth graders up to the high school is to consolidate their learning but also to create a better social emotional and academic environment for the students at the middle school baikin free configuring the day and having them start so late and having them end so late after school you are going to the teachers have worked tremendously hard at the building this year to implement the personalized learning to flex their win time if you now after only one year of giving them an opportunity to do that now you're going to change all of that on them then they have implement they've worked really hard in order to have all of these clubs so that everybody a middle school has a place to belong if you have school end at 405 and kids getting home at 4:30 you are not going to have teachers and the staff be available to stay for homework club for writing lab and for math lab that you are making available to kids after school you're just if you make those things available to them it's kind of like what's fun somebody spoke to earlier did the equity to get those kids in earlier if you're not gonna have buses all of the opportunities we're creating for the middle school kids to send on to be academically successful at the high school you're going to eliminate and pull out from right under them but mostly I'm here and I guess I decided to speak up not only because how strongly I feel about embracing if you want to embrace the middle school concept is that it kind of breaks my heart that the teachers were not asked or three or did not even ask their input whereas staff their input into what they thought they're the ones that we hire and that we trust with the kids every day and to just not even approach them and ask them what their opinions are how is it going this year how are the changes I think that's a little insulting and I'm kind of disappointed in the district that we moved into but I'm hopeful that with some of the recommendations tonight or that you'll take it into consideration thank you thank you Caroline Korea welcome hi I know it was said already but thank you this is a big change compared to last year's process and I think this is only the second board listening session they I've ever since I've lived here have ever seen so I really appreciate that because it feels like you are definitely open to hearing from your constituents I would encourage you I I support your recommendation I would encourage you to utilize community ed as much as you can when you're making the schedule change so that parents have options for their students if they're flip-flopping their times because it's a great resource and you should be working together with them obviously and so thank you thank you very much so that completes our speakers who have signed up so we do so we do have another listening session on February 27th and just a backtrack from that on February 26 we will have a school board meeting that this will be a discussion topic so you could come to that meeting if you want hopefully we don't get the you know everybody coming again with the same comments but we also have a 6:30 session so if people have specific questions that they have not gotten answered you can submit your question in advance and then come at 6:30 and ask those questions and there'll be more of a dialogue than what we're having tonight tonight is our listening opportunity and this and the 6:30 session is more of a interactive session and it is limited to 30 minutes so we typically can cover two or three people and I think on February 27th we're also going to solicit questions in advance from people also to have a more interactive system and with that we're going to close the meeting thank you very much for attending and have a good evening we are adjourned