Mic test one, two. Mic test one, two. Okay, good evening. Tonight is Monday, August 10th, and we have a quorum. So, I will call this meeting to order. The first order of business is agenda approval. Do I have a motion to approve the agenda for tonight's board meeting? >> So moved. [clears throat] >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> We have man and aram. We will vote to approve our agenda. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Tonight's agenda is approved. Uh this month we are fortunate enough to have some introductions to some new administrators here in Edina public schools. So as they make their way to the front here and superintendent superintendent Swenson comes up, I just want to welcome you all on behalf of the school board. We are so excited you're here and know you're going to do great things for our students. >> Well, good evening, Madame Chair, members of the board, and Dr. Bitman. Um, several of us cabinet members have different introductions to make tonight. I am super pleased to introduce you to a couple of our new assistant principles here in Edina. Um, the first being Mandy Stokes. Mandy uh is coming to us most recently from the Red Ring School District where she spent the last 20 years of her career as a teacher and an assistant principal. They loved her there. That's why she was there for so long. And uh little known fact about Mandy, she is in the Hall of Fame for uh River Wisconsin Riverfalls and they give out an annual award to an athlete in her name too. So um yeah, she's Yeah. Very cool. [laughter] So that's Mandy Stokes and I'm also pleased to introduce you to Alex Hensth. Alex comes to us uh by way of Mounds View where he was a teacher for a period of time. He was an instructional leader for a period of time. He was an administrator and then he made the decision to become an assistant principal at Minnitankka High School. Um and has now come to us Little known fact about Alex, he just got back from a vacation where he's enjoying some surfing with his family and all the stuff that you do on a family vacation. So, Mandy and Alex, [applause] thank you. Thank you very much. I'm excited to introduce us to our new assistant director of teaching and learning, Sarah Klitsky. And Sarah comes to us in Edina here with um over 12 years of administrative experience, most recently at Groveland Elementary as assistant principal in Minnotonka. Um all of the people that I talked to in hiring Sarah who have worked with her in the past commented on what an amazing collaborative and systematic thinker she is. Um and that has already been demonstrated in her short time here and my interactions and collaborating on a lot of different projects already with her. And little known fact, she is a baseball mom. So that out there and I will now turn it over to director Frick. [applause] Good evening. Thank you. I am excited to introduce Amy Wald. She's our new assistant director of student support services for the elementary. She comes to us um from district 287 where she was an administrator and leader there. She was also at Robbinsdale. um by trade she is a school psych um and she is just has been fantastic partnering with families, partnering with staff already. Very excited to have um Amy here. And a fun fact is that she's a runner. Um [applause] I will also introduce Paul Olsen who is not here tonight. So he had a previous arranged um vacation prior to um coming to Adina Public Schools. Um, but he is our assistant director of student support services for the secondaries. Um, and he comes to us from Mountains View as an assistant director. He is a speech language pathologist by trade. Um, and a fun fact is that he is also a runner. Great. [applause] Our runners are going to have to connect with South View because our principal and there's a group of them that goes on a run club. And those of you from Minnetonka, you look better in green. Anyway, [laughter] welcome. All right. Next on the agenda is hearing from members of the public. And we have no members to that have signed up to speak to us this evening. So, I will move us along to the consent agenda. Uh, is there anything anyone would like to remove from the consent agenda? >> Right. We will now vote to approve the consent agenda. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> So, moved. >> Is there a second? >> Second. We have Aram and Hooie. Uh those in favor of approving the consent agenda say I. I. >> Anyone opposed. The consent agenda has been approved. Uh board members, I did want to point out one thing that was in the consent agenda that uh and that was our amended board meeting date. Um we have moved the organizational meeting for January to be the same night as our January board meeting. So, it was originally scheduled for the 4th and then we were going to have our work session and board meeting on the 11th, but now everything's on that one night. So, I just wanted to make sure to draw that [clears throat] at 4:30 starting at 4:30. I just wanted to draw that to everyone's attention so that in case you that slipped by. Okay. Uh, moving on to our discussion items. Our first item this evening is to receive a summer construction update. And I will welcome up to the dis our buildings and um our executive director of finance and operations Mer Wart. And our building and grounds committee has been or team has been quite busy this summer. Good evening, Chair Alam. Uh, excuse me, Chair Gabler, [laughter] members of the school board, Dr. Bitman, those um in attendance tonight. Uh, as Chair Gabler mentioned, we have been um very hard at work this summer with relatively significant construction occurring at six of our um nine different school sites. Um, with um about uh 12 to 14 different projects in scope, um all of those projects are slated to be completed on time. It will be um kind of a race to the finish as it usually is. Um, we spend about $16.7 million on average per summer in long-term facilities maintenance costs. And as you can imagine, that's quite a bit of work to get through and um, under two and a half months each summer. Um, I have taken the pleasure this summer of kind of touring all the sites on a daily basis and taking a number of different photographs so you can kind of see what's happened before, during, and after construction. Um, that can be viewed at construction.edchoolsfinance.org. And I'll quickly just run through some of the the projects and take any questions. Um, at Conquered Elementary, it's really uh mostly a flooring project. The main entrance there, um, that floor is being installed as we speak. That is going to be a lovely terazzo floor. And there's a video there that kind of shows you how the the mix of that material occurs on site. Also, all the other hallways that have um kind of an outdated um, VCT flooring has been um removed and replaced with LVT or luxury vinyl tile. Also the space that is adjacent from the main office which is kind of a quasi meeting room and music room. Uh the music room had a little bit of additional space that was really unused. That space has been removed and added to the meeting space so that um there's more of a conference room and also I think we have a number of um kids club staff who kind of office in nooks and crannies throughout the building and it's not always the most ideal for those individuals. So that now they have a space to meet and coordinate the various activities that occur before and after school. Creek Valley Elementary is undergoing a pretty major um interior surface and restroom project. That's a two-year project. Um we're in the first year of that. Um so far the music room, the art room, and a couple of intervention rooms have had brand new carpet and casework installed. Um there's a brand new um gym floor that is totally complete now and striped, which looks amazing. Um the stage that is connected to the gym has been converted into a um a learning space and so a wall has been put up. Also there is ADA accessibility there with um there's going to be a motorized kind of ramp that takes um students with ambulatory um disabilities up to the learning space and then the the other students can use the stairs that are there as well. The cafeteria again had that older VCT flooring that's been removed and uh replaced with a a more modern durable flooring um which is quite nice. And then many or most of the restrooms at that facility have been or are original to the building and those are all being updated um with new tile, new fixtures, new drainage and plumbage, etc. Again, that is in the first year of a two-year project. All of the remaining classrooms will get new carpet um and then casework as as appropriate. Um next next summer we'll move on to Highlands Elementary, relatively similar to the Creek Valley um project, a little bit um narrower in scope. Um nearly all of the classrooms have received new um carpet and hard flooring. Um brand new cafeteria floor. Uh one brand new gym floor, another gym floor to come next summer. as well as a total renovation of one of the gang restrooms. Um, two of the kindergarten classrooms also had restrooms that were um, not in the best of shapes and both of those have been replaced and will be fully functional by the start of the school year. Moving on to Valley View Middle School. That is a project that originally involved only the removal of some galvanized piping um, that was beginning to fail and show its age. um removing that piping was obviously quite invasive and so we're um redoing large portions of the locker rooms and so instead of a large open gang shower type facility, those are going to be individual stalls which provide a little bit more privacy. We're also redoing the um the boys and girls restroom that's kind of at the end of the main hallway as you enter the facility. And you can see a couple of those pictures there. Um that project is um started off a little bit slower um but is now moving on schedule and we should have both of the bathrooms online um I believe at the end of next week and then the locker room shortly after that. Then at Edina High School don't have a lot of pictures of the mechanical project. Um it's kind of difficult to to take photos of those, but that's kind of the end of a three-year project of about $36 million, which really involved um transitioning our uh our heating and cooling system from hot steam to hot water, which is a more modernized system. This summer, we're focusing more on two different roofing projects um of about 75,000 square ft, and then also a complete replacement of the floor in the fieldhouse. that fieldhouse had um some hazardous chemicals from or materials from many years ago, mercury. So, all that flooring was ripped out. And as you can see, we had to put a a hole kind of in the side of the building to remove those materials. And now we have a brand new floor that's about halfway in now. New basketball hoops, a new partition, new acoustical panels, etc. Uh and you can see the the kind of the floor prep with those um hovering machines, which is kind of fun to watch. Um, also on the first and second floor, um, there's a hallway that had a bank of of lockers that were um, kind of ill-placed and um, kind of cramped that space and provided a little bit of a funnel for students to go through. We've removed those lockers. They weren't really used. We'll replace them or or place them elsewhere in the building and that'll provide a little bit better flow um, kind of going towards the cafeteria space. Then at the ECC, we've seen um quite a lot of activity. First, we've got a brand new um well, not brand new, a totally refinished uh varsity basketball gym. Uh repainted, restriped. Um looks really nice if you ask me. Um the locker room, we actually removed quite a few lockers so that the coach has uh more of a a space to meet with the players ahead of games or uh after before practices. All the remaining lockers have been repainted. Um that floor will be replaced with kind of an epoxy floor, so it'll be um quite durable and also easy to maintain for our custodial staff. The stairs that lead to the varsity gymnasium have been replaced um or is in the process of being replaced. Underneath those stairs um we used to store band equipment, band uniforms, football uniforms, and quite a bit of water was actually um getting under the stairs and damaging some of those materials and and equipment. Um, so that's really the reason for replacing those stairs. Um, the portion below the stairs now is going to be a couple of different rooms so that those teams can access their um their equipment in a dry safe space. And then we'll we'll finish the stairs up over the next couple of weeks. Um, in addition, we'll have some uh some new windows, new doors, etc. leading into the the gym. Uh, there is also VCT or older flooring that leads into the gyms. Uh once the the main part of the project is complete, we'll also remove that flooring and install um kind of a a walk-off durable carpet uh that will keep debris out of the gym and keep our new floor uh looking good for years to come. Then you'll notice that the uh district office hallways that are kind of outside of the office area have been uh redone. Again, that was some of the older VCT flooring which was starting to show its age. Since we had a lot of flooring projects in this building to begin with, we thought it would be a good opportunity to take that time to redo redo those floors. That's again a luxury vinyl tile, which I think looks quite nice. The office portion of the building um had again some of that VCT flooring that's been replaced with carpet, which we think uh provides a better office experience for those that work here. It's also better for noise levels. Then finally, outside of door three, um we did a little bit of uh repaving of uh the curb um both on the street and towards the door three entrance, providing a little bit better accessibility for those folks who who struggle to um deal with the elevation changes there. And then finally, perhaps the most um from a visual perspective um significant project is kind of a complete redo of the early learning facility in terms of the interior surfaces. Um, so not really any structural changes in terms of how the programming might happen or changes to classrooms or additional square footage, but really replacing all the old flooring, replacing some really, uh, uh, poorly aging and in poor condition carpet, um, some case work, um, replacing all the lockers and installing, uh, storage that is more appropriate for students that are four years old or younger. I think the cubbies uh, really turned out quite nicely. um we didn't replace all of the the lockers because we just didn't have that need for that many um cubby spaces. So um those spaces where it wasn't needed, we just drywalled over it. Other spaces, we installed some custom benches and seating um for visitors and early learners. Also, the smaller gym that's located within that facility, really a playroom or a multi-purpose room, um has a brand new floor as well. Um the same exact cafeteria floor that's um going at Creek Valley and and other facilities in the district. I'm really happy with how that project has turned out. Again, that one is um going to be on time and on schedule. Any questions? >> I'm just glad to hear that all the bathrooms are going to be online um for the start of school this year. Um that's awesome since I know we had a little bit of trouble with that at Cornelia last year. Um but that's great. And as a former finance committee person, like just seeing all the continual effort on our long-term facilities maintenance plan, taking care of these things and the amount of work and the teams and everything that done in the short period of time that's making it happen, it's remarkable. Um, so kudos to the team for for making that happen. Thank you. >> Well said. Agreed. Thank you, Director Woodard. And please thank your team for us for all the work that they've done over the summer on these projects, but also just making sure our buildings are ready to go at the end of August. So, all right. Thank you. Next up on our agenda is a strategic plan recap for strategy C. And um I wanted to kind of set the stage for this is uh with the fact that you may know that one of this year's goals for both the superintendent as well as the board is a comprehensive look at our 2020 2030 EPS strategic plan. And so that work was officially kicked off on July 28th when the leadership advance team and members of the school board met with Miss Miria Hansen who was the facilitator who helped the community, the board and the district with the construction of the strategic plan starting back I think director 2018 19 >> I believe we started in 18 but finished in 2020. Yeah. Okay. So, she was she was part of the facilitator or she was the facilitator for that. So, Mia is now working with us this year to help us assess where we are in the plan if there are needed adjustments to the plan and to ensure that we are in alignment regarding what some of the strands in the strategic plan mean. Um, I know that some of us on the board here are very excited to do this important work together and believe it's time well spent and um, periodically throughout the year, board members will be giving recaps and updates on some of the work that has been happening as we review the strategic plan. And tonight we have our first update with Director Alenberg um, giving us an overview of some of the work that was done around strategy C. Director Alenberg. Um, thank you, Chair Gabler. About three4s of what I was going to say was so I might have a very short >> recap. Um but I think you hit on some of the most important points which is this is really looking at um things as we know move so quickly in education in the world these days and since this plan was created precoid um and we've had a lot of changes in the educational space the world with um leadership we felt it was very important to get back together and make sure there's common understanding of what is going on with our strategic plan but also so that um where we're moving the district makes sense for where we are or where um where things are in education. And so I guess the one thing I want to make sure that the community knows is we're not changing our strategic plan and we're not changing the tenants of the strategic plan because they're evergreen as far as um academic excellence um whole child social emotional operational um efficiency. So those are all um staying the same. It's really just making sure that the action items under it that we understand where are we, what progress have we made, do we need to shift and things like that. So we had a great conversation um for people that aren't familiar, which a lot of individuals probably aren't. Strategy C is fostering learning positive learning environments and whole child and staff wellness support. Um so it's really about um we talk a lot about social and emotional wellness for students um that's and staff that's really the bulk of this strategy. So a lot of our conversation um was around where are we with the implementation of social and emotional learning? Um what does it mean um what does wellness mean in Edina? Um do we need to have a common definition of wellness and what does that look like at different levels? Um and then making sure that um there was some conversation around what does positive learning environment look like? How do we define a positive learning environment at a building level and a classroom level? Are our educators feeling supported to facilitate a positive learning environment? Um and there was a very long healthy conversation. There's a piece in a big part of this is about technology and what does that mean since this was written before AI um but technology just rap changes so rapidly um what does it mean for our um our district as far as technology access um how to facilitate the most positive both learning and social emotional environment for our students um with the utilization of technology. So, we talked about that specific piece and um are there steps we need to take to ensure that we're really um on the cutting edge of what science is saying about technology um and making sure that we're doing what is best for our students from that perspective. And then the last piece is there's a conversation about mental health support for our students and making sure that we're doing what we can from a district perspective given we all know the limited budgets that districts have. But making sure that if we can't necessarily have a mental health professional, do we have caring adults for every child? Does every child feel like they have someone that they can go to? And again, what does that mean? um from a mental health support. So, lots of great conversations, lots of conversations about where we've implemented things with Fidelity, conversations about maybe we need to shift this and do something different. Um I would say especially around the technology piece because it has changed so much. Um and then just trying to get common ground around what does this mean? um you can say technology to 25 different people and 25 different people might have a different interpretation or a different idea of what is positive and so really grounding ourselves and this is where we're going as a district. So, I thought it was very valuable and I think um we've talked a lot about a strategic plan is only as good as your fidelity to the implementation of the strategic plan and I just feel very good about the fact that it's a living breathing document here in Edina public schools and I hope our community really um feels good about the fact that we do have this north star that um everyone in our district is looking at and working towards. If you're ever wondering what we stand for in Dina public schools, you can see it in our strategic plan. So, any questions? I want to thank Doc uh Dr. I almost made you a doctor there. Uh board member Alenberg um for her willingness to share. she facilitated part of our work on that day and um was able to give us some background and intent around the strategic plan because she is the only board me member excuse me that was here when that was being constructed and we have had a lot of new faces and so being able to understand where we've come from and some of that intent I think um the people [clears throat] in the room really found that helpful I heard that over and over again so there was some really rich conversation so I want to thank her for the role role that she played in that. Okay, our last discussion item for tonight is a board compensation analysis and I will turn it over to Director Birdman to lead us on this topic. >> Great. Thank you, Madam Chair. [clears throat] Um, for those of you who had your agenda up in board book, if you uh go to the item, there was a missing link uh originally in the PDF. If you refresh, it should then show up. Um it's the same document that we had when we first discussed this item at our last retreat. Um we're bringing it forth at the general meeting so we can have a a little bit more further conversation on and determine what action we might want to take on this topic. Um, since I got on the board, uh, five years ago, uh, I've really looked at the responsibilities across the board of all seven of us. And one of my biggest sort of things that I've looked at is the level of work and the workload of our uh, chair uh, of the board. Um, and I've looked at we're all compensated the exact same way for all the work that we do on the board and it's all valuable work. Um but the chair role has been um literally uh from in my time for when Erica was the chair and now with Karen being the chair um it is an extraordinarily amount of work way more than I do as a director on the school board. So I started looking into well what are the compensation um um patterns of school districts throughout the lake district which we we participate in and also looking at the top 50 districts here in Minnesota. And when I started doing my research, I discovered that in EIN, we actually haven't looked at or adjusted the compensation for board members for more than 10 years. Um, and we do not pay um a different stipen uh for different roles and workloads that we have on the board. So, I brought this forth uh to the broader board uh for discussion and and interest to see does it make sense for us to examine what the board compensation is and did we want to then look at um potentially uh seeking an uh an adjustment uh for making that happen. So, I provided this board uh compensation analysis summary uh that's in the packet. Um it talks about how Edina is the 17th largest school district in Minnesota uh by students. Um this is based off of 2425 data. Uh when you look at the annual compensation amongst the top 50 districts, um they're paid at $6,524 a year, Edina currently provides $4,500 annually. Uh which ranks us at 36 out of the top 50 districts in board compensation. When you look at our competitors in the Lake District, uh our the average annual compensation for Lake District board members is $5616.38. um the median uh for compensation because there's a large uh difference amongst the school districts in our conference, it's 4650. So we're not too far off of the general median compensation. Um but that's sort of from that standpoint. But the really striking difference is in board officer compensation. So the 45 of the top 50 districts, extra compensation is provided for the board chair and sometimes in addition the the vice chair um is also uh given something. Edina does not do that. Um Edina is the only late conference district that does not provide any compensation for the board chair. Um the average additional compensation the board chair receives us anywhere between 10 to 20% above the average site that is provided to regular board members. Um in uh the late conference it's averages at about 18.4% higher for the board chair. Uh 10% of all districts provide some additional compensation beyond the board chair uh for the vice chair. um very few do it for the clerk and for the treasurer um but some do. It depends on and then there's also other levels of compensation that are provided in different districts where they give them some added benefits beyond just the stipen. The reason why I wanted to have this discussion is to to look at to say starting in the next term, starting after this election and starting in January of 2027, um I certainly would propose that we consider making the adjustment of the average siphon that we're providing board members and absolutely positively include um an additional level of compensation for the board chair at minimum potentially do something for the vice chair as well um and us take that consideration. I would really welcome all the dialogue of what people think about that and what areas or what levels of compensation we might consider. When we did talk about this at our retreat, Dr. Pitman was able to provide some input. I would certainly ask you to provide your your analysis as well of your experience throughout the the state and other school districts that you find um for us to take it from there. Great. Thank you. >> Here you go. Thank you so much. I was grateful that you brought this forward and as I had talked about briefly before I know that Edina has not considered compensation for many many years and so as we look at that rich data just appreciate appreciative not only of the work that each of you do but being able to do a spot check in what that looks like the it is common as you indicated for there to be different levels particularly with the board chair and so I would excited that we're talking about that the amount of work that the board chair does on behalf half of the board with the superintendent as well as throughout our district is significant. Um, so I think it's a great opportunity for the board and I would strongly encourage uh the board to consider an increase to put us more in line with some of the other districts are. And from a strategic standpoint of recruitment for potential um future board members, we know that no one does that for the money. um but we should have uh some level of compensation that is representative of the hard work that they do. So, thank you for bringing it forward. >> Thank you. Um some of the questions that that we did discuss at our retreat and I'd ask you to continue continue to think about as we uh think about a proposed uh solution for this question. Um given that we haven't increased our compensation in more than 10 years, when we look at the roles and responsibilities among board members, are they equal? Um I think we had a robust discussion. Not only does the chair have um a lot of uh extra workload, but the vice chair in support of the chair and the governance committee also um certainly has that as well. Um when we talk about the recruitment of of future board members, there's no amount of compensation that we could possibly provide for the role that we have um that would be able to make this compensate for people's time to come and do this. This is truly a volunteer type work and some people might not even want the compensation from that standpoint. But it is important, I think, for the community to understand that the amount of work that the school board members do on a on a day-to-day, weekly and monthly, yearly basis is significant and that compensation is appropriate at least to to respect people's time and to provide them some value for the effort that they're giving back to the community. Um, the key thing for me when I brought this up is that it's really difficult for us to discuss this and vote on our own compensation. I think that's a very difficult thing for any politician or elected official to do. That doesn't mean there's no other means for which we can actually take care of this question. Um so if anyone's listening to that, please that's not lost on me. Um I'm really trying to kind of future secure this for for the future board members. Um whether I'm on the board or not, um I think this is just a proper way for us to value um the work that all these people do day in day out for for the community. Um, I'll open it up for questions, comments as to um what does do people have an idea of where we think we want to go? First of all, let me ask this question. Do we agree or does people have comments about should we or should we not consider additional compensation for the board chair role? What do people have to say about that? >> Yes. >> Okay. [laughter] Thank you. >> Dan, >> yeah, I would agree that um the board chair [snorts] performs a significantly higher amount of work just from a frequency of meetings and and whatnot. If you just look back the past 12 months, the board chair had an um integral role in this election or the search firm piece of the new um superintendent or the superintendent search and everything else that was way above and beyond anything that um we do as a normal board members. >> Thank you, >> Cheryl. U yeah I would agree with that statement entirely. Um and then I do have a question. Do other districts typically handle this in terms of like every five years there's a x percentage so that we don't end up in this situation or is it just >> from my information I mean me Dr. Bitman would know more than I but from what I looked in it there it's all over the place in terms of how that's handled. I think you know we we're not abnormal in the sense that we haven't looked at this in 10 years. Um, I think it's just more of what is the regular cycle where I think there are other districts that do have sort of a cadence where they're at least reviewing this on some regular basis. Maybe it's every odd fiveyear basis to look at from that standpoint. Is that your knowledge, Dr. >> Absolutely. It's definitely all over the place in terms of districts, but it is typically part of the annual organizational meeting for conversation. And so typically boards do have that on their agenda every year. And a lot of times it's just about kind of where are we at? How does everybody feel, etc. And then various boards choose or choose not to take any action on it. >> Got it. Thank you. >> Erica, any thoughts? >> Is there back peg? [laughter] >> I fully support it. Absolutely. >> Madame former chair. Yes. I if it were up to me, considering your yman's work during COVID and everything else. >> Totally kidding. I >> I know you are, but >> fully supported. Great. >> It should it should be noted that our our beloved former chair >> um >> No, I wasn't I wasn't begging for a compliment. It was just a joke. >> I know, but it's my turn to have the mic, so I get to say what I want to say. Um that it's actually, you know, for those of you in the community who who at least know the work that's been done. you know, Erica, given that she's chosen not to to continue on after the end of this term, that it's it's one of these things to where you need to have people who are willing to go above and beyond and dedicate their time to be able to make this happen. Um, it's not that I don't think people appreciate that. I I believe that they do, but it's really hard to actually understand to the depths for which someone, especially in the chair role, has to go through in order to make this all work. And so it's not just to Erica, it's it's to former Lenny, it's to it's to Karen today, but it's to any past person. It's just a huge requirement. So I appreciate that support. Um Elliot, >> yeah, I would support um both things, raising it as uh as our salary and and for the chair. I know coming on as a new board member, um then board chair Ellenburgg did a lot of work just making sure we were comfortable and going with us to our MSBA meetings and stuff that um from covering other boards um having some familiarity of how other boards worked and stuff like that. I was really blown away with how much we lean on our chairs and especially now with um with board chair Gabler as well. Um, I would definitely support having a a different tier because they're just they're different jobs and we put a lot of more on that person's plate. Um, we're not The other thing is we haven't touched this in 10 years. We probably won't again. So, I would probably say go a little bit higher in the sense that then we probably won't touch it again. It's a great suggestion to look at it every year like that. Um, I can say that again from those other boards, they rarely ever looked at it. Um, nobody necessarily does this for the paycheck, but at the same point, it is worth, I think, respecting people's time. Um, for the people in the community watching, we are respectful of that, knowing as well, it's not a full-time job, so we're not saying it needs to be compensated as such, but it is a sacrifice. And, um, so I would support both. Yeah. >> Great. Thank you, Chair Gabler. I know it's hard to, we were talking about the current, you're the current occupant of the chair role, but I I certainly would like your broader sort of feel about our approach to this. I appreciate all the work that you did to pull all this stuff together. I will say that. >> Okay, [laughter] fair enough. Um, okay. So, what I'm hearing is that there seems to be a lot of there is support for us to if we're going to make a change that we would definitely add additional compensation for the board chair role. Um so when we look at what proposal of for making that happen we will absolutely include that. And then uh do do people and we don't have to go through a whole everyone's chime in unless they want to. Um does everybody feel that we should re reccalibrate our our current stipen starting in 2027 for all board members then base the chair compensation above on that level. Is everybody okay with that as far as what the proposal would be the official proposal that will come back to the group? Okay. Then if it's okay, unless anyone has objections, um I will craft together what I think the proposal is based on feedback that's come in. Um we'll bring that to the next um board meeting for action um in terms of what that proposal would be again for if if it's action is approved, it would take effect in January of 2027 with the new seated board. Great. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you, Director Bergman, for the work that you did on this and bringing it through the process. Appreciate that. All right, we are moving on to the action portion of the meeting. Do I have a motion to approve the 2026 27 school board goals? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All right, we have man and Allenberg. Uh board, we've had the chance to discuss, review, and make any changes to these goals at our June retreat and then at our July board meeting. Um, for the public, the board goals you see were designed based on feedback from all seven board members, areas of focus from our beginning and year-end board evaluations, as well as district priorities. So, board members, I'll open it up for any additional questions or comments you have and then we'll vote. I just want to say um as we've evolved this over our different discussions, I think that the edits that were made to this that we finalized last time um are great and I'm ready to approve. Thank you. >> Thank you. We'll now vote. All those in favor of approving the recommended schoolboard goals for the 2026 27 school year say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Uh the board has approved the schoolboard goals for 2026 27. Uh, do I have a motion to approve the 202627 superintendent goals? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Hooie and Alenberg. Dr. Bitman, is there anything that you would like to add about this action item? >> Just appreciative as Michael Bergman indicated just of the edits and the feedback. We developed those collaboratively based on the strategic plan and the work that we believe needs to come. So with that, thank you for the collaboration. >> Board members, any questions? We will now vote to approve the 2627 superintendent goals. All those in favor say I. I. >> Anyone opposed? >> The 2627 superintendent goals are approved. Do I have a motion to approve policies 208, 503, 520, 601, 616, and 626? >> So moved. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Man and Allenberg. Uh, policy chair Ellenburgg, is there anything you would like to say about any of these policies since we saw them last month? >> Not particularly, Chair Gabler. Okay. >> Um, these were reviewed by policy committee and re um reviewed by the board at the work session. No, the meeting last time and here they are for voting. >> Okay, board members. Okay. Uh, we'll now vote to approve policies 208, 503, 520, 601, 616, and 626. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Anyone opposed. Policies 208, 503, 520, 601, 616, and 626 are approved. Moving on to leadership and committee updates. Do any board members have any updates for the good of the order? >> Director Ellenberg. Um, I have a quick update for the community and um, I wanted to let the community know that um, this November on the ballot is going to be a constitutional amendment for um, eligible voters to vote. It's called the um permanent school fund um constitutional amendment and it is most people aren't familiar with it, but Minnesota actually has public lands that are part of a school trust that have been in um have been part of a public trust since Minnesota was created as a state since 1858. And um the um so it's held in a trust and the money from that trust goes to public schools and the the constitutional amendment because it's enshrined in the state constitution that we have these lands and this trust. It requires the voters to change the constitution. Um what this um amendment does, it modernizes the approach to investing the trust and um it doesn't change anything about um it doesn't raise taxes. It doesn't change anything about who the trust goes to. Everything stays the stays the same. just modernizes um how the investment structure works to align with modern day practices that most college endowments do. Um and what the result would be is that it would there was a study done by um financial experts on this and it was approved um very strongly in um by the legislature by both parties which is very unusual. So it was a lot of um support by both parties. Um it increases the amount that school districts get um across the state by $31 per pupil. Um so again, it's not a tax increase for any residents and just because of the change in the distrib distribution method, it keeps the fund for perpetuity but increases money for public school students. the impact to Edina alone would be around $265,000 annually. Um, which when we're cutting budgets, that's a lot of money. And so I just wanted to let everybody know that this will be on the ballot. Um, the other thing about constitutional amendments is if you go to vote and you skip it because you don't feel like you understand enough, that's counted as a no vote. um because the um the the way the laws work is it requires um a yes or no vote and it defaults to a no vote. So, it's really important that people read it and vote and hopefully vote um and decide how they want to vote. But, um I just wanted to share information that this is happening. Um there's a website Minnesota PSF, it's permanent school fund PSF. Um I forgot the rest of it. Info.org or if people want more information, but I just wanted to make sure people were aware that this was happening and was going to be on the ballot in November. >> I really appreciate that. Um, and I believe the public will be hearing more information about it through some newsletters. And so, um, as one of our former leaders used to say, find five friends and tell them about it because it really will be a word of mouth. Um there's a lot of things on our ballot this fall and so making sure that people know what it is and how what kind of impact it will have to schools without having an impact on taxes I think is really key. So thank you for that. Any other committee or leadership updates? All right, Dr. Bitman, any updates for us? >> Just a few updates. I think the school district and community will be very proud to say that our AP achievement scores are the highest they have ever been. not only in the number of students that have participated, but in terms of their achievement. And so we're really excited and appreciative for our teams, uh, our teachers, our staff, our administrators, our parents, and families for helping us not only maintain that excellence, but continue to get better each and every year. So, we're grateful for that. Also want to do a shout out to those that leaders across the district who participated in our two-day retreat, our leadership advance where we talked about things like achievement and the importance of leadership and the things that we have with our strategic plan as Miss Alenberg pointed out and so we're really excited about the school year and we know that it's going to be a great one. Exe executive director Woodard talked a little bit about facilities and I just want to reinforce and reiterate what Mr. Birdman said. It is incredible amount of work from our staff and our contractors, our community and everyone else to make that happen. And we are excited that they are on time, on budget, and that we'll be ready for kids when they come. Uh in addition to that, uh we're excited about back to school. It's nice to see the kids coming back for whether it be athletics or clubs or sports, etc. Getting ready for the new year. It brings a certain level of excitement. And then finally, uh, tomorrow I'll have the opportunity all day to serve on a committee with the city of Edina to hire their next city administrator. And so looking forward to that opportunity and grateful for our continued partnership as we look for continued leaders throughout our community. Thank you. >> If I can just tag on to that AP thing because I think some context there, 95% of our students who took AP exams earned a three plus or higher. 95% and we had um 2,713 tests taken. So, I know as of last year we were the high school that gave the most. We might still be, but to put it into context, that's really something we're celebrating. >> I think we need to give our AP teachers >> absolutely >> a huge round of applause because that is [applause] a big deal. >> They do. [cheering] They they get our students ready and that is really something worth 95% is impressive. Wow. So >> can I get a motion to adjourn tonight's meeting? >> So moved. >> Is there a second? >> Second. [laughter] >> Birdman and Arum. All those in favor of adjourning tonight the Monday, August 10th board meeting say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? The motion carries and the board meeting is adjourned.