[0:05] all right welcome everybody I'm going to call the meeting to order we do have a quorum this is the regular school board [0:11] meeting of the Dynasty Lord Monday July 16th we do have a quorum and I would not [0:17] start by having John give a quick overview of the agenda for tonight [0:33] we had a different [0:44] okay so tonight we have on our consent we've got the some personal personnel [0:51] recommendations we probably some rates of pay some memberships in the school [0:57] board membership an association metropolitan school districts Minnesota School Boards Association as well as the State High School League membership we [1:06] have have one report around discussion of discussion about superintendent goals [1:11] the board has worked hard on strategic planning interviewing facilitators for [1:17] strategic planning that will take begin in August we have policy updates for [1:25] discussion and for action and we'll be approving long-term facilities maintenance budget we have some [1:32] contracts to approve with the community ed coordinators superintendent visor E [1:38] Council and the paraprofessionals we will have a discussion and approval of [1:44] the pre EP ten language arts curriculum and then we will after the discussion of [1:50] strategic plan process and selecting a facilitator we'll have discussion and [1:56] action on that plan in that proposal and then we'll be approving some policies so [2:04] we have some reports some information being provided on the agenda around [2:11] policy appendices as well as the ad hoc Communications Committee for the board [2:16] and then AP exam summary and some staff recognition so with that as Ken gives an [2:21] outline of the meeting great thank you very much so first on the agenda is [2:28] approval the minutes can I get a motion to approve the minutes of the June 18th work session the June 18th regular [2:33] meeting and the June 26th special meeting are there any changes to the [2:39] minutes hearing none all those in favor of approving the minutes from the June 18th work session the June 18th regular [2:45] meeting on the June 26 special meeting say aye aye any opposed motion carried all right [2:51] next we have hearing Oh just moving this closer next we have [2:56] hearing from members of the audio we do welcome community input at our meetings we request that you sign up in [3:03] advance and that you keep your comments to three minutes or less we would also request that you not make any comments [3:09] about individuals if you have a concern about a particular individual you should bring that to the attention of the [3:15] superintendent we typically do not have board discussion of the comments that [3:20] are brought at the seven o'clock meeting we do have the opportunity for a Q&A at 6:30 if you present questions in advance [3:28] we will have more of an interactive session at 6:30 so we also do welcome [3:34] emails so first speaker is Deirdre Van Nest [3:50] welcome thank you as a professional speaker and speaking coach over the past [3:56] seven years I have helped thousands of leaders and business owners become better communicators in doing this work [4:02] what stands out to me perhaps the most is that professionals who are average communicators put themselves at an [4:08] unnecessary disadvantage in the marketplace on the flip side not only do [4:13] powerful oral and written communicators give themselves a massive competitive advantage but they are able to have a [4:20] bigger impact on people's lives because when they write and they speak people tend to sit up and listen and take [4:27] action so what does this have to do with our schools developing powerful communication skills is a lifelong [4:33] learning process that ideally starts when we are young for that reason I [4:38] submit that the language arts curriculum at the high school can and should be one of the most influential group of courses [4:45] our children take when it comes to reading writing grammar speaking these [4:51] skills become a part of us and they need to be developed over time a strong foundation at a young age is a game [4:58] changer for students and will positively impact their lives for their entire life [5:04] and will positively impact the world the 2006 executive summary found in the [5:10] Edina public school's yearbook started with this sentence the Edina Public Schools is committed to providing [5:17] world-class educational programs for our students world-class educational [5:24] programs for our students based on the data you've received for parents for Edina and the anecdotal stories you've [5:30] heard from individual parents and students about the pre-ap 10 la class I ask you to check in with yourself for a [5:37] moment are we doing that is that class rigorous enough to hold up to [5:44] world-class standards if you're honest with yourself I think you'll reach the [5:49] same conclusion that I and many others have it doesn't - think in a city like Edina that the resources we have [5:56] available and the quality of teachers we have that my sign and they graduate from you Diana [6:01] school as a subpar communicator is incredibly frustrating and to be honest it really makes me mad [6:07] two years ago we pulled our daughter Annika out of Edina and Center in Minnetonka high school very reluctantly [6:14] at his request we've allowed noah to stay in the district but as the LA curriculum stands now we will allow him [6:19] to take ninth grade english this fall and we will pull him out of high school of Medina High School to take online [6:26] sorry we'll let him take ninth grade English in Edina pull him out to take online English in grade 10 and possibly [6:32] 11 and 12 if things don't change as a parent and taxpayer in this community having to pull one child out completely [6:39] and another for certain classes is just not okay with me and it should not be okay with this board I'm speaking [6:46] tonight to ask you to please vote no to the proposed redesign from the administration for pre-ap ten English and to implement changes to [6:53] upgrade this course to reach world-class standards the world-class standards Edina has been known for in years past [7:00] please do this so that my sign and every child in this community graduates from this high school with a competitive [7:07] advantage in the marketplace thank you thank you thank you next is Orlando [7:14] Flores [7:22] welcome [7:28] good evening and more Lando Flores I'm a long time either a resident a graduate [7:34] of Edina high school and dad of three died at school children I want to talk [7:39] about the 10th grade English curriculum proposal and it's alarming lack of academic rigor my wife was part of the [7:46] English task force and my son took this class so I'm familiar with it you've [7:52] heard from my son Antonio before and now I will share my perspective I should [7:57] tell you briefly about me so that you can understand where I'm coming from I'm originally from Nicaragua my family [8:04] and I fled the country during the 1979 civil war we eventually moved to [8:09] Minnesota and this may sound cliche [8:19] but like many immigrants I moved here seeking opportunity and freedom although [8:25] we were low-income non-english speaking immigrants my parents managed to rent a [8:31] small house in Edina we moved here because of our public schools private [8:36] schools were out of the question I enrolled as a senior in Edina in 1986 at [8:42] the time I did not I did not speak English well I took two English classes to learn as much as I could to help me [8:49] fulfill my dream of going to college novels before college in British literature I had an incredible teacher [8:55] who challenged me to explore classics help me analyze texts expanded my [9:01] vocabulary and taught me to write essays I remember that in the novel's before college class who were given a stretch [9:07] assignment I chose to read the Russian book called war and peace the title [9:13] attracted me probably because of my life experience these classes helped me to significantly improve my English and [9:20] prepare me to go to college and eventually to law school studying [9:25] classic literature not only helped me master English but also gave me a frame to the constant cultural references to [9:32] classic stories that we hear in the u.s. professional world as an immigrant and [9:37] an ESL student knowledge of those cultural references contained in the classic texts has been invaluable [9:43] my son's experience with a dinah English classes was my polar opposite and it was [9:49] mostly frankly an exception compared to other subjects taken in the school in the 10th grade English class [9:55] my son watched 17 movies in an English class my mom would say to that knowledge [10:03] diver go Enza which means don't you embarrass for my challenge assignment [10:10] I've read war and peace for his challenge assignment he was given a comic book named Mouse although he's a [10:18] very smart student my son did not learn to write essays properly or analyze texts after taking this chanting glitch [10:24] class my son and most of the students in Edina have advantages that ESL [10:30] low-income most minority students do not have those students depend on this curriculum that [10:37] the school offers many Edina families regularly engage tutors to cover the [10:42] curriculum gap this is not an option for low-income students I had never even heard of tutoring until it came up in [10:49] this context to put it plainly the lack of academic rigor in the tenth grade English class harms the educational and [10:57] professional opportunities of all students but it especially harms our most vulnerable you have the power and I [11:04] think the obligation to changes I urge you to say no to this curriculum and restore academic rigor to this class we [11:11] still have time another minute well at half minute thank you you know I'm involved in [11:19] philanthropic lis in education I'm a president of a community college foundation and I'm not speaking for that [11:25] foundation I'm speaking based on what what I've learned we bring in students [11:30] from inner city schools in our biggest challenge is closing the educational gap [11:36] when those students come in sometimes they have to take classes for a year or two before they can even start taking [11:43] credits and in my humble opinion curriculums like this one it's part of [11:48] what contributes to that problem it's the lack of academic rigor that we find in a lot of inner-city schools and we [11:56] find here this is what we're dealing with when these kids go to go to college my final point is I work for a global [12:03] company I work with executives from around the world and I tell you the mastery of English language is a huge [12:10] competitive advantage in the workforce we talk about creating global citizens we we're in the home turf we can do [12:18] better we need these kids to master the English language in every way that's a competitive advantage over all the you [12:25] know other citizens from around the world that we compete with so please do [12:32] the right thing turn this down strengthen take and I'm the the rigor of this class this is the only chance all [12:39] these kids have to really master English in my own experience this makes a huge [12:45] difference so please turn this down and strengthen the academic rigor of this class thank you thank you we do not have [12:57] any other people that have signed up to speak right Sarah all right we do have a [13:02] couple of staff recognitions we to go through there was a commendation of Mary [13:08] Sue Sinskey in an email from a student the school board and the superintendent the student wrote in someone who [13:15] inspires me as mist this is a tough names to sinski she is one of my favorite teachers because she's super [13:21] outgoing and fun she made an effort on the first day of class to get to know me and that meant a lot to me she is the [13:27] definition of an amazing teacher we also have also have a commendation and she is [13:33] a social studies teacher at the Dinah High School we have a commendation of Jamie Hawkinson who's a fourth grade [13:38] teacher at Creek Valley Elementary this is an email also from a student and that [13:44] student wrote jamie is Houdini it is also profoundly touching to me especially in these difficult times to [13:50] participate in a classroom where lessons in human kindness and respect are so deftly interwoven with instruction on [13:56] critical thinking and the required curriculum jamie is a treasurer and I'm profoundly grateful that Creek Valley [14:02] affords me the opportunity to work with her and we thank the public and students [14:08] for submitting commendations we thank all of our teachers for the work they've done over the school year next I have a [14:18] statement on behalf of the district at the May 21st 2018 school board meeting [14:24] teachers brought forward a resolution for the Dinah school board to consider entitled reaffirming commitment to all [14:30] for all plan and strategic direction the board recognizes that the all for all plan was adopted by the school board in [14:37] 2013 and that the goals in the plan have been important work for district staff [14:42] over the last five years leadership from the United Teachers the Dinah School [14:47] Board and district administration met recently to discuss the resolution we all understand and agree that the [14:53] educational issues raised in the resolution more study thought and discussion these [14:59] are better discussed in the context of the upcoming strategic plan review which we are in the process of going through [15:05] now in addition it would be unusual for the Dinah school board to address these critical issues in the form of a [15:11] resolution as leaders with academic achievement for as leaders with academic [15:17] achievement for every student as our focus we will ensure these important educational issues become part of Edina [15:22] public schools strategic planning process this fall we thank the authors of the resolution for raising these [15:28] issues and look forward to incorporating a discussion of them as we plan for a dynamic schools future thank you again [15:36] next we have consent items is there a [15:42] request to remove anything from the consent agenda can I get a motion to [15:47] approve the consent agenda all those in favor of approving the consent agenda [15:53] say aye aye any opposed motion carried next we have reports and actually before [16:00] we get to reports Ellen did you have a request for a modification of the agenda [16:07] yes I read request to move item F under the action items to the end of the [16:15] agenda so is it okay if we just moved G up to e and move down to F and F to G [16:23] yes and so if I'm stating your motion your motion is to move item G from [16:30] action up to item E and the movie and F down one but I get a second on that [16:36] motion all those in favor of the [16:41] amendment to the agenda say aye aye any [16:47] opposed motion carried we will move G up to E [17:04] next we have reports the Seoul report we have today is the superintendent review [17:11] so we do a summary of the superintendent evaluation on June 26th 2018 the school [17:19] board met in closed session to conduct an evaluation of superintendent Schultz in general the board's conclusion is [17:25] that superintend Schultz has performed exceedingly well there were several areas of exceptional work that were [17:30] highlighted I'm going to run through approximately six of them the first item is dr. Schultz's work on behalf of the [17:37] district on last fall's operating levy having been with the district for only a few months he conducted over 50 public [17:42] sessions providing information to the public and responding to questions the levy passed with in excess of 70 percent [17:49] of the vote the second area is his work in setting up a process for consideration of changes to school start [17:55] time dr. Schultz facilitated community input while bringing key employees of the district before the board to answer [18:01] questions and discuss the pros and cons of changes to start time the third area of excellence is his work in putting in [18:07] place budget reductions and reallocations dr. Schultz arranged for the key district employees that would be [18:13] impacted to participate in the process and explain to the board how anybody budget changes would impact them this [18:19] made it much easier for the board to understand and approve the suggested changes the fourth area is his work in [18:25] providing support and development to the four new school board members he provided multiple training sessions that [18:30] enabled the board to function immediately the fifth area is working building relationships this is an area [18:37] of particular strength whether it was board members key community leaders teachers or interested community members [18:42] and the sixth and final area highlighted is his work in creating a new culture with the board we have a board that asks [18:48] a lot of questions in response dr. Schultz has made sure to understand what information the board needs to make a particular decision and he has then [18:55] brought key individuals before the board to answer questions and move decision-making forward his also [19:00] instituted the creation of board goals by doing so we're able to better identify key areas of focus for the [19:06] district the board did identify a couple areas for improvement one we would like [19:11] to see more consistent understandable data going forward particularly as the student performance and two there was a [19:17] concern that Schultz at times may take on too much work we would like to see him delegating to make sure he's not spread too thin [19:23] but that said on behalf of the board I want to congratulate you on an excellent year at actor Schultz the next item is [19:35] discussion we're starting with superintendent goals and we did talk [19:43] about this at the work session and so that there were I'm going to start by noting a couple of changes I can get to [19:52] maybe I'm not all right in goal number [20:01] one we were adding that dr. Schultz should implement those aspects of the strategic plan that call for steps [20:08] during the 2018-19 school year and then there was another one on goal number three sub part five does anybody have [20:14] notes on that one [20:28] see and in data consistency and accuracy I'd wanted added to reporting three and [20:36] those will get revised for the next iteration and then with those said we [20:43] were in the middle of talking about another change in a relation to maybe Ellen you could take over at this point [20:59] meeting the implementation goals and timelines for this school year and [21:07] measures of success created in the strategic plan of implementation that's [21:15] under goal number one [21:20] and what you're looking for is implementation of items that come up as part of the strategic plan that are part [21:27] of this school year right so other other comments or changes that individuals [21:33] have to the superintendent goals well I actually have a few one that I had [21:41] mentioned before under goal number one which is to present the results of a [21:46] parent in and out survey and identify themes that can inform strategic planning I would like this year to [21:54] create a process for obtaining and maintaining annual reporting on mobility data for all students who entered and [22:00] exited behind a public schools so that we can better understand trends [22:11] so you're just you're asking that he set up a process for having the data available on annual your about your [22:17] basis make sense Ellen are we gonna in [22:24] that process are we going to be looking for deeper information as to when a student leaves as to not just where but [22:34] as to why yeah that is my hope okay and [22:40] I think defining these I'm not really sure what the process is and and how much clarification I'd love to get the [22:49] demographics of the students both coming in why they're coming in and also the [22:55] students that are choosing to leave yeah thanks and there are four things that I [23:02] was concerned with to outcome and to data and I think that I'd like to see [23:09] some more hardened metrics and one of [23:15] those being say the third grade literacy that we're compliant with the world's [23:23] best workforce requirement that we have all of our third-grade students reading [23:29] at grade level we talked about the fact that there's no school in the state [23:35] that's compliant with that and so it's actually pie in the sky but it's a movement in the direction of putting [23:41] some hard metrics down we talked about a math metric but this is sort of in an [23:50] embryonic state because we are right now in flight with a strategic plan we want [23:56] this to be woven into the strategic plan and so we have a point here using the [24:02] strategic plan as a guide develop processes for the school board and administration to discuss and identify [24:07] the measures for success and that would be in February 2019 [24:13] so we'd come around again once we surfaced from the strategic plan to look at some hard metrics realistic metrics [24:22] not because of John's doing a good job but anybody in that role they have some kind of outcome [24:29] the other thing is data and we are incorporating that with increased accuracy I would like to see more [24:36] visibility into the Maps data and I think again we're embryonic with this [24:42] knowing and Erika both attended a seminar in Boston Erika came back and talked about the Denver of the Des [24:50] Moines school district actually exposing map test data by site by grade across [24:58] the district and I'd love to see that so more transparency was one of the hard metrics of our district so but again I [25:05] think we're looking at that more after the strategic plan is in place so I [25:11] guess I wanted the the residents and the constituents of our district to know we [25:16] have talked about that and so we're working toward getting some traction on that so in terms of data I think that [25:28] it's fine to ask for data the question that I'd have two questions one I'd want to know what how long it would take no [25:35] what's the commitment on administration's point to get the data out to us so we can balance that with other questions and the other thing is [25:41] before we ask for data I think that we need to know what we're going to do with the data if we don't have a plan for [25:48] using it but I'm not sure that I want to take the time to ask for it so I think we just need to have a discussion that [25:53] says if this is the set of data we want what do we expect to use it for and where do we expect to go in terms of our [26:00] decision making I think this was more about accountability and transparency to the community and what to do with the [26:07] data where are the concerning points where the points of pride would be a conversation where they're involved as [26:14] opposed to some individual having a more specific concern and having to email about map data may be across all [26:20] Elementary's but just have that be accessible which is what you've heard about in Iowa and specific requests or [26:28] follow-ups stem from that point of transparent is that what you were yeah I think he is [26:34] the identification of the metrics that we want to use to define what we [26:40] consider success where are we today what are those benchmarks establishing targets for care [26:51] to breathe I know and it's listed as a goal and part of our strategic planning [26:56] process I think in doing that then we can come okay there are other districts that use [27:02] map data and they literally based all of their metrics and successes there just [27:08] refer map data do we do with map data and MCA data do we do that this an ACD [27:15] and graduation rates feel prepared when they go to college and I think we need to look at all of [27:23] that and become more educated on what the balanced scorecard to look at not [27:28] only for our district but for individual schools and create that scorecard so I [27:35] mean I would love to see a situation where their school [27:42] Liz [27:48] until we get to that point though and this is what I would say earlier until we get to that point where we have defined what we think success measures [27:57] are and what our targets are that's where I feel comfortable uncomfortable layering in metrics that [28:03] we want to hold on because [28:10] that before we have had that discussion and have a very strategic educated [28:16] discussion about the importance of metrics I want to do it [28:21] well fast [28:27] this I just think it's so important that we do I think we're talking about [28:43] and you're talking in particular about finding this to superintendent review that was full and we've talked about [28:50] with our strategic plan being very careful about measures of assessment but [28:55] I think you were just talking about accessibility of data apart from the school this districts data placing more [29:03] emphasis on which we'll have a conversation about during this research process and data that would be tied to [29:09] the superintendent which would be stemming from that conversation as early as February not waiting till next July 1 [29:15] but not preempted this July and yet you're still asking for the transparency [29:22] on those tests yes and also that we have [29:30] a means by which we can see how well certain initiatives are are taking hold [29:36] we have a new math curriculum that we're using district-wide it'd be nice for the community to see how well that's taking [29:43] and to be able to see it year-over-year how are we doing with it and to increase that visibility so it [29:50] all fits back into a large pool for the community C to measure John for us to [29:56] see how our curriculum is doing how various sites are doing so in a variety [30:02] of levels so on the accessibility of [30:08] data are you looking to develop that set of data that we would have available [30:16] during the strategic planning process is that I'm just trying to figure out what's our time frame for what you're [30:22] suggesting well if we could get the data during strategic planning that would be fabulous but I think I'm now talking [30:30] about the procedures necessary to set up how we can get that data so no I'm not talking about it making it being made [30:37] available right now okay I just want to make sure yeah [30:48] so it sucks some of that in mind I'm looking at the goal for personalized [30:54] learning and I would propose to add a [31:00] goal to be develop a system to evaluate the effectiveness of personalized [31:05] learning methods and making continuous improvements to those delivery methods [31:14] so it's I'm talking about systems here of evaluation we've and you were just [31:19] talking on about systems for evaluating new curriculum I think that they're all [31:25] basically the same thing is that we'd [31:30] like to see how the district maybe I want to combine the two maybe we want to [31:36] see how the district or have the district talked to the board about how [31:41] they evaluate programs and make sure that we have a system in place to tweak [31:49] those programs when it's needed I it sounds a little bit like the goal under [31:55] personalized learning of develop goals measures or indicators I mean for [32:01] personalized implementation and maybe if that's how we're interpreting that goal [32:06] we could just clear about that as opposed to anything that might be redundant or is this sound like a [32:14] different point to you when I [32:20] when i when i read the develop goals measures or indicators i think thats those are the type of kind of [32:26] achievement or growth goals but you're not looking at the methodology behind it [32:33] what's what is your you're talking just about setting literally goal the goal of [32:45] we're going to improve X but you're not looking at what we're doing on the [32:50] teaching end of it doesn't call into question the approach doesn't call it yes and what I'm trying to do is make [32:58] sure that we are looking at the approach and the curriculum to both those aspects [33:05] not just the result from it when I look at that goal it says well we'll develop [33:13] goals but and will develop measurement of you know are we a team we'll say okay [33:19] well we'll use the map score but I I want to know what is it that some [33:27] teachers are doing that make their their classrooms truly effective I think do they have the those types of methods [33:34] what what's going on success nothing measure and see what [33:42] what methodology has made X Y & Z successful depends on your definition of [33:49] measure so if we go into this with that as the understanding of what measures is and measures is not just an assessment [33:58] are you know clearly just an assessment [34:08] that a certain percentage of kids have passed their MCA well I think we would [34:15] be in my opinion we would be looking for leading or lagging [34:24] yeah but and and the key word there is what is working right so and what is not [34:32] and right what it what is it and that to me is not a measurement so if we [34:42] understand that understanding that what this means is if you want to say measures it means well those aren't the [34:48] measures that's the analysis of your background absolutely and I'm just saying we need the analysis of what's [34:55] going on when I read that I don't see [35:00] any analysis of what's going on I guess [35:06] when I read this one when we talk about developing goals measures indicators [35:11] around personalized learning that all of those things are going to go hand in hand so we need to we need to figure out [35:18] how are we going to measure it and what are the indicators that it's successful so we still have to determine some of [35:23] those but then from that we will be able to tease out what what performance [35:30] measures are in a particular classroom or school seem to be better [35:37] implementation a better way of implementing personalized learning which in all honesty you know is still [35:43] something we're still trying to fully understand and how it's going to be [35:49] implemented and and what it really means in every classroom so I think there is I [35:55] think what you're saying is we're trying to get there through this and I took it [36:03] as yes however we look at those measures and indicators is going to help drive us to [36:08] what we think are more successful outcomes through the performance of a [36:13] particular way of doing personalized learning [36:19] I have no issues oh it you think it [36:31] actually is sorry I'll speak closer um I said I have no issue if you feel like you that we need [36:37] to add and specifically call out analyze [36:46] yes that would that would change that whole thing for me so I would just add that to number three develop goals [36:53] measures or indicators for personalized learning implementation and analyze results you said number three give me [37:06] number two number two okay I'd support [37:12] that I know that when are you wanting something around effectiveness i I think [37:22] that's understood [37:30] so one other goal that I I have and I really want to speak to this because I [37:37] think one of the strongest things we have in our district is our teachers and I really one of the things that I'd like [37:46] to make sure is that we are providing [37:53] the type of climate and conditions for them to feel that they are successful [38:02] and so that they can be successful and so I would like to to include a goal of [38:11] measuring teacher work and I don't know if it's engagement I'm not sure what the [38:18] survey is called but it's satisfaction and work to improve it so maybe this [38:28] year we we start developing a good [38:33] survey I know that we currently survey but I don't I think that there's some improvement on our survey process and I [38:41] don't want to lose track of such a key area as we're looking at our [38:46] superintendent goals so we already have a question or two about that and the survey that goes out to all the teachers [38:54] you're talking about expanding that yes I want to I want a true review of that [39:02] survey and make sure that we're getting the types of answers that we we that [39:09] would be productive I'm not sure a specific survey item like that is [39:15] appropriate as a goal because I think we need to be I know John has expressed interest in looking at all of our surveys and how we're doing them so that [39:22] we have a better methodology and they're more accurate in that they're not just [39:31] okay - that's been collected randomly that we're working on that so is that in [39:36] the is that in his goals so do you have that one John I know you've [39:42] talked about it several times but I guess I'd I'd like to see us look at all surveys not one in particular because I [39:48] think but something that we work on every year and we talked about in teaching and learning the parent survey [39:53] the student survey the teacher surveys satisfaction surveys but we want to make [39:58] sure that they're actually effective and accurate in their information so I agree [40:05] with what you're saying I just like to see it otter I told Leah Greer that we could we could [40:11] look at all of our survey I think it's [40:22] probably implicit in the data but we can make it explicit in the name I was gonna [40:28] say it would it would fall under data an assessment number three something in [40:36] there about a comprehensive review of survey yep okay good look at number six [40:45] yes yeah and be okay [40:56] other comments so the only thing I will note is that [41:04] John and I went through as I told the board in the work session and we [41:09] determined that we're probably looking at three work sessions for a month over the next you know four to six months or [41:17] longer and so I just want us to make sure that what we should do is step back from our goals which we very adopted and [41:24] the superintendent goals and say are these a reasonable school year plan and [41:31] perhaps we start with these and revisit them in December and say well we've kind [41:36] of bit off a lot so I just I don't want to have things set in stone and then decided that it might have been a lot [41:43] and that I just want to make sure we prioritize within what we have to make sure that we don't accomplish things [41:51] that aren't as important as ones that are more important to us so I'd ask the [41:56] people kind of reflect on that put me now on the next meeting and would uh I would want us to compare to if reviewing [42:04] our survey methodology fits in with our school board goals as well because I [42:11] agree with Lenny I think we're gonna find it that we get to a point where that there's some more on the to-do list and I can't possibly [42:18] be done so we should just compare that particular goal through our goals a nice [42:25] quick question about the community engagement of communications under number four it says review district [42:30] website content page layout text and images so on and so forth and John is [42:36] that something you're planning on doing yourself no that would be done so this'll be the work of the district Mary - Mary what [42:42] he's actually and I am I already started talking about that Steve yeah okay thank you [42:48] yeah so I think that goes with a comment earlier about the delegation to the [42:54] extent possible but the truth is issues come up throw the year that distract distract from our July to-do list and we [43:02] recognize that we're making a to-do list as if those issues won't come up and we'll adapt it they do my only point is [43:11] that even looking at what we currently have with nothing that has come up we [43:16] put a lot on our plate and we're not exactly sure how much time will be [43:23] encompassed with the strategic plan so I just want people to keep that in mind I don't think that everybody is locked in [43:29] the stone I think when we looked at last year's goals we didn't accomplish a hundred percent of them but we accomplished a lot and we were satisfied [43:35] with what we did well don't we usually do at a minimum of six months check in yes with dr. schultz and then maybe we [43:44] need to consider doing that with our own goals as well sounds like a good idea [43:56] [Music] do you have any comments John I think a [44:07] lot of these goals will make sense as we begin to learn more about specially on assessment and data and how this all fits together the strategic plan and our [44:13] job is to figure all the puzzle pieces and how they fit together [44:27] all right next agenda item is the strategic plan facilitator proposal we [44:41] could give a general recap of our activities to to date okay so as a [44:54] strategic ad hoc committee which includes myself and Ellen Jones and Matt Fox and of course dr. Schultz we've been [45:01] meeting since February just on a monthly basis to talk about just getting the strategic planning process rolling so [45:08] trying to figure out what do we want to do with that dude we would need to hire a consulting firm to work with us which [45:14] we did the last time we did a strategic plan and over that time period we came [45:21] up with several questions and things that were important to us that we wanted to discuss with consultants so through [45:27] the help of John we figured out I believe it was was it six or eight firms that we eat at first we have done two [45:34] five Minda for them so we started with eight we will it down and then we had [45:39] phone interviews we had an RFP go out that they all had to fill out and get back information to us and the day [45:47] before I think the fourth on July 3rd we had final interviews with two strategic [45:53] consulting firms that we had all agreed were the top two and have come to [46:01] basically a final conclusion we're just finalizing some details with that consulting group to make sure that [46:07] everything that we had expected to be included in the deliverables is within the contract but we're very much looking [46:15] forward to a firm that will work with the district and is not so for maleic that they can't tune in to what he [46:23] Dinah's needs are for a strategic plan and the key goal with looking at a strategic plan is reaffirming you know [46:30] looking at our mission are we still following that mission and is that the mission of the district and then how [46:36] what are the goals what do our want from Edina public schools and this process will include all voices in the [46:44] district all constituencies so we'll be doing various ways of getting input from [46:50] families teachers staff everybody gets up say it gets a voice up the table so [46:56] that we can put together what the best plan is going forward for your dining to public schools because although we've [47:01] been through this process back in 2011 / 12 that's a six year old plan so it's [47:09] definitely time for us to refresh that and make sure that we're on task do you guys do you want to add anything Ellen [47:16] no I think you covered that well thanks I would probably just add just as [47:22] another layer of detail is that the mg [47:27] the group are proposing which is mgt which is a consulting group that the [47:33] strategic planning for educational and other governmental agencies does some [47:38] breaks into four phases once a situation analysis situation analysis would be [47:45] collecting data a collect the information focus groups talking to stakeholders working forward to getting [47:53] the input from other groups to engage our review and the development of the [48:00] plan to review the mission the vision of the district and then setting out strategies and objectives around [48:06] achieving that mission and then the implementation of the plan putting together kind of tracking how we [48:12] implement the strategies that are being proposed so I think the report where it [48:20] lays out in detail on the proposal lays out the detail what the deliverables are for from this organization I just wanted [48:29] to thank John and Ellen and Sarah and Matt if you ever gets here for your work [48:34] on this because I know it's been a lot of that's a great proposal so thank you [48:41] thank you exciting work to do and [48:47] important that's all we have for now okay yeah I [48:55] mean that company looks very interesting they've done work with school districts throughout the country some of which [49:00] have looked like you Diana and some were or different so it look like a promising [49:07] company next item is policy updates okay so [49:15] under our discussion we have several policies nothing that was much changed [49:23] start with policy 208 which had to do with the development adoption and implementation of policies we did give [49:30] more of an emphasis to the role of the policy committee in that it wasn't really highlighted in the policy but the [49:37] sort of the first stop when people say to fajn that you take a look at where our policies are so that's just [49:43] reflected I'll go through the list here and I guess we could circle back as as desired policy 4:10 Family Medical Leave [49:51] there is a change in days from 64 day count of six t5 it has to do with where [49:57] the law is on family leave we we had it incorrectly before and it's in there correctly I was 65th days when there's a [50:05] change and it's also an annual view policy so that I'll come up again next year policy for 13 is the harassment policy [50:13] it's largely the same we had some discussion over why only protected [50:19] groups were cited as those victim harassment and this is it even debated [50:24] text about those groups or others or any others or for those reasons or any others but this is a very very much a [50:32] state legal type of trigger type policy and so the extent that we we don't [50:38] accept violence elsewhere either we just didn't want to park more things in policy 413 than we already have sort of [50:45] meeting that state law and still having higher expectations across our district we did change the person who was [50:53] targeted I mean called the student to the target or victim for purposes of the broader net that this policy does cover [51:00] the protected class reasons and I will point out that it doesn't say gender identity [51:06] or gender expression but those are explicitly protected in this policy based off the way Minnesota's Human [51:13] Rights policy is written the wording is a little antiquated but that's because Minnesota was so ahead of the time for [51:19] these types of laws if 1993 when that came out so they're not not define so [51:24] they're not listed under our list of categories but they're included in the words that are listed all right finally [51:31] policies for 14 and for 15 are largely straight statute language state required [51:38] annual review policies and so there before us again those by the way we're mandated reporting of child neglect or [51:45] physical or sexual abuse and for 15 mandated reporting of maltreatment of vulnerable adults so for a number of [51:54] these policies the language is mandated by state statute right absolutely so my [52:00] experience is when the wording is awkward and we can't figure it out it's probably a legislation so my question [52:09] had to do with what you just brought up about gender identity is that something [52:15] that we can clarify because of state statue so it's sort of a sort of a [52:24] bother yes because that is that is why we haven't clarified it before and we've had a conversation with our district [52:29] lawyer I'm speakerphone about this less than a year ago and this specific question came [52:39] up should they be specifically listed and his point was you're going you're [52:44] going away from what other districts and what the the general recommendation is for school districts which makes it [52:50] difficult to difficult to start to defend something because you're not using language that everybody has used [52:56] and everybody has stood on for all these decades and you know it's specifically [53:01] covered in the State Declaration of Human Rights and so use the language [53:07] that they're using so we have their legal ground explicitly the only reason I say it's [53:12] sort of a wobbly is because we didn't in another policy start to list that and [53:18] political expression or political orientation even for a policy that's coming up tonight for action but it's [53:25] not this for thirteen rather substantial Investigatory trigger policy that was a [53:31] gel look up what the number was thirteen is more state prescribed I was equal [53:38] educational opportunity policy 103 that was one or this year we did include some [53:43] of those other categories gender identity political orientation so apart [53:50] from the significant investigations triggered by a four thirteen violation where we're hesitant to change some of [53:57] the protected class categories the state law laid out we have updated other [54:03] policies to have a more more 2018 list [54:15] I guess they still find it confusing like why and I can see from a legal [54:21] perspective that okay this is better from a legal perspective but these are [54:27] also policies that have a public face to them and students that are gonna [54:34] misunderstand and you feel that they are being protected [54:40] like okay you know that's exactly the concern that people look at these and [54:46] read them with a lens that's taking it at face value and doesn't know how much legal weight we have behind a violation [54:54] of policy 413 and yet because it's such legal way we don't want to use it as a [55:01] mere communications vehicle it's a powerful significant policy and it's [55:08] it's not a primary vehicle through which to express our district's commitment to [55:13] protection for everybody it's it's a significant legal trigger [55:21] [Music] all right any other questions on the [55:28] policies up for discussion but that was [55:34] a pretty good explanation all right we are moving on to action items the first [55:40] item is the long term facilities maintenance budget and I get a motion to approve the long term facilities [55:45] maintenance budget and authorization to include these projects in our long-term facilities application Margo [55:57] good evening at the annual part of our process since 2015 the Minnesota [56:04] Department of Ed work wires approval of our long-term facility maintenance ten-year plan prior to the end of July [56:11] and so that information is in your board packet we did discuss the ten-year plan [56:19] in the finance and Facilities Committee meeting in May also with the timing of [56:25] this new legislation in 2015 we want to meet the requirement by the end of July [56:30] but I have always brought forth an amendment in August because this impacts [56:36] our upcoming levy certification in September and we want to have the most up-to-date information available so it [56:44] won't change the overall concept of 15 million a year mechanical systems we're [56:49] finishing those once they're done the 15 million will lower out in 20 25 or 26 [56:57] what it does is be this the facility [57:02] plan is based on projects summer but the levy certification system is based on [57:09] fiscal year and right now we're just in between fiscal years which you 30th July 1 getting up-to-date data on exactly [57:16] where we landed for 1718 and so I will bring a minor revision to you and in [57:24] August but I do want to meet the MDE requirements they do allow an adjustment [57:31] in August if needed so I think that's been a good practice we've done it ever since the statute changed [57:38] and and it served as well so I would answer any questions that you have got a [57:45] question of course since you're Margo so how is it we know predictably that we're gonna be at fifteen million for pushing [57:53] looks like six years turning 2019 this is not a depreciation schedule no [57:59] we know that if certain aspects of our physical plant will need X dollars yes [58:06] get on track and then it falls off significantly 2016 to eight million is [58:15] that how is that so predictable because the would provide a little bit of [58:21] history back starting in 2000 actually before I got here just before I got here in 2010 there was a facility study then [58:28] there was that particular study said we needed a more detailed study in our [58:35] deferred maintenance or among the term long-term facility maintenance wasn't [58:41] around at the time until the 2015 legislative session but I'll use the term deferred maintenance and so in 2011 [58:48] we had we went out for RFP for architects and we conducted Wald [58:54] architects was a successful architect and we did a whole survey of our buildings the roofs the parking lots the [59:01] plumbing the electrical the windows the mechanical systems everything and financed a Facilities Committee looked [59:08] at that report and it was a sizeable the dollar amount because our buildings are old and so what we did is we narrowed to [59:17] the the highest priority needs that had to be taken care of and the first of that was the mechanical systems and the [59:25] second were some roofing areas and the third would be the parking and so the [59:33] 10-year plan which is every ten year every now every July when I come forward to meet the MD requirement we add [59:39] another year on the end so that it's a it's an ongoing and so we this plan is [59:46] building upon that 2011 study we've actually implemented all the new mechanical systems are in [59:54] all the Elementary's we're moving into the next phase of the second secondary schools and the ECC these these [1:00:01] secondary buildings in the ECC are so large it will take two to three years to [1:00:06] do the mechanical systems in each building and so we know once that the [1:00:11] mechanical systems are complete we still have a lot of deferred maintenance needs [1:00:17] annually but the sizeable dollar amount of replacing mechanical systems won't be [1:00:23] there you know it'll eventually come back again 20 30 40 years from now but it [1:00:31] won't be here and then in this particular 10-year plan in addition to [1:00:36] that original study then on an annual [1:00:41] basis and to be honest it's almost constantly our director buildings and [1:00:47] grounds Eric Hamilton as he's out in the building's whether it's implementing the construction funds and the building does [1:00:54] the building bond or these long-term facility maintenance projects when he's out in the buildings and he's observing [1:01:01] and visiting with principals there is a perpetual list so if he's working with a [1:01:08] building principal and and I need is identified in deferred maintenance but [1:01:14] we can't address it right now because the priorities are the mechanical systems for example it's on a list and [1:01:20] we put it out there in the ten year plan so that we do not lose track of it and [1:01:25] it wasn't part of the problem was we were cut we were so far behind when they [1:01:32] did the study yeah that we put together a plan to try to get the big stuff and I remember Lenny and I were on this in our [1:01:38] early days and it and then when we did the referendum we were able to actually buy some economies of scale in terms of [1:01:46] putting things together at the same time but it it we had a lot of work to do so [1:01:52] actually coming off of the 50 million is a good thing because well I can she have gotten some of the really big things [1:01:58] done that then unfortunately you don't show off at a party but it's the good [1:02:03] stuff it's the furnaces it's getting AC excuse me um 10a humidity humidified air in our [1:02:12] buildings because deferred maintenance is a special levy that we can do [1:02:17] specifically only for this different than other things mmm so if memory [1:02:23] serves me correctly if we went back about 10 years we were spending 1 to 2 million a year and so that that level is [1:02:32] what contributed to the buildup in part the other thing is I think that the [1:02:37] architects told us that were we should be figuring you know 2 percent of your building value on an annual basis for [1:02:44] upkeep so that I think that the number that you drop to is trying to approximate more of keeping pace as [1:02:51] opposed to catching up and so that's why we have the 15 million drop to a lower [1:02:56] number it's based in part I think on the architects saying X amount per year should be used towards upkeep yes but to [1:03:05] keep that in ongoing fashion so we don't get behind it Kendra and we did not [1:03:11] always qualify for what's now called long term facility maintenance as a district I'd have to look back but I [1:03:19] think with the first years we qualified was somewhere around Oh six oh seven oh [1:03:24] eight I want to say Oh seven oh eight something like that so the the access to [1:03:30] these funds were not always available to us in in Edina it was not all school [1:03:35] districts qualified that for this it's the age of our buildings that qualifies us to levy this money to actually keep [1:03:44] our buildings intact and it's consistently 15 million for six years [1:03:51] here because we're doing one school at a time or a couple schools at a time and batch or do we want to schedule a part [1:03:57] of it is the projects and the cost of the mechanical systems and how how we can balance that it's also what the [1:04:04] original discussions that we had as finance and Facilities Committee in 2011 [1:04:10] in 12 and 13 honestly where we started at 10 million and because we knew the [1:04:17] secondary schools were coming online the mechanical systems were going to be so expensive and we had significant [1:04:24] deferred maintenance needs some of it is what can we balance fiscally and manage [1:04:31] tax impact too and so it was all of those things coming together and saying [1:04:37] okay 15 million is the right amount or the amount that is manageable we can [1:04:42] address our needs and still have a reasonable tax impact okay thank you [1:04:49] there's a long study on this if you would like to have a 200 page read there [1:04:57] is I think I just found it in my box the other day all right any other questions [1:05:07] on this particular issue all those in favor of approving the motion approving [1:05:13] the long-term facilities maintenance program budget say aye aye any opposed motion carries [1:05:20] next can I get a motion to approve the 2018 through 20 guidebook a professional [1:05:26] employment for community service coordinators [1:05:36] Gwen sorry yes good evening we have negotiated with the community education [1:05:41] services coordinators on the 2018 20 guys look because they're not an [1:05:48] organized union per se and so for the next two years for year one they will [1:05:55] receive a 1.7 six percent increase on salary and a 1% increase year two for [1:06:02] health insurance they will have no increase for 2019 but for 2020 they will [1:06:10] have a three percent increase and then their vacation days were scaffolded [1:06:16] depending on the number of years of service in the district and beginning this year they will have 21 days and [1:06:23] next year they will have 23 days of vacation so the total is two point seven [1:06:29] two point seven four percent increase or cost of 20 2016 6 hundred twenty-eight [1:06:37] dollars because they're a very small group one additional which is also within the parameters that were [1:06:43] identified by the board in May and one additional item which is not a costed [1:06:49] item here is the fact that they will have us they will start developing a sick leave pool and they will be [1:06:55] participants of a sick leave pool along with a few other members a total about 18 members it since it's a small group [1:07:02] and as you many of you are aware the teachers developed a sick leave pool [1:07:08] starting this past school year and it has been really successful and so other [1:07:13] groups are coming along board as well I will welcome any questions [1:07:20] any questions yeah hearing none all those in favor of approving the 2018 to [1:07:27] 20 guidebook of professional employment for community had service coordinators say aye aye any opposed motion carried next can [1:07:35] I get a motion to approve the salary compensation for the members of the superintendent's Advisory Council for [1:07:42] July 1 2018 through 2020 when you're up [1:07:49] again okay so for the superintendent's Advisory Council they will have an increase of 1.75 percent increase year 1 [1:07:58] and 1.75 percent salary increase year 2 and they will have no increase on their [1:08:06] health insurance so there will be no additional contribution contribution from the district for insurance or both [1:08:14] for either years and the other thing is that starting in July 1 of 2019 the [1:08:22] amount of money that is a match for the or their tax deferred program will be [1:08:30] increased by 750 dollars and as I shared previously they will also be a part of [1:08:38] they will be developing a sick leave pool as well they'll be part of that so the disaster leave [1:08:44] portion will go away and be replaced by the sick leave pool their total package [1:08:49] is 3% over the duration the 2-year duration of the contract which is a cost [1:08:56] to 57,000 824 dollar increase I welcome [1:09:01] questions again [1:09:07] any questions all those in favor of approving the salary compensation for [1:09:12] members of the superintendent's Advisory Council say aye aye aye any opposed motion carried NIC's [1:09:19] can I get a motion to approve the Master Agreement with the Minnesota School Employees Association on behalf of the [1:09:25] paraprofessionals grin you're up again [1:09:33] okay so with the paraprofessional group one of the things that we do is we take a look at the salaries or wages of each [1:09:41] of the bargaining groups to see if they're in alignment with other bargaining groups across the across our [1:09:48] community in specifically we compare our [1:09:53] current salaries with those of the late conference and we realized that we [1:09:59] needed to do a salary or a market adjustment for this particular group we [1:10:04] brought that information before the board HR committee and they were in agreement after we showed the data so [1:10:10] their salary increases are a bit different as you will see for the we're [1:10:18] making some adjustments with the step so instead of having six steps they're reducing to five steps and also there's [1:10:25] going to be a 30 cent increase in year one for both our instructional [1:10:31] assistants and our educational or special education assistant groups and then there will be a $1 per hour [1:10:38] increase for the for the EA or educational assistant group and then one [1:10:45] dollar and thirty cent per hour increase for the instructional assisting group in [1:10:51] year two so we really kind of did a modified schedule created a modified [1:10:58] schedule to try to make it more comparable our sub wage is more comparable with other wages that week [1:11:04] that we work with other districts that we work with there's also no additional [1:11:10] district contribution towards health insurance for year one but for year two [1:11:15] there's going to be a hundred dollar increase just for single for single those who are taking single [1:11:22] and cover single insurance coverage starting on January 1 of 2019 and they [1:11:30] are also offered dental insurance and so they're going to have an increase of $25 [1:11:35] because of the fact that we're self insured with dental insurance our dental costs have really been pretty low but [1:11:42] there's going to be an increase effective January 1 of 2019 we also offer some life insurance [1:11:50] coverage and that will increase from 10,000 to 20,000 in year one we have [1:11:55] technology Paris and they will receive a stipend of 50 of an increase of 50 cents [1:12:02] per hour effective July 1 and then they will receive another increase of July 1 [1:12:09] of 2019 in the amount of 50 cents per hour there there also be one additional [1:12:17] day that they will be eligible to receive pay because when you look at [1:12:22] when we think about the winter breaks there is no salary for there's no [1:12:28] paycheck for many of these people so they're receiving one additional pay day and then when you look at the total cost [1:12:36] it's seven point four one percent which is within the guidelines that were a set [1:12:42] and adjusted by the board HR committee and they also are very enthused to begin [1:12:49] having a sick leave pool so I think Tom and the teachers for creating this this [1:12:57] role because we have number of groups now that are going to have a sick leave pool as opposed to disaster leave any [1:13:04] question any questions all those in favor of [1:13:10] approving the agreement with the Minnesota School Employees Association on behalf of the professed paraprofessionals say aye [1:13:16] aye any opposed motion carried next we are on to policies 103 621 and [1:13:25] 713 can I get a motion to approve those three policies Emira yeah so 621 and 713 [1:13:35] are what we saw before 130 103 is as well just begin to point out that there [1:13:41] is of a different approach we took between 103 and 413 103 is two with equal educational opportunity and we've [1:13:48] listed we've listed some other forms of protection that we value here including [1:13:56] gender identity and political orientation it does say in the next [1:14:01] paragraph see the policy on harassment for some further definitions is what harassment is and that's the one where [1:14:07] we did not change it so there's an inconsistency to point out do you know [1:14:17] if this one is prescribed by the state as 413 I don't know get them to know [1:14:26] Sara [1:14:31] yeah it's not it's not a policy that we look to as as having had that that [1:14:38] restrictive us around it's like a trigger right that being said it's no no it's an awkward balance were striking [1:14:45] between trying to trying to express district expectations and where we we [1:14:52] expect our professionalism and what's what protected and then 413 being our actual state compliant investigatory [1:14:59] policy gender identity exid is more explicitly protected in state law just [1:15:05] under the antiquated broader definition of sexual orientation and includes an expression of self that's not [1:15:12] necessarily consistent with biological indicators have to look at the law to see how they used it but political [1:15:19] orientation is one that we've kind of grabbed out of whole cloth really trying to trying to capture some of the [1:15:25] conversation that the board has had of last year in the community has had about the role of professional education and [1:15:32] it's not wrapped up in 413 but here it is in 103 about equal educational [1:15:38] opportunity I have a quick question and it's more semantics but this sentence [1:15:44] reads really awkwardly to me it says the district does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race creed [1:15:51] color why is the word unlawfully in there so it's not in the next paragraph [1:15:57] where it says the district prohibits the harassment of any individual for any of the categories listed above why can't we just say we don't discriminate yeah I [1:16:05] think cuz it do we lawfully discriminate it's it's very odd it may it may be trying to not [1:16:12] say that anybody's definition of discrimination qualifies it has to be [1:16:18] like illegal okay that makes them well it does sorta but again we're already [1:16:24] using other words and you know I don't I don't lean on that argument so hard on this policy I'm trusting you here [1:16:37] any other questions ellen:oh [1:16:42] all right all those in favor of approving policies 103 621 and 713 say [1:16:48] aye aye nay opposed motion carried [1:16:53] the next agenda item is pre-ap 10 I know I've got some people here waiting we [1:16:59] have a school board member whose flight was delayed several hours and so I'm gonna ask if we can flip F and E if [1:17:06] that's okay with the board so can I get a motion to move strategic plan facilitator proposal next on the agenda [1:17:13] is he on his way I believe so okay I get [1:17:22] a motion all those in favor of flipping E&F well which is now F and G I suppose [1:17:30] I say aye aye any opposed the strategic plan facilitator proposal all right and [1:17:37] I want to note I guess I don't need to so Ellen or Sarah any additional [1:17:45] comments or John I would defer to John because he was just clarifying with the [1:17:51] with the contractor yes so the point of clarification was there's a discrepancy [1:17:56] the proposal that was a response to the district's request for proposal was for [1:18:04] if you looked in there it said that implementation is optional in that [1:18:10] proposal and some of these proposals become boilerplate for them too we did [1:18:15] have discussion as a committee that we asked that implementation be part of the [1:18:20] work that MGT will do and it is a lot laid out in the agreement that [1:18:27] implementation is part of the phases I did confirm that with the principal of mr. Fred Siemens and he did say that the [1:18:34] dollar amount which is around eighty six thousand dollars does include the work of implementation with the district as [1:18:41] part of the strategic plan actually we should start can I get a motion to [1:18:47] approve the agreement with MGT Consulting and I would add subject to Council's [1:18:53] approval second that would be Council's [1:18:59] approval within this week yes so barring any other action from this board within [1:19:04] this current week there'd be no more contingency on their approval correct and if they have just minor changes and [1:19:11] it's not going to come back if there's something substantive then we'll end up having a special meeting because we're [1:19:16] we would like to get this facilitator retained and get moving in on the [1:19:21] process so are there a is there additional information a mirror oh you [1:19:29] were turning it off all right and so the [1:19:38] committee talked to a number of people and it was the committee unanimous [1:19:44] insane this is the person or the group that we should go forward with [1:19:54] all right any questions all those in favor of approving the agreement with [1:19:59] MGT Consulting subject to this week's review by Council say aye all right any opposed motion carries [1:20:07] we are on to pre-ap ten I get a motion [1:20:12] to approve the redesign of the pre-ap ten English course second please [1:20:24] and do we have a presentation we weren't planning on one since we had that before [1:20:30] unless there's questions the port has we stand ready both an Andy and Caroline [1:20:36] and Randi are here to answer any questions the board has are there [1:20:44] questions I know we've talked about this at a work session we talked about this at length at the last board meeting you [1:20:59] know as I've said before I want to win for everyone in this and this has been a very big issue for many people and I [1:21:06] appreciate what the language arts staff and faculty have done they've put some [1:21:12] work into this and we've seen some significant improvement in writing that said I'm seeing the rigor not quite [1:21:22] being there the average Lexile is under 800 whereas Common Core prescribes 1082 [1:21:30] 1305 we're still falling quite short of that in addition to that we're not [1:21:35] seeing a real broad selection of Eros I'd really like to see much more of that [1:21:42] so because of that I will have to vote no on this and I want to frame up my [1:21:48] thoughts here with what's at stake what's in the balance and here in the [1:21:54] school board we deal with what I would call ancillary versus primary tasks and [1:21:59] every organization has that if you're 3m you're trying to innovate if you're the Vikings you're trying to win football [1:22:05] games if you're a school you're trying to teach we have human resources we have [1:22:12] school start times we have long-term facilities maintenance those are all [1:22:17] important but they're secondary they're ancillary the actual course content is [1:22:22] primary with our schools and so this is not a secondary consideration this is [1:22:29] central to what we're about and in our strategic plan we talk about the [1:22:35] partnerships that we want to seek with the community and there have been a sizable member [1:22:41] large membership in our community which have vocalized opposition to this curriculum and I'm not seeing a [1:22:48] tremendous effort in reaching a something that satisfies a certain group [1:22:55] within our community that would like more rigor and would like a broader [1:23:01] selection of IRA's for our texts we're not having that in addition one of our [1:23:07] missions with a district is to offer voice and choice to our students we are [1:23:12] we have 650 kids every year come through 10th grade and when they hit la 10 they [1:23:21] have one choice that's it we don't have a choice of enriched or standard we [1:23:30] could have a selection of have this course as it is or a more content a more [1:23:36] traditional and I can get into that in just a little bit but we're not really honoring a lot of voice and choice with [1:23:42] this beyond that we have compliance standards that we are to meet and one of [1:23:51] the policies that we've just discussed is graduation requirements and Minnesota [1:23:56] academic standards language arts that's one of them and if you Google or Bing that that brings you to what are the [1:24:03] Minnesota language arts requirements and that talks about Common Core which is one of our requirements and we're not meeting [1:24:09] Common Core one of the tenants also that I haven't brought up is that Common Core also requires that we have certain [1:24:16] principal American speeches that the student study we I think maybe have letters from a Birmingham jail but we're [1:24:22] supposed to have more than that laying at Lincoln's Gettysburg Address [1:24:28] for instance George Washington's second inaugural address we're not meeting that [1:24:33] that's actually part of the Common Core so then who are we seven Matt's coming [1:24:40] to to even think about this well we're the school board and as I brought up in the past we have a statutory obligation [1:24:48] to select the text and curriculum of the district this is 123b [1:24:56] dot zero nine you can look it up i've cited it in the past we delegate that to [1:25:02] our administrators to the teachers but we do have full authority to actually [1:25:10] choose particular text that's not what i want to do but we have a lot of authority with this i think events now [1:25:17] are compelling change and change that requires commensurate action action an [1:25:22] action that it's prudent what's commensurate action with this i think that two things at this late hour i mean [1:25:30] school starts and what's six weeks and this is not an abstract consideration for me because I do have a tenth grader [1:25:36] of a rising tenth grader and I don't bring my own family into this very often [1:25:42] but I think about this in terms of my own personal family situation I don't I'm not excited about having my kid in [1:25:48] this class and I would like some other alternatives and I would suggest one of two things a parent group has suggested [1:25:56] a number of modifications small modifications to curricula we could do that I would be pretty excited about [1:26:02] going forward with what we have here and that's been sent to all of us we've seen it before the other is to purchase a [1:26:11] curriculum and pilot it and we've got some real solid options springboard from [1:26:18] the College Board they actually are the company that does the AP tests they've [1:26:25] got their own curriculum and I think there isn't going to be a lot of contention about that I think we all [1:26:33] could agree on that if we just pilot it thirty to sixty students we could probably find a teacher who would be [1:26:40] willing to work out the particulars of the curriculum work out a budget and I [1:26:45] think there's a tremendous will for something on that order so I think one [1:26:54] of those two options would satisfy me in terms of moving in a positive direction [1:27:00] and what I think is exciting about either of those options is that in a year or let's just say six [1:27:08] months we'll have a pilot underneath us that we can evaluate houses been going [1:27:13] to see what we would like to do next year did we want to broaden this it [1:27:19] gives us a we can put our toe in the water to see is this working is it not [1:27:24] make some course corrections and I think that there would be some tremendous [1:27:30] support for this within the community so those are some starting comments I have [1:27:39] so before I make any comments of course I would ask either Randi Caroline or [1:27:46] Andy to address the questions that have been raised about rigor and compliance [1:27:52] with state standards so I'm looking for one of the three of you are all three I [1:27:58] have the microphone right now but I will surely pass it along to those so let's [1:28:05] talk about rigor for a second so part of the work that the teachers did in identifying rigor and so if we just kind [1:28:11] of talk about what rigor means rigor is about moving a child's thinking from [1:28:17] from facts and from from knowledge to upper-level generalizations discovering [1:28:25] of principles pattern recognition Theory development that's what we mean when we [1:28:31] talk about rigor it's the level of thinking that we're going to employ in the classroom the level of thinking that [1:28:36] we're going to get children to partake in as they're engaged in lessons so how [1:28:42] do you do that how do you do it in a classroom well one of the first ways you do is you start by asking some really [1:28:47] engaging questions to kids and so teachers take time to write [1:28:52] thought-provoking engaging questions they're called the essential questions in curriculum development and their higher level [1:28:59] questions they're developed for each unit to provide an inquiry based approach to learning so it's the [1:29:05] essential questions are really designed to hook and hold student interest you [1:29:12] also look at what are the big ideas that kids should walk away from each unit with because those are the [1:29:17] generalizations those the principles you want kids to discover and assemble and put together in their [1:29:24] brain and we call those enduring understandings so those big ideas are articulated concepts that students will [1:29:31] be grasping in each of the units so part of the part of the first two steps in establishing rigor are developing these [1:29:37] higher-level thinking engaging hooking questions and then making sure that what's really clear are these big ideas [1:29:44] that you're trying to move children to or in this case teenagers critical [1:29:50] reasoning will be demonstrated through the writing products that have been embedded in each of the units some of [1:29:56] the writing examples that the teachers worked on a character analysis paper a [1:30:01] research paper a personal narrative explanation of analysis essays and then [1:30:06] practice on writing for AP prompts so all of those are embedded in the course [1:30:13] another way to establish rigor is to provide creative and authentic opportunities to demonstrate learning [1:30:18] through that writing through performance-based assessment through speeches through presentations in the [1:30:24] class through projects in those units when students can take learning and [1:30:30] apply it to new or novel situations that is the true measure of learning when [1:30:36] there is transfer of concepts and skills that is the true assessment of in-depth [1:30:42] learning problem-solving problem finding is highlighted through the curriculum [1:30:47] but a greater focus and the nonfiction and the research you recall that we did take some of the feedback from our more [1:30:55] recent work session back to the teachers and extended that nonfiction unit we added to four texts of additional errors [1:31:02] higher specifically higher Lexile textbooks or books rather not textbooks [1:31:07] but books rather in that particular unit the final unit will necessitate students [1:31:13] to apply knowledge that they gained throughout the year through texts of their choice so there there are elements [1:31:19] of choice embedded in this class reflection of learning will be analyzed [1:31:24] to common formative and summative assessments there's work to do around that yet for the teachers but this [1:31:31] course is aligned to the state it says they are from the state of Minnesota the teachers know the standards extremely well and the [1:31:39] standards lay out a scope and sequence of skill development and knowledge acquisition that kids are going to [1:31:45] achieve as they move through a language arts program inside of middle school and [1:31:51] then inside of the high school and this course is a piece of the larger puzzle but it is definitely aligned to our [1:31:58] Sanders and and we use those as a base to create this curricular approach so [1:32:04] that was a long ramble around rigor and what was the second question the [1:32:11] question came up about it doesn't meet state standards Common Core I don't know [1:32:18] if Caroline or Andy want to add to that but it is definitely aligned to the standards that's that's been our base that's where we start from hi I'm [1:32:34] Caroline Lyndon k12 literacy and language arts coordinator happy to be here to talk with you again today so I [1:32:40] think Randy was talking about rigor and one of the other questions that has come up is about lack style specifically owen [1:32:47] from you and others but Common Core lays out a three-legged approach for defining [1:32:53] rigor and rigorous texts Lexile or another numeric or sort of formulaic [1:32:59] analysis tool is one of those three and so if we were to look at the exemplar [1:33:04] texts listed in common core many of those are not within the grade-level band that they state as nine and ten so [1:33:12] it's a little confusing so the Lexile alone can't be the only way that we measure the difficulty of a text so if [1:33:20] we look at appendix B which goes with the Common Core they talk about the three prongs one is that qualitative [1:33:28] quantitative measure the other are the qualitative components of a text and [1:33:33] then the third is the reader and task considerations let's get which gets into what Randy was speaking to about what [1:33:39] are we asking students to do around the thinking regarding a text and so Lexile is one of the three [1:33:47] measures laid out by common core as to how we determine rigorous texts [1:33:52] I would love to respond to that yes [1:33:58] indeed I have it right here that's quantitative qualitative and reader tasks as we had talked about in the work session and you don't want to [1:34:06] just go by Lexile because Lexile does not give you depth of field if you will it doesn't give you for shadowing sand [1:34:15] and recollections it doesn't give you multiple meanings there's all sorts of [1:34:21] things that Lex that doesn't pick up on so you want obviously high quantitative [1:34:26] qualitative but they don't give us an out on unless I miss reading something [1:34:32] here they don't give us an out on that they still want us to hit the the the [1:34:38] baseline of ten fifty and yes they'll give us an exception or two but not an [1:34:45] average below it and that's what concerns me and I think the some extent Lexel gets [1:34:51] dismissed as just being a series of commas and I don't think we can dismiss [1:34:57] it like that because I think it introduces subordinate clauses independent clauses [1:35:03] rearrangements of thought the student needs to do some mental gymnastics to [1:35:08] keep the thoughts in balance Lexile also measures vocabulary and there's just [1:35:15] simply a challenge to that the mechanics of reading are missed if we short on [1:35:23] Lexile and sometimes it may appear to be gratuitous but part of what we're trying [1:35:29] to do is to confront the student with difficulty and that's that's what [1:35:36] concerns me I'd like to just see it it raised across the board to meet with [1:35:42] that standard and Carolyn you have Caroline you have also brought up that [1:35:48] other schools are also not compliant and well that is the case in fact but to me [1:35:57] that that they're doing it doesn't satisfy me that we're not doing it that as had been read [1:36:03] here one of our earlier today one of our goals as a district is to be world class and if we're world class we're looking [1:36:11] past the pack we're not just looking over our shoulder we're seeking the very best and to me we're not seeking the [1:36:19] very best when we go with a lower Lexile so thoughts comments so that I would [1:36:27] refer you back to the exemplar core common core list many of those texts are [1:36:32] below their Lexile range it's a guideline it's one of the pieces of the puzzle the other piece that the common [1:36:38] core Appendix B refers us to is is teacher judgment as far as selecting [1:36:45] texts Common Core has not prescribed a list of texts College Board does not prescribe a list of texts it's a very [1:36:51] complex task that teachers take very seriously so the teachers have taken [1:36:57] into consideration all of those items and have followed the recommendations [1:37:02] that came out of the stakeholder feedback groups and they have meant that those goals [1:37:13] I acknowledged that the common core from its teacher judgment and that's why [1:37:19] quite right actually require teacher judgment want it because I brought many obvious reasons that said I think we can [1:37:28] still put parameters around the teacher judgment and ask for a higher Lexile within that and the the exemplars can [1:37:38] deviate and go below because they permit that but they are still asking for a [1:37:46] higher Lexile so we may have to agree to disagree on this but at least we've been [1:37:53] able to have an exchange thank you thank you are there other questions of [1:38:00] individuals are there comments other comments [1:38:12] you sure your makers on we've been asked [1:38:17] to approve a change in curriculum that lies outside the normal process for curriculum review I understand that this [1:38:25] interim review and proposed changed the pre AP English ten is an exceptional [1:38:30] circumstance I feel that the EPS curriculum review process should be [1:38:37] followed whenever possible and that this current review represents what should be [1:38:42] a very rare departure from that process since its inception in 2012 the PAP [1:38:49] English ten class has generated a large number of comments and complaints from parents and students about the structure [1:38:55] and content of the class our teaching staff have made some progress to bring [1:39:00] some about interim adjustments Language Arts is scheduled for its next full [1:39:06] curriculum review very soon and I expect a more thorough overall analysis and [1:39:11] adjustment to 10th grade English at that time because complaints and concerns about pre AP English 10a have continued [1:39:18] despite the adjustments that have been made I want to commend staff for their [1:39:26] bringing forward this issue to us for [1:39:31] consideration I appreciate and respect the teachers and administrative staffs [1:39:38] time and efforts to address the concerns about this class tonight we're given a [1:39:45] choice between approving the proposed changes to pre AP English 10 are voting down those changes which would result in [1:39:52] continuing the class unchanged for the coming year for me this is a difficult choice as I feel that there is a need [1:39:58] for change but the proposed changes do not address some of the issues that I see in the class first and foremost is [1:40:06] the issue of differentiated instruction for students at different levels of English proficiency in learning levels [1:40:12] I've not heard from staff how the adjusted curriculum will help students who enter 10th grade at a below grade [1:40:19] level proficiency to get up to grade level closing the achievement gap in [1:40:24] this way is one of our overall goals and yet the current curriculum has not made progress toward closing the gap [1:40:31] and I I don't know how the adjusted curriculum will differ in this regard [1:40:36] another issue of differentiation is for the advanced learners in this class as I [1:40:42] stated in January and as the board discussed at our June meeting this class needs to have a structured way to engage [1:40:48] in challenge our advanced learners the board discussed that the class have a defined honors curriculum incorporated [1:40:55] into it I will offer as an amendment to the proposed class requiring honors differentiation recognition and weighted [1:41:03] grading to be available to students no later than January 2019 I'll be [1:41:08] proposing changes to policy 618 and our next policy meeting this is the policy [1:41:13] that deals with weighted grading for AP classes I'm confident that if this in [1:41:20] any class is properly properly differentiated to meet the needs of all levels of learners the level of rigor in [1:41:27] the class will be appropriate I have asked for a thorough review during the [1:41:35] fall of this new class as it is implemented as for the content and tone [1:41:40] of the class as the governance body of the board its board's job to set high expectations for our staff for their [1:41:47] professionalism in all aspects of their jobs as our teachers uphold these expectations of professionalism I am [1:41:54] confident that the content and tone of their classes will be appropriate for this topics their teaching and for the [1:41:59] maturity of their students [1:42:05] like I heard you saying on that we would vote tonight to require the honors [1:42:12] version in the second semester and I remember it's a beating hearing you say that you would spend the fall just [1:42:19] looking into that option and giving us your recommendation at some point with [1:42:25] enough time to implement it in January so that second semester what is it that [1:42:31] you I guess how is it you're gonna go about looking for that what information were you going to seek out to form your [1:42:37] recommendation as to whether that would be a viable idea for January or not good [1:42:43] evening Andy beaten principle to high school one of the things that we talked about I think that came from the last word the [1:42:50] last board meeting was a discussion about is it a feasible plan to look at the possible earned honors [1:42:55] implementation for second semester and I said that's possible for us to look at given time we had a group of teachers [1:43:02] that were interested conceptually of what that looked like so this would be honors by performance not honors by [1:43:09] registration which I'm very interested in as a concept of being having that differentiation that's programmer Jones [1:43:16] is talking about so I think if this is approved and we're ready to go because [1:43:21] there's still work to be done to put this course into place for the Fall I think our teachers are waiting to see if [1:43:26] they are indeed got to be putting together rubrics and writing assignments and ordering books and things like that [1:43:32] based on the approval tonight and part of that work if that came out is our [1:43:38] exploration and if the board says this needs to happen for second semester then we will get to work part of the my [1:43:44] discussion I've had with Randy is looking at how we get support to our teachers to put something like this in [1:43:50] place which is unique and creative and I think it's something that I would support so real quick yeah the idea of [1:43:59] this honors embedded didn't come from the board it came from teachers okay [1:44:05] oh absolutely so this is something that's with the discussion of a rigor just like a lot [1:44:10] of nonfiction or Lexile feedback that came back moving back to the team and this is something that the team has [1:44:16] talked about they didn't feel ready to start on day one with this because [1:44:21] there's a complexity about what this looks like we want a true earned honors to not be about more or volume we want [1:44:29] it to be about complexity and rigor so that's the difference in how you actually put that together and frame [1:44:34] that and assess that will take some time for the team to be able to examine and you're comfortable as the board says [1:44:41] tonight that that's a good idea to have implemented by January that that's a reasonable instruction I think it's [1:44:47] reasonable and I think we can put it together again in that pilot phase about what that looks like [1:44:52] absolutely it'd be something new and unique and if it's something that works for you down a high school we can look at it at the idea across different [1:45:00] courses content areas I think it's something that has some real value and [1:45:05] of course if January might be a time for implementing but they might actually get [1:45:11] to it earlier we're just not you I think it's also we might look at the experiment experimenting with the unit [1:45:18] you know one particular unit within their course but I think they have to see how that works on how they would pilot that idea that starts to get [1:45:29] towards some of the some of the lingering concerns about how do you incentivize students to rise their [1:45:34] potential we've talked about choice books but not an incentive to take the [1:45:40] harder path and it's one thing we've heard this from Paris is well one thing to make students motivated enough to [1:45:47] register for the harder path but not necessarily to opt into it day in day [1:45:52] out weekend we got when when life gets busy and hard and they're falling behind elsewhere and so I think this starts to [1:45:58] bring in that incentive I do like that my lingering concern has well in [1:46:05] addition to being eager to hear more of a discussion of text complexity but has been that there's only one course to [1:46:12] register for and this starts to address that concern I think there's still an interest on the board to to explore that [1:46:19] more fully during the strategic planning course that's really not an option for fall of 2018 to have two courses but it [1:46:26] is something that we'd be discussing this earned honors within a single registration course add some add some [1:46:32] complexity that conversation be very interesting to hear it play out I am I'm eager to gather more [1:46:38] information I don't consider this matter closed after tonight's vote in any event not even waiting for the next cycle because [1:46:44] we're getting feedback on this course should it go forward in November and then again later from students hearing [1:46:51] how they're going I'm sure we'll get feedback from from teachers and parents and administration as well and so this [1:46:56] is an ongoing conversation and there'll be action I'm sure in response to what [1:47:02] we've learned over the next 12 months in the future and so I appreciate this [1:47:08] attempt at addressing the the differentiation and rigor concern in the [1:47:14] next 12 months from January on not waiting for the follow-on conversations [1:47:20] that use strategic planning input I'm excited about it [1:47:33] oh I tend to concur more with where Owens head is at having been at this for [1:47:40] a while I was somewhat frustrated with the proposal because I was hoping to see [1:47:47] some more rigor and some more change in the course I agree though with what Owen [1:47:52] has stated about the the writing I do see some more rigor added to that and I was appreciative of that I continue to [1:48:00] be a little concerned though about some of the book selection in the lower Lexile and again we're still stuck with [1:48:06] this concept of we offer multiple choices in language arts and then we [1:48:11] just take them away and then oh you can have them back with AP courses and the [1:48:17] concept of this is for all kids to have high rigor I don't see that being [1:48:23] implemented here I you know bringing all kids together so that everybody gets the highest level of coursework I don't see [1:48:30] that reflected in the in the new presentation I'd hope to have some work more compromise in some of the [1:48:37] suggestions that we've seen over time from parents and from concerned students [1:48:43] and parents who've been concerned with this class so you know I don't want to reiterate everything that's been said [1:48:49] but this was not the outcome I had hoped for they'd hoped that after our our work [1:48:57] session the first time that we could have found some more compromise in some of the suggestions that were were made [1:49:03] and discussed and we just we haven't gotten there and so I continue to see us [1:49:09] stuck with with kids being given one choice the honors thing sounds [1:49:15] potentially promising but again it's there's a bit of a leap of faith there [1:49:21] that concerns me again and I am I had [1:49:26] hoped for more and so I'm just I'm very reluctant to consider this a you know a [1:49:33] massive change this is not a massive change to what the course has been and so I [1:49:38] I continue to not be in favor of this I would prefer something either two choices or something that's guaranteed [1:49:45] to have higher rigor and I think we could have could have gotten there but you don't think we have [1:49:57] I guess safe I guess I have three points [1:50:03] to make and one is as a board we basically have the option of voting yes [1:50:09] or no on this proposal and if we vote no that means that we have the class from [1:50:15] last year if we vote yes even if this is not the curriculum that you guys would [1:50:23] like to see from a Luxio perspective I personally don't think it's perfect but I do think it is vastly improved and I [1:50:30] think it's very important that we move forward and we make progress I genuinely appreciate the feedback from community [1:50:39] members and suggestions they've made about improvements that we could make from my perspective I don't think any of [1:50:45] these are viable options at this time being from a timing perspective and also [1:50:51] because just from a process and procedure perspective and violating our own district policies I think we just we [1:50:57] have to be realistic as to where we are at and I don't think we can afford to [1:51:03] vote no and not make progress on this curriculum despite some of the concerns [1:51:09] I continue to have I I support moving forward with this class I appreciate the [1:51:14] efforts of the administration and the teachers I think the class is a great improvement from what Owen and Sarah [1:51:21] said from the writing perspective I think language arts classes are so important not only for their reading the [1:51:27] input kids taken but the output and I mean the writing is key to that I also [1:51:34] like the unit where students can choose their own text to read which can be at the highest level that they want to read [1:51:41] and I like the addition of the original source documents that you've added additionally I actually appreciate that [1:51:49] the team chose to keep the graphic novel which I know has a very little Exile but [1:51:54] just to me this is a perfect example of how we can't hold our hats on just one [1:52:02] thing but we need to provide a balance for people so just very recently in April a whole body of research came out [1:52:09] that was highlighted by North during university education department and was published in journals such as [1:52:14] brain and language and cognitive science which and I'm just gonna read a quote because I tried to paraphrase and I did [1:52:20] not it says over the last decade graphic novels have become popular format a popular format in classrooms partly due [1:52:26] to their appeal to reluctant leaders reluctant readers more recently a growing body of research focused on how [1:52:32] the brain processes the combination of images and text indicates that graphic novels are also excellent resources for [1:52:38] advanced learners when students read visual narratives the activity in the brain is similar to how readers [1:52:43] comprehend text-based sentences however when students learn to read graphic novels with an analytical eye depth and [1:52:50] complexity are added to the reading process with graphic novels students use text and images to make inferences and [1:52:57] inferences and synthesize information both of which are abstract and challenging skills for readers so it's [1:53:04] just another example of why I actually do think Lex I ought numbers important but I don't think I think it's also [1:53:11] important not to have Lexile number as the only judge above and make it rigorous my last point I would make is I [1:53:19] personally think the key to the success of this class will be your promise to [1:53:24] measure the success of the class and I really appreciate that and your [1:53:30] willingness to come back to us and tell us how the class is going based on teachers student feedback that's [1:53:35] something I intend to follow up with you about I remain concerned about the [1:53:41] balance of textbook lesson complexity across the novels and I want to hear specifically if students are feeling [1:53:48] challenged and so what Ellen said I want to hear how student differentiating is [1:53:53] working from our lowest levels to our highest level learners I'd like to hear more about the writing assignments my [1:53:58] expectation is that as a board and district we will be analyzing and making decision about how we can still improve [1:54:07] this class based on what we have now and I think all of us as a board and [1:54:13] district need to look at the entire Canon of literature our students read from from 6th 8th grade and 9th to 12th [1:54:19] grade and also to really get a view of for the entire [1:54:25] high school experience what are they reading and I think that's so that that [1:54:34] that's that's what I thank you I just [1:54:42] like to respond briefly to your comment and I I do understand what you're saying about you know we have a choice tonight [1:54:50] or yes or no no would leave us with what we believe would be the old class unless [1:54:57] we proposed a new class which would be purchasing materials and I don't know how realistic that is but that that back [1:55:05] for me is the thing that frustrates me is that we seem to get stuck in this [1:55:10] position frequently where we're put into a time line that is unrealistic and we [1:55:16] even talked about this at teaching and learning that we wouldn't be seeing it until June and how realistic was it to [1:55:22] get the actual feedback and make changes and so once again we're put in this [1:55:28] position where you really don't have a lot of choices so and because this class [1:55:34] has been talked about for so long it's to be it's just extremely frustrating to [1:55:39] be in this position again where well if you vote no then you're stuck with what you had and that to me is just it just [1:55:48] it's not it's not fixing the problem we're just perpetuating it and so I [1:55:54] appreciate your comments I just wanted to give you that feedback but that having been on the board this long we've [1:56:00] talked about this for too long to be stuck again I think that's [1:56:06] that's a real feeling that sense of take it or leave it and that's sort of where we saw this coming in early June when it [1:56:14] was going to teach and learning the next day to work session went to discussion in June for the board and here we are in July to get around that we would have [1:56:21] had to back this up three to four months and we could start [1:56:26] to work toward some sort of consensus where we we have more of a collaboration [1:56:32] more of a feedback more of a an ongoing dialogue with drafts the trouble with that is the process we [1:56:39] value to get to the June thing would have been truncated we we have a new administration last fall that started [1:56:46] this work and maybe the process was too long but I think we we saw that those [1:56:52] months long exercises and dialogues and collections of opinions and working [1:56:59] groups that would meet repeatedly we saw that coming as as long process and so we were essentially before the time we got [1:57:05] a new administration taking this problem seriously the fall and proposing their solution we saw where this was going [1:57:10] with a draft that would be coming to us towards the end of the school year when teachers wouldn't be on their contract [1:57:17] to continue to dialogue into June and July and we didn't ask anything to change with that so it's I don't want it [1:57:22] to sound like this was sort of a typical ministry versus cabinet game where [1:57:29] you're left with a take-it-or-leave-it choice in fact I think we we got a document that I viewed it worth [1:57:34] substantially different it probably would look different again if we had that consensus building process it would [1:57:41] be several more months long you know probably wouldn't remain in this form but I think take it or leave it is it's [1:57:49] more of a harsh way I think it's just the reality of where we are at after [1:57:54] that process and there are more processes to come I I disagree with the [1:58:00] notion that I wouldn't be proud to have my kid in this course but I I agree with [1:58:06] you that the process that would go towards consensus would probably produce something different as well [1:58:12] right I don't know if that's sounds like a few different ideas to me I sort of see how they make sense together but I [1:58:20] think some compromises were offered though Adam yes whoops which is for the [1:58:25] raising the Lexile level that's right that's right I think this this group of [1:58:33] parents has been extremely willing to [1:58:38] compromise and they've been upfront about the pursuit of different genres not so much emphasis on postmodern books [1:58:44] that are written after World War two or after 1920 years I guess channel depends on who you're asked and books that have [1:58:50] a Lexile right in the tire not just Lexile but also Lexile writing that's higher minimum of 10 80 is entry for [1:58:58] ninth grade and they're supposed to be well beyond that with support in the ninth grade and it's not it's not a [1:59:06] period though it's it's a nuance it's many many pages many many paragraphs and I think there's there's an [1:59:12] interpretation that gets us where we are now on good faith as well [1:59:26] well I would say that I do support this class as that's presented I think [1:59:32] there's been a lot of points raised tonight I don't dismiss Lexile I believe that [1:59:42] the teachers can take a particular book and craft writing assignments that it [1:59:48] can be quite in-depth based upon any of the books that are listed here and so [1:59:54] I'm going to accept and I do trust our teachers that they're going to provide [2:00:00] adequate rigor to this class I do me if [2:00:08] I can the perfect world if there were one book different that would be great and I think that there was a suggestion [2:00:14] that came up on unit 1 I had to have a choice book and if the teachers want to revisit that that would be great [2:00:20] I'm not going to sit here and impose it because I think that ultimately my job [2:00:25] is to question what you present but we as a board really are not teachers with [2:00:34] the exception of the mirror and I think that it would be a problem to substitute [2:00:39] my judgment for their so long as they come before the board and you have and [2:00:45] say here's the curriculum here's how it's improved and I think we all agree it's improved that it addresses the [2:00:51] number of these issues and they again as Erica said and you said that you're gonna come back in November and say [2:00:58] here's where why the class is working or if it's not working where it's not working because [2:01:04] ultimately implementation is what's going to carry this class and so I would [2:01:09] do look and do trust our teachers to implement this class in a solid fashion [2:01:14] I do like the idea of earned honors it [2:01:20] is that point out it came from the teachers and so I would absolutely say [2:01:26] that's what I'm looking for in the second semester or earlier as possible [2:01:32] in terms of is coming to us at the last minute our normal curriculum review [2:01:38] this is a two plus year process if we're gonna compress it to a year then this is [2:01:45] the time frame we get if we wanted to have more time to talk about it we would be looking at this over two years and we [2:01:52] were talking about the fall of 2019 and I think that the board had indicated that we wanted to look at this for 12 [2:01:59] 2018 and I'm I am satisfied that the teachers have done a great job in [2:02:06] improving this class responding to needs of the parents that have articulated [2:02:12] those needs and I do look forward to it assuming that it passes I appreciate [2:02:21] your concern about trusting the judgment of the teachers and I think that will be the only thing that makes this [2:02:27] successful you know what first of all students you know in there [2:02:32] this is notorious across a lot of humanities and social scientists where classes where students joke about how [2:02:37] easy it was to write a paper at the last minute or to write it off one draft and get a good grader they sometimes [2:02:43] complain what how they did it early and they did two drafts and he didn't get to be great I think that comes down sometimes to do what teachers are [2:02:50] expecting and how they structure their course in their rubric and trying to make students proud of the grade even if [2:02:56] it's a beat that they had to work hard and that they're actually proud of the work they produce that was what makes a great course that's what starts to make [2:03:02] you rigorous that it was was difficult to to understand the text and others [2:03:08] didn't make it some meaning from it put that in context I think you can do that you can get there with graphic novels in [2:03:14] fact it's probably a skill that students should be exposed to developing that that juxtaposition of text and an image [2:03:20] and that's not sufficient you also need to get there with some higher Lex Hauser's is so much more than just the [2:03:27] story if you can tell somebody what the books about while you're on the elevator you haven't gotten at all to text [2:03:33] complexity this idea well the way that they're saying something the reference is that character makes to appreciate [2:03:39] that you should be able to stop and just appreciate a given paragraph in a good book and it's not about the big reveal [2:03:46] now we know who the mole is it kind of reminds me of the in my opinion that some other good movies and [2:03:51] good so the ones where it's not about the twist and once you know what you never watch again but it's about just being [2:03:56] able to appreciate any given moment enjoying that work of art and a good teacher can bring that to light I think [2:04:03] in this case it really took the village no concerns with the course where it had [2:04:10] gone too far were brought to light to me first phone parents not through the [2:04:16] administration years ago and students [2:04:21] who talked the parents not every student wants to talk about their English course or any course or anything with their [2:04:27] parents but the students and the parents who had these conversations who brought them to light were essential in getting [2:04:32] this review I would sequence I think that sort of multiple state quarter hold [2:04:37] air valuing their status and their judgments not each equally it's not as [2:04:44] if two emails my parent two emails from teachers cancel out or anything but that that was critical to gets to this [2:04:51] process and likewise evaluating where we're at over the next 12 months and more will take input from all of these [2:04:58] same groups again from the teachers from the students from the parents from the administration it's gonna be essential [2:05:05] to figuring out where we're at I think we're starting to build some consensus with this earned honors we're starting [2:05:10] to to have the conversation about a second registration option for next fall which earn honors will be a part of that [2:05:16] conversation and I just want to emphasize how how far we've come and how [2:05:23] we're not letting up with the pursuit of excellence in this case and there are [2:05:28] things that may seem out of place like for example watching movies first of all 17 it struck me as the large number of [2:05:35] movies I'll say but I remember watching much ado about nothing.the movie with into Washington and it really brought [2:05:41] the plate of life and I got the jokes a little bit better with the way some of these charismatic actors are putting it out we would watch what we had read and [2:05:49] then hit pause and read some more and talked some more and so it it was a valuable teaching method and it wasn't [2:05:54] oh right inappropriate too much of this just like too many graphic novels and [2:06:00] too many discussions about your own thoughts and your own feelings apart from any serious [2:06:06] criticism anyway the teacher could push back and say just objectionably I think you're objectively I think you're at a [2:06:11] c-plus right now with where you're at I think that is essential that's where teachers that get back to beginning what [2:06:17] I was saying teachers can make a break this course just based off of their own rubrics and expectations of students [2:06:23] digesting the materials that are in this proposal and by the way this was set at [2:06:30] prior meetings but I mean we do appreciate ricer and they appreciate the work of administration to take this on [2:06:35] in the summer and fall of last year I mean brand-new to the system and kind [2:06:42] of one of your first challenges so I do appreciate that I think I would like to [2:06:49] make sure we have some clarity prior to voting so I in the event that it passes [2:06:56] are we looking for an acceptance of the earned honors proposal by the teachers [2:07:03] for the second semester so I need like verbal responses I am and I'd like that [2:07:14] as a part of this passing this part of this one part of approving okay [2:07:23] that's yes Emir yeah and I think that it would be something our teachers I [2:07:28] anticipate would want to create in-house this process but if what we're asking [2:07:33] for is that there be a way to do it because we're giving them first chance [2:07:40] that grading that and they'd probably be I don't know much about how we pay for these things but they probably have to be some additional look that goes into [2:07:48] it from the administration but if they were saying it needs to be done that would be done either in-house or not for [2:07:54] January and I'm just being cautious of the board creating new ideas that's why [2:08:00] I'm repeating this as as Andy has told us that this came originated from the teachers is an idea well if it passes [2:08:10] through the movement in the right direction so I would like more rigor and more opportunity for differentiation [2:08:16] like that are there any other questions [2:08:24] discussions on this point on the entire motion all those of approving the [2:08:32] proposed a p10 class say aye all right all those opposed nay motion [2:08:41] is carried thank you very much we are on to [2:08:48] information so Erica did you have items [2:08:55] you wanted to point out on the ad-hoc communications committee [2:09:12] or you're hoping your side would show up oh okay I didn't know this would be the [2:09:19] discussion item so this is more for me yeah so it was put on the board so the [2:09:26] board can see what you have because this [2:09:32] information usually discussed and includes slides so information often [2:09:39] isn't used and so this is an opportunity to expand out into new areas and use information for a broader purpose so we [2:09:46] can bring it back in the August meeting if you want it is updated then I'm gonna put it okay so we we kicked up the ad [2:10:00] hoc communications committee in June or May okay okay thank you very much thank [2:10:13] you so um we came up with a process basically where we wanted to define what [2:10:22] the problem was what the goals were we current we were trying to get at and then collect some information I call it [2:10:29] the measure measurement and analyze phase where we wanted to benchmark what other districts were doing evaluate our [2:10:37] current communication channels and vehicles and do a very small parent survey what do you think of our current [2:10:43] board communications what are you looking for from the board so on and so [2:10:48] forth before we even moved in to brainstorming suggestions really getting [2:10:53] everyone grounded and what is the current status what are other districts doing all of that good stuff so from [2:11:00] June until our next meeting which is on Wednesday that's what we've been doing so our status as of now is we have gone [2:11:09] through the define measure and analyze phase so we've done the benchmark cream we've done the survey we've done a [2:11:15] complete evaluation of all of our communications channels and vehicles and then in the next over the next like [2:11:26] three or four meetings we're going to move on to our improvement phase which [2:11:32] is where we're going to be spending next all of next week meeting brainstorming new ideas for how we can improve our [2:11:40] communication channels just based on the feedback that we've received from our [2:11:45] survey and what we've seen and other school districts or best practices we're going to create actionable board [2:11:50] recommendations create new communications tools and then develop communication standards and protocols [2:11:56] and then the final phase will be coming up with actual communications templates if need be measuring improvements and [2:12:04] then making changes if necessary the goal is to bring actual actionable recommendations to the board by the end [2:12:10] of August and then depending on feedback from the board if you guys say we like [2:12:16] idea five six and ten we've typically have people on our committee that are [2:12:22] willing to volunteer to help create tools and communications for us to [2:12:29] actually implement some of the ideas so we're that's where we are as [2:12:36] it's a good group of people had bringing and we've done some the research that people have done looking to what other [2:12:43] school boards in other districts do has also been been interesting and a good good exercise yeah so eric has been been [2:12:53] running with it so Lenny and I are just there for the background moral support [2:12:58] that's right do you guys have any questions or want more detailed [2:13:05] information and/or I think when the subsidies of stuff comes it'll be are [2:13:11] you too tired I want to say thank you for your work for the committee working [2:13:16] on this this is I this is doing research is really thankless I know and getting [2:13:21] it ready to this next step we all will appreciate that I'm excited I think [2:13:27] they're gonna come up with a lot of good actionable stuff no I was gonna comment on your PowerPoint I mean if you're a [2:13:33] communications committee it's a very well created document so it's an example [2:13:39] of what you're doing you are de putting a lot of work into it so thank you yeah [2:13:45] well we'll be back in August with some ideas is there any other information [2:13:59] anybody would like to discuss announcements man is here [2:14:20] there's our announcement yes Ellen [2:14:34] those aren't discussion eyes so I think that that's included I think that the [2:14:40] listing of a presenter is inaccurate I think it's just included for informational purposes it's a little [2:14:48] misleading because it has a presenter listed so is in bored look for our edification but there's no right [2:15:05] I know I said that I'm I'm really [2:15:10] shocked that we're not having a presenter on this because I'm very proud of the AP exam scores and that this is [2:15:18] that we are just keeping this to ourselves we've got some great the AP [2:15:23] exam summary is really phenomenal so and I have to say I'm not sure have we included this before no no I I want to [2:15:31] whoever is I whoever came up with the idea of including this thank you because this is fabulous and just even [2:15:37] as a parent to be able to look at the individual courses and say like [2:15:43] comparative government you know I mean just look and break down you know 5s for is threes and it shows I mean some of [2:15:49] these classes are hard for a kid to get a vibe on these AP tests so it's it's I [2:15:55] love this data thank you for sharing it yes some of these classes are taken by ninth graders who are taking AP classes [2:16:01] yeah look ap you're always an AP gov I [2:16:07] love it it's really pretty impressive so thank you for sharing it with us all [2:16:14] right all right any other questions updates announcements are there any up [2:16:23] any objections to observing hearing none we are adjourned thank you everybody [2:16:34] I have some [2:17:19] [Music]