so i'm going to call the meeting to order thank you we do have a quorum tonight the first thing on our agenda is approving the minutes we have three meetings one on january 25th which was a regular meeting a january 30th work session and a february first work session could i get a motion to approve the minutes are there any changes to the minutes or any discussion on them hearing none all in favor say aye aye aye aye motion is passed next uh actually before we get to recognitions rick if you could walk us through the agenda please certainly well um first of all to remind the board and the community that we did have some uh other work sessions that occurred before uh since our last regular meeting the board met at length on january 30th of saturday more in a retreat work setting talk about personalized learning some of the initiatives that we're going forward on they followed that up on monday night the february 1st with adding to that discussion but also starting to shape the budget planning for 2016 2017 and some of the policy work the board will be involved with we already mentioned about the minutes we have some recognitions that we get to celebrate tonight from there we'll have hearings from the audience we have our consent agenda which is pretty straightforward for the most part it's again part of the routine items around personnel recommendations and a few other items uh we have some report and discussion items we'll give a leadership update we're going to talk a little bit about uh some of the work we're doing around assessment a lot of change going on there we'll take a first look at some board policies we do have a variety of action items that we're asking the board to act on tonight including the early childhood recommendations we have some capital projects we're moving forward with the bidding process on a variety of projects including the addition at the high school which is a major uh project for us going forward we have a joint agreement with the dyna boosters and then again some policies that the board looked at in january that we'd be moving forward on we do have one addition to the agenda for tonight mr chair we would like to add as an action item under action items 7g if we could have the ninth grade excuse me sixth grade was it we have a course change at south in valley view middle school um and that is included in the board packet tonight the board also has an updated personnel recommendations that are included but would remain part of the consent agenda for tonight those would be the additions to the agenda tonight and an overview of the board agenda there will those be seven h and i so seven h and i i'm sorry seven h the personnel recommendations are still part of the consensus okay sorry seven h okay so you get a motion to amend the agenda to include those items second second any discussion hearing none all in favor say aye aye any opposed it's passed the agenda has been modified uh next is recognitions well we're going to start out with a repeat um our vid volleyball louis oh let's try that again arvid i always mess this up well valley there we go and his coach uh who is part of the debate team andy cherrier so if those two could come up we will do a little discussion recognition for the two of them our vid front to center here second time winner of the lincoln douglas debate state champion so talk a little bit about the season but talk a little bit about uh going into the knowing you're a repeat champion and people are looking saying is he going to do it again talk a little bit about the experience at the state competition um i think it was a little bit more pressure this time around because i'd want it before and i wanted to win it again um uh but at the same time i feel like the act of winning itself was just i guess something that i kind of knew that i was going to do at the risk of sounding a little cocky but yeah that's basically how it went for me and how about the year how has it been for you do you see the experience being different than your junior year and what are plans going forward as you look at this um i think the year itself was just kind of the standard debate here uh you know we did more of the same thing and then you know come state tournament time that was you know really we were really just buckling down to get down to you know everything else that was going to occur and then looking forward i guess it's mostly over but we have nationals in june so i'm looking forward to that and what tell us a little bit about what's that national experience like um it's it's basically just a week of debate uh last year was in dallas texas this year it's going to be in salt lake city um so it's it's just a really good time a lot of you know like-minded people all is congregating in one place and uh you know even outside of debate there's like a lot of things to do there so it's just a week i guess it's a good time for a whole week and so how is this going to influence as you look to your future down the road how's this all the work you've done with debate and the work your coach and your team has provided you what expertise where do you think this is gonna take you um you know i like to say sometimes and i guess half jokingly that that debate has taught me more than school has because um i think you know looking back there are times where i might have to know what a subjunctive clause is or things of that nature but i feel like you know public speaking or critical thinking skills or something that i'm going to carry with me and will always be useful in my life great coach you've had just more than one great player on the team this year the bait team talk a little bit about the whole experience your team's had the success they've had throughout the year you had a great state experience as well and a great season talk a little bit to that if you could yeah uh so this is my third year being here and we had a good season we had a couple interesting things happened to us this year one was our school was named uh school of excellence in debate by the national speech and debate association so that's really like a true team championship kind of award at the national level so of all schools in america that do debate kind of in the top 20 of that and then we won the sweepstakes award this year for novice and junior varsity state competitors as well so the future is good for us fantastic we've got a recognition here and a picture coach thanks for coming in our vid thank you as well and now we have a first the edina high school science bowl team and coach roddy and team if you come forward so this is a a new championship a new state championship it's our first year uh it was first year in the state really second year first year state champion uh coach let's talk to you first a little bit about how did you get pulled into this and your interest in this megan i'm right here was my student last year as a sophomore and she came to me and said i think that edina should have a science bowl team and so i said i'll advise it if you pull it all together and do all the legwork and that's so you're not much of a coach i'm admitting i am the advisor i am the advisor oh no it's true it's true last year probably more coaching than this year a little bit as we all had to figure out how to get our minds around how the competition worked this year megan and a couple other returning students who unfortunately weren't able to be here tonight sort of took the lead of coaching the team and moving it forward for the second year so talk a little bit about how the whole science bowl works and how it's set up and how it really is a team competition well it's a quiz bowl competition that looks a lot like you see quiz bowl in tv shows and movies and so you know with buzzers and everything and rules about if you buzz in wrong you can lose points just for buzzing at the wrong time or answering in the wrong way but ultimately the questions come in a variety of categories so there's questions coming at us in math physics chemistry life science earth and space science and energy because it's sponsored by the department of energy so that's one of their categories and so the team of four plus an alternate need to be well versed in all of those subjects or you know as best as they can it's not knowing you know what ratio of questions you're going to get in a given round so the part of the goal of putting a team together is balancing out the skill set in terms of what knowledge they bring to the table so we had two teams but uh this is the team a that was sort of the lead team and then we had a second team that took tenth place at the state tournament and so with the same deal we had to kind of balance out the players and figure out who should be on a and b based on their strengths well and again i know as coaches and advisors busy life and you take on one more thing we appreciate that a lot for your work i'm going to hand this down and simple start with you megan and then we'll just go right down but how about your grade your name obviously your grade and then maybe your area of strength that you felt like you bring to the team because each of you kind of have a little bit of a focus area but why don't we do that as that first question um so my name is megan iyer and i'm a junior at edina high school and i feel i think my strengths were in biology as well as physics um and a little bit of math and chemistry as well um i'm bobby scalia i'm a sophomore at edin high school and my strengths i think were earth science and then chemistry uh i'm matthew zappa i'm also a sophomore down in high school and my strengths were probably oh science some biology and then maybe a bit of energy i guess yeah so how did so this was your first year at the high school what brought you to say this is something you'd like to be participating in well it was yeah well yeah yeah uh the activity is fair and just looking around and saw science bowl and thought you know i like science and so that should be fun they signed up and then you know joined the team and all that so what was that state competition like i mean you've never done science bowl before and all sudden you're moving into the state competition i'm sure you could feel the pressure of it all how did you handle it um it was pretty fun we got to the first like it was seven hours or so so we went through the first like five hours of just tournaments um doing pretty well and we got to about the five hour mark and then started we got a headache on the team you know granola bars were getting handed out and uh then we went up 2-0 in the finals so we knew they had to beat us twice we had to win once and then that took a lot of pressure off and it was a nice fun final round so here's the veteran on the team right talk a little bit about how this experience compares to last year could you feel things are going in the right direction and then also maybe talk a little bit about what you're expecting at the national level sure um so i think this year was a little bit different um because last year we were an all sophomore team so we were still kind of lacking in some certain subject areas so i think this year all of us had a lot more knowledge and we also had matthew and bobby who brought to the table a lot of expertise and especially earth and space science which was one of our biggest weaknesses last year so we felt pretty good going forward we didn't really want to have any expectations in the actual state competition because we knew there were actually some really really strong teams um so as for the national competition which is in washington dc at the end of april um again they're going to be some extremely strong teams so i think we're just going to go there for having a really good experience um there the department of energy is sponsoring activities such as the night tour of the smithsonian museums and some other activities and then there's like a divisional team challenge which is like a lab based challenge so we're given a problem in chemistry or biology and we have to use our knowledge in that field to solve that problem and then of course we'll go into the same round robin and double elimination rounds that we're used to so there's some things that we are familiar with but then there's also some new things that we don't really know what to expect and coach had a couple other players that we're not here today is that correct uh michael tang and jenny jang are you okay that completes the team well let's get a picture here again congratulations best wishes as you head to washington congratulations okay next item is hearing from members of the community we do welcome input from the members of the community our process is that requests have to be made prior to the meeting i do have four requests we do ask that your presentations be limited to three minutes when you get to three minutes i will ask you to wrap it up any public complaints against about employees or school board members or district must be brought in writing and may not be brought as part of a public oral presentation there will not be a board discussion on the issues that are presented but you will get feedback from the superintendent after the meeting not immediately after but in due course the first person is mr dan mcconnell mr mcconnell could he please come up thank you mr chair board members superintendent my name is dan mcconnell and uh following up your state champions uh congratulations on that i know the pride that you feel in that and uh my segue is that that's the same pride i feel representing the members i represent we have i represent the best construction workers i believe in the united states of america and uh as you know we've been uh you've probably been hearing from us a little bit on your upcoming construction projects about our concerns about prevailing wage we've had a couple of bumps in the road recently on some projects with edina and we see that you're going out for a bid and we just want to urge you to think about whether or not it makes sense to include prevailing wage as a policy going forward our experience shows that if you want to get the best construction workers the most qualified contractors on your project including prevailing wage expect specifications in your bid helps you do that otherwise you're out in the market you're required by the state law to go for the lowest bid right we've done a lot of work around responsible contracting we passed a law at the state legislature requiring uh contractors to be responsible to be qualified to be able to bid on public public works that passed i think 200 to one i think it's a common sense thing one the big key to that is having prevailing wage and making sure that workers are treated fairly they're paid a decent wage they can support their families they can send their kids to good schools they can learn they can invest in themselves and their skills and they provide the best quality and the best value for the end user we strongly believe that and we would urge you to consider doing that thank you for your time thank you very much mr mcconnell next is david davison yeah i've i've been an indiana resident here for 30 years my kids finished up in school about 15 years ago i'm a physicist and so i'm interested in the way the schools teach science and i'm i'm glad that we're seeing this the sort of feedback that we saw today that um that the students here seem to be doing really well in science now i'm wondering if um if part of that was because uh this the city uh put forth 85 million dollars 12 years ago towards improving the science facilities and um uh i don't know if that's the case but uh if there is some kind of indication that um that this did occur then it's something that it would be good to hear from the board about in other words could you take credit for that and in that regard we've also invested another 125 million dollars in the in the school in the schools for the next few years and um you've got to ask yourself well what's what's what are going to be the outcomes of this investment and for example what what are what are some of the things that the the students are going to have when they finish the schools in the next 20 30 years better life prospects um reduction in fossil fuel use or contribution to that uh adaptation to productivity gains with increased use of robotics you know this is something that's active here and civil projects to repair damage to by global warming and sea level changes these are some things we're going to see in the next few years so the question is can we look forward to our students uh being a part of that and is there a way to say now is there some some kind of measures that we can put in place or that the school board could put in place so that in 10 10 years time when the city's asked to put forth another referendum that we will understand that that there has been some outcomes that have been positive thank you for listening to me thank you thank you very much mr davidson next is judy randall good evening mr chair board members thanks for giving me the couple minutes to address you today i wanted to talk with you two points both related to enriched language arts options in 10th grade i believe my daughter lily rantal i should say i'm a mother of two students at south view a seventh grader maggie randall and a ninth grader lily randall and i believe you all received an email from lily randall about two weeks ago related to the lack of an enriched language arts option in 10th grade and i just wanted to put a face to that concern and i actually coincidentally think there might be some other ninth graders in the audience today but i wanted to really urge you to think about a way to provide an enriched language arts option for 10th grade i know it's hard to change the curriculum i do understand that change takes time but these kids are only 10th graders once my daughter's a 10th grader next year that's her only chance to be a 10th grader getting emotional which i didn't expect um and so i know it's hard to change the curriculum but what i would urge you to do is be creative no it's not going to be the you know a perfect enrich language arts class next year fine do some differentiation do some clustering do a a test class and ask families who are willing to be part of a test class to do it i would just urge you to not let the perfect get in the way of the good here these kids just have one chance of being a 10th grader we're in the middle of registration right now and it's really a struggle because there's not a good option i don't feel and she doesn't feel for herself in language arts so that's the first point the second point i just wanted to know is that she did send you all an email two weeks ago and this is where i'm really gonna get emotional and she hasn't heard back from you and i think that's really a shame i did hear from one board member who i ran into at a concert who wanted me to pass i'm so embarrassed that i'm getting emotional but the district encourages these kids to be engaged and to take initiative and to advocate for themselves and here's a 15 year old girl who did and got no response thank you and i'm sorry thank you ms randall we will look into it we promise next is sarah burgess good evening my name is sarah burgess and i'm the treasurer of the edina ecfe pto tonight i am speaking on behalf of our entire organization which proudly and passionately serves the edina family center community edina ecfe pto members unanimously approved the letter we respectfully submitted electronically this afternoon our letter from which i will be reading excerpts comes as a response to the materials uploaded to the school board's website on february 19th regarding the zero to 33 month programming recommendations you plan to act upon tonight most importantly number one the edina ecf pto is disappointed with the recommendation to discontinue zero to 33-month block care services and feels this recommendation was made without consulting the pto in accordance with its bylaws number two the edina ecfe pto is fully committed to partnering with school district leadership in its stated desire to preserve programming for two-year-olds as it is currently offered three the edina ecfe pto appreciates the email that was sent late this afternoon that clearly articulates the summer programming options at the family center the edina ecfe pto was established as a non-profit corporation in 2009 and as such is responsible for adhering to its bylaws at that time family center and community education administrators collaborated with advisory council members to create the current edina ecfapto our bylaws include but are not limited to the following activities assisting in planning implementing and evaluating ecfe programs recommending new areas of programming based on community needs and or participant suggestions or recommendations serving as a sounding board and source of ideas for the ecfe coordinator reviewing approving and monitoring the ecfe program budget school district leadership announced the intended 0-33 month program changes at the december 8 2015 monthly ecfe pto board meeting prior to that date there had been no communication to the board it was stated by school district leadership that the proposed program changes were not final however when questioned leadership characterized the changes as a quote done deal the decision to not involve the ecfe pto throughout the process of evaluating the programming or at a minimum to inform them that such an important program evaluation was being undertaken runs against the spirit of partnership and the established bylaws it is certainly a missed opportunity that the ecfe pto was not involved following the december 8th 2015 pto meeting interested participants present past and future became engaged expressing concern over the changes to the program and strong support from the important role the program serves in the community we request the school board review the considerable body of input from the community prior to considering a final decision and we look forward to our role in continuing to meet the educational needs and expectations that families in this district find invaluable thank you thank you very much miss burgess burgess dr dressen will be making some comments in response in the leadership update so i would please ask that those are interested just stay for that thank you thank you very much thank you next is the consent agenda frick could you walk us through that certainly well um again the personnel recommendations with a slight modification i would ask the board to approve that we have the expenditures payable for the past month we have a slight change in the 2016-17 calendar we just have a change in some of the late start and so that's a minor change that the administration recognizes we have an opportunity for some staff training that we want to take advantage of and so we've made some modifications there we have again a moder some additions as it relates to the board committee appointments and liaisons where we've added two positions or one position i should say around the city liaisons position of the board asking uh randy meyer and lenny walden friedman to serve as a liaison for the district to the city especially as it relates to some of our construction projects then we have our commendations our gifts again we continue to appreciate the many gifts our community gives and then a field trip as the deca team is headed to national to their nationals and that would conclude the consent agenda are there any requests to remove anything from the consent agenda hearing none can i get a motion to approve the consent agenda second second all in favor say aye aye aye any opposed motion passes we are on to reports and discussion rick i believe you're up first i'll give a leadership update if we get those powerpoint slides up that'd be great while those are being brought up i would just uh again as relates to the uh comments uh around the science department um i think we do feel good about the work that our previous construction project brought forward it was not only addition of science rooms but we did a lot as it relates to our athletic facilities and our activity facility our fire facility as well as our performing arts and i think we you know as we step back and look at the involvement and the opportunities we've created and commitment we made to that we're seeing that that increase in student involvement in it and the safety as it related to some of the things that we took on as well as the enhanced facilities so i think as that's a good point of advice around we start looking at our increased improvements that we're looking at this whole next gen we should be reporting back to the community more specifically on the value of the enhancements uh going forward so we will keep that in mind other things on the facilities right now the transportation facility continue to move forward with the purchase of some land for this facility and hope to have that wrapped up prior to spring break we are looking at furniture improvements at all of our school sites again making sure the furniture is reflective of how students are learning today and so we've been working very closely with old architect on assessing the furniture needs at our elementary middle and high school sites and moving forward that planning temporary facilities is going to be a big challenge for us in 2016 as the high school will be under construction as well as three of our elementaries and so i think val burke and her team for the creativity they're using and everybody's flexibility around how we maximize the available facilities during these seasons of construction we did receive a conditional permit from the city as relates to our west campus construction this is again the addition at the high school level and this slide does show where that edition lies um and it's kind of tough to see but it's on the you can see the change in the parking lot configuration which is uh on the upper west side or to my left the viewers left uh is the parking lot and then next to that is that addition where there's that's the major addition to the high school which was approved at the city and it's been where we're drawing our plans this is just a quick conceptual drawing of the new entrance to the high school the windows that you see from the current facility would be the orchestra windows and so we're really coming out from west again of the high school off that thick auditorium doorway but that would be the entrance 3d entrance into the new high school setting this is a view of that addition looking from the north looking back toward the campus you can see the parking lot but that is the addition the door is the door seven current door seven but that will be the actually the additions then to our activities center this is the commons which is a remodel one of the remodels you can see is we have steps going down from the commons area down into the lunch area so this is going to be a multiple tiered eating setting for students but also a study area and aligns well with how that we this will be one of our common gathering areas it's a lot of design work a lot of input from the students we're excited about this but this is one area that will be completed this summer and be ready for students to join us in the fall of 2016. this is another look looking from thick auditorium out into the east so those big windows and you can see where currently the wall be taken down where the current staff lounges and we'll be adding furniture along that campus this is a look back the upper picture is the where the deca cafe will be the business program the student program that offers that that's where the community room currently is we will be recla relocating both the community room as well as the teachers lounge but this is all be on that second floor and then that final picture in the bottom is looking from where the current library is and then looking down that hallway just give you a good flavor from a 3d perspective again we're excited that this part of the work is expected to be completed over the summer months as we shift in from facilities i do want to also mention that the board will be approving the bids today we do we are now going prevailing wage previous construction we have not done that the facilities committee of the board did discuss it and did receive materials to discuss it but the recommendation to the administration which we support does bring the bids forward without the prevailing wage requirement as relates then to shifting now to some of the other work we have a task force that begins tomorrow night taking a look at our general fund budget for 16 17 and 17 18. someplace between 20 25 community staff and students will be joining us for a three-session workout as it were to take a look at our budget adjustments that we need to make so we realize where we have our funds to the mission of the district so we're looking at potential reductions potential reallocations where some resources are as well as looking at ways we can generate revenue they'll be advising the administration on this work for both this coming year as well as two years out so it's a multi-tier look at that information their charge again is to do some prioritizing of our funds and explore the possibilities this slide really gets into the details of what we're looking at and the challenges we face just rolling forward we see before us the 2015-16 budget which we're currently in and we're now starting to look at projections as it relates to 2016-17 and 2017-18 you can see when we look at that the revenues do not keep up with the expenditures this is a structural problem not just here in edina but in the state of minnesota where the expenditures as we do for business rolling things forward is outstripping what we're doing in on the revenue side and so we're really making sure again that we don't uh overspend our dollars and we are fiscally responsible it's been our charge as a community for a long time that we want to do that and so this committee will be helping the administration and bringing those recommendations we'll be bringing them forward back to the board as well for further discussion as well as getting information out to the community as we roll through the process what again it's looking through the budget reduction reallocation revenue generation often called the berg without a vowel but it's a process that we understand and it's been successful in having us make sure we manage our resources now shifting to community education i'm going to make sure val burke is also with me uh community education has launched their community ed strategic plan and asked val to give us just a quick update of where we are six months or so into this plan and you are on you're good though okay good good evening members of the board colleagues community members and superintendent dressen in august of this year community education services presented recommendations to you after a comprehensive study we wanted to implement a yearly action plan phased in for three years the recommendations fell into three main areas coherent and comprehensive educational programs sustainable and effective partnerships and the creation of intentionally designed flexible spaces for all learners so i'm going to update you on a few areas that we're working on under the youth umbrella which is primarily coherent and comprehensive programs last year meg bear at our youth programs coordinator took over the targeted services program which is a tier two intervention strategy the action plan this year has included that a homework help program a formerly homework help program that was run by volunteers has been converted into a targeted services program this change enables this program to have a sustainable funding stream while still inviting community volunteers and students to work under the direction of a certified teacher to assist students with homework and to learn new skills this is happening at three schools this year countryside cornelia in creek valley and our hope is to continue on with those opportunities to all six elementaries next year in addition the traditional success center programs which are also tier two are being offered at five out of the six elementaries this year and at one of our elementaries which is increasing the amount of students that are are receiving this service to almost 250 students this year and finally under targeted services last summer which is the first time that meg and her team worked with this program the delivery system changed the new delivery combined both our summer el program and our targeted services program in addition to math and reading supports art music and team building learning activities were incorporated to provide a more comprehensive and frankly more fun program for students to attend in a summer learning environment this program served 340 students and the valuations from families and students were very strong so this year they will build on that successes and continue to offer that joint programming with el this summer once again in a here at normandale we continue to partner with may term by supporting them with registration and also with bringing in community speakers karen roark our volunteer program manager provides almost a hundred different kinds of speakers that to support the may term experience continuing we are also continuing to help support the data collection and evaluation for the recess initiative and finally under youth sorry i'll just take one more minute under youth our big initiative is the relocation of our fourth and fifth grade school aged care program wise guys back to their home school this will happen in phases for next year concord countryside in highlands students will be relocating to their home schools since the construction of those schools will be complete so we'll have a hybrid program with three schools being delivered comprehensively here and three schools back at their home schools i would just like to say bravo to meg and her staff because it's been a lot of hard and heavy lifting to create new and um these opportunities for students under our learn servant connect initiative it's under volunteers i wanted to update you for the last two to three years we've been working very intentionally to increase the amount of volunteers community specifically that are coming into our schools to support our students karen roarick has worked with our ptos and our building principles to set a foundation of how to collect that data in a more secure and accountable way she's also doubled the amount of opportunities for both our youth and for our adults in our community resulting in almost 115 percent increase in volunteers specifically working one-on-one with students and she's also been working hard at recruiting community volunteers that are reflective of our student population increasing both the ages the age diversity of the volunteers that that are working with us and the ethnic diversity of our volunteers she was really instrumental in partnering with the chinese and the international chinese association and bringing in many different volunteers from their organization to help support our chinese school on saturdays and also the programming offered at high school adult-wise our partnership with the community resulted in a very successful tedx event that partnership has resulted in both new programming and new instructors providing a spark to our adult programming and our plan is to offer another tedx event next year in addition we've launched if you take a look at your as time permits an adult volunteer newsletter really hoping to capitalize on the synergies of giving opportunities to adults to both learn and serve with us that's also resulted in probably about 250 hits to the newsletter which for a first time out we're very excited about finally i wanted to also say congratulations to coordinator seth ryan who began with us in july and lori wilcox who are working hard on collecting data to put together recommendations to update facilities management processes and policies that will support our new and improved facilities moving forward it's a big undertaking and it's an exciting one because we're going to have amazing facilities in early education we continue to partner with early education special education members of the birth through grade 5 study and administration to develop a comprehensive and coherent birth through age five program for children and families for next year we offer our offering expanded hours for our preschoolers with enrichment options for families and expanded early childhood family education opportunities so we can continue to support families by delivering high quality parent education and finally we're completing the recommendations for the early learning center giving us the ability to create flexible learning spaces for all our learners so that's just a few highlights but i wanted to just make sure that you knew at mid-year we're well on our way to completing our action plan goals for this year and we look forward to continuing on with our recommendations any questions thank you bill i will also add um at this time that later tonight will be the administration will be recommending to the board a variety of recommendations as it relates to the 0-33 month recommendations and later this spring we'll be coming back with our zero to grade or age five i should say recommendation as relates to early childhood we continue to appreciate the partnership that we have with our staff and with the parent community as we grow this early childhood programming it is a lot coming underneath this initiative we have early childhood special ed and staff and families out of that group we have the early childhood family education group we also have you know other sources of early childhood programming and so it is bringing all these voices together as it relates to pto we are governed and closely by the board policy 630 which talks about how they need to how we work with them and the role that they play for us in assisting us in reaching our goals and objectives and enhancing programs of students needs and so we'll continue to find ways to partner with them again we learned a lot through this past months of ways that we can enhance that we felt we had discussions going on at a leadership level with pto and yet there was disconnects and so we will acknowledge that one of the challenges again as relates to the pto the programming around the block care for zero to 33 months really doesn't it falls under this community edge program versus the early childhood family education program and so there was just again as we try to bring these programs together we have challenges we just have to work through them we appreciate all the work of the pto and the work of the staff along this way the recommendations that we bring forward tonight are built on the school-ready theme which is not only here in edina but just nationally and at a state level something that's really of value is making sure all of our young learners are ready for their world as well as their families and we look forward to the follow-up from this action because if the board does approve these recommendations tonight we'll continue to move forward with these plans a couple other leadership updates as we shift forward we did have a very strong february 16th staff development day focused on personalized learning and i think randy schmazel and his team of teaching and learning that played a big role in that as well as mary manderfield and her team as we continue to grow on how we can serve all students in a successful way we'll be seeing some of those findings uh over the next months as we start rolling out these initiatives we're busy in the leadership planning side of the world and so we're going to continue to do that we're in the process of posting for the south view middle school principal position as well as the highlands elementary principal position as well as the assistant principal at valley view we have a variety of staff openings too that will be launching out first part of march so we'll do that i do want to pause for a second thanks randall for coming tonight and apologize on behalf of the administration for failing to close the loop i will say when we got your daughter's email we responded internally and we had conversation i think we even had conversation potentially with you we failed to talk to the person that we should have talked to and i i that's on me and we will make that correction immediately and i again apologize and pass the administration for that um but it was her uh email that got us all going so unfortunately we didn't validate that and so we learn along the way here as well and that we will make sure we acknowledge that but i want to share that ownership with rick though too that that is shared on as a clerk of the board that is part of the responsibility that i take on and just want to apologize as well to lily and to you but we do read all the emails and sometimes part of that process means that we're trying to reflect and figure out how much can we share rather than thank you for your response thank you for your email and we did fail to get back to you with any meaningful depth all the journeys we get to go on um the ad fund celebrated its 20th anniversary today and a great event um we continue to appreciate the partnership that we have with the ed fund and the work of one of their major initiatives again they're going to continue to support the project lead the way which is really a strong stem uh approach to learning at our secondary level but also now taking a look at maker spaces and that applied learning world that uh we're going to be growing into with this new initiative and again thank randy smaaz and his team for the work on that leadership effort but that would conclude the leadership update for tonight mr chair if there's questions i'd take them at this time any questions oh yeah mr rocky oh i'm sorry i've got one more slide for you there it is thank you shiraki holly uh one of our consultants that we consider a dear friend and a great teacher for us is coming to our community on thursday march 3rd from 7 to 8 30 p.m and i invite everybody here tonight as well as community to join us it's a conversation around the world is changing how our state is changing how our community is changing and how we get to change with it and how we become more fully responsive from that community standpoint of being culturally responsive to the world we live in and so it's a great time for some discussion and learning as a community and shiraki is a great guide for us he's out of southern california but is speaking nationally and we're very fortunate to have them joining us on this evening so if people can plan that put that on their calendar we'd love to have them attend again it's at the edina performing arts center uh up at the high school arena now i'm just gonna thank you sarah okay now do we have any questions okay next we go to the guiding change plan for next generation assessment grading and reporting randy are you coming up to center stage or you're going to sit back there i'll probably do it from here sir all right so uh to move personalized learning forward we have to clarify some things around standards based assessing grading and reporting we have had a lot of great success in edina public schools but not all learners are learning at high levels and not all learners are always appropriately challenged this guiding change document will set parameters around advancing our standards and competency-based educational model in step one of this process we want to make sure that we ensure standards are aligned to learner experiences in step two we want to ensure that we have standards based assessment practices in place step three we're going to grade and report based upon standards progress and going through this process will help clarify the steps to systemic implementation the format of the guiding change document presented to the board includes on the left hand column a description of our context and reality and the why of this process or this mini study the results column on the right hand side articulates the what and what we're trying to accomplish and the middle column represents the not how or the unacceptable means and results we have some information gaps on this document that we are completing and we will have finalized prior to board approval in march this is a dynamic document that has been changing as we've been presenting and talking with various groups but we believe this is a document that sets out some of the major parameters for going about this process of reviewing how we assess grade and report based on standards in terms of next steps once the guiding change document is approved by the board in march we would establish a district-wide assessment advisory committee consisting of five teachers and five administrators the charge of that committee would be to assess current practices regarding assessment grading and reporting in edina public schools and to prepare recommendations by fall for future assessment grading and reporting practices also to create a phased-in implementation plan moving forward the resolution this evening is for discussion so that is what we are so that we are considering we are considering all relevant feedback to ensure we have a quality process moving forward so at this time we would like to open it up for questions or discussion on the part of the board regarding this guiding change document randy could you explain for for all of us in the audience uh what is what does this change mean what does this look like in the classroom how is it different so in the class in many classrooms we collect assignment from assignments from students and those assignments are graded and they're typically graded by adding uh together the values of points that are earned from those assignments and the students complete assignments they come they are continue to earn points and then those points equate to a grade and the underlying assumption is that all of those assignments are aligned to the standards and by completing the assignment work the standards are being met and so it's kind of a it's not a direct link but it's an indirect link to the standards in a standards-based grading model the the standards are the outcomes the grade is based upon proficiency of the standards and then the pathways to those standards can vary sometimes they might be a consistent assignment sometimes it might be a different assignment so in practice in the classroom it is about tracking progress specifically on the standards not necessarily on a particular other assignment so some i guess i have two two different things so how does this fit um with personalized learning and is this moving us towards maybe a personalized assessment so personalized learning is really about assessing what students know and are able to do and what their proximal zone of development is what they're ready for next by state statute we are supposed to teach the standards and students are supposed to learn the standards and we're supposed to assess those so in a personalized learning system what we're trying to get better at is how we provide feedback to the learner about what it is they're expected to learn the standards and what that evidence of learning specifically looks like while she's writing i'll ask my question we have some classes are further along on this journey and so have you identified classes that are pretty close to where you think we're going to end up and then take a look at those and see how that relates to a student achievement within those classes yeah i think that's a great question we we definitely have different pockets where teachers have implemented standards-based instruction and standards-based grading and reporting at different levels and that's what we're trying to do is become more systemic in that process but i think from those individuals we have the opportunity to do some great learning about how they did it and how to do it at a larger scale and also what impact it has on the learner outcome i think that that's i mean if you could talk to those teachers that are further along and and get some feedback from them that says okay this is what i had before this is what i have now is it better how's it working right and uh so here's a great example that was shared by one of our teachers the other day at one of our trainings they said a student came up to him and said i won't say the teacher's name but said to the teacher i'm point two percent away from an a what do i need to do to get an a and that teacher thought about that question and thought okay what does that student need to do to get an a do they need so they they wonder the teacher wondered do i need to go back and look at the tests do i need to look at the assignments what if they just do another assignment can they do extra credit what is it that they need to do to just raise their grade a little bit to get a few more points in the class and what the teacher said is i would much prefer it if the student came to me and said mr so and so i really understand here's an example pythagorean theorem and i'm ready to show you that i've met that standard around pythagorean theorem here's how i can show you that i've learned that in those two scenarios one student is clear about what they are trying to learn and what they need to do to demonstrate learning and the other student is relying upon the teacher to articulate what they need to do to show their learning in the second scenario it's about the standards and giving ownership of those standards to the kids and helping create clarity to our students regarding what it is they're expected to learn in the first scenario it's about teachers managing that learning and and really being in charge of that experience and we're trying to shift more of that to our learners that's an example of one of the ways in which our teachers are learning how to implement it and learning about the benefits of it and can help our other staff grow in these in this area did you have a second question lisa sort um yes will this look in terms there's a little bit of on grading here how will that look different in terms of sort of approximately what's the next steps versus future in terms of what parents and students will see when we talk about grading that's a very big question and i think through this process we're going to have to you know articulate that what does that look like in edina but i think a big part of it is again helping generate clarity on what it is kids are expected to learn and then creating common scoring rubrics to provide feedback on whether or not that learning occurred and having that feedback relates specifically to standards how it exactly looks and plays out in edina is part of what this process is going to help us determine out of curiosity randy are we rolling this out by subject by grade are we starting at all levels how are we thinking about that well and at at the elementary level much of the work that we do is reported by standard and uh at the middle school level many staff have said hey when are we going to do this when are we going to be standards-based part of the charge of this committee will be to figure out based on feedback and process how to implement this and what are the next steps and where do we begin and do we start with a cohort model and bring that cohort through under really a standards-based structure and systems so that will be part of the charge of this committee is to help create that implementation plan and one thing that occurs me with the the example of a student who wants to raise a grade is it sort of implies that nothing's over until the term is over that retests are non-stop and it sort of implies to us we're standards based that there aren't so many grades hinging on homework turned in keeping up with deadlines you know you almost have students who already might have test anxiety or who find it very difficult to settle for anything less than an a an a plus right a 4.0 so you got a 93 a month ago keep that on your to-do list and by the end of the term your to-do list is huge is there a thought to what that what that impact would be on students and what that would mean with our staffing model we talked a bit about how as we move to personalized learning we need to consider the effect on staffing but this re-test throughout the term would have an even greater impact because the teachers time is divided over all of the material for all of the kids at the end of the term it certainly is a challenge which is part of managing a classroom is when is that learning window open and when is that learning window closed and we we do want to make sure that we keep learning as the constant and time as the variable that the learning is the most important process but from a management standpoint at some point that time window does need to close around that learning and again exactly how that looks and how that needs to roll out in the system that's why we want five teachers five administrators working together on this committee to figure out what's in the best interest of our students and how do we manage that as a staff i think it's a great question and one we'll definitely wrestle with any other questions not questions and i think you just didn't get time to do this but just in the context of the why we mentioned that not all learners are learning at high levels and there's data to be there just to make sure we add that some learners are learning at well whatever we consider above level and that we're also maybe not meeting that gap either and so just to balance we had talked about that in teaching and learning it's just adding that bullet point thank you all right thank you randy next is the policy review policies 503 and 902 so 503 the goal of 503 with student attendance is to simplify the language and to take a look at where there was redundancy in the appendices versus the body of the policy so one of the major changes that you can see in this particular policy is a lot of cuts in appendix one because that language is already included in the body of the policy uh there's also just some clarification under section three and the charts for communications and i can see a pause here and just see if there's any questions that anyone would like us to take back to the policy committee before this one comes back for approval or things i missed i invite fellow committee members i'm going to move on to number two 902 902 use of school district facilities and equipment there was language in this case pulled out of the policy and moved to the appendix so the reverse direction looking at language that didn't need to be dictated by policy cleaning up the priorities the priorities that are listed in section four of the appendix didn't change but the language is cleaned up and hopefully simplified so again any questions or comments people would like the policy committee to review on 902 before it comes back for approval okay thank you thanks quiet all right next we have our action items the first action item is early childhood recommendations do i have a motion to approve the early childhood recommendations so move do i have a second second we're going to get a little background or we're just working off of what val already gave yes i'll give you some background um again the board had to have a report in there it was kind of a summary report that was presented by the leadership team this included valberg from community education lori din edina comm family center coordinator susan bratt the director of communications jeff jorgensen director of support services lisa hawthorne who coordinates early childhood special education program and myself our charge was to come up with a comprehensive educational program for all zero to 33 month old learners and their families all recognizing the limits of resources that we have in the district also knowing that the zero to five-year-old program would be recommendations we'd bring back in the spring again we looked at the charge from the strategic perspective of the work that's been done through the birth through grade five program the community education service study as well as the early childhood program study that was moving forward we're taking and monitoring as we draw drew these recommendations from state mandates and early childhood program requirements we watched closely the district mission and some of the core services we wanted to provide we came up with a process for gaining input along the way from staff and families both from previous years as well as some input sessions that we held in family february and january based on that we collected data the data was both local data as well as metro data also doing some research on what's happening nationally we had a criteria for measuring how we're going to draw these recommendations forward those are all noted in the report the conclusions basically wanted to make sure that as we brought these recommendations forward they aligned with the early learning and district mission which is very strong on the programming side of it it's what the program that's overseen by the minnesota department of education we wanted to make sure we were using best practice and trends we wanted high quality programming we wanted to make sure we had access for all learners we wanted to expand the three to five-year-old programming recognizing their needs there we want to be flexible to the changing needs of the learner as well as the families and we want to make sure that we're sustainable both from a finance standpoint as well as a space standpoint the recommendations focused in three various areas one of overall program enhancement the second around facility improvement and the third around program enhancements and modifications overall from a programming standpoint we wanted to build on our current successes the recommendation also encourages a continuum of programming from birth to grade five making sure we did not have that gap between what happens in the early childhood programming as well as between early childhood and the kindergarten year we also recognize this as a partnership program that we're not trying to take this program over but we want to partner with other early education programs and services that are provided in the community so we wanted to make sure we had this continuum as we call it school ready for our kindergarteners as well as their families we wanted to expand our outreach efforts so those again were all about the overall programs as it relates to facilities we wanted to make sure the facilities that as we're designing them have a variety of learning spaces that reflect not only programming today but into the future so it's a variety of spaces we took a look at what best practices and what our current trends and future trends around space we're going to continue to move forward with a thought of a center for early childhood education and really build that programming around the center that's going to help us with safety and security it's also going to create more of a welcoming space for the families and the children who participate in the program so facility improvement was a big part of recommendations and finally the enhancements of programming so we want to expand the preschool and school readiness programs for ages three to grade five to address those growing demands we plan to expand the hours for the four-year-old preschool program starting in 2016-17 we'll be working on those details if that's approved as well as in 1718 pilot an all-day four-year-old program because we know that's a growing trend as relates to the two to three-year-old program we want to continue to have the two-day two-year-old program we're going to be creative around that to make sure we can do that because we have to stay within what's what's allowed by the department of education so we will be coming a program and we're going to work in a partnership with staff and parents to make that a stronger program on the off day when the students are there with just the staff and the parents are not present so we're coming up with some planning around that we're also going to work with our local legislators to see what we can do around the 24 to 33 month old program that's offered through the school district why it can't fall under mde versus department of health it's kind of a technical piece but we've already had some preliminary discussions and we think something that we can pursue at the legislative level we've talked to lobbyists already as it relates to the birth the 33 program we do feel the right thing for the district to do despite there's a great need is to sunset the zero to 33 month old child care services program because again it's an alignment piece there's a variety of reasons why we're looking at this but it really is getting back to our mission and our school readiness programming and the limits that are created by the the way we have to provide those services that doesn't allow us to do some of the things we'd hoped also we want to support the parents and accessing resources and options so we want to say what kind of partnership can we create for the zero to 32 month old child care service because we still recognize that to be a need in the community and so we want to build that and then expand our early childhood family education offerings for our infant and parent education programs and enhance the sibling care options those are all spelled out in the document but that's a quick overview of the recommendations and the background that we got to those recommendations again this would be going for board action tonight i would call on val if there's anything else to add to that but i think our susan i just welcome questions if you have any there's that's a pretty comprehensive report um but i'm happy to answer questions you know entertain questions at this time are there any questions um i didn't have so much as a question um i've been following the process and attending the meetings um and as a former family center pto member long before i was on the school board and went to the family center with both of my kids i have two have a deep passion for the family center it's you know where a lot of us parents get started in the district and when our guys are still babes and um it's always hard to see things have to change in this case as i watched you know my kids go through the program the fact that sib care and block time were all in one place together with the same staff was this beautiful thing and um unfortunately dhs now is telling us that that's not a possibility anymore and i also had kids who went through the two-day tube program and you know believed strongly in that that class and you know that the second day where the parents aren't there for parenting education um was still a day of great value and i do hope and i'm glad to see that the administration is going to continue to work on that with the pto to try to make sure that we have a viable option for these parents i know that in all likelihood dhs and mde may have difficulties working together to help us with this but i know that the administration is working with our and we brought it up at the legislative session that we had with our legislators as well to try to work on that um the elimination of the block time is is tough it is something that's been special to our program um but i can see the difficulties and the constraints that now we're under because of this change and this new you know having to deal with two government entities and trying to appease them and all the rules that go with them is very difficult and the lining with mde and our education purpose in the district i think is really important um i know that that's going to be a tough thing for parents to lose i know that you know especially 0 to 18 months is tough to find drop in child care and those are some of the toughest months for all of us as we all know so it is with a heavy heart that i see you know these things changing but i understand the constraints that we're under and i really do look forward to us continuing to support that two day twos program because i really think that is such a great thing so that's what i wanted to say any other questions or comments so one quick this came before the board in december you had all these meetings were there any uh changes that occurred in the proposal between december and today yes um and i want to thank the community members that helped us shape some of the changes that as we as we took a little longer look at all of the data that we had our two day two program we're looking at differently and how we can provide we certainly can provide one day with parent education in one day with student independence if families choose to stay in the building and we think creative options with our adult programming could possibly offer that so we look forward to partnering with them with ideas on that and then the continued conversations with our legislators on how we could think about the two-year-old program in a different manner so that was something that we looked at differently and um then the continued partnership we offered to to host uh some time with some of our other providers in town to talk about what opportunities or what kind of spaces they may have to provide sort of a zero to 32 month drop in option so those were a couple of the changes all right thank you any other questions or discussion hearing none all those in favor of approving their early education recommendations say aye any opposed hearing none has approved next action item is the capital projects request for 2016 and 17. do i have a motion to bring the capital projects request 2016-17 forward so i have a second second a little background margo as i reported last meeting these are the funds um that come through the the general fund under the specific area of capital we typically spend them on site equipment buses textbooks adoptions and buildings of grounds equipment and for emergency building types of repairs there's no changes from the report that i presented a month ago and i would answer any questions that you have regarding the proposal before you but i won't go through the whole presentation again okay any questions no i it looked a lot like last month any questions or discussion hearing on all those in favor of approving the capital project's request for 2016-17 say aye aye any opposed motion has passed the next action item is the approval to proceed to public bidding do i have a motion so move second thank you margo you're up again yes so typically in our bid process we don't come forward with an approval but to proceed with the bid at the time the board after bid opening we bring forward an award or recommendation actually there is another one following this agenda item but we felt facilities committee that that bringing forward considering the size of the bond funds and the construction just so it's part of our process and you're aware of when we're doing bid openings and when it'll be coming forward forward to you as a board so we have the high school and the three elementaries concur countryside and highlands and ecc turf bid work moving forward between now and april we will have bid openings in march and you will have approvals between the end of march and beginning of april on those bids and would request your approval to proceed any questions discussions hearing none well i've got just a just a a change for sarah that 2016 is supposed to be for elementary schools it's a little bit it's a minor typo there 2106. i think that's the intent there just in case someone's looking at what so we get questions about what is 21.6 thank you sorry lenny all right any other questions hearing none all those in favor of approving the motion to proceed to public bidding say aye aye any opposed motion has passed next is the southview middle school pool filter replacement do i have a motion to approve the southview middle school pool filter replacement a second second this might be your last one for tonight the last one for tonight thank you very much uh yes southview middle school pool filter replacement we would recommend horizon commercial pool supply i'm happy to report a very favorable bid result attached in the materials you can see the results of that bid we had two vendors eric hamilton our director of buildings and grounds has worked with horizon commercial pool supply and has had very favorable experience and we recommend approval any questions so i've just got to just going forward margo uh looking at von's document the total project cost is listed at 420 the total contract rewarding is 259. does the 259 include the fees testing and printing and contingency or is that separate good question you don't have to i believe it's separate but i will double check that just so we know going forward because we'll be seeing a lot of these i think they were lis they listed it differently last year's but i will ask them thank you yes and you said that uh world was comfortable with this particular bidder yes there it's their recommendation and our recommendation as a district administration both we're very comfortable any other questions all those in favor of approving the southview middle school pool filter replacement bid say aye aye aye any opposed motion passed next is acceptance of american indian education parent committee resolution promotion good evening every school district that is 10 or more native american students enrolled has to have a parent committee i have met with a group of american indian parents twice this year we plan on meeting quarterly they've come up with some good recommendations how they would like to ensure that the students are portrayed positively in our curriculum making sure you know there are some scholarships that can be available for native american students making sure counselors are aware of those other ways that we can celebrate uh our native american student students heritage in our in our school system so this year i probably have the most engaged group of parents we've had in a number of years here and i think they're excited about the ways we can continue to support their students thank you mary any questions or discussion hearing none all those in favor of proving the acceptance of american indian education parent committee resolution say aye aye any opposed motion passed next is approval of joint agreement with edina high school band boosters could i get a motion please second please rick this one's yours it is um we are going to make a commitment the band boosters are embarking on a very uh ambitious uh challenge that they are going to be replacing our marching band uniforms it's a time that indeed we do need to do this and the boosters have taken on the challenge it's an exciting plan that they've laid before us one of the things they're we're in transition a little bit as far as having a fiscal host to manage the funds that they come in it has to be a non-profit they've been looking for a home for this and it's a temporary home because we're still studying this and we're also looking at our entire booster policy that addresses this but given that there's a timely need for response we worked with our legal counsel and um i feel like this is our best next step is to have the district actually work as a fiscal uh agreement this fiscal agreement where we would manage the funds for the band booster in their fundraising efforts it would be a term effort that would be completed i believe in the fall of 2017. so we have an action plan in place and this agreement formalizes that process the administration again this is not a typical direction we want to go but given the challenge of time and the size of this initiative we think it's the best response which is in the best interest of the school district as well as uh this effort that ban bush is putting together for our musicians here today and those to come so mr chair i just want to note that i will be abstaining from this vote because i am involved with the band boosters okay thank you are there any questions or discussion items regarding this motion hearing none all those in favor of approving the joint agreement with the edina high school band boosters say aye aye any opposed motion passed next item is the scheduled review of policy 619 and 905. we're going to keep those as separate motions can i get a motion on approving policy 619. have a second second just a quick update on 619 since we last saw this policy at the december meeting there is a minor change and it's in section three the word balance has been taken out and it just wants to it the goal for that is to clean up the consideration that does go into the classroom structure yeah great thank you any questions or discussion hearing on all those of approving the changes to policy 619 student assignment to teachers and classes say aye aye any opposed motion passed next is the review of policy 905. can i get a motion please so move you guys regina are you going to walk us through this one again yeah again just there is some uh over the overall conversation that's happened since this came before the board in december is taking a look at advertising through the lens of just managing what are the parameters that the district wants to consider in accepting or perhaps not being able to allow particular advertising it is not intended to restrict or expand advertising other than that the policy is the same as what we saw in december with the exception of a very minor change striking the word we're changing school board to district in section 2b otherwise there are no other changes of substance in this policy all right thank you regina any questions or discussion hearing none all those in favor of approving the policy 905 advertising say aye aye any opposed motion passed next action item is the walked in item which is the course name changes at south view in valley view middle schools 2016-17 can i get a motion please randy walking us through this one sure this is a relatively quick item but in a meeting of led by susan tennyson scott wilbur our math facilitator and our math team our math teachers the recommendation to change the name of pre-trans math to math 6 came about as well as a recommendation to change the name of trans math to pre-algebra the rationale for those name changes is to eliminate some confusion around what trans math really is and to eliminate some confusion around the idea that pre-trans is something that pertains to below grade level what we're trying to clear up is that pre-trans is really the grade level math class or something that would be more easily understood as math 6 and that trans math is really an equivalent to pre-algebra something that students take prior to going into algebra so we're just trying to create more clear titles in those courses moving forward understanding that many of the parent meetings have already occurred but this is something that our staff has asked for in terms of a clear clarification that they feel will help families both next year and moving forward great thank you randy any questions or discussion hearing on all those in favor of approving the course team changes at south view and valley view middle schools 2016-17 vote aye aye any opposed motion passed that completes our action items we're on to information anybody have anything to say in the information area any announcements hearing men do i have a motion to adjourn so moved second all in favor aye aye opposed we are adjourned thank you very much everybody you