[2:39] a special but a little sad announcement tonight and that is that um our vice chair lenny wallin friedman is [2:47] moving out of the district to connecticut and therefore this will be his last regular [2:53] meeting and so i wanted to take just a few minutes to [2:58] recognize lenny for his contributions to the board therefore i'm going to make him actually [3:04] stand up and come in front of the podium well i am but i wanted to let you know [3:10] that first so and dr stanley if you could come with me as well [3:27] supposedly this is going to work does this work oh okay excellent yay [3:33] so as i said this is uh vice chair wallon friedman's last [3:39] regular board meeting with us he might be at the next one but now that he's announced his departure [3:44] that's about a 50 50 chance i think so we have a commendation of letting wall [3:50] and friedman that's going to be voted into the record tonight and it states that be it resolved that [3:56] the school board would like to come in and recognize lenny wall and friedman for his service on the edina school [4:02] board from january 2012 through may 2022 which if you can do the [4:08] math that's 10 years the board hereby expresses its sincere appreciation and that of staff and [4:14] residents of the edina school district for lending wallen friedman's 10 years of devoted service to the dyna public [4:20] schools in its affairs during the period 2012-2022 lenny wall and friedman has served the [4:26] district in many different capacities both on the board and off off vice chair wallen friedman served as board chair [4:32] for four years he also served on each of the different board committees during his tenure finance and facilities policy teaching [4:40] and learning and human resources which is now our governance committee he has also served as board liaison to many [4:45] organizations these have included student activities advisor committee and early childhood special education [4:52] committee additionally he has been the board liaison to edina high school vice chair wallen friedman has been a [4:58] very valuable board member in many different ways his years of experience provided a breadth and depth of [5:03] knowledge to all discussions and his expertise in finance and law always provided valuable context in many [5:09] discussions vice chair wallen friedman was involved in many critical decisions regarding the [5:14] district involving the hiring of two superintendents the development of two strategic plans moving the ninth grade [5:20] to the high school start time changes at the middle and elementary schools and many other decisions [5:26] vice chair wallen friedman has been a very dedicated pragmatic and strategic minded board member [5:31] the board members would like to congratulate you and extend a collective and individual thank you for a job well [5:37] done thank you so much [5:58] so i just want to thank the community for giving me the opportunity to serve as on the school board [6:04] it was humbling to be elected multiple times and it was just an honor to actually [6:09] serve this district so i'm known for being brief and that's it thank you very much [6:15] [Applause] [6:20] we do have a plaque for him but it's late arriving so we'll be sending that to connecticut thank you [6:41] thank you everyone we're now going to move on to the approval of our agenda and i just want to note for the public that [6:48] um the crowd strike um agreement was removed from the consent agenda do i have a motion to approve tonight's [6:55] meeting agenda so moved [Music] we will now vote to approve the agenda [7:02] all those in favor say aye aye anyone opposed the agenda's approved um dr stanley will [7:09] you please review the agenda quickly yes [7:15] we are really excited to have members of our edina virtual pathway community here [7:21] to share about their experiences tonight um also we will be hearing from about [7:26] our avid program this evening and then we have a report [7:32] from community education and um some some updates around our visual arts [7:38] curriculum an update around our vacant board seat that we just talked about [7:45] and information about trips that our students will be taking [7:50] overseas thank you dr stanley um our first agenda [7:56] item we're actually technically second um is our excellence in action and tonight's excellence in action features [8:02] the elementary virtual pathway um teachers david higley and zan converse are here to tell us about their [8:08] year and are you talking also principal we have a guest star principal mahoney is here [8:14] as well and will introduce us to some of the students and parents so welcome thank you [8:24] thank you uh board chair allen berg and dr stanley it's so great to be here i do [8:30] think we're supposed to have a student on the vert online um so i don't know if alexander is [8:37] on but we are really excited to have him come in virtually because of course we are the virtual program and that's the [8:44] way that best met his needs so that we thought that was so appropriate um and so i definitely want to wait a minute [8:51] before i go into alexander a little bit but we are so excited to be here to share some [8:56] excellence both from students our phenomenal teacher team and parents we have parents here as well [9:04] and being a principal and a teacher uh in the 3d in person world i really you know had no [9:11] idea what to expect when you're doing observations of these classrooms or you're engaging and seeing what's [9:17] happening and i have to tell you it is magical like it is truly magical when i go in to do an observation in a virtual [9:24] classroom it is like i'm in a real in an in-person classroom the kids are engaging they're talking to each other [9:30] they're talking to the teacher and it is really just an unbelievable um [9:37] learning environment to witness so i feel really lucky to have been a part of that this year so i'm so thankful for [9:44] all the support that we've gotten from edina and i can't wait to see how much this will grow because it is really um it's done some [9:51] amazing things so far so i'm hoping that alexander is on [10:01] oh great yay hi alexander um so hello [10:07] um i am so excited to have alexander on so alexander came to us at highlands in [10:12] kindergarten and he came in kindergarten and was in person with us for [10:18] kindergarten and most of first grade and has always just really been an engaging [10:24] academic learner but also a really fun friend and i just heard some unbelievable [10:31] news about a math accomplishment that alexander had [10:36] both statewide and nationally i think and i might get this wrong because i don't have it in my notes so [10:42] mr higley or alexander can let us know if this if i get this right but i think he is the top in the top three third [10:50] graders nationally for the math test that he recently took is that true [10:55] alexander yes congratulations [11:06] so alexander what made you really want to focus and do your best work on this math test [11:17] well well first of all i just wanted to do it [11:23] because of my passion first i'd like to thank all of you [11:28] for supporting me so i just [11:34] felt very curious about math and many other students my passion began in the [11:40] virtual pathway in the virtual pathway where [11:46] which had a lot of the online resources that i give the access [11:52] like itself and advanced mr higley math classes in these [11:57] commercial classes the math became more beautiful and complex than i had ever imagined [12:03] and all the teachers supported me by giving me the time and the resources expand my [12:09] knowledge i'm very grateful to all of you and i'm proud to be part of this virtual program wow alexander thank you [12:16] so much and i have one last question for you would you give any advice out there for [12:23] kids who also might have a passion and want to be curious about math do you have any advice for them [12:28] yes so listen this method was a very [12:35] it's very good for kids on all levels who have [12:40] more very passionate and curious about math and for those who are not that curious [12:46] about math and lessons very practical [12:51] fun and beautiful oh thank you alexander wonderful job congratulations again we are so proud of [12:57] you keep being curious okay okay thanks okay i'm gonna pass it to mr [13:03] higley and mr converse right now [13:12] thank you thank you for welcoming us the virtual program it's kind of fun being in 3d so this is nice um alexander [13:21] i'm looking at you over here but thank you very much um i think he he [13:28] what we're trying to do to our virtual program is give each child the passion for learning and the [13:37] individualism and personalization and so [13:42] i love that kid so proud um so i think i have some students who [13:48] would love to talk with you and share about their experience as well alexander honey since you're up is he still on [13:56] not yet okay alexander are you still attached [14:02] yes okay thank you honey can you get your virtual [14:08] your virtual poem okay so motion [14:14] yeah you might be able to share it i'm not sure if it'll work or you can just read it honey i think it can work [14:21] and so learning is fun and inspirational guidance do this along the way it brings [14:27] along so many resources and opportunities really getting more exhilarated and [14:33] eager by the day their personalized and inclusive teaching empowers students for their [14:39] success unlimited possibilities day that were great [14:44] awesome teachers and students build shining communities [14:50] leading to a glorious path all day to the virtual pathway [14:56] thank you very much so what we're doing is these are virtual crossfit poems yes um so you're gonna listen to it has v [15:05] i r t that's what we're doing okay uh carl let me take your mask and get close to the microphone here buddy [15:12] okay your turn good job [15:19] hi yeah is this working okay hi my name is carl de avila ronnie and i [15:25] am in mr hickory's third grade class in the edina virtual path pathway here's a [15:30] poem i wrote about virtual learning v virtual learning means independence [15:36] friendship and imagination independent learning and organizing [15:42] skills are encouraged in virtual school r reading becomes your favorite subject [15:48] when reading works gives hundreds of choices t timid or brai [15:53] or brave online learning gives you a voice you unlimited resources like google [15:59] earth read works and leave silk to name a few come with online learning abund a abundant on one-on-one attention [16:08] from the best teacher is easier online l learning online keeps me curious [16:14] confident safe and happy [16:21] [Applause] hello school board my name is ryan [16:27] stegabora i am a third grade student in edina [16:32] virtual pathway today i'm going to be reading a poem [16:38] that i wrote about my virtual experiences v virtual learning has different subjects [16:45] besides math and reading i it gives you a time [16:50] to make silly sound effects and hang out with friends r reading is a very fun subject because [16:58] you can learn about vocabulary words you've not even heard of before [17:03] t test days are very fun because we do not have 20 slides of pear deck that day [17:10] you understanding new topics and subjects is very fun [17:15] a amazing teachers like my teacher mr higley can teach in the topic [17:22] l learning new stuff is quite fun because it is a chance for you to learn [17:27] even more stuff [17:39] hi and i know we're short on time so i think i can see we've got two minutes and 42 seconds i'm zan converse i teach [17:45] the fifth and sixth graders thank you for having us so uh so much appreciate your guys support and hope that we can [17:51] continue to grow the program i had three students who again taking advantage of the virtual resources that they've got [17:59] they wrote a kind of an opinion piece and they turned it into sort of a [18:04] piece for why virtual learning is the best [18:14] i don't know if i can i don't think i can play it [18:20] is something going to play maybe it's just going to be read into the record i don't know but it's right there and if somebody is able to hit play it would it [18:27] would play but [18:33] here we come hi my name is clara my name is sai [18:38] and my name is elene we're from mr converse's 5th grade eevp class and we won the ultimate mind [18:47] control challenge don't worry um we didn't like you telekinesis or anything oh that's not what it sounds [18:54] like our mission was to convince mr congress that talented is the best way to [19:00] describe our class this was our submission hello our class is many things but can [19:06] anyone think of one word to describe it well we did we've come up with a word that we think the class embodies [19:13] talented here is why we think that the word truly defines us for example a good number of work class [19:20] are very good at drawing and are artistically artistically adapts multiple people have shared drawings [19:26] paintings in sketches with the class and all of the pieces are immaculate [19:31] they are also musically talented in the arts as well a number of students play the piano the guitar as well as the [19:38] violin flute trombone and a number of other things [19:43] next we have a lot of people tempted in the stem many people are very talented at math [19:48] chemistry robotics coding flash scripting and a lot of other sciences we have seen [19:55] a lot of things shared such as games since the students have coded handmade miniature walking robots systems that [20:01] they set up and science math projects that they've done then there is a good deal with people [20:06] who are great at language arts many have shared their stories in poetry all varied in different ways some are [20:11] amusing and entertaining others are emotional and evocative others are realistic and relatable we've heard [20:17] these shared in writing classes or in meetings at the end of the day when students read out their work [20:24] others are good at baking cooking and creating things in general they have shared delectable recipes and foods with [20:31] us and all of it looks very interesting and delightful in the end of the day [20:37] meets our colleagues share their recipes or even collaborate it through art one of our classmates shared [20:44] a mini replica of the sushi paper which we all thought was inches [20:50] our classmates have succeeded in many different sections of the arts they've also impressed us with their drawings [20:55] music and stories we believe that talented is a very positive and accurate [21:01] description of our classmates [21:06] thank you for listening [Applause] thank you [21:13] [Applause] [21:24] thank you everyone for presenting especially for the outstanding poems [21:29] those were great and thank you for being such great educators for our evp students it's an [21:34] outstanding program so thank you okay [21:40] we are going to move on to hearings from members of the public pursuant to board policy 206 we ask that you do not [21:47] duplicate information that has been previously presented if you have a complaint about individual employees [21:53] board members or students in the district please direct any of these comments to the appropriate site administrator the superintendent or [21:59] submit them in writing to the board the board typically does not respond or have discussion on any issues presented [22:06] but questions raised during presentation presentations will receive follow-up as directed by the board and i would just [22:12] like to remind speakers that presentations are limited to three minutes so please try to finish up at three [22:18] minutes thank you and with three speakers tonight um the first is john welborn [22:23] um so mr welburn [22:37] good evening fellow board members thank you for all of your service and for what you do for us [22:43] okay we get that it's important i am not here as an activist i'm not [22:48] here as a political partisan i'm not here to teacher bash student bash union bash [22:55] i'm here because my child matters excellence is something that this [23:01] district strives for and i don't believe we're getting there i believe we're settling from mediocre [23:08] excellence is integrity it's ethics it's discipline [23:13] supervision rigor high employment standards [23:18] enforcement consequences and accountability [Music] [23:24] excellence is admitting our failures and doing something about it learning from our mistakes [23:31] mediocrity is making excuses instead of solutions blaming others [23:37] constantly playing the victim implementing inconsistent discipline [23:42] allowing an environment where scholastic dishonesty is perpetuated and letting social media and political [23:49] discord determine how we run the district [23:54] mediocrity is seventh place your job as the district's leadership is [24:00] to take a look at what's changed look at the past look inward and take decisive action [24:06] now [Music] we are behind we know it [24:11] what are we going to do about it we've moved past covid and we need to quit using it as an excuse [24:19] the lack of supervision and discipline at the high school is creating an environment where fighting dishonesty [24:25] intolerance of disparate views and a lack of basic respect and civility are rampant [24:32] we do not need lectures on morality we need common sense leadership that demonstrates courage and conviction [24:39] and commands order and respect what are we going to do about it [24:46] cheating scandals using cell phones are not new look at your school newspaper in 2013 2018 2021 and last week [24:55] we clearly are not learning from our mistakes instead of improving supervision over [25:00] test taking increasing the penalties for cheating and perhaps taking cell phones away during a test we've chosen to [25:07] invalidate all students grades and force them to retake tests where is the ex the equitable treatment [25:15] in that model what message does that send to those who [25:21] showed integrity ethical kids deserve an education too [25:28] the feckless response simply perpetuates the issue and holds no one accountable [25:33] it's not my job to catch cheaters it is yours [25:38] our nine years of indifference on this subject is embarrassing [25:44] math has dominated the conversation this week we've all seen it a careful review of this issue helps you [25:51] recognize it's not new it's been around for years okay students [25:57] go in for help in the mornings and they're standing in lines and there's too many to get help when the average grade in the class [26:04] is half it's failing we need to look inward and solve for it [26:10] it's not fair to the teachers it's not fair to the students are we giving them an environment where [26:16] they can teach and where students can learn i'm wrapping up in 10 seconds [26:22] we've had a difficult and taxing year it's time to start fighting let's stop stop fighting loud with louder and stop [26:28] letting the noise dictate our direction i've lost faith in a lot of the leaders those of you who bothered to take my [26:33] call know the details i won't share them here tonight we stopped challenging we accept [26:39] impotent non-answers we follow the mob we change nothing and then we act shocked when history replace repeats [26:45] itself we need to own this and we need to fix it and we're counting on it and those [26:51] students who were just up here are counting on us to do it thank you thank you mr welborn [27:02] next up is johanna ronnie d avila and i apologize if my [27:07] pronunciation [27:17] welcome my name is johanna roni de avila and i have lived in edina for 13 years [27:24] i have a 10th grader at edina high school and a third grader carl who just read one of the poems tonight [27:30] um and he's in mr higley's um uh virtual pathway third grade classroom [27:36] and i'm here to speak on that tonight in support of that programming carl has had an amazing experience [27:43] learning virtually in edina he has gone from being a curious smart [27:49] but kind of inconsistent random learner to being an organized independent [27:55] confident student who feels empowered to direct his own learning he really thrives on the combination of [28:02] a routine of regular google meetings and daily and weekly assignments in schoology [28:08] while also having the flexibility to complete his work on his own schedule throughout the day [28:14] he also gets regular small group attention for enrichment in math and extra help with reading [28:21] we are a bilingual english and spanish-speaking family in 4k through 2 we enrolled carl in the [28:28] richfield public schools because of their spanish dual language program so that he would be literate and fluent [28:35] in both speaking and writing in spanish we plan to shift carl back to edina in [28:40] fifth grade and then finish middle school and high school here when covet hit everything changed [28:46] during the second year of the pandemic richfield didn't offer an all online option and edina did [28:53] so we decided to shift him back in third grade it was an excellent choice it was the [28:59] best decision we've made in a long time um we thought that once carl was vaccinated [29:05] in december of 2021 that we'd shift him back to in person but because he was having such an [29:11] amazing experience with mr higley and virtual learning in general it was too good to give it up we just finished the [29:17] year in virtual and we realized that pretty early on in the fall [29:24] i think that people worry that virtual learning can't produce the same kind of relationships and educational results [29:30] that in-person teaching can i realize it may not work for everyone but for my son virtual learning has been [29:37] transformative i have witnessed carl reaping the benefits of great teachers kind and fun [29:44] classmates and challenging school work all online while safe at home [29:49] he has blossomed into a child who only excelled at and only really liked math to a student who now says his favorite [29:56] thing to do in school is read and learn new facts in the article of a day in read works [30:02] i'm so happy and excited to know that edina is offering an online option permanently because i know it is an [30:08] excellent option for so many families and students in a variety of different circumstances [30:14] carl will be going back in person next year full disclosure at creek valley [30:19] because both my husband and i work outside the home and we want to give my amazing aunt [30:24] the chance to enjoy her retirement um but if circumstances were different [30:30] we would definitely continue online and we would recommend it to anyone who asked [30:35] thank you for giving me the time to share thank you so much [30:40] now we have dr ankita decca [30:53] good evening school board members and dr stanley it's nice to see you all particularly in this new space i haven't [30:59] been here in a while which is a good thing i suppose so i'm here to share a little bit more [31:05] about my experiences as a parent about eevp so the pivot to online learning oh i [31:13] have to also admit that my son ryan read a little poem he's the third grader [31:19] in mr higley's class i also do have a ninth grader at edina high school [31:25] so the pivot to online learning forced on all of us by a global pandemic was [31:31] challenging for children for teachers and for families in my limited experience in those two [31:37] years i found that the initial stages lacked structure and was filled with busy work [31:43] therefore i was admittedly nervous about enrolling my third grader in the virtual pathways program last year [31:50] he had not received a vaccine when the school year started in september 2021 and he has some history [31:58] of upper respiratory illnesses therefore i took a leap of faith and enrolled him in eevp [32:05] that acronym is very important in our house to say it right so our experience at eevp has surpassed [32:13] our expectations and perhaps because we were so fortunate to have mr david [32:18] higley as the third grade teacher and as a disclaimer mr higley hasn't [32:24] paid me to come here i came here on my own volition mr higley has an uncanny ability to [32:32] create structure and facilitate learning in the virtual space he demonstrates genuine empathy and care [32:39] for his students and has successfully created a virtual classroom where the students feel connected to each other [32:45] and therefore to their learning mr higley has very skillfully created a [32:50] community around the google meet squares every day he holds reading and math [32:56] classes that are tiered um by student uh by where the students are that week as [33:02] he says sometimes that month he organizes them into small groups and [33:08] is able to give individualized attention to all of his students the daily diagnostics the extra challenge work the [33:15] creativity and the fun activities they've all kept my son learning and growing but without the feeling of [33:22] overwhelm mr higley is always available for help and consultation even when students work [33:28] independently and i have noticed my son dropping in for what we at the university would call office hours [33:35] except he does it via google meet mr higley has empowered the kids to use [33:40] their agency to problem solve and seek help and support as needed from virtual museum and park tours to [33:48] lunch bunch buddy time and park play dates the third grade classroom on evp [33:54] has been pure magic for my son mr higley is an exceptional teacher who [33:59] has leveraged today's cutting-edge technology to teach effectively the communication to parents from both mr [34:06] higley and mr sean severson has been stellar the last two and a half years [34:12] have been sobering for all of us we have all faced some amount of personal [34:18] and professional losses i have as a university faculty and [34:23] administrator so much of my time has been spent on caring for students that i [34:28] have only had limited time or sideways glance [34:34] sometimes for my own children's learning so i'm beyond grateful to mr higley and [34:39] eevp for helping my third grader thrive online learning is not for everyone [34:46] granted it requires skilled teachers like mr higley some amount of parental [34:51] engagement and most importantly highly self-directed children eevp has the potential to continue to [34:58] remain a viable opportunity for some children and families in our community provided it [35:05] continues to receive the right support and resources i would like to conclude by saying that [35:11] every child in our district deserves a child like mr higley online or not a [35:17] teacher who is deeply caring and interested in student learning thank you [35:23] so much for listening to me thank you [35:28] thank you to all our speakers for coming tonight um we're going to move on to our report [35:34] for tonight and we have our director of community education valerie burke and coordinator of early learn of the early [35:40] learning center leah byrd here to talk about our community education and early learning [35:46] center what [35:52] oh i moved way ahead in the agenda i apologize you can come on up while we approve the [35:57] consent agenda because it'll take one second i apologize [36:03] yeah do i have a motion oh do i have a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved [36:09] second we will now vote to approve the consent agenda [36:14] uh karen are you on there i am [Music] [36:20] can we see karen's screen of her um karen gabler [36:29] yeah we have to do roll call and we have to also see karen while she's voting [36:45] my apologies guys [36:58] so ann all of our votes are going to be a roll call vote from now on [37:17] uh [37:26] [Music] if you're watching at home we're just waiting to get uh board member gabler on [37:32] the screen for us so we can take votes [37:38] [Music] [38:11] sorry this is holding up the show that's okay [38:25] can you see us karen i can now yeah for a while i couldn't [38:43] so karen i'm going to bypass you in the consent agenda [38:49] unless you come up really fast no that's okay and yeah if i need to sit [38:55] out that this or whatever the appropriate procedure i don't want to hold up the entire [39:01] meeting here let's move forward with the consent agenda and um if you could just bypass karen's vote so [39:08] we can get through the consent agenda and then we can move forward with our um report and hopefully she'll be up by [39:14] time we take any other votes allenberg oh then we don't need roll call that's [39:19] right okay okay so all those in favor of approving the consent agenda say aye aye [39:26] anyone opposed the consent agenda has been approved now we can move on to our report [39:34] welcome we're going to talk about our community education and early learning center [39:40] and we have valerie burke and leah bird here thank you good evening members of the board [39:47] superintendent stanley chair allenberg community and colleagues um [39:52] leah and i are here tonight to review our plan for meeting the early learning center benchmarks of the udyna [39:59] school strategic plan and data metrics plan over the last few months leah and i have [40:05] shared with the board information showcasing a variety of data regarding our classes and our enrollment over the [40:12] last 10 years this helps us understand where we have been [40:17] and we have also shared with you what our current registration is right now our early childhood family [40:23] education class numbers are 39 higher than they were in 2020 2021. [40:29] our preschool numbers are 58 percent higher than they were last year and overall enrollment numbers for the elc [40:35] have increased 49 percent from 176 enrollees to 362 enrollees this year [40:43] while we are encouraged by this showing we recognize that we have a lot of work [40:48] to do to re-engage our young families in the power of early childhood family education and in the power of all the [40:55] high quality classes at the early learning center this spring we engaged our entire [41:00] community education team and we have spent significant time gathering information and data to inform our [41:06] planning for this report we recognize that the early learning center and specifically early childhood [41:12] family education is an entry point for the high quality and family focused programming and curriculum that is the [41:19] standard of the edina public schools so we're excited to share with you our planning for the future as it aligns [41:25] with this strategic plan there are two strategies in the strategic plan where the edina learning [41:30] center and its classes and programs are specifically called out and aligned to our overall plan [41:36] those are strategies a and e one advances academic excellence growth [41:42] and readiness and one highlights [41:47] pardon me highlights the engagement of parents schools and community it's an interesting pairing of the [41:53] strengths that community education as a deliverer of market-based programs brings [41:58] and the growth and readiness skills that the elc has obtained in partnership with teaching and learning department bring [42:05] let's begin with strategy e engaging parents schools and community over the next four years the strategic [42:12] plan asks us to reinvigorate our marketing communications and engagement strategies to reintroduce our programs [42:18] and classes to existing new and evolving audiences [42:25] our outcomes for this plan are increase our awareness of the edina learning [42:30] center to all families with young children ages birth through age five and to re-establish the dyno learning [42:36] center's ecfe program as a place to learn and grow as a parent to bond with your child to build your parent support [42:43] network and to grow as an advocate for your child our report outlines the many ways early [42:50] childhood family education supports students parents and the community parents report that those that have been [42:56] a part of ecfe have improved parenting and a better understanding of their role in their [43:02] child's success the research link also shows that child's school and academic success [43:09] is increased by parents who participate in ecfe and data suggests that former ecfe [43:16] parents arrive at school more likely to be involved in their child's learning and they feel more connected to their [43:22] community and other parents creating awareness of our ecfe to our young families by multiplying the ways [43:29] we use our marketing tools and multiplying our outreach strategy strategies to serve our community of [43:34] early learners is key to our plan's success or outlining a high-level overview of [43:41] identified actions and then we outline a timeline of some specific actions that will be taken [43:46] during the next 12 months to begin our plan has built-in evaluation strategies to determine what if any [43:54] adaptations to the plan should be made in year two beginning this year we have begun the [43:59] process of implementing strategies to create awareness about who we are what differentiates us and how the udina [44:06] learning center provides the best supports to prepare both parents and children for life together birth through [44:12] age five and most importantly for life together after preschool with the edina [44:18] public schools to do that in this post covered very competitive marketplace we need to focus [44:24] our energies and our resources to reach these goals we will increase our reach to households [44:31] living in edina with children ages birth through age five by obtaining a resident [44:37] email and address list we will increase ecfe enrollment this fall beginning now we are using [44:44] high-tech and high-touch marketing and outreach strategies that are targeted and varied we are increasing devoted [44:50] staff time to help us accomplish this and we will be evaluating and using data [44:55] as we go so we can continue to grow our enrollment in 222 23 and beyond [45:01] we are creating a district in community ed communications and marketing team sharing our stories our registration [45:08] dates our key community building events and other edina learning center important happenings with the joint [45:14] communications team of district and community education our goal is to have this information highlighted on our [45:21] website in both in community ed and on the district so that we our families can [45:26] find us easily through the enrollment center through early childhood family education website [45:32] directly or through the district and making learning about us easy as well [45:39] we are increasing program options and opportunities for families to participate in parent education classes [45:44] and events we'll have in-person hybrid and online only options available for parents and families as well as on [45:51] campus and off campus opportunities for parents and finally [45:56] we need our early childhood advisory council back we need eyes and ears out in the community regularly [46:03] this spring i applaud leah and her team has gone into every early childhood family education classroom reached out [46:10] community-wide to reinvigorate our early childhood advisory council we're currently at 12 members strong and after [46:16] meeting with them and hearing their commitment to both ecfe and the elc i [46:22] feel confident their outreach and community building efforts are key to the success in creating awareness and [46:27] supporting families it's been a long couple of years but we have an amazing story to tell and a [46:32] story we want to tell the elc is vital entry point for families in edina and it's a place where [46:38] great teachers parent education educators and staff live [46:44] i'm going to turn it over to leah to talk about strategy 2. you all can hear me right i'm pretty [46:50] loud well good evening superintendent stanley chair chair board ellenberg and the rest [46:57] of you and to the people in the room and those watching at home i'm always excited to have an opportunity to come [47:03] and talk about early childhood a deep passion for mine for me so i'm going to talk a little bit about [47:09] our third goal our third goal is aligned with strategy a which is advanced academic excellence [47:14] and growth and readiness our charge is to provide robust early childhood education for all learners so [47:21] that the early learning center students are prepared for kindergarten this work begins at birth [47:28] the partnership within our ecfe program helps parents understand their child's developmental milestones while also [47:35] developing a support network for other caregivers our outcome is all learners ages birth [47:41] through five will receive a robust education through strong social emotional development and emergent [47:47] academic skills to ensure alignment with kindergarten readiness skills in the elc we are building a ladder of [47:54] academic and social emotional support to help all kids thrive from birth to age [48:00] five get ready for kindergarten and this includes parent education and parent [48:05] community building events that get the parents ready too [48:13] this summer all staff will complete 30 hours of training for the creative curriculum we will also we will finish [48:20] creating each teacher's classroom literacy toolkit which is the tools that all teachers use in their teaching [48:27] we and we will have our theme bins which are created for each of the units in the creative curriculum also completed our [48:34] literacy leadership team facilitated by our literacy coach will provide coaching bi-monthly to teachers as they work to [48:41] implement the curriculum within the classroom this team is also responsible for creating and implementing a professional [48:48] development plan for new staff that start with us next fall all of our staff will receive six [48:55] additional hours of training at the end of september teachers will be surveyed in the fall to [49:00] establish baseline data regarding their comfort and needs with implementation [49:06] we will survey teachers again during the winter and the spring to gauge their needs and use data to plan future [49:12] training and coaching needs and finally our literacy leadership team will develop our literacy sustainability [49:18] plan for 2023 and beyond it's important to note that all of our [49:25] teaching staff will go through the creative curriculum training this includes our parent educators [49:31] we know that parents are students first teachers our parent educators do a wonderful job [49:36] of providing the support parents and caregivers need to establish healthy families that set kids up to be [49:43] successful learners the creative curriculum does have a parent communication app and it's very [49:48] similar to seesaw but it's a little bit more focused attention on a parent education piece and the skills that [49:55] parents will need to support kids learning furthermore the creative curriculum will be implemented in every [50:01] learning space at the early learning center which includes our parent education classrooms as well as our ecfe [50:09] classes 0 through 5. our ecfe preschool class offers a great [50:14] opportunity for parents to experience the curriculum in real time with their child and we know as val said that kids [50:22] thrive when parents understand them and are supporting their learning needs [50:27] for the 2022-23 school year we will be providing more events that are specifically designed to support the parents role in [50:34] creating lifelong learners our preschool teachers often have a bring your parent to school day and some [50:41] of you may remember teacher joanna's abc potluck very big hit every year [50:47] and this this is an opportunity for parents to experience the learning that kiddos [50:52] are doing at school take that experience home and talk about it a little bit more at home to sort of enrich that learning [50:59] project and furthermore our literacy coach our outreach manager and our parent [51:05] educators will plan literacy and math specific events for parents to learn about emergent literacy at the preschool [51:11] level and what they can do at home to help their kids learn all of our events will have a parent [51:17] educator available to connect with parents and answer any questions that they may have this is a common practice [51:23] that we typically have a parent educator always available for parents [51:30] next year will mark our fifth year of the periment implementation framework we are proud of the work that we have done [51:36] since 2018 we have established strong school-wide protocols data capture systems and [51:43] partnerships with parents to support students social and emotional development as they prepare for the next [51:49] milestone in their young lives part of our work next year will be to create a sustainability plan for our [51:55] pyramid model professional development will focus on onboarding new staff creating larger connections with parents [52:02] and using our new curriculum to intersect with the pyramid framework [52:08] changes made this past year and our newly designed preschool screening space have been a huge success [52:15] we are proud to share that we provide preschool screening for all incoming kindergartners [52:20] our next goal will be to increase the number of three-year-olds that we're able to screen each year [52:25] an early childhood screening is designed to determine if a child is meeting their developmental milestones and if they are [52:32] not we're able to get them interventions sooner and sometimes longer when we start when they're three versus when [52:38] they're four years old screening is also a great opportunity to share information about the totality of [52:45] the offerings at the elc we welcome families to join us anytime [52:51] our goal with this work is to share it with our community we need to brag and educate a bit about [52:58] what a high quality center that we are finally and of the utmost important we [53:03] intend to survey our community online annually and in small focus groups with the assistance of our [53:10] advisory council our liaisons and our community experts regularly to make sure [53:15] that we are meeting the needs and to continue to learn how best to evolve our offerings [53:21] special care will be given to our underserved populations so that we are truly ensuring that all of our edina [53:27] children are being served here at the early learning center thank you [53:33] any questions board members questions comments [53:42] i would just like to say thank you um we've been talking about this now for many months and thank you for a very detailed outline of what you're looking [53:49] at doing the strategies and the outcomes that you're going for it's exactly what i was hoping to hear so thank you very much for your efforts on that you [53:58] julie yeah hi thanks you guys um that was great um i have a couple questions [54:05] i noticed in the report there was no changes or plans made to [54:10] programming and bringing in more ecfe teachers can you guys talk about that is that [54:16] part of this plan because i guess i'm trying to understand i believe in some conversations we've [54:22] had before that the ec ecfe element is siloed from the classrooms right like [54:27] they've been separated is that this are you recommending that the strategy is [54:33] back connected and what kind of teacher support are you so the ultimate goal is to hire more staff [54:39] and we would do that through the outreach and the marketing which would bring more families into ecfe and more [54:45] registrations would then you know domino into hiring more staff and be [55:06] how's your doggie doing oh my god twinners [55:12] how's your gun same yeah and after you have a man infected and she's happy she's not you [55:18] know she's fine then she's really slow um [55:23] [Music] [Applause] [55:36] our live stream is back can they make sure [55:48] apologies for the technological issues [Music] [55:55] ouch [Laughter] [56:01] karen you might want to mute your side of the conversation [56:06] i'm just looking at you for no reason sorry i was like i'm not karen no [56:12] sorry i'm just looking that way all right it's your muscle memory here it is [56:20] okay would you like to proceed mid thought exactly where you were [56:25] can you can you text her to mute [56:30] i think that's the only person that is [56:47] great did i answer your question a little bit um [56:52] yeah um i think so i guess my turn this on [56:58] i guess my bigger question is i understand that you the plan would [57:04] then be to hire staff to fill classes once where we have interest more interest is that [57:11] correct or more enrollment but my and i i'm under i understand that i know understand there's a lot to go [57:18] with you don't want to have classes that you can't fill in all of that i guess my bigger question is [57:23] where do you see ecfv fitting within the programming at the early learning center [57:29] that i'm not totally understanding because i i've had the impression from the last [57:35] the classes that have been offered that they're more stand-alone like they're they're an added layer [57:41] not more like a traditional ecf ecfe class where [57:47] they're got a puzzled look because i'm trying to track what you mean by a standalone because they're [57:53] there their ecfe classes are weaved into every you know from birth through our top toddlers through our [58:00] twos through our threes fours and fives and then we have a variety of parent ed you know that are [58:06] that are more stand-alone if people want a particular topic am i well i guess ask me a different way okay [58:13] let me um yes and i understand that i understand zero through five that's fantastic that's great um my question is [58:21] okay if i were to sign up for a threes um i had a three-year-old and i was signing up for an ecfe class yeah what [58:27] does that look like for my for as a parent and the student where's the interaction is it in the [58:33] classroom is it on top is it um all [58:38] three year olds there's an extra class because i know from the last catalog i know i had questions about that that's [58:44] why i'm i just want to know where your record where your recommendation is coming from so if you were to sign up [58:49] for a three-year-old class that would be a really good fit to be in um what's called r3 sorry i have to speak in the [58:55] section number that's the world i live in 35-1 which is three to five-year-olds section one and it would look very very [59:02] much like all of our ecfe preschool classes where parents come to school with the child [59:08] the first hour is that child parent interaction time and then the second hour is the parents separate and [59:16] they go and have parent education in a separate room with a licensed parent educator okay and so that is [59:25] the main that's how most the classes will be the [59:31] majority classes will be that way or not if it's an ecfe class there's yes then [59:36] they always have a parent education piece where there's that ch parent child time and some of the ecfe classes are [59:43] separating meaning that model you go into another room but some of them are not separating meaning the parents stay [59:49] in the classroom with the child for the entirety entirety of the class and the um [59:54] either the classroom teacher is dual licensed so they deliver the parent as well or sometimes the parent like the [1:00:00] parent educator and the classroom teacher are just co-teaching the full two hours or two and a half hours of the [1:00:05] class okay um thank you i just i didn't have total clarification from the report and [1:00:11] i guess um so then there's because there was no call out for resources needed for the teachers in the [1:00:18] report so is that something different because i did notice other things were called out that you needed funding for so [1:00:24] that is that we're explaining that we're using our excess ecfe levy dollars from that because we we receive the same [1:00:30] amount of levy dollars right and so we have i mean it's a good news we have [1:00:35] some additional dollars from last year that we're we're supporting additional staff okay to help jump start [1:00:42] um also getting out you know some of the activities that we outlined in the and the more specific things about pop-ups [1:00:49] and um you know lunch and learns and different ways that we can engage families that might not be the [1:00:56] traditional way and then we'll also have the traditional way because one of the things that we recognize is we have [1:01:03] we need to get better acquainted with the our not only postcovid but our families that are moving in and out of [1:01:10] edina knowing that you know we talked about before we have a lot more infant child care out there [1:01:16] we just need to understand where some of the new ways that we could reach them with parent ed can be that the stuff [1:01:22] that traditional classes in our school during the school day are constant but we want to make sure that every [1:01:28] family has the opportunity to engage and so finding out more about where they need it how they need it what are the [1:01:34] best ways to get parent education to them because that's our larger goal is [1:01:40] to make sure that all kinds of families um that may not have that time in the day [1:01:46] can benefit from what ecfe has to offer okay and so it's hard to be so detailed [1:01:53] i don't want to monopolize all the questions here so then the goal based because i did see [1:01:58] one of the outcomes was the success outcomes was that we would have increased programming in classes i [1:02:03] didn't see that as an outcome but so what's the plan for i guess this upcoming year are you planning on hiring [1:02:10] and bringing in more programming for this upcoming year or is it more planning this year and then rolling out [1:02:17] additional more i guess i'm just trying to get an idea on the time we hope to do is fill the classes more robustly that we have [1:02:23] in our catalog because we had a quite a large variety of classes in our catalog [1:02:28] and we have you know decent enrollment but we know from past data that we get two times of enrollment early like the [1:02:35] february people that are super organized and and get online and then it's a big fat it's a long pause for ecfe and [1:02:42] traditionally and we don't know if we're working in traditional so i'm going to say that word we have another an [1:02:49] increase in um sign ups um usually in july and august which is [1:02:54] one of the reasons we are right on right now making sure we're getting out with lots of ways to talk about and [1:03:01] what we have open right now for this year and then we'll kind of adapt as we go but [1:03:06] we we have room in our ucfv classes this fall okay so anyway may i piggyback a [1:03:12] little bit green you know we also want to use this summer to do some like ecfe pop-ups around the community [1:03:18] so like an example is a stroller walk and talk right meet us at the park we'll have a parent educator who will meet you [1:03:25] there it's one hour free because we can afford to do it free this year because of our ecfe lovey dollars and it's just [1:03:32] an opportunity not only to get a dose of parent education but to also hopefully meet some new friends in the community [1:03:38] and another idea that we're talking about for pop-up is um what's called a breath of fresh air sort [1:03:44] of think of like ecfe in the park right like a picnic but you get parent education while you're [1:03:51] eating your lunchable or whatever it is you might be eating but we're really going to transition into thinking about [1:03:57] what sort of pop-ups can we do in the summer that would get the word out about ecfe introduce ourselves to our [1:04:04] community and then also hopefully encourage them to come and try us out in the fall and help build up that [1:04:10] registration in the fall as well and val's correct we we typically have ecfe [1:04:15] families that do that burst and then they they sort of just hang back and then usually around late august early [1:04:21] september we start to see ecfes build you know back up and and a lot of ecfe is word of mouth right [1:04:29] and and that's a great way to recruit families as well okay thank you [1:04:40] director shaw thank you um i'm going to echo what michael said thank you for all this [1:04:45] information and we've been talking about it for a while so it's really exciting to see it and i'm so excited to see ecfe getting big and [1:04:53] bold again in our district the only question i had is if i'm looking at the timeline [1:05:00] the piece that i am wondering where it fits in the timeline is any sort of [1:05:05] enrollment goals that you would have so i know you've you've had conversations with other west metro [1:05:13] ecfe programs and and i'm wondering where kind of like a [1:05:18] best practices conversation would occur to say we know that we need to fill the [1:05:24] you know whether the 7 to 11 month old category to really make the strongest [1:05:29] impact on our district and getting kids into our kindergartens and all that and where would that kind of information [1:05:35] when would you be gathering that kind of information and setting some goals right so like we hope enrollment in this [1:05:43] next year is x and then the following year is x that kind of thing we sort of intentionally because we went [1:05:49] round and round with this honestly board member shaw um [1:05:56] we're still and and i really we really didn't want to use this word in this report but we really are still living in a world of uncertainty with um covet [1:06:05] and so honestly our our metro directors or you know other coordinators are living in that same world and so [1:06:12] we thought we could put strong numbers but we really want and that's why we sort of made a shorter plan [1:06:18] and tried to build in constant evaluation and we'd be happy to come back knowing how numbers progressed with [1:06:24] the events we did which is why we have an element of really some data management skill [1:06:30] building for our staff because we really need accurate data that we can rely on [1:06:35] regularly from from constant sources that way we can really be able to share [1:06:41] here's where we are which is why i wanted to pull some of that for you tonight i'm not trying to sidestep that but we [1:06:48] hesitated in trying to what we felt like a little bit makeup numbers what we could probably share is if all [1:06:54] of our classes filled this fall and i don't have that but i could get that here's what we would want to [1:07:00] see increase i didn't actually think about that but that that that would be a way to sort of answer that question what [1:07:07] would we need to do to fill those classes how many people to enroll and that could be an absolute goal okay [1:07:14] so if you if you if that would be helpful that makes sense yeah i just i feel like as we continue on yes and as a [1:07:21] metric as we're watching this grow it would be helpful to kind of see something that we can kind of benchmark [1:07:28] our pleasure to be able to be able to have foundational data to build off of because i think without that in the [1:07:34] absence of that the only thing we have to look back on is like what were we doing 10 years ago right so all of that [1:07:41] that information and i will show director shaw that i meet with the other metro coordinators [1:07:47] every other monday and we have this conversation every other monday about ecfe specifically and what are you [1:07:53] doing to get families back into ecfe what are you hearing from families about bringing their babies into the building [1:07:59] what is your threshold that of the number of registrations that you use to say okay we've got 10 kids that have [1:08:06] registered for this toddler class so we're going to open another section right because there's also that best practice you know anything more than 10 [1:08:14] 13 month olds in a room it can be a little stressful and anxiety-inducing so when do we add another section and so [1:08:22] bill building wide program white that is an ongoing metric that i'm always looking at of okay we've got a class and [1:08:30] the ratio is one to four so what does an eight baby class look like what does a 16 baby look class like [1:08:37] when do we transition to instead of it being you know 16 babies and eight on [1:08:43] the wait list we do two baby classes how do we do that so that conversation is [1:08:48] ongoing and sort of a piece that we're always thinking about is how can we build off of the momentum [1:08:55] and add more programming yeah thank you may i just offer one quick comment [1:09:01] language it does matter and i can appreciate from a sales standpoint of goals versus something else might i encourage you to consider have a [1:09:08] target a target is not necessarily a hard fast you have to meet or whatever but it's a it's a it's a measuring point [1:09:15] that you're targeting for whether it's for the baby and me level to the you know seven to 18 month level to whatever [1:09:21] it might be and then i think for the board's purposes is start with the target and then as we evolve as you learn more as [1:09:26] you get those data management practices in place then it starts to become a goal that the goal then starts to become an actual metric that says this is what [1:09:33] we're going to hit to then make that happen i think i could be tolerant of a target [1:09:38] now as you're trying to build this out to then eventually evolve it to a goal and then the goal is something that then we want to then hold administration okay [1:09:45] hey this is our real measuring stick to making that happen right but i think that what i'm hearing from you val you're not quite confident there yet [1:09:51] because of where the circumstances are and i think i can be tolerant of that but i think we want to evolve it from a target to a goal sometime in the next 12 [1:09:58] to 18 months so that we can then get real tangible levels of where it is knowing that whatever you try some [1:10:03] things are going to work somethings aren't going to work that's okay as long as we're moving as long as we're trying to make things happen and we're [1:10:09] learning from that experience for us to then move on from that standpoint yeah i think what's hard for us is to figure out what would be our goal [1:10:16] for ecfe and the program to say from where we were and you should do the the metrics we would say we would love [1:10:23] to be back to here right we might be willing to say that but that doesn't mean we're grounded in any [1:10:28] reality about that but i think i'd like to find a mixture in the next 18 months where both parties could say that goal [1:10:34] really makes a whole lot of sense we're totally on board we're going to hold you to that and here's the resource that we're going to prioritize to make that happen and what you then need to do that [1:10:40] that's just the way i kind of heard what i just so just something to think about yeah thank you for that feedback [1:10:47] i just had one quick question to your comment um along the same lines as michael talked [1:10:52] about the summer pop-up programs i don't know if there's a metric to to talk about how those convert to [1:10:59] enrollments and those types of things and whether or not those are there in the pieces of um the data charts and [1:11:04] whatnot we're going to be looking at but then also if you i assume you don't have the [1:11:11] targets really for the summer pop-up things because they're relatively new but like our enrollment is enrollment [1:11:16] done and registration done through the same normal process that is currently going on or is it um or since it's free [1:11:22] there's no registration needed or how does that process work for people so there's two different ways we can do it [1:11:27] we can obviously have the class do the advertising create a class in leo which is our enrollment um purchase our thing [1:11:35] and have families register but we also have a number of families that are not comfortable going online and registering [1:11:41] they're more comfortable showing it up and we saw that at our spring event that we did in the playground in either [1:11:47] instances we do ask for contact information so that we are at least gathering the amount of people that did [1:11:53] come to the event and then we're using that contact information for further education further outreach further [1:11:59] marketing that we might be able to do we're using qr codes and other ways of tagging the different events we're doing [1:12:06] so that when when someone let's say someone went to a pop-up they can tell us that with three quick questions from [1:12:12] our registration people where did you hear about it how did you learn about it so tracking that too will give us [1:12:18] information like as you said is this working is this not working was this a good good use of our staff time was this [1:12:24] not and honestly i mean i don't know that we're one and dones i think we need a little time with this um but we just [1:12:32] uh yeah yeah so so that's how we're going we're going to be more intentional about tagging things so we can track [1:12:38] where we're successful in getting information out to families and then [1:12:43] leap to registration you know it's kind of like the ladder of of getting there thank you [1:12:51] karen did you have a question i do thank you um [1:12:57] i wanted to say and i'm sorry you probably are just i'm just this voice [1:13:07] i wanted to say kind of what some of my peers have said val and leah there are a lot of really [1:13:14] fantastic ideas and specifics and details in this report so thank you [1:13:20] um specifically when i look at page 225 of our board book um honestly what i see here makes me think [1:13:26] that maybe i should have another child is so exciting so so [1:13:32] i some specifics here that i really wanted to highlight um i like the idea that we're to hear that [1:13:38] we're sharing and receiving specific ideas from other other districts anytime that we can swap ideas i think is a [1:13:44] great thing especially in our community and our early childhood so thank you for taking the time to do that [1:13:51] um i'm really pleased to see a big focus on ecfe in this information i think [1:13:58] we've acknowledged throughout the last you know four or five years we've kind of not been as intentional with that [1:14:04] programming and we're seeing that kind of come home a little bit um so i really appreciate the focus that [1:14:10] has been spent on that area when when director green asked about [1:14:16] kind of how the programming looks and i heard you mentioned a three to five year old ecop program [1:14:22] i think one of the things i would like to see as we think about programming or at least [1:14:28] to put the seat out there when you have a wide i know that's been something we've offered in the past is [1:14:34] that why a swath of age groups and i think that that's a [1:14:39] deterrent can be a deterrent for families a three-year-old developmentally is a lot different than [1:14:45] a five-year-old so maybe kind of keeping that in in mind too if that hasn't worked in the [1:14:51] past that maybe smaller age spans for that ecfe programming [1:14:58] and i think this is an exciting time for ecfe because with covid people's work schedules have changed so [1:15:05] they may have some flexibility to have a three-day program and where they come for ecfe for one day so i'm really [1:15:12] excited to see and as other board members have said seeing some of those measured [1:15:18] measurable goals and getting some more specifics on that that we can kind of get reports on and check in periodically [1:15:24] i think will be really helpful um down the road and we heard an enrollment report not that long ago that [1:15:32] they are projecting that our younger kids there might be more of [1:15:37] um a pipeline coming to us so i think this is a great opportunity for us to be making some of these changes so thank [1:15:43] you for the work that went into this and i'm excited to see some of the specifics [1:15:48] of how we can measure this success thank you karen thanks director gabler [1:15:55] i will share with you i don't know if she can hear me it feels weird just talking to the universe but there there [1:16:00] actually is offered next year four-year-old only ecfe class it's a kindergarten readiness four-year-old [1:16:06] class and the ultimate goal is to get back to a three-year-old only kindergarten or three-year-old only ecfv [1:16:12] preschool class as well we have a really healthy group of [1:16:17] babies and toddlers and uh cohort of parents that have already [1:16:22] articulated that they would like to stay together and so that is a partnership for me to work [1:16:28] with them to be able i can create the class that that group of people are interested in and have them [1:16:34] just like many of you did transition up through the years so i'm looking forward to being able to to [1:16:40] share that information and metrics as well great thank you both so much for coming [1:16:47] and for your great work on this i appreciate it comment thank you oh i'm sorry don't worry so uh you mentioned [1:16:53] that you're gonna you're doing the three-year-old screening as well as pre-k screening and so [1:16:58] i mean i'm just hoping that the district is able to take a look at [1:17:03] targeting families that have students that traditionally do not succeed in school and bringing them in as [1:17:09] three-year-olds and four-year-olds into classrooms i think that that would be very helpful for those families as well as for the [1:17:16] district our goal is similar to you know is is [1:17:21] identical actually to the k-12 goal we we know that if we get a family and we can have them stay with us [1:17:28] not only will we have better data as it aligns to have they entered our kindergarten but we know that they'll [1:17:34] they'll have better success with us long term so um as leah said kind of following those [1:17:40] cohorts but um great feedback and we're going to get started thank you thank you [1:17:46] thank you guys moving on we have our avid presentation [1:17:52] we have dr randy smaazel and alyssa cappell and two students here thank you [1:17:59] both for waiting through an hour almost and a half of our board meeting i appreciate it [1:18:05] i'll have dr smiles will introduce our students [1:18:11] good evening uh chair ellenberg no you're right there you're good thanks we're good good evening terry allenberg [1:18:18] superintendent stanley school board members community um and staff we are super excited to [1:18:25] present to you a little bit about our avid programming my name is randy smausel i'm an assistant superintendent [1:18:30] here in udina public schools we have alyssa kappel who's our district director for avid programming also an [1:18:36] instructional coach over at valley view middle school sitting next to alyssa we have issa amin [1:18:41] and issa is a senior at edina high school and he is a dell scholar and a wallen scholar [1:18:48] and then to the right of issa is ben hamsik and ben is the avid [1:18:55] club president so we're very excited that both of them could join us this evening [1:19:00] what we will take a few minutes to do is just share a little bit about the purpose of avid the why and the what [1:19:06] create some awareness of avid also share a little bit about our current implementation of avid and udina public [1:19:12] schools we want to make sure that you're aware of some of the impacts that avid has on students including some data and some [1:19:18] student testimonials in terms of how we fund avid avid is paid for through achievement and [1:19:25] integration funds we have about 1.3 million dollars that are given to us from the state of minnesota [1:19:30] and achievement and integration funds and we spend those on reading and math intervention we spend them supporting salaries for [1:19:37] our cultural liaisons for avid programming and for professional development inside the [1:19:42] school district among a few other things as well the purpose of achievement integration revenue is to [1:19:49] really pursue economic economic integration and racial [1:19:54] integration it's to pursue increased student achievement it's also to increase equitable [1:20:00] opportunities for learners and to decrease academic disparities based on racial ethnic and social economic [1:20:07] factors so that's just a very brief background but we are excited to turn this over to [1:20:12] alissa our main presenter thank you good evening thank you dr stanley [1:20:18] chairman um allenberg and the rest of the board we really appreciate having voice in this space to be able to share [1:20:24] with you some good things and give you a little bit more background around what we are doing with avid district-wide and [1:20:31] what i'm so excited about is this really did i'll start with our why back in 2008 we weren't just thinking [1:20:37] about how to make students success or help students be successful in school k-12 we were looking at how are we [1:20:43] helping our students not just be successful here but beyond college this is about getting them ready for life [1:20:50] this is about making sure we're just we're not just producing kids who can get into college but we have kids who [1:20:55] can stay in college and then succeed afterwards so we're going to go through some of those examples about how we're [1:21:01] doing that um again we're going to put student voice in the room because that's so much more important um then but to [1:21:07] give you an overview of what avid is for our edina schools in 2008 we started with the middle [1:21:13] schools where we were just focused on the avid elective and that really was driven by what we [1:21:20] call the backbone curriculum of wicker and we use wicker like a word because you know we're in education we use all [1:21:25] of the acronyms all the time but what wicker stands for is it's about writing and it's not just [1:21:31] about can kids do a quick essay and be effective it's also about writing to [1:21:36] learn writing to communicate we're very explicit about strategies that help close those opportunity gaps for our [1:21:42] learners then we also look at inquiry which i know you've all have sat through countless presentations about how are we [1:21:48] driving rigor how are we increasing higher level thinking all of those avid delivers that to us as solid best [1:21:56] practices that all of our teachers can consistently use but back when we were implementing it that was the focus of [1:22:01] the elective class of this little group of kids that we got together to say hey you're avid students [1:22:07] right now we see those things happening throughout the buildings at all of the secondary buildings and then also at one [1:22:14] of our elementaries collaboration is a huge piece right we wouldn't all be here without skills and collaboration [1:22:20] then organization which i don't know how many of you have students at valley view where there are binders school-wide and i know as [1:22:27] minimal as that may sound has produced significant data around success for our students the year that we implemented [1:22:34] binders school-wide missing assignments went down by 56 percent okay well that's kind of a big deal for [1:22:40] anybody who's lived with a middle schooler right so we knew that there were markers of success that we encouraged to move [1:22:48] forward with um then also looking at how do we incorporate these wicker strategies are [1:22:54] being reading i didn't get to that one but that again is teaching them the strategy about taking apart complex text [1:23:00] and doing more beyond comprehension and also being able to i'm going to say effective academic language and literacy [1:23:07] that idea that you're not just building vocab to memorize some words you're building vocab to be an effective [1:23:13] communicator and to be an effective student if you want any more of the like [1:23:19] specific details in the slideshow that's attached there is the link to the national avid site um as well with tons [1:23:25] of resources and explanation you can always reach out to me with any other specific programming questions because i can [1:23:31] gladly fill in those blanks so district implementation what does that look like um dr spousal already alluded to the [1:23:37] fact that it's funded primarily through our our achievement and integration dollars [1:23:43] the board there is i'm going to say minimal budget support at the sites as well and what i mean by that is like [1:23:48] supply budgets come out of the site budgets so we've got um administration who are committed to using these [1:23:55] strategies across their schools and they're showing that with money and staffing as well we also have at our secondary buildings [1:24:02] so we started with the elective class at our middle schools and high schools but now [1:24:07] we are seeing also the components across all of our classes so it's not just [1:24:13] about the elective anymore it is about how are we doing focus note taking in every single science class how are we [1:24:20] doing critical reading strategies in all of our social studies classes that is what avid has morphed into in [1:24:26] these last six years with much more gains for our students all of our students have access to all [1:24:32] of these strategies not again not just an elective class when we were um when we were at the [1:24:38] middle school and we were doing some of our strategic planning we were like how are we helping our students transition [1:24:43] from elementary into middle school which again if any of you have survived a sixth grader it's a hot mess right [1:24:48] and once we get when we get students in that position there really is a lot of data that supports what that experience [1:24:56] is for them kind of drives their secondary experience and we designed this class called middle [1:25:02] school skills which essentially every sixth grader that is in both of our middle schools [1:25:07] basically gets an intro to avid so they get all those background strategies they get organization and how to use a [1:25:13] planner and how to take notes and what to do with the notes and all of those pieces [1:25:18] are exposed to every student for sure which is great because then it also becomes peer pressure because now all of [1:25:24] our students know how to run something called collaborative study groups which means our teachers don't have to teach [1:25:29] the kids how to do that but they're ready to use it in their classes so it's it's also becoming this [1:25:35] effective way that best practice trickles through everything that they do which we love and then at our elementary [1:25:41] we are so excited we brought countryside on board this year um you know karen bergman and her staff are [1:25:47] amazing with understanding what avid elementary looks like and that is a little bit different than what it looks [1:25:53] like at the secondary level i'll go into that a little bit more detail and overall um we do know that there is a lot of [1:26:01] crossover and and and infiltration of these strategies into our strategic plan [1:26:06] as well so they're showing up at the district level a lot of our administrators don't run meetings without doing an avid intro you know and [1:26:12] and demonstrating these strategies for their staff so all of those pieces have just become normal i did attach a [1:26:19] district-wide implementation document there if you would ever like to peek into that but it talks to some of those [1:26:25] high gains things that happen because we do it district-wide and i do need to give a nod to dr [1:26:31] stanley for what from the minute she stepped in avid was a normal part of language in a lot of our tnl meetings [1:26:38] and a lot of our interactions when she was working with the community it's not something that is ignored and so i [1:26:44] appreciate that very much so let's take a look at our sites so countryside elementary knowing that we've got [1:26:50] elementary that is not an elective class that is solely grade by grade and so we [1:26:55] rolled out to fourth and fifth grade this year and the idea behind avid elementary is that all of our learners [1:27:02] are exposed to these i'm going to say how to do school strategies and [1:27:08] we are seeing some great things so they agreed the site team did so all of our fourth and fifth grade teachers at [1:27:13] countryside started out this year with we're going to focus on organization they implemented these [1:27:20] planners that are being phenomenal with kids we've got kids writing their own essential questions meaning at the end [1:27:25] of the day when they fill out their planner they're not just like putting down this is what i did today they're writing an overall arching question [1:27:31] about what did i learn today but it's not just articulated in what did i learn today it's how does da da da da affect [1:27:39] this like they're using all of these much higher order thinking skills as fourth and fifth graders planners are [1:27:46] normal building communication strategies between home and school all of those fill in there and then [1:27:52] their binders are also organized so they keep all their materials for school in one spot which again to us as adults [1:27:58] doesn't seem a big deal but knowing all the results and and research around executive functioning it's a big deal [1:28:06] right you can walk into any of the fifth grade classrooms and there are not random papers everywhere all their little binders it's like they own them [1:28:12] right it's like their brand new car right they're very proud of them which is great obviously a lot of our [1:28:18] energy at countryside has also been focusing on the site team and that part of avid is we have this [1:28:24] body of teachers who kind of drive how things are going to go in the building and to make some decisions and are [1:28:30] intentional about staff development and really help the building stay i'm going to say on track or on point for moving [1:28:37] things forward for for getting to the next level and they do all sorts of things there's [1:28:42] different i'm going to say coaching instruments there's certification there's data collection the site team is [1:28:47] all behind that so it's a group of teachers who've all been trained and do that and i just included some pictures i [1:28:53] know that you all had this ahead of time but looking at student work and watching that develop and grow has been i think [1:29:01] probably the biggest win for our teachers because they're realizing that impact of consistent language consistent [1:29:07] practice and that these are high yield best practices so south view um we they were actually [1:29:14] the first to implement and they um [Music] obviously did a great job doing the [1:29:19] elective and i wanted to really speak just to the elective through the southview lens so what does the elective [1:29:25] class look like and so we do have a quick video to put some student voices in it this is a video that we use [1:29:30] when eighth graders are trying to explain to the sixth graders about whether they would like to apply to [1:29:35] become an avid student so i don't know if somebody can hit play on that video [1:29:42] i don't think i have manipulation there's the mouse i see it [1:29:50] perfect [1:30:19] oh oh we have no sound [1:30:30] it's all right we can pause it exit out of it that's in the slideshow if you'd [1:30:35] like to take a peek it's cute we have to say that's all right we have no sound so [1:30:42] these student what's great about the the way we run the avid elective is it's really student initiative and energy [1:30:50] that helps other students realize their own determination so as we look at the avid um [1:30:56] requirements when we talk about an avid elective student we have one section at seventh well actually one section [1:31:02] seven through twelve so the elective class for a student to become an elective student they're going [1:31:08] to apply they're going to fill out they're gonna attend an interview and then we do look at their data whether [1:31:14] it's test scores grades all of those pieces what an avid elective student looks like the profile of an avid [1:31:20] elective student is in edina it's a middle performing student that is usually our target student [1:31:26] in avid nationally there is a focus on underrepresented populations [1:31:32] low-income special cases you know where students just need that extra support in [1:31:37] school but i want to be very very very clear avid is not a class that fixes [1:31:43] broken scholars that is not what avid is avid is about our students becoming prepared and aware [1:31:51] and effective as lifelong learners so that they can go out and also not just again be [1:31:57] successful in school but be successful beyond so when we look at how our avid [1:32:03] electives roll out am i back in the play mode i don't have control okay to ask a [1:32:09] question at this moment or not well i don't have control of my slides i won't be offended [1:32:16] thank you i'm disagreeing i'm very i've been waiting for this slide in particular the um [1:32:22] elective avid or the avid elective student profile yep so as you just [1:32:27] defined it what i'm curious as to given the way that this works and the [1:32:33] and the key skills related to that why is it not possible for it to be for everybody [1:32:38] that is a great question so when we talk about the avid elective that's a really concentrated effort okay around students [1:32:45] who are performing in the middle so really when i look at a student who has a [1:32:51] already a 4.0 gpa they have college culture language at home [1:32:56] they have resources at their ready they're not going to get as much out of [1:33:02] the avid elective class because in the avid elective class when we start talking about how do you get ready for [1:33:08] college or how do you do it really is starting at the baseline level [1:33:13] not at the presumed level of what a lot of us have privilege at home around if that makes sense so that's why we do [1:33:20] have the elective class but as far as like focused note-taking strategies reading strategies all of that executive [1:33:26] function elements that's all happening throughout the buildings okay in all of the classes okay thank you for that [1:33:31] clarification yeah not a problem that's a great question thank you for sure i still don't have mouse control [1:33:37] so i'm trying there we go i'm back [1:33:43] thank you i'll accept the video's gonna try to play sorry [1:33:48] today's not our best night technologically i thought it wasn't going to be no big deal we'll just roll with it okay with that [1:33:54] next slide yep there we go they're gonna can he hit me to the next slide and then i won't can i do it [1:34:01] there all right so there was what i just went over so when we're um selecting avid students [1:34:07] for the avid elective class they're in the interview process but then we also have this matrix of giving them a score [1:34:14] so a student who is a first generation college goer is going to get a point [1:34:19] versus somebody who's not a first generation college goer because we know that the avid strategies concentrated in [1:34:24] the elective class are going to impact that student in a different way um we did i was going to say just to [1:34:30] give you an example out of our 6th grade applicants coming into our 32 places i [1:34:36] interviewed 87 6th graders at valley view this year so we interview everybody whether however they express interest and when [1:34:42] they apply i sit down and i have a conversation with them and then we figure out where our best fits are [1:34:49] and we've gotten pretty good at it as far as figuring out success rates and and helping kids get in the right place [1:34:55] and get what they need we have this is our one of our success indicators we have full avid elective classes [1:35:01] 7 12 next year we actually have an overfull one that i'll talk about when we get to the high school moment [1:35:07] so just in the um just i've got some student quotes up there but just the day in the life of an elective student just [1:35:13] to clarify that because i know there were some questions around that when we say we have an avid elective [1:35:18] student it's just basically that's one of their elective classes so it will replace one of their other electives no [1:35:25] longer will it replace art because of the new requirements we're going to work on that [1:35:31] but it used to bump out one of the electives so we're pretty intentional around their scheduling but otherwise [1:35:36] the rest of their schedule looks like their peers so it's not any different [1:35:42] in the rest of their day there is a quick i'm going to give a quick nod to the summer bridge i know you've heard about our summer [1:35:48] programming that we do with hopkins that we invite all of our avid 7th and 8th graders to [1:35:53] we are seeing math improvement scores with that it is totally an enrichment pre-load experience for our students and [1:36:00] um we are now collecting math data that shows that our students are making gains on their math scores so we're like yay [1:36:06] we're going to keep doing that right all right so valley view when we talk about avid school-wide [1:36:12] that's where i wanted to bridge that gap for all of you is there is an [1:36:17] i'm going to say an intentional approach by our educators to incorporate these [1:36:23] core strategies the main core strategy that all of our educators use is focus note taking at the middle level [1:36:29] so in a very normal way we can say hey everybody we're going to use an essential question we're going to take [1:36:35] notes hey i need you to revise your notes or you're going to turn and talk to your partner and decide what to highlight your homework is to write a [1:36:41] summary all of this has been research-based best practice that we know improves students [1:36:47] retention of information right and i'm not saying that all the notes not what i'm not [1:36:53] condoning go back to the stand on sage on the stage moment and lecture no [1:36:58] we are talking about if you get this interactive packet or you're reading an article how do you turn that into notes [1:37:04] how do you use that information to then become i'm going to say more comfortable with the content so we get out of that cram [1:37:12] and scram role right where students are like oh my gosh i have a test tomorrow i have to relearn the whole unit we're [1:37:17] shifting that culture and we know we're shifting that culture because some of the data that we collected from our student surveys talked specifically to [1:37:26] what our culture in the building is all of our teachers like do you feel that your teachers believe you're going to go on and do something else after school [1:37:33] well for our seventh and eighth graders and sixth graders to report that yeah the majority of the staff really truly [1:37:39] believes that i'm going to do something else i feel like that's a pretty big win for us and then the other piece too that we do [1:37:46] track at valley view because we are binder school-wide is about how are the students doing with their binder are [1:37:51] they engaging with it are the teachers engaging with it and we also got high percentage feedback on that [1:37:57] as well the other component of an avid elective is something called tutorials [1:38:02] and these are these amazing it's fashioned after a college study group and i don't know how [1:38:08] many of you have ever been in a college study group but you know you sit down that first time you do a college study group and you're like i don't get it [1:38:14] study group doesn't go too well right we have taught all of our students how to ask better questions and then guide [1:38:22] each other's thinking with better questions and then the learning and the understanding and all of that [1:38:27] collaborative structure becomes a much higher level rigorous outcome for our students than just saying hey i don't [1:38:34] get it can you help me with this even how they ask questions of their teachers advocating for their needs all of those [1:38:40] pieces now tutorials originated in the avid elective they happen throughout the building [1:38:46] as as collaborative study groups as well so for example our science teachers no longer have a review day [1:38:52] right they instead have collaborative study groups where students pick what part they're still struggling with they sit down with a cohort and then [1:38:59] they figure out those answers and give us a better understanding together so just some really good best practices [1:39:04] starting to really show up and again it creates that sense of family and then the last thing i'm going to [1:39:09] leave you with for valley view is around our staff feedback i've got a ton of quotes but i this one really stood out [1:39:15] with me from our new sixth grade science teacher she was in the building for exactly three days we were doing avid [1:39:21] stuff for back to school workshop she came up to me she goes i want to be on the site team and i said sounds good [1:39:27] i'll bring you along because we're always building the capacity for our staff and she recognized that the minute [1:39:33] that she was in the building the examples that are on the screen with this one are all coming from all sorts [1:39:38] of classes it's called an avid one pager and it has this high level whether it's [1:39:43] some type of art expression about the topic they have to do an intentional border they have to ask level three [1:39:49] questions which are all personalized but they have been used there's examples up here from french class social studies [1:39:56] um our engineering classes and our facts classes so i just wanted to show the [1:40:01] examples that this isn't just happening in the core classes it's happening everywhere and ultimately i'm going to quote um [1:40:09] miss leah inglecast i love that avid strategies are quite simply great teaching practice all students benefit [1:40:15] from the push to take ownership of their learning and to practice good student skills avid isn't content specific so it [1:40:22] is easy to adapt and use within any content area and that english class just [1:40:28] got done doing these amazing comic strip one pagers around the different reading lenses and had the students teach each [1:40:34] other and just created this great learning outcome and that brings us last but not least to the high school [1:40:40] at the high school we have ebbed and flowed we're kind of doing a little bit of a reboot with our school-wide efforts [1:40:46] just because we've had staff turnover so we're trying to re-up some training and capacity building for our high school [1:40:51] our avid electives are thriving there have been a couple years in the past where we have um not had 11 and 12 just [1:40:58] because of enrollment and we're working through that however next year and we are running avid of all of them this [1:41:03] year next year we have enough in avid 12 that we're actually looking at splitting the class and running two sections of it [1:41:10] which is beneficial um and i'm gonna let um issa talk to that a little bit more in just a minute but that is our avid [1:41:17] break or our college breakboard that comes up every time the kids get an acceptance letter the school goes on the [1:41:22] board so that we can know what's going on overall avid is about building agency [1:41:27] opportunity knowledge and most of all making sure that every one of our students in edina has access to rigorous [1:41:33] academics and as long as we're moving that marker forward i feel like it's a win [1:41:40] i would love if benjamin would talk a little bit to how has the avid elective helped you [1:41:47] be the student that you are at the high school and i'm going to move the microphone [1:41:52] down to you there you go [1:41:57] thank you to the board dr stanley and chair allenberg [1:42:02] um ben hampsick uh the avid club president but uh for me avid um has been a great [1:42:08] program uh because i'm a first generation to go to college and as well my parents aren't [1:42:16] from america so going to high school was hectic for me at the start but i feel it's leveled out for me and i understand [1:42:22] it better um the average program is amazing for all students and i believe all students [1:42:27] should take it because it's a great opportunity this course this course [1:42:33] course helps you get organized and get ready for college uh things like good study habits and to [1:42:39] be the best student that you can be but also avid is a very diverse program [1:42:45] and you see lots of different people and different views and as well it's very welcoming and to [1:42:52] us in avid 11 it's like a family where we're all in it together and we have each other's backs and if somebody has a [1:42:59] problem we help them as well it's very safe it's a safe area for all [1:43:04] of us and it's a welcoming place [1:43:14] i wanted you to be able to hear student voice in this because it's hard to explain and put into numbers what [1:43:21] success looks like sometimes um i know i was on the phone two weekends ago with a [1:43:26] student who graduated from our avid program who now lives in tennessee and was getting ready for finals and just [1:43:32] needed some like recognition that he was traveling the right path you know those [1:43:37] connections stay forever our first avid ninth graders that we had [1:43:42] at valley view all went to college and all graduated in four years and i have a relationship with over 50 [1:43:48] percent of them so it is a i'm going to say it's an earned shared respect [1:43:55] but at the same time it's this safe space and it's a it's just the mentality and culture of how we do school and to [1:44:01] make it exciting and not scary as well so let's talk student impact because that is what is important um we [1:44:08] do know that our elective trend is now we have gone from partially filled classes to again next year they're all [1:44:14] full so much so that i think we have 40 right now enrolled for avid 12 so we are looking to staff that and split it up [1:44:20] because it's a pretty heavy lift for an avid teacher to make sure that we've got that covered [1:44:25] um missing assignments are reduced i had mentioned that before come on [1:44:32] i'm stuck i promise it's supposed to fade in [1:44:37] everybody wish it there we go um right now our current data so it's not even end of term so [1:44:44] this is in the flash and heat of the moment we have 80 of our avid elective students earning c's are better [1:44:50] um which again that's not a hundred percent we'll get there i know we'll get there but i [1:44:56] thought okay let's just be real about where we are right now post postcovid can i say that i don't [1:45:02] even know if i can say that in the stress of school as it is that our students are still performing which we [1:45:08] appreciate all of our avid elective classes or all of our avid elective students must take an ap class we know that there's direct [1:45:15] correlation between success in college and whether or not they take an ap class they take it and they take it successfully [1:45:20] 100 of our students our avid 12 students are accepted into college already they just have to choose which one they want [1:45:27] to go to um which is awesome and attending their post-secondary options now i do want to reinforce avid isn't [1:45:32] just about the four-year college experience it is about some post-secondary experience that they are [1:45:38] set up to do um so we have had students attending normandy or attending any of [1:45:43] those like normandale any of those components as well knowing that it's on their pathway um [1:45:48] in fact i just talked to noah who was frustrated because he's not going to be done at mankato state because he had [1:45:56] because he did take a semester at normandale and i said but wait a second you're going to be ready [1:46:01] stop stressing out about it you know it's really just about talking them off the edge it's just keeping them going and then all of [1:46:08] our avid electives seniors have scholarship dollars awarded to them which [1:46:14] when we look back at data even from 2018 and 19 we were still at 100 even [1:46:21] though again some of the students were going to a two-year opportunity versus that and we've had students also [1:46:27] join the military come out for post-secondary options out of that as well so basically our main focus for all of [1:46:34] our students is to make sure that they're future ready financially prepared and removing the barriers to success and that is why [1:46:42] i brought issa with because not only i brought issa with for selfish reasons because he really is kind of our shining star but i also [1:46:49] wanted issa to be able to be on the receiving end of some celebration for [1:46:54] all of his accomplishments that he has done this year but i'm going to let isa tell his story [1:47:00] a little bit good evening school board members my name is isamin i'm currently a senior at [1:47:06] edina high school and i've been a part of avid for one year and so during my junior year i knew [1:47:12] personally that my organization organizational skills weren't the best and i didn't know how the college journey would look like and what to do [1:47:18] for next year but i knew that avid was a class that has college-ready resources and so i [1:47:24] signed up for avid my senior year and i'm glad i signed up for avid because i have gotten to meet miss [1:47:30] hanson has been one of the best teachers to come into my life but also because avat 12 has helped me [1:47:36] immensely every week ms henson would lay out what was needed to be done [1:47:42] from colleges from researching colleges to setting up the common app and working with us one-on-one in [1:47:49] in preparation for our college essays for the early action deadline [1:47:55] another 12 missed miss hinson would also compile a list of scholarships and make [1:48:00] sure every single one of us were completed by the by the deadline and going above and beyond for us [1:48:06] i remember i was missing an important part of my dell scholarship and i thought i was i already completed it [1:48:12] but it wasn't so and so at 11 20 p.m i called her [1:48:17] and by a stroke by the way a stroke of luck she picked up her phone and she completed what i was missing for me [1:48:23] which was a recommendation letter because i thought i had two but i had one [1:48:29] and so i get made it by the deadline which was 11 59 that night and so i'm very [1:48:36] grateful to her for that and to me unlike other classes avid 12 [1:48:41] is like a family like ben said and many of us come from similar situations low income more people [1:48:47] who are like in the middle class but they know they can't afford college and it's things like this which has [1:48:53] allowed us to form lifelong friendships through avid 12 and i truly believe that more people should know about it because [1:48:59] every child who struggles like me and needs support and resources deserve of it [1:49:06] so to clarify issa's accomplishments he's been named dell scholar which there are only 500 named nationally every year [1:49:13] what that means is twenty thousand dollars an award along with um computer support [1:49:18] books every year correct um they have added to the dell scholarship also this year out of coming [1:49:24] out of kovid that there is a financial mental health support meaning that if issa needs to take yoga [1:49:31] once a week they will also cover the cost of that whatever it takes or whatever support he needs it was also named a wall and [1:49:38] scholar which is four thousand dollars a year and also on a winner of the cup family [1:49:44] foundation scholarship award too and if you notice the list of colleges are those all of them that you applied to [1:49:51] oh there's a couple more i asked him to send me an impromptu list of which ones he's been accepted to he's been accepted to all of them [1:49:56] but you've made the decision to go to the university of minnesota to the u of m twin cities yeah [1:50:03] [Applause] so thank you so much for your time and [1:50:10] your patience and support in listening through all of this and what we do across our secondaries in our elementary [1:50:17] are there any questions uh before i open up to the board i just wanted to thank our students for coming [1:50:23] and presenting both of you you should be very proud of yourselves for being part of the program [1:50:28] and i know you have a proud mom back there so i just wanted to thank you for coming tonight and sharing your stories i [1:50:35] really appreciate you doing that um a question i actually had was since you said the [1:50:40] program is an application how do students know to apply or why would a [1:50:45] student apply i love that so um it starts with the sixth grade orientation so in during [1:50:51] their middle school skills class eighth grade avid students will come in and talk to the sixth graders um it also goes out in all the registration [1:50:58] materials when students are when they're getting ready to register at the middle level there is also a i'm gonna say a survey [1:51:05] about what are the types of electives you're interested in just so we can start to get a feel for it avid is included in that list so it's all normal [1:51:12] part of the language once students register for the class they'll get a link that's sent to them that says hey [1:51:19] fill out this application if they don't register for the class but they enter it but they said on the survey that they were interested in the [1:51:24] class i'll send them us the application our teachers and our [1:51:30] counselors all are fully aware of like hey i i know that you are interested in it we so there's lots of entrance points [1:51:37] for that are we coming out for the next one [1:51:48] can you guys mute we can hear all of what you're doing thank you [1:51:53] perfect so that's how they get a hold of that application and there have been students that we have interviewed [1:52:00] and um then had them fill out the application afterwards where they were like yep i'm interested but their [1:52:05] application didn't come in so we don't keep that as a gate it's very much just another piece of data information about them [1:52:12] great that my only one piece of feedback or question was some of the students [1:52:18] that would be great for this program might also have a barrier to the application process so correct [1:52:24] and i agree with you completely and that was that's always been our intentional approach is to never make it the gate [1:52:30] and yep so thank you for mentioning that i appreciate that so that was my question i'll just open [1:52:35] it up to the rest of the board director shaw i've got a couple questions thank you guys thank you both for coming and being here [1:52:41] congratulations lisa um i guess my first question is about [1:52:48] so you mentioned say you had 80 some students that you interviewed for one school for the 30-some positions [1:52:54] do you feel like of those 80 people or 80 students actually you're turning away students [1:53:00] who maybe would benefit from the class this is something that we should be saying this is actually an opportunity to expand capacity in order to expand [1:53:08] the success yeah i love that you're asking that director shot because yes i do feel that we [1:53:15] do need to evaluate whether we are reaching all of the students that we need to reach and i know we're having [1:53:21] the same i'm going to say not dilemma challenge at the high school because our reality [1:53:26] is we're sending two eighth grade full eighth grade classes into the ninth grade one section of the [1:53:32] elective as well so sometimes students will filter in and out and we'll get those numbers but as [1:53:38] far as at the middle level could i have filled two full sections with the students that applied [1:53:44] they would have been small sections they wouldn't have been a full capacity section but is there room for [1:53:51] making sure we're identifying the right student and getting the right ones to vote because that's the other part this is all about students volunteering to do [1:53:56] it they need to be the ones stepping into it as much as we want the parents to drive [1:54:02] that it really has to be their individual determination but long answer short director shaw yes i think we do [1:54:07] have capacity to expand okay and then also in that same tone what are the [1:54:12] entrance ramps so like issa you said you joined the class in 12th grade so once you get to [1:54:18] high school or even in middle school where are those entrance ramps do they only exist if there's a space open or [1:54:24] how does that work so every year we we will take new applicants for any of the [1:54:30] classes the students who are already in the avid elective class yes do get priority if they're continuing on there [1:54:36] are some students that are in the avid elective class that might not be a good fit so we do exit some students as well [1:54:42] sometimes even at semester time if it's we're not going to set kids up to fail so we make sure that's a good situation [1:54:47] for them as well but then even at the high school there are the ever as far as when they register then we'll reach out [1:54:53] to them we'll make sure all the paperwork's in place they've signed up avid contract or whatever and and look [1:54:59] to make sure that they're a good fit but again yes our students who are currently in avid have priority seating okay for [1:55:06] the next year okay and then oh i just wanted to clarify something from a funding perspective for [1:55:12] your first question and correct me if i'm wrong but unlike a lot of other programs where if you identify [1:55:19] an issue such as a student that qualifies for special education funding is attached to it this program does not [1:55:24] work that way where we get a set amount of money from the state and then [1:55:29] we basically add as many students as we possibly can [1:55:35] with that money so i just wanted to clarify that do you want to answer if we wanted to add more students it's not it doesn't [1:55:42] work the same as other programs from a financial perspective i just wanted to but aren't the teach are the teachers [1:55:47] funded out of avid or could they be funded out of an elective right like if this means we [1:55:54] have one less music class is that an fte then that goes to right it's kind of a combination so we can we do provide some [1:56:00] support of avid fte to be able to fund some of those lower enrollment sections [1:56:06] but yes one of those electives could be part of the staffing formula [1:56:11] achievement integration is a three-year plan and a three-year budget and this year we're going to be up to review it [1:56:17] and then create the next three-year plan so that'll be part of our i'm sorry next year [1:56:22] that'll be part of our conversation next year is to really look at what are the priorities that we want to put into the achievement integration plan for the [1:56:28] next three years okay and then my final question you mentioned it briefly is [1:56:34] you know there's all these building-wide strategies that i hear being talked about a lot in the middle school and you [1:56:40] mentioned briefly about some professional development at the high school level this board is really sick of me saying [1:56:46] this but i want to make sure we are really when we push this stuff up that we have the capacity at the high school [1:56:52] for our students to follow through on these skills that they've created and that are we do we have a way that we're [1:56:58] actually measuring that that's happening and that our kids aren't reaching high school and being like wait what this is different [1:57:06] yeah no we are actually so part of 9th grade and tenth grade advisory is going to have integrated avid lessons [1:57:12] incorporated in it so then it's serving two purposes it's helping the students continue on with the strategies that they're bringing forward and it's [1:57:19] reminding the staff of what these high yield strategies look like and sound like and breathe like with our students [1:57:25] so there's that piece that's happening right now like it's that's becoming an instant action moment so right now or [1:57:30] well you're saying that the curriculum will happen next that will happen next year so we've got that all in the planning and that's in play um then as [1:57:37] far as building capacity with the staff themselves every year that is part of our um a i monies is we fund five staff [1:57:44] to attend the the trainings in the summer which are pretty intense um and [1:57:50] that helps then bring back to your job likes and your departments to build so at one point the high school was at like [1:57:56] a 46 of their staff had been trained um and i [1:58:01] think that was i want to say five six years ago with all the turnover we have not been keeping pace with replacing that and so [1:58:08] i think we're only at like the low 30s right now for as far as content teachers being trained in avid strategies and so [1:58:16] that's where we're working now the other thing that we do have at our advantage is the head of pd [1:58:22] at the high school is our second most trained avid person in the district and she is phenomenal [1:58:28] about hey we're doing act vocab building strategies well guess what they all are they're all avid strategies um so we [1:58:34] integrate a lot of those experiences for this staff it's just as far as calling them officially trained [1:58:39] we're we're reworking that so it's happening and we can tell that it's happening in places with weaker walk-throughs and i go in and observe [1:58:46] teachers and see how those things look but not a problem [1:58:53] director green thank you so much for this presentation it was fantastic [1:59:00] essa and ben you guys really do represent like just outstanding work so um it was [1:59:06] really exciting to hear um about your experience so thanks for coming tonight i just um i don't really have a question [1:59:13] i have more of a comment but i just am thrilled with the growth of avid and what has transpired over the last couple [1:59:20] years i met with alyssa actually before i ran as a board member and was the first time i actually really heard about [1:59:26] avid and seeing it play out this way is just so exciting that the touch points for all of our students and the growth [1:59:32] there so um just really really well done um so that's all i got for you thank you [1:59:38] director green i appreciate it i just have one really quick question if you don't mind um so if you had to [1:59:45] articulate the one thing that you need or change to [1:59:50] make it even more successful or broadened or more impactful to more more of the students that you have access to [1:59:57] any comment that you'd wish for us to know this is where i get to dream a little [2:00:02] bit and say it out loud dr smith is like great she has the microphone no the one thing [2:00:11] no in all honesty the one thing that i have come to very much value this year [2:00:17] is the way it's working as a system it's not just about avid being a program it is about [2:00:23] it's normal to you it's normal to dr stanley it's normal to our staff [2:00:28] it's not something that's seen as remedial or those pieces so i'm really i guess the one thing is for us to [2:00:34] continue growing our transitional mindset around our transformational mindset [2:00:39] around how does this really truly help every student in edina so what that looks like feet on the [2:00:45] ground is to make sure that we continue to support that system like do we have a director district director in place who [2:00:50] can help manage the background stuff that's happening do we have super [2:00:56] excited impactful avid elective teachers sitting in those places do we have building leaders who are also building [2:01:03] capacity i love it who are um helping drive that so i think [2:01:08] that's my biggest thing director berman is that i need it to continue as a system [2:01:16] anything else karen did you have anything [2:01:22] no i was just gonna say thank you like the other board members have said and um alyssa i have had the pleasure of seeing [2:01:29] my two middle schoolers learn these things and i will also tell you as someone who teaches at a [2:01:35] community college the students that i have that have had avid are head and shoulders [2:01:42] above a lot of my other students just in terms of being prepared for the college level [2:01:49] works so avid i've seen on both ends of when they're getting into middle school and then what that looks like um [2:01:56] in higher ed too so thank you for the good work that you do and that you're doing thank you so much [2:02:05] well thank you guys so much thanks keep up the good work thank you yay [2:02:10] [Applause] [2:02:17] uh next in discussion is a policy 614 uh director green [2:02:24] thank you um so tonight we have one policy that is up for discussion policy 614 our [2:02:31] assessment plan we will bring up director d st hubert [2:02:37] if anyone has any specific questions really the changes on this policy were [2:02:42] more for consistency and update to statute and really the bulk of the changes we're [2:02:49] really expanding the definition of the assessment plan to match up with [2:02:54] accuracy of how things are being played out in the district so does anyone have any questions [2:03:06] anyone have any questions no director gabler do you have any questions from beyond [2:03:13] nope okay great jody thank you [2:03:18] you might as well stay up there yeah yes um yeah that's great so we will [2:03:23] um bring this for action at next month um the other thing i just also wanted to say too [2:03:29] with this policy is that or not just with this policy but just a reminder that there are a lot of other policies that are in committee right now [2:03:36] um including ones that have been highlighted from the board and ones that are in regular review so we have a slew [2:03:41] that are coming through here in june and july um so that's it just an update [2:03:48] thank you we're moving on to our action items do i have a motion to approve the visual arts [2:03:53] curriculum review update so moved is there a second second [2:04:00] director dc and hubert [2:04:07] this on there we go thank you thank you board members chair ellenberg dr stanley [2:04:12] um we have the visual arts curriculum review um in front of you again today it was um we had an amazing group of [2:04:19] teachers on april 18th present the highlights of the presentation and we have not had or made any changes to it [2:04:25] so if that if there are no questions um or feedback then ready for approval [2:04:32] do your board members have feedback or questions okay um we need to vote by roll call ann [2:04:40] allenberg aye aaron hi birdman hi [2:04:47] uh gabler [2:04:53] karen can you hear me okay green i shaw i [2:05:01] wallen friedman aye the visual arts curriculum review has [2:05:06] been approved thank you thank you do i have a motion to approve the vacant sword [2:05:13] vacant board seat process resolution so moved is there a second second [2:05:20] um so we um as you might have heard at the beginning of the night we um vice chair [2:05:27] wallen friedman is moving out of the state and so we have a will have a vacant board seat [2:05:34] at the beginning starting june 1st and this is a resolution [2:05:41] to codify the process that the board is recommending for [2:05:46] filling that vacancy for those that did not hear the work session earlier i want to make sure that [2:05:54] the public understands that because of the timing of the vacancy [2:05:59] that there will be two different processes going on there will be a special election [2:06:05] occurring in november that we will all of this is by state law this [2:06:12] is mandatory the special election is mandatory it's also mandatory [2:06:17] that as a board that we fill the vacancy between now and when the special election is both of those are determined [2:06:23] and dictated by state law so we will be doing both of those what is up to the board to decide is how [2:06:32] we fill that vacant board seat for the interim period before the special [2:06:38] election and that is what this process is about so that's what this resolution [2:06:44] defines is that process what the [2:06:49] board has we've talked about tonight and what is listed in this resolution is [2:06:55] for the board to directly appoint somebody and vote somebody in we reviewed [2:07:02] a lot of different recommendations that other boards have done we spoke to the msba and district legal counsel and because [2:07:09] of the timing involved in different processes in the short amount of time [2:07:14] that this appointee will actually be in place this process made the most sense to us [2:07:20] as a board with that explanation julie did you have anything to add from [2:07:26] a governance perspective i think one of the only other thing i will add is i we felt that this process [2:07:33] and this when we talked about as a board in the work session too that this process really allowed us to have the most [2:07:39] transparency and clear communication on the double processes in both pathways going at the [2:07:44] same time so are there questions or comments from [2:07:50] other board members about the process itself i said a couple questions yes um in [2:07:57] general with the if someone's interested in it and they're going through the process how do [2:08:03] they and they meet the criteria how do they go about submitting their interest to governance committee or the board in [2:08:10] general so we will probably clarify all of that at our next meeting um [2:08:16] i don't have that answer tonight to be honest so and then another question is real quick [2:08:22] too is relate i read something about the 30-day window and the feedback or the 30-day [2:08:27] window do we know what that what's the purpose of that waiting period or is there a [2:08:34] is there anything that occurs during that period so i'm not 100 clear on the purpose um [2:08:40] what um director aaron is referring to is once a [2:08:46] interim appointee is voted in by the board the state requires a 30-day [2:08:51] waiting period before the appointee can once they've been approved and then when [2:08:57] they can actually take their oath of office and sit on the board my guess is and i probably shouldn't [2:09:03] guess about anything but my guess is it's so that process can take place that [2:09:09] the members of the district can actually appeal who is appointed and so my guess is it's [2:09:16] to allow that time frame and adequate time frame for that appeal process to take place [2:09:21] um and so that's why there's that 30-day time period that's dictated by law [2:09:27] so thanks karen oh yes karen [2:09:35] oh sorry um and then dan also alluded to um [2:09:41] a question that i didn't have the answer for tonight from a timing perspective we are voting on an overarching process [2:09:48] tonight then we would have a next a follow-up meeting on the 17th where we discuss finer details of the process as [2:09:56] far as now that we've defined an overarching process how exactly will this work and [2:10:01] that would be the intent of our next meeting director shaw i just had a clarification [2:10:08] question so by approving this are we locking ourselves into [2:10:16] kind of the category of the appointee being a former board member or is there anything that needs to be changed in order so say [2:10:22] no former board member is interested no former former board member kind of who is interested fits qualifications [2:10:28] whatever it is what what are we by approving this tonight locking ourselves into kind of [2:10:34] moving forward if it doesn't work out so the resolution itself [2:10:41] we have discretion to do whatever we want the resolution itself [2:10:46] [Music] is a statement that says this is the process we would like to undertake [2:10:52] if we get to our next meeting and we decide this is our first approach [2:10:57] but this is not working and we want to do something else this does not [2:11:02] preclude us from doing anything else it's i would say it's a formal statement that [2:11:09] says this is the approach we want to take but it's not legally binding in any way okay anyway that makes sense it's [2:11:14] nothing beyond that yep that makes absolute sense thank you [2:11:20] anything else um and can you do the roll call vote for [2:11:27] this one allenberg i aaron hi birdman i [2:11:33] gabler hi green [2:11:38] shaw aye wallin friedman aye the vacant board seat process resolution [2:11:46] is approved do i have a motion to approve the resolution acknowledging the vacant board seat so moved [2:11:53] is there a second second and just for um clarification purposes [2:11:59] this is um basically simply a resolution acknowledging the vegan board seat what the title suggests it [2:12:06] puts the date on there when lenny is leaving the [2:12:12] district because what we have to do from a state statute a legal perspective is very dependent [2:12:19] upon the date on that lenny is leaving the district so this [2:12:24] specifically states the date that he's leaving the district which is really the the intent of this document [2:12:31] any questions on this document [2:12:37] allenberg aye aaron hi birdman aye gabler [2:12:46] green i shaw aye wallon friedman aye [2:12:51] the resolution acknowledging the vacant board seat is approved [2:12:56] um do i have a motion to approve the eighth grade french immersion trip to quebec hi um [2:13:04] is there a second second it was michael and dan [2:13:13] the board had a discussion earlier tonight about international trips and so for individuals that did not watch the [2:13:20] work session um i just wanted to let the community know that we did have a fairly lengthy discussion about [2:13:27] international trips in general and the new reality that we live in um [2:13:32] [Music] post coveter still with covid whatever anyone wants to define our new era as [2:13:40] and that these would be our first international trips in this era and we thought it was a worthwhile [2:13:45] discussion to have does what does this mean are there new parameters we need to have [2:13:53] are we concerned about having these international trips so we had a discussion about this [2:13:58] and we want to reiterate to the public that a couple of things one is that [2:14:05] as a district we utilize the state department's travel advisory system as guidance for allowing students to travel [2:14:11] this guidance system has covert rates built into these advisories and it's a four it's ratings [2:14:18] one two three or four if it is at a level three or four which [2:14:23] is a warning about travel then all of these are taken into consideration so i wanted to let the community know that [2:14:29] and then we now require travel insurance for all trips to prevent monetary losses for [2:14:36] families so these were some of the things that we were talking about out of our concern about the instability of travel [2:14:43] now and so i just wanted to make sure that the community knew that we were discussing [2:14:48] these things because we always have the safety of our students forefront but we also want to make sure that they [2:14:54] can experience a lot of these wonderful opportunities did you want to add anything [2:15:01] to that no i don't think so okay with that being said um does anyone have [2:15:08] any comments about this trip specifically which is the quebec trip [2:15:16] so i've got comments about a num the three trips in their entirety [2:15:22] not so much the quebec trip which is listed as a cost of about two thousand but then the next trip is at thirty four [2:15:28] hundred and the one after that is forty nine hundred and so i have struggled for years with [2:15:33] the increasing costs of these trips and the viability of some of our [2:15:38] students ever being able to afford them so and i know there's fundraising opportunities personally i think that [2:15:45] the board should take a look at the school district creating a fund [2:15:51] to actually pay for the cost of students so we take for [2:15:57] example if 10 of our population is free and reduced then we should [2:16:04] be able to have a district fund that would allow 10 of the slots to be funded [2:16:10] by the district so for example i think in the madagascar trip there's approximately 30 students [2:16:18] the district should look at paying the cost for three of those students if there are three that are interested [2:16:25] and having said that i would probably say that there should be some nominal amount that students [2:16:31] should raise to go but if it's a forty nine hundred dollar trip maybe the student has to raise five hundred dollars [2:16:37] but to sit here and say that these are opportunities for all of our kids [2:16:42] i think is not realistic i don't think that someone who is free and reduced can afford 4 900 and [2:16:49] i think that if they could raise 4 900 this may not be the best [2:16:54] resource best way to spend that money so the district if we really want these [2:17:00] opportunities we should fund it we've talked about this in the past [2:17:07] we don't want to not have these opportunities for our students but i think that if we truly believe that [2:17:12] these are opportunities we should make sure there are opportunities for everybody [2:17:19] can i i'll add something onto that because we talked about it in teaching teaching and learning too and i i thought we would see it but i might have [2:17:25] been misunderstood but we had talked about really putting together a timeline um [2:17:32] you know in our policy we talk about kind of having whether i think it's like local national international right like [2:17:38] a rotation of opportunities that would allow for the same [2:17:44] educational experience or the same desired outcome and i think as we progress out of [2:17:51] covid or into the new normal of covid kind of evaluating that timeline in a [2:17:57] holistic approach is something that we probably need to do these three are the you know we're at [2:18:02] the 12-month mark on these and and we need to look at them but moving forward i know we had discussed that in the past [2:18:08] about kind of seeing things on a holistic approach opportunities that [2:18:14] that if we can see when we are looking at an international trip we also have in front of us what were the local and [2:18:20] domestic trips that kind of uh complement this right because our policy current require currently [2:18:26] says that we should have local trips that have similar objectives but i will say that while that's an [2:18:33] improvement it's not the same correct i mean i think that it is a potential [2:18:39] you know life-changing for a student to go to madagascar and to be able to go to lake erie and do [2:18:45] the same research is not quite the same i'll also note it's not just a free and [2:18:50] reduced issue we have families that are just above that crate above that level [2:18:56] that also have a hard time meeting this and so while it might require use of our funds and maybe it requires a [2:19:03] couple less trips i do think we owe this to our students to figure out a way to [2:19:09] actually make it available to them thank you lenny [2:19:18] any other comments great thank you [2:19:24] uh we'll now vote on the um french emerging trip to quebec alan berg aye [2:19:31] arum aye birdman hi gabler [2:19:37] green i cha i wallen friedman aye the trip to quebec is approved do i have [2:19:44] a motion to approve the edina high school band trip to eastern caribbean so moved [2:19:49] is there a second second are there comments questions about this [2:19:55] specific trip [2:20:00] ellenberg aye aaron aye birdman hi gabler [2:20:07] green i shaw aye wallon friedman aye [2:20:13] the band trip to the caribbean is approved i have a motion to approve the edin high [2:20:19] school biology trip to madagascar so moved is there a second [2:20:24] second i have a couple of questions um [2:20:31] definitely consider what lenny had to say i yes madagascar is an incredibly interesting and probably dynamic [2:20:38] opportunity but the cost is is troubling i'm always curious in this type of request what was [2:20:44] else considered what is specific or unique to why madagascar at forty nine hundred dollars per student [2:20:51] versus other options that are then there i know that's not involved in this application but i'm just wondering in [2:20:57] our process or at the school's process why was this specifically picked and why should we then look at that given the [2:21:03] funding issues that might arise for certain students i was going to have jody come on thank [2:21:09] you i think i know the answer but i don't think i know it well enough to [2:21:16] well you might know more than i i do know that um the the school does take a complete process right and that the [2:21:22] teachers submit this to administration and they work on it with administration and then then it comes here to the board [2:21:28] so i don't know in specifics for the madagascar trip why that was chosen and [2:21:34] with jen not being here with us today um i can follow up with those specifics and since i'm here i do want to comment [2:21:40] on the scholarship i do appreciate that conversation and did want to add in conversation with principal carter that [2:21:47] they lenny as you noted they do try to support students in raising the dollars [2:21:52] and giving scholarships she did note that there's a lot of opportunity uh not a lot of opportunity but that often some [2:21:58] trips are fully funded from some outside agencies as well so continuing to look into that and the cost is important um [2:22:05] chair ellenberg i don't know if you have anything to add with to the why with um [2:22:11] i don't know exactly which program these are part of but these are set destinations that are set by a larger [2:22:17] science organization and it's an and i wish i knew off the top of my head but it is but it's a [2:22:23] nationally recognized science organization and they partner with organizations within these locations for [2:22:29] the science and research so um i don't believe our district even [2:22:35] chooses the look these locations they are actually set and then we're part of this excellent thank you for that [2:22:40] background that is very helpful does the operation well a case yes ring a bell [2:22:46] okay teamwork so that's that's how they get determined great thank you very much [2:22:56] sorry now i'm behind because i was trying to think through that um we'll now vote to approve the biology [2:23:02] trip to madagascar ellenberg aye aaron aye birdman aye gabler [2:23:09] hi green i shaw i wallen friedman aye [2:23:15] the biology trip is approved thank you i'm driving a motion to approve policies [2:23:21] 509 and 9 11. so moved is there a second second [2:23:28] director green so we have two policies up for action tonight policy 509 resident enrollment [2:23:34] and assignment and policy 911 use of volunteers in schools um there were no changes from our last [2:23:41] meeting so does anyone have any additional questions [2:23:47] okay fantastic i think we're ready to vote chair ellenberg um [2:23:55] we'll now vote on policies 509 and 911. ellenberg aye aram hi birdman hi gabler [2:24:05] hi green i shaw aye wallin friedman aye [2:24:10] policies 509 and 911 are approved are there any [2:24:16] committee updates from other board members [2:24:22] i have a committee update outstanding yes [2:24:27] board member um airman i from the lac have a quick update that we wanted to [2:24:33] give one just to let the community and other board members and our administration [2:24:38] know advocacy efforts during this session continue to press on and with a focus [2:24:45] primarily on trying to eliminate the special education cross subsidy a couple key things to note one i want [2:24:52] to give a big thank you to director jeff jorgensen who was interviewed for the [2:24:57] sun current in an article that just ran regarding this and regarding the board [2:25:02] resolution that we passed but director jorgensen you did a fantastic [2:25:08] job explaining the cross subsidy and that was talked about at the capitol today that article [2:25:14] with me from a couple different people and how great your comments were in explaining it so that was great [2:25:21] in addition board members with the lac were down at the capitol today took [2:25:27] part in participating of support in a press conference with a multitude of [2:25:33] education leadership partners that we work with but the lac and the district across the board and it was it had a [2:25:40] great showing with a lot of press so that was fantastic and a special shout out to our local representatives which [2:25:46] we met with also senator melissa franzen and representative heather edelson um who [2:25:52] were fantastic hosts and really spent some time talking with us so with all that said um i also wanted [2:25:58] to say that the lac has taken applications for the 2022-23 school year anyone interested um students [2:26:06] eighth graders going into ninth grade and then our freshman sophomores and juniors if you're listening please apply [2:26:12] and then community members and parents all who live in edina or have students that are enrolled in the district are [2:26:19] also encouraged to apply those that application process is open until may 18th [2:26:25] so go to the edina website and you can find the information and i did bring one visual this was from [2:26:31] the capitol today our kids matter so it was great so [2:26:37] we're keeping on um and that is it unless anyone has any questions for me on that [2:26:43] okay thank you sure any superintendent updates no i don't have any this evening [2:26:50] outstanding okay if there's nothing else we will adjourn the meeting uh thank you [2:26:56] everyone [2:27:03] nine o'clock [2:33:47] you