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[19:57] evenight is Monday January 6th and we do have a quorum so I will call this meeting to

[20:04] order the first order of business is agenda approval do I have a motion to approve the agenda for tonight's work

[20:10] session meeting thank you sorry we will vote to

[20:15] approve our agenda all those in favor say I I any opposed tonight's agenda is approved our

[20:22] first item up for discussion tonight is to hear the results of the EPS 2024 resident survey conducted by by the

[20:29] Morris letherman group I'd like to welcome up Peter letherman of the Morris letherman group and Dr Stanley to lead

[20:34] us through the

[20:43] discussion thanks um chair G chair jaet appreciate that

[20:51] I'm really excited to have um Peter here to provide an overview we actually um

[20:58] run the survey about every year to 18 months um with the community it's a statistically valid and

[21:05] reliable survey and um questions are often times similar we may add some

[21:10] additional questions in um to get a better understanding of the information

[21:16] but um Peter will be able to share the dates that the survey was ran and um

[21:22] people will go through the information in detail and there will be an opp opportunity for your in reactions

[21:29] questions responses super it's a pleasure to be here I see new faces now

[21:34] on the Schoolboard this is probably only my 20th itation of the ad school board over the years um since it's a work

[21:41] session and there's a lot of information feel free if you have a question on a specific slide to say you know let's

[21:47] have a clarification said we get to slide 24 and something doesn't make sense so uh feel free to interrupt me at

[21:54] any time to review with you what we undertook and it's been pretty standard uh over the years it varies a little bit

[22:01] if you're looking at funding requests for the years um we spoke of 400 randomly selected residents across the

[22:07] school district um and then within that sample there's approximately 25% of

[22:12] parents so there's about a 100 parents in the 400 sample so then we call an additional 300 I pull out the 100

[22:20] parents in the main sample put those together and now we have a statistically valid sample of 400 of parents uh it's

[22:28] it's a the savings to the district I don't have to call two individual samples of 400 we have 100 that are

[22:33] overlap each sample is projectable to plus or minus 5% and 95 out of 100 cases

[22:39] margin of VAR is determined by the size of the sample not the percent of the population so a 400 in the school

[22:46] district a 400 in henan county or 400 in the state of Minnesota is always plus or

[22:51] minus 5% uh average interview time was 13 minutes uh we waited till after the

[22:57] election so people were more than happy to chat with us it was all over um so the non-response rate was 6 and a half%

[23:04] and you can see um the the T the dates were between the 7th and 22nd of

[23:11] November putting up some demographics so you can see the profile of both surveys

[23:17] uh for the purpose of the presentation the overall results are blue the parent

[23:22] results are green um how long has the person lived in the school district um

[23:28] in the overall sample the typical residents been in the community for about 16 years uh for parents it comes

[23:35] in at about eight years uh in the overall 12% of the community has a

[23:41] preschooler or an infant amongst parents it's 31% uh the community as a whole as you

[23:48] can see is 25% uh households attending the D Public Schools 71% then are empty nesters and

[23:56] once again empty nester does not indicate an age it's lack of presence of a child so we could have a 24y old in

[24:03] here if they don't have a child they're an empty nester so in the overall results your core constituency is about

[24:10] one and four continuing with the demographics the median age for a resident in the

[24:17] community is about 48 years old for parents it's about 36 years old uh

[24:23] highly educated in Nina just short of a majority are college graduates uh in the

[24:29] overall sample 60 60% of parents are college graduates and that includes

[24:34] master's degrees Advanced degrees Beyond a four-year Bachelor ethnicity the parent Community

[24:41] is more diverse than the community as a whole 72% overall indicated white 63%

[24:48] amongst parents uh with 177% African-American amongst parents 6%

[24:53] Hispanic Latino 9% Asian Pacific Islander and 5% indic that they were

[24:59] something else or multi-racial men and women were separated by two points um

[25:04] more home ownership amongst parents uh over on the community just over one in5

[25:10] our renters uh amongst uh the parents it's about one and

[25:16] eight any questions on methodology demographics all right the survey says

[25:24] and I'm going to start the caveat up front for those that have been on the board you can see the trend um that

[25:31] happened between 20 and 21 okay public opinion on quality on education as a

[25:37] whole it's apples and oranges to compare it back to what it was before the pandemic just as a note um you saw the

[25:45] drop in the excellent rating what you continue to see if we combine the uh the

[25:53] favorable it was 93% in 2020 it's now 90% in 2024 it's just a shift in

[26:01] enthusiasm and that's what's happened across the state the typical drop right

[26:07] now is about 35% from what the excellent rating was to what it is currently there's only one

[26:14] school district that actually has a higher excellent rating today than they did before the pandemic everybody else

[26:21] the norm drop is about 35% what you have gone against Trend and

[26:26] what we're seeing in the last 18 months is the shift from good to only fair the

[26:33] norm favorable rating right now is 80% which means 20% in school districts

[26:39] are rating the quality of Education as only fair you have a wall they've

[26:44] shifted from excellent to good but you don't have that spill over now into the

[26:49] only fair poor category the norm excellent rating which differentiates school districts before the pandemic the

[26:56] norm was 22% so you were more than double at 50% um the norm right now is

[27:03] 11% so you're almost three times the norm um but you have that drop but you

[27:08] don't have the spillover now into the unfavorable category when people think about the ad

[27:15] schools what do they like most the next two questions are open-ended they can tell us anything and we collapse them

[27:21] down into categories both groups uh combine to have at the top good teachers

[27:27] 23 26% but if we combine some categories and we look at the programming side

[27:34] what's being taught the variety of programs in the broad curriculum uh brings it up to 25 and

[27:41] 24% basically a statistical tie with what with the teachers then combine the

[27:47] quality of the academics the excellent academics the good academics High test

[27:53] scores that actually combines both categories to about 30%

[27:58] um so you do have these are the normal three categories it varies from District to District some are very centered on

[28:05] programming some on quality some on Personnel you've always had a real tight range between the three but what always

[28:12] leads the list in done going back to the 90s is the overall academic quality

[28:17] provided in the schools what's the most serious issue facing the district high taxes right at

[28:25] the top that is a 2020 2 change that we saw um everybody got their assessment in

[28:32] the spring of 22 and they were happy uh things were up 20 25% and I swear only

[28:38] about five people in the entire State realized what that was going to do to their taxes November 15 of 2022 somebody

[28:45] flipped the light switch on and so before 22 the norm on high taxes had

[28:51] gone down to about 8% the norm now is 15 to 20% and it's probably going to go

[28:56] higher now with what happen in many communities um the lack of funding

[29:01] typically it's about one and five in school districts currently um you do have a heighten awareness in this

[29:08] District of Staff shortages um that has been growing uh the pandemic exacerbated

[29:14] that in 2122 uh but that 14% is about double than what we typically see everything

[29:21] else is in single digits uh the key is you still have at the bottom a reservoir

[29:26] of Goodwill the nothing those are boosters there are no problems in the school district um before the pandemic

[29:33] the norm was about 10% boosters about one and 10 we're down to about 5% right

[29:39] now boosters so you're about 5x on the community as a whole and one in five

[29:45] parents are core boosters it's a great position to be a question on the Texas

[29:50] um because this is their statement that it wasn't asked correct where you gave them choices this is their statement

[29:56] they didn't necessarily differentiate between the high taxes related to the school district versus the overall tax

[30:01] bur that their experience in property tax no most people have you know yeah we

[30:06] we'll go in depth sometimes in the city county school district it's just like people don't know the difference between

[30:11] operating Levy and a bond refer yeah yeah absolutely thank you for that

[30:17] clarification now we saw that shift in the quality of Education um from

[30:22] excellent to good how do people think it's moving though compared to three years ago we're not pitting it against

[30:29] 2020 or 2019 it's not a fair comparison from basically the pandemic kind of

[30:35] winding down um in 21 um you do have a

[30:40] lot of people think that there's still positive momentum so 46% say it's better

[30:45] than three years ago to 6% worse um it's better than a 7:1 ratio the norm right

[30:51] now is 3:1 on parents it's a 50 to9 ratio so even if there are concerns are

[30:58] diminishing enthusiasm people do see momentum that things are improving when

[31:03] it comes to the Quality how does the district do on meeting the learning needs of all

[31:09] students some uh some only some are very few um that 60% is very strong um the

[31:17] norm right now it's dropped the pandemic uh caused it to drop the norm is about 45% um amongst parents it's 52% it's a

[31:25] stringent standard to say all students students learning needs are being met um so the key takeaway is it's an

[31:31] outstanding rating one of the top two uh that we have in the last two years now

[31:37] we do follow up with those that say some or very few and say what students what

[31:42] type of students learning needs are not being met it is the underachiever it's the struggling student and that has been

[31:48] the theme of the pandemic uh that's where the concern is you know I always say you know 30 years ago when I started

[31:54] doing this it was all about gifted and talented then it was the average student being lost 15 years ago now it's really

[32:02] a concern about underachieving and struggling students How concerned are they about

[32:09] learning loss during the pandemic overall in the community it's Abad a bit we asked this question for

[32:15] the first time last year it's down about eight points it's now 45% saying they're

[32:21] either very or somewhat uh 55% not to or not at all there is more concern amongst

[32:27] parents 56 to 43 but that's come down a little bit um so the concern on the learning

[32:35] loss you know and this kind of dovetails into the momentum do they think it's better or worse we saw a vast majority

[32:42] saying it's getting better than worse so it's starting to be evaded what's the most important

[32:49] indicator of a high quality education and we gave them these six options they

[32:54] could tell us when they think of a highquality school district District what's the most important indicator it's

[33:01] the broad curriculum serving all we already saw it earlier just in the top of the Mind response followed by the

[33:07] number of students going on for further education the reasonable number in classrooms standardized test scores uh

[33:16] and state-of-the-art Technology now test scores one note that has dropped a

[33:21] little bit in Dina um and so what we saw in the last couple years uh is that go

[33:28] to about 25% um it going back in the day uh to

[33:35] the days of w With No Child Left Behind it was a big demand to test kids all the

[33:40] time um and then people got exhausted with testing kids all the time and it wasn't the most accurate indicator what

[33:47] we found in the data now is especially for non-parents test scores of the touch Point into a school district um and

[33:54] that's what gets the press that what shows up on social media post Head News head newspaper headlines all those sorts

[34:01] of things it's abated a little bit um 5 years ago that number was in single digits even in he died so it's still

[34:08] there in the background but the three primary are the broad curriculum those going on for further education in the

[34:15] reasonable numbering classrooms this is what's important now how do they rate

[34:20] the school the D School District on each indicator well let's go the first the number one was broad curriculum serving

[34:27] la 90% favorable overall amongst parents 87% the next was uh graduates going on

[34:34] for further education 87 and 92% the top two overwhelmingly

[34:41] positively rated with EO the the the third one is always kind of the hangout

[34:47] is the class size issue uh still though uh you had 67% rating them reasonable

[34:55] overall amongst parents 61 % now the key word on this is reasonable uh because

[35:01] what's reasonable to me graduating from Blain High School in 1990 and somebody that graduated from Babi in 1990 is

[35:10] completely different that's what it's based on is a person's experience um so

[35:15] this is more of a notion so overall though it still Nets out positive as

[35:21] opposed to negative on that and then standardized test scores um very high 86

[35:28] 92% um and then technology you saw technology everybody's kind of exhausted by technology uh since the pandemic very

[35:36] concerned um so it's always technology the key was in working on the tech Levy

[35:41] here 2021 it was all about technology in the classroom U but it's highly rated 91

[35:48] and 88% description of the din Public Schools do they agree that the

[35:55] description applies uh the highest rated is the promotion of Excellence 96% in

[36:02] each category High achieving 94 and 92 an educational leader

[36:09] 8692 uh the district focused on equity and inclusion 8289 willing to take risk 8483 in

[36:18] meeting the needs of all 86 and 79 we already talked about meeting the learning needs of all uh with that uh

[36:25] but still the the theme the brand of Edina that people agree with they still

[36:30] see is the promotion of Excellence High achieving and an educational

[36:37] leader which is the most important of the description is committed to meeting

[36:42] the learning needs of all it goes back to what they value the most importantly everything

[36:49] else pales in comparison we asked about six areas of

[36:55] study and we asked this is a very important area for students in need Dina Public Schools somewhat important not

[37:02] too important not at all important what's the rate on the chart is the very important because if we add in the

[37:09] somewhat important it's 81% combined or higher so all of them are at least

[37:16] somewhat important the hierarchy comes in looking at the intense very important

[37:21] category and it steam both sets both samples agree 76 and 6 6 6% work-based

[37:29] learning exploring career Pathways Early Learning transition program and Global

[37:35] Studies now that doesn't mean that Global Studies is not a priority because if we combine in the somewhat important

[37:42] it's over 80% this just shows you the hierarchy in the minds and they actually

[37:47] mesh the community's importance and focus areas meshes with the

[37:54] parents are there concerns about curriculum um this has been a standard question

[37:59] that we've asked any Dina since the center for the American experiment back in 2017 um and it really hasn't changed

[38:07] it's been about 80% of people saying no it's not a concern amongst parents it's

[38:13] 82% uh if we ask those that said yes they have concerns what are their

[38:18] concerns uh two liberal nine and 8% uh gender identity LGBT scattered um and

[38:26] then unsure um so it is it's been pretty standard uh that there's about eight out

[38:32] of 10 people that do not have concerns overall rating of Technology

[38:39] opportunities in the district 81% favorable in the community overall

[38:44] amongst parents 89% some specific perceptions of the

[38:50] district first off does the district spend taxpayers money effectively and efficiently uh it maintains it the

[38:58] district maintains its rating of over 80% um the norm on this right now is at

[39:04] 59% um so you're bet almost 25% higher than the norm on this question are the

[39:10] schools a good value for the investment absolutely it's never been a question here better than 90% have you spent past

[39:19] referendum funds responsibly absolutely better than 80% normally this comes in

[39:24] at about 70% so you're about 10 points higher than the norm what about are you

[39:30] held accountable enough for the education provided to students absolutely the high going back to 22

[39:38] almost 90% uh really really impressive movement on this question this one really has

[39:44] laed behind recovery of the pandemic and the question is basically the district does a good job of involving the

[39:50] community in decisions um obviously in 2021 it was really difficult to involve

[39:57] the community and anything um and so the norm dropped down to about 65% from

[40:04] 75% it's come back up but it's come back up into about the 70 75% range you're

[40:10] almost at 90% agreeing with that um that people do have a sense of uh feeling

[40:17] that they can have a say a sense of empowerment are they satisfied with decision making well you can see the

[40:24] further we get away from the pandemic and all the decisions that that had to be made the better people feel about

[40:29] decision making uh 81 to13 uh almost a 7 to1 ratio on that this outstanding the

[40:36] norm on that right now is about four to one I just a question go back two slides

[40:42] the spent pest referendum responsibility can you just clarify that once again the question is based on did we in past

[40:48] referendums did we spend it properly Des other yes okay the district has spent past referendum funds responsibly great

[40:55] thank you last set um of perceptions uh do they

[41:02] trust you to do what's right for the children absolutely up to 90% are they proud and would recommend the din Public

[41:09] Schools absolutely 89% and in discussing potential funding

[41:14] requests in 2025 um we asked the question the schools are a good value a good

[41:20] investment and i would support a property tax increase to protect that investment the key on this question is

[41:26] always a disagreement uh because that tells you the core opposition we're not telling them if it's an operating Levy

[41:33] or a bond referendum if it's 50 bucks a month or 50 bucks a year in concept the

[41:39] core no uh you have 16% disagreeing with that the norm last year and all the

[41:47] referendums we worked on uh was 30% core no um it's get that's getting to the

[41:54] high side which is why we only saw 41% of ref funding requests passed last year

[41:59] because that core no started to grow based on primarily property tax issues

[42:04] um so this doesn't mean anything would P everything would pass it simply means the lower that number is the more

[42:11] willingness there is to have a discussion you don't have the reflects of I'm against this because I'm against

[42:16] the property tax increase Peter do you have just off the top of your head how

[42:21] those numbers have I mean the Blue Line pretty consistent but going back even further back have we had much above 16

[42:29] for opposition oh you've been in the 20s before absolutely especially I go back

[42:35] to the Jessie Venture yeah you have to go back yeah go go back 25 years um in

[42:42] in that time period I you know typically it's been in that 15 to low 20s

[42:49] range you've always you've always had a public that's willing to have the

[42:55] discussion they're not the reflex of no job performance ratings across the

[43:02] board outstanding on the school board 7520 uh the norm right now is

[43:09] 5840 on the administration and superintendent 7620 it's a almost a 4:1

[43:17] ratio um and the norm ratio right now is 2:1 uh positive um it continues though

[43:23] this also shows me that the district and it always always has been the case here I can always tell a dysfunctional School

[43:30] District if the board's High the administration's lower vice versa the

[43:35] the the community is picking up on dissonance it's basically a one for one they see it as a unit the governance and

[43:43] the administration closer you get to the kids more favorability and we see that

[43:48] principles 82 uh teachers 90% uh teachers are about 10 points higher than

[43:55] the norm the norm dropped during the pandemic on teachers where it was typically between 90 and 95% the norm

[44:02] right now is about 82% so an outstanding raing on teachers overall assessment of financial

[44:09] management then uh 74% uh favorable the norm on this right

[44:14] now is 52% um so if we look at the fiscal credibility of the district it remains

[44:20] in good stad looking back at all the questions throughout the survey that are seated on financial management

[44:28] a few questions on a potential funding request uh first off if they heard the district was going to ask for a property

[44:36] tax increase are they for all are they against all or are they persuadable uh you actually have um 3%

[44:45] more support at the outset than core opposition 22% to

[44:51] 19% the key is obviously going to be the 58% where your atypical this and what

[44:57] we've seen you know in the 90s we used to have 80% say they're persuadable and

[45:05] 20% said because keep in mind we haven't told them what the funds are going to be used for I say these people have made up

[45:12] their mind with absolutely no information they're either for it or against it regardless of the

[45:18] information um we're down now in 22 and 23 the norm persuadable right now is

[45:25] 45% which means more than half the people have made up their mind with no information you have a lot more

[45:31] persuadable people than we've seen in many years in the district and a lot

[45:37] less in the position that they've already made up the mind but those that have made up their mind it's 3% more

[45:44] supporters to opposition now our Let's Make a Deal question if they heard the district was

[45:51] going to Tas for a tax increase for a bond referendum what's a reasonable dollar amount first off the nothing we

[45:59] always want that to be below 35% you're at 20% uh 177% say $5 a month uh 23% say

[46:09] $10 a month and we have 31% that say $15 a month or higher the norm comes in the

[46:15] median comes in R it about 12 bucks a month about 150 bucks a year at the outset now is that number set in stone

[46:23] absolutely not it's meant to give you an indication the further you go from that number the the more difficulty there is

[46:30] in passing it but the most important thing is not only the number but what

[46:35] the funding's used for so that's why we went through a list of four things and asked would you support a property tax

[46:43] increase for each of these purposes you can see you have support majority

[46:48] support for everything you have extraordinarily High support for Safety and Security Early Learning space and

[46:56] the transition programs T even on sustainability and green initiatives

[47:02] 5836 you don't have anything that's a deal King where I come in and it has 40%

[47:07] support 55% opposition that then drives down the the dollar amount people will

[47:14] support but any sort of package that primarily is focused on the top three would have a great chance of success

[47:21] Peter when you ask this question do you define for respondents what a transition

[47:27] program is we told

[47:37] them space for a transition program for 18 to 22 year olds with special

[47:43] needs and then it just so everybody then Safety and Security improvements additional space for the early learning

[47:49] and sustainability and green initiatives such as electric buses and the infrastructure required to support them

[48:00] finally turning to Communications how informed do people feel about decisions um that the

[48:07] district makes um this time around 78% overall if we go look at the Blue

[48:13] Bar rates it positively amongst parents it goes to 93% the norm for the community right now

[48:20] there's there there's been a disconnect the pandemic especially for non-parents non parents disconnected all

[48:28] over the place um and actually I just yeah even from City uh we just see

[48:33] higher levels of uncertainty they're not focused state issues international issues Federal issues that was the focus

[48:41] um so the norm on the variance somewhat informed right now is about 65% um parents are your harshest critics

[48:48] because they need to be informed a lot they need information so the norm on the

[48:54] parents is about 85% I'm just outstanding on folks feeling informed what about feeling informed in

[49:01] a timely manner absolutely the same thing uh and if especially if we look at

[49:07] parents the timely manner is the most important it's at

[49:12] 83% what are folks principal source of information it's very different not

[49:18] surprisingly uh for the community as a whole whole it's the newsletter followed by the website the Grapevine always has

[49:26] has been always will be alive in ly Dina uh at 16% local newspaper and the E

[49:33] newsletter and email for parents it's dominated by electronic it's email and

[49:38] the and E newsletter followed by the website um and then the

[49:44] newsletter how do they prefer to receive information if we look at this I look at

[49:50] this push versus pole print versus electronic uh for the community as a

[49:55] whole do they want to hold some something in their hand 29% say the district newsletter 9% say the local

[50:02] newspaper just show to 40% want to hold something in their hand on the flip side

[50:07] on electronic it's 16% website the E newsletter uh social

[50:13] media you have about 40% falling in that category you do have parents that's

[50:21] interesting um for the community as a whole you have one in 10 people that prefer word of

[50:27] this is this is how the metropolitan area has become small town as we've seen

[50:33] local newspapers disappear not cover districts like they have been there are many school districts that in the metro

[50:39] area the number one source is the great line and people are fine with that they love it um but so you do have a

[50:46] preference here um of 11% uh for parents you do have one in 10 that prefer to

[50:52] receive their information from teachers and and from employees which is important to get that evaluation of how

[50:58] people feel about the teachers and we saw that so extraordinarily highly

[51:03] rated and then you can see the true impact of the Great Vine if we go through and ask individual sources is it

[51:10] a major source minor Source or not a source at all what's a radar the major and minor if we look what leads the list

[51:18] uh at the hierarchy of major it's District newsletter if we look at the combined it's the informal discussions

[51:24] with friends and family at almost 75% nothing ever changes uh the website

[51:30] teachers and employees social media down the list what about parents changes a little bit um with the

[51:38] district website but still you can see the heavy Reliance on teachers and employees the newsletter e newsletter

[51:45] and then they also tap in to the friends family and other parents um would we

[51:50] typically has always been with the grade line it's always been predominantly parents it's often centered around ECF

[51:57] uh Early Learning programs and youth sports associations the new Dynamic into

[52:03] the Grapevine is older men who used to read the

[52:08] newspaper doesn't cover it like it used to they're not going to go to the website they're just going to go out for

[52:14] breakfast with their buddies and talk about it and it just happens all across the metro area is the traditional thing

[52:20] or not so with that I could say overall a very positive study a lot of

[52:28] rebounding uh rebounds in the in the um overall assessment of the district that

[52:36] you know those shifts that we saw we still don't see though that shift back

[52:41] from good to Excell on the quality of Education that's you know I call it the

[52:46] gordian KN for K12 education uh the district that figures that out will be

[52:52] you know have the most success you know what people value it's the broad curriculum for all as the success of

[52:59] students going on um and then looking at a potential Bond referendum um It lines

[53:04] up obviously this was a more General survey looking that we didn't test a package for the district to see how the

[53:10] community you know it will cost x million dollar and it will be this amount um but at the outset there's a

[53:17] willingness in the community to have a discussion about it so I'd be happy to answer any questions you have

[53:27] M what questions do you have

[53:35] for I guess I um sorry I to give a kid a ride so I was listening under the the

[53:42] live the live stream but um I didn't hear this part but um when we ask our

[53:47] questions like on um slide 17 about concerns about curriculum is that what

[53:53] we're hearing back is that pretty open-ended or are we saying it's open eded okay yeah we we the question is

[53:59] raised do you have any concerns and you see that the percent saying no and then

[54:04] if they say yes then we say what are those concerns yeah so it's not so some

[54:09] districts have gone in depth and said okay let's test all of these curriculum areas and find out if people are

[54:16] concerned any D we just done the broad question so they can tell us back if

[54:21] they have those concerns I I was going to say I appreciate you guys for for doing it way because I think it's a more

[54:27] Rich um answer and um looking at the referendum questions on slide

[54:34] 25 do we have a sense from respondents saying you know

[54:40] I'm comfortable with $10 per month on my property taxes are I'm comfortable with $30 do we have a sense of where they

[54:47] fall on the property tax chart mean meaning like are these Corr respondents

[54:52] with say a $2 million home are these people with A500 home because that's a different yeah

[54:58] 100% yeah I mean what yeah what we because it's a broad spectrum in doing

[55:03] this um we always we always tell clients apply the median the medi so in this case it's

[55:11] about 150 bucks a year apply that to the average home Mino okay um as you're

[55:17] calculating that now I will also add for the caveat though because you have such

[55:23] high support um for all four components but especially the top three there's

[55:31] elasticity up on that number the example I always use Richfield about a decade

[55:36] ago I came in with you know a very more broader survey on the bond referendum

[55:42] and it came in at 10 bucks a month and for that Bond referendum they had about 15 different components because they

[55:48] hadn't improved buildings in a long time they had minimum 70% support for every

[55:54] single item the entire list um they went for $27 a month because it

[56:00] will drive up support when people value what it is and it pass 65 35 on the flip

[56:07] side that districts come under that number throw in an ice arena or

[56:13] something people don't like and then it'll fail so that's at about 150 bucks is kind of the starting point to realize

[56:20] but you don't have a deal killer in the bunch here so there would be potential

[56:26] a willingness to go higher on that Y and then um I want to talk a little bit source of

[56:33] info but I just um I wanted to give kudos to our Communications Department really where um I'm a newspaper guy so

[56:42] the death of really local news kills me but I'm I'm really um happy to see our district website was number one

[56:48] newsletters number three El newsletter was four um social media with District

[56:53] social media was seven um earlier we had talked about having a budget task force and maybe having

[57:00] communication linked to that I just kind of bang that drum again saying I think that would be important for us to do

[57:05] that because I feel like that's where our our parents are really getting information and we can control that information and otherwise I mean people

[57:11] are going to get it either way and whether talking to friends or teachers or whoever um I would rather if we can

[57:20] continue to um give that information especially if parents are are looking forward um I think that was all I have

[57:27] thank you for the information I really

[57:34] appreciate um I'm curious with all the other surveys you're doing across the

[57:40] state um are you seeing for the future not just by referendum but just the

[57:46] future about trends of where things are going postco and so on so forth was there anything you saw in our results

[57:53] that's indicative of what you think the future is and positive or the negative something I'm just looking for sort of

[58:00] future tensing for for things if there's anything good or bad

[58:06] um yeah a couple things when it comes to you know like I

[58:12] mentioned people have the concern in the quality of education and they have a fundamental

[58:20] dissonance on education funding yes they are more confused now than

[58:27] ever on the adequacy of funding um it is

[58:32] driven by the governor and the legislator's

[58:38] Victory laps in 21 and 23 um and then at the same time hearing

[58:44] District after District making Cuts yeah people don't know what to think about it

[58:50] um I'm going to do we we do multiple State wides as a company because my

[58:56] business partner I can't stand it when you have your own phone bank you can just do surveys and then you share it with clients uh we're going to do

[59:02] another one uh because there's something we need to tap in to try to understand

[59:07] with what happened in November it's not enough to Discount that only 40% of

[59:14] school districts passed a referendum in November because of the presidential

[59:19] race because if you look next door in Wisconsin Trump won that state at 80% of

[59:25] school district pass their referendum so you have a very clear you

[59:30] have a counter example right next door and there are many theories and many

[59:38] hypothesis um that we want to tap into it goes just beyond the adequacy of

[59:44] funding question um but I mean yours Still

[59:50] Remains I think yours would be the empty um because like you can have

[59:56] shifts you know the es and flows if it if it's from excellent to good or

[1:00:01] strongly agreed to agree that's easier to rebound it's it's easier to make

[1:00:07] somebody go from good to excellent than only fair to good that requires a

[1:00:12] conversion process um a lot of districts we see in the data are in the position

[1:00:19] they're going to have to start changing people's minds um you're not in that position

[1:00:26] the goal now is increasing the enthusiasm uh by showing them you know

[1:00:33] what they value the broad curriculum the success of the students uh the academic

[1:00:39] quality all of those sorts of aspects do you think that there's a more specific survey that we should be

[1:00:45] considering doing in the next six to 12 months to get at not just from the referendum standpoint but when we look

[1:00:51] at um the serious issues that people were raising in ter even though n was the greatest category but in in terms of

[1:00:58] the lack of funding or the staff shortages they're all interrelated to one another because they don't understand their connective points to

[1:01:05] those things you think that we need to Dig Down Deeper into understanding what people's well it sound odd for a vendor

[1:01:11] to say no but I would say no okay yeah I mean

[1:01:17] because it's not unusual okay if there was something that made me scratch my head and say this might War there

[1:01:26] there's there's nothing atypical in that you know I I would suggest always you

[1:01:31] know if you do go for a bond referendum you would want us to test a specific package I mean that's just the history

[1:01:38] excuse me but as far as what I see in the data to dive down um I I think you

[1:01:44] know and I I'll share with the superintendent and you know out do it with amsd and SBA Schoolboard

[1:01:51] Association all that when we do our our own survey I think that data will shed

[1:01:59] more light on what's going on and can be applied now um

[1:02:04] so but I appreciate that thank

[1:02:13] you I don't have a question but I do um about that communication slide and

[1:02:20] Elliot kind of talked about it too to me that's one of a bright spots I mean there was a lot of bright spots I think there's a lot of great things happening

[1:02:27] um but you know when we think about those older or people I should say the people

[1:02:33] that do not have children in the schools um I know one of

[1:02:39] the things that we'll sometimes hear is when you age when your children age out all of a sudden you get cut off from any

[1:02:46] kind of District communication and that might be an opportunity for us to either

[1:02:51] allow parents to opt in or allow just general public to to receive the buzz

[1:02:57] because there are so many wonderful things that are happening and it'll give them a glimpse especially now with the

[1:03:03] sun current being male only an opportunity for us to be the source of information into households that don't

[1:03:11] have children I I mean I would I would agree whatever you know the the tension

[1:03:16] always with electronic it's it's the push versus pole uh nature of it and

[1:03:22] that's when you find pretty consist consistently if somebody's not a stakeholder in something they're not

[1:03:29] going to go pull the information um and so any opportunity

[1:03:35] you have to give them that if they want to pull it I would absolutely allow that

[1:03:41] I mean it's just it's a it's a whole different world um you know and mostly

[1:03:47] you know when your kids graduate you're done um uh you you're excited about that

[1:03:53] uh but I think any opportunity you can because you do not have I mean from the results you do not have a poison

[1:04:01] greatpine but you know nature abor a vacuum and it depends what goes into

[1:04:06] that grap Vine um so as much you know I think to your point it's the newsletter

[1:04:12] it's the website they're getting the information from the school district it's not somebody else it's not baseb

[1:04:20] post it's not any of that I I think that those opportun I think it it's it's a way to offer a pole Source from a push

[1:04:28] yeah I think it's and knowing that so much of our city does not have I mean I know at one point the statistic is that

[1:04:34] two-thirds of households don't have children and so if it's that men's group

[1:04:40] at having breakfast and one of the men has read the newsletter that then becomes what absolutely is being shared

[1:04:46] with that group so that was just kind of where I thought like how do we capitalize on that yeah and I think all those tactics are played the example I

[1:04:53] was used years ago Roger jro the former superintendent of Anoka Anan um for

[1:04:59] their referendum in 2003 2004 this epicenter of the largest school district

[1:05:06] the great by the epicenter of Anoka hant was the hardies on Main Street in Anoka there are about 50 guys that on a

[1:05:14] regular basis had breakfast for those six months leading into the referendum

[1:05:19] Roger went and had breakfast once a month with that group because back in

[1:05:25] those days could not you know email was in its infancy and everything he wanted to be sure that the district was

[1:05:33] providing the information going into that gra Vine so to your point that's an effective way to do it in the Modern Age

[1:05:39] the electronic way you just need one person so if you hear something social media said this no actually I got this

[1:05:46] from the newsletter and this is the case I think it's a fantastic way now you think about hot ham and

[1:05:52] cheese at Hardy early has gone

[1:06:00] around board members any final questions I one more I guess this is more just general I could uh have you witnessed

[1:06:07] any fatigue we're talking about distri for um L have you witnessed any fatigue

[1:06:13] in districts that have gone out for operating and failed gone out for operating and failed a couple years you

[1:06:19] voted do you noticed any fatigue in voters at that point or is it more just the district didn't Maybe convert enough

[1:06:26] of those people from no to maybe uh the fatigue well I'm

[1:06:32] sorry the first fatigue is always with the volunteers um right off the bat uh when

[1:06:38] you do that um if you do it well and that's why I don't believe in dress

[1:06:44] rehearsals I've had you know some super well we always have to fail the first one no then the Public's exhausted your

[1:06:49] volunteers are exhausted um you you don't do dress rehearsals you you go to

[1:06:55] win um but for you know some districts Through The Years um like Lakeville in

[1:07:02] the 90s with the growth you literally it was every November we need an elementary

[1:07:09] school middle school two more elementary schools every when you're in that

[1:07:14] situation where there would be fatigue with voters you have to tell them the

[1:07:19] whole story you don't tell them you don't just give them a chapter I was

[1:07:24] just talking to a super superintendent today saying okay we're going need to do a bond referendum this year and an operating Levy the following year okay

[1:07:31] you just don't ignore the operating Lev it's part of the story um and you it you make them understand and that can overt

[1:07:38] tell oh they're coming again because like I said 80% of people have no idea it's the idea between a bond and

[1:07:44] operating so you can overcome it with effective communication as long as you don't lose that's the key you don't want

[1:07:51] to be like some districts you know one called me said well we've lost six times in a row I like call somebody

[1:08:00] else but um that that becomes fatigue because it's always you if you if you

[1:08:06] could lose one you lose the second one it becomes it goes from heck no to never

[1:08:13] and then that's really a Monumental shift um but the fatigue portion it it's

[1:08:18] more volunteers and anything else you know opponents will say they're always

[1:08:24] asking but the Community as a whole

[1:08:30] no okay well thank you Peter it's to see

[1:08:36] you all right and then next up on our agenda we have our superintendent

[1:08:42] superintendent search update from the governance committee so uh just as a

[1:08:47] reminder that at our December 19th special meeting of the board the board authorized the governance committee to

[1:08:55] begin work on gathering information about the current hiring landscape timeline short and long-term

[1:09:02] options and potential search firms so since that meeting the governance committee has been working on gathering

[1:09:09] this information to provide to the whole board for further discussion so the time tonight is to provide the board and the

[1:09:15] public with the opportunity to hear about the information that's been gathered and ask questions provide

[1:09:21] reactions and discuss our next steps so before we dig into this document does

[1:09:26] anybody have any questions okay all right and uh if

[1:09:34] anyone is watching at home there is a document on the board packet that um we'll be working through this evening um

[1:09:41] and just so Dan the governance committee which is Dan arum Eric allenberg and

[1:09:47] myself have been working since that uh December 20th meeting looking at and you

[1:09:53] can see on this document that top two bullets uh began looking at

[1:09:58] search firms um and going down that pathway as well

[1:10:04] as exploring um and gathering information around the interim superintendent option so those were kind

[1:10:11] of the two options that the board discussed on the 20th that that the governance committee was to look at so

[1:10:18] um we want to just make sure that the public understands we are doing the

[1:10:23] board is working hard to make sure that we are exploring all options Gathering as much information we as we can so um

[1:10:31] the work to date that's happened in the last couple weeks is the governance committee has done an assessment of

[1:10:37] executive search firms and has a recommendation of three to

[1:10:43] four uh for us to further look at and uh We've also done a landscape

[1:10:50] analysis by contacting Minnesota Schoolboard Association and other experts in the field and by looking at

[1:10:57] industry research on superintendent searches so the next the next area on

[1:11:04] your document is a landscape analysis and um here are some of the things that we learned as we had these conversations

[1:11:11] um one we're going to start with the challenges um the pool of

[1:11:18] superintendence is increasingly getting smaller and some of that is due to the

[1:11:23] stress of the position the changing landscape of public education and what is required of the

[1:11:30] role um we also heard from individuals uh that there are people that have their

[1:11:38] superintendent license but are maybe not at all interested in ever moving into that position um because of some of

[1:11:45] those factors of how how difficult the position is um you'll also see here the

[1:11:52] likelihood of attracting a super intendent from a light district from a different state is extremely small so

[1:11:59] that was something that we we asked around about and it was interesting to learn and you'll see this on page two of

[1:12:04] the document um superintendence in our Consortium

[1:12:11] schools make significantly more than Minnesota's superintendents tend to so

[1:12:17] for us to be an attractive draw on a national search it doesn't mean we shouldn't look at that but it's

[1:12:23] something to consider that often times superintendant are making upwards of

[1:12:28] $100,000 more and so it would have to be very enticing for us to be able to trct

[1:12:35] um you'll see here that there have been we were able to discover in the last

[1:12:40] several years um there have been examples of districts who have attracted

[1:12:45] out of state one of those um the finalist for Minneapolis one of the finalists was from Chattanooga

[1:12:52] Tennessee um minetonka a couple years ago had a finalist from

[1:12:59] Ohio um Upper Arlington who was offered the position but then turned it

[1:13:04] down um duth hired a superintendent from Wisconsin back in 2020 and Cass cassen

[1:13:13] manille hired a their superintendent from Iowa in 2023 so that's just to help

[1:13:19] you kind of understand um what again share with you some of the information

[1:13:24] that we learned uh we also as we started to look around

[1:13:29] you know there's a lot of superintendents at larger or like districts um that have been in place for

[1:13:36] many years and are likely at the end of their careers and not necessarily looking to make a move so that was some

[1:13:43] of the landscape challenges that initially we were able to discover

[1:13:50] um then I'll talk a little bit about the assets and then I'll stock and see if anybody has any questions so far um I

[1:13:57] think these are really so the first bullet point here um our district is

[1:14:02] seen as a marquee District across the state of Minnesota and a desirable place to work that came up time and time again

[1:14:09] and I really do not think it was just because they were talking to us um we've

[1:14:15] heard this several times from various entities um individuals as well as

[1:14:20] organizations uh the second bullet point there is that our board is seen as a function desirable board to work with um and you

[1:14:29] don't have to you know I'll just leave that there um people that we spoke to

[1:14:35] again experts in the field felt pretty confident that we will be able to attract a robust group of candidates if

[1:14:41] we decide to go that way and um I thought this was an important piece of information to

[1:14:47] include in here the average superintendent search in Minnesota is actually three and a half months um with

[1:14:55] most lasting between three and six months so I went in thinking it was a

[1:15:00] much longer Runway and was um doesn't mean that we can't take longer but I was

[1:15:07] surprised to learned that um I also learned that many districts this is the

[1:15:13] busy time like many of the search firms are doing I think 70% I was told 70% of

[1:15:20] the searches are taking place starting after the new year so that was some

[1:15:27] feedback that we learned as we looked I'll stop right there are there questions that people have or Dan do you

[1:15:34] want to add anything about anything we've talked about so far no feel my

[1:15:42] cover keep going okay now we move into the search firm refinement so if we go

[1:15:47] this pathway this is the list this list of eight uh criteria was what the board

[1:15:53] discussed on the 20th and this is what the governance committee was tasked with

[1:15:59] um using this list of criteria to kind of evaluate some of the search firms that we looked at and one of the

[1:16:06] questions we'll be looking for from the board tonight is how many firms would the board want to interview the

[1:16:12] government governance committee is recommending the top three on this list to further investigate um with the idea

[1:16:19] that we would come back to you on the at the work session on the 21st

[1:16:25] um with more information about those top three and then the board would decide

[1:16:31] yes we want to move forward with these two or all three and then we would all

[1:16:36] be involved in the interview of those search Firs

[1:16:41] um so you'll see here the top three that the governance committee is recommending

[1:16:47] at this point is school exec connect that is the search firm that the

[1:16:54] District use last time uh they're very very knowledgeable by Edina the state of

[1:17:00] Minnesota they've completed searches for anah henin rer Burnsville chasa wetta

[1:17:06] they have experience with high performing districts especially in Illinois such as Lake Geneva Lake Forest

[1:17:12] and utri they specialize in working with Boards of education and superintendent searches and they that's it's a

[1:17:19] recommendation from the governance committee uh Hazard young is second one

[1:17:25] that's being recommended they are located in Arlington Heights they were a finalist for the board for the last

[1:17:31] superintendent search uh they specialize in working with boards and superintendent searches they are more of

[1:17:38] a national search company and have experience in Minnesota but they're not as extensive in Minnesota as some of

[1:17:44] those other search companies uh and again this is a recommendation from governance and then the third one that

[1:17:51] the governance committee felt confident with may be moving forward with is ran

[1:17:57] Associates uh they specialize in educational executive leadership searches they're recognized by the

[1:18:03] school administrator which is a a journal as one of the top search firms in the country they're located in Cedar

[1:18:09] rip Rapids Iowa um they do have a local presence here so those are the three top

[1:18:16] that the governance committee felt comfortable um or would recommend we move forward

[1:18:22] from you'll see other ones listed down down to um and I'll let you look at

[1:18:27] those in terms of or ask further questions if you'd like to about

[1:18:33] those I have one question um on our um category of consideration from a cost

[1:18:40] do we have a particular like budget range of cost related to Executive or

[1:18:45] superintendent search for this process can I put you on the

[1:18:50] side absolutely what is the average cost

[1:18:56] you know I don't know the average cost I know that the paid $2,220 in May of

[1:19:03] 2021 acquire the current are most are most agreements based on some percentage

[1:19:09] of the salary or is it a flat service cost based on the time or whatever it is I would assume it's an hourly rate an

[1:19:14] hourly rate okay thank you and that's a great question Michael those would be things that um the next steps with the

[1:19:22] firms the governance committee would be pass with going and exploring we would be asking for RFP from each of these

[1:19:28] organizations so they would be we would have that information for the work session on the

[1:19:35] 21st I'm asking this question also for the community in case anyone is I'm also

[1:19:40] looking forward to this conversation probably on Wednesday when at one of the buildings I'm sure I'm going to get

[1:19:45] asked um so I just want to make sure we're understanding that from a broad spectrum you know we haven't talked about this in the finance committee we

[1:19:51] don't you know this is not a specific line item budget we currently have but there's a budget for the school board

[1:19:57] whatever it is that's there I just want to make sure that we're at Le thinking about what the budgetary costs are related for these type of work

[1:20:04] apprciate any other questions at this point yeah I guess I have one yeah um as

[1:20:12] far as with say Hazard young we talked a little bit about some of the

[1:20:18] um challenges in say National searches and how that maybe isn't something we

[1:20:24] want to pursue that just doing so with eyes open um and Hazard young was listed

[1:20:31] as more of a national um search company but has experience in minota and like BW bwp and

[1:20:40] Associates has more or has some local experience my question is um Hazard

[1:20:46] young being National but still having local experience is that local experience still more broad than BWB bwp

[1:20:54] or do we know that I guess what's the size of both does that make sense it does make sense and I will tell you that

[1:21:02] the person on our governance committee who looked up hazard young is not here this evening so I cannot answer that

[1:21:08] question but I think it's a really good question in terms of and we might walk away tonight and say hey we want we want

[1:21:15] the governance committee to look at four of them and we want to include um there is some other additional information

[1:21:22] that's not on this sheet that um that fed into some of our

[1:21:27] recommendations but I think it's a reasonable question to say Hey you know

[1:21:33] we um you know you'll see the other ones like msba has done a lot in a lot of

[1:21:39] other districts around us we and uh we

[1:21:44] felt that they've done a lot of work with Rural and smaller districts so we maybe didn't necessarily recommend them

[1:21:50] over others however the board might decide I mean this is a board decision so certainly if we want to if you want

[1:21:58] us to go out and bring back more information about any of these that's an option yeah we were trying to mainly get

[1:22:03] to the reasonable number sure trying to Pi in like that we're going to have to all interview those firms andever I

[1:22:10] think the question is really for in my opinion for tonight also is do we want

[1:22:15] to emphasize looking for instate people given that that's more of

[1:22:22] the likelihood given the challenges that are identified and then we really want to make sure the search firms have a

[1:22:27] very strong ability to engage attract find Val evaluate whatever it is present

[1:22:35] people from Minnesota um that'll be likely for this to I think that's Comm

[1:22:41] on taking all its question is sort of like unless we think no even with the challenges that have been presented

[1:22:48] there could be a wonderful National candidate out there somewhere who might say this is a wonderful opportunity and so and so forth but that's not our

[1:22:54] emphasis so someone brought us that's great but we would expect the majority of candidates to probably be at least

[1:23:02] local in the sense of our region it could still be someone from Wisconsin be someone from Iowa could be someone from

[1:23:08] The Dakotas whatever um but it's not going to be someone from Los Angeles most likely unless it's a

[1:23:14] Minnesotan who's now trying to find a way back to Minnesota Allah a wonderful principle that we he brought back to

[1:23:20] Minnesota at valy view um so I'm just curious as to the the groups thinking around that part of the

[1:23:27] presentation do we assume that it's just going to be a Minnesota person and that's what we want to emphasize or are

[1:23:32] we want to take more of a larger funnel approach to work our way down I'm just

[1:23:38] curious people's thoughts

[1:23:44] on I have thought for somebody all I have thought I guess I um

[1:23:51] in hearing that from you know just National candidat and knowing you know in the past seeing just um kind of

[1:23:59] executive position searches whether it's um you know police Chiefs things like that it seems like there's always kind of there's three candidates that are

[1:24:04] brought in there's always kind of a national candidate brought in um seeing those kind of difficulties in it um I

[1:24:14] personally would like to have a more local candidate in the sense of someone that knows the context of dying out the

[1:24:20] state of Minnesota um the City's metro area for

[1:24:25] me that might be more important than someone who's been a superintendent the already in wiconsin Iowa Illinois where

[1:24:34] have you um similar to the last search the candidate we got was a person who

[1:24:40] had experience in all that context had not been a superintendent yet but was ready to make that jump for me that I

[1:24:46] think would be more important if that makes sense question that would be more important to me than maybe someone from

[1:24:52] Illinois because I think that that's a harder to kind of jump into that's just

[1:25:00] my and at this point it's really about the search firms like the search firms

[1:25:05] many of them if and I'm if I'm many of them if not all of them can do that

[1:25:13] Minnesota and can bring in candidates from both like last time School exec connect one of our finalist was from

[1:25:19] Texas and so I think they all have that cap capability but you're right at some point might say we

[1:25:25] prefer because we will if we go down this road road um many people will have

[1:25:31] a chance to weigh in on what our superintendent profile will look like and that might be something that comes

[1:25:40] up okay other thoughts

[1:25:47] any and I think the recommendations you guys is good I think I I agree with with ellot if bwp

[1:25:55] it's I would say for this first part having a fourth company to at least engage with given that we had used them

[1:26:02] before they understand that so and so forth unless there're something from our former chair who's not here and is the

[1:26:07] only one on the board who had experience with those searches has some more specific reasons to not I would say add

[1:26:15] them as as a fourth component for you guys to kind of work through figure it out and then come back with you know

[1:26:20] your top what you think is right or yeah maybe maybe there's something where where um Dr alberg would say well I like

[1:26:28] it this better about Hazard and that would be great but I think four is reason everybody if everybody here

[1:26:34] thinks we should we can do four I think Dan I feel like we could take out and I think when we send an RFP to them

[1:26:40] that'll add more criteria to rule out people and narrow that problem so I'm not I have no inclination to say we're

[1:26:48] only sending an RFP to three and that's it you know mean if we don't like the response to an RFP from one or the other

[1:26:54] well I think on this part too because you know from a bu I mean not with saying the cost that we might have had in 21 costs probably have gone up I

[1:27:02] would think reasonably considerably just from inflation and everything else that's going on it would be nice to get a good sense of from a budgetary

[1:27:09] standpoint of what people would say is the price point for there to make sure that we're getting both good value but

[1:27:14] also good service from that standpoint so I think four is a good way to kind of get that feel Anda been Whittle it down

[1:27:19] from there we all know how Network people are if governance I

[1:27:28] don't yeah that sounds good I appreciate J that okay we'll plan then

[1:27:34] for then okay uh then on the bottom of the third page the recommended board

[1:27:41] structure I know on the 20th it was talked at least the idea was placed on the table of um historically the

[1:27:48] governance committee has been the point of contact for like doing some of this work and the question was asked would do

[1:27:54] we because our governance committee is also tasked with like all the other board things right now um do we have

[1:28:02] maybe like a task force and we talked about this a little bit and the government governance team is

[1:28:09] recommending that it stays with the governance team due to the redundancy of likely board members on the search firm

[1:28:15] so like if you look at this Erica is the only one of us that's done a search so she would make the most sense for her to

[1:28:21] be on that committee that's screen screening well at least screening the information to come to the further board

[1:28:27] and she had shared that historically you put the chair on there too so then that's to um two of those spots taken

[1:28:35] and you end up running the risk of breaking open meeting law if you don't

[1:28:41] keep that third was was the recommendation now if the board is like no I mean this is the work that's been

[1:28:47] done by the three of us we can certainly pivot if people are like I think we should do it a little different but um

[1:28:53] the recommend ation was to um limit the amount of a meetings

[1:28:59] that other people are having to attend and also um potential open meeting violations with that just to clar I

[1:29:06] didn't have a problem with the government's meeting doing it was more of a bandwith issue that appreciate I really appreciate that when you when I

[1:29:12] think about the Lac work that's going on and so and sort that Dan would be a part of on top of everything else not was

[1:29:18] saying the chair and vice chair on that's what I was concerned about was that the bandwidth issue is that you're not consolidating a lot of stuff on a

[1:29:25] very few number of people that was my only concern and I I appreciate

[1:29:32] that all right you guys really want to carry that ruck sack up the hill thank you thank

[1:29:39] you all right so uh potential Pathways as you've heard and this is similar to

[1:29:44] what we recapped on the 20th um there are three Pathways we're

[1:29:49] looking at but it's kind of two so one uh would be to go the interim

[1:29:55] superintendent route um we will we will be needing information from Dr Stanley

[1:30:02] regarding her contract negotiations with St Paul public schools and that

[1:30:07] involving contract release negotiations with the D school board so there'll need to be some negotiations that take place

[1:30:14] um because we don't know if we go that route um when that person would be

[1:30:20] needed um and then if it's needed for B here

[1:30:26] says if it's needed for the short term and potentially the next school year in order to give g a longer timeline for

[1:30:33] finding a superintendent so that is one of the pathways pathway two is what we've been

[1:30:41] talking about mostly this evening which is going down the route of a search firm hiring a search firm to hire the next

[1:30:49] Edo school's superintendent um and then number three

[1:30:55] is really evaluating past Ed administrators or uh administrators

[1:31:01] within the system to kind of see if they'd be interested in one or two and

[1:31:07] just doing a little bit of a temperature read and seeing U making sure we're having conversations and we've have the

[1:31:13] information that the board feels they need to move forward so those are still the pathways

[1:31:21] that we're looking at and then if you turn to the very last page um So based on our conversation tonight

[1:31:29] the governance committee will return to the board of the work session on the 21st to bring forth further

[1:31:35] recommendations including each of those Pathways so the interim route or the search firm um we will also at that

[1:31:42] point bring you information about those search firms

[1:31:48] um we've already it sounds like done number two we've narrowed the search firm list to three or four we've had

[1:31:54] four to consider a semifinalists and the governance committee to will gather more information on those firms to recommend

[1:32:02] um to the full board on the 21st if the board moves forward with hiring a search firm tentative Target

[1:32:09] interview completion will be by the end of the week of January

[1:32:14] 24th and at the uh January 21st work session the board will have a short over

[1:32:20] overview of the interview process and recommended interview questions

[1:32:25] uh and then the third point there is um

[1:32:30] making sure we've been thinking through how do we make sure that our community is engaged and um updated on this

[1:32:40] process and so some of the things that we've brainstormed um is a separate tab

[1:32:46] on a website a lot of districts do that where they just have a super superintendent search tab um weekly

[1:32:52] updates in community and staff newsletters they can be short or just say click here if you want more

[1:32:58] information uh monthly board updates so we can at the board meetings just give a

[1:33:04] have a standing item that where we just discuss what has taken place um and we really

[1:33:11] felt pretty strongly that emails directly to the community community only has needed for major updates and it and

[1:33:17] only um and that really came from you know it I think we want to be

[1:33:25] judicious well it's a little bit like they were talking principal source of information that just happens to be up there still it's like they people look

[1:33:32] for certain standard communication documents from us whether it's the in the know or you know those types of

[1:33:37] things we want to try and leverage stuff that people are used to looking at um more so than anything just so that

[1:33:44] weren't they're not having an attended one order and I think it's a minor update I think we also run the risk of

[1:33:50] then people don't start reading our emails if it's like oh there's not much they're telling us anyway so

[1:33:56] um so those are kind of that's at least what we've prepared

[1:34:01] but I'm I'm really interested to hear responses thoughts we still would have

[1:34:07] with both Pathways we still have conversations we're having and gathering information on both so even though we

[1:34:13] talked a lot about the search firm tonight there that's don't take that as like a oh the governance committee is

[1:34:19] thinking that's the route we should go we really um we've been Gathering a lot of information on both of the pathways

[1:34:25] um I think my question on the potential next steps is the work session on the

[1:34:30] 21st at that time the way I'm reading your bullet points is that okay we're making a

[1:34:37] decision about which search firm if we're going to go with the search room that's the pathway we take then there's a decision that which one it is because

[1:34:44] you're then saying Ted Target interview completion by the end of week of 24 is that referring to the search firms or is

[1:34:50] that referring to candidates for the SE search excuse me okay that was little unclear in the way that was written okay

[1:34:56] sorry thank you I'm good now thank you that I was

[1:35:01] clear wow that's three days that's a that's pretty a bust three days it's

[1:35:06] busy okay sorry thank

[1:35:12] you good to me you have

[1:35:18] questions so you just made a comment um that

[1:35:24] we're talking about search firms today but there's other things going on so I'm assuming

[1:35:29] that potential pathways are sort of in play Within the governance team

[1:35:37] committee team and I just wanted to make that very

[1:35:42] clear for anybody who's listening or something that we're talking about this today it's not necessarily 100% path

[1:35:50] that will be taken the potential pathway are all in play at this time

[1:35:56] absolutely yeah and we don't even know what date we're talking about at this point so you know we that's a big thing

[1:36:03] out there that will certainly play a role in our next

[1:36:10] steps so go back to director bergman's question about the 21st and then the

[1:36:17] 24th it almost seems to lead us that we're going down that path or is that

[1:36:22] just sort of information that's just informational so that we as a board are prepared so you're not don't

[1:36:28] come on the 21st and we're like Hey FYI for the next three days you're some of us are

[1:36:35] interviewing from what I understand last time they interviewed um as several on on a night so like we

[1:36:43] might do all four of them on one night but it might be that Wednesday Thursday Friday and it would be based on when all

[1:36:51] of us can be there so the reason we wanted to put that on people's radar is so that it wasn't like I can't you have

[1:36:57] a couple weeks to prepare that that week is when we might be doing these interviews and then some time for The

[1:37:02] Firm to prepare response that so we we're just working backwards you know that's why I was thinking like RFP

[1:37:09] returned and then right back and forth I think other thing that's also important it was stated in here um but clearly

[1:37:15] there's a whole thing about the timing of stuff because Dr kley is working with St Paul to figure out what her story is going to be there has to be a

[1:37:21] negotiation as far as okay how long here for so so whatever is which then kind of helps set up a timeline for okay what we

[1:37:27] like but we don't want to wait till know every single detail that to then start our process we're trying to get our ducks in a row to say okay maybe it's an

[1:37:34] inim process either for a short period of time or at least for another year could be a search firm that's looking out for the person we can hire them for

[1:37:40] July one maybe that's the solution or some combination of the two that's how I look at your three Pathways is that it's

[1:37:47] kind of we're not quite sure where that's going to go we want to make sure that we're at least putting some some effort into that part this is sort of

[1:37:53] the clarification that how I interpreted what this was um I think that's the right intention I think you're covering

[1:37:58] the right basis for that given that we don't have all these things settled um and they will be

[1:38:04] settled probably within the next 30 plus days at least some of it will will know

[1:38:09] and we can then tighten it up from there but this seems like a good reasonable Pathway to look at that and while you're

[1:38:15] looking at inum options and looking at past people related to you to see if that's a possible intermediate step

[1:38:21] whatever is those are all viable think we did talk about those at the past meeting um those are all the right

[1:38:27] things that the governance committee or this group is doing from that standpoint we'll see what comes to play um go from

[1:38:35] that thank you for the summary that now that I think that's helped me figure out with it is that kind of gel with what

[1:38:42] your you saw it as yes and okay as I'm looking at this a little bit

[1:38:49] more um you know if the board moves forward with hiring a sech firm then 10

[1:38:54] Target interviews on the week of the 24th but we're not meeting till the 21st to even talk about

[1:39:01] like what next steps are going to be we might that's why we put tentative

[1:39:07] yeah like we might get to the 21st and things might evolve in the next two weeks where it's like oh no no no that's

[1:39:12] not going to happen but we also again wanted to make sure that um you know we

[1:39:19] weren't waiting a month for like waiting to start the process of interviewing search we're trying to we're trying to

[1:39:24] hit the regular meeting schedules and all so what I would say here is is that to your point you guys are really trying

[1:39:29] to indicate that we had a sense of urgency to want to move forward with a process as things happen so it's

[1:39:36] tentative not knowing exactly the timing of certain things but it's the intention that if we decide to go down that

[1:39:42] pathway we're going to move quickly on that that's is that a better way to I mean know we're factoring in like

[1:39:48] obviously like the superintendent searches for I other open available ones are are ramping up in January yeah you

[1:39:54] know we're trying to make sure that we're not um you know we're getting ourselves in the best position of the

[1:39:59] district to make we have a sense for if there are many other districts or how many other districts are also seeking

[1:40:06] superintendents currently um I don't um

[1:40:13] there's a there's there's one that I have my eye

[1:40:18] on we need to be very aware of so keep an eye so I don't yes so we're taking steps

[1:40:26] we're making sure that we're positioning oursel in the best way

[1:40:31] possible okay and as always if board members have questions I know I'm a

[1:40:37] person that needs to process for a while and then the questions come so feel free to reach out to one of the governance

[1:40:42] committees if you have feedback or had thought about this and sure we're doing this please do

[1:40:47] that okay thanks for your time on that all right next our last item for discussion tonight is the EPS academic

[1:40:55] calendars for the 2026 2027 and 2027 2028 school years I'd like

[1:41:03] to welcome up assistant superintendent M swensson and Executive Director of Human Resources Sonia sailor to lead us in

[1:41:11] this

[1:41:20] discussion good evening everyone Madam chair members of the board Dr Stanley good to see you all so the calendar

[1:41:27] committee um has stly designed the academic calendar to maximize

[1:41:32] instructional Effectiveness while accommodating key breaks and professional development needs you'll

[1:41:39] notice the calendar prioritizes educational continuity by maintaining full weeks of instruction and also

[1:41:45] aligns non- student days with cultural observances when possible student braks

[1:41:51] are strategically distributed throughout the year including mea Thanksgiving a

[1:41:56] twoe winter break and spring break with careful attention given to balancing semester links and maintaining

[1:42:03] consistent weekly learning schedules the structure aims to support

[1:42:08] both student learning and staff professional development while respecting Community preferences and

[1:42:14] needs we'd like to extend our sincere gratitude to our dedicated calendar committee comprised of Staff members and

[1:42:21] parents for their thoughtful work in veloping a calendar that serves our entire School

[1:42:27] Community this time Sonia is going to review some of the highlights of the calendars and when she is finished we

[1:42:34] would be happy to hear about your initial reactions and take your questions may I just ask a really quick question how many people make up the

[1:42:41] calendar task force 18 18 people and an important note on that as

[1:42:48] well is although there are 18 on the committee um what we what we do we would

[1:42:53] meet we would talk through a draft we would prepare a draft give it to the 18

[1:42:58] and then they would go out and talk to their colleagues right and come back to the next meeting with their suggestions

[1:43:05] for um changes suggestions for um uh

[1:43:10] well with their suggestions and then we would do that process again and so although there are 18 on the committee

[1:43:16] it actually yes the reason why I asked that just before we start is like to recognize how many humans it requires in

[1:43:23] order to come up with this amazing outcome that tries to parse it all together in my short time on the board

[1:43:30] three years this is always the thing that blows me away more than anything about all the moving Parts related to

[1:43:36] that so I just wanted to acknowledge that before you get to your

[1:43:42] presentation okay um so I'm just going to go through some of the highlights of

[1:43:48] our proposed 2627 and 2728 academic calendar

[1:43:53] and kind of really talk about really what is present in both of them and a few things that are slightly different

[1:43:59] in the two you you probably have found that they actually lay out in a very

[1:44:05] similar fashion one of the years is a Lea year and so we end up really close

[1:44:10] lining up um in those two years but both begin the week before Labor Day um and

[1:44:16] that's to accommodate uh summer construction and just to remember um

[1:44:24] in our guid and change document the board's parameters one of the things is there it was set out that there were be

[1:44:32] 10 years worth of construction summer construction that would exceed the

[1:44:37] amount far exceed the amount that's allowable in order to have a before Labor Day start and we have about six

[1:44:45] years of that left at this F is my understanding so both of these would keep um keep in line with that before

[1:44:51] Labor Day start both contain two connecting assesses for our um

[1:44:58] kindergarten through grade five before the first day of student arrival um and

[1:45:04] that in both of them they the connected assess dayss were moved from Monday and

[1:45:12] Tuesday of the first week to Friday and Monday and that was a change if we remember this year we did because um our

[1:45:20] faculty actually brought forward they would really like to have that Tuesday

[1:45:26] before kids arrive on site to review the data that they've collected over the course of those two connected

[1:45:32] necessities and so that worked out really well so both of these calendars include

[1:45:38] that um so that means that our on the week

[1:45:45] before Labor Day on that Monday our 6 through 12 grade 6 through 12 would

[1:45:51] begin and on the Wednesday um our Early Learning Center

[1:45:56] and our K through 5 would begin on that day in full um normal all students in

[1:46:03] school both con both calendars contain three data days first one is day after

[1:46:10] semester one um second one is day after the last student day at the end of the

[1:46:16] school year and then we have one floating data day which is so teach

[1:46:22] teacher dat that's a teacher data day day for teachers to review their um uh

[1:46:28] student data and the that depending on the building that's either in August or

[1:46:35] that's in June but that floater day is either on one one of those two ends each

[1:46:42] year both both of these prop calendars include a two-day mea break a three-day

[1:46:50] Thanksgiving break a two week winter break and a one week Spring Break um

[1:46:56] also coming from histor what's historic in our school district and also the board's um guid and change documents as

[1:47:04] well both B closely balanced semesters one and two with our

[1:47:11] 2627 calendar having 84 days in semester one and our 2728 calendar having 85 days

[1:47:19] in semester 1 this is very important obviously it all love but particularly at the secondary level for them to have

[1:47:26] the same number of instructional days for kids um in the in each of the

[1:47:32] semesters both contain no student days on the November election day and in

[1:47:41] 2728 um it contains a no student day on the primary election day in March and

[1:47:48] this um had a great conversation at the committee about this as well as of course the board knows we many of our

[1:47:54] buildings are used as pulling places and it is a a student safety issue in order

[1:48:00] to have um students on site on those States as well

[1:48:06] the uh both contain both calendars contain one PD day in the early fall um

[1:48:15] the and again aligning with the guiding change document um which which uh are

[1:48:22] committ looks to be sensitive to cultures within the community we um and

[1:48:27] also which also aligns with initiative or strategic plan initiative D3 to

[1:48:33] support Equity by identifying and eliminating structural barriers um to

[1:48:38] provide success we we did our best on both of those to align them with a cultural observation in the early fall

[1:48:47] so you you can see in the first year calendar that date happens to fall on y

[1:48:53] which is in later September in the second year calendar that date will fall

[1:48:58] on a Friday which is the day before Roes um because R falls on on the

[1:49:06] Saturday the B contain um no student days on the Tuesday attached to

[1:49:13] President's Day one of the things that we do as part of the committee in addition to looking all at all the

[1:49:18] moving Parts is try to figure out okay how many days will will kids be gone in

[1:49:24] that semester on a particular weekday and that's to try to ensure that kids that are receiving special services do

[1:49:31] not consistently miss them if we''re gone many Mondays or Monday Tuesdays and so we do our best to balance it it is

[1:49:38] hard because most of our holidays fall on Mondays you know and um but we do our

[1:49:43] where we can fit in a Tuesday we try to do that right because especially if it

[1:49:50] can still continue with the educational continuity for kids like attaching it to a Monday holiday so um it has been uh

[1:49:58] for a number of years that Tuesday after President's Day is a PD day so it makes it a four day weekend for for families

[1:50:05] at the same time and gives us a Tuesday as opposed to a Monday

[1:50:13] the um both the last student days both

[1:50:18] work out where they fall on the Friday of the week that begins with Memorial

[1:50:24] Day that's again back to that having a leave here in there as

[1:50:30] well um we talked about you know so we had to

[1:50:37] place some kind of PDC conference stes in the spring and so we have in both of

[1:50:46] them that that there's one day in March and one day in April and we specifically

[1:50:52] talked about how the merch having that merch date works really well for elementary or elementary schools because

[1:50:58] they have fast fridge dat data by that time in order to share with families at

[1:51:03] conferences and then we also talked about having a late April date our

[1:51:09] middle schools like that because it um they felt like that would help with it not falling in the middle of the MC math

[1:51:17] window and it also provides a little bit of a break for students and for our educators kind of halfway between that

[1:51:24] spring break time and the end of the school year as well um and I think I think that's all

[1:51:33] of the highlights are there any questions board members any

[1:51:40] questions I appreciate you acknowledging the different board parameters that we put for both the special services as

[1:51:47] well as the um diversity in terms of different cultural beliefs

[1:51:53] population um I've seen that now the last couple years and it's like you can see it clearly as it's lated there I

[1:51:58] really like the whole Monday Tuesday part so there's less of the Monday rest of year um so I I just want

[1:52:06] to acknowledge that that's that's in line with when the board at the time created that that was um that's me know

[1:52:13] expect so thank you there's an astonishing amount of

[1:52:18] thought and consideration put into this planning so thank you and the whole team

[1:52:24] a lot of work it's it's actually kind of fun well it's hard to believe but we

[1:52:29] actually had a lot of fun it's a great committee but people have they bring such great ideas to

[1:52:35] it I'm waiting for some some high schooler to create an AI package that

[1:52:41] does this for you there was a great business opportunity there for anyone

[1:52:46] listen outside the table anybody have any questions

[1:52:52] I had one question on March 2027 there is a week where and I'll let

[1:52:58] you get to it um there is a week where the no student

[1:53:05] day is a Friday but the Monday of that week is

[1:53:11] when Ramadan ends and then it's Eid on Tuesday Wednesday and I need a little refresher

[1:53:18] on that holiday my concern there you know where I'm going is would we have students that would be out Monday

[1:53:24] Tuesday Wednesday and that not have school on Friday or is it only is that

[1:53:30] holiday only is it Eid where they would be off school if they

[1:53:36] celebrate so um one of the because we talked a lot

[1:53:44] about doing our best to try to accommodate we if there was any way to you know this year we we this year's

[1:53:51] calendar 24 25 we were able to actually plan spring break we were able to plant

[1:53:57] um spring break around e but we talked a lot about the potential of using that

[1:54:03] week as spring break and then we we talked um it was difficult because they

[1:54:08] put it a little too early in March for coming back from winter break and

[1:54:14] particularly again at the secondary level they felt like they're they needed more time um prior to going out on

[1:54:20] spring break we talked about the again it was in in an attempt

[1:54:28] to balance out a little bit some of the early days in the week versus the later

[1:54:34] days in the week and the one thing too that we have learned it's been a great cultural learning experience for us too

[1:54:41] is is although we have we placed Ed on here we won't

[1:54:47] really know when ID will begin until probably a week or two before the actual

[1:54:54] date and so we we did make the decision to go with the committee made a decision

[1:54:59] to go with the Friday in that case um but that's a very good question and yes it is that possibility is there okay

[1:55:07] okay well appreciate that that that was discussed and talked about and also understanding like everyone else has

[1:55:13] said I mean we can't even get a family week of cevin with five people so I can't imagine planning the calendar for

[1:55:20] 8,500 people and I think went back to that balance right it's like it the goal

[1:55:25] also was not to every year have one group be somewhat if you allow

[1:55:30] disadvantaged by the choices that we're making there's like this it's a little bit like this like so maybe in 26 27

[1:55:38] we're able to do more protection of the on doing a Tuesday rather than a Monday or or that kind of so it's not always

[1:55:44] Monday where it's really harming the special services part whereas you said 2425 we're able to more the scheduling

[1:55:51] deal with this but 26 27 we won't be just because of the circumstances of the lunar calendar versus the Roman Calendar

[1:55:57] so on so forth there's all those factors in there so I think it's just that what I remember when we talked about it originally when we instituted

[1:56:04] that it was trying to be like this that it's never gonna have one group

[1:56:10] consistently be disadvantaged based on the choices of the calendar and I think

[1:56:16] that was also from a the collegial part of the team as well was trying to kind of articulate from that stand so I I I

[1:56:22] think you're right that's a great thing to point out I think it's also just look at a reflection over a three to four year period of time it's a little bit

[1:56:29] like this it's not really consistently ad no um and it's hard because those

[1:56:35] change every year when they show year they do they do change every year and

[1:56:41] and we looked at in both years we looked at um trying to figure out how we might be able to accommodate e around spring

[1:56:49] break and it just these two calendars unfortunately in this in the um second

[1:56:54] Year Eve is in February and so it just unfortunately just would not work with

[1:56:59] these two calendars yeah no I appreciate your work and it was more of a concern of just if we had a week where and and

[1:57:06] it's awareness right like you said I mean we we might not be able to accommodate every year but just letting

[1:57:12] those families as well as our teachers know you might have students that are missing a couple

[1:57:17] days yeah all right any further questions board members

[1:57:23] great well Nate and Sony do you have the information I mean I think that was the green light to go

[1:57:30] forward thank you and we will plan on bringing this to discussion at the next

[1:57:36] meeting yes so this will come up for discussion at the February board meeting and then it will be voted on for Action

[1:57:42] in March great so thank you both appreciate thank you all right good work

[1:57:48] Team all right uh leadership update does any have any committee updates for the work

[1:57:57] session okay I have a couple uh our Retreat the board has been working to

[1:58:03] try to find a retreat date we have been unsuccessful and so for now we are going

[1:58:11] to postpone our Winter retreat um the thought around that from governance to was that if we are in the

[1:58:19] middle of the superintendent search and if someone new is coming on or in that position it might be better for us to

[1:58:25] just pause on that for a second figure this out and then um you know and use

[1:58:33] that time for a new leader or to get ready for that so is everyone okay with that okay great and then uh Berg

[1:58:40] sessions we learned in December that the finance committee will be part of these sessions and so finance committee look

[1:58:47] for something probably from Ann and I'll talk with you Jen maybe to get up to

[1:58:53] speed on signing up for dates to attend that

[1:58:58] that's Dr s you have any updates okay great uh then do I have a

[1:59:04] motion to adour the meeting Mo second all those in favor of adjourning the

[1:59:09] January 6 2025 work session say I I opposed the meeting is

[1:59:21] adjourned for