Edina Schools approves new literacy curriculum, defers budget action
The Edina Public Schools Board unanimously approved the adoption of Benchmark Advance as the district's elementary literacy curriculum on March 3, replacing three existing programs. The board also discussed but deferred action on the K-12 social studies curriculum, budget revisions, and several policy updates.
The board voted unanimously to adopt Benchmark Advance, a comprehensive literacy program that emphasizes the science of reading and integrates STEAM components. The selection followed a three-year review process that evaluated six programs using reading research standards and cultural proficiency tools. The curriculum includes Spanish dual-language support through the Adelante companion program, though French immersion implementation requires further planning. Early implementation data shows strong student engagement and writing development. The district will pay hundreds of thousands of dollars over eight years as an annual license for consumables and materials.
The board also approved three academic calendars for 2025-2026, 2026-2027, and 2027-2028. The 2025-2026 calendar was modified to move elementary assessment days from the first week of school to August 22 and 25, allowing teachers to review data before students arrive. The district continues starting before Labor Day due to ongoing construction projects exceeding the $400,000 threshold required by Minnesota law.
Several significant items were discussed but action was deferred. The K-12 social studies curriculum adoption, which began review in 2022, would introduce Studies Weekly for elementary grades starting in 2026-2027. The Finance Director presented $3.6 million in additional revenue for the current budget, including higher-than-expected enrollment and state funding increases, offset by $2.6 million in additional spending. The district maintains a conservative fiscal approach and anticipates budget reductions in 2027-2028.
The board also approved eight policy updates addressing student promotion, disability non-discrimination, technology use, class size, and other operational matters. Additionally, the board voted to concur with the American Indian Education Program after the American Indian Parent Advisory Committee acknowledged significant progress, including the hiring of a full-time American Indian Culture Liaison who developed new elementary, middle, and high school programming.
Board members announced that interim superintendent finalist interviews are scheduled for March 5 at 5 p.m. in Room 350, open to the public and live-streamed. The Legislative Affairs Committee will host Day at the Capital on March 24, inviting community members to advocate for public education funding.
This story was created by artificial intelligence (a large language model) based on the proceedings captured in the video below.
Go deeper on this topic
Research related meeting documents and build a brief — without rewriting the story.
Rate this story
Other Topics from This Document
K-12 Social Studies Curriculum Adoption
Fiscal Year 2025-2026 Budget Revisions and FY 2027-2028 Budget Parameters
Policy Review: Four Policies for Discussion
Elementary Literacy Curriculum Adoption: Benchmark Advance
Academic Calendars for 2025-2026, 2026-2027, and 2027-2028
Achievement and Integration Fiscal Year 2026 Budget
American Indian Education Program: Vote of Concurrence
Policy Approval: Eight Policies for Action
Board Leadership and Superintendent Updates
Also from this meeting
▸Meeting Analysis
“I like Legos because I can use my imagination to code and if I make a mistake when I'm doing a build I can easily fix it and learn from it.”
“I like building something that I think looks good and making a story about it sometimes I have a story and build something that goes with it.”
“I like to figure things out and... I just put a coding block up and I press go to see what it does before I make a code.”
“Libraries are the heart and soul of a school for literacy development and that means that we grow great readers... we are a hub also for things like creativity and Innovation.”
“I have more of a comment first of all I'm very impressed that all of you came tonight to to share your stories in front of us and the community of Edina and I just wanted to let you guys know that my daughter started coding and doing Legos about your age and she just came back from the regional Edina robotics tournament um for the high school.”
“We've been doing some deep work um looking at the resources that are being recommended in this report and looking to see if standards would revert back to Old standards so 2012 standards still aligned if updated still aligned.”
“We found that there was a very big energy around connection to literacy um K5 alignment across all six sites accommodations for multiple levels of learning styles and increased opportunities for those depths of knowledge in the content and common assessments.”
“The print to put print in front of our Learners thinking about the literacy aspect to that and having them have it in their hands having something they could write on they could cut apart they could take home they could share um in their learning.”
“The standards really will the interpretation of the standards is really what guides our our work in terms of that component of it... our curriculum then is complementary of that right that's kind of we I I like to use the language it's like our vehicle right it's like our vehicle of delivering that.”
“I think I've said that with Ela also um so I think that really getting to the essence of what those standards truly do drill down to what guides usk you for that clarification so I it's just I'm trying to inform myself and anyone else for that matter so it's really the standards right that are then promoted and and dictated by the legislature and mde in terms of what will then come from that um and so any questions or challenges or changes to those standards that then don't reflect maybe what we all might want to value and put as for what we think is appropriate again using an example of US History um that's really where the argument needs to be made as opposed to in what you guys are doing in your interpretation is that fair to say.”
“As good as the administration might think it is at at budgeting as new and better information does come along we do like to continually revise those so that we have the most accurate information available for both decision- making at the board level as well as informing our public.”
“Luckily um our Revenue estimates were quite conservative we budgeted in a very conservative Manner and so even with that pration we're still likely going to exceed actual Revenue in terms of or against what we budgeted so that's good news and kind of why we maintain that conservative approach.”
“The financial position of the district continues to be stable in the short term with um budget reductions looming in fiscal year 27 or fiscal year 2028 at the latest this additional one million does not change that trajectory at all.”
“I don't have a question director Woodard I just wanted to thank you and the rest of the finance team for um being fiscally conservative especially in the times that we have right now where there's so many unknowns and um being so spoton with your um assumption that you've made and I just really appreciate your diligence to our finances so thank you.”
“The policy is um very well written quite vague which is I think the intent um anytime a non-personnel injury or liability occurs on School District premises the um injured party I guess their insurance is always primary unless the district could be proven to be negligent and I think this policy achieves that General um sentiment.”
“The federal law would supersede our our um District policy so we would go and revise it so that it would be an alignment.”
“We were having some discussion like could you read into this right sending out Facebook post so um and again we landed on the the policy itself does not change or confuse administrators in in any way and that was the concern the committee had and since there wasn't any um concern about us having the policy or conflicting with um any advice from any other um League that we wanted to keep it there just to make for clarification for parents and we also didn't want to send a message by removing it that where it's open season for recruiting in Idina.”
“I think it's most often applied just in conversations with um activities an Athletics director Troy Stein um that it's often applied in the the realm of Athletics and given our leadership of Athletics became another reason why we wouldn't want to remove any kind of protection if you will or any message that this is something that we take very seriously.”
“The one substantive change that was added is um in relation to an exigent circumstance existing that that would essentially supersede the requirements of this policy so as a tangible example our um if law enforcement were to come to the school because of a suspected um threat where there is imminent danger um that they would be allowed to take the steps necessary to intervene um without following the standard protocol of this procedure so it's a very narrow um circumstance that would allow that to happen.”
“Benchmark Rose to the surface was many reasons mostly it was a comprehensive um program which meant that they had components of all of the reading rope that were already baked into the system... the is program atalante was that companion program that helped fill that need um so those were all of those were some of many that had it just kind of rise to the top and again unanimously across the board with all of our teachers on that committee Benchmark was the number one choice.”
“I'm going to say as we've been early implementing so that team has been implementing it this year the feedback on the program continues to get stronger as we go which is really incredible not only that but we're seeing impact on kids already um and so kidss are engaged the writing is so rigorous kids are writing more um writing more um deeply than they have in the past and teachers are very excited with that.”
“I want to make sure people understand that this curriculum is going to be used for tier one instruction which is for all students in the classroom and we've been talking so much about our literacy plan I do not want community members to think that we're changing materials in our literacy plan for intervention that this is a new curriculum to replace our existing tier one curriculum.”
“I did take a peek at winter data and it's looking really strong so I think we feel really confident well we have to adjust on purpose sure but that's an incredibly great rating from mde even though it's not the highest rating and it's a good fit for our students which is what we're looking for.”
“We're making a change to our connect and assess days at the elementary level to rather than have those be the Monday and Tuesday of the first week of school to actually have them be on the pre preceding Friday the Friday of teacher Workshop week and the Monday of um the first week of school with Tuesday being a day for our elementary teachers to be able to spend time really assessing um and reviewing the data that they've collected over the course of those two days before elementary students arrive on Wednesday.”
“In the state of Minnesota um you can start before Labor Day if you have construction projects that total a minimum of $400,000 or more so in um in accordance with the board's guiding change document um and this has been going on I believe for at least five years at this point um there there the long-term maintenance plan within our school district that that occurs to our buildings to our facilities every summer far exceeds that amount of money.”
“I just wanted to tell you that I appreciate the intentionality of how you've built this plan and how it links directly to the district's um metrics plan um I just I really appreciate that I appreciate how we're measuring students measuring their success um and um it's a job well done so thank you.”
“They thought very hard about it and what they felt and wanted to they were unfortunately not able to be here tonight but what they did want shared with the board was they feel that we have made a very good effort and progress towards the 15 recommendations that were made last year and they would like us to keep making progress that we were towards then so they um decided to vote concurrent because of the work that is in place and a lot of the work they are extremely happy with the work that Dwayne is doing in the elementaries.”
“Because I think for a non-native student to be so moved by a presentation to then want to write an article and share his story with everyone so a lot about our commitment to the programming and our native students in the district.”
“I want to make sure that you have what you need in order to be successful with that and so not that this is a rhetorical question at the moment but it's more I want to make sure that you feel empowered that okay as you continue to work through this process and even though we did the budget just now do we still have what we need to do to continue to deliver on the commitment that Erica was talking about we have to make sure that we're supportive in that in that regard to you and your team so I just want to make sure that you know that.”
“I really want to acknowledge um the girls hocky team for any of you who were at that game it was a nailbiter it was some of the best hockey that I personally have ever watched and that's including the wild um I could not have been more proud of the girls and I know they were so dis disappointed but um to go into double overtime like that was pretty incredible so I am incredibly proud of our our um girls hockey team and hold your head up high because um you've made all of us proud.”
“It just never ceases to amaze me just the amazing opportunities their kids kids have and just the great work that they do.”
▸Source Document
e e e e e e e May March 3rd and we do have a quorum so I will call this meeting to order the first order of business is agenda approval do I have a motion to approve the agenda for tonight's board meeting so moved second we will vote to approve our agenda all those in favor say I I any opposed tonight's agenda is approve Dr Stanley will you please review tonight's agenda for us and the community yes chair so we have excellence in action really excited about that this evening and then we may have hearing from um members of the public you have a few consent agenda items to approve we're hearing about our uh social studies curriculum adoption our budget parameters um and then um you have several policies for review and then for Action we're moving to adopt the literacy curriculum um din public school's academic Calendars our achievement integration budget the American Indian education program vote of concurrence and there are several policies that have moved to action stage as well leadership committee updates superintendent updates and um there is information only um in the board packet as well thank you this month's excellent in action will feature examples of team instruction at the Normandale Media Center our guest speaker is lanaa West Normand Dale's media specialist and I believe we have some third and second graders with us today and I'd like to welcome up to the microphone viven putz Alicia vermani Max Dixon Wilder laase and Jack Papa John thank you all for joining us here tonight you're welcome you're welcome Mercy I should have said Mercy Mercy come on up here Alicia come on up here okay um thanks to their these adorable kids um families for bringing them up here to share their great work that they do um at school so uh if you take a look our first slide kind of describes what a library media center is for us and we know that libraries are the heart and soul of a school for literacy development and that means that we grow great readers uh we are a hub also for things like creativity and Innovation and one of the things that we like to practice is how to empower our kids to be the innovators of the future and that is through our steam experiences our design thinking and our coding experiences with um a we're piloting a new kind of um way to do that this year here so we have our first guest is Alicia and she's going to tell us a little bit about what we work with and we work with Legos maybe some of you have heard of them before Legos in schools is a little bit different than working with Legos at home um we know that it helps them become problem solvers critical thinkers it helps them work on their creativity and collaboration and when we say collaboration are we talking about working together or working apart together we're working together Alicia can you tell us why you like to work with Legos I like Legos because I can use my imagination to code and if I make a mistake when I'm doing a build I can easily fix it and learn from it thank you Alicia and Vivian will you come on up we practice something called um design thinking when we are working with steam and initiatives and this is a way that we um it's a process where we identify problems brainstorm Solutions we make a prototype and we test our ideas because when we're testing our ideas what are we trying to do with our ideas make them better excellent can you tell us what you like about working with Legos I like building something that I think looks good and making a story about it sometimes I have a story and build something that goes with it all right Jack and Wilder can you come on up all right jack first and so with our Legos they are connected by a hub and an iPad and we're able to code the Legos which means tell the Legos what to do once we build it we might build um an Arctic sled we might build a car we might build a um windmill so we are building different things and coding is really the uh bridge between the ideas and the execution coding allows us to practice computational thinking logical thinking and structured problem solving and it really encourages experimentation and Innovation so we don't always have it right the first time when we learn to code Jack can you tell us why you like to code I like to figure things out and Jack do you always know how to figure things out out no I just put a coding block up and I press go to see what it does before I make a code awesome thanks Jack Jack can you head back and we have Wilder sit right here and so we have all levels of coders in our Legos classes and we work with first graders through fifth graders and we practice with the kindergarteners with some other Lego sets but we're we really do the coding once they're in first grade but can you tell us while what it is you like about coding I like the coding the coding blocks are not too complex so it's good for starters and are you a starter or are you a little bit of an expert more or less more or less of an expert okay you can head back and then Max can you come on up so and if you look up at the slide you'll notice that on the district's um mission is baby Wilder when he is in kindergarten and this is grownup Wilder now in second grade so I saw his picture I was like ha look at that's where he used to look like so cute so how does all how do all of these things come together so what we have is a tool Legos that provides us a really Hands-On approach to building models and Building Things then we use our design thinking to build that and then improve that model to make it better and then we take our Cod and we make it come alive make it interactive make it something where you make the you make it happen right tell us Max a little bit why do you like to code I love to build it when you code it it does stuff it makes me creative and all of this is part of um a movement that Lego has in Lego education called build the change so it's all about giving kids this opportunity to really use this kind of thinking for excellence and Innovation and having steam experiences connecting stories with science technology engineering arts and Mathematics and that's it do are there any questions for us or for the kids of course they're here to answer the questions or board member Ellenberg has a question go ahead yeah well I have more of a comment first of all I'm very impressed that all of you came tonight to to share your stories in front of us and the community of Edina and I just wanted to let you guys know that my daughter started coding and doing Legos about your age and she just came back from the regional Edina robotics tournament um for the high school and she and the high school team use innovation they use coding and every year they build big robots um to do really interesting task and I hope that it Sparks interest and innovation in you guys for something that you guys can do throughout your education so thank you so much for sharing that with us can we give them a round of applause they're so cute remember Barry yeah I am wondering what are some of the coolest things that you've made the Legos do with your coding any of you can answer you want to talk you look ready you can come on up you want to talk in the microphone you're ready the two of you come on up both of them all right Vivian first then Alicia go ahead all right what do you want to say well there's a lot of different buttons that you can put on like that you can put on to code like the things that you build and me and Alicia did a lot of the building together and I just love building and coding Legos with her Alicia you want to add something um there's a lot of coding blocks and sometimes you just want to kind of figure out what they do and sometimes you do something funny and instead of being embarrassed it's actually kind of fun MH okay thank you any other questions well I want to thank you for coming tonight and thanks to your adults for bringing you here if you'd like to really quickly come up here along with Miss West and have your picture taken um come on fancy let's go we'll have I didn't know that was going to happen I want one yes now look at [Laughter] USS good messy microphone thank you for coming to speak to us tonight and good luck with those coding projects now go toed and now it's time for bed right exactly good night thank you all right next on our agenda is hearing for members of the public we miss Palazio I don't see her here so we're going to move on we have no uh members of the public here to address us um so we will move on to our consent agenda is there anyone is there anything anyone would like to remove from the consent agenda okay do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved do I have a second second all those in favor of approving the consent agenda say I I anyone opposed the consent agenda has been approved uh we are now moving on to our discussion items our first item up for discussion is our K12 social studies curriculum adoption and we have Bethany van AEL assistant director of teaching and learning and Jamie hackinson uh Dean at uh Creek Valley Elementary School welcome thank you thanks for having us good evening chair gabler board members Dr Stanley and Community thank you for the opportunity to present our recommendation for updating our K12 social studies resources I think it's important that we pause and just note that while we know that there are some uncertainties with our social study standards we um in our teaching and learning Department feel very strongly about this recommendation still going forward as is because of our needs for updating our resources we've been doing some deep work um looking at the resources that are being recommended in this report and looking to see if standards would revert back to Old standards so 2012 standards still aligned if updated still aligned and so I did bring some documentation around that too if you guys have um further questions about that but we just feel really strongly that our teachers have been doing an incredible job creating materials but they haven't had updates in a really long time and what the what the updates in this report will allow us to do is to um have that um updated rigor relevance and that again vertical and horizontal alignment across a system that's so critical so as you all know that we started um this work back in 2022 when we started our our design teams um and we were engaging that comprehensive curriculum design process and so through that plan we were looking closely and aligning it to our strategic plan specifically strategy a which is focused on that personalized learning and strategy B which is addressing the educational Excellence so you're familiar we heard you talk about it um chair gaer uh implementation science right we are very committed to that process and so going through that process um we really looked at uh practices that would build on our current practices but continue to enhance those as we were looking to align to the new standards at the time and so um I just want to say I'm incredibly proud of our design team that's been um meeting uh we have had Elementary design team which uh Jamie hackinson our admin DEA Creek Valley has been leading that charge and then our secondary design team and so I believe it's on page three where we have those Educators listed but I just want to give them a shout out they've done an incredible job job working through an extensive process to come to these recommendations um so I just wanted to give them a huge shout out um and so while there are recommended updates across the board K12 I specifically invited we wanted um Jamie to come and speak to the process uh specific to K5 because there's some really unique opportunities and some really encouraging energy around this particular component so um I'm going to have her um I'm going to pass off to her um but again I just want to uh reiterate that in working with the company that Jim's going to talk about um they really have confirmed that regardless of which way the legislature might take our standards that we will be supported and having an aligned curriculum regardless so with that I'm going to pass to Jamie and let her share all of the exciting things around specifically the K5 recommendation thank you Bethany thank you for letting me come today um good evening chair gabler and board members Dr Stanley and Edina Community uh thanks for giving us the space to share uh my excitement and our excitement uh in the incredible work that this team has been doing um over the past few years and I just have a few highlights of some of the history um that we've um of the work that we've been doing over the years so we've been digging deep into the current reality um at every grade level K5 surveying teachers um current practices resources that are in place as well as their hopes and dreams of future future uh resources and we heard from multiple stakeholders across multiple grade levels um which was a great starting point for the work that we knew we needed to do moving forward um we did also research the um the standards that are currently in place of the 2011 2012 um and the 2021 standards um we analyzed the similarities and the potential changes that would be um moving forward we looked at Best Practices um that are aligned with both social studies as well as literacy um we formed many opportunities about well-rounded content knowledge and implementation of that content with specific instructional practices to social studies and um I was able to also attend many of the 612 discussions as well to see what they were seeing that K5 in that alignment to see all prek 12 um which was really great in our discussions as well um and then we started looking at the resources and the possibilities moving forward uh to meet the needs of both our current and our future Learners um we created North Stars I know Bethany talks often about the North Stars and the team came up with the the the um Dr SM used to say the tights I'm sure some of of you familiar with those but really aligning to that strategic plan um really learner focused standards-based um accessible all of those things and so throughout this process we found that there was a very big energy around connection to literacy um K5 alignment across all six sites accommodations for multiple levels of learning styles and increased opportunities for those depths of knowledge in the content and common assessments which was really at the Forefront of the work so we found all of this in Studies Weekly um and then I have just some examples um of the printed version of studies weekly which I mean if you think kindergarten my community the standards have not changed so much in the Strand work um but one of the highlights of this and I know it seems old school but the print to put print in front of our Learners thinking about the literacy aspect to that and having them have it in their hands having something they could write on they could cut apart they could take home they could share um in their learning now there is an online component to this which we really appreciate um because it also supports multiple language overlays on that platform and that is something that we really wanted to bring forth with this because both French and Spanish are a huge part of the elementary space now right and so we need to have that um available and each version also comes with a large teacher resource binder um and this assists in that scope and sequence and the instruction um but the greatest highlight um that we were really excited about is this is a beautiful complement to Benchmark Advance um the strategies that are taught in our Ela um in our blocks will easily transfer to this resource application at all levels um thinking maps writing responses um this inhand print magazine it just enhances their and and extends um their literacy skills and um it'll synthesize they're learning at a greater level so I also want to extend a huge thank you to this team um every grade level is represented and they've done a lot of work with us and they will continue to do the work um moving forward in the years of the implementation process um and we all appreciate your consideration for this recommendation so thank you and I'll give it back to Bethany yeah so as Jamie said we're just um happy to answer some of your questions but we are very grateful for the opportunity for you guys to consider this recommendation thank you board members what questions do you have I just had a comment not a question but um I wanted to say thanks for going back and factoring in the fact that um we may revert back if legislation passes and whatnot that it's important to know that we're still aligned across the board so thank you for taking that time to do that no problem I think I have a question about the implications of of that um one of the things that I struggle with is that when we think about American history or US History right there are a large fabric of things that go into that and even though we can then drill down into specific things that are in the current standard versus what the old standard might have had how do we account for in our curriculum in terms of in American history we're covering those basis is it probably depends on what kind of curriculum we end up choosing to go with do it not in terms of like what resource we're actually calling upon to be put forth for the interpretation of the standards is that what you're asking yeah so the standards really will the interpretation of the standards is really what guides our our work in terms of that component of it and the standards really from the the main strands of the standards have not changed that much um from the old standards to the new standards and so that really and truly is um what we would consider the foundation of what students will learn in our classrooms right are the Minnesota state standards and so our curriculum then is complementary of that right that's kind of we I I like to use the language it's like our vehicle right it's like our vehicle of delivering that I think I've said that with Ela also um so I think that really getting to the essence of what those standards truly do drill down to what guides usk you for that clarification so I it's just I'm trying to inform myself and anyone else for that matter so it's really the standards right that are then promoted and and dictated by the legislature and mde in terms of what will then come from that um and so any questions or challenges or changes to those standards that then don't reflect maybe what we all might want to value and put as for what we think is appropriate again using an example of US History um that's really where the argument needs to be made as opposed to in what you guys are doing in your interpretation is that fair to say yeah or your advocacy for that at the advocacy is a wonderful word thank you y y okay thank you I appreciate that I had a question um thank you for I know we we had the opportunity to hear you both present at our work session last month and asked some questions there and I see the great chart in here in response to that so thank you for doing that I had a question um so regarding that that chart um you talked about the review process is still underway and so um Dean hackinson talked about how the K5 curriculum and I see that there's some grades where we don't need to make changes we're going to keep it as is um but some of those other ones like for instance seventh grade and 8th grade um do we do similar to what I know I'm thinking to what we're going to see later in action Benchmark with our English English language arts do we pilot any of these is that part of the where are we in terms of I see that there's different years and such but can you talk a a little bit about how this gets rolled out how we decide that these are the curriculums that align with the standards and that fit for what our needs are and also um when you anticipate these Cur like when these would come up for Action are they all coming up next month or is this more of just an update that's a great question so let me start with the process questions um the process really is um just follows that implementation science process in terms of like exploration so they they start with looking at our current reality looking to see um usually again new standards are driving that so we look at our current reality we look at our data how our students needs being met what what changes might we want to entertain um and then with secondary they usually look at the choice of you know there is an option to write your own or there's an option to look at a packaged program or a curriculum you know prepackaged you know program and so um we don't in Edina have a pilot where we've tried out different programs the team goes through an extensive process and identifies the top the top recommendation and once that's approved there's usually um with larger like Elementary for example we would have like a group of early implementers for 7th and eth grade social studies there's eight teachers and so to have just two of them or just it it it's an easier implementation to manage to support those eight teachers um and so we they still go through early implementation but we don't do it in part if that makes sense they would all Implement together and so that group would start implementing it next year with Elementary however there's certain things to consider right we're going to have all of our teachers implementing Benchmark advance to implement two brand new curriculum programs very big changes think of the transition that's going to occur right that would be too much however we've got this team who has been involved deeply involved in the process they're excited and ready to start implementing so that group of early imp impers would Implement next year pending board approval okay there might be a couple brought in on that also but it would be a small group just like we have our llt our literacy leads that are implementing Benchmark this year and that's important with large groups of implementers we want to make sure we're working out any any kinks with technology any things with resources we might learn any they help inform the PD that we're going to offer and so with secondary it does look a little bit different because they're content special so we don't have to think about their I don't want to say we don't have to think about their capacity but it's in a different way do you know what I'm saying so the color coding here I should say to a couple of the um color coding is because of when um government will be necessary based on our changes so that's a a piece of this um but we from when we brought this to you last time to now when we have this in front of you now the elementary decision recommendation was made and the Middle School so there's way more filled in here than before so that's hopefully that helps with understanding the roll out and the intentionality and the thought process around how we how we choose to go into that early implementation phase depending really largely on the number of people who are going to be implementing like how heavy of a lift will that be and then similar to our implementation science once these R these are chosen because they align well with the standards and and once they're rolled out then we revisit and say okay cultural geography Pearson contemporary for 9th grade is working really well we feel like we need to make a couple additional changes and then I mean that follows that implementation science right where you're circling back to say what other supports do we need to give yeah it's plan do study act so once they get to full implementation there's the plan do study act cycle okay and there's just a constant monitoring of that and so we're collecting implementation data and student outcome data to see if it's h having the impact as intended right and so it's not to say there wouldn't there might not be adjustments along the way um because we always will need to they call it adjust on purpose right so um that's just where the data helps us um along the way when we we look to see how it's Landing okay y so will this come forward for the board to take action on next month K12 I believe so yes that's my understanding is that what's in this report is coming forward for Action even though there there's different years years that it's rolling out but that we might want to check with Jody and M okay just sounds good final say on that great that's my understanding thank you both any other questions board members yes Jen with the you've got K5 as orange which is 26 27 and if you're going to be doing a smaller group is there also monies needed in 2526 for that or how are you covering that great question so it will be so I just the that's the entire total I didn't know at this point how many teachers might Implement early Implement next year and so the 240 is the total so what would end up happening is that would be less right so there would be a little portion spent next year and then the 240 I'm I'm I don't know I'm going to guess like maybe 20,000 or something right I'm I'm just kind of guessing but yeah so it'll be a group of 20 teachers or less that would Implement next year but great question would you like me to make that more clear in this for the next report I think it would be good to have the dollars there so we don't forget even an estimate or that sounds good it's not a very large dollar amount but I would hate for it to get to loss someplace and then throw you off than you didn't have the money I will do that good great thank you so much appreciate it and appreciate the team's work on this as well so please pass that along on behalf of the bo I appreciate it thank you thank you all right uh next up on our agenda oops where's my sheet is the um revised budget fiscal year 2025 and fiscal year 2026 budget parameters and I welcome up uh Director of Finance and operations mert wooder to take us through this report good evening Madam chair members of the school board um superintendent Stanley um tonight I'd like to briefly review a number of proposed revisions to our current year budget as well as um the plan for next school year um I won't go through every single um budget revision item however I would like to point out that um these were reviewed in significant detail at our um January finance and Facilities committee meeting as well as our February board work session as good as the administration might think it is at at budgeting as new and better information does come along we do like to continually revise those so that we have the most accurate information available for both decision- making at the board level as well as informing our public and I will go through some of the high level items kind of on a funby fun level going through all five of our main operating funds of course beginning with the general fund which um fin finances the the bulk of our operations as a school district the most important variable to think about here is enrollment um we plan for this school year with 8630 um average daily membership or that's or enrollment we're actually coming in close to about 8670 or 8675 this school year so enrollment has been robust that's fantastic news for the school district as a result we will need to revise upward our general education Revenue budget um by that 45 or so additional ADM so we're anticipating adding about $540,000 of additional Revenue the second major general fund Revenue component that we'll be um proposing a revision is our school term unemployment Aid um as you'll remember uh the legislative session of 2023 um made it possible for school term employees to collect unemployment benefits during the summer months um a one-time appropriation was given um from the state to all school districts it was about $135 million pot of money um our forecast indicated that that money would be fully exhausted during the summer of 2024 as such we didn't budget any Revenue in that category for this school year however we did budget for the expenditures luckily we will be reimbursed this school district or this school year rather 100% of the way that's going to be an addition of $312,000 of Revenue which is good news uh the 2024 legislative session which was a policy year did have a little bit of Finance attached to it in the in the area of the read act so there were two new react AIDS the react literacy Aid as well as the react teacher compensation fund um those two can be exclusively used for react purposes so it's basically going to be money in on a one-time basis and money out on a one-time basis that's about $654,000 that money may or may not be fully expended this school year any residual value will simply roll over to subsequent years to be used only for that purpose of redact eligible expenditures um the third major or fourth maor major area of Revenue that the school district's receiving this school year that wasn't part of our original budget is the um one of the four purposes of the debt issuance we made this fall the 2024a general obligation bonds one of the purposes was Capital notes to finance our bus purchases throughout the district um so that's going to be $1.5 million that will be deposited into the operating Capital fund to be used for purchasing school buses and then finally a note on special education Revenue this isn't a revision item but just more for your information if you've been paying attention to what's coming out of the state with their forecast at the moment there's a little bit less money um at this time than was predicted 2 years ago when a lot of this new money was put into law and so it appears that special education Revenue in the current year will be reduced by about 5% for all School dist in the state so they're going to be Pro rating as they like to say at the state level um by 95% luckily um our Revenue estimates were quite conservative we budgeted in a very conservative Manner and so even with that pration we're still likely going to exceed actual Revenue in terms of or against what we budgeted so that's good news and kind of why we maintain that conservative approach overall um we're anticipating adding $3.6 million of Revenue above and beyond what we had originally budgeted for moving to expenditures we're expecting to expend $2.6 million more than we originally budgeted so that difference is going to be about a $1 million add to our fund balance um some of the main components include um used diesel bus purchases so last school year the um the school board approved purchasing five used buses to the tuna 4 $40,000 um those buses did not arrive until after July 1st and so instead of accounting for those last school year we need to account for those this school year um we did in improve or increase our salaried or our licensed salaries by about $91,000 um when we budget for those um depending on the movement that occurs after that which teachers are actually here versus who I use for my budgeting um that can create a variant so on a $58 million um teacher salary budget we were off by about $90,000 not too bad um we did also have a number of collective bargaining agreements um this year approved by the school board um our um both of our seciu units so our custodians our bus drivers our PA professionals um our um principles as well as our cabinet unit those salary enhancements were about $900,000 more than originally budgeted for and so we'll have to revise our budget to reflect those um we also have to allocate funds for those react expenditures that I mentioned so we're going to both reflect the revenue coming in offset by the expenditures going out so we're expecting a zero balance in that fund overall as I said about $2.6 million of additional revenues so we're going to add $1 million to our fund balance any question on general fund before I move over to the Food Service fund as you all know this is the second year that we're operating our um free School meals Universal free meal for all students and as you might expect participation continues to increase we're serving about 130 meals more um per day this school year than we did last year which is fantastic and as a result we will revise our Revenue budget upwards by about $830,000 and that's going to be offset by expenditures of about $690,000 so we'll be adding an additional um fund balance to our food service fund of about $228,000 and that figure does include a general fund charge back so any services the general fund that are appropriate that is provided to the Food Service fund we will recoup some of that back in our general fund that fund continues to operate extremely well with no financial assistance from the general fund which is kind of what you want from your food service program so that's fantastic um I mentioned a for-purpose um General obligation debt issuance this fall the second purpose was um continuing to fund our long-term facilities maintenance program with some bonded debt and so that issuance um will will be 6 .6 million added to the bill and construction fund to be used for deferred main maintenance projects throughout the district that's going to be offset by about $34,000 of um issuance cost so the cost we pay to our Municipal advisers the rating agency um the bond Underwriters Etc uh the main reason that we issued that bond in the fall of 2024 was to refund the 2014a and 2015a um voter approved bonds so we'll be recognizing um revenue or other financing sources of about $100 million in that fund to be almost completely offset by um paying off those old bonds and now we're going to be paying for them at a lower interest rate over the next 10 or so years again saving some um some sign significant money for our taxpayers which is great news and so we have to make these accounting entries to reflect that activity again about $100 million coming in about $100 million going out that fund um will have a a fund balance change of near zero at the end of the school year any questions on the other funds of the school district so as I mentioned a couple times throughout that um little presentation we'll be adding about $1 million to our fund balance if you add that to the previous Financial forecast that was shared in December um the financial position of the district continues to be stable in the short term with um budget reductions looming in fiscal year 27 or fiscal year 2028 at the latest this additional one million does not change that trajectory at all um and so we are proposing that budget prams for next school year be basically we operate the same exact way we are this year we'll go through our Burg process um our final meeting with our community members is tomorrow evening and we'll have some recommendations that will be shared um by Future leadership I believe this spring or in the fall about how we proceed um for fiscal year 2027 any questions board member Ellenberg um I don't have a question director Woodard I just wanted to thank you and the rest of the finance team for um being fiscally conservative especially in the times that we have right now where there's so many unknowns and um being so spoton with our your um assumption that you've made and I just really appreciate your diligence to our finances so thank you any other comments or questions thank you for taking the time to walk us through that in such detail too I appreciate that and so guess one thing I didn't add I will be bringing this back to the board for Action at our next regular meeting so okay great thank you director Woodard uh we will now move on to uh policy review uh we have polic we have four policies up uh for discussion tonight and I will turn it over to uh board member allenberg chair of the policy committee uh to take us through those uh good evening we have uh as a board chair gaer said we have four policies um that were reviewed by the committee this month um as a reminder to the community all of our policies are reviewed for um Clarity to make sure they align with federal and state law um and are um aligned um against model policy with the Minnesota Schoolboard Association and so first um I apologize director Woodard um our first policy is policy 534 um which is emergency Health situations and District Insurance limitations and um there were no changes to this policy other than putting the correct um supervisor in um but director Woodard here is if here if you have any questions regarding this policy thanks Vice chair allenberg as you mentioned no changes of substantive nature proposed by the administration the policy is um very well written quite vague which is I think the intent um anytime a non-personnel injury or liability occurs on School District premises the um injured party I guess their insurance is always primary unless the district could be proven to be negligent and I think this policy achieves that General um sentiment do board members have any questions okay thank you um next we're going to talk about policy 535 which is is education of homeless children and I'd like to invite up director of student Support Services um jod remsing um this policy mir's federal statute and there were no other there no changes to this policy other than some semantics um but direct uh director reming do you have any additional contexts for the board no I don't you summed it up very well board members questions or comments um just a question given our times um if for some reason the federal government decided to change it standards or it statutes or whatever related to this particular area um what would be our process in terms of we've identified what we want to do related to this uh uh group of students um if we did not agree with the federal government's approach or whatever it is would we have the ability within our legal standard to be able to continue with this policy or would we be required to revise it based on whatever the federal government does or doesn't do the federal law would supersede our our um District policy so we would go and revise it so that it would be an alignment okay thank you a question um so the policy says that every district has a homeless Le aison who is that for our district um so Joanne kch is our assistant director in our office and she serves as the liaison for our district okay um at our school buildings is there a way for families who might be experiencing homelessness to find out about this or to know who this person is yeah I I know right now the majority of people are referred to their building social worker and then through the social worker that's how they're referred to Joanne I think it might also be available online but we can also send out greater Communications too to ensure that everybody knows okay thank you are there any other questions about this policy okay thank you director remsing um next we're going to move on to policy 517 student recruiting and I'd like to invite up director of Communications staffan Edwards um and this policy um mayor's language in um the Minnesota high school league um it's also a model msba policy um and um director Edwards I don't know if you want to speak to it or want me to speak to it we had a quite a lengthy conversation in policy about um the um intent behind the policies we have here at ID Public Schools um the policy itself does not have measurable impact on the operations of Edina Public Schools so there was a qu since it's mirroring um High School Athletic Association policy there was question um is it um is it something that we should have in policy not have in policy and the committee um after discussion decided that um since it does not confuse or hurt operations here in Ido Public Schools it was worthwhile to keep the policy for Community clarification message sending but I want to bring in um director Edwards to add whatever context or direction that you have for the board yeah oh we turn the microwave sorry thank you I'd say again that you SED that purpose uh perfectly and that both our policy and the Minnesota State High School league just provide a lot of guidance um and Direction and protection for schools uh Vice chair allenberg you would asked a question about uh section 4A in our our um committee discussion about if capacity for programs and classes was actually taken into account uh for open enrollment in this policy and so that those two terms or two criteria capacity of a program in class have actually been eliminated because they're redundant that's what I that's what I thought thank you I appreciate com the only thing really the other changes were um primarily just edits thank you questions from board members chair gaer so is it fair to say that the main purpose of this policy is recruiting student athletes in in practice in practice okay and and does this in under the definition where it says uh definition of undue influence where it says contact with a student from another school district does School District include and cover private schools and Charters that it would be any school any school okay okay yeah thank you sure and thank you for the question because that was some of the discussion we had which we believe the intent of the policy is for athletes but we also are well aware that we live in a um an environment where District are marketing right for students our knowledge bow won the whole state tourament last year we could be recruiting for that right so we we were having some discussion like could you read into this right sending out Facebook post so um and again we landed on the the policy itself does not change or confuse administrators in in any way and that was the concern the committee had and since there wasn't any um concern about us having the policy or conflicting with um any advice from any other um League that we wanted to keep it there just to make for clarification for parents and we also didn't want to send a message by removing it that where it's open season for recruiting in Idina so it certainly is broader than Athletics um I think it's most often applied just in conversations with um activities an Athletics director Troy Stein um that it's often applied in the the realm of Athletics and given our leadership of Athletics became another reason why we wouldn't want to remove any kind of protection if you will or any message that this is something that we take very seriously thank you are there any other questions or comments about this thank you thank you director Edwards um next we're going to move on to policy 519 um student interviews by outside agencies um and assistant superintendent Nate spanson is going to um come up and talk about this policy with us um assistant superintendent Swinson would you like to yeah have the floor Vice chair allenberg members of the board Dr Stanley um interviews of students by outside agencies was largely reviewed by um Alex hatom and building leader ership and uh the one substantive change that was added is um in relation to an exigent circumstance existing that that would essentially supersede the requirements of this policy so as a tangible example our um if law enforcement were to come to the school because of a suspected um threat where there is imminent danger um that they would be allowed to take the steps necessary to intervene um without following the standard protocol of this procedure so it's a very narrow um circumstance that would allow that to happen um but an important element to add to this policy and the only other thing that um I'll add is that it's um any other updates are aligning it with the maltreatment of miners act um so that those were the other substantive changes to it thank you was this policy as part of the normal annual or cycle review as opposed to a reaction to something that happened yes thank you director gaer thank you uh under general statement of policy 2A um it just lists a bunch of people that students may not be interviewed during the school day by per people other than and has parents School District officials employees Andor agents what is considered an agent do we know just give me one second I believe that that would be referring to someone who would show up um to do a Mal treatment report okay like um so like someone who is from the county who would have authorization to come in and talk to a student because of alleged something a CPS reporter something like that okay thank you and I'm sorry to put you on the spot with that that was that's still I just needed to read it again real quick yeah that makes sense that that's what it would be thank you anything else um great so these policies will come back for approval next month thank you to the administrators that helped us or um made the changes and updates to these policies and that is all for policy committee all right great well then we are moving on to the action portion of our meeting and as a reminder to the public when items come forward to the board for Action they have more than likely come through committee then come to the full board at a work session for discussion come to a board meeting the following month for further discussion and then another month later for Action so if you are a periodic tuner in to these meetings you might think that um you know we're just talking about social studies and it's one and done but it it really takes its way through a process so um so tune in every month to see what's happening so uh do I have a motion to approve the elementary literacy curriculum adoption recommendation of Benchmark advance so moved is there a second second all right and so assistant uh director of teaching and learning Bethany van AEL is here to um present to us um what we have up for Action this evening the Benchmark uh Advance curriculum yes so it's here for Action so I I wasn't really sure what you needed me to present at this point so yeah I believe this is the same report that we received at our work session last month and I believe that there's probably not many updates to it but I will open it up to the board well I have one update actually I did want to speak to um the quote that was linked in the last one and this one are different their amounts and I wanted to just speak um clearly about why that is you may have noticed that um so when we went back to updating our quotes we wanted to add in um we wanted to make sure that we had add added in our adalante programs for our Kate kindergarten first second and third grade um for our Spanish dual language so that's one of the reasons why the amount went up a little bit from the last time and then there's the one other reason was there was some small group knowledge building sets that we needed to adjust the numbers for based on just some of the calculations of um how many classrooms were ordering those and so that is just one other reason why the amount was different so that was really all I had to update in terms of what would anything that would be different that was changed from last time to this time so with that I'm ready for questions yeah just a really quick clarification when we talk about the dollar amounts so it says X hundreds of thousands of dollars for 8 years that's the total package that we're then agreeing to but it's we actually pay it out on an annual basis it's a license every year that we're paying out or do we actually pay that money up front it depends usually it's up front or sometimes you can split it up right that depends we work with M on that one yeah um and we determine that but yeah and you're paying up front for all the consumables and everything so got I didn't know that thank you very much M voice chair alen perk so for community members that might only be seeing this um could you please explain to the community why this curriculum what are the benefits to our students what what is the decisionmaking behind this curriculum yeah great question it was a lengthy process so this started three years ago with a team of teachers representative of all of our grade levels in schools um we also had members of um our special ed Department who sat on the team we had had a media specialist we had um El teacher sitting on the team we had some admin representatives and so um as with most curriculum reviews we start with knowing that there are new standards coming out in addition to that we had the Minnesota react passed and So within this process we have had teachers who are um going through our letters training which is deep professional development around the science of reading and so as our teachers have been learning more and more and more they've been recognizing the need for updating updated resources in connection with new standards and the Minnesota read act so with all of that context provided they went through and really reviewed um they started reviewing six different programs all of which were also being reviewed by mde at the time um we used the exact same rubric that mde was using actually I shouldn't say the exact same because we used the uh reading League rubric in addition to our culture tools of culture proficiency rubric for curriculum instruction and uh we deeply reviewed uh six programs initially with through all the materials looking at both um language comprehension and the word recognition side of the reading robes making sure that all the components were there in the process we Alo also reached out to um collect information from our stakeholders and that being students we interviewed students families teachers LinkedIn that report are themes that we were able to capture from that um to help inform what we were going to be needing in terms of filling the need for our new resources we narrowed that down last year to three programs they um all of which were aligned to the science of reading right but there were there were different nuances Benchmark Rose to the surface unanimously after um all staff had a chance to review them uh the materials went around to all the buildings they got to review all three and the team sat through two days of uh presentations from all three of the companies the reason Benchmark ra uh Rose to the surface was many reasons mostly it was a comprehensive um program which meant that they had components of all of the reading rope that were already baked into the system some some districts choose to um kind of puzzle piece it together a little bit choosing different programs but our staff really largely wanted something that was comprehensive and so this program has um the knowledge building small group sets it has uh interdisciplinary so there are units three units of social studies three units of science uh three units of um literary components and so that was definitely something that was interesting the is program atalante was that companion program that helped fill that need um so those were all of those were some of many that had it just kind of rise to the top and again unanimously across the board with all of our teachers on that committee Benchmark was the number one choice and I'm going to say as we've been early implementing so that team has been implementing it this year the feedback on the program continues to get stronger as we go which is really incredible not only that but we're seeing impact on kids already um and so kidss are engaged the writing is so rigorous kids are writing more um writing more um deeply than they have in the past and teachers are very excited with that the bridge from elementary to middle school is beautiful in terms of what they're being asked to annotate how they're being asked to really engage with text um I could keep going on it was probably you didn't want me to talk this long about it but I can't help it it's just a really incredible fit for our e staff and students it really is continues to prove itself over and over again so I've been able to get into some classrooms over the last few weeks and seeing it in action is just awesome can I so um and correct me if I'm wrong but for clarification purposes I want to make sure people understand that this curriculum is going to be used for tier one instruction which is for all students in the classroom and we've been talking so much about our literacy plan I do not want community members to think that we're changing materials in our literacy plan for intervention that this is a new curriculum to replace our existing tier one curriculum correct Yep this is tier one there are opportunities within Benchmark for intervention but Sunday is not going away at this point in terms of its intervention Sunday 1 and two um so that is specific for our intervention purposes but yes this will be replacing making meaning being a reader and being a writer and lastly could you you please speak to how this curriculum you alluded to it but could you speak directly to how this curriculum is can be utilized in our dual immersion program and then why it's different for our French immersion program yep uh as with most curriculum programs resources we can find the Spanish translations we can't find the French translations and so just just like this the companion program adalante marries beautifully with Ben Mark it's a seamless biliteracy program where it supports teachers in teaching both languages beautifully so that's a perfect marriage it's wonderful it's working well our second grade teachers at the Spanish dual language are implementing it now um going great French not the same it's different it's it's difficult in terms of um considering the implementation of that that said we have two teachers um Molly swerski in fifth grade and um Katie Thomas in third grade who are early implementing it and they are working we have a meeting tomorrow in fact down um at Normandale to start thinking through what will the implementation plan look like so will they be getting the materials yes are they translated in French no and so what does that look like in terms of preserving that um the beauty of Normandale and the beauty of that immersion experience without compromising that how do we then continue to um align with the district align with the science of reading making sure that kids get what they need to get out of that literacy block so we we are working through that plan very intentionally along with Chris Holden and Connie sack um Jody's there at the table and our um literacy coach Sandra Harley is at the table as well so that implementation plan is currently um being written thank you for answering my questions you're welcome I just wanted to say thank you Bethany for being here tonight I know Jody was supposed to be here but taking over for that we really appreciate that no problem I'm happy to do so this is exciting work I had one followup question uh it's similar to the question that I had last month uh for anyone that's really into the literacy piece they know that mde has this list of approved curriculums and today was the day that this was that Benchmark was being re-evaluated I was assured last month that no matter what this is we're really excited about it it aligns with what with the standards and the work we're doing and and we're moving forward regardless but did they in fact hit today as their deadline yep so they fell under I do not know it's it's the it's the second second level so it's I think it's partial so um which is where most of the pro comprehensive programs are falling it's it's was interesting that list is getting longer um so we uh feel incredibly confident that we landed on the right program and and like I said what we're seeing from students it's really early to start using student outcome data on an implementation this brand new but I did take a peek at winter data and it's looking really strong so I think we feel really confident well we have to adjust on purpose sure but that's an incredibly great rating from mde even though it's not the highest rating and it's a good fit for our students which is what we're looking for I believe from what I am seeing and hearing from all of the feedback I'm collecting and I'm collecting it regularly from the teachers absolutely 100% thank you yes and thank you again for being here tonight no problem all right board we are moving on oh um we will now vote to approve the elementary literacy curriculum adoption recommendation of Benchmark Advance all those in favor say I I anyone opposed the elementary literacy curriculum adoption recommendation of Benchmark Advance is approved thank you Bethany right you can text Jody tell her the good news tell her you did a great job all right do I have a motion to approve the din Public Schools proposed academic calendars for 2026 2027 and 2027 2028 and adjustments to 2025 2026 academic calendar so moved is there a second second well uh welcome to assistant superintendent Nate Swenson an executive director of Human Resources Sonia sailor and they are going to present to us uh the calendars good evening chair gabler members of the school board doc Dr Stanley um so as you know we presented assistant superintendent um Swinson and I presented at our June work session and also at our February regular regular board meeting in discussion about the 2627 and 2728 um proposed academic calendars in addition um for tonight's action item there are a couple of modifications that we are recommend ending to the 2526 calendar one is as you know we've discussed in the past that we're making a change to our connect and assess days at the elementary level to rather than have those be the Monday and Tuesday of the first week of school to actually have them be on the pre preceding Friday the Friday of teacher Workshop week and the Monday of um the first week of school with Tuesday being a day for our elementary teachers to be able to spend time really assessing um and reviewing the data that they've collected over the course of those two days before elementary students arrive on Wednesday for 2425 the school board approved a modification to the calendar to make that change um but it remains for 2526 because that was something new so we're recommending that we make that change for the 2526 calendar as as well which would move the um connected assess day to Friday August 22nd and then Monday August 25th with Tuesday being that day to allow our elementary teachers time to assess or excuse me review the assessment data um in addition through going through this process we found that there was a double up of actually it was September 30th 2025 ended up on both the September calendar and the October calendar we were lucky enough to see that and catch that at this point and so um we're also recommending that we correct that clerical error which would move our last student day to Friday May 29th 2026 and our last teacher data day to Monday June 1st 2026 which aligns um with the 2024 2025 calendar as well are there any questions about um the proposed adjustments to 2526 or the proposed calendars for 2627 and 2728 I just want to say thank you for the description in the in the board packet that explicitly talked about what you just said it was easy to clearly identify where it was so I didn't have to go searching for it so thank you um I just wanted to thank both you and the calendar committee because we have volunteers and people on staff um that do this and I know that it's like finding a needle and a Hy stack to try to balance the needs of everyone and come up with a calendar so thank you and thank everybody that works on this and putting together a calendar that makes sense and is Forward Thinking for all of our f families I just appreciate it thank you it's a great committee yes I I agree with that uh could you one question that sometimes get asked is would you mind reviewing how the decision is made to start before Labor Day because that is a very common question we get and people have strong feelings about if we should start before Labor Day or not that is correct so in the state of Minnesota um you can start before Labor Day if you have construction projects that total a minimum of $400,000 or more so in um in accordance with the board's guiding change document um and this has been going on I believe for at least five years at this point um there there the long-term maintenance plan within our school district that that occurs to our buildings to our facilities every summer far exceeds that amount of money and because it is um it is easier and far more efficient to be able to get a good earlier start on those projects um the decision was made a number of years ago to start the week before Labor Day so that's where that comes from thank you yes it's not just us saying that we like to start the year early so all right uh we will now vote to approve the din Public Schools proposed academic calendars for 2026 2027 and 2027 2028 and adjustments to the 2025 2026 academic calendar all those in favor say I I anyone opposed the public schools proposed academic calendars for the 26 27 and 2728 and adjustments to the 2526 academic calendar are approved thank you both all right do I have a motion to approve the achievement and integration fiscal year 2026 budget so move is there a second second uh I'm going to welcome up Dr Franny beair our director of achievement equity and multilingual learning programming and she is going to walk us through um the budget thank welcome will you turn on on the uh just start talking so good evening CH chair gaer members of the board and Dr Stanley uh reviewing the achievement in integration budget there are no changes from what was presented previously the one change you're probably going wait there is a change um we've now put it on the MD the form that it needs to be submitted to MD on previously we pulled it out and submitted it on just a spreadsheet that was easier to read instead of having to flip through uh six different tabs uh that's the only difference there was a small budget update from the very first budget that was presented to you in January and that is working with director Woodard that we were doing an estimate in January and we're getting closer to what the estimate for the budget is other than that everything remain the same for what has been presented thank you board members questions Vice chair Ellenberg director beair I just wanted to tell you that I appreciate the intentionality of how you've built this plan and how it links directly to the district's um metrics plan um I just I really appreciate that I appreciate how we're measuring students measuring their success um and um it's a job well done so thank you thank you any other questions all right thank you Dr beair we'll now vote uh to approve the achievement and integration fiscal year 2026 budget all those in favor say I I anyone opposed the achievement and integration fiscal year 2026 budget is approved thank you uh do I have a motion to approve the American Indian education program vote of concurrence so moved is there a second second Dr P is here to present to us to the board um about this uh vote yeah so every year the American Indian parent advisory committee we write five goals and the district writes five goals and then the APAC committee vote concurrent or non-concurrent with how we how our American Indian programming is going and then does fills out annual compliance documentation that we have written goals and we have provided an update on how we are doing on those goals uh there has been a shift in uh APAC leadership how so that you will see a new name that's signed off on the concurrent documentation we were able to meet uh the district and the APAC the new members of the a a pack and we had a conversation about non-concurrent or concurrent they thought very hard about it and what they felt and wanted to they were unfortunately not able to be here tonight but what they did want shared with the board was they feel that we have made a very good effort and progress towards the 15 recommendations that were made last year and they would like us to keep making progress that we were towards then so they um decided to vote concurrent because of the work that is in place and a lot of the work they are extremely happy with the work that Dwayne is doing in the elementaries Dwayne being our American full-time American Indian culture liaison that came out of the vote of non-c concurrence last year has developed incredibly robust programming at elementary and middle school and I think we finally have our high school programming landed it's a little bit more challenging because they changed how advisory is done this school year so we had to start all over but we have something in place now so that uh we still have work to do but we are moving in the right direction all right board members questions that you have board member Ellenberg thank you um I don't have a question I wanted to um first of all thank you for your leadership on this and moving us from non-c concurrence to concurrence and the improvements that we've made um and I appreciate you acknowledging that we still have room to go and I cannot speak for the board but I would like I will speak for myself that there is a commitment to keeping our commitment from myself that we will make those improvements so if there are any parents listening um we are a board that is committed to um living our mission which is for all students and so thank you again for bringing Dwayne on he was just featured in E din Sun current in case anyone didn't notice um and putting us on the track so appreciate it can I just share something about that suncurrent absolutely because I think this is the part because when Dwayne met with us in the fall he said he wanted to develop a program that was not superficial but that was deep that article was written by a non-native student the English language arts teachers at the high school are reading a book by a Native American author and they invited Dwayne to come in the student who was in class class was so moved by his presentation and that she came up to him after and said I really would like to write an article about you for the zephrus so the article was first published in the zephrus and then somebody read it and it made it to the Sun and it's very exciting because I think for a non-native student to be so moved by a presentation to then want to write an article and share his story with everyone so a lot about our commitment to the programming and our native students in the district thank you for sharing that I did not know that so I appreciate that information one thing I just wanted to reinforce what Erica just said is that you know work in progress is still work right and that we still have things to do and we're making that commitment to make that happen that's what I I I'm very pleased with this report um what oh I was joking I think someone cut my microphone so I would stop talking at the board meeting sorry got it okay if I'm going to be the butt of a joke I'm happy I just want to be in on it no it was myself that's okay yeah um so what I kind of what we just took action on was far as far as your budget right to go to what we need to be able to do and so on so and the culturally AIS on are in that budget so just the dynamic of what we just voted on to support that budget but now we have the work and start seeing the work that's coming for with the vote of of concurrence it's the continuation so my only question which is awesome I love that the question is that as we think about how we keep moving forward in our progress I want to make sure that you have what you need in order to be successful with that and so not that this is a rhetorical question at the moment but it's more I want to make sure that you feel empowered that okay as you continue to work through this process and even though we did the budget just now do we still have what we need to do to continue to deliver on the commitment that Erica was talking about we have to make sure that we're supportive in that in that regard to you and your team so I just want to make sure that you know that thank you uh yes thank you for the work on this report and getting the vote of um concurrence I echo my fellow board members um one of the things that I'm wondering as we as we kind of measure the progress on these goals I think in the future being able to kind of see how we're making progress on them like I know one of them is 80% in the fastbridge and it said like we don't have that data yet for the winter um but just understanding where we are in hitting those goals I think would be uh helpful just in future reports to kind of give board members of like how close are we where's our where's the progress that needs to happen on that okay so yeah and then I know in the past and it sounds like there's been a change in the committee but um I know in the past and on this document too there's a spot for committee members names that is empty at this this point so the we're in a rebuilding phase with the committee so we're reaching out to all any American Indian family is listening please join our an email is coming from Dwayne reaching out asking telling us now is the time to rebuild the APAC and review the goals and write new goals for next year great and then my last comment was about that awesome article that started in the zephrus and um that made its way to the sun current so I read that too and I learned a lot and I had read that Angela Boule book before and it's an excellent book so all right thank you uh we will now vote to approve the American Indian education program vote of concurrence all those in favor say I I anyone opposed the American Indian education program vot vote of concurrence is approved thank you do I have a motion to approve policies 513 521 524 604 617 619 623 and 632 so moved is there a second second policy chair Ellenburg is yes so this is quite a few policies and um just for clarification I'm just going to run through them really fast before we vote to make sure there are no questions there was 513 student promotion acceleration retention and early childhood admission there were no changes to this policy other than adding the correct administrators for the decision-making process 521 student disability non-discrimination that was simply a name change 524 electronic technology acceptable use this was updated with the current um parameters that of cell phone use or electronic technology use at the different levels in our district 604 grade level configuration enrollment at school sites this was updated to make sure it included Spanish to language programming 617 class size and Staffing was updated with current procedures and included class siiz parameters 619 student assignments to teachers and classes there were no significant changes to that policy 623 summer school instruction there was no significant changes but um the policy was updated to ensure it aligned with current practice and 632 chemical use abuse um was updated with current practices and procedures um do board members have questions or comments about these policies before we vote hearing not I'll turn it back to you chair Gore all right thank you we will now vote to approve policies 513 521 524 604 617 619 623 and 632 all those in favor say I I anyone opposed policies 513 521 524 604 6117 619 623 and 632 are approved all right board members uh board leadership and committee updates do any board members members have updates director arum um we are just wanted to remind the public that we have day at the capital for our La committee um so we invite any community members to attend um on March 24th uh we'll be there from 8:30 on throughout the day we'll have a contingency of students as well as staff and um uh also some community members so everybody's welcome to come our platform is posted on the website and we look forward to anybody who's willing to come and help us um advocate for for Edina and public education thank you I had one small update I just wanted to give the public an update on the interim superintendent search process uh the full board will be interviewing the recommended finalist for the interim superintendent position on this Wednesday March 5th starting at 5:00 P PM in room 350 and that's the room where we hold our work sessions so this meeting is open to the public and will be live streamed for anyone wanting to watch uh Dr Stanley do you have any updates you'd like to share yes I do have a couple first of all I really want to acknowledge um the girls hocky team for any of you who were at that game it was a nailbiter it was some of the best hockey that I personally have ever watched and that's including the wild um I could not have been more proud of the girls and I know they were so dis disappointed but um to go into double overtime like that was pretty incredible so I am incredibly proud of our our um girls hockey team and hold your head up high because um you've made all of us proud um let's see we have a lot going on right now we have swimming we have um Boys Hockey if you didn't get your tickets I'm sorry because they're all sold out right now um and and um just again incredibly proud of our kids and and just their their efforts and everything that they're doing um we also are moving into the second and final day of our budget uh Community budget task force that will be held tomorrow evening and um this is the time where um the 65 uh task force members are going to be digging more deeply into um comparable districts both financially and academically um from there um the task force members have agreed they'll be holding Community meetings and then there will be an additional um virtual meeting for those who can't make it to community meetings um and I am to talk about this amazing artwork that is in here um so the Southview middle school art teachers are excited to display artwork from their sixth seventh and eighth graders in Visual and media arts the shared artwork represents a sampling of the following courses sixth grade art course narrative paintings and personal artworks seventh grade art course mixed to Media artworks e8th grade Visual and media arts photography Emoji design and mixed media sixth grade media arts elective digital Landscapes and superhero trading cards 7th grade media arts and coding Ive pop artart digital design and 8th grade pottery and sculpture elective pop art sculptures and handbuilt coil vases the Southview art teachers Samantha Jacobson Michaela Herer Dylan uh Welch and uh Samuel sule stated uh quote unquote we greatly appreciate the space to showcase the amazing talent and creativity of our students it's an awesome opportunity for our students to show showcase their hard work and dedication we look forward to sharing more at the library art show oh go to the library art show everyone it is amazing each year um and that is in um held in May so tonight we have heard about robotics we have heard about um debate we've heard about Athletics we've seen the Arts and it just never ceases to amaze me just the amazing opportunities their kids kids have and just the great work that they do thank you do I have a motion to adjourn our meeting all moved is there a second second we will now vote to adjourn the meeting all those in favor say I I any opposed the motion is passed and the meeting has adjourned for
This story was created by artificial intelligence (a large language model) based on the proceedings captured in the video below.
Want to know when new stories arrive?
Enter your email to receive updates.
We will not use your email for any other purpose. You can unsubscribe at any time.