Good afternoon. The time is now 4:40. The Visetta Public Schools Board of Education work session for Monday, March 23rd, 2026 will please come to order. Let's go around the table for introductions. We'll start from my right. >> Sheila Prior, >> Dan Janestra, >> Alicia Little, >> Paris, Vendi, >> Valentina ears, >> Heidi Kater, >> Chase Anderson, >> and I'm Milen Soonyi. Thank you everyone and welcome. First, we have a community ed education report and director of community edi along with Peter Leatherman of Morris Leatherman will share community survey data. Jenny and Peter. All right. Good evening. Uh, thank you for having us. We appreciate the opportunity to share some information with you here tonight. Um, I'm gonna steal this from you for a moment. So, I've talked about it before. The the role of community ed is really to um uh really to help our birth through grade 12 and up families and communities to thrive and be successful in school and life. And we do that in a wide variety of ways. I like to always show the wheel. It's really a summary of all the services that we offer, but it also is a continuum of support that really connects us to the work that we do in our school district. And what I'm going to share with you tonight, actually, what Peter is going to share a lot with you tonight is some data that we've collected through a community survey that's tied to one of our three goals here in community ed this year. Specifically, our second goal, which is to ex strategically expand our capacity through data-informed decision- making. And in order to do that, we needed to do some additional learning from our community. So, I'm excited to share that for the first time ever, we've done a communitywide survey with Morris Leatherman Company and um really had an opportunity to to hear deeply from our neighbors and our our community on how they feel about the work we're doing in community ed. In particular, we really wanted to hone in on the things that are listed on the slide ahead of you. Have a better understanding of awareness and connection. What does our community really know about us? Is our brand clear when it comes to quality and um satisfaction? How are we doing when it comes to customer service? And then understanding uh where are we where are we at with unmet needs and barriers to participation and how can we engage our community in different ways? And lastly, having an understanding of what is that sense of community and belonging within our within the people that we serve as well as other residents within the district and demographics tied to those specific responses. Um, I'm excited to share this data with you. We asked 113 questions if I remember correctly. I would have liked about 50 more. There's so much good learning to to to be done. And um but before handing you over, Peter, I just want to share a little shout out to my team in community ed. The data here is really um impactful. It's really helpful and it shows some really good highlights of the work of our community ed team. It highlights the heart and care that they put into the service to our community every day. And I want to thank them and recognize them for the wonderful data that you're going to see ahead of you here. With that going to hand it over to Peter to tell us about what we learned. >> Wonderful. It's a pleasure to be here with you and to go through a community ed survey, not a bond referendum or operating levy or anything else. This is and one last time in over 18 years with Dr. Anderson. It's it's been a pleasure. Uh wow. Here 18 years 2008. Wow. Times have changed for this survey. A similar methodology to what we undertook for the pre-planning part of the bond referendum where we looked at the community and parents. So we did a 400 sample across the district. Within that 400 sample, there's a set number of parents and then we pull those out and call an additional group of parents uh and put together that sample. So we have two 400 samples. Uh both 400 samples are projectable to plus or minus 5% in 95 uh out of 100 cases. The size of the sample determines the margin of error, not the percent of the population. The interviews were conducted uh last November. Average interview time was 14 minutes. Non-response rate was 5 1.5% and the cell phone only households 63% 11% landline only and 26% had both landline and cell phones. Looking at the demographics, um, overall the typical resident has lived in the Weisetta school district for right at 10 years, while the typical parent has been here for about 8 years. You do have 14 or you have 30 30% that have been in the district for over 20 years, the settlers. At the same time, you can see the rapid growth in the district with 23% having moved into the district just in the last 5 years. 13% of the community has a preschooler or an infant in the household while 26% of parent households have a preschool or an infant. 26% across the district have a child attending the Weisetta school district with 72% empty nesters. And the caveat I always put out there empty neester does not uh connotate age. It's just lack of presence of a child. So the key constituency here is one in four across the community. We looked at the marital status. Um amongst the community as a whole, one in five are single. Uh just under one in five are living with a partner. Over half are married and 10% are widowed or divorced. Uh amongst parents, not surprisingly, eight out of 10 are married. uh the typical age of a resident and once again you really see the growth the turning over of the population with 27% 18 to 34 year olds. It's dropped the typical age down to about 45 years old where amongst parents the typical respondent is the typical parents about 37 years old. one in uh one in five are uh renters uh across the community. Uh not statistically significant but more home ownership amongst parents uh than the community as a whole. Uh 75% work outside the home in the community. Amongst parents 93% work outside the home. And that's going to come into play when we look at barriers for the number one reason why people don't participate. Uh and as always over the 30 years of polling, you are the most highly educated school district in the state of Minnesota. Uh 62% indicate they're college graduates. That includes post-graduates, doctorate degrees, master's degrees, and with parents, 57% are college graduates. We looked at ethnicity also. um the school district the parent group is a bit more diverse and we typically see that across the state. If you look at the community as a whole versus the parents in a school district, they are more diverse. The community as a whole is 67% white, 10% African-American, 8% Asian-Pacific Islander, 6% Hispanic Latino. Well, amongst parents, it's 63% white, 12% African-American, 11% AsianPacific Islander, and then 6% his or 8% Hispanic Latino. Uh sixpoint gap between men and women for the community as a whole. Uh for the parents uh group, it's a 20 point gap. And typically, we do not do our typical birthday method uh that we do to randomize the gender. If you just talk to whoever answers the phone, it's going to be 65% women because men don't answer the phone in Minnesota. Uh but for parents samples, we just have made the decision if the mom answers the phone, we're not going to ask for the dad. And then finally on demographics, very affluent community, not a surprise. Um your parents are actually more affluent than the community as a whole. Um if we look at uh the uh the blue bars the typical residents about 90,000 uh for parents uh it goes over a 100,000 and then you can see the geographic distribution uh Plymouth uh 40 Plymouth North 41% Plymouth South 39% uh 11% Minnitanka and 8% Weisetta Orino we start big picture and then work down to specifics. So just a general question, how familiar do you think you are with community education? Uh 58% of the community indicated that they were either very or somewhat. Uh your core audience as over 3/4 indicate that they're either very or somewhat familiar with 30% of parents indicating they're very familiar. Uh these results are higher than we're seeing uh t currently with community education. If we look at the not to or not at all amongst parents, it's only one in five indicate that they are not two or not at all. Overall assessment on the rating of community education. So this taps into not just their experience but what they hear. Um of the community as a whole it's 83% amongst parents it's 92%. And we have 24% and 28% rating it excellent. uh the of community ed in the Weisetta school district. Now, we drill down to specific programs and this is a two-part question. First off, have you heard or seen or participated in any of these programs? And if you have any meet met any of those qualifications, how would you rate? So, once again, it's not only tapping into their experience. We're going to look at specific community education users in a minute. Uh but it's tapping into what they're hearing also across the board. And so that's why the bars don't add up. So on adult learning opportunities, 70% said they were aware of those off offerings, 64-6. So if we normalize it, 90% positive, 10% negative. And then as we go down the list, you see very little red uh across the board. It actually normalizes out, taking out the uncertainty to uh less than uh 10% uh dis uh unfavorable ratings across the board. Extraordinarily high. Now amongst parents, it's even higher. There's more awareness, not surprisingly. But the highest level of negativity that we have is high school after after school high school and summer programs and it's only 8%. Um so this one the normalized rating approaches 95%. Uh now if we turn to overall household participation and this is a change that is been impacted with the pandemic. Historically before the pandemic the typical community education usership in a school district was between 30 and 35%. 20 2020 21 22 it dropped down to about 25%. And basically a lot of it was community ed was really focused in serving children uh households with w with with children and the community as a whole hadn't re-engaged. You're still virtual and all of those things were happening. It's starting to come up but it's not back to where we were pre- pandemic. uh I've done the survey now for noa henip and for oro and they're we're at about the 30% level but the impact of the pandemic is the historical participation um because now only 22% indicate that they have participated more than two years ago. So the total reach overall of community ed right now is about 43 44%. Just under one half of the residents have participated. the impact and how this this this six-year gap has impacted community ed historic participation is because you have so many new people in the district. Um when you have 25% that have been here for less than 5 years, a lot of the people that have moved out took with them the historical and they have not brought it in. Pre- pandemic the historical participation was typically 55 to 60%. Um, so as you grow this back, you won't you're not going to see this go back up to 55 or to to those levels probably for a decade until you recover that uh to where it was. And similar where did the parent participation slide go? >> You might miss that. >> Uh oh. All right. Okay. the the the the here I can just talk about amongst parents. All right, I'm confused. I had the slide. I was looking at it. There we go. Oh, all right. I apologize. All right. The profile of a community education user. The typical user has been a resident for 6 to 10 years. They're parents of Weisetta school district children, their parents of preschoolers, their 35 to 44 year olds, their over $100,000 annual income households, and their women. Those are statistically significant differences from the community as a whole. Now the typical non-user and this would be the area for opportunity especially uh with communication and outreach is the residents um with I'm sorry for the empty nesters over 55 year olds under $75,000 annual income households and men their traditional gap is always women participate much at a much higher level with any sort of community function than men do now for parent participation 60% indicated that they have participated. That's right about typically it's about 2/3. So it is right where we've seen it over the past 30 years. 27% indicate that they had participated in the past. Um so the total reach then amongst the parent group is about 70%. Now the key figure for this once they use the program they are a captured customer as people like to say in business you have them uh so the likelihood to continue to use for the community overall 40% are very likely 40% are somewhat likely so four out of five will convert back to use the program again is there a profile and I looked at it in the data to say not to were or not at all likely. They're older parents. They're getting to the the end of the getting to the finish line. And typically what we see, it's not just with community ed. It's with volunteering across the board. It's about supporting referendum. They're checked out. Uh they're waiting to cross the finish line and then they probably will re-engage once they become grandparents is the typical trend we see. The parent group is even more captured. 91% indicate that they are likely to continue to use community education programs in the future. What's the primary reason for for participation? This is open-ended and kind of looking for are they looking at it as a fun socializing type aspect or is it for learning? Um to stay active in the community. uh socialization is about a third of users indicating to to learn a skill uh and explore interest, fitness and health. Some sort of specific benefit they're looking for personally, not the social socialization piece is the dominant reason uh for it. It's not just a fun activity. For parents, it's much more focused on education, learning a skill. the youth programs allow their child or themselves to explore interests. Now, the overall rating of the experience and this was fun to tell the staff when I came uh overall 95% rate the experience positively amongst parents 96%. And I typically say you can't get 90% of motans to agree that it's a nice day or not. uh currently. So it is impressive and not only that um it's the enthusiastic rating, the excellent rating with four out of 10 and then 35% of parents. We typically see this in the low 20s for community education just because you've heard me say it motans are difficult to get to say anything is excellent. We don't want we want to always have you know some humble and things are good. um that is just outstanding and that will help as you continue to try to grow the uh program forward. The more enthusiasm you create, it creates something in the people talk about it and then it will draw people in and it'll be they'll become interested in it. Um it's really really an impressive and it lays a strong foundation for moving forward with communication. Now, registration, I told staff this. Um, you they hear from everybody in the red when it comes to registration. If you have a problem, you're calling uh staff and saying there's a problem with registration. So, now everybody thinks there's a problem with registration. There's a concern, but it's very minimal. Um, it's the same 10% that come to schoolboard meetings. Um, it doesn't reflect the whole. So an online registration 83-9 for the community for parents 92-6 for in-person 75 to10 for parents 82 to4 but then on the helpfulness of staff 95% uh rating for the uh community 98% for parents on the helpfulness of staff. Now, this is the challenge that faces all organizations is how do you get a non-user to convert to being a user? And it's going to be hard to convert. For the community as a whole, 14% uh indicate that they're either very or somewhat likely. For parents, 33%. Now the typical market projection you do because there's a difference going from intention to behavior. It'll depend where the program is. It will depend on the cost. It'll become all of those things come into play. So we typically say you discount the very likely by 50% and discount the somewhat likely by 25 to 25%. That's the true percent of if everything works out well you can capture with that it's very limited for the community about 5% indicating that they would be likely to use for uh amongst parents it's about 10% more gain that could possibly happen. Now what is their primary reason for not participating? It's the primary reason everywhere. No time. Um I think if we all looked at the daily usage of our phone though it probably would indicate that we have more time than we think we have but um the perception community is not going to be able to create the 25th hour. That's the first barrier. Um the lack of interest in these sorts of activities age and health 8 and 3%. The one area where community ed can impact is the awareness piece which has a potential of about one in 10 people um as a top-of-the-line response. When we break down and go through a long list of barriers and say is it impact you limit your participation a lot some not too much n not at all whatever rate is the a lot and the sum and you can see too busy for the community 2/3 of people lack of interest 52% with a quarter the program's full that's a potential uh area that community ed can impact the lack of information absolutely now that goes to a third because what's growing what increases that is that say yeah it is somewhat of a limitation the program cost that has a potential so you're working in kind of the limited area once you take away the time piece and the interest piece there are areas uh that can impact I mean if you get 10% growth that would be incredible uh for a program um and then down the list and you know once Again, a lot of people, you know, the registration procedures cuz you hear about those problems. Uh the transportation, it's 1 and 10. Uh but you hear about those sorts of things coming into play. It really is in every or every community education uh organization. It is the too busy and the lack of interest piece to overcome. Now parents, this is interesting because you're unique on this, especially having just done a noa henipin. Parents are less busy than the community as a whole in Yisetta. Typically, parents are more busy everywhere else. I don't know what that says as a social statement, but still it's the number one reason for six out of 10. Then lack of interest. You can see the lack of programs and the lack of information really has about one in f four folks that could be impacted. So there definitely is uh an area here to target. Who are what are the demographic profiles of those that say programs are full? They're under 45 year olds. They're renters. They're postgraduates, Hispanic Latinos, AsianPacific Islanders, uh very affluent over 150,000 annual income households, and they live in southern Plymouth and Medicine Lake. The lack of information uh piece is absolutely the lowest hanging fruit because this is probably the easiest one to get information in front of people. It's 18 to 34 year olds. It's households with preschoolers. It's renters and under $175,000 annual income. Um and so you just target those folks. Then once they use those programs because they're going to be coming into the schools and they will be available. You can easily you see once you have a parent using the program nine out of 10 are either very or somewhat likely to continue. One of the misperceptions out there is they're not using programs here. They're going elsewhere. Now, if you're too busy, you're not going to go elsewhere and drive further. And so, this is district after district. Are they participating in any of these programs at another location? No. Those are percents. 1% 1% the highest 4% after school uh or summer uh camps for parents. Um they're either using them in the district or they're not using them at all. We ask folks, how important is it for the school district to offer comm these community education programs to the community? Very important, somewhat important, not too important, or not at all important. Now, keep in mind just over 40% of the community has historical uh connection with community ed. Seven out of 10 parents do. Um it is across the board. Take out the facilities rentals piece. But still you have 63% that say that's very or somewhat important on the key programs. Even with just over 40% participation, the lowest level of importance you have is 87%. Indicating that it is an important valuable uh thing to offer the community. And going up to ECF, twothirds of parents say it or of the community say it's very important. School age child care just under 2/3. It is an value to the community. Parents even more so. The lowest level taking out facilities rentals which hits 61% is 89%. Nine out of 10 across the board with 3/4 the full day preschool saying very important 72% ECF school age child care 71%. Even so even if the the community resident is not using it or the parent is not using it. It's almost unanimous consensus that these things are important to have available in the school district. Now, where are folks getting their information? This has changed over the years. Um, you know, back in the 90s when I was doing this, the community education catalog, it was like the phone book. Everybody got it, everybody kept it. It was 70 to 80% of people saying it's the community education catalog. Um, it's it's shifted. It still leads the list for both 21 and 24%. Uh the community more reliant on mailings than parents, 18 to 8. The community education website about 15%. Word of mouth 1 and 10. Social media 1 and 10. And parents we see are more reliant on email. We see that with everything across the board uh post pandemic. But what's the most effective way to receive information on community education? uh if just group it into electronic versus print. So for the community email uh the website and social media it's 46%. Uh for mailings for print it's the uh the mailings at 25 community ed at 17 42%. It's basically you know perfect divide. You can see parents tip more um to electronic emails the number one at 33% uh followed by the uh community education catalog and the community education website at 14%. So parents are more reliant on electronic um but still the preference the large number of parents and even in our school district surveys we see that there are a number of parents that really do prefer print especially now that everybody's just mass deleting emails uh when you come in on Monday morning and they're missing important emails. Get that in front of them. Um it's just it it's necessary. It's not just a one-way method in order to get information. uh you can see is this a major source or minor source. The community education uh the reach is 69% the impact is 42% amongst parents it goes to 79% and just under half of parents saying that it's a major source district communication overall. So if if Amy puts something in a newsletter that has impact and especially amongst parents with 80%. The the website uh for the community overall it's 48%. It's one of those things you don't go to the website to get information. You go to the website to do something register uh those sorts of things. Uh but parents do go to the website more often because they're stakeholders. So they're they're are more reliant. email parents much more reliant and social media it is actually kind of impressive uh that level most people don't want to tell somebody they don't know that they get a lot of information from social media um it's kind of like people don't want to say you don't vote you don't recycle and you don't want to tell somebody you don't know I get information from social media but your parents um it is of the reach is almost 60% of parents When it comes to community education, overall assessment on the rating of the level of information from community edit higher than the norm now, but amongst parents, it's 88%. Indicate that they're either uh they rate the uh the communication either excellent or good. Amongst parents, only 12% rated unfavorably. the community as a whole only 8% rated poor uh 28% only fair. So very strong uh and part of it is you do have a lot of uh different bandwidth for people to get information about community education. Now that's community ed. Let's just talk about the community um because it's you see this impact that community ed has uh on the school district uh and the in the cities that uh that folks live in in the district. What was the most important factor for moving to the community? This is open-ended. The schools one in five off the top of their mind amongst parents four out of 10. It's close to the job, the typical suburban response. Uh housing and neighborhood, close to family and friends, and safety. Those were the top five reasons given in both samples. This is an amazing result with all the city surveys that I do right now. Um and historically, this is strong. How do they rate the quality of life in the district? 96% rate it favorably. 97% of parents rate it favorably. This is what it used to be before the pandemic. I always said you you don't live in a community that you're really only fair or poor very long. You're going to be looking for a new place to live. Um but what we've seen across the board is the quality of life in Minnesota and when you're taking the city you live in is about down to 80% right now. which is why we asked in our latest statewide survey, do you want to move? 20% said yes. Um, and so this drop has happened, but it has not happened here. 96% is the highest for the quality of life I have post pandemic. The other thing that's hit, just like the the quality of education that I've talked about, the excellent rating, the excellent rating on quality of life is under 10% right now uh for communities. So, not only are they very favorable the quality of life here, they're enthusiastic about it. You're really kind of anomaly across the state. Similarly, and probably this leads into that feeling on the quality of life, the sense of community is extraordinarily high here. I mean, we really have this bulcanization across the metro area. Everybody, they think about their neighborhood, maybe the street they live on, maybe their church. They they it they're not connected like we used to be. But 89% rate the sense of community here. Uh Norman, that right now is in the low 70s uh across the state. Uh amongst parents, 92%. Now, what sort of impact do they believe if they said excellent or good that community has? Um for the community 79% indicate that it's a major minor impact. 43% a major impact. Amongst parents it goes to 90% with six out of 10 parents indicating that it has a major impact on their quality of life. What are they most hoping to gain when they participate in community education? uh for the community as a whole 22% fun recreation socializing and making fun friends ex oh oh I'm sorry exploring interest learning skill development physical activity uh confidence and self-esteem down at the bottom amongst parents it's the learning and skill development and then the fun and recreation piece is what they were hoping to gain uh when they participated looking at the preschool program. Now, this for the community for the parent sample was 26% indicate that they have a preschooler. So, the N is about 100 uh for this uh set of uh charts. Is the child currently enrolled in either a partday or full day preschool? Uh 57% indicated yes. 43% no. We followed up with the 43% and said, "Would they be more likely to enroll the child if transportation was provided?" 42% said yes, 40% said no, and 18% said, "I'll want more information before I say yes or no." Um, so potentially with the 42% of 43%. Uh, you're looking about 18% uh potentially uh being able to come in. Now, that's going to be plus or minus 10% when you're looking at a cell size of 100. But it does actually have a potential benefit and link it back to what we know about those that saying they had lack of information. That's the profile uh of folks. So, getting potentially offering it uh could grow the program. For elementary school parents, uh this was about a third of the 400 sample. 31% enroll their child in either afterchool youth classes or summer youth camps. Um, now we didn't just say the yes or no. This was everybody. Would you be more likely to enroll your child if transportation was provided? Half said they would be. Um, so it really is kind of you you put it out there. You make it easier for them. It is the way to free up. You're not creating the 25th day, but you're making things you're taking less time off a parent's plate to get the child to a potential program could help. And then finally, I thought I'd add three slides that have nothing to do with your survey. Um, they are the current statewide that I just shared uh with the first uh group at MSBA a couple weeks ago. And historically the impact of community education is always positive. When you look at the profile any demographic profile across the board and you say does the person use community ed or not typically you see a 10 to 15 point swing to more positive. They will uh rate the financial management better. They'll rate the board better. They'll rate the superintendent better. they're more likely to support referendums. For all the reports throughout the years that I've written on referendums in Weisetta, uh when you're looking at at who are the most supportive, it's always parents first and then it's community education users. So in this statewide, we asked a lot of questions on education, but I pulled out these three. This you've seen this question in the surveys for Wisetta School District. The schools are a good investment and I would support a property tax increase to protect that investment. Right now across the state, 65% say they agree with that. 29% disagree. Amongst community education users, it's 20 points higher. It goes to 85%. Um, and you know, the highest we've gotten to is 15%. This is this is quite an impact now. And I don't know people will where where your heart is, your treasure is you're participating in the program. You value it. You are willing to invest in that school district. But it even when you this is kind of the ethereal question in the statewide we uh posited two hypothetical funding requests. The first one is, would you support a $15 a month property tax increase for a generic operating levy? The generic operating levy included the three most highly supported things that we see right now across the state. It is money to maintain and attract staff to maintain programs and maintain class sizes. Those are highly valued. 59% in the state said that they would support this hypothetical operating levy amongst community education users. It goes up 23%. Eight out of 10 community education users. And then I put the bond referendum last probably obviously for what's happening in the district in the next month. Um the hypothetical bond referendum $15 a month uh for the three purposes that people high most highly rate safety and security um CTE spaces and then deferred maintenance 55% across the state uh support and we see this all the time bond referendum supported a little bit less than an operating levy um but amongst community education users it's three quarters So it is really it it always has been a benefit for a school district to have a strong community education program for many reasons as the chart that uh uh Jenny started with upfront uh this the wheel all of those things are important but it goes beyond just the user and in this district it's created a very positive net effect for how they feel about the sense of community um that is longlasting. ing. Um, and the potential for growth, bless you, is there. Um, it's just more limited in these times where everybody deems themselves too busy. So, I'd be happy to answer any questions. >> Before we take a few questions, I just want to do a quick summary. Thank you, Peter. This data has been so incredibly helpful for our team. Um, you've presented to our leadership team, our manager team, to our community at Advisory Council. Um, all of those groups have been digging into the data to really think about how do we use it best? How do we continue to grow and support our community in new ways? So, I just wanted to share a couple of the items that we're pulling out for what's next. So, um, Peter talked a little bit about some of the communities who were not serving as well. So, we want to um, look not only at the quantitative data we have, but also do some listening work to really understand how we might serve those underserved populations better. We also want to look at to transportation. And as Peter noted, there's some opportunities to expand what we do at preschool and at our youth classes level if if transportation might be available. Um so we're studying what that would look like, costs, etc. Uh feasibility. Um looking at marketing to again clarify our brand, connect with those that um uh are wanting our preferred methods such as our catalog and our email. And then the fourth bullet down is looking at how do we do outreach in our apartment communities differently. We do some right now, but that was an area that really stood out in a number of places in the survey data for where we could connect with those new to the district and those with preschoolers as well as those that are living in our apartment communities again to understand um how we might better provide information and reduce barriers to participation. And the last one is really looking at uh those two slides that pulled out what does our community value most? And if you think back to those, they were all the green SL green bars that went horizontally really talked about how much our community values ECF and full day preschool, partday preschool, our school age care programs that um really top the list as being extremely valuable to our community. So looking at the ways that we can expand that and as we know by the work we've done with our district facility studies over the last year and with our upcoming referendum, space is um becoming harder and harder to find within our school building. So this is a challenge that we'll be looking at really carefully over the next years as growing our programs will require space in additional buildings to do that. So um wanting to share that on behalf of our community to help understand those additional not only during our K12 school days but also through our community ed programming. Um lastly, I just want to thank you guys for your time here tonight and for the ability to share this information and for your support of community ed. my team and I really u value the opportunity to be of service to our community and look forward to using this data to improve on that every day. So with that, we'll take some questions. >> Great. Thank you. Thank you so much uh for that presentation and congratulations Jenny for a job well done year in and year out. So phenomenal job with the community ed program. Uh questions, comments? >> Alicia? >> I have a combination of comments and questions. Um, first of all, I yeah, I really appreciate all this data and then I'm also thinking of it as a lens of how I personally have engaged with community ed and those that I know. I shout out to our district leison team. I know we've worked really hard to try to partner and I think it's so important to continue to see I actually was able to tune in to the uh neurodeiverse kids we had last week and um one of the questions I have and I think that actually came up in some of the comments in that group is how much opportunity or feedback are you getting about and again I know we hear about how busy everyone is and that's like the top barrier but I also question depending on who you're pulling when you talk about trying to reach out to the groups that are not currently being served. Um, I find in a lot of the groups that I see a need for maybe parent groups or some sort of connection point, whether that be virtual, in person, or a combination for, you know, families who are dealing with, you know, stress, mental health, various disabilities. You know, I know we've got some of the out ofstate families that sometimes find it a little harder to connect and when they move to a district, especially in the state of Minnesota, everyone's very friendly, but they also have their people and it's kind of hard sometimes to break in. So, wondering if that is something that's being discussed at all. And I, you know, I know the feedback I a lot of times get is like, well, people are so busy with what they're doing, but I do wonder if that's that probably is the majority. But I also think there is an untapped group of individuals who would really desire to have more of that in-person connection. Um, and I guess the only other question and feedback is I do think the other part about that transportation slash the summer community ed stuff is I personally know I've used that a lot, but it is usually like a half-day program at max. And I think that sometimes is the barrier for families is like if you are a working parent if there is a way to transportation would be extra key but being able to have like an all day program where it doesn't feel like it's going to be more work to do pickups and drop offs in between. So I guess those are sort of comments and questions if you have any feedback. >> Right. Yeah. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> I'll start with that first one. All of those things that you mentioned are the the pieces that my team has been wrestling with to say if they're too busy, what does that mean exactly? Um and we layered some of the data that Peter had um dug into us to try and understand that um but really that comes down to like how do we do listening in a different way. I think there are a number of parents that um we can engage with differently and so we've done our work with district leaison's a good example we did some surveys specifically of our parents to say what are you most interested in what are the times a day that you want to be participating should we do lunch online webinars or should we be doing things in the evening other times of the year um typically we are competing I think this is something you talked about in one of your presentations we're competing with parents who are bringing their students to other activities they're going to sports they're doing whatnot so while the parents might like to engage in those things. Um they often prioritize their children and the work that they're doing or the activities that they're part of. So there's I think a sweet spot in there to try and find. Um we don't have that answer right now, but we're committed to continuing to ask and learn and try and listen to inform that. I don't know if you'd add anything based on >> No, I think >> yes. in the youth programs in the summer. Yes, we we are looking at ways that we can expand those summer days to look and feel differently. We add lunch bunch in the middle to stretch it out a little bit and are looking at could we add some almost care on either end of it. We don't have that for this summer yet for people who are listening, but it's an important component as a working parent or parents who are moving their kids around to different programs to be able to um make it more accessible is to make that day longer. >> Thank you. Yeah. And I just final note is to reiterate what you said about yes upcoming referendum knowing that you know we definitely need more of that ECF that you know early childhood space which is huge and then I also sort of think there's probably a lot of opportunities for pool use as well. So >> agreed. >> Thank you. >> I have a question. Um, besides space constraints, what is maybe an obstacle to expanding programs when you know things fill up or providing transportation? Right now, it truly is space. If you would asked me that two years ago, I would have said staffing. We're not able to hire enough staff, but we've had a really amazing partnership with um a talent recruitment company, and our staffing is going really, really well. We have grown, for example, Wise Kids um by 250 kids last year. We just accepted registrations for next year. We are topping that off with even more kids than we ever have before. And so um getting enough people to work is really not the the constraint anymore. And it'll really be bubbling into what are the spaces that are available after school to do those programs for early childhood, what are spaces are available during the school day. So, um, during the pandemic, there was some decrease in our population in the elementary levels and there were some extra open classrooms at our elementary schools and we were able to take advantage of those and add some additional classrooms and those are no longer available. Those are all being used for K5 programming now. And so, we have one full day preschool classroom at each of our nine elementaryaries and um, that doesn't come close to meeting the needs that we're seeing in our community. So without additional space, that one's a really hard one to expand on. >> Um I have three questions. One for Peter. I'm going to ask you that first. Um the one of your first slides, I think it was slide number six in the whole deck of slides. uh in demographics one. I'm I'm trying to see if I can maybe I misunderstood what you what you what was >> quoted >> the on the demographics one >> right here. >> Yes, that one. Wisetta school district children that 100 is 100% right. That's that's not a raw number. It's 100% of those surveyed. >> So does that mean that 100% of the parents that were surveyed have children in in the school district? We intentionally talked to children, parents of children in the district. >> Got it. Okay. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, it was not a coincidence. All right. >> Correct. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah, that was that intentional second parent bubble that we talked to. >> Okay. Specific to having the child in that correct. >> So, you pick parents that had children in the district, not just parents as a general >> exact category. Yes. >> Um I think there was 25% of the respondents. I don't know if it was parents or overall that said the program was not not affordable, right? 16 and n I think 16% was not not really and then 9% that was like no way. So in your last slide, Jenny, >> I saw saw the the desire to you know improve transportation for kids that probably not will not take care of the 25% affordability. Is there something else that you see that you that we can do to make it more affordable? >> Is that this one here, Peter? So, it looked like >> uh 3% said that program costs was um a lot of a factor for barrier participation and then 15% said that some so that's an area where we um look at how do we support our families that might need some financial support. We have various scholarship opportunities through community ed. We have wonderful partnerships with interfaith outreach to do additional scholarships. um through their programming. We also partner with the state for uh in Henipin County on childcare assistance, think small um voluntary prek. We really seek out any opportunity we can to find additional resources to support a family. Um we will continue to do that. We uh as I look at this, I I think about how do we share that information maybe more clearly for our families because we have we have the resources to support them. I don't want that to be the barrier. And so making sure that they know and understand I think is really key. >> That's good to know. And then the final question maybe I have brought this up couple of years ago. There is no doubt that we kind of compete with Plymouth Parks and Wreck, right? And I can give you an example of the cricket ground, right? We have cricket that is offered to the community that central middle school. We have that thing under the dome. Last year Plymouth introduced the Meadows Park pitch or ground. uh the fact that that pitch was not made up to standard is a different matter. They're going to work on it, improve it this year, they are saying, but if if that happens, we now have competition. How how are we handling that? Do you know for for specific programs that we we compete with Plymouth Parks and Recre? >> You know, I really I don't look at our partnership with the city. We have such an amazing community that seems to have an an an unmet need on every level in so many different ways. So, our work together is really important to help meet all of those needs. Um, additionally, in community ed, we're actually required by state statute to not duplicate services of other organizations. So, we look really carefully at what the city is offering um and try our best not to duplicate that. It's a little bit unique in that the city of Plymouth serves Plymouth residents where the Weisetta school district serves eight different communities. So, for example, we serve as the parks and recck department for the city of Weisetta. We're not doing that for the uh city of Plymouth. They have a wonderful parks and recck department. So, I really look at as an opportunity to fill gaps and to partner and to serve our community in new and different ways versus being in competition with them. >> So, you are confident we can survive in our own space and get our own clientele, right? Yeah, we yeah, we just really want to look at how do we listen and serve and um fill those gaps. >> Good to know. Any other questions, comments? Well, >> I just want to make one comment about peppermint fence at the time. Uh one of the biggest thing I like how Alicia pointed out and uh and and at least some parents realize when there are some families including me coming from different culture and all. Yes, it is very difficult to become real at least I mean I mean real friends not just hello, how are you? Um here in Minnesota. Um and for me the biggest one was um we had I mean I realized later I was oh wow these ladies are doing it was active parents within the groups uh when we were picking up kids and all in summertime they organized because we had emails they sent us emails saying oh we're meeting at such and such park feel free to come free park kids are having social time and you're meeting with parents with similar age, similar problems, similar things. So that was I think it for me the highlight of uh time. I'll be honest, we watched our uh spending very closely because we had to pay some other things at a time. So for me it was I always kind of oh this is costly and I always um divide it by how many hours and how much it cost. the the the best for me was summertime. uh and that's how I learned first of all about uh playgrounds, parks and all and again the most I think an opportunity was you know that parents because you met once you met you you're getting comfortable and then you also to be honest hearing similar problems or similar solvings and you kind of realize oh it's not a big deal after all it's expected that is I think that felt um that allowed to have sense of community more than simply um leaving your child for 2 and 1/2 hours and coming uh right away. Um that was my I think it from that years what was the biggest uh sense of that uh and I always tried myself to find I mean that didn't matter what project I had around the house to drop everything and go there because it's allowed to have that uh socialization part uh very often to be honest moms who have even if you stay you are isolated you um Someone told me years ago when um parents quite a bit of uh moms stayed at home they were meeting in circles and I mean they knew each other's houses they will organize and then uh they meet nowadays many households are working so you don't have that kind of opportunity. So through um peppermint fence that was kind how to say almost like in accidental um events but it's the most what I cherished. Thank you. >> Yeah that that's helpful feedback. We still continue to do we call it park play throughout the summer. It's free for any family to participate but it's a good reminder of that additional outreach we can do to families who are new in the community or potentially offering park and play that's for all just new families. So that's uh an intentional time to come and connect and meet other new people. Um we we have spent time as a team really thinking about what are the activities that um target so many of those new people that are coming to our community. Uh my team had some fun activage tournaments, you name it. Lots of great ideas that have been coming up. I did just note in the city of Plymouth um I think it was one of the recent emails that they have a new to Plymouth come and walk a a group of walkers. So there's lots of ways that I think as a community we need to look at how do we welcome our newcomers because we we have a lot of them coming in. So thank you for that feedback. >> Okay. >> All right. Thank you Jenny and thank you Peter for your presentation. A lot to learn and I think this is great news. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. A >> pleasure. Thank you. Okay. So, the final item on the agenda this afternoon is a board report and I will share a recommendation by the superintendent evaluation committee regarding a firm selection for board board training and development. So, I'll read read something first and then what we'll do is go around the table. This is not going to be a vote. This is something that we will discuss and see if there's general consensus in agreement with the committee recommendation. So, so be be patient just about about a minute or two before I finish. So, I want to share the superintendent evaluation committee's recommendation regarding facilitation of the board's self- evaluation and development work. Heidi Valentina and I as chair are the committee members. Before getting into the recommendation itself, I want to briefly note why the committee felt this is timely and important. It has been approximately two years since the board last engaged in a dedicated board evaluation process. During that time, the board has had significant work around governance, strategic priorities, and leadership transition. The committee felt that this is an appropriate time for the board to take part in a structured opportunity to reflect on how we are functioning as a governance team, identify strengths and areas for growth, and strengthen alignment as we move forward together. The committee reviewed three proposals and considered a number of factors including the scope and structure of services offered, relevant experience in board evaluation, development and governance facilitation, reference feedback, familiarity, familiarity with Minnesota schoolboard governance, overall fit for the current needs of our board and cost and value. Based on that review, the committee recommends engaging the Minnesota School Boards Association or MSBA with Gail Gilman as facilitator to conduct the board's self- evaluation and development work. The committee felt MSBA stood out for several reasons. First, MSBA brings strong Minnesota specific governance expertise and a deep understanding of the public school board content in which we operate. Second, Gail Gilman brings extensive and highly relevant experience facilitating this type of work. In recent years, she has conducted approximately 120 board development engagements with school boards. She also brings the lived experience uh perspective of having uh served as a school board member herself. Third, the committee received positive reference feedback regarding Gail's facilitation and board development work, including repeat engagements with school boards. Fourth, MSBA's proposal includes both the board self- evaluation and the board development component within the same engagement, which the committee viewed as a practical and efficient structure for the board's current needs. And finally, the committee viewed MSDA as a strong overall value given the combination of experience, scope, and alignment with the board's needs. So now we will go around the table. If you if you have any questions, comments, we can go, you know, one by one or if somebody wants to start first and then we can go randomly and let's hear what what the rest of the board thinks. But the committee has recommended MSBA as the firm choice. Um I'm sorry if I missed this, but how many um organizations did you guys look at? You looked at three. Three. >> And how were those three chosen? >> Three. What now? >> How how were those three chosen? >> Based on the number of these factors where I've given strengths of MSBA that we thought we should bring to the table. We looked at what they offered, how much their experience was, um what kind of cost structure they had, you know, what value obviously um and um their references, their past experiences, how many of those they have conducted as a board development process itself. Those are some of the things >> I will also say Sheila that I think um there are a lot of different types of trainings that can be done in board development is comes in a multitude of ways. um we as a board because this body is so new and is coming together um and and learning how to gel still together I think it's important that we start with a self-evaluation so that we can define the areas that we need to kind of hone in on and so this self-evaluation so there's always a when you do a self-evaluation there's always a component of development that happens alongside with that to understand really what the purpose of a self-evaluation is. Um, and so I'm really looking at this self-evaluation as a way to for us as a as a body to define what those areas are that we really need to focus in on. Development is an ongoing thing and we're going to continue to come across issues that we need to address and and learn how to gel together around. Um, and so this is not this and it's never been a onceanddone, right? like we've we've done several um board development sessions and um the hope was back a couple years ago to get one done, but things things kind of we got busy with a superintendent search and so and so um at the time when we were engaging certain individuals, it was really we didn't take the time, I will say, to define exactly what our goals are. And so I think that first step has to happen in a self evaluation so that we can define what our goals are as a body and then from there you take the next step in in developing those development sessions. And to be honest all three of the um I wouldn't call them firms but people who do the um the potential trainings or development are all really skilled in different ways. And so depending on what we come up with as our areas of interest, we could still tap into any one of those individuals. >> Thank you. That that makes sense. And and I do think there is a need for board development. And we've had board development just in, you know, recently we had it around the superintendent search. And so this will be an opportunity for again to focusing on a different part of being a board. And thanks for you know looking at all of those and explaining that as kind of our our first step towards maybe future development. >> Yeah and I agree. I think we need to have our goals our you know success criterias and measurements. So no I'm loved it again thank you committee for putting your heads together and MSBA has been a great partner and obviously they are creditable partner so again uh fully supportive so thank you again for all your works >> um so to clarify would we be going with the second option which is the more comprehensive report with MSBA >> what do you mean by >> uh they have a first option which is a no cost >> we looking at second and would we be doing virtual or in person? >> She she so initially the the price was quoted as about $300 less >> and then she explained that that would be virtual. >> Y >> if she comes in person then it's 300 extra. So the total that that she finally quoted is in person >> at least two to three hours and then she if she needed she will >> it's not like two three hours and then we I'll I'll charge you some more extra you know if there is more time needed she will she will accommodate that she has done that before so >> okay >> yeah but I don't know if you noticed that there is a powerpoint that she had y >> at at the leadership conference >> mh >> which where she actually that was free basically given to to participants three um that that is the first part of the evaluation but that is not as detailed in depth in the one that if we if we hire that if you hire MSBA and she does it at least from what I heard from her is that she will talk to individual board members to see their perspective and and then come up with what she thinks there is a need for that's the evaluation part okay board members will basically she'll We'll take a survey and see where the where the needs are, where the gaps are, and where their development needs to happen. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Um, so a couple things. One, for me, I didn't just look at MSBA. MSBA is credible and great. Gail Gilman is wonderful. So, I spent an hour on the phone with her and she was excellent. Just excellent. She's going to touch base with each board member. Um and we will do my understanding is that we're going to do a self-evaluation in a room together and before we leave that room we will have an idea of what our next steps are. >> Okay. >> So that's what I really liked. Um and that's I felt it was comprehensive for this step of the process for us. Um the other thing is I think it's really important when you're doing work like this to be in a room together seeing eye to eye. I really Zoom is great and it is convenient but for something like this I think it's really important we be in a room together. >> Perfect. We agree. And I think the only other question I had is um just timing if we're going to even discuss that but you know I would ideally hope that we could coordinate >> in her proposal. She said once if I am I'm the one that is selected then at least six weeks. >> Right. But I'm more thinking in lie of you know new superintendent beginning of the school year. Okay. >> And my thought is that we should have Dr. Virgin present also right because he's the one that's going to be leading us in the next several years and we need to know how the board and Dr. Virgin will interact and that kind of thing. So I I would say I would say he should be and can be a a part of that process itself. >> I can see it either way. I can see us trying to figure out some pieces and then I know that Dr. Virgin is going to want to have a retreat with us or something along those lines. And so I think it's a conversation. I love how we want to structure it. Yep. Thank you. >> Oh, I also wanted to add like Heidi said, I thought all three of them were incredible. Um, very strong in their own ways. One of them was really I think was really expensive. Yeah. So >> yeah and I you know I I I so in one of the facilities committee meetings last one of the committee members asked John Deutsch the question about how we select you know from the bids that are presented and he said typically lower lower lowest cost is what we look at assuming that all of them that are bidding can do the same job equally well right if they can do that equally well then it makes sense to you know select the lowest bid I'm not saying we did that in this case but it so happens that MSB is the lowest bid okay yeah >> I just want to ask clarif clarifying question my understanding is last time we did something like that it was 2024 in >> um at least I if I remember correctly one one of the problem was with that we never concluded that meeting uh we never finalized uh like what did we learn and what are our next steps after that we haven't had uh board development or board uh self evaluation am I right >> yeah that's that that's why we want to do it as soon as we can Okay. I do think after the 2024 one, we did a survey if I'm remembering correctly. Um, and we have we have a compiled document of those findings. Um, and we did send it out to the self-evaluation board. And based on that, I did have conversations with certain individuals that I thought might be good trainers who then did not feel that they were a good fit based on um some of the findings that we had in our self-evaluation. The issue with it is that has become so old that we need to redo a self-evaluation. And again, like I said, the trainings and development that we did have in that span of time were around superintendent um hiring. And so, it's just a matter of what was priority at the time. But I think we did have a self-evaluation um not a self-evaluation, but a um a survey that went out after that training that happened. >> I'll just chime in and say that I um agree with the recommendation, look forward to the professional development session with MSBA. Okay, everybody good with that or Okay. So, >> and I also appreciate that we're going to do it in person. >> Yes. >> Um I typically prefer that one and I appreciate that everyone >> y >> have that opinion. >> Okay. So, the next step would be for me in coordination with the superintendent's office to work with MSBA to finalize scheduling and engagement details for the workshop. I also want to thank my colleagues on the committee. Thank you Heidi. Thank you Valentina. We we I think we did a lot of work that for sure. Um and thank you for your help on this process with uh I think we already finished discussions and our next regular board meeting is on Monday, April 20th. Right Amy? Not not not the not the 13th. Correct. Okay. Monday, April 20 April 20th. And I'm going to read one more time um just a reminder because April 20th is after the referendum. So I'm going to read one more time um that that you know people go out and vote. Is it too late to vote by mail uh or no? Okay. So you can vote early by mail. So to vote by mail, apply to have an absentee ballot mailed to you. And for more information, visit mnvotes.org or or you can board early in person at the district service center at 1330512th Avenue North in Plymouth um until February 13th, Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and Saturday before the election day, which is April 11th. On that Saturday, you can vote from 9:00 to 3:00 p.m. Election day voting is on April 14th from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. And you can find your polling location at ffinder.sos.state.mnus us. Is that the only one that we have for the voting? The district service center on on the April 14th as well. >> That that day it's it's it's all around right around the district. Okay. So, thank you everyone. And let's see here that is the end of the meeting I think. Okay. So this completes our agenda for this uh evening and it's 5:55 Heidi 6 o'clock. >> Amazing. Thank you. We have triyouts tonight. >> Thank you. Thank you. So the Visetta Public Schools Board of Education work session for March Monday March 23rd 2026 is adjourned.