hello everyone I'm David law superintendent of minona public schools and I'm Mike rol a director on the minaka school board we are glad you're able to join us for our school board recognitions program it's important to take time to acknowledge and celebrate the outstanding accomplishments of our students staff and community members We Begin most of our regular board meetings with recognitions to highlight the positive impact that so many different people make in our district tonight we're recognizing debate state qualifiers Deca state qualifiers and
District service center honored artists from Anka High School four minetonka high school debate students qualified for the state tournament earlier this year through debate students learned the power of using rational reasoned arguments and compelling evidence to make a point they polish skills in researching organizing information writing and of course public speaking let's hear more about the season hi um this is Nolan the head coach of the debate team at minaka high school and I
just want to give a congrats to the debate team this year cuz personally for me I saw the tremendous growth this year especially one in numbers we actually had one of the highest numbers this year in terms of the debate team history and the second thing is that we won numerous Awards one of the biggest highlights I wanted to highlight is actually us winning districts so districts is what qualifies us to Nationals and we actually won the first place trophy for both Congress and also Lincoln Douglas as well and this never happened in
minona history so I really want to congratulate the students for just honestly working very very hard to accomplish this goal and we're sending them off to Nationals this year so let's see how they do but I really do think that they do amazing um also wanted to highlight that our middle school program we doing really really good we have quarterfinalist and OCTA finalist in um LOL Douglas as well thank you this year's state qualifiers include Justin Abraham Alexander Augustine Nikita not
Raj and Annie tan the debate team adviser is no Tren congratulations again to all of our state participants minona high school has a vibrant Deca program and each year our students take home top honors at both the state and international conferences the purpose of deca is to prepare emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in marketing Finance hospitality and management in addition to competitions the MHS Deca team participates in community service activities leadership conferences and
social events this year 230 Deca participants earned the opportunity to compete at the State Career Development conference this spring the highest number of minona students to qualify in a single year ever at the state conference students will compete individually or in small teams in role playing events related to their areas of interest each student will also complete a 100 question content specific exam scores from the roleplay presentation and test determine who advances to the
International Conference later this spring congratulations to our 2024 2025 minaka High School Deca students we had 229 students qualify for state competition this year we are so proud of all of you and wish you nothing but the best at our state competition go Skippers hi my name is Andrew seagon and I am a freshman the most impactful part of my activity at Deca has been the opportunity to further develop my business knowledge and communication
skills and what I am most proud of so far in deca was that I was able to get fourth place in my roleplay event as I was able to put some of my newfound knowledge to good use in the competitions thank you to the DECA advisers for the opportunity to compete and thank you for the recognition hello my name is Owen and I am a class of 2028 freshman I qualified for Deca State this year qualifying for Deca State means a lot to me it proves that I have learned a lot through Deca and that my dedication and hard work has
paid off Deca has been a very interesting experience to me and has impacted me a lot it has improved my communication skills and helped me to learn more about business and finance I'm most proud of all the progress I made through Deca this year hi my name is Ella Schumacher I am with the class of 2026 and I will be going to state with minetonka high school Deca for hospitality and operations research and marketing management team decision- making something that's been really
amazing with my achievement in Deca this year is I'm brand new to the school and I'm brand new to DEA and so when coming into the school district and looking for ways to make new friends and try new things I had someone recommend Deca to me and then throughout this process I've been able to meet amazing people and I was able to write a 20page paper by myself about stages Ceder company located in Hopkins Minnesota and I was able to win first at that at districts and now get a tiet to state which is super exciting for me hi my name is
samita Christian morthy and I'm a freshman I was able to Advanced to State through my business operations research project and my marketing role play throughout Deca I was able to have a very different and valuable learning experience it wasn't just learning in a classroom setting but rather Hands-On exploration where I got the opportunity to mimic Professionals in the business field I'm really proud of how strong of a chapter we have here at minetonka the DECA team is a true Community where we cheer for one another and bond with each other congratulations to our Deca state
qualifiers Braden Abbott Emerson Adler Grayson Adler Emma agrea Roa bolos Samra Ahmed Alexander alright Lucy Aldrich Carmen Alexander Garrett alsten Ric amarnath Oscar Anderson Sebastian art Isabelle 8 Olivia
babe Hudson Bonitas Benjamin bergfalk Ryan Bernett Molly Burr Cade bury hiy Bradshaw Nicholas break Meer Lucas Brahma mateline Brahma Elsa brashier Sarah bramer an Buffington Jaden Kai Ireland Kalen Emily
Campion Ali Canon anissia Carlson Clara Carlson Claire Chapman ree chanik Nadia chos Evelyn Christopher Dominic chacho Tyler CLA Logan Cole McKenzie Cen Becker Cur Mia delesio lyia deud Brooklyn DeLuca
Jennifer Dees Julia Dirks Addison Dobbins rean Donnelly Adeline Dorne William dornick Ryan dashen Penelope Ellingson Charlotte eminof Tatum angerton Drew Erikson Olivia HH aransa Escada Mendoza Addison Fanning
ree Fanning aah fendon Jacqueline Fitz Gibbons Katherine Foster Shan freeze May fritzky bavia gutam Jacob jendro jie GTI Neil GTI Matthew Gibney Isabella Gillis oletta gross Henry Jes kovak Liam
howerin George herig Jasper H Haskins Karima Hassan Jameson Haye Charles hegwood Bentley Hendrickson Brett Hitchcock Kate HRA Dylan hudgin Garrett holgren onora Islam Marley Jack Evan jaffy Robert jyn Akash
carikan Neil cashap Emerson Kellum Amelia Clemy hawen kudon Bridget caller CLA Coler Benjamin cooh Eric Kowalski Brady Kramer samita Krishna morthy Gabriella kitan Nicholas labidi Parker Lacy James lantan Kenneth Lawrence Eloise
lwin Allison l Bren linski bellaa linski Piper Lewinsky Evelyn long Michael luo naal Mohammad Blake mul William Martin mingi Maur Anthony mcau William mckin Aurelia mazak Jack mner Taylor Meyer Josie Mintz Nate Mard
Hanan m mamed Anders Moore Asma Muhammad Marine naib Nikita natraj Samuel Nelson Rachel Newton Evelyn Noah Ryan nlman Becket nrom Chandler Olsen Emerson Olsen Matilda Olsen Henry Olsen Andrew Ortega ho Sophia
parmay Scarlet pen Hollow sahana Pai Ava pint arou pomar Lucas poen Fiero Thomas Poston Lauren pristine Wyatt Proctor Braden puit Anor rude pivari Jaden ridel Cooper ranau adith rubello Karishma rebello jerish
ready Veda origal renin Devon ryell Ella Roberts Addison Roby Alma rol Grace Rolph William rol Zeke Rosenstein Anusha sadle Audrey sodora Dia Sagar Anika Samir Petra Samson giri Ethan sanberg Nolan
Schmidt Charlie Schulman Ella Schumacher McKenna seert bro Samira mukil senthil Kumar Tucker shago Sophia shatz Brianna Shortridge Owen shalter Andrew seagan sonone saavat sanvi Singh anidas
groman Chase Smith Maisy Smith Eric sutow Marcus sutow pra Somas Shakara Blake sommerfeld Lan sorar Alicia Stockman Brendan Stockman Arwin Suare aarv sukhani Ayan Sayed Anie tan Tobias
Thomasson zup tosen Danielle trifonov adne udupa Nikita vashish Rowan Von Luca Vincent SMY venad Jasmine ver L VES Anna wadman idant wahi Wilson Walker Owen Wong Christine
watus Samuel Waxman Quinn Welter Josephine wiel Sophia wesling Ethan Williamson Katherine winter Delilah Walter Sylvia Wong Jack urot Ari yel zelman Simone Yokum Lauren Yohi Reena youngquist Isa
zabowski Lucas Jiang and Adelaide Zen students we extend the board's congratulations and best wishes for Success at State we would also like to thank manka's Deca advisers who continue to lead students to incredible levels of success they are Andrew Werner Carrie Benson overid mallerie Olen and theres chacho we will now recognize a group of our high school student artists each year our art teachers select pieces to
display at the minona school district service center this is one way we celebrate the work of our students and our commitment to Fine Arts education these pieces will be on display now through March 21st student artists thank you for sharing your work with us your artistic talent and creativity brightens the district service center we would also like to thank and recognize our high school art teachers for their work to encourage and Inspire our community they are Meg kitzer Jonathan Mackey Rebecca Marx
Daniel Murphy Steve nent Paul Olsen and Sarah Young Sarah Young art teacher and art Department Cher at minona high school will now read the names of each student Artist as their work is displayed the minona high school art teachers are so excited to recognize our 2025 District service center honored artists as part of the DSC honored artists showcase our students work has been chosen by their art teachers to
represent the amazing pieces created by the high school this year artwork is now being displayed at the district service center from painting and drawing to sculpture Ceramics photography and digital art our students have truly used a wide variety of techniques and mediums to add Beauty to our district students being part of this group is an honor and we applaud each of you for your effort we will celebrate Now by showing images of your artwork as we read your names
Harper bem Jacob bla Tommy Boland Porter Bron Zoe Bush adelay cartright Isabelle Chen Cecilia Cho Casey Cy Scarlet Deutch Natalie
Dietrich Daniel gillson Maximus Hawks Lydia Hedland Chloe heeran Ava hustad Kennedy keepman Sophia conik Benjamin Krauss Owen lmy Eden
linebach Lucille Matthew Bailey Matson Abigail May Cole Miller viven wi Margaret neelson Ari om Rowan rice Owen salmi anqua
Samir Piper Schmidt Noah Sims Brody senson Kiara Squire Spencer Tiff Victoria wall Celeste Wallace and Sophia Zang congratulations again artists we are so proud of you thank you again to each of you for sharing your talent hard work and inspiration with us that
concludes our recognition program for this evening thank you again for celebrating with us the school board meeting will begin
shortly e
good evening I'll Now call the February 6225 meeting of minetonka school board to order let's rise and say the Pledge to the flight I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to
the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right may I have a motion to adopt the agenda move second I have a second second uh all those in favor please say I I I any oppos all right we have an
agenda uh next item up is uh school reports for Clear Springs and Scenic Heights superintendent law chair Leo Howen and members of the board as you're all aware each month we start our board meeting with a report from our schools since there are more schools than there are months during the school year uh tonight we have the privilege of being doubled up with Clear Springs and Scenic Heights these reports are a reflection of what's happening at the school and usually a link to Schoolboard goals to
either belonging or academic excellence we'll start tonight with principal Kurt Carpenter and Clear Springs Elementary staff Mr Carpenter all right thank you superintendent law Mr chair members of the board pleasure to be here tonight my goal is to bring Clear Springs to you and over the years we've had different ways of doing that in 2020 we talked about relationships 2021 it was all about adaptability and flexibility coming out of
Co in 2022 we brought a large cast and talked about all of the ways our support staff personalizes the needs of our Learners 2023 one of our presenters tonight was here as a first year teacher actually two of you were here that's right talked about what it's like to be a firste teacher in minetonka in 2024 we highlighted how it looks at the elementary level to have a pathway
through minona and how we build deeper relationships in that pathway and tonight we want to talk to you about what belonging and Excellence looks like in our Harbor and launch programs the harbor and launch program serve students who spend 60% or more of their time in their special education program and tonight we have three wonderful teachers from our programs here danah halers Laura haniki and Emma doll
they're going to tell you about the great work they do thank you for the introduction principal Carpenter um so my name is Danica helverson I am actually a speech and language pathologist um and I work exclusively with the launch classroom um so like principal Carpenter said um we have two um programs in Clear Springs um Emma doll leads the harbor classroom um and Laura huki and myself um co- teach in the launch classroom um and these
programs have appropriately um nautical themed names um and I think they're just they encapsulate truly what these programs are for our students who have a variety of complex and varied needs um the harbor classroom is that safe harbor for our students to feel supported and where their needs are met um and they also the launch classroom helps launch our students learning and progress um in a variety of ways
okay um hello everyone my name is Emma doll and I am here today to talk about the harbor program and the community that we have built I like to use the term build because over the past couple years this is exactly what our programs have done together is build our community we have built a community where our students are able to be independent practice life skills make connections and collaborate with each
other also I like to use the term build because we will never stop building the programs through essential learning okay so I want to talk about the importance of individualization and Independence our main goal is to give the students the skills to be independent two ways that we do this is through individualizing the students schedules and academic instruction students in the harbor room are grouped into small groups spased on
academic level we have two different times where students work on academic skills um after instruction one is with one-on-one pair of support and another is through individualized independent work time in the bottom right corner of the uh slideshow here you can see a picture of a student doing independent work time there is always support nearby if students need help during both of these times students are working on individualized task box these are
designed to Target specific academic skills and um goals on their IEPs or lesson objectives one of my personal favorites that I get to teach is life skills our students love helping teachers and pair professionals throughout the day you can see in the bottom right corner one of our students is helping a pair of professional laminate an activity sheet she really enjoys getting involved
in teacher tasks in the top two photos you can see one of our new favorite traditions in class which is called snacks giving for snacks giving we practice setting the table and um we use the right utensils and set the plates then we get to Feast on our favorite class snacks um as you can tell in these photos the students are very excited to eat those snacks after we set our table um and then last but not least
collaboration is one of the most important things in our programs I have to give a huge shout out to my Harbor program team here at Clear Springs the pair of professionals service providers such as speech OT and dape and I have all worked together to build this program into what it is today we are collaborating all the time to make sure that students goals and daily needs are met I wouldn't be able to do my job without them part of our team is our wonderful General general education um
teachers to together we have been working on having our students make connections through Best Buddies best buddies is a program that is working on creating a more inclusive environment for people with disabilities worldwide here in Clear Springs between our two programs and our wonderful schooled Community we have been working on bringing general education um students into our classrooms to show them where their buddies are when they aren't in the class with them it has been a wonderful way to create connections and peer collaboration okay
okay so now I'm going to turn it over to our wonderful launch program teachers and let them share all about the new program that they have built together thanks Emma um so I'll lead us off a little bit launching into um telling what the launch program is all about um so like I mentioned before um I am a speech and language pathologist um and I work exclusively with the launch program the students in our classroom
have a variety of needs but one of their biggest um kind of common themes of need is in the area of communication or language um development so who better um for the for the district to tap um which I think is really cool um then a speech pathologist to be embedded in that program um every single day to help our students so what would a what would a speech therapist be without a love of words so I um we reached out to our families and our PA professionals to get their input into what our program um so
it is a little bit newer um you know what does it mean to them um and this these are some of the responses that we that we got and the common themes which I think just completely encapsulates what it is um the launch program is supportive it values acceptance um it really builds relationships between our students in our classroom with their General general education peers as well it is a joyful place to work and to learn um and it is a place that is flexible but also provides structure for
positive growth and and so many other words that are depicted there on the slide Laura and I work together closely to provide individualized instruction that meets all of our students needs the area that I really emphasize is all of their different communication needs and goals and we work with students from kindergarten through fifth grade and so that is a full scope and sequence of um
needs and and objectives across that span so our activities in our curriculum looks very different across those things it might be working on an art project and being able to follow multi-step directions it might be working on story retell tasks and being able to answer comprehension questions or then generate multiple sentences to put together to have a cohesive story element like that so it is varied every single day and these are just some snapshots of what
that looks like um and Laura will tell us a little bit about what individualized academic instruction looks like too all right so for individualized instruction I mainly focus on math and reading and we also create small groups based on the students um IEP goals their current level of academic proficiency and based on those groups we I can use varying curriculums even to help align with the groups developmental level and also their learning
styles um and Community Building at Clear Springs so we also utilize the best buddies program so we invite peers into the launch classroom from their general education classroom to and we like to bring them to our classroom because it's where our students feel most comfortable and they can kind of show off where they are where they learn what they like to do all day um they really like to show off our sensory room where they can play and stuff like that so um and all of our launch students they participate in their specials classes with their general education peers so they're in art in music media
PE all those types of things to help develop their social skills with same-aged peers and also continue to build those connections throughout the school um our students also you can see on the bottom left there they go on the field trips with their classes too um we want to make sure they have um equal access to all those like Community enrichment type experiences as well and then connections we try to build those really strong connections with our staff and with their families
because our students need more support in their expressive language skills um Dan and I really want to Foster those parent relationships because those students our students might not be able to always advocate for themselves um you can see there's two students here they're showing off their daily sheets um they fill those out independently at the end of each day um we upload them to seesaw so their families can see um and with the visuals then they can kind of they have to circle the day you know what kind of choices they made um and what they participated in and kind of how they feel how their day went um and
I also want to give a shout out to our amazing prayer professionals they come to work each day in love and support our students in reaching their full potential so to bring it back to our theme of belonging and Excellence when I reached out to our families to get words for a simple word cloud one of our parents went above and beyond and said I'd love to offer a testimonial and I said well sure of course I'm not going to turn that down so it was it was too
pure to not CL tonight so I'll I'll just read it out um this is from the parent of a third grader we moved to motanka from Florida the summer of 2023 we knew the education system here was better but to express how much so can be seen in the Improvement in my oldest son Jace began the launch program that fall and has been a participant since in Florida he loved his teachers but had no friends and dreaded going to school after completing his first full year in launch his speech confidence and Independence
has all improved EXC exponentially he now takes the bus every day he has friends that we see outside of school and he can have a full conversation he used to be nervous antisocial and tried to hide himself from his peers now he loves School shows such confidence in his work his routine and wants to show and engage with things his peers are participating in he is a completely different kid becoming more of the person he is growing to be
okay and I just want to give a little shout out to best buddies we have our walk on May 18th um so this is their big fundraiser so if you you can scan the QR code and you can come with us to the walk or consider donating okay just have to clarify go back I love this picture in the upper right I I asked Laura is this a student trying to leave one of your lessons and she said no he's waiting for
his buddy and U just couldn't wait to see his Budd enter the classroom door so we're really thankful for the support that we've received from superintendent law and from all of you as board members uh this is a really special place to be in minaka and I'm grateful for our great teachers and Paris that make these programs such a success any questions or comments any questions or comments from the from the board thank you very much for a great report uh all the good work
you're doing we really appreciate each and every one of [Applause] you next we have cenic Heights and we'll start with assistant principal Nicole snon thank you superintendent law Mr chair distinguished board it is an honor to be here tonight to present to you on our belonging work um I also like to introduce Joe Walker our head principal so he is here this evening thank you Joe for allowing me to lead and share this work did you want to say anything uh no
actually doing a great job so far we were looking at changing Scenic kites to bump it up to the front of the alphabet so we could go first one time but we still haven't done that maybe next year yeah yeah so also want to just take a moment to thank you for having this uh School Board goal as you heard clar Springs talk about tonight belonging is such an important piece of work and so we know that it takes time and thoughtfulness and intention you know in our actions and our words so we'll be sharing with you tonight what that means
to us take a moment to start with this quote of community um Community can be built every day in every interaction with another person when you listen Bridge differences and embrace healthy conflict know what kind of community you want to be a part of and to create and then move to build it and we really move and strive each day to build an inclusive community at Scenic heits and a couple years ago just a little story when we um really started to talk about our belonging work one of the things was who
do we want to be what are the actions and behaviors we want when people walk into our schools whether you're a parent or you're a student or a staff and collectively as a staff we came up with this core value and when you look at the different bullet points below we're going to share those tonight or I'll I'll kind of go through them and those are the values that we live by we really want students to come in we want them to feel these different things and so in order to do that we have a couple different things and ways in which we do it so first off something really important to kind of set the tone um
Scenic Heights is one of our biggest elementary schools so of the six elementaries were're roughly 933 um with that we are over 50% open enrollment which means that roughly 21 different school districts come into our building which is really fabulous um makes a very diverse population roughly 33% of diverse backgrounds of students and while we are all Scenic height students first it's important to acknowledge that we have a lot of different programs so we have our Navigator program at Scenic which is for
our highly gifted students grades 2 through five we have our bridge program you just heard the Clear Springs team talk about launch and harbor we also have a federal setting three um special education program and so the bridge uh Services students from across the district who have emotional or behavior needs so that's in our building as well and then we have our Chinese immersion program as well as our robust English program and so again all of these different things are what make us really
unique and why it's so important to focus on that inclusion to really put forth that belonging goal so culture and climate are built at Scenic when students um basic needs are being met and so we all as humans have basic needs the need to fit in right the Need For Freedom fun success power and so our classroom teachers spend time at the beginning of the year really helping educate their students what do these things look like so for example if you were to walk into our building you might
see some different artifacts in classroom um teachers asking students to acknowledge what does freedom look like to you what does success and power look like in our classroom and then of course what does Love and belonging look like and what's really important about this is not only are students taking a moment to really intrinsically think about what are their own needs but when they do that they're really also developing those skills of empathy um and compassion because they're starting to recognize that other students in their classroom whether they're in their program or not in their program or just
in the building also have basic needs and there's a different level of gosh if someone's interrupting my game it's a little different than saying well that kid's trying to intrude in right that student might have a need for fun and they see something happening so they want to jump in so we're really trying to embrace that that piece of having kids understand um their own needs so that they can help each other so one thing that we did last year that I'm really excited to share with you um we spent time with our staff
belonging committee at the end of last year and we looked at what are all the things that we're already intentionally doing in our building around this work and then collectively as a staff we created this graphic um image so thank you to um Jackie's team Mary Cornelia has did an amazing job of helping us kind of represent what this looks like and what you see here is every month we intentionally make an effort to have a common shared language around belonging and so what that means is you'll see things like if you remember last year we presented um we had some students up
here and they were talking about our kids run news station krts and how we have kids always um in fifth grade kind of sharing some different efforts on there and what we do intentionally is every Monday and Thursday we kick off those days on our news station by talking about that theme so there's an educational piece we invite students to come on and share their work staff oftentimes sign up and want to share what's happening um but really trying to be focused on what does that look like and how do we build that common language
around belonging we've also made some intentional efforts this year to include our families so every month we send home a newsletter that focuses on whatever that theme is there's some different activities in there things to try at home um upcoming events and then oftentimes we'll present any kind of research or information that might be helpful for families so we recognize the worth and intrinsic value of others um in ways that sometimes if you were to walk in
might seem really small but actually make a big impact and so in this bottom right corner you can see a group of students who meet um quite often to do a Lunch Bunch small group setting but it's an opportunity for them to get to know one another to be seen to be heard to feel valued and then when they go back into that bigger classroom or that lunch room um they have success similarly this um student here there's a little video but I was having some technical issues when we when we started tonight so I'll just explain it to you but upon first glance you might think oh a student looking at the
Smartboard in acting with the lesson but what's really powerful is that there's intention in this um the particular teacher was working and doing some pre-teaching with the student around money and so what was happening is the student was getting a chance to practice the lesson talk about money find some successes in that smaller um contained classroom so then when she went back to that larger room she felt included in a part of that so when you think about inclusion and you think about um intrinsic worth it's the small things that really matter that we see
this is a great picture uh We've developed some different opportunities for students across programs and across grade levels to really connect and be with one another and I think just the smile on the faces um of these students say a lot Priceless and then valuing and considering other perspectives last year I was walking through the halls and I saw a group of students from one of our programs out and they had Post-it notes and they were sticking Post-it notes all over the wall and students artwork and I
stopped them them and I said what are you what are you doing out here and they had shared that every month they are the mystery group that actually goes out and comments and response to students art and you know it's funny because you you might not never know that walking on the Halls you might just see this you know beautiful piece of artwork and think oh how cute a little posted on there but again there's intention there's thoughtfulness and so I went to that classroom later that day and just commented on what leaders they were and how they're really continuing to build our culture and that again it's so small
things that really do make a big difference and I've even seen kiddos come out um in those classrooms and say hey someone commented on my artwork and so again being seen um being heard and acknowledged one thing that's really exciting this year we had an opportunity it was our first time that we were able to celebrate the Lunar New Year with our entire building and so every year we do an amazing job at the high school we do a big celebration for our immersion program um this year what was really
exciting is when of our immersion teachers said hey I'd love to do something to incorporate our entire building um kids are curious they want to understand what's happening and so this teacher along with her class um put together an agenda they presented on our krts our student Le news show and invited the entire building to participate so we had these beautiful door decorations last week um they're still up so if you're around I'd encourage you to come take a peek and kids were able to ask questions understand perspective um and it was
really a nice a nice opportunity it was year of the snake I was telling Mr Walker um earlier today I'm surprised these didn't get pulled down I was kind of waiting to see how long will the snakes actually last in the hallway so and then another piece to share um last year at the end of the year our student belonging group our fifth grade group um came together and what we do every year is we look at our search data that we um gain and we look at what our
them and patterns where might there be opportunities that we can do better or what might be some ideas and so a big part of that is including our students in that conversation so in this picture here you can see students they're doing a little ideation and coming together with some different ideas I know it's hard to read a few of those but things like um student L helpers kids um assemblies there's a one up there you can't quite see it but it says teach the adults right
and then we did the same thing with our staff and really asked them to look at how might we continue to build this inclusive community at scites and I think what I really want to point out what's most powerful is there's nothing huge and Monumental like wow we should do this in any of these Post-its there's things like purposeful social time or different ways of um connecting groups and what really stood out to me the most was it's really this
theme of connection um our fifth graders it was funny when we when we looked at all the data the staff data and the student data and we tried to look for what might be the most impactful thing that we want to try and fifth graders kept saying we want to go back to buddies and you think like buddies really okay tell me more um but for them just being curious about the other programs about the other um grade levels and seeing all the different things that happen really shows the need that we want to be together as a whole we really want to
embrace and value these different opportunities so with that excited to share with you we're bringing back an old activity that we've done in years past it's called fruit salad mixup um and so what that means is that in March each grade level we'll be mixing across programs and we're going to be mixing up students teachers and they're going to be planning some thoughtful and intentional activities to really help bring students together um and give them an opportunity to to be with one another
so so we'll continue doing the work that we're doing we know that there's always room for improvement um we'll continue to look at our search data something else we're really excited about is we have a parent subcommittee that we've just recently established so we're looking forward to meeting with them and using some Innovative um design thinking practices kind of hearing their perspective what's working what's not working look at that data in combination with the data from our staff as well as our students and then what we're going to do is try to Define that green
hexagon there and then finally ideate on what the next iteration could look like we're also really excited to continue some work um Dr Christine Breen and her team um is having many elementaries across the district pilot some differental curriculum cites is piloting character strong and what's great about character strong is it actually aligns very well with our mtss work so if you notice here purposeful people is actually the tier one of um
character strong so we've got about 10 teachers who are kind of piloting that work right now we have at least one staff member from every program so that'll be really powerful to see you know how that's working and what that might do to our belonging work and also we're excited because we know that the research tells us that character education is really important you know it builds um perspective taking it builds Justice it build builds kids with empathy um compassion dignity all these different elements and so we're really
excited to kick off um what might be next so with that I will open it up if there's any questions thank you uh Megan not a question but a comment um two things stood out to me I really love the idea of using Lunar New Year as a way to bring the whole school together um because you know the students that are in the English only program what a great opportunity for them to learn about a different culture and that you know the
more we can do that the more empathy students have for each other and the you know bigger community so I love that but then um the other thing that stood out to me was the idea of pre-teaching you know and you talked about that the little girl who had some pre-teaching so that she could go back to her classro and participate authentically and with confidence and I think little things like that make such a big difference so I just want to commend the intentionality of that I think is really great and it's best practice like the more we can do that so that students can
really engage when they get back to that bigger setting the better so thank you for that thank you for that feedback have something Patrick sorry yeah just thank you for the connection all the way back to the board goal of connection all the way from the fruit salad mixup and then all the way back to um the fruit salad mix up the teachers together and all the way back to connecting and I think just fantastic that thank you for all of that work that you've been doing thank you
anyone else thank you very much for a fantastic report always glad gladdens my heart to see C heits doing well both my kids passed through there a while ago and uh so you might have been second tonight but you're first in my heart Joe thank you thank you I forgot to mention one of the teacher ideas was bringing an alpaca but Joe wouldn't let me do that one so probably a good call uh next time next time thank you [Applause]
all right next item on our agenda is community comments we do have one person who signed up for Community comments so Mr bundai if you want to make your way up while I read the guidelines um welcome to the motanka school board meeting in the interest of open Communications the minetonka school district wishes to provide an opportunity for the public to address the school board that opportunity is provided at every regular Schoolboard meeting during Community comments anyone indicating a desire to speak on an item
in the included in the meeting agenda except for the consent agenda and information that personally identifies or violates privacy rights of an individual during Community comments will be acknowledged by the board chair when called upon to speak please state your name connection to the district and a topic all remarks shall be addressed to the board as a whole not to any specific member or to any person who is not a member of the board if there are a number of individuals present to speak on the same topic please designate a spokesperson who can summarize the issue please limit your comments to 3 minutes
longer time may be granted at the discretion of the board chair if you have written comments the board would like to have a copy which will help them better understand investigate and respond to your concern during Community comments the board and administration listen to comments board members or the superintendent may ask clarifying questions of you in order to gain a thorough understanding of your concern suggestion or request if there is any response or followup to your comment or suggestion you will be contacted via email or phone by a member of the board or Administration in a timely manner
Please be aware that disrespectful comments or comments of a personal nature directed at an individual either by name or inference will not be allowed personal comments Personnel comments should be directed first to a principal or executive director of the department then to the executive director for human resources then to the superintendent and finally in writing to the board now Mr bundai thanks yeah my name is Carl BND I live in the uh Groveland attendants area I've been a resident of the district for as long as I've had children my old turns 33 this year so
that kind of gives you perspective how long I've been here uh my oldest is not an alumnus of the district and that relates to my comment topic which is Advanced learner programs my three younger children are motka classes of 205 2018 and 2021 uh I was a homeschooling parent when I moved to this district and I was a homeschooling parent because of my own experiences in another West Metro Twin Cities District as an advanced learner I
had a first grade teacher who did a great job of teaching me to read I still correspond with her on Facebook she must be in her 90s given what my age is um and I learned to read well I I was curious my parents encouraged me to read and that produced a problem I went to school you know my parents told me oh you're going to school to learn and then everything in the lesson was stuff I'd already read about myself and I really was was moved by
tonight's theme about uh inclusion and belonging because after a certain number of grades in the school district I grew up in I was missing out on more and more inclusion and belonging because it was viewed that my desire to learn things that I hadn't already Learned was a problem you know that I was somehow a problem in the school Community I always had friends I was never friendless uh I've also got an old friend from those days who's still my dear friend you know like almost 60 years after I met him um
but I became a homeschooling parent because I did not want that that happened to my kids I could Advance the curriculum as much as they needed if I was managing the curriculum and that's what I did for all my kids K through 8 uh my oldest son never matriculated at minaka high school he did an online high school um actually at Megan's uh Al mod now that I think of it and uh um
but what I found is that uh my second son got curious about enrolling in high school we actually open enrolled in one of the neighboring districts uh but he decided he still want to stay close to motanka he enrolled in ninth grade and then disenrolled himself after two weeks because the lessons were too easy the district's Advanced learner programs were still percolating up in the age ranges for a class of 2015 student in 10th Grade he began to be
permitted to take AP classes and then he began enjoying attending minaka high school he has friends now literally all over the world they're out of vatanka high school his graduating class my next son uh studied at minaka 9th through 12th grade and did very well and went off to a famous college you've all heard of out east and has friends all over the world Etc um building that program was very essential for inclusion and
belonging in my family and I'm very grateful that the district is producing that kind of program thank you very much yeah thank you all right is there anyone else who wishes to make Community comment see none we'll move on to very timely our next item is the update on Advanced learning program superintendent law chair Leo H and members of the board within our board goals it's excellence
academic opportunity and a constant need to meet the needs of all of our Learners both in remediation and in extension and oftentimes people think of that as helping kids who haven't caught up to grade level but there's a commitment in minona to ensure students of all abilities are growing tonight the director of advanced learning Diane ranquist is going to share a summary of where we are with our current Advanced learning programs from kindergarten all the way up thank you superintendent law Mr chair members of the board thank you for the
opportunity to talk with you tonight about menaka's Advanced learning programs I'm Diane runquist as said and I'm the director of advanced learning um thank you Mr Bundy for your opening comments that was a a lovely way to launch into this I will say I had my fingers crossed that it was going to go in a positive importantly minaka is fiercely
committed to the growth of each student both in their areas of struggle and in their areas of strength this is a divining defining characteristic of our school district menaka's Advanced learning programs help us to meet the goal that every student is growing every day our programs Target and serve student strengths they are needs-based and and
challenge for growth is the purpose of every service we provide this slide is to remind us that student profiles are complicated they're complex each student has areas of need and strengths and so for this reason we have to have a responsive a responsive and agile way to respond to all of these very unique Learners so in minona we have different services that Target different learner strengths we have some
programs for the intellectually gifted student that are designed specifically to meet their intellectual social and emotional needs we have some programs where they're serving students who have advanced content Knowledge and Skills when data indicate a student is unlikely to grow without extension or an advanced course we have an obligation to respond to that data and Pro provide them the
opportunities they need to learn and finally some of our services provide Challenge and support to students um who are in a third category uh or all three um and these Services serve particular learning strengths things like visual facial Learners creative curious um leadership all of these other
kinds of strengths that students bring to the table these services that I'm describing don't require any specific test score and instead they're serving the learning characteristics and interests and passions of the learner with this broad approach more than 40% of Minot tonka's students currently participate in one or more advanced learning program and our participation K12 nearly
mirror mirrors District student demographics importantly all of these tier 2 and tier three services I've described are embedded in the context of mtss our Advanced learning teachers at every school are working collaboratively with classroom teachers to develop and deploy tier one extensions so this broadens even further the reach uh that
we are able to provide challenging work daily in classrooms the advanced learning department has worked diligently and with intention to remove barriers to service and to broaden access I'll highlight four examples here three years ago minona began Universal cognitive abilities testing for all second grade students prior to this change the only
way a student could be considered for elementary gifted programming was through a teacher referral process well giftedness reveals itself in very different ways it's it's incredibly difficult for um us to see the great breadth of strengths that students have so uh Universal screening ensures that we see all of our students and it removes any unintentional bias from our
processes this year Universal screening resulted in 71 second grade students being newly identified for gifted Services before testing teachers completed a survey indicating which service which students they would have referred under the old system 34 of those 71 students would not have been referred by their classroom teacher for
uh gifted assessment another value of universal coat testing is that it allows us to see when a gap exists between a child's reasoning abilities and their achievement such students are identified for tier one and tier 2 extensions in this way we're providing exposure to Advanced content that capitalizes on a student's natural abilities
another step that we've taken is to include automatic and comprehensive file reviews for all of our services that have eligibility criteria automatic file reviews are prompted when a student's data is near qualification thresholds this is important to an equitable system because reviews are driven by data and not by specific advocacy um reviews take broader data into into consideration including
classroom performance on District common assessments file reviews allow us to see students in a thought and make thoughtful decisions about the whole body of the work and not just react to numbers uh additionally minaka now has we call them on ramps these are paths for every Middle School and High School Advanced course for students to be able
to enter uh at a later date data are systematically reviewed and when there's a demonstrated need for further challenge students move into an advanced course um importantly there are no traditional tracks where it is impossible for a student to access an opportunity because they just didn't happen to be ready earlier in their school career finally working closely with the
Special Education team and Jana raferty who is our chair for multilingual um uh for the multilingual uh Department um Advanced learning has removed barriers that occur in Special Needs populations by using a variety of adaptable assessment tools students strengths are revealed assessment strands that are heavily impacted by language for example or attention are
removed from the calculation when there are significant and unusual gaps in a student's performance these steps ensure our processes for identification are non-exclusionary and truly child centered I'd like to take just a few minutes to um share some highlights from
some of our different programs that we offer more than 2,200 students were served last year in our Elementary programs for those unique learning strengths that I had described earlier one of those programs is Project think it is an experiential learning service where students work collaboratively to solve engineering challenges projects are designed for students to learn from their mistakes they are hard
they they fail and have to reiterate and try again and again this program in particular often often serves students who are very strong visual spatial learners they are Builders they're tactile they see it um these students can experience a lot of frustration in the largely verbal world of Schools project think gives them an AR an arena
in which they can Excel especially exciting is the fact that we have momentum now at our high school and uh it also reaches out to students who have those visual spatial strengths the ability to see things in their Mind's Eye and solve problems so in minona words aren't the only way of knowing and excelling
uh I'd like to share a bit about Navigator our program for the highly gifted child though there are other programs in our area that provide all day learning environments for students with intellectual and academic strengths Navigator stand alone in its commitment to the unique needs of the highly and profoundly gifted learner Navigator serves students with with intellectual
profiles that are nearly three standard deviations from the norm we uh this is less than 1/ half of 1% of the general population so we take what would have been maybe one to three students in a grade level pull them together and provide for them an Elementary classroom experience and Navigator were specifically designed to meet those intellectuals academic social and
emotional needs and importantly we provide the challenge our students need to struggle there is no um development of resilience and grit without that important element of Challenge and struggle Navigator teachers understand their students and are expert in supporting their whole child growth
Minot tanka's middle schools serve a broad way of learning needs through our honors and accelerated courses additionally we serve students who uh were formally served in wings or Navigator uh through a seminar program that meets uh regularly to engage in challenging work and make those social connections
and minona high school is literally the land of opportunity the fact that more than 80% of high school students take at least one AP or IB course before graduation is a testament to the ambition of our students and the work that has been done to ensure that our students are ready to engage in these very rigorous offerings
importantly our high school has also provided specialized programs so there are many ways to learn and extend your strengths and interests momentum which I already mentioned minona research where students engage in authentic scientific research Vantage the place where real world meets rigorous learning so in closing I'd like to say that nanka is deeply committed to the
growth of each learner and the advanced learning department is continually evolving to better serve the breadth of talent and skills our students bring I want to thank Mina's leadership for remaining steadfast in its commitment to all students learning and growth and I want to thank the district's remarkable teachers who bring to life the promise
of a rigorous education in their classrooms every day thank you for your attention and I'd be happy to take any questions or comments thank you very much any questions or comments from the board Chris um more just a comment thank you for a great report um and you had a great lead in so that was that that was good as well was kind of Handy uh just what stood out to me and in your
presentation all these presentations and really the the slide when you talked about removing barriers and a lot of us are leaders in our our our business lives and what what are you trying to do is and remove barriers so people can succeed and and that's um students on all levels and you had your slide with everybody has their different path and a different timing and uh just really enjoy all the the ways we can individualize education for for our students and challenge them and make them uncomfortable and comfortable with
being uncomfortable and and they rise to the Challenge almost every time and so thank you and uh to the to to you and all of our staff for helping bring all of this to life thank you Megan thanks um one of my questions you were psychic and you answered before I could even ask it which was around the universal screening that was really interesting data I thought that I mean that's 40 kids who may have fallen through the cracks previously that we're
now catching so I think that's amazing um my second question is um I've been asked semi-frequently over the years around um the Staffing for these programs um I think mostly like the Standalone the Navigator or the courses at the high school but can you just speak a little bit about how those are staffed and in terms of you know is it the same target class sizes and and what not as the regular um General Ed population yes thank you
um so Navigator classrooms have had an increasing Target population over time uh those classes used to be smaller however we are finding that we need to mirror largely what is happening in our regular classrooms and so um the thing that's always unique about Navigator is that some years we have many students and then our classroom rooms are full and
some years fewer students will have this very unique um you know profile learning profile one thing that's different about motanka is that we don't fill our classrooms by having different tiers for placement this is really important because Navigator exists for this very unique really special need and um so in other districts what they'll do is they'll say okay well if you don't have enough kids who qualify you know then
we'll pull in a next layer well if you're trying to do an excellent job by for a very unique population you need to keep your eye on that ball so we have in the past closed sections before if we simply don't have enough now we have uh applications we're in the middle of all of our assessments I fully anticipate we will have our populations full in Navigator um in terms of uh High School
courses um did you want to be more specific Megan or do have I um no I think with high school more just I I'm under the assumption that those courses AP whatever uh are all staffed at the same way that any other classes of the high school would be but I just wanted to make sure I was understanding that correctly that that is correct I I mean you know minaka research has a slightly smaller class size because they working with um
volatile chemicals and such so that would be the only one that I know where there is um a slightly smaller class size than typical thank you thank you thank you just a few hours ago Miss runquist and I and um director Steve oransky were meeting with another district from across the country who was curious about our programs and as I listened to our team I realized that we were about 17 years ahead and program in from this
other very high performing District we're just fortunate to have built a program over time from elementary through high school and many times districts have a robust Elementary program but they lose some energy in middle school and high school it's clear through that conversation earlier today and what I've seen that uh this is really intending to meet the needs of advanced Learners throughout our entire system so I just want to give another piece of Praise after that conversation earlier today with another district for our program thank you Diane thank you
thank you Miss Ronis for a great report all right next item on our agenda is approval of Middle School New course proposal superintendent law chair Leo Helen and members of the board at a study session two weeks ago associate superintendent Amy Leo presented proposed courses for our middle school program when we start implementing that program um those Pro or courses were read publicly in people the chance to see that uh study session
as it was televised just a few reminders before recommend approval tonight these courses are enrollment driven and won't be additional Staffing there'll be shifts and elective offerings the investment in these courses would be similar to the Investments every summer to upgrade our current electives only we'll be writing those that students sign up for when we start our programming so tonight in front of you is a list of courses that you'd approve that would be offered in our new middle school program when that begin
okay so i' entertain a motion to uh approve the recommendation for the uh new Middle School elective course proposals so moved Sally a second please second Mike any discussion of the proposals again these are all items that we discussed and heard a presentation of at our study session um seeing no discussion all those in favor oh is there we have one thank um I I was just going to comment on something that came
up in the study session and also in Te teaching and learning um was that some of these course titles are similar to course titles at the high school and that the teachers have already talked about how to um work together to kind of articulate those courses so that it's not the same and that if a student takes it in middle school they could still take it in high school if it's a highin area um but I thought that was kind of an important conversation that we had yes it would be a middle school
level course and then they could continue on at the high school on the same topic any other comments okay now seeing no no discussion all those in favor please say I any opposed motion carries all right now we have approval of sale of used iPads and MacBooks superintendent law cheer l helin
Executive Director of Finance and Operation Paul bis who would love to be here and give some quick or quick witty remarks about all the things coming up is ill tonight and I think that might be the first time in his lengthy career that he has missed a meeting he was he he was directed to stay home and with that in mind um I am going to cover the next two items on his behalf the first item is the approval and sale of used iPads and MacBooks one of the ways that we're able to
provide uh our technology in one to one for all of our students is that we have a intentional leasing program of our iPads and we're able to resell those after we've used them tonight you have a proposal to approve uh sale of used iPads and MacBooks you can see uh tonight's list is is a rather small group we we had bids from three places the high bid was Second Life Mac who was purchasing our used Mac our iPads and MacBooks for 13,250 $15 it's my
recommendation to the board to approve that sale to the high bidder Second Life Mac all right may have a motion to uh approve that recommendation so moved Dan a second second camar any discussion all right all those in favor please say I I I any opposed see none the motion carries thank you superintendent law
the next item item nine on the agenda tonight is review and approval of our long-term facilities maintenance Minnesota statute requires public school districts to constantly keep a 10-year plan moving forward of proposed main maintenance of our facilities these plans you have seen as they're updated every year you have approved the bids for the next summer what happened throughout that bidding process is several bids came in under uh
what we had budgeted and we have accelerated projects to do for next summer and you've also approved those bids what you have in front of you is the updated uh 10 years uh facility maintenance plan as Paul would say we're pretty much down to roofs and parking lots cabinet tree and certain buildings and updating agac that list is in front of you note that this list of approved items would be for the summer of 2026 we're getting ahead of this again as the board approves this this
puts us in a spot to start bidding very early next fall for the bids for the following summer it is my recommendation that you would approve these long-term facility maintenance 10-year plan which identifies the upcoming list of projects at our schools and as I have shared just for for the purpose of the public items on this list would be exterior sighting the bigger items exterior sighting and window replacement at clear springs for
just over a million dollar at Deep Haven replacing the 1966 windows and the South wing for just over a million at Excel Elementary a roofing replacement per plan at just over a million dollar as well as cabinet replac and the 1958 section at Groveland Elementary um the 1996 window replacement in the westwing for $900,000 these are select High ticket items I'm reading at minowa elementary replacing the uh unit
ventilators and the 1955 to 64 sections 21 rooms at $1,750,000 at Scenic Heights 1967 Wing CL classroom cabinet Replacements in 14 rooms for $62,000 metaton Middle School East replaced the unit ventilators in the 1964 section 20 rooms for $ 1.1 million $1,150,000 at minaka Middle School West replace the unit vland in the 1964
section as those are identical rooms for 1,100,000 and at the high school a roofing replacement for $800,000 pavement and Mill and overlay for the tennis courts at $415,000 those are the sample of the highest ticket items the total of this long-term facility's maintenance for the summer of uh 26 is $4,285 th000 I will note if Mr bis was here he would tell you that the
buildings are are at the spot where we're just doing uh this type of Maintenance and the dollar amount per long-term facility maintenance is going to start dropping down because we are we're caught up and our buildings as he would say are probably good till 2060 I'd recommend the this 10-year plan for board approval thank you superintendent law may have a motion to approve the 10year long-term facilities maintenance plan so moved Chris may have a second second
Mike any discussion Dan and I just want to add a quick note that um all of these plans for the next 10 years they're available in the in the board packet for anyone the public to see and these funds don't impact our general operating budget because based on the size of the district we are we get to bond for our long-term facilities maintenance so this doesn't impact any Personnel decisions or anything else that we're trying to do these just funds dedicated for this
purpose and I would add that our ability to continue staying ahead of this maintenance is part of what helps us have the facilities in place that we need to uh have the Personnel places to teach and so on but you're exactly correct about the operating funds not being part of this conversation any other questions or comments all right there's a motion in a second all those in favor please say I I I I any
opposed motion carries I'll add a sad to miss you Mr Bourgeois and uh always proud of the work your team does to help keep us well maintained all right uh next motion on the agenda is the uh consent agenda may I have a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved Megan may I have a second second Dan all those in favor please say I I I
any opposed motion carries next item on the agenda is board reports do we have any board reports camar I'll be quick but I have a few let's see um Dream Makers from the foundation is this Friday and tickets are sold out so you can still support for the community um you can still do fund a dream at
the um Foundation website they are still looking for donations uh that is for the foundation website they can still do dreammakers 25. gsm.com um for the Community Education um we do have two new student board members that are part of the Community Education board um reps that are they have just now recently updated the Community Education so they are looking forward to that for the upcoming
year and the minetonka family collaborative they have lots going on there they have um on February the 20th expressions of Blackness at the Hopkins Center for the Arts bringing together black vendors from around the Twin Cities minetonka and Hopkins there are there's a lot going on there so if you'd like to um learn more about that karen. Linberg minaka schools.org um there's a lot of the minaka family collaborative on our um
District website there's a lot going on there on the minaka family collaborative that we have going on there from a um collaborative uh website on our district website so check that out as well from our community thank you thank you Kar any other reports Dan the finance committee met last week and spent the majority of our time discussing the facilities task force
presentation that we all saw at our study session and just talking over the opportunities and challenges of running a bond issue for new buildings in the uh an improvement to our current buildings um but the the one other nugget of good news is that our health fund is in really good shape and we're on track to break even this year and are hopeful that any increases we might have to put forth will be lower than the national average that is good news thank you any
other reports Sally The Association of metropolitan school district's January meeting was a um overview of the legislative session and there was a panel discussion with uh state representatives and it will be of course a difficult year um to to meet some of the things that we are looking for but all the more reason for folks to get involved with our community action for student education committee um we are just continue to be in conversation and
Advance the uh the message um we are hoping for some action that will benefit us so that we are not facing the same kinds of financial challenges as we're having this year so stay tuned thank you Sally okay any other board reports superintendent report superintendent law there's so many fun things to talk about in The District it's hard to pick just one uh but I'm
going to pick this one CU I'm really proud of these four individuals we have four people that are candidates to be the 2025 minona or Minnesota Minnesota teacher of the year I'm going to give a shout out to these four teachers from Minnetonka Megan Hill Stacy ovich Sarah Strauss and chrisen gazer good luck as you move through through that process we wish you success as you move into the finals and and so on very proud of all of our teachers thank
you thank you superintendent law any announcements I'm going to make an announcement that piggybacks on what Sally just talked about which is you may have seen in the news that the uh Minnesota House of Representatives finally appears to have gotten their act together and are back in business albe it in a uh very close uh near tie and soon likely to be Tai but uh those
members of the case committee who have been uh standing by us and this would be a great time to send some more messages of encouragement and cajoling and uh maybe even brow beating of the representatives to try and make get them to support our legislative agenda and if you are a Community member and you don't know what I'm talking about please reach out to me or Sally and we can fill you in all about how you can help at the legislature all right any no announcements I'll take a motion to
adjourn Chris we have a second second camar all those in favor please say I I any opposed we are adjourned