[Music] Ohoy Minnotonka. I'm David Law, superintendent of Minnetonka Public Schools. Thank you for joining us for this episode of our podcast. Ohoy Minnotonka. School's out and summer is
here. Minnotonka schools offer lots of events, classes, and programs for your family to get involved with over the summer months. Here to talk more about what's ahead and how you and your family can join in are executive director of community education Kim Carlson and director of
community education Jenny Bedurka. Thank you both for being here. You both have been here before. Welcome back Kim. Jenny, thank you so much for being here today. To give our audience some background, Jenny, tell me a little bit about your background in public education and how long you've been in
your role here in Matonka. Sure. I've worked in uh the world of lifelong learning for a long time. Started uh my work in a community college when we lived in Michigan and then I've worked uh in a number of districts here in Minnesota uh be the 10 years that I've been here in Minnotonka working in community education. Thank you. And what
are some of your areas of responsibility? Um I oversee youth and adult programs uh which includes project sore which is our program for adults with disabilities. uh adult recreation and enrichment classes, our adult basic education program that is held at the
community ed center um as well as lots of programming recreation and enrichment for youth and adult primarily K through five or K through 12, excuse me. Thank you, Kim. Similar question, your background in education and your time in Minnitonka. Yeah, well I had spent about
18 years with the Buffalo Hannover Montro School District and before that I was in other metro area schools. Um, and I've been with Minnotonka now since August. So, um, finishing out the school year here this summer. And your areas of responsibility different than hers?
Really, we, uh, work together on all the programs, but I do oversee everything community within our district here. Summer's here. Um, it's launch for many people. People probably don't have any idea how many programs community
education offers for our community. Can you two talk through some of the programs that are happening already or that will be happening this summer, Jenny? Sure. Well, we're busy kind of wrapping up um a lot of spring sports
and activities as well as classes happening at schools um and really gearing up to start the summer. We have um over almost 900 sections of different classes and programs that we're offering this summer and right now over 7,000 registrations. So, lots of great variety
um of offerings and we're yeah, we're just kind of gearing up and and getting ready. Um each week you can choose classes, kind of help plan. So, whether you have somebody coming in town, grandchildren are here, kids are starting to get bored, they're telling you they're bored, we've got something
for them. So, it's just a really nice way to plan your summer and fill in the gaps if you're looking for something something to do. So, we've already gotten some really positive feedback about that. So, um, if I am a parent who's not very organized and it's the
third week of June and I am still wondering, is there something for my children in late July? Yeah. Is everything full? Are there still options? What kinds of what would be something for a third and a fifth grader this summer in July? Yeah, I think we try to be really intentional about how
we plan the summer so that there's maybe an art option, a STEM option, lots of different wreck, um, physical fitness options for students performing arts. So, within each week, hopefully there's something that will be exciting for kids
to be a part of. Um, certainly we had a lot of activity when we opened registration in February for the summer programs, but there still is definitely room in our classes for people to join. And know are there things for adults too over the summer? Yes, we do. Adults participate maybe a little bit less in
the summer than they do throughout the the rest of the year, but we still have a lot of great options. Tennis um we have a pretty strong interest in ma jang in our um community ed for adults. They do open play and also um learning how to play. Um but lots of great variety. Most
of those are kind of one-time events um with some of the physical fitness being a little more uh once a week. We also have classes for adults with disabilities over the summer as well. So, those are all listed in our catalog as well in our soar program. And do those fill up too or there still options for those? It seems like we're able to
accommodate anybody that comes to register. Uh we might have a few that that get full faster, but we accommodate when we can. I think when people think of Minnetonka in the summer along with classes and activities, they think of premier events. You just uh in May had a
Tonka triathlon coming up. You've got a bike ride. What What are some of the premier events that happen throughout the summer? We have our mud run so you can in July on the 12th of July will be the um Minowasha Mud Run. So that's an event we do in partnership
with Carver County Parks. Um, and they set up a really fun 5K course of obstacles and mud and lots of fun. The the little kids can do a real short course, but then um, everyone else can do either a 5K or half of that. Um, so that's coming up on July 12th. A lot of
fun um, opportunity. Lots of family that come out for that event. Fun. Yeah. Of course, our bigger one is the tour to Tonka. That's coming up on August 2nd. That's something we've been planning for since I think the day I stepped in the door. We were already beginning to plan uh, for activities. So, we're looking forward to that. There's five routes. We
have about 200 participants that register for the class or for the for the tour to Tonka and uh so we're excited and and that's coming fast. So, if you're interested, you can find it online. You can register and there's both of those you can still sign up for.
Yes. Yep. So, lots of space and if you're maybe not interested in doing the the activity but want to volunteer, both events need a lot of volunteers as well. So you can find that information on our website how you can volunteer and join in the fun. Absolutely. We need over 600 and some volunteers to make the tour to
Tonka run along with our community partners. Our Minnotonka PD has been great with to work with us as well. So we're looking forward to it. Let's transition into the school year. Is there a fall catalog? When does that come out? Is there still opportunities to sign up for things? Yes, we're
working on our fall catalog now. In mid July, families will be able to register for the fall classes. So, um, look on our website for for more information. We try to have the catalog available to review about a week before we open registration. Um, and some things do
fill quickly like chess and some of our STEM programs, but yeah, we're we're working to build a fun um lots of different options for for the fall as well. Are there is fall and summer or fall, spring, and summer? Are there three seasons for registration? Yep.
Three cataloges that we put out into the community. So, yeah, fall and then winter, spring are typically together and then the summer separate. So, I know that we're as we're wrapping up the year, just for perspective for the community, what are some unique programs and what what kinds of enrollment
numbers do we get throughout the year? I think Jenny can speak to some of those. Well, you briefly did. Um, yeah, and I would say during the school year, Explorers we haven't talked a whole lot about, but we have about,00 students that we serve in K through five for Explorers throughout the school year at
all of our elementary schools. So that's before and after school. Can you talk about when is the sign up window for Explorers? I know that's earlier. Yep. So for this upcoming school year, registration opened in March on March 11th. Um, and we had overwhelming
interest in um people wanting to be a part of that. So, we've accepted the contracts um for the staffing that we have right now. And then we're really busy right now looking to hire additional staff to join our team in the fall. So, if anyone's interested in that, all of our postings are online. Um
biggest need would be afternoons where we need support. So, we're just continuing to hire and then hopefully moving more people off of that wait list, but if anyone still needs care and they haven't signed up yet, they can certainly go online and register. They'll just be put on a wait list at this point and they'll hear more from us soon. Jenny, what are some of our your
you some of the most interesting offerings that you can think of that the public might not be aware of during the school year? Oh, during the school year. Um, well, I was thinking I think it's unique and fun that we do a lot of partnerships
with the high school um maybe staff or district staff, but high school coaches and teams. So, um, during some of our non-school days, we'll do like a cheer camp or a dance team camp and the participants from the high school are there with their coaches leading the younger students and then they'll do a
performance at the end. That's always a lot of fun. Um, I think we do some programs called First Lego League and Destination Imagination. They're really like forming teams that help solve problems and um, learn team dynamics and then they go to competitions in the in
the regional area against um, other groups. We have a destination imagination group that's going to the global finals. Um so that those are really great programs and I would say we're able to do so many of those because we have so many great volunteers that u parents and families that step up
and say I'll volunteer and lead the team. Um so those are a few I would think of. I would also say we had uh put on an event this year that I was super the kids had a blast with and that was the top chef competition and so kind of a unique little group and we had just this uh I think 15 participants andund
and some family members as kids uh put their best foot forward in cooking. So that was a lot of fun too. Yeah. Kim, we haven't talked about uh this yet preschool and early childhood family education. Can you talk about what those programs are a little bit for the
public? Sure. Um, so ECF is a parent and child experience together. They'll come to class. There might be a separating or a non-separating opportunity. We have a licensed parent educator, a licensed teacher and with the children and they just go through uh topics, area of concerns, things that they're working on
as a parent and struggling and working together. Do you have to be a struggling parent to appreciate early childhood family education? No, absolutely not. This is a group for everyone. parents just getting together and um going over what it's like to be a parent, joys and concerns both. And now, how is that
different from preschool? So, preschool is going to be your three to five year olds that are getting ready for kindergarten. They have uh we have threes, fours, and fives. So, uh you can choose from our outdoor learning center, our Spanish immersion. We have um just all kinds of opportunities for parents.
We also have our for students. We also have a Chinese immersion program, too. So, lots of lots of fun. The outdoor learning center is fabulous. The kids um have their full day experience outside and we have an outdoor learning classroom that's just phenomenal. Are those programs early childhood, family
education, and preschool, are they full for the fall? They are not full, but they are filling up soon. So, if you are if you do have a three and a halfyear-old to five, please uh give us a call, sign up. We do have some space available though. Our outdoor learning is typically full uh right away. So, I
think those are full right now, but you can be on a wait list. There is movement sometimes. So, we we encourage people to sign up. Well, thinking about the summer, do you have advice for parents about how to take advantage of the summer in general or some of the things
that you're offering that they might not have thought of signing up for yet? I would say the summer seems to go by in a flash. So, I might recommend sit down with your family and say, "Okay, everybody gets to put two or three things on on our bucket list for the summer, things they really want to do."
Um, hopefully some of those are communityed activities, but just um thinking about what you're excited about and then hopefully you can check those off the list throughout the summer before it's time to be heading back to school. We talked about really taking a stretch and trying something new, too. Whether you're adult and wanting to try
that dance class or just checking out something new or mixing up with meeting new families too in one of our parent education groups. Kim, I forgot to ask this question, but you your answer prompted me. Adult basic education. That's part of our community education program. Who is that available to? Do
you have to live in the Minnotonka district? How can you sign up for adult basic education and what are the outcomes? Yeah, absolutely. So, we have you do not have to be from Minnotonka to come to our program. We do belong to a consortium. So, we work together with all the local um other school districts
to find a place and a location that works for you. Um you just have to be working either on your GED, maybe you're learning English as a second language, maybe you need help getting into the workforce. Um those are all different opportunities. Maybe you're trying to gain citizenship. So, they're just
welcome to come to any of our classrooms and we'll find what works best for you. And are those during the day or in the evening on weekends? All the above. In Minnetonka, it's only during the day and not during the summer. We don't have programming during the summer, but uh welcome Monday
through Friday in our programs. That was a lot of information for our community and I I appreciate your patience as I grilled a little bit because I just am so proud of our community education programming. Um you recently were recognized as a learn
award winner. Kim, what is a learn award winner? What? How do you qualify for that? Well, Jenny and I were uh just looking into that and we're so proud of our team and I just stepped into it, but this team has been awarded it for three years in a row now. So, the
qualifications, Jenny, they variety of offerings um kind of leadership within the community to help support others to learn and grow. Um, and I can't remember the third one, but yes, I think it's a really a nice honor
from them um that they've given us the last number of years. Um, and our team's real involved in the professional development related to learn. So, a lot of great principles for lifelong learning. Awesome. Awesome. Is there anything else you'd want to share with our community about why you're excited
about Minnetonka Community Ed? Well, I'm just so proud of, you know, being new to the team. just really excited stepping in and just seeing the level and the quality of experience that people get here. Um whether it's a small classroom of of kids learning to do just something
unique or art projects or the big programs like our ski and snow club and so just great great experiences for families and I think I'm really proud of how innovative we are. I think we're very intentional about providing new and different classes and experiences. Um, and I would encourage anyone in the
community who has an idea of something that they don't see in our catalog that they'd like to see to definitely connect with us. We've had many parents from schools who said, "I think this would be great." And they are now leading a really fun class for students at Scenic Heights Elementary. So, I think we're
always open to add new options for people to find a place where they can explore their interests or try something new. Thank you. I want to thank you both for giving a little bit of your time at the end of this school year to tell our community about summer programming and that it's not too late to sign up. Fall
programming, the timing of the year to get involved with registration and to make suggestions to help us offer new exciting opportunities. It's been great to visit with you and thank you for joining us for this episode of Ahoy Minnotonka, learning about our community education programs. Maybe we'll see you
at the mudun or the tour to Tonka or back in programs next fall. Have a great summer.