Summary of Minnetonka School Board Meeting 12/21/06

Happy Solstice.  The light is returning.

This summary covers discussion on Community Comments on the proposed health model, the district's communications about same, Board Chair response to comments, presentation of budget projections, 6-1 vote on high school health model change, 7-0 vote to continue researching Highly Gifted elementary model, 7-0 vote in favor of immediate enhancement of High Potential programs at elementary and middle schools, 7-0 vote to offer Spanish or Chinese language immersion at all elementary schools next year, two changes to 2006-07 school calendar to accommodate Q-Comp training.

Go here to read Chair Erin Adams' response to public comments of December 5th & 7th.

Community Comments:

During the community comment section, a few people spoke with regard to the new proposed health model for high school.  The old model is a one semester, 9^th grade course.  The new model will be an every 10 day lesson, interspersed within the core courses.  Everyone agreed health is an important topic to keep within the curriculum.

In general, people felt there are a number of good components about the new health model.

• It will be good to spread over 4 years – this will allow for more age appropriate, time elapsed therefore re-enforced teaching.
• New curriculum is more challenging.  The current curriculum is considered to be too easy by many.
• Enhanced parent involvement throughout the 4 years will be great addition.

 There was unanimous concern amongst the community commenters (teachers, parents and teacher union president) about the delivery component of the new curriculum.  Concerns include:

• Every 10 day with core class model will greatly inhibit health teachers from being able to have established relationships with students.
• It is unknown how the core teachers feel about this delivery model and should be informed and have dialogue about new model since this will affect their classes too.
• There was also concern about mixed age classes and how teachers will be able to appropriately break out junior lessons from senior lessons when they are all in same class.
• Concern that the model is not developed enough to be able to evaluate effectiveness and etc.

 There was enough concern by this group that they asked for more time and attention to be put towards these concerns before the board adopted new health model.

Also during Community Comments there were a couple of people who spoke towards supporting the highly gifted cluster classroom model; and supporting immediate adoption of  kindergarten language immersion making the point that compared to other school districts, Minnetonka is behind in their 2^nd language program.   

District Communications

  At the request of Board Chair Erin Adams, Janet Swiecichowski reviewed the communication campaign the district has engaged since Nov. 30^th, the first date the health model, gifted model, and language immersion models were put on board agenda for possible adoption.

• All local papers were given the information.  Many of whom covered the story.
• Did an email blast to all parents who are on district email list informing them of upcoming issues (approximately 9000 addresses)
• Sent a post card to every household in district
• Set-up and maintained a feed back and Q&A web page for proposed items.  The page is now closed for additional comment.  272 people left comments and questions.

Erin Adams response to community comments received from December to present

  Board Chair Erin Adams read her prepared response to comments covering the last 3 board meetings, all in December.  In total there were hours of comments made by various people specifically regarding the proposed health model.

   She noted with concern that she felt the teachers, especially health teachers, were feeling unheard.  She wanted to note, strongly, that she and the rest of the board did hear the teachers and honored their frustrations.  She felt that there possibly was some confusion about the current model due to the history of the situation so she took a moment to review.

   In June 2006, the board adopted K-12 health committee research study recommendations.  There were 6:

1)      Provide a comprehensive and rigorous  K -12 Health education curriculum that offers clear 

        expectations for all students to achieve the Minnetonka Health Standards;

2)      Acquire up-to-date and effective instructional materials

3)      Provide staff development time for all K -12 staff to gain knowledge and training with the newly     

        purchased materials and to ensure that the materials are being utilized appropriately and the        

        instruction is meeting the needs of all diverse learners.

4)      Have Minnetonka health teachers deliver instruction and facilitate student learning using varied and 

        effective instructional strategies

5)      Have the Minnetonka Health Education Program will consist of a comprehensive health education      

       curriculum that ensures rigorous and timely instruction for all Minnetonka students

6)      Continue to partner with its parent community to strengthen the home-school partnership as it relates

         to health.

 This new model supports all six recommendations.

   The health study group was also supposed to come up with models for delivery.  That piece was not completed so the board asked Dr. Peterson to create a new model.  Everyone seems to agree the old model has a lot of problems.

 This also goes back to the budgets cuts when the high school went from a 7 day period to a 6 day period.  Going back to a 7 day period would add an additional $1.5 million to the budget.  People cite that having only 6 periods really limits choice for students.  Enrollment history from the 7 day period timeframe showed that only 54 juniors and 25 seniors used the full 7 day period all year.  This created a lot of time when seniors were not in school which isn’t the best choice or outcome for students or for the community. 

    Ms. Adams also wanted to note that since the change to 6 period day there are now additional academic standards put in place by the State.  A 7 day period will not add a lot of time for additional choice.

Go here to read the original text of Chair Erin Adams' comments.

Projected Budget

   Next Tom Berge, did a short overview of the next three years budgets.

                                                       2006-07          2007-08            2008-09

Revenue (in millions)             $68.3               69.9                 71.4                            

Expenses (in millions)                        $68.7              71.5                 74.

                                                            $(.4)                 (1.6)                 (2.6)

All years show greater expense then revenue.  The 06-07 budget is pretty firm and the deficit below 1% of budget projections.  Deficit funds will be paid out of reserves.  There are still a number of unknowns for 07-08 budget and the 08-09 budget is very loosey-goosey but the gap is so large that if there are no additional funds (from the state legislature) the district will need to either consider cutting again or do another referendum.

Health Model Discussion and Vote

   Dr. Peterson noted that this was a vote to either accept the new model or not.  It wasn’t really a time for model negotiations.  He also felt they had responded to a lot of teachers concerns and wanted to take a moment to respond some more.

• He feels the issue of mixed age classes can be dealt with and answers created over next 9 months
• The model at this point states the primary teachers can either be in room or not.  This was put in, in response to health teachers concerns about not having autonomy with students
• There will be no real change in staff
• Evaluation of comparing old and new model will start immediately
• No real down side of trying this – if doesn’t work, we can go back to old way.

   Dave Adney, MHS principal, took a moment to comment also that he looked at 14 different model suggestions, many offered by teachers.  They appreciated the input but when they looked at it from detail perspective it could not be done due to testing periods and overall calendar constraints.

   Board member Peggy Stefan then moved to have 9^th-10^th grade health curriculum embedded for the 2007-2008 school year with various specifics (see district web site for specific wording).

   Individual board members then commented about their individual views.  Most were in favor and each noted different strengths.  Some points made include:

• Belief that technology can be used to help establish relationships with students.  It is meeting them where they are today
• Nothing is perfect.  There are pros and cons with both models but the pros for trying the new model are worth it – parent involvement, lessons given over time, ability to alter to age appropriateness, etc.
• Belief that administrators and teachers have 9 months to work out issues surrounding embedded model delivery.  Many board members have faith in the abilities of teachers and administrators to work it out.
• Need to act now or lose another whole school year.
• All staff received same communications about the proposed model changes as did residents in school district; 20 staff members communicated their thoughts to the Board. Not accurate to say that Board hasn't heard from teachers or doesn't care enough to listen to them.

   Bill Wenmark was the one board member who opposed passing the new proposal.  Though he stated he agreed with many of the other board members' comments, he said there were still significant unknowns and wanted to hear more from classroom teachers. 

On vote of 6-1, the new proposal passed for implementation next school year, 2007-08.

School for the Highly Gifted Model

Director of Teaching and Learning Mark Larson did a power-point presentation about the highly gifted model.  Highlights include:

• This is a model for a very small number of students.  IQ of 146 or above.
• These students relate differently to children because their cognitive ability is so different.  Research shows that clustering these children is good for them both academically and socially. 
• There is not a significant cost component for this model.  Most likely, our current curriculum would be used – in enhanced versions.  Current teachers would be used.  The big unknown cost component is transportation.
• Identification of these students is still unknown.  They need to continue looking at it.
• They asked for permission to continue looking into models for this group for possible implementation in 2008-2009.

 The board agreed unanimously 7-0 to have administration continue looking at this model.

Enhancement of High Potential (HP) Program

Mark Larson (it’s now about 9:30 pm) did a power-point presentation about enhancement for the current high potential program.  Highlights include:

Level 1 services:  There are 546 students in HP program in grades 1-5.  Current services for these students are very limited.  Each elementary school has approximately .5 teacher assigned to building.  Students have 50 minute pullout every 5 school days.  They are using ancient curriculum.

Level 2 services:  Independent Investigation (II).  Enhanced services would give more students an opportunity to do II.

Level 3 services:  The additional services would be a “push-in” component in which additional staff would go into classroom and help with clustering children and working with different groups in math and reading.  This would help ALL students.

   Additional services would also include revising and rewriting the current WINGS curriculum and increase kindergarten identification of HP students.The additional cost is approximately $150,000. 

   The motion unanimously carried for immediate enhancement of HP services, 7-0.

Language Immersion Models 

Mark Larson again did the presentation (after drinking a glass of water).  The proposal, in essence, is to offer both Spanish and Chinese immersion at all elementary schools starting next school year for incoming kindergarteners. 

• This has been a long time in coming and the district is behind many other districts in offering language immersion. 

• Language immersion is the fasted growing trend in school across the nation and research shows the most effective for teaching children a second language. 

• Primary language instruction would start in 3^rd grade.

• Spanish will be offered because it is the most used 2^nd language in our country and has high enrollment numbers.

• Chinese will be offered because of its prevalence in the world.  Currently, 1 in 5 people on the plant speak Chinese and China is expected to become a greater economic force in the world over next couple decades.

• The model will be a school within a school.  All elementary schools will still have neighborhood model which everyone agreed is important.  At this point, it is unknown what level of demand there will be for either language at which school.  The district will try to be flexible and meet the demand where is arises.

• Class sizes will need to be reasonable in order for it to be offered.

• Transportation:  The district will need to keep in mind also that over time, if students drop from the program, they may need to consider clustering the classes at one or two schools which would incur an additional transportation cost.

• Cost:  Implementation and carrying cost for offering this program is relatively neutral.   There will be possible future transportation and book costs for higher grade levels once program is in place for few years.

• Qualified teachers:  There is also a strong network of qualified, licensed teachers within the Twin Cities for immersion Spanish and Chinese (MAIN network).  Getting good teachers will not be an issue.  

• 1^st grade immersion?  It was mentioned that there may be a demand to offer immersion for 1^st graders.  Dr. Larson stated it could be done but first thought it would be preferable to work on identifying demand for immersion for kindergarten. 

The district would like to work closely with parents and will be reaching out to them soon to identify the level of support available for both kindergarten and 1^st grade immersion.

The board unanimously 7-0 passed offering Spanish or Chinese immersion at all elementary schools next year.

Change to school year calendar for 2006-2007 year

The final piece of business for the night (yep…about 10:45 pm now) was a request by Assistant Superintendent Dr. Mike Lovett for two additional half days for teachers for training for Qcomp.  After some discussion the proposal was passed, 7-0:

• 2/20/07 will be a 3 hour late start
• 4/27/07 will be a early release day for students

End of Summary