MMW Teacher and Secondary Health Chair, Deanne Hoppe, spoke ...

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Former health teacher Jen Severson, said she had concerns about the prevention piece of
the proposed health model. She questioned whether students would be able to get the skills
they need during their high school careers to prevent unhealthy situations rather than fix
them.
Parent Ron Leaf addressed the proposed High Potential program changes and spoke about
his daughter’s academic successes even though she had not been selected as part of the
Wings program. Mr. Leaf suggested that the Board study what happens to students who are
selected and participate in high potential programs and those who don’t but go on to achieve
academic successes. He also suggested that the Board seek feedback from students who had
participated in the program, saying their perspective could be helpful and interesting.
Paul Forst expressed his full support of the Language Immersion Program and the concept
of neighborhood schools. He questioned the process to determine which languages would be
offered and asked for clarification of recent communications relative to the schools at which
the program would housed.
Superintendent Peterson responded to the questions raised by Mr. Forst. He stated that the
basic issue with language immersion is that it would be determined by the parents. Dr.
Peterson said that while the District would offer what they believed were languages of
interest, if there was little or no interest on the part of the families in those languages, it
would not happen. “This will be driven by decisions parents make after being informed of
the options,” he stated.
Minnetonka resident R.C.H. Schmidt expressed his opinions about the proposed health
education, language immersion and high potential models. Mr. Schmidt stated that health
education should be part of the physical education program; that Arabic be one of the
languages considered for an Immersion program; and that the Board was “overreaching” if
they considered a program for a small number of highly gifted students. He also spoke to the
proposal to extend the IB program to the middle school level and questioned the
communications relative to the instructional models presentations.
MME teacher and President of the Minnetonka Teachers Association, Mark
Chalupsky, shared his disappointment in having to come before the Board that night to bring
the message from the Governance Board that they were opposed to the new model for health
education. While he acknowledged there were many good things in the proposal, he said
there were many unanswered questions and perhaps too many problems to overcome. Mr.
Chalupsky asked that the Board and the teachers work through this issue collaboratively
before action was taken and said if the District was going to make changes that they spend
the money so every student would benefit. He suggested that the six-period day be
reevaluated to learn what students, parents and staff were saying and that consideration be
given to returning to a seven-period day.
Parent and District volunteer, Mary Wiersum, questioned the wisdom of making major
changes before the District was more financially stable. She cited the recent budget cuts and
the fact that the District still had not filled the Director of Finance position. Ms. Wiersum