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

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suggested if the resources were available, that the Board consider reinstating some of the
programs that were cut before committing funds to new programs. She asked that the
Board’s top priority be a return to the seven-period day and asked for more time as a
community to discuss and consider the changes being proposed that evening.
Parent and District volunteer, Lisa Wagner, spoke about her experiences as part of the
Strategic Planning Team and commended the Board for coming forward with the
recommendations on the new models. Ms. Wagner said she was a participant on the teams
that worked on the Language Immersion, Pre A-P, and the Middle Years IB models
strategies and that it was exciting to see that hard work now being considered. She praised
the proposed changes to the high potential program and encouraged the Board to continue to
study the new models so she could look forward to having some of them available to her
children in the future.
Parent Anne Groten directed her comments to the changes in the high potential program,
and asked that the Board think of students in this program as a group of learners who
“…learn differently and at a different pace.” She asked that their learning styles and needs
be considered because that there had been no changes to this program in a very long time.
Parent Carol Osterhus addressed the proposal for the Language Immersion program,
saying she was “very encouraged” by the plan to offer Chinese. Until that time, Ms.
Osterhus said she had considered moving out of the District so her children could be served
by such a program.
Parent Maureen Kvam expressed her excitement about the new proposals, saying she was
especially excited about the proposed changes to the high potential program. With regard to
the health model, Ms. Kvam said her biggest concern was with the students taking classes on
line because of the constraints imposed by the six-period day. While she encouraged the
Board to look at new models, she asked that they not include on-line learning options.
Excelsior parent Anne Gallentine urged the Board to consider changes to the High
Potential program and asked that they support and continue to look at the new models being
proposed.
Parent Cindy Montoriol said it was important for students to know another language “from
the beginning.” She shared her concerns about the current high potential program and said
“yes” to an immersion program and “yes” to the proposed IB program.
Minnewashta parent, Brette Herman, encouraged the Board to consider the new high
potential programs, noting that clustering was “very positive.” She said her student was
getting a lot out of the current program.
At this point in the proceedings, Chairperson Adams asked Director of Communications,
Janet Swiecichowski, to talk about the communications tools used to inform staff members
and the community about the Board’s work on the new instructional models.