The Minnetonka School Board held a planning meeting to discuss preliminary goals for the 2024-25 school year. The Board develops its annual goals through an iterative process, which includes reviewing the District’s progress in achieving current goals, considering input and feedback received throughout the year from staff, students, families and the broader community, and monitoring student outcomes measured through assessments, activities and survey data.

The proposed goals for 2024-25 align with the District’s theme: “Excellence in How We Live, Lead and Learn.” Read below for a deeper summary of each item, or read the preliminary goals in full in the January 4, 2024 School Board Meeting packet.

GOAL: Excellence in Well-being, Connection and Belonging 
The District will prioritize student mental health, proactively contributing to students’ social and emotional well-being throughout the school year and will survey students to identify where additional support is needed. It will continue to implement multi-tiered systems of support and to confer with the Minnetonka Schools Mental Health Advisory Council.

Schools will deepen implementation of belonging efforts, provide training for staff on best practices in building connections with students and identify, analyze, monitor and respond to trends affecting various demographic groups. The District will also increase bullying prevention efforts.  

GOAL: Excellence in Student Learning and Support
The District will continue to increase opportunities for improved academic outcomes for all students by focusing on high-quality universal instruction in all courses, including progress monitoring and teacher collaboration. It will provide staff development to address priority areas, and increase the impact of teacher collaboration time. Schools will monitor the effectiveness of programming at all levels and across curricular areas and will take informed steps to ensure the continuous improvement process includes programming for students receiving special education services, students learning English and students in Tonka Online.

The District will improve its student literacy efforts through continued implementation of the District’s updated literacy plan. It will provide training for all teachers on best practices in reading instruction, evaluate core and supplemental literacy materials to ensure they are aligned to research-based practices, ensure all students are screened for barriers to literacy early in the educational process and monitor student growth to see the impact of interventions and acceleration. 

The District will continue to expand student opportunities through programming for the signature programs VANTAGE Advanced Professional Studies and MOMENTUM Design and Skilled Trades to meet the future needs of students. Additionally, it will improve middle school programming by implementing recommendations from a middle school audit.

GOAL: Excellence in Leadership and Organizational Support
District leaders will ensure long-term financial stability and sustainability for Minnetonka Public Schools by recommending adjustments that will impact short-term and long-term financial stability, including potential adjustments to enrollment, reductions to expenditures, advocacy for legislative changes that will address funding shortfalls, and other solutions.

The District will address staffing challenges by enhancing the focus on recruitment and retention of exceptional teachers and staff, including efforts to create a representative workforce that will enrich the learning environment for all students.

The District will also ensure facilities meet the current and future needs of students. It will create and implement a Facilities Task Force, conduct a facility planning needs assessment and gather recommendations to meet the current and future needs for academic and co-curricular programs.

The District will ensure high quality meals by continuing to implement recently-approved no-cost meal legislation, including breakfast. 

Finally, the District and Board will continue to build community trust by informing and connecting with District constituents through outreach and engagement opportunities and efforts. It will create new in-person engagement opportunities for community members to connect with District leadership and School Board, survey residents, families, students and staff on their experiences and sentiments regarding the District and will address any challenges.

District policies and procedures related to community engagement will be evaluated, and  student voice will be elevated.  

Next Steps in Goal-setting
The Board will revisit the proposed goals at a planning session this spring and will discuss input it has received on the draft goals at that time. To share input with the Board on the draft goals, send that feedback to communications@minnetonkaschools.org 

Stay Up-to-Date on Goal Progress
If you’d like to sign up to receive monthly School Board News emails, which summarize the content of the School Board’s regular meetings, fill out this contact form. To share your input regarding the proposed goals, email communications@minnetonkaschools.org.