School Board shifts to partial in-person meetings

School Board Chair Erica Allenburg announced at the Sept. 14 meeting that the Board has begun conducting its regular meetings in a partial in-person format at the District Office Conference Room, with limited public seating available in the adjacent collaborative space.

Allenburg said there are few meeting spaces available or large enough to accommodate in-person meetings due to construction at the Edina Community Center (ECC), which includes the Board Room. Community spaces at EHS were considered, but are currently being used as classrooms as part of the plan to reduce the number of students per room. Use of auditoriums result in prohibitive cleaning requirements.

Capacity limitations in the Conference Room mean that some Board members will be present while others attend virtually. One space will be reserved in the Conference Room to accommodate members of the public who wish to address the Board in person. An individual will enter the conference room to present their three-minute statement and the table they use will be cleaned before the next individual enters.

Individuals who do not wish to address the Board in person still have the option to submit their statements on topics related to the Board agenda ahead of time to have them read aloud at the Board Meeting. Email comments to the Board at SchoolBoard@edinaschools.org; subject line: Board Meeting Comment. Comments must be received by noon on the day of the Board meeting. Anonymous comments will not be read.

The Board encourages members of the public to continue to watch meetings via live stream on the District YouTube channel due to capacity limitations, however the meeting will be live-streamed to a monitor in the adjacent collaborative space for members of the public who attend in person. The collab space has a capacity limit of eight. Anyone attending a Board meeting must wear a face covering per the Governor’s Executive Order.

In-person Board meetings will resume in the Board Room upon completion of construction, which is expected in February 2021. The third floor D.O. Conference Room and collab space can be reached via ECC Door 4 and stairway on the east side. (The public elevator is currently unavailable due to construction.) Follow directional signs to the meeting.