Minutes from ECFS Advisory Council meeting, January 19, 2016
The meeting was called to order by Co-chair Emily Heinis/Chris Polikowsky at 6:23 p.m.
Members present: Nicole Arness, Heather Blair, Alex Cook, Michelle Doepke, Michael Doubrava, Josh
Gaffke, Shikha Goodwin, Emily Heinis, Penny Kastner, Christopher Knight, Caroline Koerner, Heidi
Krech, Deena Laugen, Molly Lorenzen, Jenna Maye, Melissa Nielsen, Christopher Polikowsky, Melissa
Rogan, Lori Rogers, Wendy Sawyer, Nicole Wensmann, and David Wermerskirchen.
Staff present: Jenna Ruble, Karen Heaton
The minutes from the December 2015 meeting were approved.
Jenna gave the update on Karen Kellar’s passing. The council thought an on-site memorial honoring
Karen and her many contributions to ECFS would be appropriate. We will continue this discussion during
the next few meetings.
Jenna gave the program updates. January is a busy time with planning for spring, summer and fall
programming plus the unique challenge of scheduling our classes.
• Our focus is on the birth-three’s program and the core goals. The plan is not just to add but
change the structure of classes.
• We want to stay out front of instructional preschool goal and to make available and to improve
the quality and continuity. The three areas of focus will be learning, assessment and curriculum.
The timeline is from now until August.
• The ECFE classes are full for the winter quarter.
Emily and Chris led us in a review of the by-law changes from November. The by-laws were changed,
voted on and approved.
Committee Reports
Valentine Concert/Alex Cook
• DJ Matt Nielsen will perform on Saturday, February 13, 2016 at Valley Middle School beginning
at 9:30 a.m. A sign-up sheet was sent around for volunteers to staff this event.
Mid-Winter Fest/Mike Doubrava
• The Mid-Winter Fest will be held on Saturday, February 6 at the Apple Valley Community
Center from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. A discussion followed regarding the activities and volunteers were
able to sign up.
Run for Hope 5K/Emily Heinis
• Plans are underway for the Run for Hope 5K which will take place on Saturday, May 14 in
Burnsville. We are in collaboration with Valley Natural Foods to sponsor this event. Our council
was able to help the committee out this evening by getting sponsorship letters ready for
mailing. Thank you Advisory Council!
Parent Leader/Deana Laugen
• Parent Leaders were invited to tour the Apple Valley High School Fabrication Lab (Fab Lab).
Principal Steve Degenaar briefly spoke before the tour began about the history of AVHS, the
E3STEM grant and the STEM corridor of Cedar Park and Echo Park elementary schools, Valley
Middle-School of STEM and AVHS. Parent Leaders moved on to tour the Fab Lab and visited
four stations within the lab: 3D printers, vinyl-cutters and laser engravers, the ShopBot and
the Iron Maidens Robotics Team. Students provided demonstrations and explanations with
support from instructors Jim Lynch and Chris Lee. Community Education is offering classes in
the Fab Lab this winter so children and parents in the community can also benefit from this
amazing facility.
Staff Appreciation Luncheon/Penny Kastner
• The Staff Appreciation luncheon will be Friday, April 22, 2016. This is traditionally the last
staff in-service for the year. A sign-up sheet will be passed around next month for AC members
to bring food for this event.
Legislative/Nicole Arness
• Tony Taschner, Director of Communications, is drafting legislative priorities to be approved at
the January 20 DLAC meeting for presentation to the School Board on February 9. Nikki will
distribute the draft of the priorities to our members upon receipt.
• DLAC pre-legislature meeting on Friday, February 5 at AVHS. The plan is to tour the new
Fabrication Lab to see what students are doing with the equipment and then meet to discuss
legislative priorities. Nikki will try to attend and also invite legislators to the Valentines
Concert on February 13.
• Chris Knight will work to develop a Valentine’s Day packet that will include thank you notes for
the legislators. Each packet will also include an art project; one for each legislator. Chris will
hand deliver them to the Capitol.
• Due to the construction at the Capitol, the committee has decided to invite the 196 Legislators
to the Dakota Valley Learning Center on Tuesday evening, May 3. We will invite various district
administrators, an ECFE class and/or Dad’s class, a preschool class and Family School.
• We would like to create a tri-fold brochure that would show Past, Present and Future ECFS
possibilities. This brochure would look something like this: here is where we are; here’s is what
we have accomplished; and here is what we hope to do in the future.
• We would like to invite them to the Run for Hope and offer them a free entry.
Ongoing communication and tasks related to this event will be done via email.
The next Advisory Council meeting will be on Tuesday, February 16, 2016.
Emily adjourned the meeting at 8:13 p.m.
Respectfully submitted by
Alex Cook