Hopkins Public Schools — Transcript
Tuesday, June 23, 2026
Superintendent's Report and Transition
Permanent School Fund Legislative Proposal
Fiscal Year 2025 Audit Results
Fiscal Year 2027 Budget Approval
Board Member Reports and Community Engagement
Votes (3)
Approval of Hopkins Census Resolution for 2026 payable, 2027 levy
Dissent: None
Moved by Not specified [0:46:00] · Seconded by Not specified [0:46:00]
A roll call vote was conducted to certify the population estimate for Independent School District 270, which impacts the district's levy for the 2026 payable, 2027 year. This was a procedural but official action for financial planning.
Approval of Fiscal Year 2025 Audit
Dissent: None
Moved by Director Zhou [1:18:42] · Seconded by Director Thompson [1:18:45]
The audit presented a clean, unmodified opinion for FY25. Discussion acknowledged persistent internal control findings from FY24, a new budget reporting deficiency, and issues with an MDE-unapproved system. The interim CFO outlined aggressive measures to rectify these issues and ensure the FY26 audit is completed on time, instilling confidence in the board regarding financial stability.
Approval of Final Fiscal Year 2027 Budget
Dissent: None
Moved by Vice Chair Roper [1:49:15] · Seconded by Director Thompson [1:49:20]
The FY27 budget, with a projected $1.5 million general fund surplus, was approved. Priorities focused on sustaining classroom instruction, maintaining student-teacher ratios, and ensuring fund balance stability. The budget includes significant increases in classroom teacher allocations across all schools, funded partly by district-wide administrative cost reductions and the use of Safe Schools fund for safety paras. Plans for expanding community education programming and optimizing food service procurement were also noted.
Notable Quotes (6)
So we're doing work right now to do a lot of cleanup with account codes and just reconciling what we can before the year end. And then as soon as July hits, we'll start the audit process. Emily and I are meeting the first week of July to assign audit tasks and go through that. And our goal is to have everything ready two weeks prior to when it gets handed off to KDV so that there's no delays from the district side.
I think one of them is just in this current moment as national politics impact funding, just want to highlight to our community and to those who are advocating at the state level and beyond, the investment and the amount of students the number of special education dollars represents. Those are real students who have needs and need educational supports.
So typically with the audit, the work starts in July, so we'll start all the preliminary stuff. August, we'll really start ramping up because we have all the stuff that have come in in July that need to be booked back to the prior year receivables and that stuff. Typically, come September, the audit should be pretty close to being wrapped up. The audit this year is scheduled on October 19th, the week of. So we will have all of our district side financial stuff done the first week of October to be ready to be handed off.
It was really around sustaining the classroom and making sure that the students have adequate classrooms, as far as teacher to student ratios, making sure we're following a MOU as well, and just really aligning that student support with our students. The other area is the fund balance stability, so making sure that we're setting up today so that in future we are...
Well, just they're specifically our school safety paras. So not just any paras, but the safety paras that we have at our three secondary schools.
And so I actually feel kind of emotional about that real investment. And so I know that that comes on the backs of some administrative work, and some programs have to shift, and we always have to do more with less, but every single program has an increase in classroom teacher allocations. And so I want the community to know that, and I want the board to know that, and thank you for that work.
Ordinances & Resolutions (11)
An education savings account for public schools, funded by state school trust lands; a constitutional amendment proposal is on the table.
The district's Annual Report, which won an NSPRA Award of Excellence.
District communications for a referendum, which won an NSPRA Special Purpose Publication Award of Excellence.
Two videos created for a referendum, which won an NSPRA Video Series Award of Excellence.
An updated population estimate used for the district's levy calculation.
The independent auditor's report for the fiscal year ended June 30th, 2025.
A report on internal control over financial reporting, included as part of the FY25 audit.
A report on compliance with Minnesota legal requirements, included as part of the FY25 audit.
A component of the audit reporting, highlighting financial data.
The budget proposal for the fiscal year 2027, requiring board approval.
An ongoing work mentioned during board member reports.