e e e e e e um to give director rer some time to get here and get settled um and we'll get started uh about 5:05 p.m. thank you e e e e e you've got a little bit of time don't rush :5 is when we're starting oh okay hi Jen oh thank you h um welcome to the Hopkins Public Schools workshop for March 11th 2025 um I look forward to our agenda this evening um the first item is our special education 101 with director um contras if you want to come and join us at the front of the room and I will turn it over to Dr Mary per thank you chair Andres and good evening board members and community members listening in um we are welcoming our director of uh special services Fonda contras and our assistant director who works at the Early Learning and Elementary level Heather is it garabaldi or jaldi garabaldi garabaldi Davis I've actually never said your your last name out loud so I'm happy to have that first opportunity welcome to the table and we are responding to a couple of board members requests to get some additional but more foundational information about special education what is special education how does it work what is the process for identifying students who may need service what is our um what do our services look like throughout Hopkins from early learning through um transition plus and you'll get to hear from transition plus this evening as they are our program Spotlight and we um we truly have um a really amazing Special Education team leadership team here in Hopkins they're very passionate about ensuring that students receive high quality and Equitable special education services according to students individualized education plans which that will probably be our first acronym as IEP so whenever we say an AC acronym we'll have to spell it out especially for a listening audience out there in the community but thank you very much for being here Fonda and Heather and I'll turn it over to you good evening everyone so we will begin y so I just put a quote on here abled does not mean enabled disabled does not mean less abled um I think it's important for us to think of all students um person first so instead of saying a EBD student or a DCd student like they're a student with a disability so addressing the person and then I think one of the things I've been trying to change is really um thinking about about our students as being Genet students first who have disabilities so so special education is a mandate from idea which is that we are supposed to provide a free and appropriate education to all students and so um a fape you'll hear the acronym fate that's the free and appropriate and we provide services birth through 22 and there's two parts so part C are our earliest Learners birth through five and Part B is 3 through 21 or sorry 3 through 22 so part C and Part B are the two Federal governance Parts um that we provide services to okay that so there are 13 categorical disabil areas and then DD is developmental delay and those are usually our youngest students um so you can see kind of the lists but speech language developmental cognitive delay there's mild to moderate and then severe and profound deaf and heart of hearing physically impaired Blind and Visually Impaired specific learning disability emotional or behavioral disorder autism spectrum disorder other health disabilities deaf and blind severely mully impaired and traumatic brain injury so there's lots of ways they can qualify for services and the DD label um for developmentally delay is kind of like a intervention category so our students um if they have the DD label from Early Childhood we have to reassess them before they turn seven to see if what we call a big kids label to see if they qualify for a categorical disability so DD in the state of Minnesota we have to retest before they turn seven to see if there's still a qualification or to see if that intervention stage helped them with any delays that they were showing and so some states um go as late as 8 years old but in Minnesota it and I think there might be a couple states that go to age nine so they're not put into these other categories it's more that intervention stage and so um we provide these Services across districts or across our settings in the district our early childhood um you may see more DD students until we can put them into a categorical um area if they qualify and if there are needs um our elementaries have specific disability areas for Center based students so students that spend more than 60% of their time um we have EBD programs at Alice Smith and metal Brook and then we have our autism program at tanglin we just opened up to DCd mild mod programs at Glenn Lake so two classrooms and then we have five classrooms of mod to severe DCd students at Gatewood so we just have one elementary site um that doesn't have any Services currently um and that's Eisenhower I mean they have they have services but not a center based program and then our middle schools have all of the programs underneath um in each of the sites in our high school as well so the child find process is the obligation that school district special education and general education staff have to determine if students have a need and so typically if they are re in gened classrooms we put interventions in place if those interventions are not um supporting the student enough then we move into a referral process the other way referrals come um for Part B so that's our 3 through 22 is if parents make referrals and even with parent referrals sometimes we still may do interventions if the school doesn't have any data to like um substantiate like moving into a referral right away we may have conversation with the parent and say hey we want to take your child to the SAT team talk about interventions in the areas of need or if a parent comes with a medical diagnosis we may choose to go forward with that referral right away so there's lots of scenarios it's really dependent on what data is being provided um and then sorry and then for early childhood referrals are made by parents doctors and help me grow so that is an organization that filters in referrals and I believe our early childhood team has had well over 300 referrals this school year could I just ask what is the SAT team yes that is the Student Assistance team I think someone may have presented on that at a recent board meeting but it's a team that comes together it's typically made of of a multi-discipline team that comes together and talks about the interventions for students whether it's Behavior academic social emotional attendance like what are all the things that are getting in the way of learning so it's a holistic look at what should we be planning to put in place to support the student not as a pre referral but just because it's best practice what are the tier ones tier 2 supports tier three supports and then if supports are in place targeted supports are in place for students and they are not making progress a referral to special education can be made by that school team thank you and so an acronym that I'm sure everyone has heard is IEP so that's the individual education plan and again that is for our uh 3 to 22 students and then it's called a ifsp for students birth the two and you can see here we have a long list of our Hopkins special education staff you know most of our staff are teachers speech and language teachers um we have a lot of special edare professionals healthare professionals you can kind of see the list I won't go through the whole list kind of what to note is in the 287 itinerant staff those are teachers that come in like dhh is deaf and heart of hearing teachers so we might not have enough students that need that so we contract with 287 to bring some people in to support that you guys have any question on that list I didn't want to read the whole list you guys so and another thing to add is that most of our related service providers so those are our physical therapists our occupational therapists our speech social workers um those folks are additional supports on IEPs um we can build for those services so that is the one Revenue generating um the one Revenue generator that we have within special education is third party billing and so we all of these staff um in these different categories help cover all of the services that a student may need so you may have a student that has everything and you might have a student that is speech only so it's just based on needs of that individual child we also have homebound teachers um who provide services to students that are medically um cannot come into the schools or that are on home based for various reasons such as maybe they're waiting to get into day treatment or um maybe they're on a medication that's causing severe disruptions and so we have them home based for a couple of weeks until the medication kicks in so Services we have service providers that go into the home so these are kind of all of the things we have um there's a third party billing specialist we have due process clerks that help our teachers kind of manage all of the me meetings um because we have to do evaluations IEPs and so they kind of help with some of those clerical duties um for our teachers at the sites um yeah so the CP trainers on there that's a Crisis Prevention Institute so they work on deescalation techniques and those kinds of things for our kids at transition plus which you all will hear more about today we have a work coordinator that supports our students um I won't do a spoiler alert I'll save that but just some of the positions so if you scan through if you have a question on any of those just let us know okay so then Federal settings you'll hear this from time to time so within Hopkins schools we have Federal settings 1 through 4 One means least restrictive so those students are with their Jette peers more in their day than the other the other settings and then our federal setting two students are federal setting one and two is what you call resource students so they are typically pulled out um at the elementary level um there's pushing in early childhood there's push in in the secondary schools um and so ones and twos it can vary depending on the level um that the students attend a federal setting two student 21 to 60% of their day can be in special education and then our Center based students are the students who are federal setting 3 who have 60% of their of their date spent in special head so they are the further you go through the settings the higher in the settings the more time and special ed they have so our Center based programs are 60% are more some students can mainstream or they can be in that Center based classroom all of their day and then our federal four setting is our help program that's help and then five dve is kind of outside of the school so that can be like a residential facility private facility it can be hospitalization um I think we've got a handful of students that came back from being hospitalized this year and then we look at what is the correct setting based on the need do we put them in our Center based if they're secondary we may put them at help or they may go to 287 so we just look at the need when they come to us and find that match when they're coming from some of these higher settings could I ask a clarifying question yes um so I see that setting five is special education services at a private separate day school so I guess I'm just wondering how that interacts with us as a school district it's it's beyond us okay yep it's beyond us so often times we have I think there's been a couple students this year too to access services at Gillette because they were medically fragile and have to have like a long-term placement at the hospital so those can be like uh Federal setting fives and then we only cover them if the hospital was to be within the Hopkins boundaries Okay so we've not had to do that um yes in other districts we have had to have providers work at the hospitals to do the educational component okay thanks so here's some things that are going on in Hopkins um definitely we've had Center based program expansions over the years um I think when I started s years ago we only had three classrooms at Gatewood in the uh DCd program we now have five uh we did not have EBD at elementary so we definitely have added Center based programs because those needs are coming um and then those students meticulous levels so I think last year 30 % of the ninth grade I'm sorry the sixth grade class at West was special ed so we definitely have seen an increase in [Music] needs um partnering our department partners with um IDL to make sure that there are interventions in place for students whether it be academic um or General Ed um and we try to really be inclusive with placements for students making sure that we're being least restrictive so that means having students have access to their Genet peers as much as possible as much as long as it's meeting their needs so it's like a balance of giving them access and making sure it's sustainable for Progress for them uh we've been the last few years training staff on evidence-based disab ility practices so not only are they in charge of academic and whatever behavior supports and the compliance paperwork but also making sure that they are disability focused so that we are meeting students where they're at with their different needs such as we've had some DCd training some autism specific training some training specific to EBD our emotional behavior disorder students so the staff have been meeting across levels planning um going through what US practices look like so that we can have Continuum of Care across um it's still a work in progress but it's just one of the many plates that our staff balance anything okay take of it's year three of our extended services to age 22 um so students can go to Transitions plus up until age 22 now which is extended from 21 a couple years ago um you're three of our autism day treatment program in early childhood so um some students and some teachers come from um now I'm going to forget the names different autism programs like in the community and so um it's it's really went over well there's a great need and I only know of one other District in the West Metro that has a autism day treatment program and so we're partnering with St David's on that and it's been very successful like the weight list continues we're now trying to gather the data to see um how that translates when our when those students go to kindergarten um is there a higher level of need and so we're tracking that data on who we send to um District 287 for fed4 for those early Learners and we're going back to see if they were part of the autism day treatment program as well and even in private placements the autism day treatment programs have a very long weight list so it's really great to have that in there it's year six of implementing the equipped best practices in early childhood and I don't know a whole lot about that Fonda so you probably should share about that one but so our birth to two team um used to go out as a whole group so if the child had um General Services it would be a teacher a SLP a speech clinician um maybe a social worker and maybe a occupational therapist like all of everyone would just go out as a team and now they have meetings with the parents to decide we're asking the parent what do you see as a need to for us to support you with your child so maybe a parent is saying feeding I need help with feeding um or I need help my child isn't walking yet I need help um learning to use the The Walker so then our staff may decide who is the best uh team member to go and support that staff versus the whole team going out in the house to the home um and so it's just a shift in practice and really leaning into what do the parents want so because we can't ask the kids bir the two so we ask the parents but we want them to be partners and us not tell them what they need to do so it's a different way of framing that relationship um and so we're deciding who is is it's very methodical like here's all the data here's what the parent want who should be the person to provide the service versus everyone piling in a car going out so that's the primary care model and then special ed has been a part of letters from inception and we also are piloting Barton instruction with some of our students who are struggling um with like some of the sips I and sips intervention materials we have some students that are getting Bon who have severe um learning disabilities so sips and Barton are examples of two intervention reading curricula correct yeah so like usually we'll start with sips um and we have the intervention level and our frequency is more than the Genet students get cuz there's some students who get who receive sips intervention as well but the frequency of service is more increased if they're on an IEP and then we may or may not switch to Barton if that is a need in some spaces so then the last slide of this overview is just um the special education budget dilemas which we've talked about before um we have tapped into about 7 million um in 2023 of cross subsidy because we're not fully funded um about 95% of our budget is staff and there's so many strict limitations on what we can spend it on um if we use third party doll again those are Revenue generating so like if a speech clinician sees a student um they're able to submit reimbursement for those students who receive Ma on the services provided to them and then we get a portion of those dollars that come back in and then we use that to fund positions the protocols that we use for all of the assessments that's probably one of the biggest expenses that special education has outside of Staffing is our assessment budget so like um the testing protocols that everyone uses for an evaluation because if it's a comprehensive evaluation there's going to be typically an IQ so um the cost for the IQ testing material um if a teacher is testing on academics there's protocols that we have to pay for for that um there's speech protocols occupational therapy protocol so like everyone has protocols that they use and part of our vision connected to Vision 2031 one of our goals is to make sure that those Protocols are culturally responsive so each group has kind of looked at the different protocols and so if you're a speech clinician at the high school you're going to use a different protocol than what Early Childhood speech will use but everyone has put the lens on to make sure that they're culturally responsive so that we are not overidentifying or qualifying students by race and disability so Protocols are part of the budget um and then we have to have materials for students for like Walkers so we have to purchase a walker if a student needs it for uh Physical Therapy if that student can't get around without it and they don't have it we purchase it things like wheelchairs families usually will provide because those are transferable but um there are things that we need to maintain and purchase uh certain supplies so that's kind of it um yes that that's special W in a nut show so how many sites I was going to quiz you all on how many disabilities and I was like nobody's going to want to do that but take a guess of how many sites you think we serve seven nine anybody else did we get a pride for getting right I will give a prize to the one that guesses it most accurately just said there's no budget so no I would say 15 because I know we provide services to private schools within our boundaries okay let me frame it for you differently think of our Hopkins schools think of the private sites and if you live in Hopkins think of the daycare oh wow oh my wow so is it like whoever gets it gets closest to it when the pr we'll get a priz yes 25 uh like 30 okay o nice I was going to say 32 I like your strategy so double digits not starting with one not starting with one 55 55 okay 73 you're changing know we don't know we don't know definitely the price can I spin the wheel you can so we have our nine Hopkins schools t+ help Hopkins Harley vedu there are 26 dayc carees there's actually more my go but there are 26 that we provide itinerate services to wow so our teachers our speech teams go in there and provide services at the dayc carees to students when there's a child find private sites I about fell out of my chair uh couple weeks ago when we found we were notified of a child that needed to be assessed at a new private site in our District Creative Hearts so they're new and then so 13 private sites and then we do homebased and homebound um we we don't provide care and treatment and then our students that go to 287 so these are all the spaces Hopkins kids receive special ed services for on the limited budget wow that's incredible 55 was pretty close Rachel's like me me I want so I think Dr Harland you win yes that's crazy how many there is wait but did she go over well except 287 technically is spread across multiple campuses so I didn't go over that is true so that is true I just put them in one group but right yes so we have staff that travel all over providing services to students within Hopkins wow wow that's impressive is it it is yeah so any questions um Cher and dreon I have a question thank you so much for the insightful presentation on um special education cuz this was something that I was actually looking into so I just have two quick well I have two questions one for an IEP is is there a process that a team or coordinating team must abide by before they decide to place a child on IEP um so like is there an engagement with the family first like is there like a deep level of conversation that's supposed to happen um before placing the child IEP or is it basically if teachers recommend it then the child is placed on IEP that's a very good question and in order for us to go into evaluation app parent or caregiver has to give consent so they have to give consent for the evaluation and then they have to give consent to move into the IEP process and they parents are part of the team and so then um after the IEP is presented um we we can't provide service without a sign out a signature for initial and then um so then we provide the service and through the process parents um and caregivers can give input on on what it looks like so if the needs were social emotional academic and maybe they need speech and occupational therapists those providers will have different sections on the IEP with goals towards the different areas and they're working as a team to make sure everything that child needs is cohesive and then the parent and the Giver also has so they're not going to have that expert lens on like what you know what a OT does but they could say well no this is what I'm seeing with the fine motor or whatever gross motor and so then um they'll have conversations around the data the evaluation drives the IEP it's like in the medical world whatever diagnosis that drives the medication and the medical plan so the evaluation drives what's in the IEP sometimes um yes like we sometimes we get requests and I think it's just education for parents and caregivers too to learn to learn the process and for our teams to be supportive when we have um students newly qualifying but like we had a parent recently ask for a Fed for placement and so we we had to describe like no we always stay least restrictive and if we see that need we'll bring you into that conversation but so it's just a learning experience I think so that was a long way to answer your question but it was a good way thank you you're I was um just inquiring about that process because it's just been coming up more in conversations I've been having with parents is about like the IEP and there's a lot of misconceptions about IEPs especially in our community and so really want to just get a deep understanding of what those like what they are and what they mean and like how like what type of weight does it hold for a child's educational journey and opportunities and then also another quick question um for our blind students are there Braille copies of like all of the assignments that um you know is given to let's say if there's ninth graders and there's a blind student who's in nth grade do they all have like if the it's the assignment offered in Braille like do they they have that available or accessible yes so our visually impaired students can have access to Braille indor whatever they need and that is one of the service providers that we use through 287 mhm okay so yeah and I know that like couple weeks ago um the 287 teacher dropped something off for one of our student um who who needed it so yes I do know that they're using R thank you Jon yes um one of the slides mentioned contacting our rep chery Yim um do you have a specific ask is that related to like loosening uses of funds um and I have lobbied before I may or may not have snuck into some media spaces with another chair um to kind of Lobby for special funding but um yeah no I think I I don't know what things will look like I know there's some discussion about some special education cuts and we're just kind of waiting for that waiting for future updates the legislative Action Coalition is kind of looking for specific asks like related to mandates or related to spending restri restrictions to potentially talk about we've got an upcoming day at the capital and so if you have thoughts and wanted to send you know if there's specific items yes with the West Metro director so there's a couple chairs on that and we usually Lobby for different things so I'll follow that and see what we can do this year maybe send their the top three things on the the mace platform to our Lac so we can be aligned with what mace wants that's good yes sure any other questions or feedback yes shair andri I just had one um so thank you for outlining some of the budgetary challenges which we know are historical and they compound year after year right and you mentioned un uncertainty I'll just name it um if at the federal level the Department of Education is undone that would include a loss of federal funding streams to support special education and so um it really is important that our state level lawmakers are anticipating this and and creating a plan so that we don't the burden of covering that Gap that has been historical and growing does not continue to fall on districts because we can't do it obviously um because the Gap there is the amount that we have to cut from the budget this year um and so I just don't see how this is going to be sustainable for districts and how we're going to be able to continue to provide the really high level services that we provide here in Hopkins and cover out of our general fund budget that Gap portion of it so um so I appreciate you bringing that into the presentation um and it's certainly where my head goes as a board member when I think about special education it's always that budgetary piece I'm wondering beyond that what are some of the challenges what like the biggest challenge that you're experiencing right now remember at one point it was PA professional staffing um kind of wondering you know obviously it's all tied to budget right but but what is something that perhaps we could help with at the board level um or just be aware of as another challenge that's kind of in the mix for you at this moment well one that I see is just finding some staff that we need finding social workers finding speech and language Pathologists that we need at times and and historically fing pair of professionals has been an issue too right now I think we're pretty well staffed yeah I think yeah speech and language biologist has been really hard I bragged about um decreasing the number of contracted employees but that's the other thing is that um when evaluations are completed throughout the year and even throughout the summer in early childhood if we start with an enrollment number at any site we always qualify kids throughout the year so we've learned to kind of build in a little bit of a movement cushion for inflationary um case loads at all Sites based on Trend data but anytime a student qualifies I mean we could have 70 students qualify and those numbers change drastically because then not only is it just a student count it's also um based on their settings so the higher up in settings the more expensive for instance um and I would love to take you all on a tour of some of our programs but like if it's um let's say the compass program at uh Glen Lake those students are have um multiple physical impairments they're severely impaired so they need staff to move them they physically need staff to move them around and they our most medically fragile students in the district well that's Staffing is six to two or six to one so six students one teacher two Paras so if more students qualify for that throughout the year that's adding staff or adding programs because we by Statute some of our Center based programs all of our Center based programs we have to follow statue on that Staffing and it's pretty low it's a high staff to um student ratio and so when more students qualify and they go into they qualify for fed three or even higher the expenses go up so it's not just maybe the 76 kids that qualified after the school year started nope it's where are they going because they all aren't in General Ed classrooms so that's a cost Factor too so I would just say the increased needs and increased cost and then finding um highly qualified staff to support those students thank you CH and can ask one more quick question while we're talking I just want to see if anyone else wants to ask a question any chair dreon yeah I do have a a question um I heard you you said at West 30% of the uh kids have um an IEP or special or needs is that uh statistically strange is it you know what what's what's going on with West compared to comparable schools you know like is north and high school also have similar I think it was because we had so many students meticulous year for them to have that many students but I think they're just moving up you all are seeing the increase of that Rush of students that we had coming through Early Childhood that had been predicted so when I was like we got so many students come like now we're seeing them come up and do you anticipate that Trend sustaining itself like is is Wes going to be you know uh inundated consistently more and more or is it a fluke we'll have to watch the numbers okay yeah thank thank you yeah it's not slowing down and I think so this year we opened up five Center based classrooms so we moved one of the um EBD classrooms from metalurg to Alis Smith we opened up the two classrooms at Glen Lake so prior to they just had the physically impaired um multiple physically impaired uh students in the severe range at Glen like we added the two DCd mild mod two that's a high number and then where was our fifth it's not at the elementary level oh we opened up an EBD program in early childhood cuz there was a need I was I was a yes there just was a need that we hadn't seen before where there was more than one student um kind of struggling with that disregulation and needing uh EBD classroom CU districtwide we're at about 19% yes okay so that is higher than kind of our districtwide average correct and the sixth graders are the class of 2031 aren't they mhm director rer did you oh yeah have a question yes thank you um um real quick question is there as we're talking about cost is there a cost Associated or like insurance cost associated with staff who may um become hurt on the line of duty so I know that sometimes working with students if you're doing like a CPI training like they may dig their arm I mean their nails into like a staff arm or something and that staff may need to go to the hospital like is there like a special insurance that we have to pay for for those staff members I think um there is some dollars that is set aside for staff I think it's like a hazard fund for staff who sustain injuries and we also have which not a lot of people like but we also have PPE um that staff can wear so Shields Sho like if we have a scratcher or a biter there's Shields that they can wear a lot of people don't like to but there are there's protective gear in there that those dollars do thank you I wanted to um just Express gratitude that you were here I think that um often at least I know I came from an educational environment to where the special education department was um not seen and not heard and so um I really appreciate that we're putting a spotlight on the amazing Sur that Hopkins provides um and I also do this is just kind of a a personal um piece of mine is that I caution people to think um holistically about our budget um I know Minnesota um tracks special education differently than other states and um these are all our students some students require more to succeed um and I think that looking at it that way um is helpful because those are um students who whose needs are being met in Hopkins I also recognize the reality of it's becoming increasingly difficult given the current state of things um and I too have a lot of concerns about what might happen to our future um when the most vulnerable students are not do not have access to any sort of opportunity for education so thank you for being here um I think this information is really important for all of us to Grapple with and to understand so I appreciate your time thank you next time we'll give you all a acronym quiz oh no oh no I didn't even remember sat Oh I thought you were doing like the teacher thing like can you remind us what that means just for everyone I didn't remember um so that uh takes us to the next um uh item on our agenda for the workshop which is our business development plan um I would would invite is IT director Jefferson up to the table coordinator welcome thanks for being here Dr Mary per Reid thank you chair Andre um well surely our goal as a district is to Pro prioritize and provide high quality education for all of our students and this is a very costly um Venture um and we recognize that traditional State funding alone is becoming increasingly insufficient to sustain and ex and even expand our Innovative programs our student supports and um we know that our community expects and also deserves high quality services so we would like to explore new creative and community-driven revenue opportunities that allow us to invest in our students while also relieving our Reliance on unpredictable State funding and um we're thinking about revenu driven opportunities that would most likely require a focus on strategic Partnerships um would hopefully generate sustainable fundraising models and help us procure Innovative resources for a district while keeping students at the center of our decisions so as a first step in this process we've been doing some brainstorming and um this is Dre Jefferson who's our facilities manager in the community ed and buildings and grounds department and he has an interesting background you might want to share a little bit about yourself with our board Dre but um he's been doing some brainstorming and we've been looking at policy and just really trying to imagine what can we do differently and creatively with the idea of um raising additional revenue and funding sources for our deserving students so our first step is to just present you with some um brainstorming ideas and um maybe gather your in your your thoughts and um inputs and then uh figure out what we might need to take it to the next level so thanks uh Mr Jefferson for being here and just um sharing our thinking with our school board thank you for having me and I appreciate the introduction Dr Mary per Reed and I can kind of touch on what uh you were mentioning as it relates to my background I come from the school district uh I come to the school district from a background in finance so I spent time as a financial adviser financial planner for Wells Fargo advisors and uh did that for five years and then moved on to business development management First Century Link in St Paul which is a large scale corporation that does a lot of uh Community Partnerships and community outreach work and also you know creating those businessto business Partnerships and those strategic Partnerships with municipalities or you know even small entities and nonprofits it's a lucrative opportunity for those to take advantage of it um in that space so uh in thinking about ways that we can creatively raise revenue and and utilize existing uh kind of spaces and structures so there's not additional costs being associated with generating more Revenue was important um in this thinking and so there are a couple there's a long list of ideas but when it comes to like the what I would say is the low hanging fruit things that are going to be both beneficial but also uh have a quick turnaround have an immediate impact on the system have an immediate impact on the community and the budget those are the things that I kind of focused on in this in this presentation and I can touch on a few of those uh pretty quickly um and I would say first uh let me see on the next slide first um in the most consistent and I guess renewable way to generate Revenue would be using our existing Spaces by foring Community Partnerships and the former sponsorships this is something that we've been kicking around in the community ed space for several years and it's something that we can utilize throughout the course of the the next several years to create create a a I would say a consistent funding stream that creates passive income for the district it allows us to be able to utilize what we have in place now to bring in Revenue without creating expense and I think that's a huge piece of the puzzle that we're trying to fill you know fill the gaps of is not creating additional expenses we have a lot of different forms of SP sponsorships that we can look into the ones that you know I've kind of f focused on is using our spaces and places to build Partnerships with business entities so they can do some marketing obviously that gives the district some power and control to be able to build strategic Partnerships in Partnerships that kind of align with the vision of the district and the values of the district as well um and then it's something that can impact businesses in our community and create those relationships with the community and those businesses and be M mutually beneficial um site enhancements are things that we can also do as it relates to kind of lowcost potentially or no cost infrastructure so we look at you know our parking lot here at Eisenhower Community Center a lot of space um one of the biggest things that we can do is utilize that existing space potentially to make an EV charging station is something that we talked about that's a you know a way to generate passive income um support the vision and values of the district when it comes to sustainability and clean energy those are things that we can you know potentially do solar power there's those different options in that space and it's not a completely no cost Endeavor um when it comes to like a level two charger which is your kind of basic base model of if you have an EV vehicle to be able to charge your car it's a $5,000 investment per I guess per structure do we need to have 20 structures in our parking lot to be able to make the income that we need to probably not um so we can have the income be supported um by the existing facility use dollars that we have in place now that won't come out of the general fund those are like site enhancements that we can utilize right away um and then strategic Partnerships by having our staff access like what we have termed as a staff internet to be able to do some of those everyday purchases some of those travel expenses and just different Partnerships with retailers and and travel uh providers so we can see some uh I guess you could say a kickback um from those different Services that's a common practice in other areas and something that I've utilized in my previous stops to be able to generate revenue for the corporation and it's something that is has some human capital cost um when it comes to being able to provide the technology services and obviously creating those Partnerships UPF front but then is a again a passive income stream where it's not something that needs to be managed day-to-day it's not something that needs to be supported day-to-day by a staff person and kind of moving on to kind of the main focus area that I mentioned with sponsorships being the lowest hanging fruit that requires no real upfront cost um I Ed a Target goal of $50,000 um I did that because if we were to invest in this in a I guess a um in the idea it would be the general practice is to put roughly uh $2500 would be your kind of Base that you would start with as it relates to what you can expect from return for your general business that's like a industry standard for municipalities and that's kind of the biggest the easiest comp that I was able to get because it's not necessarily School District to school district that's a good cop at this right now so if we were to do that um the the other industry standard that I was able to see is that you're looking at somewhere around 10 times your return on investment um if you focus on that being your your target goal so $50,000 was a a kind of small guess easily attainable goal to start with um and that's something that you can expect to be able to turn over by 30% the following year and then in year three you then see what your program is able to do and now you're able to set your Revenue goals for your future and be able to take what you've done expand it out extrapolate for however you you need to scale it in order to make sure that you're getting the revenue that you need so it's a process you know it's not something that you're going to be able to say well we can cover our entire budget Gap over the course of the next three years by doing this it's a process um but the good thing about it is that there's not really a cap on it so it's not something that has boundaries and restrictions that you need to place on yourself because the digital space is uh not endless but has quite a bit of possibilities and we have a lot of business and structures or buildings and structures that we can utilize as well and the how I think there's three different approaches um that the district can really tap into right away uh the first is direct marketing and you'll see on the next Slide the first is direct marketing and that's being able to go businessto business uh kind of talking about what I did in a former career um going businesses to business and building those relationships right that's something that we've explored in the past to be able to have folks that are dedicated to that um it is a lift and it does require capacity but I think the you know the outcome would definitely be worth the lift and that's probably going to be the the greatest return on investment because you're building those relationships directly you're you're able to you know kind of create the the need and then create the you know I would say the market would you can dictate to the market what you need when you go to it directly you're not going through a third party um the other approach is kind of a shopping cart theme where you'll see other districts I know uh minetonka does this in their elementary schools where sponsors are able to go right on their website and point and click and now you add it to a shopping cart and you can donate money right there from the site that's probably the most passive way to do it where you're not incurring any additional cost whatsoever but you're also losing the ability to kind of determine who you're partnering with and you're taking money really from anybody which I guess can be a good thing at times but also you want to make sure that they align with your value so it would have to be some kind of uh gatekeeping as it relates to that and that's something you know I've talked about with our marketing uh Department of how we could use that through our current you know uh providers from technology to be able to have that that barrier where it's like you can engage in that process without us having to accept the money right away but to make sure the partners are actually meeting the vision and values of the district there probably less uh likely and most uh less cost effective is to hire a full-time consultant there are people I've met with several of them over the last few weeks that do this work for municipalities all year round and so you can hire a consultant and they're at that $2,500 Mark per or $2,500 per month Mark two and they claim to be able to provide 5 to 10 times your investment by having them go and do this work for you full-time now that requires a big investment right like the $2,500 a month that's an additional staff person so it's it's a it's a big investment potentially a big return but if we have folks in the district that have the capacity to put this together there there are ways to avoid that if you want to you know maybe shoot for the stars then you hire that consultant and you give them you know the task of returning we need you know 200 Grand we need 500,000 and this is what we want you to seek and that's kind of a task that you can assess to them as opposed to our internal staff that have the limitations of their other work right so those are the ideas and all these things um are designed to be ways that we can enhance the district without providing an additional funding barrier right we want to be able to be creative be strategic but also sometimes you have to spend money to make money this is a way to avoid that in a little you know in an effective way so um keeping it brief keeping it short um wanted to take some time to answer questions I've been doing a lot of homework on the different policy impacts and the different statutes that we have to follow especially just our own Schoolboard policies as it relates to sponsorships and and things of that nature um to make sure that we're following the best course of action here thank thank you so much this was thank you for bringing this forward and for all the the work you've put into it I can tell it's well well thought out um and I'm glad you mentioned that policy and statute intersection CU that's where my mind went yeah almost immediately so thank you any feedback or questions from anyone else chair andreon yes so thank you very much um I appreciate the outside the box thinking and the fact that you said that kind of the closest comps to look at for this type of model would be municipalities means that other school districts haven't really started tapping in um to some of this potential um and so I definitely appreciate the Forward Thinking um aspect of the plan um I'm trying to figure out kind of like how to accurately capture my concern um I think it has to do with around this this values alignment piece that's part of it um we also you know we've partnered really effectively certainly in the past with uh smaller businesses local businesses in the community like through the Hopkins business and civic association um where we really do have relationships with those people many of them have kids or grandkids or you know young people in their lives in Hopkins schools so there's that very like communitybased feel um and then I also understand that with smaller businesses there may not be that greater potential for Revenue um as with a larger Corporation um my concern around larger corporations is the values alignment piece and we know that the values of Corporations shift depending on their shareholders um and so I guess my concern would be navigating some of those complexities once we've cultivated a relationship with a business you know they um so I guess I'm like not a fan of the passive marketing shopping cart approach you know um because that that seems like they they choose but we don't get to to really like negotiate that relationship right my concern would be like after we negotiate that relationship and you know we have like a soccer field named after that company or something and that company makes a decision that is not aligned with Hopkins school's values how we would how we would kind of navigate those things so I don't expect you to have answers to all of this because I've just posed like this huge hypothetical um but wanted to name these things as we we continue to flesh out this model yeah and I think that's a great you know great concern to voice because things do change and you know we we all see it in our world every day things change quickly and I think having the opportunity to be the resource to we provide the value right like our community the people that walk in our buildings the people that access our spaces they provide the value to the company so then you can set your own terms so now you know there are opportunities to create that relationship and structure in a way where if you do violate any terms of this agreement the same way that we would maybe that relationship gets severed but when you create the value by having the opportunity for other folks to come in it's more likely that people will then at least work with you and that relationship grows over time to where those values align and if they don't then you know you go your separate ways I think if we're providing the value and we're providing the you know the marketing opportunity for these businesses then of course we want to align with those that align with us but you can also set the terms and conditions under which you're willing to partner so that sounds like it happens at like a contractual level right okay and that's something we've talked about um in the early stages when we were getting Community feedback about renaming the Royals Athletics Center and it was naming rights became something that people wanted to discuss and it's like well that has to be set in specific terms there's going to be term limits you know you know we may want to name it after a company or entity for 5 years right but that's going to be a specific return on investment that that relationship is not Perpetual you know it's something that we have to be you know really you know intentional about setting terms thank you yeah chair andreon yeah um thank you for uh this information this is uh definitely fascinating to say the least if my memory serves me correct didn't the Minnesota State High School league just approve either this week or last week um nil for Minnesota students I'm I hadn't seen the approval I knew it was in discussion um I know that's something that's been discussed on the on the stage nationally for a long time in Minnesota's getting involved um but I hadn't seen anything myself I guess I've been buried in the Weeds on these different things but um I wouldn't be surprised if that's something that affected us specifically you know being a well-known athletic district for you know what we do um in in the basketball arena so that's something that has been brought to my attention as it relates to naming rights as well right like we have several former former high school students that are NBA players and have input on what you know the court should be named at the high school and are willing to donate money for those different things those are relationships you got to Foster and also monitor as well cuz you know things happen in people's personal lives that affected so could could either one of you clarify what is was it nil yeah name image likeness where college students get paid by I guess sponsored you could I mean have you seen like Caitlyn Clark with her deals with um Nike uh Farm yeah Paige Becker with her shoe deal with Nike so I mean that was significant so I think I I thought I just and I could have been making this up and dreaming but I you didn't okay so in in 2022 the high school League approved um a policy allowing high school athletes to engage in nil activities okay wow I thought yeah I thought I saw or heard something like either last week or this week about that so no I I think it's interesting because the direct marketing um seems probably the most financially yeah um uh interesting for Hopkins uh versus the passive and the full-time consultant but no I appreciate this information um yeah it will be interesting probably more so from a policy perspective yeah uh just to understand that direction but that's all I had thank you Jaron dreon yes hi thank you so much for coming today um I kind of love and then sort of hate that we kind of need to do this um I totally understand the financial State and like and the promise that this could potentially have something that comes to mind for me is there's you know pto's band boosters robotics teams you know even Sports boosters and all kinds of organizations within Hopkins that have worked like for a long time to establish relationships with corporate sponsors and so I would be worried about us Hopkins schools reaching out and saying to like 3M or pent or whomever right and taking $1,000 and then the PTO go back to those organizations that they've worked with for years and penter being like oh well we just made we just did a donation so we're all set yeah and so I'm wondering if that's on your you know kind of a next step is talking with leaders in all these various spaces because sometimes their parents they're not staff or they're part-time staff like the robotics coach yeah to see who they already work with and what that might look like going forward yeah and I think that's a that's a great point to be raised I think the thing that goes to my mind immediately is is reach and scale so if I'm donating to the PTO that may be a community outreach funding opportunity as opposed to a marketing dollars opportunity right so I'm looking for reach as it relates to if I'm putting signage up if I'm you know putting my brand on your website I want reach I want to be able to have the most eyeball see I want return on my investment as opposed to maybe community outreach dollars where I just want to support this project right think about the Glen Lake um playground right those might be dollars that there's a specific purpose there's a specific intent as opposed to this is a marketing opportunity for our business yeah and so I think that reach is going to determine the scale so while we might want to contribute $10,000 to the Glen Lake playground I may want to put $25,000 into marketing to the thousands of people that walk through the Royal's athletic center every day because that is a better scale for me toce return on my investment so I think we don't want to cancel out those overlapping needs like we want them to be able to do that great work as well but we want to be able to have a a reach and scale commiserate to what we're trying to accomplish okay that makes sense to me I'm glad that it's on your radar yeah for sure move forward um cheer and Jon has a question thank you so much for coming in and um you know doing the presentation uh I have a quick question so are there any buildings or spaces in our district that is underutilized spaces probably not um when we think of utilization we max out our utilization of our spaces right when it comes to folks being you know on them or in them like we Max them out I think when it comes to underutilized maybe uh untap potential would be when we can't fund them being in use right so everything comes at a cost so we are Athletic Field you know that Turf it requires a lot of Maintenance it requires a lot of downtime it requires a lot of those things if we had the opportunity to fund a more robust turf management program like if we had more St that comes with more dollars now we can utilize those spaces more and not increase the wear and tear to where it impacts our high school sports or it impacts our students right so I think we don't currently underutilize our spaces because we manage them in a way where we can use them outside the bounds of the school day to make money to repair them and utilize them for all the things that we do Student Activities but then you know being able to Max them out and maybe create additional revenue from them that is something that we could do but it comes at a cost that we would have to you know account for okay thank you so much for that clarification because I know like last year I had you know proposed some ideas such as like warming stations when it's super cold outside or even um as we're talking about like climate change with like the wildfires like having spaces for people to go um as we talking about municipalities um director West Morland Contracting with the city to have like spaces for people to to go if there's like B air quality outside um I was even thinking maybe of like maybe uh and this is maybe bigger than this but like a student housing campus or something that we could do because I know that for example we don't have anything in this city I don't know maybe um director West Morland maybe you can clarify but I don't know of any places where homeless teens or unhoused teens or students can go in this particular City I know that I used to work at a housing um facility Downtown Minneapolis called uh oh gosh how am I forgetting the name of it but um I used to work at youth link and they had two teenage housing um building they just built one on top of Youth link for uh you know homeless teenagers so I don't know if that's something that we can do on top of one of our buildings or you know repurpose it but just to think of something a little bit differently because I think that'll be something new and Innovative so our students will have to travel across the you know um across the city to get you know home they could have a home right here in Hopkins or this just an idea but just thr it out there that that could be something we could think about in the future love that idea and I think it is still the case that the closest teen housing um is in Minneapolis yeah which is unfortunate chair andreon yes yes uh yeah I think I uh it's similar to chairing uh West Morland I'm kind of torn about loving it and hating it um but I do think you know it makes me a little uneasy the commercialization of school it's um I don't know just feels a little weird um but if the payout is the way it is you know I I think you know if the choice is doing this and retaining a few more teachers I think that's probably a relatively Easy Choice so I think just the communication if we do try to Pilot this or go down this road with Community needs to be like hey you know uh putting it in the context of the of the deficit right and you know and kind of telling the limitations kind of like you talked about value alignment and that we're not going to go you know full Chris lindall like Billboards right and uh um and then yeah sorry I maybe I just cut off a donor sorry um but uh but you know what I'm trying to say like I don't want our students to go buy a billboard and be like okay right um they're here to learn um so you know there's that item and then the communication of the pilot and when we do it with community that be like hey you know here's the limitations here's like explicitly what we're going to do and we're not going to do and by the way you know uh it's not maybe not ideal but hey we get to you know keep three teachers I think people will be like okay you know so just to consider when you roll this out if you if you if we do decide to go down it absolutely and I think Dr Mir per Reid has been you know very clear that you know and Dr lifefood as we've talked it's you know we don't want our students going to class and feeling as though they're being marketed to on their way to English and you know that's an important factor is to make sure that that learning environment is protected and if we're going to take advantage of these situations you know being strategic and being smart about the placement being smart about the timing um and being smart about a lot of things that will affect our students is important for sure yeah I I appreciate that perspective um that is my hesitation too and I think we probably all share it um none of us want to send our kids to a classroom to open up a device that has popup ads right or right um but I also think that um like you mentioned and I think um director West Morland you did as well we do as a district and school sites partner with like-minded um businesses and I the thing that is now coming to my mind is EV every at least every Elementary School hosts a book fair and that is branded it's scholas itic um so I think there are very appropriate Partners out there um that could perhaps make us feel a lot better about this if um and I think that should be the focus like don't just go after Target because you know you'd get a lot of money but really like being intentional about who are we partnering with um and so that's that example is making me feel better about this proposal which is an excellent proposal it I didn't need to feel better about it but um just in my that makes that hesitation less when thinking about that and I I think oh go sorry no I was just going to say and I can think of other partners that would be very similar and I think there is some power in the students maybe potentially seeing these large corporations they may they they may feel invisible to supporting them and showing that they support the mission and value of the district that they call home and if those Partnerships are strategic and very um they're well vetted that the value you know that these young people will see and feeling supported by maybe the the big corporation that they didn't ever feel seen by could be a powerful uh tool for them in their educational Journey as well yeah thanks for that anyone else well thank you so much thank you for this presentation your ideas and your time I appreciate it thank you very much good to see you thank you good to see you and we will now move on to our last agenda item for the workshop which is the referendum update I would invite director chanduka and and is it mber um and turn it over to uh Dr Mary per Reed thank you chair andrees um so as our board member knows and we want to start sharing um information with our community our district is preparing for a bond referendum in November of 2025 and we will be asking our community to support important facility upgrades to enhance the learning environment and safety of our Stu our schools and students so if approved this funding would allow us to invest in Safety and Security enhancements expand student centered and flexible learning spaces improve accessibility and incl inclusivity including renovating single stall bathrooms at our high school and Beyond so um starting with this evening and over the next few weeks and months we'll share more details about the proposed projects and we'll also be engaging with our staff with our parents students community members to share information gather input and continue to refine our ideas so we're very grateful for our uh Partners in this work from site logic Jake and John and also from Fielding International they're not at the board table tonight and um all of this couldn't happen without our director of Business Services turu chanduka who provides a lot of expertise and insight along the way so welcome to the table and I'll turn it over to you thank you drir pered uh good evening uh chair Andre respective board members uh is alluded by the superate with me tonight I have our partners from site logic Jake and Jo will take us through some of the uh preparation work uh which is already uh under gone through uh some of the stuff we need to do for the referendum uh just for context the last time the district did a referendum vote for uh Capital Bond was in 27 and uh that Bond did uh help helping a lot of uh projects across the district uh when you look at the flex space at west mid School uh that Flex learning space was actually funded through the uh referendum Capital Bond uh which was passed in November uh 2017 uh when you go to North Middle School uh the flex Landing spaces um there were some stem Industrial modific ation uh which we also funded through the uh referendum uh when you go to meow Brook uh there was a building Edition a whole section which was uh added through the uh referendum uh when you go to Glen Lake uh they have that Greenhouse uh it was also funded through uh the referendum in 2017 and uh the referendum Capital Bond comes into play uh to actually help the district in areas where we can't use long-term facil maintenance and some of the work uh is we hear from uh our s logic Partners uh started uh way back in 2019 uh and uh we within RFP which has kind of led us to uh some prep work which has happened between the partnership with uh fieldings and some of the work which is being uh done right now we meet every two weeks uh with site Logics and we also have internal conversations uh to make sure that we're encompassing uh Community uh input uh we are also vectoring in certain things which might uh have uh blind spots on uh and we need to pay attention to uh those Elements which are uh critical and pivot uh pivotal to our facilities and the quality of uh Services uh we uh provide for our community uh that being said I will give the floor to uh Jake and John to take us through the uh process thank you thank you director chap Anda and uh hello to to the board this evening uh it's a pleasure to be back here today and thank you for the opportunity to present um I think I I saw you last several months ago when we were talking long-term facilities maintenance um we're very excited to be here tonight to talk uh facilities again um Switching gears however from maintenance to looking as uh director director chap Anda said um about improving learning environment so it's very exciting um what you'll see here on the slide is kind of how we begin the planning process so we have three categories we look at physical needs educational needs and functional needs physical needs are going to be those items that you typically find in a long-term facilities maintenance plan the things that keep you safe warm and dry kind of the basics of of having facilities um an important part to plan um an important piece of any long-term plan or or referendum is is understanding the the current maintenance needs um the exciting part is when we get to the educational needs where we start looking at um your current spaces and places line up with uh current and future pedagogy within the district how you want your educational spaces to be transformed for for students going forward um we also start to look at enrollment capacity grade configuration Trends um all of that needs to then be factored in when you're talking a referendum and long-term projects and Investments um within the district um finally we have functional needs as a category so you can think of functional needs as um something like a parking lot or a drive into a school um several decades ago most students took a bus bus into school and so the the needs of the drives and the drop offs were were designed specifically for buses as we know today a lot of a lot of students are dropped off and picked up that changes traffic flow it changes the functional needs of those spaces so again as needs transform over over years um we evaluate those and and have those as data points within the the planning process um so here you see a lot of information in Blue on the screen uh the first the first point up there is inputs so as we mentioned the inputs there's a lot of inputs into a potential referenda project and an effort this large so the effort really started back in 2019 uh when the district commissioned a facilities resport report study and that was to begin looking at what are the future facility needs kind of outside of the Reg uh long-term facilities maintenance and how do those align with vision 2031 um it was a fantastic report that was produced that came out with some recommendations um a few of those recommendations suggested exploring some pathway or Pathfinder projects within the district um those culminated in about five educator proposed projects to again transform learning spaces throughout several of the buildings those Concepts will be kind of overlaid into all of the district's facilities going forward um as we look at other inputs that go into the referendum uh we've been busy working with director chap Uka and um Dr Mary Peri Reid in the cabinet on community survey so understanding where the community feels their there needs and priorities um within the referendum um sharing some information out with them to get data points back um as well as several staff surveys and and prioritization again all to collect data to help inform um the priorities and needs of the district um with that there's other partners on there listed Ellers your Municipal adviser so um longtime partner of the district as well helping understand the potential funding and financial capacity associated with some of the work um another another key piece is a demographic study so um any facilities bond is typically long-term um in the order of 10 to potenti 20 years plus so you got to you need to make sure that the demographics that you're making decisions on today align with future projections going forward so again yet another pivotal input that the district has been working on um to to understand demographics moving forward um the the process as well has been um widened out to include um all several stakeholder groups within the district so there um we have currently planned over the next month month um several focus group sessions where we'll be meeting with um special interest and focus groups throughout the district to both communicate some of the information that's been gathered in in in the inputs as well as see seek feedback and data points on what there maybe special specific or F focus group needs and areas would be um another group that we're going back to revisit with is uh a lot of the work that was done on the facilities report in 2019 involved U meeting with all of the building level principles to understand their needs and unique unique challenges and requirements at their sites because some time has gone since then uh we've gone through a pandemic and and some efforts had to pause uh we're going back to revisit those needs and requirements that were identified and confirm that those still hold true um as we're planning for potential projects in 2025 so a lot of work on the input input side has been done and a lot is continuing to be done now um to help to help inform data points and make decisions about what projects may make sense for Hopkins in the future as I mentioned uh another key component there is informational SE session so all of the input all of the potential project Scopes that come out of that um to be shared out with uh with the stakeholder groups as well as the community to keep everyone informed and ensure this is a a transparent planning process that provides you know Equitable projects and Solutions throughout the community um finally after input informational sessions and things have been developed um there will be decision-making workshops where uh the district will will prioritize and decide on potential projects to move forward with so I wanted to put a few highlevel timelines together we mentioned about the facilities report in 2019 uh there was a pandemic occurring during that time so that's why you see a little bit of a protracted timeline there uh but work did continue from 2019 through 20 2021 where the report and recommendations were were delivered to the board those recommendations then uh really culminated in some some additional conceptual design work um under the Pathfinder project with our Fielding with our partners at fielding International um a really unique process where they reached out to several of the uh the school the individual schools and and uh Educators within there to help develop and come up with designs that were specific to their schools and their needs um and again culminating in the presentation of five projects led by the Educators at those sites and the Pathfinders um as we move into 2024 that's where a lot of the um continued data gathering in terms of surveys and um and inputs were were conducted um the demographic study the staff survey Community studies all of those data points were G gathered and as we look to The Orange Box there in the bottom left uh currently we're we're in the planning and development stage so taking all of the data input inputs um as we're still working with uh with leaders in the district to to cement the needs of those um developing detailed conceptual designs putting project scope and cost estim together for those potential projects and construction phasing plans as well as all of that is completed then in terms of the planning and development uh will then transition into a workshopping phase in May May and June where prioritized projects are reviewed scope and funding workshops are held uh to determine potential next steps with projects in the referendum ultimately leading to uh the end of June reaching planning consensus determining which if any projects uh the the district and board want to move forward with and I pulled out four key Milestones here working backwards so uh you'll see November 4th as the election day kind of working backwards from that date uh we have several key Milestones I highlighted three here um August 22nd being the filing deadline for that election backing up from there another critical deadline is July 12th where a review and comment uh will need to be submitted to the Minnesota Department of Education the review and comment is a part of a state state required review process where they evaluate the potential and proposed projects and make sure they align with um both scoping needs as well as funding they want to ensure that any projects are fiscally responsible possible and and a right use of taxpayer dollars uh so very important Milestone to submit to the state there and then really that that date on the 12th kind of drives the uh timeline for determining uh project Scopes and budget so we'll need to have uh plan consensus um and approval at the end of June looking at June 27th in order to to get that review and comment submitted to the state of Minnesota and and I'll pause there I wanted to keep the slides brief and and leave plenty of time for discussion and questions thank you so much I I appreciate that and the presentation and the timelines are very helpful so thank you um any uh questions or feedback from my board colleagues jar and Tron yes yes do have a question for um you mentioned uh there's going to be some focus groups uh who is going to be in there and uh more generally if like PTO groups or whatever have ideas like how do they send those to you um so there's been several focus groups um I believe there are 10 identified I don't have the full list in front of me um and perhaps Dr Mary Pi Reed you could you could help um help assist me with with those groups but it was intended to be a um you know a a cross-section throughout the district uh those meetings are scheduled beginning I believe next week and and um and occurring throughout the month of March and potentially into April uh two of the meetings will invol will be open to anyone within the community that that wants to come in and participate um including community members um the plan is to have both an in-person option as well as virtual option so that everyone has a a flexible arrangement to attend okay and and will that sorry to and will that be communicated to through an email or a newsletter from the district the two open sessions that is oh yes okay um we're putting together a communication and we'll make sure that our staff and parent Community know about these opportunities I forgot the name of the dock but okay thanks but we want to make sure that we meet with our athletic um arts and Athletics community so coaches and theater and music we want to make sure that we meet with our um thank I can I can help but wow we spent so much time coming up with who these groups would be um but our we have an um lgbtq plus affinity group and lots of other Affinity groups so our um um parents of color Affinity groups are American Indian Affinity groups we wanted to make sure that our um Elementary and secondary um staff understand which groups they could attend whether it's a topic focused group or one of the at large Gatherings right just so we get the elementary and secondary perspective there's a CTE group and we want to coordinate that conversation with our partner Ford NGL so next Generation learning is our group who's helping us think about career acmis at our high school um so that'll be an important conversation um what else can anybody think of uh so Community Education Community Education Transportation yes Transportation special education nutrition services uh and then uh uh the teaching and learning uh elements to that and I think part of the plan is also to have three to five uh sessions with the uh General Community we have not been identified uh out of the targeted groups so we both wanted opportunities where um students staff parents who have very narrowly focused ideas on either the you know the technical aspects of a facility space have the opportunity to engage with our partners or you know folks who want to participate learn hear what the ideas are and might have more General feedback we wanted the opportunities to cater to both of those needs if that makes sense okay so I'm hearing if I am talking with people and they're like hey you know I have this idea should I have them go to the one of those open sessions or should they mention it to the principal I just want to know how exactly best I can direct their idea your your recommendation for them I think that they you can both direct them to their principal and we'll give our school leaders um some talking points around what these what these groups are and how to get people involved and you can forward any invites to the the um the General Sessions thank you and I did to just want to add a little context because I don't know if all the board members were here when we when Fielding hosted the um ideation ideas the Visions the Pathfinder projects yes um that was heavily um staff and student focused from my memory of it and there was direct direct input from all levels um of our our um District so I just wanted to make sure that everyone knew about that and so these are in addition to the work that was already done prior um so just so I can wrap my head around everything all the input that we're getting um and then I do also know that since then I seen I believe at least two um direct asks to staff like I think all staff actually to have further input on what the needs are and their building and their programs and am cor yes so there was a facility survey that we sent at the end of last year and also resent this year and we have also shared the results back with our staff great thank you and parents yeah and over the past several weeks the site logic and Fielding team has been meeting um at the building level with each principal to to revisit uh the needs that were identified originally and and identify any new ones cheer Andre yes so I I too appreciated the timeline so I'm trying to figure out kind of what this looks like this process looks like for us as a board um so obviously will receive the information that's been gathered um in an executive summary type format um some of the priority areas and then we have to vote to approve the referendum um then essentially before we go on our summer pause um because it needs to go to mde um before that so does that vote are we anticipating that that vote would happen in May when when do we think is the best time to put the intent to referendum on the agenda yeah sure so uh again maybe we may need to expand uh the conversation in terms of uh what that vote might look like uh putting into consideration uh the operating referendum elements to this uh cuz again the B is that opportunity that one time opportunity to actually uh bypass going to the voter if we are going to renew the operating referendum uh so putting that into consideration in terms of if the board decide to uh go ahead with that option then we are going to be uh left with either figuring out the capital Bond referendum as well as the capital project slave referendum uh since I know the expiration for those will be no November 2027 but we are also trying to be strategic in terms of uh cost elements if we decide to go back to to the voter whether we do it all at once uh or we do them separately so that would determine um uh the timelines around how the board would want to go about this uh we have uh the option with the operating referendum uh we have that option open starting on July 1 2025 uh for the board to actually either exercise that right uh or else we might have to think about what that might look like uh in terms of uh getting all the three if we decide to go uh to the voters Al together meaning the operating referendum the capital bonds referendum as well as the capital projects Levy thank thank you director chap Anda so these could be um not separate processes because obviously they inform each other right but if we were to exercise our right to renew the referendum without going to the voters that process would look different and if there's an additional Financial component where we would want to go to the voters that process could potentially happen later am I understanding that correctly okay thank you so did I hear correctly that we can't renew our current operating Levy until July one correct oh okay so so the board has the right to uh actually exercise the renewal of the operating referendum uh but that process is allowable starting on like July 1 2025 okay uh so if the board decide to do that then what we just need to uh bring back to uh uh to the voters is the capital bonds referendum as well as uh if we want to renew the capital projects live at the same time okay thank you anyone else well I I just want to um thank you for in for this presentation um and did just want to mention you answered my question before I could ask it and that was special educ special services included in this um and thank you for for answering that um I think it's really important um that all of our programs are included so I appreciate this it's given us a lot to think about especially with timelines um and I look forward to seeing more details on the outcomes of the of the surveys and focus group discussions thank you thank you thank you gentlemen thank you tro and um we are breaking from our practice in that we actually have time to um have a break before a meeting starts at 7 I will see you all back here and 9 minutes e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e I thought it was just what happen but I appreciate your perspective isn't it like moves forward an hour not back yeah so you lose an hour spring forward my cats e [Music] hello everybody hi welcome thank you for being with us tonight we'll get started in just a few minutes we're going to um kick off the evening with a um recognition of some of our students so looking forward to that and I can see a lot of them are already in the room you could Talk Amongst yourselves now want to give him a topic pick a topic so I feel like I feel like people just say that I it sounds I I had a chick I ate so many chickpeas in college cuz I was a vegetarian and was like no St just making up for it average out to normal sorry yes okay yeah no I just I actually don't eat that much meat but sometimes it happens anyways I ate a ton of chckpeas in college I'm pretty sure they were GS I know know they did that for the special education for soccer what is it peanuts but like what what's the definition well are beans okay smart people what's the definition of a legon not oh it's like um I don't know no like it's a specific PL so it's oh it's a member of the PE family PE a seed a podt or other edible part of a leguminous plant used as food no beans beans candy well hello and welcome again um we're excited to have you all here in space with us and for this evening's recognition we invite our student athletes and their coaches from Nordic ski an amazing team that recently competed at the state level we come to together to celebrate the remarkable achievements of our athletes who have made it to the state championship this is a testament to their hard work dedication strength and talent Jesse Diggins a prominent US Olympic cross- country skier once said to win in the Olympics you have to not focus on the actual medal you have to focus on training and executing the best techniques in this quote Jesse underscores the importance of techniques and practice as key ingredients to building a high performing individual athlete or athletic team on behalf of the Hopkins school board and District we would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to our dedicated coach Brett schy who guided thank thank you for guiding and supporting our athletes your hard work commitment and love for our student athletes is instrumental in their success we appreciate you very much and parents thank you also for all that you do to support our student athletes you two are critical in their success thank you for being here tonight sorry good evening everyone so to continue with our celebration High School sports plays a critical role in the development of students schools and and our entire Community Beyond physical health and athletic skill participation in sports teaches discipline teamwork resilience and Leadership qualities that benefit students B both on and off the slopes it says field but I said slopes Athletics provide a sense of belonging and school spirit strengthening connections among students families and staff while fostering pride in the broader community and we are very proud of you tonight student athletes research also shows that student athletes tend to have higher academic achievement improved time management skills and you are focused on College and Career Readiness our Nordic ski team has shown incredible dedication and skill your demanding practice schedules and high expectations have been balanced with Team Building school spirit and confidence-building experiences that promote individual and team efficacy watching you perform is inspiring and it makes all of us want to strive for greatness ourselves so here we go both the girls and boys Nordic ski teams qualified for the team competition finishing 14th and 8th respectively seniors Megan Mitchell and Isabelle mayor also qualified for the girls dual SCH Sprint race sophomore Logan drevo won the boy individual Pursuit race making him a back-to-back state champion Logan and Bridger Nelson also earned All State honors so we want to congratulate you and we're going to call your names individually so student athletes when you hear your name if you could just well all of you want you get up out of your seats and walk to um behind the Royal Blue Runner there and then when you hear your name please proceed forward and our school board would love to congratulate you where are the certificates oh do we oh my goodness okay so Dr Lightfoot would you mind going to get the certificates from downstairs and thank you he's he used to ski I think he can go really fast should we should we time them we should we'll have the certificates for you before you leave this evening I'm not sure both the boys and the girls ever went to State together before or is this the first time I have not found that out I would have to be it's very cool so you're saying this is unprecedented coach shelzy we're not sure okay we're not we don't know the last time that happened I have okay yeah we'll call your okay so student athletes after your photo and we'll take a f another photo up here with board members awesome okay so student athletes we're going to call your names and then would you please walk up and then hang out here with the board while you um listen to your to your teammates get their names called up and wait for your certificates okay here we go Bridger Nelson Kalen Whitaker Clara roou Des Daphne grobstein [Applause] is it Ila Hagen Isa Hagen sorry [Applause] Isa Isabelle mayor Jack Jack guggenheimer okay and Logan Dro I heard he's not not here either okay Logan let's clap for him maren Prius is it maren or Marin Marin okay awesome Megan [Applause] Mitchell Nolan [Applause] har River white Rosie eert and Solomon [Applause] norquist okay did we include all of our skiers then this is all of them okay awesome so coach uh Shelty why don't you come up here and be in the photo and uh parents if you want come on and be in the photo that's fine or you can take the photos so let's do a group photo everybody scooch in you're GNA have what does that look like [Laughter] everybody okay wonderful congratulations to all the skiers make sure you pick up your certificate thank you Dr Lightfoot for saving the evening thank you congratulations to all of you you're awesome started a vegetarian decid e animals it's okay to admit it's okay to ad think I just started traveling internationally and it was just harder to eat of thing so and then you're like oh this is tasty I remember I like um yeah but we don't eat a ton of meat normally like I really like it love like fried fried or like stir fried like like slightly fried like golden brown oh like I had extra firm yes yeah must be yeah for sure cuz it's mush yeah yeah I ordered that with a papaya salad today Made In tha did you know and the papaya salad mixed it up that was great yeah you could do Asia vegetarian probably yeah yeah St she was well thank you everybody um that was a lot of fun to see all those great um students here and athletes so now um we will move on to our um student board reports yay and we have three in the building I don't think we have anyone virtually correct okay yeah public comments what do have comments public comment oh I'm sorry um I would first like to call this meeting order um the um school board meeting of Hopkins public schools on March 11th um our first order of business is um public comment on our open Agenda section um did we get any voicemails so there are two ways to um provide your comments to the Hopkins school board we value your input um because um educating and um keeping your community strong is um it is a community effort um so there are two ways to leave your comment for the school board one is through voicemail um and the phone number is on the Schoolboard web page and then you can also show up here in person um for a meeting arrive here before the meeting starts at 7 p.m. and fill out a comment card and we love to um see you here and listen to your your comments did anyone fill out a public comment card so that will then move us on to what I wanted to jump ahead to which is the student board rep reports I will turn it over to you all hello everyone my name is sufian Osman I'm a freshman start off report let's just go over with sports uh boys swim and dive uh dance team girls basketball and potentially boys basketball all made state right now the boys basketball team are playing currently I think at wi Zetta Yetta is here oh it's a home game okay it's a home game against wi Zetta and if they win they make it to State pretty exciting and then another sports girls flag football team which is sponsored by the Minnesota Vikings uh is starting soon and grades 5th through 12th so I wish sister Samia she could maybe play mhm she could last week we had uh yearbook Club photos so I think it was Thursday yeah uh all the clubs including like student council and student board took pictures for the yearbook hopefully you guys see us there and then something new that we want to do is teacher Spotlight so teacher that we like in the building we on Spotlight the first teacher is my rose connect teacher and my earth science teacher Mr Jensen Mr Jensen teaches biology and Earth Science and he's a great teacher he has always hasn't like brings his aame to class every day sadly I don't have him anymore but uh in like Delight having him or being in his class and I really enjoyed the subject a sadly men well and Eloise couldn't be here so the teacher they want Spotlight is Miss KJ she teaches AP Bio and they're learning about DNA replication transcription and translation and they really enjoy Miss KJ and The Vibes she just brings to class thank you thank you I'm Iris I'm also a freshman board rep I also wanted to start off with sports only instead of talking about the sports that I'm making into State I want to talk about the spring sports that are just now starting so adapted bowling and softball regular softball track and field synchronized swimming have already started and baseball golf lacrosse tennis and boys volleyball and clay target will start later this month um and then the next things I want to talk about were mostly to do with music so the first one is um chamber orchestra will be performing with Javon Patton um on March 16th from 1:45 to 3 it's a live recording performance of two songs um that chamber will be part of which is Praises go up and Isaiah um also the pops band concert is this Friday um they have a guest artist of Brother Ali and they will be doing multiple um covers of Minnesota Music um and Minnesota artists so including lizo Lake Street Dive Prince and new standards um also the band Orchestra and choir will all be going on a trip to Cuba in the next um week they will be going the 20th through the 26th of March and they're exchanging with Cuba's award-winning National arts school um while they're there other than the many performances that they will do they will also be participating in salsa lessons going to the beach and a sunset vintage car ride and then lastly I also was going to highlight a teacher um the one that I was going to highlight was Mr G Noble I have him for criminal law but he teaches other classes as well um he always starts off every class with like uh Wordle but not with Wordle it's like the song or like movies or TV shows which is a really fun way to start class and he always has really engaging lectures we're currently learning about the proceedings before trials and all the injustices built into those systems and it's really interesting and that's all thank you hello I'm Claire and I'm a junior board rep um first I'd like like to talk about the AC um our school's Act is on April 15th and only Juniors will come to school that day to take the test uh that's in about a month which is pretty soon that means that us juniors are putting in a lot of work to prepare for the test one tool that is helping us prepare is Winward academy uh Winward Academy is an online learning platform that helps us um prepare students for standardized tests I've been using Winward Academy um pretty often to prep for the ACT um there are multiple lessons that you can work through independently for different sections of the act so they have like English math reading and science lessons Dr K our College and Career um Readiness counselor has been doing a really amazing job making sure that um we're feeling prepared she sends out weekly emails to us recommending what lessons we do and ways that we can study our school's chapter of the National Honor Society is now accepting applications for Rising seniors for the next school year NHS is a nationally recognized club that is for high academic Achievers dedicated to the good of their Community uh this club focuses on community service and volunteer work uh the requirements to apply are that you must have a 3.67 or higher GPA 30 or more hours of community service and a recommendation from your teacher it's definitely a good club for people who want to get involved and help out with the community um the end of the third term is coming up pretty soon which is pretty exciting cuz that means that the end of the school year is almost here uh term three ends on March 27th which is in about 2 weeks um that means that students are staying on top of their grades to make sure that they finish out the term with good grades in their classes um and lastly I'd like to highlight a teacher and what I'm learning in their class um Mr C is my AP Language and Composition teacher um and right now in his class we're learning about how to write a rhetorical analysis essay for a rhetorical analysis essay you're giving you're given a passage from a speech letter article book or basically any sort of writing that can be analyzed in depth and you're supposed to look at the rhetorical choices that the author is making and connect that to how it supports their the bigger idea and or convey their message that they want to get across uh this class has definitely improved my writing skills even though I only had it for one term so far um AP language and composition is a really helpful class when it comes to preparing for college and writing college essays thank you thank you any feedback or questions for our student board reps cheer and Jon I have a quick question thank you for your um your uh your uh um updates when did you say the concert was it was for javante Patton you said it was on Sunday yeah so that's Sunday March 16th and it's 1:45 to 3:45 to 3 okay and it's it's just chamber orchestra also okay and this that's at the high school correct yeah it's in the High School auditorium on stage thank you chair Andre yes the teacher spot lights are so cool and it gives us a little glimpse into really specific things that you're learning in each class too which is exciting and as a teacher it warms my heart when I hear people appreciating things that their teachers are doing so yeah keep it up I love that thank you chair andreon yes I have a quick comment as well just to Echo what uh chair uh U board member as Moran said um I think we're doing some really really interes course workk a criminal going from criminal law to AP Bio to um composition AP composition so uh I I really like this change and I really appreciate it and uh keep up the great work thank you thank you J andreon yes hi thank you guys all for coming here today um I love the teacher spotlights and hearing about what you guys are doing in your days um as the Sports Seasons or like specifically the winter season kind of wraps up and there's all these exciting teams at State I know I've seen emails about like students can get out of school or you can buy tickets here do you think you guys know where to go the students hear that news and people know how to buy tickets and they know what to do if you have to leave school early does that go smoothly amongst the students uh I know for basketball each student gets an email and for the game that's for today like tickets sold out so it's a good sign that they know where to get them usually um when we have kind of like a uh one of our teams going to State um like uh suan said usually they send us like an email kind of telling us like uh what like the protocol would be I guess if we needed to leave school like what time we would leave school and just saying that our parents could um contact the school about that I think that they um um excuse those absences I'm pretty sure okay thank you thanks and I think um that's happening tomorrow correct the girls are at State girls basketball um so I think some students will well probably more than some will be attending that game um any other questions feedback who do they play against tomorrow the girls basketball I think I think Chan does that sound right chan hson chan hson I don't know you'll have to look at your email okay okay um and I I just want to reiterate I think the teacher spotlights are amazing because it gives us a glimpse into not only what's happening but what's important to you um in your day and what kind of brings you Joy while you're at Hopkins High School so thanks again for doing that um so we will then move on to the superintendent report Dr Mary per Reid thank you chair andreson um I also love the teacher spotlights thank you and it's um great to get some detail about what you're learning throughout the day so thanks for those details and before I get started um the girls basketball team is playing chess ASA not Chan but chasa um at Williams Arena tomorrow at 4 and could I interrupt just for oh sure one moment and I forgot to mention I believe if you do go to the chamber concert we'll be able to see you performing Iris so just little plug cool okay here we go so I would like to start with a a shout out for students competing in math Masters um this is sixth graders at West and their math teacher/ coach Sarah Lacy who proudly represented West Middle School at the sixth grade math masters of Minnesota competition these students showcased their mathematical thinking while competing against teams from across the metropolitan area the competition tests proficiency with mathematical thinking problem solving and they do individual rounds a tiebreaker round and then three team problem solving rounds well done to all those who participated it sounds like it was a lot of fun as well as a lot of learning last week I spent a couple of hours at Harley Hopkins which is our Early Learning Center in South Hopkins visiting classrooms and connecting with staff I'm always very impressed with our preschool and early learning teachers who are literally developing humans moment to moment throughout the half day or full day that our um littlest Learners are in preschool this is the motor room at Harley where students with specialized needs learn to self-regulate develop their large motor skills and gain confidence and Independence while they explore low stakes obstacle equipment so it's really nice to be able to see those Learners move at their own pace whether it's more moderate or very fast-paced in that room continuing with an early learning Spotlight this is a preschooler at Glenn Lake who might One Day become a famous author what Mr Rob the teacher does is ask his students to draw a story through a handmade paper book then he asks them what their story is about and he transcribes their story Into the book to accompany their illustrations this little author's story is about an octopus who had a friend in her own words she wrote once upon a time there was two octopuses and it was sunny our Hopkins instructional leadership team is working with school instructional leadership teams to help teachers focus on the importance of writing every day at all grade levels as our director of IDL says whether in a student's Heritage language or becoming bi or trilingual writing is the last language to develop this is because to write fluently the literacy skills we have learned through Reading writing or reading listening and speaking culminate through the application of writing and that is why writing is the most rigorous task we can ask of our Learners it requires the transfer of receptive learning into the creation of something new which is the production of written Exposition so thanks to all of our teachers even at preschool who are helping our students write every day at the end of February tanglin elementary students put on an engaging performance of cookies the musical students took the stage as cookie characters like chocolate chip and Snicker doodle sharing the heartwarming Story of Friendship togetherness and accepting everyone for their differences Bravo to our talented young performers as well as their teachers for helping to prepare and coordinate that musical continuing with the Arts March is National Youth art National Youth art month we have many students of all ages whose artwork is on display at the Hopkins K12 student Visual Arts show at the Hopkins Center for the Arts on Main Street this is a huge exhibit of student work representing work from all of our schools and the artwork will be on display through March 29 on the evening of February 27 the space was packed I saw quite a few of you there and so there were family staff community members who are all um truly marveling at our students Talent the next evening Miss Gail who is an art teacher at Glen Lake Elementary showcased her kindergartner art at a visual and musical performance at that school this is the um the artwork of a student that I met at the Hopkins Center for the Arts his specialty is graphic design and he is a senior headed to fit which is the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City look at that fabulous piece so I just want to thank our incredible art teachers for all that they do to help our students share their unique ideas and creative expression using various forms of art technique many of you were at the Royal bash the Hopkins education foundation's uh annual fundraising event this was on the evening of March 1st and there were nearly 300 parents staff and community members in attendance and it was a very successful fundraising evening and thank you to our community's generosity for helping to raise nearly $300,000 which uh definitely exceeded hef's goal for the event this amount will allow HF to fund spark grants which Kickstart classroom projects as well as support our districtwide outdoor opportunities special project to fully fund fifth grade eighth grade and High School Outdoor Learning trips so we're really excited about these upcoming experiences fully funded by HF and coordinated by Dr George Nolan who was our principal at Gatewood which has um an outdoor learning Focus throughout that elementary school thank you to Emily Jackson Wallace Jackie Bernard and all of the HF board and other uh volunteers who helped promote this successful event just a reminder that I am meeting with parents here and there throughout the months of March April May and June our next soup with the soup is coming up this Friday March 14 so if there are any parents in the listening audience who would like to attend I look forward to engaging with you and we're getting ready for our program spotlight for the evening we have some special guests from transition Plus I spent some time at t+ recently visiting with our program coordinator Elena Martin and other um teachers and students t+ is a really busy place where learning and skill development is personalized for 18 to 22-year-old students who are getting acquainted and prepared for Independent Living some students students were out visiting and or working at job sites others were on field trips but I did have a chance to sit in on a group learning math and decision making through an intense game of Monopoly we chatted about each students goals for the future and also about Ellie's job with dun brothers so at this time I would like to invite our special guests come up to the board table we're going to have our director specialized Services Fonda contras and our t+ instructor Kevin kale and also students Ellie Swanson and Sam BRS who are going to speak with all of us this evening about transition plus what is transition plus what do students do there and how do you all like it thank you for being here everyone welcome so Sam and Ellie sit wherever you'd like thank you for being here with us tonight thank you for having us absolutely I hope you didn't have to wait too long [Music] good well good evening again so this is Sam Bro and this is Ellie Swanson and when we were on the break Ellie had already downloaded the board meeting minutes so she was following along taking some selfies and she said she's very honored to be here for being here it helps us a lot so Elena Martin is sick today and she wanted to reschedule I said we will have some helpers come in and just keep the show going so um I will start and then Kevin jump in sure and then we'll save some space for the students as well so t+ is a collaborative program that we have with St Louis Park it's been in existence over 20 something decades the partnership um and you see that there was a third member motanka um who decided to open up theirs like maybe five years ago their own interdistrict one and the collaborative came about because some of these students like Sam have been with us since birth or since early childhood and so Sam has been he started at Harley Hopkins um in early childhood and it's now at t+ so that's a long time to possibly be with some of the same students so that's how the collaborative came about so that the students could diversify and be amongst each other so that's just a little historical data some of the locations have included um Cedar Manor um it was located inside a Hopkins site before and it's currently located in the linox community center in St Louis Park there are currently 45 students in the program and as we discussed earlier students can stay until their 22 so on their 22nd birthday that's kind of the last day that they have services with us which is an extension from what we had done before statute changed a couple years ago um increasing it from um 21 years old there are three levels of support models um we have a center-based program which is a little more restrictive and then we have kind of the sycom program which is students that have some functional and adaptive skills training as well as jobsite training and then our third group are those that just access the community so um yes and so they do job training volunteer work college enrollment driver's license attainment public transportation practice Independent Living skills money management uh they practice filling out job applications as well as apartment um rental applications anything that will help support um them being independent Learners and living in the community there are approximately 15 licensed and um support staff that support the t+ program and Education and Training so there's postsecondary exploration skills lab some of our students access hennipen County Technical College Kevin jump in sure time okay um are you going next to employment yes awesome and I think your first slide one of our students designed the logo too and then I think when you were showing um one of your recent slides that you had up before we came you had the um the mascots a picture of those and I'm pretty sure one of our former students who just graduated a couple years ago designed that yes she's super talented Mia mhm pretty sure she right am I speaking Yeah but yeah that's one of uh the Martinez brothers did that so they took the Royals lion and combined it with the St Louis Park right yeah did did our board members know that that a transition Plus student designed handmade our new mascots so cool and they're incredible yeah they are incredible and when I worked at the high school I had a couple students that were the mascot for the year and I'm glad they redesigned them they were stinky they were bad wow um do you want me to talk a little bit about the employment part of it that would be great can we yes why don't you talk about it and then Ellie you can tell us a little bit about your experience at done Brothers okay sure um so if you're familiar with the IEP process one of the transition components is employment um so all of the uh service level needs that um Fonda was talking about um they all get employment opportunities so you can see the list there I think we're 9 10 11 so every day multiple job sites are happening um where all the students are going out even the community students that go to HTC they still have um work experience parts of their day even if they have employment outside of the school day or in the evenings um and the all of the job sites when we go out either I'm there or they always have um job coaches going with them for modeling direct instruction and just general support um and you can read the list but there's a wide variety that we go to every day um and one of our job sites that's been involved with t+ I think maybe since the beginning um is dun Brothers here in the Hopkins community well they're all over but specifically the one here in Hopkins um and the gentleman who owns the dun Brothers um came across this program that the state offers where they support small businesses to make their business more accommodating to um people with all needs um where they will pay for accommodating technology and so he um because our students are going over there our young adults are going over there every day we have a two students um there so he'd work with them one of those he's took a shining to because exceptional um customer relation skills and he bought um an automated Express machine with that money and the state paid for that um as a result of that because we had never had students um some of our job sites they get paid like at nordicware those are paid positions um but dun had never been that way um but he approached me and said hey I found this program I'm going to buy this and I'd like to hire some of your students the first student that they ever hired in our 20 years sitting to my right Ellie hi here we go um and he bought an automated espresso machine I don't know if I said that um so he hired Ellie last spring and Ellie's been working there ever since um typically two afternoons a week correct paid position um and she's awesome at it and then this week too we had another student right that was interviewed on Monday that just got hired and starts tomorrow um so I was hoping you'd have some time so Ellie can explain how the purchasing of this accommodation it's made it easy for her to be just like any employee there and do her stuff and entertain the customers do you want to talk a little bit about it explain how it worked yeah I know you do this is Ellie um the machine that Kevin talked about is really cool machine it's like a a tablet um so you just need to click the the you and it would do all the work for you cool so it's like if you want to a l you could click the L machine like um like if you want to make a LTE you could collect them L mil c a button so once you clicked it it would just do it for you and what do you typically do while it's making it for you talk to the customers oh um one thing I'm really good at is talking to customers and giving them a hard time that's my job that is but you do it exceptionally well that's awesome people love you yeah and I do see uh some of the regular customers and they were so nice and I just loving work at D Brothers I love my co workers uh I love my manager the owner of Dum Brothers um yeah like it like um well we met each other oh I met the owner last April and somehow we um we slowly I got into talking about wanting to uh work as a team and so I think he's I think he started of this a process and and I was like oh a jumy I was so excited and and I'm I was like oh my gosh this is so cool and yeah I've been working well I started work there uh in June um so far so good I you know surprisingly I have not been fired yet it's a miracle hopefully not ever thank you for sharing it can you sh quick question oh okay and say one more thing first how come you won't be able to do it in the fall oh um I I I I accepted him College oh congratulations where are you going um I will be uh going to a college uh called Central Lakes a community college it's in brain art so it will be like a couple hours away that's a long commute to work at dun Brothers I mean why not take a road trip true I could come get you true um is this the D Brothers on Shady Oak it certainly is and if you ever want to see you know our program in action we're there virtually every day so there's a job coach and um two of our young adults and guess what you could get the delicious just pastry there oh true you're also a good salesperson she's amazing thank you and I the owner don't mind me harass him the bonus sorry but it's the truth thank you Ellie thank you Ellie I would like to be your coworker too yeah it's pretty amazing thank you thank you can I say one last I think you should one last thing I want to say uh how much I feel really honored to be here with you guys and I thank you for having me share my story it's our honor it's our honor thank you thank you thank you for sharing your story okay um should I introduce Sam yes because Sam has a good story too um uh as happens with the IEP process you have a big team so um the family um the young adults their case manager myself but vrs Services vocational rehabilitation services is um Statewide Nationwide thing but there's a lot of other um agencies that we can access in the community and Sam um we didn't see a lot of Sam at school in the fall because Sam accessed one of those programs and Sam do you want to tell us about your internship that you had this fall yeah yeah oh I I'm sorry I was supposed to introduce Sam BR or 21y old Sam BRS welcome Sam thank you for being here thanks well uh last year I had a six month internship and the IT department at L Lakes it was a customized person that was person centered m um do you want to talk about some of the things you did and what you learned about yourself or what some of the accommodations that they provided so that you could learn those skills well uh those well the skills I Learned was basically All Tech te technology skills like uh like I fix the workstations like replacing keyboards and and uh that's a skill that just came to me out of nowhere and yeah awesome that's awesome that's what I was wondering where did you learn the skills to get the internship well uh H what are some of the job sites you worked at at t+ the last two years prior to the internship where you learned some of those things well uh I've been doing some job sites through t+ here so Al likee uh don brothers and matter y and yeah it got me really good skills so I'm also well these internships I've been getting is is from and I do it I also do it with uh and clusive networking oh cool and uh yeah it's been really really fun uh uh for the days I do it uh uh I have to I that means I have to miss some days of t+ which kind of May me miss my friends and teachers and parents but I do know that I did my thing by going to these internships and yeah thank you you thank you for sharing that yeah so there's a wealth of experiences that they students can get whether it's employment training um or school or college um Independent Living skills so that um they can be our future so thank you all thank you thank you for being here I hope it didn't take up too much of your evening we're good good thank you we enjoyed having you here Ellie and Sam thank you Fonda and Kevin you're so welcome thank you thank you thank you you thank you all right you ready I think we can adjourn yeah exactly really that was amazing yeah great note um any comments or questions from my board colleagues um so that will um take us to the approval of tonight's agenda uh do I have a motion so moved I have a motion is there a second second I have a motion and a second any discussion see none all those in favor please say I I any opposed the chair votes I and the agenda is approved now we will go to the consent calendar which is reserved for items that um give the board information considered to be more routine in nature um if the board deems an item to be necessary for additional discussion a motion will be made to move that item to new business um I would look for a motion that the board approve the consent calendar as presented so moved I have a motion is there a second second I have a motion and a second any discussion seeing none all those in favor please say I I I I any opposed the chair votes I and the consent count calendar has been approved normally at this time we would have a Treasures report but there is not one for this evening so I would direct anyone um with questions about that to um contact our Treasurer Rachel Rachel Hartland so we will then go to um our first and only item under unfinished business which is policy 502 in second read I would invite um assistant superintendent Lightfoot to the board table and turn it over to Vice chair Ross thank you chair andreon um as assistant superintendent uh lifea comes a table we're going to be looking at uh three Poli or two policies 502 and 5241 um 502 is going to be the policy where we were um discuss with the board to search of student lockers desk personal possessions student persons and then um I hope you are looking forward to your favor policy 5241 the cell phone policy I'll hand it over to look forward to it super assistant superintendent lifeit greetings uh as mentioned to this evening really in the end finished business uh a set of uh documents that you did receive we start with 502 the monitoring committee did have the opportunity to review 502 part of the uh want in the second read was to go back and look at specific sets of information that were related to the search of items that are owned by the district for example lockers um desks are mentioned in the policy um those were the particular items and in part of that conversation really the need for a lot of the review in that space is often related to Safety and Security and if there are safety or security measures necessary to review um and go into those spaces for that level of search um part of the desire was to bring that back to members of the holistic Safety Committee to see if that was a recommendation to keep that in place and does that have particular value um in our Safety and Security practice and yes the committee affirmed that um so really that was um the conversation with the monitoring committee and bringing that back to the full board and looking at the preservation of that ability for um under any sets of emergency circumstances that we need to look for or look in those spaces um those were the particular components that were addressed in the review of 502 I would ask any monitoring committee members anything that I missed there other points of context that would be helpful for the board no that encapsulates what we discussed at monitoring great so thank you for this and and the background um so my understanding is that we went to the holistic safety team and the concerns that were kind of raised at the board table were saying it's really is necessary to have that for safety issues thank you for that I appreciate the time and the conversations that were had um at the committee level about this 5241 is the modification that were made to the uh cell phone policy um in particular uh based on the conversation uh that we did have with our uh director of information service and Technology uh John wet part of what we looked toward was the ability of the policy to be future focused and you will see the um really the modification to watches in particular moving more toward devices and the devices as we were in dialogue uh with director weder is really moving toward wearables and not identifying a particular one type um because as goggles develop as other elements um take their own shape through the um innovations that are in front of us we know that wearables are something that is more encompassing we also looked at what the functionality was of those items and tried to in really incorporate that language into the policy as well so you'll see that really based on the mimicking of the communication and information cap uh capabilities of cell phones so we tried to build that work in and then made um some particular modifications uh to the uh uh items in the policy that had discretionary ability with May and will in one line um and that really was kind of what we did um based on the last conversation that we had to bring back for second read I don't know if there's anything else in particular that the monitoring committee would add at this point um but those were outlined in the changes that were presented to you uh for the cell phone policy second read are there any questions or feedback no I'd just like to thank director wer um for his subject matter expertise in this conversation um wrapping our minds around how technology is changing so rapidly and how we might craft a policy that anticipates some of those changes um and is clear enough like to implement in the here and now so appreciated that guidance chair and dreon uh thanks I I guess I just have a couple quick questions um and I apologize i' had been unable to be here uh two weeks ago um first question I suppose maybe for anybody on the monitoring committee but um for the high school policy in particular number seven not allowing phones during lockdown down or fire drills it was there any thought of you know it's a stressful time I don't know was there any thought of allowing that during one of those drills or lockdowns so you're talking about a a drill is there a distinction here between an actual lockdown event and a drill or is it I guess the language makes it seem like it it would be a lock down drill oh can I ask a clarified question would it be maybe like a concern that maybe students may try to call like the police or something during these drills it like cause confusion yeah I do know that um from everything I've read about situations like this while um students may feel and parents may feel a strong desire to be in contact that it really is a severe safety risk um because cell phones make unexpected noises um and it really is best practice from my understanding of everything I've researched that um use of devices of any kind should not be allowed dur in particular during a lockdown and I wouldn't necessarily see a need for students to have it during a drill unless they were like my kid and trying to coordinate time to be off campus but called out students having their phones during times like that might also promote misinformation or rumors and and sometimes when students are on their phone if they're frantic or if they're just curious then they can also be distracted from some of the safety measures that are trying to be that we're attempting to communicate to them so they're I think definitely we understand that need for you know parents or students just to have kind of that safety tool um to communicate in in that kind of a moment and there are a lot of considerations for why it wouldn't be a best practice for for students to have access during their during um I appreciate the discussion because it through that it's clear to me that it was thought about and there's a reason for it so um I appreciate those comments um I guess just my final question is uh maybe for Dr Leewood or or Dr Reed is you know since since we've brought this forward and it's been socialized a lot has there been any feedback from teachers about positive or things they you know are they comfortable with it the just very little that I've heard through the grave Vine sounds like they're fine with it but I'm just curious if you guys have heard anything else I mean I I think we only got one email yep from the math teacher at the high school and I've been I'm at the high school this whole week nobody has a roached me so I think that folks are aware that it's being discussed we're exploring sort of all of our options and what the most viable scenarios are and they're prepared to kind of work together on the implementation features so all right that's good to hear thanks chair Andre yes what I've heard from both staff and students is a desire to have a policy on the books that then we can begin to implement um so we've done really robust engagement around this we've had it at the table multiple times in workshop and meeting um and I think folks are ready to have a policy in place any other questions or comments I guess just one clarification when would it become effective yeah that I think was part of the piece with the implementation um knowing that this is in second read we will work with our um secondary administrators just to review like we've said for elementary and middle no real significant change um the high school will be working with them in more detail about that implementation um certainly we will work through that communication piece now that this is adopted um we will then bring it forward and then work through that uh implementation plan okay um so looks like um both of these policies in second read um are we would look for an approval um to pass them in second read um do I have a motion so moved I have a motion is there a second second I have a motion in a second any further discussion seeing none all those in favor please say I I I any opposed the chair votes I and policy 502 and policy 5241 the cell phone policy have been approved thank you thank you and um oh that's it for policies thank you assistant and superintendent Lightfoot we now move on to um new business um which our first item so it's not we do have we will see you again assistant superintendent lifea sorry needed to scroll further down um I we are moving on to our resolution of concurrence um for 2025 and we would welcome members of our American Indian parent advisory committee um to the table as well as is is a director of American Indian education coordinator coordinator um and is it foul yes um to the table for uh a discussion around that thank you for being here tonight thank you for having us um we are battling um a second grader downstairs in basketball so s's been a little B bit of Inn out um but we will uh get through this quick and um so again I'm Annie fou I'm the coordinator for American Indian education Deb andren I am the American Indian associate and I'm Ricky Dalton I'm the chair for the parent advisory committee um in the past I know we've just presented our annual vote and um I think that in in part I wanted to add a couple slides tonight just because this is something that we do every day and so I think that it just becomes um you know it's it's common for us to know why the program exist exists and what our goals are and I think that um often times we forget that other people don't know that or aren't as familiar with it um so American Indian education is a step statutory requirement and it is funded by the Minnesota Department of Education uh the grant is awarded each year based on a formula on the amount of students and we have a base Award of $440,000 for every um for a base amount of 20 students and then every student above that count is an additional $500 awarded into the fund um because of a statutory requirement there are um goals that need to be met there's plans that need to be implemented and ultimately the law states that our governing board is our parent board um so that is essentially who Deb and I uh report to and who we take um most of our recommendations and guidance from um Ricky's in her first year as our chair but she is the parent of a second grader who's been in District since she was a kindergartener um and all three of us come from a background of being part of Indian education in whatever districts we came from um Deb's children uh were part of Indian education and and I know she's going to watch it later because she was so excited in it but I also wanted to say even though Ellie left she's going to have a really good time at CLC my mom's a dean there it's a it's a good choice um but again is showing that people that have been a part of these programs for the last 40 plus years um are still active in them because we believe in them so strongly uh so just a couple of points Natalia thank you um one of the main parts that we focus on with our students here in the Hopkins district is traditional sta crafts and storytelling and we have a a unique uh demographic of Native American students in this District our native students in this District don't necessarily have strong um traditional backgrounds or ties to the reservations or communities that they are from and that's because we're not closely in um you know we don't have um any tribal communities that are really close to us aside from Shaka midon and Shaka is a different tribal Community than the other 10 communities in uh the state and so even though we really try to um emphasize and engage learning in a an academic and assessment standpoint we also try to bring our learning in through crafts and storytelling and one of the things that I think these photos show um such a reflection of is that our students identify as um black and brown our students identify as Asian and Native and our students identify as what and Native and so we don't look like what your stereotypical Native American student in the state might look like because we are in an area where none of our students look like a stereotypical student um and so I think that some of the photos that I chose to share with you tonight just show that our students um might not be a a textbook Indian and they might not be what the the books and even our social studies curriculum show we we look like so we we come in all shapes and forms here in this District um so again we focus on traditional crafts and storytelling as a way to engage that learning and to just bring some of that cultural background into um the lives of our kids that maybe have lost that through generational change Natalia can you switch thank you um one of the other fun things we get to do is we we bring our our love of learning through traditional foods and again some of our students might not ever get a chance to work with experience um any traditional hunting and Gathering that we did in the past and so by bringing some of those foods to them um it pushes them outside of of their comfort zone um but again gets them to experience some of that and understanding some of the traditional Norms behind that um but also bringing it to to light with with today's contemporary learning um so whether it be cooking that we can Implement as a science lesson um and then again talking about you know biology and and evolution with animals and actually having them handle animals um the picture on the far right of the screen here was one of our students last year that that took took a took a chance and tried a a native Berry that um she found out really fast was a berry you don't enjoy eating but um you know through through years of of exploration and and and learning our our people found out that there was a there was a beneficial use for it and uh taste wasn't the benefit um next you know we also focus on our postsecondary option exploration for all of our students um we have students we have seniors this year who are College Bound we have students this year year that are going on academic scholarships we have students that are going on Sports scholarships and we have students that are going to our technical schools because of their love for the culinary crafts and we have others who have already obtained um their CNA licensure and are looking into nursing school so our learning might not be um a traditional method in terms of assessment and and great and academic rigor but we're getting a an excitement for learning by bringing in other ways of learning um part of chapter 124 in statute um is that our governing board so our our parent board each year has to vote whether the district is performing in concurrence or in non-c concurrence with statute and with the program plan and those are those are big words for saying is the program and is the district operating as they see fit and is it responding to the asks and the needs um of those families and the children that we represent um in the past few years we have been voting in concurrence uh in school year 20 2021 the board voted in non-c concurrence and they made some asks of our school board those asks including uh incl included having more um [Music] um racial um representation on our staff uh for the program and also uh having two positions funded versus the one and those needs were met the board did respond to those and um and granted both of those asks and since moving forward there haven't been any major asks or any uh pitfalls to programming that the board has wanted addressed um or documented to vote non-c concurrence so for um school year 2425 moving forward our parent committee has voted in concurrence this year we had five members um five voting members Deb and I are not voting members uh we basically um we we we just provide the the asks of them uh so tonight I have um our signed copy and I wasn't sure um so we do need a signature just saying that we're presenting the vote tonight um we need a signature from chair Andre and Dr Mary Peri Reid I could either send these around or I can have Natalia um have the digital copy and then we can submit that to the state once it's digitally signed I didn't know which one was preferred either we can sign them now we can sign it okay now and all right I will um send those over and then if anyone has any questions or anything further um thank you for um these photos I feel like they tell a really amazing story um I did also though want to just check in one um is this your logo on the front it is the logo beautiful okay so the logo is not Hopkins brand approved completely completely understand and and own to that however the logo is um representing our sacred colors and also has Earth Tones implemented into it and our logo was designed by our graduating one of our graduating seniors last year who went on to the University of Minnesota for digital media and he's in the middle of his first year there and he's he's just doing absolutely amazing things um after working on the logo as part of his final project in uh for his senior project at the high school uh he was um we we can't we can't commission him um so we just use it everywhere that we can and um and give him recognition for it and part of the um work that he did through that uh program at the high school he was then also he was commissioned by the high school to do their commencement program last school year and he's been back as a guest speaker as well so that's where the logo came from and so you know we got to bend the rules a little bit um we were we just weren't able to do it with the the blues and golden white it's beautiful it's stunning he did an amazing job yeah um and he GI did it to us so even when we're all gone our our kids can still have it m um and then I was wondering I I see kind of um special events that um I thank you for continuing to invite all of us um to those they're amazing um but I'm wondering are you continuing to go into schools and have group um meanings I I think y do you I normally see you um and just wanted to make sure that that was continuing to happen yeah so that's my part of the the equation here I go into the schools twice a month to meet with each of our groups of students so I go to all 12 schools I spend anywhere from 45 to an hour each time and do the art and um the all the lessons uh this week I'm doing maple syrup being so they get to taste some raw sap and then some log cabin and some organic uh real maple syrup along with Maple candy just to See's excited they're loving the Log Cabin it's it's a slow change over but you know but it's something you know that they they don't always get to do um one of the favorite lessons that I've been doing is I have a whole bunch of pelts uh of animals and I bring them in and our students at L Smith asked me to bring them to their classrooms then I'm like really you sure like they're going to like this and overwhelmingly every kid so I emailed all the teachers and I got a great response come on in and you know have you ever touched a skunk I actually have okay have you ever touched a skunk you know it's like I have a coyote in skunk and and you just don't get to touch those things so it was the kids really yes I continue to do it that is one of my Joys to see all those little nuggets so thank you I appreciate that work yeah um twice a month for each school that's like so every other week I go in that's a lot of school visits it is yeah but it it doesn't feel like it that's wonderful yeah we get to do this we don't have to do it right this is yeah it's an honor for me to be able to share my Heritage and I can only share what I know but um yeah for for me to just give a little bit you know if they learn how to say hello and no jibway I'm like that's great so yeah J and duon yes I do have a question um and and maybe this is beyond the scope of your group but um and while we're talking about curriculum um or your involvement with Hopkins is do you consult or um you know have input in how we teach history as far as like you know are we you know are is there problematic teaching at all in the district do you get involved in that at all we do we often get approached um by our social studies team asking for input and asking for guidance um we've we've given that to the extent that that we're able to um however putting on my other little hat is in the 2023 legislative session indigenous education for all was passed which is now also a statutory requirement for all public school learners um so not the Native American students that we bring um culturally relevant and traditional programming to but any student in K through 12 settings and part of that legislation that was passed um gave shells so not ma many laws include you may do this you may do that and in the 2023 session indigenous education for all um specified that these shall be taught and it it brought back to indigenous ways of knowing traditional medicines um the history of boarding schools the history of educational trauma um the the 11 tribal nations of Minnesota and implementing and updating the standards um for our social studies and science and math programs that curriculum uh has yet to be released we're two years in and there there's people like me that that go and and bump elbows bump noses with the state because those the the curriculum has not been provided so we are actively working towards and helping guide the questions that we have internally because we have had an amazing response from teachers here that were aware of the legislation and immediately came asking what can I do better what can I change what do you think about this text what do you think about this book we had media Specialists who were pulling books and saying can we get this reviewed because I feel like this is very outdated and we shouldn't be using this and so we I've been able to do a lot of work as as my position as an IDL team member to reach out to them and to help with people understanding the legislative update um however we're kind of at a standstill right now with the tribal Nations providing what they want documented and shared versus what mde is able to put out as a resource because mde can't provide curriculum so us as a team and as parents that are working together can bring our Collective knowledge in to help guide some of that when we're at asked um as far as actual curriculum implementation um Dr Cy and I have worked on a ton of lessons that we've been able to share with our social studies teams and we've been able to review and remove some really outdated materials um but as far as actual curriculum that is approved by the state and the tribal Nations that's still yet to come okay and I can talk statute all day long that's my nerd zone right there so I can both both connect you with Rachel I'm very glad that this district is receptive and and working on it so that's really good very much so thank you yep chair andreon director at West Morland I I also have a a comment and then a question about history um I'm really grateful that you kind of outlined um your personal histories with Indian education and how this has been a really big part of your life and your family's lives um and then also for um describing the history with the Indian Ed program here in Hopkins and how we did have a vote of non-c concurrence in 2021 and we did have to do a lot of work um in order to to build trust that was never there to begin with and rebuild some trust that had been there to begin with and that that's I think a really important part of our history as a district um and and really forms where we are now um with this incredible program um and the beautiful images and stories you shared tonight um so you you mentioned that the the funding comes from mde um my understanding is that it's Federal funding that flows through mde and they administer it to the districts and so that this program exists by federal legislation um and that if we want these types of programs to continue to exist and Thrive and um really continue to be built by members of our community that we have to work hard to protect that legislation at the federal level and then all of the protective kind of legislation that's in place at the state level as well um and so I'm just trying to think big picture on this and help our our community understand big picture for those who don't have um extensive knowledge of Indian Ed and how it came to be um and so I'm asking you to fact check me on what I just said um that that's the elephant in the room that that everyone is is um nervous about terrified about right now is what in the wording of our statutes could be um deleted if the federal government um truly deletes some of the programs that we are BAS out of so our program is funded through title 6 through the Federal Department of Education and through the state and there are two different formulas that we are pulling those funds from for title six our students have to identify um with a federally recognized tribe and they have to be either enrolled themselves or within two generations removed and they must be able to prove with their papers that they are a direct descendant from a federally recognized tribe if federally recognized tribes cease to exist that that's a fear if title six ends up being taken away that's a fear what we do have going for us is that it would take a change on both the federal level and the Minnesota statutory level for um for a complete change of that but that is also um in Risk this year a house bill 1836 was introduced this week which is um attempting to delete all of the gains in American Indian Ed that were made in 2023 and 1836 is being uh presented in the southern half of the state um and and it has backers so I think that there are so many kids that again don't necessarily you you wouldn't look at them and assume that they're part of our program because so many of our students come from such mixed and diverse backgrounds that um we might not have a huge visible presence as being the Native Americans in the district but that there are a lot of people that are represented through this program and if that goes away it it absolutely could if Federal rules change um and if state so it's not a one or it's it's um two separate funds but but they are both potentially um could change and this is a program that you know I mean I was a student entering the school schools in the late 80s and this was part of my my programming my my mother was in indanet in the 70s I mean it's it's been around yeah thank you anyone else yes cheer and dreon um thank you so much I know we've connected over at like the Educators for color and I met you last year um and so just have a quick question about your parent group because we also have our parent group that has started up um which was the Hopkins Coalition for black scholar success and so um I would love to just learn more about like when you all meet for your parent group and just how your structured just because I want to make sure that if we do have any caregivers that are in our group who have ties back to like the the um your community that they have access to a resource and so um whenever you have any time to chat I can send you an email and we can kind of set up a Ono one to kind of just go over all things so great sounds good good um so thank you for answering those questions and for um presenting this um resolution of concurrence for 2025 um our next motion is that um we accept the Hopkins American Indian parent advisory committee vote of concurrence do I have a motion so moved is there I have a motion is there a second second I have a motion in a second any discussion seeing none all those in in favor please say I I any opposed the chair votes I and the resolution has been approved thank you so much thank you thank you so much thank you and um I will again invite little students is here the Basketball Star um uh I will invite uh assistant superintendent Lightfoot back up to the table for our policies in first read and turn it over to Vice chair Ross thanks again Sharon dreon uh we're going to review two more additional policies uh the policy 501 which is the weapons policy districtwide and then uh the final policy uh for tonight that we're going to review with everybody is going to be 515 protection and privacy of Student Records so I'll hand it over to assistant superintendent uh lifefit thank you good to be back with you um as was mentioned we have uh two policies in first read this evening uh the first is 501 501 is the uh work that was done on the uh prohibition of weapons and schools and um there were some specific statutory changes with some definition that were updated um we wanted to make sure that those were included in the policy itself for further clarifications some additional statutory language um that was required as well those were the specific changes that were done um with that anything else uh monitoring committee members other than just the statutory uh revisions thank you any questions or comments so as I'm was looking through this um it looks like it was very much satutory driven language changes word for word we had discussion of can you go back and really actually read this is exactly the way yes this is exactly the way it is written yes that I kind of got that feeling as I was reading I was like who talks like oh statute statute talks like this so um thanks for that work any other comments or questions was it the shell that gave it away no it was the part about combustible oh liquids that flammable yeah yeah anyway I think we can move on great 5:15 uh there were also changes that were done with 515 regarding directory information we are um mirroring the statutory language that's in part in those two sections um we know there is a section in there that is specific to the uh judicial application of certain directory information and what we wanted to do is we know that that's a specific item in statute but because it is so particular in lack of better term uh we wanted to make sure that we included that language and kept that language even knowing it's a very isolated set of conditions around when directory information applies to a uh judicial officer we did want to make sure that we kept that language in so that if we were in a set of circumstances we could go back to this and find it readily rather than going back to searching statute so uh that is really the only change in 515 is the uh modification that was done uh in the legislative session and we wanted to make sure that we were very specific in uh making sure our directory information and uh designation match the statutory change any questions or feedback chair Andre treasure Heartland I'm not entirely sure that this is a question exactly except for that speaking of policy driven language that this is like just incredibly dense looking at this policy and it will I think become a hotter topic as time goes on kind of how your information is used how you're identified the conditions under which identifying information can be released and and states are undergoing different legislation all the time to enact kind of privacy laws so if they're like I read all of this and like its true impact on my life and on my students lives and their information and all the district holds about us is not super clear right like I can appreciate that this information is here and talks about some specific circumstances but I don't know this is the part where I'm like trying to get to the real question is like is there people who know like if if someone called and was like hey how long do you keep my information can I know all the different places that District may have released my students information can the district do that yeah it it's actually an excellent question and at noon this afternoon I was meeting with our information student Information Specialist because we had a request that came in from a student who attended an elementary in 2006 and needed verification of their records for a security clearance so we had to go back in and see if there were records available in 2006 and yes there records available in 2006 to pull up the information so that we could provide It For The Individual and we have to then figure out a way of how we verify who that individual is now since 2006 we have to then figure out how do we verify that it's actually you as a human um not just some request coming over through email um so to that answer yes and we do have an obligation to make sure that we are number one making sure that the information that we have is accessible to individuals and number two doing our diligence and making sure that we are maintaining the security of that information um and then as you're aware um what information is technically public and available versus what information is not available also crosses over into the requirements that we have now uh to make sure that the I'll just say electronic applications that students are using also has those limitations built into them as well and we've been very fortunate with a a very skilled technology team to know the boundaries of that privacy um and in fact we were just talking with um our administrative team on Friday about the boundaries of privacy and information as we think about individuals using um the difference between a co-pilot and a chat GPT and which one has boundaries around privacy which one does not and if you use one then it does it the information that you're using become part of a National Database Global database all of those things are very real conversations um and they are guided fortunately by the work that is done with this set of system and this set of policies to say this is our boundary this is what you can't use you can't use identification and information you may be able to use a global concept but individual information on individuals is not permissible well I really appreciate that because not only is our data like reveal a lot about us but it's actually like a modern commodity it's uh you know companies realize the value of it and and we had a presentation here at this table about how we are like we were resource poor but what were we heavy like we're information and data rich and so I'm glad to know that the district is is taking that very seriously even in an environment where our resources are you know we don't have endless dollars for data security Specialists but um so you're saying that the district despite being always strapped for resources does really carefully that any of these extra applications that we take on and we're taking the release of our students information and therefore like the stuff we know about their families very seriously MH absolutely student information staff information as well um those are all specific data points that we are obligated to make sure that as a system we do our protection work and our exploration work to make sure that what we are using um and as director wer has presented to you the steps that we take through our cyber security systems to work on protecting that information um from any requests that may come outside of our space as well okay yeah I really appreciate that expansion on kind of the Practical implication of of some of this very dense language thank you MH thank you um I appreciate that as well it was a lot to Wade through um so with that I would look for a motion that the board approve the above policies in first read um and further that um the board directs the administration to prepare the policies for approval in second reading at the next meeting as part of consent do I have a motion so moved I have a motion is there a second second I have a motion and a second any discussion seeing none all those in favor please say I I any opposed the chair votes I and policies in first read are passed thank you very much thank you assistant superintendent Lightfoot um thanks so much Nick always a good discussion um so next on the agenda is a resolution calling an executive session I learned in my training that um we can go into executive session um during a meeting but cannot adjourn until after the Clos session so I would give us all an opportunity before we do that to go around the table introduce ourselves um give our board member reports um and then go into executive session so I am going to um start with did I pick on you last time don't know but you can pick on me now okay I'll pick on you again Vice chair uh yes so good good evening uh my name is Jason Ross um I I am fourth year my first term I have three kids in the system two at North and one at tanglin um unfortunately I was not able to join U my board colleagues at uh Hef um or see any other um constituents there I decided to support my child and um watch Hopkins 6th grade A Team uh advaned to state quarterfinals and they ended up taking third losing to Blaine and Blaine ended up losing to minona so um again they took third and that was what I did during the time um unfortunately I would have loved to have been at heft but uh when I found out uh there was a scheduling conflict um communicated that and then uh yeah decided to in like I said support my my child in their state tournament so that is what I have for you guys tonight we did miss you but I think that was very exciting to go to state it's awesome director Jiao hi I'm uh jiming Jiao I use he him pronouns I've got two kids in the district uh they are in fourth grade and first grade in the shing shing program at Eisenhower uh so yeah I did go to the half uh event is always a really fun time and uh great seeing everybody working together to uh further um the education of our of our kids so that was always a good time and then I also attended the uh safety U meeting um with Partners from motanka uh Golden Valley and Hopkins um the police department uh sent Representatives or in a lot of cases the police Chiefs and Fire Chiefs as well and um it was uh we talked a lot about uh deepening the relationship as well as some um uh kind of trust training type things where you know we would um figure out ways to uh collaborate uh just to make sure that uh our kids stay as safe as possible so thanks hi I'm Jen West Morland this is my eth year on the school board I'm a proud graduate of Hopkins schools I have an eighth grader at West Middle School um Vice chair Ross some really cool people took your seats at the half Gayla so it was totally fine um had a very fun time sitting next to um director Hartland and her husband who who took your spot so it's all good I did I held it down it was a really lovely evening and um want to thank uh the Hef leadership um and the Very Innovative Forward Thinking um Educators who who partnered on the initiative for the evening the outdoor education um and yeah that was that's been the highlight of my month so wait was that this month yes it was it was the first it was the first okay just made it so ends my report thank you I'm Kai Thompson I am the clerk on the school board um in my um like second year my first term um three kids in the district fourth grade 8th grade ninth grade um also was at a youth uh sporting event instead of the Hef Gala um the uh hurricanes club swim team used to be known as the Hopkins hurricanes but they've kind of expanded um had their Regional swim meet in Rochester and I found out this morning that they scored the most they have ever scored in their history so that was pretty cool to see so um that is the end of my report thank you hello my name is Brooke roer and I'm serving in my second year I have two amazing kiddos in the district um I would say um at the end of the month of of last excuse me of February I was able to attend the HBCU tour that um the uh BCA had put together and it was uh excuse me BSA put together and it was amazing praise um and Mia did an incredible job I got to take pictures with them and just was there just to see all of the incredible things they were doing um I got to meet some HBCU alumni from uh Spellman which was really cool and then um had a great meeting on the 28th with uh some of the city managers and City Mayors um over at the high school with um Treasurer Hartland and Dr Mary Perry Reid we had some great conversations just about the collaboration between the cities and the school district and just talked about all things young people and then that same night I had the opportunity to uh go to royally speaking which BSA put together again um in collaboration with other students and it was incredible um I know every year royy speaking is um hosted in collaboration with like Onika who does a fabulous job but this year it was student Le and it was the bomb so um got to talk on the panel with um with Jean Ward and uh Crystal Ballard uh High School principal and Dr Mary Perry Reed and so we got talk about educational Journeys which was really nice um and let's just see and then of course I went to the Royal bash and got to party with folks and it was really fun so happy that we were able to raise as much money as we did for um our district and um had a great meeting with Margaret from children's first who just talked about all the things that they're doing in their program and just more collaboration with their organization in our district and then on Friday I will be going to a webinar that she invited me to on educational Partnerships um it's a national conversation and I would send over the link to anyone of you all are wanting to go so it's a it's 12 to1 it's a um lunch and learn type of deal so and that's all that I have thank you I'm already signed up for that oh are you so I'll see you yay okay I am Treasurer Rachel Hartland I use she her pronouns and I'm in the fourth year of my first term and let's see I was at half I was the standin Jason Ross I think I did great uh it was really fun it was a nice evening um I've been part of Lac who is trying to monitor a whole Deluge of legislation and changes um I have a high schooler on the robotics team who went up to duth to compete and they did decently well they were excited with their process that was a kind of a exhibition match before they were going to be at the U ofm in the first week of April and so they traveled up there and had a good time I've been at so many teacher conferences I have a three children in our district so I have an elementary schooler a middle schooler and a high schooler so I think I met with something like 14 teachers over the last couple of weeks and without fail those teachers have been excited about being at Hopkins they have been appreciative of um the environment that they get to work in they have passion for the subjects that they teach and and um my kids have been having great years and I really appreciated that and so um let's see what else have we even been in there's going to be a Middle School Musical I have a student who's participating in that so Middle School Musical is not this weekend but next Thursday Friday and Saturday at Eisenhower I think that's all I think that's all okay good evening I am Brer M pury Reed superintendent I did already provide my board report for this evening I do have two children in the district one at West and one at the high school and then um perhaps one thing I should have included in my report earlier I recently attended the aasa so American Association of school administrators conference in New Orleans and so typically this conference is attended by superintendant from across the country um there was a very explicit focus on personalizing learning for students in public education and so lots of individual sessions and Keynotes addressing what does personalized and also culturally responsive learning look like and how do you uh systematize and operationalize personalized learning knowing that there is no such thing as a one- siiz fits-all approach that is also an effective approach for um teaching and learning and um I would say that overall the the learning offered um a lot of benefit to my individual thinking and um and also superintendent tend to meet in the evenings and just you know talk about what we're doing across our different districts and so the learning also produced some opportunities to share across for um for healthy group learning as well thank you uh thank you uh my name is Shannon Andre I currently serve as board chair and am in my sixth year of service second term I have a junior at the high school and um a graduate from Hopkins High who's adulting and um yeah my board re oh when I also um get to work at um Gatewood as a pair professional in um the special ed Department program um there and um yeah I also was at Hef which was a great event um and I got to uh be at royally speaking as well to see our amazing not only current um leaders but are upcoming um leaders in the community and I am just thrilled at what we currently enjoy in this district and what's coming up praise was amazing um so I um very much enjoyed that and um also got to go to the um exhibit the youth art month exhibit at Hopkins um art um Center for the Arts and I highly recommend it it's great to see what all our kids um are doing and I feel personally um very proud that um two of our students um in LTL were featured their art and it has inspired a gallery hanging of Art in one of the hallways at our school and um so incredibly grateful for that happening um and that is my report for the evening um I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff um so then we will move to the resolution calling an executive session um I would look for a motion that the board approves um the following resolution it is hereby resolved that the school board of Independent School District 270 Hopkins Minnesota meet an executive session to conduct the superintendent's mid-year review for the 2024 25 school year that the meeting be held in person and commence immediately after the passing of this resolution further that it be noted that all board members superintendent and clerk were duly notified of intention to call this executive session so moved I have a motion is there a second second I have a motion and a second any discussion see none I would ask the clerk to call the role chair andrees I treasure Hartland I director rer I Vice chair Ross I clerk Thompson I uh director West Marlin I director Xiao I uh unanimous eyes chair thank you we will now move into executive session at 9:05 p.m. um and we'll see you back here after we're done to adjourn so you guys does that work yeah we can send it to you yeah I'll you there'll be a time stamp on