This first workshop of the Hopkins School Board of the year, and my apologies for starting a little bit late. It's hard to get back into meeting mode after a nice summer off. Yeah. Welcome back, board colleagues, and then I'd like to just give a really big, warm welcome to our new superintendent, Dr. Michael Thomas. We are excited that you will be here at our first board meeting of the school year. So we will get started right away with very exciting updates, our school readiness updates, and I would invite our cabinet leaders up to the board table so that we can get started, and I'll turn it over to, I almost said something else, but to Dr. Thomas. Thank you. Thank you, Chair Andreassen, board directors. Really thrilled to join Hopkins Public Schools and really excited to join the team tonight in our first board meeting together. I'll tell you, in my first 30 days, I have had a wonderful opportunity meeting phenomenal leaders and staff throughout the district. And one of the things I can really appreciate are some of the systems and processes that we have in place here in Hopkins to ensure that on day one of schools, our students come into a very flawless experience and a very joyful experience. But what you'll hear about is a little a bit of what's happening behind the curtain, if you will. And I'm really appreciative of our leadership team, who meets on a weekly basis to ensure that we are triaging any little hiccups along the way up to opening day for our students. And tonight, we're going to give you a couple of key updates around transportation, where we're at with regards to our hiring, some general operational pieces. I know that there were some questions, particularly around some roadways that are pretty critical in our community. I experienced that today, forgot about it, and had to negotiate that detour, and then some building project updates. We've had some significant work happening at our high school, Alice Smith, and some other spaces. And so we'll give the board and our community an update on where we're at with those key capital projects. So with that, I will turn it over to Dr. Lightfoot first. Great. Good evening. It is wonderful to be with you all, and as was mentioned in the opening, we are at it fast and furious and updating as we speak, getting information together. And as requested, we'll give you the background of where we sit right now, especially as we get ready for the start of our workshop week next week, and then the start of the school calendar on August 31st. So with that, I did get a text from our assistant director of transportation. She is on her way, finishing some routes and routing, and then should be here shortly. But we'll go ahead and we'll get started with the operations piece just to make sure that we can stay on track with our time. And I will probably turn it over to Assistant Director Andrea Schack right now to talk a little bit about school nutrition and lead into that, and then we'll continue forward. All right. Thank you, Dr. Lightfoot. Hi, good evening, everyone. I'm Andrea Schack, assistant director of student nutrition, so thanks for having me. This year, our new theme for this coming year is Every Meal Matters, and so this week we started out with our workshops with our supervisors yesterday, and today we had our cashier meeting, and on Thursday we have all the staff back for a big workshop over at the high school all day. So I did make up some really fun little Every Meal Matters stickers that we're giving out to our staff, and each of you are going to get one when I'm done here, okay? So this year, our summer feeding went really well. We had three different sites that we fed out of. We are feeding eight different programs. So the sites were at Ike, Tanglin, and at the high school. We served over 9,000 breakfasts and 17,300 lunches this summer and over 2,000 snacks. We also had every three years, MDE has a summer review, a feeding review where they come and look at one of our sites. We didn't have any findings from MDE. They were very impressed with our program, and this year they looked at our high school site for a review. So that went really well. Very proud of my staff. We also had something new this year that was really interesting. We had our first ever auction of used items and not in use excessive equipment that we have that we had over at The Hitching Post. And we were also wanting to sell our food truck as well. So it was very successful. The food truck sold for $18,100, and we had a total of over $25,000 in sales. We are almost fully staffed. We still have a few positions that we're working on at the moment. Some are some smaller four and five-hour positions. We did have a supervisor resign at Gatewood, so we are looking to fill that as soon as possible. One thing I noticed this year is we are seeing more applications coming our way, and I think that has to do with the great contract that our team negotiated and the nice rise in wage that I think we're seeing more people interested in Hopkins. One of our goals this year in student nutrition is to have all of our secondary a la carte areas open. We're prioritizing our staffing for our quick bites at the high school and also operating our small a la carte selections at our middle school. We feel that the revenue for our cart sales is very important also to our program, and of course, just to have different items for the kids to choose from. We are very busy putting together our final touches of our all-district staff back-to-school picnic next Tuesday. Last year we served over 900 staff. So I'm sure we're expecting to serve about the same this year. This year we're going to have featuring sliders, so like a barbecue chicken, a slider hamburger, variety of different kinds of sides, some vegan options, gluten-free options, and three different desserts and beverages. And I hope all of the school board members, if you can get away, can come to our picnic on Tuesday. We'd love to have you. Any questions for me? Are we saving our questions for the end, or should we let everyone go and go back? Yeah, I think opening was for questions. Do you have one? Yeah, sure. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for all the incredible work you all are doing around nutrition. I know that is a very heavy lift. Just another, some considerations, especially around all the outbreaks in the food system that we've been having recently across the nation. Mm-hmm. How are we vetting the food that's coming through for nutrition to ensure that we are in compliance and that we are not having any of the brands that are- Mm-hmm ... contaminated in our salad bars and- Right. That's a great question. So our prime food vendor is Sysco, so they make sure that they're all up on any kind of recalls that there is in the nation, and they know exactly where the product is coming from. Also with Bix, they know where their product is coming from. So if there's anything that they feel could be in jeopardy, we would know right away from them, and would obviously not serve something like that. It was summer, so we didn't have quite as much food coming into the district, so a little bit easier to control, but we didn't have anything that was on the recall this past summer, like the lettuce or anything like that. Thank you. Yeah. You're welcome. Well, I really appreciate the update. I have to say, I feel a little pang that we don't have a food truck anymore. I loved seeing that food truck out and about. Are you still doing the lunches in the park, or how is that being handled? So no, it didn't make sense to do that anymore. The families were not gathering in the parks like they were at first, after COVID. They are coming to our sites instead. So it wasn't- Oh, great ... very cost effective to run the trucks into the park and have our labor and food. And the truck was older, so we had to do a lot of different maintenance on it, and it wasn't something that we felt that was really a good thing to have with our budget right now when we're trying to watch that. Okay. Mm-hmm. Well, thank you. I appreciate that. You're welcome. And thanks for, as Vice Chair Roper said, all your work throughout the summer, keeping our families fed. We all know that sometimes school is the one place where families can count on a meal that's consistent and nutritious, and- Absolutely ... I'm deeply grateful that you provide those year-round. So thank you on behalf of the community for that work. Well, thank you so much, and I'll let my staff know as well. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Thank you. I would add on the operational technical side that, as we had discussed with you when we were looking at the budget and the budgeting, those are fully implemented, and the strategy's looking at the a la carte components, as well as verifying the reimbursement rates that we've been looking at and watching over the course of the summer as well to verify the anticipated revenue, and all of that information looks to be on track as we presently sit right now. Mm-hmm. So operationally and fiscally, it seems like we're in a very good place to begin and looking forward, and we'll continue to monitor, and watch, and update as that continues through the year as well. Mm-hmm. All right. Then, why don't we transition to transportation. Thank you. Greetings, Naisha. Hello. So good evening, everyone. I have just a few brief key topics that I want to go over for our before school meeting. The very first one is just school readiness. So we are prepared for August 31st. We have completed routing. Bus information went out to families yesterday around 4:00 PM, or 4:30 PM. A 5:00 message went out to all other families, which was a change this year. We usually send bus information to families that receive transportation, and those that don't usually don't get a message. And so this year, we worked with Marcom to make sure that communication went out to all families to let them know that bus information went out, and if they felt as though they should be routed, to what forms that they can fill out to make sure that they get to transportation. Our Pay to Ride program is up and running. We have worked through the summer and some of spring, making sure that we could start this new Pay to Ride program. So this year it is up and running. We have the process from start to finish. Families have been being notified. Families were routed and sent bus information yesterday, and they will have the opportunity to decline the stop if they do not wish to use that stop for this school year. Our special education transportation has been a big focus this year, just making sure that we have everything in order for SPED, change in processes, making sure we refine some of the ones that we have already, including a new equity options routing process that we are working through this year. Our family communication and customer service has been going really well. We have a lot more communication going out. We have a bigger connection with Marcom. We do still send some of our transportation information, but we have been working with Marcom to send things out for the broader range of just different ways that we do things in transportation, more information for our different groups like Pay to Ride and just general transportation, if you received the bus last year versus this year and things like that. So there's been multiple messages over the summer going out, and then more still to come. We have also gotten a new contractor that moved in in the beginning of this month. So we've been working really closely with Schmitty and Sons, making sure that we have our driver count, making sure that we have drivers getting trained. Some brand new drivers are getting trained to get their CDL. Making sure that we have the proper equipment, which could be the vehicles, it could be the equipment needed on the vehicles. All of our routes, making sure that we're connecting regularly, most of the time at this point daily, to make sure that we get them moved in, they get to know all Hopkins, and we just work through any kinks and get to know each other and build a great partnership. So that is all I have for our brief transportation update. And I would add that if you do see buses throughout neighborhoods, they are doing the dry runs with testing out the routes and making sure that the drivers are all updated. I would add it was kind of fun to hop on a new bus when we did the National Night Out with Dr. Thomas and the cabinet, and going around to the various spaces, and then watching the driver use the new iPads that have all the lists of names of students, and it's kind of nice and geeky, but to be able to have the driver have every kiddo's name and everybody coming on and having the route right in front of them, it just shows, I think, the investment in the infrastructure as well to make sure that we're off to a good start. Other information that you share? Questions from the board? I just had a quick little follow-up. So that iPad thing that you mentioned, is that our new app? Yes. Okay. And it is in testing right now. We hope to be ready for the first day of school, but we're not yet ready to say so. I will say we're looking good for September for sure, but it's in the process right now to make sure before we put all that information out that everything's going good. We just want to make sure it works properly, and we're testing it out internally before we put it out there to the families. Great. Thank you. You're welcome. Chair Andreassen? Yes. Yes. Hi. I have some questions, and I'll keep it brief. I'm sure other people do, too. So just some general shape of how the routes are looking. Did everybody get a route that wanted one? And what is the median kind of timing of it? How long are kids on the bus, and are there any that are over, let's say, 30 minutes, and what are we doing about that? Yes. So first question was everybody should have been routed that requested a bus, whether it was open enrolled or it was our IDT families, regular families that didn't have transportation last year, or even our pay to ride, no bus zone families. If there's any situation where a family didn't, we're addressing each situation one by one and making sure that we see what the cause was, and most of the time we didn't have some information or whatnot, but where we were sitting at is making sure that everybody that requested a bus had a bus. Your second question, can you ask- Sorry. Director, could I just quickly ask clarifying question on that? Mm-hmm. I believe that the practice going into this year was different, and correct me if I'm wrong, in that we were routing everyone who was routed last year. Correct. Correct. So we got rid of the opt-in feature, and so I just wanted to make sure that our community was aware that you would've been routed, and then to- Mm-hmm ... Director Zhao's question, you have then added on to that anyone that requested. Yes. Correct. Okay. So what we did was made sure that we communicated that to families in multiple emails out throughout the summer that explained to them that if you were on the bus last year, you would be routed again this year. If you were not on the bus, maybe you opted out. You can opt in by filling out a form, and then there's opt-ins, well, applications for different stages of what you may be, whether it's IDT or whatnot. So, yes. In addition to that, which is normally every year, anyone else who wants to apply, open enroll IDT, they usually have to apply every year anyway. But for this year, we did roll over everyone that was routed and added everybody else. Thank you for that clarification. Sorry, you were going to go on. No, no problem. Can you re-ask your question? And the second was how long are kids on the bus, right? It- On average or on median. It depends on the route. So if I can say a median, it could be 30 to 40 minutes, but it really depends. There's some routes that are 20 minutes, there's some 45 minutes. It really depends on the area. Our district is really unique in that, like most districts, where we just have a lot of pockets in a lot of different cities. And so it really depends on where the school is from where the students live, if they're in immersion or not in immersion, and things like that. So a little bit of travel time helps with that time, and sometimes there's buses that it could be a 10-minute bus route just depending on where it is in the district. Thank you. Sounds like a- You're welcome ... good improvement from last year. Thank you. No problem. Ms. Williams. Yes. I'm sorry, Chair Andreassen, may I? Oh, yeah. Okay. All right. Very informal workshops. So, just on that point of median time You said the range could go up to like 45 minutes, and I just want to maybe clarify. That wouldn't necessarily be within district, that might be more some of the expanded options that we're going to have those longer run times versus the more immediate attendance routes for our schools? So it depends, and some are over 45, so I gave a range. Right. But I want you to know that it really depends. There are some in-district families that are 45. My goal is always to make sure that routes are under 45 minutes, but there are different situations to where we may have to extend the route. And for instance, in some of our areas in Minnetonka, the routes are a little bit longer than- Okay ... what they would be, so they could match a equity options route. It really depends on what school, and what area, and where we're traveling to. Thank you. And how much construction may be in the middle. That also. Right. Because that has definitely added a lot of time. We reroute a lot after drivers do dry runs normally, which they did some last week also. We get to know of things that were closed that we weren't notified of. So we try to stay up on that construction piece, but sometimes we just find out one day that it was open yesterday and it's closed today, and then now we have to change the route. Chair Andreassen? Yes. Thank you so much for all the work you did last spring and over the summer. I was very pleased to see the timely notification go out, despite receiving some frantic text messages and emails from parents with questions. But I was just like, "You know what? We have, how many more, three weeks? Two weeks until school starts?" So we have plenty of time to work out any kinks this year. Thank you. I did have one question about the standard district walk to stop distance. What is that, and is that documented anywhere? Yes, it's in our board policy, but it's also on our transportation webpage where you can click and see .25 for elementary and .48 for secondary. That's walk to stop, but that is in no bus zones. Okay, so the walk to stop doesn't apply. If you're in a no bus zone, the stop to walk distance doesn't apply. So if you're in a no bus zone, you may have to walk further than that walk to stop? So because we now have the Pay to Ride, that changes things just a little bit. If we're considered a no bus zone, we were one mile for elementary and two mile for secondary, and that doesn't change. But if we, by this year, we're adding new bus stops, our goal is to make sure that your walk to the bus stop that we add is still within that board policy. Great. Okay. Thank you. No problem. Chair Andreassen. And you said that's the goal, right? Yes. Okay. There's always one here and there with the technology that if we see it, we change it. So that's what we do. I just wanted to clarify that for our community. Yes. That that is our goal and not necessarily what will be. Yes. Chair Andreassen. Yes. Thank you. Thank you so much, Naisha, and the team, for just all of your work on this. I know that transportation has been the top of the top for the district since last year, and so thank you. I just have a really quick question, and I apologize if you did say this. Do you have an estimate of when the construction will be done by the high school and by that north area? Does anyone? Well, Gino and I probably both do. We have a estimate, and that's the 24th, if that hasn't changed yet. In the update, the latest update stayed the same, correct? 17th and 24th. Yeah, they're going to be painting lines in the 27th to that 29th window of August, and that's always with parking lot projects and road construction, it's always based on that weather. If we get a lot of rain, that can really push a project back, but right now, weather looks good. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. You're welcome. Chair Andreassen? Yes. Thanks for that update. Just a quick question. How many people have taken advantage of the Pay to Ride? A little more than last year, but I will say roughly 150-ish. We didn't get as many requests as we thought we would, but we also have a lot of families that are declining. So at the end, I will say by October, I'll know where we stand, but for right now, it will shift. Thank you. Mm-hmm. I just had a question about, could you talk more about what are equity options and what that is? So years ago, we had the Choice is Yours program where we bused in our North Minneapolis students. That program ended, I couldn't tell you what year it was exactly, I can't remember, but we adapted Equity Options after that. So we kept the program going, but changed the name to Equity Options. And so families will need to apply with enrollment, they qualify, and we route them into a boundary within North Minneapolis that we service. So we have a group of students at each school. So each school has Equity Options families. Once we receive that approval from enrollment, we go ahead and route them into that Minneapolis area. So that is then a route that is provided by Hopkins Public Schools for transportation into different schools in the district. Yes. Is that correct? District One for Minneapolis Public Schools. So just that one area, we provide buses for it. So what I like to say is it's an extension of our boundary, but that's if you qualify. So as long as you qualify through enrollment, it's an extension of our boundary for you. If you do not qualify, then you're open enrolled, so we consider it open enrolled just like our other open enrolled areas. But I usually call it an extension of our district boundary. Okay, great. Thank you. You're welcome. Chair Anderson? Yes. I just want to extend my thanks to you. You had a lot of stress. I know a lot of our community members did too, and I know it was a big lift for you, and I'm grateful for the work of you and our partner, Schmitty and Sons, and the rest of the admin to- Thank you ... to make this happen. And I was so happy to see the bus email go out, and yeah, I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. I echo the gratitude. It is really nice to be at this place at this time of the year. And yeah, I'm feeling really happy and confident that this will go without hiccups, and hopefully those lines will be painted. Mm-hmm. And we don't need to have late high schoolers, would be nice. Thank you. Yes. Yes. Chair Anderson, can I add one more quick question? Yeah. So I know that last year, we had that communication going out just about our transportation hiccups. Do we have any communication going out about our transformation that we have made, so community can also read about the improvements, all the things that are going well? I think that it's really important to also highlight that in some communications because last year we were kind of getting dogged. So I just want to... I think that's something that we'll definitely make sure that we connect with our marcom, to make sure what communications we put out. I want to make sure that we keep that partnership going. We do send out bus information, and we do send out some things that are just transportation-related when it comes to just our students that we are transporting. But when it comes to the broader range and everyone in the district, we want to make sure we work with marcom. So I will definitely bring that up- Okay ... and then see what we can come up with. Thank you. You're welcome. And then also, I don't know if this is a question for you or for you, Assistant Superintendent Lightfoot, but with our pay-to-ride option, because I know the board just got an email about someone who was feeling like they didn't have access to that, or to transportation. I'm wondering, are we promoting the pay-to-ride, and have we had families that have accessed our reduced rate for that? Is that something that's continuing? I'll say that's two parts. We have promoted and actually sent emails out to families affected or that may want to sign up for pay-to-ride. They knew that it was coming before we sent the bus information. It was a few emails that went out, just making sure that they're aware of what we're going to be doing. The actual fee structure and what that looks like is coming later. But they definitely know and have been sent out information, and we work to make sure that it's on the website. If they want to know anything, they can go right on our transportation webpage. And in that message that we sent out to families, we did direct them to the webpage, too, to read a little bit more about that. So that's there for them. We do have different families that reach out to us. They did have a deadline of July 15th to apply, so if they applied after that, we did not route them, and we did not look at their application. I should have added that part earlier, and I didn't think to. Okay. But there was a deadline, so everyone that applied before that deadline did receive transportation. Anyone after, we won't be able to take a look at until October, after we get our new students in and make those different corrections that we have to make while the first month of school. So if they reach out to us and we look them up and see if they hadn't applied, we do let them know that they can still apply and let them know when we're going to start processing those later applications. Great. And so if I'm directing a family to access a reduced rate- Mm-hmm ... would that be something where I would ask them to complete the educational benefits form? That would be the vehicle that we use for them to qualify? Yes. Great. And then the second piece would be... I just lost it, sorry. So just to add to that piece, they will apply for the educational benefits, but they still want to make sure that they apply with transportation as well. So I just want to make sure to add that piece in there. There is an application for no-bus zone families to apply to, but also if they want to take advantage of that, they should apply for educational benefits. Benefits for the reduced fee. Mm-hmm. Great. And it's just kind of another segue piece, the educational benefits form. You want to speak to that just a little bit? Mm-hmm. Yeah, I was going to also mention that on the back of that form, there is a box that we want to make sure parents are checking, because if they do qualify, they have to actually check that they want that information shared. So maybe transportation might not know that- Mm-hmm ... if it's not been actually checked. So that's important when families fill out our application for benefits. So shared with who? Well, if a family qualifies, there's different things that they can get reduced prom tickets. They can get- Yeah ... their athletic fees. Mm-hmm. But for people to realize that they can get those benefits, they have to have the families make sure that they are okay sharing that information with the district. So if they don't check the box, then we don't get them on the list that tells us that they qualify. Mm-hmm. Okay. How can we remove that barrier for families? Well, MDE comes out with the application, so you could speak with them about that barrier. But we can just add extra things, work with MarCom for our website, and make sure that we add a couple extra things on there just for informational purposes, to let them know that in order for us to be able to see that, they would need to check the box. Mm-hmm. That would be helpful. We make sure that our staff know at open houses, if they're giving out the applications, that they know to make sure they do that right away. We send out postcards every summer too. They just went out. You might have gotten some in the mail that also talk about the education benefits, so I think we also mention it in that. Chair Andreassen, may I? Yes. Team, I just want to follow up on Chair Andreassen's inquiry outside of the structural component of MDE that we don't necessarily control locally. But the lion's share of our applications are going to come in through our food nutritional services, correct? That's where the entry point is. So maybe the question is if we have that, do we put eyes on those applications, and if we don't notice that box checked, can we make a call to the family to say, "Notice you didn't check this box for all services in our district. Would you like to be considered for multiple supports through our district? If so, do we have permission to check this box?" Mm-hmm. Maybe that's an MDE question that we can actually go through and change that ourselves. But just wondering, that might address the barrier of a form that we don't control, but a way that we can help overcome that. Mm-hmm. Something that we can talk about as a team. So right now we have a waiver that we will send those families. So if we get an application, we notice they did not check it- Okay ... we will then send them the waiver, and they can sign that and get it back to us. Okay. So that's how- So that's how we're overcoming that ... I don't think we can actually go and check it for them. Got it. But that waiver process effectively is the same as checking the box. Correct. It waives the need to have that checked, and so we have that waiver on file. We now can share that internally. Mm-hmm. Exactly. Okay, so that's how we're overcoming the barrier. Mm-hmm. Great. Yeah, because I would imagine that a lot of families are reticent to share information about themselves in this current climate we live in. Mm-hmm. That's true. Thank you. I appreciate that conversation. Chair Andreassen? Yes. Yes. Hi. Just one last thing from me. So of course, the deadline was July 15th, so recognize that. If for whatever reason the family didn't know, or they didn't, whatever the reason, is there any slack or possibility in the system that we could, not change routes for them, but if a bus is going by in their space, could we, in some world say, "Okay, we can accommodate you without changing anything." Right? I guess I'd be curious if that's a possibility. Mm-hmm. I just want the kids in the school. And waiting till October, it's at least a light at the end of the tunnel, but if we can shorten that, that would be good. I definitely understand the concern. I think for just operational pieces, it's harder to do so. Once we stop and add families, we skip the line. So if they apply today and we get them on the phone, we add them today, but we have a long line of families that already applied last month. So there's a couple things with that, and then there's also the piece of us maintaining the first day of school, making sure there's no kindergartners on the wrong bus, and all those different type of things. New students, because they're just enrolling today, we have to make sure that we split it between every family in the district, and with the high number of families that we transport, we just make sure that we kind of put it on hold, and if we have time, because we get done with a lot of things quicker, we do start earlier. So we give everybody that date to make sure that they understand what the expectation is when it comes to realistically what we can do. And then we do, if we have that time, we'll go ahead and add families earlier. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. The other item that we are always attended to is making sure that we're mindful of the budgeting that we've been working on in transportation, and we're starting off strong and looking at the number of buses and the routes, and we've been able to look at the maximization of those routes. As we look at now those individuals who are saying that they don't need services, and we find out additional information, we'll work on consolidating those routes and then creating additional space and options for individuals too. So know that that work is ongoing throughout the course of the fall, especially as we get additional information and staying on track with those expenditures as well. Anything else for transportation? All right. Then buildings and grounds. Good evening. Thanks for having me. Right when summer kicks off for everybody else, I think the world really changes in the building and grounds area. We dive into those building, whether it's construction or the building doesn't have any construction. It may have summer programming. Some of the building could be summer programming, and it could be a regular cleaning, which is nightly cleaning, and then we dive in a deep cleaning on the other side. So we really try to get all of our rooms deep cleaned by the end of the summer. Right now we're really diving into schools with summer programming, moving staff from the buildings that were cleaned all summer because they didn't have summer programming, taking those staff, moving them to other buildings to make sure they get that same treatment and getting their- The closest we can, being that some buildings only have a week in between when teachers get back and when summer programming ends. So that's kind of where we're at right now. We have a lot of projects that happened this summer. We're going to dive in a little deeper later in our presentation, but cabinets at Alice Smith. There were a lot of cabinet work we did there. We did 70,000 square feet of carpet between Alice Smith and the high school. So those are large projects there. The Gatewood gym floor, that project is just starting now. Unfortunately, a contractor that we signed with previously got a little behind on schedule. They notified me they would not be able to do it this summer, and they would have to do it next summer, and I quickly pivoted to a different contractor I've worked with in the past, asked if they could get it done, and they can. So, the Gatewood gym floor right now is VCT, which is a tile. It's our only gym floor in the district that is that material. And that will be upgraded to wood floor. So it'll be a wood gym floor, and it's a huge upgrade for that building. They've been asking for it for a long time. So I think that'll make a huge difference. We've done our annual fire, life, and safety required testing throughout the summer. We do that every summer. Cleaning up our landscape areas. We've really tried to focus on a lot of our landscaping areas that have been neglected for some years. And we grabbed a group of students that did a wonderful job. Some teachers that have been here for a long time, and they really dove in and did a great job. North looks completely different. The high school looks great, and we're dropping off mulch. I think today we dropped off a lot of loads of mulch of people around the buildings. We are, this fall, going to be installing bleachers at the North Middle School pool. Those bleachers were not safe. If anyone's been on. Judgment that got brought to the group. Due to that negotiation and leaving Waste Management, going to Aspen Waste, that saved us over $400,000 on an annual basis. So that was really a big win for us. Does anyone have any questions? Well, I'm grateful that that's being tended to because, yes, I have noticed the landscaping, and I am really excited that you found us some cost savings. Thank you. Yes. The other technical piece that I think I'd add, we finalized the Solar for School grants. We're all set there. So we should be able to move forward with that. We got that information finalized at the end of June. So everything should move forward with that, as we communicated to you earlier. Well, earlier in the summer, but at the end of last school year. So that's on track as well. If we think about the fiscal impacts, the carpet projects came in under how much, Gino? They were 750,000. I think the project was budgeted right around that $2 million mark. I think one of the big things that had estimation just a little off was, in my previous role, it was familiar for us to have carpet installers and removal move the furniture in classrooms and not either hire separate movers or do it in-house. It was part of the contract, and the group we work with I don't think was as familiar with that, and I think that's why the estimation was a little higher. So, yeah, that came in really nice, and we were able to get the project done, and it's a lot of carpet. It's a lot of furniture to move also, so glad it's all being done. I think we're wrapping up the rest of the rooms by this Friday. So there again, on budget, on track. Good throughout the course of the summer as well. Just appreciative of all of the work that goes into the summer staff, and then as you approach the school year staffing right now, you feel you're pretty well set for the school year? Yes. Currently, we're fully staffed. We're actually hiring some folks that can come in and help when people are out due to vacation or any PTO. So we're trying to hire some subs. They're not full-time employees, but they are able to help us out when short, and we also have floaters at the high school. We have around eight to nine staff that have the title as floater, and that is for that same purpose, is if somebody's out on vacation or PTO, they can help us. We can move them around the district to fill in the gaps. I just have a couple of questions about-- I've been getting some feedback on the state of the tennis courts up at the high school. So just wondering if you have any update on where that's at. Yep. So currently right now, as you have brought up, unfortunately those tennis courts are in very rough shape. They are part of our LTFM plan of next summer. So that will be a complete reclaim in that project. Those tennis courts will look much different. It's not just a quick layover. We've budgeted $1.2 million, I think, for that project. Okay, great. Yeah. And that's happening next summer? Yep. Okay. Thank you for that timeline. Yeah. No problem. Okay. Think we can move on. Thank you. Yeah. Awesome. Thank you. Yep, thank you, guys. All right, and then the last item that was requested by the board is a general staffing update. As you've heard within departments, our Operational staffing, when you think about our bus drivers being on track, our custodial staff being on track, our school nutrition being on track, generally with larger applicant pools. I would say that that does remain consistent throughout the course of the district as we look at our staffing for our instructionally facing positions as well. We are very fortunate in the sense that we have most of our positions, and I always say most because the thing that I can always guarantee is that usually the last week before school, you will always get some change. We just never know what it's going to be. For whatever life reasons and life circumstances, it is not uncommon that we are making some pivots, but some small pivots, and that is the case again. But nothing that is off track or that we are seeing different. We continue to be staffed well in our secondary spaces. We aren't looking at any hard-to-fill positions right now in our general education instructional lineup of staff. We were very fortunate to have very good hiring sets of circumstances over the course of the summer. Last year, we had 61 new teachers at this point, when we were looking at the introduction to the welcome day today. In comparison to last year, we sit at 51 as of this morning. So we are on track. We saw good retention. We also saw an increase in staff as we were looking at those class size ratios. And we did look at the 51 positions being added in through the course of any kind of retirement or resignation or movement from individuals within the organization. So very on track, feeling very good about getting all the onboarding done, having people come in throughout the course of the summer. That was on track as well. Getting people started this morning, all on track. I would say the area that we still continue to have need, but it is less unfilled than it has been before, are generally we do have open paraprofessional positions at the start of the school year. We do right now in special education sit probably between six and eight positions that we're looking for district-wide in special education paraprofessional positions. We do have a couple additional positions within special education that we're looking at within some of the floating subs, what we were able to look at last year, that Director Contreras really identified, were floating subs and the ability to have assistants available within the system. We are looking for that in that position. We did have one resource teacher from an elementary move to another elementary, so we are looking for a teacher there. And then in general, some, what we'll say are long-term sub positions that we know are forthcoming due to different types of leaves that are forecast as well. So generally, right now we do sit well-staffed for the start of the school year, and I'm open to additional questions on anything that might be helpful there for specific information. Thank you for that. Any questions? Chair Andresen? Yes. Thank you for the update to everybody. Dr. Lightfoot, my only question that I have about staffing is with respect to the sub situation at the high school. Mm-hmm. I know there were some concerns last year or wonderings, I guess- Mm-hmm ... about what the solution would be with the substitute teachers and where kids are going to go when- Yeah ... their teachers are out. Is how we handled that last year continuing into this year, or are we going to see- Yeah ... any change? Excellent question. Appreciate that greatly. In fact, just spent about 15, 20 minutes with Dr. Palma Birch and their administrative team this morning looking at the model. They're looking at the restructure of, and in fact, I love it when people have their list of people to call, and Kathleen had it all lined up, and everybody's been called, and she's got them on deck. They are all set for the start of the year. What they'll be looking at is they'll be continuing to look at some of their in-building model to assist, and so they have individuals that they've hired to do the in-building. And the general structure is that they'll look for the, and the allocation of funds, what they've funded as funding. What I'm just going to say are those subs that are anticipated first, and generally working through with our partner agency teachers on call, so they will be shifting more to some of their direct service up front. And then what they will be using those in-building positions for are the assistants when they're unable to fill another position. So it won't be that the first go-to is the large space to start the year. They will be looking at this component. And the other piece that has been committed to at the high school is to look at an overall conversation with staff about the reduction of absenteeism, so that that also can be another element that collectively, looking at how that can be another contributing factor to minimize the number of absences that are present there to begin with. So we're looking at a root structure as well. How do we get at number of absences? And then they've also got a structure in place, like they said, to maximize those individuals that they call first so that they can keep students in the classroom as much as possible. So, good on that front to look at that change up front, and they're excited about working with high school staff to communicate that message as well as get that out to families. Great. Thank you so much. Absolutely. Thank you. Chair Andreassen? Yes. Yes. Hi, Dr. Lightfoot. So fully recognizing that we don't know yet, but are you reading any tea leaves about ADM? Like projected, are you feeling that what we're projecting is going to show up? Yeah. Or are there any bad signs? No. Excellent question there again. We just met with the enrollment group, gosh, last, I want to say... What was that, Dr. Thomas? Tuesday? I think it was. Thursday. Yeah. Yeah, Thursday. So we did. We are a little bit above projection right now. And it's always hard because we're still watching kindergarten, and watching where kindergarten comes in, because usually there's about 20 to 25 additional students that we typically see in those two weeks that happen right before the school year. So we're seeing and seeing that on pace again, seeing that's where we sit. We're a little over in our projection in the secondary and a little bit over in projection, not as much in elementary, but we are over there. Where we are seeing a little bit of shift is kindergarten. And so we're watching that a little bit. It's coming in a little bit under that 500 mark. We knew that it was a lower birth rate year, and so we're watching that to get a better sense of what that kindergarten number is and what that looks like overall. And like I said, that one's really hard to watch right now because we've still got numerous families signing up daily in the enrollment office, and we need to get them the transportation. We need to look at all those other pieces. So I would say right now for enrollment, that's the piece that we're looking at. And I would say some of those pieces that we're also mindful of, and if you put your recruiting hats on and you say, and you're out in the community, one of the things that we do need, and we have less of a need than we have before, but we still have a need because we have wait lists for Kids & Co. So when you think about the opportunities that we have within the district that you as board members can promote within the community, is that if we have individuals that are looking to be able to give to the district and their time and service, the highest need is in our before and after school care, and those are always challenging because we have such small windows of hours in some of those cases. But the need is great. And so we're looking to get at as much of that wait list as we can, and they're continually trying to hire as much as they can. And there is a demand out there for every district. So anything we can do to just promote Hopkins and get people there so that we can keep that enrollment and really encourage that enrollment, that's something for us to consider as well. My recruiting hat never comes off. Just want you to know that. Great. Thank you. Anyone else? I had a question. I know last year, I think around this time, but I could be wrong, you included for us some information around how we're doing around one of our goals for staffing that it match more closely our demographics of our students. So I was wondering if there's any update on those ends, if that's something we could expect at some point. Yeah. Generally, we look toward that in September after we've gotten everyone hired- Okay, great ... and start the school year. So probably within the next couple meetings, we'll keep those slides and get the full enrollment and full staffing and all of that information in front of the board as well. Okay, great. Thank you. That's it, I think. Anything to add? Chair Andreassen, if I may just close out this portion to again thank the team. They are very dynamic leaders who are really laser-focused on driving outcomes for this district. And my short 30 days are give or take. What you've heard tonight, I'm blessed to be able to listen to every single day. And thank you. As we are gearing up for a successful start of the year, I know that we had some bumps in the road last fall. And Ms. Williams and team have been all over that, particularly around transportation. So I just personally want to say thank you. My first week here, Mr. Mazzilli and I drove around to a couple of different sites, and we talked about buildings and grounds, and I had some similar questions maybe as some of the board directors, and he had this magic wand, and then it was all taken care of. No, I'm just kidding. But I will say that your team and our staff who have also volunteered their time to beautify our campuses, it's impeccable. And I just think it shows the value that our staff have for that front facade. We shop with our eyes, as they say. And so thank you to your team, thank you to our staff at our schools who have also volunteered some of that time to beautify those campuses. And then to food and nutrition services, and I think I speak with you all this Thursday. I get to meet and rally up with my inner chef, come out and play a little while with you all. You all know that about me. So, looking forward to that. And I always say full bellies are full minds. And so thank you so much for all of what you and your team has done to get things prepared for the start of school. And Dr. Lightfoot and Again, being proximal, he has been my go-to for almost everything, and an amazing wealth of knowledge and wisdom, and really has a pulse on a variety of operational business and HR components. And just thank you, Dr. Lightfoot, and all your teams for their readiness and these weekly touch points that we are having to really progress monitor really closely. Even the most minute details can really tip the scale, if you will. So we're paying attention and we're really dialed into that. So thank you so much for your leadership. And so Chair Andreasen and board, that concludes our updates for the workshop portion of tonight's meeting. Thank you. I appreciate all your time in preparing for this update and also all the work you do over the summer. I know it probably feels like it goes unseen, but we, at least here at the board table, see it. Because without you, no kids would be getting to school, or they wouldn't have a clean school to go to, or they wouldn't have anything to eat when they get there. And Dr. Lightfoot, they wouldn't have anyone to teach them. So thank you so much for everything you do. I know it's a lot, and yeah, I'm grateful. I'm just thrilled that we're at this place right now. It feels so different than last year at this time. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And we get a break. Look at us. Starting off the year right. We will be back here at 7:00 PM. Hello everybody, and welcome. It is 7:00 PM, and I am going to call to order the organizational meeting of the Hopkins School Board for August 18th, 2026. This is our first official meeting, so welcome back everybody. I hope you had a great summer, and we will get down to these business items that make sure we can conduct our school board business and the school district business for the school year, the 2026-27 school year. So, I would look for an approval of tonight's agenda. 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 aye. Aye. Any opposed? The chair votes aye, and tonight's agenda is approved. And I did want to just mention for everybody tuning in tonight, that we have one board member who was unable to be here with us this evening. She is out of town. And that is Clerk Wilhelm-Garbers. Our first order of new business is a resolution designating depositories of school funds. So I would like to invite Jessica Olsen and Assistant Superintendent Lightfoot to the table so that we can go over this. And I will turn it over to Dr. Thomas. Thank you, Chair Andreassen and board directors. I'm actually going to just turn this all over to Assistant Superintendent Lightfoot and Ms. Olsen to walk us through our new fiduciary partnerships or agreements. Greetings. Good to be with you this evening. As mentioned, we are looking at the establishment of the depository for school funds. If you recall, we did some work with the investment policy that you looked at as a board at the end of last school year. The work with that did establish additional components that we made sure were added into this resolution. This resolution identifies those specific depositories that we do use, and we did review that to make sure that these are outlined here for the board review. Jessica, anything else that you would add? Just the biggest thing is this is authorizing us to use these institutions and firms for the cash balances and also investments. Great. Thank you. Is there any questions or comments? Chair Andreassen? Yes. Yes. Hi. Just a question. Are there any changes from last year to these? No, they're the same as last year's. Same as last year. Okay. Thank you. Chair Andreassen? Yes. Hearing that it's the same as last year, is there any timeline or interest in exploring other potential partners? Seeing this list of investment depositories, would there be any reason to think we should see if somebody could give us better interest rates if we put it with them, or something like that in the next year to two years, or something? So last year, PTMA was added as one of the firms that we have our cash on hand for, which we have different investment options that we had with MSLOF. So there's a balance between the two. So that one was added in last year. And then I think the other one that we're potentially looking at is just the OPEB funds and making sure that we have the best rate of return on there for the district. Okay. Thank you. So I would then, I guess, look to either one of you. Do we have copies of these resolutions that we can... This is just an approval, so as part of the organizational meeting, just the resolution to approve these as the proposed depositories. Okay. So, I would look for a motion to approve the resolution that the administration uses the following depositories for the 2026-27 school year And as listed below. So moved. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? We have no clerk. Who would like to serve as clerk? I can call the roll. Shannon Andresen, I. This is not going to be in alphabetical order. Kai Thompson. I. Rachel Hartland. I. Brooke Roper. I. Zhiming Zhao. I. And Johanna Hyman. I. The Ayes have it. And that takes us to the resolution authorizing electronic funds, transfers, and investments. This resolution does identify the specific authority to open or cause to be transferred funds within the institution, and it is specific in that it identifies our contracted director of business services, Jessica Olsen, and our controller, Emily Westrum, as the authorized individuals to make those transfers and those wires as well. It does allow us to continue the financial operations, and that's really what the board is authorizing here. Jessica, anything else you would add? No, that covers it all. Any questions? Thank you. I will go ahead and read the resolution. And I would look for a motion to approve the resolution that the board will adopt the proposed resolution authorizing the use of electronic fund transfers and investments as follows. Resolved that the contracted director of business services, Jessica Olsen, and the controller, Emily Westrum, be authorized to make or cause to be made electronic funds transfers between school district accounts. Resolved further that contracted director of business services, Jessica Olsen, and the controller, Emily Westrum, be authorized to open or cause to be opened investment accounts with designated institutions in consideration of terms, conditions, and covenants required by such institutions to endorse or cause to be endorsed on behalf of the district any drafts, orders, certificates, checks, or other investment instruments in connection with such accounts. And to make or cause to make deposits to which accounts by check, draft, order, or electronic funds transfer. Resolved further that unless superseded, any and all resolutions heretofore adopted by the Board of Education and certified to depositories designated at the organizational meeting of August 18th, 2026, governing the operation of this district's accounts with them, be and are hereby continued in full force. Motion. So moved. I have a motion. Is there a second? Oh, sorry. Second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, I will call the roll. Shannon Andresen, I. Kai Thompson. I. Rachel Hartland. I. Brooke Roper. I. Zhiming Zhao. I. And Johanna Hyman. I. The Ayes have it, and the resolution has been passed, and that takes us to our designation of official district newsletter. And I would like to call- Director Mussman ... Director Mussman up to the table for this. Hi, I think this might be the first time I'm meeting you. Welcome. Thank you for being here with us this evening, and I will turn it over to Dr. Thompson. Thank you, Chair Andresen, and, yes, I'd like to introduce the board and our community to our Director of Communications, Christy Mussman. And she has been a great addition to the family. And this evening she'll be speaking to our statutory requirements to have a reporting newspaper for said legal notices that we would need to publish as a district. So with that, Chair Andresen, I'll turn it over to Director Mussman. Thank you. Good evening, Madam Chair, board directors, Dr. Thomas. I did reach out to Adams Multimedia, AKA the Sun Sailor, and they did provide some current rates for us. This is a little bit higher from what I noticed was in the board packet last August of 2025. There was a slight rate hike in November, so they are honoring that price from last year technically. But it is a slight increase, but it would be my recommendation that this would continue to be the official newspaper of record. Thank you. Any questions or comments from my board colleagues? I guess I would just like to thank the Sun Sailor. I believe it's my understanding that they're honoring a lower rate for us. The legal rates are, yes, less than the standard rates. Great. I think that speaks to a long partnership with the Sun Sailor and so I appreciate that. And with that, I would look for a motion that the board designates the Sun-Sailor, Sun-Post publications as the official newspaper of the Hopkins Public Schools for the 2026-27 school year. 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 aye. Aye. Any opposed? The chair votes aye, and the recommendation, the Sun-Sailor is approved. Thank you. Thank you. And that takes us to our next item, which is our appointment of legal firm. I would invite Assistant Superintendent Lightfoot to the table and turn it over to Dr. Thomas. Thank you, Chair Andresen and board directors. This evening, as we do each year at this time, we will review our recommendations for legal counsel to represent Hopkins in all matters. With that, I'll turn it over to Assistant Superintendent Lightfoot. Good evening. Good to be with you again. Related to the rates, what you do see are the rates for the services that we use when we look to Ratwick, Rozek & Maloney, specifically for their particular work with us as a district and general representation of counsel. A reminder that if we do have specific action that is necessary, so for example, immigration matters that may be more particular to specific legal services, we do sometimes need to look at services that are beyond the general provisions that we have here. The rates themselves range from some rates there looking at a 1.5% as we look at senior attorney, close to a 1.6 with the clerk, and then an 8% that we've seen in those other two areas. So, some averaging out of costs over that as we look at the general market. And there again, as we look at those services, those are on an as-needed basis that we plan for and look at within budget, and then do make sure that we plan for any expenditures that would go along with that. So with that, any questions, please let me know, related to the appointment of the firm and the rates. Thank you. Any questions? As a member of the Policy and Monitoring Committee, I think for most of the years I've been on this board, I would just like to say I have appreciated the council when we need it. And that's all. So I would look for a motion to approve the utilization of the legal services as provided at hourly rates as noted above for the '26-27 school year, dependent upon the services required, and that the board allow the district administration the discretion for the '26-27 school year to seek other legal counsel and/or utilize a licensed attorney when there is a need to acquire special expertise. So moved. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Seeing none. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The chair votes aye, and the legal firm of the district has been appointed. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And that takes us to our annual review of School Board Policy 253, Board Member Compensation and Expenses. In the background, you will see what we have done in the past for compensation. And I would open it up then to the board to have a discussion about where we feel our compensation should go. And you will see in 2020, the board approved a 0% increase, and then in the years following, there has been a modest 2% increase each year for board compensation and a stipend. So I would open it up to board discussion on what your thoughts are around either continuing or if there's an appetite for an increase, just wherever anyone's thoughts are. Chair Andresen? Yes. Typically, this is the role that I play. I think I say this every year. I do support a 2% increase that will cost approximately $125 per person or under $900 in total. And then it is always important to put that increase in context. It's below the, I don't know, approximately 3% increase in inflation from the last time we voted on this, meaning that in real terms, the wages paid to board members decline compared to the cost of living. And for context, I think that we all recognize that the cost of living is way above 3% increase in the past couple of years, and also that no one at this board table, I think, is here for the compensation. And as has been noted in the past, I think by you, Treasurer Hartland, and also by you, Vice Chair Roper, that having a school board that is at least somewhat compensated is important because it becomes a barrier to participation for people that literally can't afford to be here without it. So I think weighing those two, that very real need is important. And this board, I think, always takes very seriously when we approve budgets that we are being mindful of how we ourselves are spending that money. So. Uh-huh. Any other thoughts? Chair Andresen? Yes. Yes. Yeah. So I definitely feel like we say this every year, but I definitely agree with all those points. It is important. But also, just explaining some of my thinking, that we have just come out of a year where we cut a few million, $3 million. And this year, initial projections, I don't know exactly, I don't think it's ready yet, but it's going to be another year where we're going to be looking at cuts again. I'd be willing to wager that. So, and again, it's not a material amount of money, but it is a signal to the system, or whatever, that we need to control costs where we can. So that's kind of where my thinking is. It hasn't really changed from previous years, but I do acknowledge and understand. In education, a lot of things are true at the same time. And so I definitely agree with everybody that it is a barrier, and we do put in lots and lots of work for the district. So I recognize that, too. Thank you. Thank you. Chair Andresen? Yes. I would just also like to say thank you, Director Zhao, for mentioning that simultaneously, there is a lot that happens with the district. We have to think about budget deficits and of course, our teachers and all the folks who take hits every year to their pay. But also, I understand that there is a lot of hard work that board members do, and we do need to attract a more diverse crowd of folks to run for our school boards because a lot of folks can't because of the barriers that we have listed. And so I think it's really important that we do provide some form of compensation increase just to help folks maintain living ability. And also, again, the living wages and everything has gone up for everyone. And so school board work is a lot of work. So I agree, no one's here for the money at all. But I do think that it is appreciated for the folks to be compensated for the work that they do do in the community. Thank you. Chair Andresen? Yes. Can I just ask a question? Were you here in August 2020 when no increase was given, and do you happen to remember sort of what the conversation around that and the reasoning was? I'm just curious from a historical perspective. Yeah. The reasoning behind that 0% is that was COVID. And we were just in an incredibly uncertain time, and we didn't know what sort of impact that was going to have on school finances. Nobody knew. And so the board felt-- And that was my first year of service, too, so it was my first time having that conversation. And I think across the board, the discussion that we're having was very similar, except for that very real, unprecedented time. And I think that was the reasoning, that because everything was so uncertain, that we decided to forego having an increase because we just didn't know. And then when things stabilized, having a very modest increase, even in the face of budget cuts, seemed appropriate. Does that help? Yes, it does. I appreciate hearing that. I guess, so Director Zhao, to your point, you're sort of saying you would advocate for not having the increase in order to show, "Hey, we've had to make cuts. School board ourselves, we're going to take something on the chin here, too." Is that kind of your thinking? Yeah. And to be fair, it's such a small amount of money, so it's not net-net, something I'm going to fight or whatever. But I just think in general, it's the signal that where we can. And it's not just our-- But things that are discretionary, and we can control the costs, we should. But that's kind of the thinking, but I do recognize that it's not solving anything per se. It's a signal. Carrying that line of thinking, would you be more interested in splitting the difference at a 1% increase? I think I would prefer zero versus anything else, but I may be in the minority for that And that's fine. I think, too, one of the things that we have done as a school board, and again, I can give some historical context. When I came onto the board, if we had a board meeting that was a workshop, like we did tonight, that was over the traditional dinner time, we would provide food for board members. That is a practice we have cut. We no longer provide those things for the board. We have, up until recently, and I think it is because it's an extenuating circumstance, we have discouraged board members from traveling out of state for our professional development so that we can reduce costs. So we are engaging in, as Director Zhao was stating, controlling expenses where we can, and I think quite significantly, so that we are running a very lean board in those ways. So I think that that is something that, for me, makes this 2% even more appropriate, that we are cutting costs in other ways- Mm-hmm ... that are within our control, without placing that barrier on people who might be considering running for the school board and saying, "Well, I can't even afford childcare on that so that I can come to meetings." That's usually my thinking. Chair Andreassen? Yes. Thank you so much for bringing that up, because it does make-- When you think about the logic of what we have already cut from the school board, and especially professional development, which is critically important, I think that the 2% is very appropriate. I could see where a LA school board member who makes over maybe $100,000 a year, they do make $100,000 a year in California. We're talking about maybe $250 here for a paycheck for us, right? So just for anyone who thinks about the amount of money that we would be saving, we're talking a few hundred dollars per board member, not hundreds of thousands that would be significant cost saving. Yeah. Do we have actual numbers- Mm-hmm ... Treasurer Hartland? Did we calculate? Yeah. We are being paid $6,158 per year for anyone who is not the chair, and that 2% increase is $123 and change for a year. For a year. For the group. And then for the group, $862. That feels compelling to me. Would anyone like to make a recommendation? Make a... Yeah. Chair Andreassen, I recommend and am in support of the 2% increase. Thank you. I would look for a motion that the board approve a 2% increase in compensation, across the board for the 2026-27 school year. Do I get to say "So moved" to that? Yes. So moved. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Nay. The chair votes aye, and the motion passes. Thank you, everyone. That was a good discussion. That takes us to authorization of district memberships for 2026-27. I will turn it over to Dr. Thomas. Thank you, Chair Andreassen and board of directors. This evening we have two recommendations that we would like to carry forward. The first is the Association of Metropolitan School Districts, AMSD. This is a composition of about 40 districts in the general metro area that serves a strong purpose for advocacy, for lobbying, for professional development, and a host of other K-12 or pre-K through 22 supports. As you all know, recently I served on the executive committee for that, and I can personally attest that this is an organization that is a strong backbone for K-12 systems here in the metro area. And so our recommendation is to continue our membership for the 26-27 school year. And I will say that there is a partner organization, the Minnesota Association of School Administrators, which is historically carried through the superintendent's contract in most districts, and that is still an affiliation that we would have through my contract that works in concert with AMSD, but it's not something that the board officially adopts. And Chair Anderson, do you want me to speak to the MSBA, or do you speak to that? I can certainly speak to that as well. We are recommending that we continue to have a partnership with the Minnesota School Boards Association, very similar to AMSD, except it serves school boards across the entire state of Minnesota, which we've historically participated in. And I would say that this is a great organization to serve as an onboarding for a lot of the policy and procedure for school boards. I know probably many of you have participated in a host of their trainings. I think by requirement, MSBA one and two are ones that all board members are expected to attend, plus the auxiliary trainings that they host and their annual conference that I think, I don't know, maybe we've participated in that as well. So again, a great resource of advocacy, professional development, and professional lobbying for the interests of public schools here in the state of Minnesota. So our recommendation, Chair and board, is that we continue our memberships in these two organizations. Thank you. I would also say that in addition to the many things that you mentioned that MSBA provides, there is also the delegate assembly, which Hopkins has delegates that we send too, and that's where they lay out their platform for the upcoming legislative session- Mm-hmm ... and what we're going to be advocating for with our state representatives. So, that would be my only addition. Yeah. And model policy development- Yes ... as well for all school districts across the state. And that has an additional fee, which we rely heavily on that. Any questions from board members? And also, the annual conference, it is free for members, so that is another way in which we are providing board development for our board members. And they've just published the registration, I believe, for that. Oh, wow, okay. Feels early. Yeah. I would just make a request, Natalia, that we put our board members who have been assigned to AMSD as a district contact as well under Superintendent Thomas, just to make sure that they're getting updates on the meetings and the calendar. So I would look for a motion that the board continues memberships in AMSD and MSBA for the 2026-27 school year. 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 aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? The chair votes aye, and the memberships are continued. Thank you very much. With that, I would look for a motion to adjourn. 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 aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? The chair votes aye, and this organizational meeting of the Hopkins School Board is adjourned at 7:34 PM. And that takes us straight into our board meeting. So we will call that to order here at 7:34 PM. Welcome, everybody, to this general meeting of the Hopkins School Board at 7:34 PM on August 18th, 2026. And I wanted to take a moment before we begin tonight to ask everyone to pause with me. Our community is sitting with a heavy heart, and as a board, we want to acknowledge the unimaginable tragedy that hit at the core of our district. We have lost a devoted mother, care provider, and speech pathology student, along with her child, both cherished members of the Alice Smith Elementary family. As a school board and a community, losing members of our own family brings a profound grief that words simply cannot measure. This type of loss is difficult to process, especially for our youngest community members, and so we thank everyone who has been involved in that heavy and heartbreaking work. Please know that during this difficult time, our district is fully committed to standing by you. We are actively providing resources and increased support for all families, students, and staff members impacted by this violent tragedy. Let us hold their loved ones, our Alice Smith staff and students, and our entire Hopkins community in our thoughts. Please join me in a moment of silence to honor them. Thank you all. I appreciate that. And with that, we will begin our meeting with open agenda. Our first part of open agenda is public comment. There are two ways to make public comment here at the Hopkins School Board. You can show up here in person before our meeting starts and fill out a comment card, or you can leave a voicemail to be played at the meeting during this time. Did anyone leave any voicemails? Thank you, Natalia. We do host two public comment periods, one at the beginning of each meeting and one at the end, and they are on a first come, first served basis. And since we have nobody here this evening for public comment, I will turn it over to our new superintendent, Dr. Thomas, for your report. And also, again, I will say welcome, and I'm excited that this is your first superintendent report here with Hopkins. Thank you, Chair Andreassen and board directors, and I'm equally excited to be here, and thank you for allowing me this opportunity to serve the Hopkins community, and I'm looking forward to an amazing year together. Just a few points for a report this evening, and then some key updates. The energy is definitely picking up, and the pressure of the fire hose is increasing, and it feels great. And I have to say that today we started with our new staff orientation, we referenced that earlier in the workshop, with 50 or 60 individuals who were there joining the Hopkins family, and the mood was ecstatic, exciting, supportive, collaborative. We were being pushed. It was great. And so welcome to all the new staff who are joining Hopkins and those who are yet in the queue to be hired. As I said this morning, this is a special place, and we are really going to have a great year together. I also want to give mention that on August 25th, we will have our all-staff welcome back kickoff meeting. Board, you are also invited to join in that festivity. It's a great way for us to be anchored and centered together on a vision for the year, and our theme for the year as well. And I understand the foodie in me is going to be chairing this. It's a lunch to be looking forward to. And I think several of us will be in service to serve that lunch as well. So again, an extension to the board, and look forward to meeting all of our staff here in the next week. Couple of other things I would like to just foreshadow and give some preliminary updates on. As we go into the new year, there's been conversations with many folks throughout the district around the direction that we're going to go, and juxtaposed to the directions that we've been traveling up to this point. And one of the anchored conversations has been around Vision 2031, and I want to share with the board and the community, as I've shared during my interview, Vision 2031 is a very comprehensive, ideal space to aspire. And I think there's been a lot of work undertaken here in the district to getting us to realize the outcomes within Vision 2031. And as I've shared with staff, it's very important that we articulate a clear plan to have that come to life, if you will. And so a lot of the work that I've been foreshadowing with our staff and our teams has been getting much more granular in our day-to-day experiences that we can help our staff understand what they're doing in our classrooms, what they're doing in our departments, what they're doing in a variety of spaces throughout the district, actually is having a direct correlation to the outcomes that we talk about in Vision 2031. So essentially, as educators, how do we back map, boots on the ground, everyday experience? How do I know I'm making a difference? And part of that will be to develop a very comprehensive, vertically aligned operational plan that will accompany Vision 2031 with metrics that we can report back to the board and back to our community how we continue to make progress towards Vision 2031, and the realization of the things that previous administration and the board has set into place. I want to be very clear that I'm all about aspiration, and I'm also all about action. And I think Director Jha, you've talked about multiple truths being held simultaneously in education. I think that's a very clear one for me as your superintendent, is that I absolutely believe in aspiration, and I believe in action. And I think both can be held true. So looking forward to working with our teams to come back to the board with more updates around operational planning, from school improvement plans to department improvement plans. Potentially looking at dashboarding things that our community can see live, to be very transparent with how we are progressing towards the vision that we have. And then with some cadence of reporting to the board as well, based upon when we know we're going to have certain metrics that will come in through the course of the year. So, very excited to start that work, and look forward to how we might be able to enhance that work that we all have launched prior to my arrival. I would also like to say, in that same spirit, is around our Ford NGL partnership, or I'll say career pathway programming for students. As a couple of you know, I joined you last April, I believe, for a half-day retreat, to really learn a little bit more about the partnership that we are engaging in with Ford NGL. And I also understand that there was a decision to pause that work with two critical transitions occurring. One being the transition of bringing on a new superintendent, as well as hiring a new high school principal. Two, I think, pivotal leadership roles that will heavily influence and guide that conversation moving forward. And so I will just say, I appreciate the pause that you all took, affording me a little time to thoroughly understand what is the aspiration around career pathway programming juxtaposed to Vision 2031, and looking at various factors, whether it's the cost of partnerships, whether it is the structure of high school calendaring, et cetera, course options. Those are the factors that I think I would really want to dig into as we explore career pathways for our students. I would say that career pathway programming in districts across the metro are a very hot commodity. A lot of students appreciate those pathways. And I will also add that these pathways that students are really being driven around, medical pathways, business partnership pathways, your four-core trade pathways, educator pathways. There are a variety of them that districts choose. We are seeing a surge in enrollment in those pathways, both for students who are eager to go straight into the workforce, as well as those students who are going to take a very traditional four-year college approach. Because this serves as a pre-college experience. Looks great on college applications as well, I will say that. But on top of that, it really helps solidify the interest of our students. Yes, this affirms the major I want to explore in college, or you know what? No, I don't think this is the major I want to continue, and maybe I'm going to pivot in that. And like I said, many of our students will come out with certifications for a variety of industry, are going straight into the workforce. And just what I've seen with our career pathways in former places I've worked, these students are not only going straight into industry, but industry is also supporting them to advance their degrees as well. So this is a great platform for our students, and I want to be very clear with our community and the board, this is an area that I highly support. I think there's great benefits. And simultaneously, I want to make sure that we are being good stewards with our resources and ensuring that we are guaranteeing the maximum return on that investment, not only from a financial standpoint, but also from an experience standpoint for our students and for our families. So more to come on that, and I know that Dr. Palmer Burch and I, the new principal at the high school, and her team will be set for a series of meetings that we'll be convening to better understand a district support position as well as a high school administration position, and looking over the data that we have gathered thus far that is quite extensive around career pathway programs, and the partnership that we have started with Ford NGL. So stay tuned on that. I look forward to providing the board some updates, I would say within the first quarter of the year. Obviously, our priorities are starting the year strong and a lot of those things, but know that a lot of this is working behind the scenes. And so I'll have a much more comprehensive report and also enlisting the conversation perspectives of several of our staff at the high school for that as well. So those are the two programmatic pieces I wanted to speak to. I also want to just share with the board and our community, and perhaps you all are dialed into this, but MSBA actually has launched the Minnesota Kids Rise initiative. I've served on that planning and operational committee with Minnesota Kids Rise through AMSD, which is one of the sponsoring organizations, to really promote a narrative around strong public schools in the state of Minnesota. And just want to share with all of you, if you go to minnesotakidsrise.org, you'll see a very comprehensive website. There will be abilities for us to download toolkits to really help inform our local community around the power of public schools and the power of Hopkins Public Schools, specifically for us, and what that means to the future of this state and, dare I say, the future of this country. As you've heard me say, I think education is the crucible of democracy in this country. So how do we prepare a strong, well-prepared citizenry that's going to help shape the world? And that's something that we're excited about. And there is an event, I think it's September 2nd, which is Kid's Day at the State Fair, the Great Minnesota Get-Together. And there are opportunities should any of you be interested in volunteering. I will be down there late afternoon into the evening in a tent, and it's going to be a great way to connect with our community around the power of public schools, for folks to be able to record their stories about, as being a Minnesota kid, what did public education do for me? And you'll be able to share a lot of that. And you can see their promo video. Maybe that's something that we can showcase at one of our upcoming meetings. I didn't want to take the time tonight, but just wanted to say September 2nd is the day that, if you're interested and you're down at the fair, go check out the Minnesota Kids Rise booth and tent. Fun activities for kids and great ways for adults to make connection points to the power of education. Lastly, we are excited to launch the Listening and Learning Tour, coming to a location near you. You don't need streaming rights or anything like that. We're going to give you a live performance right in your backyard. It's going to be my opportunity as the new superintendent to really connect with community. It's something that I thoroughly enjoy. Love being in community, engaging community while building community. And whether it's our vigil from last night or if it's our National Night Out and going to block parties, any opportunity that we have to connect with our community to talk about the great things happening here at Hopkins Public Schools, I'm going to be the biggest cheerleader. Also, I'm the biggest learner, and staff have heard me talk about being the lead learner. And we have tours going from September 14th through October 20th. And just want to let you know, you can go to hopkinsschools.org/listenlearn. But Monday, September 14th, we'll be hosting from 6:30 to 8:00, right here in the district office. Thursday, September 17th, from 6:30 to 8:00, we'll be at Minnetonka Community Center. Thursday, October 1st, from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m., we'll be at the Hopkins Activity Center. October 8th, Thursday, from 6:30 to 8:00, this will be a virtual, so if folks want to dial in that way. Monday, October 12th, 6:30 to 8:00 at Glen Lake Activity Center. And then Tuesday, October 20th, from 4:30 to 6:00, that will be at Golden Valley Public Library. Then there will be some staff stops along the way, and then there'll be informal stops along the way. There are parents or community groups I've been meeting. I just met with a PTO group yesterday, and there will be other convenings that I'll be hosting at different coffee shops that are more organic. I'll be spending time in every one of our school buildings. Our building principals right now are signing up for slots for me to do a voluntary, I want to be very clear, voluntary standup meeting. Not required, but if you want to listen to a little ditty about who Michael is, you're going to learn that, but then it's just going to be three big questions, and you heard me talk about this during my interview. What are you cheering most about? What are you concerned about? And what do you need from me as your superintendent? And all this information is going to be collated and reflected back to the board and to our community, and to a findings report. A couple of you had emailed. I know that Dr. Rotomir-Puri and team may have done an elementary school tour, I believe, right at the tail end of last year. So we've got that thematic document, and so we'll take that and merge kind of present day perspectives, and different leadership perspectives as well, and then that will help shape how we kind of align, revise, enhance Vision 2031 and kind of all of our supports moving forward and what that might look like that we'll bring back to the board. So, excited about that. And just a lot of work is underway already, and will just close by saying looking forward to the year with our staff and our families and our students and all of you. So, Chair Andreassen, I turn it back to you. That's my update and report for tonight. Thank you, Dr. Thomas. Any questions or comments from my board colleagues? Chair Andresen? Yes, Vice Chair Roper. Thank you so much, Dr. Thomas, for those incredible updates. I'm very excited about the tour. Well, this is more so for Natalia. Would she be able to send us out those dates via calendar- Yes ... of the tour? Yeah. We'll make sure that you all have all those dates on your calendar. Whether or not you can make them all is totally up to you, but understand that as a board, you're invited to attend all of them. And actually, I would request if we can divide and conquer even just to have a board perspective, because there is going to be some questions that might come up or some things that you could engage in as well. So absolutely, we'll get that to you. All right. And then- I think we probably do need to be careful that there aren't more than three of us at a time. Yeah, to stagger that for not having a- Yep ... quorum. A quorum, yeah. And then the second question was, so for the listening tours that we're having, it's just a continuation of the family engagement work that was passed? Or is that like- I think it's very similar to that, Director Roper. Okay. Yeah. And I think more so for me, being a new superintendent, it's my ability to deeply listen to our community, and from that listening, be able to reflect back what I heard from the community, and then that informs the types of plans that we put into place in terms of how we move forward and execute on great things for our kids every day. Awesome. Thank you. Yeah. Chair Andresen. Yes, Director Zhao. Hi. Dr. Thomas, thank you for the update. So very excited you're here. And I just wanted to share an anecdote for community to know that Dr. Thomas is definitely putting in a lot of work. This is not a job that you're not going to burn some miles. And already I think that you're making a very big impression with some of the people that are in my orbit. You're meeting with people that, not that everybody should potentially meet with you, but you're making the time and the space to chat with as many people as possible. I see that. I think the staff see that. I appreciate it. And I'm just so happy that you're here, and we're going to, I think, do some great things. So I'm just very excited. Mm-hmm. Thank you. Chair Andresen. Yes, Director Thompson. Well, I echo Director Zhao's enthusiasm and excitement for having you here. It's just, yeah, a very exciting time, and appreciate your candor and your message that you've delivered in your update this evening. I just have one question. I'd heard you mention sort of thoughts about dashboarding. What do you kind of see doing around that topic? So, I think it's really important that in this day and age, when we are managing trust levels with community in the public sector, the more information that we can share with our community proactively doesn't allow for false narratives to be created and stories to be told. And it's very important to me as your superintendent that we remain the author of our own story and not defer that to anyone else but ourselves. And one way that we can help tell our story is through data. And one of the things that I think is really important also in this day and age is, and you all were engaging in conversation around this is, how are we being the best stewards of finite tax resources? Whether it's the stipends for board participation or if it's how we spend operational, academic, and human capital budgets. So one of the things that I've done is worked to develop front-facing financial dashboards that actually we were recognized nationally for in my last district for the level of transparency that we created for our community so that they could literally see how every penny was spent from every school, every department, and it was live, and it was continuously updated. That's an example of a dashboard. I think we would come to you as an administrative team, not to go too far off on the topic tonight that's not noticed, but for example, I know that historically we used to do quarterly reports here, and I'm all about having updates and I also don't want to have them be so exhausting that you're like swimming through numbers and charts and things. What's the salient amount of information that we need to have publicly in discussion for you all to be informed to make governance decisions? And should you desire to go deeper, because some of us are strong statisticians and that really get into that stuff, you're more than welcome to do that, and if we have a public-facing dashboard for folks to be able to look at various performance metrics, that they could do that as well. I think I shared with maybe a couple of you as we started with some of our one-to-ones to have an annual state of the district. This has also been a practice that I've pushed into our schools to have annual states of schools so our school communities understand and know how we are performing, and this is where we're going to celebrate things that are going well and ... opportunities to say, "And here's where our opportunities of growth are." And those opportunities of growth aren't to shame a department, or a school, or a staff member. It is to say, "Here's where I want to grow, and here's where I can enlist your support of our school, our department, et cetera." So, those are examples of where we have put together dashboards in the past so that our community can take a look a little bit under the academic hood, if you will. And understanding that with every data point, there's a lot of context, and you can't look at a data point in isolation. You have to be able to triangulate it to really understand the whole story. There will be members, admittedly, of every community I've been a part of, who will cherry-pick to make narratives. But generally speaking, I think the more transparent we are with that, the less cherry-picking that occurs, and I think people look to us as the credible source of information. So, a little bit, maybe, of a longer answer to your question, but I hope that gives you a little glimpse of what dashboarding could be and could entail. I think that's a conversation that I would enlist the board around as well, in terms of what are those high-leverage metrics that we would want to have forward-facing. That's great. Thank you so much. Mm-hmm. I just wanted to get some information about the Minnesota Kids Rise. I'm really excited about that. Mm-hmm. And I see on the website that there is a toolkit. Yep. And is that something that we, as a district, can access? Yeah, it is. And I have access to that, so I'll make sure that I look at how you all can get access, because there's board resources, there's community- Oh, great ... resources as well. I love that. And yeah, we literally just publicly launched it maybe not more than two weeks ago. Maybe a week and a half ago. So, very exciting work. So yes, you'll have some opportunity to bring that out and share with the community on your own. Wonderful. Yeah. And I think that it's also a great opportunity for our LAC- Absolutely ... as well. So- You will see a lot of intersectionality, obviously, with this being backed by MSBA, but- Yeah ... with a lot of the platforms and legislative agendas that will come out of that. Great. Absolutely. Thank you so much for bringing that to our attention. Mm-hmm. I'm excited about the state fair in general, but now I'm really excited about the second. Corn dogs and kids. The great Minnesota get-together. So, thank you for the update. You can put that in your books for your first one done. So, I would then look for an approval of tonight's agenda. 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 aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? The chair votes aye, and tonight's agenda is approved. And that takes us to our consent calendar. These items provide the board with information considered to be more routine in nature. If the board deems an item to be necessary for additional discussion, a motion will be made to move the item to new business. I would look for a motion that the board approves the consent calendar. So moved. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Chair Andreason? Yes, Treasurer Hartland. Thank you. I don't want to let it go unremarked upon that the gifts that are listed in our consent calendar include a total of gifts received by our district for the 25-26 school year, and the total is $501,310.25. And it's impossible to say thank you to all of the individuals, the PTOs, the Hopkins Education Foundation, the corporations, the memorial foundations that offer aid to all of our different buildings, but I am deeply grateful, and I know that all of those dollars impact very many lives. Thank you, Treasurer Hartland. I second that gratitude. I also want to call everyone's attention to the tentative clerical agreement that's on the consent calendar and to thank everybody who put in so many hours and so much time and talent into reaching that agreement. Chair Andreason? Yes. And I don't want to sidecar the conversation, but do we have a sense for how much of an increase it is versus last year, or last biennium? I didn't get that from the agreement. And I know it probably depends on the staff, but like- Assistant Superintendent Lightfoot. Yeah, I don't know. Okay. Director Jal, that would be something that we can answer, and I'll make sure that the board gets a communication on that. Okay. So, with that, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? The chair votes aye, and the consent calendar is approved. Thank you all. And that takes us to the treasurer's report. Treasurer Hartland Wonderful. Good evening, everybody. We are back. I know you are excited for another round of your favorite part of the board meeting. Yes, we are. The treasurer's report. It is a relatively quiet time legislatively speaking, and so you will definitely hear me speak more about that as the year goes on. But the one update I do want to give is about the federal budget. And I think we've talked at this table about how the federal fiscal year runs from October 1st to September 30th. And this past cycle of mostly final budget wasn't passed until February 3rd. So, that would be like us not passing this current school year's budget until sometime this coming November. And after a federal budget is passed, the Office of Management and Budget still has to apportion the funds to the Department of Education, and there's a public portal that anyone can see which programs have received their funding, and currently 35 programs. Despite a budget having been passed, 35 programs under the Department of Education still have zero or only partial funding. And to be very clear, I am not aware of any programs like Title I that directly impact our district. And however, most of the programs without full funding relate to either research into best practices in schools or college education, and particularly for Native American or other students of color, including teacher preparation programs. And so we are already facing a teacher shortage at our district, state, and national levels, and further limiting opportunities for talented people to enter the profession could make that even worse. And I bring it up because it could directly affect one of our Vision 2031 success pillars, which is having staff demographics that match our student demographics. And so currently, we are laying seeds for the future of the teaching profession, and so that is something that has the potential to create ripples that we won't see the effects of for several years. And it's a mildly important or timely subject because if funds don't get apportioned by September 30th, that's the end of the budget year already, and those funds will just revert to the treasury. So, there's millions, billions actually, I believe the total is more than 2 billion that's sitting to fund college education grants, research, that may not happen. Anyway, slightly more relevant to us is a very long check register. Summer is a surprisingly busy time, as we all heard the admin told us earlier during this evening's workshop. So, not only do we provide education and meals to thousands of kids during the summer, but we have large bills for cleaning and repairs and construction and supply restocking, et cetera. And as you read the report frequently on this register, you'll see the words Bondwood batch, and that is due to a new piece of software. It's just beginning to be rolled out from the business services department, and it's called Bondwood. It's a payment processing system that works with Skyward. It has smoother and better workflows for processing payments than Skyward does and requires less hands-on time, and it requires less cleanup than Skyward currently does. So, every single invoice that we pay, so all of these on the check register, has four or more touch points. So, our staff member enters an invoice and makes a request for payment. An accounting review happens in business services, often by our controller. Then the request goes to the head of the requester's department, and then finally to accounts payable, and sometimes there's even more. So, Bondwood decreases clicks and touching all over the place while still increasing Natalia's nodding emphatically, but while still keeping eyes on our requests. So, an LLM helps to read an invoice and helps the requester fill out the request, points out possible errors, fewer clicks. It's highly compliant for audits, and so a couple business services people expressed excitement about audits being easier. The one thing that needs fixing is that payments processed through Bondwood right now just show up as Bondwood. So, it doesn't flow, the invoice description, but that is being worked on. One other thing I would like to let you know is that business services and I are in the process of revamping the timing and some of the content of the treasurer's report. We're almost certainly going to change the timing, so we only have one treasurer's report per month, and almost certainly during the second board meeting of the month. So, I won't get into now exactly what expanded content we'll all see and discuss together, but do know that that's coming. And then I'll pull a few expenses from the check register. I'll try to be brief because I've already gone on some tonight, but feel free, as always, to email me if you have something that you want me to follow up on. We paid Advanced Imaging Solutions $58,851.83, Graf Music Company $8,164. Imperial Brady... Oh, no, I have it in my notes somewhere. It used to be Delco. So, Imperial Data and Imperial Brady, that's the same company, new name. That's all of our janitorial and cleaning supplies. So, that was $162,116.99. Lake Countries, as we wrap up paying expenses to that busing contractor was $1,716,922.19. To Weaving Cultures, we paid for translation and interpreting services $28,270.79. And truly, I could go on and on, but you guys all have the check register. So With that, I move we approve total disbursements in the amount of $14,933,370.20 for the period of June 1st to July 31st 2026. 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 aye. Aye. Any opposed? The chair votes aye, and the treasurer's report is accepted. Thank you so much, Treasurer Hartland, for that excellent report. I always enjoy it, and in particular, that you continue Treasurer Adams' legacy of pointing out particular expenses. So that then takes us to our first item of new business, which is the rain garden easement agreement. I would invite our SiteLogic staff and Director Mazzali up to the table and turn it over to Dr. Thomas. Thank you, Chair Andresen and board of directors. We're going to have our team come forward to talk about some of the changes that are taking place with regards to the city of Minnetonka and the easement conditions that we'll need to address moving forward with some of our capital projects, that we've been so appreciative of our community supporting. And with that, I will turn it over to the team to walk us through this update. Thank you. Welcome. Yes, thank you for having us this evening. This is part of the dome project, and it's an easement. And we're just trying to be good partners and good neighbors and work in coordination with the city. I think Ziad can definitely fill us in on some more information about the easement specifically, but that's kind of where we're at and why we're seeking approval for that. Sorry. I'm Anthony Heimke, senior project manager at SiteLogic. So, a little bit more information on the easement agreement. So this was required as part of the plan review with the City of Minnetonka. There were three additional components that came after the primary plan review pieces, one of which was the easement agreement, otherwise known as the rainwater easement agreement. So as part of that, we had to initiate the process and then get submitted through the city, as well as two other additional items. This all, in turn, leads to the issuing of the permit, which is what we're looking to get now as we move forward with these final pieces. I'm trying to figure out why it's not showing that slide deck. Oh. While we have some time, I think with everybody- Oh, here we go. Oh. Here we go. I guess if the group would like to introduce themselves, I think that would help everybody, and it's maybe been some time, and Dr. Thomas is new. So if we could start with Andy. Andy, you want to start off? We can introduce ourselves. Good evening. My name is Andy Fields. I serve as the director of business development for SiteLogic. I'm excited for the start of your school year. I think many of you know that I served as a principal for 18 years, and so these are exciting times. I'm Ziad Lindsay-Quraishi. I'm the director of architecture at SiteLogic. I am honored to have the opportunity. We are so grateful for the chance to serve the Hopkins Public School, and we are looking forward to sharing an update regarding our activities tonight, as well as answering any other questions that you may have. Yeah. Anthony Heimke, senior project manager, SiteLogic. Thank you for having me. My name is Matt Hagstrom. I'm a civil engineer with Hagstrom Engineering. I got on the team here with the referendum project, and so working on the dome is the first one that's coming to fruition, and it's been a great experience so far. So really looking forward to being on the team. Thanks for having us. Good to see you in person. Yeah. Nice to meet you. Hi. Thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight and present. My name's Jacob Berg. I'm about five years running as program manager for Hopkins Schools with SiteLogic, so helping oversee really all things facilities, construction-related projects with the district, and I serve as vice president of operations for SiteLogic. Thank you. Welcome. Now we have a slide deck, so we can all follow along. No problem. Did you want to start off with the easement agreement? I think someone mentioned there was updates as well, so I'm not sure how you want to proceed. Yes. The easement, as my colleague Tony has mentioned, was a part of the plan review process at the dome. There is a resolution regarding that. We just want it to be made available if there are any questions or any clarifications that we could provide to the community related to this necessity. An easement, in general, there is a public good aspect to an easement, whether it's a utility or a stormwater component. They are often selections that are made to facilitate the needs of broader community aspects. In this case, we needed to resolve an easement that was in place in order to facilitate the work that had to proceed at the dome, one of the many of the projects that are a part of the referendum activities that we've been pursuing Chair Andresen? Yes. For the non-lawyers on the board here- ... can we just start with what is an easement? I don't even know. Yeah. I'm wondering the necessity, too, of it. I have a general idea of what one is- Same, like up here maybe ... but also- Go ahead ... why is it necessary in this case? And I believe that this is something that we're doing, we're entering into agreement with the city, correct? And we have certain obligations then to them, is what it looks like to me. Correct. So this is for the new impervious that we're creating with the dome project. And so based on that, the city's required us to provide water quality for that. And so that's being provided by this rain garden that we're proposing in the area just west of where the dome is going to go. And so that's a vacant field over there. So since that is officially showing up as a pond or as a drainage facility, the city requires as part of their checklist that they have an easement over that facility. So the obligations, really, to the school district wouldn't change. It was going to always be owned and maintained by the school district. The city requires access to that just in case there was ever a drainage issue that was somehow imposing an issue towards public safety or a detriment to someone else's property. So whether it was a school district or whether it was a private commercial business going in, if they have any sort of drainage facility, the city requires that easement over top of it. So it really doesn't change the relationship besides what the team has mentioned of us having a good partnership with the city here going forward. Okay. And then I did see that annual inspections must be performed. So... There's part of our, we have a facility, or what am I looking for, our maintenance agreement moving forward. So our long-term maintenance, that's part of that with the maintenance of the pond. Chair Andresen? Yes. And I think you may have answered my question, but I just want to confirm. We've planned for the, I'm going to call it maintenance, right? So this cleaning out of the vegetation, doing the elimination of the hydrocarbons, we've planned for that. And Gino, I think it falls on your team. You guys are ready to do it? Do you have the capacity? Is there any concerns from that? Yes. We hire out contractors to do that work. It's not something we can do in-house, but yes. Okay. So we've budgeted for it. We're not going to be surprised. Correct. Okay. Thank you. Chair Andresen? Yes. I don't know precisely what answer I'm looking for here, but what is of big concern to me is this permanent, perpetual language that I see, and the "cannot be amended without the city's written approval." And so then I worry, do you foresee any issues? The dome is not a permanent structure. Are we entering into an agreement that in 30 or 40 years' time is going to cause us some problems? Hmm. It's rare that you say, "This is permanent." And I believe the nature of that language is just to ensure you won't go build a shed on top of it. So you're saying you're providing water quality in that particular location, so you're obligating that area to remain just as grass, and not put anything in there that would impede the purpose that we're using it for, which is satisfy the water quality requirements of the city. I'm not a lawyer either, so there's probably some language in there that... I was just reading it. If there was any additional construction or change in the use of the property out there in the future, the plans would go through the same review process with the city, and they would at that time request any alterations to any existing easements or permit applications required at that time. And just for our community's and my clarification, did this come as a surprise to us? Or was this kind of part of our planning process? I'll jump in again, because this was mostly coordination out of my office. We did coordinate with the city, and I asked them, since I was a little surprised that they were required on private property. Typically, if a detention facility isn't connected directly to a city storm sewer, which we're not, we actually discharge this to the school district's private pond, the city requires it as part as theirs. So reading deeper into their drainage criteria, the City of Minnetonka, they do require that. So it's part of their code. It's not something they're asking uniquely to us. So it was just something I was surprised by just because it's a private facility. Okay. But it's not unusual, I would say. Okay. Thank you. I feel like I might have co-opted your easement question. Do you feel like you... Well, Google just told me an easement is a legal right that lets someone use a part of another person's land for a specific reason. So is the easement here that the City of Minnetonka can come and inspect it any time they want, or is it that we're turning it into a rain garden? What is the actual easement? I still don't understand. And maybe Director Hyman can explain it to me. So an easement, for example, all the cities, if you have a sidewalk in front of your house, that's a public easement. So that's city property. They have a right to enter and do construction on that property, right? Because they have an obligation to the residents of the community to maintain streets and roads and sidewalks. So they have an easement within the first certain Number of feet of your house, of your yard, depending on where you live, so that they can come onto your yard. They have a right, they're not trespassing. So they have a legal right to come onto the property in order to do the work they need to do. So there are easements and right of ways and all of these things in property law, and I won't bore you with property law 101. But my understanding, and correct me if I'm wrong, is that when you're doing large construction projects, there are certain requirements, particularly with respect to drainage, rainwater, and they call it stormwater. So you want to make sure that you're not having a bunch of chemicals run into a system and then taint the water of the system. So from my understanding is, in order to get the permit to put up the dome or to continue construction of the dome, the city is saying, "We want to have access to this pond, and you are going to allow us to take ownership over the pond." So we are technically now the owners. The city of Minnetonka is going to own the pond. But Hopkins School District, you are agreeing to do the debris clean-out and the vegetation and the hydrocarbon and the outlet overflow spillway. So the city really has the leverage here because they hold the right to issue the permit. So I don't know if it's a stormwater issue or a drainage issue. I don't have the specifics. But this is very typical in any large construction project for a city to require easements or rights of way through private property in order to ensure the environmental regulations, and you're not polluting the water, and water that's draining into the land is not contaminated. Did I do-- Yeah? You did well. Okay. Yeah. So I just want to be clear though, we are the owner in this easement as I'm reading it, and we're just giving the city permission to enter, essentially, to do whatever they need to do? That is correct. That's correct, okay. Yes. It's like co-ownership. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Any other questions or thoughts? Director Mazelli, I just want to be clear too, so aside from the clarity around the easement, we also have an unintended consequence in terms of the timing of the usage and viability of the dome for this season, and I think we should be clear about that as well. Yes, that is correct. I think that at some point in the presentation, I think we do touch base on that, but I can update us on that now. Unfortunately, with the permit process just taking the time it has taken, we have been pushed back two months or probably four to five days over two months of construction. So October 28th was our initial timeline to be completed. We will not be able to reach that with the two-month delay, so now that has pushed us back. As far as can it be used this winter, that is highly unlikely. We are going to work as fast as we can and do everything we can, but that is unlikely now. Let's say we have a very warm beginning to our winter. That could change things. You never know. But it is unlikely that dome will be up for use. I have communicated that with our community ed departments and our school leaders at that building, so our teams are aware. Thank you. Chair Andreassen? Yes. Can I ask one more question? I'm not trying to be pedantic. No. So you had said-- I live right by there. I walk by that site all the time. So there's the dome, and you had said west of the dome? Because aren't we building more outdoor adventure stuff just west of the dome? Yes. Or did we mean south of it, where there's an existing pond kind of next to the really large shed? Either you or I could take it. Go ahead. Yeah. It would be in between where the existing field is and the water tower, in that area over in there. Okay, so where it already is. It's exactly right. So what's already there is a low point- A scene of the dome ... yeah, it's exactly right. We're not reshaping much of that at all, and there's already a pipe outlet over there. We're utilizing what is existing to the site and using that to help satisfy our water quality and drainage. It's a drainage, it's a stormwater kind of umbrella that we're satisfying doing that. So yes, it's already a low point of depression over there, and we're moving that pipe up a little bit so it releases that water a little slower. So it is essentially already there. Okay. I appreciate that because I was like, "We're building a whole bunch of stuff just west-" Yeah. "... of our dome right now." Thank you. You're welcome. Okay. Okay, I would look for a motion to approve the dome easement agreement as presented. So moved. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? The chair votes aye, and the rain garden easement is approved. Thank you so much. And I believe you're staying with us for the next item. Yep. Which is the long-term facility maintenance and referendum contract adjustments. I'll turn it over to Dr. Thomas. We'll be going through this slide deck first, just for the facility program overview and updates, and then our SitelogIQ team will head back, and then Dr. Lightfoot and I will go over those. Great. Yeah, go ahead. Thank you. All right. Well, thank you again for the opportunity to be here and present some really exciting updates tonight. It's a pleasure to be back here with the board in session. I know it's only been what probably feels like a very short couple of months for you all, but I can assure you there's been a lot of progress that's occurred on both the referendum and the LTFM side. I also want to give a special thanks to Gino Mazzoli, Nick Lightfoot, John Wetter, and Jessica Olson for their dedication and tireless hard work over these past few months that we've been in recess. I can assure you they have been not. Several meetings, and emails, and phone calls. There's a lot of exciting things happening with Hopkins facilities right now, and we're excited to share those updates with you tonight. We have a short two-part agenda. We'll talk briefly about referendum updates. So we talked a little bit about the dome project. There's a few other projects that have been able to pull forward this summer and be executed, so wanted to provide an update on those. We'll talk about the status of some of the larger projects that are in design currently right now and upcoming next steps with those. And then we'll shift gears and talk a little bit about the long-term facilities maintenance program, which is an ongoing effort. As much as we all sometimes loathe maintenance on our homes and our cars, maintenance never goes away. Long-term facility maintenance is the same. So we have, again, some exciting updates to share, though, on projects that were completed this summer at Alice Smith, as well as a look ahead to long-term facilities maintenance in 2027 and 2028. So I will turn it over without further ado to begin the referendum updates. Thank you. Thank you so much, Jake. Chair Andresen, esteemed directors, and also Superintendent Thomas, thank you so much for the opportunity. We, as Jake had mentioned, are very busy with a variety of activities to facilitate the victory coming from November's referendum and the variety of projects that have emerged. I'm happy to share a number of highlights, salient points in particular, to some of the most impactful aspects of our work. Knowing how important safety and security is to the Hopkins community, one of the best results of our endeavors to share tonight involves advancement in our integration for safety and security efforts into our design projects. A special recognition, of course, to Director John Wetter, who has been instrumental in facilitating the growth of these relationships and collaborations. We are happy to share that we are fully integrated now with our partner, PMY, who has been instrumental in facilitating progress in thinking in a total and holistic manner in safety and security in the design projects. That integration has become a part of our cadence with the advancement of our design projects through upcoming phases, and a part of that onboarding effort is informing them of both current activities and activities that are also coming in the years ahead. So we're setting the groundwork for a collaboration that will contribute to an integral process for our projects from a safety and security standpoint. There's also, in addition to that, the execution of the standards that we have been developing hand-in-hand with regard to district-wide safety and security. So with regard to that, previously, a number of workshops have been conducted. We've been working diligently to establish standards that can be applied both holistically and equally across a variety of different arenas of relevance to the district. So that establishment and implementation of standards has become evident in the first round of design work. The dome being, of course, the project we've already talked about, was one that had been relatively fast in its development. The current round of projects, and I'll share updates on some of them more specifically coming next, have benefited from these collaborations, and we are hopeful that the round of design that emerges will show the full fruition of this. Beyond that, the process and the progress of these efforts, certainly there are efforts that have been needed to occur to create the fabric and the material to make this happen. District-wide analysis and discovery was instrumental in that establishment, so we have conducted what's known as a gap analysis. It's an investigation that looks at various aspects of the current circumstances and identifies particular areas of need or areas that are potentially benefiting from greater attention. In addition, there has been a first round of costing that's happening, the phase one costing. And just for clarity, there will be multiple rounds of this that will be a part of this effort. So this is just the first series of activities that start this process that will be ongoing for the years ahead. So very happy to share this prioritization of safety and security and the increasing integration into our design work. You see that? All right. Thank you. So moving on, just some updates for some of the many things that have been happening at the district over the past several months. The first two slides of which that you're seeing is at the high school. Obviously, we were talking about the work happening out in the field. So there was a couple pieces happening over the summer, one of which is the relocation and new installation of the challenge course. So in preparation of the high school project happening next summer, which will take place where the current challenge course is, the district was able to get a jump start and get the new climbing facility, which is a three-faced climbing structure with multiple different hold configurations and 10 feet up of removable holds for a safety and security measure. So that's already in. You're all able to go out and see that now. Not only that, but the other piece that'll help with programming come in the fall, they also did the Mohawk walk, which is the low ropes course, which was directly in the way of the dome, is now over there and installed, as well as the zip line. So really you have three components of the challenge course that will be ready to go for your courses in the fall. And then, as well as the challenge course at the high school field, going a little bit north, the district was already able to install the new LED scoreboard on the north end of the track, as well as an audio enhancement program throughout that installed both short and long throw speakers above the home press box. There was some additional low voltage and enhancements to the fiber system that control all three. And then the last major piece that the district was able to accomplish this summer is the both stadium and soccer and softball field lighting upgrades as well. Which you can see in the second slide. I kind of jumped ahead. But yeah, on the left pane you see the stadium lighting, which was a replacement of those heads on the existing poles, and then you see the audio enhancement speakers on top of the press box in your right pane. Although we did touch on the dome and the looming permit delays, there was some progress, as much as we can do without a permit, which is some early turf rollback and removal. Some of the earthwork prep, which is where you can see some of the class five sitting in a pile just west of the dome site, as well as the procurement has not slowed down, so we will not be facing any challenges when steel and other typically long lead time materials. That will be a non-issue. So we did discuss the current risks and challenges, which was obviously as Gino outlined, as well as Matt Hagstrom, some of the permitting with the easement. There were two additional items that came about after the plan review, which was the escrow check, which is now behind us and resolved, and then the letter of credit, which thank you kindly to Jessica and team for getting that over, and that's the last piece the city required, and that we're working through that final piece now. And I'll share, and in summary, the projects that were implemented as a part of the referendum this summer, it really was a success. It was rewind back to post November and the referendum win. The district did a lot of work in looking at when to implement which projects when. There were a lot of factors that went into that decision, some of which obviously had to do with cost and cost escalation. Others had to do with when can we get the most needed improvements to the students? So we took a look at the earlier we can do a project, things obviously escalate every year in terms of cost. So we looked at what can we do early without a ton of design work, and these projects in the stadium, the athletic dome, were those that were shorter design cycle, quicker to get out and procure, and then save money in the long run. So while we all hoped and we're really pushing to have the dome open for beneficial use of the community as soon as possible, it's still a win for the district and community that the project was designed, procured, and those dollars were saved ahead of future dates. Two areas which would augment that thought. Relationships are key, so working directly with the city and ensuring that we're working towards clear communication and working towards the benefit of that relationship has been instrumental. We will have multiple years of projects that we're working with the city on. So that's been a part of our groundwork that's been essential. In addition, being proactive and working ahead and trying to ensure that we have expectations and clarifications up front. So with those in mind, the dome being one example of a process, this will be a contributor to how we proceed with other projects and how we are more proactive and more hopeful in our relationship with the city that we can work together in collaboration to achieve the objectives. Thank you. Excellent. So, with regard to that, I'm also happy to share, along with the updates that my colleague Tony has just mentioned, other milestones and achievements in the steps that have been ongoing for the last few months. For our designs that are in the current progress for this round, and to reiterate to the community and to all, there are multiple years and multiple rounds of projects that we'll be going through, both from a design and a construction standpoint. We are currently in the first year This year is a year that involves four major projects. There's Eisenhower and Ike Community, there's also North Middle School, there's Hopkins High School, and there is also Gatewood Elementary in the four projects that are slated for this round of work. One of the most important milestones is the achievement of a particular design phase milestone. There are multiple phases that we go through one step at a time, where we're working through a project in the design. The achievement of what is known as design development is right about the midpoint and the resolution of some of the major design items before we proceed into the following phases, eventually bringing it to bid, and of course, then construction. So design development has concluded at North Middle School, which is a great achievement, and we also had the benefit of an estimate that was given at that time. Of course, the intent is that the market will be the determinant of the final results of the costing exercise of a project. But we do estimates as a check to ensure that we're on target and that the current design is responsive to the budget. So we're happy to share that the estimate result was on target for North Middle School at this time, at the 100% DD phase. The next phase, which is moving into, as we term it, construction documents, it's getting us one step closer, of course, to the eventual bid and then the eventual construction. In addition to that, I mentioned Gatewood. Gatewood has both an outdoor learning lab component, which is so key to the culture of Gatewood Elementary, and secondarily, a new secure entry, which dovetails directly into the prioritization of safety and security. There is the achievement also there of the 100% design development milestone. That will go through an estimation process. It will also go through a design review, and we would just like to also mention there is regular communication and there is regular dialogue. Bless you. There is regular dialogue with regard to ensuring that the designs are in terms of alignment with feedback. So we've had a few reviews, we've had a few opportunities. These documents are reviewed with multiple participants, including the admins, and potentially also the users at each school as well. So user engagement is the next item. There is the conclusion of the first round of major user group meetings that just occurred last week. There will be a few other opportunities that continue for other forms of feedback, but for us, it is that input and it is that feedback that is so key for us to ensure that we're delivering designs that are in alignment with what is wanted. So with that, user engagement is a key aspect to our activities. We've concluded the year one round of that, and with that, the Eisenhower Elementary User Group design advisory team user group was the last one of that sequence. Highlights of that, just to summarize, we had both the physical education and music group participants together, conversing and collaborating. We also had interface with the safety and security prioritizations that have been mentioned, very important. And then lastly, the summary being that it is a collaborative effort, inclusive of the users that we are serving. And that's an important part to mention and an important part to also wrap up this round of user engagement. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Shifting gears a little bit from referendum over to LTFM quickly. Lot of activity, both '25 and '26 on phase 10, LTFM projects. So Alice Smith hit substantial completion on August 14th. So now it's just the final phases, commissioning, test and balance, and general cleanup. So that project, very successful, was under budget and on time. I can also go into more detail, but I just didn't want to belabor everything that went into Alice Smith. It was a steam to hot water conversion, so general ventilation improvements for the facility. Additionally, big win on some carpet projects as well, both Alice Smith and the high school. There's just a couple examples of one of the Alice Smith classroom selections, and then one of the larger spaces at the high school, which shares carpet selection with the corridors as well. Here's just a snapshot of one of the-- This is the primary boiler room at Alice Smith, just to showcase what happens behind the scenes. I know it's less student-facing than some of the other finish upgrades, but nonetheless, very important and a huge improvement to the asset. Just, and additionally, no real photos to show today, but another success, and we also finished the completion and closeout of the high school ventilation project, similar in scope and nature to what happened at Alice Smith as well. All right. Well, one of the things, as I mentioned in being a former educator is, I have a hard time letting things slide. So knowing that you do have a zip line and a climbing wall, and I'm experienced in supervising field trips, I'd be happy to organize twos and threes of the board if they want to try out these new services the students will have. Yeah. So we can map that out if you are ready. I want a zip line. I want a zip line. I want to do zip lining. Climbing wall. I don't recall approving that. If we promise not to talk about board business can we all go? Yes. Where's the OSHA on that one, huh? We can figure that out at a later date. So long-term facility maintenance, LTFM, is separate from referendum. Referendum are those items and those projects that the community voted on to support, whereas LTFM are funded projects that are directly associated with like for like replacements. And so those typically fall under a 10-year plan. I know we've spoken to the board before, but I want to echo some sentiments. There have been a lot of people given credit for their work this summer. And when students report back and staff report back to school, you'll have shiny terrazzo floors, you'll have clean classrooms. And it's not magic, it's pride and effort of your facility team. And they worked tirelessly over the summer to make it happen. And when people arrive, they are so excited to be in school that I often think that they aren't recognized for that pride and that effort. So, we've seen that in action. But it also means that with the facilities and the square footage that you maintain, that there has to be intentional planning. And with limited resources, you have to prioritize what are those projects that you want to tackle each year. So in your 10-year plan, the most important projects to focus on are those that are in the upcoming year. So summer of '27 and summer of '28. And while we have listed those projects, in each of those calendar years, there are several other projects that are ongoing, along with these larger projects. For your summer of '27, there's a focus on civil work with your high school tennis courts, parking lot improvements, some mechanical improvements at Ike, looking at your North Middle School, some of the mechanical systems there, as well as utility improvements at Gatewood. Moving on to '28, North Middle School parking lots, Glen Lake, carpet replacement. We have some Ike exterior work that's being done, Tanglin interior and exterior, and then the Meadowbrook parking lots. So those are the big projects that you have coming forward in LTFM. And I would just say that while those are separate buckets, the coordination is extensive to make sure that you maximize your resources and how you're able to use your facilities. We can't occupy all of your facilities and expect summer programming to go on. And so we as a team work intentionally to make sure that that happens smoothly with your team. Thank you. Thank you. And I'd just add, there's been a lot of thought and attention from the district, as well as on the SitelogIQ side and formation of the 10-year plan to dovetail with the projects in the referendum. So in terms of when work is occurring in the referendum and when certain projects are prioritized in LTFM to both maximize available dollars as well as maximize uptime for the facilities and operations as well. Thank you. Thank you. Questions? There we are with questions. Any questions or comments from my board colleagues? Chair Andrews-Huffman? Yes, Vice Chair Roper. Thank you all again so much for just coming to your presentation. I always look forward to just hearing the work that you all are doing. And thank you so much, Director Thompson, for clarifying the word easement, because I'm like, "Rain garden easement?" I thought it was a wellness program. I'm like, "Okay, well, we're talking about wellness here." But just a very quick question just about the Gatewood parking lot, and I do apologize if you already mentioned this. How long does it usually take? I just get a little bit iffy about parking lots because when parent pick up and drop off, it just becomes a little bit hectic. So just curious of how long it usually takes to complete a parking lot. Sorry, it echoed. What building did you say? Sorry. Gatewood. Gatewood. So that project is not the entire parking lot. It's that back area that's closer to the pigs and stuff, if that makes sense. Oh, okay. So yeah, it's that area as of right now. And depending on which parking lot, how many sections, if there's storm water management, as we've mentioned, those all are factors, or utilities, those all are factors in timeline for that parking lot. Due to that parking lot having that in the back, it would be accessible at times and if there are summer programs there, we could make that accessible. But those are all factors that can change timelines and how parking lots, how long they take and stuff like that. And sometimes you can cut them up into mini projects so that this side of the building's accessible, this side's not, and then you switch. So it just all depends on what the site looks like, what the project is, and how detailed it is. Thank you so much. Yeah. Chair Andrews-Huffman? Yes, Director Zhao. Hi, SitelogIQ and friends. So maybe I'm skipping the line here, but I see there's an amendment to the referendum that you attached. I'm curious. It looks like you're proposing an increase in 39 basis points for your fees. Is that correct? Yes, that is correct. If we could wait to address that until Dr. Lightfoot comes up, I think- Okay ... that would be wonderful. I think they were doing the update first, and then- Yeah. Okay. Thank you ... Dr. Lightfoot is coming up and we'll talk about the amendment. Any questions on the update? Yes, Chair Andreassen? Yes. I think listed at, so if the community wants to refresh themselves, I think it's hopkinschools.org/about/referendum2025. You can see your guys' extensive work to map out the improvements. You mentioned several of the things that are listed in 2025. Something else that our website says would be done was the bus depot parking lot improvements. Did that get done, or is that to be done? Do you know? Ian? As of right now, the bus depot project is being pushed to next summer. Okay. We are trying to make some efficiencies and reduce basically our overall project for budgeting purposes there to try to be more efficient with those funds, and that's why we're trying to push that into next year. Okay. Thank you. And just a quick follow-up, is that being done in conjunction with our new transportation provider? At this point, to my knowledge, I'm not sure if Nyshea's touched base with them at all, but they will definitely be aware that we're going to be doing that next summer. This previous summer, we initially had it to go on the docket this summer. We were in close communication with the previous provider for our transportation. And speaking to when I mentioned where you can chop up the building in half, and you can do half and be accessible and this half be not accessible and then switch, that was our plan with that so that transportation would not miss a beat. We have also identified other places in the district to park buses so that less footprint is needed there. So there are all types of efficiencies and communication that will take place again with our new provider. Great. Thank you. Yep. Chair Andreassen, I'll just say, yes, that was a conversation that we had. Several of us met with the operations team from Smitty & Sons at the depot itself and talked about the future enhancements to that lot and how we would stage that, so they are aware of the improvements that will be made. Great. Thank you. Chair Andreassen? Yes, Director Hyman. Thank you for all of your work over the summer. I have a couple questions. We talked about the user groups for the referendum funds. Can you list out who those user groups are and whether or not community members surrounding the areas that are impacted are consulted with respect to the projects that are ongoing? Yes. Thank you, Director Hyman. As an example, we've had a standard developed for our restrooms for Hopkins, in particular, single-user restrooms as a definitive aspect for future planning for restrooms. The users that were involved there were very diverse. It involved participants that were both from the staff side, from the student side, and from also the community side as well. So, as an example, we're particularly seeking the input from those that would be affected by the designs, and we seek that input. There have been a variety of opportunities for inclusivity. In particular, we are depending on the admins and also the executive leadership to help us to find the right voices so that we're getting the information that we need and we use. So for us, it's been a partnership and a communication that's been ongoing. This will be an activity that carries on into the coming years as well. So we really encourage, if there is a particular place where participation would be wanted or would be desired, that the cadence of projects moving forward, that there's an awareness of what's coming so that we could plan accordingly. For us as design, that input is gold, so we really do seek that and want that, and we also hope that the resultant designs are representative of the input that we've received and heard. Listening is a key aspect to the work, and it's the best way that we can develop an outcome that's in tune with what the needs actually are. And so if we receive feedback or a message from a community member that they'd like to be involved or they'd like more information, would we direct them to Gino? Yes. Okay. You sure can. Okay. Thank you for that. Yeah. And I think that answered-- Oh, my second question is brief about aligning projects. Is there a way, for example, if something gets pushed back or gets moved, we can then move LTFM projects around in order to be efficient and take advantage of those efficiencies? If we're opening a wall already at Tanglin and we're going to reface the wall anyways, can we combine those? What kind of flexibility do we have is what I'm asking? Sure. Yeah. I can try to address that. Okay. We all want this question. We all want it. We absolutely want to look at all the projects you have and figure out the most efficient way for you to use your dollars. And you cited a really good example. When there are opportunities to push some projects forward that will save the dollars in the future by doing it today, when you already have a wall open, then we would look at taking a project that might be in a future year and bringing it into a current year, and taking something out that could wait to make sure that that budget is balanced. So, that's something that we're in constant conversation about. And there is a ping pong match between referendum and LTFM, and there are a lot of projects that are in the referendum that cannot qualify for LTFM, but there are ... excuse me, there are projects in the referendum that can qualify for LTFM, but we can't qualify those same projects the other way. If that makes sense. Yep, makes sense. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate all that. Will you be staying with us for this next discussion? Okay. Nope. Well, thank you for being here- Thank you, everybody ... and for all your work. Thank you so much. Yeah. Thank you, all of you. Thank you. Thank you. Greetings. Greetings. Welcome back. Thank you. As noted, part of what is additionally here this evening is in relation to just a reminder for the board. Remember, as we do have any contracts or contracting, part of what we want to look at is making sure that we are clear with the board and following the policies for any of the contractual arrangements that we're looking at. So for here, with you all in the new business this evening, what you will see are the, number one, the amendment to the referendum. Part of what we're looking at is the opportunity that we have to look at the inclusion of additional services under the work that we can really combine and consolidate with SitelogIQ, in addition that were kind of outside providers that we can bring in. And part of the cost analysis that we've been looking at is, can we bring it in and come in at a cost factor that actually is less in the overall scope of looking at what we are paying two or three contractors. If we bring it in-house, consolidate it, can we not only get the efficiency of the operational experience, but can we also get the efficiency of the cost experience? And that's what we've been looking at as well. So with the modification, there are two modifications. Well, there's one modification, and then there's the approval of the LTFM contract for phase 11. So Gino, I'll have you speak maybe to a little bit with the referendum, some of the changes there. We'll do that first, and then we'll get to the LTFM. So what's listed on the referendum changes are specific projects that SitelogIQ would be taking the lead on from a civil standpoint. So currently, those would include playgrounds, some parking lots, and stuff like that. Now, that doesn't currently include all of the civil for the referendum. That will come at a later time. Right now, we are doing what's included on that amendment, and then that's why there's that point difference, is they'd be carrying the load of that civil engineering and that civil scope for those projects. Okay. Where is that located? Do we have a link for that? Yeah. Uh-huh. Scroll at the bottom. First one? First one. Currently, we in the past have used another service group for that. We believe, like Dr. Lightfoot mentioned, not only from a money and finances does it make sense, but it's having things under one umbrella, one group, streamlined, and its efficiencies are definitely there, and it makes things a lot easier, definitely to plan and plan together, plan ahead, and to combine as many projects as we can to be efficient and a good user of our funds. Chair and- Oh. Yep, you. Go. So just so we're clear, it's 39 basis points over $140 million. That's like half a million. Am I doing my napkin math correct? What's the total cost that you're asking for? Yeah, I guess I would have to do the math. I don't know it off the top of my head. Yeah, I think it's half a million. So half a million for playgrounds at Harley Hopkins, West Middle School, North Middle School, and some parking lots at West and the bus garage. Yes, that does sound- Okay ... within the ballpark of reason, for sure. And is that market? It seems high to me, but... Yes, so currently, I would definitely argue that is market. Typically, any projects above that two and a half million, you're going to see definitely anywhere from 6 to 12% for civil design, and we are below that. Or we are within that range, but we're below the high end, for sure. Okay. Can you help clarify, Director Zhou, what are you referencing? So- Because I'm seeing an increase of 0.4-something ... so they're going from 15.13 to 15.52- Mm-hmm ... of the total project cost. And so I'm just taking the referendum, 140 million, and multiply. It's a small number, yes, but with the size of our referendum, it's actually pretty big. And so that's how I'm arriving at the... And maybe I'm wrong, so correct me if I'm wrong, but my napkin math is half a mil, and so I don't know. It just seems- Sure. I completely hear you, and it's a great question. So if we take, let's say, the North Middle School parking lot job, for example, they're different funding buckets, but the budget for that entire lot is $11 million. So if you take 10% of that just on one parking lot job, it's a lot of money, but those are the design Fees that come with doing those projects. And just to be clear, what we are looking at is the transition of existing spaces providing other services and consolidating that into one, so that when we think of the overall impact to the total scope of what we are paying for the overall design and construction fees, the initial analysis that we've done so far is that it does come out to a positive savings overall as we look at the additional contractual arrangement based on where we presently sit to where we would be sitting with the recommendation that we're putting in front of you this evening. So just to clarify, so what I heard is that this increase is due to the fact that these projects were with a different company initially, so we would've paid- A different company ... another fee to this company, and SitelogIQ is agreeing to absorb these projects with just a slight increase of their fees overall, so it's not just for these projects, it's across the board. Correct. Okay. So it's not that they're coming and asking for half a million more to do nothing. They're taking on extra projects. But- That we would've paid someone else to do. Correct. Okay. Thank you. Chair Andresen? Yes. I just want to clarify, we're still paying SitelogIQ for the projects. This is just the percent of the overall fee that they're taking, and I have a specific question about the service agreement amendment number two. It says, "Schedule B of the agreement is amended to increase SitelogIQ's fee for services from 15.13% to 15.52% of the estimated total project costs." And if you look at Schedule B, I don't see that anywhere on Exhibit B. So I'm just wondering where those numbers come from and what part of the agreement are we actually amending? Page 29. When you look at the professional service agreement, the agreement is the modification to, as you identified, the original document that we were working off of. What I'm hearing is, obviously, if we want to, we'll want to make sure that we add in the additional document, because this is for the referendum work. The item that is also included is the LTFM project, when we look at the LTFM as item two. Have you pulled up or are you referencing the original? I'm looking at the original- Yep ... 2026, the 08/11/2026 Hopkins Public Schools Professional Services Agreement, which is, I assume, the original. And what I'm asking is, you're looking at the amendment, the amendment is saying it's modifying the initial agreement, and it says it's modifying Schedule B. And so when I look at Schedule B of the professional services agreement, I don't see anywhere on Schedule B they're discussing percentage of fees for services. So I just want to make sure I'm looking at the current version of the professional service agreement, and that the amendment is actually accurately referring to the correct schedule and... So I believe, Director Hyman, in Schedule B, there is a lump sum fee referenced, and to your point, not a percentage. Correct. So I'm wondering- So I'm wondering where is that original... Did it get translated into a lump sum fee and now there'll be an additional lump sum fee, or are we comparing apples to oranges? There's someone with a-- Please come forward, answer. Yeah. Oh. I was like, "Who are they talking to?" Thank you. So as I believe I understand the question, in reference to Schedule B, what we have there in the board packet is two separate agreements. So we have the amendment, which is to a referendum professional services agreement that is not included in your packet. Oh, okay. So there was an original professional services agreement that was reviewed and approved by the board previously, and this amends that. So it references the 15 point... Okay, 13- The thing we're not looking at. The original agreement. The original. Correct. Okay. The only thing that changes in the agreement that is not included in that packet is what is written in the amendment there. Okay. And then it is a separate professional services agreement for phase 11 that we have yet to discuss. Okay. Thank you for clarifying. Thank you. Any other questions? Chair Andresen? Yes, Director Thompson. Just for completeness sake, could I request that staff send us the original thing that we are amending? Chair Andresen, if I may? Yes. Yes. So to Director Thompson's question, I was actually writing the note as you asked the question, to ensure that the board has clarity around the ask. Is that an amendment, or is that an agreement? I don't know. I'm guessing it's probably a year ago, that we have access to fairly quickly, or is that something we would have to get Dr. Lightfoot? Well, we'll want to make sure that we get that. If that's a request, we certainly can make sure that we have that there. And we certainly can make sure. I just want to make sure that we have the right document. And Chair Andresen, if we're- Yes ... making requests and maybe we're going to table it, I'd like the comparable, I guess, if you want to call it that, of what did we at least pencil in for these playgrounds and parking lots? 10 million at 10% or something. Can we get that as well? Because then, it's just sticker shock for me, right? I'm just like, "That's a lot." But if you're like, "Well, it's actually a million for this other firm, just for this one piece," okay, that's a lot easier for me to vote on. Sure. That makes sense. Okay. Thank you. Yep. Chair Andresen? Yes. Just to be clear, to establish some conditions of satisfaction for the requests that are kind of going around, I want to make sure that I'm clear so that I can work with the team to get that appropriate information. So it is the professional amendment from a year ago, the initial, that we need, that we're referencing for the 15.13 to the 15.5, whatever it might be. That's the one document. The second, Director Jiao, the kind of an itemization of the big projects that we're talking about needing to enhance. And, with previous partner, what would that may have cost us compared to the agreement that we're going to have with Site Logic to do a cost over-run under. We're saying it's an overall under- Yep ... and you want to see the itemization of that. Yeah. Is that correct? Yes, and sorry, I know it's a little difficult, but it's just a hard number to wrap my head around that we're- No, I understand ... so far under. I just want to make sure I'm tracking. Yeah. Okay. Thank you, Chair Andresen. Yes. And so I'm also making sure that-- Just for my clarification's sake, when were these documents available to the board for review? Do we have a date? Which one? These amendments. Everything was posted on- Wednesday ... Wednesday of last week. Okay. And after. For almost a week. Yes. So yeah, I would just like to-- Expectation set that when we have really in-depth things like this that we have questions on, it's easier for staff if they can come prepared for the board questions. So if there's a request to have original agreements that we've entered into that you aren't willing to go back to the board meeting in which it was approved and do your research, and are asking the staff to do that, that that could come before the meeting so that you could be prepared. And that just helps us all move more quickly through these meetings, and also to keep us on schedule, because my question then becomes to you, if we don't approve this tonight, are we getting even further behind in our timeline for these projects? Depending on the timeline on when these amendments would be approved, yes, it can push back design timelines and things like that. Yeah, it can. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? I would like to say that I value the five-year partnership that we've had with Site Logic. I've been through lots of your design processes and also through the ideation phase of a lot of these projects that our community gave us the funding to realize. And so I personally also have a lot of faith in The administration and when you tell me that this is going to be a cost savings for the district, I think that that's probably pretty accurate. And I also share that it is our job to do our due diligence in making sure that when we see, as Director Zhou said, a sticker shock come past our board, that we have really in-depth conversation about it. So I appreciate all of that. And I would then just want to know, do we want to wait? Does the board want to wait until we have these additional items before us to make a decision? Or do we feel comfortable in approving this tonight knowing that if we don't do so, we will put projects on a delay? Chair Andresen? Yes. So our next board meeting is in two weeks. The first, correct. So Director Mazzelli, not approving this amendment for two weeks, is that material in the advancement of the projects, do you think? I think that we could push it to the next meeting, yes. If that's what the board would prefer. Yes, we can do that. I'm not hearing anything from board members. Do we want to wait? Yes. I think it's our obligation as a board, and I know I take my duty seriously to the community to be a good steward of our tax dollars and to ensure that we have all of the information and the best information possible to make the right decision and a decision that we can stand behind if questioned by the people we answer to, which is this community. So while I don't like delaying things and will more than likely have no problem with seeing the data, it will, as Chair Andresen said, likely say exactly what you're saying it says. And seeing the professional services agreement that the amendment is actually referring to, I think that so long as that's not going to have a material impact on moving projects forward, I would prefer to table it until the next September 1st meeting to give board members an opportunity to look at that information and just do their diligence as our obligation and duty requires. That's my position. If I could add one point. Yeah. Mm-hmm. It will be tough to get an accurate apples to apples comparison. It does take a civil group a long time to really dive into how in-depth these projects are with stormwater management and utilities and all the components involved. It is very hard to give an accurate proposal within two weeks. I do want just the group to be aware of that. I may be able to get what your typical range is, but I am not sure I could get you an accurate proposal within two weeks of the in-depth projects we have coming. Thank you for that. Yeah. And I also want to remind the board that, Director Hyman, you asked an excellent question about efficiencies, and I think going through another provider negates those essentially that we were discussing. So again, are we feeling like we want to delay this to give the board more time than a week to investigate the underpinnings of this contract? Is that what I'm hearing? Chair Andresen? Yes. I would prefer to move forward with it for the respect that I can recall reviewing the initial, I can't recall exactly the date, but feel like I could find it pretty quickly, the initial agreement and do appreciate that we did not fully cost out someone else's proposal, and so how do we directly compare those? But having long experience at this table and with the group to say it is an efficiency for us and it is a cost savings for us to bring those projects under one umbrella is sufficient for me. So I would vote tonight, but obviously we'll do what the group decides. Chair Andresen? Yes. Thank you for that perspective, Treasurer Harlan. I think that's probably where I'm at too. I'm trusting what I'm seeing and hearing, so I'm fine with it tonight as well. And to be very clear, I did. It was like, "Oh, another increase," because we did a slight version of this earlier. So we had a similar discussion about this with a mild increase due to another kind of similar project and duty being brought under their scope earlier in the spring. And so I also had those questions and was like, "Oh, it's more," and that is kind of a lot, over $140 million, and was satisfied with this discussion. I do think the one earlier in the spring was an amendment to the past LTFM with the carpet project. So that, yes, it was an amendment, but it was to a different funding source and different project and so on and so forth. Thank you. Chair Andreassen? Yes. Yeah. So I know I asked the question and kind of opened this a little bit, but I think I definitely trust Director Menzel. So if he says that is the case, I can get over it, but I think subsequent increases like this will need to be supported. Right? I think it's not a blank check here. Duly noted, and I appreciate the context, Treasurer Hartland, that we've done this before, too. And so keeping an eye on it and making sure that we are doing our due diligence and keeping an eye on increasing costs is important. Yeah. Director Roper? I will say the same. I trust the information provided and just also keeping an eye on it just to ensure that we are being good stewards of our finances. So thank you all for bringing up good points. Thank you, Director Hyman, for your points. Again, this is what Director Zhao mentioned earlier about simultaneously what's happening at the same time. So both points are very valid, though I would like to move forward. I would like to say that I do would like to have that information that's been requested, I think, for us to have as backup to the point was we do get community pushback at times. Yes. And just for us as board members to be able to say, "Hey, we did look at it, and yes, we feel like this was the right decision." So we can feel confident, I guess, in speaking on this decision to the community, I think is still important. So if you have the time and you're up for it, I think the board would appreciate having that information. Does that feel- I have the meetings of both the original contract as well as the amended contract. Lovely. Thank you. Can you email that to us? Thank you. Thank you. Natalia. And does that feel sufficient? No, I mean to get- As in- Yes. Oh, both. To get the information still. Yeah. I think a follow-up would be- Even if we go ahead- Yeah ... with voting. Yeah. Does that feel...? It makes me feel better, yes. Okay. Thank you. You are welcome. So with that, I would look for a motion that the board approves the LTFM and referendum contract adjustments as presented. So moved. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Chair Andreassen? Yes. Just briefly, I just want to note, as Director Zhao said, I think moving forward, I know the agreements are likely available publicly back in prior meeting agendas. To the extent possible, having a full set of contracts moving forward would be very helpful just in being efficient and saving everybody's time. Thank you. That's all I have to say. Sorry. Chair Andreassen, I'm so sorry. But the total referendum budget, so we're actually saving money. So we actually have more referendum money to spend. Is this correct? Yes. Like end of the day, right? Mm-hmm. We enter into this, we're paying a little bit more, but the total cost is actually going down. Correct. That is true. Okay. That is correct. Then I'm much more comfortable then. Yeah. But still, it's a lot of money. Two things are true at the same time. Yes. Yes. Sorry. No, I think that's important for people to understand and for us to keep reiterating, because yeah, at a certain point, it starts feeling not real, right? We're dealing in huge numbers. So okay. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? The chair votes aye, and the LTFM and referendum contracts are approved, adjustments are approved. Thank you both- Thank you ... for your time. Thank you. And for being here- Thank you ... this evening. And that takes us to our single audit report, and I would invite, I don't know, is it director? Jessica Olsen. Jessica Olsen up to the table with Cecil. Yeah. What is the title? Acting. Acting director, I guess. Okay. I'm not quite sure. Thank you. Welcome. Thank you. And I will turn it over to Dr. Thompson. Thomas. Thomas Sorry. Yeah. There's too many of you. Yeah. Thank you, Chair Andreassen and board directors. So tonight, we have an update here from our partner, Jessica Olsen with CISO, on our single audit report on federal funds, and I'll turn it over to Jessica. Thank you. So this is follow-up to the FY25 audit, which was presented to the board on June 23rd and accepted. The single audit is a separate audit than the basic financial statements. It's an accompanying, basically, for the expenditures within our federal grants that we receive. So with that, we go through and make sure from a compliance standpoint that we're following the uniform grant guidance. Overall, the district had $7.6 million in federal dollars that came in in FY25. And of that, we had three programs that were audited. We had Title, ESSER funds, and then we had some SPED funds with our 419. With that, we did have one new finding in FY25, and this was due to a coding error. So we had two staff members with similar names and one replaced the other. The time and effort documentation, the work was done by employee A, but in the Skyward, employee B was still coded to Title. So with that, we have made corrective actions, so going forward that that does not happen again. So that's where that finding came from. We did have two findings that fell off because of corrections. The first one was within time and effort, so we improved our time and effort and met grant compliance. And then prevailing wages, we corrected that as well in FY25. So the single audit is short compared to the basic financial statements, and I'll open up to any questions that you may have. Thank you. Yes. Chair Andreassen? Yes, Treasurer Hartland. Thank you so much for your work on this and your whole team's work on this. I know the audit cycles must have felt endless to you, and I appreciate deeply the work and that we are finished with this and caught up timely for what will be a fiscal year '26 audit since fiscal year '26 ended. I wanted to point out specifically that it does say, "In our opinion, the district has complied in all material respects with the compliance requirements referred to above for the year ending June 30th, 2025." So just want to say that clearly, and then also to say that remember how I had already talked about the Office of Management and Budget once, and how they have not apportioned funds for the Department of Education. That's the same office that's requiring us to do this audit. So just noting that. Duly noted. I agree. Chair Andreassen? Yes. I just have one question. You mentioned that there was, and thank you for the description of it, the one new finding this year. So as I'm in section two looking at the different findings, and they're coded by a number, which number is the new one? It's 2025-05. 05. Yep. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Chair Andreassen? Yes. I suppose just one follow-on to that, and you had noted that two had fallen off, one had been added. That's great, net in the right direction, right? So do you expect more of these to fall off for next year? Yes. So, for sure we'll have the single audit one corrected. So for '26, we will be in a good spot. The audit findings from the basic financial statements, there may be one or two that carry over just because of timing when we found out when these compliance issues were. Oh, yeah. I was just asking about the- But our goal is to continue to work off of those and get down to as minimal as possible. Cool. Thank you. Mm-hmm. Well, I just have to echo gratitude and the feeling of relief that you all must be feeling. I'm happy to see this here, and thank you again for all your work and also for just really clear explanations as to what the findings are and how they've been addressed. I find that oftentimes when we're talking about things like audits and compliance, it can get really convoluted and you are really good at just driving to what it actually is. So thank you very much. And with that, I would look for a motion that the board approves the fiscal year '25 single audit. So moved. Second. I have a motion and a second. Second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? The chair votes aye, and the single audit report for fiscal year '25 is approved. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And that takes us to policies in first read. I will turn it over to Vice Chair Roper. Hello, community. We have been doing our policy meetings. We started those back up back in, I will say about two weeks ago, and have been going over some of the policies that we're talking about tonight. And so I will turn it over to Dr. Lightfoot to go over some of the policies that we have discussed, which is our first policy It is the program, so district code 354, program consultants. Great. Good to be with you. The monitoring committee is in full swing and did some work over the course of the summer with some specific changes and modifications. One of those is to the program consultant policy that you have in front of you this evening. Specific in that, the committee did review the changes that were required. Back to what Jessica Olsen just mentioned, part of what we were looking at is going back to the audit information, making sure that as the audit indicated, what you'll see is under transparency and reporting. Part of the guidance that we looked at was making sure that we had the specific reason for the selection of a consultant, that we have that documented in our records should an auditor pull, that we have the documentation and information stored as part of our process. As was mentioned before in the conversation about Bondwood, with the new software that we're using to track not only the information itself, the contract itself, and the spending to the contract itself, we are also storing the actual document, and then the reasons that are associated with it. So that's the reason for that set of information. The other piece that we wanted to do is to make sure that in that part of the conversation the monitoring committee had on what those reasonable amounts would be specific to when those reports are brought to the board. So you see that modification as well. Those are the two items that were brought forward within the policy. Other members of the monitoring committee can speak to those as well if I've missed anything, but that is for 354. Thank you. Any questions? Chair Andresen? Yes. Yes. Hi. Hi, Dr. Lightfoot. It's policy time, so I appreciate you as always. So just a question. Why the 50,000, right? We have a board approval for 25K. Was there discussion about putting that periodic report for 25? And so why 50? Yeah. Yes, there was. Okay. Go ahead. Oh. Yeah. Actually, it was interesting because the discussion came about based on your comment when we were talking about this, that you didn't want to see happen, that we're discussing that these are coming to the board and it's just conversations for conversations sake. And so I thought in this instance that this could be a space in which, because we already have that threshold of $25,000, that we are alleviating the amount of information that's coming before the board, that would be deemed as more of a rubber stamp type situation. You should know I never agree with myself. I know. Well, I agree with you often, so. Oh, okay. I didn't know that. So yeah. And so- But that was the thought behind it. Okay. And so is there a lot more that are in that 25 to 50 threshold, right? Agree with myself, I guess, that we don't want a lot of noise, but if 25 is important enough that we need to approve it, shouldn't we be like, "Okay, well, let's keep an eye on it, too"? Yes. Just a thought. That was discussed. Okay. And it does mean that we are already seeing them when we're approving them. So this is just another layer of information coming before the board. Okay. But I guess then what's the point of it then if we were already... Okay. I don't know how other people feel. I don't want to take all the time, so. Chair Andresen? Yes. All I have to say is I appreciate this policy. I think that it's going to help with audit compliance and just transparency in general. So, I appreciate clearly the thought and time that was put into it. Thank you. Thank you. And I would like to apologize. I do have an update on weighted grades. Should we discuss that now, or should we continue with the policies first? We can do the policies first. Okay. So then we will go through, so our next po- Were there any other questions- Oh, I'm sorry ... on this- Any other questions? ... policy? Great. All right. Then, that was 354. The next policy that we reviewed, we did make some changes in Policy 707. That's related to transportation. Some specific components that were addressed within transportation and the policy itself. The clarification on the language that we have around licensed childcare facilities within boundaries, and part of looking at where we do the actual transportation itself is to licensed childcare facilities, so that we were very clear about the specification on that, so that we could get that more concrete definition. So that was added as well. And then some minor cleanup with old language that had been outdated and not removed from previous policy. Those were the two specific actions that we took within this. Otherwise, it was general clarification on a couple areas where we needed to identify the transportation supervisor. Some, like I said, old language about midday kindergarten routes, which just don't exist. So a lot of it was some of the cleanup that went with it as well. And with that, if there are specific questions, happy to address those Chair Andreesen? Yes, Director Hyland. Thank you, Assistant Superintendent Lightfoot. I have a question about under regulations on district code 107, regulations 2A4 has been stricken. And that is part of the policy that states that the district may provide students that may not be eligible for transportation when the walk path is within the school's attendance area. If there's an extraordinary hazard area, as determined by the transportation supervisor and/or designee, the district may provide the student with transportation. I just am curious the thought behind striking that paragraph, as it's a optional, may be provided, as opposed to shall be, what the thought behind striking it is. Yeah. A couple. We did have that conversation, and I'll do my best to try to reflect that. Part of what we looked at was, we know that there has been the conversation on what really, from a very clear, transparent way, defines hazard area, and that's always been part of the challenge. And in conversation with Assistant Director Williams, part of the way that we are running it now is that individuals do have the ability to access transportation, because even within a walk zone, there still is transportation provided. So if a question becomes around if in either a no bus zone or within the bus zone itself, transportation is still available. So part of what we wrestled with is, well, it's kind of already there. So we weren't 100% certain that preserving the hazard area that wasn't clearly defined, and with the pay-to-ride option now existing, that this was necessary. So I don't know if I captured that from the committee conversation, but I think that was the impetus for this section. Thank you. That makes a lot of sense. Thank you. Mm-hmm. You're welcome. Chair Andreesen. Yes, Director Thompson. First quick comment, then a quick question. My comment, when I had been reviewing this earlier, I had been wondering, well, where's the pay-to-ride stuff? So just a note to the community that that's a separate policy right underneath this one in our policy section of the website. And then I just had a question. Since some of the stuff in this talks about drivers will understand, drivers will do this, is this socialized with and understood that our new bus company partner has some skin in the game with this one? Absolutely. And when we establish those contracts and have that agreement with our providers, they are subject to the board policy and are needing to implement and to be our agents in that implementation. Thank you. Great. I think we can go on to the next one. All right. And then the 954 is the summer work that we did with business services staff in really refining the Gifts to Schools policy. Specific with that, there were modifications made to the policy itself that really identified that the board retains its control over the gift once accepted, and that the administration of that gift is done so per the board and the board's operations that you have set up and your practices. So we wanted to make sure that language reflected that. So we did make sure that those modifications were made. In addition, we also did a clear review, in particular with language that may be related to the handling of property and securities. As a 501 [c] [9] organization, it becomes more difficult for us to process and manage any securities that would be donated. And as such, there is a general move away from that, in that the management of that does require additional licensure, additional contracting, and becomes an overwhelming burden to organizations to actually have that in consideration. So that portion of it was removed. Beyond that, there were some just minor modifications to some specific language, and I'm happy to address those elements that are here. And just knowing that you've started to see the monthly reports coming in that do tie to some of the work that we did with the policy, as mentioned in the treasurer's report. You will see those on a monthly basis as well. I don't think there are any questions. And that concludes the policies that we have for this evening. Wonderful. So then, I would look for a motion that the board approves the above policies in first read. Further, the board directs the administration to prepare the policies with suggested revisions for approval in second reading at the next meeting as part of consent. So moved. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Seeing none. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? The chair votes aye, and the policies are approved. And I believe Vice Chair Roper, you wanted to give an update on policy work over the summer. Yes. So we held, per request of our amazing student board rep, Manuel, we had a policy, excuse me, a weighted grade work group on July 16th with Dr. Cool, Dr. Thomas, Manuel, me, Shannon, me, Chair Andreassen, and Clerk Wilhelm Garbers. We all met. Also, Dr. Palmer, excuse me- Burch ... Dr. Palmer Burch now. Sorry. So that is her name, Palmer Burch. Yep, she was recently married, so it's Burch now. Yep. So we all had a meeting about weighted grades, and we were asking for additional information, and really were deciding on whether we should continue, deciding whether to keep the conversation going. We were coming to terms with if we should wait at peace, and please, Chair Andreassen, correct me on some of the terminology, because I'm not a high school parent, so I'm still learning all the PCEO and all that. But we were determining whether if we wait retro, is it retroactively? And, so we did request additional information from Dr. Cool. And then we had a meeting yesterday at our policy meeting and determined, I'm sorry. Excuse me. At our policy meeting on the 16th, we determined that we were going to wait for Dr. Burch to meet with her team at the high school and to do some more analysis around weighted grades and to get some more buy-in from the teachers. And so Monday, yesterday, at our policy meeting, we just reiterated that we're going to work with Dr. Burch to get the buy-in, and then she's going to come and provide us with a proposal at our September, excuse me, our September- 15th or the 29th ... 15th board meeting. Yep. That's the timeline, because what they're aiming to do is that they would like for us to adopt a policy this year, so we're able to begin implementing weighted grades, to go into effect this quarter. And so we cannot wait any longer than the 15th, because if we do, then we risk of not being able to wait this quarter, then it wouldn't make sense to wait for the second, third, and fourth quarter. And so, that information should be coming from Dr. Cool and Dr. Burch, dependent on their meeting that they have with the teachers. And we're just very adamant about needing that teacher buy-in. We understand that either or there's going to be a side that's going to be upset, right? It's either the students or the teachers. And so we really want to make sure that we're making a very careful decision around weighted grades, and adopting a policy that works for everyone, but that's also effective for our district and for our students. So that is the update that I have. So just be prepared to hear some more closing arguments September 15th at our board meeting, and hopefully we'll be able to come to a conclusion soon about which policy to adopt. And Dr. Lightfoot and Chair Andreassen, please feel free to jump in with any additional comments. I think that was a good reflection- Yeah. Yeah, of the work and that, yeah, we're waiting for Dr. Palmer Burch's proposal as a monitoring committee, and we'll be working alongside our student board reps as well on this one. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So if you do have any questions, please make sure to email us as soon as possible so we can get those over to Dr. Palmer Burch as she is meeting with her team at the high school. Yeah. Chair Andreassen? Yes. I think just one comment would be, and I know it's in flight, but the second, not the second, but once we're ready to post it, to be available for people to look at, to your point about let's try to do some pre-work for this one. Mm-hmm. Because people have lots of thoughts, and so the sooner the better. I don't want it to be September 10th and nobody knows what's going on, right? Mm-hmm. So are you asking if we can receive maybe a week in advance for this- As early as possible, right? Whenever you feel ready, the sooner the better, I think. I think the process is going to be that the high school is going to give the monitoring committee their proposal, and then the monitoring committee will do the work of crafting a policy that reflects the feedback we've gotten, which includes the proposal. And then at that time, once it passes out of the committee, it will be on an agenda and will be public so people can- Yep ... provide- Yeah ... comment and feedback and We will have our full board discussion as we did before. But duly noted that I think the more time we can give community to provide feedback, and we might want to talk as a monitoring committee about mechanisms to capture that feedback. Mm-hmm. And that could be a discussion that we have at our next meeting. Does that sound- Yeah. No ... reflective of your requests? Do whatever you will. I think I just wanted to point out, the more time that you give people, I think the better the outcome will be. Yeah. Yeah. And we did move our monitoring committee meetings to Mondays. And so if you have anything, again, just be mindful that we meet Mondays at 4:30. Well, every other Monday at 4:30, so we'll be able to get to it as soon as possible when we meet, or we need to maybe meet earlier as well. But we also don't control when we get the proposals. Yes. Yep. Mm-hmm. Anything else on that? Thank you for the update, Vice Chair Roper. You're welcome. And that concludes our policies, and that takes us to our board member reports. It's the reset. Thank you, Dr. Lightfoot. Thank you, Assistant Superintendent Lightfoot. And I guess I will kick it off. So hi, everyone. I'm Shannon Andriessen, and I am in my seventh year on the Hopkins School Board. I am saying goodbye to my recent college grad, although he's not going far. He's just going to the U. So, and otherwise I work as a paraprofessional at Gatewood Elementary. And I was at the vigil yesterday for community members and was struck again with the ways in which this community shows up for each other in really powerful ways. I feel incredibly grateful to be a member of this community, and last night was just one of the ways in which that gratitude was reinforced. So I want to thank everyone who showed up, and also my heart goes out to, in particular, the Alice Smith community. And that staff is near and dear to my family's heart. So, thinking of you and sending you lots of strength in these days that are really joyous and wonderful, because at that age, kids are so excited to go back to school, and knowing that there will be a big hole there when they arrive. So, I will pass it to Vice Chair Roper. Hello, everyone. My name is Brooke Roper, and I have two incredible children in our district. And I will say that, echoing Chair Andriessen, I was also at the vigil last night and just held community very close to my heart, did some prayers, and was just connecting with folks, just giving space. And just want to let them know that I am standing in solidarity with folks and looking forward to just the mental health support that we'll be providing. Just in our school in general, I know that we have some supports and things that will be set up, but I'm just looking forward to just connecting with folks, and just being there as another body to just be present with. I never have the right words to say when these moments happen. So just everyone is just in my thoughts and prayers, and thank you to Councilman Garrido for organizing, and the City of Hopkins for their fast response, and our first responders, who often have to respond to horrific things like that. And so just being mindful of them and their nervous systems as well as they address those, I mean, as they respond to those things. I will say that I tried my best to do some rest this summer. I did a little bit, but I was still working, so just engaged in community. One of the proudest things I will say that I did was I got to be a guest reader at Freedom School this summer. It was so fun, and I love the Freedom School program. I talk about it all the time. Went to their celebration. They did an incredible job at the celebration. And also, I will say just a few quick things that I have just coming up is that I will be... So sorry. Oh, I went to the AMSD board meeting on the 7th. It was a great board meeting. They talked about the elections and all the things that's happening within AMSD. Of course, we had our policy committee. I also did go to National Night Out, where I was able to connect with the Hopkins community. It was just great seeing everyone and just being in different neighborhoods, seeing the fire trucks, and all the folks just enjoying themselves and being amongst each other. I will say that I held a very fun and very powerful, energetic conversation last Thursday with youth from the Minnesota Youth Council. They were talking about the growing movement of students who are working to lower the voting age to 16 ... um, for school board meetings. And so, I mean, excuse me, school board elections and all their civic engagement work they're doing across the state, and it was just very powerful to hear these young people, um, and talk about their work at the Capitol. So I'm so excited that I'm able to connect with them. I was able to go to their, um, their, uh, Minnesota Youth Council celebration at the Mall of America as well. And if you're not connected to Minnesota Youth Council, please do. Um, I have a link that I can share with the board, but they are having a parade over at the state fair that they would love for people to march in with them. Um, and so I believe it's gonna be in a second, but if you're interested in marching with the Minnesota Youth Council in the State Fair parade, I will provide you with the information. But, um, they are some incredible, incredible youth. And I feel like I'm always missing stuff, but, um... Oh, I'm going to the Children's Defense Fund celebration this week. Um, on Thursday, they are the folks who, um, uh, host with the Freedom Schools, and they fund the Freedom Schools, and so just learning about what they're doing across the state as well. It's gonna be a really powerful event with them. And, uh, for the interest of time, I think I'll just save something else 'cause I don't know, and I'm getting a little bit sleepy, so I'll let you all go. Yep. There you go. Hi, this is Jiming Zhao. Uh, this is my third year on the school board. Uh, I've got two kids in the district, in the Xing Xing program and middle school. Um, so rising middle schooler, very excited for that. Um, you know, obviously, uh, you know, the, the tragedy, uh, is, is near and dear to us, um, and I guess my update around that is, uh, we had a safety committee, uh, meeting, uh, the day after the event. And, um, you know, what, what struck me was that, uh, you know, our, our first responder, uh, f- friends and colleagues, um, came and they showed up, right? I think life is a lot of just showing up, and so they made the time even though they were super busy and, and distracted to, for the Hopkins schools. And so, um, I think, uh, you know, in times like this wh- which happen pretty much all too often, um, uh, to paraphrase, uh, Mr. Rogers, right? It's like when bad things happen, um, you know, what we can do is look to the people that show up and, and, and, and try to help. And so, um, you know, the, the meeting was full of, uh, conversation about what services that the school can provide and coordinating with our first responders and, you know, obviously we wanna do it in a lawful manner and, and in a way that protects everybody's privacy. But, um, I was just struck by, you know, how much everybody was just kinda aching to help and so, um, you know, definitely a lot of good things that are happening with that partnership and, uh, you know, thank you to, uh, the Hopkins and Minnetonka first responders, police, fire, everybody. They, they make the time in their busy schedules to show up for our school and, um, and so of course, you know, our school is also showing up to support the Alice Smith community and, uh, you know, I think it's just, um, you know, breaks my heart. Yes. Go. Um, my name is Johanna Hyman. This is my first full year on the board. Um, so I'm excited for the school year to get going. And I will keep my report pretty short. I was also a guest reader at Freedom School, um, which I absolutely loved doing. I, um, posted about this on my social media, but I'll just say it again, I, I spent a lot of time at, at summer camps and being in the environment, uh, of Freedom School, seeing the melding of the spirit and joy and excitement of kinda that summer camp energy with community and education was just so touching and kinda makes me wish school all year was like that. Um, and I, I just, I, I think it's an amazing program, and I'm, I'm so grateful that we, um, can offer it in our, in our school district. Um, I had the opportunity to march with the marching band in the Raspberry Festival- Oh, yeah ... um, with, uh, Vice Chair Roper and, uh- Did you forget my name? No. I, I just- Oh. Director Zhao. And I, I believe Treasurer Hartland was there, too. Mm-hmm. And Superintendent Dr. Thomas was there, too. Um, it was a very hot day, and we marched 18 blocks down downtown, the middle of downtown Hopkins. Um, and it was really fun to see everybody out and about, and, um, support our, uh, high school musicians in the marching band. Mm. Um, I'm looking forward to the district kickoff and picnic-themed lunch next week, and I am very much looking forward to getting my rising first grader and rising fourth grader back to school because it has been a long summer, and it is time for everyone to go back to school. And, um, and they're excited, too, because they love their school. Mm. Um, and I just wanna finish by saying I'm coming into this school year with just a tremendous amount of hope and excitement for what's ahead for our school district, and I want to officially welcome Dr. Thomas, and I know, um, this is to the community and to the board and our teachers and staff and admin, transi- transitions are hard, and there is a steep learning curve, and there's bound to be some- Fits and stops and kinks along the way, so none of us should expect everything to happen perfectly or overnight. But I do hope we can all approach the transition with some grace and patience, and just be optimistic about what's to come. There's something really energizing about a fresh beginning, and I think we have an opportunity to learn from the past without being defined by it, and to look forward to where we're going, and move forward together around what should always be our shared purpose, which is doing what is best for our students, our families, and the community. So, I'm fired up. I'm excited about the year. I'm excited about new leadership in many buildings, and excited for our teachers to get back and get started, and looking forward to see what we can accomplish together this year. With that. Okay. Kai Thompson, third year on the board. I have three kids who will be in sixth grade, 10th grade, 11th grade. We're also just kind of in the excitement mode of school starting back up. Sports starting to happen. Was at the high school last night for the parents' athletic meeting. Was really good. Always impressed by the athletic director at the high school. And beyond that, yeah, also excited for Dr. Thomas's start, was a great first SI report tonight, and looking forward to many more. So, thank you. And I am Rachel Hartland. I use she/her pronouns. I serve as our treasurer, and this is my fifth year, but my sixth fiscal year that I have been on the board. And I have two high schoolers now, which is wild to me, and a middle schooler, because they were such little elementary school babies when I started on the board. Mm-hmm. Thank you, Dr. Thomas. I am so excited that you're here. Thank you for all that you have done already, and look forward to walking alongside you as we kick off this school year. And so please, always let us, the board, know. Thank you for the invitation to your Listen and Learn sessions, and please let us know all the places we can help. Super quick, if the community followed along with our board meeting today, and they were curious about the Site Logic agreement that we talked about, our fearless admin, Natalia, sent those to the board members. So the community can go back to April 8th, 2025. That board meeting packet has the professional services agreement. 29 and 30 show their compensation and how they could add services. And then on June 10th was the other time I referenced earlier in the meeting where we amended that. So the community can follow along. And I did a whole bunch of things this summer. You can ask me about them if you want to. But before we close tonight, I just want to say a moment to say thank you to all of our staff. Our district and all of us here in this room are entrusted to do something incredibly important, and there are 1,300-plus people that bring a ton of their time and talent and patience, and their love to it. And as you head into your final week of summer, I hope everyone can get some real rest, spend some time with loved ones, and just know that you're coming back to work. That can be really difficult, but changes lives, and I'm really grateful. Mm-hmm. Taryn Driessen. Thank you. Oh. I'm sorry. I forgot to say something. Mm-hmm. I just want to just give a big shout-out to School Board Partners, who actually treated me and two other school board members, Shantel Allen and Kelsey Dodson from Osseo, and Helen Bassett from Robbinsdale, Shantel Allen's from Saint Paul, to a all-expense paid retreat this summer in Tucson, Arizona, at a place called Marival. And it was a retreat that was just basically to help school board members with their wellness practices and their wellbeing. And it was just such an incredible time because we got to be in a community in just wellness with other school board members across the nation. And so thank you so much, School Board Partners, for that retreat. And I would love to share all the information with you all to get involved with them because they're an incredible organization that really does support school board members holistically. So, thank you. Thank you. I forgot that big part of my update. Mm-hmm. Well, thank you. And thank you all for your updates. It is an important part of our school board service that we bring back what we learn, either from professional development or from the community, to the board table to share with each other, but also with our community. So, thank you for taking the time to do that. I also appreciate that we are being disciplined about our meetings so that we have time to give reports out to the community, because it is part of our duties. So I do want to draw board members and our community's attention to an incidental report that is part of our agenda. It is a critical report in my opinion, and it is the health services report. It is annual, and there is really good information contained within it. So please take some time to look at it and review it. And with that, I would look for a motion to accept the incidental report. 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 aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? The chair votes aye, and the incidental report is accepted. And I would then look for a motion to adjourn. 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 aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? The chair votes aye, and this meeting of the Hopkins School Board is adjourned at 10:16 PM. Thank you all. Thank you. Chair Andre-