her and just should we just check in? Yeah. Um since we'll be talking about um something that came up this year in the um that we heard about through the LAC and um which is shifting school board election elections to evenear elections. Um, as you know, currently Hopkins, we do odd-year elections and that has been our tradition, but we are definitely in the minority across the state in doing this and um, in fact, it started looking into the possibility of being told to change and um, because of the proposed legislation, we're not sure where that stands. I don't think it's really moving forward in the state legislature, but since we had done the research to be prepared for it, um I thought it is worthy of a discussion at the uh the board table. And I'll turn it over to um Treasurer Hartland who is co-chair of the LAC to kind of give some context and background and what we found out when um we were looking into the possibility of having to do this switch. M yeah, wonderful. Thank you. Um, as Chair Andre mentioned, this our school district is in the minority for running oddyear elections and I can't speak to why the why that decision was made originally. Um, however, it is known and one of the reasons that the Minnesota state legislature was considering moving every municipality that does oddyear elections to evenear elections was because it is more democratic to do it that way. Um, a lot more people participate in elections when they are done during even years. And for example, if you go to our school board's most recent election, fewer than 7,000 people voted in that election. And we know that there are approximately 40,000 voters in our district. Um there are 11,000 about 800 in the city of Hopkins alone. And that's not people, those are registered voters. So that's different from the census count, but registered voters. So, um, with those sorts of numbers, um, I didn't actually do the math between slightly under 7,000 people voting and 40,000 voters, but it you can tell that that is a very low turnout. That's something like 15% of people. and to move us to move our schoolboard elections onto even year would put us in alignment with larger elections. So it would put us in with our state level representatives, our federal level representatives, and then the president of course on their own rotating schedules. The city of Hopkins and Minnetonka are also looking at this endeavor. And if one of us goes to evenear elections, then likely all of the other bodies will at least attempt or will discuss. They are currently discussing it, but that will probably drive those other bodies to move as well. The reason for that is because currently every municipality that is putting on an election has to divide the costs between for that election. And if we were to move off of oddyear elections, we would split the cost with a much bigger pot of people. And so our our district's estimated savings if we moved to evenear elections are around $50,000. It could be more. We still will bear some expenses. Those expenses come from renting locations. Now, we can use our buildings for location uh for voting locations, but we don't um our buildings aren't sufficient to match everyone in every district. So, we do rent spaces. We um contribute to the cost of staffing those spaces for elections. Um we print ballots and have a variety of fees associated with running an election. And so currently those fees are shared by us, Minnotonka, Hopkins, and I I honestly can't remember if you know because our our district stretches into several cities. I honestly couldn't speak about like U Plymouth uh the city of Edina, which we do or excuse me, Edina public schools. We have a little corner of Edina in the Hopkins School District. They fairly recently moved to Evenyear elections. I think they estimated that they saved something like $60,000 on their and they um I can't remember what year they did that but originally the board their board was kind of going back and forth and decided to make the move because of the money savings because everyone's been in deficit or a lot of districts have been in deficit for the last several years. And I think that is the background that I wanted to give. Um I don't know that I have every answer to questions, but I'm interested in people's initial reactions and if they have additional questions about this topic. Uh just one clarifying comment. uh director or treasurer Hartland is that um I think Dr. Mary Perry Reed just got updated financials from um Terrarero and there's an additional uh $15,000 savings associated with moving um those the elections in time and labor costs of 15,000. And um that was for a um person who whose position has not been filled in administration. And so we don't even know at this point if we have the staff to run an even year election, an odd year election. So that's another consideration for this move. I think that's accurate. Chair Andre and I I believe what director Chapanduka shared is that the total estimated cost is around $150,000 in savings if you include time and labor. Oh, even more. Okay. So, that would be in addition to like our real costs, those things that I mentioned. I see. So, our So, there's more work that needs to be done. So in addition to splitting a pot of resources of money amongst this smaller pool, there's a certain amount of work that needs to be done in our district bears a greater share of that cost is kind of what I'm hearing. Um because of that too because of operating an odd year election rather than an even year. Chair Andrew. Oh. Oh, I'm sorry. We're um we're trying to figure out what the correct dollar amount is. Mr. Chapanduka, did was it an extra $15,000 on top of the 50? Correct. Okay. So, not a total of 150,000. Okay. Okay. Oh, thank you so much. All right. We've been adding up the um the various sources that contribute to this total cost. So I think we're at about 65,000. Thank you, Chair Andre. Okay. So there still are costs. Of course, we will still bear cost, but instead of spending 150,000, we would be spending more like 85,000. Is that approaching accurate? I'm confused. Is this not the savings? It's Well, it's both what we would spend if we ran an odd year election and what we would save if we move to evenear elections. Terrarero, do you have a um a rough breakdown of the cost? So, we know there is time and labor. There's training involved. Do we send the elections administrator to training and there is the equipment? May perhaps you can just give us an understanding of what all of the um cost factors are. Sure. Uh, and I don't have the actual kind of breakdown uh of the uh specific uh items uh but the majority of the $50,000 was tied to uh election judges uh was tied to some of the rental spaces uh with other municipalities was tied to a lot of the supplies and material we have bought for elections was also tied to uh the different equipment we have either uh leased from other municipalities or uh even bought for the district. Uh what wasn't included the additional $15,000 uh was the uh district uh coordinator who kind of spends quite a bit of time about 25% of their time uh managing the logistics around around the elections. And again this is based on uh information from 2 years ago. So if you factor in inflation, uh it might actually kind of get us closer to to that uh 70,000 or so. So these are rough estimates based on what we've spent before based on what was spent before. Correct. Thank you. So, I just want to be clear. We're looking at if we do go to even year elections, we're looking at saving um for each election that we don't run um about $63,000. Is that correct? Well, what's going to happen is because we have to share some of the cost. So when we actually run the election in an odd year, we are bearing the brunt of the cost. Uh when we run in an even year uh and then spread the costs with other uh municipalities uh and cities then our uh burden to the district will be will be minimal. I can't give you a specific amount cuz I mean we definitely have to uh get into those uh those arrangements uh because the cost of space uh equipment uh some of the suppliers which we are actually paying 100% will be a shared burden. So then another clarifying question I had just represented that as savings the either 50 or 63,000 if we're including the cost of this uh person this coordinator was are those savings or is that the cost roughly $63,000 of which we would still be responsible for some moving to election year or is that I don't Is that question clear? Yeah. So when we run the elections in an audi uh we are paying the cost 100%. Sure. So there's an element of costsaving uh based on what we have seen uh during the last election. Uh but we also have uh some obligation to pay some of the cost when we share them with other municipalities. Yeah, I do understand that. I think my question is if we run an odd year election and we get bills on printing and staffing and training and renting equipment and then the time for the person in the district, does that equal $63,000 or so? or does that equal more like a hundredome,000 and we're estimating to save $60,000 I'll say for simplicity's sake. Yeah. So uh so the 60s something thousand we are talking about here was based on what we have tracked when we did the last election. Uh so it doesn't include any inflationary increases going into the future. uh and it could be more uh and again uh when we did it uh and we kind of because in the past we've partnered with other municipalities when it comes to elections uh so we're doing this on our own trying to navigate a lot of uh complicated elements uh around how to run the elections so uh it might be more going into the future u uh in terms of uh how we uh how we navigate the logistics in different uh cities we we run the elections uh if we go into an even year uh the cost will be diluted. Sure. So uh what I can't do is to give you a specific number uh because that's something we'll just have to work with other municipalities when it comes to the shared burden between spaces and uh equipment and personnel too. Okay. Yeah. I think that the concept of us sharing the cost of the election, spreading that burden out amongst more municipalities is is pretty well understood. I guess when you say it could be more, you know, not we haven't done an even year election, so it's between inflation and not having done it in an even year. We don't know exactly how the expenses will fall. But when you say it could be more, do you mean the cost or do you mean the savings could be more? uh the cost if we are running the elections in an aud. Yeah. So now market conditions uh and we do the elections process on our own. It could be it could be more. It also could be additional savings uh when we partner with other uh with other um uh municipalities and run this election together. So both so our projected cost for running an oddyear election is greater given inflationary increases and also then the potential for savings is more by splitting that burden with other municipalities. Okay. Thank you. So, I'm not sure I'm clear now that you asked your question, Treasure Heartland. So, are we saying that this like approximate $63,000 is our historical cost of running um oddyear elections? That's the totality of the the cost. So the the last time we ran the elections on our own, I believe was in 2023 and that's where that cost is coming from. Okay, great. Thank you. Okay, I'm just running a little behind. So, thank you for keeping me up. You had a question, Director Joe? Yes. Uh, thank you. Um, I was just asking would we be thinking about this cycle, right? So this 25 election are we is the thought pushing it back a year to even or would next cycle that is one of the options that the legislature had in their bill that school boards could decide the timing um and now that it isn't a um requirement or I guess we're not sure but um if we decide to do it we could either extend current terms or um wait for another one and shorten terms. That would be a decision that the school board gets to make. Okay. And we could vote on that and make that decision. Yes, the school board would be making the decision. Okay. Great. Any other questions? It's kind of a weird question, but would people whose term would either be lengthened or shortened because that would be everyone would one group or another have to abstain from voting or Oh, I don't think we would have a quorum if we did that. So, at least with one of them, we'd have to vote. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Because we're all going to be impacted by the decision at some point or another. It would essentially extend our terms a year effectively. Yeah, it did. If we chose to if we chose to. Yes. Or um Yeah. And there's just different options I think for um school boards in um statute and within our own policies that we could look into more deeply if this is something that the whole board thinks is maybe a good idea for the reasons that um Treasure Hartland outlined. Um, I also when I was thinking about the cost because I did get a call um from the League of Women Voters and they were asking um who they should communicate with about the upcoming election and I was like I don't know who to tell them to talk to. Um, and so I think that there's, you know, that staffing concern is really, um, top of mind for me as well. Um, that this is, I think, becoming increasingly a heavy lift for the district to run these elections and not just in dollars, but other resources. Um, so yeah. Anything else board members are thinking about? Just out of curiosity, um, Chair and Dre, if, uh, we switch over to the even years, will there be any elections on the odd years? Like any other m municipality like judges or I'm just curious just to see like who would be on those odd yearar um, elections. Yeah, I think we have some city partners who I know Minnetonka their city council is and mayor are odd year. Okay. So sometimes they're on I think all the times they're on our ballot. Okay. Um so we can share the cost with them. I don't know I only know that because I'm an election I serve as an election judge in Minnetonka. So I don't know about the other cities but I would assume there are some. Maybe Hopkins does. Does anyone know? Anyone live in Hopkins? Yes, we are. We're part of the city's leaders, city and district leaders. Yeah. um I don't committee and the I know the very official title here clearly and both Hopkins and Minnotonka have indicated kind of a willingness to switch but have not fully committed and are all sort of we the school district and both of those cities are kind of waiting to see because everyone involved knows that if one of if one of the three of us we're the major people on or the major municipalities on those ballots. If one of the three of us leaves, then that leaves the remaining cost to be borne by the remaining two municipalities. So, most recently at our Mhm. at that meeting. Okay, that makes sense. They was just a quick wonder like who would be but yeah, thank you. Yeah. Came up at a quarterly mayor city manager meeting where there was um significant interest in moving to even year. Yeah. Um but just you know starting to identify all of the logistics and pros and cons but Hopkins and Minnotonka are still an odd year. So when will we need to make the decision? Um because I know elections are coming up. So is there a deadline for us to have this confirmed? Yeah, I think we would have to have it um confirmed before um the deadline for declaring an election, which I think it would be our June 10th meeting, we would have to do it before then. Um so if we were thinking it would impact this coming fall. Yeah. So that would be the deadline. Yeah. I think the decision has to be made by July 1 and knowing that the board's final um meeting for this school year is June 10th. So, uh the board will have to make that decision by then. And that's when filing opens, right? Or is that in August? That's in August. Mhm. We did set aside time on June 24 in case we do need another board meeting in June, but it would but that's usually we use that second opportunity in June as sort of a last resort. Thank you. Any other thoughts, questions? Is there an appetite to do a temperature check like kind of like we did with transportation as far as what people are thinking? As long as nobody in the community construs it as us voting like making a decision. Oh yes. Like this is just kind of oh this is where I'm leaning right now. Yes. Kind of. Yes. Not a vote. Okay. Yes. Yes. Okay. Sure. Is everybody else would you like to get started? Are other people comfortable? I guess I was Okay. All right. Okay. Yeah, I think it makes sense and I think cost savings and and personnel um I think it makes sense to do so for this upcoming cycle. I concur. Um I'm leaning toward that is a really good decision. Um, and I'm very uncertain about the timing. Oh, me. Um, I think I echo what you say, Chair Andre. I think it makes sense. I feel open to either that scenario where we do something this year and extend a term or do something next year and would have to decide the impact to the people on that cycle. Um, I concur as well. I think that it is a great idea, especially if it's cost savings and if it just feels like it makes the most sense in this moment. So, I would be open to exploring that and would love to understand just how that would just mostly just impact, you know, like the district financially. So, um, I do have a quick question. If let's say if this was to pass through, um, And I say like it just didn't work out for some reason. Like could we go back to odd years or it's just kind of like set in stone. I mean it's just like a you know just a thought just like whatever someone says. Oh this didn't work. So we got to go back to odd years. It'd be going against the trend across the state though. Yeahing moving back to odd year. And I believe we retain that control unless the legislature changes it. Um so I I think like by statute there'd be nothing preventing as from my understanding and I am not an expert but we like um chair and said we did look into this as the LAC a bit when it looked like the legislature might force it or I don't know if that's the right word might make that legislate it. Um, and I I don't, you know, without the state making some change, I think we have the decision to decide what year to run our elections. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's I think it's a great idea to be honest. Yeah. I think I share similar sentiments as have previously been um addressed. Um, you know, very open to it. I think kind of the two things I' I'd want to see is a little more firm on the financial analysis. It seems pretty wishy-washy right now. Um and then it it seems like it would be pretty important to have alignment from the city of Hopkins, city of Minnitonka who've shared our cycles as far as I can tell. And because you know we'd want to be sure that we're sharing the cost still. Um, you mean you wouldn't want to get left on this cycle if one or both or opposite if we moved and they stayed, you know, just I think there should be alignment. I think that that in a perfect world that for sure would happen. you know, as much as I could since we can't like decide with them, both of those municipalities have indicated an an interest in doing so and really wanted to know what the board decided and they wanted to know what the board decided before the deadline so that they could have another meeting and potentially if they wanted to. And that's that's kind of as much as I know. And I agree that being aligned would be really good and it wouldn't maybe feel great to our city partners if they suddenly had to share more of that cost, but they are like obligated to do so. And something that's fun about them is they can levy that if they want, they can raise taxes to pay for it if they need to. If the two of if city of Hopkins and city of Minnitanka are bearing the cost alone of an odd-year election, they can say, "Oh, that costs more money." And pass that cost on to their tax base and the school board does not have that power. Nope. So that um I don't know. I'm just trying to say like to the extent of which we like I want to communicate with them. We can work with them. We can try to make them move together. Their voting bodies are their are their own animal that like I said we can we can absolutely stay in contact with and I think they're leaning that way. Yeah, we do stay in contact with. Yeah. And Golden Valley too, I think. Oh, yeah. I think you're right. feel like they run their city council at the same time. Okay. Um I think but again I like your point. They can raise the funds. We can't. All right. Well, thank you all. I appreciate your um your thoughts and input on that. Um and I think it was a a good discussion. Um we're now going to move to the second item on our agenda for this evening, which is the bond referendum projects draft. Um so I'd like to invite um director Chapanda to the table and I'll turn it over to and friends and I'll turn it over to Dr. Mary Perry Reed. Thank you, Chair Andre. So, um, I would like you to help me welcome our three presenters. Um, welcome back, director of business services, Mr. Chapanduka and, um, good evening, Mr. Newman, uh, supervisor for buildings and grounds, and Jake Berg from Site Logic. Thank you for being here with us. So, our district, Hopkins Public Schools, is preparing to go out to our community for a bond referendum this coming November. And we are preparing to ask our community to support very important facility upgrades across our campuses. These these improvements include safety and security enhancements, accessibility and inclusivity features in our environments as informed by ADA regulations, renovating single stall bathrooms at the high school and expanding student centered and flexible learning spaces across our schools um including outdoors and our playgrounds and athletics. aletic spaces. So this evening and over the next few weeks, we'll share more detail about the proposed projects. We are very grateful to members of our community who showed up to the several engagement sessions co-hosted by Hopkin, Site Logic, and Fielding International. Thank you for all folks who showed up and provided feedback, and we look forward to um continuing to work with our community. So what we're going to do is present our school board with um some information about those in those engagement sessions we held and at a high level some of the projects that are falling into place and a timeline as well. So I'll turn it over to you Mr. Chapanduka and and you can provide some additional framing and then introduce Jake and Kevin. Thank you. Thank you Dr. Mary Pirid. Uh just to add to uh what you just mentioned uh uh this uh presentation uh is informational uh but it's also predicated on a lot of groundwork which has been done between the partnership with uh the school district and uh Site Logic and uh Site Logic is our partner in a number of projects in the district for um uh for a number of years around of the construction projects as well as our long-term facility maintenance. So they do have a great understanding of our terrain. They do have a great understanding of the shape and uh healthy of our buildings as well as the work which has been done historically to get get us to where where we are. Uh without taking too much time, I'll give the opportunity to Mr. Beg to take us through the presentation and I also have Mr. uh Newman here who is our assistant director of uh buildings and grounds who is also some context around uh our facilities and uh what the referendum could do to enhance um uh some of the future instructional needs of the district. Thank you. Thank you, Director Chapanduka and uh Superintendent Mary Perry Reed. Um happy to be back here and presenting to the board tonight. We're very excited. Um as director Chapanduka mentioned, this has been um many years um in the works, but we've made a a lot of progress over the last couple months. So very excited to to share the the great update we have this evening. Um, we would like to cover a little bit about what has happened, um, what's happening right now and and look to timelines of what what might be happening here in the the near-term future as we go through the agenda this evening. Um, moving to the next slide, um, you'll see the the orange highlighted box here that highlights we are now moved into the workshopping phase. Uh so most recently um going a a slot backwards there we were in really in the planning and development. So we were engaging focus groups uh partners with within the district the educational community to learn about their needs. um having our architects, engineers come up with conceptual project ideas, uh develop cost estimates, putting all the groundwork in place to be able to look at what are the needs and and hopes um in terms of the district for future of its facilities and have that information ready to present to district leadership to to look at prioritizing certain scopes and projects. So very excited to be at this milestone um with with a lot of work that has occurred and um and a and a bit of work between now and June where we're striving towards reaching the consensus on on a plan moving forward. As we move to the next slide, uh this really represents kind of a um a a mind map, if you will, of all of the various inputs,formational sessions, and how that boils down to a decision-making framework for the referendum. you'll see things on there um referencing Pathfinder projects, demographic studies, um there were several community surveys that have been done. All of those are inputs in helping the district leadership team and in the district overall make an informed decision about what's right for the community. And as we move to the next slide, wanted to call out and really talk a little bit about the importance of the listening sessions in that process. So, moving a couple slides. Uh, the facilities for the future listening sessions were designed to engage families, students, staff, and the broader community in helping shape the future of Hopkins public schools. The sessions really aimed to gather input that would guide district leadership in the decision-making process. There were, as you can see there, listed, numerous focus group sessions held over the period between March and April. um as well as individual meetings with each of the principles um represented at the buildings. Um and those sessions were held in a combination of virtual and inerson um gettogethers. So moving to the next slide. Um thank you for the participation in the listening session to to the board as well. Appreciate everyone's um participation there. And for those that um you know may be listening in, I wanted to provide a little overview of what the agenda was so they have some context around the listening sessions. Um number one, the sessions really underscored the significance of getting community input uh for district leadership in the school board. It was also used as an opportunity to communicate back some of the survey results that maybe the survey didn't reach other community members that were part of it. So to to give a data point to inform those members that attended on on where people were at within the community. Um it also provided a platform to communicate the district's facility story. Um and and a great one it is. It's over 20 years of really dedicated uh financial stewardship and um management of your long-term facilities maintenance plan. um putting the district in a you know exceptional spot right now to to be looking at some of these transformations in your spaces. So providing that context is important. Um another key component of the listening sessions were an update on the 47 educator-driven Pathfinder project proposals that were provided and highlighting the five that that advanced to the uh design stage as well. And then there were a couple exercises meant to engage the participants and and get them opening up and discussing some feedback, providing that valuable input to us. So there were a few to capture some of their um far out hopes hopes and and wonders for the district, understand what are the some of the things that may be keeping them up at night and what worries them. Um and then some more pointed uh group discussion around what they really feel like um are are some needs and things to be included in the facilities. Um again the the listening sessions um really communicated the district's commitment to transparency and collaboration in this process. So highlighting the importance of their feedback in district leadership u providing that to the leadership to make feel confident in a direction forward and ensuring that there's overall alignment in a shared vision moving forward. Next slide we have four of kind of the broad questions that that were asked to facilitate some of that discussion. So I'll read a couple of them here. What are the community's priorities for school facilities? Um, it it's meant to be a little bit open-ended and vague. We want to know what's what's on individual minds rather than than asking pointed questions. So, we did capture a lot of good feedback that we'll we'll share a summary of here shortly. Um, we also wanted to know the concerns and challenges that they see with the current facilities um and ensure that those are addressed. Um, and and finally, there was a catchall. So, what what other considerations are on their minds for items that need to be addressed in facilities planning? Next slide, please. Um, and here we have a a summary of the listening sessions. Some of the I guess six themes that emerge from all those sessions. Uh, all the data that was collected and you'll see the titles there. Safety and security was one recurring theme that um that came up quite frequently. So ensuring that there are enhanced security measures including additional cameras, uh door alarms, key card access, um modernization of of infrastructure. So overall updating um to contemporary learning environments, um technology was was one that was mentioned several times and then space and capacity. Um another one highlighted in the top right was the community engagement and support. So the idea that while these are primarily educational facilities designed designed for students that the community benefits from these spaces in numerous ways as well um in shared spaces. So I think o overall great feedback and wanted to mention this was a summary of some of the themes here but there's a um a detailed report that summarizes the listen listening sessions that will be available. Any questions on the listening session portion or anything we've we've covered so far? Sharon Andre. Yes. I just have a quick question. Are these listed in order? I thank you for um what you shared so far. I was curious about whether or not safety and security, community engagement, support, is that listed in priority order based on the themes that you were seeing being raised from families. Like safety and security was like 100 responses versus community engagement was 80 or something like that. You get where I'm going? I I do. Yeah. And that's a great question. Not on this slide that I showed. So the the order on there doesn't signify the uh occurrence or or priority from them. Um there wasn't a specific prioritization exercise that we had them go through. It was more what was the feedback collected. Um however in some of the community surveying that went out um I believe there was data indicating security was pulled so there were more percentages to indicate how how many people responded towards that. Thank you. You're welcome. All right. So, so moving into potential project categories. So, I mentioned we're we're now in the workshopping category. So, understanding what what are um amongst all these different categories, what are going to be some of the projects that that may move forward. Uh we see safety and security enhancements rise to the top there. It covered some of what that means in terms of cameras. Um another one on there is uh secure entries. So, there's several secure entries around the district. um how can some of those be improved upon and how can we add to that where is needed would be encompassed in that category. Um ADA upgrades uh so there's several opportunities to to enhance ADA upgrades around the district with some of the other projects that are being considered uh renovations and additions. those uh trigger an ADA upgrade of certain spaces actually to the point where a percentage of your overall budget needs to be allocated to ADA upgrades. So um we're identifying and quantifying all the potential opportunities to invest in ADA alongside that. Uh we see career technical education renovation um in spaces as well highlighted on there. Um another one is parking lot reconstruction. So, that one probably differs from the others in terms of it being a a real infrastructure driver in terms of the the need for those. So, there's several parking lots that require some infrastructure upgrade. And um Kevin Newman, if you'd like to to speak to those a little bit more as well. Well, each year we submit a 10-year uh facil long-term facility maintenance plan to the board and to the state of Minnesota. And what has happened over the years as as the bond has fluctuated in amounts. Um we have gone through a parking lot schedule of replacement and upgrades to uh some as our parking lots age and deteriorate. Uh what has happened over the years now um some projects have been pushed to different years that have resulted in some spikes in our long-term facility maintenance. The referendum gives us an opportunity uh to level out some of those spikes we see in the 10-year plan where uh if we're looking at keeping an even amount. Um so we're just those opportunities are available to us with parking lot reconstruction. The biggest thing that has challenged the district is meeting the needs of our uh watershed districts. And so when we in the past, you know, parking lots was just, you know, take the top off, put a new asphalt layer down and call it a day. Um, now things have changed with the watershed districts and the need for retaining our storm water on site and that has escalated costs because of that. Over the years, it's we've had to push some of the projects more into the future just because of budget constraints. So, in a nutshell, uh, parking lot reconstruction, if it's, uh, possible in the referendum, can help our long-term facility maintenance 10-year plan. And and um, another add to the parking lot reconstruction in addition to the watershed requirements is um, uh, the utility infrastructure that's that's underground. um due to due to the age um many of them make make sense to replace at the same time when you're ripping the parking lots up and and digging that deep. So some of the parking lots to to Kevin Newman's point of you know the cost escalating with the utility infrastructure underground and the watershed had had drove up the cost on some of [Music] those. Um, additionally, there's several uh playgrounds that uh that would be due for um some some renovation, new surfaces, new playground equip equipment really throughout um many of the elementary schools as well as uh the middle schools. Um several of the Pathfinders and other uh potential projects um include additional outdoor learning environments and uh updates to special education spaces and enhancements. And then an overall theme theme of modern flexible learning spaces. A great example of that is the the Pathfinder projects themselves. You you see the the beautiful picture there done by our our our partners Fielding International of the proposed Alice Smith uh Da Vinci Commons as well. So when we think about modern flexible learning spaces, that's a great image to capture that. Um the last bullet under the the modern flexible learning spaces is ICC 500 storm shelters. And that's another state requirement. Um when you add a certain amount of square footage and occupancy to your building, uh you are required to have a storm shelter uh to to keep people safe during that time. So, as we're looking at these potential additions, we're also looking at what's the best place and best way to configure storm shelter uh that goes along with that. Chair Andre. Yes. Yeah. I do have a question for the the panel. Um if I may. Um so, did you consider uh improving walkability uh in the school district? Um, I think one of the things that we recently did is increase the uh bus or decrease the busing uh zone and so there probably is more going to be a demand for better walking to school. Um, are is that a consideration in any of these maybe in the parking lot area? So, if you look at some of our newer parking lots and the examples I could would give and show you is Metobrook, especially for the virtual edu addition to the Metobrook campus. We've added uh we added some very nice access to the campus from uh Glenwood Avenue and uh and then the other one would be uh at the high school uh with the addition of the Royal Athletic Center parking lot there. Uh we added in sidewalks from areas that no didn't exist. So yes, uh Glenn Lake also with its new parking lot has new sidewalks access there also. So every parking lot we also work with uh safe uh passage to schools, the bicycling and things of that nature. We have some very active members in our community and so especially Yeah, you're right. the parking lots is our number one, but if we've had other needs uh brought to our attention, uh we would address them all. So, yeah, I ju just trying to put everything together, right? And just make sure that it's a consideration and uh because I do think that there's going to be an increased demand for it and it would be good if we were proactive about it. But great. Thanks. Mhm. To answer your question, um, Director Jao, we do meet um, bi-weekly as a referendum team and we've discussed this explicitly. So looking at what plans are currently in place to renovate or um upgrade parking lots and where are there opportunities to make um cost efficient um improvements to um accessibility for walkers, bikers, drop off. I think in the eventual referendum discussion, you know, kind of the communicating with the people that will be voting on it, that that would be a important story to tell that hey, we're going to need, you know, people are going to walk more and we have considered that and this is necessary to make that happen. And just to bring your attention, there are two active groups. There's the West group working with Baker Street. Yep. that uh I've attended and our engineer that works with the district has attended and there's communication there and we just had a meeting uh Monday at the high school with the Cedar Lake project that will be starting next year. We have uh some staff and that looking at bike routes, but uh definitely it was brought up you know the need for safe student and family access not just to the high school but as a campus we have Tanglin Elementary and North. So there are two active groups at this time, you know, looking taking advantage of the trail I think that's going down Baker and then the re uh surfacing and work being done on Cedar Lake this coming summer, this following summer. Again, I think it's important for us to keep in mind that um most of that accessibility to our schools is out of our purview. part of the m municipality and in the case of um west it's it's even the county they're the ones who who manage Baker and so I think that working with those partnerships is really good and I also want to remind everyone on the board that um walking to school is not an option for a lot of our sites so um we need to think about all the different ways in which families need to access their school buildings So, thank you. Any additional questions related to the project potential project category overview? Chair Andre. Yes. I had a question about the playgrounds and so I'm assuming this is around accessibility and inclusivity and making sure that our playgrounds really serve all students. um wondering if you could talk a little bit more about that. Um would the Glen Lake site be used as a model or kind of how are we thinking about playground renovation? Yes. So, two of our largest playgrounds are up for uh Metobrook and Alice Smith are up for replacement uh due to their age and condition. And uh I what I can tell you is Glen Lake is a model now for the future of all of our playgrounds. And before any design work is done, all those teams will visit Glenn Lake to begin an idea of how what standard now has been set for Hopkins schools. Thank you, J. Andre. Yes. Hi. Um, would you guys be able to talk a little bit about what a timeline looks like? If a referendum passes, then what else does the district and site logic need to do? Certainly. So um assuming a November 4th election this year and in a passage um what would happen immediately following that would be the beginning of the design phase. Um so using the playground example uh we would we would look to to map out and identify who are the correct focus groups to have involved in the design of that specific playground and and start exploratory sessions on on the designing of that. Um we would do that for for each of the project categories um that that were selected and approved in the referendum. You would go through a design phase that involves the upfront uh it's called schematic design. You would move once you have a basis for design and everyone's in agreement with the path forward. You move into more detailed design drawings and then into preparing construction documents. That phase uh for typically lasts around about a year. Um and we would look to also then phase out when the projects would be publicly bid. Um and likely due to the number of projects that are being contemplated, there would be a a phased um bidding schedule that would occur out of that. likely bidding would would occur in the uh fall of 2026 um fall winter of 2026 um with you have successful biders awarding contracts with construction starting then um the the following year and given the that it's an educational environment and school needs to operate. We would look to see where there's opportunities for work to begin that doesn't disrupt the educational environment. Uh but that construction would then be phased around the school calendar year. Whether that takes one summer of construction or depending on the size of the referendum, it could be phased uh construction over multiple years. Um you're contemplating some potential additions with the Pathfinder projects. Those present an opportunity to to do some work during the school year because they're not disrupting the existing operation of the facilities. As long as first and foremost were able to ensure the the safety of of construction and operation of school tier has a yes director two questions. So one is um is this so for the projects um is there any alignment in what uh Dre came and presented to us a few weeks ago about kind of like understanding the usage of the buildings or like maybe having some partners or you know someone come and do like some advertising or something um with the buildings like is there any alignment in this work or any alignment in this work? you you all weren't here for the presentation so it's a great question I can start and then you can contribute Dr. period. Yeah, there there is alignment to that cuz uh so from what Dre was presenting was on how best we can use our facilities to be able to generate uh revenue uh based on the events and uh some of the community partnerships we have. Uh and again you know when we look at the different demographics and uh groups who use our facilities uh so uh the maintenance of our uh buildings and uh spaces uh might also actually attract uh additional resources coming into uh coming into our spaces for uh for for different uh activities. So just to kind of uh get him back to the timelines and what this might look like uh you know with uh all the work which is being put up front around um the future state of our our buildings and then embedding uh some of those outside of the box thinking around how else can we u uh enhance our facility usages. ages so that we can add uh bring additional resources to uh to the system. So there's some connection between uh between uh what uh Dre has been thinking with his team in terms of uh how we uh use our facilities and how we generate extra revenue and uh what do we need to do up front to be able to uh attract those uh external partners who may be uh utilizing our spaces. Thank you so much for that. And then just one other quick question. You may or may not know this, but how much will the referendum raise the taxes for residents or just for the city? Is that like a definite number or it kind of depends? Yeah. So uh hope we are planning to have another session with the board with our uh municipal advisors Ellas uh to talk about what uh structure uh we can uh put in place. Uh they've been to the table a couple months ago. Uh so just update our information in terms of uh how much uh bonds we'll be able to sell and what that uh what does that entail in terms of uh increases in uh in property taxes. Uh we have kind of uh played around a number of scenarios. Uh, for example, uh, we have, uh, modeled a $110 million bond sale, a $140 million bond sale, and a $200 million bond sale, and uh, determined uh, what that uh, increase to property tax uh, may look like in consideration to other surrounding school districts. We have also uh, sold uh, bonds in recent history. uh but we'll get some more more information and bring uh our uh means power advisor who actually do the uh debt calculations for the district so that uh you know we don't end up overburdening our taxpayers. Thank you so much for that clarification. And just a a quick followup on that for for some context. This the the question on the ballot would be more a renewal of a current capital projects. Correct. I mean it is new because it's expiring but our community has already um done this type of referendum for the district in the past. Correct. So the last time we did a referendum and Kevin you can help me on this. uh was in 2017. Uh and that referendum uh entailed uh uh three different components which uh which was our operating referendum, our capital projects referendum and our uh uh capital bonds referendum. So, and I'm not sure Kevin, was it 25 million or $30 million in 2017? It was right around 30. So, I'm just giving some context that this isn't something new that our voters are looking at. This is standard operating procedure of a school district anywhere to have a capital projects. Cool. Something come through them. And depending on where the numbers fall, um it isn't necessarily that they're voting for a tax increase. Correct. Uh well depending with what angle you you are coming from in terms of uh what that tax increase may look like and that's where our uh our municipal advisors come into play because they structure the debt so that it has minimal impact to our taxpayers. So uh that also depends with like how much we are going to be uh to be presenting out there in terms of the projects which we need to uh which we need to uh implement uh and then they will structure the date so that there's minimal currently I think the district has been very um conservative and very strategic over the uh last couple years in term of how we structure our debt. Uh and then you're going to find out uh as we give some examples uh why probably our uh burden to taxpayers will be minimal based on the different uh debt structures which have been uh uh which have been utilized by uh by the district to minimize any impact to taxpayers. Thank you for that context. Any other questions on this slide? Great. All right. So, we'll move into a review, a little more in-depth review of the timeline and next steps. um on the top row here for for really the the next month, we'll be working in that workshopping phase, meeting uh bi-weekly and and um weekly as we get towards the the end of the month here to to review those projects and and see what what if any move forward as a priority for the district. Um within that moving into June, um there's a June 10th meeting where we we'd present another uh presentation on the referendum and potential recommendations for for moving forward with that. Uh meeting is reserved on the 24th as well if there are any actions required. Um following that, if if um if it is the board's decision and the district's decision to move forward, um immediately after that, starting June 25th, um we would begin planning for the referendum support effort, um which is how do we inform voters? How do we sh go out and share information um about the projects um going forward? And that campaign um would really last from from the end of June all the way through until November on voting day. Um there's a couple other milestones in there as well which would include a submission of a review and comment document to the Minnesota Department of Education where they ask that the school district describe the projects uh kind of the reasons behind them what the need the need for the projects are a breakdown of the cost estimates. Essentially the state is ensuring that the district is is making a good sound investment into its facilities and its future. Um, and that would occur at at the end of June, the submission of [Music] that. And again, just a a review of the key milestone dates uh backing up from election day on November 4th. Uh there's a there's a filing deadline date of of the 12th to actually file for the election. Um I believe you're able to do that sooner if you so choose. um looking at June 24th as the the day for consensus for uh for action for a November referendum and and June 10th as well for the information sharing and potential action. Any questions on the over the timeline overall and next steps? Is that what our building's going to look like? I want to walk down that hall. Very warm. Yeah, it's beautiful. Sorry. Any serious questions? Well, thank you very much. I think that was comprehensive and we got our questions answered and look forward to the next meeting where we can kind of talk more about the the tax burden and the um the other recommendations for the referendum. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much, team. Thank you. [Music] Well, look at us ending early, getting a break. We'll see you all back here at 700 p.m. Thank you all. Appreciate it. Well, hello. Welcome everybody. Um, it is 7:01 p.m. and um we will I call to order the um Hopkins Public Schools uh board meeting for this evening on what is the date? May 6th, 2025. and we get to um start our board meeting by recognizing some of our amazing students and um leaders in the district. So, if we all want to go down to the end of the board table. [Music] So, we are thrilled this evening to recognize our seniors who are nearing the end of their high school journey and have successfully passed their certified nursing assistant exam. A remarkable achievement that reflects your hard work, dedication, and commitment to excellence. The CNA program is new to our district and holds a special place in all our hearts. It is a rigorous program that demands a lot from its students and you have risen to the challenge. We are incredibly proud of each and every one of you for your success in this program. Research consistently shows that students who engage in rigorous programs like the CNA tend to achieve higher academic success, improved time management skills, and increased college and career readiness. Additionally, our CNA graduates have developed a healthy, positive outlook that supports their mental health, builds confidence, and encourages lifelong habits of physical well-being. Thank you, Chair Andre, and good evening to all of you. We also want to recognize parents and families. So, for example, the Smiths are in the house. We know that parents and families and caregivers do a great deal to support their students. So, thank you for your efforts in supporting these amazing scholars. Watching our students achieve their goals is really inspiring for all of the adults in this space. So, hats off to you students. Um, and may you continue to strive for greatness. We also want to recognize the program's teacher, uh, Maritt Leosi. She's not here this evening, but she has put hours and hours and hours into preparing herself and the curriculum for this course. Um, mostly which I believe ser serves seniors. So students who took it last year, most of them did graduate and move on, but we had a few last year's juniors who are now seniors that are that are here with us this evening. And um Miss Maret also had to earn her own uh certified nursing assistant certification. So that was um a huge endeavor on her part. And we want to recognize our the program designer Cara Leavonne who's with us in the audience. Thank you, Cara, for um doing the a lot of the heavy lifting to ensure that the program had its proper space that matches the hos hospital uh specifications and supporting um our teacher and our students through their journey to get this program off and running and um very successful even in its first year. So on behalf of the Hopkins School Board and entire district, we want to publicly recognize our dedicated instructors and mentors and also these students and you um truly inspire all of us. So what we're going to do students is um and Cara, I think you should also walk down the royal blue carpet. Come on now. So why don't you all walk down to the end of the royal blue runner there and we'll call you by name. That's at the top. Yeah. go all the way because you you have to enjoy its entirety. Okay. So, we'll call your name and then we have a certificate. Um so, and our school board members will greet you and just hang out up here because we'll take a photo at the end. So, we'll start with Martasia Minus. I don't think she's here. Okay, we'll clap for her anyway. And Alice Smith. was giving was telling Alice that we called her name before. Do you remember when we called Alice Smith's name before and I said, "Oh, she's she's one of our schools is named after her." Okay. And Aaron Kim, Ashley Akusen, Ausan It's a beautiful name. Congratulations. And Cara [Applause] Leavon. Now, Cara, why don't you just say a couple of words about um how rigorous the program is and what it requires of Miss Liddili and also the students. So, um, these students have to commit to two terms, so a full semester of CNA. Um, they need 87 classroom hours and 16 clinical hours before they're eligible to sit for the state certification test. They also need to pass their written tests at 80% and pass all their skilled nursing tests inhouse before they're also eligible to sit for the test. So these young women have studied really hard and they get to practice and do all sorts of stuff before they go out to their clinicals, but that's where they really get their work real world experience. And we have three different clinical locations that they get to rotate through. So they do two 4-hour clinical rotations and one eight hour before they take the test. And can you can you each come up and use the microphone? If you have a job right now with your CNA, can you just share where you work? Do you mind? We're very curious. I work at the Alina Health Restorative Suites. Um Yeah, it's in Plymouth. Wow. Um I work at English Rose in Edina. It's a It's a dementia residence home. Yeah. Wow. That's amazing. I don't work at a nursing home yet. Why don't you let them know where you're attending school next year and what you're majoring in? Okay. I'm attending Howard University. I'm majoring in biology on a pre-med track. I'm going to San Diego State and majoring in a psychology on a premed track. I'm going to the University of Minnesota um biology on a pre-med track. [Applause] It's incredible alignment between your learning in this program and what you're planning on studying in college. It's incredible. Congratulations. She's trying to get rid of the microphone. Well, if you want to come forward, we can do some photo ops. I think there's some proud parents that want them, too. [Music] You're good. We're skilled over here. And um let's see. Just sort of spread out a little bit more. Or maybe Jason if you want to take a step to hold Jason. [Music] Thank you. Congratulations for being here tonight. Feel free to stay or you can also take off if you want. A great way to celebrate nurses week. It is incredible. They're making like barbecue. Chemical engineer. Nice. She's a chemical engineer. Oh god. Okay. Okay. Well, thank you everyone for that and for our students and families and uh staff that showed up to honor them. Um that was a wonder and to Natalyia for organizing it. I appreciate these blue carpet moments a lot. So, thank you. Um, that will then take us to our next order of business, which is the open agenda. Um, the first part of that is our public comment section. Um, which we host because we believe that hearing from our community members is crucial for implementing vision 2031, which is this strategic plan of the district. If you wish to contact the board via email instead of publicly commenting at a meeting, you can use our email address, which is school-board@ hopkinschools.org. Public comment can be received both in person and through voicemail. Um, and I believe that we have two voicemails. We have one voicemail. One of the voicemails says um people's names. Okay. So, we won't be able to play that one, but we will be able to play the other one. Okay. So, we had two voicemails submitted, one of which we can't play because it mentions um staff members names, staff and and student members names, which is in violation of our um of our privacy laws and policies for the board. So, if you don't if you submitted a public comment via voicemail and you didn't hear it, that is why. So, please resubmit it um leaving out any names or identifying um details to um staff or students. Um but we will go ahead and play that voicemail. You are also welcome to show up here in person at our meeting before the meeting starts and fill out a public comment card. Um we host two public comment sections. The um 30 minutes at the beginning of the meeting and then 30 minutes at the end if needed. So with that I will go ahead and turn it over to Natalia to play the message. My name is Emily Ward and I would like to make a comment about transportation for the 2526 school year coming up. Transportation options for Hopkins families will be challenging for the next school year. I would like to urge the district to make full use of all available resources um by reaching out to Metro Transit and at the very least letting them know about 202526 school start and end times at the high school and both middle schools. These times have shifted over the years and may no longer be in sync with when the bus um typically shows up at the stop in front of the school there. A city bus option going by North Middle School and the high school around 10 minutes after school ends, for example, would give kids additional options if they don't have a school bus and caregivers work is not flexible enough to pick them up. For kids at west, the walk to a bus stop is a bit longer, but there are options and perhaps a stop could even be added if requested by the district. Metroransit has a website specifically for employers, schools, and organizations which has information about discounted fair options available for employees and students. Other school districts such as Minneapolis work with Metroit, so there's a precedent. requests will likely carry more weight and be more effective coming from the district rather than from individual families, which is why I'm asking the district to reach out. Additionally, please use the multitude of Hopkins communication mechanisms to share this information with families as it will be an option many of them may not have considered using in the past. Thank you. Thank you. Um that concludes our public comment section of open agenda and um takes us to our student board representatives report. I see that Manuel is with us this evening. Yes. Hello. Um my name is Manuel Wahu. I'm a sophomore student board rep. So I just wanted to start out with a spotlight for Mrs. KJ. So I'm in Mrs. KJ's honors chemistry class and we just finished up our stoometry unit with a test. So stochometry and chemistry is the determination of the proportions in which elements or compounds react with one another. Um I think stochometry is is very math and scienceheavy. So it's kind of cool to see um where those two like big subjects kind of cross over and build on each other. And uh so moving on, last week was a week full of campaigning and on Friday scholars grades 8 through 12 voted for next year's student council president. So congratulations to Ezra Wolf who will be our 2025 to 2026 student council president and also congratulations to Dalton Kilgore who will be our student council vice president. Um on the topic of student council, uh student council has revealed the um prom theme for this year which is which will be a night in Paris. So prom will be happening at the Filillmore on May 31st from 7:30 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. and tickets will be sold starting May 9th. They are $45 per ticket or $22 for scholars who have educational benefits. and guests may attend from other schools if they are currently enrolled in a high school with an approved form from their high school administrator. So this week and next week, AP exams, as you all know, are going on and many students, including our student board reps, are studying very hard for their exams. So good luck to everybody taking AP exams. And finally, on May 18th, the Best Buddies Friendship Walk will be taking place. Since 2009, the Best Buddies Friendship Walk has been raising funds and awareness for the inclusion of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Team Greatness, which is the Hopkins High School team, will be participating in this walk. Thank you. Thank you. Um, so I quickly Googled stoometry. So, thank you for that. I am going to do a much deeper dive later on. Um, is this something that you just learned about in that class? Like I've never heard the term. Yeah, it is. So um it's like just it's basically a whole unit, but I it's just like a method of kind of like um I don't know. The best way I can describe it is it's like where math and science like intersect. Like it's using your math and like applying it to like science. Yeah. Is the best way I can explain it. But it's kind of complicated. Very cool. Any questions or comments from anyone else? Yes, Chair Andre. Yes, Treasure Heartland. Hi. How does the student council when they decide on a prom theme or other important events in the high school, how do they best communicate with the student body? Oh, so they send out like a voting form for for the prom theme. Seniors voted, juniors and seniors voted. Is that via email? Um I think yeah, it was sent out in an email to them. Okay. Like a Google form. So then it is is it the student council that plans or is there a separate committee that does the prom? Yeah, it's usually student council that plans events like that. I'm sure they had like help from adults, but staff I'm sure they do have help from adults. Thank you. Are are students growing their familiarity with checking their email more regularly, would you say? Um, no, probably not. I feel like I feel like most students don't usually check their emails a lot, which is probably something we should all work on, but yeah, that's how it is. I love the direct response. Direct, honest. Okay. So, well, we'll have to think of ways to improve that because I know a lot of important information goes to students via email and Yeah. Yeah, I agree. I only started checking my email like consistently since freshman year. I should have been doing it earlier, but Oh, okay. Oh, so you're saying high schoolers do? No, most high schoolers don't. But I'm just saying like for myself, I didn't even start until like or I didn't start like I haven't always been checking my email since like junior high. I just started in high school. But yeah, got to think of some incentives. Yeah, one thing that helped was like I turned on my notifications for Gmail. So then I like actually it like pops up on my phone when I get an email and not just like I have to go into the app to see it. M but could run a little contest for people who check their email like if they see this email they can fill out a form and be entered in right a drawing or something I think people would probably tell their friends and then they'd all like then they'd all start flooding checking their emails check their email though yeah then they'd check their emails that'd be a good way you are our key to figuring this out no just FYI Hi. Well, thank you for that. Um, any other feedback? Um, then that brings us to the superintendent report. Uh, Dr. Mary Perry Reed. Thank you, Chair Andre. Well, um, first I would like to focus on one of our teaching and learning goals. So, in Hopkins, um, one of our learning and teaching goals is to ensure that quality tier 1 instruction effectively meets the needs of 80% of our students. And this includes evidence-based reading instruction delivered to all elementary students, K5. So, here is a glimpse of a UFly lesson being conducted outside at Gatewood Elementary where students spend significant time learning outdoors. UFly stands for University of Florida Literary Literacy Institute, which is a curriculum that was written by teachers for teachers and used by many districts to offer explicit and systematic um foundational skills instruction, which is necessary for growing proficient readers. All of our primary elementary students receive 30 minutes of daily UFly instruction and in this case it was taught outdoors. Miss Schmidt, who is the teacher in these photos, remarked that she loved that even our most structured part of the school day can have the walls broken down. So kudos to Mishmitt for figuring out how to have rigorous instruction outside. With outdoor learning being a key feature at Gatewood, Earth Day is very special to staff and students there. To celebrate, Gatewood sponsored Earth Day cleanup for students, staff, and volunteers. Everyone worked together to take care of spaces where students learn and play, including folks raking leaves, shoveling mulch, planting pollinator seeds, and picking up trash all over the grounds. As part of their sharing the planet unit, second graders found natural elements around the gatewood grounds to produce Earth Day posters that encouraged our community to demonstrate specific IB learner profile traits such as being principled and caring toward Mother Earth. Similarly, at Ellis Smith, students joined forces with the City of Hopkins Forestry Department and Tree Trust to plant 13 new trees around the school in celebration of Arbor Day. Species included spruce, oak, ginko, and many others. Students also learned how trees clean our air and water, provide shade and oxygen, and support a healthier planet. This learning aligns with K12 science standards which include specific benchmarks designed to ensure students understand how trees contribute to air and water purification, provide shade and oxygen, and support a healthier planet. Glenn Lake recently held their accessible playground dedication. This event involved tons of people and publicity as well as author Nancy Carlson who performed a reading of her book and giving away free copies of her book which is called A Swing for Samara. Hopefully you've seen that that book board members. And little did we know that Glenn Lake would be featured in the most recent issue of Scholastic, which is a multinational media publication for children's literature. Congrats to Glenn Lake. Glenn Lake students paid a surprise visit to Dr. Stanley Brown's office to thank him for his classroom visits and impactful teachings during Black History Month. Dr. Mr. Brown left an indelible impact by sharing his life story and the importance of students acquiring a rigorous education so that they can grow into their brilliance, something that no one can take away. So during this visit, all of the students were rubbing their temples and talking about the brilliance that was inside of their brains. Students delivered handwritten messages of thanks and gratitude to Dr. B who was really surprised and pleased with that visit. Right, Dr. Brown? Yes. Yes. Okay. Absolutely. Mhm. One of our systems curriculum goals is that by June 2025, which is just next month here, in partnership with our math with our math specialist and IDL team, we will select and prepare for the adoption of a new K5 core math curriculum that is evidence-based, equitable, and aligned with district learning goals. So, that's the actual goal statement. A district-wide team of teachers has been working on a math review process. And at the elementary and secondary advisory committee, which was uh recently held, May 1st, so that was last week, members of the community were able to review materials. Teachers have put a lot of time into piloting and providing feedback on math materials which were carefully selected. The selection team had worked thoughtfully to ensure that materials that were eventually selected were highly vetted, aligned to state standards, and offered national proof points for achievement gains. Teacher feedback was also carefully reviewed. We are looking forward to providing our school board and our community with an update on May 20, followed by subsequent board engagements on the topic of elementary math materials. Last week, moving up to middle school now. Last week, sixth graders from well actually fifth graders from three Hopkins Feeder Elementaries along with Isla converged at North Middle School for Stepup Day, which is a day for incoming sixth graders. So, this is a day when the current sixth graders stay home and then incoming sixth graders attend school for most of the day with current seventh and eighth graders. It's a very celebratory and learningfilled day. Um, prior to the day, eighth grade students are trained to host and provide tours to the incoming sixth graders and their teachers. And students also hear from principal aromaelli who did a great job from the rest of the admin team at North and they visited classrooms and met their future teachers. So this is a really um wellorganized day and very exciting for those current fifth graders who will soon be sixth graders. Also at middle school last Friday, West Middle School hosted career day for eighth graders who were able to select two of 25 guest speakers during a morning rotation. There were doctors, nurses, engineers, sound technicians, law enforcement, and so many other career professionals who gave their time to eighth graders on that morning, and it was a very fun experience. Dean of Students Kim Campbell and West staff worked together to organize this special opportunity that they are now calling the annual career day at West Middle School. Very impressive. Student leaders at West recently sponsored kindness week, which was a huge success. The West community showed up big time to raise money for their Polar Plunge experience. Compliment cards and prize drawings were a huge hit. West students and staff filled out over 1,000 compliment cards during that week. And students coin clash was a huge success raising $1,250 to put towards the school's polar plunge fundraiser. Thanks to all who donated and helped ensure that kindness week was a big success for West Middle. Last week, Principal Ballard, athletic director Ellerson, and I attended the prestigious Athena Awards banquet held in Brooklyn Center. Athena Awards go to high school senior girls for their athletic and academic achievements. Each school chooses one young lady to be recognized and again this is a very prestigious award. So you see in the photo there, Principal Ballard along with Sydney Drelo who has been involved in cross country, mountain biking, Nordic ski, and track and field. And Sydney is planning on attending Nebraska in the fall. Congratulations to Sydney who was also there with both sets of grandparents, her dad, and a friend. Speaking of college destinations, the high school has been very busy recognizing college landing spots for the class of 2025. Last week, staff served pancakes to seniors on May 1st, commemorating decision day. And the week prior, these seniors featured on this slide were recognized on spring signing day. These particular students that you see on the slide, they are senior athletes who have committed to various colleges and will also play a specific sport at those institutions including Grenell, Bethl, Carlton, Mallister, St. Cloud, North Dakota, and more. So, congratulations to the class of 2025 and we look forward to celebrating you on commencement day. All right. I wanted to point out a new feature of our information system here in Hopkins. Thank you to our elementary teachers, IDL team, and communications and marketing for getting these curriculum guides onto our website. So, this has been um a heavy lift for lots of individuals across our system. These guides were created to provide families with more detail about what they and their students can expect by grade level. Previously, our website provided course level information for middle and high school, but we felt that we wanted to provide more detailed information for elementary families. And this is a broad part of a broader effort to build out our website to provide families with more information about their child's academic experiences and also what kinds of resources might support student learning at home. Next, we will share and post Hopkins site words, word study, and fluency resources for our K5 families. And we're really excited about this work so that families and staff have information at their fingertips. It is teacher appreciation day and so I want to from the bottom of my heart and on behalf of Hopkins Public Schools and our amazing school board extend a very special thank you to all of our educators across the system. If you visit our classrooms from early learning through grade 12 and transition plus, you will see teachers who are giving a great deal intellectually, socially, emotionally to make sure that students in Hopkins have a great education while being loved and cared for. So, thank you to Hopkins educators. And I've been looking at the emails that principles are sending their staff for this week and most of our schools are doing a you know Monday here's your treat and Tuesday here's your different treat and Wednesday here's a new treat. So I hope that our teachers um feel very loved and appreciated this week. Also um wanted to just quickly promote soup with the soup. I've had a great time having conversations with parents who have been showing up. I think our last one which was a week ago there were um there was a larger group of parents in the space. So thanks to those parents and additional opportunities are May 9, May 20 and June 24, middle of the summer. Exciting. All right. So, um Natalyia, do we have a video? So, um couple things. We've been um leveraging a portion of the superintendent report to provide a school or program spotlight. Now, it was Alice Smith's turn this evening. However, Pr uh Principal Navididad is hosting an event at his school and we were trying to figure out how he might pop in virtually, but it just wasn't going to work because he has a lot of parents and staff and kiddos over there in person at Alice Smith. So, he provided a video. So, thank you very much, Principal Navididad. And we also just want to thank him for his years of service in Hopkins and share with our community that we are moving to that next chapter and identifying the next principal for Alice Smith Elementary which should come um perhaps this week. Um so this is a a big uh time for Alice Smith Elementary and principal Eduardo Navididad. We appreciate you very very much. And here's the video. Good evening, Madame Chair, Superintendent Mary Perry Reed, esteemed members of the school board, and our beloved Hopkins community. It is my honor to have this opportunity to share with all of you the amazing things that are happening at our wonderful Alice Smith Elementary. As a proud principal for the last 5 years, I've been fortunate to see this dynamic school continue to thrive as one of Hopkins true community schools. Elementary schools are the heart of a community and Alice Smith is a perfect example of that. Every year we launch our school year by hosting so many events that celebrate and bring our community into our school. This year we kicked off the year with our annual heritage fest, a wonderfully attended event that celebrates the cultures and the diversity of our school. This event showcases foods, talents, and the beautiful cultures that make up the thread of our school's identity. Other incredible events that we host throughout the year that highlight the love for our community include our annual readathon, parents night out, school dances, walk-in field trips to the neighborhoods when we deliver Mayday baskets, or cleaning up our city, imagination fairs, music concerts, musical plays, and talent shows. Now, a school cannot be complete without strong partnerships with local organizations that help us serve not only our scholars, but most importantly our families. Here at Alice Smith, for the last few years, we have created strong partnerships with multiple organizations, but I would like to highlight a few from this last year. Ready Set Smile is a dental clinic that brings both education and dentists to our school. multiple times throughout the year. They do dental checkups with scholars and sign that sign up. The Lions Club also provides similar services as they come to our school once a year and do vision screenings. The ANA or Avenues Neighborhood Associations organize a spring cleanup event. Shoes that fit and Min West Bank partners are two new organizations that have provided resources to our schools and our families. And lastly, and definitely not least, our A. We have partnered with our AA for multiple years, and we have even created our very own Alice Smith Market and Resource Center that is visited weekly by dozens of families. Now, when we think about building a school community, one of the pillars of Alice Smith is our schoolwide approach to building and supporting our restorative culture. At Alice Smith, every staff member has been trained on the 11 essential elements of restorative practices. And each and every day, every class participates in a morning restorative circle aimed at building and strengthening the relationships within each class. And these slides, you can see our examples of morning circles happening in all grades, including preschool. Now, building a strong community can go so far. Sometimes our student support team has to respond to situations where harm has occurred. Whether it's two kids not getting along with one another or a scholar not showing responsible or respectful behavior towards a staff. And in those situations, we use the restorative questions. In this slide, you see the card that every staff member uses as a talking prompt when they have to do a small impromptu conference or a small circle with scholars in their class. Now, restorative practices is a way of thinking and responding. This year here at Alice Smith and in all Hopkins schools, we use a curriculum called purposeful people that provides us the opportunity to teach weekly lessons throughout the whole year on the nine traits. Every other month we host assemblies and we highlight scholars that embody these traits. In this slide you will see scholars from various classes that were honored for showing perseverance and empathies. While these assemblies happen every other month every day at Alice Smiths scholars can earn pod tickets for being responsible, respectful and ready to learn. At the end of each week, I call multiple scholars from each grade and they come up to the office and we honor them for being the pod ticket winners of the week. Another pillar at Alice Smith is our focus on concept and inquirybased instruction. For the last three years, we have partnered with Julie Stern and her organization that has supporting building our teachers capacity on how to evolve our teaching to be more constant and inquiry based. A perfect example of how this comes to life will happen this Friday when our esteemed classroom will be hosting an event called Cinderella Around the World Museum. If you want to really experience what concept and inquiry base looks like, I invite you to come to Alice Smith this Friday. In this slide, you will also see how our scholars are engaging in problem solving through the CBI lens. How can we responsibly interact with our environment and to take care of our planet Earth? Scholars Seers were coming up with their own solutions and transferring their learning and putting them into action. For the last couple of years, we have evolved how we deepen the learning and create enrichment opportunities for all of our scholars. At Alice Smith, every single scholar has the opportunity to attend our schoolwide enrichment class and deepen their grade level learning with many fun activities where they can engage critical thinking skills and come up with creative ways to show their giftedness. From building creative structures to learning how to code, 3D print, or even plant trees, the amazing and many different experiences our kids find at SUI enriches the learning beyond the classroom. Another newer program at Alice Smith is our Hunto Spanish immersion program. Now in its fourth year, our program is growing and becoming a critical part of our Alice Smith culture. In this picture, you will see all five classrooms, including two kindergarten classes, a first grade, second grade, and a third grade class. Next year, our scholars will move to fourth grade, and we will welcome new kindergarteners. So, we will be kindergarten through fourth next year. The last part of our school that I want to take the time to honor and highlight is the amazing work that our digital literacy specialists Heather Eert and our two phenomenal library prayer professionals Theres Wheel and Allison Butress have done in the last three years to transform what was a school library into a media center that has genuinely become the heart of our school. When you come into the Alice Smith Media Center, you will be engulfed into a warm and welcoming environment where kids can fall in love with reading. For the last couple of years, this team has transformed the furniture to be more scholar center. And they have even included a treehouse where kids can climb up in their nook and read. But that's not all. This transformative team knew that when we partner with organizations that do book fairs at our school, not all scholars were able to afford a book. So instead of continuing to partner with these for-profit organizations, they created their own bookstore. With the initial help of our PTO, this amazing team took it upon themselves to create a bookstore that enabled all families the ability to afford a book for their child. Not only that, if families were not able to attend the bookstore the week after the sale, they made sure each class could come in and they guaranteed that every child could leave a book that they would call their own. I want to thank all of you for the work and leadership that you provide our school district and for giving me this opportunity to highlight the amazing things that are happening at Alice Smith. I want to invite all of you to come in and experience the magic that is happening in our media center, in our playground, in our beloved Alice Smith. Thank you and have a good evening. [Music] Principal Navididad, if you're listening, I think you just modeled um a great way to provide an indepth visual tour of one of our schools and what if we had something like this for all of our schools and I don't know sent sent an example of one school in a monthly newsletter to all of our realtors as an example with a link to these videos. It's very detailed idea or live on the website for each school too. Yes. Yes. I love that North has one. We we had the day in the life at North Middle School. Oh, yeah. From Cruz. Principal Ballard puts videos in her newsletter, interviews with students. So, I think these are examples that give our um community in-depth opportunities to to have a closer glance of our schools. That was very good. Great. Any um thoughts, feedback, or questions for Dr. Mary Perry Reed? I had a comment, but it was at the beginning. Oh, sorry. No, I've forgotten. But um thank you for those. I do like um getting a glimpse into each of the schools and um seeing what's going on because it really does have an impact once you see what's what's happening inside the walls or outside in the case of of Gatewood. Um so thank you for that and also thank you for recognizing our teachers. Um I think that um in the last few years teachers have been under a lot of scrutiny and um it doesn't always come out in positive ways. So I um I think that reminding them that we value teachers, we see what they're doing, the way that they go above and beyond every day for their students is really important. So, um, as a parent of children who benefited from your love and care and guidance, um, I have a lot of gratitude. So, thank you. And that takes us to, um, approval of tonight's agenda. I would look for a motion. I don't need to gabble that. So, moved. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? The chair votes I. And the agenda is approved. Next, we move on to our consent calendar, which is reserved for items pro um that are that 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 to approve the consent calendar. So moved. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? The chair votes I and the consent calendar is approved. And that takes us to the treasures report. Treasurer Hartland. Certainly. Thank you, Chair Andre. And thank you to all the community members tuning in. Um, I wanted to start by mentioning that last week, uh, the board was originally going to host a community listening session regarding the budget. And unfortunately, we had a critically low number of registrants and only a single question submitted for the district to answer. And due to those low numbers, I made the decision to cancel that session and instead reached out to all of the registrants personally. Um, I sent a collection of some board meeting recording clips where we've discussed the budget or the audit or other related topics and invited them to ask me any questions that they might have. There were a couple people who were not very happy with that decision to have it canled, which I completely respect. um in this environment where parents and students and teachers and admin and even the board members are very busy and pulled in a lot of directions, this ended up still feeling to me like a way to use people's time respectfully. And in the end, I received three questions from the community, which I'll address here quickly. Um the first is related to busing, and a person inquired, "How does it make sense to have families pay to ride?" So, they're talking about the pay to ride option under our new busing policies. How would it make sense to have families pay a relatively low fee if a bus actually cost us $100,000 a year? And the answer is that we will be primarily utilizing empty or available seats on existing routes and are not at this time planning to add additional buses. The exact the final details have to be decided once we have those final numbers regarding how many people would like to opt in and the transportation department is currently identifying each and every student impacted by this change so that they can be notified and the board has emphasized in the past that we would like that communication to begin as soon as possible. So that is still being worked on. Um the second question also related to busing is will willist road be considered a hazard and will families that live along hazardous roads be allowed to opt into the payto ride program um including if they're not on the free and reduced lunch program. And I actually had a couple people reach out to me with some concerns about that piece because it was mentioned at the board table that the family is on free and reduced lunch which is older language. it's the educational benefits program that they would get priority, but all families that are impacted by this change can opt into the program and again those details with final counts are are being worked on by the district and will be communicated. Then finally I had a question about compensatory revenue and the question was so this compensatory revenue is additional dollars that we receive as a school district if a student is identified as being from like an income level that might require additional resources to do school work at their grade level. And so by state statute, 80% of those funds stay at the school at the site where that student actually spends their day. And so the question was, where does the other 20% of that revenue go? And the answer is that certain departments can incur relevant expenses relating to educating this particular group of students. So, it goes to things like curricular items or relevant professional development for staff. Um, it also can pay for like very specific therapists or other people who work with that population. Um, and it can also go to like after school and summer programming. And our district is highly compliant with those regulations. and we have to flag all of our compensatory funding spending when we submit our financials for audit. And so, um, we just passed our fiscal year 23 audit and the fiscical year 24 audit is underway. Um, then in other treasures report news, um, the Minnesota State Legislature has just under two weeks left of their session. They have not yet passed an education funding bill. So the ramifications for us as as you know this board has to do our like final budget talks and passing very late in a school year and that's because we need to get final numbers and final regulations from the state of Minnesota and currently the education funding bill is tied up. um they're something of an impass. You know, our legislature is very um evenly divided between the two parties and so everything that passes this year needs bipartisan support which is ending up being a struggle. And if the legislature does not pass their budget or all of their different budgets by the 19th, then the governor will have to call a special session. and then that keeps us in something of a state of limbo as we wait for those final numbers and regs from the state. Um, with regard to our expense report, this month we had about $2.4 million on that expense report and 47% of that or $1.133 million was paid to our transportation companies. So, as we look at ways to reduce that cost, this is a a pretty clear example of how much the district actually pays. So, this this was to cover the month of March. Um about 400,000 of that was for special education transportation and then a bit over 700,000 was for what they call regular education transportation. We also paid $39,818 to teachers on call for substitute teachers, $39,825 to two different exterior companies for snow removal, plowing, and salting. We paid $43,199 to Linda Meyer Monroe for paper. Uh we paid miner therapy, $29,000 for contracted speech therapy services. Um, we paid $113,320 to application software technology for phase 3 implementation of Oracle. Clifton Larson Allen, our audit company, was paid $39,44 auditing services. Hamlin Construction was paid $35,000 for district elevator projects. Our phone service provider, Ring Central, cost $29,438 for the month of March. And we also renewed our Infinite Campus software subscription for $50,910. And so those expenses that I just listed there um total 62% of our expenses this period. With that, I move that we approve total dispersements in the amount of 2,49,2286 cents for the period of April 16th to April 30th, 2025. Um, can I ask a quick question first? Treasure Hartland. Sure. Do we should we can we can you save it for the discussion part after I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Director Roer. Oh, sorry. Always forget that part. Just really quick for uh for Ring Central U. I know that Ring Central is a um if I used it before, I know that it's for kind of like a um to like mask numbers or um if people call I believe. Is that what we use it for? Um can we explain what we use Ring Central for? Director Roer, thank you for the question. It's our district phone system. Okay. Okay. That was it. That's the only question that I had. Okay. Thank you. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? The chair votes I. and the treasures report is approved. That takes us to new business. And the first order of new business is our equity audit business office findings. I'd like to invite um Dr. Brown and Director Chapenduka to the table and I'll turn it over to Dr. Mary Perry Reed. Thank you, Chair Andresent. So, as a reminder to our school board members and for our community, we have been leveraging opportunities at the board table to review the progress across departments made as compared to findings that were provided to us after a systemwide equity audit was conducted. The report is a 59page report that was submitted to us in September of 2021 by a team of uh research professionals who looked at all aspects of our system to discover any features of our system that are preventing students, especially marginalized students from being successful in school. and um also to identify um any inefficiencies or features of our system that perhaps might be preventing staff from being successful as well. So, we've been presenting um some updates to you as a school board and we are here tonight to talk specifically about the work in business services. So, um Dr. Dr. Brown, I'll turn it over to you for additional framing and then I believe we'll hear from our director of business services. Great. Thank you, Dr. Mary Perry Reed. Um, I'm fighting a sinus infection, so my voice goes in and out. So but um we will uh read the findings director and duka will then give the update of where we have come from and where we are presently. So the first one, the first finding is we use the expenditure mod model built budget for the following year and it focuses on expenditures and inflation not student enrollment or a particular building's needs. Uh thank you Dr. Brown for uh presenting that finding and indeed uh we have come a long ways. Uh I know this information is based on work which was done um a few years ago uh back in 2021. Uh and uh uh back then uh [Music] our budget was developed using uh more kind of historical information which is that expenditure model where we would look back and uh pull the historical information on expenditures we used in the previous year and then factor in inflationary components to uh determine the budget for the for the following year. Uh and over the years we have refined that uh starting in fiscal year 22 cuz we had a period of time trying to at least um create a foundation of how we were going to pivot from that expenditure model to a revenue model where the resources we are getting which are driven by enrollment would uh drive how resources are allocated to uh to each building. Uh so uh starting in fiscal year 2021, we started putting some of those foundations and then uh kind of launched the uh new uh revenue model uh which was actually uh tied to the predictable staffing model in fiscal year 2022 where enrollment was driving uh allocations uh to to building uh using uh a formula base we created uh working in partnership with uh other leaders which we have kind of refined uh refined over time. So um that process has kind of been consistent. Uh I know uh we have been working uh with uh leaders based on feedback uh just to make sure that we we we refine. So we started with enrollment and then we also started to move towards how we uh uh allocate some of the categorical dollars just like uh uh treasur was mentioning compensatory dollars. we used to distribute compensatory dollars equal across all schools in the system uh instead of the way the they at that point in time the state statute said you could distribute 50% of the uh compensatory dollars into the buildings which generate those resources and then the district would be able to take the other 50% and distribute them whichever way they want across the system. uh and starting in uh fiscal year 22 we started distributing around 75% of the compensatory resources back to the buildings which are generating uh those dollars and then when state statute changed to 80% uh we just had to make a shift of 5% since we had already been um allocating those resources uh based on the needs and the um um uh the desires of priorities in a in a in a building. And then we started shifting some of the categorical revenues uh making sure that you know uh they either distributed um uh across our system since we do have diverse needs across different buildings and programs. Thank you. As of the 2122 school year, the the district has indicated that Andrew budgets will be developed to address individual school building needs, allowing each school building to handle their own financials based upon student enrollment and needs in the individual buildings. Again, thank you for uh reading that finding. Uh same as I mentioned earlier on, uh the predictable staffing model has been the driving force behind uh how we are allocating resources into our buildings. uh at least starting fiscal year 22 where we factor in uh obviously the enrollment coming into the building where we factor in the application for benefits where we factor in different categorical resources uh starting with the base allocation where we know there are certain uh needs in a building uh which have to be fulfilled if a building is to open. So for example, you know, a building needs a principal uh a building needs uh teachers uh using enrollment as our uh criteria and then using different formulas which may be tied to class size which may be tied to certain ranges uh to determine the allocations uh into different spaces as well as using the state formulas. There are certain revenues we receive in the district which are pre-calculated by the state and just making sure that those resources are being distributed the way they are mandated to be distributed into our different spaces. Thank you. The third finding based on ad administrative interviews and reviewing the annual budget reports 2017 to 2019. It was clear that the school building administrators did not have much if any decision making as to how funding should be used or allocated amongst their different departments within their individual school buildings. Yeah, this one was a bit challenging when we're going through the uh interviews with uh the consultants around um the feedback they received from principles and uh it actually kind of hit home to me because uh when I started in the district, I think one of my first meetings was to meet with some principles who uh did mention that they didn't know their budgets. Uh and then we started working on okay how best we can uh make sure that uh principles do have an understanding of the resources uh which they allocated cuz for the most part resources were kind of distributed uh from a central level standpoint. So resources were getting into buildings but uh there was no clarity into how those were being allocated and uh used. So uh we started working as a system uh in uh creating the foundation of making sure that uh uh any of our leaders and uh staff who are responsible for uh the use of these resources have a understanding of uh how the resources are allocated and they are accountable for those resources as well is creating some level of transparency uh to to the community and that's what we've been working on uh since we started uh uh implementing this program. I mean it has come with some challenges and we uh uh review those uh feedbacks and try to uh make better iterations on how best to uh make sure that there's uh better collaboration uh there's uh some autonomy and accountability uh for uh the stewards of the resources and uh and our unit. Thank you, Director Chapen Duga. The fourth and final findings. It is important to note that going into the future, the district will be budgeting using the revenue model instead of the expenditure model, which has been the case in the past. Uh thank you, Dr. Brown. Yeah, for the most part we've uh we've relied on the uh on the revenue model. Again, like I mentioned earlier on, uh the revenue model basically is the revenue we receive. Uh is what determines how we are going to uh prioritize uh the usage of those resources. uh without dipping into our fund balance to be able to uh uh to balance our budget or to structurally balance our budget. I know uh because of the fact that uh some of this information was collected uh you know during the pandemic and uh we had to make some shifts. So uh so yes we had to leverage along the way uh usage of some of the fund balances but for the majority part uh we have tried to stick to making sure that the revenue we receive determines our resources are allocated if there's a gap then we make some structural changes so that our budgets are structurally balanced. Thank you Director Chapanda. Thank you. And that concludes our findings. Are there any questions for the expert director Chapanduka? Thank you. I really appreciate this presentation. Um the structure of it and the direct response. I think it has helped put a lot of context for me around the shifts that I saw happening while I was on the board. Um, so thank you for that. Any feedback or questions from my board colleagues? Chair Andre. Yes, Director West Morland. Well, Dr. Brown, I'm glad you got my memo about wearing our twin shirts today. So, that's I told you I would do it. That's good. That's good. I'm glad glad we got I told you I would do it and it was clean. Like I don't want to do a who wore it better because you would win. So, um, really good to see you. Thank you so much for the presentation. Um, yeah, this is just a comment that the predictable staffing model has really improved so many things about how we do budgeting and how we're able to understand where dollars are going and then giving more autonomy to our site leaders to determine the best use for any um discretionary dollars. And you know, the fact that it dovetales with the equity audit, I think just communicates to our community that equity and systemic leadership and and good fiscal stewardship, those things go hand in hand. Like it's not like we are leaning into equity at the expense of good fiscal stewardship. These things are inextricably interlin. and your presentation did a wonderful job of showing us that. So, thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. May I add one thing? What what I'm thinking about right now is it's not just our school leaders who have gained tremendous knowledge and skill receiving and navigating and executing these budgets which um inform staffing. But consider the the depth of detail that our teachers and other community members have had when they ask questions about how we're spending resources, right? They are looking at the predictable staffing models for their schools and they are able to ask questions around, you know, here's what you've given us. Here's here's what our class sizes are going to be. you know, we we need one more teacher, right? But they they wouldn't have been able to truly advocate for what they feel they need if we hadn't made these if if we hadn't created this structure for our school leaders, but also if we hadn't made them public to our staff. So, I I do really want to credit uh Mr. Chapanduka because even though creating um this mechanism, the predictable staffing model and all the structures that go along with it was truly a collective effort um he he really was the brains behind um what this would look like and what it would offer our system. And so it's really hard for us when we have to answer these questions around scarce resources and how we're going to, you know, meet the needs that are so direly expressed. But at a minimum, our staff are equipped with an a a great deal of information that they've never had before. It's in my estimation has been a very transparent operation. very transparent and I think that I think everyone and all factors involved, all groups involved enjoy the transparency. So, thank you, Terraro. Thank you. Thank you. [Music] Thank you, Dr. B. You are quite welcome. Good to see. and director West Morland. We have the glasses going on, too. Oh my gosh. What's going on here? Just for you, Just for you to know. Just for you to know. Thank you all. That I had one um just maybe comment wrapped up in a question. I'm not quite sure. Um, but I'm wondering I think that um talking about ways in which and I appreciate the comment about our community and our um staff having more information that is directly applicable to their community, their school, their classroom even. And um but perhaps I'm looking for a little bit more information around how is that equitable and what are we solving for? I think I understand the imp implication behind it. But maybe what in in that move from the predictable staffing model and the expenditure model um and giving the site leaders more autonomy. What about that makes the process more equitable? Sure. Uh and I mean when you look at uh at equity you can look at it it from different lens. uh again uh moving from kind of more of a centralized model where um for example FTES were feeding into a building uh but sometimes without the building leaders for different reasons not no knowing all the facets of how those uh uh FTEES are coming in because they are paid out of different uh funding sources and without being able to uh tie some level of um understanding or some methodology of how the allocation came to be uh was more of a challenge to navigate uh to the community or to some of the um some of the stakeholders in the system. So what we uh created here was a story a story around okay we receive resources to the district and this is how we uh distribute those resources first uh the first thing which happens when we receive resources is the number of students who are coming into Hopkins and uh and we know how many students are going into each particular particular building. How do we transcend that into a story of okay this is the number of students these are the students who are getting additional resources to be able to get to the same level as everybody else who probably is coming from a um a wellto-d do uh background uh and starting to shape and make sure that when uh resources are allocated they are allocated using that very foundation of how the resources are coming in cuz they are coming in at an aggregated level. Meaning that the resources are coming to the district and then the district will need to make determination of how best to prioritize those resources and use those resources. How better way to do it at a local level than when we are doing it uh probably at a central level without really knowing all the needs in the different spaces or the different programs. Uh at the same time creating a foundation of knowing that uh there are resources we can also um uh hold so that we can support the the system. uh without creating more inequities. Great. Thank you. I appreciate that. Um, and just to reinforce the idea of increased transparency, I remember being um, recently at a meeting of Alice Smith parents and they are they were directly speaking to budget line items in their school's budget. And I even made the comment I said my kids went to school year. I didn't even know there was a budget for the school. So just the knowledge that our community has is yeah I it it's at a level that um I had no idea was even possible at this level. So thank you so much for that change and I think we've really empowered our community to advocate not only for their child but for their communities. So I appreciate it. Well, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Are we dismissed? I think you are. You can put your glasses back. I went to Catholic school. I have to get permission to be dismissed. Thank you both so. Good to see you all. You too. Have a great I hope you feel better. Thank you. I want to give you some tea. We have tea in there. Well, I I feel better than I sound. Okay. actually. Um, next we will go to policies in first read. I'll invite um, Assistant Superintendent Lightfoot to the table and turn it over to Vice Chair Ross. Thank you, Chair Andre. We're going to be reviewing uh, three policies, 707.1, 604, and then 606. Hopefully um everybody um has been brought uh back up to speed with the pay to ride option for no bus zone areas which is 707.1. And then um in no particular order we'll be reviewing uh the instructional resources selection retention 606. And the last but certainly not least, uh we'll be reviewing uh the last uh particular policy which will be 604 which is instructional curriculum. So I'll hand it over to assistant superintendent Dr. Lightfoot. Good evening. Good to be with you. Um as mentioned three in front of you this evening. The first is 707.1. Based on the dialogue with the board, the monitoring committee went back and put together um this specific information uh that will be an additional um piece of information for individuals as we consider what's in front of us um based on the transportation change that is forthcoming. So with that um open to any additional comments from the monitoring committee or questions from the board. doesn't look like it. I appreciate that we got to review a draft. So, thank you policy and monitoring committee for that process. I think it um makes this first read go a lot more smoothly. All right. And then if none there, um I would draw attention to the U. Minnesota schoolboard policy 604. Um 604 um as identified in the opening introduction is the instructional curriculum uh policy. There were some statutory changes that were made. So what we are recommending as the monitoring committee is the um adoption which has been worked through on 604 um that identifies the specific sets of information that are there um in particular um with those changes that were so noted um in the policy itself. We will do some nomenclature work um to identify our innovation design and learning department to make sure that that is there. Um, but will we be moving forward with the MSBA 604? Questions or comments about this that we may be able to entertain? Um, I just had a quick clarifying question. So, we're going to be changing our 604 to reflect the min or are we looking at the changes in our the Hopkins district 604? We started with Hopkins 604, but there were some statutory items that were really contained um well and explained well um that are specific. Um, as you'll note 604, the revision is 2024. Um, so we are proposing the adoption of the 2024 um 604 policy, the MSBA. MSBA. Okay. I'm just asking because that's a departure from our usual practice, which is to approve the Hopkins with changes noted. So I want to make sure everyone is aware. Was were there any thoughts, feedback shared at the policy monitoring committee? Which one are you talking about, Chair Andre? Um the 604 instructional curriculum. Chair Andre. Um, we wanted to make sure that our IDL team had eyes on it so that it accurately reflected how we approach these issues in Hopkins. Um, and director Erdle did review it. Oh, great. So, that was a big part of the the conversation and consideration in monitoring. Thank you. Any other questions, comments? Great. Thank you. All right. 606. Um, in 606, we are looking at the, uh, Hopkins where the changes are noted. Um in specific this does also include there again some uh uh nomenclature changes that are there minor um items that are uh drawn um notably in the policy itself and then of course the regulations are contained as part of the policy. Uh this also um moving forward for your consideration as a board if there are additional questions or concerns would entertain those at this time as well. Looks um pretty straightforward. I don't think there are any questions. So then given that um I think we're ready to uh look for a motion that the board approve these new policies with revisions to um andor revisions to existing policies presented um in first read. And 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 discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say I. I. I. Any opposed? The chair votes I and policies are approved. Thank you. Thank you. And that is a refreshingly short meeting. Um Oh, we have incidental reports. Okay, we can do that after the board member reports according to the agenda. No, I did forget it last time, so you are spot on in reminding me. Thank you, Natalyia. Um, so we will start off with um going around the table to introduce ourselves and giving our board member reports if we have any. And I believe the first one to share is Clerk Thompson. Thank you, Chair Andre. Uh my name is Kai Thompson. I serve as the clerk on the school board. Um I'm in my second year of my first term. Um I have three kids in the school district from uh grades 4th through 9th. Um just two quick things on a board report. Um the first one was I had been able to attend uh MSBA's third Thursday session on the topic of superintendent evaluation. Um, and really I I was heartened that I felt like our current practice was kind of reinforced by what they sort of talked about as some of the best practices um for that. So I was um glad to see that. I think we do a good job of having a midyear having a final and then having the chair report out um what we had gone through in that final evaluation. So um that was good. And then uh last Thursday Thursday I had attended the um educational services advisory committee the ESAC committee uh where we got that good report on um the work that has been done to evaluate a new uh math curriculum for um the elementary school. So um that was a very well done presentation. Um got a lot of good information out of that. look forward to the um final recommendations on it during the May 20th meeting. Thank you. Hello, my name is Brooke Roer. I am also serving on my second year on the Hopkins School Board and I do have two amazing kids in the district. Um I just have just a couple of quick things. Um just a few things that I didn't get to cheer last time um because we were all going to bed um at 11:30. Um so just what is his name that uh so I did get to on the 17th attend the um the high school teachers learning fair which was amazing. I got to learn a lot about the curriculum and things that they are teaching over at the high school. Um so thank you for the invitation. Um and then also I attended Gatewoods Earth Day cleanup. It was really fun uh connecting with the students and just cleaning up the earth um and uh connecting with uh some of the teachers and the staff over at Gatewood who were cleaning out the goats in a chicken cage um which did not smell great. Um so and um and then on that day simultaneously I also did a um spoke about my work with the environmental and sustainability over at the city of Hopkins climate event with some Hopkins residents and community which was great. Um thank you to J uh Josa and to Michaela for putting that together. And then um I also meeting across the um Henipin County on housing uh uh stability um which I am an executive committee member of um you know from the school board perspective and so thank you Jen uh director West Morland for passing that over. I have learned a lot and just about things that are going on with housing across our uh cities in our county. Um and then just really really quick uh also attended the ESAC meeting on Thursday which was great. I did learn a lot about um you know the new math curriculum and I'm excited for that to be implemented. And then today is also again teacher appreciation day. So thank you to all our teachers who are doing just incredible work across the district. And it's also world as I mean not world asthma day but it's also um asthma awareness day. So all the families who are battling asthma, I see you. I understand what you're going through. I have a kid with asthma, so I'm also um there with you. Hence why I always am advocating for electric school buses, which the uh our application is coming up on March, excuse me, May 13th, which is due to this state. So we should get on that pretty soon. Um other than that, that's it for me. Good evening. I am Rachel Hardland, currently serving as treasurer in my fourth year on the school board and I have three children in our district at the elementary, the middle, and the high school levels. And let's see, done several things. Um, speaking of it being teacher appreciation week, both at North Middle School and at Mebrook Elementary School, I serve on the PTO and on specifically on teacher appreciation committees. And so we'll be doing work at both of those schools this week to provide some of those treats that the principles are providing or the PTO's are providing for the teachers um at Metobrook. I co-taught with another parent um art adventures in the fifth grade classroom which is something that wasn't done as often in fifth grade because the the projects that you do for art adventures are a little bit geared towards younger students but we were able to work together to adapt one of them and made kind of a cool project and got some feedback on it from Miss FA our American Indian um educator here and we had children one of the pieces of artwork that they looked at was a Lakota Nation winter count, a document where, you know, the elder person of the tribe would mark the passing of winter with an icon that represents the year that the tribe just experienced. And so the fifth graders will be creating an icon of them that represents themselves and they're giving it to the school as they transition from fifth grade to sixth grade. and there will be in a new building. Um, and Art Adventures is a free curriculum that the Minneapolis Institute of Art provides elementary schools. And so I actually don't know if it's in all of our schools, but Metobrook has a long tradition of having parents come into classrooms and teach these really cool art lessons. Um, I've been participating in the legislative action coalition with several other board members while we try madly to keep up on the legislation that is impacting our school district and and all public schools. And I mentioned a little bit about our the current state of that during my treasures report. I spent some time working on the community engagement discussion that wasn't and already discussed that I participated in a childc care aare um discussion which is a it's a nonprofit in Minnesota where child care or especially early childhood professionals but child care professionals train to become um advocates at like kind of the legislative level and within their communities. And so it this the participants in this fellowship um improve their advocacy knowledge and skills and the executive director and a couple other staff with childc care um aware invited various elected representatives to speak at one of their events. And so I participated in that along with several other um county commissioners and elected reps. And what else? I think that's enough from me. Thank you. Good evening. I'm Roary Puri Reed superintendent. I have provided my uh schoolboard update this the the superintendent report and I do have two kids in our system a girl at West and a boy at the high school. Thank you. Hello everyone. I'm Shannon Andre uh currently chair of the board and um in my sixth year of service. Um, I have a junior at the high school who just got done taking the SATs and um had um got um ACT results back which um I'm very proud of. That's all I'll say. And then um uh so thank you to the high school for all the prep materials provided to our students. I think that helped a lot and at least in my household those materials were taken seriously. So, um I appreciate that. And um for my board oh and I also um work as a specialed parah at Gatewood Elementary. And for my board report, um we um have landed on a date for our um for the community conversation um around change in start times for Alice Smith in Gatewood that is going to be happening um as part of the Gatewood family fun night which is May 22nd. We are going to host a space within that um uh that family fun night for um families to come and talk with us, problem solve and get linked to local resources. And then also what um might be available within the district um around just ideulating around how we can help families continue to access their neighborhood schools. Um, and yeah, just meetings and it's the end of the year, so things are are fast and furious. Hello, my name is Jason Ross. I have three kids in the system. Uh, two at North, one at Tangland. Uh, I definitely want to acknowledge all of our teachers on this special day for teacher appreciation day. Obviously, without your work, you would not uh be able to show these products. I am a product of uh public school education. So um hey kids, you know what you can strive for. You could be a school board member one day in your future. Um [Laughter] living the dream. Living the dream. Yes. I had the pleasure of attending the AMD meeting. Uh this was a focus presentation on updates and future thinking. One of the big things and the focal point of uh this particular presentation was streamlining lensure and addressing teacher shortage. I know that was a big piece to kind of um walk through and we had um uh breakout group sessions to kind of come up with ideas on how we think without having a whole lot of education or knowledge. So don't hold me uh responsible for some of the comments that were made. Uh yeah, that was a good meeting. And uh that's all I have for my board report. Hi, this is Jiming Jao. Uh I'm on my second year of my first term on the school board. I've got two kids in the district uh in uh fourth grade and first grade um in the Shing Shing program at Eisenhower. Um uh like uh Bro, uh Director Roer and Director Thompson, I was also attended the ESAC uh math night. Um and uh so you know I when I got there I did worry about quorum. I thought maybe if one other person showed up one of us would have to duck out. So uh you know um I think it just goes to show in a lot of ways that um it this is a very important topic for the school board and for me personally. Um, you know, one of the things we talked about is, you know, uh, not not ever saying that you're not a math person or whatever, uh, to to to kids and, um, but I think especially for me, uh, I'm a math person, so I'm I got really excited. There's nothing that was going to stop me from attending ESAC. Um, I I don't want to steal their thunder too much. Um, but, uh, I was very heartened by, uh, the frank conversation uh, around some of the metrics and things like that. I think there is a sense of urgency and um you know I think that I certainly share that and many others on the board do share that and so um I really am very hopeful about this upcoming uh curriculum uh discussion. Not going to steal too much of their thunder as I said but I'm very hopeful about the future of math here at Hopkins. So thanks. Wonderful. Hi, I'm Jen West Morland. This is my eighth year on the board. I am a proud graduate of Hopkins Public Schools. I am the parent of an eighth grader at West Middle School and I wanted to recognize our scholars at both of the middle schools who are out in the community participating in their IB community projects right now. Um and so as a parent I get to sort of listen in on some of the planning the group planning sessions um ideiation. um my my student tells me about things that her friends are working on and it's just really inspiring um and looking forward to the events where we can experience some of those projects or learn more about them. So, thank you. Thank you everybody. Um that takes us to um our vital section of the meeting tonight where we um have the incidental report. Um the recommendation is that the board accept the incidental reports presented which is a title one update. I hope that everyone's had a chance to review that. I I found it very interesting. I think in terms of when uh title one is a federal um dollars and I think um it's very informative to look at this when we see what's happening with federal funding right now and what could happen and what kind of impact it's going to have on our district. There's a lot of schools listed as qualifying for those dollars. Um, and I think um it's illustrative of of what kind of um what we could be looking at as a district. So with that, I would look for a motion that the board accept the incidental report as presented. So moved. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say I. I. I. Any opposed? The chair votes I. And the incidental report is accepted. And that takes us to me looking for a motion to adjourn the meeting. So moved. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Why is it so early? Um because we were we used our time efficiently. Director West Morland. Yeah. And we have to go watch the wolves play. So come on. Yes. Okay. All right. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? The chair votes I. And this meeting is adjourned at 8:43 p.m.