Welcome everybody. I would like to call this regular meeting of the Hopkins School Board to order at 7:00 PM on June 23rd, 2026. Thank you all for being here and present, and if you're tuning in online, we appreciate that as well. Our first order of business is open agenda. We have public comment at the beginning and end of every meeting if needed. Did we get any voicemails? No voicemails, and there are no people with us this evening to make public comments, so we will then move to our superintendent report. Dr. Miri Perry Read. Thank you, Chair Andreassen, and good evening to everyone, board members, colleagues in the audience, and community members. So I have a very brief report, and as Natalia gets ready to present it, first I just want to congratulate the class of '26. Yay. '26 earned an average of 3.29 GPA. They collectively applied to 2,023 colleges and universities with a 79% admission rate, which I thought was very exciting, completing an average of five AP and/or CIS or honors courses per student, which I thought was also fascinating. And within this class, there were 59 AVID, or Advancement Via Individual Determination, scholars. These are first-generation college goers, and they had a 100% college acceptance rate. So a really successful class, and we wish them well as they transition from Hopkins High School. Student learning and achievement. And so we wanted to share with you all of the great communications and marketing department. So NSPRA is the National School Public Relations Association, and NSPRA awarded our comms department with three national awards. So they won the Annual Report Award of Excellence, and that was for our annual report called Securing Our Future Together. That was sent to our community last year. The team also won the Special Purpose Publication Award of Excellence, and that was for the referendum materials that we created and sent to our community. And then the team also won the Video Series Award of Excellence for two referendum videos. So, wonderful work, communications and marketing team under the leadership of Jolene Goldade, and now interim director, Toya Stewart-Downey. And we did make an offer today to a new director of communications and marketing, and soon that will become public, and we're so very excited for the success of this team. Next, so I wanted to make sure that our school board members and also our community is aware of a legislative proposal. So you may have heard about the Permanent School Fund, and this is an education savings account for public schools. Essentially, the Permanent School Fund was created when Minnesota became a state and is funded by money earned from state school trust lands, including timber, mining, and leases. And the proposal on the table is for Minnesota voters to approve a constitutional amendment that would result in public schools receiving 4.5% of the fund's annual earnings. And so the total value of this fund currently is $2.3 billion. And there'll be a lot of information coming out from the Association of Metropolitan School Districts, from the Minnesota School Board Association, and it'll be important for our board members and also our educators here in Hopkins to educate our public and make sure that voters approve this constitutional amendment because there are no new taxes involved, and schools would have local control if this amendment was approved. They would have local control over how these dollars are spent. And then lastly, I do want to just acknowledge my time here in Hopkins. I have served as superintendent for nine years here in Hopkins Public Schools, and in just a few days, I'll be passing the torch to Dr. Michael Thomas. And as you know, creating opportunities for students is not a single person's work. It takes all of us. And so everything that we have achieved for the last nine years, on behalf of all of our students to advance the learning and achievement of our students and ensure that our schools are safe and ensure that improvements are made to the experiences of staff and students and families every day, all of that is a result of all of us working together. So I just want to thank you for the opportunity. I did a little bit of quantifying here. So nine years is equivalent to 108 months, and at two board meetings per month, that's about 162 board meetings. And at a weekly three-hour cabinet meeting, that's 360 Three-hour cabinet meetings. Mm. I have cabinet colleagues in the back. They're going to miss me. So I just want to truly thank all of you for this honor. Thank you for mentioning the transition. I have been willfully ignoring it. And I don't think I'm alone when I express deep gratitude for your years of service, and also for the care with which you have held each student in this district. As a parent, that has been felt by all of us. So I'm going to pass it to other people because I'll just keep crying. Thank you. Dr. Mary Perry Reid, thank you so much for your service to the district. We are certainly going to miss you a lot. I appreciate learning a lot from you, in your elegance, and just the way that you carry your leadership. Everyone that I speak to in the community have very, very good things to say about you, including the Freedom School staff, who I just literally was at their parent meeting, and they were talking about coming back to Hopkins. And they was like, "Man, I'm so sad that Rhoda's leaving." And so I think a lot of folks really do appreciate the gift that you have brought over to the Hopkins School District. So this is not goodbye, this is a see you later, because I'm pretty sure I will see you around somewhere just doing all the great things that you know how to do. So thank you for your service. Thank you. You'll see me around. I'll be at the high school. Yes. With my kid. Well, thank you. Anyone else? Thank you. That then takes us to approval of tonight's agenda. I would look for a motion. I think Sarah wanted to say something. Oh. Sorry. That's okay. So I'm new here, or newer here, and you know this, but my family moved here because I'd been paying attention to the work that was happening in this district. And as a person who's deeply committed both to public education and to equity, and to wanting to ensure that every little kid, no matter what their background or their family of origin or generational trauma or whatever they've experienced, the education should be a pathway for all of us to be members of a democracy that's for everybody. Mm. And that's why my family moved here. And so just thank you for your work and legacy. And you know intimately that the work of a superintendent is not an easy job. And so we just thank you for your service to this community and look forward to continuing on good work as we do that together. So thank you, and may you also just be surrounded in restful space where you can be like, "Look, now that I don't have to go to those 363 hours of meetings," or whatever it may be. So just thank you so much. Some of the new curriculum, the READ Act investments, and just maintaining a good fund balance. It's difficult. You got us through COVID. It's been a lot of challenges, and you've done it. And you've taken the district where it needs to go, and I'm very excited for the next milestone. But you got us there, so I deeply appreciate it. And personally, you trained at least me in what board governance is, and I think I've learned a lot about that. So I appreciate it. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? The chair votes aye, and tonight's agenda is approved. Next is the consent calendar. The purpose of these items is to 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. Do I have 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 aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? The chair votes aye and the consent calendar is approved. And that takes us to our treasurer's report. Chair Andresen- Oh ... I'm sorry to interrupt, but it says roll call in item H. Do we need a roll call for that, or for the Hopkins Census Resolution? Oh, yeah. I see that. Thanks. I don't know. We do not have Assistant Superintendent Lightfoot. So in an abundance of caution- Let's call ... clerk, please call the roll. Thank you, Director Zhou. Mm-hmm. Roll call. Shannon Andresen. Aye. Rachel Hartland. Aye. Johanna Heimann. Aye. Brooke Roper. Aye. Kai Thompson. Aye. Sarah Wilhelm-Garbers. Aye. Zhiming Zhou. Aye. All have voted aye. Thank you, Clerk WG. And just for our community's edification, that was a roll call vote certifying the population estimate for the 2026 payable, 2027 levy of Independent School District 270. It is an updated population estimate So that is what we called the roll for, and now we go to the treasurer's report. Treasurer Hartland. Certainly. Good evening. I'll be brief since we're about to hear quite a bit of financial information. Tonight's check register covers a longer period than normal. It's May 1st to May 31st and contains one very large expense, and that was $5,295,500 to Site Logic for planning, project management, civil management, such as getting permits and necessary testing, and documentation. This invoice was paid for out of Fund 6, which is our capital projects fund. The source of the funds in that account is primarily bond sales. And there is, of course, an invoice affiliated with this line item, and I can forward it to the board if there's interest in seeing it. It's broken out into 16 major projects and then 11 smaller projects, and there's a tracker for each that shows the percentage of work that has been completed against a total charge for that project. And so we are, of course, moving many projects forward at once, and this $5.295 million check was to cover the portion of work that has been completed on each of those. So you can let me know if you want to see that invoice. You can email me. And we will be seeing similar bills in the future that we can compare to this previous one to see their tracker move forward. Something that is unique on the check register is there were multiple checks made out to either students or colleges from Fund 8. That's our trust and agency fund, and that fund receives money by donations from either individuals or organizations to the Hopkins Public Schools districts for the purpose of awarding these scholarships that are awarded on our scholarship night. We saw a lot of payments made to non-public schools in our boundary that have descriptions that say, like, "Four students at $210," or similar, and that's our district reimbursing non-public schools for the standardized transportation reimbursement amounts. It's set by the state of Minnesota under their non-public pupil transportation rules. So we see that at the end of every year. Several departments or vendors did a push to settle up invoices before the end of the year. Advanced Imaging Solutions is one of those. The total of all of those invoices was $12,502.53. And we paid Apple $202,056 for leases for staff devices, paid for from Fund 16, our capital leases fund. A lot of staff submitted March, April, and May mileage reimbursement requests since we are coming to the end of the year, so you see those. 23,091.78 went to Blake School for various program and curriculum reimbursements, including transportation, and then $49,777.65 went to BREC. We paid $1,744.56 for the Ford NGL April Community Convening, and that was paid out of Fund 19, which is our local grants fund. So we did have a grant that paid for that. Intermediate District 287 was paid $104,973.03 under that same pre-bill description that Director Thompson had asked about in the last meeting. And I did look into that further, and it's one of 12 equal payments for the base cost of our share of services from District 287 that for the school year, it totaled $1.259 million. It includes the base cost for a variety of services, the lease of space, and then also a per-student fee that's $15.05 per student. And then separately for other services, we see bills throughout the year, but this pre-bill is this base amount. Kelly Services, the provider of a lot of our substitute teaching services, was paid $88,392.45. We paid Lake Country $234,124.60 for all kinds of trips that occurred in March, April, and May and were paid in the month of May. We paid $3,034.20 to McDowell Agency for background checks for new staff hires and also all of the staff that teaches our dozens and dozens of Royal Zone and Freedom School and community ed classes over the summer. We settled a lot of Modern Heating and Air invoices for a total of $58,147.50. For PSEO, which is the program through which our students can attend local college classes and earn college credit, we paid $148,013.94 from our general fund to Normandale and North Hennepin Community Colleges. And with that, I move that we approve total disbursements in the amount of $7,699,325.37 for the period of May 1st to May 31st, 2026. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Mm-mm. Okay. Aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? The chair votes aye, and the treasurer's report is accepted. And I want to thank you, Treasurer Hartland, for a very informative year. Mm-hmm. The ways in which your report has grown and been more inclusive and transparent is notable. I also have been impressed with the way that you handled the transition, or the non-transition, of our financials between systems. You were patient, you were diligent, and you made sure that the board got really transparent updates through that entire process, so thank you. I appreciate it. Very good year. Chair Andreassen? Yes. I also want to say, Treasurer Hartland, that I love how you very thoughtfully and strategically select certain items so that our commu- I would like to invite our presenters up to the table and turn it over to Dr. Mary Perry Reid. Thank you, Chair Andreassen. Welcome, Andy Grice from KDV, and Jessica Olsen, who is our interim CFO and also works with CISO and with us, and we're very grateful for the work that both of you have done for our district. I do want to acknowledge that this audit process has taken much longer than anyone would've liked, but we're elated that we have reached this completion point, and I want to thank all of our business services professionals under the guidance of Jessica Olsen. I want to thank our CLA partners and also KDV for their patience and persistence through this process. What you will hear about is not a completely unblemished audit. However, the findings are consistent with those identified in FY24 around procurement, purchasing practices, and needing much tighter and more explicit internal controls, and these are things that we have been working on in our business services office. And so I'm very grateful to them, and we have been setting up our systems and processes so that we can be on time with FY26 and all subsequent audits. So that will be very important for the district to achieve those goals. And with that, I'll turn it over to Andy from KDV. Thanks for being here. All right. Thank you so much for having me here tonight. I'm here to present the audit results for the year ended June 30th, 2025. We do have our independent auditor's report included in the district's financial statements, and just wanted to remind everyone what that means in terms of what we're reporting on there. And our role as your auditor is to provide assurance or our audit opinion as to whether we believe your financial statements to present fairly in all material respects, but the ultimate responsibility for the financial statements lies with management. We are providing a clean, unmodified opinion, which is the best that we can give as your auditor, so congratulations on receiving that again here for the year ended, again, June 30th, 2025. I did want to highlight a couple other reports as well. We did have a report on government auditing standards, as well as a report on Minnesota legal compliance. Did want to highlight that we are issuing our single audit report anticipated in July, so there are some components of that test work that were pending at the time of this issuance, but that is expected to be communicated in July. The government auditing standards report talks about our consideration of internal control over financial reporting when performing our financial statement audit. And so we are required by audit standards to communicate in writing any significant deficiencies or material weaknesses that come to our attention as part of that audit. And as was mentioned, many of these findings are the same that were reported in 2024, given that the conditions were present in both periods, given that we did issue that report after the June 30th, 2025 period had ended. There was one new finding that we reported this year, and that was the deficiency in the budget reporting process. We noted a component of the overall budget for revenue excluded a piece of the levy there, so just wanted to be sure that we're recommending some improvements to that process to be sure those types of errors can be identified timely. And then the compliance finding relates to, again, having a system that was not yet approved by the MDE in place during 2025, so that continued to be present here for this reporting period. Same on the Minnesota legal compliance report. All of these were the same back in 2024, but the district is getting things in order to be sure that those are addressed for 2026. And then the last component of our reporting is our communications letter, which we'll highlight some charts and graphs from here next. To start, I wanted to take a look at enrollment. Given that state sources of revenue represent the majority of general fund revenues, the most significant component of that state source is general education aid, which is based on enrollment, as well as the formula allowance that's established by the state. I wanted to start by looking at resident ADM. These are the students that are within the district boundaries that are available to be served. In taking a look at this data here for 2025, we did see about a 3.5% increase from 7,298 to 7,552 We then take a look at the conversion to pupil unit numbers, and this takes into account the weighting here. I think I have a chart here of the weighting. You get a 20% premium there for secondary students, so that gets taken into account as part of that. And then it also takes into account the open enrollment process, so any students that are going elsewhere for educational opportunities or any non-residents coming into the district. And with that increase in overall resident ADM, there was an increase in resident students that were being served, and so that was a 3.4% increase. There was an increase in pupil units going elsewhere. That increased by 174, and that was offset by an increase of about 37 of non-residents coming in, and that netted to about 137 pupil unit increase, or about 1.8% here for 2025. We do have a chart that highlights the rate of change for each of the years presented, and so here in 2025, we do see the largest growth in both ADM and pupil units served with a, again, 3.5% increase in ADM, and then a 1.8% increase in pupil units served. The next chart highlights the formula allowance over the years. And so for this reporting period of 2025, there was a 2% increase in that formula allowance, and that increased to 2.7% going into 2026. And that leads us into highlighting the general fund sources of revenue here over the last five years. As you can see here, we did see an increase overall from about 140.9 million to almost $153 million, with the most significant increase occurring in that state sources line. So that increased from 78.4 million to 86.6 million. And that was mainly driven by that increase in students, the increase in the formula allowance, as well as some additional special education funding, which is based on costs. We did see an offsetting decrease there in that other category, which decreased from a high point in the five years presented at 12.4 million, down to about $10.9 million. That category includes federal sources, and so with a majority of the COVID-19 dollars being spent in those previous three years, we're seeing that coming back to lower levels here in 2025. And then local property taxes did see an increase from 50.1 million to 55.5 million with an increase in levy. The next chart I wanted to highlight is the budget to actual results. So the budget that was approved by the board was for $128 million in revenue, $128 million in expenditures, and anticipated no change in fund balance for the year. Taking a look at actual revenues, actual revenues came in at about $153 million, so that was about $25 million better than anticipated. And the majority of that variance occurred in that local property taxes line, coming in $14 million better than anticipated. And again, that relates to a component of the levy that was excluded from the budget when that was originally approved. And then the state sources line came in better than anticipated, really driven by more special education aid than anticipated. More federal sources were utilized, and that came in more than anticipated. And then that other local and county revenues line was $4.2 million better than anticipated, and that's where investment income is. And again, that's budgeted conservatively, so that did come in better than budgeted. On the expenditure side, that came in at $137.7 million, which was $9.7 million more than anticipated overall. There was a significant variance between administration and regular instruction. There were certain positions that were budgeted in administration that are required to be reported in another category. And so those are reclassified, so you do see an offsetting variance when it comes to regular instruction. And then we did see special education come in over budget by about 5.7 million, just based on those special education needs. And then the sites and buildings category was over budget just based on the timing of certain projects. That did result in a surplus for the year of about $15.2 million. And then after other financing sources and uses, mainly transfers out to other funds, fund balance increased for the year by about $7 million. The next chart highlights revenues per ADM served, just to give some further perspective on how the district has compared to prior years in terms of that number, as well as comparison to other districts, similar-sized districts, and statewide averages. Historically, the district has been above those statewide averages as well as higher than similar-sized schools, and there's a lot of variables there that go into that just based on the funding sources and the demographics and makeup of the different property tax bases and such. And so just to be aware and have that information available for discussion purposes, but we did see that number come down here for 2025 from 20,269 per ADM served down to 20,003. And that was mainly driven by that federal aid, which continued to drop, which was again, higher back in that '22 timeframe when a lot of that COVID-19 funding was available, and dropping to about 637, which is a bit closer to that 2021 timeframe. We also have the same information in terms of expenditures per ADM served, so seeing how that's changed here over the last five years. It was at a high point back in 2024 with the remaining spending of those COVID-19 dollars, but did see that increase to 26,149 for all funds for 2025. And then also wanted to highlight just the makeup of general fund expenditures and how expenditures are allocated by program between the two years. So majority of funds are going to those instructional categories. The only areas that we saw a shift were in that administration and regular instruction category, just due to a change in coding, and then an increase in special education with an increase in the special education needs in that program. The next slide highlights the overall general fund operations here over the last five years, as well as the different components of fund balance. With the $7 million increase in overall fund balance, we did want to highlight where that ended up in terms of the restricted, assigned, and unassigned portion of fund balance. And so, the unassigned portion of fund balance actually decreased, even though there was an overall increase in fund balance. It went from 16.3 million down to 14.4 million, and that's due to a majority of the surplus being tied to restricted sources of revenue that were unspent at the end of the year. So, capital projects levy did see an increase from 5.5 million to about 9.2 million. And then long-term facility and maintenance dollars increased from 126,000 to $4.8 million. So, those are the major shifts in those different categories. To take a look at financial health, we also wanted to highlight unrestricted fund balance as a percentage of unrestricted expenditures. And so with unassigned fund balance mainly going down, whereas expenditures remained fairly flat, we did see a decrease in that percentage from 17.3% down to 14.7%. The district does have a policy in place to maintain no less than 6% of the annual budget in fund balance or in that unassigned fund balance category. And for 2025, that ratio was 10.5%, so well within that policy range. Last, just wanted to highlight a couple of the special revenue funds, one being the food service fund. Did see the expenditures in that fund increase just based on increasing costs, and that did result in a deficit for the year of about $290,000, which did bring fund balance down to $812,000 at the end of the year. And then the community service fund continued to see surpluses each of the years presented, a bit smaller here for 2025, but revenues were at 13 million, expenditures at 12.2 million. And with that $767,000 increase, did end the year at the highest point in the years presented at about $6.7 million. That's a high-level look at the audit results, as well as some of the select financial data. And want to, again, appreciate all the district's work, working through the audit process again this year. Next, we'd just like to open up for any questions. Thank you. Appreciate it, and also all the work that went into getting these revised numbers. And would open it up to my board colleagues for questions. Chair Andresen? Yes, Director Zhou. Yes. Hi. Well, I do have a comment and then a question. So first of all, thanks for the audit, and the results. I think I've kind of joked that unmodified or is as good as it gets, and that's actually really good news. So that's awesome. I think just for the public to know, one of the things that I worry about and gives me a gray hair or two is making sure that there's no surprises, right? Especially with some of the financial things that happen in surrounding districts. Basically, that can't happen here, because it's very disruptive and it undermines trust and operations. So that's not happening, so I just wanted to put that out there. And to Dr. Mary Pier Reed's point about it being late, this is actually quicker, if you want to believe that or not, than last year's, which was about a year late. This is about six months late. So we're accelerating, which is awesome. And my expectation is that this '26 one is going to be on time. And maybe this is a question for Jessica. How's that looking? Is that likely? Can we hit that? Yes, we can. So we're doing work right now to do a lot of cleanup with account codes and just reconciling what we can before the year end. And then as soon as July hits, we'll start the audit process. Emily and I are meeting the first week of July to assign audit tasks and go through that. And our goal is to have everything ready two weeks prior to when it gets handed off to KDV so that there's no delays from the district side. That's very good news. Thank you. Appreciate it. Chair Andresen? Yes, Director Thompson. Thank you for that question, Director Zhou, and thank you for the assurances or the confidence that you're instilling in us that it's great to see 12 months, six months on time. So that seems logical, so I appreciate that. So now to those material weaknesses that we saw in 2024 and again in 2025, what is sort of your gut instinct as far as will we see those again for 2026? Or are we able to get on top of those? Or were we able to, I suppose? So we have been working on those the last six months since the '24 audit findings came out, or when we became aware of what they were going to be. So we have been doing stuff to correct them. Our goal is to have as many corrected before June 30th of this year as possible, and we'll continue to work through those that still continue to show up, that need more time to fix. Okay, great. Thank you. Yeah. Director Heimani? Go. So, thank you. I agree with everyone that has spoken tonight and we share our appreciation for everything you've done to get this done by our last meeting tonight I do have a question. I know we had a good surprise, where we received more funds from the state and different programs than we anticipated receiving. My question is, moving forward, is there a plan in place to more accurately predict or calculate what those funds will be so we can, forward-looking, perhaps budget in a more effective way, knowing really all the resources that we will have? So speaking to what we did with the revised budget for FY26, we looked at the enrollment, we looked at where the projections were, and we did updates based on that. For FY27, which we'll talk about next, we did the similar thing. So we used where enrollments are, looking at the trends and making sure that what we know is within the budget. Yes, there will be stuff that gets adjusted in the revised, but what we know today is what's in the budget. So yes, it is something we're accounting for. Great. Thank you. Chair Andreassen? Yes. Clerk Lilham-Garvers. Thank you. I echo my colleagues' thanks for your work on bringing this to us. And just wanted to note a couple of things for our community as a person who's also new on the board and to this work. I think one of them is just in this current moment as national politics impact funding, just want to highlight to our community and to those who are advocating at the state level and beyond, the investment and the amount of students the number of special education dollars represents. Those are real students who have needs and need educational supports. And so just want to highlight that that's a significant part of our budget, and that means that's a significant part of our community. And so, just to encourage those who are advocating, and to our elected officials, also resolve everything we can do to advocate for funding and resources for all of our students is vital. Mm-hmm. The second thing that I just wanted to note as well as a person who currently pays out of pocket for the full cost of my child's early childhood education, is the investment that we as a district do put into every single student. And it does take an entire community and state and federal support for us to be able to support our educators in the whole process. And it is $20,000 about a year for us to, if I'm reading the financial report correctly and that's significant. And it's an important investment as well that we make as a community, so just thanks to our leaders and to all of our community members for the ways in which we take seriously your investment in public education and want to steward that well in a way that helps to uplift all of our community members. And I'll cede the floor. Thank you. Chair Andreassen. Yes. Treasurer Hartland. Thank you very much for your work, as everyone has stated. Now that we are on a more timely process, are there things either the board should be checking in on? We have not had a normal cycle for some time. And so I was wondering if perhaps you could remind us what we'll see once the fall starts. What's a typical review cycle, and what can and should the board either ask, or how can we help, or what should we expect? Regarding the audit? Yes. So typically with the audit, the work starts in July, so we'll start all the preliminary stuff. August, we'll really start ramping up because we have all the stuff that have come in in July that need to be booked back to the prior year receivables and that stuff. Typically, come September, the audit should be pretty close to being wrapped up. The audit this year is scheduled on October 19th, the week of. So we will have all of our district side financial stuff done the first week of October to be ready to be handed off. So any conversations that you guys have or wanting to know updates, we can give an update probably September to the board of how the audit is going along. And then November, we'll have an audit presentation from Andy here from KDB. They'll go through the 26 audit, and it'll be submitted to the state at that point. Wonderful. I'm excited. Thank you. Thank you everybody. I just had a question about a couple of things I heard in the presentation and want to make sure that I got it down correctly. It is a little bit discombobulating to be looking at numbers from 2025 and so I just want to make sure I have it correct. I believe that in this report we saw that our ADM increased in 2025 by over 100 pupils. Did I see that correctly? Yes. Okay. So I just want to make sure that- Correct ... but in a different manner. And I am wondering because of the way I heard that a lot of those funds were capital project levies and so were brought back into that fund balance. But I'm wondering, as I'm looking at these slides and the numbers, I believe that left about 7 million in, am I correct in assuming general operating funds? So The net increase in overall fund balance was $7 million, but a majority of that surplus were unspent, restricted dollars for capital projects levy and- Okay ... long-term facility maintenance. So after accounting for those significant increases, it was actually a decrease to the unassigned fund balance category, which is free to be spent for anything. That helps because I was wondering why our unrestricted fund balance went down. Sure. So you have answered that question, so thank you. Thanks. That was what I wanted to clarify. Absolutely. I appreciate that. And then, yeah, those were my questions. So thank you very much. Thanks for having me. Anyone else? No. Then, I believe we have to approve the fiscal year '25 audit. So I would like to give someone the honor of making this very auspicious motion that we approve the fiscal year '25 audit. So moved. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Seeing none. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? The chair votes aye, and the fiscal year '25 audit is approved. Mm-hmm. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Andy. Thank you. Thank you. Well, she's calm, and she's very direct and very specific about what we need to do as an organization, and so I have just very much appreciated your attention to detail and always keeping us updated. Thank you for your work and for getting us to this point. Moved back into Skyward then. We met with our school leaders and department leaders on a biweekly basis to discuss our instructionalized budget reductions, and then reinvested about one million back into protecting the student experience in our schools. And we have updated the school board throughout that process. So, at this point, we have operationalized many of those reductions so that they can be realized next year. And, I think we're ready to share more details about the FY27 budget, and it will need board approval. So I'll turn it over to you, Jessica, for that report. Thank you. Perfect. Well, let's dive in. So I just wanted to reiterate some of the priorities that we had looking at the FY27 budget. It was really around sustaining the classroom and making sure that the students have adequate classrooms, as far as teacher to student ratios, making sure we're following a MOU as well, and just really aligning that student support with our students. The other area is the fund balance stability, so making sure that we're setting up today so that in future we are ... 0.8 million, community services 13.1, construction fund 250,000, debt service 19.6, internal service funds 18.2, and then the OPEB trust is 900 for a total revenue budget of $207 million. And we'll go through ... The total expenditures is 241 million, and we'll go through how that large spike is from FY26 to FY27 here in the next couple slides. So then just looking over the general fund, what we're looking is we're projecting a surplus of 1.5 million. It will be higher than that because we are spending down some fund balances to support this budget, so one of those that we're spending down is Safe Schools. It's helping to support some of our paras and making sure that we have the correct staff on for our students. So that will be closer to that $2 million mark when we get to the fund balance spend down. We don't account for a revenue side when we spend down fund balance because we already have those funds on hand. We just account for the expenditures that go along with it. So from a revenue breakdown, this chart, I won't read it word for word, just breaks down how our revenue funding comes in with our basic revenue allowance being the largest portion of our funding, along with special ed. Next, we'll look at the general fund expenditures. So this is everything outside of the schools that the district supports. So governance and management is 724,000. The building support is 2.8. The next category is staff development, QCOMP, IDL, American Indian Education and Literacy Incentive for 4.2. And then we have our other category at 7.3. Within the other category, that's going to include different programming that goes along with it. And with that, it's going to be the RAC, severance, student activities, targeted staffing, Safe Schools, substitutes, kind of that catchall piece of the budget. So the total operating budget outside of the schools is 63.5 million. Next is a breakdown of each location and what their budget is for the year. Overall, all the school buildings come to an $85 million budget. And then you can see on here, Alice Smith is at a 5.9. Eisenhower is at a 9.3. Glen Lake, 6.4 million. Gatewood, 6.5. Meadowbrook is 8.9. Tanglin, seven. North Middle is 11 million. West Middle is 8.4. The high school is 19.2, and then Vidu is 2.1 million. ... gaining that fund balance. So if it's at 800,000 for FY25, if we reduce another 250, that's going to get it down to a little over 500,000, and we really want to make sure that they have something if something major were to need to be replaced, and just have that cushion there. So we're looking to reduce some costs, and how we can specialize and really prioritize our food purchasing. So you'll see some stuff around there. The quality and the delivery is all expected to stay the same. We're just looking at how to be more effective. Next we have is community education. So we have a slight increase in revenue of 299,000. There's a large increase of expenditures, so we're increasing expenditures from 13.2 to 14.2 million. One of the things that they're looking at doing is adding some programming for Chinese immersion for a preschool program. So that will be coming, and some other programming stuff. So they're really trying to utilize that fund balance and deliver more to the community. All right, so the next one that I want to talk about is construction. So within construction, we have a budget of 250,000. This is an estimate for interest. We will have a bond sale in FY27. The reason why this is not included in the original budget is we don't know how much we're bonding for yet. So as we've reconciled FY25 and we're reconciling FY26, that's going to determine how much the LTFM bond recommendation that will come to the board for approval will be. So once we know that. We do have a small deficit spend, so the state allows you to have so much in your fund balance, and then once you get to a little bit higher, they'll start taking away some of that so you spend down your fund balance. So that's where you're seeing that, so you don't have this huge fund balance in your debt service. Thank you. Any questions or comments? Chair Andresen? Yes, Director Thompson. Just to understand what you're talking about in the construction fund table. So it says adopted budget, 26, 27, 250,000, but then, a massive expenditure. And so what you're saying is because we're going to be selling bonds this coming year, when you bring us the revised budget, that revenue of 250,000 is going to jump up to something, but we don't know what it is yet, so that's why we don't see it. Correct. Okay. Yeah. And it's going to be for the LTFM long-term facilities portion for that revenue to support the 10-year plan that was approved. Okay. And when about will we see that revised- It'll be brought to you in August. August. Okay, great. Thank you. Mm-hmm. Chair Andresen? Yes, Vice Chair Roper. Can I ask a quick question? Thank you. Thank you again for presenting on the budget. I really appreciate it. I just have a very quick question just for my curiosity. As we're looking at the general fund revenue, and it says federal grants at 1.7%, about how much dollars is that for our district? So just in case we get a federal grant taken away from our district or something, how much? Rough estimate is 3.5 million is what's for- 3.5 million? Okay ... FY27. The question is on slide 11, which includes the internal service fund. The revenue is at just over 19 million and expenditures at 17 and a half. Can you say a little bit more about on the revenue side, what all goes into making for that as a part of the budget? So that makes up three parts. So the health insurance and dental, so there's premiums that the district collects through payroll that helps pay for those claims that come through. So right now we're projected to have a surplus in there to cover that and continue to have that healthy fund balance, so that if there are larger claims that come in, it can support that. The other one is the severance fund. So we have around 2.7 million budgeted to have for revenue to put in there, and about 1.8 million for expenditures. So there is a surplus there as well. OPEB, the revenue that's coming in is strictly interest revenue, and the expenditures is managing, because the district will be paying for OPEB out of pocket, which is part of the budget that we've built. Thank you. And then a comment which I would love for you to comment further on as we go to slide eight, and just looking at the differences, particularly at the elementary school levels, but we see that also in north and west, that is on account of enrollment at the schools, correct? Correct. So for the elementary, it's based on class size. Mm-hmm. So how many students for each grade level broken out by their class. When you look at the middle school and high school, it's also doing enrollment, but it's also looking at registrations for classes and breaking it out that way. Great. And then I guess finally, I would just reiterate what you've said, and Director Thompson, you pointed toward as well, which in case anyone heard the jump from 8 million to 35 million on construction, again, we didn't make that up. We all voted to approve that work, and this is what's going to be happening this next year. So, because yeah, that would be shocking if you had forgotten that important detail. So thank you. Chair Andresen? Yes. Director Zhao. Yes. Yes, thank you. Just a quick comment. I think I really appreciate the way you've gotten on board and, really I think this budget cycle has a marked difference than previous ones, as far as stress for me and community, but mostly for me. So I really appreciate that, and I think financial stability is a key component to having a good school, is teachers are not worried as much about layoffs or this and that, and class sizes are manageable. So, I really appreciate all the legwork you've done with the audit and then now this. I think we're on a good trajectory, so I really appreciate you. Thank you. Mm-hmm. I echo that gratitude. I also appreciate just the way it's presented. I can follow it. It feels clear, and it generates thoughts and then questions that I think are important for our community to realize. And going back to... I know that we talked about food and nutrition, and you talked about they were looking at cost savings mainly through procurement. But is there also any thoughts around more a la carte kind of revenue generating things that they're thinking of doing? I know that the free school meals created a real shift in how we do nutrition services at schools. So just wondering if there's- Yes, they are looking to expand some of the a la carte options, and then- Great ... some of the costs that go with it, you'll see a little bit of a price increase as well, though, to help support that as well. Great. Thank you for that. I am also wondering, I know at the beginning you said that the bulk of the reductions in cost efficiencies were more at this district-wide and administration area. And I also appreciate deeply the ways in which our administrative staff are doing really important work, with very little resources. Mm-hmm. And, I think we can see that on the faces of the people who join us at the back of the room. I know I feel that when I bring questions about things to staff, and I thank you for joining us in this effort, and realize that we are asking a lot of our admin, with less and less help and resources at their disposal. So I appreciate that. And I am also wondering about something you mentioned, for the safe- Of it. Okay. So that's something we might be looking at next year. Depending on where things come in. Yeah. Okay. Rhoda, I don't know if you want to- Well, just they're specifically our school safety paras. So not just any paras, but the safety paras that we have at our three secondary schools. Okay. So that's what I was wondering. So secondary paras? Mm-hmm. Okay. Thank you. And I do know too that those are often the people that our most vulnerable students develop close relationships with. So they're critical staff. So thank you for finding a way to keep them with us at least one more year. I don't have any further questions. Anyone else? Chair Andresen? Yes, Treasurer Hartland. I would like to comment on that. I know you had talked about our administrative staff really feeling the pinch and want to also echo my thanks there. And then I want to call the board's attention back to at this time last year when we were looking at approving the fiscal year '26 budget, and we got these kind of building-by-building breakdowns. And then when you compare that with this year, at this time, our building-by-building breakdowns, the number of staffed classroom teachers went up for absolutely every classroom. So, for example, Alice Smith, on the building-by-building breakdown, last year had allocated 15 classroom teachers, and this year it's 18. Mm-hmm. And last year it was 24 at Eisenhower, and this year we're approving 31. And last year at Meadowbrook it was 26, and this year it's 30. Last year at North Middle School, 31, this year it's 43. And so I actually feel kind of emotional about that real investment. And so I know that that comes on the backs of some administrative work, and some programs have to shift, and we always have to do more with less, but every single program has an increase in classroom teacher allocations. And so I want the community to know that, and I want the board to know that, and thank you for that work. It's not easy to make all those decisions. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Thank you. Right. Well, on that positive note, I would look for a motion to approve the final fiscal year '27 budget. So moved. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? The chair votes aye, and the final fiscal year '27 budget is approved. Thank you so much for being with us and for all your work. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much, Jessica. And have fun with Audit 26. Yeah. Happy summer. She's like, "Yes." She said yes. Okay. Well, that takes us to our board member reports, and I told myself I was going to remember who started, and I don't. So Vice Chair Roper, would you like to get us started going around the table with an introduction and a report if you have one? I would just like to first and foremost say happy belated Father's Day to Director Thompson, Director Zao. I made it my point to say Mother's Day to all of the women on our board, so I want to make sure you all get your flowers as well. Well, here's your flowers. There they go. Not literal. Virtual. Yeah, not literal. And then also, happy belated Juneteenth to our wonderful district. I would love to see our district actually partner next year with some organizations to maybe bring some Juneteenth festivities over to the Hopkins area. But nonetheless, it's a celebration of Black folks, and so we're going to continue to love on them every day. I would say that I attended the Black Man Teach Gala this Saturday alongside Dr. Mary Perry Reed and Paris Timmons, who had me as her guest, and Dr. Stanley Brown was there, and it was an amazing gala. Black Man Teach is doing some incredible work to increase Black male educators in our classrooms, so I really appreciate their partnership with our district and the work that is being done by their team. I'm looking forward to the impact of their organization and what they have in store for the future. Also, I would say that I had a chance to go to American Indian Graduation a few weeks ago. It was an amazing graduation. I learned so much about their culture and just how they embrace their students, and so I really appreciated learning. Let's see, what else do I have? Of course, we were at the Hopkins graduation. Again, congratulations to all of our 2026 graduates. It was a great time there and a great experience. And then, let's see. Freedom School started on Monday. Was that yesterday? Yep, that was yesterday. I'm so excited for Freedom School. I think you all hear me talk about Freedom School a lot. It is an asset for our students and to our district. Shannon was actually, this is probably part of her board report, but she was a guest reader yesterday. And I am going to be a guest reader next week, and I know a few other board members have signed up to be guest readers. But if you have not signed up, I really encourage you to do so. It's a very liberating experience reading to the students and just doing Harambee and just listening to all the songs. I swear it would be stuck in your head all day. I love Freedom School. Thank you so much for all the folks who did incredibly hard work to bring it to Hopkins School District. And I think that's it. Oh, I had an amazing meeting with a student today from Minnetonka High School. Well, he graduated last year, but he created a career readiness program for students called Opportunity. But thank you, Evan, for all the work you're doing. He's doing incredible coding work there. And I believe that is all that I have for my board report. And I hope everyone have a great summer and find time to relax and rejuvenate and prepare ourselves for the arrival of Dr. Thomas and to prepare for next school year. So thank you, everyone, for the incredible work we have done this year together. Thank you. Director Thompson. Oh, yeah. Hi, everybody. This is Director Zhiming Zhao. This is my third year on the school board. I've got a rising middle schooler and- Wow ... it's another milestone, and then a rising third grader. I did want to talk about our student board reps. We had three wonderful seniors that are graduating, Claire Fisher, Asha Osman, and Zane Tesack. And if you indulge me, and they maybe can listen to this after, but wanted to say just a few words to them and just our other student school board members as well. So to Claire, Asha, and Zane, I just wanted to take a moment to spotlight that you're graduating. When you volunteered to be on this student school board, you weren't just taking the title or adding a line to your college resume. You were taking a massive responsibility. You became the literal voice for hundreds and thousands of your peers. It really is not easy to sit at a table full of adults. There's a lot of complex operations, a lot of, for lack of a better word, politics involved, and you have always advocated fearlessly for your fellow students' balance. Both feelings and needs and And what teachers want, what the school board wants, what parents want, and what students want. And so, you kept us grounded, you kept us shaped the policy that struck a good balance that works for students and teachers alike. So, you folks also were very diligent in all the policy committees. You sat on and advised us on many things that had student impact. And so you've always kept us in an equitable and forward-thinking place, and we really appreciate that about you all. And lastly, I think maybe even most importantly, is that you helped us select a new superintendent. This is definitely the biggest responsibility that a school board has, let alone a student school board. And you sat through all the presentations, you helped us look at resumes, you looked at their backgrounds, things like that, and then you had a voice, and you had feedback that we gathered, and I think we all made a good choice, I think. We're very excited, and I thank everybody for all the work that they've had for us. So, I think lastly, I think one of the important things about life is that you show up, and that you volunteer, and that you demand a seat at the table. And so as you go off into the world, always carry that forward. Take a little bit of Hopkins with you. And we really appreciate what you've done, and thank you so much. You're welcome. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Johanna Hyman. This is my first year on the school board. I have a kindergartner, soon to be first grader, and a third grader, soon to be fourth grader at Meadowbrook Elementary. And speaking of Meadowbrook, I attended the senior walks the day prior to graduation at Meadowbrook, and it was just very emotional seeing little tiny kindergartners standing in the hall cheering, and they had all made signs, "Congratulations," "Great job." And then these big kids walking through and just thinking about the progression of how kids come to us as these little impressionable people and are hopefully leaving us, and I know many are leaving us, knowing incredible things and being prepared for the world. And whatever way they're going out into the world, these graduating seniors, and I think we saw this at graduation too, are so confident and have so much poise and are so well-spoken and are just generally well-rounded humans. And I just wanted to acknowledge that no matter where our graduates are going, they're leaving Hopkins really with a great perspective on the world and leaving here with skills that they will be able to use, no matter what they do and where they go. I was fortunate to have a meeting last week or two weeks ago with one of our amazing Minnesota state reps, Patty Acomb from Minnetonka, and I want to just let other local government officials know that we can be the best partners in this as possible. I also want to just pre-thank all the administration that's going to be working tirelessly over the summer. Most of, well, not most of the work, but a lot of work gets done in a compacted period of time, so everyone's ready to go at the start of the year for 2026. So, thank you in advance for working really hard over the summer so we have a great start to the fall in 2026. That's my board report. Thank you. Thanks. I'm Sarah Wilhelm-Garber, she/they, and I am the parent of a soon-to-be preschooler, officially pre-K in the fall, and a few updates. Had the opportunity to meet with both Iris, who is our student rep who's on Skip and also with our staff all the wonder and brilliance of our students and scholars, and it was a real delight. It got a little heated, which is no pun on many of their projects related to climate change. But this was about turtles. There was a couple of different turtle projects, big fight. Not really, it was a nonviolent fight, just to be very clear. And then this last week, I got my windows washed, and that is important just because I, as a school board member, felt obliged to pay the high school student from Hopkins who stopped by with his friend and offered to wash my windows for money. So I will not tell anyone else where I live because I will probably buy whatever you come by with if you're a Hopkins student. So thank you, George. My windows look lovely. All the time and throughout this whole month of Pride, that's what we basically walk around saying all of the time, and it's a lovely q***r family who celebrates Black Pride in Washington, DC, as part of a Pride parade, and so looking forward to that. And then I will make sure to visit, and if you and any of your people go to Twin Cities Pride this weekend, make sure to stop by the Hopkins booth. They're representing at Twin Cities Pride in Loring Park, and then also many of our educators and community members will be in the parade. I will be a participant who will be there supporting and wearing some Hopkins gear. Director Hyman and myself have our final onboarding for- Only four- So anything we didn't know- This month ... oh, well, sorry. We'll know for next -- We'll know for the fall. Just kidding. Life, you always continue to learn, which is important. Looking forward to that. And then again, with this, also have some meetings on the calendar with some local elected officials and other community leaders so we can continue to work on what does it look like to be partners and advocates, and hear from our many different and diverse communities that make up the wonderful Hopkins School District. I'm also looking forward to, and hoping to be a part of, the ongoing work of the monitoring committee related to the racial bias policy of anti-harassment, safe learning. And then I'm grateful for the work that has been done and will be continued on the Protected Class Harm handbook. And I wanted to end here by just echoing the affirmation of the beauty of graduation and all the different ceremonies and moments, and what it represents in terms of each student and their families, and all those who come alongside of them. It truly is an honor to be able to be a part of this community with all of you, and to be able to celebrate the wonder that is every single person who is a part of this community. So just so much thanks and gratitude, especially to all of our educators who invest so much to make those moments possible. And with that, I'll end my report. Thank you. Hello, I'm Kai Thompson. I'm in my third year on the board, and next year, I'd say what I've been up to recently is just kind of winding down this elementary parent experience and just sort of reflecting on the past what has been eight, nine years of being a Hopkins elementary parent. And so to that end, went to the Run Meadowbrook Run, and got to watch my kid help play the "Star Spangled Banner" for that. That was very great. Went to music class, hosted parents to come in and see that, and it was just great to be in the school and see what they're doing with instilling some music skills in this wider range of students in fifth grade. That was really special to see as well. And unfortunately, work commitments kept me from commencement, but enjoyed seeing the pictures and really proud of the graduates for that. So, that wraps up my board report. Good evening. I'm Rachel Hartland, serving as the treasurer. Use she/her pronouns. I'm dropping things on the floor. I have three children, so now I have two high schoolers and a middle schooler, which is very exciting, and I kind of miss my elementary school days. This was my first year not being a parent at Meadowbrook in a decade, and it was a big transition. In addition to graduation being this time of beauty and celebration, it also, I'm sure there's a great many administrators and staff members that have a little sigh of relief that it's over, and I just want to thank you for just all of the care and the planning, and the safety considerations, and the cultural considerations that went into making that moment possible. I know it was a really big lift. I could see the work. I could see attention and security, and care and love everywhere when we were there, and I'm grateful that it went off the way it did, perfectly. My family and thousands of other families and students are continuing, the school year's ended, but we're continuing to receive wonderful services and support from the Hopkins School District. I've got instruments rented from the school. I've got two kids in an aquatics program that our community ed department set up, so my teens and dozens of others are getting paid to become-- They're in a paid apprenticeship to become swim instructors and lifeguards over the summer. I have kids in drone making camps. Robotics continues all summer. I'm the new mentor for the robotics team for fundraising and business services, will still be there reading to Freedom School, which is a program that I'm very excited about. And I don't know, just in all kinds of ways, the school year and the district never stops serving their families, and we're very acutely aware of that this year. I will be at Twin Cities Pride. I'll be in the parade. We went to Hopkins Pride. Let's see, what else did we do? Oh, I want to take just one moment to say that in addition to the other staff, very crucial staff, Dr. Mary Pirrie Read leaving, also the Legislative Action Coalition is about to see the retirement of Katherine Callaghan, who's our long-time legislative liaison. So Katherine, you're probably not watching this, but I'm deeply grateful for all that you have done. All of the legislation, all of the care that you've shepherded along during your time, changing legislation, raising awareness, getting that she does while we try to find somebody to replace her, which will be a very difficult lift. There was a board audit committee meeting, the virtual And I think that's enough. Hi, everyone. I'm Rhoda Marie Perry Reed, signing off. This is my last board meeting. I don't know if I thanked our educators earlier during my comments. I try to tell staff on kickoff every year that my two children, my oldest is 17 and my youngest is 14, she'll be at the high school, they are really amazing kids. They're really smart. They are well-balanced. They care about other people. They try to do the right thing even when people are not looking. And I always tell staff that who they are is because of not just me, mostly because of Hopkins educators. And our teachers build great people. Mm-hmm. And so I would like to thank all of our Hopkins educators for the sacrifices that they make for all of our students. And you as board members, you have your own children in our school system, and you can see the impact that our educators have on our kids. So thank you, educators, and thank you, Catherine Callahan, because I don't know that I thanked her in previous comments. She did a lot, not just for our Hopkins LAC, but for legislative action coalitions across the metro area. She was always sought after as a model for how to organize and- I love it ... finally. Right. Yeah. Yeah. It'll be good. Dr. Marie Perry. Okay. But it needs someone to own it. So if you would like to- Congratulations. Party. Co-own. But I did voluntold. Hard to raise it. I don't know. We could find a few parents. Thank you, Erin. It definitely needs owners. Okay. But every school, and the reason why we didn't feel super bad about not having it is every one of our school leaders committed to having a school-based event where all of their staff were invited. So our staff did get to celebrate at the end of the year. Oh, cool. Mm-hmm. At their respective schools. Mm-hmm. Thank you. Thank you. I want to just quickly add to the appreciation for Catherine Callahan and her work over, I think more than a decade with the LAC and Hopkins specifically. One of the things that I talk about all the time with the LAC and about Hopkins is our amazing students. And one of the things that our students did, and Catherine was instrumental in making this happen, was they actually wrote a bill and got it passed through the state legislature. It is state law. It is because of Hopkins students and the connections that Catherine made to not just lawmakers at the state that would sponsor the bill, but the very dedicated and intelligent staff at the legislature who do the research that is necessary. Advocacy that they can implement for themselves is remarkable, and we are incredibly grateful for everything she's done. Yes. Um- Can I share the same sentiments? Yes. For Catherine, thank you so much. My time on the LAC, I enjoy it, even though this year was a little scattered for me. But just my time with the LAC has been incredible with Catherine. I really enjoy her leadership. She has taught me so much about politics at the state level. And I'm really looking forward to the work that she's going to do maybe outside of the LAC and just staying connected because she is such a great resource. I remember going to the MSBA conference and a member of a different LAC gave Hopkins the utmost credit for being one of the most credible LACs in our state. And so, that speaks volumes of the work that have been done over the decades. And so thank you, Catherine, for all of your work. We will miss you, and we will hopefully find someone to pass the torch to that can uphold some of your leadership qualities. Thank you. So hi, everybody. My name's Shannon Andresen. This is my seventh year on the school board. And I just had my second child graduate from Hopkins Public Schools, and it was an amazing day. And I'm excited for his future, but I just wanted to say we've all talked about how great graduation was, and it's always one of my favorite things, but I really enjoyed the new venue. And I know it was a surprise and it wasn't what we were looking for, but Roy Wilkins was really nice. It felt much more intimate. I could see the students as the ceremony was progressing. I could see families in the audience. It felt like we were right there all together. So I'm putting in a plug for keeping it there. It felt really good. And then just quick rundown of stuff that's been going on. I got to attend the Feather Ceremony, and I want to thank again, APAC and our American Indian education staff. It was a beautiful event as always, and every year It becomes more welcoming and more inclusive and specific to growing connections and community. And I appreciate that event so much. It is one of the highlights of being at Hopkins, and the program that we have here, I hear from families all the time, is a shining example of how it can be. And our families feel very supported and seen and are part of who we are because of the groups that are run and the way our staff implements it. So thank you for a lovely event. And then I got to attend on June 8th, the Spotlight Showcase at the State Theatre. And this was where high schools across the state came and performed just a small snippet of their musicals that got awards through the showcase, through the Spotlight's judging. They not only grade for outstanding performances, but also tech, costumes, makeup, and even house management. Every aspect of putting on a show is judged and awarded through the Spotlight Showcase. It was so much fun. They also put on a camp for those students who have been rated outstanding, and they get to be together for a week and create performances on top of the ones they won awards for that they come and showcase. So much fun. I highly recommend going. I think this is going to be an annual thing for me. It was great just to see the amount of talent that exists in our high schools across the state. And I too got to go to Senior Walk. I, of course, went to Alice Smith, and it was just delightful. You cried. Just a few times. And you all may know, but our Teacher of the Year finalist from last year, Ms. Wu, came back because this was her first graduating kindergarten class. Aw. So it was lovely to see her, and all the kids were so excited. And then I also got to go to the GED graduation, which we do in partnership with neighboring schools. And one of the things I was struck by every year when I go is the amount of celebration and grit and determination that is in that room. Mm. And we had in that room a National Honor Society for Adult Options recipient, which is an incredible honor and a really difficult achievement- Mm-hmm ... to get. That was lovely to see. But the other thing that struck me too was there was one recipient there who was retired, and he was there because he promised his grandchildren he would do this. Mm. So, it's a lovely space to be in. And as Vice Chair Roper mentioned, I got to be the first Read Aloud guest at Freedom School because the first day was yesterday, and I'm so excited to go for the closing day and to see the way that all of those bright and beautiful students have grown over the summer in Freedom School. And then please join us this weekend at Pride. We will be in the Yellow Zone. I don't know what that means, but perhaps when you get there, you will know what it means, and you can stop by the booth. I'll be there. Yeah. You can stop by the booth and see us. So, with that, I will end my report, and not want to end this final meeting where we have Dr. Miri Perry Reid with us. Chair Andreassen? Yes. We've all been talking about graduation. I just pulled up an email. I wanted to share that Chi Moua, our emergency management and safety coordinator, sent a debrief after commencement services because we did, as you mentioned, Treasurer Hartland, we put significant effort into planning for a very safe and secure experience. And so I wanted to share that the senior director and senior security manager for the Saint Paul River Center was very impressed with Hopkins High School and Hopkins School District. Out of 33 graduations, we were considered number two for planning and execution, and we were the only one to conduct a debrief in conjunction with- Wow ... Saint Paul Police Department and Roy Wilkins. So Mr. Wetter back here, Chi Moua, Gino Mazzoli, there are a number of professionals in our district who worked together and spent many, many, many hours with all of the planning just to make sure that our families could feel safe and have fun. And that's exactly what happened. So thanks to everyone. Do we know who number one was and why? You're so competitive. I know. I can't help it. I'm sorry. They usually don't include that. They don't include that. Okay. But we could ask. Okay. And then we'll try to figure out what the secrets are. It's always good to be number one. I second that motion. We can improve things. I know. Exactly. That's actually the reaction I had. Well, who's number one? See? What'd they do? See, I'm not so crazy. Well, I would like to give a shout-out to Chi. He did an incredible job, just debriefing us and connecting with us and just his overall diligence with just ensuring safety of the graduation, so shout out to him. He was a great addition to our district, and I'm excited for his leadership on safety in the future because- He's top level ... yeah, he's top level for sure. I also want to say we were back in the room with the students, and the way the teachers keep them on task and where they're supposed to be, I'm so impressed. I always feel like that must be like herding cats. But they had it. So thank you to all the teachers. I and Dr. Miri Perry Reid's final board meeting- ... is adjourned at 8:47 PM. Please bang the gavel louder. Thank you. I'm kidding. Accomplished. Accomplished.