Welcome to tonight's school board workshop agenda. Today's date is Tuesday, May 19th. It is 5:32 p.m. and we will go ahead and get started with our first and only workshop agenda item, which is the ESAC program review. I would invite our presenters up to the table. Welcome. And just so everyone is aware, um, Superintendent, um, Mary Perry Reed would normally be here and she would be welcoming everyone here to the table and um, helping with this presentation, but she is at our, um, annual scholarship awards ceremony, which, um, is scheduled at the same time and I personally am sad to be missing it. It's one of my favorite things, um, to do every year. And I am really grateful that you all are here. So, you're going to have to put up with me to, um, uh, get started with this and so I am literally just going to turn it over to you cuz you know more than me. >> [laughter] >> Thank you, Chair Andresen. We will We'll do our best to be as compelling and interesting as the scholarship ceremony. All right. Um, good evening, board members. I'm Ann Erdel. I'm the director of innovation, design, and learning. We're here tonight to talk to you uh, year's worth of work with our educational services advisory committee. Um, and so, um, tonight's presentation is intended to provide you and our community with a clearer understanding of how ESAC connects to our broader continuous improvement efforts, including program review, community engagement, and long-term instructional coherence across the district. So, tonight we'll briefly revisit the purpose of ESAC and then share how the committee has evolved this year. And then also how this structure supports the district's ongoing work to strengthen teaching, learning, and student outcomes. So, just a brief overview and a reminder of the purpose of ESAC. Board policy calls for the district to engage an educational services advisory committee as part of our instructional accountability and continuous improvement process. Throughout this year, ESAC members engaged in conversations connected to program review, Minnesota state standards, elementary and middle school mathematics, and in general district continuous improvement efforts. Members provided feedback, surfaced questions, and helped us better understand how district initiatives are experienced from a community perspective. Um this is a representation of the um who has to be part of the committee. Our committee um involves more community members. Um so we might have more parents um than just one representative from each school. As we look ahead, ESAC will continue operating through a formal standing membership structure designed to create a sustainable process for consistent, representative, and ongoing stakeholder engagement as district programs and curricular areas move through cycles of review and continuous improvement. This helps us to ensure that we are aligned to district goals, student needs, and our communities' expectations. I'm going to turn it over to my uh colleague Tony Schwartz, who is one of the leads of the program review process, to talk a little bit about how that works. So as Ann said, I'm Tony Schwartz, a member of the Innovation Design and Learning team. Um this work sits within a larger continuous improvement framework that's connected to but not solely driven um by state standards and the adoption cycles of those standards. Our goal is to develop coherent systems that allow us to regularly reflect, evaluate, improve, and respond to our learner needs. Program review is one of the primary structures we use to operate operationalize that commitment. It allows us to move beyond individual opinions or isolated experiences and engage in a disciplined disciplined process grounded in evidence, stakeholder voice, instructional expertise, and student outcomes. This work is deeply connected to our Hopkins values around belonging, consistency, coherence, and high-quality learning experiences for every student. The purpose of program review is to provide a systematic, calibrated, and teacher-driven process for evaluating current beliefs, practices, resources, and student outcomes in order to make aligned, research-based recommendations for continuous improvement. This process intentionally centers the expertise of educators while also incorporating multiple forms of evidence, student data, implementation experiences, research, and stakeholder feedback. As part of that work, ESAC provides an important community lens. The role of ESAC is to help us better understand how district systems, learning experiences, and proposed changes are experienced by students, caregivers, and the broader community. That partnership is especially important as we continue engaging in transformational work across the district focused on strong tier one instruction, greater coherence across schools, and more equitable access to high-quality learning experiences for all of our students. We've invited some of our program review facilitators to share the work they've done this year with their teams. We'll first hear from Crystal Polsky. She's been working with the secondary social studies teachers this year. Good evening. My name is Crystal Polsky, and I'm a technology integration specialist in grades 6 through 12, and also have a social studies teaching background, so that's where I get to jump into this work. At the beginning of the year in August, we started by bundling standards and looking at so that the state decides that there are a certain number of standards that are to be offered. And then districts get to decide how those standards are placed into courses. And because there's standards across all of the social studies content areas, economics, geography, history, um and civics and government, teachers make decisions about where those are going to be. So we looked at what are the big things that we are wanting students to walk away from in grades 6 through 12 by the time they get to their end of their Hopkins career. And then look at where is our curriculum currently meeting those needs and where are there gaps. Um one of the big shifts that's happening with the 2021 social studies standards is a shift to a greater focus on student inquiry and disciplinary literacy. So getting students to really think like geographers and historians, um inquiry used to just be placed within the history strand and now they're looking at inquiry across that. And so um meaning students are asking questions, they're analyzing sources, working to construct evidence-based arguments and not just memorizing content. So that's kind of the big goals around the 2021 standards and there was a question on the ESAC process of like these are 2021 standards, like are we behind? Like why are we just doing these now? But um with the way that sometimes the social studies standards work, they come out in 2021, they are not meant to be fully implemented until the 26-27 school year. So they're still we're not behind, we're right on track with that. Um and so through this work what we learned is that there were some key areas for growth. One of them being incorporating the economic standards across the history classes and trying to figure out where to incorporate those. And then also making sure that uh content connects meaningfully across disciplines in addition to the social studies standards was some inclusion of ethnic studies standards which were already a part of many of the courses that were being taught at the high school but just being really intentional about where those standards were placed. So all of those things allowed us to have a greater framework. We started developing some competency rubrics of like what would it look like at the end of sixth or eighth grade? Like how do we know that a student has met all of these standards and built from the K5 standards or excuse me K5 rubrics that were developed or not rubrics but the kind of big ideas of what they wanted learners to be able to do so that there's coherence between K5, 6-8, and 9-12. And so the continued work will be looking at where their where is our curriculum resources currently supporting these standards and where might there be gaps? That will be the work that will continue into next year continuing to develop like what does competency look like in those different areas and then working with a smaller team to develop shared curriculum resources. So this is again created a strong we're excited to continue the work so that every student 6-12 is experiencing a really rigorous engaging learning experience that's going to help them think critically about what it means to be a citizen in the world. Chair Andresen do you want to stop after each content area for questions or save them till the end? Do you have a preference? I don't does the board have a preference? Do you want to ask specific questions to each content area? How many slides are there? 1,200. 1,200? Yeah, that's right. They're mostly mine. Many of them are around math. That's why I was wondering if anybody has any questions for Crystal before we move >> don't we do that for each um subject area? I think that's good. >> Perfect. Yeah. Okay. Are there any comments or questions? I have a question. Yes. Tia Andresen. Um thank you for the social studies background. It's very interesting. Um I am curious about the compet- competency rubrics for learner outcomes and how those are utilized and how they inform our grading practices, if there's any type of overlap at all in that. Yeah, and I would the so each of the si- in grade six through eight, they came up with three big learner outcomes. Um it was around like using multiple perspectives to understand systems and draw concl- conclusions, evaluating sources and using evidence to explain ideas, and apply their learning to real-world situations. So, within any of the given projects or assessments that are being done, teachers can tie those big learner outcomes to it. Um the rubrics that we will be creating will be sort of like where would be the sort of the top level of are they getting this? Um more so we can have coherence. Um so, it it will inform the way teachers are planning, and it will inform the way that um >> [snorts] >> students are are being assessed, but it may not I'm not sure if I'm answering your question, but they're like kind of they're very broad learner outcomes. Okay. Um More granular would be like at the unit level or something that a teacher would be doing, but they're wanting to make sure that anything they're doing in class are tied to those big outcomes. I can help a little bit, too. So, >> [clears throat] >> um we start with a competency rubric, and then in later phases of program review, because it is a continuous improvement process, our teachers then, once they have installed the rubrics and then perhaps like associated assessments, then they do calibration as teams around their grading practices to make sure that what's an A for Crystal is an A for Anne, is an A for Tony. >> Yeah. So, that is part of the process. It's just a little bit later. [clears throat] And that happens um more regularly right now at the middle school level because of the IB framework, and they're using like common rubrics and things. Um but yeah, we want to make sure that if a student is attending a class that you're teaching, um or that they're going to be getting the same a similar outcome for a similar work. That makes sense. Thank you. Chair Anderson, I have a question. Yes. Um so, and forgive me if you may have answered this in a different way, but the curriculums that we choose for the district, are they in alignment with like the MCA standards or assessments at all? Like, um I know that we have different assessments that we um look at and um analyze, but if the MCA assessment um I don't know what the word is, like um if the MCA I mean, excuse me, if the MCA like um does it relate to all curriculums that we are looking I'm trying to I don't know how to answer this access question. >> I understand your question. So, Yeah, like like the standard. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. So, typically um social studies doesn't have an associated MCA. However, the all of the state assessments are based on Minnesota state standards. So, when we adopt and Ilsa's actually going to touch on this a little bit with math. When we when we implement new standards within the district, we are directly those directly relate to the MCA assessment. Typically the new standards come out first and then the MCA updated MCA in math follows in a couple of years to give districts time for implementation. And then what our work typically is when a new MCA comes out is to do a deep dive and to see sometimes certain standards are privileged above other standards in MCAs and so it's our job to look at the assessment and then we also get really good data back about which strands within the MCA did students do well on, which don't and that's also part of our continuous review process. So, if we are seeing some trends that a lot of students didn't do well in this particular area, that helps us know we have to look back at our curriculum or the way that it's being taught so that we can improve that. But I think the short answer is yes, we do definitely consider MCAs because they're just driven by state standards. And I will say that even though social studies doesn't have a direct test, the literacy practices that we're working to implement are really going to help support the literacy and like the non-fiction texts and understanding how to compare and contrast things. So, we don't have the state test, but we are supporting the work that's happening in the other parts of the MCAs. Thank you so much. Just no further questions. We're going to move to K-5 FIED. Muriel Oram will be talking about the work she's done with that team over the last little over a year. Hi. I'm Muriel Oram, the PE teacher at Alice Smith. Um some things that we did this year, I came into the Well, I came in like a year so when they were in their program review, so I'm going to just jump into where when I got there. So, we completed phase two of our program making the scope and sequence for the grade levels of what um our elementary is expected kindergarten of all the way up to fifth grade. Um we made the three consistent uh grading rubrics for our grading statements understanding the value of PE, personal, responsible, and social um and the motor skills part. And then we shared ideas and resources as a new teacher, I'm a sponge when it comes to veteran teachers and what they have to share. So, we did a lot about that or I learned a lot about that. Um our focus in the fall is to continue to implement phase two that now that we have finished it, not just forget about it. We still need to use it. Um we'll continue to discuss and implement our phase three. Um still sharing ideas and resources and then sharing um or using our grading rubrics consistently through all of the elementary schools. So. Thanks. Thanks, Muriel. I do want to connect um the question you just had about grading to the work that I know K5 PE has done um because they're a phase ahead of social studies, they have done that next step with K5 to look at um do we all agree what proficient is? What do our assessments do? Are we all going in the same direction? And so I think the work you've done is sort of that next step that you were sort of describing. Um and I know you talked about next year even doing more calibration around is everyone's three the same three? Is everyone know things like that. So. >> And we had really good conversations about what a three really looks like as a teacher who has um 20 years of experience to a teacher who has one year of experience. What does a three look like in Tanglen to Alice Smith to Eisenhower? And we had really good conversations and it honestly shifted my perspective of what a three could look like in different spaces for different reasons. So, we had some really good deep conversations about consistent gradings. >> Right. So. Any questions for Ariel? I did have just quick one question and it might not be applicable to K5, but um wondering, I know one of the things that I feel like makes um our our PE program uh really exciting in Hopkins is that we have some sites that are doing unified PE as part of their curriculum and that creates lots of opportunities for like integrating social emotional learning and all that kind of stuff. I'm just wondering if that it is a consideration or part of this plan. Possibly at some locations. I For Alice Smith, we have like our DAPE teacher come in with the class. So, those students who are receiving those services are already in the class, not really pulled out. So. Oh, that's great. >> Yeah. It's unified already. Right. So. Yeah. That's great. So, that's part of then DAPE is then part of the the curriculum adaptation, at least at Alice Smith. >> Yeah. And our RISE program at Alice Smith, those students who are in the RISE program are integrated through um a first grade class. So, they come like they sometimes will spend time in their RISE classroom or in the classroom that like they're technically in on the rosters. So, then they'll come to specials or PE I guess with their class so they don't miss out on that part of it. So unified in that sense. That's great. >> What I can add Chair Andresen is that part of our review process is inclusive of all of our different special ed programs and I know that Director Contreras and I have been working very closely for years to make sure that all students have access to specials and that you know they're able to participate as much as they possibly can in that inclusive model that Maryel described. Thank you and I do know that that has been an intentional shift in the district so very appreciative. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions or comments on PE? No, thanks. Is this the the the time for the 40 slides? Oh, >> [laughter] >> sorry ready? I'm good. Tara, we were going to have Mr. Schroeder come and describe what has been happening with 612 PE but he's like one of the world's busiest guys and so he wasn't able to be here this evening. Did you have some I've got a few things. I I am going to connect with him around your question around how that has been part of their conversation so I did make a note to connect with him. So Carl Schroeder is the program review facilitator for secondary for the 612 group. Um So he did share the work that his group had done at ESAC. He had a screencast that was shared at our last ESAC meeting and some of the feedback from ESAC was around um um the the collaboration and alignment work they've done. Multiple ESAC members noted the excitement about the collaboration across all grades and appreciate the intentional alignment of their work K-12. So they did work they did look at the the that came from K-5 so that they are building a cohesive K12 system. Um they integrated not only the state standards, they looked at how that aligned with the IB work done at the middle school um as well as with the K5 grading statements that were done. Another thing that came from ESAC were um on outcomes. There was strong support for the holistic approach to student outcomes and fostering lifelong active individuals, having that really be a goal of their program. Um next year their focus will be around alignment and consistency. That will include a gap analysis to ensure that secondary buildings are all on the same page, which will pave the way for a smooth rollout of the rubrics that they developed this year. They will also work to strengthen um their daily assessment practices by actively incorporating student feedback, increasing vertical collaboration time to blend state standards with their Hopkins Department goals, and to create a community-facing one-pager to share their shared beliefs and practices um with caregivers. So, that's kind of described on this slide. Um So, I'm sorry I don't have an I don't have a screencast, but any questions about 6-12 FIAT that I might be able to address? Yes, Chair Anderson. Very quick question. Um curious how student feedback is um gathered, I guess. Um with respect to this and other areas. >> I can't Well, I I can Okay, go ahead. >> [laughter] >> Um well, specifically um one of the cool things that I can share with you about FIAT at the high school in particular, um they have a pretty robust system of gathering student feedback both on student experience in current courses, but also projecting out what students might like to see. And so, um as a and that's actually a requirement when um teachers propose a new class to be added to the course catalog, we ask what did what was the student voice in the idea for this class. So, one of the really neat new classes to emerge for the fall is a class called basketball for all. And so, when I first saw that I was like, "Basketball for all?" But, it's a it's a really cool class because the intent is to take kids who who who already like the sport and kids who maybe are just dipping their toes in, but also but give them some tangible skills that they might actually be able to go out and get jobs as referees and things like that. And so, it's sort of, you know, not just about the game, but about helping kids who love the game find ways that they can leverage their passion in ways that can, you know, benefit them for a job. So, I know that our high school in particular where they have a little bit more flexibility with new courses, seek student feedback a lot, especially when they're employing new courses. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Well, so, we're going to shift as part of the multi-phase process, middle school mathematics has now reached a point in the review cycle where there's some emerging cohesion around a common set of instructional materials and instructional design. So, Elsa and Jacques are here to speak more specifically about that work, the feedback processes that were used and potential next steps. Good evening, board. I'm Elsa Gall, math specialist here, and with me is a middle school teacher, Jacques. Jacques Joachim, currently at North Middle School and the high school. So, it's nice to have a teacher beside me since I am speaking in representation of so many teachers. It's always nice to have representative of the teaching pool with us. So, yes, there are many slides. I wanted them for you to be able to reference. I'm not going to read every slide. So, sorry to disappoint you. But, I'm going to try to keep a peppy pace. And okay, all right. So, phase two is when we get to the end of coming up with our gap analysis of current state to ideal state and recognizing we may need to make some shifts with materials. And so, we are at that point and right away I'm putting on the first slide that the middle school team is requesting an adoption of Imagine I Am curriculum for grades 6 through 8. And this is the same publisher and curriculum that was adopted for K5. Imagine I Am is a bridge of two things. We have Imagine Learning, which is the publisher. And the publisher there are only three certified publishers for the Illustrative Math curriculum, which is a free and open source curriculum. So, Imagine I Am is the publisher version of that Illustrative Math program. So, when I began working here at Hopkins in 2023, there was already work done with a vision statement to give kind of a North Star to that that work as I was coming in and really trying to assess how I could help facilitate this this work with this team. And so, I convened a very large group of K12 educators and coaches and support staff are across the district. And so, the a lot of the work that I'm going to share with you is representative of this very large team of K12 educators. Though the more specific 6-8 decisions was a was a smaller group on the next slide. I'll here I'll pivot so you can see where I'm at on. The next slide is all of the middle school teachers and high school teachers. So, we discovered pretty quickly K5 had some pretty a lot of urgency for building consistency and coherence in our programming and they were ready to move. So, we we activated pretty quickly with K5. 6-8 and 9-12 we needed to do a little deeper study. The standards look a little different particularly at the high school. So, we really had to slow down and follow some guidance from state leadership around how to address the high school standards cuz they are just so different from previous years. So even though we have a 6-12 team, we we kind of got smaller again and just split at 6-8. 6-8 felt like they were ready to go. So those are the teachers that are bolded on that list. So the work we did was to begin with what is our current state of math at Hopkins and then shifted to ideal state. So I've shared this slide with you before with the NAEP data. That's our national math data. It just is showing that there's a gap widening between students above and below the 50th percentile and we want to see obviously that gap closing. So this is this is a trend happening across our nation. Little closer to home we have the MCA results for math over the last several years with the gap in 2020 from COVID. But again, this just presents to me an opportunity for us to be making some some big shifts in in seeing these trends change course. I'll just point out one of the things that we discovered at elementary and middle is it's harder to get closer to the classroom for data because of the you know variability in our system. So one of the things we're really leaning on is this coherence and consistency so that we aren't just looking at math data from the state MCA level but we can look at the classroom level and be more agile in our responses to our programming. So one of one of the big guiding guide post of our work is also just how can we align ourselves more closely. So prior to now we've been using Connected Math Project. Did I say that right? I think I always forget. And Illustrative Math was also being dabbled in because it was a free open source. So we we've seen Illustrative Math in K5, 6-8, and 9-12 because when teachers don't find the resources in front of them serving them and their students, they go looking for things. And a lot of teachers in Hopkins have just naturally gravitated towards Illustrative Math. So the Kendall Hunt Publishing Company is one of the other um publishers for Illustrative Math and they produce the free open-source curriculum, which is pretty bare-bones, but the teachers can play and adapt it um as needed. So, this has already been piloted for many years in most 6-8 math classrooms, and um in our ESAC conversation, one of the questions that came up was like, "What about the other teachers? Did they Are they resistant to Illustrative?" And the honest answer is um those teachers were waiting for more formal process before making a decision. They didn't want to make multiple changes. They were waiting for us to do a more formal process. There wasn't I haven't experienced any resistance. Um more just curiosity and looking for a better uh structured process. And then finally, our 6-12 math pathways was another question that came up in ESAC. So, though we're not talking about pathways tonight, that will be coming next year when we go into uh a deeper dive with high school. Um the pathways show how a student can go between 6th grade and um 12th grade while they're here at Hopkins. And you'll notice that currently we have four different pathways that students can experience at the middle level, and that is due to the the little square post-its um of compacted courses. So, uh our teachers and I fully support not skipping math because anything before Algebra 1 is so essentially foundational to everything that comes after. So, we really firmly believe um rather than passing over or testing out of classes to really give students opportunities to still attend to those um concepts so that they don't have gaps in their learning because they chose an accelerated pathway. So, this means students can uh complete 2 years of math in 1 year at two different points in their middle school career, should they choose to. So, then they have three different ways that they would enter 9th grade. Um those courses that we're planning to run for next year and also evaluate and hopefully improve for the future years. So, so we don't have any plans to change those courses. All right. So, now we go to ideal state. We've done loads of research, Uh um, lots of reading and studying of different studies and books. I've shared these with you before. Um, one of the biggest and most impactful thing that we read was the Opportunity Makers, uh, paper from the New Teacher Project, which has now become a big component in our Hopkins Instructional Leadership Team. And what the Opportunity Makers essentially says is, uh, they just they state 20,000 schools K8 and discovered that 5% of those schools had students gaining 1 and 1/3 years of of progress in one school year. And what what was interesting about that is that if you have a student that's one grade level behind, in 3 years they could be caught up if they're in this school. So these are schools that are not only doing that but sustaining that year over year. And so they studied what those schools had in common and the three themes that arose were belonging, consistency, and coherence. And so you'll see those words, if you haven't already, showing up in a lot of our presentations from ideal. So, um, another important factor to consider is that the middle school is IB. And so we have to also be attentive to the MYP components, which are, um, and this is a kind of a summarized version of of some of those values, but that there's an enjoyment of learning mathematics, that there's creativity and logic behind it, communicating clearly, applying it, and even reflecting and growing as learners. Also in our research, we did a a deeper evaluation of what does it mean to be good at mathematics? And, you know, mathematical proficiency is not just about knowing your math facts and solving equations, it's about do I understand the how and the why behind the mathematics? Can I apply fluency, um, with procedures and efficiency, but knowing the how and the why behind them? Can I also set up and solve with some strategies, um, adapt, and then also feel like math is worthwhile. It's a tool we use to make sense of the world around us. So, all of these things are important and then we also have the standards and the standards are uh broken into three strands. The data science strand is probably the biggest shift from the 2007 standards and just like uh Crystal was saying about the standards, these are the 2022 standards, which is when that process of writing the standards began. They will be fully implemented and FSA tested in 2028. So, the years are are kind of misleading. Um I'm I'm setting this all up because I think it's really important to recognize the shifts that are happening in our standards work, that it's not just a list of benchmarks anymore. It is so much deeper than that. So, we not only need students to have deep conceptual understanding, we need to then build from that procedural skill and fluency all while applying in real life context. And so, that's written into our standards um all about rigor. Also in our standards, and this is again just for math, to be career, college, and community ready. So, again, it's not just having skill sets and and and knowing facts and equations, it is can I be persistent and flexible, make connections, communicate, collaborate. So, we're not just picking um math books, right? We need to really shift our practices to address this. Uh the dimensions of our standards also name eight specific mathematical practices. >> [snorts] >> And then we also have benchmark context. So, when we're doing math, we're thinking about how it we can apply it to different contexts in life. And then finally, the language of our standards uses phrases like these, which again shows and these are just these are K-3 benchmarks. Um you know, these are big big lifts. We're not We're not asking for small shifts in our in the way we teach. We are really looking for teachers to go much deeper. All right. So, the resource adoption process that we walked through with K-5, we did the uh establishing our process of what our program review would look like um and developing our lens by creating rubrics. and we did a lot of this work as a K-12 team. Moving into the study phase, we did a little bit more together, but then started to diverge as a K-5 and a 6-8 team. What is also unique about a 6-8 team is they got to take the learning from the K-5 experience and then grow from there. So, the two the two different grade bands did kind of experienced this process a little differently. Uh we discovered that um finding that coherence from K-8 was a really compelling idea, knowing that the story of math being contiguous, rolling into middle school, having those routines and vocabulary um like really uh just be kind of permeated throughout all those grade levels would not be such a shift when sixth grade is already such a tough transition. So, it became a really compelling idea for us to say, could we possibly do a K-8 adoption, would this make sense? Um so, we ended up doing a a quite deep study on Imagine IM for the middle level, and attended to the standards, our local pacing constraints. We talked with local districts who are ahead of us in the 6-8 IM adoption. Um and then we also shared our our ideas with with Esac and then asked for for feedback in that space as well. And then uh we have obviously the national proof points around EdReports with its highest rating. Its Essa is a Tier 2 rating, which means it has data that supports uh that it does have significant gains in student achievement, and we were particularly interested in its promotion of equity. And then we also have proof points from Imagine IM in other districts, and I have just received some new data of more local districts who are a bit ahead of us that I can share later. So, our key considerations in in requesting the adoption of Imagine IM is that it's aligned well with our standards, especially all of the front matter of our standards. It's really fantastic in that you can have 100% digital or 100% print. And so it doesn't matter. It's the same content either way. So even at the teacher level, if one teacher is more interested in having it fully integrated to Canvas and another would prefer to do more paper pencil, we can go either way with it. So it's very flexible for our needs. Has multilingual family supports, that consistent lesson structure of warm-up activities, synthesis and cool down. Daily formative assessments we can get more of that kind of close to the classroom level data and teachers can collaborate and make data informed decisions. There's embedded teacher training which has a different lift at the middle level because we have content experts already at the middle level which is a little different than a K5 generalist. However, I do think what's really helpful about the teacher training is what comes before, what came in fifth grade, what's coming in seventh grade where you can know more work accurately with the program how it's laid out with those progressions. Again, we talked about that vertical alignment with K5 and then the fact that middle school is a block schedule with 75 minutes presents some constraints with how we format the class and we we find that this is a good program for being able to fit into that. And then finally we have the resource rubric that shows a score of 41 out of 44 when we evaluated it in our in our own terms. So tonight I am sharing on behalf of the middle school program review crew for math that we would recommend Imagine I M for adoption and I will unfortunately not be here on June 2nd, but Anne will be here with adding it to the consent agenda for you to decide at that time. So just a reminder board members, this is [clears throat] sort of the pattern that we followed last spring when we did the K5 adoption. So we brought the recommendation to the board. Um, there were some questions. Um, and then we added the Um, I guess it's the quote or the contract or the purchase order, whatever, to the consent agenda for um, approval in the at the following meeting. So, we are thinking that we would follow the same process unless there's a desire for something different. Thank you. >> [clears throat] >> Is this the spot where we can ask questions like them? Yeah, it was a peppy pace. Yeah, well done. I will >> [laughter] >> Yeah, I could barely even keep up with scrolling. Same. Um, any questions? Chair Anderson. Yes. Treasure Heartland. Thank you so much for coming here today. Um, could you talk a little bit about how um, I know you touched on it, but can the compacted courses and these pathways that you said we'll get into more, are those still compatible fully with IM or does that require additional tweaking of those? Uh, at this time it would not require any changes because they were using IM materials already in the creation of the compacted courses, but the free version. So, um, we'll adapt it, but it would not be a big lift to adjust. Okay, thank you. And just to clarify for me, the question was about the compacted courses are at what level? The middle school level? Yes, there's a compacted course for seventh grade math and there's a compacted course for intermediate algebra, which is currently a ninth grade course. So, they they look a little different, but both are illustrative math as their foundation. Okay. Thanks. Chair Anderson. Yes. Thank you. Um, I I'm hesitating here and um that is because well, let me back up. Um, what have we have we done full review um elementary math review have we gone through a full elementary math review cycle? Is that what it's called? Math review cycle to have our own proof points that I that this curriculum works. Um the coherence makes sense, right? That then the transition from grade 5 to 6 into the middle school would be more coherent. Um but if we're not fully if if we don't know that IM is working in K5 why put the cart before the horse and change the curriculum in middle school and I know you said they're already using IM materials, but there's been no formal pilot of IM at the middle schools. Is that right? Uh not anything that's been um like in a structured from the district level, but internally amongst teachers. I would say an informal pilot in that they're using it every day. Okay. And discussing it quite a lot. So, I would say it's it's happening, but I don't have the you know, the rubrics to go along with it from that process. So, is is the question do have we done an assessment of the grade school implementation? Is that what you're asking? >> Yeah, I mean my my question is have we done an assessment of the grade school implementation and if we haven't, which I don't think we fully have because it's only been around for a year or so um why not wait to see how it goes um before changing K8 It's a good question. or 8 6 12 >> [laughter] >> Middle school. Middle school. I that's a really good question and I think what's really hard is how slow implementation goes and I want so badly to be digging into all of our student data right now um but we know from implementation science that this will take us 3 to 5 years to fully see the impact of this decision. So, where we stand today, I can't look at student data and say that's a wonderful assessment of how we did or did not succeed because we are like I was showing with the standards, those are wildly different from an educator standpoint than when I started teaching 20 years ago, which was here's your checklist of skills to go through. So, we are shifting teacher practices, which is a big lift. So, we've been like I shared at our last meeting, it was a lot of adult data. How are we doing with fidelity practices and shifting in how we approach math with students. So, the hard part of this work is we it would take us some years to really fully understand how well this went and we have new standards upon us and new MCAs upon us and we also need to act. So, like every other district in the state of Minnesota in this moment, you know, it's it's it's we're kind of under this pressure point of needing to make decisions um and we haven't seen MCAs yet. So, we won't even see them until our first year of implementation and those are going to look different. So, we're also assessing right now with MCAs that are from the 2007 standards and aren't aligned with what we're trying to do right now. So, even using MCA as a gauge of our success is a misalignment. So, we're just this is a really challenging spot to be in and I hear your hesitancy and I I feel it too. Like these are very big decisions and we want to be really mindful about it and we also can't wait too long because we have students in front of us that need us to adjust to this moment and prepare them for those next MCAs. So, I want to validate you and say I have those same hesitations and you know, this is these are the circumstances where it stands. So, what I hear you saying is that the the why now answer is because the standards have changed and we need a curriculum that prepares our students to meet the statewide standards. Yes, and also to to be formal about what we're doing so that our teachers can come together with a coherent plan of how we're going to address math at the middle level as a team. As it is right now, it's quite varied. So, so in in doing [clears throat] this adoption, we're kind of formalizing this is this is our plan. This is our scope and sequence. This is what families can expect in the middle school, you know, math class. And right now, it it can look a little different space to space. >> Can I ask something? Please do. So, having been around for a few years, I've gone through a few of these implementations and one of the things that's very challenging is that Minnesota [clears throat] kind of does its own thing. We have our standards. California has theirs, Colorado has theirs, New York has theirs. And the vast majority of curriculum that's designed is not really designed for Minnesota. It's just put out there usually by the big bug people in bigger states. And so we have to cross-reference everything and it takes a lot of energy. So, no matter what curriculum we pick, there's going to be a lot of investment in time and energy. One of the really nice things that IM has already done for us is already laid it all out with the new standards and put into each section of IM um recently of what's going to happen and that's in their paid version of like what's going on. And our team at the middle schools have been doing that ourselves for the free version. And so that's one of the things that's a benefit of this group of people who are putting out this um paid version if we adopt it. They have really looked at Minnesota and said, "We're going to um, tailor it to you." And there hasn't really been a curriculum in the past that's done that for us in any way, shape, or form. So, that's something new that's kind of a little bit exciting about IM. I'll say as somebody's gone through a few years of teaching the different math curriculum that's been uh, gone gone through review here. It's one of the things that's really nice. Thanks. Jared Turgeon Yes. Yes, hi. I have >> Hello. Hi, hi, um, so I I remember our K through 6 journey and there was very strong consensus among educators that IM was the way to go. I'm curious what about 6 through 8? Are we, you know, I I I see some of these names I know and respect all these teachers and staff. Um, is it a similar consensus for for this particular module? Yes, I would say pretty confidently all teachers at the middle level are on board. It's a pretty strong team and North has been, I'd say, organically piloting for a few years now. Just in the last couple years we've kind of honed, especially the 7th grade and this year the 8th grade, but all three grade levels have dived dove into the IM stuff and I'd say both schools are definitely on board. Some people have done more with IM at this point than others. I haven't done as much as, for example, Janine Salzer because I've only been at the middle level for a couple years and so she started a little bit earlier than I did with that, but I would say people are all the people in the middle school are on board. And we just did a a meeting was that just a week or two ago? And everybody was in a cross-site team by grade level and the energy was really positive and there seems to be a lot of excitement around the potential for this as we were doing standards alignment work. Thank you. Mhm. Could I ask a follow-up to that? I know that the slide >> [clears throat] >> close to where we ended was that the Hopkins program review for the math resource rubric, right? So I I like that the score was 41 out of 45 and I'm sure in the very small print here there's an explanation about what goes into that score of 41. Could you just give us kind of high level of um how did we reach that score and what was that review process like? Sure. So the the K-12 team designed this rubric in the 24 Was it 23 24 24 25? Couple years ago. And used this as a tool to evaluate anything we are looking at. So the content or the the core areas were the instructional practices being in alignment with not only our values but also those mathematical practices that are just so integrated into all of our benchmarks. Um assessments. Um the area that this this this particular uh resource I think was lacking was the just built-in peer assessment and self-assessment. However, that is something we can certainly adapt for. Um but I think with IB that's a the big component of of self-reflection. Um technology it scores quite high. The standards like Jacques said, there is not a single curriculum out there that We're not a big enough market. Nobody's just building for Minnesota. So so they're building for this you know national audience and then we're lucky enough to have um Imagine investing in um like putting dollars toward doing that alignment work for us. So if there are some gaps but they are working to address that. And that's also in the K-5 space. So, even though we adopted and have already implemented first year of K-5, they are currently now going back and reworking the K-5 to even more tightly align to Minnesota standards. So, we'll even be making some adjustments to be more strongly aligned particularly in fifth grade next year. But, we were letting them do the lift of that before putting our teachers through that exercise only to have the work done for us a few months later. So, um And then finally, uh equity and inclusivity and just the representations in this in this um program are pretty fantastic. And I would say from our K-5 space, the teachers are saying um there's there's a lot of being seen for their students in in all the problems and contexts and storytelling in the curriculum. So, it scores quite high. Thank you for that. I appreciate that. That context. Any other? Yeah, Chair Andresen. Yeah. Um thank you all of you for being here and the representative um presence you have of all the other educators who thanks to all of you. Uh a couple comments. Uh the one is just it's making me reflect very fondly on my own teachers and these moments and hearing and seeing that in what you're sharing of the stories and thinking about the impact for our students is really heartening. Uh it makes me really excited that I have a four-year-old who is going to start kindergarten in two years and to hear the intentionality with which you all are thinking collaboratively about but you know, even these things belonging, having consistency and coherence, thinking about my human having an experience in PE that is going to have it's not just about does the teacher think you're athletic or not? You know, like these sorts of things that weren't always my experience as a kid. Um and one of the things the last comment I wanted to say is one of the things that came up a lot this fall as I was campaigning uh was parents expressing a desire to see more coherence in our math curriculum K through 12. And what hearing what you're presenting I also feel hopeful about that and just the ways in which we can intentionally structure it that in as part of this overall work. So just thank you for it and know these labors are take a lot of effort. So thank you for that and appreciate it. I'd like to kind of follow up on that one thing I would say from my first year starting here and observing all the variability and seeing the teachers starting to really gel in this work of program review has been just what you're saying. It's it's very intentional in how this this work is being designed but it's also you know truly being lived out in how teachers are coming together from cross sites that were not happening when I started here 3 years ago. So I'm glad that that's starting to be recognized. Chair Andrew, do you think I can ask a question? Yes. Um, could you talk about the closer proof points? I know that you mentioned about other districts are further ahead with IM. Can you explain a little bit there? I'm going to find that slide Elsa. Oh here. Well, I don't have the currently I can send those to you. I'm the publisher I just asked as they're working with other local districts who are a little ahead of us to start to share some more localized data. And I what I have right now is incomplete so I'll I'll kind of wait to get the completion of that data and then be able to share with you. But we have Shakopee that's ahead of us. Eden Prairie is ahead of us meaning that they've already implemented so we would be able to learn from them. And so I'm lucky to to be having um conversations with leaders in other districts who we can learn from each other. I was in a meeting with a teacher the me in Owatonna just this morning and we were discussing how I can share my experience with her as she's following behind me with her implementation. so um so I have I do have more that I can share, but I don't have it at hand ready today, unfortunately. So, I just have National today. Okay. What we can do, board members, I know um if you maybe think of a question like on your drive home or something like that, you can certainly um share those with me, and then we can make sure that um prior to the consent agenda, if there needs to be some follow-up information shared, um we can certainly provide that as well on June 2nd. Or send it to Rhoda first. Send it to her. Yeah. Okay, that's right. Send it to her first. Thank you. I did just um want to follow up with a question about how um is is there anything built into this curriculum so that it can be adapted for um different learning levels, different like I'm thinking, of course, of special ed students, um or kids who might be um you know, struggling a little bit with math. Can you speak to that? Well, we do we have a different curriculum that we use for our our special ed kids. Well, I'm glad you brought that up, and this um we've been learning a lot in K-5. This was the first year that I'm aware of, Anne, and you have a longer history than I do, but the first time that we have fully purchased and adopted for both special ed and gen ed spaces simultaneously um with one program. And the TNTP report that just came out in March calls that out specifically as the move. So, coherence in your programming is extremely important because what we find is that if students um the data that they just shared in March was that if students are receiving tier two and tier three supports from a different program, a misaligned program, it actually results in um lesser student outcomes than a student who got no supports and still needed it. So, it's actually better to have nothing than to have something disjointed. So, we are we are really leaning into that. The big lift that we have is to to really align with the needs of special educators, which are just so different than a gen ed classroom teacher. So, I'm working in collaboration with the special ed team and we're actually in a training again tomorrow to try to find more of those bridges so we can make that a simpler lift for those teachers to to pull from that same core curriculum. Because what we're seeing is when teachers have the the same curriculum in front of them and they can see this this work is the prerequisite learning of what's happening at the general ed classroom, then those students who would then go to their support class and they say, "Wait, so couldn't I just do this in my regular class?" They're making connections of like, "I'm doing repeated addition here. Wait, that would work for multiplication in my other math class." And the names are the same and the contexts are the same. And so, I think there's this real sense of this this just feels like more math rather than I'm going to a special class or doing something different. And so, we have more to share about that, but it's it's actually been a a big celebration. So, no, we're not going to at this time be looking for a separate program. We're just going to learn how to use this more effectively in those spaces. And then in the gen ed space, I would say what's also really interesting about this problem-based program is there's something for everyone. And the quote that they that I have heard in a training before and it really I think rings true with this is nobody knows everything, but everybody knows something. And the lessons are really designed that way. So, I can ask question, which one doesn't belong of these four? And there's a reason you could support any one of those things. And it could be a color, it could be a number, it could be the shape, it could be So, whatever you bring to the table is a valid response. So, everyone gets a chance to contribute. I can go on and on about but I there's and also enrichment is embedded because um you can't possibly fit it all in so students can also go further in the time that they have um and the it's all about how the teacher kind of structures the hour to ensure um the fluidity of of using their time most effectively. And that's that's the big lift for teachers. So this year was kind of learning. Next year I'm really excited because we're going to get to refine now and really really see that uh differentiation start to take shape next year. Great. Thank you. I just quickly, what is TNT PD report? >> The New Teacher Project. That's the Opportunity Makers. So Opportunity Makers is one of their papers of many. Yeah. Thank you. Mhm. I would love to share that in case you want >> Oh yes. I would I would love to read that. >> Reading. I'll be back with 40 slides to share with you. >> [laughter] >> That a promise? All right. Yeah. So um board members, I just um thank you Elsa and Jacques for sharing about math. I just I wanted to tie a bow around the topic of program review in general with a look ahead. Um so whoever is on ESAC next year, this is what you can look forward to participating in. Uh this this slide just provides a look at our long-range program review cycle and where different content areas and services sit within that process. So as you can see next year, we'll begin or continue review work in several key areas including K-5 English language arts and social studies. That's going to be a big one. Multilingual learner programming, another big one. Immersion, big one. Health, a big one. Um early childhood special education and special education case management, evaluation and 504 implementation. Okay, so they're all kind of big ones. Um I as I had mentioned earlier, um Director Contreras and I work really closely together to make sure that all of our programs are reviewed for continuous improvement. That doesn't just live within the core. Um, so these phase one areas represent the beginning stages of deep review work focused on beliefs, practices, systems, and student experience, and current outcomes. Um, at the same time we will still have content areas in later phases of the review cycle, which are moving towards stronger levels of refinement and coherence in those areas. In some cases, those that work may result in next spring recommendations related to instructional resources or materials. Um, so then depending on the outcomes of the continued reviews, including our feed stakeholder feedback, implementation learning, and board direction, some areas, um, we could be sitting here a year from now making a request for materials in in one of these other content areas. So just to as a reminder that the larger goal really of this process is to move away from isolated or reactive curricular decisions, but instead ensure that our curriculum, our instruction, and our resource recommendations emerge from a transparent system, um, and community involved cycle of continuous improvement. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any questions or comments? Yeah, and what's already been asked and said? Okay. All right. Thank you very much. >> much. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. And we have now given ourselves a nice long break. So thank you all. Um, we will be back here at 7:00 p.m. for our board meeting. Thank you. Point noted. >> Mhm. >> Mhm. >> Mhm. >> Mhm. >> Mhm. >> Mhm. >> Mhm. >> Hello everybody. Hi. Thank you for being here with us this evening at the May 19th 2026 school board meeting. We are thrilled to see a packed house because we get to do one of our favorite things this evening, which is recognize amazing students in our district for doing incredible things. So, I would invite my board colleagues to come with me down to the end of the table. So, we can recognize our students who are in the room with us this evening. >> So, we are incredibly proud to recognize a wide range of talent across our district from technology innovation to inclusive leadership. First, we celebrate our Hopkins robotics team. These scholars have demonstrated exceptional critical thinking and mastery of the engineering process. From our youngest learners in Lego League to our high school competitors, these teams represent the future of royal innovation. This year our high school team competed at Duluth Northern Lights and the Minneapolis 10,000 Lakes competitions, advancing to the playoffs at each event. They earned the Excellence in Engineering Award for their innovative design and technical problem-solving and the Engineering Inspiration Award for their outstanding impact in inspiring students and the broader community. The Technocrats, the high school team, also qualified for the state tournament for the first time since 2022. Congratulations. >> [applause] >> And they finished an impressive 18th out of 36 teams. We also recognize two of our middle school teams, the Tech Technonots, that's a clever name, and the Midnight Snackers for their championship performances. And we celebrate the elementary school Lego League team, the Sun Kittens, which has the cutest name ever, for their success at the regional level. Thank you. And before we um ask all of our students to come forward, I want to take 1 second to thank the adults in the room that made this possible. We have tens of um volunteers and mentors who have given hundreds of hours this year. So, there's a few of them in the room. Uh John O'Neill, uh Kate DeBries Smith, [applause] um Tate Welty, Tyler Heartland, um Paul is here, Jeff. I hope I'm not missing anybody except for our head coach, Jason Herzog. And we HAVE >> [applause] >> WE'RE TAKING AN EXTRA MINUTE ON HIM tonight because he is actually retiring as head of our robotics program. Retiring uh after 10 years with us though. Um and his impact goes far beyond building robots. As a 2011 graduate of this district and a former member of the Hopkins robotics team himself, he returned in 2016 to find our program struggling and alongside our own Ms. Purdy stepped up to build it into the thriving program that it is today. Under his leadership, the team has strengthened its financial foundation, expanded opportunities for students to compete and gained gained hands-on experience, and created a safe and welcoming environment where all are welcome to learn. Hundreds of Hopkins students have benefited not only from the technical skills and scholarships that First Robotics provides, but also from Jason's mentorship, encouragement, and continued support long after graduation from through his letters of recommendation and his advice and friendship. Our students are much better prepared for their futures because you chose to invest your time, talent, and care into this team, and we are so appreciative. THANK YOU. >> [applause] >> AND FEAR NOT BECAUSE OF YOUR legacy [snorts] and because of the team of mentors and adults that you've helped uh helped build, the team is in good hands and Tate Wealthy is going to take over as head of our program. So, thank you so much. >> [applause] >> Okay. So, now robotics team, you get to go to the end of the carpet, the end of the blue carpet. You're going to be down by the pillar. Then I'm going to call your names and I'm going to do my very best to say them correctly. So, everyone can stand up and go back there. And then you'll walk up the runner. And we have a certificate for you and a pin. When you When you hear your name, you can come down when you hear Yeah, you can come down when you hear your names. So, first is Alex Letso. Come on down. Not here? Amber Brazan. Amelia Carabu. >> [applause] >> Andre Nassus. >> [applause] >> Ari Dax. >> [applause] >> Artemis Amelcy Amelcy. >> [applause] >> Asher Fix. >> [applause] >> Ox Conway Lovato. >> [applause] >> Claire Dijkstra. >> [applause] >> Blake Hill >> [applause] >> Carson Shaw >> [applause] >> Charlie Dutcher DARREN MCLEAN >> [applause] >> ETHAN SACHS Evelyn McGauvran >> [applause] >> Geo Forrest Harper Brezen. Sorry, I'm rushing you. I'm rushing you. I apologize. I'm Harper de Vries. >> [applause] >> Jessita War as >> [applause] >> Jesse Rosas >> [applause] >> Caitlin Ditzler >> [applause] >> Liam Bryce >> [applause] >> Lucian Pierre >> [applause] >> Lucas Durker >> [applause] >> Marilyn Mallbraton >> [applause] >> Matthew Kittelson >> [applause] >> Max Walls >> [applause] >> Mia Touchette >> [applause] >> Michael Barto >> [applause] >> SETH LOVITCH SOPHIE STEIER >> [applause] >> TABITHA Barnes Toy Lu >> [applause] >> Tyler Taves >> [applause] >> Xander Corey >> [applause] >> And one more mentioner, Helen Rose, I'm sorry. I didn't see you. Hi. She's here, too. Thank you, guys. >> [applause] >> I think we're going to take a picture now. Yes, we do. Come on over. Want to bring them up? Photo op standing up. We can do in the middle, too. There's those. Yep. Yeah, find a window, Rebel. Find a window. I know. Yeah. We're just going to John will do one with the kids, and then we'll invite the coaches up after. Perfect. We're in quite a bind. No, I know. You want to Maybe over here. Say one. Got everybody have your Yep, we should protect it. Perfect. One, two, three. All right. Then coaches Chris All right. Again, make sure that you can see the phone lens right here. Ready? 1 2 3. All right. >> [applause] >> Okay. Hopkins Royals, we are also going to celebrate another group this evening. So, we are also proud to recognize our play for all students. And this group is dedicated to ensuring that every student in Hopkins has access to inclusive and accessible playgrounds. And that means that our students who are in wheelchairs or are differently abled can have access to playgrounds where they too can play with their peers and have a great time. So, through their WIN or what I need sessions, these playground enthusiasts explore the importance of creating a district policy, identifying key elements to include in policy and design, and developed a formal presentation to advance their work. Their thoughtful advocacy reflects a commitment to making sure that Hopkins is one of the first districts in the state to establish a policy specifically focused on inclusive and accessible playgrounds. Thank you to Betsy Julian, our Play for All teacher advocate and cheerleader behind all of these amazing students. Is Ms. Julian here? Oh, there you are. >> [applause and cheering] >> So, thank you Betsy for all of your work. And are all of the are most of these students did they also help raise funds for the Glen Lake playground? Two of them four of them. Four of them. Okay, so this is round two for them. So, we're great very grateful for these students' work. So, at this time Play for All student leaders, what we'd like you to do is please um if you are able go back to the um the end of the royal blue runner and we are going to call your name. Then hang out up here after you receive your certificate. Okay, here we go. Madison Dash. >> [applause] [applause] >> John Buettner. >> [applause] [applause] >> I always have to check John, did I say your name correctly? Your last name? Yeah, okay. Perfect. Trevor Horn. Not here? Okay. David Martin. >> [applause] >> Callie Callie Brace Cali, [applause] oh my goodness. I can't believe I did that. Maddie's friend Cali, goodness. Alice Caribou >> [applause] >> Is it uh Gemini Puckett? Oh my goodness. Gemini Puckett, my apologies. >> [applause] >> OKAY, SO STUDENTS COME and stand in in front of us here or move move so so you can be seen for the photograph and Director Wetter is going to take the photo. I was short for a minute. Yeah. All right, everybody 1 2 3 all right. Thanks everybody. >> [applause] >> CONGRATULATIONS. NO? WE got one more. One more? Okay. Oh, we got one more. So finally tonight we wish to extend a special recognition to one of our own leaders Vice Chair Brooke Roper. >> [applause] >> Well, yeah, you get to go down there. >> [applause] >> Brooke's dedication to our scholars and her leadership on the board is impressive. This includes her work with the policy monitoring committee, district safety and security team, and the mayors and city managers quarterly convening with the superintendent. All of these commitments exemplify the service-oriented spirit of our Hopkins community. Please join us in thanking Vice Chair Roper for her continued commitment to excellence and equity in the Hopkins School District. >> [applause] >> She is also Oh, wait. Wait, there's one more. She is also being recognized by an organization that she has been working with, um, School Board Partners, and they are, um, here to talk about Vice Chair Roper. Wow. She knows nothing. Let me acknowledge this. Uh This is a surprise. Thank you so much, uh, Madam President, uh, board members. Thank you all for the opportunity to do this. Uh I'm so excited. My name is Ethan Ashley. I have the honor of serving as the CEO and founder of an organization called School Board Partners. We're a national organization that supports and trains elected school board members around the country to lead with courage, competence, and impact. Uh, and there's a lot there. Uh, it's very personal to me. I was an elected school board member for 8 years, served in a district where I was a parent, family member, all the things. I'm an attorney by trade. My mother and grandmother were educators. They told me to go be a lawyer, and and And ultimately I found my way back to education like many of us do. Now, there is nothing nothing nothing that brings me greater joy than acknowledging for the first time ever as an organization, we are going out and identifying school board members of the year nominees and Brooke Roper has been nominated as a school board of the year nominee representing this district and we're very PROUD OF HER. >> [applause] >> BROOKE ROPER >> [applause] >> I DON'T I I DON'T NEED YOU TO START CRYING CUZ THEN I'm going to start crying and we're not going to get out of here. I just want to It is an absolute honor to be able to acknowledge I had a whole speech, but I'm I'm going to I don't know what to do with that. Uh so, I want to just say Brooke from your family at School Board Partners, uh we make up just for a way of context, we're across 41 states impacting about 8 million young people around the country in terms of the leaderships and leaders that we work with. We're across 200 and plus districts. And so, to be recognized as a handful of leaders around the country for this honor, it is uh it is such an honor and a joy to be able to do that. Brooke, there's nobody when we talk about what your what you're described as you were described as someone who cares deeply about community. Uh and in fact, y'all don't know this, I've been trying to hide out in the back cuz she knows who I am. Uh and I was trying to come in, but she was saying hi to everybody and I was trying to hide all the way in the back and I was sitting next to a young man and I agree with your your your dad, don't slouch like I was, but I was hiding. I was hiding, that's what I was trying to do. Uh and so, I just want to acknowledge that she is all about community. She's always trying to figure out how to get from issue to impact and she is recognized by her colleagues not just here but across the nation for the work that she's been doing to better herself as an elected school board member to show up here for this district as well as she can. And so I just want to say we love you, we see you, we're very grateful. Now let me acknowledge she's a nominee, right? And all of you all are in fact invited to when we make the determination of whether or not she will get the actual big award. So I'm going to be flying around the country. I have a couple more nominees we're going to acknowledge but she is the first. Let me say that. She is the first. SHE IS THE FIRST. >> [applause] >> SO SO IF PLANES JUST, YOU KNOW, I'M NOT ABLE to get on a plane you will be the only but you're the first right now. We're very proud of you and please know that we're going to make the announcement November 13th through the 15th in Atlanta, Georgia at our national conference called our collective power. We will bring school board members around the country together and so you all are invited as our colleagues. We'd love for you all to be there and everybody in this room is invited quite frankly. So with that said we're so grateful. I think you can now do your sashaying down the down the blue carpet. We're very PROUD OF YOU. >> [applause] [applause] >> THANK YOU. OH MY GOD. I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO SAY. MAKE SURE you have to stand in front of it. Need a picture with it. >> [laughter] >> The protocol. Oh my gosh. Thank you so much. A little closer. Yeah. I'll go behind you. All right. We're going to do three. You're going to start at here one, two, and three. >> Yep. Then you're going to look at me, ready one, two, and three. And then if I can get you on three to just say "Go Brooke" for the rest of the nation. Ready? One, two, three. Go Brooke! There we go. Thank you. >> [applause] [applause] >> Okay, Royals, we welcome you to stay for the rest of the meeting if you would like. And if you have some [clears throat] other commitments this evening, then um we also wish you farewell and thank you for being here tonight. Good to see you all. >> [laughter] >> I need this. We need to win, okay? Whatever Whatever you need to do, just do it, okay? I need to win. After Teacher of the Year, I just need to win. >> [laughter] >> Oh, no, they don't. They couldn't agree less. Think about me. Yeah. Yeah. I appreciate that. November 13th through 15th. Oh, all the days? It'll be going to >> invite my board colleagues back to the table. Um, and I will go ahead and call this meeting to order um the of the Hopkins School Board. And our first item of business is open agenda. Um, and we have um public comment. So, the Hopkins School Board believes that hearing from our community members is crucial for implementing Vision 2031. If you wish to contact the board via email instead of publicly commenting at a meeting, please use school-board@hopkinsschools.org. Um, public comment will be received both in person and through voicemail. Um, the way to uh comment in person is to come before the meeting and submit some public comment cards. We do have four public comment cards um for this evening. We also have two voicemails um that we will have as part of this. So, we host two public comment periods per meeting. The first period will be during open agenda at the beginning of the meeting and the second period will um be at the end of the meeting if it is needed. Um, each is for 30 minutes long and each speaker can speak for 3 minutes. So, with that, I will um go ahead and read our guidelines for making public comment. Um First, I will need to find it. >> Sorry, bear with me. So, please keep your comments to 3 minutes or less. There is a timer here um that will be counting down for you. I will also remind you when your time is up. Public comment is for input only. Members of the school board will not respond publicly to public comments that are made at this meeting. No specific action will be taken at this meeting in response to comments that are made or issues that are raised during the public comment period related to items not on the agenda. If the board determines that action is appropriate, the action will occur at a future board meeting. If you [snorts] left your contact information on the comment card, a district representative may follow up with you after the meeting. I will recognize one speaker at a time. Only those speakers who are recognized will be permitted to speak. Individuals who interfere with or interrupt speakers, the board, or the proceedings may be asked to leave. Personal attacks on any individual, including any other speaker during the public comment session, are unacceptable as are obscenities or profanity. Persistence in making such remarks will end the individual's opportunity to address the board and may result in the individual being directed to leave. I will rule out of order any statement that would violate state or federal law, school board policy, or the privacy rights of an individual. Minnesota's open meeting law prohibits the discussion of private educational data during an open meeting. Accordingly, during the public comment session, no person may discuss private educational data on an identifiable student. The open meeting law also requires the board to close a meeting for preliminary consideration of allegations against an employee. Accordingly, community members who have concerns about an employee or want to file a complaint or allegations against an employee are encouraged to contact the superintendent. We ask you not to name an employee by name during your comments. Repeated violations of these time, place, and manner restrictions may also lead to the meeting being briefly recessed. Community members will have an opportunity to be heard within the limits of the law and subject to the time, place, and manner restrictions above. Thank you for participating in public comment this evening. And thank you for listening to all those guidelines. I would like um I we will go ahead and listen to the voicemails first. If that works. And if they're not ready, just let me know, Natalia. We can do Okay. Um I would like to invite Danica Leonard up to the table and please correct your name. Yes, anyone is good. Thank you for being here this evening. Thank you. Hi, it's Dan Yiga. Okay, thank you. All right. Should I get started? Yes, please do. >> Thank you. Um good evening. My name is Dan Yiga Leonard. I am a mother to two brilliant Hopkins scholars, one in 10th grade and one in fifth. Today I am here because my son was racially targeted by a group of white scholars at Hopkins High School. My son did not know these students. He was not in conflict with them. He did nothing to him. And yet, he was in a photo that they used of black scholars titled in one image slaves for sale. They used the N-word. They used racist, sexually degrading, and dehumanizing language. And they created an image with a white student's knee on a black student's neck to mock the murder of George Floyd. This is no accident. This is not a joke. Nobody accidentally turns black classmates into content for racial humiliation. They knew enough racism to make the joke. They knew slavery was degrading. They knew the N-word was violent. They knew George Floyd's murder meant something. They knew a white student's knee on a black student's neck meant something. They knew black children would be humiliated. That was the point. This was not ignorance or confusion. It wasn't just kids being kids. It was racism used for bonding. Black suffering used as currency in white students practicing dehumanization with each other. And my child didn't who did not even know them was used simply because he is black. This is bigger than school discipline. This is what happens when white parents send children into the community without teaching them how to be safe people and be allies around black people. When white children are taught manners, grades, sports achievement, and image, but this piece is missing. Why? When racism is treated as something that children pick up somewhere instead of something adults are responsible for confronting at home because it arrives because it shows up in peer groups, teams, locker rooms, group chats, and online and social media because it's not interrupted. Black children become the target and they're forced to pay for the lack of proper intention needed to make sure that all scholars can go to school and have their full humanity respected and honored. Hopkins should not be the first place a white child learns that black children are human. It should not be the first place that they learn that slavery isn't funny or that George Floyd's murder is not content. And Hopkins should not be forced to manage racial violence in a way where parents do not where parents also have a responsibility with Hopkins. Excuse me, this is kind of hard to read. We black parents already have to prepare our children before they leave the house. We teach them how racism works. We teach them how white supremacy works. We teach them how to protect their bodies, their brains, and their nervous systems. We teach them how to survive being harmed and then we teach them to still try to remain calm. White parents have work to do before their children leave the house, too. We ask that all parents can teach their children to not become the danger that black children are being prepared to manage and survive. If they know enough to make jokes about slave auctions, use the N-word, degrade black children, then they then it is a reflection of how much more education and learning is needed both at home and at school. And if they do not actively address racism and white supremacy at home, they are not neutral. They are leaving their children available to become agents of racism and white supremacy. Hopkins also has a responsibility to have clear and accessible protocols and proper props processes in place. It needs a racialized harm protocol. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Leonard. Thank >> [clears throat] >> I would like to invite Alex Leonard up to the table. Thank you for being with us this evening. Thank you. Um [clears throat] Good evening everyone. My name is Alex Leonard. I'm the parent of a 10th grader and a fifth grader in Hopkins Public Schools. In addition to being a proud parent of those two students, I am a high school educator, a licensed school counselor, a former behavior dean, a restorative practices and equity lead, and a national facilitator with the National SEED Project. I have worked directly with school dis- schools and districts, including Hopkins staff, around educator wellness, racial trauma, restorative practices, and school culture. Two weeks ago, my son and other black Hopkins scholars learned they were racially targeted in an image shared among scholars in a group chat. The image read, "Slave auction. Two for sale." This was purposeful dehumanization of black scholars. It's racial harassment. It's hate speech. I've already met with Principal Farley. I am writing now uh to you now because my concern goes beyond this one incident. This is a safety issue, a school climate issue, uh and a district culture issue. My concern is whether Hopkins Public Schools has a clear, consistent, and meaningful protocol for responding when severe racial dis- uh harassment occurs. District Policy 413 on harassment and violence and Policy 514 on bullying prohibition spell out expectations around safety, accountability, and non-discriminatory learning environments. Black scholars should not have to endure racial targeting, slave auction imagery, and racial slurs to access public education in Hopkins. If restorative processes are being considered in this case, they must not be used as a shield to avoid consequences or to downplay racial harm. It will require truth-telling, accountability, repair, safety, and real intervention. They must occur within a structured process that centers the safety, accountability, and stated needs of the scholars and families who were harmed. I'm asking the district not only to respond to this incident, but to demonstrate that it has the willingness, the structure, and the courage to confront the broader culture that allows it to happen. To that end, I'm also formally requesting that the board commit to a clear and public timeline for reviewing policies 413 and 514, and for creating and sharing a district-wide protocol for responding to racial harassment. Some of the examples for this model can be found in Eastern Carver County schools. I've sent that email to all of you, and I strongly encourage you to move in that direction. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Leonard. I want to remind our public commenters to please not mention any employees of the district by name. Um, and I would invite our next speaker, Wisdom Mawusi, to the table, and please introduce yourself. If I got your name wrong. Thank you. You got it right. Thanks. Good evening. I'm Wisdom Mawusi. I'm an educator for over 22 years, and I'm a parent of two Hopkins graduates and a current fifth-grade student in the Hopkins School District. Um, I've learned um, again, about egregious racist, uh, incident happening at Hopkins schools, and I'm curious as to what are the consequences. I'm going to say the word because certain actions deserve and require consequences that are part of the education process that teach that dangerous behavior, images, the dehumanization of black people, the disrespect of the black community, the African-American community is intolerable. Um to know that our our friends young person was targeted in this way in 2026 when we hear so much talk when we know what the national um temperature of this country is, what is happening right now. There is a attack on the African-American community as well as other communities. The African-American community I feel is too often overlooked and disrespected and not given the proper reverence of some of the other um communities. I wonder what would be the response to this if had this been a anti-Semitic um comment, what would be the response? I ask for that same type of response in in this regard and to this incident. I'm also asking what is and that that that information be shared um as far as what is the policy and how do we do this going forward and make parents aware of what is happening. All parents are aware. We all have the responsibility um of educating our scholars and keep it and creating um a safe environment for all scholars. Um also I'm wondering what staff support is in place for our students in this district. Um I know that there's been a lot of changes in the um recent years of the leadership of Hopkins High School. I'm wondering what staff do they have in place to support the scholars there especially during an incident like this. And this is not just an isolated incident. Over the years um my son graduated in 2016, my daughter in 2023. We're still having incidents like this happening and this is egregious. Um and I'm going to support the actions that the parents requested to happen as well, Indya and Alex Leonard. Thank you. Thank you. And I would like to invite Shay Chambers to the table. Or is it Chambers? Thank you for being with us this evening. Greetings everyone. Thank you for having me here today. I just want to just reiterate basically what they've said and I believe that the voicemail and email will reflect more of my statement and what I'm going to sit here and speak today, but I am the Nana to a couple of the children and their friends. They all know me as Nana at the schools and um I'm just appalled that we're here today for this situation and I don't think any of you have seen the uh text messages that these kids did. You're going to be appalled. It's going to bring you to tears that our children are still reacting this way against the minority children at your school district because I've had a chance to read all your policies and I do see that you do have things that are in place that are to prevent this, but you have practice, procedure and policy and it's obvious that the practice needs a little more work um and teaching the parents, the children and the school district that there's a lot of work to do and we need to do better. And I just want to say thank you for having me and when you play my message it will uh be more in detail. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for being here this evening. >> You ready with the voicemails? Thank you, Natalia. >> [clears throat] >> I will be commenting Hello, my name is Rachel. I will be commenting on a recent um situation that took place at Hopkins High School. I'm writing to express my deep concern, disappointment, and disapproval regarding the school district's response to the recent racist, sexually inappropriate, bullying-related incidents involving Hopkins students that surfaced on social media and shared screenshots from a student group chat. The context reported included racist language, discriminatory imagery, sexually explicit comments, harassment directed toward other students, and deeply disturbing material involving current Hopkins students. That included, but was not limited to, a poster board with images of current students under the title "Slaves Slaves for Sale" accompanied by very racist, harmful, and explicit language. Students and family brought screenshots, names, and relevant evidence to the attention of the school administration with the expectation that the behavior will be taken seriously and addressed appropriately. While initial communication was sent stating that this behavior would not be tolerated, many students and family feel that response since that time has lacked transparency, accountability, and meaningful follow-up. To date, there has been little communication regarding how the situation is being handled, whether appropriate disciplinary action has occurred, whether authorities were contacted, or what steps are being taken to assure the safety of the students moving forward. Unfortunately, the message many students are receiving is not that this behavior is unacceptable, but rather that they are expected to tolerate it and move on without resolution. This has created significant frustration and disappointment within the student community and among families. There is also a growing concern that the district appears more focused on protecting the students accused of creating and participating in a harmful contact content than supporting the students who were targeted and affected by it. When students involved in such serious incidents continue participating in athletics and school activities without visible accountability or communication, it undermines the school's trust the school's commitment to providing a safe and respectful learning environment for all students. This is situation has negatively impacted students sense of safety, belonging, and confidence in school leadership. Students and families deserve reassurance that racism, harassment, bullying, and sexual inappropriate behavior will be addressed seriously, consistently, and transparently transparently. I respectfully I respectfully urge the school board to review how this matter has been handled, improve communication with families, and ensure that appropriate action, accountability, and support for affected students are prioritized moving forward. Thank you for your time. Yes, hi. I go by Nana Chambers. And my call is regarding the four minority students that were racially targeted in a Snapchat threat by some white students that they don't personally know. My questions are Are the parents aware of this attack? Are the parents going to be present at this meeting? Is there a meeting set up with these parents to discuss their children and their behavior? And who's accountable for these kids' behaviors and actions? What are the consequences going to be for their actions? What are the steps that are going to be taken to hold them accountable and responsible for their actions? Should they be suspended from school or even expelled for their actions? Is the school principal aware of what's going on and supporting these students? And how long have these students been allowed to display this type of behavior without being checked for it against these other students? Those are my questions and concerns that I would like answered and followed up on. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. Um that concludes our public comment section. Um I I will say that this is a difficult topic to move on um from and my deepest apologies to the families um that are and the students that are are living in this at the moment. Um we are are not supposed to comment. Um So I I simply um as a human want to convey that and send that out to you. And um wonder Director Johnson >> Yeah. Yeah, sorry Chair Endresen. I'm I'm wondering if an executive session maybe in order. I have a lot of serious concerns. I think that as as everybody maybe. Um I think it may be appropriate, but if not, that's fine, too. Chair Endresen Yes. Um Uh first of all to um Mr. and Mrs. Leonard and families here, I as your superintendent, I want to apologize to you for this um completely unacceptable, racist, dehumanizing behavior. I did respond to you in writing. However, I want to verbally acknowledge that this did occur and that we have a beautiful and intelligent young people who were targeted in a way that no parent wants their child to be targeted. So, completely unacceptable. I do also want to just share with our board and community that um all of the principals at our Hopkins High School are fully aware of the behavior. They have seen all the images. The situation is under full investigation and I appreciate your um specific asks around policy review, a thorough review of how the situation was investigated and what the outcomes are. We will be privy to those outcomes. Unfortunately, we're not able to share that kind of information with families um if it doesn't involve your own children, but we did hear your every word and uh we will be following up. Thank you for being here. Thank you. Um do our student board members feel like you're able to give your reports after that? You Yeah. Feeling good? Okay. Great. Well, thank you. Um we will now go to our student board representatives report. Hello everyone. I'm Sufyan Osman. I'm a sophomore board rep. And start off my report uh everyone in the senior class is having a senior sunset that's hosted by uh student council and uh it's where they all gather up in the field and just watch the sunset one last time as a class. Last week on May 14th, we had a choir concert and then tomorrow on May 20th, there's an orchestra concert and then next week on May 26th, there's a band concert. Our environment our envirothon team uh two teams made state. One of them made it to nationals so they'll be able to compete there. And then finally for my spotlight, it's my outdoor adventures teacher Mr. Schroder. Uh it's my favorite class. It's a really fun class and like most recent thing we did was like go on the obstacle course outside the high school and just have fun. Thank you. My name's Eloise Bowling. I want to express my respect Do you Do you mind waiting a moment? She must have something to you all, the parents. Eloise wants to talk with you. Hi. Yeah. Hi, my name is Eloise Bohn. I'm a junior board rep. I just wanted I can't um address anything you said, but I want to express my respect for you guys for showing up for your family and supporting each other like this. As a person of color, I I understand and I see you guys. And this is exactly how you show up for your your community, so I appreciate you guys. I also wanted to express my gratefulness for you guys coming here and standing up for like um your um kid kids and the entire community. It really shows a lot and I really appreciate it. This is the reason I joined the board, so thank you guys. On that note, um >> [gasps] >> Um on a different note, I guess. So, prom was last weekend. It was on Saturday at the Fillmore. It was open to juniors and seniors from 7:00 to 11:00 p.m. There was lots of dancing and music and fun, and the theme was masquerade and masks were provided for everyone. Um synchro sections were last weekend, and every single participant qualified for state, all 15. Um state will be held this Thursday and Friday, so congratulations to all our synchro athletes. That's also Iris, our board rep. Um A new [snorts] trip is in the works for the end of next school year to Ecuador. It's open to all students, and they'll be immersed in the language, culture, and foods of Ecuador for 10 days. Information about the trip was shown across Royals Connects today. The Powderpuff game was set for last Wednesday, but it was rescheduled rescheduled. However, we may still see a Powderpuff game. Um there's potential for it to be used as a fundraiser for some clubs or groups at the high school. And then today, I'd like to highlight Mr. Coker. He teaches AP Language and Composition. Uh our test our AP um, exam was last Wednesday, but since then we've been working on a research project. The topics of the groups are of your own choosing, and they range from things like civil rights to globalization to environmentalism. My group is, um, civil rights, and we each get to like specialize in our own group. Um, Mr. Coker always comes to class with the utmost enthusiasm and animation. You can truly, truly tell that he loves his job and he loves teaching. AP Lang has also taught me crucial essay writing and comprehension skills that will be really helpful for me in college. And I just wanted to say congratulations. Um, I think I see how often you show up for us and everyone around us, and I would love to come watch you, um, even if you don't receive an award, which I think you will. >> [laughter] >> But I would love to come watch you if you'll allow it because you always show up for us. Aw. Thank you. >> Of course. Um, hi, I'm Medina, and I'm the, um, a freshman representative on the student board. Um, I also wanted to say congratulations, um, to Director Roper. Um, they weren't wrong when they said you were someone who shows up for your community. Um, this board is incredibly lucky to have you on it, and you truly deserve this nomination, and we're rooting for you on award day. Thank you. Um, I want to start off with my teacher spotlight, which is Miss Nina, who's my geometry teacher. She just recently came back from having her baby, so that's super exciting. Um, she's amazing, kind, and caring teacher. She makes sure everyone understands what we're learning throughout every unit and gives plenty of time in class to ask clarifying questions about the packet or the homework. Next, I want to talk about spirit week and pep fest, which was just this past week. Each day was a new theme or opportunity for students to to up. Monday was tropical, Tuesday was Nike Tech versus quarter zip, Wednesday was anything but a backpack, Thursday was Hopkins gear, and Friday was class colors. Friday was also the Pep Fest, where students got to participate in fun games, um watch the tan dance team performs, listen to senior superlatives, and watch um the amazing DJ, who was one of the students at Hopkins. So, that's super awesome. Um next, I want to talk about teacher appreciation week, um which was the first week of May. Right now, the Hopkins Education Foundation has gifts available for purchase to give to the teachers in celebration of teacher appreciation week. And then, along with that, all of the money received will go to the HEF will go to HEF grants, which will support classroom projects. So, if you want to purchase a gift, make sure to do it by May 26th. Next, I want to talk about the lookout for Link Crew leaders. Link Crew is an opportunity for juniors and seniors to build leadership skills. Link Crew leaders work on guiding freshmen through their first day orientation to show them around the school. Right now, they're looking for 2026-2027 Link Crew leaders. So, if you know anyone who might be interested, um they can apply from the link in the newsletter. Lastly, I want to talk about the 9th through 12th Panorama Survey or the social-emotional learning screener, which took place during today's Royals Connect classes. The survey allowed students the chance to talk about their experience so far and how they're being supported um by the school. This gives the This gives the high school the bet a bet Whoa. Um the ability to better help the well-being of their students, and it also allows the um it also allows the school to see where students are struggling and how they can provide more support. That's it. Thank you. Appreciate those reports. Any comments or questions from my colleagues? Well, I just want to say I'm so thrilled that you are here with us this evening, that you've taken the time. I know May is super busy, like you were saying. I feel like there's a concert every night and there's state competitions and people are preparing for all of that. I know our um the musical went back into um rehearsals because they're doing spotlight competitions. So, things just come up in May. So, thank you so much for being here and uh being part of us tonight and for um supporting us by bringing us really critical information that we need in order to do our jobs. So, thanks. And I hope you're able to have a lot of fun in these last couple weeks of school. And that takes us to our superintendent Dr. Mary Perry Reed. Thank you, Chair Andresen. Um well, like you said, it's a really busy time of the year. Earlier this evening, 60 of our seniors were recognized with college scholarships from 42 local donors and those scholarships collectively um represented more than $63,000 in student aid for tuitions. So, um I know our seniors are really enjoying that experience right now. Eisenhower held a heritage parade last week. Harley Hopkins, Glen Lake, and Gatewood all had family festivals. Last Friday, um our students mentioned prom and that was a very fun event, I'm sure. Um Technocrats, as you heard earlier, went to state. More than 1,200 students took advanced placement exams in the last 3 weeks. Um so it's a very busy time and we're just very grateful to all of our staff for facilitating these learning experiences for students. I'm excited [snorts] to share that Hopkins High School was recently awarded a 2-year $65,000 youth skills training health care pathway grant through the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry and this grant will strengthen our district's health care pathway by funding transportation for clinical and work-based experiences. It will fund RN supervised CNA skills testing or registered nurse nurse supervised CNA skills testing, instructional materials, and curriculum refinement. And um we're really excited because a major focus of this work is expanding equitable access so that students who are in the CNA program have no transportation or uh income uh financial barriers to the experiences. And this work is being led by Carla Von, who is our CTE coordinator at the high school. As [snorts] part of our high school's digital learning day and their collaborative team time, you might hear teachers talking about C CTT time, collaborative team time. High school staff leveraged their time and a structure on DLD day to pursue professional learning topics this entire year and then they present their research at their professional learning fair, which happened last week. So um there are a lot of really interesting and um uh I would say well-thought-out topics because the goal is to have immediate application into the classroom to improve instruction and learning experiences for students. So some of the topics were embedding the teaching of Chinese culture into language instruction, demystifying the Academy model, understanding the cognitive impact of reading a paper text versus listening to audio text, and then our AP teachers used national and state exam trends to inform their instructions. So, they looked at all of the trends after last spring's students taking the exams and found out that students need more evaluation and analysis skills and they were able to embed those skills um into their instruction this year. Um I also wanted to share that our exceptional math specialists, Elsa Gaul, Maggie O'Malley, and Tracy Beaverson presented our district story of this year's Imagine I Am curriculum implementation at the Minnesota Council of Teachers of Mathematics in Duluth just this last month and their presentation was a very popular with other districts who are hoping to learn more about our implementation journey and what we did well and what are the key lessons learned. It [snorts] was um truly a pleasure to meet a few days ago with students at Glen Lake. Every month they hold a high interest lunch. So, these students wanted to learn about leadership and it was a very delightful. They had um really interesting questions like "How come you're a doctor, but you don't know anything about medicine?" And "What are the most important skills for a leader to have?" And things like that. So, it was very fun. Um and on that wall in the in the middle picture are photos of all of the different luncheons that have had been held over time. And um so, at this time, I am very excited to share um, this board meeting superintendent spotlight with Laura Hetzel. So, Laura Hetzel is our business development and grants officer. So, we've been sharing examples of these amazing uh, grant awards that have been coming through for our system. And Laura has been very busy since July 1st. When did you start? End of August. Oh, end of August. So, um, Laura's been really busy building us a grant like procurement and support framework with all kinds of structures and protocols working with Dr. Lightfoot on policy and working with our um, community education leaders and principals on all things getting resources for Hopkins Public Schools. So, thank you Laura for being here this evening and um, we invite you to share more information about the work that you're doing. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you all today. Um, yeah. So, over the last 9 months, we've been building a coordinated and sustainable approach to grant funding across the district. Um, I've seek sought guidance from some of our neighbor neighboring districts that have much more uh, established grant programs. Got a lot of really good information and and guidance on tools from them, as well as with the leaders across the district to develop and pilot and put into place um, an initial I'm going to say initial because we're going to work on continuous improvement framework for our grants processes. Um, uh, the grants work is uh, it it it can become very complex very quickly and it requires a lot of coordination all across the district um, of many different departments. Many of our grants involve multi-year funding commitments, ongoing reporting um obligations, reimbursement requirements, and long-term stewardship responsibilities to ensure that we maintain and have and are in compliance, maintain relationships and are in compliance on all of our grants. Um Uh most grants uh involve coordination across across multiple district functions and not just one department or program area. So, we're working with finance, working with leadership, working with operations, working with IT. Um uh community partners as well as our external funders. Um and as we were building and working on this, one of the important one of the more important things that developed was that a lot of our grants had been functioning in sort of like more of a unknown we we some of these areas were un- they didn't know what the right hand didn't know what the left hand was doing kind of a situation. And so, um it was important that we built something that was very transparent um and improve that coordination communication so that everybody knew what was going on and we could move forward um in a coordinated manner. Um next slide. So, this is what our district uh if you go back one more slide one slide. This is what our district framework looks like. Um and this is for competitive grants. And so, I want to say that just make clear that out of scope for this particular framework is our HEFF grants. They have their own very robust process. I don't want to touch it. So, like they're doing great. Um and then formula grants are also out of scope for this as well as PTO and any booster club funds. This is purely competitive grants. Um I don't want to go through every single step in the process because it's extensive, but I do want to highlight a couple of areas. The first one is funding um opportunity identification. So, we've three different ways that we look at how we find um funding opportunities. The first one is we've developed an opportunity update email that goes out monthly. Currently, it goes out to leaders. Starting in the fall, it will go out to the entire district. That select opportunities for funding that we know are coming up that people may be interested in applying for. We also have a what in addition to that a website on ClassLink internally for the district leaders that have that also has those opportunities on it as well as information about the process and how to start it. The second way we can do it is that some people including yourselves may have access to information about grants from their networks that they could let us know about and that might be a good opportunity that we could pursue or that they want to pursue. Um and then the third way is that somebody may just have an idea for a project that they want to do but they don't they don't know how to find grant funding for that. And so in those cases I would meet with them and then we would come up with the plan and identify some potential funding opportunities. Um the second part I want to I want to highlight is the capacity and planning stage of this of this framework. This has been really really key and us being able to understand what we are ready for. And um and being able to build some of that collaboration across the district to make sure that we know that when we get the grant that we are going to be able to execute it effectively and not not have to worry and know what we're facing when we're when we're executing that and what we're going to need. This has been really helpful because it we have had grants that we've been really interested in but then when we went through with the capacity planning process I was like oh wait we're not quite ready for that. Or it has also brought to light things that helped make our applications more competitive because we were able to be more transparent and honest about where we were and what we needed to be able to execute on the grants. And then the third thing I want to highlight in this is number seven which is implementation reporting and steward and stewardship. While this is just one step on the road this is this is this this particular step can be years because many of our grants are multi-year so this step can actually involve years of >> [snorts] >> coordination and collaboration across the district making sure that we're reporting, that we're putting in our reimbursements, um and that we're meeting the needs of the funder. Next slide. Yeah, so just want to highlight some of the things that we've developed for this. So, we have a district now have a district intent to apply process. So, this helps somebody get started on the road that I will then help guide them down. Let us know what they want. They can fill out this form and then we can get started on the grant process. We also have a structured grant development and review process that utilizes outline worksheets and coordinated input and review cycles that require multiple levels of leadership review to be able to move forward. In addition to that, we have our grants web page as well as our monthly news newsletter on grants. And then we also have standardized grant workbooks that include budgets, budget codes, timelines, all of the things that we need to be able to successfully implement a grant once we get it. And that that is what people get at the when as soon as we get a grant, we're able to set that up and get them going on it. And and then again, the continuous improvement. We currently have a survey out to everybody we've worked with over the last year to find out what they'd like to see improved about the process. The next slide. So, these are just some examples of of the stuff we developed. So, there's the opportunity and a sample of mini sample of what the opportunity update looks like and what a selected opportunity might look like for that, as well as a snippet of of the grants resources web page and our intent to apply form. Next slide. So, this is just a snapshot of where we currently are with competitive grants. Um and again, this is this is constantly changing cuz we're always have applications in process that we're working on and then we're always waiting for decisions on things. So, this can change at any time. Um but for this one, we currently have since September, we've done 25 grants applications. We've total funding requests in those 25 grant applications is $2,260,000. Um we've secured, which means we were awarded of those a $1,290,000. Um we have pending decisions. We're waiting to hear on $873,000 and we were not awarded about $97,000 of those grants. Um and this has supported more than 10 different departments across the district. Next grant. This one. So, if we look at knowing that these are many of these are multi-year grants, this is what that looks like over time. So, um if if if if it were to stack up perfectly the way the grants were written, which it usually doesn't cuz you know, for example, we may have a grant where we've got funding that's supposed to be in um in in fiscal year 26, so we don't spend all the money, so some of that money will move over to 27. So, this shifts, but if we were to look at it perfectly right now, this is what that would stack up and look like over time. The money that we're coming, which is we have a um almost $500,000 that will be coming in in in uh fiscal year 27. A little less than that in fiscal year 28. And again, these are going to grow. Hopefully, that's ideally that's what's going to happen over time. So, yeah. Um then these are just some examples um of the grants. So, not all of them um cuz there's there's we're grateful to have a lot of them, but this is just examples of some of the ones that we've won. So, uh two of the biggest ones that we've won so far is the sped pathways grant, um which will help um with develop uh licensure pathways and workforce development for special education teachers. Then we've also got the native language revitalization grant, which will bring um Ojibwe language instruction across the district. Um then we also have an AP STEM grant, which is an which expands AP STEM computer science, business, and uh future cybersecurity coursework at the high school. Um the youth skills training grant, which uh wrote a spoke about this evening. And then I also want to highlight some of these smaller grants that we get can be really special. So, this Snapdragon Book Foundation grant was a $5,000 grant we got that's going to help bring literacy resources for developing readers at Tanglin Elementary. So. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Any questions? Stuff? Okay. >> Nope. Thank you. >> Um, oh, yes, yes, [laughter] yes. We all have questions. Oh, okay. Sure. Sharon Dreesen. Um, uh, well, first of all, I I just want to say thank you. I'm grateful to have you here and for the clear body of work uh in building and cultivating infrastructure supports and all of the things that go into helping any organization, let alone our school district, to be successful in um in going after and securing grant funding. >> Congratulations on the grants and the awards that you've received to date. And just as a former fundraising professional who does that as a part of my day job and has worked in higher ed on securing grants, just um just want to say thank you. And it's not easy work. Like this takes a lot of effort and even knowing what you're doing to to put in place things that can help others in our district also to apply, so people aren't like, "Oh, how do I find this budget and do this thing?" To have those templates can help. It's it's not all on your shoulders as well. And so just uh I'm was so supportive when I saw that the position was being hired and then hearing you come and report, really really grateful for it. And especially as our education funding does not keep up with our needs, this is a vital pathway for securing funding. And thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Um I also um am grateful. I think that doing work in this space, like I'm you have a very impressive ratio of application to awards. Um wow. And um one of the things I'm wondering about and I don't know if it was on on your slide and I just missed it um is something that I I've seen happen um in the education space is a grant is gotten and there's this really great program and then the grant goes away and there's no more great program. So, wondering if um there is an eye toward as part of your structure that you've built sustainability um because we grant money is great, but it's not um you know, consistent funding necessarily. So, just wondering about that. That sustainability planning is a key part of the capacity conversation that we have in the beginning of the grant is that if we go for this this money, what is it going to mean when the grant ends? And and how are we going to be able to keep that up? So, that is a very key part of how we do capacity planning and some of the reasons why sometimes we say, "No, we can't do this because it's that we're not going to be able to maintain it." Great. Thank you. Appreciate that. Tia Anderson. Yes. >> Has a question. Um thank you again I want to echo what they said about your work and this is so needed this position for sure. Um how do you how if there's a process, like how do you differentiate or select like is it like a selection process for departments who are going toward the same like who's going for the same grant in terms of like uh support from the school? I'm trying to I'm trying to ask this question as clearly as possible, but I just know like in the past for example, um there was you know, um a parent group who was going for funds, you know, from a, um, foundation, but there was another department also going for the same funds. And so, how do you decide, or how does the school district decide which group they're going to support, or do you support both? So, I I don't have any again, the the the PTO groups are sort of out of scope for me, so I don't have view into what they're going to apply for. But, if we've got two schools or two departments within the district that are going for the same then want to go for the same funding, that's a key part of the intent to apply process, and why that's part of it was so that we're aware that there are two of them that are wanting to apply for it. And at that point, it would be a conversation with leadership to determine which program has priority based on a strategic need in the district. And that's that's what that that process is meant to help with. Mhm. Thank you. Director Jones. Yes, Director Jones. Yes, I um, I have a question about the growth on grants that the district had. I mean, I I think I can infer from your graph, but it it looked like it was substantial increase from 25. Do you do you do you know like we went from X to 2.5 this year? I wish I could answer that question, but I think there's that one of the challenges was when I started was that um, we didn't have a clear understanding of what grants we had across the district because there was no central sort of like collection or understanding of that. And so, this has been um, this is sort of like our baseline at this point. Um, for the the 26, it's the baseline for what we have for what was supported by this process. And so, that Yeah. Thank you. So, you're building the infrastructure to help us track that over time. >> to track that work very clearly, yeah, with doing some grant audit work, so we can probably provide some historical data, but we're still gathering all of that information. Great. Thank you. Okay. Thank you so much Thank you for all your work, Laura. You're doing amazing. And with that, I would look for a motion to approve tonight's agenda. So moved. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say I. I. I. Any any nays? The chair votes I, and tonight's agenda is approved. And that takes us to our consent calendar. The purpose of the consent calendar 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. I would look for a motion that the board approves the consent calendar. So moved. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, oh, yes. Just just to note, there were a couple edits that uh were made on the minutes. Um they're not substantive, but they that there were a couple edits that were made. Uh that then I signed off on. Um and so it was just regarding uh the consent item that would had been on we had uh Director uh Thompson had taken off the two items, and so those were reflected below, but it didn't reflect that accurately. And then also it was added uh related to the school board policy for weighted grades. Just the how the votes shook out was named there, uh, as it was for other areas. Okay. >> wanted to know that. >> been corrected. >> They've been corrected, and I've now signed, uh, onto the corrected version that was printed off and will be recorded. So, we are, um, we are approving the corrected version. That is correct. Okay, great. Thank you. Um, so, that is our discussion. Um, seeing no further discussion, all those in favor, please say I. I. I. Any opposed? The chair votes I, and the consent calendar is approved. And that takes us to the treasurer's report, Treasurer Harland. Thank you. Um, good evening, everyone. I have a couple things to go over in tonight's report, and one is a brief legislative recap, mostly focusing on those items which have some kind of financial impact to either public schools or Hopkins specifically. And a very modest supplemental spending bill. This was a a policy year, so in our Minnesota legislature, typically, they discuss the budget one year and then policy in the following. So, the session that just ended was a policy year. But, a very modest supplemental spending bill was passed in the 11th hour of the session. Um, and it gave an additional $10 million in compensatory revenue, um, $5 million for funding an anonymous threat reporting system. Um, the constitutional amendment bill, HF 3900 passed, which means that the movement to modernize the permanent school fund distribution formula that I talked about a couple board reports ago, that will now appear on the November 2026 ballot for voters to decide. Um, AMSD, or the Association of Metropolitan School Districts has some solid information on what that will mean for voters and school districts um, if that amendment passes on AMSD's website. A bill was passed that would allow districts to slightly reduce the amount of professional development teachers need under the READ Act. An interesting bill that passed is one that school districts must issue high school diplomas to their former students who left to serve in the Korean or Vietnam Wars if requested. So, if you know a vet that would like to receive their diploma and didn't because they shipped out and went overseas, then soon there will be a process by which they can request one. So, I thought that was kind of cool. Um, $3.8 million was approved to provide grants for mobile crisis units for schools. And hearing, you know, $10 million or $3.8 million might not sound like modest dollar amounts, but do remember that there are over 300 public school districts in Minnesota and then something like 169, I think, charter school districts plus intermediate districts and tribal schools. And so, these funds are both greatly appreciated to our legislators and they don't necessarily go very far. And so, what's left for the district to do now is to see which of these bills impact us and kind of adjust accordingly. And so, that is always a big job that is borne by the staff of our school districts after a legislative session. One major thing that was left undone was the possible repeal of this looming $250 million cut to special education funding. That cut comes from a bill that was passed in 2025 that created a blue ribbon task force tasked with finding $250 million in savings from special ed funding by this October. And an automatic reduction is supposed to happen beginning in the 28-29 school year. So, the commission has asked for more time. And then a bill was introduced this session to repeal that automatic trigger. And despite receiving bipartisan support, that bill did not advance. So, we will likely hear more during the 2027 session, which I believe starts in January. That is probably the most impactful legislative change looming, at least that we know of for now. Uh and it is especially important to us here in Hopkins, as we have both the substantial fiscal and moral responsibility to take care of all of our students, including those who receive special services. And for example, in fiscal year 25, this is fiscal year 26 that we're in right now and when we hear about our budget, we'll be looking at fiscal year 27. But in fiscal year 25, our special education costs in Hopkins was $23.5 million. We received $13.86 million in special education aid from the state. Um and then, because our legislators, fortunately, recognized how big that gap is, or the subsidy is, between our special ed expenses and the special ed revenue, um we received an additional $5.4 million in subsidy aid. So, that meant we had a total special education subsidy left of $4.2 million in fiscal year 25. And that's the amount that we paid from our general fund to cover those special education expenses. And that is actually a better, that's down from fiscal year 24, when our subsidy was $5.39 million. And so, it's hard to say exactly how this Blue Ribbon Commission could kind of hand down or recommend making the cuts, but it is fair to say that we are at risk of a significant reduction in funding in fiscal year 29 if something is not done to amend or repeal that cut. So, we will be watching that in the next session. And again, that would take place in the 2028-2029 school year. So, we're not quite there in our budgeting discussions yet. Um regarding our expenses, you'll see a lot of invoices from Advanced Imaging Specialists. It's the source of our printing and copying machines and the actual printing services. We paid them $24,286.31. We paid Amazon $11,057.87 for all kinds of supplies across all departments. And again, we do I do have the transparency, the ability to pull any one of those invoices. Uh we paid Weaving Cultures, the company that does the majority of our interpreting work, $15,558.92. We paid $55,822 to Blake School and $48,874 to Breck to reimburse them for mandated services. Um Cbiz Investment Advisors provides guidance and investment strategy for our 403B retirement plans for staff. We paid them $5,750 for contracted advisory services. We paid the city of Golden Valley um $7,875 for water and sewer, $546 to Hopkins for water and sewer, and $14,649 to the city of Minnetonka. We paid $160,474 to Connect Energy Group for February's national natural gas bills across various sites. Um McDonough Agency does all of our background checks including for all these contracted community ed teachers and volunteers that are about to lead thousands of Hopkins students and uh citizens in various classes and events this summer. So, we paid McDowell Agency $2,466.30. Superior Vision Services is our employee vision plan. We paid them $5,694. You'll see our monthly cost for the district's phone service reflected a couple times here. We pay a RingCentral $29,370 every month for that. And then finally, we paid $10,030 to USS Hancock Solar and $50,072 to SSI Tranche 1 and 2. We heard about these three solar partners and a couple others when um Assistant Director Misali and then Dr. Lightfoot presented to us in the fall about the partnerships between our solar gardens and our utility providers. So, these amounts that we pay to the solar partners are more than offset by credit we then receive on our Xcel Energy bills. Uh with that, I move that we approve total disbursements in the amount of $2,827,058.13 for the period of April 1st through April 15th, 2026. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Uh Chair Anderson. Director Thompson. Um thanks for the report, Treasurer Harland. I just had one question. Um seeing you know, more charges Clifton Larson Allen, so that was our former auditor who was helping us pull statements for the current audit. Do you know, like are we getting close to being done paying those types of bills? Thank you for the question. So, what I can share is that CLA is helping us prepare for our FY 25 audit, and the board will the board audit committee is actually meeting next week to get a report. We are it's a delayed audit but we are on track for presenting that at the June 23 board meeting. And then after that, what we're going to do is internally use our our um skill set within the business office and the um expertise of our controller, Emily Westrum, to manage uh prepping the audit work for FY 26 before handing it over to KDV. So, you should soon see those um charges coming to I think zero. Dr. Lightfoot? Yeah, by June 30. By June 30, yeah. So, we're we're preparing to sunset their um partnership on June 30. Okay, thank you for that update. I appreciate it. That was my only question. Director Sun? Yes. Director Hyman. Um I also have just one question. Um I see a large sum was paid to Imagine I Am, Imagine Learning, the same curriculum company that we are curriculum developer that we were talking about during workshop for Imagine I Am Spanish K through 5, $313 and some thousand dollars. I'm wondering if that if we're already doing Imagine I Am Spanish K to 5, or if this is a new curriculum that's being purchased, or what exactly that sum is for. If we know. So, Dr. Ertel, um these are materials for our Juntos teachers to teach Imagine I Am math to K-5 students in Spanish immersion. And are they being used this year? This year and moving forward. Yeah, this year is the second year of two years of adoption cost for K-5. We split the total contract over two years. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, that's helpful. Thank you. >> Okay. Do we need to repeat that into the record or Yeah, I Our director of innovation design and learning said that we're going to split the the adoption cost into two years. Yeah, I think that was part of what the board approved. Correct? Correct. Um >> It is a big cost. Yeah. Yeah, thank you. And I you can walk down the hallway here and see some of the deliveries. Big boxes. Um any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? The chair votes I and the treasurer's report is accepted. As always, thank you, Treasurer Heartland, for an excellent report. And that takes us to our uh first order of new business, an easement agreement. I would like to invite our presenters up to the table and turn it over to Dr. Mary Pirie Reed. Thank you, Chair Andresen. So, um the city of Hopkins is making improvements to the property next to Catherine Curran Elementary, which is a district-owned building. So, I welcome our city partner and uh uh Mr. Wetter and Dr. Lightfoot to help the board understand the details of this agreement. Um the updates will clarify expectations around playground use. And um there are some adjustments to the agreement timeline as well. And sir, I have not met you yet. What is your name? Uh Dustin Pavek, uh public works director for City of Hopkins. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you for being here. So, I'll turn it over to you. All right. Good to be with you all this evening. Uh grateful for the partnership with the City of Hopkins as we continue to partner with them with the easement agreement. Um in a minute, I'll let Dustin speak more to the city improvements uh in their strategic structuring. Uh as we looked at the partnership that we had with the original easement agreement in 2008, when that was established, um as work was being done, part of the update that we were looking toward uh really was the request around the playground equipment. The updating of that is part of the work with Central Park, correct? And as such, we worked through the mechanics and the memorandum of the language that is there to come [clears throat] to the agreement that's here in front of you this evening uh for you to look at and approve as part of the modification. In giving you some context to that, I think uh what I'll do is uh give Dustin a little bit of opportunity kind of give some broad explanation around what's happening with the city and how we're part of that. Good evening. Uh thank you again for having me tonight. Uh so, the the premise of this is uh about 3 years ago, the City of Hopkins put together a master park plan for all parks in the City of Hopkins. Um when that plan was done, it was identified as Central Park being the first park that we need to go and redo. Uh what started as a small project uh quickly morphed into a $14 million dollar project. Uh we've had a lot of partners that have come in and uh Central Park is now going to be a big storm water resilience park. There's a lot of things putting being put into it, a lot of infrastructure changes throughout it. Um it will be able to help the surrounding properties from the schools, apartments, the church to the north of us to help with any flooding in the future. A lot of those changes are going to be directly related to Nine Mile Creek, uh which if you don't know, the south side of the park is where the headwaters for Nine Mile Creek start. Um so there's going to be a lot of uh changes throughout the park topographically. Um the soccer field to the north side is going to be a sunken soccer field that'll be dug down about 8 ft uh with uh the storm water being able to pool there for up to 12 hours before it gets kicked out. In between the two ball fields that will remain, there'll be a dry creek bed that'll connect to Nine Mile Creek. Uh there'll be a lot of signage and education pieces throughout the entire park. The north side of the park will also have a permanent restroom now as a portal as opposed to porta-potties along with a science garden in the north side as well. Uh we did remove the very old play structure that was on the east side of the park and a new playground will be placed uh just north of the pavilion which is in part of the easement property. Uh it's going to be a giant three-story tower from Flagship with slides and all sorts of amenities. Uh [snorts] there's a lot of community outreach for the park itself and especially with the playground. I know we went to a bunch of uh schools to talk with students on what they wanted and they are getting a zip line. That was the most requested thing. So there'll be a zip line put there as well. Uh the uh flooring is going to be a pour in place rubberized flooring there. So, the the timeline we started 2 weeks ago on the project, so it's underway right now. Uh substantial completion will be next year sometime, but we should be done mostly here in October. At least all the dirt work is. Uh there's been a lot of partnerships with outside funding. We were given a $5 million grant from the MPCA, which has strict timelines on when we have to get stuff done. So, we're really pushing hard to get through with what we need to. Uh the purpose of the easement was to basically allow that playground that is at Katherine Curren to remain. Otherwise, it was up to debate if we would remove it because we have another playground going in to replace it, but it was thought that it was something that amenity that the school would maybe want to keep. So, that's why we decided to try and relocate those lines for the current easement, and then we just extended the date just to coincide Central Park's never going to go anywhere. So, as long as we can keep the easement going, you know, we're grateful to be good partners. I would add that we also did have an earlier easement for some of the fiber work that was necessary. I don't know if you want to speak to any of that, John, as well. Yeah, and part of the work uh around easements and why the conversation kind of came to be is also uh Hopkins uh public schools serves as a basically as a utility owner in this area as well because our fiber optics lines move through that area right along Katherine Curren building um on their way over to Glen Lake and then the other way over to Harley Hopkins Early Childhood Center. So, uh we're a utility owner bounded in those areas as well um as well as our connectivity that actually moves through Central Park um and around it where we have an interconnection with the city of Hopkins as well, where we can serve the uh Performing Arts Center as well as some needs with our partners both at Minnetonka and Hopkins for emergency management capabilities as well. So with that, we wanted to bring it uh forward to you so that we would number one, raise your awareness, number two, full knowledge of those changes as we look forward to the partnership and the ongoing improvements. So with that, we're open for any additional questions or information that information that would be helpful. Chair Andresen. Yes. Uh a quick Question. Thank you. Thank you. Uh thank you. Thanks for being here and for presenting. I just have a clarifying question uh which is so the current structure that of the play equipment that is at well, the swings and then the playground area, that will remain and then we will the city of Hopkins will be adding as part of the Central Park renovation project an additional play structure that you reference. Correct. Okay. Thank you. Well, this feels like a an easy vote. Mhm. So, I would look for a motion that the board approve the um easement modification as presented. So moved. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? The chair votes I and the easement agreement is approved. Thank you so much for being here with us this evening. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And Assistant Superintendent Lightfoot, you get to stay and I will turn it over to Dr. Mary Pirie Reed for our 2017-2018 District 287 LTFM resolution. Thank you, Chair Andresen. And um joining Dr. Lightfoot will be Jessica Olson, our interim CFO. And Chair Andresen, you sit on the 287 board, so you are well aware that um the um amount and distribution of District 287's LTFM was approved by their board, and now there is a resolution in front of our board members this evening to approve um 287's long-term facility maintenance program budget, which also authorizes the inclusion of our proportionate share. And um I'd turn it over to our presenters if there's additional detail to add. Uh the one additional detail I wanted to add is what is the proportionate share for Hopkins. So, the total is 160,757 dollars. So, it's um a portion of everything, and there's a calculation that goes along with that um regarding the 1/3 of AP APUs and 2/3 of the three-year weighted program. So, there is that backing that goes behind that. Um if you have any questions, just please let us know. Otherwise, uh 287 does not have the levy authority, so that's why they go through their member districts to levy for those funds to support their long-term facility maintenance plans. And it has been planned for as we look at the uh fiscal impact, knowing that uh we do work with Ehlers and Associates as we think through all of our LTFM internally as well. Um so, it has been built into those models. And just for further context, this is something we do regularly here at Hopkins. Um all other member districts are having the same conversation at their board tables, but also one of the things that I've always appreciated about um how District 287 does this is that the amount on um that member districts are contributing is proportional to their use of of services. So, um it isn't just a uh one you know, you get a 1/13 of um of it put on your district. So, if anyone has any questions around those lines, um if if I don't have the answer, I'm certainly able to connect you with someone who can speak more to how this works. Okay. Great. Um I believe so. It says that it's a roll call. Um do we have our own resolution or are we just doing a roll call vote on the resolution that was passed? >> It should be part of the board agenda. There should be a resolution in there. Yeah, I looked at that, but it looked like it was the one that 287 Oh, no. Here we go. Thank you. Um so, I would first look for a motion to waive the reading of the resolution. 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? Chair votes I, and the reading of the resolution has been waived. Uh so, I would look for a motion to approve the resolution as presented in the packet. So moved. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Seeing none, uh clerk, please call the roll. Shannon Andreessen. I. Rachel Heartland. I. Johanna Heiman. I. Brooke Roper. I. Kai Thompson. I. Sarah Welham Garbers. I. Zhiming Zhao. I. All have voted I. Thank [snorts] you, clerk. That now and thank you for being here and you get to stay again for our next item, which is the fiscal year 27 preliminary budget update. I will turn it over to Dr. Mary Perry Reed. Thank you, Chair Andreessen. Well, for community members who might be tuning in for the first time, this is our second update to the board around um our district budget for fiscal year 27. Uh 2 weeks ago, we presented a higher-level update and um in board members' packets and also available to um viewers and those interested in um learning more detail, there is a budget document that is linked in um the board materials. We are working toward um a structurally balanced budget for fiscal year 27, working our very best to align resources with our most important priorities, which do include um student achievement, of course, and um similar to many districts in the metropolitan area and across Minnesota, schools and districts are finding it harder to balance um revenue with expenditures, and so the in the metropolitan area, there's a shared budget uh shortfall of almost 250 million. Here in Hopkins, we're making an adjustment for next year. Um of um our adjustment is a reduction of about 2 and 1/2 million. And then also sent to board members was a summary of some of the detailed reductions. And um we have explained a couple of times to our community that we are prioritizing funding class size so that our students and teachers can be in um classrooms with adult to student ratios that feel manageable and allow students to learn. And these class sizes are spelled out in the teachers contract. And so to um to be able to operationalize that, um we did absorb reductions um mostly at the district office. And so some of those examples that were included in the uh board member communications, um >> [snorts] >> uh for example, a reduction of all district department budgets by about 10% if not more in a couple of cases. There's a reduction of um at least four positions in operational budgets for business services, human resources, innovation design and learning, and specialized services. Uh we are looking for a pretty sizable reduction regarding the professional audit services um that have been provided by CliftonLarsonAllen over the past couple of years. Um Director Thompson asked about that earlier. Buildings and grounds has um our assistant supervisor there has creatively identified nearly $900,000 in efficiencies or reductions within uh buildings and grounds department. And some of the efficiencies also include coding positions or operational supplies to restricted budgets such as um capital projects levy or safe school safety and security dollars, things like that, referendum dollars. And you know, obviously we are um paying attention to the expenditure criteria so that we stay within statute. So, those are just a few um examples and I really appreciate the work that Jessica Olson and Dr. Lightfoot and really the whole team has been doing not only to stabilize our budget, but also to figure out exactly how we need to move forward for next year. So, I'll turn it over to you, Jessica, and to you, Nick, to provide more detail. Perfect. So, I just have a couple slides for tonight and then we'll go through some of the more detailed at the end. Um just kind of what the priorities are is really around that classroom size that um we've talked about in making sure that the students get what they need when they come to school and that we're able to serve those students when they're here. Um also maintaining any kind of student support systems and then the structural balance of the budget. So, making sure that Hopkins can also um sustain these programs over the years and continue to have a um healthy fund balance where that comes into. And then just maximizing some efficiencies and transparency and communication with the school board and also the community. Um one of the things that we've been working on over the past couple months is the LERS projection model. So, this really looks at what we do today, how it impacts the next three to four years. Um it takes the actuals from the preliminary audits from 24 um and then also the uh I'm sorry, the actuals from 24, the preliminary audit from 25 where that's coming in at, where the revised budget is, and then also where we're looking at for that preliminary budget for '27. And then what does that do for looking out? So, in this model, it does include the 2.5 million in reductions. Uh you will see an increase in fund balance going into FY '27 or at the end of FY '27 due to the decreases. And the reason for that is really for future years. So, the district's policy is a 6% fund balance. Anything above is to help stabilize in um cases if there's reductions in revenue. So, we know that there's a potential $250 million special ed reduction coming. Um and or if there's unexpected expenses, it helps cope with that. So, by doing this reduction, looking out to 2030, it keeps a healthy fund balance at above 7%. So, it really allows the district to have some flexibility in the next few years and to stabilize the environment. Um the next one is just a basic breakout of how general fund is or the general fund is uh funded. So, you have your basic allowance, you have restricted funds, you have federal funds. Um everything that kind of goes into it. So, it's a bucket that has many different funding sources that go along with it. Um and then as kind of mentioned already within the reductions, this goes through kind of high-level what we're looking at for reductions for FY '27. Um so, again, the 10% in all the kind of district office, central office locations, all of that. Um reductions in professional services, uh buildings and grounds is looking at nearly a nine uh hundred thousand dollar reduction. Um and then just some shifts that we can do that will better stabilize the district and not impact the classrooms. It's more of that central office look. Um and then just from a programming standpoint, the other thing I wanted to call out is there was uh contingency fund built in. We have removed that for FY '27. That contingency is just around enrollment. So, I kind of built in a little buffer if you had additional students enroll. We did take that out. There is still a signed fund balance that has contingency built into it. So, it's not where the district has zero dollars built, but we're just not allocating additional funds to that. And then we just also reduce some of the targeted staffing. So, that was a slight reduction of 30,000 overall. So, nothing significant there, but just helps balance the budget. And then I just wanted to call out overall it's around 3.6 million that was reduced from the central office. A million of that was reinvested within the buildings and classrooms to help stabilize the classroom size. So, I just wanted to call out there is more work that was done to the central office to help support those class sizes and building that. So, just to re- emphasize the priority of the district is really the classroom size at this point. So, overall revenue I just wanted to compare how this goes from FY26 to FY27. So, looking at the general fund we're seeing an increase of 4.5 million. The majority of that is coming from our state aid increase of the 2.69%. There was a levy increase around 3% and then some cross subsidy for special ed that included in there. For food and nutrition we're looking at around $95,000 increase. Now, that this budget is still being worked on a little bit. So, when you see the final one in June, just know this one may change a little bit. We're looking at all current increases for the prices with that and then we're also reviewing the funding for reimbursements that has not come in yet from the state. So, once we get a little bit more information there that one might adjust a little bit. The next one is community ed. We're looking at a $321,000 increase for community ed for revenue. Construction fund you will see a big decrease of 13 million. So, we did bond in FY26. 26. are looking at potentially bonding in 27. Those numbers are still being finalized. That should be finalized within the next week or two what the projected bond would need for LTFM to continue that 10-year plan in the cycle. You will notice it's year after year for bonding, which is typically not normal. You guys usually go out every 2 years, but because of the delay in the last bond, we're it's just going to be an increased or faster pace for this next bond and then it'll go back to that 2-year cycle. Uh debt service did go up a little bit. We did issue bonds, so that's just to help cover any payments for FY 27. And the internal service fund, that is going to be the health insurance and then severance. Um so there's a $797 thousand dollar increase. That's based on where the projections are for additional withholdings for the health insurance deductibles. Not deductibles, premiums, sorry. And then any interest earnings on the fund balances there. Um and the next one is the OPEB trust, so that's going to be tentatively right now what is estimated for the interest earnings on the OPEB trust. So overall, you will see a decrease in revenue of 4.9 million. The majority of that is all going to be within the bond related decrease in revenue that's projected right now. Uh next we'll just look at expenditures. So for the general fund, we have an increase of 3.1 million. So you'll see it is 147 million. That's mainly due with a staffing contract increases, anything else that we saw throughout um the that we've had in budget discussions. So like the 5% utility is that piece of it is built in there. That does include the 2.5 million dollar reduction, so just so wanted to call that out on that piece. Food and nutrition, we're looking at a $300,000 reduction. A couple of reasons for that. The last two years we've had deficit spending in food and nutrition. So that fund balance is decreasing and we need to start stabilizing that. We're looking at some costs and food. Savings. So looking at what we're spending, making sure that we're spending to what we need and then also We do get some I forget the word at the moment, but we get additional food through the state. We're going to try to use some more of that. The other piece of that is looking at FY28 the state aid reimbursement rate is going to decrease. So right now it's at 0.125. In FY28 it's looking at 0.0625. So about half of the reimbursement rate. So we're looking at what we can do today to make sure that our fund balance is healthy to help support what that will look like in FY28. Next we're looking at community service fund. So right now I projected a $661,000 increase. This is lower than what the updated budget I got from community service today. There are some additional expenditures that are going to come so that will be updated in the final one. Just going to quick pull out my notes so that I can tell you exactly what that is. It'll be about a million dollars more. And what that all includes within there is going to be the school readiness and preschool teachers went on the teacher contract. So there's additional costs for staffing there along with wages. I'm sorry, benefits. They are also taking on some of the rack expenses to help relieve yet some of the general fund. And then they're also adding a preschool Chinese immersion class as well. So there's some costs that are going to be added with adding that additional program in there. And then there's some business developments for grants. So overall they do have a little over probably 1.5 million in expenditures that they're going to spend in a deficit, but the fund balance is currently healthy. That's a projected to be a little over 6 million after the end of FY25. So, there are funds available to support those programming within there. So, this is the first read of the budget. So, you guys got more detail of what is all being made up in it. The budget document goes a little bit more in-depth with it. The final budget will be brought to you guys at the last board meeting in June, the 23rd, for final approval. And I'll open it up to any questions that you may have. Thank you. Any questions? Chair Anderson. >> Yes, Clerk Thompson. Uh thank you for this >> [laughter] >> Thank you for this update. Looking forward to the the final one. Um it Let's see. I I think my first question is uh around OPEB. So, the what that stands for something employee benefit trust fund? >> benefits? Other post-employee benefits. >> Other post-employee benefits. And so, that's a trust fund we have that then pays out retiree Yes. So, there it's a sunsetted program now, but there was a point where retirees, once they retired, they could stay on at the district's health insurance plan until they turn 65. With the introduction of the 403b plan, they sunsetted that. The district still has a liability on there cuz there's still teachers that qualified for it. So, as they qualify, the district has to pay for their health insurance after they retire. Eventually, that liability is going to continue to reduce and reduce until you have no teachers remaining that qualified for that. Um that is still probably 15 20 years out before you'll see it completely go away. Okay, thanks for that detail. And I had read in the supporting document that C-fac had recommended pausing our contribution into it because the balance that's in there is paying for itself right now. >> it's funded to the full liability at this point. So, instead of continuing to grow that, the thought was to keep it within the general fund and just let it be self-sustaining at this point. And so, are we going to pause the contribution or okay. So, is that amount reflected on slide five or six at all? So, you're going to it is reduction in expenditures. And it was also paused in FY26. Okay. So, what's like the total amount of saving in the general fund by pausing it? >> By pausing it, it's around 1.5 1.8 million. Substantial. Okay. Um thank you. That So, that That was my first question, and then second question, when we say on slide five reduction of approximately $500,000 in external professional audit support services, so, that was the payments to Clifton Allen Larson to prepare our documents for the audit, and that was for two audit years, right? 24 and 25. Okay. >> both completed. Uh How How much does if you're just paying an audit firm, like what is that cost? Like, "Hey, do our audit." So, just to do the audit is around 80,000 if I remember correctly. Um this is the preparation work of it. So, this is all the putting the work papers together, uh going through and making sure all the coding is correct, and that there's documentation to support the work papers and the financial draft statement that goes to auditors and then they review that piece of it. Okay, thank you. And then final question we had heard earlier that we will be asked for um new curriculum for this IM math for the middle schools. Have we in this budget baked even like a ballpark ask of that money into this? Do you know? Yes. So they >> [laughter] >> There's a lot of nodding. Yeah. In the ca- Yes, it it's built in within the capital operating capital budget. >> Yeah. Mhm. And that's part of the general fund. Okay, thank you. Any other questions? Um I had a question um two questions actually. I am wondering um if we have an idea of how this budget will is impacted by compensatory aid from the state um because it's my understanding that that is we are not being held harmless any longer and the legislature has not seen fit to do anything about compensatory aid. So we are still seeing a reduction for FY 27. So the $10 million did not go to every single district. >> Right. Um it was based on a formula that they created. So the $10 million was split out amongst different districts but not everybody saw an increase. So we are still seeing the decrease that we projected on the original. Could you give me like could you give us a dollar amount? So the district's receiving $6 million this year compared to $6.2 million last year. Okay. Or at this current year, I should say. Sorry. And then um I'm also wondering about you you said that the reimbursement rate from the state for our nutrition program is going down. Is there any um I'm just thinking okay, some advocacy needs to be done on this. Is there an explanation as to why that's happening? I have not heard all of the details of why it was hurt like why it's coming. I have just heard that it's coming, so I just wanted to make sure that you guys were aware. I can find out more and That'd be great if you could let the Yep. LAC know. Um we'd appreciate being able to show actual numbers of how it's impacting our district. Thank you. >> [snorts] >> Um I did just want to say that I appreciate this um and just being able to to look at the numbers and how they come together and all the work that that you all have put into providing this presentations are appreciated. Um I know it's strange to say and it's a strange place to be in, but I feel like 2.5 million it feels a little bit like a relief. Um even though it's odd, but um yeah, I I just am grateful for all the work that was done on this. So, thank you. And Oh, yes. Chair Andreason. >> Yes. Yeah. Um I I echo the thanks and um just recognize there's so much that goes into this and then that the impact is real for our community as well um with needing to make cuts. And one thing I wanted to highlight and come to in the budget document that we had is the section related to enrollment and program viability and just how it names there that enrollment remains a key driver of our long-term financial stability and program sustainability and CFAX recommendation that we formalize a comprehensive multi-year enrollment strategy. And so just I know that there's been ongoing conversations. I just wanted to highlight that and and um just second that is a a vital thing and anything that we can do to support that work and also um would would just look forward to hearing more about the strategies and where we're at as a district in the midst of the transition and the you know communications and other areas but um continuing to just hear how we're doing and how we think we're doing and um get feedback from our community of you know both if there's exit interviews or other or just where we're at and so just wanted to highlight that and thank CFAX for their work as well. Thank you. Chair Anderson. Yes, Director Heartland. Um thank you to continue your comments about the impact is real like $2.5 million is better but the impact is real. We talked about at the previous board meeting there was staffing resolutions and some of those were due to the cuts and some were not but we also have some unlicensed staff. Right, that's kind of mentioned in some positions being eliminated in the district staff. I know you can't like share names or specific timelines but when might those people who possibly are hearing this news and anxious about their position when will they know? Yeah, we're excellent question. Thank you. We're completing the building tie-outs um mostly through this week and as part of those building tie-outs part of what we track are any individuals because of any of the shifting funding that would be impacted and then we go through the analysis at the end of May and the beginning of June to look at any vacancies that we have because some buildings have some vacancies and through retirement or resignation opportunities that are there and in other buildings if there is an impact, we look at any vacancies, open opportunities where individuals would be able to be placed within the district. And so we start that work at the end of May, beginning of June and then look for any impacts that would be occurring. Hopefully to be completed before the end of the school year would be our target date. Okay, thank you. Um Chair Andresen, I think Dr. Lightfoot, thank you for that response and then just to um add to that, the vast majority of um any individuals who may experience a position impact for this year have already been um talked to and then these budget tie-outs building by building give us an opportunity to clarify and um as Dr. Lightfoot said, if there's an additional conversation or opportunity that an individual has, then we're having those conversations, but the vast majority of them have taken place. Well, I do appreciate that kind of perspective of like of looking internally for opportunities to try to see if we can keep the people who have dedicated themselves to our district. And so I kind of wonder if there is that opportunity for someone to work in another building or sometimes even split their time, like how does that what does that look like? Cuz I I mean, I know some of our staff split their time or some staff suddenly are looking at having a commute. Um I'm trying to think of what I'm exactly asking. Like is there building to building coordination? Are we trying to help people have like an actual doable schedule and Yeah. We look at two things. The building-to-building coordination, we also look at what I'm trying to describe as intra-building opportunities. So, for example, if someone may be losing some hours in a specific position, are there other positions that may have openings as well so that they can be treated by the district as a full-time employee. So, often times, whether in partnership with school nutrition or community education with Kids in Company, sometimes with a combination of clerical and para hours, we can get individuals through multiple opportunities to have a full-time experience in the district. So, we try to work on both when we look at the collective picture of what the impacts are. Okay, so then there's an expectation like if you're talking about they have clerical hours, they have paraprofessional hours, like there's the expectation from our district that their various supervisors in each places know about these schedules and accommodate their start times and their >> And then on our end centrally, we look at the overall hours in district so that for benefit purposes and benefit eligibility, they're treated as a full-time employee even if their assignment is between multiple bargaining units. Okay. All right, thank you. Trina Judson, that's a question. Uh thank you all so much for presenting the budget tonight. I have a question. Um with our deficit, are we on the lower side of deficits of school districts and so, two questions. One, are we on the lower side of deficit with school districts and then two, are there any districts who are facing a a lesser deficit than us that we can model our budget after? I mean, I know it's kind of hard to do that because it's school districts vary in size and students, but just wondering um if that's ever an instance where we model our budget after a district that's not facing budget deficits. I mean, I'm pretty sure that all districts are, but are we on the lower side and if that's possible? Are you saying with a $2.5 million reduction? >> Yeah, like so are there other school districts that maybe have a lower one than us where we can look at maybe like their budget to see like where how did they model their budget so they're able to keep their deficit lower? Yes, there are some that are lower, there are one that are higher um and it kind of varies on the school size, too. So, what does their enrollment look like? Are they um declining? Are they increasing? Uh it it's sometimes hard to model off another district because not every district is exactly the same. >> Yeah. Um the enrollment, the demographics, ev- each one is just a little bit different, but you can definitely take pieces of budgets of how they are operating and say can we make that work in Hopkins? Can we remodel basically what they're doing? Will it work with everything we need? So, yes, you can use bits and pieces. I don't know if you would take somebody's full budget because again, every district looks a little bit different. Yeah. Um overall from the metro, I think Hopkins is in a really good spot with only a $2.5 million reduction. Um and part of it is really that reduction is to help sustain future years so you don't continuously have those reductions. Thank you so much for that. Mhm. Chair Andresen. [clears throat] Yes. Um I can send the board a survey from AMSD with district by district budget shortfall projections for next year and that um they said that we could publish not publish, but share that so I can send that to board members. Just you you can see the comparison district to district, but as uh Ms. Olson described, these are also vastly different in terms of total enrollment. I mean, I think too, I know that you've shared at the board table, Dr. Mary Perry Reed, that um you do talk with neighboring districts about how they're handling certain types of budget constraints. Um like I know when we had um the discussion about our media um center personnel, that was something that you talked with other districts about how they provided that funding, and we came to find out that Hopkins was unique in that we had full-time staffing. Um most districts did not. So, um I think that that does happen um more on a like line item by line item basis. So, um I think that is part of the process. Chair Endresen. Yes, Director Joy. >> Yes. Uh just as a comment, um I and to answer uh Director or Vice Chair Roper, and to reference, I think uh Clerk WGJ is I think that that growth in enrollment, the ADM, is how we avoid this situation. So, you know, that that's something as we, you know, retool and somebody new is coming in, and we have opportunities, um you know, it's really retaining those people that open enroll, or, you know, that that's really the only way to grow revenue outside of grants. So, you know, that that's just unfortunately the math as as it works, and so, um I think if we want to avoid these conversations, which suck, to be honest, uh we need to grow. So, that's my take on it. Thank you. So, more of us need to do balloon animals at Main Street days. >> I I'm only one man. Exactly. [clears throat] >> [laughter] >> I'll serve ice cream next time. >> Okay, sounds good. Thank you. Um with that, I would look for a motion to approve the fiscal year 27 preliminary budget. 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 I. I. Any opposed? The chair votes I, and the fiscal year 27 preliminary budget is approved. Thank you so much for being here this evening and for all your preparation. We now >> Thank you, Jessica. Thank you, Nick. Mhm. We now go to the policies in first read. I will turn it over to Vice Chair Roper. Good evening, community. So, we are um going to be doing our policies in first read, in which we will be uh reviewing three different policies tonight, in which our first policy is district code 705.1, which is the depository of funds and investment, other [clears throat] post-employment benefits OPEB trust. And I will turn it over to Dr. Lightfoot to elaborate. Absolutely. Thank you, all. Uh 705.1, the depository of funds and investment, really came forward uh in the conversations with CFAC that were referenced earlier regarding the OPEB trust, which you will see here. Um that other post-employment benefit trust component. What was discussed at CFAC and led to the work that you see here is the relation to looking at taking advantage of being able to, through the investment vehicles we identified looking for a little greater return in the management of the return and the risk with the fund level that we were seeing and that recommendation from C fact came forward as could we look at a more risk tolerant kind of approach and in conversations with our interim CFO the work went forward in looking at other policies in other places that could be better suited and not be as conservative and give us an additional opportunity. So with that this is crafted to be specific to the OPEB trust and modified accordingly to take advantage of the opportunity that we have to maximize interest opportunity and return. Jessica anything else you'd add there? All of the investment options that were added are all within state statute so it's everything that we can do from a school district. It just opens up the investment opportunities that we can do with in the OPEB fund and it was very restricted before where we did not see the returns that we wanted to see that we could potentially see. So by opening these up and giving more investment options we should see a higher rate of return coming forward with the funds. So with that if there are any additional questions on 705.1 we'll do our best to address those. And my understanding from when we discussed this in the monitoring committee is that um it would be this change is what would allow us to have the the savings that we're seeing in the budget that Director Thompson mentioned we no longer the idea is we no longer need to contribute funds from our general fund to this because it will be self-sustaining if we're allowed to diversify our investment strategy. Correct. It will help with the return so that it continues to help fund that fund balance. >> Yeah. Thank you. Jared Dreesen? Yes. So, you made the comment that this is making it less restrictive where we can put stuff and it's still within state statute that, you know, we can put the money in these different things and then the goal is to put it in these different vehicles, we get a better rate of return. Had this previously been dictated by policy 705? It did. And so now the idea is add 705.1, talk about OPEB specifically, increase where it can go. Mhm. Are we missing out on growth opportunities for other funds that are dictated purely by 705? So, I'm going to step back. So, there was a separate OPEB investment policy compared to So, there's 705 and then there's the OPEB that's kind of a subsection of 705. So, it was very restrictive. So, you could do fixed assets or money market were the two options for investment options within OPEB prior. What this is doing is it's allowing up to 10 different investment options within the fund. Okay, so I had pulled up 705. I guess I didn't see like an OPEB specific section, but So, that's So, that's 705.1. So, it's a separate investment policy that is for OPEB. Okay, I thought 705.1 is the new policy we're talking about tonight. So, I guess I'm a little confused, but not the first time. Um Okay. Regarding reporting, monitoring, seeing how the money is doing in the fund, is it basically the same as 705 dictates for our other funds? Yes. Okay. And have we ever had trouble with that in audits previously? No. Okay. Great. All right, thank you. Those are my questions. No, the only thing I would add um is that there is a requirement um correct me if I'm wrong by October that we do have to report to the state the interest earnings that are part of that. That was a call out. Um that wasn't done in FY24. Um and that was a call out in the audit. So, we have moved forward with that and making sure that we meet that reporting deadline. Okay. Thank you. So, I did just want to Director Thompson direct you to the part in policy 705 that speaks directly to OPEB. Okay. It is in um uh section nine, investment of district funds, uh item F. And it's the assets of an other post employment benefits trust or trust account established pursuant to statute. So, that's the section um in 705 if you wanted to reference that. Yeah. All right, thanks so much. Yeah, so I can see that we're obviously beefing that section up here. >> Yes. And putting in a lot of while expanding options, putting in a lot more additional controls around it as well, which I think is great. Jared Rison. Yes. Yes. Hi Dr. Lightfoot, hi Jessica. Um so I'm I'm wondering if there was a consideration or discussion around section 7A around the trust administrator. Um And I don't and maybe this isn't a thing and and and that you can do with it, but um it was there talk about making or defining them as a fiduciary? Right, I'm just kind of thinking, you know, I don't you know, I want our retirees to get their money and not a bank per se. And so is that a is that something that we could require or is that a consideration we could put in there? In in that like, you know, the bank needs to not, you know, take advantage of us and move our money in a certain way that's good for them and not for us, right? I I think that's my whole point. I I think we did discuss this and it is the idea like there are only certain vehicles that can be invested in. Like I remember specifically asking these questions cuz I was like, "Hey, I don't want them investing in Bitcoin." Um >> [laughter] >> So to that specific question, I think that the the guidelines are within the policy itself. Um but I don't know what would be the benefit of a fiduciary as opposed to the trust administrator. Is there a difference? I haven't looked into it, so I won't have an answer right now for that. I mean I could I could see a world where, you know, mega bank A, you know, says, "Okay, you have a treasury that you're buying, we're going to float it, you know, for a week, right? And we're going to sweep that into our profits, right? And I I you know, I'm just thinking I I don't know, like you maybe if you guys consider it and tell me no, it's not really applicable, that's totally fine. Uh but I just want to make sure that we watch out for our folks first and foremost. Yeah, I do think it's Go ahead. Chair Anderson. Yes. Um just from my experience, my understanding um with respect to Director Schultz's question about fiduciaries, a trust administrator would be a fiduciary. Okay, by definition. >> Um an investment advisor would not be. So, those are two separate things. Um So, it's the law that when we say it's you're the trust administrator, that means you're a fiduciary. Yeah, if you're administrating, if if you're the administrator of a trust, you have a duty to the trust. Okay. To to the benefit of the trust. Okay. Um that's just my understanding. And so, but an investment advisor is a different is a different piece of that. >> Yeah. Those are um often different people or different businesses. So, if we were going to to do a insurance agency qualified to do business, blah blah blah blah blah, in the contract, they're going to be a fiduciary. If they're a trust if they're administering the trust. They're administering the And it they do also have to report to the Minnesota state auditor. >> Yeah. Um so, there are a lot of controls around that. >> Okay. All right, great. Thanks. >> Chair Anderson. >> Yes. Can I just ask one more question just on this same topic? Who who does administer our OPEB? A company called Cbiz. Okay. Thank you. And they've been doing it for a while, correct? Mhm. Yeah. They also do the 403b administration, too. And we just checked in with them this afternoon at 2:00. Any other questions? Great. I think we can go on to the next one. All right. Thank you. Okay. So, now we are going to be reviewing policy um Excuse me. We're going to be going to policy um 952 with community use of facility leases. And I'll go to Dr. Lightfoot. Thank you. 952 community use of facilities, the leases policy that we have, the specific information that guides the work that we do um as we have uh available space within the district. We did the review. Um there is no recommended change at the present time. We certainly would entertain questions or additional information uh requests for 952. I don't see any. Can go on to the next one. All right. Then the last one this evening is 953. 953 um is the policy that we have on the administration, supervision, and maintenance of swimming pools. Again, in the review of this, uh just a standard practice as we look at the way in which we operate through buildings and grounds, community education, and of course any educational program that we have with the use of the pool that is structured through 953. So, questions there or additional information. I I did have a question. Mhm. Um I think in section four, we need to do a little bit of wordsmithing. Oh, we do have junior >> we no longer have junior highs, um and I don't know Oh, yeah, we do reference the community center pool. So, I would just say that we we need to say middle schools. Will do. >> have a pool at North? I was going to say, where do we have pools? >> I think just West. Oh, no. We do at West. West, sorry. Eisenhower. Yeah, just at West. And North. >> No. Oh. North, West, Eisenhower. Oh, that's impressive. Okay. I did not know we were that fancy. All right. Middle schools. That would be my only edit. Mhm. Oh, no. And then it's in section five, too. Yep. We'll go through those edits. Um Okay. And that is it. Wonderful. Well, I would look for a motion to um Somehow I need to get back to my regular Okay, here we go. Too many tabs open. Uh I would look for a motion that the board approves the above policies in first read, and further the board directs the administration to prepare the policy with suggested revisions for approval in second reading at the next meeting as part of consent. So moved. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? The chair votes I and policies in first read are approved. Thank you so much. Thank you all. >> Assistant Superintendent Lightfoot. And that takes us to our board member reports. We can go around the table. It is before 10:00 p.m. I feel like we should all just have a ton of things to say. Um and I will start off with Director Hyman if you want to go first. I was not ready to go first, but I'll just Go for it. No, it's fine. Um so uh my name's Johanna Hyman. This is my first year on the board. I have two children in the district, a kindergartner and a third grader, both at Meadowbrook Elementary. Um a highlight of the past couple of weeks was seeing our first ever elementary school uh basketball tournament. Mhm. Um Mhm. uh you know, conclude on Saturday at the rack. Um Brooke was there, I was there, our our um sons played basketball against each other and this is a really unique opportunity for our school district um to grow uh the elementary school athletic programs. Um there aren't a lot of other districts that do this and so this is really an opportunity for us to um provide access to and opportunities to more students in our district that have a desire to engage in team sports um and athletics. And uh it was great to see the sportsmanship of our our littlest our littlest athletes and congratulations to the Tanglin Tigers. They they took it home. Um and uh the other thing I wanted to recognize is um so May is Jewish American Heritage Month. And um in the United States, you know, we have many heritage months that celebrate various communities um that form the mosaic of our country including Black History Month, Women's History Month um Hispanic Heritage Month and more. And by celebrating heritage months, it provides an opportunity um to learn more about the fabric of our society and the country we live in and really honor the the diversity and richness of um of our community here and in our country. And so, I just wanted to recognize that before the end of the month of May and um just hope you will join us in celebrating the many contributions of Jewish Americans and we celebrate the contributions of Jewish Americans in um the last 371 years since they have come to the United States of America. And I encourage you to learn more about the history, culture accomplishments and diversity of the American Jewish community. Thanks. Thank you. Um Clerk Wilhelm Garbers, would you like to go next? Sure, thank you. I'm Sarah Wilhelm Garbers, it's my first year on the board and I have one four-year-old who I'm a parent of who will soon in just over a year be enrolled in kindergarten in the district. Um a couple notes. I think I'll start here. Um by naming a few things that I've been able to be a part of in the last couple weeks. The one is I was so grateful I was able to visit Harley Hopkins and got to go into a bunch of classrooms, uh see parents who are gathered there for ECFE, um which is er um my goodness. So I just totally spaced. I got nervous all of a sudden. Early childhood and family education. Um and then also just all of the profound work that is being done with our youngest learners in the district. And I do want to just name how much I appreciate uh during your leadership tenure here, Dr. Mary Peery Reed, the focus that you've reminded us of that we aren't just K-12, that our education is actually E-12 and then also community ed just more broadly and what a profound gift it is to have a district that uh centers our values with our youngest learners and with families as well and getting to see the inclusion and the supports in place for kids when preschool expulsion is a nationwide problem and our district is intentional in providing supports for families and kids with all sorts of needs and uh it was just a delight and a joy. What a What a beautiful place there at Harley Hopkins. So shout out to everyone who let me visit there. And we also go to age 22. So we have transition plus for our 18- to 22-year-olds. So I have enough more things I need to learn about and visit. So thank you for that very much. Um yeah, and then was able to spend some time at the capital as uh the session uh the spring session wound down and do some advocacy with Minnesota families for public schools who are doing deep advocacy work including what treasure Heartland named related to the looming cuts to special education funding and are asking our state representatives to both repeal that and to ask for other funding. We at one point we're number one in the nation related to school funding and we're now 23rd in the nation and so we would like to see us be in the top 10. I'm rooting for number one still and so I'm grateful I got to meet with a couple of our representatives Cheryl Youakim and Patty Acomb while we were there as well. And was able to join with the first Main Street Days as facilitated and led and championed by Hopkins Education Foundation and you might hear more about you heard a reference to balloon making a shout-out to Director Zhao and his spouse Ellie for their long long loving work of making balloon friends for all of the folks who came by and to the special royal family fun zone that we got to have there Main Street Days and promote all the good things in hopefully encouraging enrollment. I did talk to 10 different families who um maybe lived in the borderlands and encouraged them they should be in Hopkins schools. Um I did not make it to prom. I'm very sorry about that and I'm really sad about it. Um I'd forgotten I was supposed to have a date with my spouse that night. Um so that didn't happen and then was able to participate in the just celebration of Dr. Mary Perry Reed your service here which happened just earlier today um and just thank you for your tenure your love and care for this community and the leadership that brought my family to this district actually. And the last thing I just want to name is you know thank you for Director Hyman for what you named about just the rich diversity in particular of our uh Jewish-American community and and you know, this is a month where there are other diverse communities that we get to celebrate including and this was noted in a recent email through with one of our district leaders Asian-American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Haitian Heritage Month particular month I like to champion of the mental health awareness month and just how beautiful it is to be able to say hey um human dignity and the support and care and love for one another there's this isn't pie there's not limited resources how do we be people who celebrate the rich diversity that makes us as a district beautiful and strong and to that end then I just want to name two final comments which is to the community members who came and commented here at the board tonight to name that racism has no place in our district and hate speech against any community is not welcome our value is grounded in love and as Cornell West says love justice is what love looks like in public and I think that's an ongoing value and and especially in view of the shooting at the Islamic Center in San Diego just want to repudiate any of the actions of any ism or Islamophobia or anything that would seek to harm or to erase the dignity and beauty of every single human and um we just remain deeply committed to doing the work and so I'm honored to be here in the district doing the work with all of you thank you Thank you Hello I'm Ky Thompson I am in my third year on the board I have three kids in the district from fifth grade to tenth grade um couple quick things for an update. I got word that Hopkins 10 and under baseball team beat Wayzata tonight. So, my kid is on that with former vice chair Ross's kid. So, Um, >> That's great. >> Yeah, so that's a fun thing. They had been nine and under last year, they're 10 and under this year. Um, last week I went to the National Honor Society induction ceremony at the Little Theater in the high school. Um, I think it was the first year 10th graders are invited to that. Co-principal Ward from the high school made some keynote comments. It was very nice. Ceremony just really inspired by you know, the core principles of that organization, character, scholarship. Um, that was really impressive, but then maybe the highlight of the night, got to walk across the hall to the big theater for the choir concert where Cheri Andresen's son was one of the absolute stars of the evening. Um, just that concert just blew me away. And I think one of the graduating seniors, and I loved how they made space for them throughout the performance, had said that that choir director has been there four years and has grown the program from like 20-ish kids to over 150. I mean, it was like that's impressive, but the whole night was amazing. I saw a mom at a baseball field this weekend and I was I knew she had been there. I was like, "Wasn't that show great?" She was like, "I cried three times." And I was like, "Yeah, it was so moving." So, was very impressed by that and that'll conclude my report this evening. Good evening. I am Rachel Heartland, currently serving as the treasurer. This is my fifth year on the board. I have three students in our lovely district, including one who's winding down their time at North Middle School. So, I'm about to have two high schoolers, which seems sort of zany to me. Um, cuz I've been sitting here for a long time saying what schools my kids are at and and uh now I'm going to have two thirds of them in high school. And I just told someone today, like, do you know that I'm on the board and that means when my kid graduates, I could give them their diploma. And so I'm very much looking forward to that time, but we're not there yet. Uh we are prepping for graduation a little bit on the board and a ton on the admin level. And so we're excited about that. Um I was thinking back over the last couple of weeks and it feels like I had a lot more things that I did than I actually did, but because the thing that I did was go with 75 eighth graders to an overnight trip that was at first the University of Minnesota where the director of bands at the U of M is a Hopkins parent and resident. It's um Dr. Betsy McCann who led our students in this amazing opportunity to play at the U of M and talked to them about their music, their musical future, and all of the scholarships that are available to them even if they are not music majors. Um and she encouraged them to stay. She listened to them play and gave them all kinds of tips. And then she got to let them run through the like run through the tunnel and go out onto uh the field at Huntington Bank Stadium. I think that's what it's called. I don't know. Um but so many of the kids were very excited about that. We went from there to Mall of America to lunch and shop, then from there to Great Wolf Lodge where they attended a water park and then uh they asked for permission to extend their curfew to attend the bubble nighttime dance party, which was I think supposed to be for like 7-year-olds, but the 14-year-olds were awesome and very funny there. Then they stayed all night. I had the 1:00 a.m. patrol shift. >> Oh, fun. Then we got up at 7:00 to go to Valleyfair all day long and then leave at 5:00. So I'm so tired and um >> [laughter] >> um I also went to the jazz band uh that's my my final kids at 8th grade. Yeah, their middle school jazz band concert and so that was lovely and they invited the West Wind uh jazz band to play with the kids. So that was a cool opportunity. I don't know. I think that's enough. That was enough uh time in the school but um I am very grateful to all of our music instructors but especially right now sitting here thinking about all of the things that um Miss Kelly Heckman has done for the middle school band program and how many hours she did between concerts last week the putting the trip together, coordinating all of the students and the parent volunteers to chaperone and then uh she has more concerts coming up this week. So pretty grateful for that. She's very devoted. Hello everyone. My name is Shannon Indrehusen. Uh this is my seventh year on the school board and um I have a senior at the high school. So my two weeks has been filled with lots of lasts. Um so uh there were conferences at the high school which will be my last parent-teacher conferences which um and then an exciting presentation um from uh what that the Royal Productions puts on was the Crown Awards and at that place they announce um which of their productions throughout the year are going to be part of the Hennepin Arts uh Spotlight Showcase and the most recent production that was put on by Royal Productions here in town is going to they made the Spotlight. So they will be performing with high school theater programs across the state on June 8th. So we are very honored to be a part of that. There were a lot of performers in that production that got outstanding which is the highest ranking that you can get from the Spotlight Showcase. So the the entire cast has gone back into rehearsals when they thought they were done. But that's kind of nice because I think a lot of those seniors weren't ready to be done. I also got to attend before the choir concert that director Thompson mentioned. I got to attend the two intermediate District 287 retirement where there were a number of amazing people that have served very long time at that district and they are now retiring and moving on to other things. The Gatewood family fun night was Was it Friday? And I got to volunteer at that which was so much fun. We had so many of our kiddos that have moved on to middle school and even some that are now in high school come back to Gatewood to have fun with other families that and the weather was perfect. It was a beautiful evening. And of course there was prom which was really nice and beautiful. Lots of people having fun there. Um and got to go to Main Street Days where our our What do we call him? Our hired new superintendent uh um Incoming. To be. Superintendent. Yes, the the the future superintendent was also there getting to know our community a little bit more. It was wonderful being able to take him around and introduce him to um in particular our our wonderful HEF board and volunteers and Emily Wallace Jackson who's the ED there so that um he can see firsthand the way this community shows up for Hopkins schools. It's I think really unique and a powerful thing about about Hopkins. And um I was thrilled to be part of Dr. Mary Pirie Reed's celebration today. It was lovely to see all the people that showed up um and I just wanted to give a shout out. Um the the board uh purchased a royal blue heart uh crystal heart for um Dr. Mary Pirie Reed and one of our students, I wanted to name him from the board table, Phineas Wolford um did the etching and engraving on it and um Director Zhao connected um us to to the students through Cara um at the high school and I think it turned out beautifully and um he did an amazing job and just really grateful for the care that he took and the expertise that he showed in um producing that gift for us. So once again thank you for everything you've done. Truly this is the district it is today because of you and all the love and care you gave our families. Well, thank you and I still have two board meetings so maybe at the last one I'll say more but thank you very much. The the celebration this evening was um very very very special and my heart was full which I shared with our audience at that time. So, thank you. And the choir also got the Royal Blues got to perform. So, they did a lot of their songs from the concert which was nice. Hi, it's Sheryl Brophy. Um hello everyone. My name is Brooke Roper. I am serving my third year on the board. I have two incredible children who I'm sure is watching still um tonight. So, hi Brooklyn and CJ. I told them I'll say hi to them all the time. Um and uh first I mean I don't even know what to say. Like tonight I was so surprised um by school board partners coming and presenting that not the national nomination um and providing these flowers. Like I was just blown away. So, um I'm kind of like speechless tonight. Um but very grateful. Um I was up there national fellow and just learned so much from the organization. Ethan is an incredible credible leader. Um and if you all have not heard of school board partners, I really encourage you to um engage in their um in their work because they really do um teach school board members a lot. But they also have a conference coming up in um Atlanta that you all should consider >> to go to. Yes. Um so, thank you so much to all the partners at school board partners for the surprise tonight. I'm I'm really speechless, but I'm also very grateful. My heart is super full. Um also I will say uh this weekend was very busy. First and foremost, happy belated Mother's Day to all the mothers on the board. Um and this weekend was super full for me as well. Again, I did go to the championship game with between all the um elementary schools which was so cool to see the boys I mean all the kids were balling. Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm so used to saying boys cuz my son just like every weekend I'm at a basketball game, but the all the kids were balling. Um they gave their best and so congratulations to all of them. They did an incredible job. Um and then uh right after that like I went to there and then right after that I went to the Children's Defense Fund um training that was here uh for Freedom School, which is going to be happening which it happens all over um the city, but we do host Freedom School here um in Hopkins. So thank you Paris so much for your hard work that you are doing to bring Freedom School and to expand the program. Um so I was able to connect with some of the um Freedom School leaders and a lot of the Freedom School staff. Uh Dr. Mary Perry Reed was there and you know, we had some folks from the community come and just talk about um you know, like their involvement in Freedom School. It's such an incredible and integral program, especially for African-American kids um who uh are learning a lot of literacy literacy and um academic skills needs programs. And also they just famously for like their Harambee and their songs and just the way that they um their their cultural curriculum is just so enriching for our students. And so they do have read-aloud guests. Um I really encourage all of you to become one. I've done it two three years in a row, two years in a row. Um so the sign-up will should be coming out soon. So please get involved in it. Um I will also say that right after that I did go to Main Street Days, which was so fun. I got a chance to take a picture with the raspberry and the lion at the same time. At the same time they were walking around and um it was just such an incredible event. The weather was perfect on Saturday for that and so that have did an incredible job hosting that event. I also seen Shannon and our early um um our early childhood team and it was just really fun to be in community that day. Um And then also um as we're We're about um as we are speaking about uh policy uh clerk W G. I also I forgot to mention like last month. I was able to testify with the Minnesota Youth Council on the ban of the selling of to ban the selling of flavored nicotine products to youth. And so it was an incredible experience to just listen to the work that they're doing around that just because we all know that they are selling watermelon and blueberry and all these different flavors to attract our youth and so being able to talk to you know folks our legislator about that was really powerful. So thank you to all the members of the board who are just doing policy work outside of the board. It's really important. And um I also went to Dr. Mary Perry Reed's farewell party today and I always tell her how much of an incredible leader I believe that she is and she has done so much to move our district forward. Um so thank you so much. Um And then I do want to just take a note to the parents who did come tonight to talk about what happened. Um I am still processing that especially because this is um you know the month where George Floyd was murdered um in front of our nation and so to make um comments like that is especially during a time that's so sensitive. It's very inappropriate and so um I don't have the words. I just have the action like Audrey Lorde says the revolution is not a one-time event. So hopefully we are able to um address that accordingly. Um and just thank you to the parents who showed up tonight. Um And I think that's all that I have for right now. Um Thank you everyone for all the work that you're doing. So Hi everybody. This is Jiming Gao. This is my third year in on the school board. I've got two kids in the Xing Xing program in fifth grade and second grade. And um I think we talked a lot about other board members talked about Main Street Days. So, you know, I think, you know, it was definitely a very good um uh community event. And I really think that is something that we need to lean into as a district. We are unique in that um well, somewhat unique in that there's a very uh you know, concentrated downtown in Hopkins. And so, you know, if we can lean into that and build community even with our folks that are outside of the Hopkins area. So, I'm thinking Minnetonka, Golden Valley. I think there's a little bit of Edina, some of Plymouth. And so, you know, how do we, you know, build that community? And I think that is one thing that really draws people to our district. And so, it's just a thought that, you know, how do we do that? And um one of the ways is balloon animals as people kept referring to. I went through three and a half packs of 100 count balloons. Um so, uh my hands are tired, but it's something that I like to do. And actually um And bubbles. >> And oh, >> Well, yeah, that's >> There was bubbles. That's a side That's a side business. But, but why I do it actually is interesting. I do it to attract a crowd of kids. I feel like the Pied Piper. But, while the kids kids are there waiting in line, um Ellie goes up and down and plugs Shing Shang and Hopkins the district. So, the parents are stuck there. >> [laughter] >> They're captive audience. And then so, she chats with them. And so, that's like the method method behind the madness. So, you know, I try to do things with for a reason. And And that's one of them. So, uh So, anyways, one other thing that I wanted to mention is I did get a chance to go to the high school learning fair on Thursday. And um, I was invited as was the board and you know, so there was a lot of different exhibits that kind of run the gamut as you'd expect and I just wanted to highlight a few of them. Um, I I I chatted with some of our science teachers who talked a little bit about our MCA scores and some I think very innovative strategies that we can kind of nudge our kids to express their skill, right? So, you know, his their perspective wasn't necessarily that our kids aren't learning or that the you know, that you know, skills are missing in a lot of ways. It's that there are certain incentives that don't exist to encourage the kids who have learned the most to express their skill in a certain way. And so, they had a lot of ideas on that and um, you know, I just thought I wanted to highlight that that you know, some of the teachers are thinking about it and I really want to just encourage them to bring those forward to administrators. Um, especially as you know, new folks are coming in, we have an opportunity I think to to really you know, put our foot on the accelerator. Um, I also you know, me, I love math and so I cornered the math one of the math teachers and I talked with them about our stats and calculus. And so, you know, I've I've kind of talked about it in the past, but you know, my my vision or what I really want from the district's math program is to have I'm going to use quotes, the average student to be able to take AP calc and AP stats during their time here at Hopkins. And so, you know, I've I've been told that that's an aggressive goal, but I think I I think it's a it's a worthy one and it's something that we can achieve, right? You don't you know, I think you do not need to be a genius to achieve those in um high school. And so, um anyways, I I I had a chat with uh the the math teacher, and uh he's he told me that we had three sections of calculus and four sections of stats. And uh you know, I thought and we were just chatting like, "Hey, you know, how does the pipeline look?" And um you know, so a lot of the conversations we had with I am math and things like that. I'm very interested hyper interested in that. And so, you know, overall, uh it was a good conversation. I think it's it's a healthy pipeline. It can always get better. Um but uh I did want to leave that tidbit for my fellow board members and community as well. And then finally, uh I did chat with um the uh the the uh Chinese immersion program um and bringing um some of the uh kind of like classical Chinese poetry uh into our uh curriculum and into the world languages. And uh I I had a little flashback to when I was uh young. Uh you know, it was the same poems that I um memorized with encouragement from my father. >> [laughter] >> Um and so, you know, but uh you know, that's just kind of just saying like I I really appreciated that, you know, it's kind of it's the real deal. Um you know, you you will get an education in with Chinese immersion and I think Spanish as well that really is world class and leading. And so, um you know, I had a I had to run to another training, so I couldn't, you know, see all the booths. And so, I I I regretted that, but I think for next year, I think my board colleagues, I think it'll be really good if people showed up um and you know, because there's a ton of effort that our teachers do. Um I really appreciate their work. It's teacher appreciation month, but that means not just, you know, a platitude, but it's really like, "Let's listen and let's figure out what they're what they're talking to about, what they're you know, what they care about." And uh you know, that can be a data point for us. So. Yeah. Thanks. >> [clears throat] >> I went to that last year. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it was great. >> great. I um and I do want to say I was at Main Street Days for most of the time and I think I only saw two children without balloon animals, so well done. >> [laughter] >> And they were probably on their way there. Yeah. Yeah. Um so with that I would look for a motion for us to adjourn. So moved. I have a motion, is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second, any discussions? Seeing none, all those in favor please say I. I. I. Any opposed? The chair votes I and we are adjourned at 10:03 p.m. Thank you everybody. >> something unique to