001Welcome, everybody, to the May 5th, 2026 Hopkins workshop meeting this evening. We are waiting on a few people to join us here tonight, running a little late. I know Treasurer Heartland is joining us online because she... will be joining us later after the school board meeting starts, but she wanted to be sure that she was here in particular for our first agenda item this evening, which is an update on our budget. So thank you for being here with us this evening, and I will turn it over to Dr. Mary Puri-Reed. Yeah. Well, thank you chair and recent and good evening to everyone We are going to start our workshop with an update to the fiscal year 27 budget and so that's the budget for school year 26-27 and I think what we're going to do
002is start with our interim CFO Jessica Olsen in partnership with Dr. Lightfoot our assistant superintendent and then my cabinet team will be in the space to be available if there are specific questions around some of the decisions and staffing that we are navigating currently. for our community to know we do have a pretty big task of aligning a very tight 150 million dollar budget to what matters most for Hopkins Public Schools, which is student achievement, financial stability, and making some thoughtful decisions that can hold up over time. And if you're tuning in for the first time, a couple of other components to be aware of is that we are in a larger landscape of reduced resources for public school districts here in the metropolitan area to the tune of a collective almost 250 million dollar
003shortfall for school budgets moving into next year costs right rising faster than revenue and We do have to make some adjustments so for this year moving into next year We're looking at about two and a half million dollars in reductions and efficiencies which We feel after quite a bit of work and consternation that that was a far more ideal outcome than what we were fearing. And then for next year, what you'll hear a lot about is our very intentional decision to invest in class size to make sure that... School staffing are available to deliver and support effective tier one instruction that includes strong literacy and math teaching within restorative classroom cultures and to do this we did work intentionally to absorb reductions at the district office level with our district offices experiencing a 10% reduction
004moving into next year with departments such as innovation design and learning needing to dig a little bit deeper and so it's important for our community to know that we are intentionally working to support and preserve smaller class sizes and then identify creatively what we can do here at the district office to be more efficient and work with less while not stripping away our district staff because we have to support the infrastructure to support schools. So with that, I'm gonna turn it over to Ms. Olson and Dr. Lightfoot and we appreciate your time this evening. Thank you. Thank you for having us here tonight and we'll go through the FY 27 budget work that's been going on So the first part I would just want to talk through is the timeline and what work has been
005going on over the last couple months So we've gone through the enrollment projections subliminary Revenue and expenditure assumptions and align the strategic priorities what the district really wanted to focus on for this coming budget We've been in the development phase, which is in developing the initial budget scenarios, reviewing department and program budgets, and identifying one-time or ongoing expenditure cuts. And then also, as we've been working through that, we've also been working through the FY25 audit to get those fund balances, which we are getting close to having. We're in the middle of the audit with KDV, so once we have those, we'll update those projections for 27 as well. Right now we're working off of assumptions, so just keep that in mind as we go through stuff. The next phase will be the review and recommend.
006So tonight we're bringing you a high-level preliminary review of the budget. At the next board meeting, we will have a preliminary budget document, which has more of the detail and where everything is going to land. I'm with the final budget presentation going to the board in June. The main focus around the budget priorities are to protect the classroom instruction, so investing in our classrooms, making sure that we're following with the MOU, and just making sure that the students have the instructional support that they need. And then aligning resources to enrollment, supporting student success, maintaining structural balance, preserving the fund balance stability, maximizing operational efficiency, and then ensuring transparency and communication. So the district's been using the LRs projection model to develop the FY27 budget. It'll go through where the actuals came in at and then
007also where the preliminary budget is coming in for 24-25, our revised budget for 25-26, and then the projections. So as you can see for the preliminary audit for 24-25, I apologize, our revenues are... coming in at around 150 million expenditures 146 right now we're showing that there is a surplus of 4.5 million again these are projections for 25 as the audit's being finalized that will be refined more the revised budget that was approved at the last board meeting was 145 million in revenue and 144 million in expenditures with a surplus of 1.5 million And then looking at the projection for FY27, this is basically on the model and where we believe expenditures are increasing for FY27. Our revenue projections are $149 million, and the expenditures are $149 million with a surplus of $563,000. I apologize.
008And then looking at our projections for 28, 29, and 30, that's really where we want to focus on and why we came to the decision to look at reductions for FY27. In FY28, the projection is to have a deficit of $1.6 million. In FY29, the deficit grows to $3.5 million, and then in FY30, it grows to $6.6 million. What that does really to the fund balance, if you look at the bottom section for the percentage for FY27, we're around an 11% fund balance. Projecting out to FY30, it drops down to a 1% fund balance. fund balance policy is a 6%. So what we're looking at through the reductions for FY27 is to build that stability, and you'll see that on the next slide. So on the next slide, with the $2.5 million in reductions, if
009you guys look at the column with the projected FY26-27 budget, our revenues will be continued at the $149 million. The expenditures will be $146 million, and then the surplus will be $3 million. Looking out at the next three years, so again we're projecting the surplus for fy 28 of 839 and then it starts going into the deficit in fy 29 of almost a million and then fy 34 million so it reduces that deficit coming in future years the big thing that i want to point out is the fund balance so yes it grows in fy 27 to 13.2 percent but looking at fy 30 it's maintaining above that six percent at a seven percent fund balance so it allows for the district to have some flexibility as we know that there's changes in funding so
010looking at what the legislative are looking at for special ed with a reduction of 250 million compensatory aid that's changing and then also looking at expenditures that are increasing at a higher rate than where our revenue is on the side i just wanted to break down how the general fund of revenue is broken out and this does not include ltfm or operating capital this is really the main part of the operating part of the general fund. So your basic revenue allowance, so that's your state aid levies, makes up 36% of the budget. I'm sorry, that's just state aid. State aid and levies is 5.1%. General ed. Aid is 6.8, and then local option operating referendum make up 15. Restricted, so that's 17.6. Federal grants is 1.1, and then special education makes up 13.9% of the
011revenue. So how we've built the budget this year is around the predictable staffing model. It's been driven by enrollment and then guided by the contract for MOU for class size targets. The key components are class size targets, so staffing allocations driven by grade upon student to teacher ratios, enrollment based staffing, so annual staffing adjustment based on the projection and then actual enrollments. And then also the grade level, so looking at the variations between elementary, secondary, and specialized programs. So just a little bit of how it works is it's projecting the enrollment by grade and by site, applying the class sizes based on the MOU, and then determining the correct staffing levels. And then it's implementing the changes through hiring, attrition, and reassignment. The benefits of this is it's predictable. It's a clear expectation for staffing
012year over year based on enrollment and where the MOU is coming in at. It's transparent, so it's data-driven decisions aligned with the contracts. And then it's a financial alignment. So it's a connection between enrollment and staffing costs. So as our enrollment goes up, staffing cost goes up. Same as the other way. If enrollment goes down, your staffing costs should follow along with that. And it's student focused. So it maintains the appropriate class size based on the grade level and what they're teaching. Considerations, so there's specialized services, special education, English learner, and more, so we want to make sure there's flexibility outside of that, so there are some, a little bit change, or differentiates between that and the classroom size. And then ongoing review of enrollment and where things are at ensures educational needs and financial
013capacity is being made. So the overall budget reduction overview, so it's approximately $2.5 million in reductions. The reductions are primarily focused around the central office to preserve classroom instruction and student-facing services. So looking at the central office and administration, 45% of the reductions are coming from that. That makes up the business office, communications, HR, professional services, and IDL. 37% of the reductions is going to be operations, buildings, and grounds. We'll have 6% in technology of non-instructional, so this does not include anything around CPL. This is really around the maintenance side of it. Staffing adjustments, the elimination of the enrollment contingency expense, and then also targeted services reducing that. I'm sorry, staffing. And then the rest are other support areas around 5%. So between that, that will all make up the $2.5 million. As you can
014see, there's nothing really around classrooms in there because that's been the focus of making sure that we're staffing and that we have the support for the students when they come to school every day. So with that, I will open it up to questions that you guys may have. Natalia, do we have Treasurer Hartland on? Okay, good. I just wanted to make sure that she was able to join the discussion. Hello, Treasurer Hartland. Any comments or questions from my board colleagues? Chair Andreessen. Yes, Director Zhao. Hi, Jessica. Quick question around the 28-plus projection. Does that include any growth in... kind of our represented cost salary things such as teacher salaries is it like a three percent two percent any any increase so for fy 27 which um projection yeah so referencing we've locked in i think
01526 27 and 27 28 but further than that are we does your model include any growth in salaries yes it does include growth of four percent four percent okay and that includes benefits as well So just so I can understand what we're referencing. So there's two slides of projections. Does that apply to both of them or? Both of them have the same growth in there. Okay. Thank you. The difference between the two is the second one has the reduction of the 2.5 million in there. Otherwise, all the other projections are the same. Thank you. And a follow-up, revenue growth is 2%-ish? It's 2.5 is what we have in there. Okay, thank you. Chair Andreessen? Yeah. So the approximately 2.5 million in reductions on slide nine, so that is all the 2.5 we're getting there completely
016with. staffing adjustments. So we're tapped out on P cards and printing and other stuff that we've trimmed in previous years. Am I getting that correct? So the majority of the reductions are between staffing and then also reductions in like professional services or an example is communications. They found programs that they don't have to continue. So if it's a... It's a communication tool that they use that they're no longer going to use. So there's a cost savings there. So we've looked at stuff like that. So it's not just impacting people, but also other areas. If you don't mind, can I follow up on that, Director Thompson? I'm wondering then, will we at some point get an idea of what those are? Yep, so that comes at the next budget book that will come where it will
017have all the details of where the reductions are coming from and then also where everything is landing at for each building site as well. Thank you. Yeah, we have a specific list that includes positions and stuff, materials, and we can provide that list at the next update. Thank you. Appreciate that. Yes. Yes. Hi. Sorry. One last thing. Have we come to a conclusion on the OPEB? Is it sustainable and are we going to? Yes. So right now we have removed the OPEB set aside from FY26, FY27 and going forward. Can it be reestablished? Absolutely. But the fund itself is self-sustaining at this point. We're also revising the policy around investments to make that more. flexible with what the district can do. It's a very conservative investment policy for OPEB right now, so we are looking
018at redoing that. So that will be going to the policy committee for review. We'll be there on Thursday. And we need 2.5 on top of that, right? Correct. Thank you. Chair Andreessen? Yes. Hi. Would you guys, for the benefit of the board and the community, be willing to talk just a bit about how you... are working towards this list of cuts. Will you talk about the process by which you, I know we covered it briefly before, but the process by which you consult with your building leaders and how you make these decisions? I can start. Thank you, Treasurer Hartland. So as the board knows, but maybe for community members tuning in for the first or second time, we do start with many meetings with our Citizens Financial Advisory Committee, CFAC, and they help us identify
019budgeting parameters for the board's approval. And then after... That discussion and decision at the board table. We've been meeting during the time We've been meeting every other Thursday with all of our principals and district department leaders to start identifying where we might make reductions not only at the district office but if we have to impact schools then what what are some of those ideas and once we have the CFAC team present to the board then we start making decisions with principals and department leaders and we literally look at program by program, department by department to start theorizing, okay, where are we going to make reductions and efficiencies, what's possible, what's untenable, and it just is, you know, sort of starts with a... A LONGER LIST OF ITEMS AND WE COMPARE THAT LIST TO OUR INSTRUCTIONAL
020AND OPERATIONAL PRIORITIES MOVING INTO NEXT YEAR. WE LOOKED AT THE CLASS SIZE LEVELS THAT ARE ARTICULATED IN OUR TEACHER UNION, KNOWING THAT WE HAD A PRIORITY TO FUND THOSE AT WHAT OUR TEACHER UNION SAID WAS REALLY IMPORTANT FOR QUALITY CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION AND restorative-based classroom management. And so there have been many meetings with principals and department leaders to then whittle that list down to a smaller list of reductions and efficiencies that seem best for our system as aligned with our priorities. And also, you know, thinking about what we want to preserve over time. And I think one thing that our community has asked is how much we're spending on district admin. So I think it is important for our community to know, Jessica, that for FY25, we're sitting at about 3.1%. Is that correct? Yes. Which
021is... in line with neighboring districts if not slightly below and so we're I appreciate the the coding confirmations that we're coding accurately and of course over time we have we have reduced or eliminated a few administrative positions along the way administrator positions I appreciate that coding as well. I know that I've heard it spoken of in multiple spaces at the board table, at CFAC, just to make sure that we are reporting those correctly to... the Minnesota Department of Education because then that reflects on their data if someone were to look at Hopkins Public Schools to see how much we are spending and I am really grateful to the the work of all the financial partners that we've had to get that updated and so I'm hearing you say that this budget is the collective work
022of dozens of people I mean we've got to be at hundreds of hours including some of our like very financially like financial experts in our community. So even outside of the school district. So I appreciate that context and think that it's an important thing to note. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? I was hoping that you could speak a little bit. Dr. Mary Puri-Reed to how this is being communicated to our staff. I know that there have been really thoughtful. ways in which we are intentionally sharing it out and using the predictable staffing model, I think that has allowed for our site leaders to be, I think, more proactive in their conversations. But if you could give me a sense of how that's... being rolled out across the district. Sure, so there have been
023at least two district-wide communications about our budget and We also work with our principals to identify what details of the budget and staffing including the predictable staffing model and allocations what of those details will be communicated to staff in a way that it's consistently done across schools so we have those conversations on our Thursday mornings internally because what we what we don't want is that communications are inconsistent across schools or not timed in a way where staff are receiving information at the same time. So we do talk about details and timing and then we, if needed, we work with our principals on talking points so that staff are receiving a consistent message and if... there are specific positions that are being slightly to moderately impacted, then we also... have some shared commitments around when principals
024will have sit-down conversations with staff so that staff across our system are having those conversations at the same time. So there is a pretty specific process that we do follow knowing that any job lost is... important for our system to be aware of and to really treat that conversation with the sensitivity and dignity that it deserves. And so we're careful with... the timing and in previous years we've even role played how to have a difficult conversation so that staff feel that they are valued through the process. So I guess in a nutshell, we do pay significant attention to consistency of messaging and timing. Thank you. I think it's also important for people to know that while it is the work of the school board to approve a budget, we in Hopkins practice that staff learns
025about any things that will be impacting them before we do, as is, I think, appropriate. I don't think anyone wants to hear about their job situation in a public meeting. I'm very grateful for that, but also just so that our community is aware that we are not the first to know as we should not be. So wanted to make that clear. And also that later on this evening, we will be. voting on on staffing resolutions. So this is I think a particularly timely conversation to be having ahead of that job that you have to do that every school board does this time of year. It is not it is not a fun time to be on the school board. And I want to express my gratitude again. I think Treasurer Hartland did as well for
026the information that we're getting, the way in which there have been adjustments to the numbers that we're seeing and how it's being coded so that we can get a real accurate and clear sense of where the dollars are going in our district. I think I'm appreciating that. I know that we were feeling the impacts of reduced administrative people, skill, simple time. And I remember just being confused as to why the number was so high and yet feeling that very real tension. So it's nice to know that I think things are more in alignment now, which is helpful. I don't think I have any other questions. Anyone else? When can we expect to have you back here giving us another update? Next board meeting. Great. Good. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you both. Thank
027you. And then that takes us to our next agenda item, which is the family engagement plan. I will turn it over to Dr. Mary Peary-Reed and invite Dr. Ertl up to the table. Okay. Thank you, Chair Andreessen. Natalia, do you have access to this slide deck? Ann, are you plugging in? Okay. Thank you. Would you like me to give a little context on this? Would you like to? As the board may remember, we did in August of gosh last year pass a resolution around paid family engagement leave and one of the the directives to our district was to create a family engagement plan and so this is the result of that work thank you Okay, well thank you for that framing and thanks to my colleagues Ann Ertle and Toya Stewart Downey for joining in
028this conversation. So as our chair stated in August, the school board passed a resolution supporting family engagement really and I wanted to call your attention to one particular excerpt from that resolution on the bottom of the screen that the board directs the district administration to establish a family engagement plan that establishes family partnership goals at the district and site levels. And so with that. It's important for all of us to know that there's a lot of research that talks about the role that strong and intentional family engagement plays in student outcomes. So when parents and caregivers are on the same page with school adults. and when families have strong connections to schools, then together we can improve attendance and engagement, achievement, and test score outcomes for our students. So it's really important work for us
029to think about all of the ways that our families can be intentionally involved. And so our district-wide commitment is to have a layered plan that includes board-hosted engagement, district-hosted engagement, school-hosted, and there's often... classroom hosted engagement opportunities as well. I wanted the board to know that when you passed this paid family engagement leave resolution, then we worked with our school leaders to put together a school-based family engagement plan for each school. And so in reviewing those plans, and I want to thank Dr. Kempfie for her partnership on that. You can see an example goal and tactic on the slide there. So all of our schools family engagement plans have at least one goal and a tactic and those plans include how and how frequently they will structure parent-teacher conferences, culturally responsive engagements, opportunities to showcase
030student work and performance, curriculum nights, Title I meetings, and more. And so I appreciate all of our school leaders for putting together those plans. And here's just an example. So one of the things that I did... Well a number of years ago when I first started my role is I signed myself up to receive all of the school-wide Emails in each of our schools right and of course all of the principals newsletters so that I could know What staff were talking about with all of their colleagues within their schools, and so I could know what we're promoting with families. So for example, if I see events that West is promoting with parents but I don't see it in the North newsletter or vice versa, then I'm constantly linking those two schools together. So really what
031we're striving for is a richness in the types and qualities of events that are and engagements that are offered for our families and consistency. And so this is just an example of a promotion in the early childhood newsletter that director Chauvin sent to her staff and families promoting a spring social in just a couple of weeks and promoting a fall festival, I think, September. So what is it? May? And she's already promoting the fall festival. So proactive family engagement plans are also very helpful, right? And look at that cutie. Okay, so then, of course... We want to ensure that we are thoughtful and strategic in our district family engagement plan and also in our school plans. And so we're thinking about access. So how do we think differently and creatively and innovatively and in a
032culturally responsive way about how all of our families can have access to meaningful engagement? And I already mentioned the importance of consistency. And then I hopefully have said cultural responsiveness a couple of times because that is very important in Hopkins. We serve families from more than 70 heritage languages, all kinds of cultures and walks of life and religious diversity. And we need to make sure that our engagement opportunities. invite every single family to feel as though they too belong in Hopkins and we are here for them. So I think this slide, the purpose of this slide is to show you that we're trying to orient ourselves toward a specific vision of family engagement here in Hopkins, but also be definitive when we are letting our principals know, hey, this is what you need to include
033in our plan, and we want to move from not just like school events, but to meaningful relationships. We want to have some intentions around not just high quality communication. but communication that invites collaboration, communication that is reciprocal, not just we tell you stuff and you do it or don't do it, right? Families have clearly been asking for that. In fact, in the PTO gatherings that Dr. Ertl and I have been participating in, families are talking a lot about mutual and reciprocal. communication, which is conversation versus attending an event to receive information. And there's a big difference. And then of course, the importance of shared responsibility. Okay. So Dr. Ertl, are you taking over here or am I going still? I think it's you, but I can help. Oh, is it me? Yeah. Okay. So in...
034Working with Dr. Camphy, who worked with our principals, we did set benchmarks for what we want every school to deliver. So we want our schools to be thinking about cadence and frequency. So how frequently are you offering your parent-teacher conferences, your culturally responsive family engagement opportunities, opportunities for students to showcase their work? and we have set a district-wide standard of weekly newsletter communication from each school principal to their families, and so that is monitored very tightly. So Director Toya will work with the communications and marketing team. to make sure that all the newsletters have the consistency. And I think maybe when it's your turn, you can talk about how you're helping our schools think about where and how to position that content so that the most important things are read first, which requires a little
035bit more time than just kind of plopping in the content anywhere it goes. And then we've asked our principals to think about how we are reaching families who may have barriers to engagement or have been historically absent in our traditional engagement opportunities. So how do we think differently about where to engage our families and how to engage? So it doesn't always have to be at the school. It doesn't always have to be in person. And we have to just think differently about that. And then the last bullet I think I've mentioned at the table before, but our elementary families now, just like adults who are thinking about having children. They are like thinking about having the children or having the child as they're researching where to send the child in five years to kindergarten, right?
036So similarly, our parents of elementary-aged students are thinking... in a far more advanced fashion about what middle school offers and they also want to have a vision for what our high school offers. So we just have to be strategic and proactive about providing opportunities for young families to really get to know what that K-12 matriculation will look like and what our secondary schools offer once their kids get there i think the only thing that i would add on to what dr mary pierre just shared specifically regarding the weekly family communication As we're meeting with the PTO as we hear over and over again that actually that's the district communication that resonates most with with our families and so one of the things that my team and other departments I think at the district office work
037with toys team on is if there are certain district-wide messages that we want to really make sure families are receiving that we there's a mechanism that we can get it in that principal's weekly communication without, of course, we don't want to overburden it because we do really want it to be about the school news, but we've learned through our PTO engagements and over the years that consistently that seems to be the best way to reach our families. So we try to leverage that carefully and when needed to make sure that we're pushing out shared messages too. Is this my slide too? No, I think I can talk about this. It's actually a little preview to the language access plan, which we will be talking about later. Dr. Mary Peary-Reed mentioned the concept of culturally responsive
038engagement, and of course that's aligned with our core values and really critical to us here. I think historically we have... created opportunities for families to come to us and receive information, which is a very traditional way of engagement. And I think over the last several years, we've been really trying to push ourselves to think about more authentic ways to... to meet community members where they're at, whether it's through our PTO engagements. Sometimes coffee with the principal reaches a different group of families that are willing to engage. So we're constantly thinking about how to do that better, and it doesn't really feel like there's an arrival because there's always, I think, ways to try to be more proactive or more available to our families, which is really important to us. So some of the things that
039we do around multilingual communication, again, a nod to the language access plan that we'll be talking about later, we do have our Blackboard system, that's our current system that pushes out newsletters, or excuse me, SMORE, does translate into the preferred language that families have and that is not tool dependent. That is just a core function that we will always make sure that we have. Blackboard does it also. And Blackboard. It's called MRXC now. It's a new system. But it's the messaging system for robocalls and text messages and that also pushes out language specific messages as needed. Yeah, thanks, Troy. And we do also have, board members might remember, I've talked about this a little bit, but we do have our student success cultural liaison. So we have Brando Rojas Acevedo and Ayan Bundid, and they
040are our Spanish-speaking and Somali liaisons. We also have Deb Andreen as our Native American liaison. And they play... They're very student facing but they do play a pretty special role with our families. So if there is a specific situation or something that we are really wanting to make sure that we engage with certain members of our community they will a lot of times just make personal phone calls and so there and they often are the first point of contact for families who might have a question or might have a need and they're not sure how to get that addressed. So I'll add that with the superintendent search, they were very instrumental in helping us reach out to families about the survey and then about the info sessions that MSBA had, but also importantly helped us.
041It was the end of Eid, and we wanted to make sure that Somali families had an opportunity to engage. And so we checked in to see what the timing would look like. And so they're really a good resource for communications and for some of the planning that we're doing based on their knowledge of what's happening in their community. Definitely. In terms of family-centered program, we have... kindergarten readiness, middle school transition events. I just attended one because I have a rising sixth grader. Literacy night. So we have... multiple opportunities for our community to learn about programming or what we're doing in teaching and learning and try to keep our finger on the pulse of what people are interested in learning more about too so that we can provide those opportunities. And then finally... listening sessions and
042whether these are, we've done, you know, in the past, we've done formal listening sessions that are held via... virtual call with like a whole bunch of people on the call and some prepared content. We've done things like the state of the district updates and things like that. So really trying to think through what are going to be the most meaningful mechanisms to share information and again provide that reciprocal opportunity to get feedback in return. I just want to, before we move to the other slide, draw attention to the flyer that was created in Somali for families that might be interested in the Chinese Immersion Program. And there was a request that we create a flyer that they could then circulate among the community. And so that's another way of being responsive is responding to a
043request for something that maybe didn't seem as obvious to us because we were asked to do that. And then the person who requested it shared it with other families as a way to grow that program potentially. So these are some of the existing engagement structures that we have. So we've got our APAC. We have a very strong... Indian ed parent committee we've got our caregivers of black and African diaspora scholars our LGBTQ plus family groups we've got PTO or PTA groups at the schools there are some Dr. Roda referred to some of the requirements around Title I family engagement structures. So our Title I schools are required to have family engagement as part of their strategy. And then... My colleague, Director Contreras, and I each have advisory committees specific to special education and also specific
044to educational services. And so those are ways of engaging our community on more specific areas. In our case, it's learning and teaching. In the case of the LGBTQ plus family groups, it's... around inclusion and belonging for students. And so these are also some of the ways that we engage around different parts of Hopkins schools and then our different family groups as well. Do you want to talk about some of the events? Sure. So as you see from just a short list that we compiled, there are lots of ways that we look to engage with the family and community through events that are offered. I referenced the superintendent search focus groups, but also the language immersion information fair culture nights. And so these are some of the ways I wasn't here for the referendum project engagement,
045but I heard it was excellent. But these are some of the ways that we engage to try to bring the community into our space and showcase sort of the best of what's happening and give people a sense of what they can look forward to or what they may already, you know, be interested in. And then these are some of the ways that we engage through communications. And so you all are really well aware of the Royal Report, which goes out every other week during the school year, the weekly newsletters that the superintendent already referenced. And one of the things that we've done this year is try to include more relevant and timely information at the top of newsletters so that it was just reordering the newsletters because one of the things I noticed was that
046some of the new news was at the bottom. And so for me, it seemed that people might read the whole newsletter if they see new stuff at the top of the newsletter. And we also tried to not be as redundant and have certain content showcased in the Royal Report or in the Spring Update that was recently mailed out. You know there there was a sort of an in case you missed it in the Royal report in the newsletters that we've kind of retooled a little bit to take the dates off and add more engaging content so there are different ways that we're trying to get people to re-engage with our communication vehicles by just moving some things around and doing some things differently and our Open rate has been pretty good. You know, we've been
047able to grow. We've also engaged. I don't see social media on here as much, but I'm really proud of some of the efforts. We've really increased our social media. Analytics that we've seen have shown, like, our LinkedIn profile has blown up. You know, we're getting a lot of engagement on LinkedIn, and we're using it in different ways. So I think we're looking at different ways to draw people back in, to attract new people through our different platforms. We've added more, and I do want to say we've added more of what's happening in the schools and in the classrooms to our social media channels, and we are seeing a lot of engagement with that and a lot of sharing, which I think is good because we want to be known for what we do really well,
048which is teaching and learning and engaging students. And so there's been a concerted effort to do that, and we're seeing people are really responding to that. That's been great. So just to note, I mentioned this a little bit. Title schools that are title one are required to have some family engagement plan and I know that one of the things that's dr. Campy has been working on with our school leaders for whom this applies is to not just frame this as a box to check or something that has to happen, but really an opportunity for partnership so that parents understand what are the efforts that are happening in those schools in relation to their child and the whole school at large and to get feedback on that as well. Again, less about we did it because
049we have to, but more around this is how we are partnering together to make sure that our programs and our teaching and learning is understood and that parents have an opportunity to share their feedback about it. So with that, we also wanted to partner with our school board in... the component of the district-wide family engagement plan that could be enhanced with board strong board governance and visibility and hosting perhaps quarterly engagement sessions with the community Dr. Thomas will be engaging in a listen and learn tour and that will clearly provide additional opportunities for families to get to know the new superintendent and share what they hope and need and wish for and dream for for Hopkins Public Schools and for their children and then for the board to really think about what does information sharing
050in kind of a reciprocal way and what could feedback loops look like involving board and community and then obviously just thinking about your role as. board members who engage with an approved policy, where do we need to better align our family engagement policies with what we actually practice across our system? And for your insights into that to strengthen our district-wide family engagement plan. I pulled out of, if you just go back one slide, Dr. Ertl, that's okay. I pulled... Another excerpt from the resolution that you all adopted in August, whereas families across our community, especially low-income and historically underserved families, face barriers to attending school events, caregiver conferences, IEP meetings, other critical engagement opportunities due to work constraints. And I included the picture of... Is Emily in there? Yes. Our executive director of HEF and
051other HEF board members giving a check to Dan Narr from the, he's the ED at the ICA food pantry, and I wanted to share that. Together with the help of HEF, we are playing a role in reducing those barriers. I wanted to share that 86 Hopkins families were prevented from eviction with $219,000 of support from our Hopkins Strong campaign. Yes, almost $220,000 were provided to Hopkins families, 86 Hopkins families to support in rent and utility payments. And then 1,748 emergency food kits were given to Hopkins families, which were... estimated at a value of $71,000. So this really is an incredible way of concrete and meaningful and really like life support for Hopkins families who are in need and were in need and perhaps that support. gave them not only a sense of reassurance that things
052will be okay, but could have created an entry point or eliminated a barrier so that they can participate in school or be more engaged with their child's school in a way that's meaningful to them. So I thought that was a really important data point. So I think at this point what we'd like to do is receive feedback from board members on sort of the substance and quality of this plan, this district-wide family engagement plan, and then we can make adjustments based on any feedback that you have. We'll continue to align expectations across schools. Some of our schools, our models do have exemplary ways of facilitating culturally responsive engagement opportunities for families and other schools. could practice more and learn more, right? So sometimes we partner our schools. One is stronger in an area and the
053other can learn and together they can help each other, right? So we want to be more consistent with culturally responsive practices and engagement opportunities and then of course just monitor how well we're doing this work. And that is the plan or at least the draft of the plan. And if needed, we can, I imagine we can just put this into sort of a text-based doc, and does it need to be approved on consent? Because we already have the resolution, so I'm not sure if we need it to. Yeah, I don't know if we need it to be approved by the board. I don't know if that was. We just directed you. Okay. I will quickly find my own answer while we entertain questions. If that's something that admin would like or if we just, and
054I mean the board could discuss it as well, perhaps we want like an annual report on how we're doing meeting these goals. Do we want to revise any goals? That might be a good way of managing the plan. So thank you for this. I realize this was not an easy lift, especially with all that's been going on in our communities. And thank you for that context of a different way to engage families. I know that... During the Operation Metro Surge, I know that specifically at certain sites there was additional engagement and the thought is moving out of kind of the crisis moment that we were in. schools are wondering how do we keep that increased community engagement because it wasn't just families, it was community members coming into the school community and being active participants.
055I think that that has been a, as you were talking about, a reciprocal and mutually beneficial relationship that from everyone I've talked to in the community that was involved in this. these efforts, they want to continue it. And so I feel like this is timely to have a vehicle in which we can include not just family engagement, but community engagement, because we do know the research and the impact that this has in outcomes for students and long-term well-being for our entire community. So thank you for bringing that piece in as well. And Sharon Driesen, the statute says that in order to promote and support student achievement, a school board is encouraged to formally adopt and implement a parent and family involvement policy. So not required, but encouraged. And you've already adopted the family engagement resolution.
056Right. So we could create a policy. Director Roper. So yeah, any other comments, feedback, or thoughts? Chair Andreessen? Yes. Thank you so much for the presentation. I do apologize for being a few minutes late into it. I remember passing this resolution and with the hopes of this to come to fruition. So thank you because I do see the amplification of the narrative being shifted on our LinkedIn because I use LinkedIn heavily. I'm often trying to reshare stuff, but so much is being shared. I can't reshare everything, which is a good sign because I'm like, oh, I didn't know this was happening. This was happening. So thank you. much for that. I really appreciate that. And I'm also receiving more newsletters and just communication. I do, maybe this is a question for Dr. Mary Perry-Reed, but
057is there any way that we could maybe talk about hiring a African American family liaison? That may be a bigger question for staffing, but I know that we have different cultural liaisons. I've noticed that the African-American community will probably greatly benefit from one in our district as well. And I don't know if that can fall under a family engagement priority or goal. That's a good question, Vice Chair Roper. So first, we would need to find the resources in a pretty constrained budget. The achievement of our black and African and African American scholars is very important. And maybe what we could try to do is identify, because what I don't know, what I don't know is that we have the resources for a full time. role at this point. So, you know, sometimes when we want
058someone to own the work and to take a little bit of lift off of what parents are currently trying to achieve, then we think of a stipend, stipended approach. So I don't know if that's a possibility, but I think it's something that we should think about. And I am grateful to all of the efforts that you have made to try to coalesce our parents and have some important conversations. So thank you for putting that. Thank you for naming that need. Can I just add one thing that might be of interest? Right now as I mentioned we have an Indian ed liaison and then we have a Somali and a Spanish speaking liaison and those positions are funded through protected dollars or regulated dollars. We pay for part of our Somali and Spanish speaking liaison through
059federal Title III dollars, which are dollars that are specific for English learner families. And also a portion is paid for our schools and communities in partnership grant that Director Contreras oversees in conjunction with Community Ed. and so i i mention it because um those roles that are so critical and that we rely on so heavily are also pretty um the funding streams for them are also fairly volatile and so we're always sort of on the edge of our seat to waiting to see whether there is going to be any changes in those federal funding streams because they are paying for really critical roles in our district. Thank you. Thank you. Treasurer Heartland? Yeah, thank you. I really appreciate this work. I think it's something that the board has asked for for a while and so
060I'm grateful to see it before us and know that elements of this have been worked on for a long time. Just the board, of course, asking for it. But when I look over this plan, the only thing to me that seems like it's maybe not addressed. and maybe it lives more in the buildings and less in this plan but what happens if an incident arises and now I know we have actual like incident command if there's something that's like emergency adjacent but I'm thinking about like say transportation this summer do we have a plan Or is that accounted for somewhere where if some type of adverse or impactful event happens, do we have like kind of minimum expectations for, you know, like how quickly and in what channels families will hear about it? I consider
061something like having a... you know, hopkinsschools.org slash events or whatever the website is that changes that maybe has like a running update, like a time stamped update in the, you know, while we're working through some kind of event. It could even be like there's an electrical outage or something at school. Like there's all these types of things that our families might need to know about in more real time rather than like, say, an upcoming. conferences or showcase night and I would be curious to know if that has been discussed. Well one of the things we can use the messaging system for that including you know for text messages and robocalls we can also put alerts on the website like on each school website that you know you've seen those before where you have to see
062the message first before you can click out of it so there's ways to do that and then we would use social media as well. And if it's big enough, depending on what the issue is, could use media partners like we do when there's weather events. And so there are ways to do that through communications, through all of the channels that we have. Yeah, and I've seen us do more and like faster and better versions of that and wonder if there's room for either a goal in this plan or even like a spelled out expectation that families can share with. With us so that we're all on the same page It's not necessarily a thing that we can answer this second either, but that's a thing that strikes me as as a piece of engagement treasurer
063heartland, I'm you've articulated a clear need and Do you see this as fitting more into a family engagement plan or? communication plan of some kind because I'm trying to figure out where because I agree that we're getting better at it and there's still room for improvement such that you know maybe there are three or four different types of events and for each one there's sort of a precision and crispness with which we follow some protocols to immediately inform families impacted and I'm just trying to think of where that best might fit because I feel like it's maybe more in the communication space or would you like are you thinking it's helpful to also have it in in the in a district-wide or school-based family engagement plan it's a good question I don't know I know
064the answer to it but it seems like there are Maybe they sit in this in-between space of, like, true incident response where there's, like, some sort of emergency at a school, which requires, like, immediate action and attention. And then it's also not quite like this more planful engagement. And so I'm not sure where it's kind of natural home would be to have that. But, you know, events that are like. you know, where Meadowbrook had a water main break or, you know, where we had kind of late summer transportation disruption that required our families to take action. Having a plan and having kind of shared expectations, you know, as you talk about making the expectations the same across our buildings, feels like it might be a fit here, but I'm not a marketing expert and so
065I'm open to partnering about where that might live. Well, one thing that we're getting better at doing is writing down and finding a place for all of. our expected practices. So I think what we can do is take this back and then do maybe with Toya's help do some research around where this best where this would best live. If that works for you. Definitely. That works for the board? Okay. Thank you. Chair Andreessen. Yes. Yes. So we talked a little bit about how do we operationalize this plan. And to me, obviously this is up to the next superintendent, but it probably makes sense for this to be part of the, especially since it's a lot, very building focus from what I've seen, to make it part of the principal evaluation, right? Like, have you done
066these things? If so, that's part of your evaluation as a principal and you know and then that can bubble up to the board as necessary or maybe in a summary view, but to me I think this is all just you know, how well can this principal build a community around their school and that's that's it right? That's that's what they're here to do. So that'd be my thought. Thank you. I think that's fair. I think at a minimum one one tool that dr. Campy has built is a What do we call it it's not a tool kit but it's literally like a month-by-month spreadsheet of expectations and deliverables and Each principal has to check a box saying that they've done these things so I think at a minimum a number of the the engagements that
067are to be consistent across schools can live in there, right? So there are some... It's like checking the box, but I think to what extent these are meaningful experiences for families that contribute to a strong sense of community through the school can be built into the evaluation framework. Maybe something like a periodic survey, which I know is problematic for the families that can't be reached, but I think to your point, I don't want it to be a checkbox either. Like, okay, I did it. I'm great. but like what actually, how engaged is your community, right? Like, do they like you? Do they feel supported? Are their kids staying? You know, all those things should be part of the evaluation and it would make sense to me. Thank you. Chair Andreessen? Yes. I echo the thank
068you for the work on this and a few reflections back and also in conversation with my colleagues who have named things so far. The one is actually about a vice chair Roper and your comment related to having an African American liaison for family engagement. And it made me think about, and as you had named Superintendent Mary Perry-Reed, the way that some of our staff, because we... It would be great. I would love to actually see us have fully funded. everything, actually, and recognizing that that's not necessarily the case yet. How do we also really lean into this uplift and the ways in which we believe as a community that we can see more fully and just have differing perspectives by having different persons at the table and saying, oh, hey, did you know Eid actually
069ends at this time? We want to think about that with when we're scheduling events, et cetera. So it made me think of like the work of Laura Jensen and others who are on our staff or our teachers who are serving in these sorts of roles and how we can continue to lean into that. Might that be an opportunity for us to have those voices deeply in an expansive way continuing to feed into our engagement plans and just helping us to hear well from each other about that. So just thank you for that comment. Not to add to work just to wonder out loud about how that looks. The second thing I was wondering about is as you came on the slide related to events, you know, so many of those events are that you name
070are broader, kind of broader, either district-based initiatives or events or specific ones. And just wanted to uplift that there not only are these events. But I think about the community engagement, parent engagement, things like going to concerts and going to sporting events, and all of these activities and the ways in which there's also informal relational networks that bubble up. And if one of the things that we're saying is that it's not just about... top down or like the district isn't just district offices or staff, the district is all of us. How do we continue to uplift and highlight like, hey, here's what's happening with this PTO, like Eisenhower had their plant sale pick up tonight. Well, that's part of that engagement and what a beautiful thing. And I say that just as a way to
071highlight there's so much good that is happening and engagement is happening all over and all the time. And how can we continue to see that as If I was there as a random community member, it is an engagement event. And so how can I be thinking about, too, as a member of the, I'm now on school board, but as a general human, how can I invite other people who may not be at the table or to whom I might be connected to? So just to highlight the good there. And then I wanted to do a couple communication shout outs. So one is you had to sign up for all of the newsletters. I get them emailed to me now from Erica Lee every week. And I just wanted to say how much I appreciate that
072and the particularity. It's so... obvious that there's differentiation of individual school culture and voice and principal leadership while also having very intentional strategic communication goals that also highlight district-wide initiatives that seem so like the superintendent hiring process that was across newsletters throughout our district in repeated and intentional ways and that was really obvious to me and I appreciated that and I think the last thing I will say is just that thanks for the intentionality around culturally responsive engagement and the continued work around who isn't in the room and to recognize that our community is profoundly diverse. And so how do we listen to persons telling us, hey, from my seat, here's the truth of what engagement means to me and what it looks like, how I am engaged, how I want to engage. And if
073there are ways as board members that we can partner with that, you know, so for instance, I'm seeing some community members say the board meetings are long. I don't necessarily want to watch the whole thing. Can I get bookmarks or chapter marks within that? And or a few, we can write summaries or do videos of summaries from our own seat. However we can help with engagement, please let us know. I do want to add one thing that is not on the slide but you made me think about it is another way that we engage is through the events, the public events. So the Hopkins Main Street Day is coming up. There's going to be a community that will be there. The superintendent will be there. Communications team engaging with the community in a space that.
074fun. You know, and there are other events like Twin Cities Pride. We just sent out an email this week encouraging staff across the district to sign up. You know, there's a Raspberry Festival. There's other things that, you know, we are going out to the community to engage with the community. So it's more than a marketing, you know, event. It's really sort of public engagement and meeting people where they are in social spaces. And I think that's really important as well. Thank you. I want to make sure that we get time to transition to our meeting and also for all board members to give any feedback they have on this plan. So if we could just be intentional about that, that'd be great. And Director Hyman. Chair Andreessen. Yes. Excuse my voice this evening. I just
075want to piggyback on how great I feel the communication has been and the increased positive narrative on social media and out in the community. I studied communications in undergrad, strategic communications in undergrad, and it's... It's more important than people realize because the story in the community becomes the truth of that community. And so we need to be telling our own story. And I think we're doing a much better job of doing that. So thank you for doing that and getting us on the right track here. One question I had with respect to the benchmarks for all schools and this sort of ties into Director Zhao's comment is with accountability, right? And so maybe one piece of this is every school building leader before the school year starts has to at least provide some sort of
076preliminary proposed plan. And so if there's quarterly family engagement opportunities, maybe we don't know what those are, but there are dates intentionally set aside on a particular site's school calendar. to host something or to plan something just so it's really being thought about ahead of time and not, oh shoot, it's coming to the end of the quarter and we haven't done anything and we should really throw some kind of family engagement event together. So just some accountability check there for those benchmarks. And then the last thing I'll just say is some of this can be free, too. Like, it's not, well, it mostly is all free. But even like Dr. Mary Perry-Reed was mentioning that our elementary students, our families are more interested in understanding middle school and high school and what that looks like.
077And something like even an elementary student night at a high school. football game or one of the high school orchestra concerts or the fall musical and make it like a, this is a special thing where you were reaching out specifically to families that perhaps aren't in the building but will be in the building eventually to pull them in and allow them to see kind of into the future. I think we're having that, yeah, in like, is it tomorrow that they're having the music students up at the high school? The one where they wear the pajamas? Yes. Yeah, I mean, yeah, they do that every year. And then also the elementary students, band students are going up and performing with the high school band. They do a huge thing on the final spring concert where it
078includes all the band kids. So that's another. Very intentional way that they do that. Did you have anything else? That's it for me. Thank you I just wanted to quickly say thank you really appreciate this I also appreciate the Intentionality behind this being a reciprocal communication and not just a like We're moving away from that being how we teach in the classroom. Like I'm pouring my knowledge into you. So it makes sense that we as a district are intentionally moving away from that and how we engage families. So thank you for that. I had a couple questions, something I didn't see, but saw the beginnings of is one of the target audiences. That I really want this plan to hit is our disengaged families that are disengaged due to historical harm. And I think we've
079made a lot of inroads in one of those groups, which is our American Indian. I know that our program is seen. across the West Metro as a place that families want to be. And I'm wondering if we can use this engagement plan to intentionally do that for other historically underserved and harmed groups. So wondering if there's space in there to... be more intentional about that here in this engagement plan. And then also one of the things I loved that was included in Dr. Mary Perry-Reed's goals this year was to do stay interviews with families so that we can be proactive and hoping that we can include that as part of not just the stay interviews but really collecting our feedback for families that are leaving if we could have that be part of this engagement
080plan I think it would be impactful for us to have that information and a way of moving forward with those families both So that's all I had. Thank you. So to your first point, what, so Dr. Ertl and I have one more stay conversation with Gatewood Elementary on Thursday, and then we'll write up our... like themes and findings and thoughts and send them to the board and then we will take your direction and think about okay because actually at a couple of these conversations parents have given us ideas for how to engage with families who are like on the fence. This thing happened. I'm not happy. How do we like lean in and engage a family before they make a different decision is really important and our families have given us some great ideas for
081how to move on that. Thank you. Thank you both. Thank you. Any other comments or do we get a seven minute break? All right. This concludes our workshop for this evening. Thank you all for joining us, and we will see you back here at 7 p.m. Thank you. Hello. Hi. Welcome, everybody. We are going to go ahead and get started. It is the regular meeting of the Hopkins School Board for May 5th, 2026. And we have some amazing Hopkins students that we would like to recognize. So we will come down. to the bottom of the board table and do just that. Ezra, we can maybe start singing. So we'll go through the process for everyone. Even though they may not be here in the room with us, we still are celebrating them. So welcome, everybody.
082Tonight, we're proud to recognize two outstanding groups of Hopkins High School students whose academic talent, discipline, and commitment set them apart at the state level. First, we are honored to recognize our Hopkins High School personal finance student achievers who earned top honors through statewide competition and assessment. These students demonstrated exceptional understanding of financial literacy concepts, including budgeting, investing, credit, and long-term financial planning, skills that are essential for success in life beyond high school, and... I know I didn't graduate with any of them. So thank you Hopkins High School for doing this. Their achievement reflects strong academic focus, practical problem solving skills, and a commitment to responsible decision making. We thank the Hopkins educators, including Jesse Therrell, who make personal finance education meaningful and relevant, preparing students to navigate real world financial challenges with confidence. At
083this time we invite any of our personal finance award-winning students to be recognized. They are here this evening. As each student name is called, we will applaud them. Our first winner is Ben Molfinger. Our second is Ezra Wolf. And Manuel Walu. And Seth Abrahamson. Thank you to our amazing two students. So hopefully we were smart enough to at least look at the high school schedule tonight? Is there a concert tonight? That the orchestral and choir students are attending. Okay. Well, okay. So we have certificates for all of our top level musicians and we'll read the script and hopefully they will. Watch this later. So in addition to our personal finance award winners, we're also proud to recognize our Hopkins High School musicians and these are our choral, orchestral, and band musicians. This group of students
084includes our Allstate Ensemble winners, our Honors Band recipients, and our orchestra and choir. choir section 6AA solo and ensemble festival participants who earned best insight awards and vocal as well as orchestral performances earning superior and excellent ratings. That's a mouthful. Equally as important, these students are able to compete at a very high level because of the support that they receive from their instructors around technical excellence, musical expression, and of course, countless hours of preparation. And so we're very grateful to our Hopkins music educators, including Melissa Hansen, Nora Tycast, Allie Swigham, and John Fulner. They are exceptional music educators at our high school. And so we would have invited all of these students to walk down the Royal Blue Runner. Should we read their names? Yes, just in case they're going to watch later on. Okay,
085so Amina Youssef, Asher Fix. Audrey Wright, Avery Kluwer, Chelsea Halverson, Clara Ruch Devers, Christian Cisneros, Elise Dutcher, Ella Moore, Estella Gonzalez, Gabe DeMello, Gennaro Villasanchez, Gretchen Bell. Henry Hiltner, listen to this, Henry Hiltner, Henry Neely, Henry Swigum, and Henry Wyman, Iris Moore, James Zocchi, Jenna Hoffman, Johanna Zocchi, Jordan Oliver, Julian DeCostmaker, Kano Lee, Lauren Delvey. And if they were here. I would ask each one, did I pronounce your name correctly? Sometimes they say no, and then I ask them to say their name, and then I try to say it correctly. So congratulations to all of those amazing musicians. And we have our new high school principal here, Dr. Palmer, and whoever is not graduating, you will meet. and you will be their principal. So we appreciate you being here as well. All right, well, thank
086you, Ezra and Dad, for being here. And Manuel, thanks for being here. And you are welcome to stay for the board meeting. Or if you have other things to do, we invite you to have a great night. Thank you, everyone. Thank you all. With that I would like to call to order this regular meeting of the Hopkins School Board at 710 PM. And our first item of business is public comment. We do have two cards, so we will be hearing public comment this evening for people who have shown up here to be with us. Do we have any voicemails to play this evening? No. So there are three ways that you can communicate directly with. The school board one you can always send us an email instead of making public comment. And you can if
087you wish to make a public comment, you can leave a voicemail that will be played or you can show up here in person and come before 7 PM and fill out a public comment card. We host two public comment sections per meeting. The first will be during open agenda at the beginning of the meeting. This period will be a maximum of 30 minutes long. Speakers will be heard on a first-come, first-served basis. And the second period will be at the end of the meeting prior to adjournment. Since we only have two public comments, we will not need to use that second period. I will go ahead and read our guidelines for public comment so that we are prepared for that. I'm going to need to do a quick Google search with that. I would... So
088the guidelines are to please keep your comments to three minutes or less. Public comment is for input only. Members of the school board will not respond directly to public comment that are made at this meeting. One speaker at a time will be recognized. 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
089of 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 publicly recessed, 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.
090And with all that being said, we do really appreciate hearing from you and thank you for being here this evening. I would like to invite our first speaker, Steve, I believe it's Streed, up to the table who will be speaking on the topic EV buses. Welcome and thank you for being with us this evening. Thank you for having me Superintendent members of the board. Um, this is just a fantastic display of due process and openness and transparency I'm here. I am a member of Minnesota 350 org. I'm not here on their behalf I'm an attorney in Hopkins, and I'm also resident So I'm delighted to hear that you're, as 350 tells me, you're engaged in bringing on and entertaining and engaging with increased EV busing. And I congratulate you for that and being open to
091that. I think that the EV challenge is a... is the tip of the iceberg to the educational challenges of the 21st century. It's our challenge. If the EV buses themselves, EVs are a science experiment, they should be integrated into the curriculum. There is no part of the curriculum as far as I can see which can be impervious to the climate and the environmental challenge. Environmental science is science. There isn't such a thing as science here and environmental science there. Science is environmental science. And it would be criminal to... to not teach our future leaders and citizens about the fundamental problem which will confront them for the rest of their lives. It is the great American challenge. It's the great world challenge. And it's a great educational challenge. And I can't think of a subject in
092Hopkins High School or... that wouldn't be improved and enhanced by engaging with this challenge. Science, certainly, economics, we had two business, all business in the next generation is gonna be somehow engaged with successfully or it's going to fail with the environmental challenge and the climate challenge. One of our great billionaires, Tom Steyer, gubernatorial candidate for California, is taking this on. And I urge you to read this inspiring, all of you to read this inspiring book. which is certainly a campaign book, but it's more than a campaign book. Cheaper, faster, better. Thank you. I appreciate you being here with us this evening. Thank you very much. Thank you, sir. And our next speaker is Brianna Dockin, speaking also on the topic of electric school bus funding opportunities. Welcome, and thank you for being with us. Thank
093you guys that was a good coincidence that worked out well um yeah, my name is Brianna I am a community member, and I'm a volunteer with MN 350s clean transportation team. I'm also talking about electric school buses I had been to a previous board meeting just to discuss some funding opportunities with for electric school buses and Right now the state of Minnesota has another round of funding open for electric school buses. Applications are due by Thursday, June 18th, so definitely still time for Hopkins to put in an application. If Hopkins were to receive this grant, the funding can cover 80 to 90% of an electric school bus and 65 to 95% of other expenses. So this would drop the price of an electric school bus that would usually be around $400,000. to only 80K or
094less. In comparison, the average diesel bus costs that I could find online were around 100K. So it really would be a good funding opportunity to really drop the price of electric school buses. I also saw on the agenda tonight there was going to be some discussion about the transportation contract with Smitty and Sons. So I think this would also be a great opportunity for you all to collaborate on is to apply for this funding. I'll follow up with an email with a link to the state's information about the grant funding, but I really encourage you all to look into it. I think it would be a great opportunity for the students. It's environmentally friendly, and it would be something great to teach them about, and I think it would make financial sense for the district,
095too. So thank you all so much for what you do, and thanks for your time tonight. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Foods are public comment section of the evening and we get to move on to our student board representatives Report, I'm not sure which one wants to go first, but I will turn it over to you Hi, my name is Manuel Wah you a junior student board rep. Um so I want to start with my teacher spotlight tonight and I'm gonna spotlight Ms. Xu, who's my College in the School's Chinese teacher. So in Chinese class, we just wrapped up our last unit, which was about traveling to China. and comparing how China was like 50 years ago in the cities compared to now. And our final in the class was creating a
096brochure for a trip to an American city targeted for Chinese tourists. And we were graded both on the brochure and also our presentation skills when we marketed our trip to other students in a role play. Moving on, next week is Spirit Week, the last Spirit Week of the year leading up to prom. And the theme on Monday will be tropical. Tuesday will be Nike Tech versus quarter zip. Wednesday will be anything but a backpack day. Thursday will be Hopkins gear. And Friday will be class colors. Prom is masquerade theme, and it will take place on May 16th from 7 to 11 p.m. at the Fillmore. Tickets are $50 each and $25 with educational benefits, and they're on sale right now. Last Friday, the Wind Ensemble performed the Grand Symphonic Winds, and the Wind Ensemble played
097a piece called Santos, which I talked about before, but that was the first time a high school band had ever played that piece, so it was really great. And then the Grand Symphonic Winds played after us. They're a Twin Cities-based wind ensemble, and it was just really inspiring to see kind of an older, more professional, more advanced version of us. And yeah, so this week and next week are our AP exam weeks. And I actually took my AP European history exam right over there yesterday. And I think AP exams are just such a good way to get college credit and to show off all the hard work that we've been putting in throughout the year. So I'd encourage all the students to study hard for your AP exams. Thank you. My name is Hafsa, I'm
098a freshman. Today I wanted to start off by talking about the Per Pitch Summer Camp, a summer camp open to students entering sixth to 10th grade. From June 22nd to the 26th and July 27th to the 31st, the camp offers guitar, origami, screen printing and drawing with fees ranging from $165 to $15 for classes. They have morning and afternoon classes. So even if you have like an appointment or anything, or if you're busy in the mornings, it can really tailor to your schedule in the summers. The second thing I wanted to talk about was the Youth for Change Coalition, which is a youth-led student group that aims to address youth mental health and wellness. And they're looking for additional members for the fall of 2026. Members work with proficient... professional coaches to develop their leadership
099skills, collaborating with other high schoolers from Golden Valley, St. Louis Park, and Hopkins cities to create a meaningful impact on mental health and wellness. Interested students can submit an application. due by Sunday, May 10th for priority screening. The third thing I wanted to talk about today on May 7th is conferences for grades six through 12. Parents wanting to meet with teachers can either go in person or meet through a virtual call, but both need an appointment in advance. And finally, I would like to spotlight Mr. Eckhoff, my third block Lang and Lit teacher, because not only how he organizes his classes and how he integrates different activities into our classes, I always find him to be down to earth and pretty direct, which I can find to be really helpful when looking for ways to
100revise an assignment or essay. Today we learned about the historical lens, where you analyze your book, looking how history may show up in a piece of text. and how we use it to analyze our books, which currently we're doing book clubs. I chose The Handmaid's Tale. So in The Handmaid's Tale historical, it's really how in... Actually, I forgot my book right now. It's due soon, and we're supposed to be done with the book by Friday. So I got some catching up to do. I'll do it during conferences. Wish me luck. Thank you. You've got a whole day to just get it done. Speed read everything. It is a quick read, though, once you get into it. Thank you. Thank you. Any comments or questions for my board colleagues? Chira Andreessen? Yes. I just have a
101question for Manuel. This is for your quarter zip in Nike day. Are you going to have matcha with that? Because you know the saying is that they don't drink coffee no more. Like it's with matcha now. Yeah, I am expecting to see some people show up with matcha, but I don't know about myself. It's not my favorite. Okay. That's just a trend with the quarters versus Nike. Just want to see. Okay. I'm so confused. What is this? Oh, it's a TikTok thing. You just have to go in there and look at it. You got to get hip with the young people. I'm good. I'm good. I also had a question. I was wondering, you mentioned that you're in college in the schools, Chinese. So what level is that? And you're a junior, right? So is
102there a next college in the schools that you can take in Chinese? Yeah, there is. So for the Shenzhen students, we have, we take AP Chinese freshman year. And then, yeah, there's like three progressions of Chinese. Like it gets more advanced. I think it's like intermediate modern Chinese, advanced modern Chinese. And then there's another level. But yeah. Thanks. It's impressive. Chair Andreessen. Yes. Thank you both for your reports. I have a question for each of you, which is somewhat serious, but not really. The one is, can board members volunteer for prom? I'm just saying chaperones. I mean, as a chaperone. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I'm just wondering for asking for a friend. Yeah. Not all seven. Otherwise, we have to invite the whole community. Okay. Yes. Okay. We can talk. We can figure that out. And
103then my second was if board members can help with book reports. That one wasn't as serious, but I do wish you luck in your historical analysis. Thank you. Well, thank you again for bringing that snapshot of your everyday to the board table, but also the ways in which you give shout outs to really important things that are happening even in the community that are accessible to all our students. So thank you. Thank you. And with that, I would turn it over to Dr. Mary Piri-Reed for the superintendent report. Thank you, Chair Andreessen. Well, I just have a few slides and then we have a special spotlight at the end. So for starters, if you visited our high school last Thursday between 5 and 7, you probably would not have found room in the parking lot
104or maybe even in the auditorium because it was a full house at the Juntos Gala. And during this really magical event, our students celebrated cultures from Chile, Argentina, Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Costa Rica, and many other countries. And this event... spotlighted kindergarten through grade five with some guest performances from older students and as you can see the costumes and the dances were absolutely fabulous. Our Juntos teachers and whole community have been working on this for quite some time so gracias to our teachers and staff who put many hours of preparation into this event and You know, sometimes when I'm at these events, I am not only watching what's going on on stage, but I'm also looking at folks in the audience, and you can just see how proud and happy all of our parents and
105families are. So it was a really magical event. This week is teacher and staff appreciation week so all across Hopkins and probably all across schools in the state But here in Hopkins we have nearly 1,400 teachers and staff who work beyond 40 hours a week Planning and delivering exceptional learning experiences for our students And we know that teaching and supporting students in our schools is not just a job, it's a calling. And public schools are an anchor for democracy in this country. And so we're very grateful for all educators and staff across our Hopkins schools. And we salute you during this Staff Appreciation Week. And I think along those lines, May is a very celebratory month. So I just wanted to shout out specific groups of staff. So last Friday here in the boardroom, we
106had all of our school nutrition professionals gathering together for a celebration and a meeting. And I stopped in and thanked our school lunch professionals for all that they do to prepare for the fresh cooked meals for our students and to deliver those meals with a smile. Also last Friday was National School Principal Day and so we're very grateful to all of our school leaders for their tireless efforts in running our schools, in supporting our staff, in managing expectations, and sitting down and chatting with families or staff or students who are trying to navigate a difficult experience, providing instructional leadership. There's so much that goes into managing an entire school building. And so we're very grateful to our exceptional principals here in Hopkins Public Schools. And then, of course, we have our amazing communications and marketing
107professionals that we're celebrating this Friday. And so we're grateful to our interim director, Toya. Toya Stewart Downey and her small but mighty team for everything that they do to tell the Hopkins story and to promote all of the good things happening in Hopkins, but also to inform our families. You know, we just talked about the importance of communications during the workshop. So they also work very hard to be responsive and provide immediate communications to families or staff who may be impacted by an impromptu event. And with the theme of recognition, so Naya Simone is our 2026 Athena Award winner. She is an amazing athlete. She earned five varsity letters in gymnastics, and she's also an accomplished academic who will be attending Wilberforce next year. Wilberforce University is a private college in Wilberforce, Ohio, and is
108one of three historically black universities, or HBCUs, established before the American Civil War. Isn't that amazing? So we're really proud of Nya Simone, and we wish her... best wishes as she heads into college. And we do have our college specialist here in the audience. I think it's really important. Well, actually, is the next slide showcase the senior wall? Is that the next slide? Okay, let's go. Yes. So Dr. Kuhl is in the audience. And Dr. Kuhl and I worked together on this idea to promote every single senior once they commit to their post-secondary landing place. And what I love about this wall is not only that we get to see every senior's face and where they're going. But you know I like to take pictures of you can see on the right hand side of
109the slide I'd like to take pictures of all the people looking at the wall so when our high school is hosting events you can see families and students of all ages just gazing at all of these faces and Looking at the landing spots for our soon-to-be graduates and maybe imagining huh? That's really cool. I wonder what the path was for this student to be attending this particular institution. You'll see, so on the left you see the photo with the red border. So all of the red represent students who are going abroad, right Dr. Kuhl? Okay. So there's some really unique experiences. I encourage everyone listening right now to just head to the high school. And I mean, you know, you wanna. have about 30 minutes because that's how long it will take to just study
110where all of our wonderful young people are going to be ending up in the fall. Very, very cool. And thank you, Dr. Kuhl, for that effort. I know it's very time intensive. Okay, so I also want to share with our community and board members that we were recently awarded a five-year up to $550,000 of special education teacher pathway grant. from the Minnesota Department of Education. So this is very exciting and of course pending final contract execution. And what this will support is building an internal pipeline of licensed special education teachers by supporting current staff to earn full licensure. And so with this grant, we'll be supporting up to 18 Hopkins employees over five years. The grant covers tuition, required program costs, and This removes the need for staff to pay upfront or take on additional
111debt will be partnering with accredited teacher preparation programs for example the University of Minnesota and the University of st. Thomas and I want to express my gratitude to our director of special Services, Fonda Contreras and her team, and also Laura Hetzel, our business development and grants officer for all of the efforts to write and submit this grant. Now, I think this is my last slide, so this is also... Just continuing the theme of celebration. So I think actually the Minnesota Teacher of the Year Committee should have held the Teacher of the Year banquet here at Hopkins because we had so much Hopkins representation, not just with... teachers who were nominees, but teachers who were semi-finalists. And then, of course, we had two finalists. So Cher Anru-Friesen and Amy Fung were our two finalists. And even
112though David Davis from St. Louis Park won the 2026 Minnesota Teacher of the Year. Amy and Cher are our Hopkins Minnesota teachers of the year. And so I'm grateful to our three board members who were in attendance. And we had principals Radel and Sawatsky and Dr. Lightfoot and a ton of educators and families. Hopkins was truly in the house this past Sunday and it was very fun. What we did not include were pictures of some of the teachers like carrying the finalists and they're holding their legs up and all kinds of interesting poses. Very fun. Okay, so congrats, Cher and Amy. And at this time, we're going to spotlight Dr. Emily Palmer. So for anybody listening in for maybe the first or second time at the end of the superintendent report we try to do
113a program or a school spotlight last year we Every principal from all of our schools came and did a five or ten minute spotlight on their school We've done this year. We did all of our depart district department spotlights So now Natalia and I think to ourselves. Hmm. Who should we spotlight next? So dr. Palmer Please come forward. And congratulations, Dr. Palmer, for making your way through the selection process and becoming our next Hopkins High School principal. We're very excited to have you. And yeah, you can, sure, you can sit down. And I would love for you to just take a couple of minutes to introduce yourself to our amazing school board and share who you are and what your hopes are for Hopkins High School. Right on. Thank you for having me. I don't
114want to have my back to everybody if I need to be in the corner here. Yeah, no, I'm thrilled to be here. Thank you to everyone that was part of that process of bringing me in. I'm Emily Palmer, currently serving as principal eighth year as principal of Washburn High School in Minneapolis, where I've been for most of my career, was also in Richfield for six years as an assistant principal. So a lot of years of administration, also 14 years as an English teacher. And some of you know that Brooke Roper is my former student. I was her 11th grade English teacher at what was then Patrick Henry High School. Very literally, seriously memorable student. And we've kept in touch since then. So it's fun to see you in that role. I actually am also a
115Hopkins mom. I have a daughter that graduated in 2021 from Hopkins. And some of you know we picked Hopkins very intentionally for her. So for some of the same reasons that I'm choosing to come now. And what else? I got all my degrees from the University of Minnesota. My parents met at the University of Minnesota. My Hopkins grad is a fifth generation gopher. That's just our family's deal. I've been in the Twin Cities my whole life. And I like to tell people also, I am a big extrovert. So doing all of the evening events and stuff like this just completely works for me. I love it. I love all of it. I just find all of high school to be a blast. So I'm really glad to be here. So yeah, and I do, you
116know, my professional purpose, I've had this statement up on the whiteboard in my office for years to say that my purpose is to empower students to create their best future. And what that really means to me is that it isn't about us giving to kids, but it is really about what our students are able to do and be empowered to do through their work with us at their time in the school. Yeah. So thank you. Thank you. And are there any questions for Dr. Palmer or Dr. Mary Peary-Reed? Yes. Any comments or questions? Chair Andreessen? Yes. Yes. So Dr. Mary Peary-Reed, I wanted to give a little bit of... Maybe context for the scale of how well we did for teacher of the year You said we were in the house, but you know, I
117reflected upon it and you know me I did some napkin statistics but so the so assumptions I made right so we have roughly point seven percent of the teachers in Minnesota right in Hopkins and so if we were to if we were an average district right that you would expect our percentage to apply to the number of people for teacher of the year and you know if you do the math we would expect to see one teacher of the year candidate a year and we had 21. we would expect to see a semi-finalist every five years we had seven this year we would we would expect to see a finalist every 12 years and this year we had two So we did extremely extremely. I'm so proud of every teacher that was nominated every teacher
118that wasn't nominated I think we have something very special here one other thing is We heard a statement from our governor and he said it was harder to become a finalist for Teacher of the Year than to become governor So it's a big deal and I think this is you know a huge strength in Hopkins You know In jest, I think it's probably good we didn't win or else I would be insufferable. Because I saw Virginia Mancini, the chair of SLP, and we chatted and we have a good relationship. But I really wanted to highlight that for all of our teachers is that we really were in the house and it was a great night. That's great. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Well, thanks for being here, Dr. Palmer. That's all I wanted to
119say. It was thank you and welcome. I wanted to say that, too. I'm really excited that you're coming to Hopkins. I know you've already started, like, investing in this community, so thank you for that. And just really appreciate you being here tonight, but also just coming on board. So welcome. I'm thrilled to be here. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Palmer. And Chair Andreessen, I'll just close by acknowledging Dr. Thomas, our new superintendent, who's also in the audience. So welcome, Dr. Thomas. The slide for you at the last board meeting. We did. We did. So 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 aye
120aye aye any opposed The chair votes aye and tonight's agenda is approved Now we go to the consent calendar. This is reserved for items that provide the board with information considered to be more routine in nature. If the board deems an item to be necessary for additional discussion, a motion will be made to move the item to new business. I would look for a motion that the board approve the consent calendar. So moved. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Chair Andreessen? Yes. Director Thompson? I'd like to request that we pull items F and G out of it. Okay. So for putting on new business? Yeah. Okay. Do we have anyone that can give us more information on these? Great. Yes. All right. We
121will move those items to new business. Yes, so the Bondwood contract and the website management services. So with those being moved to new business, I would, is there any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The chair votes aye and the consent calendar is approved. I would like to recognize that we have just approved the contract for our new superintendent, Dr. Michael Thomas, and I would like to invite you to come up to the board table and give a few words to us and to officially... Actually welcome you to Hopkins. Thank you for being here this evening. Thank you, Chair Andreessen, Board Directors, and Superintendent Mira Pierre-Reed, and like Director Hyman, I'm also battling the same little crud that's going around, so excuse my voice this evening, but
122I just want to say thank you to the Board and to the Hopkins community. I am truly honored and feel blessed to be selected to be the next superintendent with Hopkins Public Schools. Destination District and I'm proud to join the family and really see how we can continue to build on the success that is already here and as we heard tonight with the teacher recognition and the teachers of the year though they didn't win the national or the state level we won Hopkins level and I think that's really important. I love those napkin stats that speaks volumes in a testament about the caliber of folks who are here in the district so Proud to be a part of that. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome. Welcome. Says to the treasurer's report treasurer Heartland wonderful. Thank you.
123I'm glad I'm here in time Tonight's report is to serve as something of a reminder as we gauge and engage in our budget talks for the rest of the school year Our district has more than 18 different funds that it uses to receive Hold and disperse money and each of them has their own set of allowable uses prescribed by Minnesota statute Those are reconciled when we do our audits and then each of these different accounts get a more thorough inspection for compliance by our auditors periodically. But Director Ann Ertle mentioned earlier, you know, some restricted funds that we use to pay for specific roles. That's just one example of ways in which our dollars are tied, often to specific uses. So like our debt service fund can only be used to repay our bonds, and
124food service funds can only be used to support our nutrition program. So those dollars have to be strictly held in their buckets and cannot be redirected for classroom use. And so when we look forward, when we looked at our projected budgets over the next couple meetings and we approved them, and if you see... board members or community members if you see thousands or hundreds of thousands or in the case of the unassigned fund balance even millions of dollars that look like they're being held back while we engage in making budget reductions which you know come at the cost of FTEs and sometimes people's active jobs it's important to recognize that those reserves are really part of responsible fiscal management due to timing like state aid payments do not come in evenly throughout the year but
125our payroll of course and our other expenses do and so we need balances in these various accounts to manage that cash flow and make sure that all staff is paid promptly and one other thing to note is that even within a general fund not all of those dollars are freely available. Sometimes portions are held for specific purposes, and one example of that might be retroactive pay. Like if a contract is under negotiation, money might be earmarked for settling that contract if we signed it, say, in February, and the terms of that contract are to retroactively pay the employees that serve under that contract back pay. THROUGH JULY, THEN WE'LL NEED TO ACCESS THOSE EARMARK FUNDS FROM OUR GENERAL FUND TO PAY FOR THAT. AND SO... Again, that's part of responsible fiscal management at the budget
126level. They're not a surplus. It's a really important tool for us. And so most of our dollars, even if we look at positive balances, they're either restricted, committed, or they're needed for our long-term stability. And so that's a piece of how we as board members act as financial stewards to meet our obligations and to manage risk. And I wanted to give that context tonight because we're going to do some of the heavy work later on of looking at our staffing resolutions and those. As Chair Andreessen mentioned, this is not the most fun part of being a board member. So I felt like this context was important tonight. Moving on to the check register, here's a few expenses of note. We paid $4,330.50 for testing for our Chinese immersion students. We paid $269,786.01 to CLA for
127many invoices over the past months for their work in service of the fiscal year 24 audit and reconciling our books in preparation for the fiscal year 25 audit. We do have some good news in that once we are caught up on those audits, we'll be able to reduce our reliance on them. And we, in fact, recently hired a person in our business services department. who has long experience working for our district as a contractor. And so a couple of business services staff expressed excitement about having Thomas on board as an employee now and all of his expertise. We paid $3,213.84 to Field Environmental as part of the prep for renovations at Alice Smith. $683,577.15 went to Intermediate District 287 to cover our share of costs related to services provided to our Hopkins students. There's a
128variety of billing cycles that we're in with relationship to District 287. So we have monthly fees, we have mid-year final bills, and then extras at different times to cover incidental transportation or staffing needs. You saw some invoices paid to IBM Corporation. They bought the company we're used to seeing on our treasurer's reports, application software technology. And I promised you back in February that we were just about through with our contract with them to implement and de-implement Oracle. So that contract finally ended back in March. And we paid them $54,275 for the months of October through February, October 25 through February 26. To Kelly Services, the source of the majority of our substitute teachers, we paid $151,177.74. We paid Schmidt Music, which took like three pages of our check register. We paid them $10,000. $963.50 for
129all kinds of lesson books and instruction materials. We paid our April workers comp to SFM Mutual to the tune of $45,552. And as our work for the bond referendum ramps up, we'll continue to see more and more bills to SiteLogic and our various construction partners. We paid them $1,036,649 from our Capital Projects Fund, Fund Number 6. Salient Health is where we get our contracted school psychologists, social workers, and nurses. And we paid them $28,746.90 for the month of February. And finally, we paid $14,645 to the U of M for 101 students enrollment in various CIS courses at the high school. And with that, I move that we approve total disbursements in the amount of $3,219,510.94 for the period of March 16th to March 31st, 2026. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I
130have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The chair votes aye and the treasurer's report is accepted. Thank you, Treasurer Hartland. Certainly. Our next item is under unfinished business. We will review our language access plan. So I would like to invite Dr. Ertl up to the table and turn it over to Dr. Mary Puri-Reed. Thank you, Chair Andreessen. And in addition to Dr. Ertl, we'll have our Interim Director of Communications, Toya Stewart Downey, join us as well for this presentation. So as was previously mentioned in describing who we serve here in Hopkins, our students, families, and staff represent more than 70. heritage languages. And so the state required language access plan ensures equitable access to district information, services, educational opportunities. Remember we talked
131a lot about engagement earlier in the workshop because we need to remove language barriers and support effective two-way communication. This plan has been put together by a number of specialists with some content expertise and It will be living in the communications office and managed by the communications staff. We will partner with Dr. Thomas on the timeline for posting and hiring a permanent director of communications and marketing. So that is in process now. But in the meanwhile, we do want to update you with what this language access plan calls for and requires us to do. as we engage in continuous improvement around family and staff and student communication. So I'll turn it over to Dr. Ertl and Director Stewart Downey. Thank you. Hello again, Dr. Mary Peary-Reed and board members. Thank you for inviting us to
132revisit this topic. We were here in November to kind of share a first draft of our district's language access plan. So tonight, Toya and I are going to be providing a brief update, and I do want to give a shout out to Markel Rios, who did a heavy lift on the development of this plan. He's our outgoing ML coordinator, and I'd hoped that he would be here tonight to share. this with you, but he has a family emergency, so he was not able to come. So as a reminder, a state law requiring Minnesota school districts to adopt a language access plan for families with limited English proficiency was passed in 2024 with compliance being mandatory this school year. This is, we've... Tonight we'll go over a few key refinements since our November presentation and including
133how we're approaching the use of artificial intelligence and then outline our next steps for implementation of this plan. So even though this work is a legal requirement, it's also really critical to point out that it's a reflection of our district's longstanding commitment to vigilant equity and inclusion. And I also want to let you all know that while the language access plan as a composition is new, it's really reflective of work streams that are already and have been present in our district for a long time. So since November, And feel free to page through the document as I'm talking. Since November, Markel Rios has partnered with Dr. Tiffany Nielsen Winkelmann to strengthen the guidance around artificial intelligence and also a lot of gratitude to Interim Director Toya for helping us establish some clarity around what the
134cadence of this work is going to be and where the ownership lies. So at its core, this plan ensures that all students and families, regardless of language, have equitable access to information, services, and educational opportunities. It's grounded in our commitment to belonging, authentic inclusivity, and holistic engagement so that all families can fully participate as partners in their child's education. And I know I've told all of you this before, but I am an EL teacher at heart still, and so this is work that's... been my lifelong work it's really important to me personally as you review this plan that's in front of you a couple of highlights that i just want to point out so one it includes clear definitions and procedures for language identification and communication and why that matters is it's very important that
135families that may not have english as their preferred language are still given the opportunities to be selective in the services that our district provides to their students. It is not on us to require that of families. They have rights to opt into services, and so that's very important. It outlines best practices for translation and interpretation and including some information about American Sign Language support. It incorporates guidance for our staff on communication expectations and tools, really codifies information that our staff is given, but packages it nicely in one document. And then finally, just as a reminder, we are going to revisit this periodically, and so we will work with Toya and her team to put it on, I think, what you... guys like to call a production schedule. So we will have a production schedule where
136we can integrate feedback and make any changes or tweaks to the document as needed. So at a high level, there's a couple of components that this document does, and this slide kind of provides some of that information. So first, when enrollment happens, that is our first brush with families to identify any language needs that may lead to state-required assessments and ensuring that we have accurate and current information about family preferences. So one of the things that we do that... We implemented I mean it's been probably six or seven years now That is very important is that we do ask families their preferred language of communication, which is not synonymous with their families first language, so That's a nuance that is very important because we don't want to make assumptions based on language that a family
137reports is in their house. We don't want to assume that that's automatically what they're going to want communication in. And also preferred language is something that can change. And so it's important that we ask that question once when families enroll and continue to ask that and update that information. Second of all, this document outlines a little bit about some of our multilingual learner programming, including our teachers, what our program coordinator does, and then also how our student success cultural liaisons play a role in building relationships and supporting family engagement. Again, some of the things that we were talking about earlier. And then finally, we ensure clear and consistent communication through interpretation services, translated materials, and processes for staff to communicate in families' preferred languages. And Toy mentioned we have tools that allow us to text
138message, voicemail, things like that. So together, these elements create a consistent system of access across our schools. So a nod to AI. We, first of all, in response to your feedback from our last presentation, we wanted to share a little bit about how we are thinking about the use of AI within this plan. We do think that AI has a potential to expand access, particularly by increasing the timeliness and frequency of communication with our multilingual families and supporting everyday translation needs. And at the same time, like with most things related to AI, we're very clear about what the guardrails are. So when and if AI is used, it will only be used for an initial translation, but must be vetted with bilingual staff and interpreters. Human review is required in particular for high stakes or
139sensitive communication and use is limited to district approved tools. We have a very, very rigorous vetting process, possibly sometimes over rigorous, but it's really important that we are putting the right tools in front of our staff and students with clear guidance on how to use those. We're committed to making sure that Anything that is translated is grounded in accuracy, protecting trust and strengthening partnerships and not replacing the relationships that are central to this work. So we do see the potential for AI translation to enhance what we're able to do but never replace. So just a note on sort of what's next with this plan. Because we have a printed version, we are going to make copies available at things like conferences, back-to-school nights, and things like that. And we will work to familiarize our staff
140with the resource and its use. Speaking of AI, one thing I learned how to do recently is create a video out of a slide deck with talking points. And it doesn't even have to be my voice, which is fabulous. So we will be able to make a staff-facing video that leads staff through some of the best practices when you're using an interpreter, some of the do's and don'ts when using AI. And then we do plan to publish and maintain this on the district website, and again, including a regular production schedule. Some of you know through our ESAC committee, but we are going to be commencing a multilingual or ML program review process starting next year. And a big part of that is going to be focus group feedback sessions with families and students who participate
141in EL services or ML services. And so we think that that will also inform sort of next iterations or help us address any gaps that our families are experiencing in terms of communication. And then we are in the early stages of an RFP for a new provider for our translation and interpretation services. So that's something else that we're going to be looking at, just making sure that we're getting the consistent quality with the services that we're getting and that we are partnering with providers who maybe can leverage some technological tools that weren't around when we signed the current contract. I think lastly, I want everybody to know that this is evolving work, and I think we're very proud of the progress that we've made in terms of codifying some of the things related to language
142and access. But as with anything, there's always more to learn, and so this will be a living document and something that we plan to come back to and touch frequently. That is the update, and I would be happy, Toya and I would be very happy to take any questions. There's one thing that I do want to add. I did check with a lot of school districts around the metro, including the larger school districts, and some that neighbor us, and it seems like this work is owned. A lot of communications teams own this work, along with teaching and learning and with special education. There's a lot of collaboration in multilingual learning departments. cross collaboration depending on the district they decide who actually owns the work and some of it is aligned with the communications and translations
143in some districts they have communications over they supervise translations and interpretation others they don't so it's really up to you know hopkins to decide what they want but it feels like having it live in communications communications taking the ownership with collaboration from the other department seems to make the most sense and it's what i've seen a lot of other districts doing so thank you for that any questions from my board colleagues director hyman thanks chair andreessen thank you so much for putting this together And I appreciate that it's an evolving document that we'll continue to refine. I have two questions. The first is whether any community feedback of our foreign language speaking community members was incorporated in here in any way. And my second question is with respect to... language barriers related to disability as
144opposed to English language speaking language of choice and just wanted to know How and if that was considered to be included as well sure absolutely well I will say We did engage with our EL staff, our ML staff. I'm still using the, you know, sort of the dated, our ML staff in the development of the plan. And to acknowledge your first question. This plan meets sort of the requirements of the statutes But it has not we have not yet sought feedback with our ML families and we'll do that as through our program review starting next year in terms of Addressing any language barriers related to disability We could add that to this plan. It's not there right now by and large because the character of the plan is really meant to address by language. And
145so I think if that is an iteration that we would like to include in our plan, I think that's a great idea. And I could work with Director Contreras and get some of those components in here as well. I noticed the sign language, there's a sign language interpretation in there as well. So as long as we stay aware of our community's needs and are appropriately addressing those with language barriers due to disability on a rolling basis, that would be great. Absolutely. Thank you for raising that. It makes me think about Director Hartland's question earlier. This would be a key component of a communications plan. I think those would be some really strong considerations to put in what is that really comprehensive communications plan. I like that a lot. Thank you. Thank you. Chair Andreessen? Yes,
146Vice Chair Ruppro. I have a quick question. Thank you all so much for doing the language. The language access plan, I appreciate it. This is more of a fundamental question. Are there any opportunities for us to learn or to maybe attend a class or a session and just kind of teach us some fundamental language so we're able to communicate with families? Because I know sometimes I do have, and it is our personal responsibility as well, but just to know it was offered through the district that sometimes I'll have a Somali family come to me and begin to speak, and I can't. you know, like interpret, but I would love to at least like know some of the basic words to be able to respond. That's such a good idea. Kind of. I really like that
147idea. You know, we are very fortunate that we do have many bilingual staff in our system. And I think it's almost like... I don't what do they get called sort of that level it's like polite ability in a language I think we could work maybe with our well maybe with our community ed or certainly provide some opportunities for learning and practicing just even common greetings I think I know just from experience of having classrooms full of students who all have lots of different languages I think even making an effort to do a greeting really helps students, helps our students and our families feel seen when we kind of make that extra effort. So I really love that idea. Thank you. Oh, yeah, absolutely. I mean, I work with students and they teach me a few
148words, taught me a few words, like Hoyo is mom, like Abdi is dad. So like I feel comfortable speaking to their parents when they come, but I think it's just a great opportunity for us to. It's bilingual. Yeah, thank you. It makes a difference. Those little things make a difference. They really do. Chair Andreessen? Yes, Treasurer Hartland. I mostly have a comment. I am a former sign language interpreter, in fact, used to work as a contracted sign language interpreter for the district at the high school, and so I very much appreciate the specific call-out of what a qualified interpreter is, as well as the tips for a... for our teachers and staff to work with interpreters and I was going to have a question about how would that information move from this document to training
149for the staff and you answered that. I'm excited that you're finding a good positive use for AI and other tech tools and so I think that that is. just so important that especially as our community becomes more diverse that we become native users of interpreters and that it becomes something that we can all that we know how to do easily readily that it does not ever appear to be a burden on our families and I like the idea Vice Chair Roper of learning some some common phrases from our community I could help with ASL I love it I think What is common right now is that every time we are approaching conferences or something like that, oftentimes our ML staff will provide a little primer for classroom teachers as a reminder of how to work
150with interpreters, which I think is fantastic. We always have to remember that not every family who uses another language at home has a child that is receiving EL services. Those two things aren't synonymous. And so it really isn't just the responsibility of our ML staff to know how to work with interpreters. And so I do think, you know, by codifying this into a plan, it'll provide... I think an opportunity to engage in that conversation and make sort of the do's and don'ts a little bit more accessible and take maybe some of that responsibility off of the shoulders of the ML teachers, even though they do a great job with it. Really, everybody can learn how to be familiar with working with interpreters. Thank you. Thank you. I would just like to express gratitude for the
151work that went into this plan. I appreciate us having it and also that it is grounded in some of our core values and strategic plans. So thank you for that. And I would just like to state that to Director Hyman's ask about disabilities. I would also like to see included in this plan not only ASL interpretation but the ways in which we use assistive technologies and communication. A lot of that is in and of itself an alternative language. And I think I discussed this. Back in November as well that that needs to be part of this plan from my perspective because we do use it in our schools. We not only have. Devices that help with language and communication, but we also have picture schedules, picture communication systems as well, and I know that in
152our school buildings are ML instructors are working in collaboration with and with students who use those different language delivery systems. So if we could have that be part of this plan, I think it's really important that we move forward with not just ASL, but a recognition that there are other ways that people with differing abilities communicate in our system. Yeah, fantastic. Thank you. Thanks. Chair Andreessen. Yes. Yes. Hi, Dr. Ertl. I have a quick question, I think. Do you anticipate increased costs for all this really important, worthy work? Just, you know, in the context of the budget we're going to be talking about, I just want to make sure that, you know, we have the money or at least we're planning for those expenses. It's a worthy question. And I think translating documents is a
153very expensive endeavor. And so, And it's sort of a lengthy endeavor too. So for example, the document that's been translated into Somali. So we use a service to provide that. And then we got it back and we asked Ayan, our Somali student success cultural liaison, to look it over. And she looked it over and she was like, oh. Like, there was a significant second round of human work that went into it, and so it is a costly endeavor. The challenge, any time we do translations, and I'm saying this not because it should... preclude us from doing so but the challenge is that anytime we do a translation we want the document to have some staying power at the same time this is a document that we're also committed to keeping up to date and so
154there is some tension there for sure but i think it's an expense that we have to acknowledge and plan for just as kind of a normal part of our operations so So I guess boiled up, do we have, it is a part of the 27, 28 budget or 26, 27. Yeah, this the translation and development of this document was paid for out of the innovation design and learning budget, but I think going forward we probably need to maybe have a line item or an allocation that just specifically acknowledges it so that it's not called into question year over year, but that we know that we know we're going to make updates to it and we know that there's just a stable budget that's going to take care of that yeah well i think not the
155concern but the the worry for me is not necessarily this document right okay like it's it's the plan but like all this other worthy and important work that we're planning to do right like the in-person interpretation and things like that like That I could see that potentially blowing up her budget and so if that's necessary then we need to plan for it as all I'm saying. Absolutely. Okay. Absolutely and and and to be fair it is an expense that impacts some of our buildings more than others and so we also have to really think about resource allocation that makes sense based on the community that attends that school. So yeah, it's a concern and I think it's actually something that we've been talking about at cabinet and we'll continue to talk about how to how
156to do that well both the document-based translations, but as important, the in-person interpretation. We have current ongoing costs through our current translation provider, Weaving Cultures, and so the idea is to better understand the trend. spending per building because our populations are different and also to begin a request for proposal process to consider additional translation providers to identify a partner that's both cost-effective and provides accurate translation services. So it's currently part of our budget. Yeah, I was gonna say that we are doing a lot of this already so we're already it's It's not that just because we have this, we're going to start providing these services. We have been most of it all along. Yeah. The MBA in me just needs to make sure that we're not going to walk in the hall. I appreciate that
157question. I also appreciate that we probably do need to transition to being intentional about this and making it a line item so that it's something we can monitor. I think that's a great way to move forward. Well, I think... anything that you can plan for on the onset is better insurance that we that we mean what we say that we're going to keep this updated and keep it as a living document and continue to improve how we engage with all of our community yeah thank you thank you thank you so we do have a board action um that um i would look for a motion that the board accepts the language access plan as presented So moved. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. Any further
158discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The chair votes aye, and the language access plan is approved. Thank you both so much, and your whole team. Thank you both so much. Please convey to Mr. Rios our gratitude. Thank you. Thank you. And wow, applause. So now our first order of new business is our Transportation Services RFP. I would invite Director Williams to the board table and turn it over to Superintendent Miri Piri-Reed. We could do it. Whatever your plan is. I don't have a plan. We can do it after this. Sure. Okay. Okay, thank you, Chair Andreessen. So for context, for our school board and community, after five years of being in contract with our current and primary school bus provider, Hopkins Public Schools recently engaged in a request
159for proposal, RFP process for considering which bus transportation. provider can best meet the needs of the Hopkins community for at least the next four years. And so Hopkins administration is recommending to our school board to approve a transportation services contract with Schmidte and Sons for the 26-27 school year. and the three years after that and We do have with us Katherine and Michael for board from Schmidty and sons welcome and our Assistant director of transportation Aisha Williams and our assistant superintendent. Dr. Lightfoot. Thank you for being here And then we're very grateful also for this I would say a really thorough and wonderful partnership with Catalyst who helped us manage the RFP process and helped us vet all of the responses and interview the top contenders. And so Ryan, Kleinjen, and Kyle, is it treats
160or trites? Trites. I was hoping it wasn't treats. So trites, thank you for being here this evening and I will turn it over to the team to provide an overview of that RFP process. Now we did recently share with our school board a number of... the deliverables that we're working on internally to improve the quality of service to our families and then after this evening We're putting together communication for our community outlining what some of those things are so I think this conversation is centered mostly on the RFP process and this particular Contract, but we would of course welcome questions from the board and I'll turn it over to who's who's starting then Ryan will start. Ryan Klein, John Catalyst Sourcing. We basically work as an extension of districts negotiating and managing sourcing processes on
161their behalf. Completely independent where it's pretty awesome. We get to actually work with the district like we are just part of the district in these processes. So tonight what I'll do is just kind of walk you through an overview of what this process looks like so you can kind of see the beginning to the end here as far as where we're at right now in this. Who's got the next slide? There we go. Basically what we'll walk you through is kind of an overview of the selection process itself, what the objectives were and how they were developed, the response, the evaluation, and the recommendation that we have in front of you. Next slide. Now, in public procurement, bid is thrown around an awful lot. And it is, for a large purchase or a large contract,
162it is a very common method used. Now, when it comes to transportation, we actually do have different options, and one of which is a process which is not a request for bid, but instead is a request for proposal using a lot of the same steps you would for a bid, such as public advertising and stuff like that. What it does afford the district is a little bit more of a collaboration to move into a direct negotiation so things can move beyond just the price of this, the price of that. We could actually really explore how these things can solve the issues and enhance transportation. So the process really revolved around utilizing that tool to move into direct negotiation. which ultimately resulted in the contract finalizing of the contract which is now complete and the ultimate
163award. Next slide. Just to give you a little bit of a feel for for the timeline on it. It's certainly not something that that happens overnight These conversations started well back into into last winter Really discussing everything from the strategy that be most appropriate to get where we want to go to what are the best steps to make sure that we're capturing not only what the district sees operationally, but what the what the feedback from the public is you'll see that in me see was a February we actually held a virtual town hall and invited several members of the community come in walk them through some of the things we had been talking about and and allowed them to give feedback as to what was important to them and what what they wanted us to
164focus on in this process next slide out of that process were the kind of the high level objectives that we looked at going into this One of which was consolidation to achieve universal consistent experience for all students and families. Transportation can be a very emotional service and from our understanding, the inconsistencies that the district has had to navigate over the past five years aren't without consequence. So one of the focus points that we really did look at is Can we find someone who can truly become an extension of the district and not, Naisha and her team trying to put pieces in place of little extensions to make that extension. We wanted to align with an organization that has a proven track record of effectively doing this type of thing. So it was a different look.
165If you remember five years ago, the implementation was a brand new provider. This time around we actually looked at it. We we made it a an actual evaluation point to look at the prior track record both in how they've handled new districts how they've transitioned off of other other carriers to ultimately Land where we think we can we can uptick and improve the offering to all of our families Securing an agreement to maximize the transportation budget, and this will flow right into the next bullet point because that was the one that was recognized from our parent committee. I'm not doing my job if I'm not looking at the dollars and cents of this. Objective one is always to get the right fit, but that is what folks like Kyle and my team special on is
166understanding the marketplace, understanding what's appropriate. and being creative within finding those options. To our last one, which was very much the feedback from our parents, which was some frustration over changes that had to be made for budget reasons with the walk lines and that. And it was made abundantly clear, let's find a way to extend this, as well as we're looking at areas in which, as the district might grow with open enrollment and that, being able to extend this type of thing to help that growth of the district. Next slide. I won't get into the real technicality stuff of what a transportation process looked like, but I will tell you this, in my 12, 14 years of doing this, by far the best turnout we've ever seen. And there were steps taken in the strategy
167to assure that. We had full service, meaning that they could come in and do every single kind of bus that we operate to serve our community. We had six companies come in. If you want to compare that back to five years ago, that process, I believe they had two. Type 3 only, these are your van companies. We also had an additional four companies that came in that were interested in helping with that part of the business. So it definitely did give us some opportunities and some flexibility to look at options. Next slide. We won't walk through it piece by piece, but to give you an idea of kind of how these proposals were weighed, ranging from obviously the total cost, but all the way down to how they implement. You know, during this process that
168was something they had to answer is if you get the yes, what's this going to look like? Because it isn't a snap of the fingers and all of a sudden all the buses are out and the new buses are in. And so items like that, reputation references, everybody that was looked at was thoroughly vetted. Their references, they were provided where talked to. Generally, it's our policy, too. We'll look around to see if we can't find other people that weren't necessarily named as references that we know have that connection, because sometimes the best information you get is from the people that aren't on the piece of paper that says they'll say nice things about us. Other things within that really just tie back to things that were known to serve an operationally healthy and efficient transportation
169department. In this process, like I said, we're going after an extension of the district. We don't look at it as, hey, these are the outside people that drive the buses. We're looking at this is Hopkins Public School Transportation Department, an extension of that. During that process and evaluation, if you remember that first objective, we moved away from the Type 3 only so that we could continue to pursue the goal of that universal experience, everything from the technology that can be associated with that, that no family should have a different look based on what part of the city they're in or what kind of vehicle their child requires for transportation in. The other things looked at was their familiarity with even the current district technology implications, integrations, excuse me, and going through to see where would
170that natural fit be that everyone is on the same page from day one, that we're all speaking the same language. Following that, any non-incumbent we brought in for an interview in a day and age of everything being online and that, there's something to be said for having people sit down in the room and we were very fortunate to be able to have Dr. Mary Berry sit down. Naisha, we were able to put a room full of people and sit down with these candidates and start to ask questions and let them ask questions and just get a feel for this because I always say, I stopped sort of calling anything a partnership for other reasons, but with that extension, it is something you got to have right. You have to, they have to see your vision,
171you have to see their vision, and we have to align ourselves. And that was a tremendous opportunity within that. Following that, it became discussions, creativity. I have a lot of appreciation for the team over at Schmidty & Sons as we were able to navigate and look through things and say, okay, what is the best way we can structure an arrangement that makes good sense and is sustainable for them, but also helps the district hit its objectives as to what we set out to do. And ultimately that is how it was selected, looking at everything from their fit in our culture to their ability to build their services, to their building, to build their fee structure to that of what will help the district maximize transportation services to the current students. And ultimately, whether it's reverting
172back and adding them back or expanding the district's reach. Next slide. Just a summary of it. Yeah, I don't know. I'd probably make them blush if I told them things I looked up and people we talked to along the way in the track record that we definitely unveiled or learned more and more about through this vetting process. But it is with that kind of extensive process that we are recommending that we move to a single sole source provider with Schmidty and Sons, which is... something we're all very excited about for achieving that objective of that consistent universal experience one of the things that worked out very well with that objective is the structure of the agreement It is that of which it is of all the ones we had it puts us in the best
173position to restore gen ed routes into as possible based on obviously there's a budget factor still there but you know there's only so many things you can do and their expertise as well as the structuring of their pricing is actually going to be a better fit for that than our current contract. Outside of that, yes, collaboration. And collaboration is everything on these type of relationships. And they exhibited that with every round of it is to understand what we're trying to do, be very transparent with what they can, couldn't do. Through this whole process, there was never a no or why. It was always walk through and understand where both sides are coming from so that we get to a place where we're getting. hitting our objectives but we're also in a place where our partner
174will be successful with it. Well, thank you, Ryan and Kyle, for just making sure that you walked us through this whole entire process from December, well, maybe November, all the way until now. We're not done yet, so I just want to thank you two. And I don't want to put you on the spot, but I wanted to make sure that I give the opportunity to introduce Catherine and Mike Foreboard from Schmidty & Sons. And if you would like to say something, just to make sure that we can introduce you to the community, you're welcome to do so. Sure. Well, good evening, Board Chair Andreessen, members of the board, and Superintendent Dr. Amir Puri-Reed. I want to thank everybody for allowing us the opportunity to sit in front of you today. Mike and I have been
175in transportation for nearly 20 years, and our company, Schmitty & Sons, has been a business for almost 80 years, which is a true testament, I think, to how dedicated we are to the communities we serve. We believe in establishing long-term relationships with our community, with our students. It's very important to us, both personally as parents and professionally. for what we do every day. Something that makes us very unique in terms of other transportation companies is that we were a family-owned business up until 2016, and now we are actually an employee-owned company, celebrating our 10-year anniversary as employee-owned this year. We take a lot of pride in that, and I know so do all of our... all of our employees that we work with that truly believe in the same mission that we have, which again
176is serving our community and building a strong relationship. And we're excited to be here in Hopkins. We want to dive in right away. We have our first hiring event actually scheduled for this week. So we are, we're going to hit the ground running. And like I said, we want to be involved here throughout the summer and for the long term. So thank you. Do you have anything to add? So I want to thank you two for the entire process. It's been a long process, but we've been able to work together, start building the relationship with our teams and our partnership already. And so I'm looking forward to the hiring event that's already scheduled for this week. The work that has been put into all of that already, it's been a lot and it's been helpful.
177So I don't have anything else from my team. I don't know if you have anything, Dr. Lightfoot, but if not. Yeah, no, I mean the comprehensive experience we were able to dedicate and create with this, I think is kind of a testament to everybody's commitment to looking at this comprehensively with some specific attention to the items that the board has brought forward, as well as the community. And now it's really an energizing and engaging opportunity to build the implementation plan. So as we've been partnering, it's the first step into a launch of the next steps. And the next steps are ahead of us, and we are looking forward to continuing the great work that we did to get us here. Thank you. I appreciate... that you laid out the process by which we got to
178being here this evening. I'm also really grateful that you're here with us at the board table. So if we do have questions, you're here to answer them. Thank you so much for that. And I would open it up to my board colleagues to ask questions just quickly with a reminder. of what we are approving this evening, which is the RFP. And that we'll be entering into it with Schmidty and Sons is the recommendation. And also just, we have two additional items on our agenda this evening, and it is already almost nine o'clock. So just with those reminders, I would open it up to feedback or board questions. Chair Andreessen? Yes, Director Thompson. Well, first of all, thank you so much for this presentation. And, you know, I'm very heartened that it feels like, you know,
179we had the partners with Catalyst taking us through this process. It's been, seems very robust, you know, seeing how much, you know, how many companies were interested in it. Just, it gives me a sense of confidence that, you know, we found a really great partner here. So it's a, it feels exciting. in that way and i you know read through most of the 20 page rfp and you know very detailed it's like it seems like it thought of everything um but i guess sort of the question that i have just so i'm understanding is when you know and i heard it mentioned the structure um so i don't know if this is kind of a question for catalyst or for um assistant superintendent Lightfoot, but I was kind of paging through like, what's the bottom
180line? And we see exhibit A then has sort of the price and the rates. So am I understanding this, that it's like, these are the rates. Hopkins tell us how many of these buses and full-day routes and whatnot wants and then that's how much we're paying assuming we can get the drivers and whatnot right I understand that correctly okay so I'm seeing nodding so I am so then is that different from how we were paying our previous one or is it It was the same arrangement type of thing? What you're saying, there's a couple pieces. I mean, when you look at a rate chart like that, one is it's sort of like looking at an ingredient list or a menu. So there are a couple pieces. One, with that focus in Gen Ed, if you
181look at the current agreement, those route rates dropped by about, I don't know, was it 10, 8 or 10 percent, and that was a focus point. When you look at things like HA, highly mobile and special education reimbursable ones. So it's a balancing act for any district with their budget and making sure that you kind of align your costs accordingly to what is going to ultimately be reimbursed and what applies to what we're trying to take care of here in the community. And the structure of that allowed us by going lower into those items. Now, the other piece of that is where during that interview process, that collaboration, because You can have cheap ingredients but go through all of them. You can have very expensive ingredients and go through very few of them. The nature
182of if you looked at the contracts side by side, and now that I've basically kind of given that high level of how we look at how, you know, with the reimbursables and that, you can see where it was a collaborative strategy to trade out and set them up accordingly so that we are maximizing the district's dollars to the very best we can. to restore and address the demands. Great, thank you so much. And I think that that can't be echoed enough is that this agreement allows us to restore service and routes in a way that places us in a better position than we were last year. So I think just even that level of accomplishment through the diligence of the work and looking at the collaboration on how that could be structured and truly that
183was, I would say, one of the greater takeaways of the experience. as well as the stability of the company. So if we think about the rates, that's one piece, but then we also think about the company and the stability and the things that they're able to offer in addition to the rates. So there's a couple pieces. And the other piece that I'll add is that even down to the detail of how the dispatch is serviced in a way that our community had asked for, and when we heard that... the staffing piece. I don't know if you could mention that just because I know that that's always a point. How are you staffed after hours? I thought that was a particularly impressive model that you have to respond to questions that come in and the way
184you're structured. Sure, so we we have dispatch open in the building anytime a bus is operating outside of those hours so after hours on a weekend We have two other locations that are operating Upwards of 20 hours a day sometimes 21 hours a day And our phones like for this location will roll over to that location so they're able to talk to a live person so you're having an activity trip or a Sports trip or whatever it may be on a Saturday somebody's looking for something, needs something, they can talk to somebody live and via technology we can easily get a hold of the driver and figure out the situation. So it's just something that's added that sometimes, you know, that happens something outside the six to six that we can take care of. And
185those were the additional features that I think truly through the process and the community connection we were able to use to guide us toward the selection. Thank you. I did just that was like one of my questions. So can I just do a quick follow up with that? I I know that well how I've experienced our current situation is that sometimes working with staff either at the district level or in particular at the site level. could be difficult. So I'm wondering, was that a consideration? Sounds like it was. And then also, how do you kind of, I heard a sense of at the beginning that your organization kind of embeds themselves with the district. So wondering if that kind of takes care of that communication piece or. Sure, so each one of the locations that
186serves as a district will have a dedicated project manager, we call them, which is essentially the general manager for the location. They're the main point of contact with the district. we'll have a full staffing of people that will be assigned to the location that will help that will be specialized here in hopkins to handle any of those specific location questions and then also the additional support from the rest of the company should it be beyond the scope of a normal day-to-day situation that they may need help with Great, thank you. Yeah, if I may just add very briefly we were based here in Minnesota We have other operations throughout the Twin Cities Our staff is very supportive of each other and of our communities and like I said we'll make sure that that you know
187dedication and extends here and That we work together to you know, we have very strong relationships with all the school districts who you work with and I think that's how a long-term partnership or relationship has to function, and we'll make sure that we're dedicated to that. Thank you. Chair Andrews, can I ask a quick question? Yes, Vice Chair Roper. Hi, thank you all for being here tonight, and thank you all for doing the presentation. Just a really quick question. Have you all worked with electric school buses or have any interest in working with electric school buses? We actually do have an electric school bus. We've had an electric school bus since 2017. So we had the first electric bus here in the Midwest. It was an E-Lion Class C bus. So we certainly do have
188experience with electric buses. We understand some of the unique challenges that go with that and also how to adapt to overcome some of those challenges and continuously monitoring different opportunities and different... you know ways and strategies that it may be a fit for us to deploy more but just looking you know at each one of those independently and seeing what's a good fit for all the stakeholders involved thank you Chair Andreessen. Yes, Director Zhao. Hi. So I think to pivot back off that, I see there's a fuel cost surcharge, which 100% makes sense. And with prices being what they are, is there more of an impetus for electric school buses? I mean, what's the break-even here? I think for the electric school buses, it all depends on the applications, which we all have been following
189the processes and the new applications and the deadlines and things like that. With Schmidty and Sons coming on board now, the conversation just needs to begin with us, well, has started with us, to just see if there is a fit for our feasibility with the district and the application process. So we're open to looking into it, applying. and making sure that we collaborate. They have one school bus, but it's not necessarily connected to Hopkins so far yet. But this application that was mentioned here today, we are aware of it and have already been to the presentation and looking into seeing what we can do to apply. Thanks. Great. Well, thank you so much. I would look. Well with that I would look for a motion for us to approve the contract the RFP with Contract
190with Schmidty and sons for the 2026-27 school year So moved. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second any further discussion? Seeing none all those in favor. Please say aye aye Any opposed? The chair votes aye and the contract is approved. Thank you so much for being here with us this evening Thank you. Thank you. Congratulations. I look forward to a great relationship and with that we would we will move to the two Items that were pulled for the consent calendar. I would ask the board if we could consider them both as one line item Is that okay? so with that I would ask the board to consider the bond would contract as well as website management services Chair Andreessen? Yes. Can I ask my questions? Okay,
191thanks. I appreciate being able to pull these off. I just had some quick questions because I just want to be sure that I understand what I'm looking at. So first, in talking with the Bondwood, it says it's a payment management platform. And earlier in the Treasurer's Report, we had heard about how IBM had purchased application software technology, which is what we had had. We went to Oracle. going back to AST that was purchased by IBM. So how does Bondwood play in with AST that we have? Yeah, so let me just do the landscape. The landscape that we're working on right now is the main system that we have is Skyward. And as the main ERP that we operate, there are some components that Skyward serves, and then there are some additional components that are part
192of the service suite that gives information into Skyward to utilize more effectively. Right now we're using a product called Smartsheets. So for example, with all of our time cards, those components, that is an interface that we have. That has been an interface that we've used for a period of time. That does not have the full capacity of what we need as a district. And we know that as we look at what we will need moving forward as we make the move to the next version of Skyward, the upgrade is called Skyward Q. And as we're doing that, what we're looking for are kind of the preparation pieces of a couple components. This actually dovetails into the purchasing policy work that you did before. This is an outcropping of that because part of the work, and
193this is actually one of the test processes, so I'm glad it was pulled because what it does is it lets us know that this process is working based on the policy that you put forward with purchasing. Because what we're hoping to do is to utilize this set of Services that are provided here to track every invoice, to build every invoice into the structure of payments, have all of the payments tracked through this with a multi-approver system built throughout the district. So if the invoice goes into West Junior High, the invoice doesn't have to get inter-office mailed to the business office. It's uploaded right at West Junior High. It goes in through the interface. The codes are pre-built so that the codes can populate right into Skyward. It then tracks to any contractual MACs, which was
194a big feature we were looking for, because it can track to the MACs, and specifically when you have contractor contracts, if you think back to that policy upgrade that we were looking at, we can track to the MACs and then lock any payment so that it would not go over the MACs. Some of these are newly programmed features. It is built, and this is the other component we were looking for, is it was built within the UFARS code structure so that we're able then to have that dynamic and that interface really as kind of one of the forward management systems that we're looking to upgrade with our business service area. So just a lot of kudos to the work that our new controller, Emily Westrom, did to pull this information to put it together. And
195then we compared about four options or opportunities, one of those being smart sheets, because we knew with this new interface that we would need to upgrade an interface and were pleased with what we found and what capabilities we know will be forthcoming. That was really helpful. I appreciate hearing that. Makes me I can see the value in it is what I'm trying to say as well and You know speaking of value this doesn't seem like a super high dollar ticket item so, okay I think I am square on bond would I can turn it back if anybody else and actually I was going to reference that the The contract that was pulled falls underneath our threshold at $9,500. So I think it's a nice testament to how it's working. Any other comments, questions on this
196item? Great. We can move to the next item that was pulled from consent for discussion. Website maintenance contract. Thanks chair Andreessen. I just had a question on that if I may. Yep. Okay. Thank you. Um, so just, just to understand this one. So this is both our vendor who hosts our website as well as does mass notifications. That's, that's correct. So they do the two things. Yes. Okay. And then, um, It looks like there's a small $6,000 type of fee to change graphics on the website, and then we pay this annual fee for the mass notification abilities. Am I understanding that correct? Yes. So the website, Final Site, became the content management system in 2019. And since then... And keeping up with sort of evolving trends and what needs to happen, we're interested in restructuring
197our main navigation to use different headers. and sub pages. And right now we don't have the ability to do that because Final Site at the time allowed for customization for school districts to be able to do this, but they don't do that anymore. And so in order for us to design the website to make it easier to navigate, to reorganize the pages the way we have determined that they need to be reorganized to better serve our community, there's a $6,000 fee. for Final Site to go in and do the work so that our team can make the necessary changes. It's a one-time fee, but it gives us the ability to make our website more robust and more responsive than it currently is. And so the way I've described it is it's kind of like when
198you buy a new car and you get the basic model. But, you know, then you decide you really wish you would have paid for some bells and whistles, like, you know, navigation in cold days or whatever. So I think it's time for Hopkins to make some changes to the website because the needs are different now than they were in 2019. Yeah, that makes sense. And then is the mass notification like an emailing platform or does that also do texting? Texting? Is that what you said? Yeah. Does it send texts? Yes. It's a mass notification system. We use it for mobile calls and text messages. And it's a product that Final Sight offers as a mass notification system, so it's different than the content management system. But everything that they do is sort of synced, and
199so it gives us a little more, if you will, you know, it's more synced. All right. That was really helpful. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other questions or comments? I would like to say that I think that the Hopkins School District is showing themselves to be a really good steward and partner with vendors. When I looked over this contract, I saw us making sure that we were taking care of that vendor relationship. So thank you for that. I appreciate that on your behalf. So with that I would look for a motion to approve these two contracts I have a motion. Is there a second second? Oh, what double second? Any further discussion Seeing none all those in favor. Please say aye aye Any opposed? The chair votes aye and the contracts are approved. Thank you
200both for being with us and Assistant Superintendent Lightfoot you get to stay up here with us As our next order of business is the staffing resolution. I will turn it over to dr. Mary Perry Reed Thank You chair Andreessen. So every year part of the staffing process does require us to Sit down with individuals within our system who may be impacted by a staffing adjustment and then notify the board and gain board approval for adjustments or Ending individual employment contracts at the end of the 25-26 school year and this is due to uncertainties in staffing needs or adjustments from this year's staffing structures to next year's staffing structures. And so there are two resolutions in front of our school board this evening. And I will have our assistant superintendent, Lightfoot, who also works with our
201HR professionals, provide some additional description. And then I do believe... These resolutions require a roll call vote. Thank you. It's good to be with you this evening. This is the difficult work. As identified earlier, these are the terminations that are required by state statute, and we are following the timeline as we look at the budget information as identified. There are some differences in the resolution, and I'll walk through each of the resolutions, ask for questions. Anything I can elaborate on, I'm more than happy to do so. And know that these are meeting the terms of what we find ourselves with resource to do right now. As I remind the board, this work is ongoing. And yes, the statute requires us to do the release of licensed individuals. I do need the roll call vote. and
202as we have any changes or modifications that may come up with budget resources that may change individuals leaving and creating vacancies that individuals on this list can then be considered for all of that work does happen after this first decision and allows us to continue that work throughout the course of not only now but through the next school year as well So I give that as context. The first resolution is the termination and non-renewal of temporary teaching contracts. These contracts are annual contracts. So for example, our in-building substitutes are contracted on an annual basis. So we contract and then we, by statute, end those at the end of the year. So that is... a normal part of this process. And in addition, sometimes we get licensures that are called OFPs, which are out of field
203permissions and hard to fill positions. Those are annual as well in some sets of circumstances that we must then release at the end of the year. So when you look at this temporary teaching contract resolution, that is what you see here. So I want to just give you context on that. and am open for any additional questions related to the resolution for the termination and non-renewal of temporary teaching contracts. Chair Andreessen? Yes, Director Hyman. Thank you, Dr. Lightfoot. I just have a quick question, a clarification question with respect to this list. You mentioned we're required to do this pursuant to statute. Are the individuals on this list, their temporary teaching contracts, they do end this year? And can you clarify whether any of these individuals will be considered for renewal if and when there is
204the ability to make... Make room in our budget for that absolutely So for example with our in building sub positions We know that these will end at this year and and then as we look at the need which we know we have We build in temporary contracts for the next year. Those are annual contracts, but by statute to Look at this as a temporary component. We need to go through the action of that um to effectuate the end and then the if you will the offer of the next contract um so that we can do that on kind of an annual progressive basis thank you that helps a lot thank you yeah and it's an excellent question because it's a good segue into the next where we offer those probationary contracts which do then lead
205toward the continuing contract which is the designation of the next resolution thank you I did just have kind of a process question. I believe that we need to do each of these in their own roll call vote. Yes. So what we're first considering is the resolution for the termination and non-renewal of probationary teaching contracts. Correct? Yes, the temporary teaching contract. Temporary first and then probationary. Wait. Oh, yes. Oh, yeah, they're put together. Oh, sorry. I was on the wrong page break in the document. Thank you for that. So the resolution for the termination and non-renewal of temporary teaching contracts. Any other comments or questions? As we've said over and over again, I think we say it every year, This is necessary part of doing business and I personally believe it shouldn't have to be here
206at in public education, but This is the job before us so With that I will read out the resolution Whereas the school board of independent school district number 270 has determined that it is necessary and desirable to reduce the number of temporary teachers employed in the school district because of discontinuance of position and whereas the superintendent of schools has implemented applicable procedures of statute and contract to determine that the temporary teachers listed below be terminated from their temporary teacher positions Be it resolved by the School Board of Independent School District Number 270 that pursuant to Minnesota Statute 122A.40, the annual teaching contracts between Independent School District Number 270 and the following temporary teachers shall not be renewed for the 2026-27 school year and shall terminate according to their terms at the close of the current
2072025-2026 school year. Be it further resolved that written notice be sent to each temporary teacher regarding the termination and non-renewal of his or her annual teaching contract. I would look for a motion. So moved. Is there a second? Second. Any further discussion? Seeing none, clerk, please call the roll. Roll is called. Shannon Andreessen. Aye. Rachel Hartland. Aye. Johanna Hyman. Aye. Brooke Roper. Aye. Kai Thompson. Aye. Sarah Wilhelm-Garbers. Aye. Ziming Zhao. Aye. All have voted aye. Thank you, Clerk Wilhelm-Garbers. And that takes us to our second resolution, which is the termination and non-renewal of probationary teaching contracts. So the second resolution speaks to probationary teaching contracts. These are contracts that are within Minnesota statute and allow for individuals to work toward a continuing contract. There is a three-year consecutive initial period through which individuals progress, and
208after that, if offered a contract that is a continuing contract in a Minnesota school district. then if they move to another school district, that term is one year of probationary, and then continuing contracts are offered. So with that context, any time that a probationary contract is modified, names need to be placed on this list because we are not able to offer them the same level of contract that we may have this year into the next school year. So I think it's just important to point that out that while a name might be here to the question that was offered earlier, for example, if we had a 1-0 FTE position, but next year, whether it be due to registrations or enrollment shifts, that is maybe a 0.75, we would need to reduce the individual with that
209contract. And if enrollment shifts over the course of the summer, If additional funds move in additional places, we may be able to move that back to a 1-0, but this is our initial starting point so that we can meet those terms of the initial staffing numbers that we have based on the budget work that we've been doing to build the present PSM and the budget models that we spoke to you about in the workshop that you saw and experienced earlier this evening. So with that, this is the list that all of our administrators have put together for those reductions. And if there are additional questions, I'm more than happy to speak to any of that as well. Director Hyman, can you speak a little bit to how the individuals that appear on the list are
210chosen by? site leaders to appear here? It varies in different contexts. So for example, also in this contact, Minnesota has a four tier system when we look at tiered licensure. Some licenses are only for a period of time. So for example, if someone had a tier two license, they may have that license for three, four years and may not have made progress in a program or may have decided that there may be something else for them. So that might be one set of conditions. So in essence, sometimes just the condition of the license itself may be a reason that they're here. Individuals may also experience for, as I mentioned before, registration or enrollment shifts as part of that. And then sometimes there are non-renewals. So all of that set of conditions is put together in
211this resolution so that you have that set of information as well. Thank you. Chair Andreessen? Yes, Director Thompson. So I'm struggling to reconcile this with the slide that we had seen in the workshop. talking about the $2.5 million in reductions and the category groupings with central office, operations, buildings and grounds, technology, staffing adjustments, other. But the staffing adjustments said 7%. So are these that we're talking about contributing to that 7%? Because the math, I struggle to... ballpark that sure that percentage is related to the staff that is Associated in the central office only those are not licensed teachers So on that slide that you're looking where we're speaking to the 2.5 million in reduction When you look at where that staffing is coming from so for example in human resources we are not filling our
212recruiting and retention position through attrition. That's a loss of the staff member that was in that. In addition, additional staff members, when we talk about the specifics at the next workshop or board, there you will see some more of those staffing components that are related there as well. So as I mentioned in the category groupings, the first one says central office admin, 45%. Right. So I take it to mean we're 45% of the two and a half is being found in central office admin. And then 7% of that 2.5 million is coming from staffing adjustments. So is this list? Right. In that staffing adjustments of 7%, it's not. No, that 7%, remember there are licensed positions. And then, for example, the position that is in human resources is non-licensed. So they are not statutory positions
213that you're seeing on this list. These are for teachers only. Are you saying that this list looks like it makes up more than 7% of $2.5 million? Yes. Yeah, I think that if we looked at past years even when we weren't involved in budget reductions You would see that this is a very comparable amount of teachers it's like I said, it's part of quote, doing business, which is an unfortunate way of doing education. I don't think it's the right way. Like, my mom was a teacher, and she was on this list year after year after year after year until she was high enough in the seniority. I don't think there is a direct correlation, at least in my experience, over seven years of this being tied to... a direct correlation of this list to what
214we're doing with the budget. Well, and also you mentioned there are four different reasons people are on this list. So for example, if somebody hasn't completed their licensure, then they're on this list, but they're not part of our calculated staffing reduction. Or if somebody is on this list. Because they haven't met the performance standards then they would not be part of the staffing Reduction that we saw on that slide, so we'd actually have to sort of go Person by person actually and say okay. What's the reason for this? What's the reason for this and then there might be a much smaller number of names that? Could be representative of an actual budget reduction Yeah, and all this is fine. I'm not meaning to make a big deal of it Just you know from that slides
21510 it made it almost seem like almost no teachers Getting cut to come to this 2.5 million, but now here we are doing this so that that was all I was gonna say is it I struggled to add it up in my head, but I appreciate the explanations. And we've talked about this before. I think what becomes difficult for us is we don't want to categorize these teachers in terms of who hasn't met performance expectations versus who hasn't fulfilled licensure versus who's been impacted by the budget. Just for... Yep, and that's appreciated. I think you're doing the right thing there. Yeah. Any other thoughts? So I'm going to do this one a little bit differently because I don't like reading resolutions. So I would like to entertain a motion to waive the reading of the
216resolution. So moved. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none all those in favor, please say aye aye Any opposed the chair votes aye and we will now take a vote on the resolution for the termination and non renewal of probationary teaching contracts I have a motion So moved I have a motion. Is there a second? Second, I have a motion in a second any discussion Seeing none clerk, please call the roll Shannon Andreessen. I Rachel Heartland. I Jana Hyman I Brooke Roper I Kai Thompson I Sarah Wilhelm Garbers I The jimmy Joe I all have voted aye Thank you clerk Wilhelm Garbers and that takes us to our final staffing resolution Which is proposed placement on unrequested leave of absence The third resolution is for individuals who are placed on unrequested
217leave of absence. Unrequested leave of absence means we have individuals who have continuing contracts for whom we do not have the same level of position for next year. So there again, any modification to that is necessary and we need to look at the unrequested leave of absence. Under the terms of the contract, the unrequested leave of absence is different because individuals have the opportunity to return to positions and guaranteed return to the positions if those positions are available at the same level. in the future and so this placement on this obligates us to contact individuals and work with individuals over the course of the next five years as we have any staffing changes and or needs these individuals do get first consideration and first right of refusal if you will for the reinstatement so that
218is the unrequested leave and the designation of why you see specific names here Any questions or feedback Seeing none. I would look for a motion to waive the reading of the resolution So moved. I have a motion. Is there a second? I have a motion and a second any discussion Seeing none all those in favor. Please say aye Any opposed the chair votes aye and we have waived the reading of the resolution So I would look for a motion to approve approve the resolution of proposed placement on unrequested leave of absence. 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. Oh, no, no, no. Clerk, call the roll. Shannon Andreessen. Aye. Rachel Hartland. Aye. Johanna Hyman.
219Aye. Brooke Roper aye Kai Thompson Sarah Wilhelm Garbers aye Jimmy Joe aye all have voted aye Thank You clerk Wilhelm Garbers and thank you all for Going through this process with us And thank you assistant superintendent lightfoot for being here. I'm also really grateful for all our leaders and all our staff for helping us get through this process every year. So that takes us now to our next order of business, which is policies in first read. I will turn it over to Vice Chair Roper. All right. Good evening, community. So we are going we have two policies that we are going to be reviewing tonight. And our first one is policy 852.1, which is playground planning, design and improvement. And I will turn it over to Dr. Lightfoot to elaborate. Thank you. Just as a
220reminder for the board and the community, the playground planning design and improvement is a policy that falls under our facilities policy. As you recall, you had individuals in these chairs in front of you presenting their work and their vision for what Hopkins Public Schools could have as a foundation for how it builds, how it designs, how it really sustains into the future, the idea of inclusive spaces that are specific and are designed to meet the needs of all of our learners in Hopkins Public Schools. With that, they had specific components that were presented to you as a board and with your direction, the monitoring committee. took that information that was presented from their guidance and built it into the policy that you see here. The policy itself is really designed to capture the spirit and
221intent of looking at how we build the policy from a high level. And you will note that not only does it contain information from a high level desired outcome that the policy is intended to drive, but then it also moves into the specifics of the regulations and within those regulations Those design considerations, general planning principles were all built into the regulations so that as these regulations may ebb and flow over time, the spirit of the policy captures the intent and then the regulations really are the implementation components that can be changed with the ebb and flow, as I mentioned, of different technologies, different designs, different equipment that become available over time different surfaces different placements and and really just an incredible shout out to the work that was done on behalf of our community and
222the input that is here really allowed for us to build what we believe to be a robust model policy so with that monitoring committee members anything else in addition um the one thing i just wanted to say is a Heartfelt thank you to the students who came and presented to the board all the work that went into the policy recommendation. The draft that they gave us was incredible. As you might remember, these are some of our youngest learners who did not only the work of crafting a very detailed and thoughtful policy for us, but also the very real work of creating an innovative, inclusive playground for their peers. It was a community effort and I just I have so much gratitude for those students and not only for the work that they put in but
223for the impact they're going to have and I see the students that they are going to be impacting every day when I am at work and so my gratitude. Comes not just as a board member for all the really intense policy work that they did but also as someone who supports students that will directly benefit from their work, so just wanted to say that and also the work that was put in to make this policy specific to Hopkins is I have a lot of gratitude for too. So thank you. And I will add, for those that might be curious how it interfaces with the referendum, even this afternoon, we meant to make sure that the committee structures, the design structures are following the guidance that is here, as well as looking at what we build
224ahead with the referendum monies that the community has supported. So dovetails nicely into that work that's already underway as well. Yes, the timing is really nice. Okay. And so now we are going to head into our second policy of the evening, which is policy 620, credit for learning. And we are going to, I mean, going to turn it over again to Dr. Lightfoot for elaboration. Sure. I will start and just identify policy and then if monitoring committee members want to add additional context, please feel free. The specifics of the language that the monitoring committee brought forth are in section five for board consideration. After much dialogue and looking at the data, which board members can speak to, the data was reviewed and in the weighted grade component. It was decided that the requirement in 620,
225if the district is going to look at weighted grades, specific language is needed. As part of that, the weighted grade language was added. The specifics are there. And with that, what I would do is just ask that if monitoring committee members want to speak to the application of that material and what it meant to put that in here. I would open it to them and then additional questions, conversation, and further direction. Thank you. Okay, Chair Andreessen. Yeah, thanks. I feel like I'm catching a voice across the table here. I just, just a couple comments as we're considering this in first read from my seat. You know, the one is just to name how we got here and to remind us that this came about as our staff at the high school and leadership was seeking
226to support students as they are looking at college opportunities, not just for applying to college, but As we are aware, college is increasingly expensive for students and families, and recognizing that there's an impact in scholarship availability in dollars related to student GPAs, and wanting to then look at what might it look like for us to possibly consider. weighted grades. Through that process it came to our awareness and attention that there's actually a Minnesota statute which says that this is something that even though all this work had been done at the high school by leadership students, you know staff, faculty, in conversation with our broader community, it needed to be brought here because state statute does require that we have a policy that is on the books. And so that's why we're considering this. And the
227other thing that's important that I think you see in the slide deck and that we've heard before as well is that we have to have CIS and PSEO, those have to be considered together, and then AP and Honors can be considered separately. And so that's been under consideration. And so for my seat, I think the thing that... I keep coming back to is just that concern around affordability of college and in conversation with the communication promises that we've made to our community about the journey that they've gone through related to considering weighted grades and the timing and implementation. And so that's impacted, I think, from my seat. as I've been considering this and wanting to take that really seriously. One of the things you'll hear from folks is like, oh, well, in admissions, they'll wait
228and on-wait grades. And all that is very true. And if you look at different college admissions, which I did a deep dive in the last weeks trying to be helpful as much as I can in wanting to be thoughtful about this. There's the reality of what happens in admissions and I was a 12-year graduate admissions professional and then there's what happens with scholarships and availability of scholarships to students and so it's at that level in particular that as a board member I'm concerned for the financial access for our students to receive scholarships not just from the universities themselves which there is there are implications related to GPA and how waiting can impact. if a student qualifies in a really competitive field for scholarships, but also related to foundations and other local community organizations that are
229just gonna look at, oh, this student had a 4.0, that's higher than a 3.98, and how that impacts our students. So that's really, for me, the biggest concern is care for our students and for how we then, as we're looking at weighted grades, the other big thing that came up for me is considering How is this giving testimony to what college admissions professionals will look at, which is rigor? And we want to consider that some of our courses for rigor, we would want to then weight them. But you don't see included here PSEO or CIS because of many considerations, which others can also speak to. But partially it's because it's just come to us. And I think there's so many different variables and conversations about equity and implementation. And yes, maybe CIS we might want,
230but does that mean PSEO? And so there's just a lot there. And so the current Draft policy that you see does not include anything for PSEO or CIS. No policy is a forever document that will could never be amended. And so personally, I would love to see us have ongoing work that we would do with our teachers, parents, community members, and leaders in the district to say, okay, hey, what is... Do we want to take up PSEO CIS or not and to just keep evaluating the policy? But that's just some of from my seat. What's impacted the conversation? Thank you, Clerk Wilhelm Garbers. Did you have anything you wanted to add, Vice Chair Roper? I think my stance has just still just been the same with as far as just like slowing down and understanding
231weighted grades thoughtfully so we can make sure that we're making the right decision and not rushing into a decision just because like I'm hearing from community and different folks just like the different perspectives. I don't feel like I have like a clear like. perspective to draft a policy that's going to feel right just in the moment. And so, as I, like I said, I've been stating, like I said it before, like I support it. I just would like for us to slow down just so we're able to fully understand it and pass a policy that works for everyone. And what I'm hearing is that it may not work for everyone, which is a little bit concerning to me. And so I, I'm still kind of in this shift of. deeply understanding what this means for
232our district and weighted grades. But then I also understand the urgency of getting this passed because we do have seniors right now who are applying for scholarships and we could be potentially, you know, slowing down their process of getting funding for college. And so it's a very complicated place to be in. I'll just be very honest as a district. But I'm committed to making this a fair process. Thank you. I think that a little bit of context on the policy that the board sees before you tonight. is we did a workshop at our last meeting and we walked away with some clear directions to our policy and monitoring committee. And that is what you see before you is the language that we had discussed at that workshop. And as a member of the monitoring committee,
233I wanted to be transparent about the movement I've experienced on this issue and just be also transparent about how I stepped into this discussion, which is I fundamentally feel that weighted grades are not in the best interests of... students or in the best interests of institutional learning because and I know that our our staff and our teachers are intentional about talking to our students, and I know this because I've had two students go through the process, of finding a good fit when they register for their classes. And this is significant, and they spend a lot of time talking to our rising... used to be 10th graders, now it's 9th graders, about how to find that right fit for them. And I went through this process with my own students, one of whom signed up for
234a regular ed class, and I was like, I don't think that's going to work for you. And sure enough, two weeks later, she was in the counseling office trying to get into an AP class. And I think that... Weighting grades based on that culture of finding your right fit so that you can be successful and empowered and be an advocate for yourself is in complete opposition of weighted grades. And it says to our students, the right fit for you could be worth less. And what does that then say to the student? Are you worth less? And that's not something I can get behind. And I was willing to enter into this discussion because of what I felt was a very compelling why, which Clerk Wilhelm Garbers very much eloquently stated. And I stand behind that.
235I do feel like that was enough of a why for me to have this conversation. And upon reflection and really thinking about... what this is and the why. I feel like I want to put my advocacy not into changing our system because I think that reflects our values and the cultural. learning environment we have established for our scholars here in Hopkins, I want to start working on changing these institutions who are not doing their due diligence in awarding merit scholarships. They do it for admissions, but they don't do it for merit scholarships, and I think we need to... to advocate for our students and we need to change how they are awarding these merit scholarships. That's where I want to focus my energy. That's where I feel like that is where the change needs to
236happen. I don't feel like Hopkins should change how we're doing things because of a few outlier universities. That being said, I also feel so compelled by our student board rep who is sitting here at the table with us and the impact that that could have on our next year's seniors, which is why I think this is a really important ongoing discussion that we need to have because we do need to have policies that reflect reality and not just lofty goals. And I agree with Vice Chair Roper that perhaps we need more time. to have a much more robust discussion. I just received some additional data sets from, we all did as a board, from about the impact of this. So there's even more data for us to consider. I also would like to invite our
237new principal at the high school up to the table because I would like to have her end. Dr. Kuhl because I would like to have them involved in more of this discussion as well. Because I just think we need more time. I think our teachers want to be more involved. So yes, if you would like to come on up and be part of this discussion. So even though I was part of writing this language, I guess what I'm saying to you all is for all those reasons and for more. I don't feel confident in voting for adopting this language. So thank you for joining us. Good evening. Yes, I want to echo much of what you said and also recognize what clerk Wilhelm Garbers stated. And I feel pushed and pulled in various directions as
238well. But upon further reflection, I also agree that. I don't think changing this right now in this moment is appropriate. I think it would be premature. And from where I'm sitting, I'd prefer that we pause and come back to this in the fall with Dr. Thomas and Dr. Palmer at the table, along with other administrators at our high school and teachers who this will directly impact in the way they teach in the classroom. if some sort of change like this is made. I have specific concerns with respect to two parts of this policy as written, and I just want to address those so we can consider those moving forward. With respect to the retroactive application piece of this for me, this really, I think, comes down to fairness. We'd be changing the rules after the
239fact. Our scholars made course decisions thinking grades were unweighted. Some maybe chose not to take AP or honors because there wasn't a GPA incentive. Or maybe they chose not to take it because they wanted balance. or they chose PSEO or CIS instead because they knew they'd obtain college credits as opposed to having to take an AP test in order to possibly obtain college credits. If we change this now and apply this retroactively, we're harming and potentially penalizing students for decisions they made based on the system we've had in place. And on the flip side, students who did take AP classes, and I acknowledge Manuel at the table specifically, those students who did take AP classes did so without any expectation of waiting. And they earned those grades as is. And I don't, retroactive application, we're
240talking about changing what those grades mean after the fact. And what, teachers intended by giving certain grades to certain students. So either way, it just retroactivity does not feel fair to either group to me. I'm also really concerned about moving forward on this without more information about PSEO and CIS. And I think we've heard pretty clearly from parents on this. Honestly, if we're trying to make student-centered decisions, we should be encouraging all pathways, regardless of what pathway is right, as Chair Andreessen said. We shouldn't be awarding certain pathways for certain students and disincentivizing certain pathways for other students. I think everyone's pathway is their own and there shouldn't be incentives one way or the other. So for me, it's an all or nothing piece. PSEO and CIS can offer guaranteed college credit that students don't
241have to pay for. And that's a huge benefit and not something AP exams or classes guarantee. So what we're actually doing, if we don't include PSEO and CIS, is we're creating a disincentive for something that's really valuable for kids who want to get ahead of the curve and even save themselves time and money when they do go on to post-secondary. I also have concerns over the high school's capacity to handle this and enrollment issues. What happens when more students try to get into AP and honors classes? Do we have the space, the staffing, the schedule to support that? This can even have an impact on enrollment. What our neighboring districts do. For example, Minnetonka waits grades and they wait PSEO. Depending on what we choose to do. How will that affect our enrollment and our
242student choice? Will that put our students at a disadvantage? Will that give people looking at this at at various districts in the West Metro a reason to pick Minnetonka over Hopkins? And I'm just of the mindset at this point that we just don't have enough data. And the survey that was done was also done in the midst of Ford NGL discussions, gathering Ford NGL feedback, superintendent surveys, superintendent listening sessions. And I think the weighted grade discussion deserves its own moment in time. for everyone to be more thorough and thoughtful about how we approach it. So I just, from my seat, I'm not sure that we've thought about all the consequences or potential problems we'll need to be prepared to address if we were to make this change right now. And I do appreciate. and understand
243and feel for how this could negatively impact some of our current students. And I don't wanna minimize that, but at least if we just pause and slow this down, we have the opportunity to get this right moving forward and do right by our students and our community. And for me, this really comes down to needing to take a little more time to do this in a way that's fair, that we have prepared for, that we can successfully roll out as a high school instead of rushing. And so from my seat, I also, as Chair Andreessen said, would not support this policy as written moving forward. Thank you. Any other thoughts? input well chair and recent yes structure Joe I'd like to hear from the principal Palmer if you have some thoughts I think I'm very
244interested here those yeah thank you we've had a little bit of chance to talk with dr. cool nose has been digging into this for a bit and I appreciate the presentation that you put together for everybody there are you all have named a number of wrinkles already Certainly the retroactive piece would feel very unfair to students. The timing piece right now, we have already built the master schedule with the course selections kids have made for next year. So to have a big shift would have... some significant implications in who has to get paid how much over the summer to undo all of that and so on. So the timing wouldn't be great. For me personally, from my experience, I really see CIS and AP pretty equally in terms of where I want my kids to
245be and challenging themselves. And to be including AP and not CIS, And I'm curious, Manuel, what you think of that as someone who's taken both. Does that feel fair to have AP be weighted and CIS not be weighted? Does that seem reasonable to you? Well, I think for me, it's like we mentioned at this table before, it's an equity issue. There's a certain type of kid that has access to PSCO classes. And in an ideal situation, we would wait just CIS classes and not PSCO classes, but we have to do both together. So there's that consideration. And that's why I think initially we were thinking. of just moving forward next year with just AP Honors and then looking deeper into that PSE OCIS because to me I feel like for AP and Honors at least
246I haven't seen significant disagreement or controversy surrounding the weighting of APN honors like I haven't seen any significant disagreements like that's not usually part of the conversation usually it's CIS and PSEO so that's why I think yeah it would be safer to start with APN honors and then continue doing research. So yeah, I would agree PSEO is really problematic. We don't know how they grade. We are not in those teachers' grade books. We have no idea what's really going on there. And obviously, there is a breadth of courses that our students take that are of very, very different levels of rigor. So I would love to see and potentially participate in some legislative advocacy to break those two apart and to be able to wait CIS without PSEO. That said, that's not going to happen
247tomorrow, right? I have concerns about waiting honors. I'm brand new to this building, so I don't yet know what is happening in the honors classes, but they are not college credit level. So even at the half piece, I still just don't know what is happening there. And so I'm not sure that we can say all those are worth X. I am anecdotally aware that we maybe haven't fully implemented across the whole building course alike grade scale, common grade scales, that maybe there's some work to do there. And to the extent that that's the case, also, again, to wait makes things really tricky. I would love some time to get with the faculty around some of those pieces first before we have any significant changes. so that we really can say we know this is what
248this is and we can sort of say we absolutely can make a real commitment to it. So I think some more time would be nice. What am I forgetting? I don't think anything. If I may just say, this discussion was never brought forth because there's anything inherently wrong with Hopkins' system. That's not why I ever brought it up, and it was never, that wasn't the impetus for it. The impetus is for... understanding the world that we're in when it comes to with the vast majority of our kids choosing two or four year college as their choice after high school. It's my job to be aware of trends and bring them forth to the community so that we have an answer, right? And when I was asked the question, why doesn't Hopkins wait grades? I didn't
249have an answer. Right? I don't know. We don't weigh grades. And to me, that's not a sufficient answer, right? So the conversation had to happen in terms of why don't we weigh grades? Should we weigh grades? If we do weigh grades, what would that look like? And that investigation needed to happen. So none of this, this is, it's the community discussion that needed to happen. I think I do have some, understandings around because I work in it day in and day out so what's presented on a website or what is presented as this is what how a college uses weighted grades and how they actually use weighted grades are very very different right I have several directors of admissions who are never going to put on their website that they use weighted grades and yet
250they will tell me that they do That is when they know they're top end, they know they're not letting in, and when they're dealing with that middle 50 to 60%, that is where the weight and the rigor comes in in terms of who is getting in, who's getting merit scholarships. And for me to tell you anything different than that, to me, would just not be true. They are not going to put it on a website, but it is definitely happening. Now, how we want to help our kids manage that situation, there's one option which I, you know, brought forth to the community, which is we can change how we do things at Hopkins. Chair Gieson is bringing forth a different option, which is to say maybe we want to try to get colleges and universities
251to change their perspective on using whatever GPA is best. Both of those are options. I would finally just say, though, that I think There are many disadvantages. This is not ever going to be a conversation where everybody wins, teachers, students. and staff who are working on it, there's no way to make this work for every single group in an equal way. So when you're moving forth with these discussions, there will be people who gain and people who don't. And I think I just want to be very realistic about that with our community, that this is not a conversation. Because if you choose to do no weighted grades, that's fine. right? But there are people who are disadvantaged by that. If you choose to do weighted grades retroactively, I understand that teachers don't like that, but
252students in our school are disadvantaged by that. If they, especially in Manuel's class, whoever sits in that junior year class, the year you choose to do it. becomes severely disadvantaged. If you choose to do it starting with a freshman class and say we're going to do it from this year moving forward, then all the kids who are currently in the high school are disadvantaged by that. So there are different ways to approach this and not one is right or wrong. As a school board, you'll have to decide where that lies. And so I'm very glad we're having this discussion. I really appreciate you bringing it to us. So thank you. Yes. Dr. Kuhl, one thing that I found striking is in your research, it seemed like there was a pretty even balance of high schools
253that do wait, high schools that don't. Do you see this trending in a specific direction? moving forward into the future based on the patterns, the decision-making patterns that are coming out of our post-secondary systems? Yeah, when I consulted the research to try to find out statistics, like nationally how many high schools wait grades versus don't wait grades, there's not a really robust... amount of research on that, at least not in any reliable non-anecdotal version of that. Again, I would just say that my training as a researcher, I'm pretty particular about what data I like to use and what assumptions are being made with that. So I would say in our area, Right, we're starting to see a trend. Even when I can start consulted with the Minnesota Department of Education to try to find out
254how many schools wait PSU classes. Because you're correct, Minnetonka is the only is the only one but. Minnetonka is also the same high school that told us not to do it, right, when we consulted with their counselors. So they do it, and they wish that they didn't, right, was the feedback that we got. So is that a competitive advantage for them? I don't know. Right? So I guess the trends that we're starting to see when we talk to college admission representatives is that weighted grades is becoming more often the situation than not when students are turning in a transcript. They're seeing more often than not a weighted and an unweighted GPA both included on a transcript. They're seeing it to such an inflation that they are now having to put parameters around how much of
255a weight you can put on. So, for example, schools in Illinois are considering going to a six-point scale rather than a five-point scale. So colleges and universities are now capping how much you can weight a grade. I think this is also then the trend that we're starting to see returning to requiring an ACT score. I think these two things go hand in hand, which is why I'm in the process of working on a five-year test prep plan to think about how are we going to better prepare students for standardized testing that I believe will become required once again. So in our area, there is a trend. towards weighted grades. And I don't think that's changing. In fact, we see, I do know about Lakeville South that retreated their weighted grades, but that's because the one
256thing they were doing is using it for class rank. And that is the proposition that we did not put into the plan, right? That we would not publish class rank. We will not give class rank. So it's not possible, in other words, for you to have a 3.8 GPA and be in the bottom third of your class due to weighted grades. We put in the original draft proposal that we would keep all academic honors for graduation, for NHS, for any of those competitive groups on an unweighted scale so as not to create the culture that we found at Lakeville South. So there are some provisions and we want to learn from other schools where where they've seen some shifts and things like that That's probably enough talking for me. So I apologize. It's a late
257night But happy to come back and talk about this topic anytime in the future that you wish Oh, can I make one last point? Not all data is equal. So I just want to make sure that it's really important as you look at data that you clearly understand how it was computed, what parameters it was used, and what assumptions that data set was made when you are looking at it, okay? So that we can all have a common understanding of it. And Sharon Dreesen, just my final comment. I do want to thank you for all the work that you've put into this and thank the policy team as well. And just to acknowledge with our community that the reason we dove into this research was to respond to parents who were concerned about the future
258for their children in the post-secondary space and asked us. to engage in this research. So thank you for all of your efforts. Of course. Sharon Greeson. Yes, Dr. Jones. Thank you, Dr. Palmer and Dr. Kuhl. I appreciate your insight. I think for me... You know my North Star in this is that I want to encourage our kids to take hard classes right and so at the end of the day that's what I want to do and so directionally you know I think waiting makes sense PSEO probably makes sense but when I do hear that the master schedule has been set and I get very very worried that we're going to disrupt things and make a you know I I think people understand that I really want some stability, especially in leadership transition. And so after
259hearing that, I've got a lot stronger reservations on it. Though I do think in general, if there is a kid that needs that little bit of a nudge to be like, oh, maybe I'll try it and maybe I'm now an AP kid, right? Like I think that this is a good mechanism for that. I'm a big believer in incentives. But again, I'm, any instability like this is just kind of unacceptable for me. Chair Andreessen, can I ask a quick question? Yes. Are there any other ways, so right now as we're talking about weighted grades and the policy, are there any other ways that we could support students ethnically? to help them like get scholarships. I don't know if we write letters of recommendation or something just to support with scholarships they're applying for as we
260weigh in on this discussion about weighted grades. I want our students to understand still that we are taking note of their of the urgency of receiving college funding and I also understand that the weighted grade policy probably won't get passed. enough time in order for them to apply for certain scholarships that have strict deadlines. So don't know if there are other ways that we could support with. helping our students receive college funding outside of this policy? So the kind of funding that we're speaking of is what we call merit-based. There are different types of financial aid, need-based, institutional-based, merit-based aid. Merit-based aid is the one that weighted grades impact the most because we have a significant portion of our high school students who will not qualify for need-based aid. Their families make too much money,
261but their families don't make enough money to pay for college. So this is the question. laundry our students find ourselves in. The federal government will say that your family can afford to spend $30,000 to $50,000 on college. And our families are saying, great, tell me where that is. Because in my monthly budget bill, I don't see $30,000 to $50,000. I mean, you're all shaking your heads. You know what I'm saying. So the way those students get aid to go to college is through what we call merit-based aid. And that merit-based aid is specifically usually on two factors, GPA, and test score. And that's it. It's not a letter of recommendation. It's very formulaic. It's saying if you have this GPA, you have this test score, you get this amount of aid. Right? And so, I
262mean, the letters of recommendation help in terms of you being admitted to the college, right? And it can be the differential piece between if they have two equal candidates and the letter of recommendation for one student is mediocre and the letter of recommendation for another student is really good, and they only have one spot left, they will, of course, choose the student with the better letter of recommendation. So those things are all important. But the scholarship, portion of what we're talking about. So to answer your question, on the admissions end, we do all those things. We do letters of recommendation. I don't know how many college essays I... craft in a year. I literally wrote one today for a junior, you know, where we outlined it. Here we go. Here's what we're doing, right? So
263hundreds probably at this point, if not thousands, right? We have enough students signed up to take our Royals prep class to fill all four blocks next year as seniors, but we don't know if we can fit it in the master schedule. That means that's 35 to 40 kids per block who want to take my class because we do it all, right? So yes, we can help them on the admissions end. On the scholarship piece, there's nothing we can do. In terms of that very specific type of merit-based aid because of how they calculate it. There is something, if I may, that you are doing already, which is delineating out which schools are going to unweight and reweight to their own criteria, and those schools are not going to have this issue. And you've already identified
264a bunch of those. But the trend that we're seeing is that more schools are saying, we will take whatever GPA is highest on the transcript. And in that case, that's where we run into a problem with our students where fundamentally they might be equal to a student at Edina, Wayzata, or Minnetonka, but they will not get the same scholarship dollars because we cannot produce a GPA. Chair Andreessen. Yes, yes, one other thing so I'm just thinking So let's say that a student knows that the the scholarship it takes weighted or unweighted Is it possible for them to request a transcript that would wait it? Like a special trend like special scholarship transcript if they're going to be you know inflexible with their criteria then can we Well, we certainly, I mean, we have the capability
265to create any number of transcripts that we wish, but colleges only accept one official transcript from a high school. Meaning I cannot submit one transcript to the University of Kansas that only shows an unweighted GPA and another transcript that shows both an unweighted and a weighted GPA for a different student to the same university. Does that make sense? University of Kansas, in other words, will say I only accept one form of a Hopkins High School transcript. And the reason I know this is because we ran into this with IB grades. So this year's senior class is the last class to have IB grades on their transcript. And so when colleges were willing to consider their freshman GPAs, which were not part of their official calculation, I had to hand write letters for every student to
266every college they applied to telling what their grades would have been if we had included their freshman year. But I could not. do the transcript even though we could calculate a transcript with their IB grades included I could not send an official Hopkins High School transcript that in that form otherwise problem solved. Yeah. Well. Yep. I solved it. Chair Andreessen. Yes. Treasurer Harland. We asked at the table last time to like understand what we were asking of staff and like the burden of staff and the burden over the summer and I was wondering if as we contemplate this policy. Specifically with AP, I understand there's this ongoing question of PSCO and CIS, and it sounds like that will be quite a bit of hand investigative work. But as far as this AP and honors work,
267and I catch your point about are all honors courses. at the same level, but to me that is moot because we can't, it doesn't sound like it's an option to consider them separately, that we could exclude honors. You can? Oh, absolutely. You can? Absolutely. For sure. Edina does. We could say only AP class. We could absolutely. EIS and PSEO that have to go together statutorily. Oh, I guess I misunderstood. Okay, well, great. All right. Thank you for that clarification then. Do we know what we're asking of staff if we say like there's gonna be some people who are unhappy that say oh I might have elected in to AP and so I understand that we'll be saying we can accommodate some of you and not others and I know some amount of shifting in and
268out of AP happens at the beginning of the school year anyway, but as far as actually the technology the training, what is required of our staff, what kind of burden are we asking them to take on if we adopt this policy? I think it depends a little on when we adopt it. You're asking if it's now versus if it's next November. Because the ideal time to adopt it would be a month prior to when we put out the course catalog and kids start registering for classes. So that they know that they have that as they go into registration. And typically... in a normal year, which is not this year, but all those courses are set before winter break, and we come back from winter break and kids start signing up for classes, right? So that
269we actually have all of the needed FTE in hand prior to the budget. So that would be an ideal timeline. And so I think if we have maybe a little more time. to spend with the faculty and do some of the work that we need to do, right? Because I don't believe anything formal has been done with the whole faculty at this point. That we could potentially come back in, say, November and say, okay, we have a starting point to do AP. I would say I speak earlier. Oh, to do AP. To do AP. The other point I just want to make is that this is not, waiting is not a commentary on who should get an A in a class. There's no training to be done with a teacher. A teacher is going to
270offer AP U.S. History, and students are going to earn the grades that they earn in that class. That doesn't change fundamentally because we're weighting grades. So sometimes I hear these two things tied together, and they're not. A teacher should be teaching any AP or any other class that you choose to weight that is within the purview of Hopkins High School. So PSEO classes are not within the purview of Hopkins High School, and I think that's one of the concerns that we have. But the other three categories would be, right, college in the schools, honors, and AP are all within, being taught within our physical structure, right? When you are approaching that class and students are taking exams, they're earning an A, a B, a C, whatever they're earning, right? The weight comes, in other words,
271the weight shouldn't be a determining factor between giving a student a B and an A in a class. The weight comes afterwards, right? In order to show the rigor of the course. It's not about how well the student did in the course. The student earns whatever grade they earn. Right, so fundamentally those two things are not tied together. So the burden on the faculty would be in offering them, once you say to kids, we've changed the way we're doing this, do you need to change what you're selecting? And then to re-allow kids in some type of way to make all these different choices, collate those choices, change some sectioning, and then redo what's been done. It's just work. But it's not teacher work. It's definitely... Just making sure you have enough sections. Yeah, it's counselor
272admin work. We have to do that. Do we have to say, yeah, we'll reconsider people's scheduling choices? Well, we do it as a practice anyways in the high school. So every year we allow students to audit. their courses towards the end of the year because we don't allow elective changes as a practice in the high school. So we allow level changes. If you are in a class that's too easy or too difficult, we allow you to change between, you know, you can go from regular U.S. history to AP or vice versa. But if you decide that you want to take jewelry making instead of, you know. culinary, we don't allow that elective choice, right? So we give students, we have students register, and then we give students a second time to take a look at
273their course selections, make sure that they are good with that, so that that can make sure that we're informing FTEs, you know, how the master schedule is being done and all of those kind of things. I think the reason student choice becomes relevant is that one of the main drivers for why we would want to wait. would be to get more kids into AP classes. Right. Right. I mean, in the end, when people have asked me, what do you think? I think for the most part, I mean, I hear you saying trends are changing, but for the most part, over the years, it hasn't made that much difference. But if something's going to get more kids in there, that's a good thing, right? So many kids don't think it's for them until they get in
274there and figure out it's not nearly as hard as they thought. Right and so that is an incentive. I think it's one piece on the table to your question So, I mean I'm sort of Understanding that there's hypothetically more work. We don't just correct me if I'm wrong like I understand that for my limited, you know how good internet research is, but that it's a fairly simple switch actually from a technological point of view. There isn't really teacher training that needs to happen. There is an unknown quantity of students or families wanting to adjust schedules based on this, possibly even out of AP maybe, but. And that's what we know about the impact of this policy as proposed right now. Is that correct? Or is there other staff impact, other burden to our teachers? Because
275I've heard of this concern from community members and even some staff of like, what will that mean? What are we asking of our staff? And even Dr. Lightfoot, you had kind of mentioned, like, what would that mean over the summer? And I'm trying to understand that question and getting up. Maybe it's just not well known, but I'm not really understanding that right now. I think the only other thing we haven't said is that it could impact class size because if you have all the sectioning and then we have more kids that want to go one way but not enough for a whole section, then you either have larger section or you have kids who just don't get their choice. From my technology standpoint, they're... Tracy and Kashawn did put together a 12-page document that basically
276did all the if-then statements to say if you were to move forward with AP and honors, this is what would have to happen within Infinite Campus. Again, it's not... I don't want to minimize the amount of work that it's going to take because summertime is when our IT team tends to be extremely busy because it's when school is not in session. If you would choose to do it for courses that are within our purview and our catalog, it is a much easier system than if you choose to include courses that are not in our catalog. Right, because those will then require a hand manual situation where we will have to go through every transcript in order to determine that. But for those courses that would be within our catalog, I mean, it is something that
277Infinite Campus can go in. I could go in right now and fiddle with it and put a weight on a grade and turn a transcript into a weighted grade right now. I know how to do it. It's not. So from a technology standpoint, there's a bunch of if-then statements that need to happen. But that's something that can be done within our system if we stick to the courses that would be within our purview. If that answers your question about summertime. Yeah, I think so. And not to overly dominate this, I think my last question for right now is, if we, I can understand your point about, Dr. Palmer, about an ideal time frame, but if we follow that ideal time frame, are we essentially asking next year's seniors to, like, too bad? Then you're going
278to be applying without a weighted grade? Yes, I don't want to do that. I I would support passing this policy tonight as written Including retroactively I can understand why there would be some people who will say that that was unfair but I Can hear all of the ways in which like I don't it's not fair to call it a game that merit-based scholarships are playing. I think that that's being too flip, but I want our students to have access to all of the dollars that they possibly can for school and as soon as possible. Chair Andreessen? Yes. Sorry, just because you were talking about the rising senior class as a part of the class, I thought I'd talk a little bit. But yeah, I'd agree. I think that... When we're all thinking about college, like
279when we're all talking about college, probably the biggest factor is cost. Like, oh, I'd love to go to this college, but it's so expensive. But, you know, so I think that. With rising college costs like nobody knows how they're gonna pay for college if your parents aren't paying for it So it is like a huge anxiety Which is why I was pushing hard for this to be passed to be able to be applied to my grade but obviously I do understand the reservations you all have in terms of You know having more clarity and having more time Which I do think are valid. But yeah, I think like dr. Cole's mentioning earlier. There's no There's no, you know, just winning. There's always going to be losers in whatever decision is made. And if we don't,
280you know, roll this out for next year, then the losers would be my grade. But, you know, I think, yeah, I agree. I think there's a lot of considerations. And I guess I just am talking from. the perspective of my class. But also to talk about Director Zhao earlier, how you're talking about the master schedule being locked. I think one of the promises we made to our community was that regardless of the decision that was made, we'd allow them to make changes. So either way, there's going to be changes because... when we started the conversation about weighted grades, we told them that was like no matter what decision because some decisions may have been made on the basis that they think there's going to be a weighted grade and some decisions might have been made
281on the basis that they didn't think there was a weighted grade. So either way, there would have to be changes made, which is I think another consideration. Thanks for that. That's good. And that's just the promise that was made to the community that I want to uphold. I also just feel the need to state a little bit, since I've been kind of the face of this, that, you know, this process was started. in the normal process time cycle. So I want to be clear that this was started under the impression that it would go and this would have been decided before registration or at least close to registration and wasn't aware until March that the locus of decision changed, right? So I just... I feel the need to, I take a lot of pride in
282not coming to the school board very often unless you ask me to in terms of giving you like a good report about the things that we're doing that are great in the high school. And I just feel you need to know that I did my due diligence and we did start a process in a timely manner on a regular cycle and that our understanding was changed three-fourths of the way through. It's not my or my colleagues' normal thing to bring something to you at the end of the school year in April and May when we should have been discussing it. We were discussing it, and so I just feel the need to clarify that, that some of this timing issue, I understand, makes it difficult, but it's not as if the conversations were not happening.
283They were happening. We just were operating under a different set of assumptions. I agree. I think just to speak to that a little more too. Yeah, Dr. Kuhl and I have been working on this since probably even before this school year. Yeah. When Principal Ballard was our principal, that's when the conversation officially started. So yeah, I do understand. I feel like for the board specifically, it has felt like. I guess a rushed process with a sense of urgency. But I guess for us at the high school, it's actually been quite the opposite, very long process of indecisiveness. But yeah, I think just saying that, like we've gone through the steps at the high school level. in terms of conversations with all of our stakeholders. And yeah, I think it's important to note that while we
284were under the assumption that this was a high school level decision, that we were ready to make the decision months ago. So yeah. Yeah, I think that's important context for our community to understand. I think that we, Or at least I'll speak for myself. I'm well aware of that shift. And also, I feel the pain of the people who were involved in this process before and then having it shift to the glacial pace of a school board moving. These things do not happen quickly. especially when you're talking about policy. We have all these things we have to go through. So I apologize for that. That was an unexpected transition. And I don't think often we are happy with the pace at which school boards move. I wasn't criticizing that. No, I know you weren't. I
285am. And so what I'd like to do is to bring us back to the policy in front of us. Our work here tonight is to. We have options as we often do when discussing a policy we can. You don't have a motion to accept it as worded we could propose edits we could propose a Totally different wording Or and let me know assistant superintendent Lightfoot if this is an option we could Say that we're sending it back to the monitoring committee for a future date and it could be that that future date is next fall or after more data is available So we have some options as a board as to how we'd like to move forward. I think I heard from treasurer Heartland that she's good to go with But any other suggestions about
286edits, amendments to the policy as worded could be entertained at this time. Vice Chair Roper? Can I just chair Andreessen, just a point of clarification. Do we need, according to state statute, because we do not have currently a policy, like, are we actually, can we afford to wait until next fall, or do we need to have a policy on the books this spring? You only have to have a policy if you're going to wait grades. If you're not going to wait grades, you don't have to have anything on the books. It's only in the instance that you choose to do it and implement it that you have to clearly state what that policy is. So we could just send it back to the monitoring committee for consideration at another time. That's an option. Chair Andreessen
287Madd. Yes. One more thing. I really appreciate what Maiwo was saying and I'm coming in brand new so really not knowing. But I'm hearing you say that the high school, that some coalition of folks at the high school are ready to go. But our instructional leadership team told me just a couple weeks ago that the faculty doesn't want it. And so I feel like there's work for me to do with folk inside of Hopkins High School to figure some stuff out. before it moves forward. And maybe that can be done yet this spring, but it isn't solid yet. Yeah, and I think that is a consideration that I often have as a member of the policy and monitoring committee. I don't want the school board to pass policies that... administration isn't poised to implement and
288so I think that yes as as a board I think that as we are considering this we should take into account If the administration feels like they're capable of implementing this policy that we have as written, I think we heard back when this was first brought to us. A recommendation of what the high school administration at that time felt comfortable implementing, and this is not that. So that is a consideration that. that I take seriously as well before moving forward. I would also suggest some discussion about detaching honors and AP. I think AP is a much easier conversation than honors because it's more straightforward in terms of what is taught in the class. So that could be a proposed amendment if someone on the board would like to propose that, or we could propose to
289do it at a different time. So does any would anyone like to propose any amendments or do we want to vote on this as it stands? for second read Yes, treasurer Heartland I would be fine with kind of decoupling AP and honors I Did not understand that we were like just doing that and not required to couple them that way. I was wondering if maybe Dr. Mayer-Perey, Dr. Lightfoot or even Dr. Kuhl could talk about a little bit more about that idea of the staff readiness and. I will tell you that I'm not aware that our staff overall, I'm learning about this right now. was not on board. I mean, they were the group we started with. I think what I've heard from the staff is that they don't have a, I haven't heard that
290they have an issue with weighted grades. I've heard them have an issue about it being applied retroactively. That is the piece for me that I've heard from staff that is kind of... more of the no-go, not necessarily the waiting of the AP classes or honors classes. So maybe there is some work that we need to figure out there for sure. Because when we heard from them, we went to the department chair meetings, we asked for feedback, we sent out forms to all the staff to comment on. So the piece that was most common in that was that it should not be applied retroactively. That was the piece that they seemed to be. They wanted the grades that they assigned in the class to stand as they were. So maybe I need to learn more about
291that piece. So that's what I would say from a staff perspective. In terms of decoupling the AP and honors, I mean, that's just, again, that's just a decision that can be made. From what I'm hearing, there's a lot of discussion that probably still needs to happen. Dr. Kuhl, I'm just looking at the slide and the deck that talks about staff feedback. And then one of the themes was understanding the why. And when you gathered staff perspectives, did it appear as though a majority of the staff understand? weighted versus unweighted, the technical aspects of the difference, and maybe just didn't understand the implications, or what's the deeper context around understanding the why? I'm sorry, I don't have this slide in front of me. Well, there were four themes and concerns on the staff feedback slide, so
292understanding the why, equity issues, grading principles, and elective impact. I would say for my understanding of the data and I'd have to go into it. I'm sorry. I didn't come here prepared to speak. That's okay. I really just came to listen. So I'm sorry that I'm ending up in this position. I'm glad you're ending up in this position. That's okay. Thank you for coming up here. I want to be fair to staff. Basically, I don't have the data. I think we could... recalibrate but in essence again I would state that what I've heard is not that there is in general an issue with the waiting of a grade in the more rigorous classes. It's about how the policy is implemented and when it starts. The other thing I've heard is that I've heard from activity.
293I have also heard from another group of teachers whose own kids go to school districts who wait grades who are like Yeah, my kid got more scholarship money because they go to a school district that waits. Find it tomorrow. It's not a problem. So I think there's just different factions and understanding about it. But in essence, I don't know that our faculty overwhelmingly have a huge issue with the waiting of the grade, but potentially what class you choose to implement it with, I think, is really what it's coming down to. I think all teachers agree that AP classes are more rigorous. Honors classes are more rigorous. So that's not the question, whether that rigor should be rewarded. Especially in this scenario, I want to emphasize that there's not really a negative for not taking an
294AP or an honors class, right? For a student who might go through high school and never take one of those classes There's not necessarily any negative repercussion for them if they choose a two or four year college pathway after high school Sure, Andreessen Yes, I also I'm happy to be wrong here, but I just want to make sure. I didn't know I was going to be the statute person tonight, but just to come back to the statute, it does read, a school board must adopt a policy regarding weighted grade point averages for any high school or dual enrollment course. So just to say, so it's only... I'm just saying I've been so I've probably looked at 20 different high schools and I've just saw that there were schools that have policies related to grading that
295they say we do not wait grades so that's I just want to make sure I okay do we have do we need to have a policy I just don't want us to then do we need to have some sort of policy in the books are we genuinely and we could send that That could be the recommended, you know, dependent upon people's temperature, we can send it back to monitoring to ensure that we are in alignment with MD, you know, MD and state statute and everything. And then we could, one of the things we could be then. We come back with, hey, at this time we're doing nothing. We're going to engage in a deeper process over, you know, into the fall. Or actually we're going to engage in a deeper process. And in the meantime,
296we're going to bring forward a policy before us in draft form. I'm sorry, I'm just looking at the MSBA. model policy to see what they have in there. So sorry, I heard what you were saying. I just got deep into like. I don't want to violate state statute. Additional concern. Yeah, I mean the model policy has a section on weighted grades. It says school districts must identify in policy whether they offer courses with weighted grades. And then it says a school board must adopt an identical policy blah blah blah. No, they must include one of the following options in their policies and. One of the options is the school district does not offer weighted grades and then the other one is a variation of what we have before us so I would defer to the
297MSBA model policy and that if we do not Watch McCullough if we do not pass the version we have before us tonight. We do have to have something so our default could be We could send it back to the monitoring committee. I don't think that there's a time frame on this. They don't I don't see one So we could take time like we could send it back to the monitoring committee Which we said for us to deliberate and have something else come before the board I don't think we have to have it by a certain date but one of the options that we could I think the option that we would have to send back to the monitoring committee would be the school district does not offer weighted grades. So that's my read on it.
298I don't think we have to do this within any sort of time frame. Feel free to disagree with me so we can stay here later. Well, right now you'd codify your present practice, which is you don't weigh grades. That that is the reality all we would be doing is stating a fact. That's true. So we could pass that yeah So yet another option before us this evening so to recap we could Are you offering a proposed amendment treasurer Heartland I got lost And not yet offered a proposal. And I just said I was fine with that question. Like, honestly, not only honors courses, but then there's this PSEO question. And there's even potentially if we in the future wanted to wait some of our very hardest arts courses, like this can evolve. And so I'm
299really comfortable with letting it evolve. And I have kind of one final question about this. Should it be retroactive? Is the unfairness, like what I could see, is the unfairness some students might have opted in to AP but didn't because we didn't wait it? That's like the only, from my perspective, right, if there's a contingent of teachers or staff that don't think that that retroactive piece is the right thing to do, is that because? Some students might have opted into AP in the past but did not and so are being in effect Like not receiving a benefit No, I don't I don't think that's the issue. I don't want to speak for teachers. However, I But the but what I've heard I would say that's not the issue. The issue is that they issued a
300grade the class and they feel the grade should stand as it was awarded. Now this I don't know how that grade would have been different. This is where I can't speak as a teacher. So from the outside looking in I'm external right and I and I don't know if that means that somehow there was internal waiting going on where you know, a student moved from a B plus to an A because they were allowed to do extra credit or something. I don't know. I don't know that fact because I'm not a teacher and I think we'd have to speak with them and I don't want to speak on their behalf. But I don't think there's any teacher that's expressing an issue around students would have made a different course selection. I think it has more
301to do with the grade offered in the course. feel that that grade should stand as it was awarded i believe is more would be more the issue with retroactivity right that they've earned whatever they earned and it should stand as it was under the parameters that it was awarded i think i don't believe they've been surveyed so i think all we can answer is anecdotal at this point i mean i would hesitate to feel like well if you internally waited it outside Policy and practice. I mean, I understand you're not saying that for sure. That's the issue, but to me, that's like, okay, well, then you made a decision to grade in that way, and that potentially is something that we do need to address anyway if that is actually allowed by policy or practice.
302But anyway, I know I can feel myself way, I don't know if belaboring is the right word because this is an important decision, but I know what time it is. My preference would be to remove honors. for future consideration along with PSEO and CIS and then potentially even in the future beyond that evaluating our hardest fine arts programs for also waiting and then otherwise pass this policy as stated including retroactivity. So we have a proposal to amend this by removing honors. from the weighted consideration. Oh my gosh, I can't find the policy anymore. And I think for consideration, I am going to propose an amendment that it says that the school district does not weight grades. So that would be, and that would be to go into second read. Does anyone have another proposed amendment
303for us to discuss? Yes, perhaps. Just to add on to what you proposed, the policy would be that we do not wait grades, but that the school board will review the policy annually. So that would be... adding that this policy is reviewed annually, which is a big lift for the policy and monitoring committee. So we do, by practice, review all our policies every three years, unless they are slated, unless it is designated in the policy that it's every year in the annual review. That would be adding more to the the committee's work, which do we feel that this? Credit for learning policy Rises to that level I think is a discussion to Jaren Dreesen if I may just engage back. I'm wondering though Can it not be that there's what's into what you're naming that
304if we go with this amendment, which I'm assuming director Hyman has some might have some resonance with that. There's what we might say, which is we do not wait, but then we could as a school board ask and instruct back to. the leadership in the district to say, you know, and we would like you, not written into our policy, you know, so it wouldn't go in 620, but separately, we would also like to ask you to take this up and bring back to the school board next year in the fall, a recommendation for. for looking at this policy anew to decide if we want to. So we can do those things together, which I think is what you're trying to get at? Yes, we certainly can do that, but not as an amendment to the
305policy, correct? Correct. Okay, so for discussion in front of us is a passing in first read the... Policy as we see before us with the grade awarded in an honors course will be weighted on a 4.5 grading scale taken out. I would also like to if this is before the consideration of the board to make an edit that I think should have been in there from our meeting that to take out. the verbiage courses identified as more rigorous or academically challenging. So it would just read, the school district will offer weighted grades for courses as follows. So we have that before us. And then also a proposed amendment to say that the district does not weight grades. where do we feel we want to go from here? Do we want to go around and say
306how we want to move forward as individuals? Sure. All right. We'll start with you, Clerk Wilhelm Garbers. I will say this. I believe what best practice... would invite is the pause and the slowdown which would be the vote for the no and I acknowledge that even so the care for competitiveness the financial burden and in view of promises made and in view of 20 plus years working in higher education myself and whether that landscape isn't going to change or get easier for our students I would move with the policy with the right edit you named as was presented tonight would be where I'm still at so even as I acknowledge Best practice would tell me to make another decision. I'm still gonna that's still where I'm at. I just Thank you so taking out honors
307and then the identifier language Clerk I'm sorry not clerk director Thompson, but just to clarify though I thought the original language was still on the table. That's actually still like I would so you want the original language? Okay, so as presented Okay. Director Thompson, of the three options. I would lean your option, Chair Andreessen, to essentially we pause this saying we don't wait, which is what we're doing in practice. Let's come back, talk about it next fall. Thank you. Treasurer Hartland. The option where we remove honors but proceed with AP. Thank you. I will go with what I recommended even though I'm constantly changing my mind Vice chair Roper. I would go with your recommendation chair Andreessen. Thank you Yeah, well, I I could go if I joined the minority on either no or Wait,
308just a P. Is that helpful at all or no? Well, I guess we'll see. Yeah, we'll see. If that's helpful. Director Hyman. I would go with Chair Andreessen's recommendation that we adopt a policy that says we do not weight grades with further directive to administration, not in the policy, but adopt a policy that says we do not weight grades with directive to sort of table this and continue the discussion. at the beginning of the next school year or continue like continued discussion doesn't have to stop yeah we start a timing as is appropriate first site leadership so thank you for that so I would look for A motion that the board approve the above policies in first read. Further, the board directs the administration to prepare the policies with suggested revisions for approval in second
309reading. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Can you just restate what's the motion that's on the table? The board approves the above policies and first read further the board directs the administration to prepare the policies with Suggested revisions. Are you asking me to read out the suggested revisions? so there are none for policy 852 point one which I would just like to say, is that a brand new policy? It is. So we just passed a brand new policy, yay, with the help of our amazing students. I don't want that to get buried in this other work that we're doing. So the proposed revisions to what is before us is in policy 620. We are adding section 5 for weighted grades that will
310read, I've got to get to the model policy. If anyone knows a way to keep. tabs open on Google Docs, I will be forever indebted. All right, it reads the school district does not offer weighted grades. So that is what we are directing the administration. The revision we are offering for the revision for approval and second reading at the next meeting as part of consent. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Nay. The chair votes aye, and the policies in first read are approved. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good night. Appreciate you being here. So now we go to our board member reports. Did I start with Treasurer Heartland? I don't remember who I started with. Director Joe. Hi, this is Jimming Joe. I'm in my
311third year on the school board. I've got two kids in the district, in fifth grade and second grade. I already talked about the... Teacher of the Year, so I'll forego any further board report. Thank you. Hi, my name is Brooke Roper. I am also serving in my third year on a board, and for the interest of time, I will also forego a report, but I just want to say happy Teacher Appreciation Week. We appreciate you, and thank you for all that you do for our districts and for our students and families. And hi, Brooklyn and CJ. I hope you're asleep. Hi, everyone. Welcome. Thank you for hanging in this long with us. My name is Shannon Andreessen. I am in my seventh year at the board table. I have a senior this year and also
312work at Gatewood Elementary. Hi, everyone. Rhoda Mary Puri, Reed Superintendent. I have an eighth grader at West, and I've provided my board report already. Thank you. I am Treasurer Rachel Heartland. In my fifth year on the board, I have three students in our district. I use she, her pronouns, and I feel like I've spoken enough this evening. I won't forego any further report. Hello, I'm Kai Thompson. I am in my third year on the board. I got three kids in the district, ranging between fifth and tenth grade. In the interest of time, I'll forego any further board report. Thank you. I'm Sarah Wilhelm-Garber. She, they. I am in my first year on the board. I am... parent of one human who is four years old. And I will just say three things. One is I
313was able to participate in the Resource West and I'm a spring fundraiser and so grateful for all of our community partners who support our families and students. Secondly, shout out to the swimming, aquatics, diving folks and their fundraiser. I had some good pancakes and I'm grateful for that. And then finally, also an acknowledgement of teacher appreciation. We're so grateful for our educators. And I, in particular, want to give a shout out to my sophomore honors English class teacher, Ms. Susan Schertz, who was the first educator who affirmed that I could be me as a student. My name is Johanna Hyman. This is my first year on the board. I have two kids at Meadowbrook Elementary, one in kindergarten and one in third grade. And I will forego a board report tonight because I sound like
314this and it is about to be 11 p.m. Thank you. I appreciate that. I do value all the things all of you are doing in the community and wish we had more time to hear about it. So I would like to direct all of our community's attention to our incidental report. It is on Title I, which is a really important part of the educational services we provide. And also, as we heard earlier at the board table, funding for our most vulnerable students, that is increasingly volatile. So please look at that report. And I would look for a motion to accept the incidental reports. So moved. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed?
315The chair votes aye, and the incidental reports are approved. Thank you, Dr. Camphy, for providing that for us. And with that, I would look for a motion for us to adjourn. So moved. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. The chair votes aye, and we are adjourned at 10.59 p.m. Meet it before 11. Good job, everybody.