February 11th, 2025 Meeting of the Hopkins School Board

001And thank you all for being here this evening. I appreciate you coming out to join us for our Hopkins Public Schools board meeting on February 11th, 2025. We will get started as soon as I pull up the agenda. So I call the meeting to order at 7.02 p.m. Our first order of business is public comment. And I do have two comment cards that have been submitted. Natalia, did we get any voicemails for this evening? There are two ways to address the Hopkins School Board during the open agenda public comment section. One is to leave a voicemail that will be played at the meeting. The other is to come here and join us in person, which we always appreciate. meeting people in person and to submit a public comment card before the meeting starts at 7

002p.m. So since we do have some people who are here to do public comment in person, I get a chance to read all of our great guidelines that we have for making public comment. We do appreciate it and believe that hearing from our community is crucial for implementing Vision 2031, which is our guiding principle here in Hopkins. So we will go through the guidelines. 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 comments that are made at this meeting. No specific action will be taken at this meeting in response to comments that are made or issues that are raised during the public comment period related to items not on the agenda. If the board determines that action is

003appropriate, the action will occur at a future board meeting. If you have left your contact information on the comment card, a district representative may follow up with you after the meeting. I will recognize one speaker at a time. Only those speakers who are recognized will be permitted to speak. Individuals who interfere with or interrupt speakers, the board, or these proceedings may be asked to leave. Personal attacks on any individual, including any other speaker during the public comment session, are unacceptable, as are obscenities or profanity. Persistence in making such remarks will end the individual's opportunity to address the board and may result in the individual being directed to leave. I will rule out of order any statement that would violate state or federal law, school board policy, or the privacy rights of an individual. Minnesota's open

004meeting 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 any employee by name during your comments. Repeated violations of these time, place, and manner restrictions may also lead to the meeting being briefly recessed. Community members will have an opportunity to be heard within the limits of the law and subject to the time, place, and manner restrictions above. Thank you very much for being here and

005for bearing with me as I read all of those guidelines. I would like to invite our first public commenter up to the table. It is Alicia Kallare. And if I mispronounce your name, please correct. Come on up. and she is here to speak about support over suspension. Thank you for being here tonight. There's three minutes on the timer and you can get started when you're ready. Thank you. Hi everyone, my name is Alicia Claire. I am a part of the Youth Advisory Board for My Health Clinic located in downtown Hopkins and serve Hopkins schools. which is why I wanted to speak here today. Through my experience as a student and on the Youth Advisory Board, I have noticed an increasingly harmful approach schools take towards vaping incidents. Instead of addressing the root cause of teen

006addiction or providing support for students, students who are caught vaping are often suspended or expelled with little thought given to their well-being. This response not only fails to curb nicotine addiction but also alienates students from the educational environment they deserve, ignoring the underlying issues driving their behavior. As a result, suspensions can exacerbate the feelings of isolation, causing students to fall behind academically and ignore the patterns of addiction in young teens, which require understanding and intervention instead of punishment. To increase more awareness in our community about addiction and teen mental health and to make sure students get resources they deserve to recover, I am standing before the school board today to ask with your help to prioritize support over suspension. Thank you for allowing me to share my perspective. Thank you for being here. Thank you.

007Thank you. Thank you. And I would like to invite our next speaker, Jada Silver, up to the board table. Welcome. Thank you for being here. And you are also here to speak on the topic of support over suspension. Yes. Hello everyone, my name is Jada Silver and I'm a junior at Minnetonka High School and I'm here today as a member of the Youth Advisory Board for My Health Clinic for Teens and Young Adults, which is located in downtown Hopkins. Today I'm here to talk to you about implementing support over suspension policies in the Hopkins School District. As a high schooler, I know that many of my peers have used or continue to use commercial tobacco products, including vapes. However, I don't believe that vape detectors and suspension policies are the best way to address this

008issue. Starting with vape detectors, these detectors are not effective in preventing vaping among youth. Instead, they create anxiety among students and often do not work as intended. At my school, I've heard from many students that vape detectors have gone off while they're in the bathroom and no one was vaping, which creates an uncomfortable environment and doesn't help anyone. Vape detectors and suspension policies do not help address the root of the issue and help students who are struggling with nicotine addiction to receive the help and resources that they need. Instead, suspension has been shown to increase mental health issues among suspended students and cause struggles with academics. For these reasons, I am here today to ask that you consider shifting your district's approach for students who are caught vaping to focus on supporting them and providing

009resources to help them overcome their addiction instead of enacting punishments like suspension. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Appreciate you being here tonight. And that takes us to our next part of our meeting, which is our report section. And we get to start off with our student board rep reports. I'm not sure which one wants to go first. I'll go first. Thank you, Manuel. Hi, my name is Manuel, and I'm a sophomore student board representative. So many of the winter season sports are coming to an end, and many championship meets and games are happening this week. Earlier today, the Boys and Girls Alpine Ski Teams had their state meet at Giants Ridge, and tomorrow, the Boys and Girls Nordic Ski Team also have their state meet, and the Varsity Girls Hockey Team has

010their section semifinals game against Edina. On Friday, the Royales dance team has their jazz portion of the state meet. The state meet is at Target Center and is happening during school, so scholars who are interested in spectating the meet have the option to have their parent or guardian fill out a permission slip to be excused from class. Also on Friday is the wrestling team's varsity sections. Finally, on Saturday, the dance team will have their high kick portion of the state meet, and the gymnastics team has their varsity sections. Last Thursday, in celebration of the Chinese New Year, the Chinese immersion students performed at the annual Chinese New Year performance. The performance lasted from 6 to 8 p.m. and showcased the language skills of the students through songs, dance, and cultural performances. And it wasn't only

011the elementary students performing. Students in Shenzhen classes at the high school also performed a song while dancing. Thank you. Thank you. I'll go next. I'm Iris. I'm a freshman board rep. The first thing that I wanted to talk about was some school visits that I did on the last high school DLD. This was mentioned at the last board meeting, but I wasn't there to fully comment on it, so I wanted to recap my findings. In case you weren't there or you didn't hear or you don't remember. I went to Eisenhower Elementary and North Middle School to talk to students about things that they liked or maybe wanted to change at their schools just to have a better understanding of the experience of other grade levels and other schools instead of just representing the high school.

012So some things that I found from both schools were that the middle schoolers wanted longer passing time, longer lunch period. They also wanted an actual recess like they had at the elementary schools because they think that it helps their productivity to have a break like that. Both schools wanted more free time or like independent learning time. The middle school wanted more Spanish books in the media centers for the Juntos students. They didn't like the e-hall passes. They wanted to keep WIN, but have one more day of it so that teachers could have duplicates. Right now they have three days, but they want four days so that in case they missed a WIN that was only on one day, the teacher could host it again on another day so that they could participate. Both schools wanted

013more flexible seating and generally more autocracy. They wanted to do project-based learning instead of tests from their teachers. They wanted shorter or more compelling lectures so that they can have more independent learning time to do whatever they need to do. And just, like I said, generally, they wanted to have more control over their learning. Back to the high school though. This Thursday we will have heart-o-grams. They are currently being sold during all lunches at the high school for $5 each. Heart-o-grams is something where for Valentine's Day some choir members of the school go around and sing a song for different students. they give out candy and stuff like that. So some of the songs are L-O-V-E, Can't Help Falling in Love, Just the Way You Are, and Love is an Open Door. And like I

014said that will happen on Thursday. Also, AP exam registration. It opened on February 5th and the deadline is February 24th, sorry, 21st. This is the second registration window of the year. We had one already for terms one and two. This is one for terms two and three. It is the last chance to get registered. If you took an AP class in terms one and two and you... need to register now, you will have a late fee, which is $50 per exam. Yeah. And then lastly, class registration is also closing. For high schoolers, it closes on February 14th. For middle schoolers, it closed on February 7th. Thank you. Hi, my name is Mia Osman, and I'm the senior board representative. Friday, sorry, I meant February is Black History Month and Hopkins High School is hosting several

015events to celebrate black excellence in culture. On Wednesday, well tomorrow during Royals Connect, Wednesday, February 12th, Hopkins community member, and correct me if I'm saying his last name wrong, Mr. Pierre Toussaint, along with educators, scholars, and spoken words artists present Lyrical Power, a documentary celebrating the intersection of arts, spoken word, and hip hop. This event is hosted by Society 101 and marks the five-year anniversary of their Lyrical Power debut on January 10, 2020 at the Historical Depart Coffee in Hopkins, Minnesota. There will be performances by Niles, a lyricist, Jessica Winnie, a poet, and then Ricky Monique, who's doing soul. Their message is making a difference by being the difference. It's sponsored by the City of Hopkins Mayor Patrick Hanlon and Hopkins Community Cinema Group. For those who want to come, it is limited capacity to

016280, so it's first come, first serve. And for any students who want to come, there is no entry without a pass, so sign up in SST. The Black Student Alliance invites all Hopkins scholars to celebrate Black History Month by participating in their BSA Spirit Week next week from February 24th to the 28th. Each day showcasing a theme to honor black culture. On Monday is Melanin Monday, so you wear brown or beige to showcase the different shades of... Yeah, and then HBCU Tuesday, which you wear apparel representing any historical black college or university. Black Owned Business Wednesday, showing support to black entrepreneurs. Black Artist Graphic Tea Thursday, representing a favorite black artist with a graphic tee. And then BSA T-shirt Friday. And t-shirts are available for purchase, found in Ms. Ballard's newsletter or on BSA's Instagram.

017And then on Wednesday, February 28th in the Little Theater, BSA is hosting Royally Speaking, a powerful showcase honoring Black history and culture through music, dance, spoken word, and other creative performances. Auditions were held earlier in January, and it's important to show support when this event does come up, as this event highlights the incredible talent of Hopkins scholars and celebrates their culture through art and performances. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, everyone. My name is Sufjan Osman, and start off mine. This week is Valentine's Spirit Week, so each day we get to dress up as something different. Monday was anti-Valentine's Day, so you wear... So you wear all black, which I don't really get. Oh, why? Tuesday was twins day. So you and another person dress up in identical clothing. Wednesday is dress up as your type.

018So, for example, if you're into like a jock or something, you'll dress up as that. Thursday is spotlight. So the colors are red, yellow, and green. And each means a different like thing. So I think green is... Like you're in a relationship. Yellow is... You're available. Okay. Green is you're... Green is you're available. Yellow is it's like complicated and like a talking stage. And then red is you're in a committed relationship. And then Friday is you get to wear your class colors. And since I'm a freshman, I'll be wearing white. I don't know the other colors. I don't know the other colors. Okay, and then there's hearts taped around the school, so each, like... A thousand plus kids have their name and a heart taped around school. And if you're a lucky person, there's going

019to be like a silver sticker at the back and you get free Valentine's Day tickets to the dance on Saturday. Oh, fun. So I didn't get one. That sucks. You didn't get one. So and then finally on Friday, we get to have the pep fest just to end off the week. I think it'll be quite fun. And I decided to see the drum line because. I used to be in band, and I feel like that was the cool part. Thank you. Thank you. I think that was one of the most fun reports we've ever had. Yeah, you really came alive. You did it. Now I can see why you were keeping it top secret over there. Karen, can I ask a question? Yes. What time was Royalee speaking on Friday? It's next Tuesday. 6 p.m.

020Oh, 6 p.m. No, royally speaking, it's on the 28th. Oh, the 28th? Yeah. So 6 p.m. and 6 p.m. And then what time is the pep fest? Oh, it's going to be, okay. It's during school, 9.57. Yeah, 9.57 to 10.57. So it's going to be like during the Rose Connect time. So is that on the 14th? That's Friday? Oh, yeah, Friday. Oh, okay. All right. Be careful what you wear. I know, right? We know who the students wearing white will be. We don't know. We don't know what everybody else is wearing. Seniors are wearing pink. Oh, wait. I found it. Sophomores are purple. Yeah, it's like, I don't know. The picture is like a weird purple periwinkle thing. And then juniors are like red and seniors are pink. Oh, my gosh. I had a quick

021question about the, is it heartograms? You said that they're $5. Is that a fundraiser for a student group? I think it just goes to the choir program. Oh, great. Thank you. Any other questions or comments from my board colleagues? No. Well, thank you so much. This was a lot of fun. It sounds like it's a really great week at the high school right now. I'm glad that. Everyone is celebrating one of our core values here at Hopkins, which is love. So I appreciate that. Now that takes us to our superintendent report. Dr. Mary Perry-Reed. Thank you, Chair Andreessen. And yes, it's always good to hear from our students. Very fun to hear all of the exciting ways that students are showing up at school, including anti-love. Just anti-Valentine's. Okay. All right. Well... So Happy New

022Year to everyone celebrating Chinese New Year. Manuel, you mentioned the Lunar New Year celebration last Thursday at the high school. I dragged my husband to the Mall of America to visit the New Year Festival and chat with staff and students who were manning our Xing Xing Academy table there. So thanks to our Xing Xing teachers and students for... investing in promoting language immersion here in Hopkins and for honoring Chinese culture. And then you heard from one of our students that... Lots of people, hundreds of families came together at our high school last Thursday for Chinese New Year celebration. And we got to see all of the performances from our elementary students, grade level by grade level. So that was very fun. And then, as Manuel mentioned, the high schoolers came into the audience. And it

023was really fun to see the littles with the bigger students all singing together. So thanks to our PTO for organizing that and to our board members who also played a role. Director Zhao and Director Roper played a role in that experience. Thank you. We're also celebrating Black History this month with schools and teachers taking the time to acknowledge the importance of Black History, Black culture. Black traditions while also acknowledging that really the Black experience is not monolithic. And there's rich diversity in histories and perspectives and all are important to be heard and considered. So on this slide, there are some great places for parents and community members to deepen their knowledge There's the Minnesota African American Heritage Museum and gallery on Penn Avenue north North Minneapolis, which is currently featuring exhibitions on the black vote

024and black liberation another organization promoting black excellence is the African American Leadership Forum and They organize very well-orchestrated and well-attended events, with the last event being held at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. And of course, another place to sharpen your understanding of black history and culture is our very own classrooms and media centers and various Hopkins events, such as the one in the middle photograph, celebrating local black children's author and former Hopkins teacher. Kenan Jones, who read his newly published book at Tanglin's Literacy Night last Thursday. So that was a very well-attended event. Virtual EDU has exciting news thanks to the U of M 4-H program. Virtual EDU has had the incredible opportunity to implement hydroponics. Board members have heard some details of that program before, and the results have really been amazing. The initial

025harvest yielded an abundance of fresh... produce from crisp lettuce to vibrant herbs and students then created delicious meals including fried rice, lettuce wraps, and fresh salads. And with food science becoming more popular and also a very critical industry, it's great to see our scholars grow their own food and prepare and enjoy it together. Seventh graders at North Middle School were dissecting frogs today, and Treasurer Heartland was there to witness all of it. Rachel was very impressed with science co-teachers miss Bodie and miss Sagadoll. Hopefully I pronounced those names correctly thumbs up from our principal back there Thank you. The learning rigor is in biology content testing your own hypothesis and using lab equipment properly and the fun is in hearing students comments such as Is this frog going to survive? And I've never seen such

026good stomach contents. So thanks, Treasurer Heartland, for sharing the pics and the quotes. Students at North are also meeting very audacious reading targets for their self-prescribed 2025 reading goals. Students have set at least 303 goals and pledged to read nearly 18,000 books. And I am told that students were pumped to see and also compete with their teachers' goals. Thank you to North and West administrators and teachers for implementing the 10 minutes of independent reading per block, per day, and doing it with fidelity. North and West middle schoolers are building assessment capable learners in all of their students. Education professor and researcher John Hattie describes an assessment capable learner as a student who understands assessment results and can use that information to determine what they need to do next. Assessment capable learners are more prepared for

027a lifelong learning journey. To build assessment-capable learners, students at North and West are engaged in student reflection, so self-reflection experiences around their mid-year in-progress IB scores and then sharing these reflections with their parent or caregiver. So, for example, I received an email from my 7th grader at West that read, Dear Mother, This week, I took time to reflect on my academic progress in each of my classes. The document linked here contains all of my in-progress scores and a short reflection about each one. And then that's just a screenshot of two of her eight subjects. I would be happy to talk with you this weekend about my academic progress and to answer any questions you have, although she will not talk to me at home. She just wrote that in the... So her teachers could see.

028And so then when I followed the link, I was able to see not only what her mid-year scores are, but also what her reflections are on each score in each subject area. And I was really, really impressed that that was happening. for every student at both of our middle schools. And this does not happen without the guidance of our IB coordinators who also serve as instructional coaches under the instructional leadership of our principals. So thank you very much to North and West for building assessment capable learners. Moving up to our high school, when I was there last week, I noticed art teacher Miss Bethany Henshaw hanging artwork from her Drawing 2 course. I learned that students first make a magazine cutout collage. and ensuring they have contrasting images, they then project onto a canvas and

029they trace before engaging in the painting process. And Ms. Henshaw helps students draw out value contrasts between their chosen paint colors to produce a very provocative. multi-colored work of art. So I thought the art was really masterful for high school level students and wanted to share with you and hopefully you can also visit our high school in the mall and see these amazing works of art. And while I was checking out the artwork, I also had a sneak peek into the daily school safety huddle at Hopkins High School. This is a fantastic team dedicated to working as a collective to ensure school is a positive and safe experience for all 2,000 students. During this meeting, these safety coaches and their two assistant principals, associate principals, reviewed their assigned stations for the day and also role-played.

030what to do if they experience pushback from a student or even from a staff member when it comes to consistent enforcement of hallway and common space expectations. Thank you to the safety teams at all of our schools for keeping our schools safe and for promoting positive school-wide culture. Schools across Minnesota were recently notified of current Teacher of the Year nominees. 14 Hopkins teachers are in the running for the 2025 Minnesota Teacher of the Year. These extraordinary teachers are among 142 candidates nominated across the state. And so from here on out, a diverse panel of cross-industry leaders will read portfolios for the 142 candidates. And the winner will be announced at the Teacher of the Year Banquet on May 4. Congratulations to... Good luck to each nominee. And wrapping it up here, I wanted to share

031that Kindergarten Roundup is right around the corner, and we're really excited to meet the future families of next year's kindergartners. Kindergarten Roundup is... probably what it sounds like, which is an opportunity for families to learn all things kindergarten. Every elementary school hosts a roundup, and the first one is at Eisenhower on February 18th, and the last one is at the end of the month on February 27th at Tanglin. Hope to see many, many families show up for these events. And then finally, I just wanted to share with parents and community members that I'm doing a soup with the soup thing. So it's cold and maybe coming for lunch and having soup and chatting with the superintendent could be a fun thing for people who can take time off of work. So we'll have to also

032come up with some round-the-clock opportunities because not all of our parents and caregivers have the same schedule. But this is an opportunity to just connect with parents and community members and see what's on the minds and hearts of those who are raising our students in homes across the Hopkins community. And at this time, I would love to invite Principal Romaselli to the table. We're doing a school spotlight on North Middle School. At our January 28 board meeting, you had the opportunity to see a video, and I think his name is Cruz. Cruz is a student at North, so he gave you a glimpse into a day in the life at North Middle School. Thank you, Julius, for being here this evening to give us an even closer glimpse into the school and truly what makes

033North a special place, what you are focusing on as your instructional priorities, and anything else that makes North special. Thanks for being here. Absolutely. Thank you for having me this evening. It's a pleasure to be here with you all. you know, when Rhoda asked me to do this, I had to really think like, okay, what are all the things I want to highlight? Because, you know, you get like maybe one opportunity a year to do this. So I want to make sure I make the best of it. So it feels right to start with the people that make it all happen at North. And that's our staff. And so the image you see on your screens right now is our staff from our annual McConnell breakfast. This breakfast. celebrated annually at North to celebrate the

034life of a former teacher who passed away. over 10 years ago now, Robert McConnell. And also, as many people may know, we lost Gina Snell last year, so we also celebrated her life. So I wanted to just come into this space and say their names to acknowledge that our staff remembers and carry their spirits with us every day as we do our work. One highlight that recently happened for us at North is, as you all know, we're an IB school, and as a part of being an IB school, every IB school undertakes a five-year, every five years undergoes an evaluation, which means IB educators from across the country and sometimes across the world will come to your building and spend a couple of days in your space. evaluating those four components you see on the

035screen there. So your purpose, your environment, your culture, and your learning. And they take the time to walk around the building to speak with various stakeholders and ask questions. And at the end of it, they give you sort of a report on how they feel you are doing as an IB school in terms of... your progress towards those various goals. So I have a couple of slides that touches on a couple of the things that were shared with us. For our purpose, we received glowing comments regarding our district and building leadership commitment to IBE. And so that was a wonderful thing to hear because The impact and the commitment that our district has to IB is felt daily in our building by our staff and our students. They also shared about what is evident across

036our building, IB being evident in all of our classrooms, and also our learner profiles. We have various images and placards all across our building. stating the things that we value that is a part of the IB program and how it shows up in the way that we speak and in the things that we do at North. The next slide that I want to share. It was on our school environment, and it talks about how North, one of its strengths was its holistic and high-quality learning environment and its commitment to that. It also talked about the resources that are allocated to the authentic needs of our students and dedicated time to students and teacher well-being. Earlier, I heard about the high school modeling, a couple of their things after our 10-minute. read that has been at

037North long before I got to North and we used that 10 minutes almost as a you know SEL and a like a calming reset opportunity at the beginning of every class period and that was something that the visiting team from IB were really impressed with because they felt it was a holistic way to sort of approach learning and give students an opportunity to become grounded in the learning environment that they've just stepped into without carrying the chaos of the halls into the classroom with them. And also they were very impressed with our win opportunities that we offer at North and in our district. One thing they shared that would be an opportunity for us is providing more common planning time. for subject and grade level teams, which is something that I know our district leadership

038has worked with us in recent years to try to tackle and accommodate. So although it's listed as an opportunity, it's something we've always known that we wanted to work on ourselves and are working to do so. The next highlight I wanted to point out is the The annual Legislative Action Coalition Breakfast. This year, North was lucky enough to be picked to host this breakfast. It was an honor as a principal to show off your building, obviously, and to be representing our school district with our legislative leaders. The topic and subject matter for this year's breakfast was innovative education. And to that end, we were able to have a couple of our teacher leaders come and present to our legislative leaders, highlighting the amazing work that our teachers and students do at North on a daily

039basis. And as a principal, I was proud to be there to witness it. So that was definitely a highlight for us this year. Next, another highlight that we have going on this year. Last year, the district made the bold decision to allow both middle schools half days, four times a year, to really do some of that work that was pointed out in our IB visit as an opportunity that we need, which is time for teachers to create really great content for our students. And what we decided to do at North was commit those four. individual half days to interdisciplinary lesson planning. And what we do is after the students depart on their buses at about 1230, our teachers take a lunch break and then we all come together in a collective space and we work

040on working across cross-curricular content to build things that we believe we wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity to build with just our regular school schedule. And it has... done wonders for our school culture, our staff, and just it rejuvenates them to be with each other and so for me this has just been just a tremendous highlight to see our staff being able to be together creating opportunities and learning experiences for our students that are truly transformative. Another highlight that I want to point out is our sixth grade band retention success. You know, a couple of years ago, there was a lot of conversations being had around our district and various buildings' ability to support our band program. And I was recently in a band classroom observing, and the joy in the room was just... so palpable

041that I had a conversation with the band teacher and just said, hey, I have to do this thing next week. Can you give me some data? And we had just done registration. So I saw the numbers of students who were registered for band in the seventh grade coming out of sixth grade. And that retention is tremendous. For 128 students to come into band in the sixth grade and 122 of them to choose to continue. is huge, especially because at the elementary level, they get lessons and that's not something that we're able to provide for them at the middle school level. But the fact that they have enjoyed our band program at the sixth grade level and to have them continue is a tremendous testament to our band teachers and their planning and their intentionality about

042creating a rich experience. for all of our band students and shout out to our orchestra teachers as well because It's a beautiful thing to watch kids make music and to use that side of their brain that you don't get to see in other classes. And so it's an honor to sit here and highlight the great work of our band and music teachers across the district and in particular at North. And I have an image on the next one just to show our sixth grade band students at their concert. So I'm just going to let that breathe for a second. All right, we can go on. And another thing I want to highlight is obviously our winds. I just have a couple of pictures from a few winds that run daily at North. Obviously the courtyard

043planting doesn't run right now. It's really cold outside. But daily during wind, we have roughly 45 winds going on any particular day. That means every single adult. who is not supervising the halls or in a planning group is running a win. So our adults at North are busy creating experiences for our students that are tremendous. It allows them to be themselves. In one of those photos you see kids playing Uno. Usually that's reserved for the kitchen table at your home with family, but what's evident there is... For those kids, that's family and just giving them a chance to be with each other is huge. And of course, animal rescue. It's therapeutic in so many ways, but who doesn't like cute animals to start your day, right? And so I started with a thank you to

044our staff. I want to end with a thank you to our staff because ultimately everything I have talked about in this highlight is only made possible through their hard work and dedication. and my job would not be what it is without their support. And so thank you for this time and I appreciate you guys for having me. Thank you. Any questions? I'm happy to, if anyone has any questions or anything. I just wanted to say I thank you for mentioning the LAC breakfast and I I was gonna talk about that too like it was such a great experience I think for all of us that were there and thank you so much for hosting and I'm so glad that you're here to speak because I was very touched by what you were telling our legislators

045and and the the stories that you told about education and what's happening at North so Thank you for being here. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Karen Dresen? Yes. I do have a real quick question. Do you know the band retention rate before? So it's 95 now, which sounds amazing. What was it before? Yeah, so while I was putting that, I wanted to try to look at it, and I couldn't. I couldn't get the exact numbers because as I was running out the door to come here, I was like, I should probably look that up. So it's not as high. I just remember every time we do our scheduling, I would notice just some dwindling from 6th to 7th and 8th. Students would begin to drop band depending on whatever experience they were having,

046but that hasn't been the case this past year. Our teachers are just doing some wonders and really engaging with the kids. They're putting in additional time. We have teachers who are offering. additional band experiences during our wind time to supplement, you know, just their regular band classes. So for kids who just need that additional time, they're able to be with their band teachers during that time. So you have a band, a band wind? Well, not specifically band, but, you know, like different types of, you know, musical opportunities during wind time. So kids, you know, get to explore a little bit more beyond what is available in their regular courses. Yeah. Would it be easy for your data specialist to pull what it might have looked like for the last couple years? I think so. I

047could probably even go through and look through our previous registration sheets and find those. I know our music teachers have really been working on high retention. Yeah, and I was excited when I saw that because I know it has a trajectory of impact. towards our higher grades, right? And the whole idea is to show and build out a strong band and musical program beyond band. Even our choir is doing a lot better than it did. And we have some stability within our choir department now with a committed teacher who is really spending time to create experiences as a part of. you know, both of the plays at North and West, using that as a catalyst to build that commitment to music and just singing. Yeah. Sharon Drewson? Yes. Is there similar retention rates for, like,

048orchestra and choir? I'll have to look at that. I was mainly highlighted in sixth grade because with them not being able to have the lessons that they received at the elementary level, which was more intensive in helping grow their band skills. I don't have the exact information on orchestra and those other courses, but I can easily look that up. Sharon Dreesen, can I ask a question? Yes, Dr. Roper. Thank you so much for the presentation. And I definitely agree with Sharon Dreesen that you did such an amazing job at the LAC Breakfast and just sharing the story and the history of North, especially the video with Cruz. It was really inspiring. For the reading competition, have you seen a significant... improvement amongst like the reading scores or kind of like the reading dynamics of students

049since you all have like started the competition and you integrate that so heavily into like your day-to-day? Right. We've, our school, you know, has always had a strong tradition of like reading and we still have a lot of our, a lot of students who could use more time. perfecting and getting better with their reading. Our teachers, as a part of those interdisciplinary days, one thing we started incorporating is each department was required for every lesson they planned to have a list of vocabulary words. that are a part of the lessons that they're planning that will be essential to the understanding of those lessons. So literacy is something we're trying to intentionally start to wrap into everything we're planning moving forward because... When students don't understand some of those key phrasings or words that exist within

050the lessons they may become disengaged right and so if you front-load it Before you even get into the content. There's a higher Opportunity for engagement whether or not they are at the appropriate reading level or not right they can stay with it And then you know we have a phenomenal our reading teacher in our building Laura Jensen who works with our coaches and our entire building staff to continue to make those headways. And we are very intentional about, we all have to be rowing in the same direction as it relates to our reading programming. And so we do see improvements, but there's still so much work to be done. And obviously... We could always use more funding for various reading interventions and things of that nature. But this is one thing we can certainly do

051in the way that our schedule is built by setting aside that 10 minutes at the beginning of every class, making sure every student has a book that they love to read, and just giving them that time to kind of dive into it and perfect that craft on a daily, day in and day out basis. Thank you so much. Is there any data, like any desegregated data that shows like the different reading levels or proficiencies amongst the different student races? I'll have to pull that. I don't know that off the top. But I think we are doing a, Dr. Ertle, we're doing a literacy update next board meeting, correct? So we can get at some of those questions in two weeks. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you principal aroma Sally for being here, and I do

052want our board and community members to know that Julius is a very intentional principal He's built a really strong school culture with staff and students at North and we very much appreciate your leadership. Thank you Thank You dr. Mary Perry read that Takes us to approval of the agenda for this evening do I have a motion So moved. Second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The chair votes aye, and the agenda is approved. That takes us to the consent calendar. These items provide the board with information considered to be more routine in nature. If the board deems an item to be necessary for additional discussion, a motion will be made to move the item to new business. I would look

053for a motion that the board approves the consent calendar. So moved. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? As part of discussion, I would like to let everyone know that I am abstaining from the vote on this consent calendar because it contains the tentative contract agreement with paraprofessionals, and I currently work in the district as a paraprofessional, but I will still call the vote. Any further discussion? Seeing none all those in favor. Please say aye aye any opposed the chair abstains and the Consent calendar has been approved And that takes us to the Treasurer's Report. Treasurer Hartland. Wonderful. Thank you. I wanted to talk for just a moment tonight about our Treasurer's Report itself. Because in the state of Minnesota, there is

054statute that outlines some treasurer duties, one of which is to furnish reports to the board, but specifies nothing about the format or the frequency of these reports. And it's largely up to either district policy or the board's preference how the Treasury reports look and sound. So I looked at a few surrounding districts by looking at their meeting agendas and their minutes and watching some of their meetings, though admittedly at like 2x speed, just as fast as I possibly could. And in every district that I looked into, which is not a comprehensive list, there's like 330 districts in Minnesota, and I looked at Minnetonka, Wayzata, Edina. Minneapolis, Anoka-Hennepin, and St. Louis Park Public Schools, and none of them discuss their expenditure reports at the table, and instead they're passed as part of consent. And so, of

055course, any board member can pull an item out of consent and ask that it be discussed, but that did not happen in any of the meetings that I observed. Again, with a grain of salt, that was not a comprehensive review by any means. So I did not... see a single district either meetings or agenda that had a treasurer's report in the format that we practice and all of this is to say that we as a district and a board have taken this step purposefully towards making finances more a part of an ongoing discussion and to be more transparent and accountable about our expenditures and that was a decision that the board made years ago, like 10 close to 10 years ago now. When our district came out of a previous time of deficit and statutory

056operating oversight and. Since we've adapted the format before, I wanted to kind of welcome one more time. If there's either this board or if there's community members who want to partner on additional things that might. shape our board report. I you know that I have adapted it slightly to my predecessor to talk about kind of a more standardized set of expenses and to expand just a bit on different elements that are relevant to our financial conversations. And again, just wanted to extend that partnership. I do plan to once we have board reports or expense reports in the current format that can go back one full year. to kind of do some more side-by-side comparisons and talking about differences. That data is currently difficult to procure and to talk about because we have multiple systems and

057our old one is really old. Moving on, some expenses of note are... $231,363 that went to just one of our busing partners for student transportation with an additional $81,000 for special education transportation. $10,925 to Superior Vision Services as an employee benefit. $3,403 to ARVIG, which is a network hardware and internet service provider. $34,450 to Teachers on Call, one of our substitute teaching staffing agencies. $31,380 to Ring Central, our phone service provider. $37,036 paid to various vendors from our nutrition fund. And as a reminder, we get approximately 90% of those expenses reimbursed from the state of Minnesota due to our universal school meals program. We paid $12,070 to True North Consulting, which is a firm founded in Minnesota, but now in many cities in the U.S. focused on technology, network, and infrastructure strategic planning, mostly for

058public entities. And incidentally, I saw contracts with them on the consent calendars of many of the districts that I've looked at over the last couple weeks. We spent $12,571 at Batteries RS4. batteries. We made seven payments to seven different PTO or activity groups within our district. Our district allows groups to sign up to sell concessions as a fundraiser and any attendees who buy concessions actually pays the district and then we collect that money, deduct the cost of food and pay the profit in sales to those different PTO groups. We paid $9,569 to Centerpoint for gas service, $37,873 for snow removal and parking lot salting for different snow and ice events in January. $30,356 went to Lincoln's National Life Insurance for our portion of those insurance premiums. And with that, I move that we approve total

059disbursements of $1,106,827.15 for the period of January 17th to January 31st, 2025. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Chair Andreessen? Yes, Clerk Thompson. Well, first of all, Treasurer Harlan, thank you so much for those opening comments. And, you know, it's clear that you put a ton of work into your role as the treasurer and take it really seriously, and I really appreciate that. So thank you for that. And, you know, I would commend the district for... putting these together in you know a transparency and here's what we're spending it on you know and it's not tucked away in consent like you're saying some other districts do so I think that that's really good. I just have one question do you know on this

060vendor Red River Flags we spent $6,500 did we purchase a bunch of new flags or something for the high school? We did purchase a bunch of new flags for various sites we actually own a lot of buildings and have flags in a lot of rooms. I don't know what the real count of our flags are and it's kind of interesting that you brought that up because our business services like our oracle system is letting us see where each site used to be paying for flags and many other services kind of independently and this is letting us kind of group all of those expenditures together and then reach out to vendors for you know to kind of consolidate use a single vendor and get a a better pricing package and flag flags is one of them

061so we we just bought a lot of flags like uh at north middle school alone i don't know how many flags i'm not sure if uh mr ramaselli is still here but you've seen them so we Yeah, well that's that's good to hear that they can be kind of consolidated and then purchased out like a bulk discount obviously I don't know what kind of replacements like over on we could we could ask interesting. All right. Thank you. Yep Charger howling can I ask you a quick question? Yes director. Oh, thank you so yes, I will agree with with everything that That was said about your The way that you do the treacherous report, I love it. I have a question about snow removal. I know a couple of kids over north right now who will

062get that done for about $1,500. Seriously, are we able to compare and contrast, compare different snow removal companies? Do they do all the schools, or is there a certain... I don't know. Is there like a certain requirement that we have to have for our snow removal? I know that like slipping on ice and stuff like that, we have to make sure that like our sidewalks and everything are safe. But I think that that's probably a building and grounds question. I know that like for a lot of our contracts, we have to go out for a bit. I don't know if snow removal is one of them, but. It's a large number. It's worth potentially following up on that so I can talk with you after. Okay. Chair Andreessen, do you want this answered now or

063in a follow-up email? If we have an answer. Director Chapinduka, thank you for coming to the board table. The question was about more competitive pricing for snow removal services. Yeah. To my understanding, the current arrangement we have, It's been in the district for a while. What we've also been doing, one is part of us moving to a new system, was to identify some of the critical services to the district where we've not vetted the... the vendors in the past and start to put some RFP or request for proposal or request for quotes just to see what the market looks like. We do have different arrangements with, for example, when it comes to... certain expenditures we pay through either federal dollars, you know, we either get a multiple quote, so we go out to the market

064and find three vendors, and we use the one with the competitive price, meaning the lowest bidder. On a yearly basis, we do have some... request for proposal we send out there depending with the threshold but again we also have some of the service providers we've been servicing the district for a number of years right now so we are still just operating on those old contracts. And do those companies only do snow removal or is there other services like, I don't know, like leaf removal and things that they do as well? That's like, are they, I can't think of the word, but like, are they like? That's another word for uncall. I can't think of the word. So are they just, do they do all of our environmental work? Yeah, some of them do in terms

065of not just snow removal. They also provide other services to the district. I mean, if there's a specific company, I can check with our buildings and grounds department, and then they can let us know what other services they provide for the district. Do we have a cycle that we review these on? I'll say that again, I'm sorry. Or can you say that again, Tricia? I spoke out of turn here, so. Oh, no, I was just saying thank you. I asked if there's a cycle that comes up either in business services or in an individual department that's like, hey, this contract hasn't been reviewed or gone out for. Yeah, we've been pulling out, I mean, you know, best practice is usually you go out for an RFP after five years to scout the market. Some contracts

066we have are like for three years. That's when we either go either for an RFP or an RFQ. or multiple court. If it's a service provider who is unique and provide the service as a sole service in the state, we usually do a sole source later. And usually we do bring back, so for example right now on the consent agenda there were some bids we just did for some of our building and grounds contracts. So periodically we bring this to the board for approval. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I think Natalia just let us know that the flag price was significant because we have a new state flag. That would make sense. Yep. Thank you for that context. Thank you, Natalia. Thank you. None of us made that connection. Any further discussion? Seeing none,

067all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The chair votes aye and that takes us to our oh and the treasurer's report is accepted and we now go to new business and Are seeing the citizens financial advisory committee report I would like to invite the members of the committee to the table and I believe two of our board members are joining them to report and I'll turn it over to Dr. Mary P. Reid. Thank You chair and recent so as we get organized here, I'll just provide a quick framing and then our director of business services can take it from there, but I Would like to start by welcoming our guest presenters to the table we have in Hopkins a citizens financial advisory committee Otherwise known as see FAQ and these are parents

068actually who have some pretty deep financial expertise And we've met with this group, along with Board Treasurer Rachel Hartland and Director Jiming Zhao, our Assistant Superintendent, and of course, Director of Business Services. So the group of us have met. I don't know how many times, five or six or seven, one of those. And I'm very grateful because this is completely voluntary. So these parents, well, they probably have to get up to send their kids to school. But then after they send their kids to school, they're in either in-person or virtual space with the rest of us going over lots and lots of information. And I think we've also talked about the... The fiscal landscape with public school districts across the state of Minnesota is here in the metropolitan area. School districts will be facing probably

069more than $200 million shortfall. And so what we're experiencing in Hopkins is not an isolated experience, and we're in a difficult predicament because this is not the first. budget reduction, right? We are experiencing annual either reduction or hard reality with limited resources. So grateful to all of our thought partners in this work. And I will just turn it over to, well, let me explain who's at the table. So Andrea Simmons, thank you for your service. Luke Jacobson, I think, was Luke going to join? He was, but I think he was boarding a plane, so I'm not entirely sure. Yeah, it was going to be touch and go whether or not, literally touch and go. Especially if we told you we'd probably present around 7.30 and it's like 8.10. Okay, Andy Kosemba is on the team.

070Craig Budolfson is here. Justin Seeloff is on the team. And Scott Siemens is here. So thanks very much to all of you. And I'll turn it over to you, Truro, and then maybe you can hand it off to Andrea or whoever's speaking first. Sure. Thank you, Dr. Miripereid. As mentioned, I definitely would want to thank the CFAC group, which is a voluntary group of our community. CFAC has been in existence in the district almost for close to 20 years now and has been pivotal in giving direction to the board. and administration in terms of how we, I mean, we're always facing challenges with our budgets and our finite resources. So getting some insights from industry leaders on how we... develop long-term financial goals and how we are able to sustain the district is critical for

071the success of our organization. So I need to take this to take the opportunity to thank the CFA group for their efforts in helping the district and their dedication. We usually have these meetings early in the morning and This year we've had a number of meetings, I think almost close to seven meetings, and we'll continue to have meetings after this presentation to the board. And I don't want to take the limelight away from the Citizen Financial Advisory Committee, so I'll... give this opportunity to miss Andrea Simmons to Take us through the report in partnership with the Other CFAC members as well as board members. Thank you. Thank you Thanks for giving us the opportunity to speak today. The committee has met It's a question six or seven times to review the financial health of the

072district We reviewed numerous sources, including financial results, legislative agendas, enrollment trends, and other financial factors to come up with the recommendations presented in our board report. We are thankful to the board and the staff for their work and thoughtfulness in preparing the budget for the fiscal year from July 2025 to June 2026. Some of the key assumptions we used for the 2026 budget include a 2% increase in state per student funding, flat enrollment, 4% annual salary increases, and a 3% increase in purchase services, particularly the busing and transportation. The general fund unassigned fund balance is projected to decrease from 14% in fiscal year 2024 to 10% in fiscal year 2025 due to the previously authorized one-time use of the unassigned fund balance to cover the budget shortfalls for the 2024-2025 year. Hopkins remains in a

073relatively strong financial position and continues to have good working relationships with its employee unions. 67% of this district's revenue is in the form of state funds. Governmental funding increases are projected to be minimal, and as a result, the district is forecast to have a deficit in fiscal 2026 if no adjustments are made. This will necessitate efficiencies in service and programs to address budget shortfalls. CFAC continues to feel that the general fund unassigned fund balance is crucial for financial stability and in line with the district auditor recommends maintaining the unassigned fund at or above 10% to support the district's strategic goals. We recommend that the unassigned fund balances not be used to cover any shortfalls. If budget shortfalls are continuously covered with unassigned fund balances, the fund will quickly move further away from the CFAC's recommended

07410%. CFAC supports strategic efforts to retain and grow enrollment, including effective marketing, investment in virtual education, and continuous improvement in instructional excellence. We support the legislative advocacy for safety resources, mental health support, fully funded mandated programs, and the ability to increase local revenue to support the operating budgets. Our committee continues to research efficiencies to help Medicaid further funding constraints. Thank you again to the board and the staff for the opportunity for this input and for all the work towards aligning the district with the vision 2031 goals Open it up if anyone has questions for us Thank you. I appreciate the report and the care with which This has always undertaken by the committee. I know that it comes through in every CFAC report I've ever seen that you are careful stewards of taxpayer dollars, but

075also very committed to this district and the families. So thank you for your work. And with that, I would look to see if any members have comments or questions. Chair Andreessen. Director Westmoreland. So I echo Chair Andreessen's sentiments. Thank you so much for your service and for your work on this report. I think... Perhaps the most powerful and telling page of the report is page eight with the budget projection model. So for community members who are joining us via YouTube and watching this at home, I would encourage you to go to that page of the report to take a look at the actual numbers that we're looking at here. This is going to be really challenging. So most of us at this table have been involved. In budget reductions in the past and we're looking

076at the highest number that we've had to reduce since my tenure on the board. This is my 8th year on the board and so this is the result. Of course, we've talked about this many times of chronic underfunding by the state. Of the state not living up to its obligation to fund special education programming to. At the level that that our state constitution requires. So here we are as local school boards having to do this incredibly incredibly hard work in partnership with our community. And I thank you so much for this report and just want to be very real with our community about the work ahead. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? Chair Andreessen. Clerk Thompson. Thanks. Yes, echo what Director Westmoreland and Chair Andreessen have said. I mean, seriously, thank you for the

077time that you've put into this. It's really appreciated. I think I had just a couple of questions here. The first one. Probably pretty elementary, but you know that goal to maintain the unassigned fund balance at 10% you know between 10 and 15% like the order said and I think you had said you know to enable the district to meet its goals. So what what is the value of keeping it there? And I'm I think we should, but I just like. Other than going into statutory operating debt, if it gets too low, what is the other consequence of if it goes below 10? I just don't know. Scott, do you want to take it if you want me to? Yeah, I can speak to that. Yeah, I know the statutory operating debt, I know many years

078ago there was kind of an enrollment situation where Hopkins dipped into that the last time and we lost a number of kids. So I think that could be a big issue. Also, kind of reduction in... bond ratings and so forth. If we go to the market for capital levies and so forth, that could impact bond ratings. Also just continue to borrow from that unassigned fund and bringing that balance down kind of gets you to only a year or so left of fund balance, as you can see on that table, is pretty profound. If we paid that $6.9 million with the unassigned fund balance, you're kind of kicking the can down the road to the next year, and it's over $9 million for the next fiscal year. There wouldn't be a whole lot of money left

079after a couple years. That was really helpful. Thank you for that answer. It makes total sense as to why you wouldn't want to go beneath $10. That makes total sense. I was curious in the recommendations on page eight, and I think these are good recommendations, when you recommend continuous improvement in instructional excellence and academic rigor. Did you have any discussions about like what what does that mean or how would we measure it? How would we know if we're continuously improving in those areas? I'm just curious what the discussion was there I think it was more along the lines of maintaining what the work that's being done and not taking away from that and and having to use funds just to support business and the really great work that's going with the vision 2031 and and

080being able to support that as a district we didn't go into specifics on it. I know that one of the things that we really did talk about is how to, as Scott had mentioned, these one-time fixes for something that's continually underfunded and how do we get to the next step so that we're not having to take from one bucket in order to cover for the other. So I think it's more of a long-term, Longevity of the the district in order to you know, but as far as you know Did we get into as much of the educational pieces of it more we stayed more towards the financial side of it? And if I could add, there is an element when we have more in-depth conversations at the district level, there's an element of class size

081to that. We really want to think about the conditions that all of our classrooms need in order to move toward excellence and increased rigor, which means that we have to think about our adult to student ratios and figure out how we can make these reductions while protecting classrooms as much as possible. Great. Thank you. Any further comments or questions? Chair Andreessen. Yes. Vice Chair Ross. Thank you, CFAC Committee, for presenting this information. It's obviously sobering information, especially to Director Westmoreland's point. Page 8 is very telling. I guess the only question that I have is... Not under hearing all the rhetoric that is going to be in our east side. I think you guys know what direction you know where I'm talking about. Is there any reason or any should we be a little bit more

082conservative, not understanding? I guess how I see it as a holistic is that I'm not I'm planning on no more money coming from the federal government. at all, especially just trying to be more with the efficiency that's happening. So I'm assuming we're budgeting or we're planning for, or there's some plan that there's not going to be any federal money, like as a worst case scenario, that will, I would imagine, might change some of these numbers to go up higher. So where I'm going is that... I'm assuming that's something the team has kind of looked at is like, let's plan on no federal funds coming to our school district. Yeah, so I mean again, that's the importance of having fund balance. I mean right now everything is still up in the air. So we are still

083waiting for more information in terms of what this might look like from the federal revenues we get to the district. There is no impact for fiscal year 24-25 like I mentioned at the last board meeting. But if it ends up a case where we don't have federal dollars coming in and we want to maintain our programs, we are going to need a launching pad of how do we even eliminate certain things. So that's when, if we have savings on the side, we can... leverage those savings to be able to at least get us to a point where we don't impact the quality of service being provided for the for the district Yeah, I think that just reiterates the need for that fund balance, you know as much as possible just to cover some unexpected legislative

084changes Thank you for the unfortunate news I just had some a few questions about, I know that for us it's new this year that we as a school board get to automatically renew our operating levy. And so just wondering, and then also there's been discussion about going to our community again and asking for them to help support. the district and just wondering given your knowledge and your service on CFAC, what would be kind of your recommendations as community members to the school board of what to do with those questions that are coming before us? Yeah, we did have discussions about that. I don't want to take from other people if they want to talk, but we did have a number of conversations about that and the risk to not approving it and by chance losing

085those funds. And from a long-term structure, what are our options to cover these operating deficits in the future? Do you remember specific conversations, I guess, about... what and how that looked. I think we have an operating referendum coming due in 27. Is that right? So hopefully there'll be some opportunity there to get some more revenue. Otherwise, enrollment obviously is kind of the secret weapon for gaining traction on revenue. So hopefully we can keep the steam going there. It seems like we have some forward progress on enrollment at the district. So if we can keep that moving along, that should help out. For sure. Great. Thank you. So am I kind of hearing that that's something CFAC is in support of, that the board renew that, and then also that when it comes up for renewal,

086we go back to the community? I think that's definitely an option. Great. Yeah. Thank you. That was the only question I had. So thank you so much for being here, for all of the information in this report. It's very comprehensive. I hope that our community that follows us and cares deeply about public education and funding reads this so that every one of us are on the same page. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all so much. So we do have an action associated with this report. I will wait for our board colleagues to come back to the other side of the table now. And so that we, now that we've had a chance to review the report and to ask questions. I would look for a motion that the board accepts the Citizens

087Financial Advisory Committee report. So moved. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The chair votes aye, and the Citizens Financial Advisory Committee report is accepted. That brings us to policies in first read. I will turn it over to Vice Chair Ross. Excellent. Thank you, Chair Andreessen. We're going to have five policies that we're going to review with the board today. So policy 416, 502, 505, 507, 524. You'll see there's two policies that had changes noted and three of them, three of which that did not. So with that, I will hand the floor over to Assistant Superintendent Dr. Lightfoot to be able to walk you guys through if there's any questions that the

088Boer colleagues have. Thank you. Getting set up here. Good evening. All right. Well, as was mentioned, we continue our work with a set of policies that is here. One we did some extensive work with on 416. That is related to drug testing. And as you're aware, with some of the statutory changes, it was necessary that we go back and review that policy. We did review that with our assistant director of transportation. Director Williams and part of that review was to make sure that we were in compliance with the state and federal requirements that are associated with any commercial driving license as well to make sure that we were in compliance with the statutory requirements that are associated with any testing that we are required to do as part of our work. with our transportation department

089and any employee sets of circumstances that might develop. So with that, those changes were made. Questions, comments on 416? Chair Andreessen? Yes, Director Zhao. Hi, Dr. Lightfoot. Oh, sorry, I do have a question for Dr. Lightfoot. Yes. Yes. So this policy is mostly for school bus drivers, or does it also apply to certain other employees? It can. It's a great question. It's an employee policy. broad scope policy but really the predominant work that we do that's associated with any testing is really around the required testing that is associated with that commercial driving license which is why you see so much of the policy really paying specific attention to that level of work. Okay. So what and and I think a lot of the for the so the school bus drivers totally understand there's there's requirements

090around that. But for others, right, there's this maybe concept of a safety-sensitive employee, and they could be subject to testing. And I looked at the state statute. It looks very broad, right? Like, you know, we could say, yes, a teacher is a safety-sensitive employee. Does the district consider that to be true, or how does that work? No, we've really looked at the qualification component there, as I've said, more predominantly with that commercial driving license. We do have some individuals that we employ as bus drivers ourselves. Some we work with, as you're aware, through contract. So we make sure that we're compliant there as well. When we look at any testing set of circumstances, we always look, and the only way we would look at that is if there were an employee concern that might develop

091from any specific misconduct such that it would necessitate something that we would need to look into. That is a high bar and a high measure that we would look at with specific misconduct in any specific set of circumstances where there might be that duty of safety that we would owe. But that would be a review on an individual case basis. Got it. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? I don't see any. All right. Next policy is policy 502. There are no recommended changes for 502. Would be open to any specific questions that are there. I had a question just in general for the monitoring committee. I do know that it's been an ongoing student feedback on searches. that we kind of look at this policy and be careful about, yeah, just more from a

092student lens, look at it and see if we think that it's appropriate as it is. So I was just wondering what kind of discussion you had at the committee level about that, about our student input and on that topic. My recollection is we didn't have any other than our student board representatives who are with us at the meeting didn't have any other discussion around student input. Is there a place where that student input lives? Like, did we have survey results about it or is it more anecdotal? I think it was part of. safety conversations that we had with different students and then also I know the student advisory brought it up as well about having random and non like that there's no reason to do a search but they just kind of do them periodically.

093that those were just kind of problematic and a little invasive. And I saw when I was reading this that that policy is still the district policy. So just wondering if there was a discussion. But it sounds like no. Not outside of the current school board reps. That was my only question. So I'm looking at, you know, certainly some of the definitions, the terminology and the policy, such as reasonable suspicion, reasonable scope, which leads me to wonder if it's more the implementation of the policy that needs to be looked at versus the policy itself. And so I would be curious to know more specifically about what that feedback was. It sounds like part of it was the randomness of the searches. But I'm wondering if this is more of a staff training issue around what the

094policy actually allows. Well, I do think that there is, it states right in the policy. that inspection of the interior of lockers may be conducted by school officials for any reason at any time without notice, without student consent, and without a search warrant. And I think that's where the issue is. We would be, I mean, I'll speak for myself. I, as a committee member, would be happy to take a look at it again. I think that we just need more specifics around... kind of like how the policy has been implemented maybe over the last couple of years, where some of these issues are cropping up. Is it more at the middle school level or at the high school level? I would want to know more specifics that if we are going to make changes that

095we can really tailor it to address those. I guess the other question is, do we have any fast bridge data directly from the students communicating? That this like they feel uncomfortable with like last year and this year. Yeah I don't know about any current Feedback, but I can dig up the prior years uncomfortable with what uncomfortable with searching lockers without reasonable cause and I don't know if it's If it's a current practice at the high school, I would just find it problematic that it's in our policy, right? So that it can be done regardless of who's at the high school or any of our schools, frankly. I do think there are protections around personal belongings, which I appreciate. But I do think that... You know, yes, we own the lockers, but it is kind of

096student space while they're using them. You know, it's kind of like your landlord can come in and search your place anytime they want. Like, that's kind of how it feels to me. But I can look for that, those direct. Or if you have, like, the name of somebody who would have access to that. Yeah, I don't think Panorama asks that, but I just I wonder how easy it would be or how hard. But if we got assistant principals and students together in the same room just to talk about what this actually looks like in daily practice. I mean, the majority of our kids don't use lockers. Right. I think we would want to look at the statutory components, too. I mean, there have been no changes to the statute, which is why there are no

097changes recommended to the policy, but just to make sure that we're accurately interpreting that. And it might be interesting to take a look at the ACLU to see if they have any guidelines around this. Does seem like it's pulled from MSBA language. So like word for word. Right. And usually the determination hinges on ownership. And as you identify, Chair Andreessen, the ownership of the district to inspect its own property at any point in time. Usually the reason you'll see policy state this is to give individuals fair notice. So that they know that it could be searched at any point in time so that they would be fully aware of any risks that they would assume for placing anything in a locker that shouldn't be placed there. In part, the distinction of why the standard is

098higher as you identify for another individual is that there is a greater level of privacy that's afforded in understanding that when you have a personal item that affords yourself greater protection from that, from being. intruded upon or looked at in any invasive way. So usually that is the distinction that you'll see. Certainly doesn't mean that you can't look at anything different there, but usually that really is associated to the school district reserving its right to inspect its own property at any time. Thank you for that context. Other questions? Consideration 4, 502? Doesn't look like it. All right. 505. 505 is the distribution of materials. There again, no specific changes recommended to 505. I would be open to any questions related to 505. I don't see any questions. All right. Then 507. 507 had specific changes

099that were based in statute. The changes were really related to the definition components and the associated materials regarding prone restraint. So you will see that the modifications that have been made are based off the model policy. That model policy was done with language that was created through the work over periods of time through various legislative changes and amendments that were made. And what you see right now is reflecting the current status of statutory language that is being recommended by the model policy to include. for your consideration. There are additional questions, happy to address those as well. Chair Andreessen? Yes, Director Zhao. Dr. Lekva, I do, so the way I read this is that prone restraints could be allowed if it's deemed reasonable. Is that an accurate reading of this? Under various conditions, yes. The statutory

100language is very specific and restrictive on this. And so, I mean, I'll speak personally that I do not agree with a lot of the language in this policy and it is required by statute. It seems like we just added some definition but said it's fine, right? Is that what we're saying? It is not my favorite statute. I'll leave it at that. Okay. I will say the pieces that are important to us as a district really revolve around training in any staff set of circumstances. I think it's important to... understand that as a district, if there's anything that we do within our own staff practice, whether it's any kind of restraint or hold that has an internal review process, as well as reporting components, and anything that we would look at, we look at individuals who

101are trained. We do go through CPI training with individuals who may experience sets of circumstances where anything may be required, but I think it's also critical to understand that key tenants in that training do everything possible. first to make sure that restraint is a last effort. And so I think it's just really critical to understand that while this policy is here to give specific sets of information, it does not in any way infer that this is a go-to practice. If anything, it is a last attempt practice, if that helps. Yeah. And is there any way to modify the policy language to state that? Because to me, you know, oh, it was reasonable, and we move on with our day. I don't want that in the district. I agree with you, Director Zhao. That was my

102next question, is that language that we can put in, that it is our policy that this is last resort after other. And I see Director Contreras coming to help us out. And I think it's important to understand one thing that the policy does is it really does the distinction between a prone restraint. I mean, and it's inherently mentioned that an employer agent of the school district shall not use prone restraint. I think that's the critical element that really what you're talking about is reasonable force. That may be necessary, and Director Contrash, you can speak to with some of the training that we do with staff as well. Yes, so any person that performs a CPI restraint should be trained first and foremost to I believe it's like 75% of the training is all verbal de-escalation

103because we want to use hands-on the least least least restrictive amount only if students are at harm for themselves or others do we perform restraints we do not do prone so we just we don't I don't since I've been here I don't know that we ever have we just Had a review so we are required by law to have quarterly reviews on all of the holds that are done in the district We look at the antecedents. So what precipitated the hold how long was the hold was it a Rational use of a hold did a debrief happen. So those are all of the things that we look at I will say that the This year and last year, the rates of holds have increased. And then we give that feedback to the teams after we

104do these quarterly reviews. So we literally just had one last week. And so we do look at that data, and then we do turn that data into the state. But we do not apply prone holds, nor do we do sitting holds where we are holding a student while seated because of air circulation. There are cases that have happened in Minnesota. So the training that we provide are the holds that we implement, and we do not, do not, do not do prone. And Fonda, the quarterly reviews that we have, they include any holds, if there were, of students with IEPs and without, right? Correct. So general ed and special education students? The gen ed ones are new. So it's new for us reporting general education holds to the state through different requirements that weren't in place

105prior to the school year, but we do report and we do debrief those as well. And then the committee includes nurse. There's a nurse administrator, Jeff Goldie, who works very closely with ASHA. And then we have special ed folks on that team. Thank you. Chair Andreessen, can I ask a question? Director Roper. So as far as the, when we're talking about the CPI, because I'm trained in CPI, I know that when I had to enforce it when I was working with, students who like were biting or like who were part of special education. So like if a student, if a teacher or an administrator need to put them in like a hole where like they're grabbing their hand and telling them like to like stop, I know there's like different ways that they like to

106twist their hands to get them to stop a behavior. Does that need to be reported to the state like when those type of incidents happen? So Not just holding of a hand, but if we're restricting movement or guiding a student somewhere against their will. And happy to have the trainers come and do a little mini session if that's needed at a later date. I think that would be super helpful just so we could know like which. Like which movements warrant a report and which movement doesn't like warrant a report. Like I said, just because I had to do it in a school setting before, I just want to know which ones are more appropriate. So thank you. Just so we can manage people's ideas or expectations around this, these are minimal numbers. I mean, what's

107the approximate number per quarter? It used to be between like 9 and 10, and now we're probably in the 20s. It's still very minimal. It's very minimal. These are 7,000 students. Correct. Very minimal. So getting back to the policy, am I correct in assuming, Director Zhao, that you and I are speaking about the same section, which is the reasonable force section? Yeah. So I am wondering, Do we have leeway Assistant Superintendent Lightfoot to add in language that you are saying and that Director Contreras also reiterated is our current practice in Hopkins that this is kind of a last resort after many of our tiers have been tried, our MTSS levels. much like we have with our discipline policy or student behavior policy. Is it possible to put in language like that? We certainly can. I

108mean, there isn't anything that would restrict that. When you think about the use of reasonable force, I think what we would want to... to look at and the monitoring committee certainly can discuss that is how we make sure we understand that language to be guided toward staff members understanding the district approach to how we look at the use of reasonable force so that it can reinforce the training that we've done. And I really like the concept of working with our trainers to train with and through this policy. So I think the dialogue with them would be another important element that we could utilize in trying to craft some of that language together. Agreed. So that they're in alignment. I was just thinking that. Just the same way we did with the mental health wellness group.

109We brought them in for their input to help advise and guide so that our policies match our practice. Great. So just to be clear, we're looking for a definition around reasonable force, like how we define reasonable force in Hopkins. I think that we're looking for more of a guiding language to staff about when reasonable force is appropriate in our schools. Is that correct? Is that your... Well, I was mostly thinking, you know, parents or what, and, you know, community members that read this and they're like, okay, right? They say they won't do corporal punishment or prone restraints, and then like, but if it's necessary, you can do it. But I think we just want to be very clear that it's, like, to your point, done, you know, appropriately, but not, like... aggressively, right? I think

110that's very important that people understand that. So then I wonder if it's something that we put in the purpose statement up top so that it's very clear what the purpose of this policy is, that, you know, corporal punishment, which is an awful term, and prone restraint, like that this policy is doing exactly what you're saying, Chair Andreessen. It is guiding when these things are done, and it's a last resort. Because I think what you're talking about encompasses the whole policy, not just the reasonable force piece of it. Okay. Because it's more of a value statement, too. Yes. Right? Mm-hmm. Yeah, and I guess to a question I would have are we to your point earlier our is prone restraint and corporal punishment reasonable force like I don't feel like that's The case I'm getting more

111confused where we talk. I think you see that under prohibitions that Employer agent of the school district shall not use prone restraint I mean, there's a specific section for that. I think it's really kind of the understanding of, yes, in general, what is the general approach that we look toward any corporal punishment and or restraint? I think then the question becomes, where does that guidance work best? And it can work in both places. So perhaps that's what we look at in the guidance that we receive from our trainers as well. about what would be helpful for them because if they can use this as a training tool, then we create better understanding as well. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Vonda. All right. 524 is the next. 524 is the acceptable electronic use. Under the

112acceptable electronic use, part of the work that you are intimately aware of with that is that this also needed to be modified to include this specific language about the statutory requirement that is specific to cell phones. So you will see the component based on the workshops, the data. everything that we had looked at based on our previous conversations being incorporated in as had been guided by the board. So such that this language is now included reflects our previous conversation. And if there are additional questions, we'd be happy to entertain those or other comments, questions from any of the monitoring committee members as well. Chair Andreessen. Yes, Treasurer Hartland. I feel like that. the cell phone use addition is like a logical place for this policy to end up at. And then I also have the

113feeling That like, oh, it's just tacked on quick to the end of an existing policy. Like that makes sense logically, but there was somewhat of a big to do about developing this like in concert with the community and with the staff and with the students. And then it's like kind of like the end of our meeting. End of this policy and I almost went like I do almost wish that we had sort of specifically denoted in our agenda so that like community members if they had cared could have said like oh today they're going to pass this cell phone policy that we all took these surveys about and so I don't know if anything else needs to happen about it. I think I just you know this is information that we've seen before. and have

114gotten as a board to question before. So I don't really have specific questions about it. Just this feeling like even I opened this and was like, oh, cell phone policy is up today. Great. And kind of wish that that had maybe been called out for the community. It was discussed at the workshop last time, right? Yeah, we discussed the cell phone policy. I don't know if it was discussed that it was going to be part of this larger policy. I don't remember that. Was it? Chair Andreessen? Yes, Clark Thompson. Well, thank you for saying that, Director Harland, or Treasurer Harland. I feel the same way. It's like, you know, we kept leading up to this, and now it's here, and it wasn't much of a... communication I felt like so But what I remember the

115language saying was that the monitoring policy is leaning towards this and then we saw a draft of this so You know it didn't seem well communicated and it'll be discussed in two weeks, you know, so But but I kind of agree that To have it maybe have a stand alone You know for such an important Policy could could be better. Just my thought. I'm wondering assistant Superintendent Lightfoot. Did we discuss that it would be part of this policy? It's been part of the model MSBA policy. If you look at the model part of the electronics policy. Yep, thank you. And that's where it comes from. Is that specific section reflected from the model policy? So I guess nobody brought that up last time and we discussed it. So I understand exactly why it's here now.

116So thank you for that context. Were we thinking, I agree, Treasurer Heartland, we have made, we have communicated directly with our community about this a lot. I don't know if people were tuned in at our last discussion. I don't know what are, are there other thoughts about perhaps having more of a community discussion like we have done with other policies that kind of rise to this level of community engagement? I know that in the past we've passed the policy and then before it's passed in second read, we hold a community conversation. I don't know what the appetite of the monitoring committee would be for that, but that would definitely give our community time to comment and to be aware that this is in the process of being approved and we're seeking their feedback. Chair Andreessen?

117Yes. So I just wanted to add to this conversation that we did... send an update in a family communication. There were a number of updates in there, so we sent the results and findings from the facility survey. We sent the high-level executive report from the cell phone survey, and then there was a budget piece, so families can refer to that. district communication to read more about the cell phone survey findings. I do not think we specifically said and at the February 11 board meeting. You'll hear more. So I'm just wondering if it fits within board protocol to place this as a separate agenda item at the February 25 board meeting to revisit. And give our community heads up. I don't if it fits within protocol it certainly It doesn't do any harm to do that.

118Absolutely. We have two readings. Your second read does not have to be on consent. You certainly can have it as another live item for a second read, which we've done for multiple policies. I think you're also looking at that timeline of March to have that implemented by March as well. You just need to be mindful of both of those. How do you feel vice chair Ross about that kind of compromise? Having it be old business. Yeah, thanks superintendent You know brought forth a good solution So yeah, I wholeheartedly agree with dr. Mayor period Who was the salute? That's a good solution. Okay, great. I like it, too Treasurer Heartland, Clerk Thompson, you're feeling comfortable with that? It'll be its own agenda item. Chair Andreessen, can I just ask a clarifying question? Sure. So are we

119basically, it seems like we're going to be bringing the one we just had a lot of discussion back, right? Was that 507, the corporal punishment and prone restraint? Yeah, because there were requested changes. That's going back to the monitoring. Yeah, because there's so much requested to change in that. So could it be appropriate that 524 would also be in first read at the next meeting and then on March 11th it could be the second read and then we would meet that March 15th deadline? Well, I think that the... So 507 is just going back to the monitoring committee. I don't think that's the recommendation for 524. Yeah, and I agree with that. I'm just wondering if, you know, given the lack of communication to the community that, like, tonight's the night that it's in first

120read, like, you know, I'd prefer that we have that communication, let the community know that in first read it'll happen on the 25th. And so that's the first read on the 25th and then second read on March 11th. Chair Andreessen. Oh, go ahead. So this is the first read, like we've done it. So it would have to be, yeah, it'd have to be a second. That's what I was going to say. This is the first read. But I was wondering about just like a compromise to just table this one. And so it would be in first read next time. I just feel like that would be more fair communication wise. I don't think we can change what's happened. This is in first read. We could send it back to the monitoring committee if that's your

121preference, like 507, but I don't see a need for that since there are no suggested changes from any board member. So what would have to happen is it would come on to our next agenda. If we chose that, we could delay it if you'd like. its own agenda item on old business because it's in first read right now in its second read we don't have to pass it if we want to give community members another chance to attend another meeting to talk about it we could then say we want it to be an old business again at the next meeting that would be an option for protocol but we can't do another first read unless it gets sent back, I suppose, but yeah. Yeah, but there's no reason to send it back. Chair Andreessen? Yes.

122Would it be possible to do, like, even passing, like, even in parents' memos that, like, this much talked about cell phone survey, like, here's a link to it, and it will be passed finally in second read? in the next board meeting and then give people, if there's people who have strong feelings about it, they have one more chance to be heard. And I think, too, we can be mindful about... what we're putting in the community facing agenda, we can say in parentheses, cell phone policy so that people know that that's what it is. Cause in this, it's just a number, right? And until you click on it, you don't know what it is. So when we're crafting the agenda, we can be very intentional about calling it what, what the community knows it is, which

123is the cell phone policy. I like that idea. And if you want to, I mean, it's not uncommon. I mean, this is MSBA nomenclature. So if you would like to pull it out and even have it as 524.1 and have it be its own policy so that it can be searchable under this set of information, otherwise you're right. It's always going to be at the end of some big, long thing. If you want to pull it out and have it be its own set, you can do that also. I mean, there is no requirement that just because MSBA calls it this and organizes it this way that you may want to just say it's worth pulling it out and having it be its own standalone under this segment, too, which you could do as well.

124And that would give us a reason to send it back to the monitoring committee. Mm-hmm. How do we feel about that? That works as long as it satisfies the collective. So then that would then so we would be sending that one back. And then it would be policy in first read at the next meeting. And you could pull it out and have it be its own segment. We could write it as its own segment. We certainly could do that. If that would be more clear for the community and it not only is more clear visually as well as more accessible, we can certainly do that as well. Chair Andreessen? Yes. I'm just really mindful about implementation and I know that... staff and building leaders have already seen this policy, the draft language. But I'm wondering

125now with the pushed back timeline, if that will contribute to implementation challenges, if that's something that we should consider before we change the schedule on this. To my mind, I don't believe so. Okay. Do we know if school leaders have seen this draft language? Okay. No, I don't think so. Okay, great. Thank you for that question. Chair Andreessen? Yes. I just want to get my own marching orders. So are we talking about pulling part of this language out of this document and making it a separate, like putting it into a separate document? Because what I'm thinking is we then create a blurb, a little paragraph that invites parents and staff. to review this draft policy, which would be coming to the board on February 25 for first read. And then we provide the link to

126this excerpt. Is that correct? Yes. And I think it's going to be its own policy. So then what I'm thinking is that we... Page 12 on, sort of? Yeah, everything in red. Yeah. So then what I'm thinking is that since we are pulling this part and sending it back to the monitoring committee, we can move forward with passing 524 with the directed changes if everyone feels comfortable with the rest of that policy. So that can be put on to second read, knowing that. 524.1 will be a new policy. Great. Thank you, everyone. That was a good discussion. And that was our last one. It is. All right. So now I get to figure out how I'm going to word this. All right. So I would look for a motion that the board approves the above

127policies in first read with the exception of policy 507 which is going back to the monitoring committee and with any corrections or edits that have been discussed this evening. And further, the board directs the administration to prepare the policies with suggested revisions for approval and second reading at the next meeting as part of consent. Do I have a motion? So moved. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a second. Any discussion? Yes, Chair Andreessen. I just wanted to understand, was the board also asking us, the monitoring committee, to take a look at 502 again? The search policy? Oh, I don't know. Were we going to? Is that something the monitoring committee wanted to do? That worked. We can take that one back as well. Okay. All right, policy 502 and 507

128are going back to the monitoring committee. So I would look for a motion that the board approves the above policies. except for 502 and 507 in first read. And further, the board directs the administration to prepare the policies with suggested revisions, in particular with 524, for approval in second reading at the next meeting as part of consent. Do I have a motion? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none all those in favor. Please say aye aye any opposed The chair votes aye and the policies have been approved Thank you so much. Thank you Superintendent lightfoot. Do you mind sticking around for the next? Section great. Thank you so much And I'm not sure if dr. Brown if you want to join us for

129this discussion that would be Great, I appreciate it. So Vice Chair Ross and I will be presenting an update on the equity audit for the policies. And the reason why I am assisting is because I was chair of the monitoring committee when we got the audit and started doing this work. So I wanted to... Help out as we did this So we will go ahead and Get started with the presentation. Yay, and it's already up on the board. Thank you So I will just pull up my notes We The Hopkins School Board Monitoring Committee made several updates in response to the equity audit findings. I don't know if, Dr. Brown, if you want to give some context about that. And I know that you also helped us kind of look at the policies that they

130listed. for us to review and let us know. Oh, sorry. No problem. Thank you, Chair Andreessen. One of the searches of the audit was to comb through the policies to see which policies were true to its nature of being equitable. And that's what they looked for. And so that's what the policy committee, Dr. Lightfoot, Director Ross, and you, your task was to look at the recommendations to see what needed to be improved. Thank you. And we, this has been a many years project. And they also include revisions to existing policies, introduction of new policies, and the adoption of tools to ensure equity is at the forefront of all our decision making. So I will go through, they kind of broke out. policies and put them into different categories. And we did work on the following

131sections. They said that we had policies that supported equity, policies that implied support, and then policies that blocked attention to equity. So the ones that we We're working on a lot. You can go. Thanks. So the policies implying support for equity are being updated as they come up for review as part of our three, we're on a three-year cycle. And so we'll kind of... Go over those I don't know vice chair Ross if you want to add anything to these but ones that we have Done are the school board code of ethics and operating principles Criminal or civil action against school districts development of regulations I know a big one that we went through with the help of the IDL team were a series of policies, 601 to 606, curriculum and instruction goals. Those were

132revamped. And then also 615, testing accommodations, modifications, and exemptions for IEPs. 620 credit for learning. There are ongoing adaptations in partnership with IDL and MDE on that one. And then. There's 624 online learning options, 652 learner to teacher ratios, 653 volunteer management policy, and 658 is the enrollment of undocumented students, foreign exchange students, homeless students, and determination of residency requirements. We also have been doing... A lot of work for policies that support equity explicitly and we're doing this work under our policy 102, which is our equal educational opportunity policy. It ensures explicit support for equity and since the audit, we've added policies addressing underserved populations in our school community, ensuring equitable access. We passed 554, which is a racial equity policy, 552, which is our gender inclusion policy, and 556, non-discrimination of students based on

133national origin or immigration status policy. And I'm not sure if we have another one in the pike. No, but the 500 series that you're discussing, those are going to be... forthcoming in review. So we will be looking especially at 556 as well. You can circle that one. Great. And then we revised policies that were blocking attention to equity. Those were 201 school board legal status 403 discipline suspension and dismissal of school district employees 503 student attendance We worked alongside staff to revamp that one, and we also have a Hennepin County partner with the program called Be at School. We revamped 506, our student conduct and discipline. We revised it per statute and then with input from students and staff to include our multi-tiered system of support and restorative practices. It's much more closely aligned with...

134Hopkins values and vision 2031. We revised. Policy 532, use of peace officers and crisis teams to remove students with IEPs. It was revised to include current restorative practices and CPI protocols. Policy 605, alternative learning centers. 956, relations with law enforcement authorities revised to address the holistic safety of students and staff. And policy 957, the school district public relations program was revised to be more equitable across our diverse community needs. And then we have a new policy explicitly addressing equity, which is our policy 458, mental health and wellness that was crafted based on student feedback and input. The other direction we had from the equity audit was to look at our equity lens tool that we had been using prior. They recommended... that we look at a different one and they gave us some guidelines and

135then at the time, well, I'm still on the board. I'm on the board of District 287 and they had a equity lens and impact analysis tool. So I brought that for the monitoring committee to consider as well. And we decided that. That one was a really useful one for the work that we do on the monitoring committee. So when policies come up, we go through a process of figuring out who needs to participate in the analysis of the policies. And we use that to then communicate with our students and community. But then as a monitoring committee, we ask ourselves the, questions and you can go forward Natalia. We can go forward again. We ask ourselves these questions when we're looking at all policies. What are the equity impacts of this decision? Who will benefit from

136or be burdened by this decision? And are there strategies to mitigate any unintended consequences of this decision? And I think It's always interesting to think about the answers to those questions when you're looking at policy. And we also adapted this tool to be used with our community so that they can answer these questions as well. And sometimes that gives us really good feedback, in particular from our students. So that was all I had. Do you have anything to add? I do not. You did a great job covering it. Thank you. Any questions? I do think that I applaud your efforts in having a protocol to ask yourselves when a policy comes before you, that you ask yourself who is harmed by this. I don't know of very many boards that have that. And I applaud

137your efforts in that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank all of you. Chair Andreessen. Yes. Dr. Brown, I'd like to thank you for your leadership on this and the equity audit process. I think was really edifying for us in that, like, you know, you have a sense as a leader based on what you're hearing in the community and from staff and all of that, that, like, there are these gaps and there are these serious things that we need to attend to and it really helped us see the landscape and then i want to commend chair andreessen who was vice chair at the time for really taking lead on this policy work and getting us as a board to a completely different spot than we were in before in terms of how how we craft policy and

138how we think about policy. So as you saw tonight, it was a complete process change. And then of course our current vice chair Ross for continuing that work and really strong leadership of our monitoring committee. And I just think this is a really great example of how this board collaborates with district leadership to serve our community in the way that our community expects. and expected when they elected us so thank you so much for this update it was great thank you and you both were here when we started it and covet interrupted it and so it really was a challenge to get it to get it done and um i i'm very thankful for the board at that time to agree to let it go forward. Because it was a huge challenge to see it

139through. One of the components was to interview parents. And as parents picked up food for their families, the team were out interviewing as they were getting in their cars. Because that was the only way that we could interview parents at the time. I didn't know how they were going to do it. But they came up with that ingenious way to do it. And they had Zoom calls also. It worked out. Thank you. Thank you all. Chair Andreessen, can I ask a quick question? Yes. Again, I resonate with everything Dr. Brown and Shannon, who all worked on this. I just can't see the policies that you all read off. Are they on there somewhere? I can send you a copy. Do you have a copy of this? Yeah, I have a copy of that. Director Roper,

140they're on page 44. So all the policies that... Yes, on page 44 to 48 of this document. Oh, page 48. Yes, if you don't have it, I can get you a hard copy of it. Okay, thank you. You're welcome. I'm sorry. Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, Natalia was speaking. Oh, sorry. Thank you all. Thank you, Dr. Brown. Thank you, Natalia. I didn't know that. Thank you. You're pretty sleuthful over there. I know. I was like, I'm glad I didn't write anything. State flags and notes. Thank you, notes. Any other comments or questions? All right. Well, thank you for your time. I appreciate you being here. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Lightfoot. Thank you, Stanley. Thank you, Nick. You're welcome. Good to see you all. You too. Get some quick input. I think that can we call

141the resolution to do the closed session and then do board member reports and then close? I believe so. I think so too. Nick doesn't seem to be upset by that, so we'll go ahead. So our next order of business is a resolution calling an executive session, which will close our meeting. So I will read out the recommendation, and I believe, does that require a roll call vote to close the session? Okay. I will read out the resolution. It is hereby resolved that the School Board of Independent School District 270, Hopkins, Minnesota meet in executive session to discuss negotiation strategy related to the HEA contract for the 2024-25 school year, that the meeting be held in person and commence immediately following adjournment of this regular meeting. Further, that it be noted that all board members, superintendent

142and clerk We're duly notified of intention to call this executive session. I would look for a motion to approve that resolution. So moved. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? I would ask the clerk to please call a roll call vote. Chair Andreessen. Aye. Treasurer Hartland. Aye. Director Roper. Aye. Director Vice Chair Ross. Aye. Clerk Thompson. Aye. Director Westmoreland. Aye. Director Zhao. Yes. Aye. The board approves the resolution unanimously, so we will enter into a closed session when this meeting is adjourned. That takes us to our board member reports. What did I start with? Did I start with you, Treasurer Hartland, last time? Okay. How about you, Director Roper? Do you want to just introduce yourself and give a report if you have one?

143Sure. My name is Brooke Roper. I am serving in my second year on the board for Hopkins. I have two amazing children in the district. I do have just a few quick updates. Thank you to the students, first and foremost, who made our personal mugs. I cannot wait to drink some hot coffee out of it. I wish I had some hot coffee tonight to drink out of it because I'm starting to get sleepy, everyone. You all know how I get when I get really sleepy. But I really appreciate it. It was such a thoughtful thing. We do have a Black History Networking event that will be happening next Thursday at the high school from 6 to 8. It is for our, so we changed our COBATS group name from Caregivers of Black African Diaspora Scholars

144to the Hopkins Coalition for Black Student Success. And so we will be meeting to talk about, you know, the group and just for district families to mingle and to meet each other and talk about how they can get involved in the work that we do and just to be better organized as caregivers for our black and brown students. I did get to participate in the Chinese New Year celebration last Thursday, and it was amazing. I learned a lot. Thank you, Director Zhao, for showing me the ropes. You did. Like, you showed me how to do the envelope. Like, I didn't know that. With, like, two hands. And there's just, like, little intricate details that I didn't know that you showed me. So just thank you. That's just really about it for me. Oh, I did

145meet with the Turn Signal Foundation today, so I can give you all an update. It went really well, and just want to understand the next steps with them. They are an amazing organization doing great work, and that's it for me. Thank you. I can go next. I'm Kai Thompson. I am the clerk on the school board. Just entering into my second year here. I have three kids in the district from fourth to ninth grade. No board report for me tonight. Thanks. Director Westmoreland. Hi, I'm Jen Westmoreland. This is my eighth year on the board. I am a graduate of Hopkins Schools. I have an eighth grader at West Middle School and no report for me tonight. Hi, this is Jim Ming Zhao. I use he, him pronouns. I've got two kids in the district in

146the Xing Xing program at Eisenhower in fourth grade and first grade. As Director Roper said, we helped celebrate the Chinese New Year, and I'm glad that it went well. I probably spent... 30 hours practicing my dance. And then I panicked, but it's okay. It's how you recover. You did really well. Was it like a Beyonce at the Super Bowl moment where you had to catch yourself? I'll go back and watch the video. I tried to destroy every camera there, but I was not successful. Thanks, everybody. My name is Jason Ross. I have three kids in the district, two at North, one at Tanglin. I'm entering my fourth year and my first term, and I do not have a board report tonight. Hello, everyone. My name is Shannon Andreessen. I am currently the chair of the

147board in my second term here, and I have a junior at the high school. who I now know I can track if they're studying for the ACT, which makes me really happy. And I also work as a special education paraprofessional at Gatewood Elementary. Hi, everyone. I'm Rhoda Marie Peary-Reed, superintendent. I also have a junior at the high school. And yay, he did say he studied yesterday for the ACT for the first time because I've been hounding him. So nice to have a tracking mechanism. Thank you, Dr. Kuhl. I'm Treasurer Rachel Hartland, and I am in my fourth year on the board. I use she, her pronouns and have a fifth, a seventh, and a ninth grader and the million emails to prove it. I see from my board report I dissected some frogs. I edited

148a CFAC report, did PTO activities in a couple buildings, and the Legislative Action Coalition is continuing to meet our really big kind of launch of our platform and our breakfast is done. Now we've moved on to kind of the next phase of our work, and that is staying. in tune with various statutes that come up or various bills that get proposed and speaking to our legislators to try to understand the impact to our district on that and to provide them with some feedback. And so that work is just as important and less flashy than our breakfast, but we continue to engage in that. And I think that's all. And I'm sorry, Treasurer Hartland, you reminded me by mentioning the LAC that we did have one of our Hopkins staff testify at the state legislature this

149morning with the Senate Finance, School Finance Committee about the REIT Act and the implementation and the impact, the very real impact it's having. on classrooms and teachers and curriculum. Her name is Kimberly Smith and she is doing amazing work. There's a consortium across the state that she's part of. So she took all of that feedback to the legislature today. So I'm eager to learn how it went and what the outcomes are for our continued advocacy at the LAC. So sorry, I forgot to mention that. And now with that wrapping up, I would look for a motion to adjourn and go into executive session. So moved. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. All those, oh, any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any

150opposed? Chair votes aye and this meeting is adjourned at 9.39 p.m. Thank you all for coming. You can leave now.